Waggle Room

The European Tour Games the World Rankings, Explains Why Rory Should Stay

2009-11-23T15:29:51Z

For the first time ever, six Europeans are in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings. Yup, it's official - American golf is dead. Well, at least A- level American golf is dead.

Wait a moment. No American of significance was playing this weekend. Not a one. But all of the prominent Europeans were together in Dubai (and some were in Japan, too) to game the system and earn some big time world ranking points.

You see, in addition to the loaded field in Dubai, the Dubai World Championship boasted every player in the top 30 of the Euro Tour's money list. That's how the field was determined. So, that meant that the tournament got extra world ranking points to give away. In other words, the Euros did three things really well this weekend: (1) get a great field together in November, (2) get lucky and have a close race for the money title, and (3) game the world ranking system so that Europeans would get buko points.

Now do you understand why Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke, and the like went and advised Rory McIlroy to stay on the European Tour? McIlroy could still skyrocket up the world rankings playing full-time in Europe without every doing anything of significance in America. See, Clarke and Montgomerie were powerhouses in Europe despite never having won in America. So their recommendation to stay in Europe comes from the bias that they were still sort of revered in the US by ignorant fans who didn't realize that Monty couldn't win here.

But, I think McIlroy is both confident and smart enough to see through that game. McIlroy knows that the best way to make his name - at least right now - is in the United States. Three majors are here (even though you may not like it), the most money is here, and it requires the least amount of travel to play of any major tour in the world. Win-win-win for Rory.

Still, that's not to say that Europe is not presenting some fantastic tournaments. This Dubai World Championship was fun and exciting. For as much as the course was a letdown to the players, the competition was fun to watch. Europe boasts a good ten events like this each year which are a great substitute for weeks when the PGA Tour is dark or presenting a stinker of an event. The gamble on Dubai may prevent the European Tour from being a direct competitor for some time to come, but the PGA Tour certainly can look across the Atlantic to a host of young, hungry players looking to turn their home stage into the biggest stage.

Sherri Steinhauer Wins LPGA Legends Tour Open Championship at Innisbrook

2009-11-23T11:10:41Z

Sherri Steinhauer Wins LPGA Legends Tour Open Championship at Innisbrook

I'll be hip and say Sherri's LPGA playing days aren't over.

The Race to Dubai Trophy: Unfortunate Symbolism

2009-11-22T19:32:22Z

After watching Lee Westwood's dominating final round at the Dubai World Championship, shooting a 64 to finish at 23 under par, I watched the trophy presentation, and noticed some unfortunate symbolism in one of the trophies handed to Westwood.

David Cannon/Getty Images

I like the sceptor - very cool - but the big trophy was in the shape of an oil derrick with a golfer on top. Pretty ironic considering that the country of Dubai has put the oil trade in the rear view mirror in order to become a worldwide tourist destination - a decision that isn't exactly working well for them, thanks to the economy.

Oh well (no pun intended) they hosted a terrific tournament and we got to watch some excellent golf, even if there were members of the media who tried to rip the course and tournament by railing on an unfinished clubhouse and unfiinshed houses lining the course. Last time I checked, neither of those had anything to do with anything between the ropes. You can pick on the low scores and the wide resort course fairways, and say that it isn't a course to challenge some of the best golfers in the world...but they were all playing the same course, and Westwood showed the field and the European Tour that he was #1 in 2009.

Now go work on that trophy.

The Curse of Donald Trump?

2009-11-22T15:35:33Z

The LPGA Tour Championship has been on hold since Friday afternoon due to weather problems. It is now Sunday and, rather than seeing the last 30 players duke it out for the title after playing 54 holes already, instead we have most of the field waiting to tee it up for their second rounds. Play will not resume today before noon Central Time.

For the last several years, the LPGA's final event were played here in Palm Beach County, Florida - where we have seen no rain and at most had partly cloudy skies since Thursday morning. After all the anger at how Carolyn Bivens handled the negotiations for the ADT last year, did the company or Donald Trump (host of the tournament) pay someone to seed clouds in Texas so the LPGA Tour Championship be in the state it is now?

Cue the sarcastic laughter. Seriously, if Player of the Year wasn't on the line, do you think the LPGA would have called the tournament already?

Who is Jay Williamson and Why is He in the Final Stage of Q-School?

2009-11-22T14:14:57Z

Mrs. Williamson's favorite son, Jay (ranked 579 in the world), is on the front page of PGATOUR.com. It seems he shot a few good scores at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, FL and, along with 21 other golfers, will now play in the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School at Bear Lakes starting on December 2nd. He will be accompanied by other big name players like Billy Horschel and renowned tour players like Arjun Atwal (420) and Marco Dawson (637).

Early this year, Alex Rodriguez hurt himself and missed some time. He then went to the baseball minor league system until his game was good enough for the majors. NBA players go to Europe (or the NBDL) if they get cut. But, once you have played on the PGA Tour, the 'Big Show,' suddenly you are too good to play anywhere but the 'Bigs,' so you wait all year for Q-School. Well, that is not all you do. You also pester tournament sponsors for exemptions.

When it suits them, PGA Tour players call the Nationwide Tour the 'second best tour on the planet,' but you can almost also hear the words, "...but, I never want to play there."

This year, the Nationwide Tour brought golf tournaments to thirty different cities, including six outside of the United States. Cities like Boise, Sandy, Utah and Fort Smith, Arkansas enjoyed top level professional golf tournaments this year thanks to this little 'red-headed stepchild'...

I feel the Nationwide Tour should replace the PGA Qualifying School as the main vehicle for getting a PGA Tour card. Any players on tour not in the top 100 that year go back to the Nationwide Tour. That tour fills the remaining spots with its own Q-School. The top fifty on that tour each year get a shot at the 'Big Show.' These guys represent the PGA Tour in all of its glory all year and currently get 25 lousy tour spots and those spots are very, very low on the exemption priority category list.

I have nothing against Williamson, Atwal, Dawson, Wittenberg, Pride, Micheel, Duke, Franco, Riegger, Lancaster, Uresti, Day, Gainey, Stankowski, Knost, Taturangi, Kaye and the dozens of others who have proven they cannot compete on the PGA Tour and yet hang out each year to try Q-School and beg exemptions. The Nationwide Tour could really use some of those bigger names to sell more tickets in the cities they visit.

Marco Dawson

And, the PGA tour could REALLY use from fresh faces...

Robert Allenby Would Like Brian Gay to See the World

2009-11-22T07:05:47Z

Robert Allenby, on the heels of saying the Korean translation of "John Daly is Anthony Kim," has made a minor ripple in the golf world with his "American golfers are spoiled" comments. The comments have only made a ripple because:

Other players have made similar laments that American golfers don’t travel
Allenby may be right
Allenby may be a bit of a jerk

Breaking down his comments shows a lack of understanding of the golf world today.

"You know, Americans play for so much money, and when you've got a purse where $1 million, a million plus, is first prize, not to say that they are spoiled, but it's a little bit that way. It's like, well, why would I want to travel, when I can make a million bucks instead of going to Europe and only making $500,000 or $600,000?"

Doing a job in America for one million instead of doing the same job in Europe for $600K isn’t spoiled. Greedy, perhaps. Sensible even.

"The reason why I want to travel and play elsewhere is because I want my game to get better, and always, even at the age of 38, I want to get better. And the only way you can get better is to play different golf courses. If you're playing the same golf course every week, every year that you come back to, it just gets a little boring. For me, that's what I've found. I've got a little bit bored playing in America. I'll still play there full time, but I'm still going to try to play more tournaments in Europe at the same time and combine the two together."

I would argue you get better at golf by playing against better players regularly. And pretty much every metric shows the fields in the average PGA tournament is stronger than the fields in the average Euro PGA tournament. Why? See that $1 Million/$600K difference.

"But I just think, you know, they have got it a little bit too easy. It's just everything is handed to them on a silver plate. And not to be rude or anything like that, because I'm very respectful for the amount of money that we do play for in America. We are very lucky and very fortunate. But I think the money that we play for in America, that's the reason why you don't see a lot of Americans or a lot more international players coming over and playing in Europe. They are in a comfort zone, and I think that's pretty much what it is."

Allow me to compare golf to professional soccer. It is understood that the best club soccer in the world is in Europe. Leagues in England, Spain, Italy and Germany have the best players from around the world wearing their kits. They spend the most money and garnish the most attention. Outside of playing for their country, the majority of talented players would do almost anything to play for Manchester United, or Real Madrid, or Inter Milan.

