Where are the Americans?

After watching Rory McIlroy blow through Congressional like it was a local pitch and putt, it’s hard to take anything away from this year’s U.S. Open except for the fact that McIlroy is golf’s new savior, the heir apparent to Tiger Woods’ throne.  However, one thing was noticeably lacking from this year’s Open – the complete lack of any Americans in contention.

In the last seven majors, only one, the 2010 Masters, has been won by an American.  There are three Americans in the World Golf Top Ten, and nine of the top 20.  So why did the Americans not even factor into the Open?  Steve Stricker came in for the most part as the favorite, with a game that many believed was a perfect fit for Congressional.  Others (foolishly) believed that Phil Mickelson was finally due for his  first U.S. Open victory, only to watch him play the course from anywhere but the fairway.  The top American finishers?  Kevin Chappell and Robert Garrigus, two relative unknowns.  While its hard to say that anybody other than Rory was really in contention, the Americans were truly not even a factor from the beginning.  Chappell and Garrigus both shot great final rounds to sneak towards the top of the leader board, in a finish that looked in impressive but in reality was like A-Rod, the king of useless stats, hitting a home run when the Yankees are already up by 10.

Why can’t Americans contend in the majors anymore?  Is there something about the system of golf that American youth are being brought up in?  Surely there are many more golfers in America playing than there are in a country as small as Northern Ireland, which holds the last two U.S. Opens.  Outside of Tiger and Phil, the majors won by Americans have been one-timers, relative flukes.  One reason is that golfers may simply not have the drive or the preparation with which Woods was raised.  Few American golfers are likely to have been raised by a dad who jingled coins or rattled clubs in their backswings.

American golf is looking for its new hero, and this past week, it seems as is they have adopted an Irishman.  It’s hard to get excited about any of the young Americans.  While they are certainly a likeable bunch, not many are expecting any of the “Golf Boys” to come through in the next major.  Bubba Watson?  Too inconsistent.  Rickie Fowler?  Too young.  Dustin Johnson?  Too likely to hit one three fairways over.  Some, like Lucas Glover or Zach Johnson, have proven that they can win a major.  Both have since failed to show that they are worthy of being two-time major champions.  There is a problem with American golf, and nobody knows just what it is.

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Lessons Learned from Day 1 of the 2011 U.S. Open (Part 2)

Lessons Learned from Day 1 (Part 2)

It’s not easy being the favorite

Luke Donald struggled during round one at Congressional.

There were a handful of favorites coming into the U.S. Open, and none of them fared well on day one.  The trio of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer looked far from the best three players in the world.  Perennial favorite Phil Mickelson was, in short, all over the yard, and his questionable decision to use a 2-iron off many of the tees kept him below par.  The fact is that for many people, the pressure of being the favorite is very tough to overcome.  Like LeBron trying to win a title, it’s sometimes harder when everybody’s expectations of you are through the roof.  Once again, don’t be surprised to see an underdog take home this year’s Open.

Wiley vets will always contend.  Especially those who can putt.

You can never count out the veterans who have been there and proven that they have what it takes to win a major.  After day one of the Open, it would appear that the two veterans in the best position to make a run at the title are Davis Love III and Stewart Cink, both of whom are currently sitting at one under par for the first round.  Both of these players have won majors before, and in a major where putting is at a premium, you can never count out Stewart Cink and his trusty flatstick.

There are certain players who do well in majors.

For 63 hole this past April, Rory McIlroy was by far the best player at Augusta.  While a few wayward drives may have quickly and firmly dashed his hopes at winning his first major, the fact remains that Rory shows up in the majors.  There are just some players who always manage to pull their game into shape when the big ones come around, and Rory is one of them.  While he might have choked in his best chance to win a major, Rory has proved that he has what it takes to put up good numbers in major championship conditions.

There is nothing more important than “Hanging around.”

