Fairway Bunkers Where You Want To Be

In his press conference today, Geoff Ogilvy was asked to compare Hoylake and Medinah, and made this point:

Hoylake was, keep it out of the bunkers; anything you could do to keep it out of the bunkers. The rough was actually not a bad spot to be. It was almost better than the fairways in a lot of situations because you had an angle, but you just had to keep it out of fairways bunkers. So that was the whole goal there. Here it's probably keep it out of the rough. Fairway bunkers are probably a good spot to be in a lot of situations.

It is interesting how many times at Medinah that fairway bunkers are placed where the player might have the best angle of attack or view of the green.

But readers of Robert Hunter's The Links will recall his remark that at St. Andrews, many of the best holes have bunkers exactly where you would like to drive to and approach from.

So, why is that praised at St. Andrews and not at Medinah?

The elimination of width, the high rough and overhanging trees play a significant role.

Also, the bunkers at Medinah are large, while the St. Andrews bunkers are mostly pot bunkers.

Therefore, the player can flirt with the pots, striking a shot in the general vicinity, with fairway all around. At Medinah, the bunkers are too large and surrounded by rough, eliminating the temptation to flirt with the sand to open up the ideal angle.

St. Andrews's pits encourage options and aggressive play, Medinah's fairway bunkers emphasize obedience and caution.  

Some people prefer the latter, especially in response to equipment advances. I happen to like the more democratic St. Andrews approach. 

Phil's Pre-PGA Press Conference

Defending PGA Champion Phil Mickelson had some fun with certain questions from the assembled scribblers.

Q. Obviously you use the week before majors to prepare. How disappointing was it last week to miss the cut, and has that affected your preparation for this week?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's a different strategy going in. You know, I guess here's a great example of how Tiger and I prepare differently. He goes into the PGA Championship thinking that winning the British and winning the Buick Open is the best way, and I go in thinking that missing the cut is the best (laughter), and it gives me a week off to focus on my game. See, he didn't have that weekend off (laughter).

He actually took this question seriously, which provides an interesting contrast to Tiger's comments about hitting a lot of 3-woods and 2-irons:

Q. What's your plan as far as what you're going to hit off the tee this week?

PHIL MICKELSON: That's still undecided exactly, because I may go with two drivers again like I did at Augusta, I may go with one.

Really, the difference is the temperature. If it's warm enough where I can hit 3 wood on some of the other par 4s where I just want to get the ball in the fairway, then I will most likely just use one driver, and it would be the longer driver to take advantage of some of the par 5s and the long par 4s.

Medinah is such a long golf course that the extra length has come in handy.

Back to comedy hour. 

Q. If our research is correct, you and Tiger played together a grand total of one time in the majors, and that was at The Masters in '01, so Thursday and Friday will be kind of a rarity.

PHIL MICKELSON: It's amazing how those random computer pairings spit that stuff out, huh?

And as with Tiger's press conference, the longer it went, the worse the questions got.

Q. There are ten left handers on Tour this year. Do you have any thoughts on the factors that have led to more success for lefties than ever before?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, that's a good question. I could try to make a joke of it, but I just don't have one (laughter). I think it's great. I think that it's nice that we have more on Tour because now we're getting more equipment opportunities on Tour, which is ultimately leading to more left handed equipment or better left handed equipment immediately to the consumer, as well. I think if we can keep that up and have equipment be accessible to everyone left handed, I think we might continue to see an increase. But it takes time, like anything.

And the finale...

Q. Not to harp on the pairings, but what's the difference for you playing with a guy like Freddie like at The Masters versus a guy like Tiger?

PHIL MICKELSON: Amount of conversation.

Tiger's Pre-PGA Press Conference

Tiger Woods managed to go the whole press conference without one "it's right in front of you" compliment of Medinah, and he also got through it without screaming "why!??!?!!" at the top of his lungs after some really wonderful questions. First, the golf course and course management stuff.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, the golf course is absolutely fantastic. Obviously they've lengthened some of the holes and the greens have been redone, but the golf course is such a wonderful layout, wonderful shape to it. It's one of the neat golf courses we get to play. It's old and traditional and it's just very straightforward. I mean, you've got to hit the ball well and obviously control your irons into these greens in order to have a chance.

Q. A lot has been made about your driving accuracy. Do you think too much has been made about it? And secondly, playing a course like this, do you need, do you think, to hit driver a lot, or can you hit the 5 wood stinger and 3 woods and get away with it.

TIGER WOODS: I'm not going to hit that many drivers because it won't really allow me to. Most of the holes are doglegged. Obviously I'd have to take driver up over the top of these tall trees, and it doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I'm going to use it a few times, definitely.

But overall, just like it was back in '99, I hit just a bunch of 2 irons and a bunch of 3 woods here. Just because that's the way the golf course allowed you to play. You play to a lot of the corners and obviously fire from there. If you try to take on a lot of the corners or shape the ball around the corner, yeah, you can, but it's not always the easiest thing to do.

And with this next question, the affair sprialed rapidly. Where was Julius Mason to pull the plug!?!

Q. My doctor doesn't think that golf is a very physical game, but you have a lot of ups and downs here at Medinah. How would you rate it compared to other courses as far as a walk for four days?

TIGER WOODS: Not that tough. I mean, I think I'm in decent shape. Walking 18 holes shouldn't be that hard. Twenty more years before I can ride in a cart (laughter).

Some of the other questions Tiger faced...

Q. How old were you, and was there a specific shot or a specific tournament when you knew that you were good enough to play on the PGA TOUR?

Q. Best we can tell, the only other time you play with Phil in a major is '01 at The Masters. Can you think of another? Then I have a quick follow up.

Q. Do you find it more enjoyable to play with Phil in a major or at a Ryder Cup?

Q. You kind of made reference to it earlier, 20 years until you've got to ride in a cart. I am kind of curious where you see yourself at 50. Are you still trying to add to your major totals, or are you a soccer dad or what do you see?

Q. Is it okay to ask on the spectator side I know you are a great player, great champion. I've seen this like four times in a row, but no matter what, you are a great player. I remember there was a long time ago at The Masters, you won The Masters, and I think the channel 2 commentator introduced you, and when your father passed away everybody felt sorry. My question is going to be in the near future about a charity in the memory of your parents who have passed on?

I'm going take a guess here and say that question came from an uh, overseas writer. Or a drunk one.

Q. You look at some of the guys who have played you tough in majors, Rich Beem, Bob May, even Chris DiMarco would sort of fit into this category of guys who maybe they wouldn't be the first guys you would think of. This might be a tough question for you to answer, but do you think it's easier in a way for those guys who have lower expectations to play up to their abilities against you, as opposed to guys who are ranked second, third, fourth in the world?

Q. What do you think is your impact on golf in the last decade?

Q. What are you bowel movements like?

Oh, okay, I slipped that last one in. 
 

Ogilvy's Pre-PGA Press Conference

A few highlights from Geoff Ogilvy's sit down with the press:

I think it would be unfortunate if course setups kept getting longer and longer and longer. I think there would be better ways, I think, to combat how far had we hit it. The longer you make a golf course, the more you encourage guys to hit driver and hit it a long way.

Hoylake was a pretty stellar example of that. You've got guys scared to hit driver on fairways that were really quite wide and the rough was not a big deal. You've got the best golfer in history not wanting to hit driver. I think a lesson needs to be learned from Hoylake, and there's definitely ways to test the best golfers in the world in how far we hit it and discourage hitting it a long way, as opposed to a long golf course you encourage people to hit driver and hit it as long as they can. Hopefully lessons are learned from places like Hoylake and St. Andrews and they start looking at other ways, as opposed to tacking on another 30 yards to every par 4 and every par 5 on a golf course.

There's a par 3 out here over water that's a 2 iron. I mean, yesterday, 13, Tim Clark hit a wood and I hit a 2 iron, and I hit a 2 iron quite a long way, and that's to a front pin. That's a par 3. It's not fun to have a tee on a golf course that the members can't play. I mean, I'm sure there's 30 members at Medinah who can play that tee, but they probably don't want to because they'll probably just be dropping balls in the water all the time. It would be nice if 244 is the limit to a par 3 length, anyway.

And...

Hoylake was, keep it out of the bunkers; anything you could do to keep it out of the bunkers. The rough was actually not a bad spot to be. It was almost better than the fairways in a lot of situations because you had an angle, but you just had to keep it out of fairways bunkers. So that was the whole goal there.

Here it's probably keep it out of the rough. Fairway bunkers are probably a good spot to be in a lot of situations. There's a lot of overhanging trees, a lot of holes where you can be on the fairways like you can hit the left hand side of 16 and be on the fairway and have no shot. You want to just work out what sides of what fairways to be on and go from there because there's a lot of spots off the tee that you get up there and they're not very good, and there's a lot of spots that appear bad that are actually pretty good spots. That's what I look for, just to make the second shot as easy as possible, and that generally makes the rest of the hole play easier. Sometimes that's a long drive; sometimes that's a short one.

Swift On Drug Testing

E.M. Swift nails it with this column on the drug testing issue in golf.

One of the most ridiculous quotes I've seen in awhile appeared on Monday in The New York Times, when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, after acknowledging that his sport doesn't test for performance-enhancing drugs, went on to brag: "If we did test, we would not fool around. We would test aggressively and effectively. ... There would be no hesitation on the part of the players. I would predict 100 percent participation."

Would you? Want to bet, Mr. Commish? You're already fooling around by having no drug-testing policy in place. Finchem sounds like the dictator of a banana republic, assuring a skeptical world that if his country held elections he'd win in a landslide. Why not back up those self-serving words?

And... 

But -- trust us on this -- the LPGA and PGA tours have their heads in the sand if they think they don't have a problem. When money's on the line and a drug testing vacuum exists in a sport, performance-enhancing drugs will fill that vacuum faster than you can say BALCO. Golf isn't wrapped in some magic, virtuous cloak.

On the LPGA Tour I've seen enough visual evidence of steroid use -- acne, dramatic changes in musculature, increased distance off the tee -- to raise my suspicions. Likewise on the PGA Tour, where rumors about the use of beta blockers and benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium, which are taken to control anxiety and steady the nerves, have swirled about for years.

As the golf courses are lengthened -- this week's PGA Championship at Medinah will be the longest major championship test ever, at 7,561 yards -- and the power game is rewarded, what rational mind can possibly believe that golfers are somehow above temptation? That they're different than athletes in every other sport? Or that performance-enhancing drugs can't be tailored to golf's demands of power, precision and control?

And this is a key point:

What would have happened if golf had been voted into the Olympics last year? Both the PGA and LPGA tours would have had to put into place a comprehensive drug-testing policy, and Finchem's brave words would have been put to the test. But it wasn't, and the powers-that-be continue to embrace the ostrich approach to sports oversight and management, which until recently was baseball's sacred turf. If we don't look for a problem, there must not be one. All rise for a pat on the back.

Poulter: "It sets up quite well to my eye"

The Chicago Sun-Times' Len Ziehm took criticism by Brad Klein (read here) and yours truly (someone actually listened to the Golfdom podcast!), and called on one of the game's heavyweights to defend Medinah.

''That's crap,'' Ian Poulter said. ''It's a great golf course. It has a lot of definition. It sets up quite well to my eye.''

Ah yes, the man who dresses in ways only Marty Hackel could love, wheels out the most self-important of architectural evaluations: it sets up quite well to my eye.

And if it didn't set up well to his eye, would that make it less of a course?

Seriously, it's time to talk about this definition nonsense, which was also touted by Rees Jones.

ANYONE can design a course with definition that "fits the eye" of PGA Tour players. That is not a huge compliment.

The trick is to create something that seems to fit their eye, but actually has becomes a little less defined the more one gets to know the course.

You know, like the Old Course, Augusta (well, before Fazio and Hootie did their thing), Riviera, Royal Melbourne, etc...

Creating definition is nothing more than a dumbing down process that eliminates uncertainty. However, elite tests of golf present more grey and less certainty, which is why they often have a way of separating the merely great from the elite.

Medinah is too black and white to be considered with the elite designs of the world. That doesn't mean the membership is bad, the conditioning is poor or Chicago is a bad town, or that Tiger Woods will not be rewarded for hitting great shots.

It just means that the No. 3 course could be more interesting. 

Pelz: Phil "has more imagination and a few more shots around the green"

Ed Sherman offers some quotes that should make Thursday's Tiger-Phil pairing that much chillier:

"When Phil's at his best, I'm thinking nobody can beat him," Pelz said.

Does Pelz's bold pronouncement include a certain player who has won 50 PGA Tour titles and 11 majors?

"You bet it does," Pelz said. "If Phil's long swing is good, his short game, I believe, is the best in the world. He doesn't have a serious weakness inside 150 yards.

"I'm not saying Tiger's short game is bad. He has a great short game. But I think Phil putts more consistently than Tiger does. He has more imagination and a few more shots around the green."

Pelz adds one caveat.

"The question is, how often is Phil on his best game?" he said.

PGA Clippings, Tuesday Edition

You can read a general preview story touting, "Glory's Last Shot," which the PGA of America slogan committee picked over "Golf's Fourth Major" and "It's A Major, Unlike The Players."

Golf World's Tim Rosaforte says the PGA is better than ever, citing the media's embrace of it as one of his key points. It clearly is the best major that won't budge on tee times just to give a 60 Minutes re-run a strong lead-in.

Ron Whitten looks at the various incarnations of Medinah's 17th, none of which were lousy enough to keep the course out of Golf Digest' s Top 25 in America.

Whitten also writes about the club's early history and the shady fellows who founded it, with help from Medinah club history author Tim Cronin. And best of all, Whitten gets out of having to review the course in detail.

Mark Garrod considers what it'll take for Tom Lehman to play on the Ryder Cup team (a win this week).

Chris Starkjohann has withdrawn for personal reasonsm, messing up pool picks across the land. Actually, it's to play in the Champions Tour event in Seattle(!?). Harrison Frazer Frazar gets his spot, reducing the field by one club pro.

SI's Alan Shipnuck returns to his online roots and answers reader hate mail about his Ryder Cup picks, Tiger and his Hoylake coverage.

Doug Ferguson examines Medinah's record length and asks players if it's really playing that long.

Arron Oberholser, who has average length off the tee, played the back nine and it was about all he could handle.

"It felt like 4,000 yards," Oberholser said.

He was close - the back nine measures only 3,822 yards.

"I wonder if they're trying to do that?" he continued, alluding to the PGA Championship having the longest major championship course three times since 1999. "If they are trying, they have accomplished it quite magnificently."

And this from Furyk...

"It's kind of like moving to a new neighborhood where everybody wants to build a bigger house than the last guy who built one," Jim Furyk said. "Eight thousand? It will happen someday. I'll be long gone and retired. I have a feeling they will probably tone things back probably quicker than we'll get to 8,000 yards. But I would never rule it out."

Golf World's John Hawkins profiles Geoff Ogilvy, but doesn't let Ogilvy do enough talking.

And finally, Golfonline is offering the chance to mail in questions to Ogilvy. I think you can do better than the first three samplers they provided, which hopefully won't be asked:

-Do you feel indebted to Phil Mickelson?

-Have you paid for a meal since June?
-How do you keep your pants so clean?

"We weren't out to make it just dog-long"

Stan Awtrey looks at the latest renovation at Atlanta Athletic Club's Highlands Course, which is hoping to give Medinah a run for most pre-major redos. The Highlands hosts the PGA in 2011, and I know you just can't wait to see it again.

"We wanted to make the course more spectacular," director of golf Rick Anderson said. "We wanted to make the holes more challenging, with some strategy to them. We weren't out to make it just dog-long."

With Highlands in need of major irrigation work, the Athletic Club opted for a major facelift. There's different grass, more bunkers and more water. And, of course, it's longer.

"We wanted to see how many things we could fix at one time," said Anderson, who was only half-kidding.

Superintendent Ken Mangum, the director of golf courses and grounds, was in charge of the project, which began in March. He had an operating budget of more than $4 million.

Can we add that $4 million to the class action suit that the world's golf courses should file against the USGA and R&A to recover expenses?

New championship tees were built on 11 holes. Among the most dramatic is at No. 15, a par 3 which played 227 yards when Toms made a hole-in-one there five years ago. The hole can now be pulled back to play 260 yards.

That's a big yes.

Many fairway bunkers were moved, and others were constructed, to catch up with the pros' ability to fly the ball 300 yards. At No. 6, for example, fairway bunkers have been extended all the way down the right side to the green.

Bet that looks pretty.

Water is more evident, too. A pond was added to the left of the green at No. 6; it draws short shots to it like a magnet. A new back tee at No. 8 requires a 290-yard drive to fly the pond, for those brave enough to take the risk option.

You can now see the water from the 18th tee, which wasn't possible until the alterations pulled the pond 10 yards farther to the right and 10-to-12 yards closer to the tee box.

"I know when I can see the water, it bothers me more," Mangum said.

The 18th, already one of the most famous finishing holes in golf, can now play 528 yards. It will probably play as a par 4 in 2011.

Only 528?

Anderson and Mangum stressed that the changes were needed and would have been made regardless of whether the PGA was returning in 2011. They said the Riverside course, which was redone with zoysia fairways in 2003, had grown to be a favorite with members, and it was drawing more play than Highlands.

Can't imagine why.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 32

The PGA Tour driving distance average remained 289.0 yards following The International. Yep, you learn something new every day. The PGA Tour does not include The International in its statistics because of the Stableford system and players possibly picking up on a hole. Of course, what that has to do with driving distance, I don't know. 

We do know from CBS that Bubba Watson hit a 426-yarder (and a 92-yarder because those trees on 17 are in the way of his draw!).

And here I was thinking that all of those 400-yard drives in past years were registered at Castle Pines. Guess not. 

Hannigan On NY Times Piece

Frank Hannigan calls Damon Hack's piece "sloppy and alarmist," which is like, way harsh Frank.

A vague connection is drawn by the Times between the lengthening of courses and the possible use of drugs with a chart displaying the ever-increasing distance of courses used for major championships, e.g., Winged Foot was 6,987 yards long for the l997 PGA Championship and 7,264 yards for this year's US Open.

Courses have been lengthened and otherwise made more difficult for one reason - to keep the scoring as it was in the past. The US Open at Winged Foot was considered successful because the winning score was 5 over par, essentially the same as the 7 over par winning score at Winged Foot in l974.

Distance has shot up not because of a new species of "fitter" players nor drugs but because of an abject failure by the rules-making bodies. The United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club refused to deal with livelier clubs and balls because they were afraid that if they banned a club or ball already in use there might be a revolution.

Here's how silly the distance factor has become: in l980, the first year during which the PGA Tour measured drives, the leader was Dan Pohl with an average of 274.3. Today, on the senior tour, Pohl's distance average is 293.7.

Frank and other executives key executives keep missing the point. The distance race has created an environment where the emphasis has shifted, and steroids might enter the equation (while anti-depressants are much more refined and likely to be in use).

The USGA and R&A, in an attempt to portray themselves as authoritative, will see to it that there is testing of a sort done at the World Amateur Team Championships in South Africa this fall. If they are going to use the drug standards of the International Olympic Committee, they might nab a kid from Lithuania with marijuana in his bodily fluids. Or, God forbid, caffeine.

Again, maybe not now, but in the next few years. The chances are very real of this becoming an issue, so why not deal with it now, before there is any controversy that does harm to the sport's image? 

Or better yet, why not just adjust the equipment rules and make distance less of a factor? 

MacDuff's Post International FedEx Cup Points

Pat Perez is going to need some help from David Duval this week if he hopes to make the mythical "playoffs." Can you imagine how thrilling this will be next year, when we follow the plight of spots 140-150, wondering if they make the playoffs?

^{1    Furyk    25112.5        16
2    Mickelson    23734        16
3    Singh    23321.87        17
4    Cink    20046.33        16
5    Gf. Ogilvy    20012.5        14
6    Pettersson    19983.33        17
7    Pernice    19312.5        15
8    B. Quigley    19133.33        15
9    Glover    18991.66        15
10    Z.Johnson    18537.5        16
11    Weir    18209.37        16
12    Bohn    17938.33        17
13    Pampling    17905.83        17
14    Appleby    17675        14
15    T.Woods    17584.37        9
16    Toms    17434.37        12
17    Verplank    17425        15
18    A.Scott    17325        12
19    Donald    17176.87        12
20    Immelman    17112.5        12
21    D.Wilson    16731.25        16
22    Funk    16637.5        18
23    Senden    16375        15
24    Van Pelt    16340        18
25    C.Campbell    15737.5        14
26    Gay    15675        16
27    Jerry Kelly    15625        13
28    N.Green    15371.25        17
29    Mayfair    15329.16        16
30    Goosen    15225        12
31    Vn Taylor    15075        14
32    Sabbatini    14829.16        13
33    Oberholser    14712.5        14
34    Choi    14656.25        14
35    Sluman    14650        18
36    Els    14548.33        13
37    J.Ogilvie    14509.28        15
38    T.Clark    14335        14
39    Olazabal    14187.5        11
40    Austin    14187.5        17
41    Flesch    14118.21        18
42    Ames    14037.5        11
43    Allenby    13925        12
44    Hoffman    13800        15
45    Chopra    13758.07        16
46    Imada    13542.5        16
47    Crane    13322.5        14
48    Warren    13254.16        16
49    Villegas    13500        14
50    JJ Henry    13087.5        12
51    Lehman    13025        12
52    Love III    12762.5        13
53    Sean O'Hair    12749.5        14
54    Pavin    12475        11
55    Harrington    12450        10
T56    S. Maruyama    12450        12
T56    Rollins    12450        12
58    Branshaw    12433.33        14
59    Purdy    12375        12
60    Slocum    12325        14
61    Kenny Perry    12212.5        13
62    Barlow    12200        14
63    Palmer    11954.16        14
64    Watney    11935.71        14
65    Garcia    11912.5        10
66    Bertsch    11731.25        16
67    Rose    11716.66        14
68    Leonard    11533.33        13
69    Wetterich    11525        10
70    Stricker    11375        10
71    Herron    11247.5        12
72    RS Johnson    11230        11
73    Andrade    11107.5        12
74    Micheel    11075        12
75    JB Holmes    11070.83        11
76    Gove    10987.5        11
77    Waldorf    10975        14
78    Bryant    10944.5        12
79    Hart    10830        12
80    Parnevik    10767.5        12
81    Baird    10642.5        11
82    D. Maruyama    10641.07        12
83    Lonard    10610.71        13
84    Sutherland    10550        14
85    Bub Watson    10400        10
86    Leaney    10300        11
87    D. Howell    10150        9
88    Lickliter II    10150        12
89    Jobe    10067.5        12
90    Poulter    10062.5        10
91    Dickerson    9991.07        14
92    DiMarco    9909.37        10
93    G. Owen    9850        10
94    Mahan    9837.5        14
T95    Curtis    9762.5        12
T95    Gronberg    9762.5        12
97    Lowery    9725        12
98    Maggert    9700        10
99    F.Jacobson    9675        10
100    Estes    9650        12
101    Sindelar    9487.5        13
102    Azinger    9450        12
103    Br.Davis    9342.5        11
104    Beem    9318.75        11
105    Olin Browne    9262.5        15
106    Howell III    9187.5        14
107    Frazar    9112.5        11
108    Goggin    8600.25        7
109    Kent Jones    8600        11
110    Cook    8575        10
111    Gore    8503.57        8
112    Couples    8437.5        10
113    B. Haas    8437.5        12
114    J.Smith    8425        12
115    M.Wilson    8415        11
116    Durant    8368.75        15
117    Calcavecchia    8321.66        16
118    Kaye    8225        12
119    O'Hern    8200        6
120    Faxon    8150        11
121    Fischer    8137.5        12
122    Franco    8112.5        9
123    Overton    8003.57        13
124    Kendall    7873.21        10
125    Cabrera    7862.5        7
126    Bjornstad    7742.5        11
127    Armour III    7687.5        9
128    Langer    7641.66        10
129    Atwal    7575        9
130    Geiberger    7506.25        12
131    Trahan    7400        8
132    Triplett    7208.33        9
133    Brehaut    7150        11
134    Riley    7025        11
135    Baddeley    6962.5        8
136    JL Lewis    6937.5        11
137    J.Byrd    6862.5        5
138    Sheehan    6850        12
139    Barron    6606.25        9
140    Gamez    6537.5        11
141    Petrovic    6525        9
142    K. Cox    6466.66        8
143    Pat Perez    6350        8
144    Ridings    6412.5        12}

"It was more 'Back to the Future'"

The Hartford Courant's Bruce Berlet talks to Rees Jones about his rees-design of Medinah.

"There were substantial changes, and Tiger and Phil [Mickelson] noticed them when they played practice rounds since it's only seven years since the last major was there," Jones said. "They said they liked them because they can visualize shots better and probably execute them a little more efficiently with the blindness taken out and the bunkers in play in the right spots on the fairway and closer to the greens."

Did they now? 

Jones first viewed the course in 1999, and the project was approved in 2001 and renovations made in '02. He likened the overhaul to what he did at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., for the 1988 U.S. Open. He might do more to Medinah before the 2012 Ryder Cup.

"The club is very proud of its heritage and was just trying to keep up with the times," Jones said. "They had a combination of different architects and wanted to consolidate the design style. We took out everything that had been built in the last 20 years and rebuilt the greens as they looked 50 years ago.

"It was already a pretty long course, so we didn't want to stretch it too much. It was more `back to the future,' and now it looks older and more classic."

Oh yeah, those bunkers just scream Wadsworth...errr...MacKenzie. 

"Will Golf's Integrity Stand Test?"

Damon Hack in the New York Times looks at the possibility of steroids or beta blockers in golf and offers some interesting perspectives.

“Up until this point in time, I would have said it is a fairly laughable question,” Joey Sindelar, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, said in a recent interview. “The guys in my era weren’t workout guys. It didn’t used to be such a brute strength thing. But we’re getting some serious 6-1 baseball-player-type guys. There’s probably going to be a time when you’re going to look at guys and say, ‘Well, sooner or later somebody is going to cross that line.’ ”

And why love him, Joe Ogilvie:

“We market the long ball,” said Joe Ogilvie, a PGA Tour professional and member of its policy board. “We market the guys who hit it 300 yards. If that’s your message, and people see that beginning at the high school level, I think as a tour it is very naïve to think that somebody down the line won’t cheat.

“As it gets more popular and the zeroes continue to grow to the left of the decimal point, I don’t think there is any doubt that there will be cheaters,” Ogilvie added. “Golf is all about length, and the U.S.G.A., the P.G.A. of America and, to a certain extent, the PGA Tour are perpetuating it by blindly lengthening every golf course. It doesn’t seem like they have a whole lot of rhyme or reason.”

Now Joe, we know there's plenty of rhyme and reason: because it's so much easier than altering the ball! And the side effects are wonderful too. Possible drug usage, adding misery to the game, inflating costs. It's all good!

“Maybe I’m naïve, because I have a hard time believing that anyone would cheat, I really do,” said Tom Lehman, the 1996 British Open champion and the 2006 United States Ryder Cup captain. “The culture of golf is such that you play by the rules.

“If you read in the paper that Tom Lehman just won the U.S. Open and he just took a drug test and he’s been using the clear for the last two years, the guys out here would vilify me,” he added, referring to the steroid tetrahydragestrinone. “It’d be over. For that reason alone, almost, it would keep guys clean.”

But there is no drug test, so you don't have to worry about being villified...

Commissioner, care to dance?

“We are monitoring the situation very carefully and we are making sure that players understand that steroids and other illegal substances are in violation of the rules of golf,” Finchem said. “It’s no different taking a steroid to prepare for a golf tournament than it is kicking your ball in the rough.”

Oh, good one! Though I like David Fay's baseball metaphors much better. Of course, they don't work too well on this subject.

“We don’t think it’s prudent to test just because somebody someplace thinks all sports should test,” Finchem said. “Having said that, if some pattern emerged or, candidly, let’s say that didn’t happen, but it just got to the point that no sport was considered clean, then we would have to take aggressive action.

“If we did test, we would not fool around. We would test aggressively and effectively. We would convince people that we are what people think we are in 2006. If we did it, there would be no hesitation on the part of the players. I would predict 100 percent participation.”

Hack offers this:

While there is no evidence suggesting steroid use on the PGA Tour, two players — Jay Delsing and Joe Durant — said they have heard of competitors taking beta blockers, which are often prescribed for heart ailments but can also be used to combat anxiety.

The extent of beta blocker use — and its effectiveness — has been debated for years on the PGA Tour. In 2000, Craig Parry of Australia said that three players, whom he did not identify, had won major championships during the 1990’s while using beta blockers.

His comment prompted Nick Price, a three-time major champion who took beta blockers during the 1980’s because of a family history of high blood pressure, to say that the drugs hurt his golf game by making him sluggish. (Price has said he won his three major titles after he stopped taking beta blockers.)

Durant, also a member of the PGA Tour policy board, said the anecdotes he had heard about beta blockers are similar. “I have heard of guys taking them and saying that they didn’t help them at all,” he said.

Delsing added: “As an athlete, you want your senses. It would be like, ‘I’m calm, but I don’t know where I am.’ ”

These folks really need to read up on the latest anti-depressants!

Dr. Linn Goldberg, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University and a spokesman for the Endocrine Society, said beta blockers could affect people differently, but that they are often used to combat a person’s adrenaline flow.

“You can see that happen with someone putting, or shooting archery, or a doctor using it if before giving a talk,” Goldberg said in a telephone interview. “It does steady your nerves because it combats adrenaline when you get nervous or your palms get sweaty and you have a crowd of people around. It mellows you out.”

When Finchem was asked if he was concerned about players using beta blockers on the PGA Tour, he said the Tour’s research found that beta blockers did not help golfers. He said the Tour had anecdotal evidence from three or four players.

“At least two of those players were on prescription, Nick Price being one,” Finchem said. “They had such a negative impact that they saw a dilapidation that made it very difficult to play the game.

“We have never had much of an indication by players that there is use, and in the isolated incidents we’ve seen, it has been as much as a negative as anything.”

Haven't we worn out this Nick Price anecdote enough? How about a study? You know, after the ball study wraps up sometime this decade?

When Woods was asked for his opinion on testing, he answered the question with his own set of questions. “I think we should study it a little bit more before we get into something like that,” he said. “Where does it start? Who does it? Who is in control of it? What are the substances that you are looking for?”

Sindelar, too, said he recognized the complexity, but he also acknowledged the time for testing may be near.

“It’s at the Olympics, it’s everywhere,” Sindelar said of steroid use. “That’s what goes through my mind. If you said you needed a name, I couldn’t say, yes, it’s that guy. But if it’s everywhere, what that says to me is, why do we think golf is insulated?”

Because it is Joey. Isn't that good enough, because we say so?

Ryder Cup Points Watch, Week 3

According to Jim Nantz on today's telecast, if Tom Lehman wins The International, he moves up to 7th on the U.S. list with one week to go.

With a loss to Dean Wilson on the second playoff hole, he instead moves up to 19th.

Ponder that!

^{1    1    Tiger Woods      36    4,150.000
2    2    Phil Mickelson     43    2,474.375
3    3    Jim Furyk     51    2,076.000
4    4    Chad Campbell     51    1,129.602
5    5    David Toms     49    1,072.250
6    6    Chris DiMarco     50    830.000
7    7    Vaughn Taylor     60    780.833
8    8    J.J. Henry     62    778.750
9    9    Zach Johnson     59    756.477
10    10    Brett Wetterich       46    746.000
11    11    John Rollins     58    685.000
12    20    Stewart Cink     52    676.894
13    12    Jerry Kelly     62    653.750
14    13    Lucas Glover     61    641.376
15    14    Davis Love III     48    631.875
16    15    Fred Couples     39    627.727
17    16    Tim Herron     54    621.667
18    17    Tom Pernice, Jr.     64    615.000
19    29    Tom Lehman     41    612.917}

Meanwhile in Europe, the names with the dashes next to them are in right now. 

^{The Ryder Cup World Points List
Updated:   07 Aug 2006
Position     Player Name     Points
-1     David HOWELL     207.27
-2     Colin MONTGOMERIE     205.90
-3     José Maria OLAZÁBAL     202.09
-4     Henrik STENSON     201.76
-5     Luke DONALD     192.25
6     Sergio GARCIA     187.96
7     Paul CASEY     165.33
8     Padraig HARRINGTON     154.46
9     Carl PETTERSSON     154.12
10     Robert KARLSSON     151.46}

^{The Ryder Cup European Points List
Updated:   13 Aug 2006
After the The KLM Open
Position     Player Name     Points
1     Colin MONTGOMERIE     2434316.11
2     David HOWELL     2274635.98
-3     Robert KARLSSON     1870581.77
4     Henrik STENSON     1782888.71
-5     Paul CASEY     1721833.85
-6     Sergio GARCIA     1634091.27
-7     Padraig HARRINGTON     1514027.44
-8     Paul MCGINLEY     1473112.24
9     José Maria OLAZÁBAL     1381698.05
10     Paul BROADHURST     1336905.57}