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Tough choice for Monty
This past weekend delivered a boatload of intriguing golf stories beyond the usual tournament reports. Herewith, in no particular order, some Monday morning blather.
Tough choice for Monty. With three wildcard picks to complete the European Ryder Cup team, Captain Colin chooses another Molinari, Paddy Harrington and Luke Donald. That means he has to leave Paul Casey and Justin Rose off the team. Casey is ranked #9 in the world, one spot ahead of Donald while Rose is ranked #22 and has two wins on the PGA Tour this year. That’s two more than either Harrington or Donald. The toughest bit for the Scottish Captain may have been trying to choose amongst three Englishmen and an Irishman.
Some people still haven’t figured out that the LPGA Tour is not an American product anymore. Apart from the huge contingent of non-American players, twelve of the twenty-six events are played outside the US. So there’s no valid explanation for the idiotic comment from one late night pundit who suggested that Michelle Wie “still hasn’t proven anything since her two wins on the LPGA Tour were in Mexico and Canada. She still hasn’t won on US soil.” One suspects he’ll be eating those words pretty soon.
While we’re on the topic of word eating, perhaps the CBC should re-think their choice of Ron McLean as host of the CN Canadian Women’s Open telecast. McLean is clearly not a golfer. Otherwise, how to explain “the 17th and 18th holes are the 18th and 19th hardest on the course.” He certainly has a gift (curse) for inane chatter as evidenced by all the throwaway lines like the one he made after a great bunker shot by Michelle Wie. “How can you grow up in Hawaii and not be good in the sand?” Apparently Mclean has never met a silence he couldn’t fill. Gail Graham does a fabulous job as second banana, delivering solid insight and very capable commentary. Her performance is all the more laudable given that she has to teach McLean about women’s golf during commercial breaks.
Kind of a ho-hum finish to the the US Amateur at Chambers Bay yesterday. Peter Uihlein (son of Wally, head honcho at Titleist) took an early lead over David Chung and never let up, finishing 4&2. The real excitement was provided by the golf course which sits hard on the shores of Puget Sound, south of Tacoma, WA. The links course is scheduled to host the 2015 US Open and the Amateur was a test case. It has all the bluster of a typical seaside links in the UK but features several holes that might be all world. If the USGA sets up the course to play as designed (hard, fast and dangerous), then that will be one US Open you won’t want to miss.
Another decent outing for David Hearn on the Nationwide Tour. A little slippage on Sunday dropped him out of the top 10 finishers but the $10,000 pay cheque moves him up to 19th place on the all-important money list and still comfortably inside the Top 25. Hearn needs a win or a couple of top three finishes over the next two months to ensure a return to the PGA Tour next year. Apart from Jon Mills, who is still lingering in the neighbourhood, the other Canadians on the Nationwide Tour are at least a long distance call away.
Larry Smich, a journeyman caddie on the LPGA Tour has alleged that two Korean players cheated and tried to cover it up. Both players were DQ’d in Winnipeg. This particular caddie has made other allegations about conspiracies amongst the Koreans. Add recent comments made by LPGA Hall of Famer Carol Mann concerning too many Koreans on the Tour and one has to wonder if there isn’t another xenophobic brouhaha pending. If it isn’t Muslims building a mosque near Ground Zero, it’s Koreans trying to steal the Women’s Tour. Stop the insanity!
Equitable isn’t always apparent when it comes to The Rules of Golf
The Rules of Golf have certainly come under some intense scrutiny this past week. First we get the ruling at the PGA Championship that Dustin Johnson grounded his club in a sand trap on the 72nd hole incurring a two-stroke penalty that knocked him out of a playoff.
On Saturday LPGA Tour veteran Juli Inkster gets DQ’d from the Safeway Classic for using a weighted ring to warm up after a rain delay. Inkster was in second place at the time.
And closer to home, Jose de Jesus Rodriguez, one of the hottest players on the Canadian Tour, fired a course record tying 61 on Saturday at the Seaforth Country Classic but left the scoring tent before signing his card. Instead of taking a three shot lead into Sunday’s final round, Rodriguez will be heading on down the road muttering something like, “what a stupid I am!”
There is no doubt in any of these examples that the players clearly breached the rules. The web traffic, blogs and editorials are pretty divided on the issue, especially about Johnson’s bunker gaffe. The video evidence is clear – he did ground his club. However, what is unclear is whether he or anybody else could tell if he really was in a bunker. On TV it looked like hard packed dirt. Spectators were walking all over the area, kids were building sand castles.
