From the infancy of this site:
11 October, 2007
In the past two months I have been able to spend a few days with Darius Oliver first in Michigan and later in Pennsylvania. He is now on his way back to Hawaii to meet up with family and then to head home to Australia. He has finished his touring of the US in early preparation for Planet golf: America (as far as I know the working title for Volume II). His final stop was to visit Bandon Dunes the newest it place in America to play golf - one that actually has a little stuffing to it and not just trappings of wealth - a fitting conclusionary stop. Recently hosting the USGA Mid-Amateur, Bandon Resort has completed its infancy and is now a young adult in the world of golf. The tournament won by Trip Kuehne (who sadly seemed ready to retire from competition out of desperation rather than joy) having become the third USGA champion of the Texas-based family making the tournament and the venue even more secure in the newest chapter of the History of American golf.
Below was chronicled my privilege to review a new book pre-release; imagine the redanman pawing his way through the first hand bound copy of perhaps the most well-done gazetteer of golf courses ever.
Planet Golf - the definitive reference to great golf courses outside the United States of America has just been released to the general public by Abrams and is available for purchase and near immediate delivery from Amazon; B & N, Borders and others have it in stores as well as on-line. Seek out your copy with enthusiasm as it is first quality distillation of course essence coupled with exquisite photographs exclusively by my favorite golf and landscape photographer David Scaletti. David worked with a brand new state-of-the art camera in full digital mode and the effort is extraordinary on both counts. Each write-up I have read so far is bang spot on and is lusciously paired with photography you'll find yourself trying desperately to climb right into. Compare it to the many coffee table tomes available and it immediately stands tallest photographically and literally. I find it even an greater distillation and more concise conveyance of the wonderance of the playing field than any other similar publication. It is more to the point than the recently released and rather excellent Where Golf is Great by Philadelphian Jim Finnegan. It is not as large as Mr. Finnegan's well-received book, but close and is of absolute top notch production.
One place where Darius and I agree completely is that this is all about the golf and its unique playing field. Yes, some mention is given to exclusivity and trappings of wealth and all that blather that has taken over American Golf, but this is about the fields of golf.
Full review to follow as time and completion allow but rare glimpses into Ellerston and Prince de Province -hardly mentioned anywhere else as well as familiar friends Prestwick, Royal Dornoch, Waterville, Valderamma and perhaps the most seminal architectural dream course of all THE North Berwick West Links. Equally compelling, it's enough to choke you up, but don't feel bad if somehow it doesn't; by the time you finish you will get it - flush.
r
______________________________________________________________________________________
10 October, 2007
11 DAYS TO GO Brazil will have 3 drivers at each other for the championship. NO penalties, NO grid demotions just a rookie mistake to save the season's excitement and take it to the last race - honestly LH has been fantastic as we should probably have seen a mistake before now.
Will Fernando be given a car the equal of Lewis Dennis - the man currently leading the WDC? I for one have no problem with Fernando's behavior being a well-known infant terrible myself. Honestly to be pipped by the team's principal. I hope that everyone has his best car his best tyres and his best night's sex on the 20th.
So ... next year will it be ING-Renault or Santander-Renault?
Rumours, rumours, rumours ........... (what fun reading the 606)
My FUN Projection for the order of finish in Constructors 2008
Santander-Renault Fernando and Kovaleinen
Ferrari-Marlboro Kimi & Lewis or is it Lewis and Kimi?
M-M 2008 Heidfeld & Schumacher!?!?!?
Toyota Masa and Trulli with new team principal Jean Todt
STR Vettel and Mark Weber
BMW-CreditSuisse Fischi & Robert Kubica - surely CS needs a couple of bandits - but I do love the Polak
2008 Drivers:
1-FA 2-HK 3-SV 4-KR 5-LH and 6-M errrr RS :-)
____________________________________________________________________________________
4 October, 2007 F1 AGAIN!
I guess the best news today is that the head Ferrari wanker Jean Todt says 0% for Fernando at the hated Ferrari (sort of the F1 equivalent of Notre Dame). I have to admit that both Felippe and Kimi are drivers that I admire. My best guess at this point is that we'll be fortunate to have FA back at Renault. Time to move all the investments from Santander to ING? That outght to be a good one ..........
We'll also be looking to see how the FIA handles the rookie and his poor driving in the rain behind the safety car last weekend. Total elimination of points or a ten spot demotion from quali spot ... or both ..... JESUS what a soap opera. Fernando may yet get the chance he deserves in Shanghai. Leave it to the Chinese to have this drop in their laps, like they need extra publicity and financial boosts. I swear you cannot make this stuff up.
The Dunhill Links Championship is off to a great start with the highest overall average scores (not surprizing) at Kingsbarn by a whisker. Even they (The UK team at TGC) get the Links part wrong about Kingsbarn; one minute calling it a links and then Ken Brown telling us that the soil is different and the conditions not as firm at KB because it is farmland. Farmland it is by god, but what a piece of farmland! Don't get me wrong, it will come out in the commentary here, but I strongly believe in Kingsbarn as a fabulous course and a magnificent achievement in course design is it is NOT LINKS! I wish I had enough time to get that up for you, but it is I promise coming very soon.
Cheers
r
1 October, 2007
Rather a while since last here. Several projects in the works, but hopefully worth the wait. Many are simultaneously progressing, but I've put up Lehigh Country Club - my home course as it progresses and for good reason.
Formula One deserves comment as it becomes a soap opera of unforseen magnitude. I've about had enough of Ron Denis and Lewis Hamilton; I never thought that the opportunity would EVER arrive for me to become a fan of the dreaded Scuderia Ferrari Marlborough, but if Fernando winds up there in 2008, you'll find me under the red cap.
What had the hope of once being a season for the ages in F1 2007 has become a farce that could not be believed as fiction.
Oh bother..........
13 September, 2007
A Treatsie: An Interesting process, that of changing old golf courses.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of playing the Alex Findlay-designed Llanarch course with Stephen Kay the architect involved with the process. He was on site for a further consultation in the process and played the second nine in its entirety with a trio of us. He showed us a few things and talked about many, Stephen is not afraid to bend your ear or even provoke you in conversation so he and I get along pretty well. He is not afraid of criticism and of commenting on other’s work in this arena often known as restoration, renovation, modernization or even wholesale slaughter and outright re-do or just plain building new course where the old one was before.
I also had the pleasure to go around my own home course Lehigh Country Club last Tuesday with our architect Ron Forse. That visit grew out of our grounds committee wrestling the bull and deciding that we would protect our golf course from the whims of green committee chairpersons, amateur architects and well-intentioned but wholly mis-guided “Memorial Tree Planting” and other insidious and to date unrecognized threats in the future. I should mention that Ron did our original master plan in 1994 and it needed an updating as we commenced to re-build bunkers that weren’t draining. We brought him back as we decided to consider adding length to accommodate the new equipment, maintain design integrity as we did so and to improve turf conditions.
What are good reasons for such an undertaking? What are good solutions? How does it work? I’d like to address some of these. One of the other fellows in the Llanarch group yesterday relayed to me that he had recently attended an outing at the little Ross gem known as LuLu in suburban Philadelphia. The outing was for superintendents and media types and featured the work done by Forse but also interpreted by the superintendent. Some vague rumblings of wanting to put some teeth into the course, toughen it up and the like was mentioned by someone that day as the visitors decided that the super’s presentation was perhaps a bit over-the-top that day. Green speeds were perhaps exceeding twelve and rough was six inches according to my source who will remain unnamed as I did not attend that day.
Who are these changes being made to accommodate: The top 1000 golfers in the world? The top 1% or 25% of a particular club’s membership? The best amateur and professional players in a regional or state golf association at tournament time (and the occasional pleasure of the S & M crowd at your own club)? These are questions to be looked at long and hard as the answer is different in every case. Certainly some goals of consulting an architect and changing your course are always the same.
#1 goal is always healthier turf. Removing trees, especially conifers and willows that are near lines of play, especially greens, tees and key fairway areas has to be the number one consideration in any undertaking of any changes. Trees that members might believe are antediluvian are probably only 20-40 years old and fast growing, surface rooting, shedding trees have no place at all near playing areas. The myth of isolation and protection of closely located tees and greens near landing areas is a dangerous myth. Open visualization of these areas not only helps the turf but protects the players by making them visible to the mis-hitting player to allow a timely “Fore” rather than one too late if well-intentioned one.
