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.
In noting the slight total purse increase for the 2009 PGA Tour schedule, an unbylined ESPN.com story includes this:
"I'm delighted to say that the demise of the PGA Tour has been overstated considerably," commissioner Tim Finchem said Monday night at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Getting cocky are we?
Bob Harig breaks down the schedule changes here.
Richard Perez-Pena reports on a request of 100 volunteers for a buyout at Time Inc. and notes:
Hardest hit in the first round is the group that includes Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Kids and Golf magazines. In a memorandum to his staff, Terry McDonell, managing editor of Sports Illustrated, asked for 40 people to leave voluntarily, out of an editorial staff at the magazine group of about 250 people.
Garry Smits says the PGA Tour Policy Board never planned on approving or disapproving the FedEx Cup fix Monday, though that doesn't explain why all of the PAC board members yapping to the press were under a different impression.
He also confirms this, which has come up in nearly ever story:
Instead of points re-setting after the regular season, they won’t be re-set until after the third playoff event, the BMW Championship. All 30 players who reach the Tour Championship will have a mathematical chance of winning the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not hearing anything that will prevent a player who had a great year from taking several playoff events off prior to the Tour Championship?
I finally mustered up the strength to read Bill Fields' emotional piece on Davis Love Jr.'s plane crash. For some odd reason Davis III's win Sunday made it a little easier to tackle.
It's tough to read these things when it falls into the lousy-things-happening-to-great-people-file. I still remember chatting with him while watching Davis play at Riviera when he was a rookie and hitting the ball incredible distances with persimmon. What a gentleman.
Golf World's E. Michael Johnson reports a stunner that could have huge implications...or not?
The United States District Court in Wilmington, Del., has granted Callaway's request for a permanent injunction to stop sales of Acushnet's current line of Titleist Pro V1 family of golf balls, effective no later than January 1, 2009.
In its ruling today, the Court also rejected Acushnet's request to overturn the jury's December 2007 verdict which found that Callaway Golf's golf ball patents were valid and infringed by Acushnet's Titleist Pro V1 family of golf balls.
But...
Key to the ruling, however, is the phrase "Acushnet's current line of Titleist Pro V1 family of golf balls." Although the court's ruling would appear to indicate that some inventory of Pro V1s currently on shelves may have to be stopped, the Acushnet Company, parent company of Titleist, said it will file an appeal and that it does not expect the ruling to have a material adverse impact on its results.
Pretty remarkable considering what's going on. Of course, there no Fall Finish dates announced yet. Here's the list and the PGATour.com spin.
Bob Smiley is a television writer moonlighting in the world of golf literature, producing an entertaining new book on his pursuit to watch every hole Tiger Woods played in 2008.
Released today by HarperCollins, Follow The Roar is a fresh and decidedly novel approach to the genre of golf books where an author takes us inside the ropes for a year. Smiley was mostly outside the ropes and media centers (explaining his clear eyes and thin physique), yet he captures so many entertaining moments in Tiger's epic half-season.
The impressively produced book features end sheets with all of Bob's tickets along with a lavish photo insert that includes several indelible images taken by some of the best in the business.
Bob hosts his own blog here, and kindly answered a few questions about the book.
GEOFF: The idea for Follow The Roar really started with an email from an ESPN.com reader?
BOB: It really did. During the 2nd round of last year's Target (now Chevron) World Challenge, I decided to dive into Tiger's mob for the day and write about the experience. I'd seen Tiger play at Riviera a couple times, but never from start to finish. I stuck with him from the second he stepped out of his beige Buick Enclave until he signed his card for a tournament-record 62. The piece triggered a wave of response from golf fans who had braved crowds to see Tiger and loved reliving the experience or those who had never seen him in person and wished they'd been there. Buried in the emails was a woman who asked me whether I would be following Tiger the whole year. It was a ridiculous idea. Until I realized it was a brilliant idea.
GEOFF: And when did the book deal come into play?
BOB: Twenty-four hours before Tiger began his season. I was up early and starting to pack for the trip to the Buick Invitational in January when the news came through that HarperCollins had made an offer on my book proposal to help me do this. I would have gone to San Diego with or without a deal and chronicled the tournament. But the following week Tiger would be in Dubai, and that would have been a little tough without some outside help.
GEOFF: An accountant friend had you not making it past July without going broke. I take it you were the one person grateful for Tiger's knee needing major surgery? Or would you rather have continued on?
BOB: Well my mom thought my airfare budget was way off since, in her mind, Tiger would be letting me travel with him for free on his jet by the end of the year. But no, I would always have loved to have seen more. I'd love to know how Tiger would have navigated the wind and rain during the first two rounds of the British Open. That said, he went out with such a finish at the U.S. Open that it's hard to imagine that even he could top it.
GEOFF: In most instances you were covering him without the aid of a press credential?
BOB: The only press pass I ever received was in Dubai of all places. And only then because I was surfing around the tournament's website, found an online application for a credential and hit send. But I'm not a reporter by anyone's definition. From the beginning, Follow The Roar was always intended to be an everyman's adventure with Tiger and his world. I wanted every reader to start pick up the book and think, "this could be me."
GEOFF: Do you think it made your quest more uniquely informed because you were viewing him outside the ropes and without the pleasure of free food accompanied by depressing lunch room discussions about the demise of newspapers?
BOB: Inside the ropes or out, most reporters aren't walking 18 holes with any one group. It's just not a good use of their time. What that meant for me was there were shots Tiger hit and things he said throughout the season that I know no other writer witnessed or wrote about but I. Being on the outside also meant being free from any journalistic pressure to be impartial and civil. My feelings about Tiger over the course of the year ran the gamut from disdain to adoration and back again.
GEOFF: Was there a favorite character you encountered along the way?
BOB: In Tucson, I had an extra ticket and put it on Craigslist for free, the one rule being that whoever took it had to follow Tiger and Tiger only with me for the day. No complaining, no long beer lines, no bathroom breaks. It ended up going to a tough Tucson taxi driver who gave me a free ride to the tourney and broke the ice by showing me the gun he had hidden away in his glove compartment.
GEOFF: Any brushes with Stevie?
BOB: Nothing a little facial constructive surgery didn't heal.
GEOFF: Have you sent a copy to Tiger?
BOB: The supremely naive part of me would like to believe that Tiger will bounce out of bed one morning this week, drive to the bookstore and buy it. The realistic part of me knows that Tiger Woods is so powerful that he probably saw a finished copy before I did.
GEOFF: Anything you'd like to ask the big guy?
BOB: Plenty. But my guess is that given the opportunity to spend time with the greatest golfer ever, our conversation would quickly devolve into me making swings with an imaginary club and asking him what in the world I'm doing wrong.
Steve Elling blogs that the disastrous FedEx Cup fix expected to be green-lit this week by the PGA Tour Policy Board hit a snag: the PGA Tour Policy Board.
All along, some tour officials and players expressed doubts that the complete framework could be hammered out by Monday, but the tour needs to implement the plan before the start of the 2009 season since the regular-season points awarded for individual tournaments stand to be affected.
“While the proposed framework was favorably received by the Policy Board, no action was taken pending further review and discussion with sponsors, network media partners and players,” tour communications chief Ty Votaw said in a statement Monday night. “The Policy Board will reconvene via teleconference, at which time final approval will be sought. Final action is expected prior to Thanksgiving.”
The board received the idea of reduced fields and a system rigged to protect those big free-market loving stars so favorably, they tabled it for more discussion.
Commissioner Pelosi, errrr...Finchem, makes $5 million a year to not bring these things to the table without the necessary votes. Of course the mavericks who stepped up here are not exactly going out on a limb. Reduced fields upset the rank-and-file and make for lousy television since they produce an unusually high number of runaway winners (tune into a WGC for evidence of that). You'd just like to think the Commissioner would realize that before presenting a plan.
But worse than that blind spot is the decision to ignore momentum building for a bold Tour Championship conclusion. If ever there was a time to take a chance--dismal ratings, nervous sponsors, two straight FedEx flops--isn't this it?
In Jerry Potter's story on Tiger's press conference to launch The Cliffs, he shares this from developer Jim Anthony:
Woods said he was able to walk about three months after surgery, and Anthony said his early visits to the site left him worried. "He has probably put more steps on this ground at this stage of development than any architect we've dealt with," said Anthony, who has courses built by Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio.
