Aberdeen in '11

From the R&A:

ROYAL ABERDEEN TO HOST 2011 WALKER CUP

The 2011 Walker Cup match has been awarded to Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, the sixth oldest in the world.

In announcing the date and venue for the biennial match between Great Britain & Ireland and the United States , The R&A will be staging the contest at one of Scotland ’s true and most historic links courses located on the outskirts of Aberdeen and overlooked by the North Sea .

David Hill, Director of Championships for The R&A said: “We are delighted to be staging the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen which will provide a fitting showcase for amateur golf’s premier match between countries.

“Last year, the Senior British Open Championship was a huge success at Royal Aberdeen with the world’s top over-50’s players full of praise for the layout at Balgownie and with the condition of the course.

“I have no doubt that with the support of the knowledgeable golfing public in the North East, that the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen will match that success.”

Royal Aberdeen has been a venue over the years for championships at every level. It has hosted the Scottish Amateur Championship at regular intervals from 1924, the Scottish Stoke Play, the Scottish Boys, the Boys Amateur, the Scottish Ladies’ Amateur and most recently, in 2005, the Senior British Open Championship, one of the five senior majors.

In 2007 the Walker Cup will be played at Royal County Down, Newcastle , Northern Ireland and in 2009 at Merion Golf Club, Pennsylvania .

R&A Nominates Former Slazenger Sales Manager

Missing from the R&A's posted release on Michael Stanley Randle Lunt, its "Nomination of the Captain For the Year 2006-2007," was this bit that appeared in the emailed version:

Following that brief spell overseas, he became a director of the family wholesale textile business in Birmingham and when the company was taken over by Courtaulds, he took up the position of European golf sales manager for Slazenger. He retired in 1998 after 11 years as secretary/manager of Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club.

Huggan On Governing Body Setup Ploys

John Huggan returns from Open Championship media day and his Geoff Ogilvy chat thinking about the course setup "shenanigans" employed by the R&A and USGA in hopes of masking their regulatory complacency:

All of said shenanigans have had two results: winning scores have remained within what the officials would describe as a respectable range, and at times the players, the courses and the game have been made to look stupid, thereby severely compromising the integrity of the competition.

And...

It is heartbreaking, year after year, to watch the greatest of games being diminished by a failure on the part of the sport's administrators to cap distance. And it will be the same again at Hoylake come July. Given the narrowness of the fairways already and three more months of grass-growing weather, look for a lot of tedious hacking out and not enough opportunity for the better players to separate themselves from the rest by dint of their superior ability to create shots from off the fairway.

For "tricking up", read "dumbing down".

Tait on R&A and Links Golf

Alistair Tait writes:

Credit goes to the R&A for remaining loyal to the tradition of taking the Open Championship to seaside links. All I can say is long may it continue. Given the abundance of links golf in these isles, it is sad that the game's top players only play links golf twice a year at most – the Open Championship and the insipid Dunhill Links Championship.

So enjoy the pictures on your TV screen of this year's Open Championship over the glorious links of Royal Liverpool. Revel in the joy of watching the game's elite play the game as it was first played all those years ago on the windswept coast of the Kingdom of Fife.

Too bad we don't see the big boys playing links golf more often. Too bad the game's oldest championship isn't taken to more traditional courses in the British Isles.

R&A Design, LLC

Mike Aitken reports on the R&A's not so stellar start in the design business.

You may recall that most links have only seen minor tinkering in preparation for Open Championships, but now that the pesky ball is going so bloody far and scores might go lower if something isn't done, why, driver must be taken out of the players hands.

Therefore, the R&A has begun to inflict assorted design atrocities on the rota links that pale when compared to anything the USGA has ever...well I just had an Oak Hill flashback.

Anyhow, Aitken reports:

...after embarking this winter on the first phase of a programme of improvements which will cost around £250,000 and increase the number of bunkers on the Ayrshire links to nearly 100, Turnberry has been advised by the Royal and Ancient to remove a number of traps and soften others because the test was in danger of becoming too severe.

Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, believed alterations to the first, 12th and 14th on the Ailsa now demanded too much of the golfer and needed to be revised.

You know how much I hate to be sarcastic, but you may recall this post about Dawson's planned February visit to help supervise these changes.

You see Mr. Dawson, there are people called golf architects who do this for a living and...oh I know, they would tell you to do something about the ball instead of littering Turnberry with rabbit-dropping inspired bunkers. Silly me!

