When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
ADT Day Two Roundup
/Ron Sirak reports on the ADT Championship's exciting Friday cut that included a Gulbis-Sorenstam-Miyazato playoff and now a clean slate for tomorrow's round of 16. Sirak writes:
Unlike the FedEx Cup, which extends playoff drama over four weeks, the ADT Championship compresses it into four days. There are some players -- make that quite a few players -- who don't like the $900,000 difference between first and second place, feeling that is too severe of a punishment for what could be a one-stroke loss. But it is exactly that drama that gives this event its identity.Meanwhile Greg Stoda misses the point of the ADT and laments the entire thing, longing for rewards to those who play well along the way.
While it seems odd that the goal of the first two days is to finish 16th and Saturday's mission is to be no worse that eighth, that's part of the charm of this tournament. And with the quality of the players that advanced, it seems certain that Sunday will be a scintillating shootout for a million bucks.
Where's Marty Hackel When You Need Him, ADT Championship Edition?
/Mi Hyun Kim probably could have lost the ear muffs for this interview. Where's the LPGA brand team monitoring their own product to prevent fashion boondoggles like this?
"I believe the commissioner mis-spoke"
/Shocking as it may seem, apparently the Brand Lady was not entirely accurate in her Wednesday remarks about control of the ADT Championship's television production. Craig Dolch reports:
Who's calling TV shots?: When LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said Wednesday that for the first time her tour would be producing all nine hours of television for this week's ADT Championship, that was news to NBC Sports executives. Especially executive producers Tommy Roy and Tom Randolph.
"We are doing the production of everything," Bivens said. "That means we are covering the nine hours of this tournament. We've worked in combination with the Golf Channel and with NBC, but for the first time the LPGA will be guiding what is seen on television."
Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC sports, said Thursday that's not the case.
"I believe the commisisoner mis-spoke," Miller said. "They are producing some of the below-the-lines aspects of the telecast on site and the LPGA did oversee the productions of some vignettes on some players.
"But clearly the television you see this week, the guys calling the shots and having the final say will be Tom Randolph (Thursday-through-Saturday on Golf Channel) and Tommy Roy (Sunday on NBC). No golf ever goes on air of our 29 golf telecasts without our executive producers doing the producing."
To The Far Hills Affiliates...
/...I'm wondering if you are still able to read this site? I understand that in rapid response to dreadful events from earlier this century, the webmasters have finally gotten around to restricting USGA staff access to MySpace, YouTube videos and some blogs.
While traffic from the greater Far Hills area has remained steady here, I am curious if this web site made the, uh, cut?
“The classic model of houses ringing a golf course is dying"
/
Sallie Brady of the New York Times looks at emerging trends in golf course housing development and lists some of the cutting edge communities of note.
Got to love the frank lede:
There's never been anything terribly sexy about living in a golf community. Imagine cookie-cutter spec homes dotting yet another dull par 4 in Myrtle Beach, and you get the picture. Even if you like the game and are in the market for a vacation home, you may never have considered buying in one of these old-style resorts.
Fast forward...
“The classic model of houses ringing a golf course is dying,” said John Kirk, an architect with the New York firm Cooper Robertson & Partners, who designed homes at WaterSound, a beachside golf community in the Florida panhandle. “Instead the golf course is like a big public green,” he said, adding that “people want to be able to walk to the post office or to get their morning coffee.”
Vacation home buyers continue to get younger — a median age of 47 in 2006, down from 52 in 2005, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors — as more families move in next to the retirees at golf communities. Developers have responded by offering more design options, holiday kids’ clubs and summer camps, and myriad recreational activities beyond the driving range.
But the question is whether there are enough buyers for these new golf retreats. “The long-term demographics are favorable,” said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. “It would not be surprising if we saw the vacation market hold its own while the rest of the market declines.”
"Somebody's built a better mousetrap already."
/Okay, the George O'Grady line about testing Tiger first and if he's clean, why does it matter, was cute. One of those fun comments that seems so clever at the time, and upon further reflection, remarkably short-sighted.
Sadly, Jim Litke of AP (who normally gets it right) takes the bait again in wheeling out the tired argument that pro golfers are God's gift to integrity because they call penalties on themselves, therefore, they would never pop a pill or light up a joint. And furthermore, there really aren't that many benefits to using performance enhancing drugs in golf.
I'm going to get political for a moment, so you know where to send your hate mail.
Climate change. Let's assume cynics are right and it's all a bunch of malarkey. Yet, the only people against adopting cleaner energy to help with the problem and perhaps even make it harder for our friends in Dubai to build another mile long shopping center, are those who stand to benefit from the status quo. To a majority of folks, cleaner energy is both a common sense solution to the problem and simply the right thing to do.
Now, if the folks in professional golf love children as much as they claim, isn't drug testing the right thing to do if you want to deter kids from using potentially harmful performance enhancing drugs, even if everyone on the PGA Tour is clean as a whistle and always has been?
I continue to be amazed that in debating this issue, the notion of discouraging the next generation from harming themselves consistently gets missed.
ADT Day One Casualties
/Doug Ferguson's game story from day one of the ADT Championship illustrates all of the fantastic dynamics involved in this unique format. For those of you not familiar, Friday sees the field cut to 16, Saturday starts with a clean slate that cuts to 8 and Sunday is one more clean slate with $1 million on the line.
