Turkey prep

And no I don't mean one to eat, I mean the country! Just trying to get my mobile devices ready for the trip.

Derby Picks 2012

So many horses and so many ways to handicap them, and through the years, I’ve taken many angles for making my Derby picks.  With the best 3 year olds from across the country, you could make a case for almost any one of the 20 horses in the field.  In fact, the last time I posted my picks two years ago, I did just that. 

This year I’m taking a different approach, dividing the field into four groups and picking one from each – those with singe digit morning line (“ML”) odds (4), those with double digit ML odds, but less than 20-1 (6), those with ML odds of 20-1 or 30-1 (5)  and those with odds of 50-1 (5 -- I’m leaving out My Adonis, who’s in the Also Eligible category). 

Anyone who bets wants to win, but as an occasional bettor, I want to cash a ticket that buys more than one mint julep, which is why I often look beyond the favorites.   So with this approach I’m trying to identify the best choice at each comparable level of betting risk.        

Before I get to the picks, a shout out to Bourbon Trail racing and Bourbon Courage for a game effort in the Derby Trial – I look forward to seeing him back on the track. 

The favorites --  (Bodemiester, Union Rags, Gemologist and Dullahan)

With a field of 20, anything can happen, but the top of the field seems to be strong this year.  In its lead story today, DRF.com’s headline reads “The big two leave little room at the top.”  I disagree, as I think you have to put Gemologist right there with Union Rags and Bodemiester. 

Though he’s coming off a solid win in the Blue Grass, I’m ruling out Dullahan as I’m not a big fan of horses moving over from the poly, which was a good theory until Animal Kingdom disproved it last year (good thing I didn’t publish my picks!). 

Hard to put aside Union Rags for his third in the Florida Derby, but you have to make the call somehow.  Harder still to not pick Bodemiester after winning impressively in the Arkansas Derby, and posting a gaudy Beyer of 108, but I’m going with Gemologist.  I like his connections, his 5 for 5 lifetime record, including a gritty win last time out in the Wood, and two previous wins at Churchill.  

Value plays – (Hansen, I’ll Have Another, Creative Cause, Take Charge Indy, Daddy Nose Best, Alpha)

This group is almost as hard to pick as the last one and proves what a great race the Derby is when the value plays include the winners of the Santa Anita Derby and the Florida Derby.  The six horses in this group collectively had three firsts and three seconds (by less than a combined two lengths) in their last starts.  You wouldn’t go wrong with any of them, and if the ML odds hold, you’ll be able to buy more than a mint julep with a  winning ticket.

I’m going to give Creative Cause a slight nod over Calvin Borel and Florida Derby winner, Take Charge Indy among this group.  With his solid second in the Santa Anita last time out and a big effort in winning the San Felipe two back, Creative Cause has never missed the board in 8 lifetime starts, and ran a solid third in the Breeders Cup Juvenile at Churchill last year. 

True, Creative Cause was beaten in the Juvenile by Hansen, who came in second in the Blue Grass his last race, and was beaten by a nose by I’ll Have Another in the Santa Anita, but that’s why it’s a tough race to handicap.   Also tough to overlook Alpha who ran second to Gemologist in the Wood and Daddy Nose Best, who posted a nice Beyer in  winning the Sunland Derby, the unconventional route that seems more conventional ever since the race produced 2009 Derby winner Mine That Bird.    

Longshots – (El Padrino, Went the Day Well, Prospective, Daddy Long Legs, Sabercat)

There’s a bigger drop off between this group and the last one, though each of them owns at least one graded stakes win. 

A little easier for me to pick this group, as I’m taking Daddy Long Legs over Went the Day Well.  Admittedly, I’m putting a lot of stock in DLL’s victory in the U.A.E. Derby in his last time race choosing to ignore his tough draw in the number one post and his 12th place finish in the Juvenile last time at Churchill, but that’s why his morning line is 30-1.  Went the Day Well merits consideration as he tries to duplicate Animal Kingdom’s path to the Derby coming off a March win in the Spiral Stakes at Turfway.    

Bombers – (Optimizer, Rousing Sermon, Trinniberg, Done Talking, Liason)

Another dropoff in this group, but still interesting that all but Optimizer have graded stake wins, and two of them have wins in their last starts. 

My head says that if I had to pick one from this group, I’d go with D. Wayne and Optimizer, throwing out his Arkansas Derby performance and focusing on his second in the Rebel at Oaklawn the previous outing.  My heart tells me to go with Done Talking, winner of the Illinois Derby last time out.  Seems like that prep race has gone down market the last few years, but Done Talking would be a sentimental choice as this year is the 10th anniversary of Illinois Derby winner War Emblem donning the blanket of roses en route to winning two-thirds of the triple crown. 

Instead I’ll go with Trinniberg, on the strength of two strong wins in his last two starts.  The “experts” would scoff at that notion given his front running style and that 7 furlongs is the longest he’s gone, and they’re probably right.  It would take something crazy happening, but then that’s what we’re talking about here. 

So there you have it, a horse for all rungs of the pari-mutuel ladder.  Of course, it’s always interesting to see how the betting public ranks them compared to oddsmaker Mike Battaglia, as some of the horses may jump up or down a rung.  Whether you’re shooting to simply cash a ticket to buy yourself a mint julep, or hit the superfecta and buy them for the whole bar, good luck and enjoy the race!  

February 22nd

"Everything that matters is having a strong heart." My 6-year old son Will, February 17, 2011.

Some dates stand out in everyone's mind. December 25th, September 11th, and March 17th stand out in every one's mind for obvious, though disparate reasons.

Other stand out dates are personal. For me, August 11th is one of them. My birthday is August 10th, and my Mom passed away the day after my 25th birthday. On the first anniversary of her death, my Uncle Peter's wife Fran died of cancer, my cousin's four year old daughter died in a car accident and my nephew Tommy was born, all on the same day. February 22nd will be added to that list this year and for similar reasons, wonderful, sad and tragic.

February 22nd was already a notable day for me, primarily because it's the birthday of my dear friend Howie. He likes to remind everyone that it is the date of the "Miracle on Ice", when the US Olympic team beat the USSR's vaunted Red Army team in the 1980 olympics, a game my brother Michael attended. Every year I send Howie an email, usually copying my cousin Mark Montano who's one of his biggest fans. The notes fall somewhere on the continuum between sentimentality and ridicule, commenting on those with whom he shares a birthday (George Washington of course, but also less obvious connections like Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the boy scouts, which is appropriate as Howie was an Eagle Scout).

After February 22nd, 2011, the date will no longer just be Howie's birthday, where I'll send him a sassy email and remember the party we threw for his 23rd birthday 20 years ago now, a month after we'd moved to Washington D.C. together. The guest lists' female to male ratio was about 8:1. God bless our friend Jen Curley who called us young bachelors out on trying to stack the deck in our favor.

No, next year I'll think back about how the date dramatically changed things in the lives of people I know. I will stick with the sequencing in terms of how I found out about the events of the day since that's how they reside in my mind, starting with the tragic, as one of my colleagues was found dead in the parking lot of our office, from an apparent suicide.

I found out several hours after the fact because I'd taken the week off and was not in the office when Gary was found. I was checking email mid-morning to track something down when I started seeing the subject lines of the emails that had piled up during the morning, "Police in the parking lot" and "No outgoing phone calls until further notice."

I didn't know Gary very well, as we worked in different parts of the organization, but we had a connection in that we are, or were, the only two in the office from Longmeadow. We'd traded $20's this past year supporting each other's school related fundraisers and would sometimes compare notes on the goings on in town. He was always quick with a smile and was a genuinely nice person. It breaks my heart to think of the wife and three boys he leaves behind, the oldest of which nonetheless competed in the state wrestling championships this weekend finishing as the silver medalist in the 140 lb. weight class.

The second piece of this year's February 22nd news was 180 degrees from the first. My cousin Jim who is the similarly aged brother I never had (my own brothers are 8, 10 and 14 years older than me while Jim is one year younger) and his wife welcomed their daughter, Eileen on the 22nd. Appropriately, I found out via email from Howie who had seen the news in a facebook posting from Jim's sister Beth, which is ironic since Jim eschews Facebook and technology in general. I'm pretty sure he was the last person under 45 to get a cell phone.

