"Seeking ace Editor with go-to attitude"

Thanks to the reader who spotted this USGA want ad:

Company:  United States Golf Association
Position:    Seeking ace Editor with go-to attitude
Location:    Far Hills, New Jersey
Job Status:   Full-time
Salary:  More than $100,000
Ad Expires:  August 4, 2008
Job ID:   945089

Description:

Position Summary: Responsible for overseeing all aspects of publishing, editorial, design and production for the department.

Principal Duties: - Prepares editorial and production schedules and ensures that the flow of material proceeds as scheduled.

- Oversees writing, rewriting and editing of text and coordination of photography and illustrations and ensures desired level of quality is maintained.

- Oversees development of ideas and in planning of long-range content of projects.

- Proofreads, copy-edits.

- Editing responsibilities to include collaboration with New Media department as well as Media Relations. - Functions as reporter to cover internal activities including championships and other events and writes features.

That means you better be ready to get your nose browned!

- Prepares budget and oversees financial requirements.

- Supervise vendor in all production areas.

Working Relationships: - Other Communications Staff including New Media, Media Relations. - Contributing writers - Appropriate USGA staff members concerning information to be published/communicated - USGA Communications Committee

Knowledge, Education, Skills & Abilities: - Comprehensive knowledge of the game of golf, especially as it relates to USGA activities and mission. - Editorial project management. - Writing, editiing, proofreading & copy editing skills; understanding of photography. - Knowledge of production processes - Proficient computer skills which may include Photoshop, Quark, InCopy, InDesign, DxO Optics Pro and experience in the on-line environment.

TO APPLY: Please email letter of interest/cover letter and resume to HR@usga.org.

"I decided to make the U.S. Open my last event, whether I made the cut or not"

Tiger Woods teleconferenced with the scribes to kick off the AT&T National and filled in a few gaps in the injury timeline. 

For press summaries, you have plenty of options: Melanie Hauser (here), Larry Dorman (here), Bob Harig (here) and Steve Elling (here).

"I rationalized this by thinking of drug testing like testing a driver."

Bob Harig talks to several of the PGA Tour's finest about drug testing and it's wonderful to see how little has changed. They police themselves, the only positive test will be an "accidental positive" and it's really going to stink that they can't use Vick's Vapor Rub anymore.

The Commish of course, is all over the map:

"My position hasn't changed. We have to work hard through that. The idea of testing doesn't change the culture of responsibility of players knowing the rules, playing by the rules, calling violations on yourself. I rationalized this by thinking of drug testing like testing a driver. You're testing it because somebody put it in a player's hands. Drug testing, you are testing a player because maybe they put something in their body. In both cases, I don't expect or anticipate situations where players intentionally violated.

"If that were to happen, it's a bad situation. But we're worried about it happening by mistake. We're not presuming guilt here. If we look at it that way, I think we can maintain the culture of the sport."
Here's the we-can't-catch-colds-anymore stuff...

"I think the first time somebody tests positive for something, it'll be something like Vick's cough syrup," said Brandt Snedeker, who as a college golfer at Vanderbilt was subject to random drug testing by the NCAA. "We've all turned into label readers in the last few months. Guys take supplements, and there are certain things you can't have."

"The only thing that irks me a little bit," said tour player J.J. Henry, "is I had a cold three weeks ago and I had to go look through this little book and was wondering if I could take this cough suppressant or if I can't. There are things like that you can't take. I guess we'll get adjusted. It's sort of like taking your shoes off now when you go through security at the airport. Unfortunately, you just have to do things.

"I'd like to think our sport is clean, and I'd like to think as golfers we appreciate the integrity of our sport. I'm not worried about it, but there is a little gray area that we are going to have to deal with."

Yada, yada, yada. 

