Golf Talk

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

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

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

Tommy “Two-Gloves” is now living the dream.

Twenty five lucky souls made it through the biggest test in golf, Q School, and have earned their PGA tour cards for the 2008 season. Congratulations to,

Frank Lickliter II
Brett Rumford
Chris Stroud
Jin Park
Jason Allred
Yong-Eun Yang
Tag Ridings
Todd Demsey
Brad Adamonis
Travis Perkins
Parker McLachlin
Kent Jones
Cody Freeman
Kenneth Ferrie
Tim Wilkinson
Kevin Streelman
Dustin Johnson
Duffy Waldorf
Richard S. Johnson
Jim McGovern
Carlos Franco
Tommy Gainey
Bob Sowards
John Merrick
Alejandro Canizares
David Lutterus

One name you’ll notice right away is Tommy Gainey. Yes, that is indeed, Tommy “Two-gloves” Gainey from the Big Break. I wrote about Tommy Two-Gloves before and I just think he’s a down to earth good guy and well-deserving of making it to the big tour. Tommy has the unorthodox grip that has no overlap between hands and therefore he uses two gloves, hence the name, Tommy Two-Gloves.

Frank Lickliter led for most of the rounds, and he led all they way. Other familiar faces include Duffy Waldorf, Carlos Franco, Jim McGovern. Dustin Johnson is supposed to have tremendous upside given his collegiate success. Notable players that missed include Bob May, Bubba Dickerson, Harrison Frazar and Skip Kendall.

It really is the toughest test in golf, this and the Amateur PGA Championship. And most of it more mental than anything. It’s a grueling endurance test that takes you to the limit to see exactly what you’re made of.

Surprisingly though, graduates of the Nationwide Tour on average have more success on the PGA Tour than qualifiers that go through Q School.

Q School, Tommy two gloves Gainey

Rich Beem trying to stay on the big boy tour.

With December almost near, that can only mean one thing for a hundred or so golfers around the country, Q School. The final stage of Q School starts this Wednesday with a total of 166 golfers taking in 108 holes of golf. Q School is the mandatory qualifying tournament in order to earn a Tour Card for the upcoming PGA Tour season. Most of the players are people you’ve never heard of, but still, us golf fans can’t get enough of the grueling and heart breaking drama of Q School. They’ve already gone through the first two stages that have weeded out over a thousand aspiring professionals and the final stage represents the last 166 seeking just 30 spots on the Tour. This final stage as mentioned will be 108 holes in six days.

Q School represents the epitome of competitive golf. Where every single shot means so much. Where one missed putt could be the difference between playing on the PGA Tour and working the local golf club. You’ll see frustration, exhaustion, elation, heart break, often in the same round for each player. Imagine your boss coming to you and saying that we’re going to have a competition to see who can sell the most widgets, the top 3 of you get to keep your job, the rest of you are out. Now that’s pressure.

A couple of big names will be trying to avoid disaster by earning their tour card, Rich Beem is one of them. I posted earlier how Shigeki Maruyama did just enough to keep his card. All I can say is that it’s going to be one heck of a week for these guys.

Q School

Freddie loves the Skins Game.

Believe it or not, there are still some guys out there playing so we’ll take a look at some the miscellaneous tournaments happening around the globe.

We’ll start in China, where Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren of Scotland notched its first win in the World Cup of Golf beating Americans Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum on Sunday. The Scottish pair won with a par on the third hole of a playoff at the Mission Hills Golf Club in the city of Shenzhen. Because of the tournament being held in the winter, it’s attraction with the best players in the world has dwindled over the years and what used to be a pretty high profile event barely registers now. Too bad, I read that back in the day, it was actually referred to as the Canada Cup of golf.

Right now on ESPN, they are showing the skins game. This year’s edition features perennial favorite Fred Couples followed by Stephen Ames, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich. Though, the golf isn’t all that exciting to watch, the money involved is absolutely ridiculous. Freddie has won more in the skins game than he has in all the major championships he’s competed in combined. Can you imagine that, and Fred has been in and more importantly won a major championship including the Masters in 1992. Freddie is the undisputed king of the skins game and he always plays in it every year.

Hometown boy, Aaron Baddeley defeated Daniel Chopra of Sweden to win the Australian Masters on Sunday. Baddeley saved par on the fourth hole of a playoff after hitting his tee shot into the trees to secure the win. Nothing against Daniel Chopra, but it’s good to see the hometown player and a guy as good as Baddeley to win in his own backyard.

Fred Couples, skins game, world cup of golf, australian masters

John Daly at this year’s US Open, a troubled soul.

John Daly continues to make news despite not being in the top 100 on the world ranking. First off, AOL Fanhouse has a great post about Daly’s latest money-making scheme, a golf instructional book. In it, Daly attempts to give tips that have helped him win the British Open Championship and PGA Championship major tournaments. Such interesting tidbits that include preparing for his British Open Championship-winning final round at St Andrews in 1995 by eating ten chocolate croissants, or claiming he can go through twenty packets of M&Ms in a round and was once disqualified from a junior tournament for having a bottle of Jack Daniels in his bag.

As for his actual golf game, Golf Digest is reporting that John Daly is seeking swing instruction from swing guru Butch Harmon. You’ll remember that Butch Harmon was the one that people have credited with helping Phil Mickelson earlier in the year capturing the Players Championship shortly after. Butch Harmon is also the man who used to coach Tiger Woods when he had his Tiger slam and is the long-time coach to Natalie Gulbis helping her win her first LPGA event this year at the Evian Masters.

So what exactly can Butch Harmon do for John Daly?? Well, not really anything at all I’m afraid. You see, there’s nothing wrong with John Daly’s swing. In fact, Tiger Woods has even said that John Daly has more god-given golf talent than anyone else. He just has to practice and become more disciplined. I don’t see how Butch Harmon is going to do that for John. What John really needs is a shrink and a marriage counselor. He needs someone that can peel the layers of a fragile psyche and build up his confidence in himself as a person. Once John has faced his fears face on, he can return to the game which he was born for.

John Daly, Butch Harmon