At 41, Jim's had a long road to fatherhood and I couldn't be happier for him and Heather. Eileen is named for Jim's Mom, my father's sister, who passed away in 1990. Aunt Eileen was a caring soul, a nurse by training, who I remember as having a youthful silliness about her. But though she was quick to laugh, I also remember her having the strength and resolve that comes with raising seven children.

On such a joyous occasion as Eileen's birth, I resist but can't help but recall the time around her namesake's death. Jim was studying in Vienna for a semester while his Mom battled a fast advancing cancer, and he didn't find out until she was very sick. Many of us believe that she hung on just long enough to say goodbye to her youngest child, and she died soon after he came home early from his semester abroad. I was a senior at Cornell and remember borrowing my fraternity brother Lee Winters' car to go back for the funeral, even though I hadn't planned to attend. I remember Jim getting up at the service, struggling to share some memories as he was overcome with emotion.

The last piece of news that arrived February 22nd was sad, but not tragic. While Gary's death and Eileen's birth felt close to home, the death of Jen's brother-in-law's Mom, Mary Ann Watson felt more removed for me, but in some way ties the two events together.

Jen's big-hearted younger sister Gabrielle is married to E.C. Watson, a laid back techiee who loves spicy food, music and soccer. E.C. is a few years old than Jen and me and is the youngest son of a preacher. I only met his mother Mary Anne once, at Gabrielle and E.C.'s wedding, which his father performed at he and Mary Anne's house in rural Elgin, SC outside of Columbia.

I was often struck by the generational shift in their family. With E.C. starting a family later in life, (their kids are 9, 7 and 5) and he being the youngest in his family, it was a strange circumstance for E.C.'s elderly parents to have such young grandchildren, as I recall many of their other grandchildren are well into adulthood. Gabrielle said Mary Anne still relished spending time with her young grandchildren despite being well into her eighties.

E.C.'s father passed away within the last year or two and I heard that Mary Anne's health was failing a bit, yet still lived as independently as possible at their home in Elgin. So it probably wasn't a major shock when she passed away peacefully on the 22nd, though no matter the circumstances, it's always hard to say good-bye.

As I finish this post, I'm struggling to summon the will to attend Gary's calling hours this afternoon. We all know our lives our finite and that thought comes closer to the surface in times like this. And we all know that we have to say good bye at some point to those we love, unless they have to say good-bye to us first. But you don't expect that the family of a 50 year old man's family and friends have to do that, especially knowing that he took his own life.

After welcoming their first child this week, those thoughts couldn't be further from the minds of Jim and Heather right now. In the sleep deprived haze of joy, worry and love, I'm certain they find moments to imagine the great possibilities for their daughter and the expectant wonder of watching her grow and learn, even though right now they're just trying to make it to her next nap and aren't sure what day it is.

And then I think of Mary Anne Watson, who's family has to say good-bye this week. I'm sure there's sadness in their hearts, but they're comforted of the thought she's been reunited with her husband. Not really knowing her or what her life was like, I don't feel entitled to say she led a full and happy life, but from what I know from E.C. and Gabrielle, she did. Mary Anne made it to 87, and along with my Aunt Eileen who was only about 60 when she died, they lived as long and as best as they could until it was their time.

My prayer today is for Eileen to have a long and fulfilling life and that Jim and Heather get to see as much of it as possible and to never know the retching sorrow that must have burdened Gary. I pray for Gary and his family, that his burden is finally lifted and for his family to have the strength to carry on. And I pray for Mary Anne, that she rest in peace and that her family can be comforted through the celebration of a long life well-lived.

That mystifying humility that comes with not knowing when it will be our time should keep us focused on the present and appreciate the time and moments we have, and as Jen said to me the other day, to live in the now. Just as I try to remember August 11th is my nephew's birthday instead of the day my Mom died, I'm going to try to think of February 22nd, as my friend and baby cousin's birthday and appreciate the great memories and wondrous possibilities it represents.

BCS plus 1

It's with a tinge wistfulness that I note bowl season is drawing to a close. Bowl season is a great time of year for a college football fan like me. And while I could use this post to reflect on the bowl season to date, my Tar Heels' furious finish against Tennessee or give an update on my bowl picks, I'm going to share some thoughts about the BCS.

First of all, I'm not one of these playoff zealots who is outraged about the bowl system and the process by which they select college football's national champion. It's quirky and the recipe seems to get tweaked every time a weakness gets revealed, and a few years it has been downright unfair, but it's better than it was before the BCS, when the bowl match ups were haphazard and it really came down to the polls.

