Wild Sunday Open Thread

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Geoff Ogilvy has already won the Australian Open but we can't see it here in the states because of a full line-up that includes a meaningful finale at the Chevron World Challenge for Tiger, the Nedbank in South Africa, the LPGA Tour Championship and the second-to-last round of PGA Tour Q-school. Let me know what you see.

Tiger Has Clubs, Needs Membership

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Bob Harig on Tiger's upcoming move from Orlando to Jupiter and ramifications for his current club, and interestingly, his game.

Going forward, Woods will have some decisions to make about where to play and practice on Jupiter Island.

"The problem is, I don't have a place to play yet," he said. "I have to figure that out. I've got a nice practice facility in the backyard [at his new home]. As far as playing holes ... I don't have any holes to play. That's kind of an up-in-the-air deal. I'm trying to figure that out now. There are so many good places down there."

Woods does have several options, including The Medalist Club (designed by Greg Norman), The Bear's Club (a facility built by Jack Nicklaus) and the McArthur Golf Club in nearby Hobe Sound (where Nick Price has an interest).

"There's no way Jack Nicklaus designed these greens. They are mental."

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Thanks to The Constructivist over at Mostly Harmless for catching these comments from Laura Davies on Grand Cypress, home to this week's LPGA Tour Championship. I would have caught these were it not the fourth most interesting event this week!

Q. Tell us about the course. It's pretty challenging. What do you think of it?

LAURA DAVIES: This one? It's my favorite course in Florida. We played here years ago in the late 90s and 2000. It's always been my favorite course in Florida. I like the grass here. It's better. It's not so--the weird grass that Florida has. I don't know the difference between them but it's much spongier and I like it. The layout is fantastic, but the grass is good, too. I don't know what they did with the greens. Someone went mental on the greens. I don't know what happened there. Someone said Jack Nicklaus did it, but I don't believe that. Someone said Jack changed it; well, he must have been having a very bad day. (Laughter).

Q. Someone said that he had to oversee it for it to remain a Nicklaus design.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, he might have been in a helicopter above (laughter) or flown over and said "that will do" or something. There's no way Jack Nicklaus designed these greens. They are mental.

Clearly Laura needs to get out to Sherwood to see some of Jack's finest greens. She'd retract those comments in a heartbeat!

"It made a significant difference in my mind."

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Interesting comments today at the Chevron World Challenge from Jim Furyk on the impact of grooves in 2010, particularly his view on the stats.

Q. We've had a full season now to see the new grooves in effect. What's your take on how it impacted play this year?

JIM FURYK: I think a lot of the stats have been misleading like the scoring average and the different things. I think the golf courses were set up -- because I think the golf courses were set up much differently this year. As a whole I think we saw a lot less rough in our setups, and I think we saw a lot less of that four- and five-inch rough and a lot more of the two- and three-.

So scoring averages probably stayed very similar, but I think it's misleading. I think what they were trying to do was provide lies so that you could get to the ball and advance it but because of the groove issue you'd have a hard time controlling the golf ball. I thought the TOUR did a pretty good job overall. There's events you can pick and choose where you wish the rough were higher, lower, but in the whole course of the season, the setups were changed.

But I think the groove issue made a pretty significant change. I would say -- I actually like the new groove probably more from about 160 yards out because I can move the ball so much farther now with a flier than I could before. I had lost my ability to hit the ball 190 or 200 yards because with the square groove the ball just wouldn't come out jumping and I couldn't get say a 5-iron on the ball anymore, and I can't hit a 6- or 7-iron that far. Now I get out from 200 yards with a 6- or 7-iron and make it jump, play it a little bit back, hit a shot I know will jump. It might not fly there, but I can run the ball up on greens.

I probably -- I think there's been a couple players that have done it, played kind of V-grooves from like a 6-iron up and square grooves from a 7-iron down. They were a little smarter than I was. But I probably like that groove from longer distances. But geez, from pitching wedge distance and in, 9-iron distance and in, it's a big, big difference, and you're nervous about catching that flier and knocking it over greens.

If you think about it, most of the trouble on golf courses, if you hit the ball five yards short of the green, you can usually play. Green is tilted towards you, you usually have an opportunity to get the ball up-and-down, but you start knocking the ball five and ten yards over the greens, it gets very difficult to get the ball up-and-down, and it's what we're all afraid of.

But it made a significant difference in my mind. But I don't think stats prove that. But I think the players would tell you.