The only course that will remain difficult under all conditions will be one that is designed and kept for golf of a stereotyped, monotonous character, and this makes a most uninteresting proposition. BOBBY JONES
Available via Amazon (US): Golf Architecture For Normal People
Barnes And Noble (online and in stores)
Bookshop.org option to support local independent bookstores.
Reviews:
"Golf Architecture for Normal People . . . should be required reading for those who are not ashamed to admit they know little about the subject, and for those who think they do . . . . Golf course architecture geeks have trouble slimming their thoughts down to bite-sized chunks, but Shackelford has achieved a remarkable success here." —Independent (Ireland)
"From the relative newcomer who’s slowly getting hooked to those that have played the game for most of their lives and think they know a thing or two, Golf Architecture for Normal People provides a solid and sober perspective that will help everyone recognize why some golf courses are worth playing more than once while a single trip around others is all you’re ever likely to want or need." —Links Magazine.
“It’s a wonderful book. An easy read that arrives just in time for your summer reading list. If you’ve never thought about how an appreciation for course design could heighten your enjoyment of the game, you must check this out.”—The Peterborough Examiner
"As in his prior publications, in his newest book Shackelford shows a deep appreciation for what can be done to create a golf course that appeals to the broadest possible golfing audience…Shackelford’s prose is succinct, often witty, and accessible."—Cape Gazette
"Author, blogger and golf architecture expert Geoff Shackelford, who helped Gil Hanse design Rustic Canyon and restore 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, taps into his passion by creating a guide that helps every golfer understand the nuances of course design. Published by Tatra Press, the 164-page hardcover book is a must-read for every golfer to better understand the game they love." —Golf Pass
"Shackelford provides an informative picture [and]...sprinkles in history lessons about those who planted the game's architectural roots, defines common terms and helps you hone your eyes when it comes to identifying some of the tricks of the trade."—FORE Magazine
"This new book does a great job demystifying golf course design ideas for average players, but can also be a beneficial read fro PGA Professionals and other golf course employees to get a better understanding of their home courses." —PGA Magazine
The final PGA Tour money list where the top 125 are fully exempt next year and the top 30 gets you in the Masters.PGATour.com has the bubble boys heading into Sunday's final round at Disney.
Bob Harig looks at some of the bubble players who missed the 36 hole cut.
And on the Q-school front all of the first stage sites have completed play. Here's a link to all of the various scoring pages.
Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum sat down with the scribblers to talk about playing in the World Cup.
Naturally Boo came through again with more transcript gold...
STEWART MOORE: Heath and Boo, thank you for spending a few minutes with us in the Children's Miracle Network Classic interview room. You guys are going to be representing the United States in the World Cup November 19th in China. I'm sure the world is awaiting Boo Weekley's arrival in China. Maybe talk about what you guys are going to look forward to and then we'll take some questions.
BOO WEEKLEY: I think it will just be fun just to go over there. I know I've only left the country one time, and that was to go to Scotland, and it will be fun to see what's going on.
Q. You played in Mexico, didn't you?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, Mexico, but --
HEATH SLOCUM: That's still North America.
BOO WEEKLEY: Twice then. Yeah, that's still part of North America. Thanks, Heath.
And...
Q. What do you know about China?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's a long ways away. They got the Great Wall of China.
Or...on playing in the World Cup:
Q. Boo?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'm excited to go over there, and like Heath said, it's an honor to represent your country. I wouldn't have gone by myself, though; it's not that I didn't want to represent my country, but I ain't into traveling, especially during hunting season.
Q. What season is it?
BOO WEEKLEY: Deer.
Q. It would be deer season if you were at home now?
BOO WEEKLEY: I would have gotten up at 4:30 in the morning, and I'd probably still be in the woods right now.
Preparing for a future as a player architect, no doubt.
Q. How do you get from home to China?
BOO WEEKLEY: The way I got it figured up. We are going to have to fly to Atlanta or Charlotte --
(Cell phone ringing.)
BOO WEEKLEY: Now I got a phone call. How do you turn this thing off --
Q. You can answer it.
BOO WEEKLEY: I think we go to Charlotte or Atlanta, and then somewhere else, and then over.
Q. How long does it take? Did you look?
HEATH SLOCUM: Eighteen hours.
BOO WEEKLEY: I just know --
HEATH SLOCUM: Atlanta to Seoul to Hong Kong, eighteen hours flying time.
Glad it's them and not me!
Charity was at the heart of the PGA Tour's decision to invite Boo Weekley to represent America in the World Cup, November 19-25.
