Fore Right!

Conventional Wisdom

The mood at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando Jan. 27­–29 was decidedly more upbeat than in previous years. There definitely seemed to be more people there this year than last just on appearance, and the numbers back that up: the 42,000 attendees represented a 3.5 percent rise, with a seven percent increase in PGA professionals. Nearly 1,000 companies filled almost 10 miles worth of aisles. It’s so big (and exhausting) that you see some people using Segways or motorized carts to get around.

Global Grill Room

The golf world is atwitter, and not jut because the season really gets under way this week with Tiger and Phil making their PGA Tour starts at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.

It’s because pros, journalists and fans have taken to Twitter in droves. While Facebook is the place to go to keep up with family and friends, Twitter has become the ultimate 19^th hole. Dozens of PGA Tour, European Tour, golf writers and industry people gather there daily to exchange info and barbs in 140 characters or less. Even Tiger Woods is tweeting these days.

Border Patrol

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling, visiting high-end clubs that will appear in the second edition of LINKS Premier Clubs. Some of them include McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida; Country Club of the Rockies in Vail, Colorado; and Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Another was Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, north of Philly.

 

In addition to the Old course, which hosted the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open, along with the 1992 and 2000 U.S. Senior Opens, SVCC has two other top-notch courses, Grace and Weyhill, comprising more than 800 acres. That’s a lot of open, inviting turf for geese, the scourge of superintendents everywhere, to leave their mark on, but here’s the poop: incredibly, there wasn’t any anywhere.

I was putting out on the Old’s 474-yard 2nd in early November when I saw a flock fly high above the course with no intention of landing, and then I saw the reason why: Bentley, a one-year-old Border Collie and the newest member of SVCC’s geese chasers who was with his master, Old course super Matt Rogers (pictured). The dogs succeed by goosing the geese off before they've had a chance to mate and nest.

SVCC's director of golf courses and grounds, Jim Roney, was one of the first superintendents in the country to use a Border Collie to control geese in 1998 while at Sand Ridge in Ohio. That dog, Riggs, is now 13, deaf and nearly blind so he doesn’t see much on-course action these days, but in addition to Bentley, there’s also Ben (Hogan) to take up the slack. He belongs to irrigation super Chris Kensicki.

“Not only can the dogs completely eliminate the geese but they improve staff morale, and members really enjoy seeing them on the course,” says Roney, who has been at SVCC since 2004. “The dogs are trained to listen to commands. They are trained to stay on the cart until the command is given then they chase the geese away. But I’d say the most unexpected benefit is how incredibly well the golfers respond to the dogs. It’s really amazing. It’s really been an icebreaker for the young turf professionals to be able to speak with club members and create their own network which will undoubtedly help them in their quest to become a golf course superintendent.”

Border Collies have caught on at clubs all over the country, and now there are quite a few “farms” to train and sell the dogs to golf courses. They cost up to $6,000, which Roney thinks is a little ridiculous given how incredibly smart the breed is.

“Border Collies are the easiest dogs to train,” he says. “They are with us every hour of the day so it makes it even that much easier. I trained Riggs in about three weeks. They are so smart it’s unfair to refer to them as dogs. They are in a category of their own.”

Killer Wales

Every Ryder Cup is full of fascinating subplots, but this year’s event at Wales' Celtic Manor has story lines as rich as the scripts at the Warner Bros. development department. Here's the top ten:

10. Lisa Pavin (a/k/a “The Captainess”). Never has a captain’s wife been more, um, visible, having posed for the cover of a Dallas golf magazine wearing only a red, white and blue sheet and a crucifix. Hmmm…. maybe it was a comment on how naked the players feel when exposed to the pressure of playing for their country.

Lake Visit

Bobby Jones would no doubt have a hard time believing that one of the 30 PGA Tour players teeing it up at East Lake this week will walk away with a $10 million bonus check. Heck, for that amount the lifelong amateur might have even turned pro, especially considering that they're playing on his home course where he won numerous championships, including the 1922 Southern Amateur and 1927 Southern Open. East Lake is where Jones first played the game as a scrawny six year old in 1908. It’s also where he played his last round 40 years later.

Q&A With Keith Allo

There was a time not too long ago that watching most anything on Golf Channel other than golf shots was cringe-worthy. Even “Golf Central” could be amateurish at times. But that’s pretty much changed in the last few years under new management led by President Page Thompson, who came from parent company Comcast. Now in its 16th year, the network has become as polished as one of those silver trophies the PGA Tour hands out on Sunday afternoons. There’s only a smudge or two now that needs buffing, but for the most part Golf Channel really has stepped up its game, starting with the unveiling of the $2 million HD studio earlier this year. I recently spoke with Keith Allo, the vice-president of programming development, who oversees the creation of original content and manages outside production companies and packagers. Before joining the network three years ago, Allo served as chief of entertainment properties and brand marketing for the United States Olympic Committee.

Grab the Torches

It’s time for a revolt, a coup d’etat of the U.S. Golf Association, or at least the committee that oversees the Rules of Golf. We need a populist uprising to march on the USGA HQ in Far Hills, N.J., wielding golf clubs (conforming ones, of course) and demanding justice. For the second week in a row, a player in contention was denied a chance to win a championship because of golf’s unnecessarily complicated rules.

Meeting 'The Man'

One of the nation’s premier golf communities just got even better with the acquisition of the the latest and coolest device in club-fitting and teaching technology. Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, just off Hilton Head Island, recently purchased a TrackMan, a radar-based system that can track both the club and the ball. The Director of Instruction, David La Pour, invited me out recently to give it a whirl. 

Bubbly, Ogres and Naked Ladies

St. Andrews – Quirky replaced drama at this year’s British Open. Big time. As if links golf wasn’t quirky enough – baffling bounces, rippling rumpled fairways, penal pot bunkers, and all that – consider this: a 27-year old South African nicknamed Shrek (a teeth-related moniker), one who stared at a red dot on his glove before every shot to get focused, won the whole thing. The same guy – Louis Oosthuizen – lives on a farm and became the first champion since William Auchterlonie in 1893 to have four of the five vowels in his last name (but the former only earned 30 pounds for his win, while Louie snagged 850,000). After surviving numerous weather challenges with the usual mist, rain, wind, sun, and clouds, he played the last round as if he were a banker (UK translation: someone dependable and trustworthy – ironic, no?).

An Old Love

The top ten reasons why the Old Course is so special

Larry Lambrecht

10) With the tees and greens so close together and the flat, but rumpled landscape, it’s imminently walkable. It’s just a good thing they changed that rule that required golfers to tee off two club lengths from the hole. That really did a number on the greens.

9) The town of St. Andrews is the greatest clubhouse in the world where the most charming pubs are just steps away down a winding street. I just love how the course nestles up to the Auld Grey Toon. In fact, the course doubles as the town green where you can walk your dog or stroll with a friend on Sundays when the course is closed, even on the Sunday of the Open after the Champion Golfer of the Year is crowned.