Photos: Olympic Golf Course Looking Like A Golf Course

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Nice set of aerials Tweeted by the International Golf Federation account showing the Rio 2016 golf course growing in nicely one year out from the Games.

You can check them out at this link and enlarge each a bit.

Most encouraging here is that the native areas look decent, meaning a year from now they have the chance to have taken on a maturity that will look better.

Burrata! Tiger's New Restaurant Opens PGA Monday

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We'll find out just how devoted Tiger is to his golf if he doesn't roll into Whistling Straits until Tuesday. That's because Monday the 10th, The Woods Jupiter is opening for business.

I'm assuming the purveyor will be hosting some weekend soft opening events before jetting off to lovely Kohler, though the image of Tiger working the kitchen or as a backup waiter on opening night is fun. Albeit, unlikely. Then again, considering the now hiring signs posted, they may need some assistance.

He announced the opening date on Twitter with an image of a burrata and heirloom tomato appetizer delivered on a light dousing of olive oil and vinegar. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere, I just don't know what it is.

It's A Wrap For O'Grady; Pelley Takes Over European Tour

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As Commissioner Elton takes over the European Tour and the press (so far) opts out of tributes to his predecessor George O’Grady, Golfweek's Alistair Tait has some thoughts for new ET lead man Keith Pelley.

Tait wishes he had a webcam to see Pelley run the board's first meeting where rumors say he took them through a singalong of Bennie and the Jets before moving into a solo rendition of Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters for those on conference call from New York, Tait also credits Pelley’s predecessors for holding the entire operation together.

That doesn’t suggest Tait feels status quo should be the order of the day.

Pelley could focus on the immediate threat of a continued talent drain to the PGA Tour. More and more young players – Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan and Tommy Fleetwood, for example – look certain to follow in the footsteps of older peers and eventually base themselves in the U.S.

Despite the $185 million schedule, there are too many long stretches of the Euro Tour calendar with low-purse tournaments. That’s fine for the lower end of the food chain, but the big beasts need stretches of big money events in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe to entice them stay at home for longer periods of time.
Pelley has hopefully taken a look at the accounts, and wondered why the European Tour only makes money in Ryder Cup years and runs a deficit every other year. That’s clearly not good enough.

On the heels of a successful event at Murcar and hosted by Paul Lawrie, Martin Dempster asks the new man to order up more match play.

Video: Rory Trick Shot At Whistling! (And As Close As He'll Get)

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It doesn't sound like Rory McIlroy will defend his PGA Championship title at Whistling Straits, so assuming the world's worst kickabout-erer doesn't make it to the year's final major, we at least have two reminders of his brief time in Wisconsin:

(A) The Omega ad that has inexplicably resurfaced after having been designated for shipping to hostage relief teams across the globe for flushing out barricaded suspects.

(B) His trick shot appearance at PGA Championship media day with the Bryan Brothers. This would be a great chance to merge one negative with one positive and air it as 2015's endlessly played Omega ad, minus that grating song. Wait, sorry, I forgot about the blatant Bose ad to kick things off the trick shot video. Because nothing sums up the joy of media day like giant noise-cancelling headphones!

BTW the trick shots are fun, and so are the drone views of Whistling all set to stock music known simply as What We Think The Millennials Would Download If They Paid For Music, Theme.

Tiger: “Everything is kind of trending in the correct direction”

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More than the numbers, Tiger actually looked like someone who knew where the ball was going and even threw in a recovery shot like the good old days during the Quicken Loans National.

That said, the numbers were telling (in a good way, for a change) and Brian Wacker has a run down of them.

Steve DiMeglio notes Troy Merritt's maiden win and the impressiveness of following up a 61 with 67, but also had this on Tiger's week.

He caught a bad break on the first hole when his approach caromed off the flagstick and wound up 50 feet from the hole.

Instead of a kick-in birdie, he settled for a two-putt par. Undeterred, he started putting up red numbers two holes later. Hitting fairways and greens, Woods made five birdies in an eight-hole stretch to reach 10 under.

Then things started to fall apart. There was a missed 3-footer for par on the 11th, a drive into the hazard on 12, an approach spun off the green on 14. But there were far more ups the last four days than downs.

Ryan Reiterman at GolfChannel.com notes this about the final day:

But perhaps more importantly, Woods said after four rounds at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club he feels like he's turned a corner with his new swing under instructor Chris Como.

"I'm getting some speed back, which is nice," he said. "I'm starting to pump the ball out there again, and I know the lofts on my irons are very weak compared to today's standards. I'm hitting the ball up there with some of the bigger guys again ... I was able to make some putts, and the short game's becoming good again like it used to be."

The recovery shot is a YouTube favorite tonight:



The PGA Tour's highlight reels from the round: