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
John Hawkins calls Tiger's free loading dock relief drop an embarrassment and asks...
Since when did the clubhouse and parking lot become part of the golf course? I’m no rules aficionado, but I’ve always thought that any shot that leaves the field of play is considered out of bounds.
BTW, did anyone actually see the ball turned over to Steve Williams or Tiger, as Bill Kratzert said on TV?
In Thomas Bonk's piece on the drug talk in golf, he writes:
The driving distance of the top players on the PGA Tour has been steadily increasing for decades.
Well, actually only "steadily increasing" in the last decade (which Bonk points out, leading me to believe there was an editing mistake). Anyway...
Advances in equipment, such as shallow-faced drivers with thin faces of space-age metals, plus improved physical conditioning by the players, inspired largely by Woods, are most often credited with the longer drives.
After the last five or so years of hearing executives, players, and media say that the distance explosion has been driven by the incredible player conditioning, might we going to see most of the blame shifted back to equipment in order to protect the image of players and quiet the calls for drug testing?
Wishful thinking, I know.
Thomas Bonk files a front (sports) page story on Tiger's call for drug testing, with several interesting quotes. Starting with Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg:
"There's a lot out there right now, with BALCO, the cycling and the sprinters, so what he's saying is, 'Start with golf, start with me. I'm clean and I think the sport's clean,' " Steinberg said Friday.And some experts weigh in:
" 'If people are speculating about golf, let's get it over now.' "
Added Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus at Penn State and an expert in performance-enhancing drugs and sports, "Anyone who doesn't say it's a can of worms or that it's a time bomb that is going to explode in your face is nuts. "Given what [baseball Commissioner] Bud Selig went through with his stupidity, with the way he handled it, golf, before it gets hauled into court, should start with something. That's what the smart money would do.And, in response to Finchem's position:
"I've heard every excuse, every rationale you could ever think of, and to listen to the spin of the holier-than-thous — the spin people always point their finger in every direction other than the right one — is misguided.
"With a ton of money involved in golf, there's talk of beta blockers, low doses of human growth hormone, and if you already have the 10th of a 10th of a 10th of a percentage of the public that is good enough to play the PGA Tour, then you take that guy and add 10 pounds of muscle, are you telling me the ball won't go farther?"
"Although the 'Chariots of Fire' model is interesting, that's not the world we live in," John Hoberman, an expert on drugs in sports at the University of Texas, said Friday.
Because there is no PGA Tour list of illegal performance-enhancing substances, drugs such as beta blockers, which have a tranquilizing effect on users, could find their way into golf, according to Hoberman.
"The real threat to golf, with all hell breaking out in baseball because of steroids, are the drugs that would probably be more useful, say the beta blockers, for calmness, self-control, lack of anxiety, steady hands, attention and focus, all qualities that would seem useful in putting," he said Friday.
Tiger Woods makes more history, the OGA holds their reduced flight ball event, Tom Lehman makes Ryder Cup picks, and what story has quietly taken hold? The need for drug testing in golf. Naturally, you have to enjoy the irony of the situation, which has arisen in large part because of an unwillingness to regulate equipment, since there is no evidence that a problem exists.
Still, as Tiger noted, the wise course is to be proactive, instead of reactive, while Greg Norman used an obscenity to describe the Tour's drug stance. You all had plenty of interesting views on the subject.
P.B. writes: Finchem wasn't expecting the drug questions so soon, especially since he doesn't even have a list of banned substances, talk about naive. This guy's been caught with his pants down a few times this year, he's making things up as he goes along, drugs, Fed Ex Cup, fall finish. He's a master without a master-plan!
Pete the Luddite writes, As a former college athlete who was tested several times, I will tell you that even at that age I welcomed the testing. Show you're clean. The potential for a drug problem on tour is simmering toward a boil. As long as the TOUR and the players live in denial, Tom The Ostrich's views will keep anyone from knowing. Look back at baseball - McGwire and Sosa were clean in 199, right? I mean, there were no tests to show they were on anything, so they must have been pure athletes. Today, any feat in baseball has the shadow of drugs around it. Is this what we want for golf?
