Tuesday at the AT&T Pro-Am – computer tech and antique golf

Tuesdays at a PGA Tour event are pretty quiet – practice rounds and range sessions are the norm, and everything is pretty low-key. Any kind of special event is going to be a change from the ordinary, and today at Pebble Beach they had one that really stood out.

The event was a demo of the new EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 game for the Xbox and PS3. The new game incorporates a feature called Legends of Golf, in which they have included course simulations of the four majors going back to the first Masters at Augusta National in 1934, and player avatars of “legends” players like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Seve Ballesteros. The game includes true-to-the-era clothing on the player avatars, vintage equipment characteristics, and the 1934 Augusta National course layout – complete with reversed nines.

With the cooperation of, and in partnership with, Augusta National Golf Club, the artists and programmers at EA Sports used vintage photos and other material from the club’s archives to digitally recreate the shape and position of the bunkers, and the contours of the greens – which were much more severely contoured originally than they are nowadays – from the original course layout. The characteristics of the vintage equipment which the game simulates were approximated based on some testing of vintage reproduction equipment, and research which included interviewing golfers who had played with Golden Age equipment.

After the game demo, the event moved to the range where the assembled media watched PGA Tour pro and Ping staffer Hunter Mahan hit reproduction old-style golf balls using hickory-shafted clubs – mashies, niblicks, brassies, and drivers with a wooden head that’s smaller than a modern 5-wood, or maybe even a 4-hybrid. Callaway’s Bobby Gates was also part of the demonstration, and while he and Hunter were hitting, 2012 U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson ambled up and asked, “What’re you’all doing?” before picking up a niblick (I think it was…) and getting into the act.

All three of the pros marveled at the whippy flexibility of the shafts of the reproduction clubs they were using, especially the drivers, and the wildly-variable patterns to be found on the striking faces of the irons – these clubs pre-date USGA regulations on groove dimensions by decades. Each found that with a little adjustment to the tempo of their swing they were launching the softer, square-dimpled repro golf balls straight and true (try doing that, weekend duffers – on the fly, with unfamiliar antique equipment…) They weren’t hitting the square-dimpled balls nearly as far as they are used to doing, by any means, but they were getting good height, which is tough to do with hickory clubs, and lovely arcing flight.

The pros didn’t have much trouble launching shots straight & true with the vintage-style equipment, but the same could not be said of some of the media types in attendance when we were given a shot at it. I hit a couple of shots with a niblick – a high-lofted iron like a wedge – and then with a driving iron, a club with the loft of a 2-iron and a blade that looked like a butter knife. I thought that my circa-2007 Hogan Apex Plus irons gave feedback! A mis-hit with these antique reproductions tingled your hands through the leather grips in no uncertain fashion, even with the slight vibration-absorbing quality of the wooden shafts. Even true hits (I had a couple…) stung a little. (My Hogans, on the other hand, feel like butter when you strike the ball on the quarter-sized sweet spot… thank you, modern metallurgy!)

Yes, Tuesdays at a PGA Tour event – even the AT&T Pro-Am – can be pretty quiet, but as broadcaster Ted Mills, one of the ESPN Radio “Golf Guys”, remarked during the vintage demo, “This is the most fun I’ve ever seen anyone have on a Tuesday at a Tour event.”

Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay – true links golf on The Ocean Course

Seen through the ocean mist from the 16th hole of The Ocean Course, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel can be imagined to be a Scottish castle atop the cliffs above the thundering Pacific.

Credits: 

 

Photo courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay

The Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links is the newer, companion course to the resort’s Arnold Palmer/Francis Duane-designed Old Course. The Old Course, as described in Part II of this series, is a traditional American Parkland-style layout, while the Arthur Hill-designed Ocean Course, its companion to the south, is a classic links layout. It is rare to find two courses as different from each other as these two are in the same resort; the variety they represent, combined in one location, is a real treat.

The Ocean Course is situated on a parcel of typical Central California coastal shelf land – a narrow, intermittent strip of rolling, flattish coastal plain lying between the Pacific Ocean and the rugged Coast Range hills – terrain which, in places, does a fair imitation of Scottish links land. If you have never played true links golf before, a round on the Ocean Course is the next best thing to boarding a flight to Scotland.

The view from the first tee gives you a hint of what you are in for, as the first fairway rolls away from the tee in subtle undulations of close-cropped grass, but as you ride out to your well-struck drive from the first tee (or walk – unlike The Old Course, carts are not required on the Ocean Course) the view opens up before you, and a good three-quarters of the course spreads out before your eyes.

