Fortinet Championship kicks off FedEx Cup chase again in 2022, but what comes next?

The 2021 Fortinet Championship (the event previously known as the Safeway Championship) was a successful tournament, and Fortinet, the Silicon Valley online-security company, did an admirable job of stepping up and taking over as presenting sponsor when Safeway stepped away from the role after the 2020 event. Back for 2022, with a few minor changes in the entertainment and hospitality aspects of the event, the Fortinet Championship is set, once again, to open the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season and the race to the FedEx Cup—but what about the future?

This event is no stranger to change. First staged in 2007 as the Fry’s Electronics Open at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, it was renamed the Frys.com Open in 2008, was moved to the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, California in 2010, and moved again, to its current location at the Silverado Resort and Spa, in October 2014. In 2016 Safeway Inc. took over the event, which was played as the Safeway Open through 2020, and in 2021 Fortinet took up the mantle.

Starting in 2024 the PGA Tour is going back to a calendar-year schedule, ending the nine-year run, starting in 2013, of the oddball wraparound season that elevated the then-Frys.com Open from the first event of the post-Tour Championship fall schedule to the opening gun in the race for FedEx Cup points. The coming change in schedule means that the 2023 Fortinet Championship may once again be relegated to a position as the first event in a second-tier fall schedule that will lack the presence of the big guns of the PGA Tour, who are  likely to be resting up after the money chase of the FedEx Cup finals.

Back in the days before the 2013 advent of the wrap-around PGA Tour season, the late-season Fall Series tournament consisted of four events played after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup Tour Championship series. That “Fall Series” was definitely the low season for the PGA Tour; it mostly drew players from near the bottom of the money list—both veterans and newbies—who were looking to bolster their dollar count and strengthen their position for the next season.

Under the PGA Tour’s coming new calendar-year schedule, those players who are outside of the FedEx-Cup-eligible top-70 at the end of the regular season will compete in a “compelling, consequential final stretch” of fall events that will determine their status for the following season, while the top 50 players will be eligible for a new Fall Series of up to three international events played after the Tour Championship. These new, limited-field, no-cut (AKA “money-grab”) events will represent a chance for the top players to pad their bank accounts some more, if they so desire, and still have the “off season” that so many of the already-pampered stars of the game are complaining that they lack.

The old pre-wraparound Fall Series may have lacked the star power and tension of the race for the FedEx Cup, but it carried some drama because of the make-or-break storylines that it engendered. At least, that’s the way many people saw it, myself included—but after I asked Jim Overbeck, Fortinet’s Senior Vice President of Marketing for North America, about the company’s reaction to the scheduling change, I got the feeling that the folks at Fortinet don’t feel the same way.

The talk from the dais at the 2022 Fortinet Championship Media Day press conference on July 14th was almost all about the business-networking opportunities that the tournament represents, giving the distinct impression that the golf tournament was viewed as a jolly good excuse to get together and talk network security against a backdrop of beautiful Napa Valley scenery, amongst rolling, vine-covered hills, while enjoying world-class wine and food.

Overbeck’s initial response to my question was, “If there’s one question I saw coming, that was the question.”

He continued, saying “We made a six-year commitment to the PGA Tour as a partner to have the Fortinet Championship, and the concept was we would be the first event of the season, and kick off the FedEx Cup points. That’s changed.”

The return to a calendar-year season means “our product changes a little bit.” Citing his relationship with the PGA Tour, Overbeck went on to say, “We’re working very tightly with them—they know our preference. They know what we’re willing to do and it has a lot to do with Napa. I told them as the music’s playing, when it stops we don’t want to be in a worse chair than when we started. They’ve been a great partner with us, and they’re working to move some roadblocks to make sure that we’re in a really good spot.”

I’ll be honest—I don’t know exactly what all of that means, but that one sentence—“I told them as the music’s playing, when it stops we don’t want to be in a worse chair than when we started.”—leads me to think that the Fortinet folks really like Napa, but don’t relish the thought of losing the cachet of being the event that kicks off the PGA Tour’s big show—the FedEx Cup race.

Does this mean that a change in the Fortinet Championship’s spot in the PGA Tour schedule is in the works once the calendar-year season returns? We will have to wait and see, and maybe not as long as we might think, because while the new schedule begins in January 2024, the change really comes in August 2023 after the Tour Championship, when the new fall schedule picks up as a lead-in to the return of the calendar-year season.

Book Review: “Swing, Walk, Repeat”, by Jay Revell ⭐️⭐️☆☆☆

I might as well get this out of the way right off the bat: this review won’t make me any friends—in fact, it might even make me some enemies.

“Why is that?,” you ask.

Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because if you are a member of the mystical-guru school of golf enthusiasts—a big fan of Michael Murphy’s Golf in the Kingdom, maybe even a member of the Shivas Irons Society, the type of golfer who sees (or is looking for) transcendent meaning in every dew-sweeping round, every linksy sunrise, every made (or missed) putt, chip, or drive—I am about to rain all over your parade.

As a golf writer I sometimes receive copies of golf-related books, for free, to read and review. Sometimes I solicit a copy of a new golf book that I have heard of, sending a polite letter to the publicity department of the publishing house citing my bonafides and inquiring as to the availability of advance reading copies (ARCs, in publishing parlance); sometimes they are sent to me out of the blue. As often as not, though, I just buy them. I love the game of golf, and I love books—so I feel that I should support those folks who expend the time and energy to add to the literature of the game (and for the record, I purchased my copy of the book being reviewed here.)

Of these books there are some that I like, some that I love, and, sadly, there are some—a few—that I really, really, can’t bring myself to like very much at all. I do my best to give every book I read an honest evaluation, but I am picky, and I will find—and point out—errors of fact, I will deflate ego-balloons, and I am especially hard on “mental-game self-help books (see my review of the most recent one from “Dr Bob” Rotella – Make Your Next Shot Your Best Shot: Latest from Bob Rotella is more of the same: blah-blah-blah, rah-rah-rah ☹ ☹ ☹ ☹ ☹) and twee little volumes that lean too hard on the mystical-golf point of view.

The book I am reviewing here, Swing, Walk, Repeat, by Jay Revell, is, I am sorry to tell you, of the second variety. Not to rub it in at all, but for me this book strays too far toward a twee, off-with-the-fairies outlook on the game.

Do you feel the raindrops yet?

Swing, Walk, Repeat started out as a series of Instagram posts, a sort of daily golf journal that Jay Revell started in 2020 about the way that the game shapes his life. He managed over 250 of those daily observations, a pretty good tally by any measure, of which 225 (by my count) make up this book. 

Don’t get me wrong—I love the game of golf. And I love it for many of the same reasons that Jay Revell does, and the same reasons as do the other people out there who lean hard on the mystic-guru button when it comes to golf—I like being out amid the green (or tawny brown, these days, in drought-stricken California) environs of a golf course; I enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from a well-struck golf shot, from aiming at a spot in a fairway or on a green,  hitting the shot that I envisioned would put the ball there and seeing the ball actually end up on (or near) that spot. But I don’t get too sentimental about it.

For me Swing, Walk, Repeat leans too far in the direction of the meditations-and-deep-thoughts school of golf writing. Maybe my viewpoint is shaped by the fact that I didn’t grow up with the game, like Jay Revell and so many other small-ball writers did. I never played golf with my dad—I’m not sure that my father ever laid eyes on a golf club, let alone picked up or swung one—and I didn’t actually take up the game until I was in my early 40s. I have approached golf more as a challenging physical skill—like longbow archery, another avocation of mine—than as a meditative pastime or a bonding experience, and books like this one wear me out with their pastel-colors, Bob-Ross-happy-little-trees outlook. With chapter titles like “Golf Prayer”, “The Course is Calling”, “Dreaming of the Course”, “The Endless Search”, and “Longing for Golf”, when I was reading it I felt like I should be reading aloud in an awe-tinged whisper, with soft music playing in the background—angelic choirs, maybe, or slow, very soft bagpipe music.

Another thing: I noticed that there is no credit to or even mention of an editor having worked on the book, a fact which is apparent (or was to me) from early on. Meditation and feelings are great, but get your facts straight and make sure that your grammar is correct.

For example: In the introduction, page 4, fourth paragraph, first sentence, the word “grinded” is used. I see and hear this much too often in the context of golf, and it grinds on my ear like a misbehaving putter dragged down a cart path as punishment for a four-putt triple-bogey. The past tense of “grind” is “ground”, and if that word doesn’t fit the flow of the sentence you planned, find another way to phrase it.

Another, and I daresay more offending, error shows up on page nine, in the chapter entitled “Persimmon”—and I quote: “(Y)ou remember persimmon woods, don’t you? For generations this soft lumber was artfully crafted into club heads…”

My scanning eyes skidded to a disbelieving halt before they reached the end of that line. If you are going to wax lyrical about persimmon golf clubs, get your facts straight. Persimmon, the only North American member of the ebony family, is an extremely strong and hard wood—which seems obvious given the application. It is more than 1-1/2 times as hard as the hard maple that is used for flooring; of the North American hardwoods only hickory, used for axe handles and such, is stronger and harder. If you are writing about golf and you get a basic fact like this so very wrong, how am I supposed to trust what you write about anything else?

I won’t list any more errors, but suffice it to say that I read the remainder of the book with a pad of brightly colored sticky notes and a red pencil close at hand, and I admit that I was skimming briskly before I got to the middle of the volume, because I just couldn’t take it any more.

In summation: If your copy of Michael Murphy’s Golf in the Kingdom is dog-eared and worn (Murphy wrote a back-cover blurb for this book—no surprise), you will probably love this book and hate my review of it. That’s fine; really, because there is room for all sorts of folks in this game, and if there is one thing that golf teaches all but the most obtuse who venture out onto the course, it is how to get along with all kinds of people.

The new TW757 hybrids are part of a line of affordable offerings from Honma

Honma may not be a name that springs to mind for American golfers when considering a golf club purchase, and while you may have heard of their eye-wateringly expensive Beres line (which includes a $4500 driver) the more affordable offerings in the new TW757 line—driver, fairways, hybrids, and irons—from this premium club maker are worth a look if you are looking to update your WITB lineup.

The thing that stood out for me when I started learning about Honma clubs is that they are built 100% in-house at their manufacturing facility in Sakata, Japan. The benefit in this approach lies in the high level of quality control that is achieved. In my day job I am a mechanical engineer in a large manufacturing facility (not in the golf industry), and believe me, it is much easier to keep an eye on process and product quality when it is happening at your home base and you are not dealing with suppliers.

CONSTRUCTION

The TW757 family of hybrids utilize full stainless-steel construction in the club head, with a 455 Maraging steel face and a Japanese spec SUS630 body. Without going into too much materials science detail, the face material is a high-strength stainless steel that is easily workable in its annealed state before undergoing a single-stage aging treatment to develop the strength and repeatable flexibility required for consistent long-term performance under the impact forces encountered in ball strikes. The body is formed from another type of stainless steel which is subjected to a three-stage annealing-quenching-aging process to develop the high strength and toughness that is needed to support the club face.

The new Honma TW757 hybrids offer advanced design in a classic-looking package.

Equally as important as the materials that comprise the club head, of course, are the shape and configuration of those materials. The TW757 hybrids are designed with a low center of mass (commonly referred to as “center of gravity”, or CG), which is a key characteristic that contributes to the club’s ability to get the ball up into the air for both distance and green-holding ability. The Honma hybrids also incorporate a sole slot behind the face which is said to increase ball speed while boosting launch angle.

Connected to that well-built club head is the Honma Vizard graphite composite shaft, hand-rolled in their Sakata facility, and available in a full range of flex specs.

PERFORMANCE

My hands-on introduction to Honma came in the form of the sleek black beauty of a TW757 4 Hybrid: 40 inches long, 21˚ of loft, weighing in at 357 grams on my scale, with an advertised swing weight of D2.

