When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
...or whatever they want to call day one of the match play. You could read Tiger's interview transcript, but why when Steve Elling captures the lone highlight in a blog post?
Helen Ross and the gang at PGATour.com have the best capsules on the first 32 matches. Rob Matre does it too, with cooler imagery.
John Hawkins does a nice job encapsulating the growing displeasure amongst PGA Tour players with the job Commissioner Tim Finchem is doing and the possibility that it might lead to some sort of player union. Having just talked to several players about various topics, it's amazing how many continue to bring up their displeasure with the Golf Channel's 15-year deal.
Finchem's 2006 decision to form a long-term partnership with the Golf Channel was the first of several big moves that had numerous veterans scratching their heads. Some wondered why he'd done what he did, who had a say and how much player input was involved in the process. Enter the FedEx Cup, a competitive restructuring that began with players talking about a shorter season but soon morphed into a "tourified" commercial enterprise.
When Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els all skipped a FedEx Cup playoff event last summer, a message had been sent. In particular, Mickelson was rankled by what he perceived as the tour's inability to listen and was frustrated enough to bring it up in a televised interview immediately after beating Woods in Boston.
"There can be some heavyhanded edicts," admits Browne, who has served on both the policy board and PAC. "I think a lot of guys want to be involved [politically] in something where we all have such a huge stake. Given the direction the tour has gone [in determining recent policy], there obviously has been some conversation [about forming a liaison]. We'll see what comes of it."
I really think they'd all forgive and move on if they watched the Golf Channel roundtable and listened to Finchem talk about his favorite Eagles song.
Why try to convey just how royally hosed the late/morning tee times were when I can have Phil Mickelson do it for me:
The early/late tee times had a huge advantage this week. A lot of the times, most of the weeks, it doesn't make too much of a difference but every now and then, there will be an advantage on one wave, and we certainly had that. I mean, all of the scores that are any good, 90 percent of them are from the early/late wave. We avoided wind yesterday morning. It died down this afternoon. Just we got very lucky.The conditions made late/early starter Fred Couples' -2 performance that much more amazing. And speaking of Freddie, John Strege writes that the two-time winner at Riviera plans to keep coming back as long as they'll have him. Judging by the paltry crowds and the huge proportion following Fred, they'll invite him back until he's using a walker.
Looking for Weir's ball (click to enlarge)Let's start with Weir, who rudely held back Geoff Ogilvy and Shaun Micheel with all of his twitching and false starts. On the par-5 11th, Weir drives it in the trees and lays up beautifully in the 12-inch kikuyu barranca. He asks the marshal where the ball entered and the volunteer points to where he swore it entered. Well, just as the five minute marked wrapped up, Ogilvy finds the ball about 7 or so yards away. Weir simply turns and scowls at the marshal. Classy touch Mike!
Weir then spends the next 3 minutes considering his options before finally taking an unplayable drop. From that point on the group was a hole behind and eventually put on the clock on No. 13. So Weir picks up the pace right? No, he never seemed to make much of an attempt to speed up as long as I was watching. He does not ever play ready golf, instead starting his pre-shot research and routine only when it's his turn.
The low point came on No. 15 when Ogilvy asked if he could hit out of turn because Weir was mysteriously lollygagging down the fairway even as they remained on the clock and a hole behind. 
The warm weather brings out the best in L.A. (click to enlarge)
Then there's Ben Crane, paired with two other slow pokes in Trevor Immelman and Sergio Garcia. After holding up everyone behind him and reportedly having already been put on the club 3(!) times in 36-holes even though there are 24 groups spread over 18 holes (kinda hard to fall a hole behind!), Crane was standing in the TV scrum area outside the scoring room. When one of the players in the group behind him entered the hallway, he saw Crane and looked right at him and said, "Hurry the $@%# up!" Crane didn't hear him (of course).
Later on the locker room the f-bombs were flying like it was sailors night out, with Crane's name flying off the walls of Riviera's locker room.
Now, Golf Digest's Tim Rosaforte asks in a blog post if "144 players too many for a West Coast tour stop -- or are these guys just too slow?"
