Golf Talk

New swing technology analysis coming to the Golf Channel

It appears the Golf Channel is going high tech for the 2008 season and beyond. Starting in January, the Golf Channel will begin using a software made by Interactive Sports Games that will track a player’s tendencies such as ball-landing coordinates and spin rates. In addition the system will show its viewers visual analyses of a golfer’s tendencies such as ball flight, and side-by-side looks at how different players approach the same hole. It will include multiple views of swings and ball movement. Sounds like CBS Swingvision on steroids to me.

Before they get all freaky on us, maybe the Golf Channel should stick to basics first. Like how about showing tournaments until their end. And how about more live shots and less highlight packages. One of my biggest peeves about watching golf is not being able to see the tournament or at least the leader’s rounds from beginning to end. These two hour segments are just brutal. You can’t get a feel for how a player is playing if you’ve cut in mid-round. The absolute worst is the leaders are heading into the final two holes and then the coverage has abruptly ended for infomercials. Show us the whole match until the end.

As for the new technology here. I think it’s a good idea, but I’d rather see it as a compliment on the Golf Channel website. If I want to see a player’s tendencies, I want to be able to control who I see, what I see and how I see it. I don’t want a cookie-cutter thing that the Golf Channel has selectively chosen to feed me. If I want information, I want all of it.

My final gripe with the Golf Channel, stop subscription services. I’ve never been a fan of subscription content. I don’t consider myself cheap but I don’t pay for content. I feel content should be free. Information shouldn’t only be available to those you have money.

Well, it’s Christmas so I guess I should end my rant there.

Golf Channel

Stenson plays a practice round at Torrey Pines.

It’s never really too early to start talking about the US Open, after all, we are only 171 days, less than half a year away. The site of the 2008 US Open is Torrey Pines, normally a municipal course in sunny San Diego.

Henrik Stenson decided to take a detour last week following the Tiger hosted Target World Challenge which he competed in. Torrey Pines is also host to the Buick Invitational played every year in January, but Stenson already has plans to be in the middle east as part of the European Tour so he decided it would be a good idea to get a round in at Torrey Pines before he comes back in June. It was the first time in ten years that Stenson had payed a green fee and payed for regular range balls, you know the ones with the black stripe. Get this, he was paired for the round with someone named Pamela Anderson, except it was not the same Pam we know, just the same name.

Though Stenson got to get a good round in, the conditions will be dramatically different when the US Open rolls around. If you’ve never been to a PGA Tour event you know that the course is setup way different than it would be if you or I played on it, and that’s just a regular PGA Tour event. The US Open is like a regular PGA Tour event times 100. They always make the pin placements harder, the greens much faster and rough much thicker. I wrote earlier how Steve Marino played with a writer at a local municipal course who managed to finish under par.

Along the same lines, when Tiger said that he thought it would be nearly impossible for a 10 handicap to break a hundred in a US Open setup course will get a chance to see if he is right. At Torrey Pines, six days before the US Open, three celebrities and a Joe Hack will get their opportunity, on TV no less, to see if they can break one hundred. I’m with Tiger on this one, I doubt it will happen.

Henrick Stenson, US Open, Torrey Pines

Michelle says only LPGA in 2008.

After all the flak that has she has been getting over the past year, it appears that Michelle Wie has actually learned from her mistakes and is turning the corner to perhaps living up to the potential that pegged her as the next best thing in women’s golf. Michelle Wie, or her parents, or agent, or swing coach, or whomever is speaking for her these days has acknowledged that Michelle will not be playing with the men in 2008.

I actually think that Michelle and her parents got a lot of pressure from her corporate sponsors to not enter men’s tournaments for 2008 and try to win some tournaments on the Ladies Tour instead. 2007 was a disaster from a public relations standpoint. Lets recap the carnage, Michelle withdrew from the Ginn Classic hosted by Annika, citing her ailing wrist, then was seen practicing early just a day after at the US Open. This caused Annika, lady duke of golf of all people, to publicly call out Michelle for the lack of respect. Not to mention the fact that Michelle was trying to avoid posting a double snowman and thus being kicked off the Tour for one year. Then there were the various disasterous finishes and missed cuts. Just a couple of months ago in October, Michelle finished dead last in a field of 25.

I’m certain that if it was up to Michelle and her overbearing parents, she would be playing with the men in 2008. But when Nike and Sony are paying her upwards of $20 million dollars, it’s clear who holds the upper hand in that relationship. 2007 was so bad, that Michelle’s corporate sponsors cannot afford another disastrous year like that, especially considering the money they are paying her.

