You Go! Creamer, Davis Monday Qualify For Women's British

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Longtime readers know I have a soft spot for grizzled vets who enter qualifyings and an even softer spot for the ones who don't WD.

So it was great to see 53-year-old Laura Davies keeping her 37-straight Open Championship streak alive and Paula Creamer making it through for this week's Ricoh Women's British Open, reports GolfChannel.com's Randall Mell.

Creamer even liked the Castle Course where qualifying was played just down the street from Open host Kingsbarns.

After tying for 13th Sunday at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open, Creamer drove almost three hours to the Castle Course to cram some homework in before her early Monday morning round.

“It was a beautiful golf course,” Creamer said. “My caddie and I worked really hard, because it was the first time I had ever seen it. I teed off at 7:22, so I couldn’t do much preparation. After I played yesterday, I came out and hit some putts and walked the last three or four holes. It’s an awesome little gem.”

The Women's British Open is getting extensive Golf Channel coverage, 28 hours to be specific, with Rich Lerner and Judy Rankin hosting the proceedings.

Roundup: Rory Sacks J.P. Fitzgerald, Turning To Best Mate As Next Bagman?

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Reuters' Andrew Both broke the news that Rory McIlroy was dumping his longtime luggage handler and sidekick of nine years, J.P. Fitzgerald.

As Derek Lawrenson notes in the Daily Mail, the sacking comes "just 11 days after crediting Fitzgerald with transforming his fortunes at The Open."

Coming on the eve of the WGC Bridgestone and a PGA Championship at a course where McIlroy won two Wells Fargo Championships with Fitzgerald, the news is surprising. Add in a year where McIlroy switched clubs mid-season to help finalize Taylor Made's sale, the timing is even more amazin

Oh, and let's not forget that Fitzgerald was credited with a pep talk that ignited a strong finish at The Open by...Rory McIlroy.  

James Corrigan in the Telegraph says the switch may have been prompted by a tenth hole strategic blunder at Birkdale, though of all the holes in golf to blame a caddie for mishandling, that would not have made my list.

However, two days later, McIlroy’s charge for a second Claret Jug was derailed when he took a double bogey on the 10th, courtesy of the wrong club selection off the tee. Again, the spotlight picked out Fitzgerald.

In the caddyshack, the development was not greeted with too much surprise. And do not expect an overload of sympathy either, and not just because Fitzgerald is estimated to have earned more than £8m in his employment with McIlroy.

“It was coming,” one caddie told Telegraph Sport. Fitzgerald’s meticulousness has been called into question by his peers, some of who believe the mistake at Birkdale was merely the latest error.

The British press has long blamed Fitzgerald for McIlroy's strategic blunders. But going off of McIlroy's handling of his equipment deals this year, especially the recent putter demo day debacle, it's hard to see how the caddie is to blame for bad decision-making when the client is very much his own captain.

According to Corrigan, McIlroy appears set on turning to wedding best man and entourage chairman and three-time winner of the best pen name award, Harry Diamond.

Diamond could even prove the permanent solution. A childhood friend who grew up in the same Belfast suburb of Holywood, Diamond is a fine player in his own right, having played with McIlroy in the Ulster youth team and going on to represent the Irish senior team.

And he has caddied for McIlroy before. When the then 16-year-old prodigy was invited to play in the Irish Open in 2005, it was Diamond who was on his bag. The pair are extremely close, with Diamond reportedly acting as best man at McIlroy’s wedding to Erica Stoll in April.

Brian Keogh at the Irish Golf Desk talks to Paul McGinley. The former Ryder Cup captain used to employ Fitzgerald and was surprised. Among his interesting comments:

“I don’t want to be critical of him and I haven’t spoken to him but going into the last major of the year, I’d agree that it’s surprising timing.

“I'm surprised that he’s made that decision going to a golf course where he has won twice with JP on the bag.

“Who knows what the reasons were.”

Olympic Golf Is Coming To The USA In 2028, Maybe?

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LA2024 reached an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to host the 2028 Olympic Games. Paris will host in 2024.

The bid committee's designated venue is Riviera Country Club, though golf is not guaranteed a spot in 2028 as of now. Last month, the IOC unexpectedly gave the sport its blessing through 2024.

