Golfing News & Blog Articles

I can’t say from the parts I watched that we’ll be talking about 2020’s RSM Classic years or even days from now. But Robert Streb did pull off a couple of minor miracles, starting with an out-of-nowhere week, as documented by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak:

Streb hasn’t finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings in each of the past three seasons, and his recent form didn’t suggest he’d earn his first title in six years. He had shot in the 60s only three times in his last 12 rounds entering this week, but posted four straight rounds in the 60s, including a 63 on Friday and closed with a 2-under 68 to finish with a 72-hole aggregate of 19-under 263.

“I felt like things were starting to get a little better and I wasn’t quite getting the results, but wasn’t expecting this, either,” he admitted.

Streb’s approach on the second playoff hole was spectacular:

WHAT A SHOT. 😱@therealstrebber nailed his approach on the second playoff hole to win @TheRSMClassic. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/sAmFE6otjR

Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch summarizes the 2020 Masters ratings and overall huge declines with 2020’s one-off November playing.

Dustin Johnson’s win sank 51% in ratings and 48% in viewership from Tiger Woods’ iconic win last year, which aired in an even earlier timeslot (9 AM rather than 10), but on the tournament’s usual April weekend (6.9, 10.81M). Compared to 2018, the last time the final round aired in its usual late afternoon window, ratings and viewership fell 57% from a 7.9 and 13.03 million.

The steep declines and record-lows are in keeping with the overall trend for sports on television since the wave of cancellations and postponements in March. The NBA Finals (7.49M) and World Series (9.79M) both set all-time record lows in viewership, declining 49 and 30 percent respectively from last year. Stanley Cup Final viewership plunged 61% to a 13-year low (2.15M). All three Triple Crown horse races hit lows, with each down at least 32%.

While it’s still too soon to say whether any of these playings of major events will turn out to be regretted, I sense that even with huge ratings declines 2020 has reinforced the timelessness of the above-mentioned events.

In a strange way, by playing through it feels like the strength of the time-honored spectacles and their normal place on the calendar has only been strengthened. Whether its the many Masters traditions, or the Derby on the first Saturday in May, or the World Series in front of fans, all of these big time events feel even more indelible after having been deprived of experiencing them in normal ways. No one will questions a return the traditional playings.

NEVER give up on your dreams. From Carolinas Junior Boys' Champion to @TheMasters record-setter. The Carolinas couldn't be prouder of @DJohnsonPGA's accomplishments in this great game. #MondayMotivation at #TheMasters pic.twitter.com/xZ8mz49SmK

Nothing against elite country clubs or clubby junior golf circuits, but 2020’s three major championships were each won by sons of less conventional

Collin Morikawa, the PGA Championship winner at Harding Park, got his start at southern California’s Chevy Chase Country Club, which is not to be confused with Riviera.

Bryson DeChambeau, the U.S. Open champion at Winged Foot, refined his game at Madera’s Dragonfly.

And the 2020 Masters winner got his start at Weed Hill driving range, the family operation of golf architect Bobby Weed.

Longtime and revered golf photographer Leonard Kamsler has passed. He was 85.

Golf Digest’s Peter Morrice put together this tribute to Kamsler with some of his best images and wrote:

Kamsler took assignments in other fields as well, working for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice and the Harlem Globetrotters. He even shot for country-music labels and medical journals. But golf was the constant. Known for his innovative techniques, he brought high-speed stroboscopic photography to golf in the 1970s using a Hulcher camera, developed to analyze football plays. Kamsler retooled his Hulcher to shoot 100 frames per second, more than 200 images for a single swing, and the frame-by-frame swing sequence was born.

From Alan Bastable’s story at Golf.com:

Kamsler shot all the greats, even the famously camera-shy Ben Hogan — well, sort of. According to one story Kamsler liked to tell, he was assigned to snap a swing sequence of Hogan in Texas. “Hogan would never, ever permit anyone to photograph him,” Dave Allen, a former GOLF Magazine instruction editor, wrote in a text message on Tuesday. “So Hogan was out on this one hole with a shag bag to hit balls. Leonard tried to camouflage himself as a bush and sneak up on Hogan. He went through some great pains to do this, hauling his heavy camera out there and then covering himself with some green plant life he gathered along the way. Well, there’s a reason they called Hogan The Hawk — he spotted Leonard nearly right away, picked up his bag of balls and moved on.”

Lukas Michel played the 2020 Masters and joined Rod Morri, Mike Clayton and yours truly to talk about the experience. Naturally we got sidetracked on distance talk because that’s what we do. But we also managed to cover a lot about Michel’s special week in Augusta include his practice rounds, favorite holes and the amateur dinner.

