In golf construction art and utility meet; both are absolutely vital; one is utterly ruined without the other. GEORGE THOMAS
It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
Mark Whicker talked to players at the Careerbuilder Challenge about Justin Thomas' record scoring in Hawaii and what the increase in 59s all means for the game.
“Larry Nelson won the U.S. Open at Oakmont (in 1993),” Dufner said. “He told me that on the first hole, he’d hit four-iron into the green. Last year I hit pitching wedge three days, sand wedge the other day.”
William McGirt has many great insights about distance and Trackman.
In 1998, John Daly led the tour by averaging 298 yards. Last year, there were 27 pros who topped 300. This year, Smylie Kaufman leads with an impossible average drive of 322.
Any course with mundane par-5s is helpless. Luke List is already 50-under-par on the long holes this season.
“People will say the golf ball doesn’t go any farther, but they’re wrong,” McGirt said. “The drivers can’t get hotter. The ball is the only common denominator with all the shots.
“They’ve basically taken an old two-piece, hard-brick ball and made it spin. That benefits the bombers. They can get to the core and compress it better than anyone. I can’t do that, but I have a ball I know I can control.”
Oh boy, blaming the ball. That'll get you sleeping with Luca Brazi and the fishes!
But as I noted this week on Golf Central (below), Trackman is now an underrated element in the overall improvement of player skill and distance.
“It detects a flaw before it gets out of control,” McGirt said. “If your swing is a degree and a half steeper than it should be, you can fix it before it becomes four degrees. You look at it and scratch your head and say it looks the same, but it’s not. Video doesn’t pick everything up.
“Because of this, I don’t have to have my teacher (John Tillery) with me all the time. I can hit 40 shots and e-mail them, and he can pull the numbers and say, here’s what the problem is. But some guys get caught up in it. They might start playing numbers instead of playing golf.”
John Feinstein and I discussed this very topic on Golf Central, including the Trackman component in today's improved scoring.
The New York Times' Karen Crousecatches up withSam Saunders, who had a dreadful fall when he lost both of his grandfathers while also having to withdraw from the Web.com Tour Playoffs to care for his ill child, Ace.
But Saunders is back playing the Web.com Tour and able to reflect with great strength about what must be such a tough topic: his unexpected last call with grandfather Arnold Palmer.
He was caring for Ace on Sept. 25 when Kelly reminded him to check in with Palmer, who was in a hospital in Pittsburgh preparing for surgery.
Saunders knew his grandfather would appreciate hearing from him. Since the death in 2003 of Mark McCormack — Palmer’s friend and business manager, who slipped into a coma after going into cardiac arrest while having minor surgery at a dermatologist’s office — Palmer had stubbornly resisted any medical procedure that required anesthesia, including hip replacement.
“For a guy who seemed so tough, he was scared of that,” Saunders said.
Palmer answered on the first ring, and their brief conversation sounded no alarms with Saunders, who said he was caught completely off guard when his father called a few hours later to relay the news that Palmer, 87, had died.
Really fun deep dive read here fromJim McCabe, in a special to PGATour.com, writing about Arnold Palmer's final PGA Tour win.
It came at a special Bob Hope Classic that brought Jack Nicklaus to the desert and one that Palmer would call "the sweetest ever."
A teaser:
Palmer and Nicklaus were together on the tournament’s eve to break ground on a golf course project they were co-designing (now Ironwood Country Club), but they were miles apart in Round 1 at Indian Wells.
In the Los Angeles Times, the great Jim Murray called Palmer and Nicklaus “the prime minister and emperor of golf,” but it didn’t appear as if they were competitors any more, at least not until Palmer outscored Nicklaus, 66-70, in the second round at Tamarisk Country Club.
That left Nicklaus at 134, three ahead of Palmer and a Monday qualifier named Allen Miller. Joked Miller: “What are all those unknowns doing up there with me?”
“The Hope” was competing for space in the L.A. Times with the legendary Steve Prefontaine, who beat Marty Liquori in the mile at the Times Indoor Games.
Granted, he was the legendary Tom Nieporte of Winged Foot, but as Tom Cunneffwrites for Golf.com, he is believed to be the last legitimate sweater-folder to beat the flatbellies.