Trees are nothing but big weeds and competing ecosystems for turfgrass. Trees might be helpful in reducing so-called greenhouse gasses (I will not!!! approach the Global Warming thing) but so is healthy grass which is less susceptible to disease, needs less applications and water and in the end provides precious open space for urban areas. Want some trees, plant them on the periphery of your course, and especially don’t line your fairways. You are not “Toughening your course” you are destroying it, so get those weeds out. Sunlight, air circulation and drainage will improve and you will have great turf, providing you have not chosen to force a cultivar into an area where it will not grow well. Apropos the Tour Championship this week: Bent Grass in Atlanta, GA is just plain stupid with the new small blade Bermuda strains available.
Work to be done on old courses:
Greens: Expansions and recoveries of previous green areas that were intentionally or otherwise eliminated is a great and important part of the changing of old courses. Some of that is relatively easy, some of it very complicated because when green speeds were slower day to day slopes were greater and may be too severe today. A very competent architect must be the one to oversee the green changes. Slopes often need a little softening to accommodate today’s higher green speeds and it must be done right.
Green reclamation or expansion was recently done at Llanarch and was a key part of the first master plan at Lehigh. I should also mention the work Gil Hanse and crew at Ross’s Plainfield CC in New Jersey and Fenway in Westchester, NY as well as Forse’s LuLu green work as choice examples of this process. Nearly every competent updating change includes work here. Walking around the peripheries of old greens built before 1930 will often reveal squared-off pads on which the greens were pushed up and built upon. These greens originally extended right to the peripheries as original architects drawings and old aerial photographs have taught us.
So many TV broadcasters perpetuate the myth that the old pre-war course had small greens when they were often very large. These greens also had these rectangular shapes and often largely unpinnable sloping areas for drainage and maintenance of quality turfgrass. These areas were often eliminated in mowing patterns during WWII to save precious gasoline.
Softening of green slopes is even more tricky requiring as was done at Llanarch elevation of certain parts of some greens by a few inches to over a foot to allow playability at faster speeds.
Fairways: Blame the USGA with their USGA Open setups? Blame them for having the average golfer think that narrow fairways are good for toughness? Perhaps, but recovered and largely expanded green complexes demand wider fairways to restore the proper angles of play to strategic golf holes. That’s why some of those greens you might play have the seemingly unfair contours that they do. Problem is that your best angle of play is now from the woods over there to the left of the fairway because zealous tree-planting and fairway narrowing have eliminated some of the great character of your course. This can be the hardest sell of all changes. Cries of “The hole (Course) is too easy now” reverberate across the land, but once again all the changes need to work together because if you widen your fairways and expand your greens but shade trees keep your greens the consistency of chocolate pudding (In addition to the greens not surviving) you will indeed have made some playing aspects a little easier. Wide fairways need to be firm to allow balls to run to bad (as well as good) places and the greens receiving these shots from wide angles need to be firm to require some skill rather than hit and plug greens which require much less skill. Then you also deal with creating literally unrepairable ballmarks.
Fairway width does not exist in a vacuum. It must be part of an entire golf hole plan or it indeed devolves into banal simplicity. Stephen Kay related to me that the eighth at McCullough’s Emerald Links in the Atlantic City, NJ area, the fairway measures 161 yards wide, but not exactly an easy hole. When I can post a photo, I’ll elaborate, suffice it to say, strategy is heavily involved. Fairway widths must be related appropriately to green contours.
Bunkers: A bit of a pet peeve of mine as appearance seems more important to golf course architectural students than placement and utility. Bunkers can be aesthetic, but they must somehow fit. Some bunkers nowadays do exist in a vacuum seemingly just to be au courant, but architectural styles, shapes, depths and placement all need a balance. Whether or not to move or add bunkers, move tees or both is where the architect must have a hand and after careful study and interpretation of all information available. Who the changes are intended to affect again is paramount.
