Royal Lytham & St. Anne's provided unrivaled agony and ecstasy at the finish in 2012. I certainly held amazingly polar feelings simultaneously at the finish. as a long time Ernie Els fan, I was very happy that he won the event, win it he did. Statistically he played the best round of the day and he had put himself in a reasonable position to contend. Now a major winner in three decades, he is among elite, where he belongs; had it not been for balky confidence to go with his balky putter he would be the one with 15 majors now, not Woods. Els has left a lifetime of putts on-line left short in majors; one might argue that he has always been so self-effacing that he was too nice to be a killer but good enough to still be great. As a human being, he has done a great deal for humanity while having quite a career as a golfer. It is good to see him win another, this writer hopes it is not his last.
On the other hand it was difficult to see Adam Scott whittle away his lead, but he did let it go and at the wrong time. P r e s s u r e. It was indeed a collapse, but collapses can be as little as an inch or three once or four times, Tom Watson surely collapsed at Turnberry two years ago as did Van de Velde in 1999, a matter of degree, we golfers all know it. Coupling a slow & gentle collapse with a strong 32 final nine finish, Els was and is a worthy champion. He did enough and did it at the right time.
The simultaneous pairing of emotions was something only golf can do. ESPN was at its most shameless at Tiger hucksterism this Open. Trying to pull in the sport rather than the golf fan is their primary motivation and it shows to an embarrassing degree. Golf's default is that one never knows until the end who the champion will be as was illustrated again this year at The Open as it has the other two hostings I mentioned. Tiger Woods has been reminding us just how monumental his run was. Those students of the game will know the likelihood of return to that level is no more possible than Rory McIlroy becoming the next one. Golf's charm is partly in its cruelty, it is so much as is life charming, rewarding, heartbreaking and fickle - rare so all at once as this special Open. We'll be off next to Kiawah's Ocean Course for a very unusual and worthy US PGA - certainly golf's red-headed stepchild major. It will be the hardest major in years to handicap, but there is one sure bet - Tiger v. The Field. The field in a walk, guaranteed. Tiger has no chance.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Ramblings on False Idols, Heroes and Sport
Outside of golf, the big sport story leading up to the Olympic Opening in 3 days is the sanctions handed down to the Pennsylvania State University yesterday in the wake of investigations and deliberations by the NCtwoA after pedophilic abuse convictions of Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky.
My history includes three major events that lead to my opining on the matter and to offer a couple of questions although I will add some other anecdotal history that I hope is interesting. All of us that love sport have our heroes and those that we admire for skill and perhaps also for grace and courage. I loved baseball before golf, golf had come to me in the early 1960's but not doggedly so until I gave up on baseball and more importantly idols. The place of sport and the men and women who play it in society is what really came under fire yesterday in Indianapolis at that press conference. That is the message that one should take from the events of yesterday. It was very sad to see some Penn State students commenting on how their beloved football had been taken away, I can't excuse the mindset of youth for that.
In the spring of 1962, I attended a pre-season baseball game in West Palm Beach, FL, that changed how I viewed sport forever in the course of perhaps 15 seconds. We all wanted to see Mickey Mantle, no one it seems wanted to see Roger Maris that or any day, Mickey was THE Man (You daMan!). He didn't play and over 300 of us waited for Mickey at the visitor's clubhouse door for probably 30 minutes, maybe more. Those of you that know me have might have heard the blue version, but that's not for here. Suffice it to say that 300 people kids, young adults, fathers, grand-parents - all were silent and walked away changed, me forever and unforgivingly so. I learned that maybe we ought not get so invested in someone of such character. Golf had its episode recently, too but now that so many sports fans are on board with golf winning seems to be all that matters.
In golf, I discovered an admirable, if not particularly pleasant man who was as strong an individual that I have encountered in the public realm who could be a hero, he remains one of my few today. Unfortunately, I never got to see him play but know or have known a dozen people who personally knew him including a man who bought his company, a company legendary for his dedication to quality and its mere association with his name. I played 3 sets of his irons over a course of over 30 years, only changing because I liked a new model better and needed new clubs. I admired this man for his dedication, his values and as a surgeon - for what he overcame in the primitive medical conditions of when he was injured. Obviously that man is Ben Hogan, the only man ever to win every Major Championship available to him in a calendar year - a feat in golf unmatched since. He overcame so much in his life personally and as he neared death and after we learned - psychologically so. There is no "greatest of all time" categorically, but he fits my set of criteria as a most remarkable man as well as golfer.
In an amazing sense of irony, I did not even play American Football (great big lug that I am) until my junior year of high school - living in Florida of all places. I had a funny little illness at age 18 months and my dear Mother was to be kind a bit protective. She finally reneged to my requests to play and I went from jayvee to starter at Defensive Tackle in less than a season. I didn't like like it, did not like the coaches teaching me ways to cheat and not get caught (rather goes against Golf's Ethos) and especially did not like those illegally blocking my 6'5" frame. I escaped injuries that season and never cared to play again, Basketball was far more important to me as well as the golf. So the basic tenets of American Football were not really consistent with how I viewed sport as we parted ways. I was also a student first, got to speak at Graduation Day.
I attended the University of Florida from 1969-1974, a true big time American College Football school as there is, certainly Top 10 for how importantly one associates the name of the school with Football above all else. I was in athletics, a non-scholarship athlete who chose, given the opportunity, to live in famed Yon Hall under the east stands of The Swamp, eat at the training table and live with the top athletes of that era of that fine (Academic & certainly sports) institution. I didn't do steroids and wouldn't so my potential as a shot putter was limited although I did throw a mildly respectable 54' 11" best. The best part of Yon Hall was meeting athletes and learning about how big time college athletics worked. I knew John Reaves and Carlos Alvarez - the dynamic QB -WR team that led UF from obscurity to Gator Bowl Championship in one season and saw the divergent paths each took. Reaves had a minor NFL Career with some bad luck and timing contributing to a long devolving personal horror story and Alvarez (Carlos Alvarez Vasquez Rodriguez Ubieta) declining to become a Dallas Cowboy to attend Law School and excel in his chosen field. I also more importantly learned first-hand just how inappropriate American College Football is viewed in America.
My days at Florida took a great turn when I quit the track team - Head Coach Jimmy Carnes had promised scholarship money to me if I reached a certain goal, (which I did my sophomore year) and reneged when I asked him about it. Karma* caught him in 1980. I went to play golf on my own time at the UF course for $33 per student quarter (about the cost of 3 dozen balls). This in that time allowed me to play with all the scholarship players such as Gary Koch, Andy North, Andy Bean, Fred Ridley, Woody Blackburn, Suzanne Jackson (UF's first great Lady Golfer who became a world-class rules official before leaving this world far too early at age 46) and non-scholarship try-out players, most notably "Fast Eddie" from Long Island. I am particularly proud to remember Suzanne as my good friend. I never even tried to try out; I knew after a few rounds with Koch that I had zero chance of reaching THAT level. I did get my 6 or more rounds in a week and nothing ever came close to golf in my heart after that. The Donald Ross gem we had available to play also really got my interest in design started. It was the first non-pancake (SoFL) course I got to know intimately. I have a Gator Golf Bag for caddies to carry, but it is for the Golf Team, no one else.
Fast forward to Denver Metro area 1987, fall, first "Full Pads Practice" for the Denver Broncos in Fort Collins, CO. Front page news, SRO. A couple of years later even what John Elway (the man who broke all of Reaves NCAA QB records, incidentally) gave out for Halloween candy was big news, his reaction to it being published might have even made the news. Anyway, the mis-placed idolatry for NFL Football came to the fore. I believe that summer day of full pad taught me the meaning of "Get a Life" as did no other event could. The bonus was that Saturday during CU Buffaloes (another big-time school for football) games and Sundays during Bronco games, I could play 3 hour rounds of golf. You can still find me on a golf course on Sundays in the fall after 1 p.m. wherever I am in America. Only GolfFans, not sports fans are out then.
So yesterday the NCAA made a statement about priorities, it might not have much impact, but they did make that statement and they reiterated that they did say so. Football unites families, but perspective is lost and I frankly find the start-stop nature of it annoying, I don't really watch except to be polite company. I prefer what the world calls football and we call soccer. It has an occasional great human being as a superstar, too. Didier Drogba of the Côte d'Ivoire, named by time as one of the world's Top 100 influential people for his role in abating civil war in his country. Certainly World Football has its problems with riots and racism, too.