Aitken provides the crime report:

On the first, for example, two new bunkers were introduced down the left and a third, large pot bunker was also added on the right at around the 280- yard mark. Dawson's reaction to this hazard was that it might take the driver out of the long hitters' hands and persuade them to err on the side of caution with an iron or utility club.

"Sometimes you can't fully appreciate the impact of an alteration until it's been built and you have another look at them in reality rather than on a drawing," said Dawson yesterday. "What happened on the first was that when we saw the new bunkering, we were concerned the element of risk and reward in going for the green might be taken away and the players would use an iron off the tee. But we haven't gone back to the way the hole was before. The hazard is just less severe than it was going to be."

On the back nine, though, the R&A did ask for new bunkers to be removed on the 12th and 14th holes. On the 12th, a new bunker was built on the left of the fairway beyond the existing traps. From what will be the new tee, however, the landing area was miniscule.

That bunker has been filled in as was one of the new traps on the 14th, where there were concerns the hazard couldn't be seen from the tee.

Stewart Selbie, the manager of Turnberry Hotel, was happy to comply with the R&A's wishes, though perhaps not displeased with the notion that the Ailsa had become so challenging.

The original plan was to add 30 traps before the Senior British Open is staged in Ayrshire in the summer and as many as 100 by 2009. Before work began, Turnberry had just 66 bunkers, the fewest of any links on the Open rota.

The second phase of upgrading will take place after the Seniors when Turnberry's finishing stretch will also be toughened up. Although plans for the closing holes have not yet been made public, it's thought the 16th could become more of a dogleg to create enough space to build a new tee which would extend the par-5 17th.

With an Amateur Championship also on the horizon, both Turnberry and the R&A are keen to retain a balance between heightening the challenge and retaining the character of a scenic links regularly ranked in the world's top 20. "What we don't want is to end up making the links unplayable for the regular golfer," said Selbie.

Aitken also outlines changes to Carnoustie to deal with "new technology and improved fitness," and the boondogglery continues...

And, on the treacherous 17th, there was concern a bail-out area now existed on the "island" rather than players having to think about laying up short of the burn or going for broke. This will be remedied by the introduction of rough mounding.

"We did feel that a bit of a bail-out area had emerged since the re-turfing of the 17th and so we've done something about that," acknowledged Dawson.

Rough mounding?

Grooves A Sticky Subject

Golf World's E. Michael Johnson takes a brief look at the USGA/R&A groove research project.

British Amateur Changes

The R&A announces major changes to restore luster to the British Amateur, including a new date and 55 tournament winner exemptions.

Save Musselburgh Links

My latest Golfobserver.com column is posted.

If you are interested in the efforts to save the world's oldest continually played course, here's their "get involved" page.

And here's the official club site.

Dawson To The Rescue

At least when the USGA messes with a time-tested golf course, they try to act like it was someone else's idea. Preferably, a golf architect.

Not the R&A. Mike Aitken writes about the effort to inundate Turnberry with more driver-eliminating bunkers. Donald Steel is the supervising architect, but he's not the one making the decisions.

"There are a number of other changes in the pipeline which are yet to be finalised between ourselves and the Royal and Ancient," [Turnberry GM Stewart] Selbie added. "The discussions are ongoing. Obviously, there are going to be some changes to championship tees. Just adding length to the links is not necessarily the answer, although there are a couple of instances where we will be looking to add a little more distance around the 16th and 17th holes."

Concerned that Turnberry's finishing stretch, which brought out the best in Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson in 1977, is not quite as testing as it once was for a new generation of players who all hit the ball further than their predecessors, the R&A is examining a number of options related to the positioning of tees and greens.

David Hill, the R&A's director of championships, said: "Peter Dawson, our chief executive, is due to visit Turnberry later in February and will have a look at three different options. As it stands, we think we could make the 17th even better."

Now, anyone can hang out a sign and call themselves an architect. Guilty as charged.

But is it really the job of the R&A Executive Secretary to meddle in course design?

Well, it beats doing something about the distance problem. 

R&A Getting Into the Groove(s)

John Huggan talks balls and clubs with Peter Dawson, who, through some form of divine intervention, actually displays a moment of wisdom:

"The longest average drive has moved up about 20 yards in the last ten years," conceded R&A secretary Peter Dawson. "There is no doubt about that. The advent of the ProV1-type ball has most to do with it, along with the bigheaded drivers. So do I think that the game at the top level - this elite few - would benefit from the ball being a little bit shorter? Yes, I do."

