*Greg Norman and Laura soap opera continues
*Another big endorsement for Tiger
*The Bob Hope pulls a fast one on it's newest club
*Recap of the BMW Championship with Tiger Woods winning
*Couch producer happy that Renton Laidlaw is back and the Setanta debacle in Britain
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
The Greg and Laura saga comes to an ending
Looks like the "GolfBuzz" won't have the divorce saga of Greg and Laura Norman to write about anymore as it is finally over. Last Thursday Laura Norman became Laura Theresa Andrassy as she and "The Shark" finally got down to signing the papers that has legally dissolved their 25-year marriage. "It does seem to be benignly finite," said Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Mirman who handled the divorce said afterwards.
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To earn the win Laura was forced to use her trump card, threatening to reveal certain parts of Greg's life in a public forum. There was no two ways about it, Greg didn't want to go through this process and found it easier to pay her up to half of his worth thus keeping everything private.
When divorce papers were filed in June of 2006, it looked like it was going to be a simple procedure as Greg stated he was looking "to keep it as amicable as possible." But that didn't happen as Laura felt that she was due more than Greg was willing to give. Laura felt that she was very instrumental in helping Greg not only on the golf course, but in building his business empire. Of course, Greg didn't feel this way as he said that Laura "did not teach him how to swing a club or win in golf."
So over the course of the procedure things turned ugly to the point that Greg was accused by his wife of cutting off financial help by discontinuing her credit cards and locking her out of their mansion. But what shaped the outlook of things happened when Laura's attorney's earlier this year started to threaten to subpoena everyone from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem to former President Bill Clinton to girlfriend Chris Evert with the idea of making Greg's private life public, which could of hurt Greg's future earnings. Greg's attorneys did everything to try and contain the situation, which meant giving Laura as much as 50% of his worth.
So it's over. Laura left the court in tears telling reporters, "I don't know how they all sleep at night," she sobbed, referring to Norman and his attorneys. "I just don't know." Still she left the procedure a very rich lady as one tabloid paper wrote and another stated that Laura left the courthouse "in tears hidden by thick, rhinestoned Chanel sunglasses but was off with a friend to hit the Palm Beach stores".
As Greg left the court he told reporters that is was "sad" and regretted "that the situation turned out the way it did. We wanted to keep it as amicable as possible," Greg told Contact writer Michelle Sheldone. "It's kind of sad. It hurts a lot of people." Norman said to one writer that he was keen for a cold beer and that "nobody likes to go through what I've gone through, but that's life and it's over," Greg said. "The terms have been agreed to; let's move on."
With Norman was his girlfriend Chris Evert, who will be spared not having to tell about their relationship in court. She talked with reporters telling them, "I'm very happy the settlement has come through and we can get on with our lives."
It will be interesting what the future lies for Greg. With his kids grown up, will he resettle in Australia or stay in America? It will also be interesting to see if he will settle down with Evert, who last year divorced downhill ski champion Andy Mill, whom she had married in 1988, paying him a reputed settlement of $7 million.
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Tiger gets richer with Gatorade
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GolfWeek magazine is reporting that Tiger has just inked a deal with Gatorade for five years worth a whopping $100 million. I just wonder how many Gatorades are going to have to be sold just to pay off Woods.
According to the article, the $100 million will be in endorsements and royalties on sales of three Gatorade products, including a new one that is going to be named after Woods. Gatorade spokesmen and Woods' agent had nothing to say about the deal. All we can say is hey Gatorade, you could of gotten off a lot cheaper if you had gone to GolfObserver for some endorsements. According to Forbes magazine Tiger should be a billionaire by the end of 2009 while Golf Digest reported in a recent article that Woods' cumulative tournament purses and endorsement deals have totaled $545 million since 1996. Below is a list of endorsement deals that the business world knows that Tiger has:
Nike - reported to be paying his $105 million for five years
Buick - reported to be paying him $40 million for five years
Accenture - no figure reported
Gillette - reported by the Boston Globe as being between $10 and $20 million, with no length found.
Tag Heuer watches - no figure reported.
Electronice Arts, maker of Tiger Woods 2008 video game - no figure reported
Gatorade - $100 million for five years
NetJet - no figure reported
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Hey, this just isn't fair
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The Desert Sun had a nice report on how the good folks of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic take care of their new partners. For years one of the biggest bargains was the price members of some of the Classic courses that held the event got for pro-am spots. For years members at Bermuda Dunes, Indian Wells and LaQuinta paid between $2,000 and $7,000 for pro-am spots, while others had to pay up to $12,000 each.
So you can understand how upset the city of LaQuinta, whose Silver Rock course will be one of the host courses in 2008, is that they got 10 passes for pro-am spots for $12,000. Part of the deal for letting the Bob Hope be played on SilverRock was that they would get 10 "member price" slots into the Bob Hope to sell them to LaQuinta residents. But wait. The city of LaQuinta is starting to put two plus two together, and realizing that they just aren't getting the same deal as the other member courses. As a matter of fact they are being charged the same price as anyone off the street who wants to pay to play in the four day pro-am.
As La Quinta Mayor Don Adolph told the Desert Sun, without a discount, Adolph worried the city isn't getting the same perks that country clubs with courses on the Bob Hope rotation may be receiving from the tournament.
Looks like the folks of SilverRock will just have to charge the Hope people a bit more for the right to hold the event on it's new course.
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Recap of the BMW Championship with Tiger Woods winning
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Again we write about the wonders of Tiger Woods and when he gets his putter going like he did on Sunday at the BMW Championship, he just can't be beat. Woods was in prime form on Sunday, as his 63 matched his best final round ever on the PGA Tour. He made eight birdies and no bogeys, with seven birdies coming in a 10-hole stretch starting at the seventh hole. Still, he was pressed by Aaron Baddeley, who was tied for the lead until Woods holed a 50-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole. Woods finished at 22-under 262, with Baddeley shooting a 66 for a 264 total to finish second. Stricker had a 68 to end up third at 268. Adam Scott was fourth at 270 after a 65, while Tim Clark (67) and Justin Rose (68) tied for fifth at 271.
For Woods, it was his 60th career victory, moving him within two of Arnold Palmer for fourth on the all-time list. It was his fourth win at Cog Hill, along with the 1997, 1999, and 2003 Western Open. He has won six events in 15 starts this year, and is on a 1-1-T2-1 streak in his last four events.
Of course this is a bonanza for FedEx Cup officials and it momentarily took some of the sting away from the horrid conditions of the greens at East Lake. With the win, Woods shot back up to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings and going into the last event, pretty much controls his destiny on winning the $10 million deferred payment. Unless Phil Mickelson or Steve Stricker win at East Lake, it should be an easy walk in the park for him to collect the big prize.
| Tiger Woods best 72 hole scores of the PGA Tour: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Score | Event | Place | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 259 | 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational | Win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 261 | 2006 WGC-American Express | Win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 262 | 2007 BMW Championship | Win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 263 | 1997 GTE Byron Nelson Classic | Win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 263 | 2002 WGC-American Express | Win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More importantly the win puts Woods on track to catch Arnold Palmer's victory mark of 62 by early next year and Ben Hogan's 64 win mark by the summer. If he can keep up with the pace of six wins a year, Woods is on pace to catch Jack Nicklaus 73 win mark either at the end of 2009 or the start of 2010 and Sam Snead by 2013. There is a good possibility that if Woods keep things up, he won't have anything to play for by the time he is 40, other than making it tougher for the next Tiger Woods that comes down the pike in 50 or 100 years.
Now, Woods made the win look easy, even though Steve Stricker played one of his best events of his career. In the 313 PGA Tour events that Stricker has played in, his lowest 72 hole score of 266 last week tied his personal best of 266 shot in the 1996 and '98 Greater Milwaukee Open. Now the course that held that event is nothing to the degree of Cog Hill so it just shows that a player like Steve Stricker can give his career best performance and still lose by four. As for Aaron Baddeley, his 264 total was one off his personal best 263 score shot at the 2003 Valero Texas Open and this year's FBR Open which he won. So these guys are putting their best events together and not even coming close to Tiger.
It just seems that Woods is always pushing himself to greater levels to the point that he is even surprising himself. Of course, Woods seems to like winning
Still the important aspect is winning and doing it with Woods in the field. Another important aspect in the Harmon/Mickelson relationship is being sure Mickelson keeps the ball in the fairway and that's one thing he achieved, hitting 76.8% of his fairways.
So with his win, it will be interesting to see if Mickelson can carry this momentum over the long run, for years to come. If we can see this happen in other events and majors, it will help make golf even more exciting to watch. Hopefully Mickelson will come to his senses and play in the BMW Championship so that we can again get a taste of Mickelson and Woods going mano-a-mano together.
Here are some other notes on Woods's win:
- Keys for Tiger winning:
One of his better overall performance stat wise.
Led in birdies made with 26. In only three 72 hole events has Tiger made more than 26 birdies in a event.
Only made 3 bogeys for the week,
Was T3rd in fairways hit with a 80.4% hitting 45 of 56.
Was 3rd in driving distance with an average drive of 311.6
Led the field in total driving.
Was 4th in greens hit with a 79.2 % average, hitting 57 of 72 greens
Played the par 4s in 11 under, 2nd best
Played the three par 5s in 9 under, best
Was 12 of 15 in scrambling, the 80% average was best in the field
No three putts for the week, 33 one putts
Was third in putting per green hit and his 109 putts was 5th - Again, looking at this week compared to last week you can see how easily it is for Tiger to win when his putter is working. Last week Woods was had 115 putts and was 58 of 62 on putts from seven feet and in. In the final round Woods made only three of 16 putts over 6 feet. But this week was a different story, he took 109 putts and from putts ten feet and in he was 59 of 66 and made 14 of 15 putts from ten feet and in on the final day.
- Tiger shot 63 in his final round, it was his personal best score in the final round. Here are the other times he shot 63 in the final round:
2000 GTE Byron Nelson - finished T4th
2001 Verizon Heritage - finished T3rd
2002 Disney Golf Classic - finished 3rd
2006 Deutsche Bank Championship - Won
2007 BMW Championship - Won - A couple of notes on Tiger's win:
- Tied for second with four BMW Championship wins with Billy Casper and Willie Anderson. Walter Hagen won five between 1916 and 1932.
- Seven different players (total of 12 times) since 1970 have won six or more times in a season. Woods has five of the 12.
- Come-from-behind victory was 18th in 58 career PGA Tour stroke-play wins, and fourth of the 2007 season (Buick Invitational, Wachovia Championship, and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational).
- This is the 29th time he has won an event without holding the 36-hole lead, including three of his six victories in 2007. He came from seven strokes back through 36-holes at the Buick Invitational and came from four-strokes back this week at Firestone Country Club.
- Seventh event with four or more victories (CA Championship-6; Bridgestone Invitational-6; Buick Invitational-5; Arnold Palmer Invitational-4, Masters Tournament-4, BMW Championship-4, PGA Championship-4).
- Tiger Woods' winning score of 262 set a tournament record for low 72-hole score. In fact, the top three players all broke the previous mark of 267 first set by Scott Hoch in 2001 and matched by Woods in 2003.
- Surpasses the $75 million mark in career PGA Tour Official Money with $75,319,376.
- Has won in 27.9 percent (60 out of 215) of his professional starts on the PGA Tour.
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Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 45 of 56 ..... (3rd) Driving average: 311.6 ..... (3) Greens hit: 57 of 72 ....... (4th) Putts: 109 (27.25 a rd) .... (T5th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 33 2-putt greens: 38 3-putt greens: 0 Play on par 3s: -2 Play on par 4s: -11 Play on par 5s: -9 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 26 ................ (1st) Scrambling: 12 of 15 (80.00%)... (T2nd)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" in Ireland and we thought it would be nice to look at some European TV.
First of all it was nice to see Renton Laidlaw returning to Golf Channel last week after his medical scare. He along with Peter Alliss are the greatest to hear and we have missed Laidlaw, along with Alliss since ABC doesn't do regular PGA Tour events. Now many people don't know this but Laidlaw is like a cat that has gone through about six lives already. Back in March, while undergoing some cancer surgery, Renton died on the operating table, not once, but twice. Quick thinking doctors were able to revive him and after a few months rest in his summer home in St. Andrews, Renton has made a nice recovery. So much that he was able to do the telecast of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
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He even helps Warren Humphreys along and makes interesting to listen to because Renton knows how to lead his co-host and make him sound great. In a email from him he says he will do a couple of events in England, like the Quinn Direct British Masters in two weeks and the Dunhill Links. He wants to stay in England for the time being until he completely heals.
Anyway, welcome back Renton, we all love you and have missed you. Get well so that we can hear you every week in 2008.
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We thought that we had it tough with Golf Channel this year? The biggest problem (other than some of its voices) in its deal with the PGA Tour is reach. A perfect example is when I was in Akron a couple of weeks ago, the hotel didn't have Golf Channel and it was hard to find it anywhere in Akron.
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But a bigger problem is for the folks over in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. For a dozen years they have been able to get all PGA Tour golf on Sky Sports, which has the same kind of reach in the United Kingdom as ESPN. Of course it's nothing compared to BBC, who during events like the Masters, British Open and Walker Cup get audiences in excess of three and four to one. But the fact of the matter is that Sky Sports has covered the PGA Tour for a dozen years and people were used to it. Not only did Sky have the PGA Tour, but they also have all the European Tour, the World Golf Championships plus the Ryder Cup, U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. In a way they have dominated the golf airways.
Now many will say that I am biased because I work on Sky's coverage of the majors and World Golf Championships. But I was a consumer this week and found out how hard it is with the changes that happened. What Sky does is not just take the feed but send a full golf team to the big events and do its own telecast back to the United Kingdom. Last year in some of the other events that weren't that big like Bay Hill, it sent over a couple of announcers to host the show and supplement the coverage with the American networks announcers.
But last summer a bit of greed set in as the PGA Tour was approached by the newly formed Setanta, an Irish cable company that is trying to make inroads on Sky's big market. What Setanta did was offer the Tour a reported $200 million for a six-year deal, up to four times what Sky was paying. To be fair to a long-time partner, the PGA Tour ask Sky to match the bid, which it didn't do so the contract went over to Setanta starting at this year's Mercedes Championship.
Of course Setanta had some good intentions. It said that it would start up its own team of announcers and production people to do the telecasts of the Players Championship, the four FedEx Cup events and the Presidents Cup, just like Sky does. Unfortunately, after doing this at the Players Championship in May, it cancelled all of its crews and are doing the playoffs with just Ronan Rafferty on site. It has two announcers in London and is using a feed from CBS or NBC using their announcers, something that Sky doesn't do on its World Golf Championship and major coverage.
The reason for such cheap coverage is the lack of money that has been brought in off of subscriptions to Setanta Golf. I didn't realize the scoop of the problem until I went to Dornich in Scotland in July. Golf fans in this golf-crazy town were heart broken that Setanta took over and like most of them said, they just didn't care to pay the Setanta fee, which is $300 a year. The economics of this is so bad that one group of golfing buddies at Dornich share one feed at one person's house and four of them watch the telecast together from that one person's home. In a way I can't blame these folks, they are still paying for Sky, which has a lot more sports and they now have been forced to pay for Setanta. It just doesn't work.
I personally got to witness the problem this weekend on a trip to Ireland. The home I am staying in had Setanta until a storm last week caused some drifting of the Satellite dish, which meant no coverage. Plus, it's hard to get a service man out to fix it. No problem, we thought. There had to be some pubs that had it on. We found one, but unfortunately there was a big rugby match on this weekend and that was on in the pub that had it. In searching for other places, we came up empty, even the Marriott hotel at Druids Glen golf course didn't subscribe to Setanta Golf because , as the hotel manager said, of the high cost. So I got to witness first hand some of the frustration that folks over in the United Kingdom and Ireland are having. Not only is it an added expense, but Setanta is doing a very "cheap" job of not giving these events proper home coverage like Sky would.
Hopefully the PGA Tour will see the hazards of taking the big bucks and not getting the reach because there is a lot of folks that no longer care about the PGA Tour or the FedEx Cup in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Greg Norman and Laura soap opera continues
*Peter Jacobsen loses clubs for a day
*Nancy Lopez comeback not doing well
*Dream pairing
*Oldies but goodies on the Champions Tour
*Recap of the Deutsche Bank with Phil Mickelson winning
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Could peace be near for Greg and Laura Norman?
So what happened this week in the continuing saga of the bickering Norman's?
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Still, Judge Lawrence Mirman has been quoted in several newspapers including the Palm Beach Post, as saying that he has hopes that the couple could stop bickering and work together in getting this divorce done.
Also a lot of gossip pages are wondering if Norman could have been more careful in his relationship with tennis star Chris Evert and if pictures like the ones to the left could of spurred Laura even more.
We probably will never know what the final money terms will be, but it's easy to say that it will be over $100 million which will put it in this list of one of the most expensive celebrity divorces every:
Forbes List of Costliest Celebrity Divorces:
#10 - Mick Jagger & Jerry Hall estimated $15 to 25 million#9 - Lionel & Diane Richie estimated at $20 million
#8 - Michael & Diandra Douglas estimated at $45 million
#7 - James Cameron & Linda Hamilton estimated at $50 million
#6 - Paul McCartney & Heather Mills, settlement pending rumor at $60 million
#5 - Kevin Costner & Cindy Silva estimated at $80 million
#4 - Harrison Ford & Melissa Mathison estimated at $85 million
#3 - Steven Spielberg & Amy Irving estimated at $100 million
#2 - Neil Diamond & Marcia Murphey estimated at $150 million
#1 - Michael & Juanita Jordan estimated at more than $150 million
For those that want to know what the costliest divorce ever has been, this year Russian billionaire and Britain's richest man Roman Abramovich gave his wife of 15-years Daria Zhukova between $2 and $4 billion dollars, yes billions. Rumor had it that Russina President Vladimir Putin stepped in and told his friend to settle things.
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Peter Jacobsen losses his clubs for a day
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While he and his wife were leaving their Oregon home, they pulled out of their garage and drove off and the garage was left open for about ten minutes. On Jacobsen's return home he found out that his golf clubs were taken.
Among the 80 clubs taken was a set of Titleist clubs that he has used over the course of the last five years, including the ones that he used while winning the U.S. Senior Open. Also taken were clubs that Jacobsen used when he was in high school and college.
As police told him it was unlikely that whoever stole the clubs knew what they were taking and that it would be easy to spot if the robber tried to pawn them or try to sell them to any golfers. So Jacobsen offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to whoever did the dastardly deed.
Sure enough, the next day the tale had a happy ending as Police were able to recover 55 of the 80 clubs, but more importantly all of his competition clubs and those with sentimental value were returned. Details were withheld on who stole them but thanks to the reward someone called with a tip about their location.
So for Jacobsen this has a happy ending as he was getting ready to play in the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach with his old clubs instead of the replacement set that Titleist had made up for him.
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Nancy Lopez comeback
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Lopez's first comeback start was at the Ginn Clubs Resort Open. Unfortunately, she shot 83-80, missing the cut. But this was just a preview of things to come. She played at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, shot 83-78, followed by a 82-82 performance at the Wegman's LPGA. At the Jamie Farr she shot 78-83, but we have to say that she hit rock bottom two weeks ago at the Safeway Classic with rounds of 82-91. Last week is was more of the same at the State Farm as she again finished in last place with rounds of 81-79. Six events, six missed cuts after shooting an aggregate 120 over par.
Nancy Lopez will always be considered one of the great players on the LPGA Tour. Yes it's nice to see her once or twice a year in a event that has meaning for her, something that doesn't take a spot away from the field and something that she can take more of a ceremonial jog around the course for a couple of days.
In a way Lopez is tarnishing her reputation and legacy with this comeback. Some have said that she is doing it to help the owners of her golf equipment company, while others have said that she has nothing to really keep her busy. Still it's unfortunate watching an idol struggle. Yes, Arnold Palmer may have played too long but he was still "The King." With Nancy this comeback bid is getting a bit embarrassing.
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The dream pairing
During the first two rounds of the Deutsche Bank Championship Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh were paired together and it was the first time in a PGA Tour event that the three had ever played together. Now this time Mickelson got the best as he was 8-under to Woods' 6-under and Singh's 2-under (Phil got the ultimate best my winning the event). But in looking through the history of golf this threesome was paired together in the 2005 PGA Grand Slam of golf. In that 36-hole meeting Woods got the best of the three shooting rounds of 67-64 for a 13-under par total of 131 to beat Mickelson by seven and Singh by 13. Now for their meeting last week at the Deutsche Bank, no money was won but at the Grand Slam, Woods collected the first place check of $250,000.
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Oldies but goodies on the Champions Tour
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Talking about longevity, Hale Irwin is a classic example of a old warhorse that can still do battle as he went into the final round at age 62 with a shot at winning. Already this year Irwin won at the MasterCard Champions at Hualalai, making it 36 years between his first PGA Tour win in the 1971 Sea Pines Heritage Classic and this year's win. Now in those 36 years Irwin has won every year except for in 1972, '78, '80, '86-'89, '91-'93 and 2006 for a total of winning in 26 different years.
So how does Irwin's 36 years rank statistically?
Many think that Sam Snead is the best. No two ways about it, he has played full time more than anyone else on the PGA Tour, playing 38 years between 1937 and 1974. He also played the first seven years on the Champions Tour but that was when it first was founded, so he played 45 years full-time on both tours. Unfortunately, Snead never won a official event on the Champions Tour and his total of winning 24 years on the PGA Tour falls two short of Irwin's 26 on both the PGA and Champions Tours.
Another person that Irwin passed up this year was Arnold Palmer, who won 18 years on the PGA Tour and seven on the Champions Tour for a total of 25. Palmer played full time (more than 10 events a year) between 1955 and 1983 on the PGA Tour (29 years) but if you add in his 17 Champions Tour years between 1984 and 2000, it means that Irwin still has to play 10 more years to have a chance to break Palmer's longevity record.
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Recap of the Deutsche Bank with Phil Mickelson winning
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What a great Labor Day of golf, one for the ages and one for the fans. A Tiger Woods/Phil Mickelson tussle, a dream come true for not only the golf aficionado but for the PGA Tour in helping solidify that the FedEx Cup idea could work. Tiger and Phil have gone at each other before, but that was at the Ford Championships and Buick Invitationals. What golf fans have dreamt of is a final round mano-a-mano duel between the two that really meant something in an event for the ages, exactly what Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour are trying to do in the FedEx Cup.
They got it at the Deutsche Bank Championship, which was as good as we could get things in a playoff atmosphere of golf's giants that had everything in it with ups and downs, with birdies and bogeys and putts made and putts missed, the kind of stuff that Tim Finchem had dreamed of when he put the FedEx Cup together.
For a decade we have been hoping for a rivalry between Phil and Tiger, unfortunately Phil just hasn't been up to it. After he played with Woods and Vijay Singh on Friday, Mickelson admitted to the media his shortcomings saying, "This was actually a really interesting day because I have been working with Butch Harmon as you know and in the past I haven't really played that well with Tiger, but he (Butch) told me a couple of things that he (Tiger) likes to do and I kind of was watching for it and I chuckled throughout the round when I picked up on it and I think that working with Butch has really help me understand how to play my best golf when I play in the same group with Tiger and I am hoping that I have a chance to do it on Monday." What that basically meant is that not only is Butch working on the swing with Mickelson, but also the mental aspect of things.
| Tiger and Phil in a final round pairings on the PGA Tour: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Phil Mickelson | Tiger Woods | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 Deutsche Bank | 66 (Win) | 67 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 Ford Championship Doral | 69 | 66 (Win) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2003 Buick Invitational | 72 | 68 (Win) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 Tour Championship | 69 | 70 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 Masters | 701 | 68 (Win) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 PGA Championship | 75 | 75 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Now Butch was with Woods for close to a decade until the spilt in 2002. There is a lot that Butch taught Woods especially on "gamesmanship," which has been an important part of Woods game. Not only does Woods have the best game, but he is always able to get a mental advantage over his opponents. Those are the things that Butch is helping Mickelson do, while not giving Woods that mental advantage and it looks like it has worked. with Mickelson winning this week. Now many may not think this is true, but I feel it is, Mickelson wants to win and beat Woods along the way. He wants to be able to go "Mano-a-Mano" with Woods and it's funny how little they have done it since Woods joined the Tour in 1996.
Prior to this week Mickelson and Woods had only played together in the same group 16 times on the PGA Tour (since 1996) with Woods shooting the lower score nine times compared to Mickelson having the lower score four times. They had the same score three times so Woods has had Mickelson's number a lot. Now it doesn't mean that Mickelson has been a total loser against Woods. Mickelson did win the 2000 and 2001 Buick Invitational and the 2000 Tour Championship against Woods, but in all three they didn't have the pleasure of playing together in the final round.
Still the important aspect is winning and doing it with Woods in the field. Another important aspect in the Harmon/Mickelson relationship is being sure Mickelson keeps the ball in the fairway and that's one thing he achieved, hitting 76.8% of his fairways.
So with his win, it will be interesting to see if Mickelson can carry this momentum over the long run, for years to come. If we can see this happen in other events and majors, it will help make golf even more exciting to watch. Hopefully Mickelson will come to his senses and play in the BMW Championship so that we can again get a taste of Mickelson and Woods going mano-a-mano together.
Here are some other notes on Mickelson's win:
- The key for Mickelson was getting the best of Tiger in putting. Mickelson took 105 putts compared to Tiger's 115 for the week, quite a lead. While Mickelson had 31 one putts and no three putts, Woods had 32 one putts but 3, three-putts with all of them coming on the weekend. Tiger was 58 of 62 on putts from seven feet while Mickelson was 61 of 64 in putts from the same distance. But what Mickelson did in beating Woods was missing only two of 17 putts on the final day, Woods couldn't say the same, on 16 putts on the final day from over 6 feet he only made three of 16, the difference for the Mickelson victory.
- Another big key for Mickelson this week is something that he has been working very hard on with Butch Harmon, driving it in the fairway. For the week Mickelson was 76.8% on hitting fairways. That means he hit 43 of 56 fairways, which ranked T4th. In 22 of his victories since 1997 he has only done that two other times. In the 1997 Bay Hill Invitational when he ranked T21st and in his 2000 Colonial win when he hit 43 of 56 fairways which ranked T3rd, his best in a victory. It's also interesting to note that this week was one of his better driving weeks in the last five years. But in winning this event, Mickelson followed a formula that is almost always flaw-proof, that is to be in the top-five in both driving distance and driving accuracy. That he did this week so already his work with Butch Harmon has paid big dividends.
- A couple of notes, of Phil's 32 wins this is only his 2nd after September 1st, the other one being the 2000 Tour Championship.
- Mickelson played the par 5s in 10-under par which was second of those in the field. More importantly he beat Woods in something that he always seems to beat others in: Tiger was only 7 under on the par 5s for the week.
- Mickelson was the best in the field in scrambling (86.36%) and sand saves (7 of 7).
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Mickelson's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 43 of 56 ..... (T4th) Driving average: 310.4 ..... (4th) Greens hit: 50 of 72 ....... (T8th) Putts: 105 (26.25 a rd) .... (T6th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 4 1-putt greens: 31 2-putt greens: 37 3-putt greens: 0 Play on par 3s: -2 Play on par 4s: -4 Play on par 5s: -10 Eagles: 2 Birdies: 18 ................ (T8th) Scrambling: 19 of 22 (86.36%)... (1st)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Greg Norman and Laura soap opera continues
*Sorenstam engaged
*Perfect man for the bag
*Another 7 shot comeback
*Recap of the Barclays with Steve Stricker winning
*So how was the first FedEx Cup playoff
*Couch Producer on how good CBS is and how bad NBC is
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
The Bickering Norman's saga continues
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Pretty calm week in the continuing saga of Greg and his soon to be ex-wife Laura.
Seems that they are close of getting this divorce settled (yes we have heard this before), the only thing in the way is some kind of court determination on who is responsible for a tax liability on one of the private jets.
Still there is another sticking point that has come up, Greg wants Laura to sign a confidentiality clause before he signs off on the nine-figure settlement (rumor to be as high as $250 million dollars). The confidentiality clause is nothing more than a way to make sure that Laura doesn't talk to anyone about their 26 year old marriage and any breach would mean that Laura would have to pay unspecified damages to Greg. It's interesting to see that Greg is worried on what Laura could spill the beans on publicly.
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A happier love story
Annika Sorenstam may not have a lot of pleasant golf memories of 2007 but she is very happy about one aspect of the year. On Saturday morning while relaxing at home, Sorenstam got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Mike McGee, who popped the question at the couple's Orlando home. "What a lovely surprise," Sorenstam said, according to the Associated Press. "I'm as happy as I can be." No date is set for the wedding.
Be interesting to see what happens to Sorenstam and her career when she does get married. Could this spell the end to the Sorenstam destiny with no trying to catch Lorena Ochoa?
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Perfect man for the bag
Now the next time the U.S. Amateur comes to Olympic Golf Club a piece of advise. Look up Steve Molinelli, a Olympic member and ask him to caddy for you. Why, you ask? Molinelli, who is a four-time club champion at Olympic caddied for Colt Knost in his U.S. Amateur victory but if that isn't enough, Molinelli was the bagman for Nathaniel Crosby in his early qualifying rounds to get into the 1981 Amateur which Crosby won.
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Field shaping up for China event
The field for the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China is shaping up into a first class event. In it's third year and being held November 8th through the 11th, it already has Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia. This week three more star players signed up as Angel Cabrera, Padraig Harrington and Retief Goosen have entered. Now the one disadvantage this year is that after playing in the first two, Tiger Woods has taken a pass but still the event is gaining a reputation for such a fine field it's being dubbed "Asia's Major".
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7 shot comeback for the second week in a row on the Nationwide Tour
Last week at the Xerox Classic, Nick Flanagan was able to make up a seven shot deficit on the final day with a 63 to win his third Nationwide Tour event and get a spot on the PGA Tour.
This week at the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic, Parker McLachlin started the final round with a seemly safe seven shot lead, tying the Nationwide Tour record for largest lead entering any round and blew the tournament. With a combination of McLachlin shooting 77 and Jimmy Walker shooting 67, Walker was able to win for the third time on the Nationwide Tour. Now the timing of Walker's victory couldn't of been any better. After a breakthrough season on the Nationwide Tour in 2004 as the leading money winner, Walker struggled on the PGA Tour finishing 207th on the money list in 2005 then 202nd last year. Going into the Pete Dye Classic he was 62nd on the Nationwide Tour money list and was looking for something good to happen. With the win Walker climbed to 16th on the money list and has a good shot at regaining his PGA Tour card for 2008 if he can maintain his top-20 status on the money list for eight more Nationwide Tour events.
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A very crowded playoff
The seven-man playoff in the Boeing Classic Sunday in which Denis Watson prevailed with a eagle on the second playoff hole was the largest ever in a PGA Tour sanctioned event. The all-time record for a tournament was six players at the 1994 GTE Byron Nelson Classic and the 2001 Nissan Open on the PGA TOUR, while the high on the Champions Tour was five players at the 1996 Emerald Coast Classic and the 1998 Kroger Senior Classic.
In more Champions Tour news today is a dawning of a new era for the tour as it's Bernhard Langer's 50th birthday. He will play in his first event this week at the Wal-Mart First tee Open at Pebble Beach.
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Recap of the Barclays with Steve Stricker winning
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Who knows what's more important at this point, a Barclays win or taking over the FedEx Cup point lead? I think if you ask Steve Stricker he would say winning. It's his first victory since the 2001 WGC-Accenture Match Play championship, 148 events ago. Even more telling it's Strickers first stroke play win since the 1996 Western Open 237 events ago.
For Stricker it's been a long haul back. After poor season in 2003 when he finished 188th on the money list, then 151st in 2004 followed by 162nd in 2005 Stricker went through a serious rebuild. He spent hours in the cold snow of Wisconsin during the winter of 2005/06 rebuilding and getting things back to the way it use to. He also got help from sponsors on the PGA Tour that gave him exemptions into events, at the time his only way to play.
Stricker showed his first signs of coming back at the Shell Houston Open in 2006 when he shot 68-66 on the weekend and finished 3rd. That was his best finish since his match play victory. Two months later Stricker was among the leaders going into the weekend of the U.S. Open, succumbing to poor play. The next week in Washington, he almost won the Booz Allen Classic, finishing runner-up. Steve finished the year with four more top-ten finishes and with earnings of $1,8 million regained his Tour card finishing 34th on the money list.
Stricker continued the good play over to 2007 with a great start at the Sony Open in Hawaii, almost winning that except for a poor final round. Unfortunately Stricker had problems in the final round this year but he still had runner-up finishes at Wachovia and the AT&T National. He also had good performances at the U.S. Open and the British Open, again playing poorly on the final day.
So he was knocking on the door of winning and it looked like he was going to do it at Westchester, only to play poorly in the middle of the round with bogeys at 10 and 13. But he changed things around with a birdie at 14, then followed it up with birdies at 16, 17 and 18 to catch and pass K.J. Choi who looked like he was going to win for the third time.
Here are some other notes on Stricker's win:
- The key for Stricker was those birdies on the final three holes. It was a culmination of good ball strking and making putts of 13 feet on 16, 3 and a half feet at 17 and 8 feet at 18.
- Putting was an important key for Stricker during the week. He was second with 110 putts and first in putting per green hit. He also ranked T4th in greens hit so the combination of high rank in both greens hit and putts per greens hit is a winning combination.
- Again, we can't stress how important putting was for Stricker. For the week he made 245 feet of putts, now this stat may sound weird but lets look at it. If you divide that number by 72 holes, he average close to 3 and a half feet per hole of putts. He was one of only four players to have no three putts and only eight players had more one putts than Stricker's (Mark Calcavecchia led with 36).
- Stricker played the final three holes in 8 under par for the week.
Strickers's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 46 of 56 ..... (T11th) Driving average: 276.6 ..... (38th) Greens hit: 54 of 72 ....... (T4th) Putts: 110 (27.50 a rd) .... (T2nd) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 32 2-putt greens: 39 3-putt greens: 0 Play on par 3s: -3 Play on par 4s: -5 Play on par 5s: -8 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 22 ................ (T2nd) Scrambling: 10 of 18 (55.56%)... (50th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
One down, three playoff events left
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So after the first FedEx Cup playoff, many are wondering, is this something that is exciting or is it just another tournament on the PGA Tour that offers a lot of money? Quite frankly the jury is still out on the whole thing but if just watching a golf tournament is not enough, trying to keep track of the event and the cup race is like work. The PGA Tour did get a break in the fact that the main people on Sunday, Steve Stricker, K.J. Choi and Rory Sabbatini were in the top-15 of the FedEx Cup which added a lot more drama on things than having Rich Beem, Robert Garrigus and Bob Heintz fighting it out. I find it a non-story the race for the top-120, who cares, these guys won't be around for the Tour Championship so why waste the time to make a big deal of it. Now one of the problems with these so-called playoffs is the bottom-feeders. It will be interesting to see if any of those that started the playoffs 100 and higher can make it through the BMW Championship, which pretty much ask's the question why go down so low. It was funny listening to Frank Nobilo on Golf Channel rant about how unfair it was that Bob Heintz finished T17th with a final round 65 and didn't advance. Yes that's the whole problem with having so many folks with opinions. Even though the Tour and Tim Finchem has a lot of Monday quarterbacks including myself, it's interesting to point out that Tiger Woods could regret not playing. In a way, for Woods not to play at the Barclays it was like Roger Federer giving his opponent the first set in a U.S. Open match. Still many feel that Woods is just going to roar through the Deutsch Bank and then the BMW, winning both and making another big deposit on his already fat back account. But if Tiger does stumble and finish lets say 25th at the Deutsch Bank and if Steve Stricker, K.J. Choi or Rory Sabbatini were to win at Deutsch Bank, this would leave Woods in the tough spot of having to win at least once in the remaining events, to even have a chance. As for an early call on the success of the series I still have to wait and see, but after the first round I give it a thumbs up for a great point system that should make it interesting.
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Nice job by CBS, just wish they were doing the next three weeks
The "Couch Producer" feels that this year's telecasts by CBS could of been the best by any one network over the years. Technically they were well done and there was no too ways about it, they tried new things and found success with them.
