Winged Foot With Tilly: No. 15, Vol. 2

Only subtle differences in No. 15 from 1929 and 2005. The front bunker has grown up and the green doesn't quite stretch out to some of the old high points in the rear left and right.

 

 

Winged Foot With Tilly: No. 15 Vol. 1

(click image to enlarge)The 15th at Winged Foot features arguably the worst fairway contouring job, leftover from the Meeks 2004 U.S. Amateur setup. Not wide enough to bring the creek into play down the left side or to let a player actually choose an angle to come in from, at least the narrowness doesn't take away from another stellar green complex.

Open up the image to read Tilly's proud take on the hole. 

Is The Villages...

...keeping the PGA Tour in business!?

How much money have they spent on PGA Tour advertising this year?

Update on 2006-06-12 04:06 by Geoff

For those of you who don't read the comments, Steven T. posted this must read story on The Villages.

Sorrenstam's Latest Brush With The Rules

Doug Ferguson offers a fair amount on Annika's latest rules of golf snafu, which The Golf Channel handled strangely (except for Dottie Pepper who noted her recent troubles with the rules and her rules workshop studies.)

U.S. Open Week Coverage

The La Habra chapter of our art department has crafted a special U.S. Open week logo, using the USGA's best, but adding the all important ode-to-the-rough.

And as you'll notice, starting today in the upper left window I have posted a few special U.S. Open links, with more to come.

Huggan Previews Open

After reviewing previous U.S. Open's held at Winged Foot, John Huggan writes in Scotland on Sunday:

There is little doubt that WFW is one of America's finest - and at times when the USGA does not have a say in the speed of the greens, the width of the fairways and the length of the rough - one of the fairest tests. It is a proper golf course, with a closing stretch of demanding par-4s that we hope will be allowed to provide a fitting climax to the championship.

"As the various holes came to life, they were of a sturdy breed," wrote Tillinghast of the design process. "The contouring of the greens places great premium on the placement of the drives, but never is there the necessity of facing a prodigious carry of the sink-or-swim sort. It is only when the next shot must be played with rifle accuracy that brings the realisation that the drive must be placed."

Forgive my cynicism, but that is one aspect of this great course that will likely be lost during this coming week. As usual, the blue bloods in the blue blazers won't want red numbers on 'their' golf course and in 'their' precious championship. So, just as they were at Pinehurst last year, many of the premium spots for drives will be covered in golf's most boring hazard, long grass.

If the USGA can be trusted to do anything, it is that they will endeavour to eliminate any semblance of strategy or thought or flair from the US Open equation. What else? Oh yes, there will be little or no fun to be had, either.

An extremely knowledgeable spy of my close acquaintance has already been to Winged Foot, and had this to say about the course: "It's the hardest thing you've ever seen. I don't see how a short-hitter could break 78. Because of the severity of the slopes on the greens, it's much harder than Baltusrol was for last year's PGA Championship.

"If you hit a shot even one-yard past pin-high, you have virtually no chance to get the ball up and in. I don't think there will be more than two people under par by the end. In fact, it would not shock me if four 71s was enough to win."

NY Times: Hartough "Rembrandt of the back nine"

Project a golf photo onto a canvas, paint over it and you're a Rembrandt according to the paper of record. Yikes.

This is beautiful:

"There is a sense in Linda's work that God is in the landscape," said Jay Williams, curator of the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga. "If you look at a lot of the paintings, she often uses raking light — she places the light source at an angle. The play of the shadows on the landscape tells the eye a lot about the complexity of the surface. She accentuates the kinesthetic aspect of the terrain, which allows you to read her paintings in a very physical way."

"I haven't seen anybody at headquarters with Kleenex boxes"

Courtesy of AP:

 The LPGA accepted resignations from Deb Richard, senior vice president of golf; Julie Tyson, vice president of partnerships; and Liz Ausman, chief strategic officer.

Asked why she resigned, Richard paused and said, "I've lost faith in the leadership.''

Rae Evans, chair of the LPGA board, said she was not the least bit alarmed by three resignations in one day, and seven resignations over the last eight months. Others who have left the LPGA were Kathy Milthorpe, chief financial officer; Barb Trammell, senior vice president of tournament operations; Rob Neal, vice president of tournament business affairs; and Karen Durkin, chief marketing officer.

"Business is business. People come, people go,'' Evans said. "I haven't seen anybody at headquarters with Kleenex boxes.''

Such warmth and compassion. Go Duke lacrosse!

It also lost network coverage of a major when the LPGA Championship, angry about being asked to move up starting times in the final round starting in 2007, left CBS Sports for The Golf Channel.

"The knee-jerk reaction is we left a network for The Golf Channel,'' Evans said. "It's too early to tell. I probably view networks, because of the audience delivery, as the place to be. But a lot of smart people have invested in The Golf Channel. We'll see where it leads.''

Oh I think we know.

The Most Impressive Thing About Michelle Wie...

...is her temperament. I've watched bits and pieces over the last few days and I can never tell if she's playing well or not. She's seems to be the same no matter what's going on.

Phil Buying St. Andrews Time Share

Mickelson really is getting serious about the majors: $3.4 million for 9 weeks a year overlooking 1 and 18 at the Old Course.

City Of Detroit Looking To Sell A Ross Design For Homes

I just love how the LLC that wants to build a housing development on Donald Ross's Rackham GC calls itself Premium Golf LLC. What a world.

Week in Review, June 4-10: Still Furrowing

As the Open at Winged Foot looms, check out the Winged Foot journal section if you want to check out some of the posts that preview key holes. And to get in the mood, there were several articles worth reading from Westchester's Journal News as well as our second annual attempt to spot the %$#@% pairing.

Steve Elkington's U.S. Open sectional WD over not getting to wear spikes generated a heated discussion...

Smolmania: "Soft spikes make greens better. There's no doubt about it. Come out and see a public course like Dubsdread at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday. In the old days, the greens looked like there had been an army of elephants trampeling them. Not any more.

Chuck: "the Sectional application let players know in advance what courses were softspike-only. Elkington's position becomes undefensible in that regard -- he could have/should have known long before the qualifier date and acted accordingly.

NRH: In theory, I'm with Elk on this one...it is his profession. One day of a few guys wearing spikes will not ruin the greens and he is correct that it should be the same at every site.

JPB: "The USGA should address this and go spikeless at all the championships and qualifiers next year."

Brian: "Spike marks? What about the bottle cap depressions left with soft spikes by guys over 200 pounds? That's like putting through land mines. Give me spike marks any day of the week."

Peter Kostis wondered why there was no outrage over distance increases on the LPGA Tour and you, like I, just loved his logic.

Reader Barry: "About the time the power game was completely taking over men's tennis in the early 90s, people would trot out this same nonsense. 'Yeah, the men's game may be going to hell...but the women are fun to watch now...'
Be patient, Peter. Before you can say “brand identity," power will beat the life out the women's game too. And then we can kick back and watch robotic, artless play on both tours.

Chuck: "The last time Kostis bubbled up out of the murk of Fortune Brands' marketing offices, he was proclaiming that it was player fitness that was to "blame." If we only had 400 or 500 more 140-lb. 16 year-old girls to prove the point, I'd think he might have a real trend here..."

But besides Michelle Wie's attempt to qualify for the Open, the big story remained Jack Nicklaus's decision to furrow bunkers at Muirfield Village. More final verdicts...

Scott S: "So, if a host decided to use hard as rock greens, or fairways cut at 3/4 an inch, or bunkers which use native sand as opposed to doctored-in-a-lab Bunker Sand (TM), will we see the same complaints? All of these could be viewed as "contrivances" compaired to many tour stops, but are a regular part of life on many golf courses."

Matt: "I don't know about anybody else but I think it definitely takes skill to get the ball out of a bad lie in the sand-it's never just hack and hope. And surely ballstriking precision that avoids the bunkers in the first place is a more important skill than playing out of the bunkers themselves. The bigger issue is that fairways bunkers cannot be placed properly on a golf course anymore because of the disparity between long and short hitters. Just get the ball rolled back and there's no need for this hulabaloo about furrows."

D. Edgard: "Well played Mr. Nicklaus and everybody around trying to preserve the esence of the game,

JM: "I wonder if working with Tom Doak on Sebonack influenced Nicklaus in any way and made it easier for him to make this excellent decision. And it *was* possible to recover with a bit of creativity... I think Mickelson demonstrated this best on #6 when he windmilled it from the fairway bunker and sailed it 160 yards to within 5 feet of the hole. That was creative shotmaking."

Winged Foot With Tilly: No. 11

Below are 1929 and 2005 views of the wonderful 11th, which would be even more fun if included an actual fairway. Yes, the wonderful rolling contours and crowned nature of the hole will be bathed in rough, keeping balls near the centerline instead of taking them to real trouble.

Well, maybe that's why this hole will be minus the rough tiers. Remember, this hole is birdieable and we can't allow those!

Note the differences in bunkering from then and now, especially in the front left greenside bunker.

 

 

Winged Foot With Tilly: No. 10 Vol. 2

(click on image to enlarge)Rick Carpiniello in The Journal News profiles the homeowners/members living behind No. 10 and explains what exactly Ben Hogan said and meant about a "3 iron into someone's bedroom."
(click on image to enlarge)

As for the grand 10th (which will be called the "signature hole" way too many times by NBC's announcers), it should be 6, 7 or even 8 iron next week. 

Marzolf On Winged Foot

Plan on hearing NBC laud Tom Fazio's restoration work at Winged Foot, but it's actually been supervised by associate Tom Marzolf, who offered this deep architectural analysis in an ASGCA press release. No, it won't exactly remind you of reading any of Tilly's "gleanings":

ASGCA Past President Predicts “Narrow” Winged Foot Will Be Tough Test

Tom Marzolf, Senior Design Associate with Fazio Golf Course Designers and Immediate Past President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, says Winged Foot Golf Club will be a tough test for this year’s U.S. Open field.

Marzolf, who has been working with staff at Winged Foot and USGA tournament preparation staff for several years to prepare the Mamaroneck, N.Y. layout for the 2006 U.S. Open, says, “Winged Foot is ready for the Open, but the field may not be ready for this year’s Winged Foot.”

“This may be one of the most challenging courses in the U.S.,” explains Marzolf. “The greens are very small, elevated and have interesting slopes that are bold and fast. If you miss the green on an approach shot, your recovery shot will be from thick, six inch rough. Missing a green will make it very difficult for players to save par.”

He continues, “The course is in great shape, and all the recent rain will make for soft conditions. The winner will be a player who hits a majority of fairways off the tee. All the fairways have been narrowed since the 1997 PGA Championship won by Davis Love III. This may be the narrowest U.S. Open course ever and could yield very high scores.”

Editor’s Note:  A picture of Mr. Marzolf is available upon request. Mr. Marzolf can be reached at (828) 693-0052 for additional comment.