Walker Cup: The National Is Ready To Go!

Just 91 years later The National Golf Links of America makes a triumphant return to USGA golf with the 44th Walker Cup. This is also the first chance to see arguably the most important golf course ever built.

Golf Channel covers from 4-6 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.

At least three inches of rain hit the course Tuesday and while it softened things a bit, the speed of the greens is just fine and any faster would be silly considering the contours. I can't wait to watch today's players take on C.B. Macdonald's masterpiece.

Let the Walker Cup begin!

Your Saturday matches:

Saturday Foursomes

7:15 a.m. - Nathan Kimsey and Max Orrin - GB&I vs. Cory Whitsett and Bobby Wyatt - USA

7:30 a.m. - Matthew Fitzpatrick and Neil Raymond - GB&Ivs. Jordan Niebrugge and Nathan Smith - USA

7:45 a.m. - Garrick Porteous and Rhys Pugh - GB&I vs. Michael Weaver and Todd White - USA

8 a.m. - Gavin Moynihan and Kevin Phelan - GB&I vs. Patrick Rodgers and Justin Thomas – USA

Saturday Singles

GB&I vs. USA

1 p.m. - Neil Raymond vs. Bobby Wyatt

1:11 p.m. - Max Orrin vs. Max Homa

1:22 p.m. - Callum Shinkwin vs. Michael Kim

1:33 p.m. - Jordan Smith vs. Cory Whitsett

1:44 p.m. - Garrick Porteous vs. Jordan Niebrugge

1:55 p.m. - Matthew Fitzpatrick vs. Michael Weaver

2:06 p.m.  - Nathan Kimsey vs. Justin Thomas

2:17 p.m. - Gavin Moynihan vs. Patrick Rodgers

Quick Video: Looking At NGLA's Sahara, Alps & Punchbowl

Course creator C.B. Macdonald was pretty high on his Sahara hole, National Golf Links' 2nd.

Here's what he wrote:

The Sahara of the Royal St. George's at Sandwich I found in our second hole. In one sense it is not a replica, but it is a mental picture of that fine hole, embodying the underlying principle--a golfer's reward is granted to him who can negotiate the carry he is capable of accomplishing. The real carry on the line of the hole is over an immense bunker calling for 210 to 220 yards. The ball then can run to the putting green. Less powerful players must satisfy themselves with placing their ball from the tee advantageously to reach the green in two. I am confident that it is a much better hole than the original Sahara.

 Here are three short, very rough videos from the course looking at the Sahara, Alps back tee and the Punchbowl (16).

Today In PGA Tour Sponsorship News...Tampa, Maui Editions

Nice Friday afternoon news from the PGA Tour if you like the Tampa and Kapalua stops.

First, Tampa:

Valspar Commits to Four-Year Title Sponsorship of
PGA TOUR Event in Tampa Bay and is Named 
“Official Paint Supplier” of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour

Valspar Championship to be Played in March at Innisbrook Resort;
 BB&T Named Local Presenting Sponsor

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., and MINNEAPOLIS (September 6, 2013) – The Valspar Corporation (NYSE: VAL), a global leader in the paint and coatings industry, and the PGA TOUR today announced a four-year agreement for Valspar to become the title sponsor of the Tampa Bay area’s professional golf tournament on the PGA TOUR.

Named the Valspar Championship, the tournament will be contested March 13-16, 2014 on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, a Salamander Golf & Spa Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla. The Valspar Championship will be the third of four straight tournament weeks in Florida.

In addition to the sponsorship, Valspar will join the PGA TOUR’s Official Marketing Partner program and receive the exclusive designation as “Official Paint Supplier of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour.”

And Maui...

Hyundai Renews Title Sponsorship of Tournament of Champions

Two-year deal carries through the 2014-2015 PGA TOUR season

COSTA MESA, CA, and PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL (September 6, 2013) – The PGA TOUR and Hyundai Motor America announced today a two-year extension of Hyundai’s title sponsorship of the exclusive field Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, through the 2014-2015 season.

The upcoming Hyundai Tournament of Champions will be held January 3-6 at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Maui, and will mark the PGA TOUR’s resumption in January following a 1½-month break of the 2013-2014 tournament schedule.

“We are very pleased to have Hyundai continue as title sponsor of the Tournament of Champions, which has played a distinctive role on the PGA TOUR for more than 60 years by inviting only tournament winners from the previous year,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem. “Hyundai has been very active in promoting the tournament and using it to broaden awareness of its brand and products. We look forward to continuing to work with Hyundai over these next two years to meet its objectives as title sponsor.”    

