Merion Day 2

The scores in round 2 at Merion were through the roof, so the USGAers must be happy. They put those flat bellies in their place. Except James Lepp. 

Ken Klavon has notes from round two of the U.S. Amateur. No pace of play report today.

Mr. Sand Man

Now posted is my Golfdom feature story on Jeff Bradley, Coore and Crenshaw's bunker guru.

Bridging The Divide Between Panelists and a Ranking

JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA--Armed with call waiting for over a year now, the task of fending off public relations gurus has been made easier. 

But then I realized what I was missing: an all-expense paid trip to visit South Korea's The Club at Nine Bridges.

After turning down two offers (one in person, one when I picked the phone up by accident), I decided to say yes because if nothing else, I've always wanted to see Jeju Island in the summer monsoon season. So here I am, blogging to you live from Jeju, safely off the coast of South Korea and well out of reach of projectiles controlled by Kim Jong iI (well, I'm not really here and they're not really out of Jong il's reach).

Making the 21-hour flight just a bit longer was news I read in the September Golf Magazine (not linkable yet). While trying to set my new speed record for fastest ever flip-through of a Golf Magazine instruction section, I stopped to read that The Club at Nine Bridges cracked the latest installment of the once credible Golf Magazine "Top 100 Courses in the World."

Nine Bridges's 95th spot in the World 2005 ranking comes after a relentless PR firm based in Los Angeles spent years suggesting to writers and panelists that they should come visit this Ron Fream masterpiece. Imagine the coincidence! And you'd think one of the panelists was the former founder of a well known club company who served as the honorary chair of an event at Nine Bridges, all the while asking other panelists to visit. Or some such thing!

But you see, anyone who has played masterworks like Carmel Mountain Ranch or Desert Falls knows that Fream is a misunderstood genius. And in the case of Nine Bridges, it takes a special talent to create something out of just $100 million. (Though I bet Fream had much less than $100 million to work with since some of the money had to pay for panelists and writers to visit the course! People, come on, priorities!) 

The piece de resistance came when reading in the magazine that none other than Chi Chi Rodriguez--keen observer of all things cultural--described Nine Bridges as the Taj Mahal of golf.

Now that says it all, don't you think?

Round One at Merion

They'll be jumping for joy in Merionland...scores were astronomically high on the East Course so it must be Open worthy! I'm afraid to think what they resorted to in order to produce such high scores.

Ken Klavon at USGA.org has the gory details, including the 5-hour-plus-pace of play.

Tiger is Back

SI's Gary Van Sickle, who has often questioned Tiger's swing changes, says Tiger has his "mojo back" because he has regained his distance advantage.

The worse news, at least for his competition, is that he's swinging his driver the best of his career, in his own opinion. And he's hitting it longer than a Pauley Shore movie. At Firestone last week, the tour's ShotLink stats show that Woods blasted 41 of 54 tee shots more than 300 yards. Granted, almost half of the driving holes are downhill -- the steep 16th, for instance, yielded a dizzying batch of 400-yard plus drives. Also, Woods didn't use driver on probably nine of the holes. He averaged 317.2 yards off the tee on all of the holes. Take those non-driver tee shots out of the equation and you've got a scary number -- I don't have a calculator handy but trust me, it's huge. He smashed 24 drives in excess of 330, 14 more than 350 and seven beyond 370.

Meanwhile Ron Sirak joins the chorus saying that Tiger's return to Orlando on PGA Sunday was a monumental blunder and rather un-Tiger-like. Jim Nantz and Lanny Wadkins also discussed the issue during Sunday's World Championship telecast, with Nantz summing it up as "bizarre."

What A Difference A Week Makes...

The updated PGA Tour driving distance stats showed another week of gains, with the entire Tour picking up a yard on average. Now, Firestone was firm and Reno was played well above sea level, skewing the numbers just as the soft conditions during the first half of the season impacted the averages. (The early season decline didn't stop many from pointing the 7-yard dip as a sign that the USGA had control of the equipment).

This week's jump, based on just 8 drives:

• Tiger went from 313. 8 yards to 315.2 (he finished last year at 301.9)
• Kenny Perry went from 302.8 to 304.1
• John Daly (looking svelte these days) went from 307.0 to 308.5
• Sergio Garcia went from 300.4 to 301.9
• Davis Love from 302.3 to 304.3 (but he can't hit a 1-iron from 238!?)
  

But the 2005 average has now just barely surpassed the 2004 average. Without deluges during the first half of the season, might we have seen a year-long distance increase significant enough to fall under the definition of the USGA/R&A Joint Statement of Principles?

Now to the Joint Statement, which was issued May 1, 2002. Here's the key line:

The R&A and the USGA believe, however, that any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Whether these increases in distance emanate from advancing equipment technology, greater athleticism of players, improved player coaching, golf course conditioning or a combination of these or other factors, they will have the impact of seriously reducing the challenge of the game. The consequential lengthening or toughening of courses would be costly or impossible and would have a negative effect on increasingly important environmental and ecological issues. Pace of play would be slowed and playing costs would increase.

The median PGA Tour drive has increased nearly 7 yards since 2002.  Several players have gradually picked up substantial yardage (Sergio: 278.3 in 2000, 290.5 in 2002, 301.9 in 2005) while others have made the big jump this year (Davis Love 288.7 in 2000, 287.7 in 2002, 304.3 in 2005).

So ultimately for the USGA, R&A and PGA Tour, it all depends on what the significance of "significant" is.

Flogging at Firestone?

Fairways have been narrowed so much at Firestone that it's hard to even tell when the players are flogging! Because maybe they really aren't flogging it down there when the landing area is firm, 25 yards wide and sloped.

Firestone's bowling alleys for the NEC World Championship event seemed to negate the need to worry about staying in the short grass.

Note to setup people:can't have firm fairways that are only 25 yards wide. It's goofy. You get train wreck golf like we saw Sunday. Either widen them out and firm them up, or soften them if you want to have stupid looking slivers for landing areas.

The highlight was Tiger bombing it into the trees right on 18 and after the shot, looking perfectly content with his position. (While Steve Williams rudely yammered away in his ear as Kenny Perry was about to take his tee shot back. Steve sure is chatty these days!)

Tiger didn't look the least bit concerned that he was in the trees. Because after all, he was so close to the green and would surely have enough of an opening to advance it on.

Remember the old days when he wowed us by hitting 8s and 9s into 18! What was that, 3 years ago? I look forward to watching in try to drive it in the 2007 Bridgestone World Golf Championship.

Of the Top 12 finishers (each securing a T9), only one averaged under 300 yards for the week (David Toms at 297). Only four of those top 12 players hit over 60% of their fairways, with Tiger finishing last among the top finishers, hitting 50% of his fairways.

Again, it appeared that the player who actually worried about hitting fairways would need to be carted away in a straitjacket by Sunday. Over four days, it just seems pointless to waste so much energy on tee shot accuracy when the fairways are so difficult to hit.

Tiger was asked afterwards about his flogging, which he oddly denied this week to tout his driving accuracy.

Q. Can I follow up briefly and just ask you, DiMarco was in here talking about the style of play that's being played out there now and it's so much of a power game. I know you're trying to hit the fairway. Do you worry less about hitting the fairway because of how far you hit it?

TIGER WOODS: You know, I have so much more confidence now in my driving ability than I ever have in my career. I pull out driver on every hole because I know I can put the ball in the fairway. I've never had that ability before. If you look at my days when I had some good years there, I was always hitting 2 irons off the tee and 3 woods and trying to get the ball in play. Now I know I can drive the ball. Look at how well I drove it this week. I hit some bad shots, yes, but they're not like they used to be. As far as I'm hitting it and as many fairways as I'm hitting and as many balls that end up in the fairway and roll through, that was never the case before. I've never had so much confidence to be able to pull out driver. I did it at Baltusrol, I did it here, and I've done it at major championships, and that's cool.

Q. But you don't worry about it if you miss fairways?

TIGER WOODS: Because I feel like I'm not. That's the big difference. That wasn't always the case.

Ah hah! He feels like he's not missing fairways. Here's what DiMarco said after the round.

Q. Tiger got in trouble half a dozen or eight times during this tournament. He just hit an amazing shot to get back in it. When you watch it do you applaud it or is it frustrating to watch?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know if it's frustrating to watch, but I mean, it's the same thing that happens that we've been talking about for weeks and weeks. If you miss fairways by 15 yards, you usually have a lie. If you miss the fairway by a yard, you're usually chipping out. If you look at the way everybody at the PGA last week played coming down the stretch, they were ripping it, hitting it as far as they could, hoping they could chop it on the green somehow and make birdie. That's not how we're used to playing majors. I am, but those guys aren't. I have to because I'm chipping out but then I'm hitting a 60 yard shot after that.

Commissioner, The One Thing We've Talked About...

