It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
If you have nothing better to do Saturday, I'm going to be trying a new live blog software that supposedly allows for us to interact, but in my trial run I couldn't get that working.
Anyway, you should be able to view it by logging in here or going to Altcaster and searching "Shack" under current altcasts to follow along. I'll get going in earnest around the time Tiger tees off at 2 pm, noon Pacific.
Wait, let me close the window because a light fog just rolled in and I don't want to get cold here. You know, the town where they'll never play another PGA in my lifetime.
The game stories were all a bit different but everyone focused on the 18th hole scene surrounding Tiger's quest for yet another record. Here's Steve Elling's game story, Doug Ferguson's AP piece, and from the other side of the pond, James Corrigan filing for the Independent and Lawrence Donegan with a lively account that Guardian readers will enjoy.
To put the 63 into a little context, here's my Links cover story from earlier this year looking at the vaunted 63 mark and various theories as to why it hasn't been broken. They also posted a list of the other 63's.
Michael Bamberger says the 63 was another reminder of how easy Tiger can make it look and that the PGA will be the key to breaking Jack's record.
He'll get to 18 because the PGA is a relatively easy win for him. It has a deep field — advertised as the strongest field of any tournament except the Players Championship — but few golfers in the dog days of August are ready to take on Woods in full throttle.
Angel Cabrera, the U.S. Open champion, and Zach Johnson, the Masters champion, both missed the cut here at Southern Hills. Both looked worn out, Cabrera physically, Johnson mentally. The sauna-like conditions will do that to you, but the PGA is hot most years. Tiger used to perspire like crazy, but at Tulsa on Friday he looked like an ad for some new Nike product, one that takes perspiration and turns it into some sort of cash-and-prizes incentive system.
Jim Furyk is playing hurt, Vijay Singh is off his game, Bob May's not in the field, John Daly's 100 pounds overweight, and Woods is 7-0 in majors where he leads after 36 holes — who's going to beat him? Who has his level of intensity and desire and fitness? Nobody.
Mark Lamport Stokes reports on Paul McGinley's hardly-noticed 66.
Gary Van Sickle is rooting for Scott Verplank because the OSU grad doesn't take himself too seriously.
Jeff Rude says Tiger's use of irons off the tee is almost a replay of Hoylake last year.
John Antonini wonders about several fun things over at Golf Digest's Local Knowledge blog.
These Sports Network notes put Tiger's 63 into context and they tie up several other odds and ends.
Thomas Bonk starts out his notes with a look at Phil Mickelson's position at two-over.
Doug Ferguson starts his notes off with news that Lucas Glover and John Rollins are hoping to make the President's Cup team. Wait, we did that last year. No other young Americans have emerged? Can we claim Andres Romero? Nope, Ferguson says he's on the bubble for the International squad.
Chris Lewis is glad not to be at Southern Hills and notes those AmEx ads starring Shaun White.
GolfDigest.com's photos are here, GolfChannel.com here and golf.com here.
And Nancy Armour tagged along with John Daly. Guess who was in his gallery...
Thing is, Daly doesn’t do anything by anybody’s plans. Never has. Which is why, despite the blistering heat and suffocating humidity, a Tiger-sized gallery was following every move of the topsy-turvy 3-over 73 that turned him back into America’s favorite side show after a brief stay atop the leaderboard at the PGA Championship.
“For some reason,” wife Sherrie said during a brief interview Friday as she walked the course, “everyone likes John.”
Whoa...guess the charges weren't filed.
Just two months ago, Daly showed up at a tour stop in Memphis with a face full of scratches that he blamed on Sherrie, saying she came after him with a steak knife. They’ve since reconciled. Or at least are getting along well enough for to come to Southern Hills with the kids.
Don’t ask about it, though.
“That’s where we end,” Sherrie Daly said.
But it’s hard not to love the big lug. That’s why the people keep showing up.
“I’ve been telling him he could win soon,” Sherrie Daly said. “He’s due. He hasn’t had much luck.”
Well maybe if you weren't trying to kill him!
If that didn't do it for you, here are the links to Friday's interviews, including Woody Austin's cranky exchange:
Get out your thinking caps, deep revelations to follow, courtesy of TNT's PR department:
Bobby Clampett on Scott Verplank’s college nickname: “(College teammates) nicknamed (Verplank) “Five” when he was in college after a five-star general and the way he would always take charge. He is taking charge this week.”You know, the research he does is just breathtaking.
