More SI Coverage Of Wie Incident

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SI admirably takes the Wie incident heads on, publishing these photos of the drop (well, 6 of 7 are photos...the 7th is some sort of trivia ad thing), while offering a rebuttal to Alan Shipnuck's piece with SI's own Rob Stanger sort of scolding his colleague, though I don't buy into one of the scenarios he suggested for Bamberger to have considered (calling out to the caddy on the spot right after the drop).

Stanger also gets on Wie and the LPGA. He points out the rule 20-2 drop violation discussed in posts below.

Another good point Stanger addresses involves the LPGA players and reminds us what a debacle Trump National was with so many needing rulings. Same thing at Bighorn, including an incident with Annika.

Is it the golf courses and the many environmental areas, or as some are saying, players not knowing the rules well enough? Or a little of both? Or maybe the LPGA not having enough officials (hard to imagine that being the case at the tiny field Samsung).

Either way it seems this incident will ultimately force several issues to be addressed (DQ for day-after rulings, outside the ropes reporting of violations, player knowledge of rules, etc...), likely for the betterment of the sport.

USGA: Keeping Their Eye On Something, Vol. 1

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USGAtearoom.jpgFor those of you who didn't get the USGA's October newsletter (and based on their dwindling membership total, that's most), this site will pass along snippets from the "Special Issue: Equipment," where as one astute Golf Club Atlas observer noted, the USGA lays how there is nothing wrong with recent changes in the game, and they're doing everything they can to stop it from happening again.

Consider the "Merion and Woodhall" sidebar, where writer Gary Galyean says that if it weren't for advances in ball performance, we would not have had those two great courses to play (and lengthen and narrow). He writes:

Ironically, without the advance of increased ball performance, we would never have seen the resulting masterpieces that include Merion's East Course (Ardmore, PA) and the perfected Woodhall Spa (Lincolnshire, England).

Then he writes, and I do not make this up:

Other than perhaps drinking, tinking to improve equipment may be golf's oldest tradition.

Nothing like some first year frat house humor to class-up the newsletter.

Anyway, the point of the sidebar and the entire newsletter is to say, it's all good, roll with it baby, this is what golf has always been about: consumption. Oh, and we are now taking a proactive approach because, well things have changed and this can't go on like this.

Somehow I don't see this appearing in the October, 2095 newsletter:

Ironically, without the advance of increased ball performance, we would never have seen the resulting masterpieces that include the 8,600 yard Jade Mountain Snow Golf Club (People's Republic of China) and 8,100 yard Antler Creek(Las Vegas, Nevada).

Other than perhaps drinking, buying a new driver twice a year may be golf's oldest tradition. A historical inspection of square grooved irons, Scotty Cameron putters or Precept balls reveals that the conniving mind of man has always been at work to find a more effective way of getting extra dollars out of the golfer.

While We're Nitpicking

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Here is Wie making what I believe is the infamous drop.

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According to Rule 20-2: "A ball to be dropped under the Rules must be dropped by the player himself. He must stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it. If a ball is dropped by any other person or in any other manner and the error is not corrected as provided in Rule 20-6, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke."

Reader Blue Blazer and other readers have pointed out that they noticed the almost waist-high drop as it was happening, and thought to themselves that Wie's dropping methodology left a lot to be desired. Hard to say definitively from the photo if she's at waist level, but it appears she's somewhere between the shoulder and waist.

Just something she might want to correct since her future ball drops will be closely scrutinized.
 

Even More Wie DQ Follow Up

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George White looks at the issues raised by the Wie DQ incident, namely, why is it in golf that these things can be reviewed the day after, while in other sports they'd never hear of such a thing.

Meanwhile at Golfobserver, David Barrett says throw out such analogies. He also makes this point, which might answer George White's questions regarding fairness.

I would like to see unknowing violations that come to light after a player has signed his scorecard be penalized by adding the appropriate penalty strokes--and maybe even two extra strokes--instead of with disqualification.

There are already a couple of principles embedded in the Rules that could lead in this direction. First, there is what happens at the end of the competition. Once a competition is closed--for a multi-round event, that means the final round is over and the result announced--a player is disqualified only if it comes to light that he knew he incurred penalty strokes but did not report them. This could be extended back to the time of signing the scorecard.

There's also an existing, but seldom-used, way to tackle the problem. The Rules give the committee the power to waive or modify a disqualification penalty in "exceptional individual cases." However, the Rulesmakers view "exceptional" to mean extremely rare...

 

More Wie DQ Follow Up

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Nothing gets media juices flowing more than a story involving...itself! Lots of interesting reactions to the Wie DQ incident and Michael Bamberger's role in it.

Alan Shipnuck defends his SI colleague.  Tom Hanson in the Naples News says Wie is a victim of the SI jinx without even making the cover, and is pretty tough on Bamberger.

In the UK, Lewis Mair looks at all the losers in this, namely Annika Sorrenstam, whose easy win was forgotten, and whose post round press conference was deserted 5 minutes into it by the scribblers much more interested in the Wie story. Finally, Lawrence Donegan reports on an "angry altercation" between Wie's caddie and Bamberger over the incident. Jeese, it's just the Samsung World Championship. Let's all get along!

