Pond Scrum: Assessing another no-standout season
With the PGA Tour enjoying its lone dark week of the season and no stateside tournament set until next week at Cog Hill outside Chicago, some attention might finally be paid to one of the underrated treasures of the game, the Walker Cup, a biennial match between the Sons of Uncle Sam and the boys from Great Britain and Ireland.
Though most casual fans have barely noticed it over the years, the Walker has been around since 1922, and just as with its professional big brother, the Ryder Cup, the American side has taken a few hits in the recent past.
The GB&I team won four of the five competitions starting in 1995, though the Yanks have since won the past three and will be huge favorites when the two-day competition starts Saturday at Royal Aberdeen, Scotland.
In classic match-play format, our two global golf analysts, European correspondent John Huggan and CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling take a brisk, breezier-than-normal tour through the game's biggest plotlines of the moment in their weekly Pond Scrum matchup.
Feel free to keep score.
There's one notable exception to most international cup competitions. These cementheads rarely concede a point.
Webb Simpson won for the second time in three weeks Monday night to become the PGA Tour's sixth two-time winner this season, and jumped right into the Player of the Year battle. Just like last year at this point, nobody has amassed three season victories. Which is better, having a dominant player, or the ensemble photo of the past two years?
Elling: Simpson wears pink pants. He's identifiable from five fairways over.
Huggan: I'll give you the pink pants. But I forgot to mention the belly putter. Is everyone using one now?
Elling: Exactly what I was going to say. They're like big-headed drivers. I expect interchangeable heads and lofts on 'em soon.
Elling: For a while now, I've believed that golf was entering a period similar to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when faces like Faldo, Couples, Norman and Love were the top guns, yet I'm not sure anybody was viewed by the masses as a transcendent guy because of who preceded them. But now I think there's even more –- insert dreaded NFL term here -– parity than ever. Simpson was a modest 94th in U.S. earnings last year, and now he's ranked No. 14 in the world. Meaning, there's not much separation at the top of the totem pole.
Huggan: Having said that, I think Tiger Woods spoiled us with his level of celebrity. Never before had the world's most famous sportsman been a golfer. And it will be a long time before that happens again.
Elling: The word you are looking for is "never." If Tiger ever makes it back for any length of time, he can certainly be that guy again. Seriously, what does he have to do? Win three times a year? Even in his diminished capacity, he seemingly can handle that. Over the past two years, we have had exactly one player win thrice in a season, and that was Furyk, who won the FedEx finale last year and secured the top-player honors with that victory. He hasn't won since, I'd add parenthetically.
Huggan: Of course, someone has won three times this year ... step forward Thomas Bjorn. Or are we just talking about the one-dimensional PGA Tour?
No, we've got enough spare ammo for multiple continents. Thomas Bjorn won for the third time this season last weekend on the European Tour and seems like the leading Player of the Year candidate overseas. What's gotten into the balding, somewhat paunchy, chain-smoking, mercurial Dane these days? Wasn't his career supposed to be through?
Huggan: Thomas has always been one of the most interesting people out there. I mean, how many guys have ever walked off a course citing "demons." He's a great interview. One of the brightest and sharpest brains out there.
Elling: It wasn't long ago that Bjorn was taking down Tiger Woods when both were at the top of their games -- see the 2001 Dubai event, where Bjorn beat him on Sunday in eye-to-eye fashion. Seems like more than a decade ago in a million regards.
Elling: In fact, the European Tour's two top stories this year arguably have been comparative graybeards Darren Clarke and Bjorn, who have five wins between them at a point most of us had assumed they were past their expiration date. Does Europe have a comeback player award?
Huggan: We don't. Or we give it to Steve Stricker every year. I forget which. I was there for that Dubai duel. Thomas was a real player back then. And without doing much different he could have won two majors by now.
Elling: Those two players weren't just viewed as dead, but in advanced stages of decomp, which is what made the stories that much better. Interestingly, there's a Ryder Cup undercurrent to it all. Both would love a captaincy and in some minds they rank 1-2 as the latest favorites for the European helm in three years time, correct? Remarkably, Bjorn is now poised to actually play on the next Ryder team. He was an assistant on the last one.
Huggan: I think you may be correct. Depending on how each plays over next couple of years, they look favorites to be skippers in 2014 and 2016. Order to be decided. And Bjorn has been vice-captain twice. Word has it that he was captain in all but name back in 2004.
Oh ye of little faith, and that includes the both of you, what say you after the FedEx Cup twists and turns of Monday night, when some very high-profile guys were sweating bullets and birdies trying to advance to the third series event in Chicago? It was quite a subplot, no?
