10 things to think about

This week's Big Ten, a collection of random thoughts, observations and road rage about golf (the threat of hand puppets is merely implied):

1. Let me see if I've got this straight. The PGA Tour has had a strict no-discrimination policy since 1991, or shortly after the Shoal Creek affair of 1990. Butler National dropped out as host of the tour's Western Open because it doesn't allow women. Augusta National has no female members but it does allow women to play. You can word that any way you want but it still adds up to discrimination. Yes, it is the club's right to do what it wants. But why is it OK for the host of the Masters, one of golf's major championships, but not OK for every PGA Tour stop? I look for Tim Finchem to jump right in and work as hard as Bud Selig -- who'll be known as the man who killed baseball -- did during the last players' strike to negotiate a solution.

MAILBAG Are PGA Tour players randomly tested for steroids? I know it wasn't long ago that members were being questioned about the use of beta blockers. Baseball is getting a lot of negative attention regarding its lack of testing. What is PGA Tour policy? —Chuck De Wildt, Laguna Niguel, Calif. Pretty much like baseball's, Wildt-da-beast -- nothing. Players aren't tested for any drugs, on the assumption that drugs hurt, not help, a golfer. With the emphasis on length in modern golf courses, it's silly to believe that steroids or some derivative aren't going to be used by pro golfers to build strength so they can hit it out there with Tiger. You always hear how professional golfers with children hit a slump about the time their kids reach school age, because the kids can't travel anymore and players miss their families. Given the obvious logic of this position, how do you explain the remarkable continued success of U.S. Women's Open champ Juli Inkster, whose daughters are 12 and 8? Also, what's your take on the recent Walter Morgan controversy, in which he appeared to whiff a backhand putt during his record-breaking round of 60? —Kevin Humphreys, Ridgeland, Miss. Well, Humpster, a guy named Jack Nicklaus did all right despite raising a herd of kids. There's an exception to every rule. Inkster may have been just the right age to benefit from improvements in club technology and video and instruction. Clearly, she's playing the best golf of her life now and her swing is better than when she was younger. As for Morgan, I somehow missed that replay, probably on account of it happened on the Senior tour, which is pretty close to not happening at all. I have to admit, though, Morgan's explanation for it sounded lame, but in golf we have to take him at his word. I recently started working out: mostly running (five miles per day), some weights. Any suggestions on weight training that is golf specific (upper, middle and lower body)? Not really planning on hitting the weights that hard, but if it has golf benefits, maybe I could be more motivated. —Hoek, Las Vegas The bible of golf grunts was written by Frank Jobe, called Exercises for Better Golf. You may want to check out Athletic Forever, also by Jobe and friends. Meanwhile, back off the light beer. Would you please provide a complete definition of a links golf course? —Rick, Walnut Creek, Calif. A links originally referred to a seaside course (or within four miles of a coast, according to europegolf.com), usually with few trees, but it has been misused and become a synonym for golf course. What's happened to Rory Sabbatini? Is he injured or dead or in jail or what? One minute he's on the tour, next minute you don't hear about him for three months. —Paul Cross, Jakarta, Indonesia Guess you're not doing so well in the golf pool, eh? Sabbatini has played 14 events this year, usually two every month, but had missed the cut in six of seven tournaments until he finished 27th at the Western Open. He had a second at Riviera in February but hasn't done much since. To follow a player's results, check out Golfstats, which you can find on this Web site on the left-hand side of the GOLFONLINE page (listed as the sixth hole). You can type in a player's name and get his or her results from any year. It's the same site lots of big-time golf writers use for stats.

2. It's about time some feminists woke up and looked around golf. Where have they been all these years while women, who make up one-fourth of the game's participants, are routinely discriminated against by clubs' tee-time and membership policies and harassed by an old-boy mentality? Shoal Creek grabbed all the headlines, but last time I checked only about four percent of golfers were minorities. Women are a much larger force to be reckoned with yet have gotten no support in no-win battles against clubs, where clique politics may mean you can win a fight for Saturday-morning tee times but lose the war because no one in the club will play with you since you dared to rock the boat. On the other hand, the feminists who took on Augusta National were so remarkably uninformed about golf and the Masters, ludicrously suggesting that the tournament could be moved elsewhere, that their charges were less than credible.

3. Does anyone know if Jesper Parnevik still plays golf?

4. Granted, the LPGA lags a few years behind the PGA Tour in a lot of categories. But one reason Annika Sorenstam has dominated the last two years is that she took her fitness to a Tiger Woods-like level. She's pretty buff and works hard to stay that way. The men's tour is full of players who hit the weight room hard. It's rare to find a member who isn't in much better shape now than he was a few years ago. However, the fitness quest isn't nearly as strong on the women's tour. Karrie Webb has been working on some swing changes to improve her game for the long run. If she's smart, she'll take a page from Annika's book and get super-serious about shaping up and improving her strength. The women's tour is ripe for a new dominant player, some fit 6-footer who averages 290 off the tee and has a great short game. She'll make the current stars seem small. I don't know who she is or when she'll arrive, but I'd like to buy stock in her. Or at least swap some of my WorldCom stock.

5. The most overrated things in professional golf are the first- and second-round telecasts. It's like watching Court TV. On the weekends, at least there's supposedly a story line about someone winning, trying to win or losing the tournament. On Thursday and Friday, it's Potpourri for $100, Alex. Hey, let's follow Shigeki Maruyama's threesome for the entire nine. Why? If you think the PGA Tour is oversaturating the public and its sponsors with golf, bad Thursday and Friday telecasts with B-team announcers may be one of the reasons.

6. The utter lack of Ryder Cup hype so far this year, since the teams have already been named, is a welcome change. Let's back off the months-in-advance hype in the next Ryder Cup year after this -- which is like, what, 2009?

7. Ted Williams is just too easy of a target. Fill in your own Popsicle joke here.

8. Tom Meeks of the USGA was the guy responsible for that unplayable pin location on the 18th green at Olympic Club in the 1998 U.S. Open. He also stood behind the location of the 10th and 12th tees at Bethpage Black for this year's Open, even though the 10th hole required a carry of 250 yards (some claimed it was more like 270) to reach the fairway -- an awkward play during Friday's second round when it was raining, the hole played into the wind and the temperature dropped into the low 50s. All the USGA had to do was mow the fairway back closer to the hole on this monster par-4, not move the tees up. And does anybody at the USGA think recovery shots and chipping are part of the game? Great, then how about including them in next year's Open?

9. If the USGA is serious about taking the game to the people by holding the U.S. Open at a public course (and I don't think it really is -- Bethpage was a pleasant accident), then Cog Hill's Dubsdread Course (site of the Western Open), Torrey Pines and a refurbished Harding Park in San Francisco ought to join Bethpage in the permanent rotation. However, I don't disagree much with a line that Johnny Miller once used, that the Open could alternate between Pebble Beach and Shinnecock Hills and be pretty good, throwing in the occasional Medinah. One course I'd still like to see host a major, any major: Spyglass Hill.

10. Sleeper pick for the British Open, if it's windy: Peter Lonard, an Aussie who loves to hit the ball ankle-high. British Open pick other than the obvious guy: Jose María Olazábal, a wonderful iron player with a creative short game.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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