That's not really saying much. Those three, walking a site? Without cameras? Right.
Golfweek.com offers a nice overview of today's ceremony, which is telecast at 9 EST on Golf Channel.
Obviously of most interest to this website is Pete Dye's induction, followed closely by Herbert Warren Wind's overdue entry into the HOF.
Michael Hurdan writes about Dye here in a piece for PGATour.com, while Jaime Diaz offers this perspective in the December Golf Digest.
Jerry Tarde calls Wind the American Darwin in this December Golf Digest editor's letter. I just can't believe how clean his office was. (Photo from GolfDigest.com.)
Steve Elling on the incredible scenarios that played out this week for the Top 125 bubble boys, including Martin Laird, Shane Bertsch, Jeff Overton and Jason Gore.
Scottish rookie Martin Laird, who began the week at No. 126, eked past Shane Bertsch, who missed the cut after starting the week at No. 124. All the former had to do was make a crucial eight-footer for par on the final hole, knowing full well that he was surely dead in the Disney World swamp water if he didn't.
After the putt dropped, he buried his face in a hand and stared the grass. It was a mix of relief with a smidge of uncertainty, since he thought he had blown it with a three-putt on the 12th and another bogey on the 16th.
"I honestly didn't know," said Laird, who finished in a four-way for 21st. "I still thought it would be close. But I knew if I missed it, I had zero chance."
Bob Harig confirms the likely FedEx Cup fixes and boy is the fix in.
The highlights: The overall champion will not be determined before the Tour Championship, it will be nearly impossible for a major championship winner not to qualify for the season-ending event featuring 30 players, the overall point distribution will be greatly simplified and field sizes for playoff events will be reduced.
Ahhh yes: win a major and that means smooth sailing through the playoffs. Uh, I'm just wondering if anyone has thought about such a scenario perhaps encouraging said major winner to take a few playoff event weeks off? I know, I know, there I go again wondering about things that could never possibly occur.
But if you were looking for a one-day, or even a one-tournament shootout for the $10 million top prize? It's not going to happen.
"This year, we made the regular season mean hardly anything," said PGA Tour veteran Steve Flesch, a member of the tour's Players Advisory Council, which met this week at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. "Golf has always been about who has had the best year, not who had the best four weeks.
"We had to make a conscious decision, are we going to make the playoffs for four weeks or who has the best year? I'm happy with the changes they've made. They're letting the regular season [points] carry all the way to the Tour Championship."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Meanwhile, Brian Hewitt talks to Zach Johnson and apparently the FedEx Cup Hewitt watched was different than the bore the rest of us tolerated the last two years.
The FedEx Cup debuted in 2007 and was a success due, in large part, to exciting finishes in its four-event Playoff series and the fact that Tiger Woods won the $10 million first prize.
Uh, if it was a success how come they had to revamp it?
The Tour has been said to be trying to find a way to guarantee that the big prize will still be undetermined before the Tour Championship starts. There is also a desire to re-tweak the system so that certain top players make it to the top 30 at the Tour Championship. This year nine players, including Ryder Cup star J.B. Holmes and two-time major winner Padraig Harrington, began the Playoffs in the top 30 but dropped out of the top 30 before the Tour Championship, in part, because of the increased volatility.
Bad playoff play must not go unrewarded!
The other issue the Tour has been wrestling with is a way to give more players a chance at the $10 million first prize when they arrive at East Lake in Atlanta for the Tour Championship.
“Everybody’s on board and the sponsors are very excited,” Johnson said.
I tell you, the excitement is palpable.
Josh Peter reports on John Daly moving into OJ territory. Let's just hope his visits to Las Vegas turn out better than OJ's.
As exciting as the PGA Tour and Nationwide events were Sunday, that impressive leaderboard at the HSBC event in China was even more attractive until rain delayed Sunday's final round.
Word comes from the Golf Channel has scrambled to work out the details to bring us the final round of the HSBC tonight, Sunday, following the broadcast of the Nationwide Tour Championship with only a 30 minute interruption for the Sprint Postgame. My cable listings are a disaster, but it appears the start will be pretty soon.
And if the leaderboard doesn't excite you, it's worth recording just to hear the weird crowd reactions and fireworks explosions. If only Monty were playing...
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