I recently toured the South Course at Oakland Hills in 78 strokes from the approximate length that Ben Hogan declared the course a monster in 1953 – 600 or so yards of golf course went unused by me that day (And 1,000 in front of me was not used by some players that day). How can an architect possibly restore Ross’s design intent for all those golfers? Badly some might say by flanking each landing area left AND right with serial bunkering. Add seemingly single-file fairways and it is not a driving test but a survival mission to avoid the pro shop at the turn for more ammo. What is “good” for the best players in the world at a USGA Open, PGA Championship or Ryder Cup is not for the other 9,999 in 10,000. That is certainly a plan, but not one I’d sign off on. Luckily Oakland Hills South is so magnificently routed and the greens are so good that even that bunkering scheme diminishes it only a little. Father and son Jones have each “modernized” the course 50 years apart, but before his death Ross himself prepared some changes for OHS, but Father Jones did it his way, fortunately leaving the greens alone, and they remain pretty much so to this day.
Tees: Adding tees just to add length can be an atrocious affair, not for the eyes of impressionable little children. An unnamed famous course near my home recently hired
the man some consider “The Greatest Architect Living” to toughen their course for the USGA. Several tees were added which are virtual pop-up orphans that add hundreds of yards to the card but place 60-100 yards between sets of tees so that one feels like Lewis & Clark trying to locate these eyesores. Building up 20-30 foot runway tees to maintain visibility and that awful concept of “fairness” is no answer either. Lower-lying tees more in the character of the original design add much more in a sensitive fashion to the aesthetics. Add monotonously the same bunker over and over again, flatten interesting green contours in the interest of speed and testing only one type of player leads to one of America’s early architects having one less of his courses in existence. An architect who built Strong courses with bold features, there are precious little remnants of his best work remaining.
Modifying the teeing ground without thought of strategic angle creation, maintenance or restoration of the function of bunkers as well as restoring previously eliminated bunkers that punish only weaker players already struggling to get along is not as easy as mowing a patch of grass. As part of a professional master plan they seamlessly fit into the landscape.
I shall add more to this treatise and eventually place it in a reference section pegged to the menu at left, but for now I am going to finish prematurely to make it available on line.
Therefore:
Above all else, every course of merit built in the classic age need to retain an architect that first recognizes and respects the architects of the Golden Age. I hope to constantly champion and lend support to that cause here at redanman.com.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
1000 GM
r
5 September, 2007
One thing that helped the Deutsche Bank in Boston was the Monday finish because of Labor day.
On what would normally be a dead sports day, golf fans were treated to an exciting finish of
a golf tournament. I'll be curious to see if there is as much buzz among golf fans next Monday
as there was this Tuesday. Just wait until Rees Jones gets done with Dick Wilson and Joe Lee's
over-treed, but otherwise notable and once exciting west Chicago suburban S & M public pleasure
pit. More homogenization and unrecognizability of your old course: coming up!
Just to expand a little bit on yesterday's hit and run, I thought the FedEx Cup might benefit
if the end of the golf season weren't so clogged already. With the addition of the Bridgestone
(At least they make great golf balls those B330 and B330s, I tell you!)WGC to the PGA and
expanding the Tour Championship to a playoff series, the PGA Tour seems to have gotten a
little greedy and clogged the hell out of the end of the regular golf season to try to
take on Football. Problem is that the real core golf fan is moderately likely to tune in and
watch, the Tiger sports fan will only watch if Tiger is in it.
The Western Open, one of golf's most historic tournaments - a former Major Event - has been
jostled around to a very unlikely spot on the schedule and given a limited-field -
not exactly an "Open" any longer, is it? As a former Chicago resident, the Western Open
was a Fourth of July tradition, now chosed because of its top TV market status as
one of the pre-Tour Championship events.
The Tour Championship
Who really gives a hoot about golf in Atlanta (and the rest of Georgia) anyway? Augusta
is famous becaue of the Masters and we'd likely hear little of it if it weren't for the Masters as
the two are inseparable, the venue being created by Jones for Jones. Now so over-tinkered as to be
unrecognizable by Mackenzie-ophiles GolfWeek in its ratings and rankings last year had the moxie to
recognize the architectural merit of the course for what it is. Enough digression.
