Other Stuff

The Lords and Masters at Unplayable Lies gave the staff a day off yesterday.  No worries though, we'll cover everything our valued readers need to know about...it just may take a day or so for us to catch up.

Pace of Play - Bradley Klein attended and miraculously stayed awake through the USGA's 2-day pace of play symposium:

Who knew that 16 hours of meetings over two days could pass so quickly and be

engaging at every moment? That was one of many surprises for the 100 or so industry folks who attended the U.S. Golf Association’s Pace of Play Symposium at the organization’s headquarters Nov. 12-13.

At least that's his story and he's sticking to it.  But here's what passes for success:

Yates is working closely with a number of golf associations on expediting flow and reducing bottlenecks, in part through more relaxed starting times that are separated by as many as 11 minutes. The effort has led the LPGA this year to reduce its average playing time by 14 minutes, from 4:54 to 4:40.

I believe that 4:40 qualifies as the soft bigotry of low expectations.  But Brad is a smart guy, and lots of good stuff on the starting time intervals and the like.  Per Shack's post, he apparently tweeted this, which should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention:

Preliminary data #usgapaceofplay seminar: round time goes up dramatically once green speeds reach 11+ on Stimpmeter.

— Bradley S. Klein (@BKleinGolfweek) November 13, 2014

But while some folks are acting like adults, there's always Commissioner Ratched to show us the cloud surrounding our silver lining.  Shack, in an earlier post, gives him props for this:

Not only has the post-Gleneagles handwringing provided an open format to address the U.S. team’s glaring blind spot in team play, but perhaps a chance to address arguably the game’s greatest obstacle – slow play. 

“Maybe practice more foursomes. We don’t play enough foursomes golf,” Finchem said. “One of the byproducts of this is if foursome golf could develop some traction in the U.S.” 

Finchem points out a foursome round can take half as much time as a stroke-play round and although it is a staple throughout the United Kingdom it is rarely played on this side of the transatlantic divide.

 Not.  Gonna.  Happen.  It's great that you can play foursomes in half the time, as long as there's no group in front of you.  This is very much of a kind with the 15" cup, which come to think of it Shack also loved, but it's so impractical as to be utopian.

But Shack couldn't let this bit of logic pass unrebutted:

To Finchem, however, the endless quest to make the game faster – even at the highest levels where it took more than five hours last week to play a round at the WGC-HSBC Champions … in threesomes – is akin to making molehills out of mountains. 

“If you go to Augusta or Pine Valley or Cypress Point and you’re playing with some single-digit handicaps how long does it take you to play? Four hours,” he answered. “If it’s 4:15 (hours) or 4:20, you’re going to worry about shaving 10 minutes off [a round]? It’s not a driving factor. Everybody talks about playing faster; that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Sigh!  Shack made the point more eloquently, but the lucky stiff that scores an invite to Cypress Point  obviously is not in a hurry during that round.  Not a big deal Commish, as Cypress likely had four groups on the tee sheet that day.

In a way, Nurse Ratched is making an invaluable point, as pace of play is fairly important, but not important because it'll save you ten minutes (and ten minutes is again setting the bar pretty darn low).  It's important because the game is more enjoyable when it flows well, and that ten minutes you spend waiting on the group in front is really aggravating and feel's more like a couple of hours.

TPC Scottsdale -  Stephen Hennessy files a thoughtful piece on the changes made to TPC Scottsdale, including "church-pew" bunkers in the line the pros take on No. 18:

Eh, this seems a bit contrived to me.  Unless, you know, church pews are native to the region...

Weiskopf also added an Old Course-style  "Coffin bunker" near the Par-5 13th green, presumably to increase the penalty for trying to reach the green in two:

Not sure how close to the green it is, and therefore how significant for daily play.  Shack used the "G-word" (goofy) in describing it, and it seems hard to argue with that.

I'll Be Ready for a New Driver in 2018 - I'm liking my new G30 very much, thank you, and that's with the demo shaft still on it.  But last we visited with our friends at TaylorMade, my recollection is that they were chastened by their too frequent product updates that had nearly bankrupted Dick's and the rest of the industry's retail channels.  So, imagine my surprise:

TaylorMade's Nov. 13 launch of two new drivers -- the movable weight, multi-level

Both the club and the movie seem familiar.

adjustable R15 and the lightweight, swingspeed-focused AeroBurner -- makes the same case about what kind of driver you should buy that the company first made nearly a decade. The idea, which hearkens back to previous twin-driver introductions like the R9 and the Burner SuperFast, is that there are two kinds of golfers looking for two types of clubs: the technician and the bomber.

OK guys, but we'll see what the adults in germany think of it all in their next quarterly earnings release.

I hate When That Happens -  We learned recently that golf kills, at least in Austria.  But apparently they also maim:

Apparently geese are really mean. There's even a whole eHow.com article about how to stop a goose attack. It says the key is to "project confidence while retreating", so keep that in mind.

