Today's Required Read

I've sensed eyes rolling when I've lauded Geoff Ogilvy as perhaps the most interesting and thoughtful of today's generation of players.  If you don't read this Golf Digest interview with Geoff in it's entirety you are officially banned from this site.  Don't worry about the how's of it, I'll know.

It's such an embarrassment of riches that I can't pick an excerpt with which to tease you, but his comments on everything are of great interest.  Shack, who hates long rough with a passion bordering on obsessive, liked this bit about Winged Foot:

IT'S OBVIOUS that narrow driving zones, extreme length and dense grass don't suit me.

I'll have what he's drinking.

I dislike them. So how did I win the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot on one of the most penal setups in golf? Well, nobody hit a lot of fairways. On a course that is supposed to reward pure ball-striking and tremendous driving accuracy, the opposite happened, more or less. I wound up lumped in with everyone else. The penal setups are how Phil Mickelson, far from a precision player, has finished runner-up six times. In 2006, it came down to who was best from 100 yards and in. For that week, it was me.

While I'd like to keep this short, I can't pass on this one:

The wisdom of the Tour's no shorts policy
is now clarified.

SPEAKING OF GOLF SNOBS, I've identified four sub-species so far. The first is The Membership Collector. He belongs to several clubs, all of them expensive, exclusive and always on the tip of his tongue. The second is The Traditionalist. He raves about 6,000-yard seaside courses (preferably in Scotland), plays them with wooden woods and insists golf was better before they invented the bunker rake. Then there's Mr. Big & New. Buys a new driver every six months, has 40 Scotty Cameron putters, drives brand-new cars to courses that are 7,500 yards. Loves huge clubhouses with wine cellars. Then there's The History Guy. That's me. Always talking about old players, old courses, the history of majors and so on. Knows not only about architects, but when and where they were born.

That's me as well, Geoff.  Thanks for calling me out in front of my readers... Let me give you one short architectural nugget:

THERE ARE FEATURES on old courses that are considered iconic and wonderful, which would never be imitated today. The bunker in the center of the green on the sixth at Riviera. The deep little pot bunker at the 10th at Pine Valley. These would be considered madness today, and I guess for good reason, as they'd seem contrived. There are actually entire holes that would not be attempted, including the par-5 15th at Augusta. The second shot there is insanely hard if you go for the green. If you lay up it's just too severe, even with a wedge. Because of where it is and its place in history, it's considered wonderful. But if you plopped that hole in any other setting, players would scream.

 I couldn't agree more about the 15th at Augusta, and can't imagine how the members deal with it.  And I'd love to hear his thoughts on the 16th green, which makes no sense to me at all.

But read it all to understand why I wish we had more of his ilk on Tour.