Divot Ends

I only posted few articles on the INCIDENT. There was a story on Elin's parents, one on Parnevik's thoughts and one on the police report and what two lawyers said what would come of all this is a misdemeanor traffic violation that would garner a fine. They were legally right and terribly wrong.

As to the other car wreck, it is always sad when a family disintegrates, no matter the circumstances and especially when children are involved.

Speaking from my own experience, I was a depressed and miserable excuse of a human being when the decision was reached to end my marriage. I had two young sons who I love more and harder than I could ever imagine possible. I daily wondered if I would ever see them again. I lost my house, my credit rating and if not for the extraordinary support of friends and especially one man and his family, I might be living in a cardboard appliance box somewhere. Yes, I was that f**ked up.

It was only after the papers were signed, and as Bruce sings, "the Judge put it all to rest" was I, finally, able to get on with, what has become a pretty OK life.

Even with all his money and support system and his ability to play golf unlike anyone-ever-I cannot believe that Tiger Woods did not fight with the same voices in his head that I did. Voices that berate you, remind you of your arrogance and stupidity, nag at your self doubt and question your ability to turn it around.

Add to those private, haunting voices add the public ones that do all the above and make the worst moment in your life a public joke. For the life of me, I don't know how he has accomplished what he has done so far! Problems with his golf swing, there's something he's doing wrong. Really! You think?

I hope that both he and Elin can get on with the new way that they will cooperate in the raising of, what one friend called, two "awesome" kids. Divorced or not, they will always be linked through their children.

I wish them both all the best.

Now, can we get back to golf?"

Finally!

After a number of attempts, I was finally able to link a video feed of the CBS coverage of the PGA Championships. After adjusting to the appalling amount of ads and promos for CBS shows, we got to see a little bit of exciting golf. Congratulations to Martin Kaymer for winning and to Bubba, Dustin, Rors and veteran Steve Elkington for giving us an exciting and tumultuous back nine of the final major of the 2010 season.

I had a Twitter feed going on during the broadcast. It was the first time I had tried that and I'm here to tell you, Christina Kim may be the most entertaining golf fan in the world. That woman brings a unique perspective to the telecast, not only as a fan of golf, but as a professional who has played on the big time stage. She seems to be very genuine, a WYSIWYG person, and she speaks her mind. For big golf events, I recommend the Twitter activity.

As to the "grounding" incident, as Dustin did, I never once considered that his lie to be in a bunker or sand trap or hazard or whatever the Rules guys want to call that piece of land with no grass on it. But, the rule was posted as a Local Rule all week and, as they say in golf (especially) "A rule is a Rule." Unfortunate? Yes. Avoidable? Yes.

My thoughts have been on what kind of game was golf back in its beginnings that these rash of rules had to be developed? I can understand drop areas and double hits and not writing in the correct score. The one about grounding your club in a bunker is one that has always escaped me. Seriously, why? Is it any wonder why kids, who think about playing this "game" quit after learning that if you brush a blade of grass in your backswing, you can be penalized in one part of the playing field, but not in another.

My friend, Shane at "Dogs That Chase Cars", brought out a fact that Jack Nicklaus NEVER ground his club to avoid such incidents as this weekend's or on the chance of his moving the ball. That's the kind of meticulous preparation that makes Jack, Jack. Which is why he is who he is, and I'm a weekend hack out for a good time. But that meticulousness is also the reason that Jack made slow play de facto with his pre- shot routines and his taking forever to line up a putt.

Anyway, Johnson took the bullet for golf like a man. We hope that his big game has enough upside to shrug this off to where it will get a few laughs on the speaking tours later on. As to the howlers claiming the rule is unfair and that Johnson shouldn't be penalized, well, if we can wallow in the self congratulatory orgy that we golfers did when Brian Davis called a two stroke penalty on himself, declaring that THIS is what makes golf the great game it is, then we can't howl in protest about the "unfair" treatment of calling the penalty on Johnson. Tough call, but the correct call.

I was more concerned with the seemingly inadequate amount of marshals and referees at the ball position. There's no doubt that Johnson hit his tee shot just short of Iowa, into a crowd that looked about twenty deep. What was disturbing was the lack of crowd control. I'm all in favor of letting the fans get up close and personal, but Johnson should have had a little room to swing. Geez, he should of had a little room just to think. It's little wonder that he made a wrong decision. Noisy crowds are one thing. Smelling the mustard from some fan's breath is something else.

Not only were the marshals and walking rules officials no where to be seen, the crowd was so thick that Johnson's caddy had to squeeze down to the fairway to be able to see the result of the swing. I remember Johnson having to wait for a long stream of fans who walked across his line to get a better sight angle. Johnson was left on his lonesome, surrounded by a friendly, if restless, crowd of fans ready to witness history…or disaster.

The PGA was quick to absolve themselves of the rules infraction. Their mantra of "we told them" was forcefully, if somewhat embarrassingly, given. What hasn't been explained was the lack of crowd supervision, Johnson's shot window was narrow due to the crowd's convergence and scramble for a vantage point.. How narrow? Anyone less skilled than Johnson might have seriously injured someone. The PGA proudly proclaimed their gratitude for the "thousands of volunteers" who, without their diligence, the tournament could not have been held. They could have used a couple of diligent people up on that hillside on 18.

Finally, Whistling Straits.

The nadir of two massive egos coming together to create a perfect storm of, as John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated calls "the Gilded Age of Golf Course Design. These tracks cost too much to build and maintain, and they're way too hard for weekend golfers to play."

Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated said, "You build a course that looks spectacular on TV and challenges the best players, so naturally it gets on TV. Once it's on TV, everybody with an AmEx card wants to go play it, and because they've shelled out so much they don't want to admit that it's impossible to play, and the myth perpetuates itself. Genius. The course is so unnatural that the players can't tell the hazards from the playing surfaces. I know everybody seems to love this course, but when it's all said and done, and I know I'm repeating myself here, it represents all that's wrong with modern design. Obscenely expensive and unplayable for us — or me, anyway."

Pete Dye likes to build golf courses that dwarf the play and the players. You don't remember the who wins what at Ponte Verde, you remember the 17th hole. Or the railroad ties. The game of golf is just something that happens on his creations. Whistling Straits looks spectacular in HD, the views of the lake seem to surround the course. But unlike the great courses like St. Andrews, Seminole and Pebble Beach, Whistling Straits looks nothing like the natural land it inhabits. The great courses meld into the land they occupy. I heard the words, "Pete Dye moved a lot of dirt" several times during the week to describe the course. That says it all.

Anyone who has visited and played "The Dukes" golf course above St. Andrews is not surprised that Herb Kohler put a few bunkers into Whistling Straits. He must have difficulty in playing bunker shots because to his way of thinking the number of bunkers = the degree of difficulty. If Whistling Straits is what Kohler thinks links courses should look like, then the City of St. Andrews better be prepared for what he must have in mind for Hamilton Hall behind the 18th green at the Old Course.

There is a lot to remember about this playing of the 2010 PGA Championship. The gaffe by Dustin Johnson may turn out to be least of them all. Golf is at a crossroads as equipment technology and improvements to personal fitness programs is making existing courses obsolete. At the same time, world economies and environmental impact is making the use of more land for bigger golf courses unattainable. Is Whispering Straits a glimpse into golf's future or a last look at its accessibility.

Photo of Dustin Johnson by Andy Lyons/Getty Images North America

Viasat Golf has signed a deal to continue broadcasting the PGA Tour. On Monday, the media company Modern Times Group of Viasat Broadcast extended the contract for golf through 2015.

Viasat has held the broadcast rights to the PGA Tour since 1987. The new contract allows viewers to continue following the U.S. Men's Tour on Viasat Golf until the end of 2015. In total, there will be 600 hours of live coverage a year from the PGA Tour, the Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour, as well.

"We have the great pleasure to extend our partnership with Viasat for the next five years. The PGA Tour has plenty of supporters in Sweden for a long time, largely thanks to the success of Scandinavian players, like five time winner on the Tour Jesper Parnevik, the 2009 Players Championship winner Henrik Stenson, and Carl Pettersson, who recently won the RBC Canadian Open," said Tim Leisure, Senior Vice President of International Television PGA Tour.