You can’t win the U.S. Open (or any tournament for that matter) in the first round.  But you can certainly lose it.  The key to contending in a major is not throwing any large numbers at the course.  The best example of this from round one was Phil Mickelson.  Phil saw every corner of the course, hitting wayward drives, punching out, and scrambling on every hole.  And yet, unbelievably, Phil somehow finished his round at only two over par.  Anybody who had watched him play today would have sworn that he was much worse off than that, but Phil is still completely in this tournament.  By preventing any huge numbers on day one, Phil ensured that he will have a shot to compete for the next three days of the tournament.

“Horses for Courses” is true

Some people just play well on certain courses.  Whether they have a level of comfort at a certain venue, or the design just fits their eye, there are certain players who love playing certain courses.  Think of Tiger at Firestone Country Club, where he has managed to win a whopping seven times.  When it comes to Congressional, Sergio Garcia has found a certain comfort level that has allowed him to play great golf at the venue.  Sergio has played well at Congressional during the AT&T National, and currently sits at three under after the first round.  While Sergio has been slumping as of late, a date with Congressional might be just what it takes to get the Spaniard going.

Lessons Learned from Day 1 of the U.S. Open (Part 1)

The first day of the 2011 U.S. Open has finally come and gone, and after all the predictions and fanfare, we can finally sit down and take a look at what we know, not what we think we will.  Here are a few lessons that the Essex Golf team took away from Day 1 at Congressional.

Major Champions Win for a reason

Ever since the disappearance of a certain Eldrick Woods from the game of golf, the race for every major has been wide open.  Recent “unknown” winners include Y.E. Yang, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Graeme McDowell.  While some may find it surprising to see them at the top of the leaderboard, to others, it is just as expected.  Most people had never heard of these golfers when they won their majors, and many didn’t expect to hear from them again.  However, as much of a fluke as any of their victories may have been, golf fans have to keep in mind the fact that winning a major in golf is one of the hardest accomplishments in golf.  Beating out a field of 150 other contestants while maintaining a high standard of play through four days is incredibly tough.  And all four of these “no-name” winners managed to do it.  The fact that they won at all should be the greater consideration here, not the fact that that win will probably be their only one.  These men all won for a reason, and are showing up in round one to show just what it was.

The US Open might be a good time to break a slump

The U.S. Open isn’t quite known for its low-scoring or its easiness on players.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  So why do some players break out of slumps during the U.S. Open?  For one, its hard not to get up for this.  For most golfers, if they could win just one major, it would be either the U.S. Open or the Masters.  With those kind of stakes on the line, everybody focuses just a bit more.  Also, the Open is usually won with a score around par, or slightly above or below it.  In the last few PGA tour events, the winners scores have climbed to upwards of minus twenty.  Those who are struggling with their game are left in the dust.  However, this is not the case at the U.S. Open.  There is less pressure to make birdies, and players can focus on playing solid golf and getting up and down for par.  In a tournament where pars and bogeys are move valuable than they usually are, those who aren’t pin-hunting may find it a good chance to turn things around.  On day one, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, and Graemme McDowell all managed to break out of unusually serious slumps and post good numbers.  We’ll see if they are able to keep it up for the next three days.

Sometimes bogey is a good score

As we said in our previous statement, sometimes bogey is a good score.  This is something that amateur golfers can take away from the Open.  Sometimes it’s actually quite refreshing to see the pros struggling like the rest of us.  When given the opportunity to make a miracle shot to save par, hold on a second, think about it, and pitch out to the fairway.  After driving his tee shot into deep grass, Phil Mickelson wedged out and got himself no closer to the hole.  While he left himself a tough test for par, he had a very manageable shot at bogey.  Sometimes playing it safe is better than taking the risk and ultimately getting more than you had bargained for.

Don't sleep on Louis Oosthuizen.

These guys are good. All of them.

