The Conversation Kind of Wanes...

John Dell files the now-traditional Wachovia perks story, but includes this gem from Billy Andrade:

Another benefit is three-man pro-ams - one pro and two amateurs. Most of the other pro-ams on the PGA Tour are foursomes or fivesomes.

But Andrade said it's sometimes awkward playing with only two amateurs.

"You pretty much know everything about the two guys you are playing with by about the sixth or seventh hole," Andrade said, "so then the conversation kind of wanes after that."

TNT Wins British Open Coverage Emmy In Spite Of Bobby Clampett's Presence

And most of us would still pay to get the BBC announce feed...

The rivetting details are here.

Finchem Hosts Wachovia Gambler's Anonymous Meeting

John Daly's forthcoming book reveals that he has lost between $50 million and $60 million during 12 years of heavy gambling, AP's Doug Ferguson reports.

He told one story of earning $750,000 when he lost in a playoff to Tiger Woods last fall in San Francisco at a World Golf Championship. Instead of going home, he drove to Las Vegas and says he lost $1.65 million in five hours playing mostly $5,000 slot machines.

"If I don't get control of my gambling, it's going to flat-out ruin me," he says in the book, co-written with Glen Waggoner and published by HarperCollins.

And it looks like someone in Ponte Vedra has been reading Daly's book.

The book got the attention of PGA Tour headquarters, and commissioner Tim Finchem met with Daly on Monday at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

Finchem said the book does not violate PGA Tour regulations, although "it is clear that he continues to be concerned about and grapple with significant personal challenges."

"I have expressed to John the tour's concern for his well-being, as well as his ongoing need to uphold the image and standards of the PGA Tour," Finchem said. "While we will continue to enforce the regulations and policies of the PGA Tour, I have advised John of the tour's willingness to support him in his efforts to deal with his personal issues."

Of more pressing concern to Finchem was a recent focus group that downgraded Daly's likability rating due to his propensity to not wear shoes during Monday outting play (as recently demonstrated on The Daly Planet). 

The Commissioner and Daly reportedly discussed the potential brand impact of such negative focus group scores, the first port o'call should Daly decide to go shopping, and better ways to interface his feet with footwear.

MacDuff's Post-New Orleans FedEx Cup Points List

^{1    Mickelson    16634.37        10
2    Glover    14029.16        10
3    Singh    14021.87        10
4    C.Campbell    12837.5        11
5    Furyk    12712.5        9
6    Toms    12409.37        8
7    Gf. Ogilvy    12237.5        8
8    Appleby    12225        9
9    Sabbatini    11741.66        8
10    Verplank    11612.5        9
11    Weir    11459.37        8
12    Pettersson    11333.33        11
13    Olazabal    10875        7
14    T.Woods    10659.37        6
15    Pernice    10625        8
16    Mayfair    10479.16        9
17    Donald    10289.37        7
18    Goosen    10250        7
19    Oberholser    9550        8
20    T.Clark    9547.5        9
21    Parnevik    9417.5        11
22    Van Pelt    9302.5        11
23    Funk    9262.5        9
24    D.Wilson    8712.5        9
25    Cink    8633.83        8
26    Gay    8500        9
27    Z.Johnson    8475        8
28    Lehman    8350        7
29    Warren    8237.5        8
30    Villegas    8225        8
31    Chopra    8212        9
32    Franco    8087.5        8
33    Choi    8050        7
34    Ames    7975        6
35    G. Owen    7975        8
36    Harrington    7962.5        7
37    Els    7925        7
38    Pampling    7867.5        7
39    Bohn    7770.83        8
40    Love III    7762.5        8
41    Rollins    7675        7
42    Jerry Kelly    7662.5        6
43    Watney    7475        8
44    JB Holmes    7420.83        7
45    Purdy    7325        7
46    Palmer    7291.66        7
47    Vn Taylor    7237.5        6
48    J.Smith    7200        7
49    Garcia    7175        6
50    Hoffman    7145        7
51    Senden    7037.5        6
52    Jobe    6892.5        7
53    Baddeley    6850        7
54    Couples    6825        7
55    Howell III    6787.5        10
56    Beem    6768.75        8
57    Imada    6717.5        8
58    Barlow    6657.5        7
59    Bertsch    6575        8
60    RS Johnson    6525        5
61    Baird    6517.5        7
62    Fischer    6425        9
63    M.Wilson    6390        6
64    Langer    6354.16        7
65    Calc    6287.5        9
66    D. Howell    6262.5        5
67    Pat Perez    6262.5        7
68    Branshaw    6250        7
69    Leonard    6220.83        7
70    Bjornstad    6217.5        7
71    Allenby    6187.5        6
72    Poulter    6175        7
73    Herron    6132.5        6
74    Rose    6104.16        7
75    F.Jacobson    6075        6
76    Bryant    6050        6
77    Bub Watson    5962.5        6
78    JL Lewis    5962.5        8
79    JJ Henry    5875        5
80    Olin Browne    5875        9
81    A.Scott    5850        5
82    J.Ogilvie    5845        6
83    Waldorf    5787.5        7
84    Estes    5775        5
85    Crane    5770        5
86    Gove    5737.5        6
87    Slocum    5687.5        8
88    N.Green    5662.5        7
89    B. Quigley    5650        5
90    Atwal    5625        5
91    J.Byrd    5500        4
92    Flesch    5492.5        8
93    DiMarco    5384.37        5
94    Curtis    5375        7
95    Wetterich    5350        5
96    Gronberg    5312.5        5
97    Leaney    5225        5
98    Stricker    5212.5        4
99    Westwood    5187.5        5
100    Sluman    5175        9
101    Hart    5137.5        6
T102    Cabrera    5100        5
T102    Immelman    5100        5
104    Maggert    4937.5        7
105    D.Clarke    4900        4
106    Triplett    4800        5
107    Azinger    4762.5        7
108    Durant    4675        8
109    Matteson    4600        6
110    Barron    4581.25        5
111    Lowery    4500        7
112    Mahan    4462.5        7
113    Gore    4450        5
114    Br.Davis    4437.5        7
115    Micheel    4425        6
116    Lickliter II    4250        5
117    B. Haas    4200        6
118    Frazar    4187.5        6
119    Geiberger    4100        6
120    Veazey    4025        5
121    Armour III    4012.5        4
122    Cook    4000        4
123    Dickerson    3975        7
124    Kenny Perry    3962.5        4
125    Lonard    3937.5        6
126    S.Jones    3912.5        5
127    Faxon    3812.5        6
128    Austin    3812.5        8
129    Pavin    3787.5        4
130    Sutherland    3750        6
131    Goggin    3737.75        4
132    Ridings    3700        5
133    Kent Jones    3612.5        5
134    Kaye    3575        5
135    Andrade    3545        5
136    Petrovic    3512.5        5
137    Sindelar    3512.5        6
138    Brehaut    3400        7
139    Jimenez    3387.5        3
140    Ws Short Jr    3387.5        7}

Holy Toledo!

(click on image to enlarge)A reader in Toledo, Spain saw this bunker and photographed it for our amusement.  He writes:

A city where the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures lived in harmony for centuries, the arquitect decided to put the symbols of all three cultures in his signature hole.

It's good to know that America hasn't completely cornered the market on horrific design elements! 

The Familiarization Trip

Received this today. Make sure you catch the last sentence. It's a keeper! 

Good morning:

We are hosting media May 30-June 3 at Circling Raven Golf Club/Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel and Coeur d’Alene Resort for a familiarization trip.

www.circlingraven.com
www.cdaresort.com
www.cdacasino.com

The goal of the trip is introduce media to these two properties, both members of the Idaho Golf Trail’s Northern Loop and less than 30 minutes apart. They are rapidly becoming rated among the best one-two public access courses near to one another nationwide, comparing favorably to the Bandons and Pebbles of the golfing resort world.

We would like you to come on the trip and see what the buzz is all about. We think you’ll find the golf and resorts of such caliber and value that you’ll want to review or rate them and let your readers to know about them since they are so close by and so excellent.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience either way.

While this is an expenses-paid trip – all you have to do is show up and play golf – if you’re more comfortable paying a deeply discounted media rate that can be arranged as well.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 17

The PGA Tour Driving Distance average rose to 288.0 yards, up from 287.7 after Houston.  Now, I didn't watch much of the New Orleans event (though I have it Tivo'd in case I want to peel off the layers masking English Turn's architectural genius), but considering the course was wet, that's an impressive distance jump.

There were 11 350-or-longer drives, with the season total now at 862. A nd Carlos Franco demonstrated the benefits of diet and exercise with 402-yarder on the 7th hole during Saturday's 3rd round.  That brings the season total to 17 drives of 400-yards or longer, 2 shy of 2005's total of 19.

It was in the April 29, 2005 issue that Golf World's E. Michael Johnson embarked on a Colbertian rant about what else, the ranting of "distance killjoys." One year ago the PGA Tour driving distance was 280 yards, down 7 yards from the previous year's total. It was reported here that perhaps this drop was caused by the record rainfall that followed the Tour in early '05, but Johnson instead chose the moment to demonstrate truthiness at its finest (yes, pre-Colbert). Courtesy of Titleist.com (the article isn't available on GolfDigest.com):

The problem, however, is that this emerging conventional wisdom is rarely challenged.  Too infrequently does anyone provide the research to either support or refute these statements.

When it comes to the length the golf ball is traveling, there is no shortage of talking points for distance killjoys ranting about how the high-tech ball is ruining the game at the elite level.

Distance is out of control.  Scores are too low.  Courses are obsolete.  The game has become one of driver-wedge.

Sound familiar?

So let's try.

Is distance out of control?  Only if a seven-yard drop in driving distance since last year counts.  Scores too low?  Last year's scoring average was a whopping .02 lower than that of 1994. 

Maybe there will be a story this week looking at the 8-yard increase in driving distance compared to this time last year?

Settling For Third?

After hearing professional billboard driver NASCAR's Dale Earnheart Jr. tell Sportscenter that he was "focued on tops 3s and top 5s," Rex Hoggard wonders if the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup will reward mediocrity:

Not sure if PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem watches SportsCenter; he feels more like a CNBC "Squawk on the Street" kind of guy, but if so "Little E's" comment must have reverberated from the walls of the commish's Ponte Vedra Beach abode like a phone call from Greg Norman.

The Tour has made no secret of the fact it modeled its FedEx Cup competition for 2007 after NASCAR's "Chase for the Cup" series. Nothing wrong with that. Imitation is the best form of flattery and all that.

The Tour wanted its season to build to a crescendo, and they concluded the best way to get there was a year-long points race that ends with a four-event Championship Series. Other than the unavoidable, "sixth-," "seventh-," "eighth-" and "ninth-" majors debate that this will obviously spark, the FedEx Cup holds some promise. Promise that the final month of the season will be more than a collection of silly season wannabes and big-player cash grabs.

But Earnhardt's comment about top 3s and the such raises a particularly concerning flag. For No. 8, top 3s and top 5s are worth all-important points that assure him a ticket into NASCAR's lucrative season-ending races. Last season, you see, Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon – another member of NASCAR's ruling class – didn't qualify for that circuit's big finish.

You be the judge. Check out the FedEx Cup standings compiled by reader MacDuff, with this points system.

Huggan On Governing Body Setup Ploys

John Huggan returns from Open Championship media day and his Geoff Ogilvy chat thinking about the course setup "shenanigans" employed by the R&A and USGA in hopes of masking their regulatory complacency:

All of said shenanigans have had two results: winning scores have remained within what the officials would describe as a respectable range, and at times the players, the courses and the game have been made to look stupid, thereby severely compromising the integrity of the competition.

And...

It is heartbreaking, year after year, to watch the greatest of games being diminished by a failure on the part of the sport's administrators to cap distance. And it will be the same again at Hoylake come July. Given the narrowness of the fairways already and three more months of grass-growing weather, look for a lot of tedious hacking out and not enough opportunity for the better players to separate themselves from the rest by dint of their superior ability to create shots from off the fairway.