Sport needs putting into perspective, maybe this set of actions can contribute. I personally have no grudge against Penn State, its many Alumni many very fine people, let me make that clear. Many Penn State Alumni are my friends, take no offense. My Florida brethren neither you as well, this is a national culture issue that I see needing address.
So my questions:
Do the vacated wins for 1988-2011 for Penn State affect in retrospect the contracts of the coaches and A.D. at Penn State? Certainly the main effect was to not reward Paterno as the "Winningest Coach of All-Time", but did the decision to vacate cause financial impact to those who knew or might have acted? Sport is a small community and to believe knowledge was limited to a very few is challenging to believe.
Is America ready to put academics and sport in proper perspective at least at the College level? (Tuition has historically been several thousand dollars more for Penn State College Station (Main PSU Campus) students than any other Pennsylvania public University, little wonder why. I make a plea to education at all costs, especially Science, Math and non-English language studies, that is why we should go to University.
Finally - My condolences go out to the unknowing punished by all of this and those unintendedly harmed - the game day sellers, the swag merchants, the hawkers of team rah-rah stadium favors. There is always unfortunate collateral damage in any action.
A perhaps unimportant note is that Jimmy Carnes Karma* payoff was that he was named Head Athletics Coach for Team USA in 1980. For those that forget, James Earl Carter did not allow the USA Athletes to attend the Olympic games in Moscow. A totally hollow appointment, just desserts.
My history includes three major events that lead to my opining on the matter and to offer a couple of questions although I will add some other anecdotal history that I hope is interesting. All of us that love sport have our heroes and those that we admire for skill and perhaps also for grace and courage. I loved baseball before golf, golf had come to me in the early 1960's but not doggedly so until I gave up on baseball and more importantly idols. The place of sport and the men and women who play it in society is what really came under fire yesterday in Indianapolis at that press conference. That is the message that one should take from the events of yesterday. It was very sad to see some Penn State students commenting on how their beloved football had been taken away, I can't excuse the mindset of youth for that.
In the spring of 1962, I attended a pre-season baseball game in West Palm Beach, FL, that changed how I viewed sport forever in the course of perhaps 15 seconds. We all wanted to see Mickey Mantle, no one it seems wanted to see Roger Maris that or any day, Mickey was THE Man (You daMan!). He didn't play and over 300 of us waited for Mickey at the visitor's clubhouse door for probably 30 minutes, maybe more. Those of you that know me have might have heard the blue version, but that's not for here. Suffice it to say that 300 people kids, young adults, fathers, grand-parents - all were silent and walked away changed, me forever and unforgivingly so. I learned that maybe we ought not get so invested in someone of such character. Golf had its episode recently, too but now that so many sports fans are on board with golf winning seems to be all that matters.
In golf, I discovered an admirable, if not particularly pleasant man who was as strong an individual that I have encountered in the public realm who could be a hero, he remains one of my few today. Unfortunately, I never got to see him play but know or have known a dozen people who personally knew him including a man who bought his company, a company legendary for his dedication to quality and its mere association with his name. I played 3 sets of his irons over a course of over 30 years, only changing because I liked a new model better and needed new clubs. I admired this man for his dedication, his values and as a surgeon - for what he overcame in the primitive medical conditions of when he was injured. Obviously that man is Ben Hogan, the only man ever to win every Major Championship available to him in a calendar year - a feat in golf unmatched since. He overcame so much in his life personally and as he neared death and after we learned - psychologically so. There is no "greatest of all time" categorically, but he fits my set of criteria as a most remarkable man as well as golfer.
In an amazing sense of irony, I did not even play American Football (great big lug that I am) until my junior year of high school - living in Florida of all places. I had a funny little illness at age 18 months and my dear Mother was to be kind a bit protective. She finally reneged to my requests to play and I went from jayvee to starter at Defensive Tackle in less than a season. I didn't like like it, did not like the coaches teaching me ways to cheat and not get caught (rather goes against Golf's Ethos) and especially did not like those illegally blocking my 6'5" frame. I escaped injuries that season and never cared to play again, Basketball was far more important to me as well as the golf. So the basic tenets of American Football were not really consistent with how I viewed sport as we parted ways. I was also a student first, got to speak at Graduation Day.
