"Specifically, each member of the PGA TOUR Communications team is responsible for measurable results"

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This is from the May Golf Writers Association of America newsletter. It's a "note from the communications staff" in Ponte Vedra.

PGATOURMBASPEAK bingo boards at the ready?

“The PGA TOUR has introduced a new initiative to engender, among all members of the Communications team, more ownership in the results of individual media outlets. Specifically, each member of the PGA TOUR Communications team is responsible for measurable results -- number of stories published or aired in print, television, radio and internet -- for two to three particular Top 50 or PGA TOUR tournament markets. Similar assignments have been made for national media, such as USA Today, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, ESPN.com, Yahoo!Sports.com etc.”

It's as if they take words and say, let's put them in a blender and make them as difficult to read as possible.

I just want to know Ty, who is assigned to me?  

Seriously, who has the job of counting ownership results? And if the results are just a bunch of negative stories about slow play or John Daly's latest hiccup, does that hurt your ownership stake? 

Turnstile Lays Off 14; Post-Noose Cover Ad Revenue Decline To Blame?

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With great regret I learned tonight that 14 of our friends in the publishing business lost their jobs. According to my sources, declining ad revenue was cited as a reason for the cuts at Turnstile Publishing, which houses Golfweek along with other titles.

No one milked Golfweek's noose cover debacle more than I did, however, it's depressing to think that major advertisers are still staying away from the publication in the aftermath (come on, let's move on Carlsbad!). Jobs have now been lost as a result of a mistake that has been apologized for and the editorial quality of an important publication may be taking an unnecessary hit.

Among the casualties were three on the editorial side at Golfweek, including one of my favorite writers, Scott Hamilton, who broke several major business stories and was just developing a strong voice in the limited space provided for Golfweek's media column. I know Scott will land somewhere and someone's publication will be much better thanks to his contributions.

 

"Well, Alex, I guess that's why I played on the tour, and you were a teaching pro."

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maar01_newtonqa.jpgGolf Digest's U.S. Open preview includes John Huggan's interview with the engaging Jack Newton. So many great stories, but my favorite involved Huggan asking Newton how he lost his BBC announcing gig:
I was commentating with Alex Hay at the 1984 Open. John Bland, Baker-Finch and Fred Couples came to the last hole at St. Andrews. The wind was into their faces off the right. The pin was left and over the Valley of Sin. Bland got up and hit his drive way left, onto the first hole. Alex said he'd pulled it, hooked it and come over the top of it. Then Baker-Finch did the same thing, maybe 20 yards farther. Alex said the same. He'd either hooked it or pulled it. So Fred gets up there and smashes it 40 yards past Ian on the same line. So Alex said the same again.

The upshot was that Bland and Ian both made 3. And Fred holed his pitch for a 2. When Couples hit his drive, I had said, on air, that all three players had gone where they did so that they would have the best angle for their second shots. They took the Valley out of play and were hitting back into the wind. Alex disagreed, again on air, which is a bit of a no-no. Anyway, Fred is interviewed. Clive Clark told him there had been some disagreement over the way he had played the last hole. So Fred says he was trying to hit a low hook up the left so that he would have the best angle and be hitting into the wind.

When we came back to the commentary box, I was expecting Alex to say something about it. But he ignored me. So I thought, Mate, you're not getting away with this. So I said, "Well, Alex, I guess that's why I played on the tour, and you were a teaching pro."

I never worked for the BBC again.

Dai Davies, R.I.P.

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Lawrence Donegan salutes Dai Davies who passed away at the age of 69 and talks to many who remember him fondly.
Davies was the golf correspondent at the Birmingham Post from 1965 until 1982, when he joined the Guardian. He retired in 2004 but continued to file stories and columns for a number of magazines and newspapers. It was, as he wrote in a note to colleagues recently, a perfect career. "I have lived the life I always wanted to, working for a newspaper I always wanted to, going to lovely places around the world, populated in the main by people I would have chosen to be with. Surely no journalist could ask for more?"

USA Today Flash: Golf Ball Has Improved!

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Jerry Potter does that informercial thing that only the USA Today has the cajones to try, this time with layering a monumental puff piece/suck up to advertisers with contributions from nearly everyone in the golf ball business. 

See if you can spot the theme here:

Garcia sealed the victory with a wedge shot on the par-3 17th island hole when the ball stopped 4 feet from the cup. Garcia's skill certainly was a factor, but all players are finding that the current generation of golf balls is far better than anything in the past.

Next...

Statistics can be misleading, but victories aren't. Titleist, which dominates the PGA Tour in players, has 11 wins this year; Nike has six, including Trevor Immelman's win at The Masters.

Callaway has two wins, but on the LPGA tour Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam have combined to give Callaway eight wins in 11 tournaments.

Clearly, the golf ball, whether a three-piece or a four-piece construction, is better than in past generations.

And finally...

As Nike's rep to the pro tours, Rick Nichols often pitches a new golf ball design to his father, Bobby Nichols, a former touring pro, who at 72 is all but retired from tournament golf.

"He always says, 'The ball is the same size as it used to be, isn't it? And, it's still round isn't it?' " Rick says.

The answer is yes to both questions, but today's golf ball is closer to perfect than at any time in the game's history.

And better than in past generations!

Come on Wally, even you had to find this one painful to read. 

The Final Round Of The Players Took...

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...how long? I've been told by a few people it was 4 hours, 40 minutes. The last pairing teed off at 2:30 according to PGATour.com and Paul Goydos missed his par putt on 18 at 7:10. 

But to confirm, I thought this pretty relevant statistic would be mentioned in a game story. I've searched them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. No luck. Plenty of mentions of 40 m.p.h. winds, but no mention of an equally important stat noting that the grueling round took an hour longer than a normal PGA Tour twosomes round.

