Saturday At The Players

I arrived at 6:30 a.m. (a stuffy 78 degrees!) to sit in on a course tour of the front nine setup as handled by John Mutch of the PGA Tour.

The setup is nicely balanced and as solid as can be, though the architecture limits the possibility of the more dramatic day-to-day changes we're coming to expect more and more.The inevitable 17th hole photo, from the 16th hole.(click to enlarge)

Not that TPC Sawgrass needs much drama.

The conditioning is superb, however the design would benefit from a lot more mowing of rough and short grass areas around greens. Aesthetically, it's currently lacking some of the elegance a design so rich in texture deserves, much of which I attribute to the clump bermuda mix in the roughs. And the strategic benefits would be obvious: balls reaching hazards more easily, contours retaining even more of a presence and several approaches appearing more intimidating.

They think of everything! Lights in the tunnel from 17 green to 18 tee (click to enlarge)The current situation with so much rough around the greens limits shotmaking and frankly, looks ugly.

To clarify one issue regarding the rough. After being briefed by the tour, Golf Channel and NBC have reported that the fairway roughs are cut at 2-3 inches, last topped off mid-week. Greenside, the rough started in the same range but is now at 3-4 inches. However, because the severity of the surrounds requires the use of rotary mowers (that's a lawn mower) it has not been topped off all week while the fairway roughs have.  The PGA Tour's tournament director, Mark Russell, says the situation will be different next year.

The obvious question for anyone who watched Saturday: why the higher scores?Camilo Villegas tests the wind with the amazing video screen in the background. (Click on image to enlarge)

After all it's warm, greens are perfect and the wind never amounted to much. However, it's pretty simple, really. There is enough firmness in the greens combined with a relentless course that quickly wears the player down.

And that's why Alex Cejka's five-stroke lead over Tiger Woods appears so surmountable.

Friday At The Players

I was a lazy media whore bum today, having to finish off a couple of items for print and well, it's hot. So I walked around a bit in the morning, then followed Tiger-Ernie-Justin at the finish.

Hey, it was bloody hot out there.

Actually, I had to save myself and my deodorant allocation for the Commissioner's Southern Style Pig Roast, held in the Stadium Players Village from 7-9.  I'm too stuffed to report, though the event was lovely considering it was populated primarily by writers. So I'll just leave you with a few black and white images from Friday.

Unlucky victim of the Commissioner's Pig Roast (click to enlarge)

Tiger tees off on No. 17 Friday afternoon. (click image to enlarge)

No. 17 Friday (click to enlarge)

Who says Tiger doesn't stop for autographs (click to enlarge)

Tiger after his round (click to enlarge)

R.I.P. Bud Shrake

Bill Fields remembers the writing legend, best known in golf as co-author of Harvey Penick's Little Red Book.

Skins Game R.I.P.

The dreaded Friday afternoon release...

SKINS GAME TO BE POSTPONED IN 2009 WITH PLANS TO RESUME PLAY IN 2010
Current economic climate cited by event partners ESPN, IMG Media and the City of Indian Wells

The Skins Game, a popular Thanksgiving weekend golf tradition for the past 26 years, will be postponed in 2009 but plans to resume play in 2010, event partners ESPN, IMG Media and the City of Indian Wells announced today.

The Skins Game began in 1983, and in that first year pitted four of the game’s greatest legends – Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson – against each other for unprecedented prize money. The on-course dramatics of the Skins Game, and the fascinating banter between the players, is widely credited for launching many other successful made-for-television golf events.

“The Skins Game has enjoyed a long and successful history, and it will continue to be an important part of golf’s fall season in the future, but given the current economic climate, postponing the 2009 event was necessary,” said Barry Frank, Executive Vice President, IMG Media. “We look forward to working with key partners over the coming months to ensure the Skins Game comes back next year in a manner befitting one of golf’s great traditions.”