The 1st and 18th holes of the Ocean Course are separated from the remainder of the layout by a tree-lined creek bed which forms the northern border of the area containing everything from the 2nd green through the 18th tee. As seen from the 1st hole, generously-sized fairways blend smoothly into the greens, in true links fashion, with between-hole waste areas covered in native grasses defining the playing areas. It’s a splendid sight.

With the exception of the four par-3 holes, a low, running approach to the green is nearly always a viable option on this course; and even at that, the 9th hole, a 182-yard par-3 which plays directly into the prevailing wind, has a runup area which will come in handy if a sudden gust knocks your tee shot down short of the green. I played Ocean on a calm morning, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how the exposed layout would be affected by the wind – if the breeze off the ocean kicks up during your round, you will want to have that low shot in your bag.

The open, inviting fairways ensure that only truly errant tee shots will miss the short grass, and when the wind is down, a wide-open layout like the Ocean Course may appear to be defenseless against the onslaught of titanium drivers and modern, multi-layer golf balls (as the old Scots saying goes – “Nae wind, nae gowf.”). But the Ocean Course, like all classic links courses, has a second line of defense – the greens.

Well-contoured, and guarded by bunkers and mounding, the greens at the Ocean Course are true tests of not only your putting, but your approach shots. A well-laid approach shot – one that lands on the same tier or on the same side of a ridge as the hole – will leave you with a make-able putt. Land your approach on a different tier or on the opposite side of a ridge from the hole, however, and the resulting uphill or downhill putt, or roller-coaster ride over the ridge, will place your possible birdie, or “sure-fire” par in doubt.

The delights of the playing qualities of The Ocean Course are matched by the visual delights of the scenery that greets you as you move through your round.

Ocean vistas await you at #2 green, #15 green and all along the dramatic cliffside routing of holes 16, 17 and 18. The inner part of the course – the parallel-running hole pairs of 4 and 5, 6 and 13, where the fairways blend together and the paired holes share clusters of fairway bunkers, as well as holes 10, 14 and 15 – is the most classically links-style landscape on the course, immersing you in rolling grassland vistas from which the ocean is sensed, but not always seen.

The farthest reaches of the course – holes 7 through 9, and 11 and 12 – bring you close to the uplands that rise up to meet the Coast Range hills just across Highway 1; the stands of eucalyptus trees and waving native grasses lining the fairways are reminiscent of a classic plein-air landscape; a painter standing before an easel, brush and palette in hand, would not look out of place on this part of the course.

Some of the most compelling views on the Ocean Course, however, are glimpsed when viewing conditions are not necessarily the best. A few of the holes that run back toward the north – most notably #5, #13 and #16 – offer glimpses of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel complex in the distance, and when a grey Pacific overcast flattens the light and the ocean mist softens long views, the classic shingle-side styling of the hotel, with its multiple eaves and earth-toned colors, blurs into a vision of a distant Scottish castle. Add the faint skirling tones of the sunset piper who plays each evening on the outside terrace at the hotel, and a golfer on the Ocean Course might feel as if they have been transported 5,000 miles across land and sea to the ancient links where the game was first played.

Inviting to the beginner and mid-handicapper, yet capable of presenting a formidable test to the top amateur and professional golfers who have contested LPGA championships and U.S Open qualifiers over its classic Old World landscape, The Ocean Course is one of the Central California coast’s must-play golf experience for both residents and visitors alike. Combine rounds on The Ocean Course and The Old Course over a weekend, or longer, stay, and you will experience the best of two classic styles of golf in one convenient location.

Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay – classic parkland golf on The Old Course

The dramatic closing hole of The Old Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links provides a picture-postcard finish to your round of golf on the Arnold Palmer-designed course.

Photo Credit: 

The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay

The Old Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links is a classic example of an American Parkland course set within an accompanying real estate development. It was designed and built in the early 1970s, a period in which golf course housing developments were very much the going thing, but you will find few courses of this type, from that period, which are so skillfully integrated into the landscape.

Winding between neighborhoods of handsome custom homes that back onto the fairways, the 6,610-yard (from the blues) par-72 Old Course gives an initial impression of being somewhat narrow, but the fairways are actually quite generous in size. Trees line the fairways in typical parkland-course style, sheltering golf shots from the ocean breezes and protecting the adjacent homes from errant golf shots.

Given its location on the coastal shelf that rises gently inland from the coast before leaping up to become the Coast Range hills, holes running east-west on The Old Course are either uphill or downhill to various degrees. The prevailing wind is off the coast, so your slope/wind mantra becomes “uphill/downwind; downhill/upwind”.

The Old Course opens with a longish, but not difficult, par-5, the course’s #13-handicap hole. At 529 yards from the blues and slightly uphill, Hole #1 is a gentle lead-in to your round. A good drive and second shot around the mild left-to-right double-dogleg will leave you with an uphill wedge shot to the moderately back-to-front sloping green. Overshooting the green on your approach will find you in light rough on uphill lies – prime real estate for those who are handy with a chip shot, but still tricky because the green is now sloping away.

The second hole on the Old Course will quicken your pulse a bit. Ranked #3 in difficulty, the 402-yard par-4 was one of the beneficiaries of the Arthur Hill remodeling work that took place on the front nine in 2000 – a major component of which was reshaping and repositioning bunkers, and eliminating bunkers that served no strategic purpose.

Hill’s rework of #2 repositioned a pair of bunkers on the left side of the fairway to pinch in the landing area, and though the effect appears negligible at first, their position ups the ante on your tee shot considerably. Shy to the right off the tee, as the bunkers encourage you to do, and you will find yourself with a less-than-ideal angle for your approach to the left-to-right-angled green. Take on the bunkers, which requires an uphill drive of considerable length, and you will be rewarded with a more comfortable approach to the green, and no complications from the left-front greenside bunker. It is a classic risk/reward par-4 of subtle but effective design.

The third hole is the first of The Old Course’s four par-3’s, and one of two in which water comes into play – #13 is the other. The water is more a visual than an actual hazard at #3, as even from the blues and the tips there is little carry over water, but it lies there on the left awaiting a pulled tee shot, and if the hole is cut well left a ball that overshoots the putting surface will find the pond where it curls around behind the left-hand lobe of the green. The remaining par-3’s on the course – numbers 7 and 17 – are dry, but both face west, into the prevailing wind; a breezy day will toughen your tee shot on these “one-shotters”.

The variety of the holes on The Old Course make for an entertaining and challenging round of golf. A couple of sharp dogleg par-4s on the front side – numbers 4 and 6 – will test your distance control off the tee, as you will want to lay a well-placed tee ball at the corner in order to leave yourself the best approach to the green. The par-5s test your mettle with more than just raw length: #5 is a left-swooping downhill run with bunkers guarding the inside of the corner and water right of the green; #10 is an uphill dogleg-right with an inviting first shot, but a strategically-placed bunker that turns your second into a risk-reward proposition; #15, the final par-5, is another left-trending downhill hole – it also presents an inviting tee shot, but water lines the left side of the fairway and pinches in to guard the left side of the green.

With all the variety and interesting challenges that holes 1 through 17 on the Old Course present, the big payoff of your round is the justly-famed 18th hole. Several holes on the upper section of the course offer glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, and at 17, the last par-3, the ocean bursts fully into view as the backdrop for the green, but it is 18, running alongside the cliffs back toward the hotel, that summons the full drama of the oceanside setting.

The Old Course’s 18th hole is a beauty at any time of day, but for my money, the westering sun that shines in your eyes for the tee shot at #17 turns the 18th hole into a picture postcard – illuminated by the the golden glow of the late-afternoon sun, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel provides a dramatic backdrop as you tee off on #18.

Sloping away downhill from the string of tee boxes behind the 17th green, the 18th’s main fairway terminates at an unassuming barranca which marks the low point of the course – and perhaps the low point of your round should you challenge it in an effort to reach the approach area below the green with an heroic carry. Legend has it that when Arnold Palmer was laying out this hole, he backed further and further up the bluff, hitting balls as he went, until even he couldn’t carry the barranca – and that’s where the back tees were placed.

Keep your tee shot left, away from that big blue lateral hazard to your right – the Pacific Ocean – and allow for the downhill carry, and maybe some roll, when you pull a club for this shot. Sharp play around the green at the 18th may be awarded with applause, especially in the late afternoon, as the green is overlooked by the common-area patio and lawn in the crook of the building, and a number of ground-level rooms with firepit patios facing the sunset. Hotel guests gathering for afternoon refreshments and a view of the setting sun will be your gallery as you close out your round on The Old Course.

A round of golf on the Old Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links is an experience that you will long remember (especially if you earn some applause at the 18th green…), and one that you will want to repeat. The quality and variety of the course, and the gracious and attentive treatment you receive from the staff, will tempt you back to the the Old Course again and again.

Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay – scenic beauty, great golf, luxurious accommodations

If the first things that come to mind when you think of Half Moon Bay, California, are pumpkin patches, Christmas tree farms, the Mavericks surfing contest, seafood, and the rugged beauty of the San Mateo County coast, that’s fine – the seaside community at the junction of Hwys 1 and 92 is justly famed for all of those things. There are two more thing which the mention of Half Moon Bay should bring to mind, however: luxury resort accommodations and great golf.

The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay
Situated on the coastal shelf between the rising foothills of the Coast Range and the crashing Pacific Ocean surf, just off Hwy 1 about 3-1/2 miles south of the town of Half Moon Bay, The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay resort provides an unlooked-for luxury destination in the long stretch of ruggedly-beautiful California coast between the Monterey Peninsula and San Francisco.

The 6-story resort hotel features 261 rooms, ranging from the merely luxurious “standard” rooms to top-of-the-market suites – with most rooms featuring ocean views, and many having outdoor firepits.

Situated in a dramatic setting on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Ritz-Carlton

Half Moon Bay offers luxurious accommodations, and all the amenities expected of a 

first-class luxury resort.

No first-class luxury resort can aspire to that designation without amenities above and beyond well-appointed hotel rooms and suites, and The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay does not disappoint when it comes to dining, spa facilities, or available activities.

The resort’s main restaurant, Navio, serves coastal cuisine featuring fresh, local ingredients. At the time of my visit to the resort last September the first local salmon catch in three years was brought in by the fishermen of Half Moon Bay, and chef de cuisine Sean Eastwood and his staff certainly did well by this local delicacy. For fine dining – including a wine cellar featuring the finest selections from regional, national, and international vintners – Navio stands with the best that the Central Coast region, from the Monterey Peninsula to San Francisco, has to offer.

Navio, at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, offers fine dining in elegant surroundings.

Other dining options at the resort include the bistro menu offered in The Conservatory Lounge (with live music in the evenings), and informal, fireside dining at Mullins Bar & Grill at the golf course clubhouse. My favorite from the Mullins menu: the smoked ribs. The resort has its own smoker, and the smoked ribs that they serve rival any that you will find in the BBQ capitals of the South and Southwest U.S.

Opportunities for indoor and outdoor exercise activities abound at the resort. The 24-hour fitness center features state-of-the-art cardio- and weight training equipment, daily aerobics classes and a yoga studio, and outdoor activities include tennis, bicycling along the coastal trail, and of course, golf on the two award-winning golf courses.

For those with relaxation in mind, or looking to work out the kinks after exercise, the resort features a complete spa facility with 16 treatment rooms, whirlpools, a co-ed Roman mineral bath and a complete range of massage services, facials, manicure and pedicure treatments, and more.

The Roman mineral bath in the spa at Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay is ideal for relaxing after an active day.

No matter which of the services and facilities you take advantage of during your stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, you can be certain that the courteous and attentive staff will do their best to ensure that you enjoy your stay.

Half Moon Bay Golf Links
Though I am as easily distracted by fine dining and luxurious accommodations as the next person, the focus of my visit to the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay resort was golf. The resort features two championship-caliber courses – The Old Course, a classic American Parkland-style course co-designed by Arnold Palmer and Francis Duane in 1973; and The Ocean Course, a true links-style layout designed by Arthur Hills in 1999. Hills was also responsible for major remodeling work on the Old Course, conducted in two phases: on the back nine in 2000, and on the front nine in 2009. I played the two courses on back-to-back days during my visit, and came away tremendously impressed by their playing qualities, their condition, and the professionalism and attentiveness of the staff.

Both of these distinctive courses deserve more detailed individual attention, so look for Parts II and III of this series to learn more about The Old Course and The Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links.

What’s Coming Up in Bay Area/Northern California Golf in 2013

As we hang up a new calendar and welcome in the new year, it’s time to look ahead at what 2013 has in store for the golf fan in Northern California.

Amateur/USGA golf

The high point of 2012 for golf in the Bay Area was, of course, the United States Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and while we won’t be welcoming the USGA’s biggest event back to the area again until 2019, when it returns to Pebble Beach, there is still plenty of USGA golf happening in Northern California in the coming year. 

