Rhode Island Golf

Wannamoisette Golf Club

We arrived at Wannamoisette Golf Club on 9/17 for a tournament sponsored by The Golf Journal.  I had finally won a lottery, whereby subscribers to The Golf Journal, enter to earn a spot in a national event.  Wannamoisette is another special Donald Ross design and the course is a traditional marvel of manicured green fairways and well positioned bunkering.  The wonderful experience of Wannamoisette is that it’s all in front of you, so if you bring your tee to green “A” game, you’ll pass the first test.  However this is the ante for the player until the greens are approached.  The test of Wannamoisette is putting on greens that may be as fast as Augusta National with treachery throughout.  The greens are quick and diabolical with subtle breaks at the pins so I would imagine you would have to experience mutliple rounds here to try and ascertain what is really going on.  You don’t “grind” at Wannamoisette-there is no trickery here until you get to the greens.  You  shake your head in disbelief as your ten foot putt moves ten feet past the hole.  The tournament participants did not figure these greens out in the main as the scores reflected plenty of 3 putts.  The fun hole was the par 3, 3rd hole which played 125 yards to a green flanked by bunkers on the left–it was the closest to the pin hole for the event, but someone got a hole-in-one ending that competition.  My partner and I shoved 8 irons to 5 feet with mine about 4 feet 10″.  No matter, another player was 1 ft., 5″.

Newport National Golf Club

Newport National Golf Club is a public course in Middletown, Rhode Island.  I had to smirk a bit when I noticed that Newport National’s logo bore some similarity to the iconic Newport Country Club as both clubs sport a large “N” in its logo.  Newport National’s logo is white/green and Newport CC’s logo is blue/red.  Newport National is a wonderful course, especially for a public venue, well designed with well shaped fairways and good length to pose a significant challenge.  I really enjoyed the par 5, 486 yard (572 from the back tees) first hole, which requires an intimidating carry over the native brush, to a fairway that winds to the right.  There is significant danger to straying too far to the left as the scrub comes into play all the way to the hole.  The Orchard Course provides a number of different looks for the player but is a fair test and fun to play.  Greens were fairly normal and probably between 9 and 10 on the stimp, so putting and chipping were a more “normal” experience.  The Orchard Course is a really good course to experience and has the feel and vistas of seaside golf.

Rhode Island Country Club

It seemed that Rhode Island CC was a wonderful blend of playing Wannamoisette and Newport National.  Rhode Island CC is a private club and another Donald Ross layout that is combination of parkland golf with the final four holes by Narragansett Bay.   The course has the immaculate feel of Wannamoisette and plays a bit longer but it’s still all in front of you.  The greens are slightly faster than Newport but certainly not as treacherous as Wannamoisette.  I enjoyed the first hole and the ninth holing 80 foot putts on both holes.  Rhode Island CC  is another classic course, where you see it all but you have to pay attention to the mental side to deal with some of the burns and bunkers scattered throughout the layout.  I really enjoyed the par 4, 362 yard par 4 where you have to cross the Mussachuck Creek which runs through the course.  I hit driver to about the 170 yard mark and crossed the creek with a well struck 5 wood that found the green  Another “cool” hole is the 516 yard, par 5 (No. 1 handicap hole), which requires 3 good shots to reach the green and avoid the pond on the left.  This is a course you can play every day and really enjoy it.  The course closes with four holes by the bay, which creates a links land feel, whereas the previous 14 holes are parkland in style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIV

The television was left on the CW channel last night following an exciting collegiate football game between Washington State and San Jose State, which WSU won in double overtime.  The channel was tuned to the LiV golf event in Dallas, Texas and I decided to partake and experience watching this coverage for the first time.  I approached watching LIV with an open mind.  I was a bit dismayed to see the image of Troy Aikman telling me that this was going to be the Super Bowl of professional golf.and one the biggest golf events on earth.     The TV production looks like a second hand rendition of Fox Sports hype resplendent with an array of bright colors and a cavalcade of insipid commentary by a bunch of no name announcers plus David Feherty.  Feherty looked lost and completely out of place as if to say, “What am I doing here.?”   You have no idea of what’s going on with the team competition and I must admit that I did not do any LIV homework as to what the nature of this team competition really is about.  CW should think about selling special glasses to viewers as I’ve never seen so many bright colors in a golf event so I immediately went for the sunglasses.  The TV screen resembles the cockpit of an aircraft with the team scores posted in all the colors of the rainbow.  All the players seem happy but definitely their demeanor is nothing like the focus they had in competing for their livelihood on the PGA Tour.  My sense is that these players have not lost their competitive edge but they are having fun competing in an atmosphere where they will earn money win or lose.  They are comfortable in shorts while music drones on while they are playing and the TV viewer can hear the music while the commentators are trying to explain what is really going on.  There is no doubt that these players are among the best in the world, but the event seems to lack the competitive edge of a PGA event.   It’s as if these are professionals playing in a typical scramble although that certainly isn’t the format.   Player interviews are conducted on a bunch of topics that are irrelevant to the competition that they’re playing in, so the general thought for the viewer that it is really hard to figure out what is going on.   There was a gallery of fans  but attendance is generally sparse after you leave the first tee.  It was all very confusing so I had enough and gave up–it’s really hard to understand what type of golf would be played if LIV merged with the PGA Tour.  LIV bears no resemblance to the world of professional golf that we are accustomed to.  If this professional golf in the future, I’ll be playing more and watching not at all.

It will be very interesting to see if Greg Norman and the LIV crew can recruit some of the current PGA young stars to restock the aging LIV roster.  Bryson DeChambeau is the current poster child of LIV, and he is definitely proving that he can compete and win on the PGA Tour.   There are only a handful of LIV players that could really stand out on the PGA Tour such as Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Terrell Hatton and perhaps Dustin Johnson.  The remaining players are aging and will find themselves unable to compete at a high level on the PGA Tour.  These players have secured their financial future and provide the competitive infrastructure for LIV but as individuals they will never achieve the potential to compete in major championships.