Furrowing A Failure Or Success?

Despite the negative player comments and the heated debate that CBS did their best to pretend wasn't happening by actually showing player interviews (imagine a NASCAR or NFL telecast running so timidly from an interesting controversy), it seems that the bunker furrowing at Muirfield Village brought attention to the question of whether a bunker should be a hazard.

It would also seem that most everyone who didn't vote on a rake spec while serving on the Tour policy board believes bunkers are too good and that this was a great start to restoring the hazard element.

It would also seem that furrowing wasn't the perfect way to go about it,  since it appeared fairway bunkers were treated different than greenside bunkers and there was a debate about which direction to rake in, the depth, the motivation, etc...

And there are also questions about how this little experiment will influence Green Committees across the land.

Finally, the excessive rough that has overtaken the sport would seem to make the concept seem more "unfair" than it really is.

My verdict: it was delightful to see bunkers mean something again. It was even more fun hear select players who have pushed a $elfish agenda on the distance issue--the primary culprit behind all of this setup madness--whine over something that appeared in part because of deregulation.

Your verdict?

Azinger Furrows Brow At Furrows*

From the Dayton Daily News, Bucky Albers reporting:

"It's a joke, really," Azinger said after turning in a 71 Friday that left him at even par after 36 holes. "Peter Lonard is one of the best fairway bunker players I've ever seen. We were the same. He couldn't hit it out, and neither could I.

"It neutralizes everybody who is a good bunker player. The best players in the world are trying to separate themselves from the next guy down. It just makes it harder. Jack (Nicklaus) separated himself his whole career."

Someone mentioned that bunker shots weren't Nicklaus' strong suit. "He was not a great bunker player, but he was never in them," Azinger said.

Azinger said the players have no say-so about playing conditions, and he doesn't think they should have any input because each would prefer conditions that favor his skills.

Update on 2006-06-05 02:16 by Geoff

After his final round, Azinger had this to say:

"I think that they probably avoided the bunkers this week. I didn't hit too many bunkers, and it cost me big time. I didn't hit it very good, so it's supposed to cost me. I don't have a problem with the concept that a bunker should be difficult, but I do have a problem with a bunker being prepared in a way that makes somebody who's phenomenal the same as somebody who's terrible, does that make sense?"

And I'm not sure about this logic...

"If you hate the bunkers being easier, just take them out. Make the whole place grass, if the bunkers are that easy, make the whole place grass. They're not that easy."

How about hard bunkers and less tall grass? 

Hawkins: It's All About Jack

Golf World's John Hawkins misses the point behind the Memorial bunker furrowing, chalking it up to appeasing Jack Nicklaus. He obviously didn't get the message that people find it ridiculous when players would rather their ball up in sand than rough.

The lead reminds you that Darwin, he ain't.

Fortify a PGA Tour venue with four inches of lush rough? Bravo! Gooseneck the fairways, hide the pins, triple-cut the greens? You betcha. Create furrows in the bunker sand? Are you freakin’ nuts?

And the real reason behind this furrowing madness...

As for the notion that tournament officials ignored standard procedure as determined by the tour’s own policy board, one can only chuckle. The players themselves are all too aware of how little influence they have in Camp Ponte Vedra’s version of democracy, particularly when it involves Nicklaus. Jack wanted grooves in the sand so the boys would have harder time short-siding an approach, splashing out to two feet and moving on. The tour wasn’t about to object to the wishes of the man they just named 2007 Presidents Cup captain, a man who almost always gets what he wants and is usually right.

“Why does everybody want a free ride?” Jack pondered during the Friday telecast. “You don’t hear much [complaining] from the good players. The tour said it wants to keep doing this—we’ll find out whether [it has] any guts or not. It will be interesting to see what [happens] next week.”

Next week? You can bet the tour will follow the path of least resistance at Westchester and beyond. The bunkers will return to their pristine state, the moaning will cease, and it will be business as usual. Nicklaus has always cast the Memorial as something of a Masters knockoff, complete with its own little set of rules (caddies wear white jumpsuits, no reporters on the practice range), many of which have been abandoned over the years. It’s Jack’s way of reminding us who he is, a right to which he is perfectly entitled, and Camp Ponte Vedra isn’t about to play the role of heavy one week each year.

Somehow, I think there is a whole lot more to this than coddling Jack Nicklaus's ego.

More Muirfield Moaning

As much as I'd like to side with the players, their cause is hurt by a consistent inability to articulate why bunker furrowing is a bad idea and by their reluctance to address the distance issue that has led to situations like this. 

Ken Gordon had these comments in the Dispatch:

"They’re not very good, that’s about all you can say," Jeff Maggert said. "We don’t play any other tournament like this. I think you’ll see players looking to pop this event off (their schedule) if they keep doing it."

And..

The idea was to make the course more old-school. But Mark Brooks thought the change actually hurt shortgame artists more than the bombers.

"If a guy’s got a good short game, he can play more aggressively if he’s got reasonable opportunities to recover," Brooks said.

"It’s about (losing) the art of the recovery shot. (Ben) Crenshaw, (Seve) Ballesteros, those guys didn’t drive the ball great but won tons of tournaments from hitting it all over the place because they were great at recovery shots."

One of the biggest issues was the element of surprise. Players said they did not know about the change until they showed up this week.

"It’s something that I think kind of shocked us this week," Steve Flesch said. "Some of the players are like, Wait, wait.’ We’re used to hopping in there with a perfect lie and knocking it on the green."

Joe Ogilvie is one of four players on the PGA Tour policy board.

"It’s a communication issue," the Lancaster native said. "I don’t think there would be nearly be the controversy here if the PGA Tour and the Memorial Tournament had communicated to the players. We’ve got terrible communication on the tour, period."

Later, that was the major concession made by PGA onsite tournament director Slugger White.

"We’ve taken some criticism and we’ll just look forward," White said. "It’s change, and everyone is a little bit stubborn when it comes to change. We all are.

"Looking back, probably we should have prepped these guys (players) a little earlier, and I’ll take the blame for that."

Not everyone was hot and bothered. Sergio Garcia said it made players think a little more, changing clubs to avoid hitting bunkers, "so it’s good."

And Dave Hackenberg in the Toledo Blade:

Pro golfers don't react well to change, and the reaction to the bunkers was overwhelmingly negative.

Davis Love III was so angry - despite a 3-under 69 - that he blew past media members after making a double bogey out of the fairway bunker at No. 18 and declined comment.

Shaun Micheel spoke for Love, who is one of four players on the PGA Tour Policy Board.

"I had breakfast with Davis this morning, and he told me that the policy board had approved a standardized rake used for all tournaments," Micheel said.

The columns, they just keep on a coming! Actual, a breakfast of complaining and Tour policy board political chat between Micheel and Love is just too easy, even for me.

"Are we not supposed to make anything?" [Micheel] said. "Hey, fill 'em with water and paint hazard lines around them. There's a lot of frustration. [The players] had no warning. We showed up Monday, and they were furrowed and raked sideways. Today, every trap is raked parallel to the fairway. So they changed the conditions.

"They used to have the most beautiful sand here. What's wrong with guys shooting good scores?"

I'm with him on the last point. That would be a good question for the Commissioner. 

From Thursday's Memorial Telecast...More Furrowing Talk

KARL RAVECH: Baseball is a statistic driven sport and you get bunkers like this and the numbers are going to go down. Are the players concerned about those things?

JACK NICKLAUS: I never was, but maybe some of these guys are, I have no idea. But I don't see why they would be. A good bunker player is going to have a good sand save record. But I think the guy who can putt those four, five, six footers is the guy who is good at sand saves. It's not necessarily about how good of a bunker player you are.

IAN BAKER FINCH: The best bunker players on Tour are around 60 %, up and downs, and the average is just under 50%, so a little less than half is the up and down percentage.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, if the Tour continues to do what we're doing here, which I think they will, they say they are going to, ah, then obviously the sand save percentage will go down.

PETER OOSTERHUIS: The average today is just over 34% from sand.

IAN BAKER FINCH: That's just today.

PETER OOSTERHUIS: Yes, 34.2%.