The Skins Game has featured many of the biggest legends in golf in its 26 year history, and in addition to Palmer, Nicklaus, Player and Watson in the first year, has also featured Tiger Woods, Lee Trevino, Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange, Nick Faldo, Vijay Singh, Raymond Floyd, the late Payne Stewart, Greg Norman, Fuzzy Zoeller, Mark O’Meara, Sergio Garcia and Fred Couples, who earned the nickname “Mr. Skins” for his success in the format.

Last year’s event saw Skins Game rookie K.J. Choi earn six skins for $415,000 to take the title over Stephen Ames, who was looking for his third straight victory, Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate.

“The Skins Game has been an important fixture in Southern California for the past 25 years, and not only have fans here looked forward to it each year, but also the golf fans across the country watching on television,” said Greg Johnson, Indian Wells City Manager. “The Skins Game offers great golf and great entertainment.”

"It brought back a lot of memories"

Steve DiMeglio shares this from Kenny Perry on his unfortunately timed Players pairing with Angel Cabrera:

"It was tough. It brought back a lot of memories, and I had a hard time focusing on what I was doing," Perry said after a 1-over-par 73. "It's just going to take some time" to get over The Masters."

Thursday At The Players

Take the kids and military guests away and boy did the vibe change Thursday. It didn't help that the players were slogging through a 5:30 minute round, but I couldn't get over the difference between the two days. Personally, if I were a corporate sponsor of a tour event, I'd support more days that encourage family and military guests if it builds that kind of vibe. (Or how about lower prices? There I go again!)

But with more folks and more passion, the corporate hospitality areas become that much more coveted.  Take away the buzz, the place grows quiet and there isn't as much cache in spending on a "chalet."

Now that we have that important statement on corporate hospitality addressed, what about the golf?The scene at 17 Thursday morning (click to enlarge)

I hate to judge the course setup and architecture after just a day of tournament viewing, but it's painfully clear that the situation with rough still has not been properly addressed. You may recall there have been many debates over the years about Pete Dye's intentions and trying to bring the pine scrub and other hazards more into play by having less rough. We've been told that post-move to May, this has been addressed. I'm not feeling it.

Jeff Klauk, son of longtime and now retired TPC super Fred Klauk, tees off on 17 in his first Players (click to enlarge)Though the grass is kept at a lower height than the March Players days, it's still a penal 2-3 inches and fairway cuts appear surprisingly narrow.

Judging by Thursday's excellent scoring, it's not having much effect. Instead, the course still overemphasizes putting and downplays any kind of strategic placement. Not to take away from first round leader Ben Crane's round in any way, but he did have 14 one-putts. And as firm as it was despite a Wednesday night spritzing that eliminated some of previous afternoon's shine, the rough is still stopping balls from reaching trouble. It's most noticeable around some greens where apparently someone on Golf Channel suggested they are growing it at 3 inches, compared to 2 off the fairways. I hope to find out if that's true (doubtful).Trees down the right of No. 6 fairway

I'll try and get a few photographs to illustrate where short grass would make the course more interesting and more difficult (in a good way). But the image to the right shows that it's not just Augusta National resorting to small pines to penalize slightly off-line shots.

Tiger's 7-iron approach to 16 was a highlight (click to enlarge)I followed Tiger in the morning and saw his 7-iron approach that set up his 16th hole eagle. That prompted this stat from the ShotLink crew, working their tales off this week:

With his eagle on the par 5 16th hole, Tiger Woods has now played the hole in 38-under par for his career at THE PLAYERS. His next-best hole is the par 5 second, which he has played at 22-under in 45 rounds. Below is a chart showing how Tiger has played the different holes at TPC Sawgrass.

Par 3s: +25
Par 4s: +40
Par 5s: -88
Front 9: -3
Back 9: -20

As for No. 17, I'll get into the specifics later this week, but the atmosphere and videoboards make it an incredible place to hang out. And for all of the talk about how unfair the hole is, the ShotLink team shares this:

A total of 14 balls were hit in the water off of the tee on the famed 17th hole on Thursday. Interestingly enough, there were 18 balls hit in the water on the par 3 13th hole on Thursday.

More tomorrow on No. 17 and Friday night's media bash, the Commissioner's "Southern Style Pig Roast."