Quick Initial Reaction: Royal Melbourne

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The place lives up to the hype as one of the world's great courses thanks to the green complexes and bunkering. I studied the first 10 holes of the Composite Course plus several others on the property, but it's impossible not to love some of the features. A few of which I explore in these Tweeted cell phone video snippets.

A look at the transitions from fairway to approach you'll see during Presidents Cup coverage this week.

The 10th at RM (18West), nice subtly explained in shaky cell phone video. Should be noted that Bubba Watson drove it in the fairway bunkers here this week. So much for the strategy!

The 1st hole this week (3 West) will be pivotal this week and has some great hole location-based strategy I try to explain in this short cell phone video.

And on a cooler note, these ommemorative tools were the only mechanical instruments in building of RM.

*******Links should now work. Hopefully the PGA Tour will be kind enough to extend the 24 hour grace period by a few minutes.

********And now I see the host, YFrog, is down. Good times!

Just a few images...

Phil Must Find A New Gin Rummy Pigeon In Michael Jordan's Absence

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Bob Verdi questions Fred Couples on this year's Cup team room atmopshere without asst. captain Michael Jordan, who stayed home to help resolve the NBA lockout.

Do you miss Michael Jordan?

"I know Phil does. They had some nice card games in San Francisco. Gin. But all the guys miss him. And the caddies. He fit in so well at Harding Park. The guys loved having him there. He even gave a little pep talk to the team. And you saw how he helped out. Almost adopted Sean O'Hair."

Planning Your Presidents Cup Viewing...

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I've been a little surprised that there hasn't been more coverage of the coverage. That is, NBC's bold decision to air all of the Presidents Cup rounds live on Golf Channel, and then play the tape later on NBC during normal U.S. viewing hours.

As I noted when it was first announced, this is the first big benefit of the Comcast-Universal merger and certainly one that will hurt the final Cup ratings, but which serves the viewer interested in live golf.

The times again so you can prepare. All are Eastern Time:

Wednesday, Nov 16
 Foursome Golf Channel 9 p.m. -- 2 a.m.

Thursday, Nov. 17 
Four Ball Golf Channel 7:30 p.m. -- 2 a.m.

Friday, Nov. 18
 Foursome Golf Channel 4 p.m. -- 2 a.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19 
Singles Golf Channel 6:30 p.m. -- 12:30 a.m.

Replay
Thursday, Nov. 17 
Foursome Golf Channel 9 a.m. -- 1:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 18
 Four Ball Golf Channel 9 a.m. -- 1:30 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19 
Foursome NBC 8 a.m. -- 4 p.m.

Stevie: I Should Have Left Tiger Right After Scandal Broke

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In a lengthy interview with Graham Bensinger recorded before controversial remarks in Shanghai, luggage looper Stevie Williams says he should have left his man when scandal broke so he could go out on a high note.

“I think everything you do in life, you’d like to go out on a high as opposed to a low,” Williams said. “Looking back, perhaps after Tiger competed down here in Australia at the Australian Masters, it was a very memorable win. I really enjoyed that tournament. That was the last event he played before all the events transpired. Perhaps I should have, you know, left him then.”

And...

“I didn’t know all was going to happen, obviously. I didn’t know what was about to unfold. Looking back, my gut feeling at some time said that was a good way to finish."

Here's the interview:

The PGA Tour And Australia

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It's wishful thinking, but I'm advocating in this week's Golf World Monday that the PGA Tour's possible fall kickoff for official money starting in 2013 include consideration for an Australia event(s) based on what I saw last week. In other words, stop obsessing about emerging markets and figure out how to tap underutilized or appreciated markets. Thoughts?

Golf Channel Records Big Numbers Down Under

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I'm a little unclear which telecasts these are since the events started airing on Wednesday and Thursday, but either way, the numbers from Golf Channel are impressive:

Headlined by Tiger Woods and as a lead-in to our exclusive coverage of The Presidents Cup this week, the Thursday and Friday’s opening rounds of Australian Open pulled some great numbers on air and online, proving our strategy a success:
 
Round One garnered 396,000 average viewers (0.4 household rating).

·         Up 212% from same week in 2010 (JB Were Masters Round One)
·         Up 146% from same week in 2009 ( also JB Were Masters Round One)
·         3rd-highest non-PGA TOUR Round One on Golf Channel this year.
 
Traffic on GolfChannel.com also garnered some impressive numbers.  On Thursday, November 10, online traffic (1.2 million page views) experienced its busiest day since the new site launched in June, exceeding the busiest days of the US Open, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
 
Preliminary numbers for Australian Open Round two attracted 447,000 average viewers (0.5 household rating)
·         Up 105% from 2010 JB Were Masters Rd 2
·         Up 22% from 2009 JB Were Masters Rd 2
·         3rd-highest non-PGA TOUR Round Two on Golf Channel this year.
 
On Friday, November 11, GolfChannel.com continued the momentum for online traffic (1.1 million), experiencing the one of the busiest days since the new site launch, second only to previous day which broke all records.

Q&A With Mike Clayton

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Melbourne University Press has published "The Courses Of Royal Melbourne Golf Club," with text by Mike Clayton, Photography by Kimbal Baker, a Foreword by Ben Crenshaw and a Preface by John Green. And just as you'd hope, this beautiful publication focuses on the magnificent 36 holes found at the host of this year's Presidents Cup.

Clayton introduces the courses with a solid and straightforward explanation of Alister MacKenzie's genius and what that meant for golf in Melbourne. Appropriately, the book then moves quickly to the vaunted course, where Clayton's text is augmented by the occasional quotation from a golfing great or architecture critic. Even better, Baker's photography given plenty of room to show off the best features of each hole.

Also included are maps of the various composite courses used at Royal Melbourne and a perfect side-by-side aerial photo collection showing the course evolution. Those interested in the book may purchase it at the club website.

On the eve of the Cup, architect and senior golfer Clayton answered questions about the course and this impressive publication.

What was the genesis of the new book on Royal Melbourne?

A friend of mine,Viv Beer is a member there and we spoke a coupe of years ago about doing a book that could be ready for the President's Cup that spoke about the architecture, the holes and the things that had happened there over the years.


Besides your words, the book features beautiful photography by Kimbal Baker and accurate water color renderings of the holes by Mike Cocking. Tell us about the artist.

Mike Cocking has worked with me (firstly at Michael Clayton Golf Design and now Ogilvy Clayton) for more than a decade. He was a good player - good enough to win the State Amateur and finish 3 behind Colin Montgomerie in the 2000 Australian Masters when he was still an amateur. He and Geoff played a lot of amateur golf together. He is an environmental engineer but draws beautifully and he has had some help from Bob Wade, a renowned Australian watercolour artist. He did the individual hole drawings as well a beautiful map of the Composite Course that is now framed in the clubhouse.


There is a new composite routing at Royal Melbourne for the Presidents Cup, what do you make of it and how it will impact the matches?

The original composite was played in 1959 at the Canada Cup and it was that way until the PC in 1998. This version is another and one noticeable feature is the start where they play 3w,4w,5w,6w,7w and 10 west to begin. It is hard to think of a better opening six holes in the game. The finish is not quite so good. 17 east is now 15 and has been hurt by alterations made to ensure balls stay inside the boundary fence to
the right.

18 east is a terrific hole but then they go to the 1st on the West which is a fantastic opened but a uninteresting 17th. 2 west is played as a long four from a forward tee - it's a really good hole and into the prevailing wind, quite difficult.


What should viewers who've never been to Royal Melbourne be most keen to pay attention to during the Presidents Cup?

They should think about the space afforded the player from the tee - MacKenzie's belief that golf was a bad game if players were constricted from the tee by narrow fairways - but how there is a always a preferred place to play from to get to the flag and even then when the greens are hard (as they are sure to be) you have to hit the right shot to get close. You have to shape it, land it in the right place and control - and estimate - the bounce. It is the sophisticated form of golf championed by Peter Thomson.

Also no rough around the greens highlights how short grass can be a hazard as it feeds ball away from the green but offers a multitude of options for the recovery.


Since joining up with Geoff Ogilvy, how has the design partnership gone and where will we get to see the first results of the new partnership?

So far it has been good fun. Bonnie Doon, next door to The Lakes is coming on well as is Torquay, a beachside course south of Melbourne. Like so many we have a few projects that look like they may happen.There are are three here in Australia that are particularly exciting - and like most designers if we can get to do one of two of them in the next few years it would be a great result. I honestly believe all three could be amongst the top ten in the country.

Geoff obviously is busy playing. He know everything that is going on and it is exactly what he wants to do when he is finished playing. Geoff, Mike and Ashley Mead - the three others in the business - are in their early to mid thirties and I think there is the basis of a fantastic long-term business that can produce some pretty good work.

Steiny: "I think there is significantly different sentiment in the media than the public."

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The stomach can only handle so much (though I must say, the food Down Under is dynamite), so I have postponed reading Bob Harig's story on Tiger's new bag deal for fear of agitation. Instead, we get to see just how completely disconnected from reality Tiger agent Mark Steinberg is from reality.
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