Category: Sports

To the USGA: Arm-Lock Putting is Anchored Putting

To Anchor or Not to Anchor…..

Putting is my favorite thing to do while playing golf.  So much so, I have a putting green in my basement and a bunch of putters laying around, including several Scotty Cameron’s made specifically for me.

I was never a fan of anchored long putters because it provided a crutch to those players who were not good putters or did not practiced enough to be a good putter. 

I still think that allowing the usage of long putters on tour should not be allowed and it opens the door to scrutiny as has been the case with Scott McCarron and Bernhard Langer on the Champions Tour.

The governing bodies banned anchored putting on January 2016; but did they? 

Introducing Arm-lock putting.  Let us be honest, Arm-lock putting is nothing more than anchoring a putter grip to your forearm restricting a “free flowing swing”. Was this a compromised to appease the “yipsters” out there on the professional tours?

Arm-lock putting may not be the textbook definition of “the player’s forearm held against his or her body to establish a stable point”.  By locking the grip, or “resting the grip against the forearm” the putter is technically locked against the body and therefore establishing a stable point.

Whatever the reason behind it, it is still anchoring by another name and it should be banned all together.  Putting requires skill, grit, patience, and controlling one’s nerves under stress. 

To me, skillful putting is what separates a Major Champion from a journeyman, and it should be preserved in its purest form.

It is time for the USGA and the R&A to right this wrong. Make putting great again!

https://www.usga.org/content/dam/usga/images/rules/anchoring/understanding-anchored-strokes.pdf

The Super “Woke” Bowl LV and Jeep

We have never been “Ununited” Image courtesy of prosportsextra.com

I have not watched regular season football for about 4 years.  I watch the Super Bowl because normally the commercials are funny and it give us an excuse to make phenomenal finger food.

This year, the commercials were not funny, but very dark in nature, except for Doritos 3D Chips commercial with Matthew McConaughey and a couple of others.

You would have thought that after the tough year the country had in 2020, advertising agencies would have been trying to uplift the country with funny commercials.

Instead they went with the phony message of “doom and gloom” and “unity” while they remained silent for four years as the country was burnt to the ground by Antifa and other domestic leftist groups.

That takes me to the most ridiculous, and woke, commercial; the Jeep commercial with known communist Bruce Springsteen as their spokesperson. 

Are you serious?  I would have expected a commercial like that from a company like Subaru, which caters to the more socially sensitive crowd, not Jeep who claims to be tough as nails and an “All American” company.

Their main point, “The Reunited States of America”, was a complete joke.  There is nothing “ununited” about the United States.  Only people who wish to make the United States into some utopian society where everything is given, nothing earned, and where everybody is to be a victim instead of a fighter.

I always associated the Jeep brand with American toughness and American pride, but they chose a known American hating communist to be their spokesperson. 

Bruce Springsteen is a pathetic old man, his music is barely recognized by the younger generation, and it is for all intent and purposes, irrelevant.

The least they could have done is hired a talent with true American values, not some “has been” who does not represent America.  Just because he sings it, it does not mean he believes in it. 

Springsteen is an opportunistic leftist who missed the bus two decades ago.  Even people on Facebook were asking who he was.

So, in this, the 55th edition of the Super “Woke” Bowl, the score is as follow:  Doritos- 45 and Jeep?  A big “Woke” Zero!

Jeep, not in this American household.

The PGA Tour’s Disconnection

Image courtesy of golfmagic.com

This past weekend we witness Collin Morikawa win the PGA Championship at the tender age of 23 years old.  I am sure it will be considered a great achievement by the young gun and in any other time I would have felt the same way; but I do not.

The PGA of America and the PGA Tour chose to play the PGA Championship in, of all places, California.  California has been on lock-down since the Wuhan Corona Virus arrived in America.  Californians have not been able to go to work, go outside without masking themselves, children have been out of school, restaurants have been closed and some have even gone out of business.

If the virus is so bad that Governor Gavin Newsome must keep the State shutdown; why did the PGA of America think that it was okay to play a golf tournament in such a place?

I sent an email to the PGA of America asking this same question and never got an answer, so they left no option but to speculate as to why they made this decision.   Was it television money, advertising, or sponsors?  Only the PGA of America and the PGA Tour know the real motive.

The PGA of America could have chosen a better venue or postpone all together due to the pandemic, instead they decided to go with it with complete disregard for the people of California.  This is the disconnect of the PGA of America and the PGA Tour.  They live in their own little bubble forgetting that many Americans are still without jobs and fighting to stay afloat, while they go around jet setting playing golf.

I understand that this is their job, but they also must be sensible to the situation of ailing Americans, and they are not.  They think that by honoring common criminals with tee times or pandering to a sector of the population based on false narratives and innuendos, it takes care of everything.

The United States Golf Association has also decided to hold their annual national tournament in another State that has been ravaged by the pandemic and are facing the same restrictions as those of the people in California. 

