Van Sickle Looping

Gary Van Sickle is caddying this week for Andy North, which means Van Sickle will have to do double duty: loop and come up with one-liners:

I overslept due to severe jet lag, got started late and didn't get to the course until 10:10. As I hustled to the range, I noticed North was already out there hitting balls. As I walked up, he was being pulled aside by a TV crew for an interview. "I'm late," I told him. He grinned. "Can a caddie get fired on his first day? Is that possible?" he joked.

I went over to his bag to wait, took the towel over his bag and dipped it into one of the buckets of water located behind the hitting area. A good caddie always has a towel with one wet end so he can wipe down clubs and golf balls. North already had two dirty clubs from hitting balls so I spiffed them up. Just part of the job.

"The essential problem with the British Open is that it's always played on links courses"

Sounds to me like Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press has spent a few too many days under the hot sun studying the misunderstood genius of Warwick Hills. Or, he just needed to fill some column space.

I've made up my mind. I hate the British Open.

And don't give me this "cradle of golf" and "oldest championship" argument. I don't care. If you want antiquity, go visit pyramids.

This is golf. Or at least it's supposed to be golf. Instead, we have to watch the best golfers in the world strike balls that land and roll another 50 yards on courses so rock-hard and dried-out they make I-94 look soft and supple. And I'm getting tired of it.

I'm tired of seeing so many pot bunkers in play it makes the course look like the face of an acne-riddled teenager.

This is special:

The essential problem with the British Open is that it's always played on links courses. The U.S. Golf Association's definition of a links course is "tracts of low-lying, seaside land (that) are characteristically sandy, treeless and undulating, often with lines of dune ridges and covered by bent grass or gorse."

Basically, these courses were built on fallow ground that linked the sea to farmland. My bet is that golf was invented when two Scotsmen looked at the useless land and one said to the other, "Fancy a game of hitting a rock with a stick for four hours?" If only the other guy had said, "Nah, let's visit the pyramids," we all would have been a lot better off.

Dealing With Slow Play

Golfweek's Jim Achenbach gets plenty of interesting reader mail on slow play remedies.

Bamberger: Once More, With Feeling

From Michael Bamberger's Sports Illustrated game story on the Open Championship:

But links golf has always been about iron play -- and wind. By Tiger's count, he missed only three iron shots all week. O.K., the wind was very meager, not a totally thorough test. Still, in an era when the long iron is practically dead, Woods showed his long-iron play is alive and well. He controlled his distances by controlling the trajectory. The excellence of his strikes was announced by the clouds of dirt and grass kicked up by his clubhead.

Will he get to 19 professional majors, one past Nicklaus's record total and Woods's holy grail? It'll be hard. One a year from 2007 through 2014, when he'll be 38, would do it, but that's a huge task. Yes, golfers these days are competitive beyond 40. Tom Watson and Fred Funk, combined age 106, made the cut last week. But Woods has been playing on the big stage for 15 years already. For any pro to play at the top of his game for a decade is substantial. With all that he has accomplished, it's daunting to think he has nearly a decade more to go (at one a year).

But we know more about him now, this golfer and man in transition, than we did when he stood on the 17th green on Saturday, when he could have gone either way in the championship's final 19 holes. We know now that Tiger Woods, playing for his mother and his wife and himself and his legacy and in his father's memory, is capable not only of stunning golf, but also of summoning his talent when he most wants it. It didn't happen at Augusta, it didn't happen at Winged Foot, but it happened at Royal Liverpool, and one for three in golf is outstanding. We know that he's evolving as a man in appealing ways. (Nicklaus did the same in his 30s.) We know now that his father's death did not rob him of emotion. If anything, it did the opposite.

Tiger's long, sobbing postvictory hug with Williams brought to mind another famous golf embrace. Not the hug Tiger shared with his father in '97, when he won the Masters for the first time, at age 21, by 12 shots. That was all about, "We did it." That was all about, "We showed 'em." The hug on Sunday brought to mind a scene at Augusta in '95, when the winner, Ben Crenshaw, was comforted by his caddie, Carl Jackson, days after Gentle Ben had buried his teacher and surrogate father, Harvey Penick. The SI cover line was, ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING. Still works.

