All the Presidents Men

January's Golf Digest article, covering the changing face of the world of men's professional golf

Singapore Open 2011- Day 3

Cut made in Singapore at 3 under, more than decent playing given the strength of the Serapong layout. But as I write, the heavens have opened and an inch and half of rain has been dumped on the course in the space of an hour, meaning that play has been suspended.

The weather has been a constant issue at the Singapore Open over the years, and a major blight on the development of Asia's most prestigious national championship. It is looking like a 54 hole championship at this stage.

Some images from the week so far,

Some monkey business on the hotel balcony this morning,

China No.1 Liang Wen Chong going for a par 5 in two in the Pro-Am

Scott Strange giving Miguel Angel Jimenez a lesson using the long putter.

Singapore Open 2011

In Singapore for the $6 million Singapore Open, providing commentary for an event that is arguably the marquee tournament in Asia these days.

I'll try to grab some images during the week and post them here to keep everyone up to speed. It's a big week for golf in Australasia, what with the Visa in Japan and the Australian Open all going head to head. Looking forward to it.

Korea Open Interviews- Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler

A swag of interviews from last week at the Korea Open, the best of them at the following links,

Rory McIlroy

Rickie Fowler

Grant Dodd- Opener, Day 4

In Bed with Stolzy

I've been doing a range of interviews this week with players about their "Tools of the Trade", and caught up with Andre Stolz in his hotel room during one of the rain delays on Thursday.

Dirty Feed ??

You have to love some of the terminology in TV. "Dirty Feed" refers to the pictures we get from the host broadcaster (SBS) in Korea, which the One Asia production crew then repackage for the world feed which goes out to close to 300 million viewers.

This picture is inside the production office, just before going on air. Sound engineer booth closest to camera, video editing next, and then director/producer, director's assistant and vision mixer at the far end.

Sound engineer control console

SBS outside broadcast van

One Asia- Charity High 1 Open 2011

Currently up in the mountains of Korea at the spectacular High 1 Resort. Skiing in Winter, golfing in Summer, but sadly so far this week it has been decidedly more winter than summer. Heavy rain and low cloud has meant serious delays, four hours on Thursday afternoon and 4 hours this morning. We'll struggle to get 72 holes in this week, which puts first round leader Lee Min-Chang in the box seat after his opening 64 (8 under)

As you can see it is still grey and overcast, but play is underway now, 11am Friday.

Picture of the 18th green almost shows just how low the cloud is at the moment.

Pro Golfers deserve to win $1 million a week

Just after I bought my first Lamborghini Diablo, I played in a pro-am with Michael Schumacher...this months exchange in Australian Golf Digest

Nostalgia-The Aging Disease

Something profound happened to me recently. I was at customs in Brisbane Airport, writing down my birth date on the immigration form, and the page jumped out at me. For the first time, two concurrent numbers reflected an uncomfortable truth. I am getting old.

Growing old has never worried me, mainly because it was something that only happened to others. When you are male and young (or think yourself to be), everyone who has a standing relationship of more than six months is old. But this moment in time was something of a wake-up, and upon further examination, I find that I am exhibiting tell-tale, irrefutable signs of aging.

The chief of these is the increasing prevalence of nostalgic thought. The habit of reminiscing about the past was to me, always something that old people did. Invariably, it induced a yawn and a roll of the eyes as the mind immediately wandered off to the present. Day of yore have little relevance to the young.

But lately, nostalgia is creeping up on me, especially when it comes to golf. The summer golf season is simmering, waiting to ignite, and makes me yearn, just a touch, for the heady days of the late 80’s when there was a feverish sense of excitement surrounding the onset of the tournament golf season.

Golf changed forever during this period. The arrival of Norman mania in 1986 lifted both media interest and participation in the sport. A simple test of this could be found playing out at the club I first joined as a junior when I moved to Sydney in 1985.

Kogarah Golf Club is situated right next to the airport in central Sydney. It is highly visible, and with plenty of passing traffic. Despite this, in 1985 you could fire a gun there on some days and not be seen or heard by anyone. Every Friday afternoon, a group of guys would head out for a skins match – and I mean up to ten players, teeing off in one group. It was never a problem because there was no-one in front, or behind.

Come 1986, this was no longer possible. Golf changed. People wanted to play. Tee times filled up, memberships grew, and most visibly, this new legion of golfers flocked to the summer tournaments to watch, filling the fairways with numbers not previously seen.

Much of this excitement was built around Greg Norman. Why, commercial radio even kept a hole by hole report on his round on the airwaves over the weekend. The Shark was to the 80’s what Tiger Woods is to the noughtie’s, but most importantly, he was Australian.

Remember those tight pants with the front pockets that the Shark used to wear? The ones that made wetsuits look like hessian sacks by comparison? I had them, about five pairs, the more colourful and garish the better. His wide takeway? I had one of those too. Niblick shoes with the flap over the laces? Had to have them – although as soon as Shark stopped wearing them, I threw mine out.

I even used those dreadful Spalding Tour Edition balls for as long as Shark did, until he realised they were crap (after they cost him three majors) and mercifully moved on. I knew they were crap long before him, but if the Shark used them, well, there was only one choice.

When the Shark flew into town, every news crew in existence was at the airport waiting for an exclusive. More to the point, we watched, glued to our screens as he alighted from his jet like Australia’s own version of royalty. He was news, he was golf, and he was the man.

Of course, those days are long past. Shark is in his 50’s, with a dodgy, sutured together body and his mind on other things than golf. We’ve got new stars now, perhaps more of them than ever before, but none with the kind of charisma and magnetism of the blonde bomber.

That’s not to imply a criticism of any of the current crop either. They are who they are -Scott, Ogilvy, Baddeley et al, are all brilliant players in their own right, with their own personalities and individual ways of conducting themselves. By any assessment they are world class golfers, competing with distinction during golf’s most competitive era.

The difference is though that we know what we are going to get from them. We’ll get good, often magnificent golf, but rarely much drama. We don’t anticipate them tearing up the back nine on Sunday with birdie after birdie, chasing down the leader, a cacophonous roar greeting every putt holed. We also don’t foresee an implosion of train smash proportions; the unknown and the unpredictable was what made Norman so tantalising, so utterly fascinating and ultimately, entertaining.

Perhaps that’s the key. Golf is about entertainment, and our expectations of what should fall under that description are now a moving target. The precedent, the model, is built around a one off, home bred, unique individual, the type of which may only come along once in a lifetime. We also have a degree of over-familiarity bought on by the immediacy of the internet and digital age, which, when combined with the rapidly shrinking attention span of the ‘Now’ generation creates an environment ill attuned to the staid, time consuming nature of golf.

But the game is still here, we love it, and it’s not going away in a hurry as a result. This affinity for the game is also the chief reason why we reminisce about its past – the seeds of nostalgia need passion in order to germinate.

Or old people

Thailand Open , OneAsia 2010- Post Mortem

Playing catch up at the moment, and just about to head off to Korea next Wednesday for the Songdu Championship, a US Champions Tour event that I will be working on for Golf Channel.

There are a bunch of interviews that I did last week posted on the OneAsia website. Check out them out on the following links,

Andre Stolz
Simon Yates
Day 4 highlights
Pariya Junhasavasdikul

Quiet on the Golf Front

Things have been ridiculously busy on the home and business front of late, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. And it is likely to be that way for a while really, I'm heading off to Sth Africa to Haskell Vineyards to do some work for a few weeks so the schedule is flat out for the forseeable future.

After Sth Africa though I am off to Thailand for the Thailand Open, held in Pattaya this year, and then the last part of the ONE Asia season kicks off in earnest with a lot of action through September, October and November.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open for anything that is happening in and around the game in the meantime.

The Year of the Kid

If the golfing year of 2009 was defined by a late night car crash in a moneyed Florida enclave, what moniker will be assigned to 2010? With the emergence of a raft of precociously talented youngsters, chances are it will be remembered as "The Year of the Kid".
This months Golf Digest article can be read here.

Billionaires Row Pt II

More of the 'other half' alongside the 17th fairway at Damai Indah Golf, the Pantai Indah Kapuk course.

Billionaires Row

Currently at the Indonesia Open in Jakarta, and couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures of the houses surrounding the course this week. The local lore suggests that these houses aren't even lived in, which is mind boggling on any number of levels given the size and opulence of these modern day palaces.

The final round is about to tee off here. Kiwi Michael Hendry leads Liang Wenchong by one, and has the chance to fundamentally change his career path by playing well over the next 5 hours.

All for One?

The battle for the high commercial and moral ground continues in Asian professional golf, with the nascent OneAsia Tour's impressive start to the 2010 season making a statement about its intent and ambition.

Is there room for two tour's to operate in the same commercial space? Read about it here from this month's Australian Golf Digest.