Will it make any difference? I’m not certain it will. Michelle’s confidence in golf is so shot at this moment, I’m not sure it will ever recover fully. She’s never been fully in control of her life, it almost seems like losing is her way of defying her parents. It’s a defense mechanism. If she wins, the harder they will push, the more pressure she has to deal with. If she loses, she can always blame an injury, or something else.

Michelle Wie, LPGA

2007 was quite a year for Lorena.

While it was expected that Lorena Ochoa was the obvious choice as the LPGA’s player of the year, but she was once again named the AP’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2007. Lorena achieved all kinds of personal goals in 2007 and overtook Annika Sorenstam as the most dominant player in women’s golf, an unofficial title that Annika held for almost an entire decade.

Recapping the year, Lorena won her first major championship, the Women’s British Open. She topped nearly $4 million in total earnings for 2007 and won a total of 12 times on the LPGA in 2007. But at 26, Lorena hadn’t always looked to be golf’s next Queen of the links. Losing tournaments after leading heading into the final round continued to plague Lorena even through to this year, but Lorena battled all of her demons and has established herself as the best women’s golfer in the world.

As for the other candidates in consideration, there was Justine Henin, New York Marathon winner Paula Radcliffe, Tennessee basketball player Candace Parker and Allyson Felix, the second woman in history to win three gold medals at the World Track and Field Championships.

I guess when you think about it, there really was no competition, Lorena was odds on favorite to take this honor as well. Justine Henin won the French Open but that’s really about it.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was named the AP’s Male Athlete of the Year. Tom is on track to break Peyton Manning’s single season record for touchdowns and en route to an undefeated regular season. Tom edged out Roger Federer of Switzerland.

Lorena Ochoa, LPGA Tour

Boo Weekley is on his way to the 2008 Masters.

Earlier today, tournament officials of the annual Masters Tournament, golf’s first major of the year, announced the 14 special invitees for the 2008 field. The lucky 14 will join the top 50 players up to March 31. The total field is expected to be around 90-96 when all is said and done, just like tournament officials like.

The lucky 14 include, Boo Weekley, Mike Weir, Henrik Stenson, Trevor Immelman, Lee Westwood, Toru Taniguchi, Nick O’Hern, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Shingo Katayama, Robert Karlsson, Richard Sterne, Soren Hansen and Anders Hansen.

Of the four major tournaments, the Masters has the most prestige. It’s the Wimbledon of golf. I read John Feinstein’s book ‘Caddy for life’ and in it, Feinstein describes how there are basically people who think the Masters is the end all be all tournament of the year, and others who are US Open people. I count myself as a US Open guy. To me, the Masters represents all that is elitist and exclusive. The US Open is populist and inclusive. The Masters is stuff corporate types, the old boys network. The US Open is for the regular guy, the everyday golfer.

Anyways, it’s great that Boo Weekley got the invite and will be headed to his first ever Masters tournament. I love his game, his attitude, and his self-made swing. He’s never taken a lesson in his life, but he knows his way around a golf course. He reminds of what it would be like for a hack like you and me to make it to the big time and how we would look and act.

Masters, Boo Weekley, PGA Tour

Mike Weir is a Thompson man now.

As they say, it is all about business. Mike Weir signed a new contract with the Thompson Corporation today to be his title sponsor, ending a 14-year relationship with Bell Canada. While many in Canada are not happy with Mike and feel that he has sold out Bell and by extension Canada, I actually think it was a good move for both Mike and Bell.

Lets face it, Mike isn’t really Canadian anymore anyways. He lives in Utah, has lived there since college which for Mike was more than 15 years ago. His wife isn’t Canadian, and his kids aren’t being raised in Canada. He plays golf on the PGA Tour, an American Association with the majority of his events played in American cities. Heck, Mike probably even has an American passport by now. So this whole notion that Mike sold out Canada is a bunch of bull, Mike is as Canadian as Brett Hull.

As for the deal itself, I think it works for everyone. Bell doesn’t need to spend it’s money trumpeting a player who doesn’t even use it’s product anymore. Mike can sign a much larger deal with an international news conglomerate and trumpet their product and services to the corporate types he plays with in the various pro-ams out there. It really is a win-win for everyone.

The other bonus for Mike is the opportunity to play more games around the world. Thompson is an international company so they will encourage Mike to play more in places like Japan, China, Europe and South America.

So while it is a little bitter sweet to see the 14-year relationship between the Canadian company Bell and Mike come to an end, sometimes it is for the best. As they say, all good things come to an end.

Mike Weir, PGA Tour

Rory disrespects Tiger, yet again.

Tiger is officially back and he’s as strong as ever. After storming into the lead with a round of 62 on Friday, Tiger seized control and never let go until the end. He built his lead to 6 shots after a round of 67 on Saturday. Jim Furyk was the closest with Zach Johnson just behind Furyk heading into Sunday. Today, Tiger put it into cruise control and added 4 more shots to his lead to get to a four round total of 22. Zach Johnson would match Tiger’s four shots to get to 15 under but still 7 shots behind Tiger. The win is the fourth for Tiger at this event.

Another bit of news is the odd withdrawl of Rory Sabbatini who did not cite a specific reason. Hours later, Rory’s agent released an official statement saying that Rory had shin splints and that was the reason why he withdrew. Rory was dead last and 28 shots behind Tiger at the end of the third round. Despite withdrawing, Rory will still collect the $175,000 for participating in the Target World Challenge. Rory is the first player in the 11-year history of the tournament to withdraw.

According to Waggle Room, an anonymous locker room attendant saw Rory clean out his locker Saturday night and overhead Rory say that he was headed for Maui. Tiger officially declined to comment when asked what he thought of the withdrawl, but you can tell he was not pleased at all. Tiger is the tournament host, so in a way, Rory did a dine and dash, a gas and run, whatever you want to call it, he did it.

This is just another example of Rory’s long history of being an idiot. First, there were the “Tiger beatable” comments. Then later on, he said he just didn’t like Tiger, and Tiger went on to pummel him at Bridgestone.

All I can say is, what goes around, comes around.

Tiger Woods, Target World Challenge

Tiger looked good in first action.

Do we have enough tees, balls, do we have fourteen clubs in the bag?? It sure sounded like Tiger was working off a little rust when you hear that kind of exchange between player and caddie. But that was about the only indication that Tiger had been away from the game for the longest he has in his entire professional career.

Tiger was stroking it pretty good holing birdies on hole one and two. He would save par three straight times with putts of six and ten feet. It all looked very good for Tiger in the first round except he had a brain cramp on 18 with a double bogey. It started with a horrible tee shot, then a pulled recovery and the end result was a 6. Still, Tiger finished with a 69 at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks and was just one shot behind first round leader Jim Furyk. Three others are tied with Tiger including Masters champion Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Rory Sabbatini.

As for the leader, Jim Furyk, he hasn’t played since Oct 17 at the Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda, almost as long as Tiger. But he sure didn’t look rusty. Furyk was at his typical best, scratching and clawing his way to the first round lead. Amazingly, Jim has held the first round lead three times at this tournament, but has never won it.

Heading into the weekend, I still like Tiger to pull this out. If it weren’t for an errant tee shot on 18, Tiger would probably have a one or possibly two shot lead heading into Friday.

Tiger Woods, Target World Challenge

Deja Vu, Stricker wins comeback player again.

Yesterday, I wrote about Tiger Woods winning the PGA Tour’s player of the year. At the same time, the PGA announced the winner of their Comeback Player of the Year. The award was given to Steve Stricker. Again. Steve Stricker won the same award in 2006 and it meant a lot to him last year after enduring both personal hardship and battling back from injuries.

By all accounts, it was a good year for Steve Stricker. He won for the first time in six years by claiming The Barclays in September, the first of four Fedex Cup events. Steve finished second overall in the PGA’s inaugural Fedex Cup and fourth in the PGA’s money list rankings.

But, how do you award a trophy called ‘Comeback Player of the Year’ to the same person two years in a row? If you’ve wont he award one year, aren’t you automatically a good player going into the following year? Aren’t you expected to do well the following year? The PGA appears to have given Steve Stricker the trophy for doing what was expected of him, play well. What a complete farce.

In my opinion, they should’ve given the award to Jay Williamson, or Brian Bateman. What about Woody Austin. Those are all guys that had remarkable years after long droughts of mediocrity. Steve Stricker was supposed to have a good season, he was the second round leader at Winged Foot at the 2006 US Open and finished sixth and finished seventh at the PGA Championship in 2006.

It continues to amaze me about the incompetence of Tim Finchem and the PGA. Next to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Tim Finchem has got to be the biggest dufus in any of the major professional sports.

Steve Stricker, PGA Tour

Tiger wins the PGA Player of the Year again.

The Tiger Woods news keeps on rolling. Just one day before Tiger returns to action after a 2.5 month hiatus, the PGA announces that Tiger was voted as the PGA Tour player of the year for 2007. No surprise there. This the ninth time Tiger has won the award, just shy of his 32nd birthday.

What a year it was for Tiger. He won his 13th major, the PGA Championship at the end of the season. He also finished second at both the Masters and US Open tournaments. He won the inaugural Fedex Cup, or PGA playoffs by winning the final two Fedex Cup events collecting a cool $10 million deferred in the process. He finished with the lowest scoring average for all Tour players, or the Vardon Trophy as they call it. He led the PGA Tour’s money list. On and on it goes.

Most remarkable about the year that Tiger had perhaps was that he did it with a scaled down schedule, to accomodate the birth of his baby girl, Sam Alexis. Imagine the year Tiger would’ve had if he won even just one of those two runner up finishes in Majors and played more than 20 events.

Golf.com points out that not all was rosy for Tiger this year. There were those 2 aforementioned losses in Majors. At the British Open, he had one of his worst performances. Then late in the year Tiger lost to Phil Mickelson at the Deustche Bank. And finally, Mike Weir beat Tiger straight up in the final day of President’s Cup play, though Team USA did win easily overall.

I think Tiger can live with those mulligans, and with all the distractions behind him, 2008 should be yet another year of the Tiger.

Tiger Woods, PGA Tour

Tiger looking forward to kicking butt again.

He’s back… Tiger ends his longest hiatus in his entire 10 year plus career, a 2.5 month getaway to enjoy his wife, Elin and new baby Sam. Tiger will be welcoming over a dozen of the top golfers in the world to compete in The Target World Challenge in Thousand Oaks California starting on Thursday. The 16 player field is an invite only tournament and all 16 players are basically your elite golfers.

Along with host, Tiger, there will be world number 3 Jim Furyk, world number 4 Steve Stricker, world number 8 Padraig Harrington and world number 10 Vijay Singh. Other notables include the loud-mouthed South African Rory Sabbatini, Masters champion Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald, Niclas Fasth, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Brett Wetterich, Mark Calcavecchia, Colin Montgomerie and Fred Couples.

With regards to playing for the first time since September, Tiger wrote on his website that he is excited to get back to the golf course and defend his title. He goes on to say that this is the ninth year of The Target World Challenge, and that he’s thrilled at the opportunity to raise funds and awareness for the kids that the Tiger Woods Foundation supports. The winner will receive a whopping $1.35 million. If Tiger wins he always gives his prize money right back to the Tiger Woods foundation. Each participant will receive at least $170,000 for participating (wow, imagine that, $175,000 for just showing up, I’m in the wrong business).

Coverage will be on the Golf Channel on Thursday/Friday and NBC on the weekend.

Tiger Woods, Target World Challenge

Ernie unable to close the deal, a sign of things to come?

It may be December, but some of the world’s best golfers are still working it late in the year, trying to earn some cash and gear up for next year, both the men and the ladies.

Lets start in South Africa, where Ernie Els was trying to win in his native South Africa at the Dunhill Championship (where tobacco companies can still sponsor events) but ended up looking like Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot. Els had a 2-shot lead heading into the final round and a 2-shot lead with just the 18th hole left to play. A triple bogey later, Ernie was shaking the hand of some guy named John Bickerton. Two of Ernie’s balls got wet en route to that fateful triple bogey.

Peter Lonard made it a lucky three by winning the Australian PGA title on Sunday. Lonard won the Australian PGA title in 2002 and 2004. It hasn’t been a very positive year for Lonard overall, with almost no top tens and several missed cuts all year, the win here is a positive bit of reinforcement heading into next season. Rory Sabbatini looked like had this one in the bag after co-leading the third round with American Jason Gore, but Sabbatini couldn’t close it out in the final round. Fellow Australian, Adam Scott was never really in contention.

In a competition that looks like the Solheim Cup, except this time it’s Asia vs. everyone else, Team Asia closed out the last day of competition 15-9 to claim back-to-back Lexus Cup titles over Team International. Korean Se Ri Pak captained team Asia to the win, but was sidelined herself due to shoulder pain. Annika Sorenstam captained the international team that featured young stars in Morgan Pressel, Maria Hjorth, and Brittany Lincicome. South Koreans Jee Young Lee, Seon Hwa Lee and In-Kyung Kim keyed early wins to build an insurmountable lead heading into the afternoon matches.

Ernie Els, Peter Lonard.

Elin Nordegren wins her lawsuit over fake nude photos.