The format going forward also remains unsettled and probably key to the sport's survival in Games that are rapidly moving toward shorter, tighter, edgier formats.

Furthermore, taking the Games to an ultra-private club with a mid-six-digit membership entry fee (if not more by 2028) will not be the best look for the game.

The 2028 message...

 

Eleven Million Wedges Later, Vokey Enters Canada's HOF

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Nice tribute from Rick Young on wedge designer Bob Vokey, who entered Canada's golf hall of fame this week in the "builder" category.

He writes this with a great supporting quote from Acushnet's Wally Uihlein on the key players behind the wedge as we know it.

Eleven million Titleist Vokey designed wedges (and counting) after the very first went into the bag of PGA Tour player Andy Bean in Memphis in 1997, Uihlein believes Vokey’s place in the game’s equipment history is cemented. That point was reinforced by a short history lesson on the wedge category the Acushnet CEO indulged me with.

“This is Bob’s peer group,” he said leaning forward. “He deserves to be mentioned with Edward MacLean, who really had the first-ever patent on a wedge, with Gene Sarazen who took his inspiration for the sand wedge from MacLean, with Ben Hogan and the Sure Out, Sure On, which was the first wedge system with Hogan being the first to say, hey, the club off the fairway needs to be different than the club around the greens. From there, all due credit to Roger Cleveland. He was first to really put his toe in the water and say, I’m a wedge guy, in a full-on commercial sense. Finally you have to give credit to Karsten (Solheim) because he made the high-lofted wedge aesthetically pleasing and functional at the same time. Then there is Voke.

Another Bunker Liner Ruling: Hoffman Gets Out Of Plugged Lie

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Here's the situation: final round, 2017 RBC Canadian Open, Charley Hoffman hits into a greenside bunker at the 12th and has a badly buried lie:


Credit Hoffman and caddie for recognizing the renovated Glen Abbey bunkers for having newly installed bunker floor lining that prevented him from digging enough to take a stance on his bunker shot. (You can see a demo at the 1:30 mark of how it is sprayed in). And even cred it them for asking to get a ruling even after Hoffman can be heard saying multiple times he did not believe there was any kind of artificial lining causing an issue (his caddie wasn't so sure and convinced him to get a second opinion). CBS's Peter Kostis said exactly the opposite: Hoffman was calling for a ruling because he could feel the liner. Maybe he had a producer yelling in his ear during the conversation, but it was still misleading.

Official Gary Young arrived and seemed very reluctant to give Hoffman relief, but the player soon could smell an opening, ultimately convincing Young that he could not take his stance because of the concrete lining.

"That's so generous!" barked out playing partner Kevin Chappell, somewhat sarcastically. Young replied that it was consistent with other rulings related to the new age bunker liners designed to keep sand on faces and from being contaminated. Chappell then lightly pointed out Hoffman's smile upon getting relief:

 

 

One other comment from Chappell, again with a light touch, prompted a one-word response and smile from Hoffman as he went about his business: "Rules."

Given the behind-the-scenes grumbling still taking place over Branden Grace's BMW PGA relief from a buried lie while citing bunker lining as a stance preventative, it's hard to see how Hoffman's will be any better received by his peers (note the sampling of fan outrage below).

However, it should be noted that Hoffman was initially skeptical about even suggesting he deserved a drop from the lie. He went on to lose the Canadian Open in a playoff to Jhonattan Vegas.

The situation seems worse than it might appear given that the PGA Tour, which has signaled a desire to be in the news delivery business via the web and television, scrubbed videos of the drop after briefly posting them to official Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Here is the PGA Tour Facebook post of the ruling, deleted (thanks reader Jeremy S).

And the Tweet captured by reader MS:

The reaction below sums up the social media reaction, which offers another reminder that it's very hard to bend the rules and not go unnoticed in the age of social media:

What do we learn from this?

A) Bunker liners are going to be an ongoing problem. A product meant to keep sand from becoming contaminated and to keep sand on bunker faces is now being used to subvert the game's original rule: play it as it lies.

B) Players are increasingly unafraid to stretch the boundaries of the rules to gain an advantage.