I attended the University of Florida from 1969-1974, a true big time American College Football school as there is, certainly Top 10 for how importantly one associates the name of the school with Football above all else. I was in athletics, a non-scholarship athlete who chose, given the opportunity, to live in famed Yon Hall under the east stands of The Swamp, eat at the training table and live with the top athletes of that era of that fine (Academic & certainly sports) institution. I didn't do steroids and wouldn't so my potential as a shot putter was limited although I did throw a mildly respectable 54' 11" best. The best part of Yon Hall was meeting athletes and learning about how big time college athletics worked. I knew John Reaves and Carlos Alvarez - the dynamic QB -WR team that led UF from obscurity to Gator Bowl Championship in one season and saw the divergent paths each took. Reaves had a minor NFL Career with some bad luck and timing contributing to a long devolving personal horror story and Alvarez (Carlos Alvarez Vasquez Rodriguez Ubieta) declining to become a Dallas Cowboy to attend Law School and excel in his chosen field. I also more importantly learned first-hand just how inappropriate American College Football is viewed in America.
My days at Florida took a great turn when I quit the track team - Head Coach Jimmy Carnes had promised scholarship money to me if I reached a certain goal, (which I did my sophomore year) and reneged when I asked him about it. Karma* caught him in 1980. I went to play golf on my own time at the UF course for $33 per student quarter (about the cost of 3 dozen balls). This in that time allowed me to play with all the scholarship players such as Gary Koch, Andy North, Andy Bean, Fred Ridley, Woody Blackburn, Suzanne Jackson (UF's first great Lady Golfer who became a world-class rules official before leaving this world far too early at age 46) and non-scholarship try-out players, most notably "Fast Eddie" from Long Island. I am particularly proud to remember Suzanne as my good friend. I never even tried to try out; I knew after a few rounds with Koch that I had zero chance of reaching THAT level. I did get my 6 or more rounds in a week and nothing ever came close to golf in my heart after that. The Donald Ross gem we had available to play also really got my interest in design started. It was the first non-pancake (SoFL) course I got to know intimately. I have a Gator Golf Bag for caddies to carry, but it is for the Golf Team, no one else.
Fast forward to Denver Metro area 1987, fall, first "Full Pads Practice" for the Denver Broncos in Fort Collins, CO. Front page news, SRO. A couple of years later even what John Elway (the man who broke all of Reaves NCAA QB records, incidentally) gave out for Halloween candy was big news, his reaction to it being published might have even made the news. Anyway, the mis-placed idolatry for NFL Football came to the fore. I believe that summer day of full pad taught me the meaning of "Get a Life" as did no other event could. The bonus was that Saturday during CU Buffaloes (another big-time school for football) games and Sundays during Bronco games, I could play 3 hour rounds of golf. You can still find me on a golf course on Sundays in the fall after 1 p.m. wherever I am in America. Only GolfFans, not sports fans are out then.
So yesterday the NCAA made a statement about priorities, it might not have much impact, but they did make that statement and they reiterated that they did say so. Football unites families, but perspective is lost and I frankly find the start-stop nature of it annoying, I don't really watch except to be polite company. I prefer what the world calls football and we call soccer. It has an occasional great human being as a superstar, too. Didier Drogba of the Côte d'Ivoire, named by time as one of the world's Top 100 influential people for his role in abating civil war in his country. Certainly World Football has its problems with riots and racism, too.
Sport needs putting into perspective, maybe this set of actions can contribute. I personally have no grudge against Penn State, its many Alumni many very fine people, let me make that clear. Many Penn State Alumni are my friends, take no offense. My Florida brethren neither you as well, this is a national culture issue that I see needing address.
So my questions:
Do the vacated wins for 1988-2011 for Penn State affect in retrospect the contracts of the coaches and A.D. at Penn State? Certainly the main effect was to not reward Paterno as the "Winningest Coach of All-Time", but did the decision to vacate cause financial impact to those who knew or might have acted? Sport is a small community and to believe knowledge was limited to a very few is challenging to believe.
Is America ready to put academics and sport in proper perspective at least at the College level? (Tuition has historically been several thousand dollars more for Penn State College Station (Main PSU Campus) students than any other Pennsylvania public University, little wonder why. I make a plea to education at all costs, especially Science, Math and non-English language studies, that is why we should go to University.
Finally - My condolences go out to the unknowing punished by all of this and those unintendedly harmed - the game day sellers, the swag merchants, the hawkers of team rah-rah stadium favors. There is always unfortunate collateral damage in any action.
