Phil's Split Decision

He's turned one of his old PING Eye 2 wedges into a 64 degree, and sticking with his Callaway 60 degree. So he's only partially stampeding over the spirit of the new rule. From Wednesday's Torrey Pines press conference:

Q. What wedges are you going to use? If you wanted to address it right away, what are you using and why?

PHIL MICKELSON: I feel like my Callaway wedges have been the best wedges that I've ever used, so I'm only switching the one. What we found in our testing is that the top edge of the groove is what's been changed, and so it's not as sharp. As we add loft and create a shallower angle, if you will, into the ball, the top edge isn't catching the ball once we get past 60, 61 degrees of loft.

So what I did was a took a 60-degree i2 wedge and turned it into a 64, and those grooves seem to be catching the ball similar to what my wedge did last year. My 60 I still felt like my Callaway wedge was much better performance and got every bit of the amount of spin that I needed.

I actually net gained spin this year. I know that sounds crazy. My grooves last year were conforming to this year. They weren't very aggressive. I've always put a lot of spin on the ball for that reason, angle of attack and hand action and whatnot.

This year's groove that Callaway has is fractionally move aggressive than the groove I used last year, and so I'll end up picking up it shows about 200 to 400 rpms of spin on the launch monitor, plus with the addition of the golf ball I'm getting a little bit more spin than I did last year.

Q. How much time did you spend analyzing it?

PHIL MICKELSON: Quite a bit. Yeah, quite a bit. You know, this affects my career. This is a big change.

I think it's a ridiculous change. I think that it costs each manufacturer millions of dollars. I think it's confusing, and I don't agree with it one bit.

We could do the ball instead? Yeah, that's what I thought.

But it's a big change for the game of golf, and we've got to adapt. Like I say, I don't make the rules, but I do abide by them, and I spent a couple months working on this -- well, actually it's been a couple years, but the last couple months full bore.

Update on 2010-01-27 22:00 by Geoff

**Ron Sirak on the atmosphere at Torrey when Phil talked to the media.

"Anywhere you play golf for money it's a putting contest."

Farrell Evans posts another entertaining golf.com Q&A, this time with Tommy Armour III. Love this exchange:

Q:  Many people in the game have called the Senior Tour a glorified putting contest?

A: Anywhere you play golf for money it's a putting contest.

"By virtue of his win, they became the eighth father-son combo to win on the PGA TOUR."

Reader Mike noted an intriguing claim by the PGA Tour and I know when I heard it said on the telecast, the number seemed high:

• Bill Haas joined his father, Jay (1988), as the winner of this tournament. By virtue of his win, they became the eighth father-son combo to win on the PGA TOUR. The last to do so were Al and Brent Geiberger.

Randell Mell noted the previous seven father-son combos. And if you didn't guess the first two since they never knew what the PGA Tour was, well, you're forgiven:

Here are the seven previous father-son combinations listed in the PGA Tour media guide as winners of Tour events:

Tom Morris Sr., Tom Morris Jr.
Willie Park, Willie Park Jr.
Joe Kirkwood Sr., Joe Kirkwood Jr.
Jack Burke Sr., Jack Burke Jr.
Clayton Heafner, Vance Heafner
Julius Boros, Guy Boros
Al Geiberger, Brent Geiberger

"Who is going to want to play golf when they're setting off dynamite and running haul trucks with all that noise and dust?"

Bill Fields looks at the endangered Clearview Golf Course in the wake of course creator Bill Powell's passing.

On a damp winter day, with the American flag still at half-staff two weeks after Powell's passing, his family and friends ought to have been able to mourn in peace. Instead, they were busy trying to rally support against Buckeye Industrial Mining's proposal to mine coal, from sunrise to sunset, within 370 feet of Clearview's 15th hole. "It's a dire threat," says Jeff Brown, who was instrumental in helping the course be listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2001. "What they propose -- mining and blasting over a period of five years -- will kill this course economically. Who is going to want to play golf when they're setting off dynamite and running haul trucks with all that noise and dust?"

Powell's daughter, Renee, the second black woman to compete on the LPGA Tour, is urging Clearview supporters to write letters opposing the strip mine, which is awaiting approval from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. State Senator Kirk Schuring has communicated with Kevin Collins, president of Evergreen Energy, Buckeye Mining's parent company, urging him to halt the project. "There doesn't need to be a strip mine here," says Schuring.

He also filed this video report: