Four Greens at TPC San Antonio To Be Rebuilt

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Golf World Monday's Ron Sirak notes the Valero Texas Open's inability to draw a field and the TPC San Antonio's AT&T Oaks Course, which was 50th of 53 in the Golf World player survey, appears to be the problem. He reports that four greens will be rebuilt and the unplayable lies just out of play will need to be addressed.

When Greg Norman and Pete Dye were selected to design the 36 holes at San Antonio, a policy board member famously suggested budgeting for the inevitable post-opening redo. Wonder if the Commissioner listened? Wait, what was I thinking. I'm sorry for wasting that last 15 seconds of your time.

Butch: Haney's Memory Suspiciously Good; Tiger's Swing Is "Very Robotic"

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Jeff Neuman with several fun insights from a silent-until-now Butch Harmon, talking about Hank Haney's book on Tiger, which drops to the fifth spot on this week's NY Times combined bestseller list.

Highlights...

"I'm very surprised that he would write it," Harmon said this week. "I'd never do that to Tiger or Greg [Norman] or any of the guys I've been with. We get to spend a lot of time with these people, sometimes even more time than their own families. Things are said, or you see different things, and it's just—it is what it is, you just leave it where it belongs. I was really shocked to see him talk about Elin and Tiger's kids and stuff like that, I don't think that had any place in it."

He went on: "It almost seems the way he has everything documented in there—too many times and dates and places that you wouldn't come up with from memory—it's like he kept precise notes all along with writing a book in mind."

Doesn't every great swing instructor keep a diary?

As for Tiger, Butch offers his advice from afar, which probably won't be appreciated by Tiger's current instructor Sean Foley.

"For me, and I think we saw this at the Masters, he looks like he's playing 'golf- swing' and not golf," Harmon said. "In my opinion, he's very robotic. And you could see that at Augusta with all his practice swings and the double-cross shots when he's trying to fade it and he hooks it. I think everyone thought because he won at Bay Hill that he was back; well, he didn't hit it great at Bay Hill, he hit it OK. And Bay Hill's not a major."

NY Times: Non-conforming Ball Selling Well

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Bill Pennington follows up on his story from last year about Polara's non-conforming ball and in his latest story reports that sales have been solid for the dreaded pill that could finally convince manufacturers that there is a market for non-conforming equipment.

About 70 percent of these same driving range golfers also said they would not use the ball. Summoning a kind of hacker moral code, they said it was against the rules. Interestingly, nearly every golfer wanted a handful of the balls anyway. As one duffer said: “Just to test out.”

Since then, the Polara golf ball has generated close to $3 million in sales, which represents more than 1.2 million nonconforming golf balls in the market. The Polara, which had modest beginnings, now is available in about 750 stores nationwide as well as online at Polaragolf.com.

Edwin Watts carries the ball in 60 of their 86 stores

Steve Claude, an Edwin Watts purchasing agent who participated in the decision to place Polara balls next to the displays of traditional, established golf balls, said the Polara ball was the only nonconforming item sold in the chain. But he said the company hoped more nonconforming equipment found its way into mainstream golf.

“Anything that gets more people playing,” Claude said. “We need to welcome everybody and grow the game. If that gets people out there, then I’m not worried about what they’re using. If they learn to love the game, in time they’ll want to try other kinds of equipment, too.”

Of course, USGA and R&A rules do not forbid anyone from making or selling non-conforming equipment.

Reports Of Rory Having Shrunk A Foot Appear Premature; Appears To Be Just Caroline's Nine-Inch Heels

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The Daily Mail's Deborah Andrews on Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki taking in a day at the Newbury races with the Queen on Her Royal Worship's 80th birthday. The caption writer couldn't help noting how Caroline "towered" over her man. I was more alarmed by the length of his trousers.

They are at the top of their sporting game - and appear to be very much in love.

It seems life can't get much better for golfer Rory McIlroy and his tennis player girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki.

The couple, nicknamed 'Wozzilroy', spent the day at Newbury today and could barely keep their hands off eachother.

Rory Tweeted about the day and his delight in meeting the Queen.

The Olympic Golf Impact, Russian Edition

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An unbylined Russian Television story pretty much lays out the scenario that International Golf Federation organizers and Olympic golf boosters predicted about including the game as part of the Olympics. Namely, the push to develop players in places that traditionally have not funded or paid attention to golf. Like Russia.

One of the main prospects is Vladimir Osipov. He is just 16, and would turn 21 at the Rio Olympics.

The Games will see the return of golf, after just two appearances, early in the 20th century. But to make an Olympic dream come true, players need to dig deep.

“Of course I want to go to the Olympics,” he said. “But, to give myself a chance, I need to be high up in the world rankings. So I'll have to turn pro soon and start racking up ranking points, and improve my game.”

For this season, the youngster is setting his sights on the European Amateur Team Championships in Portugal in September, and then probably the World event.

The Russian national side are fresh from a training camp in America and local trainers praised their progress as a unit.

But the sport's officials are after strong performances, not just words of approval.

“To go to the Rio Olympics, golfers will need to rocket up the world rankings,” Nikolay Afanasiev from Russia’s Golf Association said.