Gore Wins

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Jason Gore's post round press conference says it all. Some interesting stats on Gore's win at the 84 Lumber Classic:

Gore never finished higher than 18th during two previous stays on the PGA Tour, in 2001 and 2003, and had won only $40,399 on that tour this year. Now, he joins Paul Stankowski (1996) as the only winners on the developmental Nationwide and PGA tours in the same year. The portly, big-swinging Gore is the first to do so after earning the automatic in-season promotion that goes to any three-time Nationwide winner.

And here's proof that those Pepperdine preacher, err, professors didn't ruin his sense of humor:

"It's pretty incredible," said Gore, who played with a sponsor's exemption. "Around May-ish I was wondering if I could get formula for my child, if I was going to make a house payment, and now look. They just handed me a check for $792,000. It's amazing where a little perseverance and grit and maybe a little ignorance can take you."

Gore's funny, he smiles, he has perspective and he's self deprecating. (Trust me, it's those wretched religion classes they make you take in Malibu.)  He is exactly what the PGA Tour needs, and oddly, what the Tour discourages in some mysterious, perhaps unintentional way.

Kenny G Post Round Press Conference

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Never thought you'd read those words did you?

Really, it's time again to update the Rapture index. Why, you ask?

kenny g 2.jpgBecause schmaltzy saxophonist Kenny G took up a spot in this weeks Nationwide Tour event. That's the PGA Tour operated circuit where aspiring professionals play and attempt to make a living with the hope of making the PGA Tour. But that didn't stop the tournament sponsor from bequeathing a sponsor's exemption to the frizzy Grammy-award winner (oh how wrong the Grammy’s get it sometimes!). Kenny G fired rounds of 82-83—165, but made up for his absurd appearance with many Yogiesque thoughts on wasting a spot in the field:

I played with Tiger once and we talked about this kind of stuff and he said “If you know what you need to do, just do it. Don’t wait until it’s comfortable. If I’m working on something, I’m going to do it in competition. I want to know what it feels like. I said I’m not going to go back. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do.”

That wasn’t the best advice I got from Tiger. The best advice I got from Tiger was he told me to take the cashmere insert out of my driver. That’s the best advice I got from him.

Really. How special. Please, show us just how delusional you really are. Of course, you need help from someone who actually asked if your handicap index would go up after turning in your 82-83.

I don’t think my index will go up. I think the computer will spit them out. They’re too high. From the blue tees at Sherwood, you could tie one hand behind my back and I wouldn’t shoot higher than a 75 or 76. This is different. This is the big boys out here.

Yes, this the big boys. But come on, what held you back this week Kenny? 

Something’s going on with my putting. I’m going to go see Scotty Cameron and I’m going to get myself fixed up. With all that said, I haven’t worked on my putting. I’ve worked on my swing. I think I hit the ball good enough today. I just didn’t putt well enough. I think I should have been 2-3 under over my last 8 holes.

Tell us what this experience was like, you know, like, as an artist. And like, remind us how you missed your calling as one of Yogi Berra's joke writers.

As an artist, I have feel and putting is a lot of feel. I can feel it, but my body is just trained not to feel that.

For those who haven't screamed yet, consider this. Someone ask Kenny what song best describes his performance this week. I'd nominate that new duet with Richard Marx where they absolutely trample the soul out of "Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word."

The best song that suits my performance this week? It’s got to be a song that has a good heart. It has to be an innocent song and it has to have some sort of dramatic ending, but not necessarily a happy, dramatic ending. I wrote a song called “The Champion’s Theme” It’s about being a hero. It’s all in my mind; there are no words. It talks about feeling strong. I look at my score and some people might go “That guy sucks.” I look at that score and I feel really proud of what I did. I think a lot of guys might not be able to break 90-95 out here. They wouldn’t be able to do it for a lot of reasons. I feel like I really rose to the occasion. My swing came together. I didn’t lose my attitude, I didn’t get down on myself. I could have, easily.

Not Everyone Loves Shaughnessy...

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Robert Allenby obviously heard all of the raves, and simply wanted to offer a different take on Canadian Open host Shaughnessy.

Just watching on television, it's hard to understand what the fuss is all about. It's tight. The course has way too many trees, particularly of the Christmas tree green committee special type that have no place on a golf course (talk about fluky and obnoxious as Sir Harry Colt would say). The course has lots of matted rough and silly narrow fairways.

There were a couple of neat looking green contours, but the greens looked like they've shrunk a bit over the years, making the contours and modern speeds a goofy looking mix. Oh, and the bunkering is definitely forgettable.

Maybe ESPN's Tom Meeks will bring the Open alive with some crisp weekend commentary.

Rubenstein Talks To Ogilvie

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PGA Tour logo.jpgIn the Globe and Mail, Lorne Rubenstein, focused his column on Joe Ogilvie's thoughts about the state of architecture on the Tour. While Ogilvie wasn't too excited about the " blast flop" shots around the Shaughnessy greens, he did have some positive things to say about architecture and politics.

"First, it’s a novel concept to walk off a green and see a tee," Ogilvie said, comparing Shaughnessy’s walkability to sprawling modern courses that require players to use carts. "The greens are extremely small too, probably smaller than Harbour Town’s (the course in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where the PGA Tour plays every spring). I like that. Why do you need a 50-yard by 50 yard green?

"With new courses these days a developer carries a rope and stretches it 35 yards one way and 35 yards another, and then cuts a swath with no regard for the trees," Ogilvie said.

