PGA TOUR AGAINST ANCHORING BAN [FROM PAGE 13]
But the PGA Tour
believes it is unfair to ban anchoring. “Unless you have a compelling reason to change the rule, you shouldn’t, and the USGA
has indicated there is no performance advantage to using anchoring,” Finchem said. “So on that basis, and given the fallout that occurs with amateurs and the fallout that occurs with players like Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley and others who have grown up with the process, there are negatives.” Finchem also notes that the USGA has reviewed anchoring multiple times in the last 30 years, but decided it was a legal stroke after each closer inspection. The PGA Tour and the PGA of America support the use of the anchored stroke, but the ban has created somewhat of a schism in the golf world. The European Tour, LPGA, Ladies European Tour, Sunshine Tour and British PGA support the ban, which would go into effect in 2016. “There’s nobody better placed to establish the right rules of the game than the R&A and USGA,” LPGA commissioner Michael Whan said. “They don’t have a stake in it in any other way— in equipment or players— and we have been playing by their rules for a long time.” Jack Nicklaus even chimed in on the subject during an NBC broadcast. “It may be to some of the fellas’ detriment, one way or the other,” he said. “But I think the ultimate decision should be (made by) the ruling bodies of golf and not the Tour. The thing that would disturb me was if the Tour took another position than the USGA’s fi nal position.”
What the AT&T Means to Bill Murray
There are those who nostalgically refer to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am as the Bing Crosby, a tip of the
Tam O’Shanter cap to the tournament’s fun-loving founder. For the last 20 years,
it’s become the Bill Murray, an irreverent playground of pitfalls and practical jokes, where silence is a sworn enemy, and for one week, golf remembers it’s just a game. “There’s a lot of
tension, because people play for money and there’s sort of this forced silence
sometimes,” said Murray, who played his fi rst AT&T in 1992. “I’m always trying to relax. Relaxing other people helps me relax.” Yes, there is a method to Murray’s
apparent madness. “Michael Jordan is all about being
relaxed, and the great actors are the same way,” said Murray. “There’s almost no tension in them.” It’s just that Murray relieves his
tension by wheeling old women into bunkers, fi ring ice cream sandwiches into the gallery, hula-hooping on tee boxes and fi nding any other unusual way to engage and entertain, be it through throwback facial hair, Elmer Fudd hunting hats, or camoufl age ghillie suits. “People are very proprietary about
golf,” Murray said. “They think that they’re in charge of golf, that it’s their own game.
F
USGA ADDS FOUR-BALL, DROPS PUBLIC LINKS
or the fi rst time since adding the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in 1987, the USGA will introduce a new championship. Two actually. Beginning in 2015, the USGA will host both a men’s and women’s four-ball championship between mid-March and late-May. “We couldn’t be more excited about the creation of national four-ball championships,
given the popularity and enjoyment of this competitive format at the amateur level,” said USGA Vice President and Championship Committee Chairman Thomas J. O’Toole Jr. “Because the four-ball format lends itself to spirited team competition and aggressive risk-reward shotmaking, we are confi dent these championships will deliver exciting amateur golf to the national stage for both players and spectators alike.”
The USGA also announced it will conduct its fi nal men’s and
2012 NCGA Four-Ball champions James Watt and Russell Humphrey
women’s Amateur Public Links in 2014. The winner of the U.S. Public Links previously earned an invitation to the Masters. Former men’s champions include Billy Mayfair (1986); Tim Clark (1997); Trevor Immelman (1998); Ryan Moore (2002 and 2004); and Brandt Snedeker (2003).
Michelle Wie (2003), Yani Tseng (2004) and Monterey’s Mina Harigae (2007) are among those to capture the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. “We’re not in the business of cancelling championships, so this is a somber note, but the mission of those Public Links Championships—the men’s, which began in 1922 and the women’s in 1977—no longer served that original purpose,” said O’Toole, noting that in 1979, the USGA modifi ed the entry requirements for the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships to allow entry to public-course players. The NCGA will still offer an Amateur Public Links Championship, as well as its net and
gross four-ball championships. “Four-ball is a very popular event, not only at the club level, but through our state and
regional golf associations who conduct championships like this,” said O’Toole. “So we had a model to base it on, and to bring that popular event into a national championship context, it seemed like the perfect fi t.”
14 /
NCGA.ORG / SPRING 2013
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