R&A's Chief Says His Organization Initiated Controversial Old Course Tampering

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Check out Alistair Tait's interview with R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson and understand the big picture here: one of the two governing bodies of the game, who treasure their role in making the rules of the game to protect the sport from changing in a negative way, is also playing architect to mask incredible changes under their watch.
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Plateauing Distance And The 2012 PGA Tour Average

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The NY Times' Karen Crouse takes on the delicate subject of technology and tradition and I got very excited to read that the R&A's driving distance plateau talk was debunked using a little different method than the governing bodies use: the average of the 50th ranked player.

Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, said his organization and the U.S.G.A. issued a joint statement a decade ago saying they were prepared to take action if distances increased any more. “Distances have actually plateaued since then,” he said in the same conference call.

The PGA Tour statistics tell another story. In 1997, the 50th-ranked player averaged 272.3 yards. By 2002, the distance had risen to 285.0. In 2012, it was 294.7.

Typically the governing bodies will point out that in 2002 the average was 279.8 and in the case of the most recent year, the PGA Tour driving distance average was 289.1.

Because a 9.8 yard discrepancy is much more palatable than a 22.4 yard increase!

"Golf’s shrine has been desecrated in an act of staggering arrogance by those meant to care for it."

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All of the change-equals-progress bandwagon jumpers are on board with the R&A and St. Andrews Links Trust, but in preaching that mindless case I notice no one addresses how this wonderful progress was ushered through secretly.

As John Huggan notes in his Scotland on Sunday column, the R&A is merely arrogant, but it's the Links Trust that failed most miserably.

Yes, it is true that the R&A and Links Trust consulted with five local clubs. But those clubs, being private, are merely stakeholders who do not own the links. Instead, the proposals should have been revealed to both the people of St Andrews and, surely, golfers all around the world. Had that been the case, it is clear from the general reaction across the globe that none of the digging and scraping currently defacing the Old Course would be taking place.

So if this is indeed progress, undoing Mother Nature's beloved handiwork, why keep it a secret until a little over two days before you break the sacred grounds of the Old Course?

Take That Rory: Tiger Created $6 Million More In '12 Sponsor Media Value!

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Leave it to Forbes to come up with a beauty. Kurt Badenhausen reports:

Woods generated $18.9 million in media value for his sponsors, Nike and Fuse Science, during U.S. golf telecasts this year, while racking up three PGA Tour victories. Nike alone commanded $18.1 million of the total based on a Repucom formula that calculates time and clarity on the screen of logos, as well as the cost to reach that audience. Woods is unusual in that he is outfitted head to toe in Nike and also uses the equipment of the Beaverton, Ore. sports giant. The Fuse Science logo is only on his golf bag. McIlroy’s sponsors, primarily Jumeirah, Oakley, Titleist, Footjoy and Audemars Piguet, received $12.9 million of value.

So Tiger's got this going for him.

“Tiger’s generally strong, consistent play, combined with him simply getting coverage because he is Tiger Woods, generated tremendous value for his sponsors,” says Repucom executive Peter Laatz.

Ranked behind Woods and McIlroy are Phil Mickelson ($11.8 million), Jim Furyk ($8.5 million) and Louis Oosthuizen ($8.2 million), whose second place finish at the Masters is responsible for 72% of his value.

Oh yeah, I'm feeling really good about these numbers.