Gulbis Never Intended To Be Anything But Totally Hot
/Brian Hewitt reports that Natalie Gulbis' rebranding reps deny ever telling Jeffrey Smith that she was going to be turning in her G-strings for slacks.
It was reported in this space last week that Natalie Gulbis and her representatives were unhappy about a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch saying, among other things, that Gulbis was changing her image. The newspaper based much of its story on quotes from a Gulbis marketing representative.
A spokesperson for Gulbis subsequently told GOLF CHANNEL that Gulbis was not re-branding and that the newspaper had gotten the story wrong.
For the record, the Times-Dispatch says it has a tape recording of the interview with the Gulbis marketing representative and stands by its original story.
Stay tuned!
Turnberry Up For Sale
/This has to be the most tortured way of saying the 2009 Open site can be yours for £100m...
Yesterday, a spokeswoman said: "In line with Starwood's asset strategy, the Westin Turnberry Resort, Ayrshire, has taken the decision to source an investment partner to realise the development potential of the resort, where there are 300 acres of undeveloped land."
Thanks to reader Ed for this story.
“Maybe 20 million isn’t so much after all.”
/Brian Hewitt scored an exclusive "one-on-one" with the PGA Tour Commish and as you can see by the breadth and length of the Finchem quotes, it probably occurred when they ran into each other at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony buffet line. One fun highlight pertaining to Lawrence Donegan's Dubai-$20-million-purse exclusive from last week:
Regardless, $20 million is a staggering sum to play for in one week. “The world of golf’s going to change massively in the next few years,” said one highly-placed European source with knowledge of the Dubai deal.
But maybe $20 million is not so staggering when you consider that the six gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have made a reported $1.5 trillion from oil in the last four years. That’s $1.5 trillion as in a 15 followed by 11 zeroes.
PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said he was “delighted” at the reported size of the purse because, he said, the compensation levels for the world’s top golfers still “trail” those of athletes in the major team sports.
As to the $1.5 trillion figure, Finchem cracked, “maybe 20 million isn’t so much after all.”
"In order to have a genuine brand, you must consistently deliver a promise that is genuine and distinct in people's minds."
/Annika is blogging now and kicked off her new media New Media agenda with a painful-to-follow online chat that included this vital exchange:
Posted by: Rachael McMillen | November 14, 2007 at 02:14 PMI'm inspired just reading this.
Annika, I have heard you mention your "brand." What exactly do you mean by "build your brand?"
Posted by: Matt | November 14, 2007 at 02:18 PM
Jerry, great question!
In order to have a genuine brand, you must consistently deliver a promise that is genuine and distinct in people's minds. I try to deliver the promise of "inspirational experiences" through all of my businesses. I hope that makes sense.
"I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."
/Lawrence Donegan talks to Andrew Coltart about his struggles with distance and the flogging approach to course setup.
"When I played with Tiger he was a brilliant player but he was also very physically imposing, so I went away and tried to work on hitting the ball further. That was 1999. We're now in 2007 and I'm still trying to get more distance," he said. "If I don't try and hit the ball further, the way technology is going I'm going to be left way behind."
The truth is that Coltart, now 37, whose trip to tour school comes after his failure to make the top 115 in the 2007 European tour order of merit, may already have been left behind. Last year he was 181st in driving distance, hitting the ball 268 yards on average - a full 40 yards behind the longest hitters. In the Italian Open in the summer he had to play a five-wood shot into the green on seven of the first nine holes.
"How the hell can I get a five-wood shot close to the hole consistently? If I'd shot two under par I would have done really well - the winning score was 16 under par," he said sarcastically. "I don't want this to come over as bitterness but I feel technology has allowed guys to prosper who 15 years ago wouldn't have been able to make a penny. But because of technology and the way the courses are set up they are going to do really well.
"A guy might be able to dunt the ball 260 yards down the middle but that guy is constantly being outdone because the bigger hitter - the animal, for the want of a better expression - hits it 330 yards and it doesn't matter if he is in the rough because he has only got a wedge in his hands for his next shot. And the greens are saturated, so whatever he can lob up on to the green is just going to plug and stop somewhere near the flag.
"There is one statistic that is very curious to me - you have guys who are 150th in driving accuracy yet are 10th in greens in regulation. How can that be right? I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."
Interesting to note that he doesn't seem optimistic that a change in grooves will help him reverse his fortunes.
"Right now, we'll have to punt on that question"
/Steve Elling weaves together an interesting contrast between the PGA Tour's announced drug testing policy and the LPGA's, which appears a bit more organized and a whole lot tougher. Check this out:
A player who tests positive after a tournament faces disqualification, having their results expunged and the revocation of their winnings -- not to mention a lengthy suspension. If a player fails a test administered during the week she won an event, the runner-up will be declared the victor. If two players tied for second behind a player who tests positive, the one who recorded the lowest score on Sunday is declared the winner. If multiple runner-ups posted the same score in the final round, officials will match scorecards to determine the default winner. Bizarre as that scenario sounds, the PGA Tour hasn't determined how it will solve a comparable issue and will wait until February to address the various hypotheticals of testing. "Right now, we'll have to punt on that question," spokesman Bob Combs said Wednesday. The men's tour won't start testing until July.
