Matt Kuchar suggests a golf shot clock – USA TODAY

May 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Matt Kuchar has a suggestion on how to solve the slow play problem on the PGA Tour.

“It might be interesting to have a tournament with a shot clock,” said Kuchar.

PGA TOUR:  Tiger Woods joins chorus on slow play

Last week Kuchar won the Players Championship where some rounds lasted almost five hours.

The delays were highlighted by the problems that Kevin Na was having executing a swing but there were many guilty golfers. Kuchar suggests a 40-second shot clock.

“On a hard course, you’re going to find yourself in scenarios, I think in a couple of places – Charlotte, Memorial, the Masters – greens are fast, you have challenging shots,” Kuchar said. “Three‑footers, it’s easy to tap in. In certain places if you have 3‑footers, and you miss, it’s 7 feet coming back. I would be interested to see a shot clock thrown out there.”


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Instead of major move, Woods treads water in third round at Sawgrass – CBSSports.com (blog)

May 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Posted: 05:47 PM ET May 12, 2012

By Steve Elling | Senior Golf Columnist




PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The tune probably sounds a little familiar.

The notes might be in a different octave, but the melody was unmistakable.

Tiger Woods stood before a throng after his third round at the Players Championship and riffed away like a classic-rock guitarist playing a familiar tune.

Yet again on Saturday, he hit the ball well, but couldn’t get the ball in the hole with nearly the same effectiveness.

“They are certainly not in the same category,” he said. “I played well today and didn’t get anything out of that round. It was probably the most solid I’ve hit the golf ball all year actually.

“Even though I hit a couple off-line, but they were just hit dead*flush. I just got nothing out of the round.”

In fact, despite setting a target score of 67 or 68, he didn’t move a lick up the leaderboard and shot an even-par 72 and fell 10 strokes off the lead as the final groups toured the back nine at TPC Sawgrass.

This is not a joke about the pond-saturated Sawgrass course, per se, but Woods did too much treading of water while others, like Rickie Fowler, were making big moved from back in the pack. Woods started with six straight pars, then missed a 30-inch putt for par on the seventh and was 2 over for the day through 10 holes.

As much as anything, his putter left him down for the umpteenth time. For the second day in a row, Woods hit either the green or putted from the fringe on 15 of 18 greens on a course that demands precision on approach shots, but unlike in his second-round 68, he didn’t capitalize.

Woods used 33 putts and was ranked T54 in the field in putting after he signed his card.

“Well, misread two of them, which is fine,” he said. “Then I hit two other just bad putts. But other than that, it was just tough getting the ball close. I had a hard time. Some of the guys, I’m sure, are doing a better job than I did today. But I was having a hard time getting it close.”

While Fowler shot 66 for the low score of the day among the early finishers, Woods never remotely got that type of momentum started on the difficult Pete Dye layout, where he hasn’t won since 2001 and has posted one top-10 finish over the decade since.

“The course was fair, very fair,” Woods said. “It was a great test.”

So this one was pilot error all the way.

“The golf course, as I said earlier in the week, it’s about ball*striking,” he said. “You have to hit the ball well that particular week. You can’t fake it around here.”

After finishing T40 at the Masters and missing the cut last week, Woods can’t seem to get all 14 clubs in his bag to cooperate at the same time.

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All kinds have shot at TPC Sawgrass – ESPN

May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Since the Players Championship moved to the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass from Sawgrass Country Club in 1982, the tournament has been largely defined by the iconic par-3 17th hole with its island green. Though it’s only 137 yards, it looms as a gargantuan shadow over the other 17 holes. Through the years, the 17th, the massive purse and the star-studded international field have given the event the stature of a major championship. Depending on whom you ask, it’s the fifth major.

Yet beyond the 17th hole and its two bookends — the risk-reward of the par-5 16th and the difficult par-4 18th — the course is largely devoid of a true identity. Beyond the 17th hole, how would you define Sawgrass?

The Masters is best known for its complex greens. Historically, the USGA has placed a premium on par by creating narrow farrows and deep rough. The British Open has its fescue and swells. The PGA Championship is the most likely place for a first-time major winner. It’s U.S. Open-lite.

But the Players is the excitement and drama of the 17th hole. That’s not DNA — not like the greens at Augusta or the rough at the U.S. Open. You’ve never heard of a player coming to Sawgrass early to prepare for the 17th hole.

It’s certainly a great venue, one of the seven or eight best in the world for championship golf, but it’s difficult to find the soul of the place. Perhaps that’s a good thing for the players accustomed to a standardized idea of what makes a major champion.

“Sawgrass doesn’t favor a low ball or high ball hitter, because most of the greens open up in the front,” said Craig Perks, the 2002 Players champion. “It doesn’t fit any particular ball flight. You can fade and draw it. There is a premium on being a good iron player, but you can make up for it with good scrambling.”

Recent winners of the Players have ranged from short hitters like Fred Funk and Tim Clark to bombers like Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson. Last year at the Players, K.J. Choi beat David Toms in a playoff. Both are moderate length players. In 2008, Sergio Garcia beat Paul Goydos, one of the shortest players on tour, in a playoff.

“I wish we could play something like this every week,” Toms said. “I think the best players would figure out a way to play a golf course like this every week. But it would certainly be more fun for a guy that’s 45 years old that doesn’t hit it very far to play something like this every week; to where it brings more people into it.”

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The course’s egalitarian setup is a gift of its designer, Pete Dye, who with the help of his wife Alice, created the famous Stadium Course on marshland.

“I think this course has shown over the years that it brings everyone together because of Pete’s angles that he creates,” Tiger Woods, the 2001 Players champion, said on Tuesday. “Everyone is hitting to the same spots, and we’re all playing to the same areas; just what club we choose to get there to the same spots.

“Some of Pete’s other golf courses are a little bit different, and this one in particular, you have to hit the ball well; and we’re all playing to the same spots and then obviously to the same spots on the greens. You really can’t get down there on some of the holes with big drives or anything like that. There’s really no room to do that because of his angles.”

Phil Mickelson, who won here in 2007, enjoys the variety of the Dye-designed course. Over the years, the recently enshrined member of the World Golf Hall of Fame has been critical of particularly the setups of Rees Jones, the renovator of several U.S. Open venues. But Mickelson has great admiration for what the Players Championship offers in the top rungs of championship golf.

“I think that what I’ve come to appreciate over the years is that as difficult and penalizing as it is for a mishit, missed green, missed tee shot, it’s very rewarding on the greens if you’re able to find them; if you’re able to hit a good shot within 15, 18 feet of the hole, you’re rewarded for a very good opportunity for birdie,” Mickelson said.

Since 1982, a Players winner has never led the field in driving distance, but 11 times they have ranked first in greens in regulation. The old cliché of fairways and greens is an apt quotient for success on the Stadium Course. Four winners since 2000 have led the field in both driving accuracy and greens in regulation.

“I don’t think that truly great courses take driver out of your hands every single hole,” Mickelson said. “But I think there’s greatness in decision-making off the tee; having options to hit driver but with penalty, having options to hit less than driver, irons or hybrids, fairway woods with slight penalties, as well.”

Still, despite its diversity and appeal to a broad swath of players, the Players Championship will always be defined by the 17th hole. On Tuesday, Tiger suggested that the famous hole would be better situated somewhere else on the golf course.

“I think 17 is a great hole,” he said. “But not the 17th. I think it’s a perfect 8th hole or something like that.”

Tiger might be on to something, but as Luke Donald pointed out on Wednesday, its location is what makes it so special.

“I kind of like that it’s 17,” Donald said. “I think if it was anywhere sooner in the round, it wouldn’t be as famous. It wouldn’t mean as much, and it would not be as important.”

In both 2008 and 2011, the tournament was settled in playoffs on that venerable hole. It’s a cruel irony of a place so lush with choices that everything would come down to a couple of swings on a little crapshoot of a hole.

