Augusta is only fifty minutes by air from Atlanta, everything is just as you have remembered. The air is sweet and soft ; you never fail to see a few familiar golf faces around the terminal; and the man at the car rental desk once again can't seem to find a record of your reservation and can't quite fathom how anyone could have written you a confirmation. HERBERT WARREN WIND
Due to budget cuts and tax-incentive driven move to Connecticut, Golf Channel ratings have flatlined and the “brand” diminished despite housing all early round PGA Tour coverage. The once highly-profitable and popular channel is now down to 63 million homes from a peak of nearly 80 million just a few years ago, causing NBC Sports to shift early round U.S. Open and The Open coverage to USA Network.
To stop the bleeding, network executives are said to be mulling an aggressive plan to win back nostalgic viewers. Sources say the initiative, dubbed internally as “Since Holly’s No Longer An Option,” centers around regular weekly late night showings of Tin Cup, the Ron Shelton-directed movie once airing so often that Cheech Marin bought two ocean front homes just off his Golf Channel residuals.
“Someone upstairs equates the film with our Golden Age instead of anything from the original programming, documentaries or award-winning feature department,” said a source. “So get ready for a lot more Tin Cup. Seems Tommy’s Honour just isn’t clicking with the millennials.”
Another source added: “It’ll be expensive, but say goodbye to late night infomercials for Villages insomniacs like Relief From Inflammation, Forgetful?, Try THIS Trick, and Bye Bye Neck Pain. They think this will get the channel’s average age viewer back into the mid-70s.
A third source in Hollywood and connected to actor Don Johnson added, “It’s his most layered role and worthy of more study. So it’s a win-win-win.”
Continuing a concerted effort to go to America’s greatest courses and ensure that future Executive Committees have nothing fun to do, the USGA is set to lock Pebble Beach in through the end of the 21st century.
In announcing the latest “anchor site,” the 2100 U.S. Open “will ensure the next generation can celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tiger Woods’s 15-stroke win in the 2000 U.S. Open,” said the press release which also announced 14 championships for the famous seaside course.
From the release:
“In a world so secure with a future as clear as a sunny day on the Monterey Peninsula, we can’t be more delighted than to announce the securing of Pebble Beach as the site of our national championship for decades to come,” said USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer. "It really is a relief to have gotten this deal done for the betterment of the USGA, the Pebble Beach Company and the world’s best golfers who want to play the very best courses. And we have contingency plans should the 18th hole be taken from us.”
Sources say the USGA contract with the Pebble Beach Company includes several “out” clauses should ocean levels rise and take out the finishing holes.
Mounds were often introduced instead of bunkers as they are more pleasing in appearance, less costly to maintain and often serve well to emphasize strategic conceptions. The course is not intended so much to punish severely the wayward shot as to reward adequately the stroke played with skill—and judgement. During the Masters tournament, with the cooperation of the weatherman, we try to keep our greens surfaces firm and the putting speed quite fast. We conceive that the ideal here is that our greens should hold a shot well-struck with backspin but should not hold an improperly played ball. BOBBY JONES
Tiger Woods has decided.
He’s going to ComicCon 2022 as Martian Manhunter.
The return of ComicCon in 2022 has put added pressure on Woods as he nears a decision to play the 2022 Masters.
This will mark his first return to the annual convention since attending a few years ago as Batman. During last month’s World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony, Sam Woods revealed that her family attended ComicCon with her dad dressed in disguise as the caped crusader.
Multiple sources spotted Woods browsing the DC Comics row at Palm Beach’s Hollywood Studio’s Costumes. Shoppers overheard Woods engaging in lengthy chats with a store clerk about the merits of going as Aquaman, Flash and Martian Manhunter while asking many questions about locating a “Lynda Carter” era Wonder Woman getup. But Woods made clear the Wonder Woman dress-up was for his girlfriend who “liked the 70’s style over that neo-classical gladiatorial @$**%$#@ they’ve veered toward, and that she also did not want to revisit the “Cathy Lee Crosby jumpsuit years.”
Over the past two years, the number of beginning golfers in the U.S. is higher than it was back when Woods was at his most dominant. Almost 30% higher. In 2021, a record 3.2 million Americans played golf on a course for the first time. This after 3 million newcomers picked up golf in 2020 as the pandemic unfolded and people sought out safe, outdoor activities that could provide a sense of normalcy with friends and family.
Like the “Tiger Effect,” there’s no question the “Covid Effect” has been a force in its own right in terms of fostering golf engagement. But other factors have helped boost golf trials, too, among them the increased interest created by golf entertainment venues and other off-course forms of the game, and a more favorable public outlook on golf in general. It’s now been six straight years that the number of on-course beginners has exceeded the 2.4 million newcomers Tiger helped introduce to the game in both 1999 and 2000.
Meanwhile in the UK the R&A released these numbers:
Two new participation reports show that 5.3 million on-course adult golfers – the second-highest number since monitoring began over 30 years ago – enjoyed playing on full length courses (9 or 18 holes) in Great Britain and Ireland in 2021. This includes a marginal increase in Ireland and a slight reduction in Great Britain.
Mounds were often introduced instead of bunkers as they are more pleasing in appearance, less costly to maintain and often serve well to emphasize strategic conceptions. The course is not intended so much to punish severely the wayward shot as to reward adequately the stroke played with skill—and judgement. During the Masters tournament, with the cooperation of the weatherman, we try to keep our greens surfaces firm and the putting speed quite fast. We conceive that the ideal here is that our greens should hold a shot well-struck with backspin but should not hold an improperly played ball. BOBBY JONES
When discussing the greatness of The Masters, people never fail to speak of the diaphanous beauty of the Augusta National course, and there is no doubt many supposedly sophisticated golfers go there year after year principally to look at the flowers. It was Mr. Roberts who planted them, arranged them, and, in a standard joke among the press, commanded them to bloom every year the week of The Masters. Bob Jones, by contrast, had no more interest in horticulture than he did in, say, needlepoint. CHARLES PRICE
No one quite knows how the Masters golf tournament became a "major." The little world of golf looked up one morning and there it was on the doorstep marked, "Important. Refrigerate After Opening. Store With the British Open, the American Open, and PGA. Keep out of reach of children." JIM MURRAY
Playing down fairways bordered by straight lines of trees is not only unartistic but makes tedious and uninteresting golf. Many green committees ruin one's handiwork by planting trees like rows of soldiers along the borders of the fairways. Alternatively, groups of trees, planted irregularly, create most fascinating golf, and give players many opportunities of showing their skill and judgment in slicing, pulling round, or attempting to loft over them. Some of the most spectacular shots I have ever seen have been around, over or through narrow gaps in trees. ALISTER MACKENZIE
The Masters has a great many things going for it, some planned and some fortuitous. It is played on a superb and scenic course that inspires the fine field of players to spectacular feats and offers singularly good vantage points for spectators. It is held at a wonderful time of year, when practically every golfer, after a long hibernation, finds his fancy turning to thoughts of supinating the left forearm or some other such crucial action that will make the season at hand the big one he has been waiting for.
HERBERT WARREN WIND
The Masters has a great many things going for it, some planned and some fortuitous. It is played on a superb and scenic course that inspires the fine field of players to spectacular feats and offers singularly good vantage points for spectators. It is held at a wonderful time of year, when practically every golfer, after a long hibernation, finds his fancy turning to thoughts of supinating the left forearm or some other such crucial action that will make the season at hand the big one he has been waiting for.
HERBERT WARREN WIND
But you better be ready to fork over eight figures given the starting bid of $25,000 already has things nearing $600k with two weeks to go.
It’s quite a story:
In the 12 years since they first surfaced in the collector market in our 2010 auction, the Tiger Slam irons have been displayed privately in a Houston office complex - appreciated only by the occasional visitor with a passing interest in golf. Over the past several years, we have repeatedly pleaded with Brock to let us showcase them to the world. Yes, the collector market has matured a lot since the dark days of 2010. But it was never about the money, even though these clubs will likely reset the record books. Instead, it was about timing. When was the collector market finally ready to appreciate the value of the very best golf collectibles, and ready to appropriately appreciate Tiger Woods and his position in history.
After winning the 2001 Masters Tournament, Tiger held all 4 Major Championship titles at the same time - what we now call the Tiger Slam. 7 weeks later, at the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club in New York, Titleist Director of Player Promotions Rick Nelson and Titleist VP of Player Promotions Steve Mata delivered to Tiger Woods the new set of irons and wedges that Titleist made for him. Tiger decided to put the new clubs into play that week, so Nelson brought Tiger's old clubs to the Titleist Tour Van to verify the specs of the new clubs would match his current gamers. Tiger then put those new clubs into play for the first time during the Wednesday Pro-Am that week. And the old clubs? The ones just used to complete the greatest feat on a golf course since Bobby Jones' Grand Slam in 1930? Tiger gave the clubs to Nelson and Mata, and Mata brought them home with him. It was widely known at Titleist, within Tiger's camp, and within the industry that Mata owned the Tiger Slam irons before he infamously put them up for auction in 2010.
Application invitations have been sent to prospective Liv Golf Invitational contestants for the initial stop in London. As tends to happen with email, the link and password has been forwarded around and found its way to an inbox of mine.
Unless you meet the criteria, you cannot apply. But in the interest of making sure all worthy candidates have their fair shot at the $25 million purse, I’ll share the criteria below with carefully crafted insights in between. (Note the nice double dollar sign choice for the password.)
LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL LONDON
WHEN: 3-day, 54-hole tournament taking place June 9-11, Thursday through Saturday. This ensures anyone competing in the U.S. Open the following week has the ability to travel back to the States on Sunday.
No chartered jet to Logan?
Match play, you see, is much more of a joust. It calls for a doughty, resourceful competitor, the sort of fellow who is not ruffled by his opponent’s fireworks and is able to set off a few of his own when it counts. HERBERT WARREN WIND
Match play, you see, is much more of a joust. It calls for a doughty, resourceful competitor, the sort of fellow who is not ruffled by his opponent’s fireworks and is able to set off a few of his own when it counts. HERBERT WARREN WIND
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