Sport Station

“I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty.”

If that quote from Imelda Marcos resonates with you… at all… you’ll want to have a look at the amazing Nycole St. Louis golf shoe line. Yes, these are definitely golf shoes for the shoe whore aficionado.

Nycole is Canadian, she’s based in Mont Tremblent, the whimsical Quebec mountain village famous for its ski slopes and chalets, but also known for its breathtaking golf courses. So Nycole does boots and golf shoes. And for both lines she selects leathers from Italy. But not just any leathers; these are uniquely colorful leathers, metallic and prints too. …And she blends these eccentric colors and textures with ultra traditional elegant styling. The resulting look is pretty awesome. In my opinion. And the Imelda quote definitely resonates with me.

Brandt Snedeker

TWENTY HOURS OF TV COVERAGE are scheduled for this week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. Tune in to the Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday and CBS on the weekend.

Thursday, August 14:
9 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET on Golf Channel
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel

Friday, August 15:
6 a.m. to 8 a.m. ET on Golf Channel
9 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET on Golf Channel
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel

Saturday, August 16:
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on CBS

Sunday, August 17:
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on CBS

Satellite Radio

The PGA Tour Network on XM Satellite Radio will air 38 hours of coverage of the Wyndham Championship:

Thursday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
Friday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
Saturday: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET
Sunday: 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET

(Note: You can listen to the coverage at PGATour.com.)

Tournament Notes

Brandt Snedeker defends. The purse is $5.1 million, with $918,000 to the winner. It’s the last chance for players to earn FedEx Cup points and secure a spot in the playoffs.

?The Armchair Golfer

TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS OF TV COVERAGE are scheduled for the year’s final major, the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Tune in to TNT on Thursday and Friday, and TNT and CBS on the weekend. All times are U.S./Canada Eastern Time (ET).

Thursday, August 7:
1 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on TNT

Friday, August 8:
1 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on TNT

Saturday, August 9:
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on TNT
2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on CBS

Sunday, August 10:
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on TNT
2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on CBS

Satellite Radio

The PGA Tour Network on XM Satellite Radio will air 39 hours of coverage of the PGA Championship:

Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET
Friday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET
Saturday: 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET
Sunday: 1 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET

(Note: You can listen to the live radio coverage at PGATour.com.)

Tournament Notes

Defending champion Tiger Woods is not entered due to recovery from knee surgery. A field of 156 will compete for the Wanamaker Trophy and a purse totaling $7 million, with $1.26 million to the winner.

?The Armchair Golfer

Related:
Tiger Woods Will Win the 90th PGA Championship
The Wanamaker Trophy
Oakland Hills Is Ready to Humble World’s Best Golfers
1958 PGA Champion Dow Finsterwald

AS A FOLLOW-UP TO MY PIECE on Dow Finsterwald, I want to point you to a photo gallery I ran across at PGA.com. There are a lot of neat photos of Dow, from his playing days to the present day:

Dow photo gallery

I failed to mention in my previous post that Finsterwald played on four U.S. Ryder Cup teams and was captain of the 1977 team.

?The Armchair Golfer

Related:
1958 PGA Champion Dow Finsterwald
2008 PGA Championship TV Schedule

(Mike Davis/Flickr)

HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE PLAYING FOR in the 90th PGA Championship. (Plus $1.26 million, plus exemptions galore, plus getting the major monkey off their back, if they’re majorless.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Wanamaker Trophy. Shiny, isn’t it?

Of course, as with anything that’s 90, there’s a story behind it. It’s named after Rodman Wanamaker, a man of means who took up the cause of professional golfers when they were considered to be lowly working class and not allowed in the clubhouse or locker room. Think Walter Hagen era.

Wanamaker thought this was wrong, so he spearheaded the formation of the PGA of America and its pros-only tournament, the PGA Championship. He launched the effort with $2,500 and ordered the silver cup. Every pro who tees off on Thursday to play for the $7 million purse should say a word of thanks for Rodman Wanamaker.

One more thing. The original Wanamaker Trophy was huge –- more than two feet tall and two feet wide (handle to handle) and weighing 27 pounds. That’s a lot of silver to hoist. Today the PGA awards a smaller replica to the winner.

