It's been quite the wonderful week of skiing, with one more day before heading home. The bride informs me we're expecting 6-10" at home, so her winter from hell continues. And she'll wake up tomorrow morning with my own fine self home. You can discuss amongst yourselves whether that's a bug or a feature.
- I thought I was up to speed on the relevant details of Tiger's side trip to India. $2 million appearance fee, check. Makes 9 birdies in one round, check. Loses meaningless skins game, check. But thanks to Alex Myers' weekly feature The Grind I became aware of one other small detail, he played golf with Sharmilla Nicollet.
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| Tiger's playing partner. |
| Let's hope that cheesecake=traffic. |
- Myers reminded me of an item I read but left unblogged after Jimmy Walker's previous victory at the Sony. Per John Strege, Walker is apparently quite the accomplished astrophotographer, whose work has been used on NASA's website in its Astronomy Picture of the Day feature.
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| Jimmy Walker's photo of the newborn star cluster Melotte 15. But you knew that. |
Walker's photos can be seen at his website called, appropriately enough, darkskywalker.com. Not the average Tour player's hobby, to be sure.
- Wow, an active day on the comb-over front. First, all parties confirm that, as you heard here yesterday, Trump is buying Doonbeg, including the fancy-schmantzy hotel and Greg Norman golf course. In a move unexpected by all, Trump announced that the golf course would be rebuilt into the finest on the planet and that it would soon be awarded a U.S. Open. What, oh sorry, wrong press release...real one here:
"I am thrilled to announce that we have purchased yet another incredible golf resort," Donald J. Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, said in a statement. "From Trump National Doral, Miami, to Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, known as 'the greatest golf course in the world,' we only have the best. Doonbeg is an already terrific property that we will make even better. It will soon be an unparalleled resort destination with the highest standards of luxury."
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| The Doonbeg property, located amidst dramatic dunes just down the road from Lahinch. |
Trump did indicate that there's a large repair bill involved from the recent Atlantic storms that we touched on way back when this blog was still in swaddling clothes:
According to a report in the Clare Champion,
"Monday's meeting of Clare County Council revealed €954,447.90 worth of
damage was caused at Doonbeg Golf Resort following the January storms.
However, that figure does not include an estimate for the damage arising
from Storm Brigid."
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| An example of the erosion experienced near Doonbeg. The horse is a nice touch. |
Speaking of that venue "known as the greatest golf course in the world," I wonder if there's any news from Aberdeenshire. For those who like their morning java with a dollop of schadenfreude, there's this (via Shackelford):
The US businessman claims the £230m European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre
(EOWDC) would spoil the view from his golf course at Menie. His bid to overturn approval for the project was dismissed
by Lord Doherty. Mr Trump has said he will appeal and in the meantime focus instead on a new
development in Ireland.
Glad to hear that he's moving on.
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| The wind turbines already installed near Trump's property off the Aberdeen coast. They are unsightly, loud, kill vast quantities of birds and are a completely inefficient source of energy. On the other hand, it's Trump. |
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If the wind turbines caused this, then by all means appeal!
- Shack also links to this Associated Press piece in the Bonner County Daily Bee about the new/old tenth tee at Pebble Beach, as follows:
One of the most gorgeous tee shots at Pebble Beach is one that hardly anyone hits. At least for now.
Pebble Beach officials were rebuilding the ninth green last year when they discovered from photos of the 1929 U.S. Amateur a tiny sliver of land just to the right of the green. It was a tee box of the par-4 10th hole along the ocean. The tee box never went away, rather it was buried beneath high grass.
It had been my understanding that the tee box had been lost to erosion, so glad to have that corrected (I may owe Gary Van Cynical an apology as well). But more topical is the connection between the 1929 Amateur and Jones' relationship with Dr. Alister MacKenzie, with whom he co-designed Augusta National. The strands of these intersecting lives appear to date back to 1926, when Jones journeyed to St. Andrews to play in the Walker Cup, and MacKenzie was in the gallery. I learned many things that I didn't previously know from this page at the Augusta website, including that MacKenzie worked on a couple of greens at Pebble, that Seth Raynor had been commissioned to build Cypress Point and had the misfortune to pass away, and that Mackenzie saw Jones play while walking in his gallery with O.B. Keeler.
But it was his stunning upset to 19-year old Johnny Goodman in the Am (and Jones was at the height of his career, the Grand Slam coming the next year) that sealed the deal, as Jones stuck around in Monterrey, playing additional rounds at Cypress and having a chance to discuss architecture in detail with the good Doctor himself. Thus was born the relationship that brought us Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters.
The new tenth tee above, where the ranger is standing. It provides a great angle for the tee shot, though it shortens the hole and the traffic issue is obvious.
- Caught Martin Kauffman's column at Golfweek on the state of televised golf. His thoughts:
So you might think that as the guy assigned to write about televised golf for Golfweek, I’m savoring the prospect of watching the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this weekend.
Think again.
Saturday at Pebble Beach surely has to rank as the single worst day of televised golf on the PGA Tour schedule. I hate virtually everything about CBS’ third-round telecast from Pebble Beach. It’s three hours of celebrities playing bad golf, Jim Nantz channeling his inner Larry King as fringe actors stop by to promote their shows (which, coincidentally, usually appear on CBS), and Clint Eastwood fighting to stay awake through it all. It’s utterly unwatchable.
He calls himself a professional, but is somehow unaware that I've branded it The Most Painful Day in Televised Golf™. And no, I didn't ghost write his column, nor he my blog. Great minds simply think alike. He's got other candidates for painful televised golf, all worthy in their own fingernails across the chalkboard way. Take a look, as I'll just give you this little tease:
First two rounds of the U.S. Open: Two words: Chris Berman. 'Nuff said.
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