Different Reactions To Boo's "It Sucks" Commentary

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Boo Weekley isn't a fan of the wraparound schedule and said so last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, a.k.a Mississippi's major.

Weekley's contention, at least after I ran it through a few Google translators, is that Commissioner Tim Finchem adds tournaments because he's incentivized to do so. And Weekley misses the old system of the fall events being about the hungry up-and-comers and veterans holding onto their cards.

"It ain't doing nothing, but it is what it is. It's supposed to be the players tour. It's Tim Finchem and them's tour is what it is."

Weekley has certainly benefitted from fall golf, as Jim McCabe points out in trying to put down Weekley for criticisms that almost assuredly earned the veterain tour player a fine.

During lean years, 2011 and 2012, Weekley was struggling and very much needed good play late in the year. The PGA Tour was there for him, offering fall events; Weekley played four of them in ’11 and four more in ’12.

Of course that was when tournaments were part of the same year's schedule and the events wrapped up the season on a very quiet, lowly rated note, not around it. But the difference is important: one is promising to be the start of a new year, the old system was merely wrapping up the season's business by dealing with the fates of the second tier player and offering sponsorship opportunities at a lower price for companies unwilling to pay the huge tab a standard tour event demands.

McCabe rebuts Weekley this way:

In 1980 the PGA Tour season consisted of 44 tournaments. In 2014-15 there were 47 tournaments. It’s still a lot of golf, only it’s packaged differently with the wraparound season, a concept that marquee names clearly don’t like. They’ve come to the realization that they might need to play two or three times in the fall, to avoid giving young and hungry players a massive head start, unless they want to roll the dice that they play extraordinary well in 15-19 tournaments starting in January or February.

At least this year. That's because 2016's schedule is a mess. Whether it's a trend or a one-off to compensate for next year's madness remains to be seen.

Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com considers the Weekley comments and says that world ranking points available for fall events are up this year, confirming McCabe's point. But Hoggard also notes this in reaction to Boo's comments about the reduced time for fishing due to the need to play some fall golf even after having secured his card:

With apologies to the man from Milton (Fla.), cutting into Weekley’s extracurricular outdoor activities is the least of the Tour's problems. Instead, rest and recovery are in short supply at the highest level and more than one Tour swing coach has lamented that the slim offseason window has made it virtually impossible to institute any meaningful changes to a player’s game.

It’s the Tour’s mandate to create playing opportunities for every member, but as is the case in most businesses, quantity doesn’t always equate to quality.

While I enjoy the different philosophic approach, the numbers are not lying. While the ratings about to be about the same as they were last year and maybe up just a tiny bit since the PGA Tour's fall events became leadoff events, the buzz simply isn't there. Fans are speaking with their remotes.

SportsTVRatings lists Saturday's live WGC-HSBC from Shanghai, with McIlroy, Spieth and other impressive names in the TV window, drawing a 94,000 viewer average over five hours. Granted, those are late hours for half of America, but the Presidents Cup was recently on in the middle of the night and drew big numbers because the "product" is different and compelling.

While it was noble (and maybe a contractual obligation), Monday afternoon's rain delay finish of the Sanderson Farms drew an average of 69,000 viewers. I could go on and on listing examples of fall events which are not showing the uptick suggesting these start-of-the-season events have been legitimized in the eyes of the most hardcore fans.

The fans do matter to the PGA Tour, right?

Van Sickle's Letter From Web.com Tour Second Stage Q-School

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SI/golf.com's Gary Van Sickle checks in from Web.com Tour second stage Q-School where his son Mike was paired with former U.S. Amateur Champ Bubba Dickerson and 2014 NCAA individual champion Cameron Wilson.

While we enjoy the glitz and glamour of big time PGA Tour golf, it's nice/sobering/interesting to hear from the trenches and Van Sickle collects a mix of anecdotes about Dickerson and his son. There is also this, in case you have any ideas...

Mike, 28, and a Pittsburgh resident, is a big hitter and said his drivers typically last less than a year before the face caves in.

