"Maybe I owe USGA an apology, groove rule has made golf easier."

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John Strege encapsulates the weekend chatter about grooves:

The new grooves the USGA ordered were supposed to help restore the integrity of par. But on the soft greens at the Greenbrier Resort, the new grooves were an advantage, as CBS' Nick Faldo pointed out on Saturday. They allowed the ball generally to stop in its tracks, in contrast to how the ball might have reacted with the old grooves, perhaps spinning back off the front of the greens.

Joe Ogilvie concurred. "Maybe I owe USGA an apology, groove rule has made golf easier, controlling wedge spin a breeze, I hope it is easier for ams too?!?!?" he wrote on Twitter. "USGA repeat after me, more spin is harder, less spin is easier."

The theory makes some sense on softer greens. How many times did we see good players strike a shot around the green with too much loft and too solid of a strike, only to have the ball check up?

"I hope we'll be able to talk at Labor Day about keeping the tour in New England for years to come."

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Jimmy Golen reports what sounds like good news for the PGA Tour: Deutsche Bank hoping to continue its sponsorship of the Boston playoff stop. Though there is some hold up to a 2-year extension kicking in but CEO Seth Waugh won't say what that is.

There was also this little buried item about the Tiger Woods, whose charity benefits from the event.

Woods, who has played in only seven tour events so far this season, was 111th on the FedEx Cup points list and would need to move up to make it into the 100-person field at the TPC of Boston.

"Obviously, we all want Tiger to be here," Waugh said. "But if he's not, we have the best 100 players in the world."

"Presidents Cup, a major, we're way down the road. We want to walk before we run."

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Randy King talks to Jim Justice about the Greenbrier's foray into PGA Tour golf and besides hinting that he'd like to bring a U.S. Open to the resort, he suggests the low scoring was somewhat intentional.

Justice wanted the tour players to enjoy their first trip to the West Virginia mountains. Players had fun taking on Old White, shooting astronomically low numbers on the short course with very little rough and receptively soft greens.

''First of all, in my world, fans love to see birdies. It adds a lot of excitement,'' Justice said. "I love to see birdies, and I don't want to see the players chipping it out back in the fairways out of the rough U.S. Open style and the green's hard as a brick bat.''

Antony Scanlon To Head IGF; Golf's VP Aristocracy Asks, "Who?"

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A real stunner as the International Golf Foundation hires someone outside of the recirculating army of golf executives that looks a little too much like the group of NBA head coaching types who miraculously keep getting jobs (which reminds me, isn't it about time for Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello to get coaching jobs?).
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"With soft conditions and little rough, a Tour course needs to be 8,500 yards or more to have teeth. Seriously."

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There's so much to chat about from Sunday's exciting day of golf: Tseng winning a second major this year, Appleby's 59 to win and Langer's amazing sweep of old geezer Open titles at Carnoustie and Sahallee (how's that for opposites!).
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“My intention in qualifying to be eligible to play in our Turning Stone Resort Championship was to participate in a competitive opportunity which any golfer would enjoy."

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The PGA Tour VP of Whispering In Tim's Ear That This Is A Really Bad Idea must have gotten his message across as Turning Stone CEO Ray Halbritter issued a statement today through the tour announcing that he was not going to take up a spot in his own event. Naturally, the statement is a train wreck we must savor!
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"The amount of people who owe Tiger Woods something - people on TV stations, sports stations that probably wouldn't have a job if it weren't for Tiger Woods - are complaining he's not giving them the information that they need."

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Terry Vandrovec of ArgusLeader.com questions David Feherty about an array of topics, and as usual Feherty is all over the map except when it comes to his creepy unrequited love for Tiger Woods. There's also the lingering animosity slight hostility toward the media for daring to probe into player's personal lives. He also thinks that players need to open up more and become more engaging for television.
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