Interview
Tour Insider: Rick Anderson Controversial anti-doping policies, expansion into China, a fifth major—to the PGA Tour’s chief legal officer it all goes with the job. We caught up with Anderson as he prepares to leave for a trip to Beijing. INTERVIEW BY CHARLES MCLAUGHLIN
SOS – Strategy on Seventeen One of the unique things about the TPC Sawgrass is that the property is populated by volunteer “docents” (storytellers) from the community who are trained to provide assistance or information to anyone who wants it—including impromptu guided tours of the course and clubhouse. Our storyteller was Gerald W. (Doc) Stokes, a 78-year-old former professor of history and philosophy who gave us a local’s perspective on the course’s most famous hole. The Tee Shot: “This is the thing [about seventeen], you can spin it back into the water, or if you hit it hot it’ll go over. It’s a real soft, high, floating shot that’s required to stay on the green. There’s usually a wind in the face and you can hit a bit more aggressively, but if you get it way up in the air you’re messing with the wind because it’s invariably swirling here. It’s swirling, but it more comes from the left to the right. If the wind isn’t howling, I tell people make sure that you aim to the left of centre of the green well enough to allow for the wind, because the wind is going to take it twenty yards. I’ve just seen it happen too many times, and I’ve played out here too many times myself. The Green: “Now you can see the slope [of the green] here. You can see how undulating it is, but they took about thirteen inches off the top of it. When Tiger made that “Better than Most” putt, coming down that hill, it was so dramatic because it was going to roll right off. That year there were ninetynine balls in the water from the pros and that’s outlandish. That’s why they shaved it off. The Bunker: “The small bunker there isn’t the bailout people might think it is. It doesn’t work. From here you can barely see it, it’s so deep. It’s like a pot bunker at St Andrews; it’s deep, real deep and it’s very difficult to come out of there soft. It’s such a difficult shot to come out of there and keep it on the green. The 2008 PLAYERS: “Sergio, one of his shots was there on the cart path [walkway]. He putted from the cart path. I felt for Paul Goydos, he played so well and had such a great personality. Such great quotes. He was relatively unknown but I had followed him as he moved up from the Nationwide Tour. He won before some ten years ago. I loved his attitude; I just loved the way he took it. It was sad that he lost by hitting into the water.
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HK GOLFER・SEPT/OCT 2008
The Other Course
The TPC Sawgrass is home to not one but two world-class courses. Dye’s Valley Course, younger sibling to the famous Stadium Course, is another fabulous track but one that is often overlooked by visitors who come with clubs in tow. This is a mistake, according to the locals, because not only does it feature all the ingredients of a Pete Dye classic—the liberal use of water, railroad ties and heavy mounding—but it’s also a much friendlier test. Not as long as the Stadium Course and with bigger greens, a round on Dye’s Valley is a comparatively soothing affair. As one regular told us: “It’s more favourable for regular play. You can relax on the Valley. Relax on the Stadium Course and you’re toast.” Completed in 1997, the course has hosted events such as the SENIOR PLAYERS championship and the final stage of Senior Qualifying School.
Getting a Tee Time
Both courses are accessible throughout the year; however the Stadium Course closes approximately three weeks prior to THE PLAYERS Championship, which next takes place from 4-10 May, 2009. Visit www.tpc.com/sawgrass for booking. Tee times are also available through the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa (www.sawgrassmarriot. com), where the majority of overseas visitors choose to stay.
WWW.HKGA.COM
HKG: Were you a big golfer before you joined the PGA Tour? RA: Not at all. I was not a big golfer, and I’m still not a big golfer. But when I came to the Tour, I was single. I took up golf in earnest and got to almost the point where I didn’t embarrass myself. The pinnacle of that was in 1998 when I went to Scotland for a ten day trip, where I got to play some of the greatest venues in Scotland. And that was important to me. I wanted to play, but coming from outside of golf, I really wanted to immerse myself within the game, and no better way to do it than to spend some time in the birthplace of golf.
the world of professional sports today and not address the subject. When we launched the program with a player meeting in San Diego, in February, we had a few players that were very vocally opposed and that opposition grew mostly out of the clash of cultures that anti-doping in golf represents, because of the inherent nature in golf of being a game of honour. So that was understandable. Also an interesting point is that the players who are under 35, largely they are used to this because they were tested in college, and the players who are over 35 really had never been tested and had more anxiety about it. We started our testing process and the first week, I’m happy to report, went very smoothly.
HKG: What would be a normal week for you? RA: I’m travelling a lot…so this year my week is usually out Monday through Wednesday at a tournament, talking to players, attending a Players Advisory Council meeting or attending one of our Tour Policy Board meetings. I’m also out at various times, engaged in different business negotiations. Then, when I’m in the office, it’s generally a kind of revolving door, with members of my team coming in to ask about various issues, or other business units or people coming in and wanting to talk about a particular issue or reacting to things that happen and we have to address. The way I’ve described it, it’s a 100 miles an hour on 100 different subjects a day. I love that. I do love that.
HKG: You don’t want it to happen, but the proof will come with the first positive test…. RA: Absolutely. That’s absolutely right.
HKG: What has been reaction of PGA Tour players to anti-doping? RA: Overall, very positive. Our players absolutely understand why we need to have a program. They also all feel, as we do, that we don’t have a problem, but you cannot exist in WWW.HKGA.COM
HKG: It is going to be interesting…. RA: It has been! I’m happy that my personal time in it is near over! (Laughs) I’m still responsible for it, but Alison Keller, who runs the program, just does a fabulous job and she’s not going to need my time any more, I think! (Laughs)
HKG: THE PLAYERS Championship, is that your biggest week of the year? RA: Certainly here, in this physical location, it’s definitely the biggest week for us. For the PGA Tour, this is our championship; this is the Players’ Championship, aptly named. And so, in terms of the events that we run, that are really ours and we’re not just associated with, sure it’s absolutely the big week. We’ve done so much to try to elevate the tournament. This building that we’re sitting in, I think is going to wind up being a very iconic symbol, you know, the way you see the clubhouse at Augusta National. I think, over time, this event will fall into that status. HKG: You wonder how an event gets “Major” status, but it has to be a whisker away here… RA: Yeah, you would think so. Of course, there is no official criteria, no vote or anything like that, and it’s really about how the players feel about it, how they talk about it. Every year that’s gone by, you see them talking more and more; they focus like it’s a Major. Certainly moving it into its own month, so that you have a Major every month [from] April through August only helps. So it’s all these different things that we do, and then we just turn it over to the media and the players to decide when it’s a Major. HK GOLFER・SEPT/OCT 2008
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