Marsha: They want you as a new recruit!

Anne Szeker reports that retired Navy rear admiral Marsha Evans has been named interim LPGA Commissioner after Carolyn Bivens officially resigned.

Update on 2009-07-13 16:37 by Geoff

Following up on the golf.com post, I just received an embargoed press release that does not actually contain details of the LPGA announcement, but instead, shares details of a forthcoming live televised press conference announcing the changes.

Because the release was embargoed until 1 p.m. EST, I can't tell you the network name or the time. I'm sure the network in question will appreciate the LPGA's determination to make sure no one sees this press conference!

"We don't doctor rough."

Lawrence Donegan reports on Tiger's first practice round at Turnberry and files this observation about the setup:

That is exactly how it should be at the Open, and exactly what many expected of Turnberry, a terrific golf course whose absence from the championship rota for 15 years seems bizarre. The weather off the Irish Sea has the potential to wreak havoc but on the evidence of a blustery, occasionally sunny Sunday afternoon, the R&A appears to have produced to stern but sensible test. The fairways are broad, the greens fast (ish) and the rough – which has been talked up by many, Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington among them, as the closest thing to penury this side of San Quentin– is not as ridiculous as had perhaps been feared.

Make no mistake, it is wrist-breaking in places, but those places are a distance from the centre of the fairway – in part because the organisers took the decision three weeks ago to widen the semi-rough. If conditions are hard and bouncy, as they almost certainly will be, that will stop some balls disappearing off into the jungle.
"We have widened the cut sections of rough a little bit on each side. Six yards rather than the usual four and a half yards, which is what we had a little while ago," said Dawson. "It is very nasty off the fairway and off the shorter rough but the fairway and shorter rough is, I think, fairly generous. We don't want to get the reputation that the Open is about hacking out of rough because it isn't about that.

"We don't doctor rough. We take what we get naturally and leave the playing arena at a sensible level. If you spray it outside the playing arena here, it is lost ball; hack-out territory."

"Some of these guys have no idea what they're going to be in for"

Bill Elliott profiles Greg Norman on the eve of his return to Turnberry and talks about the state of his game. There was also this at the end of the piece:

"The return of V-grooves is the greatest move technologically in golf for years. That's gonna teach today's players a huge lesson on the art of understanding a lie, controlling a ball and flight trajectory. Some of these guys have no idea what they're going to be in for," he grinned.

"We're looking for someone for four, five months, three or four months, to just right the ship"

This unbylined AP story quoting Juli Inkster would seem to speak to the urgency of salvaging the 2010 schedule, something we speculated about here to explain the otherwise awful timing of the Bivens ouster.

Inkster said it's important for the board to find the right person to lead the tour into the future. In the short term, the need is immediate.

"Right now, we're in the middle of the season,'' Inkster said. "We're looking for someone for four, five months, three or four months, to just right the ship, get us going in the right direction: straight ahead.''
Inkster said the board plans on taking its time to find a new commissioner.

"Right now, we want to take our time and find the right person for the job,'' she said. "And you can't do that on a whim.''

"I get the chills thinking about it"

Gary D'Amato talks to Jerry Kelly about the killer concept he and Steve Stricker are floating to save the Milwaukee stop. He just won't actually reveal what it is, but he's excited and says Tim Finchem "loved it." And it wasn't his idea?

"I lost a couple of balls on Monday that weren't far off the fairway."

Tom English tells us about Rory McIlroy's big problem these days: the throttle on his new gun metal grey Ferrari F430. And there's Rory's shock at being the third favorite at 25-1 behind Tiger and Sergio. "Bonkers" he calls it.

But he also offers this Turnberry scouting report:

"I saw the golf course in two completely different winds, which is a really good thing. Some holes were playing a lot longer the second day and some were playing a lot shorter. It was really interesting to see how the course can change like that."

A lot of his time was spent gawping at the rough. Some if it is nightmarish, he says. It's like instant death in places. He left there on both days with a very clear thought in his head: be accurate off the tee or prepare for an early exit.

"You have to really, really drive the ball well. The rough being the way it is, the people who drive it well are going to have a chance and the people who don't hit many fairways are going to struggle. With the spring that we've had, we've had quite a lot of rain, but it's also been quite warm so the very bottom of the rough is very lush and very thick and long and it only becomes more wispy the higher up it gets. It can be very difficult to find your ball. I lost a couple of balls on Monday that weren't far off the fairway. There are certain holes where the rough is a lot worse on one side than the other. The ninth for example. You can miss it left all day at the ninth but if you go five yards right of the fairway you'll be doing well to find your ball."

Padraig Taking Career Inspiration From Howard Hughes **

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.

Update on 2009-07-11 04:15 by Geoff

**Lawrence Donegan talks to Padraig's teacher Bob Torrance about what the defending Open Champion is trying to do with his swing. Meanwhile, the tabloids are enjoying this one:

Turnberry Rough Crop Peaking In Time For Open!

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."

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.