Herbert Warren Wind R.I.P.***

The AP story on the great one’s passing is linked here, with the sad news confirmed by his nephew, SI's Bill Scheft. Here's the NY Times obit. And Wind's Amen Corner story can be read here.

Update: More reviews of Wind's life and times, though nothing of significance online from The New Yorker or Sports Illustrated. Jim McCabe's Golf Digest 2002 profile includes this surprise about Wind's unpublished efforts: “There are also manuscripts from projects never realized, works of fiction with titles such as The Man Who Knew South America and Things Are Rough All Over, to a mystery called Out of Bounds, in which a golf course architect gets murdered."

Hard to imagine Wind ever had something go unpublished! Also, Jim Donaldson remembers Wind in the Providence Journal while Maria Papadopoulos of The Enterprise has an excellent profile.

Golf Ball Research Brings Uncertainty...

Ned Barnett in the Raleigh News Observer has an excellent story on the distance issue in spite of the fact I'm quoted. Doug Ferguson’s AP column looks at the recent golf ball research news and touches on many subjects. Of note are some remarks by Davis Love.

“Is too much power ruining golf?” writes Ferguson.

"Go ask all these people if the game is ruined, if it's too easy," Love said, sticking to the Titleist talking points quite nicely.

After giving all of the reasons for added distance and covering many other subjects, Ferguson writes, “Above all, the USGA and R&A are committed to one set of rules for elite players, as well as those pressed up against the white picket fence. That's what made Love's analogy noteworthy. Any decision on equipment ultimately affects recreational players.”

"If you made three balls, you had two balls perfect for the marketplace and one for the tour, what do these people want to play?" Love said. "These people want to play what we play."

So that’s why we should have a tournament ball! You guys play it, people buy it, voila, we have a rollback!