Ah but the fun only lasts long enough for Dawson to wheel out the latest distraction. That would be this nonsense about grooves. 

Speaking exclusively to Scotland on Sunday, Dawson identified a possible loophole through which golf's administrators may - without upsetting litigious equipment companies- discourage the mindless blasting from the tee that is such a feature of today's game. Last year the top three players on the PGA Tour - Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson - finished 188th, 147th and 161st respectively in driving accuracy. To them, power is apparently all that matters.

"We are considering coming at the distances the elite hit the ball from the other end, if you like," Dawson revealed. "One of the things I don't like to see - and I know it is a view shared by many golf administrators - is this disconnection between driving accuracy and success. The top players don't care about hitting the fairway. And part of the reason why they don't care is the level of control they can get even from the rough with modern wedges and balls.

"And that is why we are having a very hard look at the grooves on club-faces right now. The key is the sharpness of the right-angled edge on every groove. The sharper the grooves, the more spin a good player can potentially put on the ball. It is an effect you see on so many short shots."

You see, the narrowing of course to offset regulatory complacency on distance did not work. And since you cannot further narrow a 22-yard wide fairway without even the most clueless observer noticing the lunacy of it all, well, then something else must be done.

Anything to not address distance. Anything.

I think they'd actually contemplate shrinking the hole before addressing optimization of launch conditions, which is odd since an appropriate policy/test would not impact average golfers. As for the other Band-Aids they are considering so they don't have to lose face and tackle the only issue that matters...

Dawson is also asked what will hopefully be an issue that goes about as far as the pleas to reduce the number of clubs in the bag (that's hopefully no where...). This would be the 60 degree wedge.

"The loft is an interesting issue," he admitted. "I know Tiger is one who has mentioned a 56-degree limit. But the best 60-degree wedge I've ever seen was made in the 1960s. So that is not new, and is not on what I would call the active list.

Is this actually something people are discussing? Eliminating the 60 degree wedge? Oh lordy!

"Ultimately, we and the USGA will decide these groove-related matters. But there is no point in us going over the top out of the trenches if no-one follows us. There are other stakeholders who need to be reasonably content with whatever is done, if anything. For change to be made, it has to be reasonably supported by the tours, the elite players and the manufacturers. And it must not be too damaging to the average player."

Huggan replies...

Speaking of you and me, Dawson needn't concern himself too much. The notion that re-grooving your 60-degree wedge is automatically going to knock six shots off your next round is unfortunately not one in which it would be wise to place too much faith. Even science can't make up for bad technique.

Oh balls.

Equipment Rules: Totally Optional

Rick Arnett on SI.com:

...I'm displaying my birthday golf wish for all to see --especially to those conservative officials at the USGA and Royal & Ancient who rule over how the game is played.

My desire is for the official honchos to forgo all equipment limitations. No size regulations on drivers or groove depth of irons or ball-distance confines next year. No restrictions on shoe spike patterns, rangefinder use, grip or special alignment considerations. Let the golf equipment designers go nuts and think way outside the box.

Hate to be the bearer of tedious tidings here, but the golf equipment manufacturers may do whatever they want.

Following the equipment rules of the USGA and R&A is completely, 100% optional.   They are free to sell as many "non-conforming" clubs and balls as they'd like.

No one in Far Hills or St. Andrews is stopping them from doing that.

Otto Confirms Magic Ball Project

Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian profiles the R&A's Steve Otto. You may recall that it was revealed a few weeks ago by Douglas Lowe that Otto has embarked on a R&A research project into flogging.

"My job, and the job of the people I work with, is to evaluate equipment and produce data," the man in charge of the R&A's research and testing says. "Larger philosophical questions about the impact that technology has on the game and what measures are required to keep everything in balance are taken at a much higher level than the one I operate at. I am merely a scientist."

Otto the scientist has some interesting things to say about distance.

Like every other senior member of the R&A hierarchy, Otto is unconvinced by the arguments that the modern ball goes too far. "There are many factors involved here," he says. "If there has been any increase in distance - and I don't necessarily accept that there has been - then I would say it is down to the greater athleticism of the players; then there is the ball and then there are the clubs. There is also the question of more efficient matching of the player and their clubs. Plus, we are also doing a study in the effect of course conditions," he says, adding the unnecessary qualification: "It is not as straightforward as people think."

