When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Really!
I know, the first round of the Chevron World Challenge may not normally be one of your top 5 "Must DVR" rounds of the year, but with weather forecasts calling for 50 m.p.h. Santa Ana winds this could be wild.
Jim Furyk explained in his pre-tournament press conference:
When you think about the weather that's coming in, what makes this golf course difficult is a lot of Jack Nicklaus's golf course designs are built to be played in the air. If you think of Muirfield in Ohio, one of my favorite golf courses, it's a golf course that if you're not bouncing the ball into a lot of greens, you're putting the ball up in the air and stopping on the greens. And it makes it very difficult in the wind. And it's the same with this golf course.
If the conditions are nice and the greens are soft, we can put the ball in the air and stop it and kind of maneuver around or over trouble, and with the winds kicking up and being I'm hearing 25 to 35 with gusts over 50 ‑‑ that's what I read this morning, gusts over 50, this place isn't ‑‑ it won't be playable. So I don't know if that's actually the weather report, but I read that on weather.com this morning. And it was worse last night when I checked. It was 25 to 40 and gusts over 60.
So supposed to start at midnight tonight and last till noon on Friday. So if we get weather like that, gusts over 50, the ball will not stay still on a green here. We have to put the ball in the air to play this golf course, so the wind, we're going to have to be very careful and hitting very solid shots to control the ball when you put it up in the air in a strong wind. I would expect scoring to be high, and I would expect the greens to be quite soft and quite slow.
I mean if you're going to get winds that are actually 35 miles an hour, I don't think you can cut the greens, to be honest with you. Or else it's not going to stay on the green. So it'll be interesting to see what the weather does and how everything plays out. It won't be any fun. I promise you that.
While Royal Melbourne was designed for the wind, I can confirm that Sherwood most definitely is not playable in high winds.
John Maginnes will be at Q-School for Golf Channel and sums up the final stage starting Wednesday at PGA West:
I honestly get a little queasy now just thinking about it and I haven't been to a Q-School in half a dozen years. I will be there this year on course for the Golf Channel and I feel like I will be returning to the scene of the crime that stole a piece of my soul and my youth. In return, I learned more about myself in a week than I have in any single year since.
Sean Martin previews the name players in the field and as always, I feel slightly dirty poring over the names of the souls who will be grinding it out over the next six days. Oh, but go ahead and look, it's not like they are standing in front of Home Depot looking for work. Yet.
Brian Wacker also looks at some of the better known names at Q-school.
Steve DiMeglio takes the William McGirt angle, talking to the heartbreak veteran who for three consecutive years at the second stage faced final hole putts to make it to the finals. You'll have to read the story to see how it turned out.
The PGA Tour's leaderboard is here, and their full coverage page can be accessed here.
I've been a little surprised at some of the reactions I've heard about Royal Melbourne's setup during the Presidents Cup. The complaints and grievances were from people who were speaking up not for the sake of griping, but instead, expressing their disappointment at their sense players could only play defensively due to excessive green speeds and the putting surfaces appearing dead.
There is no question that during Friday's hot, dry wind day the golfers were on defensive, but it would not have mattered what the staff and PGA Tour did to the greens, it was just one of those days. But they never lost control of the course.
As for the rest of the event, I would say we saw the ultimate in strategic golf and that the reaction people have had has more to do with how rarely we get to see the merging of strategic design, setup, and conditions calling on players to think.
First, on the subject of purple greens. A few things to remember:
- Royal Melbourne's bent, unique to the course and not available anywhere else, is a very dark shade of green, almost black, with some purplish blades. I was shocked by it at first sight and was even more shocked to see an iron application Tuesday of tournament week, but that was designed for a number of reasons, including the desire to not hear people say that the greens were purple.
- Television filters skew things. Did you notice the day the teams wore light blue shirts (twice for the Internationals, once for the U.S.)? To some of us the shirts appeared almost purple on television. So just like the yellow waves of Torrey Pines each year, we learn that television cameras and filters alter colors. That may have been the case here too.
- The club also uses a dark sand topdressing which may give hints of purple, while the sand the greens grow out of is a very dark color. But I can say having walked on them all four days, the greens appeared very healthy.
- Royal Melbourne's greens were never close to dying, nor were they prepared at a speed higher than 13 any day of the event. They were in the low 12s during Saturday's rain event. Fast for those contours, but never unmanageable if you were attacking from the proper angle.
And that leaves the "defensive" issue. Longtime readers know there is nothing I hate more than watching golf when players are constantly on the defensive and unable to attack a well-designed course with good thinking and shotmaking. If that was the case at Royal Melbourne, I'd be the first to point it out.
Instead, what I saw repeatedly was incorrect placement in the fairways or a refusal to hit run-up shots, leading to approaches not finishing near the hole. If a player and his caddie considered the hole location, figured out the best angle to approach from, the best shot to use and executed, he was rewarded.
But on many of Royal Melbourne's best holes, the line between best approach angle and a not-so-good angle is so fine that without announcer explanation of the course nuances (eh hem, Johnny!), the golf could look defensive or even goofy. This was definitely not the case at Royal Melbourne. And the positive player reactions would validate this.
After all, if the set-up was over-the-top, you would have heard them say so. Royal Melbourne was brilliant, I only wish we had more golf like we saw there.
The answer is no, now what is the request? Doug Ferguson explains Jason Day's desire to fulfill his late father's wish to have his ashes spread at Augusta National.
Alvyn Day, who gave Jason his start in golf, died of cancer when Day was 12, and one of his final requests was that his son spread some of his ashes at Augusta National if Day were to ever played there.
The 24-year-old Day tied for second this year in his debut at the Masters, but he was not able to consider his father's request because the ashes were at his mother's home in Brisbane.
"It's a plan but obviously if I don't get clearance from Augusta, I am not going to do it," Day said last week at the Australian PGA Championship. "That was one of my dad's wishes and if I was allowed to do it, that would be great. Obviously, I know how the rules are at Augusta, it would be probably very unlikely, but we will see how it goes."
Good luck with that.
Christopher Elser notes changes Jack Nicklaus is making to his design at Gleneagles, which has also been modified by David Kidd.
Rod Morri pins me down on the central questions of the day: my (mostly positive) take on Australia golf, the Presidents Cup, and the merits of hand cream after a long, arduous 18 holes.
We go for fifty minutes, so apologies in advance. If you like podcasts, you can (and should) get Rod's free podcast on itunes. He has always gets great guests and asks sharp questions.
An online betting outfit is challenging Robert Allenby and Geoff Ogilvy to hash out their differences in the ring, all in the name of charity.
Thanks to Brian Keogh for tweeting (and apologizing in advance) for the bagpipe-accompanied Brian Morgan photos of Trump International Scotland. I just can't take my eyes off the green carpet walkway on the uphill par-3 with the burn to the right...
Mark Hayes offers this from Robert Allenby's ten-percenter in rounding up Sunday's post-Presidents Cup confrontation prompted by Allenby's inability to take personal responsibility for his play:
His manager, Tony Bouffler, was confident there would be no lasting ramifications.
"All I know is that they have been good mates and I'm sure will continue to be so in the future," he said.
Martin Blake talks to Geoff Ogilvy's man:
''Look, it wasn't TV Ringside or anything,'' said Paul Galli, Ogilvy's manager. ''I wasn't there, but from what I've been told, it's a storm in a teacup. There were a few words spoken. They will be fine. I've got no doubt they can come together at the [Australian] Masters in a few weeks, have a beer and move on.''
Blake also notes the harsh reaction of former touring pro Paul Gow on his podcast with Luke Elvy, where they also talk about Greg Chalmers' dilemma in pursuing the Australian Masters along with other notes from the Australian PGA week.
But former US PGA Tour professional Paul Gow said it was time Allenby bit his lip in pressure situations.
"I think he acts like a five-year-old when he plays golf," Gow said in his weekly Playing Around podcast with Channel 10 commentator Luke Elvy.
"He has to understand he plays golf for a living. He was in a team environment and to throw out those comments was really immature.
"It's probably time for Robert to grow up, let his clubs do the talking because he's a really, really good player. With this attitude, he will probably never win a major."
Brent Read reports on Robert Allenby's continued meltdown over his horrible Presidents Cup play, with Geoff Ogilvy's Sunday tweet perhaps fueling an "ugly spat" Sunday night following Australian PGA play.
Allenby and Ogilvy exchanged words at the Hyatt Coolum on Queensland's Sunshine Coast where the pair were playing in the Australian PGA with the former believed to have challenged his long-time friend to take the matter outside.
The incident took place in the village square at the Hyatt, where players, caddies, family members and the public were celebrating Greg Chalmers's victory earlier that day. At least one glass was broken before Allenby, who lost the play-off at the PGA that day to Chalmers, walked away, prompting Bronx cheers from a section of those in attendance.
Ah that must have really soothed his ego.
Ogilvy responded with a tweet that read: "Warms the heart to see Robert playing so well this week." Ogilvy later told media the tweet was genuine, although Allenby is believed to have taken offence at what he felt was a piece of sarcasm. It is understood he questioned Ogilvy over the tweet and his Victorian counterpart responded by asking why Allenby refused to take responsibility for his play.
The conversation degenerated to the point where a glass was broken and an offer was made to take the matter outside.
Allenby left the country but will be back for the Australian Masters at Victoria in a few weeks. Victoria, a splendid design, is Ogilvy's boyhood home course.
***New details of the "stoush" from Sportal's Steve Orme, courtesy of reader Chris:
And when Allenby sauntered over to Ogilvy's table and sat down at around 9.15pm on Sunday night, the 2006 US Open champion immediately made his dissatisfaction known.
He was overheard accusing Allenby of throwing him under the bus and openly questioned his character, which sent the four-time PGA winner into a rage.
Allenby inadvertently broke a wine glass and screamed 'do you want to go?' (fight), prompting Ogilvy, who was surrounded by seven friends, to get out of his chair in front of a captivated and stunned audience.
Common sense prevailed as Allenby softened his approach momentarily.
But the argument soon flared up again as Ogilvy unsuccessfully sought an apology.
The ugly stoush escalated once again as Allenby invited his adversary to meet him outside of the main square, to which Ogilvy quipped 'I'd like that'.
Allenby subsequently stormed out as Ogilvy sat calmly.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
