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
Steve Elling on the total lack of interest in the WGC Match Play event, at least based on the dreadful turnout this week by match play bubble boys.
Amazingly, only three of the 15 players between spot Nos. 61 and 75 in the current world rankings, the players with great chances to make a move with solid play on their respective home tours, are playing this week.
From Doug Ferguson's story on Wednesday's pro-am goings on.
After year of prodding, one of the CEOs at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am includes the PGA Tour commissioner himself.
The tour gets five spots in the pro-am each year that it usually gives to corporate partners, and Finchem is using one of those spots.
For a guy who just a month ago asked players to do more in these lean economic times, and for someone who makes nearly $5 million a year, you'd think he could swing the $15,000 entry fee that helps fund a significant charity. I'm sure his accountant could write it off, no?
Ferguson also reports this red flag special. PGA Tour rule officials never jack around with tee times once they are set:
He'll play with Love, who was on the policy board in Finchem's first year as commissioner in 1994. The other team will be Mahan and Randall Stephenson, chairman of AT&T.
The only mystery was the draw sheet.
Finchem and Stephenson were to play the same course rotation as the celebrities (opposite side of the course) - Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills, Pebble Beach. But a revised draw sheet on Wednesday had them away from the celebrities (translation: attention) by teeing off Thursday at Pebble Beach.
Nice line from David Toms in Doug Ferguson's notes column this week on the subject of Tim Finchem making his AT&T debut:
"It might be the only chance we have for this tournament to be moved to October,'' Toms said with a laugh, referring to weather issues that have occasionally plagued Pebble.
Bob Harig on Phil Mickelson's early season struggles despite supposedly correcting a putting flaw:
Difficulty on the greens is what Mickelson pointed to last year, and he said he discovered a flaw along with coach Dave Pelz around the time of the Ryder Cup. Mickelson, seemingly cured, then missed a playoff by a shot at the Tour Championship and proclaimed that the offseason would be used to fine-tune a few areas with an eye on 2009.
But putting remains an issue. During Friday's round on the North Course, Mickelson missed eight putts inside of 6 feet and had 32 total in a round of 72. And just as Golf Channel analyst Nick Faldo was commenting on the shaky state of Mickelson's game during Sunday's final round, Lefty butchered the sixth green by 4-putting.
In this week's SI/golf.com/Golf Mag/Time Inc. omnibus roundtable recapping last week's golf, you have to enjoy this exchange where the lads brought Gary Van Sickle's son Mike, elite player Marquette University golfer and patient saint offspring of the beloved cranky writer, into the discussion.
David Dusek, deputy editor, Golf.com: I'd be curious to learn what Mike thinks about Rory McIlroy's win today in Dubai. Back at Carnoustie in 2007 he was an amateur phenom, but now he is one of the better European players out there ... and he's still only 19!
Mike Van Sickle: It's hard to really imagine winning a Tour event at the age of 19. You hear about so many solid players that can't even make it onto the tours until their late 20s or even 30s, but Rory is winning events at 19? Not only is that impressive, but at 22 I'm starting to feel old.
Evans: I think a very good player can get it up every now and then to win a tour event; a great player is a consistent winner. McIlroy may just be the flavor of the week.
Van Sickle: How come McIlroy's kid has already won a tour event at 19 and my kid is still in college taking dance movement classes?
Mike Van Sickle: It's actually Disciplines of Movement. We practiced our leaping in the last class. It's a lot of fun. How much do professional dancers make?
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Modern Dance, Mike, would be an excellent and different thing to list under "Hobbies" in the Tour media guide.
Van Sickle: I don't know. "Dancing With the Stars" might be pretty lucrative if you could get on there.
Doug Ferguson on Buick's approach to this week's event at Torrey Pines:
Torrey Pines looks beautiful as ever, with sunshine filling an endless sky and weather that feels more like summer than it did during the U.S. Open. But clouds are gathering.
"From an advertising and promotion standpoint, our view is we still need to advertise, now more than ever,'' Peck said. "But based on the whole economic situation, we're trimming back everywhere we can.''
The corporate box on the 18th is smaller, and Buick won't be serving alcohol to contain costs. It didn't bring out some of its large signage, which was expensive to ship from Michigan. The lawn area in front of the lodge, which used to be a showroom of sorts with the latest vehicles, is now an outdoor restaurant.
"It won't make a huge difference on TV,'' Peck said.
Over the four days of the FBR Open at TPC Scottsdale, I heard several mentions of newly narrowed fairways. And the rough was cited as being particularly difficult this year due to a wet spring (and what sounded like an aggressive overseed).
I know of two other PGA Tour venues that are seeing narrowed fairways. This would not seem to jibe with what some players believe is going to be an end to the old school U.S. Open approach of the last few years at select venues. Nor does it really fit with the Commissioner's remarks about introducting more risk-reward (unless he thinks rough creates interesting risk-reward golf, which I doubt).