“The Hyundai Tournament of Champions is an ideal platform to share Hyundai’s premium lineup with golf fans around the world,” said Steve Shannon, vice president, Marketing, Hyundai Motor America. “The tournament has continued to grow the past three years with ratings up more than 75 percent in 2013. Not surprisingly, the ratings increase and our involvement with the PGA TOUR has coincided with market share growth of our premium vehicles, Genesis and the flagship Equus. This tournament is a great fit for our brand.”

In addition to Hyundai’s sponsorship, Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) continues its relationship with the tournament, under terms of a 10-year agreement that began in 2010. Serving as the tournament’s title sponsor that first year, SBS had the opportunity to bring Hyundai in as title sponsor in 2011, at which time the tournament’s original “Tournament of Champions” name was reintroduced to highlight the exclusive nature of its field. Originally introduced as the Tournament of Champions in 1953, the limited-field event maintained the “T of C” identity in its title until 1994.

A broadcasting partner of the PGA TOUR for nearly 20 years, SBS also will continue to televise PGA TOUR tournaments in Korea through 2019.

How Times Have Changed Files: When Americans Were Despised For Eschewing Tobacco And Getting To Bed By 10

In preparing for the Walker Cup where I'll be reporting from Southampton for coverage at GeoffShackelford.com, Twitter and in Golf World, I went back through old Golf Illustrated and American Golfer magazines to read up on coverage of the 1922 match at The National Golf Links of America (an 8-4 win by the USA).

I got a kick out of this from James Coxmenelton's "Current Comment" column in a September, 1922 Golf Illustrated.

Following the Walker Cup matches and the National Amateur Championship, a writer in the London Daily Telegraph says as follows: "Personally I see nothing wrong with British golf. The plain truth is we don't make a business of it, and I sincerely hope we never shall. If we are to be beaten by a nation that a couple of decades ago did not possess a single first class player we shall take out licking like men. If the Americans in their pursuit of glory care to live on milk and fish, to eschew tobacco and go to bed at 10 o'clock, let them. I would rather see Tolley, Ray and Vardon blowing clouds of tobacco smoke around the links than with their mouths full of chewing gum."

Fortunately for the rest of us, who have high admiration for British golfers and golf writers, this criticism is so narrow as to be ludicrous and cannot be taken seriously in any way. If by any chance, and I do not think that practices he mentions are as prevalent as he is inclined to believe, our boys do not smoke and drink, stay up after ten o'clock and chew gum rather than tobacco we should probably feel proud of the fact. Incidentally, neither Sweetser nor Evans, this year's finalists, smokes; but, for the most part, I would say our golfers smoke just as heavily as Britishers, the only difference being that the Britishers fancy pipes and Americans cigarettes.

“Charlie Macdonald was determined to elevate the face of golf architecture in this country, and he did it in spectacular fashion."

Damon Hack returns to his old craft of writing, calling up Ben Crenshaw to talk about The National Golf Links on the eve of the Walker Cup.

Comparing it to next door neighbor Shinnecock Hills...

I asked Crenshaw to compare it to its long-time neighbor, Shinnecock Hills, which will host the United States Open in 2018.

“Shinnecock is a sterner test, and it’s ironic that they are right next door,” he says. “Fun is the operative word at the National.”

Over the years it has become rote to describe the National as an ode to the great Scottish links, but Crenshaw believes that notion is a simplification.

“Yes, a majority of the holes are replicas of famous holes overseas, but they have a touch of character that makes them play a little different,” he says. “You play the Alps hole, the 17th, at Prestwick and then you play the third hole at the National, you can see the features, but they are entirely different,” Crenshaw says.

PGA 99% Sure To Be Playing 2016 Championship In Late July

Sounds like the schedule for 2016 working around the Rio Olympic Games is shaping up, as Bloomberg's Michael Buteau reports that the PGA of America is comfortable with moving the Baltusrol PGA to late July, before the Aug 5-21 games.

A schedule change could benefit the PGA Championship at the Springfield, New Jersey, course, which also hosted the 2005 PGA Championship, won by Phil Mickelson, Bevacqua said.

“It’s a better time to host a major championship,” he said. “More people are around and in the swing of things. Less people are on their summer vacations. We think it’s actually going to work out to our advantage.”

