Bookies baffled by the aura of Tiger Woods
Ochoa wins her second major in a row
What a perfect time to win, with it Johnson Wagnor goes to the Masters
Is Freddie Couples back and can he contend in the Masters?
Bookies baffled by the aura of Tiger Woods
The dominance of Tiger Woods has stretched well beyond the world of golf. In fact, it has also made plenty of waves in Las Vegas and beyond as bookmakers try to get a grip on handicapping a guy who wins nearly every time he tees it up.
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The absurdness of Tiger’s odds hit its peak two weeks ago at the World Golf Championships - CA Championship in Miami. Facing a field that included 49 of the top 50 players in the world, Tiger was as much as a –160 favorite, meaning that bettors had to risk $160 to win $100. The next favorite on the board in that tournament was Phil Mickelson, who was 15-to-1 in most spots, meaning you would win $150 for every $100 wagered.
There was also a proposition bet offered in that event where you could bet Tiger Woods or the rest of the field. Incredibly, the field was the underdog in that matchup, bringing home as much as $120 for every $100 bet. Of course, Tiger did not win that tournament as he saw his streak snapped when Geoff Oglivy prevailed. And while that little bump in the road has brought Tiger’s odds back down to earth a little bit, they are still the kind of numbers that have never been seen in the world of betting on golf.
“Before Tiger lost the WGC he was around a –110 favorite to win the Masters and since then he’s gone to around a 6-to-5 favorite,” said Sherman, who runs the website www.golfodds.com. “But despite those odds, we’re still getting action on Tiger.”
Another form of wagering on golf comes in the form of match-ups where the sports book pits two players against each other and the bettor wagers on which player will finish better. Tiger is a –450 favorite over Phil Mickelson in this week’s Masters.
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“Considering Phil has won the Masters twice that’s just incredible,” Sherman said. “But that’s the kind of odds we’re forced to put out there.”
The numbers are just as warped in the off shore world of sports betting.
“The Tiger Woods phenomenon has just begun to hit its peak,” said Richard Gardner, a bookmaker for the off shore sports book, Bodog.com. “The reaction [to his winning streak] was met by bettors betting him at an unprecedented level.
“He’s [even money] to win the Masters and the odds will only get worse for bettors as the hype around a Tiger Slam starts to pick up.”
Speaking of the prospects of Tiger winning the Grand Slam, Sherman said that at the start of the season the odds of him pulling it off were more than 20-to-1. But as Tiger kept winning in the early parts of the season the money kept pouring in on him to pull it off.
“We dropped it to 15-to-1, then to 10-to-1, but the money kept coming in on Tiger,” he said. “We’ve now got it all the way down to 5-to-1, which is incredibly low for someone to pull off a feat as difficult as winning the Grand Slam. But people love to bet on Tiger and to root for him.”
Will Tiger Woods get a Hole in One during the tournament? Yes: 35-to-1
Will Tiger Woods lead after Day 1? Yes: 4-to-1
Over/under on how many Birdies will Tiger Woods get? 16 ½
Over/under on how many bogeys or worse will Tiger Woods get? 11 ½
Over/under on what will Tiger Woods’ first-round score will be? 70 ½
----------------------------------------------------------------Ochoa continues to set a “Tiger-like” pace on the LPGA Tour
Every week here at The Buzz we seem to make comparisons to Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa. And for good reason.
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Overall, Ochoa finished the final round with eight pars, closing with a 5-under 67 to become the only player not to make a bogey and the only player in the field to break par all four days. She has won the past two majors by a total of nine shots and has won three of four tournaments this year by a combined 23 shots.
Ochoa has won 14 of the 21 events she has led heading into the final round and leads the Tour with a 68.3 scoring average per round. Next in line is Annika Sorenstam, who is a full stroke behind at 69.3 in second place.
Ochoa has 26 of the necessary 27 points required to gain entrance into the LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Fame. She will not be fully eligible for induction until 2012 when she completes the required 10 years on Tour. Ochoa has 20 wins overall, including the two major championships, as well as a pair of Rolex Player of the Year awards and two Vare Trophies.
She also became the first player since Annika Sorenstam to win two straight majors. She claimed her first major in the Women's British Open at St. Andrews last summer by four shots. Since winning that first major, she is 8-for-13 on the LPGA Tour. She leads the LPGA Official Money List with $855,550 and Rolex Player of the Year race with 123 points over Sorenstam, who is a distant second with 75.
Sounds a little bit like the guy who dominating over on the PGA Tour, doesn’t it? Suddenly there is talk of a “Lorena Slam” on the LPGA Tour.
“I think it's possible,” Sorenstam said of the prospects seeing the same player win all four LPGA majors this year. “I've said it before and I really do think it is. Lorena is playing great golf, and you need obviously to peak at a certain time and you need a little luck, but I certainly do think it's possible.”
Speaking of Sorenstam, she made a valiant effort to try and catch Ochoa, especially if you consider that she was suffering from a stomach virus that sent her to the hospital following Saturday’s third round. She struggled early on during Sunday’s final round with a front-nine 40, but shook off the ill-effects of her condition to fire a gutsy 33 on the back nine to finish at 2-under, four strokes off Ochoa’s winning pace.
“I'm very proud of this week,” Sorenstam said. “Like I said, there was a time [on Saturday] I didn't know if I was going to finish and I'm glad I hung in there, and then come out [on Sunday] and post a really solid score. I thought, well, I gave it [my] all, I can tell you that.”
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Wagner Johnson comes out of nowhere to win Shell Houston Open
This week’s Shell Houston Open was a perfect example as to why golf is such an unpredictable sport. To call Johnson Wagner’s wire-to-wire victory at the Redstone Golf Course in his home state of Texas would be a vast understatement if you take into consideration where this 28-year-old came from to secure his maiden PGA Tour win.
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For starters, you can look at what kind of year Wagner was having in 2008, just his second full season on the PGA Tour. Wagner came into this week having made just three cuts in nine starts, including a string of six straight missed cuts from the Buick Invitational on Jan. 27 through the PODS Championship on March 9. And in the three cuts he had made, Johnson’s best finish was a T38 at the Bob Hope, giving just a little more than $40,000 in earnings. His world rank coming into the week was 313 and he was 193rd on the money list.
No wonder Johnny Miller said at the start of the final round telecast that what Wagner was doing “made absolutely no sense.”
But there Wagner was late Sunday afternoon on the 18th green, pumping his fist and celebrating not only his first PGA Tour win, but the ensuing invitation to play in this week’s Masters that goes along with the victory. Wagner said that four years ago he got an invite to play Augusta from his grandmother’s brother, who is a member. Wagner spent two days at Augusta without leaving the property, playing 36 holes each day. Before Sunday’s final round at the Shell Houston, Wagner referred to his time at Augusta as his “best golf experience to date.”
Now, he’s got one even better: a PGA Tour win.
“This is something I've wanted to do my entire life, and to win at the highest level of golf,” Wagner said after the win. “I'm just thrilled and not shocked, but just -- I just can't believe it.”
So, how did Wagner do it? Here’s a few keys to his stunning victory: • Wagner’s most impressive and probably his most important stat was the manner in which he destroyed Red Stone’s par-5s. It’s very difficult to overpower the par 5s at this course because the shortest one is 557. On the back nine they are 590 and 608 yards. But Wagner, who is ranked just 125th in driving distance, managed to play the par 5s in 10-under for the week with no bogeys.
• Wagner is fortunate that he did so well on the par 5s, because it is playing the par 4s well that has been a key to winning this tournament since it made its home at Red Stone two years ago. Last year’s winner Adam Scott was 7-under on the par 4s and the year before winner Stuart Appleby was 13-under. Johnson, however, was just 2-under and if you take away the 4-under he shot on the par 4s during his course-record round of 63 on Thursday, Johnson was 2-over on the par 4s, with four bogeys in the final three rounds.
• Wagner proved that when you hit a lot of greens and carry a hot putter, good things will happen no matter how far or accurate you are off the tee. Wagner ranked just 53rd in the field in driving distance and was T41st in driving accuracy. But he was T4 in greens in regulation. He finished T20 in putts per round and 10th in putts per GIR. And he didn’t suffer a three-putt until the 14th hole on Sunday.
Other tidbits from Wagner’s win: • Wagner became the first first-time winner of the Shell Houston Open since Mike Heinen in 1994, the sixth since 1980 and the 14th since 1946, the year the tournament began.
• He snapped a string of four straight International winners at the Shell Houston Open (Adam Scott in 2007, Stuart Appleby in 2006, Vijay Singh in 2004 and 2005). ). In fact, international players had won seven out of the last nine events dating back to 1999, with the only American winners being Fred Couples in 2003 and Hal Sutton in 2001.
• Wagner became just the third player to win his first Tour event in wire-to-wire fashion. The other two were D.J. Trahan in the 2006 Viking Classic and Joel Edward in the 2001 Air Canada Championship.
• For obvious reasons, Wagner will be a “player to watch” when he shows up to defend his Shell Houston Open title next year. Last year, he finished T9 and overall in his eight rounds at Red Stone he is 26-under par. For the second straight year, Wagner broke a course record when he fired a blistering 63 during Thursday’s first round with seven birdies, an eagle and no bogeys. In the third round in 2007 as a rookie, he fired what was a record 8-under-par 64, breaking the course record of 65 set by Greg Owen in the second round in 2006.
• Entering the week, Wagner had $1,053,718 in earnings in his 19 career starts, but in just four short days he almost doubled that figure, taking home the $1,008,000 first-place check from the Shell Houston Open. He also gets a two-year exemption on Tour and jumps from 188th in the FedEx Cup standings to 18th.
• Wagner becomes the 101st different Nationwide Tour player to win on the PGA TOUR, with his victory, the 225th by a former Nationwide Tour alumnus. He is the fifth winner this season in his 20s, joining D.J. Trahan, J.B. Holmes, Sean O'Hair and Andres Romero.
What was most impressive about Wagner’s victory was how he fought off the guys trying to overtake him on Sunday. Coming into this week, Wagner had played in 19 career events and had landed in the Top 10 just twice, including last year’s Shell Houston where he was T9. Meanwhile the players chasing him were grizzled veterans like Chad Campbell (134 events, 24 Top-10s, four wins), Fred Couples (451 events, 156 Top-10s, 15 wins), Geoff Oglivy (118 events, 32 Top-10s, three wins) and Billy Mayfair (393 events, 61 Top-10s, five wins).
There were plenty of times when Wagner very easily could have coughed up his lead, considering both the circumstances and the players chasing him. He lead by one-stroke coming into Sunday and by the fourth hole he had extended that lead to five strokes. But after a bogey on the sixth hole suddenly shrunk the lead to three strokes through seven holes.
After a after a horrible front nine, Campbell suddenly started to heat up, ripping off four birdies in five holes, including one on 15 that cut the lead to just one stroke after Wagner bogeyed the 14th.
But Wagner composed himself and on the par-3, 16th he put his tee shot on the green and then placed a beautiful lag putt from more than 40 feet to within a few inches for a tap-in par, while Campbell put his tee shot into a very difficult greenside bunker, which led to a bogey.
Then on 17, Wagner all but clinched the win when, after a poor effort on another long lag-putt for birdie, he calmly drained a nine-footer for par, prompting a fist pump that would have made Tiger Woods blush.
Wagner said that he planned on leaving Texas Sunday night and heading straight for Augusta where he plans on soaking up every second of the entire experience.
“I don't care if I shoot 90 both days and miss the cut,” he said. “I'm so excited to be there, and it's just a dream come true.”
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Freddie “Boom Boom” heads to Augusta with a full head of steam
Fred Couples has just one PGA Tour win to his name in the last 10 years. And at 48 years old, he may never make it back to the winner’s circle.With that said, after watching his performance at last week’s Shell Houston Open, nobody would be stunned if Couples got it gear this week at Augusta and got himself into contention over the weekend.
Couples, one of the most popular players to ever tee it up on Tour, finished T4 this past week at the event where he recorded his last win back in 2003. He shot a 67-66 over the weekend, which marked his best back-to-back rounds since the 2005 Memorial.
His swing looked as smooth as ever and for a guy who is well past his prime he was still bombing it pretty good off the tee, ranking fifth in the field with a driving average of 309.5 yards. Couple that with a T5 ranking in putting and, well, you’ve got to think even Freddie is thinking about a chance to at least be in the mix for his second green jacket come Sunday afternoon.
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The resurgence has not come by accident. According to this story written last week by Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle, Couples spent five days last week in Las Vegas working with Butch Harmon.
Couples has one of the best records of any player at Augusta. In addition to his win in 1992, Freddie has made 23 straight cuts at the Masters. He’s also got six Top-10 finishes, his most recent coming in 2006 when he was T3.
Now, as we mentioned, he heads to Augusta with momentum. In his 23 career starts at the Masters, Couples has recorded a Top-10 when playing the week before just three times. And all three times he fared well at Augusta. See chart.
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Does Michelle Wie have a new beau?
Cut-rule mistake causes Cejka to criss-cross the U.S. on Saturday/Sunday moring.
Thomas Levet beats health problems to win again on the European Tour
Lorena leaves the field in the dust at the Safeway International
Anders Romero surprises all at the Zurich
Michelle Wie dating Stanford hoop star in what some will call a match made in Disney heaven
Fans of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament became quite familiar with the Lopez Twins from Stanford during the last few weeks. Brook and Robin, the sophomore 7-foot identical twins, played key roles in their team’s success this season, a ride that came to end when the Cardinal was drilled by Texas, 82-62, Friday night in the NCAA South Regional semifinal.
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According to Sports Illustrated’s Ramona Shelburne Robin, the twin best-known for his grown out hair, is dating none other than Stanford freshman Michelle Wie. According to the report, it has been a hush-hush relationship, which is no surprise considering the manner in which the 18-year-old Wie has been handled by her parents since she burst onto the scene as the precocious “next big thing” in golf.
Which begs the question: Do B.J. and Bo, Wie’s father and mother, know about this? And, if so, do they approve?
Unlike in recent years, it appears that Wie has had plenty of time to concentrate on her personal life rather than her golf career. She’s played in just one event this season – when she missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Last season, she injured both wrists and kept playing, making only three cuts and breaking par twice in 19 rounds.
Maybe leading a “normal” life is exactly what she needs, although if you read the SI report, there seems to be nothing “normal” about Robin Lopez, who, along with his twin brother, is apparently obsessed with Disney characters. In fact, their dorm rooms at Stanford are filled with Disney figurines and they both are quite adept at answering Disney trivia questions, including obscure characters, the actors who voiced every part and even Walt Disney's favorite color.
Robin is an artist and reportedly spends a lot of his spare time getting into “spirited intellectual debates on the relative merits of traditional animation versus computer generated characters.”
The story goes on to say that, “along with a couple of their friends, [Brook and Robin] created a bunch of cartoon characters they hope could someday be starring in their very own comic book.”
Sounds like to the Buzz that Robin has the kind of personal make-up that will suit the fantasy world Michelle Wie has lived in for most of her life just fine.
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It was all about Planes, Trains and Automobiles for Alex Cejka
You may have been amazed to hear about the lengths that Alex Cejka went to make it back to New Orleans for the final round of the Zurich Classic on Sunday morning, but the news certainly didn’t surprise the folks at RDI Sports, the firm that represents the 37-year-old German.
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A “brave heart” that is feeling downright exhausted today as he heads to Houston for this week’s Shell Houston Open.
It all started late Saturday afternoon when Cejka shot a third-round 75 and thought, due to the PGA’s new rule that cuts the field on Friday and again after Saturday’s play when more than 78 players remain after the first cut, his weekend was over. It turned out, however, that he had actually made the cut when the third round had to be completed Sunday morning due to a long rain delay. Unfortunately, before this was realized, Cejka was on an airplane heading to his home in Las Vegas.
When his plane landed in Vegas at 7:40 p.m. he got a message on his cell phone telling him that he had actually made the cut. He immediately began searching for a flight back to New Orleans, but none were available that would have got him back in time. So instead of simply withdrawing, he took the flight that could get him as far east as possible. Within 15 minutes he was boarding a flight heading for Houston where he landed at 1 a.m. From there he rented a car and drove through the night – 350 miles – and pulled into the course’s parking lot just after 6:30 a.m. He said that he drank six Red Bulls to stay awake.
“It was 4 a.m. in Germany where we are based so we couldn’t help him,” Sirsch said. “Alex did this all on his own.”
As for his clubs, well, they were still on a plane in Las Vegas so Cejka was given a two-year-old set of rented Callaway clubs that is normally reserved for amateurs. He was given a Zurich Classic shirt and since all he had for pants were the jeans he was wearing, someone let him borrow a pair of rain pants. Oh, and his flip flops were traded in for golf shoes.
So with rented clubs and no sleep, how did Cejka fare? Well, he shot his best round of the week with a 71. He finished the tournament T-75 and collected a check for $11,656.00 as well as 47 FedEx points.
“This wasn’t about the money, trust me on that,” Sirsch said. “For $11,000 a lot of players would have just stayed home, but Alex told me that he didn’t want to finish last. That was his main concern.
“This reminds me of the 2004 PGA Championship when he hurt his back six holes into the first round. The injury went up his neck and he could barely move. But he refused to withdraw. He missed the cut (shooting a 75-71) but he was just happy not to have to withdraw. That’s the type of competitor he is.”
Brandt Jobe and Retief Goosen were the other players to leave New Orleans before finding out they were still alive in the tournament. Jobe landed in Dallas and then immediately hopped on a return flight to make it back in that night. Goosen had the benefit of flying in his own personal plane. When he landed in Orlando, the plane took off minutes later and headed back to New Orleans. Goosen’s caddie, however, had already flown back to Europe so he used his pilot as his caddy and shot his best round of the week, a 69, to finish T-57 and collect $13,640.
Hopefully that was enough to pay for gas and a generous tip for his versatile pilot/caddy.
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Another victory for Lorena
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Lorena Ochoa continues to put up "Tiger-like" numbers on the LPGA Tour. The world No. 1 took a one-stroke lead into Sunday's final round of the Safeway International and, much like Woods, she kept a tight grip on the lead throughout the day, as her competition simply fell by the wayside.
Ochoa, who also won here last year, maintained her slim margin through the first five holes and briefly fell into a tie for the lead with Jee Young Lee, who came into the day one-stroke back and moved into a share of the lead when Ochoa when bogeyed the par-4, 406-yard sixth hole. But that was as close as things would get. Ochoa promptly followed with back-to-back birdies on holes eight and nine to reclaim a two-stroke lead and then went bogey-free on the back nine to set the lowest 72-hole score at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club (-22) and pick up the winner's check worth $225,000.
It was all over but the crying after Ochoa carded a trio of birdies on holes 13, 14, and 15, as she sprinted to a compelling seven-stroke victory in front of the largest crowd in tournament history, which was pro-Lorena all week long since she played her college golf at the University of Arizona and is from nearby Mexico.
In 2008, Ochoa has two victories in three starts and is the first multiple winner on the LPGA Tour this season. In her last 26 starts, she's won 12 tournaments and finished second five times and has 23 Top-10 finishes. Overall she's won 16 times in her last 48 starts since 2006.
The 11-stroke tied for Ochoa's largest margin of victory and was just the second double-digit margin of victory in her 19 career wins, the first one coming in 2006 at the Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions where she defeated Juli Inkster by 11 strokes.
In fact, Ochoa's average margin of victory in her 19 wins is just four strokes. She's had two playoff victories (at the 2007 and 2006 Wegman's) as well as a one-stroke win that came in her first-career victory at the 2004 Franklin American Mortgage Championship when she became the first Mexican to win an LPGA Tour event. In addition, Ochoa has four victories by just two strokes (2007 ADT, 2006 Samsung, 2006 Sybase, 2004 Wachovia) and four victories by three strokes (2007 Canadian Open, 2007 Sybase, 2006 Wendy's, 2006 Takefuji Classic).
She admitted after this week's comfortable victory that it was nice to breathe easy as she played the 72nd hole.
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Ochoa was alarmingly consistent all week long. She birdied the 18th hole in all four rounds and overall in the tournament birdied 28 of the 72 holes. She hit 43 fairways in regulation and an incredible 59 greens in regulation while needing just 113 putts – or an average of just over 28 putts per round – in four rounds of golf.
Her performance on Sunday during those three straight birdies at holes 13, 14 and 15 was a microcosm of juts how complete her game her game is right now. On the 552-yard, par-5, 13th, Ochoa, who averaged 283 yards off the tee this week, landed a pitching wedge to within 12 feet where she drained the birdie on putt. On the short, 310-yard, par-4 13th, she drove the green and two-putted before showing off her short game once again on the 15th when she placed a sand wedge to within two feet for a tap-in birdie.
One major difference between Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa is their mindset coming into a tournament. While Tiger has always said – rather convincingly – that he expects to win every single tournament that plays in, Ochoa has a different way of looking at things.
"I don't think it's good to get in a position where you expect to win and you feel comfortable with a win," she said on Sunday after her round. "Because then everything will turn back and just -- you know, I like how I'm playing, how I feel playing on Sunday, the last group. I like to win, and I'll hopefully continue that."
As for the chances of being able to three-peat at this event, Ochoa said she may use her influence to make sure she gets that chance. Safeway, the nation's third-largest grocery store chain, has been the sole title sponsor since 2004, but announced two weeks ago it was ending the relationship. Currently, the tournament does not have a title sponsor for next year and will either move elsewhere or cease to exist.
"I'm going to ask my sponsors to see if they want to support the tournament, hopefully, anywhere in Arizona," Ochoa said. "It's such a great venue, and you can see with the fans. I would love to be back. Yeah, it would be a shame to lose the tournament."
Very quietly, Annika Sorenstam, who beat Ochoa in a playoff at this event back in 2005, notched her fourth consecutive top-10 finish of the season with a tie for ninth at the Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola. The 70-time winner finished the week at 11-under-par in a tie with three others. Sorenstam won the season-opening SBS Open at Turtle Bay this season and also finished fourth (Fields Open in Hawaii) and second (HSBC Women's Champions) prior to this week.
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Thomas Levet beats vertigo, returns to winner’s circle
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It was just two years ago that Thomas Levet was thinking his career as a professional golfer was over. The Frenchmen was suffering from vertigo – a specific type of dizziness that causes a balance disorder – and didn’t pick up a club for more than six months.
At the time Levet explained the disease like this: "Imagine being in a car that is spinning for 45 minutes - or a hamster spinning on its wheel, except I'm not the hamster, I'm the wheel."
That’s why Levet’s victory this week at the MAPFRE Open de Andalucia by Valle Romano was so gratifying. The 39-year-old Levet beat teenage sensation Oliver Fisher in a sudden-death play-off for his first win since capturing the 2004 Barclays Scottish Open.
Levet trailed by two strokes with two holes to play on Sunday. He sank a 20-foot birdie putt on 17 to get within a stroke heading into the 18th and that’s where Fisher put his tee shot into a water hazard, resulting in a bogey to set up the playoff.
The players went back to the 18th hole, Fisher suffered another errant tee shot, this time landing in a fairway bunker that led to another bogey. Meanwhile, Levet, a 2004 member of the European Ryder Cup team and the runner-up of the 2002 British Open, managed a routine par that was good enough for him to taste victory once again. The win also helped Levet gains some satisfaction from a 2002 playoff loss he suffered to Ernie Els at this same event.
After the win, the classy Levet dedicated his victory to the late father of European Tour colleague and fellow Frenchman Raphaël Jacquelin, who passed away earlier this month.
"I was just happy to be standing up,” Levet told Reuters. “When you play the Ryder Cup two years before and then are trying to keep your card it's a low goal, but when you see what I've been through it's a tough goal. Now I've got a card for at least the next two years. It was an unbelievable battle today and it just shows you that it's never over until it's over. We've seen it so many times."
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Romero surprises all with win at New Orleans
At last year’s British Open, Argentina’s Andres Romero was on his way to posting potentially winning early number until a double bogey, bogey finish left him with a 67 and ultimately in third place. At the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Romero was in a similar position, and this time he got up and down for par on 17 and parred 18 for a 13-under total in the clubhouse. He had nearly three hours to wait, but the score stood up to give the 26-year-old his first PGA Tour victory by one stroke over Australia’s Peter Lonard.
Romero was tied for second through 54 holes, just one stroke back, so it was an unusual circumstance that he teed off so early in the final round. Because a long rain delay on Saturday suspended the third round and left so much golf to be played on Sunday, players were sent off in the same pairings as the third round rather than waiting to make new pairings based on 54-hole totals. Romero had two holes to play on Sunday morning, making birdie on both for a 65. He then went out early in the final round and took the lead in the clubhouse with a 68.
The 133 total for the final two rounds by Romero was four strokes better than anyone else managed at the TPC Louisiana (Padraig Harrington and Tim Petrovic were at 137). It was an impressive display, and the thing that Romero said he was most impressed with was that he had only one bogey in the final 36 holes. An aggressive player, he tends to make a lot of birdies but also a fair share of bogeys. But this time he hit 17 greens in the third round and 15 in the final round to keep things steady.
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Lonard was tied for the lead with two holes to play after a birdie on 16, but bogeyed the par-three 17th for a final-round 69 and 12-under 276. New Zealand rookie Tim Wilkinson shot a 67 to take third place at 277, with Woody Austin, Padraig Harrington, and Nicholas Thompson at 278. Austin had a share of the lead with five holes to play, but made a bogey on 14 and a double bogey on 18, where he drove into the rough, barely advanced it, and hit his third into the water.
Here are some of the keys to Romero's victory:
- So how did he win you ask? The main reason was his finishing holes, he was 10-under on the last four holes, the best of anyone in the field.
- Romero had a good week putting from 15 feet and over. Of the 38 putts he had in this range he made nine of them.
- Romero overpowered the par 5s, playing them in 8-under as only two players played them better.
- Made the most birdies of anyone in the field.
- After the second round Romero was six shots back and T-32nd. His position after three rounds is the biggest second-round comeback on the PGA Tour this year and the six-shot comeback was just one off the pace that Tiger Woods accomplished at Bay Hill where he won after being seven back after the second round (he was T20th).
- This is the third time that the TPC of Louisiana has held the event and every winner (Tim Petrovic, Nick Watney and now Anders Romero) was a first-time winner. What's more, if you look back to 1996, of the 12 different winners, nine of them have been first timers with just Brad Faxon, David Toms and Vijay Singh having won before. (Carlos Franco was also a first-timer, but since he won it twice we only only counted him once).
Romero stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 30 of 56 ..... (T73rd)Driving average: 290.0 ..... (T17th)
Greens hit: 54 of 72 ....... (T6th)
Putts: 113 (28.25 a rd).... (T35th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 29
2-putt greens: 42
3-putt greens: 0
Play on par 3s: -2
Play on par 4s: -3
Play on par 5s: -8
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 21 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 10 of 18 (55.56%)... (T64th)
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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So what ever happened to Tiger's Hampton estate?
Shell Houston Open becoming a popular place
TaylorMade suing Nickent over false advertising
Ogilvy has a great week to break Tiger's win streak
So what ever happened to Tiger's Hampton estate?
One of the biggest problems of the internet age is how many reports become major news, even if the report is false. That happened last week when the New York Post published this Braden Keil story on how Tiger Woods was spending $65 million dollars on a house in the Hamptons of Long Island. Once this story was up, unfortunely thanks to websites like our own, the story spread like fire as everyone was amazed and wondered why Woods was trading Florida for New York.
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Only problem, this story got lost, nobody followed up on it. Normally when Tiger does anything it gets big news on every site and magazine but the story seemed to die on the vine and for a pretty good reason, it wasn't true.
What is sad is how these stories get started. How about this gem that Officespam.Com had three years ago trying to show off Tiger Wood's Hawaiian home. Nice pictures, only problem this isn't Tiger Woods home on Maui, matter of fact Woods doesn't even have a Hawaiian home. What happened was that a zealous real estate company in Maui that had a high price $5,000 dollar a day house for rent in Kapalua, worded an advertisement saying, "rent a oceanfront home that Tiger Woods would love to own." That ad got misread by other sites that within days was showing off to people pictures of this Kapalua home saying it was Tiger's home. Nice dream house but nothing to do with Tiger.
As for the Gin Lane home on six acre's in New York it's not going to be Tiger's new home. According to Woods manager Mark Steinberg he didn't buy the home, matter of fact he has never looked at the home and is in the process of building a new home on Jupiter Island just north of Palm Beach. As for other places that Woods has he owns a home in California in Corona Del Mar which is in Orange County. This makes sense because his mother lives near there so he has family to visit in Southern California. Woods is also going to have another home in the future as he is involved in a building of a house in Dubai but we don't know much about what he plans on doing with that other than he is involved with building a course there.
As for moving up to Long Island that really makes no sense for several reasons. First I would say that a person with Tiger's income would not want to leave a tax haven like Florida for high taxes in New York but more importantly Woods is building his dream home in Florida. So the next question, how did this report happen? Of course the New York Post is mum about all of this and in a report on CNBC.Com, editors of the Post are still standing by it's story. But as one real estate agent who handles high profile "stars" that buy million dollar homes in Bel Air told the "Buzz", sometimes when a home is not selling, especially in this bad economics you can get a lot of "buzz" for the stagnant property by "planting" the rumor seeds with reporters in tabloid publications. They always run with rumors and it's funny how many people are interested in properties when famous people are thinking of buying a home. Off the record our real estate mogul friend said that this Hampton property has gotten millions of dollars of free publicity via this report so he can see how something like this happened. But this may not be the case as Newsday ran this story before the Post article saying that Sotheby's International had sold the property and weren't saying who the buyer was.
So the truth on how this story got started may never come out but Tiger isn't moving up north and the report in the New York Post was wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------Shell Houston Open becoming a popular place
For years the Shell Houston Open languished as one of those middle class events that always got a fair field but never achieved stardom like the WGC events and the Palmer, Memorial and Wachovia tournaments. Of course it's number one problem is the lack of having Tiger Woods attend, they came close to having Woods come in 2002 but at the last moment one of Woods friends changed his wedding date to conflict with the Shell and Woods went to the wedding.
