"The die is cast. Done deal. Q school as we’ve known it since 1965 is dead."
/Scott Michaux files a scathing takedown of the PGA Tour's plan to do away with Q-School as a direct avenue to the PGA Tour.
Read MoreWhen one comes to the quality of the bunkers and other hazards we pass into realm of much dispute and argument. Primarily bunkers should be sand bunkers purely, not composed of gravel, stones or dirt. Whether this or that bunker is well placed, has caused more intensely heated arguments outside of the realms of religion, than has ever been my lot to listen to. C.B. MACDONALD
Available via Amazon (US): Golf Architecture For Normal People
Barnes And Noble (online and in stores)
Bookshop.org option to support local independent bookstores.
Reviews:
"Golf Architecture for Normal People . . . should be required reading for those who are not ashamed to admit they know little about the subject, and for those who think they do . . . . Golf course architecture geeks have trouble slimming their thoughts down to bite-sized chunks, but Shackelford has achieved a remarkable success here." —Independent (Ireland)
"From the relative newcomer who’s slowly getting hooked to those that have played the game for most of their lives and think they know a thing or two, Golf Architecture for Normal People provides a solid and sober perspective that will help everyone recognize why some golf courses are worth playing more than once while a single trip around others is all you’re ever likely to want or need." —Links Magazine.
“It’s a wonderful book. An easy read that arrives just in time for your summer reading list. If you’ve never thought about how an appreciation for course design could heighten your enjoyment of the game, you must check this out.”—The Peterborough Examiner
"As in his prior publications, in his newest book Shackelford shows a deep appreciation for what can be done to create a golf course that appeals to the broadest possible golfing audience…Shackelford’s prose is succinct, often witty, and accessible."—Cape Gazette
"Author, blogger and golf architecture expert Geoff Shackelford, who helped Gil Hanse design Rustic Canyon and restore 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, taps into his passion by creating a guide that helps every golfer understand the nuances of course design. Published by Tatra Press, the 164-page hardcover book is a must-read for every golfer to better understand the game they love." —Golf Pass
"Shackelford provides an informative picture [and]...sprinkles in history lessons about those who planted the game's architectural roots, defines common terms and helps you hone your eyes when it comes to identifying some of the tricks of the trade."—FORE Magazine
"This new book does a great job demystifying golf course design ideas for average players, but can also be a beneficial read fro PGA Professionals and other golf course employees to get a better understanding of their home courses." —PGA Magazine
“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.’”
"If you mention player meeting to the average tour player you will get eyes rolled and a sigh."
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John Maginnes previews this week's PGA Tour player meeting and gives us an insider's take on what these PTA-gone-bad sessions are like.
Most of the time it seems the agenda and the inevitable hypotheticals concerning it become belabored and exhaustive. However, this meeting and the meetings the rest of the year will be as important as any since the inception of the PGA Tour playoffs. The playoffs were an easy sell - and easy to explain in the beginning. The players like it when you throw money at them. When they perceive, rightly or wrongly, that there job is going to be less secure next year than it is this year even those players who have never spoken in a player meeting will stand up and be heard.
The path to the PGA Tour is changing, that seems inevitable. This week will find out just how dramatic those changes will be.
Either way, there will be a lot of resistance.
"Dramatic N'wide Tour changes needed"
/As the PGA Tour's Oxford shirt set prepares to present players with their plan to save the Nationwide Tour by killing the Q-School avenue to the PGA Tour, Sean Martin suggests ways to liven up the soon-to-be-renamed minor league tour. And I couldn't help but wonder why you wouldn't take these suggestions to make it more sponsor-attractive without killing the Q-School approach?
Read MoreQ-School Replacement Concept Upgraded From Unfathomable To Merely Dreadful
/My friends at the PGA Tour have assured me that they would never consider exemptions into the minor league version of the FedExCup melding Nationwide Tour players and PGA Tour 126-and-beyond castaways. Instead, players earning money through exemptions on either tour could be eligible to the Q-School replacement event if they earned enough money.
Read MoreQ-School Replacement Idea Getting Worse By The Day
/Ryan Ballengee talks to Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee, who says players showing up at a Torrey Pines player meeting will get to hear the latest concept for the PGA Tour/Nationwide Tour's three-event fall finish, which is designed to help lure a Nationwide title sponsor and replace PGA Tour Q-School as an annual avenue to the tour.