"Who makes Thor’s hammer, I don’t remember that ever cracking," Mike joked. "I check my driver pretty closely during the year because of that and I try not to hit too many range balls with it. Because of that, I had a backup driver ready to come in from the bullpen, or the back of my car. The one that broke today made it well past the ‘best by’ date so I’ve been checking it pretty carefully."

He’ll be trolling online to see if there are any more 9° Classic 290 drivers on the market. Other than that, he had a quiet day. The pins at Southern Hills Plantation were in the toughest spots in three days and a stiffening breeze made the closing holes a little more challenging.

Finally! Twilight Rates Coming To A Major

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Finally!

Whether due to golfers being morning people, or the days at major championships just going on too long, it’s become a strange late-day sight to see sparse crowds.

The Masters and U.S. Open, where tickets are usually in high demand, have always seemed the best option for a twilight ticket, but it’s The Open striking first. This new £25 option for those arriving to watch golf from 4 pm to dark certainly helps make the high price of the standard ticket look more palatable and probably will appeal to a younger crowd a Open venues closer to large cities.

Phil Casey reports on this and the reduction in price for a normal ticket purchased in advance (Americans are often shocked to learn you can buy a ticket at the door for The Open, even at St. Andrews).

Odd: Rich Harvest Farms Drops Out Of 2016 LPGA Event

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Brainchild of Commissioner Mike Whan, the International Crown is one of the LPGA's bigger events thanks to a different format. Announcing the exclusive Rich Harvest Farms as 2016 host was considered a nice get for Whan, though architecture aficionados pan the course which was a Golf Digest panel favorite before it wasn't.

Now comes news the course is pulling out of the 2016 IC obligation less than nine months out, with no reason given but a funny comment from the LPGA Tour that they are open to future events there despite this uncomfortable situation. Right!

From the Len Ziehm, who notes developer Jerry Rich's interest in hosting events adding to the oddity of the last minute drama.

Teddy Greenstein says the event will stay in the Chicagoland area, possibly at Merit Club or Cog Hill.

The LPGA's statement:

LPGA & Rich Harvest Farms

The LPGA and Rich Harvest Farms have mutually agreed to relocate the 2016 UL International Crown.

Despite this decision, both parties remain open to future LPGA opportunities at Rich Harvest Farms based on the successful partnership in staging the 2009 Solheim Cup.

The UL International Crown will continue as scheduled July 21-24, and the LPGA stands committed to keeping the 2016 edition of the biennial match-play event in the Chicagoland area. The 2018 event will still be showcased in the Republic of Korea.

The LPGA is finalizing a new host venue and will comment further at the appropriate time.

Video: Ed Dougherty’s Incredible Story

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Longtime golf watchers will remember Ed Dougherty as both successful PGA Tour and Champions Tour player who came to the game after discovering it during his tour of duty in Vietnam. But now he’s battling Agent Orange-related leukemia that can be traced to his combat days.

Of all the excellent Veteran’s Day coverage, this powerful piece of work by Golf Channel producer Dominic Dastoli and hosted by Tim Rosaforte is well worth your time if you missed its live airing.

Spieth, Pharaoh Part Of SI's Sportsman Of The Year Final 12

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Richard Deitsch lists the 12 finalists for SI's annual Sportsman of the Year. Unlike some recent years when there was a by-default sensibility, this year has some incredible candidates.

Serena Williams might have gotten my vote if she wins the Grand Slam. But she just missed out so this looks like a two-horse race between American Pharoah and Jordan Spieth. Working against Spieth is that in the eyes of the casual sports fan, he's the early speed in this race. Having dominated golf through July (and then again at East Lake in October), Pharoah wins the Triple Crown in June, wins the Travers, made the trek to Saratoga where he lost (but had nearly 20,000 show up for a training session), then broke a track record by five seconds in a stunning Breeders Cup Classic win his first time against older horses.

Spieth recorded one of the greatest years in the history of golf's modern Grand Slam and the PGA Tour. Had Tiger gone 1-1-4-2 while winning a big pot of cash, he holds on to cross the wire before Pharoah. But given that I've sensed even golf people do not understand the significance of 1-1-4-2, the sports world probably doesn't fully grasp how difficult that feat was to accomplish. Just look at Deitsch's description of Spieth's year:

The 22-year-old Spieth had his coming-out party in 2015, becoming the second youngest golfer to win the Masters and youngest to win the U.S. Open. He recently regained the World No. 1 ranking after a top ten finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China.

