Tiger Woods Design Is Back, Cabo Edition

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Eamon Lynch reports Tiger Woods Design is back in business! (Thanks reader Chris.)

The long rumored and denied second course at Cabo's Diamante is apparently under construction and will not be a Phil Mickelson design, but instead, a $12 million Tiger effort. Most interesting of all is that it began without a press release, golden shovel event, painfully staged photos and flashy video production. Someone has learned how this design business works!

Woods confirmed via email:

"I want to make it an enjoyable and memorable experience for all players, regardless of skill level," Woods wrote. "I've played in enough pro-ams to know that not every golfer is a scratch player. Creating wide landing areas and avoiding forced carries whenever possible allow all golfers, even beginners, to keep the ball in play and have more fun."

The team at Tiger Woods Design recently made a scouting trip to some courses in Southern California, including Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club. Woods, who is expected to return to the El Cardonal site in a few weeks, has said those classics will influence his work at Diamante.
"I want to be sure that my designs make individuals think their way around the course," Woods explained. "To me, that's an important part of golf and it's what I like to do when I play. I think players like risk-reward opportunities and to feel like they've been challenged in all aspects of the game."

Coore On Cabot Cliffs: "If we don’t build something outstanding, we will have failed."

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Speaking to the unique business and artistic relationship Coore and Crenshaw have to their shapers, Cabot Links architect Rod Whitman will be working on the second course, Cabot Cliffs, which the normally understated Coore has set a high bar for.

Matty G reports:

Coore and Whitman met in the mid-1970s, when the building of new courses had slowed as drastically as it has now; Coore was the superintendent of a course in Huntsville, Texas, and Whitman was a student at Sam Houston State University. Whitman would mow greens in exchange for green fees at Waterwood National and Coore helped the struggling student by buying him dinner at the local Pizza Hut. “We used to talk about how one day both of us would be in the design business,” says Coore, who has since become one of golf’s elite modern architects.

“I used to just want to play golf,” says Whitman. “It was after spending so much time talking to Bill that I got interested in course strategy and design.”

Now Coore and Whitman will be working together on what might be Coore and Crenshaw’s best yet. “I’ll put it this way, and it’s a little like I felt about Sand Hills: If we don’t build something outstanding, we will have failed,” says Coore, the white-haired, soft-spoken, humble minimalist who confirmed Crenshaw has agreed to be a part of this project, even though he doesn't usually like to travel for work outside of the United States.

"Tommy is such a good boy and for somebody to come from a small town like Bishopville, be a little unorthodox, never went to college and win on the PGA Tour? How hard do you think that is?"

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From Doug Ferguson's game story on the course-record-60-shooting Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey breathing life into the McGladrey Classic, which feels like a fall version of the Tavistock Cup only with much smaller galleries.

"Oh, man," Gainey said. "I tell you, you're out here on the PGA Tour. You're playing with the best players in the world. Ninety-nine percent of these guys have already won, and won majors, big tournaments. The only show I can say I've won is the `Big Break.' Now I can sit here and say I've won the McGladrey Classic here at Sea Island, and I'm very proud to be in this tournament and very proud to win. And wow, it's been a whirlwind day.

Tim Rosaforte does a nice job capturing the Gainey backstory beyond the Dexter Morgan two black glove look, including this from Tommy Sr.:

During the two-and-a-half-hour wait between when Gainey posted his 60 and Furyk, Tommy Sr. and Tommy Jr. talked on the phone. When Toms hit a drive, Tommy Jr. could hear Tommy Sr. rooting it into a fairway bunker.

"He said, 'Dad, you can't pull against these guys," Gainey Sr. said. "I said, 'Tommy, those three guys they have everything, they're Hall of Famers."

When it was over, Tommy Sr. headed back to his house in Bishopville so his wife, Judy, could punch the clock for the graveyard shift at the wood plant. He took early retirement when he was 57 but now, at 65, he does consulting work for A.O. Smith, the factory where Tommy Jr. worked as a teenager wrapping insulation around water heaters for $8.25 an hour.

The miniscule PGA Tour highlight package that would look so much better on YouTube:

Yao Ming Looks Great At Address...

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...and then there is his swing.

Thanks to Alan Shipnuck for Tweeting this golf.com photo gallery of Eugene Hoshiko's AP images from the World Celebrity Pro-Am at Mission Hills. Included are shots of Adrian Brody, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Phelps, Ronaldo, Andy Garcia and three shots of actress Minka Kelly.

Yao looks tremendous at address and so I went to YouTube to see if the rest of the seven-foot and then-some former Houston Rocket had a decent move.

