PGA Tour season preview Part II: The Places
Maybe it's all a bunch of hot air.
Actually, a warm front in April might stop the bluster altogether.
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| Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman won the last two green jackets but generated little excitement doing so. (Getty Images) |
We hear they recently planted poison ivy in the rough, crabgrass on the greens and man-eating Venus flytraps among the flora, because it just wasn't playing tough enough to satisfy the Augusta National sadists, who over the past two years have become the toughest greenskeepers in the game.
"It's playing more like a U.S. Open than a Masters," Tiger Woods said last year after surviving yet another dismal week of scoring conditions.
The howls from critics after Trevor Immelman's victory in 2008 were nearly unanimous and in multipart harmony. The South African, with a stiff breeze blowing and the weather unseasonably brisk for the second successive year, closed with a 3-over 75 that was memorable solely for his unbending tenacity. After all, Sundays at the Masters are known for producing birdies and eagles, not to mention cheers so loud, the noise dislodges pine cones from the trees.
The pinecones aren't falling and neither are the scores.
Eleven of the previous 14 Masters winners had posted scores in the 60s in the final round – all of them finished under par -- so the post-game analysis last spring was as cold as the weather: Augusta National has overcooked the course to such a degree that the slightest wisps of weather clearly push it over the edge.
"It's demoralizing," three-time Masters winner Nick Faldo said.
Despite much conjecture about ratcheting down the difficulty, the ANGC brass made only a couple of slight offseason design tweaks, such as changing a pair of tee boxes to give them slightly more flexibility when an ill wind blows. That won't quiet the cries and consternation April 9, when the tournament begins.
Faldo admitted that he was more than happy to spend the week in the broadcast booth last year, skipping the tournament for the first time in decades, because there's so little wiggle room with the current design that the tipping point can come faster than a slight breeze -- like in 2007, when temperatures were in the 40s and 50s and Zach Johnson won with a 1-over total.
With the addition of wind and cold conditions, a course that demands precision placement of iron shots often makes players look foolish. Especially since with the continual course lengthening, players must hit longer approach irons than ever before to find the tucked pins.
"It's brutally difficult now," Faldo said. "You know, with the margin of error, you need perfect conditions to be able to land -- Augusta is all about landing the ball on the number."
The optimal numbers haven't been there as it relates to the final-round scorecard, to be sure. In fact, last year's Masters produced the most boring of the three Sunday rounds at the majors, without question. America tunes in to see birdies and eagles, circa Nicklaus in 1986 and Mickelson in 2004, and instead was treated to a U.S. Open prequel.
Thus, pelted by cold in 2007-08, the final-round theatrics have been minimal. Faldo called it "Augusta on ice" and plenty of others have suggested in similarly blunt terms that club officials need to chill out on the course revisions.
But six-time Masters winner and Augusta National member Jack Nicklaus quickly dismissed the reaction as needlessly windy. He noted that the weather was awful when Jackie Burke won in 1956 with the highest winning total ever and has been spotty plenty of times since.
"They have those kinds of days," Nicklaus said. "This last year you had wind, and the year before you had wind. All of a sudden there's something wrong with the golf course because it takes the excitement [away]? No.
"If you have a day of rain and the course gets softer, you should be able to shoot low scores again."
We'll all find out in April. Augusta occupies a rare place in the hearts of fans, because unlike at the three other major championships, the course is familiar because the event doesn't rotate to different locations. People remember the decades of birdies and bogeys, eagles or splashdowns.
For two years, we've gotten way warmer for the former.
A look at other key courses, sites and situations in 2009:
Dubai times two
The European Tour's three-event Desert Swing, which has often attracted better fields than its PGA Tour counterparts, has traditionally been highlighted by the Dubai Desert Classic event, where Woods has regularly played and contended.
But the world's newest tourist mecca will truly be a focal point in November, when the final leg of the inaugural Race to Dubai is held, with millions in bonus money on the line. While the cash pool isn't as deep as the FedEx Cup riches in the States, several U.S.-based players have taken up European membership in an attempt to double their chances.
The wild card is the host course, designed by Greg Norman, which will surely bear watching given the incredible hype surrounding the Euro cash dash. It wasn't even sodded until April of 2008, which means the greens will be 1½ years old and possibly firmer than Mojave hardpan.
Third verse, same as the first?
If I was a bigwig at Barclays, by this point, I'd be a little concerned about what my approximately $10 million tournament sponsorship fee was buying, exactly.
The first of the four FedEx Cup series events has been largely overlooked in its first two incarnations in the New York area because of a busy sports calendar in September. This time around, The Barclays heads to a third venue in as many years, Liberty National, which is located just across the water from the Statue of Liberty and the tip of Manhattan.
Firstly, there are serious concerns about the course, which is considered cramped and will thus present major staging obstacles. A U.S. Ryder Cup member called the initial reaction from players who had seen the course as "mixed, at best. Bad, at worst."
There's a ringing endorsement. As if that wasn't deadly enough, the third set of FedEx Cup format fixes instituted for 2009 still do not require players to appear in all four series events in order to win the top prize. So, if Woods plays well in the regular season and amasses enough FedEx points, he could miss The Barclays for the third time in as many years. Playing on a cramped and contrived course won't make him any more likely to attend, either.
Nathan Hale once cried, "Give me Liberty or give me death." For Barclays, this site might deliver on both fronts.
On the other hand ...
There's one New York event that Woods is sure to play. A broken leg couldn't keep him from playing and winning the 2008 U.S. Open, and the last time the national championship was staged at Bethpage State Park, Woods held off Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia to win the title.
Bethpage Black, the infamously hard public course, drew some of the largest crowds in Open history back in 2002 -- and surely some of the loudest. At one point, Woods received a deafening ovation merely for emerging from a Port-A-Potty. Garcia was heckled, even in Spanish, for re-gripping his club so often. Colin Montgomerie was razzed just for being Monty. Mickelson became a veritable New York hero, for reasons that remain largely inexplicable, even to him.
At Bethpage, golf is a participatory spectator sport.
An itch to switch
As ever, trying to figure out the constantly changing titles of PGA Tour events is one thing (the Tampa event is now the Transitions Championships, having morphed from the PODS. Or should we say metamorphosed?)
Tracking dates is another. For two years Arnold Palmer has lobbied for the final spot in the four-week Florida Swing, and this year he landed it, presuming that securing a calendar spot two weeks before the Masters would boost the quality of international players in his Bay Hill field.
The musical chairs resulted in the Honda Classic and star-filled CA Championship in South Florida being staged in consecutive weeks, which can only help from a marketing and momentum-building standpoint, since the fans attending the latter have looked like zombies from a George Romero flick.
For decades the Florida Swing lineup was largely unchanged, before the Players Championship was moved to May and the Tampa tournament was inserted into March. The influx of flux continues. Those old Florida retirees must be more confused than ever, huh?
Arnold the emissary
Palmer was recruited last year to serve as host of the Bob Hope Classic, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Palmer won the first Hope event and also claimed his final PGA Tour title there in 1973, so he's become inextricably tied to the event.
Not always for the better. After two years of player complaints and defections, the Palmer-designed Classic Course was ditched as the primary Hope venue, meaning the four-course rotation has changed yet again. Small wonder the Hope of late has become one of the weakest fields of the season.
"I think that probably one of the more important things that they could do at the Hope would be to get a solid rotation," defending champion D.J. Trahan said this week. "I think that that's part of the reason that maybe some guys don't come back. I think it would be a tremendous draw if they could set a good rotation of four courses and keep it going.
"It's just really hard when you have guys that need to play four different courses and they only have a couple days to prepare, especially guys that are coming over from Hawaii."
Your tax dollars not-so-hard at work
The Buick Invitational, held the first weekend in February, will surely have a different winner this year. Woods, who has liberated the winner's check four years in a row, isn't expected to play.
Whether the financially ailing title sponsor should stick around beyond this year is a matter of debate, too. Buick, part of General Motors, hosts two tour events and received millions in federal bailout money in December. In all, there are six automotive industry sponsors on the tour, and each of them has suffered huge dropoffs in sales.
The banking, investment and financial sectors have even bigger presence, with 13 entities linked to tournaments as title or underwriting sponsors of some fashion. Many of them received billions in federal bailout money. At some point, long-term contracts with the tour or not, dominoes seem destined to fall.
A swing as big as Texas
With all of the jockeying of events, the Texas Open has rejoined the regular season, serving as a replacement for the AT&T event in Atlanta, which folded.
Last year, none of the four Texas events were held in consecutive weeks and were scattered throughout the schedule, from April to October. This year, the Texas Open, Byron Nelson and Colonial tournaments will be held in successive weeks, which should surely help the tournaments draw better fields. Granted, players travel by planes these days and not via auto caravans, but being in the same geographic region can only help. The Lone Star State, with its incredible golf heritage, deserves whatever help it can get.
Another duel in the sun?
After last year's ridiculous weather at the British Open, when players withdrew because it was raining sideways, we would all welcome some sunshine, sorta like the first time the Open was played at Turnberry in 1977.
In one of the greatest majors ever contested, Tom Watson somehow edged a stubborn Nicklaus by a stroke during the warmest conditions in years. In July, the Open Championship heads to Turnberry for the fourth time. Of course, heat can be measured in several ways -- in two of the three previous trips to Turnberry, the winning margin has been one shot.
New addition to the USGA rulebook: Logic
In the game's most remarkable evolutions of the past three years, the U.S. Golf Association has established a reputation as the most forward-thinking, modernistic, flexible organization among the four who run the major championships.
Think back to last year. Everybody complained that Augusta had become too hard, that the British Open was unplayable at times because of the weather and tees that were not adjusted accordingly, and the PGA Championship was staged on one of the most punitive tracks on the planet, Oakland Hills.
Meanwhile, in an amazing reversal, everybody raved about the fairness of the setup at Torrey Pines for the U.S. national championship. The last time the U.S. Open was held at Bethpage Black, there was a near riot among shorter-hitting players, because mule-headed USGA officials didn't adjust the tees to address prevailing weather.
This year, going back to the Black should mean more potential for scores in the red, which is never a bad thing.
This time, take two?
A last-minute event is purportedly in the works for the Fall Series, which at this point stands at five tournaments, down two from last year.
Barring the new addition, though, the tour will have two dark weeks in the 2009 schedule, stretching the season to Nov. 15, when the season finale at Disney World mercifully winds down. Last season produced the first in-season off week since 1989.
This leaves all of seven weeks off between seasons. So, why I like in-season vacations as much as the next dude, how about some consolidation here? The season feels so interminably long, I'm actually rooting for some tournaments to fold.