The Rules of Golf are very specific and in case there is any doubt about their application, there exists an even bigger book called the Decisions of the Rules of Golf that accounts for virtually every scenario that has been encountered in assessing the Rules. Already there’s probably a new Decision for the Johnson ruling.
What is unclear and what has never been explained to my satisfaction is the part about the Rules of Golf being equitable. OK, so Johnson grounded his club in a bunker – technically a breach. However, it’s clear from the video that he didn’t test the sand, didn’t drag any material away from the back of the ball to provide for a cleaner hit and in fact didn’t do anything at all to gain an advantage over his fellow players. So how is it “equitable” to assess him a two stroke penalty for something he wasn’t even aware was a bunker.
The Inkster situation is even weirder. Inkster could have taken a couple of wedges from her bag to warm up if she wanted to swing additional weight. Instead she uses the lead donut and gets the bum’s rush from the premises.
Not signing a scorecard is something probably every competitor has done once in their lives. And just once, because forever after, in every tournament you play, it will be indelibly etched on your brain to sign the damn thing before you get up from the table. I don’t know the specifics of the Rodriguez situation but he was undoubtedly excited after shooting a 61 and breaking the course record, he would be thinking about having a three shot lead and there would be a pile of media people waiting to talk to him. However, his caddie would be there, his fellow competitors and at least two officials of the Tour would be at the table, yet not one of them checked to see if his scorecard was signed.
It happens and I get it but it’s another golf technicality that makes no sense. It’s certainly not equitable. Rules purists will blame the player alleging that it’s his responsibility. They’re correct but that doesn’t make it right.
All of these rulings stir the pot and make for great debate but if you read the input from casual golf fans and players you’ll note an almost unanimous sentiment that they think the rules are stupid and should be changed. Most casual golfers play by their own rules so these infractions are very curious to them.
In the case of Sarah Brown, a month or so ago, the officials at a Duramed FUTURES Tour event were so convinced that Brown was using wedges with illegal grooves that they DQ’d her mid round. Turns out they were wrong and the grooves were OK. Too late for Sarah though.
To me it seems like the Rules of Golf have resulted in a lot of players being penalized for things that didn’t give them an advantage over their fellow competitors. There’s nothing equitable about that.
Someone once said, and I’m paraphrasing here a bit, “if the law results in one innocent man being hanged then the justice system is not working.” Maybe it’s time the Rules of Golf had a do-over.
A family affair
If there was any doubt that Mike Weir is a small town guy, then the festivities on Saturday night at Huron Oaks Country Club in Bright’s Grove, Ontario should put them to rest. Looking as relaxed as ever, Weir mingled with family and friends in an intimate, casual gathering at the place where he learned to play the game and developed the kind of lifelong friends that don’t care if you’re just the guy down the street or the country’s best golfer.
The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame inducted its latest honoree in a tribute that makes it one of the most personal and special ceremonies amongst Halls of Fame anywhere. Rather than grouping all of the year’s honourees together in a single ceremony as most Halls of Fame do, the Canadian version allows the inductee to hold the festivities at a time and place where it has more personal meaning to them. When Weir found out in the summer that his induction didn’t have to be at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame at Glen Abbey he was thrilled that he could take it to Bright’s Grove and recognize the town and the people that made him what he is today.
The formal part of the induction got off to a start with Steve Bennett, the golf pro who hired Weir as a teenager to work the range at Huron Oaks and who later mentored the young golfer as he honed his game. Bennett provided the first evidence that despite the wealth and success, Weir hasn’t strayed too far from his roots. Referencing the group of young guys who hung out at the golf club, Bennett gave them all nicknames, most of which are still in use today. Weir was known as “Hairy”, “Pasquale” and “Geppetto.” No explanation was provided but from the hoots and catcalls in the room, there’s no doubt that each name involved a funny story.
Bennett went on to talk about how hard Weir worked on his game as a kid. He hinted that Mike may not have been the best employee he ever had but was emphatic that he was the most dedicated golfer he ever saw.
Mike’s wife Bricia was up next and let on that she wasn’t much of a public speaker. However when the topic is her husband, passion overcomes jitters and she spoke eloquently about Weir as a husband, father and friend. Bricia let on that Weir is OK with his two daughters occasionally dressing him in drag and painting his toenails; and sometimes wakes her in the middle of the night as he laughs out loud, dreaming about comedian George Lopez. Who knew?
It’s pretty clear that Bricia is a wife and mom first and whatever Mike does to earn a living doesn’t consume them as a family. As Weir later said in his acceptance speech, sometimes she doesn’t even know what city he’s in. Bricia says Mike is pretty grounded and doesn’t get all caught up with the celebrity and glamour associated with being a famous sports star. Even if he did, it wouldn’t get him off the hook when it comes to taking out the garbage or driving the girls to soccer practice.
When it was Mike’s turn to speak, he acknowledged all of the wonderful times he had as a kid in Bright’s Grove. He was clearly emotional that so many of his friends could be with him, especially the guys he grew up with. Referencing his early days as an amateur and later as a young pro, it was obvious that Weir still has a strong connection to the people he met and worked with then, even as his career has moved on to the world stage.
The evening ended with the kind of party you would find in any small town community hall, arena or golf club. Lots of beer, laughter and tall tales. Good friends and family kicking back and not letting anyone get too big for their britches. Weir was as comfortable with these people as he would be in his family room at home. The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame could have rented a glitzy banquet hall in a downtown Toronto hotel, filled it with celebrities and dignitaries, and feted Weir with a black tie ceremony to end all ceremonies but it wouldn’t have meant as much as the small town celebration for a small town guy back where it all began.
Final thoughts on the Presidents Cup
Congratulations to the American Team on winning the Presidents Cup. There’ll be lots of post mortem analysis on both sides but I think the biggest factor in the US victory was that the International team let the Americans back into a handful of key matches on Friday and Saturday that, had they gone the other way, might have changed the final outcome. It didn’t seem that the Internationals ever came from behind to steal one.
One of the biggest reversals was Saturday morning when Mike Weir and Tim Clark had Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker on the ropes but couldn’t close the deal. Ironically, Weir had a similar advantage on Justin Leonard in the Sunday singles but another poor approach to the 18th handed Leonard a half point gift.
Speaking of Tim Clark, did anybody ever put on a better display of chipping and putting than this guy? I’ll echo what the NBC broadcast team repeatedly pointed out. It’s unbelievable that Clark has never won a PGA Tour event. I suspect he will soon.
The edge goes to Greg Norman in the Captain’s pick category. While Adam Scott was a dismal 1-4-0, 18-year old Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa won three of his matches including a short game clinic singles victory over 49-year old Kenny Perry. Meanwhile, for the US, Hunter Mahan (2-1-1) was OK but US Open champion Lucas Glover (0-3-1) looked like he wanted to be somewhere else.
I’ve never been a big fan of the captains giving on-course advice to their team but the sight of Greg Norman on the greens helping his players read putts was particular galling. With a partner plus two caddies there’s already enough input to confuse anybody. That was pretty apparent when Jim Furyk and his caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan tried to help Sean O’Hair in the Saturday fourball. O’Hair had the putt going one way, Furyk and Cowan the other. Naturally O’Hair missed.
Harding Park has to be a clear winner after this past week’s events. The course was ideal for match play competition and it was exciting to watch the players go for the green on several short par fours when the tees were moved up a bit. Maybe overall it’s a bit short by today’s bomber standards but with tight tree-lined fairways and heavily contoured greens I think this is a course that could host a major too. Just keep Rees Jones away from it.
Woods hates to lose and seems to bring his game to another level when he has something to prove. Just ask Y.E Yang who was thoroughly thumped in the singles. Although Yang still has the Wannamaker Trophy ……. Does Retief Goosen have a pulse? ………. Is there any way to keep Kelly Tilghman off the telecast?
Clever line: Roger Maltbie is the “course whisperer.”
Oddball observations: That Ally bank commercial that featured a kid playing with a big red truck cracked me up. Even though I saw it about fifty times over four days, when he gets the cardboard truck and says, “it’s a piece of junk,” I still laughed out loud every time.
Unrelated matter: Congrats to Canadian Chris Baryla on winning this weekend’s Nationwide Tour event. He moves into 20th spot on the money list and now has a PGA Tour card pretty well guaranteed for 2010.
STRIKE THREE!
STRIKE THREE! You’re outta there!
That should be it for the FedEx Cup. Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour have had three attempts to get it right and none of them have resonated with real golf fans or the players either for that matter. So let’s bid it farewell.
Yesterday’s version of a tournament within a tournament was just further proof that the PGA Tour’s convoluted process of choosing an annual champion doesn’t work. As a golf tournament it had plenty of excitement – Phil Mickelson putting on a charge to win, hapless Kenny Perry fading in a big event once again and Tiger Woods struggling to get something going. Anytime you have the two biggest names in golf monopolizing the airtime it’s got to be good for viewers, ratings and sponsors.
Oh and by the way, in case you missed it, since Tiger finished second all alone and Steve Stricker finished in sixth, Tiger accumulates 8,327.889 points to Stricker’s 5,975.002 points thereby maintaining his slim lead over Stricker in the FedEx Cup points race while Mickelson’s 9,114 ½ points for winning isn’t quite enough to catch Tiger but is enough to move from fourteenth spot past Stricker into second place. And if you find that a bit confusing let me refer you to this projected points list once again. Aaaaaagh!
So the bottom line is that Phil wins but finishes second and Tiger finishes second but wins.
I’ve racked my brain to think of a parallel situation in another sport where someone can win the season championship without winning the final game. I can’t think of one. Maybe one exists but I doubt it, because all other sports recognize the ridiculousness of that scenario.
The PGA Tour has pushed an assortment of playoff formats at us over the past three years thanks to the deep pockets of Federal Express. But even the FedEx folks must be tired of the negative feedback that their sponsored program generates. Pardon the pun, but this package is undeliverable.
Nobody will remember or care how many FedEx Cups Tiger or anybody else won after their career is over. Quick, how many Money Titles did Jack Nicklaus win? I suspect relatively few people can answer that but most every golf fan knows Jack won 18 professional majors. (Correct answer is 8).
The truth is that golf, like tennis, is measured by major championships. No amount of fiddling by Emperor Finchem is going to change that.
So assuming that my voice, like so many others, falls on deaf ears down in Ponte Vedra, and 2010 sees yet another version of the FedEx Cup, let’s see how we can make it better.
First, let’s eliminate FedEx Cup points. Players play for money, not points. And the whole points system is confusing. Currently the Tour uses the Top 125 on the Money List to determine who gets a card for the next year so why not use the same number for the playoffs.
Second, to be a true playoff, winners have to advance and losers go home. This scares the Tour because some of the biggest stars (Tiger) might not be around at the finish. Too bad. At least it passes the smell test with most fans, something that the FedEx Cup points re-setting formula never did.
Third, scale the playoffs back to three events and complete the whole thing by the week after Labour Day. If you’re so afraid of going head-to-head with the NFL, then don’t.
In my version of the playoffs, the field gets cut from 125 to 70 after the first event, down to 30 after the second and then gets cut twice more to 16 and 8 after Round 2 and Round 3 of the final. On Sunday, eight guys start even and play for ten million.
Now that’s pressure!
Thanks Bob
The Canadian national inferiority complex kicks into high gear this week as pundits and fans across the country assess the field for this week’s RBC Canadian Open and ask themselves, why won’t Tiger come back? Doesn’t he like Canada? Why doesn’t Phil ever come here to play? Where are all the top players? Why won’t they play in our national championship?
The answers are as varied as the players themselves. There are larger issues like the unfortunate schedule that places our Open right after “The Open” and even though RBC Canadian Open Tournament Director Bill Paul does everything possible short of personally going to Britain and kidnapping players, some just don’t want to play golf the week after a major. Bill does send his personal jet over to provide Sunday night ferry service back to Canada for the willing participants and occasional freeloaders but even that courtesy isn’t enough to entice some of the pampered class.
The argument that the players are independent contractors gets kind of tiring. The guy who cuts my grass is an independent contractor too but if he doesn’t hack my weeds on a weekly basis, he’ll be more independent and less contractor real quick. Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, the top players, and that really means Tiger, Phil and a few others, will realize that if they don’t support ALL of the tournaments on a semi-regular basis, some will vanish for lack of sponsor support. Naturally that won’t affect Tiger’s bank balance but there are 143 other players on a weekly basis who depend on those second and third tier events. And there are fans and communities and charities too who need those events for a multitude of reasons.
Anyway, the purpose of this blog is not to lament the absence of a few top players from the 2009 RBC Canadian Open. In fact, the field looks to be one of the strongest in years. Among the top ranked players who will tee it up at Glen Abbey this week are Anthony Kim, Sean O’Hair, Retief Goosen, Camilo Villegas, Trevor Immelman, Luke Donald, Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes and Dustin Johnson. Fan favourite Fred Couples and tabloid phenom John Daly will be there as will Canadian PGA TOUR stars Mike Weir and Stephen Ames.
Sometimes in all the hoopla about which top players will or won’t be there and who has a valid reason and who doesn’t, we forget about the guys who have been loyal to the Canadian Open for a long time. A few years back I was standing near the 10th tee at The Abbey and noticed Billy Mayfair sitting under a tree near by. Nobody was near him and he wasn’t due to tee off for another thirty minutes or so so I moseyed on over and struck up a conversation. Turns out Billy just wanted to get away from the practice area and all the ruckus and enjoy a bit of the tournament.
We spoke for about ten minutes and among other things he told me that he really enjoyed coming to Canada and loved the atmosphere of our national championship. He asked me as many questions as I asked him. Most of his were about Canada, our history and places to visit. For PGA Tour players, those are pretty unusual questions. Typically, if they do ask you any questions and it is rare, the questions are, “do you know any good restaurants nearby?” or “is there any nightlife around here?” (That last question usually gets phrased a bit more graphically too.)
After my conversation with Mayfair I did some checking. Billy first came to the Canadian Open back in 1989, tied for 70th spot and earned $1,773. Following up for 2009, the record shows that Mayfair will play his 15th Canadian Open this year. Billy is one of the nicest guys on Tour and has compiled a solid record over his career, yet rarely gets mentioned when the field is released for any event.
Likewise a few others who have been staunch supporters of the Canadian Open over the past 20 to 25 years. How about Billy Andrade, 1998 Bell Canadian Open champion, who began his pro career in 1987 and this year will be making his 18th trip north of the border for our Open. Or 2010 American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin who will be making this year’s Open his 19th in the past 25 years.
Mark Calcavecchia used the 2005 Bell Canadian Open at Shaugnessey GC in Vancouver to kick-start a career that had been on the skids for a few seasons. His win there marked just one of twenty appearances that Calc has made in the Canadian Open over a 28 year career. He’ll be at Glen Abbey this year too in spite of four rounds on the grueling Turnberry course last week.
As far as I can tell though, the longest streak at the Open belongs to 2003 Champion Bob Tway who will play his 24th this year. Bob first came to the Canadian Open in 1985 and has played every year since except 1987. What happended in 87 Bob? His streak of 22 consecutive Opens including this year is incredible and perhaps now even more so since Tway became eligible for the Champions Tour this past spring, yet still wants to play a full scedule on the regular Tour.
Apart from an exciting playoff win over Brad Faxon in 2003 at Hamilton, Tway’s Canadian Open record is solid but unspectacular. Therefore, outside of the past champion mention, he doesn’t get a lot of press and isn’t one of the marquee players that everyone talks about. Bob’s a quiet guy from Oklahoma with a wife and two kids. He has eight career victories including one major. (1986 PGA Championship where he chipped in from the front bunker to skewer Greg Norman one more time). Recently his greater claim to fame has come from caddying for his son Kevin as he begins his golf career.
All in all, Bob Tway is a pretty regular guy who just happens to be a strong supporter of the Canadian Open. For that, I think he, along with Billy Andrade, Billy Mayfair, Corey Pavin, Mark Calcavecchia and probably some others I’ve missed, deserve special recognition. If you get out to Glen Abbey this week, let them know that we appreciate them. For that matter, let all the players know that we appreciate them. They deserve it.
PowerPlay Golf
Former British Amateur champ and Walker Cup Captain Peter McEvoy was in town this week to officially launch PowerPlay Golf and explain his concept to the media at Copetown Woods, a very strong public course just west of Hamilton, where GM Barry Forth has signed on to become the first PowerPlay Golf site in Canada.
PowerPlay Golf was dreamed up by McEvoy and a partner back in the UK to stimulate play on a public course they managed. The idea was to offset the time and cost of play with something that delivered all the positives of golf but could be played in far less time than a traditional 18-hole round.
McEvoy explained that the idea originated with other sports like cricket which used to take five days to play and alienated all but the hard core cricket fan. In today’s faster paced world, he suggested, people want a quick fix but if you’re going to take something away from them, then something has to be added back to compensate. Cricket came up with something called 20/20 cricket which can be contested in a few hours but adds a few twists to sweeten the excitement level.
In golf, McEvoy says, it’s not enough to just shorten a round to nine holes. You need to add something to compensate for the loss of the other nine. Hence PowerPlay Golf – a nine hole game with the added excitement of two flags on each green and the chance to gain additional points for scores made on the more difficult hole positions. (and the potential for even more betting.)
The basiscs of PowerPlay Golf are pretty simple. It’s a 9-hole game using the Stableford scoring system to record points for each net score. A bogey is 1 point, par is 2 points, a birdie 3 and an eagle 4. Each green has two flags – a white flag representing an accessible pin position and a black flag denoting a more difficult one. During the round, each player has three “PowerPlays” in the first eight holes and an optional fourth PowerPlay on the 9th green. When a player calls a PowerPlay he then plays to the black flag and his points are doubled for that hole. So a net par becomes 4 points, a net birdie 6 points and so on. No points are lost for net doubles or worse. On the 9th, if a player elects to use his final PowerPlay, the major difference is that points can be lost for a net double or worse. (you wouldn’t think that any self respecting golf scribe could make a net double but it could happen in theory if you snap hooked your drive and then perhaps pumped a pair into the pond fronting the green.)
I was paired with Jason Logan from Score Golf and freelance writer Rick Young as we each tested PowerPlay Golf for the first time. Before I heard about PowerPlay Golf, the idea of two flags on a green seemed gimmicky but right off the bat we all found that you really only focus on the flag you have chosen and the other is forgotten. It’s usually best to choose your PowerPlays where you get strokes so you can really pile up the points. The game was simple to grasp and the added excitement of making net birdies and eagles with double the points really added some pressure.
It took the three of us just under two hours to play nine holes and I think we all felt we had completed a game. I certainly didn’t feel cheated that I had only played nine as I might have if PowerPlay weren’t involved.
The strength of PowerPlay Golf is that it utilizes the basics of golf but the scoring and potential for wagering add excitement. The 9-hole format obviously takes less time and because it’s a net game, it can be played competitively by anyone.
If there is a downside to PowerPlay it is that North Americans are not up to speed on Stableford scoring. We still think most often in terms of score not points. That downside should be short lived as more golfers experience PowerPlay golf. Course operators need to print special cards that permit the recording of gross score, net score and points. Players eventually will ask how many points did you make as opposed to what did you shoot.
Personally, I enjoyed PowerPlay Golf and think it is something I could play on a regular basis. It will be interesting to see if it catches on with golfers generally but there’s no doubt it’s a viable alternative to those five hour rounds.
Note: In addition to Copetown Woods, PowerPlay Golf is being introduced at Caledon Country Club, Braeben Golf Club in Mississauga and Peninsula Lakes Golf Club in Niagara.
Are we constrained by artificial lines?
My column from the Spring issue of Fairways Magazine:
A recent column by Jim Koppenhaver, a respected golf industry analyst from the US, explained that in the past he had been guilty of not giving due credit to all forms of golf when defining and assessing the current state of the game. By that he meant that so-called recreational golf was often overlooked as being part of the sport. Recreational golf in his view meant anything that could not be distilled down to an 18-hole competitive round. He elaborated that so-called recreational activities were often considered by golf industry associations as “an assault on competitive golf and the abandonment of tradition.” People who played recreational golf therefore were not real golfers.
One has to wonder then what exactly is a golfer? Does that mean that anybody who doesn’t post a score for handicap purposes isn’t a real golfer? Do the folks who only play nine holes every Wednesday afternoon not count? How about the ones who play five or six times a week but take mulligans, improve their lie and concede putts? Is that not real golf? Are they not real golfers?
By some counts there are approximately six million golfers in Canada but only about 400,000 of them are members of the RCGA through their provincial golf associations. Does that mean there are only 400,000 real golfers in Canada and the rest are not? Certainly golf course owners who rely on the other 5.6 million non-members to pay green fees and buy beer would disagree. Equipment manufacturers, golf pro shops and retail stores that sell clubs and balls would consider them all to be real golfers. If you asked any of the six million if they considered themselves to be real golfers, the answer would undoubtedly be affirmative in every case.
Now let’s take this a step further. Is someone who only plays miniature golf a real golfer? Traditionalists would scoff at such nonsense but The Rules of Golf define the game as follows, “the Game of Golf consists in playing a ball from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules.” That happens in miniature golf. Ergo, they must be real golfers.
Between the PGA Tour and miniature golf is a vast range of activities that include the use of a golf club and golf ball. Modern technology has given us simulator golf where you can play courses all over the world without leaving town. If you have mastered simulator golf but never set foot on a real golf course does that make you a golfer? Is that real golf?
I must admit that, like Jim Koppenhaver, I too have a bias towards 18-hole competitive golf. My brother recently reminded me that I used to say that playing nine holes was like kissing your sister. However I’m evolving. Occasionally my wife and I will go out late on a Friday or Saturday evening and play as many holes as daylight will allow. I consider that real golf.
I also used to denigrate all forms of golf that involved anything other than playing your own ball on every shot. That meant I wasn’t a big fan of scrambles, shambles or alternate shot formats. If it included three flags on every green, holes the size of hubcaps or buying mulligan tickets those weren’t games for me either. But, as I said, I’m evolving.
It’s not really about what I prefer or any other individual for that matter. Golf is really anything that you want to make it. If 18-hole competitive golf occupies one end of the spectrum, there are a wide range of things that most traditionalists would find abhorrent on the other end. But those other activities, if they involve swinging a golf club at a golf ball, can be part of the game too, at least in the broader definition.
Most prudent people have an abiding dislike of waste. One of my pet peeves is that a large percentage of our property tax dollars go towards the building and equipping of schools that are unused for sixty percent of the year. I acknowledge that there are insurance issues involved but couldn’t the gymnasiums and classrooms be put towards valuable use on nights and weekends for sports leagues or adult training classes?
Similarly, golf course owners might look at unused tee times as an opportunity to develop alternatives. Private clubs might open the tee on Monday and Tuesday afternoons to public league play. As tough a pill as that may be to swallow for hard core private members, the added revenue and the exposure of the course to potential future members might be the club’s long term salvation. Public courses too can embrace activities that don’t impact the regular patrons. Witness the growth of PowerPlay Golf in the UK and elsewhere. It’s not a game you’d want to play every day but it’s fun, takes less time to play and still demands all of the skill required in “real” golf.
The bottom line is that if your tee sheet isn’t full all the time, then there is opportunity to explore alternate forms of golf. As Koppenhaver acknowledges in his article, many of the non-traditional activities, once thought of as an “assault on competitive golf and an abandonment of tradition” are really feeder systems for people who might ultimately move on to playing full 18-hole competitive rounds.
As an industry, we need to stop drawing lines that exclude new concepts and people who participate in non-traditional forms of golf. To expose golf to as many people as possible and grow the game, we must learn to embrace the alternatives. Hug a miniature golfer today!
Just play it!
The Canadian PGA released their tournament schedule this past week and for the fourth consecutive year there is no CPGA Championship. That means that Jon Mills is still the reigning champion, having won the trophy at Whistle Bear Golf Club back in 2005.
The CPGA Championship is, or perhaps was, one of the oldest professional championships in North America. It was first played in 1912 at Mississaugua Golf & Country Club and won by Charlie Murray of Montreal. Over the years, the event has had many notable winners including Canadian Golf Hall of Famers Stan Leonard (8 titles), George Knudson (5), Al Balding (4) and legendary Moe Norman , who notched a couple of victories in 1966 and 1974.
From 1978 to 1983 the Canadian PGA decided to open the event to non-Canadians and the PGA Tour pros took over. Winners included Lanny Wadkins, Ray Floyd, Jim Thorpe, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino twice. After that brief interlude it was back to Canadians and Jim Rutledge, Dave Barr, Dan Halldorson and Rick Gibson among others won titles between 1984 and 1990.
In 1991 the Canadian PGA made yet another change and aligned the tournament with the Nationwide Tour and its predecessors (Hogan, Nike, Buy.com etc). For the next fourteen years a mix of Canadian club pros, Canadian touring pros and international touring pros vied for the title. During that span four Canadians, Ashley Chinner, Stuart Hendley, Richard Zokol and reigning champion Mills, managed to triumph. The rest of the trophies went to up and comers on the PGA Tour like Americans Steve Stricker and Aaron Oberholser and Tim Clark of South Africa.
Other than some hiccups during the war years (1915-18 and 1943), the Canadian PGA Championship has been played continuously, albeit not always in the same format nor with the same set of qualifying criteria. In many ways the different formats have added colour to the event and it certainly never hurts to to say that past champions include the likes of Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino.
Following the 2005 event at Whistle Bear, the tournament lost Samsung as its title sponsor and the Canadian PGA decided to suspend the tournament in 2006. Reaction was mixed. Most Canadian PGA members hoped it was a temporary thing and a new sponsor could be found so play could resume the following year. It didn’t happen. The CPGA engaged IMG to help look for a title sponsor but nothing came of that. So no tournament in 2008 either.
Officially, the CPGA’s stance on this has been “they want to do it right.” That means a title sponsor, big purse, perhaps a TV contract and alignment with a recognized Tour. Over the past four years they haven’t specified what a new CPGA Championship would look like but they have resisted calls from many quarters to play the Championship in a watered down form.
So now we come to 2009 – perhaps one of the worst years on record to be looking for sponsorship of any kind. It will be a miracle if anyone, let alone the CPGA, can find a sponsor willing to pony up the kind of dough required to host a significant event with all the bells and whistles. Again the question has to be asked, why not just play it? There are 3,200 Canadian PGA members. Some of them have game. At least a few of them know how to run a tournament. Many would be willing to host the event and more than a few could and would volunteer in whateve capacity is required. How difficult is it to find 144 players who want to engrave there name on a trophy alongside Arnold Palmer and George Knudson?
Over at the Ontario PGA, they’re running a forum on the member’s portion of their website, asking if the CPGA Championship should be restored, even in a very basic form. The response has been overwhelmingly in favour. The common sentiment is “we need to get back to basics.” They don’t need a big purse, courtesy cars or fancy sponsor galas. There is a strong sense of history and tradition for this Championship amongst the Ontario PGA members and that probably extends to PGA pros across the country too.
Based on last week’s announcement it doesn’t appear that the CPGA will be resurrecting the Canadian PGA Championship this year. It would be pretty neat if the Canadian PGA members stepped up and said, “the hell with it, we’re going to do this anyway.”
The Tiger Factor
It’s Sunday morning with one round left in the CA Championship at Doral. Tiger Woods is 9 strokes back of the leaders and – this may be going way out on a limb – HE WON”T WIN!
Of course, this minor hiccup won’t deter the folks at NBC. Today’s telecast will invariably carry the full complement of Tiger references, Tiger sightings, Tiger trivia. Someone, probably Mark Rolfing, will predict that if Tiger can get off to a quick start today, he’s right back in it.
“If Tiger can eagle his first five or six holes he can put some pressure on the leaders. A 57 this afternoon gets him right back in this. That will put him at 22 under and after that, anything can happen.”
Rolfing won’t be the only idiot. Miller, Hicks, Maltbie and Koch will put the Over/Under on Tiger references well into six figures while the producers deliver the usual melange of Tiger glory, past and present. There will be the required replay of how Tiger won the US Open last spring on one leg with a fever of 108, just days after donating most of his organs to Famine Relief.
Then of course, we will watch for the umteenth time all those “Great Moments in Sport” featuring, you know who, each with their own catch phrase now seared into our memory banks. “Better than most!” “One for the Ages!” “Oh my!”
Pardon me while I gag.
Over at the Tiger Channel, Rich Lerner and Kelly Tilghman are huddled with writers trying to find a new script to top “the greatest comeback in sports history.” If you didn’t see it, try to catch the replay. After eight months away from tournament play, Tiger returns to beat the 64th ranked player in the world. Can you imagine? Number 64!
Perspective here people. Let’s get some perspective.
Did they ever hear of a guy named Ben Hogan? Had a brief layoff after a minor altercation with a Greyhound bus. Nearly died. Recovered to win the US Open. No? Never heard of it? Oh you thought it was a movie script?
I thought comebacks were when a team came from 25 points down in the fourth quarter to win the Super Bowl or when a player came back after years in oblivion and actually won something. Tiger didn’t win the tournament. He came back to play after an injury. Period!
The people who call the shots at the TV networks seem to think we can’t get enough of Tiger. In fact many of them feel that if Tiger’s not playing, then there’s no golf to report.
I recently read a blog about the impact of Tiger on tournaments and telecasts. Here’s what author Robert Bruce had to say, “Simply put: When Tiger ain’t playing, ain’t nobody watchin’. In the past eight months, golf was off the radar — even while major notables like Mickelson, Kim, Singh, Villegas and Garcia played every week. During that same period, ratings sucked.
Don’t get me wrong. When Tiger’s in contention, it’s very exciting. But when he’s out of contention or worse, when he’s not even playing, there are 155 other stories in the field that week, some of them pretty compelling. For the long term good of viewership, the suits better develop some other story lines.
After all, Tiger won’t play forever. He’s slated to run unopposed for the US Presidency in 2024 when he’s 48 and after that anything can happen. In the meantime, barring a hangnail or bunions, I guess Tiger can keep golf on TV in pretty decent shape for at least 15 more years. By then Tiger’s son Charlie Axel, (don’t get me started) will turn 16 and probably be even better than his Dad. “Oh my!”
Peter Mumford is the Editor and Publisher of Fairways Magazine in Toronto. Fairways is intended for avid golfers and this blog site is an extension of that same philosophy - we don't dumb it down for the uninformed!