Cunneff writes of the 1967 Bob Hope Classic:
After all, Nieporte wasn’t even a tour pro when he won the Hope at age 37. He was the head pro at Piping Rock Golf Club on Long Island when he outplayed the likes of Palmer, Nicklaus, and Floyd at La Quinta Country Club. After opening with a 76 that left him 10 shots off the lead, Nieporte carded three 68s to trail defending champ Doug Sanders by one shot heading into the fifth and final round. With an estimated 30,000 spectators on hand enjoying a perfect day in the desert, Sanders was still a stroke ahead after nine, but Nieporte’s 25-foot birdie putt on 11 pulled him even. Another birdie on 18 from 12 feet gave him a one-shot lead at 11 under par. Playing a hole behind Nieporte, Sanders had a chance to tie him on 18 and force a playoff, but his long birdie attempt just missed.
Anyway, McIlroy counters that they hit up on the ball and given what Trackman tells us, and the way Rory drives the ball, his pushback Tweets made sense.
Of course, this is reminscent of the days when Jack Nicklaus used to feud with Jim Flick over backswing footwork, or when Lee Trevino once nearly came to blows with Harvey Penick over the true meaning of Take Dead Aim. Just kidding!
@McIlroyRory Pretty sure it does too, (as evidenced by the best driver ever) hence why I argue against forward shaft lean w/ the driver. pic.twitter.com/J6uOEo0lR6
@chambleebrandel Last thing I'll say on this... my hands are ahead at impact and I'm at least 3 degrees up with my driver. There's more than one way to do it pic.twitter.com/pRPLnb89y1
Thanks to reader ST who stumbled on this middle-of-the-night, past-deadlines European Tourposting of major membership regulation changes that will impact the Ryder Cup and many players who juggle time on multiple tours.
The key element: four (instead of five) European Tour sanctioned events outside of the majors and WGC's must be played to qualify for Ryder Cup eligibility. There is more.
Firstly, there will be a greater weighting for points earned in tournaments in the latter stages of the process to help ensure the European Team reflects those players in form nearer the time of The Ryder Cup itself.
Race to Dubai points and World Ranking points earned in these tournaments will be multiplied by 1.5 for the two respective qualification lists with the first counting event to benefit from this increased weighting in the 2018 season being the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. With the 2018 schedule not as yet finalised, the last counting event in the quest to make Thomas Bjørn’s team bound for Le Golf National in Paris in September 2018 is not confirmed, but the starting point will be the D+D Real Czech Masters at the Albatross Golf Resort in Prague from August 31 – September 3, 2017.
This is an obvious reaction to so many players not sniffing the 2016 team while playing so well, or, in the case of Thomas Pieters, requiring a captain's pick.
Secondly, following the introduction of the Rolex Series, no Ryder Cup qualification points will be available from tournaments staged anywhere in the world played in the same week as these events in both 2017 and 2018.
Pelley!
Nice move by the Chief to protect his newly-announced series of events and to offer a little more incentive. Now the bad news...
While this change takes into account the significance of the Rolex Series for the European Tour, it also recognises it will mean fewer qualification points being available globally outside of these tournaments, hence Captain Bjørn will have an extra wild card pick at his disposal for the 2018 team – the third change. It means the 12-man European Team for The 2018 Ryder Cup will comprise the first four players from the European Points List, followed by the leading four players from the World Points List and completed by four wild cards.
This is the most disappointing concession to the increasingly absurd glorification of captains. It's hard to imagine after the first two improvements that many players will be heartened by better qualifying rules while one less qualifying spot is offered.
Darren Clarke reluctantly took Thomas Pieters over Luke Donald. With a fourth pick, is he taking Donald over Russell Knox? If I were betting I'd say yes.
Here's a fun little back room preventive measure for an unforeseen scenario:
Furthermore, the committee also introduced a new regulation stating that players cannot be a European Ryder Cup Captain or a Vice-Captain if they decline membership of the European Tour or fail to fulfil their minimum event obligation in any season, from 2018 onwards.
Kudos to MyGolfSpy for reporting the likely demise of Costco's Kirkland ball sold for so little and performing so admirably. I've been trying to track down details on the Kirkland story and my reporting mirrors that of MyGolfSpy in all but one key area. This we agree on: it's unlikely we'll see Costco replicate such a ball at the same price.
Our source inside Costco has not responded to our calls, however, a source familiar with the situation has told us that Costco has suspended production of the Kirkland Signature until further notice. Whether you want to call it a shortage or a total outage, the lack of Kirkland golf balls available to the consumer is being blamed on supply chain issues.
We're told that, internally, Coscto is saying that production will resume at a later date (and that an email will be sent to customers when stock is available), but we have good reason to believe that is an unlikely scenario.
Essentially Costco was the recipient of a one-time bargain-buy on golf ball cores that allowed them to produce the ball inexpensively. Any Trader Joes shopper knows that vineyards with extra stock but not wanting to taint their brand selling their wine at a lower price will sell otherwise nice product to the chain. Trader Joes then slaps their label on what amounts to limited editions, tells us where the grapes were grown and teases us about its heritage without ever outing the vineyard. Some of the wines are better than others, but they are almost always an excellent value.
So which vineyard dumped these cores on Costco at a low, unlikely-to-be-replicated price? Covey writes:
A representative of Nassau Golf (originally listed as the manufacturer of the Kirkland Signature Ball on the USGA conforming list) has told MyGolfSpy that Costco purchased overruns of Nassau's European-market-exclusive Quattro ball. There is some indication the sale was made through a third party, and that Nassau may not have been directly involved in the deal. The same source confirms that while the Costco balls have a different core color, the material composition and layer thickness are absolutely identical to the Quattro.
With the initial supply of overruns exhausted, Costco effectively has nothing left to sell.
Multiple sources I contacted felt that cores were from an overrun of Taylor Mades that needed to be disposed of when Adidas demanded that their subsidiary squeeze cash out of anything they could. The intent was not to disrupt the industry, but instead to cash in however they could on unused inventory. When GolfWRX noted the initial frenzy and MyGolfSpy's review hit, the ball became a disruptor.
Covey does note that the Kirkland ball's manufacturing location is now back to its mission of making Taylor Made golf balls and that a similar situation to the 2016 "K-Sig" is unlikely anytime soon, if at all.
I mention TaylorMade in particular because the company's tour balls are produced at the same factory as the Costco/Nassau balls, and there are some indications that production of new TP5 has pushed smaller companies to the back of the production line. Even if Costco otherwise had the capability to produce balls immediately, which it appears it doesn’t, the K-Sig wouldn’t be given priority over larger brands and long-term customers.
So what have we learned from this brief disruption of the ball market?
--MyGolfSpy'sreview was incredibly powerful, GolfWRX once again fueled interest in a product and the tide may have turned for golf equipment reviews. As other sluggish traditional publications sat on the sidelines, perhaps for fear of upsetting major manufacturers or simply because Costco is not a potential advertiser, independent internet reviews fueled the frenzy. (GolfWRX first posted about a "frenzy" on October 28th and while Mark Crossfieldonly posted a review three days ago, internet influencers established even greater power thanks to the Kirkland ball.)
--A lot of people don't like Titleist. There was much behind-the-scenes joy at Titleist facing a scary competitive hit around the time of their IPO. Some of the hostility could be chalked up to their longtime spot atop golf ball sales. Some of the glee was over the incredible brand loyalty Titleist inspires. Some of it related to their hostile position toward distance rollback advocates. But most hostility centered around about the price of a dozen ProV's compared to others and was aired on forums. However...
--A lot of people don't know what goes into the cost of a golf ball. The anger ignored how much Titleist and other major manufacturers spend on R&D and manufacturing in the USA. That's right, unlike the Costco ball, we are talking about an American made product. I was amazed how many golfers were not aware that ProV's and Callaway Chrome Softs are made in Massachusetts by American workers. If you like to buy "Made in the USA" products, this episode was an eye-opener.
--Costco now looms as a potential market disruptor under the right conditions. Yes, it took some luck and timing, but they do have the ability to inflict temporary damage on major manufacturers. On the other hand, the episode may have legitimized them as a seller of golf equipment of any kind.
--Golfers and their brand loyalties were tested. Many pushed back on Twitter at my intial skepticism over the long term success potential of the ball. I questioned whether golfers could announce they were playing "a Kirkland 3 on the first tee." While I'm all for anything that lowers prices and increases competition, common sense says most golfers are attracted to their favorite brands for reasons both sane and insane.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
Many things stood out, so I'm just clipping the most intriguing. The entire piece is worth your time.