I will be the first to admit that my 25.2 GHIN handicap may not inspire confidence in my ability to evaluate a golf club’s performance, and I can’t deliver the launch monitor ball-flight data that the full-time equipment sites do since my evaluation of club performance is done the old-fashioned, low-tech way—I take them to a nearby golf course and smack balls down range—but I can certainly judge the feel of impact and the look of the ball flight.

That being said, my relationship with my current hybrids has been problematic, on and off, a situation which I have attempted to treat with grip changes and counterweighting, with moderate success. Comparing my current 4H, a somewhat dated Taylormade product, to the Honma 4-hydrid I found that I was definitely getting more consistently acceptable shots with the Honma. I can’t say that the Honma TW757 turned me into a sharpshooter on long approach shots—it’s not a magic wand, after all—but it inspired a level of confidence that has earned it a spot in my bag, displacing the not-so-trusty Burner Superfast.

At $350 suggested retail the Honma TW757 slots in near the upper end of the price range for hybrid clubs, at or a bit above the price of the premium offerings from domestic manufacturers such as Callaway, Titleist, and Ping—which in my book, makes them worth a tryout at your local clubfitter.

Alan Shipnuck pulls back the curtain on Phil Mickelson with unauthorized biography – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Phil, Alan Shipnuck’s “rip-roaring (and unauthorized)” biography of Phil Mickelson is easily the most anticipated golf-related book of recent years, and I am completely confident in saying that readers will not be disappointed. Whether they are Phil fans (or not, as in my case), there is much for the reader to learn about the man who has recently found himself at the center of one of the biggest controversies to ever engulf the world of professional golf—a result, by the way, of the early drop of an excerpt from this very book.

Far from being a hatchet-job or a tell-all, the book is actually a well-balanced look at a very complex character. Philip Alfred Mickelson is a man of contrasts, and the book covers the full range of his complexities. There is a lengthy accounting of the many acts of philanthropy that Mickelson and his wife, Amy, have undertaken, both on their own and through their foundation, and on the other hand, no shrinking back from mentions of the less salutary aspects of his character and behavior. These range from the sophomoric trash-talking and pranking that he engages in, to a gambling habit that may be putting him in serious financial trouble, and borderline illegal financial dealings—some of which appear to be linked to his gambling activities.

The picture of Phil Mickelson that I take away from reading this book is that he is a smart, hardworking, physically talented man with an ego that drives him to constantly prove himself, always trying to show that he is the smartest person in any room that he walks into. While many people, among them his legion of fans, seem to buy into his act, the anecdotes in the book make him come across to me as a fast-talking BS artist who is, on balance, a hard person to like. To me he is the personification of the archetypal entitled rich man—he’s got his nugget and he wants to keep as much of it as possible (“my number one, two, three, four, and five issues are taxes”), all the while denying the contributions of others (e.g., the PGA Tour) to his success.

Alan Shipnuck has spent years working on this book—decades, actually, if you count the entirety of the time he has spent covering PGA tour golf, dating from 1994, Phil Mickelson’s second full year on tour, and interacting with Mickelson along the way. Curiously enough, the pandemic lockdown of 2020 was a boost to the effort. With pro golf, like so many activities, on hiatus during the early, highly restricted months of the pandemic lockdown, Shipnuck was able to engage his legion of sources, closeted at their homes and bored, via telephone, gathering anecdotes and impressions.

I got the impression that this book could have been longer if Shipnuck had been able to include the off-the-record material that he gathered along the way—and speaking of “off-the-record”, the golf world was treated to a bombshell last February when he dropped a revealing excerpt from the book.

In a phone conversation with Shipnuck which Mickelson later claimed was not for publication or attribution, he revealed that his courting of the Saudi backers who are bankrolling the LIV Golf league, which Greg Norman has been stumping for these past several months, was a calculated move to gain leverage against the PGA Tour for concessions regarding rights to players’ media content. His admission that the Saudi government has a terrible record on human rights, that they are “scary motherf--ers to get involved with” who he was nevertheless willing to snuggle up to for the sake of a big paycheck, had a cascading effect on his perception in the eyes of fans as well as the corporate sponsors who are the largest contributors to his income.

