Tiger Has Knee Surgery Just In Time To Jeopardize Appearance In Fifth Of Four Majors

Thanks to reader Chuck for sending the news that Tiger Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery on his troublesome left knee and is scheduled to be out 4-6 weeks. The Commish weighs in:

"Of course, we're disappointed when Tiger is unable to compete in a PGA TOUR event," Finchem said. "He's the No. 1 player in the world and a fan favorite wherever he goes. There is really never a good time for an athlete - especially one of Tiger's caliber - to take weeks off from competition during the season, but his health concerns have to come first.

Even if it threatens his chances of playing in The Players Championship.

"We wish him the best toward a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to the TOUR when he is ready and able to compete."

And we hope it's really, really soon. 

Finchem Endorses Olympic Golf Movement...

...and does it in a blog post!

I’ve just returned from Augusta National and The Masters. I always enjoy Masters Week very much, not only for the great golf we see, but also because everyone involved with golf attends. It gives me an opportunity to discuss issues and ideas with everyone from around the world.

And see Tom Fazio in a seersucker jacket. Sorry, continue...

One of the matters that we have talked about over the last several years and which came up again last week is whether golf should be an Olympic sport. In 1993, we actually announced that golf would be in the 1996 games in Atlanta. However, this never materialized for various reasons.

Let's not go there.

Since then we have continued to examine the various issues presented by golf being an Olympic sport.  While there remain questions to be answered and issues to be resolved, I believe the time is now right to move forward. The LPGA and the European Tour have previously indicated their support for Olympic golf. Also, the R&A, the USGA and the PGA of America are evaluating the possibility of Olympic golf.

And David Fay and Peter Dawson have been dreaming of their next jobs.

Finchem goes on to explain how he's been inspired by a study that says golf in the Olympics will grow the game and bring peace to the Middle East.

Here's why it will be interesting to watch this unfold: the entire thing will be geared to what NBC and Dick Ebersol want.

Now, Dick could either be shallow and obsess about getting Tiger Woods to play, then settle on some dull, simple-for-TV format like 72 holes of individual stroke play. 

Or, Dick could be bold, forget trying to please Tiger and say, we need a compelling team format that brings out passion and patriotism. Something that will prove golf is Olympic-worthy. Something that stands alone from all others in golf, but also exciting for the world's best to be part of something unique.

Say, three-man teams in a Dunhill Cup style stroke/match play event? Suggestions?

Phil's Crowne Plaza Ads

The Feherty appearance is the highlight...

"Whatever happened to subtlety?"

Richard Sandomir in the New York Times isn't a fan of the Masters theme music (I love it!). He also offers several telecast notes, including this about the maudlin father-son themed opening.

...the script was fattened with phrases — “imbued with a towering source of inspiration,” “simply the circle of life at Augusta” and “walking in the green jacket footsteps of his hero” — that made my blood sugar spike. Whatever happened to subtlety?

Nantz ended the 2-minute-50-second piece by saying, “Bobby Jones built the foundation, a journey borne at the heart, from a father to a son, always by their side.” (It’s TV English, not Webster’s.) The final four words sounded like a subliminal nod to his new memoir, “Always By My Side: A Father’s Grace and A Sports Journey Unlike Any Other,” about his relationship with his father, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

Immelman On Letterman

Two out of ten decent jokes seems to be about the batting average for these Letterman top ten lists...

“Those trees were not there. He could not make the shot today."

Larry Dorman probably hasn't helped the healing process between ANGC and the New York Times with this assessment of the course changes and their impact on play.

There can be no doubt that the 1-inch fuzz on the face of Augusta has reduced the ability of long hitters to bomb drives into spots on the edges of holes that used to set up better angles into greens. The freedom that came from not worrying about the penalty the second cut exacted — reducing the spin on iron shots, thus reducing control — is gone.

I wonder if the club understands how important that sense of freedom was in making the players more aggressive and therefore, more likely to play freely? (And with that comes not only better play, but also big numbers when they get greedy.)

And the addition of trees to the left of the 17th hole has taken away the opening that led to the greatest charge in the past 25 years at Augusta. It has cut off the opening Nicklaus found during the final round in 1986, when he punched his ball onto the green and made the final birdie in his closing 65 to win his sixth and final green jacket.

Visiting the spot last Wednesday from which his father had made his great escape, Jack Nicklaus II pointed to some new pines and said: “Those trees were not there. He could not make the shot today. There’s no way.”

Come on, a Tom Kite win that year would have been just as memorable! 

Second Masters Question: What's The State Of The Masters "Brand"

I heard from a few folks today and all were bemoaning another less-than-fulfilling Masters. The callers ranged from a golf course superintendent to a guy manning a phone bank in Canada who had to tell me how dull it was after I revealed I was a golf writer.

However, the most surprising was a Southerner who has attended many Masters and respects Billy Payne.

This avid golfer excitedly attended Thursday for the first time in a few years. He and his buds arrived at noon and said they got bored and gone by 4 o'clock.

His main gripe was that a certain tension and sense of looming possibilities was gone. The sound of excitement has disappeared and the atmosphere altered beyond recognition. I asked why people were leaving in droves in the late afternoon (at least to us TV viewers), even with so many great names still on the course.

Boredom, was his reply. And then he said the words that you know make me wince for a number of reasons: "The Masters brand has been tainted."

Now you know how I feel about branding, and we can argue about the course changes.

So leave your architectural views behind for a moment, consider the last few Masters and what your friends are saying and tell us, has the "brand" has been tainted?

Stevie Reprimanded For Going Hatless

Thanks to reader Mark for this Reuters story about Steve Williams and his mysterious decision to remove his Masters green cap during part of Saturday's third round.

According to several caddie sources, Williams went several holes hatless before he was approached by a tournament official on the course and instructed to put his cap back on yesterday.

Williams complied and had the green cap, part of the official caddie uniform at the Masters, on his head during today's final round at Augusta National as Woods finished second, three shots behind Trevor Immelman.

"If I've got to wear the cap, everybody's got to wear the cap," said one caddie, speaking anonymously.

"Every caddie has heard about what he did and nobody approves of it. Some of these people forget they're just a caddie.

"It should be an honour to come to the Masters. If you don't want to wear a hat, don't come. Believe it or not, the tournament will still go on without you."

It's not the first time Williams has failed to follow a tournament's dress code.

No, really? Our Stevie?

Two years ago at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan, where caddies also have to wear Masters-style white overalls, Williams peeled them down to his waist.

Williams caddied that way for several rounds until Mark Steinberg, Woods' manager, told him that it was disrespectful to the tournament.

"There's more scoring in soccer."

Steve Elling joins the chorus calling for Augusta National to turn back the clock. Several fine points:

It's irrelevant what the television ratings will say, because history has proven people will watch the Masters no matter the conditions or leaderboard. But has there ever been a more dreadful two-year period in modern history with regard to excitement and goosebumps?

Short answer: No.

And...

We watch the Masters for birdies and crazy rallies, like those managed over the past quarter-century by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. Masters memories were not intended to be nightmarish, even for the winner.

And this quote, which I didn't see anywhere else from the former USGA President:

 "We've got them all in the honey holes," said Fred Ridley, chief of the ANGC competition committee, shortly before the leaders teed off Sunday.

Yeah, but the course itself was still a bear. Ridley, it has been sarcastically noted elsewhere, was once the president of the USGA, where extreme course set-ups that cross the line have become the stuff of legend over the years. But in fairness, the changes to Augusta pre-date Ridley's arrival.

But let's never forget just how closely tied the USGA and Augusta National have been in recent years. If it weren't Ridley, it'd be someone else protecting par.

As a final plea to the club for a return to moderation, consider the performance of arguably the greatest player in the history of the game over his past three-plus seasons at Augusta. Over his most recent 13 rounds, Woods has posted exactly one round in the 60s and broken par a total of five times.

Funny that the club has initiated a program last week to allow kids into the tournament for free. Had I watched Sunday's play as a teenager, I would have bought a soccer ball the very next day.

After all, there's more scoring in soccer.

Could Billy Payne's global initiative actually be opening the door for unprecedented criticism of the course? We'll see... 

Sunday Masters Overnight Rating Down Slightly

From AP, courtesy of GolfBrief.com:

Sunday's coverage on CBS drew an overnight rating of 8.9 and an 18 share. That's down two percent from a 9.1/21 in 2007.

Of course, they ran 40 minutes into 60 Minutes and gave it a strong number, so the tournament accomplished its most important task.

First Masters Question: Did The Weather Really Deprive Us Of Excitement?

I thought CBS's Peter Kostis offered excellent commentary from his outpost on No. 13 and ably handled the awkward situation of having his prized pupil in contention (and then having to interview him...).

However, I'm curious what everyone thinks of this golf.com column remark:

For the second year in a row, the weather denied us a back-nine shootout, something we haven't seen since Tiger's win in 2005 over Chris DiMarco. The wind on Sunday forced players to be defensive or risk making big numbers. If the conditions had stayed as soft as they were Saturday, there would have been a lot more roars.

I'm wondering if the wind was really the reason we didn't get a shootout.

The ebb and flow of the week felt more to me like a U.S. Open, where the course has beaten the players down to a point where by Sunday they were so used to being on the defensive that even had weather cooperated,  sharp, aggressive play would have been scarce.

Also, isn't there something amiss when, despite being set up in such a forgiving a way (all tees forward, reasonable hole locations), it is still so unyielding in some wind?

"The only glimpse of nerves came on the 17th"

In writing about Trevor Immelman's win, the New York Times' William Rhoden says:

The only glimpse of nerves came on the 17th, where his tee shot landed in the bunker. Immelman clasped his hands behind his head and grimaced.

Now, as I recall it, Immelman hit it in the water on the previous hole. And on 17, that would have been his second shot that landed in the bunker, as there are no fairway bunkers. Other than that, it was a great observation. 

Dateline Augusta: April 14, 2008

The final installment of the Dateline Augusta blog is up with the final round stories. You can also view the posts from the entire week here.

"His aura is also propagated by the American media, for whom the word sycophantic barely scratches the surface."

Martin Johnson on Tiger's relationship with the U.S. media...tough, but funny!

His aura is also propagated by the American media, for whom the word sycophantic barely scratches the surface. When a fellow golfer (Phil Mickelson, Rory Sabbatini, Fuzzy Zoeller, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia) says something Woods doesn't much care for, they are all sentenced to a spell of 'purdah' on the back of Woods' intolerance of any kind of inference that he might be mortal.

He is never criticised for this by the American press, some of whom are handpicked for having their own egos massaged by the man himself. Those reporters who are onside with Woods are rewarded by being addressed by name at a press conference. To those that are not, he finds a way of conveying that the question is being asked by someone a couple of clubs short of a full set.

There Is A Tape!

You may recall that when Ian Stafford reported Paul Azinger's comments on Nick Faldo, I hoped there would be an audio tape. Seems that the The Mail On Sunday has one and posts it online.  

An unbylined Independent item sums up what's on the tape:

So The Mail On Sunday did decide to put last week's already infamous interview with Paul Azinger on the internet yesterday and helped to clear up some of the confusion in the process. Azinger claimed the British journalist had taken him "out of context" in an interview. Azinger was quoted as using the term "prick" in connection with Nick Faldo, his opposing Ryder Cup captain in Kentucky in September, and told a fellow scribbler here on Wednesday that he would not be speaking to any other Fleet Street reporters "in a million fucking years" because of this blatant distortion of the truth. On The Mail on Sunday website Azinger can be clearly heard saying: "You know, if you're going to be a prick, and everybody hated you, why do you think because you're trying to be cute and funny on the air that they're all suddenly going to start to like you?" Now, whatever Azinger says, that is "in context". So it will be interesting how Faldo reacts now. Yesterday, he was too busy up in the CBS tower to respond to the new development, although Sam Torrance, the victorious 2002 captain, is under no illusion why Azinger chose to backtrack on his outburst. "Paul Azinger is a very bright person," said Torrance, who has been part of the BBC commentary team at the Masters. "The Americans have suffered a lot of losses and he's trying to stir up a hornets' nest to get things unsettled. He has said it knowing that there will be repercussions and it has backfired on him. It was rather silly, especially as you have the tape and it's there for all to hear. What Azinger said was unnecessary, uncalled for and is not what the Ryder Cup is about."

This should take you to the audio.