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
I had no idea the dinosaurs at Clive Palmer's Coolum Resort move, but it seems from this News 10 footage that the "mechanical monstrosity" makes sounds too.
I think I'm getting a better feel for why the Australian PGA--locked out last weekend by the resort owner--is leaving after this week. Golf Channel has the feed starting at 9:00 ET.
This will add to the team room fun should Tom Watson be named 2014 Ryder Cup Captain on Thursday, as Tim Rosaforte reports. Because, after all, Watson will likely helm a squad including Tiger Woods barring an unforseen, fall 2014 flare-up in his Achilles!
Just a reminder of the nice bond these two share:
February, 2010, Watson on Woods:
“I feel that he has not carried the same stature that other great players that have come along like Jack (Nicklaus), Arnold (Palmer), Byron Nelson, the Hogans, in the sense that there was language and club throwing on the golf course,” said Watson, a playoff loser to Stewart Cink at last year’s British Open. “You can grant that of a young person that has not been out here for a while. But I think he needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that other people before him have shown.”
At the 2010 U.S. Open when they shared the tenth tee together. Karen Crouse wrote:
As they waited to hit, neither Watson nor Woods exchanged glances, much less niceties, their cold shoulders turning the tee into an outdoor icebox. The distance between them was accentuated when the golfer Jason Gore made his way to the hole and received a warm hello and a hug from Woods who, like Watson, has won a United States Open here. Standing between Woods and Watson like a buffer was another Stanford golfer, Joseph Bramlett, who was playing with his childhood idol, Woods, two days after going through graduation ceremonies. It was three generations of Cardinal golfing royalty sharing a moment that could have been captured only by the widest of wide-angle lenses.
“His life is a lot more complicated now. He doesn’t hear that absolute silence when he’s playing, and he mentioned when he’s playing his best he hears nothing,” the American eight-times major winner told a news conference on Wednesday. “I’m sure there are things going on in his mind that make it very difficult for him.”
Yet it was Tiger who was the gentleman at the 2010 Open Championship, waving Watson's group up so that the legend could finish Friday evening in the late light.
This AP image by Alistair Grant is the only photo I can find of the two sharing the same general vicinity.
There's also the video where Watson's disdain for his fellow Stanford alum comes shining through.
Larry Fine on the PGA of America's outreach efforts and its new President, Ted Bishop, not supporting any kind of distance rollback that might impact the average player.
"If you do anything that's going to cause the rank and file amateur player to not hit the ball as far, there's no way you're going to enhance their enjoyment of the game," PGA President Ted Bishop told reporters on Tuesday.
And...
"I'm not so sure that's the greater issue we have to deal with," Bishop told Reuters. "This game is a hard game and anything we do to make the golf course play longer, play more difficult, is certainly going to deter from the enjoyment of the game for the average player."
Pssst....Ted, it's all taking longer and is more difficult because we're after this distance thing like a dog chasing its tail.
Bishop has already spoken out against the USGA/R&A ban on anchoring.
With David Toms apparently not getting a call yet and only 48 hours to go, it's not looking good for the former PGA Champion.
That leaves the competition wide open...your vote for who you THINK will get the job, not what your heart says. Remember, this is the PGA of America, so think inside the box...
Jason Sobel says with 48 hours to go before a Today Show announcement for the 2014 Ryder Cup, presumed frontrunner David Toms hasn't been called.
As Sobel notes, this probably means we will see a new direction for the PGA of America.
**An unbylined BBC report says it's Toms. So there you go.
Tod Leonard shares some new details on the Phil Mickelson-helmed renovation of Torrey Pines North, including a $7 million price tag, a 2015 start date, wall to wall cart paths (sigh) and a public meeting to be held December 18th at The Lodge.
No word on whether Phil will shield himself behind chicken wire since the locals weren't exactly thrilled when Rees Jones redid the South and that was for much less.
Mickelson’s ideas for the North are being executed by the leader of his design team, Mike Angus, with additional input from Mickelson’s friend and former instructor, Rick Smith. The city has included in the team Glen Schmidt, a local landscape architect who has worked on many projects with the city.
Before any work begins, Marney said the plans will have to go before the city’s Design Review Committee, Park and Recreation Board, Planning Commission, and, depending on the permit requirements, the Coastal Commission. Marney said the City Council will have to approve the creation of the capital improvement project.
Peter Ripa, the tournament director for the annual Farmers Open, applauded the possibility of the renovation. Torrey North is not very popular among PGA Tour players, who ranked its 48th of 52 venues in a poll by Golf World magazine earlier this year.
Ripa said he believes tour players would appreciate less disparity in their scores between the South and North, but he also emphasized that the work “shouldn’t be done just for Easter Sunday. … It has to be a golf course that is enjoyable and playable for people of all levels.”
Leonard also files an excellent column imploring Mickelson to be sensitive, writing that "this could be as much a part of your legacy in San Diego as those three green jackets."
This project shouldn’t be about making the course harder or more “strategic” for the two days a year the PGA Tour plays the North. In fact, I’ve talked to numerous pros who say the North should stay exactly the way it is.
From what I hear you want to make the North “playable” and more “fun.” I’m not sure what your definition of that is, because as a golf entertainer you are equal parts Sinatra and Knievel. But we’ll assume that it doesn’t mean tiny greens surrounded by more sand than the Sahara. We’ll hope that it means the average guy can still run the ball up to the green, and not have to fly it to every dang hole (yes, we’re talking about you Rees). We’ll hope that the greens aren’t so tricky that we’d need Bones to read them.
We know that there isn’t much rerouting that can or will be done, and that’s a good thing. Do the greens have to be redone? Is the public clamoring for it? No. Even some pros say that despite the softer poa annua, they’d rather putt on the North than the South because the North’s surfaces are more consistent.
The Denver Post's John Mossman on the paltry price paid by Rose Holdings LLC for Cordillera's Fazio, Nicklaus and Irwin 18's along with a Pelz practice area, though developer David Wilhem only opened the Fazio course the last two seasons.
Donald Trump lost out in the bidding and according to Risa Wolf-Smith, an attorney with Holland & Hart of Denver that represented the unsecured creditors, he put on a good show.
"Auctions are always interesting, and this one was a little bit crazy," Wolf-Smith said. "It really was fun to listen to Donald Trump. He has a personality even on the phone.
"He wished the best to the other bidders as he passed on his last opportunity to bid. He muttered here and there that he didn't think it would go this high. There's always a possibility that he may try to work something out with Wilhelm on the back end."
The bankruptcy case was complicated by litigation between Wilhelm and 610 club members.
Last spring, Wilhelm promised to open all four golf courses but — for the second year in a row — opened only Fazio's Valley course. He also laid off dozens of workers.
...it's still in the works apparently.
Doug Ferguson's story on the tournament's end. Sadly, the Orlando Sentinel no longer has a golf writer so naturally, there was nothing to be found on their website.
GolfDigest.com's Ron Sirak looks back at Tom Watson's captaincy after reports surfaced in which Watson did not emphatically shoot down speculation on a 2014 captaincy.
Sirak reminds the unusual decision to not sign a Sam Torrance dinner menu and Watson's lack of attendance at subsequent Ryder Cups, and, well, a 2014 captaincy is not happening even though Sirak thinks it would be a positive.
Sirak also says a decision on 2014 could be announced as soon as next week.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
