U.S. Open Reads: Tuesday Early Edition

Lorne Rubenstein wonders what fairness really means as he weighs the pro and cons of "tiered rough" and asks, "Why try to turn it into a controlled laboratory setting?"

Mike Aitken looks at poor Monty: "In his pomp, Colin Montgomerie would have taken one look at how the United States Golf Association set up Winged Foot for this week's US Open and rubbed his hands with glee."

Jane McManus of the Journal News analyzes the media's relationship with Tiger Woods and includes these surprising remarks from Johnny Miller, who just gave Peter Kostis hope for getting back in Tiger's good graces:

"Every time I've asked him a question, I can honestly say he's never given me a real answer. Never once. And I've been pretty nice to him. I feel like he's never given me the respect I deserve. "I know that's a strong statement. I've never said that to anybody. But I really believe that he should take the time when somebody in our industry is trying to tell the real story, that he is willing to give the real answer."

Speaking of Woods, Doug Ferguson writes about his Monday practice round.

Leonard Shapiro ponders the high rough and offers this from Phil Mickelson: 

"I'm going to make a bold prediction that someone hits the wrong ball in the rough [during the Open]. A lot of members have been playing, and when they hit in the rough, you can't find it. I've had Bones fore-caddie and he sees where the ball goes and he still can't find it. I think there are not just hundreds, but thousands of balls in the rough you just can't see. This is so thick the grass grows over the ball. You could be standing right over it and still not see it."

And Golf Digest has started a U.S. Open blog, highlighted by a post from Bob Carney on the rough and the pace of the greens. 

Questions For Driver, Fay and Hyler

The USGA's annual Executive Director/President/Championship Committee Chair media session takes place Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. when the scribblers will be fresh from their GWAA meeting convened to argue about the awards contest.

So for those that do stick around, here are a few questions to consider along with (hopefully) reader questions on the comments page of this thread (hopefully, because there were technical issues on Monday...my apologies):

• The 2002 Joint Statement of Principles warned that any "significant" increase in distance from would result in USGA/R&A action. From 2002 to 2005, the same increase in PGA Tour driving distance average has occurred as from 1999 to 2002. Is this cause for action regardless of any further study?
  
  
• Many of the fairways here are less than 25 yards wide, including on holes with significant fairway tilt. Is there a width that you would say is too narrow for championship play, and why is it that the fairways are so much narrower than when the U.S. Open was last played here?
  
  
• Mr. Driver, what is your stance on the Ohio Golf Association's use of a tournament ball in its Champions event this summer?
  
  
• Mr. Hyler, is it permissible for the OGA to use this ball as part of a "condition of competition," while still playing under USGA rules for the competition?
  

• Can you explain what aspects of the job of USGA President require a private jet for travel, and why the records of this travel are kept confidential?
  
  
• As a follow up, why can't the USGA at least provide passenger lists for the trips taken to assure its members that only USGA officers are using this unnecessary privilege?
  
  
• As a follow up to the follow up, how much money has been spent on this jet to date?
  
  
• How has construction of the new Arnold Palmer Center progressed since the groundbreaking ceremony and when do you expect it to open?
  

• If the final top 10 of this U.S. Open featured the top 10 players in the world and was won by the world's #1 ranked player, but the winning score was 20-under par, would this still be considered a successful championship?
  
  
• For Mr. Driver: It's been nearly a year since you were announced as President, are there any specific accomplishments you are most proud of to this point, and what accomplishments are you hoping to achieve?
  

• For the panel, with the usual apologies to Colbert:  Tom Meeks, great course setup man, or the greatest course setup man?

Winged Foot With Tilly: No. 16

(click on image to enlarge)His description here is of the hole as a par-5, and of course this is one of the two three-shotters reduced to a par-4.
(click on image to enlarge)

I had no modern comparison shots with the old image, but this fairway view should be enough. Love the soft, natural fairway lines too! 

"Korea, Republic of"

You have to love the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings, where Michelle Wie lands at No. 2 while Lorena Ochoa (2 wins in 2006, 9 Top 10s in 12 starts) and Karrie Webb (1, T2 in majors along with 2 wins and 6 Top 10s in 10 starts) finish behind third and fourth respectively.

