Internationals Love PGA Going Abroad; Yanks Not So Much?

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When we reached 500 votes, 75% had endorsed a once or twice a decade PGA Championship played abroad, while 25% said no.

An east coast reader who was having trouble sleeping after airing a grievance earlier in the day, noticed that in the early polling that would likely be comprised mostly of international readers, the numbers were even stronger. And then the east coast of America woke up, followed by the west coast, where the PGA hasn't been since 1998.

From that reader noting the shift, though it never was profound enough for the PGA to do anything but continue to strongly consider this. All times ET:

About 4a, first look it was 81 percent yes.

845a: 133 yes, 40 no (77-23 percent)

958a: 181 yes, 62 no (74-26 percent)

1141a: 232 yes, 85 no (73-27 percent)

In the comments division, the pro-America contingent spoke up. However, I didn't see many arguments beyond the xenophobic "America is in the title of the PGA" as a sound reason to keep the PGA locked in place.

Funny, and here as an American I think sharing the championship with other parts of the world when the schedule allows, would only solidify the PGA's place as a major and the PGA Professional as an important figure in the game.

Tim McCarver Takes On Hunter Mahan Over Golf Etiquette

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Hunter Mahan took to Twitter to express frustration over Major League baseball players and their various unwritten rules about the "proper" way to play the game after the St. Louis Cardinals took issue with Los Angeles Dodger celebrations.



This mere Tweet from a PGA Tour player about something that is very much an issue for baseball, prompted new USGA partner Fox Sports and their longtime analyst Tim McCarver to respond with a witty rebuttal during Wednesday's Detroit-Boston game.

 



Remember: 12 years!

If you want a chuckle, search Twitter for McCarver and Mahan and see the beating taken by the Fox announcer.

Tiger Trying To Wrap His Head Around The Wraparound Schedule

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Bob Harig covered several of the topics from Tiger's pre-World Challenge conference call and shared this about the PGA Tour's new calendar-year schedule.

"The whole idea of ending the season earlier was to give us a bigger break," Woods said. "Guys were taking their breaks basically in October and sometimes even into November, then going down to either South Africa or Australia and playing those events in December. You had a month or two off where guys would take their breaks because of the FedExCup ending earlier at the end of September, then guys would go support their home countries either in South Africa, Australia, or the American players would go down there to play to get ready for the following year.

"It's going to be interesting to find our break time now with this scheduling. It's new to all of us, this wraparound schedule."

Some of you longtime readers will recall that I believe the West Coast swing--when the most eyeballs are traditionally watching the PGA Tour on television--serving as break time.

Ribbon-Cutting Day At Trump Ferry Point!

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Stephanie Wei files a WSJ preview for Wednesday's sure-to-be lively ribbon-cutting at Ferry Point Park, New York City's pricey public course pushed through by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, designed by Jack Nicklaus and to be managed by Donald Trump.

The three will be on hand to commemorate the completion of construction.

Priceless quote from Nicklaus:

"We had half a golf course out there before Mr. Trump got involved," said Nicklaus in an interview at the Presidents Cup earlier this month. "The problem was finishing it. They kept working at it. We spent this ridiculous amount of money for environmental issues—on a dump!"

The course is not actually opening for a while...

That finish line won't officially arrive until the spring of 2015, when the course is slated to open to the public. (Ferry Point will be used for some public programming, primarily junior golf, in conjunction with the city's Parks Department starting next summer.) Only 14 months ago, the site contained little more than dirt—millions of tons of it.

Same Day: Spieth Plays Pine Valley & Augusta National

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Fine tuning the game for his TBD 2013-14 PGA Tour debut, Jordan Spieth put up a sweet 67 at Pine Valley, then played a late nine at Augusta National according to tweets by his playing partner and Dallas-based performance coach Cameron McCormick.

Pine Valley is in fall color mode...


And confirmation of the incredible same day PVGC/ANGC combo.