But everybody has to play it. Tiger has to play it with his tortured golf swing. Bubba Watson, the reigning Masters champion, won’t have to play it because he stayed home in the Orlando area with his new baby boy and wife. But Rory McIlroy, who is making his return to the event after skipping it last year, is here to take up some of the slack.

As the No. 1 player in the world, he’s one of the favorites to win this week, but no one is a real favorite at Sawgrass. In the end, its quirky but egalitarian character is its greatest virtue. By the weekend, some unheralded player will emerge from the doldrums to a comfortable place on the leaderboard. The only thing certain is that the 17th hole will give all the players hell.

Farrell Evans covers golf for ESPN and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.


Farrell Evans

Golf

  • Senior golf writer for ESPN.com
  • Wrote for Sports Illustrated/Golf Magazine for 9 years
  • Played college golf at Florida A&M

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Golf: Tiger Woods plays second fiddle to playing partner Webb Simpson, two … – San Jose Mercury News

May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Webb Simpson was nervous playing in the same group with Tiger Woods. It sure didn’t show Thursday in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

Simpson chipped in from 35 yards in front of the par-4 eighth green for eagle and made Woods shake his head and smile when he holed a 60-foot birdie putt that might have rolled off the 12th green if the cup didn’t get in the way. It led to a 7-under 65 for a share of the lead Thursday with Stewart Cink and Ryan Moore.

“I was nervous playing with Tiger. I prayed a lot out there,” said Simpson, who lives about a mile away from Quail Hollow and already was on edge about trying to perform well for the neighbors. “Once I made a couple birdies, I kind of enjoyed it.”

With temperatures pushing 90 and barely a breeze, scoring conditions were ideal. The average score was 71.72, the lowest for the first round in the 10-year history of the tournament.

Woods failed to take advantage. In his first tournament since a tie for 40th at the Masters — his worst performance as a pro at Augusta National (Ga.) — he made too many mistakes early and had to one-putt three of the last four greens for a 71.

“I’ve got to obviously not make those little mistakes,” Woods said. “We’ve got a long way to go, and we’ve got some rain coming probably on the weekend, so we’re going to have to go get it.”

So many others did just that, including Cink, who has been mired in a slump. He ended an already solid

day with three straight birdies for his lowest round of the year. Moore also birdied his last three holes.

Rickie Fowler, still searching for his first PGA Tour win in his third full season, led a group of five players at 66.

The only other time Simpson played with Woods didn’t last long. It was the final round of Doral (Fla.) this year, where Simpson jokingly said, “I accidentally kicked him in the leg and he withdrew.” Woods left after 11 holes that day with tightness in his left Achilles tendon, which raised questions about his future until Woods won two weeks later at Bay Hill.

Eleven holes at Doral at least gave Simpson a taste of what to expect.

“We went from 10,000 people every hole to zero people,” he said.

Thousands of fans on a scorching day at Quail Hollow followed them around all afternoon, with Simpson and Geoff Ogilvy (71) in tow. Simpson is the one who generated most of the cheers.

Phil Mickelson recovered from a tee shot that went out-of-bounds and led to triple bogey on the par-4 fourth hole and shot 71.

“I played pretty well today, but made one mistake with the triple,” Mickelson said.

Rory McIlroy, who earned his first tour win at Quail Hollow two years ago, three-putted from 18 feet on the 18th hole for a 70.

  • Masters champion Bubba Watson decided to skip next week’s Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., to spend time with his family. He and his wife, Angie, adopted a month-old boy just two weeks before Watson won the Masters.

    European Tour: Shaun Micheel, the 2003 PGA Championship winner, is hoping a new putter will help end a nine-year winless drought after a 5-under 67 at the 100th Spanish Open in Seville. Micheel led by a shot over Jorge Capillo, Robert Rock and Danny Willett.

    Champions Tour: San Mateo native Michael Allen can become the first player since Fred Couples in 2010 to win three straight starts when the Insperity Championship begins Friday at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club. … Couples withdrew because of the flu.

    MCT Information Services contributed to this report.

