Norman Calls For Blood Testing, Finchem's Doctor May Be Calling For A Blood Pressure Check

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The Australian's Will Swanton caught up with the Shark and besides pretty much calling Vijay Singh a cheater, Greg Norman said it's time for golf's "disgraceful" testing to branch out to include blood tests.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who long opposed drug testing and who has not been in a hurry to add blood testing for stuff like HGH, probably has downgraded the Shark's buddy status to 1995ish, when the two giant (egos) of the game were less chummy.

"You have to have blood testing, simple as that. It's a pin prick for a player, and you find out what's going on. If you're the head of golf or any sport, if you're the commissioner for a sport, it's your responsibility to make sure your sport is clean. That should be your No 1 priority."

"You only have to look at what happened to Vijay Singh just recently to know the drugs issue is there," Norman told The Australian yesterday.

"We know that because Vijay Singh got caught. How deep it is, I have no idea because we only do urine analysis instead of blood testing. If you really want to be serious about it and find about what's really going on, we need to do blood testing. I think it's disgraceful, to tell you the truth. The golf associations have to get together and step it up.

"People take the game too seriously"

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John Paul Newport profiles Arnold Thiesfelt, a retired ad exec, who has a book out about the wild and crazy Time Inc. days when the expense account was more liberal and yes, the golf ball didn't go so far!

To hear Arnold Thiesfeldt tell it, golf has changed a lot in the last 50 years, and not much for the better. Courses are too difficult. The ball goes too far. Costs are out of hand. "People take the game too seriously," he said. "The camaraderie isn't what it used to be."

Even better are his stories about spending to help Time Inc. sell a few more ads...

As late as 1997, Sports Illustrated paid big money for 20 VIP seats for clients to travel on the Concorde to Spain with the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the matches at Valderrama.

Selling was more collaborative 40 years ago. The ad agencies had big staffs with which the magazine guys worked to develop plans and marketing gimmicks. Nowadays, companies use "more of a math equation," a former executive said. Changes in the tax code, tighter federal regulations on entertainment practices and the overall decline in print-ad sales have also had an effect.

Quail Hollow To Feature Two One-Week-Old Resodded Greens

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Even with the greens slated for conversion after the tournament, Quail Hollow has made the almost unheard of move to resod less than a week before Wells Fargo Championship play.

Ron Green Jr. with new details of the drastic efforts to make two of the worst greens at Quail Hollow playable.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never done this,” said Cal Roth, senior vice president for agronomy for the PGA Tour. “We’ve had to patch parts of greens a lot of times but this is the first time we’ve done entire greens.”

On a course that is in spectacular condition otherwise, the eighth and 10th greens failed to respond to efforts to generate suitable grass cover. Several weeks ago, both greens were tented in an effort to generate growth. When it didn’t help the 10th green, it was resodded.

When the first resodding failed at No. 10, the decision was made to redo it, this time using a different cultivation approach.

Video: Guan Picks Up The Pace, Almost Makes An Ace

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Ryan Lavner on 14-year-old amateur Tianlang Guan's opening 72 which included a hybrid on 17 that finished a foot from the hole.

There was also noticeably faster pace of play.

And clearly, Guan has made a concerted effort to pick up the pace, perhaps stung by the criticism.

On Thursday, he was almost always the first to walk off the tee box or approach the green.

When he used the restroom between Nos. 5 and 6, he jogged back to the tee so as not to give the appearance that he was lagging behind. Never mind that the group ahead was still in the fairway. His threesome played in 5 hours, 10 minutes.

“He’s not fast, but it was not an issue at all,” said Henrik Norlander, the third player in Guan’s group. “We couldn’t go anywhere. We waited most of the day. I’m sure he learned something at the Masters to speed up a little bit. But it’s tough for him too, because he’s hitting first into every green.”

His round highlights on YouTube.