"An impossibly shabby old dame"

Barker Davis of the Washington Times on his accommodations this week:

The Rover is booked into a massive hotel in center city Liverpool (a stunningly dirty port town that should be renamed Cesspool) called the Adelphi. The once-grand Adelphi is one of the largest and oldest hotels in the city. And it's quite clear the owners haven't spent a shilling on upkeep since Bill Shakespeare stayed there.

It's simply an impossibly shabby old dame. The Rover's room is large enough for a basketball court, complete with 12-foot ceilings, intricate molding and gaudy candelabra lighting. But every stick of furniture in the room, all of it gloriously unmatched, is marred by a combination of cigarette burns and stains of dubious origin. The "king-sized bed" is two sagging twins shoved together. Better yet, both are fitted with single sheets, completely dispelling the illusion.

Not only are grime, cobwebs and dust omnipresent, the Rover arrived to find the following objects under a high side table: two cigarette butts, an empty pint glass and two soiled cocktail napkins. And after two visits from the maid, they're still there. Suffice it to say, it's the kind of room where one never removes his shoes, much less his socks.

Dawson: R&A Supports Drug Testing

A largely dull set of exchanges between the inkslingers and R&A head man today at Hoylake. Check out this rivetting opening exchange:

Q. You mentioned the fire engines. Were they going to be on the premises anyway, or have they been brought on because of the situation?

DAVID HILL: The fire station here is about two minutes from the course, and if we had normal weather conditions they would have stayed there because the chief fire officer was quite happy about that. But given the weather, it's prudent for them to come to the golf course, just in case anything should happen.

Q. Number of engines?

DAVID HILL: Two fire engines, which is more than adequate should anything occur. The chief fire officer is very happy with the current situation.

Q. I presume you heard what happened at Hillside yesterday?

DAVID HILL: Yes, we are absolutely aware of that and we've taken the advice of the chief fire officer.

Q. Have the players actually been warned about smoking?

DAVID HILL: Again, we've simply issued the same instructions as we have to the spectators to take due diligence as far as smoking.

PETER DAWSON: Just to be clear, this is not a smoking ban, just asking people to be especially careful.

Q. But they've been given it on a piece of paper, this due diligence, or just made aware of it?

PETER DAWSON: There are notices going on all the scoreboards. We're in the process of actually implementing it at the moment; that's why we're slightly deterring as to whether the players have gotten the paper, but they will be informed.

Jeese, if we couldn't only get them to ask that many questions about the distance issue. Dawson was asked if they had any interest in the winning score:

The score, it would depend on how windy conditions are. We don't particularly mind about the score, as long as we find the best champion. If the conditions stay as they are, I'm sure we're going to see a lot of birdies. And many of the most exciting and memorable Opens we've had have been low-scoring ones. And we don't have a particular problem with that.

Just like the USGA!

Q. One of the newspapers this week said that The R&A are coming under increased pressure to introduce drug testing. Do you particularly feel under pressure?

PETER DAWSON: I don't particularly feel under pressure, let me be clear. I did read some of the reports about this. Our position is that we don't think at the moment that there is much use of performance enhancing drugs in golf. There have been quite a number of drug tests, mainly in France, and the majority of the positive tests were for social drugs, which under The R&A code are just as important as performance enhancing ones.

But that said, we do support the introduction of drug testing in golf, just as we would do in any other sport; we would be anxious to keep the sport free of it. The issue is how do you do that effectively.

And these elite players are playing golf all around the world 52 weeks a year, so it's extremely important that the game, the administration of the game as a whole, professional and elite amateur, introduces drug policies, if not totally together, then close together. The thought that one event in one weekend in 52 can effectively do this I think is not practical, not least because The R&A Code calls for every competition tested at times of the year when players may not be tested. The R&A, while not feeling particularly under pressure in drug testing at the moment, you need anti-doping policies and drug testing to ensure that's the case.

Q. Wouldn't you be the pioneers and everybody would have to follow?

PETER DAWSON: We are pioneering it this year at the World Amateur Team Championships in South Africa. There is going to be drug testing there. The country and the players are aware of it. And we are, if you like, cutting our teeth on making sure that we can administer that properly, as our first step.