C) Instead of embracing this as a learning situation, the PGA Tour scrubbed their accounts of the evidence, which will only make Hoffman's peers and their caddies wonder what needed hiding. Even though Hoffman was initially skeptical that the situation warranted a ruling, much less a drop, the lack of transparency will raise suspicions about what went down.

"Matt Kuchar comes to grips with coming up short"

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As the 146th Open moves to our rear view mirror, I'm still thinking about the incredible play of Matt Kuchar. Having watched him more than any player during the week, I was struck by his consistency, touch and shrewd handling of Royal Birkdale. He deserved to win. And nothing against his signature wins at The Players and Memorial or his Olympic medal in Rio, but this was the tournament of his life.

Tim Rosaforte at Golf World does a nice job summing up where this leaves Kuchar at this point in his career and in the coming years.

Rather than sulk about his near miss, Kuchar did what he always does. He moved on, honoring his commitment to play in this week’s tour stop at Glen Abbey (he is sponsored by RBC). He shot an opening-round 71 on Thursday, though afterward, he said he felt dizzy during the day, even seeking medical help during the round. Unclear what caused the faintness, Kuchar was optimistic it was just temporary. He could have easily withdrawn from the tournament given the circumstances, but instead he followed it with a Friday 68, an impressive round in which he played the last six holes in five under, with an eagle and three closing birdies to make the cut.

There will be more big events in the coming weeks, the PGA Championship on the horizon and the FedEx Cup playoffs again looming. Friends and family have reminded Kuchar there are plenty of positives to take from Birkdale. So it is that he is trying to look at it the way Superman would, the way a bronze medalist would.

“There are such great lessons that come from golf,” he conceded. “You know, this was one of them.”

Canadian Open Tournament Director Doesn't Make The Weekend

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Profiled by the Curtis Rush in New York Times earlier this week as a "tattooed, leather-clad, Harley Davidson-driving, guitar-picking former roadie", RBC Canadian Open tournament director Brent McLaughlin was "temporarily removed" from his job mid-tournament, reports Bob Weeks.

“It’s a confidential employee matter,” he stated. “Brent will not be here for the weekend.”

Applebaum did say that McLaughlin has not been terminated but did not give any indication as to the next steps. In addition to running the RBC Canadian Open, McLaughlin also heads up the CP Women’s Open slated for late August in Ottawa.

The Times piece was in no way negative and seemed like a refreshing look at someone behind the scenes.

No Vagaries Of Match Play Here: U.S. Junior Girls Controversy

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It's not how you'd like to see a U.S. Junior semifinal decided but if you've seen the video and know a thing about golf, Erica Shepherd didn't do a thing wrong. That hasn't stopped some from absurdly criticizing her (thanks reader Brian) and even the Rules of Golf.

Golfweek's Beth Ann Nichols sums up the scene at Boone Valley, where the final between Shepherd and friend Jennifer Chang is underway.

Here is the video from Fox with Shepherd's highlights before you eventually can see the unfortunate moment at the 2 minute mark (not embedded due to autoplay).

It's pretty clear that Moon just made a mistake in wanting to practice the putt she just missed, and that Shepherd didn't have an opportunity to concede the par putt.

Nichols writes:

The difference here, of course, is that Shepherd told rules officials she would have given Moon the putt had there been more time. Even tried to reverse it. But Moon incurred a penalty under Rule 18-2.

“I mean, we both tried to get it to where that putt was given to her but it just – it’s the Rules of Golf,” said Shepherd. “You can’t.”

Nicoson, Shepherd’s longtime instructor, called the whole situation sad.

“Erica went in the locker room to find (Moon) and give her a hug and (Moon) said, ‘I can’t believe I did it out of reaction, it’s not your fault,’ ” Nicoson wrote in a text, “but Erica feels terrible.”

The episode is a good reminder that players who don't normally play match play need to remember some of the fundamentals, such as assuming no putt is good until conceded.

Hopefully, however, Shepherd and match play are not unfairly targeted for a simple innocent mistake.

On another note, lefties will want to watch Shepherd's swing. Impressive and powerful!

