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MI Golf Holidays

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08

Aug
Wed

A plea on behalf of the long putter

By Pete McDanielAnyone familiar with the various golf games of media hacks (not all are hacks, by the way, just the majority) knows that I'm a huge proponent of the anchored putter. I've been using the broom handle ever since I four-jacked it from two feet playing at a Connecticut course with former Golf Digest instruction editor Ed Weathers and retired Golf World editor Terry Galvin. The latter has yet to let me live it down. Fifteen years later!Upon hearing of my embarrassing feat, then-company CEO Jay Fitzgerald, himself a recovering yipper, called me into his office and handed me a 48-inch, steel-shafted crutch that saved my golfing life. That's the reason I empathize with every convert of the anchored putter currently quaking in his spikes over the much-to-do about his blessed broom. If golf's ruling bodies decide to ban the use of anchored putters by professionals, I will be the first one crying for them. Related: Webb Simpson: How I Roll I feel your pain, my brothers."It would really affect me if they were to ban it,'' said Carl Pettersson on the eve of the 94th PGA Championship at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course during another in a series of rain delays.Like me, Pettersson uses the chest-high variety. Unlike me, however, the 38th-ranked player in the world makes his living sweeping in putts. That's why it's such a hot-button issue with him and fellow converts Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Ernie Els, who combined to win three of the past four majors. Before that newfound pattern of broom handle success scared the knickers off so-called purists, there may have been whimpers from the offended but nothing like the clamoring for justice we hear now.Related: Adam Scott on trying the long putterPettersson and I started using the long putter about the same time for different reasons. I had the yips. His ball had an aversion to finding the hole at the most inopportune times."I started using it because of inconsistency when I was an amateur,'' he said. "One day I would putt great and the next I'd be average. I knew for me to get to the next level I needed to be more consistently good and I saw a few guys back in the day using it. They all seemed to roll it well. I tried it and it didn't feel alien to me. So, I practiced for a couple of hours, and I've used one ever since. I've become a very good putter with it.''That's an understatement. Pettersson is ranked T-11 in the strokes gained putting category of the PGA Tour putting statistics. Aaron Baddeley leads those stats and world No. 1 Luke Donald is fourth. In contrast, three-time winner this season, Tiger Woods, ranks T-35. In Pettersson's case, fear the broom handle.At the center of the debate is whether anchoring a putter gives a player a decided advantage over the more-nervy natural strokes. "I don't think there is an advantage because if there were, everybody would use it,'' he says. "Some guys can't do it, some can. It's not like you give somebody a long putter and automatically they're going to be a good putter. You still have to work at it and develop a technique.''Some long putter enthusiasts use their hand to propel the ball; some use arms and hands. Pettersson prefers to rock his shoulders, taking the hands almost entirely out of the stroke. "I try to let my shoulders dictate the stroke and take the hands out of it,'' he says. "Take the little muscles out of it so to speak.''There is no definitive way to determine whether the anchored putter gives players an advantage over similarly skilled players. The stats reveal little. Bradley and Simpson, ranked 15th and T-35, respectively, in strokes gained, also insist you still have to put in the hours to become successful on tour greens. They also agree with Pettersson that the powers that be have more major concerns regarding equipment."There are other parts of the game that are really getting out of hand,'' Pettersson said. "The drivers and the golf ball need to be addressed more than the long putter in my opinion.''Spoken like a man attempting to stroke the collective conscious of the gate- keepers.I, for one, hope he's successful.

08

Aug
Wed

Why Els and others have turned their back on the drinking life

By Dave Kindred Follow @DaveKindred !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- The subject is drinking in golf. Yes, we'll get to John Daly. But let's start with Ernie Els. Els has said he stopped with the wine and beer a month before the British Open. He has offered no explanation beyond he just felt like it. As for any cause-and-effect relationship between the abstinence and his first major championship in a decade, he has shrugged. Maybe. Maybe not. Who's to know? It's not as if the dry spell cured the putting yips that have long bedeviled him; even with the belly-putter crutch, he ranked 71st in the putting statistics at Royal Lytham. Nor has Els ever been a public nuisance and menace to himself. Still, if a man changes his ways and near immediately becomes the player he used to be, witnesses can believe what Mike Hulbert believes. Related: The defining shots of the British Open Hulbert is a veteran pro, 54, three times a winner on the PGA Tour, an assistant to captain Davis Love III on this year's U.S. Ryder Cup team. "It's like my Balance Bracelet here," Hulbert said, touching the hunk of rubber that may or may not bestow magical athletic qualities on its wearer. "If Ernie thinks stopping drinking helped" -- and why would he bring it up otherwise? -- "then it helps." Other than rugby, which exists solely as an excuse for emptying kegs of beer into men shaped like kegs, golf is the only . . . Wait. Other than baseball, where major league clubhouses are saloons decorated by nasty jock straps, golf is . . . Well, other than football, where whirlpools become ice pools stocked with Budweiser . . . OK, I give up. I was about to say golf is the only sport where drinking is institutionalized; at every country club, doesn't everyone birdie the 19th hole? That would allow me to suggest that pro golfers work in a liquid environment where the temptations of drink are ever-present. But two truths get in the way of that blather. They are: 1) all of SportsWorld is awash in adult beverages, and 2) if golfers ever made the tour a traveling cabaret -- Jimmy Demaret singing! -- it's no longer 1950 money at stake, it's this week's $8 million PGA purse with the winner staggering away under the load of $1,445,000. The cabaret has become a fitness trailer. Dave Stockton has seen beer guts become six-pack abs. The 1970 and '76 PGA champion said, "There's not a caddie out here today who isn't in better shape than players were in my time." "Even in my time," said Stewart Cink, a pro 16 years, the 2009 British Open winner, "I've seen the changes. There's waaaay more money, and players are bigger, stronger, healthier." Here he smiled. "We all know the bad things alcohol does. Nobody's figured out yet what good alcohol does for you." "Among the elite players out here," said Jim Furyk, one of the elite, "it's difficult to believe there's anyone with a drinking problem. We're human beings, no different from anyone else, so there's probably a certain percentage of people who may drink more than others. But anyone who has a real problem is going to fall by the wayside out here." Hulbert has been out here forever, seen everything. "It's definitely changed, even if we're only talking fitness," he said. "Out in Hawaii once, Stevie (Williams, then Tiger Woods's caddie) ran that golf course, like up a mountain, like it was the Olympics, and maybe Tiger ran it, too." (A pause to imagine, say, Roger Maltbie, even young, ker-lumphing up a small rise. I once asked Maltbie if we might talk about drinking in golf. He said, "Sure, let's go to the bar and do it.") There's too much at stake now, Hulbert said, to put it at risk. "You don't go out to dinner on Wednesday nights anymore and have six beers," he said. "The next morning, you don't feel too good on the first tee." Hulbert cited Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood as pros who enjoyed beer by the barrel before deciding to mind their waistlines. "They'll still have a beer," he said, "but no one's getting sloshed now." In that not-sloshed category, Hulbert even includes John Daly. "Did drinking stop him from elevating his game? Yeah. We saw him visibly shaking on the golf course. Did it keep him from making Ryder Cup teams and Presidents Cup teams? Yeah. But he's playing good now. Has he cleaned up his act? I don't know, but he's playing well now. It looks like he might have." Related: Our ways to make the PGA cooler Ah, John Daly. The trainwreck of his own whiskey dreams. The 1991 PGA Champion, 1995 British Open winner, five times a winner on Tour, now 46 years old, eight years removed from his last victory. Here, a drinking story: This was at Dardanelle, deep in the outback of Arkansas, a day or two after the unknown Cinderella boy, the ninth alternate, had won the '91 PGA. Way he told it later, he'd arrived at Crooked Stick sleeping in the backseat of a car. Hung over most likely, because he was then, and forever after, as we would learn, a ferocious drinker. I'd gone to Dardanelle to write up the wonder in his native surroundings. There he was at a card table outside a ramshackle clubhouse, signing autographs between chuggings of Miller Lite. I asked the drinking questions, about the backseat, the hangover, all that country-boy folklore already grown up around him. Here's what he said, "Nope." Didn't drink, he said. Then he lifted for my inspection a can of Miller Lite. "Just these," he said. John Daly is here. It's his 21st PGA Championship appearance. Since that '91 victory, his highest finish has been T-29. The last four years, he missed the cut twice and twice withdrawn after the first round. His first-round tee time is 8:20 a.m. Stay tuned.

