How many majors will Tiger win in 2008?

Lets prognosticate on what to look forward to in the world of golf for 2008.

The PGA Tour:

Everyone is jumping on the Tiger bandwagon for 2008 and I see no reason not to either. He came close to winning 3 majors in 2007, ended up with just 1, but had distractions like the birth of his first child. I see Tiger at least a 2:1 odds against the field in every single tournament he enters. I especially look forward to any matchup where Tiger can pummel Rory ‘motormouth’ Sabbatini.

Others that I see having a strong year, I see Ernie Els making a major comeback, possibly winning a major in 2008, you can see that he’s close to his pre-injury form. I like Nationwide Tour graduate Nick Flanagan to make some noise in 2008, and possibly one of the younger guys like Camilo Villegas, Anthony Kim or Kevin Na with a strong year.

Surprises, I think Phil will continue to have an up and mostly down year. He’s just been wildly inconsistent the past little while and the Butch Harmon swing changes have been mixed in my opinion. Sergio will still be close but not win.

The LPGA Tour:

The biggest question mark heading into 2008 in my opinion is how well Annika Sorenstam plays. She never really returned to form in 2007 and had the back injury as a fallback for her problems. But her struggles appear much deeper than that. Her putting was terrible last year, first time in a long time she’s struggled so badly with the flat stick, can you say ‘the yips’? If she doesn’t come back strong in 2008, could it possible signal the end of the Annika era?

Lorena Ochoa will win more tournaments in 2008 than she did in 2007. That’s a scary thought, considering she was already so good in 2007. I see Lorena closing out tournaments better, you may recall she let a few get away in 2007.

Morgan Pressel emerges as the top player among her tweener group of Paula, Brittany, Stacy and Natalie. She has more pure talent than the others and when she’s focused, she can beat anyone including Lorena.

2008 year in golf

Zach Johnson was the feel good story of 2007.

Well, everyone does one and I’m no different, so it’s time to look back at the year in golf for 2007.

Biggest Surprise:

For me, the biggest surprise was 2007 US Open winner Angel Cabrera. It was close between Angel and Zach Johnson but with Zach you could see that he was going to be a good player, just happened faster than we all expected. But Angel was a guy that had been a European Tour journeyman. He had been having a good year leading up to the US Open, but who would’ve thought that the 40+ year old would challenge Tiger in possibly the toughest course in the world, and win.

Biggest Disappointment:

No question, Phil Mickelson. Michelle Wie had a disastrous year but you could see that coming. Especially after such a promising start winning the TPC, Phil really came up lame for most of the rest of the year. His performance at Oakmont was disgraceful as was his incessant whining. There was so much hype over Phil vs Tiger, Phil pretty much put that one to bed by himself. Not that Phil cares or anything, he’s busy playing ping-pong in the clubhouse.

Best Round:

Woody Austin’s blistering final round 62 to win the St. Jude in June is my pick for best round. Woody would go on to finish 2007 very strong but that fantastic final round to win his first tournament in more than 13 years was magical. It was remarkable to see how a round and a win like that could change someone’s game 180 degrees like it did to Woody.

Biggest Gaff:

Tim Finchem, President of the PGA, of course. His Fedex Cup playoffs idea didn’t really take with players skipping events, Ernie and Phil making a mockery of it. Finchem is just lucky to have presided over the Tiger era, otherwise he would be long gone.

Best Moment:

Zach Johnson winning the Masters. It set the tone for the whole year. Zach is just the kind of guy that people want to root for. He’s like John Daly without all the extra-curriculars, he’s likeable, comes from a humble background, and just wants to play good golf. He’s handled winning so well, it really was the feel good story of the year.

Tomorrow, we’ll look forward to 2008.

2007 year in golf

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

Do you check your golf balls?

Do you spend any time thinking about the golf ball that you are using? I think we just assume that the ball we are using is perfect because that is the way the manufacturer made it. After all, they have all that state of the art technology and equipment to make the balls as perfectly as you could possibly want. You assume that if you buy the best balls on the market, Titlelist, Nike, that your balls will fly perfectly and will roll perfectly.

