Whoa Bubba!

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Key Stats for Bubba Watson  after round 1 at Colonial:

Driving Distance    355.8
Driving Accuracy    71.4%
GIR    66.7%
        
Putts Per GIR    1.417
Avg. Proximity to Pin    25' 4"
Scrambling    66.7%

 

"Isn't there a number between one and 15?"

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230136-275498-thumbnail.jpgFred Couples, talking to Bob Verdi in this week's Golf World:

"I don't understand the new TV deal. We signed for 15 years with The Golf Channel? Isn't there a number between one and 15? Did the NBA sign for 15 years with TNT? How'd we lose ESPN? I also don't get that. What if ESPN decides in three years they want golf again? What does the PGA Tour tell them? Sorry, we're with The Golf Channel until 2021?"

Check out the full column for his thoughts on possibly serving as Ryder Cup captain, and other first rate curmudgeonry. 

Irish Open Spat

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Phil Casey reports from the wild and wacky Irish Open where play was suspended due to wind, and at least one strange incident made Paul McGinley's WD for emergency knee surgery that much more aggravating for the classy Irishman:
To make matters worse the 39-year-old Dubliner then discovered he had been accused of gamesmanship by playing partner Kenneth Ferrie, one of his rivals for a Ryder Cup place this September.

While playing the 14th hole in the strong winds which caused play to be suspended for six hours, Ferrie's ball had moved on the green as he surveyed a putt.

Ferrie asked McGinley and Ian Poulter - the third member of the group - for advice, and McGinley told him he should replace the ball in its original position.

However, that advice was incorrect and Ferrie incurred a two-shot penalty when he realised his mistake and called for an official ruling on the next hole.

The 27-year-old was furious with McGinley and sarcastically "thanked" him for the penalty shots which left him six over par at the time.

But McGinley was equally furious with the implications of gamesmanship and released a statement which read: "I am extremely sorry that my playing partner Kenneth Ferrie incurred a two-shot penalty after asking myself and Ian Poulter what he should do when his ball moved on the green.

"We gave our opinions in good faith and I am not going to dignify any accusations of gamesmanship on my behalf as they are totally groundless."

Ferrie also released a statement which read: "While Paul did, in fact, advise me that I could replace my ball on the 14th - which I later realised was inaccurate - at no time did I suggest he had acted improperly as his integrity is beyond question."
Meanwhile James Corrigan in the Independent had this quote from Ian Poulter:
"To accuse Paul of games-manship is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard," he said.

Torrey Pines Saga, Vol. 3012

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Tod Leonard reports on the "Natural Resources and Culture Committee" meeting to iron out kinks in the five-year golf proposal that would have benefited everyone but the everyday Torrey Pines golfers.

The San Diego City Council chamber was packed yesterday with golfers voicing their distaste for the five-year proposal on the operation of Torrey Pines and the city's other golf courses. And though they couldn't claim a victory when the Natural Resources & Culture Committee meeting was over, they walked away with the hope of compromise positions and resolution after months of rancorous debate.

The NR&C came to few conclusions – two, to be exact – after more than three hours of testimony. It voted to support a 70 percent to 30 percent resident-to-visitor ratio at Torrey Pines and to create a separate capital improvement fund for a future Torrey Pines clubhouse.
And... 
Councilwoman Toni Atkins said she wanted a more detailed breakdown of the city's assessment of how much it costs per round to maintain the golf courses. She also said she is sympathetic to the concerns of the Torrey Pines men's and women's clubs, which stand to lose half of their current tee times in a proposal made by Mayor Jerry Sanders.

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.