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    Donald Trump eyes US Open – ESPN

    May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

    BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Now that he has the U.S. Women’s Open, Donald Trump wants more.

    On the day that the USGA formally accepted his invitation to play the biggest event in women’s golf at Trump National in Bedminster in 2017, the 65-year-old mogul and TV personality said Thursday he would like to host the world’s biggest event in golf — the U.S. Open.

    Trump, who owns golf courses in North America and Europe, said the Tom Fazio-designed old course at Trump National is big, bold, and tough, and he believes it could stand up against the best in the world.

    “I wanted to hold this course to the absolute highest standards of golf, the absolute highest in terms of quality and length,” Trump said at a news conference. “This course can play 7,700, even 7,800 yards. It is one of the few places that you don’t have to tinker with. You can set the greens not at 15 or 16 but 12 and the best players are going to have a hard time staying around par.”

    An avid golfer, Trump has been setting his sights on being the host to some of the world’s biggest events since building and opening this course in 2004 on what used to be the estate of automaker John DeLorean.

    The course set on natural rolling hills was the site of the U.S. Junior Amateur and the Girls’ Junior championships in 2009. Trump impressed USGA officials with how he handled an event for more than 300 young men and women.

    His next step was sending an invitation to host the U.S. Women’s Open, and USGA executive director Mike Davis said it was an easy choice for the 2017 event.

    “When it comes to women’s golf, this is it,” Davis said of the Women’s Open. “I would say our site selection committee is particular about where we come, and this Trump National Bedminster absolutely, positively has earned it.”

    Trump said his course also is attractive for major events because it is accessible off a major highway and it has enough parking for 18,000 automobiles and major crowds.

    “If that should happen, it would be a great honor,” Trump said of possibly being the site for a U.S. Open. “I have no greater respect than for the U.S. Open. If I were of that caliber golfer, I know it would be my first pick.”

    Davis said he has played golf with Trump, and his game is good.

    “I enjoy golf,” Trump said. “I enjoy the business of golf. It’s not my primary business, maybe that’s a good thing. I love investing in golf. I think it is good for all of us, certainly good for me and I hope you enjoy the course. Trump National has been something close to my heart.”

    For now, he has the Women’s Open, which will be played July 13-16, 2017 on the old course at Trump National.

    This will be the first time the U.S. Women’s Open has been held in New Jersey since 1987, when Laura Davies won at Plainfield.

    “I have played with him a number of times,” Davis said, “and when you hear about his low handicap, trust me, it is legitimate.”

    Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press


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    Kansas women’s golf adapts to unusual weather to end season – University Daily Kansan

    April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

    The Kansas women’s golf team finished 10th in this weekend’s Big 12 Championship at Lawrence Country Club.

    Sophomore Thanuttra Boonraksasat and junior Audrey Yowell led the team by finishing tied for 30th. Inclement weather conditions caused delayed tee times and a short delay during third round play Sunday.

    photo

    Photo by Chris Neal

    The Oklahoma University Women’s Golf Team poses for a photo after winning the Big 12 Tournament at at Lawrence Country Club, Sunday afternoon. The Sooners won a total score of 904 over the three day tournament. Kansas placed tenth with a score of 951.

    “The course held up great, especially today,” coach Erin O’Neil said. “I think we got an inch and a half or rain in a short period of time. When we went back out, it was pretty dry. The greens were rolling well. It held up pretty nicely.”

    Multiple rain delays made it difficult for players to stay focused while waiting in the clubhouse. To occupy time in the clubhouse during the delay, Coach O’Neil and the players worked on a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

    “It kept them occupied,” O’Neil said. They were thinking about the puzzle not how long the delay was or what would happen next. It worked out pretty well.”

    The Jayhawks didn’t have time to finish the puzzle before heading back into the breezy conditions. Senior Katy Nugent struggled with the wind early in the tournament; shooting an 88 on day one before finishing the tournament with a 79 and 75 placing her in a tie for 39th with a total score of 242 on the weekend.