Tiger and his wife Elin Woods scored a major victory, this time it was in court and not on the course. While the Ryder Cup was being played in Ireland last year, an Irish magazine called the Dubliner published an article and accompanying photo of a supposed nude Elin Nordegren. Except that it was Elin Nordegren at all. Elin, a former model, has not been photographed nude anywhere at anytime. Elin sued the magazine and today the magazine admitted guilt and agreed to pay around $180,000 in damages. Tiger and Elin have agreed to donate all the proceeds to breast cancer research.

Good on Tiger and Elin, I don’t think there is anyplace for that. The worst part of it was that the pictures weren’t even of Elin. If they were at least real, legit nude photos of Elin, you couldn’t accuse the magazine of fraud, just bad taste. Because the pictures were of someone else that the magazine claimed was Elin, they were fraudulent. People bought the magazine thinking they were seeing pictures of a nude Elin but instead got duped and got nude pictures of a look a like.

As for getting a voyeur shot of Elin naked, I think that’s nearly impossible. The way Tiger and Elin live in their barricaded premises in Florida, you’d probably get shot before getting closer the one kilometer of the Woods’ residence.

I think that was one of the reasons why Tiger and his wife decided to release photos of baby Sam on their website very early on. The only way to really combat these paparazzi photographers is to release your own photos. You decide which photos get released to satisfy the public’s desire to see you. The more you try to hide and not show yourself, the more they want to take your picture.

Tiger Woods, Elin Nordegren

Michelle Wie is once again the richest woman in golf.

What would a month be without the obligatory Michelle Wie news insert. A report from Forbes Magazine states that Michelle Wie made the top 20 richest people in the world under 25. Michelle comes in at number four, with a cool $19 million. Michelle was barely beaten by tennis superstar Maria Sharapova.

Obviously, all $19 million dollars came from her endorsements as Michelle not only did not win a single tournament this season, struggled to finish most tournaments or make the cut. Chief among Michelle’s sponsors include NIKE and Sony. If I am any of her sponsors, I can’t be happy right now with the way Michelle has played. After shelling out millions of dollars, they have barely anything to show for. What does the Michelle Wie brand have to offer that is worth any value at all? She quits, she lies, and she generally is a crybaby. Those are great values to promote, that is a brand I want my product on. The face of Michelle Wie is NIKE and Sony, companies that quit when things go bad, lie to their customers, and complain to anyone who would listen.

You can easily see why all the other ladies on tour resent Michelle. She is by far the richest person playing on the LPGA and she has earned exactly none of it. There are ladies out there that are going gangbusters trying to secure enough money so they can eat and sleep in a bed and probably have just as much ability as Michelle. The money is out there, but it’s being spent in all the wrong places. Then you have the veterans, like Annika Sorenstam who have paved the way for players like Michelle. It probably took Annika 10 or 15 years to make as much money as Michelle has made in one year, and yet Michelle walks around as if she can do whatever the hell she wants to.

Michelle may have all the money, but she’ll never have the respect until she starts to prove it on the course.

Michelle Wie

Tiger likes to change his clubs regularly.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Tiger Woods is considering changes to which clubs are in his bag. In an interview with a Florida newspaper, Tiger said he usually changes his irons every 9-10 months. Tiger went on to say that wedges and 8-irons take a lot of pounding so he changes them even more often. The only thing that Tiger has not changed is his putter. Tiger has used the same putter since 1999.

We know that Tiger has flip-flopped drivers. First with his Titlelist driver, moving to a NIKE driver (his title sponsor), then moving back to the Titlelist (much to the chagrin of NIKE Golf executives). Tiger has not been shy to shed a club despite his sponsorship deals in order to find the perfect fit. Tiger said in the past he has used a 2-iron in his 20s after using a 1-iron in his teen years.

Myself, I used to change clubs about once every two years. First it was just to get with the latest technology, whether that was hybrids, or graphite shafts, etc… But as my swing as settled in the past three years or so, I’ve stuck with the same set of clubs. I just think that once you’ve settled into a swing, the clubs you are using are very much a part of that swing. When you change clubs, inevitably you have to adjust your swing to the different weight, length and grip of the new club. Now, you can get clubs that exactly the same weight, length and grip, but a different club will still feel different. About the only thing that I change on a regular basis nowadays is the ball. I haven’t found one particular one yet that I think is far better than others, I’ve used Titlelist, NIKE, Top Flite, Mizuno and more. The one big difference is to make sure you use new balls each round, once you’ve used a ball for the majority of a round, the ridges have been worn off and so you don’t get the same spin with a well-used ball.

Tiger Woods