As always, your State of the Game options apply to about all podcast outlets you can find at the show page. Or you can subscribe via Apple and iTunes, or listen below:

Larry Bohannan details quite a bit about the American Express (aka Bob Hope Classic) confirming a lack of spectators at the 2021 playing. The third PGA Tour event on the 2021 portion of the schedule was able to save its pro-am format, a significant source of charitable income.

Under the county’s current purple tier for reopening, the most restrictive of four state color-coded tiers, live sports can be played but without spectators. The LPGA’s ANA Inspiration was played in September in Rancho Mirage under the purple tier. That women's tournament did allow fans who live in homes around the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club to watch the event from their backyards, something that will also be true at the American Express.

Oh and I can’t wait for the banners this year.

The tournament will, however suffer a huge setback both for its finances and momentum with its popular weekend concerts being put on hold:

While the tournament statement made no mention of the two nights of concerts that are part of the event, no ticketed spectators means no onsite concerts, too.The two concerts in 2020 featured rock legends Stevie Nicks on Friday and country star Luke Bryan on Saturday.Crowd estimate were from 18,000 to 20,000 a night for the concerts, with tickets on those days selling for $50 each.

Bill Haas became the 16th PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19 in advance of this week’s 2020 finale, as announced by the Tour.

PGA TOUR Statement on Bill Haas

As part of the PGA TOUR's pre-tournament screening process this week at The RSM Classic, PGA TOUR member Bill Haas tested positive for COVID-19 and has been withdrawn from the event.
 
“It’s obviously disappointing news to receive, but my focus is now on recovery and ensuring the health and well-being of my family,” said Haas. 

Haas will have the PGA TOUR’s full support throughout his self-isolation under CDC guidelines. 

Meanwhile the union representing broadcast technicians issued high praise for CBS’s efforts to keep their team healthy and safe since the PGA Tour restart, but criticized Comcast’s NBC/Golf Channel unit for not requiring testing of workers at their televised events.

Not only will the 2022 BMW be Delaware’s first-ever PGA Tour event it’ll be staged at Wilmington Country Club, home club since 2014 of President-elect Joe Biden.

From Brian Wacker’s GolfDigest.com story on the news of Wilmington’s Robert Trent Jones-designed South Course hosting the second-playoff stop.

While this is Wilmington C.C.’s first pro tournament, the club has played host to several top amateur events since its founding in 1901. Among the notables are the 1971 U.S. Amateur, played on the Robert Trent Jones-designed South Course and won by Canada’s Gary Cowen, and the 1913 U.S. Women’s Amateur on the property’s Old Course when Gladys Ravenscroft was the champion. The 2013 Palmer Cup was also held on the South Course, with a United States team that included Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger and Patrick Rodgers.

The bit of bad news: this means the PGA Tour’s bizarre relationship with the golf-mad Chicago market continues, with 2021’s BMW at Caves Valley (Maryland) and now Wilmington in 2022. The former Western Open has mostly been played in Chicago but has moved around.

With a 10 a.m. ET final round start to clear room for the Bills-Cardinals, the 2020 Masters recorded a 3.37 final round rating with an average of 5.58 million viewers. That’s down over four points from the epic 2019’s Masters (7.7/10.8 million average) won by Tiger Woods (which also started and ended earlier than normal, but was played in April).

ShowbuzzDaily.com’s Mitch Metzcalf with all of the numbers, including Saturday’s 3.05 rating. 2019’s Saturday telecast drew a 5.5.

While this is undoubtedly the lowest rated Masters since numbers were tabulated, weekday coverage on ESPN did not see such extreme declines, drawing an average of 2.2 million Thursday and almost 2.8 million Friday.

Friday’s telecast was the top rated cable show.

Two other ratings notes from Michael McCarthy, veteran media reporter:

Tremendous news on all fronts as the NCAA Championships eventually move west in 2024 to La Costa for what sounds like an audition as a permanent host site: Gil Hanse has been enlisted to renovate the Champions course in advance of the event.

Once a regular site for the PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions and later the WGC Match Play, La Costa’s course has lost a few steps even as the resort and spa were upgraded. A rethinking should position it back in the limelight of tournament golf thanks to the facilities and location in golf’s west coast hub.

Well, of course, until all of the manufacturers move to Pinehurst to be closer to the USGA ;).

Anyway, For Immediate Release:

NCAA Selects Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as first “neutral” site to Host Trio of National Championships following Gil Hanse Renovation

Reimagined Champions Course to Host Men’s, Women’s NCAAs in 2024, 2025 and 2026
Carlsbad, Calif. – The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Committees has selected Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, Southern California’s premier golf and luxury resort destination, as the host site for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships. Play will be conducted on the resort’s famed Champions Course following a planned 2022 renovation by acclaimed golf course architect Gil Hanse.

Understandably still saddened by the loss of his partner on Scottish golf course planning, Sean Connery, President Donald Trump faces scrutiny from the Scottish government. “Due accountability” was how First Minister Nicola Sturgeon put it during a lively Parliament session after the Green Party co-leader and frequent Trump critic Patrick Harvie sought an “unexplained wealth order” to determine the source of Turnberry financing.

The Scotish leader said she wouldn’t protect “the soon-to-be former president of the United States” from “due accountability in Scotland” if wrongdoing is found. An investigation, including an unexplained wealth order, would be up to the Crown Office, the independent public prosecution system in Scotland, Sturgeon added. 

Green Party leader Patrick Harvie has contended Trump’s Scottish resorts raise suspicions because neither Turnberry (which lost $26 million in 2016) nor Aberdeen has turned a profit or paid a penny in taxes to Scotland since Trump purchased them. All of the revenue is allegedly absorbed by costs — with many of the expenses flowing back to the president’s Trump Organization.

“We need to protect Scotland’s good name from association with the toxic Trump brand,” Harvie said in Parliament. 

The Green Party press release calling for an investigation.

Here goes, though I’ll be blunt, this is a nice win by a nice guy but by no means does this one write itself. But hey, Tiger made 10 and still shot 76 before placing the green jacket on Dustin Johnson who posted a tournament record 268 for his second major title.

Dateline Augusta, GA, starting with USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio:

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Just a month ago, Dustin Johnson was holed up in a Las Vegas hotel room self-quarantining for 11 days after testing positive for COVID-19.

Now, after a week of record-setting brilliance in the Masters, he can head to the exclusive Champions Locker Room at Augusta National for the rest of his life.

The Augusta Chronicle managed to bring back David Westin after laying off everyone who writes golf (good job Morris geniuses!) and he penned this:

No winners and losers column should be this long. But for a tradition hopefully unlike any other ever again? What the heck…  

Winners

Dustin Johnson – The best player in the world overcame COVID-19, had to shed his coveted green reading books for the week, and after a few Sunday hiccups validated his consistent excellence. While he played the par-5’s in -11, his brilliance elsewhere differentiated him from everyone else: -4 on the par-3’s and -5 on the par-4’s to break the Masters scoring record. A well-earned Green Jacket in a Hall of Fame career, capped off with a rare smile and red eyes. He’s human!

April – All things considered, Augusta National proved as pleasant as ever to see in November. But the springtime vibes and inability to present a firmer, faster course served as a reminder that everything about the place is geared toward springtime. Hopefully this never happens again.  

PGA and U.S. Open – The first two rescheduled majors felt like championship examinations with most demands you’d expect at a Grand Slam event. Augusta National, while prepared as well as can be in November with tough growing conditions leading up to the event, did not present the intense test we have come to know at majors.

It’s not a shocking statement in one sense: we’ve known a Masters without fans would be different and might benefit players not used to the pressures of a huge gallery.

After three days and a four-stroke Dustin Johnson lead, Justin Thomas said the Sunday morning task—up early boys and girls, the NFL apparently matters more!—is tougher for chasers.

From Rex Hoggard’s GolfChannel.com story:

“I think it's a really big deal there's no patrons here,” said Justin Thomas, who pulled to within two strokes of front-runner Dustin Johnson before making four bogeys over his last seven holes. “That would have really played to my advantage or other guys trying to chase DJ.”

Another perk of the early start to accommodate the NFL: the leader will not have all day to ponder the possibilities. Normally, Masters leaders tee off around 2 pm when they’ll be finishing this Sunday’s. That’s four-and-a-half hours not to think of everything that might go wrong.

Besides being looking unbecoming of the elegance that is Augusta National and totally contradicting the philosophy of the course designers, 2020’s new higher cut has turned out to be a sanctuary. From mudballs.

Longtime Masters watchers know of the mudball’s recent rise after the club started mowing fairways longer and toward tees to offset modern distances. Bubba Watson popularized the term by making sure to let us know his ball was covered in mud clumps.

Alan Shipnuck quotes players following round two about the new tall stuff and both Rickie Fowler* and Adam Scott noted the preference of rough—”in some situations”—over the fairways (mudball!).

The second cut was introduced as a low-key penalty for errant drives; it makes it a little harder to impart spin, and that is significant when playing to precise spots on the ultimate second-shot golf course. But the rain taketh and the rain giveth. Adam Scott has been largely unbothered by the vagaries of the rough because the saturated greens are still so soft that even spinless shots from the second cut are stopping dead. “Normally, you’re just losing that little bit of control,” Scott says, “and on a firmer green, you’ve got some difficult decisions to make on how you’re going to manage to get it on the green or keep it on the green. It’s a little more straightforward out there at the moment.”

And because it’s 2020, there are times when hitting it into the rough can actually feel advantageous. Fowler estimates he’s getting half-a-dozen mudballs per round on the closely-cropped fairways. “Actually, I mentioned it to [playing partner Willett] yesterday when we were on 11. He had just missed the fairway right, into the first cut, and chipped a 6- or 7-iron down there to the middle of the green. I was in the middle of the fairway with a mud ball and had to aim over at 12 tee, and I still almost hit it in the water. So I feel like it’s almost harder to pick up mud balls in that first cut. In some situations, you’d almost rather that, or you wouldn’t mind it.”

Without those sulfourous green reading books sidelined this week and with a tightly bunched leaderboard where the slightest mistake could lose a green jacket, caddies take on extra meaning at The Masters.

Ward Clayton filed a definitive piece for Masters.com this week on the art of charting Augusta National compared to normal weeks where more of the charting is already done for players and caddies. How we got here is pretty incredible and there remains so much local knowledge to Augusta National.

Just a sampling from the piece related to the shining star that is 2020:

Yardages are important, especially this week when a landmark such as grandstands are absent and another marker must be documented. But at Augusta National, it’s the greens that are the final exam. Putts that look to break one way do the exact opposite or roll out much more than expected, resulting in head scratching and insecurity.

Willie Lee “Pappy” Stokes, the godfather of Augusta National caddies and a five-time winner as a caddie, quickly figured out a secret that Augusta National caddies carried for decades. In the caddie facilities adjacent to the Tournament Practice Facility, simple framed maps of green complexes hang on the walls. On every drawing, there is a distinct red dot, showing the direction of Rae’s Creek from that green – and the tendency for putts to break to the lowest point on the property when it’s not evident to the naked eye. Many caddies over the years have denoted that red dot in their personal Augusta National yardage books.

While most major 2020 sports events have seen significant ratings declines, day one of the rescheduled Masters fared well. The 2.2 million average nearly caught 2019’s 2.5 million played in the traditional April slot.

From ESPN PR:

ESPN’s live telecast of the first round of the Masters Tournament on Thursday, Nov. 12, averaged 2.2 million viewers, airing from 1 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. ET from Augusta National Golf Club.

With the tournament being played in November after being postponed from its traditional April date due to the pandemic, the audience peaked between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. at 2.44 million viewers. Last year’s first round, in addition to being played in April, also aired later in the day (3-7:30 p.m.) and averaged 2.5 million viewers.

ESPN will televise the completion of the second round of the Masters at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. On both Saturday and Sunday, ESPN+ will have live feeds of Featured Groups and Featured Holes during Tournament play.

2020 Masters: Jon Rahm in the 11th hole rough

Given the time of year, Augusta National was never going to be agronomically perfect for the rescheduled Masters. So we’ll gladly look past the thin rye grass and the weak tee turf given the tricky window for laying down rye seed and uncertainty this event would be played.

But in the grand scheme, the clunky rough (a.k.a. second cut) grown is obviously higher this year and no matter the height, contradicts the well-stated philosophy of Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie, the tall stuff looks so shallow and unnecessary on a masterfully-designed course highlighted by width and certainly never embellished by artificial tall grass.

The rough looks curb-like while giving off a grow-in look that is unbecoming of a masterpiece.

The tall stuff is also functionally problematic. From Michael Bamberger’s Golf.com account:

The defending champion and five-time Masters winner managed a first Thursday: a bogey-free opener. Normally a slow starter, Woods has positioned himself in historic position. From GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker notes on Tiger’s 2020 Masters 68:

Thursday marked the ninth time that Woods has broken par in the first round of the tournament. On the previous eight occasions, he finished no worse than a tie for eighth. Four of those times, he went on to win, including last year, when he opened with a 70 on his way to a 13-under total and one-stroke victory.

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig shares this from the patron-free grounds of Augusta National.

But Thursday brought him back to familiar ground, and perhaps he willed himself to a good score without the supporters who typically carry him. Sure, his buddy Peyton Manning was there. So was NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. As Augusta National members, they were among the few allowed to attend.

Woods went the entire round without a bogey, a first for him on opening day at the Masters and the first time in any major round since the 2009 PGA Championship -- a span of 105 rounds.

But the U.S. Open champion still managed a two-under-par 70 despite visiting some bizarre locations and double-bogeying the par-5 13th.

Ryan Lavner at Golf Channel.com writes:

How he easily cleared the deep bunkers on the left side of the 495-yard fifth hole.

Said Rahm, laughing: “There were a couple of them that were reality checks (for me).”

Even without any roll, DeChambeau hit hybrid into the uphill, par-5 eighth and had no more than 7-iron into the other three longest holes.