Volume Three Hundred Sixty-Three

Brandel Chamblee… Spineless.

Hittin' the LinksWhen you are a major outlet reporter, with a major outlet following, and a major outlet paycheck, perhaps when you call the biggest-figure-in-the-game a cheater you should be prepared to stand by your words… for at least a week or two.

Just days after calling golf’s brightest star a cheater, Brandel Chamblee has retracted his statement. Essentially saying, “That’s not what I meant.” BS. Chamblee is supposedly a professional. Maybe it’s just me but for Brandel to equate Tiger’s 2013 rules infractions/controversies to his own admitted cheating in grade school, and then pretend that he didn’t mean to compare the two, is laughable. Anyone in his position, even a former golf pro, should know enough, or have people in place, to correct such a gaff before it gets to publication. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that didn’t happen.

I think Chamblee’s accusations would have made an interesting discussion through the winter. I really don’t think Tiger was purposely cheating, but I do think that his lack of attention this year to the rules that he’s known his entire career does make you wonder what’s up. Is his swing distracting him? Is it Lindsey? What exactly is going on in one of the most celebrated, and inscrutable, brains in golf?

Decide what you will about Tiger. Here is that story and several other interesting tidbits from the week that was.

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PING Introduces New Irons and Putters

PING unveils the new S55 irons while also expanding the Scottsdale TR putter line up.

Bag DropPING golf knows a good thing when the see one; and that is exactly what they had in thier S56 irons. Those clubs have been used in more than 30 tour wins since they debuted including one at the Open Championship. That is why the company wasn’t out to overhaul its lineup or start from scratch. However, what the company did do was listen carefully to the pros that it has on staff and make a few changes here and there that improved workability, control and forgiveness to the point that a vast majority of their players have made the switch to PING’s new S55 irons.

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Volume Three Hundred Sixty-Two

Chamblee calls Woods a cheater, playoffs-a-plenty, caiman may invade the Olympics, and the government shutdown meant no golf for POTUS.

Hittin' the LinksSomething weird was in the air this week. Brandel Chamblee came right out and accused Tiger of cheating. Three events on the big tours went to playoffs, while on the PGA TOUR Webb Simpson ran away and hid. The U.S. Government got back to work, and so did Obama (on his game). And can you believe that Brazilian wildlife may find it’s way onto the Olympic golf course in Rio?

Here’s a quick tour in links around the world of golf, including a sighting of Michelle Wie’s game, more playoffs than you can shake a 3-iron at, and one more reason to keep your ball in the fairway. Let’s hit the links.

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Volume Three Hundred Sixty-One

Did you notice that the Frys.com Open meant a little more this year?

Hittin' the Links2014 started this week, at least according to the PGA TOUR. European Tour players just can’t quite shoot that magic number. Sneds says PEDs are no problem on the PGA TOUR. And an 18-year-old wins (again)!

The calendar still says 2013, but FedExCup points earned at this week’s Frys.com Open count in the 2014 points race. In all, six events of what we used to call “the silly season” are now the start of the 2013-2014 PGA TOUR season. With the matter of tour cards already decided for next year, players can get on with the business of amassing points in the race toward the playoffs. While the biggest names will likely continue to skip these events, the new system should attract many others looking to get a leg up in the points race, resulting in improved fields, more viewers, and higher ad revenues. At least, that’s the plan.

Here’s a quick tour in links around golf, including those tours on the 2014 calendar and those still on 2013.

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Volume Three Hundred Sixty

Who is Leatherlips and what does he have against Jack Nicklaus?

Hittin' the LinksThe U.S. team, with laid-back Freddie Couples at the helm, won the tenth edition of the Presidents Cup over Nick Price’s International Team, but the golf was at times upstaged by the weather. Why? Perhaps it was The Curse.

The (sub)urban legend around Dublin is that the Muirfield Village Golf Club is built on land that contains a Native American burial ground. These rumored burial grounds may or may not host the remains of Shateyaronyah, a real-life Wyandot chief known by the unlikely moniker Leatherlips. According to the legend, the fact that wealthy non-natives now smack a little white ball around on this sacred ground has angered the Wyandot spirits who express their rage by bringing rains down on the Memorial Tournament more years than not and now on the Presidents Cup, as well. Whether it was the “Curse of Leatherlips” or a simple meteorological aberration, the Presidents Cup and Muirfield Village got hit with nearly 2″ of rain this weekend.

