Walker Cup Summary

The Walker Cup transcripts for the winning U.S. team. The Walker Cup summary. And none of it does justice to the event.

What fun to watch golf on such a classy old layout.

Just a shame it was up against the PGA (way to go USGA!). Congrats to the both teams for such great play and sportsmanship.  I'll never forget running in between rooms (TiVo people will understand) to watch the PGA and the Walker Cup unfolding!

**Update: Golfweek's Alistair Tait writes about the Walker Cup and recounts the key moments.

Haigh Press Conference

The art of the non-answer, by Kerry Haigh:

Q. This is for Kerry or Andy. Is it the situation that CBS dictates that the last pairing goes off at 3:00, and when you have a situation when you see that the weather is going to be poor, could that not be have been brought forward to 2:00 PM, or is it a stipulation that you must finish at 6:45 for television?

KERRY HAIGH: I think we had for about almost a year that we had agreed on the finish times, and published that in all of the schedules for everyone involved were set for 7:00. The forecast all week long has been for scattered storms and chance of storms and lightning. As we know, we've been very fortunate up until now with storms that could come at any time basically during the afternoon.

Q. Just as a follow up to that, I didn't hear a clear answer on that; is that dictated by television or does the PGA dictate that in terms of the final tee time for 3:00?

KERRY HAIGH: We certainly talked with CBS and I guess mutually agreed on what is an appropriate finish time.

Q. Did that conversation happen at a certain point today where you sat down and said, we have this forecast, and therefore we will make or not make this decision? Was that a meeting that happened today?

KERRY HAIGH: No. As I say, we agreed on the start times and we've looked at the weather basically throughout the week and kept the plan that has been all along.

Q. Truth be told, the weather forecast was far worse today than for any time of the week. There was just a chance of scattered showers early in the week and today every forecast I saw on The Weather Channel and locally were pretty certain it was going to happen.

KERRY HAIGH: The forecast was, I think, there was more of a chance of scattered showers but they were still scattered. If you look further to the south, they have had no activity at all, and we were within four or five miles of missing it ourselves. So I think the forecast was very accurate, that it was certainly very scattered. We were just unfortunate that it came too close and right on top of it.

Q. Let's see if he can drive this nail with a different hammer. You conduct a number of championships, some of which are not televised. If you were in like circumstance with a non televised championship, and you knew the details that you had today, would you err on the side of caution and adjust your time so that you didn't carry your championship over into the next day?

KERRY HAIGH: That's a good question. But no, I think we would have probably had we made all of our arrangements for a 7:00 finish and with all of the people and parties involved, we would have kept it the same.

Q. Not to belabor this anymore but Phil Mickelson was asked about this and he said he asked to have the tee times moved up. Is that accurate and were you part of that conversation? KERRY HAIGH: I'm not aware of that.

Q. Just to make sure we have this clear, there was no discussion today with CBS about moving the tee times up?

KERRY HAIGH: There was no discussion, no.

Q. Just to make sure we have this clear, there was no discussion today with CBS about moving the tee times up?

KERRY HAIGH: There was no discussion, no.

Q. Just on going back to this again, just so I know, who ultimately has the authority to change the tee time? Is it you or is it CBS?

KERRY HAIGH: The PGA of America.

For What It's Worth...

...During the Golf Channel's 30 minute show between Sunday's TNT and CBS coverage, Rich Lerner of The Golf Channel asked the PGA's Roger Warren about moving PGA Championship tee times up an hour to ensure the round was finished.

Warren claimed that the forecast was too sketchy to make such a concrete move. But it's hard not to imagine that had they teed off earlier, the round might have finished before the weather arrived. CBS would have come on the air with the last group teeing off, and at the worst, finished a little early.

So just remember, there are several hundred very bitter writers sitting in a New Jersey tent, armed with laptops, ready to pounce. A Monday finish fiasco has been long overdue at golf's majors, because giving the networks a strong prime time lead in has taken a priority to finishing rounds at a reasonable hour.

And as I type, Phil Mickelson is being asked by a scribbler and he's choosing his words very carefully, pointing out that they finished in the dark yesterday and that alone should have been reason to move the times up a bit.

Sunday PGA Reads

Sure looked like a lovely day at Baltusrol! It was stuffy here in the Home of the Homeless. I actually had to turn on the ceiling fan this afternoon. Still didn't help me ward off the nap. So what exactly did Phil do on 15?

Anyway, GolfDigest.com's Brian Wacker leads with weather talk and has other notes in his "postcard" from the PGA.   Gary Van Sickle at SI handicaps the finish and says Baltusrol is the big winner this week.

Golfonline's Tom Mackin catches up with Billy Farrell, son of longtime Baltusrol head pro who was making a rare visit to the club. He also writes about the Wolffe brothers, Rick and Stuart, who produced the Tillinghast books along with Bob Trebus.

AP has several notes on the event, including the story behind John Daly's move to a wedge and the cell phone ban. Damon Hack writes about Tiger's missed opportunity 66.

And here's a weather by the hour forecast site, one of many that the assembled inkslingers will be watching anxiously tomorrow. Nice forecast. If you were playing here in LA or in the Pacific Northwest...ah, I won't go there.

Walker Cup Sunday

Here's the AP story on the U.S. and its 1-point lead in the Walker Cup. And the official site also has news, notes and Sunday times.

I hate to be picky, but if you are going to go to the trouble to send four NBC announcers and a large crew to Chicago, maybe we can get more than 90 minutes of golf coverage? Especially when you're scheduled for two hours!?

Some helicopter flyovers would be nice too. Nonetheless, the course looks neat.

Oh, and according to someone on site, Fred Ridley talked about C.B. Macdonald's design during the opening ceremony. Again, not to be picky, but the course they are playing this week is Raynor redesign of Macdonald's. 

Tiger on Saturday

Thankfully, someone asked the question a lot of us were probably wondering about: for the second day in a row Tiger tried (unsuccessfully) to hit an easy 3-wood into 17, with dreadful results.

Q. What was your yardage on 17? What's the difference between 3 wood or 2 iron?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's 274 and I can't carry 2 iron 274 downwind uphill. If it was flat, I'd probably hit 2 iron but since it's uphill, I can't. So I have to hit some kind of choke up cut 3 wood to the front. It was 274 to the front, or 290 to the hole, stays downwind, as hot as it is, the ball is flying forever. I tried to start the ball to the left trees, cut them, hit some kind of banana ball and I actually pulled it.

Q. Given that set of conditions, any thought to laying up and giving yourself...

TIGER WOODS: Why? No. (Laughter).

Q. You're a good wedge player.

TIGER WOODS: No. I needed 3.

Hmmm...4 would've worked too.

He also confirms hitting 17 iron into 18 for the second day in a row.

Speaking of the finishing hole, I think it played about as easy as a par-5 ever has in a major:

18     4.4177     Eagles: 11     Birdies: 124     Pars: 94     Bogies: 8     Others: 0

Crane On the Clock

The Atlanta Journal-Constitutions Glenn Sheeley looks at the slow play issue. Ben Crane says the rumors that he reads the Bible scriptures stuffed into his yardage book are are "absurd." But Friday at Baltusrol, Crane put on this absurd display:

• Time to hit tee shot.. 52 seconds
• Time to hit approach........ 1:34
• Time to hit first putt...... 1:18

And John Daly, same hole, same day:

• John Daly Tee shot.............. 19 seconds
• Approach shot..........12 seconds
• First putt............ 16 seconds
  
  

The Newfangled Bubba

It's a miracle that Steve Elling's Saturday lead made it by the Orlando Sentinel editor determined to "protect their readers":

Eat my dust, y'all.

The newfangled Bubba of the 87th PGA Championship, Phil Mickelson, again showed up Friday sporting the new lid he trotted out for the first time this week, a trucker-style cap with a mesh back. The way its mojo is working, if Mickelson can bum a dip of chaw from David Duval or a Marlboro from John Daly, find some flip-flops with spikes and cut the sleeves off his shirt, he might just collect his second major championship.

This being New Jersey, it won't be hard to find a rusted-out Trans Am with a Dale Jr. bumper sticker, either. How long does it take to grow a mullet or get a name embossed on a leather belt?

Saturday PGA Notes

I was about to point out what a great job TNT was doing until the quadruple commercial break stretch as Tiger was playing 18 in round 2.  At least the announcing was sharp, restrained and insightful...though there was Bobby Clampett's 62 prediction for Tiger's Saturday round.  It was a long, hot day.

Speaking of the heat, it was 74 today here in the Home of the Homeless. FYI, my hometown borders two-time PGA site Riviera. Not as nice as 95 and humid New Jersey or Tulsa, the PGA site in 2007.

GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker files a postcard with some fun anecdotes. Cameron Morfit files a notes column for Golfonline.   Tom Mackin writes about Joe Damiano, Jersey guy and Stuart Appleby’s caddie.

Tiger is asked about the bad break on 17 and the 7-iron into 18. He ends it with a funny one-liner.

An Irish Examiner story story on Darren Clarke not playing in the Seve Cup, with denials that he is avoiding Captain Monty. John Huggan writes about Sean O'Hair for The Guardian.  And SI's Chris Lewis makes his case for the PGA as the best.

The course played much easier during round 2 (70.53). Here’s the PGA's only course stats page but by the time you look at this they’ll probably have round 3 in place (the PGA web site doesn't break down stats by round. Other stats seem to be unavailable.

Finally, Mike Penner writes in the LA Times that Comcast’s Outdoor Life Network is making a strong bid for the NHL. What does this have to do with golf? The up-and-coming network is apparently looking to raise its profile. Perhaps golf will be next on its list?

Just Another Golf Course!?

Walker Cup Great Britain/Ireland's Gary Wolstenholme:

Q. Can you tell us your impressions of Chicago Golf and the way you play?

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: I would say that the way things are going nowadays, we've got players that are competing in the states and colleges on a regular basis, plus the rest of us all competed abroad on a regular basis as well. So, this is just another golf course. As far as the way that it plays, the fairways are very soft. Obviously, I'm not sure that's probably the way it was initially intended. I think they would have liked to have a bit of run on fairways to create more of a test in that respect. We're used to playing virtually every type of golf course there is to play. This is just the way it's playing at the moment. It's pretty much drop and stop.

Best of Barkley**

Courtesy of TNT, the best of Charles Barkley. (Minus the "uh, oh, don't zoom in" comment after Woods hit his waterball on the 4th):

Barkley on close friend Tiger Woods and the extremely hot weather during the tournament: "It must be hot out there because Tiger is in great shape and he is sweating. When skinny people sweat, you know it's hot. I sent him a text (message) today to wish him good luck but I guess it didn't work"

Barkley on who is in better shape between he and Woods: "Well he has a six pack and I have a keg...and I would never want to have just six beers."

Barkley on the physical strain that golfing takes on his body: "I came to the realization a couple months ago that I am fat. If you get tired from walking - and that's all that golf is - then you are officially fat."

Barkley on his recent performance at the American Century Celebrity Championship , in which he finished directly behind Cheryl Ladd and Chris Webber: "It's embarrassing. If you are a man and you can't beat girls or the smart kids, you shouldn't be playing...I'm retiring from golf. I'm not going to play again."

**Update: Damon Hack's Saturday notes column in the New York Times looks at Barkley, and quotes him saying that if Phil Mickelson worked out like Tiger or Vijay, he'd be much better.

Walker Cup Is Here

The Chicago Tribune's Joel Boyd wonders if college coaches, by recruiting so many foreign players, have hurt the the U.S. in Walker Cup play: "It's no coincidence that at the same time U.S. colleges started to recruit top foreign amateurs en masse, the tables turned in the Walker Cup."

Or maybe foreign players are more complete because they haven't grown up playing only the American way?

Ben Voelker has posted some great Chicago Golf Club photos on Golf Club Atlas as the Raynor-Macdonald course is set up for the Walker Cup.  And here's a March Golfdom story by editor Larry Aylward on Jon Jennings, Chicago's superintendent and one of the true class-acts in golf.

This will take you to the Golf Channel Walker Cup page.  TV Times: Saturday 8/13 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET TGC, Sunday 8/14 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET TGC.