But more importantly, what's with the "Korea, Republic of" stuff. And the quotation marks?

_{Week  WgwrId      Rank      Change      Name      Country     Events      TotalPoints      AveragePoints
6/12/2006 0:00  1673      1      0      Annika Sorenstam      Sweden      41      672.32      16.4
6/12/2006 0:00  1913      2      0      Michelle Wie      United States      15      173.95      11.6
6/12/2006 0:00  897      3      -1       Lorena Ochoa Mexico      53      488.77      9.22
6/12/2006 0:00  1888      4      0      Karrie Webb      Australia   48      423.83      8.83
6/12/2006 0:00  1380      5      -2      Paula Creamer      United States      46      364.88      7.93
6/12/2006 0:00  400      6      -1       Cristie Kerr      United States      50      376.38      7.53
6/12/2006 0:00  21      7      -1        Yuri Fudoh Japan      54      366.76      6.79
6/12/2006 0:00  261      8      -1      Juli Inkster      United States      43      272.52      6.34
6/12/2006 0:00  774      9      1        Ai Miyazato      Japan      58      350.71      6.05
6/12/2006 0:00  1044      10      -2      Morgan Pressel      United States      17      102.08      6
6/12/2006 0:00  108      11      -2      Hee-Won Han      "Korea, Republic of"   58      342.11      5.9
6/12/2006 0:00  293      12      -1      Jeong Jang      "Korea, Republic of"   59      316.96      5.37
6/12/2006 0:00  450      13      1      Mi Hyun Kim      "Korea, Republic of"   58      272.84      4.7
6/12/2006 0:00  926      14      -2      Shiho Ohyama      Japan      66      305.66      4.63
6/12/2006 0:00  90      15      -2      Natalie Gulbis      United States      57      243.99      4.28
6/12/2006 0:00  616      16      -1      Seon-Hwa Lee      "Korea, Republic of"   52      221.7      4.26
6/12/2006 0:00  562      17      -1      Brittany Lang      United States      19      78.43      4.13
6/12/2006 0:00  592      18      -1      Ji-Hee Lee      "Korea, Republic of"   54      215.11      3.98
6/12/2006 0:00  957      19      91      Se-Ri Pak      "Korea, Republic of"   35      138.4      3.95
6/12/2006 0:00  236      20      -2      Pat Hurst United States      49      190.72      3.89
6/12/2006 0:00  591      21      -1      Jee Young Lee      "Korea, Republic of"   23      83.75      3.64}

MacDuff's Post Westchester FedEx Cup Points

Well the FedEx Cups Points race is really, well, it's doing something even though we aren't sure what. As always, thanks to reader MacDuff for his compilation, which does not give extra points for majors or WGC's. 

