International Dates

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Anthony Cotton in the Denver Post says The International turned down a chance to be one of the final pre-Tour Championship events, talking to the tournament's director, Larry Thiel:
"It's one thing for the tour to be able to sell Federal Express and give them all of the branding and the commercial identity throughout the entire season, but it's another thing to get a sponsor in the middle of September to put up a very large purse and get little return. I think the three feeder tournaments will get lost in the shuffle to FedEx. The Tour Championship will be the beneficiary, but everything leading up to it will be all about FedEx."
Thiel did not deny that the chance of luring Tiger Woods to Denver was also on their minds. But as Bernie Lincicome writes in the Daily Camera, the chance of Tiger playing The International appear slim.
The rejuggling of the tour in 2007 to resemble NASCAR, with a big-gimmicked finish sponsored by FedEx, is supposed to make things more exciting and more structured. We shall see.

But while all of this has put The International between the U.S. and British Opens, it also moves the Buick Open right before The International.

In his career, Woods has played only one tournament, the Western, between the two majors five times; two tournaments, the Western and the Buick Classic, three times; and no tournaments once.

Obviously, Woods prefers to play only once between the majors, and since his choice is likely to be either the Buick Open (the Buick Championship in Hartford will get another sponsor) or The International, sponsor obligation is likely to win out over begging.
He also points out the irony of the tournament's name, and the likelihood that it won't look very International starting in 2007.
The other disadvantage that will come with the July 4 date, just two weeks before the British Open, is that international players will tend to stay in Europe to prepare.

So, the very thing that made The International special, its emphasis on a global field, could very well be compromised as well. The International had a foreign field of 42 of 144 golfers last year while the Western had 32 in a field of 156.

Is The International better off? Probably. As well off as it thought? Probably not.

Colonial Times

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Gil LeBreton in the Star Telegram writes about Colonial's struggle to lure long hitters, how the once feared course is too short and reveals plans to make changes. Gee, all so that...eh.

But, as even Gentle Ben observed, "I don't think there is any question today that, with the distances that people can hit the ball, [Colonial] may be not quite what it used to be."

Earlier this month, architect Keith Foster of St. Louis presented Colonial members with his latest plans to redesign the old course.

Don't reach for your heart medicine. It's a subtle redesign, not a makeover.

The course needs its bunkers redone to aid their drainage. And, while Foster was going to be digging up the course, club officials asked him to draw up a proposal for how he would "improve" the late Marvin Leonard's riverside pasture land.

No big deal, according to Leonard's daughter, club vice president Marty Leonard.

"There will be some minimal yardage added in some areas," she said. "It's more about reshaping things. Maybe lowering some tees that have been built up that are not the Maxwell style."

Hale The Tiered Rough

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Hal Hale Irwin, that beacon of wisdom and joviality tells Dan O'Neill that he's all for the USGA's new tiered rough, especially if it means they could narrow fairways even more. 

“Well, I’ve suggested to them that I think it would be great if they narrowed the fairway even more and made the first cut relatively tame and then graduated from there,” Irwin said. “(It would) really put a premium on putting the ball in the fairway. Obviously there's a point up to the ropes where you can do that. Once you get outside the ropes, then it becomes very quickly trampled down.

“That could be what they're doing, trying to say, OK, the farther offline you are, the greater the penalty. There's a point to where that stops -- just happens to be right where the rope line is. Once you get down to where the grass is downtrodden, if you have no trees in your way, it becomes relatively a straightforward shot again.

“They say they're going to extend the ropes out farther than customary to accommodate it. I think that's good. That might try to harness some of these big long bombers that are going to pump it out there regardless of where it goes.”

This would all be so much easier if we just eliminated the short grass. It would cure the groove problem, the flogging problem and the distance problem.

The Old Architects Loved Small Greens, Vol. 281

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Mike Dougherty reports the surprising news the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are consulting on restoration work Wykagyl Country Club, host to the LPGA's Something Classic. This marks a return to work that they have long passed on after their glorious experience with Riviera Country Club's management team, and comes as welcome news to traditionalists.

Anyway, Dougherty writes:
Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills all had some input at Wykagyl over the last century. The rolling layout has always placed a premium on accuracy and creativity.

"It's funny," said Helen Alfredsson, who's making her 12th appearance here at Wykagyl. "I'm not conservative with many things, just golf courses. But with the way everybody plays much longer now, it's sad to have a course become obsolete, too. For us, I think this is one of the best golf courses. It's so fun to play."
Okay, she gets points for that comment.

