New Book On History Of Equipment Regulation, Brought To You By Titleist!

Remember, I just copy and paste this stuff and slap it under the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up-files. From Titleist PR:

FROM STICKS AND STONES: AN ESSENTIAL READ FOR ALL GOLF ENTHUSIASTS

Former USGA Technical Director Frank Thomas Details the Evolution of Golf Equipment Rules

Fairhaven, MA (May 25, 2011) – One of the men most involved in writing the rules that set the boundaries for today’s golf equipment is setting the record straight in his new book, From Sticks and Stones, a comprehensive history and analysis of golf’s equipment regulations and their effects on the game.

Wow, how courageous, he's going to reveal how he blew the pooch! Got to love a good tell-all.

Written by Frank Thomas with Valerie Melvin, From Sticks and Stones dissects all the equipment-related provisions in the Rules of Golf, and explains why they were written, what they were meant to achieve and evaluates their relevance today.

I'm sure that'll have quite the honest, forthright look. It's not like Wally himself is contributing a press release blurb or anything.

"Frank Thomas has written the definitive book on the evolution of equipment as it pertains to the Rules of Golf,” said Wally Uihlein, Chairman and CEO, Acushnet Company, manufacturer of the Titleist and FootJoy golf brands.  “As the Technical Director of the United States Golf Association for more than a quarter century, Thomas was at the forefront of the decision-making process by the game's ruling bodies during the most active and critical periods in the history of golf.  He always kept the best intentions of the game top of mind and provided a voice of reason, often in the face of criticism. From Sticks and Stones is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the game and how golf equipment has evolved over the past century."

Well, at least I know what'll be my light, whimsical summer reading.

Q&A With Adam Schupak, Part 2

Here is the remainder of my email Q&A with Adam Schupak, author of Deane Beman: Golf's Driving Force.

Part 1 can be read here.

Q: Beman righthand man Tim Finchem seems to be under-represented while many other Beman cohorts share all sorts of great memories and insights. Did you interview the current Commissioner?

AS: Finchem cooperated. He’s a busy man so at his request we spoke by phone. On each occasion, we ran over the allotted time. When I realized I hadn’t touched on his role in The Presidents Cup and some other topics, he squeezed me in and gave me some good details. Perhaps I didn’t direct quote him as much. I’m not sure he gave the most colorful quotes. He did tell me about the photo of the two of them on his office wall with Beman’s inscription, which I ended up using both in the book and as the inside-cover photo. And I sensed sincerity when Finchem told me he wished Beman had stayed longer and that he wasn’t lusting for the job. Finchem said he expected to have to go elsewhere to run a business.
 
If there was a disappointment, Finchem didn’t provide many recollections on grooves or the intimate details from the negotiations I hoped for from someone who served as the Tour’s point-person on that topic. Then again, he didn’t get where he is today by baring his soul to writers.   
 
 
Q: Beman says he wouldn't have retired when he did had he known the governing bodies and tour would drop the ball on regulating distance. But wasn't he weakened by his decision to take on PING?
 
Beman already was moving forward to conduct additional research in grooves and golf balls after he settled with Ping. He felt he was in a stronger position because Ping had agreed to the terms of an equipment advisory board. Sure, there were more hoops to jump through, but as long as the Tour didn’t act in an arbitrary nature and convinced the independent group that a rule change should be mandated, the Tour had the authority to make its own rules. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve been told that it would be much more difficult to prove an antitrust suit under such circumstances.

 
Q: How was he to work with and how did your interview sessions work?
 
He was a journalist’s dream in that he kept everything, and entrusted me with board minutes dating back to the Joe Dey era and his personal records. They provided me with the supporting documents that added depth to my reporting and detail to the narrative. As one of his former lieutenants said to me, Deane Beman doesn’t do anything halfway. He devoted himself to explaining his story, which sometimes meant repeating the same story several times, and the book is all the better for it.


Q: Where can we buy it?

