"Everything right in front of you"

Add Billy Andrade to the list of those noting Quail Hollow's "everything right in front of you" genius. He's forgiven because he earns himself a fine for ripping TPC's and he's a friend of Brad Faxon, so he must be a nice guy. But Billy, on this everything in front of you stuff, as a guy who likes books, would you want to know how they end before you crack 'em open? Or get the character of a song after one listen, the nuances of a film the first time through, the...okay, I'll stop now...

Q. Do you think you guys play enough courses like this?

BILLY ANDRADE: No, we don't. We play more cooky cutter TPCs are more cooky cutter type golf courses. We don't play old style. The problem is that it's hard to give up golf courses. Their memberships don't want to give up classics. It's hard to come into places look at Westchester. That course there is the best. If we ever left that, that would really hurt that tournament. But I would love to see us play more classic golf courses that you see in the majors, but on a regular Tour event, it's tough to play these type of places.

But it's just such a this reminds me a lot of home, a lot of old style New England, old golf courses that are just everything is right in front of you. It's easy to see, it's easy to figure it out, and a lot of the courses we do play are built for spectators, and a lot of dirt is moved and more manufactured. It's different.

I don't think you get too many players out here that are going to complain about this place. I think all it is is praise when the golf course is this good.

Love Those Pro-Ams

From Davis Love's first round Wachovia press conference:

Q. I'm doing a story on Pro Ams, and obviously you play in a million of them. Do you have any kind of favorite quotes or stories of guys driving to out drive you or looking for that magic tip?

DAVIS LOVE III: No, there's always the guys trying to play really good. Somebody asked me that the other day and I couldn't come up with one but then I came up with one later, which always happens.

My brother was caddying for me at La Costa back when it had a Pro Am, and I guess it was a guy topped it and it was wet and went in front of him and then it spun back and went behind him. We said, now we've seen it all. We've seen every shot that can be hit. I've never seen one go spinning backwards.

He hit it again and hit it in the rough and then he hit it down there and he was in the first cut of the fairway, and he hit it and he topped it again, and it went straight down and he lost it. It was in the dirt. It went in the dirt so far down that we couldn't find it. We would have had to have a shovel to dig it up. It was like six or eight inches down in the mud.

Q. What's the USGA rule on that?

DAVIS LOVE III: I told him just to pick up. That's when we said maybe we haven't seen it all and we've got to keep on our toes.

Hootie Steps Down

This is a shocker...and really bad news for Walter Driver, since Billy Payne is only 58!

Thanks to reader Edward for the heads up. 

Update on 2006-05-05 17:58 by Geoff

Ron Sirak reviews the Hootie Johnson era.

Feherty Advocates Ball Change

Ron Green Jr. in the Charlotte Observer talks to David Feherty, who talks about Tiger, how technology is not hurting the game, and what he'd do if he were Commissioner for a day:

Q. If you had Tim Finchem's job and could change one thing, what would it be? I would change the size of the ball. I'd make it .02 bigger. With one fell swoop you would cure a bunch of problems. The ball wouldn't go as far. It would spin. It would be harder to hit straight. It would be harder to hit far. It would be very slightly harder to get in the hole.

On the upside you'd bring a lot of old courses back into relevance.

It also sits up nicely around the greens. The amateur player has more fun playing with it. I grew up with the 1.62 (ball) and I remember changing to the 1.68 and thinking, wow, this is so much more fun playing with this ball.

For the high handicapper, those shots around the greens are difficult. When the ball is a little bigger, it makes such a difference. There's more of it to get underneath.

We've done it once before. I don't see a reason not to do it again.

I've added Feherty to the list of those who advocate something be done to de-emphasize distance in the game today. He's in good company!

"The man has no character to defame"

Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel:

John Daly has just ruined any chance he has of winning an ongoing lawsuit against a writer in Jacksonville he accuses of defamation of character.

After reading Daly's latest autobiography, it's quite clear: The man has no character to defame.

The name of Daly's book is called ``My Life In & Out of the Rough.'' It should be called, "I'm a big, fat, gluttonous, gambling, boozing, grunting, snorting sexist pig."

If PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has any backbone, he will exercise executive privilege and immediately suspend Daly from the PGA Tour for "conduct unbecoming of a professional golfer." Actually, Daly's conduct is unbecoming of a professional porn star.

