Instant Poll: Should Couples Pick Spieth?

The first ten spots for the 2013 Presidents Cup teams have been filled.

Here are the rosters for U.S. Captain Fred Couples and International Captain Nick Price. U.S. first, followed by the Internationals:

1 Tiger Woods
2 Brandt Snedeker
3 Phil Mickelson
4  Matt Kucher
5 Jason Dufner
6 Keegan Bradley
7 Steve Stricker
8 Bill Haas
9 Hunter Mahan
10 Zach Johnson

1 Adam Scott
2 Jason Day
3 Charl Schwartzel
4 Ernie Els
5 Louis Oosthuizen
6 Hideki Matsuyama
7 Branden Grace
8 Graham DeLaet
9 Richard Sterne
10 Angel Cabrera

Couples faces a decision to select two from the group of Simpson, Johnson, Furyk, Watson, Horschel, while sentiment suggests that PGA Tour rookie sensation Jordan Spieth should get the pick even though he didn't make the top 20 points earners.

John Strege on the Spietch dilemma for Captain Couples, who offered this analogy:

"If I was the Boston Bruins or Calgary Flames and I was making a playoff run late in the year, I don't make a trade for a rookie," he said. "I make a trade for a quality player that's good in the locker room, correct? Now golf, that's the way I look at it. I left Keegan Bradley off the team two years ago. He won the PGA and the Byron Nelson."

Meanwhile Helen Ross reports bad news for the harmless animals of the world, as Steve Stricker--No. 1 "good guy" according to Golf Digest--made the team but during Tour Championship week plans to slaughter some defenseless elk in Wyoming Colorado, ending his playoff hopes.

Another heartwarming playoff story.

But to the question at hand, should Captain Couples pick Spieth? I say yes and pair him with Tiger, it'll be great for both of them.

Should Fred Couples select Jordan Spieth for the 2013 Presidents Cup Team?
	Yes
	No
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Update on 2013-09-03 17:00 by Geoff

**Couples suggested Webb Simpson will probably get picked in last night's teleconference, leaving the last spot for Johnson, Furyk or Spieth. Ryan Lavner reports.

Playoff Drama: Els Holds On To Chicago Hotel Room Reservation

Spine-tingling stuff in the ResetCup as the algorithms determined that Ernie Els could hold on to Top 70 status, making it to Chicago so he can be being mathematically eliminated in another thirteen days or so.

Playoff fever. And the ratings are so big, the networks are keeping them a secret!

There was one super moment from the final day at TPC Boston: Deutsche Bank winner and new ResetCup leader Henrik Stenson's hole-out on 17. Brian Wacker explains how the win culminated Stenson's comeback and some of the things Stenson did to lighten the mood during his darkest days.

The key shot:

“Sometimes, she makes me feel like I have a higher purpose than just growing grass."

Lisa Mickey profiles golf course superintendent's best friends who perform a variety of tasks, from geese management to public relations work in the case of TPC Sawgrass's Bailey to Fieldstone Golf Club's Pink, supervised by Damon Di Giorgio.

From Monday's NY Times:

But Pinki is ready to work when she and Di Giorgio arrive at the course each day about 6 a.m. She runs as many as three miles beside her owner’s cart.

Pinki runs after flocks of geese but carefully avoids the water. She also chases deer and foxes.

Once, while Pinki was chasing deer, Di Giorgio was called to solve a problem and forgot about his dog. He received a call that Pinki was on the eighth hole, so he drove his cart to find her.

“When I got there, there were four men taking turns holding her while they putted out,” he said. “She’s a real icebreaker when it comes to member relations.”

Pinki also visits people in hospice care and patients with Alzheimer’s disease in hospitals in Wilmington, Del.

“Sometimes, she makes me feel like I have a higher purpose than just growing grass,” Di Giorgio said.

Jack Nicklaus On Bill Campbell: "He always thought of others in the game of golf."

Jack Nickaus on Bill Campbell after Campbell's passing on Aug. 30, 2013:

I first ran into Bill Campbell in 1955, when at 15 years old, I was playing in the US Amateur qualifier at Camargo in Cincinnati. I managed to qualify for the US Amateur and Bill must have evidently been impressed with something he saw in me, because the next year, he called the Sunnehanna (Amateur Invitational) people and got me an invitation there at age 16. He said to them, “This young man won’t embarrass you.” Thanks to Bill, I went to Sunnehanna and finished fifth.
 
I became good friends with Bill back then, although he was 17 years my senior. Bill was a wealth of knowledge, and if Bill saw something I needed to do or he had advice for me, he didn’t hesitate to call me. I appreciated that very much. He always had a good word to say; always was a great supporter; and always a good friend.
 
Through the years, we have enjoyed a special friendship and he was a tremendous member of our Captains Club for the Memorial Tournament. “A member of the Captains Club for 24 playings of the Memorial Tournament, Bill missed only one Captains Club meeting—that was two years ago—since the inception of the tournament in 1976. He was always there and involved. Bill always had something to contribute and was great with suggestions. Bill had a résumé that was unparalleled in the game of golf, so he provided a uniquely qualified perspective. His whole interest was whatever is good for the game of golf. To my knowledge, I don’t think Bill Campbell ever thought of Bill Campbell one time. He always thought of others in the game of golf.
 
Bill Campbell was such an intelligent and thoughtful man. He was successful in business. He served his country as an Army Captain in World War II. And he served our game for a lifetime. I thought he was the ultimate amateur in the game of golf. The game was never any purer than Bill Campbell. He absolutely did it all the right way.
 
