Golf Talk [Episode 025]

Furrowed brows and furrowed bunkers. What do the pros want: non-penal hazards? Or maybe they just want to say ‘penal’ more frequently.

PodcastTom Pernice gets away with cheating (maybe) and Michelle Wie may need to cheat to qualify for the U.S. Open (maybe). But the big news this week is the furrowed bunkers at The Memorial, so we talk about them. Just what has Jack Nicklaus been smoking, and where can we get some? Also, Royal Precision closes down, Clinton fails to add properly, Daly’s book sells well, and Meena Lee fails to send an email, costing her a spot at the U.S. Women’s Open. This and a whole lot more in this week’s episode of Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 025 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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On Furrows, Whining, and Winning

I don’t care if they fill the bunkers with aluminum pop tabs – the conditions are the same for every golfer. Just go play!

There’s no whining in golf. Unless, of course, you’re a PGA Tour pro at this week’s Memorial Tournament. This week, some (most?) pros are busy whining about the furrowed bunkers. They’re “unfair.” Players “weren’t warned.” They introduce “luck” to the game. And on and on…

Muirfield Village Range Rake
The golfers at this week’s Memorial Tournament will play under the same conditions, so what’s the beef?

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Jay Haas

Jay Haas remained a significant factor on the PGA Tour late into his forties. His nine victories are overshadowed by the way he carries himself on and off the golf course.

ProFilesSince 1976, Jay Haas has been a regular on the PGA Tour. Introduced to golf by his uncle Bob Goalby, the 1968 Masters champion, Haas has played steadily for many years. Perhaps his greatest legacy will not be his trophy case but what he gave to the game and to his competitors in his journey as a professional.

While Haas hasn’t amassed an overwhelming number of wins, he has collected the wholesale admiration of his peers on the PGA and Champions Tour. He has received some of golf’s most prestigious awards: the 2004 Payne Stewart Award for upholding the traditions of golf, the 2005 Jim Murray Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, and the 2006 Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s highest honor for distinguished sportsmanship. Golf is, according to tradition, a gentleman’s game and Haas has carried himself as one for many years.

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Scotty Cameron by Titleist Circa 62 Putter Review

Scotty Cameron pays tribute to the putters of his youth with the Circa 62 line. How do these old school putters stack up in the present day?

Scotty Cameron Circa 62 Number ThreeScotty Cameron’s line of Titleist putters occupies a unique niche in the flatstick universe. After joining forces with Titleist in the mid-1990s, Cameron’s milled product line essentially created the $250-plus premium putter market. Titleist regularly leads the PGA Tour in putters in play, and Cameron’s putters have such a strong reputation – and resale value – that entire businesses are built around buying and selling them.

If you’re one of Cameron’s crazies, you probably know all about his new Circa 62 line. If you aren’t, read on and find out what this new line of milled putters is all about, and what a $299 putter can do for your game.

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Do Seniors Follow the Rule?

This year’s Senior PGA Championship made me think about how the last major tour would stand up to the 40-30-20-10 rule. It turns out that it fits just as good – or even better – than the PGA and LPGA Tours.

The Numbers GameIf you were like me and many other golf fans, you spent Sunday afternoon watching an exciting finish to the Senior PGA Championship. Both Brad Bryant and Jay Haas made nerve wracking birdie putts on the final hole of regulation to send the championship into extra holes.

During those three holes, Haas spent most of the time scrambling around and sinking longer putts to keep himself alive. Bryant, on the other hand, could not rekindle the magic he had on #18 in regulation and lost the tournament by missing a four footer on the last playoff hole, which happened to be #18 again.

This week in The Numbers Game, I thought it would be an appropriate time to take the 40-30-20-10 rule and see if it applies to the Senior PGA players as well as it does to the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. We saw just how important the 30 (putting) was in those final few holes. Will the others fall into their normal place? Read on to find out.

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The Memorial Tournament Preview

This year’s stop in Dublin, Ohio will prove to be an exciting one thanks to newly furrowed bunkers and a star-studded field.

Memorial LogoThe PGA Tour is making its traditional stop in Dublin, OH two weeks prior to the U.S. Open. This shady suburb of Columbus is home to Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club. This year the PGA Tour will find a few changes at Jack’s place. For the first time, Nicklaus himself has opted not to play in his event, Tiger Woods has decided to prolong his mourning hiatus and begin preparation for the U.S. Open, and perhaps most important to the players in the field, Nicklaus and the PGA Tour have decided to furrow the bunkers in order to penalize players for finding them instead of providing a reprieve from the rough.

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Memorial Journal, Day Two – Seeing and Being Seen

A whole lot of images from Tuesday at The Memorial at Muirfield Village.

The Memorial TournamentTuesday at The Memorial is mainly about two things: the induction ceremony for the year’s honorees and the clinic Jack Nicklaus and selected PGA Tour golfers put on for the benefit of a small crowd. This year, Bubba Watson pounded drives out of (Jack’s) sight and José Maria Olazabal demonstrated his tremendous wedge game.

Of course, neither of those events are particularly newsworth, so I ventured onto the course to take a slew of pictures. A few gigabytes heavier, I returned with a helpful dose. I’ve hand selected a few for you here. Yes, this version will be light on the commentary and heavy on the imagery, so click through and wait just a bit for the images to load. I hope you find the wait worthwhile…

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Messy Month of May

As good as April was for the PGA Tour, May was that much worse.

Thrash TalkThe month of May for the PGA Tour has come and gone, and it’s time to move towards the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That’s definitely a good thing because the past month has been less than spectacular for this golf fan. The Masters was awesome once again at the beginning of April, and I figured things would continue to pick up heading into the summer.

Unfortunately for golf fans, that wasn’t the case. The Wachovia Championship was the first tournament of May, and it lived up to the hype. The great course and strong field made for another great finish at Quail Hollow. Jim Furyk outlasted Trevor Immelman in a playoff en route to claiming victory. That was the only high point on the PGA Tour this past month.

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Memorial Journal, Day One – Muirfield Village’s Defenses

Muirfield Village is no pushover. Not only does the course throw 7400 yards at players, but it throws sand, water, elevation changes, and tricky greens, too. Players will have their hands full this week!

The Memorial TournamentMuirfield Village Golf Club, Jack Nicklaus’ home course in Ohio and host of The Memorial Tournament since 1976, is a playground. Nicklaus designed and built Muirfield Village, and it’s no coincidence that the tournament to which it plays host is called the “Masters of the Midwest” – many believe Nicklaus modeled much of Muirfield Village after the famous host course of the actual Masters, right down to the diagonal peanut-shaped par-three twelfth green over water.

Like Augusta National, Muirfield Village has four primary defenses: a meandering creek that sometimes widens into a pond, changes in elevation, lots of sand, and deceptive, sloping greens.

This photo essay examines the first three of these defenses. For the latter, why, simply know that last year in the first round, I watched Jesper Parnevik four-putt from 35 feet on the relatively mild second green.

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