In 2012 local courses hosted qualifying tournaments for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Opens; respectively, Lake Merced Golf Club & Harding Park Golf course, and Half Moon Bay Golf Links. In 2013 Lake Merced Golf Club is scheduled to host a sectional qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open; information on a local qualifying site for the 2013 Men’s Open is not yet available.

Two USGA championships will be contested in Northern California in 2013: the U.S. Junior Amateur July 22 – 27 at the Martis Camp Club in Truckee, and the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship September 21-26 at CordeValle Resort in San Martin, home of the Frys.com Open.

Another distinguished amateur event on the Bay Area golf calendar – and one which has been there since 1917 – is the San Francisco City Championship. The oldest continuously-played municipal golf tournament in the United States, “The City”, as it is known, is played at the Lincoln Park and Harding Park golf courses, and can boast as past champions such illustrious local stars as 1964 U.S. Open Champion Ken Venturi (San Francisco), 1999 U.S. Women’s Open Champion Julie Inkster (Santa Cruz), and 1969 Masters Champion George Archer (Gilroy). Deadline for entries is January 15; competition in the various divisions takes place in late February and March. More information about the tournament is available at http://www.sfgolfchampionship.com/.

Amateur events like these are well worth any golf fan’s time to come out and watch, as they illustrate so well the depth of interest and participation in the competitive game across the full spectrum of age and gender.

Professional golf
In the realm of professional golf in the Bay Area/Northern California, the Pebble Beach AT&T National Pro-Am needs no introduction. The AT&T is a perennial crowd-pleaser, the largest annual draw in the area for golf fans of all stripes. The tournament’s unique format, which features pro-am teams playing the full tournament over three courses, coupled with the unrivaled scenic splendor of the Monterey Peninsula, makes it a fitting opener for the Northern California golf season. This year’s AT&T Pro-Am will be played February 7-10.

The 7th hole at Pebble Beach is just one of the many scenic spots on this beautiful course. (photo by author)

Professional golf returns to Pebble Beach later in the season with the Champions Tour’s The First Tee Open, this year with a schedule change that moves the event from its early July time slot to the final weekend in September. The move to September is a good one for the tournament, as the weather on the Monterey Peninsula is generally more welcoming in late September than it is in early July. The lack of schedule conflicts with the PGA Tour that weekend may tempt some more of the PGA/Champions Tour crossover players to make the trip to Pebble for the event. The First Tee Open is a real treat for local golf fans – smaller crowds, budget-friendly ticket prices, and convenient nearby parking to watch championship-caliber golf on one of the finest golf courses in the world.

Next on the calendar for professional golf in Northern California is the Frys.com Open, played October 7-13 on the challenging Robert Trent Jones II course at CordeValle Resort in San Martin. With the institution of the wrap-around season for 2013-2014, the Frys.com Open takes a jump in prestige with its new role as the PGA Tour’s season-opener. The tournament’s new status as the players’ first chance to score FedEx Cup points in the new season should bring a deeper field to the event in 2013.

The Champions Tour returns to the Bay Area in the fall with their year-ending championship tournament, the Schwab Cup. Back in the Bay Area after a detour to the Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2012, the Schwab Cup will be contested at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco October 31-November 3. The Schwab Cup has a long history in the Bay Area: Harding Park hosted the Schwab Cup Championship in 2010 and 2011 following a 7-year tenure at the Sonoma Golf Club.

Another must-see event at Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2013 will be the Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational, November 19-24. A unique pro-am event which pits players from a variety of professional tours – PGA, Web.com, Champions, LPGA, and Symetra Tour – against each other in a length-adjusted format, the PBI is another extremely fan-friendly event. Spectators can walk the fairways at Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Del Monte right behind the pros, getting a perspective on these great courses that no other event can offer. Admission is free, and parking – which can be an ordeal when the AT&T Pro-Am or the U.S. Open are played at Pebble – is convenient, nearby, and free.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area/Central Coast region will continue to be without an LPGA tournament in 2013. The distaff Tour has been absent from the Bay Area golf scene since the demise of the CVS Pharmacy Challenge, contested at Blackhawk Country Club, after the 2010 season. Also missing from the local professional golf calendar is the WEB.com Tour (formerly Nationwide Tour) event at TPC Stonebrea, which is on a one-year hiatus while the clubhouse at the course undergoes renovations.

The coming year holds lots of promise for Bay Area golf fans, with plenty of opportunities to see high-quality amateur and professional golf played on some fine area courses.

You’ve Got To Love Johnny Miller…

…especially if you’re a golf writer looking for a quote. With over two dozen wins on the PGA Tour, two majors to his credit and a 22-year career in the broadcast booth for CBS, Johnny has the credibility to speak his mind – and he certainly does; he is well-known for not pulling punches when doling out his opinions from the broadcast tower or in interviews.

Sportswriter Dan Jenkins mentioned Johnny’s acerbic commentary style in his 2005 novel Slim and None, when his main character, fictitious PGA Tour pro Bobby Joe Grooves, compared Miller to the blunt-spoken announcers at European Tour events:

“Hit a bad shot in America and every announcer but Johnny Miller will throw you a softball. Say something like, ‘That’s not exactly what he had in mind.’ 

But hit a bad shot in Europe and the Brit on the mike will say, ‘Ah, there’s old Aunt Martha, trying to play golf again.’ ”

Johnny was on hand the weekend before Thanksgiving at Pebble Beach as honorary host of the Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational pro-am tournament. Enjoying a pristine late-autumn Central Coast afternoon while he waited by the 18th green to present the trophy to tournament winner Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, Johnny was asked about the news that the current world #1, Rory McIlroy, was soon to make a wholesale equipment change. The young Northern Irishman is rumored to be signing a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Nike, and dropping the Titleist clubs and ball that have been in his bag for four European Tour victories, six PGA Tour wins, and two major championships. Johnny’s answer was typically blunt:

“It could be a major issue. It’s one thing to change clubs, but it’s another thing when you change ball and clubs. I did that with Wilson in ’75, and it literally ruined my career. I never tell anybody that, but since we got on it… they had that truncated-cone dimple ball and crappy woods – the irons were good, but I mean it was a disaster for me. It would have been one thing if I could have kept playing Titleist or something, but they wanted me to switch to their new ball.”

The problem with good players is they think they can win with a rental set, you know, but it really isn’t true. You have so much confidence you feel like ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter, I’ll take the big bucks…’ ”

McIlroy obviously feels differently about it than Miller; on Tuesday in Dubai he was asked by reporters if he had any concerns that the change would jeopardize his game. He replied, 

“No, not at all. I think all the manufacturers make great equipment nowadays and it’s all very similar – a lot of them get their clubs made at the same factories. I don’t think it will make any difference.”

With Nike in the equipment news recently promoting their new “cavity-back” Covert driver, and the second generation of their resin-core-technology ball, this is probably not what Rory’s new handlers in Beaverton would like to hear.

On the other hand, the folks at “The House That Swoosh Built” may not be concerned. With players’ roles these days more as brand ambassadors than pitchmen for a specific line of clubs or model of ball, McIlroy is not likely to be shoehorned into an existing product line; in fact, far from playing clubs manufactured in some überfactory churning out clubs for all comers, Rory’s new sticks are likely to be handmade Nike-skinned replicas of his successful Titleist clubs, and the ball he plays may be a finely-tuned special, custom-crafted to his liking – the goal is for him to win with the Swoosh on display, and the details of what he uses to get there will probably never be known outside his immediate circle.
 

McIlroy rubbed a little salt in the wound for his former friends at Titleist with comments he made after his victory at the Dubai Championship Sunday. Asked what he would do with his clubs now that he had played his last round with them, he responded (laughing), “I’m not sure yet, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll keep them as a bit of a memento.” 

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Of course, you can’t talk about Rory McIlroy these days without also talking about Tiger Woods. Not only are the two knee-deep in a palsy-walsy “bromance” of a sort that would have been unthinkable for Woods to get involved in – at least with a competitive rival – in his glory days, they are going to be stablemates in the Nike Golf empire.

With three wins – but no majors – on his record in 2012, and a new wunderkind potentially relegating him to a second-fiddle position at Nike, speculation about what lies ahead for a sputtering Tiger Woods is the subject of much discussion in golf circles these days. Johnny also had something to say about what’s to come for Tiger:

“I think Tiger will have a good year; obviously he’s due to win a Masters. If he can win a Masters and get that monkey [off his back]…The old career is gone – it’s like it’s past history; somebody else did it. Now he’s got kind of a new time of his life, which just about every golfer goes through from 35 on. It’ll be interesting to see if he can get the little bugs out of his head, the worries and this and that.” 