A FCS (Division I-AA)/March Madness style playoff is never going to happen, but it seems to me a BCS plus one concept could work pretty well within the current system. With the BCS bowls now spread out over about 10 days it seems it would be doable to have de facto semi-final match ups around New Year's weekend with a championship game a week to 10 days later, as this year's title game is on January 10th.

The current system is better than the old bowl set up and at least avoided situations like the 1994 regular season when both Nebraska and Penn St. ended the year undefeated, but didn't play because it pre-dated when the Big 10/Pac 10/Rose Bowl were part of the BCS' predecessors (called the Bowl Alliance and Bowl Coalition). As you look back over the last 12 years since the BCS has been basically in its current form, almost every year, a BCS plus one would have worked well, which I've had fun checking out while watching tonight's Sugar Bowl. http://www.bcsfootball.org/news/story?id=4809942

The very first year of the BCS pitted undefeated Tennessee vs. Florida St. in the Fiesta Bowl, (note that was before there was a separate title game, which came in with the 2006 season) but a number of teams could have laid claim to be Tennessee's opponent that year. Ohio St. and Kansas State ended up three and four in the BCS standings, though Kansas State had been upset by Texas A&M in the Big 12 championship game. That year, there were a number of one loss teams including Rose Bowl opponents UCLA (also suffered a late season upset), and Wisconsin who would have made good semi finalists.

The year 2000 is another good example where there were two teams left on the sidelines. That year, Oklahoma finished the year undefeated, but there were three one loss teams, Florida St., Miami and Washington. And even though Miami had defeated Florida St., and Washington had defeated Miami, Florida St. got the nod to play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Wouldn't it have been fun to have a Florida St.-Miami rematch play the winner of Washington-Oklahoma to decide the title. Even a BCS plus one wouldn't have solved the issue in 2000 when a one loss Oregon St., which pounded Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and Virginia Tech would also had complaints, but it seems like a big improvement for the 5th place team to be left out than the 3rd place team.

In 2001, the BCS had another stumble, when Nebraska backed in to the Rose Bowl title game against Miami despite getting blown out by Colorado in its final game of the season. That year, the BCS third and fourth ranked teams, Oregon and Colorado were relegated to the Fiesta Bowl, but wouldn't semi final games featuring Miami and Colorado and Nebraska and Oregon been a hoot. (OK if we'd gone 1-4 and 2-3 Colorado would have played Nebraska, but some flexibility could be designed into the pairings to avoid intra conference match ups.)

The 2003 season saw Oklahoma which lost the Big 12 championship lose to LSU in the championship, even though many thought USC should have had a shot. Too bad we couldn't have had LSU-USC in one semi with Oklahoma playing Michigan in the other and decided it on the field, instead of the split national championship between USC and LSU we ended up with.

In 2004, undefeated Auburn was left out of the championship game as previously undefeated Oklahoma lost to undefeated USC. USC - Texas and Auburn - Oklahoma would have made for a great final four.

In 2006 (Florida over Ohio St.) and 2007 (LSU over Ohio St.) there were no major snubs, though Michigan and LSU (2006) and Virginia Tech and Oklahoma (2007) the third and fourth place teams those years might beg to differ.

In 2008 there were a bunch of one loss teams, though Oklahoma and Florida got to play for the championship instead of fellow one loss teams Texas and Southern Cal who were three and five in the final BCS standings (two-loss Alabama was fourth which would made for some controversy in choosing the semi participants that year).

And of course in 2009, there were five undefeated teams, so someone would have been left out, but undefeated TCU vs. Alabama and Texas vs. Cincinnati would have been pretty cool match ups (sorry Boise St., which was actually 6th behind Florida).

Detractors to this idea might argue that in years like 1999 (undefeated Virgina Tech and Florida St.) 2002 (undefeated Miami and Ohio St), 2005 (undefeated USC and Texas) or even this year, where there seems to be a logical 1 vs. 2 match up, the extra game would be unnecessary or even unfair to the top two teams. And while I think the Oregon Auburn match up is a great one, I would have also liked to see Stanford play Auburn and TCU take on Oregon in semifinal match ups.

