"It just goes to show..."

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Lawrence Donegan on the day one massacre at Wentworth:
As the old golf saying doesn't go, to lose one favourite in the first round at Wentworth is careless but to lose three-quarters of them is likely to evoke the hoariest of sporting clichés.

"It just goes to show that anyone can beat anyone on any given day," chimed the likes of Colin Montgomerie, Shaun Micheel and Paul Casey here yesterday after defying the seedings to progress to the last eight of the World Match Play.
Meanwhile, Martin Johnson writes about Monty in a column you won't want to miss.
There is no one quite like him for fitting PG Wodehouse's description of golfers who get distracted by the sound of butterflies in an adjacent meadow, and reincarnation theorists would be fairly confident in the belief that he must have lived out a previous existence as a bat. So quite how Monty does so well around Wentworth — three PGA titles and one World Matchplay — is a bit of a mystery.

With the roadways winding through the trees resembling the M25 at times, there are more distractions here than on almost any other course you could mention. Little wonder Monty had a mild attack of road rage yesterday, although, this being a large and exclusive residential estate, one of the drivers he was waving his arms at could have been delivering Ernie Els' groceries.

To Play The Scottish Open?

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John Huggan wonders if it's a good idea to play the Scottish Open on mushy Loch Lomond before turning to links golf at the Open Championship.

Famously, Tiger Woods has never felt inclined to make his way to the bonnie banks, preferring instead to warm up for the game's oldest and most important event on the links of Ireland with various friends and assorted millionaire bookmakers. And many have followed suit, or are going to. Take Michael Campbell.
"For about the past five to six years, I have been playing the Scottish Open the week before the British Open, but not this year," said the 2005 US Open champion only the other day. "Unfortunately, Loch Lomond is not the ideal course to hone your game in readiness for a British Open.

"It is just common sense to warm up by either practising on a British Open host venue or on a similar links-type course. Phil Mickelson has already been over to Hoylake getting used to the course and that's what I will be doing."
And... 

...it is the softness and invariable wetness of the beautiful Tom Weiskopf-designed layout that is keeping them away. Four days of hit-and-stick golf is hardly the best preparation for the fast-running links that is Hoylake. Think chalk and cheese.

Add in the fact that top-level golf is these days hardly ever played by the seaside and the case for absenting oneself from the undoubted charms of Loch Lomond is a tough one to answer. Like it or not, the game's best players are increasingly a one-dimensional bunch. It isn't that they are not capable of playing the wide variety of shots called for on a humpy-bumpy links; they are. It is more that, on circuits and courses that more and more offer the exact same challenges and shot-values week after tedious week, they are simply not called upon to do so. With neglect comes less competence.

"his putting can resemble a form of electric shock treatment"

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Thanks to reader Chris for noticing this unusually fun writing from Mark Reason in the Daily Telegraph. Reason was covering the bizarre events at the French Open and filed this story on July 2.

Michael Campbell was leading the French Open by three strokes standing on the 17th tee. Half an hour later he had hit three drives, lost one ball, had another kicked by a lady in a pink hat, had a third mistakenly picked up by his partner's caddie, received more rulings than handed down by an entire session of the House of Lords, and finished the hole by putting out twice. It was beyond strange.

The sequence started when Campbell slashed his opening drive wildly to the right. Initially he thought he had found it in bounds, but it turned out to be neither his ball nor in bounds. So back to the tee he went and carved the ball away for a second time. Thinking that this, too, was out of bounds, he then pulled a provisional drive into the rough on the left.

