Tiger on Saturday

Thankfully, someone asked the question a lot of us were probably wondering about: for the second day in a row Tiger tried (unsuccessfully) to hit an easy 3-wood into 17, with dreadful results.

Q. What was your yardage on 17? What's the difference between 3 wood or 2 iron?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's 274 and I can't carry 2 iron 274 downwind uphill. If it was flat, I'd probably hit 2 iron but since it's uphill, I can't. So I have to hit some kind of choke up cut 3 wood to the front. It was 274 to the front, or 290 to the hole, stays downwind, as hot as it is, the ball is flying forever. I tried to start the ball to the left trees, cut them, hit some kind of banana ball and I actually pulled it.

Q. Given that set of conditions, any thought to laying up and giving yourself...

TIGER WOODS: Why? No. (Laughter).

Q. You're a good wedge player.

TIGER WOODS: No. I needed 3.

Hmmm...4 would've worked too.

He also confirms hitting 17 iron into 18 for the second day in a row.

Speaking of the finishing hole, I think it played about as easy as a par-5 ever has in a major:

18     4.4177     Eagles: 11     Birdies: 124     Pars: 94     Bogies: 8     Others: 0

Crane On the Clock

The Atlanta Journal-Constitutions Glenn Sheeley looks at the slow play issue. Ben Crane says the rumors that he reads the Bible scriptures stuffed into his yardage book are are "absurd." But Friday at Baltusrol, Crane put on this absurd display:

• Time to hit tee shot.. 52 seconds
• Time to hit approach........ 1:34
• Time to hit first putt...... 1:18

And John Daly, same hole, same day:

• John Daly Tee shot.............. 19 seconds
• Approach shot..........12 seconds
• First putt............ 16 seconds
  
  

The Newfangled Bubba

It's a miracle that Steve Elling's Saturday lead made it by the Orlando Sentinel editor determined to "protect their readers":

Eat my dust, y'all.

The newfangled Bubba of the 87th PGA Championship, Phil Mickelson, again showed up Friday sporting the new lid he trotted out for the first time this week, a trucker-style cap with a mesh back. The way its mojo is working, if Mickelson can bum a dip of chaw from David Duval or a Marlboro from John Daly, find some flip-flops with spikes and cut the sleeves off his shirt, he might just collect his second major championship.

This being New Jersey, it won't be hard to find a rusted-out Trans Am with a Dale Jr. bumper sticker, either. How long does it take to grow a mullet or get a name embossed on a leather belt?

Saturday PGA Notes

I was about to point out what a great job TNT was doing until the quadruple commercial break stretch as Tiger was playing 18 in round 2.  At least the announcing was sharp, restrained and insightful...though there was Bobby Clampett's 62 prediction for Tiger's Saturday round.  It was a long, hot day.

Speaking of the heat, it was 74 today here in the Home of the Homeless. FYI, my hometown borders two-time PGA site Riviera. Not as nice as 95 and humid New Jersey or Tulsa, the PGA site in 2007.

GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker files a postcard with some fun anecdotes. Cameron Morfit files a notes column for Golfonline.   Tom Mackin writes about Joe Damiano, Jersey guy and Stuart Appleby’s caddie.

Tiger is asked about the bad break on 17 and the 7-iron into 18. He ends it with a funny one-liner.

An Irish Examiner story story on Darren Clarke not playing in the Seve Cup, with denials that he is avoiding Captain Monty. John Huggan writes about Sean O'Hair for The Guardian.  And SI's Chris Lewis makes his case for the PGA as the best.

The course played much easier during round 2 (70.53). Here’s the PGA's only course stats page but by the time you look at this they’ll probably have round 3 in place (the PGA web site doesn't break down stats by round. Other stats seem to be unavailable.

Finally, Mike Penner writes in the LA Times that Comcast’s Outdoor Life Network is making a strong bid for the NHL. What does this have to do with golf? The up-and-coming network is apparently looking to raise its profile. Perhaps golf will be next on its list?

Just Another Golf Course!?

Walker Cup Great Britain/Ireland's Gary Wolstenholme:

Q. Can you tell us your impressions of Chicago Golf and the way you play?

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: I would say that the way things are going nowadays, we've got players that are competing in the states and colleges on a regular basis, plus the rest of us all competed abroad on a regular basis as well. So, this is just another golf course. As far as the way that it plays, the fairways are very soft. Obviously, I'm not sure that's probably the way it was initially intended. I think they would have liked to have a bit of run on fairways to create more of a test in that respect. We're used to playing virtually every type of golf course there is to play. This is just the way it's playing at the moment. It's pretty much drop and stop.

Best of Barkley**

Courtesy of TNT, the best of Charles Barkley. (Minus the "uh, oh, don't zoom in" comment after Woods hit his waterball on the 4th):

Barkley on close friend Tiger Woods and the extremely hot weather during the tournament: "It must be hot out there because Tiger is in great shape and he is sweating. When skinny people sweat, you know it's hot. I sent him a text (message) today to wish him good luck but I guess it didn't work"

Barkley on who is in better shape between he and Woods: "Well he has a six pack and I have a keg...and I would never want to have just six beers."

Barkley on the physical strain that golfing takes on his body: "I came to the realization a couple months ago that I am fat. If you get tired from walking - and that's all that golf is - then you are officially fat."

Barkley on his recent performance at the American Century Celebrity Championship , in which he finished directly behind Cheryl Ladd and Chris Webber: "It's embarrassing. If you are a man and you can't beat girls or the smart kids, you shouldn't be playing...I'm retiring from golf. I'm not going to play again."

**Update: Damon Hack's Saturday notes column in the New York Times looks at Barkley, and quotes him saying that if Phil Mickelson worked out like Tiger or Vijay, he'd be much better.

Walker Cup Is Here

The Chicago Tribune's Joel Boyd wonders if college coaches, by recruiting so many foreign players, have hurt the the U.S. in Walker Cup play: "It's no coincidence that at the same time U.S. colleges started to recruit top foreign amateurs en masse, the tables turned in the Walker Cup."

Or maybe foreign players are more complete because they haven't grown up playing only the American way?

Ben Voelker has posted some great Chicago Golf Club photos on Golf Club Atlas as the Raynor-Macdonald course is set up for the Walker Cup.  And here's a March Golfdom story by editor Larry Aylward on Jon Jennings, Chicago's superintendent and one of the true class-acts in golf.

This will take you to the Golf Channel Walker Cup page.  TV Times: Saturday 8/13 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET TGC, Sunday 8/14 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET TGC.

Jenkins: How much longer and tighter can courses get?

Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post (reg req.) looks at Baltusrol and wonders what's becoming of major championship setups.

Woods's struggle at Baltusrol begs a question, and it's a question that governing bodies of golf have avoided thus far, but which they are going to have to face head on at some point soon. How long can they continue to protect golf courses against burgeoning technology? It's an issue that Woods has helped to force, with his length and ability to make a world-class course look like miniature golf. More and more, courses are gimmicked-up in an attempt to preserve par and control scoring. Even Augusta National is adding 155 yards to its length.

Some courses, according to Woods, have become so tricked up that they resemble "elephant burial grounds." But at a certain point, we are going to run out of ways to manipulate the acreage. What then? How much longer and tighter can courses become without completely distorting them, and the basic values of golf? The most sensible solution is to impose limits on technology, or to use a softer covered, standardized ball that won't travel as far. So far, the ruling bodies have declined to look at such solutions, because it would mean two different standards.

The equipment companies say they don't want pros playing one game, and amateurs playing another. But the reality is that we're already doing that now. How many amateurs can play a 650-yard par 5? When we gin up a tournament venue so dramatically, make it as brutal as it can be for one week, we create another standard. Isn't it easier to control the balls and clubs, than to stretch courses or distort them beyond recognition, until virtually half the field is eliminated on the first tee? Baltusrol is playing fairly -- barely.

Woods's opening round was the fault of his own errant swings. But we're seeing a suggestion here of what happens when the landscape is continually manipulated. Make a course too long, and you eliminate shorter ball strikers. Make it too narrow, and it becomes leveling and the ability of a Woods is totally negated. Either way, it neutralizes skill level -- which is exactly the opposite of what tournament golf should do.

Jenkins raises a question I hope to someday a governing body will contemplate: at what point is a fairway too narrow? Is it 20 yards? 15? 10? The width of a ball?

New Look, New Features

Yes, I've officially entered the blogosphere.

Please bear with me as I try to adjust to the new look and figure out how to publish the archive of past posts (if possible). This should allow for posting more often and for those wired into the whole RSS thing to be notified of posts.

You'll notice now that there's a comments section after posts. This could prove useful and interesting assuming the comments will be posted to add insights to stories posted, or to offer additional links, or to correct my mistakes. Or it could require registration, monitoring, etc... Hopefully not.

Thanks for your patience and thanks for checking in. And feel free to comment below on the new format.

Friday PGA Reads

Well I stayed awake until 3 est time. But the ING ads are back, the fog rolled in, and I just had to lie down. Maybe tomorrows appearance by Charles Barkley will liven things up. Anyway, the post round coverage was thankfully more interesting than the telecast.

Golfonline's Cameron Morfit has some observations and notes. AP's Jim Litke looks at the long hitters in round 1, with some interesting anecdotes. Bill Pennington in the NY Times looks at the 17th and how players long and short handled it during round 1. Here's Tiger's post round1 press conference. I liked him a lot better when rounds like this meant blowing off press.

Golfweek's Jeff Rude looks at the how life and golf have changed since the last time a major was held at Baltusrol.  Jim McCabe in the Boston Globe offers an in depth and fascinating look at The Country Club (where they were supposed to be playing this week), the PGA and big time golf venues. He notes that "Baltusrol members won't see the Upper Course for the rest of the year; Winged Foot members are already braced to lose one of their courses for more than a year, just to host the 2006 US Open."

McCabe's column also writes about 2005 PGA Distinguished Service Award winner Wally Uihlein, and the normally evenhanded Globe writer fawns:

A historian, a visionary, and a voice of reason, Uihlein is a point man for manufacturers who are so often attacked on topics involving equipment. To say that Uihlein is a leader in the golf industry is akin to saying Tiger Woods is a pretty good player. A historian, a visionary, and a voice of reason, Uihlein is a point man for manufacturers who are so often attacked on topics involving equipment. The products under the Acushnet umbrella -- Titleist, FootJoy, Cobra, Pinnacle -- are of the highest quality, but it's Uihlein's relentless devotion to the company that sets a shining example. In the world of golf, there are more high-profile names, but no one has a better feel for the game than Uihlein.

Tim Cronin previews the Walker Cup. The GCSAA offers its "Divot Mix" that includes a leadstory on a new $350 lost ball finder. It comes with a dozen balls, additional balls are $40 a dozen. It also links to this Baltusrol maintenance blog.

Here's the GCSAA fact sheet on Chicago Golf Club, host of the Walker Cup.  And finally, The New York Times enters the Sean O'Hair story arena. Writer Diane Lacey Allen manages to make Marc O'Hair sound like a victim, which I didn't think was possible.

Thursday PGA Reads

Had trouble sleeping lately? I have just the cure for you: Wednesday’s State of the PGA press conference transcript.

Q. What is the status of the search for Jim's successor and when might we expect an announcement on that?

ROGER WARREN: I anticipated that question. [Wow, bet Roger’s one heck of a poker player!] We are still in the search process for a CEO. As we have talked about from the beginning, we always intended to try to have a target of our annual meeting this year in November to have that person selected. The search process is ongoing. We would still use that as a target time, and as we get to the point that we are ready to announce our CEO, we will make that announcement.

If you don't want to read the player transcripts, here's a decent summary of some player comments leading into the PGA. But if you do read a transcript, Jack Nicklaus's is the most entertaining. The same rally killer from yesterday gets a big break when Jack brings up Bobby Jones. But he also has some interesting things to say about a big swing change in his career and the notion of smaller players not having an opportunity in the future because of changes in the game.

Colin Montgomerie reveals that he'll never become a flogger, which is why he probably won't win a major.

Q. Is that somewhat by design? Could you get another 20 yards if you wanted to through some combination, or you don't do it because you don't want to sacrifice accuracy?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, this is the next thing. You know, do I, do I want to hit the ball 20 yards further in the rough, or do I want to be 20 yards back in the fairway? Well, I'll take 20 yards back in the fairway every day. Every day.

And add Colin to the list of liberal technophobes.

Q. Enough with the feathers, let's go to something smaller. Jack Nicklaus was in here awhile ago talking about the technology, and he said the main problem might be in the golf ball, that it might have to be scaled back. Do you agree with that? Would you be in favor of that?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Totally. I've said that for years; our technology is 20 percent the club and 80 percent the ball. Totally.

Here’s an Indy Star article on Donald Trump's ambitions to get a USGA event at Trump National Bedminster. It includes a comment from Marty Parkes but no mention that Trump has reportedly hired a USGA staffer as a consultant.

Tom Sposta in the USA Today offers an extensive look at the course lengthening trend along with its impact on shorter hitters.

"There's a lack of imagination when they're updating courses," says Lee Janzen. "You could come in and just move the bunkers in 5 or 6 yards on every hole, turn the holes a little bit here and there, so guys have to be more accurate off the tee," Janzen says. "Dig out the bunkers a little deeper. Add a little penalty. If there's a penalty out there that guys can see, then they'll play a safer shot, which leaves them harder approach shots and longer putts. That will bring scores up."

Ugh.  Also in the USA Today, Jerry Potterwrites about Jack Nicklaus's design career. Nicklaus says he's far more willing to take on projects with other designers now because he wants to learn from others a Signature Design, for $2.5 million, or the expertise of others for $500,000. The Golf Channel details their Walker Cup coverage plans.

And finally, the great news we’ve all been waiting for, Rees Jones is going to visit Cog Hill. Ed Sherman has the details under "He's Coming."

"He" was on The Golf Channel and noted that Baltusrol was a Trent Jones-Rees bunker and tee design with Tillinghast greens. No argument here!

Joy To The Measuring Devices

Golfweek's Jim Achenbach is “overjoyed” that the USGA and R&A are going to approve distance measuring devices for tournaments that wish to allow them.

The time it takes to play a round should improve because of this decision. Competitors who carry rangefinders or other distance measuring products will play faster because they will have immediate access to distance information. No more searching for sprinkler heads with distances on them. No more pacing forward or backward from the 150-yard markers.

Uh huh.

Rangefinders are all about faster play. This is one of the reasons the USGA and R&A have decided to change the rules. Like golf cars, distance measuring devices will be considered a "condition of play" and can be declared acceptable by any tournament (but don't expect the PGA Tour to allow their use).

And now a word our sponsors:

Who are the major companies in the distance measuring field? Who will benefit from this announcement by the USGA and R&A, expected to be made next week in conjunction with the Walker Cup at Chicago Golf Club? The 800-pound gorillas of the golf rangefinder business are Laser Link Golf and Bushnell Golf. Laser Link president Rob O'Loughlin has been the loudest cheerleader for distance measuring devices and has lobbied both the USGA and R&A for a rules change. Laser Link sells the popular Quicksilver line of rangefinders.

It would have been nice if Achenbach diclosed at this point that LaserLink is a steady Golfweek advertiser. But he doesn’t. He goes on to plug a few other distances devices and the wonders of speedy desert golf, then sums it all up:

To the USGA and R&A, I say bravo. This is a rules change that reflects what is happening in modern golf and makes absolute sense.

Now I hate to be picky, but today 2005's third plea for USGA membership came in the mail (thanks, I was running low on labels!). Membership is down to $15, so in essence, the USGA loses money if I sign up.
Anyhow, on the back of the form they mention their line about governing the game to “ensure that skill, not technology, determines your score.” How do handheld measuring devices fit into that concept?

Saturday Shorts

Everyone is excited about Baltusrol. Well, not yet anyway. Tiger tells Mark Soltau that Baltusrol was "brutal." And not much more. Jason Gore shook off the rust from his week off to shoot a 59 in Nebraska. One more win and his dilemma of playing Nationwide or PGA Tour events the rest of the year becomes a non-issue.

Peter Blais in Golf Business looks at the not-particularly-sexy but important issue of handicap access to golf courses and the ramifications of a Department of Justice inquiry. Rick Arnett at SI.com is the latest to take on the sensitive subject better known as Marc O'Hair and offers a unique perspective. Tom Spousta in the USA Today writes about a player debate on spike marks. And finally, David Feherty's mailbag is fun as always, though he's a bit tough on Rory Sabbatini.