Now, when we talk about ball-stricking, obviously we want to know about the ridge technology, weight, and elasticity of the ball as it is impacted by the club. These all affect the trajectory and spin. But probably more important and perhaps most overlooked is checking your balls for balance so that when you putt they roll straight. Seems pretty straight forward, except, do you even know how to check for that?

Have a well balanced ball is extremely important for putting. Have you seen a soccer ball that has a little bit of water or sand in it? You’ll notice that the ball doesn’t roll straight. That can sometimes happen with the golf ball, in that the weight distribution is not quite right and there for the ball doesn’t roll straight. This warping of the ball happens naturally and happens to all balls, even those expensive Titlelist and Nike balls you just bought for fifty bucks a box.

Continuing with our series with our good friend Ralph Maltby, Ralph shows us a relatively easy way to check whether your balls are balanced. I highly recommend that you check all of your balls before you head out to the course, it might just save you a stroke or two.

balanced golf balls

Ernie Els takeaway.

More great golf instruction today from Steve Bishop. This time we’re talking about the takeaway. Steve talks about the 3 main takeaway concepts that people talk about, the right forearm, the one piece and the left shoulder.

Right forearm
This is basically using your right forearm to trace the swing path from setup to the top of the takeaway. Basically, at the top of swing, you want your right arm to form a nice L at the top.

One piece
The idea here is to keep your arms together when you take the club back. So you want your arms to move together and not one arm bending, the other straight, or vice versa.

Left shoulder
The left shoulder refers to how your shoulder should be tucked underneath your chin and your left arm straight out. Now, it’s probably hard for many people to do that, so it’s fine for people to turn their head slightly to the right. If you watch Jack Nicklaus, he does this every time he swings, just before his takeaway.

Combined, the three takeaways describe the ideal way to check to make sure that your takeaway is on plane. Taking the club back on plane will help you bring the club back on plane when you swing through on impact. An example of what how your takeaway shouldn’t look like is Jim Furyk’s swing. Obviously Jim has practiced and used his swing for so long that he can bring the club back on plane in the downswing, but his takeaway is not good form at all.

I also like how Steve Bishop talks about the early wrist cock and rolling of the arms, or as he calls leverage. That is a bad thing. I see a lot of people swing this way. Yes, you can hit the ball far this way, but you will be wildly inconsistent, with mostly duck hooks. I like a nice smooth takeaway with the arms going back in one piece, left shoulder tucked underneath the chin, and the right elbow in that nice L at the top of the swing.

Steve Bishop, takeaway

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

John lets the big dog eat.

As the season and year winds down, time to take another look at some of the more interesting golf swings on the PGA Tour. Perhaps there is none more striking than that of one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, John Daly. After many decades of being one of the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour, John recently hooked up with swing guru Butch Harmon to see about tweaking his swing.

To me, John Daly’s swing is very much a self-made swing. But it works extremely well because of the amount of power he is able to generate from it. Perhaps the biggest thing you’ll notice about John’s swing is how far down he takes the club on his takeaway.

Analyzing it from top to bottom, he starts with a very weird grip. You’ll notice that his left wrist is setup in a very strong grip, with probably all four knuckles showing. His right hand is in a very weak grip, probably with one or two knuckles showing. On his takeaway, John brings the club way back and is way off the traditional more vertical swing plane, also his right leg has straightened out. He is pretty good position at the top of the backswing, but then takes the club about another 90 degrees further.

After coiling up big time, John is able to unleash a huge amount of power through his hips and shoulders. He does a good job of keeping his head steady while his arms come down and through the impact zone. His follow-through is pretty normal, weight on his left side.

Just an incredible swing. Tiger Woods said earlier in the year that he thought John Daly had the best pure talent that he’s seen on Tour and that if John spent just a little time practicing, he would smoke everyone out there. I don’t doubt that for a second.

Retief Goosen, Swingvision, golf tips

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