08

Aug
Wed

Why Els and others have turned their backs on the drinking life

By Dave Kindred Follow @DaveKindred !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- The subject is drinking in golf. Yes, we'll get to John Daly. But let's start with Ernie Els. Els has said he stopped with the wine and beer a month before the British Open. He has offered no explanation beyond he just felt like it. As for any cause-and-effect relationship between the abstinence and his first major championship in a decade, he has shrugged. Maybe. Maybe not. Who's to know? It's not as if the dry spell cured the putting yips that have long bedeviled him; even with the belly-putter crutch, he ranked 71st in the putting statistics at Royal Lytham. Nor has Els ever been a public nuisance and menace to himself. Still, if a man changes his ways and near immediately becomes the player he used to be, witnesses can believe what Mike Hulbert believes. Related: The defining shots of the British Open Hulbert is a veteran pro, 54, three times a winner on the PGA Tour, an assistant to captain Davis Love III on this year's U.S. Ryder Cup team. "It's like my Balance Bracelet here," Hulbert said, touching the hunk of rubber that may or may not bestow magical athletic qualities on its wearer. "If Ernie thinks stopping drinking helped" -- and why would he bring it up otherwise? -- "then it helps." Other than rugby, which exists solely as an excuse for emptying kegs of beer into men shaped like kegs, golf is the only . . . Wait. Other than baseball, where major league clubhouses are saloons decorated by nasty jock straps, golf is . . . Well, other than football, where whirlpools become ice pools stocked with Budweiser . . . OK, I give up. I was about to say golf is the only sport where drinking is institutionalized; at every country club, doesn't everyone birdie the 19th hole? That would allow me to suggest that pro golfers work in a liquid environment where the temptations of drink are ever-present. But two truths get in the way of that blather. They are: 1) all of SportsWorld is awash in adult beverages, and 2) if golfers ever made the tour a traveling cabaret -- Jimmy Demaret singing! -- it's no longer 1950 money at stake, it's this week's $8 million PGA purse with the winner staggering away under the load of $1,445,000. The cabaret has become a fitness trailer. Dave Stockton has seen beer guts become six-pack abs. The 1970 and '76 PGA champion said, "There's not a caddie out here today who isn't in better shape than players were in my time." "Even in my time," said Stewart Cink, a pro 16 years, the 2009 British Open winner, "I've seen the changes. There's waaaay more money, and players are bigger, stronger, healthier." Here he smiled. "We all know the bad things alcohol does. Nobody's figured out yet what good alcohol does for you." "Among the elite players out here," said Jim Furyk, one of the elite, "it's difficult to believe there's anyone with a drinking problem. We're human beings, no different from anyone else, so there's probably a certain percentage of people who may drink more than others. But anyone who has a real problem is going to fall by the wayside out here." Hulbert has been out here forever, seen everything. "It's definitely changed, even if we're only talking fitness," he said. "Out in Hawaii once, Stevie (Williams, then Tiger Woods's caddie) ran that golf course, like up a mountain, like it was the Olympics, and maybe Tiger ran it, too." (A pause to imagine, say, Roger Maltbie, even young, ker-lumphing up a small rise. I once asked Maltbie if we might talk about drinking in golf. He said, "Sure, let's go to the bar and do it.") There's too much at stake now, Hulbert said, to put it at risk. "You don't go out to dinner on Wednesday nights anymore and have six beers," he said. "The next morning, you don't feel too good on the first tee." Hulbert cited Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood as pros who enjoyed beer by the barrel before deciding to mind their waistlines. "They'll still have a beer," he said, "but no one's getting sloshed now." In that not-sloshed category, Hulbert even includes John Daly. "Did drinking stop him from elevating his game? Yeah. We saw him visibly shaking on the golf course. Did it keep him from making Ryder Cup teams and Presidents Cup teams? Yeah. But he's playing good now. Has he cleaned up his act? I don't know, but he's playing well now. It looks like he might have." Related: Our ways to make the PGA cooler Ah, John Daly. The trainwreck of his own whiskey dreams. The 1991 PGA Champion, 1995 British Open winner, five times a winner on Tour, now 46 years old, eight years removed from his last victory. Here, a drinking story: This was at Dardanelle, deep in the outback of Arkansas, a day or two after the unknown Cinderella boy, the ninth alternate, had won the '91 PGA. Way he told it later, he'd arrived at Crooked Stick sleeping in the backseat of a car. Hung over most likely, because he was then, and forever after, as we would learn, a ferocious drinker. I'd gone to Dardanelle to write up the wonder in his native surroundings. There he was at a card table outside a ramshackle clubhouse, signing autographs between chuggings of Miller Lite. I asked the drinking questions, about the backseat, the hangover, all that country-boy folklore already grown up around him. Here's what he said, "Nope." Didn't drink, he said. Then he lifted for my inspection a can of Miller Lite. "Just these," he said. John Daly is here. It's his 21st PGA Championship appearance. Since that '91 victory, his highest finish has been T-29. The last four years, he missed the cut twice and twice withdrawn after the first round. His first-round tee time is 8:20 a.m. Stay tuned.