Clampett’s thoughts on Verplank’s mindset: “I consider Scott (Verplank) one of the most self-motivated people I’ve ever met.”Translation: he goes to PGA Tour bible study without Bobby reminding him!
Kostis on Jeff Sluman’s future plans: “(Sluman) is going to turn 50 and go out on the Champions Tour. He’s going to win the PGA Senior Championship and come right back (to the PGA Championship) with an exemption.”A reason to live.
Ernie Johnson on John Daly’s first round: “I don’t know if we have enough paper or if the press center had enough paper for John Daly’s quotes after day one.”
That's why they don't use Underwood's anymore Ernie.
Clampett on watching Daly play: “(Daly) is like a tight-rope walker with vertigo, you wonder what is going to happen next.”
Kind of like your announcing.
Highlights from Tiger's subdued (he explains) post-63 press conference:
KELLY ELBIN: Tiger Woods, ladies and gentlemen, in with a round of 7-under par 63 in the second round of the 89th PGA Championship. With this round of 63, Tiger becomes the 21st individual to shoot 63 in major golf championship history. The score also equals the course record set by Raymond Floyd in the opening round of the 1982 PGA Championship.
Here's the list of 20 who have done it prior to Tiger.
Q. Tiger, amid all the allegations that Southern Hills was a Tiger tamer, how did it feel to put that to rest and also how did that last ball not go in?Tigerphiles, refresh my memory, has he talked much about that with his father in 1996? A follow up is in order, either way.
TIGER WOODS: As far as the first part, I finished 12th in the U.S. Open. It's really not that bad. And my dad had a heart attack, was placed in the hospital in '96. So those are my two appearances. I really can't say it's really that bad.
But as far as that last putt, I was trying to make it. And I hit it a little bit firm and I thought I made it, because it was breaking at the end. I knew it broke a lot more at the end than at the beginning. Started diving.
Evidently didn't want to go in.
Q. Digression a little bit.
Ah, at least the rally killer is preparing us...
There was a memorial service for Bill Walsh today at Candlestick/Monster Park. They read a telegram from you during the ceremonies, and ...
Okay back to the 22nd 63 in major championship history:
Q. After a personal best round in a major, you don't seem brimming with satisfaction. How satisfied are you?
TIGER WOODS: I'm very satisfied, Tom. I'm just really hungry (smiling). I just want to go home and go eat. That's the only reason why I'm pretty mellow right now. I ate a banana on the way in here and that wasn't enough.
Q. After a round like this, what do you do preparation-wise where it appears you're doing everything correctly? Are you afraid to touch a club, you might screw it up in preparation for tomorrow's round?
And...
TIGER WOODS: No, I'm not going to go out there and practice. I didn't practice at all last week after my rounds because it was hot and humid. Conserve my energy and make sure I'm fired up and ready to go for the next round for tomorrow.
Check this out...
Q. When you're going over your birdies, it was 2-iron off the tee, 3-iron, 4-iron, how much is the dog legs, how much is it the ball carrying in the heat, and how much does that fit into your confidence when you can hit those clubs off the tee?
TIGER WOODS: I've been hitting 4, it goes 240, 230. 5-iron, between a 5-iron and 6-iron off of 10. The ball is going a long way. 3-under 2-irons because it's so hot and you get the right wind. You have to have the right wind to hit these that far.
And it's just the way the golf course is playing. And I just play it to my spots just like I did in '01, just I'm hitting it a little bit better than I did in 2001.
From Geoff Ogilvy's post round chat with the media, talking about Tiger's secound round 63 and not particularly well transcribed based on what I saw on Golf Channel:
GEOFF OGILVY: Birdie on 18 for 62. I think that would be cool. No one has done it in a major. Justifies the setup. If it's set up straight, it shows that it's possible to have a great score and it's possible to have tons over par. That's what we're all -- that's what we're all asking for. We can't ask for any more than this, we're playing in this week.And this was interesting...
Q. When you won the U.S. Open you didn't even have to worry about Tiger being there on the weekend, would that affect your attitude tomorrow because you go out knowing that given past history he's probably not going to come back, you're going to have to go get him?Thanks for that Kelly.
GEOFF OGILVY: Makes it easier, doesn't it, because now you've got nothing to lose if you don't win. No one expects you to. If you do, you go out and do it. That's the way I look at it. You know you'll have to play well. He's the best front runner in history. Probably.
So you don't want him to get too far in front. If you've got someone to chase, maybe you play a bit freer. Maybe it's a good thing.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Geoff's best finish in the PGA Championship was a tie for 6th in 2005 at Baltusrol.
Bowell and Gout had me fooled for a minute. They actually posted negative thoughts on the USGA's preposterous concept of regulating grooves to make pros throttle back and therefore, hit the ball less far. GolfDigest.com's finest bloggers make several fine points about the number of problems this will create, particularly on the enforcement end. Great stuff.
And then, that sensitive subject of the golf ball was brought up by a commenter Chuck, and Gout flew into his traditional tizzy.
Here's Chuck:
Yes, you guys are right about these kinds of rules seeming to be incomprehensible to the average golfer.
And yes, you guys are right to worry about the confusing effects of this kind of 'bifrucation' of the rules, in grandfathering older model clubs for 10 years or so.
And yes, you guys continue to miss the boat on coming to the realization that better regulation of golf balls would probably avoid both of the aforementioned problems.
Fix the problems with the golf ball regulations. Period.
Okay, strap in, here's Gouge/Stachura in full-blown Ted Stevens mode, almost as fun as his last meltdown where he said we need to move on stop worrying about protecting Augusta and St. Andrews.
GOUGE responds: Chuck. You are the ultimate one-note song. Changing the ball regulations is a pursuit only justified if you think it important that we keep certain major championship courses relevant. I don't care how far the ball goes. And I'm never going to care until I hit 400-yard drives. At the PGA Championship, there are nine players under par at the shortest major championship course of the year. What do we do? Roll the ball back 10 percent, 15 percent? What does that accomplish other than letting us go to Merion and a bunch of other courses that time has passed by.
Oh boy.
They don't run the Indianapolis 500 on bricks. They shouldn't play major championships on venues that don't demand the ultimate skills from the competitors. But I'm bored by this argument. Roll the ball back. See if it makes you pedantic luddites feel better.
Getting personal! That always makes your case.
I know it won't make a dang bit of difference to anything that happens in the game at the elite level, but you'll feel better and superior.
No, it wouldn't make any impact at all to see guys hit drives and to have courses no longer getting narrower and longer at their own expense. Nah...
Great. Let's see if we can get everybody to hit it no farther than 285, what does that accomplish? Reduces the game to a second shot exercise, big deal. Take 15 percent off every tee ball? What does that do other than shift the same rank order down 30 or 40 yards? Why, why is that better off? So we can go back to Myopia Hunt? So we don't have to stretch old courses outside their current boundaries, destroying the charm of these layouts? But keep banging your shoe on the table, Khrushchev. I'm sure you'll get your way for a cause that makes just as much sense as his.
Wow, such passion. I wonder if the new logo has anything to do this passion? Is that a paid placement? Or just a happy coincidence?
Another in the priceless press release division:
Peter Thomson, five-time British Open Champion and principal of Thomson Perrett and Lobb Golf Course Architects, has signed an agreement in St Andrews with UAE based Al Qudra Real Estate, to design the company's first signature golf course in the Middle East.You know, somehow I don't see Peter Thomson talking about international benchmarks for sustainability and healthy living. But I could be wrong.
Thomson Perrett & Lobb will design a traditional, classic style championship golf course at Ain Al Emarat, an award-winning residential and leisure development being built near Al Ain, the second city of the Abu Dhabi Emirate and known as 'The Garden City of the Gulf.'
Peter Thomson, said: "The growth of golf in the Middle East has been phenomenal and TPL is honoured to contribute to the growth of the sport in the region by creating a unique, traditional style course in a groundbreaking city, that will set international benchmarks for sustainability, healthy living and sporting opportunity."
In a ceremony held at The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews overlooking the world famous 'Road Hole,'
Wouldn't Old Tom be proud...
Peter Thomson signed an agreement with Mr Victor E.J. Orth Jr, CEO and General Manager of Al Qudra Real Estate – a subsidiary of Al Qudra Holding – for the design of the golf course, which is set to be a major attraction for residents and visitors at Ain Al Emarat.
I wonder if The Old Course Hotel is as close to the site as Peter will get?
Victor E.J. Orth Jr, said: "TPL has a commitment to excellence in golf course design that mirrors our corporate ethos and we look forward to creating a golf course that will thrill the residents of the UAE and its international golfing visitors."
TPL has joined forces with global architectural practice HOK, creators of the new Wembley and Emirates stadia in London, to design the golf course as part of this groundbreaking city.
Plans for the residential and sporting development have already won a prestigious award. HOK won the award for 'Best Masterplan' at the recent Building Exchange Awards 2007, held in Valencia, Spain in June. The award recognised HOK's success in creating a sustainable, innovative design in collaboration with key partners, in particular Thomson Perrett & Lobb.
They do love their awards over there.
The TPL golf course will act as a centrepiece for the development alongside a landmark 40,000-seat indoor sports and entertainment arena, which will be built to the same standard as HOK's acclaimed Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club.
The championship golf course will harness natural topography, including rolling sand hills and views to the nearby mountains, as well as benefiting from TPL's expertise in sustainable golf course design. The use of recycled effluent will reduce water requirements and will be offset by minimal use of excess turf to keep the golf course in harmony with its natural desert environment.
Al Qudra Real Estate is the successful real estate division of Al Qudra Holding, an important strategic partner for organisations looking for investment opportunities in the UAE. The development at Ain Al Emarat is set to redefine 21st century living through its appreciation for the balance between work and leisure.
Sign me up!
Now that the vitriolic comments lobbed Gary Player's way have quieted down following his comments on the possibility of performance enhancing drug use, Michael Bamberger makes an interesting point:
But if he wants to talk about possible steroid use in golf, who are we to shut him down? For decades, Nicklaus used almost every press conference to say the golf ball was going too far. He did it out of respect for the game and its courses. He was trying to bring about change. Gary Player has won all four of golf's major titles and a whole lot more. He didn't get there by working off a script, and he has no reason to work off one now, whether he's talking about drugs or his captain's picks or anything else.
The fact is, he did golf a huge favor by saying what he said. ("I know some are doing it. We're dreaming if we think it's not going to come into golf.") The denials were fast and furious, from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and Nick Faldo, and even from golfers who will be on Player's international team come September, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Some time ago, Woods said he didn't think drugs were a problem because he didn't see "240 or 250 [pounders], in shape, all cut up, all ripped up. We don't have guys out there like that."
For a man of Woods's intelligence, that's a surprisingly naive comment. "You can have any body type you want on steroids," says Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor who studies the role of steroids in sports. Do any Tour de France cyclists weigh 240 pounds? An athlete takes steroids so that he may recover more quickly from a workout, so that he may workout again. Size has nothing to do with it. Strength, speed and agility do.
Gary Player, the wee little man, proved that 40 years ago, when he managed to use his mushy ball and dead driver to play with Big Jack and Arnold and Billy Casper. He did it with diet and sit-ups and a few hundred balls a day. At 71, not much has changed. His score at the Masters this year was 16 over par for two rounds. On greens that fast, on a course that long, from a man of that age? One-sixty for two rounds is amazing.
With the tournament underway, I'm not sure why you'd want to listen, but here's my chat with Golfdom editor Larry Aylward about Southern Hills and superintendent Russ Myers.
Doug Ferguson's round 1 game story focuses on John Daly's rigorous pre-PGA preparation while Lawrence Donegan's Guardian piece answers who 29-year-old Englishman Graeme Storm is and how he fired an impressive opening 65.
Craig Dolch blogs about the joys of a John Daly press conference, then writes about it in the paper.
Sally Jenkins pens a fun column on Daly too:
Daly caromed across the course and into second place with a round that was loud and precarious, a complete disaster waiting to happen and yet spectacularly averted.
"To be honest, I was waiting to make a seven or eight," he said.
He finished with a 3-under-par 67, but that number seemed meek and hardly descriptive of all that happened on the tight, sun-chapped par 70 of Southern Hills. Most of it he couldn't even remember afterward, he was so exhausted by the 103-degree temperature and his various adventures.
"I only had three heatstrokes out there," he joked.
Golf Digest's John Antonini hopes he's wrong, but smells a Daly meltdown Friday. Especially if he tries that 18th hole tee shot strategy, which Damon Hack highlighted in his game story.
Ed Sherman tidies up any other unanswered questions with his round 1 birdies and bogies.
Oh wait, more John Daly fun from Patrick Reusse in the Minneapolis paper:
Actually, Daly said he handled the heat OK from his experience of living in Arkansas. And, he offered this counsel to the Southern Hills spectators who will be dealing with 100-degree heat for three more days.
"I'm used to these kind of little valleys, where you don't get any air, and there's a lot of humidity, and it's tough to breathe," he said. "I light up a cigarette and drink some caffeine and it actually works."
Asked if he had lost weight during these 18 holes, he said: "I probably didn't lose any because I didn't drink one bit of water. I had Diet Cokes, Diet Pepsis."
Mark Whicker explains Angel Cabrera's 10 at the 6th hole which included a few shots I can't really picture, and I can picture a golf ball doing just about anything! ***Reader Martin notes that PGA.com has posted this video of the 10.
Round 1 photos of people look hot and generally miserable: GolfDigest.com, golf.com and GolfChannel.com.
Gary Van Sickle talks to Arron Oberholser about his injury troubles.
And finally, the various transcripts from round 1 are here:
Thanks to reader Brian for noticing this Jim McCabe rant:
Oh, they've got two picks left and can easily make amends, but US Golf Association officials have committed a terrible oversight. Shame on them for overlooking Drew Weaver with one of the first eight picks for the upcoming Walker Cup team.
Weaver is merely the best amateur golf story of the year, a quality kid with a superb game. The problem is, USGA officials merely look at a small, insulated picture that revolves around their own tournaments.
No, Weaver didn't win the US Public Links Championship. Colt Knost took that honor. He won something miles more impressive: The British Amateur.
No, Weaver didn't qualify for the US Open. He qualified for the British Open, which will forever be older, richer in flavor, and better in scope than the US Open.
No, Weaver doesn't have the luxury of the plush, inner-circle network connections such as Trip Kuehne. He merely has hard-earned results under trying circumstances.
As a sophomore at Virginia Tech, Weaver was within a couple of hundred yards of the tragedy that unfolded April 16 -- a gunman opened fire and when the bloodshed was over, 33 people were dead. In the aftermath of such horror, it would have been easy to crumble emotionally, but Weaver didn't. He saw in golf a chance to help heal deep wounds and even though snobbish amateur tournaments in the United States didn't open up for Weaver, he was undaunted. He did what many American kids would never consider -- he took on the challenge of questionable weather and links golf.
As for how he met the challenge, take note that Weaver won, which got him into the British Open at Carnoustie where he nearly made the cut. Oh, and for added reference, he and his Virginia Tech teammates found the inner strength to finish as co-Atlantic Coast Conference champs a short time after the massacre.
All of it made for a compelling human story, only when you come out of the private clubhouses that make up the USGA world, you don't have any feel for what is real. Instead, you tighten the tie and straighten the blue blazer and ask for the list of those young men who did things the "predetermined right way" and played well in closed-shop tournaments called the Azalea, Sunnehanna, Porter, and Monroe, and, of course, let's not forget someone who 13 years ago reached the US Amateur final.
Let's see, the British Amateur champ is such a coveted title that it earns you a spot into the Masters -- but not into the Walker Cup? What in the name of Bobby Jones is that about? (As a reminder to those picking the Walker Cup team, Jones thought enough of the British Amateur to make it part of his historic Grand Slam in 1930.)
Sure, Weaver can still make the team, but officials have more or less forced him to win the US Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 20-26 at The Olympic Club. Maybe he only has to make the final, or the semifinals, or the quarterfinals, or even match play. Who knows? But the fact that he's been overlooked with one of the first eight picks is a shame.
It's enough to make you root like heck for Great Britain & Ireland when the Walker Cup tees off at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland. I'm sure Francis Ouimet -- who devoted his golf life to the Walker Cup -- would forgive you.
...I can honestly say you guys and gals have absolutely no copying and pasting skills. Not one relevant story worth sharing? I make a simple request and this is what you offer up? Shameful!
(click image to enlarge)To settle the mystery of my secure undisclosed location, I've posted a photo of what I woke up to the last two days. And to answer the inevitable questions. I hit a hybrid where I always hit it, left at the ocean. Provisional made it on the fringe, but found the first one in a horrible lie and chopped it up for my tradition 5. I'm sure you know what hole I'm talking about.
Yes, it remains the coolest, prettiest, wildest place in golf. And I can now say that Room 4 is the best view in golf too.
Now to the most obvious and vital thing I missed today.
The wit and wisdom of TNT's crew. Based on the quotes, I can't wait for Friday's telecast.
From the TNT PR department:
Clampett on Sergio Garcia taking a break since the British Open, where he narrowly missed winning the Claret Jug: “Sergio (Garcia) has not played since the Open Championship. He spent a lot of time with friends and family, played a little tennis, hung out on the beach…just got away from the game and coming here is feeling a little more refreshed.”So he's not quite the
Kostis on missing the fairways at Southern Hills: “Boy, miss the fairways here at Southern Hills and you have stress. You think the heat is a problem, no way (compared to the fairways).”
That certainly might make sense to someone from...Jupiter?
Kostis on Masters Champion Zach Johnson bogeying hole No. 1: “Only good news about bogeying the first hole is you’ve got 17 more to make it up!”
The insights you glean!
Kostis on John Daly not being the prototype player you’d pick to win in the intense heat of Tulsa: “Leave it to John (Daly) to go against the norm. The conventional thinking here is don’t bet on anyone but a thin guy who’s in really good shape because of the heat; that’s not John Daly.”
Ditto the previous pithy comment.
Johnson on John Daly’s approach to golf: “Think back to what John (Daly) said in Carnoustie on the range as he held his Diet Coke and cigarette; he said ‘caffeine plus nicotine equals protein,’ and here he is leading the PGA Championship (as he finishes his first round).”
Okay, I'm thinking back. Now what?
And now we take a break for something worthwhile...
Feherty on how the relationship between a golfer and caddy has changed over the years: “I used to hire caddies for their entertainment value. I figured I was a professional golfer, I played golf for a living and I wasn’t going to ask someone for advice that had been up all night drinking cleaning products the night before. Having said that, caddies have really changed over the last 15-20 years. There are a lot of very professional people out there that take their jobs really seriously and are of terrific help. (Mickelson’s caddy) Jim MacKay and Phil are one of the great pairings out there, and when you do see a caddy that has stayed with a player for a long time you know that’s a special relationship.”
Feherty on the piece showing footage from 1970: “Watching Dave Stockton win back in 1970, that was polyester (he was wearing)! You add polyester to 103-degrees and we’re talking about an entirely different situation.”
Well you knew the fun could only last so long...
Clampett on how to gauge the focus of young players such as Graeme Storm who is leading the first round: “One of the things I look at in a young player when he grabs the lead of the tournament is the speed on his putts. If he’s controlling the speed on the putts, he’s really controlling his concentration and his feel.”
Or drinking lots of Diet Coke?
Kostis on an assertion that David Toms might be looking toward the Champions Tour: “That move right there (bending down for a ball) showed me (Toms) is still on the regular tour because on the Champions Tour when you get to that age, you don’t bend down like that, you tilt your head, keep your legs straight…you don’t get down because you don’t know if you’ll get up again.”
I guess you had to see that one. Tomorrow!
I'm going to be traveling the next three days with limited time to read up on golf and probably not having access to a Wi-Fi signal. I'm not telling you where because it'll just make you mad, especially if you're sweating through your shorts in Tulsa. Hint: I'm gladly packing a sweater and several sleeves of balls. But I'll be back Thursday night and if feeling frisky, I may even try a cool new form of live blogging over the weekend (a big if!).
In the meantime, if there are some stories (PGA or otherwise) you see that should not go unnoticed, please post the links under the comments section here and throw in a few comments if you'd like. (Don't post them as references, those are restricted for spam filtering purposes.)
Thanks!
Hopefully all you need to know about Southern Hills and this week's fascinating setup can be found in my Golf World story along with the photos below. I can't state enough what a great transformation this course has seen in recent years with tree removal and trimming, bunker renovation and the return of short grass throughout the course.
In discussing how great the short grass areas looked, PGA course setup guru Kerry Haigh told me, "you should have seen it when they first put the sod down." He said the tight cut throughout the property looked tremendous, and I wonder if it influenced his decision to start the week with extremely modest 2 3/4 inch rough, which I believe will only get players into more trouble if they try to get cute in going for Perry Maxwell's greens.
Anyhow, here a few of the course setup highlights. You know the drill, click on the images to see the full version.
The first image is of No. 3 green and shows the Royal Melbourne/Augusta pre-second cut look that you will see this week. If they can avoid some big downpours, I think you'll see some approach shots spin off the front of greens and down the fronting slopes thanks in large part to the elimination of the rough and intermediate cuts in these approach areas.
No. 3 (click to enlarge)
The next images are of the par-3 6th. The first is the tee view and the second is taken from the green rear with the par-4 7th in the background. From this angle you are looking back at the green and the area that I hope is used for Sunday's back left hole location. The newly shaved bank and tree removal have really livened this hole up.
No. 6 (click image to enlarge)
No. 6 (click to enlarge)
While walking the course with superintendent Russ Myers we approached No. 7 green and I was so caught up in the conversation that I didn't even remember until a few holes later that I had been standing on a new Keith Foster green. Foster replaced a Robert Trent Jones "look at me I'm RTJ special" that stuck out like a sore thumb. I'd like to think my failure to notice the change upon stepping onto Foster's channeling of Maxwell means he did a magnificent job fitting it in. Or I'm just losing my mind. One of the two. And look for balls missing the green right to roll down and into the creek. Viewed from right of the green:
No. 7 (click to enlarge) The next image shows the new look cut leading into the fairway bunkers, which I wrote about in the Golf World story. Haigh envisioned this for Southern Hills, with the hope of tempting players to flirt with the fairway bunkers. I think the effect will work and even sucker a few more drivers and 3-woods off the tee, which is needed since too many players hit irons off tees like this one during the 2001 U.S. Open.
No. 9 (click to enlarge) The par-3 11th features a new chipping area left that features a 15-foot drop off, radically altering this short par-3. This view is taken from the walk toward the 12th tee.
No. 11 (click to enlarge) The famous par-4 12th also features the tighter cut up to the fairway bunker and this great looking short grass area fronting the creek bank. If they can manage to not get rain and this firms up at all, the second shot here from any kind of iffy lie becomes frightening. Once again, a great example of short grass adding interesting and difficulty where there was once rough. 
No. 12 (click to enlarge)And perhaps my favorite change comes on the par-4 18th where Haigh widened the landing area out so that drives drifting right will now have a recovery shot around the tall trees, whereas last time the best were at Southern Hills, they were hacking out of tall stuff. I think the chance to recover will only get some in more trouble, but as I wrote in the Golf World story, we should see a few really fun slicing recovery shots here.
No. 18 (click to enlarge)
Just a quick weather update from the place where the PGA Championship sure as hell won't return in my lifetime: 75 today with little puffs of fog floating in and out and a nice steady sea breeze starting around 11. No chance of thunderstorms. Enjoy Tulsa! Oh, and stay away from that shrimp dish in the Marriott restaurant. Deadly.
Sam Weinman says he lasted 30 minutes before the heat was too much and reports that Tiger was off at 6 am the day after winning at Firestone the previous day and was done by 11. Now that's impressive! Of course, he also looked like he was about to pass out in the photo golf.com posted.
Brett Avery looks at how temperature impacts ball flight and also shares this list of the hottest majors. Let's hope the Golf World gang updates this list after Sunday to let us know where this year's PGA would have landed on the list.
The strongest field in major championship got uh, well, less strong with the WD's of Carl Pettersson and Jason Bohn. Unfortunately, it sounds like Jim Furyk may be joining them next.
Gary Van Sickle looks at possible President's Cup lineups, in case you care.
Don't miss Ron Whitten's excellent story on the "band of brothers" who help out at majors. Accompanying the piece was some really nice art (left).
And finally, Grant Hall is upset at the pre-PGA coverage blasting Southern Hills. Obviously he doesn't get Golf World!
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
