Phil and Pelz Scout Oakland Hills; Still Pondering Several Possible Faulty Game Plans

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No mention in this AP story of the driver being benched, or a sixth wedge joining the team for the PGA. But they still have "a lot more work to do," which means there is still time.




"Last year there were at least six such DQs."

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In the July 25th Golf World, Ron Sirak pens "The View" titled "Defending the Rules" (not posted online). In it he notes this item related to the Michelle Wie scorecard signing incident:

In truth, the LPGA went out of its way to be fair. Tour officials did not find [out] about the Friday incident until after Wie teed off Saturday. After clarifying the rule with the USGA, the tour decided to let Wie finish her round uncluttered by the issue and then allow her to respond to the accusation. To her credit she verified the account.
To think this is some vendetta against Wie is simply wrong. According to the LPGA, her's was the fourth DQ this year for failing to sign, one of which occurred after the player in question had taken only a step outside the scoring area. Last year there were at least six such DQs.

I don't believe anyone sees this as an LPGA vendetta, do they? Seems more like LPGA incompetence or budget restrictions. Incompetence gets the nod here because, really, ten DQs in the last year or so?

In the interest of players, fans or sponsors, at what point do you (A) put an official in the scoring room (B) get local LPGA or PGA members to man the scoring tent or (C) put up an enormous sign on the back of the door saying, SIGN YOUR CARD, LADIES!

I contacted the PGA Tour to find out how many times a player was DQ'd for not signing their card in the last year.

Zero.

How many times this century?

Zero.

The last time that a PGA Tour player did not sign his card was 1997. 2005 (see JohnV's link below).

Norman Already Plotting To Undo Dawson's Turnberry Design Work!

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Seems the new owners of Turnberry may realize that their course needs fixing post-Peter Dawson's R&A branded redo in advance of the 2009 Open Championship.

John Huggan writes for Golfobserver.com:

Still, for Norman as for everyone else who has endured a sporting loss, life goes on. Only a couple of hours after completing his opening 75 at Troon, he was at Turnberry, scene of his first Open victory back in 1986. Accompanied by David Spencer, the chief executive of Leisurecorp, Norman toured the back-nine on the Ailsa course with a view to recommending changes that will be implemented immediately after the Open Championship returns to the famous links for a fourth time next year.
And...
While he was too diplomatic to say as much, one got the feeling that Norman was less than impressed with the work already done on the Ailsa’s closing three holes. Under the direction of the R&A’s chief executive, Peter Dawson, the 16th fairway has been moved 50 yards left of its previous location and new tees have been built at each of the last two holes. Brown had apparently wanted to leave the 17th alone and call it a par-4, but the man from St. Andrews would have none of it.
Then again, maybe Brown had a point. Although Dawson was understandably quick to hail the changes “a great success” in the immediate aftermath of the recent British Amateur Championship, it would perhaps have been more professional of the press pack in attendance to ask some of the players what they thought. Especially those unfortunate individuals who, unable to reach the fairway into an admittedly strong wind at the long 17th, took ten or more shots to eventually hole out.
Oops. So I'm not the only one thinking a few too many writers have R&A memberships in their eyes!
“The R&A have obviously recognized that some adjustments to the course are required if it is to stand up to the technology available to the players nowadays,” said Norman, ever the diplomat. “It’s interesting how, when you look at it from a player’s perspective, you see things differently than you might do on a plan. Some of what they have done I might have done a bit differently. But that is what my eye sees; I see it from a player’s perspective as well as an architect’s.”
Welcome to the backstabbing world of golf course architecture, Mr. Dawson.

"The AP did neither, it contends, but that's not the main thrust here."

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In last week's "message from headquarters," LPGA Commish Carolyn Bivens made a big fuss about the AP running a corrected story, when, as was pointed out here, there wasn't much to correct.

Seems, the AP did not correct the story, as Thomas Bonk writes in his LATimes.com column:

Four days later, in a two-page memo from Commissioner Carolyn Bivens to LPGA members (but leaked to news agencies all over the place), Bivens explains the incident, defends the rules official and says the Associated Press misquoted the official and ran a correction.
The AP did neither, it contends, but that's not the main thrust here. Why such a memo was necessary in the first place is an issue, but then so is a potentially greater after-effect, such as, why give the impression that you're picking on Wie again when the thing is already done?