Golf Talk

The first one is always the sweetest.

The weather wreaked havoc all week, but in the end, a first-time winner and an old veteran walked away all smiles on Monday. Daniel Chopra of Sweden picked up the $810,000 cheque for first-place beating Shigeki Maruyama and Frederick Jacobsen by 1-shot with a 19-under total over 72 holes. Chopra is the twelfth first-time winner on the Tour this year, many of those coming in the fall series and pre-season.

It was hard to tell who was happier, Chopra or Maruyama. The second place finish for Maruyama ensures his PGA Tour card for next year and you could tell that was more than a consolation for coming in second. After reading John Feinstein’s book, Tales from Inside Q School, gaining your Tour card and bypassing that grueling experience must feel like heaven. Maruyama used to be a regular on leaderboards and a perennial top 50 player, but this past season has been his toughest to date. According to Maruyama, it was “the most difficult year in eight years” and that he was “really happy” to have qualified for next year.

Back to the champion, Daniel Chopra. The swede, with Indian heritage, was one of those journeymen who seemed to have played on every tour on the face of the earth. The Nationwide, European Tour, Asian Tour, Chopra has done all of them waiting for his breakthrough. Well, he has that now with his first PGA Tour win. Chopra has played well this year with 3 top 10s and making more than half of the cuts he entered this year, it was really a matter of time before Chopra broke through.

After posting about John Daly earlier in the week, his story got even more bizarre after he withdrew on Sunday for no apparent reason. His withdrawal came after a quad-bogey, mix in the bad weather and it’s easy to see what happened there.

The PGA Tour heads to it’s final stop in the fall series starting on Thursday at the Children’s Miracle Network Classic played at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista (FL).

PGA Tour, Ginn sur Mer Classic, Daniel Chopra, Shigeki Maruyama

Pepper popping off again, this time about Michelle Wie’s parents.

Seems to be the popular thing to do these days as a golf commentator. Both Nick Faldo and Dottie Pepper decided to take their shots at Colin Montgomerie and Michelle Wie respectively this past week. None provided any real revelation, but still, it was amusing to watch these has-beens run their mouths. Both Nick and Dottie have been known to be brutally honest, Dottie most recently with her Chocking Freakin’ Dogs statement at the Solheim Cup.

Lets start with good old Nick. Jolly old Nick in answering questions with the media as the 2008 Ryder Cup captain said that Colin Montgomerie was too emotional and that he’s looking for great putters, of which Monty apparently isn’t. We all know that Monty wears his emotions on his sleeve, but for Nick to openly call him out on it and single his emotion as the single reason why he won’t be picking Monty is a little far-reaching. Monty has been a great Ryder Cup player in the past, and why you wouldn’t choose him should he stay in the top 50 players is beyond me (I’m fully aware of the fact that Monty has slipped to the low 70’s in the world right now). Anyways, I don’t think you discard someone just because they play with emotion, I actually think it’s the opposite, in that kind of pressure-charged environment, you definitely want someone who plays with emotion.

As for Dottie Pepper?? Her proclamation that Michelle Wie’s parents are evil and destroying her life are hardly new developments, talk about stating the obvious. Just how this story plays out is still to be determined, but it’s not looking good so far. Let’s just hope Michelle doesn’t end up like Britney Spears.

Dottie Pepper, Nick Faldo, Michelle Wie, Colin Montgomerie

Nobody hotter in golf than Suzann Pettersen.

In a who is hot and who is not segment, Suzann Pettersen of Norway is red hot with a dominating seven shot lead heading into the final round at the LPGA Honda Thailand Open played at both the Siam Country Club and the Pattaya Old Course. Pettersen is at 20-under and seven shots ahead of England’s Laura Davies and two shots ahead of Paula Creamer. Pettersen is coming off back to back wins at the LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge then the LPGA Korean Open last week. Pettersen has erased all doubts of her early season struggles and has firmly established herself as the second best female golfer in the world behind Lorena Ochoa.

Meanwhile, John Daly, big JD is as far from hot as you could get. After an up but mostly down year, Daly got news that he has been denied a sponsor’s exempt for the final leg of the fall series taking place next week, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at the Disney courses near Orlando. Instead the exemptions went to Lee Janzen, Duffy Waldorf, Jay Williamson and Tadd Fujikawa. This is a bit of a shock given that Daly remains one of the golf’s biggest draws with his incredible ball-striking ability and likable character. Daly was especially surprised given that Wal-Mart is a big sponsor of the event and both Daly and Wal-Mart call Arkansas their native home.