^{_{1    Mickelson    20559        13
2    Singh    18509.37        14
3    Furyk    17687.5        12
4    Toms    16196.87        11
5    Gf. Ogilvy    15987.5        11
6    Glover    15879.16        12
7    Pettersson    15758.33        14
8    C.Campbell    15587.5        13
9    Van Pelt    15252.5        16
10    Appleby    14987.5        12
11    Weir    14396.87        12
12    Pernice    14325        11
13    Sabbatini    13754.16        12
14    Donald    13739.37        9
15    Pampling    13697.5        12
16    A.Scott    13375        9
17    B. Quigley    13375        11
18    Oberholser    13312.5        12
19    Z.Johnson    13075        11
20    Goosen    12937.5        10
21    Bohn    12913.33        13
22    Cink    12871.33        11
23    Olazabal    12662.5        9
24    Mayfair    12654.16        13
25    Gay    12525        12
26    T.Clark    12285        12
27    Vn Taylor    12137.5        10
28    Immelman    12087.5        9
29    Verplank    12037.5        10
30    Funk    11912.5        12
31    Senden    11600        10
32    Love III    11412.5        11
33    Purdy    11312.5        11
34    D.Wilson    11112.5        12
35    Lehman    11075        11
36    Herron    11022.5        10
37    Ames    10862.5        8
38    Parnevik    10767.5        12
39    T.Woods    10659.37        6
40    Choi    10537.5        10
41    Hoffman    10375        10
42    Jerry Kelly    10325        9
43    RS Johnson    10305        10
44    Els    10077.5        10
45    Villegas    10062.5        10
46    Imada    10055        11
47    Watney    10025        11
48    Warren    10012.5        10
49    Wetterich    9775        7
50    Leonard    9683.33        11
51    Crane    9660        10
52    Palmer    9466.66        11
53    J.Ogilvie    9345        10
54    JJ Henry    9162.5        9
55    Sluman    9137.5        13
56    Garcia    9112.5        8
57    Waldorf    9087.5        11
58    F.Jacobson    9062.5        8
59    Rose    9041.66        11
60    Chopra    8992        11
61    Jobe    8905        10
62    Estes    8837.5        9
63    Maggert    8812.5        9
64    Harrington    8775        8
65    Bertsch    8750        11
66    Hart    8680        9
67    G. Owen    8662.5        9
68    Poulter    8612.5        9
69    Rollins    8537.5        9
70    N.Green    8415        11
71    Howell III    8362.5        13
72    D. Howell    8262.5        7
73    Baird    8242.5        8
74    Micheel    8162.5        9
75    Azinger    8162.5        10
76    Bryant    8150        8
77    Franco    8112.5        9
78    DiMarco    7959.37        9
79    Couples    7950        9
80    Flesch    7807.5        13
81    Lonard    7787.5        10
82    Lowery    7700        10
83    Austin    7500        12
84    S. Maruyama    7462.5        9
85    Allenby    7450        7
86    JB Holmes    7420.83        7
87    Calcavecchia    7367.5        13
88    Branshaw    7325        8
89    Beem    7293.75        9
90    J.Smith    7225        8
91    Faxon    7125        10
92    Langer    7079.16        9
93    Olin Browne    7075        12
94    Pavin    7062.5        7
95    Sindelar    7037.5        10
96    Sutherland    7012.5        9
97    Bjornstad    7005        9
98    Barlow    7000        9
99    Baddeley    6962.5        8
100    JL Lewis    6937.5        11
101    Bub Watson    6850        7
102    Sean O'Hair    6849.5        9
103    Goggin    6675.25        6
104    Slocum    6475        9
105    Fischer    6425        9
106    M.Wilson    6415        7
107    Gronberg    6350        7
108    Cook    6275        6
109    Triplett    6275        7
110    Pat Perez    6262.5        7
111    Stricker    6225        5
112    Barron    6218.75        8
113    Kenny Perry    6125        7
114    Andrade    6082.5        8
115    B. Haas    6050        8
116    Geiberger    6037.5        8
117    Br.Davis    5992.5        8
118    Durant    5987.5        11
119    Curtis    5775        9
120    Gove    5737.5        6
121    Leaney    5712.5        7
122    Atwal    5650        6
123    Gore    5525        6
124    J.Byrd    5500        4
125    Ws Short Jr    5462.5        11
126    Mahan    5225        10
127    Westwood    5187.5        5
128    Cabrera    5100        5
129    Matteson    5037.5        7
T130    Kaye    4962.5        8
T130    Overton    4962.5        8
132    Lickliter II    4950        7
133    Petrovic    4925        7
134    D.Clarke    4900        4
135    Gamez    4800        8
136    Armour III    4700        6
137    Allen    4562.5        8
138    Dickerson    4450        8
139    Tway    4425        8
140    Nick Price    4300        4}}

Confidential Guide: Cult Classic

The Wall Street Journal's Carrick Mollenkamp considers the cult status that Tom Doak's Confidential Guide to Golf Courses has attained:

In the book, Mr. Doak reviewed the design features of more than 800 courses, from little-known links to some of the world's most famous and exclusive courses. He gave each a ranking of zero to 10 on what he called the Doak Scale. A zero, Mr. Doak wrote, is "a course so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind." But a 10 is "nearly perfect.... If you haven't seen all the courses in this category, you don't know how good golf architecture can get."

