Europe Claims 2011 Solheim Cup

CATHAL MCNAUGHTON/Reuters

There’s lots of stuff out there worth taking a moment or two to gloss over with regard to the weekend festivities in the Solheim Cup, but the Golf Channel’s Randall Mell offers a most interesting take on what he refers to as the “Gaelic Classic” HERE, with Mell opining that despite the American dominance in the Solheim over the past 3 events, “The Europeans, who had lost the last three competitions, transformed the event with a comeback as thrilling as any you’ll see in this sport.”

Congrats to the European ladies for winning the 2011 Solheim Cup.

 

American Players Performance (matches won – matches lost – matches halved):

 
Michelle Wie  1 – 3 – 0

Paula Creamer  3 – 1 – 1

Cristie Kerr  2 – 1 – 2  (Sunday Singles Match conceded because of injury)

Brittany Lang  1 – 3 – 0

Brittany Lincicome  2 – 2 – 0

Vicky Hurst  1 – 1 – 0

Stacy Lewis  1 – 3 – 0

Morgan Pressel  4 – 0 – 0

Angela Stanford  0 – 3 – 0

Julie Inkster  0 – 2 – 1

Christina Kim  1 – 0 – 1

Ryann O’Toole  2 – 0 – 2

 

News, Notes, and Quotes from the Week in Review

For starters, how about a round of applause for Sandra Gal, the 25-yr-old LPGA Tour player who became only the second German player ever to win an LPGA Tour event on Sunday at the Kia Classic. Gal and fellow competitor Jiyai Shin were in the final pairing and going head-to-head in the final round, thanks to their sizable lead ahead of everyone else in the field. The tournament came down to the final hole, and essentially their final approach shots to the par5 finishing hole.

Shin elected to lay up well short of the green with her second shot, giving her a full wedge approach to the elevated green. She hit a beautiful shot that hit a few feet in front of the pin before biting and stopping 5 feet beyond. Gal likewise opted to lay up with her second, but played a much longer shot that got her to within 80 yards of the green. Gal played her 3/4 wedge shot brilliantly, hitting her ball only a few inches beyond the hole and almost going in before spinning back a mere 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Advantage Gal. Shin admitted afterward that she felt the pressure, knowing that her opponent had basically left herself a tap-in. As a result, Shin would miss and Gal would brush in the short tap-in, collecting the first win of her LPGA career. “I had the belief coming out this morning that I could win,” Gal said. “I thought I could do it. I just tried to play the course instead of Jiyai.”

I might also add that she looks just a tad different in a swimsuit versus typical LPGA Tour garb….

And some not-so-good news for another German golfer: Last week it was revealed that Bernhard Langer will be out of action for 2 months because of an injury he sustained to his thumb during a biking accident. Langer needed surgery, and as a result the 2-time Masters Champion will not be in the field at Augusta for the first time since 1983. Langer has already won once this season on the Champions Tour, and his absence will certainly shakeup the season-ending Charles Schwab Points Cup race.

Beam me up, Scotties: It was indeed a banner week for Scotland, as two of their countrymen took top honors in the world of golf. Martin Laird was somehow able to overcome a disastrous start on Sunday to pick up 2 timely birdies coming down the stretch, miraculously eking out a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and a name from the Van de Veldean lore of Open Championship history – Paul Lawrie – became the oldest winner ever to win the Andalucian Open in Spain on the European Tour on Sunday as well.

Metal Spike Spat: When the conditions get as firm and difficult as the greens got Sunday at Bay Hill, it doesn’t take a whole lot to initiate some sparks. According to Stephanie Wei over at her blog, there was plenty of bickering going on about the condition of the greens, not necessarily about the firmness or the speed, but rather the overwhelming presence of heavy feet and metal spikes. “What upsets a lot of players isn’t that guys wear metal spikes, it’s that guys don’t pick their feet up and don’t pat their spikes down when they make them,” he (D.J. Trahan) said. “I think guys need to be a little more courteous about fixing their spike marks when they make them. I don’t care if they wear metal spikes, just be courteous to the guys coming behind you.”

