"I think once a year the golf world, and maybe even the players, to a degree, they want to feel like they've been in a fistfight."

Rich Lerner interviewed David Fay and Golf Channel aired it during their Friday night post game show. A few highlights from the spinmaster:

I think once a year the golf world, and maybe even the players, to a degree, they want to feel like they've been in a fistfight.

Uh, except in this one you take away their driver with silly fairway widths and rough, which is like fighting with your hands tied behind you back.

Is there an athletic competition that's conducted nowadays at the collegiate level or above, that does not have some sort of commercial involvement? There are a lot of things that I sometimes scratch my  head about, but this passion about advertising and about what the USGA has done in this area and how it reflects a fundamental sea change, I just don't see it.

See, everyone else is sold out, so we're just keeping up!

And this, commenting on player study results of the USGA's groove study:

All of them had the belief, that when we changed to square grooves, the skill required to play this game at the highest level, that the grooves were acting too much like radial tires. That it was too easy to control the ball from rough. And that's really what's driving it.

But the ability to hit the ball 350 yards? Sure that had nothing to do with it!