Hit A 1-Iron By the Plaque and Still Not Get There

E. Michael Johnson in Golf World writes that technology has not rendered Baltusrol obsolete because, well, the scores were higher than '93 and because Davis Love says so.

"Technology has not changed as much as everyone makes it out to," said Love."We can hit 1-irons by the [Nicklaus] plaque and still not get there."

We can hit 1-irons by the [Nicklaus] plaque and still not get there?

Did Davis mean to say that the players can hit a drive by the plaque with a 1-iron and still not get home in two? Or did Love mean that you would hit driver past the plaque but still not reach the green in two with a 1 iron? 

I think it was the latter of the two based on what Johnson wrote:

Love wasn't speaking hypothetically. During a practice round last week, he hit a number of 1-irons from where the Golden Bear famously knocked a 238-yard 1-iron onto Baltusrol's 18th on the 72nd hole in '67--and failed to reach the green with any of them.

First, who carries a 1-iron anymore? Second, Tiger's hitting 7 iron from 190 into 18, so he would go at the green from the plaque with what, 4 iron from 238? Now he is working out! Goosen hit 5-iron from not far in front of the plaque, so a key fact seems to have been left out here: what kind of wind was Love hitting into.

Or Davis really needs to have his lofts checked.

Johnson sees technology has not having an impact by pointing out that the winning scorewas higher than it was for the 1993 Open, and he writes:

As for those claiming it's because they lengthened the track by 300-plus yards and grew rough, well, the cost of rough was fair: 0.489 of a stroke--hardly excessive.

No mention that the fairway widths were 10-15 yards narrower than the '93 Open, as reported by Golf Digest's Ron Whitten. The fairway is oh, 20-40% narrower this time around. What will they be next time, 10-15 yards wide? Is there a concern at that width as opposed to 25 yards on a sloping fairway?  Apparently not.

Finally, this:

As for the added length, [Kenny] Perry says it equals out. "You're hitting your driver farther so the holes are playing about where we played from in 1993," said Perry. "I'm playing my approaches from about the same spots." Added Janzen, "Even though technology has advanced how far we hit the ball, I hit a lot longer clubs to the greens today than I [did then]."

Huh? So for some, the course is lengthened and it balances out to play the same. But Janzen hits longer clubs to the greens than he did in 93, even though technology has helped him advance his ball?

Maybe someone else needs to get their lofts checked.

Diaz on Haigh

Golf World's Jaime Diaz writes about Kerry Haigh and the success he's had setting up PGA courses. Now his thoughts on weather forecasting and moving up tee times? That's another story.

Tiger Watched With Us, Vol. 3

Golfweek's Jeff Rude looks at the Tiger fiasco and raises similar questions about the intimidation factor his presence would have had. And he has some quotes from Stewart Cink at the end, questioning Tiger's thinking.

Here's Tiger's press conference at Firestone. Notice that the assembled scribes asked some decent questions, despite attempts by a rally killer to change the subject. And then there's the point-misser who puts the exchange out of its misery.

Q. What did you do Monday?

TIGER WOODS: I was at home working, working on my game, trying to get ready for this week, make sure that everything is sound and solid.

Q. You obviously had to show up Monday. What did you do Monday morning?

TIGER WOODS: I was at home.

Q. What time did you leave Sunday night?

TIGER WOODS: After the delay.

Q. Did you look at the leaderboard?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, there was three guys ahead of me, two guys tied and Goose at 1 with two par 5s. They're not coming back.

Q. It was a risk?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was, but also it really wasn't, either. These are the best players in the world. Look at who's on that board. It wasn't like guys who have never been there before. If you have guys who had never been there before, then it might have been a different story, but each one of those guys had won major championships up there on that board.

Q. What's your favorite moment here, 21 under, playing against Furyk, finishing in the dark with headlights?

TIGER WOODS: Probably that one because I didn't want to come back on Monday, and Hal and I were racing around, and they asked us do you want to call it. We were on 17 tee, we can call it, and I looked at Hal and Hal said, no, I'm going for it. So we played quick and hit that shot, and the story behind that shot is that Stevie's favorite number is 21, and I was stuck at 20. He said when the ball is in the air, he says, "21." He knew it was the right club, and that's what made that shot so sweet.

Q. Were you watching Monday morning?

TIGER WOODS: I caught a piece of it. I caught it towards the end. I was in the gym working out. When I turned it on, I thought that Elk was hitting his second shot on 18, like, "what's he doing right there?" Then they showed a replay, and I was like, oh, he got a good break to get there. Then he ends up in a divot. Those are not very hard holes with the wind like it is. You can be pretty aggressive on those flags now, especially on 17. You couldn't get it close when we played it because it was straight downwind. Now it turns into the wind you see those guys backing the ball up. Nobody even sniffed at backing the ball up on Sunday.

