Vital Poll Question: Do You Believe Gray Or Pavin?

Now that the dust has settled from the unphotographed media center spat (how does that happen BTW?) over Jim Gray's report that Corey Pavin told him that he would inevitably select Tiger Woods for the Ryder Cup squad, I'm curious who you believe. Poll time!

Who do you believe is telling the truth in the Corey Pavin-Jim Gray spat?
	Jim Gray
	Corey Pavin
	Neither one
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Now That's Low Scoring For A Major!

During a major I like to check into the Scoring section and study the course statistics just to see if there are any anomalies in the hole-by-hole play. Today's first round of the PGA at Whistling Straits really caught my eye, what with the field averaging a shade over 60 and their nine hole rounds adding up to 63 and change. Impressive!

(Click on image to enlarge)

Letter From Saugerties, PGA-Stimpmeter-Slope Edition

Former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan read today's website quote and filed this letter to help pass the time during the PGA opening round.

This is to extol the statement by former Curtis Cup player Alice Dye, whose husband never made anything, that the Stimpmeter and Slope have been bad for golf.

I now explain how both happened as illustrations of how dangerous new ideas are to a 500 year old game.  (See, more recently, the new groove rule by the USGA which is nothing but trouble.)

A Boston engineer and member of The Country Club, a Dr. Stimpson, inventor of the accused device,  was not interested in green speed. He wanted a tool that would roll the ball perfectly. As I recall, his interest was in angle and the effect of hole locations.

The tool he produced was made of wood, lovingly crafted.  It was gifted to the USGA where it fell under the eye of Al Radko, the USGA chief agronomist.  Al, a lovely man who helped create the White House putting green, was smitten by the idea that golf course superintendents could use a precise method of determining if their greens were running the same speed.    

He showed it to Frank Thomas, the USGA technical director, who quickly figured out a way to convert the wooden tool into a cheap metal object which they promptly named the Stimpmeter.

Radko sent copies to all the USGA agronomists scattered around the country. They showed superintendents how it might help them and, in the process,  also measured the extent of roll.   Pity.

They discovered that the average speed on American golf courses was slightly under seven. Mind, nobody at the time was saying that American golf was lousy because greens were too slow.  What happened was that the thing became a speedometer with the likes of Oakmont putting up daily notices to the effect that their greens were running l0'6 that day, to which I say, so what.

The ensuing race, as Mrs. Dye noted, has become a primary status symbol.  Much worse, it has made golf so much more costly because it costs a ton of money to produce greens with a Stimp speed of 11.  And this:  the faster the greens the slower the game.

The R&A  knew better.   We sent one of the things to secretary Michael Bonallack who tossed it in his closet and never looked at it again.  Tell me now: are British Open greens, said to be 10 but actually 8ish, somehow superior to the Augusta greens in the sense of producing more interesting, more variable, more valid golf?  Of course not.

Slope was the creation of one of my USGA employees, the estimable Dean Knuth, who dumped a little 800 on his math SATs and went on to pitch with his left arm for the US Naval Academy baseball team.

There is no denying the certainty of Dean's work. It is that the USGA handicap system faltered when the opponents came from courses of intrinsically different degrees of difficulty.  Thus, a 9 handicapper from a ratty public course like Juniata outside Philadelphia, would get killed by a 9 handicapper from Pine Valley.

Dean Knuth changed all that mathematically with his Slope so that the guy from the muni would get four shots or so from the Pine Valley patrician.  Very nice, but it again has led to a duel to achieve high slopes which means new bunkers and water hazards and more money to build and maintain.  Moreover,  I contend that golfers on their own figured out that the guy from Juniata needed help when he slammed up against the rich person from Pine Valley.

Dean Knuth may have been too smart for the USGA. Today he is in San Diego where he has an enormous responsibility determining how much of your money is spent on things that blow people up.

Frank Hannigan

P.S.   Don't tell Jim Gray where I live. I am too old to defend myself but I have a dog.

Jim Gray: It Was A Short Time Coming

The Golf Channel stands by Jim Gray, and their description of the brouhaha today must have been painful for some VP to proofread.

After Pavin’s news conference, Golf Channel contributor Jim Gray, who broke the story Tuesday, approached Pavin to discuss the disagreement. According to Pavin’s wife, who was standing next to him, Gray told Pavin that he was a “liar” and “you’re going down.”
 
In a statement Golf Channel said it stands behind the accuracy of Gray’s report. “As far as any subsequent conversation between Gray and Pavin, it was meant to be private and should remain as such,” the statement said.

On Live From the PGA Championship Wednesday afternoon Gray said, “there is absolutely not one part of what Corey Pavin said to me that has been misquoted. And quite frankly, I happen to like Corey Pavin. I’ve known him an awfully long time, and in this instance, he is being disingenuous and is not telling the truth.”

Naturally, there is much to enjoy about Golf Channel now having to mop up Gray's mess since they mysteriously brought him on board last year and he opened with an incoherent appearance. And this, after no one else would hire him and he was buying his own star on the walk of fame.