PGA

A Tradition Like No Other

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you’re still feeling hungover from the election season and now all of the legal wrangling that comes after it, we understand.  If you’re done with Fox News (at least for now), we understand.  If you’re done with worrying about COVID-19, we understand.  If you’re over the Green New Deal, we understand.

That’s why this AM, we decided to go with something new that’s about green jackets, putting greens, and lots of greenbacks to the winner. You don’t have to like golf to enjoy the history and beauty of Augusta National just like you don’t need to like horse racing to enjoy The Kentucky Derby.  Below we deal you ten fun, interesting, and light facts about The Masters.

  1.  Jack Nicklaus, John Harris, and the deceased Arnold Palmer are/were the only professional golfers to ever be invited to be members.  Membership outside of Georgia residents is limited to two people per state.
  2.  The tradition of wearing green jackets began in 1937 when jackets were purchased from New York’s Brooks Uniform Co. The idea was that Masters patrons easily could see members who would have accurate information to assist them while on the grounds.
  3.  Avid golfer Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower is the only U.S. president to have been a club member. Ike’s Pond occupies 3 acres near hole No. 9 on the par-3 course.
  4. Each hole is named after a plant or shrub that adorns it. For example, No. 3 is called “Flowering Crab Apple.” An estimated 80,000 plants have been added since the course was built.
  5. Club founder and legendary patron of the sport of golf, Bobby Jones, initially intended for the Augusta National course to have a19th hole. His reasoning was that losing golfers would have an opportunity to win their money back through a last-ditch double-or-nothing round.  The idea was scrapped when it was realized that the view from the clubhouse of the 18th green would be lost.
  6. The tournament was not played during the years 1943, 1944, and 1945 because of World War II. To help with the war effort, turkey and cattle were raised on the Augusta National Grounds.  It was estimated that the cost to repair the damage to the grounds was nearly $20,000, an outrageous sum of money back then.
  7. Tiger Woods was the youngest player to win a Masters Tournament, at the tender age of 21 years, 3 months, and 14 days.  Fuzzy Zoeller was the only player to win there on his first try.  Jack Nicklaus has the most Masters Tournament wins, with six. Nicklaus became the oldest player to win a Masters Tournament, at 46 years, 2 months, and 23 days in 1986.
  8. There is no question that the map in the official logo for the tournament is meant to represent the continental United States. But its proportions are conspicuously wrong. So how exactly did the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, one that is so concerned with details and decorum, come to have such a wonky logo?

    Masters logo map

    .

    One theory speculates that printing technology in the 1930s, during the time that the Augusta National was constructed, was simply not precise enough to replicate the sharp angles and narrow off-hangings that an accurate map of the continental U.S. would entail.  As to why the original logo is still used to this day, the answer is something that is used to explain many facets of the Masters: tradition.

  9. One of the most beloved traditions of the tournament is the bequeathing of a famed Green Jacket to the new champion from the previous year’s winner. These Green Jackets are among the most iconic pieces of clothing in the sporting world. Yet, somehow, in 1994 a lucky and unsuspecting golf fan came across one in a Toronto thrift shop and paid a whopping $5 to take it home.  The Augusta National confirmed the authenticity of the piece and determined that the Green Jacket in question was from the 1950s. The lucky thrifter went on to sell the jacket at auction for nearly $140,000 in 2017.
  10. Although CBS has broadcast the Tournament since 1956, Augusta National still owns the broadcasting rights and negotiations are renewed every year. So theoretically, the tournament could switch to a different broadcaster at any time.

 

Enjoy the escape, you’ve earned it.

Swing and a Miss

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

You know old Hank Haney, don’t you?  Sixty-three year old PGA teaching professional Hank Haney worked with Tiger Woods for a few years about a decade ago along with other PGA professionals.  He parlayed that experience into a golf reality show that lasted five years.  Each season one chosen celebrity would be the one that Haney would try to improve their golf game.

In 2008, Haney started working with former NBA star and current NBA analyst Charles Barkley on the Golf Channel’s The Haney Project: Charles Barkley, in an attempt to fix Barkley’s infamously bad swing. Haney’s show continued in 2010, this time with comedian Ray Romano. The third season, in 2011, featured talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. Series 4 (2012) featured a four-player shootout in Mario Batali, Adam Levine, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Angie Everhart.   Series 5, in 2013, featured all-time winner of the most Olympic medals, Michael Phelps.

Old Hank would cringe on camera every time Sir Charles stopped midway through his swing, then shank the ball in any and every possible direction.

Well, yesterday, several people cringed when old Hank weighed in on this week’s U.S. Women’s Open on his SiriusXM radio show.

When Haney’s co-host, Steve Johnson, asked him about the 74th Open being played this week, Haney joked that he was going to predict that a Korean would win.  And, he added that he couldn’t name six players on the LPGA Tour, except for those with the last name Lee.

“I’m gonna predict a Korean,” Haney said.

“That’s a pretty safe bet,” Johnson replied.

“That’s gonna be my prediction. I couldn’t name you, like, six players on the LPGA Tour,” Haney continued.

“Yeah,” Johnson said.

“Nah, maybe I could,” Haney said. “Well, I’d go with Lee. If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right. I don’t know. … Lexi Thompson. Michelle Wie’s hurt. I don’t know that many.”

Haney’s comments were quickly criticized on social media, the platform of self expression of the new, kinder, more sensitive generation.  And Wie was one of them.

As a Korean American female golfer, these comments that @HankHaney made disappoint and anger me on so many different levels. Racism and sexism are no laughing matter Hank….shame on you. I don’t ever do this, but this must be called out. https://t.co/P18JByTosN

— Michelle Wie (@themichellewie) May 29, 2019

Old Hank took to the same Twitter outlet to get out his apology.  “This morning, I made some comments about women’s golf and its players that were insensitive, and that I regret,” Haney wrote. “In an effort to make a point about the overwhelming success of Korean players on the tour, I offended people and I am sorry.

Racism?  Sure.  Old white Hank predicted a Korean would win.  Old white Hank knows better we think.  You can’t say the obvious.  Koreans currently hold down the 1,4,6,8,12,13, and 15th places year to date on the LPGA money standings.  You can’t say the obvious.  He said he couldn’t name six players on the tour.  Neither can anyone else.  No one watches it in person.  No one watches it on TV either.

So Hank Haney said “I’m sorry.”  He offended people and was insensitive towards women.   Maybe he could make a run for the White House in 2020.  Joe Biden realized the error of his previous ways and said he was sorry to have been insensitive towards women as well.  He said he stands behind women now.  Wait, that still doesn’t sound right.

Regardless, old Hank’s apology stated that he actually had intended to “make a point about the overwhelming success of Korean players.”  No he didn’t.  He intended to make a joke about a tour that is viewed (but not seen) as a joke.

Wie said that she “as a Korean American female golfer” was disappointed and angry.  Couldn’t she just be a golfer or an American that was angry?  Or, an American tour player that was angry?  Nope.  It’s important today to tell everyone where you are originally from and how many obstacles you had to and have to overcome.  Wie claimed that the remarks were sexist too.  We wonder about that.  He was asked to comment on the LPGA tour.  Like what he said or not, he did just that.  If a female reporter comments on the PGA tour, are her remarks automatically sexist?

Christine Brennan, who writes for the USA Today, broadened the scope of the crime to include an accusation of xenophobia and wrote, “If there’s any golf club in the country (let’s make it the world) that allows Haney to set foot on its property after that despicable exchange, that club is telling every girl and woman and person of color to go play any one of the dozens of other sports they can play for life, not golf.”

This went from Koreans under attack to all countries.  This went from women to girls.  And, this went from one race to any person of color.   We wonder if Tiger Woods or Charles Barkley or Sugar Ray Leonard think old white Hank is prejudiced.  Did Angie Everhart think he was sexist?  Maybe they do.  And, maybe he is.  But, can we tap on the brakes just a bit?

Christine, a ton of golf clubs that you want old Hank to be banned from have members that can’t name six LPGA golfers either.   But, when they flip through the channels in the men’s locker room looking for the men’s tour broadcast of the week, they ever so briefly pause on the leader board of the LPGA event in their search.  On it they see the Korean flag, among others, up and down the first page.  It’s not bad.  It’s just bad the way old white male Hank made light of it.

Michelle Wie cried “wie, wie, wie,” all the way home.  It’s certainly her right.  But, did anybody hear her?

The problem for Christine Brennan and her diatribe is that no one reads the failing USA Today anymore.  Do you?  The problem for the LPGA tour is that no one watches the LPGA Tour anymore.  Do you?

Tap the brakes people.

 

 

 

Brooks in a Dust Up with Dustin? Swing and a Miss.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Who knows if any of the rumors flying out of the stench leftover from the Americans weak showing in the Ryder Cup last weekend are true?  The latest one has workout partners and good friends Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson throwing down before the Cup began and later Sunday night again after it ended.

Did Patrick Reed blow up the team chemistry with a petulant attitude towards who he was and was not paired with, or how often he did or did not play?  Well, he does have a bit of a controversial past with college teammates, family, the press, and opponents.  So, maybe so.

But, did DJ and Brooks have not one, but two dust ups?  Even if a little flare up happened it will likely all wither away in the coming winter months filled with PGA inactivity.

One thing is for certain.  If DJ swung at Brooks he likely missed him like so many short putts he had to win or tie a hole for the ugly Americans and their woeful performance.

Maybe Captain Jim Furyk should have included red, white, and blue pacifiers as part of the team issue uniforms.

Boom Boom’s Life Lessons

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

One of the many gifts that Boom Boom gave us was the torrent of quips about how one leads one’s life.   He could say so much by saying so little.   A statement at just the right moment resonated in my young, eager eardrums.  How I interpreted or applied it was up to me.  No more words were spoken because no more words were needed.

My intent is to simply drop them here from time to time for reflection in your life.  Perhaps you can benefit as I have.  Whether all of the quotes were originally his(the vast majority are), or if he was himself inspired by a few along the way isn’t relevant.  The message is.  Our first one of many is below.   Enjoy.  Engage.

“Champions sweat when no one else is watching.”

Perhaps this quote will inspire you to share a story or a thought with a loved one.