This PGA Championship could have been simply awful were it not for rain. With how things were going through the first 36 holes and a cut at +8, Oakland Hills was ready to crown a champion at about +5. Then, Mother Nature stepped in and the rain soaked the course to make it still firm, but playable. Were it not for the rain and the cool temperatures, this could have been a terrible finish.

In terms of performance for the year, the best major setup clearly went to the Davis staff at the USGA. It’s not even close. Birkdale was not setup very well, but was fairly adaptable in practice. Augusta National was not setup well and was not adapted at all in response to the windy conditions. Oakland Hills got saved, but was on pace to be the worst.

Therefore, here we have:
1. US Open – Torrey Pines
2. Open Championship – Royal Birkdale
3. The Masters – Augusta National
4. PGA Championship – Oakland Hills

Last year, I would have said:
1. PGA Championship – Southern Hills (particularly after the 2001 US Open)
2. Open Championship – Carnoustie
3. The Masters – Augusta National
4. US Open – Oakmont

How a year changes things!

I know that the Open is over and we should be talking about the Travelers Championship – yeah, right. But I wanted to have one last post on the entire Open experience.

Geoff Shackelford has a couple of nice posts with reviews of his experience and they seemed largely positive (not talking about course design here).

Here’s his post on the experience, and one the Championship Vision mini TVs provided by American Express (or at least sponsored by them). The TVs are very similar to the ones used at the Players Championship, but are by RCA instead of Kangaroo TV.

You’ve heard me, the players, and the media in attendance rave about the course setup. Mike Davis has really set the bar for major championship setup. In fact, I think he is the inspiration behind a second set of tees that I bet will be coming to Augusta National for next year’s Masters. I would also mention that the PGA Championship was really the gold standard for setup until Davis came along – fair, but tough. Davis borrowed from that setup, added his own elements (tiered rough among them), and had the Open setup at his disposal to create a great experience.

I came into the Mike Davis era ranking the US Open as my least favorite major to watch. After this year, it has skyrocketed to second place. Nothing is going to change my mind about the Open Championship, sorry.

How about you? Is the USGA changing your mind about their feature championship?

Frank Hannigan is a former executive director of the USGA and was involved with the organization for 28 years. He is an outspoken critic of the organization in its unwillingness to roll back the golf ball and its decision made under Walter Driver to run more like a business, including corporate sponsorship. I spoke with him last year about a host of topics related to the USGA for a special podcast. Unfortunately, that podcast never finished production. But, given the year that has passed for the USGA since the interview was done, I think listening to this interview is still very poignant.

Click here to listen!

The USGA is an active partner is many of golf’s philanthropic causes. They are involved with the First Tee, Play Golf America, and they give grant money in the order of millions per year for various golf causes to grow the sport. (For the good of the game, remember?)

Here’s the latest example of that:

The United States Golf Association (USGA) has awarded 143 grants totaling $2,650,935 to support golf programs across the nation for economically-disadvantaged juniors and individuals with disabilities. The grant funds will be used for instruction, golf course and range access, equipment, transportation and the construction of accessible golf facilities.

The USGA has awarded more than $62.5 million since the Association implemented the Grants Initiative, “For the Good of the Game,” in 1997.

Among the grantees, my local First Tee program. Good to see. All of the grantees are listed, with profiles of several, if you are interested.

Now, contrast that kind of giving to the kind of return that Torrey Pines and San Diego will see as thanks for hosting the Open. This is in the sidebar of the piece on the USGA’s corporate partners in the Union-Tribune:

Most of the return will come from an economic impact estimated in the tens of millions of dollars: national television exposure, tourist spending, taxes collected from sales and hotel rooms, etc.

People would be coming to San Diego anyway in droves because the weather is perfect, but ok, I’ll bite. This from golf.com:

The 2008 U.S. Open will [inject] some $100 million into the local economy. “And that’s probably a conservative estimate,” says Peter Bevacqua, chief business officer at the USGA.

Now to the real dollars (and back to the Union-Tribune):

The city also will receive $500,000 as part of its contract with the Friends of Torrey Pines, which negotiated the U.S. Open lease for the city-owned course.

The $500,000 is considered compensation for lost city revenue because of discounted or lost greens fees and the use of city parking spaces, such as at Qualcomm Stadium. All or part of the North Course will be shut down until September to make way for corporate hospitality and then recover from the wear and tear.

