Sir Nick! Queen Recognizes Faldo's Contributions To Reviving American Golf

Mark Reason reports that Nick Faldo has been knighted, the ultimate recognition of charitable works such as using your Ryder Cup captaincy to help dejected American males feel better about themselves or spending countless hours working for the Golf Channel.

Faldo said: "I was delighted to hear the news that I will be receiving a knighthood and am more than a little bit humbled. It has come as a real surprise and the reaction from my children, family and friends has made this a very special moment for me."

Faldo stressed that a large part of the honour was its recognition of the Faldo Series that works to inspire young golfers. But having stated his pleasure at becoming only the second British professional golfer to be knighted, he seemed a little flummoxed by the timing.

Reason has broken the news five hours ahead of the royal palace's embargo. There goes his knighthood!

Poulter: "the usga are insane to make us change so quickly."

It was only a matter of time before a player would elaborate on the manufacturers concerns about grooves. In this case, it's Ian Poulter of England, Orlando and Cobra Golf fame. Thanks to reader Manny for the Tweeted comments from Poulter, writing a series of posts about the new groove rules soon after Adam Barr's report that Acushnet is trying to delay the rule change:

i tested the new grooves with vokey in feb. what a difference no spinnnnnn. the usga are insane to make us change so quickly.

i guess they were all bored sitting around that table drinking coffee and smoking cigars... get a life let us have fun on the course

it will cost the manufacturers millions to develop and distribute to all the stores global, so you AMs can get them before open qualifying

Our irons already comply, but wedges need to change for start of the year. all the best... thanks R&A and USGA softer balls here we come

The players have had plenty of time to experiment and when I've asked manufacturer reps, most players have taken little interest in experimenting, preferring to wait until this fall.

The manufacturers are pleading financial hardship because they are being forced to develop and ship new grooved wedges to their most loyal customers, who, if they are serious about tournament play, have to buy.

They've been handed a nice serving of forced planned obsolescence and they are still complaining?

Golf World Cover Gives Scary Peak Into Future Of Golf Fashion?

I can hear Golf Digest stylist Marty Hackel now. Jim Furyk is putting on the oversized shoes and Marty's yelling, "Jim, red is your color. It brings out your freckles. And think of the leverage you'll get with those size 24's!"

As Furyk skeptically slips on the red nose, Marty: "First, it's how you wear it. And second, it'll give you SPF 200. No chance of a burn!"

Furyk: "But what about the puffy shirt?"

Marty: "It's veeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyy retro. You look fantaaasssstic."

There is actually a serious story to accompany Golf World's U.S. Open cover by John Hawkins too. But a Marty breakdown of the fashion would have been nice.

US Open Mobile Apps Now Available

You can read about them here. Just fooling around with the US Open app, it's essentially the same as the excellent IBM-crafted Masters phone app.

There is also a Twitter page for those who like getting their news that way. Hopefully the plugs for "tickets available" will end soon.

And if you haven't signed up for the USGA's Architecture Archive, you're missing out on a couple of new Bethpage aerials posted. Actually, the course looks very similar today. But it is fun to see the nuanced strategy of the old 18th hole. It wouldn't matter much in today's game, then again, neither does the current hole.

"According to a Titleist official, the company is trying to persuade the Tour to hold off on its plans to adopt a condition of competition that would require new groove cross-sections"

Remember a few weeks ago when Greg Norman mentioned rumors that the groove rule change was in doubt? You had to figure the Shark wasn't just throwing that out for attention.

Adam Barr reports that Titleist/Acushnet is trying to convince the PGA Tour to postpone their planned 2010 adoption of a condition of competition requiring conforming grooves in response to the USGA/R&A decision.

Still, all the major manufacturers claim to be ready to proceed with the effective date for the condition of competition the Tour wants to adopt, which is Jan. 1. (Beyond the Tour, the rule would apply to any club manufactured after that date, but clubs made before then will be permissible for use for recreational players until 2024.) Even so, Titleist is asking the Tour to push the rule implementation date back a year because of the intricacies of fitting players under the new groove rules.

None of the major manufacturers would speak on the record for this story. But sources close to the situation have said that the refitting process will be much more complicated than switching out some “old” wedges for new ones. It has been suggested that the performance of wedges with new grooves might even require swing changes, which could lead to the use of a different ball model and, in turn, encourage a driver switch. In other words, the ripple effect of the groove rule could be felt throughout the entire bag. That has some manufacturers and players thinking they need more time to experiment and adjust than the post-season stretch usually reserved for incorporating such new equipment.

