Making All Things Equal Off the Tee
+ Figuring out Phil Mickelson's legacy (if it's possible).
ON THE TEE
⛳️ It’s been a bad week for icons: Billy Walters, the Las Vegas gambler who went to prison in the Dean Foods stock scheme that ensnared Phil Mickelson, is finishing up a book that is said will cause Mickelson even more problems. Walters is angry that Mickelson didn’t lift a finger to help him and is out to settle some scores.
⛳️ Tiger Woods limped to the finish line in the first round of the PGA Championship with a 4-over 74, clearly in pain from his injured right leg. He then shoots 1-under 69 to make the cut, while the likes of Dustin Johnson, Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay do not.
⛳️ Woods offered Mickelson a cold shoulder and a sharp elbow at Southern Hills, saying there’s a “lot of disagreement” between the two about the PGA Tour and the way it’s run.
⛳️ Dave Stockton, winner of the 1970 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, said Mickelson “wasn’t missed” at the champions dinner and would have been “a distraction,” had he come to Tulsa to defend his title.
⛳️ Turns out Greg Norman was at least the second choice to lead LIV Golf. Jack Nicklaus says he was offered $100 million to take the job. Nicklaus was clear where his loyalties lie. “I helped create the PGA Tour,” he said.
⛳️ According to Alan Shipnuck, author of a recently released unauthorized Mickelson biography, “A prominent Tour agent recently confided that he is hearing Norman is on the outs with the Saudis.”
⛳️ Norman’s chief commerce officer, Sean Bratches, has resigned from LIV Golf, per Fox Sports. The CCO’s job is to generate revenue and you have to wonder how much resistance Bratches has met from potential corporate sponsors.
⛳️ Some of Norman’s fellow Aussies have turned on their (former) hero. “He’s been trying to take down the tour for 30 years,” said Wayne Grady, 1990 PGA Championship winner, on social media. “You should hang your head in shame, Shark.”
⛳️ From the sub-icon department, Lee Westwood asked for a release from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour to play in the first LIV Golf event outside London next month. UPS, which had been a longtime sponsor of Westwood, ended their relationship. The reason is unspoken but clear.
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
An algorithm is leveling golf's playing field off tee
Course architect Richard Mandell's Tee Shot Distance Equity factors swing speed, not handicap, in equalizing the game for all levels of play
:: Ken Klavon | Read
Phil Mickelson's legacy is complicated
Readers of The First Call offer a varied range of opinions on how the six-time major champion's career will ultimately be viewed
:: The First Call Readers | Read
Listen: How Fujikura stays cutting edge on shafts
Since its inception in 1995 Fujikura Golf has been one of the premier shaft makers in golf, and brand manager Spencer Reynolds joins 'Behind the Golf Brand' to provide an inside look
:: Paul Liberatore | Listen
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always …
📖 The bronc-busting, cow-punching, death-defying legend of Boots O’Neal
:: Christian Wallace | Texas Monthly | 06.2022
📖 Over drive: Belting mammoth tee shots, John Daly won the PGA with an awesome display of power golf
:: John Garrity | Sports Illustrated | 08.19.1991
📖 Donald Trump speaks out on Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Saudi Arabia and the PGA that got away
:: Michael Bamberger | Fire Pit Collective | 05.19.2022]
DESIGN NOTES
The latest news and notes in golf course architecture.
➡️ Midwestern design stalwart Michael Benkusky had always yearned for a project in Florida. When the opportunity presented itself at Palm Aire Country Club in Sarasota, he not only took it, he crushed it. When the Champions course reopened in 2021, it was clear he aced the test.
"The members are pretty much blown away," said Joe Rassett, general manager and COO of the 36-hole facility. "Michael took a piece of classic architecture and made it more suited to the modern game. The extended tee boxes, for example: The members now play as far back or forward as they like. The whole course today is so much more versatile, attractive and strategic."
Benkusky, principal of Illinois-based Michael J. Benkusky Golf Course Architecture, is best known as the lead designer on Canyata, a perennial top-100 layout in southern Illinois, and for his restoration efforts primarily around the Midwest. The chance to reinvigorate a layout that once occupied a spot in the Golf Digest Top 100 was too good to pass up.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
“Having always wanted the opportunity to work in Florida,” said Benkusky early in 2021, “I’m excited to have a club and course with so much history and one designed by one of the greats in modern golf architecture.”
Benkusky was referencing Dick Wilson, who created Palm Aire’s Champions course in 1957. From inception until new ownership arrived in 1972, the course was known as DeSoto Lakes, and it played host to a PGA Tour event in 1960, won by Sam Snead, and to several LPGA Tour events. Wilson, of course, was renowned for Florida spreads such as Bay Hill, PGA National (now BallenIsles) and Doral.
“This club is full of Dick Wilson fans and let’s be fair: Who isn’t a fan of Dick Wilson?” Benkusky said. “We were more than happy to put a host of original elements back into play. We did restore his runway tees, but my favorite restorative project was probably the super cool four-bunker complex we built on the inside of the dogleg at seven, a 348-yard par 4."
Benkusky also regrassed and expanded the greens, added forward and back tees and reworked and reduced the sand features. The finished product eliminated more than 30 percent of the previous bunker square footage. He also oversaw the elimination of 12 acres of turf — mainly in the shadow of trees around tee areas—and replaced them with attractive, maintenance-friendly expanses of crushed shells.
Benkusky anticipates moving forward sometime soon with similar plans for the club’s second course, the Lakes, designed by Wilson’s protege and subsequent partner, Joe Lee in 1982.
➡️ Pebble Beach Golf Links, host to six U.S. Opens and ranked by many as the top public-access course in the United States, is both altering and restoring its legendary par-4 eighth hole. The 427-yard test, which features a second shot over the Pacific Ocean that Jack Nicklaus calls the greatest approach in golf, is becoming both safer and fairer.
The area approaching the edge of the cliff over Carmel Bay on the right side of the fairway has been “pulled back,” according to John Sawin, vice president and director of golf at Pebble Beach. The repositioning was implemented to stop golfers from replicating the dangerously scary shot that Jordan Spieth successfully attempted at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Spieth was a mere 18 inches from the cliff edge, yet somehow pulled off a 7-iron shot for the ages, with the potential loss of life and limb less than two feet away. The penalty line is now marked six feet from the edge and the end of the fairway has been pulled back a similar distance. In addition, Pebble Beach has heightened the cut of rough between the end of the fairway and the bluff significantly.
“We wanted a ball that goes into the area to be far less appealing to play,” Sawin told Golf Digest. “The problem with Jordan’s shot was that he had a fairly clean lie, albeit on the edge of a cliff. He felt that he could get a club on it, whereas we want lies in there to be fairly unattractive so that people take a drop and not even be tempted to play out of there.”
➡️ Winnapaug Golf Club in Westerly, Rhode Island, has tapped Nicklaus Design to update its Donald Ross-designed, century-old layout. It will be the first renovation undertaking by Nicklaus Design of a Donald Ross course. To ensure a seamless process, the firm will align with the Donald Ross Society, an organization created in 1989 in response to the careless remodeling of several Ross classics, to assist in preserving and enhancing the Ross traits while making it relevant for today’s golfers. The Winnapaug Golf Group, a golf and community development concern headed by Nicholas and Jill Scola is directing the effort.
“Our ultimate goal is to provide an affordable, relaxing golf experience on a layout that will simulate private course conditions but with public access for our local and wider community to enjoy for the next 100 years,” said Nicholas Scola. “We’re certain that in leveraging the expertise and innovation of Nicklaus Design, the modernized course, when completed, will maintain the original Donald Ross characteristics that were intended when the course was built in 1922.”
HOME FRONT
Punta Mita | Riviera Nayarit, Mexico
Listing: Villa Belleza | La Punta Estates
Stats: 42,090 square feet (18,751 interior), 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms.
Price: $11,500,000.
About: This villa offers spectacular ocean and Marietas Island views from this modern Punta Mita masterpiece. Owners will enjoy the fantastic indoor/outdoor living and 177 feet of direct ocean frontage that includes a private pool and hot tub. The inside features a large open and modern kitchen with four spacious master suites, a private retreat yoga room and a private fully contained casita with lush landscaping. Punta Mita is a luxurious, 1,500-acre resort and residential community that lies on a spear-shaped peninsula surrounded on three sides by white-sand beaches, Pacific Ocean waters and tropical flora. Two Jack Nicklaus Signature courses — the Pacifico and Bahia — provide extraordinary ocean views, alongside water sports such as surfing, sea kayaking, scuba diving and yacht excursions. World-renowned restaurants are sprinkled throughout and provide homeowners with an array of delicacies.
