The Distance Advantage Myth

/

I've noticed a few stories mentioning the United States Ryder Cup team having a major distance advantage off the tee at Valhalla, but based on the tour averages published for each team in this week's SI Golf Plus, it's actually pretty close:

  • United States: 291.01 yards

  • Europe: 289.85 yards

And remember the U.S has J.B. Holmes helping to skew the numbers a bit with his 310.4 average.

"The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons."

/

You have to give Carolyn Bivens big points for sitting down with Beth Ann Baldry since it was Baldry who broke the LPGA's learn-corporatespeak-or-else provision. And credit Baldry for asking tough questions.

GW: Looking back on the way everything developed, is there anything you would do differently? Is there anything the LPGA has learned from this?

CB: We learn from everything.

GW: Would you care to expand on that?

CB: The only thing I would expand on there is that this was not an announcement and it was not a policy. Unfortunately that is the way that it was portrayed.
In her defense, the media did blow that. Check out this L.A. Times front page story.  But isn't this kind of overblown reporting typically a consequence when word gets out about a boneheaded, insensitive policy?
GW: But it was a rule. There was a very strict penalty.

CB: I said it wasn’t a policy. It was a small part of a program. There was feedback from lots of different groups, just as Rae Evans told you. . . . On Sunday I was in Albany, and we have 10 new members of the LPGA. Half of those are international players. The list for Qualifying School was released this morning; we have almost 70 international players. That provides both challenges and opportunities for us. . . . What we were doing is looking down the pipeline and saying this is the perfect time of year to be looking at what’s coming to the LPGA over the next couple years and make sure we’ve got the resources and support to be able to handle that.

GW: So it wasn’t so much the current players on tour as it was looking ahead.

CB: Correct.
Are we now putting lipstick on a pig? Wait, don't accuse me of calling the Commissioner a pig!
GW: Looking at it now, do you realize or recognize that the penalty portion was a mistake?

CB: The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons.
Would that last sentence be allowed on the LPGA's English exam?
GW: Looking back on it now, do you wish you have discussed the penalty portion with more sponsors or...

CB: Sponsors never want to be part of these decisions.
Huh, she told Tommy Hicks the same day that "we were addressing sponsors' needs and requirements."
GW: Whom will you consult now, going forward? Will you include more people on this?
CB: What do they say . . . a camel is a horse built by a committee?

Good animal metaphor, much better than lipstick on a pig. I have a lot to learn.

What we need to be able to do is include enough for a cross-cultural group and to be able to control and announce. And not have something play in primetime way before it was ready. It was never intended as an announcement.
Got that Beth Ann. It's all your fault!

Speaking of fault, Ron Sirak says that the LPGA's triple-bogey could impact the Olympic golf push.
Fathers are angrier than their daughters at a perceived cultural insult, and the jury is still out on the mood of Korean companies who pour millions into the LPGA and have great national pride. The issue also may impact next year's vote on whether to add golf to the 2016 Olympics. It's the kind of insult the IOC remembers, such as when the Atlanta games proposed Augusta National as the golf venue.

Langer: Get Some Help, Nick

/

Peter Dixon reports that Bernhard Langer becomes the second former Captain to say that Nick Faldo is making a mistake by not having assistant captains.

“I think he [Faldo] is making a mistake by not having somebody with each group,” Langer said of Faldo's assertion that he and Olazábal have enough experience to cope, echoing Sam Torrance, another former Europe captain, a week earlier. “Once you have four teams on the course, I know, as captain, that I would like to have one person with each group. I can't be everywhere and I need information.” 

Expect the media to pounce the first time Faldo is asked about how someone played and he gives them "I didn't see enough of the match to say."

"We don't want to talk about the FedEx Cup, do we?"

/

The scribblers, already fired up about having an execution chamber viewing area and Vijay choosing not to talk to them, are declaring the demise of FedEx Cup. Of course that assumes it ever reached a peak before declining. Let's face it, the entire thing was flawed for two reasons: Tiger and Phil. The system was designed to ensure they would be eligible until the finish, and as long as the points gurus have to gear the entire thing about guiding the tour's two biggest draws to the weekend at East Lake, it will always be flawed.