Check out this:
Beginning in 2013, a total of 50 PGA Tour cards will be awarded through a three-tournament series on the Nationwide Tour schedule. Q-School will only offer status on the Nationwide Tour.
The top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour money list and the first 75 players who fail to qualify for the PGA Tour playoffs will be a part of the series. In addition, Calfee said a number of top amateurs or collegiate players could be invited to take part in the series.
“It’s kind of like our form of the FedEx Cup, in some ways,” he said.
So now they are talking sponsor's invites for college players into the series?
What's next, spots for a few of the Commissioner's favorite players outside the top 125? Former Players Champions who no longer have status?
"When I was missing all those cuts in a row, I definitely was missing caddying."
/Doug Ferguson leads his weekly notes column with an update on Brett Waldman, former caddie for Camilo Villegas who qualified for the Nationwide Tour this year but struggled, earning just $6,958.
Read More"It has been quite a journey."
/Steve Elling looks at the Nationwide success stories of Erik Compton, Billy Hurley and Ted Potter, including this new revelation from Compton about his heart:
For much of his life, the destination was hardly ordained. When Compton made it to PGA Tour Qualifying School finals last fall and struggled, guaranteeing him only limited status on the Nationwide in 2011, he not only wasn't sure where he would be playing, but how much he could play, period, because of his physical limitations.
He hit the wall after winning the Mexico Open last summer and his body began rejecting his heart. Doctors gave him doses of Prednisone, which sapped his strength for several weeks and left him so shaky he could not drive for parts of three weeks.
"My hands were too shaky," he said.
Compton Among The 25 Nationwide Grads Who'll Be Desperately Trying To Get In '11 West Coast Swing Events
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Pete Iacobelli reports on Erik Compton finishing 13th on the 2011 Nationwide Tour season money list, giving the two-time heart transplant recipient PGA Tour status in 2012.
Nationwide Renewals, Decline In Opportunities
/The PGA Tour's desire to make the Nationwide Tour more attractive to a sponsor and to tie it into the regular tour's fall finish makes a little more sense when you see this noted in Sean Martin's Nationwide notes column:
The tour has 26 events this year, the fewest in its history, and a total purse of $16,075,000, the tour’s smallest since 2005. The tour peaked at 32 events in 2007. This year’s purse is $2.25 million less than last year’s and $2.9 million less than the tour’s peak of 2008, when $18,991,094 was up for grabs.
Q-School Reboot Idea On Hold Until (At Least) '13
/Sean Martin reports that the PGA Tour's push to remake Q-School into a Nationwide Tour-only qualifier is not going to happen until at least 2013 now.
Read MoreCheck 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.
They Didn't Say That Did They? "The top guys in college, the top 20 or 30 guys, can beat the top 20, 30 guys on the PGA Tour."
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Harris English, understandably confused for a character in a P.G. Wodehouse novel, did not win a Nationwide Tour event Sunday. Instead, it was Harris English from the University of Georgia, who outdueled another amateur, LSU's John Peterson. Throw in another impressive PGA Tour performance from UCLA's Patrick Cantlay at the Canadian Open, and you have to be impressed with the showing of college golf's finest.Amateurs Overtaking The Nationwide Tour!
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Joe Chemycz with the lowdown on amateurs in the first two spots of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational heading into Sunday and a third in the top ten.
LSU's John Peterson birdied three of his final five holes and maintained his lead after three rounds at Ohio State University's Scarlet Course. Peterson's 14-under 199 total is one shot better than college rival Harris English of Georgia, who carded a bogey-free 68.
"We had our college stuff on and it was just the two of us out there together. It really didn't feel like a professional tournament," said English, dressed in his red Bulldog shirt. "We were joking on the range that we thought our college coaches were going to show up at some point, and they still might."
You may recall amateur Russell Henley won earlier this year on his home collegiate course.
"Oh yeah, there were plenty of guys on the Nationwide Tour who smoked in the middle of the round...We always talked about it. You could go in the Porta John and take your drags."
/
It's always fun to read a well done player profile, especially when the player is interesting and his story is bound to have men in Oxford's running around PGA Tour offices trying to figure out the spin.
So while all the stuff Dave Shedloski tells us about in the Robert Garrigus story--Memphis last year, the 2011 U.S. Open and his struggle with addiction--these are the comments bound to be brought up the next time Tim Finchem claims that PGA Tour pros are all angels and drug testing was unnecessary.
