Huggan On State of Euro Tour, Monty

John Huggan wonders if recent European Tour happenings are hurting the Tour. Starting with the weird Irish Open antics this week.

Then there was Thursday's opening round of the Irish Open at the Colin Montgomerie-designed Carton House. Serious questions need to be asked at European Tour headquarters about a venue whose topography is so flawed that a bit of wind is enough to provoke suspension of play. On a proper course - one where the 'architect' pays appropriate attention to the prevailing meteorological conditions in an area that he visits more than a handful of times - these sorts of things don't happen.

Or, at least, they don't on courses where the greens are built to receive good shots rather than to repel them. Witness the third round of the Open Championship at Muirfield in 2002. In squally weather that was a million times worse than we saw three days ago, the world's best course was certainly difficult, but remained playable - although it was sometimes hard to ascertain that fact, so loud was the squealing from various competitors. Equally, it is hard to imagine golfers being asked to leave the premises at one of Ireland's premier links, say Portmarnock, when the breeze rises to no more than a little gusty.

And he quotes a player, who isn't too keen on the quality of events or fields:

None of the above nonsense is, of course, helping the European Tour at a time when pressure from its main competitor, America's PGA Tour, has never been so intense. Nor will it change the view of at least one well-respected Ryder Cup player that the quality of the product is slipping.

"One of the great myths on the European Tour is that the standard of play is rising every year," he says. "You hear guys saying stuff like: 'Yes, I have to keep improving just to stand still.'

"What a load of rubbish. The real truth is that, apart from the few really top-class events we have each year, tournaments like the BMW Championship at Wentworth, the general quality of the fields week-to-week is falling. Which makes sense if you are paying attention. Look at the number of top guys who have disappeared off to the PGA Tour over the last five years or so. Not just Europeans, but Australians too.

"The harsh truth is that, if you are any good at all, the European Tour represents increasingly easy pickings."

Huggan also looks at Monty's consideration of the two-driver strategy:

Speaking of Monty, the eight-time European No.1 - good job Tiger's winnings are ruled ineligible by his failure to compete in 11 counting events! - is apparently considering following Phil Mickelson's lead and carrying two drivers, one for fading, the other for drawing.

While this nonsense is a logical extension of the distances that the leading players now hit the apparently turbo-charged ball with their turbo-charged clubs - who needs a 3- or 4-iron after a 330-yard drive? - it is also more than a little depressing. Rather than a game of skill and technique, golf is turning into a mere test of power. Purchasing power, that is.

Let me see, shall I buy a hook or a slice today? Shot-makers of the past, men like Ben Hogan who viewed golf as an art rather than a science, must be spinning wildly in their final resting places.

Irish Open Spat

Phil Casey reports from the wild and wacky Irish Open where play was suspended due to wind, and at least one strange incident made Paul McGinley's WD for emergency knee surgery that much more aggravating for the classy Irishman:

To make matters worse the 39-year-old Dubliner then discovered he had been accused of gamesmanship by playing partner Kenneth Ferrie, one of his rivals for a Ryder Cup place this September.

While playing the 14th hole in the strong winds which caused play to be suspended for six hours, Ferrie's ball had moved on the green as he surveyed a putt.

Ferrie asked McGinley and Ian Poulter - the third member of the group - for advice, and McGinley told him he should replace the ball in its original position.

However, that advice was incorrect and Ferrie incurred a two-shot penalty when he realised his mistake and called for an official ruling on the next hole.

The 27-year-old was furious with McGinley and sarcastically "thanked" him for the penalty shots which left him six over par at the time.

But McGinley was equally furious with the implications of gamesmanship and released a statement which read: "I am extremely sorry that my playing partner Kenneth Ferrie incurred a two-shot penalty after asking myself and Ian Poulter what he should do when his ball moved on the green.

"We gave our opinions in good faith and I am not going to dignify any accusations of gamesmanship on my behalf as they are totally groundless."

Ferrie also released a statement which read: "While Paul did, in fact, advise me that I could replace my ball on the 14th - which I later realised was inaccurate - at no time did I suggest he had acted improperly as his integrity is beyond question."

Meanwhile James Corrigan in the Independent had this quote from Ian Poulter:

"To accuse Paul of games-manship is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard," he said.

The Gimmick Turned Sound Business Decision

Lawrence Donegan on Michelle Wie's European Masters exemption:

"Michelle has demonstrated her outstanding golfing skills to a global audience as both an amateur and now as a professional, and we look forward to welcoming her," said George O'Grady, the chief executive of the European tour - a remarkable volte-face by a man who had previously been sceptical about offering women invitations to play in men's events.

Eight months ago O'Grady dismissed the practice as a "gimmick". But in golf nothing speaks as loudly as sponsorship money. The European Masters is sponsored by Omega and Wie this year signed a sponsorship deal with the watchmakers.

Update on 2006-05-16 03:31 by Geoff

Wie advances to Sectional Qualifying with a 72 in windy conditions, becoming the first woman to advance from the Local Qualifying.

Hopkins Reviews Wentworth West Renovation

John Hopkins in the Times reviews the redesigned West Course at Wentworth, which has been getting universally wretched reviews from devotees who have seen it.

It has regained some of its testing qualities and although there are a couple of places where Els’s enthusiasm might have overruled his sense of what Colt was trying to do, he has, overall, updated the 80-year-old masterpiece with reverence. Take the 6th and 8th holes, for example.

He proceeds to describe many strange sounding features, which I just didn't have the heart to copy and paste. Young children might be reading.

One had not realised quite how much Els knows or cares about the ground beneath his feet and the trees and shrubs that line the fairways. Spend time with him on a golf course and you understand not only that he has an appreciation of colour and beauty but that he has a devilish eye for where to position bunkers. This is not to mention details he has at his fingertips, such as the width of a fairway, the roll of a bunker, the borrow of a green.

One appears to be starstruck too. 

Coltart: "Golf has so little culture today"

John Huggan catches up with Andrew Coltart, who has plenty to say about the state of the game. My kind of rant:

"The explosion in distance that has come with the new clubs and balls over the last few years has hurt players like me. I can't comprehend how far some guys hit the ball now. It used to be that the wide, erratic hitter was punished, but that is not the case any more. Not as much anyway."

Underlining the sad truth that golf at the elite level is now more about power than pure skill is the fact that Coltart's average drive has stretched by more than 15 yards since he battled Tiger Woods at Brookline in 1999. As he has grown more powerful, however, many of his fellow competitors have exploded past him, encouraged by the lack of due diligence shown by golf's administrators when it comes to equipment.

"Courses on tour today are set up to encourage players to bomb away off the tee," claims Coltart. "Which is admittedly exciting, especially for the less sophisticated spectator or viewer. But it doesn't help guys like me, those whose games are built around accuracy.

"Then there are the sprinkler systems courses tend to have in the fairways, but not anywhere else. The water runs off into the first couple of yards of rough. That grass gets thick in a hurry. But ten yards further out, the rough isn't nearly as lush. So the bombers get more encouragement. They get to hit from relatively sparse rough and they are 60 yards closer to the green.

"Also, greens are generally too soft. So the big hitters are able to 'plug' wedges and 9-irons in there. In contrast, hard and fast greens would encourage a bit more thinking, and make the game a bit more strategic. But playing for position never enters the long driver's head these days. Every hole is a 'wellie' off the tee, and a gouge from the rough. I see so many guys making birdies from the long grass and the trees - because they are so close to the green after the drive. It's mind-blowing."

Coltart is not only concerned with the negative effect all of the above has had on his career. Unlike so many others, he recognises the wider and longer-term implications for golf.

"I think the game has diminished over the last decade or so," he says with a shake of the head. "Shot-making and shaping have all but gone. Round the greens we all play the same boring lob shot with our 60-degree wedges. Golf today is a lot like tennis. They stand up there and it is 'smash' 15-love, 'smash' 30-love and 'smash' 40-love.

"But few people are watching that. Instead, they are looking at the clock that says the ball was hit at 150mph or whatever. Now, golf is all about the 350-yard drive. There have apparently been 881 drives longer than that on the PGA Tour so far this year. Success is measured on distance from the tee rather than tournaments won. It's a circus.

"The mass appeal of distance has overtaken any other approach to the game. Golf has so little culture today. It was great when Seve was playing the way he did. He was artistic. Where is the artistry now? There is no artistry. Or feel. Ask a young guy to hit a little knock-down shot into a green, and he a) doesn't know how, and b) wonders why he should bother. It's depressing.

"I never see guys holding shots up against the wind. The money has a lot to do with that. They figure they can go for the flag every week. When they are on, they will shoot eight under par and win a huge cheque. And when they are off, well, there is always next week.

"If they were baseball players, they would all be home-run hitters who strike out a lot."

Finchem Is Talking Bunkum...!?

Alan Campbell in the Sunday Herald may have to pay for a Tour media guide after this little WGC inspired column:

...what is despicable is the conduct of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Not content with ruling the roost over a circuit which is the Premiership to Europe’s Coca-Cola Championship, this myopic golf controller has annexed the so-called world golf championships for the greater good of Uncle Sam. Next year all three WGC events will be staged in the United States, just as they will in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Finchem’s defence? “They’re staged at a level which can pay significant prize money,” said the PGA Tour commissioner. “That costs money.”

Pausing only to let this staggering sliver of logic sink in, Finchem continued: “The American marketplace is best suited to generate those kind of resources. I think that’s why, historically, three of the four Major championships are in the United States.”

Finchem is talking bunkum, as the American marketplace wasn’t involved in the evolving of the Majors. He compounds his error by inviting the question: given that the United States already has the cream of world golf’s championships, why does it need to selfishly syphon off the next tier?

And...

The unwillingness of the Phil Mickelsons and Davis Loves to rack up transatlantic air miles is, along with the financial muscle of US corporations and the dictates of the American television networks, the reason why the world golf championships have become almost as big a misnomer as the World Series in baseball.