To Hans-Holger Albrecht, president and CEO of MTG, says that the PGA Tour is one of the world's hottest broadcast rights packages and already is a staple of our dedicated pay-TV channels. The golf channel is a very important part of our wider pay-TV sports channels that focus on single sports."

While Viasat and the PGA Tour congratulate one another, the Swedish golf viewing public cringes at the thought of sitting through the next five years waiting to see someone hit a golf shot.

Because despite golf's woes of declining rounds of play, fewer club members and golf courses turning into jogging trails, golf remains a huge draw on TV and a hit among advertisers in the USA. Only the NFL topped the PGA Tour in advertising sold on network and cable TV last year, according to the Nielsen Rating Service.

That is the main problem that Swedish viewers have. The television coverage of the PGA Tour from the States is loaded with advertising, much of it promotion of programming by the American TV channels themselves. This causes huge gaps in the coverage here while those commercials run. We viewers in Sweden, who pay for the privilege, annoyingly await a glimpse of any action on the fairways and greens.

We in Sweden are forced to wait minutes looking at the same static crowd and nature shots while listening to announcers trying to make dead air sound exciting. Additionally, during the summer, events may be 6, 7 or more hours behind Sweden time, keeping the Swedish viewer up to the early AM to find out the winner.

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Swedish Golf Online has been inside the ropes for the first two days of the Scandinavian Masters, and as a take off of the old joke, "Boy! Are our legs tired!"

We have been assisting with the telecast as a TV spotter, which has given us an upfront and semi-personal look at how the players and caddies interact with each other as well with their fellow competitors. Interestingly, there is a relation between the caddies and the TV coverage, which is not apparent when you watch the telecast on TV.

What does a spotter do? In a nutshell, he is the on the ground eyes for the TV production team. He is assigned a group, or a player to watch and to keep track of his shots, and to alert the truck when anything unusual or eventful happens.
At the end of each hole's play, you also send in your score to see if it jibes with the official score.

You can be called off at a moment's notice to follow someone hot, and hopefully your group stays in the hunt. You can always tell if your player is being featured because there will be a ground camera following you.

Yesterday's best moment for me, was the triple attempt of José Manual Lara's caddy to get his rain pants off. For some reason he was trying to get them over his golf shoes without unzipping the ankles. Finally, on the third attempt, José unzipped the ankles, and the caddy removed his shoes, and perseverance triumphed.

Much has been said about the Bro Hof golf course over the years and two things have proven to be correct. The first is that it is long. That is true (take it from the TV Spotter), in fact, to most of the caddies I have talked to and some of the players, the comment has been, "It's too long!"

I followed Dustin Johnson, the big hitter from the United States on Thursday. In benign weather conditions, he overpowered the the course, tee to green and putted well enough to go five under. On Friday, the wind was up, cooling temperatures and scores, and Johnson went one over.

The second comment, and this is unanimous, is the condition of the course. If there is such a thing as a perfect condition, Bro Hof is pretty close. No one has complained about the conditions, and the greens have been given particular praise. They may be hard to putt because of the undulations, but they never bounce or go awry by the surface. They are truly amazing.

The only one who handled the course well yesterday is our leader, KJ Choi. The Korean, who can hit it big and can handle wind, got to minus 10 before going into the clubhouse at 9 under.

Of course, earlier in the week, all eyes were on Choi on the putting green to watch him practice the side saddle putting stroke. To these eyes, he was struggling, and I saw no consistency in his putting stroke. Tuesday afternoon, he abandoned the club and went back to his regular putter. After the first two rounds, he is in the lead.

At his Friday press conference, when asked about the return to the regular stroke, he said that he hadn't abandoned the side saddle, but would work on it gradually over the next few months. If he wins this week, after struggling with the making cuts at the two previous events using the side saddle, you wonder if he will.

Robert S. Johnson, from Sweden is in second place using a Swedish radio and print humorist for his caddy. Obviously begun as a human interest angle, will Johnson risk a win to keep up the commitment? And if he does, and wins, will golfers become like Chuck Berry in rock, and find a local back up to carry the load?

Somehow, I doubt that.