Questions For Billy Payne

The Augusta gang has scheduled a Monday teleconference with Billy Payne, and since I'm still waiting for a Glenn Greenspan email letting me know the phone-in number, I thought I'd post a few questions. You know, just in case it never comes.

Let's get the inevitable's out of the way. Odds on which comes first?:

Is there a timetable for admitting a female member?

Will you restore the PGA Tour winner exemption?

Do you have plans to change the course this summer?

Hootie Johnson: Great Chairman, or The Greatest Chairman?

Okay, maybe the last one won't be asked in Colbertian fashion, but you know they'll be talking a lot about the great visionary that Hootie was. Expect the Augusta Chapter of the Mutual Admiration Society to overtake this teleconference.

That said, here are some questions I'd like asked with the hope of lending a little more insight into Payne and ANGC:

Are you aware that if you eliminated the second cut along with the silly Christmas trees on 1, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 17 and 18, that you would eliminate nearly all questions about the dreadful state of the course?

Are you aware that these simple changes would also make it more fun for the members to play the course again?

Have fellow Augusta members Walter Driver and Fred Ridley ever taken you on AirUSGA for one of those Curtis Cup/U.S. Senior Amateur/Goldman Sachs entertainment fact-finding trips to Bandon Dunes, Prairie Dunes, Cypress Point, Seminole or Pine Valley?

Do you agree with Chairman Emeritus Johnson that distance needs to be reigned in somehow?

Did you see any of the "Amen Corner Live" coverage and would you consider making it part of the broadcast on USA Network, minus the announcers who reference "Amen's Corner"?

Have you ever read Bobby Jones's Golf is My Game or Alister MacKenzie's The Spirit of St. Andrews to get a better feel for their design philosophy?

You did a lot of session work on Linda Ronstadt albums. Why do you hate America? (Apologies to Colbert again...oh wait, that's the other Billy Payne, sorry).

Readers, what would you ask?  

SilverRock Not Up To Standards (But The Classic Club Is!?)

Larry Bohannan reports that the city of La Quinta's $58 million and counting SilverRock project, expected to host the Bob Hope starting this year, has been passed over for 2007 too.

La Quinta city officials expected their SilverRock Resort golf course to be approved for the 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but a PGA Tour official said Friday the course simply isn't ready for a tour event.

"There has been some progress (at SilverRock), but it hasn't been enough," said Tim Crosby, director of tournament business affairs for the tour. "We told the Hope committee we would not approve the course as a Hope venue for 2007."

The PGA Tour informed the Hope board April 27 that the Arnold Palmer Course at SilverRock Resort was not approved for 2007. The tournament board told the city this week in a three-sentence letter that the course won't be included among the four to be played in January's Classic, and that the sides should sit down to discuss the coming years.

City and course officials say they still haven't been told the exact problems the tour has with the course and have not seen the letter from the PGA Tour detailing the specific concerns. Tom Genovese, the city manager for La Quinta, said he talked with Classic executive board member John Foster on Thursday, and the two sides are trying to arrange a meeting.

Huggan On Slow Play Disease

John Huggan serves up plenty of fun anecdotes in focusing his Sunday column on slow play, starting with Nicholas Fasth:

Fasth, who is easily golf's most inappropriately-named player, is the sort of guy who spends five minutes boiling a three-minute egg, who takes an hour-and-a-half to watch 60 Minutes and who, on the course, is basically unwatchable. And, sadly, he's not alone. Plenty of others, by dint of their ponderousness under pressure, make viewing golf on television about as much fun as putting on Ryvita-like greens at Dunbar.

Indeed, the European Tour, on the face of it at least, has done more than most to combat the spread of this insidious disease. Exactly one year ago, Simon Khan was fined £8,000 for taking 16 seconds too long over a tee-shot. During the previous 12 months, the Englishman had been penalised one shot and fined twice more for the same offence. Which is fine until one realises that more prominent names, Faldo and Langer, for example, have never been subjected to that level of scrutiny.

And...

The players are not the only direct causes of slow play at elite level. The advances in club and ball technology and the extraordinary distances even the most ordinary professional can hit shots these days have only added to the amount of time it takes to complete 18 holes. During last year's Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club, weekend rounds were taking five hours - for two-balls. All because one of the most historic courses in America has a couple of par-4s that a field of professionals can potentially reach in one shot and par-5s they can cover in two.

Hot drivers and balls are no excuse for the nonsenses perpetrated by players on the greens, though. Take the insanely-pedantic pre-putt routines of Phil "round and round the clock" Mickelson and Jim "hang on while I line this one up again" Furyk. Both are enough to drive any spectator away from the course or television. Such contrivances have but one redeeming quality - they are still not as tedious as watching Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon play snooker.

Remembering Hootie

Furman Bisher talks to Billy Payne and offers several tidbits on how this all came about, including a quote attributed to Johnson at this year's Masters saying this would be it. I don't remember reading that anywhere, so it must have been said to Bisher. Odd time to share it!

Damon Hack talks to Martha Burk for the NY Times and has this:

In all matters pertaining to the club, Johnson's voice was the loudest.

"You think of all the great companies and corporations in the world, it seems like they're run that way," said Jim Furyk, who is playing in the Wachovia Championship here this weekend. He added: I don't think anyone is going to argue he's made that golf tournament or the club worse off."

That's right, just check out another over-the-top effort by Bob Spear in Hootie's home-state newspaper.

Although he never said so publicly, criticism from Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer about course changes before the 2006 tournament surely stung. His intention was to ensure today’s players hit the same clubs that the Nicklauses and Palmers hit in their prime.

But Johnson found an ally in another early critic, Gary Player.

“I’m using exactly the same clubs, other than (on) No. 4,” the three-time champion said after a practice round.

I guess it never occured to Spear that 70-year-old Gary Player hitting the same clubs into holes now as his prime might not actually raise a few eyebrows? Well, he does do a lot of sit-ups!
 

Scott Michaux isn't nearly as breathless in praising Johnson's tenure, while also touching on the slip-ups.

Thomas Bonk in the L.A. Times:

But Payne isn't expected to come on board and start the bulldozers.

"Nothing significant, maybe only something minor," said one source who knows Payne from Atlanta.

Another source, who also did not want to be identified, said it would probably be a stretch to assume Payne would oversee substantial changes, especially during the early portion of his tenure.

AP's Paul Newberry writes:

The Masters was played last year on a 7,445-yard layout - the second-longest in major championship history and 460 yards longer than it was when Johnson took over.

"It's kind of like being president," said Davis Love III from Charlotte, N.C., where he was playing in the Wachovia Championship. "No matter what you do, half the people are going to think you did it wrong."

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young believes Johnson might have gone along with allowing female members at Augusta National if not for Burk's public campaign.

"Mr. Johnson was very much an old-school Southerner. He was ready to grow, he was ready to change, but he wasn't going to be pushed," Young said. "Let's give him credit for all the good he did, and not try to blame him because he wasn't able to see into the 21st century. That's up to Billy to do."

Week In Review, April 30-May 6: Goodbye Hootie and Earl

Earl Woods passed away, Hootie Johnson stepped down, John Daly started plugging his book  and Brad Klein chimed in for this site's third Taking AIM installment. And once again, lots of great comments from readers.

Regarding the Klein discussion, which included his thoughts on the planned Winged Foot "tiered rough" concept, reader F.X. said, "Graduated rough is a classic example of reinventing the wheel. What the USGA seems to be striving for is preserving the opportunity for recovery in the context of a penal architecture. It's a strained technocentric solution that will have all sorts of consequences, particularly the intended-by-the-mower-manufacturers ones pointed out in this discussion."

Meanwhile The Donald's plans for a Scottish golf course got plenty of attention.  Later in the week, John Huggan weighed in.  Reader Hux chimed in on the Donald's pride in his ability to create top quality medical facilities to go with his golf course: "He said they build big golf courses, and they understand how the medical situation needs to be done. Can Crenshaw administer so much as a band-aid without getting an end all twisted? I thought not. With medical facilities like they're going to have, even if they don't get the British Open, there's always the British Grand Prix.  Always have a plan B you see. Smart fellow, The Donald."

Rex Hoggard noticed some of Dale Jr.'s recent comments about settling for 3rd and wondered how that would impact the FedEx Cup. It prompted plenty of thoughts on the FedEx Cup.

NRH: "As for being satisfied with a nice check vs. winning as the only thing that matters, this has been going on for quite awhile. It sounds terrible to say, read or hear, but it is the truth. The younger guys on Tour can't identify with hustlers along the lines of Trevino or even Rich Beem's stint at the Speaker Shack. The purses are insane...it doesn't seem like that long ago you would read the results in the back of the sports page on Monday morning and shake your head at the $180,000 next to the winner's name. That's tenth place money now."

GeorgeM noted that "The Nextel Cup is flawed by the VERY low number permitted to qualify. The FedEx Cup will admit the vast majority of fully exempt players. On the other hand, each cup attempts to minimise any lead in points gained during the season. The end result will not be a season champion, but the player who is playing best in early September."

Sean Murphy asked, "What happened to great golf selling itself, why all the smoke and mirrors??? Players in the locker room on the PGA Tour are really scratching their heads, what will they think of next???"

Regarding the driving distance stats and the New Orleans event, Steve White wrote: "I remember being on the course during one of the first years they played at English Turn and watching Greg Norman hit what everybody thought was a Herculean 3-iron to get it on the green in two at 15. Now, it's a routine driver, mid-iron hole. The only players who don't go for the green in two are those who drive the ball in the rough."

A reader from Spain kindly sent in a few entertaining photos, including a religiously-correct bunker that MacDuff noted was the ultimate cross bunker. You be the judge!

On the subject of shot shaping, grooves and the changing game, John V asked, "I've seen Tiger and others shape shots. Is it perhaps that many of today's players don't know how or have forgotten how? Is that because they've only been taught one way to hit the ball or really because it can't be done?"

Sean Murphy noted that "A rules official shared with me on Monday that players are changing wedges every two weeks and irons every 4 weeks, all in an effort to be able to work these rocks today. Yes, it is possible to somewhat work them, but it is an awfully expensive proposition for the average Joe who would like to be able to do the same."