Isn't that kind of important to know, particularly with all of the recent slow play talk?

"But it is clear that, like the rest of us, the St Andrews-based governing body has had enough."

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dawson_26010t.jpgI finally had a chance to look over the press accounts of Peter Dawson's press conferences. Dawson offered something unprecedented in the history of golf's governing bodies: outlining architectural revisions to world class courses, all ideas of the R&A.

Knowing that anything architecture and nuanced is tough for the slingers to get their arms around, I was not surprised to read that they ran with the spin that R&A was not excessively lengthening rota courses. Nor was I expecting to find serious stories questioning the absurd notion of changing golf courses just so the R&A doesn't have to regulate equipment in any meaningful way.

I was, however, shocked to read that the R&A is on a mission to speed up play!

Dawson answered a simple question about slow play and a series of follow ups, eventually revealing that the topic had been added to the docket next time golf's suits convene to assure each other that golf in the Olympics will grow the sport and to pat each other on the back for working together on drug testing (which many of them resisted).

Check out the rave reviews for the R&A apparent determination to rid the game of slow play.

James Corrigan in the Independent:

Having watched in despair - not to mention boredom - as the final two-ball took five hours, 10 minutes to complete the final round of the Masters earlier this month, the R&A realised something must be done about what Peter Dawson, their chief executive, agreed was rapidly turning into “a cancer in golf“.

Douglas Lowe in the Herald:

The R&A have now placed slow play on the agenda for the meeting of the World Golf Foundation immediately after the Players' Championship next month in Florida. The foundation, comprising key power brokers in the game, was set up 14 years ago to help growth of the game while preserving traditions.

Iain Carter writing for the BBC:

And it is clear the R&A will be following a similar path as it sets about dealing with the biggest evil in the game at the moment, slow play.

But it is clear that, like the rest of us, the St Andrews-based governing body has had enough.

Had enough? He answered a question!

Richard Williamson in the Liverpool Daily Post:

The R&A is also keen to help cut down on the problem of slow play in the sport.

Speaking at Royal Birkdale, venue for this summer's Open Championship, Dawson urged a worldwide crackdown on the snails who are making golf less attractive and driving people away from the sport.

It's touching to read these breathless accounts of a topic that only came up after tough questioning. It's also odd to find that not one of the writers considered that just possibly the R&A and USGA's lax work on equipment regulation might have led to changes in the game that force the redesign of courses, or dare I say, play to slow down because players are waiting for greens to clear.

But slow players need not worry. If the R&A is on the case, you can bet any significant proposals will be tabled for years to come. 

"Or do we just like losing golf balls and shooting high scores?"

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28golf.3.190.jpgThere should be a rule at the New York Times: don't let anyone besides Larry Dorman write about golf.

Exhibit A? Check out Bill Pennington's links golf lede. It sounds more like it came from a story assignment email:

What is it about links-style courses that has made them so popular with American golfers and golf designers? Is it because they remind us of golf’s Scottish seaside roots? Is it the blind shots? The pot bunkers?

Or do we just like losing golf balls and shooting high scores?

Golfers in the United States are drawn to the many links-style courses that have sprouted nationwide. We pay from $75 to $400 a round for the right to get battered across 18 distinctive holes.

Who would have thought that tall fescue, which you can grow in your backyard without trying, would have such cachet?

Pennington's piece was embellished by the video of him sporting one of Bill Murray's AT&T Pro-Am outfits. It's not Matty G Ambush video bad, but it's close.

"The American press obediently reported it like he was having a routine operation."

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For a good chuckle read Derek Lawrenson's doting account of Monty's wedding. A teaser:

For all the unrivalled splendour of the setting — whoever heard of two unbroken days of sunshine on the bonnie banks in April, for Heaven's sake? — and the lavish financial outlay, the most memorable thing about the day was the unforced happiness.

What really makes it fun though is the item a few slots below it on Tiger's knee:

So, what do we make of the fact that a supreme athlete like Tiger Woods requires six weeks to get over arthroscopic knee surgery?

The American press obediently reported it like he was having a routine operation. But if footballers are back playing a fortnight after having cartilages repaired through arthroscopic surgery, how standard can the procedure be when Woods needs three times that length of recuperation before he can play golf?

Obediently reported?

Well, based on that account of Monty's wedding, he would know about that kind of reporting.

"His aura is also propagated by the American media, for whom the word sycophantic barely scratches the surface."

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Martin Johnson on Tiger's relationship with the U.S. media...tough, but funny!
His aura is also propagated by the American media, for whom the word sycophantic barely scratches the surface. When a fellow golfer (Phil Mickelson, Rory Sabbatini, Fuzzy Zoeller, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia) says something Woods doesn't much care for, they are all sentenced to a spell of 'purdah' on the back of Woods' intolerance of any kind of inference that he might be mortal.

He is never criticised for this by the American press, some of whom are handpicked for having their own egos massaged by the man himself. Those reporters who are onside with Woods are rewarded by being addressed by name at a press conference. To those that are not, he finds a way of conveying that the question is being asked by someone a couple of clubs short of a full set.

"Do you play in a Ponce?"

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coar01_ambush.jpgThe Advocate called, they want their travel story back!

Yes, as strange as it was to read a review of a flaming red Mercedes coupe in the April Golf Digest, that oddity was supplanted by Matt Ginella's wince-worthy piece on "Ponces" (groups of straight men going on buddy trips that would set off Dr. Freud's radar). But the whole thing gets even more entertaining with an online video of the not particularly compelling "ambush" of this fabulous, fabulous extravaganza.

Come on, hit the link, you know you like the torture.