Choi Vows To Give FedEx Cup Grand Prize To Charity If Anyone Can Explain The Point Permutations

Actually, Doug Ferguson reports, Choi just wants to win and give the $10 million annuity to charity. Pretty nice. Except, it doesn't work that way. Tiger Woods explains, and it doesn't sound like he's a big fan of the setup:

Q. Yesterday K.J. Choi said if he won the FedExCup he would donate the entire $10 million to charity. Just wondering if you had a reaction.
TIGER WOODS: Well, you don't get the $10 million. You know that, right (laughter)?

Q. You don't?
TIGER WOODS: No, it goes right into your retirement account, so he may want to donate but he can't until he actually retires.

Q. So when he's 65?
TIGER WOODS: Then he can donate it, yes.

Q. How much do you think that takes away from the prize, if you will?
TIGER WOODS: I think it does a little bit, because you're actually not really playing for the $10 million. I may be dead by the time my retirement fund comes around for me to be able to utilize it.

Q. Did you have any input on that?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I think we all did, but it just didn't turn out that way. 

You know, the first question with a $10 million prize would be, "what are you going to do with the money?" But they really won't be able to ask that of the champion will they?  

“Wait, No. 17 is a par 5?”

This popped up a few months ago but Golfweek's Beth Ann Baldry brings up the sore subject of the absurd and insulting decision to play the Road Hole as a par-5 for the Women's Open Championship. 

Susan Simpson, director of championships for the Ladies Golf Union, said the powers that be bantered around a bit on making the decision. Moving to a forward tee was not an option since they wanted to preserve the unique feature of driving over a building attached to the Old Course Hotel (optimum aiming target is the letter of your choice on the “Old Course Hotel” sign).

In the end, Simpson said the decision to bump it up to a par 5 was made because officials were more concerned about the degree of skill required for the second shot rather than the distance.

In other words, the women can’t handle it.

Suzann Pettersen disagrees.

“Why wouldn’t we be able to play it as a par 4?” she asks. “We’re good enough.”

Pettersen hit 4-iron into the green Wednesday but hit wedge into it downwind the day before. Even Mi Hyun Kim, one of the shortest players on tour, hit 7-wood to the back of the green.

Kim dropped a few balls on the road and experimented hitting different shots. Her caddie said the locals suggest using a hybrid or a putter. Kim tried to metal wood but preferred her wedge.

Plenty of players will be looking to find the front right portion of the green, clear of any danger and hope for a two-putt. Others will try and go long left – anything past the pot bunker – if the pin is toward that side of the green (which it will be on several days).

Why mess with over the green like Tom Watson in 1984, who hit 2-iron and and landed against the stone wall? (Former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw hit one off the wall in today’s pro-am round and nearly made it on the green.) Why risk dumping it into to the Road Hole bunker like David Duval in 2000 and walking off with an eight?

Lorena Ochoa plans to play it safe, hitting 3-wood off the tee and then aiming front right. Her caddie, Dave Brooker, feels the hole loses some of its drama as a par 5. He joked with Ochoa that every time she makes a five on the 17th she’s really making bogey. Count him as a traditionalist.

Annika Sorenstam’s caddie, Terry McNamara, feels the same way.

“I think par 73 doesn’t sound right,” McNamara said. “Let it be 72 and whatever you get (on No. 17) you get.”

"When everything's said and done we'll lose $3 million. It's a concern."

John Strege files a fascinating (and sad) Canadian Open game story in this week's Golf World, though I could swear only part of it made it online and I read some other interesting stuff in the print version about the slugs who used the chartered flight provided by the tournament, but skipped out on playing. Anyway:

Two of the preeminent stars in golf gave the top of the leaderboard a sheen that belied the troubles lurking beneath the surface. For the second straight year, the Canadian Open was played without a title sponsor. "When everything's said and done," tournament director Bill Paul said, "we'll lose $3 million. It's a concern."

This, too, was the first year of a six-year contract for the tournament to be played in this dubious place in the schedule. It will dramatically hinder its ability to secure a field worthy of a national championship that began in 1904 and counts among its winners Walter Hagen, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods, an event Furyk said once "probably had a feeling about it that it was the fifth major." Tournament management even chartered a plane to ferry players from Scotland to Canada, as an inducement to British Open participants who might have been balking at playing the Canadian Open because of the logistics. Among the 18 players who accepted the offer was Furyk, who was coming anyway.

Mickelson Committed To Not Answering Anymore Questions About Playing All Four Playoff Events

Sam Weinman reports that Phil has signed up to play at Westchester, making it possible he'll play all four playoff events and more importantly, to stop the inkslingers from those repeated questions about his FedEx Cup playoff plans.

Tiger has taken the same wise route, noting his "intent" to play all four events.

Women's Open Championshp Photo Caption Fun, Vol. 1

Let's keep these G rated. Well, okay, PG-13 maybe. From the Golf For Women blog, Paula Creamer at St. Andrews:

 

That's St. Andrews?

Reader Jordan found this ESPN.com golf homepage photo a big confusing. The caption says its St. Andrews, but unless they painted the Old Course Hotel white and moved it, I think it looks an awful lot like Carnoustie. 

(click image to enlarge)
 

"Their deplorable arrogance and stunning lack of judgment has left most...pondering how in the world the USGA got into such a situation."

Golf Digest's Local Knowledge blog did a little follow up on Golf World's Chris Millard authored cover story on USGA President Walter Driver, with this major chink in the groupthink armor:

Attorney and journalist Gary Galyean, as a longtime USGA volunteer on the rules committee (he officiates at most USGA championships), possesses  an insider's perspective on the workings of the USGA and its volunteer network. He also authors "Gary Galyean's Golf Letter," a bi-monthly newsletter about the golf industry, and in the July/August issue, he penned a no-holds-barred assessment of the present state of USGA affairs:

Media Center
Anyone who has spent time around the press, particularly when they are concentrated in one media center covering one event, knows that they are a tough crowd. That's their job. Attempting to control what they write or broadcast always backfires. GolfWorld's June 8th cover story -- Can the USGA survive Walter Driver? The tumultuous reign of the association's controversial president -- set the early tone in the U.S. Open Media Center. There was blood in the water. No matter how it was spun, Mr. Driver's standing with the press was built by him and his performance on and off stage during his years as vice president and president. Post-championship columns continue to reflect an assessment that refuses to be spun by glad-handing or verbal dexterity.

Oh that was just a little warm-up graph. Now the fun begins. 

USGA Volunteers
The volunteer base serving in various capacities at the Open were nearly universal in their dissatisfaction with the direction the USGA has taken under the presidencies of Fred S. Ridley and Walter W. Driver Jr. Corporate jets, corporate partnering, an arrogance of power, an attempt to stifle open discussion, packing the Executive Committee, and the general turning away from the association's traditional values were topics continually at the center of whispered discussions during the Open.

 You mean, everyone wasn't talking about what a tall, handsome, well constructed man Walter Driver is?

A fractured fissure grew wider between those who have served for years in order to extend and improve golf in America and those who are either new to the USGA culture, or, like the current and immediate past president, simply don't get it.

Ouch. Now here's a very important point:

As distasteful as the past three and a half years have been, of greater concern is the impact both Mr. Ridley and Mr. Driver will have as rising, successive chairmen of the Nominating Committee. Mr. Ridley will serve two years as vice chairman (2008, '09) and two years as chairman (2010, '11). Mr. Driver will vice chair Mr. Ridley's chairmanship and follow with two years in the chair (2012, '13). For six years they will influence the selection of those offered positions as USGA officers, Executive Committee members and Nominating Committee members.

Oh I don't know, you don't think 15 vulture capitalists with MBA's or law degrees from Stanford can right this ship?

Their deplorable arrogance and stunning lack of judgment has left most of the senior volunteer base disappointed, disoriented, weighing the future donation of their time and expertise, and pondering how in the world the USGA got into such a situation.

Following the Nominating Committee debacle of 2004, the past presidents were blamed for exerting too much influence often without explanation or accountability. Executive Committee members with proven, effective records were sometimes dismissed without explanation, while weaker substitutes were elevated for, once again, unexplained reasons. For outsiders, it was like forecasting the political landscape of the Soviet Union based on who was sitting where at the annual Politburo banquet.

Oh boy, insinuating communist activities. That ought make for some good water cooler conversation at Goldman Sachs.

The public and press outcry in 2004 to what appeared to be yet another arbitrary and unwarrantable change to the Executive Committee precipitated a monumental change in the nominating procedure. The emotional goal was to eliminate vagarious, capricious, out-of-touch control by the powerful past presidents. The effect, however, in reality lessened the influence of those who, regardless of sometimes fickle or unexplained political maneuvering, understood the culture of the USGA.

The lessening of the influence of those who "get it" created a political vacuum into which strutted those who don't. And their influence will be felt until 2014 unless the nominating system is amended again.

Very truly yours,

Gary A. Galyean

Whoa. It's about time somebody from the inner circle speak out.  

We Love You Natalie! We Really, Really Love You!

Wow, I had no idea how desperately the golf publications were clamoring for a chance to milk a Natalie Gulbis win!  Golf World buried a PGA Championship preview for an action shot of Gulbis and all 6 feet of her legs. 

Meanwhile at golf.com's homepage you can't miss the soft core porn shots.

And I, being a total hit whore as much as the next blogger, am only posting this so that I can join in and exploit her smooth, tan, toned legs after this site welcomed 6000 new unique visitors in a three hour stretch yesterday thanks to Deadspin.

But just to show you I have standards, first, here is a teleconference call transcript helmed by Brian Robin. And second, to remind you what a first class operation this is, note that I did not not type the words "Natalie Gulbis nude photos" to attract hits from the inevitable 1000 daily unique Google searchers who truly have nothing to do at the office. Nope, I have standards. 

“It’s just so amazing. It’s just breathtaking."

You have to give Michelle Wie points for this one liner, talking about the Old Course, as quoted by Alistair Tait at Golfweek.com:

“It’s the most interesting golf course I’ve ever played,” Wie said. “You actually aim to hit another fairway. This year I’ve been doing that by accident – now I’ve been doing it on purpose.

And of course, you know I'm swooning reading this. Big points:

“It’s just so amazing. It’s just breathtaking. It’s quickly become one of my favorite golf courses.”

Wow, you’re a lot shorter than you look on TV."

AP's Scott Sonner scribbled this down from 5'1" Tadd Fujikawa, who is making his pro debut at the Reno-Tahoe Open:

“Maybe I will grow. If I stay short, that’s OK,” he said. “A lot of people say, ‘Wow, you’re a lot shorter than you look on TV. That’s the main thing, as long as I look taller on TV.”

"Would anybody watch a Grand Slam of Golf without Tiger?"

That's what the Naples News's Tom Patri asks.

I would ask, did anybody watch a Grand Slam of Golf with Tiger?

"One more time, it's not technology that makes golf courses obsolete. It's a lack of imagination on the part of the architect."

Blooper and Gaffe over at GolfDigest.com apparently had nothing better to do so one of them put together a "Ryder Cup-like" team of short hitters to compete with the other one's team of semi-bombers to prove that, uh, apparently a Ryder Cup squad can include any nationality!

Oh, and it's a completely useless opportunity for their bi-weekly subliminal message that distance isn't harming the game, we don't need to regulate the ball because our friends in the equipment industry must be free to create more products to boost third quarter earnings.

Of course, it's fascinating to read B&G they break out their pom-poms for the new USGA groove regulation, which is being forced on the golfing public because the USGA claims there is no correlation between success and driving accuracy on the PGA Tour (remember that when you buy a new conforming wedge in 16 months).

Even more fun is this post about how it's all the architects fault that courses are becoming obsolete, not the equipment.

The model that architects should be following to allow grown men to continue to shop unfettered by common sense regulation?

Brown Deer Park! Where they say some Parks and Rec dude had the vision to see it all coming and designed a bunch of holes that take driver out of your hand.

One more time, it's not technology that makes golf courses obsolete. It's a lack of imagination on the part of the architect. You don't need 7,400 yards to test the best. Last week, 6,759 proved more than enough.

Yes, legions of viewers will tune in to watch the Brown Deer Parks of the world. That'll really lift the PGA Tour ratings to new heights!

Oh, and Tiger doesn't play the Brown Deer Parks of the world boys. So give it up.

Another Castle Stuart Video From YouTube...

Blogging The Women's Open Championship

Thanks to The Golf Chick for catching John Huggan's post from St. Andrews on the Golf For Women blog, which has really become a lively and interesting spot in the blogosphere since the last time I looked. (And a very readable look too.)

Ron Sirak is also filing posts on the Local Knowledge blog and he has some early reaction from players who are in awe of the place. No Scott Hoch's in this bunch.

I Wonder If The Green Bay Packers Could Have Skipped A Playoff Game If They Wanted To?

Yes, I'm that taken with Ric Clarson's metaphor.

Especially since Chris Lewis notes that Phil Mickelson's online schedule does not list this year's first playoff event, the Barclay's at Westchester. And Tiger never has listed the Barclay's on his web site.

Of course Tiger also doesn't list the Western BMW or The Tour Championship TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP (maybe he didn't want to look to presumptuous about his expected FedEx point tally!).

Are these playoffs if they are not mandatory?