When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Definitely a first! And what a fantastic look given how tight the shot was to the ball.
From round one of the Alfred Dunhill Links, Lee Westwood making an ace at Carnoustie’s 8th hole.
View this post on InstagramHole-in-one. Filmed from a plane. With tracer. Sit back and enjoy 🚀 #DunhillLinks
A post shared by European Tour (@europeantour) on
Add Justin Timberlake to the list of hickory converts or technophobic anti-capitalists, depending on your world view.
Neat moment in the Dunhill Links practice round posted by the entertainer:
With the excitement already cratering from the European Tour’s brand refresh, I went back into the archives after Seve’s passing and was reminded how aggressively players and fans attempted to initiate a change. Stories about player support for the idea were written in places as varied as PGA.com and the Wall Street Journal.
Then Chief Executive George O’Grady had to issue a statement and Seve’s children had concerns about the use of his likeness. That killed the issue.
Padraig Harrington advocated for it and even Monty…MONTY loved the idea!
"I think you will find it does change and let's hope it is sooner rather than later," said Montgomerie. "I would vote for that immediately. When you talk about the European Tour you talk about Seve, and I think it's only right he should appear on our logo."
So there you have it. A bummer.
Rarely have I seen anyone project a tournament struggling to attract fans due to slow play, but as Martin Dempster writes for The Scotsman, this week’s Dunhill Links at St. Andrews-Kingsbarns-Carnoustie features a strong field, some A-list celebrities and players happy to be there (like Rory McIlroy teaming with his dad).
Still, as Dempster notes, the tournament can lack in Scottish support due to dodgy weather and 6-hour rounds.
Put it this way, more non-golfers are likely to take in this event, especially when they can take advantage of a free admission offer on the first three days, than have attended any other golf tournament held so far this year in Scotland and the game can surely only gain from that.
The Irish would be all over an event like the Dunhill Links like a rash and Scottish golf fans should certainly be giving this week’s event the support it deserves.
Playing the Irish card! Bold. But maybe helpful.
Still, it’s fascinating to see the length of the day possibly factoring into decisions about whether to attend even when admission is free. That’s a big deal if the Scots are ahead of the curve when it comes to attendance and pace of play.
The PGA Tour Lives Under Par and no one knows what that means, still. The LPGA is going to Drive On and probably just keep pumping out Nike ads, circa 2002, and now the European Tour brass undoubtedly survived many meetings to unveil “Driving Golf Further” as part of a brand “refresh”.
That replenishment includes a wildly uninspired logo but another crack at updating the website that has already undergone a relaunch so unsuccessful, it was scrapped and we were returned to the old, gasp, mobile unfriendly site. The new “beta” site (what a concept!) is live and looks infinitely improved over the last relaunch effort.
As for the “Driving Golf Further” slogan, Chief Executive Keith Pelley once again matched his glasses with the backdrop to perfection. And here is the full explanation of the new scheme.
The European Tour has launched a creative new brand strategy, with the aim of broadening the Tour’s appeal to new and existing fans and commercial partners.
Golf’s global tour has unveiled its new identity, which includes a modern, fresh logo alongside a new website and App, all underpinned by the Tour’s guiding principles of Innovation, Inclusivity and Globality.
Saudi Arabia, here we come!
BTW, why Globality is capitalized, I have no idea.
The brand refresh focuses on ‘Driving Golf Further’, the strapline which features underneath the new logo, as the Tour seeks to build on its strong, established reputation for award-winning content, innovative tournament formats and immersive technology.
I see.
The European Tour’s new identity was unveiled at the Tour’s recently refurbished, state-of-the-art headquarters during the BMW PGA Championship, the fourth event in the Tour’s Rolex Series – an alliance of its eight premium events. It will be rolled out on October 1, coinciding with the launch of the Tour’s revamped website and App.
Designed to stand out from the rest of the busy golfing category whilst retaining its golf context, the bold, simple aesthetic is modern and flexible, suitable to be used across all platforms. It comprises a suite of assets, with a new logo, avatar and a range of graphic devices.
Or it’s just very boring, to put it another way.
Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “It is an exciting time for us to unveil our new brand strategy. While we continue to celebrate our traditions and our core audience, the Tour has a strong desire to innovate and broaden the appeal of our sport.”
Max Hamilton, Head of Commercial Partnerships said, “Golf remains the sport of business, with 90% of CEOs playing our sport, however we believe golf has to modernise and appeal to everyone to thrive. We hope our bold new creative and brand strategy will attract new partners who align with our new brand ideals.”
Yes, the new logo and Globality of it all will make the difference.
But here’s the good news: they used further instead of farther. So at least the European Tour stayed out of teh distance debate with their new slogan.
At least in Matthew Fitzpatrick’s eyes, after having his and ever other player’s bag bugged for electronic time posting, only to still take too long.
The four-point plan debuted this week at the BMW PGA and despite some nice additions to the list of slow play remedies, we know the players aren’t always to blame. Even with the overrated field size reduction to 132, there is the pesky matter of modern distances on any course under 8,000 yards. That means waits, more waits and almost no chance of getting around in the time par of 4:30 or so.
His Tweets:
Just under 5 hours, embarrassing https://t.co/7J7xfY2vNH
— Matt Fitzpatrick (@MattFitz94) September 19, 2019
Oh and pace of play 😴 waited on the majority of shots on the front 9 yet somehow were 2 mins ahead of time. Work that one out, long way to go to fix this problem.
— Matt Fitzpatrick (@MattFitz94) September 19, 2019
asfd
The Rory McIlroy news from Wentworth has, so far, been mixed: he’s retaining his European Tour card after some negotiation with Chief Executive Keith Pelley (good), he opened the BMW PGA with a 76 (bad).
But as Rex Hoggard reports for GolfChannel.com, his comments on slow play add to the list of strong remarks by top players advocating penalty strokes for slow pokes. While that may not seem earth-shattering, the recent shift of players advocating penalty strokes is a change from years of players protecting slow pokes and muttering nonsense about field size.
The U.S. Open’s recent penalty of a lost point after a third violation by Rafa Nadal, got McIlroy’s attention:
Like many Tour players, McIlroy sees a reluctance to penalize players in high-profile situations and used last month’s U.S. Open in tennis and Rafael Nadal’s timing violation during a match as an example of what golf needs to embrace.
“Rafa got a time clock violation on a really big serve like at the end of the final of the U.S. Open, so if they can do it then, there's no reason why we can't do it in our tournaments, either,” McIlroy said. “It's just a matter of enforcing it and being consistent with it.”
Susan Hosang has to be the most agile and sprightly 100-year-old of all time.
Great stuff from the European Tour’s annual KLM Open stunt, where everyday golfers hit a shot or play a hole with the pros mid-tournament:
Meet 100-year-old golfer Susan Hosang 👵🏻💪
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 12, 2019
Today she played alongside Matt Wallace, Thomas Pieters and Patrick Reed at the #KLMOpen. pic.twitter.com/a5W6ptjbxg
The European Tour and Renaissance Club have exercised an option for a second Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open(s) at the course despite lukewarm reviews from male competitors. While the modern Tom Doak design had tough shoes to fill after recent events at Gullane and Castle Stuart, players bemoaned the lack of a proper links test in advance of The Open.
Nonetheless, it’s never great to hear of changes in response to a tournament, unless they are largely revolving around improving firmness or setup.
Martin Gilbert, Chairman of Aberdeen Standard Investments said: “We’re looking forward to returning to The Renaissance Club in 2020. The facilities Jerry and his team offer both sets of players, on and off the course are second to none. The feedback we’ve received is that the location works well with the golfing public as well as our colleagues.
“We’ve also listened to the professionals who played the course this year and collectively we will be implementing a number of changes based on their feedback. We look forward to welcoming back the world’s best players to Scotland’s golf coast, for what is sure to be another memorable two weeks of golf next summer.”
The men’s Scottish Open drew its strongest field ever, while the Ladies event several weeks later was unfortunately placed the week after back-to-back majors.