Bill and I played a lot of golf together. In fact, we played together in the US Pro-Am in Cincinnati, when I partnered with Pandel Savic (long-time friend and former Chairman of the Memorial Tournament) my first year as a pro in 1962. Pandel and I were grouped with Bill and Byron Nelson in the final round. Obviously, Bill and I played together in other tournaments and other times, and I will cherish those moments and memories.
 
Barbara and I send out our most heartfelt condolences, our loving thoughts, and our ongoing prayers to Bill’s wife Joan and their entire family. Joan, just like Bill, was always a wonderful supporter and friend to us both.

There was this super profile of Campbell from Kingdom magazine, which included this story about Nicklaus, Campbell and Frank Hannigan:

Former USGA executive director Frank Hannigan likes to tell this anecdote, which sums up the respect Campbell earned from his peers: “I was talking with Jack Nicklaus about the USGA’s amateur status rules, including a prohibition against accepting free balls or clubs from equipment manufacturers. Nicklaus, who had turned professional by this time, was telling me the rule should be changed. He asserted that the prohibition was unenforceable. ‘Name one top amateur who doesn’t take anything from the manufacturers,’ Nicklaus said.

‘Bill Campbell,’ I replied. Nicklaus paused for a moment. ‘Okay. You can have Campbell,’ he said. ‘Name another one.’”

Update on 2013-09-03 01:13 by Geoff

**Adam Schupak with more great Campbell stories, including a Walker Cup tale from 1949 and the day he learned he'd been made Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

Update on 2013-09-04 04:45 by Geoff

**Michael Bamberger with more memories of Bill Campbell.

Update on 2013-09-05 05:21 by Geoff

**Lee Pace on Mr. Campbell's Pinehurst legacy.

Sophie Retiring From The LPGA...For Now

Beth Ann Baldry tracks down Sophie Gustafson who says she's not retiring from competitive golf, just the LPGA Tour for now, with sights set on a return to Europe to find her game.

It seems in vaguely Tweeting she forget to tell mom and dad.

“I want to go back home and just have fun again playing,” Gustafson said. “If that brings my confidence back who knows. All I know is I won't be on the LPGA in 2014.”

Gustafson Tweeted on Friday after missing the cut at the Safeway Classic that she was stepping away from the LPGA. On Saturday, she followed up with this classic: “My parents got a bit of a shock watching the sport news at home tonight.. Guess I forgot to tell them.. Daughter of the year?”

Tough Love: Today's 59 Scare & Q-School's Demise

I heard from very angry folks today and saw some of the Twitter backlash about the sheer horror of Golf Channel not broadcasting every moment of the Mickelson-Scott-Woods first-round pairing at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

In a nutshell: we've become spoiled. But in the bigger scheme of things, you need to direct your anger toward the PGA Tour for cluttering the schedule with the Web.com Tour finals.

Sure, it would have been nice to have full Mickelson-Scott-Woods coverage from the moment they got out of bed until they signed their cards. And Golf Channel called a tremendous audible by picking up bonus #59watch coverage instead of showing the Web.com Tour Finals from Indiana. (Even though it meant lopping off 30 minutes of the scheduled broadcast.)

But how difficult is it to understand that broadcast schedules are made in advance and Golf Channel has a stacked lineup this week (including an amazing 15-straight hours of live golf coverage Sunday)? And because we've become spoiled, it's easy to forget that televising golf is a massive undertaking. There are just so many hours in the day that a production team can be going full bore.

Then there is the obligation to cover the Web.com finals.

Longtime readers know that I've not been a fan of "calendar-year" schedule concept and creating the Web.com Tour finals in lieu of Q-School. The litany of sound reasons to have kept the prior setup can be rattled off at another time, but let's take note of what's going on today. The lack of attention or interest in those Web.com Tour Finals--how many even knew they were taking place?--is already apparent as the finals try to go up against a PGA Tour playoff event loaded with a super field on TV-friendly courses.

Could there have been a more cringe-worthy moment than Golf Channel signing off from their bonus coverage showing huge galleries and big stars to an empty golf course in Indiana?

So if you are outraged about only three hours of Deutsche Bank Championship coverage today--deep breaths first--direct your ire at those who have made the PGA Tour a year-round schedule, necessitating the end of Q-School and the ushering in of the ill-timed Web.com Tour finals that are clogging up an already full television schedule.

Forensics: The R&A's Rules Summary From The 2013 Open

One of the nice annual touches from the R&A is their forensic analysis of rulings at The Open Championship, now posted on their website.

Right off the bat there was this stark reminder about the difference between the '12 and '13 Opens.

There were 234 rulings at the 2013 Open, which compares with 339 in 2012 at Lytham where a large number of rulings were given due to casual water on the course caused by the very wet summer.

Rulings recounted from 2013 include Thomas Bjorn hitting a camera with his shot from the rough (with nice clear video!), Charl Schwartzel breaking his club (no video, but that's why we have archives!) and Hideki Matsuyama's slow play penalty.

Matsuyama was then given a second bad time for his second shot to the 17th hole.  Given his tee shot had gone in to the crowd and considering the difficulty of the shot, Matsuyama was given additional time to deal with the crowd and to go forward to assess his shot.  The timing for the shot therefore only started when the player had returned to his ball; however he then took a further 2 minutes 12 seconds to play the shot. That second bad time resulted in a one shot penalty being applied to Matsuyama’s score on the 17th hole which became 6.

Photos: TPC Boston Mini-Primer

The PGA Tour moves to TPC Boston for this week's Deutsche Bank Championship and longtime readers know they can relive many of the past posts showing the redesign work by Gil Hanse, Brad Faxon and Jim Wagner under the topic TPC Boston.

PGATour.com has a nice hole-by-hole guide with photos and hole renderings.

And then there are the before-afters from six(!) years ago, including holes one, four, five, seven, eight, nine, ten, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and the recently renovated eighteenth green.