"Unfortunately, the only uncertainty in the game right now lies with who's in charge of it."

GolfDigest.com blogging duo Bethpage and Garden City kick around the power struggle over a groove rule condition of competition and ultimately determine that the USGA has handed over power to the PGA Tour and that the uncertainty over 2010 implementation has the USGA acting as a follower instead of a leader.

I can tell you this, though: The rule as currently written will not be a hardship for the playing of the game by average golfers in any meaningful way, shape or form. Not now, not in 2014, not in 2024, not ever. The rule as currently written does present the possibility for uncertainty in the minds of the best players in the game, however. Uncertainty (or as most of us know it, outright fear), I think, makes for a better game at the elite level.

Unfortunately, the only uncertainty in the game right now lies with who's in charge of it.

UK Rejoices As Tour Lands TV Provider In Time For Travelers

Now I can sleep...

PGA TOUR, Eurosport announce UK television rights agreement for remainder of 2009 season
Telecasts to reach more than 10 million UK homes

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL JUNE 25, 2009

The PGA TOUR and Eurosport today jointly announced an agreement in which Eurosport has secured the PGA TOUR television rights in UK for the remainder of the 2009 TOUR season, beginning tonight, Thursday, June 25, with live coverage from the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Action from the remaining 2009 TOUR events will now be accessible in more than 10 million UK homes on British Eurosport and British Eurosport 2, through Sky and Virgin Media platforms.

“We are pleased to announce this agreement with Eurosport, which ensures that PGA TOUR coverage will continue to be made available, live, every week to golf fans throughout the United Kingdom,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

“We are delighted to welcome the US PGA TOUR to the Eurosport platform in the UK,” said Eurosport Chairman Laurent Eric Le Lay. “British golf fans can now see the world’s best players competing live as the 2009 season unfolds. We can give the US PGA TOUR’s iconic tournaments excellent coverage across our two UK TV channels, and fans can follow regular news and results at Eurosport’s leading sports website.”

The PGA TOUR telecasts will also be available to UK fans in simulcast through Eurosport’s online subscription service, Eurosport Player.

"They made it look like Bethpage Pink."

Vindication! Yes, as predicted, those savvy, super wonderful New York fans had the nuanced course setup stuff fly over their thick skulls! Mark Herrmann reports. Love this about No. 18 Sunday:

"They made it choke-proof," he said. "I have 10-handicappers who I'd trust with a two-shot lead on that hole." Cowan said his students on the lesson tee Tuesday morning shared his opinion. Of the USGA's setup, he said, "It was a local disgrace."

The best fans in the world! Uninformed, unenlightened and yet so graceful delivering their insights!

2009 U.S. Open Clippings, Final UK Edition

Lawrence Donegan was left uninspired by Bethpage Black.

John Hopkins focuses on the best's of the week.

John Huggan wasn't so taken by the vaunted New York fans.

Well, maybe some of them are some of the time. But you do have to wonder when an inoffensive and genuinely pleasant individual like Wisconsin native Steve Stricker is greeted with an unprovoked obscenity: "Hey Stricker, f--- your mother!" Memo to PGA of America: never, ever think of bringing a Ryder Cup to the public face of golf in New York.

And Derek Lawrenson left with newfound respect for Phil Mickelson after watching him host a late night autograph session.

"If there are enough rumblings it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that we could not adopt the rule."

E. Michael Johnson and Mike Stachura's news story about the PGA Tour inching closer to a delay of the groove rule change includes some revealing quotes.

"Last night there was a conference call and we decided that it was too heated of an issue to decide on a conference call so we're going to wait until next week's board meeting to make a decision about it," said Stewart Cink, a member of the tour's policy board. "I would expect by Tuesday there will be some kind of an answer on it."

Then this from former policy board member Joe Ogilvie:

"They botched it and because they botched it, it won't be implemented in 2010," said Ogilvie. "I'd say there is a 90 percent chance it is not going to happen. I think they are going to have to [change the date]. I don't see it being adopted earlier than 2011."

So we are left with all sorts of questions as to why this has become an issue at the last minute.

The manufacturers have had some idea this was coming since August, 2006 and specs since August of 2008. Based on Twitter and interviews, players who have taken the initiative have had several months now to experiment with the new grooves.

The PGA Tour and Commissioner Finchem have been very consistent in stating that they support the USGA and R&A (here, here and here make a nice starting point for background on the tour's position and statements that certainly won't mesh with backing out of the 2010 date). But we also know from last week's USGA press conference that they are placing themselves at the mercy of the tour.

The "botching" referred to by Ogilvie seems to be with the confusing dates for implementation (2010, 2011, 2014, depending on who you are). I find it humorous that the PGA Tour, which hasn't done a whole lot of worrying about the every day game, is suddenly worried about the plight of the average golfer?