We also will know soon which city will be creating headaches for the IGF as the 2020 Olympic Games final bribes are due with announcement set for this week. Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid are the pulse stunting finalists, with Madrid reportedly pullling away down the stretch.

W Visits The Walker Cup!

The 43rd president of the United States, George Walker Bush, visited the Walker Cup Thursday and judging by the glove on his left hand, teed it up with the USA squad.

The event, named for his great grandfather George Herbert Walker, will witness a flag-raising ceremony Friday followed by rounds Saturday and Sunday (Golf Channel televises from 4-6 ET).

Photos by Chris Keane courtesy of the USGA:

Update on 2013-09-06 03:28 by Geoff

**Julie Williams on the presidential visit.

“He talked a lot about humility and not letting the fame get to us,” said Michael Kim of the U.S. team.

After lunch, the Americans split into fivesomes and Bush laced up his golf shoes for a few quick holes. He played Nos. 1 and 2 with the first fivesome, Nos. 17 and 18 with the second.

European Tour Loses Another Event...

Thanks to DTF For Amlan Chakraborty's Reuters story on the demise of India's Avantha Masters, a late March stop on the European Tour.

The event was four years old.

"Given the current economic conditions, the Avantha Group has concluded that this is not the appropriate moment to do so and has therefore not renewed its contract with the European Tour," the business conglomerate said in a statement.

Brandel Says Tiger's Driver "Might as well be a dead mackerel wrapped in newspaper at the moment."

Alex Myers on all of the things Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee had to say about Tiger's swing and approach in a recent conference call to promote the final two Reset Cup events.

Wow...

"It's a very complicated golf swing that he's trying to work on, that much fold, shaft lean, the down and the up that he has, the excessive down, the excessive up; you know, his driver might as well be a dead mackerel wrapped in newspaper at the moment. It's just awful watching him hit that golf club, just awful. It's really fun to watch guys like (Graham) DeLaet and (Henrik) Stenson and Adam Scott drive the golf ball. So yes, I definitely think Tiger Woods is overcoached."

And such nice use of the Sicillian message imagery.

He goes on to lament seeing Tiger warming up with a glove under his arm at the PGA, just a week after dominating at Firestone. Though this isn't unusual, as I've noted in Golf World the last two years seeing him do this in his pre-final round Open Championship preparation.

More interesting to me is Chamblee's point about how different Woods' game seems to be week to week. Like I said yesterday, a pairing with the far more natural-swinging and playing Jordan Spieth at the Presidents Cup might do wonders for Woods.

Fay: Without Walker Cup, "There would have been no Bobby Jones story as we've come to know it."

A fun premise from David Fay in the September Golf Digest: if it weren't for the Walker Cup, where would Bobby Jones' record stand?

According to the former USGA Executive Director, the Jones as we know him might not be the legend he became.

When played in Great Britain in 1923, 1926 and 1930 (as well as its precursor, the International Match, at Hoylake in 1921), the Walker Cup was scheduled such that the British Amateur and the British Open were played around the same time. Jones took full advantage of bundling the three competitions in 1926 and 1930 by winning the British Open in both of these years as well as his only British Amateur title, in 1930. In 1923, Jones had planned to take advantage of the bundling approach, but Harvard denied his petition to be excused early from classes, so Jones declined his spot on the team. He remained in school and, later that summer, won his first U.S. Open title.

During his competitive career, Jones made only one trip to Great Britain that wasn't in conjunction with a USGA-subsidized competition. That was in 1927, when he successfully defended his British Open title at the Old Course at St. Andrews—a course and a place he had come to love. He did not go for a third straight British Open title in 1928: Work and family obligations along with the steep costs of the trip were simply too much.

Johnny Thinks NBC May Be Grooming Johnny-Type Replacement

Alex Myers with more from Johnny Miller on Tiger's game, the USGA's move to Fox Sports and the future at NBC for himself and his Johnny Miller-type replacement.

"It's not going to really impact my decision on what I do as an announcer," Miller said of NBC losing the U.S. Open. "I really don't know what NBC/Golf Channel has in store for me after two years. I would think they are starting to think about grooming a new Johnny Miller-type announcer but I don't know who it is, and I'll probably do some things, I just don't know how much. We'll just have to see."

Ed Sherman has more from Johnny's chat to promote next week's playoff from Chicago, not that you needed any reminder!