Today’s leaderboard is filled with names that you’ve never heard of.  Amateurs, Europeans, and local qualifiers who managed to fight through the excruciating qualifying process just to get the chance to tee it up at Congressional.  If you’ve ever stood behind the range at a Tour event, you realize that all of these guys are good.  Extremely good.  And there isn’t that much that separates them.  Watching Phil Mickelson hit shots in the range isn’t that much more of a life-changing experience than watching David Toms.  At every golf tournament, the number of players who have the capability to win is staggering.  What separates the greats from the average players is both the ability to perform week-to-week, and the ability to perform for four days straight.  Anybody can shoot a 65 in the first round.  But only a few can follow it up with three more similar performances.

Don’t sleep on the underdogs

So the leaderboard is filled with names that a lot of people have probably never heard of.  And most people aren’t concerned with this, as they know that within a day or two, most of those names will be gone.  But who ever heard of Charl Schwartzel before he won the Masters? Or Louis Oosthuizen before he won the British?  While the majority of these “no-name” players will eventually realize just where they are and buckle under the pressure, there will be a group of them that embrace it and keep playing their game.  Make no mistake, on Sunday, there will be atleast one of these “unknowns” near the top of the leaderboard.  And everybody will be rooting for him.

Why LeBron will never be Tiger

LeBron James and Tiger Woods have one thing in common.  For a certain amount of time in their respective sports, they were the single greatest player.  And that is where the similarities end.

If you take a look at the career trajectories of the two superstars, they are incredibly similar.  Both were hailed from an extremely young age as the savior, the king-in-waiting of their respective sports.  LeBron went straight from high school to the NBA, while Tiger cut his college career short to join the PGA Tour.

The difference between the two stems from one very simple fact – that America loves winners.  After joining the PGA Tour in 1996, it took Tiger just three months to win his first two events.  The following season, Tiger ran laps around the competition at Augusta, winning the Masters by an astounding twelve shots.  For all the hype, the talk-show appearances, and gaudy endorsement contracts, Tiger had lived up to the hype and more.  His fan base grew every day, to the point where it rivaled the legendary “Arnie’s Army.”  Getting within sight of Tiger at a major championship required precision maneuvering and planning, and those lucky enough to see him play were most likely witnessing a winning performance.  The world had been promised a savior for the game of golf, and Woods had provided.

LeBron's inabilty to win is what seperates him from Tiger.

LeBron’s early career started off just as promising as Tiger’s.  As a member of the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers, nobody expected LeBron to win a title right off the bat.  Instead, he established himself as the most dominant scoring threat in the game, as well as boasting the best all-around game in the NBA.  And then, when faced with his first NBA Finals, LeBron choked.  A 4-0 sweep at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.  Then in 2010, LeBron’s Cavs bowed to the Celtics, with LeBron scoring just 15 points in the deciding game.  By the time that James was announcing his offseason move to Miami, the fans had all but forgotten what he had done.  The 45 point performance against the Celtics in the 2008 playoffs was forgotten.  The scoring titles, the Conference Championship, and the fact that he had taken a last-place team to the top of the NBA.  When all his accomplishments were added up, the fact remained that LeBron had yet to win an NBA Championship.

In November of 2009, the sports world was rocked by word of Tiger’s sex scandal, and from that point everything went downhill from there. The 10-time Player of the Year has yet to win an event since news of the scandal broke.  Millions were horrified at the stories of Tiger’s infidelity, and yet, he remains less hated than LeBron James.  At this point in time, LeBron James is without a doubt the most hated athlete in sports.  And it’s because he can’t win.  America is willing to forgive winners.  They will look past Wood’s past if he could just give us the player we saw win a U.S. Open on one leg, the player who electrified the world and made golf cool again.  LeBron didn’t commit murder, he simply just changed teams.  And he is hated for it.  Tiger, once the perfect role model for every young athlete, has ruined this image. But people still root for him.  The advertisers, the fans, the tournament sponsors, and the media are all dying for Tiger to win again.  They know he can do it.  When he is within three strokes of the lead, we are treated to a “Tiger Watch” on ESPN.  Tiger withdrawing from a tournament is a bigger story than someone else winning it.  The world is dying to have Tiger back, and they will forgive him if he just starts winning again.  Maybe if LeBron finally proves himself to be a winner, the world will forgive him too.