Several sponsors dropped Mickelson outright, and his biggest, Callaway Golf—who have a lifetime contract (as long as he is playing professionally) with Phil—pressed “Pause” on their contractual relationship with him. He subsequently stepped away from tournament golf and dropped out of the public eye, supposedly to “work on being the man (he wants) to be.” This self-imposed (or not, as far as playing PGA Tour events goes) exile even extended as far as his withdrawal from the 2022 PGA Championship, passing on defending the title which is arguably his most outstanding professional accomplishment, winning the 2021 event to become the oldest winner of a men’s professional major championship.

“A grownup version of Shipnuck’s first book, 2001’s Bud, Sweat, and Tees”

Even without the early excerpt and the ripple-effect consequences of that bit of breaking news, Phil – The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar is a groundbreaking work, a grownup version of Shipnuck’s first book, 2001’s Bud, Sweat, and Tees, which was a peek behind the scenes of the wild side of life on the PGA Tour as lived by the hard-living and -playing Rich Beem and his equally colorful caddie Steve Duplantis.

While Beem, despite his 2002 PGA Championship victory, has been little more than a flash in the pan in the world of professional golf, Mickelson is one of the defining characters in late-20th/early-21st century professional golf, and this book will go down as an important chronicle of his life and impact on the game.

Alan Shipnuck previews new Phil Mickelson bio at Pacific Grove Golf Links

An appreciative group of golf fans got a preview of Alan Shipnuck’s upcoming unauthorized biography of Phil Mickelson the other evening, in a talk by the author at the restaurant at Pacific Grove Golf Links—and speaking for myself, it was well worth the 92-mile round trip from my home in San José for the preview, and the talk.

Speaking from the hearth of the fireplace in The Grill at Point Piños, Shipnuck told the audience, “This book has been three decades in the making. My first year covering the PGA Tour was 1994; that was Phil Mickelson’s second full season. I always gravitated to Phil, he was obviously very fun to watch on the golf course, he’s a very charismatic guy. More than any other modern superstar he’ll let you in a little bit. He’s always been good about reporters; he’ll court them, he’ll charm them, he’ll cajole them, he’ll bully them—I’ve been on the receiving end of all of that.”

In the wake of the success of Shipnuck’s 2012 golf novel The Swinger (with co-author Michael Bamberger), which was something of a roman á clef centered on a thinly disguised Tiger Woods-like character, he signed a contract with Simon and Schuster for a future “unspecified golf book”. He kicked ideas around for years, but was always most interested in Phil. In 2020, knowing that he was going to be leaving Golf magazine, the idea for this book was reanimated. In a sort of gruesome serendipity, the pandemic lockdown facilitated the process—with people stuck at home, Shipnuck was able to “ring up random Hall of Fame golfers” who talked for hours. One day he talked to half a dozen guys, a group with 130 PGA Tour and Champions Tour victories between them, and talked so much that he lost his voice.

After spending the summer and the fall of 2020, and into early 2021, working on the book, Shipnuck left Golf magazine to help start up Matt Ginella’s new media group, The Firepit Collective, and for three months did no work on the book. Calling his editor in early May of that year, he told him that there was no way that he could get the book done in 2022. “Fine, no problem,” he was told, “It’s evergreen—’23, ’24, whenever it’s ready.”

And then, a couple of weeks later, Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship.

At the age of 50 years, 11 months, and seven days, Mickelson became the oldest winner of a major golf championship, surpassing Julius Boros, who won the PGA Championship in 1968 at the age of 48. That night Shipnuck got a text from his editor that read, “Book is due December 1st; don’t let me down.”

Thus jumpstarted, work on the book picked up. Approached by Shipnuck to be interviewed for the book, to present his side of the stories that had been collected, Mickelson declined, intitially—then, early this year he called Alan on the phone. Without asking for or receiving an “off-the-record” assurance, Mickelson launched into a discourse on his involvement with the controversial Saudi golf league that is being spearheaded by Greg Norman, dropping the revelation that he was powwowing with the Saudis solely as a means of gaining leverage in his push against the PGA Tour for greater player control of and access to media rights.