I think the biggest stumbling block is the fact that teams' fans wouldn't be able to plan travel to a championship game if they didn't know their team was in it, or the burden of trying to get to both a semi and a championship bowl game a week apart. My thinking there is that the semi match up would resemble the typical bowl experience, while the championship game would be more like the Super Bowl or Final Four, which has a more neutral site feel. College fans who's teams make the final four in hoops don't know if their team's going more than a week in advance, and many of them manage to make the game -- the same would happen for a football championship.

This idea has probably as much chance to happen as a full blown playoff, but as the bowl season winds down, it's fun to think about and look back at some of the BCS semi final match ups that might have been.

Birthday shouts to CJ and AD, the January birthday boys.

A Wale(s) of a Finish

My man CJ (aka Kid Philly) has commented that when your team wins, you can watch the highlights over and over, but when your team loses, not so much. Today was the exception that proves the rule in that even though Team Europe thwarted the furious U.S rally in the Ryder Cup, I want to see how the finish of this year's went down. (OK, I'm not sure how this exception proves the rule.) As I write this, I'm waiting on Golf Channel to dispense with friggin' Big Break Lame Destination Resort and the hyper Michael Breed's Golf Fix (I actually think he's OK, just not when he's standing between me and the Ryder Cup highlights) to get to Golf Central.

Even though business travel and the Monday finish conspired to keep from watching it live or on DVR, I wasn't completely oblivious to the proceedings. I glanced at the blackberry periodically as I was heading West to New York to see how the matches were progressing. After the first five matches ended in an even split 2.5 to 2.5, making it 12-9, almost all the remaining matches had large leads, and it looked like the U.S. would end up a full point short in their comeback, assuming its players (Woods, Overton, Mickelson and Johnson) held on to their leads, which they did, and barring big comebacks from the U.S. players who were behind (Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan).

But a funny thing started to happen as I drove past Albany. After Bubba Watson was closed out by Jimenez, Rickie Fowler, who was 4 down after 12 to Eduardo Molinari, won the 13th. Then even though he was dormie after 15 (three down with three to play), he started winning holes. Around the same time, Mahan who was 3 down after 11, won 12 to cut the lead to 2. All of sudden a comeback didn't seem impossible and I started looking for an exit to catch the finish. Then I remembered that the Thruway rest stops have Wi - Fi. I got in just in time to see that Fowler had improbably won the last three holes to halve his match, but by the time I logged on, Mahan was two down with two to play, playing the 17th, and by now you know what happened from there. Still, I'm glad I got to see the end and will look forward to seeing how it all played out.

Notes: The passionate rookie Jeff Overton provided some fireworks especially his ridiculous hole out (and subsequent "boom baby" reaction) in the Sunday four-ball. Plus he also has a little Davis Love thing going on.

Speaking of resemblances, I though Eduardo Molinari looked like a swarthy Matthew McConaughey -- when he was celebrating good shots I kept expecting him to rip off his shirt to show off his abs.

Great course when it didn't have rivers of water in the fairway or water hazards in the bunker. I especially liked the risk reward, driveable par-4 15th, though the U.S. team found about 30 different ways to mess up that hole. You can't point to one shot, hole or match that cost the U.S. team the matches (which is kind of a preamble to doing just that), but if you had to point to one, it's not Hunter Mahan's chunked chip at the 17th (let's face it, from where he was he would have been hard pressed to beat McDowell on that hole, and even if he did he would have had to have won 18 as well). No you'd have to go back to the 15th (which, ironically Mahan won to cut McDowell's lead to one up), and Rory McIlroy stealing the hole from Stewart Cink, getting up and down for birdie, while Cink three putting for par after hitting a great tee shot to 15 feet. He also missed a chance to win the 17th and settled for halving the match at the 18th.

But in fairness, Cink played solid and provided some highlights and excellent play during the matches. Probably every U.S. player can point to a hole or a match where they could have eked out another half point to retain the cup, which is why neither Cink nor Mahan should be singled out in the loss. Though not to the extent of Bernard Langer's miss at the end of the U.S. victory in 1991, it is likely Mahan will likely have to bear the burden of history, but I hereby predict Mahan will win the clinching point in the 2012 Cup.

A shout out to Bog (Go Heels) and AD (Sorry about the Rox), expectant fathers on opposite coasts. Congrats!