So much work drama! Over some grooves. Who knew?

So these big, all knowing manufacturers can't keep up with the USGA now?

“Some manufacturers have said they’re not going to be ready [for the change],” said PGA Tour player Brett Quigley, a member of the Player Advisory Committee. “[But] there’s also the argument that players won’t test until they have to. So why wait another year until 2011? Guys still won’t bother to do it.”

This is really funny:

Of course, players these days won’t stand for any loss of yardage off the tee from the new generation of higher-spinning balls, said the ball manufacturer source. That will be the chief engineering challenge, he said.

"It's a way of cross generation to introduce current and future members of the LPGA to a very important part of the world."

LPGA Brand Lady Carolyn Bivens is interviewed by the "Toy Department" blog at the Baltimore Sun site. Some nice MBAisms for those of you collecting jargon at home.

Bivens: The fact that a sports league or association would own one of its own championships and be able to illustrate and display their best of class of their brand, to set the eligibilty criteria and own all the revenue streams for that event is huge. Yes, it is high risk and high reward, but the opportunities for that to make a difference from a brand standpoint ... over the next 50 years is very big.

And...

How many years into the future are you looking? You talk about a focus of five to seven years, but you also talk about 50 years. Where, as an executive, is your focal point?

Bivens: For the long term, dealing with the base of the platform, you look out 10 years. Most of the rest of the planning you do for five years out.

Isn't that redundant, the base of the platform? Or is there a layer I don't know about?

So your deal with J Golf, South Korean television, that's looking 10 years out, maybe more?

Bivens: The deal is a five-year deal and the big news about that ... is that it's multi-platform. It's not just cable television rights for South Korea. They own multiple magazines, they have a partnership deal with CNN, they have multiple digital platforms. It's a way of cross generation to introduce current and future members of the LPGA to a very important part of the world.

Cross generation! That's a new one for me. Anyone care to define?

U.S. Open Pairings Set

Doug Ferguson analyzes next week's U.S. Open pairings at Bethpage and offers a few thematic observations. No mention of a &$%@! pairing though.

John Atkinson, RIP

Sad news about the first ever participant in the Golf Digest Challenge passes away nearly a year to the day he played Torrey Pines.

Oh No...They're Taking Monty Along!

So they're trying to dispel the stereotype that golf is a rich, soft, doughy white man's sport and taking Monty along for the final IOC presentation? That's got Peter Dawson written all over it!

Golf Stars and Leaders Will Make Final Presentation to IOC Executive Board for Sport’s Inclusion in 2016 Olympic Games

IGF Olympic Golf Committee Expands by 12 to 19 Organisations

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA (June 10, 2009) – International Golf Federation Global Ambassador Annika Sorenstam and 2010 European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie will join representatives of the International Golf Federation when golf’s final case for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games will be made to the International Olympic Committee Executive Board on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sorenstam, who serves as a Global Ambassador in support of the IGF’s effort, and Montgomerie will join Tim Finchem, PGA TOUR Commissioner, LPGA of Japan President and World Golf Hall of Fame member Hisako “Chako” Higuchi, IGF Co-Secretary Peter Dawson and IGF Executive Director Ty Votaw for the presentation. Dawson and Votaw have been coordinating golf’s Olympic bid.

“We feel it is very important for the IOC Executive Board to be able to personally hear from two of the game’s most highly respected players in Annika and Colin,” Votaw said. “We will also be presenting a film featuring 16 of the game’s most prominent players including current World # 1 ranked Lorena Ochoa and Tiger Woods, as well as IGF Global Ambassador Jack Nicklaus describing the compelling reasons why golf should be reinstated as an Olympic sport after an absence of more than a century.“

Golf last was part of the Olympic Games in 1904, when the United States and Canada were the only competing nations.

"I've had a dream about 20 times where he comes to me and asks me for a lesson."