"It's been so bad at Golf Channel that instead of providing live coverage of the Fall Series, the network ran an endless loop of Woods's 2006 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

For my money (which isn't much), Alan Shipnuck should win the GWAA Award For Best Non-Daily What-Will-Golf-Do-Without-Tiger Column division. From last week's SI Scorecard:

He is said to have added 17 pounds of muscle, most of it in his left leg. Gone will be the trademark swoosh on his cap, replaced with mayo clinic, which took advantage of golf fans' newfound interest in medical issues and became his newest big-ticket sponsor. Woods will also unveil a reconstructed swing designed to reduce the torque on his left knee: After carefully studying a sequence of photos of Charles Barkley taken at 1999's American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, Woods has incorporated a pronounced hitch in his downswing.

It is a testament to his tremendous athletic ability that he is still able to drive the ball up to 210 yards. To chronicle the return of the world No. 1 — yes, Woods had piled up enough points to retain his lofty perch while idled — ESPN and CBS are planning wall-to-wall coverage.

(A tiny camera has been embedded within Woods's knee, so viewers can gauge how well his surgically repaired ACL holds up during the Masters.)

Television executives are giddy about Woods's return, since ratings have plunged 93% without him. It's been so bad at Golf Channel that instead of providing live coverage of the Fall Series, the network ran an endless loop of Woods's 2006 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Annika's Grand Finish

It's 8:37 PM PST and no YouTube posting yet of Annika's final shot in U.S. Open play (until she's back in three years). So until then, we at least have Rob Matre's shot along with other images from Sunday of the all time great.

“It was a bet for the city of San Diego, because the city didn't have the money to put up for this bet"

While I enjoyed Brent Schrotenboer and Eleanor Yang Su's look at the complex relationship between The Friends of Torrey Pines and the city of San Diego that left the city out of profiting from the U.S. Open, it was hard not to wonder why this question wasn't raised before the Open.

And while I'm happy for Jay Rains and the "Friends" who pulled off a stunning success in the face of many hurdles, it was always quite clear that appearance of conflict was there. Only now that the Open was a huge success do the city advocates want a piece of the pie. I say, too late!

Anyway, the key numbers, which would seem to back up the Sports Business Journal estimate of a $50 million profit, which David Fay refuted last week. 

The USGA projected in November that it would generate about $58.3 million in revenues from the 2008 Open, according to a city permit application filed by the association. That includes ticket sales, hospitality, concessions and merchandise. Television rights are not included. Sports Business Journal recently approximated those at $40 million and suggested total revenue might approach $100 million.

The USGA estimated its expenses at $51.5 million.

To sum up the projected revenues:

 For the USGA, at least $58.3 million, plus TV deals.

 For the Friends, $5.37 million from rent and hospitality shares, interest and a $950,000 reimbursement from the city for some of the course renovations.

 For the city, about $500,000 in rent from the Friends, plus cost recovery up to $350,000 and another $350,000 for other golf course work.

The city also derived other benefits, many of them hard to quantify, such as five days of national television exposure. Additionally, the Friends said they would give the city $300,000 to $500,000 to improve the irrigation system at its golf course in Balboa Park.

"Is it really necessary to do anything at this point? Just asking."

The WSJ's Tim Carroll profiles Dick Rugge and the USGA equipment testing, writing:

But for all the hand-wringing over all the booming tee shots on the Tour these days, the distance wars are actually waning. In the past couple of decades, the USGA has introduced limits on the lengths of club shafts (48 inches) and the size and volume of clubheads (no more than 5 inches square and 460 cubic centimeters), as well as the overall distance that a tested ball can fly (320 yards). At the time those rules came into effect, some of these parameters seemed generous, and there was room for equipment manufacturers to exploit them to make the ball go farther. But it's getting much harder to eke out more distance from a ball and club and stay within the rules.

At the same time, a number of Tour players are gaining a greater appreciation for the value of the control game and are beginning to emphasize finesse over distance. The Tour pro who most consistently hit the farthest off the tee last year, Bubba Watson, averaged 315.2 yards, but that was down from 319.6 yards in 2006. It was the first year-over-year decline in distance in a long time.

Carroll's piece serves as a nice table setter for E. Michael Johnson's questions in this week's Golf World about the need for a groove rule change.

The USGA points out that nearly half the shots hit from the rough find the green, and that's true (it's currently 48.64 percent). But what it doesn't say is that number rises to 74.68 percent from the fairway. In other words, over 14 holes (throw out the typical four par 3s), if a player hits it in the rough every hole he would hit seven greens on average. If he hits it in the fairway every hole he would hit 10.5.

Accuracy, in fact, is key to how players such as Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk compete for titles. From the fairway Mahan makes birdie 21.28 percent of the time. From the rough it's 9.60 percent. Furyk goes under par 21.10 percent from the fairway and just 9.82 percent from the rough. The correlation between accuracy and success is zero? Perhaps for some of the bombers, but not for everyone.

Distance is not increasing. Playing from the rough is appreciably more difficult than playing from the fairway. Is it really necessary to do anything at this point? Just asking.

I used to believe Johnson's point made above was largely correct, but at this point a change in the groove rule would do two things (in theory): restore the importance of firmness and return the flier lie to its rightful place in the game. And (in theory) this would make deep hay lining fairways something we see less often in tournament golf, replaced by flier lie rough. That would be a great thing for the game, even if it means changing equipment.

Oh, and it establishes the precedent of a major equipment "rollback."

"This much-ballyhooed addition to the Home of Golf's portfolio is ultimately disappointing."

John Huggan pens the second Castle Course at St. Andrews review and it's not pretty...

Quite apart from the air of mystery surrounding the final resting places of so many tee-shots, the most striking aspect of this picturesque layout high above the Auld Grey Toon becomes apparent once the golfer is lucky enough to have found his ball after driving into seeming oblivion. The architect, David McLay Kidd, calls them 'spill-offs'; my four-ball came up with a few other names – some of them printable – for the peculiar rough-covered mounds we discovered dotted indiscriminately about the fairways.

'Hairy mound' was the first, albeit rather prosaic offering. I myself favoured 'clumpy hillock'. Then there was 'Abe Lincoln chins'. But the most imaginative member of the group came up with 'enormous hoof-prints left by enormous horses'.

Whatever, these mysterious affectations – for they appear to have no immediately discernible architectural or strategic purpose – are intensely irritating. While golf, as someone once said, is a game never meant to be fair, searching for one's ball after striping one up the middle very quickly gets old. The always-tricky-to-locate line between luck and skill has been crossed here and crossed too often.

"When the men of the Phoenix Country Club saw their feeding ways in peril..."

Jennifer Steinhauer in the New York Times profiles Phoenix Country Club and it's exclusionary men's grill.  I feel like I've read this story before...oh and thanks to reader Steven T. for this bit of deja vu all over again:

When the men of the Phoenix Country Club saw their feeding ways in peril, they did not tarry. Some sent nasty e-mail messages, hectored players on the fairway and, for good measure, urinated on a fellow club member’s pecan tree.

And I suppose why this is getting the time of day...

But here in Arizona, where the governor, secretary of state, chief justice and Senate minority leader are women, it has rankled more than a few women that nonmember men have more rights than paying female members at the Phoenix Country Club, a century-old fixture in the city’s social and business life where it costs tens of thousands of dollars a year to belong.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, is not a member of the club, but Dennis Burke, her chief of staff, is. Mr. Burke has publicly opposed the separated dining rooms, and in an interview called them “indefensible.” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, does not belong to the club but has spoken there. (The McCain presidential campaign declined to comment on the separate dining rooms.) According to a 2007 club directory, Mr. McCain’s son, Andrew, is a member, along with scores of other notable Phoenix residents, including the rocker Alice Cooper.