08

Aug
Wed

Stockton to receive PGA of America's highest annual honor

By Bill Fields Follow @billfields1 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- It has been a nice summer of well-deserved recognition for Dave Stockton, one of golf's all-time good guys, and his family. In June the Stocktons won the Family of the Year award from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association. On Wednesday night, Stockton was to receive the PGA Distinguished Service Award, the PGA of America's highest annual honor on the eve of the PGA Championship, which Stockton won twice (1970, 1976). Related: Stockton's tips for better putting The Distinguished Service Award goes to "outstanding individuals who display leadership and humanitarian qualities, including integrity, sportsmanship and enthusiasm for the game of golf." It's hard to imagine a more appropriate recipient than Stockton, 70, long one of golf's ambassadors as well as being a tough competitor who got the most out of his skills. Stockton did scores of corporate outings annually for decades because he had a easy way with people, an expert at giving instructional clinics. He also has helped raise funds for many charities and in the past few years has been an advocate for Congressional Medal of Honor winners and other veteran causes. "I never served in the military, but my dad served in World War II," Stockton said earlier this year. "I believe that you can thank them for what they have done for our country and giving back. I never would have met our Medal of Honor recipients if it had not been through golf." Related: 10 burning questions entering the PGA In recent years Stockton and his golf-professional sons, Ron and Dave Jr., have become popular instructors with a focus on the short game, the part of golf at which Dave always excelled. Their pupils have included Phi Mickelson, Yani Tseng, Michelle Wie and Rory McIlroy. "So what we have is a signature approach to teaching," Stockton said of his father-sons operation. "We're going basically worldwide and having success and we're doing it together. I can't tell you how excited I am to be doing it and be relevant at the age of 70. I've gone from being the best player in the family to being the third-best teacher, but I have no problem with it because the ride is a hoot, and I'm still on one, so it's good."

08

Aug
Wed

Video: Tim Rosaforte answers reader questions

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- On the eve of the 94th PGA Championship, Golf World and Golf Digest senior writer Tim Rosaforte solicited questions about the tournament from his Twitter followers. He responds in the video below. 

08

Aug
Wed

Hyo-Joo Kim continues impressive play at Women's Amateur

By Brendan Mohler Follow @BrendanMohlerGW !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); CLEVELAND -- Hyo-Joo Kim continued her birdie barrage today in her first-round match at the USGA Women's Amateur at The Country Club. The 17-year old Korean quickly...

08

Aug
Wed

In a season of collapses, remembering one of the worst of all

By Bill Fields Follow @billfields1 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- During a season of lost opportunity, with the 94th PGA Championship being played on a dangerous course where a lead could have the permanence of a sand castle, it is worth remembering something that happened a long time ago. Adam Scott, meet Al Watrous. It is the 80th anniversary of one of the oddest matches ever contested at the PGA Championship, which went mano a mano from its inception in 1916 through 1957. This tussle, a scheduled 36-hole, first-round match at Keller GC in St. Paul, Minn., was epic. Photo of Al Watrous by Getty ImagesWatrous was 9 up with 12 holes to play against Bobby Cruickshank. That would seem to be an insurmountable advantage. It wasn't. Rather, the match turned into perhaps golf's ultimate tale of collapse and comeback. "There is nothing more wearing to a leader who is playing well than the knowledge that his enemy is refusing to crack," wrote Bernard Darwin. "If by hanging on we can drive that knowledge into him, we may make him crack instead and that crack will be a bad one when it comes." Darwin could have been talking about what happened that late-summer day in Minnesota. Cruickshank hung on. Watrous cracked. It wasn't pretty. Related: The craziest finishes at the PGA Championship Watrous was 33, a dominant player in Michigan, where he moved from New York when he was very young. (He would be the head professional at Oakland Hills for 37 years and capture nine Michigan PGA and six Michigan Open titles.) He won the 1922 Canadian Open and was on the first two U.S. Ryder Cup teams. Watrous was a pro's pro. As Walter Hagen wrote, "He's a great golfer . . . one of our real stylists." "No one taught me the swing," Watrous told a Florida reporter in 1977. "I developed it from observation, you might say. I saw Bobby Jones when he was very young and Walter Hagen. I saw Harry Vardon. He was my idol. I was told I had a lot of Vardon's swing concepts." Vardon, in fact, had been there to console Watrous after the 1926 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Two ahead of Bobby Jones with five holes to play, Watrous was in control and poised to win. But he three-putted three times down that closing stretch. When Jones pulled off a miraculous approach from a difficult lie on the 17th hole, it was enough to defeat his faltering foe. Cruickshank, too, had been a major victim of Jones, losing out to him at the 1923 U.S. Open -- one of nine top-six finishes the 5-foot-4 Scot had without claiming a major title. Given what Cruickshank had endured as a young man, however, his golf career was gravy. During World War I Cruickshank saw the worst of battle, wounded in 1917 during a German barrage that claimed his younger brother, John, and 77 others in a company of 110 men. "There had been thousands of shells and everything was covered up," Cruickshank told Golf magazine in 1974. "I never found my brother, and yet he had been as close to me as from here to that door." After convalescing, Cruickshank returned to duty and was taken prisoner in France. He escaped the following year and immigrated to the United States in 1921. Related: Recent major championship meltdowns The ups and downs of golf competition weren't hard for "Wee Bobby" to keep in perspective. "We played everywhere and would have played for nothing," he said in 1974, "just to promote the game." What looked like certain defeat for Cruickshank against Watrous in 1932 took a slight turn on the sixth hole of their second 18. As the duo approached the green, which Cruickshank had missed and Watrous hit, the Scot told Watrous it was the first time he would be 10 down in a match. The comment struck a chord with Watrous, who conceded his opponent a tricky six-footer. "I felt a little sorry for him getting beaten so badly and didn't want it to be any worse than it had to be," Watrous wrote in a 1979 account of the match in Golf magazine. "Not that Bob was ungrateful, but something aroused his genius immediately thereafter," The American Golfer reported in 1932. Cruickshank won the seventh hole, nonchalantly holing a 20-footer for birdie while Watrous missed an eight-footer for a halve. Cruickshank won the eighth, ninth, 10th (with an eagle) and 11th (chip-in birdie) holes. Related: 10 burning questions entering the PGA Still, Watrous led 2-up with two to play. But he missed a two-footer on the 17th, and when Cruickshank birdied the par-5 18th -- he was seven under for the last 11 holes -- the match went to extra holes. Watrous appeared to have salvaged victory on the 40th hole. With Cruickshank having bogeyed the par 3, Watrous faced a two-foot birdie putt following a beautiful 7-iron. "... he started to make a gesture to concede my putt and call it a match," Watrous wrote in Golf. "But at the last second he decided not to, although he hit his bogey putt very fast, one-handed I believe, as if to say that's it." But Watrous missed his downhill birdie attempt and also the one nearly as long coming back. Incredibly, Watrous missed another two-footer on the 41st hole, ending what was only the second-longest match that day. Hagen lost in 43 holes to John Golden, part of what the Associated Press called an "orgy of overtime matches." It was certainly a day when no lead was safe.

