Twas The Night Before Q-School
/On the eve of the final PGA Tour Qualifying School that will offer the chance to play in The Show, PGA Tour player Bob Estes sent in this homage to the competitors and the institution. Thanks Bob!
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
R&A's Dawson Calls St. Andrews Reaction "Knee-jerk"
/Doug Ferguson talks to R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson about revamping the Old Course at St. Andrews and he says we'll understand if we could just see it through his eyes.
Read MoreTiger On Anchoring Ban Eve: "It should be a swinging motion throughout the entire bag."
/Speaking at his tournament, the World Challenge, Tiger Woods was asked right off the bat about Wednesday's likely anchoring ban.
Read MoreLive From Orlando: USGA/R&A Press Conference
/Golf Channel is televising the anchoring ban at 8:30 ET...5:30 PT Wednesday morning. The two leaders of their respective governing bodies will be announcing the anchoring ban from Orlando...
Read MoreArchitecture Critics Weigh In On Old Course Travesty And It's Not Pretty
/#savetheoldcourse kicks into high gear with opinion
Read MoreThe Scotsman On Old Course Tampering: "Old Tom Morris will be turning in his grave"
/The Scotsman's Martin Dempster with a powerful commentary on the R&A and Links Trust tampering with the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Read MoreOld Course Joins Twitter, Gets #savetheoldcourse Hashtag, UK Press Slowly Begins To Notice
/I know it's a bigger story to those outside the United States. After all, this is the same town that approved putting up a chest of drawers (Longhurst) next to the Road hole. So expecting architectural sensitivity may be a lot to ask.
Still, it's nice to see the altering of the Old Course at St. Andrews getting attention from some press and in social media.
The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson writes that "It has to be said, some of the planned amendments sound positively radical," then declares, "Let’s go easy on the outrage, however, and have a little faith in the two bodies in question. After all, they have more to lose than anyone."
Got that?
The Scotsman's Martin Dempster acknowledges Tom Doak's petition to stop the work.
It's hard to tell what Philip Reid of the Irish Times thinks, but to anyone who knows the game and the R&A's public stance on scoring, this is an indictment:
...it would seem the RA, governors of the game and responsible for staging the British Open, aren’t immune from phobias of their own and the fear of low scoring – whisper it, the possibility of a 59 – is seen as the main reasoning behind plans to toughen up the Old Course in time for its next hosting of golf’s oldest Major championship.
Tom Dunne tweeted the scoring averages from the last Open Championship at St. Andrews where 73.0665 was the number for the week. As for key holes receiving new bunkers to "stiffen the defences" as the R&A's Peter Dawson put it, the second, fourth and sixth all average well over par. The Road played the toughest for the week at 4.6631 yet is already under attack just days after the announced changes.
Meanwhile, The Old Course is on Twitter now. Give her a follow.
There is a nice list of Tweets developing with the #savetheoldcourse hastag.
On change.org, Emile Bonfiglio has started a petition to halt the work.
The R&A's Changes To St. Andrews That Were Not Approved
/Reader Steve Scott says the St. Andrews Links Trust actually rejected several proposed Old Course modifications proposed by architects Martin Hawtree and Peter Dawson before approving other plans to renovate the planet's most revered and beloved golf course.
Read MoreQuick PGA Tour & LPGA Tour Q-School's Primer
/Both PGA Tour and LPGA Tour Q-School's are this week, the final time for the PGA Tour in which top qualifiers earn the right to play a few west coast events before the re-shuffle. Now they'll get in through the Web.com playoffs, before they face a reshuffle in the fall!
PGATour.com has set up a convenient one-stop shop here.
Golfweek.com figures to have it covered well too. Here are the opening round groupings.
Meanwhile the LPGA kicks off Wednesday and many will be rooting on Melissa Reid, who has endured a brutal year off the course.
Your one stop shop at LPGA.com can be found here.
Fan favorite Christina Kim is also back at Q-school but most peculiar of all is the appearance of Japan's Chie Arimura, ranked 19th in the world. In case you're wondering, Dustin Johnson is ranked 19th on the men's side. I'm guessing he won't be at a qualifying school anytime soon!
Golf Channel will not be covering the golf live, instead doing this:
GOLF CENTRAL Q-SCHOOL SPECIALS WEDNESDAY-MONDAY – All of the action at the PGA TOUR Q-School Finals will be covered in nightly Golf Central Specials Wednesday-Monday (Nov. 28-Dec. 2) at 8 p.m. ET, with extended highlights, live interviews from PGA West and special features. Wednesday’s two-hour Golf Central (8-10 p.m. ET) – hosted by Whit Watson and Jimmy Roberts – will feature a roundtable panel discussion with several Q-School alums, including Jerry Foltz, Dicky Pride and Tripp Isenhour. Monday’s live show will be a two-hour recap capturing all of the action from the final day of Q-School and featuring live interviews with players who secured their PGA TOUR cards for 2013. The network’s team of correspondents will report live and on-site from PGA West, including Curt Byrum, Matt Gogel, Billy Ray Brown and Phil Blackmar. The special also will incorporate the PGA TOUR card ceremony, when the PGA TOUR’s newest members will receive their PGA TOUR cards.
GOLF CENTRAL SCHEDULED FEATURES
· The future of Q-School – Golf Channel will examine the new process of earning a PGA TOUR Card during Golf Central’s Q-School coverage.
Good luck with that!
WSJ: Anchoring "Decision" To Come Wednesday
/John Paul Newport reports that as the R&A jacks around with the Old Course, the belly putter/anchoring "decision" will come Wednesday.
Read MoreAfter Late Friday Press Release, Monday Morning Work Commences On Old Course At St. Andrews Changes
/Anthony Pioppi hears (and Tweets) that the modifications to the Old Course, announced late Friday in a press release, have begun with work on the Road hole.
Read MoreUSGA Core Strategy Over Next Four Years: "Reducing the need for longer and longer golf courses"
/Tom Cade reported on the International Association of Golf Administrators mid-November Annual Meeting in Tucson and shared this synopsis of Executive Director Mike Davis' speech about the USGA's strategic plan.
Read MoreRory: "The big difference this year has been that when I haven't been at my best, I have still competed and won tournaments."
/Bad news boys, Rory McIlroy knows how to win when he's not at his best, the very trait that made (makes?) Tiger Woods and other all-time great so annoying to their peers.
Read MoreState Of The Game Clippings: While You Were On Holiday Edition
/While many of you were away enjoying the Thanksgiving, the Links Trust of St. Andrews
Read MoreRIP Race To Dubai, Enter "The Final Series"
/There are plenty of fun tidbits in Alex Leach's excellent story on the
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