When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Just a wild guess here, but Wells Fargo stepping in to buy Wachovia could bode well since they are seeking an east coast presence, and therefore the need to, uh, platform the brand via events like the Wachovia Championship.
This NZPA story looks at Michael Campbell's inability to get a free drop from a divot laiden catch basin and also offers this about his pro-am partner, Sam Samuel Jackson:
There were a few light-hearted moments, including at the first that Campbell and Jackson were playing as their 10th. One youngster holding a camera asked Jackson if he could have a photograph. Jackson responded: "I'm sorry, I don't have any photos on me."
However, Jackson took exception when one person called him Sam. "My name's Samuel, OK!," he said.
Jim McGovern at golf.com offers an interesting analysis of the PGA Tour's relationship with auto manufacturers and where it may head.
Companies that are sufficiently capitalized, have a national audience of customers who fit golf's demographics, maintain a multilevel distribution network and can afford to develop a broad array of television ads are few and far between. Throw in a minimum entitlement fee of $3 million or more depending on the purse, a requirement to buy $2.5 million to $4 million in commercials, then add the cost of sponsorship activation (pro-am spots, hotels, food and beverage for customers), and the list begins to shorten rapidly. All in all, you're looking at roughly eight million bucks a year, with a minimum duration of four years, for a total commitment of around $32 million. And that's just for run-of-the-mill tournaments; World Golf Championships and some thoroughbred events are higher yet.
Having read an expanded version of Kenny Perry's whining last week at East Lake in Golf World's Tour Talk (not posted but even worse than this), I was struck by how few writers pounced on this dreadful example of a truly spoiled brat.
Jim McCabe notes Kenny's ruined week and points this out:
The partnership with corporate America is mandatory to the survival of his workplace and perhaps if Perry would come out of his pampered PGA Tour world he would discover that it's not the most solid of landscapes these days. Thus, one can only wonder how his comments went over with officials high up at Coca-Cola and FedEx. Since those folks were largely responsible for Perry getting payments of $120,400 (T-24 in the tournament) and $250,000 (season-long points race), it would be interesting to see if they apologized for having "ruined" his week.
Great to see the USGA awarding one of its own the Bob Jones Award, with Pine Valley's O. Gordon Brewer getting the nod. Of course they've given the prize to one of their own before (Richard Tufts, Bill Campbell, Carole Semple Thompson, etc...), but Brewer falls more into the Jay Sigel category. Sort of a, oh, okay sure!
Another image from John Kemp, who worked on the Castle Stuart project designed by Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen. Click to enlarge this image of the par-3 11th:
Tim Rosaforte analyzes the state of the FedEx Cup and reports that the PGA Tour is looking hard at some sort of format guaranteeing a grand finale on Sunday at East Lake. Why it took them two years to figure this out, I don't know. Here's what he confirms they are considering, first noted by John Hawkins:
As reported last weekend on golfworld.com, one of the alternatives is an 18-hole shootout among the top four to eight players in the standings. "The fundamental is we know it needs to finish this week," Finchem said, meaning not four weeks earlier, when Singh effectively locked up the Cup by winning the Deutsche Bank Championship on the heels of The Barclays.
In the shootout scenario, the Tour Championship would begin Wednesday and conclude Saturday, leaving Sunday open for the last men standing to play one round of stroke play for a whole lot of money. "In theory, it's a pretty good concept," said Joe Ogilvie, a member of the tour's policy board.
Here's the problem: the only way this makes sense is as a way to create a gurantee while not doing something closely resembling the LPGA's ADT Championship. Not surprising, but still pitiful.
For a bunch of free marketeer independent contractors, the players and Tour execs sure want to control and worship those points earners until the very end. Why? To give us a "deserving" champion.
A free-for-all playoff, with eliminations on Friday and Saturday would be way too bold, interesting and potentially thrilling. But totally unpredictable, which scares these people way too much.
The Tour should use the ADT concept of a true day-to-day playoff, but instead, play 36-holes Sunday for the big prize.