“Phil knew that I was writing this book. I had asked him to talk to me—and he calls me up,” Shipnuck said. “Anything he says to me is going directly into the book unless we expressly agree otherwise. The whole thing about off-the-record is that it is a two-way street; both parties have to agree. He gets on the phone and he just starts talking, he never asked to go off the record; I never consent to it. He was very blunt, he was very honest. Some of the things he told me were quite provocative. Did he mean to go that far, or did he just get carried away by trying to show me how smart he was? It’s hard to say what he was thinking. I’m still baffled, to this day, why he called me. He could have called any other reporter to share his innermost feelings (about the Saudi Golf League.)”

The subsequent publication, in February 2022, of an early excerpt from the book revealing those revelations created, in Shipnuck’s words, “a global firestorm”, and he did interviews with the BBC and Al-Jazeera, among others. In the wake of the revelations, Mickelson went into exile—whether purely self-imposed or as the result of a suspension by the PGA Tour is not (and may never be) known.

The flames of the “firestorm” were fanned by the release of a statement from Mickelson claiming that the comments were off the record, but Shipnuck maintains that it was never discussed, and he has witnesses to the conversation (which was not recorded.)

“That’s part of what has made the last three months very complicated in my life, dealing with the fallout from that excerpt. I’m just happy that the book is here; when you guys get to read it you’ll see it’s a very balanced, fair portrait of a really complicated person. Phil has done a lot of great things in his life, and I celebrate all of it—his random acts of kindness, his mentorship of younger players, but there has also been a lot of messiness, a lot of controversy, and that’s in the book, too. I’m happy that it’s finally here, and that people can read it and make up their own minds.

I had received an electronic advance copy of the book the day before the get-together in Pacific Grove, and had read about 100 pages into the 239-page volume before hearing Alan speak. I’ll have more to say when I publish a review of the book, but I can say that it is a balanced look at a very complicated person, and that I am very happy to have had the opportunity to hear Shipnuck speak about the process and experience of writing this book.

The lucky group who attended this talk have their (autographed) copies of Phil – The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar, but the rest of the world doesn’t have to wait much longer; the official publication date is just a few days away, on May 17th, 2022. It is available for pre-order (which publishers and authors really appreciate) from all the usual outlets, including (and this is my preference) your local independent bookseller.

USGA announces selection of Pebble Beach as third U.S. Open anchor site

At a media event staged in the Terrace Lounge at the famed Lodge at Pebble Beach, with a spectacular view of Pebble’s 18th green and Carmel Bay as a backdrop, representatives of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Pebble Beach Company announced that the world-renowned Monterey Peninsula property would join Oakmont and Pine Valley as the third anchor site in the USGA’s U.S. Open tournament schedule. Banners on either side of the stage listed the upcoming USGA championships that are on the slate for Pebble Beach: the U.S. Women’s Open in 2023, 2035, 2040, and 2048; the U.S. Open in 2027, 2032, 2037, and 2044; and a first – back-to-back Senior Open and Senior Women’s Opens in 2030 (at neighboring Spyglass Hill.)

The U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open trophies were on display against the backdrop of Carmel Bay and the 18th hole at Pebble Beach for the announcement of an historic partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company. (Photo by the author)

On a low stage flanked by photos of Pebble’s past USGA champions—from Woods, Nicklaus, and Watson to Robert H. “Skee” Riegel (1947 U.S. Amateur champion) and Grace Lenczyk (1948 Women’s Amateur champion), USGA President Stu Francis offered opening remarks, and Gary Woodland, who claimed victory at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, joined the conversation by remote video. USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer and Pebble Beach Resorts CEO David Stivers then spoke about the new partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company and what it means for the USGA championships, Pebble Beach and vicinity, and golf in general.

Bodenhamer, who played college golf and came close to final qualifying for the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, spoke about the importance of the venue to a USGA champion, referring back to remarks made earlier by moderator Beth Major, of the USGA, and Stu Francis, recalling how USGA Executive Committee member Nick Price, a three-time major championship winner himself (1992 PGA Championship, and 1994 Open Championship and PGA Championship) has said that it’s important where players win their U.S. Open, whether men or women.

