"It doesn't matter if it's hard or easy — it's the same for everybody. But is that what we want?"

Doug Ferguson tackles my favorite subject, the increasing difficulty of PGA Tour setups and gets some fresh perspectives from Joe Ogilvie and Davis Love as well as a PGA Tour mandate from the 90s.

The problem is whether the PGA Tour is getting enough variety.

For all the complaining at Memorial, there were birdies to be made. Mathew Goggin made 15 over the first two days, along with his share of bogeys. Even so, Davis Love III has noticed the winning score getting worse in recent years.

"Scores should be going down, not up," Love said. "That's a pretty good indication that it's getting harder. Nobody ever shoots 20 under anymore. And players are a heck of a lot better. The fields are deeper."

Love said the course setup was a major topic at the players' meeting last month in North Carolina. Why are courses so hard? What kind of show can they put on for the fans and a television audience when they're scrambling for par?

And who's idea was this, anyway?

"It's a four-letter word," Steve Flesch said at the Memorial. "And he runs this place."

The mandate actually came from the PGA Tour policy board nearly 20 years ago, with only a few instructions. Firm, closely mown grass on the tees, fairways and greens. Thick, evenly dispersed rough (when growing conditions allow).

The summation of that 1990 document was to have all courses play as difficult as possible while remaining fair. Exactly what that means, of course, is subject to interpretation.

Are course setups getting worse?

In 22 stroke-play events this year, 10 winning scores were higher, 10 were lower and two were the same.

"I don't want to sound like the guy who's 44 and not playing good," said Love, who turned 44 in April and is not playing particularly well. "But it's really hard. It doesn't matter if it's hard or easy — it's the same for everybody. But is that what we want?"

This follows a year in which average birdies were way down from previous years, along with TV ratings, and players began asking if fans might lose interest watching the best in the world hack it around every week.

"I think Phil had the right idea when he said technology has gone two ways," Joe Ogilvie said. "We have better balls, better drivers, better equipment. Johnny Miller talks about equipment almost as much as he talks about himself. But 15 years ago, they couldn't grow rough 10 inches. John Deere makes a hell of a tractor that cuts the greens lower and lower and lower.

"It gets to the point when golf — even for us — gets pretty boring."

Next week is the U.S. Open, where the winning score has been 5 over par the last two years.

Ogilvie believes PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, the USGA and other golf organizations want courses to be tougher than ever so fans won't think "these guys are good" simply because of the better equipment.

"But at least," Ogilvie said, "they're not saying 'these guys are good' because of HGH."

That last point is definitely a new one. Is Finchem that clever and the field staff really taking such a directive? I don't think so. I'm more inclined to think that it's a combination of host courses raising the bar with thicker, higher rough, the PGA Tour's philosophy that a great tournament is major like (thus, more rough, narrower fairways and high scores) and maybe a slight overreaction to technology.

What do you think?

"If Woods isn't quite the same at Torrey Pines, it will show."

Jaime Diaz chimes in on Tiger's knee situation with some interesting thoughts.

There's no indication Woods' injury is in the same gift-robbing category of knee victims such as Mickey Mantle, Bobby Orr, Gale Sayers or Elgin Baylor. Still, it could alter his ability to play in a dominating style. For all his mental abilities, it was Woods' clear physical superiority that stood out when he won the 1997 Masters. And while it has been presumed that a decade later that gap had been narrowed as players such as Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes drive it past him, it turns out Woods still plays with the highest clubhead speed -- 124 miles per hour -- of any player on the PGA Tour. If he didn't choose to play a high-spinning ball and launch his drives on a relatively low trajectory, he would probably still be the game's longest hitter.

But if the after effects of his repaired knee were to cause Woods to lose, say, five mph in clubhead speed, it would blunt some of his edge. It would be subtle, but perhaps he would no longer be able call up enough power to reach the longest par 5, or muscle up from the rough, or hit a sky-high long iron to a pin that no one else can get near, or drive a par 4. Power -- correctly applied -- is a major "separator" when the challenge is extreme length, extreme rough and extreme firmness, as it will be at next week's U.S. Open. If Woods isn't quite the same at Torrey Pines, it will show.