Mr. Doak never imagined it back then, but the book has become a cult classic -- a haven of bluntness in a sport that is often so clubby that it rarely criticizes itself. Its fame stems in part from the fact that only about 13,000 copies were printed back in the '90s and the book has been out of print for years. Due to the scarcity, available copies of the most recent edition are going for as much as $350.

But while Mr. Doak's strong opinions resonate with golfers, they also have put him in somewhat of an awkward spot: Mr. Doak is now a high-profile part of the establishment he once unabashedly critiqued. And it's that reality that keeps him from reprinting or updating the sought-after book.

"I pulled no punches at all," Mr. Doak says in an interview. "I'm not sure I want to put myself in that position now."

Key Forest Course Vote

Gary Polakovic of the LA Times looks at the Coastal Commission's plans to review the proposed new course at Pebble Beach and the political maneuvering for tonight's vote.

"This is one of the biggest disputes, one of the most significant issues since I've been on the Coastal Commission for 10-plus years," said Sara Wan, whose panel is charged with protecting the coast. "It ranks up there with the biggest controversies."

The more than $100-million Pebble Beach plan is also a potential environmental albatross for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Senate Rules Committee and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), whose appointees each control four votes on the 12-member commission.

WSJ Story: "Maybe the problem isn't the ball, after all"

Thanks to reader John for this Conor Dougherty story in the Wall Street Journal, where the USGA continues to try desperately to shift the distance issue to a grooves debate:

Is the long debate over golf balls cooling off?

One day after the Masters Tournament last year, the U.S. Golf Association, golf's U.S. rule maker, sent a letter to ball manufacturers requesting prototypes of balls that wouldn't fly as far as those in use today. The announcement, which came amid claims by traditionalists including golfing legend Jack Nicklaus that longer drives on the PGA Tour were changing the game for the worse, sent waves through the industry.

The USGA emphasized it wanted only to get a better understanding of golf-ball technology, in case "the need to change the rules arises," but the move was viewed by some as a first step toward a dead-ball era.

Now the rhetoric from some of the most vocal traditionalists has softened, and the USGA says changing golf balls may not be the best solution to curbing longer drives. What happened?

Not sure which "vocal traditionalists" have gone quiet, judging by this site's listing of recent remarks from famous golfers calling on a rollback.

The USGA says its research has caused it to look beyond the golf ball. The issue may be not the changes in the golf ball, the association now says, but rather the way players have reacted to those changes.

Dick Rugge, the USGA's senior technical director, says pros have probably changed their style of play to accommodate newer golf balls that fly far but are also easy to control. In generations past, players had to make precise shots onto the fairway to win. Now they're increasingly trading accuracy for distance, hitting powerful drives that land in the rough more often and then hitting shorter irons to the green.

And...

These very visible changes, coupled with the new, sloppier style of play, angered traditionalists. Rather than lengthen golf courses each year, they argue, why not wind back the golf ball instead? "We've noticed that, in a lot of cases, [technology] makes our golf courses play quite a bit differently than they were intended when they were originally designed," says Alan Fadel, who is on the board of governors of the Ohio State Golf Association.

At its Champions Tournament in August, the association will issue a single kind of ball to all of the competitors, a high-spin model with a soft cover. This, in theory, should even the playing field for players with slower swing speeds. "It's more of a political statement than anything," Mr. Fadel says.

Dougherty recalls the 2002 Joint Statement of Principles, often forgotten these days in Far Hills:

In 2002, the USGA, which governs golf in the U.S. and Mexico, and Scotland's R&A, golf's ruling body for the rest of the world, said that if driving distances continued to increase they would consider changing the specifications for balls. Three years later, the USGA sent the letter asking manufacturers for prototype short balls.

Naturally, ball manufacturers oppose a rollback, and they argue that a change wouldn't be easy. Golf balls are built to an "overall distance standard" of 320 yards, which is defined as the maximum distance the ball will travel when hit by a titanium club, at 120 mph, under certain launch conditions. To change the standard, companies would have to fiddle with variables including the weight and size, as well as the cover and dimples, to change how the ball spins during flight.