Asked what else charged him up about the course, Ogilvie had a simple and straightforward response. He’s a thinker, able to distil his ideas into cogent remarks. He’s concerned about matters beyond golf, such as the role of government—he believes the Bush administration should be raising taxes, not lowering them, a view that’s probably not popular among his fellow PGA Tour players--and he’s concerned with the vast amounts of energy we consume. Ogilvie, who referred to himself a "fiscal Republican" and a "social Democrat," drives a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car of the moment.

But back to golf, and Shaughnessy.
"What I’m getting charged up about is wondering why we haven’t been here before. I think you’ll have the highest score relative to par on tour this year, with the exception of the U.S. Open," Ogilvie said.

He also spoke about taking up his position next year on the tour’s policy board. It’s a three-year appointment. He’ll serve with Davis Love III, Scott McCarron and Joe Durant.

"I’m no shrinking violet in the boardroom," he said. "I think we can have an influence on who builds our courses. Tom Doak is talking to the tour about building a course in Milwaukee, and I’d like to see guys like David McKay Kidd (he designed the highly-acclaimed first course at Bandon Dunes in Bend, Oregon), and [Bill] Coore and [Ben] Crenshaw design courses we play. The days of [Tom] Fazio and [Pete] Dye are ending.
"You hear from players every day that they love playing courses like this," Ogilvie continued. "But now the tour is starting to listen."

They Love Shaughnessy

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From the Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun:

Jerry Kelly was not in the mood for chit-chat, so the PGA Tour veteran was succinct and to the point when asked for his opinion on Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

"It's a great golf course and I don't think we play any better on Tour, period," Kelly said after his pro-am round on Wednesday.

And this:

"This is one of the top-five golf courses on the PGA Tour already after just one practice round," said Andrew Magee. "You hear all the rumblings in the locker room and on the driving range and the players are saying this is the kind of golf course we all think we should be playing every week on Tour. This is just fabulous.

"It's just got long holes, short holes, views, trees, dogleg rights, dogleg lefts, it's got a real versatile mix of holes. It's just a beautiful place."

"It seems like you are going to have to have all of your wits about you here," said former PGA champion Jeff Sluman. "It's a shotmaker's golf course, for sure. It's not one of those courses where you can smash it and grab it. If we could play something like this every week, it would be unbelievable."

The premium this week will be on keeping the ball in fairways that have been pinched to an average of 26 to 28 yards wide. Once finding the short grass, players must then hit approach shots to greens that are tiny by PGA Tour standards.

"You have to really drive your ball straight here," said Magee. "Nobody who hits it off the fairway is going to play well this week. You have to hit it straight, you have to hit it below the hole. The greens are fast and it's just a classic golf course. It's a very fair course, but it's just tough."

"You hit it in the rough and I would say from any more than 150 yards out you are not going to be able to get to the greens," added DiMarco. "Fairway is premium this week. The greens are sneaky quick. You get on the wrong side and they can be really fast. It's playing tough."

Now, I don’t want to pick on these guys because they’ve really only seen the horribly shallow modern form of narrow fairway and high rough golf. You know, tightrope walking golf. The kind that's supposed to put a premium on ball striking and ends up turning things into a putting contest.

Anyway, wouldn’t it be neat to hear of just one course where the players say something like this:

"Placement off the tee is at a premium this week. The greens really ask you to place your tee shot depending on the hole location. There isn't much rough, but because the bunkers are such nasty hazards, you don't know what kind of lie you might get. So you really have to be careful flirting with the hazards."

Fans Perception of Technology

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Rick Arnett at SI.com received an "avalanche of e-mails dared to oppose my stance on golf being the most honest sport.” He writes that “the responses made me wonder if I'm completely unaware of the public sentiment regarding the game” because many “mirrored this comment":

You dummy! Golf's cheating is embedded in the sport like no other. It lies in the "technology." All the cheaters race to get the next "edge" in equipment others do not possess. The cheating has gotten so extreme that venerable golf courses are rendered obsolete. You are too close to the sport, dummy!

Arnett goes on to recite the usual there’s no going back and so be it if some courses are as obsolete as old Stadiums argument. Fortunately, the USGA, R&A and PGA of America believe their overall credibility, ratings and championship results are greatly improved by going to classically designed venues. And the PGA Tour does not have nearly as many course options as people think, so the "we'll just go to the 8,000 yard courses" argument isn't feasible.

Anyway, here’s the interesting thing to note. A majority of Arnett’s readers perceive that an excessive embrace of technology is viewed as cheating.

Remember what Tim Finchem warned in 2003 should this perception become reality.

"There is some point--nobody knows where it is--when the amateur player feels divorced and really doesn't appreciate the game at this level, just because it's so different that it doesn't become particularly relevant. The second thing is, if everybody is driving every par 4, it's not particularly interesting to watch.

"We are anxious, because we are continuing to see some distance enhancements in a short period of time. Unless something happens, we may have to move to-ward bifurcating the equipment specs for amateurs and professionals. In that case, we would be more involved."

Looking at the driving distance increases in recent weeks along with plenty of behind-the-scenes feedback via ShotLink, you wonder if Finchem will act. Or perhaps he just has too much on his plate with the TV negotiations. But isn't fan perception key to the negotiations? 

To his credit, Arnett does go on to suggest that the Tour needs to have a drug policy. It’s almost unthinkable that they don’t have one.