?The Armchair Golfer

I’m picking this guy to win the year’s last major.
(Marcia Cirillo/Flickr)

AFTER NOT PICKING TIGER WOODS at Torrey Pines because I reasoned a crippled person couldn’t win in U.S. Open conditions, I vowed to never go against him again. NEVER.

So I’m picking Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship that begins Thursday at Oakland Hills.

I know what you’re thinking. He’s not entered. But if anyone could win a major without being entered, it would be Tiger Woods.

Maybe all 156 players will withdraw or be DQd and the PGA of America will decide that Tiger can hang on to the trophy for another year. Or maybe the player who wins just won’t feel worthy and decide to give the silver cup back to Tiger.

After all, who really wants an asterisk by his name?

?The Armchair Golfer*

*Blogging about golf while Tiger Woods is injured.

WHILE THE 2008 RYDER CUP BUZZ has been growing, I’ve been burning up the keyboard to bring you something new from ARMCHAIR GOLF: a free 27-page report on the 2008 Ryder Cup.

This is the first of what I hope will be many special reports. Just sign up at right and I’ll send you an email with a link to download your free copy.

(NOTE: Sign up in the right-hand column, just under the blue welcome message. If you’re reading this via email, through a feed, or at a news site, click through to the ARMCHAIR GOLF BLOG.)

What, exactly, will you get? Here’s the table of contents for my free 2008 Ryder Cup Report:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ryder Cup History
Who for the Love of Golf Was Samuel Ryder?
The Ryder Cup (Trophy)
Ryder Cup Results
All-time Ryder Cup Records
Ryder Cup Snapshot: 1957

2008 Ryder Cup Venue and Format
The Course: Valhalla Golf Club
Ryder Cup Match Format
Ryder Cup Order of Play
Ryder Cup TV Coverage

2008 Ryder Cup Teams
How to Make the U.S. Ryder Cup Team
2008 U.S. Ryder Cup Team Standings
U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Paul Azinger
Captain Paul’s Picks
How to Make the European Ryder Cup Team
2008 Ryder Cup World Points List
2008 European Ryder Cup Points List
European Ryder Cup Captain Nick Faldo
Captain Nick’s Picks

About The Armchair Golfer
Sources

After you sign up for the 2008 Ryder Cup Report, be sure to drop me a line and tell me what you think. Plus, keep stopping by here for 2008 Ryder Cup updates.

?The Armchair Golfer

ORVILLE MOODY, THE 1969 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION, died today in Texas. He was 74. Reports didn’t give a cause of death, but he had been in poor health for most of the year after suffering a massive stroke.

A former caddie informed me of Orville’s death via email before the news hit the wire. I hope to have more later, but now I bring you a story I published last fall at MVN’s Down the Middle. I spent time with Orville in Baltimore, which I’m pretty certain was his last competitive event on the Grand Champions circuit.

(October 2, 2007)

“You want to ride with me? It will be easier to keep up.”

Sure, I said to Orville Moody.

I was at a Grand Champions event in Baltimore, the prelude to this week’s Senior Players Championship. Since befriending Jack Fleck in March I’ve been on the golf legends circuit throughout the year, attending events at Savannah, Hickory (North Carolina) and, this past weekend, Baltimore.

I’ve had unique access to many golf legends — players I watched or knew of while growing up. Thanks to my association with Jack, I’ve eaten in the players’ dining rooms, hung out in the locker rooms and shuttled back and forth to hotels where I’ve rubbed elbows with several former tour pros. You can bet I’ve heard plenty of golf stories, too.

‘Sarge’

Back to Orville Moody or “Sarge,” my companion for 18 holes at the Baltimore Country Club East Course, a rolling, old-style layout with sloping greens created by famed architect A.W. Tillinghast.

Nicknamed Sarge because of his Army days, Orville Moody was the last local qualifier to win the U.S. Open, coming from virtually nowhere to claim the trophy in 1969 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. It was the only tour win for a sweet ball-striker who couldn’t putt.

About the time the Champions Tour (called the Senior Tour at the time) was cranking up in the mid 1980s, Sarge turned 50 and started winning tournaments in bunches, thanks, in large part, to his long putter, considered a novelty in those days. Moody won 11 times on the senior circuit and is one of only four men who has won both the U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open.

This past weekend Sarge was partnered with Jack Fleck in a best-ball tournament that featured several legends — Jim Feree, Fred Hawkins, Gene Littler, Don January, Billy Casper, Bob Goalby, Dow Finsterwald, Doug Ford, Doug Sanders, Lee Elder and Billy Maxwell, to name most of them.

Caddie by Default

Many of the legends don’t hire caddies for these events, so as we rolled down the second fairway I realized I could play caddie for Sarge, although I would steer clear of yardages, club selection and reading greens. I’ve been around golf, but I’m not going to pretend to be a “real” caddie. Still, for 40 or so years Moody has been accustomed to handing his golf ball and clubs to somebody. On Sunday, I was that somebody.

There was some chit-chat, mostly initiated by Orville. I was not going to yap at him or do anything to possibly distract him from his work, which I could tell he took seriously even if it was “just” a legends best-ball for a quarter-million dollar purse.

How serious?

On the 8th hole Sarge removed his shoe and sock to have a go at a ball in a greenside pond. He slipped on the bank and almost fell in the drink. Then he slashed at the ball with his 60-degree wedge, splattering mud on his dark slacks and pale green shirt.

There I was on the green toweling off his muddy, grassy bare foot. I know it might sound weird, but it seemed like the right thing to do. (Orville’s lower back bothers him and I figured bending over to towel off and slip on his sock and shoe might be a problem.)

Sarge was a mess and, I think, a bit flustered, too. It was awkward. Yet my instinct was to help my player.

I enjoyed watching Moody’s shot preparation. I did, in fact, give him yardages off sprinkler heads, adding and subtracting based on the pin placements. Once Sarge pulled a club and got over the ball there was no hesitation. His compact swing produced low straight shots with the hint of a fade. His speed on the slick, sloping greens was good. Determining the correct lines was another matter.

After coming off the 18th hole, I thanked Orville for allowing me to ride along. “I’ll probably see you at the Legends in Savannah next April,” I told him.

I knew Sarge wasn’t thrilled about his play — especially on the back nine — but he said I made the day more enjoyable. I felt good about that.

?The Armchair Golfer

J.B. Holmes (Gordons/Flickr)

WHEN I PLAYED ON my high school golf team, I was in high school. J.B. Holmes played on the Taylor County (Ky.) High School golf team when he was in third grade.

Are you kidding me? A nine-year-old!

Holmes played No. 1 as a fifth-grader and eventually won the state title as a tenth-grader. (Gee, J.B., what took you so long?)

The 26-year-old Holmes, a University of Kentucky product who hopes to make the Ryder Cup team so he can play in his home state, is the only man under par at the PGA Championship.

Saturday’s third round at Oakland Hills was a washout. That wasn’t so bad because I got to see parts of that amazing Tiger Woods-Bob May duel at the 2000 PGA Championship. That was as good as it gets.

As for Sunday, it will be 36 nerve-wracking holes for Holmes, who has never finished higher than 25th in a major. We’ll see how the young two-time winner holds up.

One last thing. His first name is John, but he likes to go by J.B. That means he’s also bidding to be the best tour pro with initials as a first name. So watch out D.J. Trahan, D.A. Weibring, J.P. Hayes, T.C. Chen, R.H. Sikes and any others I can’t remember.

?The Armchair Golfer

THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF ON TOUR, and he has an Irish brogue and answers to “Paddy.” Padraig Harrington is his full name, and he’s one cold-blooded major winner, snatching two in a row and three of the last six.

On Sunday at Oakland Hills, Sheriff Harrington again shot that Spanish gun named Sergio Garcia right through the heart. Padraig holed three killer mid-range putts on the last three holes. (And I thought there was only one golfer on the planet who did this stuff.)

The new sheriff posted 66-66 in the final two rounds. Bam bam! You’re all dead.

(By the way, I must have completely missed the day Tiger Woods deputized Padraig Harrington and gave the Irishman instructions to run things until he, Sheriff Woods, returns.)

I’ve been traveling the last day and a half, so I’m late to the post-PGA party. But I did see the final nine holes yesterday afternoon at Oakland Hills. I was transfixed. Ben Curtis, Garcia and Harrington were slashing away, up one minute, down the next.

Sergio’s closing 69-68 was very good, but not good enough. Curtis played himself on to the U.S. Ryder Cup team. And what can you say about Harrington?

Padraig made history and maybe, just maybe, there’s finally a guy not named Tiger who can win majors on a regular basis. I’m impressed.

?The Armchair Golfer