John Daly and Woods are just about the only two high profile Americans prepared to leave the country for anything other than the Open Championship. While both are paid handsomely in appearance money, they see the bigger picture. “There should be at least one [WGC] every year somewhere other than America,” said Woods. “Obviously the market is huge here, but it is a world game and any opportunity to get the best players to other parts of the world is a great way to grow golf.”

The PGA Tour have cemented the WGC events into their revamped schedules, which start from next year. It stinks, but then money usually does.

Jakartagate Redux

Alistair Tait wonders why Monty's Jakartagate incident went away so quietly. Maybe Tait is just trying to make sure those Ryder Cup team meetings are extra fun!

"It's not even a tough par-4!"

Reader Josh noted that the 517 yard-par 5 18th at The Vines, site of last weekend's European Tour event won by Kevin Stadler, played to an average of 4.14.

That prompted this remark from Mike Clayton: “It’s not even a tough par 4!”

I'm suspecting the first at Riviera will look the same way this week. Last year it was hovering in the low 4.3 area, and that was in two wet, cold rounds playing as long as possible.   

Tait on WGC's

Alistair Tait calls the PGA Tour's original pledge for the World Golf Championships "hogwash" while looking at the power struggle won this time by Tim Finchem.

More WGC Talk

An AP story on the lack of world in World Golf Championships.

 "We're in the planning process," Finchem said. "We would like to play a full-fledged World Golf Championship in the fall in Asia. It's premature to say where, but our intent is to do something next year."

This might be the only avenue Finchem has to Asia, a market he covets.

Covets it so much that I understand from a reliable source that they've already signed on with a site in Asia.

So why are they waiting to announce it? 

Huggan On WGC's

Well so much for wondering when writers would notice that the PGA Tour has anchored the "World Golf Championships" in the U.S.

John Huggan vents on Golfobserver. Make sure you read all of this one. The highlights:

There was, given the reaction of the other Federation members, not so much as a warning phone call from Ponte Vedra. Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour, had simply done what was financially expedient for his organization and members. And everyone else? They could, as my granny used to say, take a running jump to themselves.

As an example of corporate arrogance, it was breathtaking. As an example of international cooperation and friendship, it was, to put it in crude Scottish parlance, piss-taking. 

It was also, of course, an example of blatant hypocrisy. While the PGA Tour wants the kudos that goes with being seen to metaphorically join hands with their 'friends' across the oceans, they also have no intention of listening to anything said in anything but an American accent. 

Make sure to check out the chart of WGC venue sites accompanying the column. 

Els: "...called the World Golf Championships, aren't they?"

I wonder about it here, it comes out over there. Paraphrasing Albert Brooks's character in Broadcast News of course.

It seems that the lack of "World" in the WGC is on the minds of European Tour players too. 

James Corrigan in The Independent: 

Cue outrage, and not only at the European Tour Players' Committee meeting here at the Emirates Golf Club on Tuesday, but also, more intriguingly, from Woods yesterday. "Of course, the WGCs should be held in other places rather than just America," said the world No 1. "It's our responsibility to play around the world and grow the game as much as we can." Ernie Els, the world No 5, concurred. "It's crazy," said the South African. "They're called the World Golf Championships, aren't they?"

So what can the European Tour do about it? Nothing much, or so it seems if their gloomy statement is anything to go by. "We have communicated our disappointment," it read, "and can confirm that we did offer to host one of the World Golf Championships, but this was rejected."

Update on 2006-02-02 14:52 by Geoff

Thanks to Tuco for this more extensive follow up on the WGC's, which says the sponsors have stipulated that the existing three are played inside the U.S., while the World Cup is still definitely alive and well. The story also includes a few more quotes from players critical of the setup.

Seve: The Long Goodbye

Norman Dabell in the Telegraph:

It is the news that many were expecting long before now: Severiano Ballesteros, winner of five major titles, Ryder Cup inspiration on and off the course, and once the world's most revered golfer, has announced his retirement.

Don't have to be playing actively to retire? Sorry, continue Norman...

However, before Seve's fans go into mourning, he won't be hanging up his clubs until 2011, when he will be 54. By that time, he reckons, he will no longer have that legendary desire to beat the world, especially Americans, he has had for over three decades.

He's announcing his retirement five years in advance? Cher's farewell tour wasn't this long. 

The Future of the European Tour (And Golf)

John Huggan looks at the impact the new PGA Tour TV deal will have on the European Tour and his general thoughts on why the Tour had a hard time getting an ideal package.

Despite the tedious and prolonged protestations of certain equipment companies apparently unconcerned with a big picture that isn't painted solely by their own bottom lines, maybe the public really is jaded by the one-dimensional crash-bang-wallop nature of a modern game in which shot making, imagination and flair have taken distant back seats to power.

It happened in tennis, so it can happen in golf.

So as the sublime touch of John McEnroe has morphed into bashers like Andy Roddick, so Tom Watson will become Bubba. I know which I'd prefer to watch.

Huggan Visits With Clarke

John Huggan lets Darren Clarke do the talking.