The Choking Freaking Dogs' Wounds May Have Finally Healed

/

Randall Mell believes Meg Mallon's appointment as 2013 Solheim Cup captain was newsworthy because of her openness to a Dottie Pepper assistant captaincy, healing the lingering wounds from Pepper's honest (and accurate) assessment from the 2007 (get over it!) Cup telecast.

“I don’t know who my assistant captains will be yet,” Mallon said. “But I do believe Dottie Pepper should be a captain someday. I also strongly believe that anyone who is captain should be an assistant captain first. Whether it’s me who names her, or another captain after me, Dottie was the face of the U.S. Solheim Cup team in the ‘90s. She deserves to be captain.”

Mallon believes it’s time to welcome Pepper back into the Solheim Cup fold.

“I’m all about forgiveness, and I think both sides need to step forward to kind of have that healing happen, and it couldn’t happen soon enough for me,” Mallon said. “I’ve spent my whole career with Dottie, and I know her whole heart bleeds red, white and blue. She is so passionate about the Solheim Cup that sometimes that passion comes out in ways that have obviously hurt other people. But I still believe you can get over those hurts, and that she will be a captain someday.”

Pepper, 46, was visibly moved when told about Mallon’s comment.

“I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s terribly complimentary, and that means a lot to me,” Pepper told GolfChannel.com.

PGA State Of The Game: "Certainly it feels like there is recovery in the industry."

/
The PGA of America's State of the Industry Roundtable at the PGA Show is an annual gathering of bluecoats talking up the great state of the game and their latest initiatives. Thursday appears to have been no different as they unveiled the 2012 intiative, Golf 2.0, complete with a Boy and Girls Scouts component.
Read More

"I think all of that to make those events the Fall Series and the Asian events FedExCup tournaments, they have to alter the Q‑school."

/
Players were plenty chatty at Torrey Pines about the PGA Tour's controversial Q-School concept and the ones I spoke to all came away with a similar conclusion: they have more questions now than before, and their sense is that the tour isn't even entirely sure what the point of the initiative is. On the record, a couple of stars were asked about it when they visited the press center.
Read More

Johnny, No SubAir References At The Players, Please

/

This story from Garry Smits is probably only of interest to the maintenance world...but they have a new air sucker and hot blast blower system at the TPC Sawgrass. Actually, it's been in place a while but only now is fully converted to Precision Air.

TPC Sawgrass superintendent Tom Vlach said the maximum temperature of the warm air is 140 degrees, and he can blow cool air on the greens as low as 50 degrees. Precision Air has already been installed under 12 greens at the Stadium Course and will be put under the final six (Nos. 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13) within the next few weeks.

The delay for those holes was because electrical wiring for power had to be strung out to their remote locations on the golf course. The Precision Air system is using the same infrastructure as the Sub Air and is about 1 feet beneath the putting surface.

None of the greens had to be dug up to install the components.

“In all honesty, people thought the FedExCup was confusing. Wait until they see this."

/

Steve Elling sets up the impending disaster that is the PGA Tour's plan to change Q-School and create a FedExCup-lite playoff between players from the PGA and Nationwide Tours.

But for a sport long hailed as one of the most democratic in all sports, Q-school, which dates to 1965 and used to be contested twice annually as the main boulevard to the tour ranks, is about to be sold down the river in an attempt to prop up the value of the satellite Nationwide, a tour property that needs a new title sponsor after the insurance company's contract expires later this year.

The latest details of the plan were pitched to players last night in San Diego and as expected, at least one player made clear it's not going over well. Stephanie Wei quotes a player who attended the mandatory meeting.

“Not to be stagnant and not forward thinking, but things are going really, really well right now, and you just got done saying this is the best season we’ve ever had, but we need to fix it, we need to change it like there’s something wrong? I just don’t understand it.

“Right now when I tee it up on the PGA Tour, I know what I have to do on the PGA Tour to keep my card. Well, there are all these different situations that can be presented (in the new proposed format) — are you going to work hard at the FedExCup or are you going to work hard at the Money List?

There are two or three transitional periods where things are going to overlap, and I just left (the meeting) shaking my head, and I’m sure a lot of other people did, too, to the point of why are we going to do this, instead of, ‘Hey, if I finish outside the top 125, I’ve got to go to Qschool and I get an opportunity to get my card back.’”