Strugglin’ Scottie, Anchorin'(?) Akshay, and Love for the Island: 10 Things for the Players Championship

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Golfpocalypse is a meandering collection of words that runs prior to each week’s PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at [email protected]. We’ll publish the best emails here.

1. The Rogue Golf Thought: Is Scottie mediocre now?

Yes, I’m asking that question very tongue-in-cheek, because we are literally three weeks from tweets like this one where we thought Scottie might win every event this year. However, this stat from Justin Ray did raise my eyebrows. BOTH of them, in, in fact—this was a two-brow take:

When Scottie struggles, we’re used to that struggle coming on the greens. He’ll finish 8th, and be 90th in SG: Putting, but still top five in approach and driving, and we’ll understand that he’s a tweak or two away from being superhuman again. But 44th in SG: Approach, as Ray noted, is kind of unprecedented. And check this out from Data Golf:

The idea that his putting is doing “more” of the workload in his exceptional SG numbers also means, by inference, that the approach and drive are doing a little less. And look, yes, this is all reacting to the moment more than is warranted, but we also know that heaters like the one Scottie has been on for the last few years eventually end—we’ve seen it with Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and, more dramatically, Jordan Spieth. At the same time, it seemed like maybe he was on the Tiger trajectory, where it would last for a decade. These last couple weeks, with the relatively mediocre performance at Bay Hill and the odd hiccups on Thursdays, might look like a total anomaly very soon—in fact, I’d bet on it—but it’s not unfair to wonder if they signify something more critical. I hope not, because I’m not sure we’re ready for a golf world with a new top dog. We just got comfortable with this one!

2. Pump 17 straight into my veins, please

We are at SAWGRASS this week, the OFFICIAL FIFTH MAJOR (ha, ha), and of course all eyes are on what I consider the second-most famous hole in American golf: 17. The island green. (For the record, no. 1 is the 12th at Augusta). It became an island by accident, when Pete Dye dug too much dirt, created a huge hole in the swamp, and then had to get bailed out by his wife Alice, who came up with the idea for the island. But anyway, every year like clockwork the island green haters come out of the woodwork to try to convince you that it’s not that cool a hole, that it’s overrated, blah blah blah blah blah. They should all be dumped in the pond with the gators.

There are two critical things that matter when it comes to 17; first, it’s a ridiculous theater, with the stands and the banked hill along the water and the isolation of the water. Second, as a spectator either on site or at home, your heart is in your throat every time a player steps onto the tee with anything on the line. It’s blood-pumping stuff, and outside of majors, nothing is nearly as exciting. They should make the entire course out of the island, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

3. Speaking of 17, You should read about Tree Island

Did you know there’s a second island near the 17, if indeed we can call 17 an island (note: we can’t, it’s a peninsula). This other one, an actual island called “Tree Island,” is very small, but absolutely loaded with weird history and little quirks that continue to the present. We made a whole video about that I think is pretty fun, and you can watch that here, and if you prefer to read instead, I tackled it all in a moderately entertaining Q&A. I should warn you: it involves more than a few mentions of bird poop. But in a very classy way.

4. This week, we’re going to find out if the Tour is serious about this fifth major stuff

I’m writing this on Tuesday, before Brian Rolapp’s press conference on Wednesday, and the one thematic question will linger over it all is this whole “fifth major” business. Joel Beall wrote a nice piece on what the Tour is trying to do behind the scenes, and as fascinating as that is, all of this boils down to a simple question: Is the Tour willing to make a bold move and just say the Players is a major now. Let me guarantee you that the media won’t do it for them, and the players really won’t do it for them—they’ll either demure or, like Rory, they’ll outright say, “nah.” If you can’t get Rory on your side, you’re not getting anybody. This has to be a power grab from the top, which comes with obvious risks—like everybody laughing at you—but if they’re not going to take a big swing, they should stop flirting with the idea in social media posts. Personally, I’d love to see them try, but I have a feeling we’re going to get the same thing we’ve seen for decades, which is passive wishing for major status, but no real movement.

5. Jordan Spieth Sadness Watch: We’re … getting happy?

It just keeps dropping! Last week we were down to a 6.6, and with an 11th-place finish at Bay Hill, we have to downgrade all the way to a 5.9. This is the first time we’ve ever been below six (note: we invented this like a month ago), and the concurrent rise in hope is truly alarming. Is he good now? Is he creeping toward greatness? What if he wins at Sawgrass and then reels off 19 straight majors? WHAT IF HE LITERALLY ASCENDS INTO THE SKY ON ANGEL WINGS?

6. Golf Tweet of the Week

Look, I know nothing about handicapping or gambling or anything in that field; I react to it like the Amish react to TikTok (I imagine). But I loved this tweet from our own Chris Powers anyway:

It seems like people are constantly looking backward and finding trends that are absolutely not predictive, and I will ride with Powers’ vibes metric eight days a week.

7. It’s a little messed up that we can’t see that Akshay isn’t anchoring, right?

This is quickly becoming golf’s most aggravating narrative, because on one side you have mouth-breathers who have never been more sure of anything than they are that Akshay is anchoring his putter, and on the other you have apologists who flog the “this isn’t an issue at all” line to death. On one hand, no part of me thinks that he’s anchoring, because that would be insane. On the other, it’s pretty wild that at least from the spectator angle, there is nothing that visually distinguishes him anchoring vs. what he says he’s doing, which is stopping the putter an inch or two from his chest. Michael Kim says that none of the players are worried about it, and then Tron from NLU said that some were, and on and on we spin. Throw in the fact that Akshay was nothing short of insane on the greens in his Bay Hill win, gaining 10 strokes on the field, and you’ve got a complete mess. Again, I don’t think Akshay is anchoring, but as a hypothetical, if he just decided to anchor on a particular putt, would anyone see it? And if not, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the rule? Am I crazy here?

8. Cam Young is on the doorstep of greatness

This is not exactly a red-hot take, but it’s been brewing for a couple years, and I want to get in on the prediction before the big breakthrough happens. You could argue that the breakthrough was last year, with his kill-everyone performance at the Wyndham Championship segueing into his only-American-bright-spot performance at the Ryder Cup, but he’s still not getting the credit he deserves. Granted, he has to win more for that to happen, but that’s why I’m here—I don’t think it’s going to be this week, but Young is going to win a huge tournament soon, and once that happens, he’s going to be one of the most terrifying men in golf.

9. One Normie Pick, One Weird Pick

Even the normie pick is hard this week! Do you go with Scottie, even though we scientifically proved he’s garbage now? Do you take a risk on Rory to repeat, even though we’re not even sure if he’s playing? Beyond that, who would you even consider a “favorite”? Morikawa? Bhatia? I mean … Russell Henley? It’s actually hard, and my initial instinct is that I should just go with Young or Xander Schauffele, both of whom seem to be approaching a level near elite. But you know what? For the last three years, accuracy has been incredibly important at the Players, which means iron play should carry the day, which means the only smart heavyweight to pick is, indeed, Collin Morikawa.

For my weird pick, I’m going with Tom Hoge. I don’t care that he’s on two straight missed cuts—there’s just something about this guy at Sawgrass. Two top-threes in the last three years? Zero missed cuts in seven tries? Magic happens when “TPC Tom” steps on these grounds, and I’m rolling with magic.

10. The Rogue Non-Golf Thought: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an outdoor gas station bathroom that requires a key

I thought of this while driving south to Florida this week. It feels like at the peak of my road warrior days, maybe 15 years ago, I was constantly having to get a key attached to a giant block of wood from the clerk if I wanted to use a gas station bathroom. Now? They’re all inside. And they’re horrid, just like the outdoor key-entry ones were—that part hasn’t changed. But there’s something nostalgic about the old key bathroom days, remembering the dread as you opened the door and half expected to see a dead body on the cement ground. Also, there was always a spider in the corner. Bad scenes. I miss it.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com