In any case, geese are mean, and American Funniest Home Videos has a video that basically proves as much. Not only does the goose attack the poor, innocent golfer who's probably just looking for his ball by the lake, but it goes after him again while he's running away. Working theory is that the goose detected his lack of confidence.

I'm sure his mother must be very proud.  No word on who took the video and therefore deserves at least a Christmas card from us all.

Hope For Us All - Struggling with your putting?  Fear not, science has the answer:

If you're struggling with your putting and have exhausted all other options, Clarkson University may have just offered you a lifeline.

According to a new study by the school published in the Journal of Athletic Enhancement, listening to music while you putt seems to correlate with making more putts compared to hitting putts listening to no music. Jazz music, in particular, saw a notable uptick in the number of putts made compared to other genres, while rock music proved the most ineffective.

But what if I'm more of a hip-hop kind of guy?  You're on your own with this one, just nobody tell Colin, as I need the cash flow.

And Then Their Were Three - Exciting news in a world that I sadly don't inhabit:

IBM CEO Virginia (Ginni) Rometty has joined Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as the third female member of the longtime home of the Masters, multiple sources have confirmed. Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang is also among the handful of new members at Augusta National.

Rice, the former Secretary of State, and Moore, a finance executive, were invited to be Augusta's first female members in 2012.

Then there was this:

“She has a nice swing,” one member said. “She’s obviously got a big job so she doesn’t play much, but if she got to play, she’d be a pretty good golfer.”

Rometty was observed being congratulated by other members and seemed "a little nervous” in front of club chairman Billy Payne.

Ummmm....who wouldn't be?

Logorama - Golf.com seems to be upping their game as far as their galleries go, with the latest devoted to the worst (and best) golf club logos.  A couple of examples with captions:

CATEGORGY I: ANIMALS
Clubs and courses are often named after animals -- from Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif., to Wolf Creek Golf Club in Atlanta -- so it’s logical that they also work animals into their logos. What’s troubling is how they work in animals. Exhibit A: Grand Lake (Colo.) Golf Course, which features a fox that just … relieved itself?

But what to make of this one:

Mad Russian Golf & Country Club in Milliken, Colo.: flamboyant but also fantastic.

Mad Russian Golf Club?  I love the gallery just for that...

Dealus Failus - Bad news from Planet Phil:

A bid by Phil Mickelson and others to buy Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in Rancho

Santa Fe, Calif., has fallen through, the broker in the transaction has confirmed.

“It was a mutual parting of the ways,” Jeff Woolson, managing director of the golf and resort group for CBRE, said Thursday. “They wanted to do a lot of things to the property, which required they go back and request a lease concession with the city. Members didn’t feel like they wanted to go down that road.”

C'mon guys, while I was born in the morning, it wasn't, you know, THIS morning.  It's never mutual, there was even a Seinfeld episode to that effect.  But Phil is still a young man and there's a golf course out there with whom he can find happiness.

CSI - Back Nine - Shackelford had a post at The Loop about two Veterans' Day police hot pursuits that traversed golf courses.  Read it if you're curious, but what I liked most was this photo of Tahquitz Creek Golf Course near Palm Springs at the end of one of the chases:

I do hope Ford is bringing out a line of Tahquitz trucks in homage.

Top of the World, Ma - Steve Eubanks provides a "glowing" review of Top Golf in the Global Golf Post.  His 13-year old daughter loved it, and why shouldn't she?

Loose Ends, Tied Up - About a year ago there was a story of golf sponsors dropping a player

Silly me, I just assumed that Callaway
had dropped Phil.

because of a biblical verse on his golf bag.  Now it's likely you didn't hear this story, because of course it was because I started this blog and your life had meaning.  But the gist of the story was that the player, Jeff Cochran, lost at least one sponsor because of the verse on his bag and his love of all things Glenn beck.  Ryan Ballengee has the deep background here.

It turns out that Cochran was not what he appeared to be, and that there's much to cover when they feel the need to use bullet points:

• After a tornado tragically struck Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011, Cochran approached the home club about a special lesson package. The package would be 3 lessons for $300, with $200 of that going to charities to help the community. In total, the program netted $9,000-10,000. None of that money went to charity.
• In working with the Savannah State men’s program, Cochran began to get close to a player, according to a source, whose parents were rather wealthy. Cochran approached the player and his parents, saying he would agree to be the player’s coach on an exclusive basis in exchange for $10,000-20,000 per year, paid in installments. The family had given Cochran some $10,000-15,000 when they were contacted by Cochran purportedly from his wife’s home in Nebraska, where he said a terrible accident had happened to their home. He asked if the family could pay the next installment of $5,000 ahead of schedule so that he could use it to help with expenses. They refused.

Now comes this further news, with one of those wonderful telling details:

The long con of Jeff Cochran is over. Cochran was arrested in Jamestown, Mich., on Wednesday afternoon following his mother’s funeral.

The reader should feel free to insert his or her own "spinning in her grave" joke.  Unless, you know, she was in on the con...