Elling: Ahhh, Scottish sarcasm. Refreshing as the onshore breeze at St. Andrews. In January.
Elling: Three players made huge stands on the last hole, with Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Chris Stroud all making birdie or eagle to advance to Chicago in the Nos. 68, 69 and 70 spots, the last ones available. The funny part was, the fans in the stands at the 18th had no clue what was going on. When the three guys finished the hole in clutch fashion, the applause from the throng was nothing unusual.
Huggan: It's hard to get too excited about something that has no historical context. I mean, who is going to remember any of this stuff in even six months time? Ogilvy was under more pressure. But only because he needs to play well to make the Presidents Cup, which is being played in his backyard at Royal Melbourne in Australia. Not sure he gives two hoots about the FedEx thingy.
Elling: Why does the bigger context matter? It was darned entertaining on Monday night. With the tourney title, FedEx spots for two major winners, and the Presidents Cup points all boiling away, that was a nice little cauldron of stew that NBC had on the fire.
Huggan: It was entertaining, yes. But that was all. Move on.
Elling: No knock on Els and Ogilvy, but Stroud was the most impressive -- and he's not a bazzillionaire playing for even more piles of cash for his bank account. He had fallen down dead all day, then eagled the hole to claim the 70th and last spot in next week's field. Ogilvy was nearly as clutch. He has a Presidents Cup berth on the line, and he's a Sandbelt product, like you indicated. Three Aussies next week will be angling for PrezCup spots in the final tournament in which points can be gleaned.
Elling: Trust me. Making it to Chicago matters for Stroud, who has been characterized in the past as a "Fall Series standout" on the tour's own website. As one media guy noted, that can be interpreted as meaning, "This Guy's No Good."
Huggan: Let's hope for the sake of the Aussies that Ishikawa doesn't need a pick. As I pointed out last week, International team captain Greg Norman will be hearing from the suits in Japanese television if that scenario plays out. I'm sure Stroud is delighted. And I'm delighted for him. But I'm not sure I'll remember his name two weeks from now.
Elling: Ishikawa was fifth in Japan last week, so he looks pretty solid for a top-10, automatic berth. It looks like it all comes down to Allenby, Ogilvy and Baddeley for the last three spots. All Aussies, all terrific picks, all good guys, all past Aussie Open winners. Quandary time.
Huggan: All good guys? Have you spent any time around Allenby? Of those three, I'd take Ogilvy and Baddeley, on the basis that you don't pick bad putters for match play. Allenby is a bad putter.
Elling: Allenby is one of my favorite guys. He turned 40 a few weeks ago and celebrated in Key West for so long and loudly, he had to receive medical attention. True Aussie style, mate.
The Walker Cup matches are this weekend in Scotland. Where does this event rank among the international cup competitions?
Elling: Virtually every younger top-50 American player these days took his final bows as an amateur at the Walker. Fowler, Johnson, Holmes, Kim, Overton and the list goes on and on. Give us a scouting report on the venue, will ya? Might as well use your local Scottish know-how for the greater edification of golfing mankind.
Huggan: Oh yes, the selections. It is obvious to all that neither team has its 10 best players. Both systems are idiotic and out of date. I'm hoping that new boss Mike Davis of the USGA -- a forward-looking type -- will make changes for the next matches. I'm just looking forward to hearing both captains trying to tell us they each have picked their best sides.
Elling: Teams are chosen by committee, which is where good ideas are inevitably diluted, polluted, quietly strangled and eventually expire. As for the venue, we hear it's narrow as hell and will potentially hurt the Yanks' long-ball contingent?
Huggan: Royal Aberdeen, or Balgownie as it is known locally, is perhaps Scotland's most underrated venue. It is a brilliant links, especially the front nine, which winds its way through some spectacular dunesland. The back nine isn't quite as good, particularly the two greens that were redesigned/ruined by Donald Steel, but it is still pretty nifty.
Huggan: The weather forecast isn't too great, either, which may be the home side's best hope of success. On paper, and in relatively calm conditions, they have no chance against the U.S. team.
Elling: For we U.S.-centric types, which players on the Great Britain & Ireland side look like can't-miss prospects down the road? Put on your scouting cap for us.
Huggan: Tom Lewis is the best-known member of the home side. He's the English kid who led the Open Championship after 18 holes in July at Sandwich. Michael Stewart of Scotland looks almost as good. He was runner-up in the British Amateur this year, won the South African Amateur and took the Scottish Amateur last year. Plus, he kicks Lewis' rear every time they meet, apparently.