In fact Campbell's second ball had careened into the tents and hit a lady on the knee. Her first touch was not the best, so she chased after the ball, flicked it with her right foot, brought it under control with her left and then ran upfield with her blouse mercifully not pulled over her head. By the time the ball had finished rolling it was back in bounds.
And this made me cringe...the dreaded "didn't fit their eye" which, I understand usually does some have truth to it, but still...
Many of the top players claim that Golf National, one of the top courses on the circuit, doesn't "fit their eye". It must certainly come as a shock to be playing a course that doesn't allow them to wallop their driver 100 yards west into Frau Schmidt's cucumber frame and then claim a free drop under that week's local rule. But the colossal prize money - 666,660 euros to the winner - has attracted one of the best fields of the season and even the last-place prize money would be more than Barry Jaeckel would have earned for winning the French Open in 1972.
"Barry who?" you may well ask, but the 50-something-year-old Jaeckel turned out to be a cove. He once walked off the course in the middle of a tournament for no apparent reason. He says: "I just short circuited, I felt very crowded." The son of Richard Jaeckel, an accidental character actor who made countless films from the Sands of Iwo Jima with John Wayne to The Dirty Dozen, Barry opted for a life in golf because there were too many "strange" people in films. Jaeckel's final drive of the French Open was a vicious duck hook that was heading for a wasteland of gorse and water. He stormed off the tee quite oblivious to the fact that one of his playing partners was anxious to hit a provisional. His partner waved the ball at Jaeckel's back, then smiled, shrugged and started walking himself. Strange.
And saving the best for last...
Bobby Clampett was another welcome diversion from the tour's usual diet of white-trousered Swede. Some may remember that Clampett, something of a "phenom" in his youth, once led the Open by seven shots after five holes of the third round. He then exploded, perhaps afraid of his own theory that "with great players there is almost something wrong with them."

But here Clampett was in France, his youthful curls going much the same way as Art Garfunkel's, his ball striking still a joy to watch. Unfortunately his putting can resemble a form of electric shock treatment. Clampett is sponsored by Yes Golf - "no other putter in the world is as accurate".

The problem is that the static from Clampett's hair combined with his self-confessed excitement at this amazing product rendered his putter as useful as a lightning rod.

Huggie and Monty

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...Sounds like a wonderful BBC movie, but not yet. In the mean time, Huggan has the pen, Monty, well, himself:

There was one big difference between the other challengers and Monty, of course. While they managed to maintain the highest standard of etiquette during what turned out to be a traumatic afternoon for all concerned, the same cannot be said for our tartan hero.

Adding to his already lengthy list of crass and boorish behaviour over the years, Monty managed, in less than half an hour, to alienate the gallery around the 17th tee, make unwarranted physical contact with a New York state trooper and offend the United States Golf Association. This made three mean feats and no mean feat, if you know what I mean.

Huggan on Euro Scheduling, Wentworth's Redesign

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John Huggan's Sunday in The Scotsman ;) column looks at the European Tour's scheduling dilemma, the Fed Ex Cup, and Ernie Els' redesign work at Wentworth. Naturally, he's skeptical.

The biggest thing on O'Grady's mind is easy to identify. Next year, America's PGA Tour will embark on a radical new schedule climaxing with something called the Fed-Ex Cup, a 'play-off' series modelled on the mystifyingly-successful NASCAR, in which cars drive round and round in endless circles to no obvious purpose.
Regarding the European Tour...
With more and more of Europe's leading players spending more and more time in the US, the traditional European Tour schedule will have to adjust. For instance, the British Masters, which was held at the Belfry three weeks ago, will move to September to avoid a clash with the Players Championship, which will switch from March to May.
"It will become readily apparent when we refine our 2007 dates where we're trying to focus ourselves. We spent a lot of effort with various players to find the right period to put tournaments in. We are examining where we are with the PGA Tour, because they bring a welter of marketing muscle and money to any situation."

Allow me to decode. Without actually saying so - the man is a diplomat - O'Grady is alluding to the fact that the PGA Tour in the shape of commissioner Tim Finchem is a classic bully, who couldn't care less about the effect of his actions on anyone other than his members. For the good of the game is not a phrase that the former Washington lobbyist is too familiar with.
On the upside, many doubts remain about the long-term success of the Fed-Ex series thingy. The suspicion here is that, as with so many things in golf, it will come down to the level of interest that one Tiger Woods can muster. If the world No.1 decides that he has better things to do, like winning the major championships that history will actually remember, the whole thing will quickly fold.