The Friends of Torrey Pines will pay reimbursements up to $350,000 for public safety services (police, traffic control, etc.). The Friends also agreed to pay up to $350,000 on course work related to the Open.

The Friends reported they would receive $5.37 million from the Open, largely from rent payments and corporate hospitality shares through the USGA. Most of that – $3.4 million – will go back to the families and businesses that paid for the renovation of the South Course in 2001. They have said they will contribute that money to charity.

The rest will cover additional expenses, a $50,000 “future championships fund” and $535,000 toward the replacement of the irrigation system at the Balboa Park Golf Course.

In effect, $5.75M for Torrey for an event that will make the year for the USGA – probably in the area of $80M. (That’s a guess based upon conversations I have had over time with current or ex-USGA people.) San Diego is basically getting a dollar for dollar proposition.

The amount for Torrey and its Friends is basically the same amount of money that they give out in grants every year minus a million. I don’t know if you can say that is a good deal for Torrey and San Diego or not, but I’ll leave that to you to judge.

Farrell Evans begins his reaction to the threesomes with this thought:

Having Tiger and Phil play in the same group at the U.S. Open is good for TV and the fans, but it re-enforces the idea that they are the only two truly marketable players in the game.

Does it really? Your take welcome, please.

Jay Posner gets the task of interviewing Chris Berman for the ESPN coverage of the US Open. Berman tries to defend himself amidst heavy criticism.

“First of all,” he said, “it’s unfair because if you’re on the air for six hours and heaven forbid I say, ‘Ground control to David Toms,’ you’re writing it like I said it 500 times. Not the case.”

Maybe not that particular one. The count for that David Bowie reference (RUINING the song “Space Oddity”) is at 389. Still, Berman interjects that kind of junk too often. But he claims that he is the everyman!

Said Berman: “It’s unfair if people say I’m trying to make it my show. Then you haven’t paid attention. Then you haven’t done me fair. ‘Cause I’m not. But I’m trying to be me and have a good time with it as someone who’s an avid follower of the game; someone who’s like most of the audience who are watching, a 16-handicap give or take, not a 3 (handicap) or a scratch.”

I know people who play, who are more avid followers of the game than I am. I have NEVER heard any of them talk about golf in the same way as Berman. Never. So he is either interjecting his schtick into commentary, or he knows a whole different crop of golfers than I do.

Thankfully, though, Berman is open to taking criticism:

“It’s the only way I know how to do it. There’s a lot of ways to announce it; I’m just being me. I’m not trying to overdo it at all. If anyone thinks I come in to overdo it, you’re not being fair and you’re not listening.”

Is Augusta National being unfair by making darn sure that you were no where near their hallowed grounds during the Masters? Hmm?

You cannot fault the guy for his knowledge, though. He does bring that to the telecast in a way that is missing from Kelly Tilghman’s commentary at times. It isn’t all bad, but it certainly isn’t all good. And I know no one that feels that it is all good.

The media gets releases from the USGA concerning their activities and championships. They sent out their US Open fact sheet email today and I found this interesting:

TELEVISION COVERAGE – The U.S. Open will enjoy at least 30 hours of live network coverage, with 16 of those hours on NBC. Dan Hicks is scheduled to be at the helm of the NBC broadcast team. ESPN will air at least 14 hours over the first two days of play.

Note that Dan Hicks is mentioned as anchor for NBC. For ESPN, no mention of Chris Berman. That is probably for good reason. I am still dumbfounded every year that Berman is continually allowed to broadcast this event. He isn’t even close to good at it. But, I am hopeful this year could be his last. If TNT had the stones to remove Bobby Clampett from their team, then the Worldwide Leader may have to match by eliminating Berman from the golf team.

(Side note: Dan Hicks is married to Hannah Storm, who begins duties as the SportsCenter morning lead anchor in July.)

…we should also be nailing the 20+ Euros that withdrew on the eve of the Monday US Open qualifier. Mark Garrod reports on the issue:

Among those who have decided to skip the chance to compete in the second major of the year are Darren Clarke, former Open champion Paul Lawrie, recent Irish Open and Spanish Open winners Richard Finch and Peter Lawrie and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, currently 10th in the Ryder Cup race.

Interestingly enough, Clarke’s rationale is very similar to that of Perry:

Clarke made his decision two weeks ago, saying: “My schedule is firmly based around Europe and my goal is to make the Ryder Cup team.”