Can't wait for those interview transcripts where Boo opines on the food, culture and other worldly insights.
Bob Harig reports that you can kind of feel the Fall Series dying right before our eyes and offers up some tough comments from Steve Flesch:
Dubbed the Fall Series, the final seven events on the PGA Tour schedule will mercifully come to an end next week in Orlando, where the biggest stories will revolve around players losing their full-time status (despite making $700,000 this year) or secure veterans who try to fit in golf around visits to the Disney theme parks.And this from another reliable mind:
"There were 100 people following the final group last Sunday in Scottsdale," said PGA Tour veteran Steve Flesch. "It's like a glorified club championship. I don't think that's what the tour intended. And I think they need to address it."
"It's a slap in the face to some of those events to almost label them B-class events," said Daniel Chopra, who was in contention for his first PGA Tour victory at the weather-plagued Ginn. "Disney's been around for years. Vegas has great history at that event. ... We need to do something because these sponsors are putting up a lot of money, and the tournaments are not getting the respect they deserve."
Harig also explores possible solutions, including one that I remember hearing in the early FedEx Cup chatter: points in the fall counting for the following season.
I've always wondered why that notion died. Seemed like a win-win for the Tour, FedEx and the fall event sponsors. Oh, and those guys the Tour revolves around, the players.
I know you'll be shocked to find out, it's a Palmer. Craig Dolch reports:
Ask any player in the field for this week's inaugural PGA Tour Ginn sur Mer Classic about the Arnold Palmer-designed layout at the Tesoro Club, and you'll get a variety of responses.Shuttles. In Florida? Nice.
Some of which you can even print in a family newspaper.
While unfamiliarity with any course causes consternation among golf professionals, especially when they're trying to keep their jobs, a lot of players don't think the course - unlike the meaning of Tesoro - to be much of a treasure.
One caddy called it a "walk-off" course, predicting at least one player will walk off in the middle of the round this week because of its quirky nature, not to mention long distances between holes that will require numerous shuttles from greens to tees, adding to the time of the round.
Another player, when asked about what he liked about the course, paused for a few seconds before he smiled and said, "It's got a lovely clubhouse."Well, that's not entirely true, but...perhaps it's not just the architecture that's the only issue.
To be fair, Palmer was designing this course for high-handicappers who don't come to resorts just for the golf. Moreover, the area has been hit with several storms recently that dumped more than 5 inches of rain, making the fairways soggy and muddy.
"If we hadn't gotten all that rain, it would have been a really good test," said Palm City resident Ken Duke, a Tesoro member who ranks 44th on the PGA Tour's money list. "It's still going to be (a good test), but it would have been a little tougher. I just hope there aren't a lot of negative comments about the golf course because of the long walks. There's nothing you can do about that."
Hitting the fairways won't be easy because they've been narrowed in some spots to 15 yards, flanked by 23/4-inch Bermuda rough, to help put some teeth into the resort course.
15 yards? Take that USGA!
Because of logistical reasons, PGA Tour officials won't use the par-3 sixth hole on the Palmer course, replacing it with the par-4 18th on the adjacent Tom Watson course, making for par-73 layout. Jupiter's Robert Allenby said some other holes don't add up.
"On the 16th hole, I hit a driver that went through the fairway," he said. "So then I hit a 3-wood and that left me with a 3-iron. There's another short hole where you have to hit a driver or a 3-wood just to clear the hazard, then all you have is a wedge going in. It's not your typical course, but I will say this: These greens are the best we've putted on in South Florida this year."
Two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen said he'll rely on an odd combination of clubs this week. "You need to hit your driver and your wedges well," he said. "There's a lot of long holes, as well as quite a few short ones."
Palm Beach Gardens pro Steve Marino was one of the few who wasn't complaining. "I don't know why everyone hates it," he said. "I have no problem with it."
One thing most players agree on is if the winds kick up this weekend, as they're supposed to do, this will not be a course where everyone goes low. Duke was asked to compare the Palmer course to the others used during the Fall Series.
"I think this golf course is five shots harder than any of them, no question," Duke said. "Maybe than some of other courses we play, too."
But no matter what the players say or how much they complain, someone will walk away with the $810,000 first prize this week.
"Everybody is playing the same course," said Johnson Wagner. "It doesn't make any sense to complain about it. Other than it being soggy, the course is in great shape. So just go out and play the course."
...the doomed event can't buy a break. And even worse, now they have to try to find an American to fill in.
