Woods Wants 20-Year Deal At Congressional

/

Isn't this the same place where, in 1997, he stormed off without talking to the scribblers?  I miss that Tiger.

Jerry Potter reports that mercifully, the members aren't so sure about that.

Congressional President Stuart Long said Monday the members were delighted with the tournament but added, "We're busy" when asked about the future. Congressional will hold the U.S. Amateur in 2009 and the U.S. Open in 2011. "Oh, no," he said when asked if it could take the AT&T in 2010. "We need a year to get ready for the Open."

As for the long term, he said, the board would have to decide, adding, "The board turns over every six years. The board members who will make that decision haven't even been elected."

 

Reason 7,812 PGA Tour Pros Should Not Be Architects

/

Congressionalhole18.jpgGiven the choice between TiVoing the old geezers playing one of the twelve majors over a colorful, textured, rich, eccentric and slightly nutty design or an elite field playing a "classic" "U.S. Open style" "test," you can imagine what I picked.

Honestly, told I have six months to live, it's a toss up what I want to watch to make time stand still. Medinah or Congressional?

Now that Congressional's old 18th has been bulldozed by Rees Jones and replaced by a hole only he could design (click here for Tim Taylor's photos on GCA...but view with caution, it's not pretty), the final stroke of quirk has been stripped from the place. Therefore, as much as it pains me to not single out Medinah's relentless mediocrity, I think Congressional gets the nod for not taking better advantage of interesting terrain.

Ah, but the players love it! Why, I have no idea other than to merely confirm that they have no architectural sense whatsoever.

Billy Mayfair said:

"You put Tiger Woods as host and a great course like Congressional and you've got something people want to be involved with. What happened here this weekend was amazing. You put it down the street [at Avenel], and you're probably not going to have the same kind of field. Guys will come here, to Congressional. Guys want to play old-fashioned, U.S. Open-style courses, and that's what this is."

And Robert Allenby...

"This is a great golf course," Allenby said. "It's easy to run a good golf tournament here. You've got a great venue. It's pretty awesome."

It may be what you want to play fellas, but in terms of viewing it's deadly.

whistling_straits_straits_course_7.jpgSure, Whistling Straits goes over the top and the fairway widths looked absurd (exposed for their lack of room as soon as the wind came up Saturday). I also don't know what the USGA was trying to prove playing the 17th so far back Saturday, making it a 250 yardish shot when the hole is plenty brutal at 160 yards in benign conditions.  

But wasn't it fun to see all sort of different shots, including a few played on the ground?  And recovery shots. And most of all, a colorful, lively example of architecture's most inspired possibilities.

At Least Two Players Might Be Open To Returning To Avenel After It Is Completely Demolished

/

Leonard Shapiro writes that Phil Mickelson and Fred Funk are the two who found something to like, though Funk's comments are a tad frightening:

"I've been somewhat involved with the redo at Avenel," Funk said yesterday of a $20 million renovation of the course and clubhouse scheduled to begin next month. "And if they do a really good job, as far as making it look like it's a finished product, I think it will be well-received. When you go to Muirfield Village [site of the PGA Tour's Memorial in Dublin, Ohio], you see the streams that are through the golf course. It looks like it's well-manicured and not overgrown.
Those darn creeks and wetlands that capture all that storm runoff and provide wildlife with sanctuary have no business being all messy! Man can do sooooo much better with flower beds and chemicals!
"There's a lot of attention to detail, and Avenel never quite had that look. You have to make it look good and really present the best product, even off the areas where you don't play, where you hope the ball doesn't go. I think it could be a really good golf course, but it still is not ever going to be a Congressional."

Hmmm...let's hope it's not that boring. 

"In the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-largest market in the country, we weren't comfortable with that."

/

Tarik El-Bashir and Marc Carig file a lengthy Washington Post story on the evolution of Tiger's new D.C. event. Thanks to reader Sean for this, which includes one nice ironic bit.

Finchem said last week that he kept Booz Allen in the dark to avoid a leak of the Tour's planned schedule changes. But he also was less than generous in his assessment of the tournament's performance.

"All of this happened in the backdrop, candidly, of recognizing that the event in Washington had not performed over the years at the level we want to see a PGA Tour event perform generally, but particularly an event that we want to see perform in the nation's capital," he said. "In the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-largest market in the country, we weren't comfortable with that."

Asked for his response to Finchem's comment, Shrader said: "I felt we tried hard to earn a world-class event here in Washington. I feel that the event we had at Congressional in 2005 was a world-class event that demonstrated given a golf course and a date, we could have a world-class event here in Washington, one that the city and the people deserve. I'm happy Tiger and AT&T have come and I look forward to it being a big success."

Somehow I'm having a hard time believe Booz Allen was the problem here. It can't be all technology driving the $20 million being put into TPC Avenel.  

Perfection Is Boring

/

Thanks to reader Rob for noting Lorne Rubenstein's column pondering the perfection of Muirfield Village's conditioning and role that such pristine conditions play in the game.

The problem is that golfers, and not only tour professionals, expect perfect conditions in modern golf. They want to know that a ball hit into a spot in the fairway will stay there and not careen madly off a firm slope into a bunker. When they do find sand, they expect a perfect lie. They also expect the sand to be the same in every bunker on the course.

Nicklaus took some action in this regard. He furrowed the bunkers last year so that not every ball that settles into the sand will sit up. Some players whined. The furrows aren't as deep this year, but they're still furrowed. "Bunkers are meant to be a hazard," Nicklaus said. "Why have them otherwise?"