Here are some of the reviews and other complications being raised, starting with Gary Van Sickle:

Then Villegas was asked if it was disappointing that he tied for third at the Deutsche Bank Championship (at which Singh won after a closing 63) and won at Bellerive but can't take the FedEx Cup as long as Vijay simply finishes four rounds in Atlanta. Villegas put on a solemn face. "We don't want to talk about the FedEx Cup, do we?" he asked plaintively.
Let's see, the FedEx Cup winner doesn't want to talk about the FedEx Cup. Neither does the BMW Championship winner. The intensity of FedEx Cup buzzkill is apparently at Category 4 strength.
Cameron Morfit, also on golf.com:
Unless you subscribe to the idea that sex appeal is a pocket protector and a calculator, the Tour's current math-heavy approach is a big part of the problem, even ignoring its terrible results.
Bob Carney at GolfDigest.com shares reader letters while Thomas Bonk reveals the disastrous ratings (at least the public knows a soulless golf course when it sees it):
The third round Saturday of the BMW Championship had a 1.1 overnight rating on NBC, down from a 2.6 in 2007; and Sunday's fourth round had a 1.2 overnight rating, down from a 3.2 in 2007.

Steve Elling questions why the top 30 to reach East Lake are getting Masters and U.S. Open invitations.

The FedEx points structure was re-jiggered this season to weight the playoff performances more strongly and to de-emphasize the overall season. Thus, journeymen pros like Kevin Sutherland and Dudley Hart, who each finished second in one of the three FedEx Cup series events to date, have cemented a spot in the first two majors next year.

It borders on absurdity. If I were a decision-maker at Augusta or the USGA, I'm not sure I'd listen to another self-serving pitch from the tour ever again. After months of foot-dragging, the tour revamped the FedEx rules in March, well after the Open and Masters exemptions had been re-upped for another year. Thus, if the tour can change its rules in midseason, then the USGA and Augusta National should do likewise by flushing the FedEx exemption category completely, effective immediately.

Broadly, the Masters traditionally required non-winners from the previous year to finish the season in the top 30 on the PGA Tour money list or inside the top 50 in the final world rankings in order to secure an invitation. There are five players in the 30-man field in Atlanta who don't appear likely to accomplish either, having taken the farcical FedEx freeway to Augusta and Bethpage Black, the U.S. Open site next summer.

In the span of 21 days -- or even less time for one-week one-offs like Hart and Sutherland -- a half-dozen players have cracked the Masters and Open field, barring the rescinding of the two major-championship exemption rules, which will soon be reviewed by their governing bodies.

Augusta National officials already have indicated that the club is keeping an eye on the FedEx exemption provision, while the USGA Championship Committee will conduct its next meeting Oct. 31. Speaking as a USGA member, the issue had better be on the agenda.

Vijay To Finally Speak About Trauma Of Winning $10 Million**

/

Only two days after passing on interviews with NBC or the assembled media, Vijay Singh has gathered his thoughts and is finally prepared to discuss those those heartfelt thoughts that the immediate aftermath of his T44 at Bellerive precluded him from sharing.

HASTILY ARRANGED MEDIA ALERT
Vijay Singh Teleconference

Members of the media are invited to take part in a teleconference with Vijay Singh.

DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008

TIME: 4:30 p.m. ET

The Making Of The Horse Course, Volume 1

/

Now that we have a week off from the playoff excitement, I have posted my first 4-minute "video diary" from the site of a golf course project. In this case, it's Volume 1 from the Prairie Club where Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and I have layed out a par-3 course called "The Horse Course." You can read more on the Prairie Club on the page I've devoted to it (with some early construction images posted), or at the Destination Golf Ventures website.

Volume 1 centers around our trip (Gil, Jimand yours truly) to work with developer Paul Schock and his team on the clubhouse area land plan. You can view a slightly wider angle version here or hit the play button on the embedded version below.

And as you will soon see, I'm no Steven Spielberg in the editing bay and certainly no Morgan Freeman in the voiceover booth. But hopefully you'll enjoy the images and great music, which in this case appears courtesy of Lloyd Cole from his excellent album, Antidepressant.


The Making of the Horse Course Vol. 1 from Geoff Shackelford on Vimeo.