Daly is currently competing at the Ginn sur Mer Classic and made a birdie on the final hole of the second round to make the cut, something that hasn’t happened with regularity for Daly this season.

PGA Tour, Suzann Pettersen, John Daly

This is a good drill to make sure that you are not holding your club face open at impact. You want to make sure that you release your hands through impact so that you get power through the shot and that your club face is on the right angle on impact. I see a lot of people hit balls at the range and the ball starts out straight but does a banana cut. This is a classic over the top move that is causing the ball to banana cut among other faults.

The basics of the drill is to practice hitting a ball about one foot in front of where your ball would normally be placed at address. This does a couple of things, first if you hit the ball in this position, the expected outcome would be a duck hook or snap hook to the left. But what many slicers end up doing is toping the ball or miss it altogether.

Another great thing about this drill is that helps with the weight shift. Again, if you have a reverse pivot or if your shoulders and arms are way too ahead of your body, you won’t hit the ball properly with this release drill. The weight shift is critical to ensuring your hips are out in front and that your body is in front of your arms and hands. A lot of people don’t fully extend their arms when they swing through as a result. This release drill will help you get the feeling of rolling your arms through impact and hitting through the shot as opposed to chopping at the ball.

release drill, golf tips

Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t do it.

The PGA fall series continues this week with the Ginn sur Mer Classic at the Tesoro Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Again, none of the big names are here. Phil Mickelson played last week only because his sponsor required him to, and didn’t play like he cared missing the cut. Mike Weir took his trophy and drove home back to Utah after winning last week. So, who’s left you ask?? Plenty.

First off, Mark Calcavecchia will be playing as will Justin Leonard just to name a couple. Justin got back in win column winning the Texas open just a few weeks ago and Mark has played solidly all year starting with the first event of the year back in January. Other top candidates include Sean O’Hair who has been magnificent of late, coming just short of winning. Carl Pettersson has shown flashes of his Memorial win from last year. Finally a couple of other guys like Steve Flesch and Heath Slocum could sneak up and end up with a win.

A couple of other names to keep an eye on, Kevin Na and Ryuji Imada. Both are young and inexperienced but have the game to become first-time winners here this week.

And what about Jay Williamson, they guy who took Hunter Mahan to a playoff earlier in the year and also fired his caddy mid-round a week later. He’s a guy that is playing with a lot of confidence and could certainly make a move this week considering the weaker field.

I think the players are just glad they aren’t playing in California right now. Despite the fires, the Nationwide Tour events will go on. As they say, the show must go on…

PGA Tour, Ginn sur Mer Classic, Mark Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard

Sean sure has a heckuvalot to smile about these days.

Sean O’Hair has been in the news alot these days, especially with the fantastic year he has had on tour. Notwithstanding the gaff on 17 in the Player’s Championship that ultimately gave the trophy over to Phil Mickelson, Sean has come a long, and I mean long way from the troubling childhood he once endured.

By now, most people know Sean’s story, chronicled in painful detail in a 60 minutes segment. Sean’s father Marc O’Hair saw his little boy as an investment, a business venture. He trained his boy to be a golf machine with the hope that Sean would eventually pay big dividends. In many ways, Marc took the Tiger model and took it up a notch. You see, Marc was a smart businessman, and like any smart businessman he sought to maximize labor, minimize overhead, and hope that he could turn his boy into a money-making boon. Except Sean wasn’t buying it. Enough was enough and in 2003, Sean got the courage (with help from his then girlfriend and now wife Jaclyn) to go it alone. It must’ve been terrifying for Sean, a kid that was essentially jailed by his father without a clue about how to live in the real world. But he got it together and now has everything he could ever ask for. There’s just one thing, Marc made him sign a contract stating that Marc was entitled to 10% of all future earnings.

Sadly, this same terrible story seems to be playing out in many families all over the country and indeed the world. And it’s not just in golf, but its in every sport. Parents living their lives through their kids. I look at someone like Michelle Wie or Tadd Fujikawa and I am just saddened by the pressure that everyone has placed on these teenagers. I mean, when I was 16, I was out skateboarding and playing video games. Going pro and making tons of money was the last thing on my mind.

In any case, congrats go to Sean O’Hair for having a terrific season and if anyone deserves to win a major, it certainly couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

PGA Tour, Sean O’Hair

If you have never used a laser rangefinder on the course to measure distance to the pin on the fairway, you are really missing out. I don’t personally own one, but I use a friends Bushnell on occasion and it is fantastic. A laser rangefinder is an electronic instrument that measures distance using a laser. It calculates distances to any target you point it at. According to Bushnell, it’s 1500 model is supposed to be accurate up to one yard. Distances are displayed instantly through the LCD display while peering through the lens.

Before you start going off on the dangers of laser, these new rangefinders use an invisible laser which is completely safe and won’t blind anyone. You basically look through the lens, find a target, push the button and the distance will be displayed. The way it works is the rangefinder calculates the time it takes for the laser to bounce off the distant object and return to the rangefinder.

I really like them because I feel it’s too complicated to figure out the course landmarks and color of flags to exactly calculate the yard from ball to pin. Plus, when you peer through the rangefinder, you often can see how the green is sloped and how the greenside bunkers are setup. Once you start using a rangefinder, you’ll find it extremely difficult to switch back to the old way, it almost seems like you are golfing blind without the rangefinder. Perhaps Phil Mickleson should’ve used one last week.

Just how much will one of these babies run you? The Bushnell Yardage Pro Golf Pinseeker 1500 Laser Rangefinder retails for a cool $575.

Bushnell 1500 Rangefinder

Weir finds his groove.

After three-and-a-half years, Mike Weir got a big monkey off his back by capturing the Frys Electronic Open at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Canadian won in the same way he has always done, coming back from behind. Coming from 4-shots behind, Mike Weir shot a 2-under 68 in his final round beating Mark Hensby by one shot.

For Weir, the year could not have finished any sweeter. After carrying that three-and-half-year burden of not winning for the past several years, Mike Weir had a career defining win beating Tiger Woods at Royal Montreal last month at the President’s Cup. Though the International Team ultimately lost, Weir carried that confidence over to the last few fall tournament events culminating in the win on Sunday.

As for the rest of the contenders, Mark Hensby was second, Billy Mayfair came third, while third-round leader Carl Pettersson and Sean O’Hair tied for fourth. The turning point came on the 15th hole when Weir sunk a birdie putt to stay ahead of Hensby. Meanwhile, Sean O’Hair made a charge on the 16th tying Weir for the lead briefly before giving it all back on the 17th with the double-bogey.

I’m from Canada, so the win for Weir is fulfilling. With the win, Weir ties George Knudson for the all-time PGA victories record for a Canadian. In a country where there are diehard golf fans, but few to cheer for, Weir has been nothing short of a Canadian icon. Could this signal his return to his form in 2003 when he won the Masters? I certainly hope so, Mike isn’t the biggest hitter on tour, but he’s a master with the irons and can really shape shots, very much like a David Toms.

PGA Tour, Frys Electronics, Mike Weir

Phil can’t seem to keep his eyes open for this one.

The former US Amateur champion, Ryan Moore, shot a blistering 63 yesterday to take the lead heading into today’s round at the Frys.com open. Meanwhile, the biggest name in the field this week, Phil Mickelson struggled to find any consistency and wound up with a 71 for a 1-over total and missed the cut.

Ryan Moore is from the Seattle-area, so he’s a familiar name around my parts. After having surgery to repair his left hand last year, he has struggled with his shot making. But Moore made a slight swing change a week ago and it appears that he has it going on again. Despite the hand problems, Moore had a decent year going. Three runner up finishes and a possible win this week would go a long way to establishing himself as a possible major championship contender come April.

Other contenders include Mark Hensby, Ben Crane, and Daisuke Maruyama all at 8-under. Mike Weir is at 7-under. With a full 3-shot lead, I think Ryan holds them off and takes this by Sunday, though stranger things have happened.

As for Phil Mickelson, what else can you expect? Phil hadn’t played in almost a month (who knows what he was doing during his time off) and just really hasn’t been in any competition since. In fact, at the President’s Cup, Phil’s last competitive golf activity, Phil appeared to be more interested in Ping Pong than actually playing to win.

Joining Phil for early exists include John Daly, Aaron Baddeley and David Duval.

PGA Tour, Frys.com, Ryan Moore, Phil Mickelson

Who would’ve though a penguin could hit the ball so hard.

