Padraig Taking Career Inspiration From Howard Hughes **

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Absolutely do not miss Karl MacGinty's setup and interview with Padraig Harrington about making swing changes after winning two straight majors.

Q: Are great sportsmen different to the rest of us? Can we only try and imagine what they, or you, do?

PH: It's complicated to explain what's going on. I'm trying to understand the whole process (of playing golf) so that I can control it. I wouldn't be able to accept performing without knowing why. I don't think I'd enjoy winning if I didn't know why I was winning. I think the ultimate satisfaction of winning is understanding how I got there. While I admire sporting achievement, I pay very little respect to somebody who wins without knowing why.

Q: Like the guy who smashes the balls up in pool and some go in?

PH: No. No. Actually it's the opposite. It would be the guy who gets in on the pool table; has the perfect cueing action and clears everything up but has no understanding of what he's doing.

Q: Who, for example?

PH: I'm not going to give you examples but I am all the time trying to figure out, do people understand what they're doing?

Q: Like Maradona?

PH: Yeah. I've very little time for wasted talent and very little time for the talent that has no understanding of why they do what they do. If somebody's best in the world at something and they can't explain in detail why they were there, I wouldn't be interested.

And here I thought most great athletes were successful because they didn't have a clue what made them so good!

Q: Can that be damaging?

PH: Howard Hughes. As a 14-year-old kid, he got his dad to buy him a sports car so he could pull it apart. He spent a month breaking it down bit-by-bit and then putting it all back together. Well, that's me with my golf game.

Howard also spent the last few years of his life locked up in the Desert Inn wearing Kleenex boxes for shoes.

Damaging? Oh you be the judge.

Turnberry Rough Crop Peaking In Time For Open!

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John Huggan confirms Padraig Harrington's recent observation that it was sprouting. Oddly, my Scottish sources say there hasn't been an inordinate amount of rain in that time. Must be those balmy nights!

Huggan on the prospects of finally seeing some links golf after Loch Lomand and other green swampy slogs the last few months:

Any prospect of bouncy, seaside golf will have to wait until next week's Open at Turnberry, even if early reports on the length of the rough and the greenness of the Ayrshire resort's fairways offer little hope of balls spending as much time on the ground as they ideally should.

And...

Watch out for an almost endless stream of hybrids and long irons off too many of Turnberry's tees.

Sadly, all of the above will -- yet again -- reduce the field to playing a bastardized version of links golf, one where hack-out rough replaces the couple of inches of semi that is enough to promote both temptation and doubt in the minds of even the best players. If that is so, we are going to be treated to the depressing sight of a missed fairway being inevitably followed by a big heave-ho back into play then a wedge to the green from 90 yards or so. In other words, the U.S. Open all over again.

Come to think of it, maybe everyone should just have stayed in America after all.

"Missed short putt, got a buried lie in bunker face coming in. not bad, almost great."

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Guess that's the extent of dad's day one account (caddying is exhausting!).

Mike Van Sickle is right on the bubble after opening -1 at the Deere, should make for some interesting online tracking Friday. Besides being a great story, I'll do anything to not ponder a possible Lee Janzen win.

LPGA Already Posts Craigslist Ad

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While Alan Bastable finds one candidate already throwing her visor into the mix (Jan Stephenson), I was looking around Craigslist's job ads for the C-level gig I've always deserved and after working through most of the southeast, finally caved and went through the Florida ads.

You have to give the LPGA Tour points for already getting this ad up on Craigslist. For people who didn't want to overshadow the U.S. Open, they sure work fast!

(click on image to enlarge)

"Yet another fable from the region immortalized by the brush strokes of Paul Cezanne, the Cannes Film Festival and the topless beaches of St. Tropez?"

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Pretty much yes. Disappointingly, Bloomberg's A. Craig Copetas profiles Vidauban, the "world's coolest golf course" that "doesn’t have a name" but is called Vidauban throughout the piece. This supposed mystery course is supposedly impossible to get on and even harder to find, but it seems pretty easy to locate after a quick Google search. Thanks to all of the readers who sent this and I would agree with a couple of you who wondered what the real story is here.

