“Although the effort may appear herculean at times"

John Branch looks at the last day of Bethpage public play and tries to explain the convoluted system for walk/drive up system. No offense to Branch who files a compelling piece, but I still don't get it.

Yet there is one way to ensure a time at Bethpage Black, a major-championship course with $50 fees during the week, $60 on weekends, and double that for non-New Yorkers: get to the parking lot and spend a night. Maybe two. Maybe more.

“Although the effort may appear herculean at times, and it may seem insane, you can play that golf course,” Dave Catalano, the director of Bethpage State Park, said.

The overflow lot is a roofless waiting room of tedium and nervous energy. The lure on this day was to be among the last civilians to play the course under the brutal conditions that Tiger Woods and the gang will soon endure: slivers of fairways surrounded by choking rough and punctuated by glass-quick greens. Hulking grandstands were in place, and it took little imagination to fill them.

Tiger Moves To Fourth In FedEx Cup Standings; Haney's Job Status Seems Safe For Now

Naturally the subject came up after the finale of the Memorial where Tiger picked up a much-needed 500 points.

Q. Tiger, after Augusta most of us had Hank Haney on the unemployment line. Can you talk about what Hank does for you, especially with the changes in your swing and how maybe we were like maybe misguided in some way in running that.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, you guys jumped the gun on that one. You know, Hank's been just absolutely phenomenal for my game and helped me through a lot. We work great together. And just like he and I understand. I mean, give me a little bit of time.

You know, most guys, when they have a surgery like that, it takes them a little bit longer to come back. People expected me to go out and win everything I played in. Maybe I'll just surprise everyone by winning a third event. I just think that Hank's been just phenomenal for my game and my development. He's one of my best friends.

"I'm sure he answered a lot of questions today."

Jim Furyk, runner up to Tiger at the Memorial, after a mightily impressive final round showing and with some transcript fine-tuning:

Q. Jim, after Charlotte and the players, Tiger wasn't really himself in those last rounds. Do you feel that there was like a vulnerability about him, or was that it?

JIM FURYK: I wish you'd all quit piecing him off. That's about all I have to say about that. Wish you'd just quit chapping him so much and make him come back and keep proving stuff.
I don't think -- you know, Tiger woods is always Tiger woods. He can't be 100% every week, but I'm sure he answered a lot of questions today.

"I'm able to get my ball count up"

While Mark Wilson and Matt Bettencourt are leading the Memorial, the focus is on all of the big names rounding into form for the U.S. Open.

Bob Harig reports that Tiger shed some new light on his knee breakdown last year.

A year ago, Woods was among the few who knew that his season was in peril. He had hoped to play the Memorial Tournament following arthroscopic knee surgery just two days after the Masters, but he learned a week before this tournament in 2008 that he had suffered stress fractures in his left leg.

"I practiced way too hard to get ready for this event," he said. "That's when I broke it."

Steve Elling says that Tiger's practices have been more limited than we originally thought:

Only in the past few weeks has Woods been able to bash balls as often as ever, because he didn't want to overstress the knee. He has only recently stopped icing the knee after rounds and instead has been able to adjourn to the range, where he can get post-round work done. Up until last month, he hadn't been able to practice after playing for two years because of his sore knee.

"I'm able to get my ball count up," he said.

Now maybe he can get his win count up, too.

Woods is gradually sneaking up on his standard form, having hit 35 of 42 fairways and 40 of 54 greens, which both rank in the top eight in the field. After starting the day tied for 24th, he moved up to a four-way tie for seventh in a group that includes Ernie Els.

Elling also reports on Geoff Ogilvy's amazing 63 Saturday after his dreadful performance Friday.

"Spend an hour taking out your aggression on a golf ball," he smiled. "It's quality alone time, Geoff time."

It might be Geoff time on Sunday night at this rate, when one Jack W. Nicklaus might be handing him a fat check and a shiny crystal trophy. Ogilvy, who won the U.S. Open three years ago, has already won the season-opener and match-play events, tying him with Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson for most wins this season.

His results of late have been largely middling, though Friday skewed more toward largely maddening.

"I woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he said. "Everything was getting to me. One of those days."

He took the sour disposition to work, too.

"I don't like carrying on like I did at times yesterday," said Ogilvy, one of the brightest players on tour. "It must have looked silly."

"Golf is on sale"

There's no groundbreaking material in this CBS Evening News story about the state of golf. It focuses on the world renowned Hamlet Club on Long Island includes the usual talk of golf having been overbuilt. Yes, overbuilt with junk designs.

