Report: Top LPGAer's Convene To Roast Brand Lady, Ponder Possible Replacements

Jim Gorant reports that a "dozen or so" top players had dinner last week to decide if a different commissioner could run off fewer sponsors. He also indicates that a letter to the LPGA Board may be in the works.

Player director Juli Inkster, who was at the dinner, also said that as far as she knew no letter had come out of the meeting. Inkster told SI that the dinner "was kind of a personal talk about where we need to go and what we can do. As far as who was there and who said what, I can't get into that."

Don't we at least get to hear how much wine was consumed? That would give us a better idea how nasty the name calling got. Just a thought.

"He told me to stay positive, something like that"

I can't post much because I'm looking into two health stories related to the 2009 AT&T National final round. One involves reports of several suicide attempts after the second mesmerizingly depressing SPCA ad ran during the finale. The other involves the poor lad turning his back and bending over to avoid Anthony Kim's 18th hole drive, only to be plunked on the tush.

Meanwhile, Thomas Bonk, writing about Tiger Woods' win over rival-in-the-making Kim:

Kim dropped to third behind Mahan with a one-over 71. The way things were going, his most interesting shot of the day might have been his tee shot at the 18th, where the ball went so far off-line, it popped a fan on the derriere.

Woods and Kim shook hands before they got started and that's about as close as they got the rest of the day, unless you count the times they stood in the tee box together. Until they chatted while walking down the 18th fairway, they hadn't exchanged a word.

"He told me to stay positive, something like that," Kim said.

See how took those words to heart!

Kim chalked the whole thing up as a learning experience, sort of on-the-job training.

"I learned that if you have a birdie putt, you'd better make it, especially on the last day," Kim said. "Tiger obviously wins for a reason."

See, he doesn't miss a beat.

Two mind-boggling Tiger stats, courtesy of the PGA Tour's Mark Williams:

• Woods has now won 46 of 49 tournaments (94%) when leading/co-leading after 54-holes. The three he didn't win -- 1996 Quad City Open/T5, 2000/2004 THE TOUR Championship/2ndboth times.

• Woods has won 32 of 38 tournaments after holding the 36-hole lead/co-lead -- that's 84 percent.

Showdown With Woods Offers Kim Chance To Face His Hero And Ask How Many Majors He's Won

Doug Ferguson reports on Sunday's potentially exciting showdown between Anthony Kim and Tiger Woods, with background on Kim growing up idolizing Woods. But unlike Woods who committed every Jack Nicklaus record to memory, Anthony is still fuzzy on Tiger's history.

Actually, wouldn't it be fun if old geezer Michael Allen slipped in and won the thing?

Pro Golfer Tweet O' The Week, Vol. 1

The flood of fascinating, deep and almost-malaprops from pro golf's finest Tweeters has forced my hand: introducting, the Tweet O' The Week.

Ian Poulter, who displays a Brunoesque love for fashion and his own hair, also has captured Bruno's Tweeting vocabulary:

Bettors: The Annual Call For Unionizing PGA Tour!

I took over July 1 and based on Rex Hoggard's posting, I have a claim ticket to cash in!

What remains to be seen is how the new rule impacts play on Tour – most players didn’t think there will be a drastic adjustment but few have actually tested wedges with the new grooves – and how players will react to having their opinions brushed aside by the Tour.

“If Tim wanted a union, he’s got one now,” said one player who noted that a healthy cross section of the Tour was in favor of delaying the rule one year.

Of all the reasons to form a union and open up the books, this is the topic that got some guys worked up? Really?

Loopers Earning Their AT&T Pay...

...trying to remember to keep Saturday's American flagstick flags from touching the ground, as Rex Hoggard notes.

“We can see everything, frame by frame.”

Rex Hoggard says that D.A. Points attributes his improved play to...his iPhone 3GS.

“It’s amazing,” said Points, who has his caddie video him with the new device and then e-mail it to his swing coach Brian Mogg in central Florida. “We can see everything, frame by frame.”

Happy 4th Of July!

"There are markets we'd like to get to, and we've done some things to get there in a variety of ways."

Thanks to reader Jeff for Joe Juliano's story about the AT&T National's move to a much better course Aronimink for two years. But as Jeff asked, how are the Philly fans going to like being lumped into the same market class as Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Portland and Seattle?

Maybe that's why the paper ran that less-than-flattering peppy shot of the Commish?

"Awkward" Tees At Congressional

I have to confess it's been a while since I looked at Congressional very closely but today's AT&T National first round was an eye-opener. The list of cringe-inducing sights is too long, so let's just hope they do some tree and bunker work before the 2011 U.S. Open. To call the bunkers there two-dimensional would be unfair to two-dimensional bunkers.

Rex Hoggard blogged about this change, which actually sounds like it fits with the rest of the course:

The Blue will close shortly after this week’s event and the greens rebuilt, but some new tee boxes that the U.S. Golf Association may use have already been installed, at Nos. 9 and 15 for example, giving players a glimpse at what may await in ’11.

“(Nos.) 15 and 9 seemed very awkward because they move away from the way the slope is,” said Jim Furyk, who has played in the last four Tour events played at Congressional (’97 U.S. Open, ’05 Booz Allen Classic and ’07 and ’08 AT&T Nationals). “They both slope left to right and the tee is going back to the left, which makes the tee shot a little bit more awkward.”

Speaking of awkward, that hill behind below the new 10th tee, old 18th green site. They will find a way to put people there in the U.S. Open, right? It looks a little strange right now with just a television tower. Actually, that's the least of Congressional's issues.

"Ian Poulter causes plenty of commotion with his style on the course."

Golfweek "Fashionistas Ash and Ash" were invited "to hang out on the set of the latest IJP Designs photoshoot." 

Poulter had better be careful, especially after the part where he's doing his hair. It might not be long before his fellow pros tag him with the Bruno knickname.

Actually, Bruno's a lot more fun.

"We can handle it"

Look how well some of the principals in questioning the groove rule change have lightened up. At least, on Twitter:

"We have a 50-50 chance of being here next year."

Reading the AP blurb that went out suggesting the $1.4 million Jamie Farr Classic has only a 50-50 chance of returning in 2010, it was hard not to wonder if anyone at the LPGA is thinking that it might be nice just to have some tournaments next year, regardless of purse size and market?

Then I see that Beth Ann Baldry raised this very point in a tough Golfweek.com plea for the Brand Lady to wake up before it's too late. Calling the LPGA "a floundering tour with flourishing talent" Baldry writes:

The days of Bivens doing too much too soon should be over. The LPGA needs to bend over backwards to make things work from here on out. The tour needs strong partners such as Wegmans, a supermarket chain in the Northeast (Everyone’s got to eat, right?) now more than ever.

“When we get our boots down on golf course design, it opens up to every kind of deal we have, the wines, clothing line"

I know what you're asking yourself! Who said that? Was it MacKenzie? Tilly? Dye? Doak? Hanse? Oh wait, only one architect sells wine and clothes! (Which reminds me, Jack, why don't you have your own wine label?).

Thanks to reader Nick for Wing-Gar Cheng of Bloomberg's report that Greg Norman is looking at up to 20 design projects in China.

Chrissy, you better start learning to say Ni hao.

Norman, known as the “Great White Shark” for his aggressive golf style and blond hair, is chasing 20 golf-course design leads in China, said Harley Kruse, an architect at Greg Norman Golf Course Design Co. Each course could attract a fee of more than $1 million, Kruse said in an interview late yesterday.

“When we get our boots down on golf course design, it opens up to every kind of deal we have, the wines, clothing line,” Norman, 54, said in an interview in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. “China is the bright spot.”

Wonderful that he's eyeing the opportunity to grow the game and share his vision of  250 yard carries and misery at a premium.

The company plans to open offices in China in the next five months, and may establish a wine distribution partnership within a year, Kruse said. Norman previously designed courses at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen and Kai Kou Golf Club in Xiamen, where another Norman course is under construction.

“What you have within your corporation is what your brand represents,” Norman said late yesterday. “I’m not trying to get everything. You just have to identify your market and know what you’re going after.”

Just think architects: there will be 20 redesign jobs in just a few years! So Greg's opening up two markets, design and redesign.

"Over time we're going to be experimenting with a lot of different ways to set things up because our hope is that this change is going to make the game more interesting to watch"

After giving a remarkably cogent explanation of the groove rule history--really, not jargon!--Commissioner Tim Finchem was asked this interesting question:

Q. Tim, the only manufacturing company that has objected publicly to the reinstitution of the V-grooves has been a golf ball company so far. Do you have any research indicating that the adoption of the V-grooves will somehow impact the performance of golf balls and therefore affect golf ball companies?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: With respect to companies, I've spent a lot of time talking to manufacturers as you might suspect over the last six weeks. They have different opinions among them on different aspects of the rule and equipment and where it should go and all those things.

You know, all I know is that with this change you're not going to be able to spin the ball as much out of the rough. There's some assumptions that players will as a result, maybe, in some instances, look for a ball that spins more generally. That's not necessarily the case in my view, but it's possible.

With respect to the manufacturer that objected, they were a party that recommended the delay. We looked at the request based on whether or not -- because one of the arguments made was there's not enough time to make the transition, and we primarily were looking at it from that perspective.

We also looked at it from the perspective of the timeline and the fairness issue of delaying after individuals and entities and companies had spent time, energy and resources reacting to the timeline. That was a major concern.

But in terms of how it develops, you know, that's something the players will sort out as they pick up the equipment. They go practice with it and then they make the adjustments that they feel like they need to.

Q. So just real quick, nobody presented you with any research indicating that there would be an impact on a specific golf ball product?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: No, no.

Hmmm...

This was particularly encouraging, but also in an peculiar roundabout way, an admission that course setup took on Draconian measures in response to technology changes:

Q. One more on grooves. Yesterday you said one of the challenges is the qualifiers and that you may look at possibly different rules for that. USGA and R & A are also looking at that. Are you likely to act in lockstep with them or will you act independently regarding rules on qualifiers? And on a different note, do you see with the new groove being implemented next year that course setups may evolve, possibly pin placements get a little more accessible?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Let me answer the second question first because it's more fun. Yes, we do. We have changed our rough heights this year at a number of golf courses and did some fairly meticulous analysis of what happened when we brought those rough heights down a little bit compared to earlier years, and the reason we did that was to set the stage for now measuring what happens on those same golf courses when we shift grooves.

So this will be a -- you're not going to see us revolutionize our setup the first month next year, but over time we're going to be experimenting with a lot of different ways to set things up because our hope is that this change is going to make the game more interesting to watch from a variety of perspectives, and that would be helpful to us. So we're going to be -- we have more people, more energy, we have this wonderful ShotLink program that tells us everything, so we're going to really, I think, enjoy the process of doing some things differently and playing around with it.