Wie DQ Follow Up

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TheGolfChannel.com (again) has the first and best insider's take on the Wie DQ. Brian Hewitt talks to Michael Bamberger for his insights into the incident (that he precipitated).

Jim Achenbach says Wie did nothing wrong and will some day laugh about it.

So far, no one has mentioned reader Blue Blazer's observation that Wie was dropping the ball just above waist high, which is a lot lower than shoulder high. Kind of makes me long for the old over-the-shoulder days.

And just in case there was any relationship left between Wie and SI (ah she'll forgive them, won't she?), Gary Van Sickle finally asks a few tough questions that no one has dared to bring up regarding some of the claims made by Wie's family with regard to her plans on earning a college degree.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch Vol. 4

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PGA_TourLogo.gifBack to 26 players averaging over 300 yards after dropping to 24. 30 over 300 yards is still very much within reach.

The PGA Tour topped 289 yards for the first time, with the tour average at 289.1 yards.

Just a friendly reminder (again): in 2004, 14 players averaged over 300 yards. 9 players averaged over 300 yards in 2003.  John Daly was the only player averaging over 300 yards for the 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons. 

Lengthening In Response to Technology

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In advance of this week's Funai Classic, Steve Elling explores the trend of lengthening Tour courses. Warning, I'm quoted.


Highlights:

With a record tour 25 players averaging over 300 yards per drive -- that's 10 more guys than last year's all-time high -- courses are going long, too. Next year at the Bob Hope Classic, a new layout called the Classic Course at NorthStar will be added to the four-course rotation. It'll be 7,536 yards.

Driving distances have grown so quickly that there has been talk of using a standardized tour ball, the golf equivalent of NASCAR's restrictor-plate racing. For years, the equipment makers operated with relative impunity, making clubheads the size of toasters, graphite shafts as long as fishing poles and balls so hot that the world's plutonium supply probably dwindled. Before golf's governing bodies, the U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient Golf Club, finally put some limitations on club performance characteristics, setting actual limits three years ago, the horsepower was out of the barn.

And for the first time, Frank Thomas is more direct on his final years as USGA testing director, with a direct reference to his interest in curbing optimization while at the USGA.

"They failed to act for legal reasons, not for the best interests of golf," said Orlando's Frank Thomas, the USGA's chief technical director from 1974-2000. "I warned them, but nobody wanted to face a potential lawsuit [from manufacturers]."

More Elling:

Of the 39 primary courses in continual use on tour over the past decade, Disney became the 16th to add at least 100 yards; another dropped its par by two strokes to keep pace. In the same 10-year period, driving distance -- the average of all tour players -- has risen 25 yards, to 289 yards. Disney simply counter-punched.

This from Tiger, who tries to dispel the myth that longer players would be unfairly targeted by a rollback or increase in ball spin:

"The further you hit, the more technology is going to help you," Woods said last month. "Hey, I am one of the guys that if they did roll the ball back, it would help me out a little bit. Any long guy who hits the ball long and high would have more of an advantage because now we're having to hit longer irons into the greens, while other guys are having to hit hybrids and woods."

And just as you might have been praising Thomas for bold and direct comments, he offered this to Elling:

Thomas argues that changing the ball is "rewriting the whole rulebook for perhaps the top 400 people in the world, or the top one-thousandth of 1 percent of the golfing population, which is insane." Instead, he favors pinching the width of fairways and growing the rough, which would make players think twice before mindlessly bashing a driver.

Because that has worked so well and will do so much to enhance enjoyment of the sport.

What Thomas doesn't say is that the equipment rulebook could be re-written to deal with those top 400 in a way that would slow down the madness of lengthening and narrowing courses, without significantly impacting 99% of the golfing population. His proposed optimization testing would have done just this.

He's [Thomas] also pushing a semi-heretical notion -- trimming the number of clubs a pro can carry from 14 to 10.

Now that is one anti-corporate, technophobic cure that is guranteed to effect 99% of the golfing population.
 

Wie Q

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Doug Ferguson's AP story on Annika's win at the Samsung and Michelle Wie's DQ.

“I learned a great lesson,” Wie said, her voice choking with emotion. “From now on, I’ll call a rules official no matter where it is, whether its 3 inches or 100 yards. I respect that.”

Wie hit a 5-wood shot into a Gold Lantana bush Saturday and was barely able to find it. She told her playing partner, Grace Park, she was taking an unplayable lie, dropped away from the bush, then chipped to 15 feet and made the par. It was a critical save, and Wie steadied herself to get within five shots of the lead.

Michael Bamberger, a reporter for Sports Illustrated, told tour officials Sunday afternoon that he was concerned about the drop. Rules officials Jim Haley and Robert O. Smith reviewed tape from NBC Sports before taking Wie and caddie Greg Johnston to the seventh green after the tournament ended Sunday.

“If I had to make the ruling based on the videotape, to me it was inconclusive,” Smith said.

He had Johnston and Wie show him where the ball was in the bushes, then where they dropped. They paced it off, then used string to measure the distance and determined it to be slightly closer.

“The Rules of Golf are based on facts,” Smith said. “They had to tell us where it was. The fact was, the ball was closer to the hole by 12 to 15 inches.”