The Donald: Golf Should Be Aspirational, For The Successful

The November Golf Digest will feature an interview (highlights here) with the uber-exposed Donald Trump as part of its "disruptors" feature and at least The Donald finally comes clean on his vision for golf: a rich man's game.

So much for those Scottish roots where the game started as very much a working man's pursuit back when they were whapping pebbles around.

On where grow-the-game efforts are flawed: "I would make golf aspirational, instead of trying to bring everybody into golf, people that are never going to be able to be there anyway. You know, they're working so hard to make golf, as they say, a game of the people. And I think golf should be a game that people want to aspire to through success."

Of course this means we have to use The Donald's definition of success, which might include wearing gold chains that would be the envy of Sammy Davis Jr., owning some hot red $500 driving moccasins and owning at least one jacket with a bold gold crest. Take that millennials!

And Then There Were 80…Drive, Chip & Putt Finalists

The sub-regionals and regionals are over, the PGA pros who oversaw the long days can take a break, and the kids of all ages can now dream about arriving in Augusta next April for the Drive, Chip & Putt, all 80 of them.

PGA.com with the roundup of qualifiers, including returning Girls 7-9 year old champ Kelly Xu of Santa Monica who moves up to the 10-11 year old group and four other returning competitors from the event's 2014 debut.

Congrats to all involved and we look forward to seeing you at Augusta National!

Old Course Snags Another One: Add Rory To The Converted List

Add Rory McIlroy to the long list of elite golfers who have found the Old Course at St. Andrews lacking ("hated it" in McIlroy's case), only to play it more and more and fall in love.

From Doug Ferguson's AP notes column:

"Thought it was the worst golf course I've ever played," he said. "I just stood up on every tee and was like, 'What is the fascination about this place?' But the more you play it and the more you learn about the golf course and the little nuances, you learn to appreciate it. Now it's my favorite golf course in the world."

Mickelson vs. Watson Still In The Discovery Stage?

The spat between legendary Hall of Famers hasn't really subsided after Bob Harig's story outlined details of Tom Watson's unusual Ryder Cup behavior, with more unflattering details appearing in Jim McCabe and Alex Miceli's reporting. And yet the analysis feels like it's just scratching the surface.

John Hawkins wonders how "perhaps the greatest wind-and-rain golfer ever turn into such an accountability-dodging curmudgeon amid a foul-weather team atmosphere?" He also concludes that "Watson’s inability to cope with his team’s shortcomings amounts to a much larger and less excusable failure, a catastrophic breach of conduct by a guy who obviously knows better."

Tim Rosaforte talked with Morning Drive's Damon Hack Saturday about Tom Watson's Ryder Cup captain situation and revealed that Phil Mickelson had started bending PGA of America presidents ear at the Scottish Open about Watson's communication style as far back as June when Mickelson had been unsuccessful in talking to the Captain.

Jaime Diaz noted in his Golf World analysis that it’s telling “that as of Sunday, not one player or even assistant captain has publicly come to Watson’s defense” and also points out that the Europeans, while not thrilled with certain captaincies of late, have never broken ranks like the Americans did at Gleneagles and since.

Going forward John Barton thinks Steve Stricker has the makings of a successful captain based on this chart  capain's who are humble and who cares "deeply for his players and who isn't blinded by the size of his own ego" will be successful.

If you plot the 15 American and European skippers since 1985 on a graph, with passion on one axis and humility on the other, it's clear that the humble, passionate men generally win (McGinley, Olazabal, Woosnam, Langer, Torrance, Crenshaw, Stockton), while detached captains with big egos always lose (Watson, Faldo, Nicklaus, Trevino).

I talked with Gary Williams about how the generational gap was going to be an issue all along and also chatted about future captain's and it's hard to see an easier choice than Paul Azinger to commence a forthcoming era of continuity and with just a bit more structure. But as I pointed out, not too much. We wouldn't want to appear as desperate as the other guys!

A golf.com poll of Mickelson vs. Watson ended in a landslide at 694 votes, with Mickelson taking 80% of the votes.