Q. I'm working on a story on autographs up on ebay and things like that. What's your policy on that?

TIGER WOODS: It's frustrating.

Putting a Renewed Emphasis on the Scoring Game

Oakland Hills will be toughened for the 2008 PGA, writes Vartan Kupelian in The Detroit News.

Rick Bayliss, chief operating officer, said 90 percent [of the membership] voted in favor of renovations that will stretch the course to 7,300 yards but, more importantly, put renewed emphasis on the scoring game. At last year's Ryder Cup, the South Course played 7,068 yards. Championship par is 70; members play to par 72. "Adding length is only a small component of what will be done," Bayliss said. "The changes will be about angles and bounces. The greens complexes are our resistance to scoring."

7300 in 2008?  Child's play!

"We're thrilled with Rees' efforts," Bayliss said. "It's a great story to have him do this after his father came in to make the changes in 1950. The challenges Rees faces are the same. It's about challenging the players' abilities."

The late Robert Trent Jones massaged the original work of the legendary Donald Ross, who designed both of Oakland Hills' courses. The North Course, directly across Maple Road, complements its more famous sister layout and will not be impacted.

Erin Hills Awarded USGA Event (Already)

Erin Hills outside Milwaukee will get the 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links.

David Fay, apparently with a straight face, called the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links "a very good test lab" for the U.S. Open. He said "that both championships normally are in June." And that's about all they have in common.

Erin Hills is owned by Bob Lang and designed by Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten with shaping by Rod Whitman. Gary D'Amato's article notes that "the course will have multiple sets of tees but can be stretched to more than 8,000 yards."

Now that's a yardage worthy of a major. Not this 7,300 stuff.

John Daly Story

John Daly meets the family he donated $30,000 to after his 1991 PGA win. The family lost their father to a lightening strike at Crooked Stick during tournament week. Daly talked about it in his recent Golf Digest interview.

Baltusrol...Odd NY Course Out?

"It would be silly of us to remove a course like Baltusrol from future consideration for USGA championships, including the U.S. Open. And we haven't," David Fay wrote in a letter to the club he's a member at.

"On the other hand, the rest of the country might look at the greater N.Y. metro area having four different courses in the so-called (and definitely unofficial) de facto U.S. Open rota and howl about geographic bias."

Translation: you're fourth in line behind Winged Foot, Shinnecock and Bethpage. Three's a crowd.

Tiger Watched With Us, Vol. 2**

Apparently ESPN's "Around the Horn" windbags debated Tiger's decision to fly home from the PGA Sunday night instead of sticking around in case of a playoff. I didn't see it, but here's my first thought:

If you're Tiger, don't you stay around Monday, show up in the locker room, hit balls on the range and hang around the practice green while the guys are getting ready?  Just to send the subliminal message, "I think you guys are the biggest dogs in golf, I'm looking forward to watching you throw up all over yourselves, and I'll see you on the 4th tee in an hour."

Couldn't have hurt, could it?  Weird stuff.

** This Reuters story says a playoff missed by Woods would have been one of the biggest blunders in sports history. Sounds fair to me. You?

Architects on Technology, Vol. 9038

Alan Tays in the Palm Beach Post talks to architects about the impact of technology and wonders when we'll see a 700 yard par-5.

"The Walker Cup was a joke," said Alice Dye, wife of fellow architect Pete Dye.

"I know that Tiger is strong and I know Vijay is strong, but those 21- and 22-year-olds carried a par-4 up there that was 354 yards."

Not all architects feel this way. Just most of them.

"There's a lot of people who believe the game is being ruined by the distance," Tom Fazio said. "I'm not so sure that I fit in that camp. It's really just following the way it always has been. I don't see it being bad for golf, myself.

"Jack Nicklaus used to hit it 300 yards. Now there's just more of them (who can)."

Asked if 700-yard holes could be in the future: "I'm not sure that that will happen. The scientists say the golf ball can't go much farther than it goes now. Of course, I heard them say that back eight years ago."

Regarding Merion at the U.S. Amateur: "They won't be hitting the famous 1-iron," Fazio said. "They'll probably hit 5-iron or 6-iron or 4-iron."

Tays writes that a 700-yard par-5 is nothing new. Just see The International in Bolton, Massachusetts.

"You stand on that back tee," said head pro Kevin Burnsworth, "you've got to kill it 250 yards to get it to the fairway, and then 20 yards ahead of that is the ladies' tee. So if you don't hit it 275, you're behind the ladies' tee, which is a little embarrassing."

More Merion Previews

Joe Logan writes about the youth movement in amateur golf. The article also has a link to a nice U.S. Amateur site set up by the club.

Mark Wogenrich in The Morning Call also writes about Merion's desperation to host a U.S. Open.

He picks up this nugget from a recent CBS telecast:

''It's a matter of the USGA sitting down and saying, 'What's important to us,''' announcer Jim Nantz said of Merion and a possible U.S. Open bid. ''Is it more important to sell a lot of hospitality tents or is it important to take our great championship to the best courses in America?''

And here's what the USGA Executive Committee's Craig Ammerman tells Wogenrich: ''We're wary of saying to the corporate community, 'We're having the U.S. Open in Philadelphia, so don't come,''' Ammerman said.

Tiger Watched With Us

Do you find this a little strange?

Tiger Woods didn't bother sticking around the PGA Championship for the final four holes, even though he was the clubhouse leader with an outside shot at getting into a playoff. Woods didn't see it that way.

He said Tuesday morning he flew home to Florida after he finished at 2-under 278, knowing the five players either tied or ahead of him would not drop shots over the final holes at Baltusrol, including two par 5s at the end.

Rangefinders Announcement?

Looking at USGA.org's news page, I can't seem to find anything that says the USGA and R&A made the joint announcement at the Walker Cup about rangefinder.  Jim Achenbach at Golfweek broke the story a couple of weeks ago. Anyone know of an announcement?

To be honest, I just thought it'd be a nice time to run a photo of the former, never-to-be USGA "city presense."  It may become this web site's official USGA logo.

Merion Renovation Article

USGA.org's Ken Klavon writes about the whiten...err...renovation of the bunkers at Merion. No photos included with the story. Part of the lean USGA.org look.  Not much on the official U.S. Amateur site either.

Golf in the Year 2014: 15 hole courses

Golfweek's Jim Achenbach looks into the future and sees a game dramatically changing to accomodate technology. Tongue planted in cheek, sort of.

Why 15 holes?

• Because so many existing golf courses literally were bursting at the seams. Many of these courses wanted to expand to confront the challenge of long-hitting golfers, but expansion often was impossible because no more land was available.
• Because golf at most courses had become a five-hour ordeal. In an effort to speed up the game, the number of holes was shortened by one-sixth.
• Because everyday life had become busier and more hectic, and many golfers wanted to devote more time to their families and less time to golf.

Catching Up...Golf World

Still awaiting for the post-British Open Golfweek issue. My postman must really, really love golf. And work for the Pony Express.

SI arrives reliably on Wednesdays, with Golf Plus returning (for now). Golf World has been arriving fairly close to the intended publication dates for a change. They've even put some of the content up on GolfDigest.com and a few things stood out in recent issues.

The August 12 Golf World "bunker" has the amazing news of a lost Claude Harmon instruction book being found. They report that the book comes with Anthony Ravielli drawings and a Ben Hogan "forward."

The August 5 Golf World has this ShotLink note:

Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods proved once again at the Buick that going for the green when the opportunity arises often leads to success. At Warwick Hills Singh went for the green (defined as going for a par 5 in two or a par 4 on the tee shot) 19 times and played those holes in 10 under par. Woods went for it 18 times, going 13 under on those holes. ... Speaking of going for it, the field attacked the 322-yard, par-4 14th hole with a vengeance as 226 players had a go at the putting surface off the tee. And while only 25 were successful (11.1 percent), those going for it produced a scoring average of 3.46 on the hole while those laying up averaged 3.79. ... Singh hit every green in regulation on the front nine the last three days. ... Amateur Ryan Brehm was second in the field in driving distance for all drives, averaging 307.5 yards. His 358-yard poke on the 13th hole Friday was the second-longest drive of the week. Tiger Woods outdrove him by one yard on the 16th hole Sunday.

In the same issue, Tim Rosaforte writes:

Instead of concern and even dread over the South Korean "invasion" ruining the excitement generated by teenage rivals Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, there should be a reality check--and ultimately an acceptance--of the power the country has in women's golf. The victories of Birdie Kim and Jeong Jang--or "JJ" as players call her--should teach us that beyond the cultural and language barriers are stories and personalities we need to explore and embrace.

Oh?  And here I thought they were just fluke winners we could write off.

And as Jang alluded in broken English Sunday at Royal Birkdale, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the back-to-back LPGA major-championship winners, several USGA and AJGA champs also hold Korean passports. The danger lies in some of the stories being told of overbearing fathers, but as Sean O'Hair could tell you, they exist in all countries. Kim and Jang: Like the saying goes, these girls rock, too.

Nice synergy there, using the new LPGA ad slogan. Super, just super.