Finchem Hints At World Cup Format As Possible Olympic Sport

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If you've been busy with the holidays and unable to watch the ISPS Handa World Cup from Kingston Heath, you've missed out on some glorious golf architecture and pretty good golf. The stakes figure to get a lot more intersting Friday when the players go back to foursomes play. The event wraps up Saturday night at 5pm on Golf Channel as four-ball play decides the title.

Since the Zurich Classic received a very warm reception for its move to a two-man team format, the momentum seems to be headed toward team play in the Olympic Games.

Adam Pengilly of The Age reports on the first hopeful sign of progress, from that progressive Commissioner his ownself, Tim Finchem.

"The feedback is very positive [on team-based formats]," the PGA Tour's Commissioner said. "We're looking at the formats for 2020 and we like individual competition, but we'd also like to mix in a different competition or two and we're looking at different possibilities.

"We might end up saying, 'we'll keep it the way it is', we might recommend a couple of changes on certain days where we do a different type of competition. And it also affects scheduling so we're looking how that all works."

So we know individual competition is staying because this game of individualists is addicted to 72-holes of stroke play. (Even though until the last days, golf came off as a painful slog in the context of the higher, faster, stronger Games).

But we know two-person team match play would be superb. Two days, at least, are needed for that.

So if you factor in individual stroke play, we're up to at least six competition days. With the PGA Tour showing no interest in ceasing play for two weeks every four years, the pressure to keep things as tight as possible could actually be used to Olympic golf's advantage.

Because right now, by adding team competition of some kind, we're looking at 12 days of competition between men and women. That may be too much for officials, fans and volunteers.

There is a final key caveat as explained to me by IGF officials who will create and present any changes: the IOC does not want to see two medal competitions in one.

Translation: a team medal cannot be awarded from the stroke play competition.

So here is my final offer:

72-holes of stroke play from a field of 60. Three medals will be awarded just like we saw in 2016. If you want to shorten the competition days to ten overall between men and women, make the first day a 36-hole first and second round. (Rio could not handle that due to shorter winter days, whereas Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles will all have plenty of daylight.)

From that competition, the low eight two-person teams (based on country with pairings pre-determined by world rankings), advance to a two-day match play event. They are broken up into Pools A and B based on seedings from the stroke play competition. (Countries that only send one player or an odd number of three will not be included, sorry.)

Day one of the two-person team match play is a 27-hole day, with three 9-hole foursomes matches played by each team within their pool. With nine-holes and foursomes, you may be looking at some very quick matches, addressing the speed issue that plagues the game.

The two top teams advance from those pools to an 18-hole gold medal match, with the runners-up playing an an 18-hole bronze medal match. How ties in the pools are decided, I'm not sure. But sudden death playoffs would be fun.

So to recap: five or six days of competition, with stroke play while team foursomes match play introduces a shorter, faster, high-pressure format. Both nine-hole rounds and alternate shot are put on an international stage for the world to see golf is not the slog it can sometimes be.

What do you think?

Jon Rahm: Europe's Next Ryder Cup...Headache?

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The membership question for Europe's next Ryder Cup captain and European Tour chief Keith Pelley may include Spain's Jon Rahm, a burgeoning talent who is saying all the right things. But he has made clear he will devote himself the PGA Tour while trying to get his career established.

That means an unlikely European Tour membership, putting him in the same class as Europeans like Paul Casey and Russell Knox, writes John Huggan from the World Cup in Melbourne.

“I’ve thought about the Ryder Cup a lot,” he said, after the Spanish pair combined for an opening foursomes round of 69, three under par and one shot ahead of the United States, France and China. “I so want to play in the matches; who doesn’t? But right now I need to establish myself on the PGA Tour. Hopefully, I will do that and make it into the top 50 in the world. Once I do that, I will be able to play in the eight tournaments that count towards the PGA Tour and the European Tour -- the majors and the WGCs. That is the ideal scenario."

R.I.P. Peggy Kirk Bell

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Laura Douglass and David Sinclair of The Pilot pen a nice remembrance of a true golf pioneer, who passed away at 95 Wednesday night in Southern Pines.

Great lede:

Bing Crosby serenaded her in the Pine Needles bar. Perry Como played her course. Jimmy Carter stayed at the lodge during the National Governors’ Convention. Rudy Vallee was a guest and she played with Jackie Gleason, Michael Jordan and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

This characterization from Jim Dodson is superb:

Jim Dodson, editor of PineStraw Magazine and one of the foremost writers on golf in America, called Mrs. Bell the female Arnold Palmer for her impact both as a competitor and teacher. She was at the vanguard of women’s golf whose career predated the LPGA. Together with her husband Warren, the Bells bought the Donald Ross-designed Pine Needles Resort and Golf Course. Together they raised a family amid its lush-green grounds and comfortable familiar environs that today still draws thousands of golfers each year, including hundreds of women who regularly attend the “Golfaris” that Bell started and continued to participate in up until a couple years ago.

Andrew Barksdale in the Observer talks to her son Kirk also noted her role in Southern Pines' development as a golf community.

David McNeill, the 62-year-old mayor of Southern Pines where Mrs. Bell called home, said she was a resident celebrity who elevated the game of golf for many people.

"She would light up a room when she walked in," Mr. McNeill said, "and in short time would be seen giving a golf tip."

"She solidified Southern Pines as a golfing destination," Mr. McNeill said. "Golfers from around the world return each year to Pine Needles and Mid Pines, because Ms. Bell treated everyone like royalty and made golf fun."

Mr. McNeill said his town hosted the U.S. Women's Open three times in an 11-year span, thanks to Mrs. Bell's leadership.

The Golf Club Atlas reviews of Mid-Pines and Pine Needles serve as nice tributes to Mrs. Bell's lasting place in the game.

 

Getting In The Mood For Kingston Heath, 2016 World Cup

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Nothing evokes Thanksgiving memories like Kingston Heath, which returns to the tournament golf spotlight for the first time since the now infamous 2009 Austalian Masters. Even better, the return comes with the historic World Cup of Golf sporting a fun format featuring two rounds of four-ball and two rounds of foursomes.

John Huggan shares a few fun facts from the history of an event that was once more prominent.

The field has some very intriguing teams.

But it's Kingston Heath, the glorious sandbelt masterpiece, which is the star of proceedings starting Wednesday evening in the United States (Golf Channel 8 pm ET). Steve Keipert shares the views of many who believe this is Australia's best course.

What do I love about it? As much as any course on the planet, it checks off all the boxes: memorable, walkable, beautiful, bizarre at times and looks like no other course in the world. Many of its many subtleties probably don't translate well to television, but as these visual show, the bunkering most certainly does:

7th Hole @worldcupgolf (6th) @kingston_heath #sandbelt @visit_melbourne_victoria 393m Par 4

A video posted by Kingston Heath Golf Club (@kingston_heath) on Nov 1, 2016 at 11:05pm PDT

10th Hole @worldcupgolf (9th) @kingston_heath 330m Par 4 #sandbelt @visitmelbourne

A video posted by Kingston Heath Golf Club (@kingston_heath) on Oct 31, 2016 at 5:19pm PDT

15th green @kingston_heath 142m Par 3 @worldcupgolf 24-27 November #melbournesandbelt #sandbeltgolf @visitmelbourne @pgatour

A photo posted by Kingston Heath Golf Club (@kingston_heath) on Oct 21, 2016 at 8:09pm PDT

@kingston_heath 1934 & 2016 thanks to our course architect @cockingmike . Host of 2016 @worldcupgolf @melbournesandbelt 24-27 November

A photo posted by Kingston Heath Golf Club (@kingston_heath) on Nov 9, 2016 at 2:28am PST

Here is a nice promo video from the club website:

Kingston Heath Promo from Collier Creative on Vimeo.

 

They're Back! Trump Can't Let Go Of Scottish Wind Farm Views

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It was last December that Donald Trump, then just a presidential candidate, lost his court battle to stop unsightly wind farms from being erected off the coast of Trump International in Aberdeen.

The loss prompted a real, live manspat between Trump and his one-time good buddy, former first minister Alex Salmond.

But the Trump Organisation hit back at Salmond in a pointed and characteristically colourful statement: “Does anyone care what this man thinks? He’s a hasbeen and totally irrelevant. The fact that he doesn’t even know what’s going on in his own constituency says it all ... He should go back to doing what he does best: unveiling pompous portraits of himself that pander to his already overinflated ego.”

Fast forward almost a year and president-elect Trump is holding meetings with a wide range of possible cabinet members and world leaders at Trump Tower. Including a meeting where he just couldn't pass up multiple chances to bend the ear of a British politician about...the wind farms. Caroline Wheeler reports for The Express.

Andy Whigmore, who was present at the meeting with Mr Trump, said: “We covered a lot of ground during the hour-long meeting we had.

“But one thing Mr Trump kept returning to was the issue of wind farms. He is a complete Anglophile and also absolutely adores Scotland which he thinks is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But he is dismayed that his beloved Scotland has become over-run with ugly wind farms which he believes are a blight on the stunning landscape.”

EU’s communication’s chief added: “It is clear that it is an issue he is very passionate about and not because he is against renewable energy or green technology but because he genuinely thinks wind farms are damaging Scotland’s bountiful natural beauty.”

At issue should be the proximity of the farms to the coasts, as Trump is correct in lamenting their placement.  Check out this depiction, accompanying this Herald story. I'm not sure about the 1 mile from the coast claim (11-12 is the number I recall, but correct me if I'm wrong please).

Either way, as Danny Hakim and Eric Lipton of the New York Times note, the greater issue involves using his president-elect status to possibly improve business conditions for the Trump Organization.

Mr. Trump and his family’s blending of business and political interests and appearances have received increasing scrutiny during the transition. Since the election, he has met with Indian business partners and his new Washington hotel has become a destination for diplomats. His daughter Ivanka, an executive in the Trump Organization, sat in on a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, and her jewelry company promoted a $10,800 bracelet she wore during a postelection appearance with her father on “60 Minutes.”

Separately, one of Argentina’s most influential television programs reported on Sunday that during a congratulations call from President Mauricio Macri of Argentina after the election, Mr. Trump asked for Mr. Macri’s support for a project to build an office tower in Buenos Aires.

President-elect Trump responded to the news on Twitter.

Slow Play Files: McGladrey Monday Playoff Edition

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Because 2016 apparently never wants to end, the last fall PGA Tour event will continue a sudden death playoff on Monday morning after failing to finish Sunday night. While two holes of sudden death were played and frankly, based on the number of mentions by all about the darkness, the second hole probably should not have been played.

Most telling was Rich Lerner's mention from the booth that the final round threesomes took five hours on what appeared to be an almost wind-free, crisp fall day at St. Simons Island.

If the Golden Bear had been watching, and he almost surely wasn't, but Jack Nicklaus would have heard that number and said, I just talked at the PGA annual meeting about 5 hours as the death knell for our sport.

Yet on Sunday there was Tim Finchem's vision at its most glaringly tired: players seemingly in slow motion, lacking any fear of penalty, taking their sweet time even as the sun was setting. But all was well because hats came off and hands were shaken to reaffirm that this was a (slow) genteman's game. While this provides a the visual that stirs the souls of Finchem's favorite corporate chieftains, it doesn't move a single sports needle and scenes like this reaffirm that golf is for only those with enough free time to return on a Monday morning.

So the RSM Classic wraps up a day late, minus Billy Horschel, who served up a short putt miss he refused to attribute to the dark playing conditions.

Sean Martin at PGATour.com with this from one of the four still in the playoff:

Hughes considered halting play instead of hitting his 11-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. Norlander said he couldn’t see the hole once his caddie removed the flagstick. Play will resume at 8 a.m. Monday on the par-3 17th hole. They’ll return to the 18th again if the playoff continues."

“People don't know how dark it is right now,” Villegas said. “It's going to be nice and cold in the morning. We'll be back and try to take another trophy home.”

Here is the Horschel miss, for those who were watching something else (most of you)...