Jeremy Rudock: Interestingly, Shawn Micheel uses something similar to "the cream" to combat an extremely low natural testosterone level. I wonder what a drug testing policy on tour would think of that? There is zero tolerance for it in other sports such as cycling or track & field.
NRH: The risk to the reputation of the game rests in Far Hills, not at BALCO. This gentleman's game does not need testing when the groundwork for it is its place in other sports, a couple of guys who took Beta Blockers and a misdirected side effects of the avaricious ways of the pillars of the Carlsbad community. Now, about those long putters...
Chuck: Unlike the stuff being cooked up in a warehouse by BALCO, there are players who might actually need beta blockers and antidepressants. So we can't exactly make them 'banned substances.' And you'd be very hard-pressed to determine 'actual need' for the drug in cases where the psychiatric or cardiological complaints are so non-specific as to be duplicated by any patient or any doctor...
DPatterson writes: Camilo Villegas weighs 160 lbs and drives it 300+. It seems to me that distance comes from improved equipment and technique, not muscularity. Who needs steroids? Well, maybe for the rough when the US Open comes around.
Wally on Frank Hannigan's Golfobserver.com column: Couldn't drug testing today be equated to the USGA R&A actually doing a bit of testing themselves 5 yrs ago? Had that testing on equipment actually been done Frank [Hannigan] wouldn't be able to cite it as fact. Joey Sindelar is the only person so far that is speaking from common sense. Drugs are everywhere in every sport, being done by all kinds of athletes, even ametuers in the Olympics, and through all of this somehow the PGA Tour is immune. Nonsense, and of all people Frank Hannigan should know better than to espouse evidense to the contrary.
Scott Stearns writes: Golf is the only sport where the golfers call penalties on themselves, and have for hundreds of years. Just because Sammy sosa corks his bat, or people hack Shaq on his way to the hoop, does that mean the tour should put a guy with a striped shirt with every group? Lets solve the problems of golf--like equipment--rather than solve problems that dont exist.
Smolmania writes: In view of all of the other problems which exist out there (ball goes too far, FedUp Cup, no tour event in Chicago), drugs aren't that high on my list.
Regarding the selections of Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank, Van said: Capt. Tom didn't have a good second pick. This team's in trouble, and I think he senses that. The K Club, a perfect substitute for The Belfry. The horror, the horror, the horror. To be five of the last six.
MacDuff: Trouble is every captain wants to win "his" Cup year, so experienced players get the Captain's pick slots. It's a shame they can't pick a number of youngbloods that look like they'll still be around ten years hence -- like O'Hair, Quigley and Glover. The Australian cricket team did just that in the early 1980s. Under an experienced playing captain, a whole raft of promising but internationally inexperienced players got whipped for a couple of years, but developed into world-beaters for the next decade.
CBell: it's all a crapshoot - you can't predict how any of these guys are going to play in the Cup any better than I can predict how I'm going to play tomorrow. Tiger Woods is arguably the most dependably superior golfer in the history of the game (Okay, fans of Hogan/Nelson/Jones, chime in...) and look at his record in the Cup...And then there's Monty.
On the OGA event, Jeff Pollner writes: I don't see how having a standardized ball helps unless it goes about 15-20% shorter. If the USGA just changed the required specs, every manufacturer could still sell balls and pretend they had the longest under those specs just like they do now.
Hawkeye: First off: Roll back the ball, yes. OK, done. Secondly: Please give at least SOME credit to the improvements in knowledge of biomechanics and the role use of cameras has had on instruction. I recently watched some official films of British Opens and US Opens from the 70's, and it's astonishing to see how inefficient most of the swings were. Pure hand-and arm-actions, reverse-pivots, tilt-and-blocks, everything.
Peter Barcelo: As far as I'm concerned there is already a gap (bifurication) between pros and amauters with regard to the equipment that we are currently using. Bifurication is only going to take a bit of air out of the pros playing the game, while saving me money at my club. I'm already sick and tired of the assesments that have been put on our membership everytime the committee decides we need to keep up with technology. Today we have tees that 95% of the membership never plays from, and water hazards just off the fairways that the membership can't even reach with their Sunday best drive. I say bring on the bifurication before I go broke playing this game and quit.