No increase in distance? Perhaps he should look at these numbers, or these numbers for another point of view.

And , the efficient matching of the player and their clubs? Optimization? Perhaps Otto knows why the USGA and R&A were ahead of the curve on that issue, and chose to shelve their interest in that subject, giving us the mess we now have?

Oh no, he does better.

Unlike other R&A blazers, however, he is not coy about discussing the work that both his organisation and its American counterpart, the United States Golf Association, has put in on this issue of the golf ball. Last year the governing bodies admitted they had a "research project" into a ball that wouldn't go as far as those currently in use, although the details were sketchy. No longer.

"We wanted to see if there was a magic ball out there," Otto says. "We looked at a bigger ball, and a lighter ball; we looked at balls made from different rubbers and at balls with different dimple patterns."

The project ran into many difficulties, the most significant being that a ball that was 10% shorter for one type of player might be 20% shorter for another, and therefore intrinsically unfair. "People thought there might be a solution that would keep the game the same but also address this question of distance," Otto says. "There wasn't. The problem is there is no single definition of a magic ball."

As for the current location of those intriguing, if less than magical, balls, Otto laughs. "They are in a cupboard somewhere, under lock and key." Never to be seen again? "Exactly."

You may recall that former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan wrote about a "miracle ball" that the USGA was attempting to develop back in February, 2004. He was not taken seriously.
 

It's not clear where Otto's remarks on the ball project leave the current USGA/R&A request for manufacturers to submit "rolled back" balls for testing. 

Though no companies had submitted balls as of November, Titleist said last summer that they cooperated.
 

Dawson's Speak

Lawrence Donegan reports on the significant changes to Birkdale (analyzed in a post below) for the 2008 Open Championship. Donegan has this quote from Peter Dawson, who is defending the need to drastically change a storied Open venue:

"Players are getting bigger, better and stronger and we, in conjunction with the golf club itself, felt there was the need to keep the test of golf presented by Birkdale up to date. Technology has [also] been a factor in these changes. It is advancing and it would be daft for the Open Championship organisers not to recognise that fact."

But here's Dawson the day after July's Open Championship finished, an event where the driving distance average was up 27 yards over the previous Open:

"Hitting distances have reached a plateau. This is definitely happening; all this discussion that players are hitting the ball further is not true."

Donegan also writes:

...the news that a venue acknowledged by some as the best on the Open Championship rota is to undergo such extensive surgery will add fuel to the on-going debate over the introduction of a new ball, not least because this announcement comes days after a similar plan to toughen up another Open venue, Turnberry.

The Scottish course is to gain an extra 200 yards as well as 30 new bunkers in time to host the Open in 2009. "We needed to meet the challenges of the modern game," Paul Burley, Turnberry's director of golf, said yesterday. "The players are so much more athletic, the ball is flying so much further and golf technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years.

30 new bunkers? 

These guys make Hootie's approach to Augusta look subtle, tender and respectful.

Birkdale Overhaul

The R&A news release on changes to Birkdale, interrupted by my skepticism: 

COURSE ALTERATIONS TO ROYAL BIRKDALE
In February 2004 The R&A announced that Royal Birkdale would host the 2008 Open Championship, the ninth time that golf’s oldest major will have graced the wonderful links at Southport.

In 1965, when Peter Thomson rounded off his collection of Open wins with a further triumph that he described as his ‘greatest win’, he added that Birkdale was "man-sized but not a monster."

Alterations are currently being put in place to maintain that description but at the same time to pose new challenges for the world’s greatest golfers.

These course alterations have been agreed between Royal Birkdale Golf Club and The R&A and have been completed with the assistance of Martin Hawtree, golf course architect, who has been involved with previous modifications at Royal Birkdale. The Hawtrees, have been involved with Royal Birkdale since the 1930’s through the original connection established with Martin’s grandfather and then father, both named Fred. The present brief was to ‘tighten up’ the course without resorting to an excessive increase in length.

This has resulted in one new green at the 17th, 20 new hazards, 16 of which are fairway bunkers and six new tees, leading to a total length of approximately 7122 yards, an increase of 154 yards.

The works are being carried out by SOL Golf Construction Ltd who are based in Ireland and will be completed well in advance of the 2008 Open Championship. Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A said: "Royal Birkdale has always been a strong Open venue and we feel that by introducing these changes, that challenge can be maintained."