...is the distance issue. Right? Naw. During the NEC's final round Art of the Monotone demonstration by Commissioner Tim Finchem, CBS's Jim Nantz appeared to be headed for a question about the most talked about issue in the game. What was I thinking?

JIM NANTZ: Commissioner, one thing we've talked about really on every one of our telecasts this year...is this remarkable Drive to a Billion. You can't shout it loud enough for the sports fan for it to maybe sink in.

Finchem went on to predict (admirably) that this was a product of the efforts of the individual tournaments, and that the Tour will reach the billion dollar mark this year (gosh, you think it'll be the Tour Championship?).  Nantz then asked if Finchem had any "special memories" of 2005 to this point.

TIM FINCHEM: We had such a great start with the media focus on the "Big 4." And three of those guys have won four times each. And of course Ernie is laid up now which is very sad for the President's Cup not to have Ernie [very nice plug]. But you know I think that there have been so many playoffs, so many tournaments coming to the last hole, that has been terrific this year. It's really helped keep viewers at home tuned into the telecasts.

And the other thing I think is more and more really good young athletic players are coming. These young guys are really something and there seems to be more and more of them every year. And they're good, attractive, positive thinking young men that I think will add a lot to what the PGA Tour is going to be about for the next 20 years.

The only time he broke from his monotone was to emphasize the first of three "young" mentions.

Narrowing the Old Course

In John Huggan's 2005 major review, he also asks...

In the absence of legislation on the ball, who can forget the sight of long grass surrounding many of the Old Course's bunkers this past summer?

Or the ridiculous sight of a St Andrews Open being played from tees not even within the confines of the host course?

To illustrate the absurdity of "fairway contours" on the Old Course, Tommy Naccarato took Alister MacKenzie's drawing of the 14th with its A-B-C-D strategic options, and updated it for today's setup.  The shaded area in grey highlights the 2005 Open fairway contour. Note the location of this year's off-property tee.

Original Drawing by Alister MacKenzie, Update by Tommy Naccarato

2005 Majors In Review

John Huggan reflects on the 2005 majors and wonders if we're being cheated by not getting to see Tiger and friends playing certain shots, or playing courses as they were designed to be played.

Still, though it is difficult to take one's eyes off a charging Tiger, the nagging feeling persists that technological advances in the ball and clubs actually prevent him from showing us his full shot-making repertoire. Yes, he can win by blasting away from the tee and wedging onto the greens from basically anywhere, but imagine how great it would be to watch the best-ever shaping shots into more distant targets. That he may never be asked to do just that is a source of lasting regret.

Indeed, the lengths - pardon the pun - to which the four major-running bodies of Augusta National, United States Golf Association, Royal & Ancient and PGA of America are forced to go to in order to keep scores within an acceptable range are becoming laughable. Not only are the game's best courses being stretched to breaking point by ever-longer balls and clubs, but their original design values and strategic questions are being lost amid a flurry of heavy rough and increasingly silly pin positions.

Kostis: Shortsighted Criticism (Of His Bosses)

Golfonline's Peter Kostis defends his bosses at CBS and the PGA of America for the Sunday PGA tee-time boondoggle.

Everyone is going to roll the dice when you win nine times out of 10, and the PGA of America is no exception. That's why the stream of criticism directed at them and my employer, CBS Sports, is so shortsighted.

Hey, full disclosure. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

The writers who feel that money is not be a part of the equation should be reminded of stories they have written that were dropped from publications because there weren't enough advertising pages to compensate for the editorial pages.

Whew, what an analogy! The golf writers of the world will really $ee the light after that zinger!

But it's naïve to suggest that the PGA and CBS should forego their business plan because of an uncertain weather forecast. When you start aiming at a moving target like that, you end up on the wrong side of 90 percent.

Uncertain weather forecast? It was on everyone's mind Saturday night, and as Tom Mackin, Kostis's colleague at Golfonline reported (and I'll link it yet again), as early as Friday the PGA's on site forecasters were very worried about the possiblity of severe weather Sunday.

The PGA wants to be taken seriously as an organization and it has worked hard to ensure that its event  maintains or even improves its standing as a major. They put all of that on the line for a Nielson bump, a rerun of 60 Minutes and someone's "business plan."

If the PGA Championship's credibility is diminished, then the PGA and CBS lose a lot more than a few rating points. They eventually lose their major. Because a May Players Championship is going to look better and better if the PGA of America emphasizes greed over the good of the game.

