Report: USGA Pace Of Play Summit Said To Be "Engaging"

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That's what Bradley Klein says after sitting through two days of Far Hills presentations on pace of play.

Since the plans for a live, pay-per-view simulcast still haven't materialized, we'll have to take Klein's word. He included this in his report discussing the amazing difference in pace depending on the spacing of tee times:

Yates is working closely with a number of golf associations on expediting flow and reducing bottlenecks, in part through more relaxed starting times that are separated by as many as 11 minutes. The effort has led the LPGA this year to reduce its average playing time by 14 minutes, from 4:54 to 4:40.

Finally, it sounds like the USGA has begun to compile data related to pace and green speeds, and Klein drops one of the first hints via Twitter of the shocking (shocking!) findings:

Not in his story but certainly the buried news item of the day:

Maybe this will allow for a greater focus on meeting #2 of the non-traditional means task force with Mark King and Bode Miller? The world anxiously awaits.

Commissioner Finchem: "Everybody talks about playing faster; that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

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As Commissioner Moonbeam enters the final two years of his reign heading the PGA Tour, we've officially enter the weird phase where he randomly says things that remind you it's time to start spending more time counting his millions.

Rex Hoggard quotes the Commish talking about the oddity of Team USA's Ryder Cup foursomes woes even as they dominate in Presidents Cup foursomes. The talk turned to how nice it would be if more foursomes was played in the U.S., in part because rounds are faster when played that way (not to mention it serves as a great social round). Great stuff!

But then the Commish just couldn't leave well enough alone...

To Finchem, however, the endless quest to make the game faster – even at the highest levels where it took more than five hours last week to play a round at the WGC-HSBC Champions … in threesomes – is akin to making molehills out of mountains.

“If you go to Augusta or Pine Valley or Cypress Point and you’re playing with some single-digit handicaps how long does it take you to play? Four hours,” he answered. “If it’s 4:15 (hours) or 4:20, you’re going to worry about shaving 10 minutes off [a round]? It’s not a driving factor. Everybody talks about playing faster; that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

This is true Commissioner, when you and your golf cronies play a once-in-a-lifetime course, why yes, you aren't in a hurry, but since that represents .01% of the rounds played in America, you have merely confirmed you've been in the bubble just a bit too long!

Couple this with his unspoken edict blocking your rules staff from issuing slow play penalties, and it really has become clear that Tim Finchem is the enemy of speeding up rounds.

Golfing Con Man Arrested After His Mother's Funeral

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You may recall the viral story from a year ago when an aspiring mini-tour pro was supposedly dropped by his sponsor because of a bible verse on his bag and professed love for talk show host Glenn Beck.

The story was eaten up by The Blaze, an online publication devoted to socially conservative causes which, amazingly, still has the story posted even after Ryan Ballengee exposed Cochran as a serial con man who had made his way through golf in multiple states from Florida to Nebraska, including a stint at The Prairie Club.

Ballengee reports that nearly a year after the above mentioned incidents, Cochran was arrested after his mother's graveside service in Michigan.



European 2016 Ryder Cup Captaincy Stakes: Miguel Angel's English, Darren Clarke's Unpredictability

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While most of the world focuses on the American response to a Ryder Cup loss, the first signs that Europe has concerns about their lead driver options in 2016 is highlighted in a couple of recent stories.

Sergio Garcia is quoted by Bernie McGuire as suggesting the most interesting man's English is poor enough that communication issues could be an issue when serving as a Ryder Cup captain.

“Becoming captain is different. From the time you get appointed there is more than a year-and-a-half of activities, engagements, interviews and so on that a new captain has to deal with.

“So it is important that everyone he speaks to over that period understands exactly what he is saying because words can be misinterpreted.

"Being a Ryder Cup captain is being the spokesman for the Tour and its sponsors – and then when competition gets under way there’s so many speeches he will have to handle.”

It wasn't an issue for Jose Maria Olazabal, who not only didn't communicate well with his players and exhibited questionable sportsmanship judgement, but lived to tell about it and is considered to have been a fine captain.

Meanwhile, Fleet Street has been quick to declare Darren Clarke the overwhelming favorite for the 2016 captaincy decision early next year, but Brian Keogh files one of those columns that we'll look to in a few years if a Clarke captaincy turns out to be a mess. Asking the "real Darren Clarke to please stand up," Keogh writes:

Few golfers have shown as many personas to the world as Clarke - genial and fun-loving one moment, laughing and smiling with cigar in hand as the people’s favourite, only to be transformed into a walking volcano for the waiting press, a brooding presence whose mood varied depending on his score.

So who’s he real Darren Clarke? The bleach blonde amateur in the two-tone golf shoes? The cigar-chomping, beer drinking lad with the gut, beloved of the lads down at the pub? The widower, the hard-worker or the hothead? Or the thin, white-haired Duke of our TV screens during the recent Ryder Cup?

Keogh goes on to detail Clarke's revisionist take on former buddy Paul McGinley and what that says about Clarke.