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.
...a
Is there a better scene in tournament golf? (click to enlarge)nd he does something Tiger Woods has not done: win at Riviera.
Could that be the motivation Tiger needs to return? Doubtful.
With the cut made Saturday morning, Peter Yoon of the LA Times was finally able to compute the scoring average differences between late/early and early/late players and came up with this killer stat that sums up just how brutal the conditions were...for some.
Players who had tee times on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon enjoyed less windy conditions both days and it showed in the statistics.
Those players averaged 71.28 on Thursday morning and 70.68 on Friday afternoon. The other half of the field averaged 73.51 on Thursday afternoon and 73.78 on Friday morning -- a total difference of 5.33 strokes.
"The wind was gusting and swirling enough that you were really out there guessing as much as you were feeling like you were making good decisions on club choices," said D.J. Trahan, who played the more difficult times the first two days and then shot a third-round 66, the best round Saturday.
The golf was fairly lackluster today thanks in part to another shift in the weather that brought heavy air. Combine that with some tough hole locations and a surprising forward tee location on 14 which made the boys think, and that probably contributed to the lack of low scoring. I've had a preview of Sunday's setup and it should let someone go low and maybe catch up, but right now it looks like a two man race between Phil Mickelson and Jeff Quinney.
I was present for Quinney's ace, which was a bit of a surprise for everyone. After he hit the shot he didn't seem too aware that it might trickle down to the hole. Because the cup was cut on the front right, the large gallery could not see it trickling down until the last moment. 
Quinney collects his ace (click to enlarge)
No. 18 Saturday minus the traditional manned leaderboard (click to enlarge)Should someone go low Sunday, it will be interesting to see if the leaders actually know it. While Northern Trust has done a nice job injecting some class and much needed spending into the event, there has been one poorly planned change involving leaderboards. The longtime manual board that has been a fixture at the 18th green (as well as another between the 8th and 15th holes) has been scrapped in favor of a seating area for Riviera owner Noboru Watanabe. That seating area has gone unused so far this week, but either way there is still room for a manual scoreboard.
This board was vital for a few reasons. One, it gave leaders coming to 18 an idea where they stood. It also let the fans who traditionally gather there a way to track and react to what the leaders are doing.
Sure, there's one of the new electronic boards on 18, but while they look superb, the content is horrendous. The main leaders scoring list is rarely up long enough before player bios and group information appear. I really don't need to know that Robert Allenby enjoys fishing in his spare time. 
Not so vital information on the new scoreboards (click to enlarge)
Less visible but equally as bad was the removal of Bob Lowe's classic hand-drawn scoreboard in the press room, replaced by a new, hard to read and less informative plastic board.
Scribblers Miss The Old Hand Drawn Scoreboard (click to enlarge)The guess among the scribblers is that these changes were influenced by the PGA Tour's Championship Management division, which has a well known disdain for the old style manual scoring systems (and for all we know, renting some of this stuff to the Northern Trust Open folks).
And finally, for obsessive compulsive types, Tom Pernice's driving range divots from the week...
I thought this was a good question from Doug Ferguson after Saturday's third round at Riviera, but because Phil Mickelson was anxious to get on Mickelson Airship 1, he poo-pooed the question a bit.
Still, at least he says it's the ball...
Q. Curious on 10, if conditions notwithstanding, it seems like 3-wood is the choice for most of the power hitters. When did that become the case? Has it ever been driver, and have you noticed over the years driver no longer being a choice?
PHIL MICKELSON: What's happened, Doug, is the golf ball is going farther. So when we used to hit drivers, we now are hitting 3-woods. (Laughter).
What makes this so disturbing is that this was entirely coordinated...
John Strege points out Scott Verplank's disappointment with some of the changes at Riviera, which this year included bizarre add-ons to the 11th and 17th that were not carried out very gracefully. It's not a good sign when PGA Tour pros can tell...
"They've changed it a little bit, but they haven't ruined it," said Scott Verplank who, heading into the final round, stands tied for fourth in the Northern Trust Open, six shots behind leader Phil Mickelson."They haven't ruined it" smacks of damning it with faint praise. Several greens have been expanded by architect Tom Fazio and his design associate Tom Marzolf, though not necessarily as a counter to their tending to shrink over time. They've been expanded in places where there has never been green before, contrary to architect George Thomas' original design.
"I haven't been all that impressed with some of the changes," Verplank said, "but the golf course is so great. As long as you don't do anything too major, it's a brilliant place. They changed some of the greens a little bit, and it seemed to be a little bit out of character with Riviera, but it's still great. Every great golf course goes through stages of changing it and tinkering with it and all that. It would be pretty hard to mess this one up too much."
It should be noted the Tour is not using the new wing locations on the 17th and only used the front spots on No. 11 (I'm sparing your photos...it's more of the same incongruous stuff as they've done in the past).
Why try to convey just how royally hosed the late/morning tee times were when I can have Phil Mickelson do it for me:
The early/late tee times had a huge advantage this week. A lot of the times, most of the weeks, it doesn't make too much of a difference but every now and then, there will be an advantage on one wave, and we certainly had that. I mean, all of the scores that are any good, 90 percent of them are from the early/late wave. We avoided wind yesterday morning. It died down this afternoon. Just we got very lucky.The conditions made late/early starter Fred Couples' -2 performance that much more amazing. And speaking of Freddie, John Strege writes that the two-time winner at Riviera plans to keep coming back as long as they'll have him. Judging by the paltry crowds and the huge proportion following Fred, they'll invite him back until he's using a walker.
Looking for Weir's ball (click to enlarge)Let's start with Weir, who rudely held back Geoff Ogilvy and Shaun Micheel with all of his twitching and false starts. On the par-5 11th, Weir drives it in the trees and lays up beautifully in the 12-inch kikuyu barranca. He asks the marshal where the ball entered and the volunteer points to where he swore it entered. Well, just as the five minute marked wrapped up, Ogilvy finds the ball about 7 or so yards away. Weir simply turns and scowls at the marshal. Classy touch Mike!
Weir then spends the next 3 minutes considering his options before finally taking an unplayable drop. From that point on the group was a hole behind and eventually put on the clock on No. 13. So Weir picks up the pace right? No, he never seemed to make much of an attempt to speed up as long as I was watching. He does not ever play ready golf, instead starting his pre-shot research and routine only when it's his turn.
The low point came on No. 15 when Ogilvy asked if he could hit out of turn because Weir was mysteriously lollygagging down the fairway even as they remained on the clock and a hole behind. 
The warm weather brings out the best in L.A. (click to enlarge)
Then there's Ben Crane, paired with two other slow pokes in Trevor Immelman and Sergio Garcia. After holding up everyone behind him and reportedly having already been put on the club 3(!) times in 36-holes even though there are 24 groups spread over 18 holes (kinda hard to fall a hole behind!), Crane was standing in the TV scrum area outside the scoring room. When one of the players in the group behind him entered the hallway, he saw Crane and looked right at him and said, "Hurry the $@%# up!" Crane didn't hear him (of course).
Later on the locker room the f-bombs were flying like it was sailors night out, with Crane's name flying off the walls of Riviera's locker room.
Now, Golf Digest's Tim Rosaforte asks in a blog post if "144 players too many for a West Coast tour stop -- or are these guys just too slow?"
In talking to the rules staff, they say yes, the field needs to be reduced.
However, I responded with two points.
One, the course has been lengthened and the 10th, 11th and 17th are all reachable now, adding many of the logjams or timely walks that never existed. And two, cutting the field means you'll likely cut the spots that go to local qualifiers who add a unique flavor to the event. So before they go calling for a 132 player field, perhaps a stronger pace of play policy should be tried before ending an important local tradition.