The supreme champions, however, tend to rise to physical challenges. Vardon won two British Opens after a long bout with tuberculosis. Hogan lost much of his amazing athleticism after his car accident but found a way to win six majors in the three years after his return. Even Jack Nicklaus, the most untouched by fate among the greats prior to Woods, had a troublesome hip problem as early as 1963 and sacrificed some of his power after losing weight in 1970. The best years of his career were the succeeding five.

"Whatever I lost, I made accommodations for," Nicklaus said at the Memorial. "If Tiger has to, I'm sure he will make accommodations. My guess is he won't have to."

Sectional Qualifying Mop-Up

Alex Miceli offers a nice summary of notables who made it while Greg Hardwig details the nine(!) hole playoff that was played this morning between Joey Lamielle and Julian Surl at Tequesta. And the USGA now has all scores posted on the official U.S. Open website.

Dan O'Neill uses the 17-player qualifier at Boone Valley to wonder if some consolidation is in order as players find little benefit in playing where so few others are showing up.

USGA Museum Opening Ceremony

Tom Ierubino reports on the grand opening of the Palmer Center, while Tom Canavan files an AP story. And there's a video of Palmer's speech on USGA.org's homepage. The full transcript is here.

USGA executive committee member Jay Rains, Dr. Jerris, U.S. Curtis Cup captain Carol Semple Thompson and USGA president Jim Vernon spoke about Palmer, the museum and golf. Vernon called Palmer "one of the greatest advocates the game of golf has ever known."

Palmer also was honored by state and national officials. Nancy Byrne, executive director of New Jersey's Division of Travel and Tourism, presented Palmer with a proclamation declaring June 3 "Arnold Palmer Day" in the state. Representative Mike Ferguson of New Jersey's seventh Congressional district called Palmer "not only one of he great golfers who ever lived but also one of the great human beings" and said that the House of Representatives had unanimously passed a resolution honoring Palmer for his distinguished career in golf and his commitment to excellence and sportsmanship.

Palmer toured the museum with his wife Kit in the morning prior to the 2 p.m. opening ceremony. In the Hall of Champions, after spotting the name of John "Spider" Miller, the 1996 and '98 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, on the wall, Palmer turned and said, "Where's Spider?" When he spotted Miller, Palmer kidded him, "They allow anyone in here." The two became friends after playing a practice round together at the 1997 Masters.

"It brings back very pleasant memories," said Miller of seeing his name on the wall with all the other USGA champions. "It's very nicely done. I'm humbled to be included."

Other former USGA champions in attendance were former USGA president Fred Ridley (1975 U.S. Amateur); George Zahringer (2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur); Deb Richard (1984 U.S. Women's Amateur); William Wright (1959 U.S. Amateur Public Links); James Masserio (1965 U.S. Junior Amateur); Trip Kuehne (2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur); and Carol Semple Thompson, winner of seven of USGA titles.

Q&A With Dan Jenkins

Today marks the launch of The Franchise Babe, the 18th book by Dan Jenkins.

Published by Doubleday, the novel features a new "Sports Magazine" writer so bored with the PGA Tour he heads for the LPGA Tour where life is a lot more exciting. There's no shortage of smoking, drinking, wise-cracking and commentary (the politics lean hard right). Gary Van Sickle noted in this golf.com review, "it’s great to see that Jenkins still has his fastball. He ranks with the best and most influential sportswriters of the 20th century."

Before leaving to cover next week's U.S. Open for Golf Digest, Dan answered a few questions via email.

GS: The Sports Magazine's Jack Brannon is the main dude in The Franchise Babe. He's twice divorced and smokes more than the Universal Studios back lot. So what's happened to the great Jim Tom Pinch of You Gotta Play Hurt and your last two golf novels?

DJ: Jim Tom was Jack's guru and idol. He mentions it. I needed a young guy for this one. Jim Tom's getting up there.
 
GS: The opening quote from Bryan Forbes and some early comments give the impression you aren't going to go easy on the media in this one. Your take on the state of golf coverage?

DJ: I'm not real fond of golf coverage, or the current state of the media. Nobody ever asks the right follow-up question anymore, nobody has a sense of history, nobody wants to "caretake" a sport, young people think golf started with Tiger Woods, for Christ sake. "Babe" hits on some of this.

GS: Do you really prefer watching the LPGA over the PGA Tour these days?