So, what can we make of Webb Simpson, the newest leader of the PGA Tour's two-victory brigade in 2011 and yet another belly putter aficionado?
Huggan: Pink pants aside, he looks like a very good player. But don't forget he won because the French guy choked. Where have we heard that before?
Elling: I said this half-jokingly to somebody in the press room. The wedge shot that Chez Reavie yanked on the 72nd hole was the most impactful dead pull in Boston since Carlton Fisk's homer in 1975 World Series. That's a baseball reference for you U.K. readers.
Huggan: Reavie's not French? Well with a name like "Chez" he should feel right at home there, at least.
Elling: Simpson's swing has surely gotten better over the past few months. Nobody can contend this often with smoke, mirrors and a belly putter. He's obviously a guy of deep faith who wears his religion on his sleeve. If he believes it helps him, that's got to give him a mental edge, comfort and confidence of some sort. His caddie Paul Tesori said something after the round that was remarkable, calling Simpson the strongest player he'd ever looped for, "and that includes Vijay Singh, one of the top 10 players of all time," Tesori said. If that's true, Simpson could be a pillar of Ryder Cup teams for years.
Huggan: Baseball? Rounders, you mean?
Elling: As for the belly barrage, even Mickelson's gutting it out, if you will. Look, it's a trend at the moment, the hot new toy. The numbers of users surely will begin to shrink soon, but that doesn't mean that it's going to disappear. Far from it. Especially as players get older, it's going to be an option. Think about it -- Els, Goosen, Furyk and Mickelson all turned 40 over the past couple of years. All are former world top-five fixtures. All four are using the belly now. I just don't see too many more guys making the switch. I hope I'm right, because it still rubs me the wrong way on principle.
Huggan: I agree. The significant thing is the ages of many doing the switching. If that doesn't prove that those things are nothing more than a crutch for old guys whose nerves are failing, nothing does. Ban them now!
Elling: For those of you keeping track, that's five of the past six wins in the States by guys with belly or broom models, including a major. Note: Don't call me and Huggan, call the USGA. That's directory assistance for Far Hills, N.J., by the way. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has telephones, too. Or soup cans and strings, at minimum.
Huggan: I feel sorry for those whose nerves have gone, but that is a big part of the game, one that shouldn't be eliminated by ironmongery. Also, I have it on good authority that the R&A no longer closes for lunch. So call any time.
Did you guys want some catsup for flavoring? Surely you will be dining on your own words after the PGA Tour signed a new TV deal with CBS and NBC that extends the rights fees for another decade. Who thought it was possible in this economic climate?
Elling: For most fans, the contract is just another bit of tid, a sports deal with incomprehensibly big numbers, that already has been lost in the bigger picture. It shouldn't. This is a notable accomplishment. Finchem had to give more, but he got more, and the tenure of the contract is a record nine-year span. Over the short term, fans won't even notice the difference. CBS and NBC will divvy up the tournaments along the same lines as they have for a decade or so. In golf, change is something that most people resist.
Huggan: If I happened to be a PGA Tour player, I would love the job Timmy has done for me and the next five generations of my family. But I'm not, so I don't. I'm really not sure history will be too kind to him when assessing the job he has done vis-a-vis what is best for the game overall. If he really cared, he'd have done something about the ball years ago.
Elling: He's not in charge of the game. He's in charge of 45 tournaments and about 300 players. Wally Uihlein and the lawyers are in charge of the game, no?
Huggan: Correct. Speaking of whom, I'll be sure to say hello to Wally out there on the Balgownie links this weekend as he watches son Peter play for the American side. He loves me, does Wally.
Elling: It's a relief, really. Plus, the extension probably means 10 more years of Levitra, Cialis and Viagra ads.
Huggan: They do keep me up at night, right enough.
Elling: Speaking of nocturnal creatures ... this cannot be. We made it through an entire week of Pond Scrum with no Tiger barbs.
Huggan: Who? The world's 44th-best player?
Elling: We will leave the Tiger-torturing to another outlet, then. Did you see that the new owner of the house next-door to Tiger's manse in Orlando has removed the infamous oak tree? Rest assured, the hydrant is still there.
Huggan: I did. Funny.
Elling: With that, we'll conclude our weekly lifting of the leg. Just ahead, Huggan will be at the Walker Cup this weekend as Elling takes off for Chicago and the BMW Championship at the critically controversial Cog Hill next week. So, as Ishikawa says when he yanks one O.B., sayonara.
