Dog Days of Summer

I apologize that the content production here at Czabe.com has been a bit, well, "pokey" as of late. I try to get a new post here every day. But well, things are all out of whack right now, and won't get lined up until September.

So hopefully, you can enjoy your dying weeks of summer, and bear with me.

I am working on the new show on Sporting News Radio (start date, still TBA. We think it'll be before the Thursday night NFL opener on the 10th).

I am also dealing with various vacations (my own, Scott Linn...) and thus can't get the "band" together much to do podcasts and Czabecasts.

Finally, I have been troubleshooting three vexing issues in my life.

A: What's wrong with my wife's mini-van?
B: How come my home studio ISDN crapped out?
C: How do I configure a new D-Link router?

Well....

A: An independent garage claims they have found the issue, but don't have the tools to fix it. Thus, I have to take their write up to a Honda dealer and say: "Um, do THIS, dummies!" Should be fun. And interesting. The second dealer I told you about that wanted to do 3k worth of work? Well, this mechanic said he didn't think ANY of that stuff was needed. Good to see honest car repair ethics in this day and age. (Chortle!)

B. My ISDN studio at home has been fixed, because - get this - Verizon says a "wire came loose" in their "Central Office" and crashed my data "loop." Well, thanks for the heads up, you asshats! I did a whole week on the phone with Bob and Brian, swapped out my Zephyr Express unit with the engineers at work - all because a FUCKING WIRE WAS LOOSE! Christ!

C. I think I've got a bead on the new router. But two hours into it, I perhaps have another 2 hours to go. You just never know. I think home networking and wireless networking is impossibly complex for even so-called "high level" home computer enthusiasts, much less your typical suburban house-mommy. The new router is a high end one that allows for "port prioritization" so that if I want to Skype some video to another location while broadcasting, I can get the router to give the Skype feed right of way on bandwith and keep crashes to a minimum. Or, that's what some geeks at MicroCenter told me. We shall see.

So in short, like my man above says: "Calm down, people!" I got a lot to figure out. And then we'll get cracking.

Busted Dustin

So much to say, so lets get right to it.

Dustin Johnson and his caddy deserve at least 51% of the blame on this one. His golf ball. His tournament. His responsibility.

But the other 49% is squarely on the PGA of America, for a variety of reasons.

Let's go through them.

1. It's one thing to have other player footprints in a trap. But people in a trap! Ridiculous. Lack of proper crowd control improperly disguised that area as a trap. With Watney irrelevant, the rules official should have been right there, making sure there was no confusion. While he may not ADVISE on course of action, an official is certainly allowed to offer unsolicited clarification. IE: "Hey, Dustin. Careful up there. Remember the bunker rule, you might be in one."

2. The PGA's adopted rule for the week, essentially boiled down to "any area that is sandy should be treated as a bunker." Johnson said as much afterward. If so, that's ridiculous. It means that "magic bunkers" can appear during the course of a week. A low area between mounds gets trampled by spectators. Rain washes it out a bit. Sand accumulates in a small area. Voila! One more bunker that Pete Dye didn't have to design himself, and did not "exist" when play began on Thursday. Illogical.


3. Why didn't the rules officials notify Johnson of his violation BEFORE he hit his pitch from beside the green? They were not obligated to do so, but certainly allowed. It would have been the equitable thing to do, since it may have changed his strategy. I have a theory on this. I think the rules officials "pocketed" that ruling, to see if two of the possible three outcomes would dictate that he let Johnson's transgression slide. If Johnson makes par, he wins, and the official makes a tepid inquiry after all the emotion dies down, says no foul, and it's a wrap. If Johnson makes double, he's out of the playoff, and you can bring it up without any hubbub. But if he makes bogey to get into a playoff, but not win, then they were stuck. Just my theory.

My main argument in favor of Johnson is this: I still don't think he was IN that bunker!

Yes, it was a bunker there. I admit that.
Yes, he should have known the rules.

But, I think his ball was sitting on the equivalent of a "washout" of sand, which would NOT be considered part of the hazard. The back edge of that bunker was so trampled and destroyed by thousands of cheese eating 250 pound Packer fans, you simply couldn't tell where it started and where it ended.

And to me, the splotch of sand he was on, was an irregular little finger which almost certainly was not designed, nor would be maintained as such.

To my thinking, it should be incumbent on the PGA rules official to demonstrate with certainty that Johnson was IN that bunker, and not on a washout or spillover.

Just to say: "A bunker is here. Sand goes all the way down this hill to there. People have been treating it like a stolen rental car for a week. All of it is a bunker" creates a totally unenforceable and inequitable situation.

As e-mailer Lou Boezi put it succinctly: "The PGA rule presumed a recognizable but untidy bunker. Johnson's problem was that because of the spectators milling about the bunker simply was not recognizable."

The PGA had good intentions. They wanted to avoid a "this is a waste bunker, this one isn't" situation that screwed Stuart Appleby back in 2004. So they made them all bunkers.

But it's not that easy, and not that black and white. And somebody on the PGA rules staff should have said: "Hey look, fellas. We've got a number of bunkers here, that are essentially ruined. If somebody gets in one, we could have a problem."

That said, let me take a moment to thank Dustin Johnson for hitting the shot in the first place. Wow. Fucking... wowwwww!

I haven't come out of my chair watching golf on TV in at least 6 or 7 years. This shot did it for me.

The future of golf is here. They are 20-something, sickly talented, and hungry. And they don't get bent out of shape at losing a major.

It's like these guys think: "Eh. They have four of them every year. See you at the next one."

This portends poorly for Eldrick's summit assault on Mt. Nicklaus. While this swashbuckling style does not allow for singular dominance the likes with which Tiger achieved, there are enough of these young punks to form a nautical blockade on majors for some time to come.

So while the bulk of the golf world is still all lathered up over the ruling, the real story is this: The Tiger Woods Era, is over. He's not done. But the era, is over.

The media (especially TV types who feasted on Tiger during his amazing reign) are doing all they can to root him back into "form."

Not happening.

Tiger 2.0 (or are we on 3.0?) is going to be a Top-5 player who must fight mightily for those next 4 majors.

But the media are like the kid whose mom told them daddy "went out for a pack of cigarettes." Four years ago.

Daddy isn't coming back, Peter Kostis. And he didn't go out for cigarettes in the first place.

Time to embrace the new blood, and this year's Ryder Cup is going to be a thrilling coming out party.

Pavin's Pressure Shot

Memo to Corey Pavin: You can do this.

Leave Tiger Woods off the Ryder Cup team. The world will not end. You will not be pelted with rocks and garbage.

And, it must be noted, it is crucial for your team's chances of winning.

The same Pavin who used to hit 228 yard 4-woods into the 18th green at the US Open on Sunday, or chip in for birdies from thick rough at the Ryder Cup as a player, needs to summon the guts to play the shot that needs to be played.

Leave him home.

You do this not to embarrass Tiger Woods, or to punish him. You do it because it's the right thing.

Every ounce of logic points to Tiger not being a captain's pick.

Here's how you say it.

Pavin (as written by Czabe):

"Look, I've given this a lot of consideration, and explained it to Tiger. The Ryder Cup selection process is a 'now' thing. How are you playing 'now.' Especially for captain's picks. This has no reflection on his talents, or his career. He's been the world's best player for the last 13 years, and when his career is over, he'll probably be the best ever.

But again, this is a now thing. Right now, he's not playing to form. He is, by our carefully designed points system, a bubble player. And bubble players need to be playing well going into the fall to merit selection. He's not playing well. He'll even tell you that.

Furthermore, he has played a very limited schedule due to changes in his life. This is how it should be. However, this is not a positive credential to be a captain's pick.

Lastly, because of all of this, he will be playing a limited amount of competitive rounds going into the Ryder Cup. This too, is far from ideal.

So in the end, I decided to make the tough call, and go with somebody else. I am sure some will criticize me for it, but when I signed up to be captain, I specifically signed up to absorb that kind of criticism.

I will always regret the poor timing of my captaincy, in which I was unable to have the world's #1 player on my team. But my responsibility is to the team, and our country in this exhibition, not to my resume or his."

"Any questions?"

There. Just say it, Corey. You can even cut and paste if you like. By the time the plane lands at Celtic Manor, all of the Tiger distractions will be long gone. If you choose the "easy" route now, then the hard part will arrive in force next month in Wales.

If you broke obvious statistical trends to put Tiger on the team, do you have the balls to bench him for at least one session, maybe two? He'd be terrible right now in alternate shot, so you'd be looking at a better-ball only captain's pick, plus singles. Which is typical of what captain's picks get.

But Tiger has never, ever, ever sat a Ryder Cup session, even when fatigue or format might have dictated otherwise.

If you feel obligated to bring him Corey, you'll feel just as obligated to ride him once he's there.

And do you really want the history books to show that you got scared into taking Tiger Woods, watched him go 0-4-1, and lost the Ryder Cup by a point?

Now put a good swing on this one, Corey, and hit the shot.