"Best golf course we've played all year"

John Hawkins, writing about the popularity of Ridgewood in this week's Golf World:

Although the Barclays is scheduled to return to its old site in what amounts to a 2011 cameo, it won't be a year too late -- Ridgewood was as big a hit as you'll find among 144 guys with $10 million on the line. "Best golf course we've played all year," said Tom Pernice Jr., not the easiest man to please. The old-school look and imaginative medley of holes make this A.W. Tillinghast design a keeper, which doesn't explain why the tour will follow its commercial nose and flee to snazzy-but-raw Liberty National for the 2009 gathering.

"If this one's a 10, that one's a 2," said a veteran who played next year's site last week. But enough on the past and the future, especially when the present packs so much relevance.

Phelps To Portugal, Country Milking His Visit

This arrived in my email box today. Somehow I doubt is what Michael Phelps had in mind when he booked this trip online:

Michael Phelps left the Beijing Olympics with a record eight gold medals adding to a career tally of 14 – so where is the golden athlete heading next?

The 23-year-old American swimmer is on route with some friends to a golfing vacation in Portugal's Algarve region. He will relax at Hotel Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Resort & Spa, and enjoy some of the best golf in the world, up to par for one of the world's best swimmers.

More than half of the golf courses in Portugal are within the Algarve Region on the southernmost tip of the country. Currently there are 30 courses, a number which will soon double with new courses underway.

Golf is a year 'round sport in Portugal, making the country a gathering place for golf aficionados and some of Europe's most interesting courses. Many of the courses in the country were designed by the best golf architects to capitalize on some breath-taking views and to fit with natural surroundings. They also come in a variety of difficulty levels.

The Algarve courses have gained an international reputations, helped along by the region's mild climate and varied geography. Players tee off surrounded by red cliffs or dramatic sea coasts, and there's a course to fit all levels. Resorts in the area, sport luxury clubhouses, manicured greens and flawless fairways, all are open to visitors.

For more information on golf in Portugal go to www.visitportugal.com

Brand Lady: Learn English Or It's Sayonara!

This story has the potential to explode into one of those Jimmy The Greek, Ben Wright-style clashes where the PC police take on the perpetrator, in this case, the LPGA Tour. Frankly, I might actually not blame the PC police on this one. Beth Ann Baldry reports:

At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.

“Hopefully what we’re talking about is something that will not happen,” said Libba Galloway, the tour’s deputy commissioner, of possible suspensions. “If it does, we wouldn’t just say, ‘Come back next year.’ What we would do is work with them on where they fell short, provide them the resources they need, the tutoring . . . and when we feel like they need to be evaluated again, we would evaluate.”

Galloway said the policy takes effect immediately, but the “measurement time will be at the end of 2009.” There are 121 international players from 26 countries on tour; 45 are South Koreans.

Hilary Lunke, president of the Player Executive Committee, said much of this initiative stems from the importance of being able to entertain pro-am partners. Players already are fined if the LPGA receives complaints from their pro-am partners. Now the tour is taking it one step further.

“The bottom line is, we don’t have a job if we don’t entertain,” Lunke said. “In my mind, that’s as big a part of the job as shooting under par.”

Okay, so they learn some rudimentary English, which actually gives them a leg up on the Commissioner.

Is the pro-am conversation really going to get beyond "good shot" and "left edge" and "nice meeting you"? Unbelievable.

This, is going to get ugly.

The Ryder Cup Dilemmas

As Bob Harig outlines, it's a nightmare for Captain Azinger, a wealth of riches for Nick Faldo. Though Ian Poulter has essentially given up, pulling out of the Gleneagles event this week to play the TPC Boston. Which speaks to the depth of the European team.

Al Ruwaya Achieves Its Goals!

Tiger's press release writers need to understand that it's one thing to declare you design work a success, it's another to do it while the bulldozers are still flying around.

“When I set out to design Al Ruwaya, I wanted the course to reflect what I truly love about golf – a stern mental and physical test that rewards smart thinking. I believe we’ve achieved that goal with a course that will be fun and rewarding for all skill levels to play.”

Currently, shaping is in progress on the 18 hole, 7,800 yard, par 72 championship-quality course, which includes dramatic elevations, stunning water features and an overall design that will challenge and entertain golfers of all skill levels.

"I was hesitant to weight the playoffs this heavily, to be honest"

Boy, you try and tweak to deliver volatility and now they aren't happy!

Steve Elling complains about the new FedEx Cup volatility and finds a soul sister in PGA Tour policy board member Stewart Cink, who has already rendered his verdict.

Now we all have motion sickness. Vijay Singh collected his fourth career Barclays title and jumped from seventh to first in FedEx points, and while that sounds like healthy leapfrogging, it was the absolute least tumult that could have happened given the far-flung scenarios that might have played out at Ridgewood Country Club.

Here's a real after-the-fact kicker. Cink has been a good company man all season and widely espoused the benefits of the new points system, but now that there are some crazy cracks showing and his peers are questioning him about the merits of the details the Policy Board authorized, he has come clean.

"I was hesitant to weight the playoffs this heavily, to be honest," he said.

Because lord knows you are entitled to another year end check for showing up four more times and continuing the mediocrity.

I have to say that for some bigtime free market preachers, some of these PGA Tour dudes sure don't like a little, uh, volatility driven by market forces (in this case, those forces are called playing well.) Imagine if they had a true playoff, or even a modified one and wiped the slate clean at some point. The bitching would epic!

Right now, that list would include Kevin Sutherland, a veteran with one career win, who hadn't been noticed in weeks and lost in a three-way playoff Sunday with Singh and Sergio Garcia. Or winless veteran Mathew Goggin, who hadn't been noticed all season.

"It's more than just about the bonus money," Cink said. "Guys who played well all year are getting knocked out of majors."

Ahhhh....now the truth comes out. Has that really happened yet?

Bob Labbance, R.I.P.

Anthony Pioppi reports the sad news in a Golf Club Atlas post.

Faldo: "The guys are really twitched up about it right now"

Poor Captain Faldo, so many players, so few picks. John Huggan weighs Faldo's options and sees Casey-Poulter with Darren Clarke stepping into a spot if either qualifies on points. 

Steve Elling talks to Faldo about where things stand:

Every panicky player with a shot at making the team, with one notable exception, is playing this week in either New Jersey or Holland.

"The guys are really twitched up about it right now," Faldo said after finishing his commentary work for the Golf Channel on Friday. "The amazing thing, now I've got Darren Clarke leading.

"Crumps, I've got probably six names, unless they can jump in -- which would obviously be the best way to make the team -- but I could have four or five players outside playing well and it looks like I have to make a blooming decision."

Randell Mell sums up the most important point from a media perspective. The thought of Monty not making the team is "flat-out depressing."

"I think if we don't see a change, we'll be disappointed,"

Steve Elling considers the Barclays' move to Liberty National next year and offers this perspective from Barclays president Bob Diamond:

Last year, when Woods skipped The Barclays, the tournament was whipped in the ratings by the Little League World Series, televised on a cable outlet, ESPN. He acknowledged that was hard to stomach.  

"I think if we don't see a change, we'll be disappointed," Diamond said. "We'll see."

"The helicopter was supposed to fly over the course Friday and drop 1,500 numbered golf balls."

Let's hope that these guys pull through. And let's hope that next time they rent a balloon.

One man is in critical condition and another in fair condition following a helicopter crash at a Schuylkill County golf course.

A nursing supervisor at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville says co-pilot Joseph Matteo is in critical condition. Pilot Al Roman is listed in fair condition at Reading Hospital and Medical Center. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

The helicopter was supposed to fly over the course Friday and drop 1,500 numbered golf balls. The person whose ball was closest to the pin would have won 50 percent of ticket sales.

The fundraiser was for Access Services, a group that helps people with disabilities.

"Meanwhile the FedEx Cup remains a play for relevance via monetization and marketing, which looks especially silly every other year, when top players are more concerned about playing for God and country at the Ryder Cup."

Here I was thinking we had at least another two weeks before the FedEx Cup obituaries started rolling in and Cameron Morfit had to go and pen one before the art department could even come up with a cutesy graphic.

The FedEx Cup is stuck in a major end-of-season traffic jam. All of the individual events anyone cares about are over. In fact, judging from the breathless, parking lot stakeouts of Brett Favre, the press and public tuned out the Tiger-less Tour even during the year's final major. Paddy's PGA was no match for Brett's SUV.

And still the FedEx soldiers on despite the Olympics and an upcoming two-week break after the BMW Championship, necessitated by the Ryder Cup. Ultimately only 30 players will convene for the FedEx finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake outside Atlanta, because the smaller the field, the more "exclusive" (important) it is.

That's the idea, anyway. In reality a limited field holds limited appeal because it increases the likelihood that one hot player will run away with the tournament. It happened last year with Woods, but a mere mortal also could run away and hide with only 29 other guys chasing him. (A total of 315 players started the U.S. Amateur on Monday.)

Of course if there was a true playoff and daily eliminations at East Lake it wouldn't be so dull, would it?

Perhaps the FedEx champion won't be determined until the back nine on Sunday of the Tour Championship. That would be nice, but the rules are complicated. The Tour has arbitrarily narrowed the gap between players to start the playoffs, from 1,000 to 500 points. Every player who makes the cut at the Barclays will get 2,000 more points than he would have last year. This is meant to create more volatility up and down the standings.

The Amateur is simple. Two guys go into a match, and only one lives to play another day, sometimes after a wild momentum swing or five, which is typical of match play.

And if you had daily eliminations you would...oh continue on Cameron:

Meanwhile the FedEx Cup remains a play for relevance via monetization and marketing, which looks especially silly every other year, when top players are more concerned about playing for God and country at the Ryder Cup.