Steve Elling notes this from last week's Tour Championship:
In mid-September, Finchem said he'd issue the 2009 schedule last week in Atlanta, then sort of like the FedEx Cup chase itself, he failed to deliver. Complications, he said.It's sounding like the Wachovia Championship situation is anything but settled, based on the language in this email that went out today from tournament director Kym Hougham. The underlining is mine:
Subject: Wachovia Championship 2009 Renewal-Update
In an effort to keep our valued patrons, corporate partners and volunteers informed on the day-to-day business of the Wachovia Championship, we wanted to reach out and inform you that we remain in the planning processes for the 2009 tournament, scheduled for April 27-May 3, 2009.
As it stands now some of our timelines in certain areas will need to be adjusted. One of those will be our ticket renewal process which was scheduled to begin October 1. We are going to delay this offering slightly, but please look for your ticket renewal information in the near-future.
We look forward to sharing another great tournament experience with each of you next spring.
Regards,
Kym Hougham
Executive Director
Marisa Lagos posts an item about this week's taskforce meeting to discuss the fate of San Francisco's city courses, and in particular, Sharp Park. Now, I hate to encourage the stereotyping of San Franciscoans. I have to live in the same state as these people, but the item does raise a few questions about the sanity of my neighbors to the north.
There are the locals who want Alister MacKenzie's Sharp Park for soccer fields, even though the course is by no means flat. And then there's this:
The high point of the meeting arguably came when parks advocate Isabel Wade went head-to-head with golf advocate Dave Diller; she argued that golf is primarily played by white men over the age of 45, a statement Diller angrily derided as "racist." Diller's response prompted the packed room to erupt in applause -- though to be fair, many of the people clapping appeared to be white men over the age of 45.
Steve Elling tries to convince us that there is plenty to look forward to in the way of fall golf, and buries this little head-turner:
Staying on the Augusta riff, we have it on solid authority that Augusta National has made some more revisions to the course, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks when the club, closed for the summer, reopens for play. Did Masters chairman Billy Payne hear the fan and media catcalls calling for more birdies and excitement on Sunday after two lackluster years of final-round theatrics? You bet he did. How he will counter-punch, though, is anybody's guess.
The rough could easily not be included when they start mowing down the fall overseed, but I still think they'll wait one more year and tie that in with the groove spec change.
This is the 9th hole, with the clubhouse going up on the right. Again, anyone involved is more than welcome to tell us what we're looking at here. Click on the image to enlarge:
That's what Lorne Rubenstein asks as he runs down all of the problems. It makes you wonder about that whole any-press-is-good-press mentality.
In the new Golf World, Mike Cullity considers the plight of Hamilton Hall in St. Andrews.
Hamilton Hall's current state is a far cry from the vision promised by its owner, Wasserman Real Estate Capital LLC, a Providence, R.I., development firm that bought the building from St. Andrews University for £20 million (about $40 million) in 2006. A 40-year-old developer of retail, mixed-use and residential properties, the firm planned to transform the old dormitory into a luxury residence club called St. Andrews Grand that would open in mid-2008 and count Phil Mickelson among the members paying a seven-figure sum for a share in one of 23 lavishly appointed apartments.
But those plans have been abandoned, and as St. Andrews looks toward the Open's slated return to the Old Course in 2010, locals are speculating about Hamilton Hall's future and expressing concerns over its appearance. The public outcry is a prominent example of the conflict that has emerged in Scotland between local interests seeking to preserve the historic character of golf's birthplace and real-estate developers—including Donald Trump, who for two years has battled local officials over a plan to build a $2.1 billion golf resort along Scotland's northeast coast—looking for a piece of the country's lucrative golf tourism pie.
Aiming to attract wealthy travelers, St. Andrews Grand did not generate the interest Wasserman Real Estate Capital had hoped for, said David Wasserman, the firm's principal. "We had demand but not necessarily enough demand to carry the whole project through," he said. "We learned the market is not deep enough for fractional residences at that price point."
Nice quote, but way too transparent.
Randall Mell reports the good news that the PGA Tour has granted heart-transplant recipient Erik Compton a cart for Q-School.
Compton was informed by telephone this afternoon, PGA Tour Executive Vice President Ty Votaw confirmed. Compton said he expects written verification by FedEx on Wednesday.Now, if they sent him a letter saying "no," would they send it DHL?
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
