Howell on Furrowing...

David Howell talked about the bunkers at Muirfield Village and Winged Foot...

Q. To change gears one second, they're doing some different things with the bunkering out here. We always talk about how the Europeans, they play in all different conditions, do these bunkers differ for you, do they make a big difference, have you seen bunkers like this or worse?

DAVID HOWELL: No, I haven't seen the bunkers. We were talking about it last night with a gentleman that does the course design. It's going to be interesting to see how it works out. There's really different points of views. Ernie is one of the best bunker players in the world and feels his talent for getting in the bunkers is being questioned. If you don't have a great lie you can't play a great shot. So all of a sudden it's possibly favoring the guys that you've really seen them as hazards, and you have to stay away from them, and you have to alter your game plan. And it's going to be an advance to the guys that hit a lot of greens. If you get in bunkers, you're not going to get up and down all the time. It's going to take it back more to accuracy off the tee. If you want to see golf like that they're doing the right thing. And if you want to see them Tiger's form of golf or whoever, just goes out there or as Seve used to play, and see guys getting up and down to save par, you're not going to get so much of that. It's going to make people play slightly differently, I think. And I guess only after doing it a few different times or different tournaments will we see if it's the right way to go or the wrong way. It's certainly the easiest way to make the golf course harder is to change the rakes. It's the cheapest way.

Q. Have you been warned, if that's the right word, about the severity of the bunkers at Winged Foot, and how steep the faces are, has that been discussed amongst your peers?

DAVID HOWELL: I really haven't got a clue where Winged Foot is or what sort of course it is, I'll have to admit, so, no.

Blog Bomb?

The latest Golf Digest entry into the blogosphere may be the most bizarre yet, as E. Michael Johnson and Mike Stachura engage in back and forth exchanges under the names "Bomb" and "Gouge" that not only prove difficult to read (anyone heard of an enter key?) but mostly seems to engage in the same old attempts to smooch up to equipment manufacturers.

Why not a straightforward blog on the latest equipment, rumors about clubs in development or buzz on what elite players are using?

Instead, the blog has started off as another chance to tell us that grown men must be allowed to continue to shop free of interference from the big, bad regulators.

But at least the writers in question are trying a different approach, and trying to keep it light and even self-deprecating. Which is more than you can say for...

Achenbach Says Distance Changes Cause Costly, Unnecessary Course Changes To Layouts He Likes!

Look for a makeup column from Golfweek publisher Jim Nugent after yet another awakening column from Jim Achenbach:

Here is another good reason why the U.S. Golf Association eventually will cut back the distance of the golf ball: Eugene Country Club.

One of the best golf courses on the face of the earth, Eugene CC has followed an all-too-common path for bolstering its credibility and reputation.

Out of fear it was becoming too short and too easy, Eugene has constructed 10 new tees. Five already are open, and the other five will be playable by the end of the month.

The new tees will push the overall championship tee distance from 6,847 yards to about 7,050 yards. Among other changes, a new back tee will transform the fifth hole into a 235-yard monster of a par 3 –all carry, over a pond, with a green that slopes perilously back toward the water.

I love this golf course. While I am not opposed to additional yardage, I am sad that contemporary golf has forced courses such as Eugene to expand or perish. Courses that want big-time tournaments need big-time length.

This next part landed on my lap like a big Christmas gift, since I was searching for a July Golfdom column topic:

The club maintains a committee called The Top 100, which helps promote the course among the various publications that rank courses.

Lengthening the course is just as important for rankings as it is for tournament play, so the 10 new tees serve a dual purpose.

The issue of distance has affected Eugene and many other courses. Some members of the USGA's 15-person Executive Committee – the body that makes all final decisions for the rulesmaking organization – are known to be supporters of reducing the distance of the golf ball.

According to the Joint Statement of Principles, issued in 2002 by the USGA and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, rules changes can be made at any time to confront the threat of increased distance or any other factor that might alter the historical foundation of the game.

No one should be surprised if the USGA and R&A ultimately decide to cut back the performance of the modern golf ball.

This would make it more important than ever for golfers to play the appropriate tees. While macho men would continue to head to the back tees, many golfers would realize that the joy of the game can be enhanced by playing the forward tees.

Golf does not have to be all about length.