Carolyn, We Hardly Knew Ya Could Last As Long As Ya Did

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GolfDigest.com's Ron Sirak was first to break it, and Beth Ann Baldry at Golfweek.com wasn't too far behind.

The Brand Lady is done. I'm shocked. Shocked that it took so long for this day to come.

Sirak says:

"The letter was a death sentence," one source within the LPGA told GolfDigest.com. "No confidence by the players is a dagger in her heart," said a second source, this one involved in tournament ownership.
Bivens has 18 months left on the three-year contract extension she signed at the beginning of 2008. Her salary, according to LPGA tax filings, is $500,000 a year. According to a source in tournament management, a general agreement with Bivens on financial terms was reached late Wednesday.

The only remaining questions surround when Bivens leaves office and how her departure is framed. "She's gone. It's just a question of whether it's a firing or a resignation," said one veteran player, a Bivens supporter. "And she doesn't deserve any of it."

LPGA Issues Non-Denial Denial

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SI's Ryan Reiterman says the LPGA Tour is privately refuting any Brand Lady buyout talk, and gets this statement:

"As we've said throughout the week, we want all of those interested in women's professional golf to focus on the play here at the U.S. Women's Open, which has started today and will conclude this weekend when the 2009 champion is crowned. Out of respect to the USGA and the amazing work that they've done and continue to do in producing and hosting this great event, we will not respond to media reports on internal matters related to the LPGA business. The LPGA players, staff and Board care deeply about our Tour, and we're all working hard to achieve the same long-term objective to grow our Tour. We look forward to a great week of golf."

Spike Bar To The Donald: Stop (Again!)

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The Internet Sports Writer of the Year has now (twice) told The Donald to forget about his course planned for very environmentally sensitive land. I expect The Donald to be protesting that ISWOTY award any day now. You go Hoppy:

Though there is little sign of activity at the Donald Trump International Golf Links at Balmedie, near Aberdeen, that does not mean that work has stopped, according to Neil Hobday, the project manager. "When we got outline planning permission last November we were given 40 conditions that have to be purified before we could put a shovel in the ground" Hobday said. "That is what we are doing now - trying to purify these conditions.

"We are not behind schedule though we are not ahead of it either. We are going through a transparent process. We are optimistic that we will be in the dirt in April 2010 and the opening date will be 2012.

"We have not been affected at all by the current economic situation," Hobday continued. "Mr Trump is in a strong cash situation. Everything has been paid for in cash. There is no mortgage on this project. I assure you Mr Trump is in an acquisition mode."

Though a friend made the valid point that Trump's project would be good news economically for a depressed part of the country, it did little to reduce one's feelings of concern at this project. Golf did not need another course in 2008, one, furthermore, set in an area of outstanding natural beauty much enjoyed by everyone. And it does not need one now, however on schedule it is and even though one year down the line, it looks more of a reality than it did.

Report: Bivens Buy Out Negotiations Commence; Replacement Search Already Underway

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Just as she received a vote of confidence from two Hall of Famers as Garry Smits reports, Sports Business Daily says that buyout talks have begun and a headhunter is already making calls to potential LPGA Commissioner replacements. Here's an AP summary of the SBD story for those who are not subscribers.

JT Pitching Golf Memoir

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And he's only 28 years old! But he has played the last two Golf Digest Break 100 deals, which, based on the time it took to play, actually makes JT the golfer feel 52.

Amy Wilkinson reports:

Literary agent David Viglian, who has represented celebs like Clay Aiken and Shannon Doherty, recently sent editors a proposal for a memoir-like work in which JT recounts his many rounds of golf and who he’s teed off with.

It’s no secret Justin’s a big fan of the game, having been introduced to it by stepfather Paul Harless. “I can go on any golf course, anywhere. I can go on a golf course in Abu Dhabi and feel like I’m back home. That’s what I love about it,” he told Entertainment Tonight.