A perhaps unimportant note is that Jimmy Carnes Karma* payoff was that he was named Head Athletics Coach for Team USA in 1980. For those that forget, James Earl Carter did not allow the USA Athletes to attend the Olympic games in Moscow. A totally hollow appointment, just desserts.
Monday, July 23, 2012
redanman weighs in on anchoring and Congrats BIg Ernie!
Stroke
A “stroke’’ is the forward movement of the club made with the intention of striking at and moving the ball,
It seems to me:
The decision has already been made (I believe it was made this past winter)
It is all about anchoring, it will be declared to not be consistent with the definition of "a stroke"
It will be announced after the US PGA at Kiawah that anchoring is forbidden
The only question is date of institution of the change? For elite competition? For All golfers.
Elite:
Start of 2013?
Before Masters 2013?
Start of 2014?
No later.
All golfers:
2015
My guesses.
Still congrats to Els despite the early inaccurate coronation by someone at the theopen.com website's coronation of Scott as posted yesterday. Condolences to all in OZ staying up all night just to be gutted, I feel for you.
Els is specifically working to get away from the anchored putter, hopefully he can look back soon and say he was literally using a crutch. Here's to Els and a career Grand Slam.
Huzzah!
A “stroke’’ is the forward movement of the club made with the intention of striking at and moving the ball,
It seems to me:
The decision has already been made (I believe it was made this past winter)
It is all about anchoring, it will be declared to not be consistent with the definition of "a stroke"
It will be announced after the US PGA at Kiawah that anchoring is forbidden
The only question is date of institution of the change? For elite competition? For All golfers.
Elite:
Start of 2013?
Before Masters 2013?
Start of 2014?
No later.
All golfers:
2015
My guesses.
Still congrats to Els despite the early inaccurate coronation by someone at the theopen.com website's coronation of Scott as posted yesterday. Condolences to all in OZ staying up all night just to be gutted, I feel for you.
Els is specifically working to get away from the anchored putter, hopefully he can look back soon and say he was literally using a crutch. Here's to Els and a career Grand Slam.
Huzzah!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Jumping the gun
14.55 B.S.T screen shot from theopen.com (click image to enlarge)
can you spot it?
23 July edit: Only a very few of you actually noticed this but someone at the website was a bit premature. Apparently a medal had already been started with Adam Scott's name on it for presentation as well!
The fat Lady sang pretty late yesterday!
If you haven't spotted it, under Scott's profile it says (as it does for Tiger 2000, 2005, 2006)
OPEN CHAMPION 2012
ESPN showed the medal pre-readied for engraving on the TV (from the World BBC Feed), but this prize-giving was far earlier.
can you spot it?
23 July edit: Only a very few of you actually noticed this but someone at the website was a bit premature. Apparently a medal had already been started with Adam Scott's name on it for presentation as well!
The fat Lady sang pretty late yesterday!
If you haven't spotted it, under Scott's profile it says (as it does for Tiger 2000, 2005, 2006)
OPEN CHAMPION 2012
ESPN showed the medal pre-readied for engraving on the TV (from the World BBC Feed), but this prize-giving was far earlier.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Ratings & Rankings IIa
Recently we had the week of The Memorial the tournament that Jack built; his own private Masters Invitational Tournament. Once can argue about MVGC as a personal Augusta National, but not only Mr. Nicklaus (Castle Pines GC, Shoal Creek, etc.), but Rees Jones(LedgeRock, Red Stick, Piedmont Driving, ), Tom Fazio (The Alotian), and Lester George (Kinloch) for three have built lovely Modern Augusta National Model based clubs in various states around the nation. One might argue that Friar's Head in its own way is of that model, but I think it is too different so I won't include it in this discussion.
The Muirfield Village GC is probably the most like ANGC because it has its own now lengthy history of an invitational tournament and ANGC-like list of revisions, something on the order of 5 of them this year alone. A completely new par 3 16th with a pond is as notable as any change and as with 16 at ANGC, it has ... wait for it ... a pond now, just like the real one. to me the saddest (upcoming change) is the planned clubhouse demolition and new clubhouse. There was something special about that MVGC just as the originals at The Ocean Course at TPC Sawgrass - a special simplicity (although Ocean Course did a much better job on that clubhouse re-build).
But American Corporate Golfers just love that awe-inspiring clubhouse re-build that somehow AGNC has avoided. The presence of these large, top quality construction clubhouses do little to nothing to decrease the presence of these exclusive clubs in the mind of those seeking to play great golf courses, play Top 100 lists and just play travel and member-guest tournaments.
But this is the week of the USGA Open or The Open or The National Open, I prefer the USGA Open. It is at Olympic, a seminal venue for the USGA Open and a great example of the courses that host this tournament. It is relatively charming for a USGA Open site and has provided us with some of the best theatre ever in US Golf History - Fleck beating Hogan with his own clubs to deny Hogan the fifth he so deserved - and not the first or last time that happened. The foreshadowing of Payne Stewart as US Open Champion - then he was lost to us forever. What would his effect have been in the age of Tiger? I for one think he would have been able to perhaps understand and deal with Woods of that era as well as anyone due to his strong mental character which he forged, not unlike Hogan, pity he didn't get back-to-backs.
But there is the Greek Tragedy of 1966 if written by Dan Jenkins we would have rejected as preposterous. The King indeed - redeeming himself from the embarrassment of losing to Jack in his proverbial back yard at Oakmont in 1962. Seven up with 9 to play, he dared to break Hogan's Open record score and failed miserably - failed again on the sixteenth for any chance of redemption for a win in regulation also taking six on the seventeenth to tie only to fall apart again on the second nine in the playoff Monday round (this time only from two ahead). Read it as fiction, never believe it as plausible, yet it was real life golf.
We're hearing that it's the dawning of a new Age of Tiger and he's in for a walk off win. Remember, it's at the O this week. The bunkerless wonder with reverse cant fairways, still too many trees, too narrow fairways, bent greens that should remain pure bent until the playoff Monday is over and site of the loss of two very charming par 3 holes - most recently the lovely blind 8th (bearing no resemblance whatsoever to its origins) and previously at the hands of Weiskopf design the short 15th. We won't talk of number 8's creator and just sit back and watch. As Medinah #3 was my first "Open Course", O Lake was the first that I played as many as 50 times - and still the most played Major Tournament Venue for me - built on the most interesting terrain, certainly. I can't really praise O Lake architecturally as greatness, but it is near the top for where the USGA has left its mark.
As the hangover now begins we look back at yet another USGA Open of attrition. To be fair Simpson did win it shooting the only sub-par round in the final 18 players and Furyk uncharacteristically made a mistake and gave it away. He was flummoxed by a move of the tees on #16 (an awkward slog at best) of nearly 100 yards shortening which brought back into play the same sharp left turn than nicked Palmer back in 1966. The old story of 16 at O Lake is that Bob Jones easily hit it in two but of course there were no trees and there was technically an elbow hole rather than a dog-leg (Tillinghast made the distinction very clear). I don't know if that is lore or fact, but it is true that Sam Snead, the great bettor as well as great champion indeed suckered a younger long-hitting pro in a similar spot by goading the player "When I was your age, I used to just hit it over those trees there and cut the dog leg." When the younger player failed to do so, Snead of course finished the story ... "When I was your age, those trees weren't nearly as tall."
Hard to believe from TV but over the years many thousands of trees have come down at Olympic. Very good stroke play minded players like trees as they are "fair" and similar to water clearly reward "good" shots and punish "bad" ones. Golf is a bit cut and dried that way but it works for the USGA thus they love Olympic and plans are already being aired to return. Hopefully in their pursuit to find west coast courses for the USGA Open they will create new courses or ruin mediocre ones such as was done at Torrey Pines rather than doing any more of Fazio's "magic" to Riviera or one of the few other remaining golden age courses left anywhere near L.A. Basin.
So as the major season enters its overseas leg we can leave the single file fairways preferred by American golfers as "great tests" and return to the "unfair" links and fouil (proper golf) weather. My last Saturday's round was played in 20-30 m.p.h. winds and heavy overcast with 60 degree temperatures - just as I prefer - proper golf weather.
The Muirfield Village GC is probably the most like ANGC because it has its own now lengthy history of an invitational tournament and ANGC-like list of revisions, something on the order of 5 of them this year alone. A completely new par 3 16th with a pond is as notable as any change and as with 16 at ANGC, it has ... wait for it ... a pond now, just like the real one. to me the saddest (upcoming change) is the planned clubhouse demolition and new clubhouse. There was something special about that MVGC just as the originals at The Ocean Course at TPC Sawgrass - a special simplicity (although Ocean Course did a much better job on that clubhouse re-build).
But American Corporate Golfers just love that awe-inspiring clubhouse re-build that somehow AGNC has avoided. The presence of these large, top quality construction clubhouses do little to nothing to decrease the presence of these exclusive clubs in the mind of those seeking to play great golf courses, play Top 100 lists and just play travel and member-guest tournaments.
But this is the week of the USGA Open or The Open or The National Open, I prefer the USGA Open. It is at Olympic, a seminal venue for the USGA Open and a great example of the courses that host this tournament. It is relatively charming for a USGA Open site and has provided us with some of the best theatre ever in US Golf History - Fleck beating Hogan with his own clubs to deny Hogan the fifth he so deserved - and not the first or last time that happened. The foreshadowing of Payne Stewart as US Open Champion - then he was lost to us forever. What would his effect have been in the age of Tiger? I for one think he would have been able to perhaps understand and deal with Woods of that era as well as anyone due to his strong mental character which he forged, not unlike Hogan, pity he didn't get back-to-backs.
But there is the Greek Tragedy of 1966 if written by Dan Jenkins we would have rejected as preposterous. The King indeed - redeeming himself from the embarrassment of losing to Jack in his proverbial back yard at Oakmont in 1962. Seven up with 9 to play, he dared to break Hogan's Open record score and failed miserably - failed again on the sixteenth for any chance of redemption for a win in regulation also taking six on the seventeenth to tie only to fall apart again on the second nine in the playoff Monday round (this time only from two ahead). Read it as fiction, never believe it as plausible, yet it was real life golf.
We're hearing that it's the dawning of a new Age of Tiger and he's in for a walk off win. Remember, it's at the O this week. The bunkerless wonder with reverse cant fairways, still too many trees, too narrow fairways, bent greens that should remain pure bent until the playoff Monday is over and site of the loss of two very charming par 3 holes - most recently the lovely blind 8th (bearing no resemblance whatsoever to its origins) and previously at the hands of Weiskopf design the short 15th. We won't talk of number 8's creator and just sit back and watch. As Medinah #3 was my first "Open Course", O Lake was the first that I played as many as 50 times - and still the most played Major Tournament Venue for me - built on the most interesting terrain, certainly. I can't really praise O Lake architecturally as greatness, but it is near the top for where the USGA has left its mark.
As the hangover now begins we look back at yet another USGA Open of attrition. To be fair Simpson did win it shooting the only sub-par round in the final 18 players and Furyk uncharacteristically made a mistake and gave it away. He was flummoxed by a move of the tees on #16 (an awkward slog at best) of nearly 100 yards shortening which brought back into play the same sharp left turn than nicked Palmer back in 1966. The old story of 16 at O Lake is that Bob Jones easily hit it in two but of course there were no trees and there was technically an elbow hole rather than a dog-leg (Tillinghast made the distinction very clear). I don't know if that is lore or fact, but it is true that Sam Snead, the great bettor as well as great champion indeed suckered a younger long-hitting pro in a similar spot by goading the player "When I was your age, I used to just hit it over those trees there and cut the dog leg." When the younger player failed to do so, Snead of course finished the story ... "When I was your age, those trees weren't nearly as tall."
Hard to believe from TV but over the years many thousands of trees have come down at Olympic. Very good stroke play minded players like trees as they are "fair" and similar to water clearly reward "good" shots and punish "bad" ones. Golf is a bit cut and dried that way but it works for the USGA thus they love Olympic and plans are already being aired to return. Hopefully in their pursuit to find west coast courses for the USGA Open they will create new courses or ruin mediocre ones such as was done at Torrey Pines rather than doing any more of Fazio's "magic" to Riviera or one of the few other remaining golden age courses left anywhere near L.A. Basin.
So as the major season enters its overseas leg we can leave the single file fairways preferred by American golfers as "great tests" and return to the "unfair" links and fouil (proper golf) weather. My last Saturday's round was played in 20-30 m.p.h. winds and heavy overcast with 60 degree temperatures - just as I prefer - proper golf weather.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)