The only course that will remain difficult under all conditions will be one that is designed and kept for golf of a stereotyped, monotonous character, and this makes a most uninteresting proposition. BOBBY JONES
"Golf Architecture for Normal People . . . should be required reading for those who are not ashamed to admit they know little about the subject, and for those who think they do . . . . Golf course architecture geeks have trouble slimming their thoughts down to bite-sized chunks, but Shackelford has achieved a remarkable success here." —Independent (Ireland)
"From the relative newcomer who’s slowly getting hooked to those that have played the game for most of their lives and think they know a thing or two, Golf Architecture for Normal People provides a solid and sober perspective that will help everyone recognize why some golf courses are worth playing more than once while a single trip around others is all you’re ever likely to want or need." —Links Magazine.
“It’s a wonderful book. An easy read that arrives just in time for your summer reading list. If you’ve never thought about how an appreciation for course design could heighten your enjoyment of the game, you must check this out.”—The Peterborough Examiner
"This new book does a great job demystifying golf course design ideas for average players, but can also be a beneficial read fro PGA Professionals and other golf course employees to get a better understanding of their home courses." —PGA Magazine
Long chatted about and apparently now the recent struggles at TPC Sawgrass have lined up a re-grassing of the greens after the 2015 Players, with other tweaks coming too. Unfortunately, no mention yet of some of the bigger changes desired by Pete Dye (mentioned in a Jeff SilvermanGolf World profile out this week, not online).
More important to the future of the course is some sort of effort to recapture the fear factor and ruggedness of the original. More of the old Captain Jack Sparrow vibe instead of today's Captain-Sparrow-in-drag aesthetic.
As a result, the Tour announced in Wednesday’s memo that a “significant” number of trees have been removed from around the most severely affected greens and that after the 2015 Players Championship the circuit will convert to a hardier variety of Bermuda grass and “will also make strategic design changes to expand certain green complexes to disperse wear and tear from foot traffic.”
“It isn’t one thing that caused this it was several things, shade, foot traffic, winter conditions and the application program, while accepted as the right thing to do it proved to be too aggressive,” said Ty Votaw, the Tour’s executive vice president of communication and international affairs.
After watching the recording multiple times, reading the description of the shot and hearing NBC's Mark Rolfing describe it, that at best, playing partner Casey Wittenberg's assertion appears to be a stretch when suggesting where the ball crossed the hazard. As quoted in an unbylined AP notes story:
"He asked me exactly where it crossed," Wittenberg said. "I told him I thought it crossed on the corner of the bunker, right where he took his drop. And it's all good."
At least based on the blimp shots and the obvious skepticism from Peter Jacobsen and Johnny Miller, the ball would have had to have flown very straight, then hooked hard at the end. It does not take a genius to see by Tiger's reaction and the video, that the hook was immediate, not late as Wittenburg's drop point would require.
As noted in Harig's story, the PGA Tour's position was clear: this was the call of Woods and his playing partner Casey Wittenberg with help from Mark Rolfing of NBC. Since Woods took his eye off the ball by the time it made the purpoted late hook, he could not speak with certainty about where the ball crossed the hazard. The call is Wittenerg's then.
The PGA Tour's Mark Russell, as quoted by Harig:
"They both saw it," Russell said of Woods and Wittenberg. "They're back there with a television commentator [NBC's Mark Rolfing], who basically agreed with them. He said he hit a high hook. The problem is on television, that area looked the same, and they thought he dropped up there where it splashed. He dropped it 60 yards back of that. The players had the view of it."
What caused the doubt for me was this statement by Rolfing speaking of hazard stakes by tees on the fairway side of the lake, no where near where the ball crossed:
"It looked like it was over water at this point, if not before."
"Before" seems to be what the video and screen captures suggest.
Here is the overview photo of the hole as taken from the blimp, which did not appear to move much and had what seems like a very good angle to capture the tee shot's general flight.
Below is the "at this point" Rolfing refers to, which appears to be well right (from the player perspective on the tee) of the entry point detailed in the third photo.
The Showdown At Sawgrass went something like this: Sergio is going for the par-5 second green, Tiger pulls his club on a par-5 as Sergio is hitting but he can't see Sergio hitting. Sergio, as he's known to do, heard the crowd reaction to Tiger pulling driver and well, we have ourselves an episode!
"It was my shot to hit," Garcia said on NBC during the weather delay that halted play with the two on the seventh hole. "He moved all the crowd that he needed to move, and I waited for that. I want to say that he didn't see that I was ready. But you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit. Right as I was on top of the backswing . . . everybody started screaming, so that didn't help very much. It was unfortunate."
And Tiger showed that if the golf thing doesn't work out, he can always star in a reality show.
"Well, the marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterwards and [it's] not real surprising that he's complaining about something," Woods said. Asked if they discussed the matter, Woods said: "We didn't do a lot of talking."
The eleven minutes of Golf Channel's Live At roundup include a split screen that backs up Sergio's version of events along with some strong reactions from Lerner, Nobilo and Chamblee apparently broadcasting from an executive VP's office at tour headquarters.
Frank Nobilo – “The word respect. Tiger Woods respects Sergio Garcia and his ability to play this game. Sergio Garcia respects and admires Tiger Woods’ ability to play this game and his resume. Like? No. Respect? Yes.
Brandel Chamblee – “It certainly makes for the next three holes these guys play in what is the third round, far more interesting. And should they get paired together? Well, we might have those fireworks.”
Rich Lerner (@RichLernerGC) – “Where is Vince McMahon when you need him.”
"I'm not going to lie,'' Garcia said after completing the third round in a three-way tie for the lead with Woods and David Lingmerth. "He's not my favorite guy to play with. He's not the nicest guy on tour.''
Later, Garcia told the Golf Channel: "It's good for both of us. We don't enjoy each other's company. You don't have to be a rocket engineer to figure that out.''
It dates to the Battle At Bighorn and Sergio's exuberance.
After a flight from Ohio to California, Woods arrived at Bighorn the next day with a touch of the flu and was lethargic in his round, clearly both sick and tired.
Garcia, meanwhile, got more animated as the round went on and when he closed out Woods on the last hole acted as if he had just won a major championship.
If there is such a thing as X-rated body language, that's what Tiger was speaking as Sergio cavorted. Lost on Garcia in the celebration, apparently, was the fact Woods had just won four of the five previous majors.
You'd think my posting of the turtle dive classic would have inspired this marshal to leave one of the 16th hole turtles alone to show off their improve diving technique, but noooo....
Including first and second round Singh playing partner Garrigus kind of supported Singh by saying that the PGA Tour has"created a situation where one guy gets busted for recreational drugs and then one guy doesn’t get busted for performance-enhancing drugs, which is messed up."
That probably won't make Vijay laugh--what does--but Garrigus is still going to try to deliver some humor to Thursday's 2 pm ET proceedings.
He’s focused on trying to win a golf tournament, but Garrigus, who is friendly and gregarious, said he’ll probably make a joke out of it with Singh on the first tee on Thursday to keep things light.
“I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of security guards with our group (the next two days),” he said.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
More important to the future of the course is some sort of effort to recapture the fear factor and ruggedness of the original. More of the old Captain Jack Sparrow vibe instead of today's Captain-Sparrow-in-drag aesthetic.
