"Why not go to Asia and tap into the huge popularity of women's golf there?"

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That's the question Ron Sirak asks and answers rather convincingly. And it's one many of us asked when the LPGA seemingly was going in a different direction with it's English-only saga:

Why not go to Asia and tap into the huge popularity of women's golf there? In Japan, for example, the women routinely gets better TV ratings than the men and throughout Asia LPGA players are treated like rock stars. Follow the money, baby, follow the money.

Besides, it is certainly true that the main thing on the minds of American sports fans this time of the year are matters pigskin:

Will Joe Paterno have his fifth Penn State team to go undefeated and not win the college national championship?

Are the Tennessee Titans really that good?

Think it's not difficult to pry eyes and minds away from football this time of the year? Just check out the TV ratings for the World Series, were you have to go back to when there were still day games to find numbers this low -- and in at least one case not even then.

"You have to be patient here and realise that the same kind of thing is happening to everybody else."

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In all of this worldly turmoil, it's comforting to know some things never change. Like players hating Valderrama, as Lawrence Donegan reports after day one of the final Volvo Masters:

The players are never less than respectful about the course but they are occasionally given to grumbling about its difficulty and unfairness.

"I hit a great tee shot on the 8th tee and still ended up behind trees," Westwood said pointedly. "You have to be patient here and realise that the same kind of thing is happening to everybody else."


"I don't do men with breasts."

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Thanks to reader John for this unbylined BBC story on artist Jack Vettriano turning down a National Gallery of Scotland gig to paint Monty.

Golfer Colin Montgomerie has laughed off artist Jack Vettriano's claims he refused a commission to paint him because of the sportsman's looks.

The Fife painter reportedly said he was asked to produce the work for the National Galleries of Scotland, but said: "I don't do men with breasts."

He has often complained his work is not appreciated by the art establishment.

Gallery officials said a suggestion was made for a portrait but denied they had formally approached Vettriano.

The painter told art lovers at An Audience With Jack Vettriano in Kirkcaldy, Fife, earlier this week that his art dealer approached him about the offer.

According to a report in the Scotsman, the 56-year-old, said: "I was in France when I got a call from my art dealer who said there might have been a breakthrough. 'The National Galleries would like you to do a portrait'.

When told it was Colin Montgomerie, he said: "I'm afraid that the answer is no. I don't do men with breasts. And I don't mean that as unkind to Colin Montgomerie."

During an appearance at the Adam Smith College on Monday night, Vettriano said he did not give it a second thought, despite pleas from his dealer to reconsider.

“Everything was going along pretty well, even this summer, and then it was like someone turned the switch off Sept. 1.”

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Bill Huffman does an excellent job making anyone in the golf business want to slash their wrists  leap off a bridge consider alternative business models. Actually, he very thoroughly considers the plight of Arizona golf and the sudden downturn in play, talking to SunCor Golf VP Tom Patrick. Thanks to reader Steven T. for catching the story.

This was interesting:

Still, and despite ridiculously low green fees already popping up lately in the West Valley, Patrick doesn’t expect a price war to break out. That’s because costs for rye seed are way up, water has never been more expensive, and maintenance costs are running through the roof after a mass exodus of undocumented workers back to Mexico.

“If people don’t come out to play, the courses will just go broke,” Patrick predicted. “In fact, that’s why so many are up for sale right now, even being foreclosed on — and you’re going to see more of that.”

Case in point: Starfire Golf Club in central Scottsdale went on the auction block this week for $8.5 million.

In another statement on the economy of Arizona golf, Royal Dunes, the former all-men’s club in Maricopa originally named Southern Dunes, completed its foreclosure on Wednesday when it was returned to lender Duane Young of Palm Springs, Calif.

Rumor on the street is the course is going to shift from private to public. (And, yes, women will be able to get a tee time there for the first time.)

“The golf industry is like everybody else,” Patrick said. “Things are not good, and until the banks loosen up some money, it’s going to get worse.”

Meanwhile, Patrick said, the golf industry is bracing for that perfect storm.

“You’re already seeing it,” he said.

“In places like Las Vegas, which really is getting hammered, they’re cutting back on everything, even the size of the courses by taking out turf.”

Well that's not such a bad thing.

Dean Barnett, R.I.P.

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John Kirk's lovely tribute on GolfClubAtlas tipped me off on the passing of someone I only knew through email and his writings, though we tentatively planned on meeting and playing Rustic Canyon sometime this winter. That's one round I'll sorely miss playing (and you know how much I love slashing it around for five hours). But Dean's passion was so strong and his eye so unique, I couldn't wait to take him on a tour.

Dean wrote one of my favorite golf architecture stories, which you can read here. This spring he also filed this entertaining blog item on The Players v. The Masters.  He was working on a follow up to his architecture piece titled "Saving Golf" and had quizzed me about a variety of topics via email. For a Red Sox fan, he sure got it.

He was a respected figure in the conservative blogosphere and his passing prompted a nice tribute from Mitt Romney, as well as this from the Weekly Standard. The Boston Globe also ran this obituary.

"It also is likely that there will be less of a need for long, punitive rough."

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There is a USGA.org Q&A with president Jim Vernon about the state of the USGA and his first year in office. I liked his answer on the groove rule change, which could be the first time I've seen someone from the USGA suggest that it could lead to less rough.

How do you expect the rules changes concerning grooves to impact how courses are set up for tour-level and championship competitions?

Vernon: For those setting up courses for players of this level, I think you’ll see a whole array of opportunities. If you look at the PGA Tour, the major championships, or the European Tour for that matter, you’ve seen a trend over the past 15 years showing hole locations have gotten closer and closer to the edge of the green each year, and that won’t need to be as much the case anymore. The rules changes may well reopen greens to some different hole locations that will still reward accuracy, but you won’t have to put it three or four paces from the edge of most of your greens. It also is likely that there will be less of a need for long, punitive rough. 

"As a professional golfer we have to adapt to that by playing more internationally because that is where the opportunities are and that's where they will continue to grow."

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Martin Parry reports that Phil Mickelson really likes the idea of playing overseas. Why do I think Tim Finchem reads this and says, "why weren't you so eager to play overseas when we played WGC's on foreign soil?"

Phil:

"Certainly, the dollar weakening over the past few years has made foreign currencies much stronger, which makes the purses much larger, so there's been a lot of international wealth being created," he said.

"The US golf industry has been stagnant for quite some time so all of our growth has been occurring on a global basis.

"As a professional golfer we have to adapt to that by playing more internationally because that is where the opportunities are and that's where they will continue to grow.

"So I look forward to having opportunities to continue to play more internationally and I understand that that is going to be an important part of being an international golfer."

The 38-year-old, who has won twice on the US Tour this year, added that he hoped other golfers recognised the importance of not just playing more overseas but helping popularise the game in under-exploited markets.

"The States' market is stagnant so the more opportunities we can have where top players play throughout the world and expose those places to golf I think will help grow the game," he said.

"That's an important part of what we do. The (season-ending) FedEx Cup ending in September has given us much more opportunity to do that now."

"Is it Harry Vardon we have on our new Tour thing [logo]? Why isn't it Seve?"

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James Corrigan talks to Padraig Harrington about Seve's contribution to European Tour golf and offers this intriguing idea.

Said Harrington: "Is it Harry Vardon we have on our new Tour thing [logo]? Why isn't it Seve? He is the man when you think about it. He is the European Tour, and it is at times like this that you kind of say, well, we wish we had more of Seve."

Imagine if he proposed that in branding obsessed America? Let's hope this idea, uh, gains traction.