RELATED: Home Front archive
NAMES | NEWS | NUMBERS
BUSINESS
▪️ Troon introduces the first Food and Beverage Council, which is composed of nine food and beverage leaders from Troon-managed facilities. … RBC joins Women’s Golf Day as a global partner and becomes title sponsor for the WGD RBC Toronto event on June 7. … Golf Datatech releases its April Total Equipment Sales report that shows a drop in golf ball and club sales vs. April 2021. … Club Champion continues its expansion in 2022 with new facility additions in Arizona and Illinois. … NBC Sports Next launches a fundraising campaign for Folds of Honor through GolfNow’s philanthropic 'Round-Up' campaign. The campaign will run through Memorial Day. … TGA Premier Sports is named a Top Low-Cost Franchise by Entrepreneur, recognized for its affordable startup/career opportunities in golf. Malcolm DeMille handcrafts champion trophies for Minjee Lee, who won the Congizant Founders Cup, and Steve Stricker, who won the Regions Tradition. … Duca del Cosma becomes PGA Magazine’s Golf Shop Owners exclusive footwear company. … PXG holds a grand opening for PXG Fairfax in Virginia. … Troon acquires Icon Management Services, which currently manages 18 golf courses, 52 communities and 60 HOAs.
COMPETITION
▪️The East Coast Women’s Professional Golf Tour’s Ji Eun Baik and Hailey Davidson finish first and second, respectively, in the Tour’s Winter Series and earn exemptions into the Colorado Women’s Open. … American Century Championship announces that newcomers to this year’s event, July 6-10 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in South Lake Tahoe, California, will include Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost, World Wrestling Entertainment's The Miz and country music singer / songwriter Jake Owen. … The Amundi Evian Championship announces this year’s prize purse as $6.5 million, including $1 million to the winner.
COURSES / DESTINATIONS
▪️Go Golf Kaua‘i courses, Kaua‘i community are featured on ‘Journey’s With Matt Ginella,’ a 36-minute webisode currently available on FirePitCollective.com and GoGolfKauai.com/journey. … Giants Ridge [Biwabik, Minnesota] receives a Golf Digest Editors' Choice Award in the Best Golf Resorts in the Midwest category for a fourth straight year. … The PGA of America selects Shoal Creek Club and Bent Brook Golf Course, both located outside Birmingham, Alabama, to host the 2023 PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship, May 8-10. … Quivira Golf Club [Los Cabos, Mexico] receives a Golf Digest Editors' Choice Award for a seventh consecutive year. … Dundonald Links [Ayrshire, Scotland] launches ‘Love Links’ stay-and-play packages for the resort that recently unveiled 18 luxury lodges, 22 hotel rooms and a new clubhouse as part of a 25 million pound investment. … The Preserve Golf Club [Carmel, California] installs a solar floating solution to improve its self-sustainability. … Pasatiempo Golf Club [Santa Cruz, California] plans to restore the greens complexes and bunkers to resemble Alister MacKenzie’s original design, and intent, of the golf course that opened in 1929. … Blessings Golf Club [Fayetteville, Arkansas] will host the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, Oct. 3-5.
GEAR
▪️SkyGolf’s SkyCaddie SX550 rangefinder was named the Best Handheld GPS in MyGolfSpy’s 2022 Most Wanted Golf GPS Test. … Blue Tees Golf introduces the Player [$129] , a portable, magnetic and wireless speaker that can attach to any golf cart and has a built-in USB-C power bank. … FlightScope announces that, through May 22, consumers can get $200 off FlightScope’s Mevo+ and $50 off Mevo launch monitors when shopping at FlightScopeMevo.com. … Big Max launches the Dri Lite Summit golf bag [$239], which features waterproof material, waterproof zippers, a detachable rain hood. … Galvin Green introduces a limited-edition Pink Collection, which features a choice of four polo shirt options, two sweaters, a lightweight short-sleeve windproof jacket and a pair of shorts. … Titleist introduces its third generation Tour Soft golf ball, along with a reformulated Tour Speed ball. The Tour Soft features a new aerodynamic design for longer distance and a larger corer for a more responsive feel, while the Tour Speed has reconfigured core for high speeds and a high flex casing layer that promotes long-game spin.
PEOPLE
▪️Dynamic Brands hires Alex Davis as controller and Diana Smalls as senior accountant.
THE STYLE LINKS
A cute, whimsical, buzzworthy Beehive capsule collection from Puma Golf released this week for the PGA Championship. Available for men and women.
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
THE GOOD LIFE
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