Women at the club are not permitted to have lunch in the men’s grill room with their husbands after a round of golf; they have been barred from trophy ceremonies after tournaments, even ones they have sponsored, and may not participate in one of the most sacred rituals of the men’s grill room — sealing a deal over a beer with a client.

"I thought I was done playing golf forever"

Steve Elling has the amazing Stacy Lewis story, which you might want to read if you are going to watch the final round of the U.S. Women's Open. Just don't read it over breakfast if medical details aren't your thing...

"I should be looking nice for the media.”

Craig Dolch (here) and Steve Elling (here) celebrate new media (that's lower case, as opposed to...) darling Minea Blomqvist who is currently tied for second place in the U.S. Women's Open.

Elling:

 Have you driven a fjord lately? Putted on tundra bentgrass? Blomqvist has. For whatever reason, the Finnish development in the game has lagged behind the other Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden, which has produced two different U.S. Women's Open winners, while another Swede, veteran Helen Alfredsson, is among the leaders this week.

Blomqvist offered a theory on that front.

"I always tell a story about why the Swedes are so good in golf," she said, laughing. "Because in golf, you need an empty mind, and there's nothing going on in their heads, so that's why they play good."

 And...

That Blomqvist is among the leaders comes as a middling surprise, since she has never won an LPGA event and hasn't finished better than third this year. She wasn't expecting such scrutiny, either.

"I'm upset because I didn't put my makeup on today," she cracked as a phalanx of TV cameras zoomed tight. "I didn't think I was going to play that well. I should be looking nice for the media."

Her entire interview can be viewed here.

"What she missed while looking at her toes..."

Ron Sirak takes an interesting look at Michelle Wie's first round 9 and ESPN.com dresses it up with video.

Wie made a series of mistakes on No. 9, the first being that she elected to hit driver off the elevated tee instead of 3-wood. Wie has struggled with the driver for nearly two years now -- missing shots low and left as well as high and right -- and she blocked this one into the right rough.

She compounded the mistake off the tee by being too aggressive with her second shot, trying to advance it too close to the green instead of opting to pitch out sideways. The second shot ran through the fairway and into the rough at the base of the steep hill leading up to the ninth green.

Playing from the rough, she hit a shot that came out low, skidded across the green and ended up in the rough about two yards over the green. That's not a good place to be. It's virtually impossible to keep the ball on the green from there, without some luck or trickiness.

Trying to barely nudge the ball onto the fringe, Wie moved it only about 30 inches and left it still in the rough right on the edge of the fringe, now laying 4. At this point it was Julieta Granada's turn to play from the rough also behind the green. It was also at this point that Wie's brain shut down and she stared at her feet waiting for her turn to hit again.

What she missed while looking at her toes was that Granada played her shot sideways and it trickled down onto the safe shelf. Wie then took her putter and played her fifth shot straight down the sliding board, across the shelf and off the false front.

Her first chip from below the false front was not hit hard enough and rolled back to her feet. Her second pitch ended five feet from the hole, from where she two-putted for a 9.

"There's so many different strategies."

I missed Annika's round today in the U.S. Women's Open but caught her post round interview where she explained an apparently not-so-hot decision to use driver on No. 17 despite a tee being moved up. After the round, look what she had to say about the setup of Interlachen:

It's just, it's very, very fair, but you have to hit the ball well and there are a lot of tees out there where it's, there's so many different strategies. I mean, I've hit 4-irons off the tee, I hit 5-irons, I hit 5-woods, 4-wood, driver. I mean that's five different clubs off the tee other than par-3s. I can't think of any other golf course like that. And it's just strategy and it's just there's not a right way to play it, it's just depending how feel and how you want to approach the greens and with which clubs.

"Weeds grow at Greg Norman golf course"

I think this Bakersfield Californian headline and story was trying to nicely say that McAllister Ranch has been let go maintenance wise due to the housing crisis, not because of poor grassing choices!

Golf In The Kingdom Trailer

Clocking in at 10 minutes, this looks more like an informercial for Bandon Dunes than anything else.