Trying to Rebound: Alex Miceli over at GolfWeek.Com points out that Doug Barron (the PGA Tour Player who was suspended from the tour for the 2010 season for testing positive for a banned substance) has just cashed his first Tour check in several years. On Sunday, Barron finished tied for 33rd in the Nationwide Tour’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open, pocketing $2900. “I didn’t play perfect, by any means,” Barron said from his home in Memphis, Tenn., “but did make 20 birdies and an eagle.”

Q-School Restructuring More About Ratings? The revelation that Finchem and Co. are seriously considering revamping Q-School for Nationwide Tour-only access was a big topic last week, and overall the general reception behind the idea was mostly mixed. But Rex Hoggard over at the Golf Channel explains that the focus of such a drastic change might have an even larger ulterior motive: Ratings. Tucked into the second-to-last paragraph in the memo from commissioner Tim Finchem is the “why” behind the proposed restructuring. “The integration of the Qualifying Tournament into the Nationwide Tour when combined with the proposed Finals Series increases the attractiveness of the Nationwide Tour for the umbrella sponsor,” the memo read. Nationwide is out as the secondary circuit’s umbrella sponsor in 2012 and the restructuring is a not-so-veiled attempt to move product. But this is more than a fresh coat of paint on a fixer-upper. A Finals Series “playoff” model would undermine the competitive integrity of the Nationwide Tour’s regular season and the long-held notion that 12 months is better than three weeks.”

No 3-Group Backups at Amen Corner Next Week: J.B. Holmes needed a good finish at Bay Hill last week to get inside of the top 50 in the OWGR to get into next week’s Masters Tournament through the backdoor. But a horrendous back nine of 5-over 41 that led to his final round of 4-over 76 pretty much removed the possibility that he will be spending 2 agonizing hours each round reading the greens at Augusta National next week.

Best Player on Tour Without a Win? If the PGA Tour were to put together their own version of the movie, “Groundhog Day”, you would see Steve Marino waking up every Monday morning to Sonny and Cher blaring on the alarm clock, after having finished 2nd the day before in yet another tour event. Marino had his first PGA Tour victory well in hand on the back nine Sunday at Bay Hill, but stumbled badly on the par3 17th with a double bogey, which ultimately cost him the tournament. It is the 4th runner-up finish for the 31-yr-old Oklahoma native, his 2nd runner-up finish this season. Through 7 events in 2011, he’s already amassed $1.4 million in earnings, and is currently ranked 54th in the OWGR. That’s a lot of money, and a pretty good position in the world rankings to be O-fer.

 

Slow Play Hot Topic Again This Week

Here are some interesting excerpts from an article by ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski about the pace of play on Thursday at Bay Hill. You can check out the article in its entirety HERE.
“We talk about it every [players] meeting,” said tour veteran Pat Perez. “Every meeting we talk about pace of play and we talk about course setup. But it never changes. It’s a waste of time to talk about it. People aren’t going to change their routine. We’re playing for millions of dollars a week out here. Guys are not going to change their routine just to finish. In their mind, they’re in no hurry.”

“It’s not possible,” said Jim Furyk, referring to slow players in general. “There’s nothing you can do. And let me tell you why: The only way to speed up play is to reduce the field size. And if you reduce the field size you limit the number of players who have an obligation. And you can’t do that.”

“I’d tell them to start handing out strokes,” said Bubba Watson, referring to penalty strokes.”

“I would put all the slow players last out in the morning and last out in the afternoon on Thursdays and Fridays,” said Kenny Perry, who shot 79 and WD’d after the first round. “Now that way — and I’d put them all together, I’d pair them all together — they’re in the back, they’re not going to hold anybody up and they’re all going to be together … Then they’re going to get behind and they’re going to get on the clock and they’re going to have to speed their game up.”

Interesting. It’s interesting that it’s talked about every players meeting, yet nothing changes. It’s also interesting to hear Jim Furyk’s take on the issue of slow play, the guy that has historically been guilty of more “balks” in a single round on the putting surfaces than Steve Carlton has had on the mound his entire MLB career. The problem is that there is absolutely no leadership coming from the top in resolving the issue.

Nearly three years ago, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem was asked to comment on the ever-growing problem of slow players on his tour. He acknowledged that it was becoming an issue, but essentially more time was needed to “analyze” what the solution might be.

“It’s a complicated subject that I’d be happy to spend some more time with you off-line perhaps later in the week.

Pace of play has always been a problem; more so in the eyes of some than others, perhaps. And I always in my mind divide it between the extent to which it’s a problem at the professional and the extent to which it’s a problem just in terms of how long it takes to play a round of golf for the average player that wants to go out and play.

I think there’s a debate as to how they overlap, those two issues. But just focusing on pace at the professional level, it’s always been a challenge to maintain a system that’s fair to the competitors and tries to maintain etiquette in the game. You owe your fellow competitor the courtesy of maintaining a reasonable pace.

We make it very difficult, because we put a lot of people on the golf course on Thursdays and Fridays, sometimes 156 players; we push the number we play based on daylight. We set up the golf courses as hard as we can set them up. We put the pins three paces from the side of the greens. We try to create excitement on the golf course by having reachable par 5s and drivable par 4s. All of these things slow play down. They create situations that bottleneck play.

So in too many weeks, we have players waiting on the tee, and some weeks, we struggle to meet the television window; and sometimes of the year, we struggle to get done by dark. Most of the year we put ourselves at jeopardy of the vagaries of the weather, because the longer it takes to play, the more difficult it is to play in.

So these are all challenges, and they emanate from lots of different reasons. Some of it is because some players are slow players, but that’s only one element of it.

But because some of these factors have accentuated in recent years, it’s come to a point where we are going to have to really analyze all of it and ask ourselves: Is there a better way to do it, whether it relates to a slow player, whether it relates to the setup of the golf course, whether it relates to field sizes and the rest, and we are committed to doing that.

We feel strongly on this issue now. I think it’s a whole other debate as to the extent to which what people watch on the air impacts how long it takes the average player. I watch virtually all of our golf on the air, and it doesn’t make me a slow player, as I want to get done as fast as I can get done. But there is that sense that we need to set a good example, too.

So we have identified not a complete list, but certainly the beginning of a framework of how to effectively analyze this subject more effectively. I think it’s time to do that, and I think it’s a combination of identifying things that could be done in communicating effectively, primarily with players, talking about the professional; but also yourselves and the fans about what the realities are, what the causes are and what steps could be done.”

There’s like what – 40 some odd tournaments on tour each season? Over the span of three seasons, that’s like 120 tournaments? You mean to tell me that in three years of analysis, three years worth of player meetings having this issue dredged up over and over, with over 120 tournaments at his disposal to pinpoint exactly who the slow players are, 36 months to hash over some sort of viable solution… and we are still having this discussion today? It’s quite apparent that Finchem and Company really don’t care how long it takes his players to complete a round of golf. If he did, something would have been done about it long before now.

Maybe the PGA Tour would be well served to do what the LPGA Tour did yesterday at the Kia Classic: They assessed a 24-yr-old tour rookie, Shasta Averyhardt, who is playing on a sponsors exemption no less, a 2-stroke penalty for holding up the golf course in route to a round of 80.

“Obviously I disagreed, but I can’t do anything about that,” Averyhardt said, blaming her 7-over 80 on poor course management.

“I have to make better decisions on the golf course,” the golfer told the publication. “I want to manage the course better do a better job at that. I think everything will be fine after that.”

The only practical solution is to start handing out 2-stroke penalties, Commissioner Finchem. It can be done. It works. Actions, not further analysis, not words, will resolve this issue. It sets an example for the amateurs watching at home on television, and it makes televised golf a better product.

Amanda Blumenherst leads Kia Classic – Tours & News – Golf.com

Amanda Blumenherst leads Kia Classic – Tours & News – Golf.com.

Blumenherst had 9 birdies and 2 bogeys, heading into the second round of the Kia Classic on Friday with a 1-shot lead over Germany’s Sanda Gal.

Could this be a Duke Blue Devil winner weekend? We’ll see….

Annika Sorenstam Family Now a Foursome

Congrats to Annika Sorenstam and her husband, Mike with the new birth of their baby boy!

DETAILS

Karrie Webb wins LPGA Founders Cup – Tours & News – Golf.com

Karrie Webb wins LPGA Founders Cup – Tours & News – Golf.com.

Congrats to Karrie Webb, who continues her impressive run this season.

And congrats as well to all of the ladies in the field this week, who freely gave of their time and effort to do some wonderful good to the number of charities that will be benefiting from their goodwill gestures.

PGA Tour to Assume Control of LPGA Tour?

“Clearly, the LPGA could benefit from both the big pockets of the PGA Tour and from the ways in which it could structure added-value title sponsorship deals. Some men’s tour sponsors could take on LPGA events for a little more money, and the fact the PGA Tour would use its various promotional platforms to market the LPGA would help get the message out about how much talent there is in women’s golf.”

For the full scoop, click on the quote above from Ron Sirak at GolfDigest.Com

My thoughts: Annika Sorenstam was on the Golf Channel’s Morning Drive this morning, and she seemed pretty open to the idea when asked about it. I’m not going to say that I was totally taken aback by her opinion on the matter, but I will say that it’s pretty telling of the state of women’s golf for this to be looked at as a serious option. And it could certainly work out to the LPGA Tour’s advantage, IF it’s properly managed.

This will certainly get more ink in the coming weeks and months, me thinks….

LPGA Tour plays for free at 2011 Founders Cup – Tours & News – Golf.com

LPGA Tour plays for free at 2011 Founders Cup – Tours & News – Golf.com.

As much as I would like to see some of the needy charities here at home get some of the cut of the purse, I can’t help but think that a majority of it needs to be heading over to help out the people of Japan….

It’s sad that it takes a crisis of that magnitude for me to change my thinking about this charity event, but it has… I think this is a great opportunity to help out some desperate people, and the LPGA could take a huge step towards relevancy again in the process.

What are the odds that the guys would do something like this? You tell me….

I take my hat off to the ladies.

 

Jennifer Song Has No Problem Giving Back

Every now and then I’ll read something that makes me look at a star golfer in a different light. It happened again today, as the Golf Channel’s Randall Mell wrote a nice piece about an LPGA Tour player that doesn’t take her success for granted and is going out of her way to make a difference.

“I feel like I was blessed,” Song said. “I was born in a family that was able to support me. My parents gave me dreams, and they allowed me to dream. I just thought kids who don’t have that, they need somebody to help them get that start.”

The LPGA Tour is very fortunate to have players like Jennifer representing their brand, and I just officially became a fan of her. 

LPGA Golfer to Donate Kidney to Ailing Brother

It’s always nice to open up the headlines every once in a while and read about good things happening, because it’s not all that common anymore. But THIS story caught my attention, primarily because it’s something that I can relate to in my own life. Not for me exactly, but keep reading…

About 3 years ago, my wife was getting her hair done at a salon where she’d been a regular for a number of years. Then one day her beautician mentioned in passing to someone waiting that her husband was off from work because of his dialysis treatments. My wife knew nothing about it, and just asked the basic, “what’s wrong” and “how is he doing” type questions. It was then that she learned that her beautician’s husband was in dire need of a kidney transplant, but his blood type was so rare that they’d basically given up hope of ever finding a donor. His life was starting to deteriorate, and the dialysis treatments were on the verge of bankrupting them. My wife just casually asked, “What’s his blood type?”

Funny how life works out sometimes.

The Fall of 2010 marked the 3rd anniversary of my wife’s gift of life to someone she hardly even knew. The kidney recipient now goes about a normal healthy life, no more dialysis, no more medical bills, and has since resumed his career in the family-run excavation business. Not even 9 months after having donated her gift of life, my wife finished just a few seconds over 4 hours in her 3rd official marathon. But if you knew her, you’d think nothing of her gift of life. You’d simply say, “That’s just Caroline being Caroline.”And indeed it is. I don’t have to look very hard to find the one person in life that I respect and appreciate the most – I’m married to her.

Good luck to Beth Allen and her ailing brother, Dan.