When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Greg Norman wonders forlornly if he didn't get a third chance to lose the Presidents Cup because he walked away from a Rolex deal.
Nick Price wonders forlornly about his native Zimbabwe.
I think we've got an upgrade in the Presidents Cup captaincy!
On the eve of the "must win" matches (oy...it's not going away!), Barry Havenga profiles Price and his assistant captains Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone, who all hail from the deteriorating country.
Accompanying this chaos has been the dismantling of one of the finest golf environments ever seen. In the 1960s and '70s, even amid political upheaval from minority rule that caused the United States to impose trade sanctions on Rhodesia, the country was a golf Camelot. Located along the northeast border of South Africa, it featured brilliant weather, a large number of courses with affordable fees and active junior programs that would, for a few golden years, produce a disproportionate number of the world's finest players.
Three-time major champion Price, now 56, as well as his assistant captains, Mark McNulty, 59, and Tony Johnstone, 57, were products of this time. So were Denis Watson and renowned instructor David Leadbetter. "The weather was so good that you were outdoors 365 days a year, so we played everything," recalls Price. "My brother [Tim] bought a bag of clubs, not a set, a bag, completely mixed clubs. People say there wasn't hickory around in 1965 -- there was in Rhodesia! We didn't have access to new equipment because of sanctions, so we made the most of everything we had."
Calling on one of the more brilliant operational ploys in sports venue management history, the PGA Tour will again call on Kenny G to begin ushering fans off of the Muirfield Village property following Sunday's Presidents Cup play but before the Closing Ceremony.
In other words, he's been brought in to give the players and dignitaries time to make their nineteenth wardrobe change of the week.
Used to great property-clearing effect at The Players in 2007, G will lean upon his indecipherably different renditions of Songbird, My Heart Will Go On and close his set with smooth jazz-infused rendition of the Ohio State fight song Battle Cry.
Kenny G to perform in The Presidents Cup Fan Experience prior to Closing Ceremony
DUBLIN, Ohio (October 1, 2013) – The long, anticipated wait is over and The Presidents Cup week officially began this morning with gates opening to the public at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. While there is much to do, see and celebrate over the next six days, tournament officials are pleased to unveil plans for Closing Ceremony on Sunday, October 6. In addition to marking the official close of the event, fans will be treated to a performance by Grammy-Award-winning saxophonist Kenny G prior to the introduction of the teams.
The Kenny G performance and Closing Ceremony will be held in The Presidents Cup Fan Experience, which offers fans and local residents a place to enjoy food and beverages, entertainment, shopping and a variety of interactive displays throughout tournament week. The Presidents Cup Fan Experience is located on approximately 3 acres just outside the main gates at Muirfield Village Golf Club and is open to the public, with no ticket required. Parking is free at the Columbus Zoo and Gardens with a free shuttle to the Fan Experience.
Even though it was just time for some new blood in Greg Norman parlance, the Great White Shark has opened up about not getting the "real reason" from sparring partner Tim Finchem over being replaced as Presidents Cup Captain. The Shark calls it "extremely disappointing."
Robert Lusetich documents all of the whinging, which includes a conspiratorial angle related to the living icon's watch deal.
Norman, who was sponsored by Rolex, became public enemy No. 1 when he departed for Omega. Not just because he left but because Rolex believes he has used his contacts to usher Omega into golf, a sport that had largely been Rolex domain.
You know, sometimes I just feel so detached from the First World. Go on...
Rolex remains the official timekeeper of the PGA Tour and the Presidents Cup.
Last summer, after Omega replaced Rolex as the official timekeeper of the Ryder Cup at Medinah, Norman was told he wasn’t needed to play in the pro-am for the Senior British Open at Turnberry — where he won one of his two majors, in 1986 — and was asked to leave the room at a Rolex-sponsored press conference.
“Look, I know that Rolex is a corporate partner of the PGA Tour and there’s been some speculation I’ve heard that that was the reason why (he was replaced),” he said.
“If that’s right, then all I can say is that it’s really pathetic.
“The other sad part about it is that nobody has reached out to me or any of my past team and asked us what we thought would be good changes to make, or ideas we might have had about the Presidents Cup.
“We were just completely cut off."
Judy Rankin is a 26-time winner on the LPGA Tour, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame as a player, and if there was ever a golf broadcasting wing, she'd be inducted again for her eloquence, class and succinct appraisals that set the standard for on-course reporting.
Judy kindly spent more than hour with the State of the Game podcast to talk about her career, the LPGA Tour, golf broadcasting and of course, the state of the game.
You can listen via MP3 here. Or to past shows the same where via this page. And the iTunes option for all past shows, or this week's episode to listen/subscribe.
**And while we're in podcast mode, here's my chat with Josh LaBell and Adam Fonseca on the Dimplehead golfer podcast about the Presidents Cup.
Jordan Spieth's first professional team competition will be analyzed to death, as it should for the impressive upstart and captain's pick.
But as Sean Martin notes, the International squad has a 21-year-old phenom in Hideki Matsuyama who has great finishes in the Masters and Open Championship on his resume and is every bit as talented.
Matsuyama's performance at some of the game's biggest tournaments confirms Maruyama's assessment. Matsuyama occasionally wears a logo depicting a cartoon penguin with half of an egg shell atop its head. It's the logo of the Tohoku Fukushi golf team; the head coach, Yasuhiko Abe, selected it because of penguins' patience and perseverance in trying conditions. He wants his team to display similar fortitude. Abe is a short, stocky man with a crew-cut haircut; he coached baseball before becoming Tohoku Fukushi's golf coach. He calls Matsuyama a “fighter” and a “bulldog.”
Said International Team Captain Nick Price, “He’s obviously got big-game temperament, no doubt. Playing the way he did at the U.S. Open and British Open as a rookie was simply amazing.”
Matsuyama will be tested in another big arena this week. He's the only player at the Presidents Cup who hasn’t previously completed at Muirfield Village.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
