R.I.P. Ernie Amsler

Ian Andrew forwards the tragic news that the Angus Glen superintendent hosting this week's Canadian Open passed away unexpectedly.

Sabbatini To Player: Name Names So You Can Be More Unpopular Than Me!

Okay, that's not exactly what Rory said, but Norman Dabell writes that Sabbatini wants Gary Player to name names when making steroid accusations. Perhaps so that the South African great will be even more disliked than his young countryman.

"If you're going to say something, don't say half of it, either be quiet and let things be or spill the beans," Sabbatini told a news conference on the eve of the Players' Championship of Europe near Hamburg.

"I don't believe there are guys that are doing that."

This was also interesting, and yet more evidence that Niclas Fasth actually ponders these issues before he speaks.

Fasth, though, thought drugs in golf, which is not based on the power and strength required for sports that have frequently been caught up in doping scandals such as cycling and athletics, could still give some an unfair advantage.

"Certain drugs make you calmer and lower the pulse rate, so they would have their place in golf as much, if not more, than any other sport," Fasth told a news conference.

"It would be hugely disappointing to me if I was having a tough battle down the closing holes and my opponent had taken drugs to help him." 

Jagshemash!!

Looks what's coming to the European Tour. I think we know what Borat would say. Niiiiiiiiiccee! 

ALMATY, July 25 (Reuters) - The Kazakhstan Open will debut on the European Tour next year, elevating the first professional golf tournament in the oil-rich Central Asian country to main-tour status after three seasons on the junior circuit.

"Next year the tournament will be co-sanctioned by the Challenge and European Tours," tournament director Konstantin Lifanov told Reuters on Wednesday.

"But staring from 2009, we will be part of the main European Tour with total prize money of over 2 million euros ($2.76 million)."

Held at the picturesque Nurtau golf course near the commercial capital Almaty, the Kazakhstan Open made its professional debut in 2005 as the richest event on the Challenge Tour with 250,000 euros in prize money, increasing each year.

Final Round Open Championship Clippings, Final Edition

The U.S. golf publications posted the best of their Open coverage much faster than usual.

John Hawkins, with this fun anecdote in his Golf World game story:

"When we first started working together, he said, 'Everything has always come hard for me,' " said sports psychologist Bob Rotella, whom Harrington has been seeing for five years. "Then on the putting green [between the end of regulation and the playoff], he reminded me. He said, 'See? I told you. Nothing comes easy for me.' "

Brett Avery's stat package (PDF file) is now posted and though I prefer to savor this in print, I snuck a peak at his "Cool Stat" and "Fast Facts" and thought this probably explained why the bookies had Padraig at a surprisingly high 24-to-1:

Padraig Harrington had missed the cut in seven of his last 11 starts in major championships.

There is also an interesting chart of recent World Ranking positions of major winners. Though Avery didn't include an average for each major and I think I know why: Ben Curtis's win from the 396th spot severely skews the numbers.

Jaime Diaz not surprisingly refuses to do a standard goodbye to Seve piece, and instead juxtaposes the young Seve with the young Sergio.

Ballesteros -- sometimes petty in his battles with the PGA and European tours, often arrogant in his bearing -- has somehow always possessed dignity, all the more because he has suffered. It was the enduring image of his farewell British Open performance last year at Hoylake. Battling his way to scores of 74-77, Ballesteros' uncomplaining intensity in the face of overwhelming obstacles, as his 16-year-old son, Baldomero, carried his bag, was a father's stoic lesson in character.

Garcia, 27, who is winless on any tour since 2005, is now learning in earnest all about the suffering the game can impose, and his dignity is in development. The two men certainly possess some things in common. Both were prodigies. Both have wonderful artistry and flair.

Tim Rosaforte takes time away from this television work to pen a nice summary of No. 18's various antics.

Bill Fields pens another of his enjoyable essays, though I stopped reading after page one because as with the stat foldout, I prefer to read this in print. Still, this note about Ernie Els's wife Liezl caught my eye. 

He drove poorly at the second but recovered to save par. Routine pars at Nos. 4 and 5 were followed by a birdie at the par-5 sixth. Recording every shot was Els' wife, Liezl, who I first noticed by the fourth green. Most partners are constant presences watching their men play golf, but Liezl does more than watch. A tall, sandy-haired woman who married Ernie in 1998, she has been plotting the details of Ernie's major-championship rounds since the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla CC in Louisville.

Using a mechanical pencil on a 5-by-8-inch notebook, she records every shot played by her husband and his fellow competitors on diagrams of the holes that she has sketched earlier.

Liezl got the idea from the British artist Harold Riley when Els and Nick Faldo were playing a match at Leopard Creek in South Africa in the mid-1990s. "He told us -- it was Brenna [Cepelak] and me -- that it would be a fun job for us to record every round they played," Liezl explained.

Did Harold also suggest that Brenna try taking a 9-iron to Nick's Porsche? Pathetic, I know, but it was just there...

"I knew I couldn't do it every tournament, so I decided to do it at the majors. It's still quite a stack, spread over three houses. I'm trying to get them all in one place."

She downplayed her efforts -- "Harold's work is beautiful; mine is just a record," she said -- and volunteered that Ernie never looks at the notebooks. When I suggested they might fetch a nice sum for a favorite charity some day, she said she would keep the archive in the family. "It's a keepsake, something I'll pass on to my children [Samantha, 8, and Ben, 4]. I'm a little worried about them fading away, since they're in pencil, but somebody told me there is something I can spray on them to preserve them."

Over at golf.com, SI's Alan Shipnuck offers his Hot List while Jim Gorant's traditional "Up" and "Down" chart is posted, with Bobby Clampett making the "Down" list:

Bobby Clampett
King of the obvious, master of the cliche, spinner of swing jargon — Jed Clampett would be better.

Newsflash! Kostis: Links Vulnerable When Wind Is Down

In light of Carnoustie's recent Open Championship where apparently the course wasn't hard enough those times the wind died down and temperatues rose enough players were assure that frost bite wouldn't be an issue, Peter Kostis observes:

When the wind is calm, good players can shoot low scores, but on foul-weather days (which are frequent along the coast of the North Sea) the course can be a real brute. The design flexibility of links courses is often limited because designers have to factor in worst-case scenarios with regard to weather so the golf course remains playable. But when the weather is not there, the golf is less demanding.

Ah the flaws of links golf. Amazing the game survived those less demanding dogtracks!

Roberts Deems Faldo An Instant Open Threat; Three Writers Hospitalized With Injuries Induced By Extreme Eye Rolling

I guess Loren Roberts thought it would be rude to tell the assembled inkslingers at Muirfield that Nick Faldo hasn't got a bloody chance since he's spent most of the year in the booth.

Well, he sort of did.

"We all expect him to be instantly competitive, especially here. But he's doing 44 weeks of television now, so that will limit his practice time."

New Stanley Thompson Book

It sounds promising...

 Stanley Thompson is one of golf's most acclaimed course architects. Almost a half-century after his death, Thompson's genius is still recognized by the notable position of the courses he crafted in the list of Canada's top-100 courses. He still has more of designs on the list than any other architect.

In honoring Canada's most famous golf course architect, Photoscape Publishing has just released a 192-page, full-color, coffee table-style book. The stories and pictures in "The Golf Courses of Stanley Thompson" provide insight into the methods, techniques and genius of the fabled designer.

Thompson is responsible for four of Canada's top-10 golf courses, twice as many as the next architect. The book provides details on 25 of his courses, including: St. Georges, Highland Links, Jasper Park, Banff Springs, Capilano and Westmount. Each course is showcased in a six-page layout with stories by noted Canadian golf writers and the photography of Mike Bell.

In addition, the book contains a series of 11 two-page mini-essays on the eccentricities of Thompson and the timelessness of his work as described by industry writers. The book is a must for any golf aficionado's library.

Love Takes Week Off To Better Position Himself In FedEx Cup

Secure at 84th in the FedEx Cup standings, Davis Love only has to secure six top-8 six finishes (or the top 6 eight times), or win twice, or give Senior VP Ric Clarson a ride on his camper to accumulate enough points to get in the Tour Championship. Therefore he has opted not to enter this week's Canadian Open, even though he just finished a design redo of host site Angus Glen's North Course.

Since the first week of May, Bill Paul has been expecting Davis Love III to be playing in this week's Canadian Open. But not having him in the field, on a course he was paid handsomely to tweak, represents the biggest disappointment of the year to the tournament director.

"Every time we talked from The Players Championship on, he was going to play," Paul said yesterday of Love. "He is the biggest disappointment ... obviously, he should be here."

Love, who missed the cut last week at the British Open, is the name behind the design company that made several subtle changes to the 7,320-yard Angus Glen North Course.

When he was in Markham to discuss the changes he made in early June, Love was noncommittal about his plans for the $5 million (all figures U.S.) championship that begins Thursday.

He said one factor in the decision would be his form heading into the final few weeks of the PGA Tour season; if he needed to crowd his schedule to make enough points to qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup playoff, he said he'd give the Canadian Open serious consideration.

Just look how that 144-man cut off is making guys add events!

Of course, getting to Toronto from Carnoustie was very, very, err...easy.

Huggan and Schofield On The Open

Ken Schofield and John Huggan talk about the Open Championship over at golfalot.com and Huggan takes a nice jab at USGA President Walter Driver.

They also have an interesting give and take on the issue of drug testing.
 

"Don't be surprised if he shuts down his season after the PGA Championship next month"

SI's Michael Bamberger notes that Sergio Garcia's post Open Championship comments put Jean Van De Velde's collapse and post-'99 perspective into, well, perspective.

Garcia blamed his bogey finish at the 72nd hole on bad luck, slow play and a greater plan. ("It wasn't meant to be," he said.) Eight years ago Van de Velde, who is not playing now because of an undisclosed illness, told reporters, "Don't look so sad."

On Sunday night Garcia sarcastically told the throng, "I'm thrilled." His pain was perhaps understandable. He had been a king for three days.

And he offers this, which ought to be well received in Ponte Vedra.

Phil Mickelson used to have the damn-me-with-faint-praise title as the best golfer never to have won a major, and then he went on a Tigeresque tear, winning three majors in two years. (He missed the cut at Carnoustie, and don't be surprised if he shuts down his season after the PGA Championship next month, skipping the Presidents Cup and all the season — ending FedEx Cup events to fully rest his strained left wrist.)

Final Round Open Championship Clippings, Vol. 3

Even with the allure of links golf outside their windows, golf's finest scribblers produced some excellent reflections Monday. Though they still missed one major, huge, enormous, earth-shattering story (I'll get to that in a moment).

Doug Ferguson reflects on Padraig Harrington's win, his hard working nature and the state of European golf.

James Corrigan talks to Harrington after a night's sleep...

 "We went to bed about 4am and I woke up about six, just wide awake," explained her husband. "I woke up my wife and said, 'I actually did it - I am the Open champion'. The trophy was at the end of the bed and both of us were just looking at it in awe. Caroline was kind of, 'Yeah, I can't believe there's the trophy and everything, but can we go back to sleep now?'" She was not allowed to.

There was just so much to take in for Padraig and the rest of the Harringtons as the scale of his triumph became apparent. In Ireland, their first major champion in 60 years - indeed, only their second major champion ever - was already being crowned their biggest sports star. By extension, Harrington's thrilling play-off victory over Sergio Garcia was being voted on radio shows as the finest individual achievement in the history of Irish sport.

This is amazing...

"You know, I just can't wait to watch this tournament on TV as I had no concept of some of the things that went on," he said. "For a start I didn't realise until 11.30 last night that Andres Romero had a two-shot lead with two to play. No idea at all. That just shows how in the zone I was and what a good place I was in."

Padraig quickly used his newfound authority to call on the Open to return to Ireland. And David Hill of the R&A quickly shot that down.

"Portrush is a fantastic course and I looked at it in great detail about five or six years ago. It would be a fantastic venue, but only for about 15,000 people a day."

More than twice than figure watched Harrington beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off at Carnoustie on Sunday.

The K Club near Dublin was the first Irish venue to stage the Ryder Cup last September. However, Hill added: "It's also referred to as the Open Championship played in Great Britain. That's where it lies at the moment, but it's never a closed book."

Well, I think we can close the book on the K Club.

Uh, has anyone ever heard of it referred to as the Open Championship played in Great Britain? Should that be in all caps?

The Principal clips some of the best photos from Sunday and offers profound captions.

USA Today's Michael Hiestand loved ABC's British Open telecast, though he fails to acknowledge that it was actually ESPN on ABC. Shameful. And as Chris Lewis noticed that readers at golf.com weren't so enamored. Did Mike Tirico quietly confirm at the end of Sunday's telecast that ABC err ESPN on ABC's Faldo-Azinger would not be back next year by suggesting the next time we'll see them is the 2008 Ryder Cup?

Okay, and completely missed was the news that Sergio jumped from 22nd to 11th and Padraig from 79th to 19th in Fed Ex Cup points.

Now this is an important delineation because we know that in the simulations, the top 3 seeds will need a win, two “mid-pack” finishes and a week off to win the FedEx Cup, the 4-8 seeds will need a win and a top 5, while the 8-15's must win once, record a second and listen to Rush Limbaugh regularly. And for Padraig and the other 16-30's, he must win a playoff event, register a 2nd and a top 5 that really needs to be a top 3. And the seeds at 31 and over need two wins, a drug-free physical exam and 40 hours of time served at Tour Bible Study.

The excitement is contagious!

Finally, Lawrence Donegan reminds us that while the Open highlighted a great setup on a fantastic course, the old chaps running the show still have a ways to go.

The response of the players to the challenge laid before them was universally positive, as must have been the reaction of the wider public watching at home on television. In stark contrast to this year's Masters and US Open, both of which fell victim to the misplaced belief in some quarters that watching great players struggle to make par is somehow great golf, the 136th Open was a truly uplifting sporting spectacle, with great golfers able to show off their skills.

Fast forward...

Off the course, the tournament was played out against a steady diet of controversy and cock-up. Much was made of a succession of rules problems and, while some of the coverage was overblown, it was notable that the majority of the mistakes were made by "amateur" officials who had been drafted in for the week, rather than by professional referees from the various tours who have both the experience and knowledge to handle the pressure of officiating at major championships.

By far the most insightful contribution on the subject came from the Ryder Cup player Niclas Fasth who, when asked if the game's most high-profile players received favourable treatment from referees, replied: "It happens frequently." This rather gave the lie to that old chestnut about golf being the last sporting bastion of fair play for all.

And thanks to Lawrence for reminding us about the positive test results in France...

Gary Player's intervention on the subject of drug use in the game was also instructive, if only in the sense that it highlighted the continuing failure of the game's governing body to tackle the issue. For years, the R&A has insisted not only that there are no drug users in golf but that drugs would not improve a golfer's game. There is a queue of experienced physicians who would argue otherwise, just as the available evidence, notably in France, where drug testing in golf has been in place for some time and has thrown up several positive results, suggest the problem is real and ongoing.

And on our old chap Graham Brown, who is in day 4 of his race rehab work...

Brown, it was said, was not representing the views of the R&A when he made his ill-judged speech. No doubt this is true. But as the golfing caravan moved on and the gentlemen in blazers returned to their sanctuary in St Andrews, one was left to wonder where on earth he picked up his despicable views or, more to point, where he came to believe that uttering such bile in a public forum was somehow acceptable behaviour.

And I wonder why they can't do anything about the ball! 

Kimberly Kim Shoots 62

Uh, she's 15 and she did it at the U.S. Girls Junior, tying a USGA scoring record held by Christina Kim.

And of course Kimberly already has a U.S. Women's Amateur trophy on the shelf.

R.I.P Taylor Smith

John Maginnes remembers his friend and the one-time PGA Tour player who passed away at the age of 40.

"He then reached the 71st tee with nine strokes left to win but proceeded to top a 4 iron into the burn and take 6."

In the madness that was Andres Romero's run yesterday at Carnoustie, I'm shocked, SHOCKED, none of the announcers remembered this from Daniel Wexler's essential Book of Golfers:

Buenos Aires native José Jurado (1899-1971) was a golfing pioneer in the truest sense, for while early British professionals ventured out to parts unknown with the psychological might of the world’s biggest empire (both golfing and otherwise) behind them, Jurado traveled thousands of miles to challenge the British golf monolith on its own turf.  He was not, however, without ammunition for as his homeland’s first great player, Jurado won the Argentine Open seven times and was, in Longhurst’s summation, “a brilliant golfer.” 

Jurado contended several times at the Open Championship beginning in 1928 at Royal St George’s, where he trailed two-time winner Walter Hagen by one through 54 holes, then blew up with a closing 80 to finish joint sixth.  His golden opportunity, however, came three years later at Carnoustie where rounds of 76-71-73 in difficult conditions stood him three ahead of the pack through 54.  He then reached the 71st tee with nine strokes left to win but proceeded to top a 4 iron into the burn and take 6.  Then, even more sadly, he laid up at the par-5 72nd in the erroneous belief that par would still put him in a playoff when, in fact, a birdie was needed and there he was, alone in second, one behind the victorious Tommy Armour.

Wild!
 

Final Round Open Championship Clippings, Vol. 2

A few more items I didn't pick up last night worth your time.

Scott Michaux says "it's impossible to feel sorrier for Garcia than Garcia feels for himself."

Jim McCabe thinks Sergio's post round complaints about the slow bunker raking at 18 were "petulant."  Of course, it didn't help that the raker paused to wave to the crowd after completing the second bunker!

 Ewan Murray and Lawrence Donegan catch up with Bob Torrance, Padraig Harrington's longtime teacher.

John Huggan on Andres Romero's round:

The statistics are startling. Romero, a 26-year-old Argentinian in only his second full season on the European Tour, made 10 birdies, two bogeys, two double bogeys and only four pars in 18 holes of topsy-turvy golf that will live long in the memory. Remarkably, until he agonisingly made the second of those bogeys at the final hole, he had recorded neither a par nor a bogey on the back nine. His last par figure of the day came on the 7th.

Brian Hewitt sheds more light on Padraig's work habits.

This unbylined BBC report quotes Peter Dawson as saying that Carnoustie is firmly in the Open rota (and miraculously, Dawson's next sentence did not totally contradict his previous statement!)

And he also commented on the drug issue...

"Let me say first of all that it is very easy to say that people may be taking drugs and that no-one can refute a statement like that," said Dawson.

"But there is absolutely no evidence or anything for these remarks in the game and I think most of the top players in the game today have backed that view."

Amazing they have such wisdom without testing!

Owen Slot features Dick Pounds's quotes from his BBC appearance.

“The PGA has resisted any acknowledgement that there may be a problem,” Pound said. “We would be happy to sit down and help golf come together with a significant and robust programme. I have said [to the PGA], ‘Look, this is your opportunity to lead, not to be forced to follow, so get on with it. The time is now. “ ‘You should do this while you still have the initiative, rather than being forced into it as the result of a scandal. Then you are going to have the whole of golf regarded with suspicion. Do it now before there’s a big public problem.’ ” The tardiness of the PGA to respond to drugs-testing is in contrast to the European Tour, which is to start testing in the new year.

Pound said that his “suspicion” was that there are professional golfers who are using drugs. “Gary Player says he knows, so that’s fairly powerful medicine from somebody who has only the integrity of the game at heart,” he said.

“It comes from one of the icons of golf who has no particular axe to grind other than to try to maintain the integrity of the sport. It’s a wake-up call that has not come in such stark terms to date from the golf community.”

Asked what he had been told to arouse his suspicions, Pound said: “Some say they know, others say they strongly suspect, but it’s really not the point.”

And finally, Lynn Truss isn't afraid to explain that they are growing a wee bit bored with Americans from the flyover states winning.

Yesterday morning, we winced collectively at the possibility that the event might be won, yet again, by a neat, upright Midwesterner of whom many golf fans had basically never heard. Take nothing away from Stricker’s great third round, of course. Take nothing away from Ben Curtis, from Ohio (winner, 2003, Royal St George’s) or Todd Hamilton, from Illinois (winner, 2004, Royal Troon), either. Whoever wins on the day is self-evidently the best player of the championship and should be respected accordingly.

But it remains true that the event is somehow undermined by every additional obscure, generic-looking, “run that name past me again, squire” champion – all the more so (one regrets to say) if he hails from a flat middle bit of the United States.