Questions For Tiger, First Tee Edition

Thanks to reader Steven T. for this Harry King column about questions that kids submitted to earn their way to the Tiger Woods at his First Tee outting held yesterday in Arkansas. If only golf's inkslingers could think of questions like this...

The clinic begins at 7:30 a.m., and not one of the winners from Fort Smith said a discouraging word about getting up in time to leave town at 5 a.m. , in one of two vehicles.

They wanted to know if there was a dress code; whether shorts were acceptable. They asked how to address Woods - Tiger or Mr. Woods? Can they approach him or will he come to them? How about autographs? All were nervous questions from kids who want to do what is right.

Woods probably won't take questions from the youngsters and that could be in self-defense. Those making the trip from Fort Smith won their way to Little Rock with letters about what they would ask Woods, and there is a 12-year-old Bob Costas-Barbara Walters in waiting in Van Buren.

His name is Denver Horton and his letter reveals some research, plus a knack for thoughtful questions, and an interview-ending kicker.

He wanted to know how Woods feels about changing the future of golf for kids and how he finds the inner strength to compete when playing poorly.

Familiar with Woods' Learning Center for Children in Anaheim, Calif., Horton asked why changing the lives of children was so important to Woods. The world's best golfer donated the first $5 million for the center, which prompted Horton to say, "That was a lot of money just to give away."

After setting up Woods, Horton went for the kill.

"One more thing, how does your mom feel about you cussing not only on the golf course but on national TV. Be glad your mom is not my mom you would be grounded for a long time. The closest I would get to a golf course would be pulling weeds or planting bushes ... all day if I was ever caught cussing on this golf course."

Travis Jumper, 15, of Fort Smith, had a series of questions for Woods, including some about ethics and etiquette.

"How hard is it to be honest to the companies that want to endorse you but you disagree with the company's values or their product? Is it hard to say no to them paying you millions of dollars just because you don't believe in the product?

You go Travis!

WSJ Story on Bowling

Who says Wall Street Journal readership is down? Thanks to readers David, David and John for the heads up on this WSJ story by Steve Levine who writes about one man's about technology issues in bowling, and efforts to restore significance to the 300 game.

Eric Pierson thinks there are too many perfect games in bowling, and he knows what to do about that.

The 41-year-old Mr. Pierson is the lane manager for amateur bowling's premier event, the U.S. Open Championship, a five-month competition involving about 63,000 players now under way in this port city on the Gulf of Mexico.

It isn't that Mr. Pierson hates to see players reach the pinnacle of bowling, achieved when they knock down all 10 pins, 12 times in a row, for a perfect score of 300. But, in Mr. Pierson's opinion, there's such a thing as too much flawlessness.

His management tool is oil, which all bowling alleys spread on their lanes. Oil protects the lane surface, but oil artists like Mr. Pierson can use it to make the game harder or easier depending on how they apply it.

At this point while reading the story--assuming the USGA jet wasn't at 40,000 feet--Walter Driver is text messaging Mike Davis to see if this oil would hurt Winged Foot's greens.

Sorry, continue...

But while golfers are driving farther and tennis players are hitting more aces, they have nothing on bowlers. To score a strike, bowlers are generally aiming to hook the ball into what they call "the pocket," the space between the front pin and the next pin on either side. If the pins are walloped just right, they knock or bounce into one another, and all 10 pins will fall. It used to be an extraordinary feat to knock down all the pins at once a dozen times in succession. Few players had the consistency to do that. But in the late 1980s, the sport began to shift away from polyester balls to super-engineered polyurethane balls with special resins and particles that grip the lanes better and strategically weighted cores that make aiming easier.

The maple pins were covered with a new plastic called Surlyn that not only protected them better but made them bouncier and easier to topple.

As a result, the bowling congress has seen an explosion of perfect scores, with more perfect games rolled last year than the combined total racked up in the 87 years after official record-keeping began in 1895.

But of course all these perfect games are growing the sport, right?

Declining interest in organized bowling has made the problem worse. In the sport's U.S. heyday, the 1960s to the early 1980s, bowling alleys served as magnets for teenagers and as social venues for adults gathering to drink beer and compete in local leagues. But league participation has fallen to under 3 million players from more than 4 million at the zenith, the bowling congress says. So many bowling-alley owners, according to officials of the sport, have tried to make it easier for players to roll high scores. "There are fewer bowlers, so they want the ones still bowling to feel good," says Matt Cannizzaro, the spokesman for this year's championship here.

