"Atlanta Athletic Club’s formula of grasses will give rise to many new possibilities."

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I think the suggestion in Ron Whitten's story on AAC's new turf about possible new major venues was a little exaggerated (Talking Stick and Whisper Rock?), but there is great importance in what figures to be the relentless talk about Atlanta Athletic Club's Champion Ultradwarf Bermuda greens this week (beats talking about the architecture). Hopefully the talk will turn to considering these grasses for more courses in warm climates where bent greens are needlessly installed.
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“I think caddie day is such a part of the fabric of American golf."

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That's former USGA Executive Director David Fay, as quoted in Paul Rogers' NY Times Monday golf piece on caddie day at Sleepy Hollow. Not only is a fun read because of the characters that the club's caddies appear to be, but also because it's a fundamental example of why caddy programs have died at so many courses: they do not value caddies the way they do at Sleepy Hollow.

Kudos to the club for having a program, letting their caddies play on Mondays and for letting the Times write about the program. And thanks to all the readers who sent in the link.

The club’s current membership includes several Rockefellers as well as the best-selling author James Patterson and the actor Bill Murray, who starred in the popular 1980 film “Caddyshack.”

On a recent caddie day, however, the faces and names of the golfers at Sleepy Hollow were decidedly different.

They included Kevin Ceconi, a tattooed former PGA Tour caddie who was playing in a fivesome on the club’s lower course, a short nine-hole loop that’s easier to walk than the championship upper course, once the home of a Senior PGA (now Champions) Tour stop. Ceconi, who steered Blaine McCallister to two victories and Ed Fiori to one on the regular tour, carried a cold can of Budweiser along with his clubs.

“Playing golf with your buddies,” Ceconi, 58, said when asked about the appeal of caddie day. “It ain’t about the golf. It’s about the beer and your buddies.”

Pat Perez Should Handle Tiger's Damage Control

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He wants to find the young man he shunned coming off the 18th yesterday, can you help him?

Meanwhile, taking analysis of the Tiger-Stevie spat fallout further, Robert Lusetich suggests that the bigger problem with Tiger's caddy firing and the subsequent manspat is that this is one more negative Tiger did not need on his plate.

The acrimony is sure to spill over into the coming week, when both men will be at the year’s final major, the PGA Championship in Atlanta.

Obviously, it’s the last thing Woods needs to deal with as he tries to salvage something of a year that’s shaping as a second straight lost season. But, like the adulterous behavior that devastated his life, this is something he brought upon himself.

If he felt, as some within his camp maintain, that he and Williams were no longer on the same page, then he needed to sit down and explain his feelings. Williams deserved that after 12 years. And he might even have agreed.

But to fire him summarily because he decided to caddie for Scott while Woods was recovering from injuries to his left leg was only going to make a very public enemy out of a friend and supporter.

OK, So Maybe Not Every Move Chubby Makes Is So Hot

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Simon Goodley of The Observer reveals that the agent for the last three major winners--the Animal Killer, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke--may have been shedding more than tears of joy after their wins. Thanks to reader Stuart and others for sending this story on Chubby Chandler's costly move in July, 2010.

Companies House documents reveal that on 14 July 2010 Chandler sold most of ISM Group – the holding company of ISM. Just one day later, Louis Oosthuizen strode out for the Open at St Andrews and teed off an incredible run for Chubby's boys: within 72 holes the South African had become the first player in ISM's stable to win a major in 20 years of trying, just as Chandler had relinquished control of 75% of a business that was about to see its prospects transformed.

Chandler admitted: "I don't live my life [regretting things]. I'm not a person that looks backwards. Maybe this run started because of that [deal]. If I lived my life wondering what would have happened and about 'what ifs' then I wouldn't get very far. The life I lead is very much a precarious one. There's nothing to say that five of these guys won't lose form. You tend to look forward not back. I'm not very grown up about a lot of things, but I'm very grown up about that."

According to Oliver Hunt, a partner at sports law firm Onside Law, ISM's run of winners could have been worth at least an extra £1.4m to ISM.

"Something about too many cooks in the kitchen comes to mind."

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Steve Elling with excerpts of Nick Faldo's letter to the International Golf Federation pitching a mass collaboration of some of the biggest do-nothings on the planet: player-architects.

Though short on specifics as to how this boondoggle would work (since many of these people couldn't find one of their projects with a GPS device), it sounds as if Sir Nick is suggesting the Olympic course design consist of a collaboration of many appearance fee specialists.

"What a tremendous, ongoing, global and historic story we could write for our sport as a truly international team of men's and women's champions create the venue for golf's return to the Olympics in 2016. Certainly some of the most-respected course designers in the world come from a global pool of the most-recognized champions.

"It is understood that the complexity of the site and the demands of the Olympic event would necessitate a unified and experienced process architecturally; as they say, egos should be checked at the door, but please imagine the worldwide interest and appeal this Olympic course as the truest collaboration of men's and women's champions -- from every continent.

As long as we can see a reality show out of it, I'm in!

"Consider for yourself, the major-champion designers from the continents of Africa, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Oh let's not.

The announcement of this collaboration alone would generate true and positive worldwide interest and press in a truly Olympic story."

Until you actually all try to coordinate your site visits, assuming some of the lugs (Faldo not included) even know what a site visit entails!