British Working Press Swooning Over Captain Pavin

Bill Elliot coos:

Corey Pavin, America's skipper, has been in Gwent for several days, playing and meeting and greeting and generally spreading the word that the Yanks are beside themselves with excitement at the prospect of visiting Wales. The little man – Pavin has the build of a jumps jockey – has done a very good job too. Patient, friendly, approachable and articulate, he has impressed many, a natural American abroad in this new Obama world.

Mark Reason is in love:

At his rather silly inauguration Pavin looked like Charlie Chaplin surrounded by a sexy chorus-line dressed in Santa costumes. Head-on you see a man who doesn't break eye contact. Pavin may be little in terms of the modern golfer, but he clearly thinks he's the CEO.

John Huggan merely admires:

Pavin certainly deserves respect, if only for his own record wearing a Ryder Cup sweater. Indeed, just a look at the numbers – in three appearances he played 13 matches, winning eight and losing five – isn't really enough. Back in the early 1990s, Pavin was the guy no-one wanted to play. Standing on the 18th green as dusk fell on the second day of the 1995 matches at Oak Hill, Nick Faldo certainly feared the worst as the then US Open champion settled over the match-deciding chip he would subsequently hole from the edge of the putting surface. "I had a strong sense that, yeah, this is right up his street," says the six-time major champion. "In those days, Corey had that special thing."

Scioto Wants 2017 PGA

Dave Shedloski reports:

According to one Scioto CC official, Scioto is putting in a bid to host the 2017 edition, and although the course itself sits on approximately 120 acres, there is sufficient room around the rest of the property, including a mammoth driving range, for all of the hospitality tents and structures that come with hosting a major championship.

Oakmont Confirmed For 2016 U.S. Open**

Gerry Dulac breaks the news, with more promised in tomorrow's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Update on 2009-06-06 23:00 by Geoff

Dulac's story from the print edition, with a few more details.

"These [current] guys have never hit fliers in their lives."

Steve Elling looks at Jack Nicklaus's endorsement of the groove rule change after initially dismissing the grooves rollback as "throwing a deck chair off the Titanic."

Nicklaus said he had a lively conversation on that subject with a fairly decorated fellow traveler, Tom Watson, at a tournament function this week, in fact.

"Watson was saying last night that he had been fiddling around with some new clubs and played with them most this year, actually, with the new grooves," Nicklaus said. "He said, 'Man, did I hit some fliers last week.'

"These [current] guys have never hit fliers in their lives. They are going to say, 'I don’t want to do that anymore. I am going to hit the ball in the fairway.' Or they are going to have to learn how to play fliers."

"Harder to bear, however, will be the dent to his pride."

Lawrence Donegan fleshes out more details on the delays with Tiger Woods' Al Ruwaya project, which he says will "not open this autumn and has been pushed back to 2010 or even later," amid claims that the real estate element of the project will be delayed indefinitely.

He also offers this conclusion about Woods:

A long-time aficionado of golf course architecture, as well as a fierce guardian of his image, he will not be happy to have his name or his first foray into the field of course design associated with anything less than an unqualified success. Even if the global economy does eventually recover, it will be some time before Dubai restores its reputation as the coming destination for the newly wealthy.

Update on 2009-06-05 18:57 by Geoff

Doug Ferguson reports that Tiger addressed the reports, saying there is a six-month delay and that the decision to move ahead will be based on the economy.

Woods said Beau Welling, his chief architect at Tiger Woods Design, has continued to travel between Dubai and two other courses under construction in North Carolina (The Cliffs at High Carolina) and Mexico (Punta Brava).

His course in Dubai had only three holes under construction when work was suspended.

"We're making sure we get the holes completed - the holes we have," he said. "I think we have three holes right now."

He said the course in Dubai needs irrigation to keep the sand in place because of arid conditions and the wind. Woods said on one of his visits, the sweeping wind "changed the whole outline of one hole."

Woods said his courses in North Carolina and Mexico are awaiting various permits, but otherwise are on schedule. The Cliffs at High Carolina is expected to be finished in the middle of 2010, while the Mexico course with spectacular ocean views is not scheduled to be completed until late 2010.

"I happen to think that a course is up to Ryder Cup standard if the ninth green comes back somewhere close to the clubhouse."

John Huggan examines why Europe puts their Ryder Cup venue selection "up for sale to the highest bidder" and obtains this beautiful quote from European Tour head George O'Grady.