DJ: I don't much like to watch golf anywhere any longer, except in the majors. I do follow the LPGA closer than the PGA Tour on the net, and watch it occasionally, because they've turned cute on us, there's some hot babes out there who also play golf, they aren't too spoiled yet. Yeah, they lack for quotes, but so do the guys. The men's tour sucks. Everybody drives it 340 and shoots 63. I've never heard of half their names, and don't care to know them until they get back to me with two majors. My fee for talking to Tiger Woods is going up every day. I've tried for 10 years to get a one-on-one with him---and can't. Why? Because Mark Steinberg says, "We have nothing to gain."

Can you imagine what the men's tour would look like if Tiger and Phil both suffered career-ending injuries? I'll tell you. It would look like what it looks like today when they aren't in the field. It would increase interest in polo.
 
GS: In skipping a few pages ahead I saw that the commissioner is someone named Marsha Wilson who has a thing for businesspeak. What do you make of all the real LPGA Commish and her branding obsession?

DJ: The real LPGA commish did a few stupid things at first, but she seems to have survived. I've never met her, so the fiction commish is exactly that. Fiction. But obviously inspired by the real one.
 
GS: Besides Feherty, anyone else you like listening to on a televised golf tournament?

DJ: I rarely listen to golf on TV. I still think Miller is good. I like what he does because the pros hate it. Feherty is a very funny guy in person, but I don't hear him enough on the air to have a comment.

GS: Who makes you want to heave one of your old typewriters at the screen?

DJ: I would need hundreds of typewriters to throw at the screen if I watch golf regularly. Every time some slug said that was a great shot when it was ordinary and that somebody was a great player when he hasn't won shit, and every time somebody said what a great golf course it was when the Tour has ruined it and set it up to be a pushover.
 
GS: It's about time for a Tiger-Phil showdown at a major. Maybe Torrey Pines?

DJ: The best thing about the majors is that they're important no matter what. Of course they make more sense when Jack Fleck doesn't win, but they're still historic and important. I don't give a shit whether Tiger recovers form his knee or not, frankly. You'd think he was the only guy who ever had a knee, a baby, or a dead father. Which, I suppose, is another comment on today's media.
 
GS: Are you excited about visiting California, where we treat smokers like lepers?

DJ: I would be more excited about going to California if I was 20 years younger and sitting in the Polo Lounge.

GS: Does the Masters still start on the back nine Sunday?

DJ: The Masters will always start on the back nine Sunday because I said so.

Sectional Scores Trickling In Slightly Faster Than Indiana Primary Results

I threw in the towel on USOpen.com's results page at 10:30 EST and will rely on Golfweek, which has results that the USGA's official site does not have. Must be IBM's fault.

Meanwhile AP's Rusty Miler, sums up the early results and including this note about the European qualifier.

In England, Robert Dinwiddie birdied six of his last eight holes, including an 8-footer on the 18th at Walton Heath, to earn one of seven spots. The medalists were Alastair Forsyth and Ross Fisher.

Nearly 20 players withdrew, so the USGA awarded seven spots to European Tour players instead of 10.

After the Miller story, Golfweek has posted links for each qualifier's results.

Tiger: I'm Gimpy And I Know I Can Still Beat These Lugs

Okay, he didn't say that but as Steve Elling reports, he reveals he's yet to play 18 holes since knee surgery. And doesn't sound too worried about it.

"Hopefully, I'll be close to 100 percent," he said. "If not, no big deal. I've won tournaments like that before."

"From Francis Ouimet and Booby Jones to Ben Hogan and Babe Didrikson Zaharias."

Thanks to reader Peter for noticing what editors at publications here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (and likely many more) did not catch in this wire story mistake:

 

"What was that all about?"

Thanks to Jay Busbee at Yahoo for noticing a post at The Golf Watch about J.B. Holmes taking a rain check on shaking Jack's hand following his final round 77.

I knew I shouldn't have deleted the telecast before watching it!

IBF Replaces Clampett; TNT Press Releases Will Never Be The Same

They're surely rejoicing in the TNT PR department at the news that they'll never have to put together press releases compiling the best of Bobby Clampett (for samples, go here, here, here and here).

