The fate of golf would seem to lie in the hands of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Association. Can we expect that they will protect and reverence the spirit of golf?
MAX BEHR
Turning Stone CEO Ray Halbritter has given himself an exemption into his own event. (Thanks to all the readers who sent this...I'm vacationing, but this was too good to pass up.)
Don't those ironclad PGA Tour contracts forbid something like this?
From the British Golf Museum, labeled circa 1893. Click on the image to enlarge and see the predecessor to today's kick-stand bags:
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I thought for sure they'd find a way not to do this. It just makes too much sense.
World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Moves to May 2011
Ceremony will kick off 2011 PLAYERS Championship
St. Augustine, Fla. (July 22, 2010) – The 2011 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Monday, May 9, 2011, at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla. That Monday marks the first day of THE PLAYERS Championship week.
“The Induction Ceremony continues to be an incredibly important event for golf each year as we take the opportunity to recognize the sport’s greatest achievers,” said Tim Finchem, PGA TOUR commissioner and World Golf Foundation board member. “Moving the Ceremony to the spring will heighten the event’s exposure in a variety of ways and will add a new level of excitement to THE PLAYERS for fans, media, sponsors and past and current players.”
“Staging the annual Induction Ceremony in the heart of the golf season, just before one of golf’s most thrilling events, is a great opportunity for the Hall of Fame,” said its COO Jack Peter. “The spring date is sure to give fans around the world an even better opportunity to witness the celebration.”
Class of 2011 PGA TOUR and International ballots have been mailed to the respective voting bodies and the voting results will be announced later in 2010.
Okay the Open coverage will be winding down, but another question that's been on my mind involves the topic of course setup.
In my piece for Golf World summing up the Old Course's week, I get into the unnecessary rough throughout the course that eliminates key areas needed to attack certain hole locations. It appears to be a product of three things:
-Someone intentionally narrowing the place down
-Overall overwatering, leading to overspray unintentionally hitting native roughs
-Subtle mowing pattern changes over time
Because of space considerations, I also just mention but not detail the combination of some really edgy hole locations with redundancy of placements over the four days on some holes. The R&A theory on keeping holes bunched in small areas is due to the double greens and the desire to keep players moving. However, even with this situation carried out as planned, players still wait for their peers on the neighboring green.
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The 7th (left) and (11th). Imagine swapping the hole locations one day to give players a fresh look? (Click to enlarge)So with that in mind, I'm wondering if the R&A is really getting the most out of the Old Course with their setup? This year things were not helped by a consistent wind direction over four days, but why not throw so major twists into the setup? Say, play the seventh hole to the eleventh green area and move eleven down nearer the seventh (this would require moving the scoreboard).
Or perhaps play the second hole to the sixteenth green one day and the sixteenth to the second? In other words, maximize the looks that players get over four days? After all, if there's any place you should be doing varied day-to-day setup, isn't the Old Course the one?
I did see one stellar mixing up move, when the 5th was played up front all three days, usually 12 to 15 paces from the front. Sunday, the hole was cut 85 paces deep into the green!
So should the R&A do more of that or would players and media howl when they fail to use the "traditional" hole locations?
Darren Carroll's Gigapan shot of the Home hole is up and while it's spectacular, I can't help but wonder how fun it would be to put one of these cameras up on a crane and shoot down on the Old Course's key holes so that we could zoom in and study the features.
Golf.com offers an alternative in the form of time-elapsed video. As great as it is, I think it'd be more fun to have one of these in the media lunch room to watch us scribes work the free buffet provided by the R&A (and it was quite good too).
It's a week after the Open contestants were arriving in St. Andrews, but it's fun to read Steve Elling's extensive account of first timer Jeff Overton's adventure to get there and his efforts to figure the place out.
The highlight of the day was when Overton walked along the gravel path and a rock wall situated down the right side of the 14th hole and blurted out, "Is this the Road Hole?"
Yep, he's truly an impressionable, wide-eyed first-timer. The most famous par-4 in the world, the Road Hole is actually the 17th. Before we arrive, some of the oddly named bunkers along the way were pointed out, like the Hell Bunker on the 14th and Principal's Nose, a cluster of three pot bunkers on the 16th.
After a T-11, sounds like Overton got to know the place pretty well. And the $20,000 in plane tickets was worth it!
Thanks to reader Chuck for this Graham Otway story on looper Zack Rasego saving his job in guiding his man to the Open Championship last week.
The pair had arrived in Scotland on the back of Oosthuizen missing three successive cuts, including the US Open at Pebble Beach.
Talks had even opened between Oosthuizen and Mike Kerr, the Durban-based caddie of Nick Dougherty, ahead of this week's Scandinavian Masters in Stockholm.
Take Zach! Rasego pockets a cool £85,000
But after helping Oosthuizen to his stunning success by seven strokes, Rasego, from Soweto, will keep his job having earned a win bonus of £85,000 - 10 per cent of the champion's prize.
Tim Campbell reports that the USGA may be preparing to do some testing with the rolled-back balls submitted for testing by manufacturers in an unofficial Canadian Tour gathering. It'll be a rigorous amount of data to collect, but I'm sure over one round they'll get the answer: everything is A-okay!
Asked about an unofficial upcoming dialed-back ball day, Tour deputy director Dan Halldorson threw up his hand like a stop sign last week during the Players Cup at Pine Ridge. He said he couldn't speak about it.
What we do know is that the Tour, after one of its events next month, is going to have a couple dozen of its players come back on a Monday for some research.
They'll play in what could be termed a one-day tournament. It might be better termed a lab experiment, and they'll all play with the same kind of golf ball -- one of these less-zippy models.
Word is these "prototype" balls will be anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent shorter, with the 20 per cent figure applying only to the hardest-hit and longest shots from the driver.
The group of pros will include Wininpeg's Adam Speirs. They will have just played a 72-hole tournament and will have assembled a good diary of information about distances and clubs hit.
But just one round with the rolled back ball? Really?
And a few more scenes from the town and Home of Golf. I hope you enjoy them. I sure enjoyed being there.
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After all the will he or won't he talk, Monty didn't include Jose Maria Olazabal in his assistant captain's club but does have Darren Clarke on board, even though Clarke could be a candidate for the team if he continues his excellent play.
Either way, they are the reddest group I've ever seen.
Neither was there a place for Jose Maria Olazabal, the single vice-captain to Sir Nick Faldo during the defeat two years ago at Valhalla, Kentucky and the likely European captain for the 2012 match at Medinah, Illinois. The Spaniard suffers from a rheumatic ailment and as a result his schedule has been limited this year.
That does not fit with captain Montgomerie’s policy of appointing current players who play week-in, week-out and are known well to the ones likely to make the team that will be finalised on August 29 at the end of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
A display at the British Golf Museum, just across from the Royal and Ancient clubhouse. A must visit next time you are at St. Andrews.
This is what you call a lifelike exhibit.
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Put me for every five years. After seeing that it lives up to the perfect place for a tournament, more often would be great. But I understand the need to move it around.
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Friday, July 23, 2010 at 01:04 PM