Wednesday PGA Championship Clippings

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Jeff Rude fittingly kicks things off with a summary of where the wacky year in golf leaves us on the eve of the PGA and asks:

What will Phil do next to his bag? One can worry himself nauseous trying to guess the configuration. After all, Lefty has played majors with five wedges, two drivers, no driver and a driver that kept going left.
Can a junior set be far off?
On that front, Steve Elling files an interesting piece with insights from other players on Phil's club tinkering, with plenty of assuredness from Dave Pelz about the Team Mickelson thought process.
"He wouldn't be Phil Mickelson if he didn't change clubs and try new theories," said Geoff Ogilvy, a fellow member of the world top 10.
Welcome to golf's version of saying, "That's Manny being Manny."
Bob Harig says Kenny Perry is using criticism of his red-blooded American ways to uh, well, show up at Oakland Hills this week in his final preparations for the Fall Finish. Randall Mell (here) and Craig Dolch (here) also ponder Perry's place in the game.

John Huggan reports that Luke Donald's wrist isn't any better and that he's contemplating surgery.

Titled "Another successful surgery for the Open Doctor" or something silly like that, I feared that Jerry Potter was going to celebrate the Oakland Hills rees-tore before it's even seen one tournament round, but far from it:
Phil Mickelson finished 18th, shooting 6-over-par on a course he had played since he was a junior golfer. During the Bridgestone Invitational last week in Akron, Ohio, Mickelson was asked about Jones' work.
"Not a big fan," he answered.
Asked what he would do if he were Jones, he answered, "I would try to not be so monotonous."
Ohhhh, I think Rees will be hunting a certain Lefty down!

Doug Ferguson offers notes on Tiger telling ESPN radio that he won't be back for at least 5 months (and he's not watching much golf, which makes two of us, only I can get to the bathroom without it being a chore). And Ferguson shares this on the Olympic golf movement, where Phil seems to be reading off a script.
"Having golf an Olympic sport is exponentially more important to the game of golf than the majors," Mickelson said Tuesday from the site of the season's final major, the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. "The reason for that is it would bring in 168 different countries and their Olympic foundation and all those revenues and that would be going towards the growth of the game."
Hunter Mahan (sadly) apologized for his comments about how players perceive the Ryder Cup (too many cash cow parties for the PGA of America!). Seems he was called into the principal's office.
“They took it personally, and I don’t blame them,” Mahan said after meeting with PGA president Brian Whitcomb and CEO Joe Steranka. “I deserve what I get. I take full responsibility for what I said.”
Alan Shipnuck's always fun Hot List features Oakland Hills, Ben Hogan, and this on the "business model of golf":
Ratings for Firestone and the Women's British were microscopic, and sponsors on every tour are pulling back in these lean economic times. Most ominously, neither Van Sickle nor Shipnuck traveled to the British Open.
Don't worry, 72-holes of stroke play in 2016 at some stalwart like Medinah will change it all, Alan.

Okay, to the important stuff. Your pool picks. Golfweek's staff issues their selections, this time actually more than 24 hours prior to the start of play. Ed Sherman weighs in here.

PGA.com's staff offers sleeper picks while PGATour.com's Fantasy Insider shares his thoughts on who might win. And finally, Tod Leonard chimes in with his likely contenders.

Thoughts On The Grooves Announcement

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In announcing Tuesday's U-groove ban, the USGA and R&A accomplished something truly spectacular, unprecedented and frankly, impossible: they had people feeling sorry for the PGA of America.

I'll get to the good stuff about this rule change in another post, because for fans of strategic course architecture there could be some very exciting developments from this news. But momentarily, let's sit back and ponder at the utter lack of respect our fine governing bodies have shown their friends from Palm Beach, who have one week a year to shine and who have suppported the decision to ban U-grooves starting in 2010.

After dragging their feet so long, with R&A lollygaggery largely responsible for missing the initial announced timeline, how could anyone in these organizations say, oh, we must announce this on Tuesday of the PGA Championship?

Let's forget the disrespect shown to the PGA of America and consider this strictly from a practical perspective: you want to announce one of the biggest changes in the history of the rules at a time when people can digest the ramifications and give it full attention. With dwindling space devoted to golf in major media outlets, who in their right mind would want to compete with the year's final major?

Oh that's right, the R&A and USGA. Brilliant.

"Ihe idea of hanging the back right of the famed 16th green out over the water befits a second-tier TPC, not a classic course like this."

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While there has been the usual gushing over the Rees-toration of Oakland Hills, Bradley Klein offers cringe-worthy details in his analysis...

Ambitious plans to move several greens were shelved, but the course has been lengthened by 296 yards from its Ryder Cup muster. More significantly, many fairway landing areas have been made harder through additional choke-point bunkering, a steepening of some bunker faces and a narrowing of fairways to 24-26 yards.

The original boldness of the holes and of the putting surfaces remains, even if tee shots and approaches now are played through narrower defiles on this 7,395-yard, par-70 layout.

Too bad some of the work looks misplaced. New back tees on the par-3 ninth and 13th holes are misaligned to the right. The new greenside bunkers on the fourth and 16th holes have absurdly excessive shaping. And the idea of hanging the back right of the famed 16th green out over the water befits a second-tier TPC, not a classic course like this.


Tuesday PGA Championship Clippings: Kenny's Last Shot

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Glory's Last Hope, puhllleaze...this is Kenny's (First and) Last Shot at a major.

Steve Elling reminds us that Kenny Perry is actually making his major debut this week in one of his final tune-up's for the Wyndham Championship.

Bob Harig looks at T.C. Chen's Oakland Hills double-hit and talks to Andy North about how he was handed a second U.S. Open as a result.

It was at the Senior British Open two weeks ago at Royal Troon where he bumped into Chen again. North was working the telecast and Chen was playing in his first Champions Tour event, although he missed the cut.
So will the stars of that fateful final round in 1985 meet again in competition? Chen, who has a home in California, would appear to hope so, as he plans to attend the Champions Tour's qualifying school this fall.
At PGA.com they offer first and second round tee times in not particularly user-friendly PDF form.

Vartan Kupelian offers the hometown preview for the Detroit News.

Doug Ferguson reminds us that the Europeans have fond memories of Hal Sutton's hatwear  the Phil and Tiger pairing disaster the 2004 Ryder Cup rout.

Ferguson also reports that national club pro champ Scott Hebert is a Michigan native playing Oakland Hills for the first time.

Thomas Bonk previews the PGA and offers a long list of interesting golf world notes as well as the weekend ratings recap. Yikes:
Saturday's third round of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational had a 1.5 overnight rating for CBS and Sunday's fourth round had a 2.1. The women fared worse on ABC, with a 0.7 on Saturday and a 0.6 on Sunday at the Ricoh Women's British Open.
Sean Martin reminds us what fun Woody Austin was last year.

Adam Schupak reports on the auto industry gradually pulling back its investment in golf tournaments and in Detroit area clubs.

Rich Lerner shares some Oakland Hills horror stories.

Carloz Monarrez pens an obituary for the 16th hole willows and talks to Ron Whitten and Brad Klein about the infamous trees and their significance (or lack of).

Speaking of Whitten, he takes a crack at predicting the winning score at Oakland Hills and says it'll be +5.

Golf World's course map with text by Brett Avery, including an interesting breakdown of the epic 1996 U.S. Open overnight bunker salvation project, can be opened here

PGA.com breaks down the changes to each hole and also offers a hole-by-hole tour with Director of Golf Pat Croswell. Many of the photos reminded me what an exquisite property this is for golf and how...oh I won't say it. It's only Tuesday.


Brand Lady: Can You Spare $4 Million?

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Jon Show reports that the LPGA is seeking a $4 million sponsor to oversee an 8-event run in the vein of the FedEx deal the PGA Tour inked, but as he buries in the last sentence:

Also complicating matters is the roughly $20 million in event sponsorships the LPGA already has on the market.

Another complication that also puts the, gulp, value of the LPGA sponsorships in perspective comes in this story (also by Show) on the PGA of America's attempts to lock up two more partners at a pretty hefty figure.

The PGA of America, one year after announcing American Express and RBS as its first official patron-level sponsors, is still trying to complete the final two remaining deals. The first two companies were signed to four-year agreements at an average of $7 million to $9 million annually,

Phil and Pelz Scout Oakland Hills; Still Pondering Several Possible Faulty Game Plans

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No mention in this AP story of the driver being benched, or a sixth wedge joining the team for the PGA. But they still have "a lot more work to do," which means there is still time.




Championship Vision At The PGA

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If you are going to the PGA, it seems the folks at American Express will be handing out their Championship Vision TV's to the first few thousand cardholders. Definitely the best deal of the group...

Are You a Cardmember?
While the PGA Learning Center is open to all, only Cardmembers will have the exclusive opportunity to enjoy:
•          Championship Vision:  Cardmembers can borrow complimentary, hand-held televisions that deliver a live telecast of the championship that fans can pause and rewind, check out aerial views of Oakland Hills Country Club and view player bios from anywhere on the course
•          American Express Cardmember Club:  The exclusive lounge area features complimentary food and beverage items and a silent auction featuring historic golf memorabilia and travel packages (Located between the 8th and 12th fairways, open all day from August 4–10)
•          Commemorative PGA Poster:  Special gift available with all purchases over $175 made using an American Express Card at the merchandise tents

After the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, I reviewed Championship Vision here.

Note to Julius: you'll score major points with scribblers if you can procure a few of these for their use. I know you appreciate these tips.