The best has to be the BizCam which has brought state of the art slo-mo into the real word. In the past these slo-mo cameras have been very big and bulky, which meant that a fixed locate was necessary. But with the new camera, it's about the same size as a regular hand-held camera and goes off with the leaders. They isolate the picture to a tape machine and have gotten some great results, not only slo-mo swings but swings in which club-heads go through rough showing how well a player executes a shot. We never get tired of the slo-mo's and NBC should pick this up in a heartbeat.
Another thing CBS has done is turned around the career of Peter Kostis with his "Kostis Korner" and tips, using the slo-mo camera. CBS has realized that lessons and tips are becoming a very popular item and with the combination of Kostis and the camera have come up with first class pieces all year.
CBS also gets a lot of points for there talkers, everyone of them with the exception of Bobby Clampett is first class and someone that we love to listen to. Unfortunately for Clampett he could be the worst announcer in golf period, he never seems to know what to say and the viewer most of the time has this "what was that" on a lot of his comments. Fortunately for us, Clampett is more of a summer fill-in when the other announcers need some time off.
As for the others, what can you say about David Feherty, Peter Oosterhuis and Gary McCord. They always keep us entertained and know the right things to say keeping a show lively.
CBS also gets high points for taking the best from ABC and moving it to CBS. Ian Baker-Finch did a great job this year and made the executives at CBS look very wise for getting him. Another good move was getting Nick Faldo, who is 20 times better than Lanny Wadkins ever was. You have to give high points to CBS for taking the chance on replacing Wadkins with Nick.
Even with the high number of shows that they do, CBS is so rich in talent, that when key members go they are hardly missed. Feherty, Oosterhuis and Baker-Finch are always great in filling in for Faldo and we can't say enough good things about Bill Macatee who does a good job in filling in for Nantz or doing play by play or interviews.
Now we can't say the same about NBC, who after Johnny Miller gets weak with there talkers. Yes Jimmy Roberts does a fine job in interviews and commentary, we also like Roger Maltbie and Mark Rolfing but barely. I just really hope that Tommy Roy and the folks are in deep thought of upgrading this fall.
Of course the pick-ins are slim in getting a great announcer, last year they were on the verge of getting Faldo, even to the point that they had a deal with him but were outsmarted by CBS. They also tried hard to get David Feherty to come over but CBS president Sean McManus has always been a step ahead. Hopefully the NBC folks can figure out a way to get some better voices.
Here are my suggestions. The first person I would go after is Golf Channels Frank Nobilo. He knows just what to say and has upgraded the Golf Channel telecasts. There is no too ways about it, NBC should offer him some serious cash to come over and replace Gary Koch.
Another person that NBC should look at is Butch Harman. I do some work with Sky Sports, who telecast majors and World Golf Championships back to England and I am always impressed with what Harmon has to say. He is well versed on the players and is very forthright in his words. On top of that Harman would blow away Peter Kostis on the slo-mo stuff if given a chance.
NBC should also talk with Curtis Strange. The consciences on him was mixed over at ABC, still he had a good following and would be someone that could help NBC. Even though he has been out of TV for 3 and a half years now, it's in his blood and I personally think that he would love to return. His Champions Tour career hasn't been very stellar and the timing would be very good to try and coax him back into the booth. Ego wise I think he could work very well with Johnny Miller and I feel that times like last week in the U.S. Amateur NBC would be better served to have a former two-time U.S. Open winner as the main analysis than Gary Koch. Of course many will say, hey instead of trying to get Curtis Strange why not get Paul Azinger, yes he would also be a good choice but I think that he wants to devote 2008 to the Ryder Cup, but if given the right amount of money you never know. He too would be a good choice.
Lastly, in looking at new talent for the future, one person NBC should look at is Scott McCarron. He was very good doing some studio work for Golf Channel at the Masters and should be given a chance. Again, in his heart he feels that he still has the game to compete on the PGA Tour but he has not played in over a year due to elbow problems I just wonder if it's time for him to think of another career. Again, getting talented people like the announcers that CBS has is hard to do but with only CBS and NBC doing the bulk of the big telecasts, NCB has to improve.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Greg Norman and Laura back to fighting
*Adam Scott passes on Australian Open
*Mickelson to be busy this fall
*Skins to turn into a "Turkey" this year
*Lorena wins again
*Flanagan on his way to the PGA Tour
*Recap of the Wyndham Championship with Brandt Snedeker winning
*Future of the Wyndham and it's host course, Forest Oaks
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Greg Norman won't like it but is back in the limelight
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At the beginning of the summer we all were under the perception that the Greg Norman divorce from Laura had come to an conclusion and peace would ensue, with Laura getting somewhere in the neighborhood of a $100 million settlement. Well, that's apparently not the case as the two are still arguing and the news is becoming public, which Greg really doesn't want.
It seems that Laura Norman's attorney's filed a motion in a Palm Beach court last week claiming that Greg changed the locks on their unoccupied $21 million Jupiter Island home, cut off her credit cards in an attempt to "coerce" and "starve her out" during the ongoing divorce proceedings and fired the maid.
Norman's lawyer, Martin Haines, described Laura Norman's claims as "unfounded and grossly inaccurate" and said his client "reserves the right to bring action against both wife and her attorneys for libel and/or defamation of character". Haines then asked the judge handling the case that Laura Norman issue a retraction in the form of a press release. Haines also told the court Norman continued to financially support his wife, although her average spending has jumped more than 50 percent since he filed for divorce last year.
Haines also explained that Greg changed the locks only after Laura changed them first and that Greg has gone way beyond duty buying Laura a $4 million home in Palm Beach and a $400,000 deposit for a house in the Hamptons, outside of New York. On top of that, Norman has also paid more than $700,000 in Laura's lawyer fees.
On another front, Greg's girlfriend Chris Evert's former husband, Andy Mill, has come out with some tough words about Greg. Mill, a former U.S. Olympic ski champion told the Australian Sunday Telegraph that he was heart-broken by Norman's betrayal.
"Greg Norman at one time was my best friend and a year and a half ago I would have taken a bullet for this guy," he told the paper. Mill and Evert had been close friends with Norman and Laura for years. The four regularly socialized together in Florida, where both couples had Palm Beach homes. It has been rumored that Evert and Greg had been romantically involved, which led to Evert filing and getting a divorce from Mill last year.
Mill said he had been emotionally wrecked by the split and described December 4 - when their divorce and their multi-million dollar settlement was finalized - as "the worst day in my life. I wouldn't wish divorce on anyone,'' Mill said in the news account. "But it happens and you can't make somebody love you - in the case of my ex-wife. You have to move on and so I'm moving on - it (recovering from the split) is a work in progress.''
No two ways about it, this story will only get more weird and have more legs over time and it looks like there will be more court filings in coming weeks.
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Adam Scott passes on Australian Open
Adam Scott will not be playing in the Australian Open in December, instead fulfilling a long-standing agreement with a friend to be his best man at his wedding on the Gold Coast in Australia. Scott is, however, defending his Singapore Open title from November 1-4, a title he won in 2005 and 2006.
The tournament seems to have found a good chuck of loose change - $5 million to be exact as it has lured not only Scott to play, but U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Michael Campbell. But the big fish that will be playing is Phil Mickelson, who has the reputation for not traveling off American soil. According to sources Mickelson will get a cool $1 million, plus money to fly his gas guzzling G-2 to Singapore.
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More Mickelson News
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Now of his trip to Singapore, it isn't the only place that he is playing this fall. In the last couple of years Mickelson has always shut it down after the Bridgestone, taking September, October, November and December off. But that isn't going to happen this year. Not only is Mickelson playing in Singapore, the week after he will be in Shanghai, China for the HSBC Champions.