The USGA is playing the tournament in the State of New York of all places.  Thousands of New Yorkers have died due to the pandemic, mostly because of the governor’s failure to act properly, and people have not been able to resume their lives with some type of normalcy.  I also contacted the USGA for comment, but they did not answer my email.

What are these people thinking?  These professional organizations are completely disconnected from the reality facing America and they have chosen to go on.  The PGA Tour wanted to be the “first” sport to come back and they did, but their return has been driven by sponsor’s money and television deals.

As a golf enthusiast and player, I will remember this season as the “Season of Disconnect” by the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour was the first, but their disregard for fellow Americans makes them last in my book.

The Not So Open United States Open Golf Championship

Not “Open” for Joe Q. Public Photo courtesy of USGA.com

The USGA has decided to host the 120th United States Open at Winged Foot Golf Club from September 17-20, 2020.

Today, they announced their exemption categories with some interesting changes to include one that will qualify certain players who otherwise would have not qualified.  Phil Mickelson comes to mind, who is currently #66 in the World Golf Rankings and is not qualified to play the tournament. 

The USGA knows better, so they changed the exemption from the usual top 60 to 70.  I believe this was done to bring back Phil Mickelson to Winged Foot where he lost the opportunity at the 2006 U.S. Open title to eventual winner Geoff Ogilvy.

Is this fair?  Not by a long shot.  This is typical USGA money grubbing market value garbage.

What makes the United States Open Championship an “Open” championship is that is supposed to be opened for qualification to anyone who wishes to qualify if they meet the minimum requirements.  Otherwise is nothing more than a tournament full of professionals and elite amateur players. 

This was the rationale given by the USGA, which is poppycock. 

“The decision to cancel local and final qualifying for this year’s U.S. Open was deeply disappointing, but we are pleased to still provide the world’s best professional and amateur players the opportunity to compete for this historic and coveted championship,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director, Championships”.

“The exemption categories for this year’s championship at Winged Foot Golf Club were carefully developed to mirror a representative U.S. Open field, and we are excited that players will still have an opportunity to earn a place in the field through a variety of categories.”

“A representative U.S. Open field”; is he kidding?  This is nothing more than a PGA Tour event on steroids.  A U.S. Open without local qualifiers is not an “Open Championship”.  This is garbage and should be called out for exactly that.

Let us go back to the Phil Mickelson conundrum.  Mickelson is currently #66 in the official World Golf Rankings as of the cutoff date of March 15, 2020.  The USGA did not have to change this exemption category, but they did, in my opinion, to accommodate a player who would not have qualified otherwise.  Were they afraid Mickelson would not accept a special exemption invitation?  What if he didn’t?  He did not earn the spot, is that simple.

Therefore, I am not a member of the USGA and will never be.  I refuse to give my money to an organization who claims to care about the game, but instead is all about the money.

The USGA should have done the right thing and cancel the tournament until that time in which “Joe Q. Public” could locally qualify for the tournament.  This is the spirit of an “Open Championship”.

The Open Championship, a.k.a. The British Open, understood this and the Royal & Ancient made the right decision by cancelling the tournament.

Once again, the USGA has made a bogey when they could have made an Ace.

https://www.usopen.com/content/us-open/2020/articles/exemptions-for-2020-u-s–open.html

The PGA Tour wanted to be the First

Golf Professional Nick Watney Photo courtesy of Titleist.com

It was bound to happen, and it happened without fans.  The first PGA Tour professional to test positive for the Wuhan Corona Virus.

Golf Professional Nick Watney tested positive on Friday for the Wuhan Corona Virus and had to withdraw from the tournament.  Thankfully, he is feeling relatively well and has self-quarantined in accordance with “CDC Guidelines”.

Having said all that, I do not get how he tested positive on Friday after testing negative upon arrival to Harbor Town.  The virus has a 14-day incubation period which means Watney was either already positive, and the test was faulty, or the Tour dropped the ball royally and now are trying to cover their tracks. 

If I am going by the science, I will have to say the Tour screwed up.  Otherwise, there is no way Watney could test positive in just a couple of days.  I will leave that to the so-called experts, but it should be mentioned these testing kits are not 100% accurate.

I am also curious as to why the Tour disclosed the identity of the player and if this is in violation of HIPAA Privacy Rules.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/index.html

For months the PGA Tour, and their television and radio pundits, have been bragging about been the first ones to come back to action after the interruption caused by the Wuhan Corona Virus.  Well, they got their wish.  Not only they were the first professional tour to come back but got the first positive.

All along the Tour and Commissioner Jay Monahan were reassuring the public, but some things cannot be controlled, and this is one of them.  It was bound to happen, and it will happen again and again.  The virus will run its course and that is that.

What is next?  The Tour has a couple of choices.  Either continue the season knowing that it will happen again or cancel the season.  I think they should continue the season and they should allow fans back in.  Without tracing chips and with tons of common-sense practices.

The Wuhan Corona Virus may become a part of our lives, like the seasonal flu, and that is something the Tour is going to have to grapple with and decide. 

Congratulations PGA Tour, you won this Championship.

Nick Watney is first on PGA Tour to test positive for coronavirus
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