If Landon Donovan publically complained that European players were spoiled because they didn’t have to leave their continent to play soccer at the highest level, while North and South Americans had to prove themselves in their home leagues to get a shot at the big time, he would be laughed out of the room.

That is where Allenby makes his mistake. He assumes the money makes the tournament, as opposed to the money following the tournament. The purses on the Fall Series are less than tournaments before the Fed Ex Cup because the world of golf has decided they Fall Series tourneys are less prestigious. The Scottish Open has more than three times the purse than the SAS Masters in Sweden not because the Scottish are awash with cash and the Swedes are paupers. It has been decided the Scottish Open is more important than the SAS Masters, so the people running the Scottish Open can demand more money from Barclays, ticket purchasers, etc. The fine southern gentlemen who run the Masters Invitational Tournament could cut prize money for 2010 in half tomorrow and not one eligible golfer would decide playing wasn’t worth his time.

At this point, playing in America is considered more prestigious than playing in Europe. Or Australia. Or anywhere else on the planet. Just ask Rory McIlroy, who will join the US PGA tour in 2010. Because…

I just feel I will become a better golfer if I also play in America. I will be playing in world class fields with more world ranking points on offer and the only way for me to get better is to play alongside better players.

Tom Fazio Declares Interest in Designing First Martian Golf Course

2009-11-20T22:04:55Z

After the airing of the Natonal Geographic Channel show Mars: Making the New Earth, world-renowned designer Tom Fazio threw his name into the hat to be the first designer to architect a golf course on the terraformed surface of our fourth planet.

"Why waste time with all of the names that want to design the Olympic golf course in Rio," Fazio questioned to reporters. "I can two steps ahead of them by signing a massive contract to design a course on Mars!"

The PGA Tour-owned TPC Network, as well as Jack Nicklaus' and Greg Norman's design shops are yet to comment on the development.

The R&A is livid about this development because the development of golf in Mars will preclude them from being the governing body. This is because golf on Mars would require a larger, heavier ball to play in Mars' thinner atmosphere. Peter Dawson did express pleasure, though, that they could host the Intergalatic Open Champion on massive courses because of the undeveloped space for host courses.

The PGA Tour did comment, though, on the Fazio news by noting that they would not be making changes to their anti-doping program to compensate for the fact that Mars will not have breathable oxygen for humans for some 100,000 years.

"The players can apply for all the Therapeutic Use Exemptions they want, but their Martian doctors will not make us change our plan!"

Construction is expected to begin on Fazio's Terralinks as soon as he can get on a rocketship.

Forget 2012! Wedge Armageddon Comes 12/31/2011!

2009-11-20T20:02:56Z

AHHHH! THE SKY IS FALLING! WE ARE JUST 406 SHORT DAYS FROM THE END OF THE WORLD!1111!!

On January 1, 2011, equipment manufacturers will no longer be able to produce wedges that do not conform to the new grooves standard set forth by the USGA and R&A. Although the rules of competition state that most players won't have to actually play clubs with these new grooves until 2024, the manufacturers will not be making wedges with both U grooves and the simulated V grooves. It's not that they don't want to; they just can't.

But, starting 1/1/10 and for one spectacular year, manufacturers will sell wedges with U grooves and V grooves. This is because all of the pro golf tours have adopted the standard for next season. And since all us hackers are professional golfers in a cocoon of dormancy, we want to play their clubs.

So, of course, this is a jackpot opportunity for manufacturers. For the next 406 days, you will hear nothing but the following meme:

BUY WEDGES NOW! STOCK UP ON THEM! NEW, USED, OR DISASSEMBLED! BEFORE THEY GO AWAY FOREVER!

For the golfer in your life, buy them a wedge. Or ten. Seriously, wedges are going to be bigger than drivers next year - for perhaps the first time ever - because of this perceived change.

Sure, 99% of players cannot control the spin on their wedges, but you don't know that. Ok, yeah, two players won last week while playing with 2010 conforming wedges, but don't think about that.

You. Must. Buy. Wedges. Now. Or. You. Will. Never. Be. The. Same.