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Another thing to help the Shell was the new Masters rule in which PGA Tour winners would get an invite. So with the Shell being the last event before the Masters it's the last chance for players to get a Masters invite. So players like Davis Love III and Colin Montgomerie, who have been a part of the Masters for many years but don't have an invite this year have one last chance for a trip to Augusta. As for Love, he didn't have an invitation to the 1995 Masters and got the last spot with his win in New Orleans the week before. For Love it almost proved to be a golden ticket to a major win as he finished just a shot in back of winner Ben Crenshaw.
So with all of this working in Shell's favor they are going to have the best field they ever have had. Already six of the top-ten players in the World, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, K.J. Choi, Adam Scott and Padraig Harrington are in the field and with others like U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera, Justin Leonard, John Daly, Davis Love III and Chad Campbell things are looking very rosy for the tournament. As for Montgomerie, no decision has been made but he indicated to the Houston officials that if he was in the Masters he would like to come. Now it's not that easy since Monty has no stature on the PGA Tour so he would have to get a sponsor invite. So it may be as late as Friday, the deadline for entries to see if Monty is going to play. With his wedding the week after the Masters and his game not very good, the odds on Monty going to Houston are getting slimmer by the day.
Still it's nice to see an underdog event like the Shell Houston Open doing so well.
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TaylorMade suing Nickent over false advertising
So how far is too far in advertising? Of course in the case of golf club manufactures, everyone wants to be number one on the PGA Tour. Titleist is the undisputed king on golf balls and TaylorMade is the king of drivers. Matter of fact TaylorMade has been number one since 2001 and they also make the same claim on the Nationwide Tour.
Many wonder how clubs are counted on the PGA Tour, there are some folks from a group called the Darrell Survey that hang out at each of the major tour stops, the PGA Tour, Champions, LPGA even the Nationwide Tour. Each week they chart each player and what clubs they are using, what balls they are playing with even what shoes and spikes they wear. This information is then sold to all of the manufacturing companies so that they can see what the players are using and then take that information and put it in their advertising campaigns.
But just like any kind of information it should be buyer beware. Advertising is sometimes manipulated to sound better than what it really is and that is the basis of a weird legal action in Golf. In a lawsuit filed by TaylorMade in San Diego last week, they claim that Nickent is going overboard with this ad (below) on there website which TaylorMade feels is misleading to golf consumers.
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Now in a statement released by Nickent they say: "We are a small company with great products, and we wanted to tout the fact that we have a driver that is good enough to finish as the #1 driver model in a Nationwide Tour event. There has been no misleading information disseminated by Nickent, as the Darrell Survey, the mechanism responsible for keeping track of golf club equipment usage at professional events, clearly shows that the Nickent 4DX T Spec was the #1 driver model at the Nationwide Tour Moonah Classic with 28 clubs in play. It was the first time Nickent has taken the #1 driver model distinction on the Nationwide Tour and it was deemed worthy of a small advertising campaign, especially since the event was the Nationwide Tour's most recent. Of course Nickent is citing that the advertising is right and they put in the small type that it was number one for this one event but lets be real about something, how many people read the small print? In this age of slick advertising does companies really have to go this low in trying to get people to buy their product? On top of that, when they get caught in something like that claiming that they are a small company trying to promote their product is no excuse. The same with shaft companies, some advertising make it sound how appealing and great shafts are on clubs but people don't realize in buying brand X shaft in clubs that it may not be the same shaft that is used by PGA Tour players. Most of the time it's an inferior shaft, a lot cheaper to make and not what people think they are getting just because it's stamped with a company logo. This bait and switch tactic is big and is in many areas of golf equipment.
The "Buzz" just wonders how long golf consumers have to put up with this kind of "misleading" advertising. So in further additions of the "Buzz" we are going to point out some of these "misleading" ads and ways that manufactures mislead the consumer. For you folks at home you can help us, just email us at "Golfbuzz" telling us your stories of misleading ads that you have run across, we will look into you claims and point this out so that all of these companies will think twice before they run some slick advertising that mislead us all. Another thing we would like to see is how much bait and switching of equipment is going on, everyone would be shocked at how much this tactic are used.
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Geoff puts an end to Tiger's streak
What an amazing career that Geoff Ogilvy has had. Four PGA Tour wins but three of them have been in very important events with double World Golf Championship wins and a U.S. Open victory. In a way it's almost as remarkable as Andy North winning just three times with two of them coming at the U.S. Open. But the difference is that Ogilvy is just 30 and entering the prime of his career and we know he will win a lot more in the future.
Many wonder what ever happened to the Aussie who won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot just four months after winning the Accenture Match Play. Many thought that he would be a power to reckon with for many years to come, but he fell completely off the radar scoop. Between his U.S. Open win 20 months ago and his victory at Doral, he only had three top-five finishes, T4th at Barclays last year, his runner-up finish at the Match Play and his T3rd finish at the WGC-CA Championship last year at Doral. But a lot has happened in his life, since Winged Foot he has been a father twice and been finding his feet so to say with the family.
It's been a struggle, as Ogilvy said after the first round, "The family thing off the course, I've had periods where I haven't practiced like I used to. I'm just getting used to being a dad and juggling, just managing the time, and sometimes you don't want to go out when you've got kids to play with. It's more fun than hitting balls in a left-to-right wind."
So at the start of the year after missing three straight cuts, then losing in the first round of the Match Play things didn't look very good. But he has finally gotten the family thing under control, Geoff, his wife and two youngsters have been on the road the last three weeks in Florida and things have been better with a new nanny helping them out. Over the period of the last three weeks Geoff's game has improved with a T10th at PODS and then a T14th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational which was capped off with a final round 66.
So he came into Doral, a place he likes to play, on a bit of a high and it showed with his fast start of 65-67-68. Despite all of the delays which started on Saturday and carried over to Monday, Ogilvy has been able to bounce back and keep his game crisp with the possible exception for his last nine holes on Monday.
Fortunately Ogilvy had a two-stroke cushion. When nobody mounted a huge charge, Ogilvy’s nine pars on the back nine—none bigger than a chip-in for par on the 13th hole—left him with a one-stroke victory with a 17-under 271 total.
The one man who did make a charge was Tiger Woods, but he started five strokes behind. Woods had seven holes remaining when play resumed on Monday, and played them in 3-under but that still left him two strokes behind in fifth place. It put an end to his various winning streaks: five straight on the PGA Tour, six straight official events worldwide, seven straight overall events worldwide, three straight at Doral, and three straight WGC events. Woods shot a 68 in the final round, but it was a 72 in the third round, plus a number of missed short putts during the week, that did him in. Three of the world’s top players tied for second at 272, all of them with 68s in the final round: Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, and Retief Goosen. Singh had three birdies in nine holes on Monday, but bogeys on 13 and 14 were costly as he had his second runner-up finish of the year.
For Ogilvy, it puts a giant kick start to his year and it will be interesting to see if this is the start of something good. People have always know him to have good nerves and despite playing the third round with Tiger, Ogilvy never flinched outscoring Woods 68 to 72. Even more remarkable was being able to withstand all of the pressures of weather delays and still play well, even with nine pars on Monday it was a remarkable week.
Here are some of the keys to Ogilvy's victory:
- No matter how well he played, making only one bogey over the course in his last 81 holes at Doral (including last 9 of 2007), the shot that he will probably remember the most was the chip in for par on the 13th hole on Monday. The chip was hit too hard and if it didn't hit the pin solidly and go into the hole, the chances of him having a 20-footer for bogey loomed.
- Ogilvy hit the most greens in regulation of anyone, hitting 55 of 72. With that Ogilvy becomes the 93rd winner of a PGA Tour event since 1997 that also was the leader in greens hit. But of the 93 winners, Ogilvy has the 3rd worst rank in driving acccuray. At Doral Ogilvy hit only 25 of 56 fairways for a 44.6%. That ranked T62nd. The highest was Scott McCarron who was the leading greens hit guy at the 1997 AT&T Classic but ranked T65th in driving accuracy.
- Ogilvy played the par 4s in nine under, tied with Graeme Storm for best of the week.
- Not only did Ogilvy hit the most greens, missing just 17. But to show how good his game was, of the 17 greens he missed he got it up and down 16 times the best of anyone in that stat this week.
- Ogilvy took 110 putts for the week which was T21st but in the 2nd round he took only 23. Ogilvy missed three putts inside 10 feet this week and finished ranked T2 in that category making 61 out of 64.
- In addition to 28-year-old Sergio Garcia, Ogilvy becomes the only player 30 years of age or younger to have three victories in events in which Tiger Woods is in the field. Ogilvy’s wins with Woods in the field have come at the 2008 WGC-CA Championship, 2006 U.S. Open and the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
- Ogilvy joins Tiger Woods and Darren Clarke as the only mulitiple winners of a World Golf Championship event.
Ogilvy stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 25 of 56 ..... (T62nd)Driving average: 289.1 ..... (35th)
Greens hit: 55 of 72 ....... (1st)
Putts: 110 (27.50 a rd).... (T21st)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 2
1-putt greens: 30
2-putt greens: 40
3-putt greens: 0
Play on par 3s: -2
Play on par 4s: -9
Play on par 5s: -6
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 18 ................ (T13th)
Scrambling: 16 of 17 (94.12%)... (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.
The streak ends for Tiger
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It's amazing watching Woods lose these days, you have to think that the secret for his success is not his tee to green game but putting. Last week in his Arnold Palmer win Woods made 61 of 63 putts of nine feet and under. This week Woods was 65 of 74 on putts of 10 feet and under. So while Ogilvy was missing just two in that range, Woods was missing 9 so that accounts for the difference in score. But there were other reasons that caused Woods to lose:
- On Sunday Tiger ended his round in a ugly manner. On nine on his tee shot to the par 3, a camera went off right at impact that threw him off. Woods missed the green and wasn't able to save par. Then on the next hole a par 5, Woods was just short of the green with his second shot. From off the green he decided to putt it and didn't hit a very good putt, leaving him a putt that he missed, making a par on a par 5 hole. So you have to wonder if Woods could of played those holes in one under instead of one over things could of been different.
- Woods had two three putts, but the kiss of death for Woods had to be taking 60 putts in the last two rounds.
- Woods third round 72 was only the third round in 24 in which Woods didn't break par at Doral
Woods stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 30 of 56 ..... (T37th)Driving average: 301.9 ..... (T9th)
Greens hit: 53 of 72 ....... (T3rd)
Putts: 114 (28.50 a rd).... (T44th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 2
1-putt greens: 28
2-putt greens: 40
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: -1
Play on par 4s: -3
Play on par 5s: -11
Eagles: 2
Birdies: 18 ................ (T13th)
Scrambling: 14 of 19 (73.68%)... (12th)
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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Daly makes his Wednesday pro-am partners happy
George Lopez sacked as Bob Hope host
Ode to Ben Hogan
Another great Tiger Woods win, a recap and statistical look
The good side of John Daly
Last week on the "Buzz" we documented the reports that surfaced about John Daly's day in the Hooters' hospitality tent and then Butch Harmon's words in parting ways with Daly. Things got worse on Wednesday when he missed his tee time and was disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This brought on a rash of stories, most of them dealing with his drinking and the common theme that Daly needs some help.
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Now, according to Daly, he got a wrong tee time in a phone conversation with someone at the tournament. We have to take his word that this is what happened. Daly has taken responsibility for not being there on time since there is really no excuse for him other than plain stupidity. The PGA Tour provides a lot of different ways for players to officially get their tee time and calling the tournament is not one of them.
There is still a side of Daly that you have to love and that is the fact that he doesn't want to disappoint anyone. Daly tried to get the three people that he was suppose to play in the pro-am with to play a round with him over the weekend, but according to Garry Smits of the Jacksonville Times-Union those three were executives with UBS in the New York office and had returned home. So Daly did the next best thing, he got three UBS executives from the Orlando office to play with him on Sunday and they all had a good time. Now, this could be spin control on Daly's part and he got some mileage out from the gesture as it was a note in Mick Elliott's Arnold Palmer coverage in the Tampa Tribune and, of course, Golf Channel had a camera crew there, making it seem more like a propaganda report than a news story. Unfortunately for the Golf Channel they didn't get the story right and made it sound like Daly was playing with his original pro-am partners, that wasn't the case. But hey, Daly tried to make amends, just wonder if any of those three original playing partners feel bad that they didn't fly back down to Orlando to play with John.
Still we just hope that Daly can reflect on all of this and realize that he is his worst enemy. Unfortunately, Daly is going to have to find that one special person who will slap him on the head when he gets out of hand. Being an alcoholic has no cure, even those that have completely stopped drinking for decades will tell you that they are still an alcoholic today.
The most important thing to realize is that Daly isn't a total monster as some may write and this little round of golf on Sunday at a golf course in Orlando proves that Daly has a lot of good in him. Hopefully he can master his problems.
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George Lopez was never able to fill the shoes of Bob Hope
We can see how much the stature of John Daly has eroded over the years. The same can be said for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. For years this was a can't-miss event. Every great player (except for Tiger) between 1960 and 2000 would make it his business to be at the Hope.
Once upon a time the Hope was a very prestigious event that got top billing on the PGA Tour. It was always played on a week that football or basketball didn't have much going and it would get the best ratings in television. NBC Sports covered it for years and everyone enjoying watching the Saturday show in which Bob Hope and his celebrity friends got top-billing along with PGA Tour stars. Over the years its champions list included all of the big names of golf: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Craig Stadler, Lanny Wadkins, Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen, Fred Couples, Tom Kite, David Duval and Phil Mickelson.
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A combination of trying to rekindle the past in a marketplace that isn't getting any younger is the main problem, but adding to the woes is the fact that the pros of today don't like playing in five-day events with amateurs. What's more, the event's home course, the Classic Club, could be on the Top-10 list of worst courses on the PGA Tour because of the element of high winds. On top of all this, it doesn't help that its been kicked off the rotation of having a major network cover it and the stigma of the Golf Channel around gives it a low esteem in a lot of minds. Making things even worse is the fact that in 2009 it will be played the week before the Super Bowl, so even with an off week from football, the Bob Hope doesn't have a chance of getting good ratings since it's not on a network.
Another black mark on the tournament is the fact that officials have thrown in the towel on the grand experiment of having comedian George Lopez host the event, dropping him in favor of Arnold Palmer, who will take on the role for one year in 2009. In a way, this really isn't the Bob Hope's fault, but we can't put the blame on Lopez either. It was just a marriage that broke up because of the differences between the two.
The Palm Springs area is probably one of the smallest markets on tour, along with Pebble Beach and Hilton Head. Its demographics are made up of folks that are over the age of 45, a good chunk of them being Canadians and folks that don't fit into the mold of people that spend a lot of money. Right now it has a sugar-daddy of a sponsor in Chrysler, which has a contract to sponsor the event through 2010, but the big question is if Chrysler, with all of its problems, will even be around to sponsor the event in 2010.
What Lopez brought to the table was a younger Hollywood figure who could help bring a new attitude to an aging event. Unfortunately, the present fan base didn't like what Lopez represented and their complaints didn't help things. Lopez was also a different type of person than they expected, one that every now and then let out a cuss word, one that wanted the event to change and be more like the FBR, which has a big party atmosphere of younger folks and one that would make jokes about the Classic Club, the course that many don't like. The last part happened in December in a news conference as Lopez made references about the wind at the course, which didn't settle very well with the folks that run the event. Many also didn't think that Lopez helped in bringing in new stars to the event in 2008 and by winning the pro-am with Samuel Jackson and Luke Wilson, which raised some eyebrows, especially when he played to a 13-handicap during the Hope and a couple of weeks later was an 11 at the AT&T.
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Is Arnold Palmer the answer? Yes and no. Yes, in the manner that he will make the 2009 Hope, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary, a success in the minds of the older group of people who are from the Palm Springs area. But it will be doubtful that Palmer will sway a lot of professionals and celebrities to play in the event next year. So in a way this will be temporary fix. The problem of 2010 still looms large. Palmer will be great in helping the event forget about its other problems but the marquee pros on the PGA Tour will still take the week off. Palmer won't be able to help with the problem if high winds strike the Classic Club next year again making the course unplayable and the laughing stock of the PGA Tour. Lastly Palmer won't be able to help ease the pain of six-hour rounds for four days, plus the fact that nobody will be watching the event on the Golf Channel. Ratings would surely be high if a network were to broadcast the event next year since it won't be up against football or basketball but I have a funny feeling executives at both NBC and CBS that have covered the Hope in past years don't want to deal with it again.
So the big problem will be that the event will go another year without solving any of its real problems and at the end of the event executives from Chrysler will have to decide if it wants to continue its relationship with an event that is on a downward spiral. Who knows if in a year the executives of Chrysler will even be in a position to continue, with Chrysler laying off thousands of workers and forcing the ones that are still around to take their two-week vacation when they want them to do. Who knows if Chrysler will even have a choice in renewing with the economy being as bad as it it. For an organization like the Bob Hope, which has had just one sponsor for decades, the thought of having to get someone else to pony up $8 million dollars for this event could be a death sentence.
So what are the answers? They have to do a number of things. The first is easy: find another course, since the players hate the Classic Club. The last couple of years the owners of the Palmer Course at PGA West didn't want to host the event any more but with new owners they now wouldn't mind hosting a tournament again, so maybe the answer is to return to that club as the host course. They also need to reduce the event from five days to four days. This will be difficult since they get $15,000 from 375 players to attend the four day pro-am. If it's reduced a day they will get a quarter less folks playing in the pro-am, which means less money for charities. Still if it's a better event, they would be able to charge more money for the spaces to make up the difference. Lastly, and this is something that there isn't any answer to, they have to figure out a way to attract more fans to the event. Since the population of the area is just around 500,000 that time of year, it's a lot less that Phoenix with a population of 4 million. They have to figure out something that will make it attractive and draw more folks.
Is there a future for the Hope? Many don't think so, but I can remember a time that the FBR Open and the Northern Trust had image problems and were able to solve them. The Hope has to find the solution. But by getting Arnold Palmer for a week in 2009 they are just prolonging the problem and making the future of the event look very bleak.
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Tiger catches Hogan with Arnold Palmer win
Since Tiger Woods' 20th win at the 2000 U.S. Open, you had this funny feeling that he was going to run the table and beat every record in golf. At that time he was only 25 years old and already destined for greatness. By the end of the year he added four more wins and was tied with other legends like Tommy Armour and Johnny Miller.
It didn't take him long to pass players like Lee Trevnio and Tom Watson and when he tied Lloyd Mangurm at the 2003 Match Play, Woods was in the Top-10 with just nine players in front of him. Of course, the players he passed were great, but in looking at the names ahead of him (Sarazen, Hagen, Casper, Nelson, Palmer, Hogan, Nicklaus and Snead) it was quite a list. The "Buzz" had dinner with Billy Casper during the 2006 Masters while Tiger was at 48 wins and just three away from catching Billy and he wasn't shocked at Tiger's progress. But what did surprise him was the speed in which it was happening. As Casper said, it took him 44 years to get to 51 wins and he was shocked that Tiger was going to pass him up after just turning 31. He thought it was incredible that someone that just turned 31 was beating history.
This week, with his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods tied Ben Hogan's 64-win total. This a quite a mark and while we have a second before Woods wins again, we should pay homage to Hogan. Snead and Nicklaus were great players in their own right and many feel that Nicklaus is probably the best of all time, but Hogan had a really great record that could of been even better if he was born at a different time and didn't have that accident in 1949.
| Here is a chart of the four top players in PGA Tour wins: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Starts | Wins | 2nds | 3rds | 1st, 2nds & 3rds | Percentage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Snead | 549 | 82 | 57 | 49 | 188 | 34.2% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jack Nicklaus | 594 | 73 | 58 | 34 | 165 | 27.7% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ben Hogan | 294 | 64 | 44 | 27 | 135 | 45.9% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tiger Woods | 233 | 64 | 23 | 17 | 104 | 44.6% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For Hogan he turned pro at the age of 17 and wasn't the type of talent that Woods was at 17. It took a lot of hard work, determination and will power before Hogan finally won for the first time at the age of 26 and that wasn't really a true victory even though it's official on the PGA Tour. That's because he won the 1938 Hershey four-ball with partner Vic Ghezzi. It took him another two years before he was finally able to claim his first solo victory in the 1940 North & South Open. As with Tiger winning his first event just two months after turning professional, Hogan took 11 years and a lot of hardship to figure out the way to cure all of his ills from a nasty hook to a inconsistent putter. But over the next eight years Hogan was able to finally find his golf game while World War II unfortunately just about put a stop to things. Despite all of the problems of the war, Hogan won 20 times before the war ended and when things got back to normal Hogan's game took off. Many talk about Nelson's 18-win season of '45, but in some circles Hogan's 13-win season in 1946 and his 10-win season of 1948 was just as good. Between the end of January in 1946 and the end of January in 1949, Hogan won 30 times, playing the best players in the world. Of course, Nelson's streak was unbelievable, but the talent that he played against in 1945 didn't compare against the talent that Hogan played in those three years.
| Age that the all-time career winners were when they won their 64th PGA Tour victory | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Total PGA Tour wins | event, age of 64th win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Snead | 82 | (1952 Palm Beach Round Robin) at the age of 39 years, 11 months, 21 days | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jack Nicklaus | 73 | (1977 Memorial Tournament) at the age of 37 years, 4 months, 1 day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ben Hogan | 64 | (1959 Colonial National Invitation) at the age of 46 years, 8 months, 20 days | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tiger Woods | 64 | 64th (Arnold Palmer Invitational) at the age of 32 years, 2 months and 17 days | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
But on a fateful day on the Feb. 2, 1949, Hogan's life took a serious turn when on a foggy back road outside of El Paso, Texas, his car went head-on into a Greyhound bus and Hogan almost lost his life. Doctors were able to save Hogan, but gave him no chance of ever playing again and just a slim chance of walking. But Hogan proved them wrong a year later when he almost won the 1950 Los Angeles Open and then 15 months after the accident won the 1950 U.S. Open. Hogan was able to win nine majors after the accident, but could only muster up 15 PGA Tour wins. That's because Hogan played only a limited schedule as he only played in 49 events in the decade of the 50s.
But the thing that we remember and are told the most about Hogan was his determination and power of concentration. Yes, Jack Nicklaus was great at this, but many believe that Hogan had more determination than anyone else. That is until Tiger Woods came along.
Nobody detests losing more than Woods. While he was a youth, Tiger's father Earl instilled in him lessons that the former Green Beret learned in Vietnam. One of the big things that Earl taught his son was that any mistakes in judgement or planning didn't mean just a lose, but in Vietnam it meant losing your life. To this day Woods treats things not as a game, but as a loss of life scenario. Woods is the closet person to the way Ben Hogan thought about golf than anyone. Hogan learned the lessons of the Depression and the war that made him such a serious player. Dave Marr once told me that one of the biggest traits of Hogan's life was that he could never achieve perfection. In Hogan's mind he never had a perfect round and for him to achieve that he had to hit every fairway and make every shot perfect to the green and make every putt. Since he always wanted to be perfect he always had to practice, even in his later years in life after his career was over.
The same goes for Woods. While many in contention on Sunday laid in bed and took it easy trying to rest up for the final round of the Arnold Palmer, Tiger was up before the sun and was running a few miles and then following it up with a session in his gym. This is all part of his routine to be physically and mentally ready to play golf and just like Hogan no matter how well he plays and how many events he wins you can always hear him say, "I need to go home and work on this." But more importantly, just like with Hogan, Woods has the mental toughness that we bet you on the Monday morning after his Palmer victory he got up at the crack of dawn and again ran those miles and worked out in the gym. Tiger is always striving to be perfect every time he plays, just like Ben Hogan.
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Tiger's win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Tiger Woods entered Sunday with a 42-3 record on the PGA Tour when holding at least a share of the lead entering the final round, including the last 12 times going back to the 2004 Tour Championship. Was that record in jeopardy because he was tied with four other players entering the final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational? Not really.
Woods shot a four-under 66 for a 270 total to grab the title at Bay Hill, but he did have to work hard for it. In fact, it went all the way to the wire before Woods, playing in the final group, holed a 24-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole for a one-stroke victory over Bart Bryant. The downhill slider was the longest putt he made all week.
The putt was on a similar line to the one he made to beat Phil Mickelson in 2001. In fact, that was the last time that Woods birdied the 72nd hole to win a PGA Tour event by one stroke.
That victory came in the midst of winning at Bay Hill in four straight years from 2000-3. This one his fifth career Bay Hill title and also his fifth PGA Tour victory in a row dating back to 2007 (he is three-for-three in 2008). He’s now won six official tournaments in a row worldwide and seven in a row counting his own 16-man invitational.
Woods went in front with a three-under 32 on the front nine, but a careless three-putt bogey from six feet on the 10th hole left him tied for the lead with 45-year-old Bryant, who needed a win to make the field at the WGC event at Doral next week and the Masters next month. He remained either tied with or one behind Woods for the whole back nine, but, as usual, it was Woods who had the winning formula.
Bryant’s 67 got him second place alone at 271, followed by Cliff Kresge (67), Sean O’Hair (69), and Singh (69) at 273.
Here are some of the keys to Woods' victory:
- I think that Woods' most important aspect was not giving up after his first-round 70. Many wrote that Woods had finally was about to lose, but Woods still was in contention. But his second-round 68 could of been even better, because he didn't hit the ball very well, but was still able to grind out a 68 to keep himself in contention.
- Putting was the key to Woods' victory as he made 61 of 63 putts from nine feet and in. What is strange on this stat the two putts inside nine putts he missed was on the same hole, the 10th in the final round, which was his only three-putt. As for long putts, Woods only made one putt over 20 feet and it just happened to be the 24-footer that he made on the 72nd hole for birdie to win the tournament.
- Not only did Woods putt well, but he scrambled well also, getting it up and down on 17 of the 22 greens he missed. Only only other player had a better average than Woods and that was Retief Goosen.
- This is a new way for Tiger Woods to win. In 18 of Woods' stroke play events he has led the greens hit category and has finished in the Top-10 47 times. This week Tiger only hit 50 of 72 greens. He has only hit less greens five times in his stroke play wins.
- Number of times that Tiger Woods birdied or eagled his final hole to win a tournament (includes birdie playoff wins for victory)
1 – 1997 Mercedes-Benz Championship - Birdied first playoff hole to beat Tom Lehman
2 – 1999 Buick Invitational – Eagled the 72nd hole to win by two
3 – 1999 WGC-American Express – Birdied first playoff hole to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez
4 – 2000 Mercedes-Benz Championship – Birdied 2nd playoff hole to beat Ernie Els
5 – 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – Birdied 72nd hole to win by two
6 – 2000 Canadian Open – Birdied 72nd hole to win by a shot
7 – 2001 Arnold Palmer Invitational – Birdie 72nd hole to win by a shot over Phil Mickelson
8 – 2001 Masters – Birdie 72nd hole to win by two shots over David Duval
9 – 2001 WGC NEC – Birdied 7th playoff hole to beat Jim Furyk
10 – 2005 Masters – Birdied 1st playoff hole to beat Chris DiMarco
11 – 2006 WGC-Bridgestone – Birdied fourth playoff hole to beat Stewart Cink
12 – 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational – Birdied 72nd hole to win by a shot.
Woods stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 37 of 56 ..... (T47th)Driving average: 281.4 ..... (38th)
Greens hit: 50 of 72 ....... (T14th)
Putts: 113 (28.25 a rd).... (T19th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 30
2-putt greens: 40
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: -1
Play on par 4s: -5
Play on par 5s: -4
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 16 ................ (T3rd)
Scrambling: 17 of 22 (77.27%)... (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.
Other notes from Woods' win:
- This week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational marks the 100th time in PGA Tour history that a first-place prize of over a million dollars has been given out. With his win, Tiger Woods has won a million or more 28 times, a quarter of the number of times a million have been won. Next in line for number of events winning a million is Phil Mickelson with six and Vijay Singh with five.
- This is the fourth PGA Tour event that Tiger has won five or more times. The others are WGC-Bridgestone, WGC-CA Championship and Buick Invitational, which he has won six times.
- Tiger has now won 11 times in Florida. If you put that with his 12 wins in California, he has 23 wins in those two states, which would place him 27th in the career PGA Tour win total. Just think if you add his nine wins from Ohio into the mix along with his seven wins in Georgia, he would have 39 wins in just those four states, which would be tied for 10th on the all-time list with Gene Sarazen and Tom Watson.
- A bit of a sad story for Bart Bryant. He shot rounds of 68-68-68-67 and was the first player to have four rounds in the 60s at Bay Hill since Payne Stewart and David Frost did it in 1987. Since the event has been played at Bay Hill, the only other four rounds in the 60s was Andy Bean in 1981 and George Burns in 1984. So of the 3,656 attempts playing at Bay Hill since 1979 Bryant was only the fifth player with four rounds in the 60s, but still wasn’t able to win.
- Tiger Woods has played in 17 PGA Tour and European Tour events in the last year and he has destroyed his playing partners in those events. Of the 103 that he has played with in each round, he has beaten them 78 times, has lost 13 times and tied 12 times
In this streak, two players -- Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson -- have beaten him twice, but the best stat is that in the final round Tiger has only lost twice to his playing partners - Phil Mickelson in the Deutsche Bank and Brett Wetterich in the WGC-CA Championship.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
Feathers get ruffled over Tripp's stupidity
Daly's day in a hospitality tent at the PODS
*Will Mt. Monty appear?
*Ernie's problem
*A look at Sean O'Hair's win and Stewart Cink's loss
*Golf Channel does a nice job on the Champions Tour
Lots of problems this week in golf. First of all, Tripp ruffles some feathers
What a week of news and scandals between Barack Obama rejecting the suggestion that he would run on the Democratic ticket as Hillary Clinton's running mate to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer apologizing to his family and the general public for being involved in a prostitution ring. Of course this is the real world, but golf had its fair share of "problems" this week as well.
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It started with the revelation back in December when Tripp Isenhour was taping a segment of "Shoot Like A Pro." The taping got disturbed when a creature flying around the video crew started squawking. Apparently, Isenhour wanted to make the show live up to its name, as he started hitting balls at the bird. Little did Isenhour know that the flying bird was a red-shouldered hawk, which is protected by the federal government as a migratory species. But according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine in his report, Isenhour got into a golf cart and drove closer to the bird and started hitting balls into the sky. When the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Isenhour allegedly said, "I'll get him now," and aimed for the hawk. After getting closer and closer to hitting the bird and getting more excited, Isenhour hit the hawk and it fell to the ground and died.
