"I didn't have the luxury of playing events coming into this tournament. Other players did."
/Did anyone else find this post-first-round answer from Tiger Woods strange?
Read MoreThe only course that will remain difficult under all conditions will be one that is designed and kept for golf of a stereotyped, monotonous character, and this makes a most uninteresting proposition. BOBBY JONES
Available via Amazon (US): Golf Architecture For Normal People
Barnes And Noble (online and in stores)
Bookshop.org option to support local independent bookstores.
Reviews:
"Golf Architecture for Normal People . . . should be required reading for those who are not ashamed to admit they know little about the subject, and for those who think they do . . . . Golf course architecture geeks have trouble slimming their thoughts down to bite-sized chunks, but Shackelford has achieved a remarkable success here." —Independent (Ireland)
"From the relative newcomer who’s slowly getting hooked to those that have played the game for most of their lives and think they know a thing or two, Golf Architecture for Normal People provides a solid and sober perspective that will help everyone recognize why some golf courses are worth playing more than once while a single trip around others is all you’re ever likely to want or need." —Links Magazine.
“It’s a wonderful book. An easy read that arrives just in time for your summer reading list. If you’ve never thought about how an appreciation for course design could heighten your enjoyment of the game, you must check this out.”—The Peterborough Examiner
"As in his prior publications, in his newest book Shackelford shows a deep appreciation for what can be done to create a golf course that appeals to the broadest possible golfing audience…Shackelford’s prose is succinct, often witty, and accessible."—Cape Gazette
"Author, blogger and golf architecture expert Geoff Shackelford, who helped Gil Hanse design Rustic Canyon and restore 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, taps into his passion by creating a guide that helps every golfer understand the nuances of course design. Published by Tatra Press, the 164-page hardcover book is a must-read for every golfer to better understand the game they love." —Golf Pass
"Shackelford provides an informative picture [and]...sprinkles in history lessons about those who planted the game's architectural roots, defines common terms and helps you hone your eyes when it comes to identifying some of the tricks of the trade."—FORE Magazine
"This new book does a great job demystifying golf course design ideas for average players, but can also be a beneficial read fro PGA Professionals and other golf course employees to get a better understanding of their home courses." —PGA Magazine
"The game needs sweeping change now."
/
Nice job by Alistair Tait to not get swept up in the excitement of the day to let the ridiculous pace of play go unnoticed. In our live chat the UK readers noted Peter Alliss' complaints about the pace, which ended up at 5 hours and 45 minutes for the Woods-Kuchar-Choi group.
These days the five-hour plus round is the norm. The way it’s going, the six-hour round will soon become commonplace.
Meanwhile the R&A and USGA sit in their ivory towers and do absolutely nothing. Exactly two years ago, at Royal Birkdale, R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said there was going to be a meeting during The Players Championship where the subject of slow play would be discussed by governing bodies and professional tours. He promised then that he wouldn’t slow play us on this one. Two years later and we’re still waiting for the powers that be to do something.(Are you reading this Peter?)
What's interesting about round one was the role of the golf course setup. Clearly Fred Ridley and the committee wanted to get the players around in the face of a bad weather forecast. The easier hole locations and forward tee placements worked in one sense: thirty players finished under par and we saw some of the most exciting golf in years. Yet the pace of play remained awful. And as Tait notes in his piece, there's only one solution: shot clocks and penalty strokes.
Reminder: Second Round Live Chat Around 4 EDT
/We had a good old time Thursday. Didn't hurt that it was maybe the best first round ever. Join us tomorrow...
2010 Masters Friday Clippings
/Too bad the scribblers didn't have much to work with after round one of the 2010 Masters. And as amazing as Tiger's round was, as wild as it is to see 50-year-old Fred Couples atop the leaderboard with a 66, it was 60-year-old Tom Watson's 67 that stole the show. It also let a lot of people file early and have dinner at a reasonable hour.
Read More"It's amazing how it -- how my dad can speak to me from different ways, even when he's long gone."**
/After his Masters opening round 68, Tiger was asked by Christine Brennan about the new Nike ad featuring his father's voice.
