Ames and The Masters

 Stephen Ames after The Players Championship THE PLAYERS:

It was a difficult year for my wife and myself. And my boys, yeah, they probably watched it all as they came in this afternoon. They're probably sitting in front of the television watching it. It's going to be a big thrill and a wonderful vacation now.

Q. Have you spoken to Jodi yet?

STEPHEN AMES: I haven't, no.

Q. Is that going to be a two week vacation?

STEPHEN AMES: Not sure yet (laughing).

Q. Seriously, is there a possibility you won't play The Masters?

STEPHEN AMES: I have no plans of playing at Augusta. My kids have just come out of for their spring break, and we had plans to go somewhere else. My priorities have always been my family first. If it comes down to that, it's probably going to be a two week vacation, yes.

Q. What is the status of your citizenship?

STEPHEN AMES: For which country (laughter)?

Q. For your individual country.

STEPHEN AMES: I am born in Trinidad and Tobago. I am also a Canadian citizen. I live in Canada and have been there for the last 12 years.

Ah, but this rally killer was not successful...

Q. Is it possible your wife might talk you into Augusta?

STEPHEN AMES: I don't know. I'm not sure about it yet.

Q. What will determine whether you go to Augusta? Would your wife and children have to say go, pop?

STEPHEN AMES: No, I'd rather go on vacation to be truthful.

Q. So are you telling us you will not play The Masters?

STEPHEN AMES: I don't know yet. We'll see.

Update on 2006-03-27 16:09 by Geoff

Looks like he changed his mind...with the help of his family.

With This Win...

...Stephen Ames  loses the crown of best player never to have won a major championship     joins Craig Perks and Fred Funk as best players to win a fifth major without winning a Grand Slam event     reminds us that an anti-birdie, anti-distance rough harvest usually produces fluke winners     that The Players Championship will always be the fifth of four majors     joins Tiger Woods as a winner of the fifth major (The Players) and a former major (the Western Open).

Seriously, thanks Stephen for making it a runaway so we didn't have to turn away from the George Mason-UConn game.  I wanted to soak up some mighty Big East basketball before the Final Four is contested with all of those teams from conferences having down years!

And special thanks to the PGA Tour for a positively abysmal course setup that took a great design and rendered it's character virtually meaningless with excessive green speeds, lousy fairway contouring and excessive rough. 

It's Official...

...The Players Championship is a major because essayist Jimmy Roberts is dressing just like Jack Whitaker (well, minus the newsboy hat and tweed, but nothing says major like a turtleneck and bright red sweater vest).

What's next, Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme?"

Fifth Major Watch, Final 2

Thanks to reader Steven T. for noticing this subtle, affirmative (or tongue in cheek?) "fifth major" reference in Doug Ferguson's third round game story.

Scott, the 2004 winner of golf's fifth major, shot 45 on the front nine and wound up with an 82.

Meanwhile Scott Michaux takes on the fifth major question:

It's the best tournament never to be a major.

Period.

The Players Championship has a serious inferiority complex which it needn't have. It's a great event on a thrilling golf course with a terrific field. Why that can't be good enough for the folks at the PGA Tour is pitiable story of jealousy and ego.

"We already think it's No. 1," said tour commissioner Tim Finchem, the primary "fifth major" lobbyist.

It's even tried to push-promote the notion of five majors as being a natural number by declaring a full handful on its senior circuit.

And...

It kills Finchem that he can't just declare his Players to be a major and make it stick. While the designation of major status might have been a fluid concept at one point, the television era and universal acceptance made the current four events established precedent long before the Sawgrass Stadium Course was ever built.

Finchem has finally pushed his Masters envy to the extreme starting in 2007. He's given the tournament its own spring month, reduced commercial interruption on television to four minutes per hour, spread the coverage into China, approved plans for a more traditional clubhouse and trimmed the official name to a brand-hammering title - The Players.

If that's not enough, Finchem made sure he mentioned the TPC's "champions dinner" on Tuesday and has proved even more adept than Augusta National Golf Club at creating a vocabulary all its own. (See "limited commercial inventory presentation.")

Rory and Nick, Follow Up

Iain Carter in The Guardian has even more fun details on the story that NBC and various American press outlets either won't touch or completely missed.

If you missed it, here's the original story on the Faldo-Sabbatini spat, complete with a photo of Amy Sabbatini in her "Keep Up" t-shirt. Carter fills us in on the comments that Faldo made at the Booz Allen last year that were clearly on Sabbatini's mind when their pairing was announced this week, and when they were put on the clock.

'When people say that if they were paired with you they would "slow play" you, that leaves a lot of questions about their morals and professionalism,' said Sabbatini, who is aware of Faldo's observations from the commentators' booth.

In response to Amy Sabbatini's decision to plaster her 'keep up' message across her chest, Faldo, who has always taken a painstaking approach to his golf, quipped: 'I think it's very embarrassing for them to bring their sexual problems to the golf course. Poor fellow. I thought he had enough problems as it is without her announcing them to the world.'

Referring to the first-round incident when Sabbatini became enraged because the stopwatches of officialdom were deemed necessary, Faldo said: 'He completely lost his head with the official, so I don't know what his problem was. Camilo lost his ball on the 10th and that's why we were put on the clock, but we were back in place within one hole, so it was no big deal.'

Sabbatini refused to blame the six-time major winner Faldo, but he made his feelings clear when asked if he had any complaints against his playing partners. 'You know, Camilo played great, he did his part and kept playing as well as he could. He was a true gentleman out there and showed good professionalism. I'll leave it at that,' he said.

In truth, Sabbatini's biggest argument is with the way that new slow play rules were ignored in this incident. Regulations permit referees to warn and time individuals rather than the entire group and he believes that this is what should have happened. 'If players create policy then why not use it,' he said. 'I would say there was a situation that occurred that should have resulted in me not necessarily being put on the clock.'

A PGA Tour spokesman said: 'Our pace of play policy does allow individuals rather than the group to be put on the clock if we are able to determine that one player is responsible for the group being behind. In my opinion our officials do a good job on pace of play and apply it consistently.'

It Must Be a Major...

...because the course is playing the players, instead of the players playing the course. (Thank you Walter Hagen.)

Great stuff there at the Players today. Love the 8-inch ryem, and so did Ian Poulter.

Today's intensely dull 3rd round did set the stage for a major power nap that I welcomed before the big Bruin victory.

I know you traditionalists hate this trainwreck setup style that's really all about the people doing the setup and their lousy sense of self, but if I keep getting such great naps out of it, I may have to re-think it.

Thankfully, Tiger and Vijay got in a few subtle jabs about the absurdity of 6-8 inch rough on a course designed with wind in mind:

Q. Is it a PLAYERS Championship without this kind of wind?

TIGER WOODS: Probably not, probably not. This golf course was built here for conditions like this, but the only problem is now they've got six or eight inch rough. That's a little different than how the golf course is meant to be played.

It's a little different out there. If you miss fairways you're probably going to make bogeys. It's six or eight inches in spots. It's brutal. You've got to drive the ball in the fairway and then from there you've got to really understand what you're going to try to do on the greens, whether you line them up in the low spot or a high spot.

And Vijay, explaining in his own way how the rough is designed for one thing, and one thing only: take driver out of the player's hands because someone didn't regulate equipment:

Q. How many 3 woods do you hit on par 4s and 5s or drivers?

VIJAY SINGH: Drivers, I tried to hit driver on 1. I tried to hit driver on the 6th, but I really didn't need to, and on 11 and that was it. Well, I think one more, 14.

Q. So much for this course taking the strength of your game?

VIJAY SINGH: It's not a long golf course. It's one of the shortest golf courses we play on Tour. With the conditions right now getting more and more firm, you probably don't need a driver here at all. But the penalties are the small greens and angular tee shots that we have to hit. It's always at an angle. The fairways pinch in where we hit our landing areas. So it's a very tricky golf course, you might say.

Tricky? That used to be code for goofy.

Think they fine the players for criticizing their own course and their own tournament?

Fifth Major Watch, Final (Until Next Year)

Alan Shipnuck should not be surprised if his 2007 PGA Tour media credential gets lost in the mail after this column debunking the fifth major hype.

-You know you're desperate when you're stealing ideas from the Champions tour, which has five majors (though the only one most of us can name is the Senior Open).

-"Impregnable pentrilateral" just doesn't have the same ring.

-It's already too much work having to explain the difference between Bobby Jones' Grand Slam, the modern Slam and the Tiger Slam. Who wants to have to add the TPC Slam to the conversation?

-And the No. 1 reason the Players Championship will never be considered a major: because Tiger Woods doesn't think it should be.

Up Keep

Giving new meaning to high maintenance and class, I present, the Sabbatinis...