    “She finished strong today,” O’Neil said. “She had a couple of funky shots here and there, but she still managed to pull a par out a lot of the time, which she’s really good at. She did a great job.”

    Nugent struggled with ball striking early in the tournament. She said in Friday’s round she hit a tee shot that started on the left side of the fairway and landed in the second cut of rough on the right side.

    “I really struggled with my ball striking,” Nugent said. “Anytime the wind is blowing like that you don’t know where it’s going and it’s really tough. It got a lot better in the last two days. The wind made a big difference.”

    Nugent became the senior leader in the spring season; helping a young squad, featuring four freshmen, develop.

    “They’ve made great strides this year,” Nugent said. “I’m confident they’re going to come out playing really well next year. The team has a lot of talent. Everyone has their head in the right place and it’s been a fun year.”

    For Nugent, finishing her career at the Big 12 tournament provided an opportunity to play in front of many friends and family members.

    “It was great finishing up at home.” Nugent said. “It was cool to have a lot of our support staff and administration out there this week.”

    Oklahoma won the team tournament with a score of 904. Texas A&M’s Mary Michael Maggio won the individual tournament with a score of nine-over par.

    Kansas sophomore Meghan Potee finished 42nd with a total of 243, and freshman Gabby DiMarco finished 50th with a 253.

    — Edited by Tanvi Nimkar

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    Victory Built on Creativity and One Spectacular Shot – New York Times

    April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

    A Masters that started with Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, lamenting the game’s stagnant growth ended with the crowning of a champion who has the potential to shake golf out of its lethargy.

    Watching Bubba Watson tame Augusta National was like watching a cowboy tame a bucking bronco. The course kept trying to throw him off balance, but no matter what kind of crazy lie he had or what type of trouble he found, he just hitched up his pants, pulled a club and summoned a shot as if out of thin air.

    Watson’s imagination starts where the fairway ends, as he demonstrated on the second hole of his playoff against Louis Oosthuizen when he drove into the woods. Using a wedge, he hooked his second shot under trees and through the fairway, and off to Butler Cabin he went after saving par with a two-putt from 15 feet.

    “I got in these trees and hit a crazy shot and I saw it in my head and somehow I’m here talking to you with a green jacket on,” he said afterward.

    Watson described the shot as “pretty easy.” O.K., he was laughing as he said it, but the way he plays, he had to be only half-joking.

    He walks to the beat of a different golfer. “I can do it,” Watson said of hitting a ball straight. “It’s just not something I really want to do. It’s easier in the trees like I did on the last playoff hole.”

    Watson instinctively gets that the fairways-to-greens march to excellence, although beautiful to behold, is a bit intimidating to the average fan, who looks upon such perfection as unattainable.

    “I just play golf,” he said. “I attack. I always attack. I don’t like to go to the center of the greens. I want to hit the incredible shot; who doesn’t? That’s why we play the game of golf, to pull off the amazing shot.”

    Watson’s Masters triumph was a victory for creativity and feel and fun. His mind may be cluttered, but not with swing thoughts. He is the antidote to Tiger Woods, whose obsession with the nuts and bolts of his swing calls to mind an auto mechanic with his head buried under the hood. While Woods dissected his backswing and downswing during his joyless march to a five-over-par finish, Watson managed to post a 10-under-par score without the benefit of a coaching entourage. Note to Woods: the surest way to avoid tell-all books by former coaches is to be self-taught, as Watson is.

    “I just play golf, fun-loving Bubba, just try to have fun and goof around,” Watson said, adding, “Hopefully, I keep having the passion to play golf and keep doing what I’m doing.”

    Golf, fun? An entire cottage industry has sprung like a sprawling suburban development to serve psyches worn thin by too many unlucky bounces, bad putts and wild swings. There are books to improve technique and bolster self-belief; academies to build the perfect cookie-cutter swing and gadgets to help refine it; gurus to quiet the mind; and equipment to add length and make one’s deficiencies disappear.