In truth, there's going to be a really great secondary market for soon-to-be nonconforming wedges that either didn't sell this year, or are gently used. Like I said, almost all players won't notice the difference, but wedges will be hot.

Cleveland Golf, USGA Groove Rule Change

See more presentations by lumpyslq | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Personally, I am very interested to see what comes out of the famous wedge shops like Cleveland and Vokey (Titleist) to combat the new grooves rules. But, they have some very nice offerings in '09 and '10 that you can snatch up now while there's still time.

In February, Taylor Made will introducing their new TP wedges with exchangable faces. They have been cleared to be sold by the USGA. As part of an appeal to the USGA, the governing body said that face plates for the club will be able to be sold with non-conforming grooves for about $45 next year. This means that you can still buy up fresh, non-conforming groove faces well into 2010 without having to buy a whole new wedge each time. TaylorMade wins and you win (if you know what you're doing).

One interesting final caveat to this grooves thing. While manufacturers may no longer MAKE clubs that don't conform after 2011, retailers are allowed to SELL non-conforming wedges that are shipped to them by manufacturers before 1/1/11. In other words, the manufacturers could send a massive surplus of non-conforming wedges to stores in order to keep selling them for an extended period into 2011.

Neat, huh?

Sal Johnson: '10 LPGA schedule Not As Ugly As It Could've Been

2009-11-20T18:18:42Z

Sal Johnson: '10 LPGA schedule Not As Ugly As It Could've Been

He reviews next year's schedule and sees more positives than should have been expected from all the turmoil the tour has gone through in the last year.

Science to LPGA Tour: Show Some More Skin

2009-11-20T16:54:22Z

A British study tells us that women should bare 40 percent of their skin to maximize their chances of attracting men to them. The good folks (namely, four female researchers) at the University of Leeds conducted a study by observing women at one of Leeds' biggest nightclubs and tape recording the number of interactions each woman had with men. Then, they compared the tone and frequency of those interactions - "Hey, baby, wanna dance?" - with how much skin each woman was showing.

View Larger Map
A map of the night scene in Leeds: hotbed of science

The magic formula for attracting men? Showing 40% of the female body. No more, no less. The ladies who revealed 40% did twice as well as women who showed less. But, sluttin' it up and showing more than that also turned men off.

So, maybe there's some application here to the good ole LPGA Five Points of Celebrity and using sex appeal to bring men into the sport. Ok, University of Leeds, what's 40% of female skin?

Well, according to the study article published in the Guardian: "Each arm accounted for 10 per cent of the body, each leg for 15 per cent and the torso for 50 per cent. "

That means a "pass" then on bikini golf? Ok, fine, but it seems wildly popular in Japan. Just saying.

To get to that 40% number, though, is really tough with this equation. Two legs and one arm equals 40%. Judging from Antawn Jamison's one sleeve top the other night in DC, that could be done, but I don't think would work well for golf or for any woman.

Two arms and one leg falls kinda short of the mark. And nothing screams "stripper!" more than that kind of outfit.

Alas, the researchers clear everything up: "Show some leg, show some arm, but not any more than that."

In other words, the ladies of the LPGA should always wear short sleeve shirts and reasonable length shorts or skirts?!

Wait! Not all is lost. I think there's a crucial part of the study that I missed. The research team said that the women that did the best in the club were those that showed the 40% skin AND wore tight clothing AND danced provocatively.

I can only think of girls on the LPGA Tour that do the first two parts. But I have never seen any kind of provocative dancing at an LPGA Tour event. That is, unless you consider the Solheim Cup butt bumps provocative.

LPGA, Euro Tours' Year End Races Loved - Why Not PGA Tour?

2009-11-20T15:37:19Z

David Cannon/Getty Images

While you and I were asleep, Lee Westwood fired 69 in the Dubai World Championship and took a two shot lead over Rory McIlroy at the midway point of the finale tournament to the Race to Dubai. McIlroy matched Westwood's 69 to get into weekend position along with first round leader Robert Allenby, course lover Paddy Harrington, two others, and Ross McGowan.

For Westwood, the task is simple: win. If he wins, he wins the Race to Dubai's prize pool bounty in addition to the tournament. He could also beat McIlroy by finishing in second and take the title.