“Deane Beman: Golf’s Driving Force,” is available at Amazon.com (See Geoff’s “Current Reading” for a direct link), the Kindle store, Golfsmart.com, and any club pros or off-course retailers who want to carry the book should contact The Booklegger.

Q&A With Adam Schupak, Part 1

I reviewed Adam Schupak's new book on/with Deane Beman in last week's Golf World and to synopsize: it's fantastic. When I first heard that Schupak was penning Beman's memoirs I figured we'd get the typical reimagination of history. Instead Deane Beman: Golf's Driving Force is full of insider information, lively storytelling and a rare look into the mind of a shrewd negotiator and those he dealt with. Beman is actually just part of the book thanks to Schupak's research, which turns the book into both a history of the PGA Tour over its twenty most interesting years, but also a look into the minds of those on Team Beman and those who battled with the man.

I can't recommend this book enough. Oh and one other reason to buy it: publishers passed on it. Yet it's precisely the kind of intelligent, entertaining and practical sports business book they used to publish and sell with ease. Now they are publishing John Daly's fourth wife.

Here is part one of a two part email Q&A with Schupak, the former Golfweek writer who put this impressive piece of work together over several years.

Q: This book seemed to come out of nowhere, what's the backstory?
 
AS: Deane Beman tried to get a publisher in the late ‘90s with the assistance of IMG’s literary division. The talented author Steve Eubanks drafted a sample chapter. There were no takers. Beman showed me a file of rejection letters. They said he had waited too long and had missed his window. Why did he wait? Beman didn't want to be seen as second-guessing and making a difficult job any more difficult for Finchem, his successor.
 
So the book idea died for a while. I approached him in 2005 with a proposal after I finished grad school. I still owned my little place in Ponte Vedra and writing a book on Beman was my plan to return there. He turned me down. I got a job with Golfweek and put the Beman book on the backburner. He fiddled with the idea again and one day in 2009, Beman emailed me. It was one line: “I’m ready to do a book. Are you still interested?”  
 
He gave me permission to tell agents I had his cooperation and he gave me time and access to info as I wrote sample chapters and a treatment for a book effort. I talked to some big name agents in the business. One prominent agent was a family friend, another had a stable of perennial best-selling authors, and a fellow writer recommended his agent. No one believed in the book. This was pre-kindle, economy in the tank, and publishers were only signing off on slam-dunks. I was an unproven commodity and Beman’s window they said had long passed. What little interest I generated amounted to transforming the book into something entirely different for sales purpose with Beman as a recurring bit character. It wasn’t the story I wanted to tell so I decided to do it my way.
 

Q: Did he place restrictions on what you could write or who you could talk to?
 
AS: The very first thing I said to him was that I didn't want to be his stenographer. He cut me off, and said, “Good. I don't want you to be. Go talk to anyone you want to. I know there are some people who still think I did everything wrong. I'm comfortable with my record.” It was the voice of a confident man, not an arrogant one, and he lived up to his promise.
 

Q: It's an unusual format in that you are doing an authorized biography, yet Beman's views seem to be maybe 30% of the information you share on each topic, the rest is your research along with the recollections of others to form what is essentially a history of the PGA Tour and also a business book. How did you envision telling his story this way?
 
AS: I never set out to write a classic biography of Beman. If you want the Konica Minolta BizHub analysis of his childhood, you’ll be disappointed in this book. I weave in some stories from his childhood that show how even then he thought big. I touch on his playing career because it’s important for the reader to understand that here was a decorated amateur champ, who walked away from a successful insurance practice to turn pro, and then after finishing 26th on the money list (Tour Championship qualifier in today’s terms) decides to become commissioner.
 
My premise for the book in a nutshell is everyone knows the Tour is a success today, but very few know how it became one. To me, the main figure in the making of the modern-day Tour is Beman and I treated his 20-year tenure the way David Halberstam treated the 1946 baseball season.
 
