Good & Bad News: Bill Simmons Edits Grantland Golf Columns

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Former SNL star Norm Macdonald will be writing some golf stuff for Grantland, the all-things-Bill Simmons home to a fresh take on sports and pop culture. However, golf has not been a strong suit for Grantland and Macdonald essentially revealed it's not an area of expertise for Simmons by having to correct some tragic basics using Twitter.
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Poulter Doesn't Expect A Monty Ryder Redux

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Alex Miceli quotes Ian Poulter expressing his dread at the question of Tom Watson getting the 2014 Ryder Cup captaincy and, with plenty of stipulations to not get in trouble, his surprise.

He's also is asked if Colin Montgomerie has a shot in the next few weeks to get the nod to match the buzz surrounding Watson's choice.

“I think it's between Darren (Clarke) and Paul McGinley.”

PGA Tour Officials Working Kapalua Without A Contract

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Rex Hoggard reports that negotiations broke down between the PGA Tour and its union-affiliated rules officials and this week the guys who run the tournaments will be working without a contract.

“We’re operating without an agreement as of Dec. 31st. They are (in Hawaii) right now and unless the Tour says otherwise they are going to work,” said Christian Dennie, an attorney with Fort Worth, Texas-based Barlow Garsek & Simon who represents the officials’ union. “These guys really take their job seriously and we’re going to try and help them as much as they can.”

“Like we do with other negotiations we don’t comment on the status of those discussions,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communication and international affairs.

Hoggard also notes where the PGA Tour officials fall on the pay scale and they are well below colleagues in other sports. And while most people think they just sit in carts all day, they do a little bit of everything to ensure that tournaments go off without a hitch.

It's pretty amazing that a tour which lavishes absurd pay on an army of eminently replaceable vice presidents would nickel-and-dime the people who run their tournaments. Well, amazing, but considering the commissioner also laid low-level people off while not touching bloated executive pay? Not really that amazing.