Topstone Follies

Some knucklehead was joyriding at Topstone golf course in South Windsor, CT where I'm a part-time member of a golf league.

Fortunately, I was still able to make a birdie when I played this hole the following day.

http://www.courant.com/community/south-windsor/hc-south-windsor-golf-course-0820-20100819,0,733176.story

Topstone's a nice track when there aren't upside down cars in the bunkers.

Two Stroke Penalty on the PGA

The organization dedicated to growing the game of golf managed to take a step backward this past weekend with the unsettling conclusion of the 2010 PGA Championship.

On the 18th hole of the final round, with a one stroke lead, Dustin Johnson appeared to have just missed a putt for a scrambling par that would have secured him the title. Settling for bogey, he would still have a chance for victory in a 3-man, 3-hole playoff, or so he thought. Instead he was assessed a two stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker on his second shot, leaving him two strokes back and out of the playoff.

It was one of those instances where I'm sure casual fans said, "huh?" (or stronger) as the situation seemed unfair. It made a bit more sense to seasoned golf fans like me, but I think the situation could have been avoided. If you're still confused, I'll break it down for you and provide three keys to remember for both the PGA and players alike.

The PGA Championship is sponsored by the Professional Golfers Association of America, the club professionals who teach golf and run golf courses. The PGA's stated purpose is to grow the game of golf, which is ironic, since I can't imagine the conclusion Sunday made many new golf fans.

The rule that Dustin Johnson violated is pretty straightforward. All but the most hackneyed hackers know you can't ground a club (as in set on the ground) in a bunker or other hazard. The problem is that Whistling Straits where the event was held is not your average venue and the final hole of the final round of a major championship is a unique setting and situation.

Whistling Straits is a spectacular course set on the edge of Lake Michigan sculpted in the style of the great links courses of the British Isles. A shout out to my buddy Howie who played it recently and sent me the yardage book (best yardage book ever, seriously), which I referred to frequently as I watched the coverage over the weekend. While it's a dazzling layout, to me it loses points because it's not authentic, as that landscape was created by bulldozers and earth movers, not mother nature, a fact you could see whenever the camera shots from the Met Life blimp pulled back to reveal farmland on the neighboring property. My buddy CJ, aka Kid Philly, said it reminded him of a great course we used to play in Denver called Murphy Creek -- I agree.

One unique attribute of Whistling Straits is that it has, literally, countless bunkers. Some are huge and some are tiny, but they're everywhere, with an estimate of 1,200 across the property. Given that there were also 50,000 people attending the event, it's inevitable that fans ended up standing in or walking through many of the bunkers that were far removed from the fairways.

The PGA of America made the curious decision that the bunkers where fans walked through (outside the ropes, as it were) would still be played as hazards (meaning you can't ground the club), and not simply as waste areas, where players play the ball as it lies as they would in any other spot on the fairway or rough.

So when Dustin flared his drive on the 18th, he didn't realize that he was in a bunker. He was surrounded by thousands of fans, and while the ball was lying on sand, it was hard-packed, with footprints, wrappers and people all over it.

It never occurred to him that he was in a bunker so he followed his usual routine (usual for the last hole leading a major with 5,000 people surrounding him forming a tunnel the size of a bowling alley to hit through on his approach to the green) and grounded his club (though Dustin must have admitted to this, because I never saw that definitively on the replay).

As he walked off the green with a 5 (soon to be a 7), a PGA official grabbed him and gave him the news that there might be a problem -- understatement.

So here's my advice/comments in no particular order.

1) PGA, what were you thinking having the bunkers outside the ropes played as hazards? While I believe they were in good faith trying to preserve the integrity of Pete Dye's design, as they stated, I believe that decision was misguided and naive.

That would never, ever be done on any other course. You would either keep people out of the bunkers (impractical at WS) or play them as waste areas (better option -- no offense Pete).

When I say naive, I think that rule would have been fine for a practice round, but clearly the PGA had not thought through the circumstances of having so many people around (as you might, say, on the 18th hole of a major) that the bunker itself was not readily identifiable.

To its defense the PGA warned the players this would be the rule with its daily briefing sheets and this is where Dustin lost some sympathy points by confessing he never reads those. Hey, I don't read half my emails. Maybe they should text these alerts to the younger players.

