“Golf thrives on intelligent conversation. We need to talk more about where the game is headed.”

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Mark Brooks talking to Golfweek's Jim Achenbach:

The big campaign for Brooks is the golf ball. He, along with many traditionalists who enjoy working the ball and creating a multitude of different shots, would like to see spin put back into the ball.

Among other consequences, this would reintroduce the slice to golf. With today’s low-spinning, dead-straight golf balls, the slice has disappeared from the game. Sure, shots still go to the right because they are pushed or blocked, but they fly straight right rather than slicing out of control.

“It would put more emphasis on shotmaking, which would be a good thing,” Brooks said. “I’ve been screaming about it for some time, but it hasn’t done any good.”

It hasn’t done any good because the U.S. Golf Association failed to control the golf ball. For all the positive achievements of the USGA, the organization flatly failed to comprehend the ingenuity of the golf ball companies.

Along the way, golf turned into a straight-line game. A new philosophy emerged: Aim it at your target and swing like hell.

Brooks contends that an element of skill was removed from the game. Controlling the ball became too simple.

“It’s very frustrating,” Brooks said. “Shotmakers are artists. They are highly skilled at moving the ball around. Now suddenly you see a bunch of guys who never think of playing that way. The reason they can swing so hard and hit it so far is that the ball is so easy to control.”

Brooks still loves the game. He still will support the USGA, although he will lobby for change whenever he gets the opportunity.

When you shoot 66 in an important tournament, you have the opportunity.

“I’m not going to shut up,” Brooks concluded. “Golf thrives on intelligent conversation. We need to talk more about where the game is headed.” 

Q-School Miscellany, Day 1

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Sean Martin with the story of Ted Oh, who has reappeared on the golfing radar with an opening 67 at PGA TOur Q-school. John Strege fills us in on the progress of some other next-can't-miss players who are teeing it up this week.

Peter Yoon shares some some celebrity sightings:

Brooks, the veteran who already has status as a past champion on the PGA Tour, free-wheeled through a pressure-free round using his 22-year-old daughter as caddie.

Mark Brooks, the 1996 PGA Championship winner, is one of the most well-known players who teed it up Wednesday in the first round of Q-school at PGA West, and he lived up to the billing with a 6-under 66 at the Stadium Course that has him a stroke out of the lead.

Brooks, however, might not have been the biggest name on the course. That belonged to Anthony Kim, the Ryder Cup star who lent his caddie to childhood friend Seung-Su Han and walked with Han on the back nine as Han shot a roller-coaster 1-over 73 on the Stadium Course.

The two provided microcosms of the contrasts going on at Q-school.

Beth Ann Baldry at LPGA Q-school on Michelle Wie's first round:

Wie created a buzz at Q-School that hasn’t been seen since Ai Miyazato came through in 2005. Of course, those were all Japanese reporters.

Normally on a Wednesday at LPGA Q-School, two, maybe three print reporters are on hand. This year, several national outlets – including Associated Press, ESPN, and USA Today – walked 18 holes with Wie. Golf Channel even did hourly on-air updates of Wie’s progress.

Say what you will, Wie remains a story. As many as 100 fans followed Wie, though that number dwindled as the day progressed. There are no ropes here in Daytona, but there is a new set of bleachers behind the 18th green at the Champions Course, where play concludes on Sunday. Fans are up close and personal here at Q-School, so much so that security asked one man to get out of the middle of the ninth fairway.

And Eric Adelson at ESPN.com paints this picture:

Michelle Wie played 18 holes Wednesday without a Nike rep watching, without a William Morris rep watching, without a Ken Sunshine rep watching, without a deep-pocketed Hawaiian benefactor watching, without a physical therapist watching, without a live television camera watching, without a six-deep gallery watching and even without a standard-bearer watching. Those days, and witnesses, are gone, at least for today. But the 100 or so fans and reporters who were watching got the answer to the question that still intrigues many golf fans, including the Trashman:

Michelle is doing just fine. 

"We've got to assume and prepare for some slippage, and prepare for some replacement there."

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It seems Reuters convened some sort of sports summit and Commissioner Finchem appeared with his posse to spin things. He did reveal a few things worth noting...

"We've got to assume and prepare for some slippage, and prepare for some replacement there."

Finchem said the PGA had already held a wide range of discussions with companies about adding new sponsors or expanding existing deals if necessary.

Finchem said Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest automaker, could be one candidate for a bigger marketing presence in U.S. golf, while others could come from industries that "have performed relatively well during the downturn".

Such sectors include energy, the environment and retail, and Finchem mentioned the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart may be one company that could broaden its role.

More interesting was this Reuters blog item from Robert Macmillan. He either doesn't understand the Commissioner's extraordinarily, painfully dry sense of humor or the Commish is living in a fantasy world when it comes to Tiger Woods:

If there is a silver lining, it’s that Tiger downtime means that other nascent players might come to the fore, perhaps making them tomorrow’s stars. To understand how the PGA views Woods in this respect, Finchem pointed out that President-elect Barack Obama *might* be the first person in a very long time to knock Tiger off his perch as the most-recognized American.

Might? Really, you think? For the sake of our country I hope so.

"But we did notice that at this year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines that the public authorities there in San Diego banned smoking in the public areas."

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Ty Votaw, while speaking for the PGA Tour on a number of subjects, was asked about banning smoking at PGA Tour events.

"We certainly had conversations and discussions with John in the past when certain behavioral issues have come up," Votaw said. "We hope to not have many more of those conversations."

Votaw also said the tour has no plans to ban smoking at events, as has been done at the venues of some other sports.

"We play our sport on an expanse of geography that's a little bit different than contained stadium situations," he said. "But we did notice that at this year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines that the public authorities there in San Diego banned smoking in the public areas."

And it was wonderful not to smell that rancid odor created by grown men sucking on a bobcat turd.

Seriously, the smell I and others connect with the tour stop at Riviera is not the wonderful eucalyptus scent or that distinctive acacia fragance that floats through the property in February. No, it's cigar smoke. Not a nice connection.

I'm setting 2010 in the PGA Tour bans smoking over/under. Place your wagers!

A Shame For The Nationwide Tour..

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Phil Kosin reports on and laments the loss of one of the premier stops on the Nationwide Tour. He explains how it had become such a nice annual gathering.

Brand Lady Rakes In More Than Some Of Us Thought

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Okay, it's not Finchem money, but based on reporting that I thought she was languishing at $500,000 a year. Nope.

From Doug Ferguson's weekly notes column:

According to the most recent IRS forms available for the LPGA Tour, commissioner Carolyn Bivens earned $710,812 in salary and benefits in 2006. Two years earlier, in his final full year as LPGA commissioner, Votaw was paid $478,897.

With all of the great stuff she's done since 2006, I would hope she's reached the $1 million mark by now. Heck, she might even be making more more than the PGA Tour's EVP of Market Deliverables and Bandwidth Disintermediation.

 

Monty Flees England In Search Of More Ideal Speeding Conditions

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Doug Ferguson notes:

Colin Montgomerie, who married for the second time in April, has moved from the London area to his native Scotland. “Quality of life has risen,” he said.

Perhaps this unbylined Telegraph story sheds some light on why Monty is looking for improved speeding conditions quality of life:

He was caught speeding in his silver Bentley along Kingston Road, the A3, in Kingston upon Thames, South west London, on March 30.

It is the third time the sportsman has been involved in court proceedings for allegedly driving too fast.

Last year, he was accused of driving at 88mph on the M80 near Falkirk, but the case was dismissed when Montgomerie was not served with a summons.

And in 2004 he was accused of travelling at 96mph, again on the A3, but the case collapsed when a policeman failed to attend court.

The golfer was also given three points on his driving licence in 2006 for speeding.

On Monday at Feltham, chair of the bench Jagpreet Tucker said: "This court does take seriously speeding and we hope we don't see you again."

Montgomerie escaped a driving ban but was fined £750 plus £85 costs.

Prosecutor Suqi Smith said the golfer told police: "I did not realise I was going that fast, this car is too quick."

It's the car's fault. That's our Monty!

“Right now, our focus is to add to our operating reserve and be in a position to transcend this downturn"

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Tim Finchem, engaged in bold adverb usage with Bloomberg's Michael Buteau who asked about PGA Tour purses in the coming years:

It will certainly flatten,” Finchem said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio’s “On the Ball” program that will air this weekend. “Whether it will go down, I’m not prepared to go that far. ‘‘I don’t see the kind of growth that we’ve had these next three or four years versus the last six or seven, and it might be a flat period.”

And...

“I suppose if the economy continues to spiral away from us, if we get significant difficulties with sponsorships, anything is possible,” said Finchem, who has led the tour since 1994. “That would be the worst-case scenario. We don’t know how this is going to play out. Right now, we seem to be weathering the storm pretty well.”

I guess this means that the second most popular sport behind the NFL scenario is out?

“Right now, our focus is to add to our operating reserve and be in a position to transcend this downturn,” he said.

"It was a very tough decision, but there are times, like we’re in right now, where tough decisions have to be made.”

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After reading Ron Balicki's story on the prospective Walker Cup team members and assorted USGA committeemen not getting to schmooze on the back lawn at Seminole this January, I asked around to determine if this was:

  • A) the USGA realizing that a "winter practice session" for a ceremonial, two-day competition was a ridiculous show of excess in today's economic climate
  • B) the USGA realizing that a "winter practice session" for a ceremonial, two-day competition was really just a funded vacation for too many well-off mid-ams who had no chance of making the team
  • C) the USGA realizing that a "winter practice session" for a ceremonial, two-day competition was an excessive expense when their very own nest egg had taken a huge hit in the recent financial crisis.

The folks I reached out to all voted for "C", though many wanted it noted for the record that it should have been dropped regardless of the economic crisis. And that we'll know just how significant the hit was when the annual report is released in February.