And Now A Word For Our Sponsors

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Better late than never! My October 28 Golf World arrived today, five days after the Nov. 11 issue found its way into my mailbox. (My postman found himself captivated by Ron Sirak's account of the Wie DQ).

In the same issue, E. Michael Johnson writes about equipment sponsors who are frustrated that players are not dropping product or corporate names enough during interviews, ala NASCAR.

That's not a surprise, but this part was:

Even the tour has recognized that its constituents could use help, hiring a public speaking authority, The Speaking Specialists, to address players earlier this year.

"We told them to remember they're always on, and to take advantage of every opportunity to talk up their sponsors," said Sue Castorino, president of The Speaking Specialists. "Sometimes they take [the sponsors] for granted."

Nice that the Tour is looking out for the player sponsors, isn't it? 

The PGA Tour regulates the size and number of logos a player can have on his clothing, yet has consultants encouraging players to plug their new driver like some NASCAR dude thanking Goodyear for FedExing those new high grip tires that would look great on your Chevy?

Pro golfers and their manufacturer ties are taken more seriously by golf fans because the players do NOT shamelessly plug stuff at every opportunity.

HOF Induction Ceremony

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Golf Channel airs the World Golf Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at (9:30 pm est and at other times in the night). I understand from a very good source that there is a video with testimonials to Alister MacKenzie from modern player-architects that is not to be missed. :)

It will be fun to see if there is a Bernard Darwin video and if so, who they got to talk about his legacy. Here's the World Golf Village home page with more on this year's nominees.

Tiger On A Rollback

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Kelly Tilghman interviewed Tiger Woods September 28th. Because a transcript was slow to appear and I was more interested in his surprising comments that he'll be getting in the course design business soon than expected, I missed this bit where he says there is "no doubt" that Hootie, the USGA and R&A want to roll the ball back. Thanks to reader Tom for the reminder.

And credit Tilghman for asking some fine questions in a tough environment (Nike plugfest). The entire interview is much more interesting than Tiger's usual game of press room Dodgeball. (Not that I blame him.)

Anyway, here's what should have made headlines:

Tiger Woods: Here's the deal, I have talked to Hootie and talked to the heads of USGA, also to Peter Dawson, they want to roll the ball back, no doubt about that. They want to put a speed limit and there is one now but they are making golf courses so long that you can't play some of the old championship venues. That's what they are afraid of. They are trying to protect the integrity of some of these major championship venues and the great golf courses, where they can still provide a great championship but not have us shoot 20 under par. But also to have it so that the average golfer can enjoy a round of golf. Well, that's the dilemma. New technology has helped the average golfer hitting balls slightly further and slightly more accurate. But for professionals, we have made leaps and bounds because our proficiency and to be able to make contact and launch the ball correctly each and every time. If you take the average consumer and they hit a driver, they have probably got old equipment five years ago to now maybe 10 yards, 12 yards carry, and we're carrying it to 25, 30 yards further than some of the guys. The further you hit, the more technology is going to help you. That's what they are looking at. They have got all these lists of numbers especially at Augusta, where we're landing the golf ball versus three years ago, and three years ago guys are hitting it 12 to 15 further in the air easily, everybody. That's what they are afraid of. That's one of the reasons why Augusta made some changes each and every year and are probably a leader in that.

I am sure there will come a point in time where they will have to slow it down because we can't play Merion anymore. You can play U.S. Amateur but a professional I think would probably shoot a little lower scores than they did. St. Andrews, if they have to change the course there to accommodate us, then you know things are changing. Hey, I am one of the guys that if they did roll the ball back, it would help me out a little bit. I would have an advantage. 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 in the greens, other guys are having to hit hybrids and woods, so you have an advantage.

From a personal standpoint and competitive standpoint, I won't mind them rolling the ball back because I would have an advantage.

"Great Game's Long Goodbye"

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It took way too long for John Huggan to weigh in on the Tour's '07 concept and the state of the game.

Oh but it was worth the wait.

A season-long points series will lead to a play-off-style Fed-Ex Cup involving leading qualifiers that will, it is hoped, identify the biggest draws in the game. Otherwise, America's ever-diminishing attention span, and its desire to satisfy an out-of-control gambling habit, may switch from fades to football even earlier than it does now.

Ah he was just warming up.

As always when the PGA Tour is involved, this proposed change to a long-established status quo has nothing to do with what may or may not be good for the game. To the surprise of no-one, this is all to do with money. Instead of taking a long, hard look at an increasingly one-dimensional product involving the use of driver, wedge and putter, Finchem and his army of sycophantic minions have gone for what appears to be a short-term fix: dazzling disgruntled networks with big names and numbers in advance of imminent negotiations for the renewal of television contracts.

Oh heck, why am I interrupting?

Such a move, you won't be shocked to hear, is shortsighted, and pays no attention to recent history and the demise of tennis as a participation/spectator sport in the US. As bigger racquets and hi-tech materials removed entertaining 'feel' players, such as John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase, from the upper echelons, tennis became more and more a power game dominated by big-serving behemoths. And not surprisingly, the public rejected that tedium. From a peak of 34 million in 1975, it is estimated that only 13 million Americans play tennis and only rarely does it make it onto network TV.

Golf is going the same way. The numbers are not pretty, yet administrators on both sides of the Atlantic do nothing to stop the game becoming more about grunts than guile.

Oh I'll stop here because he goes into that tedious USGA/R&A Statement of Principles stuff which you know all too well from the last week. And the various stats also thrown in your face here and here this week.

Demo Day at East Lake

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An interesting item I missed (thanks to reader Peter for alerting me), came from Doug Ferguson's Tour Championship notes:

GLORY DAYS: For those who believe the golf ball is solely responsible for distance gains, the pro-am at the Chrysler Championship showed other factors at work. The wooden driver, for example.

As the PGA Tour reached a conclusion to its "Drive to a Billion" charity campaign, it had five persimmons drivers available on the first tee and asked players to give it a crack, then use their titanium drivers for the shot that counted on their pro-am scorecard.

Adam Scott hit it pure, a majestic ball flight with a slight draw to the middle of the fairway. Out came his Titleist titanium driver - same golf ball, by the way - and another beautiful swing. Stepping it off, it was 32 yards longer.

Davis Love III also ripped the wooden driver. His modern driver sent the ball 40 yards longer.

Guess the ball is overrated? Might as well just buy some run-of-the-mill Callaways since the clubs are doing all the work, eh?

Or maybe there is a unique ball-club synergy that allows players to exceed the Overall Distance Standard, and someone ought to test for that?

Phony Finish

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Add Peter Kostis to the list of those underwhelmed by Tim Finchem's announced intentions to fix the Tour schedule. He raises several points not addressed in other columns and offers this extreme idea, sounds much closer to something the Tour should consider to make this so-called "playoff" dramatic instead of a rich-get-rich pyramid scheme:

...if you really want to create some excitement, play the FedEx Cup finale tournaments with a $10 million purse—winner takes all.

You have to figure that if the Tour can't convince players to do something semi-radical at The International (daily cuts, start from scratch Sunday), it's going to be tough to convince the players that FedEx Cup will only work with something bold and brash. And this is why the FedEx Cup concept will continue to receive nothing but yawns and "why?"