God and Jesus Christ Are Having an Argument ...

In a somewhat controversial move, the LPGA Tour on Friday wiped out the second round of play at the Sybase Classic, shortening the event to 54 holes and decreeing that the second round would begin anew, from scratch, on Saturday. Some players hadn't even started their second round when this decisions was made, but others were nearly finished and some were having great days.

Now, what happened at the Sybase has absolutely nothing to do with the following excerpt from Golf Digest, except that it reminded me of the story Jack Newton tells in his interview with GD.

By way of explaining one of the terms Newton uses, Jim Thorpe apparently employed "Frenchmen" to refer to the journeymen on the PGA Tour in his and Newton's day. So here is Newton's story:

I remember sitting in a clubhouse when Nicklaus and Palmer had a bit of a blue [argument]. I played early with Arnold. We came into the locker room, and a storm started to brew.

Anyway, the storm got worse, and the players were called in. Jack was something like eight over par playing the ninth hole. Arnold said, "You know what's going to happen here, don't you? They're going to cancel the round because Jack is eight over." And just as he said it, Jack walked in behind him and heard him say it.

Jim Thorpe, when I first met him, said to me that we "Frenchmen" had to stick together out there. He and I were on the bench as Jack walked in. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but when Jack gets nervous or angry, he has a little twitch he does with his chin, and he goes bright red. Well, he did both. And as he walked past, he said, "Yeah, Arnold, just like they did for you all those times."

At that, Jim Thorpe turned to me and said, "Newtie, this is no place for we Frenchmen. There's an argument going on between God and Jesus Christ, so we better get out of here!" [Laughs.]

There was something else in Newton's interview that got my attention. Many people - reporters, his fellow players from back in the day - have marveled at Nicklaus' amazing feats given that Jack was contractually obligated for most of his best years to play MacGregor balls (Jack owned part of the company at one time), and MacGregor balls from those days are universally regarded as terrible. The worst balls on Tour, according to many.

But Newton disputes that:

I remember the first time I made it to Augusta, in 1976. I played a practice round with Jack. I wasn't full-time in America at that time. I said to him, "Mate, what ball should I be using?"

So he gave me a dozen of his balls.

MacGregors?
That's right.

They were terrible balls, weren't they?
They were -- but his weren't!

The next day I played a practice round with Tom Weiskopf, and he looked at the ball I was using. "Where did you get that?" he asked. I told him Jack gave it to me. He said, "You know, I can't even get those, and I play MacGregor." I told him to ask Jack. But Weiskopf was upset the rest of the day.

That's the first time I can recall hearing that Jack's MacGregors were a lot better than everyone else's MacGregors. But it does make sense.