When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Congrats to Scott Harvey and Todd Mitchell in making it to match play in every U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship since the event started in 2015. The two 40-year olds are in Wednesday’s semi-finals at Bandon Dunes’ Old Macdonald, reports David Shefter for USGA.org.
Sadly, with the event the same week as the U.S. Women’s Open, the four-ball at Old Macdonald can’t be seen in video coverage or Fox Sports coverage.
Off the top of my head the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier in England has gone well into the twenties for WD’s many times over the years, with 23 the most I can find. Some were non-starters and some gave up the, uh, dream, midway through efforts to make it to the U.S. Open.
But I can’t recall more than half a field WD’ing, with five having posted sub-70 opening rounds. Ultimately, 18 of 33 WD’s at the Kuwana Country Club qualifier gives the Europeans a new high water mark to shoot for Monday at Walton Heath.
Because, after all, if there is a course you just can’t get off of fast enough, it’s the brilliant and beautiful Walton Heath.
Given the long journey to Pebble, the 40% chance of rain (but comfortable temps), the “teams” telling their player to protect energy levels and the incredible consistency of WD’s at the England qualifier, I like the chances for a new record (of futility) Monday.
With all the player whining about USGA purses in Golf Digest’s U.S. Open confidential, it’s noteworthy that the U.S. Open’s will both have the largest prize funds in championship golf (the $12.5 million for the men ties the Players). The PGA Championship did not increase its purse this year, sticking with $11 million, while the R&A has not announced an increase to the 2019 Open fund that will already be low with a weakened pound.
On the women’s side, the KPMG LPGA jumped to $3.5 million in 2017 and has seen bumps each year, now sitting at $3.85 million in 2019.
For Immediate Release:
USGA Solidifies Largest Purses Among All Major Championships
Prize money to be raised by $500,000 for 2019 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open
LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (May 28, 2019) – The United States Golf Association (USGA) today announced that it will increase the purse for both the 119th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links and the 74th U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston by $500,000, furthering its commitment to provide competitors with an unmatched championship experience.
The purse for the 2019 U.S. Open will be $12.5 million, making it the largest of all major championships. This year’s U.S. Women’s Open purse will total $5.5 million, positioning it as the largest in women’s golf and ensuring that its champion – provided that she is a professional – will receive $1 million for the first time.
The announcement builds on substantial investments the USGA has made in all of its Open championships. Along with the debut of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2018, which provides the largest purse in senior women’s golf at $1 million, the organization hosts the U.S. Senior Open, which also leads its demographic with $4 million in total prize money.
The USGA also provides a portion of the purse to all professionals who miss the cut at all four Opens. Amateurs in the field, a number that nears 30 in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, receive reimbursement for travel expenses incurred during the championship week.
“The USGA is committed to providing an unparalleled experience to every player competing in its championships,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director, championships. “Through strategic investments in our player relations program, we are continuing the effort to create a competitor experience commensurate with the game’s most prestigious championships, and that includes an increased purse and a continued commitment to make playing in an Open championship unforgettable for the world’s top amateur players.”
In March, longtime PGA Tour player and four-time U.S. Open competitor Jason Gore was hired as the association’s first senior director, Player Relations. His primary role focuses on interacting with professional and elite amateur players across the game, particularly competitors in the USGA’s Open and amateur championships. He also leads a full-time staff dedicated to player relations, including Liz Fradkin, who in her new role primarily focuses on women’s championships.
As someone who has done his share of USGA, uh, critiquing, I found the Golf Digest “USGA Confidential” an interesting read at times. However, I can’t help but think most readers will come away finding golf pros and their “teams” to be inconsistent, a tad greedy and unsatisfiable even in the face of obvious mistakes, some of them colossal ones.
Particularly since the elephant in the room—regulating a distance explosion overwhelming courses—is a non-starter for a large percentage of players.
By the end of their venting, I was exhausted, in part because no single person willingly putting their name on such strong views. The totality could leave some readers USGA-sympathetic and annoyed by the understandably-annoyed golfers.
The headline-maker from the impressive effort of gathering 57 voices—35 current players and 16 major champions—was talk of an organized U.S. Open boycott. An unnamed player named names of potential boycotters:
MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNER: We had about 10–15 guys who were willing to sit out after 2016. Some of them were big names—Dustin was one, Rory was another.
ANOTHER MAJOR CHAMPION AND FORMER WORLD NO. 1: I was prepared to do it [take part in a boycott]. Absolutely.
ANOTHER MAJOR CHAMPION: I was one of them.
MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNER: I would have boycotted if it had come to that. If it wasn't a major, I wouldn't play it, and a lot of other guys feel that way.
MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNER: I figure we needed about 25 guys, and I think we could have gotten there based on what I was hearing from players. Really, just one would have done it, but Tiger wasn't playing at the time. Without us, they don't have a tournament.
Actually, it’s a 156-player field with a majority of the spots earned by qualifiers and would have continued on with the same purse and 156 players.
That the “stars” of the game think they could somehow shut down the U.S. Open, yet are unwilling to sign their name to the view, suggests a level of isolation from reality that might run deeper than we imagined.
Sorry boys, but only one player on the planet pulling a protest no-show would have significant meaning.
As for course setup issues, this collection speaks to the can’t-win issues facing the USGA in trying to balance a sense of fairness, difficulty and creativity in a game overwhelmed by modern distances.
MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNER: I miss the U.S. Opens of old, where you had narrow fairways and thick rough, and it tested everything.
FORMER EUROPEAN RYDER CUP CAPTAIN: The old DNA was worth defending. It had always been that way. The majors should pose different questions. The Open is about the weather. The Masters is about the course. The PGA is a more difficult PGA Tour event. And the U.S. Open is about narrow fairways. What makes Grand Slam winners so great is that they've passed all four tests.
WINNER OF MORE THAN 20 EUROPEAN TOUR EVENTS: The U.S. Open was always the fairest of the four majors. It was tough, but only bad shots were punished. As we saw at Paris [in the 2018 Ryder Cup], that's the way forward.
FORMER EUROPEAN RYDER CUP CAPTAIN: The Ryder Cup last year was more about accuracy, and the Americans couldn't hit the ball straight. At Erin Hills, the fairways were 60 yards wide. That's not a U.S. Open. But the USGA has adapted to the modern game rather than making the game adapt to the U.S. Open. If a 280-yard drive straight down the middle was most beneficial, no one would be hitting drives 350 yards. Straight should be as important as long.
MULTIPLE EUROPEAN TOUR WINNER: The wide-fairways thing is not working. Too many guys have no chance if you don't hit it 350 yards off the tee.
Got all of that?
Finally, the notion of the USGA building permanent, 8,500 yard venues on the coasts, first floated by CBS’s Peter Kostis many years ago, offered up the world’s golf architects for free to design the facilities and end the practice of going to golf’s iconic venues. Of course, it’s a fine idea in terms of practicalities but a dreadful notion to throw out history, character and golf’s ties to its past so that distance can go unregulated.
Kostis surfaced with the idea again, followed by many more who reinforce how all of this whining, inconsistency and silliness could all be solved with a 10% reduction in distance and a foot or so off the Stimpmeter speeds.
TEACHER OF MULTIPLE MAJOR CHAMPIONS: I said this a long time ago and was ridiculed: I would prefer for the USGA to buy land on the East Coast of the U.S. and on the West Coast of the U.S., then build two facilities for the U.S. Open. Each would have four courses. And each one would be designed to present the examination they wish to present to the players. If they want tight fairways and long rough, so be it. They're entitled to conduct their championships any way they want. So build courses to fit that ideal, whatever it might be. If they did that, they would stop ruining the classic courses by trying to jerry-rig them.
Like I said, there is a lot to Digest in this one and most of it leaves you wondering if there are many Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and a few others who will put the game above themselves.
In a special contribution to Golfweek, historian David Normoyle has filed a fantastic read on Country Club of Charleston, host of this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Some of Seth Raynor’s boldest green complexes will be on display, as well a course with a fairly typical history of change, modification, misunderstanding and then, in recent years, a realization of what a gem they had.
“The benefit of a targeted approach to restoration work is that new (old) information can occur at any time,” said club archivist Forrest Norvell IV, who found the 1938 aerial and 1925 Mayberry plan. “The targeted approach allows flexibility to accommodate the lessons of new research and can also be more inclusive, building support of the membership as you go along.”
The 11th hole at the Country Club of Charleston is a replica of the 15th hole at North Berwick in Scotland. At 177 yards, the hole features a raised and reverse Redan green with a false front and two large bunkers. The tee box is situated on what used to be a Confederate battery. “I expect the 11th to be a household name by the end of the Women’s Open,” said Kyle Franz, the designer charged with leading the club’s latest restoration.
Graylyn Loomis posted this review with hole photos that show the course in winter. Don’t scroll too fast by the 16th!
Ran Morrissett’s review for GolfClubAtlas.com is older but still does a nice job highlighting the design’s best elements.