This isn't the only place that he is going to play in. Rumors have Mickelson playing in both the Frys.Com Open, which is the old Las Vegas Invitational, and the next week at the Fry's Electronics Open, which is in Scottsdale, Arizona. Also, word on the street has Mickelson considering playing in Tiger's Target World Challenge in December, which would make a very busy fall for him.
Skins to turn into a "Turkey" this year
One place that Mickelson did take a pass on was the Skins Game. It seems that just about everyone of note did the same. We have talked about the demise of the Skins Games for years now but the event keeps on popping back. Thanks to Tiger Woods showing up three times in the last six years and Annika Sorenstam playing it has been able to skate around the fact that its $1 million dollar purse hasn't changed in 20 years and in today's money on the PGA Tour, that is nothing more than pocket change.
This year's pairing of Fred Couples, Stephen Ames, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich could spell its death and all we can say is that it will be a true "Turkey" of an event played during Thanksgiven weekend. Hard to believe that in a quarter of a century this event went from Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson to this. What a let down.
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Lorena wins again
With her victory in the CN Canadian Open, Lorena Ochoa is a shoe-in to win player of the year honors. Even though she hasn't mathematically won it, with 11 official LPGA events left in the season, Ochoa has 279 points and her closets rival is Suzanne Petterson with 129 points. Another honor that Ochoa will be looking to bring is the season earnings race as she has won $2,535,590 and is closing in on the mark of $2,863,904 that Annika Sorenstam won in 2002, the most in LPGA Tour history.
Since joining the tour five years ago Ochoa has won 14 times. But she has dominated the last two years winning 11 times as she is the only LPGA Tour player over the past two years to post back-to-back victories each of the last two years. Ochoa is playing this week at the Safeway Classic as she will look to win her third event in a row.
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Flanagan on his way to the PGA Tour
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With a final round of 63, Nick Flanagan won the Xerox Classic, his third Nationwide Tour victory of the year. With it he gets the Three-Win Promotion and a trip to the PGA Tour, unfortunately his timing is off because he won't be able to play on the Tour for at least four weeks due to the FedEx Cup playoffs. Despite that fact, Flanagan becomes the eighth player in Nationwide Tour history to win three times in a year and the first since Jason Gore accomplished the feat in 2005. Who knows, with four weeks to continue playing on the Nationwide Tour Flanagan could win for the fourth time and that mark will be very tough to break in coming years as long as the tour has it's three-win promotion. Yes, Flanagan is in the field at the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic.
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Recap of the Wyndham Championship with Brandt Snedeker winning
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At 26th on the FedEx Cup points list, Brandt Snedeker was the highest ranked player to enter the Wyndham Championship, the final event before the four-week PGA Tour playoffs. While others were resting, Snedeker figured he would try to improve his position to earn a big FedEx Cup bonus. By shooting a closing 63 to take a two-stroke victory, Snedeker did just that, moving all the way up to ninth place. (At the end of the playoffs, 10th place earns a $500,000 bonus compared to $175,000 for 30th.)
Snedeker put together a 9-under-par 63 to win. He finished at 22 under, two shots better than Tim Petrovic (67), third-round leader Jeff Overton (70) and Billy Mayfair (67). Crowd favorite Carl Pettersson shot 68 and finished three shots back.
Snedeker was the 13th first-time winner at Greensboro, and with his first place check of $900,000, the most money he has ever made in a single tournament it brings his yearly total to $2.6 million, the first rookie to ever make that much money in one season.
Now the Wyndham Championship had several low lights for the week. First was the field, which had low attendance of marquee names and spectators, which suffered from a lack of people. With marquee names bowing out like defending champion Davis Love III, who had Kidney Stones to K.J. Choi, who felt he needed to rest before the four week FedEx Cup this event didn't was lacking in any kind of buzz. Only three top-50 world rank players were in the field along with only five top-50 off of the PGA Tour money list.
With the low turnout, concession prices were lowered this year and on Sunday morning with attendance looking sparse all week, the tournament let people in for free on Sunday, if they got to the turnstiles before 9 a.m.
Here are some other notes on Snedeker's win:
- The key to Brandt Snedeker win was his 9 under par 63 on Sunday. As for under par final rounds for a winner in 2007 it was the lowest. Now Woody Austin shot 62 at the Stanford St. Jude Championship, but it was on a par 72 course and 8-under par so Snedeker's round was lower. For the tournament, Davis Love III shot 62 in 1992 so this was the second lowest final round at Forest Oaks and the lowest on the PGA Tour by a winner since Kirk Triplett's 9-under 63 at the 2006 Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
- In looking at Snedeker's final round 63, he hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. He took 25 putts in a day that he made 10 birdies and one bogey. Snedeker made that bogey at 12 but then came back to birdie 12, 14, 15 and 17. For the day he made seven putts of nine feet or longer.
- Snedeker's weekend score of 129 (66-63) matches the second-best final 36 holes on the 2007 PGA TOUR. Tournament winner Aaron Baddeley posted a 128 total (64-64) at the FBR Open. For Wyndham, Snedeker's 129 total beat the best in tournament history of Lee Trevino, who shot 132 (66-65) in 1976.
- In his first 45 holes, Snedker was 10 under par as he made 11 birdies. But over the course of his last 27 holes, Snedeker was 12 under par and made 13 birdies.
- Over the weekend Snedeker took only 49 putts as he made 10 putts over 10 feet and 20 putts over five feet.
- For the week, Brandt Snedeker was 41/41 on putts inside 3 feet and 63/68 on putts inside 10 feet.
- Snedeker ends a streak of third-round leaders who have gone on to win the Wyndham Championship. He is the first player to come-from-behind on the final day since 1998 when Trevor Dodds rallied from three off the lead to beat Scott Verplank in a playoff. Going back to 1974, 23 of the 34 winners have led or co-led after 54 holes.
Furyk's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit:44 of 56 ..... (T6th) Driving average: 289.9 ..... (56th) Greens hit: 55 of 72 ....... (T29th) Putts: 110 (27.50 a rd) .... (4th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 34 2-putt greens: 38 3-putt greens: 0 Play on par 3s: -2 Play on par 4s: -7 Play on par 5s: -13 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 24 ................ (T8th) Scrambling: 13 of 17(76.47)... (T11th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
Future of the Wyndham Championship and it's host course, Forest Oaks
One of the worst kept secrets of the Wydham Championship is the fact that the event will probably move to Sedgefield Country Club after this year. Even with five years left on the contract with Forest Oaks, the foundation that runs the Wyndham Championship is very interested in moving, to the point that they are paying some of the $3 million restoration of the Donald Ross course, Sedgefield which was the site of the event before 1976.
Helping put the pieces to the puzzle together is an interview that Steve Holmes, CEO of Wyndham, did with the Greensboro News & Record in which Holmes said his company is in the mist of buying and converting the Grandover Resort into a Wyndham resort. Grandover has two courses itself but the resort lies next to Sedgefield. As for an official annoucement, there is no time table yet and everyone is quiet about this
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Back home from the British
*What is Padraig up too?
*Other European Tour news
*How can I sign up for that job?
*Watson wins the Senior British again
*Gulbis off the snide, who's next?