Former British Open Champion Ian Baker-Finch Joins TNT PGA Championship and British Open Championship Coverage

1991 British Open Champion returns to Birkdale for network’s coverage
 
Turner Network Television (TNT) announced today a multi-year agreement with former British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch to join the network as an analyst for its coverage of professional golf, including the British Open, PGA Championship, PGA Grand Slam of Golf and President’s Cup.  Baker-Finch will join the TNT golf stable of Emmy® award winning host Ernie Johnson, analyst/course reporter Bill Kratzert and course reporter/essayist Jim Huber for the network’s golf events including the two majors, British Open Championship, PGA Championship and PGA Grand Slam of Golf.  Baker-Finch will continue to serve as an analyst for CBS Sports' golf coverage.

"I am excited to be joining the TNT golf team for such high quality events as the PGA and Open Championships, President's Cup and the PGA Grand Slam of Golf," said Baker-Finch. "I look forward to working with Ernie Johnson, Bill Kratzert and Jim Huber as well at some of golf's premier events this year and hope our coverage will help bring the viewers a little closer inside the ropes."

“Ian’s personality, experience and knowledge of the game will be tremendous assets to the TNT golf telecasts and the fans at home,” said Jeff Behnke, executive producer, Turner Sports.  “We are pleased to welcome Ian to the Turner Sports family and look forward to televising another year of dramatic golf events.”

Baker-Finch’s crowning achievement was winning the 1991 British Open at Royal Birkdale, site of this year’s British Open Championship.  He turned pro in 1979 and won the first of his 16 championships in 1983 at the New Zealand Open in Auckland. His first major victory in Australia came at the 1987 Australian Matchplay Championship at Kingston Heath. Among his credits, he has won on all four major tours, U.S. Tour, European, Japan and Australasian Tours, including the 1988 Australian Masters, the 1989 Colonial Invitational (USA) and the 1993 Australian PGA.

TNT holds the top spot in airing more hours of major championship golf than any other television network airing 63-plus hours of British Open (July 17 – 20), PGA Championship (August 7 – 10) and the PGA Grand Slam of Golf (October 14 – 16) coverage, along with the President’s Cup in non-Ryder Cup years.  The network earned an Emmy® in the Outstanding Live Sports Special category for its coverage of the British Open in 2005, which included Jack Nicklaus’ farewell to major championship golf from the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. 

"Semel's clamoring for a platform so he can get back into the spotlight"

Peter Lauria in the New York Post says that former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is trying to put together a bid for IMG. Thanks to reader John for this.

One of these sources said Semel recently sat down with Forstmann and his bankers at Goldman Sachs, who have been working with IMG on various initiatives since last summer, to gauge their interest.

Earlier this year, Semel and a few Yahoo! defectors launched Windsor Media Capital with what one source described as "significant financial support from large investors."

Sources said Semel thinks he can transform IMG - which has a sports, entertainment, and media division and serves clients Tiger Woods, Gisele Bundchen and "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck - into a media and content company and also bolster its digital operation.

You know when I think of IMG, those are the two names I associate alongside Tiger's.

For Semel, the pursuit of IMG could help repair a reputation that tarnished during his years as Yahoo! CEO. Indeed, many Yahoo! insiders quietly blame Semel for making the Web giant vulnerable to Microsoft's current takeover attempts.

"Semel's clamoring for a platform so he can get back into the spotlight," said one source, referring to his low profile since he left Yahoo! last year.

Aren't we all clamoring for a platform?

Sources said there are two main obstacles to an IMG deal: price and Forstmann's infatuation with the business.

People close to IMG say Forstmann sees the agency as a "play toy" that allows him to rub elbows with celebrities.

And to have them caddy for him.

They said it would take a rich offer - north of $3 billion - to entice him to sell.

Sources were unanimous, however, in saying $3 billion is a "very aggressive price," especially considering the low margins on the sports side of the business. They said a more realistic price would be less than $2 billion.

However, despite Forstmann's reluctance to sell, he may face investor pressure to do something with IMG.

Sources said investors in the Forstmann Little fund that acquired IMG four years ago for $750 million are pushing for some kind of a deal. However, other sources denied that was the case, likening the prized agency to the fund's purchase of Gulfstream, which was held for a decade.

Now, if I bought a Gulfstream for $750 million with someone else's money and those people knew they could get $2 billion for it, I'm sure they'll pass!

Arnold Palmer Center Opening

Several stories have coincided with Tuesday's opening of the new USGA museum and research center, starting with Christopher Hann in the New York Times and including John Paul Newport in the Wall Street Journal.

