Under Threat: Munis In The Vicinity Of Majors
Major(s) News & Notes for January 13, 2022 include some public golf issues, Korn Ferry in the U.S. Open, Tom Watson as an honorary starter, Jack on Augusta, Five Families Netflix buy-in and Reads.
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Days to the 2022 Masters first tee shot: 86
Days to the 2022 PGA Championship first tee shot: 126
Days to the 2022 U.S. Open first tee shot: 154
Days to the 2022 Open Championship first tee shot: 183
At some point this year I was planned to revisit the demise of majors going to revitalized muni’s like Torrey Pines and Bethpage, while offering thoughts on what could be done to boost public courses when the Grand Slam comes to town. But some news items suggest we better chuck the feel-good dreams and put an urgent focus on public golf issues in Liverpool, Tulsa and California. That, plus reading between the lines of the USGA randomly awarding a U.S. Open exemption to the Korn Ferry Tour, Tom Watson becoming an honorary starter alongside his good buddy Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus endorsing Augusta National’s course changes, we have surprising Major buy-in for the PGA Tour’s Netflix show. Plus, some weekend Reads.
Before that, I posted remembrances and images capturing the late Tim Rosaforte at my blog where you’ll also find Golf Channel’s tribute video. He was one of the last in sports to combine reporting and television work without financial conflicts of interest—that’s an Adam Schefter reference in case you were wondering—and I don’t think most pro golfers realize how much he will be missed. In recent years his brand of storytelling was seen as “TMZ” to some of today’s players who knicknamed him that and really need to get out more. And some of his peers scoffed at some of the lighter fare Tim mined for Golf World, Golf Digest and Golf Channel. I was one of those until I got to know Tim and sat next to him during several majors—the stories, anecdotes and supposedly minor details he worked to share became the fodder of golf fans waiting on the tee or sharing a post-round cold one. He also did a lot to highlight the work of those around the players, a.k.a. their “teams”. His reporting humanized and enriched our understanding of the players who gave Rosie the time. He loved telling an unknown’s story as much as he enjoyed mingling with stars. So it’s especially nice to see the outpouring from so many legendary golfers and peers. I just wish Tim could see what is being said of his life’s work.
Onto the events he loved covering most…
Munis And Majors
A few intersecting stories this week offer reminders that no matter how healthy major championship and recreational golf are right now, the municipal game remains under threat. Even in major cities where major events are coming. Just this week…
The Liverpool Echo’s George Morgan reports on Wirral Council’s dance with closing Hoylake Municipal. It’s part of a plan to reduce the number of golf courses to save £27m to balance its budget. Sitting just across the train tracks from Royal Liverpool, the super-affordable course has long been under threat. For over twenty years there had been off-and-one plans for the course to be part of a Jack Nicklaus-designed project and Marriott designed to “make Wirral the capital of England’s golf coast.” 😳
There is also the matter of Hoylake Muni’s role during The Open. The course is home to the practice rage and the Morgan story says the R&A is aware of proposal and expects no impact on the 2023 Open Championship. An R&A spokesperson tells The Quadrilateral, “We understand the challenges faced by the Wirral Council and are working closely with them to ensure the requirements of The 151st Open are secured.”
The 2022 PGA Championship is coming to Tulsa in May and the nearby public courses are in rough shape. The Tulsa World’s Kevin Canfield takes an expansive look at a Citizens Golf Advisory Committee effort to turn things around. Wouldn’t it be swell if the PGA of America left some profits and wisdom behind to help “grow the game” by sprucing up courses in need?
The California State Assembly is considering assemblywoman Cristina Garvia’s AB 672 bill to provide grants for converting publicly-owned golf courses into affordable housing. This theoretically could imperil every muni, including Torrey Pines, though the Coastal Commission would have thing or twelve to say. There are also the jobs and green spaces at risk, not to mention the silliness of tackling a housing crisis in this, of all ways. Obviously driven by someone’s dislike for golf more than a rational approach to a wildly complicated issue, I have a post on my blog with links to the SCGA site making it easy for Californians to voice their displeasure to their legislators. Thankfully, the SCGA, NCGA, GCSAA and San Francisco Public Golf Alliance are on the case. The bill passed a committee level hurdle on Wednesday.
I realize the various organizations running majors can only do so much when they bring events to town. But the aforementioned linked stories also highlight how the economic might of major championship visits could help the public game. As we’ve seen with their leveraging of men’s majors to bring women’s majors to the most incredible venues, there would be tremendous upside in also leaving towns better off than when these majors arrived.
I can at least leave you with one sunny story regarding munis and majors. George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park, Massachusetts is often nominated as the next best candidate for a Bethpage-style resurrection and championship and sounds like it’s in a better place.
According to Mark Wagner of Golf Course Architecture, the Donald Ross design and former Works Progress Administration project has seen improved maintenance and architecture, with Mark Mungeum overseeing the restoration work.
USGA Awarding Spot To Korn Ferry Tour Leader For 2023
The USGA will grant an exemption into the following year’s U.S. Open for the highest point earner over the Korn Ferry Tour season. Some initial reports suggested the spot was only for the “Finals” points leader, but those were not accurate.
“The USGA is pleased to offer an exemption to a tour that has been well-represented in the US Open and has developed an accomplished group of professionals for more than three decades,” said the USGA’s Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer.
The Korn Ferry playoffs end 285 days before the 2023 U.S. Open tees off at L.A. North, so it’s not a typical U.S. Open exemption in emphasizing success closer to the event. However, the move should inspire the PGA Tour to no longer schedule a KFT event the week of the U.S. Open and perhaps even be so bold as to award points for the many KFT members who typically qualify. Because in recent years some players seeking to gain a PGA Tour card have been put in the predicament of passing up U.S. Open qualifying or the championship due to competing KFT play.
This is a refreshing exemption on many levels and a reminder the USGA is not closing off its “Open” to only professionals from the two top Tours.
Tom Watson To Become 11th Honorary Starter In Masters History
With a reverence for his place in Masters history and an eye on the future, Chairman Fred Ridley announced that Tom Watson will become an Honorary Starter.
“I am honored that Tom has accepted our invitation,” said Ridley via a press release. “I look forward to commemorating his love for the game and impact on the Masters with his millions of fans across the globe as he hits a tee shot alongside two of the Tournament’s other all-time greats, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.”
This year’s tournament will commence at 7:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Watson is a two-time Masters Champion and three-time runner-up first played the Masters in 1970 as an amateur and posted 58 subpar rounds in 42 consecutive starts. For 21 straight years Watson posted at least one under-par round over Augusta National.
“Augusta National in April is one of my favorite places to be,” Watson said. “With the many fond memories of both watching the Masters as a youngster and then competing in the Tournament for so many years, I am greatly honored to join my friends and fellow competitors, Jack and Gary, as an Honorary Starter in this upcoming Masters.”
Watson becomes the 11th in Masters history to serve as an honorary starter since the tradition officially began in 1963, though it really dates to 1954 when Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod played a ceremonial 18 or nine before withdrawing to the veranda and clear beverage. The two had won Senior PGA’s at Augusta National.
The other Honorary Starters:
Byron Nelson (1981-2001, non-consecutive)
Gene Sarazen (1981-1999)
Ken Venturi (1983)
Sam Snead (1984-2002)
Arnold Palmer (2007-2016)
Nicklaus (2010-present)
Player (2012-present)
Lee Elder (2021)
Watson’s eight majors, affinity for the Masters and place in golf history as an eight-time major winner makes him an obvious fit to carry on the tradition for years to come. And when Player or Nicklaus decide to no longer participate, Ben Crenshaw appears like the next logical choice to signal the start of the Masters.
As for the first tee camaraderie this year, here’s unfriendly reminder that Watson accused Player of cheating in the Skins Game and Player said in his book that Watson should return major trophies for playing illegal grooves. Those zany friends and fellow competitors!
Nicklaus On Augusta Changes: They’ve Done A Good Job
Gary Williams discussed the past, present, and future of the game with 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus as he nears his 82nd birthday (January 21st). Besides the Golden Bear’s befuddlement at the state of the distance issue, including sarcastic air quotes around the term “research” (covered here on my blog), he was asked about Augusta National’s effort to keep up with huge changes in the game.
“They’ve done a good job of taking the golf course and trying to maintain a standard similar to what we played in the 60s and 70s,” Nicklaus said before mentioning that ball-driven distance gains are not up to Augusta National to solve. He then goes on to discuss what young players ask him about the Masters and shared the positive experiences of Charl Schwartzel and Trevor Immelman asking him about ANGC, then going on to win.
The sequence here:
Grand Slam Events Included In PGA Tour’s Netflix Show
Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier shares the (long) list of players who committed to the PGA Tour’s attempt at replicating the success of Netflix’s Drive To Survive. The Tour also Tweeted the names (even though filming has just begun).
There have been several surprises so far in the effort to replicate Drive To Survive’s success for F1’s (well, until this happened).
The number of players on board. It’s an impressive buy-in for sure, but also odd to name them given the likelihood that many will end up in the cutting room cloud due to time constraints or general tediousness.
The aggressive promotion. Wednesday’s orchestrated rollout of stories and social coverage comes long before significant amounts of footage is in the can or before Netflix deems this worthy to air. The unnamed show is not likely to debut until a year from now.
The buy-in from the non-Tour organizations based in Augusta, Frisco, Far Hills and St Andrews. Anyway, the biggest surprise of all given how much players understandably protect their down-time during majors. Plus, access and footage issues undoubtedly had to be navigated. No small task.
Besides the impressive list of stars on board, the inclusion of world No. 1 amateur Keita Nakajima could mean he’s taking advantage of new amateur status rules. Hopefully he’s taking a few bucks from Netflix’s estimated $17 billion in 2022 development spending. Coupled with Augusta National allowing access to the show and the tradition of amateurs playing in the tournament showing up early, Nakajima’s Masters prep seems like potential show fodder.
The R&A Tweeted this about joining the project:
Reads
Meghan MacLaren on going through LET Q School and starting double-double.
Sarah Kellam is former college golfer and LPGA Tour media official who filed a tremendous story on Beverly Bell, author of The Murder of Marion Miley which “reminds us that before the Babe and the 13 founders and the Kathy Whitworths and Annika Sorenstams, there was a young woman living in Kentucky that paved the way for everything that was to come.” Miley who won 22 of 41 amateur events she played, including over names like Berg, Jameson and Didrickson. She was also brutally murdered at Lexington Country Club. The book is available here at Amazon.
While not quite Byron Nelson’s 11 straight wins or even Tiger and Charlie’s 11 straight birdies in the 2021 PNC, the greatest streak in professional sports history ended 50 years ago last weekend. For reasons unknown, the Lakers’ 33-wins-in-a-row never has received the proper modern documentary treatment it deserves, even after recent incredible streaks by the Heat and Warriors only solidified 33 straight’s place in American pro sports lore. Thankfully, Bill Sharman’s wife helped get a modest film made for the Lakers’ SportsNet channel without help from the NBA, which sits on tons of game footage in a New Jersey bunker to apparently collect cool dust. Besides, who’d want to watch something about Chamberlain, West, Riley, Goodrich, Baylor and crazy old Jack Kent Cooke? Yes, this is all my cranky way of pointing out some nice written work was done to commemorate the anniversary. Kareem wrote in his newsletter about ending the streak as a Buck. Matthew Barrero filed a nice piece with tremendous photos for NBA.com. And best of all, the LA Times put together a four-part collection of stories to commemorate the occasion worth checking out.
That’s it for the week in Majors. Let the Sony Open 57 watch begin! And thank you to all the early subscribers who have automatically and generously renewed on The Quad’s first anniversary. Your support will bring you favored-player status with the Golf Gods,
Geoff
I sure hope the "behind the scenes" look is more than wine cellars, favorite Starbucks drink or Chipotle dish.
I have to bite my tongue on AB 672, and I will have to bite my tongue when contacting my local Assemblywoman. Thank you for bringing this to attention -- and I'll just have to bite my tongue =)
Was your dad the color commentator during the time of the 33 game win streak?