Golfing News & Blog Articles

The “3-iron into some guy’s bedroom” (Hogan) at 190 yards will play 214 this time around, so 3-irons are unlikely even with the added length to offset better absorption of Vitamin D fueling linebackers-turned-golfers.

What is so charming about Winged Foot’s 10th when, on paper, it’s seemingly pretty simple?

There is the aesthetic factor, for starters. As Tom Nieporte, the club’s long time pro once said, “it’s like a painted picture, every time you play it”.

The hole is undeniably beautiful, simple and crying out to be painted. Most of the best holes sit on a landscape in ways that are attractive to an artist.

There is also the 10th’s location in the round. Buried elsewhere on the West Course it would undoubtedly be a much-talked about par-3. But put it in front of the clubhouse and the 10th takes on a different majesty, particularly since so few clubhouses in the world are accented by views of a par-3.

2020 has been positive in one very small sense: it has spawned some spectacular, even unprecedented “playoff” naps. We’re talking circa 2012, 2014 level melatonin injections after mere minutes of tuning into the PGA Tour’s three season-ending non-thrill rides.

While I enjoyed some drool-inducers during Olympia Fields week, nothing has come close to Sunday’s third round siesta extraordinaire.

You know the kind: wake up to a golf telecast with no idea what day it is, what year it is, or what tournament is making that background noise.

The affairs at East Lake have been made worse by a random confluence of factors. There is the soul-crushing sight of watching the Johnson brothers reading greens, Feherty buttoning up in fear of a 904 party-pooper questioning his jokes, and the traditionally energy-light venue which somehow feels even more moribund than usual. I’m almost pining for the East Lake Cup college mascots to make a cameo. Almost.

Juxtapose this stagnant $45 million snoozer against compelling NBA games, NBC’s impressive Kentucky Derby coverage (where no controversy was ignored), and Sunday’s bizarro Djokovic U.S. Open antics, and the PGA Tour’s Super Bowl seems more unimaginably dull than normal.

The first par-5 reduced to a par-4 in 2006 returns to its three-shotter roots for the 2020 U.S. Open.

However, due to the influx of brussel-sprout based dieting and more players incorporating standing one-arm preacher curls into their workouts, a driving hitting the fairway should set up a long iron into the green.

The putting surface shape and contouring here is masterful, with the wide front gradually shrinking as the green goes. A simple looking green has so much going on with seemingly random contours and bumps, meaning even with its reachability, it should serve as a much better short par-5 this time around.

No. 9 at Winged Foot is a straightaway, 565-yard par 5 that played as the longest par 4 in #USOpen history to that point in 2006. Its greenside bunkers will pose a challenge for players attempting to reach the green in two.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/FlvkEKZjO9

Golfweek.com’s Adam Schupak reports on the Sanford International (September 11-13) becoming the first COVID-19 era event to welcome back the paying public.

Played at Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s Minnehaha Country Club the event is sponsored by the PGA Tour’s official COVID-19 testing partner and while typically well-attended, will be playing it extra things carefully knowing they are the first.

Schupak spoke to tournament director Hollis Cavner and writes:

All spectators are encouraged to take their own temperature before heading to the tournament. Upon arrival, FDA approved non-contact wrist thermometers will be utilized at each parking lot prior to spectators getting on a shuttle bus. Temperature checks will also take place at the main entrance for those that arrive without taking a shuttle. Anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher will be turned away and asked to seek medical attention.

Fans will be given free masks, if needed, as well as gloves, if requested. The golf course has been roped so fans won’t be able to get as close to the players as usual. Stationary hand sanitizer units will be placed at entrances to public bleachers, hospitality structures, and the clubhouse. Portolets and restroom trailers will each be equipped with sanitizer pumps and handwashing stations as well. For the safety of the players and gallery members alike, autographs will be prohibited.

“We’re on 250 acres. Spacing people on 250 acres is like 12 people inside a Super Wal-Mart,” Cavner said. “We’re the guinea pig for bringing people back to golf with live crowds, so we’ve gone overboard to make sure we don’t have any issues.”

Not likely to be welcome at the tournament: retired company founder T. Denny Sanford, who is currently under investigation.

Originally 413 yards in A.W. Tillinghast’s 1922 plan, the 8th is up to 490 yards for the 2020 U.S. Open. A distinctive left-to-right shape and overhanging trees forces an obvious shot shape. We might even see more than 8-iron hit into a par-4!

Another fantastic green complex restoration is on display, highlighted by the mid-right area jutting out into the bunkers and supported by slope. It’s not pinnable, but just adds one more fun feature that gives a player something to work a ball off of, but also a more pronounced penalty should they miss right.

No. 8 at Winged Foot is a dogleg-right, 490-yard par 4. The angle of the fairway will require precision in choosing and executing the line of play.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/odK0S9H0kX

There’s a lot of sound recap info from Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com explaining how the PGA Tour has made it to the 2020 Tour Championship in a pandemic. With a large, often unwieldy band of egomaniacs to coral, it’s hard to imagine a better outcome for pro golf’s return after June’s inevitable rocky restart.

Yet in reading the piece, it’s also quite easy to imagine how the PGA Tour needs to remain vigilant both with safety practices, scheduling and welcoming back fans. The early wake up call is a good reminder of how things evolved:

Having a plan helped. And while it wasn’t without its holes, continued adjustments made a difference. One such change included an update during the Travelers that a player would not be eligible for the tour’s $100,000 stipend if he tested positive after not following the outlined safety protocols. Monahan emphasized that the onus was on everyone involved and said, “We need you to do your part.”

It was a wake-up call, indeed. And, for the most part, the players, caddies and all involved got the message.

As Wacker notes, the lack of a positive test in some time might also be a result of players taking the at-home tests before boarding a plane.

While some unidentified players, according to multiple sources, have tested positive at home in recent weeks and as a result did no play again until returning a negative result, no one has tested positive on site at a tournament in nearly a month. The tour hasn’t canceled any more tournaments, and earlier this week, Monahan unveiled a robust 50-tournament schedule for its 2020-’21 season that will begin next week in California.

The 162-yard par-3 seventh at Winged Foot is the shortest of the one-shotters and if the green is hit in regulation, a solid birdie chance.

But this Tillinghast original is not “right in front of you”, with the elevated green likely making club selection of a nine iron or wedge to tricky for today’s under-par living Adonis’s.

The USGA flyover thanks to Deloitte:

The 162-yard, par-3 7th is Winged Foot’s shortest hole. Its challenging greenside bunkers sit 7 feet below the putting surface.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/lr6ZOg0d61

Well he’s certainly not wrong.

Kevin Kisner, as quoted by Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com on the eve of the $45 million Tour Championship.

“We need the fans back. Without the fans, the tournaments aren't the same. The revenues aren't the same,” said Kevin Kisner, one of four player directors on the Tour’s policy board. “We need them back.”

As a player director he’s privy to more numbers than the rest of us, so there is no reason to doubt him. Still, the Tour’s commissioner outlined a robust charitable outlay vision yesterday while holding firm on purses while others cut back. It’s hard to imagine ticket sales will aid as much as taking a million off a purse here and there. But it’s nice to see Kisner misses fans, as do most players and TV audiences.

One identifying characteristic of woodpeckers: they repeatedly slam their heads against a hard surface, often with little discernible progress.

Given how this mirrors the USGA’s approach to distance gains in the game over the last 20 years, maybe it’s fitting that North Carolina’s “Project Woodpecker” is rolling out the red carpet for a United States Golf Association move.

As Richard Craver reported for the Winston Salem Journal, the North Carolina state Senate—and subsequently the state House on Thursday—approved a bill offering up to $42.4 million in performance-based incentives to an unidentified group.

The nonprofit would have to create at least 35 new jobs and have an overall workforce of 50. The average annual salary could be $80,000. The project is projected to produce an $800 million economic benefit over 10 years.

Bill sponsors said during Wednesday's Senate Commerce and Insurance Committee that an announcement on the project could be made as soon as next week.

The Pilot of Southern Pines reported Friday that Pinehurst and Moore County elected officials will discuss in separate hearings Tuesday a $25 million business development project in Pinehurst that is expected to generate 50 jobs.

Both groups will vote on providing performance-based incentives to an unidentified organization that intends to build a new facility within Pinehurst’s village limits.

The Pilot said local officials have been tight-lipped about “Project Woodpecker” since early March.

The most recent version of House Bill 807 provides an obvious clue about the sports organization in question:

I know the bubble’s thick down there in PVB—is it Norman Foster designed?—but this quote still gave me a hearty chuckle.

From Commissioner Jay Monahan’s state of the Tour press conference at East Lake:

Given that golf lends itself naturally to social distancing, recreational play has seen a surge in recent months. As one of the few professional sports competing earlier this summer, I'm certain our tournaments and our players played a role in inspiring participation during the last few months, and we look forward to building on all this momentum as we head into the end of the year and into 2021.

Recreational play was strong during the COVID-19 quarantine(ish) before the Tour restarted in June and was robust from the outset thanks to golf’s outdoor setting, safety and most of all, a huge increase in free time for active participants or wannabe players. Only in Cult Ponte Vedra could they believe they inspired the robust increase in play.

The shortest par-4 at Winged Foot West is a dandy and often listed with the best short four’s in the land.

Long known as the place Ben Hogan used 5-iron off the tee for the best approach distance, the sixth had seen a left greenside bunker added to guard the creek (oy!) and huge build-up on the rightside bunker. That’s been taken down and the green shape fully recaptured.

On this flyover the 321-yarder doesn’t not look particularly appetizing to drive with rough and water looming left of the green, but with such a narrow fairway and today’s players traveling with flexibility-inducing foam rollers, they may just bomb and gouge their way to the hole despite the baggage coming with such an approach. The rough may render the creek’s role fairly meaningless, so we’ll just have to wait for tournament week to see what today’s Hogan’s are thinking.

No. 6 is Winged Foot's shortest par 4 at just 321 yards, but it also has the narrowest fairway. Aggressive players might attempt to reach the green from the tee.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/Ov124AQdMe

Other than the forthcoming Asia swing moving to the western United States, there are not many major changes to the PGA Tour schedule in the name of minimizing travel. The various “swings” remain in tact, with some maneuvering in Florida that will not help the Honda Classic much.

There are just 10 days between the end of The Open and the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games, should they go forward.

As for other changes and venues to look forward to, Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com notes:

Other notable changes include the Bermuda Championship, scheduled for Nov. 26-29 in the week after the Zozo, being elevated to full FedEx Cup point status after the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, originally slated for the same week, was officially canceled earlier this week. Likewise, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship also will be played with full points available.

Meanwhile, as previously reported, the tour’s Florida swing has been reconfigured with the Honda Classic moving to the week after the Players Championship, March 18-21, while the Valspar Championship moves to the first week of May, after the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Five new venues will also be featured in the 2020-21 season: Shadow Creek and Sherwood; Memorial Park (Houston Open); TPC Craig Ranch (AT&T Byron Nelson) and Caves Valley Golf Club, outside Baltimore (BMW Championship).

The full schedule can be viewed here:

Reading Jay Monahan’s State of the PGA Tour press conference, it’s tempting to pull out a calculator to comprehend some of the dollar figures bandied about. Particularly given recent news of the PGA Tour letting go or retiring 50 lower-pay staffers not on the executive, Dr.-Conformity-in-Atlanta track to a Ponte Vedra Boulevard (ocean side) residency.

Virtually all of the money mentioned by the Commissioner will be on tournaments to raise, an interesting task with so much uncertainty about pro-ams and spectators. Monahan sounded a very cautious note on that front, which was a refreshing take given some other major sports pushing to get people in seats despite being way less conducive to a safe situation than golf spectating.

When we feel like it's safe to return fans out here, that's when fans will return. We owe that to them, to make sure that we feel like -- and we're supported locally in every market we play in, that that is supported by the local government authorities.

Now to the money.

Monahan said in the press session today at East Lake that the Tour has raised $35 million this summer for COVID-19 related charities.

We learned at least two very key things when Francesco Molinari took to Twitter confirming he’s still alive and well during this pandemic.

A) The 2018 Open Champion is fine, not changing equipment and is just moving to California and reorganizing his life.

B) Twitter has a handy translate function if you wait long enough.

Joel Beall at GolfDigest.com with the full translation and interpretation from someone who was arguably one of the world’s three best players just 18 months ago, the man who played a flawless Open final round in front of Tiger Woods, and who was a 2018 Ryder Cup star. He recently WD’d from the rescheduled U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

“It will be hard to get back to the levels of 2018 no doubt, you don’t think it was easy the first time. I am the only one who has not returned. I am well aware of it, but it is not the first time that I have made different or unpopular choices (see Rio 2016).”

Molinari, who is exempt into the Masters in November thanks to his claret jug victory at Carnoustie, thanked fans who have patiently awaited his return. Though he hasn’t decided when, Molinari promised he will eventually be playing competitively again.

“I’ll be back in a while, I won’t tell you the exact time because I simply haven’t decided it yet and it will depend on the schedule/preparation,” Molinari wrote.

Having had wedges and short irons into the first few par-4’s, 2020 U.S. Open invitees now confront a dilemma at the fifth: bomb it over the trees and try to carry is 320, or hit a right-to-left tee shot to a semi-blind fairway skirting Tillinghast bunkers?

Yes, we know how that movie turns out.

Another simple and beautiful holes with the cross bunker short of the Hanse Design-restored green providing just another example of Winged Foot’s artistry and distinctiveness. The USGA’s flyover for this year’s tournament, brought to us by Deloitte:

No. 5 at Winged Foot is a 502-yard par 4 that played as a par 5 in 2006. The drive zone is not entirely visible from the tee and recovery shots from the greenside bunkers are particularly challenging.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/WRQszv9Vef

Golf Architecture’s Adam Lawrence confirms what his Instagram followers have known for some time: Zac Blair’s Buck Club dream will be realized near Aiken, South Carolina.

The PGA Tour member and well known architecture aficionado had dreamed of his native Utah but the collaboration with King-Collins Design will be in on a sandy 407 acres currently occupied by a tree farm.

The site has around 60-70 feet of elevation change, and Collins said the Coore & Crenshaw restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 had provided a lot of inspiration for the design thinking on the Buck Club.

Blair’s original plan, to build the course in his home state of Utah had to be abandoned, as land and construction costs made it impractical to complete the project. The player-developer is currently raising funds to support the development, and Collins confirmed there is no rush to break ground.

“We will leave the construction schedule to Zac – it will go ahead when he is ready,” he concluded.

Welshpool

Rankings have become redundant, or worse, the last profit centers for some publications. The sheen is all but gone from most listings, though Golf is sticking to a small panel of experts and now, three lists that will only hopefully inspire more non-18-hole, non-elitist recognition of what matters: fun places to play.

Ran Morrissett sets up this new “top 100” this way:

The earliest tracks were 5-, 6-, 7-, 9- and 12-hole affairs. The locals looked for land that drained well, with interesting natural obstacles. If the property only supported six holes, so be it. The sport wasn’t meant to soak up half the day. Work beckoned. The Industrial Age eventually created the chance for more of the population to pursue leisure activities, and golf expanded. Move the clock forward 150-odd years and courses of all shapes and sizes now exist.

The top 50 nine-hole courses features so many nifty places you’d love to play, leading off with Tom Dunn’s Royal Worlington and Newmarket, dating to 1895. While I love everything about the Winter Park 9, seeing it next to Musselburgh was a bit strange. The Cradle of Golf it is not. But we’ll let that slide for the overall grandeur of this stellar list.

Showbuzzdaily.com

Buoyed by a strong finish spilling into the prime time window, the 2020 BMW championship was up 10% from 2019’s playing, drawing a 2.3 and 3.4 million average viewers on NBC. Jon Rahm defeated Dustin Johnson after both made unbelievable 18th green putts, one in regulation (Johnson) and the latter in the sudden death (Rahm).

The 2020 BMW was played a week later than last year and without NFL preseason competition.

The 2.23 final round rating almost won the sports weekend, falling just short of NASCAR’s Saturday race but easily outdrawing several NBA playoff games on cable.

The 2020 BMW weekend lead-in coverage on Golf Channel was essentially flat from last year (.54/.73 in 2019 vs. .64/.68 in 2020).

Winged Foot’s 467-yard 4th features fairway bunkers 300 off the tee that will only come into play for those who have elected not to hit the gym regularly. With a nice right to left bend that’ll fit the eye of most, the 4th ought to be a drive and short-iron. The extraordinary green complex has seen a huge restoration effort mirroring A.W. Tillinghast’s original.

Here is the flyover from the U.S. Open Twitter account, which is currently flooded with a lot of retweeted drivel and sad attempts to seem young and cool. You’ll thank me some day for this embed and sparing you of the unraveling U.S. Open social media account:

No. 4 at Winged Foot is a slight dogleg left measuring 467 yards, with bookend bunkers in the drive zone. The approach plays slightly downhill to a squared-off green that was expanded during the 2016 restoration by Gil Hanse.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/jq0WQtQlPt

I wouldn’t dare say old since they’re both in great shape but after Tiger’s four days in the 2020 BMW Championship he offered this about his back:

Q. How have you felt?

TIGER WOODS: Felt?

Q. Body-wise, physical-wise.

TIGER WOODS: It aches every day.

Q. Has it hurt you at all, just your back or your health in general?

TIGER WOODS: Well, my back is what it is. It's always going to ache and it's always going to be stiff. That's just -- when you have a fusion, that's just part of the deal. I'll have my good days, and as I've told you guys before, I'll have my good days and bad days.

Then there was this from Phil Mickelson regarding his Monday-Wednesday Champions Tour debut and win. He’s liking that cart!

Lefty seal of approval. pic.twitter.com/HyzXLqXqfw

Club Pro Guy also offered an alternate take on this bit of social insight sounding more like a young Phil.