SF Mayoral Candidate Proposes Closing MacKenzie's Sharp Park

The San Francisco Chronicle's City Insider blog reports that Mayoral candidate and Supervisor John Avalos went ahead with a proposal to close the Alister MacKenzie-designed course, with a conversion of the property to be managed by the National Park Service.

''A partnership with the National Park Service will make Sharp Park more accessible, while allowing the city to reinvest resources into our neighborhood golf courses, parks and recreation centers,'' said Avalos, a mayoral candidate.

His proposal has the backing of such groups as the Sierra Club, Wild Equity Institute and National Parks Conservation Association. They hope to see the property transitioned back its more natural wetlands state.

The Recreation and Park Department wants to keep the golf course open, but has moved to reconfigure the design to keep golfers out of the most environmentally sensitive areas and has taken other measures to protect the vulnerable critters.

''We have worked to accommodate a diverse range of recreational activities at Sharp Park, including golf, hiking and dog walking, while continuing to pursue a plan with park stakeholders to restore precious habitat for the San Francisco garter snake and the California red-legged frog,'' said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Recreation and Park Department, which has jurisdiction over the park.

Among those opposed to the proposed transfer of the property to federal jurisdiction are U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, the Pacifica City Council and Public Golf Alliance.

A lawsuit hopes to block any such transfer of the course, but the group faces an uphill battle. In an ideal world, resources would be pouring in from the cash rich organizations charged with running the game to help preserve a course with a fantastic legacy and which serves a diverse audience of golf world.

I profiled the situation at Sharp Park for Golf World in May, 2009.

Jack's Coming To Town To Talk Valhalla Redo

Thanks to reader John for Rick Bozich's Louisville Courier-Journal coverage of Valhalla's latest greens redo, which is prompting a Thursday visit from Jack Nicklaus his ownself. Members have been advised to bring their questions and Jack will provide answers.

In a story for the paper, Jody Demling does not mention the flood damage that had been cited by some as the reason all greens needed to be rebuilt (that would take some flood to get the 9th and 18th greens!). Instead, extreme heat seems to have been the culprit.

The project is expected to begin in September with renovations expected to be complete by next summer.

“The extremes of severe summertime weather these last two years have necessitated the enhancements to begin next month in time for the fall growing season,” Steranka said in a release from the PGA of America.

The PGA said a more heat-tolerant bent grass will be installed. A new irrigation system will replace the existing 25-year old infrastructure, and fairway drainage will be addressed.

The Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla has hosted the 1996 and 2000 PGA Championship and the 2008 Ryder Cup along with the Senior PGA in ’04 and ’11.

The course has already undergone three sets of major alterations, including changes before the 2000 and ’04 events.

Uihlein: "We can't argue that we have the best interest in the game. We can make that argument, but the fact is we represent the commercial landscape."

Courtesy of AP's Doug Ferguson, more of the kinder, gentler Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein talking about the relationship between rulemakers and manufacturers.

The debate between tradition and technology has been around more than a century, and that is not likely to change. Uihlein said he can make an argument "for or against bifurcation" – different equipment rules for pros and amateurs – although that should not be an agenda that any manufacturer could promote.

"We still have a commercial genesis to that thought process," he said. "We can't argue that we have the best interest in the game. We can make that argument, but the fact is we represent the commercial landscape. And so, it doesn't matter how noble our argument is. It's still going to be seen as to some degree commercially prejudiced."

Uihlein said it's up to the R&A and the USGA to not only set the rules, but to assume greater responsibility in the game's future.

"If not, who does?" he said. "There's always going to be that question of whose game is it, and who's responsible for its perpetuation and sustenance."

2011 Deutsche Bank Championship Final Round Open Thread

Should be a dandy today in Boston...

Check Out Rahil Gangjee's Par-4 Ace

PGATour.com posts the shot from the Mylan Classic, the third par-4 double eagle in Nationwide Tour history.

Who Knows What 2021 Will Bring?

While I'm happy the PGA Tour will be on television for the foreseeable future--and more importantly, network television--I'm having a hard time getting past the notion that the new PGA Tour television contract runs through 2021.

Consider that we'll have three U.S. presidential elections between now and then.

Two World Cups.

And there will be three Summer Olympics in that time, with the location for the third set of games just narrowed down to six bids this week (and only two of those are golf friendly...or at least I don't think they have much great golf in Azerbaijan).

I point this out because it seems fair to question why either the tour or networks would want to be locked into that agreement so far in advance. Especially in light of our "flat," rapidly changing world.

Consider this wisdom from someone who many consider to be very smart about business, politics and what the digital future holds:

Who knows where -- I'll just go off a little bit here, but Tom Friedman has a book coming out this week, and in that book he cites when he wrote "The World is Flat," and he thought that was a cutting-edge book. But he says in this book, if you go back and look at that book, and it's only five years ago, you can't find Skype, you can't find Twitter, and he lists about eight different things. That's pretty amazing. That's five years ago. None of that stuff was even there.

Those comments were from Commissioner Tim Finchem while announcing the 9-year deal.