Food for thought on the 2015 PGA and 2020 Ryder Cup, both scheduled to be held at WS: get rid of some of those bunkers and keep people out of them, or play them as waste areas.

2) Thanks Rules Official -- Not. Yes, Dustin had a rules official walking with his group, who I didn't realize until tonight actually had gone up to the spot in the "bunker".

The official said in an interview on golf channel he was focused on getting the crowd under control so Dustin could play his shot, but boy it would have been nice if he'd said before doing crowd control duty, "By the way, per the local rules sheet, you know you’re in a bunker, right?" He seems like a sincere guy and I kind of feel for him, though he stretched credulity with me when he said it never occurred to him that Dustin wouldn't realize he was in a bunker. I bet the cheeseheads who had been standing there for two hours didn't realize they were in a bunker as some thought they were at a Packers game.

I think in the unique situation of a major those rules officials need to be more proactive and even responsible. Yes, golf is great because players themselves enforce the rules, etc. etc. But, the PGA goes to the trouble of having a rules official with every group and roving uberofficials can be summoned as well, so it's not like they've completely handed the reins to the players.

Golf will never move to an officiating model like football -- where if the ref doesn't throw the flag, there's no penalty -- nor should it. But let's put some of the responsibility on them to monitor and control these situations to make the call before there are problems.

Oh, and when that rules official meets you at the green and tells says you "may be" be penalized (or DQ'd, or whatever the case may be) there's no "maybe" about it -- your (Retief) Goosen is cooked. Sometimes you catch the officials on the mikes, and they're empathetic and folksy, almost reassuring: "Let's just go in to the trailer and take a look at the TV replay." Bull -- the jury is in (or out?), and the verdict is signed, sealed, and delivered. They've made up they're mind and you're not leaving that trailer until you change your score to what they say it is.

3) The TV replay is not your friend. This is really a corollary to number 2 and while the TV replay was not instrumental in the Johnson situation, TV will always be used against you and not for you. Players have been penalized when TV viewers spotted something and called in, but it's never going to be used to bail you out.

A case in point is Dustin Johnson -- at Pebble Beach. As Dustin Johnson was melting down in the final round of the US Open, playing the 3rd hole, he hit his drive way left near the 16th green and went into a lateral hazard. There was nowhere else his ball could have been, but because no one saw the ball enter, it couldn't be assumed to be in the hazard. Thus instead of being able to take a drop at that spot, he had to declare a lost ball and go back to the tee.

Now, in this instance, the spot near the 16th hitting two would probably have not been much better than hitting three from the tee, and in the end of the day mattered little. But while I'm sure a TV replay could have been used to see if he'd grounded his club in the bunker or some such, they're not going to use a blimp shot to locate where the ball landed.

Going back to the situation at the PGA, it's interesting that when CBS used its golf trax gizmo to show where the ball landed, it actually indicated (correctly, it turns out) it was in a bunker, and I heard (but don't remember) Jim Nantz said the same thing. It's ironic because as soon as they showed the ball in the crowd, it looked like it was on a bare patch of dirt, and neither Nantz, Nick Faldo, or David Feherty suggested it was in the bunker.

So the lesson is while TV doesn't lie, it's not going to used to back your side of the story.

Conclusion:
It's too bad this PGA will be remembered for the Dustin Johnson saga, because it was a thrilling afternoon, with the likes of Steve Elkington, Rory McIlroy, and Zach Johnson all in the hunt, not to mention the great play of Martin Kaymer, the eventual champion who battled Bubba Watson in the playoff. And Dustin Johnson's own solid play may be forgotten too, as he exorcized the demons of his final round struggles at Pebble Beach.

Once the incident happened, the PGA got it right. Given the rules they'd set out, there was no choice but to penalize Johnson, but it seems like the PGA could have avoided the situation with a common sense course set up and more proactive officiating.

I'm not a proselytizing golfer -- other than the fact I don't want to see courses struggle financially, I'd rather see them less crowded than more. But it is too bad that on what could have been a day to showcase some of the best young players and the excitement of golf, the PGA had to defend its conduct of the championship. Upon review PGA of America, I'm afraid there may be a problem. "Let's just go in to the trailer and take a look . . . ."