Nick Price On Native Zimbabwe: "It's been so depressing since the land-grabbing started"

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Greg Norman wonders forlornly if he didn't get a third chance to lose the Presidents Cup because he walked away from a Rolex deal.

Nick Price wonders forlornly about his native Zimbabwe.

I think we've got an upgrade in the Presidents Cup captaincy!

On the eve of the "must win" matches (oy...it's not going away!), Barry Havenga profiles Price and his assistant captains Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone, who all hail from the deteriorating country.

Accompanying this chaos has been the dismantling of one of the finest golf environments ever seen. In the 1960s and '70s, even amid political upheaval from minority rule that caused the United States to impose trade sanctions on Rhodesia, the country was a golf Camelot. Located along the northeast border of South Africa, it featured brilliant weather, a large number of courses with affordable fees and active junior programs that would, for a few golden years, produce a disproportionate number of the world's finest players.

Three-time major champion Price, now 56, as well as his assistant captains, Mark McNulty, 59, and Tony Johnstone, 57, were products of this time. So were Denis Watson and renowned instructor David Leadbetter. "The weather was so good that you were outdoors 365 days a year, so we played everything," recalls Price. "My brother [Tim] bought a bag of clubs, not a set, a bag, completely mixed clubs. People say there wasn't hickory around in 1965 -- there was in Rhodesia! We didn't have access to new equipment because of sanctions, so we made the most of everything we had."

"As golf enters its own Moneyball Era, every number counts..."

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It's been a longtime coming, but the Moneyball mentality has finally come to golf, reports Tim Rosaforte in this week's Golf World.

Most notably, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson are attributing some of their recent success to more numbers crunching by outside sources, and it's not all ShotLink stats helping the players prepare. Snedeker won't reveal much other than the role Mark Horton has played.

"The lines [between a good and great season] are so thin, so I'm trying to find any edge I can get," Snedeker said. "Mark's done a great job for me of understanding who I am as a golfer. We, as professional golfers, have a tendency of thinking we're strong in particular areas, and that may not be the case at all. He does a great job of identifying what I need to work on, what my strengths are so I play to those, and what my weaknesses are, so I can play away from them."

At East Lake a year ago, Horton worked his computer in the clubhouse, and Snedeker executed a game plan that resulted in a sweep of the final playoff event and the FedEx Cup title for an $11.44 million payday. At the end of the year, Snedeker said Horton was the difference for him in jumping from 38th to ninth on the World Ranking.

Johnson was less secretive about his work with Peter Sanders, whose Shot By Shot website is part of the numbers crunching process.

Sanders, who works out of his house in Connecticut, contends that ShotLink stats are "myopic" and "one-dimensional answers to multi-dimensional questions." The blunt comments point to the theory that identifying tangible areas of improvement that can truly help improve scoring comes from a more focused exploration of the data.

Punters Beware: Scott In Record 63 At Shinnecock

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It's never too early to file away something for your past performances files, as Doug Ferguson reports on Adam Scott's course-record setting round at 2018 U.S. Open host Shinnecock Hills.

Scott made a 12 footer on the last to set the new record.

"It's pretty cool," Scott said. "The members got pretty excited when I came off the course, and it's one of the best tracks in the world, for sure. No one has ever shot that score in over 100 years off the tees I played. So that's a pretty neat thing."

For Some Reason, Darren Clarke To Play PGA Tour In '14

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He hasn't been competitive on the European Tour since winning the Open Championship, but that's not stopping Darren Clarke from using his major-win exemption to play the PGA Tour in 2014. I wonder if he knows the season starts in a month?

From Sky Sports.

"I still feel I can be competitive at the highest level, I have always enjoyed America and the US Tour in the past and I am looking forward to playing there more often again."

Jack Nicklaus On Bill Campbell: "He always thought of others in the game of golf."

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Jack Nickaus on Bill Campbell after Campbell's passing on Aug. 30, 2013:

I first ran into Bill Campbell in 1955, when at 15 years old, I was playing in the US Amateur qualifier at Camargo in Cincinnati. I managed to qualify for the US Amateur and Bill must have evidently been impressed with something he saw in me, because the next year, he called the Sunnehanna (Amateur Invitational) people and got me an invitation there at age 16. He said to them, “This young man won’t embarrass you.” Thanks to Bill, I went to Sunnehanna and finished fifth.
 
I became good friends with Bill back then, although he was 17 years my senior. Bill was a wealth of knowledge, and if Bill saw something I needed to do or he had advice for me, he didn’t hesitate to call me. I appreciated that very much. He always had a good word to say; always was a great supporter; and always a good friend.
 
Through the years, we have enjoyed a special friendship and he was a tremendous member of our Captains Club for the Memorial Tournament. “A member of the Captains Club for 24 playings of the Memorial Tournament, Bill missed only one Captains Club meeting—that was two years ago—since the inception of the tournament in 1976. He was always there and involved. Bill always had something to contribute and was great with suggestions. Bill had a résumé that was unparalleled in the game of golf, so he provided a uniquely qualified perspective. His whole interest was whatever is good for the game of golf. To my knowledge, I don’t think Bill Campbell ever thought of Bill Campbell one time. He always thought of others in the game of golf.
 
Bill Campbell was such an intelligent and thoughtful man. He was successful in business. He served his country as an Army Captain in World War II. And he served our game for a lifetime. I thought he was the ultimate amateur in the game of golf. The game was never any purer than Bill Campbell. He absolutely did it all the right way.
 
Bill and I played a lot of golf together. In fact, we played together in the US Pro-Am in Cincinnati, when I partnered with Pandel Savic (long-time friend and former Chairman of the Memorial Tournament) my first year as a pro in 1962. Pandel and I were grouped with Bill and Byron Nelson in the final round. Obviously, Bill and I played together in other tournaments and other times, and I will cherish those moments and memories.
 
Barbara and I send out our most heartfelt condolences, our loving thoughts, and our ongoing prayers to Bill’s wife Joan and their entire family. Joan, just like Bill, was always a wonderful supporter and friend to us both.

There was this super profile of Campbell from Kingdom magazine, which included this story about Nicklaus, Campbell and Frank Hannigan:

Former USGA executive director Frank Hannigan likes to tell this anecdote, which sums up the respect Campbell earned from his peers: “I was talking with Jack Nicklaus about the USGA’s amateur status rules, including a prohibition against accepting free balls or clubs from equipment manufacturers. Nicklaus, who had turned professional by this time, was telling me the rule should be changed. He asserted that the prohibition was unenforceable. ‘Name one top amateur who doesn’t take anything from the manufacturers,’ Nicklaus said.

‘Bill Campbell,’ I replied. Nicklaus paused for a moment. ‘Okay. You can have Campbell,’ he said. ‘Name another one.’”

Stevie: All's Well With Tiger (*&^%$ Ass) And Phil ($%&^*)

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If you were looking for a good laugh to break the withering playoff tension bound to envelop Friday and Saturday's Tiger-Phil-Adam pairing at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Robert Lusetich has the story of Adam Scott looper Stevie Williams, new pal of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Or so he says.

You may recall Stevie used a less than flattering bit of imagery while suggesting that he would like to insert something into Tiger. And with Phil he just went with the more succinct "prick" description.

The Stevie-Tiger make-up story started at Merion where Stevie says he sensed that his presence made Tiger "uncomfortable," so feeling the pain and concern for his former mate, decided at Muirfield during the final round--and what better time to chum it up than during a major final round--Stevie talked auto racing with Tiger on the 8th hole. Voila! They've been exchanging loving glances ever since.

“When I used to caddie for him I’d watch it at (their rented home) and after a while he started watching with me and getting into it.”

They engaged in small talk; as often is the case in such situations, the subject wasn’t important.

“He asked me how the family was and I did the same. We just talked, you know,” Williams said.

“At some point in time, I just felt we had to break the ice."

As for Phil, all Stevie said is they are "all good."

Call me skeptical...

Hicks Thinks Johnny Will Stick Around Post-2014 U.S. Open

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Ed Sherman interviews Dan Hicks about taking over announce duties for Notre Dame football and also addresses the "kick to the stomach" of losing the US Open to Fox starting in 2015. But on the minds of most is sidekick Johnny Miller's status, whose passion for the US Open was undeniable.

From the Sherman Report where he posts the interview, and Sherman's Tribune column.

I feel worse for (Johnny Miller) than anyone. He gives so much emotion to that championship. After I talked to (producer Tommy Roy), I called Johnny. You could hear the emotion in his voice.

Miller will be 67 next year. Is there any chance he does one final Open in 2014 and rides off into the sunset?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think Johnny is too good to just walk away because we’re not doing the Open anymore. He still wants to do some golf. Our team is tight. If the crew was breaking up, then I could see him leaving.

Punter's Note: Players Changing Coaches At Any Time

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With the (questionable) efforts to make golf a year-round cash grab at the expense of the seasonal ebb-and-flow other sports enjoy, Tim Rosaforte spotlights another bizarre twist that has arrived with calendar-year golf: players changing coaches at any given time.

He cites the Westwood-to-Foley move, the not so surprising Watney-to-Anderson move (nice going Butch!) and the very surprising Donald-to-Cook move.

"Used to say: 'We'll really focus on this in November,' " Foley said Sunday morning. "You can't do that anymore."

Players are looking for the type of impact Matt Kuchar gained from going to Chris O'Connell in 2006 for the one-plane swing, or in the case of Gary Woodland, some short-game counsel from the coach of the game's best short-game player. By going to Pat Goss on a cold rainy day in Chicago the week of this year's Masters, Woodland started learning the fundamentals of bunker play that paid off with a win at the Reno-Tahoe Open and a T-2 in the Barclays.

"It wasn't a rewrite," Goss said. "It was like writing it for the first time. When he came to me, his short game was terrible."

Goss has coached Donald since his freshman year at Northwestern and will continue to help him with his short game. What has changed is that Donald no longer uses Goss as his swing coach -- a switch Goss saw coming. He sensed that Luke had lost faith "when he started trying other things on his own in another direction."

Dustin Instagram's A Photo Of Paulina Gretzky Wearing A Ring

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And it's on her left hand, and it's absurdly large, so I believe this means Ms. Gretzky is off the market. Sorry to Alex and Sam and all of the others who were hoping Paulina would dump Dustin Johnson for them.

Paulina hasn't Tweeted anything personally, but did re-Tweet a congratulatory message from Hannah Selleck.

Thanks to reader Brad Power for spotting and Tweeting this momentus moment in golf history.