On the USGA Distance Myths, as regurgitated by the USA Today, John V pointed out that one of the readers seemed to not be aware of USGA testing standards, perhaps justifying the myths: "One of the myths is that there are not standards. This guy certainly sounds like he thinks there are none."

Tom Wishon responded that it may just be a myth that the USGA actually tests today's typical launch conditions: "There is a .083 on Cor for drivers witnessed at 109mph so that no more than an 83% transfer of energy can be witnessed.  John V., what is the ceiling for Cor transfer as it relates to thicker club faces bouncing a harder core golf ball at 120mph where not all professionals on the PGA Tour swing the club 120mph? A COR reading for any swing speed above 112mph should not be allowed to be witnessed at anything over an 83% transfer of energy. That is where the ceiling should be with regards to Cor benefits for drivers."

On the news that the USGA is finally getting around some of the rolled back balls that they asked for a year ago, reader Matt wrote, "They don't want to drag it on forever but that's exactly what they're doing. Meanwhile the integrity of the game continues to erode...I sincerely hope this is the last year of the juiced ball era on tour, but I won't hold my breath."

Our resident think, Pete the Luddite, asked Matt for patience. But I asked Pete if he would conduct research as the USGA has, issueing press releases dispelling myths before the results were completed. Pete wrote: "Pre-supposing the results for the client and using cash as a means to drive the answer desired. I've seen those consultants out there who will tell you what you want, regardless of fact, if they are paid enough. Makes me sick. Ethical twists occur, and this is essentially what USGA's "researchers" are doing. For them to state that it will be "done when it's done" is farcical."

David Feherty joined the long list advocating a change in the ball. Reader C.W. wrote, "Yes, the only thing that needs to be done is standardize the core hardness of the golf ball and the Cor benefits of drivers...It would be easy to soften up the core of modern golf balls while maintaining the same flight characteristics. The golf balls have been made harder to increase their distance by expanding the Cor of a driver further."

And finally, the bombshell of the week: Hootie Johnson handing over the keys to Augusta to Little Feat co-founder Atlanta Olympic game head man Billy Payne. Nice work by reader Smolmania noticing that Payne is associated with Eric Gleacher, former member of the USGA-Augusta cabal.

I'm sure we'll get more discussed on the subject of our dearly beloved Hootie next week, but he has a fan in reader Matt:  "Im actually disappointed in a way over this-say what you want about him, but Hootie really stirred things up in his time as Augusta chair; he raised The Masters profile I think. You may not have agreed with the way he did things, but you respected him because he didn't care what people like Martha Burk had to say. He didn't even flinch when the majority of the golfing world condemned him for the course changes. Hey, the guy stuck to his principles."

Too bad for golf that he didn't stick to Jones and MacKenzie's design principles! 

First Payne-ful Read

Melanie Hauser massages new Augusta chair Billy Payne's ego, though it sounds like he doesn't have a head on him like the previous Chairman. And I can tell you right now: I don't like this guy. He is a column writer's worst nightmare! Even keeled, boring, thinks things through, etc... ugh.

Please Hootie, come back. All is forgiven! We need you. I need you!

Desperate Seeking Your Return For Columns,

Geoff 

Gordon Updates TCC Situation: Fay Issues Traditional Non-Denial Denial

Joe Gordon writes:

It seems unlikely that the United States Golf Association intends to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s momentous win at The Country Club as an amateur in the 1913 U.S. Open by selecting the Brookline club to host the 2013 U.S. Open.

Asked about a published report that the 2013 event had already been awarded to Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., rather than TCC, which had long been anticipated, USGA executive director David Fay would neither confirm nor deny it.

“I don’t make comments about anything until we have signed contracts,” Fay said. “I think I just ought to leave it at that.”

Reading between the lines would seem to support the speculation that the USGA and Merion have agreed in principle to a deal.

“I think what the USGA is trying to do is keep whatever they’re doing as quiet as possible,” said David Chag, general manager at The Country Club. “We have no news. They hold their cards pretty close to their chest and you’re not really learning anything at this point, which, to me, tells me they’re doing something (else).

If TCC is not going to get the U.S. Open to commemorate the Ouimet victory after hosting Opens in 1963 and 1988 on the 50th and 75th Ouimet anniversaries, Chag said the club would like to host a U.S. Amateur or Walker Cup in 2013.

Fay said the USGA is committed to Merion in 2009 for the Walker Cup and has U.S. Amateur venues slated through 2012. “I don’t imagine we’d be making any decision on a 2013 Walker Cup until perhaps 2008 or 2009,” Fay said. “But on the Amateur, sometimes we go up to seven years out.”

There had been some speculation that The Country Club might be considered to host the Deutsche Bank Championship occasionally if that tournament ventures from its home at TPC Boston in Norton.

“We haven’t heard a word about it here as far as we’re concerned,” Chag said of the Deutsche Bank rumors, noting that the only time TCC veered from USGA sanctioning was to host the PGA’s 1999 Ryder Cup. “I would think that over the long haul, (TCC would) find more of a relationship with the USGA than anyone else.”

"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.