This is about professional men's golf making a real and meaningful change to hopefully take golf
truly world-wide, something diametrically counter to Tim Finchem and the US PGA Tour's interests
(Which are making money(mm), mm and mm). Starting the golf Major season with the Australian Open,
following it with the Masters, the USGA Open and the Open Championship is the way to go. We
had already been treated to alternating years of the Ryder Cup and the President's Cup (Again
drawing complaints from the world's best golfers of "no mas, no mas" and "pay us to play")
in the Autumn (Northern Hemisphere reference) and the end of the US PGA Tour with a 30 player
limited-field Tour Championship. That certainly was much more interesting when the venue changed
to locations considered otherwise worthy of hosting a roving US major. Now that the out-of-
control golf ball and loaf-a-bread-on-a-stick mega-drivers are causing even more Frankensteinian
changes to beloved old venues we need less, not more of these "Big" tournaments.
But that wouldn't be as profitable, would it?
Worthy suggestions for reconfiguration of men's professional golf's year-long schedule will be included
in the next HOT TOPIC. Just send your opinion to me at redanman@gmail.com.
Cheers,
r 1440 GMT
4 September, 2007
FedEx Cup, never been kissed. Doesn't deserve a kiss, even a mother couldn't love this
frog.
1986: The PGA Tour tried to have a little fun with the International at Castle Pines Golf Club
when they first played it, Wednesday and Thursday were full and different fields and then everyone
was cut to 72 total for Friday. There was a playoff Wednesday for an exact number. Ditto Thursday.
Starting anew, the play began every day with no carryovers. Never any carryovers of points.
Hopefully you can follow all of this.....
Fast forward 2008. A new FedEx Cup. 120 players only advance. First round cut, you are out.
Start over with no points, no nothin'. This is supposed to be the "Playoffs", right?
Second round 72 players - make the cut or go home.
Round Three 48 players - make the cut or go home. Oh yeah, no carryovers of any status at all.
Round Four 30 players - try and win the damn thing.
The current system supports the money list far too closely, time to think outside the box. Golf
is never going to win head-to-head in the US. Golf may be somewhere between a religion and a
disease, but Football is the religion. The timing is bad with the Ryder and President's Cups,
the PGA (Can anyone say "Australian PGA needs to replace the PGA as the 4th major?") and the
Bridgestone for the FedEx.
Lots to fix, Timmy-boy.
Cheers,
r 1300 GMT
31 August, 2007
I was alerted to a story regarding top 100 course lists and Bill Huffman wondered if there were a bias by
raters against Arizona courses. I responded to him as printed below, before the horizontal line. I was the
only one to respond so far.
Link:
www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/96179
You want comments on why Arizona doesn't have "Top 100" courses? One reason is that there are only
100 of them on any list. GolfWeek has two lists of 100, AZ fares a little better there because one list is
comprised entirely of courses built since 1960. I've played a lot of desert golf courses, AZ and from A-Z.
You're trying to crack heady company.
Arizona is a very pleasant place to play golf, much of the golf is meant to be vacation golf and accommodates
the casual golfer gently. As a national magazine rater panelist and former resident of Colorado I always have
enjoyed visiting Arizona and have done it a lot, I am no stranger. Problem is that the golf is not really all that
different from course to course over much of the state. A lot of people have an AZ course as one of their favorites,
but few if any of the masses stand out.
Best courses in the state?
Desert Forest? Estancia? GC of Scottsdale? Hard to tell apart, of that style Desert Highlands, pretty much the
original is still above the rest, almost head and shoulders so. The original Troon stands out a little bit with some
really interesting green complexes. All up and down Scottsdale and Tucson there are a whole long-bed pickup
truck full of very good golf courses. The ones in the mountains? Different variety of the same sort, just different
beautiful scenery. Most important is getting all levels of players around reasonably and having a great time. If
that's all you want, then Arizona wins. But there's a lot of golf like that in a lot of places, too.
My take?
Wonderful greensites and complexes at Desert Forest give promise, but it is very unidimensional from tee to
green. Apache Stronghold is a very well-designed golf course in an awful state of agronomy, hard to play on
dirt, but I understand it is recovering. We-Ko-Pa Saguaro just doesn't sustain its greatness hole-to-hole.
Great golf courses are created out of demand and no one has really demanded a great golf course be built in
Arizona, it's that simple. Desert Forest overall probably comes the closest, but just a great set of world-class
greens isn't enough.
Desert Golf is niche golf, In December to March, it is about as good as it gets.
