The only course that will remain difficult under all conditions will be one that is designed and kept for golf of a stereotyped, monotonous character, and this makes a most uninteresting proposition. BOBBY JONES
Available via Amazon (US): Golf Architecture For Normal People
Barnes And Noble (online and in stores)
Bookshop.org option to support local independent bookstores.
Reviews:
"Golf Architecture for Normal People . . . should be required reading for those who are not ashamed to admit they know little about the subject, and for those who think they do . . . . Golf course architecture geeks have trouble slimming their thoughts down to bite-sized chunks, but Shackelford has achieved a remarkable success here." —Independent (Ireland)
"From the relative newcomer who’s slowly getting hooked to those that have played the game for most of their lives and think they know a thing or two, Golf Architecture for Normal People provides a solid and sober perspective that will help everyone recognize why some golf courses are worth playing more than once while a single trip around others is all you’re ever likely to want or need." —Links Magazine.
“It’s a wonderful book. An easy read that arrives just in time for your summer reading list. If you’ve never thought about how an appreciation for course design could heighten your enjoyment of the game, you must check this out.”—The Peterborough Examiner
"As in his prior publications, in his newest book Shackelford shows a deep appreciation for what can be done to create a golf course that appeals to the broadest possible golfing audience…Shackelford’s prose is succinct, often witty, and accessible."—Cape Gazette
"Author, blogger and golf architecture expert Geoff Shackelford, who helped Gil Hanse design Rustic Canyon and restore 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, taps into his passion by creating a guide that helps every golfer understand the nuances of course design. Published by Tatra Press, the 164-page hardcover book is a must-read for every golfer to better understand the game they love." —Golf Pass
"Shackelford provides an informative picture [and]...sprinkles in history lessons about those who planted the game's architectural roots, defines common terms and helps you hone your eyes when it comes to identifying some of the tricks of the trade."—FORE Magazine
"This new book does a great job demystifying golf course design ideas for average players, but can also be a beneficial read fro PGA Professionals and other golf course employees to get a better understanding of their home courses." —PGA Magazine
Thank to Noonan for this John Koblin story declaring Winged Foot superior to Shinnecock because it hosted a glitch free Open. He also compares "The Foot" to Yankee Stadium. Isn't that going to be replaced soon?
Some of the quotes from the Winged Foot member are pretty funny.
Thanks to Steven T. for this John Davis story on how Ogilvy overcame a temper on the course.
Thanks to reader Pat for this very funny DJ Gallo spoof. Sample:
Posted 7:01 PM ET
Frick! Why did that tree branch jump out and hit my ball? OK, OK -- no problem. Breathe, Phil, breathe. Go to a happy place. You are in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. You are swimming naked through a river of chocolate -- milk chocolate, made from fresh, clean milk suckled by the Wonkas from your very own … cartons.
OK. I'm back. Now the pressure is really on. I have to hit this shot directly over this enormous tree in front of me and land it on the green and one-putt for the win. No problem. With the Wonkas cheering me on in my head, I can't fail.
Peter Kostis is mad as hell and can't take the bastardization of courses via extreme setups anymore. Seriously! Here's a great rant from Kostis on Winged Foot's ridiculous lack of width.
Let these classic golf courses stand, as designed, and let these players play. Sure, grow some rough—just not the same amount for every hole. Sure, narrow the fairways—just not all of them the same way regardless of the hole's design.
John Hawkins has an interesting take on the decisions made by Mickelson, and on the options Phil faced.
Golf World also runs a great photo this week detailing the various places his ball traveled (or tried to travel).
He says it's time for the big guy to shed a few pounds...
Some estimate the 6-foot-2 Mickelson weighs in excess of 230 pounds, and the recent mug shot of Mickelson used all week by NBC Sports looked like a different person. He should use as much discipline in front of his refrigerator as he has on the course.
Thanks to reader Kevin for this story on the press conference to plug the 84 Lumber Classic (note Michelle Wie wearing one of those 84 red jackets). John Daly was asked about the U.S. Open:
Daly was asked if he, like Mickelson, would have used a driver on that fatal 18th hole.And...
"I probably would have hit an iron, believe it or not," said Daly, he of the prodigious driver. "A 2-iron and then an 8-iron would have been enough. I really didn't watch it."
Daly and Gore agree the game doesn't need more tournaments played on Winged Foot or similar courses that produce only scores in black numbers. Ogilvy's winning score in the U.S. Open was 5-over par.
"I'm not a big fan of plus-5 winning a championship," Daly said. "It's not good for kids to watch guys hacking out of the rough because they start to think these guys aren't that good. I like it when 3-4-5 under wins it."
Doug Ferguson writes about the success of the USGA's new white drop area circles that were all over Winged Foot. And he also slips in a few gems at the end of his AP column.
NBC Sports paid the rights fee to broadcast the U.S. Open, which presumably gave chairman Dick Ebersol the right to walk down the middle of the fairway behind the final group in the third round...
And...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Geoff Ogilvy was never under par at any point in the U.S. Open.
John Huggan says Geoff Ogilvy's win was an important victory for golf because the Australian has "the potential to be just the sort of wise, high-profile spokesman the professional game needs if it is to rescue itself from the technological black hole into which it is currently headed."
So many great quotes to pull here, so just read it. Some you've read before in other Huggan stories, but to see them all together really makes a powerful statement about Ogilvy's fresh take on things.
And after you read it, contrast it with this nonsense.
In John Garrity's "Rough Justice" story (SI subscription required) that recaps the setup, he talks to "Open Doctor" Rees Jones, who apparently never found time to explain to Garrity that he is not the doctor of Winged Foot!
"The pros miss their shots right or left, not short or long," golf architect Rees Jones told me during the third round, "and this is one of the hardest courses in the world to recover from the sides." Jones, who stretched the A.W. Tillinghast-designed West course by 300 yards in preparation for this year's Open, laughed when I asked if he wanted credit for some of the hard-to-reach hole locations. "This may be one of the few courses where hole locations don't matter," he responded. "You could put the hole in the middle of the green, and the players still couldn't get close."That must be news to Tom Fazio! Or wait, Tom Marzolf, the real visionary behind the doctoring.
The golfers must have understood that, because there wasn't a lot of grousing at Winged Foot. "There's been some conversation about greens being a bit bumpy," USGA president Walter Driver acknowledged during a Wednesday-morning press conference.
A bit!
"These are poa annua greens, and given the weather and the softness, that's not to be unexpected." Television closeups showed fast-moving putts bouncing and slow-moving putts zigging when you expected them to zag. Woods called the greens "slow and bumpy." Darren Clarke, when asked if they were the worst major-championship greens he had ever encountered, said, "Yes, comfortably."
And...
That was music to the ears of Davis, Jones and Greytok. The USGA man, the course doctor and the greenkeeper spent most of Sunday watching their greens bake in 90° heat, but the poa putting surfaces -- though brown and crusty in spots -- held up. It was the golfers who wilted.
"Winged Foot was Winged Foot," Davis summed up, accepting handshakes and backslaps in the clubhouse. "I can think of a few minor things we might have done differently, but the course was wonderful. For me it was fun to sit back and watch it happen."
The headline on this Media Life Magazine story: "Without Tiger, U.S.Open ratings tank."
Toni Fitzgerald writes:
Woods exited the tournament on Friday after shooting 12 over par for two days and missing the cut by three strokes. Thus Saturday’s Tiger-less third-round coverage of the U.S. Open on NBC averaged a 3.2 household rating, according to Nielsen overnights.
That was the lowest Saturday average since Nielsen began measuring the tournament in 1982. It was down 27 percent from the previous year, when Saturday averaged a 4.4.
Sunday’s final round averaged a 5.1, down 12 percent from a 5.8 the previous year, when Woods finished second. It was the lowest-rated final round in three years and second-lowest-rated since 1994.
NBC’s two-day average of 4.2, if it holds when final ratings are released later today, would be the worst two-day average since 1988 and tie for second-worst ever.
Golf World put Phil on the cover with a tiny photo of Geoff Ogilvy. Here are some of the highlights from John Hawkins's game story:
The shot you never saw (because NBC's camera malfunctioned) was a shot you may never want to see, but first, back to the 18th tee. While Mickelson was cleaning up his par on the 17th green, his longtime caddie, Jim Mackay, asked a network cameraman for an update on the status of Montgomerie, who had just completed his round two groups ahead. The NBC guy made sure he had understood Mackay's question correctly, then told him Monty had double-bogeyed the 18th to finish at six over. He was two back.
As Mickelson pondered his final tee shot of the week, Montgomerie's score was posted on a leader board to his left. The crowd went nuts, which might have been all the confirmation Lefty needed, but had he forgotten about Ogilvy, still holding steady at five over? And if Mickelson indeed thought his lead was two strokes, why on earth would he hit a club that had betrayed him the entire afternoon--a club with which he had missed to both sides throughout the back nine?
And, there was our beloved Monty...
It led to the fatal 6 and what could have become the dumbest move of Montgomerie's bluster-filled career. Upon reaching the scoring area, located off a breezeway of the Winged Foot clubhouse, Monty, according to several eyewitnesses, shoved a New York State Police officer as he stomped through the door. Captain Michael Kopy, a zone commander for the NYSP, confirmed the contact, saying, "There was a collision that occurred as the [unidentified] trooper was escorting the Mickelson family out [to the 18th green]. At this point, there was nothing more than a collision in a congested area associated with the event."
In other words, no charges will be filed. A USGA official who saw the incident said the officer involved expressed vocal objection to the contact, saying, "I don't care who he is, he can't touch an officer of the law." According to the USGA official, the state policeman "inflamed the situation" and added, "Monty showed great restraint. I'm not sure he would have in his younger days." (Montgomerie left Winged Foot before he could be asked for comment, and subsequent attempts to reach him and his agent, Guy Kinnings, were unsuccessful.)
And regarding the strategy on 18...
Mackay talked Mickelson into killing an 8-iron with his mulligan from the Champions Pavilion--Phil had wanted to hit a 9-iron there. It splashed down in a fried-egg lie near the back of the front-left bunker. Behind the 18th green, Phil's wife, Amy, and his parents, Phil Sr. and Mary, weren't sure exactly what was going on, but they knew the news probably wasn't good. Desperate for information amid the massive, largely clueless gallery, Amy turned to a guy standing nearby who was receiving text-message updates from his home.
Her husband had to get up and down from the sand. His fourth rolled through the far side of the green. His chip ran past the hole. Game over. Amy teared up, hands on her cheeks, then called her nanny, asking her to take the Mickelsons' three young children home after they had arrived ready to celebrate. "I didn't want them to be here if it was someone else's moment," Amy said. "I figured it was better if they [left]."
"He said, 'Congratulations,' " Ogilvy said yesterday in an interview in Manhattan. "He was pretty shaken up about it. He was almost as sad for the fans as he was for him. He's going to remember that one for a while."
If Mickelson never adds a United States Open trophy to his case, the double bogey on the final hole that hastened his demise and elevated Ogilvy to a one-stroke victory will linger in golf's annals. But to view the championship in Mickelsonian terms obscures the back-to-back pars that Ogilvy dug out of Winged Foot's turf, from the greenside rough on No. 17 and with a delicate 6-foot putt on No. 18.
"I knew if I missed it, I had no chance," Ogilvy said of his putt on 18. "I knew if I made it, it would make him have to par the last hole, which is not the easiest thing to do in the U.S. Open. You never know what's going to happen, especially on the last hole."
Clearly, Bill Sheft is missed at Letterman, as Geoff Ogilvy did the "Top Ten Things That Went Through Geoff Ogilvy's Mind After Winning The U.S. Open."
Here's the link to the video that will only be found today (click on Comedy Clips), while the text of the list is posted here and copied below. (The Outback line is much funnier hearing Geoff read it, and unlike most athletes who appear, he recites the Top Ten flawlessly!).
10. "This is one of those things you never forget like seeing John Daly in the locker room naked"
9. "I wish I hand't put all my money on Phil Mickelson"
8. "Even I've never heard of me"
7. "Now I can take a vacation from the grind of playing golf all day"
6. "Crap - - I'm gonna have to go on Letterman"
5. "After all these years, I can finally use my 'World's Greatest Golfer' mug"
4. "I can quit my day job at Outback Steakhouse"
3. "What would Reteif Goosen do?"
2. "I hope this victory isn't overshadowed by America's world cup excitment"
1. "Thank you, Balco!"
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