Many bowling alleys have opted for oil patterns that raise scores, which, along with the improved balls, help account for the climb in perfect games, experts say. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bowling Congress, trying to slow the pace of perfect scores, is encouraging the growth of "sport bowling," a version of the game in which the oil is strictly limited so as to increase the challenge.

Hey, is that like club invitationals where they grow rough and ratchet up greens to 12 on the Stimp?

The bowling congress has watched as perfect games have soared in its prestigious annual tournament. After the first tournament in 1895, it took 13 years before a player, using a wooden ball, delivered the first 300 score. By the 1990s, the tournament was regularly seeing 25 to 50 perfect games.

When players scored 64 perfect games in the 2002 tournament, it was too much for Mr. Pierson, the lane manager. "I think that's outrageous," he says.

So...

All bowling alleys use a lubricant composed mostly of mineral oil to protect the lanes from the battering of dropped, heaved and sometimes bounced balls. But, after bowling just two or three balls, skilled players can detect the pattern in which the oil was applied -- where it's thick, where it's thin -- and try to aim in a way that after a while grooves out an effective guide straight to the pocket.

Walter Driver just sent another text message to Davis: forget the oil.

Sebonack Membership Story

Thanks to reader Tuco for the heads up on this Michael Buteau story about Sebonack's affordable membership pricing.

Sebonack Golf Club, which opened for limited play last weekend in Southampton, New York, costs what might be a world- highest $650,000 for a membership that ensures accommodations at one of 15 four-bedroom ``cottages'' being built around the course. It's $500,000 just for golf.

The new club sits between 95-year-old National Golf Links of America and four-time U.S. Open host Shinnecock Hills Golf Club at the eastern end of Long Island. Other neighbors include Atlantic Golf Club and the Bridge, both in Bridgehampton. Membership in those clubs -- by invitation only -- tops out at $575,000.

``The numbers are all amazing, but you're dealing with the Hamptons here,'' said Phyllis Dixon, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, which lists about 2,500 properties in the area. ``I guess that's the going rate.''

The initiation fee at Sebonack doesn't include the $12,000 annual dues, or items such as tips for caddies. Like most clubs, members can play as much as they like for that price. They will have access to a yet-to-be-built 28,000-square-foot clubhouse and a 19th hole with a green rather than barstools; it's a par-3 constructed especially to break ties and settle wagers.

And...

Sebonack has 10 founding members who paid $1.5 million each to join. Among them are Stanley Druckenmiller, chairman of Duquesne Capital Management LLC; Richard Santulli, chief executive of Woodbridge, New Jersey-based NetJets Inc.; Paul Desmarais Jr., chairman of Power Corp. of Canada; and Johann Rupert, chief executive of Geneva-based Cie. Financiere Richemont, the world's second-largest luxury-goods company.

The 7,286-yard course, similar in length to a PGA Tour event, was carved into the dunes along the Great Peconic Bay. It once was ``Bayberry Land,'' the summer estate of Charles H. Sabin, a former president of Guaranty Trust Co. of New York.

Most recently, the property was owned by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local No. 3, who used the old Sabin mansion as a convalescent home for its members.

The club will cost about $120 million to build, including $46 million for the 314-acre site, Pascucci said.

And...

The pairing of Doak, who lets the contours of the land dictate his designs, and Nicklaus, who builds manicured courses to challenge the best golfers, brought together two opposing philosophies. Pascucci was able to get them to put aside their differences: Doak once criticized a Nicklaus design with man-made waterfalls as "client overkill.''

"It was insurance that we wouldn't have any bad holes,'' Pascucci said.

And...

Pascucci said he's drawing people from around the world, and prefers serious golfers over jet-setters.

"Our type of members love golf, respect the game and are low-maintenance, non-glitzy type of people,'' he said. "It's not a valet-parking type of place.''

Now This Is Furrowing...

From The Golden Age of Golf Design, Oakmont circa 1929.

 

It's Official...

...they've run out of things to debate over at ESPN.com. Because Jason Sobel and Bob Harig are quarreling over who has the better tournament: Jack/Memorial vs. Arnold/Bay Hill.

Jack's Memorial Press Conference

I'll spare you of reading the transcript which was filled with several nice rally kills. Here's Jack Nicklaus on the new fairway mowing patter, the new bunker raking concept, and other things he's done to the course (there's more hole-by-hole talk if you go to the full transcript):

The other thing that we did one thing we did with the fairways, was that about for the last couple, three years, I keep looking on television and seeing the checkerboard on the thing and I said I just don't like it. It's pretty, but it doesn't look like a golf course, it looks like something else. You know what I'm talking about? The way we cut the fairways in the cross cutting.

I liked the look of Augusta, but I don't like cutting the fairway into you, because I think that's I don't like that, because I think it makes you hit flyers, because the grass is lying into you, and I think it's not a it slows down the golf course, that's why they did it was to slow down the golf course. I felt like the other way around, I like my golf course fast, and I felt like it's much nicer lie to play with the grass lying down towards the hole. It's a much better shot, the fairways will play faster, so the balls can run farther. I don't mind that the course kept playing shorter, because it makes the fairways shorter. We cut the fairways all in one direction.

The last thing we did is a couple of weeks before the tournament I called and I said, "Would you make a call to the Tour and ask them what they want to do with the bunkers?" We spend money every year, to try and deep even the bunkers, do different things and the bunker has ceased to become a penalty. And I said if we came back actually even if we raked them the way we did when we started the tournament, we'd have an uncertainty of what the lie was. We were probably the cause of bunkers being perfect today. They used to rake them with a pretty good sized rake and it was clumpy, and the ball really never set very well in the bunker. And we started working here, how do you make a bunker so it really is a nice lie so you really have a clean lie out of it, and so that everything is consistent. We developed that rake that is used, the round rake, and that was our development here. And we took that and that's what everybody uses today.

Now all the bunkers are so perfect, there's no penalty anymore. Bunkers are really supposed to be a penalty. I don't care about them being a penalty, penalty, right now guys look at a par 5, if I don't get it on the green, and put it in the bunker, I know I can get it up and down and we move on.

I asked the Tour, and they have been telling the guys all year, the honeymoon is over, the bunkers are going to be a penalty. I said, "When are you going to do that?" We haven't done it yet. I said, "We can start it right here if you want to." And they said, "Fine."

We developed a rake here that put us on I think I think it's center of the middle of the tines are like two and a half inches, when means two inches spread between the spread of the rake. And it gives you a little bit of a waffling in the bunker, and it can be you can get a good lie or you might not get a good lie. And particularly in the fairway bunkers, if you hit it in the fairway bunker, you've got an option before you hit it in the fairway bunker that's most of the bunkers that were changed, to have a penalty off the tee shot, if you hit it in the bunker they hit it so far, and it doesn't make any difference, unless the bunker is 25 feet deep. I'll never forget the one they did at 5 on Augusta, and hoot I said no one is going to knock it out of here. I said, "That won't make a difference." And so anyway, that was sort of the issue. And so rather than having to change the bunkers all the time, we'll continue to change our bunkers, now we've got to get them consistent to all the bunkers on the golf course, we continue to change a few every year, but now I want them so when you hit the ball they say, "I don't really want to be in that bunker." But if they get in it then they have a chance of having a penalty. That was sort of the idea.

The Tour liked it, the Tour supported it 100 percent, and that's what we're doing.

And, this is where it gets kind of silly when you really think about it...

Q. Jack, is there any strategy to raking the bunkers with these rakes? In other words, having the furrows run parallel toward the green or perpendicular?

JACK NICKLAUS: We had it going the other way, but the Tour said they wanted it the other way. I don't care how you do it, I could care less. I think the Tour probably said it's not quite as much a penalty if you go towards the hole. I don't care which way you go. All I'm trying to do is make the guy think he doesn't want to be in the bunker, and it's not the place to aim for. To the right of 18. They don't want to be in the water, guys have tried tried to drive over the bunker, some still can, but they didn't mind being in the first bunker to the right, because it was a fairly flat, low profile bunker and you could play the ball. I can't figure out a way to deep even that bunker, so let's just make the lie uncertain. That way the guy is not going to just want to be in that bunker.

And...

Q. Compared to Oakmont type bunker, how do they compare?

JACK NICKLAUS: When I played in '62, you took a sand wedge and hit it out, that's all you could do. That was much deeper than what we have now. That was a big that was probably that deep (indicating), probably a ball deep and it was sort of like that (indicating). This is two inch spread, actually from edge of the rake to the edge of the rake, and it puts a thing but not nearly as severe as that.

And...

