When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
They've been the tour's umbrella sponsor since 2003, but as Jason Sobel notes, their move to the Memorial is just one of many dominoes expected to fall.
Robert Lusetich talks to Sean Foley who is less than bashful in sharing his views about Tiger's swing. Sit back and prepare for an entertaining read! My highlights:
“This is nothing against Butch (Harmon, who was Woods’ coach at the time) but trying to go back to that would be a huge mistake,” Foley said.
Beth Ann Baldry follows up with Shi Hyun Ahn's agent and gets a strong statement from the LPGA Tour on accusations of cheating by Ahn and Il Mi Chung. Of course, the identity of Ahn's caddie, who started the speculation, remains a mystery. Which really doesn't help clear this up entirely.
That's like the water bill to those people!
Yes, the heartbreaking news has arrived that Polo Ralph Lifshitz Lauren isn't getting paid by Sea Island. If ever a place personified The Brand, it's Sea Island.
Not anymore!
Steve Elling reports on today's comments in Boston:
On Thursday, Woods was asked at the Deutsche Bank Championship about his view on the issue, which is being studied by the USGA. The organization has yet to release any findings from its various studies.
“It's just something, the guys are hitting it a long way,” Woods said. “For instance, last week, No. 8 is a par 3 down the hill, playing 207 the last day, and I hit 7 iron. I don't ever hit 7 iron that far. Then I watched Dustin Johnson hit 9 iron.
“It's just, I can understand them wanting to obviously pull the game back a little bit, because the guys are just becoming more athletic. Here I am 6 foot and I'm considered short. Most of the guys now are 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Just like every other sport, it's evolved, become more athletic.
“The guys have speed, and now we're getting some great athletes playing the game.”
Tiger is in a no-win position if he takes a hard stance on the modern distance chase. Though he has made several statements about not minding a change, he has to be careful not to upset Nike and also to appear to be favoring a possible rule change that benefits his ability, which many believe a "spinnier" ball would.
Now factor in that his distance advantage has been passed by, and he has to be even more careful. Still, I like the comments today.
Mark Lamport-Stokes quotes Arnold Palmer talking about today's players and it seems The King slipped this in about the ball:
Palmer, who was a member of the so-called Big Three with fellow golfing greats Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, had no doubt about the one thing he would like to change most in the modern game.
"Because of technology, the players of today hit it too far," Palmer said. "That should be one of the major things on our agenda, to slow the golf ball down so that we don't tilt the scale.
"We have so many great golf courses but, as the players start hitting it so far, they are outdating our golf courses. We need to see if we can't just keep it in the range that we have known it for so many years."
Don't be so logical Arnie! Sheesh.
Now why is this interesting since he's mentioned the ball before? Well you might recall back in April we learned that the USGA's Dick Rugge said the groove rule change was motivated by Arnold Palmer telling that the USGA had blown it on grooves.
And as reader Andrew asked back when that item was posted, "I wonder what would have happened had Palmer said the biggest mistake they made was letting the ball go so far?"
Good question.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