Q. Do you call that a dress rehearsal, then?

PETER DAWSON: It's a rehearsal. I don't know when you're going to see drug testing in professional golf around the world, but we would support it.

What better time than now to kill the rally?

Q. You mentioned some quite unprecedented level of interest in the practice rounds here this week. Does that encourage you to be more experimental or adventurous in your choice of Open venues, so The Open appeals to a non-Open Championship audience?

Back to the newsmaking...

Q. What is it that's so difficult about implementing an anti-doping policy, which all sports seem to be able to do so?

PETER DAWSON: There's nothing particularly difficult about it; it is administratively complex. Every sport you read about has disputes about drug tests, don't they? So there are a lot of administrative problems and also costs. But that aside, the difficulty in golf is that not all governing -- not all bodies, rather, in the game, seem to be quite ready to think it's a good idea.

Q. Taking that further, though, Peter, as the law making body for half the world, couldn't you get together these people and get talking about it, or are you already doing that?

PETER DAWSON: Well, we're certainly doing that in our area of what you might call jurisdiction, which is with all the national golf unions around the world who send teams down to the World Amateur Team Championships. There's 60 or 70 countries participating there, and all of those have agreed that there will be an anti-doping policy and drug testing in application there. We are not the governing body, if you like, for discipline on the professional Tours, in Europe, Asia, Australasia, South Africa, America, Canada or South America. That is not an area we could dictate or influence, because it will be influenced by discussion and participation.

Q. Are you planning on doing that?

PETER DAWSON: The conversations about this subject have been going on for quite some time.

Here's a brilliant question. And we can be sure it wasn't an American.

Q. Do you think if the hot weather continues like this that there's a danger the tournament may become a lottery?

MARTIN KIPPAX: Well, I'm not sure quite what you mean by that. I mean, the ball is going to bounce on the golf course, if that's what you're saying. But it's going to be the same for everybody. And they are true links conditions, as you all know. The situation is we've had a very hot period. The course is in good condition, and the fairways are, as we said they would be, perfectly fair. And the rough is the rough. We've had a very strong rough, which is now fading back, if you will, with the heat.

But the reality is that I'm quite sure there would be lottery; as such, it will be the person with the most skill that prevails.

PETER DAWSON: When the ball bounces this much, it's more skillful in some ways, not less skillful. When the greens are like they are, which is they will take a good shot from the fairway, then it's more skillful, not less skillful. This idea that it's a lottery is just the reverse of the truth.

Schneider On TGC's Next Moves

Stu Schneider offers some sound advice to The Golf Channel on who they should hire next.

Hawkins On The Commissioners

John Hawkins in the latest Golf World:

In 2006 we've learned Carolyn Bivens and Tim Finchem share at least one common trait: a zeal for prioritizing revenue generation over the game's competitive welfare, then trying to disguise their corporate mentality by peddling it as progress.

And...

The FedEx Cup format has been panned both inside and outside the ropes, becoming the first playoff series to include more participants than are eligible for the regular season.

Coming off the controversial decision to forsake ABC/ESPN and sign for 15 years with an endemic network such as The Golf Channel, Finchem appears to have bartered his legacy to strengthen the tour's fiscal standing. He calls title-sponsor suits to the podium at news conferences, a practice that further reveals his transparent motives. He uses his own time at the microphone to embark on tangents about the tour's economic prowess, then fends off pertinent questions with his patented semantic splendor.

Open Championship Wednesday Reads

If you aren't quite sure about Hoylake yet, take Golf Digest's interactive map tour which also appeared in Golf World, where Brett Avery provided the text.

Mark Soltau reports that Tiger may leave his driver out of the bag. His 2-iron has replaced his 5-wood. Oh come on Tiger. Don't you want to blow one 100 yards by Nick?

Speaking of our two lovebirds, Lawrence Donegan covers the Faldo-Woods tension fueled by Tiger's press conference. 

Asked about his relationship, Woods was brief. "We don't talk." Asked if they would be conversing much during their scheduled 36 holes together, he was more expansive but not by much. "I have only played with him two times since I turned pro and there wasn't a lot of talking then either." Asked what would be his response if Faldo tried to start up a conversation, he shrugged. "Surprised."

Mike Aitken included this fun little comment from Geoff Ogilvy in a story on the current U.S. Open champion:

"My weakest attribute is my driving. I don't hit it very straight. But the more you play US Opens, you realise nobody hits fairways because they're so narrow."

When the ASAP transcripts are eventually posted (gotta love the one day delays!), we'll see what else Tiger and Ogilvy had to say Tuesday.
 

Patrick Kidd writes about the heat and concerns about brush fires. Naturally we would have banned smoking on the course long ago here in the States.

Martin Johnson has great fun at Seve's expense.

Yesterday, armed only with an iron, the white-hatted Spanish golfing bird hooked one into the orchard, and a marshal who had dispensed with his hard hat on account of the heat hastily put it back on again.

When Seve's around, the twitter of birdsong occasionally becomes intermingled with the chirrup of someone saying: "Anyone seen a Calloway One?", and when he gave it up after a cursory search, it was pocketed by a teenage boy who found it under a hedge. Off he went, doubtless to tell his mates not to bother shelling out 30-odd quid for a box of 12 in the pro's shop. Just follow Seve around for an hour or two.

Ballesteros is playing in his first Open since 2001, and really only to give his caddie a feel for links golf. His caddie being his 15-year-old son Baldomero, who plays off a handicap of one, and who, Seve says, is "better than me that age". However, learning the art of links golf from the old man nowadays won't teach him too much other than how to calculate a yardage from the exhibition tent.

And the driver?

The master escapologist didn't even bother with that aspect of his game yesterday. He hooked two drives off the fifth, one into the rough, one into a gorse bush, and after telling his boy to go and pick them up, dropped another one on the fairway.

Even so, it is not terribly uplifting to watch the great man trying to get around a golf course these days. At 49, the loss of club-head speed left him miles behind his partners, and his relationship with the sweet spot has gone from a love affair to a mild flirtation.

Finally, thanks to reader Thane for the heads up on Ron Kroichick's Open blog.

Norman v. Uihlein

Greg Norman argues for bifurcation, Wally Uihlein fights for his bottom line in Guardian point-counterpoint arguments that have appeared elsewhere. Norman:

The distance that pros hit the ball now is affecting the long-term vitality of the game. Not only are classic courses being made obsolete, strategy and skill are being taken out of golf. And lengthening and toughening courses is adding to the expense and time required for the public to play the game.

Uihlein:

Yet the professional game continues to grow and prosper because of the abilities of the players, and because the rules in place more than adequately control technological influence.

Royal So What?

I devote my latest Golfobserver.com column to the debate over the cops and in-course O.B. at Hoylake, and the lack of exciting finishing holes in the Open rota.

Another Feather In Bivens' Cap

I tell you, I am going to miss her. You can't make this stuff up!

Robert Thompson writes about Carolyn Bivens in Canada and here beyond belief comment to Lorne Rubenstein.

“Lorne, you are much better looking than you sounded on the phone yesterday,” Bivens said. Is it just me, or is this an unusual comment to make to a major newspaper writer in the midst of an interview?

If Tim Finchem said that to Christine Brennan, he'd be packing up his office.

Donegan Follow Up On Drugs and Golf

Lawrence Donegan wrote this sidebar to go with his main piece on drug testing. In it he points out golf's love affair with its honor code, and yet its unwillingness to ensure that the integrity of the game is preserved.

For a sport that prides itself on being a bastion of honesty there is a glaring anomaly in golf's much-vaunted code of ethics. A player who deliberately moves a ball in the rough to improve a lie can be banned and will almost certainly be ostracised by his or her peers. Yet that same player can take a performance-enhancing drug such as human growth hormone and he or she will never face sanction or be exposed.

Almost uniquely in elite sport the vast majority of golf competitors are never tested and that will continue if some of the game's leading figures have their way. "We see no reason to jump into the testing arena without having any credible information that we have issues," Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour, told the Guardian this year. Ernie Els was offended that testing might be necessary - "We are all natural!" - while Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A, was dismissive when it was suggested the Open would be the perfect arena to get into line with the rest of the sporting world. "There is no particular evidence of drugs helping you in golf, and there is no particular evidence of anyone taking them," he said.

And...

But the French federation's Muniesa argues that the reluctance to start reflects an arrogance. "Laws against drug abuse must be written into the rules of the game. Players are penalised when they hit a ball out of bounds, and it should be the same when they use performance-enhancing drugs."

If golf can pat itself for handling the "inexorable" (David Fay's word) movement to address gender reassigned athletes so that the sport is in compliance with IOC rules, why doesn't performance enhancing drug testing share a similar inexorable fate?

Ogilvy On Hoylake Turf Conditions: "this is as fiery as any golf course I've ever seen"

From Chris Lines writing for The Advertiser:

"It's about as different as you can get (from the U.S. courses)," Ogilvy said.

"It's a lot firmer, it's probably the firmest links course we've played in a long time.

"This is as fiery as any golf course I've ever seen - it's going to be fun."

Thanks to reader Chris for the heads up on this Norman Dabell story, featuring another fun Ogilvy quote:

 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy echoed Woods's sentiments: "You'd never see a course as firm as this in the States. Their idea of firm is no mud on a ball running five yards."

Ogilvy suggested that only one third of the field of 156 would have any experience of this week's conditions.
 

H.S. Colt Dream 18

(click on image to enlarge)SI has given me the okay to reproduce the Golf Plus "Dream 18s" for your limited viewing pleasure here.

(Limited, because my copying and scanning and resizing skills aren't very good).
(click image to enlarge)

And trust me when I say that Gil Hanse's maps look better in print, but you get the idea here with his H.S. Colt style drawing.

For SI subscribers, the full text is available online. 

Hoylake Images

Golfonline has posted some nice Fred Vuich aerial shots of the 1st, 2nd and 18th holes.

What Would You Rather See?

Super fast, crunchy, brown...or sort of fast, sort of green, with fairways surrounded by dense rough?

I ask because I love what I'm seeing in the early photos out of Hoylake. We haven't seen the world's best play something this dry in a long, long time.

But if the scores are super low, will this taint the concept of "lean" conditions?

Donegan: Testing Soon?

Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian:

The Royal & Ancient came under increasing pressure yesterday to start testing competitors for drugs at the Open Championship amid mounting evidence that abuse of illegal substances among golfers is more prevalent than the governing body has been prepared to concede.

Documents from the French Golf Federation, which has been testing elite players for the past five years, produced 21 positive results from among 157 players - a failure rate of more than 13%. Among the drugs identified by the testers were cocaine, ecstasy and sambutamol, an asthma drug which taken in high doses can increase an athlete's endurance.

"We were shocked by these results," said Christophe Muniesa, the head of the French federation. "These tests revealed drug taking that seemed to be more of a consumer habit than any widespread attempt to cheat." He called on the R&A to promote golf's so-called clean image by introducing drug testing at the Open. "We do it at the Olympics Games and at the World Cup, so why do we not do it at the most important golf tournament in the world? If we have drug testing then people will know that golf is a clean sport."

The introduction of testing at major championships such as the Open also received backing from Dr Conor O'Brien, the former chairman of the Irish Anti-Doping Agency and a member of Wada. He said: "Anyone who cares about golf should support such a move, not least because testing would mean replacing suspicion and innuendo with fact."

O'Brien added: "Golf has changed into a power sport in recent years and it has become more clear why someone would use drugs. Getting the ball 320 yards down the fairway as opposed to 280 yards would be a big advantage.

"All the evidence shows there are drugs in every other sport, it would be foolish to think golf was not contaminated by the same disease."

Huh, go figure. And it all could be prevented if...eh, you know where I'm headed with that. 

Donegan also lists various drugs and what they might do to help a golfer.

Open Championship Tuesday Reads

The Golf Digest blog gets off to a promising start, offering some information when major blogs are most handy--early in the week. When the GD writers finish their early week rounds, perhaps we'll get a few insights into how the course is playing. Some pictures and range gossip would be nice too. I know, asking a lot here.

Gary Van Sickle posts his odds while Doug Ferguson talks to Nick Faldo about his pairing with Tiger and reminds us that Tiger is not a fan of those who question his swing changes.

Ferguson also has an entertaining chat with Brad Faxon, who admirably made the trek despite being the 6th alternate.

And Alistair Tait hints at what a trusted soul predicted to me many months ago: Hoylake is going to be vulnerable to very low scores.  Tait says not enough length was added and that the current setup and weather points to a birdiefest. Several other stories covered the same ground, but Tait's is the best.