Books
  • Lines of Charm: Brilliant And Irreverent Quotes, Notes, And Anecdotes from Golf's Golden Age Architects
    Lines of Charm: Brilliant And Irreverent Quotes, Notes, And Anecdotes from Golf's Golden Age Architects
  • The Future of Golf: How Golf Lost Its Way and How to Get It Back
    The Future of Golf: How Golf Lost Its Way and How to Get It Back
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • Grounds for Golf: The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course Design
    Grounds for Golf: The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course Design
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • The Art of Golf Design
    The Art of Golf Design
    by Michael Miller, Geoff Shackelford
  • Alister MacKenzie's Cypress Point Club
    Alister MacKenzie's Cypress Point Club
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • The Golden Age of Golf Design
    The Golden Age of Golf Design
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • The Good Doctor Returns: A Novel
    The Good Doctor Returns: A Novel
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • Masters of the Links: Essays on the Art of Golf and Course Design
    Masters of the Links: Essays on the Art of Golf and Course Design
  • The Captain: George C. Thomas Jr. and His Golf Architecture
    The Captain: George C. Thomas Jr. and His Golf Architecture
    by Geoff Shackelford
  • The Riviera Country Club: A Definitive History
    The Riviera Country Club: A Definitive History
    by Geoff Shackelford
Current Reading
  • Jenkins at the Majors: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger
    Jenkins at the Majors: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger
    by Dan Jenkins
  • The Leaderboard: Conversations on Golf and Life
    The Leaderboard: Conversations on Golf and Life
    by Amy Alcott


  • A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee
    A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee
    by Tom Coyne


  • The 19th Hole: Architecture of the Golf Clubhouse
    The 19th Hole: Architecture of the Golf Clubhouse
    by Richard Diedrich

    SI Golf Plus calls this the #1 golf book of 2008.

  • World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses and How They are Played
    World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses and How They are Played
    by Mark Rowlinson

    New and updated, including contributions from Ran Morrissett and Daniel Wexler.

  • Golf in America (Sport and Society)
    Golf in America (Sport and Society)
    by George B. Kirsch


    Fresh and well researched perspective on the history of golf in America

  • Pete Dye Golf Courses: Fifty Years of Visionary Design
    Pete Dye Golf Courses: Fifty Years of Visionary Design
    by Joel Zuckerman

  • Follow the Roar: Tailing Tiger for All 604 Holes of His Most Spectacular Season
    Follow the Roar: Tailing Tiger for All 604 Holes of His Most Spectacular Season
    by Bob Smiley

  • The Wow Factor: How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm Into a Golf Revolution
    The Wow Factor: How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm Into a Golf Revolution
    by Barney Adams
  • Anticipation
    Anticipation
    by Lewis Black

    The comedian's latest CD includes a 7 minute rant on golf.

  • Planet Golf: The Definitive Reference to Great Golf Courses Outside the United States of America
    Planet Golf: The Definitive Reference to Great Golf Courses Outside the United States of America
    by Darius Oliver

    Exquisite photography and lively course reviews/essays.

Classics
  • The Book Of Golfers: A Biographical History Of The Royal & Ancient Game
    The Book Of Golfers: A Biographical History Of The Royal & Ancient Game
    by Daniel Wexler


  • A Season In Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands
    A Season In Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands
    by Lorne Ruberstein

    A summer in Dornoch.

  • Emerald Gems:The Links of Ireland
    Emerald Gems:The Links of Ireland
    by Laurence Casey Lambrecht

    Beautiful images of the classic Irish links.

  • Bernard Darwin On Golf (On)
    Bernard Darwin On Golf (On)
    by Bernard Darwin
  • The Spirit of St. Andrews
    The Spirit of St. Andrews
    by Alister MacKenzie
  • Club Life: The Games Golfers Play
    Club Life: The Games Golfers Play
    by John Steinbreder
  • Discovering Donald Ross: The Architect and his Golf Courses
    Discovering Donald Ross: The Architect and his Golf Courses
    by Bradley S. Klein
  • Evangelist of Golf: The Story of Charles Blair MacDonald
    Evangelist of Golf: The Story of Charles Blair MacDonald
    by George Bahto
  • The Course Beautiful : A Collection of Original Articles and Photographs on Golf Course Design
    The Course Beautiful : A Collection of Original Articles and Photographs on Golf Course Design
    Treewolf Prod
  • Reminiscences Of The Links
    Reminiscences Of The Links
    by Albert Warren Tillinghast, Richard C. Wolffe, Robert S. Trebus, Stuart F. Wolffe
  • Gleanings from the Wayside
    Gleanings from the Wayside
    by Albert Warren Tillinghast
  • The Missing Links: America's Greatest Lost Golf Courses & Holes
    The Missing Links: America's Greatest Lost Golf Courses & Holes
    by Daniel Wexler
xml-orange.png
Feedblitz
Enter your Email


Powered by FeedBlitz
Powered by Squarespace
Twitter Feed

Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner

« "That's approximately 40 percent of the primary-event sponsors." | Main | Barclay's Classic Photo Caption Help »
Wednesday
20Aug

"I think, finally, we are playing a good golf course"

Steve Elling reports that Vijay Singh delivered an impromptu rant on the Oakland Hills PGA setup, perhaps egged on by the modest setup and more reasonable greens at Ridgewood.

"I think, finally, we are playing a good golf course," Singh said of Ridgewood.

Ouch. Within moments, he made it doubly clear that he was both praising Ridgewood and pasting Oakland Hills.

Two things to consider when weighing Singh's considered opinion: First, he is a former PGA Championship winner, so he's not going to launch into a dated diatribe without good reason. Then again, he was credited with five-putting one of Oakland Hills' undulating greens, which Jack Nicklaus once characterized as the toughest in golf.

"From tee to green that's one of the best golf courses I have played, but it's a disgrace to have greens like that on a golf course that good," Singh said of Oakland Hills, site of multiple U.S. Opens and PGAs in years past, not to mention the 2004 Ryder Cup.

"If the members were to play the speed of the greens we played, they would all quit," he said. "I don't think there would be any members left.

"I don't know what the PGA was going at. I don't think they could ever hold another golf tournament on that course if the greens are like that."

The course underwent a tweaking and lengthening three years ago by designer Rees Jones, but the greens were essentially untouched. Maybe they should have been bulldozed, too, Singh said.

"They should get somebody to redesign those greens," he groused. "From tee to green it's one of the best golf courses you can ever play. But on the greens, it was just a disaster."

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (9)

He's just upset he didn't make more birdies for those St. Jude kids.
08.20.2008 | Unregistered Commenterjason
And what were Vijay's putting statistics at Winged Foot or Oakmont? Maybe he could putt before (Augusta, 2000), but Oakland Hills proves beyond all doubt that the big Figian can't roll the rock anymore.
08.21.2008 | Unregistered CommenterSmitty
I'm just glad Vijay is mailing in his designs rather than actually putting that design philosophy into practice.
08.21.2008 | Unregistered CommenterKS
And what were Vijay's putting statistics at Winged Foot or Oakmont? Maybe he could putt before (Augusta, 2000), but Oakland Hills proves beyond all doubt that the big Fijian can't roll the rock anymore.
08.21.2008 | Unregistered CommenterSmitty
I really dont know where else to post this, but I'll post it here.

pgatour.com streaming is only available to americans. I know the "majors streams" were also geo-blocked, but this is the first time its being done for a "pgatour" sponsored event.

Note, the rights holders for the pgatour for my country is TGC, just as it is in the states.

Dont know why pgatour is doing this, but I think its a really sad showing. I have checked other rights holders for the pgatour in other countires, and NONE of them are rebroadcasting the internet stream.
08.21.2008 | Unregistered CommenterHuh
Clearly a case of sour grapes. But there is a debate waiting to happen in there somewhere. The real issue is about green speed. Those Ross greens were not built to accommodate the goofy speeds of today. But a championship setup must have greens running at 12+, right?
08.21.2008 | Unregistered Commenterellis
well i hope so becasue do not forget - westchester country club course is the one that is being replaced - and everyone liked that short but challenging course


frankD
08.21.2008 | Unregistered Commenterfrank D
frankD

Everyone, except Eldrick Woods
08.21.2008 | Unregistered CommenterDoug
what would be most cost efficient, especially in an economic' downturn': reconstructing greens - which today must be usga specified with their specifications for layers, adding even more the expenses - or simply raising the mower heights to something that might resemble what Ross originally intended?

I don't understand why we must have these greens on the brink of death. There used to be several different factors to reading a green (mowing pattern, undulation, time of day, weather situations); now its just find out if they're playing like concrete or glass, address your ball and tap it gently towards the hole.
08.21.2008 | Unregistered Commentermichael

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.