*Recap of the Canadian Open with Jim Furyk winning
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Nice to be back home
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It's always nice to be a world traveler and jet off to exotic places like Carnoustie but by digestive system and wallet are glad to be home. On returning back and looking at all of the bills I have to wonder how American's can afford going off to the British Open and playing golf in England. Yes the exchange rate is a problem but there is a form of greed at Carnoustie. The town is very small and finding places to eat and drink is a problem. Most restaurants had fixed menu's in which a dinner ran 35 pounds ($70) and that didn't include drinks or a bottle of wine. One morning I went into the Carnoustie hotel breakfast room, had a cup of tea and the bill was 18 pounds ($36), yes it was a fixed rate for a continental breakfast. Wish I could of given the tea back but it was half drunk.
The cost of watching the Open Championship is also reading the stratosphere. Back in 1991 the cost of a day ticket for the championship was 10 pounds or back then about $15 dollars. In 2001 the cost of a ticket was 35 pounds, which for American's at the exchange rate then was about $50. But in 2007 the cost of a ticket has gone up to 50 pounds and with the 2 for 1 exchange rate of the dollar it cost $100 a day to attend.
Maybe that is the reason for the poor attendance figures for this year's British Open as only 154,000 came through the turnstile this year, off from the figure of 175,000 that the R&A had anticipated. The figures were down 3,000 from 1999, the last time the Open was at Carnoustie and a drop of 76,000 from last year at Hoylake. Of the nine courses on the Open rota, Carnoustie is the furthest from a major town and with train costs being 30 pounds ($60) round trip from Edinburgh it's becoming an expensive ticket. On top of that the food and drink at the course isn't cheap a chesseburger, fries and coke were 7 pounds ($14). The combination of high prices and weak U.S. dollar is making the British Open an easy event to stay home in America and watch on TV.
But some are putting the blame on poor attendance on the town of Carnoustie itself which lacks good housing. Yes the town is small but the outlaying towns are great and the traffice into the Open was very well handled. I feel the combination of cost, weather and the fact that TV has made it so easy to stay home and watch it as the real reasons for poor attendance.
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What is Padraig up too?
After spending the last two years on a fireplace in Tiger's Woods home, I have a funny feeling that the Claret Jug may be seeing a lot of the countryside in Ireland. Already we can see that Harrington likes to hang around the jug and stare it down almost pinching himself over his victory. Since he won the Open eight days ago Harrington has dragged the Claret Jug into weird places.
We heard that after winning the championship he took it with him into the bathroom so that he could gaze at it while taking his shower. Harrington told the media that he would peer out of the shower just to look at it and assure himself of the victory. That night he didn't get to bed until 4am and was up two hours later, again staring at the jug that was at the foot of the bed. He was so excited that he woke his poor wife Caroline out of a sound sleep just to get assurances that he had won the Jug.
On his return home to Dublin it seems that the trophy went with him everywhere. On Tuesday night he went into a local cafe in Dublin for a bite to eat and didn't want to leave the Jug in the car so he brought it into the cafe and sat it on the table next to the pizza that he ordered making for a grand site in the cafe. The following night Harrington dragged the Jug with him to a pool hall for a session of darts and pool with his four brothers. It will be interesting to see if the Jug makes the journey with Harrington to America this week for the Bridgestone and the PGA Championship.
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Other European Tour news
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What have you done for me lately?
When Colin Montgomerie
won at the Smurfit European Open in Ireland, ending a 19-month win
drought, one of the big keys to his win was putting. For that week
Monty switched over to a long putter and many thought that was the key
for him. But poor putting at both Loch Lomand and the British Open
brought on two straight missed cuts so Monty has decided to swap back
from the belly putter to a short putter of the WGC-Bridgestone.
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat
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Still despite the slump Stenson still has a very good chance at winning the order of merit, right now he is in second place within striking distance of Padraig Harrington with 14 events left on the schedule.
Whops award of the week
Another big debacle at the
Deutsche Bank Players happened to first round leader Simon Khan. After a
65 in which he had an eagle, six birdies, a bogey and just 26 putts,
things changed for the worst in the second round when he made seven
bogeys, a triple-bogey, just two birdies and took 36 putts. On the day
Khan shot 80 and he fell from grace going from 1st place to missing the
cut. Since 1990 this has happened 9 times, the most famous being Rod
Pampling leading the British Open after the first round and then missing
the cut. Now the last time this has happened on the European Tour was
just last month at the A.A. St. Omer Open when Julien Clement went from
69 to 80. At least the 15 shot swing didn't break any records, again
since 1990 the largest single round swing on the European Tour is 21
shots when Greg Owen went from shooting 70 in the first round of the
1996 Open Catalonia to a second round 91 and when Wayne Riley shot 66-87
between the 3rd and 4th rounds at the 1998 Dubai Desert Classic.
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How can I sign up for that job?
40 year old Ricky Bartlett finished off a year long journey in which he played every golf course and golf hole in New Zealand for charity. For those that wonder how many courses there are in New Zealand, if you count even the nine holers there are 419, which is the highest number of courses per capita in the world. Bartlett played 419 rounds in 362 days as he played 7,542 holes in 31,594 shots.
All the courses, except for one gave Bartlett free golf in his quest, the one standout was a course on Chatham Islands that was in terrible shape with sheep droppings and worm casts on the greens. The course charged Bartlett $3 for the round.
As for the different charities, he was able to give the Cancer Society, Amnesty International and the Ronald McDonald House a total of $60,000 for his year long quest.
For more information on Bartlett's quest go to his website: http://www.nzcharitygolftour.co.nz/
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Senior British Open
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Does anybody else find it a bit strange that Tom Watson won again at Muirfield? And did Stewart Ginn really have a chance? That is because it seems that the winners at Muirfield are the elite of hero's of Golf. In the 16 British Open's and Senior Open played on the course, 13 different players have won with 10 of them being Hall-of-Famers. The only one's that aren't in the hall is Ernie Els, who will be one day, Ted Ray, who should be because of winning a British Open and a U.S. Open. So the only one that won't ever be is Alf Perry, who basically played during the depression era and never played outside of England. So in a way it's an impressive list of players, since World War II winners at Muirfield are Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Ernie Els.
With Watson's win he has now won a total of 49 PGA Tour and Champions Tour events. You would have to think that if Watson could have his way that 50th win in his mind would be the U.S. Senior Open. The next three Open's are being played at Broadmoor G.C., Crooked Stick G.C. and Sahalle CC.
The first hole at Muirfield is going down as the second hardest hole in Champions Tour history. The hole played to a scoring average of 4.824 as only one birdie was made on the hole in the final three days of the championship and that was done on Friday by Tim Simpson. On Thursday the hole had nine birdies. The only tougher hole in the history of the Champions Tour was the par 4, fourth hole at the 1990 Greater Grand Rapids Open which played to an average of 5.124.
Gary Player is at it again.
Two weeks ago at Carnoustie
while talking to the media dropped a bomb shell claiming that players
are taking drugs but refused to point any fingers on the guilty parties.
This week at Muirfield during the British Senior Open Player had some
harsh words again, this time when he accused the R&A of making Muirfield
harder than Carnoustie, site of the British Open. As Gary said, "It's
surprised me they've made the seniors so much more difficult than the
regular British Open. The rough must be five or six times higher. The
standard of play is extremely high yet it's projecting that the players
are not all that good. We're trying to build up the European senior tour
and the wrong message has been sent out. If I'm sitting in the stands I
don't want to see bogeys, double bogeys and quadruple bogeys, I want to
see birdies."