What is strange is that it took close to three months for the news to get out and once it did it was as big as the Michael Vick trial. Every animal group has come down hard on Isenhour, who said it was a "million to one shot" and that he wasn't trying to hurt the bird. But nobody is buying this because he shouldn't of been hitting balls at the bird, accidents are things that happen by chance or unintentionally. In this case there is no two ways about it, Isenhour was intentionally hitting balls at the bird.
A lot of folks and groups were unhappy over the incident. The head of the Humane Society of the United States faxed PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem a letter urging "appropriate remedial action against Isenhour up to and including fines and suspension." According to government sources Isenhour is in trouble and could spend up to a year in jail and be fined close to $5,000 if convicted.
Now, since Isenhour has never been in trouble before and has quickly accepted the blame for the incident and apologized over the matter it will be interesting to see what action will come of all this. As for the "Buzz" we feel the right sentence would be to send Isenhour off to the same facility that Michael Vick is in and spend the day with Vick so the two can talk about their killings, maybe that will have some bite, not only for Isenhour but anybody else,. whether he is a professional golfer or just a regular person to realize how bad this really is.
John Daly
John Daly is back in the news. He got some more ink for not playing stellar golf, but for his caddy of choice for the day and for drinking on the same course that held the PODS Championship.
Even with the help of Tampa Bay Buccaneer coach Jon Gruden caddying for him in the first round, Daly shot 78-80 and once again missed another cut as he only beat one player at the PODS.
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Now in some late breaking news the Associated Press are reporting that Butch Harmon, who has been helping Daly with his game has decided not to work with him anymore. Harmon started helping Daly at the end of last year in the hopes of helping bring Daly's game back to prominence in which he won two major champioships.
The two got to know each other when they teamed up together in television spots for Winn Grip, which seem to be the only sponsor that Daly has left. Harmon has been very quiet the last month or so with reports of Daly drinking in Palm Springs and now this incident at the PODS seems to have made the breakup easy for him. So unfortunately Daly has lost something else as this relationship has now soured, the big question in a lot of insiders minds is that Daly doesn't have much left, his only sponsorship deal is with Winn Grips as both Hooters and Taylor Made have dropped him. With money being tight in the golf industry the chances of Daly signing a lucrative deal is now very remote. Many also feel that Daly should start worrying that many tournament directors are getting tired of his act so precious sponsor exemptions in the future may not come as easily.
All the "Buzz" can say about all of this is what a shame.
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Colin Montgomerie
Talking about another problem, Colin Montgomerie backed out of his commitment to play in South Korea in the inaugural Ballantine's Championship and whisked off to Orlando and became a last-minute entry in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Now Monty isn't playing very well of late, after losing in the quarterfinals of the Match Play he flew half way around the world to miss the cut in India at the Johnnie Walker Classic. This put a serious blow into Monty's chances to get into the Masters. He needs to be in the top-50 on March 31st and since he has dropped to 61st he needs two very high finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-CA Championship. Monty has played in every Masters since 1992 and some media including Douglas Lowe in this piece feel that "Mt. Monty," as they call him, will blow if he doesn't make it. One thing in Monty's favor is that if he doesn't play in the Masters it will give him a bit more time to get ready for his wedding that will be in Scotland the week after the Masters.
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Ernie Els
A bit of a sad story this week from the PODS was when Ernie Els told Doug Ferguson that his 5-year-old son Ben has autism. Unfortunately the timing came when Els finally got to celebrate his first PGA Tour victory in three and a half years at the Honda Classic. In true Ernie Els' fashion, he has grasped the problem and hopes to use his star profile to raise awareness toward the problem and raise cash for the cause. At the PODS Championship Els had an "Autism Speaks" logo on his bag so he isn't wasting any time in trying to get the word out.
Still, the problem is taking its toll. Els missed the cut at the PODS and withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational saying he was tired and needed rest before the Masters. In his blog, Els explains the reason behind withdrawing and about his work in "Autism Speaks".
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Could the end be near for GolfSmith?
The Max Out Golf/Golf Observer Index of leading golf stocks fell to another 52-week low on March 10, its lowest level since Jan. 22 of this year.
Once again leading the index to the downside was retailer Golfsmith International Holdings Inc (ticker: GOLF), which released fourth quarter and fiscal 2007 results on Wednesday of last week. The 74 store and catalog golf retailer’s fourth-quarter loss widened to $46.7 million or $2.95 a share, from $1.6 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a $43 million in impairment charges, the loss was $3.7 million or 23 cents a share. The Austin, Texas-provider of golf equipment and accessories said revenue increased 5.3% to $79 million from $75 million a year earlier.
The non-cash “impairment” write down of $43 million dollars came under FASB 123, which is a relatively new accounting standard that attempts to value assets taken at one value at the time of an acquisition or public offering and adjust them to the market. The charges relate to goodwill as well as long-lived assets at certain stores.
As written in the “Buzz” before, Golfsmith shares continue their slide from an IPO price of $10 to this Monday’s closing level of $2.77. Indeed, investors who purchased the shares in February of 2007 at the $11.35 record high are down nearly 80% in approximately 12 months. Meanwhile a successor to James Thompson, who resigned on Jan. 9, has not been made and the company is led by its interim CEO, Martin Hanaka. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Golfsmith in this difficult retail environment, and in the certain recession the US economy finds itself. One suspects certain closing of stores, particularly in cities where they have multiple locations and feel competitive pressure from Dick Sporting goods owner of Golf Galaxy, Edwin Watts and the Roger Dunn chains and increasingly the PGA Superstore initiative in Dallas, Phoenix, and Atlanta.
Alternatively, Aldila shares closed Monday at $16.22 on volume of 58,400 shares. Aldila, which reported flat to slightly lower earnings on March 5th, is paying shareholders of record as of March 11 a special cash dividend of $5.00 a share reflecting a sale of its 50% interest in CFT (Carbon Fiber Technology) operations. In this age where the golf shaft plays an important role in the golf club both in terms of performance and in its value on the market, Aldila might appear attractive to an equipment manufacturer and the “Buzz” wonders if there are OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) who might consider Aldila a good acquisition. The negative here, of course, is the flat to poor share prices of potential acquirers (no high valued currency), slow to negative growth in the golf industry and in particular the latest initiative of company’s offering multiple shafts with driver head purchases that have just found its way to the retail market.
Again the only real growth in the equipment side of the business appears to be in custom fitting operations and secondary market transactions of equipment and balls.
Separately, Adams Golf reversed split its shares 4:1 on February 19th and changed its NASDAQ ticker symbol to ADGF. Shares briefly rose the day of the conversion to $10.20, ($2.55 pre-reverse split) but have since slide back to $8.50 (or $2.12 pre-reverse split).
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What's the bigger story? O'Hair winning or Cink stumbling
Sean O’Hair is back on track as one of the more promising young American players after making the PODS Championship his second-career win on Sunday. Meanwhile, Stewart Cink is searching for answers as well as he remains winless since 2004.
Cink took a two-stroke lead through 54 holes and extended the margin to four early in the final round. His advantage gradually narrowed to one stroke after 12 holes, and it came apart quickly after that as Cink bogeyed Nos. 13 and 14 and made a double bogey on 16. By that time, he was four behind O’Hair. Cink ended up with a three-over 74, salvaging a second place tie with five other players with a birdie on 17.
Cink is now 1-for-9 when holding or sharing the lead through 54 holes. While only two of those failures have come since his last win in 2004, he has four runner-up finishes since then. He now has 10 seconds in his career against four victories, including two in the past month, having dropped the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play to Tiger Woods. O’Hair made a splash as a rookie in 2005, when he won the John Deere Classic, but his play had dropped off since then and he was off to a poor start this year with no finishes better than 49th. But the 25-year-old emerged as Cink’s main challenger through the middle of the round, then took control by holing a 30-foot putt for birdie on the 15th hole. At the same time Cink was making a mess of the par-five 14th.
For the second consecutive day at Innisbrook, most of the players in the final groups struggled. In the last three threesomes, eight of the nine players shot over-par rounds, with O’Hair’s two-under 69 the lone exception. O’Hair’s four-under 280 total was sufficient for the victory and only nine players finished under par for 72 holes.
Cink and Billy Mayfair (72) ended up in a tie for second with four players who managed good rounds on Sunday to move up on the leaderboard: John Senden (67), Ryuji Imada (68), George McNeill (69), and Troy Matteson (69).
Here are some of the keys to O'Hair's victory:
- He won this week's PODS Championship thanks in large part to the improvement of his scrambling ability. O'Hair, who ranked 165th on the PGA TOUR in scrambling coming into the week, scrambled successfully 75 percent of the time in 24 scrambling opportunities, ranking him 4th in the field. The 78 percent success rate is the best showing by O'Hair on the PGA Tour with at least 24 scrambling attempts. His previous best had been a 70 percent scrambling effort on 27 missed greens at the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral.
- O'Hair made only 12 birdies for the week, which marked the lowest birdie count by a winner since the 2006 U.S. Open when Geoff Ogilvy made only 9 in his victory at Winged Foot. Now in a non-major it was the lowest amount since the 2005 PODS when Carl Pettersson made only 12.
- O'Hair's first-place check of $954,000 is the largest of his PGA Tour career. Last May O’Hair made a 7 on the 17th hole at the Players Championship, that hole cost him about three quarters of a million dollars so it's nice to see him have a nice payday in Florida.
O'Hair stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 38 of 56 ..... (T16th)Driving average: 282.6 ..... (8th)
Greens hit: 48 of 72 ....... (T18th)
Putts: 117 (29.25 a rd).... (T17th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 29
2-putt greens: 41
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: Even
Play on par 4s: +3
Play on par 5s: -7
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 12 ................ (T13th)
Scrambling: 18 of 24 (75.0%)... (T14th)
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.
Cink's defeat:
- Just by looking at the stats you can see why he lost. As a matter of fact you have to wonder how he did so well when his best stat was greens hit with just 49, which ranked T9th.
- The changing point of the event was when Cink bogeyed the 14th hole while O'Hair was making birdie on 15. Things didn't get better for Cink when he missed a 4-footer at 15 for a birdie and then drove it into the water at 16.
- No two ways about it, Cink's lose at the PODS was really ugly. He showed signs of being uncomfortable in getting ready for shots and didn't seem to have the confidence needed to win. With the loss at the PODS Championship, Cink is now 1-for-9 on the PGA Tour, an 11 percent winning percentage, when holding the lead heading into the final round of a Tour event. Cink is now tied with Mike Weir in winning percentage when heading into the final round atop the leader board. Weir is also 1-for-9. Over the past 25 year, only two players are worse that Cink and Weir in this category; Jeff Maggert is 1-10 while Larry Mize is sporting the golden sombrero at 0-9.
- Cink's day was the tale of two events, over the course of the first 56 holes he was 7-under, while he was 6-over in his last 16 holes. In the first 56 holes he had no three putts, he had two in his last 16 holes. In the final 16 holes he missed five greens. In the first 54 holes he had seven bogeys. In his last 16 holes he dropped shots on five separate holes.
- Cink moves up to 10th on the career PGA Tour money list with $22.5 million dollars Of all the folks in the top-ten he is the lowest with just four PGA Tour wins.
Cink stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 28 of 56 ..... (T68th)Driving average: 267.4 ..... (T51st)
Greens hit: 49 of 72 ....... (T9th)
Putts: 118 (29.50 a rd).... (T25th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 26
2-putt greens: 43
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: +2
Play on par 4s: +1
Play on par 5s: -5
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 13 ................ (T9th)
Scrambling: 13 of 23 (56.52%)... (T45h)
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" very happy at a good live telecast on the Golf Channel
For the second time this year I have watched a Champions Tour event and enjoyed it. For a guy who for the past couple of years just watched the PGA Senior, U.S. Senior Open and British Senior Open this is refreshing. I didn't watch the whole Toshiba Classic show, as a matter of fact I stumbled upon it when I turned on Golf Central at 9 p.m. on Sunday and saw the finish of Bernhard Langer's round. He made a birdie on 18 and that put him in a playoff with Jay Haas.
What really caught my eye -- or shall I say ears -- was how well done the show was. What I found really amazing was how well Brian Hammons, Frank Nobilo, Billy Ray Brown and even Donna Caponi-Byrnes kept me interested and how they were able to fill the almost two hours with insightful commentary and not a bunch of BS that you get with Kelly Tilghman and Nick Faldo.
It also helped to have a well-produced and well-directed show. First of all there were player interviews during the playoff. One that caught my eye was when Golf Channel had Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer talk about what they do in playoffs. What a stroke of genius to come up with that little pearl at just the right time. It was also great after the tee shots to have either Brown or Caponi-Byrnes reporting from the field, describing what shot lay ahead of the players.
But the real reason I liked the show was because of the team of Hammons and Nobilo. They were a breath of fresh air. It's the kind of thing I have been shouting that Golf Channel needed, which was an announcer team that did the job the right way. They are able to keep everything serious, but light. They were both very insightful and made the show interesting to watch. But more importantly they didn't make the show revolve around their commentary and life stories, but around the golf and the players. This is something that we just don't get with the Faldo/Tilghman pairing. I just hope that the brain trust at Golf Channel will review these shows and see what's been wrong with their PGA Tour shows.
As for Hammons, he has been underestimated in my opinion. I could be wrong on this but he is one of the original Golf Channel announcers and for most of his career he was the main host on Golf Central. It always entertaining when he ended the show with the phrase "Just keep it in the short grass" but I can remember around 2001 when I was at ABC we got a resume tape from him. Seems that he had a dream to become a live anchor and took the step to become one a couple of years ago, which was a good move on his part. Back in 2001 he was easily dismissed by the brain trust at ABC but today, even with the glut of anchors I feel that network executives would give him a chance. His value is being able to traffic the shows and guide other announcers in the right direction and make sure that they say the right thing at the right time, a tough job that he does very well.
As for Frank Nobilo, he could be one of the best announcers, period. Hopefully Tommy Roy of NBC is reading this because Nobilo would fit in perfectly on NBC as he knows the right things to say, isn't cliche-ridden like most announcers and gives the viewer a first-class experience. He has always been good at the Golf Channel and is more polished with the years of experience under his belt. At a channel that hasn't been very good in making talent better, Nobilo is a feather in the cap of Golf Channel producers.
About the only thing that I didn't like was the tape delay. It seemed that the show was about an hour behind as I unfortunately found the results of the playoff when it first teed off. In contacting Golf Channel spokesperson Dan Higgans he said that most of the Champions Tour was on tape and really didn't know why the Toshiba was on tape. Most of the time it has to be on tape when it's on the east coast and the PGA Tour doesn't want to butt heads with the PGA Tour event, so since it was in California, three hours behind the east coast and with daylight savings I thought it would be nice to be live in the 6:30 to 9 p.m. window. Higgans also brought up the fact that the Sprint Post-Game show comes on for a half-hour after the PGA Tour signs off so in a way the Golf Channel can control things better with a taped show, just in case the PGA Tour runs long.
Despite this very small flaw it was still a great show and I will be looking in on more Champions Tour events over the year. It's amazing to me that I have to find a good announcing team on the Champions Tour show, maybe I need to look at shows on the Nationwide and LPGA Tours to find a good experience because we aren't getting it on the PGA and European Tour shows.
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*Els is a winner again
*How did Ernie pull off the victory?
*Ochoa dominates the LPGA in Singapore
Clearing up some odds and ends
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The return of Ernie Els
Ernie Els is a lot like Greg Norman, someone that was always been on the cusp of greatness only to have it snatched away either by someone else's luck or skill or by his own of stupid shots at the wrong time. For Els the last few years have been tiring between getting over injuries to getting his game back to a point the way it was in 2004 when he won three times on the PGA Tour and twice over in Europe. Yes, Els has won twice on the European Tour in the last 14 months, but victories in the HSBC World Match Play Championship and the South African Open don't come close to a win on the PGA Tour.
For Els the last couple of months have been tough, because he has been so close. Remember last April in Hilton Head? Els had a one-shot lead over Boo Weekley, who had an impossible task of making par on the 17th hole, but taking a page from David Frost, who had an impossible shot one year in New Orleans, Weekley holed his shot, just like Frost did to beat Greg Norman. If once wasn't enough, Weekley chipped in again on the final hole and Els was once again deprived the winner's circle.
We don't have to go into detail of what happened in South Africa last December when Els had a two-shot lead going into the 72nd hole, only to hit twice in the water, making an 8 and losing that title. Then we have the 72nd hole at Dubai last month. Once again Els tried to hit the par 5 in two and came up short in a watery grave.
If things weren't bad enough, Els changed his plans to come play in the Accenture Match Play Championship and he didn't look like the Ernie of old, getting trounced by Jonathan Byrd, 6 & 5. I know in our preview, we recommended to all not to have any part of Els at the Honda. It was getting to become too much of a frustration as we wondered if he was mortally wounded with his poor play.
Still, true champions come back quickly from adversity. Just last month Phil Mickelson missed the cut as defending champion at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but bounced back to win the next week at the Northern Trust in Los Angeles. The same can now be said of Ernie Els, who after some very shaky finishes got it together and won the Honda Classic. In some people's mind this was a great victory that many feel could be the beginning of the resurgence of Ernie Els. Or could this be nothing more than Els finally being in the right place at the right time as he possibly could of backed into victory at the Honda courtesy of some windy weather? Was he aided by a much earlier tee time than the leaders and the fact that he was finished before the golfing gods realized that he could possibly win an event?
Els started the final round three strokes behind co-leaders Luke Donald, Mark Calcavecchia and Matt Jones, but none of them were able to match par of 70. Donald ended up in second place after a closing 71, getting a birdie on 16 to pull within one, but not able to pull off a birdie that would hav egittne him a share of the lead. But it was Calcavecchia and Jones who were tied with Els late in the game before faltering.
Calcavecchia double bogeyed the par-three 15th, hitting a bunker shot across the green and into the water. Many, including Calc, were shocked that the ball just rolled and rolled and rolled into the water, a break that Els hasn't seen many of. As for Matt Jones, he was playing in just his fifth PGA Tour event. He double bogeyed the par-3 17th, hitting his tee shot into the water. He also made another bogey down the stretch and finished with a 73, three strokes back. Both Calc and Jones were tied for fourth with Robert Allenby (70), a stroke behind third-place Nathan Green (67).
Els got himself in the thick of things immediately with four birdies on the first seven holes and a 4-under 31 on the front nine. He held on under tough conditions on the back nine with eight pars and a bogey on 17 to post his 67 and a 6-under 274 total that no one could match. For the round, he hit 14 greens in regulation, an impressive showing on a day when winds made PGA National a difficult challenge.
Here are some of the keys to Els' victory:
- Els shot a final round 67 which consisted of four birdies and one bogey. Els started his round with his four birdies in his first seven holes. So that means he didn’t have a birdie in his last 11 holes and is the only champion in 2008 that didn’t have a birdie on his final nine holes of play. As a matter of fact, the first seven holes are the reason Els won this week. He played that stretch in 8-under and the other 11 holes in 2-over.
- Els teed off 45 minutes before the last group and wasn't a part of a pressure-packed final round like Calcavecchia, Donald and Jones were. All Els did was post a number and waited to see if it would hold up, which it did.
- Els had a good week hitting 51 greens, which T-4th.
- Els had 16 birdies, which tied for the most made during the week.
- Els was in the background the whole week. After an opening round of 67, which got him some early press, he wasn't the focus the rest of the week. So Els didn't have to endure any of those stupid questions on the state of his game.
- Beyond his game, Els has been working with renowned sports psychologist Bob Rotella for years, but worked terribly hard this week with him. As Els said on his website, "I decided to have a talk with Dr. Bob, just to see if I could regroup and maybe clear my mind. He knows me and he knows what I’m like. I think trying to win those tournaments and get better had maybe made me a little bit uptight, so we had a chat about a few things and tried to work on getting me a bit more relaxed. I felt like it helped. You know, I felt like my old self out there again."
Els stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 33 of 56 ..... (T50th)Driving average: 291.5 ..... (10th)
Greens hit: 51 of 72 ....... (T4th)
Putts: 117 (29.25 a rd).... (T49th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 29
2-putt greens: 41
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: -2
Play on par 4s: -2
Play on par 5s: -2
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 16 ................ (T1st)
Scrambling: 14 of 21 (66.67%)... (T15th)
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.
So does this mean that Els is back and ready to go on a tear?
- Many will think that he is back and ready to challenge the likes of Tiger and Phil. The "Buzz" would like to see him under the gun in a final group before we pass judgement. Yes, he was a winner on Sunday but that was more by default. He was in the right place at the right time. Just remember Els played his first seven holes in four-under par, but was one-over on the last 11, not enough evidence to warrant him as playing well again.
- The stat of the week relating to Els: It was 3 years, 4 months and 30 days since the last time Ernie Els won a PGA Tour event. Of those in the top-six of the World Golf rankings it was the longest victory drought and of those in the top-15 the only other longest is Justin Rose, who has yet to win on the PGA Tour.
- \It's hard to believe, but in Els' 16 PGA Tour wins his win this week at the Honda Classic is his biggest comeback (three shots). In his previous 15 wins he led 10 times, was one back once and was two back three times. One event, the International, didn’t have round-by-round leaders.
- Many may not remember, but Ernie Els played on the Nationwide Tour in 1991. So far on the PGA Tour, 99 former Nationwide Tour players have now won 222 times. Previous to Els the last victory by a Nationwide Tour player was Brian Gay in last week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic.
Other odds and ends:
- After the Deutsche Bank Championship, Brett Quigley was 109th on the money list with $717,411 and felt that his Tour card was secured for 2008 when he had season-ending knee surgery. Unfortunately, Quigley finished outside of the Top-125 at 130, but did qualify for a major medical extension in which he was given seven events to earn $67,769 to keep his card for 2008. Quigley finished T-12th at the Honda and with the check of $115,500 gets to keep his PGA Tour card for the rest of the year.
- Tadd Fujikawa missed the cut in the Honda Classic and has extended his streak to 0-12 on missing cuts in professional events since turning professional a year ago.
- Despite all of the wind, Sunday’s scoring average was only 72.675 as six players broke par. On the other end of the spectrum, only one player didn’t break 80 as last year’s runner-up Boo Weekley shot 80.
- Indian golf star Arjun Atwal expressed his relief on Thursday after being cleared over an alleged high-speed car race that left one driver dead on a Florida road last March. Atwal, 34, said he was glad to be able to focus on golf after a long-running probe into the incident. "It was very distracting for me to play golf with the investigation hanging over my head even though I knew everything was going to be OK," he said at the Johnnie Walker Classic in India. "It's a pain when you have to deal with other things besides golf. Luckily everything is sorted out now, so I can go back to concentrating on golf." Atwal finished T-17th in the Johnnie Walker Classic.
- Arron Oberholser finished T-43rd, but is still having a tough time with his shoulder. So tough that he is headed to Minnesota for another opinion. Presently he has been treated by a California doctor for bursitis and has been taking cortisone to ease the inflammation, which hasn’t gone away.
- We turn towards Singapore where Lorena Ochoa opened up her 2008 LPGA season. The world Np. 1 cruised to an 11-shot victory with a final round of 68 that took her to an impressive 20-under-par 268, her 18th career win on the LPGA and the biggest winning margin of her career.
In the process she dominated a lot of players, including world No. 2 Annika Sorenstam, the winner of the season-opening SBS Open, who finished runner-up with a 71 for a nine-under-par four-round total of 279. Third was Paula Creamer, winner of the Fields Open, who was two shots back.
With the win by Ochoa a lot of people are comparing what she is doing to Tiger Woods' streak in which he has won 15 of his 24 PGA Tour starts since the 2006 British Open. Ochoa has her own "Tigeresque" streak going. Dating back to the 2006 Corona Morelia Championship, Ochoa has won 12 of her 30 LPGA starts or eight of her last 17 starts since last year's Sybase Classic.
Ochoa’s 11-shot victory is the biggest win on the LPGA tour since Annika Sorenstam won the 2002 Kellogg-Keebler Classic by 11 shots. Last year, Paula Creamer won the Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Championship by eight. The biggest margin of victory on the LPGA tour is 14 by Cindy Mackey in the 1986 MasterCard International Pro-am.
Not a bad start to the 2008 LPGA season as in the first three weeks, the three winners - Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer -- are all in the top-five of the Rolex World rankings.
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E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*A look at Tiger's win at the Accenture
*Couch Producer looks at how dumb Nick Faldo was on the Golf Channel telecast hawking TaylorMade balls
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Is Tiger unbeatable?
What a performance in the Arizona desert this week at the WGC-Accenture World Match Play Championship. For years now we have seen vintage Tiger Woods, but this week he took it up a notch as Tiger won this event for the third time.
What makes this one so vintage is the way Woods is playing right now, it's almost like he just writes a script and follows it with a near flawless display of golf. And he does it with precision, taking each match and accessing his opponent during the early holes of the round and achieving a game plan to victory. Even though the outcome becomes apparent during the round, most of the time Woods doesn't pile it on except for the final match on Sunday against Stewart Cink.
It's really funny how players will pile it on in one match and be spent for the next. An example of this was Stuart Appleby's 2 & 1 victory over Phil Mickelson in the second round. Appleby had nine birdies in a flawless display of golf over 17 holes. But come the next day in his match with Justin Leonard it was like he had too many birdies the day before because he could only muster up three against Leonard and lost. The same with Stewart Cink. In his semi-final match against Justin Leonard, he shot 29 in his first nine holes, but it seemed like he used up his ration of birdies because he didn't make a birdie on the back nine, winning that match 4 & 2. But on Sunday it seemed like he didn't have anything left for his singles match against Woods.
| Stewart Cink's path to the finals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Match | Result | Holes | Greens Hit | Fairways Hit | Putts | Birdies/Eagles | Holes Won | Holes Lost | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Miguel Angel Jimenez | 4 & 3 | 15 | 13 of 15 (86.4%) | 7 of 12 (58.3%) | 24 | 5/1 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2. Padraig Harrington | 2 up | 18 | 15 of 18 (83.3%) | 8 of 14 (57.1%) | 29 | 6 | 6 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3. Colin Montgomerie | 4 & 2 | 16 | 14 of 16 (87.5%) | 4 of 12 (33.3%) | 25 | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| QT. Angel Cabrera | 3 & 2 | 16 | 12 of 16 (75.0%) | 10 of 12 (83.3%) | 23 | 9 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SF. Justin Leonard | 4 & 2 | 16 | 13 of 16 (81.3%) | 8 of 12 (66.7%) | 25 | 6/1 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In his next match against Arron Oberholser, who was making his first competitive start since October, it seemed like a match that Woods would control and trash Oberholser. Indeed, it wasn't a tough match as Tiger won 3 & 2, but he didn't show any of his dominating play, just a good enough match to beat the opponent he was up against.
| Tiger Wood's path to the finals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Match | Result | Holes | Greens Hit | Fairways Hit | Putts | Birdies/Eagles | Holes Won | Holes Lost | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. J.B. Holmes | 1 up | 18 | 10 of 18 (55.6%) | 7 of 14 (50.0%) | 22 | 7/1 | 6 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2.Arron Oberholser | 3 & 2 | 16 | 15 of 16 (93.8%) | 9 of 12 (75.0%) | 26 | 6 | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3. Aaron Baddeley | 20 holes | 20 | 15 of 20 (75.0%) | 10 of 16 (62.5%) | 25 | 12 | 6 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| QT. K.J. Choi | 3 & 2 | 16 | 12 of 16 (75.0%) | 10 of 12 (83.3%) | 21 | 4/1 | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SF. Henrik Stenson | 2 Up | 16 | 15 of 16 (83.3%) | 10 of 14 (71.4%) | 28 | 5 | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In his other matches against K.J. Choi and then Henrik Stenson, Woods seemed to be plotting a great storyline. The match against Stenson was a little more dramatic as he won the last two holes to get the win.
Woods' victory against Cink:
Maybe it was because it was the finals or he just wanted to get home early, but on Sunday Woods came out flying and simply buried Cink. After matching birdies at the first hole, Woods birdied the second and then put the pedal to the metal. With birdies at the 5th, 7th and 8th hole, Woods was 4-up and it didn't look like Cink had a chance in the world. Cink did manage to stay alive for a little bit longer with birdies on the 12th and 16th holes to cut the lead to 3-down, but Woods reversed the momentum with a birdie at 17 and then got a bit lucky when he halved the 18th when both players carded a bogey. Amazingly, it was Woods' first bogey since the 5th hole in Round 3.
| Final Match hole stat comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Match | Holes | Fairways Hit | Greens Hit | Putts | Birdies/Eagles | Holes Won | Holes Lost | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger Woods | 29 | 16 of 23 | 26 of 29 | 46 | 14 | 11 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stewart Cink | 29 | 15 of 23 | 21 of 29 | 49 | 5/1 | 3 | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday morning's final Scorecard | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| AS | 1up | 1up | 1up | 2up | 2up | 3up | 4up | 4up | 4up | 5up | 4up | 4up | 4up | 4up | 3up | 4up | 4up | |
| Woods | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Cink | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Sunday afternoon final Scorecard | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| 4up | 5up | 5up | 5up | 5up | 6up | 7up | 8up | 8up | 7up | 8up | ||||||||
| Woods | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | |||||||
| Cink | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
Woods added unanswered birdies at the 24th, 25th and 26th holes to get it to 8-up and then it was only a matter of time. Cink was able to throw in an eagle on the 28th hole, but this just put off the ending for one more hole as Woods hit it close on the 29th hole and when Cink couldn't make birdie, he conceeded the match and ended up losing 8 & 7.
Woods' victory was the most-lopsided victory in finals history of the Accenture Match Play, surpassing David Toms' 6 & 5 win over Chris DiMarco in 2005.