As I had predicted, the big-hitting Angel Cabrera of Argentina beat Irishman Padraig Harrington to claim the Grand Slam of Golf played at the Mid-Ocean Club in Bermuda. With his signature booming drives, Cabrera was both in trouble and ahead of his competition often all at the same time. Cabrera had to come from behind after a triple bogey to start the round to finishi with a birdie, eagle finish to force a playoff with Harrington. They would go three holes before Cabrera pulled away for good. Harrington seemed at a loss for words in closing having led almost the entire way. The playoff was just the third such playoff to decide the winner in the event’s twenty-five year history with Tiger Woods beating Vijay Singh in 2000.

And while the bloggers and sports writers have openly joked at the hilarity of the whole Grand Slam business, the four competitors have treated it as no laughing matter. Harrington had this to say after losing, “I wasn’t happy with any part of my game, I worked really hard to keep myself in that position to stay in front. It’s a lot easier course when you’re chasing rather than leading out there. I was beaten by a birdie-eagle. It was a great finish by Angel.”

The choice of venue still has many shaking their heads. The matches were played well in advance and shown on TV on tape delay. The crowds appeared to be decent, but it seems as if the whole town was there. One has to wonder if they will change the venue back to Poipu Bay in Hawaii for 2008.

PGA Tour, Grand Slam of golf, Angel Cabrera, Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk

Now you can drink Tiger in a Gatorade bottle.

In a year of firsts, first-time father, first-time course designer, and now first-time to be named after a drink. Not that this makes any bit of sense, but Gatorade will begin marketing a brand new drink called the “Gatorade Tiger” as early as March of 2008. Tiger is the first athlete to have a drink named after him. The drink will be available in a cherry blend, citrus blend and grape. The “Gatorade Tiger” brand is supposed to be just the first of many line of Tiger brands with the Gatorade line in the coming years. This is all part of the endorsement Tiger has with Gatorade that will see them pay him close to $100 million over five years.

According to Tiger’s agent, Mark Steinberg, the beverage endorsement came down to Gatorade which is a subsidiary of Pepsi Co. and Vitamin Water. With the backing of Pepsi, it’s easy how Gatorade won out. Tiger started drinking Gatorade out on the course a few months ago in the summer when many speculated that an endorsement deal with Gatorade was on. Tiger says he likes drinking Gatorade and has made it a part of his training and on course regiment.

As part of the partnership, Gatorade released video of Tiger under going sweat analysis testing with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, testing such things as his sweat rate and energy needs during exercise. What they plan to do with that analysis beats the heck out of me. Maybe they wanted to collect bottles of his sweat and sell it on eBay.

Personally, I like Gatorade. I like to drink it while I’m out on the course as well. It keeps my energy level up all the way through a full round. Some guys I know bring like 2 or 3 bottles with them. I think that is a little excessive as all the extra energy will turn into fat.

LPGA Tour, Samsung, Ernie Els, George McNeill

Tiger will watch this one on TV like the rest of us.

Every year, the PGA Tour gathers all the four major champions from the four majors, The Masters, The US Open, The British Open and the PGA Championship to play a mini-tournament to see who is the champion among champions. Zach Johnson, Angel Cabrera, Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk are the contestants. Now if you’re wondering why Jim is there, it’s because Tiger Woods, the PGA Championship winner declined to go. Jim was the top alternate selected based on select criteria on his performance throughout the year.

First off, on Tiger’s absence, I don’t think it’s a big deal. Tiger had informed the PGA of his absence well in advance, in fact as soon as he won the PGA Championship in August he said he wasn’t going to attend the Grand Slam. Tiger released a statement saying, “I haven’t spent as much time at home as I would have liked.” Given that he is a new dad, has had a pretty crazy schedule including hosting the AT&T National earlier in the summer, I think we give him a mulligan here. If this was any other year, I think it would be a cop out.

As for the field, they’re all new to this event, none has won a major before this year, except alternate Jim Furyk. But even the course and location have been changed for this year. They’ve moved from Poipu Bay in Hawaii to the Mid-Ocean Club in Bermuda. I n my opinion, it’s a bad move. I mean, who the heck is going to be in Bermuda to watch this thing? At least in Hawaii, you’ll get tons more exposure. Of all four players, I think Angel Cabrera has played recently and played decently. Zach Johnson hasn’t done anything since the early summer, Padraig Harrington was a one-trick pony with the British Open and Jim Furyk hasn’t been the same since injuring his back.

PGA Tour, Grand Slam of golf, Zach Johnson, Angel Cabrera, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk

The PGA Tour sure has its perks.

It was actually a pretty busy weekend in golf in case you missed it. Lorena Ochoa wraps up another win besting the small field of twenty to take the Samsung. Ernie Els won his seventh World Match Play Championship. Finally, a rookie, George McNeill wins the Frys.com or better known as Las Vegas Open on Sunday.

First up, the Samsung. Lorena Ochoa continued her dominance on the LPGA Tour by winning with a 6-under 66 in her final round, 4-shots clear of second place, Mi Hyun Kim. With the win, Lorena clinches back to back Player of the Year honors. Is there any doubt now that Lorena has springboarded herself to the top of the totem pole? Does anyone really think Annika can come back to her pre-injury form to challenge Lorena? At 25, Lorena has at least 10 years of peak performance to look foward to. There are some good challengers from the US and Korea, but I think week in and week out, Lorena is far ahead of any of her competitors right now.

Ernie Els wins the World Match Play Championship beating Angel Cabrera 6 to 4. The best part of the story was Ernie rushing back to his private jet to catch the Rugby World Cup match between South Africa and Argentina. How much of a coincidence is that, both players from both countries happen to face each other while their mates from the same countries duke it out in Rugby.

Rookie, George McNeill, won his first PGA Tour event on Sunday winning the Frys.com Las Vegas Open. The story is always the same, rookie wins, glad to not go through Q school. Not to mention the nice $720,000 cheque. George, don’t blow it all on one hand of roulette.

Finally, what would a post be without a mandatory Michelle Wie bashing. Apparently, her agent, Greg Nared has left his job. I guess attempting to run interference for the worst parents in sports history was too much despite the fat commission cheques. Oh well, Michelle and Co. will find some other lacky to abuse. Good night now…

LPGA Tour, Samsung, Ernie Els, George McNeill

One of the players making a move today at the Las Vegas Open, or now called the Frys.com Open, is Kevin Na who is currently at 4-under through 7 holes and 3-shots behind the leader overall at 10-under for 2 and a half rounds. Na is one of those young up and comers and he’s done pretty well so far this year including being in contention at the Colonial earlier in the year. He has one of those incredibly athletic swings that is worth looking at.

The clip here is from the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May of this year. Kevin is hitting driver off the tee in this swing vision slow motion clip. His setup is very “classical” as Nick Faldo says in the clip, medium grip. As he takes the club back, it’s in the perfect classical swing plane with perfect wrist cock. As he takes it all the way up, couple of things to note. His head is absolutely still. Most people do a little head movement to the right (or left if you are a lefty) to tuck your shoulder underneath. Kevin is able to flex his shoulder underneath without moving his head whatsoever. Also, you’ll note that his arms aren’t as high as you’ll see other players take it, so it’s very much a flatter swing, thus allowing him to tuck his shoulder underneath his head easier.

On his downswing, he maintains his swing plane beautifully and gets his hips out in front. He keeps his arms in front of his body without letting them release until the impact. His follow-through is balanced and he takes the club all the way through.

Kevin Na, swing vision, golf tips

Rough tournament, rough year for Michelle.

The controversy surrounding Michelle Wie continues to stir after another dreadful round on the course on Thursday. The same day as her eighteenth birthday, Michelle shot a 7-over 79, 3 shots worse than Bettina Hauert and good for last place. Granted there are only twenty competitors in the field, but Michelle is taking her game to the next level, the wrong way.

Earlier in the week, Michelle made the comment that, “The only thing that I would do differently (is) I wouldn’t have played this year. It’s as simple as that. The only thing that I did wrong this year is that I did not take my injuries as seriously as I should have.” Yet, after Annika Sorenstam turned down the exemption this week to play, Wie jumped at the opportunity to play here saying, “I just feel like a cleaner, healthier person.” Well after her first round debacle, and her second round isn’t looking too pretty right now either, Michelle can’t even take her own advice. She says she regrets playing at all this year, but she takes the sponsor exempt and continues to play. How can you sympathize with her situation? She has done this too herself. Some may say I’m being harsh, but it’s the truth.

It’s a good thing Michelle is going to college, because it doesn’t appear the golf gig is turning out so good. She seems to be taking in the classes pretty well, we’ll see how well she gets through exam week, or maybe she’ll weasel her way out of it and cry home back to daddy.

LPGA Tour, Longs Drugs Challenge, Suzann Pettersen, Lorena Ochoa