But, if it was always a strong Open venue, then what chang...ah, sorry.

"We have paid particular attention to the introduction of tee shots that give players a number of strategic options and through tighter bunkering and the recontouring of green surrounds, intend to make players execute more imaginative recovery shots around the greens."

Sounds like your basic desperate tricking up to impact the scoring bottom line. Adding strategy through "tightening" up (you know, the forced lay-up decision between a 4-iron and a 3-iron, that kind of strategy).  

Speaking on behalf of Royal Birkdale, the Captain, John Henthorn said: "The Club is delighted and excited to be introducing these changes which will toughen up the course, providing a greater challenge not only for the world’s top players but also for our members and visitors alike."

Get a caddie, looks like we're going 16 here. Oh, and see if you can detect a trend.

The major changes are: -
HOLE 1
Fairway - Reposition and reshape left hand fairway bunker and mound, to be more threatening from the tee.
Green - Reposition left-hand approach bunker and rework and deepen hollows surrounding the green.

HOLE 2
Fairway - Two new fairway bunkers added on right at 300 yards. New mounding in left rough between 250 and 300 yards to better define the fairway.

HOLE 3
Tee - New tee back right of former tee, now making the hole slightly dogleg left to right.
Fairway - Two new bunkers added on left at 315 and 330 yards.
Green - Recontouring of surrounds with introduction of ridges and hollows. New bunker constructed front right.

HOLE 4
Green - Left-hand bunkers tightened up and right-hand bunker expanded and moved closer to green. Extensive recontouring with mounds and hollows to right of green.

HOLE 5
Green - Bunkers tightened up and green extended behind right-hand wing bunker.

HOLE 6
Tee - Tee lengthened by 19 yards
Fairway - Bunker added at left corner of right-hand dogleg (280 yards)
Green - Bunker added on left-hand approach to green with mounding to tie in to left-hand dune.

HOLE 8
Fairway - Ridging formed at 260 yards behind existing bunker on right and bunker added at 265 yards on left with ridging behind. Further bunker added on right at 310 yards and existing bunker at 320 yards repositioned into new mound on right.
Green - Green extended at back.

HOLE 9
Tee - New tee constructed back right of existing tee to give better line for tee-shot
Fairway - Fairway eased left to accentuate the left to right dogleg. Bunker repositioned (270 yards) at dogleg on right. New mounding and recontouring in right rough beyond this point.
Green - New bunker added front left of green.

HOLE 10
Tee - Tee enlarged and levelled
Fairway - Two bunkers added on left at 225 and 235 yards. Bunker added on right at 285 yards.

HOLE 11
Tee - New tee 24 yards back.
Fairway - Bunker added on left at 285 yards.
Green - Bunker at front left moved closer to green edge and tightened.

HOLE 13
Fairway - Bunker added on right at 290 yards. Existing bunker on left at 325 yards, widened by three yards into fairway. Cross bunker on left at 350 yards incorporated into a larger mound.
Green - Greenside bunkers pulled closer to putting surface and swales formed in the green surrounds.

HOLE 14
Green - Bunker added front left of green and green extended at rear. Swales recontoured

HOLE 15
Fairway - Two new bunkers constructed on right at 300 yards. Fairway narrowed on approach to green and extensive recontouring with formation of hillocks on left, short of green.

HOLE 16
Tee - New tee (+ 22 yards).

HOLE 17
Fairway - Two bunkers and mounding added at 310 and 320 yards on right. Bunker on right 100 yards short of green repositioned and additional dune added to narrow the fairway.
Green - Green moved back 20 yards with present top tier becoming the bottom tier of the new green. Bunkers repositioned as appropriate.

HOLE 18
Fairway - Bunker and mound added at 300 yards on left.

Yes, only two holes escaped change on a course that hosted the Open just seven years ago.

The work on No. 17 sounds miniature golf-esque. How do you add a dune? Oh, and the green the are re-doing on No. 17? It was a new green prior to the last Open too. Ah the tradition continues...

R&A Hires Phillips

Colin Phillips, the Tom Meeks of the southern hemisphere, was hired by the R&A to be their new head of something having to do with Australia and Asian golf. Phillips recently retired from the Australian Golf Union after masterminding yet another Australian Open setup boondoggle. You may recall that Phillips and good buddy Wayne Grady recently exchanged loving words, as Mike Clayton wrote in this Golfobserver column.