The wife of controversial South African golfer Rory Sabbatini drew attention to herself once more on Friday - this time by wearing a T-shirt with "Keep Up" on it.

Sabbatini, the leading money-winner in America this season, was paired with Nick Faldo and Colombian Camilo Villegas again and it was thought his wife was making a statement about slow play.

Two years ago Amy Sabbatini had a T-shirt displaying the words "Stoopid Amerikan" at the World Cup in Spain after Paul Casey's anti-American comments following the Ryder Cup.

Good job by ESPN/NBC not to have anything on this today!

Oh, and I got to experience Amy's antics first hand earlier this year at the Nissan Open. You can relive the stirring details here.

Update on 2006-03-25 17:11 by Geoff

Nick Faldo, joking about Amy Sabbatini's t-shirt: "It's very embarrassing to bring their sexual problems to the golf course," Faldo said. "Poor fellow, he has enough problems as it is without her announcing it to the world."

Augusta v. Sawgrass Renovations

Golf World's Bill Fields looks at the complaints surrounding Augusta's latest renovation and seems prepared to join the critics questioning the rationale and execution of the changes.

At what point does an icon, instead of aging gracefully and naturally, get his face stretched so taut that he becomes a parody of his former self?

Ouch. After citing Mike Weir's reasoned critique as reported last week by Ken Fidlin, Fields has this interesting quote from Mark O'Meara:

To add intrigue, 1998 Masters champion Mark O'Meara is against a reflex to add yardage. "The most talked about holes in golf in the last two years," O'Meara says, "are the shortest holes in golf. They create the most havoc with the best players. Sixteen at Doral, 10 at Riviera, 12 at Augusta. It's the short holes that make a player have to think. If you want to mess with the pros, make them have to make a decision."

Regarding Sawgrass, he picks up on a subject discussed here earlier this week:

In addition to the better turf that will come with Sawgrass' renovation, Woods, for one, would like to see the course much like it was when it first opened. "I've talked to a lot of guys about this," Woods said a year ago at the Players, "and we've all come to the same conclusion: It would be a lot better if there was no rough at all, like how it used to be played … but they've kind of changed that and gone to a U.S. Open-type setup."

And he sums it in a way that gives the impression he's not too optimistic about the chances of Augusta removing its second cut:

With so many young players, who because of their tools, technique and temperament are swatting the ball one way -- hard -- there is all the more reason to offer variety in the courses they encounter. An Augusta National -- without rough, with options -- was the beau ideal. New applicants are now welcome. 

Update on 2006-03-24 19:17 by Geoff

Reader Stan notes that Fields has come a long way. I think his column above, contrasted with this 2002 article titled "Bob Jones Would Approve," speak to either the quality the changes, or perhaps the use of Bobby Jones' name to justify changes that seem driven to produce a certain winning score:

If Jones could see golf being played now -- besides being amazed by the job the lawnmowers do -- he would probably say the more things change, the more they remain the same. "In taking a hard look at modern golf," he wrote in his 1966 book, Bobby Jones On Golf, "I find in the play from tee to green little difference indicating any considerable superiority of the present-day player over the dozen or so better players of my era." At that time, Jones was impressed by how well current pros putted. Today, Jones would no doubt give the new breed credit for how skillfully they chip and pitch the ball as well. Smoother greens, yes, but also smoother strokes. Jones never kidded himself.

As he had with Nicklaus, Jones would see a little of himself in Tiger Woods -- the talent, the focus, the knack for pulling off the shot that has to be hit with everything on the line. Of the newly lengthened Augusta National GC layout, he would smile that more middle irons are being pulled out for second shots, and he would tell any complainers -- perhaps in the most literate e-mail one could hope to receive -- that you're supposed to work for some of your birdies. And to those golfers whose pre-shot routines last as long as a movie, Jones would tell them to get on with it.

He'd recognize the game and admire the place but wonder: How'd these Georgia ponds get so blue? 

Fidlin on Finchem

The Toronto Sun's Ken Fidlin won't be getting a First Tee brick in his name from Tim Finchem after this column, which looks at the dreadful date given to the Canadian Open and other PGA Tour activities of late.

Funk: "they've lost control of the game. I'll swear to that."

Reuters ran with a condensced version of the Fred Funk's comments at the Players. But if you have the time, it's worth reading exactly what he said:

Q. We've seen so much of a tug o'war going on in the game about the power game and bombs away versus skill and precision. Do you feel like it's evolved to a point where power is going to be a requisite skill?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I feel bad right now. My son loves the game of golf. He's a little guy. He's obviously not going to be physically very big. Not that little guys don't hit the ball a long way, but most little guys don't hit the ball a long way. There's always the exception.

I don't feel with where the game has gone that he will ever have a chance to play on the PGA Tour because he doesn't hit the ball far enough. The kids coming up now are hitting the ball miles. With today's equipment, you just have to it's so forgiving, the driver, I don't think it's the driver so much that's allowing you to hit it a long way; it's the more golf swing givability of the driver that allows you to swing at it. If you're blessed with that swing speed, the ball takes off for you and doesn't come down. Guys are flying it 330, 340 yards right now, which is a joke. It's made designing golf courses a nightmare. It's changed the whole philosophy of the game.

I met with [Arnold] Palmer's group a couple weeks ago, and talking to them about how they design a golf course that's fair for a guy that can hit it 330 and a guy that hits it 270 and where they have to place their corners and place the bunkers and everything else. You can't make it fair.

I really believe, and I know I'm one of the short guys barking with the guys hitting it a long way, so it doesn't get much attention; he's just jealous that he doesn't hit it that far. I truly believe if you're blessed with that kind of ability that you get the benefit of the golf ball, you don't need as much talent as the old players did because you can hit it so far. Just bomb it over all the trouble and you have a wedge or 9 iron into the green, and you're going to hit a lot of greens. I don't care how deep the rough is. And they're strong already, they're going to get it on the green out of the rough, or somewhere around it. I just don't see the skill level, other than just clubhead speed being a big factor in the future.

Q. Some people argue it would be a good thing to have bigger, better athletes, maybe the next wave you'll see a Tour full of 6'4", 240-pounders.

FRED FUNK: That's naturally going to happen because for one, the game of golf has become a great game to play as a kid. Now it's looked upon as a sport; I blame Tiger Woods for it because he's made the game cool. It's a cool game to play as a kid.

The kids are seeing the money we're playing for, they're seeing the personalities we have out here, especially with well, when Tiger came out and was No. 1, but right now our rookie class with Camilo [Villegas] and J. B. Holmes and Bubba [Watson] and numerous others, but those three guys are remarkable guys, unbelievable talent. They hit the ball miles, and they see that, and how can a kid that has a lot of athletic ability and he's fortunate enough to get introduced to the game of golf and doesn't pursue it? He ends up with a linebacker's body and he's playing golf. It's going to happen.

And why it's going to happen it is because it's a cool sport and we're going to have more and more kids playing it at a young age and they're going to develop into some big kids and they're going to be really powerful players. The ball already goes a long way, so the sky is the limit for how far the ball may go in the future with the future golfer.

But it's sad because I think they've lost control of the game. I'll swear to that. I mean, I'll argue that until nobody can prove me different. I'll argue that with every USGA guy that tests every equipment and everything else. They can throw the ShotLink stats out, they can throw everything at me and they cannot change my mind on that. I'm just adamant about the way the game has gone really since 2002, since this last generation of golf ball.

All they really have to do, they don't have to do anything, bring one golf ball back that's talked about or bring the golf ball back, just go back to the golf ball we had before this last change, and it would narrow down that gap between the long and the short.

I don't mind being the shortest guy. I never minded being one of the shortest guys on Tour and competing with a guy that could on the stats he was 295, 300, but when you have guys at 320, 330, 335, I mean, those guys that are averaging that can actually hit it 350; that's a long way. You can't beat that on a lot of golf courses now, and the design guys have no idea what to do.

So they do one thing, they jack the tees back and they don't change the greens. They say, okay, we've got to jack the tees back to protect the golf course from the long guys. You just took all the short guys completely out of it, so now all the long guys are up at the top, unless you have a great putting week, chipping week. I'll get in trouble for that, but that's all right.

Q. I hate to stop you. You skipped the Zurich Classic [in New Orleans] last year, and I understand you're going back this year. How much did the impact of [Hurricane] Katrina have on your decision?

Hey, at least he was an admitted Rally Killer. 

Fifth Major Watch, Vol. 4

Even Ponte Vedra's very own Doug Ferguson, himself guilty of his share of fifth major stories, sounds like he's had enough of the fith major talk, even as he admits that it'll only get worse with next year's move to May.

Some of the great lines...

What keeps The Players Championship from being a major is the very organization that longs for it to be one.