Dawson To Carnoustie: Get Brown

Mike Aitken writing in The Scotsman:

Carnoustie has been instructed by the Royal and Ancient to turn off the sprinklers and prepare a links for next summer's 136th Open championship which echoes the brown of Royal Liverpool rather than the lush greenery of Augusta.

Well aware the last Open held at the Angus course in 1999 was the most controversial of recent times - the test was so difficult the players dubbed the links "Carnasty" and Paul Lawrie's winning score of 290 was six over par - the R&A has also pledged to monitor the conditioning of the course over the next 12 months and ensure there is no repeat of the penal high rough which lined narrow fairways at the 128th Open.

At Hoylake yesterday morning, Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, was asked if he shared the concerns of those who regard the presentation of the Angus links as the polar opposite of the fast, running course which hosted the most recent championship. Although it looked beautiful, Carnoustie was perhaps too verdant earlier in the season. It almost seemed as if the links had become a venue better suited to hosting the US Open, the pinnacle of narrow fairways and high rough, rather than the seaside game played on the ground at the Open.

Dawson replied: "Interestingly, we have had conversations with Carnoustie on exactly this point. They've turned the sprinklers off for us over the past few weeks and we're going there next week to see how brown it is.
 
"We think Carnoustie is a terrific venue, a great golf course which will put on another fantastic Open. But I must be honest and say we have a view that it could be a bit drier. Not that it's soft. It's just not as hard and fast as one would traditionally like to see."

And what's our favorite in-house architect for a governing body doing at Carnoustie?

Dawson also confirmed the changes at Carnoustie to the third, sixth and 17th holes. "We've worked on three holes. The third has been re-configured quite substantially. On the 17th, the right hand side of the driving zone has been mounded. At the last Open there that was a flat area covered by rough. Since the rough has been taken away and re-turfed, it didn't grow back very well. So we put in mounding. And the bunkering on Hogan's Alley has been adjusted."

Faldo-Azinger Pairing May Return For Future Opens

Richard Sandomir writing in the New York Times:

Faldo has already signed a new deal with the Golf Channel, but he said that he could work for ABC during the next three British Opens, while he expects Azinger to return to playing more regularly.

Norby Williamson, the senior vice president for production for ESPN and ABC Sports, said: “We’re interested in pursuing a course of action that keeps them together. We’re in discussions with Paul.”

Sandomir also has this on Sunday's rating:

Perhaps the thought of such an unsightly delicacy sent Sunday’s final-round overnight rating down 4 percent, to a 5.0.

Everywhere else it was reported as being up (4.9 to 5.0 generally seems like an increase, but maybe not to the paper of record?). Toni Fitzgerald in Media Life reports the rating was up 2%:

Ratings for this year’s two previous majors were down compared to last year, and the Tour, desperate to end its late-summer and fall declines, is one year away from instituting a first-ever season-ending playoff structure in hopes of goosing viewership.

Thus even a small boost for Sunday’s British Open ratings had to be considered good for the game. Woods’ victory, his first major championship of the year, averaged a 5.0 overnight household rating Sunday, up 2 percent over last year’s 4.9 when Woods also won the tournament.

If final ratings released later today hold, the final round could rank as the second-best final round in the past two decades, trailing only Woods’ record 6.4 for his 2000 victory...

John Rollins, Ryder Cupper?

From the AP's Doug Ferguson:

John Rollins earned more Ryder Cup points (375) for winning the watered-down B.C. Open than Chris DiMarco earned (360) for being runner-up at the British Open.

DiMarco nearly chased down Tiger Woods at his best, making four birdies and two clutch par saves on the back nine at Royal Liverpool to close with a 68 and finishing two shots behind.

Across the ocean at the B.C. Open, a tournament rife with Nationwide Tour players and those without full status in the big leagues, Rollins rolled in a 5-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a one-shot victory over Bob May.

PGA president Roger Warren knew there was potential for such a scenario, but offered no apologies.