While those of us looking forward to seeing the pros play a firm and fast Muirfield course (for once) were deprived of that spectacle, those who like birdies certainly got a great show as the soft conditions and the lift/clean/place rule let the players shoot right at the pins. This week, HtL looks at the Presidents Cup that was and other happenings in golf.

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Volume Three Hundred Fifty-Nine

Olé or U.S.A., it’s time to cheer, chant, and sing at Muirfield.

Hittin' the LinksHere’s a good question to throw out for your next 19th hole discussion: What week of the golf season features the best group of venues? I think it would be tough to beat this past weekend.

First of all, the Champions Tour players and selected juniors from across the U.S. played the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Not bad for openers, but the week also included the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which was contested on the Old Course at St. Andrews as well as Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. Not a bad trio at all. And just to sweeten the pot a little more, the Web.com Tour Championship wrapped up the finals series on Dye’s Valley Course, you know, the other course at TPC Sawgrass.

Speaking of the Web.com Tour, you could say that the Web.com Tour Championship put the seal on the 2013 PGA TOUR season by determining the final card holders for 2014. This week, HtL looks at the Web.com finale, the Presidents Cup, and more.

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Why the U.S. is Getting Dominated at the Ryder Cup

The US Ryder Cup team has not faired well of late, I explore why that is and how to fix it.

Thrash TalkFor the past ten years the U.S.Ryder Cup team has been pretty awful. Actually the U.S. team has been bad since 1997. Save a miracle in 1999 the U.S. has won only one other time, 2006 at Valhalla. Seven to two since 1997 and one needed at the time the greatest comeback in history to get the win. One could argue that the miracle was matched by the European team in 2012, but still seven to two borders on domination.

For 2014 the U.S. PGA has tried to switch up the momentum and brought on Tom Watson who was a previous captain to try and change the tied. I am a big fan of trying something different. Going with Tom is a bit against the grain and the U.S. team certainly needs a jolt. It is an interesting situation because the U.S. team is so dominate in the other team event, the Presidents Cup. Nearly undefeated in fact, add to that Freddie Couples excellent captain’s picks for this year and I don’t expect the International team will be able to beat the U.S. team. So it is not just that the U.S. is bad in team events, because if that were true the U.S. would have lost at least one of the Presidents Cups. So what is the reason the U.S. is so bad in the Ryder Cup.

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Why Tiger Should Win the 2013 PGA Tour Player of the Year Award

The statistical argument.

Thrash TalkTiger Woods has had a spectacular year by all accounts. Five PGA Tour wins and not a single missed cut, but no major victories. And that hurts, sure, but how much? Well, that’s what I am here to identify.

There’s a relatively simply stat that goes a bit beyond Old Man Par, called “z-score.” Z-score is simply a way of comparing how someone scores to how the rest of the field scored. For instance, during Jim Furyk’s 59 at the BMW Championship, the average score for all players that made the cut that week was 71.086. Z-score compares the player’s score to that average, and uses the standard deviation of the round’s scores to measure just how tough the course was playing on a given day. The number that the relatively simple formula spits out is a representation of how many standard deviations a player’s score was from the course average. Only the scores from players that made the cut are used, otherwise you would not be able to compare Thursday and Friday rounds to weekend rounds. (Players who missed the cut are, by definition, playing worse, and not having their scores in the weekend course averages would made it look like the course was playing much easier.)

A simple explanation about the ramifications of z-score is that despite shooting a 69 on Saturday and a 67 on Sunday at the TOUR Championship, Tiger’s Saturday z-score was actually better because the course played two shots easier on Sunday, and because the field’s standard deviation that day was a bit higher.

Using the tournament leaderboards from Yahoo! Sports (the PGATour.com ones were a bit tougher to import into a spreadsheet), I plotted an entire season’s worth of z-scores. (You can email or PM me for the full spreadsheet if you’d like.) I calculated the z-score for every player for every round, and then picked out the records of the PGA Tour Player of the Year finalists: Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, and Phil Mickelson.

How did they fare statistically? Read on the find out.

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Titleist Introduces the New 714 AP1 and AP2 Irons

Titleist unveils the new 714 series with updates to the AP1 and AP2 irons.

Bag DropWhile it seems that certain companies (and one in particular) continue to pump out new clubs promising the latest and greatest in golf technology, Titleist golf has taken a somewhat different approach. Every other year, the company reveals a new set of irons and in the years in between we get the new drivers and woods. This year is an iron year for Titleist and with it brings the introduction of the new 714 series of irons. As with the past handful of iron releases from Titleist, this group is comprised of updates to the four existing sets; the MB, CB, AP1, and AP2.

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