Coming out party (2014). World No. 1 ranking regained (everyone on three, oy vey!).

In early voting at SI.com (warning, annoying autoplay video), the Kansas City Royals have a big lead over Pharoah, no doubt fueled by some clever vote campaigning by the Royals marketing department. Meanwhile 59% of the country not in Kansas, Missouri and two other midwest states, are voting for Pharoah:

Stevie's Still Trying To Explain Away The Slave Reference

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Looper Steve Williams took time away from his New Zealand book tour to email Steve DiMeglio of USA Today an even more elaborate explanation for his use of the slave word in reference to Tiger.

I'm not really sure this was necessary, but it's enjoyable imagining the behind-the-scenes effort to put this fire out. Take it away lawyers, I mean, Stevie:

“In this part of the world where slavery has never existed people use slave as a description of their service or work every day,” Williams wrote. “We use the word loosely down under. After reviewing the book several times before it was published it never crossed my mind to change the word. It merely was a description of how I felt about something and in no way in the context it was used does it suggest I was treated like a slave.”

Vijay! "Singh's battle against the Tour comes into focus"

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The lawyers are racking up big billable hours right now in Vijay vs The People Who Helped Make Me Rich, with the PGA Tour and the legendary golfer filing motions for a voluntary, non-binding dispute resolution hearing with a mediator.

As Rex Hoggard reports for GolfChannel.com, "the lawsuit reached a milestone last week with a flurry of filings," with over 130 filings posted to the public record with no shortage of redactions. Still, Hoggard was able to go through the filings to find some intriguing elements to the messy case brought by Singh.

There was this:

Some of the discovery offers a glimpse into the nuanced world of anti-doping, like an email exchange between Ty Votaw, the Tour’s executive vice president of communications, and a golf writer from the Associated Press who asked, among other things, if deer antler spray was on the Tour’s list of banned substances.

Votaw responded that, yes, deer antler spray is on the Tour’s banned substances list, when in fact it is not. The substance IGF-1, an ingredient found in the spray, is on the banned list, but not the product itself. It’s a nuanced distinction but central to Singh’s claim that the Tour was negligent in its handling of his case.

And then in the TMI HOF files, there was this image of Jason Dufner in the men's room reading the tour's warning regarding use of deer antler spray.

“[Dufner] said it was accidental how he read it,” Singh said in the deposition. “He was sitting in a can having a you-know-what and it was laying on the floor so he picked it up, and he was surprised that it was on it.

“He said if he hadn’t been in the can at that moment in time, he’d have never known that it was [on the banned list].”

Many items were redacted according to Hoggard. Just not that one.

"Stanford's McNealy recharging for run at wins record"

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Ryan Lavner files an excellent GolfChannel.com piece on Stanford's Maverick McNealy taking a brief golf reprieve after winning three of four fall events. That brings him within two individual titles of the school record held by Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers, leading to national intrigue for a measely school mark. There is also McNealy's assertion he might not turn pro after college, giving hope to what's left of that weird societal subset viewing the act of choosing to remain an amateur golfer on par with curing cancer and rescuing dogs from burning buildings.

Regarding McNealy's incredible summer and continued great play in the fall, Lavner writes.

How McNealy has been able to summon the goods while teetering on the edge of burnout can be traced back to smart preparation and an extensive journal that documents every practice session, round, tournament and year.

One entry in particular stands out, from his first fall tournament last year.

In the lead for the first time in his career, McNealy realized he had 2 ½ hours to kill before his final-round tee time. He can eat only so many breakfasts, and hit so many balls, so he developed a stretching routine that he has used ever since. For a half hour, in the hotel room or in the locker room, McNealy throws on his headphones and listens to music that slows down his internal tempo.

During that quiet time, he puts the next few hours in perspective: What do I need to do today? What does this round mean to me? Who am I playing for? The answer to the last question, always, is his teammates.