Speaking of changing courses, we learned that Valhalla is undergoing an complete overhaul by original architect Jack Nicklaus.
Garland says: Couldn't help but think that where it said "challenge modern players" it meant challenge modern equipment.
Hux notes: Since Jack probably learnt something from Tom Doak at Sebonack, he can go back and redo as many of his earlier courses as he wants as far as I'm concerned.However it's not modern equipment that's making them dated so quickly. Let's make that point clear.
Adam C: How many examples of lengenthening will it take before people figure out it is the wrong direction?
PGATour.com's Helen Ross has the wild and wacky details of Tiger's 212-yard 9-iron that sailed 45 yards longer than intended, headed for a loading dock, was pocketed by some guy and led to a 35 minute ruling.
Slugger White, Mike Shea and Dillard Pruitt explain their ruling here, while Tiger talks about the weird episode here. The opening exchange:
Q. Did they eventually find the ball?
TIGER WOODS: They found the ball, yeah.
Q. Whereabouts?
TIGER WOODS: In the guy's pocket.
Q. Did they find the guy?
TIGER WOODS: Uh huh.
Q. Do you suspect that might be out of bounds next year?
TIGER WOODS: Probably. It might be out of bounds tomorrow.
Q. If they didn't find the ball, I assume that would have made a difference?
TIGER WOODS: I don't know.
Q. Were you willing to play it off the roof?
TIGER WOODS: I don't know. I mean, I don't know how that works.
Q. The ball landed over the roof and actually went into the loading dock.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, Steve Sands was saying that they were eating back there, and they said, "is this Tiger's ball?"
Q. Well, the guy found the ball and then some guy came running out and said, That's Tiger's ball?
TIGER WOODS: And then he put it in his pocket.
Q. How far did that 9 iron go?
TIGER WOODS: Stevie thought it went about 212 in the air.
Q. Was the ball returned to you?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah. Evidently I didn't need to have it returned. I don't know.
Q. How far was the 9 iron supposed to go?
TIGER WOODS: I had 167 to the hole.have been hitting his third shot at that point.
Woods' preparation for such a scene of chaos begins quietly enough when he arrives at the course, typically about an hour and 15 minutes before the final round. He starts with his putting drill with the two tees and when he shifts to the driving range, he spends 30 to 40 minutes, beginning with a sand wedge and moving from the higher-lofted clubs to the lower-lofted clubs in his bag. Then he returns to the putting green for a final warmup before going to the first tee.
It is Williams' duty to bring a copy of the pin sheets to Woods at the driving range, showing the precise location of the pins on each green. Woods studies them, then practices as if he is hitting toward each pin, allowing him to decide what kind of shots to hit to every green while he's still on the range. This preparation method is unique to Woods.
His last shot on the driving range is the first shot he'll hit at the first tee. On Sunday, he rocketed a five-wood at the range, duplicated the shot at the first tee and was off and running.
Thanks to reader Scott S for this Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia story on the Ohio Golf Assn. event winner Blake Sattler.
“I looked at it as an experiment,” the New Philadelphia High graduate said. “The OGA wanted to try it so they had a company develop a new ball.
“It was totally different from the balls we normally play. I think they did it because Tiger (Woods) and the other guys that hit it a mile are making a lot of the old courses obsolete. This ball doesn’t travel as far, so normally where you’d be hitting a wedge into the green, you’d hit an 8-iron. They were trying to bring the long hitters back to the field.
“It was different, but I don’t see how it could ever happen on the Tour.”
I agree with the comments of JohnV on this GolfClubAtlas.com thread that it sounds like, at least from early feedback, that the OGA ball is discriminating a bit too much against those with higher clubhead speeds. Any kind of successful rollback will have to take a little something from everyone at the top level to be accepted and to work from a course design perspective.
Included below is the full exchange where Tiger Woods took a new stance on drug testing in golf, but before that, check out this Rally Killer of the Year candidate. Apparently Tiger has changed his schedule and is going to take the chartered jet to Ireland with his teammates Monday and Tuesday.
Q. Are you going to the K Club?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I'm going. We're all going together. I had to reschedule a couple things.
Q. When are you coming back?
TIGER WOODS: Wednesday morning. I get back Wednesday morning here.
