The Loop

Missing Links: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus still linked, this time by (course) design

December 20, 2014

Stories of interest you might have missed…

"Jack Nicklaus designed the neighboring course, and there is more than a touch of irony that the Golden Bear's latest in a long list of projects opened a mere 12 days before Woods christened El Cardonal at Diamante [in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico] to a good bit of fanfare this week. The two men's names have been linked for more than two decades, from the time Woods noted Nicklaus' golf accomplishments as a youth and decided he wanted to surpass the 73 PGA Tour victories (Woods has) and the 18 major championships (Woods has not)." ESPN's Bob Harig writes about the two legends' different approaches to their design businesses.

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(Getty Images)

European Ryder Cup player Stephen Gallacher is the latest to go off on slow play in professional golf. "Certain forms of slow play is tantamount to cheating," Gallagher said in this Scottish Express story. "Guys who know they are slow and get fined all the time but don't do anything about it are putting people off. They are certainly putting viewers off. The bit I think is akin to cheating is their two paces - when they speed up once they've been put on the clock."


Jason Palmer of England has earned a European Tour card for the first time, after a long and debilitating battle with the chip yips. How did he persevere? "[W]henever he finds himself within 40 yards of the pin but off the green, he will pitch or chip one-handed, be it from a bunker, rough or fairway. Yes, he does so with only his right hand on the club. Riath Al-Samarrai has the story in the Daily Mail.


We've had disc golf for a while now. Then came foot golf. Now we have smash golf, played with a racket and a rubber ball. "The fact that [Daril] Pacinella was offering a new idea to help business was the clincher, and so Smash Golf had an official home base in Rockledge {Fla.}," Brian McCallum writes in Florida Today. "[Justin Horton, the general manager of Turtle Creek Golf Club] is working to establish a league for the new sport…For now, he's simply hopeful."