Tiger's event at Sherwood has become a media favorite, but surprisingly not because it brings them close to Rustic Canyon and one of their favorite public golf courses in the land. No, it's because it's the one week the players are jovial, the days are short and the is range incredibly close to the media room. In other words, it's an ideal opportunity for the monthlies to stock up on inanities for the upcoming year, so send out East Coast types already bitter about the onset of winter who will gladly ask Padraig Harrington about his favorite soccer football futbol team and grill Luke Donald about what he loves most about America.
Otherwise, no one else should really care who is playing. But in case you are wondering, Mark Lamport-Stokes breaks down the field.
Brett Avery looks at the players on the money list bubble and the unique way that today's players are informed of their current money total.
Chris Wagner notes in covering day one play of the Turning Stone event...
A spectacular first day of weather for the inaugural Turning Stone Resort Championship produced several superb scores, a run at the leaderboard by three Upstate players and the withdrawal of the biggest name in the field, John Daly.
Jeff Gove roared to the top of the pack early Thursday, capping his round of 7-under-par 65 with one of the first eagles of the tournament. His 101-yard sand wedge shot landed a foot above the hole on the 18th green and sucked back into the cup to the delight of some of the 3,500-plus spectators at Atunyote Golf Club.
Just curious, was the old B.C. Open at Endicott better attended than that?
...not up showing last year!
From Sports Business Daily:
NBC earned a 3.3/7 overnight Nielsen rating for the final round the the Tour Championship, the final leg of the inaugural Playoffs for the FedEx Cup, from 1:30-6:00pm yesterday, up 200.0% from a 1.1/2 overnight rating for the Tour Championship in '06, which aired in early November on ABC from 1:00-5:00pm. Tiger Woods won yesterday's event to clinch the FedEx Cup title. Woods did not play in last year's Tour Championship. Saturday's third-round coverage earned a 2.8/7 overnight from 2:00-6:00pm, up 86.7% from a 1.5/3 overnight on ABC last year from 3:30-7:00pm. During the same weekend last year, ESPN aired coverage of the 84 Lumber Classic, and overnights were not available.
And who said there were no benefits to them skipping the 2006 finale?
Based on the link, I believe this is Jim Moriarty's East Lake/Tour Championship game story for Golf World.
Besides evaluating the FedEx Cup as somewhat of a success, he writes:
In the end it was just too easy at Easy Lake. Poor Bobby Jones must have been weeping somewhere for the honor of his home course. Rain Thursday turned the greens from semi-dirt to soft dirt, and Tim Clark, one of the 24 non-competing markers in the field, tied the then course record on a rain-interrupted day with an eight-under-par 62, highlighted by a pitch-in for eagle on the 15th. The real rain, the remnants of Hurricane Humberto, was scheduled to hit Friday, but the worst of it took the I-285 bypass around Atlanta, and it was Woods who reigned instead.
In a six-hole stretch from the fourth through the ninth holes, Woods went seven under par for a front-nine 28 and felt pretty darn bad about it, too. He holed a bunker shot from a semiburied lie on the fifth and made a 70-footer for eagle at the ninth. "The ball was bouncing every which way. It was left of the hole, it was right of hole, left of the hole, right of the hole, and then it went in," he said. No fist pumps or finger-pointing this time, just a bowed head and a sheepish "gee-I'm-sooooo-sorry-about-that-guys" grin.
And skipping a bit...
Easy Lake, formidable only when someone drove it in the wet Bermuda rough, was so defenseless that through 36 and 54 holes only two of the 30 players were over par. It really bared its gums in the third round, however, when Johnson's 60 and Geoff Ogilvy's 62 were proof that even though the slow, soft greens were bad, they weren't unputtable.
Now I understand the situation with the greens.
But did this tournament also serve as a reminder that extreme, even outlandish measures would be necessary to keep a land-locked venue like East Lake relevant in today's game where a 6-iron is some players' 210-yard club and 3-woods carry 300?
Now I know our friends Bacon and Grease over at Golf Digest think that it's okay for classics to become irrelevant, because you simply move to another venue that's 7,600 yards. But considering all that has been invested in East Lake and will be invested soon with the greens resodding, should there be some discussion at PGA Tour headquarters about the long term viability of this venue? And dare I say, some discussion about possibly asking the USGA when it's ball study will be wrapping up?
I sure don't see a U-groove ban making East Lake more relevant no matter how firm the new greens get, do you?
That kiss-the-trophy moment, courtesy of Rob Matre's site. What's being said between Tiger and Finchem?
