Royal Dornoch Unveils Revised And Improved Seventh Hole

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Photo by Matthew Harris

Photo by Matthew Harris

One of the world’s greatest golf courses looks improved with a revised 7th. Gorse is gone, contours exposed and a hole that always felt oddly out of place now provides an aesthetic high point.

Golf Architecture’s Richard Humphreys details the work by Mackenzie & Ebert that is still to include new tees for the 8th hole.

The work was first proposed after a course review in 2013 and approved by the club in 2015. “I very nearly did not include this concept because it felt almost inconceivable that the members would agree to alter the hole,” said Tom Mackenzie. “It was resoundingly approved – lesson learnt.”
 
“The view from the seventh tee is one of the most famous in the world of golf. Is there a first-time visitor to Dornoch who has not taken that photo down over the course? It seemed frustrating that once down off the tee, the sea disappeared until the green on the highest part of the course. There was plenty of room to the right, so logically, it made sense to rotate the hole that way so that the entire hole enjoyed the same view with a new sea vista behind the green.

You can see the location of the new hole corridor in this Google Earth screen capture:

Royal Dornoch’s 7th, old (above) and new (under construction)

Royal Dornoch’s 7th, old (above) and new (under construction)

And then there is the 8th, needing to be lengthened as more golfers have incorporated intermittent fasting into their lives, picking up 20 yards. MacKenzie (and I having been blessed to visit Dornoch twice nearly 30 years apart).

 “The added advantage was that it freed space to restore the eighth, which had been overwhelmed by new clubs and balls. Thirty-seven years ago, when I first moved to Dornoch, even the best players chose whether or not to drive down the scarp. Many opted to stay on the upper level to benefit from a much better view and line to the green. Today, virtually every player drives down to the bottom. The removal of the old seventh green allows the hole to be extended and the tee shot realigned so that the drive is almost parallel to the top of the slope.”
 
The old seventh green was added to the course in 1946 when the course was extended.

MacKenzie was also primarily behind the upgrade of another hole set atop high ground on a stellar links: Cruden Bay’s 9th.

For those who’ve been or those who dream of getting there someday, Royal Dornoch recently posted a nice reminder of the round the course on the golf world’s radar:

Upcoming Majors: California Closes Most Indoor Operations, New York Tightens Visitor Requirements

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With major championships now in site, there are the inevitable complications.

California is hosting the PGA Championship in San Francisco County, on Governor Gavin Newsom’s monitoring list of counties seeing restrictions on essentially any indoor gathering. How this will impact operations at the Harding Park, remains to be seen. CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn reports.

Meanwhile in New York, the Wall Street Journal’s Melanie Grayce West reports on the state installing new safeguards against travelers entering the state with COVID-19. Major forms to be filled out and a summons for non-compliance. There is also the quarantining for visitors from several states.

More than a dozen states, including Texas, California and Arizona, are on the state’s quarantine list. Travelers from those states are required to voluntarily quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in New York. Mr. Cuomo has repeatedly said that the spread of Covid-19 in New York was caused by travelers arriving from Europe at New York’s airports.

Scheduled for September 17th-20th, the U.S. Open in Mamaroneck, New York is to be preceded by the PGA Tour’s 2020-21 season opener in Napa, California.

Poll: Should Golf's Governing Bodies Accelerate The Distance And Skill Discussion?

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Before you vote, here is why I’m asking.

R&A Chief Martin Slumbers said in a new interview with the MailOnline that his organization is as focused as ever on implementing some sort of equipment rules changes. However, the current pandemic has caused the governing bodies to be “conscious of the golf industry having the time to recover.” He goes on to say the topic of distance will be back, “because it does need to be discussed.”

While the world does have more important things to focus on, we know now that the pandemic has already accelerated trends and expedited disruptions. If rulemaker minds have been made up, why not act sooner than later, he asks rhetorically?

That’s the point golf architect Tom Doak makes in this Golf Club Atlas thread.

If they wanted to make changes, what better time to make them than when everything is in upheaval?  That's exactly when capitalists pounce on the opportunity to do things they want to do.

But when you DON'T want to make changes, that's when politicians say "it's too soon" to consider new policies and that "we don't want to be reactive," or "people need time to grieve."  So we might as well start grieving, because it sounds like this report is going to limit the options for change.

One other point: the game has seen a surge in popularity and rounds as courses reopened and golfers fled to safe places to exercise. Getting to get back and search (or buy) ten more yards has not fueled this newfound golf popularity, so what better time than now?

So I think you know how I voted. But as someone has has found it hard many days of late to treat golf news with any seriousness, I can relate to the opposing position. (But Wally, only one vote a day!)

Pandemic: Should the governing bodies accelerate the distance and skill discussion?
 
pollcode.com free polls

CBS Partners With NASCAR Disruptors For Races With "The human being controlling the machine, not the machine controlling the outcome"

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SBJ’s John Ourand explains the new partnership between CBS and SRX, a NASCAR disrupter led by hall of famers Tony Stewart and Ray Evenham.

The parallels with the Premier Golf League are hard to ignore, from claims of wanting star drivers and to not threaten NASCAR (right!). There are also short-track races, tighter prime-time TV windows, tighter sponsor integration, but one huge difference: an effort to return emphasis on driving skill over technology.

Go figure.

From Ourand’s story:

SRX is most excited about the way drivers will compete on those short tracks. Evernham will design, prepare and build traditional stock cars that are capable of running on different surfaces and different types of tracks, such as paved or dirt.

“We want to make that machine be a big part of it, but it’s got to be the driver, crew chief, the human being controlling the machine, not the machine controlling the outcome of the competition,” Evernham said. “That combination of driver, crew chief and machine, no computers telling you what to do, no simulation. It’s really about the competition, how well that driver and crew chief can make that machine go against one another.”

R&A Chief: "You can do things with the ball. But it's the relationship between ball and club which is most important"

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Mailonline’s John Greechan has posted a lengthy set of quotes from R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers reviewing the decision to cancel The Open Championship, normally played this week.

But it’s his comments on technology and skill that will get the most attention. While the headline writers love the Bryson DeChambeau remarks, Slumbers makes clear that when times improve the topic of distance will be revisited.

It’s the specifics on how they may act that advance the discussion more. While the specifics should not surprise anyone who reads the R&A and USGA Distance Insights report, the regulatory approach is now pretty clear.

”Once we feel that the industry is stable again, which isn't going to be tomorrow, because we don't know what's going to happen over autumn and winter, we will be coming back to that issue in great seriousness.

”It is too simple just to say change the ball. Way too simple. You can do things with the ball.
'But it's the relationship between ball and club which is most important, to me.

”The fundamental change in the golf ball since 1999-2000, with the introduction of ProV1 technology, is the ball spins less.

”And drivers have been designed so it spins even less, which makes it go further.”

Or, farther. Either way, it’s good to know the intent is to target both ball and clubface.

Shack Show Episode 19: Does anybody CARE about the VIEWER?!!

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I don’t want, in any way, to diminish Collin Morikawa’s exciting win in the Workday Charity Open. It’s pretty thrilling for golf to have a young star who has so much upside delivering such consistency and also showing that playing four years in college, the Walker Cup and, in general, the old fashioned way to the pro ranks.

However, it was a bit of a broadcasting placement debacle compounded by the pandemic and opportunity golf has to gain new fans. I was hardly alone in this assessment. (To be clear, CBS’s crews are doing amazing work in the midst of pandemic constraints.)

So, here’s a short Shack Show rant about Sunday’s weirdo tease of early live golf hinting at a fantastic young gun showdown in early Golf Channel coverage, only to be interrupted by beancounters, clashing corporate interests and those ironclad contracts that forget about the viewer.

Morikawa Secures Signature Win At Workday Charity Open

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First off, great job by the PGA Tour staff and forecasters who correctly got the final round finished with an early start to the one-off Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village.

Second, thanks to Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Viktor Hovland for a great show of some young-gun golf. Thomas had a weird day and, well he’s still a PGA Championship winner with twelve PGA Tour titles, huge upside, amazing drive, and undoubtedly many more wins the way he delivers most weeks. He said this one “will hurt” (Steve DiMeglio reports from Dublin, Ohio) but I’m not sure anyone who knows golf views this as anything but a tiny blip in Thomas’ career arc.)

But the win by Morikawa—assuming you could stomach the disastrous live golf handoff to streaming and which I addressed on an emergency Shack Show rant—was impressive. A 23-year-old who has been on the Tour just a year, and only a few weeks removed from a heartbreaking loss, and, most amazingly, a winner at storied and difficult Muirfield Village his first four competitive rounds there, speaks to the SoCal/Cal/Walker Cup star’s absurdly promising career start.

I loved the Golf.com Confidential thoughts on Morikawa’s incredible ballstriking and steadiness:

Dethier: Morikawa hit four or five truly spectacular golf shots from over 200 yards on Sunday. Two near-aces. A kick-in eagle. A driver to 15 feet. He’s an absolute sniper and it was really fun to see him get rewarded, despite almost missing from 18 inches just to get into that playoff.

Sens: You hit it as close as he does over and over, you’re going to be in the mix. A lot. Dead-eye ball-striking aside, he also has a calm about him. At the first event back in Texas, he hit some glitches throughout the week but each time was able to right himself and keep himself in the mix. The putter betrayed him, ultimately. But clearly he’s got something special going on between his ears as well.

Bamberger: Great fundamentals. Cool manner. Seems to have no distractions in his life. He’s about the golf. We’ve seen it before most recently with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. He follows in that tradition.

Final round highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment:

In the final round of the 2020 Workday Charity Open, Collin Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in a three-hole playoff to claim his second-career win on the PGA...

Trump Before His 266th Round: "Obama played more and much longer"

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Look, don’t bother to send me your hate mail, all for pointing out that the President is lying about the frequency of his golf habit and just consider how this can’t be a good look for the sport. 266 (at least) to 98 days on the links, for those who like numbers.

As golfers, I think (hope) we’re all in agreement that it’s wonderful any President of the United States loves the sport and uses his (maybe hers someday) days off to whap it around the links.

Why President Trump has to justify his habit by lying about his predecessor’s frequency of play after bashing President Obama for the same habit, when it’s all documented, will never be clear. But ultimately it’s a poor reflection on the sport that such fudging of the truth is the embodiment of the nation’s most famous golfer.

Then again, there’s this thread of posts by Adam Davidson on Trump International Aberdeen. Yowsers (and thanks reader Don).

Anyway, the Presidential Tweet followed by several others justifying his golf, with ensuing posts belittling his predecessor:

Golf Channel Report: PGA Tour Events To Continue Without Fans, Pro-Ams Through Playoffs

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Rex Hoggard reports on what was inevitable given the COVID-19 situation and pro golf showing it’s functional without spectators. The lack of fan energy down the Sunday stretch is a loss, especially at the upcoming PGA Championship and U.S. Open where we have seen roars through a course influence the outcome of a major.

That said, anecdotal evidence suggests television viewers are not missing the commentary of drunken idiots and enjoying some of the picturesque views through courses.

On a business side, the loss of pro-ams through September will be devastating for charities given that most tournaments use pro-am and spectator revenue to fund their donations.

With the Masters 16 weeks away, The Guardian’s Ewan Murray wondered earlier this week how and event protective of many cherished traditions—Sunday roars through the pines high up the list—can be played this November without fans.

Yes, Augusta could invest in the most advanced technology that checks the temperature – or pulse, or aftershave – of spectators upon entry, but this resource might really be better deployed elsewhere.

Next weekend, the world’s best golfers should have been lining up at Royal St George’s for the Open. Given the ongoing scale of coronavirus, the R&A unquestionably made the right call in postponing for 12 months. In the absolute best-case scenario, the Claret Jug would have been awarded to the winner of a vastly diminished event, even before needless pressure on public services is contemplated.

"Are the million-dollar PPP loans some Palm Beach County golf communities collected justified?"

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That’s the headline of a thorough Mike Diamond look into the United States “PPP” loans and Florida golf. The loans were meant to maintain “ongoing” operations at small businesses that had no other funding options.

The initial list of golf facilities taking the grants included mostly small amounts for obvious candidates in a time of pandemic, with the notable exception of courses recently hosting PGA Tour events like Colonial and Muirfield Village.

The Daily Beast’s William Bredderman published an extensive look at longtime Genesis Open host Riviera Country Club, which despite memberships costing north of $300,000, took between $2 million to $5 million, as noticed by Outside The Cut. More problematic: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is a Riviera club member.

Anyway, back to Florida. And kudos to the Palm Beach Post for giving Diamond the space to consider a nice variety of angles to the PPP concept and golf. It’s an especially complicated subject when it comes to golf courses versus country clubs and Diamond does a fine job looking at many points of view.

Scores of other Palm Beach country clubs had applied for the PPP loans. Many were approved but decided to refuse to accept the money on both moral grounds and legal grounds after reading the fine print. Government auditors are expected to review how the money was spent and can ask for the money to be returned and penalties to be imposed if they find misrepresentations.

Fifty-seven country clubs in Florida accepted the PPP funds. According to CNBC, more than 400 country clubs and golf courses received loans throughout the country. The issue of whether it is appropriate for golf course communities to receive PPP loans has been debated.

“At the end of the day, we decided we just did not need it,” said Stephen Wolk, president of the Gleneagles Country Club west of Delray Beach. “We could see the government looking very closely at how well-to-do country clubs were using these funds. How do you justify giving it to country clubs?”

Rose Series: Dryburgh Wins Again Over Charley Hull, Georgia Hall At 2021 Open Host Royal St George's

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Beth Ann Nichols reports on the Rose Series event wrapping at Royal St George’s, which next week was to host the 2020 Open Championship and now will host in 2021 after the R&A’s pandemic-driven cancellation.

Winner Gemma Dryburgh of Scotland held off English stars Charley Hull and Georgia Hall, the 2018 Women’s British Open winner.

The win is notable in giving Scotland a rising star who will make her Open debut next month at Troon after playing the two Ohio LPGA events.

Dryburgh has history at Royal St. George’s, having competed there at the 2014 British Ladies Amateur, the same year she represented Great Britain and Ireland at the Curtis Cup. The previous trip helped with the fact that she didn’t have a practice round at Royal St. George’s this week. She instead warmed up with a Clutch Pro Tour event at Sunningdale Health, finishing tied for ninth in a mixed tournament won by Will Percival.

On Wednesday after an LPGA player meeting, Dryburgh booked her ticket to the U.S. She’ll quarantine for two weeks in Texas before heading up to Toledo, Ohio, for back-to-back events as the LPGA reboots its 2020 season. She’ll then travel back home to Scotland for two more events, a most welcome homecoming in these uncertain times.

The tournament and what images we can see on Instagram give us a glimpse of what might have been at Royal St George’s. In a nutshell: the links would have been very green.

WGC FedEx St. Jude In July, In Memphis, Gets “One-Time” Field Filler Clause

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Rex Hoggard’s GolfChannel.com item sarys the PGA Tour Policy Board is offering a “one-time” clause designed to fill out July 30-August 2nd’s WGC FedEx St. Jude field. What prompted it so far out, well, is pretty apparent.

In no particular order: Memphis in July/August, a date the week before the PGA Championship, or the inability or disinterest of international players to arrive and potentially have to quarantine for 14 days to play in Memphis in July/August the week before the PGA.

Hoggard writes:

Players were informed on Wednesday that the policy board has approved a one-time exemption for the event for players beyond No. 50 in the world ranking if the field is less than 78 players.

The current qualification includes players inside the top 50 in the world on March 16, when the rankings were frozen, and those inside the top 50 following next week’s Memorial.

“To maximize playing opportunities, adding an alternate list constructed from the next available players in order beyond 50th position on the Official World Golf Ranking [on July 20] . . . the alternate list would be utilized to fill the field to a limit of 78 players,” the memo read.

Optimize playing opportunities.

A spectacular euphemism for “we can’t fill the field with the current criteria and $10.5 million.”

This all was totally avoidable had this World Golf Championship gone somewhere outside the U.S. or somewhere other than FedEx’s home city in the hottest months. But they wanted a WGC and got it.

Dartmouth Ends Men's And Women's Golf Programs, To Shutter 121-Year-Old Hanover Country Club

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Thanks to all who sent the dreadful news of Dartmouth College ending both of its golf programs and announcing the permanent closure of semi-private Hanover Country Club, established in 1899.

From the communications department announcement quoting Philip Hanlon, President of Dartmouth:

The changes, which will eliminate five varsity athletic teams and a number of staff positions, will give Dartmouth more flexibility in admissions, reducing the number of recruited athletes in incoming classes by 10%. The move also contributes to the steps Dartmouth is taking to address budget challenges, including a projected $150 million financial deficit brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The teams to be eliminated, effective immediately, are men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's golf, and men's lightweight rowing, dropping to 30 the number of varsity teams. A total of about 110 student-athletes participate on these five teams.

In addition, Dartmouth is permanently closing the Hanover Country Club—which is owned by Dartmouth and operated at the College-owned golf course—after years of the club's running in the red, with deficits expected to swell to $1 million a year.

Reader Peter kindly sent this extensive and excellent Rick Shefchik story from 2014 looking at the course history, it’s place with students and golfers, how the course lost some character when 500 yards was added to the scorecard, and most disconcertingly, concerns then about the possibility of the land being developed.

Ratings Rocket Mortgage Classic Final Round Up 56% On CBS

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Another very solid weekend for PGA Tour ratings with not much sports competition due to the pandemic and a late start for NASCAR’s rance, a July 4 weekend that should have substantially cut into numbers, did not.

Bryson DeChameau’s win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic was up 56% from 2019 and if you ignore the silly demographics, earned plenty of eyeballs.

Showbuzz Daily’s full numbers for CBS and Golf Channel telecasts. The weekday broadcasts on Golf Channel were CBS-produced, while the weekend lead-in coverage was produced by PGA Tour Live.

2020 Ryder Cup Postponement Becomes Official (And The Presidents Cup Was Pushed Back, Too)

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Guy Kinnings (European Tour), Seth Waugh (middle, PGA of America), Jay Monahan (PGA Tour)

Guy Kinnings (European Tour), Seth Waugh (middle, PGA of America), Jay Monahan (PGA Tour)

Kudos to European Tour’s Guy Kinnings and the PGA of America’s Seth Waugh for tolerating the Presidents Cup and Jay Monahan’s efforts to put it on the same plain as the Ryder Cup, all while conducting the 2020-Ryder Cup postponement news.

While there were some funny moments related to efforts at making sure the 2021 Presidents Cup postponement was of great interest, not even question-askers from Charlotte could muster up concerns for the PC’s postponement.

The Ryder Cup is just on a different level. And now it’s set for late September, 2021 at Whistling Straits.

I really enjoyed Seth Waugh’s sincere opening remarks about the responsibility entrusted in him and the PGA of America to do what’s best for what is an “exhibition,” but golf’s greatest one by a lot. Enjoy:

SETH WAUGH: Well, thanks, Julius. It's good to be with everybody this morning, this afternoon and be with our great partners Guy and Jay and everyone out there, so thanks everyone for taking the time. I remember literally my first day on the job was about 21months ago in Paris at the beginning of the Ryder Cup,and I was sitting in the stands for that incredible moment of the Ryder Cup, that first shot on the first day, and the flags are waving and people are singing,and jets are flying over. It's one of those incredible, iconic moments in sports, and Michael Jordan is kind of right next to us and I was sitting right next to Darrell Crall, who's our chief operating officer, and he could see that look in my eye and he goes, yeah, it's an awesome responsibility, isn't it.And you realize that that's what we have, right. It's a gift from our forebears, this incredible exhibition tha tbrings out so much passion.So to answer your last question first, it was a very tough decision. I think people think this is -- it might be easier than it is, but frankly since the speculation started a couple months ago in the press and elsewhere that Ryder Cup would be postponed, we've kind of done everything we could to make it one of those kind of Dewey-beats-Truman headlines, that we really wanted to play this, and it's not -- when I say that,not because where the rumors came from. That's great; that's what makes the Ryder Cup so special. It's the passion that it arouses, the tribalism, the nationalism. It's news even when it's not news, and that's the beauty of this incredible event. So we tried everything we could to make it happen because it would have been such a special year given what everybody has gone through to have pulled it off.

And regarding everything they went through before deciding on the eventual postponement:

We hired an infectious disease expert to advise us. We've talked to the CDC. We've talked to the Broad Institute, we've talked to Scientists versus COVID, the governor of Wisconsin, the county of Sheboygan, obviously our great partners constantly with the TOUR, Ryder Cup Europe, our hosts, the Kohlers, our broadcast partners at NBC. We called the captains. We called many of the players. We talked to some fans. I even went and spoke to Mark Murphy at the Packers, who obviously had some what we thought would be pretty good local information to see what they were thinking, and his perspective was, you know, we hope to play and we hope to play with fans at some point, maybe start with 25 percent and go from there,and I said, we actually need to build Lambeau Field between now and September. And he kind of paused and he said to me, he goes, boy, that's really complicated. He said, I think you might have the hardest decision to make of anybody I've talked to since this thing started, and I said, well, thanks very much. That's very helpful.

Guy Kinnings of the European Tour offered not much rear-view mirror analysis about the impact of players, fans or COVID-19 in the decision, but instead of focused on the future:

The announcement is also good for the brand of the Ryder Cup as a whole, as it allows us to plan the match to be played in front of a full house in September'21, creating that wonderful atmosphere that Seth described that he saw in Paris that makes the Ryder Cup the envy of many around the world.It also will allow for a full qualification process for both teams, ensuring the 24 best players will be in action for Europe and for the U.S. in 15 months' time. Indeed the changes to our qualification process have just been announced ahead of the resumption of the European Tour in Austria tomorrow morning.Finally, as regards Ryder Cup Europe, it's great news for our future venues. Although plans in Marco Simone remain firmly on schedule, today's news that the 44th Ryder Cup will now take place in 2023 instead of 2022will give Italy, a country which has an amazing history of staging very special sporting events, extra time toprepare for hosting golf's greatest team event in what will be an extraordinary occasion in Rome in just overthree years' time.

For Jay Monahan, well, there was that phone call that no Commissioner ever wants to have to make: to the International Captain when there is no American captain to even yet call because the Cup is a year away.

So I think this is a really good solution for players. For us, one of the hard conversations that I had was with Trevor Immelman, captain of the international side,recognizing that now it's a year for him, but as we talked and as he said, if the shoe were on the other foot and we were going to these two organizations, you know, they would respond the same way, and that's the beauty of our sport and that's the beauty of the way that we work together, and this is the right decision for the Ryder Cup, therefore it's the right decision for the Presidents Cup, and we're going to be supportive of it.

In the PGA Tour’s press release about the Presidents Cup moving to 2022, Monahan worked in some wheels-up lingo.

“We are confident the move will give us even more runway as we bring the Presidents Cup to Charlotte in 2022.”

Take that, nautical lingo.

While it’s a bummer not to get a Ryder Cup this year, the move is the right one.

Players were not enthused, the idea of playing with no or limited crowds was not preferred by anyone but a few of us, and the European Tour was supportive despite potential business issues with the move. And, don’t forget the perks of that longer runway for Charlotte in 2022.