Let's forget for a moment how the tour should feel about the gambling addiction Daly details in his book, let's talk about how his ex-wives and girlfriends should feel about Daly giving his juvenile critiques of their sexual prowess.

It gets uglier from there, but you get the point.

How much did Daly get for this book? 

Pardon Huggan As He Pauses To Wipe A Patriotic Tear

John Huggan weighs in on the Donald's Scottish roots, oh, and the golf project he's hoping to develop.

Okay, at this stage in the proceedings, a few points need to be made. First and most obvious is the fact that Trump has yet to gain official planning permission for the project. Second, the billionaire American clearly hasn't spent much time north of Aberdeen, 'the Granite City,' in winter. It is hard to imagine anyone of significant means wishing to do so, given the harshness of the climate. And third, as my friend Derek Lawrenson, golf correspondent of the Daily Mail, sarcastically wrote the other day: "That's just what Scotland needs, another high-end golfing playground for the wealthy. As if there aren't enough of them already. Any chance of an innovative entrepreneur coming along and building golf facilities that target ­ shock, horror ­ working families?"

And...

"As an international businessman I've enjoyed success over the years and I like to think that part of my achievement can be attributed to my Scottish roots," claimed Trump, who needs to learn nothing about massaging his audience. "For a long time I've been aware that Scottish people are fiercely proud of Scotland and that they like to help their fellow countrymen."

Pardon me, as I pause to wipe a patriotic tear from my patriotic eye.

"We are a European team"

Captain Woosnam on his wildcard picks:

"I have to be firm about it and say that people who play more in Europe will have a better chance of getting into the team."

He named Ireland's Padraig Harington and England's Lee Westwood among the men whose transatlantic form was causing him concern.

"They have to start making a move," he said. "We are a European team. There's a lot of money to make in America but they have to make the choice of trying to make it on world points or the European order of merit. If they are playing here, they are getting both."

"Major" Course Pleases Appleby, Induces Naps Here

Andrew Both reports:

In-form Stuart Appleby had no complaints about a solid, even-par 72 in the opening round of the US PGA Tour's Wachovia Championship today (AEST).

"It's playing like a major, not a low scoring course at all," said the Victorian, who trails clubhouse leaders Trevor Immelman and Bill Haas by three shots with half the field back in the Quail Hollow clubhouse.

Wow, give 'em narrow fairways and high scores and it's a major! The game is so sophisticated these days.

The Bunker Is Up...

Plenty of stuff to read in the latest Golf World news, notes and quotes section.

Favoring Caution

The Hartford Courant's Matt Eagan writes about events that "don't live up to the hype," and includes the U.S. Open as his second choice.

2. The U.S. Open (Golf): Andy North is a nice man and a fine announcer, but he won three tournaments in his professional career.

Two were U.S. Opens.

The tournament doesn't exactly identify the legends.

There is poetry in the democratic foundation of our national championship. The tournament is open to any qualified golfer anywhere in the world.

Alas, the USGA annually manages to ruin things - at least for the viewers.

The shin-high rough and concrete greens favor caution and two-putts.

Heroic shots are penalized. Boldness is discouraged. Power is verboten.

What does this mean to us? ZZZZZs.

"It'll be done when it's done"

Thomas Bonk reports on the USGA's rolled back ball study and confirm's that it is still on a fast train going nowhere.

Nearly 13 months ago, the USGA sent letters to golf ball manufacturers, inviting them to send in prototype balls that travel 15 to 25 yards less, a 5% to 8% decrease in distance.

The prototypes haven't flooded the desk of senior technical director Dick Rugge.

"There have been five submissions," he said. "I expect we'll get some more soon, though."

The USGA's testing is part of an ongoing research project that began in 2002, so the organization would have the information it needed if a rule change was called for in the future.

Rugge said the submitted prototype balls are being tested at the USGA lab in Far Hills, N.J., and that testing by players probably would happen this summer.

As for when the entire project would be completed and a report made, Rugge said it's unclear.

"It'll be done when it's done, but we don't want to drag it on forever," he said.

Taking AIM With Brad Klein

Golfweek Architecture Editor Bradley Klein  joins us for the third installment of Taking AIM, this site's occasional instant message chat with someone in golf proficient in IM chat.  Klein not only runs Golfweek's annual "America's Best" list of State-by-State, Classic and Modern Top 100's, but also covers an array of subjects for the Orlando-based trade publication, including an online exclusive about distance measuring devices and state golf associations who ban them.