Breaking down the U.S. Open Pairings

The pairings are out for next week’s U.S. Open, and the USGA has gotten quite creative with this year’s groups.  Examples include the Italian group featuring Matteo Manassero and the Molinari brothers, or the group featuring Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, the current top three players in the world.  Here is the Essex Golf breakdown of the groupings.

The long-hitting Johnson is sure to excite at next week's U.S. Open

Most Exciting Grouping: Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson

If fans want to see safe, conservative play, this is not the group to watch.  Johnson will be his typical long-bomber self, and expect Mickelson to hold nothing back as he searches for his first U.S. Open win.  McIlroy has proven that he can go extremely low in the majors, and fans should expect nothing less from him at Congressional.  Expect this group to put up a large number of birdies, and maybe a double bogey or two.

Least Exciting Grouping: Matt Kuchar, Paul Casey, K.J. Choi

While many other groupings will have less star power, this may be the group that scores the best with the least followers.  All three of these players are exceptional and currently playing well, and yet this group is like the tortoise.  For these three, slow and steady wins the race.  This may be a good opportunity to get close to the ropes to see some really good, solid golf.

Most underrated group: Nick Watney, Lucas Glover, Geoff Ogilvy

Don’t be surprised if the winner comes out of this pairing.  Watney is on fire as of late, and Glover has somehow managed to stay under the radar while being extremely consistent this season.  Ogilvy already has one U.S. Open under his belt, and he should factor into this one too.

Group for the ladies: Camilo Villegas, Aaron Baddely, and Brandt Snedeker.

This group barely beat out the Watson-Scott-Karlsson pairing, but Adam Scott was shouldering too much weight.  If you want to know there the females are at any given golf tournament, a good shot is probably whichever group Adam Scott is playing in.  However, Camilo and Aaron Baddely have shown themselves to be fan favorites, and Snedeker’s easy-going personality has won him quite a few fans.

Best group to listen to: Miguel Angel-Jimenez, Sergio Garcia, Alvaro Quiros

Anybody who has ever seen these three in person knows that their galleries will be in for a treat.  Sergio is nothing short of boyish on the course, and his shouts of Andale! can often be heard from up to fifty yards away.  Quiros has garnered a reputation as one of the Tour’s longest hitters, and along with Jimenez, this should be one of the most verbally entertaining groups on the course.

Best Group that Nobody has heard of: Marc Leishman, Alex Cejka, Kevin Streelman

Three very good players who have yet to make a large impact on the tour.  Expect at least one of these players to put up a good round or two.  They may have nobody following them, but this grouping should produce some good golf.

Timing is everything

Earlier this week, Tiger Woods announced that he will not be competing in next week’s U.S. Open at Congressional.  While the fans, television networks, and corporate sponsors might be shaking their heads at the loss of the Tour’s biggest revenue generator, there is certainly a number of fellow Tour pros who are less than devastated with the announcement.  While few were considering Woods as a serious contender for this year’s Open, the memories of what Woods has done in the past has surely haunted some of his fellow competitors.  While it is always quite amazing to look back on Eldrick’s hopefully unfinished career, many people overlook what may have been his biggest impact on Tour, and this is the effect that his career has had on others.

For years, the best players of the world saw too much of this.

Between 1997 and 2009, Tiger Woods was by far the most dominant player on the PGA Tour.  During that period, there was a group of challengers that could be seen just below him on every leader board, a cast of brilliant golfers who simply peaked at the wrong time.  When you think of those who were Tiger’s most frequent foes during that time period, names like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, and Jim Furyk all come to mind.  While most of these players will be remembered as great players by history, they will also be defined by the fact that they played during the “Tiger Era.”

While Phil Mickelson has four major championships under his belt, the focus recently has been shifted to his inability to attain the ranking of World No. 1.  With the recent meltdown of Tiger’s game, the spot has been left open, and has since been filled by Martin Kaymer and Luke Donald.  When Phil had the chance to attain the number one ranking, the pressure for him to attain what many believed he should have was almost too much.  As Mickelson gets older, his shot at attaining the world’s number one ranking seems to be slipping away.  The true glory in golf lies in winning major championships, and Mickelson, who has four majors, will certainly enter the World Golf Hall of Fame.  However, when Phil looks back on his career, he may not be able to tell his grandkids about when he was the best player in the world.  The same can be said for a few other golfers who were great during Tiger’s reign of dominance.  Vijay Singh was good enough to briefly grasp the number one ranking during a slight dip in Tiger’s game.  While Phil was Tiger’s most frequent competitor, his career will ultimately be defined as being Number Two, the man who could never get past Tiger.

Beating the greats is what makes any athlete a legend.  The 1980 U.S. Hockey team wouldn’t be remembered if they had beaten anybody but the Russians.  The same can be said for beating Tiger. In the golf world, Tiger is the Russian National Team, the Michael Jordan, the Muhammad Ali.  The reason we remember Y.E. Yang’s PGA Championship is because he stared down Tiger and came away with the win.  Rocco Mediate may have lost to Tiger in the U.S. Open, but his ability to force the Woods into a Monday playoff brought him from relative obscurity to being a national hero.  They were the Marty McFly to Tiger’s Biff.  The Rocky to his Apollo Creed, the Ouimet to his Vardon.  The reason why these two are unique is because they may have been the only two to have actually stared down Tiger and taken him to the wire.  A look at Tiger’s second-place finishes in majors reveals two one-stroke losses, to Rich Beem and Angel Cabrera, hardly noteworthy clashes.

After winning the BMW Championship, Luke Donald claimed the World's No. 1 Ranking, something Phil Mickelson has been unable to do.

This brings us to the state of the current golf world.  The names listed earlier, Mickelson, Els, Goosen, Singh, are no longer at the top of their games, and most likely never will be.  They were all great players, but who knows what they could have done in a world without Tiger?  The new generation of greats not only know how to play the game, but they have been blessed with some of the best timing for their emergence.  The hunt for every major is wide open.  The pool of talent at the top is wide, but nobody stands out as a clear favorite. Today’s top-tier of golfers includes Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Lucas Glover, Steve Stricker, Rory McIlroy, and Nick Watney.  While Kaymer and Glover may be the only players on this list to have won a major, the others will certainly get their chances.  And they will get them in a world without Tiger.  They won’t have to worry about holding a fourth-round lead with a dragon breathing fire down their necks, or teeing off in the final group being ten shots back.  They were blessed with the good fortune to have been born when they were, and not ten years earlier.  While the lack of a fit Tiger has taken some of the excitement away from the tour, the drama provided by these young guns has done an ample job of filling the void.  With the field wide open at every tournament, the opportunities for this group of golfers is truly endless.

David Toms’ Biggest Blunder

This past weekend, David Toms and K.J. Choi treated viewers to another great Players Championship, with the tournament going to a playoff and Choi winning on the 17th hole due to an inexplicable three-putt by David Toms.  While certainly nobody expected Toms to miss his second putt on the 17th hole, this was not the shot that lost him the tournament.  The shot that lost David Toms the Players Championship was his second shot on the Par 5 16th hole.

With a one-shot lead and closest challenger K.J. Choi being forced to lay up, Toms had 244 yards left to the hole, almost entirely over water.   Toms elected to go for it, and everybody cringed as his ball came up yards short, forcing him to drop a lengthy 160 yards back from the hole.  He would hit the green with his fourth shot and two-putt for his bogey.  Choi would miss a short birdie putt, but Toms had opened the door for K.J. to make a comeback.

Why did Toms feel the need to go for it on the 16th?  With a one-shot lead, he could have laid up and had an easy shot from within 100 yards.  David Toms is one of the best wedge players on tour, and this should have been an easy shot for him.  The problem here is that Toms did not recognize the situation as one in which he did not need  to go for it.  In his situation, it looked unlikely that Choi would make a birdie, and laying up would almost certainly guarantee him a par at worst, which would give him a one-shot lead going into the final two holes.  There was also the chance that he could birdie the hole and have a two-shot cushion going into the 17th hole.   The advantages of going for it from 250 yards in no way outweigh those of laying up.  From 250 yards out, the odds that Toms would be able to hit it close enough to make an eagle and effectively shut the door were almost slim to none.  At best he would make a tough birdie, but the risks were huge.

The game of golf sometimes requires gutsy shots, and sometimes requires smart shots.  There have been numerous situations when a player was almost forced to hit a gutsy shot in order to win.  Think Tiger Woods’ bunker shot over water from 218 yards out in the 2002 Canadian Open that gave him the victory.  Think Sergio Garcia hitting off a tree stump in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah.  At the same time, there are situations when golfers don’t need to pull off the greatest shot they’ve ever hit in order to clinch victory.  In the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie, Padraig Harrington walked onto the 18th tee with a two-shot lead over Sergio Garcia.  Unbelievably, he pulled a driver and hit his first ball into the Barry Burn.  After making a double bogey on the hole, Harrington was forced into a playoff where he would eventually defeat Garcia, but he had learned his lesson.  When the situation calls for it, its ok to hit a gutsy shot.  But most of the time, the safe play is the one that will win you a trophy.

The Great Equalizer

Lucas Glover’s win this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship taught us all one thing – don’t forget about your putter!  A look at the statistics from the tournament tells an interesting tale.  Glover’s average drive was over 30 yards shorter than that of Bubba Watson, the tournament’s leading big hitter.  He hit less than half of the fairways throughout the four rounds.  Glover barely topped the tournament average for greens in regulation.  His scrambling percentage, while solid, was well short of spectacular.  In the end, Lucas Glover was carried to victory by the shortest club in his bag.  His .149 Strokes Gained average led the field for the week, and his putts per hole is now a meager 1.695, just thousandths of a stroke behind the current putting and earnings winner, Luke Donald.

Like Glover, Donald is equally unimpressive in his statistics.  He is currently 157th in driving distance on tour, putting him an average of 40 yards behind driving leader J.B. Holmes on every shot into the green.  So how do they do it?  Donald’d 41st in Greens in Regulation is what one would describe as steady, yet not blowing away the competition by any means.  Donald and Glover have been able to win for the simple reason that they know how to get the ball in the hole.  While everybody loves to see long drives and gutsy shots, being able to roll the ball well is what wins tournaments.  During his run of dominance just a few short years ago, spectators would comment on Tiger’s impressive ability to swing faster and hit the ball harder than anyone on tour.  Yet when you look at a highlight reel of his best moments, most of them occur on the green.  From his putt on the 18th at Torrey Pines to force a playoff to his winding putt on the 17th at Sawgrass, many of Tiger’s best moments have occurred on the greens, and this is something that people often forget about.

So what can we learn from this?  For one, to practice our putting.  Everybody wants to hit balls on the range for hours, but that time might be better served on a green.  Another lesson is to pay more attention to your actual putter.  If I had a dollar for every 30-year-old putter that I saw, I’d be a fairly well-off man.  For some of us who have bought a driver a year for the last decade and are still playing with our father’s flatstick, this might be the year to make the change.  When you look for a putter, don’t just settle on whichever one looks the coolest.  Put it down, take a few strokes and find one that makes you feel comfortable.  While you may feel as if leaving your old trusted stick may not be a good idea, feel free to experiment with some of the new technology that is available to consumers today.  Maybe a white putter will actually help you, or maybe making the switch to a mallet will help straighten out your stroke.  As Luke Donald and Lucas Glover can attest to, the value of a good putter is priceless.

Golf Manufacturers Biting The Hand That Feeds Them

There’s nothing more frustrating in our day-to-day retail operations than having to compete with the manufacturers that have products in our store!  This recent phenomenon has been increasing over the last several months and seems to be even greater now that the holiday shopping season has arrived.

Think of it this way;  what would you think if Ford Corporate opened up a factory dealership in the same town as your local Ford dealer.  Your first thought would be “how can my local dealer survive competing with the manufacturer being right down the street?”  That’s basically what’s happening in the golf industry.  Giants like TaylorMade, Callaway, Tail, and Nike are going directly to the end-user to sell their products, thereby competing directly with their approved and licensed retailers.  The reasons are obvious – profit margins!  It’s obviously less expensive to sell direct than to have to sell through local retail outlets.  Meanwhile, the local retailer spends thousands promoting their products in an attempt to try and squeak out a living in a very difficult marketplace.

Manufacturers should take notice that retailers are not going to continue to attempt to compete with them, but rather, we’ll just offer the products of companies that support our  efforts!

Five Dumbest Rules In Golf – as noted by Peter Kostis

Who was to blame for Dustin Johnson grounding his club in a bunker at the PGA Championship? Some people blame Dustin, others blame his caddie, the PGA rules officials or even Whistling Straits course designer Pete Dye, but for me it was the inevitable result of the needlessly complicated Rules of Golf, which are threatening the enjoyment and growth of the game. One of the coolest things about our game is that it’s self-governed. However, if the rules don’t make sense, then people will play the way they think is fair, regardless of what the USGA or R&A say. The only thing that gives the R&A and the USGA the right to govern the game is the consent to be governed by the worlds golfers. It’s time for the rules to be updated and simplified. Here’s where they can start:

1. Bunker Vs. Waste Areas
This distinction is what created the whole PGA Championship debacle. It adds a layer of unnecessary complexity to the game’s already complicated rules. “Hmmm, is it a bunker where I can’t ground my club or a waste bunker where I can?” The solution: Get rid of waste areas and call everything a bunker.

2. No Relief From Divots and Sand-filled Divots
This one is ridiculous. If a sand-filled divot isn’t ground under repair, then I don’t know what those words mean. Imagine if I’m playing in the group behind Gary McCord and McCord hits a good drive to the middle of the fairway and then hits a 7-iron to the green, creating a deep divot. If I hit the identical drive and land in the same spot, I’m denied the same playing conditions he had. If a cart tire created the rut, I would get relief, but because the hole in the ground was made by a golfer, then I can’t. How does that make sense? Golfers get relief from unusual conditions and those conditions should include divots.

3. Out of Bounds
You are penalized less for whiffing your tee shot than you are for making contact and hitting it out of play. Out of bounds should be played as a lateral hazard rather than stroke-and-distance. The current penalty is too severe. Also, playing OB areas as lateral hazards would speed up play. Many recreational golfers already play OB areas as a lateral hazard for that reason. That, and the fact they are too embarrassed to walk back to the tee while another group is waiting there!

4. Dropping the Ball
Possibly the dumbest rule of all. If you’re already taking a penalty, you should be allowed to place your ball on the ground. When you drop it, you need to make sure it doesn’t land closer to the hole or roll too far — or whatever! Plus, you bring a bunch of other rules into play. Plus, if you drop two times and the ball still ends up closer to the hole, you get to place the ball anyhow. Enough already. Just the place the ball and get out of there.

5. Disqualification for Penalty Assessed After Round
A player who commits a penalty that only becomes apparent after he signed his scorecard is disqualified. Why? Not for the two-stroke penalty. Instead, his score has changed so he’s disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Just give me the penalty, but don’t DQ me under another rule.

This article was reprinted from Golf.com.