Arnold Palmer's 90th Birthday: Plans Still Very Much In The Works For His Memorabilia

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September 10th, 2019 would have been Arnold Palmer’s 90th birthday and you’ll want to check out #lifewellplayed as the day goes to see some tributes to the King. (The Empire State Building will also be lit in the Palmer umbrella shades.)

While many fine stories will undoubtedly be posted, Roxanna Scott’s Golfweek update on Palmer’s memorabilia and some of the plans floated for displaying them. I vote for a permanent Bay Hill museum, but I don’t have a vote.

Scott reminds us of this year’s display at Bay Hill:

There are a few options Podany and his team are considering. The obvious one would be to create an archive or museum to learn more about Palmer’s life either in Latrobe or at Bay Hill. During this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, fans could see some of his trophies, clubs and other curated memorabilia that told stories of his days playing at Wake Forest, serving in the Coast Guard and winning seven major championships. The experience, which included a short film about Arnie’s career, reached thousands of fans during tournament week, said Cory Britt, vice president of strategic affairs for Arnold Palmer Enterprises and the Palmers’ foundation.

The Bob Hope Classic Saved Again: AmEx To Take On Sponsorship

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What fantastic news and a great get by Camp PVB to land a bluechip sponsor for the desert and one of the PGA Tour’s founding events.

Just maybe, now, a way can be figured out to make more top players turn up and tee it up for a tournament that meant so much to building the PGA Tour into what it is. (For starters, a Monday prime time finish on the national holiday and away from NFL playoff games would do wonders.)

Larry Bohannan with the exclusive details for the Desert Sun, including this obvious but still important point:

-Worldwide recognition: American Express will do more with the tournament than just advertise during tournament week. Expect to see ads during other PGA Tour events and even other sporting events mentioning that American Express is the title sponsor in the desert.

A former sponsor of WGC events, it’s an impressive restoration of a sponsorship partnership lost and as Bohannan notes and longtime readers will recall from a few years back (the AmEx TV’s!), it’s a sponsor that has shown great creativity in imagining ways people can enjoy a sports experience.


USA Dominates Sunday Singles To Win 47th Walker Cup, First Overseas Win Since 2007

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Alistair Tait of Golfweek says Team USA kept up the tradition of strong American singles play, winning eight of ten to capture the 47th Walker Cup.

With the win at Royal Liverpool, this USA team becomes the the first in twelve years to do so.

Crosby’s side is the first U.S. team since a 2007 Walker team at Royal County Down that included Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Webb Simpson and Kyle Stanley to win away from home. Before that you have to go back to 1991 at Portmarnock to find a U.S. win on foreign soil.

Crosby’s side is the first U.S. team since a 2007 Walker team at Royal County Down that included Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Webb Simpson and Kyle Stanley to win away from home. Before that you have to go back to 1991 at Portmarnock to find a U.S. win on foreign soil.

From the USA squad, Akshay Bhatia, Brandon Wu, Steven Fisk, Alex Smalley and Isaiah Salinda are all turning pro and Alistair Tait talks to them about ending with a Walker Cup win.

Brentley Romine details the American squads’ view of playing without pressure heading into Sunday as the visiting team, highlighted by a rousing speech from the team’s only returning player, Stewart Hagestad.

Greg Midland at the official Walker Cup site pens a nice game story the players will cherish, especially…

John Augenstein, the 2019 U.S. Amateur runner-up, had a bookend performance of hitting the opening tee shot of the competition on Saturday morning and then securing the clinching point when he won his Sunday afternoon singles match against Thomas Plumb, 4 and 3.

John Mummert and Chris Keane’s excellent photo gallery in lieu of video highlights which were unavailable because the matches were not televised.

And because you just know Bobby Jones would have taken a team selfie if he could, here is this year’s team selfie:

Spirit Of The Rules And Matt Kuchar Are Not Synonymous

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El Tucan technically was not entitled to a normal caddie payday after a big win in Mexico.

The pitch mark at the Memorial was his because someone said so, yet a replay said otherwise and a third opinion was asked for to get a better lie. It’s hard to watch.

And now coarse waste bunker sand is a loose impediment.

The newly revised rules opened the door for the latest questionable act of sportsmanship by Matt Kuchar. Players can now move a loose impediment in a bunker. As Kuchar demonstrated, it sand is course enough to be a pebble in the eyes of any official, then all of the tiny particles are loose impediments.

While using the rules of golf to your advantage is wise, it’s confounding to watch someone with a once solid reputation and plenty of cash in the bank to snub his upturned nose at the spirit of the rules. Again. In the same year. On television.

Kuchar takes well over the time allotted to play a shot while we are watching—television cut away after 40 seconds of Kuchar’s trench dig—and seems to improve his lie in the “waste area.”

Here is the video from last week’s European Tour event, the 2019 Porsche European Open where Kuchar missed the cut:

Technically, Kuchar did not violate the rules because this was not a bunker and a rules official determined the waste area to be made up of millions of loose impediments. (That this was the conclusion is another matter entirely.)

While players have pushed the spirit of the rules in many ways, this year’s revised language opened the door to an erosion of player values when it comes to how their ball rests. So far it hasn’t happened.

But there is no more important rule than play it as it lies. The fundamental rule of all rules. The one that started it all and the one good players take the most seriously. Especially when a camera is on them.

Kuchar may be an outlier when it comes to believing his is entitled to the lie he wants. Or this may have nothing to do with the new rules and all to do with Kuchar’s sense of entitlement. But if this is an attack on play it as it lies, then shoring up this waste bunker vs. sand and what’s a pebble, or what is not a pebble, needs addressing. The game is already slow enough with way too much touching of the ball (and ground around a ball).

We should not be surprised after this year’s introduction of spike-mark tapping and pebble picking that there could be a further erosion of etiquette. Still, no one else has been this brazen in pushing the boundaries of common sense and courtesy to the field. Let’s hope it stays that way.

We discussed on Morning Drive:



R&A: Televising Walker Cup "Complex And Increasingly Costly"

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As most have figured out by now, the 2019 Walker Cup can only be seen on social media or via late night highlight shows after getting extensive Fox Sports coverage in 2017.

Ryan Herrington reached out to the R&A to find out how their deal with Sky and Golf Channel eluded the Walker Cup and also provides background on prior event coverage. He got this statement regarding the creation of a world feed ala other R&A championships:

“Delivering high quality, live coverage from an event such as the Walker Cup is a complex and increasingly costly exercise. We decided for this year’s match to concentrate our resources on producing compelling highlights packages for our broadcast partners and high-quality content, including highlights, player interviews and behind the scenes footage, from our social and digital media channels. We have a responsibility to spread our investment across nearly 20 amateur events throughout the year and we believe we have achieved the right balance for this match.”

While I’m sure this would be a financial loser and a strong case could be made that the money could be better spent in other parts of the game, the Walker Cup only comes to the UK every four years and is more than just one of many championships. And in today’s world, much of an event’s stature is derived from being seen on television.

Video: A Couple Of Walker Cup Mood Setters, Bhatia and Hunter

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The official Walker Cup sites includes a nice meet, greet and persimmon testing (189 carry) with Akshay Bhatia, one of Team USA’s first three automatic selections and rising star.

Check it out here.

And for those who want to see 2019 Walker Cup host Hoylake in the old days, a couple of fun Pathe videos. Starting with Willie Hunter winning the 1921 British Amateur (with a wicked stymie play 40 seconds in). Hunter was eventually the longtime pro at Riviera in Los Angeles.

And what’s a visit to Hoylake without a little flashback to 1930 and Bobby Jones?

New Driver Testing An Upgrade, Except In The Dreaded Transparency Department

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We know the PGA Tour does a lot of things well, transparency when it comes to player violations isn’t one of those. While Commissioner Jay Monahan moved the organization into the 21st century with some improved clarity on who fails drug testing, the public still may be in the dark on a number of fronts about about player fines and suspensions related to things like slow play, club tosses, recreational drug use and courtesy cars abandoned in airport loading zones.

And now drivers failing improved and more regular testing.

Golfweek’s David Dusek rightly praises the tour for upping their game in conjunction with the USGA. And focusing on catching clubs and manufacturers possibly flirting with the rules is absolutely the correct priority. However, that’s where things shift to a protectionist mindset that doesn’t seem to actually discourage cheating.

In a letter sent to players and manufacturers this week that Golfweek obtained, the tour said, “While this testing program will test the clubs in use by players on the PGA TOUR out of necessity, it is important to note that the focus of the program is not on the individual player but rather on ensuring conformity level of each club model and type throughout the season.”

That’s fine for a player’s organization to protect their own, and I’d guess 99.9% of the time players are not aware they have a juiced club because of wear and tear changing the club’s dynamics.

However, without any transparency, what’s the punishment for a clubmaker to obey the rules when all of this is kept behind closed doors free of the public shaming necessary in place of any fine system? Because Dusek writes:

There have been whispers in locker rooms and parking lots that this player’s driver is too hot and this company’s drivers are dangerously close to being non-conforming. Random testing should stop the suspicion and spare players the embarrassment and humiliation that Schauffele must have felt in July.

Random driver testing is easy, quick and long overdue. Golf may be a gentlemen’s game, but even gentlemen want to know that the playing field is level.

That includes the public and other stakeholders, no?

To put it another way: the reaction to 2019’s Xander Schauffele episode seems to be a search for a way to prevent player embarrassment, not from reigning in clubs that cross the line, whether intentional or not. Isn’t the first priority to protect skill and the competition, not egos?

CT Creep Crackdown! PGA Tour Buttons Up Driver Testing Protocols

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Xander Schauffele and friends wanted a lot more testing and less transparency after having his Callaway fail a random R&A driver test.

While all players will not be tested at all majors, the PGA Tour did announce a very detailed and seemingly logical random testing system that should ensure any drivers exhibiting “CT Creep” are found and prosecuted. The USGA’s Equipment Standards Team will do the heavy lifting and players can now expect their gamer and any backups to be randomly tested at some point.

From David Dusek’s Golfweek report quoting the PGA Tour’s notice to players, which danced around the idea of hot drivers (aka cheating) by focusing on the CT creep possibility:

“Recently, we have become aware that drivers in play on the PGA Tour may be exhibiting a trait whereby through normal use, the clubface ‘creeps’ beyond the allowed CT limit under the Rules, despite having conformed to the CT limit when new,” the letter notes. “When such a situation occurs, in accordance with the USGA’s Notice to Manufacturers dated October 11, 2017 the club is deemed to have become damaged into a non-conforming state and may no longer be used in competition.”

The story goes on to explain the process of testing and how names will be drawn. There is also a Golfweek exclusive video featuring the USGA’s John Spitzer showing how their test works.

The Walker Cup Is Back And Where It All Started: Hoylake

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Royal Liverpool to be exact, continuing the R&A’s recent tendency to take an event that could go to more exotic locales to Open venues. (I will not complain in 2023 when the Old Course hosts again, assuming there are amateur golfers in 2023.)

But this is nearly 100 years since the first “unofficial” event that became the Walker Cup was played at Hoylake, so we’ll celebrate that near-anniversary when Chick Evans, Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Captain William Fownes were part of a 10-man team that played against Tommy Armour, Cyril Tolley, Roger Wethered and friends.

Anyway…

Team USA arrives two years after routing Great Britain & Ireland in Los Angeles, with only Stewart Hagestad returning from that squad. And the GB&I squads have won four straight, as Declan McGlinley notes here.

You can meet Team USA here in slightly over-the-top fashion.

The Daily Mail’s Derek Lawrenson profiles USA captain Nathaniel Crosby, a former U.S. Amateur champion taking over for Spider Miller.

Matthew Jordan, a 2017 Walker Cupper and now professional golfer, gives a tour of his home clubhouse and the amazing memorabilia recalling past competitions.

Hoylake, a much-revised H.S. Colt effort, appears to be in fantastic shape…

In an apparent nod to the old British Pathe films, sights and sounds from the practice round (in color, minus the newsreel music:

Television coverage, sadly, is limited. Screen grabs from the official site of Sky and Golf Channel highlights shows:

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Callaway Investing $50 Million Into Its Ball Plant After MyGolfSpy Exposes Issues

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First Costco and now Callaway.

It’s a fairly remarkable day when an independent equipment review site can turn a Costco ball into a must have, but even more remarkable to get a pledge from a major golf company to improve their production efforts.

In this unprecedented case, it’s MyGolfSpy having exposed an off-center core in a Callaway Chrome Soft and unleashing a firestorm in the equipment forums. Apparently there was something to it, since Callaway executives Sean Toulon and Alan Hocknell have since visited MyGolfSpy’s testing facility and pledged a $50 million investment to improve quality control in their ballmaking process.

They discuss how it all went down on their podcast and it’s pretty fascinating stuff, though I’m not sure as many golfers as they think were aware of their initial discovery and the outrage expressed by gearheads as they think.

Stanley Park: Rare MacKenzie Public Course Under Threat Of Redevelopment

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Sad news just up from this week’s Walker Cup after plans were unveiled to redevelop one of the few Alister MacKenzie-designed public courses in the world. Worse, it’s a green space in Blackpool and will leave just nine holes in a world with so few MacKenzie’s available to the public.

Thanks to reader Rob for this BBC story on the plans for Stanley Park.

Plans to build 250 holiday lodges and an adventure zone on a municipal golf course have been unveiled. 

However, the £45m investment would cut Blackpool's Golf Club course, in Stanley Park, to nine holes. 

Holmes Investment Properties (HIP) has been revealed as the preferred developer to build the UK's first Adrenalin World attraction on the site. 

Initial plans have been submitted to Blackpool Council but they have angered the club's members and residents. 

Good! Give ‘em hell. Though sadly, the opposition does not seem aware of the course’s historical significance. He designed the course in 1924 and it opened in 1925, arguably near the height of his career.

"A PGA Tour player's goodbye, and record-breaking round, at his childhood course"

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Sadly we’ve all lost a golf course we once knew or know of a favorite that may put us in the position Jim Herman recently experienced.

It’s a lovely read from another Cincinnati man, Joel Beall at Golf World, who talks to the two-time PGA Tour winner about returning to the muni that meant so much to his game, Shawnee Lookout. The course is closing in September and will be converted to a nature preserve.

Shawnee Lookout, a golf course that resides on the outskirts of Cincinnati. A place that charged $3 to play, that was so out of the way that Herman usually had the property to himself. A course whose fairways were rough, with greens that weren't, built on an incline so severe that it was better suited for skiing.

"It wasn't much," Herman says, "but it was ours."

Herman kept afloat through the memories of his youth that cascaded back that day, until he reached the 10th. That was the hole, Herman says, where golf hooked him. Driver, 3-wood, two-putt for a 4, from just over 300 yards, when he was no older than a fourth-grader.

Patrick Reed Takes Delivery On His Masters Themed Porsche In Time For The Porsche European Open

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The Forecaddie says he wanted this extremely expensive custom Porsche in time to tootle down Magnolia Lane, but alas his Masters-themed car arrived just in time for Patrick Reed to say goodbye as he tees up in this week’s…European Tour Porsche European Open.


That's Embarrassing Files: World Long Driver Prematurely Celebrates, Then Snaps His Driver

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This one has it all for Will Hogue: the premature celebration followed by an effortless club snap after finding out his World Long Drive shot finished off the grid and was unable to put his next in play. The finals are set for Wednesday night on Golf Channel.