He currently has re-issued his entertaining anthology of writing, Rough Meditations (Amazon link in left column), and is working on an much anticipated book about the Jack Nicklaus-Tom Doak design pairing at Sebonack. He is also the author of two classics in their genres, a history of Desert Forest Golf Club and Discovering Donald Ross.

GeoffShac:    so tell us, did you really get on the phone and call of those state golf associations about rangefinders?

GeoffShac:    impressive stuff

IGOLFBadly:    emailed 125 state and regional associations, got 80 responses, called all of the remaining state ones myself. In no case did I rely upon Website info or second-hand reports.

IGOLFBadly:    that would be a "yes"

IGOLFBadly:    I'm a researcher by training, as you might recall

GeoffShac:    oh right, the professor act

GeoffShac:    so my question was, they the devices seem to be pretty much dead as far as big time golf goes

IGOLFBadly:    I don't think they are "dead." They are a back-up plan for caddies, however. The real issue is that they are of value to an extremely small percentage of all golfers, and they are expensive and don't always travel well, depending upon the device and the course set up

GeoffShac:    as a former caddy, do you think they can speed up play or are necessarily more accurate

IGOLFBadly:    No to both.

GeoffShac:    I've heard some great horror stories from college coaches already, so the speed of play thing seems to be a myth

IGOLFBadly:    They might speed up play for golfers in the rough, but not for those in the fairway, where it seems to slow players down, as they are simply double-checking what's available.

GeoffShac:    speaking of myths...your take on the USGA's distance myths

IGOLFBadly:    I have not yet studied them carefully, but on the surface they seem very strained. It's one of those cases where if the distance issue were really a myth, they wouldn't have to strain to explain it away.

IGOLFBadly:    Obviously, ground contour is more decisive than distance in terms of scoring difficulty. But if you ask any architect today, they all tell you they have no idea where to place strategic bunkers in a meaningful way for Tour-quality players

GeoffShac:    there you go again on that strategy stuff!

GeoffShac:    so Rough Meditations is back, 10 years later?

IGOLFBadly:    "Rough Meditations" is back, nine years after the hardcover, this time in expanded, paperback version, with about 25 extra new pages of material

GeoffShac:    it's aged remarkably well

GeoffShac:    it's also stunning to think how much has changed in those years

IGOLFBadly:    I wrote it to be part of a certain classical tradition, joining hands with old-fart writers like Bernard Darwin, Herbert Warren Wind, and Pat Ward-Thomas, and so they were my inspiration and always are

IGOLFBadly:    But the game has changed dramatically in the last decade - except for the USGA disclaimer (see above)

IGOLFBadly:    Golf is also so much more business-oriented, at least in my world, than it was (or I was) when I wrote the bulk of "Rough Meditations"

GeoffShac:    beyond technology, what's the biggest change in the design world in that time...or is it technology's impact?

IGOLFBadly:    Technology is part of it. Also, course exposure through photography, promotions, Website, CDs, pre-opening hype and story-boarding of courses

GeoffShac:    remember the good ole days on AOL's ichat when Butch Harmon would join in for your weekly live chats

GeoffShac:    now look at him!

IGOLFBadly:    Yes, that's a good example - also Gary McCord, wasn't he part of the iGOLF team early on?

GeoffShac:    I can't remember what I had for breakfast, but that sounds right :)

IGOLFBadly:    Once you reach a certain age (I have, you haven't) it's much easier to recall 25 years ago than 25 minutes ago

GeoffShac:    oh something to look forward too

GeoffShac:    the internet is great for golf though, for the most part, wouldn't you say?

IGOLFBadly:    Not really. It's great for people who want to find out about golf tournaments, courses, travel, the latest news. For that it's great. But it promotes expectations that are excessive, it leads people away from reading about golf, it creates a kind of dynamic and rapidity of curiosity that is not consistent with golf's sensibility

IGOLFBadly:    Website/Internet is "fast world." Golf is "slow world."

GeoffShac:    literally...does architecture deserve some blame for slow play these days, or is it technology and setup and money?

IGOLFBadly:    Architecture is not the main issue - maybe a secondary one. It's the tees people play, their ego, their conviction that given technology and their newly purchased driver, they can actually play well and hit the ball 250 yards steadily

IGOLFBadly:    There are a lot of hard courses by Bob Cupp, Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus out there, but even when they have multiple tees, or when more forgiving designers lay out multiple options, far too many golfers play the wrong set of tees. I am amazed how, in most foursomes, with two hacks and two fine golfers, they insist on playing the same markers. Ridiculous. People should learn to play from where they have a chance to score within 5 shots of their index if they play decently.

GeoffShac:    so about Augusta

GeoffShac:    first, uh, you were there this year to collect your first place prize in the writing contest

IGOLFBadly:    Accepting an award after 20 years of submission to the annual golf writing contest was the big change at Augusta for me!

GeoffShac:    I hope you milked the opportunity

GeoffShac:    with a nice long speech

GeoffShac:    or did the GWAA police have an orchestra there ala the Oscars to keep long winded writers from thanking their distant cousins?

IGOLFBadly:    My acceptance speech lasted exactly 90 seconds, and that was perfect for the occasion.

As for the golf course, I'll condense here what I wrote in Golfweek. The added distance made some sense, or at least was excusable and explainable. But the narrowing of fairways and the strangling of fairway landing areas with trees was absurd and indefensible

GeoffShac:    I was at an event recently where a good golfer started telling me that he liked the trees because he didn't care for the tree removal movement in golf

IGOLFBadly:    Not only did you lose strategic width and angles, but spectators couldn't see a thing, and the golf course from the tees where the members (remember them?) play was squeezed beyond recognition. ANGC is the only major golf course in the last five years to be relying on trees to toughen its holes. Hootie Johnson always invokes Bobby Jones to justify whatever he's doing. Interestingly, he never invokes Alistair MacKenzie

GeoffShac:    well they've treated MacKenzie so well there over the years

IGOLFBadly:    They still haven't paid his design bill, have they?

GeoffShac:    no

GeoffShac:    I wonder what the tally is with interest

IGOLFBadly:    Maybe there's a still a builder's lien on the golf course!GeoffShac:    will Augusta start a trend back to a tree planting future?

IGOLFBadly:    I'd recommend buying trees in spades if you want to speculate on future ANGC endeavors

GeoffShac:    wow, even more to come eh?

GeoffShac:    have you been to Winged Foot lately?

IGOLFBadly:    Played Winged Foot two weeks ago in anticipation of my review article for the U.S. Open

GeoffShac:    what'd you think of those 21-yard wide landing areas?

IGOLFBadly:    They were 26-27 yards wide in the main landing area and 21-22 in the second-shots on par-5s.

GeoffShac:    oh come on! some of those par-4s get pretty tight

IGOLFBadly:    Course is 250 yards longer, a foot faster on the greens, and 7-yards narrower in the fairways than in 1997. Oh, I forget, the USGA says distance doesn't matter.

GeoffShac:    they can't let it get too firm at these widths can they?

IGOLFBadly:    They can dry it out - removal of about 500 conifers helped a lot

GeoffShac:    well I hope they do, so we can get a good feel for how that tapered rough works

IGOLFBadly:    New irrigation system will give them a lot of control. Fairways will be hard to locate, esp. if dry

GeoffShac:    fun

GeoffShac:    should be riveting

IGOLFBadly:    The proportional height thing has not been carefully delineated yet. Too early in growing season to know what they can achieve.

GeoffShac:    will the tapered rough idea only be at the Open, or is it going to become every superintendent's worst nightmare?

IGOLFBadly:    I asked about that. They think they can limit the proportional rough heights (not really tapered) to just the U.S. Open, but some shmuck green chairman whose course already posts Stimpmeter speeds of the greens and fairways will try it, I'm sure. It'll be a nightmare for green keepers, mechanics and crew at those "high-end" national golf clubs (need I be more specific?)

GeoffShac:    yeah, I forgot about the mechanics who have to try and change the heights and then deal with some turd who's out measuring rough heights

GeoffShac:    well, I like what Mike Davis is thinking about in trying not to penalize the just-missed drives, it shows some compassion from the USGA side of things

IGOLFBadly:    Mower manufacturers will love it; you'll need a second or third rough unit, or at last more calibration down time to get the heights right. I can't wait to attend that green committee meeting.

GeoffShac:    so you have a Sebonack book coming out soon?

IGOLFBadly:    Book just shipped off to the printer, should be out Aug. 30 or so.

IGOLFBadly:    I did it with Carol Haralson, a Sedona-Az. book designer and researcher with whom I had previously done the book on Desert Forest GC in Az.

