ANGC Announces Course Changes On Election Day!
/My, what interesting timing. Subtle, I tell ya.
No significant changes to report (sadly). In fact I'd say it's much less than what we thought we'd see after Mike Weir's comments last month. Nonetheless, a gentle chipping away at some of the more disastrous moves but ultimately, a long way from where they need to be.
Click on the image to read the full release:
Here is Doug Ferguson's AP story on the changes noting the increased "flexibility." That's really being kind when you are talking about adding 7 yards to the front of a tee. The core setup problem remains: the old tees are gone, meaning it's almost impossible to diversify the course from day-to-day as the USGA did at Torrey Pines, and there is even less room to accommodate weather extremes.
In considering the timing of this announcement a bit more, note they sent their release out on a Tuesday, missing (intentionally?) Monday deadlines at Golf World and SI (no Golfweek this week), and sending it out on a day that everyone's attention will be turned elsewhere.
Now, they are without a media representative after Glenn Greenspan left to work for Tiger Woods, so the odd timing could simply be caused by not having someone there manning the ship. You could argue that the driving range project is their sole focus right now, but I'm more inclined to believe that the club is inexplicably loyal to Hootie Johnson and does not want to embarrass him, even though time has shown Hootie's judgement to have been poor.
Or could the timing be telling us that the club is embarrassed to be announcing so little news after unprecedented player and media criticism of the course changes?