McIlroy is a little cloudier. Obviously a win would do nicely. He can win no matter what if Westwood finishes outside of the top 7, but would also needs Martin Kaymer to not finish top 4 and Ross Fisher to avoid runner-up or better.

Still, the game within a game has to be a delight for the European Tour, who walked into this week amid a lot of criticism about its deal with Dubai-owned Leisurecorp, now operated by another Dubai-owned entity. The course has been a sore subject, too.

But, nothing distracts critics away problems like a great golf tournament.

The same thing may be taking shape in Houston at the LPGA Tour Championship. Three players have a chance to clinch player of the year honors. Lorena Ochoa, looking to maintain her title and three year reign, leads the tournament on -6. LoCho trailed Jiyai Shin by 8 points heading into this weekend. If she wins this weekend, she is player of the year. If she doesn't then Shin must finish 3rd or better and get help from Shin to finish worse than 8th or 9th.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

For Shin, the proposition is simple: beat Lorena. She trails by four after day one, so she has work to do.

Don't forget Cristie Kerr, though. She is six out of the lead, but if she wins and Ochoa and Shin fail to finish in the top ten, then Kerr would win.

This is the kind of thing that has the players and - seemingly - fans of both tours excited about this week.

So that begs the question: why the love for these two formats and such vitriol for the FedExCup, which is basically a hybrid of these two formats?

St. Petersburg Times interviews LPGA Legends Tour CEO Jane Blalock

2009-11-20T13:20:54Z

St. Petersburg Times interviews LPGA Legends Tour CEO Jane Blalock

I wonder if Rodney Page knows Ms. Blalock was at the center of one of golf's biggest scandals over 35 years ago. Probably not........

Waggle Room Passes 1 Million Hits

2009-11-20T13:15:20Z

If you ever click on the Sitemeter button at the bottom of my posts, you can see how many people stop by this site everyday. In fact, if you were perverted, you could see it by the minute. But you're not.

Anyway, a little while back, I realized Waggle Room was probably going to pass the million hit mark this year. And then I guess I forgot about it.

Well, this week (sometime this week), we passed the 1,000,000 hit mark!

And now, for a victory montage of pictures!

Waggle Room is Taking Nominations for the 1st Ever Waggle Roomies

2009-11-20T00:28:46Z

The Golf Writers Association of America has an annual awards ceremony that excludes bloggers like myself because I don't get much ink in newsprint during the year. And, they haven't come up with a blogging category. So, I've decided to create the Waggle Roomies - the awards defined and voted on by the readers of Waggle Room.

How the Waggle Roomies work is simple:

First, YOU get to suggest to me what kinds of categories that you think would make great awards for this year. They can be about anything related to golf: best dressed player, funniest golf article, dirtiest golf joke. Whatever you'd like.

Then, based on the suggestions that I get, I'll decide on the categories that we'll vote on for this year. I will pick the categories based on how many possible winners I think there can be. I'm not going to have you vote on the category "Best performance by John Daly or a John Daly look alike" because only John Daly and that guy on the Asian Tour can win.

After that, I'll unveil the slate of nominees for each category and give ample time to vote on each award. And then I'll try to get in touch with the people who win - no matter who they are - and present them with a Waggle Roomie. (Roomie, for short.) And hopefully we'll get some pictures back of happy faces!

So, let's get started. I need categories - LOTS of categories. Anything golf related will do, but please make them kind of creative. You can leave them here, Twitter them to me, or drop me an email with your ideas!

What the PGA Tour Might Learn from the LPGA Tour's 2010 Schedule

2009-11-19T20:19:50Z

Tod Leonard of the San Diego Union-Tribune (and former guest of the 19th Hole Golf Show) put out a piece regarding the scary situation for the Torrey Pines event that is now sponsorless because of General Motors' bankruptcy filing.

The Century Club, who organizes the event, has been struggling to find a replacement title sponsor for their event - one hosted on a course that is site of one of the great golf duels ever and a tournament that perennially has the current two best golfers in the world in attendance.

Leonard details how difficult making the sale has been to familiar partners of the Tour and the bewilderment of approaching companies that are novel to the sport. Nothing has worked.

It seems, though, that the PGA Tour may have been asleep at the wheel in helping the Century Club find a sponsor.

"I've seen it in the last 90 days. The PGA Tour is completely aware the world has changed," said Tom Wornham, the chairman of the Century Club to Leonard.

Ninety days ago was in the middle of August, around the time that Tiger Woods lost to YE Yang in his bid for a 15th major championship. Perhaps the Tour was hoping that a Woods victory would propel some company to pony up the multi-million dollar price tag to attach their name with a course that should be better known as Tiger Pines. Well, Woods didn't win.

But that didn't stop the PGA Tour from thinking that things were looking good. A few short weeks later at the Tour Championship, Commissioner Tim Finchem was pretty secure in how the Tour would be doing in 2010.

That kind of optimism certainly has to be taken at less than value, though. The Tour's State of the Tour speech isn't exactly intended to share all of the bad news. If anything, the PGA Tour does a brilliant job of releasing bad news when no one is looking. Hell, they turned Buick's demise in the Michigan event into a celebration.

By contrast, the LPGA Tour's release of the 2010 schedule was taken as awfully somber despite the fact that the Tour had nine contracts for 2010 signed when former Commissioner Carolyn Bivens was ousted. Some 14 event confirmations in the middle of the summer and our national discontent is awfully impressive.

But, the LPGA Tour can also serve as a cautionary tale for what the PGA Tour may face next year when they have to secure about a fourth of their schedule to new deals. Many PGA Tour title sponsors have preemptively backed out of future commitments, perhaps taking advantage of the low point in our economy to hedge their bets on the future recovery. Others are very much in the air but off the record. It sounds an awful lot like the avalanche of bad news that trailed the LPGA Tour throughout the season.

In the end, the LPGA Tour lost three or four events from the final '09 campaign - eight or nine from the '09 schedule initially announced this time last year. That's a loss of about a third of the schedule. Still, there is cause for optimism.

In terms of average purse money between '09 and the projected '10 purses, the average dropped from $1.76 million this year to $1.7 million next year. $60,000 is a drop in the bucket for the average LPGA Tour purse. PGA Tour purses run some three times higher than LPGA Tour purses, so guys could expect to play from anywhere between $180,000 to $250,000 less each week if the same rules apply to the PGA Tour.

The thing is, though, that the same rules don't apply.

The PGA Tour has Tiger Woods who has won 14 majors and is the most transformative athlete in the world. By comparison, the LPGA's best marketing prospect in this country is a 20 year woman who just won her first pro tournament last weekend.

The PGA Tour has a business development staff that is second to none. They thrived in the post-9/11 downturn amidst the backdrop of negotiations for network TV deals. Purses continued to rise. The PGA Tour also has other options for cultivating sponsors. Potential PGA Tour sponsors can get their feet wet with the Champions and Nationwide Tours - exactly why the purses for those tours hold steady or even increase. While times may be tough, the Tour can still get sponsors under their umbrella. More often than not, PGA Tour sponsors hang around for four or five years.

On the LPGA Tour side, sponsors fall into two buckets - seemingly lifetime sponsors of the Tour, or one (or none) and done sponsors that look to promote real estate developments and other cyclical businesses. And the Duramed Futures Tour, which the LPGA purchased in 2005, is not mature enough to be able to do the same thing for the LPGA Tour.

Certainly, the PGA Tour will not escape this next year of negotiation without atrophy. It's going to happen. But in an interesting example of reverse benchmarking, the PGA Tour is making frantic strides to make connections with title sponsors in countries outside of North America. The Tour is thinking that it might take the schedule outside of the US more often if it has to in these times.

They're taking one from the LPGA Tour's playbook: when the well dries in the US, drill somewhere else.

Greg Norman's Earth Course Isn't Getting Good Reviews

2009-11-19T17:36:50Z

Since it is apparently Green Is Universal week on the networks of NBC, that means environmental propaganda is shoved down people's throats for a week. Perhaps knowing NBC's plans was why the European Tour hosted its Dubai World Championship at the Earth Course at Jumeriah Estates. It is a resort course, intended to be built into a very rich golf-based community. The course is designed by economist, golfer, winemaker, sailor, divorcee, and architect Greg Norman.

Norman claimed to hear nothing but great things from players about his course. Alastair Tait tells a different story in Golfweek:

Had he talked to others, he might have had some evasive answers from players too polite to tell the truth.

"Awful."

"Not worthy of the season-ending event."

