Jerry Foltz To Be TGC's 2007 PGA Tour Analyst?

Will this master of saying nothing be named The Golf Channel's lead analyst on early round PGA Tour coverage, or will the cable network lure Bobby Clampett away for the starring role he so richly deserves? 

We have until Tuesday to speculate: 

***CONFERENCE CALL ADVISORY***

The Golf Channel to Announce New Analyst

The Golf Channel will introduce the newest addition to its broadcast
team and main analyst for its PGA TOUR coverage, which will commence in
2007 as part of its 15-year deal as the exclusive cable home of the PGA
TOUR.

Tuesday, July 11
12:15 p.m. Eastern Time

Looking For The Captain?

Since The Captain has gone out of print, I have noticed that it pops up on ebay or abebooks.com from time to time. So for those of you who have emailed in search a copy, there is a shrink-wrapped new Sleeping Bear Press edition currently on ebay.

Sirak On LPGA Resignations

Golf World's Ron Sirak delves a bit deeper into the mysterious resignations of three key LPGA officials and seems close to having an answer as to what happened. Thanks to reader LPGA Fan for the heads up.

The final straw prompting the resignations was the tour's alleged attempt to set a benchmark sanctioning fee of $500,000 for a new tournament that wants to be added to the schedule. According to sources both inside and outside the LPGA, Bivens authorized the negotiation and then denied knowledge of it when the sponsor objected to the price tag. Asked about these allegations, the LPGA said through a spokesperson: "The LPGA is not shopping the LPGA Championship, and it is not seeking a $500,000 sanction fee for any event."

That denial will ring hollow if the LPGA Championship ends up in Virginia or South Carolina, for example. And the players will pay a steep price if McDonald's -- a generous and supportive LPGA tournament sponsor for 26 years, the last 13 of the LPGA Championship, the tour's flagship event -- takes its Big Macs and goes home. What happened that day at Bulle Rock may be in the past. But it is not over.

Dolch On FedEx Cup

Craig Dolch writing in the Palm Beach Post:

The FedEx Cup is clearly still a work in process. Finchem admitted that many of the final details have not been worked out. It's not even a certainty the $35 million will be hard cash or deferred money. It's likely the system will continue to be tweaked the next few years.

Some already have questioned why the top 144 players in points will advance to the playoffs. After all, traditionally golf has rewarded just the top 125 players on the money list with their playing privileges for the next year. But 144? That's almost like all 30 NBA teams qualifying for the post-season — plus several top college hoops teams.

And what if Woods or Vijay Singh matched their recent nine-win seasons? They could dominate the PGA Tour all season — and watch someone else take home the biggest paycheck.

Some players are willing to overlook some of the details and take a wait-and-see approach.

"I think it's something we clearly needed to do," said Joe Ogilvie, a member of the Tour's Advisory Board. "We have some holes in our schedule, weeks that traditionally don't get a strong field. Hopefully with a yearlong point structure I think some of those holes will be filled."

But will they? Whether the FedEx Cup becomes a success depends upon the same thing: Will the top players decide to play in more tournaments? Woods never has played in more than 21 PGA Tour events in a year, and he says he doesn't expect that number to change.

I also wondered about this take from the Tour's Henry Hughes:

"I think the most challenging thing was finding a reluctance to change," said Henry Hughes, the Tour's Chief of Operations. "You could easily argue that our Tour has prospered, our television ratings have significantly increased over the years. But all sports are taking a little bit of a leveling out now, so we thought it was important that we take a look at our product."

Significant increased over the years?

You know, back in the days when a NASCAR rainout would not outdraw live final round coverage.

Knowing Club Selection In Advance

Heres what Phil Mickelson had to say about his club selection on 18 at Winged Foot while meeting with da medja in Chicago:

Fortunately what I have found has helped me play well or have that type of performances these past years in the majors is that I've done the prep work beforehand and I know what club selection I'm going to hit off each tee, given weather conditions, whether it's raining, whether it's hot or not. I already know and have known for weeks in advance what clubs I'm got to hit off each tee, so it's helped me approach the tee box with confidence knowing what club I'm going to hit.

It helped me when I hit the driver on 18 at Baltusrol on the last hole and ended up making a birdie. It helped me at The Masters knowing what club and what driver I was going to hit off each tee, and it helped me at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately I didn't execute the way I wanted to.

But it has erased a lot of the doubt as to the decision-making, what club am I going to hit, what club should I hit. I already know weeks in advance, and it helps me hit those shots and visualize those shots in practice before I ever show up the week of The Open.

Now, we have debated Phil's two-driver concept at Augusta here and here and here.

But I'm wondering if his ability to select clubs in advance says something about the state of the game.

This is not a technology question, but I believe one about the state of course setup and course design.

Is there something wrong with setups and designs when a player of his magnitude (and others like him) know what they will be hitting on holes well in advance of tournament time?

Or to put it another way, is the golf more interesting and testing if the design and setup create decision-making situations that can not be made in advance?

Wind and the player's philosophy play a role in this, but isn't there something seriously wrong when some spontaneity is missing from the major championship equation?