Gary Woodland had also touched on this, telling the audience via video link “…when you’re a kid and you’re hitting that (winning) putt you’re dreaming of doing it at Pebble Beach. It’s the most iconic golf course we have in America.”

Both John Bodenhamer and David Stivers touched on the importance of this new relationship between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company, citing three strategic initiatives that they see as stemming from the partnership:

First – attracting and nurturing the next generation of leaders at the USGA and Pebble Beach through investments in local programs.

Second – environmental stewardship, by partnering with the USGA’s Greens Section to advance research into water conservation and other measures to help make golf a more sustainable activity. (All of the Pebble Beach Company’s courses, plus the NCGA’s home course—Poppy Hills—which is just up the road from Pebble, are irrigated with reclaimed water.)

Third – (and this is perhaps less tangible than the first two) incentivizing young people to take up the game of golf by showcasing the possibility of someday competing in a major championship at a memorable and (not to belabor an already overused word) iconic venue.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this new relationship is the new level of parity between U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open venues, as evidenced by the scheduling of four women’s Opens and four men’s Opens at Pebble Beach over the coming 25 years. This is part of the growing level of support of the women’s game across the board, as sponsors, fans, and the media increasingly recognize the quality and entertainment value of women’s golf.

Touching on the benefits of this new long-term relationship, John Bodenhamer stated that it “…allows us continuously improve, put our stake in the ground, partner with Pebble Beach, think strategically differently than we ever have to make things better for players, fans, viewers, what you see.”

Thinking perhaps of the long-term familiarity with the venue that may arise from the partnership, Bodenhamer expressed surprise that “…some of you in the media haven’t coined a special term to describe Pebble Beach. You think about 8, 9, 10, it’s a pretty amazing place—maybe someone will come up with ‘Pebble's Peril’. ”

While I might suggest that John not quit his day job for a spot in the ranks of the golf media, I would also like to point out that one of the greatest writers to wield an Olivetti in a tournament media center, the late Dan Jenkins, has already laid a clever nickname on that trinity of cliffside golf holes, christening it “Abalone Corner” (with a nod to Augusta National’s “Amen Corner” – the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes.)

Personally, I don’t think that unfamiliarity with the course—which boasts some of the most scenic and notable golf holes ever broadcast to the television and computer screens of tens of millions of viewers across the world—is an issue. I can’t imagine that even a casual golf fan would fail to recognize holes like #7, the 106-yard par-3 perched on the tip of Arrowhead Point; or #17, the 200-odd-yard par-3 that yielded two of the greatest moments in U.S. Open history courtesy of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson; or #18, undeniably the greatest and most memorable closing hole in major championship golf.

And the good, great, amazing news coming out of this new partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company is that we will have the opportunity to watch more major championship golf being played, more often, in the years to come, here on the shores of Carmel Bay.

Flashback: Revisiting Scottie Scheffler’s 2013 U.S. Jr Amateur victory

Scottie Scheffler’s win at the Dell Match Play yesterday, and resultant ascension to the #1 spot in men’s professional golf, inspired me to revisit the column I wrote a little under nine years ago*, when Scottie capped his junior golf career with a victory in the 2013 USGA U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Martis Camp, in Truckee, California:

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Recreational golf is a leisurely activity – a little too leisurely, the way some people play it – but competitive golf has an inherent intensity which the calm exterior aspect of the game belies, and nowhere is that more aptly demonstrated than in the USGA’s national championship tournaments. Two national championships were contested this past week, July 22 to 27 – the U.S. Junior Amateur at Martis Camp Club, in Truckee, and the U.S. Girls Junior, at Sycamore Hills Golf Club, in Fort Wayne, Indiana – and the action in the championship match in the Junior Amateur provided an apt demonstration of the level of intensity that accompanies a national championship.

The players in the final match at a USGA national championship tournament will have played nine 18-hole rounds of competitive golf in six days by the time all is said and done, and seven of those rounds are intense, one-on-one, match play. It is a measure of the caliber of the competition that the 36-hole championship matches play out so close, often coming down to the last few holes before a winner is decided.

Two accomplished junior golfers played their way through the selection process to face off in the championship match at the Junior Amateur: Scottie Scheffler, of Dallas, Texas, 3rd seed after stroke play, and Davis Riley, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who was T-4 at the conclusion of stroke play.

After playing 36 holes of stroke play and five rounds of match play, the two finalists were faced with 36 holes of match play, in a single day, to determine the 2013 national champion.

The young Mississippian, Riley, took the lead on the first hole with a par to Scheffler’s double-bogey, and appeared set to hold onto it until the finish. By the time the match got to the seventh hole Riley had built his lead to three holes with steady pars. Scheffler turned the tide briefly at Holes 7 and 8, making his own pars while Riley slipped back to 1-up with a pair of bogeys.

Riley led Scheffler for the remainder of the first round, moving back and forth between 1-up and 2-up a time or two, but never relinquishing the lead.

Starting the second eighteen after the lunch break, the two players came out of the blocks pretty evenly matched, each posting pars for the first four holes. Scheffler, 17, who is playing in his last Junior Amateur before he ages out of eligibility, squared the match with a chip-in birdie on the fifth hole, a 486-yard par-4, but went 1-down again at the sixth, another par-4, with a bogey. Riley, who has verbally committed to Alabama for his college golf, held onto the lead for a further seven holes, then a small error on his part – which may have resulted from a subtle, but shrewd, tactical move by Scheffler, turned the momentum of the match in his opponent’s favor.

Both players carried their approaches hole high and just slightly off the back of the green at the 31st hole of the match, but in good position to get to the back-right hole location. Scheffler who was away, chipped to tap-in range and was given the putt. Riley, who was closer to the flag but with a marginally less-favorable lie, chipped to a decent position below the flag, but about half-again the distance from the hole that Scheffler’s ball had been. The ball was marginally within concession range, but Scheffler made no move to concede the putt, and Riley, possibly taken aback slightly by this, pushed the putt, lipping out for a bogey-5, giving up the lead for only the second time in the match.

“Yeah it was [a momentum swing],” Riley said about the missed par putt on the 13th hole. “I felt like I still could have won [the match]. I was playing really well, my ball-striking was really good.”

At the 32nd hole, the 159-yard par-three 14th, Scheffler’s tee shot landed just right of and below the flag, bouncing forward and rolling to the collar of the green, pin high. It was a bold shot, attacking a flag which was was tucked well back and right, and a risk that could have backfired on him.

Teeing off next, Riley fired a shot which was also on the flag like a laser, but landed and stopped several feet short, failing to release and roll up closer to the hole.

Watching from the tee box as his ball tracked to the hole location like a heat-seeking missile, Riley twirled his club as he let it slide thorough his grasp, looking like a man who was watching a perfect shot perform just as he had expected it to. When the ball came up short, the victim of geometry, after hitting into the slight upslope below the hole, he was visibly upset, and slammed his clubhead into the turf as he walked to the hole.

Scheffler’s ball was in a good lie, despite its position up against the collar of rough around the green. The grass behind the ball was just thin enough to give him a good shot at the back of the ball, and he rolled in the eight-footer for a birdie to take his first, and very timely, lead of the match with little drama.

Scheffler won the next hole, the par-five 15th, with his third birdie of the inward nine, knocking a 250-yard shot onto the green with a hybrid club and two-putting for the birdie – and was now two up with three to play.

The match ended on somewhat of a down note on the par-four 16th hole as a result of Riley calling an infraction on himself as he prepared to putt from just off the green. He said that his ball moved slightly after he addressed it, which resulted in a one-stroke penalty, and a bogey to Scheffler’s par, giving the Texan the win 3-and-2.

The victory may seem anticlimactic, but Scheffler’s late rally showed his mental toughness, as he came back from nearly thirty straight holes of trailing his opponent.

“I played pretty well down the stretch,” Scheffler said afterwards. “In the morning round, I gave away a lot of shots and I struggled with the putting a little bit early, then I started to figure it out.”

“You have to be mentally tough. I mean, you have to make putts. You need to perform.”

                              

* (Originally posted on the now-defunct Examiner.com website.)