Q. As you know in addition to this being a big day in golf for you, your Nike ad did start airing and there's been a lot of conversation on it; on such a private matter you don't want to speak about, why then would you have an ad come out?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it's very apropos. I think that's what my dad would say. It's amazing how it -- how my dad can speak to me from different ways, even when he's long gone. He's still helping me.
I think any son who has lost a father and who meant so much in their life, I think they would understand the spot.
According to this ABC story, it seems the audio from Earl Woods was taken from the Tiger DVD set produced by Disney a few years ago. Turns out Earl was paraphrasing a talk about Tida vs. his style, and the word "Tiger" was edited in.
The documentary then cuts to Earl Woods, then 72 and already showing the ravages of prostate cancer, talking about Kultida "Tida" Woods, his Thailand-born wife and Tiger's mother.
Earl's full quote in the film is: "Authoritarian. Yea, Tida is very authoritative. She is very definitive. 'Yes' and 'No.' I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what you're thinking was, I want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything?"
Earl then adds, "So, we were two different types but we co-existed pretty well."
Gene Wojciechowski had this to say about the ad:
The voiceover of his deceased father asking, "And did you learn anything?"
I can answer that.
No.
If he had, Woods would have never let Nike air the bizarre, self-important, manipulative commercial. Instead, the spot would have died a quick, appropriate death on a creative director's desktop.
Gene Yasuda sheds some light on the ad's creators and the reaction in the ad world.
And the first parodies are in on the ad. Huffington Post puts together a nice gallery of them, though the Jimmy Kimmel edition of the follow up ad featuring Tida wins the prize:
Update on 2010-04-09 06:02 by Geoff
**Two more reviews of the ad. James Corrigan in the Independent:
So what has he learnt? To listen to advisers who assure him it is all right to use the scandal to flog his sponsors' equipment? To listen to advisers who insist there's nothing at all hypocritical in complaining about the intrusion into his family's privacy and then to parody a private discussion between himself and his dead dad? To listen to advisers who say it's not remotely distasteful to base a marketing campaign on an addict's rehabilitation and in the process borrow words from a dead dad's past and put them into his lifeless mouth?
Yep, Tiger has learnt all that. Those advisers of his do know what they are doing.
John Hopkins in The Times:
The shamelessness of Woods and his principal sponsor is almost beyond parody. The unprecedented billion-dollar fortune of Woods was constructed, at least in part, upon his image as a decent man with strong family credentials, the soft-focus photoshoots with his wife, children and late father engineered to appeal to the basic values of Middle America.
Now, with that image shattered by the tawdry reality of his private life and with many of his sponsors fleeing for cover, Woods and his advisers have sought to repair his tainted image by using precisely the same pitch, this time with Woods seeking redemption via an invented dialogue with a man in his grave. You couldn’t make it up.
See Jack and Arnold Tee Off
/And then watch Andy North say great 450 times in one sentence, after.
One Last Prediction On How Tiger Will Play
/Set for a 1:42 tee time, so I don't think it's too late to post this prediction...
Reminder: Live Blog Starts At 4 P.M. EDT
/That's the start of the ESPN telecast and 1 P.M. Pacific. Please come by, the Cover It Live format was great fun last year and I've embedded many Twitter feeds to keep it lively. I'll be contributing as much as I can while also doing my work monitoring the telecast as part of my duties for Golf World this week.
Read More2010 Masters Thursday Clippings
/So good that we can finally move on to the tournament and not talk about...wait, what was that Billy Payne?
Read MoreWhere's Ari Fleischer When You Need Him? Payne/Nike Edition
/So Thursday Billy Payne decides to lecture Tiger (eloquently I must say, but nonetheless, a surprising move. And then Earl Woods speaks from the grave, courtesy of Nike.
Read MoreBilly Payne: "Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children."
/Billy Payne's 2010 Masters press conference Wednesday included some lively questions from the scribes, but it was the unprompted opening remarks on Tiger that'll be stealing the headlines:
Read MoreMasters Par-3 Contest Open Thread
/
I'm recording the annual Day Care Challenge from the Augusta National Par-3 Course so that I can relive the emotions over and over again, but for those of you subjecting yourself to the live torture telecast, here's your chance to comment.
That's 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST on ESPN in case you didn't already have it bookmarked, logged in your calendar and written in the palm of your hand.
