HOG Talks To David Feherty And Hank Haney

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Categories: Golf Media • Interviews • PGA Tour

I had the chance to participate in a conference call with David Feherty and Hank Haney (Tiger Woods’s former coach) yesterday, hosted by Golf Channel. Next week marks the beginning of new seasons for both of their shows. Haney will premier at 9pm ET and Feherty at 10pm ET on Monday the 27th of February.

I asked Feherty about his upcoming show of course, but as “any question” was welcomed in this format I slipped in a couple of other questions as well. Hope you enjoy. Please note: spelling or word mistakes are from the transcript service, not my typing. For instance, Feherty called 10 at Riviera a “crap” hole, not a “crab” hole! I like crab hole though…

TONY KOROLOGOS: David (Feherty), your show has been extended by a half an hour, so what are you going to be doing to fill up the extra time? Are there any new wrinkles, formats, changes, surprises that we can watch for in that extra 30 minutes?

DAVID FEHERTY: Well, we found that the interviews and the subjects of the interview were often so compelling that it was extremely difficult to get the essence of what they said into 22 minutes of programming and a half hour show.
Leading up to the new season we extended the Tom Watson and Johnny Miller interviews, the Lee Trevino one was already an hour, and there were several more that should have been an hour. Greg Norman was an hour. We just felt it’s a better format, and that we can get more out of it.

Having said that, there will be other elements that we can use, some characters that I hope to introduce to the show, correspondents. Not unlike what John Stewart has done at the Daily Show. I’ve got a character called Dr. Phyll, that is searching for a drug that will help you play golf. And if he finds it, I’ll be really pissed off, because I looked for it for 20 years.

Hamish McGregor is my rules expert who will be answering rules questions. Things like that.

TONY KOROLOGOS: Hank, in working with the pros, do you feel like the new groove rules for the wedges really changed any part of their game or has really affected the game right now? Did you have to change any techniques or did anybody have to make adjustments at that point is this?

HANK HANEY: I don’t feel that it’s changed anything, to be honest with you. I don’t see any difference in the way players are playing the game. I think maybe we’ve seen players increase a little loft on their most lofted wedge. You were kind of seeing that already with some players using 64° wedges.

But that would have been the only probably minor adjustment that you might have seen a few players make to add a degree or two extra to their most lofted wedge to stop the ball a little quicker. But I don’t see that it’s done anything at all to be honest with you.

TONY KOROLOGOS: This past weekend the playoff hole 10 at Rivera is a short little par-4 and barely 300 yards, 310 or something like that. We saw three of the very best TOUR players try to play that hole and only one guy actually hit the green in regulation. Another great short hole I think of is 12 at Augusta. Do those holes show us something? We talked about how the ball is too long and length is such a problem and all of this. Is there something to be learned from those short holes like that which could help the game rather than worrying about scaling the ball back or making golf courses longer?

HANK HANEY: Well, I think one thing you’ve seen a certain trend in golf courses in the last year, and particularly the way they set up tournaments is everyone is intrigued by the short par4. You see the USGA is doing it with their tournaments, trying to make a hole, if it’s possible, a drivable hole. It does go to show you that a golf course doesn’t have to be long to be difficult.

By the same token, to be a real test of golf, you want to have to hit ball of the shots. In order to do that, you have to have length, and you have to have the ability to stretch the course out, because the ball does go so far now.

DAVID FEHERTY: You get holes like number 10 at Rivera, and continually I sort of disagree with my colleagues when it’s considered to be one of the finest short par4s in the world. It’s not. It’s a crab hole. But what it does, it brings out the best and the worst in the best players in the world. But it doesn’t have to be any good to do so.

The 17th at Scottsdale, or the 15th at Hartford, it’s drivable, but it’s just so fiddly and tricky. There is no real way to play it properly.

For instance, yesterday, if one of the players I mean, I said that I felt that four could win having watched the 18th, which might be the toughest hole on the golf course. Two of them birdied it to get into a playoff.

The tenth hole, even though it’s a 5iron and a sand wedge, you can’t hit the sand wedge on the green. It’s such a steep pitch and it’s so narrow. Everything about it is just so wrong, that it turns out right for television, because it makes the best players in the world look like idiots at times. I think that’s what makes it so attractive to the viewer because they think to themselves, I could do that. Where the reality is, no, they couldn’t. They’d make 11 there.

FedEx Cup Extended Through 2017

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Categories: FedEx Cup • PGA Tour • Pro Golf
Tags: FedEx Cup

FedEx has extended its umbrella sponsorship of the year long PGA Tour Cup five more years, though 2017. This is good for the Tour.

“We’re delighted with the opportunity to make this announcement. That’s become a big part of what the PGA Tour is all about.” ~Tim Finchem, PGA Tour Commissioner

WGC Accenture Match Play Day One Matches and TV Schedule

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

WGC Accenture Match Play TV Schedule

WED: 12-6pm ET Golf Channel
THU: 2-6pm ET Golf Channel
FRI: 2-6pm ET Golf Channel
SAT: 12-2pm ET Golf Channel
SAT: 2-6pm ET NBC
SUN: 9am-1:00pm ET Golf Channel
SUN: 2pm-6pm ET NBC

Wednesday Matches and Times

Match	Time (ET)
1	9:25 a.m.	Graeme McDowell (N. Ireland)	vs.	Y.E. Yang (Korea)
2	9:35 a.m.	Hunter Mahan (USA)	vs.	Zach Johnson (USA)
3	9:45 a.m.	Bill Haas (USA)	vs.	Ryo Ishikawa (Japan)
4	9:55 a.m.	Justin Rose (England)	vs.	Paul Lawrie (Scotland)
5	10:05 a.m.	Dustin Johnson (USA)	vs.	Jim Furyk (USA)
6	10:15 a.m.	Thomas Bjorn (Denmark)	vs.	Francesco Molinari (Italy)
7	10:25 a.m.	Charl Schwartzel (S. Africa)	vs.	Gary Woodland (USA)
8	10:35 a.m.	Ian Poulter (England)	vs.	Sang-moon Bae (Korea)
9	10:45 a.m.	Steve Stricker (USA)	vs.	Kevin Na (USA)
10	10:55 a.m.	Louis Oosthuizen (S. Africa)	vs.	Aaron Baddeley (Australia)
11	11:05 a.m.	Webb Simpson (USA)	vs.	Matteo Manassero (Italy)
12	11:15 a.m.	Alvaro Quiros (Spain)	vs.	Martin Laird (Scotland)
13	11:25 a.m.	Adam Scott (Australia)	vs.	Robert Rock (England)
14	11:35 a.m.	Bo Van Pelt (USA)	vs.	Mark Wilson (USA)
15	11:45 a.m.	Jason Day (Australia)	vs.	Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spain)
16	11:55 a.m.	Simon Dyson (England)	vs.	John Senden (Australia)
17	12:05 p.m.	Matt Kuchar (USA)	vs.	Jonathan Byrd (USA)
18	12:15 p.m.	Bubba Watson (USA)	vs.	Ben Crane (USA)
19	12:25 p.m.	Nick Watney (USA)	vs.	Darren Clarke (N. Ireland)
20	12:35 p.m.	Tiger Woods (USA)	vs.	Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spain)
21	12:45 p.m.	K.J. Choi (Korea)	vs.	Kyle Stanley (USA)
22	12:55 p.m.	Brandt Snedeker (USA)	vs.	Retief Goosen (S. Africa)
23	1:05 p.m.	Sergio Garcia (Spain)	vs.	Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain)
24	1:15 p.m.	Keegan Bradley (USA)	vs.	Geoff Ogilvy (Australia)
25	1:25 p.m.	Martin Kaymer (Germany)	vs.	Greg Chalmers (Australia)
26	1:35 p.m.	David Toms (USA)	vs.	Rickie Fowler (USA)
27	1:45 p.m.	Lee Westwood (England)	vs.	Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium)
28	1:55 p.m.	Robert Karlsson (Sweden)	vs.	Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden)
29	2:05 p.m.	Luke Donald (England)	vs.	Ernie Els (S. Africa)
30	2:15 p.m.	Jason Dufner (USA)	vs.	Peter Hanson (Sweden)
31	2:25 p.m.	Rory McIlroy (N. Ireland)	vs.	George Coetzee (S. Africa)
32	2:35 p.m.	Kyung-tae Kim (Korea)	vs.	Anders Hansen (Denmark)

Book Review: Golf: Play the Golf Digest Way: Hone Your Game- From Green to Tee

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Categories: Golf • Golf Books • Reviews
Tags: Golf Book

I don’t do a lot of book reviews. For some reason I can last a few pages reading and then I get very sleepy. A reference book however, is a different story. I like books like this one, which I can refer to as needed.

Golf: Play the Golf Digest Way: Hone Your Game- From Green to Tee

Golf: Play the Golf Digest Way: Hone Your Game- From Green to Tee is a 320 page golf instruction book by Ron Kaspriske with contributions from Hank Haney, Butch Harmon, Jim McLean, Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson.

This book is a substantial size at 8.5×11 inches. Inside the pages are 300+ full color illustrations and diagrams by golf pros and instructors covering every imaginable golf teaching subject as listed below.

Chapters

Putting
Chipping
Pitching
Bunker Play
Irons
Woods/Hybrids
Driver
The Next Step

As the title and chapter list above indicate, this book takes the player from green to tee, not tee to green. It is said that the best way to teach or learn golf is by starting with the putter next to the hole. Make a six inch putt, then move to 12 inches. Keep moving back, all the way to the tee! That’s what this book does.

The photos and descriptions are excellent, and there are many of the top players from Tiger Woods to Phil Mickelson to Rickie Fowler featured in the illustrations and photos. Below is an example by Phil Mickelson showing how to hit out of wet sand:

March 2012

The book will be available for purchase on March 6, 2012. Here’s a direct link to Amazon for Golf: Play The Golf Digest Way if you’d like to preorder your copy.

WGC Accenture Match Play Picks Contest – Win Bridgestone Golf Balls

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Categories: Miscellaneous • PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

I’m running a picks contest for this week’s WGC Accenture Match Play. To enter, just head over to this forum thread at The Golf Space and post your picks for the brackets. Be sure to do it TODAY, since the match play starts tomorrow.