Grey Goose Named Official Favorite Vodka Of PGA Tour VP's

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I'll spare you the entire press release announcing Grey Goose as the official hooch of the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Web.com and assorted PGA Tour-operated facilities.

But there were two buried ledes...

As part of the marketing sponsorship, GREY GOOSE will be featured in all PGA TOUR Grills, a new premium restaurant concept focusing on fresh, locally sourced ingredients, which is launching during the spring of 2014 in select airports around the United States.

When I think PGA Tour, I think locally sourced ingredients at the airport.

And it appears platform has run its course as must-use press release jargon, as activate shoots to the front of herd. This is evident when one of the class acts in the VP ranks and a possible future commissioner is even using the "a" word...

“GREY GOOSE is a premier, internationally recognized brand that has a long-standing involvement with golf,” said Jay Monahan, Chief Marketing Officer of the PGA TOUR. “We are very pleased to partner with such a respected brand and look forward to working with the GREY GOOSE team to activate on the three Tours, as well as at our TPCs and special events.”

Finchem: U.S. Golf Has Seen Continuous Growth Since Palmer

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I'm always fascinated by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem's theories on growing the game as the mastermind of The First Tee designed to teach life lessons and now a grow-the-game initiative.

Not sure I buy the view he expressed in China Sunday while launching the developmental tour PGA Tour China, which should be a hit with the Australians.

Fourth, we know from looking at the history of golf, that the growth of the game is driven first and foremost by the development of elite players who perform at a unique level. Having the opportunity to grow elite players; thus, accelerate the development of elite players in China, will also translate into the acceleration of the growth of the game in China, which is in all of our interests.

In addition to all of those reasons, I think in summary, it's clear that today's announcement is a milestone to benefit China golf, PGA TOUR, global golf, certainly growth in China, and as a consequence, it is an important day for all of us in the game.

We've got some pretty elite players in the Tiger Woods era, starting with Tiger Woods, and the game hasn't really grown has it? In fact, most barometers suggest it's contracting.

Yet Finchem expanded on his view a few moments later in the press conference:

Q. And for Commissioner Finchem, what do you see as the No. 1 benefit to the PGA TOUR, and what will be your investment?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, I think the overall fundamental situation is that the faster the growth, the faster we have growth of the game, impacts every aspect of the sport; certainly the professional side.

And because participation in the game drives, it drives viewership, it drives support for events, etc., etc., and they go hand in hand. Historically, the elite player comes first; strong growth comes second, and certainly that's been the case in the United States since Arnold Palmer came along in 1960 and it's been 40, 50 years of continuous growth.

Continuous? It must be so nice to live on Planet Tim where the flowers are always in bloom and everyone doesn't smoke, shaves hourly and takes their hats off before shaking hands.

So anything we can do to assist the expedition and acceleration of growth is very much in the interest of the professional game, but also golf as a whole.

I'm thinking speeding up play, shrinking the footprint of courses and figuring out ways to create fun, affordable facilities might be more, uh, impactful than developing pro golfers. I know, how absurd.

Stat Dude: "Long game is more important than short game."

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The inevitable re-interpretation of the amazing ShotLink treasure trove is about to start becoming a major topic in the game as Tim Rosaforte recently noted.

Jason Sobel delves into Mark Broadie's view on golf stats and mentions Broadie's upcoming book, “Every Shot Counts.” His message: "Long game is more important than short game."

“When I compare the top players on the PGA Tour, I find that the long game contributes about two-thirds to their success while the short game and putting contributes about one-third,” Broadie said. “Initially I was surprised, so I analyzed the data in different ways and found that all roads led to the same conclusion.”

For example, in any given year if you looked at the scoring average of the top 10 on the money list compared with those ranking 116-125, the scoring average differential would be about two strokes. Based on Broadie’s comparative analysis, about 1.4 of those strokes gained would come from the long game, while only 0.6 would be attributable to short game and putting.

Larry Dorman also takes a look at Broadie's book and offers a similarly positive review, though he focuses on several different elements, including this about Tiger's putting prowess getting too much love:

As the author points out, “applying math to settled wisdom,” putting accounted for an average of 28 percent of the strokes Woods gained in his 24 victories.

“This is significantly less than the winners overall average of 35 percent,” Broadie writes. “In his victories, Tiger gained 1.14 putts per round on the field, but he gained 2.94 strokes per round with his tee-to-green play.”

State Of The Game Podcast 28: Judy Rankin

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Judy Rankin is a 26-time winner on the LPGA Tour, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame as a player, and if there was ever a golf broadcasting wing, she'd be inducted again for her eloquence, class and succinct appraisals that set the standard for on-course reporting.

Judy kindly spent more than hour with the State of the Game podcast to talk about her career, the LPGA Tour, golf broadcasting and of course, the state of the game.

You can listen via MP3 here. Or to past shows the same where via this page. And the iTunes option for all past shows, or this week's episode to listen/subscribe.

"What will fewer star appearances mean for the PGA Tour and its smaller events?"

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Nice SI/golf.com Confidential today with this especially sharp discussion on the trend of stars playing less as the tour adds more.

Gary Van Sickle and Joe Passov with two vital points:

VAN SICKLE: The PGA Tour continues to eat its young. The World Golf Championships made the lower-level Tour stops seem less, then the FedEx Cup made the WGC and all the regular stops seem less. Plus the FedEx Cup "playoffs" killed the summer schedule. Players are forced to play seven of 11 weeks from the U.S. Open on (two majors, four FedEx Cup, one WGC), thus making every other date on the schedule unattractive to the top players, and therefore to potential sponsors. “Less is more” sounds like a snappy argument unless you're out of the top 50 and suddenly can play only 22 events instead of 32. It's an alarming trend.

PASSOV: If he skips smaller, Tiger-less events such as Humana, L.A., Houston and St. Jude, they're in trouble. Here in Phoenix, where we have been without Tiger since 2001, we always say, "But at least we have Phil." Nobody moves the needle like Tiger, but Lefty is a healthy second.