08

Aug
Wed

A refreshed Simpson ready to get back into major competition

By Dave Shedloski Follow @daveshedloski !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- Webb Simpson is itching to get back to competitive golf. And with good reason. Simpson, the U.S. Open champion, took a month off to be at home for the birth of his and wife Dowd's second child, and they welcomed a daughter, Willow Grace, into the world on July 28th. There never is a bad time to add to a family, but Simpson left the tour at a time when his game was beginning to blossom. He captured the U.S. Open, his first major, at Olympic Club in San Francisco with a stirring rally over the final two rounds, and he nearly added a fourth career PGA Tour title at The Greenbrier a few weeks later. Nevertheless, Simpson, 27, had no qualms about packing it in for a spell, even though that meant skipping the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes. This week, it's time to go back to work, and Simpson is fresh and ready for the 94th PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort. Related: 10 burning questions entering the PGA "Yeah, I took a break when I was playing really good golf," Simpson said, acknowledging that the time off was less than ideal from a playing standpoint. "To be honest with you, I feel like the first three weeks I was back at home I didn't want to play any golf, and then kind I gradually got back into it. When you pack your bags for three weeks every month for a living, it kind of becomes second nature to you, so I felt like I wanted to pack up and get ready to go. Not that I wanted to leave the family or leave home, but as a competitor you want to always compete. I felt it last week watching the guys in Akron (at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational)." A native of Raleigh, N.C., and a former All-American at Wake Forest, Simpson obviously feels at home in the Carolinas. Twice he won the Azalea Invitational at the CC of Charleston. He doesn't have much experience on the Ocean Course, but he grew up playing golf at a Pete Dye design in Wilmington, N.C., and he likes the atmosphere of the barrier island. "Any time I can play golf near the beach, I love it," he said. "I grew up close to the beach, and when you go to the beach, it just puts me in a relaxed mode. With all the pressure that comes with a major championship, being in a beach vibe I think it certainly going to help me having grown up around here." Related: Our ways to make the PGA cooler With winning a major comes increased expectations, but perhaps the time off has given Simpson a chance to catch his breath and come into the year's final major under the radar. His confidence hasn't waned since he last competed. "I'm not going to put any pressure on myself," said Simpson, who tees off on No. 1 at 1:20 p.m. EDT Thursday. "I know that I might feel a little rusty, but at the same time I might get off to a good start. I'm just trying to be patient this week because I know it might take a little time. But hopefully maybe I can get off to a good start and I can get right back into it." (Photo by Getty Images)

08

Aug
Wed

Paspalum grass will be a new challenge for many players at PGA

By Sam Weinman Follow @samweinman !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- OK class, the vocabulary word of the day is "paspalum". In case you were wondering, Rory McIlroy can spell it correctly."P-A-S-P-A-L-U-M," McIlroy said. "The Bear's Club (McIlroy's home course in Jupiter, Fla.) actually has paspalum. We practice on paspalum all the time -- me, Luke (Donald), Keegan (Bradley), Dustin (John).  It's something we are quite used to and something I was talking to Luke about yesterday, something that the guys that are members of the Bear's Club might have an advantage because we are used to how it reacts."The shots around the Ocean Course's elevated greens are going to play a large role in the outcome of the PGA Championship. Photo by Getty ImagesWith rain hitting the Ocean Course on Wednesday -- and more expected -- the one certainty heading into the first round is that the Pete Dye layout will play softer than officials and players had hoped. It means the comparisons of Kiawah to true British links courses don't really work -- especially with the paspalum grass on and around the greens that players say grab at the ball more than usual."Now you're going to have to throw the ball up or play some kind of one-hop-and-stop spinner in there," Tiger Woods said. "There will be very few bump-and-run shots. You just won't see it that often because now it's going to be too soft for that play to work. This paspalum is very sticky."In other words, don't neglect your wedge game. When a golf course is ridiculously long (7,676 long) and invites plenty of wind, players are going to miss more than their share of greens. How they recover will be the question, especially when it involves negotiating a foreign surface."Paspalum is a grass that I'm not sure we've ever played a Tour event on before," world No. 1 Luke Donald said. "Around the greens it's tricky. I think anyone who has good fundamentals that can use the bounce of their lob wedge, have some creativity, is going to fare a lot better than someone that has poor technique."

08

Aug
Wed

Foley shoots back at Kostis: "Boy did he get that one wrong"

By Pete McDanielKIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- That noted swing rebuilder/refiner Sean Foley is both opinionated and thick-skinned is beyond debate. Since taking the reins from Hank Haney two years ago AT the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Foley has brushed off the criticism from pundits with poise and grace.Just as his prime student Tiger Woods was taught to let his clubs do the talking for him, Foley has opted to let Tiger's impressive stats, including three wins, beat back the horde of critics. He does, however, draw the line with TV analysts who, despite the use of the most sophisticated technology, make an incorrect call when it comes to Tiger's action."Boy did he get that one wrong,'' said Foley Tuesday afternoon, referring to CBS analyst Peter Kostis, who described Tiger's clubface as being "toed-in'' while hitting a tight draw last week during the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.Related: My Shot with Sean FoleyFoley went on to explain that the shot was actually executed with an open clubface. Through body rotation Tiger imparted right-to-left spin on the ball and that's what made it curve."His clubface was open say three degrees and his body rotation amounted to four degrees. That's what produced the draw.''Simple math.At the time, Foley was working with Hunter Mahan, who has been getting out of position on the through swing."When he (Mahan) hits it in the sweet spot he hits a nice draw,'' Foley said, demonstrating the good and bad positions. "The body controls the sweet spot.''