For "tricking up", read "dumbing down".

The Donald In Scotland, Vol. 2

The Donald visited Scotland and as always, the trip produced some fine stories.

Auslan Cramb writes in the Guardian:

A four-handicap golfer, he described Sir Sean Connery as one of his best friends, Nick Faldo as a supporter, and, mindful of where he was, added: "I love your Colin Montgomerie".

Jonathan Coates reports on the bonding between Donald and another emerging architect, Peter Dawson.

Trump is aware of all this - heck, his course hasn't even been approved yet - but he insisted yesterday, just minutes after meeting R&A secretary Peter Dawson in the Old Course clubhouse, that taking the Open to Aberdeenshire was a realistic aim. "What I really hope to do is build the greatest golf course anywhere in the world," Trump said after being ferried by helicopter from Menie to St Andrews. Asked if he thought his course could host the Open Championship, Trump replied: "Yes, I would love that. We are shooting for that. And yes, I think it's realistic."

Trump's right-hand man, Ashley Cooper, elaborated: "When we go out and build big golf courses we build them with championships in mind. So we understand how the infrastructure works, we understand how the medical situation needs to be done, how hospitality has to be done, how viewing has to be done. So what we will do over the next two or three years building the links course is build it with the Open Championship in mind. But whatever happens, the public and some of our private members will have an Open Championship venue to enjoy for the next 100 years."

Having just met Dawson, whom the New Yorker described as "a fantastic guy who has done an amazing job", Trump added: "We had a great conversation and he understands the greatness of this land. He was born in Aberdeen and he understands the greatness of these dunes. I've built a lot of golf courses but there's nothing like the great dunes in Scotland. That's why we chose this site over so many others."

Meanwhile, Lorna Martin reports on criticism of the project.

Week In Review, April 23-30: No More Myths

Sunday started with a  must-read John Huggan profile of Geoff Ogilvy on the state of the game, prompting this from reader Matt: Ten years ago you could attend a PGA Tour event, watch a pro hit a drive, and in all honesty say, "I can do that every once in a while." There was a sense of connection between the average golfer and the tour pros. Now, it seems as if the pros are playing on the moon. We just can't relate to the game the pros play at all. The game of golf has gone missing. Can someone safely return it?"

And NRH had this to say about the man who spells his first name so perfectly: "It is very encouraging to see a relativeley young guy 'get-it'...of course he is Australian. Heard an amazing stat a couple of weeks ago that Jonathan Byrd is the only American player under the age of 30 with more than one win on Tour."

Another week meant more classic MBAspeak from Commissioner Finchem, including his assertion that his greatest accomplishment remains wonderful communication between himself and players. That prompted Old School to write: "The Tour has communicated so well with players that Greg Norman is threatening to sue for minutes to meetings and all of the financial records. The communication between those that work for the Tour and the players can't be as huge of an accomplishment for Tim with Norman sounding off. If this is Tim's biggest feat, then he certainly hasn't done anything significant."

Later, Finchem did a Q&A with the New Orleans paper, discussing the Tour's unique ability to reach CEO's and "skew" to their unique demographic. Jonathon Cummings suggested that "Timmy should make it pay-per-view and pipe it directly into the CEO boardrooms!" Meanwhile, reader Scott S pointed out, "I've never seen skew used in a positive light... until now."

We learned new details of the R&A's initial ventures into course design, prompting head man Peter Dawson to say, "Sometimes you can't fully appreciate the impact of an alteration until it's been built and you have another look at them in reality rather than on a drawing." In the same story, Mike Aitken noted that a Turnberry bunker was filled because "the hazard couldn't be seen from the tee."

That prompted reader DK to say, "The R&A is saying this! The R&A! The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews headquartered at The Old Course is having bunkers removed because they can't be seen from the tee. I feel like barracading myself in my house and taking hostages." Amen brother.

We also learned about the real reason behind the 84 Lumber Classic's demise, where the daughter of Joe Hardy "said her company will be spending 'lots of money' to aggressively purchase smaller lumber and framing companies to eliminate competition."

