Campbell To The Rescue

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Peter Williams writes about the troubled New Zealand Open, and Michael Campbell's possible attempt to help save it. Thanks to reader Hux for the heads up.
One scenario is that NZG go back to the sponsorship market but set their sights lower. The naming rights deal and second-tier sponsors would be sold for a lower price in order to raise about $500,000.
 
Then Cambo Investments, the company that handles Michael Campbell's affairs, would be prepared to put up $250,000 - if the government matches that.
 
But the Beehive wants its pound of flesh too.
 
Golf's governing structure in this country is not what it should be. Even though the men's and women's administrative organisations amalgamated last year, things are far from ideal. There is no formal relationship with the NZPGA and too many differing bodies are pulling in different directions in matters such as player development and the staging of tournaments.
 
Last year's amalgamation was a step in the right direction but didn't go far enough.
 
I'm told that if Cambo Investments put in their quarter of a million and the government matches that sum to meet the budget for the New Zealand Open, then a major administration review in this country must take place. That will include comparing our structure to countries with similar populations, such as Sweden.
 
It's likely to be a hugely controversial plan and there'll be some casualties but golf in this country is stagnating. Club membership is declining and despite millions of dollars being poured into high performance programmes we are not producing the quality international players that we should.
 
A crisis often brings fundamental issues to the surface. There is no doubt the New Zealand Open is in crisis. But with Campbell and some of his advisers highly thought of in government circles, a rescue plan for 2006 can be put together.
 
Then the future direction for New Zealand golf, and its premier event, can be worked on.

This Guy Rocks!

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I often find myself concerned that our friends outside the United States are missing out on the wonderful world of MBA/marketingspeak.

Then I read stories like this one courtesy of reader Graeme that nourish the soul.

Because as Martin Blake shows us in The Age, true leadership has made it to golf in Australia. Look out Ponte Vedra and wherever in the world the LPGA headquarters is located, because Paul McNamee is going to give Commissioner's Finchem and Bivens a run...for their inanity.

Paul McNamee has taken the reins of the Australian Open golf championships — both men's and women's tournaments — with a warning about unrealistic expectations.

McNamee, who has signed a three-year contract as executive chairman of the Open, says the notion that the men's tournament can become the "fifth major" is rubbish.

Ah, you're thinking, I like this guy. Here's the first sign of trouble.

McNamee confronted a similar malaise when he took over the running of the Australian Open tennis 12 years ago, although he made one distinction yesterday. "In brand development yes (it's similar), but there's one very important difference we should never forget. It (the Open golf) is not a major. It's not going to be a fifth major. But in brand development I do see similarities."

Brand development. Remember that Ponte Vedra. You can platform and re-contextualize it all you want, but never forget your brand development. And how does McNamee envision his brand development?

One of the methods he intends using is adding music as part of the entertainment package. "What I'd like to see is the Australian players feel they're really now being put on a pedestal and that the event really rocks. Once you do start selling tickets to the general public you are in the entertainment industry."

Adding music? Really rocks? Hey wait, the LPGA already has first dibs on rocks.

So I wonder, when he says rocks, does McNamee envision something like Al Czervik cranking up the volume to Journey's Any Way You Like It?alczervik.jpg

As for the intensely unpopular Moonah Links, McNamee really shows why he's fit to be running major golf events. Yes, that's right, you are no one in golf until you have a raging conflict of interest, and McNamee passes with flying colors!

This year's Australian Open is at Royal Sydney from November 16-19, but McNamee will soon have to confront the fact that Golf Australia has a contract to play the tournament three out of every five years at Moonah Links, a venue that has attracted savage criticism from Australian players. It is complicated by the fact that he is an investor in Moonah Links, giving him a clear conflict of interest that drew a laugh from him yesterday.
"You have to respect the contracts are in place," he said. "Whatever it is, it is."

No, you have to respect that a man has taken 2004's sports cliche of the year--it is what it is--and given it a gritty, post-modern Yogi Berra edge.

Whatever it is, it is!

And don't forget Paul, until it's done, it's not done.

R&A Hires Phillips

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Colin Phillips, the Tom Meeks of the southern hemisphere, was hired by the R&A to be their new head of something having to do with Australia and Asian golf. Phillips recently retired from the Australian Golf Union after masterminding yet another Australian Open setup boondoggle. You may recall that Phillips and good buddy Wayne Grady recently exchanged loving words, as Mike Clayton wrote in this Golfobserver column.

Clayton On Australian Open

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golfobserver copy.jpgMike Clayton summarizes the wild and weird Australian Open for Golfobserver.com. First he covers the Mark Hensby-Greg Norman war of words:

It is impossible to win in this country if you choose to attack Norman and Hensby didn't articulate his argument well enough to convince the average golf fan. But inside the locker room there were more than a few who thought there was some merit in what he was trying to say.

Ironically, on the very first morning of the Open Norman was fifty miles away across the bay announcing the establishment of a new golf course financed by one of the countries richest men. It was not lost on some that perhaps there were 364 other days in the year that might have been a little more appropriate for Greg to promote a new development.

Of course, it is no secret that Norman has a more than prickly relationship with the Australian Golf Union and with his ex-managers, IMG, who promote and run the Open.

And then there was the Wayne Grady-Colin Phillips spat:

In a group behind, Tour chairman Wayne Grady blistered the long-serving and retiring Executive Director of the Australian Golf Union, Colin Phillips, the man responsible for the pin positions.

"Congratulations Colin for &$#%ing (rhymes with trucking) up another Australian Open. Watch-out the door doesn't hit you on the arse on the way out."

There has long been a simmering resentment between the two but it had never been voiced so personally or publicly.

Phillips response was a simple "I would have been upset if the criticism had come from a player I respected." Ouch.

And finally, my favorite part of Clayton's piece, the player perceptions of Moonah Links.

The weekend wind freshened and the players distaste for the course heightened.

Craig Parry had nothing complimentary to say and nor did Stuart Appleby and their opinions were widely reported in the newspapers. Several players privately suggested they would not be back.

Complaining players have always been sitting ducks for press who assume golf pros don't like a venue simply because it is too hard. Parry and Appleby have played plenty of hard golf courses — Parry was eight over par and a shot out of the playoff at the 1999 Open at Carnoustie — but they needed to articulate why they disliked the design of the golf course.


Uh, The Pin Sheets Were Bad Too...

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Here's a story on Mark Hensby refusing to apologize for his controversial views expressed at last week's wild and wacky Australian Open. But this is what I found interesting:

Stuart Appleby yesterday joined the list of players fined by the PGA Tour for a rules breach in publicly criticising aspects of the Australian Open, he revealed errors had been made by AGU officials in measuring pin placements.

Appleby said players had been notified mid-round that incorrect distances were shown on official pin placement sheets.

Boy this Australia Golf Union really knows how to put on a tournament. Top notch, top notch.

 

Moonah Madness

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This sounds familiar (thanks to reader Michael for this):

The Australian PGA Tour has fined its own chairman, Wayne Grady, as the fallout over Moonah Links continued yesterday on the final day of the Australian Open.

Grady was fined an undisclosed sum over his verbal spray directed at Australian Golf Union executive director Colin Phillips on Friday. At least three other players — Stephen Leaney, Stuart Appleby and Craig Parry — are also to be fined for their criticisms of the course and the AGU, which runs the Open.

The fines come from the tour's tournament director Andrew Langford-Jones.

"Obviously 'Grades' committed a breach of our code of conduct," said the tour's general manager, Gus Seebeck, yesterday. "As our chairman he knows he carries extra responsibility to stay within that code. The comments that were made were not meant for public consumption, but they were overheard by certain people, unfortunately, and they were of a personal nature.

"Grades knows this, but it's a closed shop now, and it's between Wayne and Colin to patch up their personal issues."

Grady's attack came during the furore over the state of the 12th green on Friday, when Peter O'Malley's ball blew off the green in high winds. Phillips was the tournament director, and this was his last assignment after 27 years in charge of the AGU.

Doesn't this boil down to the same thing? Today's players are not eloquent when it comes to explaining why setups are over-the-top, and governing bodies either (A) don't have much idea what they are doing when it comes to course preparation in inclement weather, or (B) are trying to produce a "respectable" winning score in the face of major changes in the sport?

Moonah course architect Peter Thomson responded to the player complaints, and it leaves me wondering if the golfing great has spent just a bit too much time sitting around the Royal and Ancient clubhouse listening to clueless administrators commiserating about the spoiled modern pro. From Martin Blake's story:

Thomson responded wryly when I asked: "Do you think some of these players spend so much time in the U.S., where they are pampered and looked after so much with course preparation and everything else, that when they come home and it gets a bit tough they don't react well?

"I'm impressed with your opinion . . . I know that is what everybody else thinks," he replied.

"But, as a side issue, it has struck me that it would be a very sad day if the players were able to select the courses on which they wanted to play.

"The R&A would not have a bar of that, nor would the USGA. In fact, for the last 50 years of my lifetime, the USGA has been responsible for making courses so difficult that people take three irons off the tee.

"But neither the R&A nor the USGA buckle when they get a bit of criticism. I would like to think our championship joins that category.

"In order to convince the world that we have a championship that matches the big two, we have to have a comparable course. That's what this is."

Trying to mimic the USGA and R&A course setup strategies probably isn't the wisest thing to do these days. But based on the player feedback, I'd say the AGU succeeded in one respect.

What Happened At The Australia Open?

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Since those of us in the States did not get to see the Australian Open this year on The Golf Channel, it's hard to tell from accounts whether the players just don't like playing in wind, or the Moonah Links was poorly set up. Or a bit of both.

Here's one commentary defending the setup, and Peter Thomson, Moonah's architect, chimes in. 

He also warned against allowing the players to dictate where the tournament is played, saying the R&A (controller of the British Open) and USGA (in charge of US Open) would never bow to the wishes of its competitors.

"I don't think they need any sympathy," Thomson said. "In real championship circumstances it ought to put them to their highest possible test of skill.

"One of the side issues of the criticism, it struck me, is that it would be a very sad day when the players are able to select the course on which they want to play. The R&A wouldn't have a bar of that, nor would the USGA.

"The USGA doesn't buckle when it gets a bit of criticism nor does the R&A. I would like to think our championship joins that category of championship. They are the ultimate, the big two.

But as usual, it appears the design was not the problem. 

"I don't have a problem with the course, I don't think it is bad or anything," [Peter] Lonard said.

"I don't know whether it is set up perfectly. But if you compare it to the Open courses we play, very few of them have greens where (the ball) will run off the edge and run 40 yards away."

The Art of Course Setup, Vol. 467

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From the wild and wacky Australian Open:

Stephen Leaney refused to sign his card for a 74 in protest and was disqualified.

He had a bogey and playing partner Peter O'Malley had a triple-bogey at the par-3 12th, prompting tournament officials to start lightly watering the green for every subsequent group to negate the impact of the strong northerly wind.

O'Malley had a par putt of less than a meter that was caught in a wind gust and rolled three meters past the pin. After he marked and replaced the ball, it rolled further from the hole. He asked officials if he could replace the ball again, but the request was disallowed.

"You can imagine how we felt," said Leaney. "We'd got the rules officials over to make a decision and then they recognize what was going on and water it."

O'Malley, who made the cut at 4-over, declined to comment.

More Hensby

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Peter Krupka and Brent ReadIn describe Mark Hensby's latest press conference as "riveting." This time, Hensby talked about life on the PGA Tour, but managed not to disparage any all-time greats.

Hensby, who has taken his world ranking to No.30, said he didn't have any friends on tour anyway and described the USPGA Tour as a lonely place and claimed it was afflicted by back-biting and double-talk.

"Everybody talks about everybody behind their back anyway," Hensby said. "At the end of the day you have your family and you have your job and you go and do it. Players don't care. They say 'good shot' and most of them don't give a shit. That's the way it is.

"If you try to tell me guys genuinely say 'good shot' because it's a good shot, you're kidding me.

"At the end of the day you have your friends at home. You have acquaintances, the guys I don't mind hanging out with. The true friends, you don't have too many of them, not on tour anyway."