GeoffShac:    do we get to read about any cat fights out there or did you keep it neat and tidy?

IGOLFBadly:    Cat fights are there, not that they were bloody. But I get the real story, in earthy tones and language, plus how Doak and Nicklaus learned to work with and around each other. All mocking aside, it was a genuine collaboration, with Doak's routing obviously being central, and Jack playing a major role in strategy and greens.

GeoffShac:    well if the book is even half as beautifully produced as the Desert Forest book, it'll be a winner

IGOLFBadly:    I've been asked how do you do a book on a golf course that has barely been played. The answer is that you start with glaciers and moraines and natural sand deposition, include the social history of golf on Eastern Long Island, and focus on the three main characters -- Michael Pascucci (owner) and Nicklaus & Doak.

GeoffShac:    oh, between those three I'm sure there was plenty of material! :)

IGOLFBadly:    It's a bigger book, more imagery, much more diverse material than even the Desert Forest book.

IGOLFBadly:    Thanks. It's a good story about a good site.

GeoffShac:    and is the club publishing it?

IGOLFBadly:    They were three strong characters, and very much a pleasure to write about and very accessible.

GeoffShac:    lol

GeoffShac:    well, I'm sure we'll all buy it, and then buy the 2014 edition of Rough Meditations when you tell us about the "making of" the Sebonack book :)

GeoffShac:    one last question

IGOLFBadly:    I await

GeoffShac:    how is it that courses like Augusta and Medinah are constantly under construction

GeoffShac:    and yet they hardly move in the Golfweek Top 100 list?!?!?

GeoffShac:    (I save the softball, non-answerable questions for last)

IGOLFBadly:    Time lag and accumulated votes from previous visits create a kind of slowing effect, but there's movement, and might well be more in the future, for all I know

GeoffShac:    ah spoken like a man who has answered many phone calls to complain about the rankings! :)

IGOLFBadly:    Those courses often exist on their reputations, which, like passenger ships, are slow to turn around

IGOLFBadly:    gigantic cruise liners, I mean

GeoffShac:    hey, thanks for your time and good luck with the books

IGOLFBadly:    thanks, and good luck with your Website/blog.

R&A Nominates Former Slazenger Sales Manager

Missing from the R&A's posted release on Michael Stanley Randle Lunt, its "Nomination of the Captain For the Year 2006-2007," was this bit that appeared in the emailed version:

Following that brief spell overseas, he became a director of the family wholesale textile business in Birmingham and when the company was taken over by Courtaulds, he took up the position of European golf sales manager for Slazenger. He retired in 1998 after 11 years as secretary/manager of Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club.

D'Amato on Distance Devices In Wisconsin

Gary D'Amato took on the distance measuring device issue, and in particular the Wisconsin State Golf Associations's approval of them for play.  Some borderline LOL funny quotes in this one:

"Absolutely," said Rob O'Loughlin, president of Madison-based Laser Link Golf. "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. This is a big problem but if I can take 20 minutes off even a six-hour round I think they should build a monument to us."

And here I was starting to feel sorry for the fact that the devices were unapproved for play by college coaches.

"In the month of April we made deals with Oakland Hills, Oak Hill, Baltusrol and Inverness (to install Laser Link reflectors on flagsticks and provide rangefinders to members)," O'Loughlin said. "We have 31 of the top 100 Golf Digest courses. We're going to get everybody. We're going to get Pine Valley and Augusta National, eventually."

"Jim Reinhart, I have Rob on line 2 again, should I put him through?"

 The image-conscious PGA Tour hasn't approved rangefinders because of the way it would look on TV when Woods or Phil Mickelson used them. Rangefinders also would seemingly diminish the importance of caddies.

"Never say never," O'Loughlin said. "The PGA Tour is not averse to technology."

No argument there.

Soffian On Norman, B.C. Open

Seth Soffian's profile of Greg Norman's crusade includes some interesting info and quotes on the demise of the B.C. Open and this quote from Norman:

“I’m in the corporate world. I hear some of the stuff, that corporations get treated certain ways at the PGA Tour, and it just kills me,” Norman said. “I always taught myself, as you go up that ladder, when you start coming down, you’re going to go past the same people you squashed going up.

“That was part of my mandate within myself, treat everybody (well) going up, because you want to be treated the same coming down.”