An unusually late tee time allows for some more catch-up, the only dilemma being where to start...
Chicks Dig the Long Ball - Not one but two long ball stories today, the first via the Belgian Bomber:
Nicolas Colsaerts has hit the longest drive ever recorded on the European Tour en route to grabbing the clubhouse lead with a 5-under 66 on the opening day of the Wales Open.
Colsaerts hit his tee shot 447 yards on the par-five 18th hole of the Twenty-Ten course at Celtic Manor, which hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup. He took full advantage of a prevailing breeze and the hard condition of the fairway at the 575-yard hole, which Colsaerts was playing as his ninth.
The previous record was held by Shiv Kapur....I've nothing to add there, I just like saying Shiv Kapur.
Hard conditions at Celtic Manor is ironically amusing though...
And in other long-driving news, since the R&A is now allowed back into polite society, how about
their new Captain almost incurring a penalty? The R&A has a uniquely quaint ceremony called the "Driving-In," whereby the newly-elected Captain hits a tee ball off the first at the Old Course as a cannon fires.
Now their new Captain, George Macgregor, happens to be quite the accomplished player, a 5-time Walker Cupper, as well as an OBE (which I'm told is different than an OB/GYN), though he's no spring chicken. Anyway the whole story, and I'm being pretty loose with what constitutes a story, is that his ceremonial drive almost reached the Swilicun Burn.
The other part of the tradition is that the Captain purchases the ball back from a caddie that lays his mitts on it, in this case American (and one assumes MOTB) Oliver Horovitz, who wrote this tome on looping at the Old Course.
But my favorite part of the story was this Shack barb:
I know, I know. It might have been downwind. The first fairway was probably firm and fast. Or just maybe new Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews Captain George Macgregor has been in the gym working on his explosiveness to hit an impressive ceremonial first tee shot.
For those who don't obsessively read every word uttered by the Striped One, the E-word has become Tiger's latest euphemism for distance.
Rio Loco - I'm going to just skim the surface of this one, as it's far too predictably dreary for my taste. But for the umpteenth time construction of the golf course for the Rio Olympics has been
halted due to a judges environmental concerns. And isn't the name Rio perfectly synonymous with environmental activism....except if you focus on the raw sewage released into the ocean and the like.
Apparently there was some sort of hearing last week and nothing was resolved, though there's talk of re-routing thre holes away from environmentally-sensitive toxic waste sites...or something along those lines...
Remember folks, this is the future of golf, tied to an organization that considers the institutionalized corruption of Brazil to be not a bug but a feature. I get it, functioning societies offer insufficient opportunities for graft and all...
A pox on all their houses...
These Guys Are Good - We of course tend to forget that the great golf course architects get started by playing and falling in love with the game. As just a for instance, my revered C.B. Macdonald won the first U.S. Amateur, not at all diminished by the fact that after losing the inaugural version he threw a hissy-fit and had the results voided.
But how about this video of Donald Ross (h/t Shackelford) that's surfaced:
Shack thinks he hangs back on his right side, but that's not a bad swing for an obviously older Donald Ross.
Forgotten Fairways - Thanks to good friend Lowell Courtney for the link to this BBC page of lost Scottish golf courses. Just give a click and scroll through the wonderful aerial photography. There's the famous, including Turnberry, and the delightfully obscure. Just one point here, that if Nigg is ever rebuilt I'd recommend a name change...
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