In talking to the rules staff, they say yes, the field needs to be reduced.
However, I responded with two points.
One, the course has been lengthened and the 10th, 11th and 17th are all reachable now, adding many of the logjams or timely walks that never existed. And two, cutting the field means you'll likely cut the spots that go to local qualifiers who add a unique flavor to the event. So before they go calling for a 132 player field, perhaps a stronger pace of play policy should be tried before ending an important local tradition.
I finally got around to Doug Ferguson's always entertaining weekly notes column, this week featuring a fun lead item on Rory's long lost cousin, Jonathan Kaye, who weighed in on several topics, starting with drug testing and eventually, his lengthy suspension.
"I don't see a need for it. I don't think anyone is on steroids,'' he said. ``They're opening themselves up for a stringer, especially if we don't have a players' union, or a universal voice where we can be heard, instead of being squashed by a dictator.''
That would be PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, with whom Kaye has crossed frequently.
His most notorious incident, which led to a four-month suspension, came in Kingsmill in 2001 when a security guard asked to see Kaye's tour badge. According to several published accounts, Kaye returned to his car and displayed the badge below the belt.
"I got the largest suspension ever on tour ... for what?'' he said. "I lose my job, and I lose my sponsorship. I felt the brunt of the tour when they're trying to squash you. I felt like Brian McNamee.''
He also doesn't like the new cut policy, and when told the Players Advisory Council would be meeting Tuesday at Riviera, that didn't seem to allay his concerns.
"There's not one person on the PAC that I voted for,'' Kaye said.
Finally someone (Doug Ferguson) files a piece on the possible Rule 78 change following Tuesday's meeting.
A tour official said on Wednesday that the 16-man Players Advisory Council, which met this week at Riviera Country Club, wants to return to the traditional 36-hole cut of the top 70 and ties. If that results in more than 78 players, another cut on Saturday to the top 70 and ties would help reduce the field for the final round.This should be interesting considering that the four involved have been vocal in defending Rule 78:
The policy board will vote on the proposal at its Feb. 25 meeting at the Honda Classic in Florida. Because it relates to competition, the vote must get majority approval by four players on the nine-member board.
Thanks to reader Chris for this follow up from Golf Las Vegas Now on Billy Waters' sandbagging remarkable performance at the AT&T.
"It was the most phenomenal week of golf that I've ever had."
"I have never, ever, ever putted that well I don't think," says Walters, who admits to having the yips in the weeks leading up to the tournament but received a magic grip that ended those. "I don't think I ever missed anything inside of 10 feet the entire tournament."
"This might have been the best ham and egg job of all time," says Walters.
On his CBSSports.com blog, Steve Elling shares this from Fred Funk:
"Not everybody’s in great shape on the Champions Tour or the regular tour," said Fred Funk, appearing at media day Monday for the Ginn Championship in Palm Coast, Fla. "I’m going to throw Steve Lowery under the bus. Yesterday, I came back from practicing, and I got home just in time for the playoff, and here’s Vijay Singh, who works out who knows how many hours a day plus hitting balls how many hours a day – 12 hours of his day is some sort of working out or practicing.
"Steve Lowery looks like he might do 10 minutes of breathing exercises or something. Steve is a great player, but it just doesn’t mean a whole hill of beans all the time."
Here was Steve at Riviera today. Fred might be onto something:
After all, he's no Phil Harris.
From the Sports Media Watch blog:
2.6/5: PGA Tour on CBS, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Final Round (3 PM Sunday)
1.9/5: PGA Tour on CBS, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Third Round (3 PM Saturday)
* While the Pro Bowl and NASCAR saw their ratings increase, the PGA saw major declines for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Third round coverage drew a 1.9 on Saturday, down 24% from last year, and final round coverage drew a 2.6 on Sunday, down 16%.
Gritty and Steve Lowery normally wouldn't register with me, but hey, he just beat Vijay in a playoff as the former No. 305th ranked player in the world.
Doug Ferguson reports, including a hint that perhaps he's not sold on Vijay's revamped swing. Not that Vijay was ready to talk about it, since I don't see a transcript for him on the ASAP page. Now posted are his comments. Short and sweet!
