Torrey's Kikuyu Conversion

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The transition of Torrey Pines to kikuyu grass probably could not have come at a worse time, what with our super dry and cold fall here in Southern California.  Ed Zieralski talks to Torrey director of operations Mark Woodward...

“On the North, we didn't really have the focus we did on the South Course because of the U.S. Open being played there,” Woodward said. “The North is going to be set up for tents. We also had some irrigation problems on the North, and the rye grass overseeding didn't take. Those are the big spots that are off color.”

Woodward said more problems came when a chemical used to kill clover stunted the grass even more after it was applied.

“It was a situation where, it wasn't a bad decision, but under coastal conditions and at this time of year, we should have used a different product out there,” Woodward said.

A PGA official refused to comment yesterday on the course's present conditions. Wilson was asked if the PGA was disappointed with Torrey's off-peak conditions.

“We're going to suffer this year and not have that lush rough that we had in the past, but it's going to help in the future (to) provide a challenging course for many years to come for the Buick Invitational as well as the U.S. Open,” Wilson said. 

The Classic Club...Classic Tournament Killer?

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Bill Dwyre in the L.A. Times makes up for Saturday's Phil Mickelson column (Phil remembers the names of his pro-am partners!) with a succinct indictment on The Classic Club course, which frequently delivers winds like Sunday's.

Many said it was the worst wind they have experienced, and those were the former mountain climbers. The weatherman put the winds at 15-20 mph, with gusts up to 40. Mostly, there were gusts.
Now keep that number in mind when reading the next bit. First, Larry Bohannan in the Desert Sun:
It was an ominous question at best.

"Are they going to play this course again next year?" Phil Mickelson asked after his windy Sunday round on the final day at Classic Club in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Yes, Phil, they are going to play this course again. They own the course.

"Who?" Mickelson asked.

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, came the response.

With that, Mickelson turned and walked away to sign some autographs without a response.
And here's where it gets fun...
Mike Milthorpe, the Hope tournament director, said he certainly hopes Mickelson and other players won't make decisions about whether to play in the Classic in the future simply on one horrible day of weather.

"I don't know that (Mickelson) questioned the course," Milthorpe said. "He may have questioned the conditions. It's a tough day today, no ifs, ands or buts. If anything, he may have just questioned the day."

Milthorpe said Classic Club isn't fighting a bad perception about wind among the PGA Tour players. The perception, he said, comes from media reports about wind and the so-called wind belt on the north side of the freeway.
I wonder where they would get the idea that it blows?
 

The trees lining the railroad tracks? The thousands of wind turbines? The fact no one in their right mind would build anything out there until the last few years?

That biased, negative, liberal elite media!

Last year's final round, for instance, was described as a blustery day, making it tough on the final groups down the stretch. But Milthorpe said the official tour report on the final day listed a wind speed of 17 mph.
Key word: unofficial.


Tod Leonard in the San Diego Union Tribune offered this:

Perhaps because he knew he would get queries, Milthorpe said he checked with the other three courses in the Hope rotation yesterday and said the wind conditions were similar.

“The perception is the media's perception,” Milthorpe said. “We had firemen gauging the wind today, and it didn't get above 25 mph. We got a tour report from last year for this golf course and the winds Sunday were 17 mph. But if you listened to the commentators and what the media wrote, it sounded like it was huge wind.”

They say the camera adds 10 pounds. Maybe it adds 10 mph too? 

Either way, you have a new 7,600 yard course that is so massive in scale that the amateurs clearly don't enjoy walking and playing it. 

You have a final round that took just under 6 hours (based on my TiVo calculation) and an event that drew only one player in the world top 30.

Those short, harmless little old desert courses like Indian Wells, Bermuda Dunes and El Dorado aren't looking so bad are they?

Oh that's right, they're dated because the guys are working out too much. I keep forgetting!

“I don't want to get in the bad habits"

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Tod Leonard in the San Diego Union Tribune also had this from Phil Mickelson after Sunday's final round:

“It was hard, but today I didn't want to try to fight it too much,” Mickelson said. “I don't want to get in the bad habits, which is the main reason why I don't play Kapalua (for the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship)."

Ohhh...the FedEx Cup schedule may be starting a week later for Phil next year. 

Oh Canada Stop Complaining!

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Thanks to reader Noonan for noticing this Chris Johnston story on the Canadian Open's struggle to find a sponsor, and the PGA Tour's Ty Votaw's condescending rebuttal (to their faces!):

The 'For Sale' sign hanging on the title sponsorship of the Canadian Open is beginning to fade with age, but the PGA Tour isn't worried about the lingering vacancy.

Tour executive Ty Votaw believes it's only a matter of time before a company steps forward and pays the $6-million (U.S.) a year needed to get its name on the event.

"The PGA Tour brand is strong," Votaw said yesterday after speaking to the Royal Canadian Golf Association's board of governors. "The history of golf in Canada is strong. I think the event itself is a selling point. It's a question of finding the right [fit]."
This is the fun part...
Votaw, however, believes the tournament's place in the run-up to the new FedEx Cup playoff system should boost the field and sponsorship interest.

"It's not less than ideal, it's not lousy and it's not between a rock and a hard place," said Votaw, the PGA Tour's executive vice-president of international affairs. "We want to build a crescendo to the end of our year.

"You should be proud that you are within that group rather than bemoaning that you're in that group."

 

Paige On International Rumblings, Vol. 2

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Woody Paige speculates on why Wednesday's press conference between the PGA Tour and Jack Vickers was cancelled, though he comes to no conclusions and the whole thing sounds strange.

I have no inside information or sources but I believe the PGA Tour could be offering The International a World Golf Championship event in the future, tournament dates more conducive to Colorado or, most likely, assistance in gaining a title sponsor, maybe an automobile company, maybe Buick - the car Tiger Woods drives. (Woods won the Buick Invitational and the Buick Open last year.)

Are there tournament dates conducive to Colorado? June's too early, July has too many international events, August has too many thunderstorms and the Broncos--God's gift to sport--start in September.  

More Blogging Fun From The Hope

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Golfweek's Jeff Babineau at the Hope:

"Because I stayed busy at my office desk on Wednesday, I didn't get to catch complete first-round coverage of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

However, I did have my TV on in the background, with the volume turned off. Judging simply by the amount of airtime Golf Channel gave certain players, and not having seen a scoreboard, I'm guessing George Lopez has to be leading – by at least three shots ...
Brett Avery has some fun inside-the-ropes stuff too over at PGATour.com. He's even occasionally funny. Can't imagine how that humor stuff gets past the Ponte Vedra red pen brigade.

George Lopez's caddy is also blogging and led with this:

Imagine being at dinner with PGA TOUR pros like: Bubba Watson, Todd Hamilton, D.J. Trahan, Eric Axley, Charley Hoffman, Cliff Kresge, etc. You notice that the normally cool, calm and collected pros are all, to a man, staring almost google-eyed at something. And then I remember, sitting with us in this private dining area are: George Lopez, Cheech Marin, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, Anthony Anderson, etc.

Uh, sorry, but who is Anthony Anderson? 

 

International Passed; Still Sponsorless

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Anthony Cotton in the Denver Post offers confirmation that the International passed on a FedEx Cup playoff date (fools!) and that event organizers now they are going to have a weak field. All of this was reported after a Tim Finchem-Jack Vickers conference call was cancelled "indefinitely" according to the Tour's Ty Votaw. The story also notes that the event is without a sponsor again this year.

Other than that, everything is going great in Denver.  

Taylor Hicks, Celebrity?

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Fun entries from Brett Avery's Hope Classic blog...

3:29 p.m.
Idol Security
Celebrities have been all over Bermuda Dunes, wading into the galleries to give autographs and pose for photos. Can someone please explain why the only burly security guard on the property -- identifiable by the eight-inch-high letters on the back of his windbreaker -- is shadowing American Idol winner Taylor Hicks? Please.

3:18 p.m.
Rockin' Out
Note to self: Spend time tomorrow with amateur team 31 (Taylor Hicks, Scott Hamilton, Alice Cooper). May be the only time in golf-writing career to put groupies and stilettos in a sentence.

I don't know what's more frightening, Taylor Hicks qualifying as a celebrity, or that all-star pairing with Scott Hamilton and Alice Cooper.