Also worth noting is Adam Schupak's more extensive story in Golfweek and Dave Kindred's Golf Digest story (not posted) in the June issue on James David Chase and his 22,000 word portrait of Arnold Palmer that the USGA purchased.

If anyone goes, feel free to send along a report and/or images.

Update on 2008-06-02 21:35 by Geoff

From the USGA, better late than never:

Grand opening of the USGA Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History
 
Tuesday, June 3, at 2 p.m. EDT on www.usgamuseum.com
 
Highlights of ceremony will re-air at later times throughout the day.

"When you take extraordinary steps to go outside your boundaries and graciously extend an opportunity for success, it would be nice if more than a dozen folks were involved."

As the U.S. Open Sectional's are played this week (you can get results here), Jim McCabe considers the relevance of international qualifiers and in particular the recently contested 12-spotter in Japan where Craig Parry was one of this year's qualifiers. (Note: McCabe filed this piece before it became known that the European Tour entrants were dropping like flies.)

All in all, more than 800 titanium-toting chaps will be spread across 14 sectional qualifying sites in hopes of securing precious few berths in the upcoming US Open. For most of them, the odds will be long and the patience short, but if they ever ponder the difficulty of their task, let us remind them that there was always the option of Osaka, Japan.

That's right, Osaka. A pricey trip, yes, but the weather's not bad this time of year and the competition wasn't going to be overwhelming. In fact, a mere 12 golfers teed it up and things grew thinner when one of them, Prayad Marksaeng, quit after the morning 18. That left 11 competitors vying for two spots into the US Open. Not bad odds, of course, but the question has to be asked: What kind of tournament has just 11 golfers signing scorecards?

It's the fourth year the US Golf Association has held sectional qualifiers in international ports to make the US Open more accessible to golfers in other lands. But whereas the site in England routinely attracts dozens of established professionals, the tournament in Asia has been thin. Only 17 teed it up in 2005 and similar numbers arrived the next two years (19 and 18). Each of those three years, the USGA generously awarded three spots. This year, when only a dozen golfers showed up, just two spots were granted, but Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competition, said it would be wrong to criticize that situation.

In fact, through a USGA spokesman, Davis offered the opinion that the Osaka field was the strongest of the 14 sectional sites, with seven of the 11 finishers ranked within the top 250, and it's a legitimate point. There's also the fact that world golf leaders are committed to "growing the game," and extending opportunities to golf professionals in far reaches of the globe, men such as Artemio Murakami of the Philippines. In Osaka, Murakami, ranked No. 363d in the world, shot 69-69 -138 and tied former PGA Tour winner Craig Parry for medalist honors, and both players have their tickets punched to Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif.

The question isn't whether Murakami belongs in the US Open field. He certainly does. No, the problem is perception. When you take extraordinary steps to go outside your boundaries and graciously extend an opportunity for success, it would be nice if more than a dozen folks were involved.

Memorial Photo Caption Fun, Vol. 1

What's being said in this image courtesy of golf.com's final round image gallery?

 

"The admission that HGH will be omitted from the testing threatens to undermine the credibility of the new system."

The Telegraph's Simon Hart says that plans to start drug testing without covering HGH, the most prominent of performance enhancing drugs in sport.

The introduction of random drug-testing was seen as a way of silencing the whispers about drug use in the sport, but now it has emerged that when the system goes live on July 1 the golfing authorities will not even be testing for HGH, despite evidence that it is one of the most widely abused performance-enhancing drugs in sport.

The omission opens the door for potential cheats to avoid steroids but to take the hormone without fear of being caught. Although HGH appears on golf's list of banned substances, both the European and PGA Tours have confirmed that players will only be required to submit urine samples. However, HGH can be detected only by taking blood samples.

"At this time the policy will involve only the collection of urine samples," European Tour spokesman Mitchell Platts said. "Blood sampling may or may not be added at a later date."

HGH could theoretically give players a physical edge because it enables people to train harder and for longer and to recover more quickly. With so much emphasis in the modern game on power and length, it is easy to see how some players might be tempted.

The admission that HGH will be omitted from the testing threatens to undermine the credibility of the new system. When Player made his allegations, he named HGH specifically as a drug he had heard was being used by at least 10 top golfers.

More importantly, God forbid, this could impact the all important quest to get golf in the Olympics. I can't believe Hart could miss such a key point! 

The story is accompanied by a Paul Casey commentary in support of testing and Lewine Mair's perspective on the testing process.