Australian Masters Opening Day Telecast Thoughts

What a delight watching Kingston Heath during round one of the JB Were Australian Masters.  Tiger Woods posted a 66 in front of huge crowds and we were treated to several hours on Golf Channel here in the U.S.  Not only is the golf course so lovely to look at, but the flow of the telecast was far different than what we're used to hear in the States.

A few things about the broadcast stood out:

- Camera angles. Perhaps they were forced to have some alternatives, but a few holes featured a nice side view look at a green instead of the standard rear tower. It added variety and gave us a better sense of the architecture.

- No promos. It's amazing how much better the telecast flowed without the relentless plugs for NCIS and reality shows and...

- Made the announcing so much more enjoyable. Particularly the Ian Baker-Finch/Brett Ogle portions. Not having to read so many plugs allowed them to engage in some informative discussions about how holes had changed thanks to technology, what a great job Mike Clayton did adding the 11th hole (and why), and overall the better flow lent a relaxed, welcoming tone that made the telecast feel like we were merely listening in on a conversation among knowledgeable fans. IBF also ably explained the strategy behind some of the holes as we were treated to graphic flyovers.

- Focusing on two groups. What a joy to really study one group primarily (Badds, Appleby, Coltart) with select shots from others like Adam Scott and Matthew Goggin. This allowed us to take a tour of the course (aided by those great hole graphics) and to see a nice variety of shots, not just an onslaught of putts. Baddelay was all over the place, but his swing looks sensational and you get the sense he's making progress. Getting to see so much of his round made for more interesting viewing, even though he wasn't playing that well.

Not surprisingly, the golf course also came off beautifully. The sparse and dry roughs, the lay of the land feel of the holes and those wondrous bunkers jutting into greens with so little rough between the two: perfection!

For those who watched, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

"I suggested to Tiger several months ago that now he's in the golf course design business that maybe he bring one of his guys down here to take a look"

There seems to be no shortage of talk about Tiger's appearance fee in Australia and a calculated effort to spin it as a chance for him to brush up on his design expertise, not for the $3 million he's reportedly receiving.

Mark Hayes and Michael Warner in the Herald Sun talked to Sunshine Stevie Williams and lived to write about it:

The golfing superstar was holed up inside his luxury Southbank hotel suite, but continued his pre-Masters reconnaissance mission by sending his caddie to inspect the course.

Steve Williams spent two hours recording distances on all 18 holes in a sign his boss is determined to earn his giant $3 million pay packet.

"I suggested to Tiger several months ago that now he's in the golf course design business that maybe he bring one of his guys down here to take a look," Williams revealed.

"And he's done that, because in such a small, concentrated area, you've got some of the best courses in the world. The design and the bunkering on this course is unique and very, very good.

"I'm sure he (Tiger) will be looking at it tomorrow."

Now, if he goes to see some other courses in his spare time like Crenshaw would, then we'll know he really is serious about this design stuff.

Meanwhile on the appearance fee, Peter Stone opened his story today with this anecdote:

TIGER WOODS is relentless in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record 18 major victories - with just four left to equal the Golden Bear. So, with a sense of mischief, let's suggest another way he could emulate the great Nicklaus.

We'll go back to the 1975 Australian Open, the first of four opens sponsored by the late Kerry Packer at The Australian, when Nicklaus headlined the field for a modest appearance fee.

Like Woods, Nicklaus was undisputed world No.1 at the time. Nicklaus asked Packer what prizemoney was on offer that week and, when told, Nicklaus immediately added his fee to the purse, which brought total prizemoney to $35,000.

So began the Packer/Nicklaus solution to appearance money. In following years, each invited player was paid $6000 and, in 1976, total prizemoney was lifted to $200,000.

This week, the Australian Masters purse is $1.5 million and Woods is reportedly receiving a $US3m ($3.3m) appearance fee.

Would Woods do the same as Nicklaus this week? Dream on.

But most of the fretting over the amount looks like it'll prove futile, because as Steve Elling notes, the event is looking like a hit, no thanks to Greg Norman:

But hand it to the Aussies, they had not seen Woods in 11 years, and he once again proved to be the game's ultimate show pony. Officials reported selling all 100,000 tickets (capped at $44 Australian dollars per round) for the week, and presumably, the Victorian government has a chance of finishing in the black once all the hotel stays, car rentals and incidentals are tolled. By the way, the tax hit in Australia is a shade under 50 percent in this bracket, so Woods will be contributing to the Oz coffers himself, too. Ah, economics in the 21st century, huh?

And judging by Patrick Smith's cranky reaction, someone in IMG's PR department has done a fine job overprepping the media for Tiger's arrival.