Rory Rhinestone?
I didn't see any of the first round telecast from Riviera so I'm not sure if they were able to convey just how strong the gusts were. It was a cruel fate for the afternoon times who drew swirling, cold Santa Ana wind gusts (with more apparently forecast for the morning play). There is no way to describe how good Geoff Ogilvy's late 69, Dustin Johnson's 3-under through 15 total and in progress rounds by Kevin Sutherland and Chez Reavie were considering the extreme conditions.
Geoff Ogilvy plays into No. 7 (click to enlarge)
I tagged along for 11 holes of Ogilvy's round and his game appeared quite sharp. More alarming was the play
Mike Weir and caddy (click to enlarge) of partner Mike Weir, a two-time winner at Riviera who I've watched many times over the years. However, I had not actually followed him recently and while I love the look of his Stack and Tilt swing, everything that happens right up to pulling the trigger is painful to watch. His caddy is constantly asking marshal's to move and his Monty-like ability to hear all sounds leads to constant restarting of his pre-shot routine. Weir won't even pull his driver on obvious driver holes until his caddy rests the bag down next to the teeing position.
Jim Furyk Plays Into No. 1 (click to enlarge)And they wonder why it was well over 5 hours in the afternoon for the field to finish. Well, most of the field.
As usual the tenth hole proved to be a joy. Playing downwind most of the day 3-wood was often the option for many players. A quick look at ShotLink showed that laying up was a mistake today thanks in part to the green firmness.
Shane Bertsch approaches No. 10 from a poor angle (click to enlarge)
Though I'm still kicking myself for missing Tom Pernice's hole out for double bogey. Shucks! Apparently he went back and forth between No. 10's greenside bunkers, which was easy to do today with the back left hole location and firm, fast greens.
I finally got around to Doug Ferguson's always entertaining weekly notes column, this week featuring a fun lead item on Rory's long lost cousin, Jonathan Kaye, who weighed in on several topics, starting with drug testing and eventually, his lengthy suspension.
"I don't see a need for it. I don't think anyone is on steroids,'' he said. ``They're opening themselves up for a stringer, especially if we don't have a players' union, or a universal voice where we can be heard, instead of being squashed by a dictator.''
That would be PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, with whom Kaye has crossed frequently.
His most notorious incident, which led to a four-month suspension, came in Kingsmill in 2001 when a security guard asked to see Kaye's tour badge. According to several published accounts, Kaye returned to his car and displayed the badge below the belt.
"I got the largest suspension ever on tour ... for what?'' he said. "I lose my job, and I lose my sponsorship. I felt the brunt of the tour when they're trying to squash you. I felt like Brian McNamee.''
He also doesn't like the new cut policy, and when told the Players Advisory Council would be meeting Tuesday at Riviera, that didn't seem to allay his concerns.
"There's not one person on the PAC that I voted for,'' Kaye said.
I often hear Marty's voice as I contemplate adding more color in my life, but then I see outfits like this and a white shirt-khaki pant combo doesn't seem so bad.
Sergio Garcia, round 1 at Riviera:
Finally someone (Doug Ferguson) files a piece on the possible Rule 78 change following Tuesday's meeting.
A tour official said on Wednesday that the 16-man Players Advisory Council, which met this week at Riviera Country Club, wants to return to the traditional 36-hole cut of the top 70 and ties. If that results in more than 78 players, another cut on Saturday to the top 70 and ties would help reduce the field for the final round.This should be interesting considering that the four involved have been vocal in defending Rule 78:
The policy board will vote on the proposal at its Feb. 25 meeting at the Honda Classic in Florida. Because it relates to competition, the vote must get majority approval by four players on the nine-member board.
Thanks to reader Chris for this follow up from Golf Las Vegas Now on Billy Waters' sandbagging remarkable performance at the AT&T.
"It was the most phenomenal week of golf that I've ever had."
