‘If you’re not first, you’re last’ should not apply in golf, and more bits and bites from the golf world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2022 (1676 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bits, Bites and Barbs from around the world of golf:

Bits

CBS could show that aeriel shot of Pebble Beach’s 17th and 18th holes a 1,000 times during a telecast and it still wouldn’t be enough … From a friend: Maybe the PGA Tour’s social media account should not have posted an old video of Tiger Woods having no clue who Tom Hoge was just minutes after Hoge won on Sunday? I agree. Woods wasn’t being disrespectful at the time, but the clip made Hoge seem like a nobody. And there aren’t any nobodies on the PGA Tour. Everybody who reaches that level is a somebody … Hoge’s last professional win prior to taking the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am came in Winnipeg in 2011 at the PGA Tour Canada’s Players Cup. It was his third start as a professional and he got into that event through Monday qualifying. It then took him 11 years to lift another trophy. “It’s been so long since I won anything I forgot how to celebrate,” he said. Hard game, golf … Seeing Clint Eastwood at Pebble Beach every year recalls this memory: during our honeymoon, my wife and I spent two days in Carmel as part of a longer Northern California escape. Our bed and breakfast host suggested Eastwood’s Mission Ranch for dinner. “It’s Saturday,” she said, “he might even be there.” We were sat on the patio beside a large party that was dropping a bunch of money judging by all the wine bottles on the table. A little while later Eastwood appeared to take photos with the group. My guess is that when a bill exceeds a certain amount Dirty Harry gets the call. I’d never been so star struck. Mind you, that was before Eastwood delivered a speech to an empty chair.

Bites

Canada’s bronze medal in mixed team ski jumping was amazing to watch, but that the event exists at all only adds to the absurdity that there is currently no team event for Olympic golf. As has been written before in this space, the International Olympic Committee has gone to great lengths to add disciplines — and therefore medals — to both the Summer and Winter Games, and yet somehow golf, which has a long history of team events, partner events and even mixed team events, was approved as an Olympic sport as just two individual competitions. Such a bogey … The PGA Tour has its faults. It regularly clamps down on what independent media companies can and cannot capture and produce at events to protect its partners, rightsholders and sponsors. It sometimes makes it hard to cover a tournament properly in this social media age. You never know when you might get your wrist slapped for sharing a photo or shot or score or whatever. And yes, the circuit has long dominated the global golf scene. However, any attack on the PGA Tour that cites Greg Norman’s Saudi-led Asian Tour series as “leverage,” the way Phil Mickelson did last week, is difficult to stomach. You lose all credibility talking about the PGA Tour’s “greed” while taking wads of tournament appearance money from a regime that murders its critics … Happy for Harold Varner III, who drained a 90-foot eagle putt to win the Saudi International in dramatic fashion. Wish he’d done so at Pebble Beach though … Jordan Spieth should let us in on his thought process a little more. He’s so quiet and reserved out there. Hahaha.

Barbs

In finishing second at Pebble Beach, Spieth collected his 16th career PGA Tour runner-up to go with his 12 victories, which includes three major titles. That ties him with Dustin Johnson for the most second-place finishes among active PGA Tour players not named Woods (31) or Mickelson (37) — active being a relative term for both of those players. Some might say the number represents 16 times Spieth hasn’t sealed the deal when in contention but that is a skewed view. Instead, it should be lauded as an amazing stat. Combined with his nine career third-place finishes, Spieth has been in the top three in 37 of his 219 PGA Tour starts. Or nearly 17 per cent of the time. That many times beating 150 or so other players. Johnson’s percentage is decimal points below Spieth’s, as he’s been in the top three 49 of 297 times. It is extremely difficult to win a PGA Tour event — to be the best of 156 guys — especially in this era of incredible depth. That Spieth and Johnson have been that high up on the leaderboard that many times is a testament to their incredible skill and will. The odds are so stacked against anyone and everyone even being in contention of a PGA Tour event by Sunday afternoon. To that end, Mickelson’s surplus of seconds — 11 times in majors — are part of the reason why he should be viewed as a top-10 player of all time. And his seconds are why Jack Nicklaus will always be golf’s most successful major championship man. Because not only did Nicklaus win 18 professional majors, he also finished second in 19 of them. Thirty-seven top-two finishes in majors! Woods, meanwhile, has been second in seven majors. Second isn’t winning obviously, but it doesn’t always “suck,” as the saying goes, especially when it comes to golf.

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Jason Logan is the editor of SCOREGolf Magazine and is based in Toronto. He is a contributor to the Star’s Sports section. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonSCOREGolf