"Arguably what's at stake is the future of San Francisco public golf, and by extension, the value of public golf everywhere."

Miraculously no one has asked yet how the PGA Tour and City of San Francisco spent $23 million and got a functional but ultimately disappointing Harding Park redesign. Brad Klein noted quite accurately that "a round here produces the sense of waiting for something to happen that never quite materializes."

Which is why I suppose the Presidents Cup re-routing--a blatant move for the corporate tent folks as Ron Whitten documents in Golf World--doesn't really matter much. If you know the course and want to get a nice feel for the new sequencing, check out Brett Avery and Golf World's interactive map.

Meanwhile, SF native Jaime Diaz makes the case that no matter what you might feel about the course, this is a huge week for public golf with two courses fighting for their existence and beleaguered Harding looking to stay on the PGA Tour's radar.

R&A Contemplating Out-Of-Bounds Tee For Road Hole

Earlier this week it was noted here (courtesy of Trevor Immelman's Tweet) that the Road Hole still features a silly roadblock of rough about 310 yards off the tee.

Now we learn this from John Hopkins' Spike Bar column:

An intriguing whisper was circulating in St Andrews recently. The Royal and Ancient have asked a leading player his thoughts on the positioning of a new tee on the 17th, the famous Road Hole. The tee would be 40 yards back from the existing one and therefore over the fence, which used to be the line of the old railway line from Leuchars. Clearly, the 2010 Open, the 150th anniversary of the event next July, is on the minds of the R&A.

First, as a blogger who has made a study of the R&A's emasculation of rota courses in place of regulating distance, this one will be particularly fun since it's only the most famous hole in golf.

Second, isn't it a bit late in the game to be scouting out a possible new tee for a major that is only ninth months away? Particularly when the tee in question will be off the property and driving over a stone wall and a billboard for the Old Course hotel? I can only imagine how tastefully it will erupt out of the landscape.

At least we know the R&A has experience now with this hole off-course tee thing when it went over so well last time in 2005 when they couldn't really figure out the whole OB thing on No. 2.

RTJ On Nicklaus: It's Almost As If He Never Said A Thing!

On the post where Robert Trent Jones Jr. analyzes (accurately in my view) Jack Nicklaus's design work, reader E noted, "I don't see the comments about Jack in the link, have they been removed?"

Sure enough, it appears the comments were removed.

And now you know why I copy and paste so much!