Another Week, Another Major

The Jeld Wen, Jen Weld, whatever it's called, wraps up the Champions Tour major season. Pretty soon they're going to have more majors than regular events on that Tour.  I think I'll stick to the Amateur at Merion.

Merion Day 3

Wow, Merion looked really good. Imagine how great it would look with fairways!

Seriously, NBC/The Golf Channel made up for their less than stellar coverage of the Walker Cup by doing an excellent job on day one. Great camera work, aerial fly overs and solid commentary from the on-course reporters. Though I don't know about the story Gary Koch was given on the four experimental approaches taken with the Merion bunkers during the renovation (uh, wasn't it more like trial by error?).

Here are the round 1 results. And here's the match play tree. Note the match up of fifty-something George Zahringer vs. 16-year-old Oliver Fisher (with the Ernie Els swing). They are teeing off at 1:45 eastern, meaning we should see most of their back nine.

Here are the TV times, with The Golf Channel coming on at 4 m est. tomorrow, 3 pm est. Friday and NBC carrying the weekend play.

The Very Best of Tom Meeks

It’s been rumored that a Tom Meeks going away party would be held this week at Merion. The retiring Director of Rules, Competitions and Setup Calamities will be thanked for his years of service to the USGA.

Since we won’t be invited to this great moment in USGA open-bar history, we can only wonder if anyone will bring up these episodes while celebrating Meeks's long and illustrious career?

• The 1978 U.S. Junior Amateur when Meeks told Mark Brooks to tee off in his match, even though opponent Willie Wood was not present. When Wood showed up, Meeks showed great compassion by not DQ'ing Wood, and instead, allowed him to play Brooks. Wood eventually won the match.  

• The 1991 Senior Amateur at Crystal Downs saw Meeks warned by the club staff not to use the front location on the treacherous 11th green. He did anyway, and most players who hit the green putted off.

Then he took over for David Eger, setting up U.S. Open courses. The real fun began!

• The 1996 Open at Oakland Hills, where Meeks was asked about playing conditions when several inches of rain had flooded the bunkers and drenched the course. Meeks responded with a less than subtle jab at the PGA Tour, "No, we won't play lift, clean and cheat."  The Commissioner received an apology call from Mr. Meeks’s boss for that one.

• There was the stellar hole location on #18 at the 1997 Senior Open (Olympia Fields) that caused nearly every player to at least three putt, while then-leader David Graham four putted.

• Who will ever forget the 1998 at Olympic and that wonderful Friday afternoon hole location on 18 (which I was blessed to witness in person). And then there were the nice chats Meeks had with Payne Stewart about slow play and sand-filled divots. All of this distracted folks from the horrific fairway contouring on holes 2, 4, 9, 10, eh…you get the idea.

• The 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills was particularly special. That’s where chicken wire was placed in front of 9th and 18th greens during practice rounds to prevent players from wearing out turf in the areas where every ball rolled off and collected short of the greens. And the excessive green speed led to the infamous slowing down of the 9th and 18th, leaving them nice and lumpy for Retief Goosen, Mark Brooks and Stewart Cink to look foolish on Sunday.

• Another epic, the 2002 Open at Bethpage where Meeks refused to movethe 10th tee markers up so that players could reach the fairway. And funnyman Meeks telling the press "it doesn't say in the Rules of Golf a player has to be able to reach the fairway."  The 270 yard carry and tiny landing area on the long 12th was special too. (Well, long back then in 2002. 496 today is a drive and a wedge! Okay, maybe a 9 iron for some.)
  

• Oh, then there was Shinnecock where Meeks didn’t say much other than to insist the greens didn’t need to be watered Saturday evening despite the 7th green fiasco earlier that day. And even though a dry wind was blowing. No water! He instead saved his best commentsfor a month later at the British Open, noting that "a lot of golfers lost their patience and gave up early in the round. I really think Ernie Els gave up after the first hole."  Els responded: “You know what? They have got no idea," Els continued. "To take one of the best golf courses in this entire world and to make it a farce like that, they’ve got egg on their face."  So Meeks apologized. Sort of: "I just said, 'Ernie, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that.' I explained to him it was just a casual remark. And it was just my opinion."  So, if it was just your opinion, you still believe he gave up?
  

• Finally, 2005 saw Meeks go quietly, but he did finish off with one final head scratcher at Merion Tuesday. Joe Logan wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer that “when somebody noted that not a single golfer was under par at Merion by mid-afternoon yesterday, Meeks seemed almost fiendishly pleased." "I think this golf course is just that hard," Meeks said. "If we wanted a bunch of 62s and 63s, we could have held it on some municipal course."Not to be picky, but there was a 64 and a 65 at stroke play co-host Philadelphia Country Club. Does that mean it’s almost a muni?  Like, say, Torrey Pines?
  