Meanwhile several readers wrote to make sure that Bill Walters win with Frederic Jacobsen was noted for it's ridiculousness.
Jacobson finished -4 (T-14) for the event and considering the team finished -38, that would mean Mr. Walters contributed a healthy -34 to the team.
Anyone know who this fine 11 is?
He's not Bill Walters of "Billy Walters" fame is he?
What are Greg and Chrissy thinking? From golf.com:
Thanks to reader NRH for finding this Yahoo golf page shot of new IMG client Natalie Gulbis continuing her rebranding by appearing fully clothed while looping for IMG owner Teddy Forstmann.
Rex Hoggard says that being on Tiger's pass list of tournaments doesn't equal a death sentence, pointing to creative, atmospheric events like at Scottsdale and Connecticut as prime examples of great tournaments making do.
“We would love to have Tiger and Phil,” said Nathan Grube, the Travelers Championship tournament director. “But we didn’t have Tiger and Phil last year and our charity dollars doubled. There are lot of different matrixes to measure success.”“The players will say it’s one of the best TPCs out there,” Grube said of TPC River Highlands.
Staking your claim to “one of the best TPCs out there,” is akin to being the most honest used-car salesman on the lot.
But you have to give Grube credit. In 1998, Pete Dye and Bobby Weed gave River Highlands an impressive nip and tuck, and officials further sweetened the pot with a 22-acre, state-of-the-art, $4.5 million practice facility. They had Vijay Singh at 22 acres.
The new and improved Travelers, which for nearly 40 years answered to the name Hartford Open, moved to a more family friendly slot on the calendar, treated the players who did show like kings and enjoyed what could arguably be 2007’s best Sunday shootout (between Hunter Mahan and Jay Williamson).
But maybe the best matrix to measure the Travelers’ success was at the turnstile, where ticket sales tripled in 2007.
The math is simple enough. If Woods continues to average 18 events per year, that means some 30 stops will enjoy something less than a must-see tee sheet.
The off-Broadway events can wave the “Where’s Woods?” flag like Vickers, or they can make lemonade out of their scheduling lemons, like Grube.
...Daniel Wexler does a nice job setting up this week's tournaments along with all of the relevant links. I love the links to the course aerial images, which this week come in extra handy if you're looking for that hidden design genius at Poppy Hills. Let me know when you find it.
...
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Set to Continue Through 2014
Title Sponsorship Agreement Provides AT&T the Opportunity to Deliver Brand Messaging to 500 Million Households in 200 Countries
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2008 — AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), the PGA TOUR and Monterey Peninsula Foundation Inc. today announced that AT&T has extended the title sponsorship of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, one of the nation’s premier golf tournaments, through 2014. AT&T has been the title sponsor of the tournament since 1986. The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which will be held Feb. 4 – 10, 2008, provides AT&T with a unique platform to showcase products and services to a worldwide audience. As the title sponsor, AT&T will receive benefits, including:
Exclusive naming rights. AT&T will remain the exclusive title sponsor of the event through the 2014 tournament.
Promotional Benefits. For each of the next six years, AT&T will receive on-site benefits, including name and/or logo placement on scoreboards, caddie bibs, tee markers, pin flags, tee back signage and the official tournament trophy; advertising in the tournament program and on daily pairings sheet and event tickets; and involvement in all press conferences and media events. In addition, the company will receive in-market promotional rights and technology integration throughout the tournament.
Media Exposure. AT&T will receive significant title sponsor branding within network and cable broadcasts, promotional spots and news coverage. The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will be broadcast to more than 500 million households in more than 200 countries.The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is one of several golf tournaments sponsored by AT&T; others include the Masters Tournament and the AT&T National, hosted by Tiger Woods.
AT&T Masters? I didn't get that press release. Here I was just thinking they had the privilege of buying ad time on the Masters.
Note where J.B. Holmes is aiming in relation to the actual fairway bunker scheme created by Weiskopf and Morrish. He's teeing off Sunday on TPC Scottsdale's 18th in this Patrick Hagerty image, lifted from the latest Golf World:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