With his second-place finish, Cink goes went over the $22 million mark in career-PGA Tour earnings and moved into 10th place on the money list. In comparison, with his 15th World Golf Championship win, Woods has now won $19.8 million and would be in 17th spot in PGA Tour career earnings with just the money he has earned in 26 World Golf Championship events. Another interesting little tidbit: Since Cink last won in the 2004 Bridgestone Invitational, he has played in 85 events. In that same span of time, Tiger Woods has won 23 times on the PGA Tour.
Many will ask why Tiger was so good this week, so here is the stat of the week that answers that question. In 117 holes he officially made 47 birdies and two eagles. That's almost a birdie every other hole. With the win this week Woods is now 31-6 in Accenture matches, but more importantly has won 23 of his last 26 matches going back to 2003.
Looking for some fun stats? The PGA Tour will play in 21 different states in 2008. With Tiger’s win in Arizona he has now won in 15 different states and only has to win in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Mississippi, Maryland, Louisiana and Connecticut to complete the list. Sadly winning in these states is going to be tough the next couple of years because Tiger won't be playing in five of the six missing.
We can't end this without mentioning that since the Accenture is probably the most difficult event to win on the PGA Tour, could Woods, not only win all four majors this year, but also match Byron Nelson's streak from 1945 of 11 straight wins? In asking Tiger about it on Sunday, he gave the answer that he isn't thinking about it, but that's our job. Right now he has four consecutive PGA Tour wins, but if you add his Target Challenge win and the Dubai win he is up to six straight. Tiger did win seven straight in 2005 and 2006 and says he is a better player now, so buckle your seat belts!
The next debate after that would be if Tiger can run the table in 2008 and win everything. That sounds like the ultimate challenge, even more daunting than winning the Grand Slam or breaking Nelson's streak. But look at some of the facts on how he is winning tournaments. Since the 2006 British Open, if you count just official events on the PGA and European Tour, Tiger had played in 28 events and won 16 of them. That's pretty impressive stuff. But just like what happened to the New England Patriots, there has to be a New York Giants-type player out there who will beat Tiger. I just wonder how much time will pass before that happens.
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" looking at problems arising with the pairing of Kelly Tilghman and Nick Faldo.
The one thing to be thankful for is we won't have to listen to Nick Faldo on a weekend for the next six weeks. No two ways about it, he has really gotten on a lot of people's bad list and we just wonder if he is doing way too much golf for both Golf Channel and CBS.
Is it just me or is anyone else annoyed with all of the forced humor coming from Faldo and Kelly Tilghman? Wednesday's broadcast of the match play was the biggest day in golf for many folks and Faldo and Tilghman just didn't seem very serious. It was as if they were the Comedy Channel instead of the Golf Channel. People admire Faldo because he has a lot of knowledge of the game and gives honest thoughts on what is happening to players. But on Wednesday it seemed like all Faldo wanted to do was go from one joke to the next and not give us what we wanted, which was an assessment of the play of the best 64 players in the world. Maybe he is too tired after doing eight weeks of TV work, but he shouldn't be doing such a poor job and someone at the Golf Channel should correct the problem or get someone else in the booth.
We have noted this in other Coach Producer segments, but Tilghman doesn't seem to handle the situation very well and is simply playing the sidekick role to Faldo. Nick, we want to hear about the players' swings, not that the attendance is good because the parking lot is full. Nick, we want to get inside information about players, not hear how your Mom back in England is about to pour a cup of tea. Nick, we want you to tell us about the course and its special traits, not make fun of all the creatures that you could run into if you hit it off the fairway. Nick we want to get good golf commentary, not stories about deer with no eyes. Lastly, a birdie is a birdie and not a "tweeter."
The difference between Faldo and Johnny Miller was quite clear this week. Johnny does a lot of homework on the course and the players. He has stats at his beck and call and he doesn't try to jab us with a bunch of B.S. With Miller, we trust every word as the Bible; we don't question his analysis because we know it's spot-on. We can't say the same about Faldo. I honestly don't think he does much homework. He tries to rely on his humor to get him through the day. But in talking with a lot of people about this, lots of golf insiders and media people feel that Faldo could be overexposed and maybe isn't ready for prime time in the big seat.
Yes, he is great on CBS, but he has a lot of people to fall back on. First, he has a first-class partner in Jim Nantz, who protects him and gets him going on the right topics. He also has some other first-class announcers at CBS, plus he has a researcher who does all of the leg work for him in getting stats and feeding it to him at the right time. This doesn't happen at the Golf Channel.
Because of the system at the Golf Channel, it's wall-to-wall Kelly and Nick, with Billy Ray Brown breaking up some of the routine with reports on the ground. Brown has really been great at doing this for years, first with ABC Sports and now with the Golf Channel. He deserves to be picked up by a network. Once again he was the highlight of a rather poor week for Golf Channel
. But back to Kelly and Nick. When Rich Learner took over for Kelly at the Sony, he was able to put a leash on Nick and get him to bear down, but with Kelly they seem to free-wheel it. Of course, that got Kelly into trouble at the Mercedes-Benz Championship and it looks like this free-wheeling is going to get Faldo in trouble.
On Sunday, during the final match, Faldo was once again trying to be funny. Instead of giving us information about the matches, Kelly started talking about how it was an all-Nike final match, since both Tiger Woods and Stewart Cink are with the "swoosh." Then out of the blue Faldo says that according to a magazine report, the TaylorMade ball outperforms the Nike ball. OK, Faldo made his little point, even though this is a voodoo subject for golf announcers to talk about. But still, just this one fact that the TaylorMade ball outperformed Nike in a magazine report is interesting. But before we go on with what Faldo went on to say, we need to give you a little history.
For years Faldo was a Nike guy, until they dropped him in 2005. Then just last week, TaylorMade hired Faldo in a role that involves marketing, product innovation and creation, product testing, player evaluation and more. I guess the "more" part is hawking TaylorMade items on the air when things get boring. Because after letting us know about the magazine study, Faldo had all of the numbers on why the "Nike One" ball gave big yardage for the pros, but noted that for amateurs it was like hitting a rock. Boy, talk about going someplace that no other announcer has gone before. I would've loved to have seen what the executives at Nike that spend millions of dollars a year in Golf Channel-advertising must've thought of all of this. I also guess that TaylorMade got a lot more bang on its buck for the Faldo deal than it ever thought. But knowing how honorable TaylorMade is, it probably hated even being a part this whole mess.
Kelly tried to cover it up, but the damage was done. A couple of segments later, Faldo did his best to apologize, but the damage was done.
In contacting Nike on Monday morning, the company was accessing its options and Nike spokesperson Beth Gast e-mailed this to GolfObserver:
"We aren’t issuing an official statement, but what I can tell you is that we were disappointed in Nick Faldo’s comments, especially given the fact that he referenced a golf product that was totally unrelated to what was happening during the competition itself. These comments were all the more inappropriate having come just days after he signed with TaylorMade Adidas. He has apologized on air and we consider this isolated incident as closed."
As for Golf Channel's point of view, Dan Higgins e-mailed this to the "Buzz":
"Nick Faldo is one of the best in the business because of his experience and insight, and viewers enjoy that. But his opinions do not always reflect those of the Golf Channel. In this particular instance - although he referenced published research - using the Golf Channel in this context was not appropriate. Nick realized this and set the record straight with our viewers in a timely manner."
So, once again, the Golf Channel, for the third time in six months, has seen its announcers say the wrong thing at the wrong time. In the case of Dottie Pepper at the Solheim Cup and Kelly at the Mercedes, these were human slip-ups. But in this case with Faldo, we have to wonder if there wasn't a motive in all of this, attacking a company on-air that let him go and praising a company that he is now a spokesperson for. If Kelly got a two-week suspension for her human error, what will Faldo get for something that wasn't a human error? Or does the Golf Channel even have the guts to do something about this?
Unfortunately, it's another sign that the management at Golf Channel doesn't have a clue in the world as to what is right or wrong. Of course they can't be blamed for Faldo's comments, but they hear the commentary that is going on. Do they like that it's nothing but a big comedy show and not down-to-business? It's becoming a big joke with insiders as to how poorly the Kelly/Faldo team is doing the job and how much people are missing the way USA did the Thursday/Friday shows. Frankly, if I was Nike Golf I would seriously consider pulling some ads from Golf Channel and we can only hope that the Golf Channel addresses this with a suspension for Faldo, at the very least.
I know that Golf Channel executives think of Faldo as a "franchise" player, but in reality they would be better served with Frank Nobilo, who is much better with his research, more honest and has a lot more credibility than Faldo has right now. Once again, Faldo is great with Nantz and Rich Lerner. We can only hope that if Faldo continues with Golf Channel, things will change before they lose total credibility with this team.
It's all a learning experience with the Golf Channel and hopefully they can find the right mix.
Oh, while we're on the subject of golf on TV, NBC did a nice job with the 90-minute fill-in on Sunday. They didn't just let its announcers do all the talking. It got highlight pieces, interviews and serious commentary on what was happening. We also like the new graphic Aimpoint. It's OK for match play and was a nice addition, but I can't see any other use for it the rest of the year.
We are thankful that Johnny Miller is back and we can get some good commentary going and only hope that both Golf Channel and CBS realize that they could have a problem on their hands with Nick Faldo.
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E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
A look at Friday's action at the Match Play Championship and a look ahead to Saturday's quarterfinal matches
MARANA, Ariz. -- What another great day of match play golf we had today. If I was to pick five of the best matches in Accenture history, today's Tiger Woods/Aaron Baddeley was probably among them. What a match! Woods made 12 birdies in 20 holes, as he was 11-under while Baddeley made 10 birdies and was 8-under par in a match that finally ended on the 20th hole after Tiger Woods made a 13-foot putt for the win.
What made the match so interesting was the way both players went at each other and both didn't make any errors. The golfing world needs more of someone like Baddeley, who looked Woods in the eye and tossed in a birdie when he needed it. That doesn't happen much. As a matter of fact we haven't seen this much excitement in a Tiger Woods Mano-a-Mano match since Bob May went against Tiger in the final round of the 2000 PGA Championship. May never gave up and took Woods to extra holes in what was a hell of a day of golf. The same goes for today. Baddeley didn't give up and came up with a lot of birdies, seven in a nine-hole stretch between the 6th and the 14th hole. But just like a normal work day for Woods, he didn't flitch and was able to make a final birdie on the 20th hole, the same hole he lost his match to Nick O'Hern last year.
You had to root for Baddeley, but realistically that wouldn't of been any good for the weekend of the Accenture Match Play Championship. Yes it would of been nice to see someone step up and beat Woods, but for NBC and the sponsors of this event having Aaron Baddeley play this weekend instead of Tiger Woods would not have helped this event. Unfortunately for the PGA Tour it lives and dies by the sword of Tiger Woods and having him this weekend makes for a successful week.
There were some other interesting matches as defending champ Henrik Stenson beat Jonathan Byrd 1-up and has won nine straight matches. In the second match of the day, Woody Austin was able to beat Boo Weekley 3&2 in a match that Weekley was completely out of sync and made us wonder if this loveable new icon of the PGA Tour would much rather of been fishing than playing golf.
In the third match, Angel Cabrera took apart the third-ranked player in the world, Steve Stricker, 4 & 3. On Thursday evening Stricker said that he would have to be perfect with his wedge game and putter to have any chance to beat Cabrera, but that never happened as Cabrera was supreme in every aspect of his game. The fourth match of the day saw Stewart Cink end the Cinderella story of Colin Montgomerie, who couldn't keep up the good putting and lost 4 & 2
In the other matches, K.J. Choi played more consistent and showed why he is such a good player in handing Paul Casey a 2-down lost. In the seventh match, Stuart Appleby showed that maybe he made too many birdies on Thursday with nine because he could only muster up three against Justin Leonard, who beat him 3 & 2. Leonard was 8-under and over 50 holes he is 19-under with just one bogey. In the final match of the day Vijay Singh was 2 down with two holes left but was able to scrape together wins on 17 and 18 to take Rod Pampling extra holes and then beat him on the 25th hole.
Saturday brings two rounds, the quarterfinals in the morning and the semis in the afternoon. As for the matches, we still have some great names with Henrik Stenson, Stewart Cink, K.J. Choi, Justin Leonard, but most of all Tiger Woods. Here is a look at the quarterfinal matches:
The Quarterfinals
7:30 a.m. - Woody Austin (36) vs. Henrik Stenson (12)My Pick: Stenson, he is on the same kind of roll that he was on last year. I don't see Woody continuing his good play in the ratified air of the weekend.
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7:33 a.m. - Angel Cabrera (14) vs.Stewart Cink (22)
My Pick: Cink, another great match but I just can't see Cabrera keeping up the good play.
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7:44 a.m. - Tiger Woods (1) vs. K.J. Choi (8)
My Pick: Woods, just like I said that Tiger would have a tough time with Baddeley, he will also have a tough time against Choi. Tiger looked very tired after his 20-hole victory. Hopefully for him, he didn't use up too many birdies.
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7:55 a.m. - Justin Leonard (52) (14) vs. Vijay Singh (11)
My Pick: Leonard, in a toss-up. Singh has never made it this far and seems to be playing well, but Leonard has shown us a lot and I like him to make the finals on Sunday.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
A look at the first two days of Match Play
MARANA, Ariz. -- The "Buzz" has loved the first two days of the Accenture Match Play Championship. In the first 48 matches we have had some surprise early departures - like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington - but on a whole, we are left with 16 pretty good players. Yes, the golf course isn't much to talk about and the best players in the world are tearing it apart, but it's proven to be a fun venue for the players and the sold-out fans. The weather has been great, but unfortunately showers are in the forecast for Friday.
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In looking at the first two days, the biggest upset had to be Ernie Els losing to Jonathan Byrd, 6 & 5, in the first round. Els was 1-over par on a course that most of the players have been 2 to 6 under on and frankly we're all thinking that maybe it would have been in Els' best interest to go off to South Africa for a couple of days off instead of flying 8,000 miles from London.
In looking at the most surprising player after two rounds, it has to be Colin Montgomerie, who in 34 holes is 8-under par and beat Jim Furyk, 3 & 2, and Charles Howell III, 1 up. Making his win even more pleasant is the fact that Monty has taken out two American Ryder Cup players.
Now many feel that Phil Mickelson losing to Stuart Appleby was an upset, because it really wasn't. It was a terrific match between two great players that are playing very well right now and Appleby played better. It's that simple. Appleby is one of the marquee players who has come into this tournament playing well, as we have some big names like Stewart Cink, Vijay Singh, defending champion Henrik Stenson, Steve Stricker, Angel Cabrera, Aaron Baddeley and Justin Leonard, who are all still alive. But of course the biggest name of them all, Tiger Woods, is also alive and well.
Woods had a bit of a scare yesterday in his match with J.B. Holmes. He looked very awkward in the early stages and seemed like he was in a weird funk. But he woke up from his trance when he lost the 13th hole to go 3 down and played the final five holes in five under to beat Holmes, 1 up. Things were a lot easier on Thursday, as in his match with Arron Oberholser he got up from the start, ran the lead to 3 up after 8 holes and cruised to a 3 & 2 victory. More importantly on each hole Woods plays he seems to be getting stronger, something that is needed in order to win here. Still, it's not going to be easy for Woods or anyone else as eight great matches are in the cards for Friday.
One thing that could be a factor, is the fact that rain is supposed to hit the area on Friday. It won't be very heavy, but it will make things interesting. Here is a look at Friday's third round matches:
Eight matches - (Times are east coast, with world ranking)
1:00 p.m. - Jonathan Byrd (63) vs. Henrik Stenson (12)Byrd is the highest ranked player left and he has had the easiest time in the first two rounds. What's funny is Byrd has played only 27 holes in his first two matches while his opponent Henrik Stenson had to go 25 holes just to beat his 2nd round opponent. You have to wonder if Byrd just got the luck of the draw, but he also has played very well, making no bogeys and 10 birdies. On the other hand, Stenson has made three bogeys and 11 birdies, one more than Byrd, but has played 16 more holes.
My Pick: Byrd. His game is sharp he doesn't look tired. He looks ready to win again. On top of that Stenson has won eight straight matches at Dove Mountain. The streak has to end some time. Look for it to happen on Friday.
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1:14 p.m. - Woody Austin (36) vs.Boo Weekley (44)
Austin had an easy first round against Toru Taniguchi, beating him 6 & 5 as he made six birdies. But his match against Adam Scott was a gem as he found himself 2 down with just five holes left and made three birdies to stun Scott. As for his opponent Boo Weekley, he beat Martin Kaymer handily 2 up and then beat Sergio Garcia 3 & 1 in a very quiet and a bit uncomfortable match. That is because it seems Garcia is still mad at a scoring problem back at the PGA Championship in which he got disqualified for a wrong score that Weekley put in. Still Garcia didn't putt very well against Weekley so that is why he didn't win.
My Pick: Austin. He is playing a lot better right now and you just have to think that Weekley will turn into a pumpkin on Friday.
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1:27 a.m. - Steve Stricker (3) vs. Angel Cabrera (14)
Stricker has had to work hard in his matches, winning both of them on the 20th hole. On Wednesday he got a bit of revenge by beating Daniel Chopra, who beat him in a playoff for the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Stricker then had to fight hard to beat Hunter Mahan as Stricker birdied 18 and then the first two playoff holes. As for Angel Cabrera, he has not played as well but his opponents have been easier on him in both of his wins. Yes he beat Luke Donald 2 up but he was just 1-under par for the match. Cabrera has made eight birdies in his two matches, while Stricker made eight birdies in his Thursday match alone.
My Pick: Stricker, easily. He is playing better than Cabrera and won't get suckered in on the Argentine's long ball act.
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1:41 p.m. - Colin Montgomerie (62) vs. Stewart Cink (22)
We all love Monty when he wins. He is nice to watch and really grinds it out. He lives and dies with the putter and after the first two rounds he has putted pretty well. He easily handled Jim Furyk 3 & 2 and then got lucky again with a 1-up win over Charles Howell III. In the Howell match, Monty made a 20-footer for birdie on 14 at a time when Howell was just two feet away. After Monty made, Howell missed and this helped spur Monty on to birdies at 15 and 17 for the win. Meanwhile Stewart Cink had an easy 4 & 3 win over Miguel Angel Jimenez and then got Padraig Harrington on a day when his back was hurting the Irishman and beat him 2 up.
My Pick: Monty. He really wants to beat Cink, who in match play has beaten him three times in the Ryder Cup twice and in this event once. But Monty also needs to ply on the World Ranking points because he needs to get in the top-50 in three weeks so that he can play in the Masters, a championship that he has played in every year since 1992. So I like Monty in an upset.
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1:54 p.m. - Tiger Woods (1) vs. Aaron Baddeley (18)
Woods had a tough match against J.B. Homes, but then had an easy one against Arron Oberholser. Now Baddeley had the easiest match in Accenture history on Thursday as David Toms became the first in the event's history to withdraw from a match because of a bad back. Still Baddeley was an easy 4 & 2 winner over Mark Calcavecchia. .
My Pick: Woods. But he is going to have to play great because Baddeley is a great putter and will give Woods a very good match.
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2:08 p.m. - Paul Casey (26) vs. K.J. Choi (8)
Casey has two matches against fellow European Tour players Robert Karlsson and Bradley Dredge . He played better against Karlsson making nine birdies and shooting 63. He seemed to make too many on Wednesday because he only had two on Thursday and caught Dredge on a bad day. As for Choi he played better on Wednesday in his 3 & 2 win over Villegas than his 1 up win over Ian Poulter in extra holes. Choi could of easily been beaten by Poulter.
My Pick: Casey. He has played a lot of desert golf and seems to be a bit sharper than Choi.
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2:21 p.m. - Stuart Appleby (28) vs. Justin Leonard (52)
Appleby beat Tim Clark 3 & 2 and then upset Phil Mickelson 2 & 1. In both matches he looked very sharp, making five birdies against Clark and nine against Mickelson. The same with Leonard, who made three birdies and a eagle in his 2-up win over Geoff Ogilvy and then made seven birdies in his 2-up win over Lee Westwood.
My Pick: It's a toss-up, but give the edge toAppleby. I feel this will be the best match of the day as both players are going to go low, make a lot of birdies and take it into extra holes before Appleby wins.
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2:35 p.m. - Rod Pampling (61) vs. Vijay Singh (11) Pampling was an 2-up winner over Justin Rose and a 5 & 4 winner over Nick O'Hern. Meanwhile Singh was a 1-up winner over Hanson in extra holes and a 1-up winner over Niclas Fasth.
My Pick: Pampling. He's playing better and should give Singh another match play loss.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Gatorade Tiger hits the shelves
*Rule of 78 becomes a big story again
*Annika starts her year off on the right foot
*A recap of Phil Mickelson's win in L.A.
Look for the "Buzz" everyday starting on Tuesday evening from the Accenture Match Play Championship.
Gatorade Tiger hits the shelves
While the "Buzz" was doing a little grocery shopping in Los Angeles over the weekend in a local Ralphs, we ran across some cherry-flavored Gatorade Tiger. They had the cherry brand and the 32-ounce bottles sold for a bargain price of .79 cents with our Ralphs' card so we bought a six of them.
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We immediately cracked open one of the bottles and drank it, thinking that it was some different blend that would give us some wonderful powers to beat the hell out of our competitors in our friendly weekend match.
Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed because Gatorade Tiger is nothing more than the original Gatorade that we have drinking for years, but put in different packaging. Another nice thing about it - besides the price -is that it's on sale right now so if you're a Gatorade lover and want to get a bargain this is your opportunity.
In looking through the press release sent out by Gatorade back in October, this is the first pass in a relationship in which additional sports performance innovations from Gatorade and Tiger Woods will be introduced in subsequent years.
I would hope so because the "Buzz" was left wondering, “how many Gatorade Tigers will have to be sold before Gatorade is able to recoup their $100 million dollars sponsorship deal with Tiger Woods?" A friend of mine that is involved with bottling Pepsi says that the actual cost to produce, bottle and ship Gatorade is about 16 cents. So if you just put 16 cents into $100 million, just to recoup their bottling cost (not including R&D and marketing) they would have to sell 625 million bottles. For the common person these are staggering numbers, but this doesn’t mean that Gatorade isn’t going to lose money with this new “Gatorade Tiger.” Why you ask? Because according to Darren Rovell’s Gatorade Blog the company has 82% of the $4 billion sports drink market so just some simple math tells us that Gatorade sells around 20 billion bottles of Gatorade a year. So for them to sell just 625 million “Gatorade Tigers” over the next five years should be a piece of cake.
Still it's a big task undertaken by Gatorade to sign Woods. But hey, it got the "Buzz" to buy a half a dozen bottles and I know there are a lot of Tiger fans out there that will probably do the same in the coming weeks.
----------------------------------------------------------------Rule of 78 becomes a big story again
Another example of why the infamous Rule of 78 should be dropped as soon as possible popped up again at the Northern Trust Open over the weekend. The controversial rule that was put in place this year is a new cut rule. If there are more than 78 players making the cut, those players split last place money and do not play the weekend. This was put into place to help speed up play and make sure the weekend fields were more manageable.
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This rule has not been very popular and last week according to Peter Yoon of the Los Angeles Times the Player Advisory Council recommended that the PGA Tour's unpopular new cut policy be scrapped and replaced by one that includes a second cut after 54 holes.
Yikes, this new rule is something else for people to bitch about. As an example of why the rule doesn't work, look at what happened to Marc Turnesa this week. Turnesa was one of six unfortunate players that didn't finish their second round on Friday and had to come back to play early Saturday morning. That morning the writing was on the wall for Turnesa. With two holes left to play he had to play them even par to make the cut, but since more than 78 players would of made the cut, he would of been on the number, meaning he would of gotten last place money ($11,000) and not play over the weekend. Or Turnesa could have birdied one of his final two holes and save the day.
Turnesa made two pars, but was given a big gift when his playing partner John Merrick missed a four-foot par putt on his final hole, which made the cut 3-over and came in with 78 players on the button. So not only did Turnesa get a new life, but Sergio Garcia, Kenny Perry, Rocco Mediate, Shigeki Maruyama, Michael Allen, Briny Baird, Bo Van Pelt and Fredrik Jacobson also got to play over the weekend. In Turnesa's case he shot 67-70 on the weekend and finished T-22nd, thus earning $53,044, which is about $42,000 more than if Merrick made that putt.
Now $42,000 isn't anything to sneeze at. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the median annual household income in the United States was about $48,000 in 2006 so this is real money. That is the basis for all the problems with this rule. It's costing players a chance to make more money, rather than just making last place money and going home.
So what is the right solution? Is this new plan of making a second cut after 54 holes the answer? If they need to trim the field down to 78 or less, this just means that only Sunday would have a manageable field. If they are going to live with more than 78 players on Saturday then they should do the same on Sunday and not have this new rule at all.
Now the "Buzz" has another idea on what to do, but of course for those bottom-feeders on the PGA Tour that go from cut to cut it won't be very popular. Frankly the average fan doesn't give a hoot about those making the cut. The average fan cares more about the players that are in a position to win. So if the field total is a problem, maybe the cut number shouldn't be 70 and ties. Maybe it should be 65 or even 60 and ties. Once again, for the average golf fan this wouldn't and shouldn't be a problem. Still a lot of players would bring up the fact that a player who makes the cut on the number should be able to play on the weekend. It could mean a lot of money in this day and age, and for a guy like Turnesa this week, it could bring a windfall.
So, let's take a look at what has happened in the past. In looking at the numbers via Golfstats going back to 1990, of the 744 PGA Tour events between 1990 and 2007 three players have made the cut on the number and came back to win the tournament (Jose Maria Olazabal, 2002 Buick Invitational; Brad Faxon, 2005 Travelers Championship; Chris Couch, 2006 Zurich Classic). There have been 10 players that have made the cut on the number and finished second, while there have been 11 players to make the cut on the number and finish third. Looking at the numbers a bit further, 50 players made the cut on the number and finished in the top five. Is this important? Yes and no. We can look at this data and say that, yes, there shouldn't be a cut and players that are over the 78 figure should not be given a chance. But if you just lower the cut number, you won't give people the excuse to complain if they miss the cut. Once again, the average golf fan doesn't care if 60 or 70 make the cut. So maybe the PGA Tour should look at this as a solution.
Quite frankly, if players would just play a lot faster there wouldn't be a problem in getting 80 or 85 players around a course. But these days rounds are still getting slower instead of faster and that is the reason for this rule of 78. Hopefully it will be eliminated and maybe the perfect solution would be cut to 65 and ties instead of 70.
----------------------------------------------------------------The Annika of old returns to the LPGA Tour
Over the course of the last year, the "Buzz" has wondered if Annika Sorenstam was ever going the create some "Buzz" again in the future. Her game wasn't very sharp at the start of the year. With the announcement of her being engaged and then her injury, the thought was that Sorenstam was just going to fade into the golfing sunset, enjoy getting married, have a few kids and become like Nancy Lopez or Juli Inkster, a golfing mom that can still play a bit of golf.
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Since Sorenstam made her comeback earlier in the summer we heard the talk about how she was going to work on her game and wanted to regain the glory that she once had, making a run at the best and regaining her No. 1 from Lorena Ochoa. Unfortunately, we have heard this same story from David Duval, John Daly and even Nancy Lopez, but those comebacks haven't materialized.
Now a couple of months ago we got our first indication that maybe, just maybe, Sorenstam was really getting her game together for a comeback when she won the Dubai Ladies Masters. Still winning on the Ladies European Tour is a bit different than winning on the LPGA Tour.
Well, Sorenstam gave us a pretty good indication that she her assessment of regaining thge No. 1 spot in women's golf is not so farfetched after she won he LPGA's season-opening SBS Open in Hawaii.
She put her winless 2007 season in the rear-view mirror - her first one since her rookie year in 1994 - to earn a two-shot win over Russy Gulyanamitta, Laura Diaz and Jane Park. "My clubs have done the talking this week. I'm obviously very, very thrilled. There are some tournaments that mean a little bit more and they come at a special time. I would say this is one of them for many reasons," said Sorenstam, who claimed the 70th LPGA win of her career and broke a 17-month winless drought on the LPGA Tour
Collecting her 70th win was such a chore that Sorenstam said afterwards, "My sister had a shirt that said 70. It's old now. She's had it for a long time (2006 Samsung World Championship); probably dusty. A friend of mine has a bottle of wine that says 70 on it. I'm ready to collect it now," Sorenstam said. "It's mature. It's probably even better."
Sorenstam admitted that winning back the No. 1 spot from Ochoa was going to be a big task and maybe wasn't possible this year. "I just need to focus on what I can do and that's play good golf," she said. "That's my goal this year. That's just what I want to do and have some fun, go out there and play the way I know I can."
Here are some of the keys to Sorenstam's victory:
- If there is any doubt about the commitment that Annika Sorenstam is going to make in trying to get back the No. 1 spot, it should be erased. Sorenstam led the greens-hit category in Hawaii hitting 46 of 54 greens. But here is her main MO for winning events: since 1997 in her 61 LPGA victories, Sorenstam has led that category 24 times. People also won't realize it, but it was Sorenstam's second straight victory (She won her last start of 2007 at the Dubai Ladies Classic).
- In the clutch, Sorenstam came through by making birdies on 16 and 17 to break the deadlock.
- She hit every fairway and missed just one green in the final round, her only glitch was a three-putt bogey at the 11th.
- “I could not have asked for a better start,” said Sorenstam, who remains third all-time in career victories behind Mickey Wright (82) and Kathy Whitworth (88). “It's very gratifying to see that the preparation I've done paid off and now I really want to put '07 behind and say, ‘Hey, I'm a contender,' and I intend to be that all year.”
- Since 1994, this was only the fifth time that she has played in the first LPGA event of the season, but it proved to be a good move because she has won three of the LPGA's first events (1997 Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Championship, 2002 LPGA Takeuji Classic and, now, the SBS Open in Turtle Bay).
- Sorenstam, at 37 years old, is now 18 wins behind Kathy Whitworth's record for tournament wins (male or female). Can see climb her way to the top of the all-time list? Whitworth's 70th-career win came in the 1973 Lady Errol Classic, but she was just 34. Whitworth never married or had children, which Annika wants to do. But the "Buzz" thought that Sorenstam wanting to regain her touch and regain her status as the World's No. 1 was unrealistic and she proved a lot of us wrong with her win in Hawaii.
