"That’s a rare combination at Camp Ponte Vedra Beach."

The scribblers are practically jubiliant at the naming of Andy Pazder to replace Rick George at PGA Tour headquarters. He has been quoted giving straightforward answers to tricky questions, which does make the hiring a shock!

Rex Hoggard writes:

But Friday’s announcement that George was being replaced as executive vice president and chief of operations by Pazder was a triumph of reason.

Pazder, 44, has served the past three years as senior vice president of tournament administration and is largely lauded by players and the media for being forthright and accessible. That’s a rare combination at Camp Ponte Vedra Beach.

"There's no way Jack Nicklaus designed these greens. They are mental."

Thanks to The Constructivist over at Mostly Harmless for catching these comments from Laura Davies on Grand Cypress, home to this week's LPGA Tour Championship. I would have caught these were it not the fourth most interesting event this week!

Q. Tell us about the course. It's pretty challenging. What do you think of it?

LAURA DAVIES: This one? It's my favorite course in Florida. We played here years ago in the late 90s and 2000. It's always been my favorite course in Florida. I like the grass here. It's better. It's not so--the weird grass that Florida has. I don't know the difference between them but it's much spongier and I like it. The layout is fantastic, but the grass is good, too. I don't know what they did with the greens. Someone went mental on the greens. I don't know what happened there. Someone said Jack Nicklaus did it, but I don't believe that. Someone said Jack changed it; well, he must have been having a very bad day. (Laughter).

Q. Someone said that he had to oversee it for it to remain a Nicklaus design.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, he might have been in a helicopter above (laughter) or flown over and said "that will do" or something. There's no way Jack Nicklaus designed these greens. They are mental.

Clearly Laura needs to get out to Sherwood to see some of Jack's finest greens. She'd retract those comments in a heartbeat!

"He was the most courteous crash pilot: He managed to avoid the green altogether."

Richard Brooks with the story of a particularly thoughtful pilot who successfully avoided a green at Cresta Verde.

Barely an hour after he crawled out of a damaged plane on a Corona golf course, pilot Richard Hammerschlag said his otherwise safe emergency landing fell victim to a hidden sand trap.

"I was trying to avoid the green," the 63-year-old Costa Mesa resident recalled. "But I couldn't see the trap coming up (as I rolled) up an incline. It snuck up on me."

And this from a grateful GM:

"He was the most courteous crash pilot: He managed to avoid the green altogether," said General Manager Mike Kim. "We sustained a little damage to the sand trap, but nothing that can't be repaired."

Why The Outrage Over Tiger Possibly Retaking Top Ranking?

Even before his opening round 65 at the Chevron World Challenge, there was quite a bit of Twitter outrage at the possibility Tiger could win his event and retake the top spot in the official world golf ranking. And I don't understand it.

There have been plenty of posts about the silliness of an 18-player silly season event counting in the world ranking chase. Yet how it impacts the top spot is essentially meaningless compared to the impact on who gets in the following year's events. As has been well documented this week, Graeme McDowell benefited from Tiger's accident last year by getting in the Chevron and finishing second, which earned him valuable points and a spot in the U.S. Open. More power to McDowell for taking advantage of the situation.

It seems the outrage over Tiger reclaiming the top spot should instead be directed at a system that lets him go winless over a season and still be in position to reclaim the No. 1 ranking.

Today's Twitter Tiff...Capitalism Edition

I'll just put them in order and let you decide the victor!

2011 PGA Tour Schedule Announced In Time For 2011 Season

Helen Ross analyzes the changes to the schedule, most notably the return of FedEx to the Memphis week and a week off between the second and third playoff events, eliminating the quick turnaround from Deutsche Bank to the BMW that made the latter event's Wednesday pro-am more painful than normal.

“If we get all of us working together rather than battling each other, it’s going to help a lot."

Jim Achenbach reports that PING CEO John Solheim is "positively effervescent" after the U.S.G.A. and the R&A met with golf equipment manufacturers in Vancouver to talk about how they can all get along better.

“I thought it was exceptional,” Solheim said Wednesday. “I couldn’t believe how well it went. The openness was really good – on both sides. In fact, in all the times we’ve met with the USGA and R&A, I’ve never seen this kind of openness. It was remarkable.”

As one scribe remarked today when I told him of PING's jubilation, it's about as comforting as learning that an oil company is praising a new piece of environmental legislation.

E. Michael Johnson wrote this summary of what the entities tried to cover and it's quite a long list. Naturally, this gave me a warm chuckle:

Another common thread was that one of the goals for any equipment rule change should be to grow the game of golf, and that if a rule change is counter-productive to that, then it should not be implemented.

Code for, a distance rollback would drive people from the game and right now it's so healthy, we can't have something like that!

"‪THE MOST AMAZING GOLFER THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN.‬"

I have to say, as far as viral videos and backdoor ads go, this is a fun one.

Thanks to reader Greg for passing this plug for a tasty sounding drink that also happens to be a mini-documentary on Moe Norman.



"It made a significant difference in my mind."

Interesting comments today at the Chevron World Challenge from Jim Furyk on the impact of grooves in 2010, particularly his view on the stats.

Q. We've had a full season now to see the new grooves in effect. What's your take on how it impacted play this year?

JIM FURYK: I think a lot of the stats have been misleading like the scoring average and the different things. I think the golf courses were set up -- because I think the golf courses were set up much differently this year. As a whole I think we saw a lot less rough in our setups, and I think we saw a lot less of that four- and five-inch rough and a lot more of the two- and three-.

So scoring averages probably stayed very similar, but I think it's misleading. I think what they were trying to do was provide lies so that you could get to the ball and advance it but because of the groove issue you'd have a hard time controlling the golf ball. I thought the TOUR did a pretty good job overall. There's events you can pick and choose where you wish the rough were higher, lower, but in the whole course of the season, the setups were changed.

But I think the groove issue made a pretty significant change. I would say -- I actually like the new groove probably more from about 160 yards out because I can move the ball so much farther now with a flier than I could before. I had lost my ability to hit the ball 190 or 200 yards because with the square groove the ball just wouldn't come out jumping and I couldn't get say a 5-iron on the ball anymore, and I can't hit a 6- or 7-iron that far. Now I get out from 200 yards with a 6- or 7-iron and make it jump, play it a little bit back, hit a shot I know will jump. It might not fly there, but I can run the ball up on greens.

I probably -- I think there's been a couple players that have done it, played kind of V-grooves from like a 6-iron up and square grooves from a 7-iron down. They were a little smarter than I was. But I probably like that groove from longer distances. But geez, from pitching wedge distance and in, 9-iron distance and in, it's a big, big difference, and you're nervous about catching that flier and knocking it over greens.

If you think about it, most of the trouble on golf courses, if you hit the ball five yards short of the green, you can usually play. Green is tilted towards you, you usually have an opportunity to get the ball up-and-down, but you start knocking the ball five and ten yards over the greens, it gets very difficult to get the ball up-and-down, and it's what we're all afraid of.

But it made a significant difference in my mind. But I don't think stats prove that. But I think the players would tell you. 

The Lakes Before And After, 9th Hole

Another before-after comparison of the transformation at Australian Open host The Lakes.

"But if IMG wants Woods for a third straight year it appears the company will have to pay the bill itself, which is possible since he is its biggest client."

Martin Blake reports that Premier-elect Ted Baillieu says the government will not fund another Tiger Woods visit to the Australian Masters.

But IMG, the Masters owner and promoter, is desperate to have Woods playing in its tournament, ideally the week before the Presidents Cup, which will bring many of the world's best players to Melbourne.

But if IMG wants Woods for a third straight year it appears the company will have to pay the bill itself, which is possible since he is its biggest client.

Now how does that work?

"What I love about golf -- what I think we all love about it -- is the challenge."

ESPN The Magazine is out with its "Perfection Issue," adorned on the cover by Tiger Woods. And if his essay is any indication, it's a real barn burner.

What I love about golf -- what I think we all love about it -- is the challenge. The game is not a game of perfection, it's a game of misses. I guess you could say it's a perfect game played by imperfect people. But that's the beauty and the art of playing this game.

Someone once asked me to describe golf perfection.

Actually, ESPN The Magazine did.

I don't think it exists. And if it does, I wouldn't know it. In 1997, I shot 59 at Isleworth. There was a nine-hole stretch where I was 10-under par. That's probably the closest I've ever come to perfection on a scorecard. Where I was looking is where I was hitting it. When I putted, the cup looked like the size of a paint bucket.

Amazingly, this was "told to" Gene Wojciechowski, whose lively style could turn the most dreary family holiday letter into a must read. But even Genno couldn't save this one.