Need proof that the PGA Tour is committed to making TPC San Antonio a showcase facility? Here it is: They've hired away the Medina superintendent to oversee agronomy at the two courses being built in the Alamo City. I actually reported this a couple weeks ago (after it was first reported in the San Antonio newspaper) on my Texas Golf blog. But I got the PGA Tour press release tonight, so I'll post that here:

 

SAN ANTONIO, June 17, 2008 — TPC San Antonio has announced the hiring of Golf Course Superintendent Tom Lively to oversee all agronomy for the highly anticipated 36-hole facility. Lively comes to TPC San Antonio from Medinah Country Club in Chicago, where he served as Director of Golf Course Operations for the past seven years. His tenure at Medinah included the 2006 PGA Championship, won by Tiger Woods.

"We're very pleased to have someone of Tom's stature come on board at TPC San Antonio," said Cal Roth, Senior Vice President of Agronomy for the PGA TOUR. "Considering the agronomic and major championship experience he developed at Medinah Country Club, Tom is a valuable addition to this exciting project and the TPC Network, and we are confident he will do a wonderful job in his new roll."

TPC San Antonio will open in Spring 2010 with golf courses designed by two of golf’s most innovative designers, newly announced World Golf of Fame inductee Pete Dye and Greg Norman, a World Golf Hall of Fame player who has established himself as a world-class course designer. Dye is designing the AT&T Canyons Course with player consultant Bruce Lietzke and Norman is designing the AT&T Oaks Course with player consultant Sergio Garcia.

"After working at Medinah C.C. for the past seven years and going through a very successful PGA Championship in 2006, I decided to look toward the future," Lively said. "I have always wanted to be involved with the construction of a new golf course and when this opportunity came along, I couldn’t turn it down. The project is bigger than I could have ever imagined and presents a very unique and exciting opportunity. I look forward to working with everyone involved and preparing for the opening of two spectacular golf courses."

Medinah is considered one of the outstanding golf clubs in the country. Its No. 3 course, ranked 11th in Golf Digest’s "America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses," has played host to three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, one U.S. Senior Open and will be the site of the 2012 Ryder Cup.

Also announced are the variety of grasses that will be used on the AT&T Oaks Course, a Greg Norman Signature Design. Seeding has just begun and is projected to be completed by the end of this Summer.

Grass selections for the AT&T Oaks Course are as follows:

Greens - Champions
Tees - Emerald Bermuda
Collars & Approaches - Emerald Bermuda
Fairways - Tifsport Bermuda
Rough - Bandera Bermuda

Both Dye and Norman are known for their environmental stewardship and both courses at TPC San Antonio will feature a closed-loop irrigation system designed to insure protection of the Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio’s main water source. Situated on 2,800 rolling acres, both Dye’s AT&T Canyons Course and Norman’s AT&T Oaks Course are being built with the necessary infrastructure to be host venues for PGA TOUR tournaments, as is the case with every TPC project. Once open, the courses and the club will position San Antonio as a premier golf destination.

 

 

Here's an interesting story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram -- http://www.star-telegram.com/610/story/655816.html -- it's about a Fort Worth family made up of huge golf fans. How huge? They like to hang giant signs off their house welcoming golfers to the Colonial, or proclaiming their "love" of their favorites.

A couple years ago the young boys in the family had a lemonade stand. And Phil Mickelson stopped one day and bought a 50-cent lemonade with a $100 bill. That's a $99.50 tip! I'm setting up shop down the block and I'm going to undersell those little whippersnappers right out of business!

The family had a "We love Furyk" signing last year, and Jim Furyk saw it every day driving to the tournament. So on Monday of this tournament week, he stopped and knocked on the door and visited with the family for a while. No word on whether he outttipped Phil on the lemonade ...

 

The Kuehnes are a famous golf clan, and a famous Texas family. So as a Texan who loves golf, it's with sadness - but much appreciation - that I bid farewell to Trip Kuehne.

The oldest of the Kuehne siblings stepped off the national stage on Friday after missing the cut at The Masters. Trip is now retired from top-level competitive golf.

As someone with the talent to make a good living on the PGA Tour, Trip chose instead to make a good life living in Dallas with his wife Dusti and son Will, and running a respected money management fund.

He's been a part-time golfer for a long time. But still managed to play in two Masters, four U.S. Opens and four Walker Cups, to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur title, and to win too many significant state tournaments in Texas to mention.

Trip is the last great career amateur.

That career is over now, however, after Trip missed the cut yesterday. Although he did finish as low amateur with a second-round 72.

The Kuehne clan has had a lot of turmoil, but also more accomplishments than most of us can dream of. They're a complicated group. The Kuehnes spent the week in Augusta, Ga., gathered to watch Trip. Among those there were Trip's wife and son, his mom and dad, sister Kelli, brother Hank, Hank's girlfriend Venus Williams, Trip's friends Tony Romo and Terrence Newman (of the Dallas Cowboys), and assorted other friends and family.

I recommend this Golf Magazine profile of the Trip and the Kuehnes from last month's issue. And yesterday, the author of that profile wrote about Trip's final round at Augusta on golf.com. (Hank: "I'm going to stand in the fairway where I'm safe." Kelli: "That was a perfect shank." Long, tearful embrace with Dad off the 18th green.)

Trip left with class, the way he always played:

"With everything that this course means to amateur golf, with Bobby Jones and all the amateurs that they have historically had play in this tournament, to get the opportunity to represent all the amateurs that have never turned pro or just dreamed about playing here, all the working people that have either dreamed about playing Augusta National or coming to the Masters Tournament, to get to play and to represent those people, that's what I always wanted to do."

"It was a hell of a ride," Trip said, when it was over. It always is with the Kuehnes.

Anna Rawson's writing a blog for Yahoo. She's playing in Mexico this week, one of the weakest fields you'll ever see on the LPGA Tour. Great opportunity for Anna (and lots and lots of other players who aren't fully exempt) to make some scratch and claw their way up the money list. (Hmmm, bad writing -- should have said claw before I said scratch. Oh well.)

So Anna went out and shot an 86 today. All that modeling wears on a person. Wonder what she'll say in her blog about this one.

John Daly quit again today. He shot 78 in the first round and was stinking it up in the second, so he was going to miss the cut anyway at the Houston Open. Then he got to his 7th hole today, made a double-bogey, and quit. Claimed he had a back injury.

I bet he heads to the Hooters tent to find some "painkillers" for that "back injury."

Roger Maltbie just got a little testy with Johnny Miller on the air. Go Rog!

Miller said  he didn't remember the hole location on No. 10 being where it is today and threw that comment to Roger. Maltbie replied that he does remember it being there.

Miller then "explained" that the hole location on the weekend is usually in this other location, or that other location, but not where it's at today. "I've been covering this tournament for a long time," he condescendingly said to Maltbie.

But Maltbie fired back, "I've been right here with you John." Then added, "I'm the little guy down in the fairway."

Get out of your ivory broadcast tower Johnny!

The PODS Championship is losing its title sponsor following this tournament. No more PODS in Tampa Bay. And don't be surprised if there's no more tournament in Tampa Bay, either, at least sometime soon.

I suspect that within the next couple years - by 2011 at the latest - this event will either have been shunted back to the Fall Series, or be gone altogether, replaced by a new tournament. Maybe even both - replaced by a tournament that joins the Fall Series.

I expect to see the Texas Open in this slot on the schedule by 2010, maybe even next season. There are two reasons for this:

1. The Texas Open is moving from its current course in San Antonio to a PGA Tour-owned TPC course now under construction. The Tour wants to show off its new course, after all.
2. The Texas Open is the largest moneymaker for charities on the PGA Tour. Which is pretty remarkable, given that it's stuck in the Fall Series and rarely draws much interest from fans or top players. Yet the past couple years, the Texas Open has raised more money for charity than any other event on Tour.

And as I've noted on my Texas Golf blog, according to multiple reports Tim Finchem has promised the  Texas Open overseers their tournament will move to a Spring date on the PGA Tour schedule "as soon as a slot becomes available."

And here you have the PODS Championship, losing its sponsor (and for the second time in just several years) and floundering about. The Texas Open in March in 2009 or 2010? Works for me.

This is unusual, as far as I know: The PGA Tour has sold the naming rights to the two TPC courses it is building in San Antonio, Texas, to San Antonio-based telecommunications giant AT&T. AT&T is already heavily involved in golf (and other sports) as the title sponsor of several tournaments, and has bought the rights to various arenas. In San Antonio, it sponsors the Champions Tour stop and has its name on the Spurs' arena.

The two TPC courses are under construction now, and are part of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa. The courses are expected to open by 2010, and the PGA Tour Texas Open and Champions Tour AT&T Championship are expected to move to the TPC.

The two courses will be called, after the sale of naming rights, the AT&T Oaks Course and the AT&T Canyons Course.

Here's the report from the local paper:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/att/stories/MYSA020408.1R.ATTgolf.2b356ce.html