Bunker Bits

Lots of fun stuff in this week's Golf World "Bunker."

John Strege catches up with Mac O'Grady, with wacky Mac offering offers his thoughts on the Champions Tour, caddying and his forthcoming novel, which ought to see a printing press about the time his swing book and tape series hits the market. Wait, it can't be a book and tape series anymore. Book and DVD. 

Stu Schneider opens with his usual first rate one-liner and follows with analysis of Nick Faldo's "open bar" bit, which I passed on in favor of UCLA-West Virginia. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

Page one of the Bunker wonders whether the 2007 schedule is really set in stone. Bob Combs says yes, a few cranky tournament directors and Westchester CC do not agree.

Sullivan On Torrey Pines

Tim Sullivan looks at the "perpetual" battle for Torrey Pines and what's at stake.

Tiger Press Conference at Torrey Pines

The assembled inkslingers got plenty of time with Tiger Woods before the Buick, yielding a few interesting comments in spite of the questions.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: You never know. I haven't started designing yet. No one has presented me any opportunities yet as far as that, but maybe one day."

I'm guessing he was asked about designing a course? If so, it's hard to believe no one has presented an opportunity.

Q. What are your latest thoughts about the lengthening of Augusta almost in the context of what you just said? And do you think it's going to be a better test of skill that's going to require a better player to win now?

TIGER WOODS: The only way I think it would be a better test is if it remained dry because then every player can hit a good drive and have a reasonable iron to the green.

But if it's soaked I hit driver and a 3-iron to 11 one year when it was wet, and all the guys that were in front of me and in my group and behind me were all hitting lumber in there. That hole is not meant to hit 3-wood or 5-wood or something into that green.

Same thing with No. 7. That hole was not designed for a 5-iron. If it was, it was not at that green speed.

If the fairways are firm and they're running, then I can see it being a great test. But if they're soft, then I think it eliminates a lot of guys that have the skill to play but they just don't hit the ball far enough.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I think you need to move it around, depending on the conditions. If it's soft, why play a 500 plus par 4 all the way back when it's soft? Give the guys a chance a little bit. But now give the guys a chance a little bit and make it 480 (laughing). I think the staff needs to understand moving around. The prerequisite now is almost you have to hit the ball long. Length has always been an advantage in this sport, always has been and always will be. You just need to make it fair for all the rest of the competitors, as well.    

Rude On Benevolent Dictators

Jeff Rude take an entertaining look at Phil Mickelson's suggestion that the Tour should be run independent of the players and also comments on Sean Murphy's attempts to open the PGA Tour books.

USGA Private Jet Travel, Vol. 3

USGA Executive Director David Fay kindly returned my call (from the PGA Show in Orlando) to follow up on the USGA's enrollment in a private jet travel program and the committee's private aircraft policy that was first reported here.

Regarding the issue of Executive Committee purchasing 100 hours of flight time at a cost of at least $340,000, he responds: 

I don’t see the issue. Compared to when I started when the likes of [Sandy] Tatum or [Harry] Easterly were president, the role of president has been expanded rather dramatically in terms of the amount of time that he or she has to spend. “Has to” might not be the right phrase for that. You’re talking about [a situation] somewhat like the PGA of America officers in terms of the amount of days on the road.

As for the reasons one might need to use the jet:

If a club is interested in a US Amateur or a US Open or Senior Open, perhaps they want to have the chairman of the championship committee go. Sometimes these places are not exactly on the beaten path.

As an example take last year, because I was just in meetings with Mr. Finchem on equipment, and he wanted to meet in Far Hills. The night before, Fred Ridley, Peter Dawson and myself were in Toronto for the RCGA centennial dinner for the Canadian Open. The dinner ends late. The only way you could get back. First of all, we wouldn’t have been able to have that meeting if that plane wasn’t available. So the three of us got on the plane and got into Morristown airport at something like quarter to twelve at night, got to the hotel, and we were able to start the meeting the next morning at 8. Those are the types of trips. I could give you some examples of the trips. I can’t come up with all of them because I don’t know what they all were.

Does it ease the travel? Sure. Does it make it easier for the president to say, "yes I’ll go to speak at the American Society of Golf Course Architects annual meeting." They’ll say fine, because I think if you didn’t have that it would be easier, particularly when they have a day job, to pass on that. Particularly in this post 9-11 era, it’s just a pain to get from point A to point B. Particularly if you are living in an area where maybe it’s not a hub.

As for the accountability issue and in particular the idea of the Audit Committee reporting to the president (who controls access to the jet):

Not just the president's expenses, the full committees’, are reviewed by everyone on that committee. You could say well, now it’s just the committee reviewing their own, but since you aren’t getting any stock options for being on the Executive Committee, there are independent thinkers and if they saw something that was suspicious, they would flag it.