Q&A With Seamus Golf's Akbar Chisti

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Akbar and Megan Chisti are co-founders of Seamus Golf, the beloved Oregon-based artisans specializing in uniquely original accoutrements that adorn the traditionalist's golf style.

I love all of their efforts to blend traditional golf tartans and textures with modern simplicity. Most recently they've ambitiously tried to reimagine the golf shoe, as I reviewed here and have since enjoyed the prototype on a wet linksland masterpiece, with nothing but good things to report.

Akbar updates us on one of golf's most interesting companies in this Q&A:

GS: Why a golf shoe?

AC: I am a huge fan of walking and playing golf barefoot. This is the closest thing I've ever experienced to that.  Our brand has evolved a lot in six years, starting with tartan club covers and ranging to a variety of items like heavy metal objects like the church pew inspired bottle opener.  Each evolution has been the result of meeting an artisan, maker, or designer that we are inspired to work with.  In this case, we met a local cobbler / retired Nike Innovation Kitchen designer that we really Jived with and lived in our hometown, Portland, Oregon. 

Mike Friton is a genius, and truly one of the pioneers of simple & free barefoot movement. The modern shoe is in many ways a cast, and the whole shoe philosophy in golf is designed to keep you physically stuck to the ground.  I've played many rounds barefoot and felt that you can actually have better balance and feel with less interference between you and the grass.  I've found it can be difficult to really communicate my love for barefoot golf without sounding like I'm from some strange religious cult, further I have to encourage folks that playing in the Feel Player to try out what I'm talking about is the only way to see the righteous path of SEAMUS GOLF.

GS: What’s the response been like so far? Where does the Feel Player go from here?

AC: Frankly, we didn't know what to expect.  I've always gone into new ventures figuring that if we don't find success, all of my friends are gonna do well with the Christmas gifts.   At this point, I can say that we've had enough pre-orders that we won't have to resort to giving away our inventory!  The biggest feat about this project making the shoe right here in Portland, Oregon.  While most athletic shoe supply chain doesn't exist on the stateside, we found it could be interesting to try to make a shoe using many of the same techniques from our head covers and golf bags.  Something that makes the rest of SEAMUS special is how custom we can get being hands on at every step of the way.  Golfers are going to find it compelling when we can do that with footwear.

GS: What else is new from Seamus would you like folks to know about?

AC: Man, I don't know....there's a lot going on here but I'm just excited ya'll wanna hear about our shoe!

GS: Your products turned up at the Masters this year, The Players and of course has been a staple of the US Open for a few years now. How important is it having your stuff at the major events?

AC: We didn't have typical set of growth goals when we got started at SEAMUS.  Be at Bandon Dunes, then Chambers Bay, US Open, and finally provide covers for the US Ryder Cup Team.  Now that we've had the honor of adding the Players and The Masters, I have to say that these achievements have been incredible for our self confidence.  At this point, I feel like we have the credibility to apply our creative energy to the most highly regarded applications in our sport.  It's hard to measure exactly how much each event contributes to our growth, but we know as a whole we're growing and further we can only conclude that being at the majors is a contributing factor.  There's the other more personal selfish part that our team loves being a part of these special events.  I was a CPA streaming every event live to my phone up until 2012, to think that 5 years later I'd be at them in this manner is a thought that never would have crossed my mind.

GS: What’s the most interesting place you’ve played golf lately?

AC: The most interesting thing I've done on a golf course lately was basically go dune buggying on Mammoth Dunes, the second installment of the Sand Valley story.  Just before they started seeding, I had the rare opportunity to go blasting through the dunes and see the whole course with Michael Keiser Jr.  We were jumping through dunes and getting air time over tee boxes.  This was the funnest thing I may have ever done.  But that doesn't answer the question about most interesting place I've played golf lately.  Have you ever heard of Royal Hawaiian Golf Club in Oahu?  I think at one time it was a Fazio, then remade by Greg Norman.  Locals call it Jurassic Park, and I have to say with a great amount of certainty that this is by far the best value / experience driven golf course I've ever played.  SO dramatic, as are most Fazio courses, but through these crazy prehistoric vegetation you just think a Pterodactyl is gonna come grab your golf cart.  By the way, this is one of the few places I will abide by the Riding or Riding option, given that they most probably have no defibrillators on the course.


A Feel Player introductory video:



Here I am testing the Feel Player at Prestwick, photo by Alex Miceli.

 

Rolex Effect? European Tour On Ranking Points Streak

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Alex Miceli at MorningRead.com suggests we're seeing the first sign of success for European Tour Chief Keith Pelley's Rolex Series, with the three lead-up events to The Open offering more world ranking points than their PGA Tour counterparts.

Miceli writes:

Not since 2010, when the European Tour’s BMW International Open offered the same ranking points as the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour, followed by France and Scotland outpointing AT&T National and John Deere, has Europe proved to be a better draw than America.

The Rolex Series, which consists of eight lucrative events offering purses of at least $7 million throughout the European Tour season, has allowed Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive officer, to create an environment in which European players want to return home to compete.

“There's no question Rolex has come in and has allowed us to elevate the tournaments,” Pelley said of the Swiss watchmaker’s sponsorship. “As the title partner of the Rolex Series, they believed in the vision … but what we have invested in the infrastructure to make it a much stronger and a better tournament.” 

Here were the points breakdown on fields for those events:

HNA Open De France 270 vs Quickens Loans National 229
Dubai Duty Free Irish Open 288 vs Greenbrier Classic 174
AAM Scottish Open 342 vs  John Deere Classic 140

In another nice sign for the tour's ability to intrigue players to tee it up more often, Pat Perez has joined the tour after rising to 42nd in the world ranking, joining Kevin Na and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara in taking up similar affiliate memberships with the European Tour this season.

Perez said: “It’s probably the first time I have been in a position to do become a European Tour member in my career. I’ve always stayed in the US. So I figured, after I won and got to the top 50 in the world, I might try and travel a bit and see some new parts of the world and play against other great players. I wanted to play the European Tour and become more of a global player.

“I am going to try and broaden my horizons, go to places such as Dubai and Malaysia, and see where I fall."

Bloomberg: Time Inc. Exploring Sale Of Golf Magazine

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Bloomberg's Gerry Smith quotes Time Inc. CEO Rich Battista as saying the venerable print title and its Golf.com website are for sale along with Coastal Living and Sunset.

In the interview, Battista called the three publications “wonderful brands” but said Time needed to invest in other properties instead. The company also publishes People and Sports Illustrated.

“It’s really important to focus on the key biggest growth drivers of this company that will move the needle the most,” he said. “These are wonderful titles and wonderful brands. They’re just relatively smaller in our portfolio.”

Meanwhile, WWD's Alexandra Steigrad reports that Golf Digest Chief Business Officer Howard Mittman has left for Bleacher Report amid rumors of more shake-ups in the Conde Nast business model.

Follow-up: In Defense Of The Time It Took To Sort Out Jordan Spieth's Open Championship Drop

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I wrote about the zaniness at 13 Sunday at Birkdale for Golfweek, and while most are pretty satisfied with the conclusion, many have written in response to the piece still unsatisfied with how things played out.

Namely, many are upset at the time Jordan Spieth's drop took and the impact on Matt Kuchar. Some are still upset that the driving range was not marked as out-of-bounds. And some are unhappy that Spieth could hit such a poor drive and use the rules to his advantage.

A few random rebuttals and reads that hopefully help shed a different light beyond what I wrote above:

- Spieth's tee shot ended up on the side of a huge dune almost 100 yards from the fairway. The ball hit a spectator. The combination of visibility issues and simply maneuvering on a steep, wet hill made it hard for anyone to move quickly or figure out options.

- The range was too far out of play to be seen as a necessary boundary. Sure, the 10th fairway was declared out of bounds on Tuesday of tournament week to prevent 350 yard short cuts, so it certainly could have been declared OB in the same way. But I just don't think anyone could fathom the range being in play.

- As soon as Spieth saw how bad the lie was, he had the clarity to start looking at unplayable lie options, briefly at the base of the dune and then going as far back as he wanted, keeping the ball in line with the hole. He had to move back up the dune to sort out the line with the walking referee. That took a while.

- Spieth should not be blamed for the tour trucks having not left town. Nor is it his fault that the range was left unmarked as a boundary.

