More snow in New York and a high of 60 degrees on our mountain today. As that Alice chick once noted, things get curiouser and curiouser.
Bay Hill (Yawn) - Morgan Hoffman is your overnight leader, a man best known for not being Charlie Hoffman... this Snedeker approach to No. 18 was about all the excitement one can identify:
Of course he missed the birdie putt, just because...
As for Rory, this is his final tune-up for the Masters, and he looked far better with his irons than he had at the Honda and Doral. Word is that he flew his long-time swing coach Michael Bannon in from Ulster and it seems to have made a difference. However his putting remains god-awful... he's been missing an inordinate number of short putts and his Strokes-gained: Putting yesterday was a -.6.
That to me is the question about Rory at ANGC, and the shaggy greens at Bay Hill this week can't be helpful. Of course he's got almost three full weeks between now and then, and I'd expect to hear that he's spending some quality time with Dave Stockton (and perhaps Jeff Knox - any readers remember that name?).
Distaff Doings - The lasses are playing their Founders' Cup this week in Arizona:
Lydia Ko was among the four golfers who got off to a hot start at the LPGA Tour's JTBCFounders Cup.
The world No. 1 posted an opening-round 6-under 66 Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz., earning a share of the lead with Tiffany Joh, Kim Kaufman and Sohpia Popov. Several golfers left the course with holes to be played, as first-round action was called for the day at 9:30 p.m. eastern time due to darkness. Play was delayed in the morning due to rain and unplayable course conditions.
I must be out of touch with this golf thing, because while I've heard of Tiffany Joh (barely), those other two names are entirely new to me... It's so hard to keep up with these kids today...
60 Minutes Territory - You know the drill....hidden cameras and mikes, ambush interviews and the like, most effective when applied to serious malfeasance. We have a high point of the genre today, wherein Golf Digest goes deep undercover to explore the abuse scandal no one will speak of....the secret lives of cart girls.
I know, I hope it's covered in the Human Trafficking bill currently held up in the Senate...Our intrepid reporter is Keely Levins who goes undercover as a cart girl trainee (think about that for a sec, they're actually trained), which to me just screams Pulitzer-bait. In any event, here's her lede:
The perfect cart girl has a soft smile, but thick skin. All the ruthless flirting and unwanted come-ons—just how bad, and bawdy, does it really get? As a 24-year-old female on the Golf Digest editorial staff, I was the best person to find out. With the tacit cooperation of two courses in Arizona, I went undercover behind the wheel for three days. The names in this story have been changed, but the exchanges with patrons are verbatim, as recorded by the stealthy spy pen that rode shotgun in my front pocket.
OK, isn't 24 the age at which cart girls get put out to pasture? That's like finding your mother as the cart girl...but I digress. So, how bad are the men? It's about what you'd expect:
"I drove up to a group one time, and the guy holds out a $50 bill and says, 'Let's see yourchest.' I was shocked. And a little worried. You're on your own out there, no manager or anything. But I just kind of shut them down. And after that they seemed a little embarrassed."
The prevailing theory among the girls is that this isolation works differently for the golfers: Guys feel free to say anything they want because the golf course is an open space. In restaurants there are other waitresses and bartenders and patrons to quickly fend off animals, but the cart girl is alone.
"Old guys are fine," Sally tells me. "They can be pretty dirty, but you know they're harmless. Middle-age guys are the worst. You can tell when a guy's just caged up at home. He's got his ring on, but you can just sense that this is his only release for any out-of-line behavior."
The guys will on occasion show some originality:
Adds Claire: "I'll never forget this one. I drove up to a group and asked the guys what they wanted to drink. One guy says, I'll take a PBR, a Coors, and a shot of your bath water."
See, now I'm confused because I've always thought that PBR tastes exactly like bath water....
Greg Norman, Increasingly Self-Absorbed - Shack applauds the Shark for his....ummm...mastery of multiple social media platforms, though he notes that the images are becoming increasingly...errr....well Geoff goes with a lack of normalcy. To say the least, as here's a gallery of recent imagery, first the bare chest look:
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| Is that shaving cream?
Then he felt compelled to share his back hair with us:
And now we've apparently entered the bronze age:
To clarify, this is an actual bronze bust of the Shark from something called David Phelps Art, although why a former Yankee pitcher would have an art gallery eludes me.
Kinda creepy, no?
This Week In Golf Course Development - Lots of news on this front from around the world. Let's start in Aberdeenshire, where we have two developments. First, from the Official Combover of Unplayable Lies, via Alistair Munro in The Scotsman:
 US TYCOON Donald Trump has submitted multi-million pound plans to further develop his Aberdeenshire golf resort - including a second course, plus a massive ballroom and banquet hall. The move comes two years after he threatened to stop any further investment in the site because of proposals for an offshore windfarm of Aberdeen Bay. The businessman is, however, now driving ahead with expanding the development at Balmedie as he continues a civil action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh against the developers of the £230 million European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC).
It seems that The Donald's calculus is that the dramatic fall in oil prices will make the wind project moot, though the Swedish company behind it rejects that notion. In any event, there's lots of litigation to follow...
And just down the road comes news of a change to an iconic venue:
WARNING. The following photo contains views that some may find jaw dropping. Cruden Bay's new 9th green. 
To be honest, it's a little hard to make out what's going on here from the photo, and my one round at Cruden was far too long ago for me to pretend to remember. But here's Shack's take:
Never the most thrilling green complex on a course full of thrills, the 9th got by on setting and as a nice respite between the wild 8th and thrilling tee shot of the 10th. But this winter's remodel has added just zest without trying too hard to stand out. Exactly what the hole needed to quiet anyone who dared to point out a weak link on a masterpiece.
Cruden Bay is an absolute gem, the most dramatic dunes to be found in Scotland and an equally dramatic routing. It's the kind of course that new visitors to Scotland need to seek out, as it's a far better experience than most of the Open rota courses... in fact the only negative is the weather. Have you ever heard of the Haar? Likely not, but I've found in my travels that when they have special words for the local weather it's best to take note.
Cruden has a special place in our happy home... I took Theresa on her first trip to Scotland in 2001 and Cruden was our second round, played in a driving horizontal rain. We then piled into the car in our soaking wet clothing and drove four long hours to the Highlands. When she answered the bell for a 7:00 a.m. tee time at Royal Dornoch I realized that I had better marry the girl...
Heading North to the aforementioned Highlands, comes word that the King is going to Scotland:
Given that Arnie is 85 and has done limited links design work over the years (Tralee is about the only one that comes to mind), this seems on the surface a bit surprising. But maybe Parsinen just wanted to meet Arnie?
For what it's worth, I player Cypress Point with Mark back in the 80's. Kind of full of himself, though he's done quite well with Kingsbarns near St. Andrews and Castle Stuart, and he now seems to be involved somehow with the Bushmill project in Northern Ireland to which Mike Keiser has also expressed interest.
Last up and furthest afield, comes word from Darius Oliver of a soft opening of Cape Wickham, a co-design of his with Mike Devries:
March 18, 2015 – The spectacular new Cape Wickham Links in Australia has opened for a sneak preview. From earlier this month, a series of preview groups have been sampling this exciting new golf course on the northwestern coast of Tasmania’s King Island.
I might not get there for a while, so you'll have to make do with this gallery of images:
It looks quite spectacular, but you can't get there from here, regardless of where here might be...
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Can we get Colin's take on Claire's (or Kates's?) bath water?
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