I was both elated and troubled by Mike Davis's decision to announce the alternating of tees during the U.S. Open. Elated that he was doing it, troubled that he was giving everyone advance notice.

Don't we learn who is most skilled by finding out who can handle a club selection and playing strategy question under pressure?

Enough rambling...your thoughts? 

B.C. Open To Turning Stone?

Thanks to reader David on this story that seems to indicate some possibility of a B.C. Open move to Turning Stone resort.

Tiger: "I watched both days. That was my punishment."

Tiger talking at the tournament soon to not be called the Western:

Q. Did you watch the end of the U.S. Open?

TIGER WOODS: You know, I watched both days. That was my punishment.

Q. Thoughts on Montgomerie and Mickelson?

TIGER WOODS: I thought in my opinion that it was Monty's tournament. In the fairway on 18 with -- not only in the fairway, he was on the right side, on the flat spot with a perfect angle with his fade. It doesn't get any better than that. With Phil on the tee, anything can still happen. He could still make bogey on the last hole and lose the tournament. I thought it was Monty's tournament, put the ball on the green and it's over. Obviously that didn't happen, and then Phil had his mistakes. It was a very interesting finish, one that none of us who are involved in the game of golf probably ever would have predicted we would have seen happening.

Monty's tournament? 

"his putting can resemble a form of electric shock treatment"

Thanks to reader Chris for noticing this unusually fun writing from Mark Reason in the Daily Telegraph. Reason was covering the bizarre events at the French Open and filed this story on July 2.

Michael Campbell was leading the French Open by three strokes standing on the 17th tee. Half an hour later he had hit three drives, lost one ball, had another kicked by a lady in a pink hat, had a third mistakenly picked up by his partner's caddie, received more rulings than handed down by an entire session of the House of Lords, and finished the hole by putting out twice. It was beyond strange.

The sequence started when Campbell slashed his opening drive wildly to the right. Initially he thought he had found it in bounds, but it turned out to be neither his ball nor in bounds. So back to the tee he went and carved the ball away for a second time. Thinking that this, too, was out of bounds, he then pulled a provisional drive into the rough on the left.

In fact Campbell's second ball had careened into the tents and hit a lady on the knee. Her first touch was not the best, so she chased after the ball, flicked it with her right foot, brought it under control with her left and then ran upfield with her blouse mercifully not pulled over her head. By the time the ball had finished rolling it was back in bounds.

And this made me cringe...the dreaded "didn't fit their eye" which, I understand usually does some have truth to it, but still...

Many of the top players claim that Golf National, one of the top courses on the circuit, doesn't "fit their eye". It must certainly come as a shock to be playing a course that doesn't allow them to wallop their driver 100 yards west into Frau Schmidt's cucumber frame and then claim a free drop under that week's local rule. But the colossal prize money - 666,660 euros to the winner - has attracted one of the best fields of the season and even the last-place prize money would be more than Barry Jaeckel would have earned for winning the French Open in 1972.

"Barry who?" you may well ask, but the 50-something-year-old Jaeckel turned out to be a cove. He once walked off the course in the middle of a tournament for no apparent reason. He says: "I just short circuited, I felt very crowded." The son of Richard Jaeckel, an accidental character actor who made countless films from the Sands of Iwo Jima with John Wayne to The Dirty Dozen, Barry opted for a life in golf because there were too many "strange" people in films. Jaeckel's final drive of the French Open was a vicious duck hook that was heading for a wasteland of gorse and water. He stormed off the tee quite oblivious to the fact that one of his playing partners was anxious to hit a provisional. His partner waved the ball at Jaeckel's back, then smiled, shrugged and started walking himself. Strange.

And saving the best for last...

Bobby Clampett was another welcome diversion from the tour's usual diet of white-trousered Swede. Some may remember that Clampett, something of a "phenom" in his youth, once led the Open by seven shots after five holes of the third round. He then exploded, perhaps afraid of his own theory that "with great players there is almost something wrong with them."

But here Clampett was in France, his youthful curls going much the same way as Art Garfunkel's, his ball striking still a joy to watch. Unfortunately his putting can resemble a form of electric shock treatment. Clampett is sponsored by Yes Golf - "no other putter in the world is as accurate".

The problem is that the static from Clampett's hair combined with his self-confessed excitement at this amazing product rendered his putter as useful as a lightning rod.

Campbell on FedEx Cup Announcement

That's Steve of the Houston Chronicle writing about last week's announcement, making this excellent point:

The tour announced its plan in considerable detail last week. If details escaped your notice, it's because the tour showed an astounding tone-deafness to the world around it.

Finchem laid out the points system and how the playoffs will work last Wednesday — the day before the scheduled start of the U.S. Women's Open.

Was it a display of hubris, a clumsy attempt to steal the thunder of the marquee event in women's golf? Was it obliviousness? Or was it a calculated decision to lay out a plan in a setting where it wouldn't get the sort of scrutiny Phil Mickelson gets when he picks his driver with a one-stroke lead at the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open?

Whatever the motives, what could have been a huge splash barely caused a ripple.

Make no mistake: A clumsily timed unveiling doesn't doom the FedEx Cup to folly status. At the same time, it doesn't give the impression the tour quite knows what it's doing.

And this is fun.

"The conversation," Finchem said, "goes something like, 'Let me understand this. If I win six times between Mercedes and Greensboro, and I've got $10 million in prize money, and I've an 8,000 lead in points, you're telling me I'm now going to start over again, basically, with just a little edge on everybody else?'

"And the answer I give is yes. And then in a couple of cases, I've had a follow-up question, 'Do you think that's fair?' And my response is, 'If the New York Yankees win 115 games and win the American League East, they start over.'

"And every player with whom I've had that conversation's response to that is, 'I get it, I get it, it's great; let's tee it up.' "

That's right, Tiger and Phil and all of the other guys who play less than 20 times are going, "Yeah! I get, I get. This means I don't have to play more events in 2007! Whew! Had me worried there for a while Timbo!" 

Monday Playoffs

Like the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, Monday's 18-hole U.S. Women's Open playoff ushered in the predictable complaints about the USGA's playoff system. Rick Arnett at SI.com and AP's Doug Ferguson did the howling this time around.

Ferguson focuses on the USGA's move from 36-holes to 18 as a precedent for moving to the 4 or 3-hole systems used by the R&A and PGA: "There's no reason for the USGA not to change, especially since it has gone from an 18-hole playoff to a 36-hole playoff to an 18-hole playoff during its 111 years of championship golf."

I have to side with the USGA on this one, despite the sucess of the playoffs in other majors. Your thoughts? 

High Praise For Prairie Dunes

Harold Bechard in the Hutchinson News says the players love Prairie Dunes talking to Bob Charles, Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw.

"It's just a work of art, nothing short of a work of art," said Crenshaw, the tour's resident historian. "It's so unique. There's nothing like it in this country, really. With this course, any person from the British Isles would come and say, 'Oh My God, I'm home' with all these undulations and sandhills."

I'm not so sure about this though...

Crenshaw, like Tom Watson, loves the setup of the course with its narrow fairways, high rough and slick, unforgiving greens. Now the only thing missing is the wind, which kicked up to about 20 miles per hour at midday but was about half that strong in the early evening when the players and fans were called off the course because of the threat of severe weather.

The Shark On Ogilvy

Advice for his fellow Aussie...stay away from Mark Hensby. No, that's not it.

Latest On B.C.

Thanks to readers John and David for this Kevin Stevens story on the B.C. Open's plight, which will be determined by the PGA Tour's Slugger Wayne White, in consultation with the Tour Policy Board.

"Nothing has been finalized or will be finalized until Henry and (other tour staff members) have an opportunity to talk to the PGA Tour Policy Board," White said.

Discussions with the Policy Board are to take place today in the form of a conference call. The board includes player directors Joe Durant, Davis Love III, Scott McCarron and Joe Ogilvie, a quartet that has played in a collective 13 B.C. Opens -- none more recently than 2002, when Ogilvie was first-round co-leader.

Nice little zinger Kevin! 

Ferguson On British Open Qualifiers

AP's Doug Ferguson compares the British and U.S. Open qualifiers and clearly isn't too impressed that only 12 spots go to qualifyings in England.

When the dust settles, only about 56 spots are awarded to those who compete in 36-hole qualifiers - 44 of those going to "International Final Qualifying" held in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States.

"We feel we have a good balance, in particular a good international balance," R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said. "Our exemption criteria covers overseas tours that the U.S. Open doesn't. We believe we're reaching out to the players."

The U.S. Open now has overseas qualifying in Japan (three spots available) and Europe (eight spots). Michael Campbell came out of the European qualifier before winning last year at Pinehurst No. 2, and he might not have come to America to try for a spot in the field.

USGA executive director David Fay considered adding more spots overseas, but didn't want the U.S. Open to become a closed shop.

"You run up against numbers," Fay said last week at Newport Country Club. "They (British Open) get 2,100 or 2,200 entries. We're pushing 9,000 entries. We want to retain the openness of the Open. We have more than half the field come through qualifying."

Almost half, anyway. The U.S. Open field included 76 players who had to qualify, including 26 who went through 18-hole local qualifying and 36-hole sectional qualifying. That amounts to 49 per cent of its field.

The British Open will end up with only 56 players from 36-hole qualifiers, or 36 per cent of the field.

"We think we run the most democratic golf tournament in the world," Fay said. "If you have the ability, you can give it a shot."

Emailing Walter

It must be comforting to know that even though spectators, vendors and media can't use a PDA while on the course at a USGA event, the President can check his email during the round.

From an AP story:

USGA president Walter Driver, who arrived in Newport on Friday night, was in a cart following Michelle Wie's group on the 14th hole when he received an e-mail that made him smile.

There was concern that if too many players made the cut - the top 60 and ties, and everyone within 10 strokes of Annika Sorenstam's 2-under 140 - it would be impossible to play 36 holes on Sunday.

Driver said any more than 81 players making the cut would be more than they could handle. But the message from USGA executive director David Fay said the number was looking to be "manageable."

Five hours later, Fay proved to be right - 68 players made the cut at 8-over, and they will tee off at 6:30 a.m.