"Then all iterations must be tested off the tee, as well as through the green, to confirm how the prototype is going to perform with all golfers and with all clubs in the bag under all conditions and types of shots to be faced," says Wally Uihlein, chief executive of Acushnet, based in Fairhaven, Mass.

Uh huh. Here's the part where somehow they think that changing groove specs will be less complicated and more important than a ball change:

The USGA has been busy researching hard data on the performance of golf balls. It crunched statistics on everything from the accuracy of drives on the PGA Tour to the correlation between accuracy and winning. The USGA made some discoveries that went against conventional wisdom -- and strengthened the case for keeping the balls as they were. The growth in driving distance, for instance, has tapered off in recent years. More important, distance alone doesn't help pros win. The longest hitters, the USGA found, do not win a disproportionate amount of tournaments, although they do win slightly more than in the past.

For now, the USGA is experimenting with new ways to penalize sloppy drives. For its U.S. Open Championships, the organization has traditionally had courses cut a narrow band of shorter rough along the fairway, and the rest of the rough -- called the primary rough -- cut to a uniform height of around three to five inches. But for this week's U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., the USGA varied the primary rough: It will start with a 20-foot-wide band about three inches high; beyond that out to the spectator ropes, it will be at least five inches high. This deeper rough will hurt the least-accurate drivers the most, while rewarding cleaner play.

"We noticed that a shot that barely trickles into the rough has a similar penalty as a ball that goes 15 yards into the rough, and that just didn't seem fair to us," says Marty Parkes, a USGA spokesman. "We were trying to match the penalties with the crime."

And, just in case you weren't sure that these people have lost their golfing soul...

Another way to force golfers to be more accurate, Mr. Rugge says, would be to modify irons to make shots from the rough harder to control. The key to this is a series of small grooves on the face of irons: When the ball is struck from deep, wet grass, the grooves allow water trapped between the club and the ball to disperse, increasing the friction between club and ball and allowing a more controlled shot. Changing the guidelines to require smaller grooves would make for less friction, and more erratic shots, thus giving golfers more incentive to keep the ball in the fairway.

One advantage of a change in iron specifications would be that it would affect only those players who can shoot from the rough with pinpoint precision -- the top percent of golfers. And while the USGA suffered a contentious lawsuit about an iron change in the 1980s, it might be able to sidestep the issue by grandfathering in older-model irons.

And does this also mean that the message is: harvest more rough?

IM'ing With The Commissioners

Now that the NSA has figured out that my calls to Pakistan were all Dell support related, they've been feeding me all sorts of goodies. The latest is this Sunday night instant message exchange between the PGA Tour's Tim Finchem and the LPGA's Carolyn Bivens after the thrilling LPGA Championship finish.

twfPGATOUR©: You there Carolyn?

DaBrandLady: yes tim, just back from the trophy ceremony!

DaBrandLady: does these girls rock or what!?

DaBrandLady: and didn’t I look good next to Ronald McDonald!?!?!?! :)

twfPGATOUR©: Yes, great product today. What a shot by Se Ri.

twfPGATOUR©: Say, did you see any of the telecast?

DaBrandLady:  just a bit when I was doing some brand positioning work in the McDonald’s chalet.

DaBrandLady:  but we’ll be doing a full contextual and brand consistency white paper on the telecast this week to ensure that the brand promise was obtained. why do you ask?

twfPGATOUR©: I was wondering if there was a strike of the graphics personnel or other elements of the production staff?

twfPGATOUR©: Don’t get me wrong, the product was strong, but it just seemed to lack things like a leaderboard more than every 15 minutes or so.

DaBrandLady: that’s just Golf Channel’s effort to not interfere with our product.

DaBrandLady:  the minimalist production values make each player on the screen the real focus of the viewer, adding value for our players and player sponsors.

twfPGATOUR©: I see.

DaBrandLady: well I think they accomplished what was called for within their business model in terms of graphics and production budget, but I’ll check with Deb, wait, no with…well I’m sure someone is left in the office to help out.

twfPGATOUR©: About that, I don’t know how you do it? I have 81 Vice Presidents and I can’t imagine what I’d do if I had mass resignations like you have had.

twfPGATOUR©: Not that there’s anything wrong with spending more time with your family and pursuing other opportunities.

DaBrandLady: no, nothing wrong at all.

DaBrandLady: look, given the LPGA's incredible mix of talent, diversity and personalities, now is the time to take this organization to new heights. While we change the business model in order to better monatize our success, fans can continue to expect the very best in women's professional golf. We're committed to collaborating with all of our key constituents to create a stronger LPGA.

twfPGATOUR©: Did you just copy and paste that from your press release?

DaBrandLady: oh tim, that’s why you are going to make $28.5 million over the next four years. nothing gets by you!

twfPGATOUR©: Well, thanks. Say, anything you can pass along about TGC’s production concepts would really help as we begin a 15-year journey with them.

twfPGATOUR©: Not that I’m concerned or anything, it’s just that well…I’m always looking out for my product.

DaBrandLady: as am i! that’s why you and me are so good at what we do!!!!!

twfPGATOUR©: Congrats again on the strong positioning today.

DaBrandLady: thanks you too…great job with vijay’s win today. he's a little out of the prime demo but a solid brand.

DaBrandLady: that reminds me, do you have a contact at the villages?

twfPGATOUR©: You're not planning to retire?

DaBrandLady: oh no, i'll be in this job for decades. i just wanted to talk to them about buying some time.

twfPGATOUR©: they’ve been good partners for us in this transition year.

DaBrandLady: i know, that’s why i want their number.

twfPGATOUR©: I’ll have someone look into that for you.

DaBrandLady: thanks! gotta run, tgc's replay of the trophy ceremony starts soon and there's a bar down the street that actually carries it!

twfPGATOUR©: Give my best to...

DaBrandLady: he says hi back! bye!

Pak's Win

Doug Ferguson sums up Se Ri Pak's thrilling LPGA win, one of the most exciting tournaments in a long time despite The Golf Channel's minimalist production values. As tired as CBS's productions are these days, they are professionals and bring a level of production quality to their telecasts that this epic major deserved (and lacked).

It's a real shame for the LPGA "brand" that more people didn't get to see this and David Steele in the Baltimore Sun agreed in this column before Sunday's finale. As he points out, the LPGA could have been the prime network sporting event today (well, besides that soccer stuff).  

Wexler On Winged Foot

New Yorker turned Angeleno Daniel Wexler remembers what he loves about Winged Foot in an L.A. Times "appreciation."

Sandomir on Streaming

Richard Sandomir writes about the trend of online streaming and the USGA's plan to carry action from the 6th at 10th holes at USOpen.com. He also writes:

This will be the sixth year that the United States Golf Association will post streaming video from the Open. It did one hole the first year, and has done two holes ever since. This year, the group decided that Winged Foot's par-4 sixth hole, "the Pulpit," one of the course architect A. W. Tillinghast's masterpieces, was must-see viewing, as was the par-3 10th hole.

Of course No. 10 is definitely the "Pulpit" while No. 6 is actually "El" (as named by Tilly himself).

Furyk On USGA Spin

Jim Furyk, talking to Sam Weinman in The Journal News about why the USGA takes so much criticism for their various course setup debacles:

"I think the issue really isn't their theories or their ideas," said 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk. "It's how they handled it afterward. It's a real hard line. It's 'That's the way we wanted it to be. That's the way it should be.' When even the guys with 20-handicaps are scratching their heads. ... Only later on did they do damage control, but at that point, it was a little late."

They break toward the city...

That's one of Butch Harmon's tips for Winged Foot in a Bill Pennington New York Times story. And this is an interesting observation about the tiered rough, and one some of us have been trying to explain is yet another reason that pitch out rough is absurd:

"Guys who hit into the long stuff will wedge it out and take their bogey," Butch Harmon said. "The actual danger is the second cut of rough, the stuff that's three inches deep and three yards from the fairway. Some guys will be tempted to go for the green from that stuff, and that's where the double bogeys will come from."

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 23

After soggy Westchester, the PGA Tour driving distance average dropped to 288.2 yards, down from 288.9 following last week's event at Muirfield Village.

There was 5 350-or-longer drive, with the season total now at 950.