That's a good point. Nevertheless, Muirfield Village and most every PGA Tour course still offers ideal conditions. But golf was never meant to be played on courses so produced and contrived that they might as well be domed. Barring wild weather or stupidly narrow fairways and rough so high that there's no shot to play but a hard thwack out, today's courses are mostly the same and mostly boring.

 

Furrow Specs

/

Craig Dolch in the Palm Beach Post offers this on Jack Nicklaus's bunker furrowing plans for this week's Memorial:

This year, though, the tines on the rakes won't be spread as far apart as last year — they'll be 13/4 inches this year as opposed to 21/2 inches in 2006 — but the effect will be the same.

"All I want them to say is, 'That's a place I don't want to be,' " Nicklaus said Friday at his North Palm Beach offices. "I don't care about penalizing the guy. I'm trying to force him to play the strategy of the golf course by not wanting to be in a bunker. Guys aim for bunkers because it's an easy shot."

McCabe On TPC Boston

/

The Boston Globe's Jim McCabe files the first review of Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon's TPC Boston redo. Unfortunately, no photos with the story online or at the club's web site.

Dramatic new bunkering with grass that falls back into the sand caught the group's attention at many holes, starting at the first, and a series of "chocolate drops," which are mounds of grass-covered dirt, now lend character to holes. Aesthetically, TPC Boston looks so much better than before that Hanse should be considered a miracle-worker. He has done what any great designer strives to do -- players will not only have to think their way around , they'll have to hit a variety of shots.

Of course, fickle PGA Tour players surely will critique the changes. Those involved are especially eager to hear the reaction to the par-4 fourth, changed from a goofy, dogleg right of 425 yards to a fairly straight and drivable par-4 of 299 yards -- but one that features a green that can't be more than 3,300 square feet and provides demanding shots from just off the green. So, fire away, laddies.

Dramatic, too, are the changes to the par-5 seventh, which now features a cross bunker roughly 140 yards from the green and creative greenside mounding, and to the par-5 18th, to which Hanse has added a strip of rough stretching out from a bunker. The par-3 16th? It is shorter, but now the green sits closer to the pond, so it's a more daunting shot. The par-4 17th? It might just be the best hole on the back nine, a brilliant piece of work that features one large grassy mound on each side of the fairway, but just enough room for those players who feel they can thread a draw between them.

Will some players moan? Sure. It's usually the second order of business at tournaments, after hopping into the courtesy car.

That's one part of the equation that isn't new.

DNP's

/

I'm not sure about Zach Johnson's claim regarding the field in Atlanta, at least based on the DNP's in the FedEx Cup standings...

1 1 Tiger Woods 7 16,716 DNP 3 5
2 2 Phil Mickelson 12 15,818 DNP 2 5
3 3 Vijay Singh 14 13,661 DNP 2 4
4 9 Zach Johnson 12 12,327 1 2 4
5 4 Charles Howell III 14 11,856 CUT 1 5
6 5 Adam Scott 8 8,641 DNP 1 3
7 6 John Rollins 14 8,391 DNP
3
8 7 Luke Donald 12 8,121 DNP
5
9 8 Mark Calcavecchia 13 8,044 DNP 1 4
10 10 Aaron Baddeley 12 7,809 DNP 1 4
11 11 Boo Weekley 15 7,717 CUT 1 3
12 12 Sergio Garcia 9 6,977 DNP
4
13 13 Rory Sabbatini 14 6,672 T24
4
14 18 Henrik Stenson 7 6,618 T9 1 2
15 14 Geoff Ogilvy 11 6,377 DNP
3
16 15 Nick Watney 12 6,140 DNP 1 2
17 16 Steve Stricker 12 6,107 DNP
4
18 17 Robert Allenby 12 6,079 DNP
6
19 19 Scott Verplank 11 5,970 DNP 1 2
20 20 Mark Wilson 12 5,609 DNP 1 1
21 21 Jeff Quinney 13 5,376 DNP
5
22 22 Ken Duke 14 5,308 DNP
4
23 23 Bubba Watson 13 5,281 DNP
4
24 24 Charley Hoffman 15 5,232 CUT 1 1
25 25 Ernie Els 8 5,216 DNP
2
26 26 Paul Goydos 10 5,103 DNP 1 1
27 27 Trevor Immelman 11 5,047 DNP
3
28 28 Brett Wetterich 14 5,016 DNP
3
29 29 Heath Slocum 12 4,898 CUT
3
30 74 Ryuji Imada 16 4,844 2
2
31 30 Anthony Kim 13 4,702 DNP
4
32 31 Jim Furyk 11 4,701 DNP
3
33 34 Stewart Cink 12 4,680 T24
3
34 32 Jose Coceres 6 4,548 DNP
3
35 33 Vaughn Taylor 13 4,524 W/D
3
36 35 Jerry Kelly 13 4,437 DNP
4
37 36 K.J. Choi 14 4,381 DNP
3
38 37 Stuart Appleby 12 4,276 DNP
2
39 39 David Toms 12 4,209 T30
4
40 42 Kevin Sutherland 13 4,136 T16
1
41 38 John Senden 12 4,126 DNP
2
42 60 Camilo Villegas 12 4,031 T3
2
43 40 Justin Rose 6 3,882 DNP
3
44 41 Bart Bryant 13 3,861 CUT
2
45 43 Ian Poulter 10 3,640 DNP
3
46 44 Rocco Mediate 10 3,574 DNP
2
47 45 Lucas Glover 14 3,504 DNP
2
48 46 Brandt Snedeker 15 3,479 DNP
1
49 47 John Mallinger 14 3,423 DNP
2
50 48 Padraig Harrington 9 3,255 DNP
2