Huggan On Azinger

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John Huggan does his best to get off on the wrong foot with the new U.S. Ryder Cup Captain.

Over the course of four Ryder Cups, the 46-year-old golfer all but covered the playing and behavioural spectrum, from sublime to distasteful. Indeed, Azinger's whole career has been regularly blighted by doubts over his character amid accusations that his adherence to golf's rule-book is sometimes less than exemplary.
Oh but he said that about Lehman too, and they've since bonded. Though this may be tough to overcome... 
Listening to a winning speech laced with Azinger's warped brand of so-called patriotism is something that we should all be spared.

Huggan's just jealous that we have a Captain and points system that will get us into double digits in '08. 

More Ryder Cup Points Reaction

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John Hawkins on the new U.S. Ryder Cup point system:

I think it’s interesting that the PGA of America chose to base its standings on dollars instead of Fed-Ex points. Club Pro Central is not real happy about the PGA Tour’s holding its ’08 playoff series in the four weeks immediately preceding the Ryder Cup, which, as I pointed out yesterday, can only hurt America’s chances against the Europeans at Valhalla.

What he doesn't point out is that the Captain's picks will be made the week of the Tour Championship, which in the brand platform marketing world seems like a gigantic screw you to the PGA Tour. Then again, isn't NBC covering the event now? So maybe they will love it. I can't keep up with all of this synergy. 

Meanwhile over at SI.com, Hawkins' favorite press dining room companion Alan Shipnuck cuts through all of the points analysis and hits the point that really matters:

Paul Azinger's Ryder Cup captaincy is already off to a great start with a new qualifying system that is vastly superior to the point system instituted by his predecessor Tom Lehman. With any luck we'll only lose by five or six points in '08!

US Reaction To Azinger and New Points System

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John Hawkins weighing in at GolfDigest.com:
He’s a guy who lived and breathed for the third week in September of every other year, relishing the chance to play for Old Glory.

Can the new captain impart that attitude throughout his squad? Not in three or four days, or however long the Yanks hang out before we start keeping score. Not with the ’08 Ryder Cup being played right after the Fed-Ex Cup playoffs—the top U.S. players are sure to be drained by six or seven starts in the eight-week stretch leading into Valhalla. And not with the core group Azinger is sure to have. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk are the best in the world when golf is an individual sport. In a team format, however, the Yanks have proven competitively dysfunctional, unable to maximize their bounty of resources as a group.
And Steve Elling in the Orlando Sentinel:
Going forward, Ryder Cup candidates will be rewarded for their performance at the majors, if not for their earnings. In 2007, players can't earn points unless they make the cut at a major championship. The 2008 season has been given far more weight, with players amassing points based on their dollar totals and performances at Grand Slam events.

"Wow, that's pretty amazing," said two-time Ryder Cupper Chris DiMarco when told of the new scheme on his way to an event this week in China. "Now you have to be in the top eight to make the team? I'm not sure I know how to respond to that. But everybody is sick and tired of losing, so it's probably time to try something very different."

Whereas U.S. players previously were rewarded for top-10 finishes -- with the influx of foreign talent, that's become increasing tougher -- now anytime they make a check in 2008, they'll make some progress toward a spot on the team. Azinger and six PGA officials came up with the new configuration.

"Money has always been the barometer out here," Azinger said.

Whether the revision will result in wholesale changes in team personnel -- or turn around America's flagging fortunes -- appears debatable. PGA President Roger Warren said his organization, which runs the event, ran the numbers from the 2006 team and noted there were few, if any, changes to the composition of the top players on the points list.

"There wasn't much difference in the top 6, 7, 8 players," Warren said.

Azinger, however, said the system weeds out players who collected too many points several months before the competition.

"I do think that there is going to be one clear distinction in '08, and that's simply that there is not going to be a single player on tour that's going to know in January of '08 that they're a lock for that Ryder Cup team, including Tiger [Woods]," he said. "The reality is, nobody is going to have qualified for this team based on their performance in '07."

UK Reaction To Azinger and New Points System

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James Corrigan was easily the toughest when reporting for the Independent: 

America have proved just how desperate they are to reclaim the Ryder Cup by granting their new captain unprecedented powers.

John Hopkins in the Times:

What the PGA of America has come up with is far-reaching and significant...Perhaps the most significant change of all is that the bizarre qualification process used for this year’s match has been abandoned. In its place is one that rewards Ryder Cup candidates for their good play in tournaments on the tour in the US and gives extra points in the major championships.

Lawrence Donegan in the Guardian:

Paul Azinger was yesterday appointed captain of the United States team for the 2008 Ryder Cup match against Europe and began his tenure with the now-traditional swipe at critics who argue that the US team loses because they care less than their opponents. "I think anyone who suggests that our players won't be as hungry as their players might be in for a big shock," he said during a press conference at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, where the next match will be staged.

And the Principal's Nose offered this:

In one swoop, the PGA of America has reduced the PGA Tour to a mere side show to the Majors and the Ryder Cup, for as they throw their hat into the ring with the Majors, and although they are the anti-Christ of all things good in golf, they see the Ryder Cup as being bigger than a whole season on Tour. In other words, the PGA Tour no longer holds any power.

 

"Azinger's mottos: Cash."

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Craig Dolch reports that the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings will be compiled differently under Captain Azinger:
The problem with the current system is the only way a U.S. player can earn points is by finishing in the top 10 at a PGA Tour event. But with the Tour becoming more international - Azinger said 85 foreign players are exempt on the PGA Tour - fewer Americans are earning points by finishing in the top 10 (less than 60 percent of the available points were awarded for the 2006 team, and most of them went to Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk).

So look for the PGA to get away from top-10 finishes as its only measuring stick and use one of Azinger's mottos: Cash. Azinger said at the recent Chrysler Championship it was obvious to him the changes the PGA made to the system in 2004 didn't get the best team at the K Club.

"If you looked at the way it played out ... the last five guys on our team were not secure the last month and a half. If they would have had some high finishes, they would have secured their spot and nobody did," Azinger said. "The two guys that were picked (Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank) had opportunities to make the team. They didn't get hot and make the team.

"The reality is, Phil (Mickelson), his confidence might have waned a little bit after the U.S. Open. And David Toms and Chad Campbell won in January. It didn't put our hottest players on the team, not at all."

Putting On His Worst Poker Face

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MD1B-azinger.jpgPaul Azinger really knows how to work the press. Here he is talking to Steve Elling about the Ryder Cup captaincy announcement.

"I just can't confirm what has been leaked," Azinger, 46, said in Atlanta, where he is handling broadcast duties for The Tour Championship on ESPN. "I have no idea how this happened, how it was leaked. I am completely blindsided."
He couldn't even do a non-denial denial! How's he going to keep this buttoned up for four days on ABC!

See what fun this is going to be Julius?

Captain Couples?

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I've noticed in various stories mentioning who might land the gig as the next U.S. Ryder Cup Captain, Fred Couples keeps surfacing. Rich Lerner writes in another enjoyable column:

The hunch here is that Fred Couples will be the next Ryder Cup captain, with Paul Azinger and Corey Pavin under consideration.

However, John Hawkins blogged about Freddie's recent health scare, which may make it difficult for the PGA of America to select him.

It still seems to me that Pavin is their ideal candidate because he gives good press conference and, well, does anything else matter? 

Azinger has to scare the daylights out of the gang in Palm Beach even though he and Faldo could do their shtik while promoting the event. But Couples would bring a certain laid back approach that might help the U.S. team. However, his hatred of press conferences has to be a concern. Then again, if Woosie can get through it...

Thoughts?

One Last Ryder Cup Question...Follow Up

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Earlier in the week I wondered about the impact of a possible four day Ryder Cup starting on Thursday instead of the current Firday-Sunday setup.

One strategic element lost might be that rare time during morning four-balls when the Captain's have to figure out their afternoon pairings. As we saw this year, Tom Lehman twice left J.J. Henry out of afternoon play, only to have Henry light up the back nine and leave everyone wondering why he was left out of foursomes.

This question brought reader Blue Blazer out of hiding, with the great fan of all things USGA insisting that the players have created this awkward situation with their painfullly slow play (five-plus hours for the first four-ball out!). BB says 80s and 90s matches used to end around noon (as opposed to 1 p.m this year), giving the Captain's another hour to sort out their afternoon pairings.

So Blue Blazer is right that it is not unfair to the Captains to have to make their afternoon pairings with only nine or so holes of golf played for some.

It's a slow play problem.

Tape Delayed No More?

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Golfobserver's Peter McCleery analyzes NBC's Ryder Cup telecast, focusing his criticism on the outdated nature of tape-delay coverage in the Internet era. He says sucked the life out of the Friday/Saturday telecasts here in the States, and I would agree. But even on tape, NBC could have done better...

If you're going to tape everything, use the time more wisely. As it was, there was 20 minute of nonaction to fill on Saturday, and the 20 minutes before that featured only one match still in progress.

Might NBC suggest that they didn't have enough time to edit the dreadfully slow morning four-balls, even though we know they did based on those tacky Rolex clocks decorating each tee?

Anyway, McCleery concludes: 

Here's hoping this is the last tape-delayed Ryder Cup ever and the last walkover in a while. The PGA and NBC have another four years to figure it all out. That's twice the time that the American players have. It should be enough to finally get this thing right.

They just had two years since the last Cup to devise an Internet strategy for this year's event, announcing the exclusive online coverage the day before the matches started.

However, there may be hope for U.S. viewers when the matches are played at Celtic Manor in 2010. It has been rumored that Friday Ryder Cup play may be spread out over two days (like the Presidents Cup). This would allow for 1 p.m. tee times on new host network ESPN, meaning a respectable start time in the east coast. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

This would also allow for a 10 or 11 a.m. start at Valhalla, allowing European viewers to go to bed at decent hour.

However, a Thursday start still doesn't solve the Saturday-on-NBC issue. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

 

O'Grady: Euro Tour Developing Courses To Ensure Mundane Ryder Cup Venues Through End Of Century

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Bloomberg news reports that:

"European Tour will buy or build golf courses to stage the Ryder Cup from 2018 to increase income from its most profitable event, chief executive George O'Grady has said."
The Tour has guaranteed that the matches, played alternately in the US and Europe every two years, will take place on mainland Europe from 2018 through 2030.

Here's your money quote...literally:

"In future, we'll either build courses ourselves or own them," the 57-year-old Englishman said. "We get cash from the Ryder Cup but we don't get a capital asset gain. In 2018 we'll own at least part of the venue."

Take that Tim Finchem!

Owning and operating the courses would allow the Tour to build and profit from onsite hotels, spas and other leisure facilities.

It could also develop and sell or rent private housing, while retaining income from club membership fees, conferences, exhibitions, retail and catering.

The owner of the K Club, which hosts this year's event, Michael Smurfit, said there's "no question or doubt" that the Ryder Cup has boosted the value of those assets.

The Tour doesn't own any of the K Club, the 2010 host the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, or Scotland's Gleneagles, which will stage the 2014 contest.

Profit at this year's event may not reach the €14.8m it made four years ago because of extra security and other costs, Mr O'Grady said.

Tissue, anyone?

Revenue may rise to as much as €74m from €52m at the 2002 edition at the Belfry, Mr O'Grady said, declining to give his organisation's annual revenue.

The Tour retains 60pc of the profit, with the remainder split between the UK and European Professional Golfers' Associations.

The 2018 venue may be chosen by the last day of the 2010 edition, O'Grady said, giving the Tour enough time to build a new course if necessary.

"By then we reckon courses will need to be built in a certain way to take the number of spectators that will want to come," he said.

As opposed to now?

Built In '86, Outdated in '06

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The Louisville Courier-Journal's Jody Demling takes an extensive look at Jack Nicklaus overhauling Valhalla in preparation for the 2008 Ryder Cup.

Nicklaus was in town yesterday to oversee ongoing construction of the most extensive changes in the 20-year history of the course he designed in eastern Jefferson County as Valhalla prepares to play host to the 2008 Ryder Cup.

 About 1,000 trees have been removed, four greens have been dynamited and transplanted (one didn't meet his approval and will move again) and the No. 2 hole may play as a 535-yard par-4 for the professionals.

"I thought we had a pretty good golf course to start with, but times have changed," Nicklaus said. "It's been 20 years since we did the golf course, and golf equipment has changed dramatically. And the ability of the players has changed dramatically with the equipment.

"To challenge the ability of the players today we needed to add some length and spice to the golf course, and in some places we have softened it a bit."

Hey, but it had 20 good years.

Nicklaus spent several hours touring the course with several PGA of America officials, original course owner Dwight Gahm and course superintendent Mark Wilson, among others.

"We have to take the golf courses and make it fit today's game, and that's what we're trying to do," Nicklaus said.

And...

Every hole will be affected in some way. The grass on all 18 greens is being replaced. Greens on the sixth, eighth, 11th and 16th holes are being rebuilt, and bunkers are being added to seven holes.

"(The PGA) is turning Jack loose and making it modern," said Gahm, who sold the course to the PGA after the 2000 event. "He's doing everything he wants to do, and it's going to be even better.

"I'm just glad he's not using my money."

Nice line!

Valhalla played 7,167 yards for the 2000 PGA, won by Tiger Woods in a playoff with Bob May, but will play about 7,500 yards from the back tees when finished.

"We sat down (with Nicklaus) and came up with a vision of how we can take Valhalla and modernize it and challenge today's players and do it well," PGA of America chief executive officer Joe Steranka said.

This is fun...

Members are allowed to play the course, but all the holes are using temporary greens in the middle of the fairways and course officials said play has been slow. But PGA officials said this will strengthen the stature of the course, which is listed among the top 100 nationally by several publications.

Listed among the top 100, yet it's undergoing a complete facelift. I'm not sure if it's an indictment of the rankings, or the equipment situation.

The biggest change is at the par-4 sixth hole that played 421 yards in the 2000 PGA. The hole is a dogleg right where the second shot must be hit over Floyd's Fork.

But Nicklaus said the green is being moved back 80 yards and into an area that is surrounded by trees, making it a longer hole where a second shot would likely be 200-220 yards after PGA players hit a 3-wood or long iron off the tee.

"It was already an exciting hole," Nicklaus said. "It's actually a par-4 that, I think, they're not going to be able to play a wedge to, if there is such a thing in this world today. It's going to be a beautiful golf hole."

The green on the par-3 eighth hole has been rebuilt, and the tee has been moved back a bit. The green was dropped four feet, allowing for better viewing.

Nicklaus spent a great deal of time at No. 11, a par-3 that played 168 yards in 2000. The original green has been destroyed, but after looking at the new layout Nicklaus said the green will be moved back and a little farther left from the original green. The hole will likely play 200-205 yards.

"The green you are looking at down there do not expect it to be there," Nicklaus told the media gathered around No. 11. "How it got there, I'm not sure. Probably my mistake. But we're moving it back, and it will work out nicely."

Nicklaus said No. 16 already had a new tee built since 2000, and now the green is being pulled together with the No. 17 tee box. He also said he took "some of the humps" out of most greens because "they got too severe."

Uh...they got severe, or were severe?