I think you'll feel better about your wedge game.

"Going 'old school' will give you a whole new appreciation for the greatest game we know."

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Here's a nice Saturday morning read from John Kim at PGA.com who played hickories for the first tie as part of Ansley Golf Club's 100th anniversary celebration, with Stirling Hickory Golf providing the clubs.

And as a student of golf history, to play with those clubs was not only a great education in golf equipment and the advantages of today's technology - but it enhanced my appreciation of the skill and talent that the greats of yesterday possessed.  Nothing against Tiger, Rory or even Jack and Arnie - I don't see how they could put up the numbers that Bobby Jones and company could put up using the same set of equipment. 
 
At the end of the day, it was like any other golf outing. Food and drinks were enjoyed, stories were shared about putts that should have gone in and promises were made to get together again soon.  But every golfer walked away with a little more passion and love for the game. If you're looking for a different perspective and a great way to love golf even more - going "old school" will give you a whole new appreciation for the greatest game we know. 

Rory's Agent Has Not "Heard" Of Any Suggestion His Client Is Signing A 10-Year, $250 Million Deal With Nike

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Brian Keogh reports that ten-percenter Conor Ridge may want to sign up for some Google news alerts as the rumors of a massive deal for Rory McIlroy refuse to go away. And with Acushnet/Titleist known for showing fiscal prudence by not ponying up silly amounts of money to re-sign high profile players, a deal elsewhere seems likely at year's end.

Unless you are Rory's agent!

It’s no secret that McIlroy’s deal with Titleist expires at the end of this year. And while we’ve been assured by our sources that he’s going to Nike to the tune of $250 million over 10 years, we’re going to have to wait until he turns up in Abu Dhabi in January for confirmation that he will wear the famous swoosh from head to toe.

Horizon Sports Management’s Conor Ridge successfully negotiated a move from Titleist to Nike for McIlroy’s stablemate Ross Fisher this year. But he is duty bound to deny all knowledge of plans to make McIlroy a Nike player in 2013.

“I hadn’t even heard it, to be honest,” Ridge said this week when asked about the strong rumours linking his client to Nike. “Look, he’s a Titleist player and there is no way I am going to make any comment on anything like that.”

If Rory goes to notoriously anti-other-corporate logo Nike, that would mean he wouldn't be able to have the fourteen logos including the "what was I thinking" Jumeirah Estates doozy on the hat. He'll want to win 16 more majors just to never see himself in career highlight films sporting the Jumeirah lid.

Totally Unscientific Polls: Ban Anchoring Via Rules Of Golf

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With nearly 500 votes, 56% want to see the Rules of Golf rewritten to ban the anchoring of the putter. Bifurcation took 32% but if you were to lump on the 13% for some form of split between the everyday game and the professionals, that would get us up to 45% thinking some split between the two is called for.

Previously, nearly 1000 votes were cast with 69% casting in favor of a ban.

The numbers here, which Nate Silver would not find very scientific, back up what the USGA is suggesting they have heard from the public on this delicate topic.

It's been suggested both publicly and privately that there may be player lawsuits over this, but if the public support is so strong, do those players risk reputational harm or do they have a legitimate gripe?

Either way this should make for an interesting winter.

"The development of elite players is one of the major functions of this TOUR, and we're all excited about when the next Mike Weir will emerge."

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That's Commissioner Canuck Thursday talking about the PGA Tour saving the Canadian Tour from extinction and providing a feeder tour to the Web.com Tour.  Someone asked the Commish about money. Big no no!

Q.  I know that the PGA TOUR had lent both strategic and financial support this past year.  Can you elaborate on how much financial assistance was given to the Canadian Tour?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM:  It wasn't an extreme amount.  I don't see any reason to talk about that publicly.  We wanted to be of assistance, and we certainly wanted to make sure that every opportunity was available to look at the future here, both from the standpoint of what it wound up to be, but also from the standpoint of if it didn't go this direction, our assistance allowed other options maybe to come on the table.  It developed, and it is going to go this direction.  Now we're past all of that and moving forward.

Ian Hutchinson with the details from the Canadian perspective, including the loan amount, which turns out is nothing more than a low level PV VP salary.

The tour floated the struggling Canadian Tour an operating loan last year believed to be in the $750,000 range. Over the years, the Canadian Tour has faced limited fan support and rapidly changing sponsors.

“This is the logical next step for the tour’s sustainability and growth,” said Pierre Blouin, chairman of the Canadian Tour board of directors.