Jeff Shain looks at the low scoring at the playoff venues, and based on Woody Austin's remarks, this must be stopped because there was just way too much cheering, excitement and a fun viewing to be had! It MUST be stopped!
The notion that playoff tests are supposed to be stiffer is taking a beating during the PGA Tour's version. The average score at all four FedEx Cup events has come in below par.
Despite tougher conditions Sunday, East Lake GC ranks as the tour's second-easiest venue in 2007 at 1.68 strokes below par. Part of that stems from greens recently babied out of intensive care.
That wasn't a factor at the first three events, all of which ranked among the upper third of the PGA Tour's easiest layouts. Last week's BMW Championship was third, The Barclays 11th and the Deutsche Bank Championship 14th.
''If this is going to be our playoffs,'' Woody Austin said, ``I'd get three better venues that are a little bit tougher that might wean out some [players].''If you are going to be Mr. Quotable Woody, let's crack open a dictionary before we use those big words like wean. And despite all of those birdies, somehow the playoffs managed to produce the best player ever as a winner.
Steve Hummer took on the same subject and delivers good news: order will be restored next year.
The highlights:
"It's OK to have a tournament where they don't beat us up every day," Phil Mickelson said.Now this was encouraging:
Behind the scenes, though, there did not seem too much concern over how the ridiculous scoring reflected on the tournament and the golf course.
"It's fun to watch, actually. We heard roars that were very similar to about two hours east of here [Augusta National], with all the birdies," tournament director Todd Rhinehart said. "From that perspective I think it's been great for our fans and our hospitality clients and sponsors to witness great golf and a lot of birdies."
But for the egos of Tom Cousins and the members? Apparently not so hot...
And what might the winning score be in 2009, he was asked. "More like 7 or 8 under," Rhinehart said with a smile.
Now, no one wants to see balls plop down like that, but it's a boring course to watch when they are lighting it up. It's even more tedious when everyone is making a series of forgettable pars.
This beauty from Woody Austin spotted on Steve Eubanks' blog:
Behold the Tao of Woody: After shooting back-to-back rounds of 65 and working his way into the final twosome on Saturday with Tiger Woods, golf's resident philosopher, Woody Austin said of the world's best player, "When he's playing well he's not hard to beat, but he's hard to catch."
Doug Ferguson's Tour Championship/FedEx Cup finale game story features so much, well, cynicism. There's hope for the AP yet!
The FedEx Cup didn't change anything but Tiger Woods' bank account.It did seem like the worst case scenario was a Tour Championship battle in the final group whle another battle for the Cup took place in the early groups. Actually, a Tiger rout was much worse.
The PGA Tour's "new era in golf" came to a familiar conclusion Sunday when Woods captured the Tour Championship in record-setting fashion, closing with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory at East Lake and his seventh title of the season.
The only difference?
This was the first time Woods walked away from one tournament with two trophies.
Along with winning the Tour Championship and its $1.26 million prize, Woods was a runaway winner of the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes into his retirement account.
If this was supposed to be the "Super Bowl" of golf, Woods spent most of the final round running out the clock.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem first presented Woods with the crystal trophy from the Tour Championship. Before handing him the FedEx Cup trophy, Finchem alluded to the tour's promotion of the FedEx Cup by noting it had never been kissed.
And it still hasn't.
Woods simply held it aloft as the thousands around 18th green cheered.
Meanwhile, Steve Elling's football-inspired lede:
As it ultimately turned out, Tiger Woods could have taken a knee in the PGA Tour's so-called playoff finale and still won the biggest bonus in sports history.
But this is far more interesting:
None of the four players who had a mathematical chance of passing him this week earned enough points to eclipse what Woods had when he arrived at East Lake. So in addition to skipping the FedEx opener at Westchester, he could have taken a siesta this week, too.
Ric Clarson, one of the FedEx architects, seemed slightly taken aback when that fact was relayed during the final round. "That'll be a hard stat for us to look at, that he still could have won while only playing two," he said.
Gary D'Amato explores that angle a bit more in this piece and shares these astounding numbers, with-you guessed it-a football tie-in.
He breezed through 12 playoff rounds in a mind-blowing 59-under par. Throw out a "warm-up" 72 in his first playoff round and these are his scores: 64-67-67-67-67-65-63-64-63-64-66. That's not golf, it's the jersey numbers of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line.
Woods' adjusted scoring average this year is 67.79, which exactly matches his record average in 2000.
Meanwhile, Rob Matre posts final round images to go along some of his other fine work from the week, as does golf.com.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