Q. You talked about when you played at Oakmont you had to hit them out with sand wedges, would you like to see them back to that, or do you think that's too dramatic now?

JACK NICKLAUS: It would be okay. Why do you put a bunker on a golf course? I think there's two reasons three reasons, one, is esthetically it's very pretty, it gives you a framing issue. Two, it guides you around the golf course or three, it's penal. It could be one of those three. To this point in time they've been esthetically pleasing and they guide you around the golf course, but they haven't been penal. So I think that third element needs to come into it. I thought that for a long, long time.

The proverbial technology question...didn't even get out before Jack jumped in, followed by a nice rally killer...

Q. I was going to ask you what, as technology keeps on you have guys hitting

JACK NICKLAUS: I hope in technology, somebody wakes up, eventually, to technology.

Q. On the subject of psychology, has that changed the art of shot making, does that still exist, or do people just hit it as far as they can?

NCAA Men's Championships

Ryan Herrington makes his NCAA picks at GolfDigest.com, while Ron Balicki gives you the odds for every team in the field. Well, his odds.

If you want to track the scores, here's the link. While tee times can be found here.

The Family Feud

Randell Mell, in doing a three part series on the controversial renovation of Coral Ridge Country Club, reveals the worst kept secret in golf: that brothers Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Rees Jones can't stand each other.

Like Acrisius and Proteus of Greek mythology, had Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Rees Jones been born twins, it's possible their quarrel would have started in the womb. It goes back nearly that far.

"There's a story that Robert once pushed Rees out of a tree when they were boys," said a former associate of Robert Trent Jones Sr. "The truth is a lot more complicated than that."

This much is certain, golf's quintessential sibling rivalry, a bitter but mostly private affair between renowned architects in their own right, is growing more public.

The brothers are at odds over plans to redesign the course their father built in Fort Lauderdale.

"Coral Ridge Country Club was the place my father was happiest," Rees, 64, said at his father's funeral.

Robert Trent Jones Jr., 66, called the club "hallowed ground to the Jones family."

There isn't much else about Coral Ridge the brothers agree upon.

Though the senior Jones left the club to both sons, their irreconcilable differences led to an impossible partnership.

Eighteen months ago, four years after taking over the club, with their rift leading to member complaints about deterioration of the "hallowed ground," the brothers agreed to sell to auto dealer Phil Smith and his partners. The new ownership is proposing to build a major housing development in the middle of the course to help fund major club renovations.

And in case you didn't know it, no one in golf channels the views of dead architects better than Rees:

"For the most part, Dad was always ahead of the curve, and he would be making changes today if he were still alive," Rees said. "This is my father's statement to golf, his baby, and I guarantee he would be very much in favor of the changes we are making."

While Robert Jr. sees himself defending his father's masterpiece, Rees sees something else. He sees his brother's opposition based solely on the fact that Rees is doing the redesign while his brother is left out.

"I stayed in [the club's ownership], and he didn't," Rees said. "I stayed in to maintain my father's legacy, to maintain it for the next 100 years."

Well, shockingly, that last part isn't quite accurate.

The brothers were so at odds, according to a source familiar with Coral Ridge Country Club's sale, that Smith had to negotiate with them separately, finally getting each to sell their half for a total that industry experts estimate being between $17 million and $20 million. It was actually more like two separate deals, one with Robert Jr. walking away with a larger share.

"Rees wouldn't negotiate until Bob agreed to sell his entire share and get out of the deal," the source said. "Once Robert was out, Rees negotiated to keep 5 percent ownership."

That means Rees not only gets to redesign his father's work, he gets to share in the millions of dollars that will be made off any housing development that's ultimately approved.

Nor is Bobby a victim in this either...

"The truth is Bob wanted to redesign the course for us," Smith said. "He lobbied me to do it. I hate to be drawn into this, but it's sour grapes on his part. To give him a podium now to go after his brother, I don't really think it's fair to the future of this club."

Rees and Robert Jr. declined comment when asked to speak about their rift.

They rarely speak directly to each other.

"They tend to communicate through lawyers," said Bradley Klein, who has closely tracked the brothers' careers as author of three golf course architecture books and Golfweek's architectural editor.

The sibling rivalry had a palpable effect on Coral Ridge's operation. With the course and clubhouse deteriorating and staff morale low, memberships plummeted.

