Faldo Q&A

An SF Chronicle Q&A with Nick Faldo talking about his announcing work.

Ostler Column On Harding's 18th

Thanks to reader Scott for this heads up on Scott Ostler's column about the par-4 18th at Harding. No mention by any player of the goofy-narrow fairway contouring.

Actually, no one really quite explains that it's a goofy setup and not the hole's fault.

This tee shot view was taken a year ago, before someone brought the rough in on the left, oh, at least 20 yards.

Erin Hills...No Signature Hole

Here's a nice story on Erin Hills and its hopes of landing a U.S. Open. Well, the story seemed well-informed until reaching this point:

Designers Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten have done some brilliant bunkering around the greens and fairways. Lang and general manager Steve Trattner also had some input into the overall course design.

Rather interestingly, while the dropoffs, undulations, rough and wetlands come into play on just about every hole, very little earth was moved on the course. On 14 of the 18 holes, not a single shovel of dirt has been turned.

The course has no signature hole. All of the holes qualify for that distinction in their own ways.

Harding Day 1

Boy, the par-4 18th sure looked great during day one of the AmEx World Championship. I loved how the 25 yards of rough between the lake and fairway really tempts the player to cut the corner!

The player has to try to fit their ball into what, 22 yards of width resting at an angle from the tee?

And they wonder why the guys flog it out there with little regard for strategy.

Here's Doug Ferguson's Round 1 story.  And Ron Whitten's rave review of the renovation.

Hensby on Captain Player

Mark Hensby: "I'm not saying Gary [Player] was a bad captain, but he didn't know the players well enough and the personalities well enough and pick the teams well enough."

He wasn't bad, but...

"To me, the communication wasn't great all week. Our team gelled very well but I feel a lot of players weren't put together who should have been together.

"If he'd picked the teams better, we would have had a better chance."

Hensby threw his support behind assistant captain Ian Baker-Finch, implying the popular Queenslander should have had more influence.

"The team would have been better off if Ian had had more say," he said.

So his picks were bad, he didn't know the players, communication was lousy and he didn't listen to his assistant captain. Other than that, Hensby thinks Player did a heck of a job.

Trump National Victim?

Jay Coffin reports that longtime LPGA official Barb Trammell has resigned after 18 years, and he indicates that the slow play debacle at Trump National may have helped to push her out the door.

Trammell, 47, had been with the LPGA since 1987; the last major championship she did not attend was the 1991 U.S. Women's Open at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. She was at the Office Depot Championship last week at Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, where the course got mixed reviews – good for its scenic views of the Pacific Ocean, bad because of logistics that hindered gallery movement and contributed to rounds that lasted at least six hours for most players. The first day, 60 rulings were requested and officials had difficulty arriving quickly because of the course's routing.

 

Harding Numbers

Here is the link to my Golfobserver.com column looking at the renovation of Harding Park, with some questions about how $16 million was spent to rebuild an existing course.

More On Wie

Here's more on Michelle Wie's announcement, starting with Doug Ferguson's AP story, Chris Lewis at SI.com and Lawrence Donegan from Harding Park. Wie is still planning to go to Stanford. Tiger offered this on his Stanford experience:

"I think you [miss out] on several things by not going to college, the most obvious being educational," Woods said. "The things I learned at Stanford were just phenomenal, and the people I got the chance to talk to, like Condoleezza Rice, and all the guys in the business department - they influenced my life so dramatically."

Rubenstein On Measuring Devices

Lorne Rubenstein writes about distance measuring devices and reader email he has received on the subject.

The light is this and this only, as I concluded in my Globe and Mail column: "See, feel and swing: That's the fast way to play."

I believe it's also the best way to play, the most rewarding way to play, and the most enjoyable way to play.

I support the right of any golfer who wants one to use a distance-measuring gizmo. Lasers are here to stay, any some readers will call me a loser for not loving a laser. Let 'em have it. I don't want it.

Wie Turns Pro

A story on Michelle Wie's press conference:

Michelle Wie, the teen golf phenom, announced today that she would turn professional at a press conference at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Wie, who will turn 16 on October 11, also pledged to donate $500,000 to the U.S. Golf Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.

"I am grateful to be in a position to be able to lend a hand to the victims of Hurricane Katrina," Wie continued. "Turning professional affords me the ability to give back to those in need. Watching other Americans suffer the indignities that this storm has caused really drove home my desire to reach out."

And besides charity, turning pro finally allows her to take the latest equipment that she was deprived of as an amateur:

Wie will tee off at the Samsung World Championship next week in Palm Desert, Calif. playing Nike Golf’s new Sasquatch driver and fairway woods, joining Justin Leonard and K.J. Choi as some of the first to put golf’s latest advancements in club technology into play. Her affinity toward Nike Golf’s equipment, including the new Nike One Platinum golf ball, extends to Nike’s innovative performance apparel and footwear, which she will wear exclusively on Tour.

 As she has been, for the last two years.

Rangefinder Counterpoint

Vartan Kupelian punches holes in the theory that distance measuring devices will slow up (err speed up!) play, as their makers and the USGA's David Fay have insisted.

 One point continues to be left out in these counterpoint arguments. Well, two actually.

One, the speed of play increase theory assumes that a majority of golfers would actually purchase the devices. They won't. Not at $200 plus.

Also, there are not studies I'm aware of proving (or even hinting) that pace of play increased when all golfers in a tournament round had access too these devices (compared to a day without them).
 

7,086: Short

Ron Kroichik offers a hole-by-hole preview of Harding Park. The headline for the story: "Harding might be short but it's big on challenge." That's right, 7,086 yards in heavy air has become short. Damn those workout programs!

PGA Tour officials hope rail-thin fairways, thick rough, slick greens and rows of cypress trees will present a suitable challenge. It's entirely possible the players will overpower Harding and post low, low, low numbers. Or maybe the refurbished 80-year-old layout will quiet skeptics and produce a winner at, say, 10-under-par.

Because, after all, resistance to scoring is the mark of a great design.

Seve's joke about fairways eventually disappearing is looking more prophetic every day. 

Line 'Em Up

Jim Achenbach says the caddie alignment rule has to go.

Wie Announcement...Preview Stories

Damon Hack in the NY Times and Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian preview Michelle Wie's big announcement.

I bet she's emotional tonight, her final as a semi-professional. No more having to wear miscellaneous brands to pretend to be an amateur pretending to respect USGA rules. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. 

Need To Be A Goat To Walk This Course

Thanks to reader Steve for this gem to welcome me back to civilization. Just when I had given up hope that Tour players would ever criticize a lousy venue again. Annika, via Robyn Norwood in the LA Times.

"I think logistically this course does not set up for a competition like this," Annika Sorenstam said after finishing tied for ninth with a final-round 70.

With its tight fairways, multi-tiered layout, narrow cart paths and few shortcuts between holes, the Trump course in Rancho Palos Verdes proved difficult to navigate despite its lavishness.

Players searching for balls in the thick brush or waiting for officials to arrive to make rulings contributed to rounds lasting as long as six hours.

That, plus a 3 1/2 -hour fog delay Saturday, produced the first non-playoff Monday finish on the tour since 1999, though players said ocean views made the waits more bearable.

Sorenstam said not only rules officials, but fans as well, found it difficult to move from hole to hole.

"You pretty much have to be a goat to walk this course," she said.

And after her thanks for the community support:

"Maybe we need to find a flat course in the neighborhood."