SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. -- Only the true aficionados, the die-hard golf devotees, will recognize his name. Only golf geeks will understand his job description.
Nonetheless, one of the sport's top championship officials is being forced out of the organization that stages the men's and women's U.S. Opens and the U.S. Amateur.
Tim Moraghan, the championship agronomist at the U.S. Golf Association's top venues for years, is leaving largely because of friction with Walter Driver, the controversial president of the organization, a USGA source said Thursday.
In broad brush strokes, Moraghan was a key member of the USGA's set-up crew, and specifically, helped cultivate the grasses and greens at the various tournament venues. He was a key USGA front man for years on the issues of course preparation, always a hot-button issue at tough Open sites.
Moraghan isn't on site this week at the U.S. Women's Open because a severance package is being negotiated and his job is being eliminated, the USGA source indicated.
The friction between Moraghan and Driver apparently dates to the U.S. Open debacle at Shinnecock in 2004, when the seventh green became so dry and hard, players could not keep their golf balls on the putting surface. According to the USGA source, Driver, who was chairman of the championship committee that set up the course that year, placed much of the blame on Moraghan.
"He was looking for a scapegoat," the source said.
Various news outlets have been seeking comment from Moraghan this week, but he's so far remained mum. As for Driver, a high-powered attorney from Atlanta who is a member at three clubs that don't allow female members, the Moraghan scenario is the latest in a string of issues that have all but crushed morale among staffers at USGA headquarters in New Jersey.
Citing the organization's projected annual deficit, Driver earlier had pared back the USGA employee benefit plan and trimmed a college tuition program for the children of staffers.
David Fay, the executive director of the USGA, said Wednesday that Moraghan has not been fired, remains an employee of the USGA and is still the organization's championship agronomist. How long that seemingly semantic distinction holds true, however, is another issue.
Webb slinging
Two days earlier, Karrie Webb said she was hitting the ball as solidly as she had in the past four or five years. So, yeah, you might say she was flabbergasted by what happened in the first round of the U.S. Women's Open on Thursday.
On a course where she won the Open in 2001, Webb fell flat right out of the gate and finished with a 12-over 83, the highest round of her professional career. She bogeyed four of her first five holes and for much of the morning wave of players, ranked dead last in the field.
The seven-time major winner, who moved up to No. 2 in the world rankings, isn't hurt and wasn't sick. Until she looked at her final tally, anyway.
"I don't make any excuses," Webb said. "I'm not one of those players."
Short Game
After finishing her 11-over 82 on Thursday, 17-year-old Michelle Wie indicated yet again that she's got a long way to go with regard to behaving like a tour professional. While playing partners Christina Kim and Natalie Gulbis each took time to shake hands and thank both the standard bearer and official scorer accompanying their threesome -- an act that is considered standard protocol, not to mention mannerly behavior -- Wie blew past both volunteers without a word …. Suzann Pettersen, the hottest player on tour and winner of the LPGA Championship two weeks ago, played her first six holes in 7 over, but scraped back to finish with a 76 …. So far, the weather projections this week for the Pinehurst area have been right on the button. That's not necessarily good news. Forecasts all week have called for afternoon thunderstorms, which again arrived as expected Thursday and halted play at 2:47 p.m. Players in the afternoon wave of the field were forced to kill time for roughly three hours before being loaded back into vans and hauled back onto the course at 6 p.m.