"The brothers wouldn't agree on anything," said John Foster, the general manager who served under them. "An issue would come up in a board meeting, and they'd argue about it. You couldn't get them to agree to put any money into the club, and you couldn't get anything accomplished."

Foster remembers the brothers glaring at each other in one board meeting in New York. The contentiousness there led Foster to fire off a memo advising fellow board members that in future meetings he no longer intended to invite the owners. The Jones brothers nixed the idea.

Oh joy! Hey, think we could get them to agree on selling movie rights to their story?

Jones Sr., who didn't like his sons' defections from the family business, found himself competing hard against his boys for clients in the '70s and '80s. The father had a reputation among his rivals as a hard-nosed businessman who enjoyed stirring up controversy and who was not averse to bad mouthing his rivals.

Linn remembers going to the annual Jones family gathering at Coral Ridge between Christmas and New Year's Eve when the three Jones' staffs were all competing.

"There were such awkward moments when we found ourselves all together," Linn said. "Senior's staff would keep its distance, guys in Rees' staff would keep their distance, and we would, too. You could feel the tension in the room, and you'd just sit back and shake your head.

"Ione was always the peacemaker, and she negotiated among the three. When she died [in 1987], they all had to deal with each other. It changed the dynamics."

Though the father eventually repaired his relationship with both sons, the boys never did.

"It was their father's sincerest wish late in his life that his sons would resolve their differences," a former associate of Jones Sr. said.

There's a better chance that the USGA and R&A will agree to do something about the ball.

Robert Jr. and Rees each co-designed courses with their father, but the brothers have never collaborated on a design. The closest they've come is the construction of neighboring properties in Sandestin. Rees' 18th hole at Burnt Pine actually touches the 11th hole that Robert Jr. built on The Raven.

"Appropriately, the holes run in opposite directions," Klein said.

Essex County Club...

No. 7, par-3 (click to enlarge)...will be hosting the 2010 Curtis Cup. Arguably, one of the coolest old courses in golf.

Far Hills, N.J. – Essex County Club in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., has been selected by the United States Golf Association as the site of the 2010 Curtis Cup Match. The dates of the Match will be June 11-13.

Essex County Club, the sixth member club of the USGA, originally opened in 1893. During Donald Ross’ tenure as the club’s head professional, from 1910 to 1913, he completely redesigned the course, finishing in 1917. Since then, the course has remained virtually unchanged.

The Curtis Cup Match, a biennial women’s amateur team competition played between eight-member teams from the United States of America and Great Britain and Ireland, has strong roots at Essex County Club. The Match is named in recognition of the efforts of two Essex members, Margaret and Harriot Curtis, in starting the event. Both sisters were U.S. Women’s Amateur champions – Harriot in 1906 and Margaret in 1907, 1911 and 1912, which was held at Essex. In 1938, Essex County Club hosted the Curtis Cup Match, won by the United States team.

The 2010 Match will be the fifth USGA event at Essex, which first welcomed the USGA in 1897 for the U.S. Women’s Amateur. In 1995, the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was contested at the club. In addition, the club has also hosted numerous Massachusetts State Opens, Massachusetts State Amateurs, Massachusetts Women’s Amateurs and New England PGA Seniors.

"As the home of the Curtis sisters and a former site of the Curtis Cup, the Essex County Club is thrilled to have the competition returning,” said Bill Van Faasen, general chairman for the 2010 Match. “We are especially honored to welcome the Match back given its rich history here."

Essex County Club has other noteworthy ties to the USGA. Joe Lloyd, the head professional at Essex from 1895 to 1909, won the 1897 U.S. Open, and Herbert Jacques Jr., a member of Essex, was the USGA president in 1933-34. His father, Herbert Jacques Sr., the USGA president in 1909-1910, was an architect involved in creating the original clubhouse at Essex.

Prior to 2010, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore, will host the 2006 Curtis Cup Match, and the 2008 Match will be contested at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.

Unfairness of Furrowed Bunkers

(click to enlarge)A few of you emailed to ask about yesterday's Bobby Jones quote on furrowed bunkers.

Since some form of furrowing is taking place at Muirfield Village this week, I thought you might want to read the entire article, which appeared in The American Golfer and was later reprinted in a magazine style publication called Bobby Jones On Golf, which was reprinted again by Sid Matthew. It's a must if you don't have it and love Jones's writings (though I'm afraid it's out of print looking at Amazon).

Anyway, click on the window to read his take on Oakmont's furrowed bunker raking. You'll probably have to print it out, as I had to resize it to fit the screen.
 

"We need money to invest back into the brand"

Jeff Murray of the Star Gazette of something had the misfortune of interviewing both former LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw and current Commish/brand maiven, Carolyn Bivens.

First, the Votaw chat.

Former LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw returned to Corning as a private citizen this week to watch his fiancee, LPGA player Sophie Gustafson, play in the LPGA Corning Classic. Votaw stepped down from the LPGA's top post last year and was replaced in September by Carolyn Bivens. He spoke with Star-Gazette reporter Jeff Murray about life after the LPGA and his new role with the men's golf tour.

Are you here officially or unofficially?
Very unofficial, as unofficial as you can get. I'm just here as Sophie's fiance. I've been to one (LPGA) tournament this year. My job with the PGA Tour keeps me busy. So this is the second time I've watched her this year.

Why did you choose this tournament to watch Sophie play?
Corning has always been one of my favorite places. Given it's a long weekend and the fact that I just got back from London, it worked out well.

When is the wedding?
We haven't set a date yet.

Oops.

And the Bivens chat... 

How do you compare your management style with your predecessor, Ty Votaw?
Each previous commissioner, we're all coming into it at different times. Each had specific things they wanted to accomplish. They all needed to do things to grow the tour -- find enough tournaments, find sponsors. So it's different times. It's hard to compare.

Such eloquence.

Do you see your role as continuing to build on that momentum?
Continuing to build on it, but also to make a business of it. So we have to come up with more endorsement opportunities, health care for players, retirement benefits. We need money to invest back into the brand.

Not the Tour, not the players. The brand.

One of the more contentious initiatives you've instituted is a new policy giving the LPGA more control over media images and stories about the tour. What was the genesis of that move?

The media policy is mine. Because the LPGA is the last major sport that had no control over use of images at tournaments. If you Google LPGA and put in the name of your favorite player, you can find there are many photographs you can buy. You can also buy things like beer mugs with the LPGA logo on them. These are things that we didn't give permission for. We just wanted to gain control of it.

I'm sure those LPGA mugs were just flying off the shelves!

What does the LPGA have to do to continue growing in popularity?
I have to believe the players are the most important aspect of making it grow out there, and they are there.

Where's there? Like, the brand marketplace?

TV ratings, we are year-to-year (growing by) double digits. NASCAR is the only other sport where you are seeing that kind of growth. You've got a variety of personalities and you draw a broad audience. We have a very wide range and appealing group of women.

What are your personal goals for the tour?
I want women to get closer to parity with men as far as endorsement opportunities and playing in major markets. Each sport has made a major move at the height of its popularity, the PGA, NASCAR. We have an opportunity through our wealth of personalities to make our move in the market.

So you plan on staying on the job for a while?
I moved from Los Angeles (to Florida). I didn't take that lightly.

Sunday Golf At The Old Course!?

The R&A Gold Medal, apparently considered equal to the final round of the Open Championship (at least to you know who) was and will be played at the Old Course the next few weeks. Stuart Nicholson has the story and the reaction. Thanks to reader Chris for this.

Play has been banned on the Sabbath since the course was gifted to the town in the 16th century. Exceptions are made only for major tournaments such as the Open and the Dunhill Cup.

But the Royal & Ancient broke with that tradition last week and held its Gold Medal tournament on a Sunday for the first time. Tournaments are also scheduled to be held on the next two Sundays.

It sparked an angry reaction from local people, with some claiming golfers reacted aggressively to them walking across the fairways last Sunday.

Elizabeth McIntyre, who is organising a petition, said the course effectively turned into a park for all townspeople on Sundays.

"However, last Sunday we arrived on the course to be met, unbeknown to us and without posted due warnings, with golfers playing three-ball," she said. "The dirty looks we got were very disturbing."

Jane Liston, a local councillor, said: "It would be a shame if such an ancient tradition was to come to an end."

A spokesman for St Andrews Links Trust insisted that it was only in "exceptional circumstances" that any play was permitted on the Old Course on a Sunday.

He said: "In this case, we responded to a special request to hold the R&A's Gold Medal, one of the most important competitions in the annual calendar. In future, we will endeavour to publish a notice informing local people of any exceptional circumstances."