JACK NICKLAUS: I'll tell you what else will happen too, is that your driving accuracy will improve greatly on the Tour with bunkers like this in the fairway.

IAN BAKER FINCH: Because they'll have to take a club to avoid the bunkers and think a bit more about it.

JACK NICKLAUS: Yes, they're going to have to put the ball in play and I think it's going to bring the game back to level of...just a very simple thing, just a rake, brings the game back to where it's a little more controllable for the course and the guys putting on a tournament.

KARL RAVECH: What else? I mean, could you make rough longer during non-major events, what else can you do?

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, you know, Karl what I've always felt is that the recovery shot is one of the most beautiful shots in the game of golf and the norm has been now to make the rough higher, the fairways narrower and to me that makes the game more boring. Because all you do is hit it in the rough and chop it out. And the guys with the golf equipment today drive the ball must straighter so they can have narrower fairways. But when they miss they don't mind missing in the bunkers. But now if we make the bunkers such that you don't want to put it in the bunker, then you're going to start thinking, do we take teh driver out of your hand or do we leave in your hand to do what we're going to do. So I think it's only a plus for the game of golf. Equipment has made game much easier game, particularly for the pros. And I think there are ways to combat that and we haven't combatted that up until this time. Hopefully this will be used effectively in the future.

And this was a little later on...

JACK NICKLAUS: I want to try and equalize the game from power. I think that the game has gotten...it was about 80% shotmaking and 20% power when I played, power has always been an advantage and always will be. But I don't like to see it be 80% power and about 20% shotmaking. I think it's gotten too much where power takes over and you'd like to be able to get it a little more in balance. It takes guys that don't hit the ball nine miles a better opportunity to play the golf tournament and to be on par the guy who's a Tiger Woods...

Furrowgate Breaks Out At The Memorial

They're moaning and groaning about the groovy bunkers at Muirfield Village.  From what I saw on television, the bunkers looked about the way bunkers used to look, oh, 15 years ago when they were dragged careless with a sand pro.

Granted, furrowing is contrived, and this nonsense about going in a certain direction is brutal, but gosh, it didn't exactly look like the Oakmont silliness. Yet...

Mark Lamport Stokes reports that both Nick Price and Ernie Els are not fans.

"I heard someone say earlier in the week that this is the way that they used to rake bunkers way back when and bunkers have always been hazards," the Zimbabwean said after carding a 69.

"I think the difference now is that the greens are running at 13 or 14 (in putting speed). Back in the bygone era, when they did it before, the greens were probably running at about six.

"It's different hitting out of a bunker to a green where you've got no chance to get any spin on the ball. So I disagree with it. I don't like it at all.

"I don't think there's one player out here that does. It's a bit of pot luck, to be honest.

"You can get in there and have a perfect lie when it lands on top of a groove, then you can have another one that goes in the trough, in the bottom of it, and you've got no chance." 

Uh, they used to call that Rub of the Green. I know, I know...in his defense, I would add that there also wasn't as much rough on steroids as there used to be. If you read The Future of Golf, you know I argued that if bunkers were to ever get nasty again (preferably through no more maintenance crew raking after Wednesday play), it would also require getting rid of some of the long grass to at least feel more equitable.

Anyway, Els...

"You're either lucky or unlucky," the South African world number six said after three bogeys in the last four holes gave him a first-round 74. "If you're unlucky, you have no shot, basically.

"I don't care how good of a bunker player you are, you have no shot. But I guess that's what they want."

Sean O'Hair had a different take...

"A trap is a trap, it's a hazard," said O'Hair. "You're not supposed to be there.

"The bunkers here are not hidden, you know where they are. So don't hit it there. If you don't hit it there, you don't have to worry about it."

In this AP story, Jeff Maggert, a well known expert on bunker raking who likely will find himself in the USGA's $#@!* pairing in two weeks, was quoted:

Jeff Maggert suggested that if Nicklaus wanted to make the course harder, he should have narrowed the fairways. As it was, Maggert said, "to try to kind of manufacture something is Mickey Mouse."

