Midweek Musings

Spanning the globe to bring you all of the golf news that fits...

Sticks and Stones - New Euro Tour majordomo Keigh Pelley has been readily available to the press recently.  As to whether that's a good thing, opinions will necessarily vary.  First, in an ESPN item, he talked up his Tour's relative strength:

"We need to provide a viable alternative to the PGA Tour for our elite, medium and low-

ranked players. End of story," Pelley said ahead of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. 

"We need to be too important to be dismissed from our sponsors, from our stakeholders, from our players. And that means we are going to have to increase our prize purses. 

"That won't happen overnight. That's not going to happen necessarily in 2016. You'll start to see it happen in 2017. You'll start to see it come to fruition in 2018. We definitely in three to five years will have a viable alternative, so that players don't necessarily need to go to America to be able to make as much money as they possibly can."

OK, he's the new guy and we can't begrudge him his delusions of grandeur, but can you help us understand how you get from here to there?  Because the Euro Tour is not currently remotely competitive, as evidenced by its struggles to keep Euro-born players in the fold.  In regards to that, Pelley had this to announce:

Love the blue eyeglass frames...

Pelley announced some changes to the membership criteria to be a tour member. Players will now need to compete in five events during the year but the four majors and four WGCs will no longer count towards that total. Previously it was 13 but including those tournaments. 

The change will help players like Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell, who are currently outside the top 50 and don't automatically get into all the majors and WGCs. Both have said in recent weeks they would be struggling to maintain their membership unless the rules changed. It also might be enough to persuade Paul Casey to change his mind.

That serves to level the playinf field between the haves and have-nots, but doesn't address how a player manages to play enough events to maintain membership in both Tours.  As noted previously, I was expecting a one-off for 2016 as the Euro players are much more likely to qualify for the Olympics.  But he has sponsors to protect, and this unforced error might antagonize an important one:

New European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley risked antagonising one of the tour's leading sponsors in a bravura first press conference here in Dubai. 

On the eve of the DP World Tour Championship, the Canadian was asked how he felt about the flagship event on the European Tour – the BMW Championship at Wentworth – being staged on a course that was about to embark on an uber-exclusive membership policy. 

'First of all, I'd take issue with you describing it as our flagship event,' he said, to gasps of astonishment in the room, and a comment that must have gone down like a lead balloon at the car company's headquarters in Munich, given the event is described as such all over the tour's own website.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain... And let's remember that it's not just the change in membership policy, the Euro Tour has its headquarters at Wentworth, now to be the future playground of Russian oligarchs ans the like.  But apparently Pelley is a golf architecture geek as well, as he added this:

"The important thing for me at Wentworth is what they do to the West Course. From everything that I have heard, there is significant investment. We are continuing at Wentworth until at least 2018 and if the West Course becomes exactly what they believe it will, and we can increase the prize purse, then perhaps it can be a flagship event going forward.

Ahhh..holding the carrot in front of the horses eyes are we?   But what exactly is it that they think the West Course will be?  Because once upon a time it was a genuine Harry S. Colt classic before serial desecrations by Ernie Els.  Ernie has torched the place twice to critical disdain, so naturally he's been hired to torch it yet again....must be the same methodology that Tiger uses to choose back surgeons.  

A hat tip to Shack for exhuming this old Pathe kinescope of a 1960 event there that reminds us of the smaller ball that used to be in play at the Open Championship:

Silly Hats - I never realized how much fun this short Mexican swing can be, but we've already featured Inbee Park in a sombrero to great comedic effect.  Today we up our game with Monday-winner Graeme McDowell donning the unfortunate headware:

Graeme, did nobody suggest that you remove your baseball cap before donning the sombrero?  Really, Srixon won't drop you for that....But you know who did pull off that look?

Better than most, to coin a phrase.

GMTA - Adam Scott will not be getting Christmas cards from the powers that be in our game after this Olympic outburst:

He said he would have liked organisers to have been more "creative" and considered a

mixed team event. 

"I'm not really sure how just having another golf tournament is really going to enhance the game or grow the game any more than any other tournament just because it's the Olympics. 

"With the field criteria it doesn't necessarily get the strongest field in the game either."

Ya think?   A man after my own heart, and I didn't even have to pay him to say that.  But, when all is said and done, do we think he'll be able to hold out on this?

"I've been pretty open and outspoken that it's not really a priority of my scheduling next year which is based around the majors, and if the Olympics fits in then it does," Scott said. 

"The gap in the schedule there - some time off looks quite good actually."

My guess is he'll be forced to cave, but that doesn't diminish his point.

Who's Going To Break It To Him? -  I don't hold our POTUS in high regard, and he's having a pretty bad week even by his own low standards, but nobody should have to endure this kind of profound disappointment.  From an interview with GQ (I know, keepin' it classy as always)

Sounds fun. But what about his golf watching habits? When asked for his "guiltiest-pleasure TV show," Obama gave the following response: 

"Probably the guiltiest pleasure -- and this is kind of lame -- is 'Big Break.' You know, on the Golf Channel? Which is kind of a silly show. [laughs] But I find it really relaxing."

"So you watch it on the treadmill or something?" 

"Yeah, when I’m working out sometimes late at night. I never see all the episodes, but if they’ve got some chipping contest or something . . . [laughs] It’s pretty lame."

Kind of lame?  That's like calling ISIS the jayvee....

But who's going to deliver him the news that Big Break is on, you know, a permanent break?  This smells like a job for Valerie Jarrett....

Backroads Scotland - David Owen brings us another installment in his Backroads series of local gems in Scotland, and this one is special.  See if you can guess where he's headed:

It's sort of on the route to Brora and and Royal Dornoch. If you're headed that way on a golf trip and feel like playing an unusual course that none of your friends will have heard of, you should stop at the Strathpeffer Spa Golf Club. The course is barely 5,000 yards long, but it isn't a pushover, and the scenery is spectacular, and Willie Park, Jr., and Old Tom Morris contributed to the design:

Strathpeffer is indeed a rather unusual golf course, featuring some twenty-three Par-3's in its imaginative routing ( I might be exaggerating, but there's many).  The timing is of course perfect, because just yesterday we had an item featuring John Coupland, and Elsie and he live in the Strath.  Though I had no clue that Willie and Old Tom were involved....

Here's David on the routing:

The first hole, a 330-yard par 4, plays down a vertiginous hill, and if you make a smooth swing, as you almost can’t help doing at that altitude, you can drive the green. According to the club, the tee shot has the longest drop of any hole on any course in Scotland:

The second hole, a 250-yard par 4, plays straight up a different hill, and it’s followed by four consecutive par 3s.

And this: 

The club, which was founded in 1888, has many active, involved members, and because of the topography most of them are as fit as Sherpas. Fifteen years ago, they renovated their clubhouse themselves:

I'm pretty sure that John did much of this work.

David goes over some history of the town, a tourist destination as a result of its sulfur springs, and includes this great old photo of the spa's pump house:

But what to make of this?

I didn't spend the night in the village, but I now wish I had -- another reason to go back.

David, go directly to Nutwood House and use my name.  And please remember to leave room for desert, just in case Banoffee Pie is available.