Golfweek

The elegant entranceway in one of the richest areas of London gives no clue as to what lies behind it.

Yet the glass-paneled door at 47 Lowndes Square around the corner from Harrods and Harvey Nichols opens onto one of the most historic places in British golf: Knightsbridge Golf School.

Indoor teaching centers are the current fashion nowadays. You can beat balls off AstroTurf mats into canvas screens with backdrops of Pebble Beach or Augusta National. Computers and launch monitors provide instant feedback on clubhead speed, backspin, swing path, angle of attack and probably tomorrow’s weather forecast, too, so sophisticated are these things.

That wasn’t so 62 years ago when a unique man began giving lessons in the heart of London.

Many people reading this column will never have heard of Leslie King. Yet he is one of the most important figures in British golf, a man who was way ahead of his time.

Talk to many respected teachers, and they will know all about King. King was a swing guru long before the term was coined to describe swing instructors.

Legendary golfers Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor had a big influence on King. A club professional ...

Random thoughts on NBC’s coverage of The Players Championship:

• Various commentators seemed to be in a rush to defend the glacial Kevin Na. After Na rinsed his ball on the 13th Sunday, a couple of fans could be heard singing, “Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na,” to the tune of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

NBC anchor Dan Hicks seethed: “That’s absolutely ridiculous. I don’t care how long it’s taking him to play.”

I have to admit, I’m torn on this one. I don’t like to see anyone mocked, and maybe that’s what was happening there. But it could be that some fans were having good-natured fun with Na’s name – not unlike what NBC also did in a short musical tribute to Na coming out of a break Sunday – and simply chose the wrong time to do it. I don’t know their motivation, and I doubt that Hicks did either.

The thornier issue is this: Everyone says they hate slow play, yet everyone in the media rushes to the defense of slow players. We empathize: “We’ve all had similar problems . . . the game of golf does can drive you crazy.” We sympathize: “It’s painful to ...

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – I did a guest spot on a radio show this morning, and everyone wanted to know a prediction for the weekend at The Players. Picking a winner at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass? That’s funny. You’d have a better shot at choosing tonight’s winning PowerBall numbers.

Why? Hard to pinpoint exactly, but I’ll do my best. This tournament, and the Stadium Course specifically, are, well, quite different than most. The golf course is a terrific test (ranked 21st in Golfweek’s Best Modern list) that plays fast and fiery, and the field is always stacked. But it always seems the dominant theme at this event is sheer unpredictability.

How else does one explain that only five of the top-10-ranked players in the world will play here on the weekend? How Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, missed his third cut at TPC Sawgrass in as many starts? And how the Tour’s three longest cut streaks – belonging to Steve Stricker (49), Gary Woodland (22) and Webb Simpson (18) – all came to an end on Friday? Stricker, a man who doesn’t check out of many hotels at Tour stops on Friday ...

Only time well tell if Javier Ballesteros has the magic or charisma to make it like his late father Seve, but he’s certainly sending out the right signals.

The 21-year-old is still an amateur but is playing in his first professional tournament this week on the Alps Tour. Seve would have been proud of the way Javier went around San Cugat Golf Club in 5-under 65 in the opening round of the Peugeot Alps de Barcelona.

It’s probably fair to say Seve never played a round like Javier did in Barcelona. “It has been a good round,” Javier said. “I did not get into trouble except for three putts on the 16th. I played very solid from tee to green. I hit 18 greens.”

It’s debatable if Seve ever hit 18 greens in any round in his life. Indeed, Javier played the course eight shots better than his late father. Seve, who died last year, returned a 73 on the same course in 1974 at the start of his pro career.

Sons of famous golfers have not always fared well in this game. Gary and Jack Nicklaus Jr. tried to make their way in the pro game ...

There is no argument that golf is losing courses and participants.

At best, the numbers in recent years in the United States are alarming: 100 or more golf courses closing each year, half a million or so golfers leaving the game annually.

Even the National Golf Foundation, despite its historical role as a cheerleader for the game, does not disagree.

So what can be done to attract and keep new golfers? Is there a workable strategy to spark the resurgence of amateur golf?

If I were the czar of golf, I would change the face of the game. I would call it New Golf.

1.) For starters, 2016 would serve as an implementation date for the program. The PGA of America celebrates its centennial in 2016, and the 28,000 members of the PGA would play an instrumental role in New Golf.

Around the country, people with questions about golf instruction and participation would be guided to a PGA professional. These PGA members would and should be widely recognized as experts on New Golf.

2.) The U.S. Golf Association would sanction the development of simplified rules and supercharged equipment for beginners and neophytes. This would not apply to advanced ...

MOBILE, Ala. – Today I played in my first LPGA pro-am. For years I’ve heard commissioners hail the LPGA pro-am as one of the best experiences in all of sports. Where else can someone compete side-by-side with a professional athlete for more than four hours? What’s more, they say, LPGA players are incredibly fun.

My pro: Sun Young Yoo, the 2012 Kraft Nabisco champion. After Yoo’s Sunday evening interview in Palm Springs, Calif., I wasn’t sure what to expect from the seemingly quiet Korean. Yoo emerged victorious after a whirlwind finish at the Kraft and looked somewhat shocked as she sat with a mic in her hand, bundled up in the champion’s robe. Most of the media in the room, including this scribe, didn’t know much about Yoo. Heck, we barely watched her play much golf that week.

When the media see Yoo’s name atop the leaderboard, they ask themselves the same questions amateurs do when they draw Yoo as a pro-am partner: How good is her English? Will she engage?

Yoo probably had no idea she’d wind up with three members of the media in the Wednesday pro-am. Can’t think of ...

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – He was left with his drive. Then he was slightly left with his layup. So, what’s a player to do when he’s at Harbour Town Golf Links?

Why, hit a second layup, of course.

Come again? World-class players unable to reach the green in three shots? Even a mega talent like Ernie Els? What’s that all about?

Easy.

“It’s one of a kind,” Bill Lunde said. “There just aren’t any other courses like this on Tour.”

Mind you, Lunde is here for the fourth consecutive year, and because he has missed the cut twice and finished T-37 in his previous visits, it’s not as if he has unlocked the mystery to this confounding Pete Dye/Jack Nicklaus co-design. In fact, Lunde shot 3-over 74 in the opening round of the RBC Heritage, so now in nine rounds his scoring average here is 72.333.

But it’s such a short, cute course at a time when week after week we are subjected to behemoths measuring 7,500 yards long. Lunde shook his head, then smiled.

“It is such a change of pace, no doubt,” he said, “and I think ...

Jeff Rude’s “Hate To Be Rude” column appears on Golfweek.com on Wednesday.

I’m not sure where this fast-and-furious Masters ranks on the all-time list, but it’s way up there. Of the 26 Masters your correspondent has attended, in terms of drama it falls not far behind the 2004 Masters, in which Phil Mickelson birdied five of the last seven holes to overtake Ernie Els by a stroke for his first major title.

Like this one, the ’04 event had nonstop drama and remarkable hole-outs under serious heat. I can’t recall another Masters where it was so hard to keep up with the thrill-a-minute proceedings while taking copious notes, though last year’s edition came close.

• • •

• Where does this one rank among all major championships? Depends whom you ask. Here are one man’s favorite 20 majors, based mainly on how dramatic, riveting and significant they were. Remember, the San Antonio Spurs have been significant but not always exciting.

1. 1913 U.S. Open: Francis Ouimet victory over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray boosts U.S. golf.

2. 1960 U.S. Open: Coronation of Arnold Palmer, end of Ben Hogan, start of Jack Nicklaus.

3. 1986 ...

Curtis Strange calls it “scar tissue” referring to the soul-tarnishing blemishes that a lifetime in the game can bring. There is no other tournament that inflicts or exposes that scar tissue the way that Augusta National and the Masters mercilessly metes out annually. Rory McIlroy reminded us of that a year ago. Sergio Garcia's frustration this year, after playing with Rory on Saturday, came to a head causing him to concede that he, “isn't good enough" to win a major.

Shaun Micheel, the 2003 PGA Championship winner, looks at the situation from a different angle. "We always hear the conversation about the best player never to win a major, but what about the worst player to ever win one?”

Granted, there have been a handful of major championship winners who could never reclaim that type of glory. However, Micheel backed up his victory with a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship in 2006 behind Tiger Woods. That same year, he finished second in the HSBC World Match Play Championship. But Micheel is motivated to remove himself from a conversation that rarely happens.

It is hard to hear champions talk so openly about the toll that playing professional golf ...

It’s time to clean out the notepad with some odds and ends about television coverage of the Masters.

Golf Channel’s recent episode of “Feherty” with Bubba Watson proved timely. The episode has been updated with new Masters-related segments, and will be replayed April 9 at 8 p.m. 

In an interview cut from the original episode, Watson sounds prophetic talking about Augusta National and his chances at the Masters: “I really do think that the Masters would set up good for me – the par 5s, shaping the shots. It just comes down to that. It’s just all short game, putting, knowing the greens, knowing the green speeds.”

• • •

As this is being written, CBS’ ratings are not yet available. ESPN, however, posted strong early-round numbers. Ratings for the Thursday-Friday rounds increased 12 percent over 2011. Friday’s viewership, which averaged 4.1 million, was the third-highest ever for a golf telecast.

• • •

Callers to Dan Patrick’s radio show had great fun last week imitating the syrupy delivery of CBS anchor Jim Nantz. I’m starting to think that that speaking style is a precondition of anchoring the Masters.

Consider Mike Tirico’s opening to Friday’s telecast: “ESPN ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. - In one of the most exciting major championships in recent history, Bubba Watson walked off the 10th green with a green jacket and his first major title on Sunday evening.

But Watson wasn't the only story on the course on Sunday.

And since you didn't see most of this on TV, here are some of Sunday's best quotes from the players that experienced it:

• • •

Graeme McDowell on Rory McIlroy's 77-76 finish on the weekend. The two played together on Sunday.

"Rory is not used to kind of being out of contention. It's been six months when the guy is never out of the top 5, and I'm sure he had the wind knocked out of his sails (Saturday). I'm sure he had high hopes this weekend. It's a hard game when the adrenaline leaves the body, it's interesting how the score can just escalate. I saw that a little bit in Houston last week when all of a sudden I had one eye on Augusta and the wind had some out of my sails and everything starts to go wrong, and Rory looked like a man who couldn't ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – His head down, Phil Mickelson was rehearsing his putting stroke in the middle of the first green when he heard the roar. On Sundays at Augusta National, the world’s best often play amid the soundtrack of sustained, boisterous cheers emanating from all corners of the course. The simple truth: Either crank up the volume yourself, or risk being drowned out.

So when Mickelson heard the roar from Louis Oosthuizen’s historic double eagle on the hole ahead, Lefty lifted his head, perma-grin still intact, and searched for its genesis. A hole-out on 8? An ace on 16? No, no. Something far more unlikely: a deuce on the par-5 second.

Incredibly – no, improbably – that moment turned out to be only a prelude to another manic final round at the Masters.

During a volatile final day in which there were two holes-in-one, an albatross and a head-scratching moment from another left-hander, Bubba Watson – in typical Bubba fashion – boomed drives, holed a few crucial putts down the stretch, and on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Oosthuizen, cork-screwed a gap wedge to set up the winning par and his first major championship title.

“I’ve never had a ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Here are five things you need to know about the conclusion of the 76th Masters, which saw southpaw Bubba Watson outlast Louis Oosthuizen in the second hole of a sudden-death playoff at Augusta National.

• • •

1. NO SURPRISE HERE: Watson might not have been the buzz of Augusta National until late Sunday afternoon, but his victory shouldn't shock anyone.

In seven starts in 2012, Watson hasn't finished outside the top 18. His last two starts - WGC-Cadillac Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational - ended in a runner-up and T-4, respectively. He also finished T-5 at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix.

"Less than two years ago, it seems like, I didn't have a win. Now I've got four," Watson said after his 4-under 68. "My goal, my dream -- my dream has always been to have 10 wins. And you know, this is a step in that right direction. This is what everybody strives to do. No matter how much you want to live your life other ways, this is an honor, a special privilege to put the green jacket on."

He earned that jacket by his work on the par 5s (8 under) and on the par ...

Well, that one was different, and if you arrived late to settle in, you missed two-thirds of the greatest (golf) show on earth.

Each year, Sunday at the Masters offers something unexpected. This time the drama started early, with Louis Oosthuizen’s amazing 4-iron into the cup from 253 yards on the par-5 second hole for double eagle. It leapfrogged him over Phil Mickelson and overnight leader Peter Hanson into the lead. Then it was a matter of holding on, which he did better than he will ever get credit for.

The two aces on the 16th hole (by Bo Van Pelt and Adam Scott) added some spice to the show. But nothing came close all day to watching Mickelson’s self-inflicted misery on the par-3 fourth hole, when he made a series of crazy, hasty decisions – the likes of which we haven’t seen since Dustin Johnson triple bogeyed himself out of the U.S. Open in 2010 at Pebble Beach. There’s nothing like watching a meltdown live. Mickelson was lucky to walk away with “only” a 6, and it effectively took him out of the running, even if it also made for a potential back story as ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Trapped in the trees, Bubba Watson had no chance. Good thing he's one of those guys who never hits the ball straight.

Unable to even see the green from where he was standing, Watson curled a shot from out of the pine straw and safely onto the 10th green to win the Masters on the second hole of a playoff Sunday over South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen.

Watson won his first major and sobbed hard, his shoulders heaving, as he embraced his mother on the 10th green. He won by hitting a most-memorable wedge shot, one that may have trumped the historic double-eagle 2 that Oosthuizen dropped in on the second green to take the lead early in the final round.

Both players finished regulation at 10-under 278. Watson played the second playoff hole in par to win by one shot.

"I was there earlier today, during regulation," he said. "So I was used to it. I knew what I was facing there. I had a good lie, had a gap where I had to hook it 40 yards or something. I'm pretty good at hooking it."

And that's how Gerry "Bubba" Watson, proud new ...