Which would not be good news for Finchem. If recently- released viewing figures are anything to go by, America's ever-shortening attention span is causing many of Uncle Sam's nieces and nephews to reach for their remotes when a golfer appears on their TV screens - Tiger or no Tiger. Should the Fed-Ex series fail to deliver - sorry, couldn't resist that - it is hard to imagine where the PGA Tour would go next. China, probably. Still, all of that is for the future.

As for Wentworth...

Even at the new, turbo-charged Wentworth, misgivings remain. Take Ernie Els's new fairway bunkers - one left, one right - on the opening hole. While O'Grady enthused about how their presence would provoke players into thinking on the tee, it was hard not to shake one's head inwardly.

Rather than encouraging thought and choice, the traps dictate only how the hole has to be played. As things stand, the drive is now merely a test of execution - can you hit it between the bunkers?

Had Els placed one or more bunker up the left side, which offers the more favourable angle into the distant green, and merely left the right side as it was, the players would have been offered a genuine option. Driving close to the bunker would bring reward in the shape of an easier approach; playing safe down the right would take the sand out of play, but leave a more difficult second shot.

That's called strategy, folks.

Come to think of it, a bunker stuck right in the middle of the fairway would have been better. That really would have made the players ponder.

Huggan On Harrington

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John Huggan devotes his Scotland on Sunday column to Padraig Harrington.

In an era when the explosion in club and ball technology has all but eliminated any need for shot-shaping, imagination and flair from those at the sharp end of the game, "one-dimensional" is an easy label to hang on many leading professional golfers. While hitting the same straight shot time after time may make them feel consistent, the reality is that such tedium is but one reason that so many American viewers are reaching for their flickers whenever the PGA Tour appears on TV screens.

Still, let's not condemn them all. Not Padraig Harrington, anyway. Not if his performance during last Wednesday's BMW Championship pro-am is an accurate indication of his versatility.

 

Els Messes With Wentworth To Help Euros End Majors Drought

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This is just the kind of Ernie Els quote that makes you feel so glad Max Behr, H.S. Colt and Alister MacKenzie aren't around today:

"I know I could be getting some stick from the guys for what's been done, but at the end of the day they will be better equipped for the majors," said Els. "Anybody going to the U.S. Open will have a much better feel of what they are going into. Miss a shot in a major and you're either in rough, a bunker or in danger of three-putting."

Take That, Monty!

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Peter Dixon reports in the Times on Darren Clarke's anti-Monty act of sportsmanship.

Clarke, on six under par, had been leading the field by two strokes when play was called off on Sunday and he would have felt uneasy knowing that his ball was lying in deep rough after a wayward drive off the 9th tee. He knew that the slightest slip and a chasing pack that included Björn and Paul Casey would be ready to pounce.

On his return to the scene, however, Clarke found that the leprechauns had been at work overnight. Where once the ball had been buried, surrounded by long, wet grass, it now sat proudly on a good lie, with the surrounding grass flattened. The green had suddenly been brought within range.

Had it been done deliberately or by curious onlookers walking around the ball? Who knows? But as far as Clarke was concerned — having been told by the referee that he could play the ball as it lay — he had no intention of taking advantage of the situation.

For a recap on Colin Montgomerie's "Jakartagate" episode and the bad blood between Clarke and Monty, check out John Huggan's Golfobserver.com column from a few months back.

Meanwhile, here's Clarke explaining his move, with questions from the Mutual Admirat... the assembled scribblers:

Q. Talk about 9, you acted with incredible integrity?

DARREN CLARKE: That's part and parcel of the game. I had a lie when I went back out this morning, a lot of people had been looking for the ball and a lot of people had flattened the grass around it. It was a much better lie than what I left it yesterday. I come back to it and could have put it on to the front of the green if I had done, so just decided best thing to do, chip it out like I would have last night.

Q. You may not have won the Irish Open but you've won a lot of people's hearts; well done.
Who let Jimmy Roberts into the press room?

Huggan On State of Euro Tour, Monty

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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

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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.