Under The Knife: Pebble's Beach 14th Green

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John Strege reports that the long-anticipated but much-delayed restoration of Pebble Beach's 14th green is underway.

The scene of some memorable boondoggles in recent years, Chandler Egan's marvelous two-tiered green had become too severe with modern green speeds, rendering the front portion unusable for nearly two decades.

That will be changing with a move to 4,000 square feet of surface instead of the current, gulp, 3,200. Maintaining the original concept of the green seems to be the priority, reports Strege after talking to R.J. Harper.

"Through a collection of all the photos, we landed on something we think is the right way. We’re increasing it to the original size and we’re going to keep the general shape to the green. The big cavernous bunker remains, but we’re lowering the top lip that if your ball came down there it would shoot it to the back of the green. We're leveling off the upper part of the green, increasing square footing by going back, and recreateing the pin location back right that no longer had been available to us."

 John Maginnes Tweeted this photo of the construction:

" When Oscar De La Hoya says Donald Trump 'cheats in golf,' this is what he's talking about"

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There have been a few "I won't vote for Donald Trump because I've played golf with him" stories, but also one Lou Holtz endorsement because he loved the service at a Trump golf property. Politics is dirty business!

Still, Oscar De La Hoya sharing his golf story from a day with the presumptive nominee at Trump National Los Angeles--as written up by Lance Pugmire of the LA Times--is fun to visualize. I'm just teasing you with the punch line...hit the link for the full story.

“We get up there [to the green] and he’s like, ‘Oh, my ball’s right here!’ Three feet away. ‘And by the way, I’m going to pick it up, it’s a gimme,’” De La Hoya said.

“You don’t do that in golf,” De La Hoya said, adding there were no side games in play where money was exchanged.

“No money at all, how can I win?” De La Hoya said. “I’m not [voting] for someone who cheats in golf.”

Of course, another former President was known to fudge the mulligan rules. Oh, and his wife will be running for President against Trump. What a world.

Nice: Chandler Egan's 1904 Olympic Medals Found, On Display

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Nice work by Dave Shedloski to tell the story of Chandler Egan's medals having been found by his family and handed over to the USGA for display in Far Hills and the U.S. Open, before moving on to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Longtime readers know about Egan, the actual architect of Pebble Beach as we know it who, for mysterious reasons, is ignored by historians who apparently aren't as enchanted with his story as they are with the Neville/Grant/amateurs-make-good story. But Egan's life in golf was pretty impressive: Harvard man, Olympic medalist, U.S. Amateur champion, NCAA individual champion (and three time team winner), golf architect, beloved friend of Bobby Jones, etc.

Shedloski writes at GolfDigest.com:

Until a year ago historians believed that none of the individual medals from the golf competition in the 1904 Olympics at Glen Echo Country Club in St. Louis still existed. That changed when the silver medal of H. Chandler Egan, former U.S. Amateur champion, was discovered (along with his team gold medal) in the bottom of a bookcase in the former home of Egan’s daughter in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, about 25 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Rory Season Is Upon Us, Will He Step Up?

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Rory McIlroy's game has been as good as ever at times but just a bit off too much to be racking up wins, but as I note in this week's Forward Press, the Wells Fargo Championship this week kicks off Rory's month.

Besides returning to Quail Hollow where he posted at 61 last year en route to winning, McIlroy then has two events he finds less compelling--The Players and BMW PGA--along with the Irish Open he hosts. We should have a pretty good idea where his game stands by month's end.

That and TV times on Wednesday's National Instruction Day, NCAA Men's Regional selections on Morning Drive, the European Tour and LPGA Tour this week.

SI's More Magnificent-Than-Normal Player Poll

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Sports Illustrated's annual anonymous players poll is always fun, but the questions were more clever than ever this year and the responses are all worth looking at as long as you can handle the motion sickness that comes with reading golf.com.

You won't be shocked to know that the male players are not Hillary fans, but the LPGA's finest also don't sound too excited. In the "If you were to be in a bar fight" question, Ernie edged Keegan. Congrats guys, you are considered the most likely to do damage when inebriated!

There are also some epic quotes--"I have a Twitter, but I have never twittered"--

The most alarming question may have been the apparent hostility many players have for paying caddies 10% after a win.

Does the caddie deserve 10% of a winner's check?

PGA TOUR

Yes 67%
No 33%

Loose Lips: "Maybe more like 8%."

The Donald seems to be embraced by the players, with Trump Doral surviving 45% to 39% in favor of keeping the Doral event. In the voting booth, Trump carried the PGA Tour votes 34% to 22% for Undecided.

The other shocking result that speaks to the vitality of the almighty dollar: players would rather win The Players than an Olympic medal.

The Players or a gold medal?

The Players 62%

Gold 38%

The Texas Open or a gold medal?

Gold Medal 76%

Texas 24%

Stuard's Historic Putting Performance Salvages Zurich Classic

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Let's not sugarcoat this one: the 2016 Zurich Classic was pretty much a nightmare on all fronts thanks to horrible weather and players who didn't seem to be in a big hurry to finish Monday with another storm on the way. That slow play at least prompted some great on-air moaning from the always-morbid Peter Kostis, who had to stay another day on swampier-than-normal New Orleans.

(Bad news too, the tournament is not going anywhere as (Jeff Duncan at the Times-Picayune explains).

And while a 54-hole win is not as great as a 72-hole win, especially wearing a t-shirt under a golf shirt, the stats from playoff winner Brian Stuard help justify the win and all that comes with it:

He's also only the fourth tour even winner with a perfect scrambling record (20 for 20).

Stuard also found time after his win to talk to A.J. Voepel about the big day:


The final round highlights: