Jason Day’s relentless gun-to-tape victory in the Apostropheless Championship should really be a cause for joy and celebration in golf.
The World No 1 proving beyond all reasonable doubt that he is the premier player in the game, in one of the biggest tournaments on the schedule, at one of golf’s “iconic” (cough, splutter) venues?
Except this weekend seemed to me to prove all that is appallingly wrong with golf and illustrates the way the sport has got itself jammed up a cul-de-sac like a jack-knifed lorry.
Day’s not to blame for any of this. He plays the game with the tools he’s allowed to use and happens to be better at it than anyone else at the moment.
I’d like him to play a hell of a lot quicker – I doubt the R&A’s Time For Golf proposals aimed at tackling slow play due out this week will trouble him in the slightest, but I stand to be pleasantly surprised – and it would be nice if he toned down the now slightly tiresome family man schtick a tad, but I’m being picky here.
Only Day’s final blow on Sawgrass‘ 18th tee summed up a weekend where we saw all that is wrong with modern golf. He smacked a two-iron 300 yards; one of the most fearsome finishing holes in golf is reduced to a two-iron and a flick with a wedge.
Sawgrass is a modern golf course, by our standards at least; it opened in 1980. It shouldn’t need length-proofing already. But the weekend showed that it is now barely fit for purpose.
Pete Dye’s design – I like it apart from the “iconic” 17th, but that was his wife Alice’s suggestion – shouldn’t be obsolete. But because of the vast distances the ball is flying, it is.
And as a direct result, the championship which is meant to be the player’ ‘own flagship event, illustrating all that is great about the tour THEY run, turned into a near farce, making them look like idiots.
After Day reached the halfway point at 15-under without having to open his shoulders, somebody panicked. The greens, due to be dug up on Monday anyway, were “bald and dead” and the scoring average went from 71 to nearly 76 overnight.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the next PGA Tour Advisory Board meeting where this is discussed, but the excuse that they were caught in a “perfect storm” of weather conditions unexpectedly drying out the course is laughable. The weather didn’t make them cut the greens until they were like marble.
On Sunday, they had to revise some pin positions twice before the players even went out.
All this is clearly the result of the distance the ball is flying. Sawgrass, which used to be a shotmaker’s course for the most part, could now be easily conquered by elite players with half a full set of clubs.
The irony in last weekend was partly amusing – the PGA Tour, which has set its face squarely against any kind of distance control, sees its flagship event reduced to a circus as it attempts to curb scoring caused by the ball flying too far – but despite seeing Tim Finchem and his advisory board squirm, there’s precious little to laugh at.
Ideally, you’d hope that what happened at Sawgrass opens a few eyes. But there’s precious little chance of that; there’s too many vested interests – players, officials, manufacturers – who don’t want the ball reined in.
Meanwhile, some people actually seem to think the cut of players’ trousers and the height of their shoes is a more important issue for golf in 2016.
Sometimes you despair for the game, and this weekend was one of those times.
Rory reaches critical mass
So we know that Rory McIlroy is streaky. On occasion, such as Friday’s front nine of 29, he plays at a level none of his peers can approach.
Nobody can sustain that level of play, not even Tiger at his peak. But even a lower form of consistency seems to be beyond him at present. He’s now let both Jason Day and Jordan Spieth get away from him.
This week he’s back on this side of the pond for his second year promoting the Irish Open. He won’t play Wentworth – I don’t blame him, more detail on that next week – but will flit back to America for the Memorial and US Open and then back across for France and the Open.
The Olympics has complicated schedules and one hesitates to make a judgement, but I wouldn’t be surprised, if this winless streak continues, if the first casualty is his commitment to play both tours.
What’s certainly true is that he needs to put four rounds together as in his annus mirabilis of 2014. If he doesn’t do it soon, the questioning of Rory’s future becomes all the more acute.
Knox shows his colours
Despite his accent, we know Russell Knox is a true Scot by his reaction to his Saturday 9 on the 17th at Sawgrass.
Self-deprecation is our great national skill, and Knox’s ability to laugh at his disaster won him many new friends.
Despite the 9, he finished within the top 20 and continued his quiet climb into Ryder Cup contention.
Russell plays Ireland and Wentworth the next two weeks, and he can make a big bid to win some points and impress Darren Clarke.