“Right now the young guys aren’t scared of him, that’s the big difference. Before everybody was scared to death of him, but now it’s sort of like ‘Yeah, yeah, you were great, unbelievably great, but that was before – now it’s our turn.’ That’s what he’s got to overcome.”

Love him or hate him – there is rarely any middle ground – Johnny Miller is always worth listening to. When he’s in the mood to talk he’ll tell you exactly what he’s thinking, and even if you don’t agree with what he says, you have to admit that there are few in the world of golf who have as much credibility to back up their opinions.

Golf pros pay their dues – in Wednesday Pro-Ams

Think a golf pro’s life is a bed of roses? All private jets, courtesy cars, and million-dollar paychecks? Well sure, in the upper strata of the profession there’s a lot of that, and even the “bubble boys”, the guys who are floating in the nether-land around the 125 mark in the standings are making a hell of a living compared to your typical blue-collar guy, desk jockey, or even small-corporation CEO, but the guys (and gals) who play the game for a living pay their dues – every week in the Wednesday Pro-Am.

The Wednesday pro-am is a staple of every professional golf tournament, and along with skyboxes and hospitality areas, it is a big part of the income stream that supports professional golf’s commitment to charitable giving.

So, besides the obvious benefits that come to the recipients of the tournament’s charitable giving, the benefits to the amateur players are many: the thrill of playing a round of golf with a big-time pro; the good feeling that comes from knowing that their money not only bought them a great experience, but is helping one of the many local charities that are supported by the event; and bragging rights for a year about the time they teed it up with Ernie, or Vijay, or Phil.

But for the pros? What is their experience like? You might have to get a golf pro good and drunk before he’d admit it (these guys are not known to be prone to biting the hand that feeds them…), but many of them dread the Wednesday pro-am more than a root canal sans novacaine.

In addition to the same good feeling that the amateur players get – knowing that their efforts are helping charitable causes – they know that they are supporting the Tour which supports them by acting as a draw to bring the big-money amateurs into the fold. They also know that when they tee off with a threesome of amateurs in tow, they are in for a 5- to 6-hour round during which they will spend a lot of time doing things like standing over their ball in the fairway while a playing partner looks for yet another lost Titleist, and listening to excuses like “I carry a 10 handicap, but these new clubs just are not working out for me!”

The pro’s three partners are usually named Hooker, Slycem, and Chunk – or should be, if you go by the majority of shots they hit. They’re generally local business bigshots (LBBs), or the top salesman who works for a local business bigshot. Top salesman gets the pro-am slot when the LBB’s latest trophy wife swears she’ll divorce him and pull his bank account out through his ears if he doesn’t take her to Hawaii instead of to another damned golf tournament.

The three amateurs are either playing the latest blades – custom-forged and hand-ground by trolls in the Black Forest, surgical implements which the Tour pro himself wouldn’t try to hit, or grand-dad’s Tommy Armour Silver Scot irons with shiny-slick leather grips (“They’re the originals!”, he’ll exclaim with pride) that have more business being in a glass case in a museum than out on a golf course.

Off the tee they’ll hit screaming worm-burners or high pop-ups; on the rare occasion when they do get in the fairway they’ll hit smothered hooks, banana balls, or chili-dips so severe that the local planning commission has to approve their divot. Out of a greenside bunker – and oh lordy, do they find the bunkers – they’ll take a mighty swing that scatters two shovelfuls of sand onto the green, only to have the ball pop up and land at their feet; or they’ll hit a thinned screamer that sets a new Land Speed Record traversing 200 feet of green to find the other bunker – or a water hazard – on the opposite side.

The long-suffering pro plays through all this commotion and distraction with a smile on his face and a smoldering fire in his heart. He’s trying to get a read on the golf course so that he has a clue where he should be playing the ball tomorrow when the real action starts.

The pro wants his caddy studying breaks and grain patterns on the greens, not helping the amateurs and their drinking-buddy caddies find another lost Pro V1x, or reading the 40-foot, double-hump, triple-breaking putt that Amateur #2 left himself after skulling a 60-yard wedge shot 140 yards to the far side of the green.

After the round he’ll pal it up with his ams at the post-round awards banquet (like he wants to spend another minute with these guys…), and pose for a few more pictures with the ams and their former-cheerleader wives, cussing to himself and hoping that the sadistic tournament committee doesn’t parch the greens ’til they’re slicker than a linoleum floor for tomorrow – when the course becomes his office, and he goes to work to earn his living.