Examples of trips that Mr. Fay could recall:

[Ridley] went to a First Tee oversight meeting in Kennebunkport, Maine. That’s probably a good one to use the plane on. I think Hutchinson. Never Bandon, Oregon. Because realistically you would have to stop a couple of times anyway. I don’t know what the type of jet it is, but I don’t believe it’s one that you could go from the west to the east coast without refueling.

Mr. Fay clarified that if the plane has to make stops for refueling, then the time saved is usually minimal and the cost was likely too prohibitive to okay a trip.

There was an issue with Paul Caruso, who is one of my favorites. There was a bank issue. He’s a banker. He had to be there for it. He made an inquiry into whether he could use the plane. The answer was yes, you can. In this case he wasn't going to save any time by using it because he'd have to make stops.

And regarding the question of "need" and the role of the USGA president in today's game, Fay had this to say.

It’s a more active role. Not to compare it to the old days, but the number of days that a Sandy Tatum or a Will Nicholson or a Jim Hand or a Bill Campbell or Bill Williams spend on the road paled compared to a Ridley, or MacKenzie or Bell or Holland and maybe Driver now. You never know. There may be a day that a USGA President that says no to all of this.

Mr. Fay kindly offered to provide more (but not all) examples of the trips taken and what USGA business they involved.

Funny PGA Show Seminars

The love letters are rolling in over my latest Golfdom column.

Equipment Rules: Totally Optional

Rick Arnett on SI.com:

...I'm displaying my birthday golf wish for all to see --especially to those conservative officials at the USGA and Royal & Ancient who rule over how the game is played.

My desire is for the official honchos to forgo all equipment limitations. No size regulations on drivers or groove depth of irons or ball-distance confines next year. No restrictions on shoe spike patterns, rangefinder use, grip or special alignment considerations. Let the golf equipment designers go nuts and think way outside the box.

Hate to be the bearer of tedious tidings here, but the golf equipment manufacturers may do whatever they want.

Following the equipment rules of the USGA and R&A is completely, 100% optional.   They are free to sell as many "non-conforming" clubs and balls as they'd like.

No one in Far Hills or St. Andrews is stopping them from doing that.

Elling on Thomas Study

Steve Elling talks to Frank Thomas about his recent study and also offers a sidebar of Thomas's ways to grow the game. Plenty of great ideas and a wonderful message. 

But it's hard to understand how he can lament the commercialization of the sport while also suggesting that the answer to increased distance is in restricting course setup or lowering the 14-club limit, not through sound rulesmaking.
 
"We've completely lost touch with why we play the game," Thomas said.

Other highlights from Elling's story:

The survey revealed nothing that will shock the cropped socks off most golfers but bolstered every theoretical notion about the drain of players from the game. Most golfers play from the wrong tees, vastly overestimate how far they can hit the ball and spend five hours enduring their masochism. Then they go home and put the clubs away for a month.

Thomas' fundamental fix will cause golf developers and course owners to recoil. Simply put, he wants to build or modify existing courses to more capably -- if not forcibly -- suit the everyman, not the .55 percent of the population that are scratch golfers.

He mentioned to designer Jack Nicklaus at the Father/Son Challenge last month that he'd like to see more courses built at a maximum of 6,500 yards in length, not the 7,500-yard monsters carved for tour-quality players. That way, John Q. Publinks would have more fun and play from more reasonable tees, likely at a lower cost.

It's insanely logical, to coin a phrase.

"He laughed and said, 'Frank, if I built a 6,200-yard course, I wouldn't have any more clients,' " Thomas said.

And...

As it stands, new courses have turned into a veritable arms race, with designers and builders often trying to out-glitz the next guy. The average player needs the opportunity to roll the ball onto the green and should not be asked to execute a 5-iron to an elevated green over a yawning bunker complex into a stiff headwind.

"We've got to turn this corner because commercialism has taken a severe toll on the game," he said.

The results of Thomas' survey are posted at franklygolf.com, with honest suggestions and his analysis of current trends set to be unveiled over the coming months.

"The object is to get people to enjoy the game more," he said. "The work we're doing, we hope to accomplish that."

He's just getting warmed up. Given his old pedigree as the USGA's equipment gatekeeper -- no legal balls or clubs reached the market without his department's say-so -- he's been mulling the hot-button technology issues of the day, too. You think his course-design ideas sound like heresy?

"I am going to propose that tour players compete with only 10 clubs," he said.

Wie Bitter?

Thanks to reader Tuco for this link to www.michellewiegolf.com.  Just click on it and remember the URL when the page finally opens.

And remember who is paying Wie a lot of money.

Kostis: Tiger, Please Talk To Me

Okay he didn't write that, but Peter Kostis' subliminal attempt to reach out to good ole buddy Tiger contains just the kind of raw emotional soul-bearing that will keep Kleenex in business (and maybe cost Mike Hulbert a job...if Tiger were to be as moved as I was).

Well it wasn't that moving. And Kostis won't win the GS.com promised award to the first golf writer daring thinking to suggest that the new TV deal was a wake-up call about the "product." However, he gets a big honorable mention for a noble suggestion (and I just know Peter'll be adding it to his resume!).

But first the subliminal message to Tiger:

If the tour and television truly are partners, then the players have to do their part. Tim Finchem evoked the success of NASCAR in creating the FedEx Cup points race, which begins in 2007. But the success of NASCAR isn't only derived from a season-ending points race. It's also from drivers willing to share comments with television viewers while in the final stages of strapping themselves into their seats and risking life and limb at over 200 mph. Most tour players, however, are reluctant to talk to television hours before they play or warm up because it might ruin their mental state! It only takes a matter of seconds to lend some insight, so no more of this "I'm too busy to talk" stuff on the range.

Paging Dr. Freud? Dr. Freud to the CBS compound please.

And here's where Kostis takes himself out of the equation and makes a great point:

Variety is a good thing, whether it's in the form of fast, firm greens, slow, soft greens, long rough, or hardly any rough at all. This would also allow us to return to a time when practice rounds at courses meant something, because you learned about the individual characteristics that made that week's venue different from last week's.

Easy there Peter. If they play more practice rounds, and that means less time on the lesson tee with you! 

The point of these suggestions is not to look back on the way things have been done with a hypercritical eye. It's to point out that golf is an exciting sport for television spectators, and can be made even more so with a few alterations.

Right, it's all good. Oh, but you better take a hard look at the product Mr. Commissioner. 

Ferguson On Pre-qualifying

Doug Ferguson weighs the pros and cons of the PGA Tour's new pre-qualifyings for their traditional Monday qualifiers.

Kratzert: Losing ESPN Was A Step Backward

Garry Smits talks to Bill Kratzert about the new TV deal and as expected, the reality is setting in: "Losing ESPN was a step backward," he said. And...

"You can say what you want about ESPN, but when guys travel, and get to the hotel room, or when they go into a bar, ESPN is on," Kratzert said. "They've got almost everything now -- Monday Night Football, college football and basketball, the NBA, Major League Baseball -- and golf was right there."

But Kratzert did agree with the Tour's stance on what was obviously the deal killer, and understandably so: 

Several published reports since the Tour's contract was announced said one stumbling block was that ESPN was demanding the best players in events it covered be given afternoon starting times in each of the first and second rounds. The Tour balked, according to the reports, because it would be a competitive disadvantage for those players to get late starting times two days in a row. By starting in the afternoon both days, they would likely get more mercurial weather conditions (such as the afternoon sea breeze in Ponte Vedra Beach for The Players Championship) and greens spiked up.

"I had heard that," Kratzert said. "If that's the case, it was the right thing to do for the Tour to tell ESPN they couldn't have their way. I understand a network wanting to showcase the top players. But you can't penalize those players by making them putt on spiky greens and windy weather both days."

USGA Private Air Travel, Vol. 2

In the original post on the USGA Executive Committee's need for private aircraft travel, the cost was considered using the NetJets model. But now that it has been confirmed that the USGA contracted 50 hours of flight time with Citation Shares' Jet Card program over an 18-month period and another 50 hours has been purchased, the minimum cost can be considered.

Though the USGA will not confirm the cost of the jet card program nor the specific trips taken, according to this March, 2004 U.S. News and World Report story, Citation Shares (then) cost $84,995 for 25 hours on a five- passenger Citation CJ1. This October, 2003 Wall Street Journal story put the price for 25-hour cards at somewhere between $85,000 and $145,000.

So assuming the absolute smallest plane and not factoring in a likely increase since due to rising fuel costs, the program has cost at least $340,000. 

Some would say that's just a couple of corporate tents at the U.S. Open, big deal. Perhaps, but if the trips are all USGA related and approved by the Audit Committee, then why can't this 501(c)(3) share the details? 

Lanny On Young Players

Bill Nichols in the Dallas Morning News talks to Lanny Wadkins about the next generation of 20-somethings. He echoes what many have noticed about Tuesdays at a PGA Tour event: European and Australians out playing money games, Americans beating balls.

"They all look like worldbeaters, but when they go on the golf course, they have that same practice-tee mentality," said CBS golf analyst Lanny Wadkins of Dallas, winner of 21 PGA Tour events.

And...

Wadkins theorizes that many current prospects are suffering paralysis by analysis. Armed with space-age technology, some young players spend too much time breaking down videos and too little time playing. He doesn't discount the competitive edge he developed playing for lunch money at Wake Forest.

"If I beat my buddies in school out of six bucks, that meant I got an extra meal at McDonald's or Itty Bitty Chicken," Wadkins said. "We learned on the golf course how to hit shots, make things happen, play with imagination, curve the ball. These kids today go stand on the practice range and hit 7-iron after 7-iron. I don't think it's enabling them to learn the game that it takes to win." 

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