And Robert Allenby wasn't a fan either, though I'm not convinced by his argument either:

This is the best-groomed golf course, and I can't believe they would do the bunkers like this," Robert Allenby said after a 71. "It already was hard to get the ball tight. I don't think anyone likes it who is playing this tournament."

Nicklaus said that the new rakes and method of raking was a trial run for other stops on the PGA Tour.

"I don't believe that," said Brad Faxon, who had a 73. "I just don't think these bunkers were that easy to begin with, you know? I don't mind, because I'm a good bunker player. So it wouldn't bother me, but I don't think this place is broken, either."

And if you're a  Nick Price fan, this is just painful to read...

"It's kind of a waste, because he [Nicklaus] has such beautiful sand in the bunkers," Price said. "Why put beautiful sand in the bunkers if you're going to rake them with these rakes? You might as well put crappy sand in there."

Mickelson On Winged Foot, Furrowing

PHIL MICKELSON: Over at Winged Foot, it's tough. It's a very tough golf course. Obviously we know the USGA is going to make it difficult. The rough is thicker and deeper than I've seen it. But I really like the layered rough. In the past you were rewarded for missing a shot with a larger margin of error. If you could hit it into the people, you were much better off than missing the fairway by a yard. Now with the layered rough it's imperative that you keep it, if you do miss a fairway, just off the fairway, because that thick rough is so high that there were sometimes it would take two or three shots just to get it back to the fairway. We'll see a lot of doubles and triples out of that rough, especially given the fact that they're going to keep the people further away. That thick rough won't get trampled down.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: I can always reach the people. If you reach the people now you'll be in the trees and it will be much more difficult to get it back to the fairway, because you have to chip it over the chick rough and get it stopped in a narrow fairway under the trees.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: It wasn't like Carnoustie like it wrapped around and they hadn't cut it for 1 year. They've ^money it perfectly right across the top, probably six inches, just like they said. Very consistent. But the third cut is. But it was thicker than I've seen it. It looks like when the ball would go to the bottom, the grass would just grow over it. It was very difficult.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, yeah, the guy who wins won't be hitting it there. He'll be hitting it in the short stuff or if he ^dismiss it in the shorter cut. However, that thick grass was all around the green, they didn't layer it around the green, the six inch rough around the green.

Q. Do you like it?

PHIL MICKELSON: Do I like it? I'm not in favor of it around the green as much, because it takes the short game out of play. But I think that if you miss it right or if you hit a number of greens you'll be okay.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, oh, yeah.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: No, but I have a hard time seeing it being anymore difficult than Shinnecock in '04 on the weekend. And I think the USGA can make it as hard as they want. Winged Foot is such a good course that it won't require ridiculous things to keep par a good score. In looking at it now, I don't see how guys are going to shoot under par. Of course I say that every open, and every open guys are under par the first couple of rounds.

And on the furrowing...

Q. The sand traps, they're going to do something different for the first time here at this tournament, the raking. It's really going to be a penalty. What do you hear about that, what are your thoughts?

PHIL MICKELSON: It is a hazard and nothing says that the bunkers need to be immaculate. Bobby Jones, back in the 20s, I believe, played Oakmont when they were using those furrowed rakes, and he said that he didn't like it, because it took the skill out of the game. Now, it just depends how bad a lie. Is there a chance we can hit a shot out of it? Or is it going to be just ridiculous where you're lucky to get it on the green, and it takes the skill out of it? So it's a fine line between the two. But I don't mind making a bunker a hazard, because it is.

Well said. It's almost like...na! 

Jack's Memorial Press Conference

I'll spare you of reading the transcript which was filled with several nice rally kills. Here's Jack Nicklaus on the new fairway mowing patter, the new bunker raking concept, and other things he's done to the course (there's more hole-by-hole talk if you go to the full transcript):

The other thing that we did one thing we did with the fairways, was that about for the last couple, three years, I keep looking on television and seeing the checkerboard on the thing and I said I just don't like it. It's pretty, but it doesn't look like a golf course, it looks like something else. You know what I'm talking about? The way we cut the fairways in the cross cutting.

I liked the look of Augusta, but I don't like cutting the fairway into you, because I think that's I don't like that, because I think it makes you hit flyers, because the grass is lying into you, and I think it's not a it slows down the golf course, that's why they did it was to slow down the golf course. I felt like the other way around, I like my golf course fast, and I felt like it's much nicer lie to play with the grass lying down towards the hole. It's a much better shot, the fairways will play faster, so the balls can run farther. I don't mind that the course kept playing shorter, because it makes the fairways shorter. We cut the fairways all in one direction.

The last thing we did is a couple of weeks before the tournament I called and I said, "Would you make a call to the Tour and ask them what they want to do with the bunkers?" We spend money every year, to try and deep even the bunkers, do different things and the bunker has ceased to become a penalty. And I said if we came back actually even if we raked them the way we did when we started the tournament, we'd have an uncertainty of what the lie was. We were probably the cause of bunkers being perfect today. They used to rake them with a pretty good sized rake and it was clumpy, and the ball really never set very well in the bunker. And we started working here, how do you make a bunker so it really is a nice lie so you really have a clean lie out of it, and so that everything is consistent. We developed that rake that is used, the round rake, and that was our development here. And we took that and that's what everybody uses today.

Now all the bunkers are so perfect, there's no penalty anymore. Bunkers are really supposed to be a penalty. I don't care about them being a penalty, penalty, right now guys look at a par 5, if I don't get it on the green, and put it in the bunker, I know I can get it up and down and we move on.

I asked the Tour, and they have been telling the guys all year, the honeymoon is over, the bunkers are going to be a penalty. I said, "When are you going to do that?" We haven't done it yet. I said, "We can start it right here if you want to." And they said, "Fine."

We developed a rake here that put us on I think I think it's center of the middle of the tines are like two and a half inches, when means two inches spread between the spread of the rake. And it gives you a little bit of a waffling in the bunker, and it can be you can get a good lie or you might not get a good lie. And particularly in the fairway bunkers, if you hit it in the fairway bunker, you've got an option before you hit it in the fairway bunker that's most of the bunkers that were changed, to have a penalty off the tee shot, if you hit it in the bunker they hit it so far, and it doesn't make any difference, unless the bunker is 25 feet deep. I'll never forget the one they did at 5 on Augusta, and hoot I said no one is going to knock it out of here. I said, "That won't make a difference." And so anyway, that was sort of the issue. And so rather than having to change the bunkers all the time, we'll continue to change our bunkers, now we've got to get them consistent to all the bunkers on the golf course, we continue to change a few every year, but now I want them so when you hit the ball they say, "I don't really want to be in that bunker." But if they get in it then they have a chance of having a penalty. That was sort of the idea.

The Tour liked it, the Tour supported it 100 percent, and that's what we're doing.

And, this is where it gets kind of silly when you really think about it...

Q. Jack, is there any strategy to raking the bunkers with these rakes? In other words, having the furrows run parallel toward the green or perpendicular?

JACK NICKLAUS: We had it going the other way, but the Tour said they wanted it the other way. I don't care how you do it, I could care less. I think the Tour probably said it's not quite as much a penalty if you go towards the hole. I don't care which way you go. All I'm trying to do is make the guy think he doesn't want to be in the bunker, and it's not the place to aim for. To the right of 18. They don't want to be in the water, guys have tried tried to drive over the bunker, some still can, but they didn't mind being in the first bunker to the right, because it was a fairly flat, low profile bunker and you could play the ball. I can't figure out a way to deep even that bunker, so let's just make the lie uncertain. That way the guy is not going to just want to be in that bunker.

And...

Q. Compared to Oakmont type bunker, how do they compare?

JACK NICKLAUS: When I played in '62, you took a sand wedge and hit it out, that's all you could do. That was much deeper than what we have now. That was a big that was probably that deep (indicating), probably a ball deep and it was sort of like that (indicating). This is two inch spread, actually from edge of the rake to the edge of the rake, and it puts a thing but not nearly as severe as that.

And...

Q. You talked about when you played at Oakmont you had to hit them out with sand wedges, would you like to see them back to that, or do you think that's too dramatic now?

JACK NICKLAUS: It would be okay. Why do you put a bunker on a golf course? I think there's two reasons three reasons, one, is esthetically it's very pretty, it gives you a framing issue. Two, it guides you around the golf course or three, it's penal. It could be one of those three. To this point in time they've been esthetically pleasing and they guide you around the golf course, but they haven't been penal. So I think that third element needs to come into it. I thought that for a long, long time.

The proverbial technology question...didn't even get out before Jack jumped in, followed by a nice rally killer...

Q. I was going to ask you what, as technology keeps on you have guys hitting

JACK NICKLAUS: I hope in technology, somebody wakes up, eventually, to technology.

Q. On the subject of psychology, has that changed the art of shot making, does that still exist, or do people just hit it as far as they can?

Furrowed Bunkers at Muirfield Village!?

Bob Baptist in The Columbus Dispatch has the details:

Acting on an initiative to which the tour so far has only given lip service, the Memorial Tournament has switched to longer-toothed rakes to create small furrows in the bunkers on the course. The hoped-for result is less-consistent lies in the sand and tougher shots out of it when practice rounds begin Monday.

"Bunkers were meant to be a penalty," Jack Nicklaus said yesterday while playing the course, "and they haven’t been for quite a while."

Nicklaus, who designed and built Muirfield Village, said he has been thinking for a while about furrowing the bunkers as one more way to protect the course against never-ending technological advances that are propelling balls ever farther.

He said when he asked tour officials this past winter what they thought of the idea, he found that they were considering the same thing. They had not implemented it, however, until giving the Memorial the OK.

"The players wear us out (complaining) about the conditions of the bunkers, that they aren’t perfect," said tour official Frank Kavanaugh, who was on site yesterday setting up the course. "We’ve gotten to the point where they expect a perfect lie every time. We’ve got to change their attitude.

"There’s no more smooth ice. They’re on rough ice now."

Nicklaus said the bunkers will be reminiscent of how tour bunkers used to be and how they were the first few years of the Memorial, which started in 1976.

"The lies will be not as consistent," he said. "You’ll now have to look at your lie and play a bunker shot according to your lie.

"The guys that are good bunker players will like it more. The guys who aren’t as good won’t like it as much."

Now, I'm all for returning the hazard to bunkers.

But I'm curious why the Tour, as reported in this story, is looking for ways to make their setups more difficult? Shouldn't they be looking at the ratings and wondering how they can make their setups more entertaining? Do they even know the difference?

Either way, this ought to make Muirfield Village interesting...until it starts raining. 

Good Enough For The President, Not The President's Cup

You may recall that even after two top 10s in the '05 Open and PGA, Gary Player chose Trevor Immelman over Geoff Ogilvy.

Maybe George W. Bush noticed and decided to make it up to Ogilvy?

Because Peter Stone shares Geoff Ogilvy's stories from a surprise invite to attend a White House state dinner, where Ogilvy found himself seated with Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Rupert Murdoch and the president of New Zealand Australia.

Don't pass this one up, it's a must read. I'm copying most below in case the link disappears (after all, this is my personal archive!):

"I still don't know why I was invited," [Ogilvy] said. "The White House contacted my manager less than a week before the dinner; they didn't know how else to contact me. I thought, 'That's a bit strange,' because it was the White House. They know everything.

"There were no details, an official invitation arrived in the post shortly afterwards, but it was a pretty easy decision to make. Of course we'd go."

The Ogilvys arrived spot on time. They were among the first to arrive, and after going through security were ushered into an anteroom for cocktails.

There they watched the other guests arrive - "Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Murdoch … Juli and I looked at each other and said, 'Wow, why are we here?' We knew [from newspapers and television] just about everyone who entered. 'Wow, we know why they're here."'

Ogilvy thought it would be a dinner for 800 or more people, but there were just over 120. He and Juli were given a small package which included their table number. Damn. Ogilvy was on No.11 (of 12 tables), his wife on No.7. They knew no one else and it would have been far more comfortable to be seated together.

"I thought, before we went to the dining room, maybe we'd be in a queue to shake Johnny and Bush's hand," Ogilvy said. "We were, but the President caught Juli's accent. 'Are you from Texas?' In 30 seconds they'd established that she had a friend who had babysat the Bush children.

"I said to Jules before we were ushered into the dining room, 'I'll see you later'. Then I found my table. 'Table 11. Where the hell is it? Right up the front. Not bad. Wonder who's on the table?' I looked at the place names. Condoleezza Rice. Wow. Rupert Murdoch. The President. John Howard and Mrs Howard, Julie Eisenhower. What the hell am I doing here?"

The band began to play, believe it or not, the same song they play on the movies whenever the actor who is president enters a room. Hail to the Chief. Juli had her back to where her husband was but turned to watch where the most powerful man in the world sat, two seats away from her husband.

"Juli freaked out when she looked around," Ogilvy said. "The look on her face was priceless. Mine probably was too. I just couldn't comprehend why he wanted me to sit at his table.

"He's the man. He could have had anyone in the world sitting just two chairs away from him, it was amazing."

Ogilvy and Bush talked. Bush talked to the Australian golfer, who was the only sportsperson in the entire room, more than to anyone else on the table.

There was never a word about politics. The only mention of Iraq was when Bush told Ogilvy he'd stopped playing golf when the Iraq war began.

This was a valuable lesson learned from the days of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, who was found on a golf course during a national crisis.

"All he wanted to do was talk sport," Ogilvy said of Bush. "No politics. Maybe that was the reason I was there. I'm an Australian and we love our sport.

"His dad is a fanatical golfer, his grandfather was a former president of the USGA, he loves his golf. These days he rides a bike. He used to run, but his knees blew out, so now he's passionate about his bike."

Ogilvy minded his manners while talking with Bush. Not for him the "atrocities" of fellow Australian golfer Mark Hensby, who is somewhat a loose cannon, who last year attended a White House reception for the Presidents Cup team and managed to have a shot at Bush over taxes and later managed to set fire to the dinner menu at the table with a candle.

"When you're sitting at a table with people like that you definitely remember what you were taught when you were young," Ogilvy said. "You only speak when you are spoken to. It's amazing how quickly your social etiquette comes back."

Ogilvy, reunited with his wife as they departed, said to each other that none of their friends would believe it. She'd been on a table with Murdoch's wife Wendi and the man who was the mayor of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck; he's now in charge of rebuilding the famous city where Bourbon Street holds legendary status.

"Maybe I'll meet another president, or prime minister, but to be actually sitting with them at the same table in the White House - no one would believe that. I still don't," Ogilvy said.

Last Pairing Dominance

Wonder why the most exciting thing about a PGA Tour final round telecast is the latest Villages ad? (By the way, where would the PGA Tour be without their most consistent advertiser!?).

Anyway, reader Josh picked this up on ESPN.com, where Jason Sobel writes:

Most unbelievable fact on the PGA Tour so far this season? It has nothing to do with Watson's driving prowess or the multiple-victory seasons of Woods, Mickelson and Appleby. Instead, it's this: Through 20 stroke-play events, the eventual winner has come from the final grouping of the tournament in all but one. What does that tell us? That today's players, many of whom are putting increasing emphasis on the mental side of the game and remaining calm in high-pressure situations, are learning to become winners, with fewer final-round leaders choking away the lead coming down the stretch. Oh, and that one champion who did not come from the last grouping? If you guessed Kirk Triplett at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson, give yourself a pat on the back.

Okay, the bit about learning to become winners does sound like Golf Channel punditry gone bad.

Naturally, I'd blame the lack of come-from-behind finishes on the anti-birdie, pre-vent anyone-from-noticing-the-distance-issue-course setup mentality. Is that enough dashes for you in one sentence?

Sure it's early, but the 2006 final round scoring average is 72.0. It was 71.5 in 2005, 71.1 in 2000, 71.3 in 1995.

Now, we've been told the players and fields are better than ever, that courses are better conditioned than at any point in the history of the game and the equipment better than ever. Oh, and their mental calm is better than ever from all of that Adderall great mental preparation.

And yet the final round scoring average going up? 

"We've been promised some good dates thanks to our friends at FedEx"

Phil Stukenborg in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal (beat the Light and Shopper) writes about the St. Jude event and its excitement over a new June date in the 07 FedEx Cup schedule. Tournament director Phil Cannon is also excited for these reasons:

--The tournament, which will be known in 2007 as the Stanford St. Jude Championship, will be played June 7-10, or in the enviable spot one week before the U.S. Open.

--The FedEx Cup points competition, similar to the Nextel Cup on the NASCAR Circuit, is expected to increase player participation.

--And several more weeks to grow the rough should have the course in ideal condition.

That rough harvesting is tricky business!

Here's the line that will irk some tournament directors:

''There are about three primo dates on the PGA Tour in the summertime and we are going to have one of them next year,'' Cannon said. ''It hasn't been finalized yet, but the Tour has said we'll like our 2008 through 2012 dates just as much. We've been promised some good dates thanks to our friends at FedEx.''

And Cannon is excited about the FedEx Cup...

''The whole FedEx Cup points competition is going to change the structure of our sport tremendously,'' Cannon said. ''It's going to reward players for their performances and participation on a year-long basis, much like you see in NASCAR with the Nextel Cup. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt are in every race all year long. Thirty-eight races.

''I don't think you'll see pro golfers in 95 percent of their events, but I think you'll see them increase their starts and vary their schedules. From talking to players and agents, they all say this is going to revolutionize scheduling.''

Still Slow After All These Months...

Sure sounds to me like Ben Crane's final round 64 would have been a much nicer 66 to the guys stuck behind him...

It's not always nice, though, to be summoned in public view by a PGA Tour rules official to be warned for the umpteenth time about lollygagging on the course.

For nearly 10 minutes against the brick wall of Colonial's clubhouse, Crane and the official each made their case.

"He said he wanted us to stay in front of the group behind us," Crane said. "He said, 'Look, if the group behind you waits, we'll fine you.' I said there was a discrepancy of whether they were waiting or not."

Crane's playing partner, Shigeki Maruyama, privately told Japanese television network NHK that he grew weary of Crane's pace. Publicly, Maruyama was his usual all smiles and had nothing negative to say.

Tour officials have yet to assess Crane a penalty stroke. Frustrated with Crane's pace at last year's Booz Allen Classic, Rory Sabbatini putted out of turn once, and left Crane in the fairway on another hole.

Fire and Nice!?

Charles Polansky reports on the Amy Sabbatini's latest t-shirt...not nearly as fun as her last.

There is a definite give-and-take, yin and yang, in Rory Sabbatini's life - on and off the golf course.

Take the T-shirts that his wife Amy has designed for his large gallery of friends and family planning to be at this week's Bank of America Colonial. They are appropriately appropriate.

Emblazoned on the front is a phrase that suits Sabbatini perfectly _"Fire and Nice."

Everybody who follows golf knows all about Sabbatini's fire.

Amy or Rory? Or sorry...

At last summer's Booz Allen Classic, Sabbatini infamously played out of turn on the 17th hole after growing frustrated with the slow pace of playing partner Ben Crane.

He finished the hole before Crane and walked ahead to the 18th tee, drawing boos from the gallery at Congressional Country Club as well as the ire of ABC golf analyst Paul Azinger, who skewered Sabbatini on the telecast.

"The first four weeks after were horrific," said Amy, who tries to walk as many rounds with her husband as possible. "It got to where I was putting on headphones to block everything out."

But there's another side to Sabbatini, a blossoming PGA Tour star from South Africa, that many haven't seen. Last year, he wore camouflage pants in the first round of events and donated $250 for every birdie and $1,000 for every eagle that he made to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

"His heart's bigger than his chest," Amy said during Sabbatini's second round at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

Whoa Bubba! Vol. 2

Even floggers the blues...Bubba Watson's round 2 totals in the second column...

DRIVING DISTANCE        355.5        320.5            338.0        1
PUTTS PER ROUND        25                34                29.5           T80
PUTTS PER GIR                1.417           2.091           1.739        41
GREENS IN REG                   67             61                63.9          T67
SAND SAVES                        100            33             60.0           T42