The reaction it must be said was childish and so fevered that normally sensible people lost the plot. Helicopters chopped above Essendon Airport, TV cameras covered this angle, that angle. Print journalists jotted down his every move. Even moves he might have made but didn't.
When he set his left foot on the tarmac, the world's greatest golfer said: "This is one small step for Tiger, one giant leap for golf". Or apparently words to that effect. Tiger's entourage is apparently colour-coded to make it easier to control them. It was noted who went into the different-coloured cars. Even the luggage van was described to radio listeners.

Clayton Almost Does It...

Great playing by Australian golfer and golf architect Mike Clayton at this week's Jersey event on the European Senior Tour. He was edged in a playoff by Delroy Cambridge.

"The only way to get this guy to play is to buy him."

Someone won a golf tournament this week (Retief Goosen), so he must be the new Masters favorite if you are following SI's Golf Plus/golf.com/Golf Magazine/AOL/Time Warner Cable dissertation, which stretches to a new record four pages.

But they make up for the expected love for the latest winner by defecating all over the Tavistock Cup and offering this spirited exchange on Tiger's $3 million appearance fee for the Australian Masters.

Gorant: If things get worse over there, it would be interesting if Tiger showed up and got booed or picketed by protestors.

Herre: Not all the dough is from taxpayers, about half is. And Tiger will be leaving a chunk in Australia as he will be taxed there on the $3 million. The reality is that he isn't making that much off the trip. I think it's one of those "expanding the brand" things. Also, heaven knows the Australian tour could use a lift. It's been hurting for years.

Gorant: It's 48% in taxes. Interesting side note on Tiger's motivation: the event is run by IMG.

Shipnuck: My favorite part of the blowback was Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg, saying that his famous client was basically going because he really, really wanted to play Kingston Heath. I've been there, and it is indeed a great course, but I don't think that's why Tiger is getting on the plane.

Van Sickle: Tiger's trip Down Under should be a lesson to those trying to recruit Tiger for their own tournaments. The only way to get this guy to play is to buy him. Either a $3 million appearance fee overseas, or an endorsement deal (like AmEx and Buick) or have a tournament run by IMG (Deutsche Bank, AT&T). Judging by his last-minute entry even into the WGC event at Doral, he's not going to be pro-active on Finchem's request for the tour's stars to play more. Pay him and he'll play.

Maybe the folks running the Skins Game will...oh right, they already did that too!

" The European and American tours combined do not see that number of quality golf courses in a whole season."

Mike Clayton on rotating Melbourne courses for the Australian Masters and what that has meant in the past:

In 1981, my first year on the tour, we played the Australian Open at Victoria, the PGA Championship at Royal Melbourne, the Victorian Open at Metropolitan, the Westpac Classic at Royal Adelaide, the South Australian Open at Kooyonga and almost every other year we seemed to be playing the immaculate holes at Kingston Heath. The European and American tours combined do not see that number of quality golf courses in a whole season.

Australian Masters To Great Sandbelt Courses?

The best thing about the Victorian Government rescuing the Australian Masters is that it's leaving longtime site Huntingdale, and according to word on the street as posted at GCA by Chris Kane, may be heading to Kingston Heath in 2009 and Victoria in 2010. Perfect opportunities for Tiger to go study his favorite type of golf!

Royal Sydney Confirmed For Australian Open...

...Peter Stone reports in The Age, along with other news surrounding the December event and confirmed entrants. Hope we can get this on The Golf Channel.

You can read about the course's unique history here. 

Royal Melbourne Deals With Severe Drought

Thanks to reader Mark for this Bruce Matthews story on the extreme measures taken at Royal Melbourne to help get through a drought.

A convoy of tankers will cart water to Royal Melbourne to keep the world-famous golf course alive over summer.

It will cost the club an estimated $100,000 each week to buy the recycled water from Melbourne Water's western treatment plant at Werribee.

And...

"We are unable to water fairways at all with our current water allocations and we can only rely on rain," club captain Peter Sutherland said in last month's club newsletter.

"If the situation worsens, the (club's) council may need to reduce traffic on the courses to prevent long-term damage."

Events on the club's calendar this month, such as the Victorian amateur championship starting today, will go ahead at this stage.

"We don't back away from the fact there are areas of the fairways that are particularly dry and obviously lacking good (grass) coverage. But it's something you have to accept in these conditions, that they will take a while to recover," Richardson said.

"Interesting is fun, after all."

John Huggan profiled Mike Clayton's role in aiding Trever Herden in setting up The Australian for the Australian Open.

"Geoff Ogilvy uses the word ‘fun’ to describe what he looks for in championship golf,” says Clayton. "I’m not so sure about that, but it should certainly be interesting. Interesting is fun, after all.

"This is a difficult enough golf course, with the wind and the water and the way it is routed. So all we really tried to do was avoid the mistake of embarrassing the players or orchestrating a winning score by distorting the dimensions of the golf course. For me, that’s what goes on at the US Open; the dimensions of the course get distorted. And that is our role, to avoid that happening.

"So we don’t want fun in the sense that players are making birdies all day. I want guys challenged to make good decisions and hit good shots. I hate to see them hitting a shot a foot off the fairway and having to chip out sideways. All that does is eliminate decision-making."

"America no longer can say it produces the vast majority of the best players in the world - arguably it does not even produce the majority"

Mike Clayton previewed the Australian Open and weighs in on the proposed tour merger with Japan and Asia:

The long-term future of golf in Australia should be tied to golf in Japan and Asia and there has been movement on that front in recent months.

Only the combined strength of these small tours - given the measure of a big tour is America or Europe - will see them create something significant, something to rival Europe and something that is worth a sponsor investing a considerable amount of money.

The problem with rolling three tours into one is that the players are always going to look at the game the way players always have and that is 'how does this affect me?'

Big decisions must be made with the long-term benefit of the game in mind and clearly the long-term benefit of the professional game is to create a tour to rival the best in the world.

America no longer can say it produces the vast majority of the best players in the world - arguably it does not even produce the majority - and that balance will only continue to tip in favour of the 'foreigners' as the rest of the world uncovers talented players with games that are capable of winning big tournaments including the biggest events in America.

"Melbourne seems to bring out the odd yahoo, while Sydney is not really renowned for that."

Brent Read looks at Paul McNamee's attempt to mimic the antics of TPC Scottsdale's 16th hole at The Australian's 11th tee. While it screams of a "be careful what you wish for" scenario, there is great joy in reading Robert Allenby trying to dig himself out of a hole.

Allenby did little to endear himself in his home state of Victoria by claiming Melbourne was renowned for producing the "odd yahoo" at its tournaments, while Sydney produced a more refined spectator.

The par-three 11th is based on the famous 16th at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona, where spectators line the hole and create an atmosphere more akin to a rock concert.

"There's no problem in the world with people being loud," Allenby said.

"I'm coming up to 17 years as a professional. I play in America for God's sake. That's the land of the loud. I don't have a problem with someone being loud on a hole. It's when people use foul and abusive language."

Asked whether he expected to be targeted given his strident criticism of the hole, Allenby replied: "I have my earplugs ready for 11, that's not a problem. I know people are going to come just for me.

"That's just the way it is. I'll deal with it. I'm here to win the tournament, I'm not here to come second.

"At golf tournaments, I'm used to people yelling. It's just when people are abusive and use (bad) language, that's not very nice because there's always a lot of kids at our tournaments."

Fast forward...

Pressed on the differences between spectators in Melbourne and Sydney, Allenby suggested the affluence in Sydney's eastern suburbs meant the fans were more respectful.

"The areas around here are a little bit more subdued, sophisticated," he said.

"Obviously there's a lot more money in Sydney than in Melbourne. I don't mean that in a bad way because I am from Melbourne and I have a lot of friends there and people who support me.

"Melbourne seems to bring out the odd yahoo, while Sydney is not really renowned for that."

Allenby also advocated selling light beer at the tournament, as they do in the United States.

"Your average (beer), they're 4.9, 5 per cent," he said. "You down three of them and you're buzzing. It's not so much serving alcohol. It really depends on where and how much you serve."

Rory: Media Twists My Idiotic Tiger-Related Remarks

See, I didn't twist his remarks!

Geoff Roach reports on Rory Sabbatini's sit-down with the Aussie inkslingers to explain how he's entitled to his high sense of self esteem even if Tiger mops the floor with him every time they play head-to-head.

"But then those same people want to burn you for it. Sure I speak my mind because I'm just as entitled to my opinions as everyone else is. The thing is, if you are going to say something, at least have the courage to say it to the person concerned and not behind their back."

Well, he was asked, is there a bit of behind-your back-stuff out there on Tour?

"Definitely," he said. "Quite a bit of it. But I'm not a person who is going to step back and be a follower. I'm one of those guys that wants to be up there. l want to be leader of the pack.

"If you spend your whole life trying to please everybody in this world you're going to be miserable because you're not going to be able to achieve that.

"You may as well be the person you are and enjoy that. I know whose opinions I respect and trust and they're the ones I listen to."

But does the unpopular tag bother you, he was asked.

"Look, a lot of that is being unfortunately created by the media," he replied.

"Some of my remarks, like those about Tiger, have been twisted. I know what I said. I know the person I am."

You know Geoff Ogilvy is opinionated yet he never seems to have a problem with the media twisting his words. I wonder what the difference is? Hmmm...