Ryde with Tiger? Go mobile? Work on Whistling Straits?
Augusta Chronicle
Heres a simple query with no easy answer: Would you take Tiger Woods as one of your four captains picks for the Ryder Cup team?
ELLING: It doesnt matter what we think, of course, because it would probably represent career suicide if U.S. captain Corey Pavin didnt pick the guy, despite the fact that at the moment, Woods is about the 50th-best player on the PGA Tour. Or despite the fact that he has a losing record at the Ryder Cup. Or despite the fact that it appears hell only play one more time before the Ryder picks are due, after likely washing out of the FedEx Cup series early. Woods is having a hard time hitting two quality shots in succession, as Michaux detailed last week at Whistling Straits with a look at how poorly he played the par 5s, where he historically has eaten the field for lunch. Unless Woods shows clear improvement in his next start, expected to be at The Barclays next week in New Jersey, I would rather take the hottest player of the moment, whoever that is. Pavin would never admit it, but its hard to imagine he isnt under some pressure to pick Woods, either from NBC or the PGA of America. With Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson on the team, the U.S. needs steadier hands, not another vial of nitroglycerine. Woods didnt play well at Pebble Beach, St. Andrews or Firestone, tracks he owns. So why assume he will play well at the Ryder, where he traditionally hasnt? I must be missing the reverse logic here. Lets ask the U.S. wives whether they want him around.
MICHAUX: Ive gone on record saying I dont think Woods should be a pick, but I understand why Pavin will choose him, and if push came to shove, I would probably end up picking him myself. Before washing out at Firestone, Woods was evasive about his desire to be a captains pick if necessary. After his worst career performance, he said he didnt believe he could contribute to the team the way he was playing. A week later, however, Woods changed his tune and said he would accept a pick from Pavin and even hoped for one. He even cracked a joke about it: “I think I got a chance of maybe helping out in singles.” Woods might be a shadow of his former self at the moment, but he showed enough fight at the PGA to convince Pavin to give him a nod. I mean, as off as he is, he still has enough game to finish 28th in his worst major finish of the year. Thats better than most of the captains other options. Having talked to some of the caddies who will be there, they tell me the other players love having Tiger in the team room. And maybe his presence can deflect some of the pressure from his teammates. If Woods is there, hell be the story as always. He has a lot of proving to do and this just might be the PR opportunity he needs to further rehabilitate his image in the name of team and country. As Monty said, the Ryder Cup is a bigger deal with the worlds No. 1 player present. Like Woods, I guess Ive changed my tune as well. If he really wants to be there, he should.
The Wyndham Championship this week is allowing fans to bring cell phones onto the grounds, provided they are in silent mode. Is this the beginning of a new mindset on the games major tours?
ELLING: Three or four years ago, back when the PGA Tour actually pretended to listen to the input of outsiders, the tour brass staged a media summit at the company HQ in Ponte Vedra Beach. An expert hired to talk about future of electronic media stood before a few hundred invitees and tour officials and flatly stated that the organization needed to modify its stance on mobile phones. “They are not just te alienate fans who are tethered to the information stream on their phones and you run the risk of losing business. Thursday and Friday are work days for most. The phones are a business and personal lifeline. The Wyndham tournament modified the rule b which is quite likely a recipe for disaster, at least initially. Already, tournaments in China have been a nightmare with buzzing phones going off everywhere. But its an overdue transitional move. Metal detectors used at events are a hassle and costly, but the tour and its players rightly dont want to be interrupted by jangling phones at crucial junctures. At some point, though, the policy needs to change. If players cant get used to it and have to wear earplugs, so be it. Asking fans to go several hours without communication access, in an age of immediacy, has become increasingly unrealistic.
MICHAUX: As long as this trend never gets adopted by the Masters, I dont really care. Augusta National is a happy anachronism that should remain that way, with hand-operated scoreboards and no digital video screens or commercialization anywhere. Its an escape from the real world and that is part of its allure. But that real world is reality everywhere else and this is a sign of things to come. The GGO (it will always be the Greater Greensboro Open to me) is the testing ground. The players will just have to get used to it and learn to cope with their hypersensitivity to noise. Sometimes people cough or sneeze. Whats the difference? Quite frankly, I think the fans should be allowed to use their hand-held devices anywhere on the course as long as it remains a silent entity. If they want to take or make a call, they need to go to designated areas to talk and leave everyone else in peace. There will always be idiots who cant figure out how to turn off the ringers and alerts, and if they violate the silence policy they should be kicked out. But if they can use their handhelds to keep up with the outside world and enhance their on-site experience with leaderboards and stats and muted video and all sorts of other things that were capable of getting nowadays, whats the harm? As we saw with the kids dominating the leaderboard last week, the future is now.
Guys, weve seen two majors staged at Whistling Straits, which is more than enough time to shake out the bugs and form an opinion. Like it or loathe it?
ELLING: Based on the incredible amount of feedback received after the Dustin Johnson incident in the bunker on the 72nd hole, most readers would like to toss a match into owner Herb Kohlers facial fescue, add gasoline to his course and forget the place ever existed. But with a future PGA Championship and a Ryder Cup already slotted for the Straits, thats not going to happen. This is going to sound like George C. Scott playing the role of General Patton, when he stood before a bloody battlefield and muttered, “God help me, but I do love it so.” The course is a complete contrivance, granted. It doesnt play like an Irish links because you cant run the ball onto the green or play along the ground. Another point conceded. Its located 60 miles from civilization, a considerable handicap. But its not just another in a series of predictable parkland courses, either. You didnt enjoy watching guys like Stricker and Watson trying to hit challenging flop shots from below the hole onto greens carved out of Lake Michigan sand cliffs? Its true, there are so many rough-hewn bunkers, you cant count them all (they tend to meld into one another indistinctly). In an attempt to get reasonably close to the action, fans were allowed to tromp through the sandy areas on the periphery of the course. One boneheaded rules blunder by Johnson doesnt mean the course is irretrievably overdesigned, though. Johnson missed the fairway by what, 50 yards? Had it been any other course, he would have been in deep hay, a forest of trees, or somebodys backyard Jacuzzi. He was damned lucky he found a firm lie in that fateful bunker. He almost salvaged a par because of it. The Straits is unique, quirky and worthy of a spot in the majors rotation. That said, I admittedly have no desire to play it, either. Its so penal for regular folks, they would find me dead in one of those shallow graves that designer Peter Dye calls bunkers.
MICHAUX: For all its faults, Whistling Straits has produced two pretty good shows. It looks incredible on television and one of these years theyll get weather conditions that make it the test its supposed to be. But there are some significant flaws with the venue that go beyond the inability of the design to make it play like the faux links its supposed to be. The local rule about the bunkering that caused all the trouble is flat-out ignorant and Herb Kohlers arrogant dismissal of Dustin Johnsons plight makes it easy for me to rip the contrivances he paid for. He told Pete Dye he wanted it to look like Ballybunion, but having been to Ballybunion, I dont remember seeing useless bunkers strewn in places that are unnatural. Its just stupid to play them as bunkers when thousands of people are trampling them all day and kids are literally building sand castles in them. Play any bunkers inside the ropes as bunkers and anything outside simply as it lies. If it doesnt have a rake, its just a waste area. Bunker-gate, however, masked the worst element of Whistling Straits, which is that abominable 18th hole. Even local boy Steve Stricker hates it. That only Jason Dufner could manage a birdie on it Sunday (and with a bomb of a putt) illustrates just how stupid it is. Its fitting that the tournament ended there with one mans bogey beating another mans double. Flush it down one of Kohlers toilets and start over. Theyve got five years to fix it into something thats not an out-of-character monstrosity compared to the rest of the course. And while theyre at it, make the place walkable. You shouldnt have to risk blowing out a knee to watch a golf tournament.
