Sharp Park Notches Yet Another Victory...

Someday there will be a medal of some kind for Richard Harris, Bo Links and everyone else who has fought to save Alister MacKenzie's Sharp Park and maybe even see it restored some day.

The evidence is in the latest Hail Mary attempt by the one-man band left trying to stop a restoration of wetlands and someday, the course.

From the SFPublicGolf.org site:

Wild Equity, a small environmental litigation firm founded by a former staff attorney of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, brought the lawsuit to stop San Francisco from installing concrete pier footings and a retaining wall at a pump house at the southwestern corner of the golf course. The concrete work was only a small portion of a dredging and pond-building permit approved in April by the Coastal Commission. The project is intended to improve the habitat for protected frog and snake species at the golf course, while reducing flooding risk to the golf course and a neighboring residential development. Wild Equity’s lawsuit named the Coastal Commission and San Francisco as defendants; the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance joined the lawsuit as an intervening defendant, to represent the interests of the public course golfers and historic preservationists who treasure the venerable golf links.

This is the fourth time in recent years that the courts have rejected environmentalist groups’ challenges to operations at Sharp Park Golf Course. The United States District Court, Northern District of California in 2012, and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and San Francisco Superior Court in 2015 all dismissed prior law suits. Lawyers at San Francisco-based Morrison Foerster have represented the Intervener San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, on a pro bono basis, in all the lawsuits.

Same Length Irons: Will DeChambeau Start A Trend?

Here's a smart and timely filing from Mike Stachura at GolfDigest.com tackling the question many have in the wake of Bryson DeChambeau's powerful US Amateur win, watched by several thousand: what about the same-length shaft idea for my game?

Stachura does a nice job explaining the backstory of DeChambeau's thinking behind his club set, his Edel Golf created clubs and the history of such ideas. And boy did this bring back a deeply buried memory that made me feel very old:

In the late 1980s, Tommy Armour Golf pushed a set of irons called E.Q.L., based on the idea of a single swing. These clubs were built to 6-iron length. That set never gained real traction, perhaps in part because the company’s 845 irons were exceedingly more popular. While there is something of a technology lull in the iron market today, Dechambeau’s method is at least getting some buzz.

But before you head out and cut all your iron shafts to 7-iron length, you better recognize that you’re going to need more than one adjustment to make it work. And it might be an adjustment that standard golf clubs can’t possibly make.

“We are all used to swinging a golf club that’s basically D0 to D4,” Choung says. “So if we just arbitrarily cut these things down and didn’t have the ability to adjust the weights on it, you could end up with a 3-iron that’s super stiff with a swingweight of C3.”

Scenarios, Schenarios! Tiger (And Gore) Turning Back Clock

With Jason Gore vaulting into the Wydham Championship lead on the back of a Saturday 62, we've moved the retro vibe to circa 2005 from Friday's 1999 feel when Davis Love was hanging around (and still is).

With a final hole three putt Tiger Woods took him out of the final pairing with old SoCal buddy Gore, who gets the formidable Jonas Blixt instead.

Bob Harig at ESPN.com on Woods' Saturday 68 where the putting let him down, but the "stinger" made a high profile return to PGA Tour golf.

"It was a grind today,'' Woods said. "Like yesterday, kept leaving myself above the hole seemed like on every hole. I had to putt so defensively because of it. I couldn't get on the run that Jason and Jonas did. I just didn't put myself in the right spots.''

And that's where he looked like the old Tiger. Sweating profusely. Annoyed. Knowing an opportunity had been missed.

Woods at times appeared to be hurting, but never when taking a swing, which was powerful and forceful throughout. If there is an issue, Woods would only say that "I'm stiff,'' a day after joking that "I'm old.''

Gore talked after the round about his disdain for those who treated Woods like a 20-handicapper (though his Index was about 10 in February if he had completed rounds to turn in). And Woods talked about how he missed out on a Sunday pairing with Gore.

Brentley Romine at Golfweek.com writes:

A 2-under 68 leaves Woods at 13 under, just two back of Gore, against whom he used to play junior and amateur golf when the two were growing up in California.

"We go back 30 years," Woods said. "We're great friends and from junior golf into college and into the pro ranks. He's always been a great friend, and it's going to be fun for us to battle like this because we haven't done it basically since college."

Ryan Reiterman at GolfChannel.com focuses on Woods’ putter cooling off Saturday, with 31 putts and a three putt on 18.

And John Strege noted this comment from CBS announcer Peter Kostis.

“I think this golf course has a lot do with Tiger being in a good way this week,” CBS’ Peter Kostis said. “It’s a golf course that doesn’t require power, only drive it maybe five times. It allows him to keep his tension and rhythm under control.”

Yet when Woods pulled driver on Saturday, he quickly collected his tee, a sure sign that he was in control. “I feel like I'm swinging well enough right now that I want to hit driver more often, ironically enough,” he had said on Friday.

Oh yes, and there are FedExCup ramifications for both, in case you were wondering. There's a chart up above and Helen Ross hopefully gets double overtime pay for updating us on the scenarios.