Edoardo Molinari’s Tweets earlier this year exposing Europe’s slow pokes was the final straw for European Tour Chief Keith Pelley and his Tournament Committee.
The former US Amateur champion was true to his word and published the data, even though his brother Francesco, the 2018 Open champion, was among the offenders.
“I spoke to Edoardo shortly afterwards and while I didn’t necessarily agree with his chosen method, he was entirely right to confront the problem and it prompted a discussion at the next Tournament Committee meeting, held at the Betfred British Masters in May,” said Pelley, pictured.
“Thankfully, our Tournament Committee shared Edoardo’s belief that enough was enough, and they were prepared to make some hard decisions, accepting the need to be more punitive.”
So no matter what happens, he’ll always have this.
I was excited about European Tour Chief Keith Pelley’s rollout of enhanced speed of play techniques and do believe they will make a difference until I read what Golfweek’s Alistair Tait wrote.
While he liked many of the changes—including the name shaming of showing groups where they stand in terms of on-course positioning—Tait has been on the pace of play situation for years and will not be surprised if little happens. This was interesting…
My other fear is that “name” players will escape censure while others will take the brunt of the action. Appearance fees are still a regular occurrence on the European Tour. Sponsors pay large amounts to lure stars to places like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc. Some sponsors won’t be happy if the guy they’ve spent a small fortune on is put off from returning because of a one-shot penalty for impersonating a tortoise.
Jordan Spieth played in that 2016 Abu Dhabi tournament and was warned for slow play. The Tour was correct to implement the pace of play rules, but sponsors weren’t happy. It’s a moot point if that slow play warning is the reason Spieth has never returned to Abu Dhabi, but it clearly hasn’t helped.
We shall see soon enough as the policies announced Monday will see a trial run at the 2019 BMW PGA in September. But given the precedent set with Sergio Garcia’s non-suspension for vandalizing greens during competition in January, Tait’s concern is legitimate.
You know they’re serious—they’ve developed a four point plan! And put it in writing.
Let’s take a look:
1. Regulation
» When players are out of position and either being monitored or timed, a one-shot penalty will be incurred after two bad times – currently a player would be ‘monitored’ and if he breaches the time allowance (50 seconds for first to play, 40 seconds for second or third to play) he will then be ‘officially timed’ and would then have to breach twice more before being given a one shot penalty. Players will, however, have the option to request one time extension per round, giving an additional 40 seconds to hit a shot on this request.
One “extension” is needed for those random moments when you have to wait on a crowd to move or one fairway over or it’s crunch time. Shoot, I’d start with two extensions just for fun and chip it away later if proven one is enough.
» In Position timing, introduced at the same time as Monitoring, has been strengthened. The time allowed to play a shot when being monitored in position (currently double the out of position times above), will be reduced by 15%, from 100 and 80 seconds down to 85 and 70 seconds respectively for first and second/ third to play. Referees are now mandated to be proactive in targeting known slow players for in position timing.
I’m sure they got a raise for what essentially makes their job much tougher.
» Fines for consistently slow players who are regularly officially timed during the season will increase significantly. For example, a player who is timed 15 times in the 2020 season will have to pay £26,000 in fines as opposed to £9,000 this season.
Ouch.
2. Education
» All new members will be assigned a dedicated referee to help educate them on pace of play at the start of their European Tour career
Ok that’s just treating them like children.
» As part of retaining their membership, every member will be required to pass an interactive online rules test with this being implemented for existing members towards the end of the 2019 season and all new members early in the 2020 season. This will be repeated every three years for existing members.
Interactive…meaning lots of pictures and video!
» Regular educational videos will be produced by the European Tour’s social media team on key rules and pace of play policies and shared with the players throughout the season in an effort to avoid unnecessary rulings and ensure they better understand the Pace of Play policy.
Oh, funny pictures and videos!
3. Innovation
» A trial Pace-of-Play system will be conducted at the BMW PGA Championship from September 19-22, 2019. This will provide referees with the times for every group through every hole to make sure that no gaps are missed.
No crack will go unfilled!
» As part of this system, and in a ground-breaking development, on-tee displays on a minimum of three holes will provide groups with their position in relation to the group in front.
Now we’re talking. Sign shaming.
4. Field sizes
» Field sizes at fully sanctioned events will be reduced from 156 to a minimum of 144 so long as all entered players in Category 18 (the final 111-125 on the previous season’s Race to Dubai) and above make it into the event. This will create space for referees to push groups over the Thursday and Friday rounds.
144 is enough anyway, but good to see playing opportunities being cut as this gets the attention of players over everything.
You want to let distances keep swelling and backing up all the par-5s and drivable 4’s? Fine, 12 fewer of you will get the privilege. Carry on…
» Larger starting intervals will be built into play on Saturday and Sunday to create a better flow between groups.
Yes well that should have happened a long time ago.
Overall, a pretty impressive effort. Will the PGA Tour follow suit?
Given all the slow play talk of late, here’s some much needed therapy and another gem from the European Tour Originals team, this time as Thomas Detry, Sean Crocker, Guido Migliozzi and Paul Dunne all take a shot at the 1:33 record. The fine print:
The rules of the attempt dictated that the par five tenth hole had to play a minimum of 500 yards with each player required to finish the hole carrying the same number of clubs they started with.
After some highly respectable – and often dramatic – attempts, it was 26 year old Detry who succeeded in breaking the standing record, going from tee to green in just one minute 29.62 seconds.
Enjoy:
That’s what Golfweek’s Alistair Tait alleges of the kid-glove treatment for the pouting, golf course vandalizing Spaniard and possible future Ryder Cup captain following his latest pitiful on-course display.
Truth is, he can do almost anything he wants and not get a two-week ban. No way the European or PGA Tours are going to take serious action, especially the European Tour. The Euro circuit won’t want to alienate one of its biggest stars.
If true, that’s an amazing statement about where we are in the game: stars can behave badly before our eyes because they are star.
Then again, in February he vandalized greens mid-tournament and only got disqualified, so after that boondoggle, it’s no small wonder he continues to get a pass from the European Tour and PGA Tour for bad behavior.
That’s the question posed by Eamon Lynch for Golfweek as we are 250 days from the next major. But one thing we can all agree on: the fall schedule is anchored by a team event in December this year.
The Fall schedule ought to be more than an opportunity for journeymen to get a head start on FedEx Cup points before the stars return from vacation at Kapalua in January, but it lacks an anchor event. The Tour created this barren expanse on the calendar to protect the FedEx Cup playoffs — which is fair enough, since that’s where the bankroll is — and could remedy it by moving the Players Championship to the Fall. It won’t happen, of course. Even being the biggest event of the early wraparound season would still be seen as diminishing the Players, and ratings might suffer against the pigskin. So the highlight of our Fall will be a broadcast from Royal Melbourne in the middle of the night after all, this one the Presidents Cup.
A few have questioned this publicly and quite a few more privately for a variety of reasons. Players are not seeing the wisdom in the tighter major window and have played less around the majors. With some high profile defections at the WGC FedEx St. Jude and an even bigger no-show rate for the Wyndham Championship (you know, to help your playoff position), cracks have appeared in the new schedule concept. Namely: it’s weakening the very “product” it was meant to strengthen.
I think we need a little more time to mull the question as the only meaningful reversal will come after a new TV deal starts and the various majors have considered how the schedule plays out. The 2019-20 schedule is due out any day now and 20-21 won’t change much either.
But my initial take as a supporter of the new schedule’s tighter structure? The majors are stronger for it despite what players may legitimately think is too short of a window. The surrounding professional events on all tours have been weakened instead of strengthened as players conserve energy, and the PGA Tour Playoffs arrive too close on the heals of the majors. Given that the entire thing was built around avoiding football season and making the PGA Tour playoffs a bigger deal, the early reactions may force a re-thinking or even a scrapping of the wraparound schedule concept entirely.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