Sorenstam stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 34 of 56 ..... (T7th)Driving average: 251.8 ..... (T18th)
Greens hit: 46 of 72 ....... (T3rd)
Putts: 89 (29.67 a rd).... (T15th)
Play on par 3s: +1
Play on par 4s: -5
Play on par 5s: -6
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 16 ................ (2nd)
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Mickelson is back in the winner's circle
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Phil Mickelson is in his 16th full season on the PGA Tour. Thanks to his victory in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera on Sunday, he has now won on the West Coast swing in 12 of those campaigns. With his first-career win in Los Angeles, he has now triumphed in every non-Hawaiian city that hosts a West Coast swing stop. He has multiple triumphs in the other cities: three in Pebble Beach, San Diego and Tucson, two in La Costa, Phoenix and Palm Springs. It adds up to 16 wins in all, nearly half of his total of 33.
Mickelson lost a playoff to Charles Howell III at Riviera last year, and found himself in another two-man Sunday battle this year, this time with Jeff Quinney. The two were deadlocked with six holes to go after Quinney birdied four of six holes starting at the sixth. But Quinney, still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, let it slip away with three-putt bogey on 13, followed by bogeys at 14, 15 and 17.
Mickelson also bogeyed 15, but still led by two and held that margin over the final three holes. He finished with a one-under 70 for a 272 total, while Quinney had a 71 for 274.
Europeans Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald tied for third at 277 after shooting 68s. Ryuji Imada (68) and Scott Verplank (70) were next at 278.
This week Mickelson has a chance to fill in his lone remaining gap on the West Coast. The one tournament he hasn’t won is the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, though he has taken other tournaments in Tucson and La Costa, the two cities that have hosted the event.
Here are some of the keys to Mickelson's victory:
- I feel that Phil Mickelson has a lot to thank to modern technology, the PGA Tour and John Daly. Now this probably doesn't make much sense, but Mickelson came very close to almost not playing this week. Just like he did last year, Mickelson commuted from his home in Rancho Santa Fe, which is only a 20-minute flight to the Santa Monica Airport. But on Wednesday morning Mickelson experienced commuter hell as most of us have from time to time. Mickelson was due to tee off at 11:10 a.m., but because of heavy fog, Mickelson's jet got diverted to Burbank, which is double the distance that Santa Monica is. Just to make sure that things were OK, Mickelson called PGA Tour headquarters at Riviera and they were able to switch his tee time with John Daly, who was scheduled to go off at noon. Now if Mickelson didn't make the pro-am in time, he would of been disqualified from the event, just like Retief Goosen was in 2005 because he missed the pro-am. Goosen said he didn't get a wake-up call from his hotel and missed his 6:40 a.m. start. Now Mickelson made it to Riviera at 11:10 so he probably would of made his time, but by switching with Daly it made for a more comfortable time for not only Mickelson, but PGA Tour officials who would of had to DQ him, his playing partners and the folks that run the Northern Trust Open. Oh, now that Daly is a bit down on his luck these days, I wonder if Mickelson should give him a percentage of his winnings?
- Stats-wise it wasn't a very impressive week for Mickelson. Yes he did lead the birdies category, his 6-under total on the par 4s was T-1 and his 8-under total on the par 5s was T-4th. So what stuck out the most this week for Mickelson? Probably putting. Yes his putting average was eighth and his putts per round was T-11th, but he made 52 out of 52 putts from four feet in and was 65 for 71 on putts inside 10 feet.
- Mickelson also got a big break on the luck of the draw with a early tee off on Thursday and late on Friday. While Mickelson got calm conditions on Thursday morning, he also got the same on Friday afternoon while it was vice versa for those with opposite times. To show how much of a disadvantage it was, for the 72 players that teed off in the afternoon on Thursday and early Friday Morning, 51 players missed the cut while Ryjui Imada, who finished T-5th, was the only finisher in the Top-10. So just like with the Daly help on Wednesday, Mickelson got lucky with his tee times.
- Mickelson has claimed every non-Hawaiian west coast event. The only other player who can make that same claim (winning the FBR, Tucson, Hope, AT&T Pebble, Buick & Northern Trust) is Johnny Miller. Billy Casper has won everyone of them but Tucson. Still Casper won 14 times in California, the most of any player on the PGA Tour. Now Mickelson can claim winning 16 west coast events, but if you look at all west coast events - taking into account Nevada, Oregon and Washington - the true West Coast King was Casper. He won 20 times on the West Coast, 14 in California, once in Arizona, once in Nevada, once in Washington and three times in Oregon.
- Phil won the Northern Trust on his 10th try, his previous best finish was 2nd last year.
Now that he has won the Northern Trust, what events has Mickelson played the most in without a victory?
17 starts in the U.S. Open, best finish 2nd in 1999, 2002, '04 & '06.
15 starts in the British Open, best finish 3rd in 2004.
12 starts in the Justin Timberlake event (old Las Vegas), best finish 2nd in 2002.
10 starts in the BMW Championship, best finish T26th in 1996 (the good news for Phil is that it's being played on different course in 2008).
Mickelson stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 27 of 56 ..... (T59th)Driving average: 296.9 ..... (26th)
Greens hit: 46 of 72 ....... (T10th)
Putts: 107 (26.75 a rd).... (T11th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 37
2-putt greens: 32
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: +2
Play on par 4s: -6
Play on par 5s: -8
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 20 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 20 of 26 (76.92%)... (4th)
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.
Other odds and ends from the Northern Trust:
- Mickelson becomes the fifth 36-hole leader/co-leader in seven events on the 2008 PGA TOUR to go on and win that week, joining K.J. Choi (Sony Open), D.J. Trahan (Bob Hope Chrysler Classic), Tiger Woods (Buick Invitational) and J.B. Holmes (FBR Open).
- Jeff Quinney’s runner-up finish is the best of his two-year PGA Tour career. Since becoming a member of the TOUR in 2007, $1,269,963 of Quinney’s $2,461,325 earnings have come in events held in the state of California. In addition, four of his six career top-10 finishes have come in California.
- Things were looking good for John Daly after his first-round 69 had him four shots off the lead, but he followed with rounds of 74, 73 and 76 and finished tied for 75th, ahead of only one player that made the cut. It's the first time Daly has played the weekend in five Tour events this year. He made the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii, but was among the players affected by the new cut rule. This week Daly earned $11,656.
- Looking ahead at the Accenture Match Play tournament, Tiger Woods draws J.B. Holmes in the first round. This pairing could be a bit dangerous for Tiger considering that Holmes won in Phoenix two weeks ago and at the Northern Trust shot rounds of 74-66-69-70, finishing T-7th. As for Mickelson, his first-round opponent is Pat Perez, who shot 69-72-71-72 and finished T-36th. Now on paper this may look like a bit of a mismatch, but as we know, in Match Play anything is possible and just about anyone can beat someone on any given day. ----------------------------------------------------------------
- Lowery’s biggest asset was his ability to come back from disaster. On Saturday playing Poppy Hills, he was four-under going to the par five 10th hole and made double bogey. He was able to bounce back with a birdie, but once again had problems on the par 5, 12th hole making another double bogey. At that time he was one-under and on the cusp of missing the cut. But he birdied his next three holes, then finished par, birdie, birdie for a 70 and put himself in the running. Another key shot was a pair of 4-irons on the tough 8th and 9th holes at Pebble. Both led to birdies, which kept him close to Singh.
- In looking at the stats, Lowery didn’t win because of a stellar tee to green game. He was T-42nd in fairways hit and T-30th in greens hit. As a matter of fact, Lowery wasn’t that great in scrambling either as he was 16 for 25 on getting it up and down on greens missed and his 64% average was T-28th.
- Putting was important, as he was second in putting average and T-4th in putts per round (27.00 average). Since the AT&T is a multiple course event full, stats are only done for 36 of the 72 holes, but in putting at Pebble, Lowery was a perfect 24 for 24 on putts from five feet and in and 29 for 34 on putts from 10 feet and inside. For the week Lowery did have two three-putts ,but he made up for it with 38 one-putts, the best of anyone in the field.
- Since 1997, the winner of PGA Tour events play the par 5s in an average of 8-under par. Lowery played the par 5s this week in 1-over par and in 508 PGA Tour events since 1997 he is the only player to be over par on the par 5s.
Now on the other end of the spectrum, in those 508 Tour events, the par 3s have averaged a scoring average of 1-under par for the winners as Lowery played the AT&T par 3s in 8-under, the best of any winner since 1997. - Lowery played his first 48 holes in 1-under and his last 24 holes in 9-under. On Saturday afternoon, after his double bogey at the 12th hole at Poppy Hills and before his birdie on the 13th hole, Lowery was on the cut line at 1-under par. So if there ever was an event that shows how stupid this new cut rule is, this could be it because in a short span of 24 holes Lowery went from fighting to make the cut to winning the tournament.
- In seven career starts at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Lowery has made five cuts with one Top-10. His previous best was T-21 in 1995. Since 1990 all the winners of the AT&T had a previous Top-10 victory before their win, except for Peter Jacobsen in 1995, Phil Mickelson in 1998 and now Steve Lowery.
- Lowery’s winning score of 10-under 278 is the highest winning score at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since Johnny Miller claimed the title with a total of 7-under 281 in 1994.
- Lowery’s win marks the first come-from-behind victory in the final round at the AT&T since 2002, when Matt Gogel erased a four-shot Pat Perez-lead in the final round to claim his only PGA TOUR title.
- Lowery has played in 518 PGA Tour events and his $1,080,000 check was the largest check of his career. It’s hard to believe, but it was only his second check worth more than a half a million dollars. His previous best was $518,400 when he finished second at the 2004 BMW Championship.
- Lowery has won three times on the PGA Tour and he has the distinction along with Jay Haas, Phil Blackmar and Robert Allenby as having a perfect 3 for 3 record in playoffs. Both Blackmar and Lowery are 3-for-3 in winning while Allenby has won all four times, three of them in playoffs and Haas has won nine times, three of them in the three playoff's he has played in.
- Another disappointing loss for Vijay Singh, whose last win came 11 months ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his longest drought since after winning the 2000 Masters he didn't win again until the 2002 Shell Houston Open. Singh has been working hard on his swing and told a lot of people that he has never hit the ball better. But things didn't look very good when he missed the greens at 14, 15 and 16 making bogeys. Singh seemingly had the tournament wrapped up on the back nine until things unraveled and you have to wonder with his 45th birthday next week if he will ever be able to win again on a consistent level as he did three years ago.
- Going into the 2006 Mercedes-Benz Championship Singh had a 7-2 playoff record, but with his defeat to Stuart Appleby at the Mercedes combined with Sunday’s loss to Lowery, he has lost his last two playoffs and his record has dropped to 7-4.
- Woods had a great start and a great finish as he had bookend rounds of 65. But the most important aspect of Woods’ week was the fact that after three-putting the ninth hole on Sunday, Woods was able to get it together and shot 31 on the back nine to win the tournament.
- The most important aspect of the win had to be his chip-in at 12. To some they probably can’t relate to just how hard of a shot it really was. It wasn’t the fact that the pin got in the way. It was a well-executed shot that helped jump-start Woods’ finish in which he birdied five of his last seven holes.
- Putting was the difference between a Woods win and a Els defeat. Woods took 109 putts, compared to 121 for Els. Woods had just one three-putt while Els had two and Woods had 34 one-putt greens compared to just 20 for Els. Woods, of course, dominated the par 5s, playing them in 9-under. But another important key for Woods was being able to make the most birdies with 22, but avoiding three-putts was just as important.
- Woods has won 33 times on the European Tour. But if you take away the World Golf Championship events and the majors Woods, has just 10 European Tour wins and that includes his three British Open victories.
- Holmes didn’t play very well on the final day, but he played the best when it mattered most, making a birdie on the 72nd hole and again on the first extra hole. One of the keys to the playoff was he epic 359-yard drive which gave him a big advantage over Mickelson
- Holmes may of ranked 158th in 2007 in putts per round and 121st in putting average, but it was a different story with the short-stick this week. In putts per round he took just 109 and was ranked T-10th, while in putting average he was second. For the week he didn’t have any three-putts and his 33 one-putts ranked him T-15th. Holmes played the par 5s the best at 8-under and his 7-under total on the par 4s was only bettered by one other player
- Interesting to note that Holmes has won $3,539,690 in career earnings on the PGA Tour, with $2,016,000 (57%) of it coming at the FBR.
- With Holmes victory he joins a short list of those players that in their first two PGA Tour wins were at the same event:
Hale Irwin in the 1971 & '73 Verizon Heritage
Dave Eichelberger in the 1971 & '77 U.S. Bank Championship Milwaukee
Calvin Peete in the 1979 & '82 U.S. Bank Championship Milwaukee
Brian Henninger in the 1994 & '99 Viking Classic
Loren Roberts in the 1994 & '95 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Vaughn Taylor in the 2004 & '05 Legends
J.B. Holmes in the 2006 & '08 FBR Open
- The last time the Super Bowl was contested in Arizona back in 1996, Phil Mickelson beat Justin Leonard in a three-hole playoff to win the title. Twelve years later, the two found themselves tied for sixth entering Sunday's action. Once again, Lefty had the better day, finishing second to Leonard's disappointing 43rd after he shot a final round 77.
- No two ways about it, the FBR Open has the biggest galleries in golf. A single-day record of 170,802 patrons showed up on Saturday with the four-day total of 538,356 also setting a new record. The previous records were 168,337 and 536,767 respectively--both set in 2006.
- Mark Calcavecchia shot 72 on Sunday to drop from 12th to 20th place at the FBR. It was still the 11th Top-25 finish for Calc at an event he has won three times. Arnold Palmer and Gene Littler are the only other men with three victories at the tournament.
- In addition to his 32 PGA Tour wins, Phil Mickelson has now posted 21 runner-up finishes, seventh best among active players. Greg Norman leads the list with 31, followed by Davis Love III (29), Mark Calcavecchia (27), Tiger Woods (23), Vijay Singh (23) and Mark O'Meara (22).
- The cumulative scoring average this week at the par-71 TPC Scottsdale was 70.306, the fifth easiest the course has played since the FBR Open moved here in 1987. The lowest average during that stretch was 69.130 in 2003. ----------------------------------------------------------------
- Putting was very important as Woods was first in putting average with 1.638 and T-1st in total putts, taking only 111 putts. Of the three rounds that they chart distance of putts (his round on the North Course wasn't charted) he made 46 of 53 putts inside 10 feet. But in watching the Friday show in which he shot 65 you saw Woods make every putt inside 10 feet (he took just 24 for the day) so that 86.79% had to be higher. Woods had just one three-putt and had 30 one-putts, which ranked him T-11th.
- Woods may of been George of the Jungle as he hit only 48.21% of the fairways, which ranked 75th, but that didn't seem to stop him from hitting lots of greens. In fact, he only missed 14 of them as he ranked T-2nd. Again, when you have the combination of hitting lots of greens with great putting you are going to win all the time.
- Another key for Tiger was the fact that he shot a 67 on the tough South
Course in the first round. It wasn't his lowest first- round score as he
shot 66 on two other occasions, but those were on the much easier North Course.
So his 67 was one of his best starts at the event and by the time he
finished up with a 65 on the North Course in Round 2 he was way ahead of the rest of the
pack.
In looking at how Woods plays on both courses, in his career 11 rounds on the North he has a 67.64 average, while on the tougher South Course he has a 68.56 average in 32 rounds. - You got to love the way Tiger always seems to make that one impossible shot that the announcer says before he sets up that he'll be lucky to get within 15 feet and then Tiger gets it within gimmie range. He had that on the ninth hole on Sunday as he was way over the green in some wet muck. But again it was one of those shots that the average pro on the PGA Tour wouldn't be able to get within 15 feet half of the time, as many would scuff it short, or lob it long. But Woods is great in any conditions and down the stretch of a tournament he is even better. So of course it wasn't shocking to see him hit such a great shot. Oh, by the way, of the 14 greens that he missed last week, he got it up and down 10 times, which ranked him T-5th.
- Woods won the Buick Invitational this week by eight shots. In his 62 Tour wins it’s the ninth time that he has won by eight shots or more. Not a bad record.
- Woods seems to know how to start off his season on the right foot and he did it again
this year. Just look at the chart below at how well he is
playing the first event of the year. Of his 62 wins, six of them have
come in his first event.
1997 Mercedes Championships he won
1998 Mercedes Championships finished T-2
1999 Mercedes Championships finished T-5
2000 Mercedes Championship he won
2001 Mercedes Championship finished T-8
2002 Mercedes Championship finished T-10
2003 Buick Invitational he won
2004 Mercedes Championship finished T-4
2005 Mercedes Championship finished T-3
2006 Buick Invitational he won
2007 Buick Invitational he won
2008 Buick Invitational he won
- Tiger Woods wins the Buick Invitational for the sixth time at
Torrey Pines. It is also the sixth time a player has won the same
tournament six or more times, but only four players have collected these
victories on the same course.
Players who have won a single event six times on the same course:
Alex Ross won the North & South Open six times at Pinehurst (1902, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1915)
Jack Nicklaus won the Master Tournament six times at Augusta National (1963,1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986)
Sam Snead won the Miami Open six times at the Miami Springs G & CC (1937, 1939, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1955)
Tiger Woods won the WGC-Bridgestone Inviational at Firestone CC (South) (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Tiger Woods won the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines (1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)There are players that have won six or more events on different coruses. Here he is a look at the most titles won at a single event, but on different courses:
Sam Snead's eight wins in Greensboro were spilt between four at Starmount Forest CC and four at Sedgefield CC (1938, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1965)
Harry Vardon's six wins at the British Open were played on four different courses. Three of his wins came at Prestwick (1898, 1903, 1914) in Scotland, two at Royal St. Georges (1899, 1911) in England and his first victory in 1896 came at Muirfield in Scotland.
Tiger Woods' six wins at the WGC-American Express Championship were played at six different courses. Valderrama Golf Club (1999), Mt. Juliet Estate (2002), Capital City Club (2003), Harding Park (2005), The Grove (2006) and Doral Blue Monster (2007). - Two last factoid's. The Buick Invitational has the longest streak
of major winners as its champion (of course, if you don’t count the
majors) on the PGA Tour. Every winner of the Buick going back to 1995
has won a major. The next longest is the WGC-CA Championship in which
every champion since it started in 1999 has won a major.
Lastly, not only has Woods won six times at the Buick, he also has three wins up the road at LaCosta, winning the 1997 Mercedes Championship and two WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships. And at Torrey Pines he was the winner one other time, in the 1991 Junior World Championship that was the last of six junior world titles (1984, ’85, ’88, ’89, ’90 & ’91). So you can see how he loves, not only the San Diego area, but Torrey Pines. - Sunday’s scoring average of 74.788 was the highest final-round average at the South Course since 1983 when the PGA Tour began keeping records. The only other time it has been above today’s average on the South Course was in the first round of the 1993 event when the average was 79.351. On that day, it was cold wet conditions with winds steady at 30 mph and gusting to 40 mph.
- Rory Sabbatini finished T-3rd this week. Going back to last year Sabbatini has finished in the top-10 in six out of his last seven starts, including finishing in the top-10 in all four PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup. During that span, the only event he did not finish in the top-10 was the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, where he was 17th.
- Justin Leonard is off to a solid start in 2008. His fifth-place this week was his third top-10 effort in three starts. Last week, Leonard finished second at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and he began the season with a T-8 at the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Leonard has now finished inside the top 10 in six of his last seven tournaments, dating back to his win at the 2007 Valero Texas Open. In fact, last year he jumped from 99th on the money list to finish 33rd at the end of the season during the PGA Tour Fall Series. Now many say that Leonard doesn't play well on long courses, but you have to wonder if he will be one of the favorites come June when the U.S. Open is played at Torrey Pines.
- Phil Mickelson collected his first top-10 of the season with his T-6 finish at the Buick Invitational. He now has nine top-10s in 19 starts at the Buick, including three victories. It was his 131st career top-10.
- Fred Couples, making his second start of the year and just his second start since the Masters, finished T-8th. It was his first top-10 finish since a T-3rd at the 2006 Masters. Couples has finished in the top-10 fives times in 19 starts at the Buick Invitational. ----------------------------------------------------------------
- The key stats for Trahan was putting. He took just 130 putts (26 per round) to lead that category and had a 1.585 average on the greens he hit, also leading that one. Now in the last two years Trahan became only the fifth person to win both stats in the same event, the others being Arron Oberholser in the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach, Aaron Baddeley in the 2006 Verizon Heritage, Jim Furyk in the 2006 Canadian Open and Tiger Woods in last year's Tour Championship.
- Trahan had 35 birdies for the 90 holes to lead the field and was just two off the record, which is 37 by Phil Mickelson in the 2004 Hope.
- Trahan played the par 4s in 10-under, which was the third best for the week.
- Trahan becomes the fourth player in the last seven years to make up a four-shot Sunday deficit. The others are Phil Mickelson in 2002 when he shot a 64 and won in a playoff. In 2003, Mike Weir shot a Sunday 67 and won by two shots. Last year, Charley Hoffman shot a final round 71 and won in a playoff.
- Usually when a player wins a tournament, we can look at the past times he played in a event to give us a barometer. Not in this case as Trahan was playing in his third Hope Chrysler and in his previous two starts he missed the cut.
- D.J. Trahan becomes just the second player in his 20s to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic since 1988, joining 1999 champion David Duval. The youngest winner of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was Jack Nicklaus in 1963 at age 23 years and 13 days.
- This was Justin Leonard's 16th runner-up finish in 379 PGA Tour starts. He has now finished inside the Top 10 in five of his last six tournaments, dating back to his win at the 2007 Valero Texas Open. During that six-event stretch, he has collected one victory, matching T-6 finishes in 2007 at the Frys Electronics Open and the Children’s Miracle Network Classic, a T-8 finish at the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship and his runner-up finish at the Hope.
- Kenny Perry, who won the 1995 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, finished T-3 this year, marking his sixth Top-10 effort at the Hope. Only seven players have posted more Top-10 finishes since the tournament’s inception in 1960, including Billy Casper’s tournament-leading 12 and Arnold Palmer’s 11. It is the 12th third-place finish of Perry’s career, to go along with nine wins and eight runner-up finishes in 539 PGA Tour starts.
- A great welcome back to the Tour for Scott McCarron, who returned after a long rehabilitation from elbow surgery in August of 2006. In his first start since the 2006 Booz Allen Classic, McCarron shot 68-74-70-69-73 and finished T70th.
- Another welcome back to the PGA Tour after back injury was Fred Couples. Making his first PGA Tour start since the Masters last year he shot rounds of 69-73-71-68-70 to finish T56th. For Couples it's the 22nd time he has made the Hope cut (Peter Jacobsen has the most with 24) in 23 starts, his only missed cut coming in the 1999 event.
- Charley Hoffman finished T8 in his attempt to become just the second player in BHCC history to win in back-to-back seasons. Johnny Miller is the only player to perform the feat, winning in 1975 and 1976. Hoffman’s finish was the best by a defending champion since 2002 champion Phil Mickelson finished T6 in 2003. In all, winners of the Hope have posted 12 top-10 finishes in their title defense, but just five in the past 32 years. ----------------------------------------------------------------
- In the key stats the combination of greens in regulation and scrambling was the key. First Choi hit 54 of 72 greens, which ranked T4th for the week. Of the 18 greens that Choi missed he got it up and down 83.33% or 15 times, the best of the field.
- On the surface putting didn’t seem that big of a deal as he took 113 putts which ranked T24th and on putts per green hit he ranked 25th. But his putting is a big key to him winning. For the week Choi had 66 putts inside 10 feet and made 63 of them. Starting was the fact that of the putts 7 feet and under he made 62 of 62. Putting on the final round was very important for his start of the round, on the first two holes he made two 14 footers for par, at 4 he made a 8 footer for par, at 5 he made a 5 and a half footer for par.
- Choi dominated the par 4s as he was 9 under while the next closets person on the par 4s was 5 under.
- Choi won wire-to-wire, becoming only the third outright wire-to-wire winner in Sony History along with Howard Twitty in 1993 and Paul Azinger in 2000. Choi was the first wire-to-wire win on the PGA Tour since Steve Flesch did it last year at the Reno-Tahoe Open, the only time it was done in 2007.
- Kenneth Ferrie had a rough week in his first PGA Tour start as a
member. First his father passed away in England but before he died
while he told his son to continue playing no matter what happened. So
with a sad heart Ferrie played but got food poisoning and had to
withdraw after playing the 2nd hole in the 3rd round
Making this weird is the fact that for his week Ferrie got $8,798 but the money is unofficial. That is a bit weird because 18 players made the cut but because they had too big of a field, these folks got $9,805 official money even thought they play after the 2nd round.
Under new PGA Tour rules that went into effect this year, the top 70 players and ties made the cut but if there is more that 78 players only the players closest to 70 get to continue. The cut policy has already come under criticism by players and media so this isn’t going to help matters any. - Rory Sabbatini shot a final round 68 and moved up to 2nd. It is his 11th runner-up finish in his career.
- Steve Stricker's T4th finish was his fourth top-five finish in his last six starts on the PGA Tour (going back to his win at The Barclays). During that span, Stricker has gone from 10th in the Official World Golf Rankings to third. After recording only three top-10 finishes from the start of 2002 to the end of 2005, Stricker has now notched 18 top-10s since the start of the 2006 season.
- The Sony Open in Hawaii is the place for rookies to make there debut on the PGA Tour and make a splash. Of the one's off the Nationwide Tour and Q-school, 11 made the cut with Dustin Johnson having the best finish a T10th. Now Johnson played once on the PGA Tour in 2007 so this wasn't his first start, of those making his first start Matt Jones did the best finishing T17th. ----------------------------------------------------------------
- Looking at his stats the big key for his win was putting. For the week he took 117 which seems high but isn't for the size and undulations of the greens. For the week it ranked 3rd, in putts per greens hit he was 1st. But diving in closer at the stats, we see that he had 29 one-putts and two, three-putts. Nothing really interesting but diving even closer, in the 52 putts that Chopra had over 10 feet, he made 13 of them which is a good stat but every better for the week he made 5 putts over 25 feet. He was just as good in short putting, he had 57 putts of 5 feet or less and connected 56 times, not bad for the tricky, Bermuda greens of Kapalua.
- Now Chopra has always had problems with accuracy off the tee. In his previous four years on tour he hasn't been higher than 179th in that stat and this week was just as bad, ranking T29th out of 31 players. But he does hit the ball long, for the week was the 6th longest, so you can see there isn't any better of a course for him than Kapalau.
- Chopra had Steve Stricker to thank for not closing the deed a couple of times in the playoff on some very makeable putts.
- Chopra becomes the seventh consecutive foreign-born winner of the Mercedes-Benz Championship: 2007, Vijay Singh; 2004-2006, Stuart Appleby; 2003, Ernie Els; 2002, Sergio Garcia.
- As a comparison putting between Stricker and Chopra, we told you that Daniel made 5 putts over 25 feet. Looking at Stricker, he made five putts that were on 47 putts over 15 feet with only won over 25 feet.
- Again Mike Weir went into the final round of a tournament and just couldn't get the job done. The Mercedes was the ninth time that he either had the 3rd round lead or a share of it going into the final round. But only once, at the 2004 Nissan Open has he been able to win. This week Weir shot 70 on the final round to finish in 4th, two back of the leaders. On Sunday, Weir's problem was not being able to get off to a good start, he bogey two of his first four holes which put him too far behind.
- Four first-time participants finished among the top-10 this week: Daniel Chopra (3), Hunter Mahan (T5), Nick Watney (T5), and Brandt Snedeker (T10).
- Jim Furyk’s T5 finish gives him his sixth top-10 finish at the Mercedes-Benz Championship since the event moved to Kapalua in 1999. He is tied with Tiger Woods for second on that list, two shy of Vijay Singh, who has eight.
- Defending champion Vijay Singh carded a final-round 70 en route to a T12 finish. Singh has now recorded 30 of his past 36 rounds at Kapalua under par ----------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*When is an amateur really an amateur?
*Steve Lowery wins at the AT&T, a recap
*Couch Producer looks at a great telecast, on the Golf Channel
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Clearing up some odds and ends
When is an amateur really an amateur?
The "Buzz" has run into a couple of stories that make us wonder about the credibility of Bill Walters’, the pro-am winner in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Walters, and his pro partner Fredrik Jacobson, won the event by 11 shots, the biggest margin of victory in the AT&T's history. Walters, an 11-handicap, contributed 34 shots to his team's total, which could raise a few eyebrows.
But what got the "Buzz" wondering about all of this was Jerry Stewart's article in the Monterey Herald, where it says that Walters admitted to winning $550,000 in a Nassau match back in 1975, which is a form of gambling. In looking at the USGA's Rules of Amateur status, in the rules of golf, it's broken up in 10 different rules, but at the bottom there is a special section on the Policy of Gambling. In that section there is a very vague term saying that "the amount of money involved is not generally considered to be excessive." So, I wonder if winning $550,000 is "excessive" or what that magic number is.
In contacting the USGA on this, I got back an email from John Morrissett, who is the director of rules for the USGA, who basically said, "there is no monetary limit for gambling between players in the same group". So basically the USGA's answer on this is that their is no problem with Walters past, his winnings were achieved through gambling not through his golf skill. Does anyone have a problem with this?
The "Buzz" has to wonder what the take on this is from the folks that run the AT&T. Did they realize that this was going on? And do they really want to be associated with a person like Walters, who in this Dave Kindred Golf Digest story says that he is nothing more than a gambling man that, "probably won more money than Jack Nicklaus." In talking with Ollie Nutt, the longtime director of the AT&T, he told the "Buzz" that until today (Monday) he wasn't aware of Walters past gambling claims, that Walters played two years ago and nothing was mention on this and they had no problem with him. He also said that they always review the pro-am participants and that this would be the case with Walters who of course will want to play in future AT&T's.
So I guess the answer to all of this is that nobody really cares and that a person that says he has made more money playing golf than Jack Nicklaus could tee it up as an amateur and nobody from the AT&T to the USGA can do anything about it. On top of that how can a guy that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars playing golf go scott free and play amateur golf while others have to make sure not to exceed the couple of hundred dollar limit the USGA sets for winning golf equipment in their club championship to keep his or her amateur status? The element of allowing a know gambler into a pro-am is a bit dicey, but we have to give the AT&T folks a free pass because we don't know if they knew of Walters past, but hopefully in the future the folks of the AT&T will look into items like this. Lastly, if Walters ego wasn't so big as many are telling us, he wouldn't of been so free to tell the world about his past and have many grumbling over this. The "Buzz" just wonders how many folks feel that this was OK for Walters to win the event and get his name engraved in the amateur category in probably one of the biggest pro-ams in the world that is open to amateurs only. If you ask the "Buzz," this whole thing has a fishy smell to it and the credibility of this event in the future should be questioned.
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Lowery with is biggest win of his career
The 2008 golf season is turning into a weird type of year. In four of the six events, we have had some highly unusual winners, starting with Daniel Chopra at the Mercedes and now with Steve Lowery at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. In between we also had D.J. Trahan at the Bob Hope and last week J.B. Holmes won at the FBR. In looking at this week's Northern Trust you have to wonder who could be next on the list of obscure winners.
I am not degrading the win by Steve Lowery, who has been a member of the PGA Tour since 1988 and until last year was in the Top-125 between 1993 and 2006. But on Dec. 1, two months ago when Lowery missed the cut at PGA Tour qualifying school the last thing on his mind was a win at Pebble Beach nine weeks later.
Of all the wins this year, this was the most surprising. The only reason Lowery has privileges this year is because of a wrist injury at last year's FBR Open. He didn't play for three months and when he did, he finished the year 148th on the money list. He tried to get back on the Tour via qualifying school and when that didn't work Lowery got a minor medical extension for his bad wrist and had eight events to earn $282,558. Between his T-20th at the Sony Open in Hawaii and his win this week, there is no need to worry. And since he is 47, the chances are that he will be exemption on the PGA Tour until his 50th birthday on Oct. 12, 2010. Then he’ll be eligible for the Champions Tour.
Lowery shot a 68 in the final round and defeated Vijay Singh in a sudden-death playoff after both finished at 10-under 278. Lowery birdied the first extra hole, the 18th at Pebble Beach, to win for the third time on the PGA Tour, his first win since the 2000 Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
Lowery had an interesting week on the Monterey Peninsula. In the first round, he hit only nine greens at Spyglass Hill, but rode a hot putter to finish with a 69. In the third round, he double-bogeyed both par fives on the back nine at Poppy Hills, but he had six birdies on that nine to keep himself in contention. On Sunday, he hit 16 greens in regulation, shot a 31 on the front nine and ultimately made a four-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole for the win..
While Lowery upended the 44-year-old Singh, who is the all-time leader in wins past age the age of 40, he barely finished ahead of another older player, 48-year-old Corey Pavin, who finished one stroke back at 279 after a final-round 66. Pavin tied for third with John Mallinger, who shot a 65, and Dudley Hart, who began the day tied for the lead with Singh and had to rally at the end with birdies on the last three holes for a 72. Australia’s 20-year-old Jason Day provided the only youth factor by finishing two shots back with at 280.
Here are some of the keys to Lowery's victory:
Lowery stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 39 of 56 ..... (T42nd)Driving average: 266.3 ..... (T36th)
Greens hit: 47 of 72 ....... (T30th)
Putts: 108 (27.00 a rd).... (T4th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 38
2-putt greens: 32
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: -8
Play on par 4s: -3
Play on par 5s: +1
Eagles: 1
Birdies: 22 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 16 of 25 (64.00%)... (T24th)
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.
Other odds and ends from Lowery's victory:
Thoughts on Vijay not winning
Singh stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 34 of 56 ..... (T61st)Driving average: 274.1 ..... (T20th)
Greens hit: 56 of 72 ....... (1st)
Putts: 118 (29.50 a rd).... (T46th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 38
2-putt greens: 32
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: -2
Play on par 4s: -1
Play on par 5s: -7
Eagles: 1
Birdies: 16 ................ (T13th)
Scrambling: 9 of 16 (56.25%)... (53rd)
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" looks at the dismal way that CBS did Saturday's AT&T show and what a great job Golf Channel did with a major technical problem.
After the Saturday telecast of the Allianz Championship on the Champions Tour, the Boca Raton, Florida area was hit by a terrible storm in which the Golf Channel production van took a direct lightening strike. Fortunely nobody was in the general area and nobody was injured but in this day and age of digital facilities, several of the electronics were fried.
According to Golf Channel producer of the show Brandt Packer, "the router that controls the communications between the production van, announcers and camera's was a complete lost and the router that also controlled the way that Golf Channel switches all of their replays were lost. Through heroic efforts of their technologic staff they were able to regain their communications system which gave them the capabilities of having their announcers in the towers and on the fairways. This was a big relief for Packer who on Sunday morning was looking at an ugly scenario in which their main announcers Brian Hammonds and Frank Nobilo would have to sit in the production van next to Packer so that they could get the information that they needed to do the show. That would of been tough on all because the background sounds in the production faculties would of come over as background noise making it sound like they were doing the show from a bar, plus the distractions of the control room would of hampered the announcers, distracting them from having a good show.
Packer was very happy when they were able to work out the communications and announcers could be in there positions but the two things that Packer couldn't control was having any tape packages because to solve their other problems, he had to give the facilities to the technical staff and didn't have any time to do the pieces needed for a normal show. The second problem Packer had was that they had no control over the way replays were recorded, which is the heart and soul of the modern day telecast. The only kind of replays that he could do were one camera, behind the green type and they had to get them off of a machine that was preordain to record a green, so Packer knew that he couldn't rely on tape like he normally does.
So Packer had to make sure to keep as much of the show live as possible, even with the fact that when they went on the air 13 players were within two shots of the lead. Now I have seen a lot of Packers work over the years and the Golf Channel should thank their lucky stars that it was Packer producing the show instead of others that wouldn't of given the same effort. For the viewers at home, nobody missed a shot and honestly I wouldn't of know that tape shots were only one camera unless Packer told me.
Now this brings up the question that I have been harping on Golf Channel for over a year, why won't they let Packer, a person with a lot of network experience and one that knows how to handle any kind of problems produce their main shows and get others like John Delvecchio, a former ABC director to also join the channel? Packer, with all of the problems that he had on Sunday, produced a first class show. At the Mercedes, Sony and Bob Hope there were two producers who couldn't give a first class show so the answer should be easy, but the brain trust at Golf Channel either aren't very bright or they have a tremendous loyalty to producers that have been with them for 12 years and would rather have them do a sub-par job instead of having a first class job done by Packer and others with experience.
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E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Will Ian Poulter be added to Tiger's 'You Know What' List?
*Which new players will get into the World Hall of Fame?
*Other odds and ends from the week including Bill Murray & Jose Maria Olazbal not playing in at Pebble
*Tiger wins at Dubai, a recap
*J.B. Holmes wins at the FBR, a recap
*Couch Producer looks at the terrible Dubai telecast on the Golf Channel
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Clearing up some odds and ends
Will Ian Poulter be added to Tiger's 'You Know What' List?
Don’t you love when a player whose ego is bigger than his game puts his foot in his mouth in describing himself in the same realm as Tiger Woods? Colin Montgomerie was the first to really come out in public and try to take a shot at Tiger when he said that he wanted a piece of Woods at the 1997 Masters. Well, Monty got his chance in the third round when he was paired with Tiger, but shot 74 compared to Tiger’s 65 and the rest is history.
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History has been littered by the corpses of players who tried to be funny in describing their chances against Woods. I bet you that Stephen Ames will be more careful about what he says about Tiger after Woods destroyed him in the Accenture Match Play Championship 9 & 8. The same goes for Rory Sabbatini, but we wonder at times if Sabbatini sits on his brains.
Now Ian Poulter is the latest to speak up after he was quoted in the English version of Golf World as saying he believes that when he reaches his potential he and Woods will be streets ahead of anyone else. It’s hard to believe that a person who hasn’t won or even contended on the PGA Tour would say something like this. Yes, Poulter has won seven times on the European Tour, but does he know that players like Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els have won three majors apiece and have won many times on the PGA Tour?
Poulter is now saying that everyone is taking the statements out of context. But he should have learned from Sabbatini’s tune of self-delusion that Woods feeds off of things like this and it helps keep him even more motivated. You have to think that we will have one of those accidental pairings between Tiger and Poulter, like at the Accenture a few years ago when Ames drew Woods in his bracket. Tiger will clean Poulter’s clock and smile and say something like, “come on back when you’re ready to play again.”
One thing that we have to wonder is what was Poulter thinking when he, not only made these statements, but made a fool of himself by doing that cover for Golf World? I guess it’s great for Poulter’s image because women will love the cover, but I just have to wonder how much grief Poulter is going to get on the driving range and locker rooms during European Tour and PGA Tour events in the upcoming months.
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Which new players will get into the World Hall of Fame?
One of the greatest institutions of golf is the World Golf Hall of Fame. It may not be as glittery as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Copperstown, which was opened in 1939 about 60 years before the one in St. Augustine opened, but golf's version should be proud of the fact that it's one of the top hall's in any sport.
Every year ballots go out to about 500 people consisting of all living members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, golf historians and journalists that have been member of the Golf Writers Assocation in both America and Europe for ten years, members of the world golf foundation board of directors and members of the World Golf Hall of Fame advisory board. For most of us it's an honor that we don't take lightly because it's an important part of carrying over the history of our game to future generations of golf fans.
There are two different ballots, one for PGA Tour members and one for International players, while the LPGA has their own set of guidelines in choosing their members. In a way, LPGA membership is the hardest one to get into as players like Laura Davies who should be and will be a member one day can't seem to do it off of the point list. Some others that look like they are going to fall short is Hollis Stacy, Meg Mallon, Dottie Pepper and Jan Stephenson.
What is a true Hall of Fame candidate? Should it be soley on being a great player or should it also be based on what a person has done for Golf in making it a better sport. Individuals like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore are in the Hall next to great players like Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan. People are some times shocked that Chi Chi Rodriguez and Charlie Sifford are members alongside Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, but both Rodriguez and Sifford got in for more reasons than just their playing records. In some respects that is the importance of the Hall, to recognize what people like Rodriguez and Sifford have meant to the game.
In voting for PGA Tour players this year it's sometimes easy to dismiss older deceased members like Denny Shute, MacDonald Smith and "Jug" McSpaden. Still players like Shute have won three major championships and is the only player with three or more majors not in the Hall. In the same thinking, how could someone like MacDonald Smith be included into the Hall when he never won a major championship. Still we have to see what he did, he has won 24 times on the PGA Tour, he has the most wins of anybody not in the Hall. He also won three Western Open's when the event was considered as important as the U.S. Open or the PGA Championship. On top of that many don't realize that Smith sustained a serious hearing injury during World War I, right at the peak of his prime. Talking about bad things happening at a players peak, should Tony Lema get in with a win at the British Open and eleven PGA Tour wins before losing his life in a plane crash at 32 years old?
Another issue is do players like Peter Alliss, Max Faulkner, Jumbo Ozaki and Norman Von Nida get in with good records on their respected tour and in their respected time. Yes everyone knows the story of "Jumbo" Ozaki, should 111 career wins in Japan and only one outside get him in the Hall? The "Buzz" would say no to him because he had a chance to come and play in America and didn't, what about the case of Norman Von Nida. He won 21 times in his native country Australia and 12 times in Europe. He won 3 Australian Opens and 4 Australian PGA Championships which for him probably makes him one of the best players from Australia. How about the story of Peter Alliss, in the United States we know him as a great golf announcer but little did fans know that he won 21 times in Europe and played on eight Ryder Cup teams. He also has been a great ambassador's of golf and one of the top public speakers in Great Britain right now. He gets a vote from the "Buzz" but that is one of the problems with the voting process, Alliss is a personal friend and a good nature type of person so of course he gets a lot of votes like that. More media will vote for Alliss for this reason instead of voting for a Doug Ford who had a reputation for being dour and not a very good story to write about. Still others say the same about Lanny Wadkins. But last year Curtis Strange got in and he wasn't a very popular media player.
Many wonder if winning major championships should have an important role with getting into the Hall. I feel that a modern day candidate must have at least one major win like Fred Couples and Davis Love III have but to make it even more of a shoe-in is winning two or more majors. Now what about a player like Colin Montgomerie? Come on, winning a bunch of European Tour victories and order of merits don't count here. How can a player get into the Hall playing in 131 PGA Tour events without a victory and 64 majors without a victory. Sorry Monty, don't pout over this.
Lastly what about some other people like Ely Callaway, Frank Chirkinian, Dan Jenkins, Joe Jemsek and even Bruce Edwards? Each one of these folks had an important role in golf, first Ely Callaway change the face of technology with his golf clubs in the 90s. Fellow clubmaker Karsten Solheim got into the hall so should we also include Callaway? Many don't know who Frank Chirkinian is but he was the father of television golf, he was a pioneer in making television and the way we see golf on TV today. Without people like Chirkinian we would be watching a lot of TV today like we get on the Golf Channel, uninspiring and cheap. How about Dan Jenkins, how important is the written word in golf? Many may not know this but there is three writers in the Hall right now, Bernard Darwin, Herb Graffis and Bob Harlow. How important was the accomplishments of Joe Jemsek? Many don't realize his importance, but he made golf open to the average golfer in the Chicago area by opening up low cost courses that were open to all at a reasonable price. Lastly, should caddy Bruce Edwards make it into the Hall? He was a pioneer in showing others how to be full time caddies on the PGA Tour, his life was cut short and he bravely faced his sickness and was an inspiration for many.
So as you can see membership into the World Golf Hall of Fame is the way we can look at the history of the game and the folks that help the game. Making sure that the right people get in weather your a great player like Hogan or Nicklaus is just as important as what people like Bob Hope and Charlie Sifford did to promote and help the game.
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Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Clearing up some odds and ends
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Pebble to be played without Bill Murray
So who do you think the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will miss the most this weekend? Of course, many will say Tiger Woods as for the sixth straight year Tiger won’t be playing at Pebble. But attendance in that event has risen despite not having the No. 1 player in the world in the field.
In reality, I think that this year’s tournament will miss not having comedian Bill Murray in the field. The actor is filming a movie in Ireland and will not able to play. Over the years Murray has been the heart and soul of this event and you have to wonder even with the fine field of actors and celebrities how much his antics will be missed. You know he will be missed in the six-hole shootout that they have on Tuesday and you have to think that a lot of fans will miss not watching him on CBS on Saturday.
But like the old Hollywood slogan says, “the show must go on,” even without Murray.
Jose Maria Olazbal
So what's the story with Jose Maria Olazabal? He hasn't played since the PGA Championship in August and suffered from a painful bout of rheumatism. He has suffered from problems with his knee, shoulder and groin but started hitting balls again right around Christmas. He was supposed to play in Qatar and Dubai, but wasn't 100% and was looking toward the AT&T. But the field list doesn't include him so maybe he'll play in L.A. at the Northern Trust. Still since Olazabal won't be eligible for the Accenture Match Play the odds on him playing at L.A. are probably not very good.
Pat Perez
Interesting decision that Pat Perez is going to have to make. Right now he is 66th in the Official order of Merit and if he could finish in the top-65 after the AT&T he will punch a ticket to play in the Accenture World Match Play Championship. Just by showing up in Tucson he will earn a minimum of $28,000, but if you can win a couple of matches you can make a really nice pay day. Still for players like Perez, he wants to make sure that if he did play in the AT&T it doesn't hurt his ranking. Some on Tour feel that if they are on the bubble for getting an exemption into the Masters or one of the other World Golf Championships, playing the week before isn't in your best interest if you're on the bubble because if you miss the cut it could hurt you more than not showing up. That was the case with Perez, who last week after opening with rounds of 69-65 was looking for a good finish. Unfortunately for Perez he had weekend rounds of 75-71, which dragged him down into a T-43rd and then he fell down to 66th in the rankings. Now it's off to Pebble Beach to try and play well and get into the Match Play. So with just a week to go, here is a look at those on the bubble players and were they are playing. Remember with Ernie Els not playing the top-65 will get to play in the Match Play:
#60 Peter Hanson - not playing this week
#61 Colin Montgomerie - not playing this week
#62 J.B. Holmes - playing at Pebble
#63 Daniel Chopra - playing at Pebble
#64 Anthony Kim - not playing this week
#65 Brendan Jones - Playing in India
#66 Pat Perez - Playing at Pebble
#67 Peter Lonard - not playing this week
#68 Carl Pettersson - not playing this week
#69 Charl Schwartzel - not playing this week
#70 Simon Dyson - Playing in India
Padraig Harrington and the shingles
So what's the story with Padraig Harrington? According to Karl MacGinty in the Irish independent Harrington returned home from Abu Dhabi with a case of the shingles.
According to Shingles.Com , it's an infection caused by a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, which is the same virus as chicken pox and is very painful. It could take weeks to overcome and isn't really contagious to others. But after only a couple of weeks since getting them Harrington is making the trip from Ireland to Pebble Beach, which will start a four-week swing for him, including the Northern Trust, Match Play and the Honda Open.
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This week's golf and the Super Bowl
What an interesting weekend of sports we had this weekend. First in football we look at what happened to the New England Patriots, a team that was on the verge of making history only to see it go down in flames by losing to the Giants. Unfortunately, the Pats worked very hard for a whole season but when it came down to the last game and most important game, they came out flat and historically will be remembered more for losing instead of the perfect season that almost was.
The same could be said of Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els this week. But came very close to winning, but weren’t able to get the deed done in the end. For Mickelson, it was his loss to J.B. Holmes in the FBR Open and for Els it was his ugly loss in Dubai, culminated by hitting it in the water on the 72nd hole and handing the Dubai Desert Classic to Tiger Woods.
Now before we get to Tiger and his most recent win, we have to deal with Els and what happened. After a third round 65, Els went into the final round with a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson and four ahead of Woods. When Woods three putted his ninth hole on Sunday for another bogey, he was still four back of Els with nine holes to go.
Yes, Woods started his back nine with a birdie at 10, but Els answered back with a birdie at the ninth hole and then something happened to him going into the back nine. Els has said that he has little demons in his head at times and they must have joined Els for his back nine. His first bad break was his second shot into the 10th hole that instead of getting to the par 5 in two, his shot plugged into a bank and he was only able to make a par on one of the easiest holes on the course.
Then he missed a four footer at 11, followed by a five-footer at 12 and as he said on his website that’s what cost him the tournament, not the shot into the water on 18. Yes, Ernie made birdies at 13 and 14 but that would be the last birdie for him as he wasn’t able to do it on the short 17th hole and on 18 he hit his second shot into the water and that was it.
Els said that he putted terribly all week in Dubai, taking 121 putts. But the fact is that Els has never been able to play his best when in contention with Tiger Woods. This has happened before. The first time was probably the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic in which Woods made up eight shots on the final round and beat Els in a playoff. Over the years it doesn’t matter how good Els has played, he has always had to play second fiddle to Woods. Yes, he won the 1997 U.S. Open and the 2002 British Open with Woods in the field, but I can’t remember Els going mano-a-mano with Woods and coming out ahead. In a way Els has been historically at the wrong place at the wrong time. If Els would of come around 10 years earlier maybe he would of won a half dozen major championships and been the best of his time. Els has played a Hall of Fame career, but he won’t go down that favorably in history because of Woods.
We have to wonder if in his flight from Dubai to Delhi on Monday to play in the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Els reconsiders his three-year master plan to catch Woods. It’s just not going to happen and this week is another example why. On top of that, we have to also question if Els really wants to be the best and beat Tiger. If so, why is he going to India this week and not showing up in Tucson at the end of the month for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship? Yes, it’s a long way to come from London to Tucson for only one match, but I don’t think a player like Tiger Woods looks at it that way. He would go to the moon for a chance to win a tournament in which the best players in the world are attending and I would of thought that Els would have the same thinking.
But it’s becoming obvious that Els would much rather travel the globe in his jet to events in which someone is paying the jet fuel and the field is easy pickings for him. Hopefully he will be able to bounce back from this Dubai debacle with a victory in India, but still if he does want to be the best in the world he needs different results in events in which Woods is in the field. And when he has a four-shot lead over Tiger going into the final nine, he is going to have to win and avoid a back-nine collapse.
Tiger wins again in Dubai
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After a spell of mediocrity in the third round on Saturday, Tiger Woods came roaring back on Sunday to win the Dubai Desert Classic. Woods played the final round in spectacular fashion, carding nine birdies and just two bogeys on the way to a 7-under 65 on Sunday. Faced with the challenge of playing ahead of the field - something that he is probably not used to - Woods responded by carding birdies in five of his last seven holes. He was able to remedy some of the driving woes that plagued him in the second and third rounds by hitting a respectable 9 of 14 fairways on Sunday. Woods was also strong when it came to greens in regulation, hitting 13 of 18 greens in the final round. Woods also bailed himself out of some trouble, converting 4 of 5 scrambling chances on the day. As good as he was on the approach, Tiger was even better on the green, as he needed just 24 putts to close out his round on Sunday. The 7-under 65 that he produced marked the fifth tournament win in a row for Woods and his seventh in the last eight. The big question mark is if this is just a streak or if this is going to become the norm. Woods has already addressed the fact that he can win a Grand Slam and this could be the year. But could Woods win 11 in a row and possibly break Byron Nelson’s streak, which seems unobtainable? When will questions start filtering in on if this hot streak by Woods could be the start of beating Nelson’s record? Should events like the Target Challenge with a field of just 16 and his Dubai win count? Woods’ next start is supposed to be at the Accenture. What happens if he wins there? No two ways about it, Tiger is getting better with age and experience and there is nobody on the PGA Tour or the European Tour that seems to be able to beat Woods. But just like the New England Patriots, you just can’t win all the time and when you look historically at the 2008 NFL season the New York Giants’14-6 record will be remembered more than the Patriots 18-1 record. Because in the big game, the Giants won and the Patriots lost when it counted the most.
Here are some notes and keys to Tiger's victory last week:
| Tiger Woods biggest Sunday comebacks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shots back | Tournament | Final Rd score | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic | 65 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach | 64 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 1996 Justin Timberlake | 64 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 1997 Mercedes-Benz Champ | 65 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 2008 Dubai Desert Classic | 65 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 31 of 56Driving average: 301.0
Greens hit: 50 of 72
Putts: 109 (27.25 per rd)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 34
2-putt greens: 36
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: -3
Play on par 4s: -82
Play on par 5s: -9
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 22
Scrambling: 15 of 22 (68.18%).
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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Holmes feels at home in Phoenix
TPC Scottsdale seems to bring out the best in J.B. Holmes. A winner there as a rookie in 2006, Holmes claimed his second Tour title in the same location, beating Phil Mickelson in a playoff on Sunday.
Great things were predicted after Holmes overpowered the field two years ago, but in the 24 months since he has managed only four top-10 finishes. He found the magic again in the first three rounds last week, taking a two-stroke lead by shooting 68-65-66. But he had to work hard in a chilly final round that turned into a tense battle.
Mickelson made a strong move with a four-under 67, and when Holmes hit his second shot into the water on the par-five 15th hole and made a bogey he found himself one-over on the day and one stroke behind. He would recapture the tournament, however, with a pair of birdies on the 18th hole, one in regulation and one on the first hole of sudden death.
Holmes’ power (he was second on Tour in driving distance in 2007) served him well, as both times he blasted a driver some 350 yards over all of the water and bunkers on 18. His short game was good too, as in regulation he wedged from the rough to 15 feet and made the tying putt as he finished with a 71. In the playoff he pitched from the fairway to eight feet and sank the winner. Charles Warren, who also hit into the water and bogeyed the 15th hole, finished one shot back at 271 after a final-round 70.
Now some will say that Mickelson shouldn’t of lost a playoff on a course that he has played on more than anybody else in the field, but in reality Mickelson’s loss can be summarized as losing in a faulty system. Holmes was so happy making birdie on the 72nd to force the playoff he floated in on cloud nine and hit a tremendous drive on 18. A blast that went 359 yards, which left him a short distance to the pin. Mickelson, meanwhile, had to start the playoff after finishing his round an hour earlier. He was behind the eight-ball right out of the box and you have to wonder if the playoff was three or four holes - like they do at the British Open and PGA Championship - if Mickelson would have been able to fight back and win.
Here are some notes and keys to Holmes victory last week:
Holmes stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 32 of 56 ..... (T52nd)Driving average: 302.5 ..... (13th)
Greens hit: 51 of 72 ....... (T20th)
Putts: 109 (27.75 a rd).... (T10th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 33
2-putt greens: 38
3-putt greens: 0
Play on par 3s: +1
Play on par 4s: -7
Play on par 5s: -8
Eagles: 1
Birdies: 21 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 12 of 21 (57.14%)... (T46th)
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.
More thoughts on the FBR Open
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" looks at the dismal way they are showing European Tour golf.
For years, one of the Couch Producer’s favorite events was to watch the Dubai Desert Classic. The exotic nature of Dubai, the way it was a special event on the European Tour that Golf Channel brought to us along with the fact that Tiger was playing, has always made it a must-watch event. For years we loved waking up to the Golf Channel and the European Tour events, especially with Renton Laidlaw hosting the shows. You have to wonder if the people that run the Golf Channel knows how special these shows were and how much people enjoyed watching them. But things have changed.
For the first time as long as I can remember, Renton wasn't a part of the Dubai show and, let me tell you, it was terrible without him. Now wasn't the fault of the Golf Channel. Renton was in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago and got sick. He was supposed to be included in the desert swing, but he had to leave and fly back to London were doctors had to preform emergency surgery. After speaking to him last week at his home in Sunningdale, the Couch Producer was glad to find out that he is on the mend again, but was very disappointed that he wasn't able to finish the European desert swing. He is looking forward to a trip to America for the Masters in two months, if he’s healthy, and hopefully will return to the Golf Channel when the Tour hits Europe in May. We just hope that is the case because Warren Humphreys isn't the same without Renton and Steve Bledlow is really bad. While we’re on the subject, the manner in which the Golf Channel is doing these European Tour shows these days is terrible, boring and, quite frankly, unwatchable.
Golf Channel for years would put on a feed that was done exclusively for them by European Tour productions. The teases and openings were done on site. They had pieces done during the show, we saw the announcers on camera at the beginning of the show, the announcing led to live commercials and they did some bumper shots going in and out of commercials. You got the feeling that the shows were done for an American audience. We also got more than golf. In looking at last year's show, Renton would talk about the city of Dubai and the cameras would pan the tall skyscrapers of the city, last year Renton would talk about some landmark on the course and the cameras would show it. Unfortunately that isn't happening anymore.
Instead all the shows are taken in at the Orlando studio, put on tape, edited with things like the tease done with Tom Abbott doing the voice over. Then he throws it to the announcers who we never see. There is never even a reference to the fact that this is an exclusive Golf Channel feed. Several times this weekend in the middle of talking, the Golf Channel would whack a commercial in. The flow of the show was terrible and it seemed like interns edited it. Nothing like listening to Warren and then, almost in mid-sentence, up come a Truecredit.com commercial.
Again, this is the Golf Channel being cheap and not giving us a first-class viewing experience. Yes, this process is better with Renton Laidlow, but when he isn’t on the show, why doesn’t the Golf Channel go out and get the best people? Why can't they get Ken Brown, who used to do Golf Channel shows and was quite good? Or Sam Torrance? Or even Bruce Critchley or Ewen Murray? Why not make a phone call to Peter Alliss and see if he could do a couple of the big shows like Dubai? I talked with Alliss the other day and he was doing nothing this weekend. Honestly, we can understand the Golf Channel's frugal nature on most of the European shows, but why be cheap on shows like Dubai and the BMW PGA Championship which will be seen later this year? Spend some money and put on a first-class show, don't make it boring to watch. Give us a little production value. You have a lot of folks watching since players like Tiger and Ernie are in the field.
I’m going to offer a challenge to Golf Channel executives. Go out and get about 30 loyal golf fans who enjoy watching the game on TV and put them together in a room to watch your shows and get their feedback. I also would like to see the Golf Channel executives go to England during the Match Play Championship or the U.S. Open or any big Sky Sports show and see what a first-class job Sky does because they spend the money and bring their own announcers to America. They also bring their own production people, who do a first-class job. Of course, we will hear every sad story under the sun on why the Golf Channel can't do this, but it’s all a bunch of bull. They make a lot of money and on big shows like Dubai they should spend it and not take a world feed with inferior production values and poor announcing.
But this seems to be a big problem with the Golf Channel and it's getting worse. Don’t any of their executives look at the discussion boards and read all of the hate mail about how bad their coverage is getting? It seems like they’re more interested in cutting budgets and feeding Comcast, which is the mother ship.
Still, to be fair, while the Golf Channel’s live shows have gotten worse - especially the European Tour with this impersonalized approach - their Sprint Post and Pre-Game shows have gotten drastically better and, frankly, I am not watching any of the live shows that much anymore because I can get what I use to get in a four hour show in the half hour post game show. An example of how much better they have gotten was the decision to hire Tim Rosaforte because he is a true "insider" and is 10 times better than what they used to have. The shows are done very well especially with people like Inga Hammond, another add-on who is great to watch. As I have said before, you have to wonder why the live telecasts have degraded so much in the last year when shows like the pre/post game and Golf Central have improved.
If things don't get better - and you can see the trend of complaints on their discussion board - The Golf Channel (TGC) may have to replace their call letters to Cheaply Done Golf Telecasts (CDGT).
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Oh, if you want to read more on the Kelly/Golfweek problem, check out Sal Johnson's story on whether or not the world of golf has had enough on the Kelly/Golfweek public debacle
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*A star is born, for at least a week
*Streelman wasn't the only one that got to play with Tiger
*Other odds and ends from the week including Adam Scott's big win
*Unfinished business from the Merchandise Show
*A great 2008 debut for Tiger, a recap of his Buick Open win and can he win the Slam this year?
*Couch Producer looks at the debut of CBS (Boy, we don't miss Golf Channel)
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Clearing up some odds and ends
A star is born, for at least a week
The golfing world found the game's latest star of the day as Kevin
Streelman was in the right place at the right time at last week's Buick
Invitational. A 29-year-old from Wheaton, Illinois, Streelman is on the
Tour thanks to making it through all three tiers of qualifying school.