"I don't think the Ryder Cup has to be played on the greatest course in the world," says O'Grady, only a little defensively. "Look at the Belfry, where there have been some great Ryder Cup matches. I happen to think that a course is up to Ryder Cup standard if the ninth green comes back somewhere close to the clubhouse."

"We could be looking at a performance for the ages."

John Hawkins considers the possibilities when Phil Mickelson returns to Bethpage and concludes:

Now we're talking about a turbo-charged atmosphere unlike any we've seen, an amplified version of the competitive environment Lefty has always thrived in. If he's sharp enough to take advantage of the support and draw on the inspiration he finds in his wife, we could be looking at a performance for the ages.

There are only a dozen or so players capable of shooting par at Bethpage over the course of four grueling days, and Mickelson obviously is one of them. His return is a big deal for several reasons, his presence at the U.S. Open a storyline with depth and numerous potentially positive ramifications. For him to play well enough to contend would be a terrific bonus. It's the kind of thing you'd be silly to count on but really, really hope will happen.

"The players have already told the tour no way."

We have our first festering wound in the LPGA player-Carolyn Bivens relationship. The most amazing thing? That it took this long.

Michael Buteau reports that Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel have suggested they will not be Tweeting from the course.

“I will not be twittering in my round,” [Paula] Creamer, who’s ranked third in the world, wrote on her Twitter page this morning. “It should not happen in any sport. The players have already told the tour no way.”
Shortly before her anti-Twittering tweet, Creamer told her followers that she was “Eating some pancakes for breakfast with my dad before we go out to the course.”

Morgan Pressel shared Creamer’s sentiments moments before beginning her first round at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois.

“Thanks for the luck and NO I will not be tweeting when I play,” she wrote.

"Tiger has played no role that I'm aware of"

Jerry Stewart on the AT&T's move from Poppy Hills to MPCC's Shore Course.

Other speculation as for the change revolves around Tiger Woods. Woods, who earlier this year announced a new deal with AT&T, hasn't played in the Pro-Am since 2002. Nutt dismissed any connection between the move and Woods, at least from the Foundation's standpoint.
"Tiger has played no role that I'm aware of," Nutt said.

Ron Kroichick notes this about Poppy Hills:

At any rate, the unfortunate element of Wednesday's announcement is the impact on the Northern California Golf Association, which owns Poppy Hills. The NCGA is a strident advocate of public golf, especially through its popular Youth on Course program designed to get kids involved in the game.

The NCGA had a two-year rolling contract for Poppy to remain in the AT&T rotation. Tournament officials renewed the deal in December, meaning they apparently were committed to Poppy through 2011. Don't be surprised, then, if the NCGA challenges the legality of this move.

"We're disappointed and we don't really understand it, because we have a contract," NCGA president Michael Hexner said. "If there are issues with Poppy Hills, why didn't they mention it in December? Why didn't they mention it two or three years ago?

"We're the only course (in the tournament) people can play for $55. We're the Harding Park or Bethpage Black of these venues. We're kind of stunned they would walk away from the course that provides all the volunteers for the tournament."

You may recall I reported a while ago that Tiger was pushing for a move away from Poppy Hills. I also noted in that post--which dealt with Nicklaus putting down Tiger's ability to speak "intelligently" about design--that the Bear should be careful because Tiger did not look favorably on Jack's new Dove Mountain course in Tucson, home to the match play.

Ah how times have progressed...they are currently rebuilding most of the greens at Dove Mountain.

I wonder if Jack and Tiger talked about that Wednesday? Intelligently, of course.

“I would definitely think twice about coming here if they charged for parking.”

Will Reisman on the latest move to generate revenue at San Francisco's Lincoln Park Golf Course:

The Recreation and Park Department, tasked with bridging an $11 million deficit, could start charging $1.50 an hour to park at Lincoln Park, with the possible changes coming as soon as January.

Golfers and clubhouse officials have balked at the idea, saying the parking fees would make the public course too expensive. Currently, it costs $21 for city residents to play during the week, and $26 during weekends.

“This is a public golf course, and the idea is that you play here because you pay less,” said Rafael Gordon, a San Francisco resident. “I would definitely think twice about coming here if they charged for parking.”

The Richmond district golf course ran a deficit of more than $220,000 last fiscal year. Rec and Park officials are projecting revenue gains ranging from $250,000 to $430,000 a year with the new parking fees, according to department spokeswoman Lisa Seitz Gruwell.