"The truth is there are no reasonable arguments for golfers being able to hit tee shots 400 yards, nor that our royal and ancient game should be played with such enormous driving instruments."
/Here is
Read MoreWhen 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
Correct Bunker Maintenance, The Australian Way
/I was poking around YouTube for a video and stumbled on this "Correct Bunker Maintenance" instructional from Kingston Heath Director of Golf Justin Burrage and Course Superintendent Hayden Mead.
Besides showing us how the Australian-style of raking looks and should be maintained by the golfer, I just never get tired of looking at those bunkers! Plus, with a number of American courses adopting the method, this video might be useful.
And don't forget that Kingston hosts the Australian Masters this November 15-18, though I'm not sure if Golf Channel will be showing the best piece of golf architecture to host a professional tournament in 2012.
25 For Nine Holes!
/Tod Leonard of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that 20-year-old Todd Baek posted an 11-under 25 on the par-36 front nine at Salt Creek in Chula Vista. Baek went on to fire a new course record 60.
“I was amazed myself,” Baek said on Monday. “It was like, ‘What’s going on?’ We were playing for money, so my friends were giving me (crud) about it. They said you need to stop making birdies or you’re going to walk home.”
He did hit some long irons...for his second shots to par-5s.
He hit a 40-yard pitch at the par-4 first that dropped in for eagle. At the par-5 second, he lashed a 5-iron to 9 feet and made that putt for another eagle.
Furyk: "Nope, I have no idea" Of FedExCup Standing As It Unfolds
/When former FedExCup Jim Furyk made his comments today at East Lake about having no idea about where he stands in the ResetCup as the Tour Championship unfolds, he was repeating what's been said many times over the last five years. So it's hardly news.
Certainly makes it unique.
"Nope, I have no idea," the American told reporters on Tuesday when asked if he was fully versed in what he needed to do to emulate his 2010 FedExCup success. "I know I would have to win (the Tour Championship), and a lot of (other) things would have to happen. But I'm never really worried about that.
"I had two or three friends try to text me, 'do you know what you have to do?' No. It's hard enough winning a golf tournament. I can't control the rest."
'WeAreGolf" Urging Politicians To Stop Criticizing Obama’s "Passion for golf"
/The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis reports that pro-golf lobby group called “WeAreGolf” is urging Senator Marco Rubio to refrain from criticizing Barack Obama’s “passion for golf."
“As we enter the final stretch of campaign season,” the group writes, “we write to make a request we hope you will receive in the same spirit in which it is offered. Please reconsider your political strategy of criticizing President Obama’s passion for golf.” (Emphasis theirs.)
Lewis notes that the call is not just limited to Rubio.
It’s unclear how many other elected officials have received similar letters, but the group says they are “asking all elected officials to abstain from political strategies and tactics that denigrate golf, directly or indirectly, because we think they’re unnecessary and undermine the industry at large, not just the individual target.”
WeAreGolf is led by the Club Managers Association of America, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the PGA of America and the National Golf Course Owners Association.
Update on 2012-09-18 19:46 by Geoff
**From We Are Golf spokesman David Marin:
We Are Golf’s request for a political cease-fire when it comes to golf is not aimed at Sen. Rubio, who’s been a great supporter of the industry, but at all elected officials, Republicans and Democrats. Similar letters have previously gone to members of both political parties.
The golf is industry is understandably sensitive to this line of politicking, because it reinforces misperceptions of the game that don’t square with the facts – and because those misperceptions, in turn, have led to unfair legislation and regulation. How else to explain, for example, golf’s exclusion, along with massage parlors and liquor stores, from post-Katrina disaster tax relief?
We’re not asking for special treatment; just fair and equitable treatment. And part of that is respectfully asking for a bipartisan political détente.
We get the context, the political calculus. But we no longer want to sit idly by when golf is maligned, even indirectly, because we’ve seen what can happen when we do so, and the nearly 2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the golf industry are asking us to get involved on their behalf.
Shark: "What I’m seeing is that Tiger’s really intimidated by Rory"
/Robert Lusetich talks to Greg Norman about the Tiger-Rory bromance and the self-appointed expert on all things testosterone
Read MoreDavis Declares: Cut The Rough, Let The Birdies Begin!
/Captain Davis Love will not be confused with Lanny Wadkins, who infamously had Oak Hill harvest rough in 1995 after admitting to telling the Medinah folks to cut the rough, bring on the birdies and the excitement.
Read MoreDVR Alert: The Kiawah Island Ryder Cup The Euros Are Still Cranky About
/I look forward on re-reading Guy Yocom and John Huggan's outstanding oral history of the 1991 Ryder Cup after Golf Channel's Tuesday, September 18th's 8:30 ET "Classic Ryder Cup Golf" re-airing of the final day.
Something tells me Steve Pate still won't play singles, Calc still shanks it on 17 and Langer still misses that pressure-packed putt. But I will still watch.
Tigeroy Bromance Update: Woods Makes Short Jokes, Rory Counters With Balding Remarks; Tickling Could Be Next
/
The Times' "Chief Sports Correspondent" Matt Dickinson scored some face time with World No. 1 Rory McIlroy who reveals how his bond with Tiger Woods has evolved.
McIlroy has embraced the rivalry, thrived on it, said his game improves by being paired against Woods. “It’s fun,” McIlroy says — a word you hear all too infrequently from leading athletes. And he recites the sort of conversation that takes place when world No 1 meets world No 2 on the tee; Woods calls McIlroy shorty and the Northern Irishman calls him baldy back.
“Tiger gives me stick about being short. He always asks me ‘seriously, how tall are you?’” McIlroy says.
“I’ll say, five nine”.
“Yeah, but without the hair? That’s five seven, right?” “He’ll ask me, ‘What do you do when Caroline [Wozniacki]wears heels?’ But I give him grief about all sorts. Getting old, getting bald. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, certainly not when I’m around.”
I believe Tiger would be referring to this infamous photo. A shame he didn't wait to pull that one out at the Ryder Cup!
Finchem On ResetCup: "Fans...want to be challenged to keep up with the permutations."
/John Maginnes pitches the softballs, as he should when the Commish is signing his paycheck.
However, listening to this 18-minute interview with Tim Finchem on Sirius/XM, I was doing my best Mike Francesa-nodding-off-impersonation-while-listening, then had similar wild eye/wake-up moment (which Francesa swears was not what you think it was), all as Finchem started in on the fan's love of the ResetCup:
There's a lot of different stories, things turn quickly. You know, in the early days of the cup, you know there was concern about it being too complicated and this and that. But actually, people like that. Fans want to see different things going on, they want to be challenged to keep up with the permutations. And, in today's world, 65% of our fans are sitting around watching on television, the ones that are watching on television are also following it online, so they've got another matrix of data coming at them.
You know those wild and crazy fans, they love their matrixes of data! Reminds them of work.
And uh the fans…the players are totally into it now, the fans have been into it since day one.
Day one! They have, and they've shown their love by tuning in with massive, record ratings for golf...well, the ratings are always the last thing to kick in, the scientists report.
Each year with a little history, as it gains a little stature, both the players and the fans are more into it. But yes, to answer your question, it's gotten to this point quicker than I assumed.
The Commish then declared that forthcoming calendar year schedule--you know, the one where they play PGA Tour golf about 50 weeks a year and everyone involved with the PGA Tour is a burnout by 2015--will be even better.
Next year is even better, because next year we stop the season and start a few weeks later. So everything is coming to an end. The ballots next year, the ballots will go out for player of the year right after the FedExCup is handed out, the next morning players will be asked to say who is the player of the year on the heels of the FedExCup being awarded. The money title, which is represented by the Arnold Palmer award, will be identified at the end of the FedExCup. Everything's coming to a head. For the first time we'll have a real season when, a few weeks later, everything will start, it builds up for almost a full year, then you have another conclusion. So even thigh this is going to be really going, it going to be even better next year.
It's interesting that everyone involved thinks year-round competition makes for a "real" season. What are all these other silly professional sports doing with their off-seasons and their vacations? The morons!
The interview:
Jiyai Wins By Nine And Adjusts Her Tempo For Links!
/It's a toss-up what's most impressive about Jiyai Shin's second Ricoh Women's British Open win. Nine shot win? Less than a week after winning a wacky 9-hole playoff?
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