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
So many potential playoff ramifications, I don't know or care where to start so let's just focus on Louis Oosthuizen, Rory McIlroy and the Ryder Cup audition.
NBC's final round coverage comes on at 1:30 ET, with Golf Channel offering bonus coverage simultaneously.
For the week, the 18th is playing harder statistically. Last year the hole played to a 4.50 average with 19 eagles, 165 birdies and 23 bogeys. Through three rounds this year the hole has a 4.650 average, 14 eagles, 106 birdies and 28 bogeys.
“We just wanted to create a little more interesting finish,” Hanse said. “If that translated to the hole being harder, fine; and if it was easier that was fine. It was never the goal to go out and make the hole more difficult.”
I think the lefthanded attempt will be reviewed by the Ponte Vedra Unbecoming Grooming and Standards Committee. But I hope the committee just remembers what kind of pressure the playoffs bring!
Thanks to CBSSports.com's Shane Bacon for finding the video:
At the Notre Dame-Navy game of all places. A shame the USGA Executive Director wasn't there to tackle the nut.
Finally, a visual look at the change to the TPC Boston's home hole green courtesy of Golf Channel's first round broadcast of the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Not a huge change from afar but several details standout: the approach area over the wetlands allowing for a shot to land and release, the short grass area to the rear, and the loss of green left where most players bailed out.
2011:
2012:
I'm all for Caroline Wozniacki hopping up to Boston after her first round loss in the U.S. Open and I'm sure no one minds seeing her walking inside the ropes during pro-am play clad in skin tight pants, all the while telling Sirius/XM's Doug Bell that the walking makes her gluteous hurt.
But I guess no one had the heart to tell Sweet Caroline that the Deutsche Bank Championship tee markers are for branding, not sitting? Especially while your man is competing? I know it's a pro-am but still...
And in case you think this is a swing drill to ensure Rory doesn't take it too far inside, here's the video:
Gosh I can't wait to see where Caroline goes during the Ryder Cup!
Thanks to reader Ken for this unbylined report in the Daytona Beach News Journal on Suncoast Series win.
Woods earned $3,000 for the win, and like many players in the field, she was using the event as a tuneup for next week's Stage I qualifier for the 2013 LPGA Tour. That tournament, the first of three stages for the LPGA's qualifying, is scheduled for Tuesday through Friday.
There's an excellent unbylined Golfweek.com story about the new 18th at TPC Boston (I'm presuming a McCabe authored piece) and as you'd expect, the players are not too jumping for joy about change that makes their jobs tougher. Defending champ Webb Simpson:
“I think with the old green, it was a wide target, but the left half of the green was small because it wasn’t that long in depth.”
It was clear for Hanse and even the million amateur architects who are out there that was there was a simple way for the big boys to play the 18th – drive it into a wide fairway and then launch your second shot from anywhere between 190 and 230 yards. If you were wide left or long, no worries; you had a basic wedge shot out of thick rough and getting it up-and-down was hardly needed for creative talents.
No more, not with shaved-down areas left and long and when balls bounced through the green or wide of the green, you will have a number of style options – putt it, try and flop it off a tight lie, or pitch it into the slope and get it on that way.
But if the homework was done during practice rounds, players know that the swales are steep – especially left.
“We can’t bail out left,” Tiger Woods insisted. “That swale is going to be (a challenge). We’ve got to figure out where the spot is to miss it.”
Chances are, many of those in this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship field will figure it out. After all, we can’t sue for false advertisement because indeed, these guys are good. But Hanse knows when a group of tour players gather, they can’t come to a consensus on what day it is, so don’t expect universal agreement on the work done to the 18th green.
We'll find out Friday in round one of the Deutsche Bank Championship.
John Strege talks to Kelly Gibson about some of the first observations for the Louisiana area and while it was no Katrina and the levees are working better, Isaac has definitely left several golf courses under water.
"One course I'm personally concerned about is Joe Bartholomew Park [in New Orleans]. "We spent $8 million renovating it. They had received 12 feet of water for almost a month or so from Katrina and [Hurricane] Rita. We designed it to accommodate a substantial amount of rain."
Gretchen Bradford, the president of the Pontchartrain Neighborhood Park Association, reported that Joseph M. Bartholomew Sr. Municipal Golf Course survived intact.
"We had very minimal flooding in our neighborhood," she said. "We were very blessed. I'm not a golfer, but from what I see [of the golf course] it looks like it's OK. It has tree limbs and stuff around, and it probably did get saturated, but it wasn't flooded out."
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Audubon Park Golf Course in New Orleans "was inundated with standing water."
Mississippi is another story. Stay tuned.
They return to The Lakes this year December 6-9 and we can only hope Golf Channel picks it up again.
There was some interesting stuff in today's transcript at the Deutsche Bank Championship, where Tiger Woods talked about changes in the game and what it means for him as part of the second-tier players distance-wise. You can watch the video of the presser here.
TIGER WOODS: Well, probably mid 2000s I wasn't the longest one out here. I mean, the game has certainly changed. When I came our here in '96 and '97 I was long, and I averaged 296. I think there's like 30‑some‑odd guys who are averaging over 300. So it's a totally different game now.
You know, the bigger hitters can hit the ball 320 in the air. I don't really have that. I can carry it 300, but that's a different gear. They're taller, they're bigger, and most of the longer guys are 6'3". When I was coming out here, if you were six foot you were pretty much average height, big height. Look at Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Watson, they're all short compared to the big guys now, and they were long hitters at the time for their era. But these guys are just bigger.
I certainly can't carry the ball that far, but I'm still one of the longer ones but not the longest by any stretch of the imagination.
And...
Q. Following up on the length, when was it that you realized I'm not the longest guy out here anymore? Was there a specific moment?
TIGER WOODS: Even when I was long on TOUR, Daly was still longer. Daly was the longest. I believe he's the first guy to average over 300 yards. But now that's kind of average now. Most of the guys can hit the ball 300 yards. Granted, we've changed equipment. It was balata balls, 43?‑inch steel‑shafted drivers. Now the standard driver is 45, graphite. You're taking 60 grams out of a shaft, and the balls are much harder than they ever used to be. You add that and the guys are bigger and stronger and faster, it's a significant jump.
From a design point of view, this is fascinating and hopefully shows how difficult it is to design strategically interesting holes for today's game.
Q. Given that, how much have you had to maybe reinvent yourself, and how much has that gone on this year, and how gratified are you to see their results now with the wins that you've had?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I can still get to the par‑5s. The longer par‑4s now are, instead of being 460, now they're 520 and 540. Those are the stout par‑4s now. So that's changed.
What has changed, I think, quite a bit is the carry, the cover number over corners or over bunkers. They used to be staggered at probably about 260, maybe 280 at the tops. Now they're 300 to 320. Those are our carry numbers on most of the holes that have been lengthened or bunkers repositioned. So that part has changed.
But I really haven't had to reinvent how I played because I've always been one of the longer hitters on TOUR, just had to be efficient at what I do. Having this‑‑ hitting the ball far‑‑ I hit the ball far enough to where I can get to the par‑5s, and if you take care of the par‑5s and you take care of a few more along the way, you're going to have a pretty good tournament.
From an unbylined FoxSports.com story on the new Padres ownership group's first press conference Wednesday that did not include Phil Mickelson.
Mickelson was prominently absent on the list of investors revealed Wednesday upon the close of the sale by former owner John Moores. Instead, it was San Diego businessman Ron Fowler and four grandsons of longtime Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers patriarch Walter O'Malley — Kevin O'Malley, Brian O'Malley, Peter Seidler and Tom Seidler — who were presented to the media.
Those new owners pooh-poohed Mickelson's absence.
"We have a spot in our group for Phil and only Phil,” Peter Seidler said, according to UTSanDiego.com. “We expect that to be finalized in two weeks."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
