“For a 4-iron, you’d put it five, six or seven paces from the edge.”

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Damon Hack goes inside the ropes (and gets out to Riviera early) to file a New York Times piece on PGA Tour course setup.

This caught my attention:
With so many technological advances in golf in the last 20 years, placing a pin near a bunker or by a tier on a green is one way to combat golfers’ hitting tee shots that travel 300 yards. But Mutch said the officials try to balance their pin locations. On Riviera’s back nine, he chose four on the left side of the green, four on the right, and one near the center. Not every pin can be in a treacherous, devilish position.

“For wedges, you’d put it three or four paces from the edge of the green,” said Mickey Bradley, a PGA Tour rules official. “For a 4-iron, you’d put it five, six or seven paces from the edge.”
A bit formulaic, no?

"Courting the coveted, new FedExCup trophy with lines delivered in the spirit of Shakespeare."

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No chance you read this without an eye roll...

The PGA TOUR celebrates Valentine’s Day this week with the launch of “First Kiss,” a new commercial in its year-long campaign to promote the inaugural season-long FedExCup points competition. It debuts during this week's telecast of the Nissan Open on GOLF CHANNEL and CBS.

“First Kiss” features players Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Sean O’Hair, Zach Johnson, Dean Wilson, J.J. Henry, Lucas Glover and Aaron Baddeley courting the coveted, new FedExCup trophy with lines delivered in the spirit of Shakespeare. About the new prize, O’Hair exclaims, “Other men have seen angels, but I have seen thee. Thou art enough,” while Scott pledges, “I will be the first to kiss her.”

The FedExCup trophy and a $10 million prize will be awarded for the first time following the four week PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup in September.

To preview the spot, click here.

"The clubs hit the ball too straight"

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Peter Yoon explains why no one is using the square drivers.

"The biggest issue for tour pros is that the clubs hit the ball too straight," said Jeff Colton, vice president for research and design at Callaway.

Hey maybe these ugly things will sell despite Tour player use and we can finally bifurcate the game?

Just a thought.

To The Golf Gods...

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danny_stool_pic.jpg...I'm sorry for every complaining about too much Ray Romano during Saturday Crosby coverage. Really, even if he doesn't have a sitcom on CBS, show us more of him and less of Danny Gans.

While it pains me to admit that Gans does a nice Al Pacino impersonation, did we have to go through his entire repertoire today? Der Bing and uh, Harry Caray? David Feherty setting him off of a pre-planned list?

Does he own nude photos of Lance Barrow?

Well, for those of you interested in Gans's work, you can get his "My Lord My Life" CD for just $5.

Operators are standing by!

"Just came across the tracks.''

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Doug Ferguson filed a follow up to the Vickers-Finchem press conference stories by going to the Commish so that he could rebut the Vickers post-press conference claims. (Wouldn't it have been easier if they were just honest when the mikes were on?)

The PGA Tour has narrowed it search to four cities to replace the International, and commissioner Tim Finchem said Friday that a return to Washington likely would be the first choice if all options were equal.

The other cities being considered for the Fourth of July spot on the schedule are Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and another market he declined to identify that "just came across the tracks.''

Nothing like a good railroad metaphor.

"When we get done and we're ready to prioritize, if all is about equal and Washington was one of them, we would probably prioritize Washington because we know it's a great time with the Fourth of July ... and it would be nice to have members of Congress involved.''

Why would it be nice to have members of Congress involved? Am I missing something?

Finchem said Congress has been supportive of The First Tee, a program aimed at getting kids involved with golf.

Uh huh.

"On the one hand, the Tour's asking for a new five- or six-year commitment and you've got a one-man show out there right now that is the big difference,'' Vickers said Thursday.

Finchem disagreed. He said if that were true, "we would have a schedule of 18 events.''

"That's just not the case,'' Finchem said. "When Tiger Woods plays, more people watch on TV and more tickets are sold. When he doesn't play, a lot of tickets are sold, a lot of money is raised for charity and our TV numbers are solid for the value of a sponsor.''

Uh huh.

"Are you supposed to be here?"

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From Brett Avery's PGATour.com AT&T blog:

2:55 p.m.
Are you supposed to be here?

Here's something from that last rain burst. Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated -- he's the writer involved in the Michelle Wie drop brouhaha last year -- walks up to the fourth tee trailing Murray. Murray is not pleased.

"Who are you?" Murray demands as partner Scott Simpson stands over his teed ball.

Bamberger looks as if he's trying to gauge Murray's comedic temperature. "I'm a writer with Sports Illustrated," Bamberger says.

"Are you allowed in here? Shouldn't you be outside the ropes?"

By now he's fingering Bamberger's credentials, hanging around his neck on a lanyard. Murray is not convinced.

"Yes," Bamberger says, looking around as if sensing a security guard is about to grab him by the collar.

"How long have you been following me?" Murray demands.

"Two days."

Murray waits two beats and turns as Jeff Sluman hits his drive. "You don't know what it's like to have the blood sucked out of you."

 

Now We're Getting Somewhere

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Jack Vickers didn't say much with Tim Finchem at his side, but he opened up to Woody Paige:

Vickers secured a big-time international sponsor.

The PGA Tour "claims I didn't have a sponsor for the $10 million tournament, but damn right I did."

He is telling the truth. I knew about the deal last year. He was taking a mighty gamble, but Vickers was willing.

He had originated the first seven-figure tournament. He would originate the first eight-figure tournament.

Three times Vickers went to Finchem and the PGA Tour, "three times I didn't get an answer. They didn't say no. They just didn't say anything," Vickers said.

The PGA Tour stalled Vickers out of the way. That's because the PGA Tour was secretly working on its FedExCup, a year-end series of tournaments and point systems that would crown a tour champion and award $10 million.

"They didn't want me to overshadow what they were doing," a resigned Vickers says now.  

"I've never seen it in my 21 years like it is right now."

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I listened in the working portion of the Tim Finchem-Jack Vickers conference call and boy was it a downer...and I never even had one of those milkshakes everyone raves about.

While it was all a bit murky as to exactly why this happened, the most revealing comments came from Vickers: 

But all of the sudden here, we're into an era that the marketplace out there is not the same, and I think it's been influenced by some phenomena in that we have one outstanding, unbelievable player in the form of Tiger Woods today, and when he's playing, the ratings are great, and when he isn't playing, the ratings aren't so hot.

So when we go to talk to these contacts, and we have a ton of them, we've got plenty of contacts to get sponsors.  But, they call their advertising people in and the next thing we know, we're talking about ratings and that makes it tough.  Right now we're just in one of those dips.  That will change and I think we'll get things worked out looking down the line.

And during the Q&A:

I feel a little bit today that we didn't, as I said without being repetitious, the timing here on behalf of both of us was tough to deal with.  But on the other side, and moving forward on a basis that we didn't feel made much business sense and we're really going to get us in trouble if we didn't take a deep breath and try and regroup.  And so I feel that we have to do that.
I'd be honest to say that off the record here, we were just talking with Tim, he's got some problems to resolve, I've got some problems to resolve, and those are going to take some time to do.  But they will be handled and they will be mended back together and we'll have this thing back flying again.  But it's going to take some doing.

Hmmm...

I'm disappointed, and it hurts to see this happen all of a sudden because we really thought even down to the last minute we might get it fixed.  But it's a different world out there right now.  I've never seen it in my 21 years like it is right now.

A Battlefield Defection

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Thanks to Four-putt for that header. You shoulda been a writer. Oh wait, you are.

So, does everyone see what I'm reading here, no International in 2007, either? Wow.

MEDIA ADVISORY – THE INTERNATIONAL

PLEASE JOIN PGA TOUR COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM AND JACK A. VICKERS FOR A PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING THE INTERNATIONAL.

MR. FINCHEM AND MR. VICKERS WILL ADDRESS THE FACT THAT THE INTERNATIONAL, STAGED AT CASTLE PINES GOLF CLUB SINCE 1986, WILL NO LONGER REMAIN AS PART OF THE PGA TOUR SCHEDULE, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.