Q. What's the puppy's name?
TIGER WOODS: Yogi, like Yogi Bear. He looks more like Yogi Bear.
Q. What kind?
TIGER WOODS: It's a Labradoodle.
Back to golf (laughter).
Q. Obviously you thought it was important enough to reschedule things to go next week. What was the thinking behind that?
TIGER WOODS: I've seen The K Club enough, but just to be with the guys. We're going there as a team and going there just to hang out and relax and play a little golf. Most of the guys haven't played the golf course very much, and if I can help out at all, I can hopefully, and maybe pass on a few tidbits that I've learned over the years of playing there.
Do we have a winner? Certainly a rally killer of the year finalist! And the exchange on drug testing, unfortunatey, minus the questions.
Q. (Inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: There are a lot of things I've shifted since I've been on Tour, a lot of things. That's just one of them.
Q. (Inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: I think certainly it can be in the future, and I think we should be proactive instead of reactive, and I think that we should just like the driver situation, we were reactive there instead of proactive.
I just think that we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport and it's always been clean.
Q. (Inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: Have a program in place before guys are actually doing well, know who's doing it, and then create a program. I think that would be reactive.
Q. (Inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: I'd be in favor of that, no doubt about that. I would be in favor of that, yes. I don't know if we could get that implemented in time. It's fine with me.
Q. (Inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: It depends on what it is because each sport kind of takes a few things off of it, and some sports are pretty strict about what they can take. They can't even take aspirin. I don't know how that would work.
Whoa Nellie! Tiger Woods says...
Tiger Woods said he would like to see testing on the PGA Tour for performance-enhancing drugs as soon as possible to make sure golf remains clean.
"I don't know when we could get that implemented," Woods said. "Tomorrow would be fine with me."
Woods did not say he thought anyone was using steroids, but said it could be a problem in the future.
"I think we should be proactive instead of reactive," he said. "I just think we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport, and it's always been clean."
Woods' comments came one day after PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he saw no need for drug testing in golf without evidence that any players are using steroids.
Woods compared the situation to the PGA Tour testing thin-faced drivers that exceeded regulations for the trampoline effect, known as the coefficient of restitution (COR). He suggested in 2003 that some players were using hot drivers. By the following year, tour officials had a tool that measured COR, although drivers were not tested unless another player asked.
"Just like the driver situation, we were reactive there instead of proactive," Woods said.
This is quite a shift for Woods, who was asked (by yours truly) about this subject last year at the Target World Challenge.
Q. There was a story in Golf World last week about performance enhancing drugs and steroids in golf and the possibility of it. Do you think there is a possibility that players are using anything and should there be perhaps a Tour policy or testing on that, either steroids or any kind of enhancing drug?
TIGER WOODS: There's always a possibility. Unless you're tested, there's always going to be a shadow of doubt on any sport. I don't see anyone out there who I would think would have finds of it, but who's to say there aren't. We don't know. We don't see any guys out there, 6 5, 240, 250, in shape, cut up, all ripped up. We don't have guys out there like that.
Q. Are you in favor of testing or do you think that's something that should be treated with a little more study?
TIGER WOODS: I think we should study it a little bit more before we get into something like that. Obviously it's a path that where do you draw the line? Do you do it on the PGA Tour nationwide but don't do it on any other tours leading up to that, or all professional golf.
Obviously there is a lot to it than just, okay, there's mandatory testing. Where does it start? Who does it? Who is in control of it? What are the substances that you're looking for. In the Olympics you can't take aspirin. A lot of guys live on aspirin out here.
I just got around to reading Charles McGrath's NY Times "PLAY" magazine story on the Senior Champions Tour.
Loved this:
In 2003, the tour hired a new commissioner, Rick George, who is extremely fluent in the language of contemporary corporate sportsspeak. It was George, for example, who supervised the “rebranding” of the tour’s name, and when I suggested that must have been because “senior” bore an unfortunate whiff of geezerdom, he corrected me. “The new brand gives us more platforms to promote what we do,” he said. “Our players are champions as golfers, champions in charity, champions as people.” George has worked mightily to increase the number of corporate sponsorships, the lifeblood of a golf tour, and now says, “We feel like we’re the best business-to-business marketing opportunity in all of sport.”
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Burt Graeff looks at the likelihood of 8,000 yard courses in the near future.
For years, the PGA Tour has pushed tees back - stretching courses to more than 7,000 yards in hopes of keeping the world's best golfers from shooting 22 under par at every stop.
Technology and players who are in better physical condition, parlayed with fairways so firm that balls roll as much as 100 yards, have turned 7,000-yard courses into ones that pros hit driver, sand wedge at 455-yard par-4s and driver, 3-iron on 550-yard par 5s.
Get ready for the 8,000-yard course on the PGA Tour.Ah, that's the kind of player-architect we like. Considerate, thoughtful, pragmatic.
"There is no doubt [the 8,000-yard course] is going to happen," said Sergio Garcia, one of the favorites in the $7.5 million Bridgestone Invitational that begins Thursday at Firestone's South Course.
"What do I think about it? It doesn't matter. I don't care."
Suggesting in the 1950s that courses on the PGA Tour would some day top 8,000 yards in length was out of the question.
"Everyone would have thought you were nuts," said Corey Pavin, whom, at 264.3 yards, is last among 199 players ranked for driving distance.
Pavin, a 5-9, 155-pounder, averages 55 fewer yards per drive than the tour's big hitter, Bubba Watson, who averages a whopping 319.3 yards off the tee.
And what does Pavin, a 15-time tour winner, think of the prospect of playing 8,000-yard courses?
"I think that I won't be playing golf anymore when that happens," he said, smiling.
And this just warms the heart...
Allenby, the world's 36th-ranked player who averages 294.8 yards off the tee, said he has no problem playing courses stretched to 8,000 yards. "It almost needs to happen," he said. "I'd love to see it. I hit my 3 woods close.
"The length of these courses doesn't matter to us. They feel shorter and shorter."
Ah, but thankfully there's a Pepperdine educated player out there to deliver perspective...
Jason Gore is a 6-1, 235-pounder who owns the tour's two longest measured drives - 427 yards. Yet he's not wild and crazy about playing 8,000-yard courses.
"Unfortunately," he said, "it would not surprise me to see it happen.
"If you get to that point, I think you are tricking it up and cheapening it. Take Firestone. This is an example of a classic course that doesn't need all that distance.
"It is a good test the way it is."
And the final word on 8,000 yard courses...
"I can't see it," said South African Rory Sabbatini. "That would be excessive. That would be like putting speed bumps at Talladega."
Huh? Ah, forget it.
The Louisville Courier-Journal's Jody Demling takes an extensive look at Jack Nicklaus overhauling Valhalla in preparation for the 2008 Ryder Cup.
Nicklaus was in town yesterday to oversee ongoing construction of the most extensive changes in the 20-year history of the course he designed in eastern Jefferson County as Valhalla prepares to play host to the 2008 Ryder Cup.
About 1,000 trees have been removed, four greens have been dynamited and transplanted (one didn't meet his approval and will move again) and the No. 2 hole may play as a 535-yard par-4 for the professionals.
"I thought we had a pretty good golf course to start with, but times have changed," Nicklaus said. "It's been 20 years since we did the golf course, and golf equipment has changed dramatically. And the ability of the players has changed dramatically with the equipment.
"To challenge the ability of the players today we needed to add some length and spice to the golf course, and in some places we have softened it a bit."
Hey, but it had 20 good years.
Nicklaus spent several hours touring the course with several PGA of America officials, original course owner Dwight Gahm and course superintendent Mark Wilson, among others.
"We have to take the golf courses and make it fit today's game, and that's what we're trying to do," Nicklaus said.
And...
Every hole will be affected in some way. The grass on all 18 greens is being replaced. Greens on the sixth, eighth, 11th and 16th holes are being rebuilt, and bunkers are being added to seven holes.
"(The PGA) is turning Jack loose and making it modern," said Gahm, who sold the course to the PGA after the 2000 event. "He's doing everything he wants to do, and it's going to be even better.
"I'm just glad he's not using my money."
Nice line!
Valhalla played 7,167 yards for the 2000 PGA, won by Tiger Woods in a playoff with Bob May, but will play about 7,500 yards from the back tees when finished.