However, after learning that the club will be enlarging greens to restore many lost hole locations...
"But that's what makes this course so special, the greens," Alfredsson said. "They made them small in the old days. I'm not a fan of big greens, but that's what the trend is and sometimes I guess you have to go with the trend."
I think the real confusion on the green size issue is due to the scale of large modern green complexes, versus the scale of large classic complexes. The old guys managed to tie in a 6,000 square foot green much better than today's giants. The USGA green does make it more difficult to get the scale and feel right, but still...

Bisher: Hootie Responsible For Tiger's Rise, Jack's Tears and Still Has Time To Make Pimento Cheese Sandwiches By Hand

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Furman Bisher weighs in on Hootie Johnson's depature a tad late because he was "on a golfing mission to Ireland and only recently returned. I didn't want to miss out on my turn at bat."

And I know you were anxiously awaiting his verdict.

However, for someone who quoted Hootie as saying he would be stepping aside at this years Masters and chose not to write about it, he probably could have done better than drawing this conclusion:

Surely Johnson's reign should be marked by a good deal more this hassle over female membership.

What about the rise of Tiger Woods? What about the emotional exits of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer? What about the $25 million that Augusta National has funneled into charities? What about the extended presence the "handmade" pimiento cheese sandwiches --- and how do you make sandwiches if not by hand? And more pertinent to the game itself, was it not the hand of Hootie that brought the golf course into the 21st Century, critical as many of us were at times?

Wow, what didn't the man do? And here I thought Tiger Woods was responsible for his own rise! 

No Forewarning Necessary

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Thanks to reader Jonathon for this story out of Hawaii where the state Supreme Court ruled that a golfer may not be held liable for mistakenly hitting another golfer with an errant golf ball.

Chief Justice Ronald Moon wrote Yoneda assumed the risk of the injury when he played golf.

It is "common knowledge that not every shot played by a golfer goes exactly where he intends it to go," the ruling said, adding there wouldn't be much "sport" in the "sport of golf," if golf balls went exactly where the player wanted.

The April 28 ruling makes clear a golfer who intentionally hits a ball to inflict injury, or recklessly hits the ball knowing that injury is highly likely, would not be exempt from liability.

Gee, you think?

The court considered whether golfers should have to shout "fore" or other warnings to protect other players. The justices concluded, however, that doing so was golf etiquette, not a requirement recognized by law.

Yoneda, 33, said many people would get hurt because the ruling didn't require golfers to yell a word of caution on the greens.

"With the ruling that warning is like an option, that's not too good," Yoneda said. "I know what it's like to be hit and I don't want anybody to go through what I went through."

In a sworn deposition in the case, Tom said he was about 175 yards from the green in the light rough when he hooked his 5-iron shot to the left.

The ball hit the fairway, bounced into the rough, then a dirt area, then on a cart path before it hit Yoneda who was riding on a golf cart to the sixth hole, the court said.

Tom, 33, said he didn't yell "fore" because he hadn't seen the cart.

And this was interesting...

Gary Wild, president of the Hawaii State Golf Association, said U.S. Golf Association etiquette rules require a player to shout a warning if the ball is in danger of hitting someone.

Starting two years ago, a player who repeatedly violates that rule can be disqualified, Wild added.

Sawdust at Sawgrass

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Doug Ferguson took a tour around the TPC Sawgrass and noticed a few of the changes being made to the course and clubhouse as it prepares for the 2007 Players Championship THE PLAYERS.

Also daunting is a new tee being built on the 219-yard eighth hole, making it play closer to 240 yards. David Pillsbury, chief operating officer of the tour's golf course properties and the man in charge of the TPC project, said the new tee on No. 8 is among five holes that will be lengthened by a combined 75 to 100 yards. But that's not to say the tees will be used.

"The winds will be different in May," he said. "This gives us flexibility for setting up the course."
Now, does this mean that flexibility is the new, clever way of adding length without acknowledging changes in the game. Or do they think that flexibility is being able to move tees around to make the course play the same every day depending on the wind?

Ideal flexibility would the chance to really play holes in diverse ways from day to day in order to best test the players, many of whom don't like to be inconvenienced with a thought.
There were other subtle changes, beyond reconditioning the fairways and greens. More than two dozen oaks, pines and palm trees have been planted on the left side of the par-5 ninth fairway, making for a difficult escape. Pine trees have been added to the right of the sixth, seventh and 10th fairways.
Oh wonderful. Hootie Pine Fungus has traveled to Ponte Vedra.