Nantz: "Bryson...has the capacity to utterly change golf"

CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz sat down for a Golf Digest My Shot with Guy Yocom and covered many Masters-related elements, including amateur Bryson Dechambeau's upcoming start. DeChambeau stopped by Nantz's house to talk Augusta, great Masters amateurs and to borrow DVD's of recent Masters.

Nantz feels Dechambeau "has the capacity to utterly change golf" and that a win by the amateur "would be a fulfillment of Bobby Jones' dream of glory going to the amateur."

Casey Reamer, the head pro at Cypress Point and a mentor to Bryson, asked if I would speak to him about the history of the Masters. It was an amazing two hours. He asked every question imaginable about every significant player in Masters history, with an emphasis on tales of amateurs such as Billy Joe Patton, Frank Stranahan, Ken Venturi and Charlie Coe. I have DVDs of all the recent Masters, and Bryson asked to borrow them, not for entertainment so much as to study hole locations, how putts break, where players were laying up on the par 5s. This young man is obsessed with winning the Masters as an amateur. His mind works in a unique, scientific way. It all reminded me of Bert Yancey and how he constructed clay models of the greens at Augusta and studied them. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this young man contend.

Kosher China Golf Course Still Demolished In Anti-Golf Crusade

The course in question--Orient Shanghai--had been approved for creation, passed the Songjang EPA tests and even hosted the LPGA Tour.

Yet as a reminder that golf is symbolic pinata for the Chinese government, the course was demolished in dramatic fashion last week.

From an unbylined Golf Industry report:

Orient Shanghai, the long-time host venue of the Shanghai Classic on the China LPGA Tour, was constructed adjacent to the upper Huangpu river off the Dagang exit of the Shanghai-Hangzhou highway. Previously, temporary fish farms occupied the site that was prone to flooding in the rainy season.

While club officials declined to talk about the matter, the reason for its closing is that the Huangpu is Shanghai’s source of drinking water and golf is seen as a pollutant. The government wants to see farming on the land that the course occupied.

Even though it's been polluted by the Royal and Ancient?

But according to an environmental study conducted by the club, local farmers use 20 to 30 times more fertilizers and pesticides than Orient Shanghai in its course maintenance. The irony of the club’s closure is that it went through the full Environmental Protection Agency permitting process and passed every test required by the Songjiang district EPA. 

Golf in China...it sounded so good on paper, too.

Happy Easter! Commish Finchem "Likely" Retiring By End Of '16

AP's Doug Ferguson reports that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has signed a one-year extension but plans to retire by the end of 2016, pending Policy Board approval of Deputy Commish Jay Monahan.

Ferguson writes:

"For every organization there is a time,'' said Finchem, 68, who began his tenure in 1994 and is just the third commissioner in the PGA Tour's history. "I could probably go on another five or six years. But I don't think that is best for the organization. I don't consider myself old. But I'm getting old.''

Oh 68's the new 60 Tim, except for the people you pushed into retirement at 60!

Monahan was named the tour's COO this week, which many assumed was a sign of Finchem hanging on a few years more to finish off two or three pet projects.

Monahan, former of Fenway Sports, figures to be more in the vein of Adam Silver (NBA) and Rob Manfred (MLB), bringing a modern sports fan perspective and a lot less aloofness. But more gray hair!

Update on 2016-03-27 20:57 by Geoff

**Alex Miceli at Golfweek.com with extensive quotes from Finchem about his plans, with the suggestion he could do the job another 5-6 years, but that it's time and Monahan will bring a new energy.

"The only remaining thing, candidly, when we named him two years ago was relationships, honestly, because relationships take a while to transfer,” Finchem said of Monahan’s professional development upon being named deputy commissioner. “So we've been working hard on that for a couple of years. You all know Jay. Making a relationship is a slam dunk for him.”

Gary Player On Tiger’s “Lessons” And Sleep Deprivation

My post at The Loop on Gary Player telling Colin Cowherd that Tiger shouldn’t have signed up for that series of buy five, get the sixth lesson free after winning the U.S. Open by 15, and sleep issues Woods told him about.

I guess what is said at the Champions Dinner doesn’t always stay at the Champions Dinner.