"I've had a lot of deflated looks up at 18. That's the way it goes."

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Enjoyable post round conversation between the scribblers and Geoff Ogilvy after his third round 65 gave him a six-stroke lead at sunny Kapalua, which looks oh so good on Golf Channel HD.

Q. Justin said he got to 18 and looked at the scoreboard and said it was deflating.

GEOFF OGILVY: Yeah, well, I guess it would be. I've never actually been this far in front before, but I've been this far behind a lot of times (laughter). I've had a lot of deflated looks up at 18. That's the way it goes.

And yeah, my pitching has been pretty good. It's probably the only part of my game that I really work on all the time. My golf swing and putting and all that comes and goes, but pitching is something I work on all the time. I think it's one of the most important parts of golf, especially the type of golf we play on TOUR. All the best players in the world are the best pitchers of the ball, so that's a part of my game I work on a lot. I guess this week, it's been pretty good.

"Are you doing that old business of forgetting to grip with the third and fourth fingers?"

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John Paul Newport's Saturday column covers an underserved topic in golf: the art of gamesmanship. Nice plug for our friend Jon Winokur's misunderstood classic on the subject, too:

The core gamesmanship concepts, in my reading and experience, fall into four categories, all of which prey on a golfer's lonely vulnerability. Implanting irrelevant or otherwise distracting thoughts deep in a player's mind is the most time-honored tactic. "Are those butterflies bothering you? I can try to shoo them away," one may offer. Unwanted instruction is also a perennial: "Are you doing that old business of forgetting to grip with the third and fourth fingers?"

The next category involves deliberately becoming an irritant. Matching your foe's brisk pace of play with a snail's pace of your own is hard to defend against, especially for Type As. Voicing political opinions known to be anathema often produces splendid results. Boldly repeating shopworn expressions -- such as "Never up, never in" when someone leaves a putt short -- is guaranteed to get under anyone's skin.

Next, and less sporting, comes active physical distraction, such as standing just a tad too close, or absent-mindedly jangling change. Mr. Winokur describes The Mangrum, named after former Tour pro Lloyd Mangrum, who was fond of wearing bright white shoes and, while standing just inside his opponent's peripheral vision, crossing his legs at just the right, or wrong, moment.

Lyle Selects His Running Mate!

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An unbylined Guardian story reports that Sandy Lyle is signaling his desire to be named 2010 Ryder Cup captain next week by signing up Bernhard Langer as an assistant. And in a depature from the 2008 debacle hierarchical structure, Lyle insists he will have a stable of assistants to help him correctly pronounce all team member names and to talk him out of backloading his singles lineup.

"We had four assistants in 2006 at the K Club, I was part of the four so I know that system works," he said. "You need to be in contact with the team at all times. Having a good back-up team is so important, not just when the tournament starts but in the breakfast room, the locker-room before players tee off. It's vital to have someone who's been there, done that, in the Ryder Cup." 

Sergio, IMG, Golf Channel Follow-Up

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Earlier this week I cited reader Dan's observation that the 2008 PGA Championship highlight video, as aired on Golf Channel, was missing Sergio Garcia's tournament-changing shot into the 16th hole pond. Well I heard from some folks at IMG who understandably didn't like being accused of trying to put a Band-Aid on a client's boo-boo.

So I contacted Golf Channel spokesman Dan Higgins, who kindly launched an investigation and fessed up that Golf Channel, not IMG, had edited out the dreaded shot due to time constraints. Higgins conceded the omission wasn't the greatest choice but because the structure of the show script mentioned the bogey on 16, it made for an easy cut that would not confuse viewers.

The moral of this story? Well, IMG's still, IMG. But I say nice job by reader Dan for spotting it, good work by IMG leaving in the shot and marks even to Golf Channel for not trying to spin this. And considering the positive direction Golf Channel is headed with some truly exciting breakthrough coverage technology debuting this week, we'll let it slide. Not that we have a choice!

 

"Lopez had many fans among the players, including Weir"

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Thomas Bonk, writing about the state of the West Coast Swing, notes the moribund state of the Bob Hope Classic and this about the bizarre removal of George Lopez as celebrity host:

Arnold Palmer, who won the first Hope 50 years ago, is coming back this month to serve as honorary host, and that's a nice touch. Palmer replaces, at least in title, comedian George Lopez, who was unceremoniously dumped after tournament officials were somehow shocked to learn that Lopez tends to track toward, well, edgy humor, even though that's been his act his entire career. Lopez had many fans among the players, including Weir, who isn't going to play in the celebrity field to make his feelings known.

Jenkins In The February Digest

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Great to see Dan Jenkins in fine form in this February Golf Digest column. Though I'm sure how Camilo Villegas is going to feel about his Ellen Lupton sketched depiction that looks more Michael Jackson.

11. When 38-year-old Phil Mickelson said that he had somehow grown an inch through stretching exercises, was it in:
(a) Height?
(b) Width?
(c) Between the ears? 

"I think the first and foremost is coming out in good shape in the wide range of scrutinies that we always get during these downturns."

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Tim Finchem, sporting a PGA Tour logoed dress shirt (PGA Tour PGA TOUR(C) logoed Hawaiian shirt would have sent the wrong message in these tough times) sat down with golf's last remaining scribblers to drone on about a few things, including negotiations on future Mercedes Championships at Kapalua (Robert Collias reports that the post-2010 future is far from certain.)

Q. You indicated that your major focus was to be better coming out of whatever this is we are in right now, than going in. How do you do that?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, there's a number of things that go into that. I think the first and foremost is coming out in good shape in the wide range of scrutinies that we always get during these downturns.

Scrutinies. New Year, new MBA jargon!

When we start into a downturn and companies are reducing their expenditures in advertising and marketing and sponsorship, they are obviously going through a process that they are deciding what's more valuable to them, where they get most value to the dollar spent.

In prior downturns -- and I would add to that, in my experience, every time we have a downturn, there was even more scrutiny than last time, and there's better scrutiny, because companies have learned how to do it better. They have better analytics and outside consultants, etc., etc.

Oh yeah, America is really feeling the effects of companies' improved scrutinies and those analytics. What did Obama say today? "We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility."

So in prior downturns, we have performed very well in that regard, because our value model, in terms of spending a dollar with the PGA TOUR versus spending a dollar versus X-Sport versus spending a dollar in Y-Sport, we come out very well. The first step is to win that contest and to come out ahead. If we are coming out ahead in those tests and those challenges, that absolutely positions us better for the future.

The second thing is that we just take advantage of the environment to work hard on our cost structure, challenge ourselves, although, we like to think that we do that all the time, but even more intensely, and be more efficient coming out of it.

And on that note, my jet is prepped and waiting, so I'm outta here once we finish up.

And the third thing is, use the period to where we are not winning that contest, where we are in a situation where we are sliding, use the opportunity to fix whatever problem it is that created that slide and structurally make changes that give us more value.

Let's see, how about working on the dreaded WGC's? The Fixed Cup's version three in year three? Competing tournaments during majors and WGC's? Boring product fueled by excessive course setup and demise of shotmaking?

Get your cliche and sports metaphor boards out...

So that's where we are at full-court press to do. We are going to take some hits. Everybody is going to take some hits in this environment. But if it's cyclical, we'll come through it and we want to position it to get back into a solid growth pattern.

This answer about the decline of newspapers seemed to be an improvement over the one I got at Sherwood.

Let's say we have a PGA TOUR event in St. Louis this year, we're there once during the year for four days of competition. The market doesn't view it -- the intensity level of the fans isn't such that they really have to have somebody that covers that sport for them.

So when you are coming to chopping budgets, a dedicated golf writer is going to come on the chopping block before somebody that covers a team sport. That's just the way it is.

I went out to my driveway and picked up my local newspaper and thought I had lost a few sections of it. It got quite thin on some days. But I don't know where it leads.

To be able to live in Pittsburgh or Detroit or anywhere and see a familiar name dedicated to your newspaper writing about a sport is a good thing for our sport. Losing that is a bad thing for our sport. But I can't quantify it in terms of what it really means to the fan base.

Ah the first John Daly question of the new year...

But if a player comments, if a player says, "I was fined $50," and he was fined $10,000, we might correct the record. But that's the extent of our commentary. That's up to the player, whether the player wants to keep it confidential or not.

So that was my response to the John Daly situation. I did say that I am not clarifying or changing his commentary on his suspension, which by definition means that he is generally correct in what he said.

Now, why don't we talk about it or give out the details. One, we don't feel like people really care that much. We don't get emails from fans saying, Why don't you tell us. So we don't think there's this hunger for that information.

No, there's no hunger...just reporters all over the world writing about it!

Two, candidly, we don't have that much of it, and we don't want to remind people about it. I'm just being straightforward. If somebody -- and remember now, in our sport, a bad thing is a bad word; it's not getting indicted usually. It's a bad word. But we don't want to remind people by saying, we fined such-and-such a player $5,000 for saying a bad word. It's just reminding them that he said a bad word.

In most cases, people don't know he said a bad word; somebody was standing at the ropes, a marshal or a fan who brought it to our attention, for a fellow competitor, and the player got fined. So usually it's a very small amount of people that know about the kind of attractions that we get, and we see no reason to publicize it.
If we had a problem of any magnitude, if we had a conduct problem, if we were faced with any significant issues where a player is not showing integrity or respect for the game, we might have a very different attitude.

Thankfully John Daly would never demonstrate anything that, wait, continue digging this hole...

I mean, I can understand in the NBA that if a guy jumps into the stands and gets into a fistfight, if I the Commissioner, I would pretty much feel like I had to tell the public about that, because there's a demand to know. We don't have those kind of situations.

No, our guys just take spectators digital cameras and smash them into trees.

And finally an unusual and unusually succinct answer on Tiger's comeback:

Q. But do you expect him to come back better than he was?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: I'm not going to comment on my expectations.

Look At Those Drivers!

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Introducing Golf Digest's Hot List homage to the latest equipment, Mike Stachura writes:

The USGA is unequivocal about average golfers: Despite decades of naysayers and experts alike suggesting that the average handicap is not dropping, has not dropped and never will drop, the fact is, it has. Let's say that again: The average handicap of all golfers -- men, women and children -- has decreased consistently for the past 15 years. The average handicap today is two strokes better than it was in the early 1990s, according to research provided to Golf Digest by the USGA's Golf Handicap & Information Network (GHIN). This decrease coincides with a remarkable decade of equipment innovation that has brought us titanium drivers in every shape and size, game-changing hybrids and oversize putters.

It's not the improved athleticism?

Anyway, reader Jordan noted that the most astounding element of the Hot List package was this comparison of drivers in the post-persimmon years. All were made by Taylor-Made and photographed by Jim Herity:

 

Brand Lady Does What She Does Best: Layoffs!

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Beth Ann Baldry reports and includes this quote from the LPGA Commish Carolyn Bivens on the "realignment":

Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, speaking with Golfweek in response to the tour’s Jan. 7 news release announcing the changes, would only confirm that chief operating officer Chris Higgs was among those who were let go.

“I don’t want to pretend for a second that the economy didn’t impact (the decision); it certainly did,” Bivens said. “(But) it was not the motivating factor for the realignment.”

 For a refresher on some past firings, you can go here and here.

"The result is a startling transformation that makes the California Golf Club of San Francisco arguably one of the golf-rich state’s five finest courses for the first time in its history."

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Ran Morrissett profiles the dramatic restoration of California Country Club, explains the role of various team members in this post, and contends that the project transcends the typical restoration, realizing something greater by combining the best of modern agronomic and architectural practices with MacKenzie's original redesign vision.

Some of the greatest designs ever seen in the United States- Lakeside, Bel-Air, and Los Angeles - were radically changed for the worse prior to World War II. Other designs like Pasatiempo were compromised by the subsequent residential component that was built too close to the playing corridors. Only a few clubs like the Valley Club of Montecito have retained and/or returned the best playing attributes ofthe course'soriginal design.

Yet, there is one club that has returned the best Golden Age design features to its course and taken full advantage of the finest aspects of modern golf architecture and agronomy. The result is a startling transformation that makes the California Golf Club of San Francisco arguably one of the golf-rich state’s five finest courses for the first time in its history.