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
To get some idea of the transformation of The Lakes, home to this week's Australian Open, here is a before-after shot of the 8th hole courtesy of architect Mike Clayton and his firm.
I always feel a little dirty peering in on Q-school scores. But now that it's no longer a largely private affair with Golf Channel starting coverage Saturday during round four, there's some stellar online coverage to correspond with a slew of fascinating storylines this week. You can spot several of them on the leaderboard, either in the form of big name former tour players or intriguing names such as Erik Compton, Ty Tryon and Brett Waldman.
Sean Martin looks at the dynamics of increased media exposure at the finals.
Increased media attention is just another challenge for today’s Q-School participant. Say a player is on pace to earn his PGA Tour card after two good rounds. The last thing he wants to think about, especially with 72 holes remaining, is what a PGA Tour card would mean to his career.
“It’s hard to answer those questions,” said Patrick Sheehan, a six-time finals participant. “Guys are going to answer them the way everybody answers them. They’re going to throw out every cliche in the book, ‘one shot at a time,’ all that other stuff. It’s hard to answer those questions truthfully, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be really nervous.’
“I don’t think you ever get the true thought process of a player in certain situations.”
Martin also files a list of eleven players to watch.
Randall Mell updates us on the challenge facing two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton and his uneventful weekend hanging Christmas lights prior to the finals.
With Compton hanging lights, a neighbor just a few houses down surprised intruders in a robbery attempt. The neighbor chased the getaway car past Compton’s home.
“The guy in the getaway car must have been going 60 mph down our street,” Compton said. “He was screeching his tires and skidding around the turn by our house. I thought he was going to crash into my yard.”
A few minutes later, police cars were swarming the neighborhood. Police told Compton another suspect on foot was loose in the neighborhood. They sent him indoors.
“I don’t think they caught the guy,” Compton said.
Steve Elling on Lieutenant Billy Hurley's Q-school quest.
Fairly fresh off the deck of a Navy destroyer after concluding tours in global hot zones near China, Korea and the Persian Gulf, Hurley this week finally finds himself in the warmest possible locale as it relates to his new profession.
From Pearl Harbor to the Persian Gulf and possibly to the PGA Tour, Hurley is adrift among 165 others trying to secure a card at six rounds of corporal punishment called Qualifying School Finals.
In the Navy, a fathom is a measure of depth and distance. Perfect, since Hurley's career track is largely unfathomable for most guys to digest. After graduating from the Naval Academy in mid-'09 after finally fulfilling his five-year hitch, Hurley has fired up the twin screws on his career. As a famous guy once said, damn the torpedoes and all that.
"Now he is making up for lost time," his caddie, Steve Hulka, said.
Adam Schupak talks to Adrian Stills, the last African-American to earn a card at Q-school.
Helen Ross on Billy Mayfair making a return after 22 years.
John Maginnes on the odd pressures and dynamics of Q-school, and the appearance of two-time U.S. Open Champion Lee Janzen.
Craig Dolch on two-time tour event winner Will MacKenzie returning.
Geoff
**Stephanie Wei on the calm before the Q-school storm.
Nice spot by John Strege posting an aerial shot of Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano putting a golf course under partial siege from its volcanic ash.
Brad Klein files a story and rater's notebook on yet another Long Island gem, St. George's Golf And Country Club. It surely gets overlooked because it's only 6,232 yards, and that's why golf's in the toilet.
At 6,232 yards, this par-71 layout (70.8 rating/130 slope) is not long or severe. But it is fun, and it does demand ball control. And what a relief to see only three sets of tee markers on each hole. Surely, the proliferation of tees in the name of liberal social values is among the most regrettable in all of golf design.
Some of you considering a new HDTV with 3D capabilities will be glad to know you can see the Sony Open in a stand alone 3D telecast this year, though I found one Sony claim a bit dubious.
The upcoming tournament will be the first PGA Tour co-sponsored event televised live in 3-D, said company and tour officials who have been testing the technology at several events this year. The Masters was aired in 3-D.
"We have seen what high-definition does for golf telecasts, and 3-D is the logical next step to enhancing our broadcasts and providing fans with the ultimate viewing experience, particularly in such a beautiful setting as Hawaii," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement.
Sony estimated 83 million households in the U.S. have 3-D-compatible TV sets.
Really?
Anyone who has 3D interested in commenting on their experience with it, particularly for golf telecasts?
I miss the old days when Tiger's year end press conference from the Sherwood cart barn featured longer, carefully worded but sometimes interesting answers to scribbler and local television reporter questions. Now fresh off a spontaneous Twitter Q&A session Tiger faced seemingly the same question nearly every time and he responded (appropriately?) in Tweet form several times.
Still, there were moments.
Q. As a follow-up to the brand question, you said it's up to a sponsor whether or not they think you can help the brand. Do you think you can help a brand in the current state of your golf game and in your personal life? What are your thoughts on that? And I have a follow-up if I could.
TIGER WOODS: Yes. Go ahead.
That was funny. Okay, you had to be there.
Q. And the second question on schedule, as the year comes along there's been some reports or suggestion that Tim Finchem has spoken to you about your schedule and possibly playing more events, playing different events than usual. Has he, and your thoughts on that, and what is the most important thing that will determine your schedule this year?
TIGER WOODS: Has he? Yes, he has. He's done that every year since he's been a commissioner. So that subject hasn't changed. That's on more than one occasion per year every year that I've been out here that he's been commissioner, yeah.
Q. Are you thinking about changing, adding things?
TIGER WOODS: Well, we'll see what the schedule holds. There are a lot of things that we're trying to adapt to, our new living conditions. That's most important. We're trying to figure all that out, and then obviously I still want to play golf at a high level and win golf tournaments. But it's about getting a balance and trying to find what the right balance is going forward is the key.
So the answer is no, he won't be adding any events.
Q. From the time you returned at The Masters, how soon did you realize you had to change your swing, and why did you need to change it?
TIGER WOODS: Well, as I played throughout the summer, I kept trying to do the things that I was working on with Hank over the years, and it just wasn't working anymore, and it got to a point where I just couldn't do it. It's kind of hard to try and play tournament level golf, major championship golf especially, when at the time I was struggling with which way the ball was going to go, was it going to go right or was it going to go left. That's not fun.
That's a pretty big admission for Tiger or any elite player, don't you think?
Q. Did it ever work for you?
TIGER WOODS: It did, it did, and for some reason it just wasn't, and it was time to go a different route.
My contribution of the day was not received with great excitement.
Q. You're a sports fan; you watch a lot of sports on TV. The TOUR has its contract coming up and they're going to start doing negotiations on that. As a fan, what would you like to see done differently with golf on television, if you are a golf fan and watch it when you're not playing?
TIGER WOODS: I'd like to see me win more tournaments (laughter), as a golf fan, yes.
And this from Doug Ferguson...
Q. Curious if you go back to the start of your golfing season what you find more surprising, not winning or being on Twitter?
TIGER WOODS: It's definitely both. Definitely both.
Jill Painter shares an impressive story about the positive role Tiger's foundation is playing, profiling UCLA pre-med student Stephen Pham, an Earl Woods scholar who has started an outreach group offering medical aid to Vietnam's less fortunate.
Pham recently learned that Woods, who is hosting the Chevron World Challenge this week at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, read his essay and was speechless.
Not everyone, however, can be saved. Pham and his team gathered enough money to send a dying man from a remote area on a bus ride to the hospital. The group learned the man died en route.
"We were so close. If we had just had little more time, but time is life," said Pham, who held back tears. "This is what medicine is.
"There's a face to it."
From Lynn Elber of the AP.
The plot on Wednesday's show includes a philandering golf star and his club-wielding wife. When police arrive, the bleeding athlete says his spouse was merely attempting to rescue him - in this case, from their swimming pool rather than a wrecked car.
After Woods' November 2009 car crash, he acknowledged a string of infidelities and his marriage to Elin Nordegren unraveled. The NBC crime drama goes in a very different direction, with detectives investigating the murder of a female golf pro.
