State Of The Game Podcast 55: Another Magnificent Masters

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Gil Capps, author of The Magnificent Masters and overseer of Golf Channel's Editorial Research Unit, joined us again to recap the Masters and talk about a few other matters with Rod Morri, Mike Clayton and myself.

Yes, we are a few weeks past the Masters but this is often the best time to reflect and I think you'll enjoy the discussion. Gil's book on the 1975 Masters is now available in paperback.

As usual, you can listen here, download the MP3 here, listen via iTunes or subscribe to the show there too. Or listen here:

EA Delays Rory Game To Open Championship Tuesday...

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Does this mean Rory McIlroy will be prepping for The Open on the typically exhaustive EA ad creation and promotional circuit? Following his pre-Masters workout regimen to get ready for his workout shoots?

Anyway, Nick Menta with the latest on the eagerly anticipated follow up to the dormant Tiger Woods/PGA Tour edition, including the addition of Jordan Spieth to the game.

Details about the game have been slow to emerge but EA did confirm Masters champion Jordan Spieth as the game's second playable character earlier this week. Confirmed courses thus far include TPC Sawgrass, Wolf Creek and Royal Troon.

For gamers, Luke Kerr-Dineen adds this:

But Thursday proved a significant development. EA officially finalized its July 14th release date, and released a new trailer showing graphics and some actual gameplay features. There will be three different playing options, the hardest being the “tour” mode. In that setting, users won’t be able to zoom into the green, and they’ll use the analog stick to control the power of their shots.

Noted!

The trailer, which I suppose highlights just how beautiful Rory's swing is. Or how all of those sensors just can't quite capture the grace and athleticism of his move.

“Tiger Woods Returns to Asia to Energize Young Athletes’ Love for Golf” (And Launch A New Design)

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Nike has announced (as expected) that Tiger will be making one of his goodwill tours of Asia replete with clinics (oh not the short game right now, please...) and no doubt to show the Swoosh to prospective customers.

And in the it's-a-mitzvah department, the April 24-25 trip will be preceded by Woods appearing in Beijing to confirm a lucrative course design gig in the land where golf is stalling, if not banned or illegal to build a course.

What a world!

Joe Buck On Fox's First Telecast: "It sounded like golf and it looked like golf.”

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Fox's Joe Buck talked about the first golf telecast last year from Fox Sports, which seems a bit more confident than the admirable "we're not worthy" homage paid to the other networks when kicking off last fall's Franklin Templeton Shootout.

Talking to Craig Hill of The New Tribune:

“Believe me, everybody was watching us — especially the networks that cover golf — and wondering what they were going to get from golf on Fox,” Buck said. “And I would submit to you that they came away really disappointed because it sounded like golf and it looked like golf.”

Buck said Shanks addressed the crew afterward and said, “That was the best launch of a sport we’ve had at this network.”

Fresh and innovative is the bar set for Fox by the USGA, which kicks off with the U.S. Four-Ball Championship in less than two weeks. Buck should probably leave the tech talk to Mark Loomis, the supervising producer whose team will inevitably deliver some fun stuff either this year or more likely, over the next few years.

Buck is excited to try new ways of covering golf, too. Fox Sports wants to use drones at Chambers Bay (it is awaiting Federal Aviation Administration approval), plans to have a leaderboard constantly displayed on the screen, is experimenting with cameras and angles in hopes of giving viewers a better idea of how the course plays and will use graphics to better show the contours of the greens.

Buck says Fox is also looking for ways to add more natural sound (including golfers’ conversations with caddies) to the telecast. It is sound he says he’ll be careful to not talk over.

And on some broadcast teams, that would be fresh and innovative!

Strange Times: NY Times On China's Golf Crackdown

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With Tiger Woods slated to announced his big Beijing design job on April 23rd, the recent stories out of China about golf crackdowns figure to make the wording of that announcement extra fun!

Thanks to all who sent Austin Ramzy's NY Times story on the crackdown, which leans quite a bit on the reporting and observations of Dan Washburn. (You can also listen to Dan on this episode of State of the Game.)

Dan Washburn, author of “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream,” said the crackdown was not surprising given the game’s reputation in China as a capitalist pastime and the extent of Mr. Xi’s prolonged campaign against corruption, which has toppled senior party and military leaders.

“This is Xi Jinping’s China, and it’s clear he’s intent on making his mark,” Mr. Washburn said. “Everyone’s a potential target in this ongoing crackdown on corruption, and golf is a particularly easy and obvious one.”

Washburn penned this CNN piece during Masters week with more insights into this utterly bizarre situation that has the government shutting down courses and politicians, but also funding golf because of its place in the Olympic Games.

In Guangdong province, the birthplace of golf in modern China, an investigative team has been formed to crack down on officials who took part in any of nine golf-related activities. There's even a public hotline for reporting suspected golf violations.

Over the past decade, however, not much seemed like it could get in the way of golf's meteoric growth in China. While it's been illegal to build new golf courses in China since at least 2004, no other country has built more of them over the past decade -- not even close.

Beijing would say new construction is banned, while at the same time local governments would line their pockets with the proceeds from the boom. There didn't seem to be too many rules in all of this, but one was especially important: When building a golf course in China, don't call it a golf course. One massive project of note was known as "ecological restoration."

Washburn speaking in this embedded clip: