Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 7, 2010

University of Texas Golf Club, Austin, TX

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June 6, 2010

The wisdom of John Wooden

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May 13, 2010

The truly interesting question about Tiger Woods

Is not how and when he is going to settle up with Elin. Or even when he is going to play again.

No, the most interesting question about Tiger is this -- What has happened to his golf swing?

As noted earlier here, I haven't been comfortable with the public flogging that Woods has taken and continues to take as a result of his personal indiscretions. Seemingly without any true friends and receiving more than his fair share of bad advice, I find it quite easy to have compassion for Woods.

But putting the less interesting personal issues aside. The swing -- what has happened?

Because Woods is the best golfer of our time, his swing has been heavily scrutinized over the years. Butch Harmon successfully refined the young Woods' upright stance and steep swing plane during Woods' early years on the PGA Tour. But Woods eventually grew tired of the outspoken Harmon and ended up with Hank Haney at the recommendation of Woods' pal, Mark O'Meara.

Haney teaches a one-plane swing, so Woods' swing became flatter and more around his body under Haney. Although Woods never has been the ball-striker of a Ben Hogan, after some initial questions (see also here), the Woods-Haney partnership took off when Woods won the Masters in 2005. Woods went on to win an incredible 51% of his PGA Tour starts from July 2006 through last year (32 wins total).

Woods captured six majors over that span, including the 2008 U.S. Open over Rocco Mediate that he somehow won playing on a broken leg and torn ACL. Even though I expressed concern about Woods' misguided training regimen at the time, it appeared that it was only a matter of time before Woods would break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships.

Haney then helped Woods return from reconstructive knee surgery in 2009 to win seven times, but none of them were major championships. Nevertheless, this season looked to be a good one for Woods as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews were in the rotation for major championships.

But then Woods personal life blew up and everything changed. Woods put his golf game on ice and missed the first three months of the season. Woods somehow tied for fourth at the Masters in his first start of the season, but he was clearly not sharp in doing so.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty ugly, what with the missed cut at Quail Hollow and a withdrawal at the Players Championship because of a sore neck. In the meantime, Woods had lost so much confidence in his swing that he was at the bottom of the both tournaments in terms of driving distance and accuracy.

To add insult to injury, Woods main competitor -- Masters champion Phil Mickelson -- is poised to overtake Woods as No. 1 in the World Rankings soon.

And now Haney is gone. So, what's going on?

Well, there certainly is no poverty of opinions. As a student of the golf swing, my sense is that Woods has lost confidence in his swing of the longer clubs, such as his driver, 3-metal and hybrids. He seems much more comfortable swinging his "control" clubs (mid and short irons). But for whatever reason, Woods' arms have become disconnected from his upper body during his swings with the longer clubs, which has resulted in a large number of mishits. As the mishits mounted and Woods' confidence waned, he also lost distance off the tee, which only aggravated Woods' frustration.

Jeff Ritter -- who is one of America's top young golf instructors -- does a very good job below of analyzing Woods' swing with the driver while comparing it to the swing of one of the best ball-strikers of all-time, Sam Snead.

Woods will probably rebound to the top levels of the game once he sorts out his personal life and straightens out his swing. But Woods' body is increasingly breaking down under the strain of high-level golf and a needlessly brutal training regimen, so regaining his physical health may be an even bigger problem than regaining some sense of emotional stability in his quest to top Nicklaus' record.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

April 13, 2010

Two best videos from The Masters

It takes awhile, but Adam Scott gets an eagle:

Good thing that Phil Mickelson won and didn’t have to endure losing by a stroke. He might have never recovered from this:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 10, 2010

Shawshank Tiger

What was Nike thinking?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (6) |

March 29, 2010

It’s Shell Houston Open week

The PGA Tour makes its annual trek to Texas this week for the Shell Houston Open at the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. It’s always a fun event and well worth attending.

After a rocky divorce from The Woodlands and its popular TPC Course, as well as a difficult transition period in which most of the best PGA Tour players avoided the event, the 2009 tournament attracted the best field in the history of the event. The 2010 tournament has followed that up with an arguably an even stronger field as six of the the top 10 players in the World Rankings are playing. As a result, the field is as good as any of the non-major, non-World Golf Championship events on the Tour.

Phil Mickelson (3), Lee Westwood (4), defending SHO champ Paul Casey (5), Martin Kaymer (8), Ernie Els (9) and Padraig Harrington (10) lead the field, while Rory McIlroy (12), Geoff Ogilvy (14), Luke Donald (20), Hunter Mahan (21), Lucas Glover (25), Charl Schwartzel (26), Anthony Kim (27), PGA champ Y.E. Yang (29), Masters champ Angel Cabrera (32) and Vijay Singh (34) are other well-known Tour members in the field. In addition, local fan favorites such as past SHO winners Fred Couples, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby are playing.

The first Houston Open was in 1922 and the tournament is tied with the Texas Open as the third oldest non-major championship on the PGA Tour behind only only the Western Open (1899) and the Canadian Open (1904). This is the fifth Houston Open to be played on the Tournament Course and the eighth event overall at Redstone, which hosted its first three Houston Opens on the club's Jacobson-Hardy Course while the Tournament Course was being built.

This is the SHO's fourth year of being played the week before The Masters and the strong field is further confirmation that the tournament’s move to the week-before-The Masters-date was the right one. The Houston Golf Association continues to do a good job of promoting the tournament with Tour players by grooming the Tournament Course in a manner similar to Augusta National. However, the course is actually a flat-land course that bears little resemblance to the hilly venues of Augusta.

Even with its superior conditioning, the Tournament Course is a not a favorite of either players or spectators. Although is has a decent variety of interesting holes, the routing of the course is an unmitigated disaster, with 16 of the holes separated by a long walk and a drainage ditch from the 1st and 18th holes, the driving range and the clubhouse.

Unfortunately, there is not much the Houston Golf Association can do about that routing problem, so let's just hope that the course's superior conditioning and the SHO's attractive tune-up date for The Masters keeps prompting the top players to overlook the routing problem. Here are a few tips on watching the tournament at Redstone.

Although I've had my doubts that the HGA would be able to turnaround the SHO at Redstone, I'm happy to be wrong on that score. Houston has a rich golfing tradition and the HGA is a fine charitable organization. It's going to be another great week at Redstone, so sit back and enjoy the SHO!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 27, 2010

Don’t play this guy

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March 25, 2010

Help for Elk

PGA Tour member and long-time Houstonian Steve Elkington is a Clear Thinkers favorite, so I took notice of this Golf.com article reporting that PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had raised the ire of several Tour pros by helping Elk gain entry into several PGA Tour events this season. Elk had been fully exempt on the PGA Tour for 23 consecutive years until he finished 183rd on the money list last year and lost his exempt status.

Of course, none of the pros complaining about Finchem’s favor to Elk are on this key list voted on by “wide-ranging survey” of golf’s “elite”:

WHO'S THE BEST JOKE-TELLER ON TOUR?

Todd Hamilton: 17%
Steve Elkington: 13%
Harrison Frazar: 8%
Neal Lancaster: 8%
Others receiving votes: Paul Azinger, Rich Beem, Tim Clark, Carlos Franco, Paul Goydos, Peter Jacobsen, Peter Lonard, Nick Price, Chris Riley, Boo Weekley

Given the decidedly unfunny cloud following the PGA Tour around this year, it looks to me as if Finchem has a darn good reason for recommending Elk to tournament sponsors.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 19, 2010

Dan Jenkins on Tiger

It was only a matter of time before the best (and crustiest) golf reporter of our time laid the wood to Tiger Woods:

I'll tell you what Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus were at their peak.

They were every bit as popular as Tiger, they endured similar demands on their time, but they handled it courteously, often with ease and enjoyment.

They were accessible, likable, knowable, conversant, as gracious in loss as they were in victory, and, above all, amazingly helpful to those of us in the print lodge who covered them.

That was their brand. All the things Tiger never was.

As for Tiger's brand, boy, did that take a hit.

For all of the Tiger idolaters out there, it must have been like finding out that ice cream sundaes give you gonorrhea. [.  .  .]

I covered Tiger winning his 14 professional majors, but I can't say I know him. I knew the smile he put on for TV. I knew the orchestrated remarks he granted us in his press-room interviews. I knew the air he punched when another outrageous putt went in the cup. That's it.

I once made an effort to get to know the old silicone collector. Tried to arrange dinners with him for a little Q&A, on or off the record, his choice. But the closest I ever got was this word from his agent: "We have nothing to gain."

Now it's too late.

I'm busy.

It’s a shame that Woods never got around to getting to know Jenkins. He just might have found one of the real friends he needs.

Meanwhile, Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz -- the golf writer who has known Woods the longest and best -- provides this more in-depth article on Woods' life, as well as the expectations and pressures that may have contributed to his secret life.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

February 4, 2010

Different eras, similar swings

Ben Hogan and Anthony Kim.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 24, 2010

Winter Golf in The Woodlands

The following are recent photos of the Tournament Course at The Woodlands that I recently took during a brilliant Texas morning in January with my buddies, Jerry Sagehorn and John Stevenson.

The Tournament Course is still known to most Houstonians as "the TPC" from the days when the course was known as the Tournament Players Course at The Woodlands. Opened as The Woodlands East Course in 1978, the TPC is a wonderful design from the collaboration of Robert Von Hagge and Bruce Devlin from their time together in the late 70's and early 80's.

In the mid-1980's, the Houston Golf Association and the PGA Tour arranged a licensing arrangement with The Woodlands Corporation and The Woodlands Country Club in which the East Course was transformed into a Tournament Players Course with the typical spectator mounds found on such courses. After that, the HGA moved the Houston Open golf tournament to the TPC and, for the following 18 years, the tournament enjoyed its most successful run in its long history. As a result, Shell Oil Corporation decided to become the tournament's title sponsor, which solidified the Houston Open as one of the top second-tier tournaments on the PGA Tour.

When the HGA decided to move the Houston Open to Redstone in 2002, the license deal with the PGA Tour was terminated and the TPC reverted to The Woodlands Country Club, where it is now one of that club's three courses and one of the seven courses in The Woodlands (two others are here and here). A couple of years ago, the Champions Tour moved its Houston tournament to the TPC, a move that has catapulted that tournament into one of the top Champions Tour events because of the popularity of the TPC among the senior players.

The TPC is a joy to play and one of the best courses in the Houston area. From the men's tees, it's a pleasant 6600 yards (131 slope rating; 7000 yards and 138 slope from the tips) and is a great course to walk.  It has a wonderful variety of holes, punctuated by the final two holes -- 17 (nicknamed "the Devil's Bathtub") and 18 - a long par 4 over water - are two of the two finest finishing holes that you will find anywhere.

The photos below are presented in two formats, the first of which is a video with musical accompaniment from Alison Krauss and Robert Plant and the second of which is a Google Picasa slideshow with my comments on each photo. You can download a high resolution copy of the video playable on Quicktime Player here.

I love the contrast in the photos between the light brown of the dormant Bermuda grass with the various shades of greens of the trees, winter rye-seeded tee areas and the lightly overseeded greens. Enjoy!

Update: Another slideshow of the course, this time on a cool Autumn morning with the course in full bloom, is here..

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 22, 2009

On the Tiger Myth

I really didn't think that I would do more than one post on the Tiger Woods affair, but a couple of recent articles merit taking the topic up one last time.

First, in this weekend op-ed piece, the NY Times' Frank Rich piously excoriates Woods and his handlers for promoting a myth about Woods that was as fictitious as the pre-collapse myths about Enron (among others).

Of course, Rich fails to comprehend that the mainstream media's myths about Enron after its demise weren't any closer to the truth.

Meanwhile, Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz -- the golf writer who has known Woods the longest and best -- provides this far more insightful article on Woods' life, as well as the expectations and pressures that may have contributed to his secret life.

Morality plays are easy to embrace. The truth is usually more nuanced and difficult, but ultimately much more fulfilling to understand.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 9, 2009

The Real Tiger Tragedy

Watching the carnage unfold from the Tiger Woods affair is a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

A train wreck unfolding with hyper-speed commentary from modern social media, that is.

The affair is a tragedy on several levels, from the public humiliation of Woods' wife to the distinct prospect of job losses in the reeling Woods' business empire (see also here). We should all have sympathy for those who are caught in this cauldron of insecurity resulting from Woods' appalling arrogance and irresponsibility.

But in so saying, it is not my purpose to pile on with more harsh criticism of Woods. The only time I have met Woods was back in the mid-1990's when he was attending Stanford and was in Houston practicing at Lochinvar Golf Club with his then-coach, Butch Harmon, who at that time was the head pro at the club.

When Butch introduced us, Woods could not have been more gracious. He thanked me as a club member for allowing him to practice at such a fine facility. My enduring thought of that brief encounter is that Woods' parents did a very fine job of raising him.

Frankly, the type of societal ridicule that Woods and his family are enduring always makes me a bit uncomfortable. As noted years ago in connection with the death of Ken Lay, the preoccupation with Woods' troubles is a palpable reminder of the fragile nature of the individual and civil society. The vulnerability that underlies our innate human insecurity is scary to behold, so we use myths and the related dynamics of scapegoating and resentment to distract us. We rationalize that a wealthy athlete did bad things that we would never do if placed in the same position (yeah, right) and thus, he is deserving of our scorn and ridicule. That the scapegoat is portrayed as arrogant and irresponsible makes the lynch mob even more bloodthirsty as it attempts to purge collectively that which is too shameful for us to confront individually.

In my experience, people in the public eye are often quite different in the context of a personal relationship than they are perceived publicly. That certainly could be the case with Woods, who people close to the PGA Tour tell me gets along quite well with most of his fellow Tour players. The same cannot be said about a number of other top Tour players from previous eras.

Similarly, the public scrutiny that Woods' private life is currently enduring exceeds anything that a major sports figure has ever had to deal with (the Woods affair has been on the front page of the New York Daily News for the past ten days straight!). Arnold Palmer -- a far more charismatic sportsman than Woods who is one of the few to rival Woods' wealth and business empire -- candidly admitted several years ago that, during his early days of success on the Tour, he had been less than completely faithful to his beloved late wife, Winnie. Although Palmer was never as indiscrete or arrogant as Woods has been, Palmer was also never subjected to the type of media scrutiny that Woods has endured. The media simply handled such things differently in Palmer's heyday.

Moreover, Woods has been unfairly criticized for his behavior since the scandal broke open on the early morning after Thanksgiving. As I noted on Twitter on the Sunday morning after his early Friday morning car wreck, Woods' silence has been absolutely essential and appropriate to the protection of his family and himself. Although none of us know what really happened leading up to Woods' car wreck, Woods and his wife clearly faced at least the distinct possibility of serious criminal charges.

Under those circumstances, any competent lawyer would have advised Woods and his wife to refrain from saying anything to the police or publicly, as many public relations "experts" were proposing that they do. The bottom line is that Woods has done -- and continues to do -- the right thing by remaining silent.

On the other hand, Woods and his business team have their work cut out for them in attempting to stem the damage to the billion dollar Woods business empire resulting from the affair and the societal reaction to it. Woods' main sponsors have stood by him so far, and I suspect that Nike -- his main sponsor from the beginning of his career -- will continue to support him.

But that Woods' sponsors are staying with him now does not mean that they are going to renew their contractual arrangements with him.

You see, Woods has earned most of that billion dollar net worth by parleying his nearly unrivaled record of excellence on the golf course to sponsors who have wanted to associate with that excellence.

What will those sponsors do -- particularly in fast-changing and dynamic advertising markets -- when excellence they previously associated with has been transformed into a joke?

That, my friends, is literally uncharted territory.

Finally, in one key respect, Woods' ordeal is similar to the one that former federal district judge Sam Kent endured over the past couple of years.

That is, how did the life of one of the most phenomenal athletes of our time come to this?

Where were Woods' "friends" who knew about his risky behavior and his thinly-veiled insecurities that were manifested in such behavior?

Why did these "friends" not intervene and help him before it was too late?

The reality is that Tiger Woods may not have any real friends.

And that might just be the saddest tragedy of this entire sordid affair.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

December 3, 2009

"He's got enough cotton in his mouth to knit a sweater"

That's how Lee Trevino describes a golfer who is choking under pressure.

But as noted in this outstanding Jaime Diaz/Golf Digest interview of the now 70 year-old Trevino, Merry Mex didn't choke much during his career on the PGA Tour.

Winner of 29 Tour events, Trevino won six majors (Jack Nicklaus finished in second place in four of them!) and probably would have won several more had he not been badly injured by an on-course lightning strike in 1975. After Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, there has been no better Texas golfer than Lee Trevino.

Trevino remains a genuine character. Here are a few gems from the interview:

On Jack Nicklaus:

"In those days, when Jack parked his car he was already four under."

On handling tournament pressure:

"Pressure was never really there for me.  .  .  . Where I came from, and where I'd gotten, I was playing with house money."

Who is better? Jack or Tiger?:

"[T]o answer your question—and I bite my lip every time I say this—Tiger's better."

On winning the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek:

Going into the last round, on the practice putting green, I broke everyone up.

Herman [Mitchell, Trevino's longtime caddy] has got the gout, he's in a bad mood, and we're walking to the first tee, and some guy in the gallery yells at me:

"What do you feed that caddie?"

I look at the guy and say: "Rednecks!"

And Herman says: "And I'm getting hungry, too!"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

October 23, 2009

Looping for Legends

Mark over at the Kaddy's Korner provides this interesting post about his experience in filling in as Tom Watson's caddy during the Champions Tour's Administaff Open at the Tournament Course in The Woodlands last weekend. Mark concludes his post in the following manner about spending a week with a legend:

Growing up, most of my heroes were baseball players, and I might be too old for a new one, but I think I found one.

During the week, I watched one of the top-10 golfers of all time practice his trade. Most guys work into their practice routine slowly with their wedges first, but Tom started warming up each day with a 3-iron, and none of them sounded clunky. He made sure he acknowledged all the fans, sincerely understanding what they do for the game. He walked through the crowds gazing into their eyes, waving, and none of it was forced. Most guys work up a strained smile and a nod.

There were only two people at the tournament who gathered a larger following: Arnold Palmer and former President George H. W. Bush. That’s not bad company.

Which reminds me of the classic video below of Bill Murray hilariously describing the experience of looping a round with another legend. Hint -- he was very well compensated ;^):

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 13, 2009

Ben Hogan's Mystique

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September 9, 2009

Innovative teaching

Having been raised by one, I've always been drawn to great teachers wherever I find them.

Jeff Ritter is a young golf teaching professional in the Phoenix area who combines excellent analytical ability with formidable communication skills to provide some of the best golf swing instruction that I've seen on the Web.

In this 10-minute video, Ritter shows how, over the course of a week, he improves the swing of a low-handicap amateur golfer who had come to Phoenix to work with him. In so doing, Ritter takes a good golf swing and turns it into a very good one.

Here are some more Ritter teaching videos, generally 1-3 minutes in length, that focus on various aspects of the golf swing. This is a wonderful example of how a talented teacher is using the Web in innovative ways to reach thousands of students who would not otherwise have access to his insight.

Some other sites in which to discover great teachers:

Top 7 Places to Watch Great Minds in Action

100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists

One Day University

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 27, 2009

Ali and Arnie

The Observer provides this entertaining compilation of quotes from Muhammad Ali, who just turned 67. My two favorites:

On his Parkinson's disease: "It wasn't the boxing, it was the autographs." (2003)

On his biggest battle: "My toughest fight was with my first wife." (1967)

And don't miss this Tom Callahan/Golf Digest piece on Arnold Palmer, who turns 80 on September 10th. Palmer's old friend, Dow Finsterwald, makes an interesting observation about Palmer that some current Tour pros should take to heart:

"But the thing Arnie and I truly had in common, the thing both of us enjoyed most of all, was playing golf. That may sound funny, but you'd be surprised how many good players, how many pros, weren't able to enjoy it nearly as much as we did. To us it was an avocation as well as a vocation. I think of him as the greatest amateur-professional who ever lived. By that I mean he never stopped playing the game for the love of it, like an amateur. Sure, he liked making a nice living. But he loved to play. Still does."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 20, 2009

A Texas original

Given the achievement of covering his 200th major golf tournament at the U.S. Open this past June, Clear Thinkers favorite and fellow Texan Dan Jenkins has been making the interview rounds and it has been a rollicking good time.

Last week at the PGA Tournament (Jenkins' 201st major tournament), the PGA presented Jenkins to the press corps one afternoon and the interview session ended up being the most entertaining of the week. Here are a few snippets:

"It's been a great geographic trip, because I got to cover the dominant player in the world from Texas [Ben Hogan] and then the one from Pennsylvania [Arnold Palmer] and then the one from Ohio [Jack Nicklaus], the one from Missouri [Tom Watson] and the one from Spain [Seve Ballesteros], and now a guy from California [Tiger Woods]. Pretty good geographic journey."

Recalling an anecdote from an Atlanta hotel that Jenkins stayed in while covering a tournament:

Jenkins: "What exactly is the name of the property we're staying in?"

Julius Mason, a Jenkins friend: "It's the Sheraton Four Points."

Jenkins: "Four points out of 10? No air conditioning, no ice, no TV, no phone. It was a grand slam."

On his future:

Question: "How long are you going to keep doing this?"

Jenkins: "I'm not qualified to do anything else. So I'll be here until they carry me out and the message on my tombstone will be 'I knew this would happen.'"

On his two passions, golf and college football:

"Hey, golf is fun. It's beautiful. It's elite. It's gorgeous and all those things. But college football -- it's important. People live and die for that sport."

And, as noted earlier here, the 79 year-old Jenkins has taken to Twitter like a fish to water. Here are a few of his twit gems from last weekend's PGA:

"Tiger three-putts for bogey. Still gets standing ovation."

"Tiger throws grass in the air on the fifth fairway. Gets another standing ovation."

On Vijay Singh's 3rd round putting woes:

"Vijay putted today like your member-guest partner. The partner you don't invite back."

"I see 'Squeaky' Fromme was let out of prison Friday. Maybe the Eagles will sign her."

"Female mixed martial arts seems to be catching on. Some of my friends believe they might have been married to a couple of them."

"I just noticed I'm closing in on 4,500 [Twitter] followers. My daughter says, 'Great, Dad. Still two million behind Britney Spears.'"

On Irishman Padrig Harrington's quintuple bogey 8 that took him out of contention on the final day:

"The Irish do love funerals."

On South Korean Y.E. Yang's victory in the PGA:

"After conquering the LPGA Tour, the South Koreans have now set their sights on the men. And after all we've done for them."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 8, 2009

A good sign

One of the many fascinating aspects of golf is that you can learn much about a person by playing a round of golf with them.

Based on this Time article (h/t Geoff Shackelford), President Obama sounds as if he would fit in quite well with the groups in which I play golf regularly.

That makes me feel better.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 19, 2009

Can he do it?

A year after 53 year-old Greg Norman flirted with winning the Open Championship, 59 year-old Tom Watson, just two months shy of his 60th birthday, is leading the Open going into the final round Sunday at Turnberry in Ayrshire on the western coast of Scotland.

Leave it to Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins, who at 79 has provided the best commentary on the Open through his Twitter page, to put Watson's remarkable feat in perspective:

"I was Watson's age 20 years ago--still drinking a lot, practically buying Elaine's. I thought I was immortal. What's the big deal about 59?"

As with Norman, I don't think Watson can do it, but I will be pulling for him along with millions around the world. Watson's run as a dominant player on the PGA Tour ended in the 1980's when he inexplicably lost the deft putting stroke that had been the common thread through his eight major championships (5 Opens, 2 Master's and 1 U.S. Open). Watson has magically regained that stroke this week and, if it holds for one more day, he could pull off the most improbable victory in the history of golf.

One thing going for Watson -- playing golf as a youth during the winter months in his native Kansas City helped him to become on one of the best bad weather golfers of the modern era. And it will probably be blustery in Turnberry on Sunday.

Update: Watson gave it a great go, but lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink. It is Cink's first major championship. Dan Wexler does a good job summing up Watson's accomplishment.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 24, 2009

The swing that won the U.S. Open

No wonder 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover is one of the leaders on the PGA Tour in the total driving statistic. At 6'2", he achieves amazing extension on his backswing and then delivers a powerful but controlled blow to the ball as he swings around his body on the downswing. This is the type of swing that holds up well under the pressure of tournament golf.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 23, 2009

Houston's connection to the new U.S. Open champion

Houston is synonymous with golf, so it's appropriate that new U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover's former teacher and mentor was the late Dick Harmon (see also here), who was one of Houston's most respected golf instructors for decades before his sudden death in 2006. Glover was one of Dick's pallbearers, delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral and had to fight back tears when he was asked about his relationship with Dick during his post-U.S. Open interview session. What a fitting tribute for a student to give to a wonderful teacher whose spirit still permeates Houston's golf community.

The 29 year-old Glover has long been considered a likely star by other professional golfers and appeared to be ready to fulfill that promise in the 2005-2006 seasons when he won his first tournament (the 2005 Walt Disney Classic), recorded 16 top-10 finishes and just missed earning a spot on the 2006 Ryder Cup team.

However, Glover struggled after Harmon's death in late 2006 and fell all the way to 178th in the World Golf Rankings after last season. Things got so bad that Glover put his clubs away for two months after last season to refresh himself from the grind of PGA Tour golf. Before the U.S. Open, he had already shown signs of regaining his form this season with a tie for 3rd at the Buick Invitational, a tie for 2nd at Quail Hollow and a jump to 71st in the World Golf Rankings. But Glover now appears ready to vault into the top echelons of golf with his U.S. Open championship at Bethpage. He has a superb all-around game.

Finally, as satisfying as Glover's victory was, it may not have been as gratifying as David Duval contending for the title and finishing in a tie for second. As noted here almost five years ago, it's been a long, strange trip back to the top tier of professional golf for Duval. Here's hoping that he stays this time.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 22, 2009

Jenkins @ the Open

With the 2009 U.S. Open that is finishing today, Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is covering his 200th major golf tournament. In one of the more remarkable developments of the tournament, the 79 year-old Jenkins has been reporting on developments through Twitter, where he has proved to be a natural (one of his recent posts: "If David Duval wins this thing, it'll be the biggest comeback from a slump since Mickey Rourke got nominated for an Oscar"). Below is a recent HBO interview of Jenkins talking about his friend Ben Hogan, who was the master of the U.S. Open during the late 1940's and early 50's. Enjoy a true Texas original reminiscing about another one:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 19, 2009

How to make the U.S. Open telecast more exciting

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 4, 2009

A timely reminder

As the heat of the summer months rises and thunderstorms become more frequent, this Bill Pennington/NY Times article passes along a helpful reminder to golfers regarding two commonly often overlooked hazards -- overexposure of skin to the sun and lightning strikes:

Dermatologists say golfers are notoriously poor at protecting themselves from sun damage and frequently need treatment for harmful lesions on ears, hands and noses. And in a typical year, lightning kills more people than tornadoes or hurricanes.  [.  .  .]

“Men also completely forget about their ears, and they miss the patch of skin on the side of their neck just below the ear,” [Dermatologist Dr. Wendy] Roberts said. “I remove a lot of cancers from that spot.” [. . .]

Lightning often strikes 10 miles from any rainfall and can strike ahead of storms or seemingly after they have passed.

“On a golf course, you usually have a good view of a coming storm, and if you hear any thunder, you should head inside a building or a hard-topped car as soon as you can get there,” [National Weather Service lightning safety expert John] Jensenius said. “I study the case histories of all lightning fatalities. Often, if people had gotten inside 5 or 10 minutes earlier, they would be alive. All the cases are very sad; these are good people who make a mistake.”

Jensenius said golf clubs and other metal objects do not attract lightning and that getting in the cart would not protect you. The rubber tires do not help, he said. Lightning victims, for example, are struck and injured riding lawn mowers. Cars are safe, he said, because they have metal roofs and sides.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

June 1, 2009

The golf shot of the year

National championships don't happen all that often at Texas A&M.

Consequently, this video is an instant Aggie classic in that it shows the remarkable wedge shot that The Woodands' Bronson Burgoon stiffed on the 18th hole of the final match to win his match 1 up and seal the Aggies' first NCAA Golf Championship this past weekend at storied Inverness Golf Club in Toledo, Ohio.

GolfWeek has the full coverage here of the Aggies' remarkable run.  Way to go Ags!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 20, 2009

An amazing sporting feat

Although it is flying under the radar screen outside of golfing circles, Lance Ten Broeck's performance at last weekend's Valero Texas Open in San Antonio is one of the most amazing sports stories of the year. In fact, it would be so in most any year.

Ten Broeck is a 53 year-old former University of Texas golfer who bounced around the PGA Tour and satellite tours for decades before settling in to become a well-regarded caddy on the PGA Tour. Ten Broeck has looped for several well-known PGA Tour players and currently caddies for Jesper Parvenik.

As a former PGA Tour player, Ten Broeck was one of the alternates for the tournament in the event that one of the qualifying players dropped out. However, not expecting anyone to drop out of the tournament, Ten Broeck didn't even bring his golf clubs to San Antonio.

Then, last Thursday, as Ten Broeck was getting ready to caddy for Parvenik, tournament officials informed Ten Broeck that a player had dropped out because of injury and that a spot in the tournament had opened up for him.

In 90 degree heat, Ten Broeck proceeded to caddy for Parvenik during his morning round on the incredibly hilly La Cantera Golf Course. Then, in the afternoon -- and after borrowing clubs and shoes and buying a pair of pants at a nearby Dillard's -- Ten Broech went out and walked the course again while shooting a one-over-par 71 in the afternoon!

Incredibly, on Friday, again in 90 degree heat and after borrowing another set of clubs, Ten Broeck caddied for Parvenik in the morning and then went out and shot an even par 70. His 141 total for two days missed the 36-hole cut by two strokes.

By the way, Ten Broeck's boss Parvenik shot 70-74 = 144 to finish below his caddy in the tournament.

I've played La Cantera several times. The thought of walking that hilly course twice on one hot day is daunting enough. However, that a 53 year-old did so while carrying a PGA Tour member's bag, and then while shooting near par golf under PGA Tour tournament conditions, is flat-out unbelievable.

Brian Wacker provides more info here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 7, 2009

Jenkins returns to Sawgrass

Clear Thinkers favorites Dan Jenkins, the dean of American golf writers, is making his first trek to TPC Sawgrass in a decade this week to cover my favorite tournament, The Players (which includes the always fun video of the 17th hole).

Geoff Shackelford scores this interview with Jenkins (which is a follow-up on this one from last year), and it is clear that Jenkins is already in mid-season form. The first part of the answer below is from last year's interview, the second from this year's:

The men's tour sucks. Everybody drives it 340 and shoots 63. I've never heard of half their names, and don't care to know them until they get back to me with two majors.

My fee for talking to Tiger Woods is going up every day. I've tried for 10 years to get a one-on-one with him---and can't. Why? Because Mark Steinberg says, "We have nothing to gain."

Can you imagine what the men's tour would look like if Tiger and Phil both suffered career-ending injuries? I'll tell you. It would look like what it looks like today when they aren't in the field. It would increase interest in polo.

.   .   .[I]in my declining years, I have arrived at the point where I don't give a damn about anything but the four majors and the Ryder Cup. They are important. The regular tour sucks.

I should mention that the regular tour didn't used to suck. It used to be quite glamorous, when the LA Open was always first, when the Crosby was the Crosby, when the players wore snappy clothes and movie stars hung around them, when the Florida swing had its own charm, same for Texas, and so on. But mainly when every winner was SOMEBODY.

I live in the past. It was a better world.

No doubt that more than a few of the folks attending the tournament this week will, at least part of the time, be enjoying Jenkins' classic “Mankind’s 10 Stages of Drunkenness” from his 1981 novel, Baja Oklahoma:

0) Sober

1) Witty and Charming

2) Rich and Powerful

3) Benevolent

4) Clairvoyant

5) F**k Dinner

6) Patriotic

7) Crank Up the Enola Gay

8) Witty and Charming, Part II

9) Invisible

10) Bulletproof

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

April 21, 2009

The importance of good timing

As noted earlier here, the Shell Houston Open had its best field in decades earlier this month when it was played the week before the Masters. Based on the World Golf Rankings, 15 of the top 20 players, and 21 of the top 30 played in the SHO, including No. 2 Phil Mickelson, No. 3 Sergio Garcia, No. 5 Padraig Harrigton and No. 6 Vijay Singh.

Just three years ago, when the SHO was being played in the slot two weeks after the Masters, Only two of the top 10 players in the World Rankings played and only ten others in the top 60 of the World Rankings bothered to show up.

This year, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans has the slot two weeks after the Masters that the SHO used to inhabit. Only one of the top 10 players in the World Rankings is playing -- Kenny Perry (5) -- and only two more of the World top 20 are in the field, Steve Stricker (12) and Mike Weir (20). And that's even with New Orleans offering arguably the best cuisine of any event on the PGA Tour.

Timing is everything in the Tiger Chasm.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 16, 2009

A Houston Original

One of Houston's many treasures is Jack Burke (earlier posts here), the 86 year-old co-founder and owner of Champions Golf Club. The energetic Burke was recently slowed by a "mild" stroke (my late father used to say that the only mild strokes were those that happened to someone else), but that didn't stop Jack from taking his family to Augusta National Golf Club last week for the Masters, where Burke is a former champion (1956). John Garrity provides this fine article on Burke's Augusta National visit (H/T Geoff Shackelford), which includes the following hilarious and typically Burkean anecdote that former Masters champion Bob Goalby tells fellow PGA Tour member, Miller Barber:

"You know Miller?" Goalby arches an eyebrow. "He's got about 14 curlicues in his backswing, and then he sticks the club straight up in the air with no wrist cock. Anyway, he asked Jackie for a lesson."

"They went out on the range, dumped the balls out. Miller said, 'I'm mixed up on my backswing. Watch me hit some.' So he hit about a dozen balls before Jackie turned and started walking away."

"Miller's got this squeaky voice. He shouted, 'Jackie! Jackie! Where are you going?' And Jackie said, 'Back to the clubhouse. I'm not going to live long enough to figure out that backswing.'"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 9, 2009

Not a bad way to start the day

"I can only tell you that eggs, country ham, biscuits, a pot of coffee, a morning paper, a table by the window overlooking the veranda and putting green, listening to the idle chitchat of competitors, authors, wits and philosophers, hasn't exactly been a torturous way to begin each day at the Masters all these years."

--Dan Jenkins, Golf Digest (1985)

The lowdown on the 2009 Masters field is here, and Geoff Shackelford is doing his usual fine job of providing a daily review of the best information being generated in connection with the tournament. Starting at 9:45 a.m. CDT, you can watch a live feed of the tournament here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 5, 2009

Observations from the SHO

The following are a few observations from my annual trek to the Shell Houston Open at the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club:

• As I've noted on a number of occasions, the Tournament Course has a reasonable number of interesting holes that are effectively distributed between three different courses -- no. 1 and 18, no. 2-9, and no. 10-17. Inasmuch as the three sections of the course are relatively far away from each other, the best way to watch the action is to pick one of the three courses and then stick to that course for much of your stay at the tournament.

• If you prefer to limit your walking while at the tournament, stick to the area that contains no. 1 and no. 18. That area includes two reasonably interesting holes -- no. 1 is a short par 4, while no. 18 is a long 4-par that is one of the hardest holes on the course. In addition, the area includes the driving range and putting green, numerous grandstands and concession areas. Accordingly, you can see all of the competitors without having to walk around much.

• My favorite spot on the golf course to watch the action is the area behind the 6th hole, the adjacent 7th tee and the close-by 8th tee. The players have to hit a reasonably long shot into the 6th green, a short but dicey iron on the par 3 7th and a big drive on the par-5 8th. Thus, you can watch all of the players hit a nice variety of shots while walking a very small area of the course. The only downside -- the area is a good 30 minute walk from the 1st tee-18th green area.

• The Tournament Course is in extraordinarily good shape. The Houston Golf Association overseeds the course with rye grass during the winter months and the rye remains vibrant in Houston through about mid-April. That's why the players enjoy putting on the greens so much -- the rye has very little grain in comparison to the slower and grainier Bermuda grass that takes over the course during the warmer months from mid-April through mid-November.

• Although the Tournament Course is in great condition, the HGA could spruce it up a bit by planting some flowers around the course. For example, the unsightly drainage ditch that separates no. 1 and 18 from the rest of the course could use some wildflowers on the banks to provide some color. Moreover, given the lush green color of much of the rest of the course, some well-placed azaleas and other bright flowers would improve the ambiance of the course nicely.

• One of the most enjoyable aspects of PGA Tour events is that the players are almost all extremely nice and friendly. Each time I said "nice putt" or "nice shot" or "great birdie" to one of the players walking by, every one of them made eye contact, smiled and said "thanks."

• I'm always amazed at the increasing number of good ball-strikers on at these events. Everyone knows about such long-time ball-strikers par excellence such as Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Tommy Armour, III, among others. But relatively unknown players such as Jonathon Byrd, Vaughn Taylor, Michael Leitzig and Kevin Na are absolutely wonderful ball-strikers. It really makes you appreciate the depth of talent on the PGA Tour.

• By the way, the 54 year-old Norman and the 49 year-old Couples remain marvelous drivers of the golf ball. They remain amazingly long and accurate.

• Geoff Ogilvy is now firmly entrenched as one of golf's big stars. You can tell it by the way he carries himself -- he has that quiet air of confidence of one who knows that he belongs among the top players in the game. He is going to be around the top of the leaderboards for a long time. He really does hit the ball high, too.

• It is simply amazing to me that Paul Casey has never won a PGA Tour event. He is an wonderfully well-rounded player. His lack of a Tour win is another reflection of the incredible depth of talent on the PGA Tour.

• Phil Mickelson was a mess in his two rounds at Redstone (9 over par). On Friday morning, I watched him fan a 144 yard 9-iron into the water hazard 20 yards left of the hole on the par 3 7th hole. His drives were similarly erratic and he didn't putt well. I can't imagine that he feels much confidence going into Augusta National next week.

• While strolling over to the driving range, I had a nice chat with Houston-based teaching professional Jim Hardy, who was tutoring a number of his pupils during the week. We shared a nice chuckle on how Jack Nicklaus' idiosyncratic swing principles had created an annuity for teaching professionals over the past generation because of the necessity to correct the swings of all the golfers who were attempting to emulate Nicklaus.

• If Sergio Garcia putted with the confidence that he hits his other shots, then he would have won multiple majors by now.

• A conversation between a couple of Tour pros on the 2nd tee overheard by a friend of mine: "Were you in Stanford [Financial Group]?" "Thank God, no. I passed on that one."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 29, 2009

It's 2009 Shell Houston Open Week

The Shell Houston Open has finally arrived as a big-time PGA Tour event.

After an ugly divorce from The Woodlands, and a difficult transition period in which most of the best PGA Tour players avoided the event, the 2009 tournament has attracted the best field in the history of the event and one of the top fields of the PGA Tour season to date. Although Tiger Woods will be tuning up in Florida for the Masters next week, 15 of the top 20 players (and 21 of the top 30) in the World Rankings will be playing, including No. 2 Phil Mickelson, No. 3 Sergio Garcia, No. 5 Padraig Harrigton and No. 6 Vijay Singh.

The first Houston Open was in 1922 and the tournament is tied with the Texas Open as the third oldest non-major championship on the PGA Tour behind only only the Western Open (1899) and the Canadian Open (1904). This is the fourth Houston Open to be played on the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club and the seventh event overall at Redstone, which hosted its first three Houston Opens on the club's Jacobson-Hardy Course while the Tournament Course was being planned and built.

This is the SHO's third year of being played the week before The Masters and, despite Woods' policy of not playing the week before major championships, the strong field is confirmation that the SHO's move to the pre-Masters date was the right one. The Houston Golf Association has done a good job of promoting the tournament with Tour players by grooming the Tournament Course in a manner similar to Augusta National, but the course is actually a flat-land course that bears little resemblance to the hilly venues of Augusta.

Even with its superior conditioning, the Tournament Course is a favorite of neither players nor spectators. The course actually has a nice variety of interesting holes, but the routing of the course is a disaster, with 16 of the holes separated by a long walk and a drainage ditch from the 1st and 18th holes, the driving range and the clubhouse. Unfortunately, there is not much the Houston Golf Association can do about that routing problem, so let's just hope that the course's superior conditioning and the SHO's attractive tune-up date for The Masters keeps persuading the top players to overlook the routing problem.

Although I've had my doubts that the HGA would be able to turnaround the SHO at Redstone, I'm happy to be wrong on that score. Houston has a rich golfing tradition and the HGA is a fine charitable organization that worked miracles in reviving the tournament during its 20-year run in The Woodlands. It's going to be a great week at Redstone, so sit back and enjoy the SHO!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 23, 2009

Houston golf is a bargain

As I've noted several times over the years, the value of Houston-area golf courses is often under-appreciated by golfers in other parts of the country. In this Golf.com Press Tent blog post , Gary VanSickle indirectly highlights one of the major reasons that Houston golf is under-appreciated:

You tell me what's wrong with this picture. I flew into Miami International Airport .  .  .  and thought I'd stop in at the Melreese Golf Course, a municipal track operated by the city of Miami. It's basically just down the street from the rental car lots in an area that is not well-off -- most of the neighborhood's homes have bars over the windows.

It's noon. It's a Monday. It's beautiful -- 82 degrees, light wind. The course looks to be in outstanding condition, especially for a muni. When I ask if I can play a few holes, I'm told, sure, the course is wide open. In fact, it is all but deserted.

The girl working the register asks if I'm a Florida resident. Nope. She rings up my greens fee. That'll be $158. What, I say? State residents play for $78, non-residents are $158. Do you have a nine-hole rate, I ask? No. I totally understand trying to keep a public course available for use by local golfers. They should get a big discount. It's their course. But this isn't a local discount, it's statewide? What good does that do? You think anybody is going to fly down from Jacksonville to golf Melreese when there are 1,200 other courses in the state? City residents should get the golf discount.

So I settle on hitting a bag of 60 range balls (that's what the sign in the shop says) for $6. When I dump the bag out on the practice range, it doesn't look like 60 balls. I count them. There are 47. I'm 13 short. That's more than 20 percent I've been shortchanged. And while many of the balls looked white and shiny, too many of them just didn't get up in the air and go, no matter how well I hit them. Mushy range balls are a fact of life in golf. Getting 20 percent less product than I was promised, that's something else.

After I hit balls, I chipped and putted on the practice green (which was in very nice shape) for more than an hour. A couple of German guys who'd been hitting on the range did the same. They eventually left. So did I. I spent less than $10 at the course -- I bought range balls, plus a drink and crackers. I gladly would have paid $80 to play, but not $158. So due to excessive pricing, the course got zero.

Melreese used to be an example of how to run a muni. Improved conditions usually brings more play, more golfers. I was there for 90 minutes and saw no one tee off. I saw a couple of twosomes, a threesome and a single already on the course. The old parking lot was closed due to construction of a new clubhouse and, I presume, a new cart barn.

Somebody has to pay for that. But it's not going to be my $158.

What's wrong with golf? Gee, I can't imagine.

VanSickle could have hit the same number of range balls and played 18 holes at Houston's venerable muni, Memorial Golf Course (which is a better course than Miami's Melreese) for $42 if he took a cart, $31 if he walked. $15 more if he called ahead to reserve a tee time.

Posted by Tom at 4:54 PM | Comments (0) |

March 5, 2009

What if they liked the course?

This year's Shell Houston Open during the first week of April is shaping up to have its best field in over 20 years. The Chron's Steve Campbell reports:

Tournament director Steve Timms announced another flurry of player commitments Monday that includes No. 13 Paul Casey, No. 15 Steve Stricker, No. 22 K.J. Choi and former British Open champions Justin Leonard (No. 25) and Ben Curtis (No. 32).

With nearly a full month until the April 2-5 event at the Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course, the SHO has commitments from four of the world’s top eight players (Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson) and 13 of the top 30. And that’s not even taking into account former No. 1 Greg Norman making one of his infrequent appearances to tune up for the Masters. [.  .  .] What’s more, Timms has plenty reason to hope No. 3 Phil Mickelson, No. 4 Geoff Ogilvy and defending Masters champion Trevor Immelman (No. 29) will submit their entries by the March 27 deadline. That trio of major champions teed it up at Redstone last year, after all. 

The SHO is one top-30 player away from having the most in its field since 1986 — the first year of the world rankings.  .   .   . Just three years ago, only four top-30 players teed it up at the SHO.

In the era of the Tiger Chasm, that's a darn good field. It's looking as if the SHO's recent move to the week before The Masters, coupled with The Players Tournament moving to mid-May, is really paying dividends. The Houston Golf Association's attention to good conditioning of the Tournament Course at Redstone hasn't hurt in attracting top players, either.

But think of the quality of the field that the SHO might attract if it was played on a golf course that the Tour players really enjoyed.

Another consequence of bad decisions?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 27, 2009

He's back

Tiger Woods returned from major knee surgery to make his first appearance of the PGA Tour season this week, although Tim Clark made it a brief initial appearance.

Meanwhile, Woods' major sponsor Nike rolled out this commercial to celebrate Woods' return. It continues the trend of commercials representing some of the most creative product on television. Watch through the end and enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 12, 2009

What Not to Wear, PGA Tour-style

Golf Digest fashion director Marty Hackel takes Phil Mickelson to task for wearing a white belt with his otherwise all-black oufit at the PGA Tour stop last weekend at Torrey Pines in San Diego:

OK, I have had a look at it and it's not ideal. You are correct in that if you wear a white belt and have a big waist you should select trousers that have less contrast.

White belts are fine, but, and this is a big BUT, if your waist is big, DO NOT HAVE CONTRAST. The white belt with the black trousers called your eye and attention on his waist. Save the white belt for beige trousers and a white golf shirt!!

Golf Digest writer John Strege observes that Mickelson’s outfit might spur a new fashion rule:

One press tent wag suggested a Rule 32 apply, that if you're older than 32 or have a waist size larger than 32 you should not wear a white belt.

Meanwhile, while enduring less encouraging news about professional athletes, take a moment to check out this nice story about PGA Tour veteran J.P. Hayes, who is finding a welcome market for sponsor’s exemptions into Tour events after he disqualified himself over a technical rules violation during the PGA Tour Q-School last fall.

Sometimes, good guys really do win.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2009

What the Tour players really think

Golf Digest is running in this month's issue the results of an interesting survey that the magazine recently took of 25 of the top PGA Tour players.

Clear Thinkers favorite and longtime Houstonian Steve Elkington scores highly in one of the most important questions:

WHO'S THE BEST JOKE-TELLER ON TOUR?
Todd Hamilton: 17%
Steve Elkington: 13%
Harrison Frazar: 8%
Neal Lancaster: 8%
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Paul Azinger, Rich Beem, Tim Clark, Carlos Franco, Paul Goydos, Peter Jacobsen, Peter Lonard, Nick Price, Chris Riley, Boo Weekley

And you have to like the answers to the question "Who would you rather have dinner with, Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh?"

Phil: 50%
Vijay: 50%
COMMENTS: "What are we eating?" ... "So either I listen to Phil tell me everything he thinks he knows, or I sit with Vijay while he says nothing." ... "Give me a choice!"

Moreover, in response to the "What's the worst course you play on Tour?" question, La Cantera in San Antonio was the runaway winner (good thing that tournament is moving to a new course next year), while the Shell Houston Open's Tournament Course at Redstone is one of a half-dozen courses in the "Others Receiving Votes" category for that question. That will go over like a lead balloon at Houston Golf Association's offices.

But my favorite answer came in the "Others Receiving Votes" category to the question "Who's the Slowest Player on Tour?"

"Any Swede."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

January 29, 2009

Updike on Golf

The late author John Updike loved to write about and play golf, and his death this week reminded me of a fine speech that he gave about the game during the United States Golf Association's Centennial Dinner in New York in late 1994.

Thankfully, the USGA has posted Updike's speech on its website, the beginning and closing of which is set forth below. The entire speech is a must read for any golfer:

When I was asked to speak to you this evening, my first thought was, "Oh, no – my golf is not nearly good enough!" But then I reflected that one of the charms of the game is that nobody’s golf, not even Fred Couples’ and Nick Faldo’s, is good enough – good enough to please them and their supporters all the time.

Golf is a game that almost never fails, even at the highest levels on which it can be played, to mar a round with a lapse or two, and that at the other extreme rarely fails to grant even the most abject duffer, somewhere in his or her round, with the wayward miracle of a good shot. I am here – I have written so much about the game – because I am curiously, disproportionately, undeservedly happy on a golf course, and perhaps we are all here for much the same reason. [.  .  .]

When did American golf come of age? Some might say in 1904, when Walter Travis won the British Amateur Championship, the first foreigner to do so. Some might pinpoint the 1920s and the international admiration and affection won by the great Bobby Jones. But perhaps most would specify the happy moment in September of 1913 when the unknown 20-year-old Francis Ouimet beat the two foremost British players, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, for the U.S. Open Championship – an upset that made news, not just golf news. The moment is commemorated by a USGA Centennial logo, based on a well-known photograph.

Look at it; what do we see? Two figures, one of them our heroic golfer, a workingman’s son who happened to live in a modest house across from The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. He picked up golf balls on his way to school, he watched the matches across the street, a member gave his older brother some cast-off clubs, the young Ouimets fell in love with the game. Francis played without fuss; needing, on the 18th green, needing to sink a 5-foot putt to enter a playoff with the Englishmen, he rapped it at the back of the cup without a second look. The next day, he calmly beat Vardon by five strokes and Ray by six. And who is the other figure in our logo, a little figure? He is Ouimet’s caddie, a local 10-year-old called Eddie Lowery, carrying a canvas bag that looks to hold about eight clubs. Think of the caddies in today’s championships – burly yardage technicians toting bags the size of small sofas, loudly blazoned with manufacturers’ names for the greedy eyes of the television cameras.

We have come a long way in American golf, but has it been a journey without a price? Amid the million-dollar tournaments and the $5 million clubhouses, might we be losing the unassuming simplicity of the game itself?

This out-of-doors simplicity, surely, lies at the heart of golfing bliss, as we are reminded by our logo of two New England boys out for a walk on a drizzly September day.

All it takes for a golfer to attain his happiness is a fence rail to throw his coat on, and a target somewhere over the rise.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 10, 2009

Dan Jenkins' 2009 Golf Season Pop Quiz

Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is already in mid-season form with this hilarious pop quiz (H/T Geoff Shackelford) for the start of the 2009 PGA Tour season. Some of the questions to get you started:

7. Camilo Villegas is:
(a) A golfer on the PGA Tour.
(b) A golfer on the LPGA Tour.
(c) An island off the coast of Spain.
(d) A contestant on "Dancing With the Stars."

11. When 38-year-old Phil Mickelson said that he had somehow grown an inch through stretching exercises, was it in:
(a) Height?
(b) Width?
(c) Between the ears?

15. Since winning the Masters in April, Trevor Immelman has:
(a) Disappeared.
(b) Quit golf.
(c) Changed his name to Sam Parks Jr.

Meanwhile, with the dawn of the 2009 season, Daniel Wexler provides this timely overview of the current top players on the PGA and LPGA Tours. It's an excellent primer for the upcoming season.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 4, 2009

How much did you say he made?

Except for the incredibly large amounts, there are no surprises at the top of Golf Digest's annual list (H/T Geoff Shackelford) of professional golf's top 50 money earners from both prize money and endorsement income.

Tiger Woods ($117 mil total/$110 mil endorsements), Phil Mickelson ($45 mil/$38.5 mil endorsements) and Vijay Singh ($$43 mil/$26 mil endorsements) lead the way, while Arnold Palmer ($30 mil in endorsement income!) and Greg Norman ($25 mil in endorsements) rounding out the top five.

And, by the way, Golf Digest calculates that Woods has earned close to $900 million in winnings and endorsements since 1996.

Although there aren't any surprises in the Top Ten earners, there are certainly a few down the list a bit.

For example, can anyone explain to me how 12th-ranked Retief Goosen -- who induces sleep whenever interviewed -- managed to generate $9 million in endorsement income?

Or how 34th-ranked Rory Sabbatini -- one of the most boorish players on the Tour -- generated $3.5 million in endorsement income, which is $1.5 million more than 35th-ranked Geoff Ogilvy, who is one of the most pleasant players on the Tour?

Maybe Katie Couric at $15 million a year is a bargain for CBS News, after all?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 14, 2008

Project Barkley

Hank Haney has done some really good work in helping Tiger Woods modify his swing plane over the past several years. But what he has done in helping Charles Barkley fix his golf swing is nothing short of miraculous.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 10, 2008

From waiting tables to the PGA Tour

There really is nothing quite like the PGA Qualifying Tournament (commonly know as "the Q School") for sheer sporting drama.

After six nerve-wracking rounds (108 holes), the 25 low scorers get the treasured fully-exempt status to play in PGA Tour events for the 2009 season.

Don't finish in the low 25? It's back to slogging around the mini-Tours.

The pressure is excruciating. Take, for example, PGA Tour veteran Joel Edwards' reaction after blowing the 2004 Q school. He was on the cut line until hitting his tee shot into the water on the 108th hole and taking double-bogey. Edwards went directly from the green to the parking lot, letting out guttural screams and pounding his bag along the way, paying his caddie and slamming his car door as he drove off.

John Strege sums up the drama well:

The emotional gamut ran its course all within a matter of moments on the 18th hole of the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Monday afternoon, the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament delivering on its promise of compelling theater to the extremes.

Brian Vranesh, 31, was waiting tables a year ago. When he holed out to finish a round of seven under par 65, he had completed an improbable journey from working for tips to playing for millions, setting free a torrent of tears that qualifies as a gully washer in this bone-dry California desert.

Moments later, in the group directly behind Vranesh, a dispirited Josh Teater, 29, a veteran of mini tours who was on the verge of a promotion to the big leagues, completed a free fall finish -- triple-bogey, double-bogey, par, double-bogey -- that left the pieces of his shattered dream strewn across PGA West here.

It was, simultaneously blissfully and lamentably, a typical Q school finish. [.  .  .]

So while Vranesh is preparing to move onto the PGA Tour, Teater will attempt to regroup from the worst stretch of golf in his life, all things considered, and join the Nationwide Tour.

Teater was six under par on his round and 19 under par for the tournament [and in the top 25] when he came to the par-5 15th hole [his 105th of the tournament] on [his final round]. He hit his second there into the water, took a drop and hit his fourth into the water. After another drop, he hit his sixth onto the green and two-putted for eight.

He double-bogeyed two of the next three and fell to a tie for 62nd and on the wrong end of the extremes that make Q School what it so maddeningly is.

Jason Sobel provides short bios on each of 25 qualifiers. Former University of Texas golfer and PGA Tour veteran Harrison Frazar won the tournament by an impressive eight strokes (including one round of 59!). I wonder if he will get this sponsor back?

Finally, The Woodlands' Stacy Lewis won the LPGA Q School this past weekend and is fully-exempt on the LPGA Tour for the 2009 season. Keep an eye on her.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 7, 2008

What is this blithering 90-degree rule?

When it comes to playing golf, I'm decidedly old school. Weather permitting, I prefer to walk while playing, which puts me in a decided minority among American golfers, most of whom prefer to ride in a motorized cart.

Golfweek's British columnist Alistar Tait also prefers to walk, as do most golfers in the United Kingdom, where motorized carts are a rarity. Tait has just returned to the U.K. from his annual golfing trip to the U.S. and he weighs in with this clever article (entitled "Annoyed with America") in which he lists the "peculiarities" of playing golf in the U.S.

He includes one of my favorite cart-riding absurdities -- the 90-degree rule -- which requires that you drive on the cart path until you are 90 degrees from your ball, then drive to your ball from the cart path, hit your shot, and then return on your 90 degree path to the cart path, where you proceed to 90 degrees from your shot landed. Tait notes:

The 90-degree rule – Tell a British golfer that the 90-degree rule is in effect and you’ll get a blank look. Since we don’t have carts and paths, there’s no need for a rule that says you drive on the cart path adjacent to your ball and then turn 90 degrees to your ball.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 3, 2008

"That's just not us"

While General Motors is making its case in Congress for an $18 billion bailout (didn't GM need "just" $12 billion last week?), it's trying to cut corners in other areas, such as its endorsement deal with Tiger Woods that paid Woods $7 million annually over the past nine years.

As one sage headline writer put it -- "GM lays off Tiger Woods."

But Conan O'Brien had an even better crack about GM's termination of its relationship with Woods during one of his monologues last week:

"General Motors announced that they are ending their endorsement deal with Tiger Woods. When asked why, a spokesperson for General Motors said: 'Tiger Woods is successful, competitive, and popular. And that’s just not us.'”

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 16, 2008

PGA Tour by the numbers

PGA Tour.com's Kin Lo posts this first-rate statistical breakdown for the 2008 PGA Tour season (H/T Geoff Shackelford). Although the entire statistical analysis is interesting (scroll down the intro page to the hyperlinks at the bottom), the following chart provides a fascinating snapshot of the progression of the Tour over the past 28 years. Check out the difference between 1980 and 2008 in the average annual earnings of the top 30 players!:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 23, 2008

The "Rookies and Rednecks" come through

What with a hurricane hitting the upper Texas coast and a financial hurricane hammering Wall Street, the U.S. team's improbably stirring victory over the European team in last weekend's Ryder Cup matches has been somewhat overlooked.

As usual, Geoff Shackelford has chronicled all the reviews of the U.S. team's victory, including this interesting Mike Adamson article in which he notes the esprit de corps of the "Tigerless" U.S. team:

Woods's below-par record for the US team - combining the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, he has lost more of his 50 matches than he has won - remains something of a mystery. He has won the WGC Match Play on three occasions, including this year, his competitive streak thriving in mano-a-mano combat. But pair him with another and he cannot stop losing.

Woods has had a remarkable 11 partners in the Ryder Cup, three of whom were in this US team. All three, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard and particularly Phil Mickelson, have played with spirit, unburdened by the great man's presence. Likewise it is hard, albeit not impossible, to imagine the debutants Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley playing with such uninhibited personality were they in Woods's shadow. Although Azinger lost the world's best player, it is not too much of a stretch to suggest that his uplifting captaincy has also benefited from the absence of such an intimidating figure in the team room.

Also, don't miss this fine Doug Ferguson article on the tense third day match between the cocky U.S. rookie, Anthony Kim, and Euro Ryder Cup stalwart, Sergio Garcia. Kim stared Garcia down on the first green and then proceeded to whip him, 5 and 4.

The Ryder Cup is finally competitive again!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 19, 2008

Interesting golf fact of the day

What with Hurricane Ike and the meltdown on Wall Street -- as well as my general pessimism about the U.S. team's chances -- I haven't blogged much about this weekend's Ryder Cup matches at Valhalla in Louisville. But Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins passes along the following interesting offshoot of Euro team member Padraig Harrington's recent victories in the 2008 British Open and the PGA Championship:

With his British Open title in July [and PGA Championship in August}, Harrington now becomes the first cross-handed putter to win two majors in one year.

If there is hope for us cross-handed putters, then perhaps there is also hope for the U.S. team, after all!

Just don't bet on it.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 17, 2008

Fashion trends

Check out Esquire's slideshow (on the left below) illustrating the evolution of men's fashion over the past 75 years. Then, take a look at this Time Magazine slideshow (on the right below) exhibiting the worst of golf fashion over the past century.

My sense is that there is a connection.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 12, 2008

Here we go again?

With the completion of the PGA Championship this past weekend, the eight automatic qualifiers for the 12-man 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team were named for next month's matches at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville (Sept. 16-21).  U.S. team captain Paul Azinger will complete the 12-member roster by announcing his four Captain's selections Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 10 a.m. at the Hotel Martinique on Broadway in New York City.

The automatic qualifiers are the following:

Player                 Points

Phil Mickelson    5,342.500

Stewart Cink      4,952.665

Kenny Perry       4,480.700

Jim Furyk           4,423.892

Anthony Kim     4,035.296

Justin Leonard  3,379.274

Ben Curtis         3,120.061

Boo Weekley     2,785.095

My sense is that this group isn't sending shivers up the spine of the European team, which has recently dominated the U.S. team, winning four of the past five matches. The U.S. team is younger than prior teams with three of the eight (Ben Curtis, Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley) participating in their first Ryder Cup. Phil Mickelson is the veteran of the U.S. team by virtue of making his seventh consecutive appearance in the matches, but he is coming off a pathetic 1-7-1 record in the past two matches.

At least Mickelson played reasonably well over the past two weeks, contending for both titles and tying for seventh at the PGA Championship. Likewise, Furyk (29th) and Weekley (20th) played decently at the PGA even though they were not in contention for the title, while Curtis played very well in tying for second place.

However, Kim and Justin Leonard disappeared during the weekend rounds, Stewart Cink didn't even make the cut and Kenny Perry withdrew after the first round after scratching his cornea with a wayward contact lense. Leonard and Perry have never won a Ryder Cup match, and Mickelson, Furyk and Cink have an aggregate Ryder Cup record of 18-29-10.

Meanwhile, Euro team members Padraig Harrington (first place), Sergio Garcia (second place tie with Curtis), Henrik Stenson (tied for fourth) and Justin Rose (tied for ninth) were stellar during the PGA Championship.

Is anyone else getting a bad feeling about this year's matches? At least the U.S. team won't have to deal with being the favorite going into the matches.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 10, 2008

Elegant Elk

Clear Thinkers favorite and longtime Houstonian Steve Elkington (PGA Tour page here) is now 45 years old and past his prime on the PGA Tour, where he has won a major (the 1995 PGA at Riviera), is a ten time winner (the most recent was in 1999 at Doral). Nevertheless, Elk continues to have one of most elegant golf swings on the Tour and remains quite competitive, reflected by his tie for eighth place through two rounds of this week's PGA Championship at Oakland Hills outside Detroit.

Mirroring his swing, Elk has also established himself as one of the most fashionable dressers on the Tour. During this first round of the PGA Championship, Elk was resplendent in a white shirt with pink dots and a hard collar, high-rise brown trousers with a windowpane check and long pleats, and green, white and red patent-leather Foot Joy shoes. Elk is continuing the tradition of fellow Houstonians Doug Sanders and the late Jimmy Demaret, both of whom were the fashion plates on the Tour during their respective eras.

As he winds down his PGA Tour career and prepares for the Champions Tour, Elk has established his own website -- elksworld.com -- where he is displaying and selling the shirts and caps he wears and designs. Elk also provides this slick deck that summarizes the marketing opportunities that businesses can derive by associating with Elk. Rather than selling advertising space on himself or his golf bag, Elk is using his artistic talent and entrepreneurial spirit to start an interesting business. Here's hoping that he is as successful in that endeavor as he has been during his PGA Tour career.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 27, 2008

Golf Prospectus 2008?

Regular readers know that I'm a big supporter of the annual Baseball Prospectus books that provide cutting-edge statistical analysis of Major League Baseball. So, this Bill Pennington/NY Times article about Mark Broadie, a professor at Columbia who conducts research for the PGA Tour, caught my eye.

Broadie is now taking a crack at doing similar statistical analysis for golf as what Baseball Prospectus does for baseball, except that he is analyzing the key differences between Tour players and amateur golfers. Broadie used the PGA Tour ShotLink database to analyze the pros' performance and he persuaded players at one of his local courses to log all of their shots for a period of time, resulting in a database of 43,000 amateur shots (probably about 500 rounds). He then combined the databases and broke down how scoring varied between pros and amateurs based on the shots involved.

For example, Broadie analyzed at what distance there is a 50% chance of sinking a putt. Tour players break even on 8-foot putts, but somewhat surprisingly to me, the best amateurs (amateurs with between a 0-9 handicap) break even on putts from 6 feet (I'm an 8 handicap, but doubt that I break even from 6 feet). On the other hand, Tour players average almost 280 yards off the tee, while amateurs with a 0-9 handicap average only 248 yards driving the ball. That's part of why some of Broadie's conclusions are counter-intuitive to the standard "you drive for show, but putt for dough" advice that golfers regularly receive from golf instructors:

It is the long game that proves to be the biggest factor when examining the difference in scores between pros and amateurs and even between low- and high-handicap amateurs. If, for example, a PGA Tour player were available to hit shots for an amateur from 100 yards and in, or available to hit all the shots leading to the 100-yard mark, Broadie says the amateur would benefit the most from having the PGA player hit the long shots, not the short ones.

Despite the belief that shorter hitters are more accurate off the tee than longer hitters, Broadie discovered the opposite: longer hitters also tend to be straighter hitters. “Better players are more skilled over all,” Broadie said. “They hit it farther and they have more consistent swings, so they’re more accurate, too.”

It is often said that 60 to 65 percent of all shots are struck within 100 yards of the hole. Broadie agreed but noted that if you take out “gimme” putts of two and a half feet, the statistic has less meaning. Remove very short putts that are rarely missed, and shots from 100 yards or less account for only 45 to 50 percent of all shots. Eliminate putts from three and a half feet or less, and the figure drops to 41 to 47 percent. [.  .  .]

Broadie also said that a putting statistic golfers often keep (the number of putts per round) was not as valuable at predicting one’s score as another stat, the percentage of greens hit in regulation, which will more likely tell you how well a golfer is scoring.

Of particular interest is Broadie's findings regarding shots hit from between 150 to 100 yards from the green. He computed the average distance remaining to the hole after the golfers hit that particular approach shot. Tour players had 5.6% of the distance remaining, while the top amateurs had 8.7% of the distance remaining. As a result, Broadie recommends that a good way to determine whether your short game needs more help than your long game is to compute your own percentage and then compare it to the amateur group you fall into based on your handicap.

For example, inasmuch as my handicap is 8, if the distance remaining to the hole after my shots from 100-150 yards is higher than 8.7% of the distance of the shots, then my short game is probably worse than other golfers of comparable handicaps. On the other hand, that also means that my driving and related long shots are probably a bit better than my peers.

There are other interesting tidbits, so check out the entire article. As Broadie observed: "It's great cocktail-party conversation."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 20, 2008

Can he do it?

I don't think so, but I sure will be pulling for him. We mid-50 year olds have to stick together.

If Norman can pull it off, his victory should put to rest one of the cruelest golf jokes of recent lore:

Q: What is the English pronunciation of Jean Van de Velde, the Frenchman who blew the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie by taking a triple-bogey 7 on the final hole and then losing in a playoff?

A: Greg Norman

Daniel Wexler passes along the following analysis of Norman's remarkable career from The Book of Golfers:

Among the most striking and exciting golfers ever to play the game, Queensland’s Gregory John Norman (b.Mt Isa 2/10/1955) may not rank as highly as Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros or Nick Faldo on most all-time lists, yet he was arguably golf’s most captivating figure between the reigns of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.  A typically sports-oriented Australian youth, Norman only took up golf after caddying for his low-handicap mother at age 16, then worked his way down to scratch within two years.  Pondering a career in the Australian air force, Norman instead turned professional after winning the Queensland Junior title, working briefly in Sydney, then for a longer stint at the Royal Queensland GC where he apprenticed for the man who would be his primary teacher, the well-known Charlie Earp.

By 1976 Norman was ready to compete around Australia – so ready, in fact, that he won his fourth start, Adelaide’s West Lakes Classic, over a strong professional field.  Like many an ambitious Aussie before him, Norman spent the next three years playing largely abroad, taking five titles in Europe and Asia as well as four more in his homeland.  By 1979 he was beginning to approach the game’s highest levels when a missed putt of 4’ at the 72nd cost him the Australian Open.  But with a work ethic to match his raw talent, Norman continued his steady improvement and took the national title for the first time the following year, by one over Brian Jones at The Lakes GC in Sydney.  The victory led to an invitation to the Masters and it was at Augusta in 1981 that America got its first look at a player whose attacking style, charisma and white-blond hair made for ideal golf television.  Norman would finish fourth in this Masters debut, entertaining the media with tales of shark hunting which, inevitably, spawned his famous “Great White Shark” nickname.  Three months later he added joint fourth at the PGA Championship in Atlanta, and a new international star was born.

Generally considered the longest straight driver in history, Norman soon began playing regularly in America where his aggressiveness and larger-than-life personality ticketed him as the logical heir apparent to Palmer, Nicklaus and Watson.  Frequently he seemed capable of living up to the hype, such as the summer of 1984 when, within a five-week span, he won twice (at the Kemper and Canadian Opens), lost to Tom Watson in a playoff for the Western Open, then endured an 18-hole playoff loss to Fuzzy Zoeller in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.  This, of course, was one of the modern era’s most memorable Opens with Norman blowing his approach to the 72nd into a grandstand before ultimately holing a 50’ putt for par.  Back in the fairway, thinking that Norman had made birdie, Zoeller waved the white towel of surrender – but on Monday it would be Norman who yielded when Fuzzy took the playoff with a sparking 67.

The loss at Winged Foot led to some talk – at that time largely misplaced – of Norman as a choker, and his unique “Saturday Slam” of 1986 hardly helped.  For in that remarkable season, Norman indeed led all four Majors after 54 holes, yet won only the Open Championship, his most crushing defeat coming at the PGA where Bob Tway holed a famous bunker shot at 72nd for victory.  Such a loss can only happen once a lifetime, one might assume, but at the 1987 Masters Norman endured another notorious lightning bolt when Larry Mize drained a 45-yard pitch to snatch victory on the second hole of sudden death.  Three years later David Frost would hole a bunker shot at the last to edge Norman in New Orleans, and then, barely a month later, Robert Gamez would beat him at Bay Hill by actually holing a full 176-yard 7 iron at the last!

The gods, then, were not always with him, but Norman often generated his own misery, including a badly blocked 4 iron at the 72nd which cost him a playoff with Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters, a disappointing 76 in a much-anticipated third-round duel with Nick Faldo at the 1990 Open Championship and the saddest of them all, the final-round 78 that eviscerated a seemingly insurmountable six-shot lead, allowing Faldo to win the 1996 Masters with a closing 67.

But if Norman is to be vilified for these losses, he must also be credited with some of modern golf’s greatest work.  In 1990, for example, he closed the Doral Open with a scorching 62, then won in a playoff by eagling the first extra hole – a 12-under-par total for 19 holes.  Even more impressive, however, were rounds played during his two Major titles, the 1986 and ’93 Open Championships.  In 1986, after opening with a weather-induced 74, Norman uncorked an almost unbelievable second-round 63 in dismal conditions, a round which stood only three putts at both the 17th and 18th away from perhaps being the greatest ever played.  Then in 1993, he stormed home at Royal St George’s with a near-perfect closing 64 to beat Nick Faldo by two, a round described by Gene Sarazen as “the most awesome display of golf I have ever seen.”

A fitness devotee, Norman retained his world-class skills well into his 40s, winning twice in 1997 at age 42, then taking his own homeland event, the Greg Norman Holden Invitational, a year later.  Today he rides herd over Great White Shark Enterprises, a highly successful international business conglomerate, while receding slowly from the competitive scene.  But whatever critics may say regarding his career, two Open Championships, more than 80 wins worldwide, 29 top-10 finishes in Major championships and a record 331 total weeks ranked as the number one player in the world adds up to a large and impressive legacy, particularly when judged against the field as opposed to a generalized sense of expectations.  Further, no player between Nicklaus and Woods has loomed larger over the game, or brought more excitement – and epic struggle – to its playing fields.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 2, 2008

Tiger's tournament enters the Tiger Chasm

  The Tiger Chasm -- the widening netherworld of golf tournaments that don't attract much attention because Tiger Woods doesn't play in them -- has now swallowed even Tiger's own tournament, this weekend's AT&T National at Congressional Country Club in Washington, D.C.

Last year, most of the best PGA Tour players -- including Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy, and Justin Rose -- played in the AT&T National.  With Tiger resting after recent knee surgery, none of those players are competing this year and only two top-10 player in the World Rankings -- Steve Stricker and K.J. Choi -- are bothering to show up, and only Jim Furyk (13), Trevor Immelman (14), Anthony Kim (20), Aaron Baddeley(22) and Andres Romero (24) among the top 25 are in the field.

To make matters worse, tournament title sponsor AT&T cannot be particularly happy about forking over the big bucks only to have USA Today run the headline above in its article on the tournament. (H/T Geoff Shackelford).

Welcome to the Tiger Chasm.

By the way, this Bloomberg.com article analyzes the probable technique used to repair Woods' ACL during the surgery. Definitely worth a read.

7/08/08 Update: Thomas Bonk of the LA Times reports that the ratings for the Tiger-less AT&T National confirmed its entry into the Tiger Chasm:

In a word: bad. The overnight ratings for Sunday's fourth round of the AT&T National on CBS were down 48%, from a 2.9 to a 1.5. The third-round overnight ratings were down 35%, from a 2.0 to a 1.3.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 29, 2008

On the driving range in The Woodlands

Several years ago, during the early part of the final round of the U.S. Women's Open, I was hitting balls at the driving range of the Player Course here in The Woodlands. I figured that I would hit balls for awhile and then catch the final part of the Women's Open on television.

It was quite hot that day and so the only other person hitting balls that day on the range was a young woman and her father. In between hitting balls, I watched the young woman hit some shots. Her swing was impeccable and frankly much better than most of the professional golfers who I had seen during the earlier rounds of the Women's Open. As I left the range that day, I complimented the young woman on her swing and observed that, with that swing, she really ought to be playing that afternoon in the final round of the U.S. Women's Open. The young woman and her father thanked me graciously for my compliment.

Well, what do you know. That young woman -- Stacy Lewis -- is now playing in her first tournament as a professional and leads the 2008 U.S. Women's Open going into the final round. Read about Stacy's remarkable story here.

Update: Lewis faded to a 78 in the final round and finished third behind Inbee Park.

Posted by Tom at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) |

June 19, 2008

Tiger's bittersweet victory

Just off one of the most remarkable performances of his amazing career, Tiger Woods is going on the shelf for the rest of this golf season and probably for a good chunk of next season rehabilitating from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. This will be Woods' second surgery on his left knee in two months and his fourth since 1994.

But first, a few comments on last week's U.S. Open. Frankly, it's been difficult this close to the thrilling tournament to provide any decent perspective of the event. Unquestionably, the tournament will go down as one of the most entertaining U.S. Opens of the modern era. Torrey Pines is a great muny golf course, but it's not considered an architectural gem on the level of many other U.S. Open venues, so there really was not much anticipation going into the tournament that the course would produce a particularly memorable event. Nevertheless, to the surprise of most golf fans, the USGA wisely moved away from its draconian past course set-ups and arranged Torrey Pines in a first-class manner that facilitated the competition rather than restricting it.

That set the stage for 45-year-old journeyman Rocco Mediate -- ranked 158th in the World Rankings coming into the tournament and without a win on the Tour since 2002 -- to somehow find a rhythm over the week that allowed him to take the best player in the history of the game to the brink of a crushing loss on two different occasions.  One of the friendliest players on the Tour, Mediate looked all weekend as if he was just as surprised as everyone else that he was battling Woods toe-to-toe. Amazingly, had he been able to hit a decent wedge shot on either Sunday or Monday to set up a birdie on the relatively easy par-5 18th hole, Rocco Mediate -- not Tiger Woods -- would be the 2008 U.S. Open champion.

Meanwhile, playing on what we now know is a torn ACL a couple of stress fractures in his left tibia (an injury apparently suffered during rehab from his recent knee surgery), Woods was certainly not at his best during the tournament, perhaps best reflected by the fact that he double-bogeyed the par-4 first hole three times in the first four rounds. But those missteps were offset by Woods' extraordinary play at other times, such as his three eagles on the par-5's and holing more clutch putts than any player in the field. Stated simply, Woods and Mediate put on a great show that will rank as one of the best U.S. Opens ever.

Sadly, however, Woods' once-in-a-lifetime talent will not be on display for a good while now. And, as noted here a couple of months ago, what is perhaps most baffling about Woods' injury is that it is largely self-inflicted. He has unwisely for years included a frequent long-distance running regimen in his intense exercise protocol, which has at least contributed to the injury in his left knee. Woods' running program reflects a common and destructive misconception within America society that "more is better" when it comes to exercise. In fact, allowing the body to recover adequately after intensive periods of exercise is at least as important to good health as the exercise itself. Although we will almost certainly read stories over the coming days on how Woods will come back even stronger and better after the surgery, my sense is that he is facing almost certain chronic arthritis in his left knee and total knee replacement surgery within 10 years or so. I sincerely hope that Woods' stubborn adherence to a physically-damaging exercise regimen does not end up taking from us the enjoyment of watching one of the most gifted athletes of our time compete at the highest level of his ability.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 11, 2008

Gearing up for the U.S. Open

Golf course author and blogger Geoff Shackelford is blogging the U.S. Open this week at Torrey Pines in San Diego in the same manner as he blogged The Masters earlier this year, and he kicks off the U.S. Open week with this email interview of the best golf writer of the past generation, Dan Jenkins. As usual, Jenkins is in mid-season form:

GS: Are you excited about visiting California, where we treat smokers like lepers?

DJ: I would be more excited about going to California if I was 20 years younger and sitting in the Polo Lounge.

Read the entire interview here. Also, check out this interesting map of Torrey Pines and the slick USGA course overview while perusing Jay Flemma's and Daniel Wexler's reviews of the course.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 21, 2008

Overrated

While this Golf.com article surveys the most overrated professional golfers, this Dave Berri post analyzes the most overpaid NBA players.

Guess who made the latter list?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 15, 2008

Houston's best 19th hole

Although Jack Burke's venerable Champions Cypress Creek Golf Course may arguably be a bit overrated, this Ron Kapriske/Golf Digest article rates the Champions Men's Locker Room Bar as one of the 50 best 19th holes in the country:

Sit back and listen to Jackie Burke tell stories, especially the one about Jimmy Demaret at the bar in his birthday suit; the bar inside the locker room is three-sided to allow for "cross-counter shouting matches"; wood paneling is a "throwback to the country-club days of the 1960s."

I can attest that having the opportunity to listen to a couple of Burke stories is certainly worth a trip to the Champions Men's Locker Room. A close second to the Champions Men's Locker Room Bar among the best of Houston's 19th holes -- Lochinvar Golf Club's Clubhouse.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 12, 2008

The Players trumps the Masters

Well, he didn't do it with a belly putter, but Sergio Garcia fulfilled my prediction after last year's British Open that it was just a matter of time before he won a big-time tournament.

On Sunday afternoon, the 28 year-old Garcia won The Players in a one-hole playoff against journeyman Paul Goydos (169th in the World Golf Rankings) as he shook off -- for the most part, at least -- the putting woes that have bedeviled the former prodigy over the past several years. The victory is Garcia’s first on the PGA Tour since 2005 and easily the most important championship in his career to date, reflected by the fact that his World Golf Ranking went from 18th to 10th with the win. For the record, Garcia burst on the scene as a 19 year-old when he went toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods before taking second place at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. Few who saw him play in that tournament would have predicted at the time that it would take him nine years to win a tournament of the The Players' stature.

By the way, fourth-place finisher Briny Baird summed up as well as anybody the final day of The Players, which saw contenders such as Phil Mickelson (78) and Kenny Perry (81) flame out: "I don't care who wins the tournament," Baird said. "The wind won. It kicked everybody's butts."

Although Garcia's unexpected victory and Goydos' stirring play were compelling story lines, the big winner this week was the tournament itself, which provided a much more entertaining product than the Masters for the second straight year. Dean Barnett notes the main reason why:

Particularly when paired against the Masters, The Players shows some strength. The field of competitors is stronger at The Players; indeed, it’s the strongest field in golf on an annual basis.

The Masters’ history also has to give The Players some encouragement. The Masters is a relatively new tournament, ostentatiously and boldly designed to achieve major status some 70 years ago. And the plan worked. The Players has the same sort of dynamic, plus the additional benefit that the venue and the tournament belong to the PGA Tour. In other words, The Players truly is the players' tournament. In a manner of speaking, they own it.

Where The Players actually belongs to the players, the Masters and Augusta National belong to a bunch of weird guys who are prone to despotism. Additionally, the Masters has looked a bit long in the tooth in recent years. In a misguided effort to modernize the course, Augusta National unleashed a supremely mediocre architect to modify one of the best and most original golf designs ever.

The changes to the course have been horrendous on a number of levels. The most damaging has been the fact that the changes sucked the drama out of the tournament in the name of “defending par.” Augusta is now so long and difficult, there are few birdie opportunities and the players take over five hours to make their way around the course in twosomes. If the lords of Augusta National were capable of embarrassment (which they almost surely are not), this last fact would shame them no end. The course is now harder (and more boring), but is it a better and fairer test of golf? Does it effectively identify the world’s best golfers? Leader boards the last couple of years populated almost exclusively by no-names and an angry Tiger Woods suggest otherwise.

Meanwhile, The Players takes place at the Tournament Players Club (TPC), a course that is also very difficult, but still manages to identify the best golfers and be fun. The trademark short 17th hole with its island green is pure fun and excitement. (Journalistic integrity compels me to confess to playing the Tournament Players Club this winter and effortlessly parring the 17th by hitting a nice easy nine iron to the center to the green. I’m not sure why the pros have so much trouble with the hole. Maybe it has something to do with having hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line.)

Although a beautiful venue, Augusta National is currently so long and difficult that it provides a disincentive for the players to take risks, similar to the type of golf that has long been played in the usually boring U.S. Open. The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, on the other hand, is much shorter than Augusta National and most U.S. Open venues, and the course continues to encourage creative risk-taking. A course that encourages risk-taking will usually produce a more entertaining tournament than one that does not.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 8, 2008

My favorite tournament

It's not one of the four majors (despite the PGA Tour's constant drumbeat to make it the fifth), but The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach just south of Jacksonville, Florida is my favorite golf tournament of the year. This year's edition starts today.

This is the 35th Players Championship, which bounced around for its first eight years before settling at Pete Dye’s legendary Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in 1982. Not only is the Stadium Course a great modern layout (Jay Flemma's excellent review is here), the Tour has continually renovated and improved the course over the years so that it has matured into one of the best courses that the Tour plays each year. Adding to the fun is the fact that The Players usually has the best field of any tournament of the golf season and this year is no exception -- every one of the top 25 in the World Golf Rankings is playing with the exception of the Tiger Woods, who is convalescing from recent knee surgery. Not surprisingly, from the standpoint of most players, winning The Players is at least as prestigious as winning the PGA Championship, though still not as important as winning the other three majors.

So, a great field competing over one of modern golf design’s most interesting courses almost assures good entertainment -- that's why this is my favorite tournament. Add in that the 17th hole island par-3 is arguably the most creative (and highly controversial) hole in the backstretch of any Tour event is a virtual guarantee for high drama come Sunday afternoon. TV times for Thursday and Friday are noon-6 p.m. (CDT) on the Golf Channel, and 1-6 p.m. (CDT) Saturday and Sunday on NBC.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 17, 2008

What is Tiger thinking and has The Masters become a bore?

So, Tiger Woods is being forced to take a month off from the PGA Tour as he rehabs from knee surgery. I know that Woods' workout routine is considered cutting edge, particularly for a professional golfer, but what on earth is he running seven miles per workout with a bad knee? Don't his trainers know that long-distance running is not a particularly healthy form of exercise?

Long-distance running is a fine form of recreation for folks who enjoy it. But as a method of exercise, I am hard-pressed to think of one that is more physically damaging. Woods would be smart to re-think his workout to delete long-distance running and concentrate on short sprints for the aerobic part of his workout.

The knee operation will prevent Woods from defending his title at the Wachovia Championship in two weeks or competing in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass a week after that.

By the way, Geoff Shackelford (see this Daniel Wexler post, too) is leading a discussion over at his blog on whether the design changes at Augusta National -- which have clearly prompted players to play more defensively and less aggressively during the Masters Tournament -- have undermined the excitement of the tournament for spectators. Geoff passes along the following interesting stat from Brett Avery's Golf World stat package:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 14, 2008

Another one-planer wins The Masters

Last year it was Zach Johnson (see also here). This year, it's Trevor Immelman. What's the deal with all these one-plane swingers dominating the Masters Tournament? Could it have something to do with the fact that neither Johnson last year nor Immelman this year ever seemed to miss a fairway? Immelman hit 48 out of 56 fairways on Augusta's 4's and 5's during the tournament; Johnson hit 45 last year.

By the way, Immelman tuned up for his Masters victory by shooting 73-72 and missing the cut last week at the Shell Houston Open.

Geoff Shackelford's collection of links on the final day of the Masters is here and the link to his previous daily reports from the week is here.

Finally, Tiger Woods finished second for the second straight year after a relatively poor week of putting on Augusta National's slick greens (interestingly, the dominant Woods has won only one of the last six Masters Tournaments). I know Tiger is popular and all, but the following excerpt from this Martin Johnson/Daily Telegraph article reflects that some Tiger admirers have gone completely over the top:

The Woods mystique is such that he can even cause a riot, or close to it, by eating a banana. When Woods peeled one on Saturday and threw away the skin, there was a mad stampede to grab it as a souvenir.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 12, 2008

America's slipping grip on golf

First, PGA Tour events had to worry about the Tiger Chasm. Now, this W$J article reports that they also need to worry about competition from tournaments in foreign venues:

The U.S. has, for decades, held sway over the international golf calendar. Three of the four most-prestigious tournaments happen in the U.S. (in tennis, no nation has more than one of the four Grand Slams). The PGA Tour also has long been the world's most-lucrative circuit, with an estimated $278 million in prize money this year.

As golf explodes in popularity throughout the world, especially in developing nations, an increasing number of tournaments are popping up in places such as Dubai, Qatar, Shanghai and Singapore. On the subcontinent, the Masters and the Johnnie Walker Classic -- two recent events sanctioned by the European Tour -- attracted several top stars, including South African Ernie Els, Fijian Vijay Singh and Australian Adam Scott.

As these events draw richer and more-aggressive backers, they have been offering more prize money. In November 2009, Dubai will host the Dubai World Championship, which will feature a prize purse of $10 million, making it the most-lucrative golf tournament ever for players.

Meanwhile, the declining dollar has lowered the relative value of purses at U.S. tournaments, making these Asian, Middle Eastern and European gigs harder for players to ignore. When asked during his stay in New Delhi whether he expected more top players to play outside the U.S., Mr. Els quipped, "The way the dollar is going, I'm sure."

On top of that, many newer Asian and European tournaments are paying large appearance fees to some top pros to guarantee that the field will be competitive (such fees are banned in the U.S.). That means marquee names can make big sums even when they blow their chances of winning -- as Mr. Els did at the Indian Masters with a nine on the final hole of the first round. Tiger Woods reportedly received $3 million to play in the Dubai Desert Classic in February. (Mr. Woods's agent declined to comment.)

The top flight of golfers is itself becoming more international. In 1999, 33 of the top 50 players in the world came from the U.S. Today 34 of the top 50 players come from outside America. The Qatar Masters, a European Tour event in January, attracted nine of the world's top 25, the same number that the U.S. tour's Buick Invitational in San Diego drew the same week. Spain's Sergio Garcia, America's Scott Verplank and Mr. Scott, the world's No. 5 player, all chose Qatar over California.

"I think the majority of players look on the world as a global competition," said South African golfer Gary Player. Within five years, Mr. Player predicted, international events will be just as important as the PGA Tour.

With such heightened foreign competition, the Shell Houston Open's decision to accept being scheduled the week before The Masters looks like a stroke of genius. Few of the best players who like to prepare for The Masters by playing in a tournament the week before will want to play in a tournament overseas because of the long travel that would be required immediately before playing in The Masters.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 10, 2008

It's time for The Masters

It's the week of The Masters golf tournament, so I'm passing along a copy of the Augusta National scorecard that my late father used when he shot a cool 99 at the course back in the mid-1970's. The weather forecast for the tournament is looking a bit dicey on Saturday and Sunday.

Golf course design consultant and golf blogger extraordinaire Geoff Shackelford is doing an outstanding job at GolfWorld of organizing the media pieces and blog posts about the tournament -- here are his Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the weekend reports. And he is even finding time to blog a bit as this post decries what has become of the Masters par-3 tournament. Check back each day of the week as Geoff will provide the most comprehensive launching pad of links relating to the tournament. The Wall Street Journal's very good golf writer, John Paul Newport, is also blogging the tournament here.

Meanwhile, golf author and blogger Daniel Wexler provides this entertaining post on the ten best golfers who never won the Masters and this interesting hole-by-hole analysis of how the changes to Augusta National's back nine have altered  the shot-making options that course architects Bobby Jones and Alister McKenzie emphasized in designing the venerable layout. He concludes:

So in the end, is this present incarnation a better nine than existed in the beginning?  From the perspective of keeping modern golfers from going low, absolutely – plus the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th remain, altered or not, among the most exciting holes in the history of the game.  The problem is that the addition of rough and trees does not add (or even complement existing) strategy; it simply makes it harder for the golfer to post a good score.  This may salve the egos of present-day club leaders, but re-reading this column’s opening quote, and considering that it was final-nine drama – the rapid-fire eagles, bogeys and “others” – that used to make the Masters so utterly unique, I keep finding myself wondering:

What’s wrong with great scores?

Finally, the Masters has been a frequent topic on this blog, so the following are a few Masters-related posts from over the years:

Ken Venturi and Arnold Palmer's little snit over that embedded ball at the 1958 Masters.

Phil Mickelson wins his first Masters in 2004 and Masters' expert Dan Jenkins puts it all in perspective.

Remember Martha Burk?

Read about some of Dan Jenkins' favorite Masters moments and how he "birdied his bypass." Also, don't miss this post in which Jenkins describes Chris DiMarco's putting grip and what Mickelson and Tiger Woods were saying to each other as Mickelson helped Woods into his fourth green jacket during the 2005 awards ceremony.

Culture shock -- John Daly on the Augusta National driving range.

A golfing Zimbabwe (see also here) and a salute to the King.

A fellow Iowa native makes good at The Masters.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 6, 2008

A brief encounter at the SHO driving range

After spending a delightful Friday morning watching Phil Mickelson navigate the back nine during the second round of the Shell Houston Open, my entourage and I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed out to the Redstone Golf Club driving range to watch the players with afternoon tee times prepare for their rounds.

A few minutes after we arrived, 2007 PGA Teacher of the Year and Houston resident Jim Hardy appeared on the range to watch his longtime student, Scott McCarron, warm up for his round. Hardy helped McCarron revive his professional golf career in the mid-1990's after he had completely lost confidence in his swing. Hardy has helped resurrect the careers of several other PGA Tour pros in a similar manner.

Meanwhile, a few spots down the range from Hardy and McCarron, the mercurial John Daly -- who was playing the SHO on a sponsor's exemption because he has become a shadow (see also here) of the world class golfer that he used to be -- began warming up for his round. In between drags on an ever-present cigarette as well as friendly chatter with caddies and other practicing players, Daly somewhat listlessly hit a few wedges and then a few long irons before wailing away with his driver. The man can still hit the ball out of sight.

As Daly began hitting his driver, McCarron finished his practice session and Hardy had a few final words with him. McCarron then left for his tee time and Hardy strolled down the range, stopping 20 yards or so behind Daly. With arms folded, Hardy silently stood watching Daly hit practice drives. I'm not sure that Daly even noticed Hardy watching.

A few minutes later, Daly tossed his driver to his caddy and trudged toward the golf cart that would take him to the 10th tee for his tee time. Hardy walked to the putting green and began working with another player on his putting.

After seven holes of his round, Daly withdrew from the tournament with a balky back that I'm sure wasn't helped by the chilly rain and 20 degree temperature drop that occurred Friday afternoon. However, in nine tournaments this season, Daly has now missed four cuts, pulled out of another tournament with a rib injury and was disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational because he blew his pro-am tee time. This on top of Daly's unofficial PGA Tour record of six withdrawals in 2007 and his 581st World Golf ranking coming into the SHO.

The sad reality is that probably even Jim Hardy can't help John Daly now.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 2, 2008

It's 2008 Shell Houston Open Week

Following on this post from a couple of weeks ago, this week's Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club has its best field in years (previous posts here), which includes the following top 25 players in the World Golf Rankings: Phil Mickelson (2), Steve Stricker (4), defending champion Adam Scott (5), The Woodlands' K.J. Choi (7), Geoff Ogilvy (11), Padraig Harrington (12), Angel Cabrera (17), Aaron Baddeley (18), Trevor Immelman (25). Other popular notables in the field include 2003 champ Fred Couples, Houston's Steve Elkington, Texans Chad Campbell and Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Jose Maria Olazabal, The Woodlands' Jeff Maggert and Argentinean hot-shot Andres Romero. For a non-major and non-Tiger event, 10 of the top 25 in the World Golf Rankings and three of the top five provides a very sporty field.

Started in 1922, the Houston Open is tied with the Texas Open as the third oldest non-major championship on the PGA Tour behind only only the Western Open (1899) and the Canadian Open (1904). This is the third Houston Open to be played on the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club and the sixth event overall at Redstone, which hosted its first three Houston Opens on the club's Jacobson-Hardy Course while the Tournament Course was being built. This is the SHO's second year of being played the week before The Masters and, despite the tradition of some of golf's all-time greats not to play the week before major championships, the strong SHO field this year is an encouraging boost for a tournament that has struggled generating quality fields ever since leaving The Woodlands' TPC Course after the 2002 tournament. Although the Houston Golf Association promotes the tournament with players by grooming Redstone's Tournament Course in a manner similar to Augusta National, the Tournament Course is actually a flat-land course that bears little resemblance to the hilly venues of Augusta.

The following are several posts from over the years that will give you a flavor for the SHO:

• Visiting the SHO in 2007;

• The folly of the "resemble Augusta" approach;

• Initial player views of the Tournament Course at Redstone;

• My round at the Tournament Players Course (with pictures); and

• The story of how the SHO left its successful home in The Woodlands for Redstone.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 21, 2008

Is this the key year for the SHO?

The Shell Houston Open has been a frequent topic on this blog, particularly the tournament's troubled recent history (see here, here and here). This year's tournament is coming up during the week of March 31-April 6 and, for the first time in years, the SHO's projected field contains several top 10 players in the World Golf Rankings. In fact, the SHO's field looks as if it will be about as good as any of the PGA Tour's tournaments that currently exist in the Tiger Chasm:

Steve Stricker, No. 4 in the world golf rankings, is the latest PGA TOUR player among the Top 10 to commit to tee it up in the Shell Houston Open the week of March 31-April 6 at Redstone Golf Club – Tournament Course.

Stricker joins No. 2 Phil Mickelson, No. 3 Ernie Els, No. 5 Adam Scott (defending champion) and No. 6 K.J. Choi in the field. No. 11-ranked Padraig Harrington of Ireland, the current British Open champion, and No. 16-ranked Angel Cabrera of Argentina, the current U.S. Open champion, are also in the fold.

Of the above-described players, only Scott has been a regular participant in the SHO. Thus, this is a key year for the tournament. If the top players give the Tournament Course at Redstone (see also here) good reviews, then that will bode well for the SHO going forward, particularly if the tournament can maintain its warm-up date the week immediately before The Masters. On the other hand, if the key players pan the new course, then the SHO will probably fall further into the Tiger Chasm and have a very difficult time climbing out.

Posted by Tom at 7:07 PM | Comments (0) |

February 24, 2008

"The sand trap from hell"

Don't miss this entertaining José de Córdoba/W$J article on the dour legacy of golf in Communist Cuba and the attempt to revive the game to attract more tourism. Turns out that the game flagged in Cuba after Che' Guevara kicked Fidel Castro's ass in a big golf game shortly after Castro seized power:

In 1962, Mr. Castro lost a round of golf to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who had been a caddy in his Argentine hometown before he became a guerrilla icon. Mr. Castro's defeat may have had disastrous consequences for the sport. He had one Havana golf course turned into a military school, another into an art school. A journalist who wrote about the defeat of Cuba's Maximum Leader, who was a notoriously bad loser, was fired the next day. [.  .  .]

The famous game between Messrs. Castro and Guevara took place shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to José Lorenzo Fuentes, Mr. Castro's former personal scribe, who covered the game. Mr. Lorenzo Fuentes says the match was supposed to send a friendly signal to President Kennedy. "Castro told me that the headline of the story the next day would be 'President Castro challenges President Kennedy to a friendly game of golf,'" he says.

But the game became a competitive affair between two men who did not like to lose, says Mr. Lorenzo Fuentes, who recalls that Mr. Guevara "played with a lot of passion." Mr. Lorenzo Fuentes says he felt he couldn't lie about the game's outcome, so he wrote a newspaper story saying Fidel had lost. Mr. Lorenzo Fuentes says he lost his job the next day, eventually fell afoul of the regime and now lives in Miami.

At any rate, Raul Castro has jumped started efforts to rebuild Cuba's golf infrastructure for tourism purposes. But it's not going to be easy. First, there is that whole "private property is a bad thing" problem:

To make golf tourism work, Cuba, which does not recognize the right to buy and sell property, will have to permit leases of as long as 75 years for foreigners, to entice them to invest in the villas and condos on which modern golf development depends. Some believe those leases are the tip of the spear that will, over time, reinstate full property rights. [.  .  .]

If history is any guide, bringing back golf won't be easy. "Cuba is the sand trap from hell," says John Kavulich, senior policy adviser at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, who has followed the travails of entrepreneurs trying to develop golf projects in Cuba.

On the other hand, given how the U.S. golf industry is going, maybe investing in the sand trap from hell is not looking all that bad.

Speaking of Cuba, don't miss this Michael Stasny post (with pictures) on his recent trip to Cuba. He notes at the end of the post:

Cubans don't have access to "world news" (no foreign newspapers, no internet, no satellite dishes), so the people I talked with were actually quite happy with their situation ("We don't earn much, but as opposed to other countries education and health care is for free!" (translation mine)) and couldn't see that people in developed countries who are considered as dirt poor have a way higher living standard (I didn't have the impression that they were afraid to speak openly).

The rest of the trip I stayed on the beach in Varadero, a tourist zone that is closed for Cubans (only those who work there can enter). The hotel was really nice (Iberostar Varadero) and the service was excellent. In case you like being on the beach and food and a fast and cheap internet connection isn't your highest priority, it's the place to be.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 22, 2008

The oversupply of golf

The numbers of Americans playing tennis regularly has dwindled dramatically over the past two decades. Now, golf is showing signs of suffering a similar fate:

Over the past decade, the leisure activity most closely associated with corporate success in America has been in a kind of recession.

The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

More troubling to golf boosters, the number of people who play 25 times a year or more fell to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, a loss of about a third.

The industry now counts its core players as those who golf eight or more times a year. That number, too, has fallen, but more slowly: to 15 million in 2006 from 17.7 million in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation. [. . .]

Between 1990 and 2003, developers built more than 3,000 new golf courses in the United States, bringing the total to about 16,000. Several hundred have closed in the last few years, most of them in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and South Carolina, according to the foundation.

Over the past 20 years or so, many residential real estate developers have used golf courses as magnets to attract home buyers to their developments. The developer is willing to operate the golf club at a loss while developing the subdivision because the increased profit from lot sales easily compensates for the golf club operating loss. The problem develops when the developer finishes selling lots and is ready to turnover the club either to a professional golf club management company or the residents themselves. Without a legacy of profitable operations absent the developer's subsidy, the golf clubs often struggle financially. It's not an easy syndrome to break.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 14, 2008

The charming Bobby Knight

And Larry the Cable Guy's crack on Coach Knight is pretty good, too.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 11, 2008

Comparing Tiger's swing with Hogan's

In comparing the swing of Tiger Woods with that of Ben Hogan in this Links Magazine article, long-time golf teacher Bob Toski makes the following observation about how changes in the nature of golf have prompted swing changes:

One year at the Masters, Hogan drove the ball over a hill to a small flat spot tucked in the corner of the fairway, not visible from the tee but providing a perfect angle to the green. Hogan placed his drive in that tiny area all four days. Most tour pros today would have trouble hitting that spot four days in a row with a wedge.

Toski concludes that Hogan's swing is superior to Woods, but that Woods is such a good athlete that he doesn't need a Hogan-pure swing to dominate the PGA Tour. Check out the entire article.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2008

A nice reward

So, what's the reward for inducing Microsoft to overpay for Yahoo!?

Answer: Playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (scroll down to the bottom of the list).

Perhaps Bear Stearns' board should have thought of such a reward? ;^)

By the way, Yang will be able to compare notes during the tournament with Houston's Jim Crane, who can tell him a thing or two about a takeover battle.

Update: The Epicurean Dealmaker provides this alternately witty and elegant analysis of the Microsoft bid for Yahoo!

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

January 30, 2008

NASCAR golf?

This earlier post suggested a creative approach to generate interest for a PGA Tour golf tournament caught in the Tiger Chasm -- i.e., the neverland of golf tournaments that draw nowhere near the interest or publicity as the 15-18 golf tournaments that Tiger Woods plays in each year.

Along the same lines, Angry Golfer John Hawkins points out that chronic party-boy John Daly is creating a similar type of niche for tournaments that are willing to grant him an exemption to play. Daly has made the cut in just 18 of his last 67 PGA Tour events, is currently tied for 156th place on the money list and is 531st in the World Golf Rankings and, in three tournaments this year, has earned a total of $9,805:

I called several tournament heads last week to get a read on whether Daly's ability to sell tickets is worth the headache he has become. [Honda tournament director] Kennerly didn't return my phone call, but others were quick to reply, and there remains little doubt that Long John Seismograph moves the needle more than a hundred John Sendens. "It's a pretty easy decision for us," says Clair Peterson, who runs the John Deere Classic and already has extended Daly an offer to join the field in July.

"He's like Randy Moss," says another. "He's a freak, he can be a huge burden, but in terms of what he brings you, it's a very unique dynamic. The NASCAR crowd, whatever you want to call it, is why 80 to 90 percent of the events will give him an exemption if he's anywhere near the top 100."

Or 531st, which is where Daly currently resides in the World Ranking, as if the NASCAR gang really gives a Hooters how well their man has been playing or whether he'll ever contend again on the weekend. The recent face-saving contest between PGA Tour brass and Westchester CC reminds us that every sputtering, non-Tiger event is a possible endangered species. Perhaps 15 to 18 tournaments are in excellent health; the rest lack significance or sound economics.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

January 22, 2008

Recommendation of the Day

I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it cannot be a good thing for the PGA Tour that the biggest news so far in the pre-Tiger Woods part of the season is the controversy over Golf Channel host Kelly Tilghman's poor attempt at humor a couple of weeks ago.

It's fair to say that Tilghman's comments were blown completely out of proportion. Tilghman by all accounts is a charming person and a good reporter, but she is placed in a position by the Golf Channel where she has to fill up hours of time over many weekends by making idle banter with her co-host, Nick Faldo. Few people this side of Letterman or Leno have the ability to make witty comments over such prolonged periods. If you don't believe it, then just listen to your local news anchor's banter with the weatherperson and sports anchor on the evening news. Consequently, it's hardly surprising that Tilghman made a mistake in judgment under the circumstances.

At any rate, the completely humiliated Tilghman apologized quickly and earnestly to Woods, who graciously accepted her apology and tried to play down the whole matter. Meanwhile, under pressure from the Al Sharpton's of the world, the Golf Channel probably overreacted a bit by suspending Tilghman from her Golf Channel duties for two weeks. But at least that seemed to be the end of the entire affair.

But not so fast. In a truly remarkable display of bad judgment, GolfWeek magazine ran a cover story about the Tilghman affair in last week's issue that contained a cover photograph of a hangman's noose. Amidst an immediate public outcry, the PGA Tour and several advertisers threatened to pull their accounts with Golfweek, prompting the magazine to fire its longtime editor and vice president, Dave Seanor. Ay, yi yi, yi, yi!

So, as all that dust settled, longtime PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour member Jim Thorpe cut Tilghman some slack, but blasted Golfweek over this past weekend:

"We know there was no racist intent. It was just a bad choice of words,'' he said [with regard to Tilghman]. "But the guy from Golfweek? Let him get barbecued. That's just a major mistake on his part.''

Which leads us to the recommendation of the day from golf writer and blogger, Geoff Shackelford:

"Just a suggestion to the Golfweek staff: I would not put an image of Jim Thorpe barbecuing Dave Seanor on this week's cover."

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

January 16, 2008

Texas' best golfer of the moment

There are only four PGA Tour players who have won a tournament in each of the past four seasons. Three of those four are easy picks -- Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. Who is the fourth?

None other than K.J. Choi of The Woodlands (previous post here), who just won his seventh PGA Tour event in the past eight seasons over the weekend. Choi now has over $17 million in career earnings.

Stu Mulligan over at Waggle Room makes the case that Choi has quietly become one of the elite PGA Tour players even though there is not any area of his game that stands out statistically in comparison to other Tour players. The tortoise still does beat the hare sometimes.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

January 11, 2008

But how do you really feel, Pete?

Geoff Shackelford interviews legendary golf course designer Pete Dye, who is not exactly a fan of the United States Golf Association:

"God bless the United States Golf Association. They have escalated the cost of maintenance, they have slowed down play, and they have completely lost control of the equipment. Outside of that, they have done a pretty good job."

Interestingly, Dye is also not a supporter of the trend toward ever-faster putting surfaces:

"The other cost escalation the USGA has encouraged is with speed of greens. When Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open at Oakmont [in 1953], then considered the fastest greens in the history of the world, the Stimpmeter was maybe six or seven. One of the things I’m doing in renovating my courses is reducing contour and slope to match today’s speeds. . ."

Read the entire interview. Dye is a true original.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

January 9, 2008

Retro golf

Golfweek's Brad Klein enjoyed that outdoor "Winter Classic" National Hockey League game in Buffalo that drew over 70,000 spectators on New Year's Day so much that he is proposing the professional golf equivalent -- a tournament where all the Tour players would be required to play old-style persimmon woods, forged irons and balata balls:

So if hockey can pull this off, why not golf? What better game for evoking youthful memories and feelings – of school-house swings, piecemealed equipment, and of a dreamy, pastoral playing field.

How about the PGA Tour putting together a “Summer Classic” tournament?

Players use older, wooden-headed drivers and “woods,” plus forged, not cast, irons and wound, balata golf balls – the kind that anyone who is 30-plus years old today grew up learning the game with. Forget caddies. Players carry their own golf bags. No yardage books or pin sheets. Golfers eyeball everything and improvise their shots. Leave the bunkers rakes in the maintenance shed. Mow the greens so they actually putt at different speeds.

How much fun would that be to watch? And to play?

The NHL’s “Winter Classic” was a success in every possible regard. And no surprise, despite (or was it because of?) the rough conditions, the game’s premier player, the Penguins’ Sid Crosby, not only displayed his amazing puck handling skills but also scored the winning goal. To their credit, the NHL’s administration even bent the rules slightly in the name of equity by stopping play midway through the third period and overtime to allow the teams to switch sides, lest either one gain an undue advantage from the elements.

That, to me, showed a lot of imagination. Don’t let rules nerds ruin the game in the name of some abstract lawyerly adherence when what counts is the spirit of the sport. With a little imagination and guts, golf, too, can go back to its traditions. It might be the best way of showcasing itself.

Not a bad idea for one of the many PGA Tour events that have fallen into the Tiger Chasm.

On the other hand, Geoff Shackelford already knows who the probable winner would be.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

January 4, 2008

Interesting golf stat of the week

The first edition of Golf World magazine each year is my favorite of the year. It's a stathead's dream as GW previews the upcoming PGA Tour season by providing extensive individual statistics of each Tour player from the previous season. It's always interesting to compare each player's financial performance on the Tour for the previous season with the statistical analysis of what he was doing well and not so well.

One particularly interesting GW comment involved Jeff Maggert, the longtime Tour player from The Woodlands. Maggert made over $845,000 in prize money during the 2007 season, but that was only good enough for 123rd on the Tour money list and a 255 ranking in the World Golf Rankings. GW's comment on Maggert highlights one of the dramatic changes in Tour golf over the past 14 years:

"Maggert's driving distance average (284.2 yards) ranked tied for 142nd on the Tour, but it would have led the Tour in that category as recently as 1994."

And this Ron Sirak article over at Golf Digest provides even more perspective on the dominance of Tiger Woods:

"There have been 44 majors played since Tiger turned pro. Besides Woods, five players have won multiple times: Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, both with three; and Ernie Els, Mark O'Meara, and Retief Goosen, two apiece. Add their totals and it comes to a dozen--one fewer than Woods."

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (1) |

December 28, 2007

Review of The Player Course at The Woodlands

It's been awhile since I've posted a review of one of Houston's largely underappreciated large number of fine golf courses (previous ones are here, here and here). So, I'm going to pass along a couple more during this holiday season, the first of which is The Player Course here in my hometown of The Woodlands, Texas.

The Player Course is one of the newest of the seven golf courses that wind through The Woodlands, the bustling planned community/golf haven of about 85,000 people located 30 miles north of downtown Houston. The Player Course is named after PGA Tour great Gary Player, who designed the course as a part of The Woodlands' effort to have one local golf course designed by each of the former Big Three of the PGA Tour -- Player, Arnold Palmer (The Palmer Course at The Woodlands, opened in 1991) and Jack Nicklaus (The Nicklaus Course at Carlton Woods, opened in 2001). When Player completed the Player Course in 2002, The Woodlands was the only community in the U.S. that had a golf course designed by each of the Big Three. It may still be the only one.

Player was the third of the Big Three to design a course in The Woodlands and his legendary competitive nature drove him to produce a real gem. Located in the western part of The Woodlands, the terrain produced a golf course with gently rolling, tree-lined fairways, numerous lakes and wetland areas, natural grass backdrops and deep bunkers. As with the other courses in The Woodlands, The Player Course is quite enjoyable to walk while playing.

The course is not easy. Although a very good course overall, I think that Player went overboard on about five green complexes that ratchet up the difficulty of the course unnecessarily. The course can be stretched to over 7,200 yards from the tips, but Player also installed a variety of tees that allow for less lengthy alternatives all the way down to 6,200 yards. The Slope rating from the back tees is 151, which is one of the highest in the Houston area and in the state. By way of comparison, the Slope rating from the back tees of the Tournament Course at Redstone -- where the Shell Houston Open PGA Tour event is played -- is 138. As a result, The Player Course has already hosted several U.S. Open qualifiers and top amateur tournaments during its 4 1/2 year existence. Although still quite young, The Player Course is clearly one of the top 15 courses in the Houston area.

The pictures below are from a round that my brother Bud and I played at the Player Course this past September. We played from the green tees, which were at about 6,700 yards that day (140 Slope rating). Take a moment and enjoy a quick trip through The Player Course at The Woodlands.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 9, 2007

The limitations of statistics

I'm as much of a stathead as the next fellow, but the Tour Blog's Jeff Babineau reminds us of the limitations of statistical analysis:

OK, Stat Geeks, here's one to ponder:

Tiger Woods led the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, hitting 71.02 of his greens in 2007. He played 16 events and earned $10,867,052. Nice chunk of change.

Brock Mackenzie led the Nationwide Tour in greens in regulation, hitting 77.55 percent of his greens in 2007. He played 27 events, earned $118,247 and finished 53rd in Nationwide earnings.

Go figure.

I think this is dispositive proof of the adage "you drive for show, but you putt for dough."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 5, 2007

Now that's pressure

(Dom Furore/Golf Digest photo) My old friend and prominent Las Vegas criminal defense attorney David Chesnoff introduced me to the late Evel Knievel back in the mid-1980's when we bumped into him while playing golf at Las Vegas Country Club. That led to an afternoon of David telling me stories about the high-stakes Vegas golf games in which Knievel regularly played, a good number of which involved Knievel's legendary ability to hold up well under extraordinary pressure.

Knievel's death last week reminded me of another story about Knievel thriving under pressure that Knievel told in this Golf Digest inteview from a couple of years ago:

I was playing 21 at the Aladdin in Las Vegas, betting $10,000 a hand. Arnold Palmer and Winnie are standing right behind me, watching. And I'm losing. The dealer is pulling 20 every time, and although I'm pulling my share of 20s, too, I can't win a hand, and I'm losing a lot of money. And I'm getting really angry. The next hand he deals me a 20, and he's got a face card showing. I'm certain he has 20, and I just can't bear tying again. So I ask for a hit.

The dealer freaks out, shuts the table down and screams for Ash Resnick, who runs the casino. Ash comes along and is told I want to hit 20. He looks at me for a long time and then says, "Give the kid a hit." The dealer gives me an ace, and when I turn around, Arnold's eyes are this big, and Winnie looks like she's going to be sick.

"I know what pressure is," Arnold said, "but you're too much."

Read the entire interview here.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

December 2, 2007

Try to do this at the age of 71

Bob Charles of New Zealand was a very good PGA Tour golfer back in the 1960's and 70's when he won six PGA Tour events, including both the Houston Open and the British Open in 1963. Over his career, Charles has won 70 events worldwide.

However, none of those many achievements is as remarkable as what Charles pulled off earlier this weekend. The 71 year-old shot a 68 in the second round of the New Zealand Open -- a tournament that he first played in 53 years ago -- to become the oldest player ever to make the cut in a European Tour event. The previous European Tour record holder was Christy O'Connor, who made the Irish Open cut in 1989 at the age of 64. The late Sam Snead holds the PGA Tour record, making a cut at the 1979 Westchester Classic at the age of 67.

After his remarkable achievement, Charles talked about how his round was almost derailed before it started by a "senior moment":

Sir Bob later admitted to having had a "senior moment" at the start of the day which nearly scuppered his record-breaking round before it had begun.

Turning up at the wrong tee (the 1st, understandably enough) for his 8am start, Sir Bob was forced to commandeer a buggy to transport him to his true starting tee (the 10th) which he reached with 30 seconds to spare.

"Oh well, I'm entitled to be forgetful at my age," he laughed later.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 27, 2007

How the Shark was hooked

This earlier post noted that former PGA Tour member Greg Norman had duck hooked his divorce and was probably going to have to pay for dearly for doing so. After a cooling off period, Norman and his former wife settled matters quietly. Or so they thought.

Now, it appears that the Shark is calling a rules violation (H/T Stu Mulligan) on his ex-wife over her public disclosure of the details of Norman's affair with former tennis star, Chris Evert. As you might expect, tails are wagging among the Palm Beach society crowd:

Golf legend Greg Norman has a message for his ex-wife: You won't get any more of my money!

Norman's legal eagles have filed a lawsuit against the sport's former first lady, Laura Andrassy, alleging that she has already breached their two-month-old divorce settlement.

The filing asks a Martin County judge to award damages. Several sources close to the case - who asked to remain anonymous because no one familiar with it is legally allowed to talk about it - said those damages could include Norman's keeping a large part of the settlement he still owes her. [. . .]

So, why's the fair-haired golfer ticked off?

According to Norman's filing, it's because Andrassy squawked to the press about her broken marriage, former tennis champ Chris Evert, Norman's new love, and how Evert "stole" the Australian from her.

In an interview for papers in Oz and another with Page Two in late September, Andrassy described in detail how Evert befriended her while visiting the Normans' home on Jupiter Island, then moved in for the "kill." Andrassy said she suspects Evert, then married to former Olympic skier Andy Mill, first hooked up with her hubby last year when the two couples were on a fishing trip.

Fine and dandy! But the problem, according to Norman's filing, is there's supposed to be a confidentiality agreement between him and Laura - and she breached it.

"The confidentiality agreement is really not that specific, and besides, I didn't talk about Greg. I talked about myself and Chris, and I have no agreement with her," Andrassy said by telephone as she drove through California's Napa Valley on Tuesday. [. . .]

Norman's new high-octane attorney, Jeff Fisher, did not comment. Said Norman's White Shark Enterprises CFO Jack Schneider: "At least we abide by our agreement."

Evert "hooked up" with Norman on a fishing trip and then moved in for the "kill"? Stay tuned for the next episode of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 25, 2007

The Rockets crash

After a quick 6-1 start, the Houston Rockets have fallen flat on their collective faces, losing six straight games before beating Denver at home last night. Inasmuch as the fawning local mainstream media fails to provide any meaningful analysis of what ails the Rockets, the blogosphere steps into the vacuum as this Dave Berri post analyzes the problem precisely -- Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Chuck Hayes are playing reasonably well, but the rest of the Rockets' production is among the worst in the NBA. As Berri points out, why on earth did the Rockets acquire two washed-up guards -- Mike James and Steve Francis -- who absorb minutes at the two-guard position that forces McGrady to play small forward, which forces Shane Battier to play power forward where he is far less effective than at the small forward position. Yes, peer effects in basketball make a big difference.

By the way, just how long are the Rockets going to wait before either acquiring or developing at least an NBA-average point guard? For the record, it's been over a decade since the Rockets have won a playoff series.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 20, 2007

Nicklaus sours on the public corporation

This Bloomberg video interview reveals that you can count legendary PGA Tour champion Jack Nicklaus as another businessman who has had enough of the public form of corporation:

The biggest mistake I ever did was let my guys talk me into taking a part of the company public. That was the biggest mistake I ever made. I had no idea what--what the rules and laws were of a public company. And we did a public company. And a lot of people lost money, including me...It was a great lesson. But, you know, if you're gonna get into that business, you better know what the devil you're doing.

Nicklaus discusses a number of different topics during the 20 minute interview, including his golf course design business and the evolution of Tiger Woods. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

November 14, 2007

Tiger v. Vijay

Although it's off-season for golf, I've been meaning to pass along the video below for awhile. I'm not sure about Peter Kostis analysis, but one thing is certain -- these are two very good golf swings.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 9, 2007

Nice guys on the PGA Tour

Golfweek's Jeff Rude provides this entertaining column in which he passes along some of his experiences with the truly nice fellows on the PGA Tour, the nicest of which, in Rude's view, is Beaumont native and former University of Houston great, Bruce Lietzke:

[Lietzke] had all the attributes you want in a next-door neighbor: Self-deprecation, humor, a pleasant nature, a realness, a playfulness, a deep sense of family and a vintage car collection to die for. With Lietzke, you could walk next door and get a golf lesson, borrow a wrench and, for the umpteenth time, hear his famous banana-under-the headcover story or about the time he revved one of his hot cars up Magnolia Lane.

My favorite Lietzke story, and the one that clinched his status as No. 1 favorite, happened in 1995. I needed to interview him but our schedules were conflicting. I was leaving for the British Open, and he was going on one of his long summer vacations and time was running out. So I read him the list of questions while in a taxi on the way to the Dallas airport and asked him to leave his answers on my answering machine. I told him I’d then listen to his answers and transcribe the quotes during a layover in Chicago on the way to Scotland.

When I retrieved messages at O’Hare Airport, sure enough Lietzke had called. Problem was, my voice mail cut off after two minutes. So to make this work, Lietzke had to call back and continue with his answers. And call back and continue. And call back and continue. When I got done writing down his answers, I realized he had called my answering machine 13 times.

I mean, telemarketers looking for cash don’t call my answering machine 13 times. And this was a PGA Tour player with 13 victories. I mean, some winless players don’t have 13 seconds (as in time) for someone carrying a notepad and pen.

Professional athletes in need of media training don’t need a seminar. They just need to hang out with Lietzke for a day.

Read the entire piece. I had the pleasure of playing a round with Liezke years ago at a University of Houston function and concur with Rude that he is a perfectly charming fellow.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 7, 2007

Final PGA Tour money lists

After last weekend's final PGA Tour tournament of the year, the PGA Tour money list has been finalized for purposes of qualifying for the 2008 PGA Tour events. The top 125 on the list are fully exempt next year and the top 30 gets into the Masters. The Nationwide Tour money list is also finalized. The top 25 on that list earn a PGA Tour card for 2008.

Players not otherwise exempt that finish between 126-150 on the money list usually still get into 16-20 events in the following year, but they have little control over their schedules because they do not know what tournaments will be available for them. Many of these players in that part of the list also rely on past champion and sponsor exemptions. The players who are really in a tough spot are those who finished outside of the top 150 and have no other type of exemption status.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 1, 2007

Look who is hosting another "charity" golf tournament?

So, this Chronicle article reports that former PGA Tour golfer and longtime Houstonian Doug Sanders is hosting another charity golf tournament, this time at the Palmer Course in The Woodlands on November 12th. The article notes that Sanders has signed up 16 foursomes for the event, but would like to have 20.

I wonder if Wayne Dolcefino has put a foursome together yet?

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

October 30, 2007

"A glorified club championship?"

The first run of the PGA Tour's Fed Ex Cup did not exactly transfix golf fans. However, this Bob Harig/ESPN.com article makes the Fed Ex Cup look like the Masters in comparison to the PGA Tour's initial Fall Series:

Dubbed the Fall Series, the final seven events on the PGA Tour schedule will mercifully come to an end next week in Orlando, where the biggest stories will revolve around players losing their full-time status (despite making $700,000 this year) or secure veterans who try to fit in golf around visits to the Disney theme parks.

"There were 100 people following the final group last Sunday in Scottsdale," said PGA Tour veteran Steve Flesch. "It's like a glorified club championship. I don't think that's what the tour intended. And I think they need to address it."

Ah, the ever-widening Tiger chasm.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

October 25, 2007

A good scorching?

The United States Golf Association has been widely criticized often over the last several years for the absurdity of its setups for the U.S. Open. And we in Houston certainly know that golf course designer Rees Jones has endured more than a little criticism over his work. So, a few eyebrows were raised when GolfWeek's Rex Hoggard passed along the following tidbit about the Rees Jones-renovated Torrey Pines South Course -- which is the site of next year's U.S. Open -- from the practice tee of this week's PGA Tour event in Port St. Lucie, Florida:

Big talk on the practice range here at the Tesoro Club, site of this week’s PGA Tour stop, is on the wild fires that were raging in southern California.

One update late in the afternoon suggested Torrey Pines, site of the annual Buick Invitational and next year’s U.S. Open, is in danger of being scorched.

“Good,” snorted one player, among the many who don’t like the changes to the venerable South Course. “They need to start over anyway.”

Ouch.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 23, 2007

Tiger's peer effect

All those PGA Tour players who have folded like limp dish rags while paired with Tiger Woods over the years will be a bit skeptical of the conclusions of this recent study (H/T to Tim Harford):

This paper uses the random assignment of playing partners in professional golf tournaments to test for peer effects in the workplace. We find no evidence that the ability of playing partners affects the performance of professional golfers, contrary to recent evidence on peer effects in the workplace from laboratory experiments, grocery scanners, and soft-fruit pickers. . . . We offer several explanations for our contrasting findings: that workers seek to avoid responding to social incentives when financial incentives are strong; that there is heterogeneity in how susceptible individuals are to social effects and that those who are able to avoid them are more likely to advance to elite professional labor markets; and that workers learn with professional experience not to be affected by social forces.

In other words, PGA Tour pros do not generally suffer from peer effects. Except while playing with Tiger Woods, that is. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

October 15, 2007

Governor Perry annoys John Daly?

Regular readers of this blog know about the rich Texas legacy in golf (for example, see here, here, here, here, and here). However, it doesn't look as if Texas Governor Rick Perry is doing much to facilitate that grand heritage. Seems that Governor Perry played golf last week in the PGA Tour's Frys.com Open in Las Vegas, where he was the amateur partner of John Daly during the first round. Apparently, "Long John" was not particularly pleased with the pairing:

Daly favors the softer Maxfli Fire but says he has been receiving a much harder ball, which he attributed to a first-round 3-over-par 74 at TPC at The Canyons.

(It was either that or the fact Daly continued losing focus waiting for amateur Rick Perry to reach the green in a timely fashion on most holes. I'm pretty convinced Texas today is by far our nation's most efficiently run state, because it's impossible to believe its governor spends much time playing golf.

Perry did, however, bring along a security contingent complete with those Secret Service-type ear pieces, which would have been interesting if it wasn't so laughable given the only thing most knew about him was that he was the guy you backed up 20 yards from each time he addressed a shot.)

Ouch! H/t to Bogey McDuff.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 2, 2007

The Tiger Chasm swallows the Texas Open

This earlier post noted how the PGA Tour has forsaken the four Texas Tour events that contribute more to charity than virtually any other Tour events. Just to reaffirm that trend, get a load of the following update on the field for this week's Valero Texas Open at the Westin LaCantera Resort in San Antonio:

By the 5 p.m. deadline for players to officially commit to next week's PGA Tour event, they saw one of today's headline attractions, Presidents Cup representative K.J. Choi, withdraw from the field.[. . .]

The exit of Choi, the world's 10th-ranked player, for undisclosed reasons leaves [Stephen] Ames, the 2006 Players Championship titlist, as the highest-rated player in the field. At No. 42, he will be the only top-50 competitor on hand.

One top-50 player? The venerable Texas Open -- one of the oldest Tour events -- has been relegated to a glorified Nationwide Tour event.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (1) |

September 11, 2007

Tiger's latest milestone and another caddy snit

In case the start of the NFL season distracted you, the remarkable Tiger Woods shot a closing round 63 at Cog Hill in Chicago to win another PGA Tour tournament over the weekend, the 60th professional tournament title of his storied career. ESPN.com's Bob Harig puts Wood's accomplishment in perspective:

Woods matched the tournament 18-hole record by shooting an 8-under 63 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, becoming the first player to do so twice. He posted the lowest four-day total (262) in 104 years of tournament competition -- which beat the previous mark by 5 strokes. He won the tournament that used to be known as the Western Open for the fifth time, just one behind Walter Hagen.

Woods has won five times at Cog Hill.

And he joined Sam Snead (82), Jack Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) among those with 60 or more victories in PGA Tour events.

All at age 31. [. . .]

He has won six or more times in a season five times. This year, four of his six wins have come at the biggest tournaments -- a major (PGA Championship), two World Golf Championship events (CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational) and now a playoff event.

And his other two victories came at two of the more popular regular tour events, the Buick Invitational and Wachovia Championship.

Perhaps just as remarkable as his number of victories is the speed with which he got there. Nicklaus was 36 years old when he won his 60th title in 1976. Palmer was 41 in 1971 when he won for the 60th time. Woods could take the next five years off and still be on pace to surpass Nicklaus, Hogan and Palmer.

Or, as Justin Rose put it, "I'd have to win 15 times a year for the next four years to get there by the time I'm 31."

Meanwhile, last weekend's tournament gave us yet another entertaining professional golfer-caddy snit (previous snit posts here and here), which gives me the opportunity to pass along this classic Caddyshack clip (which happens to be one of Tiger Woods' favorite movies) in which Bill Murray's legendary Carl Spackler explains how he successfully resolved a similar snit with while caddying for the the Dalai Lama:

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

August 29, 2007

Viewing the Tiger Chasm

I don't think that PGA Tour officials had the following in mind when they devised the new season-ending series of tournaments called the Fed Ex Cup:

Before the FedEx Cup can run with the big guns at the NFL and major league baseball, it's going to first have to crawl better than Little Leaguers.

On both Saturday and Sunday, the Woods-free Barclays on CBS was beaten by the Little League World Series on ABC. The World Series final Sunday between Georgia and Japan drew a 3.5 overnight rating, while the golf got a 2.1. On Saturday, both the International (1.8) and U.S. (2.2) finals bested The Barclays (1.7).

The Barclays did fare better than a tournament of few stars the week before, the Wyndham Championship. The Wyndham drew a 1.0 on Saturday and 1.3 on Sunday.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 22, 2007

The Fed Ex Cup enters the Tiger Chasm

Chronicle golf columnist Steve Campbell reports that the Fed Ex Cup -- the PGA Tour's new series of tournaments intended to breath life into the lifeless end of the golf season -- has entered the dreaded Tiger Chasm even before the first tournament of the new series has commenced:

They haven't yet hit a shot that counts in the FedEx Cup playoff series, and the whole thing is beginning to look like the kind of idea that got Ishtar, Gigli and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on the big screen.

Woods doomed the FedEx Cup, which was a risky proposition in the first place, to irrelevancy by opting to skip the first round of the so-called playoffs. At a time when the PGA Tour desperately needs to drum up interest in a radical overhaul of its season structure, Woods invited massive disinterest by passing on this week's The Barclays at Westchester Country Club. Not so fresh off victories at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, Woods insists he needs another week of rest and relaxation. [. . .]

. . . what kind of playoff system allows a competitor to duck either an opponent or a site and still win the championship? Answer: not a legitimate one. The tour is damned if Woods wins the Cup, because it exposes the playoff system in place as a sham. The tour is damned if Woods doesn't win the Cup, or at least stay in contention until the very end, because he's head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest of the players in accomplishments and fan appeal.

Meanwhile, PGA Tour member Jeff Maggert of The Woodlands lays the blame for the Fed Ex mess squarely on PGA Tour headquarters and Commissioner Tim Finchem:

Maggert . . . says none of the touring pros are enthusiastic about the tour's playoff.

"Probably half the players out here couldn't care less about [the FedEx Cup]," he told Hardin. "The other half are indifferent."

Maggert said tour commissioner Tim Finchem should take the blame for the indifference in the clubhouse.

"I hear a lot being written, but I don't see anybody writing anything about Finchem," Maggert said. "I mean, this was his idea. He really didn't consult any of the players. He kind of shoved it down our throats and said, 'This is what we're going to do.'"

But dispositive confirmation that the Fed Ex Cup is in serious trouble is the fact that The Onion is already making fun of the concept. Note the following statement at the end of this article spoofing that Tiger Woods was annoyed that his three month old daughter was "looking the other way when he won" the recent PGA Championship:

Woods later stated, however, that he couldn't find fault with his daughter's apathetic feelings towards the upcoming FedEx Cup events, saying that he himself thinks of it as a forced and unoriginal attempt to inject excitement into the final part of the golf season.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

August 20, 2007

A vexing question about women's golf

The Scotsman.com's John Huggan tackles a question about women professional golfers that has perplexed me for a long time:

. . . [W]omen, typically, own short games that simply do not bear close comparison with their male counterparts. Whether pitching, chipping, blasting from bunkers or putting, the ladies are markedly inferior.

Which is odd, when you think about it. In the areas of the game where innate touch and feel should have obvious advantages over pure strength, men still manage to make the women look inadequate.[ . . .]

Look at the stats. A 29 putts per round average barely gets you into the top 100 on the PGA Tour; on the LPGA Tour, that number has you in the top 30.

As Huggan notes, practice makes perfect and, for some reason, the women pros don't like practicing the short game as much as other areas of the game. Who'd a thunk it?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

August 16, 2007

The Shark duck hooks his divorce

It looks as if the final stages of the Great White Shark's divorce are not going swimmingly:

What months ago was characterized as a nearly resolved divorce settlement between golf great Greg Norman and his wife, Laura, has now turned into the most contentious aspect of their split to date - one that has Laura Norman accusing Greg of changing the locks to the couple's Jupiter Island home and cutting off her credit cards. [. . .]

Laura says Greg, who in the golf world in nicknamed "The Great White Shark," has . . . refused to pay her attorneys' fees and "is attempting to starve (her) out so she has no choice but to surrender to his positions," Laura's attorneys Jack Scarola and Russell J. Ferraro wrote.

Greg's lawyers, in a letter to Scarola, said he has already paid them about $725,000 to fund the litigation, including a half-million dollar payout in April. The money, according to Laura's lawyers, has been used to pay attorneys' fees and hire a number of expert witnesses who pored over the couple's finances to come up with the settlement.

Attempts by Laura's lawyers to get more money was met earlier this month with a refusal from New York attorney Howard Sharfstein, part of Greg's legal team. In addition, according to Laura's lawyers, Greg fired the couple's housekeeper and changed the locks on their $21 million Jupiter Island estate.

Changing locks and cutting off credit cards? Well, at least Norman still has a ways to go in the divorce department before he catches Nick Faldo.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

August 15, 2007

The Tiger Chasm widens

Gee, I thought the fields for the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament had slipped badly over the past several years. But those depleted fields are nothing compared to the experience of this week's Greater Greensboro Open (now called the "Wyndham" or some such thing). The PGA Tour's final tournament before the season-ending series of "playoff" tournaments known as the Fed Ex Cup is having a bit of a problem getting any leading Tour player to show up:

The Wyndham is the final regular-season tournament of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, and only the top 144 players in the points race advance to the playoffs, which will start next week.

There is no shortage of players hovering around the 144th spot on the points list, but those already secure for the playoffs are taking the week off. Only two of the top 50 in the updated world rankings are in the field - Davis Love III, the defending champion and ranked 43rd, and Carl Pettersson, ranked 48th. Pettersson, a former player at N.C. State, lives near Raleigh and played his high-school golf at Greensboro Grimlsey.

And after publication of the foregoing, Love withdrew from the tournament to undergo a medical procedure for kidney stones. The Tiger Chasm widens.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 14, 2007

A chip off the old block sizes up Tiger Woods

Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is the best writer on golf of our times, but his daughter Sally is a darn good golf writer in her own right (previous posts here). In this column after Tiger Woods' Saturday round this past weekend in preparing to win the PGA Championship, Sally Jenkins does as good a job as I've seen of capturing Woods' special talent:

Woods is the only player who matters in this PGA, and frankly, he's the only player who consistently matters in all of golf. To properly appreciate Woods's performance here, you better enjoy dictatorships because that's what his reign as the best player in the world has turned into. Woods has reached the point where he can apparently quell an entire field with an imperious look. He has never lost a major championship when leading after three rounds, and his career record when holding a lead entering the final round of any tournament is 39-3, . . .

All Woods had to do to extend his lead in this PGA was stand there and lash a series of steady iron shots. His strategy was to hit the center of the green and lag his putts on an afternoon when scoring was difficult and only five players finished 54 holes under par. His round of 1-under 69 was hardly dominant, but it was enough to stretch the lead over an array of opponents who showed the resistance of Farina. Woods's average score in the third round of majors is 69; the average score of his partners is 73. [. . .]

If Woods's legacy lacks one thing at this point, it's a sense of the dramatic. At his best, his game is lulling, a matter of swing planes straight as the creases in his clothes, and perfect parabolas. It's difficult to render what he does so well, precisely because it's so modulated and well regulated. [. . .]

His genius comes without emotional torture; he's not especially revealing and demonstrative, like Sergio Garcia, or an emotional conduit for his audience, like Phil Mickelson. He's all about chilly excellence. Greatness is his most definable quality. It's a peculiar fact that Woods is actually more spectacular to watch when he's struggling a little, when he has to hit creative recovery shots, and is forced to give up a bit of control.

The par 70 of Southern Hills has at once brought out the very best and yet most unspectacular aspects of Woods's game. The doglegging layout is like a series of intricate locks. But Woods's genius here is that he has turned a difficult puzzle of a course into an assembly line. He hits 4-irons off the tee to the middle of the fairway, plays his approaches below the hole and then either makes the putt or doesn't.

His strategy has been, in his words, "just try to keep hitting fairways and put the ball in the center of the greens and lag-putt well."

Even his 63 in Friday's second round, which tied the record for low round in a major championship, was oddly unexciting. The score itself was probably the most interesting about it. His boldest shots of the day were a 35-foot putt to save par on the 12th hole, and his missed horseshoe putt on the 18th. There was no pin-seeking and bouncing it off the flagsticks, or driving 350-yard bombs.

The only drawback to any of this -- and it's not a criticism -- is that Woods's victories aren't always especially memorable. They might be memorable for his margin of victory, but not for his Arnold Palmer-like Sunday charges, with whooping galleries at his back. This is not his fault, but frankly the fault of his opponents, who have failed to challenge him.

There is a handful of players capable of making noise on a course, who can capture the attention of the golf world for an instant, or maybe even part of a weekend. But when they quiet down -- and they always do -- there remains the relentless Woods, poised, with his hands finishing high over his shoulder, then twirling the club and letting it slide back down, as he watches the ball descend to another green.

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) |

August 12, 2007

Best Houston Golf Clubs

If you find yourself watching Tiger Woods waltz to his 13th major tournament championship this afternoon, then take a moment to check out this Mark Button/Avid Golfer article on the best private golf clubs and courses in the Houston metropolitan area. Avid Golfer rates the following as the best private courses in the Houston area:

1. Walden on Lake Conroe
2. Bentwater Golf Club, Grand Pines
T3. The Club at Carlton Woods, Fazio Course
T3. The Club at Carlton Woods, Nicklaus Course
5. Deerwood Golf Club
6. Shadow Hawk Golf Club
7. River Oaks Country Club
8. Champions Golf Club, Cypress Creek Course
9. The Clubs of Kingwood, Island Course
T10. The Woodlands Country Club, East Course
T10. Royal Oaks Country Club
T12. Lakeside Country Club
T12. Lochinvar Golf Club
14. The Woodlands Country Club, Player Course
15. Bentwater Country Club, Weiskopf Course

Here are my previous posts (with pictures) of the Fazio Course at Carlton Woods, Lochinvar Golf Club and the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. For what it's worth (i.e., very little), the following is my top 15 of Houston's best private golf courses:

1. Grand Pines at Bentwater Country Club
2. Walden on Lake Conroe
3. The Fazio Course at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands
4. Whispering Pines Golf Club (Trinity, Tx)
5. Deerwood Golf Club
6. Champions Golf Club (Cypress Creek)
7. The Nicklaus Course at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands
8. Lochinvar Golf Club
9. River Oaks Country Club
10. Shadow Hawk Golf Club
11. The Woodlands Country Club, East Course (formerly the TPC at The Woodlands)
12. Kingwood Country Club, Island Course
13. The Woodlands Country Club, Gary Player Course
14. Kingwood Country Club, Forest Course
15. Houston Country Club

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 7, 2007

Swing to the Music

Does this mean that I should be listening to Le Nozze Di Figaro, K.492: "Che Soave Zeffiretto" while practicing my golf swing?:

[Yale University physics professor Robert] Grober has created an instrument that gives a player an immediate response to the golf swing. A smooth, rhythmic swing with Grober’s sensor emits a pleasing tone. A herky-jerky motion lets out a wail.

To create the sound of a golf swing, Grober used Musical Instrument Digital Interface technology that combined instruments like the piccolo, the oboe and the French horn. The music — an audio interpretation of the swing itself — is transmitted wirelessly to the golfer through a headset.

“This dimension that they can access while they’re hitting the golf club opens up a whole world of information that they hadn’t otherwise had,” he said. “Getting it in this format, in a real-time basis, helps people to change on time scales which are much shorter than traditionally. It used to be if you wanted to make a mechanical change in your golf swing, it could take months to do that. But if you can hear what’s going on, you can change the sound space almost instantly.”

Grober said by having players focus on tempo instead of swing mechanics, the mechanics often followed anyway. “Really quickly they understand it’s about tempo and they forget all these complicated thoughts about position,” he said. “When the motion becomes dynamic and smooth, there are some good physics behind that.”

Grober, whose product is scheduled for release in January, said he has worked with 200 golfers and teachers on his invention. While the technology is new, the idea of using physics to teach a golf swing has been around for decades.

Ben Doyle, who wrote the foreword to Homer Kelley’s popular instruction book, “The Golfing Machine,” said he could see benefits in a golfer being able to listen to the sound of the golf swing.

“You hear the thrust of centrifugal force,” said Doyle, the golf instructor at the Golf Club at Quail Lodge in Carmel, Calif. “If a student can hear that sound, it’s very important feedback.”

Read the entire article. Also, check out this video segment demonstrating the technology narrated by the author of the article, NY Times golf columnist, Damon Hack.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

August 6, 2007

It's PGA Golf Tournament Week

The 89th PGA Golf Tournament is being played this week at the Southern Hills Country Club Course in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although the least prestigious of the four major tournaments, the PGA generally fields the strongest field of any of the majors. This year, each of the top 100 players in the world rankings is playing.

The tournament website is here, but if you really want to get a flavor of the golf course, check out this detailed Jay Flemma blog post and this Geoff Shackelford/Golf World article (see also here) on the venerable Percy Maxwell-designed Southern Hills course. Take it from one who has played it several times, it is a beaut, although this anonymous PGA Tour player doesn't agree.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 3, 2007

Golf snits

For pure entertainment value, there is nothing quite like an eruption between a PGA Tour player and his caddie during the heat of competition. This Jeff Rude/GolfWorld commentary reports on the latest such incident was between PGA Tour member Jay Williamson and his caddie, Mike Mollet, during the first round of last week's Canadian Open:

Both agree that Mollet, on the tee of the par 3, said the wind was blowing right to left. Both agree that Williamson hit a 9-iron over the green long left. Both agree that Williamson hit a weak chip from a bad lie to about 30 feet from the hole. Both agree a frustrated Williamson told Mollet he thought the wind was blowing downwind, not across, and that Mollet disagreed. Both agree that Williamson fired Mollet after an ensuing heated argument on the green. Both agree that Mollet threw a few of Williamson’s golf balls into a pond after getting canned. Both agree that Williamson used a spectator as his caddie the last four holes. [. . .]

What they disagree on is what ignited the explosion. Williamson said Mollet lost his cool first and embarrassed him with too much emotional talk and Williamson reacted. Mollet said Williamson lost his cool first and embarrassed him with too much emotional talk and Mollet reacted.

Williamson said the caddie kept yelling at him loudly, calling him a “whiner” among other personal insults, and used the F-word. Mollet said he got riled because Williamson directed the F-word and A-word toward him after the bad chip and while disagreeing about the wind direction. Williamson said he can’t recall swearing.

Read the entire article about the spat, which is about par for the course in such matters. But Chris Lewis reminds us of my favorite player-caddie tiff, which occurred about 10 years ago between the volatile PGA Tour member Fulton Allem and his caddie, "Bullet" Burns. During the second round of the Heritage tournament at Hilton Head, Allem was struggling badly with his swing on the front nine and, while waiting to tee off on the 8th hole, had this exchange with his caddie:

"I feel like breaking something," observed Allem

Burns didn't miss a beat: "How about breaking par?"

“Very funny," Fultie replied. "You’re fired.”

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

July 26, 2007

Don't mess with Mickelson

I've never had the opportunity to meet Phil Mickelson, but my sense from this episode and others that I've heard and read about lead me to believe that he's a good and fun-loving guy. In addition, Philly Mick is apparently quite a practical joker.

Veteran Sports Illustrated golf correspondent Chris Lewis has just come out with an entertaining book about life on the PGA Tour entitled The Scoreboard Always Lies: A Year Behind the Scenes on the PGA Tour (Free Press 2007) and, in this interview about the book, Lewis passes along the following anecdote about Mickelson:

We were in Akron last year, and Phil was playing with Aaron Baddeley. Their group comes off on Friday (I think it was Friday), and all the sudden, these Akron cops come over, grab Aaron’s caddie, Pete Bender, and drag him into a police car.

Pete, of course, has been around forever, and has seen it all – he used to caddie for Greg Norman, put in a bunch of years with Rocco Mediate, and so forth.

But now, after this round in Akron, the cops take him away, and he has no idea what’s going on. Turns out that years before, during a practice round in Maui (probably the last time Phil played the Mercedes), Pete had set a couple of snails down on the seat of Phil’s golf cart (they use carts during practice rounds there), and Phil of course sat on them. So years go by, and Phil never forgets.

Finally, last year in Akron, Pete winds up in the back of that squad car, and the cops tell him, “Mr. Bender, you’re here because of an outstanding warrant on a violation of a Hawaiian ordinance against cruelty to mollusks.”

Phil had set the whole thing up. He’s just standing there about fifty feet away, laughing his head off, while Pete’s in the police car scared out of his wits.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

July 24, 2007

Belly putters as Segways

For the first three days of this year's British Open, Sergio Garcia used his new belly putter to sink seemingly every crucial putt to take a three-stroke lead into the final round. Through five holes of the final round, Garcia's new-found putting stroke continued as he extended his lead to four strokes. But then, as Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian reports, the wheels of Garcia's putting stroke suddenly careened into the nearest burn:

The first glimmer that the procession was heading for a few detours came on par-five 6th when he missed a four-foot putt for birdie, then barely holed the one coming back for par. The scores on the boards remained the same but the mood music had changed, from steady march to jazzy stagger. A poor approach shot to the back of the 7th green ended up costing him a shot and he dropped another at the next when he missed an eight-foot putt for par.

Which brings us to the best line that I've seen describing the probable result of Garcia's fourth round putting collapse:

To [Garcia's] credit he made a par at the next but, when he missed another short one on the 10th, shares in belly putters went the way of the Segway scooter.

By the way, my bet is that it's just a matter of Garcia becoming comfortable with his belly putter before he wins a major tournament. He is a simply too good a ball-striker not to win at least one.

Also, did you notice how much more entertaining the British Open was in comparison to this year's U.S. Open?

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) |

July 18, 2007

Another Tiger Tale

As we watch Tiger Woods pursue his 13th major championship this weekend at the British Open, it's worth reminding ourselves that we are blessed to be able to watch the best golfer in history. CBS golf commetator David Feherty, who often walks with Woods while covering tournaments, passes along this anecdote in a recent interview:

"People have accused me of being so far up Tiger’s arse that he can barely make a full swing, but I maintain that he is a special person."

"There’s no one else on the planet who can do what he does or even think of doing what he does. I’ve often thought, instead of showing Tiger’s reaction to a shot he’s hit, we really should show the reaction of those around him.”

"But here is the next best thing. I’m walking down the 18th fairway at Firestone Country Club with Ernie Els and Tiger, who has popped up a three-wood about 40 yards behind Ernie into some wet, nasty, horrible, six-inch rough."

"Tiger’s cursing and taking clumps out of Ohio with his three-wood. And, of course, we’re not showing this on TV because we want to be able to interview him later. Ernie and I walk past Tiger’s ball, and it is truly buried."

“Ernie is tied with Tiger and he’s in the middle of the fairway. I’m standing with Ernie and my microphone is open. Ken Venturi [in the CBS booth] sends it to me and I say, ‘Tiger’s got 184 yards with two big red oaks overhanging the green. He’s got absolutely nothing. With a stick of dynamite and a sand wedge I might be able to move this ball 50 yards. Steve Williams [Woods’ caddie] tells me [with a hand signal] that he’s using a pitching wedge.’"

"Tiger takes his swing. Every muscle in his body is flung at the ball. It looks like he’s torn his nutsack. The divot went as far as I could hit the ball. I’ve got my microphone at my mouth thinking, what the hell was that! The ball sails over the trees, lands behind the hole and backs up to a bout six feet from the flag. I open my microphone and Ernie turns and says, ‘F*** me!’"

"My producer comes on in my earpiece and says, ‘Was that Ernie?’ I say yes. He says, ‘Fair enough.’"

"I could have described that shot for 15 minutes and not done as good a job as Ernie did with two words. This is one of the best players in the world talking, and you wanna know how good Tiger is? Ask Ernie Els."

Posted by Tom at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) |

July 17, 2007

It's time for The Open

The 136th British Open begins play this Thursday at Carnoustie in Scotland, so NY Times golf writer Damon Hack sets the stage (see also here) for this year's event. The Open's website is always one of the best tournament websites, and this year's version includes this slick visual guide to the golf course. Meanwhile, Austin's Dave Pelz, Phil Mickelson's short game guru, gives this interesting interview on how Team Mickelson is preparing for the special challenges of Carnoustie.

By the way, this year's event is the first time that the Open has been back to Carnoustie since 1999, when France's Jan Van de Velde self-destructed on the 72nd hole by taking a 7, blowing a three shot lead and then blowing another opportunity to win the championship in the subsequent playoff. That meltdown on the final day of a major tournament prompted one of the better golf jokes that I've heard over the years:

"What does 'Jan Van de Velde' mean in English?"

"Greg Norman."

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) |

July 11, 2007

More on business golf therapy

James Cayne's golf therapy prompted this interesting article over at The Economist on the deeply engrained nature of business golf:

The central role played by golf in business life is under-reported—except maybe in Japan—perhaps because journalists can’t afford the green fees let alone the membership dues of the swanky clubs to which chief executives belong. Nor are bosses exactly rushing to draw attention to yet another perk.

Yet, “no matter how sophisticated business becomes, nothing can replace the golf course as a communications hub”, argues a new book, “Deals on the Green”, by David Rynecki. “It’s where up-and-comers can impress the boss and where CEOs can seal multibillion-dollar deals. Its no coincidence that many of the most admired people in business—Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sandy Weill—always carved out time in their busy schedules for golf.”

Mr. Welch, arguably the best golfing chief executive ever, is the “patron saint of corporate golf”, argues Mr Rynecki, . . . Mr Welch . . . regarded golf as a key part of his managerial armoury, which he deployed with great success during his long, glorious reign at General Electric (GE). The firm was already known as a “golf company” when he took charge. But under Mr Welch, “golf became an essential tool for any manager looking to move up”. Golf “was a litmus test for character. It showed whether a person had the guts to work in Welch’s GE.”

Not everyone is convinced. The other week, two veteran Wall Street tycoons railed against the game. Hank Greenberg, the former boss of AIG, complained that golf was a distraction from business: “A lot of people like to get away from their work. You have to wonder about whether they like what they’re doing.” Carl Icahn, the legendary corporate raider, sees golf as a symbol of all that is wrong with the clubby higher echelons of American business: “These guys would rather play golf, slap each other on the back. I want a guy running a company who sits in his tub at night thinking about the challenges he faces. The guy who can’t let it go. The focused guy.”

Read the entire article. I bet Mr. Cayne will do so, maybe even before his afternoon tee time. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (1) |

The PGA Tour pro takes on the local muni

What do you get when a big golf game is arranged between a young PGA Tour pro and a weekend duffer on the local municipal course?

One of the most interesting golf articles of the year. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 4:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 3, 2007

The rebranding of Nick Faldo

This entire Nick Greenslade/Observer article on how Nick Faldo remade himself from a recalcitrant PGA Tour pro to an affable CBS commentator is quite interesting, but I no idea that Faldo is a valuable annuity for the family law bar. Toward the end fo the article, Greenslade summarizes Faldo's three marriages and divorces:

Nick's ladies

Melanie Rockall

'We were happily married for eight months. Unfortunately, we were married for four-and-a-half years,' Faldo has said of his first marriage, which began in 1979 when he was only 21. . .

Gill Bennett

'Socially, he was a 24-handicapper,' Bennett said of Faldo, whom she had met while working as his agent's secretary when he was still married to Rockall. The couple married in 1986 and Bennett later revealed that the births of their three children, who now live with her in Ascot, Berkshire, had been induced to avoid any clashes with his playing schedule. . . .

Brenna Cepelak

College golfer Cepelak was 20 when she met Faldo, . . . 'It's always sad when these things end,' [Faldo] said. Cepelak responded to the break-up by taking an iron to his Porsche. 'It was a nine-iron or a wedge,' recalled Faldo. 'It was a very special car. It was so hi-tech, it was made of plastic. The club kept bouncing off. It wouldn't leave a dent. I auctioned it off.'

Valerie Bercher

The third Mrs Faldo, whom he had first met at a tournament in her native Switzerland in 1997, lasted five years. . . . On learning of his son-in-law's application for divorce last year, Bercher's father said: 'We are at a loss to explain. But it is not the first time he has changed his mind. He bought a Bentley recently, but once he had it he was bored with it after a month and got rid of it.'

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (0) |

June 28, 2007

Another casualty of Oakmont?

Maybe Phil Mickelson wasn't the only casualty of the recent U.S. Open at Oakmont. Chris Lewis reports the following:

USGA Head Agronomist Ousted: U.S. Open Fallout?

Word on the superintendent grapevine is that Tim Moraghan, the USGA’s head agronomist, has been relieved of his post.

USGA spokesperson Marty Parkes, contacted by telephone at the U.S. Women’s Open site at Pine Needles in North Carolina, would not officially confirm or deny the rumors, but did say the grounds were being overseen this week not by Moraghan, but by “an agronomist from the green section in this part of the country.”

The talk of Moraghan’s dismissal, which surfaced on Monday, suggested it had to do with disagreements among USGA personnel about course set-ups and playing conditions at recent U.S. Opens.

Moraghan had been with the USGA for about 20 years.

Given the recent criticism of USGA president Walter Driver here and here, perhaps the USGA is in need of more than a shakeup than merely firing the agronomist?

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) |

June 27, 2007

The Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit

Check out this Bob Carney/Golf Digest blog post about the second annual Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit this November 4-7 in Las Vegas. As noted in earlier posts here and here regarding the late Dick Harmon, and this one regarding the late Claude Harmon, Sr., the Harmon family has long and deep ties to Houston. Although aimed primarily at golf teachers, the Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit is open to a limited number of golf swing enthusiasts. And the faculty is pretty darn impressive, including Mike Bender, he of the "Stack and Tilt" swing method, which is really just a variation on Jim Hardy's one-plane swing. The Harmon brothers are an entertaining bunch (their late father could have been a standup comedian), so this could be a fun way to spend a quick Vegas golf vacation.

By the way, check out "the dorm" for the participants in the summit. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (1) |

June 26, 2007

Talking about the 2007 U.S. Open in 2042?

This Peter Williams/New Zealand Herald column elaborates on the point that I've been making about the draconian setups for the U.S. Open courses that the United States Golf Association has been inflicting over the past couple of years on the competitors:

Golf, like all sports, is in the entertainment business. Its money comes through being an exciting spectacle on television.

The best TV sport is always when the best players perform at their optimum in conditions fair to everyone. I don't think those conditions prevailed at Augusta in April and certainly not at Oakmont last week. In two major championships this year, nobody has finished under par. That's entertainment? Give me a break. It's survival and not much fun to watch or play.

The story goes that after Johnny Miller shot 63 to win the 1973 US Open at Oakmont, the USGA and Oakmont membership vowed that never again would they be embarrassed by somebody ripping a championship course apart.

Embarrassed? That was brilliant play; engaging, exciting and still talked about 35 years later. Will they be talking about the 2007 US Open in 2042? About the greatest player of all time not able to make a birdie in his last 32 holes because of greens so fast you couldn't hit a putt firmly enough to hold the line?

Read the entire column.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (1) |

June 20, 2007

All about Angel

No, we're not back in the 1960's when pro golfers regularly puffed cigarettes on television under the stress of tournament competition. That's new U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina on the left enjoying a quick smoke with his caddie this past Sunday. Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz provides this timely and excellent profile of Cabrera, which includes this observation about Cabrera by longtime Houston golf professional, Charlie Epps:

Charlie Epps, a Houston-based teaching professional who lived in the small Argentine city of Villa Allende in the 1980s and met Cabrera when he was as a young caddie at the Cordoba GC, believes that Cabrera's problems with keeping his composure stem from a deep-seated anger rooted in growing up in an impoverished broken home. "I remember that when he started playing he really had a temper--he just couldn't handle bad shots--and that hurt him as a tournament player for a long time," says Epps. "He's a wonderful guy who had a lot of issues because of a very tough childhood, and with time he's learned to overcome the them"

Meanwhile, Stu Mulligan over at the Waggle Room passes along more information about Cabrera in this interview with longtime Champions Tour pro Eduardo Romero, who is also from Argentina and is one of Cabrera's sponsors.

Although not well-known outside of golf circles until this past weekend, Cabrera has long had a serious golf game. He is one of the Tour's longest hitters and an excellent ball-striker. A balky putter has been what has kept him from being a regular winner on the Tour. He sunk a few putts this past weekend and it was enough for him to take home his first major tournament trophy. As with late-bloomer Lee Trevino a generation ago, it may well not be Cabrera's last.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

June 19, 2007

Summing up Oakmont

So, Phil Mickelson is probably not going to be able to play any tournaments for the next three weeks in preparation for next month's British Open because of the injury to his wrist that he injured while hitting out of the absurdly dense rough at Oakmont Country Club for last weekend's U.S. Open. Lawrence Donegan sums up how the the United States Golf Association can even screw up a nice story such as Angel Cabrera winning the U.S. Open:

But in the midst of a spirit-lifting triumph for the underdog there was also something of a travesty for the game itself as once again the organisers of this historic tournament laid out a course that bordered on farce. It takes some doing to engender sympathy for golf's pampered millionaires but the USGA somehow managed to do exactly that.

In my view, the U.S. Open is easily the least enjoyable of all of the major golf tournaments and frankly not as much fun to watch as The Players or any number of mid-major tournaments. Perhaps having a few of the top players elect not to play in the U.S. Open because of injury risk might be what it takes to get through to the U.S.G.A. Their obsession with tricking up golf courses already elevates luck over skill in determining a champion. Now, it has become downright dangerous for the participants. And for those who think that a wrist injury is not all that serious for a professional golfer, remember what such an injury did to the once-bright playing career of former University of Houston golfer and two-time NCAA champion Billy Ray Brown.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (0) |

June 18, 2007

And you thought your boss was bad?

Argentina's Angel Cabrera won the U.S. Torture er, I mean, Open Golf Tournament yesterday over Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, but the more interesting story from the Open was Colin Montgomerie's extraordinary effort to retain his "most unpopular golfer" status on the PGA Tour.

A couple of weeks ago, Monty summarily fired his longtime caddy while going through the worst stretch of his career. Thus, for the U.S. Open, Monty picked up a local caddy who had previously worked for Jack Nicklaus. Apparently, while Monty was missing the cut at the Open, things did not go swimmingly between Monty and his new bagman:

Colin Montgomerie's love affair with the US Open is on the rocks after his latest attempt to win the championship ended in abject failure and an ignominious falling out with his 62-year-old caddie.

On a day when a quartet of Britons conjured up hopes of ending Europe’s eight-year drought in the majors, Montgomerie slumped to his worst score in the tournament since his debut in 1993.

He missed the halfway cut at unforgiving Oakmont by eight shots and allowed the volatile side of his nature to wreak its revenge on the hapless Billy Goddard.

The veteran caddie, hired to carry Montgomerie’s clubs after the 43-year-old Ryder Cup star sacked long-term bagman Alistair McLean last week, tried to find a kind word to say about his temporary employer.

"He’s a good guy but he just gets mad at himself," said Goddard. "And he got mad at me, absolutely." [. . .]

After contacting the caddiemaster at Oakmont Country Club to request an experienced bagman — the main condition of his employment being that he should not talk too much — Montgomerie was allocated Goddard, a man with a reputation as a kindly soul who can get along with anyone.

Even though Goddard is so valued that he has caddied for Jack Nicklaus, he was to learn that Montgomerie can be easily upset by what seem innocuous comments.

After a first-round 76 left him with plenty of ground to make up, Montgomerie was unable to cope with the increasingly difficult demands of Oakmont’s penal rough and slick greens as he tossed shots away like a highhandicapper having a bad day.

Montgomerie was so distressed by an incident during the front nine of his second round that he walked over to speak to his girlfriend, Gaynor Knowles, on the 10th fairway and was overheard to say: "It’s such a shame. It’s really upset me. It really, really has."

When Goddard was asked whether he knew what had caused Montgomerie to become so agitated, he admitted being responsible, saying: "On the fourth hole he asked me what the yardage was and I said: 'Lay up or go for it?'. He said: 'I’m going for it'. After he made a bogey on the hole, he said to me: 'You should never have said the words lay up'. After that we hardly talked. That was the first taste I had of his reputation." [. . .]

On the 18th his drive landed in such thick rough that he could not see the ball and hacked it only 10 yards forward.

When he launched his third towards the green, a youth yelled ‘Get in the hole’ to be greeted by the coldest stare Montgomerie could muster. As the object of his anger was identified, the spectator turned to the rest of crowd and appealed: ‘I was only trying to encourage him.’ [. . .]

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

June 16, 2007

Say again, Johnny?

My sense is that former U.S. Open champ and NBC golf color commentator Johnny Miller is not going to be joining B.J. Lisko of the Salem News for cocktails any time soon after this broadside prompted by a U.S. Open press conference earlier this week:

The kingpin jackass of all golf media had his own press conference. Yes, Johnny Miller himself took the stage and squawked and squawked and squawked. Miller is perhaps the most pompous, self-righteous, arrogant man to ever have played the game. And to top it off, aside from the miracle tournament he had at Oakmont Country Club back in 1973, his golfing career certainly didn’t amount to anything epic. So now what does Johnny do? He squawks. Just like the rest of them. Only Johnny is on NBC Sports so we get the distinct pleasure of listening to him on an almost weekly basis.

Well, according to Johnny not only did he “usher in Tiger and Phil,” but he also played “tee to green, under pressure, the best round of golf he’s ever seen.”

“I’m not trying to pat myself on the back,” he said. Yes, Johnny. That’s exactly what you’re doing. And it didn’t stop.

For over a half hour he yammered on about how great he was and how great and difficult the course that he won on was. “This is the finest golf course in the world,” he said.

Then Johnny went on to say that “when you make a championship ridiculous, you can get ridiculous winners. You can get winners that will never win again, just happened to have a hot week putting or a good bounce here and there. We are trying to identify the A-plus player, not the only guy to survive that can hardly make a cut on the Tour.”

Okay then Johnny, I thought to myself. If we’re trying to find the “A-plus player,” then why is every professional predicting perhaps the most ridiculous scores in the history of a major championship? Why did Tiger Woods say the funest hole on the course is “the 19th?”

So I asked him, “If Oakmont is as ridiculous as all the players are saying it is, and it’s setting up like the winner is going to be a lot more lucky than good, does that change your opinion of the course?”

Well, this of course threw Johnny for a loop as he backtracked into saying how great the USGA was and that the USGA wouldn’t let a tournament get so out of hand. Well, they already have. Numerous times. Some players won’t even try to qualify for the U.S. Open, and if they already did, won’t play in it. Why is that? Because the best ball striker, the best player on the course, likely doesn’t win these tournaments. Good shots are not rewarded, and the scores go so high it becomes miserable for those in attendance. I’m not saying the U.S. Open shouldn’t be hard. It should. But walking around the course, my feet completely obscured by the rough just off the fairway, running my hand over undulating fairways cut as low as the greens on most public courses, this thing is going to be ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the questions the press will be asking all weekend. But no where near as ridiculous as Johnny Miller’s fantastic insight on what every player needs to do, even though he can’t do it himself.

Posted by Tom at 4:21 AM | Comments (1) |

June 13, 2007

Time to check out Oakmont

It's T-minus 24 hours or so until the the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh area gets underway, so it's time to check out the Golf Digest.com flyover of the golf course and Ran Morrissett's Oakmont course profile at GolfClubAtlas.com. Hat tip to Geoff Shackelford.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 11, 2007

It's U.S. Open Week

The U.S. Open begins this week at historic Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. As noted in this Matthew Rudy/Golf Digest article after last year's Open, the tricked-up nature of the famed Winged Foot course undermined much of the enjoyment of that event for both the competitors and viewers. According to this E.M. Swift/Golf Digest article, we can expect more of the same this year at Oakmont.

When is the United States Golf Association going to realize that setting up a course so that shooting a good score is a crapshoot is neither a good way to determine the nation's golf champion for the year nor particularly interesting to watch?

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

June 6, 2007

Elk gets his spikes right

Houstonian and Clear Thinkers favorite Steve Elkington apparently found a U.S. Open qualifier this year that allowed the competitors to wear spikes on their shoes. Elk fired a 36 hole score of 137 (64-73) to earn one of the 16 U.S. Open qualifying spots on Monday at the Colonial Country Club in Memphis, only the second time since 1999 that Elkington has qualified for the Open. 72 players were already exempt for the Open and Elkington nabbed one of the additional 83 spots that were up for grabs in sectional qualifying at 13 courses in the U.S., England and Japan on Monday. The Open will be held for a record eighth time next week at Oakmont, where Geoff Ogilvy will attempt to defend the title that he won last year at Winged Foot.

Speaking of local golf, the venerable Texas State Amateur Championship begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, one of the best tracts in the Houston region. The 144-player field will be cut to the low 54 and ties after Friday's second round. Former winners of the Texas State Am includes such noteworthy PGA Tour pros as Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Lietzke, Scott Verplank, Mark Brooks, Charles Coody and Bob Estes.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

June 4, 2007

Champions Cypress Creek overrated?

Don't expect Jack Burke, owner of Houston's venerable Champions Golf Club, to be taking out any new subscriptions of Golf Magazine any time soon after this Golf.com article rates Champions' Cypress Creek Golf Course as the fifth most overrated course in the U.S.:

Champions was founded as an Augusta National—style retreat 50 years ago by Texas golf legends Jimmy Demaret and Jackie Burke, but the only thing this Ralph Plummer design shares with its Georgia counterpart is that Tiger Woods has won at both. The grand history—a U.S. Open, a Ryder Cup and multiple Tour Championships—doesn't compensate for the flat fairways, shapeless bunkers and overgrown ditches masquerading as water hazards.

At least Burke and his Champions members can take solace in the fact that Augusta National, Pebble Beach, the Country Club, and Pinehurst No. 2, among others, also made the list.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

June 3, 2007

A Wie incongruity

Anyone who follows professional golf even casually knows about the recent travails of teenage phenom, MIchelle Wie, who Butch Harmon thinks is playing worse now at the age of 17 than she was as a 14 year-old. The latest golfing embarrassment for Wie was withdrawing this past Thursday from her first LPGA tournament of the season after posting a 16 over par score on her first 16 holes of the tournament. As Geoff Shackelford reports, most folks think Wie withdrew to avoid the LPGA's "88 and over rule," which bans a non-LPGA member from playing in an LPGA event for a year if the non-LPGA member shoots 88 or over in any tournament round.

Juxaposed against Wie's golf problems, however, is this annual Sports Illustrated list of the 50 highest earning athletes for 2007. Tiger Woods laps the field with his prodigious $100 million in endorsement income, but the only female on the list is Wie, who comes in at no. 22. Interestingly, Wie has the higest ratio of endorsement income to income derived directly from competition at 26-to-1 (she earned about $750,000 in golf earnings last year). And she hasn't even entered Stanford University yet!

Is American a great country or what? ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 31, 2007

Dan Jenkins for the World Golf HOF

In this GolfWorld op-ed on why Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins should be in the World Golf Hall of Fame, John Hawkins sums up Jenkins' remarkable writing talent well:

Knowing Jenkins as I do--he's far more of an idol to me than a confidant--I don't suppose for a minute he cares all that much either way. In what might serve as a crummy imitation of his prose, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an avid golf fan who has become engrossed in his work. Like the Merry Mex himself, Jenkins has all the shots and has never backed away from anyone. A bust in St. Augustine would be a nice touch, a fitting end to a stellar career, but then, the old man would probably write another novel, this one about some warhorse wordsmith who missed his Hall of Fame induction because he was canoodling some broad named Mimi Whatnot.

Either way, Jenkins is a 15-time major champion in my profession, a guy other writers love because he keeps it simple but takes it deep. When you're one of the best who ever lived at what you do, when you make people laugh and get them to think, you've earned a spot on the ballot. From there, let the votes fall where they will.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

May 26, 2007

The PGA Tour's Texas Mess

The Tiger Chasm has had an extremely detrimental effect on the Texas PGA Tour events (see here and here). Texas golf writer Art Stricklin picks up on that theme in this Golf.com op-ed in which he points out that the PGA Tour has forsaken the four Texas events that contribute more to charity than virtually any other Tour events:

There used to be something on Tour called the Texas swing, during which three of the four events in the Lone Star State — the Houston Open, the Byron Nelson and the Colonial — were played in near succession. (The Texas Open was usually held later in the year.)

The proximity in dates and distance of the tournaments added to their appeal because a pro could stay in a single state, albeit a big one, for almost a month. The events also had long traditions and famous frontmen. Jack Burke Jr. remains Houston's Mr. Golf, an honorific bestowed in Dallas on the late Byron Nelson (who personally rounded up player commitments) and in Fort Worth (home of the Colonial) on the legendary Ben Hogan.

Further, all of the Texas tournaments have been good to charity. According to several tournament directors, in 2006 the Texas Open ranked first on Tour in charitable contributions with $7 million, while the Nelson was third ($6.3 million), Houston fifth ($4.5 million), and the Colonial kicked in $2.6 million. That's $20 million from Texas. [. . .]

The Tour applauded itself for taking Texas's money but returned the favor with four lousy spots on the schedule.

The Houston Open, which has never been graced by Tiger Woods, was moved to the week before the Masters, always a dark period for the No. 1 player in the world. The Nelson, with its prime mid-May date reassigned to the Tour-owned Players Championship, was stuck in a late-April pit, and the results were predictable: Of the top 15 players only Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia showed up — especially lamentable because this was the first Nelson since the death of its namesake.

This week's Colonial was cast into the late-May lull between the Players and Jack Nicklaus's Memorial, and at press time only one top 10 player had committed.

But these events are prime compared with the Texas Open, consigned to the worst fate of all: the irrelevance of the post-FedEx Cup fall season.

Maybe the commissioner really believes that what a tournament gives away matters, and that on the PGA Tour doing good is as important as doing well. No one in Texas does anymore.

The PGA Tour is in real trouble in Texas. Is anyone in the PGA Tour office listening?

Posted by Tom at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) |

May 12, 2007

Doesn't it always happen this way?

Yesterday morning, Golf.com blogger Josh Sanburn provided this remarkable piece of information about PGA Tour professional Tom Lehman and the devilish 17th island hole at the TPC at Sawgrass (picture on the golf post from yesterday):

Lehman has 55 straight safe landings at 17

Who's the master of the par-3 17th? That honor goes to Tom Lehman, who, through 55 rounds at the Players Championship, has never hit his tee shot in the water and is 13-under overall on the hole. He parred the 17th on Thursday.

"You catch the wrong gust on that one, you're in huge trouble," Lehman said after his two-under first round, which put him among the leaders. Lehman hit an 8-iron to the left side of the green Thursday, good enough for a two-putt par. We'll see if he can keep the streak alive through the rest of the week.

So, what did Lehman do when he played the 17th later in the day on Friday? Of course, he dunked his tee shot in the drink.

Posted by Tom at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) |

May 11, 2007

They're off at The Players!

The Players Championship is underway over in Ponte Vedra, Florida near Jacksonville on the renovated Tournament Players Course at Sawgrass. Each year, The Players has the strongest field of any golf tournament -- 48 of the top 50 players in the World Rankings are playing this week. For some reason, the PGA Tour continues to believe that it must attempt to persuade everyone that the tournament should be considered a the fifth "major" tournament along with The Masters, the U.S. and British Opens and the PGA Tournament, and the Tour has moved the tournament to May this year in an effort to facilitate that goal. But regardless of whether it's characterized as a major, The Players is a terrific tournament with the best golfers competing on a great golf course. From a pure golfing standpoint, what more can you ask for?

Sal Johnson provides this excellent Golf Observer overview of the tournament, and the Golf Challenge is providing extensive coverage of the tournament today and during the morning hours on the weekend, while NBC takes over coverage during the afternoons on the weekend. Golf Digest provides this handy interactive overview of the TPC at Sawgrass, while The Players website includes about halfway down the page The 17th hole "Pipeline", which provides a really slick telecast of the famous island green par 3. When the wind blows as it did on Thursday (and probably will through the tournament given that a tropical storm is swirling off the northeastern Florida coast), watching the players play the 17th is a real blast. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

May 7, 2007

Practice range back-biting

So, you think the competition on the PGA Tour is intense? According to this John Huggan/Scotsman article, the intensity of that competition is nothing compared to what goes on between the golf instructors of the top PGA Tour players:

Especially at the top level, the teaching of golf is a bitchy business. Typical was the vitriolic reception that Hank Haney received from many of his peers in the wake of his assuming the role of coach to Tiger Woods, replacing the aforementioned Harmon. For a while there, things were neither hunky nor dory.

The last word in that particular skirmish, however, belonged to Haney. In the immediate aftermath of the 2005 Masters Tournament - Woods's first of four major victories under the tutelage of his new coach - the Dallas-based instructor lifted a leaf out of Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, and took dead aim at one of his biggest critics, wannabe star teacher Jim McLean, describing him as "the biggest asshole I have ever met" - a label that left little room for misinterpretation.

"As for other teachers who have been critical [most notably and ironically, Harmon and Smith], it was obvious where they were coming from," Haney declared. "I viewed them speaking out as a form of pre-emptive strike. They wanted Tiger to lose patience with me before we even got started, so I wasn't surprised by the crap they were talking. Those other instructors never wanted to give us a chance. The result was never going to make them look better."

Read the entire piece.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

May 2, 2007

The Mickelson Affair

Phil Mickelson has had quite a year already -- one PGA Tour win, blowing another one on the 18th hole, replacing swing coaches. But none of that compared to the firestorm that Philly Mick provoked last week when he got a pass from the PGA Tour brass on playing in the Byron Nelson Golf Tournament Pro-Am because bad weather prevented him from flying into Dallas the night before the Pro-Am. Normally, missing a Pro-Am -- which is considered a necessary nuisance by most PGA Tour players -- means that the offending Tour player is not allowed to play in the tournament. However, an exception was made in Mickelson's case, even though it is pretty clear than Mickelson could have made his tee time if he had been willing to get up early enough and fly into Dallas on the morning of the Pro-Am. PGA Tour member Robert Allenby spoke for the vast majority of players:

"He came here, was on site and he elected to go somewhere else, knowing the weather was going to be crappy. He took the risk. Take the risk and you pay the penalty."

And Doug Ferguson chimes in with this piece about the Tour's double-standard with regard to playing in Pro-Am's:

In 2005, Chad Campbell wanted to play the 84 Lumber Classic – the tournament even had his wife sing at one of its functions – but he asked out of the pro-am Wednesday to attend his grandmother’s funeral. The Tour made him choose between the pro-am and the funeral, and Campbell withdrew from the tournament. [. . .]

Wes Short Jr. wanted to skip out on a pro-am because his father was about to have quadruple bypass surgery, but he had to choose between the pro-am and spending time with his father.

But leave it to a Houstonian -- the always entertaining Steve Elkington -- to bring a sense of perspective to the situation:

"They've opened themselves up to a dangerous precedent," Elkington said of the tour. "Next time it's raining in Houston, I might call and say I can't get there."

"That being said, this tournament needs Phil Mickelson. Look at the crowds. You've got to give the guys who carry the tour a bit of slack. That's always been there. We're in the business of entertaining people."

As Elkington spoke, thousands of spectators swarmed along the 18th hole, trying to catch a glimpse of Mickelson, . . .

By the way, Geoff Shackleford -- the best golf blogger around in my book -- has put together an entire category of blog posts attempting to keep up with Philly Mick.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (1) |

More on the Tiger Chasm

In this column, the Chronicle's chief golf writer has seen the Tiger Chasm that is gobbling up Texas' PGA Tour events and he does not like what he sees:

If the first half of the season is any indication, the gap between the marquee events and all the others is getting wider than ever. For every WGC event that has dibs on the top 64 players, there's a Bob Hope making do with only one player ranked in the top 10 when the season began. For every Nissan Open landing every top-10 not named Woods, there's a New Orleans event without any star power.

Look for the summer events to suffer a talent drain, because the top players will be bracing themselves for a season-ending, four-week playoff run.

Maybe the season will build to a crescendo as the playoffs draw closer, but that isn't helping Tampa, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans or Memphis much.

A show of hands from all of those captivated by whether Kenny Perry can hold on to his one-point lead over Steve Lowery for the 144th — and final — playoff spot. The white coats will be along shortly with the straightjackets.

Yes, 144 players will make the first round of players. In other words, 19 players who aren't good enough to finish in the top 125 — the threshold for keeping a tour card — will make it to the playoffs. Even the NCAA knows better than to water down its basketball tournament that much. . . .

Make no mistake: The new system should produce a season with a better flow. The season has some sort of ending instead of fizzling out in the fall. Clearly, though, there is too much disconnect between the marquee events and the mundane.

Campbell goes on to wonder whether the Texas PGA Tour events have seen the last of Tiger Woods:

Has Tiger Woods played a PGA Tour event in Texas for the last time?

Woods skipped the only Texas tournament in his regular schedule, the Byron Nelson, for the second consecutive year. With Nelson no longer around to answer, don't be surprised if Woods forsakes that event unless it lands a date more suitable to his schedule.

Woods' only appearance at the Texas Open in San Antonio was in 1996, when he was trying to earn his PGA Tour card. He played Colonial in 1997, tying for fourth, and hasn't been back since. Though Woods has never played the Shell Houston Open, he has teed it up in Houston four times. Woods played the Tour Championship at Champions Golf Club in 1997 (12th), 1999 (won), 2001 (13th) and 2003 (26th). With Atlanta's East Lake established as the home of the Tour Championship for the foreseeable future, it's highly unlikely Woods will make another competitive appearance in Houston.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

April 25, 2007

This is not going to look good on TV

I buzzed up to Ft. Worth for a hearing yesterday and the golfers in the crowd were all talking about the EDS Byron Nelson Golf Tournament, which already has a less than inspiring field. Now, it turns out that several greens at the Tournament Players Course at Los Colinas are not going to be particularly picturesque on television:

One after another, competitors at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship struggled Monday to describe the patchwork greens that greeted them at the TPC Las Colinas course.

Riddled with bare patches and marked by evidence of multiple grasses growing on selected greens, the bumpy surfaces triggered a mea culpa from officials at the Four Seasons Resort, who own and oversee maintenance on both courses used at the Nelson tournament. [. . .]

Players who competed in Monday's pro-am at the Cottonwood Valley course reported thin fairways on selected holes but praised the greens. Competitors at TPC, on the other hand, wondered if PGA Tour officials could find three viable pin placements during tournament week at selected holes.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

April 24, 2007

More love for Zach

Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is not having any part of the notion that Zach Johnson's victory in The Masters Golf Tournament was boring due to a tricked-up Augusta National:

I, for one, loved it. The Augusta National, with an assist from nature, finally reined in technology. That alone was worth a roar, wasn't it?

They took the winning 72-hole score back to 289, the highest it had been since 1954 and 1956, when the basic culprits were strong, gusty winds and the hard old Bermuda/rye greens that wouldn't hold a pitchfork if Tiger Woods was swinging it.

If there was anything I liked better than seeing the tour pros have to face a tough course for a change, it was learning that Zach Johnson, the new Masters champion, is an unapologetic God-fearing lad who has a Yorkshire terrier like I do.

Only his is named Hogan.

Read the entire article.

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

April 23, 2007

The next troubled Texas PGA Tour event

The Shell Houston Open recently finished a rather uninspiring 2007 edition of the event. Now, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas -- which has also had (earlier post problems brewing) over the past several years -- is looking as if it will have its weakest field in years, although it still appears to be better than the SHO's field. Another PGA Tour event entering the Tiger chasm? The Star-Telegram's Gil LeBreton thinks so:

The message this time, though, seems unmistakable. If the tributes planned for Byron weren’t enough to lure Woods back this year, what makes anyone think that he’ll come back next April? Or the year after?

Or that Tiger Woods will ever play tournament golf again in Texas?

His first and last appearance at Colonial came in 1997. A disappointing final round left Woods steamed and tied for fourth place, and he has never returned.

He played in the Texas Open, a fall tour event in San Antonio, in 1996 and came in third. He has never returned.

Woods has never played in the Shell Houston Open.

The Nelson, however, was supposed to be Woods’ tournament. The tournament where Fergie, the Duchess of York, once came to see Tiger play. From 1997 to 2004, Woods played in the Nelson Championship seven times, shooting a combined 77 under par.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

April 13, 2007

Another Zach attack

Has anyone had as much fun in America this week as newly-crowned Master's champion, Zach Johnson?

Johnson appeared on Letterman earlier in the week and recited the Top Ten list, which was entitled "The Top Ten things that I can now say that I've won the Master's." Both Johnson and Letterman are clearly having a good time. My favorite is no. 6: "Even I've never heard of me."

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

April 11, 2007

All about Zach

Please excuse the all-sports day here today, but newly-crowned Master's champion Zach Johnson has seemingly been everywhere over the past couple of days and he is proving to be a refreshingly normal fellow amidst all the attention. Here is the Damon Hack/NY Times profile, but this Joe Posnanski/Kansas City Star profile captures how Johnson's Midwestern roots define the man. And if you are really into Johnson, check out the Des Moines Register's wall-to-wall coverage of Johnson's Masters victory and the aftermath.

Meanwhile, Geoff Shackelford passes along the following interesting thoughts about the mindset of those who enjoy watching professional golfers struggle on tricked-up courses:

On the news that ratings were actually up for this hardly satisfying 2007 Masters, I've heard from a number of people that they argued with friends over the weekend about the setup and the joys of watching great players suffer.

There is a sizeable audience of the viewing public that enjoys watching the best players struggle. They like seeing them humiliated and brought down to a lower level of skill.

"They know how I feel now."

This mentality has been around a long time and many of the games lesser-informed writers have celebrated the notion of pro golfers serving as modern day gladiators served up for the people to devour in humiliating spectacles.

So I'm wondering if championship golf is going to go the way of everything else in our society. Will it have to become "relatable" (as the marketing folks like to say) for big-time golf to succeed? In other words, will professional golfers eventually serve at the pleasure of the people, with major events played to publicly humiliate millionaire golfers on overcooked layouts in order to make the average man feel better about his lousy game?

Personally, I find it to be an incredibly selfish way to view golf. It's a lot more fun to see the talent of these great players exposed, celebrated and savored. But maybe that's old school?

By the way, a number of folks have asked me about my observation in an earlier post that Zach is a classic one-plane swinger along the lines that Houston-based teaching professional Jim Hardy (see also here) has written extensively about over the past several years. Here is a short video clip of Johnson working with his teaching pro, Mike Bender:

Finally, in case you didn't catch it on Sunday, make sure you catch the video below of Rory Sabbatini's incredible putt on Augusta National's 8th hole. Sabbatini -- who has been a jerk at times while on the Tour -- has a fun-loving response to the crowd's reaction:

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

April 10, 2007

The Tiger chasm defined

The television numbers are in on the just-completed Masters Golf Tournament. CBS Sports’ coverage of the tournament on Easter Sunday earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.1/21 (meaning that 9.1% of households on average were tuned in at any given moment and 21% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into the Masters). This year’s final-round rating/share was up 1% from last year’s 9.0/19 when Phil Mickelson won his second Masters title and it was also up 25% from the last time the final round was played on Easter Sunday (7.3/18), when Mickelson won his first green jacket and first career major title in the 2004 event.

Meanwhile, the Shell Houston Open, which was played just a week ago, had a 1.7 share for its NBC telecast on Sunday compared with 2.2 share for the SHO's May date last year on CBS. Even the BellSouth Classic -- the tournament that that the SHO replaced this season on the PGA Tour calendar -- was able to generate a 2.5 share on Sunday last year.

So much for the thought that the SHO's new date a week before the Masters would increase viewership of the tournament. The Shell Houston Open has now officially entered the Tiger chasm.

Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (2) |

April 9, 2007

Zach Johnson wins The Masters

It's not every day that a fellow born in my hometown of Iowa City and raised in Eastern Iowa wins a professional golf tournament, much less the the Masters Golf Tournament. But Zach Johnson pulled it off in dramatic fashion on Sunday, holding up wonderfully under the enormous pressure of a draconian Augusta National Golf Course and the challenges of several other contenders, including Tiger Woods, who has now played nine consecutive rounds at The Masters without shooting in the 60's.

Despite Johnson's splendid play, the Guardian's Lawrence Donegan summed up the view of most toward the changes that have been made at Augusta National:

The stunning climax came after three days peppered with double bogeys and broken spirits. Fortunately, the gentlemen in green blazers remembered their tournament has earned its place in folklore because it has long been a byword for excitement. But there are precious few thrills to be mined from the sight of the world's best players fearfully plotting their way round the course as if walking to their own funeral party.

So when play began yesterday morning it quickly became clear everything possible had been done to bring the scoring down. Tees had been pushed forward, the greens had been heavily watered and the pin positions were about as friendly as a Labrador puppy. The overnight changes had the desired effect. For the first time all week cheers echoed along the alleyways and canyons of Alister Mackenzie's classic links.

By the way, Johnson uses a pure one-plane swing, much like Ben Hogan's classic swing that defined quality ball-striking in the modern era of golf. Thus, as with last year's U.S. Open, the player with the purest one-plane swing held up the best under the intense pressure of the final round of The Masters. As usual, there is a Houston connection to the understanding and teaching of that swing.

Posted by Tom at 4:45 AM | Comments (0) |

April 8, 2007

"Turning a masterpiece into a brute"

It's the always-anticipated day of the final round of The Master's Golf Tournament, not everyone is sanguine about the fact that Stuart Appleby's one-over-par 73 on Saturday allowed him to take a one-shot lead over Tiger Woods and Justin Rose at two-over par 218, which is the third-highest round lead in the history of the Masters. The Guardian's Lawrence Donegan characterized the conditions on Friday in a fitting manner:

"As sporting drama goes, this was a bit like Laurence Olivier being acted off the stage by the grave diggers."

The description was equally applicable to Saturday as the golfers struggled to make pars, much less the birdies and eagles that have made the Masters such an exciting tournament over the years. Donegan goes on to describe the renovated course, which another sage called "a golfing Zimbabwe" earlier in the week:

There is no disguising the fact that radical changes to Augusta in recent times, coupled with the bone hard conditions of this week, have turned Alister Mackenzie's ageless masterpiece into a brute. Some, like Woods, used diplomatic language when asked for their opinions ("It's a totally different course...[with ] about 500 extra yards, a billion trees and rough ").

Lorne Rubenstein gets into the act and notes how the lengthening of the par 5 15th hole has drained the drama from the hole:

Much of the confusion is gone because the hole was lengthened last year to 530 yards from 500. Too many players lay up now, which accounts for the much quieter environment among spectators in the area. They, and the golfers, used to hold their collective breath while a ball was in the air. What was its fate? The hole has almost turned into a par-3 because the tee shot and the lay-up have become routine. The third shot matters the most now, not the second.

Finally, don't miss this Nick Seitz/Golf Digest article on the 1956 Master's, which heretofore has been known as "the toughest Master's ever." The winner of that ordeal? None other than Houstonian Jack Burke.

Posted by Tom at 4:12 AM | Comments (0) |

April 5, 2007

It's time for The Masters

The venerable Masters Golf Tournament begins this morning at that golfing Zimbabwe in Augusta, Georgia. Golf Digest's John Hawkins does his usual fine job of handicapping the field and, somewhat surprisingly, doesn't think that Tiger Woods is putting well enough at the moment to be a clear favorite for the tournament.

There have already been some interesting comments this week that reflect that the competitive juices are already peaking. Defending champion Phil Mickelson had the following response to a question during his press interview:

Q. Sticking with the green jacket theme, what did it feel like two years ago to help [Tiger Woods] put on the [The Masters green] jacket?

MICKELSON: I don't know, but I remember what it felt like last year when he put it on me. (Laughter).

Meanwhile, Arnold Palmer will kick off the tournament for the first time by hitting the ceremonial first tee shot that Ken Venturi, the late Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazan and Sam Snead used to handle for many years. Despite the fact that Arnie is no longer playing competitively, he still has a good bit of feisty competitiveness in him. The following was his response to questions during his press interview on Tuesday when asked about rival Gary Player's quest to play in more Masters tournaments than Palmer:

Q. Gary Player is going to tie your record this week for most Masters played. He's talking about breaking it next year. What are your thoughts just about that?

PALMER: Well, if he isn't embarrassed, I won't be embarrassed for him. (Laughter). [. . .]

Q. He's in pretty good shape.

PALMER: What does that mean? Are you saying I'm not in pretty good shape?

Q. Maybe he has like 30 more years left or so.

PALMER: Who gives a shit? (Laughter). If you can't win, it doesn't matter. That's s-h-i-t. (Laughter). Hey, he's my friend and I love him. I can also have fun with him, too.

And asked whether he would he do any “arm-twisting” in the future to get Jack Nicklaus, who won a record six Masters, and Gary Player, a three-time winner, to hit future ceremonial tee shots in what would be a nostalgic reunion of what was once golf’s Big Three?

“To let them join me,” Arnie replied with a chuckle, “or to tell them to stay away.”

Which brings us to the following email that my brother Mike passed along to me that was written by a fellow who viewed an advance screening of a a very special television show that CBS will air before the final round of the tournament on Easter Sunday:

This Masters Sunday will be special. I know this because it's going to begin with Arnold Palmer winning the Masters. The 1960 Masters, that is. "I wanted two generations to see what the magic was all about," said CBS golf commentator [and former Houstonian] Jim Nantz, the man who made this resurrection possible.

We'll be able to re-live the '60 Masters, one of the more exciting finishes in history, because Nantz pried the original broadcast footage loose from the Augusta National vault, went to the incredible time and expense of having it colorized, and turned it into a one-hour show that CBS will air as the lead-in to its Sunday final-round Masters coverage.

This is footage that has never been aired since its original broadcast. The best part is, it's not presented in a highlight package with talking heads. It's shown as if it was a live telecast, featuring host Jim McKay (who left CBS later to join some upstart show known as ABC's Wide World of Sports -- wonder what ever became of him?) with coverage of the last four holes.

I watched a screening of the finished product and offer this advice: Don't miss it. The 1960 Masters had it all. A classic Arnold Palmer charge and Ken Venturi's agony of defeat. The old guard -- Hogan and Snead -- and a young gun -- some amateur named Nicklaus. There was a minor rules controversy. There was an innovative new scoring system for television invented by CBS director Frank Chirkinian. And there was the great man himself, Bobby Jones, the legendary founder of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament, holding court as the host of cabin festivities.

This show is a slice of golf history and a classic piece of broadcast history. If you hate goose bumps or nostalgia, don't watch. This show, a labor of love for Nantz, is one "Wow!" after another. Here's a short list of reasons to watch:

The gaffe that almost cost Palmer the Masters. I had read about, but never before seen the incident at the 16th hole. Palmer is one stroke behind Venturi, who has already finished. At the par-3 16th, he's got a 30-foot uphill putt to a back pin placement. He chose to leave the pin in when he putted -- yeah, that was still legal then. He rolled a superb putt that was dead-center but hit the pin flush and kicked out six inches. Watching the footage, I'd rate it a 90 percent chance that without the pin, Arnie's putt is in. You can see from his reaction that he realizes his tactic backfired and just might cost him the Masters.

Arnold Palmer at 30 is a lot like Tiger Woods. He bashes the ball amazing distances and putts like a genius. At the 17th, Arnie's got a 20-foot uphill birdie putt. It looks as if he's left it short but the ball rolls out and barely topples in while announcer Jim McArthur makes a Verne Lundquist-type call: "It's up and up and up and up .. and in!" Palmer half runs, half dances to the cup to pull out the ball, like Tiger after that putt at Valhalla only without the finger-pointing. At 18, Palmer stiffs his 5-iron approach, spinning behind the hole and stopping it about five feet away. He makes the putt, of course, for the win.

More about Arnie. He is repeatedly seen puffing like a chimney with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. It looked cool in 1960, now it makes you cringe. Palmer was paired with Billy Casper, who played first from the 18th fairway and hit a shot to three feet. Before Palmer hit, Casper walked over and said something encouraging, like knock it close. Can you imagine Tiger doing that to, say, Chris DiMarco? On the green, Palmer let Casper putt out first while he walked over just off the green and -- I'm not kidding, you'll see it on the video -- spread out on the grass.

Ken Venturi comes through. Venturi makes a clutch par on the 18th to finish at five under par. When he taps in a testy two-footer, he holds his pose and pauses for a moment because he thought he had finally captured his Holy Grail, the Masters.

"Old" Ben Hogan. Hogan is seen playing to the 18th green, a pretty good shot. McKay refers to him as "old Ben Hogan" because he's the ancient age of 47. Unfortunately, CBS never shows him putting out.

Interestingly, in 1960, groups weren't paired Sunday by score. So there were six pairings behind Palmer. The next group was Sam Snead and amateur Jack Nicklaus. Snead holes a 40-foot putt from the fringe. Then Nicklaus walks by the camera and McKay introduces him to viewers as the national amateur champion from Columbus, Ohio, and says he's been told this kid "has a great future." The myth about Nicklaus always making his putt on the 18th green? He sinks an 18-footer for birdie here, too.

Pass the hedgeclippers. Augusta National looks surprisingly mangy compared to the way it's maintained now. Even on shots from the fairway, you wonder, "Didn't they mow the grass?" The areas around the bunkers were intentionally left rough and uncut, a very different look from the sharp-edged, perfectly manicured conditions today. The greens were still Bermuda grass and much, much slower.

Ken and Mr. Jones. The post-round ceremony held in the cabin is presided over by Jones and you get to enjoy his thick Southern drawl. He actually isn't bad, much less stilted than some of his predecessors who froze up on camera, like Hord Hardin and Jack Stephens. Jones calls Venturi's effort "lion-hearted" and both Palmer and Venturi get to say a few emotional words.

Six under. Chirkinian, who went on to direct 38 Masters telecasts for CBS, devised a new scoring system to keep track of what was going on in the past. Previously, the scoring was aggregate. So someone would finish at 279 and a player on the course would be said to be at 258 and you'd have to do the math in your head. Chirkinian came up with the score in relation to par -- plus or minus -- and it quickly became the game's standard. CBS also devised rudimentary graphics showing the scores.

Don't tell Ted Turner. The colorizing, which had never been done to a sports telecast before, was remarkable. I thought it would've been fine in black and white but the show opens with black and white footage and then Nantz announces the colorization and when the screen changes from gray to green and Augusta's colors come to life, it's a true goose-bump moment.

Nantz showed the telecast to Palmer and Chirkinian in December and said both men were pretty emotional watching it again. Nantz brought cameras to film Arnie's reaction and interviews the obviously choked-up Arnie at the end. In February, Nantz premiered the finished product at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Bel-Air members attended, along with Palmer and Venturi, who is recovering from heart bypass surgery. Palmer and Nantz met with reporters the next day to discuss the telecast.

"I can't tell you how important it is what Jim has done here," Palmer said. "We really had one of the great evenings of all time."

Nantz said the project came about when he was being wooed by another network. In a meeting with CBS president Les Moonves, he was asked what else he wanted. Nantz pitched him his idea about doing a show leading into the final-round Masters telecast, and what he wanted to do with the show, which was resurrect footage from Augusta National's archives. "Do it," said Moonves.

Nantz hopes to do a whole series of similar flashback shows. He kicked it off last year with a one-hour review of the 1986 Masters won by Nicklaus. Next year, he's planning to feature one of Gary Player's wins. This April, however, the spotlight belongs to Palmer. And plenty of good seats are still available.

Posted by Tom at 4:47 AM | Comments (0) |

April 4, 2007

Visiting the SHO

The Shell Houston Open concluded on Sunday with the top-rated player -- Adam Scott (3rd in the World Rankings) -- winning the tournament (final leaderboard here) by making a par on the 72nd hole even after pulling his drive into the water. The Chronicle's Steve Campbell's postscript on the tournament is here, while earlier posts on the tournament are here.

After seeing how good the Tournament Course at Redstone looked on television last Thursday afternoon, my buddy Jerry Sagehorn and I visited Redstone on Friday morning to check out the tournament and the course. In so doing, we were able to get a close-up look of what ails the local tournament and why it is unlikely ever to be more than a second tier tournament on the PGA Tour (i.e., behind the majors and the first tier tournaments such as the Players and the Memorial).

Although Redstone is impressive in several respects, the facility is located next to a housing development far away from any of the Houston area's large entertainment or commercial centers. Unlike The Woodlands -- which is one of the most beautiful areas of Houston and has luxury hotels, shops, restaurants and one of the best entertainment facilities in the Houston area to offer -- the area around Redstone is rather bland and has nominal commercial activity. Accordingly, if you go the SHO at Redstone, you go for the golf only and then leave. There is no ambiance to the area around the course.

But the area around Augusta National is no great shakes, either. So, if the golf course is appealing, then the best golfers might overlook the lack of ambiance and come to the tournament, anyway. Unfortunately, the Tournament Course is not -- and likely will never be considered -- a great golf course. That is not to suggest that the course does not have some interesting holes. The 18th hole in particular proved to be a challenging finishing hole. Moreover, the spectator viewing lines around the course are really quite good.

However, as the map below denotes, the course is really split into three separate courses. First, the 1st and 18th holes are next to each other and form a long tarmac leading to the other two parts of the course on the other side of a large and unsightly drainage ditch. Then, the 2nd through 9th holes and the 10th through 17th holes form separate loops that are not easily reached from other parts of the course. Adding to the disjointed nature of the course is that the front nine does not end at the clubhouse and the back nine does not start from the clubhouse.

Thus, the players and spectators are required to walk at least a quarter mile from the 1st green to the 2nd tee (this year, the players and caddies got a ride in a golf cart). Similarly, between the 9th green and the 10th tee, there is another long walk of at least 300 yards. And then, after trudging around the first two parts of the course, the players, caddies and spectators must trek another couple hundred yards from the 17th green to the 18th tee.

Thus, despite having some entertaining holes, good sight lines and being in top condition, the Tournament Course at Redstone is simply not an endearing golf course. That was reflected by the crowd on Friday morning, which was a fraction of the size that used to attend the tournament on Friday mornings when the tournament was played at the TPC in The Woodlands. Although the rain on Saturday morning certainly held attendance down on that day, the crowds on the weekend also did not appear on television to be as large as those that used to attend the tournament in The Woodlands. Perhaps reflecting the lower attendance, neither the HGA nor the Chronicle broadly publishes attendance figures as they used to do when the tournament was played in The Woodlands.

So, what can the SHO do to improve the experience for the players and fans? There has been some talk that Redstone is considering building a Houstonian-type resort facility on the property to attract the better golfers such as the Four Seasons Resort does in Dallas, but my sense is that the lack of surrounding amenities makes such a venture about as likely as redevelopment of the Astrodome into a resort hotel.

Can the tournament attract more than two of the top ten, eight of the top 30, and 20 of the top 60 players in the World Rankings? If Shell or Redstone pursues lucrative sponsorship deals with some of the top players in the same manner as Buick has done with Tiger Woods, then maybe those players would play the SHO in the same manner that Woods plays several Buick-sponsored tournaments. But those deals are costly and risky (some players do not stay on top for long), so I doubt that will happen. Finally, the HGA is going to have to address the knotty problem of how to move spectators and players around the long stretches of the course, which -- unless resolved -- is likely going to deter spectators from making return visits to the tournament.

Thus, my sense is that the SHO is firmly entrenched as a second tier PGA Tour event even after the HGA's prodigious investment with Redstone. That's unfortunate because Houston is a golf hotbed and has a rich golfing tradition, and the HGA is a fine charitable organization that had laid a foundation of success for the tournament over a 20 year period in The Woodands. Shell has signed on as the title sponsor of the tournament through 2012, so the next several Houston Opens are going to be key ones for the HGA. Come time to negotiate an extension of that sponsorship arrangement, will Shell have better things to do with its sponsorship dollars than to support an afterthought on the PGA Tour?

Posted by Tom at 4:41 AM | Comments (0) |

April 3, 2007

"A golfing Zimbabwe?"

The Masters Golf Tournament gets underway on Thursday and the fine Masters website is streaming video of the practice range so that we can watch the pros hit the rock pile in preparation for the tournament. And the NY Times chimes in with this profile on new Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne. Finally, Golf Digest has its typically thorough preview of the tournament here.

But the prestige of The Masters is simply a signal for Scottish golf writer John Huggan to tweak the controversial changes that have been made to the hallowed course over the past several years:

In what is nothing less than a direct and disrespectful contravention of [Augusta National course designer Alistar] Mackenzie's and [Augusta National founder Bobby] Jones' original and delightful philosophy, the Augusta National that will this week host the world's best golfers resembles nothing more than just another one-dimensional country club. Aerial photographs published in the April issue of Golf Digest graphically portray the tragedy that is the modern Augusta National. In place of what were once spacious and tightly cut fairways, rough has been grown and trees have been planted. What was once the most democratic of courses -- one that allowed every standard of player to figure out his own way of playing each hole -- has become a golfing Zimbabwe, a misguided dictatorship that has all but eliminated freedom of thought and expression.

Huggan is just getting warmed up, so read the entire article. Huggan better watch it or he will end up at the same place as CBS golf announcer Gary McCord during Master's week.

Posted by Tom at 4:33 AM | Comments (0) |

March 30, 2007

Redstone is looking good

It may not be Augusta National or even one of America's top 100 golf courses, but the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club looked pretty darn good on television yesterday during the first round of the Shell Houston Open. In fact, the aerial shots looked downright gorgeous.

Inasmuch as Redstone is not a subdivision course, there are no homes lining the fairways to detract from the overall appearance. Moreover, Redstone has bountiful trees, ponds and marshes that provide a pleasing appearance. Check out my FilmLoop Tour below of the Tournament Course that I prepared upon playing the course shortly after it opened a couple of years ago, the related blog post for which is here. Finally, the Chronicle's Steve Campbell is blogging the SHO here and the Chron's SHO page is here.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (1) |

2007 Golf Digest Top 100 Golf Courses

Every two years, Golf Digest ranks America's 100 greatest golf courses and the issuance of the list is always widely-anticipated in golf circles. Here is Ron Whitten's Ron Whitten's article on Golf Digest 2007-08 list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses (my blog post on the 2005-06 list is here), including a pdf of the entire list. The following is the top 10:

Pine Valley
Shinnecock Hills
Augusta National
Cypress Point Club
Oakmont CC
Pebble Beach Golf Links
Merion G.C. (East Course)
Winged Foot G.C. (West Course)
Seminole G.C.
Crystal Downs CC (Michigan)

Only two Texas courses made the top 100, Dallas National Golf Club at 59 and the venerable Colonial in Ft. Worth at no. 80. Given the number of extraordinary golf courses in Texas, it's surprising that only one or two makes the Golf Digest Top 100 each year. But it's hard to quibble with the vast majority of the Golf Digest selections. Here are the six new courses in the top 100, along with the designer:

Lost Dunes G.C., Bridgman, MI (Tom Doak)
Calusa Pines G.C.., Naples, FL (Michael Hurdzan/Dana Fry)
Monterey Peninsula C.C., (Shore) Pebble Beach, CA (Bob Baldock/Mike Stranz)
Tullymore G.C., Stanwood, MI (Jim Engh)
Sycamore Hills G.C., Fort Wayne, IN (Jack Nicklaus)
Kiawah Island Club (Cassique), Kiawah Island, SC (Tom Watson)

Tom Fazio -- the designer of the acclaimed Fazio Course at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands -- has 14 original designs on this year's ranking of America's Top 100.

Update: Golf course design expert and author Geoff Shackelford has more observations on the GD 100.

Posted by Tom at 4:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 26, 2007

The folly of the "resemble Augusta" approach

In the Chronicle's seemingly never-ending campaign to give the Shell Houston Open relevance, this Steve Campbell/Sunday Chronicle article reports that SHO officials are planning on setting up the Tournament Course at Redstone in a manner similar to the way that Augusta National will be set up for next week's Master's Tournament.

Except that Redstone is a flat-land course with none of Augusta National's dramatic elevation changes. And Redstone has relatively slow bermuda grass greens that contain little of the severe undulation found in many of Augusta National's lightning-fast bentgrass greens. And despite the fact that only 23 of the players playing in the SHO have qualified for and will be playing in The Master's.

Coincidentally, during Sunday afternoon's telecast of the final round of the CA Championship at Doral and just hours after the foregoing Chronicle story ran, NBC interviewer Jimmy Roberts asked Phil Mickelson why he is departing this week from his usual policy of playing in the tournament that immediately precedes a major tournament. Mickelson -- who has not played in the SHO in years -- replied that he is not playing this week because the Tournament Course at Redstone is nothing like Augusta National and Redstone's bermuda greens will do nothing to prepare him for Augusta's bentgrass greens. Mickelson's comments were a clear shot at the SHO and the PGA Tour's decision to move the tournament to a date the week before The Masters.

So much for that "resemble Augusta" approach to reinventing the SHO. Ironically, if only the Houston Golf Association and The Woodlands Corporation could have overcome their clash of egos several years ago for the good of the tournament, the SHO could be playing on a course that actually does have some of the elevation changes of Augusta National.

As with last year's tournament, only two of the top 10 players in the World Golf Ranking are playing in the SHO (Adam Scott and Padraig Harrington). Also, the highest-rated Texan -- Chad Campbell -- is again not playing in the SHO. Although only eight of the top 30 players in the world and 20 of the top 60 will be playing in the SHO, that's an improvement over last year when only four players in the top 30 and 12 of the top 60 played. In the difficult world of tournaments that have fallen into the Tiger Chasm, that passes as improvement for the SHO, which continues to suffer from the consequences of some dubious decisions.

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

March 21, 2007

One of those "unimportant" tournaments

With the following breathless description of the additional player commitments for next week's Shell Houston Open, the Chronicle continues to put the best face on an increasingly troubling situation for the local tournament:

SHO update

The Shell Houston Open fortified its field with commitments from David Howell of England (No. 19 in the world), Robert Karlsson of Sweden (No. 29), Jeev Singh of India (No. 46) and 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team member Vaughn Taylor.

The SHO has commitments from two of the world's top-10 players, Adam Scott (No. 4) and Padraig Harrington (No. 10). Among the other top-50 players who have made plans to be at the Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course next week are David Toms, K.J. Choi, Jose Maria-Olazabal, defending champion Stuart Appleby, Tim Clark, Michael Campbell, Lucas Glover, Arron Oberholser, Rory Sabbatini and Steve Stricker.

The SHO also received a commitment from a rejuvenated Rocco Mediate, a five-time winner whose second-place finish Sunday at Bay Hill was his best in 74 starts. Lee Westwood, Justin Leonard, Bernhard Langer, Charley Hoffman, Jeff Quinney and Boo Weekley also have committed.

"Fortified" its field with two two players from the top 10 of the World Rankings, only four from the top 20 and a smattering from the top 50? Leave it to longtime Tour player Brad Faxon to sum up how most Tour professionals are thinking about the Shell Houston Open these days. After failing to qualify for Doral this week and The Masters the week after the Houston Open, Faxon observed about his upcoming schedule:

"Week off, then I'll go to Houston, then another week off. I'll be playing all the unimportant tournaments," Faxon said. "I'm not mad at any anybody but myself. I knew the rules."

Shell's sponsorship deal with the Houston Open runs through 2012. But given the Tour's questionable policies toward tournaments such as the Houston Open, a course that is unfriendly to fans and neither convenient nor noteworthy for the players, and some very bad decisions by the Houston Golf Association, is Shell going to continue an expensive association with what is increasingly appearing to be an afterthought on the PGA Tour?

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

March 19, 2007

Just a quick note between friends

27 year-old PGA Tour golfer Sergio Garcia is the subject of this Golf World photoshoot and interview, in which he passes along that one of his best friends on the PGA Tour is the 26 year-old Englishman, Luke Donald.

Last year, when Donald passed Garcia in the World Golf Rankings for the first time, Garcia describes the text message that he received from Donald:

"Hi, No. 9. This is No. 8."

Posted by Tom at 4:06 AM | Comments (0) |

March 16, 2007

The epitome of class

Greg Owen is a professional golfer from England who has struggled to become a solid regular player on the PGA Tour. On Sunday of this week last year, he came to the 17th hole at Bay Hill with a one-shot lead, just two holes away from his first PGA Tour championship and a congratulatory handshake from the Bay Hill tournament chairman and golf icon, Arnold Palmer. Owen had never even met Palmer.

Owen's tee shot on the par-3 17th missed the green, but he chipped his second shot to 40 inches from the cup, so it appeared that he had saved par. However, he missed the putt and then proceeded to three putt the hole, missing the second putt while angrily attempting to tap it in from just inches away. The double-bogey cost him the lead and a bogey on the final hole of the tournament sealed his fate. A devastated Owen dutifully handled the post-tournament media sessions and then immediately left for his home in Orlando. His chance at a congratulatory handshake from Palmer was gone, perhaps forever.

As the newly-christened Arnold Palmer Invitational got under way yesterday at Bay Hill, Golf Digest's Steve Elling passes along the contents of a letter that Owen found in his mailbox a few days after his meltdown at last year's tournament.

March 22, 2006

Dear Greg:

Not to belabor the point, but I want you to know how I sympathize with how you have to be feeling about what happened at the end of the tournament last Sunday. In somewhat different circumstances, I've been there a time or two over the years myself.

You should try to draw some consolation that, until that happened, you had outplayed everybody in contention. There's no reason why your time to win shouldn't come further down the line.

You handled your disappointment very well afterwards and I wish you well the rest of the season.

Sincerely,

Arnold Palmer

Owen immediately framed the picture. And Arnold Palmer reaffirmed his place among the great sportsmen of our time.

Posted by Tom at 4:54 AM | Comments (0) |

March 8, 2007

Why I like golf

Mark Wilson is a 32 year-old journeyman PGA Tour player who won last weekend's Honda Classic. The victory was the first in 111 starts for Wilson, who has been to the pressure-packed PGA Tour qualifying tournament an excruciating eleven times in attempting to obtain or maintain his playing privileges on the PGA Tour. However, this Randall Mell column explains why Wilson's victory was particularly noteworthy:

Gather the children around.

They should know about Mark Wilson, because he did more than win the Honda Classic in Monday's playoff at PGA National. In the Machiavellian world of sports, where the ends increasingly justify the means, where it seems as if winning is all that matters, he broke ranks spectacularly.

That was the real story here.

In a time when we routinely worship achievement at the expense of character and integrity, he reminded us why golf's so admirably different.

He showed a commitment to doing the right thing no matter what the cost.

And a commitment to being relentlessly honest even though it made winning so much harder.

Wilson claimed his first PGA Tour victory despite calling a two-shot penalty on himself Friday, when even in golf, where respect for the rules is so integral to the game, other players might have overlooked this type of violation. It fell in such a gray area that even the rules official Wilson consulted in the second round paused uncertainly.

"If I were sitting here, and had not called it on myself, every time I looked at that trophy, it would be tarnished," Wilson said after defeating Jose Coceres, Boo Weekley and Camilo Villegas in the four-way playoff.

Wilson, 32, penalized himself two shots in Friday's second round after his caddie gave advice on club selection to a fellow competitor at the fifth tee.

News of the self-imposed penalty didn't leak out until the Golf Channel reported it Saturday night, after the third round. Wilson would have shot 64 on Friday, the low round of the tournament, and he would have been one shot behind the leaders instead of three back. But while other players would have been quick to blame a caddie — it happens all the time — Wilson kept it to himself. He never raised the issue until pressed by media. [. . .]

At the fifth hole Friday, Wilson hit his tee shot with an 18-degree hybrid. Villegas was up next at the 217-yard par three. Villegas asked his caddie, Matty Bednarski, what club he thought Wilson had hit. Bednarski said he thought it was a two- or three-iron hybrid.

"Oh, it's an 18-degree [hybrid]," Wilson's caddie, Chris Jones, told them.

That response violated Rule 8-1 of the Rules of Golf, which prohibits a player or his caddie from giving advice to anyone but each other, or a partner in match play. It's such a gray area because the rules actually permit competing players or caddies to go up and look in a fellow competitor's bag to see what club is being used.

"I played out that hole and immediately called an official over to see what he thought," said Wilson, who grew up in suburban Milwaukee and lives in suburban Chicago. "He wasn't sure at first if that was necessarily advice, but within 60 seconds, he made the decision.

"It's an important rule to me. The Rules of Golf are there to be fair to everyone. It's a tough rule. There's a lot of camaraderie among caddies and players."

Jones, 30, who has been Wilson's caddie since last season, said he was shaken when Wilson pointed out the violation.

"I heard Camilo and his caddie talking, and I just blurted it out," Jones said. "I was getting too comfortable and too friendly."

Wilson immediately confronted Jones.

"I felt so low and sick to my stomach," Jones said.

Two holes later, Wilson could see Jones was suffering, so he put his arm around him to make sure Jones knew he was forgiven.

"After the round, I broke down and couldn't hold it in," Jones said. "If we would have lost this tournament, it would have really killed me. I felt so bad about what I had done to him, our team, his wife and family."

Read the entire article. Wilson won $990,000 for his victory and will have the opportunity to play in The Masters in early April if he can remain among the top 10 money-winners this season until then. More importantly, the win gained him fully exempt status on the PGA Tour through 2009, so he gets a well-deserved reprieve from going back to the PGA Tour qualifying tournament for almost three years. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Posted by Tom at 4:11 AM | Comments (0) |

March 7, 2007

Is the Shell Houston Open entering the Tiger Chasm?

The Shell Houston Open begins playing an earlier time slot this year and, thus, is only three weeks away. In reviewing the tournament website for prospective participants, only one top 10 player in the World Rankings has committed to play in the tournament (Adam Scott, no. 4) and only one other top 20 player has committed to play (David Toms, no. 19). In fact, the tournament only has five -- count'em five -- top 30 players committed to playing Houston.

Has the Shell Houston Open fallen into the Tiger Chasm (see also here)? Or is this lack of interest in the tournament from top pros just another consequence of some really bad decisions?

Posted by Tom at 4:04 AM | Comments (0) |

February 15, 2007

The Tiger Chasm

The rumblings from the last week's decision to discontinue the popular International PGA Tour event at Castle Pines are still reverberating through the golf world, and Golf Digest's John Hawkins isn't pulling any punches:

The death of the International last week, however, was a big deal for a bunch of reasons. If no longer a marquee non-major, this was a solid mid-level tour stop in a major metropolitan market--not some CVS Charity Classic or B.C. Open. It is by far the most notable tournament loss in Tim Finchem's 13 years as commissioner. Ten months ago Denver was on the short list of potential hosts for a FedEx Cup playoff tilt. Now the Mile High City is six feet under. "Players aren't going to react well to this," says eight-year veteran Joe Ogilvie, a member of the tour's policy board. "You can't do a better job of running an event than Jack Vickers and the people at Castle Pines."[ . . .]

The International's demise is a dangerous sign as to the widening chasm between Tiger events and the non-Tigers. Never have the haves and have-nots been so easily defined or so mindlessly categorized by the presence of a single player--it's the frightening downside of Woods' competitive dictatorship. When he doubles the size of a viewing audience in a strong golf economy, the rich get richer. When he does it in lean times, the poor get really poor.

Along the same lines, ESPN.com's Bob Harig discusses the increasing risk of putting on a non-Tiger tour event:

Sponsoring a regular PGA Tour event costs in the neighborhood of $7 million per year. That money covers a portion of the purse, a television advertising commitment, a fee to the PGA Tour and to the tournament. Spread that out over the six-year length of the network contracts, and you're talking about $42 million or more.

It is a hefty price, especially given the modest television ratings. Those small numbers -- usually in the 2 million-to-3 million range for a weekend network telecast -- were always justified because they were reaching the "right" kind of people … i.e. those with disposable income. With golf, less meant more.

But as the price has kept going up, those company executives began looking at the numbers more closely. And some of them have started to say that enough is enough -- especially if Woods doesn't play.

And guess what side of that chasm the Shell Houston Open is on?

Posted by Tom at 4:29 AM | Comments (0) |

February 12, 2007

Nice commute

Phil Mickelson won his first PGA Tour event of the new season this weekend by five strokes at the Crosby at Pebble Beach (I know, I know, it's really the ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but I'm old school).

Meanwhile, Geoff Shackelford notes that Mickelson committed to playing in next weekend's event -- the Nissan Open at Riviera in L.A. -- where he will deploy a rather unique commuting strategy in regard to Southern California traffic:

After suggesting Thursday that he might, Mickelson did enter next week's Nissan Open before yesterday's deadline. He will play at Riviera for the first time since 2001.[. . .]

Mickelson said he would attempt to commute to L.A. each day from his home in Rancho Santa Fe by using his private jet, flying from Palomar Airport to Santa Monica Airport.

By the way, if you have any question that Mickelson is a good guy or that the NFL isn't particularly appreciative of its former players, read this.

Posted by Tom at 4:11 AM | Comments (0) |

February 8, 2007

The International is kaput

The International -- the idiosyncratic PGA Tour event at Castle Pines GC in Colorado that used a modified Stableford scoring system rather than the traditional stoke play format -- will shut down for good after this year's tournament, another casualty of the increasing stratification of tournaments on the PGA Tour. John Hawkins has the story.

But for the support of Shell Oil, the same thing could happen to the Houston Open, for the reasons noted here and here. The prospects for the other Texas tournaments are not all that rosy, either. PGA Tour, are you listening?

Meanwhile, Doug Ferguson reports that several cities are vying to replace the International:

The cancellation [of the International] leaves a hole in the PGA Tour schedule on July 5-8, but tour officials have been working on a contingency plan over the last month and are expected to announce a replacement by April.

The leading candidate is Washington, the largest U.S. market without a PGA Tour event. The nation's capital had a tour event since 1968, but that presumably ended when title sponsor Booz Allen bailed out last year because it was not part of the FedExCup portion of the PGA Tour schedule.

Other markets under consideration are Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Kansas City.

Posted by Tom at 4:23 AM | Comments (0) |

January 30, 2007

So, where does Bob Dylan holiday?

The same way that I would like to -- he goes to his new vacation home in the Scottish Highlands to play golf:

Bob Dylan said in one of his songs that his heart was in the Highlands. Now he has proved the point by paying more than £2 million for a secluded Edwardian mansion with a view of the hills.

The notoriously reclusive American star and his brother David have bought Aultmore House in the foothills of the Cairngorms.

The house was built at the turn of the 20th century for the millionaire owner of a department store in Moscow and has been described as one of the finest homes in the Highlands. [. . .]

Dylan is a keen golfer and plays off a 17 handicap at Malibu Country Club in California. His new home is close to the more utilitarian Abernethy golf club, where a day ticket costs just £10, but membership is never a foregone conclusion.

Jack McCool, the treasurer, said: "Mr Dylan would have to apply in writing just like everyone else and be vetted by the committee.

"If there were no objections then he would be a member after paying the membership fee, which at present is £105."

Golf at Malibu and the Highlands? Sweet.

Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (1) |

Tiger Woods, DB

Not only did Tiger Woods win his seventh straight PGA Tour event over this past weekend, but he debuted a pretty clever commercial in which he fends off a course rat from stealing his clubs on the range by nailing him in the head with a golf ball.

But frankly, the outtake below from the filming of the commercial is even better than the commercial itself. As they say in football evaluation circles -- "good closing speed."

Hat tip to Waggle Room, a solid new golf blog.

Posted by Tom at 4:09 AM | Comments (1) |

January 23, 2007

A Wie bit of a problem

Suffice it to say that former Houstonian and prominent professional golf instructor Butch Harmon won't be receiving any holiday greeting cards from the family of female golfer, Michelle Wie after the following public remarks from over the weekend:

"The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous," he says. "Michelle has regressed. She is worse now at 17 than she was at 14. To continue telling us that she is getting better by playing with the men is an insult. She says it's a learning experience. What is she learning by finishing last? It's hurting her mentally."

"She should go play with the women and dominate that competition first. But the whole Michelle Wie camp is about money. The biggest difference between Earl [Woods, the father of Tiger] and BJ [Wie, Michelle's dad] is that Earl didn't worry about money. He knew it was more important for Tiger to learn to win and then the money would take care of itself. But Michelle Wie wins nothing."

"You should invite her to the next member-guest competition at your home club and she might actually win something because what's going on now is ridiculous. And it's not good for the game of golf."

Next time, Butch, tell us what you really think and don't beat around the bush. HT Geoff Shackelford.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (1) |

January 14, 2007

Also a golf pioneer

On this eve of Martin Luther King Day, GolfObservor.com's Frank Hannigan reflects in this piece on a little-known pioneering effort of another important black man of Dr. King's era -- Willie Mays.

Although Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, Mays and Hank Aaron were the first true black superstars in baseball. To give you a snapshot of Mays' greatness, he began his career as a 20 year-old in 1951 and played until he was a 42 year-old. During that span, he only had one season (as a 42 year old in 1973) in which he generated fewer runs for his team than an average National League hitter would have created using the same number of outs as Mays ("RCAA," explained here). For his career, Mays generated an RCAA of 1008, which is 11th all-time among Major League ballplayers and second only to Mickey Mantle (who had an RCAA of 1099) among centerfielders in Major League Baseball history. A true five-tool player, Mays was also an extraordinary defensive player and a fine baserunner for most of his career. In short, anyone who knew anything about professional sports in that era knew about Willie Mays.

Mays was also an avid amateur golfer and, along with dozens of other baseball players, he had played in an off-season golf tournament in which the promoter had provided some prize money to entice the ballplayers. Under the rules of the United States Golf Association at the time, the USGA ruled that all the participants in the tournament had lost their amateur status, regardless, as Hannigan puts it, as to "whether or not they could break 100."

Mays enjoyed playing in the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach during the off-season, so losing his amateur status would have prevented him from playing in that tournament. As a result, shortly after the close of the 1972 baseball season, Mays showed up at the USGA's offices in New York to arrange to reclaim his amateur status and Hannigan was the USGA Assistant Director who helped Mays do so. In reflecting on his short meeting with Mays, Hannigan concludes by observing that even Mays probably did not realize just how much of a pioneer that he was:

Mays was soon to join the Los Altos Country Club in the San Francisco Bay area, known to be a club that was favored by professional athletes including John Brodie and Bob Rosburg.

Although there are no precise records for such matters, it was my impression at that time that no other black person in America belonged to a member-owned club. This was more than an impression since we at the USGA knew the front office managers of every golf organization in the United States. It's hard to imagine we would not have known of a black member of a private, member owned course.

So, until somebody tells me otherwise, I regard Mays as having been a pioneer. My guess is that he may not have known that.

Posted by Tom at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) |

January 11, 2007

Big money golf

Don't miss this fascinating Ron Sirak/Golf Digest article on the top 50 money-generating golfers. Julius Boros ushered in play-for-logo deals for professional golfers back in the early 1960's when he donned an Amana hat for $50 a week. I think it's safe to say that no one in their wildest dreams imagined at that time that a 17-year old female golfer (Michelle Wie) would be pulling in almost $20 million in off-course income in a single year. Imagine what she could pull down if she actually won a tournament or two.

Several other interesting tidbits:

Wie made $2 million more in off-course income than Jack Nicklaus.

Someone still paid David Duval over $4 million in off-course income?

Chad Campbell is the highest-ranking Texan at 19 with over $6.6 million in total income, but The Woodlands' K.J. Choi is gaining on him (25th at $5.7 million).

A caddie for a mid-range player in the top-50 money-earning list, who won at least once on the PGA Tour in 2006, had gross earnings of around $260,000.

This year, everyone on the PGA Tour will get a courtesy car at every tournament.

Posted by Tom at 4:28 AM | Comments (0) |

January 5, 2007

Texas' best golf course designer

The PGA Tour kicks off its season this week with the Mercedes Championship at one of the most beautiful places in the world, Kapalua on the island of Maui, Hawaii. This Lorne Rubenstein/Golf Observer article examines the work on Kapulua's Plantation Course of the golf design team of Austin's Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, who have steadily become the best design team in the golf business over the past two decades:

Coore and Crenshaw are at the top of their games. Compared to some of the big names in course architecture, they've designed relatively few courses. That's by choice. They keep their staff small, seven people just now, but, to appropriate a line often used about the late James Brown, the hardest-working man in show business until he died the end of December at 73, they might be the hardest-working men in the architecture business. Their projects are few, their commitment to each is huge, and personal.

Just about every one of the courses they've done since they met in the early 1980s is a must-play for architecture aficionados. . . . These are courses that almost uniformly are without affectation. They tend to sit low to the ground, offer multiple options for shots, include short, driveable par-fours, room to drive the ball, angles, and above all, they're fun to play. Crenshaw's two Masters wins came on an Augusta National course that hadn't yet undergone the recent revisions that added length and rough and compromised the vision that Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie laid down on the property. It's fair to say that the course provided his philosophical grounding.

By the way, Crenshaw is also an expert on golf history, which assisted him in becoming quite a good story-teller, too.

Meanwhile, the Chronicle's excellent golf writer, Steve Campbell, previews the PGA Tour season here, and uses that article to pass along the following Tiger Woods crack about the always-entertaining John Daly:

What's the career prognosis from here for fan favorite John Daly?

Bleak. Daly was 193rd on the money list last year, never cracking the top 25 in a stroke-play event. He has been down before, but now back problems are part of the equation. Given Daly's distaste for work and fitness, don't look for his talent to get him out of this mess. As Woods cracked last month at his offseason event, "Well, his back is bothering him because he's got that front to deal with."

Posted by Tom at 4:36 AM | Comments (0) |

December 12, 2006

The golfing benefits of valium

It's not golf season, but this story is too good to pass up.

This John Coomber/Northern Territory article addresses the difficulties that professional athletes have in acknowledging depression and the beneficial role that antidepressants have played in the lives of professional golfers Brett Ogle, Stuart Appleby and Steven Bowditch. It's a serious issue and one that has often been swept under the rug by the folks who promote professional sports and the athletes themselves.

However, the article ends with a funny anecdote. Five-time British Open champion Peter Thomson is quoted as saying that he never noticed depression to be a much of a factor during his playing days, though he suspected that some of his colleagues self-medicated through use of alcohol. Thomson goes on to recall that the famously volatile American golfer Tommy Bolt once tried taking sedatives to control his anger on the course:

"In 1956 (the year Thomson won his third successive British Open) Tommy started taking a drug like a kind of valium to calm him down," he said.

"When I came back to America for the 1957 season I asked him if he was still taking the tablets and whether they were doing him any good.

"'Yeah,' he said. 'I'm still three-putting but now I don't give a shit.'"

Hat tip to Geoff Shackelford for the link.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

November 22, 2006

A dream golf round

Sounds as if Jack Kendall, who owns a couple of Lexus dealerships in the Houston area, had the round of a lifetime recently at Pebble Beach Golf Club:

Kendall, 63, . . . made Pebble Beach history when he became the first golfer, amateur or professional, to ace two holes in the same round on the first nine holes of the 86-year-old course. His holes-in-one came on the par-3 5th and 7th holes.

To put this accomplishment in perspective, many very good golfers go a lifetime without ever making a hole in one. To it twice in a round is almost unheard of. To do it twice in a round while playing one of the most revered golf courses in the US? Now, that's going to be rather difficult to top.

Posted by Tom at 7:24 AM | Comments (0) |

November 13, 2006

Gearing up already for the 2008 Ryder Cup

Paul Azinger was the choice earlier in the month to be the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the 2008 matches at Valhalla in Louisville, and Golf World's John Hawkins thinks it's a great choice:

In his prime as a player, Azinger was fiery but focused, a natural leader with the talent and disposition to excel in the Ryder Cup’s high-intensity atmosphere. In his second life as a TV analyst, the 1993 PGA champion has proven to be an independent thinker whose insights and observations are accentuated with a touch of redneck bravado. Azinger has long been one of my go-to guys in my years covering the PGA Tour. He speaks from the heart, doesn’t compromise his thoughts, and he shares anecdotes. He’s a fabulous source.

But Hawkins doesn't think choosing Azinger will make much of a difference in the outcome:

You’d have thought the ’04 rout at Oakland Hills would have brought the ’06 squad together, motivating them to perform at a level close to their potential. And with Lehman in charge, there was unity and camaraderie. There just wasn’t any chemistry—it’s a component that can’t be manufactured. I hope I’m wrong, but things are likely to get worse before they get better. European squads have gotten younger and deeper, and passion has become their most valuable weapon. Azinger is the perfect man to lead the Yanks, which leads me to wonder: Are certain groups, for whatever reasons, averse to being led?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, it's good to see that the Scotsman's John Huggan is already getting the juices flowing:

Over the course of four Ryder Cups, the 46-year-old [Azinger] all but covered the playing and behavioural spectrum, from sublime to distasteful. Indeed, Azinger's whole career has been regularly blighted by doubts over his character amid accusations that his adherence to golf's rule-book is sometimes less than exemplary.

Hoo boy! Read the entire article. Then get ready to rumble.

Speaking of remarkable feats under intense pressure, Craig Kanada chipped in on each of the final two holes yesterday to win the Nationwide Championship held at the Houstonian Golf Club in the far southwest part of the Houston area and, in so doing, earning his PGA Tour card for 2007. Melanie Hauser provides this interesting story on Kanada's long quest to regain his Tour card.

Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (1) |

October 29, 2006

That lovable Elk

Houston's Steve Elkington is not only an outstanding professional golfer, but he is witty and outspoken. So, it was no real surprise that this Age article contains the following observation by the acerbic Elk from this week's Chrysler Championship at Florida's venerable Innisbrook Golf Club:

"This is just a good course, one of the better ones we play," said the battle-hardened veteran, who trailed American leader Brian Gay by three strokes at demanding Innisbrook.

"Some of the crap we play on is ridiculous. As big as the tour is, you'd think we could play some better courses."

H'mm. I wonder if "some of the crap" he is referring to is this one?

Posted by Tom at 4:24 AM | Comments (0) |

October 26, 2006

Now, this is pressure

Canadian Press golf writer Doug Ferguson sets up the Chrysler Championship that begins today at Innisbrook in Florida, a mostly forgettable affair except that it incongruously generates some of the most intense pressure of the entire PGA Tour season. It's the final full-field PGA Tour event of the year and, thus, is the last chance for Tour players to earn enough money to achieve full exempt status for next year's PGA Tour events:

This week is mostly about money. The Chrysler Championship is . . . a time for players to pay more attention to dollars and cents than birdies and bogeys. The bottom 120 spots on the money list will be determined, with significant stops down the ladder at No. 30 (Tour Championship), No. 40 (Masters invitation), No. 125 (full status next year) and No. 150 (conditional status).

The top 125 can participate in any PGA Tour event that they choose. Conditional status players -- those Tour players who finish between No. 126 and No. 150 -- comes in behind those players who earn their PGA Tour cards through the PGA Qualifying School Tournament or the Nationwide Tour. Although not as secure as fully exempt status, most conditional status players can at least get into enough events to have a shot at earning enough to get into the top 125. However, if a player finishes outside the top 150, then it's either back to the second stage of Q-school, spend the following year playing in a lot of pro-ams and begging for sponsor exemptions into tournaments, or trying to eke out a living on the Nationwide Tour.

There is also competition this week to finish in the the top 40 (to qualify for The Masters) and the top 30 (to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship tournament), but the competition for those spots is between successful players trying to become a bit more successful. On the other hand, the competition to land in either the top 125 or the top 150 is more compelling because it often involves players who are literally fighting for their livelihood. Ferguson passes along the experience of Tour veteran Paul Azinger from a couple of years ago:

In his 25 years on the PGA Tour, money and prestige are the only things that ever made Paul Azinger choke.[. . .]

Two years ago, he was No. 123 on the money list and seemingly in good shape until a bogey on his 17th hole and a three-putt bogey on his final hole that caused him to miss the cut by one shot. He screamed in disgust as he walked off the course, and the real agony set in two days later when he wound up at No. 126.

Zinger is on the brink again this season, just $22,000 ahead of the 125th player on the money list. Longtime Tour players John Cook and Mark Calcavecchia are two of the players just below the 125th place on the money list and will be among those grinding away at the tournament.

Posted by Tom at 4:04 AM | Comments (0) |

October 21, 2006

Boom-Boom, those feuding Jones boys and other fall golf notes

Yeah, I know it's football season in Texas and no other sport really matters, but I've been wanting to pass along a few interesting tidbits from the golf world.

John Hawkins reports that Fred Couples, a fan favorite in Houston from his playing days at the University of Houston, has had a rough year, including enduring a potentially dangerous blood clot in his arm a month ago;

Dallas-based Hank Haney, who has the good fortune to be Tiger Woods' current swing guru, isn't as lucky in a real estate deal;

Those golf course designing brothers -- Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Rees Jones, the latter of whom designed Houston's Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club -- conduct most of their communications between each other through their lawyers. The article notes a comment from a reporter who has tracked the brothers' careers:

Bradley Klein, who has tracked the brothers' careers as Golfweek's architecture editor, said Rees and Robert Jr., who goes by Bobby, probably began trying to one-up each other "in the crib."

"They hate each other," he said. "They are rivals in every way."

By the way, did you notice who is currently 192nd on the PGA Tour money list? Oh well, he still has the best golf picture of the year; and

Finally, In more of the Ryder Cup post-mortem (earlier posts here, here and here), Jeff Rude makes the case that the top-125 all-exempt Tour has bred complacency and mediocrity among most of the young US players:

American golf has sunk to this new low: Not only can't the country come close to winning Ryder Cups and Palmer Cups and various other containers you can drink out of, but only two U.S. players under 30 have won more than one PGA Tour title: Ben Curtis, 29, once thought of as a one-shot wonder after winning the 2003 British Open out of nowhere, has three victories, and Jonathan Byrd, 28, has two, including a B.C. Open the same week the big boys were at the British. [. . .]

Chris DiMarco has never won a tournament in golf's prime season – March through August – but has made $18.7 million in official Tour earnings. There are plenty others besides three-time winner DiMarco who haven't won many tournaments and yet have broken the bank. Consider that these four-time winners have all earned more than $13.6 million: Stewart Cink ($18.4M), Scott Verplank ($17.9M), Bob Estes ($15.5M) and Tim Herron ($13.6M). And you can win only twice and bag $14.3 million, as Jerry Kelly has proved.

Not to pick on these fine players, but the point is: One could wonder about the incentive to win, grind, dig deep and dig dirt if you can live like Jed Clampett without collecting many trophies.

Posted by Tom at 4:11 AM | Comments (0) |

October 17, 2006

Arnie's Houston farewell

I've been remiss in not mentioning Arnold Palmer's announcement this past Friday during a round in a Champion's Tour event at Houston's Augusta Pines Golf Club that the round would be his last competitive round of golf. Steve Campbell's article is here.

That Arnie would finally call it quits at a not particularly notable Houston course in a largely-ignored Champions Tour event (it's football season in Texas, you know) seemed somewhat out of place. Arnie has actually been saying good-bye for quite awhile, first at Augusta National (his final major appearance) and then at his tournament, the Bay Hill Invitational, which was his final PGA Tour event. Suffice it to say the Augusta Pines is not anywhere near as dramatic a venue as either of those courses for Arnie to bid farewell to his fellow senior golfers. Too bad that the tournament couldn't have been played a few miles south at Champions Golf Club, a venerable championship layout where Ben Hogan played his last competitive round about 40 years ago.

Palmer's impact on golf and sports is so pervasive that it is difficult to put it in perspective. Suffice to say that there would be no Tiger Woods -- at least in the larger-than-life sense that we know him -- had not Arnold Palmer literally pulled the PGA Tour by its bootstraps into the forefront of televised sporting events around the world. Heck, Arnie even created the modern sports promotion business by hiring his old college chum, the late Mark McCormack, as the first real sports agent back in the late 1950's. Scott Michaux, a columnist for AugustaChronicle.com, does as good a job as I've seen in this article (reg. req) of conveying Palmer's special nature. Noting that Palmer withdrew from his last tournament on the fourth hole, but continued to play the remainder of the round for the benefit of his fans, Michaux observes as follows:

That's what made Palmer the most beloved player in the history of golf. He was not its greatest champion and didn't possess the finest swing, but nobody before or since has ever had the charisma that Palmer holds in spades. Whether it's on the golf course, in the clubhouse or on the dance floor, Palmer oozes with the magnetism that has drawn his Army of fans for every step of the ride.

That the ride is finally over is as traumatic to his fans as it is to him. That Palmer never won a major championship in my lifetime didn't stop him from being as giant a figure to my generation as he was to his own. That it has been 18 years since I witnessed him win his last tournament at the senior Crestar Classic in Richmond, Va., hasn't made every sighting since any less thrilling.[ . . .]

Now we can only wish that Palmer will take the stage that late greats Byron Nelson, San Snead and Gene Sarazen took before him on the first tee of the Augusta National Golf Club for an honorary start to the Masters. With no other places to get a glimpse of the King, it is our last hope.

Palmer understands that no matter how awkward it might be to stand up in front of the world trying to give it that good shot, just a fix of his radiance is all we want.

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

October 4, 2006

Faldo in, Wadkins out

Three-time Masters champ and former co-lead ABC golf analyst Nick Faldo will replace Lanny Wadkins next year as the lead golf analyst on CBS (SI story here). Wadkins declined to accept a lesser role with the network and will thus play more on the Champions Tour next season, as well as see more of his family.

Peter McCleery thinks its a good move for CBS:

Faldo trades places with Lanny Wadkins, who replaced the "legendary" Ken Venturi four years ago. While I initially welcomed a change after 29 years of Kenny and his well-worn repertoire, Wadkins ultimately disappointed us. He was, quite simply, too repetitve with his own overused and unnecessary phrases, like "that is well done!" and "at this point in time," among others, all of which he should have been told to retire before they grated on so many viewers' nerves and ears.

When Wadkins joined CBS a well-versed TV person predicted there was little room for improvement there. What you saw is what you were gonna get. This is also, largely the fault of the producers and directors he worked with for not properly "coaching" their people on how to get better, something any armchair critic could have done with Wadkins.[. . .]

CBS' golf became duller with [Wadkins] as its lead voice.

McCleery also notes the rather amazing transformation of Faldo from his days as a PGA Tour player:

Faldo's hire and emergence as Mr. Golf on TV continues his amazing transformation from an aloof/loner/player who was famous for saying NOTHING to his fellow competitors before or during his rounds, making more enemies than friends along the way. Now, it's as if a totally different person has come out--funny, likable, a little unpredictable at times but rarely dull. He seems to recognize the power and value of the ole telly as few players have. He dresses very well, too.

Posted by Tom at 5:52 AM | Comments (0) |

October 3, 2006

Ryder Cup redux

Following on his earlier comments about the abysmal American Ryder Cup team's performance noted here, Golf Digest and Golf World European correspondent John Huggan is continuing to have a lot of fun at the expense of the American squad members. Among Huggan's ten ways to give the American squad a chance in the next Ryder Cup matches are the following:

5) COMPULSORY YEAR ON THE EUROPEAN TOUR

The sea of sameness that is the PGA Tour is producing - apart from Tiger and maybe Furyk - wave after wave of players who are basically indistinguishable. Yes, they can all hit good shots. But those shots are the same good shots, time after tedious time.

And why is this? Week after week, the courses in the US are presented in the same unimaginative way, making a wide range of shot-making unnecessary and, increasingly, obsolete. A year spent experiencing a wider variety of conditions, food and travel would do the likes of Zach Johnson the world of good and, by extension, help out the Ryder Cup. He might even learn some good jokes.

Then there is the amount of money involved in the PGA Tour. The American side arrived at the K Club having picked up close to $38m among them this year. Mostly for finishing tied for seventh. No wonder they, Woods apart, can't handle it when they are suddenly asked to beat someone. That's a foreign concept or, in this case, a concept embraced only by foreigners.

6) COMPULSORY MATCH-PLAY RULES/ ETIQUETTE SEMINAR FOR ALL US PLAYERS

Hey, DiMarco! Yes, this one is for you. Next time you hole a putt from 20 feet to keep a completely-meaningless match alive, let's make do without the obnoxious fist-pumping, okay? And, on the 18th, with your opponent one up and on the green for two shots and you about to play four from the edge of a lake into which you have just deposited a shiny new ball, walk over and shake hands like a proper golfer - one who has mastered simple arithmetic.

8) STOP YAKKING ON ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CAPTAINCY

Let's face it, this is a job anyone can do. Look at the captains: one team were skippered by a man who seemed to have every eventuality covered; the other side had a leader whose next coherent thought will be his first. And guess who won?

10) GIVE THE US TEAM A SIX-POINT START

Hey, at least that would keep things pretty close beyond the end of the second day.

Ouch! I don't know about you, but I really hope the 2008 American squad kicks the Euro team's ass. This is really getting old.

Posted by Tom at 4:00 AM | Comments (0) |

September 28, 2006

Ryder Cup post-mortem

John Huggan is the European correspondent for both Golf Digest and Golf World magazines, and his thoughts on the just-concluded Ryder Cup matches addresses the rather embarrassing question of whether the U.S. team has fallen so far behind the European squad that the U.S. should consider making their team "the Americas" team:

[O]ne has to wonder what Jack Nicklaus was thinking as he surveyed from afar the carnage that was America's Team. Was he musing the possibility of the hapless US side being bolstered by the likes of Canada's Mike Weir, Angel Cabrera of Argentina and Columbian Camilio Villegas in a newly constituted 'Americas' team? To even suggest such a thing can no longer be dismissed as frivolous or mere mischief making. After two successive nine-point shellackings that hardly bode well for the new world's prospects at Valhalla two years hence, it is a question that brings with it a growing legitimacy.

Then, Huggan takes off on Phil Mickelson, he of the abysmal 1-7-1 record in the past two Ryder Cup matches:

The question is simple: Is he willing to take golf even remotely seriously after the PGA Championship in August? If not, Mickelson should forfeit his place in all future US sides. That he should pitch up in Ireland not having played competitively for a month was a disgrace, an insult to his teammates and indicative of his less than enthusiastic approach to representing his country in golf's most compelling event. Instead of being on the course these past few days, the 36-year old Californian should have taken the advice offered by a wonderfully 'Irish' sign at the K Club: "Lost people should go to the information centre in the tented village."

Finally, Huggan can't resist relishing in the misfortune of golf's most visible bodyguard . . er, I mean, . . caddie, Steve Williams, who carries Tiger Woods' bag:

Finally, on a personal note, your correspondent is sure he is hardly alone in taking an enormous amount of pleasure from the delicious last day moment that saw Woods' caddie, the despicable Steve Williams, slip on a rock left of the 7th green and drop his boss's 9-iron into the drink. The only pity was that the endlessly boorish New Zealander did not do likewise.

That would have been the perfect end to a memorable week. Well done Darren [Clarke]. Well done Ireland. Get a grip America.

Meanwhile, this GolfonLine piece indicates that the off-air comments of NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller were inadvertantly picked up in the media center and in the U.S. team locker room, and apparently those comments were doozies:

While chatting off-air with his colleagues, Miller said Tiger Woods was "playing like crap" and that he hit one shot like a "cripple."

Only Miller wasn't entirely off the air.

Unbeknownst to the NBC crew, its off-air banter had actually been piped into the U.S. team's locker room (as well as the media center).

While expressing continued exasperation with the U.S. team's performance, Miller also referred to Scott Verplank as a lead weight and said that U.S. Captain Tom Lehman should have benched Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the afternoon's foursome matches, but that he didn't because Lehman was afraid to "take the heat" he would face for shelving the world's No. 1 and 3 ranked players.

The NBC team learned about the locker room feed when David Toms alerted on-course reporter Mark Rolfing. Rolfing immediately told his colleagues, and an awkward silence ensued. Miller, seemingly unfazed, then sent greetings to the U.S. team.

Within minutes, the NBC feed to the media center went silent.

Finally, Golf World's Brett Avery gives out this report card on the American Ryder Cup team members' performance, and it is not a pretty picture. My favorite is the comment on Chris DiMarco (0-3-1):

Grade: F. Go to the chalkboard and write 100 times: "I am the no. 15 player in the world and should have played like it." And when you're done, hand the chalk to Mickelson.

Posted by Tom at 5:37 AM | Comments (1) |

September 27, 2006

Byron Nelson, R.I.P.

Golf's quintessential gentleman -- Byron Nelson -- died yesterday in his home near Dallas at the age of 94. Here are the Dallas Morning News, the NY Times, and the LA Times obituaries, along with a PGATour.com timeline of Nelson's life, a list of his records, and a handy summary of his career.

Nelson -- who was affectionately known as "Lord Byron" -- was a contemporary of his fellow Texan Ben Hogan, and was more successful on the PGA Tour than Hogan during the time that Nelson played (Hogan struggled on the Tour until he perfected his swing in his mid-30's, by which time Nelson had retired). Nelson established one of the most remarkable records in sports history when he won 11 consecutive pro golf tournaments in 1945 (Dan Jenkins contends that it was actually 13 straight), a record -- similar to Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in baseball -- that will likely never be broken. Nelson won an incredible 18 tournaments that year and 52 (including five major tournaments) over his relatively short 16 year career on the Tour. He retired in 1946 from full-time competitive golf at the age of 34 after achieving his goal of earning enough money to buy a ranch in his beloved Texas.

Nelson was a kind and gentle man who remained active until his death. He set a wonderful example for all of us and represented much of what makes golf such an endearing pastime. He will be sorely missed (particularly by Dallas' PGA Tour event) for many reasons, not the least of which was his perspective on how fortunate the modern PGA Tour players are:

"I only won $182,000 in my whole life," said Nelson in a 1997 interview. "In 1937, I got fifth-place money at the British Open -- $187 -- and it cost me $3,000 to play because I had to take a one-month leave of absence from my club job to go."

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

September 25, 2006

Well, at least we were good sports

After losing the Ryder Cup over the weekend for the fifth time in the last six competitions, the United States team is certainly an easy target for criticism and the golf writers are taking dead aim:

The Houston Chronicle's golf columnist Steve Campbell channels Dan Jenkins and Jack Burke in this tongue-in-cheek column that preceded the final day's matches. Campbell follows that column with this fine article on the emotional performance of Euro team member, Darren Clarke.

