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.

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.’

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 USGAís head agronomist, has been relieved of his post.
USGA spokesperson Marty Parkes, contacted by telephone at the U.S. Womenís 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 ìan agronomist from the green section in this part of the country.î
The talk of Moraghanís 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?

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. ;^)

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.

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.

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.

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 Europeís 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 Montgomerieís 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.
“Heís 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 ó the main condition of his employment being that he should not talk too much ó 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 Oakmontís 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: “Itís such a shame. Itís 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: ‘Iím 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 ëGet in the holeí 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: ëI was only trying to encourage him.í [. . .]

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 didnít 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 ìusher in Tiger and Phil,î but he also played ìtee to green, under pressure, the best round of golf heís ever seen.î
ìIím not trying to pat myself on the back,î he said. Yes, Johnny. Thatís exactly what youíre doing. And it didnít 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. ìThis is the finest golf course in the world,î he said.
Then Johnny went on to say that ìwhen 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.î
Okay then Johnny, I thought to myself. If weíre trying to find the ìA-plus player,î 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 ìthe 19th?î
So I asked him, ìIf Oakmont is as ridiculous as all the players are saying it is, and itís setting up like the winner is going to be a lot more lucky than good, does that change your opinion of the course?î
Well, this of course threw Johnny for a loop as he backtracked into saying how great the USGA was and that the USGA wouldnít let a tournament get so out of hand. Well, they already have. Numerous times. Some players wonít even try to qualify for the U.S. Open, and if they already did, wonít play in it. Why is that? Because the best ball striker, the best player on the course, likely doesnít win these tournaments. Good shots are not rewarded, and the scores go so high it becomes miserable for those in attendance. Iím not saying the U.S. Open shouldnít 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 Millerís fantastic insight on what every player needs to do, even though he canít do it himself.

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.