 
Q: The chapter on grooves and PING is particularly fascinating because it's the most complete re-telling of that saga, complete with some great stuff from Frank Hannigan. It's also remarkable how Beman was vindicated by the USGA's recent rule change. How did you go about researching this?
 
AS: That was the toughest part of the story to tell. It is so complex. I hope I added some insight but I made a strategic decision that it was worth telling the story of Round One so-to-speak in the groove wars between the USGA and Ping to understand why Beman and the Tour chose to take on this fight. I had to establish for the reader why he assumed this cause and why it was such a bedrock issue for him.
 
I call the chapter on the groove battle between the Tour and Ping “Soldiering on Alone,” because that’s what Beman did. He took a beating in the press. Some of the very players who pushed him to fight this fight disappeared when it got a little hot in the kitchen. Not Beman. Whether you agree with him or not, I think you have to admire a man that stands up for what he believes in when so many others are casting stones.
 
This was a fascinating section of the book to research. You have these two proud men – Beman and Karsten Solheim – who lived their lives on their own terms and both believe in their heart of hearts that they are right. I think they met their match in each other. They ran into the one other person as committed to winning. Then you have a brilliant lawyer, Leonard Decof, who is winning the case in the court of public opinion. You have the USGA whose role as the rulemaking body for the game is being challenged, and wants to preserve its place. A lot was at stake. There seems to be this assumption that the Tour would’ve lost a jury trial. I’m not so sure.
 
One of the great disappointments in writing this book was I did not get to speak to Decof. A Tour pro told me Decof was ill and I better get in touch with him soon. So I called his Providence, R.I.-office and I was told he was in Palm Beach, Fla. and to expect a call. I was delighted. I thought, “I may get to interview him in person.” If he’s willing, I’m driving south to meet him. Two days later, I logged on to your site and read your “RIP Decof” headline. As the British would say, I was gutted.
 
That disappointment was offset, in part, by John Solheim and his team of lawyers spending 2 ½ hours with me so I understood both sides of this story. John is an underrated interview. He is always candid. When he said his relationship with his father was scarred by the grooves settlement with the USGA, I could feel the pain that inflicted. I don’t think we can underestimate how big a role that played last year when Ping waived its rights to the Ping Eye2 exception to the 2010 condition of competition for grooves.

To be continued tomorrow...

Q&A With George Peper

George Peper and Malcolm Campbell have teamed with principal photographer Iain Lowe to produce True Links, a glorious take on links golf and the 200 or so truly authentic links. Instead of pandering to readers as most coffee table books tend to do, Peper and Campbell treat the reader intelligently by presenting a demanding list of requirements for a course to be considered an authentic links. In between Lowe's architecturally-informative images are wise words and a true education in links golf characteristics.

Peper was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book and life in St. Andrews, where the former Golf Magazine editor now resides.

 
Q: The title True Links suggests you are weeding out the faux links from the authentic links and you end the book with 246 courses you list as "authentic links." What inspired the idea and how did you go about doing this?

GP: About three years ago my co-author Malcolm Campbell, along with Brian Keating, the developer of Machrihanish Dunes, started something called The Links Association, whose mission is to promote, protect, and preserve links courses worldwide. At that time, they began to compile a list of genuine links. When I got wind of their project I suggested a book. Artisan liked the idea, and we were off.

Our first step was to agree on a definition—not of links per se but of linksland. As our basis we used the British Golf Museum’s definition which describes linksland as "a stretch of land near the coast on which the game is played, characterized by undulating terrain, often associated with dunes, infertile sandy soil, and indigenous grasses such as marram, sea lyme, and the fescues and bents which, when properly managed, produce the fine, textured, tight turf for which links are famed."

The maritime environment was important to us. Surely, there are many fine courses around the world that look and play like links, including some recent additions such as Sand Hills, Chambers Bay, and your own course at Rustic Canyon, but without the sea aspect you just can’t have the authentic experience of links golf.

That narrowed the field of candidates to about 500 courses, many of which were eliminated because of their playing conditions. Courses such as Pebble Beach, Old Head in Ireland, and Nefyn & District in Wales are not links, they’re clifftop courses, without the firm sand base a links course requires. Others were in tropical climates that couldn’t sustain the grasses necessary for fast-running conditions, at least not year round. Some, like Maidstone, had a few authentic links holes but not enough to characterize the course as a links. Others, like Scotscraig near St Andrews, had too many trees lining the fairways. Finally, there were a few courses, such as Le Touquet in France and Le Zoute in Belgium that had strayed from their original design and agronomy to the point that they could not longer be called links.

Working over the course of a year and with the help of a kitchen cabinet--about a dozen golf course architecture mavens around the world--Malcolm and I pared our list to a final count of 246, and with relatively little disagreement.

 
Q: You've been living in St. Andrews for some time now and based on the book, it appears you've fallen for several lesser known links. If you were an American planning a trip to the St. Andrews area, tell us what lesser-known links you'd suggest are essential stops.

GP: Actually, the only links I’ve truly fallen for is the new Castle Stuart course by Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse. That is a must play, worth every minute of the three-hour drive from St Andrews to Inverness.

For the most part, however, the well-known links are well known for a reason—they’re the best courses. There aren’t too many hidden gems. One exception in the St Andrews area would be Lundin Links, Malcolm’s home course, where an insidious little burn adds to the fun. Another is Elie, a “gentleman’s course” that’s almost always in great condition and has a couple of spectacular holes along the water.

Between Malcolm and me, we’ve played just about all of the 84 links in Scotland, and if you want the truth, about 50 of them aren’t worth the trouble—they’re either very short or relatively undistinguished. But that doesn’t make them any less true links.

 
Q: Iain Lowe is the principal photographer for True Links and you two collaborated on his new book, Golf Links of Scotland. You've worked with a lot of photographers over the years, what is it that you like about his work?

GP: Iain is a St Andrean. He appreciates that links courses have many moods, and he knows how to capture them. His aerial photography is the best in the business (he began his career shooting from the skies with the RAF). And he really cares. He will go back to a site two or three times and wait several days to get the right shot. During the final production of Golf Links of Scotland he spent two weeks at a printing press in China, ensuring that the color reproduction was spot on.

 
Q: A lot of modern tour professionals don't like the idea of playing links golf for more than a week at a time for fear of messing up their swings. Now that you mostly only play links golf, what do you say to that mentality?

GP: The rank and file U.S. pros complain too much. If, at their level, they can’t adjust to links conditions for a week without losing their swings, let them take that week off. The great players have no problem. Look at Bernhard Langer this year—he won the British and US Senior Opens on back to back weeks at Carnoustie and Sahalee.  Can you think of two more dissimilar courses—not to mention 6000 miles apart!

That said, I’ll admit that my own game has undergone some major changes since I moved to St Andrews— especially because I play most of my golf on the Old Course. Where once I had a high fade, I now have a low draw. Where once I had a great short game, I now have the yips on chip and pitch shots. In fact, the only part of my game that has improved in the last few years is the ability to two-putt from 90 feet, an absolutely useless skill anywhere else in the world.


Q: You end the book with a chapter about the future of links and golf courses and some of your hope hinges on Donald Trump proving you can build a sustainable links. That doesn't sound good for the game, no?

GP: I’m not sure what you mean there. I do think Trump’s course is going to be spectacular. I’ve walked the land a couple of times, and there’s no question the dunes he has are the largest on any links in the world—by far. I also think he made the right choice of architect in Martin Hawtree, a low-key guy who will counterbalance The Donald’s glitz to produce a course that plays dramatically through those dunes without being overpowered by them. And in contrast to Trump’s other courses around the world, this one will be relatively low maintenance and sustainable. Whether or not he succeeds with his ambitious real estate plans, the course will live happily ever after. It may not turn out to be “the best course in the world” as Trump predicts, but I’m confident it will be an important addition to the Scottish golf landscape—and the world’s 247th true links.

 
Q: At this year's Open Championship you gave a wonderful speech at the Association of Golf Writers dinner in which you pretty much let the golf establishment know they wouldn't be missed if they disappeared from the scene. Have any sheep heads turned up in your bed? What kind of reaction did you get?

GP: Thanks. I guess you’re referring to my closing rant that, if professional golf were to vanish from the earth tomorrow, golfers around the world would observe a moment of silence and then go right on play--the pros are nice but not necessary.

The reaction that night and the rest of the week was terrific and all positive. Someone sitting at Graeme McDowell’s table told me he was smiling and nodding in agreement as I spoke, and when I sat down even Monty gave me a thumbs up. I’ve since learned that the one guy who wasn’t pleased was—no surprise—Tim Finchem. I guess if I were he I’d have had the same reaction. That said, I don’t anything from my mouth or pen will ever have much effect on the PGA Tour! 

Q&A With Daniel Wexler

Daniel Wexler has added another helpful volume to his collection of great reads on golf architecture: The American Private Golf Club Guide. It's a simple, clean, easy to access volume that has found its place on my reference shelf next to The Architects of Golf and The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. Wexler profiles 1000 private U.S. courses of all shapes and sizes, offering the golfer a short write-up about its architectural merits along with historical anecdotes of note. He also includes other vitals like yardage, par, rating and website and/or club phone. And there's a twist to his rating system, which he answers in this short Q&A:

GS: This wasn't exactly a small undertaking, tell us how this book came about and how you researched the 1000 courses you selected?

DW: The book initially came about as sort of a novelty project, a volume I figured would fit a corner of the golf guidebook market that had previously been largely unexplored. Only after I got rolling did I realize that given the size and style of the course reviews (with their accent on architecture, history, etc.), this might turn into a much deeper book than initially planned. So far as research goes, I utilized an enormous range of sources beginning with my own travels, but also taking into account lots of information from various internet and literary sources, plus many people around the country whose golf opinions I trust. The goal of the book was to be candid without being opinionated – that is, to present each facility in an accurate architectural and historical context, utilizing my own opinion as little as possible.  

GS: Who is the book geared toward and how do you see it supplementing their golf experience?

DW: The traveling club golfer is the obvious starting point, but one of the things I like most about the book is that it should appeal to anyone with a serious interest in courses and course design. For the traveling golfer, its role in helping them decide where they may wish to play is clear enough. But for anyone else, it’s the only book ever published that profiles so many private facilities with any real degree of detail, providing candid portraits of far more than just the handful of great courses with which everyone is already familiar. Interestingly, the most frequent comment I’ve received regards the sort of historical material included, so I think it really does work on both levels.

GS: You give a star rating to each course called a Collectability Rating, something Tom Doak took issue with because he felt it somehow infringed on his rating system in his out of print Confidential Guide To Golf Courses. Tell us how yours is different.

DW: Tom’s system is representative of his opinion on the quality of each of the courses he’d visited, which I think, given his position in the game, is of considerable interest to people. My goal, as mentioned, was just the opposite: to remove my opinion to the greatest degree possible. Thus the Collectability Rating represents how prestigious or desirable a “get” each club might be to a player’s personal collection based upon its quality (as determined by numerous published rankings and commentaries), history, architectural significance and importance in its market. It’s an easy-to-understand five diamond scale which, so far, has been pretty well received.  

GS: You are working on follow up editions that cover public and resort courses? How are those coming along?

DW: The resort book is on schedule to be published by Thanksgiving, and covers pretty much every golfing resort in the U.S. and the Caribbean. The public course book should be out in the late spring of 2011 and will profile at least 1,000 top non-resort public access facilities nationwide.

GS: You self-published through Amazon, how did that work out compared to working with a traditional publisher?

DW: So far very well. In order to make this sort of endeavor work, a writer needs to be able to perform all the tasks normally done by a publisher, particularly editing, layout and marketing. If you’re able to do this to a reasonable degree, then self publishing is wonderful because you control every aspect of the process. No fighting with editors over stupid changes, no waiting for the book to be published, no questions over royalties. All in all, a very welcomed change. As far as Amazon goes, it’s actually done through their CreateSpace subsidiary and to date they’ve been great. They’re well organized, the process is relatively simple and so far they’ve done everything they’ve promised.

Q&A With Dan Jenkins, Vol. 3

Tuesday marks the paperback release of Jenkins At The Majors, a compilation of Dan's favorite write-ups from golf's majors. As he did the last two years (here and here), Jenkins answered the questions via email on the eve of 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

GS: I know you've been distracted by the looming World Cup, but we are returning to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open. What do you like most about the place?

DJ: Club 19 in the Lodge is what I used to like best. After that, it's 7, 8,  9, and 10. Great stretch of holes. Right up there with Amen Corner. 8 and 9 are particularly immortal. Did I once name that stretch Abalone Corner? 


GS: Pebble has produced a Hall of Fame winner every time it's hosted a major, does this mean we're due for a drone?

DJ: Pebble is probably due for a drone. Every great course gets one; sometimes more. Oakmont has it's Sam Parks Jr., Oakland Hills has its Steve Jones, Olympic has its Jack Fleck, and Baltusrol has its, well, Baltusrol.


GS: Who do you think will end up with more post-car accident major wins, Hogan or Woods?

DJ: Hogan won six majors after his accident. If Tiger Woods tops that, the good news is, I'll be dead and won't see it.


GS: You wrote that Tiger could "come back and even win again, if he man's up, but if he does he will only be a hero to the 'you-da-man' and 'get-in-the-hole' crowd. And I can't imagine him coming back as a 'humbled man.'"  How do you view his comeback thus far?

DJ: So far, his comeback is a total failure. And compared to Hogan's, it's laughable. Ben tied for the LA Open 11 months after he almost got killed, won the Greenbriar in May and the Open in June. All Tiger has done is hold a staged press conference in front of employees and hired weepers.


GS:  Phil Mickelson now has more green jackets than your man Hogan. What say you Ancient Twitterer?

DJ: Phil may have three Augustas to Hogan's two, but Ben geared his game toward U. S. Opens, of which he has five, counting the one in wartime, while Phil has a record 5 runnersup, cornering the market on silver. But I like Phil and root for him. He's good with us print guys. And he likes me. I like people who like me.


GS: So in the era of layoffs, downsizing, shrinking expense accounts and the overall demise of print, how's Jim Tom Pinch getting by?

DJ: Jim Tom is glad he lived and worked in a better world. And he has little sympathy for dying newspapers. They started digging their own graves by being spineless and politically correct.

Final word. Sorry Jenkins at the Majors is coming out in paperback before I had a chance to include Tiger's press conference for the hired weepers.

"A few sole practitioners also pursue the art."

John Paul Newport on golf poetry's possible resurgence, and it's not called Twitter.

A few sole practitioners also pursue the art. Recently I received a self-published collection titled "The Kiss That Cured My Slice" by John Ducker. The title poem describes a round with a beautiful women, never to be seen again, who inspires him to shoot his best-ever score. In another poem the poet tees it up with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince, whose ball on the greens never misses the cup and is nicknamed Purple Drain.

But surely the most avid contemporary practitioner is Leon White, a retired MIT professor and health-insurance executive from Massachusetts. He culls old magazines and books for interesting poems, and adds a few he writes himself, for weekly posts on his blog at www.golfpoet.com. Recently he's been experimenting with repurposing golf poem lines as 140-character Tweets, which he calls Twines. An example: "Had Tiger come clean before being hounded, Could he have escaped without being pounded?" So maybe there's hope for golf poetry yet.