Bob Verdi files an entertaining Golf World column on the state of Phil Mickelson's game and outlook. I just loved this:
Portions of Mickelson's '09 agenda are established, but there are variables. The Memorial is not among the latter. "I have decided I definitely won't play there," he said. "I just didn't like the setup there last year. They had 1½-foot rough behind the 11th green." Mickelson recalls a sequence when he reached that picturesque par 5 in two with a 3-wood, only to watch as the ball released beyond and into the aforementioned vegetation. Upon hacking out, he was unable to hold his third shot on the green. "On the other hand," Mickelson went on, "Memphis is the week before the U.S. Open. So that's a possibility. I'll wind up with 20 or 21 tournaments, like I usually do."
Jack: he's picking Memphis over Memorial. Is putting the players in place with the tall stuff working for you?
Steve Elling takes issue with Bill Dwyre's LA Times piece and the idea of Chrysler not using the Hope to market its products and points out Buick's approach as the more shrewd move to getting the cars out in front of people and the companies back on their feet.
Gary D’Amato analyzes the demise of U.S. Bank's role in the Milwaukee event and gets a pretty frank analysis from the bank's Bill Bertha.
"We're not blaming anybody," Bertha said. "Other companies didn't see the value of entertaining clients. No revenues were being generated above operating costs, other than what we were subsidizing.
"Nobody cared. A very good analogy is that we threw a multimillion-dollar party for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, in a park with tents, refreshments and entertainment - all the bells and whistles - and nobody showed up.
"It was just apathy out there."
Tournament officials do not release attendance figures, but the galleries were noticeably smaller in 2007 and '08 than they had been in previous years at Brown Deer Park, the host venue since 1994.
One reason is that the PGA Tour shifted the tournament dates in 2007 so that the Milwaukee event was played the same week as the British Open, a major championship televised by ABC.
Bill Dwyre writes that Chrysler is to be praised for minimizing their presence at last week's Hope Classic.
Who would notice, or know, that there were no Chrysler executives around, that the 30 Chrysler dealers who won a contest to play as amateurs in the tournament came and played, but paid their own way?
Who would notice, or even pay attention, when the final ceremony on No. 18 for winner Pat Perez did not include the usual executive from the title sponsor making a speech? No reason to question that when Palmer himself was there to handle things.
Only a few might have noticed that there were no Chryslers displayed in prominent places around the course; especially none in that traditional middle-of-the-lake spot for maximum TV exposure.
This was the way it was at the 2009 Bob Hope Classic because Chrysler did it right.
Yes, read that again. Praise for one of those big, arrogant corporations that we now perceive to be a leading reason for our country's current economic mess, as well as for our neighbors' move to Trailer Park, Texas, and for our 401(k)s becoming 201(k)s.
Unfortunately I think he has this one wrong. Furthermore, such an attitude toward corporate America will absolutely sink the PGA Tour and just about every other industry that relies on marketing dollars.
There is a major difference between the greed of say, a Citigroup still taking their $50 million French made jet order, and a car company putting its money into an event that produces significant charity money, community goodwill, an opportunity for potential customers to look at their product in a relaxed setting, and a pro-am format that allows the company to reward dealers with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with PGA Tour pros.
I'm no fan of corporate America's often repulsive displays of greed, but even a struggling car company must not be stifled from showcasing their new products and rewarding the people doing the dirty work. Otherwise, how are they supposed to recover?
Your thoughts?
Ken Peters reports on the surprising turn of events Sunday that surely would have yielded some material for former "Hopez" host George Lopez.
Rex Hoggard drops this item in writing about the impact of the European Tour's Race To Dubai. Not a new trend, but it's just always interesting to read:
Some fallout can already be felt on the PGA Tour. World Ranking points, which are based on the strength of each field, have started to skew toward Europe at certain events. The number of ranking points awarded to Zach Johnson for winning last week’s Sony Open (44) were less than those given to Paul Casey (48), who won the European Tour stop in Abu Dhabi.
Expect a similar scenario this week when the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which features five of the top 40 players in the world, is played opposite the Qatar Masters, which includes 13 of the top 40.
The In-N-Out files, courtesy of GolfChannel.com's blog and Jerry Foltz:
The place? The driving range at PGA West Palmer Private course -- probably not what you imagined with that preamble. The stories? Great reminiscence of the old days from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic -- starting with year one. The food? In-N-Out Burgers supplied by their mobile unit, complimentary to all tournament folk. And if all of that isn't enough to make you want to come to the desert for the 50th Hope, then consider who I sat with: the King, Arnold Palmer. I won't soon forget it, if ever.
It was surreal for me, but I think Rich Lerner (also at the table) summed it up best in a brief conversation in passing with Scott Walker. "I just had a double-double with Arnie."
Meanwhile, Rich Lerner shares this little nugget from what is apparently THE place to be.
Tim Herron dropped by to enjoy lunch with the King. Lumpy, a former Bay Hill winner, settled for the double-double burger, backing off In-N-Out's mammoth four- by-four. I told him I was disappointed, that it was like laying up at 15 at Augusta with 190 yards to the hole. “Chip Beck did it,” Lumpy replied. He thought about it for a second and then added, “But then I guess I’m not built like Chip Beck am I?”
An In-N-Out truck at Riviera for the Northern Trust Open would be a bigger draw than Rory McIlroy, that I know!
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