Steve Williams Ball Incident**

I didn't pay much attention to the PGA episode with Steve Williams possibly stepping on Tiger's ball during Thursday's first round. But then Bob Verdi reported some Williams comments in the new Golf World that caught my eye. Wondering if it strikes you as red-flag worthy as well?

"Tiger's angry about this and so am I. He's under the microscope more than anybody. Me, I take great pride in my work. Kirsty [Williams' wife] is pregnant. She's going to have a boy. I'll be a father for the first time. You think I could live with it if I wasn't honest about this? Golf is a game of honor and respect. For anybody to question Tiger's and my integrity, that's not right."

Williams is referring to a report in the Newark Star Ledger where writer Kevin Manahan wrote:

In the scramble to find Woods' ball near a creek at the bottom of the fairway, Williams was the only person near the spot where he eventually found the ball, embedded in the ground. And, during the search, just before he found the ball, Williams was walking along the creek's bank when he made a step and quickly appeared to pull back his foot -- perhaps as if he had stepped on something. He then located the ball.

Notice in the comments to Verdi that Williams called on the dreaded wife+baby-on-the-way=honorable defense to shield him from questions about the episode. That's from page 1 of the modern day corporate crisis management model. Only Williams heaves Nikon's into lakes. He's not some gray suit-wearing CEO.

"And if I did step on it and Tiger had signed an incorrect scorecard, he'd have been disqualified. Does anybody think I would risk my reputation or Tiger's if there was even a doubt? Evidently, the paper here and The Golf Channel think so, because they had me guilty."

Thanks to reader Jeff for pointing out that Selena Roberts in the New York Times wrote about the episode in her Sunday, August 14 column (speed is not always the strength of this web site!):

As the uncivilized bouncer on the golf course, the churlish Steve Williams will hurl a fan's Nikon into a water hazard if its shutter clicks during the precious backswing of Tiger Woods.He would do anything to protect Woods, but would Williams give himself up? If Williams had been the culprit - and not a fan, cameraman or marshal, as he contended - Woods would have been penalized an additional stroke beyond the one he took for declaring the ball unplayable.

An added stroke, and the scorecard he signed would have been incorrect, meaning disqualification. An added stroke, and sponsors, TV executives and tournament officials would have headed home in a Buick carpool of tears. Williams didn't help prop up his version of the event by telling The Star-Ledger: "Even if I did step on it, it's not a penalty. Not in a hazard."

First problem, he was wrong about the rules. Any player whose caddie steps on his ball is guilty of a violation. But more important, the "even if" comment creates room for doubt as to whether it was Williams or horse-hoofed gremlins that stomped Woods's ball into the earth's core. Not even Woods believed the ball embedded itself, but he did not believe it was his caddie's fault.

Certainly, Williams should not be condemned without evidence, but the situation does illuminate how golf's integrity is founded on a guilty conscience. But what's worse, ratting out yourself as a golfer or penalizing your boss as his caddie?

Given Williams's impenetrable loyalty to Woods, it may not be too far-fetched to wonder if he was covering for himself to protect Tiger. That's what Williams does for a living. As if Tiger has never played on a municipal course next to a firehouse or alehouse, Williams demands absolute silence from galleries, photographers, blimps and, if given the chance, migrating geese overhead. He also acts as bodyguard, training partner and best friend. Williams is the intimidating caretaker of the PGA Tour's golden one. But did he make authorities blink?

Officials viewed the tape of the incident and found there was no evidence of any person stepping on the ball - they questioned everyone from marshals to spectators - but no one directly asked Williams if he was at fault. There was no inquisition because, as the P.G.A. Championship spokeswoman Rebecca Szmukler said: "It's an honor thing. It would be up to him to come forward." Honor is at the heart of golf - no matter how insignificant the whiff, lie or scorecard error seems.

**Reader George questioned the articles above (and my posting them a week after the fact...fair point). He suggested that  Tiger's remarks needed to be included in this tale since they do tell a different story. I agree:

Q. Did you think there was any possibility that Stevie might have stepped on the ball yesterday?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I saw the videotape just like all you guys saw, and if you look at it, he walks three steps closer to actually point out the golf ball, so he wasn't even near it. It's just one of those things where unfortunately the ball was embedded in there somehow. We don't know whether it was a marshal who did it five minutes ago, prior to that, or it was some photographer, it was some marshal, it was some we don't know, that's the thing. We don't know.

Q. But you're certain it wasn't him?

TIGER WOODS: No, he wasn't walking in the hazard. He was walking out of the hazard and the ball was in the hazard.