Rory Fought The Law And The Law Fined Him £100 For Speeding

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Thanks to reader Stuart for what appears to be a Sun story sounding much more harmless than Monty's serial speeding issues, until you read the details of Rory McIlroy's £100 fine. Someone needs to tell the young lad that unless the Windermere Police pull him over, this stuff won't fly when he moves to Orlando in 2012:
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Stevie Vows To Stop Talking About Tiger; Admits Rage Spilled "Over The Top"

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After sleeping on his post round WGC Bridgestone comments, former Tiger looper Steve Williams tells Robert Lusetich that he was a "bit over the top" and that he had "a lot of anger" and "it all came out."

There was also this pledge which ought to last about two days:

“I said what I said but I’m not going to say any more about Tiger,” he said.

Well, until the book, right?

Cameron Morfit thinks Stevie has already said enough. And while I think he gives Williams a little too much credit, the point is sound: the Williams rage over his firing for "disloyalty" speaks to a sadder story: Tiger hasn't changed a bit.

He's saying Woods is unchanged, and after all the swing changes, portfolio damage, apologies and promises to become a better man, that's the biggest disappointment of all.

This seems like a good place to admit I don't know Woods, I never have, and I probably never will. Behind closed doors he might have changed. But it doesn't look like it from here, and not from where Williams sits, either.

"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.