"I have never, ever, ever putted that well I don't think," says Walters, who admits to having the yips in the weeks leading up to the tournament but received a magic grip that ended those. "I don't think I ever missed anything inside of 10 feet the entire tournament."
"This might have been the best ham and egg job of all time," says Walters.
Let's get the important gossip out of the way first: Phil is an iphone man. I'm sorry to all you Motorola and Nokia hopefuls, but I just report what I see.
A twenty degree temperature drop did not improve my odds of getting decent answers out of the PGA Tour's finest. I was working the range and putting green in search of interesting quotes for a story I'm working on and mostly heard the same stuff I've heard for the last few weeks. Perhaps everyone was just too overwhelmed to speak after seeing Vijay's new swing, which looks a lot worse in person.
Stack and Tilt man Andy Plummer was on the side tee and I spent an enjoyable few minutes hearing about his background and teaching philosophy. It's incredible how many players appear to be adopting S&T.
The best rumor of the day comes from a player who says that Paul Azinger is so worked up over drug testing that he is attempting to organize a player revolt starting July 1st when the tests begin. I think I'm understanding why we did not have a media room sit down with Azinger and the PGA of America's Julius Mason, a Ryder Cup year tradition in L.A.
And finally, my favorite images of the day, starting with an underwear-challenged volunteer followed by an unidentified player who practiced his putting one-handed for a solid 15 minutes. Granted, it was a belly putter but still, could it be the next big thing?
Commissioner Tim Finchem for a Golf Channel roundtable with Tim Rosaforte, Rich Lerner and New York Times correspondent Larry Dorman as part of a what media tenters said is an intentional "rebranding." Oddly, it did not include an exclusive to GeoffShackelford.com's reporter on the property, but I'll keep trying.
While Golf Channel hasn't posted the interview online (and scheduled to air this weekend on Golf Central), we have a few hints of what to look for. Note the photo from PGATour.com, where Larry Dorman looks like he's just sat through one of the Commish's mind numbingly wordy answers.
Helen Ross at PGATour.com sat in on the chat and shares some of the stunning revelations we can look forward to.
Finchem talked about drug-testing, the success of the FedExCup and the TOUR's new cut policy, which is currently being reviewed. The most interesting part of the wide-ranging, 45-minute discussion, though, may have been about the commissioner himself.
Like his prowess in the kitchen, which is as considerable as Finchem's solid 5 handicap on the relatively rare occasions he gets to play golf. While it's been written that he's a gourmet cook, Finchem stopped well short of calling himself a chef.
"I follow recipes -- there's a big difference between that and being a chef," a relaxed Finchem said with a smile. "I find cooking to be therapeutic. I don't know if I am a single digit handicap as a cook, though. It depends on what I'm cooking."
And what would a Finchem rebranding be without a mention of that Steel Wheels tour, back when Charlie Watts had dark hair and people still bought CD's.
Finchem, as the father of three teenaged daughters, is marginally acquainted with hip-hop and rap. His tastes, though, run more toward classic rock and roll, most specifically the Rolling Stones and the Eagles.
"Steel Wheels, was in '89, '90," Finchem said, "flexing his rock and roll chops," Lerner interjected. "In '94 when the Stones were in San Francisco during THE TOUR Championship, that was a pretty good show.
"(I like) the Eagles, too. I went with Peter Jacobsen in '96 to see the Eagles, and of course, Glenn Frey is a big (golfer). They're probably the best band of all time. I've seen them twice since. They put on a phenomenal show."
You don't think Freud would have something to say about Finchem's favorite song?
Among his favorite Eagles songs is Already Gone. "The song just makes you feel freedom," Finchem said. "Just personal freedom. It's about unchaining from a relationship but in a broader sense, the feel, the rhythm is kind of airy feeling."
Already gone? Hmmm...wonder if that's what he cranks up on those days when John Daly is being John Daly?
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