We know from Ian Poulter that this timing confusion is an issue to Acushnet family members, as is the dramatic difference in shotmaking ability. And we know from Stewart Cink that there will be a big difference, largely because players will have to move to a softer, spinning ball.

So if players convince the tour they won't be ready, they'll be branded pathetic, soft and spoiled.

If this is a manufacturing issue, as suggested, it would seem odd that these big, powerful, hi-tech manufacturers are unable to accommodate a rule change that will essentially impact certain sets of irons and their wedge lines. Manufacturers will take a hit to their tech savvy brands.

Unless we are not talking about multiple manufacturers here, but instead, just one company that doesn't feel it can retool its assembly line or perhaps doesn't feel it has a soft enough ball in the pipeline for circa 2010. Then we might see other manufacturers point that out and it could get ugly.

I'm just going to sit back and watch. Oh, and just for the last time, I swear, ask, wouldn't it have been so much easier to just change the ball?

2009 U.S. Open Clippings, Second Final Edition

John Hawkins' Golf World game story almost pulls a Cloyce Windham on us (obscure literary reference...) but does actually tell us about the guy who won.

Jaime Diaz looks at Phil Mickelson's week and talks to those around him.

Because they played the ball down, Michael Bamberger just loves the USGA's handling of the week at Bethpage, putting him in select company!

Evan Rothman gets on Deepdale and for a few days anyway, is glad not to be a public course golfer celebrating the People's Open.

Dottie Pepper thinks the back-to-back Opens at Pinehurst will be super-duper. We'll see if she agrees after two weeks in Pinehurst.

And Bill Fields shares his thoughts from Bethpage and offers this:

Architect Rees Jones, who renovated the Black course before the '02 Open, wondered if covering the greens with tarps to keep rain from softening them was the solution. "I would love to see them use tarps," said Jones, whose dad, Robert Trent Jones Sr., had encouraged the USGA to use fairway gallery ropes for the first time in the 1954 Open at Baltusrol so the rough wouldn't get tamped down by spectators. "The greens would be in the same condition for every player in the field. Now that Opens are so big, maybe we could do it. It would be a big undertaking, but it might take less time to put the tarp on and off than it does to squeegee them. I'd like to protect the setup like my father did in 1954."

"We talked about it in 2002," Currier said. "If you knew you were going to have a heavy rainfall at night, it might be something you could try. But we got caught in a couple of downpours [during play] this week—we wouldn't have had time to get tarps on them, and it really wouldn't have mattered."

But it would be Rees' legacy, Craig!

“If I feel threatened, I am morally obligated to destroy you"

Thanks to reader Ed for another beautiful slow play meltdown, as reported by Patrick George. This time it's a 73-year old man pulling a handgun at Lions Muni in Austin.

Edwin Dailey, who has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, got into a confrontation with three men at the ninth hole of the Lions Municipal Golf Course on Enfield Drive Monday afternoon because he thought they were playing too slowly, an arrest affidavit said. The argument continued to the 13th hole when Dailey told the men he would get his gun and “make them both equal,” the affidavit said.

After finishing the game, Dailey and the others ended up in the parking lot where he provoked another argument with the men, the affidavit said. Dailey pointed an automatic handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets at one of the men and screamed, “If I feel threatened, I am morally obligated to destroy you,” according to the affidavit.

I've been trying to tell you, slow play is a moral issue.

Where Do They Go From Here?

Speculation on future U.S. Open venues by yours truly, now posted at GolfDigest.com.

Lucas Glover's Letterman Top Ten

via The Insider

"There was no drama, then, as the golfers in contention came to the last tee."

Not surprisingly, some writers aren't giving Bethpage's 18th hole final round setup warm and fuzzy reviews.

Lorne Rubenstein writes:

If a championship is going to have a short par-four near the end, the green should be reachable from the tee to set up a possible birdie or eagle. There should also be enough trouble so that a player could make a bogey or worse if he tries to reach the green but doesn’t. Neither was the case with the compromised 18th hole yesterday.

There was no drama, then, as the golfers in contention came to the last tee. They couldn’t drive the elevated green, or get into trouble from the tee. Players whaled away at their drivers, which got them to the bottom of the hill within 50 yards or so of the green. Then it was a pop fly with a lob wedge to the green.

Yawn.

I've also heard the grumbling about a U.S. Open won by hitting 6-iron off the tee and about the lack of short grass in front of the green allowing for a run-up. Also heard that Glover didn't have to do anything significant to do on the last hole to secure the win. (I'm not even going to dignify that other than to say you could put someone on a polo field needing to make four to win the U.S. Open and it would be difficult.)

First off, Tiger Woods hit 4 iron off the 18th tee at Pebble Beach in 2000 en route to winning and I don't believe that tainted his victory.