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Q-School was so tough that Streelman had to birdie five of his final nine holes in the first tier just to continue. The Duke graduate played and won on the Hooters Tour last year. But he earned one of his biggest single-event paychecks ever in last year’s The Ultimate Game, a winner-take-all event for gamblers in which Streelman earned $25,000 as he finished second.
Still Streelman got his ultimate break by finishing T-14th at the Q-School finals, shooting 66 in his final round to make it by two shots. So when he played in Hawaii this year he had very limited playing experience with just three previous PGA Tour events and two Nationwide Tour events under his belt.
Things haven't been easy for Streelman, who was an alternate for the third time of his brief career heading into the Buick last week. He showed up on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. thinking that he had a good chance to slip into the field with Rocco Mediate on the bubble because of a bad back. But when that didn't come through the odds didn't look good. But while putting on the practice green, PGA Tour officials found him at 9:41 a.m. and told him to hustle to the 10th tee of the North Course to take over from Mathew Goggin, who couldn't make the call.
Normally this isn't the way you want to start a tournament, but Streelman was happy just to get in and he showed it by shooting a bogey-free first nine holes with two birdies. He really got it going on the his back nine as he birdied 14, 18, 1, 2, 4 and 6 before his lone bogey at the seventh. When the dust settled he had tied his best opening round on the PGA Tour with a 67. Things got even better on Friday as he played the tougher South Course and fired a 69, which paved the way for a dream come true on Saturday when he teed off in the last group with Tiger Woods.
“That was one of the coolest things ever, no doubt about it,” Streelman said after shooting a 75 in the third round. “It was incredible.”
Streelman said of Woods: “He was a gentleman and a wonderful guy to play with and I look forward to doing it again.” Things didn't get any better for Streelman during Sunday's final round as he shot a 77 and finished up T-29th, which wasn't good enough to get him into the FBR Open this week. So reality set in as he headed off to Phoenix on Sunday to try and make the field in the Monday qualifier, unfortunely he shot 73 so he won't even be able to play in the FBR kind of a sad ending to his week of glory.
Streelman wasn't the only one that got to play with
Tiger
Kevin Streelman wasn't the only one to get his 15 minutes of fame with
Tiger Woods. Justin Hicks also got to relish a special moment when he
was in the right place at the right time. Hicks, who used to play on
the Nationwide Tour and is now a teaching professional in the San Diego
area, is a big Tiger Woods fan and always made it a point to be at
Torrey Pines at daybreak to videotape Woods in practice rounds. But
this year it was a bit different as Hicks was given a sponsor's
exemption for being the Player of the Year for the the San Diego section
of the PGA. So Hicks got to play in all the practice rounds this year.
On Tuesday he teed off alone on the North Course at 6:30 in the morning.
But while he was in the first fairway a drive sailed over his head.
Looking back it was Bubba Watson, who was playing with Tiger Woods.
Woods asked to join up with Hicks. It was the thrill of a lifetime for
Hicks, but as he told the San Diego Union afterwards, it was
“nerve-wracking” playing with Woods as “I felt like the ugly girlfriend
with the hot girls next to her.” The experience didn't help Hicks as he
shot 78-77 and missed the cut.
Brandt Jobe returns
Brandt Jobe returned to the PGA Tour in San Diego after coming off wrist
surgery. Jobe withdrew from the EDS Byron Nelson after he hurt his
wrist and underwent surgery to repair tendon and cartilage damage. The
injury came after a bizarre injury in 2006 when he severed the tip of
his left index finger and part of his left thumb in a freak accident
while sweeping his garage. The broom broke and the metal edge did the
damage. Jobe had the finger pieces reattached and returned to the Tour
only to suffer a wrist injury.
With all of his problems, Jobe will be
competing in 2008 under a major medical extension from the PGA Tour. To
regain his exempt status, Jobe must earn $774,164 in 23 events this
season. Things didn't get off to a very good start for him as he shot
73-75 and missed the cut at the Buick.
Shell Houston Open hauls in a big fish
The Shell Houston Open, which is played the week before the Masters, got a
great endorsement as Phil Mickelson said that he would play in this year's
event. Mickelson, who found that playing in the BellSouth was a great
help to him at last year's Masters, didn't play in Houston last year. But he said
the reason he changed his mind was because the Shell Houston Open
set up the Tournament Course last year like the course setup at Augusta,
with the rough at the same height, the greens close to the speed of the
greens at Augusta and even some of the grass in front of the greens cut
low, just like it's done at Augusta National.
With the buzz last year on how much the Houston course was like Augusta
National, they have received some early commitments from not only Mickelson, but Ernie
Els, Stuart Appleby and defending champion Adam Scott.
Speaking of Adam Scott
Adam Scott raised some eyebrows when he didn't show up at the Mercedes-Benz
Championship, saying that he needed to get ready for his International
schedule. It looked like the gamble paid off as Scott shot a final
round 61 at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters to retain his title.
Scott started the final round three back, but as he told his swing coach Butch Harmon, who was back in Las Vegas, something in his putting seemed to click as he shot a 65. Things continued on Sunday as he shot a 61 to defend his title. The round couldn't of gotten off to a better start as he birdied the first five holes and had a shot at shooting a round in the 50s until he missed a short putt on 16.
Still he has no complaints about his putting as you can see by this
chart of his round:
15-footer at No. 1 for birdie
10-footer for birdie
at No. 2
7-footer for birdie at No. 3
25-footer for birdie at No. 4
hit
stick with 2nd shot, made 3-footer for birdie at No. 5
15-footer at No. 7
for birdie
8-footer for birdie at No. 10
15-footer for birdie at
No. 11
12-footer for a birdie at No. 12
15-footer for a birdie at No. 15
misses a 2-footer at No. 16 for birdie
makes a 10-footer for a birdie
at No. 17
Scott had a chance for a possible eagle on the final hole, but decided to lay up and made an easy par for his three-shot victory. The records tumbled on a spellbinding final day as he shaved two strokes off the course record, a feat which won him a BMW 650i Coupe valued at $100,000. It was the lowest final round by the winner at Qatar and his 20-under-par total of 268 equalled the low aggregate set by Paul Lawrie in 1999. Scott's 61 was also the lowest final round by a winner on the European Tour since Jamie Spence shot a 60 to win the 1992 European Masters, and, not surprisingly, it was Scott’s lowest-ever round. He previously had four rounds of 62 on both the European and PGA Tour.
With the round and the victory we have to wonder if this is another step in the right direction for Scott to possibly contend with Tiger Woods and play better in the majors. With the win Scott moves up to fourth on the World Ranking. His first event on the PGA Tour will be at the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles, an event he unofficially won in 2005.
John Daly Saga continues
Interesting to see how this John Daly saga is getting bigger. Last week
we told you about how his partying was possibly getting out of hand and
that some sponsors - like this week's FBR Open - weren't giving him an
exemption. Even after the fact when Daly didn't get an exemption, there
was an outside shot that maybe a last minute one could surface. But even
today when it announced that Paul Azinger didn't need one, the FBR
folks gave it to Harrison Frazar, meaning that Daly won't be playing.
We also found out through this Larry Bohannan report
in the Desert Sun that the PGA Tour has become aware of Daly's
partying at the Hope and is interested in finding out the facts of what
happened.
Goodbye to Westchester for now
For the last two weeks it looked like Westchester Country Club was going
to be gone from the PGA Tour for good. Rumors said that the club had a
beef with the PGA Tour over some problems with the Barclays last
year.
Westchester will not hold the 2008 Barclays as it will move to Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. But according to Sam Weinman in the White Plains Journal , as a compromise the event will be back at Westchester and could hold the 2010 Barclays plus another year.
Both parties - Westchester and the PGA Tour - should be able to live with the compromise with and there are a lot of players on the PGA Tour that love playing at Westchester.
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Some unfinished business from the Merchandise Show
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Last week's Golf Show is in our rear-view mirror but there are still some things that we are interested in. For me it was a talk that I had with some folks about the importance of golf shafts and the fact that there are several companies that do nothing more than make and sell shafts.
For the common consumer of golf clubs, it's just going down to the local pro shop or golf shop and buying a set of clubs. But things are getting more specialized these days. When you buy clubs you not only are going to get them fitted for you, but you can add things like a shaft that is best for your game. In addition, there are grips available that not only help you hold on to the club, but last longer.
I bought a set of clubs in 1997 and had them fitted with Winn Grips, which is now the only grips I will ever have on my clubs. Back then I loved the feel of leather and even though I am not using those '97 vintage clubs, I stumbled into them a couple of days ago in the garage. The one thing that I couldn't believe is what great shape they were in, even though they were in the garage the last three years. The grips were still moist and in perfect shape, a true testament as to just how good they are.
Last year I got a special driver made for me by Titleist. That's one of the nice perks of having a relationship with a company like Titleist. In going through my specs I said that I wanted a Fujikura Speeder shaft put on and I love the feel of it. As I learn more about customizing clubs I now realize that I want to customize, not only the grips, but the shafts. I've also learned more about companies like Fujikura. I've gotten to know some of the folks at Fujikura and I like what they are doing in the golf world so I wanted to pass it along to all of you "Buzz" readers.
We're hearing how players like Tiger Woods use Nike equipment or that Rory Sabbatini just switched from Nike to Adams. We are bombarded with all of this information in advertising, but did you know that just because someone plays certain equipment that doesn't mean that they have their other equipment like shafts and grips specialized?
I was shocked to hear that last year Fujikura was the No. 1 shaft company on the PGA Tour for drivers and woods. Not only do PGA Tour pros use them, but Fujikura is also No. 1 on the LPGA and Champions Tour. Fujikura was also the most popular driver shaft at the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship and the players that used a Fujikura shaft on the PGA Tour in 2007 won almost $64 million. Also, in doing some research the "Buzz" found out that K.J. Choi switched from Fujikura to a matrix shaft which he had an ownership stake in. But after a few weeks he switched back to Fujikura.
I was also a bit stunned when I found out that some of the other players that used Fuji shafts were Fred Funk, the straightest hitter on the PGA Tour, as well as Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Stephen Ames and John Daly. So I guess the answer to all of this is that we have to also look at shafts when buying new clubs because if it's that important on the PGA Tour it's got to be important for all of us, especially since a company like Fujikura doesn't pay people to play their brand.
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Tiger makes it look easy again
The 2008 season made its official start last week at the Buick Invitational. After three weeks of golf that was overshadowed by the Kelly Tilghman/Golfweek debacle, Woods made us forgot that it ever happened with another impressive win, this time an 8-shot win over Ryuji Imada. With the win, Woods has put everyone on notice that 2008 could be one special year for all golf fans.
Woods opened his campaign by routing the field at the Buck Invitational, with a 19-under 269 total at Torrey Pines. He wrapped it up with a 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round, a score that matched the third best of the day in difficult conditions. Woods took an eight-stroke lead through 54 holes with rounds of 67-65-66, leaving no suspense for the final round except for what his victory margin would be. He extended his lead to 11 strokes at one point before slipping with three straight bogeys on the back nine before a birdie on the last hole got him under par for the day.
Ryuji Imada and Rory Sabbatini were the only players able to solve Torrey Pines South on Sunday, both shooting 67s when nobody else bettered 71. Imada, who had nine birdies, finished second at 277 and Sabbatini tied for third at 279 with Stewart Cink (73). Justin Leonard (72) was fifth at 281 and Phil Mickelson earned a tie for sixth with a 71.
| Race to catch Sam Snead, here is a look at how those with 62 wins or more did when they got their 62nd PGA Tour victory: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Age & What event was win 62 | Starts | Winning % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger Woods | 32 years, 0 months, 28 days / 2008 Buick Inv. | 231 | 26.8% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jack Nicklaus | 37 years, 1 month, 6 days / 1977 Honda Classic | 324 | 19.1% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sam Snead | 39 years, 6 months, 13 days / 1951 Miami Open | 276 | 22.5% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ben Hogan | 40 years, 10 months, 0 days / 1953 U.S. Open | 241 | 25.7% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arnold Palmer | 43 years, 5 months, 1 days / 1973 Bob Hope Chrysler | 468 | 13.2% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More importantly the win was the 62nd of his PGA Tour career, tying Arnold Palmer. While Palmer reached that total at age 43, Woods is just 32 and has played a little more than 11 years on the PGA Tour while competing in just 218 events as a pro. Only Ben Hogan (64), Jack Nicklaus (73) and Sam Snead (82) remain ahead of him on the victory list.
Now it's easy to speculate on that Woods' true goal is breaking Nicklaus' 18-career major victories. And with Tiger at 13 it's a frightning thought that less than 16 months from now Woods could achieve that goal if he could win all four majors this year and the first two next. As he said early in the week, all he has to do is win four events, they just have to be the right four to win the Grand Slam.
| So what course has Tiger Woods had his most success on? In his 231 PGA Tour starts Woods has played on 73 different courses. Here is a look at his biggest successes: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course | Starts | Win | Top-Tens | Scoring Average | Money won | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firestone (South) | 10 | 6 | 10 | 67.83 | $7,937,400 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Torrey Pines (South & North) | 11 | 6 | 11 | 68.33 | $5,729,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Augusta National | 13 | 4 | 8 | 71.00 | $5,107,993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cog Hill | 12 | 4 | 8 | 69.20 | $4,113,907 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bay Hill | 12 | 4 | 5 | 70.39 | $2,950,760 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Doral (Blue Monster) | 5 | 3 | 5 | 68.30 | $3,885,600 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LaCosta | 9 | 3 | 7 | N/A | $3,453,150 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memorial | 10 | 3 | 6 | 69.59 | $2,763,148 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Now that Tiger has tied Arnold Palmer with 62 PGA Tour wins it sets up an interesting scenario. If Tiger continues to play the way he has been he could catch Sam Snead in the next four years, or sometime in 2012. But an even more impressive feat would be if Tiger could win 100 times on the PGA Tour before he turns 40. He won 46 times between 2000 and 2007 , so if you average that by the eight years, it’s just under six wins a year (5.75 a year). So if he keeps up with this average, sometime in 2015 before his 40th birthday (December 30th) he could chalk up win No. 100. Who knows? Maybe it will be at the Buick Invitational. Who knows what the record book could look like in a decade from now.
Woods also added to his accomplishments by winning the Buick
Invitational for the fourth straight year, becoming the only player to
do that at two different tournaments (he won at Bay Hill from 2000-03).
In fact, no other player since 1930 has done it even once:
Young Tom
Morris – British Open between 1868 and 1872
Walter Hagen – PGA
Championship between 1924 and 1928
Gene Sarazen - Miami Open
between 1926 and 1930
Tiger Woods – Arnold Palmer Invitational
between 2000 and 2003
Tiger Woods – Buick Invitational between 2005
and 2008
Here are some notes and keys to Tiger's victory last week:
Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 27 of 56 ..... (T75th)Driving average: 283.6 ..... (T17th)
Greens hit: 58 of 72 ....... (T2nd)
Putts: 111 (27.75 a rd).... (T1st)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 2
1-putt greens: 30
2-putt greens: 39
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: -2
Play on par 4s: -8
Play on par 5s: -9
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 24 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 10 of 14 (71.43%)... (T5th)
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.
More thoughts on the Buick Invitational
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" looking at the Buick Invitational.
Not to pick on Golf Channel's bones, but boy it was nice to get a great telecast after three lackluster weeks. Once again CBS shows that they are the best at broadcasting golf and they didn't let us down over the weekend. They do it with not only the best announcers in golf, but with top-notch pictures, graphics and the way they cycle the shots in. Again when Golf Channel says how good they are they should look at a CBS show and then judge for themselves because CBS knows how to do golf, beginning with a great tease that was all about Tiger's quest for win No. 62 to the way they get all of the shots in at the right time and the announcers that keep us entertained. Now to be fair to Golf Channel, they never had a great story line the last three weeks like Tiger Woods running away at the Buick, but still this weekend showed why CBS is the best.
Over the weekend we had a lot of Gary McCord and David Feherty, who keep us well informed and well entertained. We also can't complain with the announcing of Ian Baker-Finch and Peter Osterhuis. Also, we don't get an abundance of announcers talking too much like we get on Golf Channel.
This week we got the BizHub slow mo's along with the great analysis by Peter Kostis. He makes me want to take a lesson from him every time I hear him. CBS also brought out a new tool, a graphic called a protracer that shows the flight of a ball from impact to landing. This is a bit of a rip-off of Golf Channel's Aim Point line, but this is utilized better because it's a replay instead of having a line over a putt. Again, CBS knows the proper way of putting in its graphics and not interfering with the live golf.
One thing that I was disappointed with was Nick Faldo. Maybe it's because he is the only person that we have listened to for the last four weeks, but he is showing signs of overexposure. He isn't crisp and drags on too much with his comments. The one saving grace for him is Jim Nantz, who is much better than Tilghman in keeping Faldo on the right track and helps him make his points better and faster. Still I wonder for the everyday watcher of TV Golf if we aren't going to be sick of Faldo in a couple of weeks.
On the whole this show is just what we need after three weeks of Golf Channel. Again the big difference between CBS and Golf Channel is that CBS knows how to make something important and special while Golf Channel is all about quantity.
One last thing that the Golf Channel did was trot out Kelly Tilghman in a definite act of telling us that she is back and still Golf Channel's No. 1 announcer. Things went smoothly for her other than the hiccup in her apology on Thursday and they could easily say that it was the right move in putting her back on the horse as soon as they could. Still, this act isn't going over very well with the media, which wasn't allowed to talk to Tilghman as she never ventured far from the TV compound and the announcer's booth and wasn't available for the media. Still it was nice to see that she has survived this and will be able to get on with things.
Oh as a postscript on the Buick Invitational the overnight ratings of Sunday's final round got a 4.6 rating which was 18% below last year's 5.6 rating. Still it was the highest television ratings since the PGA Championship last August.
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Oh, if you want to read more on the Kelly/Golfweek problem, check out Sal Johnson's story on whether or not the world of golf has had enough on the Kelly/Golfweek public debacle
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Is John Daly falling out of control?
*The difference between two shows, MacWorld and the PGA Merchandise Show
*The overall business of golf, an update
*D.J. goes low on the final day and gets a big gift in the Hope
*Couch Producer hopes that he is wrong, but it looks like Kelly Tilghman will be at the Buick
*Couch Producer looks at how Golfweek has thrown its former editor to the wolves and how tacky the move was
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Is John Daly falling out of control?
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One of Hollywood's greatest movies was "A Star is Born," a film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William Wellman. This 1937 classic was so great that it was remade two more times in 1954 and 1976. The film was about a great and popular actor named Norman Maine, whose career goes astray and he finds himself drinking heavily and getting himself in nothing but trouble. The movie ends horribly.
John Daly is a clone of Maine. Daly reached superstar status early in his career with his 1991 PGA Championship win followed by his 1995 British Open victory. He won three other times on the PGA Tour, the last one coming in San Diego in the 2004 Buick Invitational. Since he lost in a playoff to Tiger Woods at the 2005 WGC-American Express, it has been a long, steady downhill slide that seems to be getting not only bad on the golf course, but in his personal life as well. Daly has spent most of his adult life fighting problems with alcohol, anti-depressants, gambling, binge eating and divorces. "Everybody has ups and downs," Daly said last year. But now it appears things are getting away from him once again. A sign of this is his weight. He probably weighs more than his drives go these days. On top of that people who attended the Hope, plus those in the media, say that Daly seemed edgy and his game isn't what it used to be, even though he has devoted time with swing guru Butch Harmon. Daly says it's close and we only hope that he will hit magic beginning as soon as this week at the Buick.
Since his runner-up finish at the Amex, Daly has played in 49 PGA Tour events and has not finished higher than 16th. Of these 49 starts he only has finished in the Top 25 four times, with the last one coming at last year's Buick Open when he finished T-16th. Another sad number is that Daly has only made the cut 18 times and even sadder is the fact that he has been disqualified or withdrawn 12 times, just under a 25% average.
Now his plight with alcohol has been well documented over the years along with his stints in rehab. It's been a know fact that Daly has been drinking the last couple of years, but so far he has stayed out of trouble.
We can only hope that he can continue that but the way his life is going that may be tough. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Daly was a regular at all of the parties last week at the Bob Hope and attended two more Friday night in which he had to receive help getting home after a late-night binge. Even Desert Sun gossip columnist Maggie Down saw Daly at all of the parties, including the Friday night and wrote in one of her blogs that John Daly gave me a tip for my column. "Put in there that I wasn't drinking," he laughed as he swigged back a shot. Saturday morning, Daly withdrew from the tournament, telling officials he had a rib injury.
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One concerned person is one of Daly's former wives, who works for the Hope tournament. She told a reporter that her former hUBSand is not only drinking heavily, but smoking three packs a day and is eating everything that isn't nailed to a table.
For Daly, withdrawing is becoming a problem for all the sponsors that give him a sponsor exemption. This is just about the only way he can play in these events as he no longer has a Tour card. For the sponsors of the events, Daly is a great draw, as Mike Milthorpe, the Bob Hope tournament director told Thomas Bonk of the Los Angeles Times, "He still sells tickets. People still want to see him." Despite the fact that Daly is 41 years old, about 50 pounds overweight and not able to score as well as he used to, people still love the John Daly story.
Even still, many tournament officials are getting tired of Daly's act. For the first time since 1997 he won't play in Phoenix at the FBR Open because he didn't get an exemption.
It's becoming a sad saga. Two years ago Daly didn't have a open space on his clothes and hats as they were full of sponsors names. Now most of his sponsors have dumped him except for Winn Grips, which he still does TV ads for.
Daly has a wonderful group of fans. As a matter of fact, ask television executives today who one of the biggest draws are in golf and Daly would be in their Top 10. Unfortunately, unless Daly changes his ways nobody will want to sponsor him and he could become an afterthought. There is no two ways about it, someone that Daly respects and trusts will have to step in and shake him up because we don't want to see the John Daly movie have the same unhappy ending that "A Star is Born" had.
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The difference between two shows, MacWorld and the PGA Merchandise Show
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For the "Buzz" it was a busy week. Being a big Steve Job fan it was off to San Francisco for the MacWorld show, then a quick turnaround for the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. Now there is no two ways about it, there's nothing more exciting than hearing a Steve Jobs keynote address as he introduces new products for the coming year. The excitement carries over to the show as all of the companies that display their products for 2008 had a lot of interest from the public. It was difficult to walk down the aisle at MacWorld with all of the people and it was a challenge to view products at some of the most popular companies because of the long lines.
But it compared to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, it was like night and day. The excitement level was very low as the golf business is showing signs of a slowdown. The show is broken up into sections and the clothing section was pretty crowded with lots of folks and lots of orders being taken. Another problem that I saw in the club area was a lot of Piker's (our terminology, a person that gives the appearance of importance but is stingy, tight-fisted and a tightwad). Yes, some companies are doing well. Helena at Rocket Four Golf , which sells golf headcovers and accessories told me that the company got a lot of orders and did very well for the week. So it's not a totally negative week. Orders were taken and a lot of money was spent.
For the "Buzz," after a visit to MacWorld followed up by the Merchandise Show it's easy to see that golf doesn't have a piper like Steve Jobs spreading the gossip of golf items, but most importantly with equipment companies reaching the outer limits on clubs being legal, there is no real milestones being reached. Yes, the rage this year was adjustable clubs, but how much is the general public interested in that?
Thirteen years ago golf had Eli Callaway, who was a Steve Jobs figure. But with Callaway he had a company that had not only a different product but one in which golfers saw results. Soon after a lot of other companies from Titleist to TaylorMade to Ping followed suit and for years golfers couldn't keep up with all of the new toys that got them more distance and greater accuracy. Twenty years ago people would play many seasons with the the same irons and woods, but in the mid-90s innovation caused people to change clubs annually for the newest and greatest new toy. Now in a way it is back to the old ways in which clubs bought just a couple of years ago do just fine, making it tough to get people to change.
It was funny, the one club introduction that I went to was the Bobby Jones new driver and wedges by Dave Pelz. Now when Jesse Ortiz introduced his new driver, he described it as a beautiful club in which you could drive it probably as far as your present driver and probably just as straight. Not much of a selling stick, but yes the club is great and I look forward to trying it out. As for their new wedges, they have a new design in which the club head won't lose any of its hardest over time, thus giving it's grooves more staying power and many folks may think of it as a new faggle toy. I again look forward to trying the club out.
I still have to wonder if the timing for this show just isn't right. I would think that if this was in October it would help get sales for the following year and be better, but I am not one to talk. I think that the folks that run the show know what they are doing and know what the right timing is.
----------------------------------------------------------------The overall business of golf, an update
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The Max Out Golf – Golf Observer Stock Index closed at 991.76 after hitting a 52-week low on Monday, reflecting the overall weakness in the US equity markets. The index is now down nearly 20% from its 52-week high in July as compared to a decline of nearly 16% for the S&P 500 index. Prior to the annual “Golf Show” affect, which generally sees golf stock share prices rise during the Golf Show, the index stood down under the 900 level or 26%.
Golf equipment and apparel - consumer items of a discretionary nature if there ever was one - are generally the first to be hit in now recessionary era the US economy (and increasingly world economy) finds itself operating in. The spotlight this week was Callaway Golf, which led the index up from its Wednesday low and closed the week at $16.01. Shares of Callaway Golf rose Thursday and Friday after the company predicted its 2007 income will meet or beat Wall Street forecasts, and an analyst at Wachovia Bank upgraded the golf equipment maker to "Outperform" from "Market Perform." Additionally, Aldila shares climbed $0.93 or 6.5% to $15.71 on volume, seven times the normal daily average to further the index advance on Friday.
Golfsmith, which was recently featured in the “The Buzz,” continued its fall, dropping under $3 a share last week before rebounding to close Friday at $3.55. On Jan. 9 the company announced that James D. Thompson had resigned as chief executive officer to pursue other interests. The Board of Directors has appointed Chairman Martin Hanaka as the company's interim Chief Executive Officer.
A walk around the Orlando Show floor at the recently concluded PGA Merchandise Show can be summed as, seemingly less attended, very little in the way of innovations, developments in club equipment emphasizing component sales by the larger OEM’s, trends towards direct marketing channels and growth in analysis methods and fitness applications. What appears clear to “The Buzz” is that as margins shrink and now fewer dollars are available in general due to the weakening economy, the golf business, which appears over equipped, course-saturated and expensive to play, is facing some difficult times. The concepts of interactive marketing, Internet sales and direct-to-consumer channels appear to be developing rapidly with more sophistication and success. Traditional points of consumer interaction, retail stores, the pro shop and driving range are falling behind.
What does this mean for golf stock investors and businesses interacting with the industry? Clearly, expenditures across the board from endorsements, to suppliers to advertising will be lower as forecasts for sales will be increasingly trimmed. Lower cost alternatives may enjoy sales increases (used equipment, discounted rounds at resorts and high-end public facilities); more golfers may choose to walk than ride. Consolidation also picks up in this environment as companies look for increased efficiencies in operations. Companies watching their expenses will hold their own and those able to show growth interesting plays when the economic cycle turns.
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D.J. goes low on the final day and gets a big gift in the Hope
Justin Leonard left the door open with shaky back nine and D.J. Trahan charged through to claim his second PGA Tour victory at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on Sunday. Leonard led by four strokes at the beginning of the final round and maintained that margin through eight holes. He was three-over the rest of the way though, in posting an even-par 72 and Trahan took advantage with a final-round 65 and a three-stroke victory with a 26-under 334 total for the five-round tournament. Leonard ended up in second place at 337.
While Trahan expressed surprise after the round that 11-time winner Leonard backed up, it actually continued a trend for Leonard. The previous three times he led through 54 holes, he shot 73, 77, and 73 in the final round. At the 2002 Heritage, he survived a birdie-less final round in turning a four-stroke lead into a one-stroke win; at the 2002 PGA Championship, he coughed up a three-stroke lead with a closing 77 to finish T4th; and at the 2005 Stanford St. Jude he led by eight through 54 holes and won by only one.
| Justin Leonard with the lead or share after three rounds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Tournament | Final round | Finish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Bob Hope Chrysler | 73 | 2nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | Stanford St. Jude | 73 | Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | PGA Championship | 77 | T4th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | Verizon Heritage | 73 | Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | Valero Texas Open | 69 | Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | Valero Texas Open | 64 | Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | PGA Championship | 71 | 2nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | Western Open | 72 | T3rd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 | Buick Open | 68 | Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 | Phoenix Open | 69 | 2nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trahan is a former Walker Cup player who had finished 103rd, 89th, and 87th on the money list in his first three seasons, with a win at the 2006 Southern Farm Bureau Classic. Putting was his main problem last year when he ranked 183rd in that category, compared to 27th in greens in regulation and 10th in total driving. There’s no secret to his key to victory at the Hope: He was the leader in putting. If he can keep up that kind of work on the greens, Trahan will have more wins in his future.
Here are some notes and keys to victory on Trahan's win:
Trahan's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 49 of 70 ..... (T45th)Driving average: 301.6 ..... (T13th)
Greens hit: 65 of 90 ....... (T37th)
Putts: 130 (26.00 a rd).... (1st)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 4
1-putt greens: 42
2-putt greens: 44
3-putt greens: 0
Play on par 3s: -3
Play on par 4s: -10
Play on par 5s: -13
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 35 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 16 of 25 (64.00%)... (T43rd)
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.
More thoughts on the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" looking at the Bob Hope telecast and is starting to believe that the Golf Channel is getting better.
The next Golf Channel-produced show on the PGA Tour will be at the Mayakoba Classic, but realistically the next full field events that they will produce will be the fall series events in September and October. Of course we won't miss Golf Channel with CBS and NBC taking on the bulk of the telecasts over the next eight months, but I have to admit that Golf Channel was a lot better this year and had a passing mark for the Hope.
The camera angles were better. They still don't have enough cameras to get those great close-up shots that a network does, but we can't really make many complaints with the way the shots are done. Their voices are much better, Jerry Foltz and Curt Byrum were easy to listen to and if I was a CBS or NBC I wouldn't mind hiring them. Again Rich Lerner did a good job in giving us a more business-like Nick Faldo and being a good traffic cop. With Lerner as the host, we feel that the other announcers are utilized better and we don't feel that it's wall to wall talking by Nick Faldo. I have to be right on this because both Faldo and Lerner didn't seem tired and beat up at the end of the day like Faldo tends to get with Kelly Tilghman. Now the big question mark is if Rich has earned the job as their main anchor? The Couch producer and many others believe that he has, but you have to wonder what those folks with the power at Golf Channel feel. We have been told by sources and we are still awaiting official Golf Channel word on this that they are going to trot Kelly Tilghman back out as the anchor at the Buick Invitational, which makes us feel really sorry for Kelly and the things that will await her. The Couch Producer really hopes that we and our sources are wrong. After all that has happened in the two weeks between her suspension and the Golfweek 'noose cover,' she is going to be fair game for the media in San Diego. On top of this being unfair for Tiger Woods, this is also unfair to the Buick Invitational, PGA Tour and golf fans because the focus will be on Kelly, her comments and what happened with Golfweek, not on the Buick Invitational. Again there is nothing to be gained by Golf Channel doing this, but if this fails the Golf Channel will be in for another major debacle just weeks after the last. If they do have her anchor the Buick we have to wonder if the same people that handled the Kelly comment by not acting sooner and by not editing repeat shows really should be managing this PGA Tour series. Hopefully someone at the PGA Tour will advise Golf Channel against this, but it seems like Golf Channel have some weird ways of conducting their business.
I have to wonder if the folks that produce these Golf Channel shows look at the "Couch Producer." I have to think that they do because they finally did the Pat Green piece the right way - as I have written that they should - with shots of the tournament, celebrities and players in the field, thus making it fun to watch. I also saw that they were introducing their roving announcers better with graphics on who they are with. We all thank you for that. One question, where do I send my bill for consulting duties?
Lastly, this isn't TV related, but part of the same problem. I applaud the way the Golf Channel has shown loyalty to their employees over all of this. We can't say the same for Golfweek Magazine. They are big boys in a big market place and should realize mistakes happen. But this continuing public flogging of editor Dave Seanor is wrong. For 13 years, Seanor did nothing but good things for Golfweek. Its popularity today is thanks in large part to Seanor and the things that he did as editor. Now I know that William P. Kupper Jr. is the new kid on the block, he has only been president of Turnstile Publishing for a couple of months but for him to publicly flog Seanor on their website and probably their most recent issue, trying to portray Seanor as a total idiot is wrong and I am giving Mr. Kupper and Golfweek a public flogging over this.
Let's look at the reality of all this. The reason that Seanor got "fired" was not over the graphic image. If that was the case, Kupper or the owner of Turnstile Rance Crain would of fired Seanor much earlier than Thursday night. No, Seanor got fired because of big money and the fact that advertisers have either pulled or threatened to pull millions of dollars of advertising away from Golfweek. People like Mr. Kupper are using Seanor as a sacrificial lamb in all of this, so let's be fair to Dave. Yes he was the person responsible and he made a mistake which he is paying a dear price for, but come on guys! Golfweek gets the blame in whole and shouldn't be pushing one individual under the bus and running him over a dozen times. This is a poor excuse to show advertisers that they are showing sensitivity, responsibility and adherence. Yes, Seanor is very "toxic" right now in the publishing industry, but very soon people will realize what a good job he did at Golfweek and hire him. So Mr. Kupper stop this blame game. You were Seanor's boss and you are just as responsible for this as Dave was. Sorry to be this way, but the truth on this simply has to be told.
Oh, if you want to read more on the Kelly/Golfweek problem, check out Sal Johnson's story on if the world of golf has had enough on the Kelly/Golfweek public debacle
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*The Barclays may get an unexpected new home
*K.J. Choi wins Sony Open in Hawaii
*Couch producer looks at the future of Kelly and how the Sony went without her
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Could Westchester be out and Ridgewood in for Barclays?
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The landscape of tournaments that have changed courses are full of causalities. Just in this millennium, six events (Hope, Accenture Match Play, Honda Classic, Zurich New Orleans, Shell Houston and John Deere) have seen a change of courses in an effort to help a event get better. Even this year at this late date, we are expecting the Wyndham Championship to move from Forest Oaks to Sedgefield so change does happen, but in this case it's not a big surprise.
But the one event that we never thought would move for the time being was the Barclays Championship. Yes there have been small problems with Westchester Country Club as the host of the course, a lot of it to do with it's size and limitations on being able to handle things like television, stands and hospitality tents. But the club has had a 40 year relationship with the PGA Tour since it debut in 1967 as the Westchester Classic with Jack Nicklaus winning. Over the years a lot of name players won at Westchester, players from Arnold Palmer to Julius Boros to Curtis Strange to Raymond Floyd. Other championship winners included Bobby Nichols, Johnny Miller, Gene Littler, Andy North, Seve Ballesteros, Scott Simpson, Bob Tway, Wayne Grady, Hale Irwin, Vijay Singh, Lee Janzen, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington. In total 18 major winners won, so this spoke a lot of the golf course. Speaking of the course, it was a favorite of many, who found it quite a test even thought it played to just 6,839, very short under today's standards.
Despite the shortness, it was a favorite stop for many as the course had narrow fairways and deep rough which when it was played the week before the U.S. Open made it a favorite stop to get ready for the U.S. Open. Still things weren't just right. The membership, over 1,300 weren't totally in love with giving up their course and when the tournament became a FedEx playoff event and the tournament moved from June to the end of August, more conflict with membership came up.
So it was a big surprise when we learned that the event could be moved to the Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey for next August's event. That is a A.W. Tillinghast course that held the 1935 Ryder Cup, the 1990 U.S. Senior Opena and the 2001 Senior PGA Championship and just like Westchester has the reputation for being a tough course, with narrow fairways and thick rough along with Tillinghast greens that are an adventure to play.
Still a move to this course was a major surprise considering that Westchester had a six year contract with the tour till 2012. Now as part of the contract, the tournament was going to move in 2009 for one year to Liberty National Golf Club across the river from Manhattan in New Jersey, so we just wonder why the tour is doing this action when they could of easily done it after this year.
The first hint of the tournament moving came from John Hawkins in a GolfDigest.Com article on Friday. On Sunday things got hotter as Larry Dorman of the New York Times and Sam Weinman of the White Plains Journal News also reported the news.
Helping explain what happened is this letter from PGA Tour Tour's COO Ed Moorhouse telling Westchester that the tour wished to terminate its contract with the club. In return is this letter from Westchester president Phillip M. Halpern to his membership telling them that the PGA Tour had decided to terminate their six year agreement.
Now across the internet is buzzing with the reasons for such action. Mostly the finger is being pointed in the direction of Tiger Woods not participating in last year's first FedEx Cup Playoff at Westchester, the lack of attendance and the tour's contention that hospitality tents weren't able to be put up.
As a concession the Tour is purposing to pay Westchester $1 million to terminate the agreement.
It will be interesting to see what happens on this. Legally there is a contract in place and if the membership of Westchester want to be sticky over this and say that they want to continue the event there, no telling what could happen as this could possibly find it's way to a court room. As of today Westchester is still listed as the course being used on PGA Tour.Com, that is a better sign than not showing any course as the Wyndham Championship is showing. It is still a bit early and we still haven't heard an official statement from the PGA Tour on this so in due course of time we shall have more on this.
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Yes K.J. is good but the question is can he win a major?
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Hard to believe that it was just 25 years ago that Isao Aoki hit that 100 yard wedge to win the 1983 Hawaiian Open. That was a monumental victory since it was the first PGA Tour win by an Asian born winner. Since then only T.C. Chen, Shigeki Maruyama and Choi have won on Tour. So it's easy to say that Choi is the best winner coming out of Asian, but he wants just a bit more, maybe a major or two to put him in that special level of players.
Choi won his seventh PGA Tour career victory by three shots in an event that he had dominated from the first hole on Thursday in which he birdied and then held on for the next 71 holes. He played his first 45 holes in 14 under with just 1 bogey. He played his next 27 holes in even par with three bogeys and three birdies. On the final day it took him 18 holes to make a birdie, the last time a player won while not making a birdie in his final round was Justin Leonard at the 2005 Stanford St. Jude Classic. Sunday was a tough day for him as winds played havoc on not only his game but on a lot of other players. An example of this was Choi's playing partner, Tim Wilkinson who shot 62 on Saturday and 78 on Sunday dropping down into a T25th place.
Choi shot a one over par 71 on Sunday and went into the record books as only the second player in the history of the tournament to win despite having an over par final round. The first one was Dudley Wysong who in 1967 had a final round 73. Looking through the history of the winners of the Sony, since 1970 only two over par rounds have been shot by a winner, the first in 1972 when Grier Jones shot a 2nd round 73 and in 1987 when Corey Pavin shot a 2nd round 75. Since then the record has been clean until Choi shot his 71.
| Major improvement for K.J. Choi in his short game over the years: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Scrambling/rank | Bunker play/rank | Putting / rank | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 62.86% / 38th | 75.00% / 12th | 1.771 / 52nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007 | 62.34% / 9th | 58.39% / 10th | 1.778 / 66th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | 58.90% / 67th | 56.49 / 21st | 1.792 / 132nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | 58.2% / 85th | 52.9% / 54th | 1.781 / 105th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004 | 57.9% / 116th | 45.8% / 142nd | 1.770 / 77th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2003 | 57.53 / 108th | 50.67 / 82nd | 1.801 / 165th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More importantly, Choi seems to find it easy to win and grind it out. As he said after he finished play on Sunday, wind isn't his friend and he has problems with it but was able to hold things together, grind it out and win the tournament.
Only time will tell if Choi can win a major, but on the PGA Tour he is now a premium player. With his win this week, he has won an event a year for the last four years. Even bigger is the fact that in that period of time, Choi has won five times and as you can see below is fourth on a list of most PGA Tour wins since 2005
21 - Tiger
Woods
9 - Phil Mickelson
7 - Vijay Singh
5 - K.J. Choi
4
- Jim Furyk
Here are some notes and keys to victory on Chopra's win:
Choi's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 32 of 56 ..... (T22nd)Driving average: 306.9 .....(T16th)
Greens hit: 54 of 72 ....... (T4th)
Putts: 113 (28.25 a rd) .... (T24th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 32
2-putt greens: 39
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: +1
Play on par 4s: -9
Play on par 5s: -6
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 18 ................ (T3rd)
Scrambling: 15 of 18 (83.33%)... (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.
More thoughts on the Sony Open in Hawaii
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" looking at the Sony Open telecast and wondering if Kelly will ever be back.
No matter what your feelings on Kelly Tilghman are, you have to feel really sorry for her. She is a talented person and a nice lady that was not cast in the right role on the Golf Channel telecast and her slip of one word on the Friday telecast cost her a two-week suspension and possibly her career. Many are wondering what is in the cards for Tilghman once the two weeks are up, will she be brought back for the Thursday and Friday telecast of the Buick Invitaitonal or reassigned to some other duties on the Golf Channel. In a request to the Golf Channel for information on if she would be back at the Buick, a response was never returned, which was expected with everything going on.
The "Buzz" just hope's that for Tilghman's sake she won't be at the Buick, matter of fact we hope that she won't return to a PGA Tour event for a couple of weeks. Not being rude, but more for the protection of her and her career. For her that would be the best thing, could you image the fire storm created at the Buick if she was there? First the Buick is going to have the biggest media attendance of the new year and with Tiger back the main focus would be of what Kelly said at the Mercedes, not on the tournament. So to avoid this "buzz" that nobody really wants it's probably best for her to stay in the studio for a month or so and to come back on Tour at a place that has limited media, maybe New Orleans or Shell Houston.
As for the Sony Open in Hawaii show, I hate to be the messenger of bad news for the Golf Channel but she wasn't missed one bit. Matter of fact the show was better without her. Rich Lerner came in and did a great job hosting by bringing the telecast more under control. He did this by being more business like in his control of Nick Faldo and not being the front man for Faldo to get off his funny lines. He was the anchor that the channel sorely needed navigating the show in a proper direction. This doesn't mean that Faldo was not funny and himself, he was but Faldo was more like he is with CBS giving us great insight, not talking as much and making the telecast look more like a network show instead of a Golf Channel show. The most important thing that Lerner did was make sure there wasn't an overabundance of talking between him, Faldo and Rolfing and gave his on-course people more of a chance to give there insight, thus not making it sound like wall-to-wall talking like we had at the Mercedes. So in my book this search for the main anchor is over, Rich Lerner should be the man from now on.
We of course missed Dottie Pepper, who misses this event because of a personal commitment back home but for Curt Byrum or Jerry Foltz they did a good job in keeping us apprise with all of the action. Mike Ritz did a great job with the interviews and we didn't miss Rich not doing them. Again we have to take note in a couple of things that management at Golf Channel does. First they don't properly introduce their other announcers and tell us who they are with so that the viewer has to guess who the hidden faces are. Another thing that they don't do right is changing the lineup, why have Dottie and Billy Andrade at one event and then new faces at the next? Is consistency in the Golf Channel's vocabulary? There is a reason that the networks have the same announcers week in and week out, to help the viewers gain some trust and familiarity so that it's easier to understand the coverage.
As for the telecast itself, it was better but to be frank this week was an easy storyline to keep up with. Now the one area that the Golf Channel has improved is in graphics and the use of it. Giving us information saying that a player is going to hit more greens in regulation than anyone else is great and they seem to be the first that is able to utilize the shotlink database to give us this off the wall stuff. Matter of fact for those at CBS and NBC reading, I would find out who is doing this and put them on your shows.
The big black mark on the telecast is these Pat Green teases. Yes these are gettiing very old to watch, much like Uncle Jim's family picture album at a family reunion. I have to think that a producer that choses this song must be getting paid on the side by Green. Or else did Golf Channel pay so much money for the rights that they feel that they have to air the same thing every day? Still they miss the point on why having these teases and making them good is important, does anyone that is a part of the Pat Green teases watch the way the Sprint Post-Game does their nice simple tease that has scenes of lulu dancers, beauty of the place and most of all the players that are playing in the tournament. Again, we don't want to see Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson in a tease in which they aren't playing. I haven't counted but I would bet that there is more shots of players not in the field than are in the event. Again for management, get the person that does the Sprint post-game tease and have him do the live telecast teases, he has a better sense of the right way of doing things.
Unfortunely the bad news for the Golf Channel is that no matter how good of a show they did last week and this, they are still going to be remembered and written up for Kelly's words on that faithful Friday and the fact that they weren't fast enough to respond and make this matter go away. Even today, a week later nobody cares much about the telecasts, they just care about what Kelly said which is a shame for all the folks that do put in long hours putting the telecast together. Time does heal old wounds, as an example Don Imus is back on the air and doing better than ever rating wise. So I just hope that the same comes about for Kelly and that we can enjoy her on Golf Central and Sprint Post Game shows as soon as next week.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Looking at the Kelly Tilghman debacle
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
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At times I just wonder in what direction this world of ours is going. Yes, Kelly Tilghman made a mistake in her use of words last Friday night but do the results of the last couple of days really fit the crime? For years we have seen things like this happen, from Jimmy the Greek to Al Campanis to Ben Wright. All three of them lost their jobs and went from went from prosperity to living out their lives in obscurity.
As for Tilghman, for the last couple of years she has been on a superhighway to stardom. Unfortunately with her comment the wheels have fallen off and she has had an accident and we all hope that it doesn’t prove fatal. Tilghman has been able to parlay her good looks and her keen sense of knowing golf into a job in which she has attracted a lot of folks to listen to her. To be fair, Kelly is more of a reporter instead of an anchor. As a reporter she gives us the facts and presents better than anyone else. Her stints were top-notch on Golf Central and the Sprint Pre & Post Game reports and frankly management should have just left here there.
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In looking at things now, she was put in a job that was impossible to master. How did the coach hired after John Wooden do at UCLA? Or Bear Bryant’s replacement? Kelly was cast as the partner for Nick Faldo, who in 2006 finished a very good run at ABC with Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger. They were an accident that worked out perfectly and people enjoyed the great banter between Azinger and Faldo. So by pairing Kelly, with Faldo, this was a losing proposition. Frankly that is why people dislike Kelly in this role, instead of reporting the news, which Tilghman is great at we get Kelly the anchor who has to be a reporter, comedian, setup person and smile and play a part that she shouldn’t be doing.
What is unfortunate over all of this in hindsight her downfall probably was the apology that she gave on Sunday. If the Golf Channel would have just made a statement on Golf Central on Friday night and had Kelly apologize there in front of a limited crowd all of this wouldn't have gotten out of hand. It's funny, in a talk with a Golf Channel employee, he said that if Don McGuire, the Executive Producer of the Golf Channel who was fired last month, was still around this is what he would have done and this whole thing wouldn't have gotten out of hand. But the folks that run the live shows at Golf Channel aren't very bright. If I were in charge at Comcast, I would seriously think about shaking some things up over this.
Now we have to fault the world in general. Why are we listening to people like Al Sharpton? I can’t picture why anyone would listen to this ambulance chasing man who says he is a man of the cloth but looks for blood every time someone steps out of line. I feel that Sharpton sits at home just waiting for something like this to happen so that he could put himself into the limelight.
Yes this shouldn't of ever happened but do folks like Al Sharpton realize that Kelly Tilghman has a special relationship with Tiger Woods, who has a great deal of respect for her? Yes, Tilghman's words were ill-advised, but has Sharpton ever been on the air for over four hours in a live golf telecast? A lot of decisions are made in fractions of a second and when someone has to do this four or five hours a day for four straight days we need to cut them some slack, especially when Tilghman wouldn't say a bad thing about anyone, let alone Tiger Woods.
But let's get to the root of the problem and if there is blame to be put on someone, it shouldn't fall entirely on Tilghman. The people that put Tilghman in harms way were executive producers Tony Tortorici and Keith Hirshland. They did it by not giving both Tilghman and Faldo the support of more announcers so that it wasn't wall to wall talking between the two of them. I also feel that Tortorici and Hirshland didn't handle the situation right when it happened by allowing Kelly to give that apology on Sunday.
As I have been saying since day one when the contracts were announced two years ago these two didn't have the skills for these kind of shows. If they would have done their jobs right, they would have gotten better people to produce these shows. I hate to harp on this but why is Brandt Packer, a very talented person who produced the last year that ABC had golf, not doing these three golf tournaments? These are the biggest shows that Golf Channel do. He should be on these shows instead of the Champions Tour events. If I were Tortorici I would have Packer on a plane ASAP to produce the rest of these shows. Instantly the shows would be better and you would see a big change in the way everyone goes about their jobs.
Another big question is why did Golf Channel go through all of the trouble to hire Dan McGuire to all of a sudden fire him and let Tortorici and Hirshland run things again? It didn’t take long to see what a bad mistake that was. I can guarantee that this would have never happened on a network show. They would have made sure to give Tilghman and Faldo the support that wouldn't of put them in the position they were in. I could also guarantee that a Tommy Roy or a Lance Barrow, the producers of golf at NBC and CBS would have handled things better if it did happen and would of made sure that it didn't get out of hand in which the likes of Al Sharpton getting involved. As I have been harping for the last two years the present management at Golf Channel aren't ready for big time golf and this is a perfect example of why. And for the PGA Tour, this isn't what they had in mind when they signed Golf Channel to a 15 year contract. So I have one piece of advice for the Brian Roberts, who is the president & CEO of Comcast, and the president Charles W. Thurston. Think about getting some folks that have done big time PGA Tour events and try to repair the reputation that Golf Channel has of not being able to do top quality shows .
As for Tilghman, hopefully she can turn this into a positive some way. She should return to her role at Golf Central and the Sprint Post Game shows where she is great and is able to help Golf Channel become the leader in golf television. Hopefully this will be an important lesson for the Golf Channel and they can learn and change things in the next year and not embarrass themselves.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*What is Ernie Els up to for 2008
*Daniel Chopra wins in Kapalua
*Couch producer looks at the Good and the Bad in Golf Channels Mercedes telecast
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
Why is the King of the Match Play not at the Accenture
A couple of days ago, Ernie Els on his website, announced his schedule for 2008 but what was missing is him playing in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. His first event in the United States is the Honda Classic, the week after the Accenture.
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One paper you would think that he would be a slam-duck for Accenture. He has won the HSBC World Match Play Championship seven times but to be fair, even though each match is 36 holes, all a player has to do is play three opponents to win. At the Accenture it's a grind because it takes six matches to win.
In past years Els has complained about playing at LaCosta and it was thought that a move to Arizona would appease him more, but that doesn’t seem the case. In six events he has been beaten four times in the first round and the second round once. Last year he was sent packing in the first round by Bradley Dredge.
Now Els did say on the site that he wants to gear himself for the majors. In looking at his 2008 schedule he is playing the week before all of the majors and it looks like he will play in 17 PGA Tour events. No real surprise except the Shell Houston Open and the Stanford St. Jude Championship will be happy to have Els. One other surprise is that he has left off the Volvo Masters, the last official European Tour stop. Many say he isn't a big fan of Valderamma.
Els will start his year at Dubai and strangely will be playing the next week in the Indian Masters before the Honda Classic. Still I feel that 2008 is going to be very important for Els, who wants to be on par with Tiger Woods and take a few majors away from him. Time is running out on him and if it doesn't get done this year may never get done.
Chopra starts the year on a weird note
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For all of you down and out golfers, matter of fact for anyone having problems in life period, we can look at the Daniel Chopra story and see how things do have a happy ending. Back in 2001 Daniel Chopra was playing the Asian Tour and just about reach the end of the line. He was playing terrible, after four poor years on the European Tour he was on the Asian Tour and reached the end of his rope. Dead broke and nobody really to go, he was on the verge of calling it quits until Jeev Milkha Singh gave him around $5,000 and said to pay it when he could. More importantly for Chopra, Singh told sponsor's about Chopra and won gave him an exemption into the Mercuries Masters which he won and shall we say the rest is history.
Singh got his "loan" back and Chopra has made a steady climb upwards in golf to the point that he has reached the elite level, his second win on the PGA Tour but more importantly a win that will propel him to bigger and better things. Sure, his win in October at the Ginn sur Mer Classic was a big deal, but it didn't get him into the Masters like his Mercedes-Benz win does.
He won in a exciting fashion beating Steve Stricker on the fourth hole of a playoff, making birdie on the par 5, 9th hole to clinch the win. For his bother, Chopra gets a winner's check of $1.1 million plus he gets to be one of the first on his block back home in Orlando to drive around in a 2008 Mercedes CL550 roadster.
For Chopra he becomes the first rookie winner of this event since Sergio Garcia did it in 2002. As he said afterwards, the course played perfectly for him. Even though he never saw the course in person until this week, he had played it many times on his play station and found it fun to play. Still it takes a new comer a while to learn the course, there is a lot of local knowledge on it but he also had the advantage of having Mitch Knox on his bag who caddied for David Duval in 1999 when he won the Mercedes so all Chopra had to do was be smart enough to listen to Knox and play his own game.
For Chopra this not only gets him into the Masters, but just about guarantees that he will play in all four majors and get through at least the first round of the FedEx Cup. But if history is a barometer for all of this, the last 16 winners of the Mercedes-Benz has qualified for the Tour Championship and had a very nice year.
Here are some notes and keys to victory on Chopra's win:
Chopra's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 42 of 60 ..... (T30th)Driving average: 263.9 .....(6th)
Greens hit: 62 of 72 ....... (T9th)
Putts: 117 (29.25 a rd) ....(3rd)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 0
1-putt greens: 29
2-putt greens: 41
3-putt greens: 2
Play on par 3s: -3
Play on par 4s: -8
Play on par 5s: -7
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 23 ................ (1st)
Scrambling: 7 of 10 (70.00%)... (7th)
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.
Steve Stricker
Of course you are never happy losing a playoff but for Stricker after making double bogey at 8 on Thursday and being four over he is probably tickle pink over this. He birdied 9 and after that in his final 63 holes only had two bogeys, one on the first hole on Friday and the other on the 2nd hole on Saturday. So Stricker was 15 under par for his final 34 holes, not bad considering that 18 got into a playoff
For Steve it was a great trip for him and the family, one that he will hopefully get to make next year and the years afterwards.
Stricker's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 45 of 60 ..... (T23rd)Driving average: 257.4 ..... (14th)
Greens hit: 63 of 72 ....... (T6th)
Putts: 121 (30.25 a rd) .... (T7th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 1
1-putt greens: 22
2-putt greens: 48
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: +2
Play on par 4s: -11
Play on par 5s: -9
Eagles: 1
Birdies: 22 ................ (2nd)
Scrambling: 5 of 9 (70.00%)... (T14th)
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.
More thoughts on the Mercedes-Benz Championship
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The "Couch Producer" is on the "Couch" and will tell you how the Golf Channel did at the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
So how did the Golf Channel do at the Mercedes-Benz Championship? They got better marks than they got last year, their production was better and sharper. One of the elements were they really shined is the use of graphics with the flight of balls. They used this a lot and it kept viewers up to date and were players hit the ball. Also, they had some nice informational graphics that sparked the telecast. Of course they take a lot of credit for Trackman as the announcers made it sound as if Trackman was some new element that the Golf Channel came up with. Trackman was first done by ESPN and ABC who used at the British Open, Skins Game and Wendy's Three Tour Challenge. Again it's the toy of the future on golf shows but just making a big deal about it for two holes doesn't cut it, just like they put up graphics before a player hits, it's great but should be the norm of coverage, they should have it on every hole and it should come up on every drive.
As for editorial decisions they seem better this year than last, the replays were better but I still wouldn't give them a grade on par with CBS and NBC. They were slow and clumsy on some plus they still seem to force themselves into live situations when they should just put it on tape and play it back setting up the play better.
One major fault I still blame them for is these Pat Green openings. Yes, it's a nice song and should be an opening, but once is enough. Having it Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday really is a downer. Plus they don't seem to grasp the concept of what a tease is suppose to do. You are bringing in an audience to a special event, the tease is suppose to be special that shows what is coming up, not a music montage. The producer should see the way Sunday Night Football or ESPN Monday Night football does the tease, the have a very fancy edit session in which the players that you are going to see are a part of the tease. Half the players in the Golf Channel tease weren't even at the Mercedes, of course the first two players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott were no shows to the Mercedes. So what are they promoting, the Mercedes or the fact that Tiger and Adam didn't make it?
Now lets play devils advocate and put on the shoes of a network producer. If this was done by NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN or Fox, it would be on once or twice on Saturday and Sunday and I can guarantee you that every person in that tease would be part of the storyline for the day. Kapalua is a fun place, why didn't Golf Channel shot footage of these players at a lulu, on the beach, going fishing or having a good time and showing that in this tease? The same this week at the Sony, we don't want to see the same shots of Tiger in the beginning, Scott Verplank looking up into the sky, Tiger's wife and baby and things that don't have anything to do with the show. Again, another example why the folks in charge of the live productions aren't very bright or creative at the Golf Channel.
As for the announcing, yes Kelly has improved but not enough. She is still in the wrong role with Nick Faldo and still tries to set him up for that cheap laugh. That is one of the things that got her in trouble on Friday for the comment of "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley." Again almost everyone in American (who was watching which wasn't very many) felt uncomfortable over the comment and I just wonder if anything will happen down the road over this. Again, the blame on this is putting Kelly in this impossible role in which she feels that she has to be funny with Nick Faldo for over four hours a day. I really feel that the Golf Channel is making the threesome of Kelly, Nick and Mark Rolfing talk way too much, which is one of the reasons for slip-ups like this. Yes Rolfing has some great information about Kapalua, he has lived there for 30 years and helps the telecast but he gets caught up in way too much talking also. At times I wonder if the golf channel is paying them for each word they say.
Faldo is OK but again I think that he tires and is given too much to do. At times I wonder if Faldo, and this is me talking not Nick Faldo, hates some aspects of the way Golf Channel does things. At CBS he has Gary McCord, Peter Oosterhuis and Ian Baker-Finch to give their thoughts and support along with Jim Nantz . All he has on the Golf Channel shows is Kelly and Mark, making him have to try and make things lively which is a strain. If I was the producer I would have a better cast of folks on the show, why is Peter Oosterhuis and Frank Nobilo, two of the best talkers in golf and members of the Golf Channel team not on the show?
Again a lack of leadership at Golf Channel not to bring their best talent to their biggest show. In the long run I just wonder what the future of Faldo on the Golf Channel really will be after this year. I wouldn't think the folks at CBS like him doing all these shows and I just wonder how beat up Faldo is on these shows and if he honestly wants to come back. Realistically he should enjoy the paychecks but this doesn't help his resume tape to be a part of a show that is a step below CBS.
As for Dottie Pepper, nothing to be said she always does a fine job. Jerry Foltz is OK but I was very disappointed in Billy Andrade. Just like what happened to Rocco Mediate last year the same faith happened to Andrade as he seemed lost in what the job really was and seemed very uncomfortable. I still wonder why he wasn't around on Sunday, that wasn't explained. Golf Channel is getting a reputation for announcers falling into a black hole and never appearing again. What ever happened to Nancy Lopez, who was suppose to be a star? Why wasn't Rocco back? We did Golf Channel let Grant Boone go this year, he was very popular on LPGA events. The answer is inexperience producers that don't teach these announcers how to do the job properly. I remember at ABC the producers and directors would work hard to new talent in screening sessions telling flaws and how to do things better, why can't the Golf Channel do the same and not have disasters like what happened with Nancy Lopez?
As for Rich Lerner, he falls into the same category as Pepper, one that we enjoy listening to. His interviews were great, his essays were on top of things and he is improving daily. I still think that he would be better suited for the Kelly role but then it would take him away from doing some great essays and interviews. One suggestion, Brain Hammonds should be considered for the Kelly role, he is a much easier to listen to than Kelly and would do a fine job just like he has done on the Champions Tour. Again, the Golf Channel has two weeks left so we only have nine more times of watching this stupid Pat Green opening. Just think, if there is 13 years left on the Golf Channel's contract with the PGA Tour that opening will be pretty old by the year 2020. Hopefully upper management at Golf Channel and Comcast will get better people to make the decisions so that we could write some better things. Still in all they do get higher marks this year than last, but I still don't rate their shows "network quality" just yet.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