Michael Bamberger theorizes about how Tiger found his swing at the Memorial, prints a cute rant from Hank Haney and shares this from Johnny:

Johnny Miller, the winner of the 1973 U.S. Open and lead analyst at Bethpage for NBC, has long been Tiger's most incisive critic (and, at times among the microphone crowd, his only objective fan). Last week, before the Memorial, Miller said in an interview, "I've had a dream about 20 times where he comes to me and asks me for a lesson." In Miller's dream he instructs Woods to hit shots with a slight pause at the top of his swing, as he did from 1997 through 2000. Miller also asks Woods to soften the squat move he has been making in recent years, where his head and body come too close to the ball on the downswing and he gets in his own way.

You know Johnny, if you ever went out on the driving range I'm sure Tiger would have made time for you.

"Can the one have fun?"

Writing that "some respite from the pressure is clearly a healthy thing," Maureen Dowd says that Barack Obama needs to be able to take his wife on the occasional date or tee it up now and then:

Mixing play with intense work is not only a good mental health strategy; it’s a good way to show the world that American confidence and cool — and Cary Grant romantic flair — still thrive.

Date on and tee it up, Mr. President. It’s O.K. if they’re teed off.

"It can be pretty overwhelming thinking about it.”

Beth Ann Baldry on the uncertain future of the LPGA Championship:

“To be an LPGA member and play your championship, you want that to be the best tournament on your schedule,” Angela Stanford said. “That’s the way it should be.”

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens plans to run the event much like the PGA Tour’s Players Championship – without a title sponsor. To do that, she needs several presenting sponsors, and to this point, none has come forward. No sponsors, no site.

“I think there’s definitely a level of concern for everyone,” said Cristie Kerr, the LPGA’s 2009 money leader. “Whether it’s your mortgage that you’re looking at or your stock portfolio or your bank account or how many tournaments are up for renewal. . . . It can be pretty overwhelming thinking about it.”

"We concentrated on items made or distributed on Long Island"

Thanks to John Strege at the Local Knowledge blog for catching Sophia Chang's story on the food preparation for U.S. Open contestants. What recession?

Unlike the mere mortals who must satiate their appetites with hot dogs from the concession stands at the Bethpage Black Course, the Very Important Golfers at the U.S. Open will have their pick of more than 200 gourmet offerings every day, prepared by a kitchen staff of 200 working nearly around the clock at the golf course clubhouse.

"We concentrated on items made or distributed on Long Island," said Steven Carl, the chief executive of caterer Carlyle on the Green that is handling the clubhouse food and who presented the menu at a news conference Wednesday.

The local focus includes knishes, Nathan's hot dogs, New York pickles, and black and white cookies, he said.

Here's a video version of the story:

Christina Kim To Be Mic'd; Golf Channel Goes On 45-Second Delay

I figured it was just wishful thinking when Shipnuck and Herre pondered this in the weekly "Confidential" book:

Shipnuck: For the first round Christina Kim has agreed to wear a microphone for ESPN. It has a chance to be the most entertaining day of golf for all of 2009, if not ever.

Herre: I will definitely tune in for that. We've talked about this before, but miking the players adds a lot IMO.

Sure enough, Golf Channel confirms:

LPGA professional Christina Kim will be mic’d up Thursday during GOLF CHANNEL’s opening round coverage of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Kim will be paired with Michelle Wie and Shanshan Feng. Live coverage will begin Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, with a prime-time re-air at 7 p.m. ET. This will be the second LPGA event in 2009 GOLF CHANNEL will mic a player during live tournament coverage. Kristy McPherson was wired for sound during the opening round of the LPGA Corning Classic, where she also played alongside Michelle Wie.

Considering her Tweets of late, this could be good.

Bookies Down On Olympic Golf; Must Be The Decision To Go With 72-Hole Stroke Play

Ashling O'Connor looks at the possible 2016 Olympic sport add-ons as suits convene on Lausanne for a June 15th presentation to the IOC.

Golf has pledged to field the world's best male and female players in 60-player strokeplay tournaments in each week of the Games, while using the Olympics to dispel its “country club image”. The stars and the sponsors that golf would bring to the Games will be hard to reject.

Yet it is by no means a done deal. Squash still presents a good case for inclusion as it tries to shake its yuppie image immortalised by Wall Street, Oliver Stone's 1987 film about corporate excess.

At the end of the piece, O'Connor lists what the bookies think of each sports chances.

I still say the 72-hole, World Ranking stuffed, prefab WGC-Olympics concept has the bookies down. If only they'd gone with a more athletic, daring and exciting format...ah forget it. At least golf still has the edge over poll pole dancing.