“It feels like everything slows down in my mind,” he said. “Physically, it feels like I’m getting ready for somebody to punch me in the stomach. There’s a tense feeling. And then there’s an intense focus on the target.”

Cabot Cliffs: Golf Digest's Best New 2015

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Here's the full slideshow on Golf Digest's "Best New" list, back in full force with panelist comments edited by Ron Whitten.

Sadly though, the first nine courses look like minor video game designs, mercifully capped off by the stunning 2015 Best New winner, Cabot Cliffs. But compared to where we were just a few years ago with too few courses to even have a "Best New" this is progress.

Cabot Cliffs course is designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

It's A Wrap: The Links At Petco Park, 1600 Rounds Later

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Monday night at Petco Park concluded with over 1600 rounds having been played inside the Padres home stadium. What turned out as a semi-publicity stunt/goodwill effort to share Petco with golfing baseball fans turned into something much larger. ESPN sent Kenny Mayne for a post-MNF feature, local newscasts around the United States showed footage and Golf Channel covered the madness.

What happened here that so intrigued people?

For starters, baseball stadium architecture has always shared similarities with golf architecture in reflecting tastes of the era in which they were built. In the last twenty years, fans have come to see baseball parks as statements about regional architecture. When the ballparks are so good that they become places of civic pride, they take on another level of interest.

Turns out that golfers, already armed with a critical eye, have quietly dreamed of hitting a shot from home plate over the center field wall just to confirm how short the distance is. For good measure, eight more holes meant five days of sold out golf at $50 for each round, with several thousand relegated to a waiting list.

It was surreal to be hitting shots inside a stadium and it all turned out to be shockingly safe. (A tent covered the home plate tee for safety). Every element of the experience was meticulously planned by the Padres, while Callaway handled all of the golf details. There isn't a thing I'd change except maybe the water hazards and even those provided a few laughs.

As for other parks in the future, the obvious dream locales include Fenway, Yankee Stadium, AT&T Park, Dodger Stadium and Wrigley. But this is no small undertaking and the buzz surrounding it may never match what just took place. But if you saw the clips of golfers inside their home park, the joys of this form of Stadium Golf were so great that any promotional value is bound to be superceded by golfer demand. Oh, and it's a nice way to sell a few season seats while reinforing the magic of two great American pastimes: golf and baseball.

My video report after playing the links:

If you're a millennial, this is the Skratch look at the course's creation, minus a mention of co-architect Johnny Rodriguez.

And just to show that there are no new ideas, Gary Player's group tweeted this epic shot of a stadium golf setting from 30 years ago. Take that Johnny!

 And Kenny Mayne just had to dive into one of the ponds.

 

Mayne's ESPN feature as only he can tell a story.

Forward Press: The Squeeze, Mexico & Water Week

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In the latest installment of the Forward Press, I marvel at and preview The Squeeze, supplanting Tin Cup on the Golf Channel schedule this week.

It's noteworthy that Golf Channel is the first landing spot for a theatrical release and that Tin Cup gets a break, even though a nice sized audience watches every time it airs (or a Nielsen family just really likes Ron Shelton's work).

On a serious note, Morning Drive is tackling the totally unsexy but utterly vital topic of water and golf. As I note in the Forward Press, Matt Ginella's visit to Goat Hill on Friday is what I'm most anticipating, but there are some really solid, meaty topics on tap for Tuesday through Thursday.

The rundown of topics and guests discussing the most important issue in the game.

While our segment was shortened because the Commish took his sweet time sharing his exciting news of a venue-less new Champions Tour stop, Matt Ginella and I only briefly discussed this most vital topic on Morning Drive.

Photo: Golf Course Gator Gets Python...

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I'm not really sure what's more unsettling about this photo from Fiddler's Creek Golf Course: the alligator as predator, or that there was a python of that size in the golf course lake.

Thanks to Andy Zunz for spotting and The Classics Country Club for sharing.

Our Member, Pat Aydelott took this great shot while playing Fiddlers Creek down the street from us. Pat - can you get closer next time so the photo isn't so grainy? Thank you! :-) Caption this!

Posted by The Classics Country Club at Lely Resort on Thursday, November 5, 2015