    The danger of presenting golf, however unintentionally, as such a maddening, mercurial game is that it may make people cool to its charms. Who wants to go to the time and trouble, not to mention the expense, to practice 12 hours a day when you can just sit at home and play virtual golf?

    Watson, 33, makes golf look like an extreme sport, with adventure lurking around every corner, and that may be the best way to grab the attention of today’s restive youth. Watson with a driver in his hand can create the same buzz as Blake Griffin palming a basketball and rising toward the rim.

    In his annual address Wednesday, Payne said: “The problems are easy to identify: Golf is too hard. It takes too long to play. It’s not a team sport. It’s too expensive.”

    He added, “Golf is too precious, too wonderful to sit on the sidelines and watch decreasing participation.”

    Four days later, on Easter, came the answer to Payne’s prayers. His name was Bubba, a perfect Southern sobriquet, and he was dressed in white and carrying a hot-pink driver that he is using to raise money for charities.

    In the final round, Watson overcame a miracle shot by his playing partner, Oosthuizen, who holed a 4-iron from the second fairway for a double-eagle 2. Watson strung together, like beads on a rosary, four straight birdies on the backside to force the playoff.

    There to greet Watson after his final putt dropped were Ben Crane, Rickie Fowler and Aaron Baddeley, three fellow pros and friends who stuck around after finishing play, a gesture that Edoardo Molinari did not even make to his brother, Francesco. And Payne says golf isn’t a team sport?

    “I don’t really want to be famous or anything like that,” Watson said. “I just want to be me and play golf.”

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    Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia experience Masters meltdowns during third day … – New York Daily News

    April 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

    AUGUSTA. Ga. – Rory McIlroy had another Masters meltdown Saturday, but at least he could share it with someone.

    McIlroy, who blew last year’s Masters with a 43 on the final nine, took himself out of contention by playing the front nine in 42 en route to a 77 that left him at 1-over 217. His playing partner, Sergio Garcia, went out in 40 and finished with a 75 to end up at 1-under. When they made their first birdies on No. 12, they even shared a commiserating hug.

    MASTERS-FUL PHOTOS: GREEN JACKET UP FOR GRABS

    “It would have been better if it were my girlfriends,” Garcia quipped. “But that was the best we could get at the moment.”

    Added McIlroy: “We needed to feel the love from someone out there.”

    THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD

    The pairing of potential Ryder Cup teammates was much anticipated but never got going once McIlroy double-bogeyed the opening hole and Garcia bogeyed it. McIlroy added another double on No. 7.

    “We couldn’t really feed off each other’s good energy because there wasn’t anything,” Garcia said. “We couldn’t get anything going. Our bad holes were really bad and our good holes were bad.”

    The Masters, it seems, isn’t shaping up as a McIlroy favorite.

    “It seems like every year I come here I throw a bad nine holes out there,” he said. “The 42 today wasn’t a great effort. But the good thing is it wasn’t on the last day. I can go out there tomorrow, try and shoot a good score, try and finish well, get a top 10 or a top five and at least leave here in a positive frame of mind.”

    FAIR GAME
    Fascinating stat of the day: Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have hit the same percentage of fairways and the same percentage of greens. Woods has taken 10 more putts and two more penalty shots.

    THAT HURTS
    Gary Woodland withdrew with a wrist injury after gutting it through the entire round and shooting an 85.

    “I’ve worked too hard. I was playing good. It’s frustrating,” he said. “I’ve never quit anything in my life. I just wanted to finish.”

    The long-hitting Woodland started feeling some pain in the morning and it got progressively worse after the first hole.

    “Then I made a swing on eight and that shot the pain up in the rest of the arm, all the way down the hand,” he said. “I should have stopped, the trainers wanted me to stop, my caddie was begging me to stop.”

    LUKE ISN’T A FORCE
    World No. 1 Luke Donald couldn’t catch a break as he shot his second 75 of the week and is 7-over.

    “I had 3 iron into 13 and thought I had a decent shot, missed carrying by two inches, otherwise it would have been 30 feet away for an eagle, only I make seven,” he said. “That’s how this course is sometimes. You can be just a little off.