Thanks for the quotes...err...memories Tom!

Knockdown Shots

The Orlando Sentinel's Steve Elling offers (Tribune paper reg.required) his always entertaining "Knockdown Shots" column. A few favorites:

News item: Residents of The Villages, a growing retirement golf community located northwest of Orlando, will attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Record mark for longest golf cart parade in a charity fundraiser on Sept. 4. The record is 1,138 carts.

Knockdown shot: Noting the average age of the residents and the heat this time of year, we're betting there will be a few dozen ambulances padding the back end of the procession, too.

News item: There was good news on the Appleby front, though. His peers, in a Sports Illustrated poll, voted him as the owner of the coolest car on tour. Appleby owns a yellow Lamborghini.

Knockdown shot: In the spirit of full disclosure, Appleby reports that he not only didn't own the best car on tour, but didn't have the hottest ride at Isleworth. That honor clearly goes to Woods, who recently bought a $450,000 Porsche Carrera GT, which he has since sold. "Made mine look like a Datsun," Appleby cracked.

News item: On the 16th hole, Appleby uncorks a drive of at least 400 yards in each of the first three rounds last week, an astounding feat.

Knockdown shot: A dizzying total of 40 players are averaging more than 295 yards per drive in 2005 - and so are three geezers on the Champions Tour, players who didn't hit it that far in their prime. As for the asleep-at-the-wheel governing body of golf, it is technology-driven stats like this that make me ashamed to be a USGA member.

Golf Magazine Top 100 Question, Vol. 1

Okay, technically, this is quibble/question #2.

As part of the Golf Magazine rankings package, writer Lisa Taddeo talks to panelist Leon Wentz about his feat of playing all Top 100 in the world. Wentz says:

I was flipping through Golf Magazine, saw the Top 100 World list, and thought, "Now, here's a challenge!" I asked my wife if it would be okay if I made this my chore for the next few years, and she said go for it. I lost 11 courses because of the list changing. For example, I had to go back to New Zealand three months ago to play one that came up on the last list. I wanted to play the current list, not an old list.

Now this means a few things. First, Wentz knew what the 2005 list looked like at least three months ago. Or three months before the interview took place, so more like four months ago. This would mean that he probably knew what the list was going to look like in April or May.

Which is interesting since list newcomer Bandon Trails didn't officially open until June.

2007 Tour Schedule Update...Sort Of

AP's Doug Ferguson gets the latest on the 2007 schedule and new TV deal from Tim Finchem. I'm not really sure what all of this means except that they still haven't figured out what they're going to do.

"You want to grow," Finchem said. "To compete effectively - even if you weren't going to grow, just to maintain your position - you look at who you're competing with. And everyone you're competing with is changing to get better, sometimes dramatically."

Finchem says there are still "a number of options," but two sources who are privy to the discussions said last week that the tour is focused on a playoff race that would begin shortly after the PGA Championship and include four tournaments that lead to the Tour Championship.

"You need to challenge yourself every few years and say, 'Are we taking all the steps necessary to allow us to compete effectively?'" Finchem said. "It may develop that you say, 'You know what? There's no better way to do it, so let's just leave it alone.' It's certainly easier to do that. But I think it's been good to challenge what we're doing, and I think the likelihood is we'll make some changes."

"It's taken a lot longer than we thought," Finchem said. "It's going to be very late in the year before we get to television (negotiations). I would be concerned about that, because we don't like to be within a year of starting the next season. But this year is a little different in the sense we've extended so many title sponsors."

Elite Clubs Hosting Majors

Chris Baldwin at Travelgolf asks if elite golf clubs should be rewarded with majors. He uses 2006 U.S. Women's Open site Newport Country Club as his prime example.

While I sympathize with Baldwin's point, I also can't wait to see Newport.

If there were more quality public venues available for majors it might be a different story. But ultimately, we want to see the best courses. Don't we?

Merion Day 2

The scores in round 2 at Merion were through the roof, so the USGAers must be happy. They put those flat bellies in their place. Except James Lepp. 

Ken Klavon has notes from round two of the U.S. Amateur. No pace of play report today.

Mr. Sand Man

Now posted is my Golfdom feature story on Jeff Bradley, Coore and Crenshaw's bunker guru.

Bridging The Divide Between Panelists and a Ranking

JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA--Armed with call waiting for over a year now, the task of fending off public relations gurus has been made easier. 

But then I realized what I was missing: an all-expense paid trip to visit South Korea's The Club at Nine Bridges.

After turning down two offers (one in person, one when I picked the phone up by accident), I decided to say yes because if nothing else, I've always wanted to see Jeju Island in the summer monsoon season. So here I am, blogging to you live from Jeju, safely off the coast of South Korea and well out of reach of projectiles controlled by Kim Jong iI (well, I'm not really here and they're not really out of Jong il's reach).

Making the 21-hour flight just a bit longer was news I read in the September Golf Magazine (not linkable yet). While trying to set my new speed record for fastest ever flip-through of a Golf Magazine instruction section, I stopped to read that The Club at Nine Bridges cracked the latest installment of the once credible Golf Magazine "Top 100 Courses in the World."

Nine Bridges's 95th spot in the World 2005 ranking comes after a relentless PR firm based in Los Angeles spent years suggesting to writers and panelists that they should come visit this Ron Fream masterpiece. Imagine the coincidence! And you'd think one of the panelists was the former founder of a well known club company who served as the honorary chair of an event at Nine Bridges, all the while asking other panelists to visit. Or some such thing!

But you see, anyone who has played masterworks like Carmel Mountain Ranch or Desert Falls knows that Fream is a misunderstood genius. And in the case of Nine Bridges, it takes a special talent to create something out of just $100 million. (Though I bet Fream had much less than $100 million to work with since some of the money had to pay for panelists and writers to visit the course! People, come on, priorities!) 

The piece de resistance came when reading in the magazine that none other than Chi Chi Rodriguez--keen observer of all things cultural--described Nine Bridges as the Taj Mahal of golf.

Now that says it all, don't you think?

Round One at Merion

They'll be jumping for joy in Merionland...scores were astronomically high on the East Course so it must be Open worthy! I'm afraid to think what they resorted to in order to produce such high scores.

Ken Klavon at USGA.org has the gory details, including the 5-hour-plus-pace of play.

Tiger is Back

SI's Gary Van Sickle, who has often questioned Tiger's swing changes, says Tiger has his "mojo back" because he has regained his distance advantage.

The worse news, at least for his competition, is that he's swinging his driver the best of his career, in his own opinion. And he's hitting it longer than a Pauley Shore movie. At Firestone last week, the tour's ShotLink stats show that Woods blasted 41 of 54 tee shots more than 300 yards. Granted, almost half of the driving holes are downhill -- the steep 16th, for instance, yielded a dizzying batch of 400-yard plus drives. Also, Woods didn't use driver on probably nine of the holes. He averaged 317.2 yards off the tee on all of the holes. Take those non-driver tee shots out of the equation and you've got a scary number -- I don't have a calculator handy but trust me, it's huge. He smashed 24 drives in excess of 330, 14 more than 350 and seven beyond 370.

Meanwhile Ron Sirak joins the chorus saying that Tiger's return to Orlando on PGA Sunday was a monumental blunder and rather un-Tiger-like. Jim Nantz and Lanny Wadkins also discussed the issue during Sunday's World Championship telecast, with Nantz summing it up as "bizarre."

What A Difference A Week Makes...

The updated PGA Tour driving distance stats showed another week of gains, with the entire Tour picking up a yard on average. Now, Firestone was firm and Reno was played well above sea level, skewing the numbers just as the soft conditions during the first half of the season impacted the averages. (The early season decline didn't stop many from pointing the 7-yard dip as a sign that the USGA had control of the equipment).

This week's jump, based on just 8 drives:

• Tiger went from 313. 8 yards to 315.2 (he finished last year at 301.9)
• Kenny Perry went from 302.8 to 304.1
• John Daly (looking svelte these days) went from 307.0 to 308.5
• Sergio Garcia went from 300.4 to 301.9
• Davis Love from 302.3 to 304.3 (but he can't hit a 1-iron from 238!?)
  

But the 2005 average has now just barely surpassed the 2004 average. Without deluges during the first half of the season, might we have seen a year-long distance increase significant enough to fall under the definition of the USGA/R&A Joint Statement of Principles?

Now to the Joint Statement, which was issued May 1, 2002. Here's the key line:

The R&A and the USGA believe, however, that any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Whether these increases in distance emanate from advancing equipment technology, greater athleticism of players, improved player coaching, golf course conditioning or a combination of these or other factors, they will have the impact of seriously reducing the challenge of the game. The consequential lengthening or toughening of courses would be costly or impossible and would have a negative effect on increasingly important environmental and ecological issues. Pace of play would be slowed and playing costs would increase.

The median PGA Tour drive has increased nearly 7 yards since 2002.  Several players have gradually picked up substantial yardage (Sergio: 278.3 in 2000, 290.5 in 2002, 301.9 in 2005) while others have made the big jump this year (Davis Love 288.7 in 2000, 287.7 in 2002, 304.3 in 2005).

So ultimately for the USGA, R&A and PGA Tour, it all depends on what the significance of "significant" is.

Flogging at Firestone?

Fairways have been narrowed so much at Firestone that it's hard to even tell when the players are flogging! Because maybe they really aren't flogging it down there when the landing area is firm, 25 yards wide and sloped.

Firestone's bowling alleys for the NEC World Championship event seemed to negate the need to worry about staying in the short grass.

Note to setup people:can't have firm fairways that are only 25 yards wide. It's goofy. You get train wreck golf like we saw Sunday. Either widen them out and firm them up, or soften them if you want to have stupid looking slivers for landing areas.

The highlight was Tiger bombing it into the trees right on 18 and after the shot, looking perfectly content with his position. (While Steve Williams rudely yammered away in his ear as Kenny Perry was about to take his tee shot back. Steve sure is chatty these days!)

Tiger didn't look the least bit concerned that he was in the trees. Because after all, he was so close to the green and would surely have enough of an opening to advance it on.

Remember the old days when he wowed us by hitting 8s and 9s into 18! What was that, 3 years ago? I look forward to watching in try to drive it in the 2007 Bridgestone World Golf Championship.

Of the Top 12 finishers (each securing a T9), only one averaged under 300 yards for the week (David Toms at 297). Only four of those top 12 players hit over 60% of their fairways, with Tiger finishing last among the top finishers, hitting 50% of his fairways.

Again, it appeared that the player who actually worried about hitting fairways would need to be carted away in a straitjacket by Sunday. Over four days, it just seems pointless to waste so much energy on tee shot accuracy when the fairways are so difficult to hit.

Tiger was asked afterwards about his flogging, which he oddly denied this week to tout his driving accuracy.

Q. Can I follow up briefly and just ask you, DiMarco was in here talking about the style of play that's being played out there now and it's so much of a power game. I know you're trying to hit the fairway. Do you worry less about hitting the fairway because of how far you hit it?

TIGER WOODS: You know, I have so much more confidence now in my driving ability than I ever have in my career. I pull out driver on every hole because I know I can put the ball in the fairway. I've never had that ability before. If you look at my days when I had some good years there, I was always hitting 2 irons off the tee and 3 woods and trying to get the ball in play. Now I know I can drive the ball. Look at how well I drove it this week. I hit some bad shots, yes, but they're not like they used to be. As far as I'm hitting it and as many fairways as I'm hitting and as many balls that end up in the fairway and roll through, that was never the case before. I've never had so much confidence to be able to pull out driver. I did it at Baltusrol, I did it here, and I've done it at major championships, and that's cool.

Q. But you don't worry about it if you miss fairways?

TIGER WOODS: Because I feel like I'm not. That's the big difference. That wasn't always the case.

Ah hah! He feels like he's not missing fairways. Here's what DiMarco said after the round.

Q. Tiger got in trouble half a dozen or eight times during this tournament. He just hit an amazing shot to get back in it. When you watch it do you applaud it or is it frustrating to watch?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know if it's frustrating to watch, but I mean, it's the same thing that happens that we've been talking about for weeks and weeks. If you miss fairways by 15 yards, you usually have a lie. If you miss the fairway by a yard, you're usually chipping out. If you look at the way everybody at the PGA last week played coming down the stretch, they were ripping it, hitting it as far as they could, hoping they could chop it on the green somehow and make birdie. That's not how we're used to playing majors. I am, but those guys aren't. I have to because I'm chipping out but then I'm hitting a 60 yard shot after that.

Commissioner, The One Thing We've Talked About...

...is the distance issue. Right? Naw. During the NEC's final round Art of the Monotone demonstration by Commissioner Tim Finchem, CBS's Jim Nantz appeared to be headed for a question about the most talked about issue in the game. What was I thinking?

JIM NANTZ: Commissioner, one thing we've talked about really on every one of our telecasts this year...is this remarkable Drive to a Billion. You can't shout it loud enough for the sports fan for it to maybe sink in.

Finchem went on to predict (admirably) that this was a product of the efforts of the individual tournaments, and that the Tour will reach the billion dollar mark this year (gosh, you think it'll be the Tour Championship?).  Nantz then asked if Finchem had any "special memories" of 2005 to this point.

TIM FINCHEM: We had such a great start with the media focus on the "Big 4." And three of those guys have won four times each. And of course Ernie is laid up now which is very sad for the President's Cup not to have Ernie [very nice plug]. But you know I think that there have been so many playoffs, so many tournaments coming to the last hole, that has been terrific this year. It's really helped keep viewers at home tuned into the telecasts.

And the other thing I think is more and more really good young athletic players are coming. These young guys are really something and there seems to be more and more of them every year. And they're good, attractive, positive thinking young men that I think will add a lot to what the PGA Tour is going to be about for the next 20 years.

The only time he broke from his monotone was to emphasize the first of three "young" mentions.