It is a slightly better reason to avoid globetrotting than nationtrotting. Still, the majors offer extra points for the Ryder Cup squad. Taking a week off and doing no help for that cause instead of taking a chance at double points seems to make little sense. Their theory, though, is that the scurry to play in one major across the continent will throw off their season to the point that they could never recover in time to make the Ryder Cup team.

Or, to play cynical for a second, is this just a lame excuse to avoid a USGA setup?

Kenny Perry became a three time champion of the Memorial Tournament this weekend. He did so with what he described as a perfect round of 69 to win two clear of a host of players. Perry performed extremely well on a Muirfield Village course that had major championship styled setup. Greens were running nearly 14 on the Stimpmeter and missing the generous fairways resulted in a play out of US Open-esque rough.

The Kentuckian’s performance perfectly explains why Kenny Perry is not going to play in the real US Open in two weeks at Torrey Pines. What? That’s right. Kenny Perry is going to skip playing in the US Open despite being one of the hottest golfers on the planet right now.

Unfortunately for Perry, he was not exempted into the field for the Open meaning that he would have to play in a 36 hole qualifier on Monday in order to get into the field. Even still, that would not be a sure thing. And, apparently, Kenny Perry just does not do 36 holes in day.

Alex Miceli talked to Perry for Golfweek and quotes Perry saying, “I will never do that again. It just wears me out. I’m not physically capable of being – it ruins too many weeks. It ruins my next week and it ruins trying to prepare that week for the tournament. It takes too much out of me.”

Yes, Perry is 47 years old and 36 holes are too much for many people. Still, it is the US Open, a major championship, and a tournament that offers double Ryder Cup points for the players. Perry has made no secret that he has planned his 2008 schedule exclusively around making the Ryder Cup team for Valhalla. Captain Paul Azinger recently said that it would almost certainly take a victory this season to make the American team. Perry took that message to heart in his attempt to win.

Even if he did not win at Torrey, though, a solid finish would all but assure him a place on the American squad in September. To endure 36 holes to qualify does not seem like a viable reason to skip the Open and leaves the question of “Why?” unanswered. The second reason, though, does not seem much better: Kenny Perry simply does not like Torrey Pines. “I’ve only played (Torrey Pines) three times in my career so that kind of answers that question. I don’t like it. Never have.”

Therefore, since Perry does not want to play 36 holes or involve himself at a golf course that makes him uncomfortable, he is going to take his clubs and go home for that weekend. I simply cannot understand this decision. It is nonsensical. I can understand the willingness of players to skip regular events, the non-majors. Even for as annoyed as I am that several top players withdrew from the Memorial – a special event – I can at least understand how one can arrive at skipping the event in comparison to the US Open.

There are some professional golfers that will never even sniff the US Open because they cannot qualify through local and sectional avenues, or they just are not good enough to get into the Open on their own merits. Thousands of amateur golfers try to qualify for the Open each year regardless of how preposterous the course setup is or how well it may favor their games (hint: not at all). The bottom line is that if someone has an opportunity to play in a major championship, the general rule is that you do not turn it down.

Though Perry would have to go through sectional qualifying to get into the Open at Torrey, his play of late indicates that he almost certainly would have been a lock to get in the field. In effect, Perry is admitting that it is not worth it for him to try to win a major. It is good enough to walk away from this season to make the Ryder Cup team and perhaps never win a major in his career. The heartbreaking attempt in 1996 at the PGA Championship – at the same Valhalla hosting the Ryder Cup in 2008 – must have been good enough for Perry.

That is a personal decision. Everyone sets their own professional goals in their lives and has a different threshold of success. The biggest issue, though, is the slap in the face of tradition and the USGA that Perry is performing by not even attempting to qualify for the Open. If Perry were exempt, he would show up to Torrey. But, since he is not, he is telling the USGA that their major championship is not good enough for his effort.

Yes, players complain like mad at the Open about the setup. They generally should. It is usually ridiculous. Despite the complaints, though, they handle it and get through it because the potential to win a major championship is worth the pain. Or, at least, so conventional wisdom says. Perry made a different decision. It is not conventional and, in my mind, is not wise either.

Tod Leonard took a pass on the Players this week. Instead, he wrote about a San Diego celebrity foursome and their feeble attempts to play the US Open’d version of Torrey Pines. The foursome consisted of Tony Gwynn, Norv Turner, Philip Rivers, and Broc Glover (motocross guy). The winner was Glover with 94.