    “Same thing on 14,” he went on. “I drilled a 5 iron right of the pin, it goes another three, four feet, I’ve got a 10-footer for birdie but it rolls down the hill 45 feet away and I three-putt. It’s just been one of those weeks where I haven’t played that badly.”

    CAN’T REPEAT SELF

    Defending champ Charl Schwartzel kissed away his chances to repeat with a third-round 75 that sent him to 6-over.
    “I felt real good on the range and I felt I could get it under par and have a good chance tomorrow. In these conditions, it wasn’t that difficult,” he said. “I just didn’t play very well. When I hit good shots, I just didn’t make any putts and that put pressure on my long game.”

    AMATEUR HOUR
    Twenty-year-old Hideki Matsuyama, the Asian Amateur champion, is looking to wrap up low amateur honors over the top two finishers in last year’s U.S. Amateur.

    Matsuyama shot a par-72 to remain at 1-over, six shots better than Patrick Cantlay and nine better than Kelly Kraft, who defeated Cantlay 2-up last August. They came into Saturday’s round tied but Cantlay shot 74 to Kraft’s 77.

    Kraft will turn pro Monday while Cantlay, the low amateur at last year’s U.S. Open, plans to return for his junior year at UCLA.

    MUDDIED UP
    The players were still getting a lot of mud balls Saturday. So much for Augusta National being so pristine.

    “I definitely had some mud balls. Graeme (McDowell) had some mud balls today,” Brandt Snedeker said. “Part of life around here.”

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    Palmer, Nicklaus, Player weigh in on issues – USA TODAY

    April 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

    The winners of 13 Masters headed to the media center after splitting the first fairway with their drives to start the tournament.

    “It was a great thrill, having had this wonderful relationship, great friendship with Arnold and Jack for a long, long time and having traveled extensively around the world together,” Player said about joining the two for the first time for the ceremonial tee shot. “We’ve even cried together, and we’ve laughed together, and we’ve had good times.

    “And I think that we really wanted to promote the game to the best of our ability around the world. I think what we try to do is contribute to the game of golf that we really love so much and are so grateful for what golf has done for us and our careers.”

    The three aren’t done promoting the game. With plenty of jokes to go around – Nicklaus said the first time he saw a ceremonial tee shot was Palmer “a long, long time ago,” and Player said Nicklaus still “has deep pockets and short arms,” – the three were serious in talking about golf and its future.

    Here are some highlights:

    On golf architecture:

    Player: “Personally when we design golf courses, the odds of being asked to design a golf course for a championship are almost remote. You do have an occasional one, but the majority of golf courses obviously would be for members. Now if we do have one for a championship, we copy certain things, but generally speaking, we build them softer, not as undulating of greens and not as long and not as difficult, because, generally speaking, I think that’s what’s hurting golf. The golf courses are too tough, they are too long, the expenses are so high, the water, the machinery, the oil, the labor, and that’s what’s hurting golf. They are making them longer and longer, and the costs keep going up and up and they levy members and they don’t like that. So one has to build golf courses much softer and easier for members.”

    Nicklaus: “I also agree with Gary on the costs of things, too. The game is getting too tough and too hard. It is. We are all guilty of that. We need to keep people in the game, not push people out of the game.”

    Is there a Big Three today?

    Nicklaus: “I think all of us probably agree that Tiger is still the dominant force in the game; even though he’s struggled up until a couple of weeks ago, but there are a lot of other players that are awfully good. You pick Rory and Keegan and you go right on down the list, and Phil and you’ve got a lot of very, very good players today.”

    Player: “You definitely have two of the Big Three today, and that’s Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. The third one, I don’t know who that would be. And I think time will sort that out.

    But Jack, Arnold and myself, we won over 350 golf tournaments in our lives, and we won 56 major championships, counting regular and Senior Tour. So it was done over a certain amount of time.

    So I think to be fair to these golfers, you’ve got to give them more time to sort out who will be the eventual Big Three.

    How do you fix golf’s problems, concerning the loss of so many players the past few years, fewer golf courses being built, etc.?

    Nicklaus: “I don’t want to take up all your time in here. That would take too long. The game, I think the PGA of America and their 2.0 program is a progressive program of wanting to bring people in the game and keep people in the game, and it’s a game to try to make the game easier, make the game faster, and make the game less expensive. If we can do those kinds of things, we can bring a lot more people in the game and keep them in the game.

    Palmer: “I think some of the programs that are being put to use, The First Tee program is one that can really have a lasting effect on the future of the game of golf. That will be a program that will help the game, and it will help it dramatically in the years to come. It isn’t going to be instant, but the programs that they are doing, one of the reasons I held back was the fact that it was not endowed and it’s now being endowed, and it will be endowed. The worst thing that could happen, you see a First Tee facility open up and then you see it close up. That’s what I was trying to avoid by not joining until I felt confident that it would go on and on. And I think that they are in that position now to make it go forward and to keep it going. The organizations throughout the country are really coming together. They are concentrating more on putting the organizations together with a realistic thought of continuing for these kids that would not otherwise have the opportunity to do it.”

    On the golf ball.

    Player: “Personally I think what has put the game of golf into a lot of trouble is that the golf ball is going so far, and you’re finding golf pros going to play at different golf clubs, and they are hitting a driver and a 6-iron to a par-5; whereas Jack, I know at Sun City in South Africa, you used to hit a 1-iron and we were in awe. And now they hit a 6-iron, and the courses are thinking, well, the courses are obsolete. So they are lengthening their golf courses unnecessarily. All they had to do was let the technology go with the average golfer, that’s fantastic. But with professional golfers we have not seen big men come into this game yet. We are going to see the Michael Jordans and the likes come into golf, and they are already hitting drives 400 yards. They’re going to be hitting it so far, it’s frightening. What’s going to happen to the golf course? Are they going to make them longer? We can’t go back on the streets anymore here (at Augusta National). So they are going to have to slow the ball down for professional golf at some time or other in the future. Otherwise, I don’t know what’s going to happen to all these golf courses. Are we going to spend more money on it?”

    Nicklaus: “The ball is the one single factor that’s caused a lot of what we have. I think that we all know that you can’t really change the game from what it is today. That would be like asking the kids today to go back to wood clubs, and it would be like when we played, asking to go back to wood shafts. And I know the game changes. The game today is a wonderful game. There’s nothing wrong with the game today as it relates to tournament golf. There’s nothing wrong with it when we played. But it’s just a different game. But the game when we played, it was very relevant to the pro and the amateur that they had a game that they could play together. They could go play a pro am, and we would be 20 yards behind them and we would end up in relatively the same area on the tee shots and you could have a conversation. Today, you know, the average golfer cannot relate to the pro. The pro is 100 yards behind him. And by the time the pro gets there, they’ve all hit off the tee. It’s a very different game. It takes too long. I don’t know, there are 17,000 or 18,000 golf courses in the United States, and Augusta National is probably the only golf course in the country that is probably up to date as it relates to tournament golf. And what have they spent here? They have spent a fortune. And can you ask everybody to spend a fortune? No. The golf ball is a very inexpensive thing to fix.”

    Palmer: “I agree with that. I think that’s vital that we slow the ball down.”

    At the tournament level, has technology and improved equipment made it tougher for the truly great player to separate himself from the merely very good player?

    Nicklaus: “Not really. I think the exceptional player always separates himself. I think for the last 10, 12, 15 years, Tiger has separated himself pretty well with the same equipment. No matter how good the equipment is, you’ve still got to get it in the hole. And the guy that gets it in the hole a little bit better usually ends up winning the golf tournament. That’s basically what it is.”

    Player: “And you can talk about all of the equipment and you hear so much about long hitting, but there are lots of long hitters that are not winning golf tournaments. And I can tell you one thing, the reason that Tiger Woods has been the best player in the world for X amount of years, because he’s the best putter.”

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