"Boring."

The only guy who loves the course - and the only player Greg Norman talked to? Paddy Harrington. And his opinion doesn't count because he loved Liberty National, too. Which means he'll be getting big design bucks once his playing days are over with that kind of design eye.

The other courses at Jumeriah Estates have since been put on hold. They're named Wind, Water, and Fire. The only thing that they're missing is Heart - the Planeteer that was by far the coolest because he had a monkey sidekick.

via www.turner.com

And that's why players think that Greg Norman's course stinks. It has no heart.

Robert Allenby Skips Aussie Triple Crown, Leads in Dubai

2009-11-19T16:35:07Z

Robert Allenby decided that he was going to skip the Australian Triple Crown. His stated reason was wear and tear from global gallvanting in recent weeks. His unstated reason was that Australian golf fans are happy to mock him at every opportunity.

Well, so far, the strategy has paid off in the Dubai World Championship. Allenby leads after a first round 65.

Lee Westwood - trailing Rory McIlroy by some $191,000 in the Race to Dubai money list - is a shot back of Allenby. McIlroy is two shots back of Westwood.

Chris Wood and Camilo Villegas are tied with Westwood for second.

It would probably be bad PR for the Euro Tour to have Rory McIlroy win the Race to Dubai only to commit slightly less time to the tour next year to play in the States more often. So, for the Euro Tour's sake, I'm rooting for Westwood.

Let There Be No Doubt: Michelle Wie Moves the Meter

2009-11-19T16:22:49Z

Earlier in the year, when Michelle Wie wound up finishing in second at the season-opening SBS Open in Hawaii to Angela Stanford, the ratings were double the '08 numbers. She brought people into the Solheim Cup, as well. Combined with the inherent patriotism in the competition, the Solheim Cup's final day proved to be ratings champion for the LPGA on Golf Channel this year.

Though Solheim still is, Michelle Wie's final round performance at the LoCho Invitational turned out to be second best.

Golf Channel released info this morning in a press release to boast how Wie put butts on the couch.

Sunday’s 0.72 final-round rating represents the second-highest-rated LPGA Tour round on Golf Channel and second-most-watched LPGA Tour telecast on any cable network this year.

The number also represents a 60 percent increase over the tournament’s final round in 2008 and is double the typical final-round ratings for LPGA Tour events on Golf Channel in 2009 (excluding the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and McDonald’s LPGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola).

In fact, Wie actually led the LPGA Tour to double the rating for the PGA Tour's Children's Miracle Network Classic. That is thanks to several factors, but Michelle Wie is certainly a big one.

Want another indicator that Wie moves the meter? By far, she received the highest bid from sponsors looking to play in the pro-am at the LPGA Tour Championship - in upwards of $25,000. That shocked new commissioner Michael Whan.

Jeff Rude video interview with Billy Caspter

2009-11-19T16:21:57Z

Jeff Rude video interview with Billy Caspter

This is a terrific 5 minutes with Billy Casper on the putting green. Definitely worth a watch. I hope there is more to come.

Europe, Blame Jeev Milkha Singh for Rory McIlroy's Defection

2009-11-18T21:33:07Z

At the Dubai World Championship, Rory McIlroy made it clear that a conversation (if you can call it that) with Jeev Milkha Singh gave him the gusto to take up his PGA Tour card in 2010...for a whole four more events than this year.

From Reuters:

"Before I made up my mind over America, I went around looking for different opinions and a little bit of advice. I went to Clarkey (Darren Clarke) Westy (Lee Westwood), Chubby (his manager Andrew Chandler), Ernie (Els) and said: 'Look, I'm thinking about it (joining the PGA Tour), what do you think?'

"They said: 'There's no rush. Why don't you try and win a bit more over here (on the European Tour) before going over there?'"

However, a conversation with India's Singh, who competes on both sides of the Atlantic, tipped the balance.

"I had lunch with Jeev during the World Matchplay Championship. He said: 'If you want to why not? You're young. It's great.'

That's all it took? "It's great?"

"Hey, Ryan, why don't you try snorting cocaine? It's great." That will NOT sell me on snorting cocaine.

I have a feeling that Rory wanted to play in the US all along and was just looking for the right person to give him the validation that it would be ok.

So, thanks, JM Singh!