Tiger's agent failed in bid to stop new book

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
TRUTH AND RUMOURS
By Alan Bastable
If Tiger Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, had had his way, the new book about Tiger's relationship with his father Earl, "His Father's Son," would have vanished into the ether.
According to Geoff Shackelford’s Q and A with the book's author, Tom Callahan, Steinberg was so concerned about the prospect of yet another Tiger tome, particularly in the wake of the scandal, that he all but offered Callahan a quid pro quo to make it go away.
Says Callahan:
"When the word was out that I was interviewing the family, Mark Steinberg of IMG called and asked me, as a favour, not to write the book. “I’ll tell you what, Mark,” I said, “I’ll give it just as much consideration as you would give me if I called and asked you for a favour.” Then he said, “I can’t make any promises, but you’d be high on our list to write Tiger’s book eventually.”
"I laughed. 'Stop it, Mark,' I said. 'I’d be the last guy you’d want because I wouldn’t give you control.'
At which point a trap door opened, sending Callahan into the IMG dungeon.


Can golf unite Obama and Boehner?


President Obama and incoming Speaker John Boehner may not see eye to eye on the economy, or much of anything else for that matter, but they do share a passion for golf. Several blogs have already called for a friendly match between the two party leaders, and while that could happen, a buddy’s weekend in Myrtle Beach seems less likely.

Boehner has said their Oval Office chit-chat is mostly focused on golf, a sport that the Ohio Republican is better at than the President.

“First thing that happens is, you know, I come in and he’ll say, ‘Boehner, you’re almost as dark as me,’ ” Boehner told Fox News host Sean Hannity last month. “You know, I listen. We talk about golf. We’ll talk about our skin color.

“There’s no animosity, but there’s not much of a personal relationship or a working relationship,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said on Wednesday.

Oosthuizen tears ankle ligaments on hunting trip


If you thought Louis Oosthuizen's seven-shot win at the Open showed his grit, wait til you hear this story. Oosthuizen revealed this week that in the wake of his fourth-place finish at the Dutch Open in September, he returned to his native South Africa for a spot of hunting, which quickly devolved into a scene from MacGyver. Doug Ferguson of the AP reports:
Oosthuizen wounded a buck and was running after it when he tripped in a pothole and tore the ligaments in his left ankle. Instead of going straight to the hospital, Oosthuizen figured out a way to keep hunting.
"It was the first day of the hunting trip, and I strapped it up," he said. "But I  didn't properly strap it up. I felt like I had cement around my ankle, that's how bad I strapped it.
"So I was still hunting for another two days, but off my feet. I was on the back of a pick-up, so I didn't walk or run or anything."
Even though he made it to the HSBC Champions, Oosthiuzen is playing with a brace — until the end of January, at least.

In search of new look, Pinehurst gets old look


There are certain things you can’t knock about the Pinehurst Resort: its charm, its purity, its decadent breakfast buffet.
Its famed No. 2 course, however, has never been immune to criticism. “The trouble with Pinehurst,” Ben Hogan once carped, “is that when you try to think of one great hole, you can’t. Nothing jumps into your mind.”
In an effort to boost the lay-out’s character deficiency and return it to its hairier, more rugged Donald Ross desigmer roots, the resort has brought in throwback design specialists Ben Crenshaw and Ben Coore.
The course—site of the both the 2014 U.S Open and Women’s Open—is preparing to shut down for four months to let the duo do their thing, reports Luke Decock at the Charlottle News and Observer:
The most visible—and notable—effect of the changes is that the 2014 US Open could be played entirely without rough. That goes, of course, against everything the U.S. Golf Association typically wants in an Open venue course, where narrow fairways and ankle-high rough rule the day.
At the 2005 Open at Pinehurst, the USGA decided upon a slightly less penal cut for No. 2's rough in an attempt to encourage players to go for the greens, bringing more of Ross' trickery into play. The latest renovations are a logical extension of that theory.
Although the final decision on whether to let any of the grass grow to rough length is up to the USGA, not Pinehurst or Crenshaw and Coore, the idea is that shots hit awry or through the fairways will go into what Coore called the “great mystery area,” where players may find perfect lies or may end up pinched against a tuft of wire grass or nestled into a bed of pine straw.

Mystery areas? Sounds intriguing, if potentially problematic, especially down the stretch at a major. Dustin Johnson, you’ve been warned.