"It has drawn a lot of attention because it actually occurred," Warren said Monday night from Kiawah Island, S.C. "The interpretation of that as good or bad, I'm not going to get into that. The system was designed to make sure we had those players who were playing well in this year receiving points higher than the first year, so as to reward good play. And we wanted to make sure we placed a value on winning."

Both got into the top 10 in the U.S. standings -- DiMarco went from 21st to sixth place, while Rollins went from 39th to 10th. Four tournaments remain before the team is announced.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 29

The PGA Tour driving distance average jumped to 288.7 yards following the British and B.C. Opens, up from 288.5 yards after the John Deere Classic.

MacDuff's Post British/BC FedEx Cup Points Standings

If the FedEx Cup ended today, Kent Jones would be in.

Just thought you'd rest easier knowing that.

^{1    Mickelson    23734        16
2    Furyk    23162.5        15
3    Singh    21859.37        16
4    Pettersson    19983.33        17
5    Gf. Ogilvy    19800        13
6    A.Scott    17325        12
7    Glover    17241.66        13
8    Donald    17176.87        12
9    Cink    17146.33        14
10    Immelman    17112.5        12
11    Weir    16984.37        15
12    Bohn    16838.33        16
13    Appleby    16437.5        13
14    Pampling    16372.5        15
15    Z.Johnson    16250        14
16    Toms    16196.87        11
17    Van Pelt    15940        17
18    Senden    15900        14
19    C.Campbell    15737.5        14
20    Pernice    15525        12
21    Mayfair    15329.16        16
22    T.Woods    15084.37        8
23    B. Quigley    15075        12
24    Verplank    15050        13
25    Sabbatini    14829.16        13
26    Oberholser    14637.5        13
27    Goosen    14350        11
28    T.Clark    14335        14
29    Olazabal    14187.5        11
30    Funk    14137.5        16
31    Gay    14037.5        14
32    Jerry Kelly    13675        12
33    Chopra    13633.07        15
34    J.Ogilvie    13396.78        14
35    Vn Taylor    13275        13
36    Choi    13125        13
37    Imada    13117.5        14
38    Crane    13060        13
39    Els    13040        12
40    D.Wilson    12700        14
41    Ames    12687.5        10
42    Allenby    12575        11
43    Hoffman    12575        14
44    Harrington    12450        10
45    S. Maruyama    12450        12
46    Purdy    12375        12
47    Slocum    12062.5        13
48    Love III    12050        12
49    Villegas    12037.5        13
50    Flesch    12030.71        17
51    Sluman    11875        16
52    Palmer    11741.66        13
53    N.Green    11740        14
54    JJ Henry    11662.5        10
55    Watney    11535.71        13
56    Branshaw    11520.83        12
57    Warren    11387.5        13
58    Herron    11247.5        12
59    Rollins    11225        11
60    Lehman    11075        11
61    Sean O'Hair    10949.5        13
62    Rose    10891.66        13
63    Garcia    10887.5        9
64    Austin    10862.5        15
65    Leonard    10820.83        12
66    Stricker    10800        9
67    Parnevik    10767.5        12
68    Bertsch    10668.75        14
69    Lonard    10610.71        13
70    Wetterich    10425        9
71    RS Johnson    10305        10
72    Bryant    10282        11
73    Hart    10255        11
74    Jobe    10067.5        12
75    Poulter    10062.5        10
76    DiMarco    9909.37        10
77    Dickerson    9866.07        12
78    G. Owen    9850        10
79    Curtis    9762.5        12
80    Maggert    9700        10
81    F.Jacobson    9675        10
82    JB Holmes    9658.33        10
83    D. Howell    9587.5        8
84    Azinger    9450        12
85    Kenny Perry    9375        11
86    Br.Davis    9342.5        11
87    Barlow    9325        12
88    Beem    9318.75        11
89    Mahan    9262.5        13
90    Gronberg    9200        11
91    Howell III    9187.5        14
92    Baird    9117.5        9
93    Waldorf    9087.5        11
94    Micheel    9075        10
95    Lowery    9062.5        11
96    Estes    8925        10
97    D. Maruyama    8766.07        11
98    Leaney    8712.5        9
99    Goggin    8600.25        7
100    Gore    8503.57        8
101    Andrade    8482.5        10
102    Couples    8437.5        10
103    Sutherland    8387.5        12
104    Calcavecchia    8292.5        15
105    B. Haas    8237.5        10
106    J.Smith    8237.5        11
107    Pavin    8200        8
108    Gove    8175        8
109    Bub Watson    8125        8
110    Franco    8112.5        9
111    Lickliter II    7925        10
112    Kaye    7900        11
113    Cabrera    7862.5        7
114    Olin Browne    7812.5        13
115    Sindelar    7787.5        12
116    Bjornstad    7742.5        11
117    Cook    7700        8
118    Geiberger    7481.25        11
119    Overton    7341.07        12
120    Fischer    7325        10
121    Triplett    7208.33        9
122    Atwal    7162.5        8
123    Faxon    7125        10
124    O'Hern    7100        5
125    Langer    7079.16        9
126    Baddeley    6962.5        8
127    JL Lewis    6937.5        11
128    M.Wilson    6902.5        8
129    J.Byrd    6862.5        5
130    Barron    6606.25        9
131    Kendall    6498.21        8
132    Frazar    6462.5        9
133    Armour III    6425        8
134    Pat Perez    6350        8
135    Kent Jones    6312.5        9
136    Durant    6281.25        13
137    S.Jones    6280        11
138    Westwood    6150        6
139    Allen    6075        10
140    K. Cox    6037.5        6
141    Stankowski    6028        10
142    Gamez    5962.5        10
143    Matteson    5925        10
144    David Duval    5875        9}

Tell Me What You See

I promise, that's the last obscure Beatles reference in a post title.

Aerial View Of No. 17 (click image to enlarge)Anyway, the miracle that Google Earth is, the Hoylake aerial photo is not out of focus as I originally thought, but very much in tact and showing...yes, the old 17th green that was taken out by Donald Steel a few years ago.

Playing as the first hole in this year's Open Championship, the original 17th was an H.S. Colt-designed number perched on Stanley Road, where the occasional putt on the back portion of the green could conceivably roll out of bounds.

SI Golf Plus readers know that we featured it as the finisher on our recent Colt Dream 18, in part to highlight one of the great architectural crimes of the new century.
No. 17 and Stanley Road (click on image to enlarge)

No. 17 up close (click on image to enlarge)Imagine how fun it would be if they returned the original routing at Hoylake to not only put back the infamously difficult finish written about by Darwin and company, while also returning a genuine road hole that would give Hoylake the classic hole that it currently lacks.

Key word there, imagine. Because it probably won't happen. 

"Another week, another Carolyn Bivens controversy"

Jay Coffin writing in Golfweek:

This time, the LPGA commissioner bailed on a July 20 Tournament Owners Association meeting at the last moment, saying she was uncomfortable with the situation. Bivens made her decision moments before she was to board an airplane heading for Denver, and she told several other LPGA staff members they were not permitted to attend. One senior staffer was at the Denver airport when Bivens made the decision, and the staff member immediately returned to the tour's Daytona Beach, Fla., headquarters.

And this is nice...

"The performance of the TOA board over the last couple of weeks is beginning to cause some serious dissection," Bivens told Golfweek July 20.

Dissection?

"The only way the LPGA and TOA as a group can have a relationship is if it is based on trust. I don't feel as if there has been full disclosure."

Bivens had a 2,800-word speech prepared for the TOA meeting – a copy of which was obtained by Golfweek – where she planned to set the record straight by going point-by-point through "misconceptions or differences that have been reported." The subjects included Bivens' strategic plan, the 2007 schedule, new sanction fees, tour finances and the characterization of Bivens' relationship with the TOA.

Under the latter heading, Bivens wrote, "I have repeatedly left meetings and conversations with many of you feeling energized about our future together, and comfortable that I have shared the LPGA's goals and direction in detail. Yet I turn around and read articles that depict a much different picture. This sort of public outcry does not have the LPGA or its players as the primary focus. One can only conclude there are individual agendas at work.

And she even gets all Freudian on them.

"The passive-aggressive dealings of the TOA leadership are not healthy and are not in the best interests of the LPGA and anyone associated with our organization."

You go Carolyn! 

I Don't Want To Spoil The Party...

My initial jubilation at Hoylake's successful rewarding of strategic play was tempered a bit after talking to a trusted observer. This chap knows the course well and despised the R&A's juggling of the closing holes.

And, like Tiger hinted, this observer felt that the over-the-top weekend hole locations were designed for one purpose: to keep scoring in check so that we would not notice that technology has rendered Hoylake irrelevant.

Me, being the eternal optimist, insisted that too many positives remain. Namely, that brown, firm golf on a well-designed course created an ideal model for tournament golf, especially since it rewarded such intelligent and measured play from Tiger.

But what if the R&A had made the hole locations a bit more accessible Saturday and Sunday, and Tiger wins at 24 under, with two other players around 20 under?

Would Ron Whitten be considered a prophet for declaring the course outdated?

I'm starting to think so, especially after reading this heartburn inducer from Alistair Tait of Golfweek. 

All the talk about scores reaching 20-under-par proved to be hot air. Sure the winning score was 18-under-par, just one stroke short of Woods' Open Championship record set at St. Andrews in 2000.

So what? The fact Woods emerged with the Jug proves the course passed the test. Had it been Joe Bloggs from anywhere or everywhere, then it would have been a different story.

So much for all the worry about the quirky nature of the golf course – the internal out of bounds, the three undulating greens that stuck out like old range balls in a bucket full of new Titleists.

Hoylake proved this week that it has enough natural defences to withstand the talents of the game's greatest players.

Course playing too short? No problem. Just tuck the pins.

That's what the R&A did this week. They put pins on the front of greens, had holes cut close to the side of greens so that a boldly struck putt could run off the greens.

See why I'm not feeling so good about this now.

More Final Open Championship Reads

SI.com's Gary Van Sickle tells us what we learned from the Open. Ken Brown pens a piece for the Telegraph and believes Tiger's performance was the most impressive since Faldo at St. Andrews. He also writes about the one drive Tiger did hit, with the ball speed (191 mph).

James Corrigan says Hoylake was a big success and may next see the Open in 2016. Lewine Mair talks to the R&A's Martin Kippax about Tiger's strategy.

Barker Davis writes in the Washington Times about the low scoring and says, big deal.

"At the end of the day, a win is a win, and it doesn't matter if it is at 5-under par or 20-under par," Goosen said. "At a major championship, you are always going to see the top players rise to the top, and that is what you are seeing already. If it's 20 under, it's 20 under. Who cares, as long as we have a good champion."

The USGA, of course, operates as if it has no such concerns, annually converting a venerable track perfectly capable of defending itself into a torture chamber demanding defensive golf.
Unlike the British Open, which always (forgiving Canoustie) relies solely on the elements for protection, the U.S. Open specializes in contrivance -- single-file fairways, graduated rough and greens crustier than month-old pizza.

As a result, the U.S. championship is routinely the dullest major of the year, an interminable par-fest that is entertaining for only about 45 minutes every Father's Day during the inevitable stretch-run debacle (see Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie, etc.).

U.S. Open's aren't won; they are survived. Name the last player to win a U.S. Open by making a birdie on the last hole.

He also pulls this beautiful quote out of Dan Jenkins, who sadly did not have the space to include such a rant in his August Golf Digest recap of the U.S. Open (it's not posted online and not listed in the table of contents, but I know it's there because I read it at the beach today):

"They talk all that nonsense about identifying the best player, and then they give you Steve Jones or Michael Campbell or Andy North or Lee Janzen. Great, how'd you do those weeks?" said Dan Jenkins, the planet's dean of golf writers, scoffing at the USGA from an ocean away yesterday. "[Heck], the U.S. Open gave us Jack Fleck, the worst result in the history of sports by a nudge over the zebras giving gold to the Russians. ... The USGA hasn't identified the best players. All they've done is make the Open unwatchable.

And finally, there's a story that really didn't get much attention because I think many of us were enthralled with Tiger Woods' performance. It'll be interesting to see if the weeklies take a tougher look at the R&A's hole locations over the weekend, which apparently were Meeksian in character.

From Mark Garrod on SportlingLife.com: 

Although Hoylake undoubtedly lacks the "wow" factor of some other Open venues Woods stated: "With the course being this fast it lent itself to just amazing creativity.

"Granted, if you would have had easier pins I'm sure it (the scoring) would have gone lower - these are the most difficult pins (hole locations) I've ever seen at an Open championship.

"A couple of times you feel like if you hit a putt too hard you'll actually putt it right off the green and you never have that feeling at an Open. But this week it was certainly the case.

"I think because the yardage played short because it was so fast - you hit three-wood, driver 380 yards and you're going to have a lot of short irons - the only defence they had was pin locations and hard, dry conditions.

"We couldn't really go all that low."

Eighteen under kept things respectable and the fact that nobody scored lower than 65 when all the talk was of a possible first 62 in major golf history then Hoylake could not be described as being brought to its knees.

Hmmm...so the R&A does or does not care about scoring?

Liverpool, Cell Phones In The Rota

Peter Dawson tells Norman Dabell that Hoylake is in.

"Royal Liverpool is now back on that rota," he said.

And more importantly, we get to enjoy more years of interrupted play because the R&A doesn't want to put people through the awfulness of being checked for oh, cameras, purple paint bombs, weapons, etc...

And I'm hoping they'll do something about the golf ball...

 Dawson also said that despite growing concern over interruptions from mobile telephones and photographers, the R&A were determined not to introduce similar security controls used at the US Masters and US Open.

Woods and his final round playing partner Sergio Garcia were continually interrupted by amateur photographers, many using mobile phone cameras, on Sunday.

Both players complained about the interruptions and the matter was raised at the R&A's media conference.

Director of Championships David Hill said they felt electronic screening of spectators before they entered the course was not a step they wanted to take.

"As it was shown at the US Open, it will mean 20-30 minute delays at the entrances. We would rather encourage people not to use cameras and mobile phones on the course," said Hill.

"Confiscation is a problem, too. Just collecting the phones and cameras afterwards can mean quite a messy situation.

Not as messy as purple paint, or God help them, something that actually does real damage.

Watson: "it's too late to do much now"

An unbylined Unison.ie story features Tom Watson's latest thoughts on the equipment issue.

The Great Man, hugely popular with the galleries wherever he plays, got up close and personal with some of the heavy hitters of the modern game and saw power unleashed that left him reeling in shock and awe - as in "aw crap, I'm too old for this stuff."

Watson knows what it's like to thump a ball a country mile down a fairway. In his day he asserted: "I was a long hitter," but conceded: "I saw a difference this week."

"During the week I played with Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen. I played with Brett Wetterich and with Chad Campbell, and these guys bomb it out there.

"I mean they're 80 yards ahead of me. I can understand people saying maybe the equipment has got too far ahead, but these guys swing the club a lot faster than I do.

"I'm out there waving at it, these guys are ripping at it. I just can't swing the club that fast.

Well Tom, they are younger than you too.

"What I think has happened also is that the ball has outgunned the R&A and the USGA.

"Back in 2001 a big jump happened then. The manufacturers played by the rules but the R&A and the USGA didn't have the rules in place to prevent the ball jumping ahead in distance.

"I think it's too late to do much now, but there are a few things they could do. One might be to reduce the size of the clubheads on the drivers, so you can't sling it with total abandon. With these drivers you can mis-hit the ball and still hit it a long way.

"Maybe they could get away from the square grooves so you can't spin the ball in the rough and put the old 'V' grooves back where you don't have the same control out of the rough.

"One thing I'm not in favour of is a special ball for tournament golf. I wouldn't like to see that. I like the competition between the manufacturers and it's good for the players."

So we know something happened a few years ago, we know it's bad, and we should correct other elements to compensate?