Video Preview: U.S. Women's Open At Sebonack

Here's a nice video overview and the first glimpses of the Doaklaus design making its debut on a grand stage, this week's U.S. Women's Open.

Mark Herrmann has the backstory of Sebonack and the odd design pairing of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak:

Logic insisted that, when the time came to design Pascucci's dream course, he hire Nicklaus to do it, which is what happened. Logic left the room, though, when Pascucci insisted that Nicklaus share the job with Doak, the current architecture whiz. The course owner held a meeting at which neither of his guests wanted to be present.

"I remember the tension in that office was incredible,'' said Mark Hissey, who was project manager while Sebonack was being built and is executive director of this year's Women's Open.
At one point, Pascucci left the room, pretending he had a phone call, just so the two men could start talking. Before it was over, they had an agreement, and when they were all done, they had a course that the U.S. Golf Association found major-worthy.

Open Championship Qualifying WD-Fest Reaches New Low!

Or is that a high, as in the most WD's ever? 29 members of the white belt-wearing set couldn't be bothered to finish the Open Championship International Final Qualifier's 36 at the Sunningdale's New Course, not exactly one of the cow pastures of the game.

Congrats to American Brooks Koepka on medalist honors.

Longtime readers know that this is an annual mystery of the game that seems rather easy to remedy and for whatever reason has not been dealt with by the governing bodies.

Rose Pulls Out Of AT&T National...

It was admirable of him to stick to his Travelers Championship commitment last week but the adrenaline can only last so long, as U.S. Open champion Justin Rose WD's from the AT&T National this week to regroup for The Open Championship.

His statement:

"I'm disappointed to withdraw from the AT&T National, but the last three weeks have been extremely demanding both mentally and physically," Rose said. "This tournament has been very good to me - especially in 2010 - and I would play if I felt I could. Tiger and his Foundation run a great tournament, and I wish I could be there."

Video: AJGA Recently Set An Under Four Hours Time Par

Great stuff on Morning Drive today exposing the AJGA's pace of play work as part of Golf Channel's push this month. Namely, the AJGA getting to explain their check point and time par system that is working. It's a sharp contrast to the USGA's glossy campaign that is not backed up by the implementation of a time par system at the U.S. Open.

The most interesting thing I learned from AJGA executive director Stephen Hamblin and player representive Nicole Morales is their abandonment of the honor system and the 17-minutes a round saved by asking players to walk ahead to the next tee when they've holed out first. They also recently set a time par of 3:58 at an event and rounds averaged under that.

I also was intrigued by Hamblin's mention of this as a "safety issue" by keeping everyone out of midday hot weather an hour less a day. Considering the length of the days at the recent U.S. Open at Merion, that's not a bad point!

Unpaid 10-Second Ad Appearance Costs Amateur His Status

But he can receive equipment manufacturer balls and clubs to be counted at USGA events for advertised ball and club counts! 

What a wacky world, as Julie Williams reports on Scott Pieri losing his amateur status after he "made a 10-second appearance in a commercial for Golf Etc., a local club-fitting store owned by a friend, to deliver a brief testimonial."

And if you want to start your week off in peachy fashion, just read the contradictions in the Decisions on Amateur Status. Breathtaking.

Father-Son Aces On Same Hole, Same Round

Thanks to reader Taylor for passing along Cameron Smith's interpretation of David Barron's behind-a-paywall Houston Chronicle story of a father-son hole in one double.

It seems Lonnie and Zach Widener pulled off this amazing 1-in-17 million accomplishment at River Pointe Golf Club's 6th hole, dad from 115 and son from 100 yards.

"It's probably going to be the most memorable thing we accomplish together," Lonnie Whitener told the Chronicle. "I just hope we have a lot more good things to come. It's one of the coolest things you could ever do."

Video: Bubba To Caddie: "There's just no reason for me to show up."

Thanks to Doc from golfcentraldaily.com for this mini-meltdown by Bubba Watson directed at caddie Ted Scott during the Travelers Championship final round.

Ken Duke beat Chris Stroud on the second hole of sudden death to win.

Meanwhile out on the Champions Tour, the caddies have been told not to enter a certain restroom. Rough times for loopers!

**Corrected the headline to note he said "me" and not you.

Update on 2013-06-24 14:47 by Geoff

*Bubba talked about 16 after the round.

Brian Wacker's post round account, which was misreported in another publication as a confrontation but which another witness tells me was severely taken out of context.

Wacker quotes caddie Ted Scott:

"I 100 percent take responsibility for it. It's totally my fault. I got in the way of the painter on that one."

For his part, Watson defended Scott and said of the exchange they were simply trying to figure out what went wrong.

  "Did we do the yardage wrong, was it a gust of wind? We were just trying to figure out what was going on," Watson said.

"We planned to do one thing and it didn't do it. We mis-clubbed is all."

Watson went on to shoot his second straight 70 and finished in fourth alone. It was his second top 10 in a stroke play event on the PGA TOUR this season.

We also post typos on this blog from time to time, FYI.