When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Rex Hoggard reports on one of the better Players Championship traditions: the caddies teeing up on 17 during Wednesday's practice round. On the other end of the spectrum, Gary Van Sickle hears that the world's highest paid luggage handlers are being treated, well, like luggage handlers by the PGA Tour.
With the course renovations, a new May date and that shopping mall erected behind the 18th green, the media had little choice but to shelve the traditional fifth major stories last year. But they've come back with a vengeance.
Judging by the cast of notables filing their answer to golf's least important question, I'd guess some editors have been telling their correspondents to settle the vital question of The Players' major status.
Larry Bohannan files this grabber of a lede:
Is The Players Championship, being played this week literally up the street from the headquarters of the PGA Tour in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., the fifth major of men's golf?Ken Willis offers five reasons The Players is a major. Get it? Five. I smell a GWAA award. Bruce Young drops "fifth major" in his opening sentence, then fails to put us through the misery of laying out a case. What a tease.
Lawrence Donegan (say it ain't so!) refers to the "age-old" question of fifth major status. Not sure about the age part, but it's definitely an old question.
Jim McCabe at least allows me to end this post with some realistic perspective. We'll ignore his line about the 17th being a "hideous excuse of a golf hole," point you to Lorne Rubenstein's column on No. 17, and let Jim put the fifth major story watch to rest...until next year:
When you touch five bases after hitting a grand slam, we’ll add a fifth tournament to the major championship landscape. Until then, there are four and only four major championships — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship. Everything else is a golf tournament.
Garry Smits reports that after last year's long list of changes, this year sees relatively few alterations to the event. Not mentioned is whether Kenny G will be used again to make the champion regret winning.
golf.com has more of those cool Fred Vuich Gigapan images let you analyze over-renovated bunkers or analyze the clubhouse exterior design that only a Saudi prince could love.
The 17th Hole gets it's usual bit of attention, with Bill Pennington offering this from Butch Harmon:
“What’s amazing is that if that green were surrounded by sand instead of water, those guys would never miss the green,” the coach Butch Harmon said of the 17th hole. “They’re such good sand players, it wouldn’t faze them a bit. But it isn’t sand. So all week at the Players Championship, everyone avoids the subject. Those guys don’t even want to talk about it.”John Huggan isn't a fan:
Add in the inherent daftness and lowbrow appeal of the island green 17th hole, a circus-like golfing gimmick where any pretence at sophistication is notably absent, and the Players won't be making any steps up in status any time soon.Meanwhile at ESPN.com Jason Sobel is soliciting favorite 17th hole stories.
Sorry Tim. Maybe you'll have better luck in your next life as an unelected tin-pot dictator in a 'fifth-world' country. Oh… hang on, that sounds suspiciously like this life.
But for all its attractions, Sawgrass will never quite measure up for some. “The last thing we need is another American Major,” said Lee Westwood.
“If we’re going to have one, it should be in Australia. They have some great courses there and you could rotate the venue.
Finally, Derek Lawrenson must be really happy with his room at the Marriott because he offers five reasons "why this week's Players' — like last year's Players' — will knock the Masters into a cocked hat."
Mark Soltau reports that Tiger hasn't ruled out an appearance at the Memorial.
And speaking of the fifth of four majors, I didn't even to launch the annual fifth major watch before Dave Shedloski had to go and file the gem of all fifth major stories, with Tiger asking: "Is the fifth major my fifth major?" Hit the link to find out his answer. I know you're anxious to find out.
Oh Vijay, break out the check book, it's time to give back to the PGA Tour's charity of your choice!
Thanks to Hawkeye for catching this article where Ponte Vedra resident Vijay Singh is talking about the BMW PGA in Europe:
“This event is even bigger than The Players is in the United States. This is a premier event in Europe and whoever wins here has to play good golf. They have made some major changes to the course so you can’t get away with hitting bad shots, and that’s the way it should be.
“The BMW PGA Championship is big and I would like to see a lot more Americans coming over and playing this tournament. I like to play in Europe. I have some good memories here – my son was born here and my career more or less started on The European Tour,” commented Singh on the eve of the first round at Wentworth Club in Surrey.
Good to see the May date was validated...
NBC reported an overnight rating of 3.7 and a 9 share for Sunday's final round, in which Phil Mickelson won his first Players with a closing 69. Mickelson and Sean O'Hair were locked in a battle for the lead until Mickelson took a two-shot lead on the 11th hole, and O'Hair hit two balls in the water at the par-3 17th hole.
The network estimated that the rating equated to more than 4 million households tuned into the telecast at some point during the final round, and more than 8.6 million viewers.
"We're very pleased, especially since there was some unexpected competition from NASCAR, when their race was rained out Saturday. That won't happen every year," said Edward L. Moorhouse, co-chief operating officer of the PGA Tour.
"We also got a big break on the weather, and we had one of our marquee players in a very exciting finish. And some of our other players, such as Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal, playing very well down the stretch. We think all of the changes we made contributed to the high ratings."
Now Ed, I don't think the Taj Mahal clubhouse added viewers. Then again there were a lot of flatscreens in there tuned to the golf.
The only place I've seen any discussion of the Players final round pace of play was on golf.com, where Josh Sanburn noted the tepid final day (and check out what the readers think).
But I heard from a few current players that the four hour pace for twosomes was unfathomable just a few years ago. One even relayed this story to put things in perspective:
Vijay jumped on me at Colonial in 1996 for playing slow. Par time was 3:30 and it was blowing 25 mph, my two-some finished in 3:18. Twelve minutes under par time. I took some heat from Vijay in the locker room after the round, told him to check with our scorer, then take it up with the rules officials, then make sure your scores on your card are accurate, don't be worring about me.
Don't know about you, but I didn't see a whole bunch of tee shots running furiously down the TPC Sawgrass fairways or bouncing high off of Pete Dye's greens thanks to that "layer of Gore-Tex" the PGA Tour spent millions to install.
So, has the definition of "fast and firm" simply changed? Or was it simply a failure?
Either way, I don't think the 2007 Players will be remembered for its fiery golf course.
Might this even be a setback for setback for sand-capping fairways? Is that such a bad thing? Have I asked enough questions?
You can't say Phil's press conferences are dull...
Q. Obviously this is a significant victory for you. Can you talk about how excited you are to be able to take this game and the new swing and all the changes into the majors next month?
PHIL MICKELSON: That's what's most exciting is I feel like we're just getting started. This is only week No. 3. I feel like in three months how much am I going to progress? In three years where am I going to be? I've seen an immediate difference in three weeks, and I can't wait for another three weeks to go by and start getting ready for the U.S. Open. And another three or four weeks to go by and get ready for the British. I'm really excited about the direction I'm headed.
Q. Just to follow it up, how much better can you get?
PHIL MICKELSON: You are a cute little man, aren't you (laughter)? I don't know. That's such a good question from a brilliant individual. I don't know (laughter).
I could swear a I heard an "Alan" thrown in after "aren't you?"
I can't fathom who he could be talking about!
Courtesy of The Golf Channel, but minus what they're actually thinking. Any mind readers out there?
What's the standard bearer thinking? Courtesy of golf.com:
Poor Rick. Poor Adam.
Courtesy of Doug Ferguson's Players Championship game story and mutual admiration society image photo of Phil and Butch from The Golf Channel:
His caddie loosened the flag from the 18th pin as a symbol of victory Sunday at The Players Championship, and Phil Mickelson added a personal touch. After playing one of his tidiest rounds on one of the most intimidating golf courses, Mickelson signed his name at the bottom of the note and handed it to his new swing coach, Butch Harmon. Arms around each other's shoulders, they walked up the hill toward the sprawling clubhouse for the trophy presentation, another sign that Mickelson might be on the rise.
"What's most exciting is I feel like we're just getting started," Mickelson said.
Golf.com's Josh Sanburn reports on the latest Tour tiff between Sergio Garcia and Cliff Kresge, though this catch-basin relief-inspired spat is not as sexy as Woods-Sabbatini. The photo is courtesy of Golf Channel's excellent collection from the final round.A bit of confusion arose when Garcia took relief from a drainage area on the 2nd hole. His playing partner, Cliff Kresge, and Kresge's caddie questioned the drop.
"I've never tried to do anything wrong on a golf course," Garcia said. "If I would have felt at any time that I wasn't taking full relief, I would have called for a ruling and do whatever was right. But I felt like I did and that's all there is to it."
Garcia said it affected his play on the 2nd and 3rd holes and may have even cost him a stroke.
"They were calling me a cheater on that. You never like that. I've never cheated in my whole life. I'd rather shoot 85 than shoot 65 cheating."
He said he finally relaxed toward the 4th or 5th hole. "It probably cost me at least one (stroke). It's fine, but you never know. Maybe I would have not finished the way I finished."
Okay, would Tiger do this at a major? I don't think so.
And then John Huggan gets all cynical in the East Lothian Shopper On Sunday, dismantling many of the romantic notions we had fostered this week (well before the Kenny G announcement).
Real majors have their own identity, they don't copy other majors. They don't start off being the Tournament Players Championship, switch to the Players Championship, then again to the Players, in a feeble effort to sound more like the Masters. Real majors don't have pro-ams, as the Players used to before the PGA Tour noticed that the Masters, US Open and Open manage to get by without shamelessly dipping into the deep corporate pockets of people who can't break 100 on their best days. Real majors don't change their dates because everyone pitches up thinking about the Masters. Only wannabe majors do those things.
And...
Real majors are not run by organisations that claim to have given over $1bn to charity when the reality is that they have done no such thing. Just so you know, it is the tournaments on the PGA Tour that do so much good for those in need, not the Tour itself, a subtle but important distinction.
Oh, one more thing, real majors really don't care how many Fed-Ex Cup points are available for a victory. Or who led the week in the "bounce-back" statistical category. Or who missed most fairways on the right.
10 The bottom line? The Players just isn't a real major. As that master of succinctness, US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, said last week: "It is not a career-defining win." Enough said. Now, can we move on please?
But it was reader JT who had to throw wrench in the whole thing by noticing the subtitle of John Feinstein's new book, where he writes about the fifth major. Only it's Q-School he's calling the fifth of four majors!
Golf Digest's style editor needs to get his hands on Nathan Green's hat collection so that he can replace those gap-backed one with something providing better sun protection. Or at least outfit Green with some Kiehl's Vital Sun Protection. Anything to lose that Mikael Gorbachev-esque tan spot seen during Saturday's Players Championship third round as he shook hands with Phil Mickelson.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