Sounds more like a Big Break episode gone awry!
Brent Read on the Australian Open layout revamped and revitalized by Mike Clayton and it appears one that is not too well liked by Greg Norman.
Fairways have been widened. Greens have been tricked-up. The concept was to return the club to its roots -- it was established in 1928 -- but the jury is out.
Norman hosted his own tournament at the course five times. He also won his first Australian Open at the venue. Not surprisingly, he has pleasant memories of the layout.
Given his close relationship with the course, Norman was reluctant to give the redesign his full imprimatur yesterday.
"I have really good, fond memories of The Lakes of old," Norman said. "Visually it's a totally different golf course. It looks like it would play a little easier for the pros and harder for the members.
That would make it just like most Norman designs!
"It looks like it's a little wider; it's not as intimidating off the tee."
That's not to say everyone has their doubts over the alterations.
"The changes on the course are fantastic," said Peter Senior, winner of the 1989 Open.
The PGA Champion chooses a caddying gig for his girlfriend over the Chevron World Challenge. A photo has even surfaced.
Naturally, the Euro writers are swooning. Matt Cooper writes:
The German could have spent this week chasing world ranking points at the Chevron World Challenge in California but, like a true gent, instead chose to support the aspirations of his girlfriend.
The flight from Dubai to California was also documented on twitter by Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell: it was a 16.5 hour monster. Fortunately it was a shorter trip from Dubai to La Manga for the golfing superstar turned bagman.
You think if a big name American withdrew from a European event at the last moment to caddy for his significant other he'd be called a true gent?
Peter Stone files a Sydney Morning Herald story on Mike Clayton's total redo of The Lakes, host of this week's Australian Open.
Anyone who has not been to The Lakes since the last tournament there, in 2002 - the now defunct modified stableford ANZ Championship - will not recognise what lies before them. Firstly, the old dysfunctional, circular clubhouse is gone, replaced by a grand, modern structure that was completed in 2005.
Some have called him ''Chainsaw Mike'', and the layout barely resembles what was there before. The pines, willows and various other trees have gone, replaced by a sandy wasteland and a links land golf course several kilometres from the sea.
Anyone who hadn't seen the old Lakes would be impressed - but you look at the holes now and remember what was there before. The fairways are wider, but that sandy waste is present on almost every hole. The greens are new, with more humps and bumps.
It has become a course for the strategist, with some risk and reward holes and others that players will leave thanking the golfing gods they have made par.
There is a hole-by-hole tour on the official site, but I'm trying to locate an online gallery of before/after shots so you can see just how dramatic of an overhaul this was by Clayton and friends.
There is also this story posted on GolfAustralia.org by John Huggan.
“Over the years, the course had veered away from the early 1970s design by Devlin and Von Hagge in that it was almost covered in foliage,” continues Clayton, who recently formed a new course design partnership with former U.S Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.
“Our brief was to restore the original feel of the course. Prior to the freeway being built, it had hardly any trees on it at all. Plus, much of the bunkering and many of the greens had been altered by various architects over the years. Most importantly, however, there were too many holes where the only route to the green was from the middle of the fairway. There was only that one strategy on almost every hole. That one-dimensional quality is now long gone, replaced by a more open feel that is designed to give the players options and, hopefully, make them think."
Nice spot by Mike Walker at golf.com who points out George O'Grady and Richard Hills' remarks about the next European Ryder Cup moving up to sometime in September, pending confirmation from the PGA Tour. Considering the PGA Tour hasn't announced at 2011 schedule yet, it would seem a bit premature to lock in 2014 when no TV deal has even been discussed yet.
European Ryder Cup director Richard Hills said that the date was still being negotiated with the PGA of America, but that the rain-soaked 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales, which took place in early October, was a factor in getting an earlier date.
“That's still a work in progress with the PGA of America and the PGA Tour to try and secure an earlier date for the match,” Hills said. “I think they all saw what happened, and the request is being listened to, but it is still a work-in-progress as TV schedules are agreed on that side of the pond.”