More From Q-School

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Nice to see all of this great coverage from the PGA Tour and LPGA Qualifyings. Kind of bizarre to get such coverage, actually. I guess this is what happens when there's no press tent to sit in! Just kidding guys!

John Strege points out the oddity of Brock Mackenzie and sister Paige playing in Q-schools at the same time, along with other notes from PGA West on the Golf Digest blog.

Jim Achenbach looks at Bob May's resurgence while John Reger talks to Ricky Barnes. At the LPGA school, Sean Martin profiles Naree Song's spirited attempt despite suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Here's the AP game story and scores from round 2 of Q school.

Making The PGA Tour More Media Friendly

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Garry Smits reports on the a PGA Tour hosted brainstorming session to make the sport more media friendly. Though I wasn't invited (shocking, I know), my NSA sources say they may have a transcript or two of the "break out" sessions reported on by Smits.

In the meantime...

More than 100 members of the media, tournament directors, equipment representatives and players agents met with PGA Tour officials Wednesday at the Sawgrass Marriott. They discussed issues such as on-and off-tournament site media relations and functions, non-traditional media exposure for players (such as appearances on David Letterman and Jay Leno's shows), the effect of new media such as the Internet, satellite radio and blogs and player accessibility.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Leno's bookers are clamoring to get Chad Campbell.

The debate was nothing if not lively during full and break-out sessions.

Much of the discussion began with the results of a survey conducted among members of the media that showed they believe agents have been whittling away at access, especially those representing the top players, and the PGA Tour is doing little to control them.

Hey, they have to earn their 10%.

On the other hand, a survey of agents showed they think the media frustrates players by asking the same questions at every Tour stop, that they write the same "stale" stories and increase their demands on the time of players who find time an increasingly diminishing commodity.

The same "stale" stories. Why is stale in quotes? This implies doubt that the reporting has become stale. There's no doubt!

"There's a feeling that these guys make a lot of money ... What's the problem?" PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said at the closing session. "But it's not that simple. Players' schedules have changed, and the job of the media is different. It's a real challenge, but it can work better."
Among the measures that will be launched or streamlined: weekly conference calls with key players, a smoother post-round interview process, and a Tour communications representative on duty at all times at practice areas to coordinate interviews.

The question is, will the communications representative also sit in on these interviews?

Another CMO In Golf

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Since the USGA's CMO has been so productive in his nearly two years of touring the nation's finest layouts, I mean, strengthening the USGA brand, the LPGA Tour has hired their own Chief Marketing Officer according to Golfweek. 

Commissioner Carolyn F. Bivens Nov. 29 named William F. Susetka as the LPGA's chief marketing officer (CMO). He will assume the role Jan. 2, 2007.

Poor bastard. Oh, sorry, here's the rest.

Susetka will be responsible for all LPGA marketing functions – and will oversee the marketing, creative services, corporate sponsorships, original programming, concept development and emerging media departments – while working to strengthen the LPGA brand image among consumers and sponsors and raise the awareness level of the LPGA and its members.

Emerging media departments? Is that a euphemism for the Internet?

Most recently, Susetka served as chief operating officer of Nice-Pak Products (2005-06). Prior to that, he was president of Global Marketing for Avon Products Inc. (2002-05), where he led double-digit beauty growth for three years and introduced the most successful new product launches for skin care and fragrance in Avon history with Anew Clinical, Cellu-Sculpt and the Today, Tomorrow, Always fragrance trilogy.

He led double-digit beauty growth? Wow, he's good. 

Live From Q-School

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If you have any friends or players to root for at Q-school, Golf World's John Strege is blogging from PGA West that's worth checking out. Day 1 was windy, as if playing at PGA West isn't hard enough.

The scoring average on the Stadium Course was 76.1, while the Nicklaus Tournament Course played to an average of 73.6. For context, we look to first-round averages here two years ago: 72.8 and 71.1, respectively.

This Golfweek.com story has a first day roundup as well. Rex Hoggard has his take on day one, while John Reger profiles Dennis Paulson.

One reporter teed off in heels. Another hit the runway before the ball.

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Jill Painter reports on the latest Tiger-hosted media gathering to show off the new Nike driver.

Oh to have YouTube video of this...
After Woods was done doing the demo, Nike representatives informed reporters that they could take a crack at the new club. Woods then laughed. Then he told everyone to not hit the ball in the street.

Had he stayed to watch the weekend hackers, he would've been as entertained as he imagined.

FSN West reporter Michael Eaves sliced his first shot onto 120th Street. One reporter teed off in heels.

Another hit the runway before the ball.

"Elite players are not afraid of distance advances. None of them are campaigning for rollbacks."

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The Belly and Groove Bomb and Gouge boys are still at it, arguing with Chuck about their lack of concern for throwing St. Andrews and Augusta out to the trash heap so that grown men can shop unencumbered by regulation.

From Gouge:

The game advances and we deal with it. Augusta of 41 years ago would not be a test for today's players. Well, we don't exactly know that, but let's assume that it wouldn't be a test. Big deal. It's changed to become more of a test.

I always would love to hear people argue that Augusta has "become more of a test" since the recent changes. Besides the fact it is now one-dimensional off the tee with defined fairways, I wonder if they would say this to the faces of Hogan, Nelson, Snead, Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. Or even Ballesteros, Faldo, Crenshaw and Langer.  Because the insinuation is that without rough it wasn't a full test and that somehow, those old Masters are tainted.

Here's another howler:

Elite players are not afraid of distance advances. None of them are campaigning for rollbacks.

Actually, that's just simply not true. As this list attests.

The USGA has also studied the new drivers vs. the old drivers. Misses three-quarters of an inch off the center of the face travel almost 20 percent farther than they did off a mid-1990s driver. Now, in none of those cases is that distance harming the game (nor does it harm the game at the elite level, as you can't win tournaments hitting it three-quarters of an inch off the center of the face), but taking it away would remove some of that potential for someone actually getting around a golf course. You would take that away all in the name of preserving some tedious anachronism. Good job.

Today's drivers allow for someone to "actually" get around a golf course.

It's a wonder the game survived before today's equipment saved it! 

For more of these profound musings go here, here, here and for my original low self-esteem diagnosis, here.

Rackham Gets Historic District Status

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Reader Smitty shares this Naomi Patton story on the Huntington Woods City Commission approving a proposal to designate the Donald Ross designed Rackham Golf Course a historic district.

Huntington Woods residents and Rackham supporters applauded the vote, but they should expect a legal challenge from the private developer that plans to purchase the property.

Arthur Siegal, attorney for Premium Golf LLC, called the vote "politics at work," and said, "The main event is the litigation."
This is an interesting bit from Jennifer Chambers' Detroit News story:
The 123-acre course, designed by Donald Ross, is one of the earliest integrated golf courses in America, starting from the early part of the 20th century. Its clubhouse, an Arts and Crafts structure with a heavy Prairie and Romanesque revival influence, is a 1924 state-of-the-art building with a tile roof and a long, sweeping veranda with Pewabic tile.

"There were no failed tests."

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Curtis Eichelberger reports that the World Amateur Team contestants passed all of their drug tests.
"I am pleased to be able to tell you that all test results from the World Amateur Team Championships were negative,'' Dawson said in an e-mail. ``There were no failed tests.''

The tested golfers -- six men and six women -- were picked at random from the 70 male and 39 female teams of three golfers each at the championships, Fay said.

"`You are relieved when the results all come back negative,'' Fay said in a telephone interview from his office in Far Hills, New Jersey. ``But there was a high degree of education. These players were made aware there would be a random test and it confirms for these two championships that we're clean.''

The tests were conducted by the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport following guidelines set by the World Anti- Doping Agency, Fay said. The women's championship was held Oct. 18-21, and the men's Oct. 26-29.


"The USGA has more important things to worry about than thinking about changing the groove configuration"

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Over at the Golf Channel's web site, former USGA technical director Frank Thomas was asked about grooves and spin and reiterated what he wrote (and what we discussed here) in Golf Digest.

Frank,
I really do enjoy your column and I know that you will be able to answer my question about grooves on wedges. Do new sharp grooves make a difference to the spin on the ball when I hit the ball from a tee? -- Jim, N.C.

Jim,
The answer is NO they don’t. If you have a sandblasted face this will probably do as much or more to increase the spin than a grooved face. When you are hitting out of the rough then grooves do matter and the better defined they are the better off you are to get some spin on the ball. The rough condition will always reduce the spin from a wedge when compared to a dry condition but from deep (4 to 6 inch) heavy rough it doesn’t matter what ball you play or configuration of grooves you have on your wedge.

Again, it will be interesting to see if the USGA will claim otherwise in the coming months. Let me guess: "Our rough is 3 1/2 inches."

And again, Frank offers up a perfectly wretched solution for the game:

The USGA has more important things to worry about than thinking about changing the groove configuration because some pros are able to get out of the rough relatively easily with out too much concern about being there. My proposal is to lengthen the rough for those situations where this is important. The upheaval of changing groove specifications is not worth it.

I wonder if ever occurs to people that rough has only been introduced into golf as a method to combat distance gains that begin to outdate architecture? 

After all, what caused Augusta to go from its roughless golf course to one with a silly looking "second cut?"

Sudden distance gains they couldn't keep up with.

And we've also learned that even when courses do catch up via lengthening, the fairways never get widened back out...

So I suppose the good news is that at 20-25 yards, they can only narrow so much more before rough harvesting and narrowing is no longer an option.

"We'll continue to make equipment rules based on science and fact"

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Stan Awtrey in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution conducts a Q&A with the USGA's Walter Driver.

Q. What's new in terms of restrictions on equipment?

A. We'll continue to spend a lot of time and energy on research on equipment. We spent a lot of time and money last year looking at spin and groove research, and we've given manufacturers a big book of scientific data to look at. We'll continue to make equipment rules based on science and fact, as opposed to the opinion of whatever happens to be the prevailing mood of the day.

Right, like getting all upset that players are hitting drivers no matter how narrow you make them, and using that to blame the grooves since that's much easier politically than rolling back the ball. Yep, it's all about science and fact.

In 1997 the ball manufacturers came to us and said that in five years no one would be playing with a balata ball. Every ball made would be solid and with a Suryln cover, or some variation. We thought that sounded highly unlikely; it took three years.

It's easier to buy a new club or a new ball than it is to work on a new swing, and that continues to drive changes in the equipment.

I think that last line is pretty interesting, though it's hard to evaluate since it's likely out of context.

Q. What's planned for the next year?

A. I'm serious about finding ways to use the Internet to communicate with USGA members and golfers in general.

Ah, spoken like a lame duck USGA president!