Lawrence Donegan of the Guardian pretty well summed up the U.S. squad's effort:

[S]o one-sided was the contest that at times during yesterday's session of 12 singles matches it seemed the impossible was on the cards - a Ryder Cup without drama.

Scott Michaux in the Augusta Chronicle is not particularly happy (registration required) with Chris DiMarco, who contributed all of 1/2 point to the U.S. team's score during the matches:

The only thing more embarrassing than the final result was DiMarco fist-pumping his birdie on the 17th hole that extended his match with Lee Westwood. His comeback effort from five down with seven to go against a player who was ill overnight and carrying a fever on the course was meaningful only to himself. It was like doing a dance after a sack with your team trailing by seven touchdowns. Hitting two balls in the water on the 18th was his just reward.

The Golf Gazette's Ken Carpenter recommends an easy way to improve the U.S. team next time around -- ditch Phil Mickelson (1/2 point in this Ryder Cup):

If Phil Mickelson wants to “shut it down” after the PGA Championship every year, then he should give up his spot on the team and go to the beach. In the last two Ryder Cups he’s 1-7-1; in the last two Presidents Cups he’s 3-5-2 — that’s an abysmal 4-12-3 record, totally unacceptable for someone annually ranked in the top three in the world. In 2008, Mickelson needs to play his way into shape prior to the event — assuming he isn’t fully retired by that point.

By the way, just to put Mickelson's Ryder Cup futility in perspective, Arnold Palmer was 22-8-2, Jack Nicklaus 17-8-3 and Lee Trevino 17-7-6 in Ryder Cup competition.

Martin Johnson of the Daily Telegraph describes the victory toast of European captain Ian Woosnam, a fellow who has been known to knock back a few:

After spending months practising his speeches in front of the bedroom mirror, one of golf's great bon viveurs had promised himself a small libation at the end of it all, but we didn't think this would involve an attempt to down an entire jeroboam of champagne in one herculean swig. The end result was a blowback of such Vesuvian proportions that the eruption of escaping champagne flew out of every visible orifice bar Woosie's ears.

And the Chicago Tribune's Ed Sherman projects the U.S. roster for the 2012 matches at the Chicago-area course Medinah, and includes the following jab:

Michelle Wie: She couldn't do any worse than her predecessors.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (4) |

September 19, 2006

Why aren't the U.S. teams winning the Ryder Cup?

Damon Hack of the NY Times reports on the boys' road trip of the U.S. Ryder Cup team a couple of weeks ago "to bond" before this week's matches (and to try and figure out why the U.S. has gotten creamed four out of the last five matches). However, as Hack (what a great name for a golf writer!) notes in the article, Houston's Jack Burke, a former Ryder Cup member and one of Hal Sutton's assistant captains on the U.S. Ryder Cup that got scorched two years ago, suggested in his recent book It’s Only a Game that the reason the U.S squad is getting beaten so regularly is really quite simple -- the U.S. team members have made so much money through the years that they have become soft.

In this GolfforWoman.com article, Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins expands on Burke's thought in explaining why so many PGA Tour sponsors want Michelle Wie to play in their tournament:

As a sponsor, the tour says, it's okay if I sell tickets, but my main job is to help 200 guys I've never heard of make a lot of money. They need to make all this money so they can live in one of those tract mansions, probably on the water hole of a golf course in a gated community where it'll be safe to let their urchins run loose and annoy people.

Near as I can tell, they deserve to be rich because they know how to hit a golf ball. Doesn't matter that they've never read a book that didn't have a cure for the slice in it, and they resist thinking about anything beyond the next Marriott.

I'm talking about a guy like--I've looked it up--one of the 47 PGA Tour players who made more than a million bucks in prize money last year, although he didn't win a golf tournament.

Or like one of the 10 guys out there who won more than two million dollars last year but didn't win a tournament.

Did you hear me? Ten guys go squat, diddly, Circle O Ranch, the Big Empty, but they're allowed to scoop two mil.

Is this a great country or what?--as people used to say before the saying got worn out.

Some people might want to come back in the next life as Chris DiMarco. Here's a guy who clipped the sponsors for a little more than $3.5 million last year while not winning a golf tournament. Uh-huh. Three point five and oh-for-trophy.

You might wonder how many fans he lured into the 24 tournaments he entered in 2005 while he was not winning but banking all that coin. My educated guess is none. His wife would be a comp, as would the two Florida Gators pals who might happen to be in town.

Nothing against DiMarco, a perfectly charming fellow and capable golfer. It's the system. Tyranny from the bottom. That's what I've been calling it for years. DiMarco and those other winless guys are merely taking advantage of it. The fact is, Phil and Tiger are the only golfers who sell tickets these days. The spectacle sells the rest. The tournament comes to town, and it's a social event, a happening, a picnic, a kegger, a few days loafing around on the rich guy's lawn.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (2) |

September 17, 2006

A Houstonian is the top CEO-golfer

Houston has a rich tradition in both golf and business, so it's no surprise that a Houston resident has been named the best CEO-golfer by Golf Digest magazine. In its October print edition (no web link available), Golf Digest rates the top 200 CEO-golfers of all the Fortune 1000 companies and Jim Crane, CEO of Houston-based air freight and logistics company, EGL ("Eagle Global Logistics"), comes away with the no. 1 rating. As the article notes:

Crane, who grew up caddieing at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, gratefully recalls getting to play for free on caddie day. Price isn't an issue for him now. With homes in Houston, Nantucket and Pebble Beach, and with 400 offices in locations from Shanghai to Istanbul to Santiago, he admits to having two identical sets of clubs -- one that he keeps in Houston, where he plays near his office at Lochinvar Golf Club, and the other -- "Oh, this will sound bad," he says, "but it's a personal one, not the company's" -- on his plane. "It makes it easy to get from Point A to Point B," he says.

When working at his London office, Crane stays at Queenswood . . . because it's convenient, and he can sometimes hit balls after work. Even though Crane enjoys tournaments and plays in many fund-raisers, more of his golf is business than social. "If you can't close in four hours, you can't sell," he says of opportunites offered by the game.

Posted by Tom at 8:06 AM | Comments (1) |

September 15, 2006

More gripping for the Ryder Cup matches

As noted here earlier, there is something about the upcoming Ryder Cup matches next week in Ireland (perhaps that the American squad has lost four of the last five matches?) that provokes some entertaining reactions.

In this IdahoStatesman.com article, NBC golf color man and former PGA Tour player Johnny Miller rips the American Ryder Cup team:

"This is probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we've ever fielded," Miller said during [a] press conference . . .

Miller also expressed reservations about captain Tom Lehman, who will decide how to use his 12 players. He will create four two-man teams for each of the first four rounds.

Miller says it's imperative that Lehman pair Tiger Woods with Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson with Chris DiMarco, because those pairings have worked in the past.

That could leave the team's inexperienced players, including four Ryder Cup rookies, paired together.

"I believe if he divides those up we're going to get creamed," Miller said of the Woods-Furyk and Mickelson-DiMarco teams. "I'm really concerned that Lehman uses the theory that we've got to use a good player with a not-so-experienced player." [. . .]

Miller, a former Ryder Cup player, will call the action for NBC.

"It's going to be tough to win with the team (Europe has) got," he said.

I don't think Miller will be the one pursuing interviews from the American squad members for NBC during the matches. Meanwhile, this blog post of senior GolfWorld writer John Hawkins, an excellent golfer himself, provides a more balanced analysis of the American squad's prospects.

And just to make sure that the gripping regarding the matches is taking place on both sides of the Atlantic, former three-time European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher heaped additional criticism (see previous post here) on current Euro team captain Ian Woosnam for failing to tell Euro captain's choice Lee Westwood that he was on the team before Woosnam made his decision to select him public and said that Woosnam had taken "a massive gamble" by selecting Irishman Darren Clarke, whose wife died last month after a long battle with cancer.

Finally, check out Nike's new commercial below touting Michelle Wie's ability to compete against male professional golfers. H'mm, note to Nike -- image really isn't everything!

Posted by Tom at 5:49 AM | Comments (2) |

September 5, 2006

It's football season, so let's talk golf

The start of the college football season over the Labor Day weekend tends to overwhelm all other sports news, but it's hard to overlook the fact that Tiger Woods shot a 63 yesterday to win his fifth straight golf tournament, a streak that includes two major championships. Doug Ferguson puts it in perspective:

Byron Nelson won 11 straight tournaments in 1945, a streak regarded as one of the most untouchable in sports. Woods won six straight at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, and Ben Hogan won six in a row in 1948.

Woods now takes a week off before heading to England for the HSBC World Match Play Championship, followed by the Ryder Cup. His next PGA Tour start will be the American Express Championship outside London at the end of September.

He still isn’t even halfway home to Nelson’s hallowed mark, but he surpassed Lord Byron in one category with his 53rd victory, moving into fifth place alone on the career list. Woods, who finished at 16-under 268, won for the seventh time this year. No other player has won more than twice.

By the way, only Hogan has had a streak similar to Woods' current one where more than one major was involved. Hogan won four straight in 1953, including three majors.

Meanwhile, European Ryder Cup team captain Ian Woosnam finalized the European team over the weekend by picking Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and Lee Westwood of England as his captain's picks (see PGATour.com overview of the Euro squad here). Those selections prompted the following outburst from Sweden's Thomas Björn, who labeled Woosnam the worst Ryder Cup captain ever:

“So far his captaincy has been the most pathetic I have ever seen,” Björn said. “I haven’t spoken to him for six months and now I find that I’m not in the team watching television. How can that be right? He has put a lot of players through misery because he just hasn’t done the right thing.

“I have nothing against Lee Westwood. But if you can find one category in which he has beaten me then I would like to see it. I have played better than him in the qualifying phase — and then Woosnam bases his decision on results which are more than five years old. I don’t understand the way he is handling the whole situation. It doesn’t look like he is burdened by leadership qualities.

“He came into the bar at the hotel and gave me 20 seconds about Lee having won twice at the K Club. In a bar — that kind of sums it up. He can’t walk up to me, tell me in 20 seconds and expect me to be happy. I’m very disappointed. I think he’s been very poor in the way he’s handled the players.”

Woosnam cited Westwood’s two victories at the K Club as being among the factors that influenced him, leaving unsaid that Björn ran up an 11 on the 17th in the final round of last year’s Smurfit European Open when he had begun the day four strokes clear of the field.

“If that’s what it’s come down to then why didn’t he tell me I don’t think you’ve got the bottle to stand on the 17th tee?” Björn asked. “Yes, Lee’s won twice there. But Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros won at Augusta and I don’t think they’d be picked if this Ryder Cup was being played there.

“Woosie played with me when I finished second at the K Club (in 2001) by finishing three-four-three (an eagle and two birdies). So I’ve had good experiences there, too. But if it’s come down to one bad one then why didn’t he tell me?”

And just for good measure, Woosnam can't understand why former Euro Ryder Cup team captain Bernhard Langer is advising his friend -- current US team captain Tom Lehman -- on the upcoming matches, while Langer can't understand why Woosnam hasn't bothered calling him for advice.

This Ryder Cup is serious business, eh? ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:37 AM | Comments (0) |

August 25, 2006

Gripping already for the Ryder Cup

The United States has lost four out of the last five Ryder Cup competitions, so it's not particularly surprising that some U.S. golf fans are viewing the 2006 Ryder Cup competition next month at the K Club in Ireland with some trepidation. However, former Houstonian and noted teaching professional Butch Harmon is already gripping particularly hard in anticipation of the competition, and Brett Wetterich -- who will be playing in his first Ryder Cup competition for the American team -- is the target of Harmon's nervousness:

Brett Wetterich, who squeezed into the US Ryder Cup team in the last available qualifying spot, will have to greatly improve his attitude at next month's Ryder Cup match at the K Club.

At least that's the way widely-respected US swing coach and Sky Sports analyst Butch Harmon sees it.

Harmon told Sky Sports he was "appalled" by what he saw on day two at the 9th hole at last week's PGA Championship where Wetterich, destined to miss the cut by nine shots after shooting a 2nd-round 77, took four shots to get out of some greenside rough.

Harmon says he was infuriated by Wetterich's attitude.

"I was appalled by what I saw with Brett Wetterich," he told Sky Sports. [. . .]

"This isn't the kind of guy you want on your Ryder Cup team," Harmon said of Wetterich.

H'mm. I guess Wetterich will at least have something to talk about with Tiger Woods during the Ryder Cup competition.

Meanwhile, Rick Reilly at Sports Illustrated.com weighs in with this article ($) in which he predicts another disaster for the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team:

Have you seen the U.S. team? It has all the intimidation power of the Liechtenstein navy. It would have a hard time beating the Winnetka Country Club ladies' B team. It's the single worst squad we've ever taken to a Ryder Cup, and that's saying something, considering the last batch got pummeled 18.5 - 9.5. . . .

This outfit would be the underdog to a stiff breeze. Or do Brett Wetterich, Zach Johnson, J.J. Henry and Vaughn Taylor make your timbers shiver? It sounds like somebody's Webelos troop. None of those four have ever played in a Ryder Cup before. Three of them missed the cut at last week's PGA, and Henry finished 41st.

Wetterich has missed five cuts in his last eight starts. You look at him and think, Was he my waiter at Olive Garden last night? If he wasn't, he will be soon.

Won't Tiger be psyched to be paired with him?

That's the other thing: Tiger. He's the No. 1 player in the world by a light year, the Golfing Gladiator. Until he goes to Ryder Cups, and then he suddenly becomes Dead Man Walking.

He mopes around like a husband in couples therapy, only he talks to his partner less. It may the only thing he sucks at. His Ryder record is 7-11-2, and no wonder. He wasn't wired for team play. He trusts nobody. Why should he buddy up with people he's been trained to swallow in two bites or less? The hangman doesn't play on the prison softball team. Lions don't room with lambs.

Sheesh! These folks need to get a grip. What many reasonably informed people often misjudge in golf and other sporting events is the substantial role of luck in determining the outcome. A good case can be made that bad luck has been the biggest factor in the American squad's failure in recent Ryder Cup competitions, as certain members of the American team simply have not been playing as well as their European counterparts at the time of the competitions. That happens to everyone in golf -- just ask British Open and PGA champ Tiger Woods, who missed the cut in this year's US Open. In a perfect world, the Ryder Cup teams would be comprised of players who were playing the best at the time of the competition, but that wouldn't be fair to the players who earned their way on to the team by playing at a consistently high level during the previous two seasons.

So, yes, this US Ryder Cup team is comprised of a relatively large percentage of first time players. But that will likely have very little to do with the success or failure of the American team. If most of the players happen to be playing better than their European counterparts during the third week of September, then the Americans will win. If not, they won't. Whether the players are well-known to the general public has nothing to do with it, and even prior Ryder Cup experience doesn't won't make much of a difference. All of these players have played under intense pressure before and the key is going to be how well they are striking the ball and putting at the time of next month's competition. My bet is that this American team will do quite well.

Posted by Tom at 5:26 AM | Comments (1) |

August 21, 2006

The PGA channels the Ryder Cup

As Tiger Woods strolled to his 12th victory in a major golf championship yesterday (second now only to Jack Nicklaus' 18 major wins), the big news out of Medinah was the confirmation of the ten players who earned a spot on this year's American Ryder Cup team, which will compete against the European team on September 22-24 at the K Club in Straffan, Ireland, about 25 miles west of Dublin:

1. Tiger Woods
2. Phil Mickelson
3. Jim Furyk
4. Chad Campbell
5. David Toms
6. Chris DiMarco
7. Vaughn Taylor
8. J.J. Henry
9. Zach Johnson
10. Brett Wetterich

American Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman will announce his two captain's choices this morning. Davis Love and Stewart Cink appear to be the likely choices, although a resurgent Corey Pavin appears to have a real chance. Meanwhile, Lawrence Donegan of the Guardian reports that European team captain Ian Woosnam has asked Ireland's Darren Clarke, whose wife died of cancer last week, to accept one of the European captain's choices and then makes the following observation about Lehman's options and the American team:

If Woosnam faces difficult decisions ahead, however, they are nothing to the selection worries of his American counterpart. Tom Lehman, who will announce his team later today, has been hidebound by a selection process that has given too much weight to victories in weaker PGA Tour events, with the upshot that many on the fringes of his team are rookies or players whose records suggest that they may be capable winning a tournament in Albuquerque but might crumble under the pressure of the Ryder Cup.

By the way, of the four American rookies who made the team (Taylor, Johnson, Henry and Wetterich), only Henry made the cut in the PGA and he played the final three rounds in 4 over to finish at even par 288 for the week, tied for 41st. The European team -- which has won the last the last two Ryder Cup competitions -- will be finalized on Sept. 3. Five European players have qualified so far -- David Howell, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson and Luke Donald, who clinched his position with a tie for third in the PGA.

Meanwhile, Woods was every bit as dominant and in control in winning the PGA as he was last month in winning the British Open, and Donegan's European perspective on Woods' performance is one of the best. Although Woods played brilliantly on the front nine, Woods put this one away from my perspective on the 11th hole when, after hitting a poor tee-shot into heavy fairway rough, Woods hammered his approach shot out of the mess to eight feet and then holed the birdie putt. Inasmuch as virtually every other competitor would have been scrambling for a par under the same circumstances, Woods' birdie signaled decisively to the field that the only competition yesterday was for second place and Ryder Cup points.

Posted by Tom at 4:31 AM | Comments (0) |

August 17, 2006

The best major?

The fourth and final major professional golf tournament of the year begins today in the western suburbs of Chicago as the PGA Championship returns to Medinah Country Club. Golf World's Tim Rosaforte provides ten reasons why the PGA is not only the most improved major golf championship, but in some ways the best. Geoff Shackelford has the scoop on Medinah.

This year's PGA Championship has the additional intrigue of the game within the game -- the competition for a spot on the US Ryder Cup team -- and that pairing for the first two rounds of Master's champ Phil Mickelson, US Open champ Geoff Ogilvy and British Open champ Tiger Woods doesn't hurt the marquee value of the tournament, either.

Finally, don't miss this entertaining Boston Globe story on Houstonian and Champions Golf Club owner Jack Burke's victory at the 1956 PGA Championship. At that very different time and during a much less lucrative stage of professional golf, Burke played 155 holes over five days to beat seven opponents (the PGA Championship was match play back in those days) and win the 38th PGA Championship. For his trouble, Burke received a check for $5,000, which turned out to be hot. By the way, the article passes along Burke's following analysis of why Woods is the top professional golfer in the world right now:

"He's the only one who understands how to play the game, how to make shots. The other guys? They're all out there plumb-bobbing the world, worrying about their launch angle and their ball speed. But Woods is like the great pool player -- he doesn't see the cue, doesn't see the ball, he just sees the whole game."

Posted by Tom at 4:52 AM | Comments (0) |

August 13, 2006

Be careful replacing that divot

Larry Dierker thinks that some of baseball's rules are absurd, but even the most arcane of baseball's rules don't hold a candle to several of golf's rules. This James Achenbach/Golf Week column describes the byzantine manner in which U.S. Golf Association officials penalized 17-year old Esther Choe of the Scottsdale, Arizona in her recent third-round match during the U.S. Women's Amateur over -- you guessed it -- a divot:

After winning her first two matches over the Witch Hollow course at Pumpkin Ridge, Choe was bidding for a third-round victory and a spot in the quarterfinal round. Suddenly and decisively, she was derailed by a divot.

A what? Yes, that's right – a divot. Choe lost the 18th hole as well as the match, against 26-year-old Katarina Schallenberg of Germany, because she replaced a divot. [. . .]

As Choe took her stance to hit a shot to the 18th green, an old dried-up divot stuck to her right shoe. She instinctively shook the divot off her shoe and replaced it in its original position. She again assumed her stance, hitting her ball onto the green.

Oh, the heavens sometimes unleash such terrible fury on the innocents among us.

USGA officials immediately surrounded Choe. They didn't beat her with sticks, or anything like that, but they did rule that she lost the 18th hole because she was guilty of improving her stance.

Whattt?

That's right – improving her stance. The official reasoning went like this: When the divot came out of its resting place, she had worsened her stance (no penalty). When she replaced it, she thus had improved her stance (from worse to better, as it were).

What Choe should have done was simply kick the divot aside without replacing it. There would have been no penalty.

However, replacing it was a violation. In match play, the penalty was loss of hole. In stroke play, it would have been two strokes.

"Well, it doesn't make much sense to me," Choe said, "but I guess I understand what they are saying. I shouldn't have put it back."

All our golfing lives, beginning when we are junior golfers, we are told to replace divots. We are told to keep the course neat and tidy. We are told that we can be a golf course superintendent's best friend.

And what happened here? Choe was penalized for doing exactly what we are always instructed to do. There is something very wrong. This rule (13-2) needs a little finetuning.

Note to my golfing buddies -- Be careful replacing those divots. I'm watching you.

Posted by Tom at 8:34 AM | Comments (0) |

August 7, 2006

Another Longhorn winner

The University of Texas has a storied golf program, and another chapter was written in that story yesterday as Sherri Steinhauer won the Women's British Open yesterday at Royal Lytham. It was Steinhauer's third Women's British Open victory, but the first since 2001 when the tournament became a major on the LPGA circuit.

Steinhauer is a native of Wisconsin who attended the University of Texas, where she was an All-American in 1985. She was the MVP of the UT women's golf team in 1983 and '85.

Posted by Tom at 7:56 AM | Comments (0) |

July 25, 2006

Where Tiger stands

The NY Times Damon Hack, who is writing some of the best articles on golf in the mainstream media, weighs in on Tiger Woods' British Open victory with this article that summarizes where Tiger stands in relation to the greatest golfers in history.

Woods, who is 30, won his 11th professional major championship (14th if you include his three straight US Amateur championships), which tied him with Walter Hagen and places him seven professional major victories behind Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. No one else stands between Woods and Nicklaus, and Nicklaus did not win his 11th professional major until he was 32.

After Nicklaus won seven professional majors by 1967, he had his biggest lull in his prime when he went the next 12 majors without a win, from the last two of '67 through the first two of 1970. Nicklaus came back to win 10 more by the end of 1980, and then added on his sixth Masters in 1986 for his 18th.

In the best stretch of his professional career, Woods won seven majors in less than three years from the 1999 P.G.A. Championship at Medinah Country Club to the 2002 United States Open at Bethpage Black. Then, Woods went 10 majors without a victory between 2002 and 2005 as he went through an extensive swing change that flattened his swing plane, but with the victory over this past weekend, Woods has now won three of the last seven majors and will enter the final major of the year -- the P.G.A. at Medinah in August -- as the odd's-on favorite again.

Posted by Tom at 5:58 AM | Comments (0) |

July 24, 2006

Something to think about before you grab the big stick

Tiger Woods' dominating performance (and here is a video of the swing that he used) in winning this year's British Open gives us hackers something to think about next time we tee it up on our home course.

Woods averaged 291 yards off the tee at Royal Liverpool, which stretches over 7,200 yards. He led the field by hitting 48 of 56 fairways while making three eagles, 19 birdies, 43 pars and seven bogeys. And nothing worse than that.

By the way, Woods accomplished this mostly by not using his driver, which he used precisely once during the entire tournament. His club of choice off most par 4's and 5's was his steady 2-iron.

Now, links golf is different from American golf in that the ball rolls farther and the need for forced carries is not as great on links courses. However, count the number of fairways you are hitting with your driver the next time you play. If it's less than 75%, then try a round without using it at all. My bet is that your score will not be much different and, if it is, it will probably be lower.

By the way, I wonder if Phil Mickelson noticed what Tiger was hitting off the tee?

Posted by Tom at 6:27 AM | Comments (1) |

July 21, 2006

Good swing thoughts

As I write this, Tiger Woods is leading by 3 strokes in the second round of the the Open Championship.

For one of the main reasons why Woods is the favorite to win the Open at the relatively defenseless Royal Liverpool Golf Club, check this out.

Sweet!

Posted by Tom at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) |

July 20, 2006

John Daly storms the Beatles hometown

The 135th edition of the British Open begins today, and the venerable tournament has returned to Liverpool -- the gritty hometown of the Beatles -- for the first time in 40 years. As you might expect, 1995 British Open champ John Daly is having quite a time (see also here) this week. The overweight, chain-smoking, beer-guzzling and problem-laden Daly turned philosophical while visiting the Cavern Club, the Liverpool pub in which the Beatles legend began:

“Music is my therapy,” Daly said. “I think for all of us it is therapy, whatever style of music you are into. If I am driving my bus, I can’t do it with no sound. The world can’t exist without music.”

The Scotsman's Alan Patullo has more here. Meanwhile, wouldn't you like to be the caddy for a day for one of the members of this twosome?

By the way, in the morning rounds, 4-under par is leading the tournament and Houstonian Steve Elkington -- who had an easier time getting into the British Open than the US Open -- had an opening round 71 (one under part). K.J. Choi of The Woodlands had an opening round 72 and Jeff Maggert -- who also lives in The Woodlands -- has not yet teed off in the first round.

Posted by Tom at 6:02 AM | Comments (0) |

July 8, 2006

The magic of Prairie Dunes

The US Senior Open (for golfers 50 years and older) is being played this week at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas, just up the road from Wichita.

Prairie Dunes is a fascinating course that is a favorite of golf course-design experts. The course sits in the windy heartland of America, but it has many characteristics of a seaside links course. Its original designer -- Perry Maxwell -- was a banker who designed some of the best golf courses in the central United States, such as Tulsa's Southern Hills. Maxwell began construction of Prairie Dunes in 1937, but the masterpiece was not completed until almost 20 years later.

Despite its somewhat isolated location, Prairie Dunes is now regularly recognized as on one of the best golf courses in the U.S. Although only a modest 6,600 yards in length, the course is holding up well in the tournament and receiving rave reviews from the participants, most of whom have never played it until this tournament. The Prairie Dunes Country Club hosts this excellent virtual review of the course, and I highly recommend that you take a moment to admire this gem of America's heartland.

Posted by Tom at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 5, 2006

Golf 101

Let's see now. Suppose you are a trustee of the Houston Community College system.

You are confronted with a chronically underfunded system that is operating in a region where golf courses are overbuilt and will do most anything to attract customers.

What would you do?

Well, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be approving the construction of a three-hole, par 3 golf facility to provide "a new and unique opportunity for residents of northeast Houston to learn or improve skills in the age-old sport of golf."

The Houston Press' Richard Connelly has the story.

Posted by Tom at 4:52 AM | Comments (0) |

June 27, 2006

And you think the Shell Houston Open has problems?

Heavy rains on the East Coast are making it difficult for the PGA Tour to complete this past weekend's Booz Allen Golf Tournament that is being played just outside Washington, D.C. on the Tournament Players Course at Avenel in Potomac, MD. But according to this Thomas Boswell/Washington Post article, the rain is the least of the tournament's problems:

Golf is the game of sportsmanship and proper manners, the sport that exemplifies respect for others. We even use it to teach values to kids, to instill the idea that conscience defines character.

So this is a week for golf -- at least the crass, ungrateful, traveling-circus PGA Tour version -- to hang its head in shame.

It's no accident that all of the world's four major championships are run by organizations other than the PGA Tour. The tour keeps pumping its own Players Championship to join the elite. But it'll never happen -- not as long as the tour humiliates itself, shows its true colors and drives itself down the scale of social respectability with disasters such as the one it is perpetrating in Washington this week.

Even a golf tournament deserves a decent burial. The funeral for the summer pro golf stop in Washington is being held at TPC Avenel this week. The PGA Tour didn't even have the decency to close the casket.

Geez, sort of makes the well-chronicled problems of the Shell Houston Open (see here, here and here) seem rather tame in comparison, eh?

By the way, given the fact that the problems with the Washington and Houston professional tournaments are not isolated, does anyone else have the feeling that the PGA Tour is heading for serious trouble?

Posted by Tom at 6:12 AM | Comments (0) |

June 26, 2006

Handling defeat

Although this NY Times article reports that Phil Mickelson is still having trouble getting over his 18th hole meltdown at last week's U.S. Open, this earlier Alan Snipnuck article gives us a taste of why Mickelson is currently one of the most popular U.S. sporting figures:

On Saturday, . . . evening [after a grueling 3rd round of the US Open], cordoned off behind the Winged Foot clubhouse, a jolly group of fans had gathered to get a glimpse of their heroes. Player after grumpy player stomped past, looking like they were trying to find a puppy to kick. None stopped to sign autographs.

At 7:30 p.m. Mickelson emerged behind the clubhouse, having endured 45 minutes of media obligations. It had already been a long, draining day. His caddie, Jim MacKay, was nursing sore feet, and had peeled off his shoes and socks to reveal shocking tan lines on his ankles. Mickelson's wife Amy was slumped against a clubhouse railing, occasionally checking her watch. The Mickelson escape car, a gray SUV, was idling nearby. But drawn by the chanting of his name, Phil jogged over to his adoring public. Not content to just scribble autographs, he began working the crowd with a giddy shtick.

A French cameraman got in Mickelson's face to record the scene, and hearing his accent, Phil said,"I love Paris. Tour d'Argent is my favorite restaurant in the world." When a fan asked Phil if he would be playing a tournament in France anytime soon, he stopped signing long enough to jiggle his ample midsection for effect. "I don't go to Paris to play golf," Mickelson said. "I go to eat. Obviously." The crowd spooned it up.

By this time, a pretty blonde had wiggled her way to the front row and was trying to engage Phil with some flirty banter. Mickelson finally asked her for her phone number . . . and then passed on the digits to a sportswriter hovering nearby, giving him a showy introduction. The scribe and the toothsome fan wound up making dinner plans on the spot, a hookup that brought smiles from the burly state troopers doing crowd control. . . . Phil signed three more, and then with a wave he jumped into his car and sped off. On the drive home he made a call to the writer on his cell phone, referring to himself as "pimp daddy" and asking for an update on the date.

On the other side of the popularity coin, this John Huggan/Scotsman article reports on why Colin Montgomerie remains one of the least popular professional golfers in the US:

There was one big difference between the other challengers and Monty, of course. While they managed to maintain the highest standard of etiquette during what turned out to be a traumatic afternoon for all concerned, the same cannot be said for our tartan hero.

Adding to his already lengthy list of crass and boorish behaviour over the years, Monty managed, in less than half an hour, to alienate the gallery around the 17th tee, make unwarranted physical contact with a New York state trooper and offend the United States Golf Association. This made three mean feats and no mean feat, if you know what I mean.

Witnessed first hand by two fellow Scots, Monty was disturbed by a child while over his drive on the 17th tee. After treating the youngster to one of his patented, prolonged glares, he missed the fairway, picked up his tee, walked a couple of paces, then - though he has since denied the following - viciously hurled the tee at his 'tormentor.' It missed, only just.

This provoked understandable outrage among many spectators. "That's why you don't get our support," yelled more than one.

The altercation with the trooper occurred as the officer escorted the Mickelson family to the 18th green for a prize-giving that Monty decided he could happily skip - hence the USGA's disappointment. At first, the incident was reported as a "shove" from Monty, later downgraded to a "collision", presumably when his agents, International Management Group, sent their spin-doctors into action. Sadly, some journalists, no matter what Monty gets up to on the course, are willing to forego their professional credibility, take on the role of apologists and downplay any controversy. It is amazing what the promise of some freelance work or a future exclusive interview will do.

Anyway, at least the now five-time runner-up in major championships did deign to stop for a brief post-round press conference, during which he admitted to "messing up". It's only a pity he was talking about that shot to the last green, and not his disgraceful treatment of an innocent child.

For Monty, growing up has always been hard to do.

Posted by Tom at 6:20 AM | Comments (0) |

June 22, 2006

The remarkable Mr. Ogilvy

Somewhat lost amidst Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie and Jim Furyk's train-wrecks at the final hole of last weekend's U.S. Open is the fact that Geoff Ogilvy, the winner of the tournament, is a quite interesting fellow and one of the rising stars on the PGA Tour.

As John Huggan observes in this excellent interview of the 29 year-old Austrailian, "Ogilvy has the potential to be just the sort of wise, high-profile spokesman the professional game needs if it is to rescue itself from the technological black hole into which it is currently headed." For example, Huggan provides the following analysis from Ogilvy on the state of the modern game:

Two important aspects of golf have gone in completely the wrong direction. Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of golf has been lost. Ben Hogan said it best. His thing was that you don't measure a good drive by how far it goes; you analyse its quality by its position relative to the next target. That doesn't exist in golf any more.

The biggest problem today is tournament organisers trying to create a winning score. When did low scores become bad? At what point did the quality of your course become dependent on its difficulty? That was when golf lost the plot. The winning score should be dictated by the weather.

The other thing is course set up. Especially in America there is too much rough and greens are way too soft. Then, when low scores become commonplace, they think how to make courses harder. So they grow even more long grass.

But that misses the point. There is no real defence against a soft green. Today's players with today's wedges can stop the ball from anywhere. The angle of attack and the shape of the shot mean nothing. It doesn't matter where you hit it as long as it is between the out of bounds stakes or between the trees. And so the game becomes a one-dimensional test of execution, time after time after time.

And, as usual in matters pertaining to golf, there is a Houston connection to Ogilvy's win at the U.S. Open. As you can see from the picture of Ogilvy's swing above, Ogilvy has what is referred to in golf swing circles as a "one-plane swing," while each of his main competitors in the U.S. Open -- Mickelson, Montgomerie and Furyk -- all use "two-plane swings" (Furyk's idiosyncratic swing might be more like six planes). As noted in this earlier post, long-time Houston golf teaching pro Jim Hardy authored a ground-breaking golf swing instructional book last year that differentiated the one plane and two plane swings and explained that key principles of the two swings are much different. Although Hardy teaches both types of swing in his book, he prefers the one-plane swing for better players because it has fewer moving parts than the two-plane swing and, thus, is less dependent on timing and more consistent under the intense pressure of tournament golf. No better example of that observation could have been provided than the final hole of last weekend's U.S. Open, where Ogilvy's swing held up brilliantly while both Mickelson and Montgomerie's swings broke down under the intense pressure of the moment.

Finally, you know that Ogilvy has finally arrived when he is the subject of David Letterman's Top Ten List "Top Ten Things That Went Through Geoff Ogilvy's Mind After Winning The U.S. Open." My favorite is no. 10: "This is one of those things you never forget, like seeing John Daly in the locker room naked."

Posted by Tom at 5:41 AM | Comments (0) |

June 19, 2006

Dan Jenkins on professional golf and growing up in Texas

Although it was mildly interesting to watch Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Colin Montgomerie's choking competition yesterday afternoon that handed the U.S. Open title to Geoff Ogilvy on an absurdly tricked-up Winged Foot Golf Club West Course, this Anthony Cotton/Denver Post interview of Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is far more entertaining. Among Jenkins' gems are the following:

Q: Do you like professional golf now?

I like the majors. I don't care about the rest of it. It's boring. If you take away Tiger (Woods) and Phil (Mickelson), there's nothing. They're the only two superstars out there right now. There's no set decoration like there used to be, no 12, or 13 or 14 guys. It's just a bunch of people you don't care about. God forbid Tiger and Phil get hit by a truck, because I don't know what they'd have left. . .

Maybe it's just me, but I'm hearing [from] other people who don't care either. That's the best thing that's happened to the LPGA. Everybody likes Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer and all of them. You've got to have glamour, you've got to have excitement in any sport. This is the worst period in (men's) golf I've ever seen, in all of the thousands of years that I've been out here. [. . .]

I hate what equipment has done to the game. I'm old-fashioned. I just think style and technique should be more important than driving it 350 yards, making a putt and "See you on the next tee." That's what the tour game has become because of equipment. It makes great old courses outdated. You can't have a U.S. Open anymore without an extra course to store all the hospitality tents. I used to be able to drive up to the clubhouse and park like the players. Now, there are seven corporate hospitality guys who have my spot and I'm on a bus.

Q: You're so closely associated now with golf, but you have done a lot of the NFL and other sports.

My favorite sport, frankly, is college football. I'm a college football junkie, even though I'm associated with golf and like golf and have played it all my life. . . Golf and football are the two things I've covered all my life and the things I grew up with. If you didn't like football growing up in Texas, they just drowned you.

Read the entire interview. By the way, while on the U.S. Open, did anyone else notice that David Duval finished 11th in the tournament? Also, as you are placing Mickelson, et al's collapses yesterday in perspective, don't miss Johnny Miller's classic Golf Digest piece on choking and this play-by-play rendition of Miller's analysis of Mickelson's decision-making over the disastrous last two holes of the tournament.

Posted by Tom at 6:26 AM | Comments (0) |

June 15, 2006

Prepping for the U.S. Open

The 2006 U.S. Open Golf Tournament begins today at New York's venerable Winged Foot Golf Club, so the following will provide you with some interesting reading while you enjoy this year's edition of golf's most challenging tournament:

This NY Times article describes how Phil Mickelson's recent success in major golf tournaments is largely the result of his team of advisors refining Mickelson's preparation for major golf tournaments;

A family of golf pros with strong connections to both Winged Foot and Houston provide helpful hints on surviving Winged Foot;

Nike is going to try and make us cry on Father's Day, which Jim Corrigan finds appalling;

Speaking of Tiger Woods, this NY Post article reports on Tiger's yacht, which he is using this week in lieu of a hotel while playing at Winged Foot, and includes Tiger's morning greeting to the gawking reporters ("It's a little early to be taking pictures out there, isn't it? Have a nice f- - -ing day.");

By the way, PGATOUR.com writers Joe Wojciechowski, Dave Shedloski and Brett Avery are following Tiger during his U.S. Open rounds and blogging about it here;

The Guardian's Lawrence Donegan reviews the brutal conditions at Winged Foot and includes this quote from Mickelson:

Phil Mickelson went as far to suggest the course was "on steroids". "I'm going to make a prediction," he added. "Someone will hit the wrong ball out of the rough this week. There are not hundreds of members' balls out there, but thousands, and you just can't see them even when you are standing over them. It is thicker and denser than any rough I have ever seen."

John Hawkins reports that some of the pros are not thrilled with the condition of Winged Foot's greens;

And, although not U.S. Open-related, don't miss this video of Fuzzy Zoeller's incredible hole-in-one a couple of weeks ago during a Champions Tour event in Des Moines.

Posted by Tom at 5:43 AM | Comments (0) |

June 8, 2006

The patriarch of Houston's First Family of Golf

In preparation for the next weekend's U.S. Open at venerable Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, Golf Digest's Bill Fields weighs in with this entertaining article on former Winged Foot head pro and former Houstonian, the late Claude Harmon (pictured on the left with his old friend, Ben Hogan). Claude -- who was a formidable PGA Tour player and teaching professional during his life -- was the father of the famous quartet of Harmon brother teaching professionals, Butch, Craig, Dick (see here also) and Billy. In addition to Claude, both Butch and the late Dick Harmon lived in Houston for a substantial part of their lives, and each of the Harmon brothers has been regularly rated among the best golf instructors in the U.S.

For the final decade of his life, Claude was the pro emeritus at Houston's Lochinvar Golf Club, where Claude's green jacket from winning the 1948 Master's Golf Tournament is still displayed prominently in the clubhouse's trophy case. As noted in Fields' article, Claude was an extraordinary golf talent who regularly beat Hogan in their daily games during the winter months in Florida and who tied for 3rd in the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the best finish by a club pro in the U.S. Open other than Horace Rawlins' victory in the first U.S. Open in 1895.

Posted by Tom at 7:26 AM | Comments (0) |

June 6, 2006

Elk tells Lakeside and the USGA to shove it

Houston's Steve Elkington failed to qualify for next week's U.S. Open Golf Tournament at New York's venerable Winged Foot Golf Club during yesterday's sectional qualifying tournament at Houston's Lakeside Country Club, but at least he went out with a splash.

As this Steve Campbell/Houston Chronicle article reports, Elk left Lakeside yesterday before even teeing it up when U.S. Golf Association officials informed him that he could not wear metal spikes on his golf shoes while playing the golf course at Lakeside, which has a local rule that players may only use soft spikes (which cause less wear and tear on the greens) on the course. Inasmuch as the PGA Tour allows its members to use either metal or soft spikes in its golf tournaments and many other golf courses that the USGA uses for its qualifying tournaments have the same rule, Elk -- who is a notorious golf traditionalist -- told the USGA officials at Lakeside that adoption of a different rule at the Lakeside qualifier was wrong and left in a huff before his 8:50 a.m. tee time, leaving the USGA officials blathering about "a rule is a rule."

Quick tip to Lakeside -- it's not going to do any damage to your greens to allow players in one golf tournament to use metal spikes. Next time, waive the friggin' local rule for the tournament.

By the way, two college players -- Ryan Baca of Baylor and Ryan Posey of Oklahoma State -- earned the two Open spots at Lakeside by shooting sturdy 6-under-par 136's over the 36 hole qualifier.

Posted by Tom at 5:24 AM | Comments (7) |

May 29, 2006

Maggert breaks through at Memphis

My neighbor in The Woodlands, Jeff Maggert, shot a 31 on the back nine yesterday of the TPC Southwind Golf Course in Memphis on his way to a final round, five-under-par 65 and his first PGA Tour win in seven years. Maggert's 72-hole winning score of 271 won the Fed Ex St. Jude's Tournament by three strokes.

Maggert is an interesting fellow. A 42 year-old graduate of Texas A&M, he has an impeccable swing, has played on three Ryder Cup teams (1995, 97, and 99) and has often been in contention in major championships over his 15 year PGA Tour career. However, his three career wins seem somewhat low for a player of his talent, although his streaky putter probably explains much of that.

He has never finished a season outside the top-125 money list during his 15 years on the Tour, but Maggert finished 106th last season and, until yesterday, appeared to be on his way to having his worst year on the Tour. For the year, he had won less than $300,000, missed the cut in his previous three tournaments and in five of the 13 tournaments that he had played in this year, and was 118th on the money list. So, yesterday's victory was particularly welcome, given that it vaulted Maggert to around $1,235,000 in winnings for the year, good for 26th on the money list. Another year, another top-125 finish for Maggert.

By the way, as the father of four teenagers, one of the things I admire most about Maggert is that he is the father of five children, several of whom are teens. He understands the importance of being around for them and his wife, so he does an excellent job of balancing his life on the Tour with his family responsibilities in The Woodlands. Thus, as the rest of the Tour players will be playing in the Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament in Ohio this coming week, Maggert will be knocking it around the local courses with his children and not missing the Tour a bit.

With those priorities, my sense is that we will continue to see Jeff Maggert's name popping up on leaderboards from time to time. Just not all the time.

Posted by Tom at 6:10 AM | Comments (0) |

May 25, 2006

The latest troubled PGA Tour event in Texas

First, it was the Shell Houston Open reeling from the consequences of some dubious decisions.

Then, a change of date and a mediocre golf course is generating concern over the future of Dallas' EDS Byron Nelson Open.

Now, this Kevin Sherrington/Dallas Morning News column (free registration required) notes that the best Tour players are turning their backs on the venerable Colonial Invitational in Ft. Worth and the tournament is losing its title sponsor to boot.

And, just to remind, San Antonio's Texas Open is played in October, smack dab in the middle of football season.

Does anyone with PGA Tour management notice or care that the Tour's Texas tournaments are quickly becoming afterthoughts?

In the meantime, this Alistair Tait column about Darren Clarke's costly example of sportsmanship at the recent Irish Open reminds us of one of the big reasons that golf is such a special game.

Posted by Tom at 4:22 AM | Comments (0) |

May 18, 2006

"I still don't believe it"

This weekend is the 60th anniversary of the Bank of America Colonial Invitational Golf Tournament in Ft. Worth, so the sponsors have invited a number of the tournament's former champions to this year's event to celebrate the venerable tournament. One of those past champions is Austin's Ben Crenshaw, who passed along a funny story about the lengendary Ben Hogan, as reported in this Steve Campbell/Chronicle article.

Hogan, of course, was one of the best ball-strikers of all-time. A self-taught player who quit school as a youth to earn money as a caddie to supplement his impoverished family's income, Hogan was a taciturn and serious man who literally outworked his competitors by refining his skills on the driving range. Hogan lived in Ft. Worth most of his life, and ended up dominating his hometown tournament during the immediate post-WW II era, winning it five times (1946, 1947, 1952, 1953 and 1959) and coming in third as a 54 year-old in his second-to-last Colonial tournament in 1967. But for developing a case of the "yips" while putting in his later years, Hogan was such an extraordinary ball-striker that he likely would have continued to win golf tournaments well into his 50's.

Crenshaw, on the other hand, was a product of the post-WW II boom in wealth in the United States. Growing up in a relatively wealthy family during the 1950's and 60's, Crenshaw developed his game on the country club circuit of Austin and then as a collegiate golfer on the University of Texas' outstanding golf teams of the early 1970's. Although Crenshaw developed into one of the best putters in PGA Tour history and was a gifted natural athlete, he was never considered a particularly good ball-striker and often struggled with his golf swing during extended periods of his career.

With that backdrop, Campbell passes along the following story about Crenshaw meeting up with Hogan for the first time at the Colonial:

"[Hogan] could just say things that would stop you in your tracks," Crenshaw said. "And the way he said it — his voice was just real authoritative. He was so emphatic about everything he said. No wasted words."

Crenshaw said he was intimidated "every time" he was in Hogan's presence. . . .Once, after a scrambling round at Colonial, Crenshaw went to Hogan's home course, Shady Oaks, to practice. Hogan was hitting some balls on the range, so Crenshaw stopped to watch.

"What did you shoot?" Hogan asked.

"Sixty-five," Crenshaw answered.

Hogan said he was about finished, that Crenshaw could hit his clubs. It didn't take long for Crenshaw to determine Hogan had "the most unhittable clubs ever." Spraying shots left and right, Crenshaw inwardly sighed with relief when his clubs arrived on the range. To Crenshaw's embarrassment, he continued to spray the ball all over the lot.

"What did you say you shot?" Hogan said.

Sheepishly, Crenshaw said he'd posted a 65.

"Well, good luck to you, fella," Hogan said, departing.

Two-time champion Lee Trevino still laughs about a champions' dinner after Crenshaw's second Colonial victory. Sitting at the dais, Hogan pointed at Crenshaw and said to Trevino in a stage whisper, "There's no way he won twice here. There's just no possible way."

Crenshaw remembers seeing Hogan get in a car — a 1956 black Cadillac limousine — after the dinner. Hogan pulled up to Crenshaw, rolled down the window, said "I still don't believe it," and departed into the night.

Crenshaw's story reminded me of my favorite Hogan story, which was passed along to me years ago by one of Hogan's close friends, the late Claude Harmon. A young pro in the mid-1950's had just worked his way on to the PGA Tour for the first time. Although the young pro idolized Hogan, he could not bring himself to introduce himself to Hogan, who was a particularly intimidating presence while working and competing at golf tournaments.

One evening during a tournament, the young pro walked into a hotel bar near the course and saw Hogan sitting alone at the bar over a drink and a smoke. The young pro finally garnered the courage to approach Hogan and introduced himself to the legendary pro. Hogan was gracious in his response, which comforted the young pro, at least temporarily.

Because the young pro was struggling with his swing at that point and he prized Hogan's views on the golf swing, he used the chance meeting to ask Hogan a quick question about his swing.

"Mr. Hogan," said the young pro. "Could you help me? I find that I'm hitting everything to the left and I don't know why." The young pro took his stance and made several practice swings while standing next to Hogan at the bar. "As you can see, It seems like I'm doing everything right in my swing, but the ball still goes left. I would really appreciate it if you could give me some advice on how I might try to correct this problem?"

Hogan took a long, last draw on his cigarette and finished off his drink. As he rose from the bar stool to leave, he turned to the young pro:

"Yeah, I've got some advice for you," responded Hogan in his no-nonsense style. "Aim right."

Posted by Tom at 4:52 AM | Comments (0) |

May 17, 2006

The Nelson Puddle

This earlier post pointed out the troubled nature of the four PGA Tour events in Texas these days and, picking up on that them, this Gary Van Sickle/SI.com article scours the Tour's latest attempt to make the rather pedestrian TPC Course at Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas a more challenging venue for Dallas' EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Commenting on the Tour's decision to install a lake on the left side of the 18th fairway of the course, Van Sickle notes:

The new hazard -- OK, it's not really big enough to be a lake, so let's call it the Nelson Puddle -- got a workout [in last week's EDS Byron Nelson Open] . . .

"The 18th hole was a pretty good hole," tournament host Byron Nelson said. "Now it's a great hole. Even if some players carry it over the water, they're still behind the trees. It's become a dogleg out to the right now."

With respect to the 94-year-old Mr. Nelson, everyone's favorite legendary golfer, the 18th is still not quite ready for its close-up. It's true, adding a water hazard has created a new element of danger. It is now a more difficult hole, yes. A great hole? Probably not. [. . .]

The reason the 18th isn't a great hole is that the water hazard, like a lot of the TPC course, looks artificial. It resembles a swoopy Las Vegas hotel pool with a fountain in the middle. Plus, not many water hazards naturally occur halfway up a hillside.

"It's a little contrived," veteran player Billy Andrade said. "It doesn't look like it fits. This course is kind of a funky layout anyway. I didn't like the look of it before, either. It doesn't change a player's strategy much. You didn't want to go left before, either."

As for the players who found the Nelson Puddle early in the tournament, he added, "Maybe they thought it was a mirage and didn't know it was there."

With the top PGA Tour players fleeing in droves from this week's Bank of America Colonial Invitational in Ft. Worth, the Texas swing of the PGA Tour continues its relentless descent into obscurity. When will Tour officials sit up and take notice?

Posted by Tom at 4:42 AM | Comments (2) |

May 8, 2006

The next troubled Texas PGA Tour event

This earlier post reviewed the problems that continue to plague the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament on the PGA Tour schedule. However, to the north of Houston, the EDS Byron Nelson Open -- which begins Thursday in Dallas -- is facing many of the same problems that the Shell Houston Open is experiencing.

Due to its current spot on the PGA Tour schedule a month or so after The Masters, "the Nelson" has generally enjoyed one of the stronger "non-major" tournament fields -- including Tiger Woods -- because most players view it as a timely tune-up for The Memorial Tournament later in the month and then the U.S. Open in June. However, Woods is not participating this year because of the death of his father last week and my sense is that Dallas -- as with Houston -- may not see Woods again for a very long time.

Not only did Woods' consecutive-cut streak on the PGA Tour end at last year's Nelson, but the Nelson is played on two mediocre courses, Cottonwood Valley (for only the first two rounds) and the TPC Four Seasons, neither of which are particularly favored tracts among PGA Tour players. Moreover, next year, when the Players Championship moves to the second week of May, the Nelson will be moved up to the final week of April, just three weeks after the Masters. Thus, the Nelson will be followed by the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte and then the Players Championship the following week.

Notwithstanding Byron Nelson's drawing power, it's not likely that Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and other top Tour players will cut their post-Masters layoff to two weeks to play in the Nelson when many of them will be playing the pre-Players tuneup the next week at Wachovia and all of them the following week at the Players. In short, the Nelson is about to begin experiencing the type of fields that the Shell Houston Open has endured over the past several years.

With San Antonio's Texas Open already relegated to an afterthought during football season in the fall, and Ft. Worth's Colonial Invitational gradually losing the best players because of the tight layout that is not conducive to the floggers, the PGA Tour better sit up and take notice -- its four tournaments in the one of nation's premier golfing states are suffering from serious neglect. How much longer will the thousands of Texans who volunteer their time to run those tournaments -- and the tens of thousands who fund them -- continue to do so in the face the subpar fields that the PGA Tour is serving up in Texas?

Posted by Tom at 5:59 AM | Comments (0) |

May 6, 2006

Promoting John Daly

Any excuse to run the outstanding picture on the left of PGA Tour golfer John Daly, eh?

Although a winner of two majors (1991 PGA and 1995 British Open) over a decade ago, Daly has won only golf tournament in the past 11 years. Nevertheless, he remains one of the most popular and colorful members of the PGA Tour. Married four times with periodic alcohol problems, a big heart and a reality television show to his credit, Daly is one of those larger-than-life characters who seem to attract many of the same folks who watch auto races in anticipation of the crashes.

This week, Daly raised more than a few eyebrows around the rather staid PGA Tour as a result of being the subject of a rather odd promotional campaign for his new autobiography, My Life In and Out of the Rough (HarperCollins 2006), which hits the stores on Monday. The promotional campaign is highlighting Daly's wild days and nights on the PGA Tour and, according to this Mike Bianchi/Orlando Sentinel review, the book is not for the fainthearted. After reading Daly's description of various sexual exploits, Bianchi notes:

It's always amazed me why Daly is so beloved among sports fans when he is 10 times more corrupt than Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds and Ricky Williams combined. I guess it pays to be a good ol' boy white golfer.

Meanwhile, most of the media coverage focused on the gambling habit that Daly claims in the book has cost him between $50 million and $60 million. Daly's gambling revelations garnered so much publicity during the week that former NBA basketball star Charles Barkley was prompted to remind folks that he, too, is a character in that he had lost $10 million or so at the gaming tables. To top it all off, Daly will be the subject of the seemingly obligatory segment during this Sunday's 60 Minutes show on CBS.

Daly's extravagant money requirements were highlighted in the following passage from this Associated Press article this week on Daly's book:

And there are times when Daly knows his priorities.

He wrote about winning the British Open at St. Andrews and facing a dilemma. Wilson and Reebok, his corporate sponsors, were on the phone with agent Bud Martin, desperate for Daly to get out to the Swilcan Bridge for a promotional picture. The sun was setting, so there was no time to spare.

But hold on -- the president was on the phone and wanted to talk to Daly.

"My first thought was ... the president of the United States wants to talk to me," Daly wrote. "But then Bud pointed out that Wilson and Reebok were putting $4 million a year in my pocket, and all Clinton was doing was taking 40 percent away."

He went to the bridge.

Count me as skeptical that Long John's claims regarding the size his gambling losses are anything more than promotional flare for his new book. By my calculations, Daly would have had to generate something in the neighborhood of $150 million over the past 15 years just to be in a position to lose that much money in the casinos. Inasmuch as Daly has grossed less than $10 million in career PGA Tour earnings, after you net out the substantial expenses of playing the PGA Tour, alimony to three ex-wifes and support for his four kids, Daly would have had to average about $10 million a year in endorsement income even to come close to having enough to gamble away $50 million of it. In Daly's best year, he has made about $7 million in off-course income and he probably has not averaged even half that much annually over the rest of his 15-year career. Despite the bulletin board-style golf shirts that he wears, his sponsors are not big-money, at least in comparison to other sponsors of top Tour players.

Thus, while I'm not doubting that Long John has thrown away a good pile of dough at the gaming tables, my sense is that $50-60 million loss figure (even if that's reduced by roughly half through his winnings, as Daly subsequently suggested) is pure fiction. Given that, I wonder how much more of Daly's autobiography is the same?

Posted by Tom at 4:33 AM | Comments (0) |

April 26, 2006

Shell Houston Open -- we have a problem

As noted in this earlier post, the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club -- the new home course of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament -- received mixed reviews from the players who played in last week's tournament, a view echoed in this GolfWeek magazine report after the tournament. However, it appears that the verdict on the new course from spectators may not even reach the level of mixed.

First, Chronicle sportswriter and columnist John Lopez noted over the weekend that some spectators were complaining to him of the inordinately long walks between the parking areas and the course entrance, and also the long hikes between the 1st hole green and the 2nd hole tee and the 17th green the 18th tee. That view was shared by a spectator who made the following comment to the Chronicle's Sports Update blog:

"The golf was fine, but the layout is very poor and too massive for a fan-friendly event. The walking distances are much too long and there is minimal multi-hole viewing. The HGA has really messed up on this venue."

But that barb was nothing compared to the scathing criticism that I received yesterday from a friend who attended the tournament over the weekend:

"I got to go to the Shell Houston Open on Friday and Sunday. What the hell is the HGA doing? That course is not PGA quality nor fan-friendly. The only holes you can watch easily are 1 and 18. Not too many folks want to make that 20 minute walk over the bayou to chase down another group on holes 2-17. I also got to watch first hand some pretty pissed-off caddies as they lugged their bags from 17 to 18. That was about a 10 minute walk. The viewing sites are sparse, no spectator mounds. No decent food pavilion. This tournament is doomed when it moves to the week before The Masters."

H'mm. Consequences of bad decisions?

Posted by Tom at 4:00 AM | Comments (2) |

April 24, 2006

Appleby wins SHO in a cakewalk

Stuart Appleby led from wire-to-wire in winning his second Shell Houston Open golf tournament Sunday at the new Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. The final leaderboard is here, local golf writer Ed Fowler's report on the tournament is here, and GolfWorld senior columnist John Hawkins' analysis of Appleby's remarkable performance is here.

Appleby lapped the rest of the SHO field as his 19-under-par performance was six shots better than second-place finisher, University of Texas alum Bob Estes. Appleby posted seven birdies in his closing round as he shot 66-67-69-67 for the tournament on the par-72, 7,500 yard Tournament Course layout. Inasmuch as the tournament was played under near-perfect weather conditions, the field scored well on the new course -- better than two thirds of the 70-player field on the final two days finished under par.

On a personal note, Houston clearly has a special place in Appleby's heart. His first win at the SHO came in 2002, about a year after his wife, Renay, had been hit by a car at the airport in London and killed. Everyone at that tournament will recall the tears in Appleby's eyes as he accepted the trophy and spoke of carrying on. He has since remarried, is now the proud father of a 1-year-old daughter and is enjoying his best season on the PGA Tour.

The verdict on the new Tournament Course -- the foundation of the SHO's effort to elevate its presence on the PGA Tour -- was decidedly mixed. The tree-lined course looked gorgeous on television and several players in the field complimented the design over the weekend. Jesper Parnevik, playing in his first Shell Houston Open, shot a 71 Sunday to shoot a one-under par 287 for the tournament, liked the course:

“I think it was very nice for a brand new golf course. There’s no funkiness about it. Very fair."

Parnevik also thinks the move to a new date next year the week before The Masters Tournament will help the SHO:

"It seems like Phil [Mickelson is] going to be here. There’s pros and cons playing the week before a major. Some guys love to play. A guy like Tiger never plays. I think it’s going to be a fairly good field. I like to play before the majors. The only thing about Atlanta is you could drive to Augusta. Now you have a 2 ½-hour flight."

That won't be much of a problem as I'm reasonably sure that the SHO will charter a flight after the tournament next year to transport those players who are playing in The Masters directly from Houston to Augusta. Second-place finisher Estes also thinks the SHO field will improve with the new date:

“Overall, it’s going to help. You’ll get a lot more foreign players. You’ll definitely have a stronger field and get more of the top players.”

A couple of other players expressed optimism that the Tournament Course will help players prepare for Augusta:

“I think it’s a nice warmup for the Masters,” said Ted Purdy. “With the big greens (here), I’m sure they’ll be in perfect condition. It’s a very similar green design, with the big undulations. It will be fun for Houston to have a lot more of the international players here. I think you’re going to have a real strong field.”

“If they can find a way to get the greens good and fast, with the undulations, I think they can draw a good field here,” said Lucas Glover. “They’ll have to find a way to get the greens fast so everyone will want to come before the Masters. This is as good a tuneup for the Masters as anything because of the iron shots, hitting it into the right areas on the greens.”

However, a couple of key players -- neither of whom played particularly well on the new course -- expressed reservations about coming back next year:

"The golf course did not grow on me," said three-time SHO winner Vijay Singh, who shot 2-under for the tournament. "Normally the more you play one, the more it grows on you. For some reason, it didn't do that. I hope they go back to the old golf course next year. I think a lot of the players feel the same way."

"Every hole is pretty similar. I wish they had used more trees instead of lakes. It's a modern golf course. It's not a bad golf course. I prefer the other one."

Asked whether he will return to the tournament next year during its new date before The Masters, Singh didn't sound enthusiastic:

"That's something to be thought about. I don't know. If we play the other golf course, I'd play."

Meanwhile, crowd favorite John Daly, who finished in the top 10 in the last three SHO tournaments, but shot 1-over par to finish 59th, also was not happy:

"Every hole is different. Every day, you've got to sit there and decide what you've got to hit off the tee. That one (the Member Course), it's driver. You know it's driver. This one, there are too many certain shots you've got to think about each tee, depending on the wind. It makes it a lot harder."

And will Daly return to play the Tournament Course again?

"Probably not. It doesn't set up for me at all."

Meanwhile, SHO tournament director Steve Timms said he heard much more positive than negative feedback about the Tournament Course during the week.

"You're not going to get a 100 percent vote of confidence."

Any changes in the course anticipated?:

"It's also 11 months away, so we'll see. Some things can change."

Any chance that one of those changes would be a move back to the old Redstone Course:?

"None at all."

Finally, kudos to the CBS Golf Television crew for their fine tribute to the late Dick Harmon during coverage of the tournament. On Saturday, CBS ran a moving segment on Dick in connection with reporting on the opening of the new Dick Harmon Learning Center at Redstone this week. CBS color commentator Lanny Wadkins, on old friend of Dick's, gave a particularly tender testimonial on his friendship with Dick and his appreciation for Dick working with Wadkins' sons on their golf games. It was a wonderful expression of admiration for a great ambassador for Houston, who is sorely missed.

Posted by Tom at 4:28 AM | Comments (0) |

April 21, 2006

Lookin' good

As noted in this earlier post, the Shell Houston Open golf tournament is taking place this week at Redstone Golf Club. Yesterday afternoon, I was able to watch a few minutes of the USA Network telecast of the first round and was particularly impressed with the overhead shots of the new Tournament Course at Redstone from the "Bloomin' Onion" -- the Outback Steakhouse Blimp.

Unlike the other courses on which the tournament has been played recently, the new Tournament Course is not a "subdivision" course -- i.e, there are no homes lining the fairways of the course. As a result, the tree-lined course with several small lakes looks much better from an aesthetic standpoint than either the other Redstone course or the TPC at The Woodlands, the two other recent venues of the tournament.

My previous post on this week's tournament is here and my review of of the new Tournament Course is here.

Posted by Tom at 6:54 AM | Comments (2) |

April 16, 2006

It's 2006 Shell Houston Open Week

This is Shell Houston Open week, and this year's tournament is a particularly interesting edition of the venerable local stop on the PGA Tour.

As noted in this earlier post, the SHO is still recovering from a series of dubious decisions and unfortunate circumstances that have combined to place the tournament well out of the elite, non-major events on the PGA Tour. In an attempt to elevate the tournament's stature, the Houston Golf Association -- the local organization that manages the event -- is putting on the tournament for the first time at its new home -- the Rees Jones-designed Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. Moreover, next season, the tournament moves to a new date on the PGA Tour schedule in the slot on the Tour schedule the weekend before the Masters Tournament, which the HGA believes will be a superior date to the current one, which is plagued by the best players taking time off after the run-up to the Masters and before the U.S. Open in June.

The field this year certainly validates the HGA's concern over the current date of the tournament. Only two players with top 10 World Golf rankings are playing -- defending champ Vijay Singh (No. 3) and David Toms (No. 7) -- and only ten others in the top 60 in the World Rankings are showing up: 2005 tournament runner-up John Daly (No. 50), No. 17 Darren Clarke, No. 30 Padraig Harrington, 1999 champion Stuart Appleby (No. 32), No. 38 Mike Weir, No. 42 K.J. Choi of The Woodlands, No. 44 Brandt Jobe, No. 47 Justin Leonard, No. 49 Greg Owen and No. 52 Lucas Glover.

Moreover, Chad Campbell (No. 14), the best Texas player on the PGA Tour this year, is not playing in his home state this week, and local favorites Steve Elkington and Fred Couples are not playing this week, Elk because of injury and Couples because, well, the SHO is not currently worth troubling with two weeks after the Masters. So, the HGA certainly has its work cut out for it over the next several years in attempting to sell the new course and the new tournament date to a currently skeptical bunch of top PGA Tour members. Although I have my doubts that the SHO will be as successful at Redstone as the HGA desires, I hope I'm wrong because Houston is a wonderful golfing community that deserves a top-flight PGA Tour event.

The following links will provide you with useful information on this year's SHO tournament, which will be televised next weekend in the afternoon by CBS and on Thursday and Friday afternoons on USA Network:

My review of the Tournament Players Course at Redstone, including a my FilmLoop photo loop and this Chonicle/Doug Pike review of the new course.

The Shell Houston Open website where you can buy and print passes to the tournament.

A good friend who will be particularly missed during this year's tournament.

The consequences of bad decisions regarding the SHO and the impact of next year's new date for the tournament.

And what would golf be in Texas without a little of Clear Thinkers favorite, Dan Jenkins.

Posted by Tom at 11:37 AM | Comments (2) |

April 8, 2006

Best Golf Picture of the Year

It simply doesn't get any better than this Augusta Gazette photo of Long John Daly catching a quick smoke while hitting balls on the Augusta National driving range before his first round Thursday at The Masters Tournament.

By the way, 31 year-old Texan Chad Campbell -- he of the Hoganesque swing and one of the best ball-strikers on Tour -- is leading The Masters by three at six under after the first two rounds. Campbell is not well-known by casual followers of professional golf, but he has quietly become an elite Tour player since joining the Tour in 2001. He soared to seventh on the Tour money list by 2003 when he finished second at the PGA Championship and won the season-ending Tour Championship by shooting an incredible 61 in the third round at Houston's Champions Golf Club. In nine tournaments this season, Campbell has one victory (the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic) and one runner-up finish, is sixth on the Tour money list and is currently 20th in the World Golf ranking. WaPo's Thomas Boswell profiles Campbell here.

For those interested in the mechanics of the golf swing, Campbell's swing is from the Ben Hogan school of the classic one-plane swing, which is fundamentally different from a two-plane swing, such as that of Daly or Fred Couples, who is currently tied for second at The Masters. As Houstonian Jim Hardy explained in his groundbreaking golf swing book The Plane Truth for Golfers (McGraw-Hill 2005) published last year, the one-plane swing is harder physically on the player, but easier to repeat consistently, while the two-plane swing is easier on the player physically, but requires more timing and hip action that is harder to repeat consistently.

Inasmuch as the swings of the contending players at the Masters are fairly evenly divided between one and two-plane swingers, It will be interesting to watch how these two fundamentally different swings hold up under the intense pressure of the weekend at Augusta National.

Meanwhile, this John Feinstein article reports on the remarkable one-under-par Masters performance through 36 holes of 54 year-old Austin native and resident, Ben Crenshaw:

[T]he Masters is frequently about memories, whether it is Jack Nicklaus charging up the leader board Sunday in 1998 at the age of 58 or Arnold Palmer simply walking up the 18th fairway to say goodbye -- on more than one occasion. For two days, it has been Crenshaw turning back the clock and conjuring up warm memories.

Posted by Tom at 8:10 AM | Comments (0) |

April 6, 2006

It's time for The Masters

The Masters golf tournament begins today and, as Brian Wacker reports, the tournament is -- as usual -- a tough ticket:

As I write this, the going rate for two badges to the second, third and fourth rounds of this year's Masters is $4,999.99 on eBay. In case you were wondering, shipping is free. Conversely, for $1,200, you can get two Trophy Club packages for the entire week at this year's U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

The following provides a good primer for the weekend:

Phil Richards of The Indianapolis Star provides this fine article on golf's most exclusive dinner -- The Masters Champions Dinner.

Brian Wacker's analysis of who's hot and who's not;

The current thinking in Las Vegas;

Gary Van Sickle's handicapping of -- and observations about -- the Masters field;

Who Golf World's Masters Performance Index model predicts will win; and

Previous posts over the past couple of years on The Masters, including a good dose of Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins.

Posted by Tom at 5:15 AM | Comments (1) |

April 2, 2006

The remarkable Jack Burke

One of things that makes Houston such an endearing place to live is the city's many characters, one of the most colorful of whom is Jack Burke, Jr., the former PGA Tour professional who retired at the age of 35 from the Tour in the late 1950's to develop and operate Houston's Champions Golf Club with his lifelong friend, the late Jimmy Demaret.

Burke -- who is now 83 years old, but looks and acts like a much younger man -- still runs Champions, which is one of Houston's one of Houston's finest golf clubs and the home club of such prominent golf swing gurus as Jim Hardy and Steve Elkington. I have had the pleasure of enjoying several lunches with Burke over the years, and they have always been highly entertaining as he holds forth with his sharp-edged and witty observations about the state of golf and its fascinating cast of characters.

Consequently, this Steve Campbell/Houston Chronicle article on the 50th anniversary of Burke's 1956 Master's Tournament victory is particularly interesting to me. Playing under the worst weather conditions in Master's Tournament history (cold with 40-50 mph wind gusts), Burke charged from nine strokes back on the final day of the tournament with a one-under-par 71 to beat by a stroke the third round leader, a 24-year old car salesman from San Francisco named Ken Venturi. Twenty-nine players — including Byron Nelson, Jimmy Demaret and Julius Boros — shot 80 or above at Augusta National that day and the Sunday scoring average of 78.261 remains the highest for the last round in Master's Tournament history. Burke's one-over-par winning score of 289 matched the highest since the Masters began in 1934.

To give you an idea of how tough Augusta National played in those conditions, Burke hit driver-wedge to the back of the par-3 4th green playing into the wind on the hole during the final round. Burke, who was one of the best putters of his time and still gives putting tips to Tour pros, promptly rolled in a 30-foot putt to save par:

"It's a downhill putt that I would lay you odds that you couldn't two-putt," Burke said. "It's 1,000-to-1 you're not going to make it. I could have putted it in the front bunker."

Venturi -- who had a habit of blaming others when he experienced a tough loss (see here and here) -- shot 80 on that final day, but suggested after the tournament that Burke's victory was tainted by Burke's playing partner and buddy Mike Souchak helping Burke out with club selection and reading greens. Venturi's allegation prompted Souchak to reply:

Souchak said he was happy to see "a close friend" win the Masters, [but] he wonders what he could have had to do with Burke's $6,000 payday. "I know I got accused of helping Jackie the last day," Souchak said. "But I shot 80 and took 42 putts. How could I help Jackie?"

The entire article is well worth reading, but I'll leave you with the following gem from Burke regarding how life has changed on the PGA Tour since Burke followed up his Master's victory with the 1956 PGA Championship:

The payoff for becoming the seventh player in history to win two majors in the same year: $5,000.

"It wasn't like you were on top of the mountain," Burke said.

Reality really set in when Burke tried to collect his PGA winnings.

"The check was hot," Burke said. "The PGA had to guarantee my check."

Posted by Tom at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) |

March 27, 2006

"Keep Up"

Stephen Ames -- you know, Tiger Woods' buddy -- won the Players Championship in a walkabout on Sunday, so the final round wasn't particularly interesting. Nevertheless, the golf tournament generated some highly entertaining moments, anyway.

During the first two rounds of the tournament, the PGA Tour paired Rory Sabbatini -- who is one of the hottest players on Tour this season -- and NBC golf color commentator and part-time Tour player, Nick Faldo.

As you may recall, Faldo and Sabbatini had a dust-up with each other last year. During the 2005 Booz Allen, Sabbatini was harshly criticized by television commentators Paul Azinger and Faldo on the air for leaving playing partner Ben Crane behind to finish the 17th hole. Sabbatini, who is one of the fastest players on Tour, was fed up with Crane’s pace of play, which is one of the slowest on Tour. Sabbatini reportedly was not pleased with Faldo and Azinger slamming him on the air, although he reportedly talked with Azinger about the incident later and made up with him. But not Faldo.

To make matters, Faldo is also a slow player himself. So, during the first round of the Players Championship, tournament officials put the Sabbatini-Faldo-Camilo Villegas group on the clock (i.e., gave them a warning before assessing a penalty to each of the players) for -- you guessed it -- slow play. The group sped up and no penalties were assessed.

Nonetheless, that incident prompted Sabbatini’s wife -- no shrinking violet herself -- to show up the next day for the second round sporting a tee shirt emblazoned with the words “Keep Up” as she followed the group around the course. Asked about Mrs. Sabbatini's t-shirt after the round, Faldo observed the following:

"I think it’s very embarrassing for them to bring their sexual problems to the golf course. Poor fellow. I thought he had enough problems as it is without her announcing them to the world."

Your serve, Mr. Sabbatini.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

March 23, 2006

The Rawls Course at Texas Tech

The notoriously flat and dusty West Texas terrain is not normally associated with outstanding golf courses, but golf course architectural expert Jay Flemma gives a hearty thumbs-up to the Tom Doak-designed Rawls Course at Texas Tech University in Lubbock:

He may not be a cowboy in the real or allegorical sense of the word, but the wild wind that is Tom Doak’s design team blew into west Texas on top of the already legendary fierce howls that blow errant golf shots to New Mexico.

It was 2002. Doak and company had just conquered the world for the first time, fresh off the smash hit at Pacific Dunes. He was a bit of a cowboy in terms of golf course design. Unapologetic about his industry raking book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, Doak talked the talk, then walked the walk, proving that the success of a golf course lies not in the money or the marketing, but the golf course itself.

Doak wrote on his website, “After Pacific Dunes, it was inevitable that the next site we had to work with would be a letdown, so we went back all the way to square one – a flat cotton field on the north end of Texas Tech’s Lubbock campus, bounded by major streets, power lines and apartment houses.”

Flemma concludes:

There is no way to overstate Doak’s accomplishment here. The land use went from the outhouse to the penthouse.

It was a roar of dust and diesel. Now it’s a shining Lone Star.

And in case you forgot, it’s Doak . . . [for the eminently reasonable price of] $35-$42 a round.

By the way, check out Flemma's idea of a tournament bracket during NCAA Basketball Tournament season.

Posted by Tom at 6:21 AM | Comments (4) |

March 22, 2006

Farewell, Ten Cups

For a number of years, my favorite driving range facility in Texas has been San Antonio's Ten Cups facility just down the road from the La Cantera Resort. Owner Dave Fineg hails Ten Cups as "maybe the finest third rate goat pasture in Bexar County" and has used the facility for years to promote his theory that golf should be an enjoyable form of recreation rather than a frustrating obsession.

Urban driving ranges such as Ten Cups are usually interim land uses, and urban encroachment is the reason for Ten Cups' demise. So, Fineg is taking his "Golf is Fun" seminars on the corporate roadshow circuit and -- if this absolutely hilarious spoof on golf club infomercials is any indication -- his new endeavor should be a big success.

Hat tip to Bogey McDuff for the links.

Posted by Tom at 5:43 AM | Comments (0) |

March 20, 2006

Has it really been 20 years?

In this LA Times article, (regis. req'd) Thomas Bonk reminds us that the upcoming Masters Tournament next month marks the 20th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus' stirring 1986 Masters victory at the age of 46. Bonk notes that much has changed in golf over those two decades:

When Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters, [Tiger] Woods was 10.

The 1986 Masters was not only his final victory at Augusta National, Nicklaus never won another PGA Tour event.

It was the end of an era, only nobody knew it yet. It's possible to view Nicklaus' monumental Masters of 20 years ago as a unique jumping-off place for professional golf, a final, startling, heart-warming salute to one generation and the start of something radically new.

Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters and nothing has been the same since. They're no longer playing the same game.

His winning check was $144,000. Woods made $1.26 million for winning the Masters last year.

In 1986, the total prize money available in PGA Tour events was $25.4 million, about $545,000 each tournament. This year, the pros are playing for a pool of $256.8 million, an average of about $5.4 million a tournament.

Greg Norman led the money list in 1986 with $653,296. That would have put him 121st on the money list in 2005, when 78 players made more than $1 million.

And Nicklaus' Masters victory in 1986 clearly represents the end of an era in more ways than money.

The two most important pieces of equipment in golf were going to take on a drastic new look.

It wasn't until 1991 that Callaway Golf revolutionized drivers with the large-headed Big Bertha, shoving into the back of the closet the flat-faced, unforgiving block of persimmon wood on a steel shaft.

And it was in 2003 when Titleist brought out its Pro V1 ball. A three-piece ball instead of a wound ball, and with a thinner cover, the Pro V1 was immediately hailed for its greater control, better feel, improved trajectory and longer flight.

The combination of driver and ball has altered golf's landscape, perhaps forever.

In 1986, Nicklaus averaged 266.4 yards off the tee. A 22-year-old Davis Love III led the driving statistics, averaging 285.7 yards and the PGA Tour average drive was 261.6 yards. The 190th and last-ranked player in driving distance this year is Brad Faxon at 260.7 yards. Love is ranked 27th in driving, averaging 299.3 yards, but 23 players are averaging more than 300 yards.

Woods, by the way, is eighth, with a 304.8-yard average. Bubba Watson is hitting it farther than anyone, averaging 320.9 yards, and the average PGA Tour pro drives the ball 289 yards — about 27 yards farther than the average pro in 1986. And Watson's lead over what Love averaged in 1986 is more than 38 yards.

Don't think these kind of numbers have been overlooked. Just check the numbers at Augusta National. In 1986 when Nicklaus won, it was listed on the scorecard he kept at 6,905 yards. In a couple of weeks, they're going to play a course that's 7,445 yards and has been lengthened for the third time in seven years.

At Whistling Straits for the 2004 PGA Championship, the layout measured 7,514 yards, the longest course ever played in a major.

Four years after Nicklaus' victory at the Masters, the U.S. Open returned to Medinah for the first time since 1975 and Hale Irwin won it, playing a course that measured 7,195 yards. It's going to play at 7,561 yards for the PGA Championship in August and the 14th hole is 605 yards. That shouldn't surprise anyone, because the 17th hole at Baltusrol for the PGA Championship last year topped out at 650 yards.

The debate will go on about whether the proper way to toughen courses because of better players and better equipment is to simply make them longer, but that's not the point here.

The fact is that they are longer because the game is very different than it was, not so long ago, about the time of Nicklaus' crowning achievement in 1986, when they were playing a different game.

Posted by Tom at 7:19 AM | Comments (2) |

February 23, 2006

"Nine and eight"

The PGA Tour is in La Jolla, California for the Accenture Match Play Championship this week, and the special format of that tournament has already produced some sparks between the competitors.

For you non-golfers, match play is different from the usual PGA tournament medal play format where the golfers simply play four rounds and the winner is the player with the lowest aggregate score. Match play, on the other hand, is similar to the normal game that golfers play in which they take on one opponent over 18 holes and the player who wins the most holes -- regardless of the respective players' aggregate score -- wins the match. Inasmuch as match play involves two players playing against each other rather than against the entire field, the format often gets the competitive juices of the participants flowing more than a regular Tour event, particularly in matches between two players who do not care for one another.

Well, one of those matches occurred yesterday, and it happened to involve the world's no. 1-rated player, Tiger Woods. Stephen Ames, a journeyman Tour player who holds the distinction of being the only Tour pro ever to emerge from Trinidad and Tobago, was pitted against Woods in a first round match, and Woods and Ames -- as they say on the Tour -- have "some issues" with each other.

Six years ago during the Masters Tournament week, just as Woods was getting ready to kick off his streak of winning four straight major tournaments, Ames allegedly characterized Woods in a newspaper article as "a spoiled 24-year-old" who considered himself "bigger than the game" (Ames claimed he was misquoted; the reporter stuck by the story). At any rate, after no one had heard much from Ames since that time, he supplemented those comments earlier this week by observing to reporters that he thought he could beat Woods in their first round match, reasoning that "anything can happen — especially where [Woods is] hitting the ball." Fellow Tour player David Toms made the following prescient observation about Ames' latest comments: "I don't know if you give the best player in the world any incentive to want to beat you."

Woods' reaction to Ames' comments? He annihilated Ames in the match, winning 9 and 8, which means that Woods won 9 out of the 10 holes that the two played. In match play, such a match is concluded after those 10 holes because Ames could not possibly have won the match even if had won the remaining 8 holes. Thus, a 9 and 8 beating in match play is the equivalent of a 50-0 skunking in a football game where the loser quits early in the 3rd quarter.

In the post-match press conference, Woods was asked whether Ames' comments had lit a fire under him:

Q. Were you aware of Stephen's comments yesterday that you weren't striking . . .

Yes.

Q. I assumed you were.

Yes.

Q. What was your reaction when you saw that?

9 & 8.

Q. Obviously you like challenges, the idea of someone saying you're not driving the ball well. It must have lit a fire under you.

You might say that.

Q. It would be better if you said it.

As I said, 9 & 8.

Posted by Tom at 4:41 AM | Comments (0) |

February 18, 2006

The remarkable Dick Harmon

Don't miss Chronicle golf writer Steve Campbell's fine article on the funeral yesterday for longtime Houston golf teaching professional, Dick Harmon, who died unexpectedly last week. As with the visitation on Thursday evening that I attended in an overflowing funeral home, the funeral was a bittersweet affair in which laughter mixed with tears as friends and family members grappled with the sudden loss of Dick's humanity, grace, dry wit and wonderful nature. He was truly a special man.

Best crack of the funeral came from brother Bill Harmon, who passed along during his eulogy a prediction that former PGA Tour pro and current CBS color commentator Lanny Wadkins made about Dick's first meeting in heaven with his late father Claude, who was a rather acerbic character at times, particularly with regard to his four sons. The subject of that predicted first meeting was brother Butch, who tutored Tiger Woods during college and his first several years on the Tour before Woods unceremoniously fired him. Inasmuch as I have had the pleasure of a personal relationship with each of Claude, Dick and Butch, I can vouch for the validity of Wadkins' prediction:

"[Wadkins] said he knew for a fact what my dad said to Dick when he saw him in heaven," Bill Harmon said. "The first thing out of his mouth was:

'How the hell did Butch screw up that Tiger deal?' "

Laughter and applause spread across the church. Butch Harmon . . . laughed as hard as anybody.

God Bless Dick Harmon and the entire Harmon Family.

Posted by Tom at 7:06 AM | Comments (0) |

February 13, 2006

Dick Harmon visitation and funeral schedule

The funeral arrangements in Houston for well-known local golf professional Dick Harmon, who died unexpectedly this past Friday, have been finalized.

A visitation for friends of Dick and the Harmon family will be held from 2:00-9:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 16 at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons (1010 Bering Drive) , and a Vigil service is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. that evening in the Jasek Chapel of the funeral home. A funeral mass will be conducted at 10 A.M. on Friday, February 17 at St. Michael's Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Road. The Houston Chronicle's electronic guest book for the Harmon famly is here.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (1) |

February 11, 2006

Dick Harmon, R.I.P.

The Houston and U.S. golfing communities are in shock this morning with the news that Dick Harmon -- one of the four brothers who are among the best golf instructors in the United States -- died unexpectedly on Friday morning from complications of pneumonia at Eisenhower Hospital in Palm Desert, California after he had been rushed to the hospital early Friday morning. Dick, who was 58 years old at the time of his death, was in Palm Springs working with current PGA Tour player, Lucas Glover.

Dick Harmon's name is synonomous with golf in Houston. His late father, Claude, was a famous teaching pro at New York's Winged Foot Golf Club and Florida's Seminole Golf Club, and Claude was the last teaching pro to win the Master's Golf Tournament (in 1948). My golf club in Houston -- Lochinvar Golf Club -- has always had a close relationship with the Harmon family and, in the final ten years of Claude's life, he was the pro emeritus at Lochinvar. Claude's green jacket from his Master's victory still hangs in a special display case in the Lochinvar clubhouse.

After Claude's death in 1991, Lochinvar attempted to hire Dick away from his longtime position at Houston's River Oaks Country Club, but when Dick declined, he recommended that the club hire his older brother, Butch Harmon. Lochinvar did so and, seemingly overnight, Butch was using the Lochinvar facilities to teach such phenomenal golfing talents as Tiger Woods (while he was still at Stanford), Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and many other top professional golfers. Before moving west several years ago to establish a golf school at a Lake Las Vegas resort, Butch parleyed his position at Lochinvar to become Golf Digest's top-ranked golf instructor in the United States.

However, as good an instructor as Butch is, many golfing enthusiasts in Houston and elsewhere considered Dick Harmon to be an even better golf teacher. Dick was the revered golf pro at River Oaks for nearly a quarter-century before leaving in 2001 to establish his own golf school at Houston's Redstone Golf Club. During that time, he tutored such extraordinary talents as Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler, Blaine McCallister, Billy Ray Brown and current PGA up-and-comer, Glover, to name just a few. For years, Dick's pro-member golf tournament at River Oaks -- held on the Monday after the Shell Houston Open -- would often attract more prominent professional golfers than the Houston Open.

As noted above, Dick and Butch are two of four Harmon brothers who are among the best golf teachers in the United States. Craig Harmon is the long-time head pro at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., site of the 1956, 1968 and 1989 U.S. Opens, the 1995 Ryder Cub matches, and the 2003 PGA Championship. Moreover, youngest Harmon brother, Bill, is Director of Golf at Toscana Country Club in Palm Desert, California and the noted tutor of ageless PGA Tour veteran, Jay Haas.

A personal anecdote about Dick will give you a glimpse into his wonderful nature. About ten years ago, while Dick was still at River Oaks, a client of mine who was a River Oaks member asked Dick to fit me for a set of irons as an expression of gratitude for my work on a case. Not only did Dick fit me for the clubs personally, he had one of his assistant pros videotape my swing during the fitting process. Afterward, Dick pulled me into his office and analyzed my swing as we watched the video, and I still haven't recovered from the humiliation of watching my swing on video while Dick superimposed Elkington's perfect swing over mine.

But after the video-analysis, knowing that I am a big fan of the author Dan Jenkins, Dick proceeded to show me a videotape of a hilarious dinner roast of Jenkins in which a number of prominent Tour pros such as Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, and Peter Jacobsen provided salutations to Jenkins around the theme that "everything really was better in golf back when Hogan was playing." The highlight was Jenkins getting up and giving it right back to the pros by excoriating them for their sponsorship of golf courses built into housing subdivisions or, as Jenkins put it derisively, "those damn dirt deals." Dick and I were doubled over like a couple of school boys watching the video of Jenkins and the pros go at each other. From that time on, whenever Dick and I would see each other, we'd chuckle and inquire of each other whether there were any new "dirt deals" in the area.

Thus, Dick Harmon -- who leaves his beloved wife Nancy, four children and two grandchildren -- was truly a special man. Utilizing a gentle nature, dry wit and keen insight, his contributions to the Houston community were considerable. Nevertheless, he always felt as if his contributions were merely a small token of his appreciation for the tremendous opportunites that Houston provided to his family and him. Dick Harmon was the type of person that makes Houston such a special place. He will be sorely missed.

2 Feb. 2006 Update: The schedule for the visitation and funeral is here.

Posted by Tom at 6:31 AM | Comments (2) |

February 6, 2006

In case you missed it . . .

With the Super Bowl and all, it was easy to miss, but the PGA Tour's newest millionaire is J.B. Holmes, a 23-year-old Tour rookie who makes long John Daly look short in comparison. Playing in just his fourth tournament since winning the PGA Tour School tournament last fall, Holmes won the FBR Open in Scottsdale by seven strokes on Sunday.

Through the first four Tour tournaments this season, Holmes leads the Tour with 72% (128 out of 168) of his drives finishing over 300 yards. On the par five 15th on Sunday afternoon, Holmes reached the green easily in two with a 263-yard 4-iron shot over water, then sank a 15-foot putt for an eagle to go to 20 under.

A 263-yard 4-iron over water? On the back nine of the final day of a tournament while trying to win for the first time on the Tour?

Keep an eye on this guy.

Posted by Tom at 7:52 AM | Comments (1) |

January 29, 2006

The Fazio Course of the Club at Carlton Woods

The day before the beginning of the Enron Task Force's legacy case, you probably figured that you would find an Enron-related post here today. But before turning to the long slog of that trial, a beautiful late-January Texas day has my thoughts turning to golf.

This previous post reviewed the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club that opened for play last summer and will host the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament beginning later this year. However, the Tournament Course at Redstone was only one of two outstanding new courses that opened in the Houston area in 2005. The other one is the Fazio Course of the Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands and it is every bit as impressive a new entry on the Houston and Texas golf scenes as the new Redstone Course.

Interestingly, at one time, the construction of the Fazio Course would have meant that the Tournament Course at Redstone would have not been built at all. As noted in this previous post, the Houston Open had a tremendously successful, 26-year run at the old Tournament Players Course in The Woodlands as both the tournament and the community literally grew up together. Former Houston Golf Association (which operates the tournament) executive director Eric Fredricksen -- who oversaw much of the Houston Open's growth during his tenure -- wanted the HGA and The Woodlands to build the Fazio Course as a new Tournament Players Course and move the tournament from old TPC to the Fazio Course. Alas, Fredricksen resigned as HGA executive director before such a deal could be cut, new HGA management took over, the HGA and The Woodlands had a falling out and, before you know it, the HGA had divorced The Woodlands and moved its operations and the Shell Houston Open across the far north side of the Houston metro area to Redstone.

Nevertheless, the Woodlands Corporation -- the fabulously successful developer of The Woodlands -- proceeded with the Fazio Course, anyway, albeit on a slower timetable. The Fazio Course is now the second golf course in the ultra-exclusive Carlton Woods subdivision of The Woodlands, which opened about five years ago around the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course that was the first course of the Club at Carlton Woods. As the sixth golf course built in The Woodlands, the Nicklaus-Carlton Woods course quickly took its place among the best golf courses in the Houston area, and -- as The Woodlands' seventh golf course -- the Fazio Course may be better than the Nicklaus Course. With its opening, the members of the Club at Carlton Woods now enjoy two of the best golf courses at any one club in the Houston area and in all of Texas.

Constructed amid beautiful hardwoods on the bluffs of Spring Creek on the far southwest side of The Woodlands, the Fazio Course has something going for it that most Houston-area golf courses do not -- significant elevation changes. Inasmuch as the Houston area lies in the flat Texas coastal plain between the Gulf of Mexico and the Hill Country of central Texas, the vast majority of Houston-area golf courses are flatland courses with minimal elevation changes similar to golf courses in Florida. However, the Fazio Course takes advantage of a wonderfully rolling piece of land on the bluffs of Spring Creek to provide golfers with up and down shot values that are rarely seen on Houston-area golf courses.

Moreover, as with the Nicklaus Course, the Woodlands Corporation used the increasingly-popular sandcapping process on the fairways of the Fazio Course, which expedites the return of the course to playability after heavy rains. As a result of the sandcapping process, both the Nicklaus and Fazio Courses are playable within an hour or two of even heavy rains when most Houston golf courses would still be too mushy to play.

As with most new courses these days, the Fazio Course is long -- almost 7360 yards from the championship tees and includes a 506 yard par 4 (no. 15) and a 623 yard par 5 (no. 4). However, this is not just a flogger's course -- three of the course's 10 par 4's are well under 400 yards, including the creative 307 yard par 4 seventh hole. Similarly, two of the course's four par 3's are well under 200 yards. Moreover, most of the greens on the course slope dramatically from back to front with subtle undulations that are made more vexing because of the sloping of the greens. Consequently, the Fazio Course actually places more emphasis on the short game than being able to hit the long ball.

Having played the course just once, it's a bit difficult to predict what hole will ultimately become the Fazio Course's signature hole, but my sense is that the 445 yard par 4 eighteenth (pictured above) will definitely be in contention. The fairway narrows into a ribbon the further you hit your drive, but laying too far back gives you a devilish long-iron shot into a thin, severely undulating green that is protected in front by water and the Fazio Course's signature deep bunkers. Just hit it straight and long on this hole, and you will have no problem. ;^)

Criticisms of the Fazio Course are hard to come by. The course is a subdivision course, so -- unlike the Tournament Course at Redstone -- it will eventually have homes built on a good part of the course. As a result, it is not quite as walkable a course as the old TPC Course in The Woodlands. However, that's the only negative that I could think of in regard to this extraordinary new addition to the top Houston-area golf courses.

Posted by Tom at 10:31 AM | Comments (4) |

January 16, 2006

Spinning the new date for the Shell Houston Open

Last week, the PGA Tour announced its new schedule of Tour tournaments to begin during the 2007 season, and it remains to be seen how a new date for the increasingly-troubled Shell Houston Open ("the SHO") will play out.

As noted in this previous post, the SHO has suffered over the past several years for a variety of reasons, including the fact that its recent date has been the relatively unattractive week just two weeks after The Masters Tournament. At the current time of the SHO, most of the best Tour players are taking a break from the Tour before gearing up for the U.S. Open in June.

However, under the revised Tour schedule beginning in 2007, the SHO will be moved to the weekend before The Masters. The Houston Golf Association -- which runs the SHO -- had been hoping for a date on the new schedule that would have been the weekend before the new spot for the Players Championship, which will be played after The Masters in mid-May under the new schedule rather than in mid-March before The Masters as it is currently scheduled.

As you might expect, the HGA is putting the best spin on the new date as possible. "Clearly our new date will generate additional excitement in the marketplace because we may attract even more marquee players to the Shell Houston Open,” said HGA president Steve Timms in a statement on the SHO website.

Count me as not so sure. Although the current date two weeks after The Masters is certainly not ideal, moving to the week before The Masters might be even worse. Under the new schedule, the Tour players will be finishing up a month-long swing through Florida, which will include a new World Golf event at Doral during the week before the SHO. After playing at Doral, the top Tour players may find it easy to skip the long jaunt to Texas and simply opt to take a week off to prepare for The Masters.

For the organizers of a tournament that attracted only two of the top ten Tour players during last year's event, that new schedule has to raise more than a few concerns that efforts to elevate the Shell Houston Open to the first tier of the non-major Tour tournaments simply may not be feasible under the Tour's present setup.

Posted by Tom at 5:54 AM | Comments (0) |

December 15, 2005

The extinction of the one-iron

I've been looking at hybrid golf clubs this holiday season as a possible gift for one of my relatives, so I enjoyed this this Jason Sobol article on the demise of the one-iron, which is one of the most difficult golf clubs to hit well and the reason why the easier-to-hit hybrid clubs are replacing the one-iron in most golfers bags. Sobol notes the late Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Times sportswriter Jim Murray's classic lament about the futility of hitting a one-iron:

"The only time I ever took out a 1-iron was to kill a tarantula, and I took a 7 to do that.''

Posted by Tom at 6:09 AM | Comments (0) |

November 7, 2005

Final PGA Tour Money List

With Brad Bryant's surprisingly easy win in the season-ending Tour Championship yesterday, the PGA Tour's all-important money list is final for the 2005 season. Some interesting notes:

Tiger Woods won again with over $10.6 million in winnings, which works out to be over half a million per tournament that he enteded in 2005.

It took a cool $626,736 in winnings to make the top 125, which is a coveted position because the 125 top money-winners from the 2005 season are exempt from qualifying for most PGA Tour events during the upcoming 2006 season.

Three 2004 Nationwide Tour graduates made the top 125, but ten 2004 Q-School graduates made the list and two Q-school grads (Sean O'Hair and Lucas Glover) finished in the top 30.

Apart from Gatesville's Bryant at no. 9 with almost $3.25 million in winnings, Justin Leonard of Dallas was the top Texan money-winner at no. 12 with over $2.6 million in winnings, followed by Chad Campbell of Andrews at no. 20 with almost $2.4 million. The Woodlands resident K.J. Choi came in at no. 37 with over $1.7 million in earnings, while Steve Elkington of Houston's Champions Golf Club had a comfortable bounce back year at no. 54 with over $1.4 million.

54 year old Tom Kite's plan to play the regular PGA Tour in 2005 resulted in just 11 tournaments and a bit over $100,000 in winnings, placing him 217th on the list.

The sad golfing saga of David Duval continues, as the former no. 1 golfer in the world came in 260th on the money list with just a bit over $7,500, which works out to be a Tour-low $381.50 per tournament.

Mr. Duval -- who continues to have an exemption into most tournaments because of his 2001 British Open and 2000 Players' Championship victories -- may be carrying his own bag in future tournaments at that earning level.

Posted by Tom at 8:17 AM | Comments (0) |

October 3, 2005

Choi wins at Greensboro

K.J. Choi of The Woodlands cruised to a two-shot victory on Sunday in the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro to win his first PGA Tour golf tournament in almost three years. The sweet-swinging South Korean native led the field during the tournament in both driving accuracy (83.9%) and putts per green in regulation (1.618), and shot 22 under par for the tournament. That's a good prescription for winning golf tournaments.

Choi is an interesting fellow. His life story -- which he recounted in this speech several years ago -- is quite inspiring. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 5:40 AM | Comments (0) |

September 24, 2005

Houstonian wins USGA Senior Amateur Championship

In the category of better things to do than waiting around Houston for a hurricane to arrive, Houstonian Mike Rice -- who I believe plays out of Champions Golf Club -- won the the 2005 USGA Senior Amateur Championship on Thursday at the Farm Golf Club in Rocky Face, Ga. Mr. Rice, who is 65, is the oldest winner of the event in 18 years. Here is the transcript of the post-victory interview with Mr. Rice. Hat tip to Bogey McDuff over at Golf Texas for the links to Mr. Rice's victory.

Posted by Tom at 2:02 PM | Comments (0) |

September 22, 2005

Thank goodness for the Onion

Hand it to the Onion to provide some levity during Houston's preparations for Hurricane Rita:

WASHINGTON, DC—A bill introduced by Sen. George Allen (R-VA) as "just a goof" several weeks ago was signed into law by President Bush Tuesday.

"I was just trying to crack up Frist and some of the other guys," Allen said. "Everyone's been on edge lately, what with the Katrina situation, and I thought we could use a good laugh."

Added Allen: "Looks like the joke's on me. And, I suppose, the American citizens."

S. 1718, also known as the Preservation Of Public Lands Of America Act, authorized a shift of $138 billion from the federal Medicare fund to a massive landscaping effort that, over the next five years, will transform Yellowstone National Park into a luxury private golf estate.

"I thought it was pretty damn funny when I read over the draft of the thing," said Allen, who said he struggled to keep a straight face when he introduced the law. "Especially the part about how it would create over 10,000 caddy and drink-girl jobs. But I guess it went over people's heads."

The bill passed with a vote of 63-37.

Read on.

Posted by Tom at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) |

September 16, 2005

David Toms hospitalized

Popular Shreveport, Louisiana-based PGA Tour golfer David Toms was hospitalized yesterday on an emergency basis after he was seen clutching his chest and taking a knee due to an escalated heart rate while playing the first round of the 84 Lumber Classic in Pennsylvania. Toms was rushed to a hospital via Life Flight helicopter where he is now reported to be in stable condition.

Update: Toms has been released from the hospital after being diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia, which is a general term for any rapid heart rate originating above the ventricles. It is generally a non-life-threatening condition that can be either treated with medication or cured with minor surgery.

Posted by Tom at 8:13 AM | Comments (0) |

September 6, 2005

Houston's hope for the golf swing

Houston has a particularly rich golf heritage that is reflected by the fact that such golf notables as Jack Burke, Jr., Jimmy Demaret, Dave Marr, and Claude Harmon, Sr. lived here for much of their lives. The Chronicle's Steve Campbell notes one of the more low-profile Houstonians that has contributed to that rich tradition with this piece on golf instructor and golf course design expert, Jim Hardy, who has become sort of a last hope for several professional golfers who are struggling with their swings and ready to give up competitive golf.

Peter Jacobsen, Hardy's longtime business partner, was Hardy's first reclamation project. Although he had been a solid player on the PGA Tour from the late 1970's through the early 1990's, Jacobsen's golf game had fallen on hard times for several years when he revived his career in 1995 by changing from a two-plane swing (think Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, and Davis Love) to a one-plane swing (think Ben Hogan, Ernie Els, and Michelle Wie) through Hardy's tutelage. Hardy recently used his experience in changing Jacobsen's prior two-plane swing to a one-plane swing as the basis of an exceptional new book on golf swing instruction, The Plane Truth for Golfers (McGraw-Hill 2005).

In his book, Hardy identifies the two-plane swing and the one-plane swing as the two basic -- but much different -- golf swings. In so doing, he makes the key insight that much of golf swing instruction over the past generation has been counterproductive because of the failure of golf instructors to tailor their teaching to the particular golf swing that the student is using or should use. Inasmuch as the key elements of the one-plane swing are quite different from those of the two-plane swing, Hardy points out that attempting to teach two-plane concepts to a one-plane swinger (and vice versa) risks having the student adopt swing elements that are ill-suited for the student's particular swing.

As with Hogan's classic golf swing book Five Lessons, Hardy's Plane Truth for Golfers is only a little over 100 pages. However, take it from this self-taught golfer who has read dozens of golf instruction books over the past 25 years, Houstonian Jim Hardy's Plane Truth for Golfers is a landmark book in the area of golf swing instruction and another of the many contributions that Houstonians have made to the wonderful world of golf.

Posted by Tom at 7:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 25, 2005

Curt Sampson on Bobby Jones

Curt Sampson has already written the best biography on Ben Hogan, and now he is attempting to equal that feat in regard to Bobby Jones, who remains the only golfer to win the Grand Slam of Golf in the same year and who retired from competitive golf almost immediately after doing so. Mr. Sampson's new book on Mr. Jones is excerpted in this Golf World piece entitled Bobby in a New Light - Seventy-five years after his Grand Slam, Bobby Jones is more compelling than the myths surrounding him:

[L]ike Lincoln and Churchill and Marilyn Monroe, Jones led a life big enough to be considered from a variety of angles and with varying levels of awe and skepticism. Perhaps by considering his life in reverse, we can appreciate golf's greatest hero in a new light. After all, he won the Slam at age 28, and then quit the game. He lived 41 more years.

Hat tip to Geoff Shackelford for the link to the Golf World piece.

Posted by Tom at 7:37 AM | Comments (0) |

August 19, 2005

Definitely not drinking buddies

Various PGA Tour officials are scrambling today to make sure that recently-crowned PGA Tournament Champion Phil Mickelson is not paired to play with Australian journeyman and PGA Tour player Paul Gow after Gow had this to say during an Austrailian radio interview earlier this week about his fellow Tour players' opinion of Mickelson:

"They wouldn't feed him. He ignores the other players. He's an arrogant person. He's the opposite - what you see on television is totally different to what he is around the clubhouse. And Tiger is the opposite - he will talk to you, he will sit down next to you at lunch and ask about your family and stuff. Phil is the opposite. He has done some great acting classes in Hollywood and they've worked out for him."

Posted by Tom at 6:55 AM | Comments (0) |

August 18, 2005

Review of the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club

As noted in this previous post, the Rees Jones-designed Tournament Course at Houston's Redstone Golf Club opened for play earlier this month to generally positive reviews. The Tournament Course -- the new specially-designed home of the Shell Houston Open PGA Tour Golf Tournament -- is the latest step in the Houston Golf Association's efforts to revive the lagging event, which relocated to Redstone three years ago after a spectacularly successful 28 year run in The Woodlands, primarily at the Tournament (formerly the TPC) Course.

Several days ago, three pals and I teed it up at the Tournament Course for the first time. Although we should have had our heads examined, we decided -- in order to get the full flavor of the course -- that we would walk the course with caddies (in 95 degree temperature with 90% humidity!) and play the course from the tournament (i.e., the longest) tees. Inasmuch as the ground was still quite wet from a heavy rain storm the previous afternoon, we received no roll on our drives and felt like we trudged every one of the 7,500 yards of the course. Despite the challenging conditions, we had a jolly good time, and the following is my report (with photographs) on the newest addition to the generally underrated family of Houston championship golf courses.

Overall, the Tournament Course is an outstanding addition to the Houston golf scene. It is already a very good golf course, and has a chance to become a truly superior one. At this point, I would give the course a strong B+, but my sense is that the Houston Golf Association -- which did a wonderful job refining The TPC Course in The Woodlands over the years -- will make the improvements and modifications necessary to elevate the Tournament Course to one of the best golf courses in Houston and Texas. A strong golf course will not be enough alone to attract the best professional golfers back to the Shell Houston Open (a more favorable date help even more), but a strong course is a necessary component of a successful event, and the Tournament Course is certainly a good start to fulfiling that need.

Interestingly, despite its prodigious length, the Tournament Course is not simply a long course. It starts out with three relatively short, wide-open par 4's before it begins to bear its teeth on a couple of par 4's (holes five and six) midway through the front nine. In fact, four of the ten par 4's on the course are under 400 yards, which is almost unheard in these days of increasingly long tracts.

The course requires a variety of shots, and the greens (Mini-Verdie grass, very good condition) are well-adapted for the particular holes -- relatively flat and receptive for the longer holes, but quite undulating for the shorter ones. As with the TPC Course, the Tournament Course bears its teeth on its final two holes, the brutal 487 yard (uphill!) par 4 and the beautiful 485 yard par 4 18th that bends in and out of a lake that runs along the left side. Combine those two holes with the 200 yard par 3 sixteenth and you have a group of finishing holes that will take a back seat to few others in terms of difficulty. The course has a stout 138 slope rating from the tournament tees, and the 132 slope rating from the next set of tees up from the tournament tees is comparable to the tips at several very good Houston-area courses, such as Lochinvar Golf Club.

Despite the wet condition of the course when we played, the turf conditions on the Tournament Course are generally good with the exception of the 15th hole, where the fairway has simply not grown in well. The rough is already quite thick in most places and will be truly troublesome when the HGA allows it to grow for tournament conditions. Somewhat surprisingly, Redstone and the HGA elected not to use the sandcapping process on the fairways of the course, which has been been a big success at Carlton Woods Golf Club in expediting the return of the course to playability after heavy rains (a common occurrence in Houston generally and during Shell Houston Open week, in particular). The course is generally easy to walk, although there are long walks required between the green of the 1st hole and the 2nd tee, the 9th green (which is not near the clubhouse) and the 10th tee, and the green of the 17th hole and the 18th tee (where is a Metro light rail line when you really need one?). In my view, those long walks detract much from the otherwise attractive ambiance of the course.

The course is not as spectator-friendly as the TPC Course, but there are several wide open areas (particularly on holes 1, 17 and 18) and a huge practice area that will accomodate large numbers of spectators. The HGA will probably make gradual modifications to the course that will make it better for spectators than either Champions Cypress Creek (which has hosted several PGA Tour events) or the Jacobsen-Hardy Course at Redstone that has hosted the Shell Houston Open for the past three years. As with Lochinvar and Whispering Pines Golf Club, the Tournament Course is a relatively rare Houston championship course that is not built into a subdivision, so the scenery on the course will not be disrupted over time with the development of home sites. Finally, Redstone is very proud of the course as their $135 green fee (including cart) reflects, but this is the type of course that one plays only on special occasions, so Redstone will probably have a steady stream of customers even at that relatively high price.

Driving the ball well from the tournament tees, this 8 handicapper shot an 85 on the Tournament Course, which is about as well as I could have played it. I'm looking forward to playing the course again when it's a bit drier and not 90/90 in terms of temperature and humidity, and certainly not from the tournament tees. Nevertheless, I give the Tournament Course at Redstone a strong thumb's up, so take the time to check it out in the near future.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (5) |

August 14, 2005

Elk on the advantages of being a Houstonian

One of my favorite professional golfers is fellow Houstonian and University of Houston alum Steve Elkington. Elk is just two shots out of the lead going into the final round of the PGA Golf Championship this weekend, and he noted one big advantage of living in Houston while responding to a media question on how he dealt with the stifling 109 degree heat index during his Saturday round at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey:

"Being Australian and living in Houston, I thought it was quite cool."

Posted by Tom at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) |

August 13, 2005

Barkley on golf

The TNT Network weekday coverage of the PGA Golf Championship was somewhat frustrating, as it basically followed Tiger Woods while he struggled to make the cut and then occasionally showed the players who are actually in contention. But then, out of the blue, the coverage was saved by none other than former NBA star Charles Barkley, who proceeded to provide a highly entertaining and funny interview about golf. Among Barkley's comments were the following:

As the coverage was showing Woods' reaction immediately after he had hit his ball into the water hazard on the 4th hole:

"Uh, oh, don't zoom in."

On his close friend Woods and the extremely hot weather during the tournament:

"It must be hot out there because Tiger is in great shape and he is sweating. When skinny people sweat, you know it's hot."

Answering a question on who is in better shape, Woods or Barkley?:

"Well he has a six pack and I have a keg . . . and I would never want to have just six beers."

On a revelation regarding his physical condition that he discovered while playing golf:

"I came to the realization a couple months ago that I am fat. If you get tired from walking - and that's all that golf is - then you are officially fat."

On Woods as a golf instructor:

"Tiger has spent numerous hours trying to work on my golf swing. He's not a very good teacher."

"It's embarrassing. If you are a man and you can't beat girls or the smart kids, you shouldn't be playing . . . I'm retiring from golf. I'm not going to play again."

But as funny as the Barkely commentary was, he actually passed along some insightful observations, including the following one about the competition between Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, as noted by Damon Hack in this NY Times article:

Barkley compared Woods to Michael Jordan as the greatest of his generation, and golfers like Mickelson and Singh to basketball players like himself and Patrick Ewing - as Barkley put it, great players, but not the greatest.

"I think Phil Mickelson is the most talented golfer I've ever played with in my life," Barkley said. "But I've never seen any jock in any sport work harder than Tiger. If Phil worked as hard as Vijay and Tiger, it'd be like a flip-flop all the time. That's how talented I think Phil is. But if Phil wants to compete with Vijay and Tiger, he's going to have to take it to another level, workout-wise."

"I've said this about Phil before. Phil's so good, he just has to get out of his own way. And I've heard Joe Torre say that about A-Rod," referring to the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez. "It would really be scary if Phil were to work out as hard as Vijay and Tiger and practice as much. I would love to see that combination."

Hat tip to Geoff Shackelford for the link to Barkley's quotes.

Posted by Tom at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) |

August 10, 2005

The PGA at Baltusrol is this week

The PGA Golf Championship begins tomorrow at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Golf Digest has its usual excellent coverage here, including this nifty interactive map.

By the way, this interesting Golf Digest article on the 1965 PGA Tournament -- which was won by the late Houstonian Dave Marr -- includes a funny anecdote about Ben Hogan that Dave passed along to me years ago over lunch at Houston's Lochinvar Golf Club. Dave loved telling this story and did so humorously, so my written rendition of it cannot do Dave's oral version justice. But the story went something like this:

Hogan and the players with whom he was playing his practice rounds that week showed up for their Wednesday practice round and were promptly informed that there had been a misunderstanding on their tee time. As a result, Hogan's group could not tee off for two hours because there were so many groups already waiting in line ahead of his group. Hogan was not pleased.

So, Hogan strolled over to the edge of the first tee and began intensely studying the practice swings of each of the club pros in the foursome who were warming up to tee off at that time. Hogan's scrutiny clearly made each of the pros uncomfortable -- not only was Hogan a legend among his peers, but every one of them knew about Hogan's discriminating (and sometimes bluntly derisive) opinion of his rivals' golf swings.

Under Hogan's stern glare, the first club pro finally gathered the courage to tee up his ball and swing, which produced an ugly flinch and a sky ball that went less than 100 yards. The second pro hurriedly teed his ball up and then swung, producing a severe duck hook into the trees. Next, the third pro stepped up the tee and promptly topped his ball just past the ladies tee. Finally, the fourth pro teed his ball up, but as he attempted to take a practice swing, he could not even make himself take the club back under Hogan's penetrating stare. So, rather than attempting to tee off, the fourth pro picked up his ball and walked over to Hogan:

"Look, Mr. Hogan, if you don't tee off in front of us, I'm afraid that I won't be able to swing the club today. Also, our group is so traumatized by what we just did here in front of you that we'll play so slow that everyone teeing off behind us probably won't finish their rounds today before dark. So, would you mind cutting in front of us right now and teeing off?"

Hogan graciously accepted the offer and his group proceeded to tee off immediately.

By the way, Marr is legendary (at least among Texans) for his characterization of a syphon used during the early days of the PGA Tour to steal gasoline to fuel travel between tournaments as "an Oklahoma credit card." ;^)

Posted by Tom at 6:45 AM | Comments (0) |

August 8, 2005

This is a bit out of my league

This NY Times article reports on the progress of the new Liberty National Golf Club, which is located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. With its breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statute of Liberty, the golf course is generating quite a buzz in golfing circles, although not among the crowd that I normally play with:

[T]he lush and very private Liberty National Golf Club has sprouted across from the Manhattan skyline. This $150 million project by Paul B. Fireman, the property's owner and the chief executive of Reebok; his son Dan; and the golf-design tandem of Kite and Bob Cupp is creating a buzz less than a year before the first players tee off.

Built on 160 acres and covering 4,000 feet of waterfront, the course stretches 7,400 yards from the back tees, with small rivers running through it and a $1 million cart path built with Belgian stones. . . The course will offer a 15-minute luxury yacht service from Manhattan and, for those with quicker needs, a helipad.

Each member will have a custom-made set of clubs that will always be available at the course, a kind of thank-you gift for joining a club with an initiation fee of around $500,000.

Sure am glad they put in that helipad. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 9:27 AM | Comments (3) |

August 3, 2005

Redstone's Tournament Course opens

Houston-based Redstone Companies' Tournament Golf Course -- the new home course for the PGA Tour's Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament -- opened for play this week, and the Chronicle's Doug Pike gives the 7,500 yard Rees Jones tract a stellar rating in this review. Inasmuch as the new course is central to the Houston Golf Association's plan to revive the Shell Houston Open, which had one of its weakest fields in years during this year's tournament -- I am hopeful that the course turns out to be popular among both Tour players and the golfing public. I am scheduled to play the Tournament Course later this month, after which I will post a review, so stay tuned.

A note to Redstone Golf -- the website for the Tournament Course is about as unimpressive as a website can be, with hyperlinks that do no work and a paucity of visuals of the product. Might want to spend a few bucks to upgrade that resource, which will be the first impression that many folks will have of the facility.

Posted by Tom at 6:24 AM | Comments (1) |

July 25, 2005

The changing Houston golf scene

This Sunday Chronicle article reviews the status of Houston's municipal golf course system, which has run a deficit for the past five years, including a cool $620,000 for the most recent fiscal year. Although rounds are down at all muni courses other than the City's crown jewel at Memorial Park, Brock Park was responsible for over 75% of the losses in the most recent fiscal year.

Frankly, the City of Houston needs to phase out of the golf business entirely. Although providing golf courses for citizens made sense a generation ago, the proliferation of a wide-variety of private daily fee courses in the Houston area have made most of the muni courses not only unattractive by comparison, but also unnecessary. Such a marketplace of private golf courses did not exist when the City of Houston developed its municipal golf system, but given the development of that private marketplace over the past 30 years, there is simply no longer any reason for the City of Houston to subsidize golf operations for a relatively small number of its citizens.

Here is a "thinking outside the box" suggestion for the Houston City Council on the golf course operation. Other than Memorial Park and Hermann Park golf courses, sell the remainder of the golf courses, including a sale or donation of the Gus Wortham Course to the University of Houston, which could then invest the funds necessary to renovate that tract into a potentially fine university course close to the University's Central Campus. With a portion of the funds generated from the sale of the courses, the City could then fund an endowment to be administered by the Houston Golf Association to promote golf to underprivileged children and citizens of Houston.

The foregoing would be a "win-win" situation for the City of Houston and its citizens. Not only would the City shed the cost of its unprofitable golf operation and provide the city's main public University with a convenient home for its storied golf program, the City would maintain two very good, profitable and well-located municipal golf courses, and provide its citizens who need it the recreational opportunity to enjoy the game of golf.

Posted by Tom at 8:24 AM | Comments (5) |

July 22, 2005

Dan Jenkins on America's contributions to golf

In summertime, thoughts turn to golf, and the August issue of Golf Digest is called it's All-American edition. That theme gives columnist Dan Jenkins an opportunity to provide his wit and wisdom on America's contributions to golf in this hilarious article entitled What America gave Golf -- We might have burned the edges, but the good outweighs the bad (previous posts on Mr. Jenkins' work are here, here, here, and here). The entire article is a must read, but here are a few Jenkins pearls to peak your interest:

It's easy enough to blame America for the six-hour round, . . . but ask yourself this: What would the game be like without the gimme, the mulligan, the shapely cart girl and a chili dog at the turn?

Look at it this way: If America hadn't gotten interested in the game we might still be swinging at it in tweed coats and plus fours, and trying to talk like Alistair Cooke. . . But what about today? Do we really need a golf ball that can puncture a hole in the side of a 68.7-ton Abrams tank when an anemic 14-year old girl swings at it and doesn't even take the 7-wood back to horizontal? This is the same golf ball you can launch in London with a high slice, have it self-correct somewhere over Paris, and eventually land safely in the fairway in Milan.

Mr. Jenkins goes on to discuss the purely American phenomenom known as "the Amana hat," the invention of metal woods, Jimmy Demarat's flashy clothes, $400 green fees, and the 900 yard par five, to which he observes:

Which begs the question of whether we really need a 900-yard par 5. I mean, does anyone need a 900-yard par 5 other than the real-estate developer who'll surround it with townhouses on streets named for famous courses he's never seen and therefore misspells? Welcome to Interlacking Drive . . . Baltusrover Avenue . . . Winged Valley Court . . . Oakland Pines Boulevard. America didn't originate the gated community -- I think you have to give that to Buckingham Palace -- but we popularized it and contributed the windshield decal.

Read the entire article. No doubt about it, Dan Jenkins is one of America's great contributions to golf.

Posted by Tom at 4:00 AM | Comments (1) |

July 18, 2005

Feinstein on Nicklaus and Woods

In this Washington Post column, noted author and columnist John Feinstein comments on Jack Nicklaus' farewell to the British Open and, in so doing, observes that 2005 British Open champion Tiger Woods -- while likely to break Nicklaus' record of winning 18 major championships -- has a much more difficult task ahead of him in equaling Nicklaus' qualities as a champion:

Woods seems to think that Nicklaus's legacy is only about numbers, that winning golf tournaments is the only thing that measures a champion. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially in golf.

Woods already holds many records. One of them, which is unofficial, is that he has been fined for using profanity publicly more than any player in history. While using profanity in the crucible of competition is hardly a great crime, it is indicative of Woods's attitude that, rather than try to curb his use of language, he has complained that he is being treated unfairly since there are always microphones following him when he plays. Last month, during the U.S. Open, Woods missed a putt and childishly dragged his putter across the green, damaging it as he did so. When he was asked about the incident later, he shrugged and said, "I was frustrated," (no apology) as if he was the only player among 156 dealing with frustration. In recent years he has allowed his caddie, Steve Williams, to frequently treat spectators and members of the media rudely, not only defending him but also appearing to sanction his misbehavior.

Woods is extremely popular with the golfing public, in part because of his extraordinary play and in part because of a carefully crafted image built around a series of commercials that show him to be a funny and friendly guy. Sadly, that's not the Woods most people encounter. He is the master of the TV sound bite, but he rarely shares any of his real thoughts with the public.

Someday, Tiger Woods will walk across the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th fairway at St. Andrews and say farewell the way Nicklaus did on Friday. No doubt he will be cheered for his greatness as a golfer, just as Nicklaus was. But those cheers -- and the tears -- were not just for a golfer, they were for a man; one who has always won and always lost with grace and dignity. As a golfer, Woods will no doubt continue to close the gap inexorably on Nicklaus's records. He has a much longer road to travel to match him as a true champion.

What's interesting about Feinstein's comparison is that Nicklaus -- while always acknowledged as the best golfer of his generation -- has not always been a universally revered figure. Known as "Fat Jack" when he joined the tour in the early 1960's, Nicklaus toiled during his first several years in the shadow of the more popular and personable Arnold Palmer. Despite the warm and fuzzy memories recalled this week at St. Andrews, Nicklaus and the Scottish crowd did not always get along so well. The first few times that Nicklaus first played the British Open, he criticized the dry courses and wondered publicly why the courses did not have sprinklers. On the other hand, the Scots criticized Nicklaus for playing too slow, which was a common criticism of Nicklaus on the PGA Tour for years. Even Nicklaus' business practices in golf industry have resulted in criticism that he elevated personal interests over those of his shareholders.

However, Feinstein is correct that no one ever disputed that Nicklaus was a great golf champion, and it's a growing blot on Woods' golfing record that many are now questioning that quality in him.

By the way, the only time that I met Woods personally -- which was back when Woods was in college and practicing at my club in Houston from time-to-time with my club's former pro, Butch Harmon -- Tiger was extremely courteous and personable, thanking me as a club member for allowing him to practice at our club. My impression was that his parents raised him well.

Posted by Tom at 7:12 AM | Comments (5) |

July 10, 2005

A remarkable weekend of golf

The John Deere Classic PGA Tour event this weekend lost much of its luster after Michelle Wie came close but failed to make the cut on Friday. However, the tournament turned out to be highly entertaining even without the Big Wiesy as 23 year old Sean O'Hair -- whose troubled life was profiled in this earlier post -- fired a six under par 65 in the final round to break through and win his first PGA Tour event.

This has been a fascinating PGA Tour season so far, as young players such as O'Hair and Ben Crane have acquitted themselves in such a superb manner under difficult circumstances that they are now among my favorite players. In fact, it was a very good weekend for my favorite golfers as Peter Jacobsen -- one of the genuinely nicest men in the game (see this recent Golf Digest interview) -- won his second major championship in his second season on the Champions Tour as he fired a final round 66 to win the Ford Seniors Player Championship in Dearborn, Michigan.

Although he had been a solid player on the PGA Tour from the late 1970's through the early 1990's, Jacobsen's golf game had fallen on hard times for several years when he revived his career in 1995 by changing from a two-plane swing (think Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, and Davis Love) to a one-plane swing (think Ben Hogan, Ernie Els, and Michelle Wie) with the help of his longtime business partner and Houston-based teaching pro Jim Hardy. Hardy recently used his experience in changing Jacobsen's prior two-plane swing to a one-plane swing as the basis of an exceptional new book on golf swing instruction, The Plane Truth for Golfers (McGraw-Hill 2005).

In this new book, Hardy identifies the two-plane swing and the one-plane swing as the two basic -- but much different -- golf swings. In so doing, he makes the brilliant insight that much of golf swing instruction over the past generation has been counterproductive because of the failure of golf instructors to tailor their teaching to the particular golf swing that the student is using or should use. Inasmuch as the key elements of the one-plane swing are quite different from those of the two-plane swing, Hardy points out that attempting to teach two-plane concepts to a one-plane swinger (and vice versa) risks having the student adopt swing elements that are ill-suited for the student's particular swing.

As with Hogan's classic golf swing book Five Lessons, Hardy's Plane Truth for Golfers is only a little over 100 pages. However, take it from a self-taught golfer who has read dozens of golf instruction books over the past 25 years, Houstonian Jim Hardy's Plane Truth for Golfers is a landmark book in the area of golf swing instruction and another of the many contributions that Houstonians have made to golf over the past two generations.

Finally, long John Daly has not won a golf tournament this season, but this touching Bob Verdi/Golf World article tells a wonderful story about something far more important that Daly won for a family that was devastated by the death of its father 15 years ago. The overweight, chain-smoking and problem-laden Daly will never be the cover boy for the PGA Tour, but he is certainly in the competition for having the biggest heart among PGA Tour members.

Posted by Tom at 5:35 PM | Comments (1) |

July 8, 2005

An emerging big sports story

With the terrorist attack yesterday in London and all, potentially the most remarkable sports story of the year is flying under the radar screen today.

Question: What do the following PGA Tour golfers have in common:

Billy Andrade
Aaron Baddeley
Jeff Maggert
Scott Simpson
Steve Stricker
Kevin Stadler
Skip Kendall
Woody Austin
Robert Gamez
Harrison Frazer
David Duval
Lucas Glover
David Gossett

Answer: They all trail 15 year old Michelle Wie after the first round of the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic taking place this weekend in Silvis, Illinois.

Now that state of affairs will certainly generate more than a few barbs among the men in the tournament locker room this morning.

After posting a one under par 70 in her opening round (the leaderboard is here), Ms. Wie (nicknamed "the Big Wiesy") is one stroke off the projected score for making the tournament "cut" -- i.e., the reduction of the players in the tournament for the two weekend rounds to the 70 players with the best total scores after the first two rounds. If she makes the cut, then Ms. Wie would be the first female player in 60 years -- since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in the 1945 Tucson Open -- to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.

Ms. Wie is 6 foot tall, possesses a flawless one plane swing, and hits the ball far enough to compete against men on the PGA Tour. She is the real deal, and it's only a matter of time until she makes the cut in a PGA Tour event. Today may just be the day.

Update: After getting to five under par for the tournament during her round on Friday, the Big Wiesy faltered on the back nine and shot an even par 71, leaving her at one under par for the tournament and two shots off making the cut. Still, quite a remarkable performance by the 15 year old Ms. Wie, who beat a third of the field in the event.

Posted by Tom at 6:27 AM | Comments (4) |

June 25, 2005

Is Tom Fazio good for golf?

One of the highlights in the development of the blogosphere over the past several years has been the emergence of specialized blogs. As an inveterate golfer, an interesting part of the blogosphere for me has been the golf blogs, a number of which are listed in the blogroll on the right.

One of the golf bloggers who I particularly enjoy is Jay Flemma (he actually maintains two blogs, here and here), who is a New York City-based intellectual property and entertainment lawyer who is carving a name for himself in writing about golf course design. In his latest post, Jay addresses an issue that this Ron Whitten Golf Digest article explored earlier this year: Is well-known golf course designer Tom Fazio good for the game?

Jay's analysis of Fazio's latest designs is timely in this neck of the woods because Fazio's new course here in The Woodlands, Texas -- where many folks still believe the Shell Houston Open should be played -- will open on a beautiful piece of land in the western part of The Woodlands later this year. After noting that several analysts of golf course design are observing that Fazio's recent designs are boring and excessively expensive to maintain (much less play), Jay observes the following about the direction of Fazio's course design:

I stuck up for Fazio here. I love World Woods, Barton Creek, Pine Hill, PGA, TPC-MB, Ventana. . . lots of Tom. Then I played Atunyote in Utica and was underwhelmed. There was nothing of interest except two good risk reward par-5s, 5 and 12, and 9, 11 and 18 were good. The rest was nothing I had not seen before. This is $175. Casino Golf - nuff said. The design was muted, the natural setting was ordinary farmland and the price was twice what it's worth . . . That's why architectural echo is an important factor in rating a golf course. It offers a way to compare courses to the greats.

Jay covered the U.S. Open last weekend and his blogs include interviews with players and a level of analysis that you simply will not see in the mainstream media. If you are interested in golf, take a moment to check out the golf section of my blogroll, particularly Jay's blogs, Geoff Shackelford's, and Texas Golf. The golf blogs are another reflection of how the blogosphere is redefining the way in which specialized information and knowledge is communicated.

Posted by Tom at 10:42 AM | Comments (2) |

June 14, 2005

This is very cool

Check out this Golf Digest interactive map of the Pinehurst No. 2 golf course, which is the Donald Ross masterpiece that is the site of this week's U.S. Open Golf Tournament.

By the way, in regard to the Rory Sabbatini-Ben Crane incident discussed here yesterday, Stuart Appleby had the best quip:

"Rory made an interesting decision to speed up play and didn't invite Ben along."

By the way, Sabbatini publicly apologized for his conduct on Monday.

Posted by Tom at 8:02 AM | Comments (0) |

June 13, 2005

The state of golf

With the U.S. Open Golf Tournament gearing up this week at Pinehurst, S.I.com has this interesting roundtable discussion on the state of golf between golf writer Geoff Shackelford, PGA Tour player Brad Faxon, USGA Executive Director David Fay and Callaway Golf spokesman Larry Dorman.

While the entire discussion is interesting and worth reading, the following comment indicates that Mr. Faxon and Jack Nicklaus probably aren't playing many practice rounds together:

SI: Why is everybody talking about the ball? Deane Beman, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player -- they all say the ball needs to be rolled back in the pro game.

FAXON: If Jack Nicklaus had a successful ball, he would never say another word. But he's never sold a ball that's made a dime. There are so many other, more important things to worry about. Like allowing the putter to touch a part of your body other than your hands. . . .

By the way, an interesting incident occurred yesterday during the final round of the Booz Allen Classic at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD. On the 17th hole, Rory Sabbatini, who is a fast player, got tired of waiting for his playing partner Ben Crane, who is a slow player. So, Sabbatini hit his second short on 17, walked up to the green ahead of Crane, chipped up and putted out of turn, and then left for the 18th green and teed off out of turn before Crane putted out on 17. Subsequently, on the 18th green, Sabbatini barely acknowledged Crane during the traditional post-round handshake and then walked to the scoring tent spewing expletives. In short, over the course of about fifteen minutes, Sabbatini established himself as a first-class jerk.

Then, ABC on-course reporter Judy Rankin interviewed Crane after the incident. In a truly remarkable moment in this day of self-absorbed professional athletes, Crane exhibited grace and depth by refusing to criticize Sabbatini, acknowledging that he is a slow player, admitting that he is working on getting faster, and essentially downplaying Sabbatini's infantile reaction.

Thus, in less than a one minute interview, Ben Crane became one of my favorite PGA Tour golfers.

By the way, ABC commentator Paul Azinger appropriately proceeded to do what Crane would not, which was to hammer Sabbatini on the air for his conduct. Good for you, Zinger.

Posted by Tom at 6:47 AM | Comments (1) |

May 31, 2005

It's vacation time!

Via Google Maps, the picture on the left is the satellite view of the waterpark area of the Fiesta Texas Theme Park in San Antonio, which -- of course -- includes a Texas-shaped pool!

By the way, Fiesta Texas is directly adjacent to the Westin La Cantera Resort, which is one of the best resort properties in Texas. A part of one of the two La Cantera golf courses (the one on which the Texas Open is played) runs right next to the Rattler, one of the giant rollercoasters at Fiesta Texas.

Several years ago, my older brother Bud and I were playing a round at that La Cantera course with a club pro from East Texas. The club pro was not having a good round. After snap hooking one off the tee on the hole where you tee off right above -- and within earshot of the screams emanating from -- the Rattler, the club pro turned to Bud and me and said with utter exasperation:

"This sure as hell ain't Augusta National."

Posted by Tom at 5:33 AM | Comments (1) |

May 26, 2005

"It's not the arrow, it's the Indian"

If you are contemplating a purchase of new golf clubs, make sure that you read this first.

As David Feherty comments:

"Maybe we're all supposed to stink at this. It's our punishment for playing this insane game."

By the way, if you are really interested in improving your golf game and not just hitting longer drives, read this.

Posted by Tom at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) |

May 23, 2005

"Yeah, like really . . ."

The youngest player to win an LPGA golf tournament in 50 years emerged yesterday as graduating high school student Paula Creamer won her first LPGA event at something called the Sybase Classic by sinking a clutch 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole.

For you fellow parents of teenage girls, I'm sure you can relate to Paula's following answer to a question during her post-round interview:

Q: You said yesterday you were anxious. Did you just handle that much better today?

A: Yes, I think so. I called Colin, my caddie. We talk a lot, every day, and we talked to Lance about it, and just things to help me be not anxious and be calm and patient out there. And it worked well for a while. It's funny, because on 17 I hit a pretty decent good shot and then Gloria hit it within two feet. And Lance was like, "Come on, you have to make this putt." And I'm like, "Listen, you need to settle down, not me. We have a hole and a half to play. Come on." It worked well.

There were times I tend to walk very fast when things are like on the last hole, 18, I was 50 yards in front of Lance. And Lance was screaming, "Paula, Paula, stop!" And I waited. And then we walked up. I just have to learn how to control it. The last putt, I was shaking because of nerves and just wanting to see what's going to happen.

It's only a matter of time before Dan Jenkins picks up on this material.

Posted by Tom at 6:10 AM | Comments (0) |

May 16, 2005

More favorable date for the Shell Houston Open?

As noted in this previous post, the Shell Houston Open has suffered for years because it is played two weeks after The Masters Tournament when most of the best players are taking a break before gearing up for the U.S. Open in June.

However, the PGA Tour is currently negotiating a new television contract and, in that connection, is considering a revamped schedule that would move the Players Championship's current late March date to a more favorable date in May. This Florida Times-Union article on the subject sets forth the following tournament schedule model that is being considered as an alternative to the current one, and this schedule would give the Shell Houston Open a much more favorable date the week before the Players Championship:

January
Mercedes Championship, Hawaii
Sony Open, Hawaii
Buick Invitational, La Jolla, Calif.
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Palm Desert, Calif.

February
FBR Open, Scottsdale, Ariz.
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Nissan Open, Los Angeles
Chrysler Classic of Tucson

March
Ford Championship at Doral, Miami
Honda Classic, Palm Beach Gardens
Bay Hill Invitational, Orlando
Accenture Match Play, Innisbrook

April
BellSouth Classic, Atlanta
Masters, Augusta, Ga.
MCI Heritage, Hilton Head, S.C.
Shell Houston Open

May
Players Championship
Wachovia Championship, Charlotte, N.C.
EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Irving, Texas
MasterCard Colonial, Fort Worth, Texas
FedEx St. Jude Classic, Memphis, Tenn.

June
Memorial, Dublin, Ohio
Booz Allen Classic, Potomac, Md.
U.S. Open
Barclays Classic, Westchester, N.Y.

July
Western Open, Lemont, Ill.
American Express Invitational
British Open (B.C. Open, Endicott, N.Y., the same week)
U.S. Bank Championship, Milwaukee

August
Buick Open, Warwick Hills, Mich.
International, Castle Rock, Colo.
PGA Championship
NEC Invitational (Reno-Tahoe Open the same week)

September
Deutsche Bank Championship, Norton, Mass.
Tour Championship, Atlanta (John Deere Classic, Silva, Ill., same week).

End of official money season and beginning of next official money season.

September
Bell Canadian Open
84 Lumber Classic, Farmington, Pa.
Southern Farm Bureau Classic, Annandale, Miss.

October
Valero Texas Open
Chrsyler Classic of Greensboro
Michelin Championship of Las Vegas
Funai Classic at Disney World

End of official money events for calendar year

Posted by Tom at 7:31 AM | Comments (0) |

May 15, 2005

Definitely not Ozzie and Harriet's family

Tiger Woods isn't playing this weekend, but I bet you will want to watch the final round of the Byron Nelson Golf Tournament in Dallas after you read this blog post, anyway.

22 year-old Sean O'Hair -- who was born and raised in Lubbock -- is leading the tournament going into the final round. O'Hair was a high school student and one of the nation's top junior players when he turned pro at 17 in September, 1999, one calendar year before fellow teens and future PGA Tour card-holders Ty Tryon and Kevin Na.

However, O'Hair's journey to the PGA Tour was anything but a smooth one. He languished on the mini-tours for the past five years, traveling over 200,000 miles in the process. O'Hair finally won his Tour card by finishing fourth in the 2004 PGA Tour Qualifying School this past fall, but as this January, 2005 GolfWorld article reports, O'Hair has had to overcome a lot more than just the rigors of travel on the mini-tours in attaining his PGA Tour Card:

Marc O'Hair [Sean O'Hair's father], 52, signed management contracts with his son, says he invested $2 million in his boy's professional future and subjected Sean to a physical and psychological regimen that would make most drill sergeants blush. Sean broke free in 2002 and has not spoken to his father since a perfunctory greeting at Sean's wedding more than two years ago.

Marc O'Hair, a large man who wore dark sunglasses, subjected Sean to a rigorous routine that stood out. He was sometimes brusque to tournament, rules and school officials, event organizers and other parents. His son, by design, was treated as a commodity.

Sean signed his first contract with his dad when he was 17, requiring him to pay his father 10 percent of his professional earnings for life. He signed another when he was 20, Marc says.

"I told him, 'I can't blow this kind of money without a return,'" Marc says." 'When you make it, there has to be payback someday.'"

Taking a tough-love approach, Marc drove his son hard. While the results speak for themselves, those who watched the duo believe there was madness in the method. As a junior player, Sean was forced to run a mile for making bogeys or finishing over par at tournaments. Marc once claimed he made Sean run eight miles in 93-degree heat after shooting an 80. At a 1998 AJGA tournament in California, Sean shot 79, then spent part of the night logging seven miles on a treadmill, a friend, Christo Greyling, says.

"The next day, he could hardly walk," remembers Greyling, a former AJGA player and a senior at University of Georgia. "We could hardly believe he [Marc] went through with it."

Other players . . . say Marc would berate his son in the presence of others. Dad admits slapping his son, but he says he never injured him. Sean declines to discuss the specifics of his father's behavior, but he missed numerous social activities because he was on the driving range, working out or watching tapes of his swing. "We'd go to the beach, have an outing at Disney, do something social, and he'd be out in the parking lot with his dad doing some crazy crap [drill]," says Erik Compton, who competed in AJGA events with Sean and roomed with him at the 1998 Canon Cup team matches.

In addition to the golf work, Marc awakened his son at 5 a.m., had him run a mile and lift weights. After Sean turned pro, Marc cooked meals on a portable stove in their hotel room so that Sean ate the right foods. Every day was like boot camp, and the military comparisons aren't by accident.

"What am I supposed to do, say, 'Oh, Seany boy, you don't have to get up early today,'" Marc says sarcastically. "The military, they know how to build a champion. Somebody who slacks off, that's a loser. The typical high-school kid is hanging out at the mall - that's a loser. You have to have a goal or you are just wasting time. I busted my [butt] on this thing. I thought I was doing him a favor. You would not believe what I did for him."

How the family dynamic develops from here is anybody's guess. No question, dad feels a broiling sense of festering betrayal. In fact, Sean is worried that Marc will someday sue him for repayment of the money spent fostering his career. "I hope I don't have to go through that," he says of a legal battle, "because that's been a bit of a concern." Truth be told, dad has other ideas. Marc says he has placed 25 photocopies of their contracts and a cover letter into envelopes he plans to mail to media outlets when his son makes a splash on tour.

"As soon as he gets famous, I am going to lower the boom," Marc says. "I am going to show everybody what he did to me. I have no intention of suing him. I intend to crucify him in the media, because what he did to me is not right."

Read the entire article. Then go watch the tournament and pull for this kid to win it, and for his father never to receive a nickel from him.

Update: Young O'Hair acquitted himself well in the final round, shooting a two under par 68 and finishing in second place, one stroke off Ted Purdy's 15 under par winning score. O'Hair won $669,600 for his second place finish.

Posted by Tom at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) |

May 12, 2005

What will Dan Jenkins say about this?

For the first time, a law firm is sponsoring a PGA Tour golfer. Dallas-based Thompson & Knight has announced that it will sponsor former University of Texas golfer and Abilene native Harrison Frazar on the PGA Tour:

"Harrison approaches golf the same way that Thompson & Knight practices law," said the Firm's Managing Partner Peter Riley. "He has lots of power, the right kind of finesse and, no matter how good he gets, he's bound to get even better."

H'mm. I wonder if Mr. Riley rates Thompson & Knight as the 135th best law firm in the world? That's Mr. Frazar's current ranking in the World Golf Rankings.

Posted by Tom at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) |

May 11, 2005

Dan Jenkins on The Masters

Regular readers of this blog know that Dan Jenkins is my favorite golf writer, bar none. Mr. Jenkins still covers each golf major tournament for Golf Digest magazine, and his article (not yet online) on this year's Master's tournament appears in the current (June) Golf Digest issue. In the article, here's how Mr. Jenkins describes the unconventional putting grip of Chris DiMarco, who engaged in a spirited battle with Tiger Woods before losing to Woods in a playoff:

"[A] putting grip that looks like he's trying to change a tire or open a contrary bottle of wine."

Equally as priceless is Mr. Jenkins' description of the "green jacket" ceremony, in which - keeping with tradition - defending Master's champion Phil Mickelson helped Woods into his fourth green jacket signifying his latest Master's victory:

Speaking of a moment that lacked warmth, how about Phil as the defending champion giving Tiger the green jacket after it was over? They had gone 0-2 together in the Ryder Cup last fall, lowlighted by Phil putting Tiger up against a fence with his drive in the alternate shot [match]. So as Phil eased Tiger into his jacket, I could swear I heard Tiger say,

"Nice going, Phil, you hit my shoulders."

Posted by Tom at 11:35 AM | Comments (2) |

April 24, 2005

Singh wins his second straight Shell Houston Open

Vijay Singh took advantage of long John Daly's hooked drive into the water on the first playoff hole to win his second straight Shell Houston Open golf tournament on Sunday afternoon. Singh and Daly tied at 13 under par after 72 holes, and Singh won the playoff with a par on the first playoff hole, which was the 18th at Redstone Golf Club.

Although the Houston Open is one of those relatively insignificant golf tournaments that take place in the dreaded "down" period between The Masters and the U.S. Open, the entertaining final round probably garnered its share of television viewers who chose it over meaningless first round NBA playoff games and early season baseball games. Daly shot a 5 under 67 on Sunday, including birdies on the difficult 17th and 18th holes to catch Singh, who misread a 5 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have won him the tournament in regulation. Unfortunately, Daly consumed too much caffeine in chugging Diet Cokes while waiting for Singh to finish his round, so he promptly pull-hooked his 3 metal into the water hazard on the left side of the first playoff hole.

As usual, CBS commentator Gary McCord had the crack of the weekend on Sunday. McCord and the other CBS announcers were discussing "golf demons," those devilish quirks that always seem to torment golfers in the heat of competition. Suddenly, during this "golf demon" discussion, the television screen showed Daly's haggard face as he prepared to take a shot. Without mentioning any of Daly's well-chronicled bouts with alcohol abuse, smoking, multiple wives (the latest of which ended up in prison) and overeating, McCord declared:

"Now there is the Mothership of demons!"

So, the Houston Open ends its three year run at the Jacobsen-Hardy Course at Redstone Golf Club and moves across the street next year to the new Rees Jones Course at Redstone that has been specially designed and constructed to host the tournament. The Houston Golf Association is placing its bets that the new course will reach a stature similar to Champions Golf Club's Cypress Creek Course among the top PGA Tour members, who will then make an effort to come and elevate the Houston Open to the elite level of non-major PGA Tour golf tournaments. As noted earlier here, I'm not convinced that this is a sound strategy, but I hope that I am wrong. The HGA does a great job of running the tournament, Shell is a fine title sponsor, and the tournament is already among the top PGA Tour events in terms of raising money for charity. Consequently, the tournament definitely has some things going for it, and perhaps a great new course will be answer to the problem of being an afterthought on the PGA Tour.

Posted by Tom at 8:25 PM | Comments (0) |

April 18, 2005

The amazing Dan Jenkins

Given that it is Shell Houston Open week, it seem appropriate to note that Ft. Worth's Dan Jenkins -- whose writings were previously featured in posts here and here -- is the best golf writer of our times. An outstanding golfer as a collegian at TCU, Mr. Jenkins has covered golf for various publications (he writes a column for Golf Digest these days) for over 50 years. He writes with an engaging combination of wit and historical perspective (he has covered the past 55 straight Masters golf tournaments), which allows him to compare better than anyone else the accomplishments of Tiger Woods to the other dominant golfers of the past 50 years, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. Thankfully, Mr. Jenkins has passed on his talent to his daughter, Sally, who is an excellent sportswriter for the Washington Post.

In connection with the recent Master's golf tournament, Golf Digest ran this article excerpting pieces of Mr. Jenkins' writings over the past 20 years and also providing parts of a recent interview with Mr. Jenkins. Don't miss it. Here are a few gems:

On Ben Crenshaw's emotional and inspirational 1995 Masters victory the week after the death of this long-time mentor, Harvey Penick:

"Not to bury the lead, but all in all, this Masters was a very bad week for atheists."

On Greg Norman shooting 78 and blowing a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo on the last day of the Master's in 1996:

"When Greg Norman self-destructed, Nick Faldo was right there to claim his third green jacket. A strange object slowly bled to death before our very eyes for four hours, and it wasn't even a shark. Although Norman did it to himself and unleashed every Great White Can of Tuna joke in the book, his undoing also wrought sympathy from his most cynical critics. On the one hand, you could appreciate why Faldo hugged Greg on the final green. Why wouldn't you hug a guy who's been that nice to you?"

Which reminds me of Mr. Jenkins' following joke (not included in the article) about Norman, who is a favorite target of Mr. Jenkins. Upon French golfer Jean Van de Velde's blow-up on the final hole that cost him the 1999 British Open, Mr. Jenkins observed:

Q: What does "Jean Van de Velde" mean in English?

A: "Greg Norman."

Again on Norman, this time after he hit a wayward shot on the 18th hole of the 1986 Masters ensuring Jack Nicklaus' fifth green jacket:

"What do you do if you're Greg Norman in the 18th fairway of the Masters on Sunday and you're trying to get Jack Nicklaus into a playoff? You hit a half-shank, push-fade, semi-slice 4-iron that guarantees the proper result for the history books. Oh, well, Greg Norman always has looked like the guy you send out to kill James Bond, not Jack Nicklaus."

On the proliferation of Tournament Player Courses on the PGA Tour:

"TPC sounds too much like something kids sniff."

On Ian Baker-Finch's blow-up round during the 1997 British Open:

"He went out in 44 and came back in 48, which sounded like a man's service history in World War II."

And finally, in the interview, Mr. Jenkins is asked whether today's PGA Tour players are as accessible to the press as the players of bygone eras:

"Not even close. Hell, they're not even accessible to each other. The old guys hung out, in the locker rooms, bars, restaurants. Players and writers drank together, had dinner together. Back then, smoking wasn't a felony and cocktails came easier."

Dan Jenkins is a Texan and American treasure.

Update: I just have to pass along this Jenkins anecdote from Dr. Jim Bob Baker, a reader of this blog who commented:

After years of cigarettes and cream gravy, Jenkins had to face the inevitable Cardiac Bypass surgery, but he managed to joke about even this. His surgeon had said that he was planning to do 4 bypass grafts pre-operatively, but managed to restore good blood flow to Jenkins' heart with only three, prompting Jenkins to brag that he had "birdied my bypass."

"Birdied my bypass?" Classic Jenkins!

Posted by Tom at 5:30 AM | Comments (2) |

April 17, 2005

It's 2005 Shell Houston Open week

The 2005 Shell Houston Open is this week at Redstone Golf Club as the no. 2 ranked player in the world -- Vijay Singh -- returns to defend his 2004 title. Shreveport native David Toms, the ninth-ranked player in the World Golf Rankings, is also in the field, but he is the only other player in the tournament who is in the Top 10 of the World Rankings. Although the tournament's awkward date two weeks after The Masters -- among other problems -- continues to hurt the quality of the field, crowd favorites such as John Daly, Steve Elkington, Chad Campbell, Darren Clarke, Charles Howell III, Mark Calcavecchia, and Jose Maria Olazabal make the field good enough to justify making the trek to Redstone for a day or two of the tournament. Here is the Chronicle's special section on the tournment.