"It's too early to call it a bust, but it's not too early to be concerned about its utter lack of buzz."

Golf.com's Gary Van Sickle gets all curmudgeonly about 2007's disappointments. Two that stood out for his crisp assessments:

10. The FedEx Cup The PGA Tour has tried to force feed us the points standings. The Golf Channel keeps cramming the points list down our throats. Still, no one cares. Nothing seems to be at stake. The race to the FedEx Cup playoffs? Hardly, since 144 players qualify. Which is everybody who is anybody. And why keep track of the points since they're just going to be reset for the playoffs? There is no drama, no interest and no reason to get interested in the FedEx Cup points standings yet. It's too early to call it a bust, but it's not too early to be concerned about its utter lack of buzz.

That's just so wrong. After all, if the playoffs started today, Anders Hansen would not be in them. Gary, you can't buy tension like that!

Moving on, I think this assessment is consistent with what we've seen in the past. Namely, that time tends to put over-the-top course setups into perspective...

3. The Masters It was disappointing that what I've been writing for the last five years was proven correct, that Augusta National with firm and fast conditions and some wind is the toughest golf course in the world. For three days, conditions were so difficult and greens so firm that nobody could make many birdies. Never have so many good shots turned out not so good. As a result, the best players weren't able to separate themselves from the pack. Skill was equalized. It wasn't until Masters officials saw the light and softened the greens for Sunday's final that we began to see the familiar birdies and eagles and hear the familiar roars from Amen Corner. Former chairman Hootie Johnson was right to lengthen and tough the course but went a bit too far. It doesn't need rough — or whatever quaint term they call it — and it doesn't need all those extra trees planted on 7, 11 and 15. For the first time in recent memory, the Masters came close to being boring for three days.

"Everybody that teed it up this week, for the most part ... is going to be in the top 50, top 30, top 15 players in the world.’’

Golfweek's Travis Hill takes an entertaining look at the weekend's more outlandish quotes and happenings, including the above Zach Johnson quote along with those painfully embarrassing final day interviews with the VP of Painfully Embarrassing Final Day Interviews (I'm guess Hill was inspired to rant after Peter Kostis's breathless Q&A at the AT&T).

Huggan On Phil and Tiger

John Huggan makes a couple of good points in his look at the possibility of a Tiger-Phil "rivalry"...

Only 21 days into his new relationship with instructor Butch Harmon, Mickelson played the closing 18 holes of the so-called fifth major in Woods-like fashion, hitting green after green in regulation - 16 of 18 under the pressure of the fourth round - until no-one was left to take him on. It was a fine victory, and a beautifully- constructed round of golf.

Amid the understandable euphoria, however, it must be said that Mickelson has a way to go before he can look Woods in the eye consistently. A closer look at Lefty's numbers from Sawgrass reveals that his driving accuracy and greens-hit percentages were actually a little down on his season average. Which is no surprise.

Huh...go figure. 

Uh, Ray Floyd?

Did I miss something? Is there a reason Ray Floyd is taking up a spot in Atlanta?

SI Players Poll

The 2007 edition of their annual poll is now posted online, albeit in a cumbersome 17 page spread designed to generate hits!

Slow Play Claiming More Victims?

Admittedly, I take some perverse pleasure in seeing how slow play is about to claim more victims, even though the problem is not entirely the fault of the players.

Still, as Doug Ferguson reports, the tepid pace of play on the PGA Tour may force a cut in the number of players teeing it up on the weekend check.

Now, the PGA Tour again is looking at changing the longtime policy that the top 70 and ties make the cut. Several alternatives were discussed last week by the Player Advisory Council, and it likely will come up at the tour policy board meeting at the end of the month.

Among the options:

-Top 60 players and ties.

-Top 65 players and ties.

-The nearest number to 70 players.

-Top 70 and ties, but if the number goes over 78, revert to nearest to 70.

-Top 70 and ties make the cut on Friday, and another cut on Saturday for top 70 and ties.

And your buried lede of the week...

One reason the cut policy is under review is to cope with pace of play. When a large number of players make the cut and bad weather is in the forecast, officials have little choice but to play in threesomes off both tees. That can really become a problem on the West Coast, where tournaments typically end at 3 p.m. for network television.

I wish Tiger had taken a slightly different stand...

Tiger Woods said he would favour top 60 and ties, no exceptions.

"Play better," he said. "Either you play better or you don't."

Or play faster? Or setup courses with a little less rough, fewer 2-paces-from-the-edge-holes and maybe the players stand a chance of picking up the pace?

Oh and do something with the ball so that the entire field can't reach every par-5 in two.

The TiVo Test

Golfweek.com's Travis Hill says the Wachovia didn't pass the TiVo test, and offers other notes worth reading.

"It appeared the boys were stinking up the gym. That speaks of one thing..."

I only watched a few minutes of the sixth major (love the blue jacket for the winner...how original!).

However I noticed on the Golfweek.com Tour blog that the real genius of Quail Hollow was picked up by Jeff Rude:

The top two Wachovia Championship finishers both made double bogeys coming in. And high finisher Vijay Singh made two bogeys and a triple coming in. It appeared the boys were stinking up the gym.

That speaks of one thing: Quail Hollow is one of the best courses on the Tour. You might say it deserves the strong field and favorable date it received.

It's one thing for a newcomer to the game evaluating a course based on its difficulty, but after all of the great stuff Dr. Klein has penned in Golfweek about what actually merits architectural legitimacy, you'd like to think we could something a tad more nuanced than the course's ability to churn out doubles and triples. Right?

"That's just ridiculous, in twosomes"

An unbylined story on Tiger fuming about slow play at golf's sixth major where it's all right in front of you...

Woods, playing with Vijay Singh in the final pairing, finished the 18th hole in semi-darkness, a few minutes past 8pm local time at Quail Hollow.

The start of play was delayed by two hours due to nearby lightning, so Woods and Singh did not tee off until 3.40pm.

He could not understand why it took more than four hours, 20 minutes to play 18 holes, especially on a course well designed for walking, without many long distances between holes.

"That's just ridiculous, in twosomes," said the world number one, who bogeyed the last two holes to finish a shot behind leader Rory Sabbatini of South Africa.

"I didn't think we were going to finish and Vijay didn't either, but we got it in somehow.

"It's like playing under caution all day. No-one ever gave us a green to go. That was the way it was and we had to deal with it."

"In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Ross isn't building any more courses"

Thanks to reader Trevor for this Robert Bell story on the debate breaking out over the Greensboro course of the future and the possibility of moving to Donald Ross's Sedgefield. You know, the one that no one famous will play because it's scheduled the week before the playoffs starting.

"That would be cool, that would be really cool," said tour player Rocco Mediate, who slipped away from Forest Oaks during last year's tournament in Greensboro to play a round at Sedgefield.

Mediate said many tour players who annually skip Greensboro's tour stop would reconsider if the tournament moved to Sedgefield's Donald Ross course.

"In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Ross isn't building any more courses," Mediate said. "Getting an old course like Sedgefield as a regular stop would be a brilliant move, and I think players would respond to that."

Five years ago, the Greensboro Jaycees signed a 20-year agreement to play the tournament at Forest Oaks through 2022. But sources at Sedgefield and Forest Oaks say Greensboro businessman Bobby Long, director of the charitable foundation that runs the Wyndham, is negotiating a buyout with the Japanese company that owns Forest Oaks.

And... 

Jerry Kelly said Sedgefield would do for the Wyndham what Quail Hollow Club has done for the Wachovia.

"There's a reason (27) of the world's top 30 golfers are here and it's not the courtesy cars," the tour player said, referring to the Mercedes automobiles.

Does that mean it could become the seventh major?

Many players have not embraced fellow tour player Davis Love III's 2003 redesign of Forest Oaks.

Robert Gamez said Love took out all the curves of Forest Oaks.

"It was always one of the best courses we played, but now you don't have to maneuver the ball at all," Gamez said. "Just hit it straight and hard and don't worry about working the ball. Sedgefield is different. It makes you have to think."

Kelly said Love "tried to make Forest Oaks a little more Pinehurst-ish. I just don't know if the land and routing was there to turn it into what he wanted."

And this from the ever jovial Charles Warren, who I would expect to say something like this:

"Just being a Ross course doesn't make it a good course," Warren said. "It's hard to find a lot of (Pinehurst) No. 2s around the country. I'd like to see it stay" at Forest Oaks. "They always seem to get good crowds, and the atmosphere is always high."

"I told myself there ain't but one way to get them out of there, and I reckoned I was gonna have to do it the manly way."

Yes, there are actually people who speak like that. Boo Weekley to be exact.

Golf World's John Hawkins profiles Weekley and shares this among several classic anecdotes:

By October the bumpkin had turned back into a pumpkin. Perhaps the lowest point came when Boo used a Port-a-Pottie at a tournament and dropped his courtesy-car keys in the toilet about two hours before a flight. The good news was the airport was only 20 minutes away. The bad news was Weekley didn't have a fishing rod. "I told myself there ain't but one way to get them out of there, and I reckoned I was gonna have to do it the manly way," Boo says. "So I put some snuff up my nose to cut down the smell, stuck my arm in there and reached around until I found 'em."

"I just hope they never host an (U.S.) Open on it. The USGA would screw it up.”

I saw the Golf Channel's nauseating opening to the sixth major today via TiVo, but when Kelly Tilghman breathlessly called Quail Hollow a "work of art," I deleted the telecast and went back to the Mavericks-Warrior's first half.

The lovefest continues with this Golfweek blog post from Rex Hoggard, which is forgiven since it includes a reminder of just how admired the USGA is these days:

How good is the Quail Hollow layout, stage for this week’s mid-major PGA Tour gathering? As one player said last night, “It is incredible . . . I just hope they never host an (U.S.) Open on it. The USGA would screw it up.”

All of which makes us wonder what to expect next week at TPC Sawgrass. Hard, dry conditions combined with thick rough could turn The Players into a U.S. Open Lite.

The Other Fifth Of Four Majors?

John Dell writes about how the Wachovia event is all things wonderful, with several players implying that the course should host something beyond the prestigious Wachovia. Because after all, it's all right in front you!

“When you have a great golf course the guys will come, and this is one of the neat golf courses we get to play all year,” said Woods, who is playing in just his sixth PGA Tour tournament this year. “It’s straightforward, right in front of you. You have to shape the ball both ways, and on top of that, you’ve really got to putt here.”

And George Cobb, the poor guy who designed it, appears to have been been forgotten. But hey, if we call this a Fazio, he'll finally have the tournament course he's always wanted. Maybe then he'll stop butchering good designs?

Johnny Harris, the president of Quail Hollow who brought his course and the PGA Tour together, agreed that the biggest reason that the top players are here is because of the course.

“I go back to Tom Fazio, who did a wonderful job with our golf course, and our patrons know golf and love being here,” Harris said. “You know, bringing the best players here to North Carolina is something my father always talked about.”

Tom Fazio and patrons. Don't about you, but I'm thinking we may have to go on another fifth major watch here.

Joe Ogilvie, a former star at Duke, said he has heard about Quail Hollow possibly playing host to a bigger tournament.

“This is a pretty good place,” Ogilvie said. “And with this field you could make an argument that it’s better than the PGA Championship field will be in August. This has a major feel to it.”

Whoa, that was close! I think there's a fine Joe for declaring anything other than The Players Championship The PLAYERS a fifth major.  Be careful!

Update on 2007-05-03 15:50 by Geoff

Reader Josh reports that he's pretty sure Golf Channel's Andrew Magee declared the Wachovia the "sixth major." 

Looks like the sixth major watch has officially begun! 

Wachovia Photo Caption Help

Courtesy of the new-look Golfweek.com...
 

"Awkward tee shots in relation to fairways surfaced as the 'No. 1 issue'"

Jimmy Burch on D.A. Weibring and his marching orders to fix the TPC Las Colinas.

But if Tiger is to remain in the mix at Texas-based events, his history says he'll play the Nelson before he surfaces elsewhere. Weibring said Woods offered feedback on the best way to improve the TPC layout: Eliminate "awkward" tee shots on holes No. 10, 12, 15 and 18.

He's not alone. Weibring said awkward tee shots in relation to fairways surfaced as the "No. 1 issue" pros want him to correct this off-season. The greens, they figure, will thrive when resurfaced with fresh bent grass.

I wonder what awkward means? I haven't seen the course, fortunately. Anyone? Are they goofy awkward, or awkward because they force guys to make a decision? I'm guessing goofy awkward.

As an architect, Weibring has skins on the wall. Some of his notable tweaks for 2008 look inviting, particularly a cascading, four-lake water feature down the left side of the 18th fairway.

Oh that ought to have them coming back in droves!