The Big K replied to that: "If sponsoring a PGA Tour event does not make financial sense, why do it? Especially since the PGAT has not proven to be particularly loyal to anyone...Still, it is hard to sympathize with the comment about buying smaller companies to eliminate competition. It wasn't quoted, hopefully it is a little out of context.

And finally, don't miss Brad Klein's story on distance measuring devices, which includes a breakdown of which golf associations are allowing them and which aren't. And in their defense, Smolmania wrote: "There may certainly be no question that idiots will play slowly, and that using range finders will not help them. However, there may also be no question that in the vast majority of cases, a golfer who may simply point a Bushnell at a flag, or the top of a bunker, and get a yardage is capable of playing more quickly. . . a boon to all."

Approach and Putting Are By Far The Most Difficult

From the 1879 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on golf:

The approach and the putting are by far the most difficult, critical, and important parts of the game; though no one who is not fairly competent in his driving also is ever in the least likely to take rank as a first-class player.  The maximum length of a good driving stroke for a first-class player, not favoured by any exceptional circumstances, may perhaps fairly be stated as something over 180 yards, and under 200.

I've taken the liberty of preparing a 2006 edition and run it through the Ali G translator just to show how in touch I am with my demographic (I have to savor this, as I'm down to mere months left in the coveted 18-34 demo):

da drive and da puttin is by far da mostest critical part of da game; though no one who is not incompetent in is approach play is eva in da least likely to take rank as a first-class playa. da maximum lengf of a wicked drivin stroke fa a first-class playa, not favoured by any fore real circumstances, may be somethin ova 320 yards, and unda 400.  

Fuzzy On Winged Foot

Mark Lamport-Stokes shares some of Fuzzy Zoeller's comments on Winged Foot circa 1984 and what it takes to win there. He also said this:

"They did offer me an exemption this year and I turned it down because, hell, I've had my fun, I've had my time," the 54-year-old told a teleconference.

How Quickly They Forget, Vol. 8,139

"Shinnecock was generally regarded by all the players and everybody else as a fabulous U.S. Open - until Sunday morning," USGA president Walter Driver said during media day at Winged Foot Friday.

Driver might want to relive Saturday's infamous "rodean hole" press conference just to revise that slightly to, oh I don't know, until Friday night?

Q. Are you concerned that by the last group Maruyama and Mickelson, it really got scary? Maruyama's caddie was running to get the bag out of the way so Phil's second putt wouldn't go in the trap.

WALTER DRIVER: Yeah, obviously it was getting -- the wind was drying it out, they were putting downwind, downhill, downgrain, downworld, and it was very difficult to stop those putts. In fact, as I was standing there with the last group, I said to the person I was standing with that if Maruyama got that ball to the left of the hole, I didn't think it would stop, that he had to hit it up into the hill and hit a lag putt, and instead I think he hit a slightly aggressive putt with very unfortunate consequences.

We were trying to moderate the green and have been trying to moderate the design of the green since Tuesday, but we can't do anything about the wind and we can't do anything about the design of the hole.

Q. How did it happen that the guy rolled it this morning? How did that come about?

WALTER DRIVER: I don't know, I heard about it on the radio, because after I saw that, I called in and said I want to make sure that we did not roll that since Tuesday. I want that confirmed because I knew I would be here with you this evening. They called me back on the radio and said a member of the grounds staff had inadvertently rolled it notwithstanding the instructions not to. It will not happen tomorrow morning.

Q. If you should decide that something needs to be done, will even watering it help? Is there anything that can be done if the wind is in the same direction and you've got some concerns?

WALTER DRIVER: We'll look at it tomorrow morning. I've made arrangements to meet the staff at 8:00 o'clock on that hole.

And we know how productice that meeting was!

Dead Guy's Anniversary Not Enough

Joe Gordon writes that David Fay's remark about a U.S. Open return to The Country Club is looking prophetic:

Fay, executive director of the USGA, told the Herald in 2004 that observing “a dead guy’s anniversary” wasn’t enough of a reason to hold a U.S. Open.

Don't you wish you had put it that way?