The majors are run by four groups — Augusta National, the USGA, the Royal & Ancient and the PGA of America. Each run one tournament a year with a full field of golf's best players. The Players Championship, on the other hand, is among 41 events run by the PGA Tour. Ultimately, it's a PGA Tour event in a prom dress.

"They can dress it up as much as they want, but it's a regular event with a big purse," Toms said when asked to compare this with the majors. "It's a great event. It's the best one we have."

And the fact this "fifth major" discussion has become a rite of spring speaks to the quality. No other tournament gets consideration as a fifth major.

Still, the more people talk about it, the more it seems like the PGA Tour is forcing the issue.

"If you have to sell it as a major, then it's not a major," Kevin Sutherland said. "It's still a great, great tournament."

Sluman is responsible for the defining statement on the status of The Players Championship as a major when he said three years ago, "When you go Denny's and order the Grand Slam breakfast, they don't give you five things, do they? They give you four."

Make the 17th Harder?

John Hawkins' latest blog entry is a bit head scratcher. He says the 17th at TPC Sawgrass isn't hard enough because it's a "stock pitching wedge" and that: "it’s probably too easy at least one round each year, sometimes two. Changing the hole without a compromise of its character would raise blood pressures even more, which is precisely what the hole was meant to do."

Help me here. I can't think of another sport where people want to see it made tougher, even at the expense of entertainment. Football? Hockey? Baseball?

When those sports have been perceived as off-kilter, less interesting or compromised by changes in equipment, they went in search of ways to make the sport better and more interesting.

Hawkins brings up good points in the story about altering the angles of attack to add interest, but I'm not sure if they are for the reasons that say, Bobby Jones would like to have seen variety on a day-to-day basis (to better test the player). They seem to be ideas designed to raise scoring averages.

Since equipment has made it easier for the top players, many expect courses to keep up or inflict torture because the players have it easier. I guess I just will never understand the admiration for trainwreck golf that has overtaken the game. Especially when it would be a lot easier to change the ball.

Update on 2006-03-21 18:21 by Geoff

A few respected players say #17 is hard enough. From Ron Whitten's excellent story last year on the evolution of the TPC:

"It's a great finish," says [Brad] Faxon. "As a player, there aren't many times when you get more nervous than hitting that second shot into 16, hitting to that island green on 17 and hitting that tee shot on 18."

And, Steve Elkington:

"At Augusta, once you get past 15 and 16, you feel it's over. Not at TPC at Sawgrass. I once stood on the 17th tee with a six-shot lead and I was still worried about getting it across the water. I know if I put one in the drink, I might put 10 in. It's one of those feelings."

Sawgrass and Rough

With stories mentioning the restoration of "shot values" (whatever they are) to the TPC Sawgrass when the "layer of Gore Tex" is installed this summer, I could not help but wonder if the changes will mean the Tour will take down the US Open style rough. (See the recommended questions for Commissioner Finchem.)

Last year, Tom Kite made a strong case for the rough stripping the course of its character and even difficulty in Ron Whitten's Golf World cover story:

"It was probably as strategic a golf course as maybe we've ever seen," he says. "It reminded me a lot of St. Andrews in that there were so many options and ways to play it. It was designed to play firm and fast, and you knew you were going to have to play some creative shots. But now it's like the U.S. Open, with lots of deep rough, trees totally out of play. Nobody hits it into the trees anymore. Nobody ever misses a green by more than two or three yards anymore, because it doesn't roll anywhere, it just hits that wall of rough."

The problem is that they overseed the course in winter, says Paul Azinger. "Whenever you overseed in Florida, you have to water it to keep it alive, and that makes everything softer and easier," says Azinger. "I'm not suggesting that it's easy. I love the course, but it's not what it was, not what Pete Dye intended it to be. It's just not that hard anymore."

Why do I have the funny feeling the rough will not go? 

Fifth Major Watch, Vol. 3

I wonder if in making the push to declare The Players the greatest golf tournament on the planet (and therefore, a major), anyone in Ponte Vedra realizes that the near desperation only lessens the chance of it becoming a major? Or that the Grand Slam can only ever have four events to be, well, a Slam.

Well, maybe Dave Shedloski at PGATour.com understands. Amazingly, he got this line by those guys with the little red pens who sit in some back room at Ponte Vedra headquarters:

Whether the PLAYERS is deigned a major or not is immaterial. It plays like one.