Wow...kind of makes you long for the star power of Vic Damone. 

More Knockdown Shots

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Steve Elling talked to Scott Hoch about the historic Ford-Bush-Clinton pairing from 12 (!) years ago, and also followed that up with his typically entertaining knockdown shots. My favorites, which bookended some un-Elling like gushing over The Golf Channel GOLF CHANNEL's coverage:
News item: The Golf Channel's new crystal-ball statistical device, the Win Zone computer, predicts with eight holes remaining that Howell is 72 percent certain to win. Tilghman quickly adds that once you reach that threshold, "You have a 97 percent chance" of winning.

Knockdown shot: Huh, what, eh? We are quantitative illiterates here at Knockdown Shots, but when Goydos is listed as having a 1 percent chance with eight holes left and ultimately wins the trophy, somebody's computer needs to be rebooted. Or booted, period.
And...
News item: Again stumbling under a national spotlight, Michelle Wie beats two players in the field and misses the cut for the fourth year in a row at her hometown Sony Open.

Knockdown shot: Badly as she played, did you see that awful "pageboy" lid she was wearing? Did she sign an endorsement deal with the Union Pacific Railroad?

Paige On International Rumblings

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The Denver Post's Woody Paige says that Jack Vickers isn't happy with his new date and other demands of the PGA Tour, but offers no actual specifics, nor any quotes from those associated with the event.

In fact, as he works his way through this apparent tragedy, Paige buries this note late in the column.

The PGA Tour did propose that one of the late-season "playoff" tournaments this year be held at Castle Pines, but the timing (the first weekend of football season in Colorado and potentially cooler weather), the cost ($7 million) and the prospect of miserable ratings and few corporate partners turned him off.

Whoa Nellie. He got offered one of the playoff events, with likely a great field, and passed?

Sorry, if that's true, and it's definitely an if when read some of the other stuff in Paige's column, there won't be much sympathy here for The International's plight.

A Solution To The Groove Problem

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After watching tee shots to Waialae's ridiculously narrow par-5 18th fairway (and not seeing too many drives finishing in it) I was thinking that maybe it was time for the club to simply abandon the 22 yards of width it already has, and just go with an all rough landing area.

After all, look at the scoring through three rounds (PGATour.com did not add the fourth for some reason):

Stroke Avg:      4.353
Hole Rank:     18th
Avg. Drive:     309.5
Longest Drive:     381 yards (Holmes)

So the 22 yards did not discourage birdies and eagles, nor did it prevent players from hitting long tee shots. And last I heard, preventing long drives and correspondoning low scores was the goal of such a narrow fairway.

But then I got to thinking about Peter Dawson's comments on grooves, rough and scoring, and by golly, I think we have a solution to all of this madness.

Dawson said, "We now see balls spinning more from 2in or 3in rough than they do when hit from the fairway. That cannot go on."

He's right, we can't allow this to keep happening.

So stop narrowing fairways if the grooves are allowing players to spin the ball more than they would from the fairway.

WIDENING fairways will solve this U-grooves from the rough problem!

A return to sane widths will set a wonderful example for the game and allow players to strategically pick the sides of fairways again. True precision via intelligent placement of shots will again be rewarded when all of those balls previous controlled from 2-3 inch rough will be coming from fairway lies!

Newsflash From The City!

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Golf Channel sent out a "newsflash" on this important note:

GOLF CHANNEL to Highlight Fujikawa’s Return to High School on Tuesday’s Golf Central

The GOLF CHANNEL will follow Tadd Fujikawa as he returns to classes on Tuesday at Moanalua High School in Honolulu, two days removed from finishing in a tie for 20th at the Sony Open in Hawaii and becoming the youngest golfer in 50 years to make a cut on the PGA TOUR.  The segment will air on Golf Central on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

The GOLF CHANNEL’s Mark Rolfing will be on-hand to document the 16-year-old sophomore’s return to high school and the reception from his fellow classmates. On Wednesday's Golf Central, Fujikawa's first bowel movement will be discussed in an up close and personal sit-down interview with Rolfing.

Just wanted to see if you were still reading with that last sentence.