Gullane Must: Archie Baird's Heritage Of Golf Museum

/

Any golfers who have been to Scottish Open host Gullane only get the complete experience by visiting Archie Baird's Heritage of Golf museum.

While I'm not on the grounds yet at Gullane and am unsure what the museum's status is within the tournament setup, this Brandon Tucker story gives a nice synopsis of Archie's tribute to the game.

Baird especially enjoys talking about the golf ball, which went from an expensive, feather-core ball to a cheaper, more mass-produced ball made of a black, gum-like Gutta-Percha, just after 1850. This allowed the number of golf clubs in the world to go from just a handful to thousands by 1900.

The tour ends rather abruptly, as Baird notes:

"Then the modern, rubber-core ball came along in the 1920s, courses had to adapt to it, and I lost interest. Any questions?"

That's our man!

Here's a video taken by some American visitors...

Architecting A Plan For The Old Course In A Day And A Half

/

I wasn't surprised to read Jordan Spieth making an eloquent case for playing the John Deere Classic over getting to Scotland sooner to prepare for The Open. (Though a "good feels" reference was jarring to see in this Ryan Lavner piece. Then again, feels travel according to the feels maestro his ownself.)

More interesting was coach Cameron McCormick's assertion that a plan for attacking the most complicated course on the planet should be "architected" by Tuesday afternoon. Considering the number of players over time who have said they could never fully know grasp all there is to know about the Old Course and its changing winds, surprise bunkers and intricate contouring, dare I say this sounds a bit presumptuous?

From John Strege's report for The Loop:

“The other side of that is developing a game plan and acclimating to both time and weather conditions. Jordan’s always been a quick study — developing tactical intelligence, where the right places to be on the course — and with [caddie] Michael [Greller] amplifying that, I see no reason why he can’t have the right plan architected by Tuesday afternoon.”

Holly Sonders "Reassigned" To Postgame Show Role

/

I always thought Holly Sonders was hired by Fox Sports to be their Erin Andrews in the studio and sidelines, and after tough reviews for her U.S. Open interviews along with the horrible effort by Curt Menifee, the former Golf Channel star is headed back to the studio. Where she was always meant to be?!

Aaron Kasinitz reports.

"We're not reassigning Holly because she did a bad job," Fox's coordinating producer Mark Loomis said. "I think Holly's been great for us. It's just that she can't do both the postgame show and the interviews."

The show Sonders is set to host will be on-site at the Lancaster Country Club.

R.I.P. Jerry Weintraub

/

One of Hollywood's last moguls was a huge golf nut too. He held court at places like Madison Club and produced several popular films, including the Ocean's Eleven franchise. He golfed with Presidents Bush and Reagan and Sinatra too.

Jerry Weintraub died of heart failure at age 77.

Jerry Tarde recently wrote in Golf Digest about playing in a sixsome with Weintraub at Madison Club.

Golf in America's Jim Gray profiled Weintraub and talked to him about his storied career and philanthropy along with his love of the game.