Loose Impediments

Imperfect 10

A couple of days ago, I played a course with a sign near the clubhouse announcing the conditions of the day: cart policies, hole location, etc. The sign also announced that the greens were running 10 on the Stimpmeter.

Now, there are a lot of great things about golf on television. For example, it allows the viewer to easily follow a golf tournament's drama, which can takes place on multiple fronts. (Television directors hate it for the same reason.) 

But there are also plenty of negatives. A big minus is that tournament layouts, which have been prepped specifically for the best players in the world, have become models for courses for everyday golfers. And for some reason, fast greens are one aspect of course setup that has really caught on among owners and greens committees around the country. It's easy to understand why: The Stimpmeter reading is an easily quantifiable way to judge greens. And so courses love to boast that their course has greens with Stimpemeter readings of 10 to 11, which are tour speeds. (The U.S. Open reaches 12 and sometimes 13.)

Finally, the Apology You've Been Waiting For

I'm sorry. 

Wait, is there somebody else making an apology today?

I'm sorry about the lack of posts to this blog over the past couple of months. You see, it's been a busy couple of months here at LINKS headquarters in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I know that the last thing you want to see is how the sausage is made, but we have been busy since the new year putting together our Winter Issue, which is out now, followed immediately by a special publication called LINKS Premier Clubs.

Premier Clubs is a collection of profiles of 17 high-end private clubs around the country. Since late last fall, our writers and editors have been putting together full-length profiles of these clubs, and that effort has taken up most of our waking hours.

During that time, a lot has happened in golf that I wanted to write posts about: the start of the season, our content-sharing deal with PGATour.com, the grooves imbroglio, the introduction of the iPad and its implications for the industry and for LINKS, the whole affaire d'Tiger and so on.

Seeing Green

Golf is an honorable game. We play by the rules, calling penalties on ourselves if necessary. More importantly, we treat other golfers with a kind of respect and civility rarely found in the world at large. That kind of ethos is lacking in certain corners of the golf publishing industry, apparently.

Now, you may have heard of a book called A Course Called Ireland, written by Tom Coyne. It is Coyne's account of circumnavigating the Emerald Isle on foot, stopping to play many of the courses along the way. It is a fabulous premise for a book, which is precisely what I thought when I first heard about the project two years ago, several months before Coyne was set to embark on his epic journey.

So I contacted him and in addition to feeling him out on several "Great Courses of Britain and Ireland" features for LINKS on his return, I proposed that he write a weekly update from the road (sometimes literally, I imagine) for our Web site. Coyne seemed very receptive to the idea, and suggested I contact his agent, Dan Mandel.

More than Bag Tags

The selling of the USGA hasn't reached the point where we'll have, say, the Burger King U.S. Open, but the non-profit organization continues to explore corporate relationships big and small.

We all know about the partnerships with the likes of Lexus and American Express, but did you know USGA members receive discounts on ESPN Golf Schools and Hertz car rentals? And here I thought all they got were a copy of the Rules of Golf and one of those iconic personalized bag tags.

The latest deal by the USGA is actually one that may help golfers do what they really want to do: play golf. Members have the opportunity to buy discounted Troon Cards, which allow cardholders (and their foursome) to play courses managed by Troon Golf for up to 50 percent off the green fee. 

Members can buy state, regional or nationwide cards. The list of participating courses isn't extensive, and most are in the Southwest, but there are some pretty good destinations on the list, including Troon North, the Phoenician (pictured) and the Westin Kierland in Arizona, Daufuskie Island in South Carolina, Lake of Isles in Connecticut and the Equinox in Vermont. So depending on where you go, the savings could add up.

Just don't forget the bag tag.

Photoshop: Don't Leave Home Without It

So what's the deal with the American Express ad that was featured on pga.com's leader board on Thursday? (Click the image to see a larger version.)

It looks like one of those "count the mistakes" games. First, Jim Furyk's head is huge—we're talking Easter Island statue. Second, even considering the foreshortened perspective, his driver shaft is about as short as 5-foot-1 Tadd Fujikawa's putter.