It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
On Valhalla:
"She's a little rough, because we have so many wide-open areas, native areas," Wilson said last week on a tour of the course. "She's not one you'd put a lot of makeup on, not real frizzle. It's a golf club, not a swimming pool, not a tennis court. I try to do some aesthetics. But we really try not to have flowers out here (on the actual course). We're not putting hair spray on."
Jon Show reports that those ugly shirts the Americans will inevitably wear for Sunday's singles matches will be sold in limited quantities at the merchandise pavilion. I pity the poor folks who have to witness doughy, cigar-smoking men change into their ($94!) purchase so they too can walk around Valhalla while experiencing what it's like to wear a Nike Dri-Fit while getting smacked around by Europeans.
But at least the PGA of America is humble about it...
Officials would not disclose how many are in stock but said quantities are extremely limited.By any definition of capitalize, that quote makes no sense.
“I’m sure we could probably sell as many as we brought in, but we’re not really looking to capitalize on it at this point,” said Kevin Carter, senior director of business development for the PGA of America.
The PGA of America declined to speculate on how much revenue the apparel could bring in, but it should be less than six figures based on sales of uniforms at the Presidents Cup, a similar team golf competition.
I'm not sure what's more disturbing:
Robert Karlsson had to go and win Sunday, as if Europe wasn't playing well enough. Before he did that, Karlsson told John Huggan that Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie will be missed this week:
"As a newcomer, Colin and Darren were fantastic towards me," says the 6ft 5in Swede, who qualified for this year's side on the back of an enormously consistent season highlighted by top-20 finishes in all four major championships. "Monty sat down with me on the Thursday evening and talked about his experiences. So did Darren. They prepared me for the first few holes on the first day.
"Monty told me I would feel nervousness like I had never felt before. And he was right. The Ryder Cup is great, but it is hard to enjoy the playing part of it. There is so much pressure, especially on the first tee. Everything is just so big and it is so different playing for more than just oneself. I sat and listened rather than asked questions. They made me feel like I belonged. And they helped me enjoy the experience."
Under fire for only having one assistant captain, Nick Faldo is deflecting some of the negative attention by suggesting that Paul Azinger has suggested that he regrets about naming Ray Floyd and Dave Stockton as his assistants. This is going to be an entertaining week! Tom English reports:Faldo reveals that Azinger has become uncertain about his key lieutenants. Drawing conclusions from private chats they've had of late, Faldo says that if Azinger had his way again he wouldn't pick the two veterans, both of them controversial Ryder Cup captains of the past.
"I think he (Azinger] already regrets – not sure if regret is the right word – but if he did it again, I don't think those guys have brought to his team what he wanted. He's a bit like me, he feels that you've got to make the decisions yourself. Maybe those captains are from an old era and this is a new era in the Ryder Cup. He thinks he has (gone for the wrong guys]."
Jack Nicklaus, in a guest column for The Times:
If you ask me why I think America will win, it’s because I believe they have the better players, despite the evidence of the most recent Ryder Cups.
Lorne Rubenstein reports the exciting news that Ian Andrew has been commissioned to prepare a plan for the "rambunctious" Cape Breton Highlands. Now it seems that Parks Canada just needs a little nudging to let Andrew properly restore this masterpiece.
Thompson, who died in 1953, when he was 59, elevated the game beyond recreation at the Highlands. Because he was an artist and had a powerful canvas at his feet and all around — ocean, forest, and mountains — he made an important contribution to Canadian culture. As historian and local authority Ken Donovan said, "This is the story of small village life in a Canadian context."
The Highlands Links is attached emotionally and historically to the small community of Ingonish, much as the Old Course is linked to St. Andrews, Scotland. It's far more than a golf landscape. It's a cultural landscape, one reason the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated Thompson a person of national historic significance three years ago. A plaque to this effect was supposed to be unveiled here on Thursday, but the ceremony was cancelled when the federal election was called.
Before the Ryder Cup news takes over, let's not forget the grooves. In last week's Golf World, Mike Stachura raised some interesting questions about the validity of the rule change for 2010.
Second, if several popular irons already in use on the PGA Tour are said by their manufacturers to have groove patterns that already conform to the new rule (Titleist, Cobra, Adams and Ping have irons that may meet the new requirements), how much will the rule alter performance? And if the answer turns out to be not all that much, what is the USGA's next move?It starts with a b and ends with an l and would have been much easier to change.
I do believe that Adam Scott has been playing conforming grooves all year, and suspect many others have. If so, Stachura's point would seem to kill the case that a groove chance would reduce the amount of flogged drives.
Then there is manufacturer research that says the shot that might be affected most is the pinched wedge from the fairway. Does it not seem odd that a rule meant to restore the value for hitting the ball in the fairway might result in less effective shots from the short grass?
Oh great, another reason to narrow fairways. Just what the game needs.
Magazine editors are praying
Remember that post about cranky coverage coming?
For those who read Jim Moriarty's excellent story on heart transplant recipient Erik Compton,
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:
And remember the U.S has J.B. Holmes helping to skew the numbers a bit with his 310.4 average.
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?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?
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.
GW: But it was a rule. There was a very strict penalty.Are we now putting lipstick on a pig? Wait, don't accuse me of calling the Commissioner a pig!
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.
GW: Looking at it now, do you realize or recognize that the penalty portion was a mistake?Would that last sentence be allowed on the LPGA's English exam?
CB: The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons.
GW: Looking back on it now, do you wish you have discussed the penalty portion with more sponsors or...Huh, she told Tommy Hicks the same day that "we were addressing sponsors' needs and requirements."
CB: Sponsors never want to be part of these decisions.
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!
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.
Those Monday and Tuesday rounds at Crooked Stick
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."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