Next, the 18th at Olympic Club and 18th at Inverness both play about the same as Bethpage's final round yardage of 354 yards. Actually, Bethpage's finisher was more interesting because at least the tee shot involved a decision, as Lucas Glover explained in his post round press conference. The last holes at Olympic and Inverness are all about keeping the ball in play, not about fairway positioning. As Glover pointed out, he contemplated the benefits of each position and ultimately went with the lay-up.

I would love to ask Mike Davis, Jeff Hall, Jim Hyler and Steve Smyers--the four who ultimately decided on this--if they had it to do over again, would they use a different hole location. There's a wonderful hole cut close to the right bunker and used in round 1 that would reward someone for driving it past the bunkers. That would reward a shorter, more controlled shot from the area past the bunkers.

I was standing on the tee when Davis placed the markers and when he consulted with Hall one last time. He anticipated players putting more spin on their second shots than it appeared they were able to Monday. I also noticed that players were not pulling their wedge shots back more on No. 14's front hole, so perhaps the wind firmed the greens up enough to eliminate those shots.

Either way, the 18th hole just stinks and this debate will hopefully not take place next time Bethpage hosts the U.S. Open because a solution will have been figured out.

"A million dollars later, we'll be staying put."

From Damon Hack's 2009 U.S. Open engaging SI game story:

It seemed incongruous that the 29-year-old former Clemson Tiger and the pride of Greenville, S.C., would achieve greatness in the heart of Long Island. But sometime during his youth Glover became a closet New Yorker. He roots for the Yankees, owns a copy of every Seinfeld episode and reads Lee Child. In December 2005 he married Jennifer Smith, and the two picked New York City for their honeymoon.

It snowed the day before the newlyweds arrived in Manhattan, blanketing the city in white just as they had hoped. They stayed near Columbus Circle, across from Central Park. They ate at Koi, saw The Producers and went ice skating at Bryant Park.

Last week Glover mentioned to Jennifer that it would be nice to have a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. She started checking out Manhattan real estate prices. "A million dollars later," she said, "we'll be staying put."

“We wanted everyone to walk away happy.”

Just noticed this in the Sandomir piece wrapping up the 2009 U.S. Open television coverage. Get your hankies out, this is downright moving:

“ESPN lost almost seven hours of live golf on Thursday,” Mark Carlson, the U.S.G.A.’s director of broadcasting, said. “We wanted everyone to walk away happy.” On Friday afternoon, Carlson said that Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, told him: “I know how important ESPN is to you at the U.S.G.A. Let’s make sure they get some time on Monday.” ESPN carried the round from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. — which kept NBC from pre-empting the final two hours of “Today” — and NBC got the next two hours.

Is that touching or what? Ebersol looking out for ESPN like that?

I'm sure the Today Show had nothing to do with it! How could Sandomir even suggest such a thing! Blasphemy I tell you.

The Back Nine Released For A Day

Jon Fitzgerald's film about turning 40 and trying to become a great golfer has a one-day run nationally tomorrow, June 25th. Here's the theater listing for 23 cities.

"Our main focus is to immediately begin, and aggressively begin, to explore our options"

Lawrence Donegan noted Saturday that Setanta's demise could cost the PGA Tour upwards of $60 million in UK rights fee money. Now Steve Elling notes in an item buried in his Up and Down column that the tour has in fact acknowledged the checks won't be coming and that they are looking for a UK broadcaster.

"Our main focus is to immediately begin, and aggressively begin, to explore our options," tour VP Ty Votaw said Tuesday. The phones will be ringing at Sky Sports, Eurovision and ESPN, if they aren't already. As it stands, this week's Travelers Championship will not be broadcast in the U.K. -- nor any PGA Tour action outside of the majors and WGC events going forward -- unless a new deal is struck.

Update on 2009-06-24 00:22 by Geoff

The PGA Tour's official statement is now posted.

"I didn't even know that Congressional held the Open."

Continuing to ensure his likeness will have a spot in the next Dan Jenkins novel, Anthony Kim gave another impressive press conference last week at the U.S. Open. I did not attend but heard about it and saved the printed version and finally read it today while going through my stuff.

He has no recollection of watching the 2002 Open at Bethpage. Fine. He caddied for Justin Timberlake in the Golf Digest break 100 deal, having never seen the course and prepared by practicing at Trump National Bedminster. Kim eventually played each nine once before the event. Bet you'd like to have known that before picking him in your pool!

But I loved this most.

Q. You won at Congressional last year; hosted an Open. The setup is so different, that there's no confidence built because you know you've won on a track that can host this kind of tournament?

ANTHONY KIM: I didn't even know that Congressional held the Open. But --

Q. It will again.

ANTHONY KIM: Now it gives me a little bit more confidence going into the week. So thank you. But I'm excited to hear that, because the course set up well for my eye.