The No Laying Up gang filed this video feature on the course:
Fox’s broadcast schedule for the U.S. Women’s Open:
All longtime golf fans are grateful to Charles Schwab for rescuing the Colonial, even if it meant wiping the club’s name off the iconic title in favor of the forgettable Charles Schwab Challenge. Then again, had they left Colonial in the title, we’d all still just call it the Colonial. And may still.
But the longtime supporter of golf might be scratching his head a bit after year one of a four year deal even after a perfectly normal PGA Tour event. A fascinating mix of leaders were extinguished by Kevin Na’s closing 66 only to have Na immediately give away quite possibly the most clever winner gift in some time: a restored Dodge Challenger. Mike McAllister reports for PGATour.com.
Granted, Na did pledge before the tournament started to gift the car to Harms, who deserves more than an iconic American sports car for carrying Na’s bag(gage):
A promise made is a promise kept. 🔑 pic.twitter.com/cC4kgiZWCB
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 27, 2019
But the keys handoff did lead to that gloriously awkward winner’s photo with the car, Harms, Schwab and Na, along with a tournament official in the back left expressing only minor agony.
Adding to the awkwardness of the day: a subdued CBS telecast marked by multiple shots from the clouds (aka blimp), the dreaded bereavement track, and tributes to legends lost like Dan Jenkins, Bart Starr, etc. Still, the general somberness became more apparent when Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo were shown at the 18th before a tribute to “retiring” CBS workers was shown.
The tribute was quite touching, with Nantz refusing to sugarcoat the situation while Faldo’s eyes watered and turned red as they discussed the role of the many talented craftspeople losing their jobs. Excuse me, retiring. In mass. All in the same week.
As they introduced the primary crew members and some of the great moments covered or lengthy tenures, it was obviously a huge blow to the CBS Sports team.
While words like retirement and voluntary were bandied about, we all know what this is about, as telegraphed a couple of months ago:
Cost cutting moves: CBS is looking for about $100 million in cost savings in the next three years from belt-tightening and restructuring in search of greater efficiencies. That process could lead to streamlining of redundant operations and voluntary employee buyouts. “We reorganizing and thinking about functions that go across multiple divisions,” Ianniello said.
If it were any other corporate leader than Schwab—who has seen just about everything in golf—I’m guessing phone calls would be made, inquiries made and questions asked about so many layoffs in the midst of the golf season—with a mid-telecast tribute—and at a time the CBS schedule is at full force.
So Chuck probably won’t have to talk to Chuck. But if he were miffed at how year one played out, no one would blame him.
Kevin Na’s not walking putts in—at least intentionally so far this week Mike McAllister reports—but he did make a mess of a hole Saturday and Nick Menta reports that Na’s caddie Kenny Harms channeled full rage toward a Live Under Par Ambassador (aka fan with a cell phone). Charming.
The mess of a hole, minus the confrontation:
Kevin Na drops to -8 following a double bogey.@CTPanGolf now leads @CSChallengeFW at -9. pic.twitter.com/vhQrLgi11I
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 25, 2019
A ‘73 Dodge Challenger is on the line and maybe even the Colonial jacket, though the Colonial name and Ben Hogan have been scrubbed from the signage and messaging this week.
Mac Engel wrote earlier in the week that this may have been of Fort Worth’s effort to not become Houston.
Two back, Jordan Spieth could set a Shotlink era record for feet of putts made. He’s already had his best putting week through 54 in that respect and needs about 115 feet of putts to drop for the new high water mark.
Most Feet of Putts Made in a 4-round event (ShotLink era):
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2019
2015 @CSChallengeFW: @Ben_Martin87 (551 feet, 2 inches)
2017 @WellsFargoGolf: @Z_Blair (546 feet, 11 inches)
2017 @HouOpenGolf: @RussHenleyGolf (541 feet, 10 inches)
2014 @HouOpenGolf: Shawn Stefani (541 feet, 1 inch)
The former I’ll fight for, the latter is on its own.
Michael Bamberger files a fun consideration of certain golf terms in light of rule book changes along with the desire to shed golf of stuff terms.
Penalty area has been a colossal mistake that needs to be replaced by hazard. Does anyone disagree?
But as a repeated user of one, two and three-shotter, I have to defend those. They’ve been around for a long time, were used by all of the great architects in their writings, and even highlight the silliness of chasing distance (since there are about six legit three-shotters left).
Yes, a par 5. Not a 5 par. Blech. Also grating is three-shotter, two-shotter and one-shotter. And who needs the new penalty area when hazard conveyed it all? As Strunk & White say in Elements of Style, “Be clear.” That doesn’t mean be literal. Golf requires a measure of irony, which is why any body of water, including a gunky Ohio pond on a pitch-shot par 3, may be referred to as a lake. Here are the exceptions that prove the rule: the ocean to the left of 18 at Pebble and the burn crossing the first on the Old Course. Show some respect: Swilcan Burn is not a lake.
I also have to quibble with a few here. A double cross isn’t pretentious, it’s just painful.
These terms are pretentious and should be avoided: hole location, green complex, signature hole, double cross, overseeding, C.O.R., learning center, practice tee, links-style, second-shot course, Championship Course.
You can’t keep the great putters down for long and it’s fun to see Strokes Gained putting a figure on his Colonial, err…Charles Schwab round one performance. Spieth is one back of Tony Finau after the opening round. He must have dreams of that restored Dodge Challenger going to the winner. Really!
From PGATour.com’s Sean Martin:
This was the best Strokes Gained: Putting round of Jordan Spieth's career (+5.40). His previous best was +5.16, in the second round of this year's PLAYERS.
— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) May 23, 2019
(Strokes Gained stats undergo a slight adjustment during the day, but this should hold up.)
A PGA Tour round-up and highlight real from Instagram:
View this post on InstagramThe putter was on 🔥 today. #LiveUnderPar
A post shared by PGA TOUR (@pgatour) on
As legalized sports betting has so far fizzled after the initial euphoria, the PGA Tour is forging ahead with integrity programs, beefed up stats and partners in various arenas. And now PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has hinted that an announcement will come by year’s end that could have the PGA Tour taking the vig.
Golfweek’s Dan Kilbridge reports and includes this quote:
“We’ve spent a lot of time over the last two and a half years clearly understanding all of our options and getting ourselves in a position where we can participate,” Monahan said. “Participate with the right partners, and participate in a way that we think resonates with fans. Without getting in front of it, I think you can expect to hear developments from us in the second half of this year.”
It’s an amazing leap from the days of Tim Finchem getting creeped out by the Tour’s association with fantasy leagues and certainly one worth trying. Though after The Match last year where stats were part of theoretical play-along gambling, I’m still struggling to see if live in-round betting will really click given the general lack of prop bet imagination shown by the gaming industry.
In theory the slow speed of golf should lend the sport to some of this gambling, but fantasy leagues and week-to-week pools should remain a focus given the communal nature of those and the more benign notion of picking players based on track records at courses or recent form.
It sounds like that is the case:
Monahan is continually trying to get ahead of the issue to ensure the Tour is in position to maximize the benefits.
“There’s so many different points of entry, from operators to daily fantasy to just games within broadcasts that are non-betting games, just to the way you orient yourself understanding the way people are consuming information,” Monahan said.
The reporting by S.V. Date of Huffington Post into President Donald Trump’s golf expenditures is pretty impressive, down to accounting for the cost different to fly depending on locales, types of planes used, etc… The headline numbers are amazing: 174 of 853 days in office President Trump has played at a Trump golf property and at a cost of $102 million to U.S. taxpayers, with a couple of pricey trips coming up this summer to the UK and Ireland, including a stop at Doonbeg without a legitimate diplomatic purpose yet attached.
Maybe even more incredible though is this:
He spent one additional day golfing: Nov. 5, 2017, at the Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It is the only time thus far that he has played golf at a course he does not own.
That insistence of frequenting his own properties, in fact, has driven his total golf expenses disproportionately higher than Obama’s at the same point in his presidency.
By Obama’s 853rd day in office, he had spent 70 days at a golf course. But 48 of those golf days were at courses on military bases: Joint Base Andrews or Fort Belvoir, both in suburban Washington a short motorcade ride from the White House.
Past presidents have enjoyed using their job as a nice excuse to play top courses. Still, just one time venturing from properties with his name is not easy to pull off!
Producer Israel DeHerrera kindly let me screen parts of Hogan knowing my affinity for all things Ben Hogan and research into the Hawk’s Los Angeles years. All I can say: it’s the film you hoped would be delivered on Hogan’s incredible life and times.
For Immediate Release (with two other sneak previews at this link):
Hogan: Monday-Tuesday, June 17-18, 9 p.m. ET
Hogan (trailer), a two-part biopic on 64-time PGA TOUR winner Ben Hogan chronicles one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history, reflecting on the Texan’s indelible impact on professional golf in spite of a near-fatal automobile accident that put the prime years of his career in serious jeopardy. Coming from humble beginnings, the film examines Hogan’s incredible journey to becoming one of the greatest golfers of all-time, serving as the inspiration for the 1951 motion picture “Follow the Sun”. Being presented with limited commercial interruption by Charles Schwab, Hogan’s two parts – Monday night’s “Perseverance” and Tuesday night’s “Perfection” – will be narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Kyle Chandler, and be produced for GOLF Films by 13-time Emmy Award winner Israel DeHerrera.
I realize it’s Denmark and it’s no Long Island, but this seems like a nightmare waiting to happen at the European Tour’s Made in Denmark stop. Perhaps if the tent didn’t involve an alcoholic beverage, that might ease some concern.
Maybe we can get a European Tour social video showing a player and caddy going in one way and coming out another? I’ll leave the outcome to their imagination.
🎤 First video for the @EuropeanTour!
— The Jazzy Golfer (@thejazzygolfer) May 22, 2019
And what a topic to cover - this is going to be a BRILLIANT player / spectator experience.
I’ve not seen anything like it before!
❓What do you think? 👍🏼 or 👎🏼?
pic.twitter.com/3Khi15v8wM
Hopefully you caught our Golf Channel PGA Championship piece last week on the later years of A.W. Tilinghast’s career, if not here it is.
And for those who missed this fine piece on the Lido by Brendan Havens with Tim Rosaforte narrating, it’s a fascinating look into Long Island golf and this lost C.B. Macdonald masterpiece. Done through the eyes of golf architect Jim Urbina and historian Connor Lewis, who has recreated the course digitally.
Not much needs to be done at Bethpage Black for the 2024 Ryder Cup.
Take down the rough cut for the bomb-and-gouge loving American team, more concession stands and way more grandstand seating, then convince presumptive Captain Phil Mickelson to talk the fans into a little bit more restraint when it comes to shouting out the first inappropriate thing that comes to mind.
Sure, some improvements are easier to accomplish than others.
The most complicated of all involves the oft-discussed, widely loathed par-4 18th hole.
Tweaks were made this time around, more bunkers added to the already excessively-trapped, straightaway mess and a dreadful finishing hole remained so. The last time a major was played at Bethpage, the USGA tried to improve 18 by moving up tees and that just led to the regrettable sight of 6-iron lay ups and a sense that the hole was no better.
In the past, consideration was given to creating a hybrid hole utilizing the righthand bunker complex, the first fairway on the Red, and the current 18th green. Many others have advocated that players be asked to take a walk from the par-3 17th to the Red Course’s 18th tee.
For the 2009 PGA, the 18th played slightly over par but still offered a bizarre ending to the round. The bomb-and-gouge mindset, combined with a slight fairway widening, had players smacking driver and hoping for the best.
I asked Brooks Koepka in his post-round press conference if he considered laying back with a two stroke lead. Never a consideration, he said. Koepka drove in the left bunkers, drew an awful, potentially calamitous lie, but managed a fine recovery out to the fairway. A wedge and putt sealed the victory.
Koepka’s mindset on the hole was shared by nearly all of the field. As a match play finishing hole in Ryder Cup play, it’s hard to imagine an intriguing scenario where a player with the honor and a lead makes the decision to play safe, daring their opponent into a more aggressive play. Or any other interesting match play scenarios.
Because Bethpage Black’s 18th is not a good hole.
As Adam Scott noted when I asked him how he plays it, the 18th is the only driving hole at Bethpage Black that lacks some twist or turn to the fairway shape. That’s a trademark Tillinghast touch that remained part of the Black’s design despite his limited involvement and the erosion of shot values created by major championship manipulations.
The 18th hole’s design clashes with the rest of the Black in every way: strategically, visually and in the minds of players. Old photos show a little more twisting and rhythm to the landing area, but still not enough to make today’s players shape a shot to gain an advantage.
A reconsideration of the fairway bunkering could make a player shape a ball right-to-left around the bunkering to open up a better angle to the green. But in today’s game, such playing for angles is a lost art and there is little sign it will be restored with a rollback by 2024.
A consolidation of the 13 bunkers to a more manageable number would be nice, too.
Which brings us back to the Ryder Cup question: should they fix the hole or just leave it since so few matches get to the home hole?
Doing nothing is likely to be the PGA of America’s conclusion to avoid controversy. Yet it was impossible not to ponder a much better option while walking the meandering, soulful and challenging Red Course finishing hole. It sat adjacent to the Black’s tent village on top of the Red’s first hole. The hole is close enough to the Black and finishes just as close to the clubhouse. Anyone could envision a Ryder Cup crowd in the beautiful amphitheater setting and matches concluding in far more satisfying fashion with real decision to be made off the tee and genuine reward for skill. Well, almost anyone.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