"We sat down (with Nicklaus) and came up with a vision of how we can take Valhalla and modernize it and challenge today's players and do it well," PGA of America chief executive officer Joe Steranka said.
This is fun...
Members are allowed to play the course, but all the holes are using temporary greens in the middle of the fairways and course officials said play has been slow. But PGA officials said this will strengthen the stature of the course, which is listed among the top 100 nationally by several publications.
Listed among the top 100, yet it's undergoing a complete facelift. I'm not sure if it's an indictment of the rankings, or the equipment situation.
The biggest change is at the par-4 sixth hole that played 421 yards in the 2000 PGA. The hole is a dogleg right where the second shot must be hit over Floyd's Fork.
But Nicklaus said the green is being moved back 80 yards and into an area that is surrounded by trees, making it a longer hole where a second shot would likely be 200-220 yards after PGA players hit a 3-wood or long iron off the tee.
"It was already an exciting hole," Nicklaus said. "It's actually a par-4 that, I think, they're not going to be able to play a wedge to, if there is such a thing in this world today. It's going to be a beautiful golf hole."
The green on the par-3 eighth hole has been rebuilt, and the tee has been moved back a bit. The green was dropped four feet, allowing for better viewing.
Nicklaus spent a great deal of time at No. 11, a par-3 that played 168 yards in 2000. The original green has been destroyed, but after looking at the new layout Nicklaus said the green will be moved back and a little farther left from the original green. The hole will likely play 200-205 yards.
"The green you are looking at down there do not expect it to be there," Nicklaus told the media gathered around No. 11. "How it got there, I'm not sure. Probably my mistake. But we're moving it back, and it will work out nicely."
Nicklaus said No. 16 already had a new tee built since 2000, and now the green is being pulled together with the No. 17 tee box. He also said he took "some of the humps" out of most greens because "they got too severe."
Uh...they got severe, or were severe?
The Orlando Sentinel's Steve Elling published this list of the best players in all four majors.
Here’s one race that Tiger Woods can’t win. For the third consecutive year, the Sentinel has crunched the numbers at golf’s major championships and come up with the collective king of the court for 2006, and since only players who made the cut in all Grand Slam events are eligible, Woods didn’t make the grade. Among the other highly ranked stars who missed the cut in at least one major this year were Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington and David Howell. Phil Mickelson and Woods won the cumulative titles in 2004 and 2005, respectively, both at 26 under. In our three years of compiling the list, the two Americans to make the chart marks by far the lowest total, down from seven in 2004 and five last year. (Note: Woods was added purely for the purpose of comparison since he didn’t play on the weekend at the U.S. Open, his first missed cut at a major 10 years as a pro).
Player Masters U.S. Open British PGA Total
Phil Mickelson -7 +6 -5 -6 -12
Geoff Ogilvy +1 +5 -6 -9 -9
Jim Furyk +3 +6 -12 -3 -6
Adam Scott +4 +12 -9 -12 -5
Mike Weir -1 +8 +1 -11 -3
Ernie Els +4 +13 -13 -6 -2
Robert Allenby +3 +11 -6 -5 +3
Luke Donald +8 +9 -2 -12 +3
Jose Maria Olazabal -4 +12 +1 +4 +13
Miguel A. Jimenez -1 +11 -1 +8 +17
Tiger Woods -4 +12 (MC) -18 -18 NA
Golfweek's Rex Hoggard weighed in on the Fall Finish before Tim Finchem's press conference yesterday:
Although minimum purses will remain at current levels, around $4 million, ratings likely will fall off when events shift from current networks (ABC, ESPN, USA Network) to The Golf Channel. The Tour doesn't plan to increase its subsidy to these events – 62 percent – which means sponsors will need to ante up more or tournaments will have less for charities.
Decreased media buys – four-round coverage on TGC reportedly will cost between $600,000 to $650,000 per event, drastically less than what networks currently charge – will help events offset costs, but the concern among many tournament directors and some players is that the "Chase" series will be little more than a place where good events go to die.
The future of the post-Tour Championship tournaments depends on the Tour's ability to convince sponsors that even without the Tigers and Phils of the golf world, these events have value. And so far, that's proven to be a hard sell.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