- Apparently not seen on the American broadcast was Spieth's drop between the tour trucks, which took a few minutes to sort out and was ultimately resolved by John Paramor, roving official and European Tour rules man. Once he was on the scene things moved along.

- In watching Spieth and Greller work, I actually sensed Jordan might have rushed the shot once he got his line of play and the crowd somewhat settled down. He did not strike it perfectly and from his vantage point, the shot seemed way right. But as Bones noted today on Morning Drive, Greller's yardage call was a great guess. Oh, and rangefinder advocates, a distance measuring device would not have sped things up much or looked very good.

- Jack Nicklaus was impressed with how Spieth used the rules to his advantage.

And while it did take him a long time between the tee shot and the next shot, Jordan figured out what to do. I don’t know if I would have figured out to go over to the driving range for that shot. That was an unbelievable decision and unbelievable 5. That putt was so huge.

- Spieth joked afterwards about having experience with unplayable lie drops and temporary movable obstructions. That may be the case, but as Karen Crouse notes in this comparison between Spieth and McIlroy, he's also just the more analytical player. His nearly-manic energy at times came in handy.

- The entire scene was terribly unfair to Kuchar but not avoidable.

- The distraction of dealing with the situation might have weighed on someone who was already pondering a major meltdown (Coffin/GolfChannel.com). Spieth turned chaos into a positive. Again, lousy for Kuchar but it could have all easily gone another way. Spieth is just a different character. At least he apologized for taking so long.

A YouTube posting of the entire sequence is here.

Latest Twist In UK TV Deals: BT In Talks To Carry Masters

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Sky Sports lost the PGA Championship on short notice and appears headed toward also losing the Masters, and as James Corrigan explains in this Telegraph exclusive, BT is now in talks to carry the Masters.

Not only is it an issue for Sky, but as Corrigan explains, could have ramifications for the European Tour and USGA.

BT sees this as the ideal avenue to enter golf, but there are nervous faces not only at Sky but also the European Tour.

Without Sky’s backing the Tour would not operate its present guise, if at all, and the last thing the powers that be at Wentworth HQ would want is for Murdoch Towers to become disillusioned with the sport and walk away.
Yet any sense of ingratitude on Sky’s behalf would be totally understandable, especially with rumours circulating that the USGA, which runs the US Open, is ready to look elsewhere in the quest for bigger viewing figures when its deal runs out in 2018.

Eye On Design: Seamus Golf's Feel Player

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I had the privilege of testing out a prototype of Seamus Golf's new Feel Player shoe and did it in the ideal conditions: a wet round at Prestwick.

The shoes held up beautifully and even better, were incredibly comfortable. Never did I question the support provided, something that seemd very much up of interest when I first unpacked these ultra-light golf shoes.

My review of the Feel Player. Tomorrow I'll be posting a Q&A with Seamus co-founder Akbar Christi.

 

Michael Greller's Role In Spieth's 2017 Open Turnaround

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There is a lot of great insight here from The Scotsman's Martin Dempster talking to Jordan Spieth caddie Michael Greller.

Spieth credited his bagman with helping turn things around and Greller, who rare gives in depth interviews, was more open about this one.

“I just told him to go back to the tempo of the Travelers because it was really similar,” said Greller of the PGA Tour win recorded by Spieth in his previous outing before the season’s third major. “He was leading wire-to-wire and was having some tough things happening. It just so happens this was a major. He knows what to do. This was the 13th time he’s had the lead in a major, so it’s not like this was his first time in this situation. He was easy to work with. He’s matured a lot in the last six years since I met him. It wasn’t that difficult.

“He’s hurt a lot since that 2016 Masters, and I’m sure somewhere in there some doubts had crept in. He just said, ‘You know what, I know how to do this’. He’s done it twice before and now three times. It was just cool to see him with his back against the wall, more than at Augusta in 2016. To do what he did just shows his character and his grit.”

Spieth now famously also gave Greller a new task, picking the ball out of the hole after seeing players do that in old Open highlight films. Kevin Casey with the roundup on that.

Greller also gave the days clubs to the R&A for posterity, with an asterisk: