The People Speak: 85% Want Spieth On Prez Cup Squad

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I expected enthusiasm for the lad from Dallas but 85% with over 600 votes is a landslide.

Captain Couples, are you listening? We'll find out at 11 am PT Wednesday as the selections are made by the captains. Check out PGATour.com for the press conference stream.

Golf Channel's Win McMurry and Jason Sobel break down the picks and Sobel is all for Spieth making the team.

JT Tweets: Executive Producing Doc On 7 Y.O. Golfers

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I know I posted the trailer to The Short Game a few months back but could not find it. Not that it matters. The real story is that pop music star Justin Timberlake Tweeted to his 25,000,000 followers (!) the link and mentioned that he's an executive producer.

Here it is on YouTube. And by the way, I'm just so, so glad the PGA Tour got out of the Justin Timberlake business! Who would want someone with his influence and passion for the game Tweeting things like this? ;)

Eagle Golf CEO: More Consumerism Needed To Grow Golf!

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Thanks to the readers who send Eagle Golf CEO Joe Munsch's email newsletter rant about how the governing bodies are holding back the game by having an OB rule and restricting folks from buying more clubs to bring eternal happiness and allow them to hit it even longer and straighter than they do now, which is longer and straighter than the masses have ever hit it.
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First Walker Cup And NGLA Previews

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Dave Anderson sets the table for this week's Walker Cup at The National Golf Links.

Though I'm not sure this statement about the course being unchanged is entirely accurate! However, that statement is a tribute to the beautiful restoration undertaken by Mssrs. Olson and Salinetti.

Its fabled course, designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, the father of American golf architecture, is virtually unchanged since it opened in 1911. New tees at the 7th, 14th and 16th holes have stretched it to 6,995 yards, only 122 yards longer than when Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans — three of golf’s revered names — won the inaugural cup matches there in 1922.

Enriching the scene will be the National’s majestic tan stucco clubhouse and landmark windmill overlooking Peconic Bay — no different from when the 20-year-old Jones, who would win a record-sharing four United States Opens and five United States Amateur titles, teed off there. Before those 1922 matches, George Herbert Walker, the president of the United States Golf Association (and grandfather of the 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush), put up an unnamed silver trophy for the winners. “Members of the press,” as reporters were called then, labeled it the “Walker Cup,” and it has been known as that ever since as American teams have built a 34-8-1 record in the biennial series.

John Steinbreder in Global Golf Post gives a nice overview of the club's history, though kindly leaves out a mention of the conditioning problems that plagued them early on, and also reveals some of the things that make the club so cool (besides the amazing course).

The USGA also posts a nice appetite-whetting video that reminds us how special it is to be returning to The National Golf Links of America. A shame we weren't in year one of the Fox Sports deal, this could have been narrated by Regis with much hipper music to appeal to the masses. Oh well.

PGA Tour Bifurcation Alive & Well! Oberholser Glove Edition

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Tim Rosaforte's Golf World Monday column looks at Arron Oberholser playing the Web.com Tour Finals on a medical exemption after years of struggle with his left hand (four surgeries).

And as reader DTF notes, if this isn't bifurcation, what is?

It took a special glove, approved by the PGA Tour (after the USGA deemed it non-conforming), to make a comeback possible. Even with that accommodation, he was still icing down the hand and taking Advil to reduce the swelling and pain.

"The glove isn't the cure-all by any stretch of the imagination," he said. "That's why if it doesn't hold up over the next three weeks, then I'll probably see a lot more of you in the studio."

Instant Poll: Should Couples Pick Spieth?

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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?
  
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Playoff Drama: Els Holds On To Chicago Hotel Room Reservation

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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."

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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.