Just as an aside to your readers, there are no obscene freebies, not at GolfWeek anyway.
More to come.
r 1920 GMT
Additional notes on this topic:
I posted this link and my comment on it because I am working on a piece for this site about what constitutes
good when talking about golf courses. Everyone has his favorites, but when lists get made the definition
determines positions on the list and comparisons. No list pleases everyone, so it's a great business.
15 August, 2007
Today I find two interesting topics for comment in the world of golf that certainly are pet peeves of mine. The
USPGA Tour is always patting itself on the back for all the giving back that it does and a new dilemma comes
to light where they can perhaps shine or give themselves a bruise if not a black eye. As the "Playoffs come to
golf for the first time" with the FedEx Cup process that it seems no one understands amajor unintended
consequence comes to light. As the fields dwindle over the course of these playoffs, what are the players
eliminated from the ranks supposed to do? Each successive week the fields will be smaller and more popular
big-name professionals will be out of work unless they go and raid the cookie jar of the Nationwide Tour. You
remember the Hogan, and Nike Tours, for developing players so they can build their games to be good enough
to get to the Big Show? Yup, that one. Like these guys need the money? They just don't want to
take four weeks off.
Possible good/bad - the Nationwide players will get to play against some of the players that they are hoping
to play against full-time if they are successful in securing their cards, but it will also be detrimental to some
hard-working players who have been toiling very very hard to reach the top of their games to maybe just
sneak in and get that card for the first time.
Be good to the little guy, don't screw him. Let him continue his quest on the Nationwide Tour and in whatever
fashion, let the temporarily out-of-work big guys raise money for somebody's worthy charity.
Possible solution? Some of the smaller markets that want professional men's golf can host tournaments those
weeks on a smaller more intimate scale and bring golf to more places. Likely to happen? Not on Tim Finchem's
watch in my opinion. Forget the little guy and maybe in the end of any analysis, this idea's all wet, because
all anyone seems to want is Tiger, Tiger and Tiger.
Which brings me to the golf course architecture bete noire today; Tiger Woods Golf Design. Tiger is telling
us that his "Design Signature" will be the short par 4. I guess that will go down as "His" just like the club
twirl, the flop shot and the wedge bouncing game that of course he of all people invented. What will Tom
Weiskopf have to say about that - terrible Tom who of all modern architects has brought the driveable par
4 to the masses, almost one per nine he can call it a signature if anyone. Lest we forget that top architects
Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, Tom Doak, Gil Hanse have all built great ones, even Rees Jones best hole
at a course that never should have been built in PA - LedgeRock is a drivable four and a sneaky one at that.
Rees built a real classy one with a great little ramp and a big pimple in the green (Yes, Rees! Well done!)
and well, of course Tom Fazio has one on almost every one of his 200 top 100 courses that he's built.
Sorry Tiger, find a new signature.
Your pal
the redanman
1255 GMT
13 August, 2007
Two things
First off my love of golf architecture which I have been ignoring lately. I have always been a fan of the variety of
courses that catch our eyes and just like the unparalled variations of the lovely female creature I like my redheads,
blondes and brunettes. Each kind of beauty has her counterpart in the grounds for golf. It is always a great anticipation
to see what the next panel thinks of the courses out there compared to my opinions and the other sets of panelists.
Personally, I think that there is a lot more to great golf than just notching your belt, the experience of being out there
and how it makes you feel so warm, cuddly and more special. If that and smooth greens were all that mattered then
Arcadia Bluffs in Michigan might be in the top 3 in the world on many a day.
So anyway, Golf Magazine is foisting on us their current iteration of the world's and USA's best. Nanea in Hawaii -
just because you can't get on it? But ahead of that well-worn dog track Royal Melbourne! Old Sandwich in the
top 100 in the world and 44 or so in the USA. I think Ben and Bill are making a career out of building the other
172 holes they found at Sand Hills and couldn't include in that solitary 18. Old Sandwich? How about taking
some architectural chances, fellas? Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful place and a great experience and the
golf course is way better than average but there are a couple of holes that take much bigger chances and came
out great at We-Ko-Pa Saguaro. Oh wait, that's public and anyone can play there. Old Sandwich could have
fared a lot better with a little more creation rather than discovery of all those lovely little nothings that
mother nature left behind.
Lending even less credibility to Golf Magazine's list is the re-inclusion of Butler National, Jupiter Hills, 9 Bridges
and Castle Pines. Castle Pines Golf Club one of the world's most beautiful collection of experiential holes but
a golf course? Don't forget the world's best housing tract that hosts a quasi-Major Golf Tone-a-mint Muirfield
Village GC. The HCEG ought to sue for defamation of their great name.
Nine Bridges? We're not going there. Golf Magazine once found room for my home course Lehigh
Country Club's inclusion to the exclusion of Philadelphia CC and Huntingdon Valley. Lehigh CC
may be the greatest routed course in the world, but that ain't enough to make #78 in the USA.
Oh gosh, Norman, let's book a trip to play the "select list" so we can play what's going to be on
the list next time.
To those unaware, let me clue you in to one thing about some of these lists, most notably almost
any national magazine's state lists - a big function of what's where and especially even there is who
has been where lately.
Finally
Today most are revering Tiger for winning Major #13, not exactly unexpected, I called him to win,
place show right here and he let me down by not finishing second and third, too. I guess that he's
not John from Cincinnati after all. What I found very refreshing about the PGA Championship was
the interviews from Woody Austin. First off, any guy bending his putter on his skull one has to take
seriously or it might be your skull next, I suppose, but he did what I've been doing for years - got
all over the media for being a bunch of Tiger-whores. My favorite? "Nobody hates a bogey more
than Tiger." HAH! Woody doesn't think so and he's right. Woody called the media out for doing
what they do best in sports - tell us what's happened before it happens. "We hear all the time
that we've got no chance." Oh well, at least the top 300 in the world are making a pretty damned
good living at being second-rate. I'll tell you one thing, Tiger may hate making bogey more than
ME, but he doesn't hate missing an eagle putt and settling for birdie nor making a double bogey
more than me, I'll tell you that!
Kudos to Woody today. Sorry for the tall man being so short today.
r 1300 GMT
9 August, 2007
In Defence of Bermuda or Couch
Bermuda grass has a very special place in my memories as I learned the game on Bermuda as a youngster in
South Florida, a very different South Florida from today. I bring up this topic as this week we are hearing golfers
bemoan Bermuda Grass as it is in the news with Southern Hills and the American PGA Championship aka the
Major that should be replaced. (Southern Hills does have bent greens, just FYI.)
The grain defines Bermuda. I teaches you how to putt. The best player I ever had the pleasure of playing with on
Bermuda is NBC's Gary Koch, the same one who bails out Johnny Miller so smoothly after JM's foot is in his mouth
and half way down his throat - so effortlessly that you don't even notice. That's how somooth his putting was on
Bermuda back at UF in teh early to mid 1970's. Gary is and has been a modest, quiet gentleman - and a deadly
assassin on Bermuda. It defined him. Even Ben Crenshaw called Gary the best putter on Bermuda greens. He could
strike the ball on the Bermuda surfaces so that it rolled like someone hit it with a hammer. Smooth like it were on A-4.
Putt like that on Bermuda and you can putt on anything. Get the ball rolling without hops, skips, stutters and
deviations and you CAN putt.
The smell on hot evenings as the sun has set and you as a kid are still out there getting in your golf, hoping to
reach #18, walking as fast as you can. Hot Bermuda grass really does it for me. It's part of how I can tolerate
Arizona for more than three days; it makes me think I am 16 years old again. As rough you think your ball is
lost so often because you just don't get those perched lies of Bluegrass - a staple of American design and
simply anathema to me. Bermuda grass is very honest grass it nearly defined the rub of the green. It adds
some unfairness to golf in spite of what most seem to want today. You have to read greens. You absolutely
must strike putts confidently and with authority, You absolutely must strike the ball sharply to introduce spin.
You learn to hit down on the ball. It is not golf for sissies. Then add some wind. Just think if South Florida
were hilly, too.
One can tell a golfer who has learned to play on Bermuda grass wall-to-wall. They take these massive divots and
spin the hell out of the ball. You cannot get away with half-assed ball striking. Bermuda players are all good iron
players - that is if they can actually play. They live for those shots that require precision and salivate at that smell
when it's hot and getting dark because they want the sun to come up again and get out there and hit it.
Well, we are going to see a real ball-striker win at Southern Hills this week. Someone with muscle or else ungodly
straight for the 72 holes and someone who has the attachments to hit the shots that miss the greens at Southern
Hills with enough authority. I have no idea who it is, but architecturally the green complexes will shine - in more
ways than one.
Formula One Friends:
One non-golf comment to my F1 friends - just how much better can this 2007 season get? Alonso in a Mercedes
McLaren and Hamilton WITH M-M as he has been since he was 12 - getting penalised as a team for impeding
each other in quali! Ferrari is like Notre Dame to those of you that follow American college sports; if you're not
with them you hate them. Cocky, arrogant,hubristic - take your pick often backing it up, but .................
But two M-M drivers trying to beat each other's brains out as F1 takes its summer vacation - the guy once thought
to take Michael Schumacher's seat at Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen almost looking like an also-ran as BMW gets it
together as BMW-Sauber and there are suddenly nearly ten superior drivers racing every time. Good stuff. Great stuff.
Cheers,
r 2358 GMT
6 August, 2007
One of golf's most interesting weeks coming.
Today is the follow-up day to a day too long in coming in golf. The best ladies golfers in the world playing The Old Course
for a major prize. In fact, it is a bit sad that the "British Ladies Open Championship" wasn't even assigned major status
until just a few years ago while a tobacco manufacturer's tournament was considered a major. Congratulations to
Lorena Ochoa and to all little girls who aspire to any level golf.
redanman.com is a huge champion of women's golf, always has been. Ever since I first played with the great Lady Gator
players back at University, I have admired the lady players for their tenacity and their unalterable respect for the Rules of
Golf. Ladies often get a bad rap for slow play whilst it is the better male player who is indeed the slowest followed by the sandbagging "12" playing $100 Nassau bets.
The men's most boring major starts this week with Tiger Woods coming off a thrashing of the world's best at Firestone
(The World's most boring course?) going to the sweatbox known as Southern Hills. SH is living proof that all it takes
to make a course great is fantastic greens, in spite of those annoying trees which are absolutely mandatory for some
shade in that awful OK climate. Tiger will somehow find a way to finsih Win, Place and Show for the first time in golf
history this week. Will anyone care? Of course they will, it's history in the making. Tiger in the end barring any further
serious injury will become the gold standard if he hasn't already. One must admit that a good old-fashioned "what's
going to happen next" as presented at the sublime Carnoustie this year was a treat to watch, to this
"I am in the Woods" not "I am Tiger Woods" player.
In all seriousness, dump the PGA especially in August in the USA, for the Australian Open and add some oomph
to the credibility of professional men's golf. How about an interesting fourth major instead of the junior USGA Open
Championship? They dumped the DeMaurier, time to dump the PGA Chump-ion-half-sunken-ship.
Men, follow the ladies on this one.
r 1600 GMT
5 August, 2007
Home again, home again, jigggedy-jig. It was hotter in Northern Michigan the last three days of my trip than it was in
Dallas, TX! It isn't global warming folks, I'll save that for another day. I did get a case of hyperthermia, but suffered no
real damage.
1735 GMT.
Straight, far and few.
r
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
30 July, 2007
I am currently traveling, but sadly - not to the "Home of Redan". I will have some new pieces and new photos
by the second week in August.
I currently finished visiting the triumvurate of manufactured transitional faux links - Bayonne Golf Club, Kingsbarns
and Arcadia Bluffs this year. They make for an interesting comparison of styles and degrees as compared to true
links of which there are a few dear hundreds on the face of the earth.
Darius Oliver of Australia aided by the world-class golf photographer David Scaletti have just received a hand-bound
copy of their forthcoming book Planet Golf. I was allowed a quick preview of it today - it will be available in October
of this year.
Pre-order it if you can.
Cheers
r
Also in the not-to-distant future look for www.bunkerfetish.com the site for bunker afficionados. Never forget that bunker
appearances are nowhere near as important as their locations; however we that love golf courses love the different looks
of bunkers. Domain recently secured, bunkerfetish will be a tongue-in-cheek look at that part of the course that often
gives you the biggest clues as to who designed the course that you are playing.