Greens get Goosen upset
Retief Goosen is normally a quiet man. A very quiet man. He does not tend to blast, lash or hit out at anything when he speaks.
You are not likely to come across him effing and blinding at a marshal in the way Ian Poulter did in Ireland two weeks ago – something which Poulter later regretted and which led to him offering up the figure of £5,000 as a suitable fine.
Nor are you likely to find the South African caught up in the sort of incident that had Kenneth Ferrie apologising to Paul McGinley, a possible Ryder Cup team-mate this September, and admitting he had learnt a valuable lesson.
The lesson presumably being that even if you think someone is guilty of gamesmanship, best not to talk to the press about it unless you are prepared for the consequences.
Goosen did once have a dig at the speed – or rather lack of it – Padraig Harrington plays golf at. But that seemed out of character.
However, prior to heading back to America from Europe for this week’s Memorial tournament, the world number three certainly left his mark on the BMW Championship at Wentworth. Off the course, that is.
Goosen finished joint 19th, which by his own high standards represented a poor week. But his parting shot was a belter – far more noteworthy than any of the 284 he had hit in the tournament.
“The greens here are the worst greens we putt on all year,” he told reporters. “The only way I’ll think about playing here again is if they change the greens. It is no use standing over a putt and the ball is bouncing around all over the place.”
Not surprisingly, the words when they reached Ernie Els’ ears did not bring a smile to his face.
“Retief needs to look at the weather reports before he says something like this,” he said. “If he thinks he has had a hard time he should see me.”
Els, also 19th, had himself described the greens as “unplayable for me” after the second round, but had put it in the context of a week of heavy rain.
He is the man, of course, who has made the West Course more challenging with 30 new bunkers and several new tees. He realises that the greens need looking at next, but these things take time and while Goosen might see his comments as constructive criticism, they brought a negative end to what Els hoped would be a positive week.
The two have already spoken on the matter.
“I saw Ernie last night and he said when you’re playing late afternoon in the first two rounds, you’ve got pretty much no chance of making putts,” Goosen said.
“He hopes that hopefully they might do it, but he’s not sure how much money is left for it to be done.
“The greens have always been the issue here, not so much the rest of the course. But you never know, they might dig them up and plant new grass and next year the greens may be good.
“I don’t know what it is about these greens. Maybe the grass is fine and maybe it is what is underneath the grass. It’s just clay and mud now.”
European Tour chief executive George O’Grady naturally wants as many top players as possible to turn up for the circuit’s flagship event – and every other tournament, of course.
It is planned to keep it in the same slot next season even though it will be only two weeks after the Players Championship in Florida and two weeks before the US Open at Oakmont.
Four of the world’s top 10 and eight of the top 20 played last week and Vijay Singh was apparently close to joining them.
“All the leading players who are members of both tours who we talked to this week are comfortable with it being this week (next year),” commented O’Grady before correcting that to “all but one“.
He was not saying whether that one exception was Goosen, but it might have been Adam Scott. After missing the cut the Australian described the greens as “ridiculous to putt on“.
A notable absentee, as he has been since 2000, was Sergio Garcia, who told Luke Donald there were tax reasons behind his decision.
Asked if there was a solution to that in sight O’Grady stated: “I don’t work for the British government, but we have a lot of government contacts who we talk to.
“Anything that concerns any one of our members concerns us. We’d be silly not to be concerned. It’s a wider issue involving all kinds of sportsmen, but it’s one that I think the government will and are looking at because it will affect a lot of people.
“We have to think of the Olympics coming in a few years’ time. We want to have reasonable tax laws.”
Goosen might not play because of the greens. Garcia might not come because of the tax. No wonder the European Tour has spread its wings to the Middle East, Asia and beyond.
