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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Golf Club of Houston 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 Golf Club of Houston course.

Interestingly, at one time, the construction of the Fazio Course would have meant that the Golf Club of Houston course 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 Golf Club of Houston.

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 Golf Club of Houston — 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. Here is slideshow of photos from the course.

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,î 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.

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.”

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.

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.