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If you're a regular to PGA365.com you'll know that there is a Fantasy Golf forum in which I (attempt to) make picks and predictions for each week's tournament.  My prediction of Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott bombing out were correct.  Well, Els ended up T7 and came back hard after a disastrous first day and managed to be one of only two players in the entire field that had two rounds in the 60's (the other being the champion, who we will discuss in just a bit).  In their defense, the first half of the field to play on Thursday played in winds strong enough to displace Dorothy from Kansas, in 50 degree weather with rain coming in sideways.  These players included Els, Mickelson and Scott as well as some other notables.  Trying to play golf in those conditions is just incredibly frustrating and demoralizing.  These were the players that had to fight hard just to make the cut and post a decent score.  The weather finally broke a bit in the afternoon but the damage was done to these groups of players.  My tournament favorite, Sergio Garcia, finished a dismal T51.

A few things were going to make this tournament memorable.  Insane weather, a dramatic fight to the finish a la Torrey Pines or an unlikely champion.  2 out of 3 ain't bad.  While the weather was certainly bonkers, what was going through your head after DAVID DUVAL was lurking on top of the leader board after 2 rounds??  What about Greg Norman leading after 3 rounds??  The fact that either of these players had a reasonable chance to take home the Claret Jug would have been an amazing story, but equally as amazing was the fact that Padraig Harrington (affectionately known as Paddy) was perhaps the single most unlikely player to walk away with this major given the fact that he wasn't even sure if he was going to play the day before. 

Harrington injured his wrist 8 days before the tournament and gave himself only a 50% chance of even finishing, managing to hit only 3 full swings the day before the tournament started.  That's when everyone, myself included, entirely dismissed him from being a factor at this year's Open Championship.  Harrington called his injury a "great distraction," and rightly so.  So much pressure was taken off of him because there were no real expectations for him to defend his title, and no one bothered paying attention to him at all until  after the 3rd round when he had managed to finish in a tie for 2nd place with KJ Choi.  On a day when mostly everyone wore a light sweater or some kind of long-sleeved shirt, Harrington was out there with the whipping winds in just a regular short sleeve polo.  That's Irish right there.

Brilliant ball striking and smart, calm thinking allowed him to take full advantage of other people's mistakes.  Norman, an excellent driver of the ball, would have been better suited hitting a few more hybrids or irons off the tee and Choi vanished into a T16 finish with his highest round of the tournament, a 79.  You have to be extremely creative with Open Championship golf, and Harrington has proven that he knows how to make his way around these wind-swept gems of links courses that dot the UK.  He's created a bit of a dynasty now, showcasing his ability to use both power and finesse wisely.  Next to Tiger Woods, he'll easily be the '09 favorite when the tournament returns to Turnberry.

Harrington is the only player (aside from Tiger Woods) to win more than 1 Open Championship since Greg Norman did it in 1993 at Royal St. George's, and Europe's first player in more than a century to win it two years in a row. 

Posted by vaca22 at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's one tournament you want to win (aside from any major) in your career, and that's The Players Championship.  This week, Sergio Garcia showed us why he is easily one of the top players in the world despite his #18 (as of 5/11/08) world golf ranking...not that being 18th is shabby.  Garcia's last professional win, PGA or European, was in 2005.  Since then, he's had some massive struggles with either his putter or his attitude, and has been the victim of some relatively harsh media criticism.  Some of the criticism has been deserved.  Remember the incident at the 13th hole of the 2007 CA Championship when Garcia missed a par putt and spit into the cup?  I wouldn't even call it "spitting"...he didn't forcefully spit into the cup; rather, he...um...dropped some saliva after he bent over to pick up his ball in disgust.  Was he pissed?  Of course.  Frustrated?  Positively.  Was it immature and uncalled for?  Absolutely.  In this "gentleman's game" you just don't do stuff like that.

But I digress.

At Carnousie last year, Garcia missed a 10-foot part put on the final hole after blowing a 3-shot lead to win the Open Championship, forcing a playoff in which he lost to Pagraig Harrington.  Winning the Open Championship would have solidified Garcia's status as one of the top young players in the game, but that loss along with the press conference the followed (he mentioned that in any tournament it was more than just him against the field, it was him against the field AND the media) showed that El Niño was still immature and had some things to learn about his game and himself.

Coupled with his brilliant ball-striking, Garcia's putter really came through this week with some huge putts.  He drained more long putts than I can ever remember, and even though he still missed some of the shorter ones Garcia managed to be much more consistant on the greens that we've known him to be.  He's been putting in some quality time with Stan Utley, a former PGA pro who is now one of the top teachers in America, focusing mostly on putting and chipping.
On Sunday Garcia drained a 14-footer for par on the 9th, and then sunk a 47-footer on the 14th for a birdie.  His final putt for par on 18th was a testy 7-footer, which he made and was good enough to get into a playoff with Paul Goydos.  On the first playoff hole at 17, Goydos ballooned his tee shot and came just a few feet short of the green, while Garcia punched a wedge to the center of the green to within 7 feet, thanks partly to a gust of wind.  Signed, sealed, delivered.

However, something very important will get overlooked by all of this putting talk, and that's how frightening Garcia was off the tee.  The weekend turned windy, and Garcia hit 10 of 14 fairways on Saturday and 14 of 18 greens, which is just absurd considering the difficulty of the course as well as the windy conditions.  He hit all 14 fairways on Friday, and ended up 1st in driving accuracy and 1st in greens in regulation for the entire tournament. There are only a couple of other players that could have been that accurate - Fred Funk and Scott Verplank - both who missed the cut.  Personally, I think that this might have to rank as one of the best weeks of driving for any player ever, factoring in course difficulty and the late round gale-force winds.  Let's not mention the pressure to perform well after a 3-year winless drought.  It was a truly remarkable display of hitting.

You have to wonder now if Sergio might be able to pull some nifty tricks from up his sleeve and maybe capture his first major this year.  He's come close before as noted above at Carnoustie.  You aren't going to win the US Open if you can't find the fairways and that might be Tiger Wood's greatest weakness at those tournaments.  Of all the majors Tiger has collected, "only two" are US Opens.  While Tiger has won at Torrey Pines more times that I've filled my car up with gas last year, his spectacular putting and recovery is what allows him to be less than accurate off the tee and still give himself a fighting chance.  Sergio is essentially the opposite - his driving as of late is spectacular, but his putter might end up being his Achilles' heel. 

If Garcia can maintain the improvements he's made with the flatstick and even improve upon THAT, we may have to start calling El Niño "El Hombre."  Certainly a win at a tournament of this caliber against the most solid field in golf will be a great confidence booster. 

Posted by vaca22 at 01:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let's give Trevor Immelman some props for putting on a clinic at The Masters this past week.  Consider the following stats:

• 1st in driving accuracy (48/56 fairways, 85.71%)
• 4th in driving distance (287.50)
• T2 in greens in regulation (51/72 greens, 70.83%)
• T3 in putting (1.56)

That's pretty much outstanding.  No one was as sharp as Immelman from tee to green, and he was able to maintain the laser-like focus for the entire 4 rounds.  His only mistake was a double on the 70th hole, the par 3 16th.  Whether his ball ended up in the drink because of a cross breeze or because of a mishit, he ended up with a double-bogey and still won by 3 strokes.  His drives were well-placed, his approach shots were never far from the pin, his pitching was incredible and he seemed to be making almost every putt.  He was able to put himself in perfect spots and as a result he only had 2 3-putts for the entire round.  Immelman became the first South African to win the Masters since Gary Player in 1978, exactly 30 years ago.

Immelman had a few obstacles to overcome on his way to his Masters victory.  Last year he contracted some kind of parasite and followed that up with a stomach infection which caused him to lose 22 lbs in 3 weeks.  It had taken Immelman 3 years to bulk up from 155 to 178 before contracting the parasite, essentially losing 3 years' work in 3 weeks.  In December, Immelman complained of having some chest pain and an MRI showed that he had a benign tumor.  After surgery he was out of action for approximately 6 weeks and then started practicing and preparing for the Masters.  This guy can obviously deal with adversity.  I hope he can win at least 1 other tournament this year, because that would really validate his win at Augusta.  Zach Johnson was able to do so last year and the way that Immelman was striking the ball suggests that he is in top form. 

Posted by vaca22 at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who play fanatasy golf, you probably didn't have a difficult time choosing Tiger Woods to be in the lineup.  I know I didn't.  After the first and second rounds of this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, I was 50% worried that he wasn't going to win and 50% sure that he was going to win.  The only reason why I was as much as 50% sure that he was going to win was because I've seen him do it before.  But you never know...he could have a "bad" round, or someone else could put on a clinic and break the course record - a million different scenarios can play out in any tournament, but the surest thing to bet on these days is Tiger, no matter what.

At the end of the first round, Fred Couples had fired an early 65 to take the lead at -5.  Tiger was E with a 70.  Five shots isn't a whole lot to make up over the course of four rounds, but it's a decent amount.  Many players shot good scores on Thursday.

The next day Vijay Singh went berserk and ended up being the leader after the second round at -9.  Tiger shot a -2 68, 7 shots back.

It appeared to me at this point that two things were going to happen.  First, that Tiger wasn't going to win this tournament.  Other players kept on shooting low scores and there was a large gap between -2 and -9.  He hadn't won here in 4 years and the defending champion Singh appeared to be playing VERY well.  Second, that all of the other players, somehow, in some way, would come crashing down in spectacular fashion, therefore paving the way for another Tiger victory.  I missed the entire third round but when I logged on to check the scores what I saw was both surprising and not surprising at all - Tiger Woods tied for a 1st place -6 score along with 4 other players. 

Somehow, that -9 number posted by Vijay vanished as well as any other players' hopes of winning.  When everyone else was having a hard time dealing with the swirling winds, Tiger goes on to shoot a -4 66 to place him tied for 1st place.  Ridiculous 4-iron cut shots to within 3 feet of the pin and other insane shenanigans allowed Tiger to take full advantage of his incredible talents while others folded like a house of cards on a windy day.  After 3 rounds if Tiger is leading or tied for the lead, he is 42-3 for tournament wins.  Stunning.

I feel bad for Bart Bryant.  He was the only dude to shoot 4 rounds in the 60's, the first time in 20 years that's happened at this tournament.  He stuck shot after shot after shot all day long, but to show you what kind of stuff you have to deal with when playing Tiger, consider this:  Tiger ended up 3-putting the 10th hole from about 7 feet.  That's nuts.  There's a better chance of snow in July than a 3-putt from Tiger from 7 feet.  The score was tied at -8 for about 5 minutes, when all of a sudden Bryant 3-putted the 11th for a bogey.  Bryant played his heart out and was left watching Tiger finish out the round in the scoring booth.  A 5-iron to within 24 feet is what Tiger served up.  Tiger needed to make the putt to win outright.  Afer careful analyzation, Tiger stood over the put and pulled the trigger.

How many of  you were thinking, "Yeah, this is falling in..." ?

How many of you were surprised when it happened?  EVERYONE was surprised!  It's a 24 foot downhill bender for the win!  Yet at the same time, NO ONE WAS SURPIRISED!   How is that even possible?!?

From the scoring booth, Bryant chuckled while eating his candy bar and just shook his head.  There isn't much these guys can do, they're basically at Tiger's mercy. 

Even if you don't follow golf, even if you don't know the history of the game, please understand that what we're seeing here in watching Tiger Woods is something so extraordinary and incredible that I highly doubt anyone will ever come along and repeat or surpass him.  He's taking down legend after legend, record after record, each time he steps on the course.  The PGA Tour's slogan "These guys are good" is 100% true, but when Tiger is involved he just seems to make everyone else seem totally insignificant. 

The beatdowns will continue.  These tournaments are clearly marathons and not sprints, and Tiger keeps on proving this to us time and time again. 

 

Posted by vaca22 at 02:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Do you win by 7 strokes?

Do you set the course record at Sherwood (62)?

Do you tie the tournament record at -22?

Tiger does.

After a two month hiatus, Tiger Woods showed up at his own tournament and captured the title for the 4th time with guns blazing and total disregard for anyone else in the field.  His high round of the week was 69, and that with WITH a double-bogey on 18.   Stinger draws...check.  Rocket 3-woods...check.  Laser approaches...check.  It seems as if the more difficult the shot is, the better the outcome.  Jack Nicklaus had his best professional year when he was 32, winning 7 times including two majors.  Tiger  turns 32 at then end of the year, and if he keeps up this torrid pace he may shatter all-time records  even sooner than people have anticipated.

Who hits stinger draws?! 

Only twice in Tiger's  professional career has he failed to win more than 4 tournaments in a year.  Since missing the cut at the 2006 US Open he has positively dominated the game.  In 26 starts worldwide he has won 14 times, a staggering 54% of the tournaments he has played in.  In those  tournaments, his scoring average was 68.37, and a combined total of over -220 under par. 

In terms of the upcoming 2008 majors, he pretty much owns every square foot of Augusta (although Phil Mickelson also has an incredible career at the Masters), he cleans house at Torrey Pines (2008 US Open), he negotiates his way through Open Championship courses like no one else (in 2006 at Royal Liverpool he used his driver only once) so it's safe to say that Royal Birkdale stands a good chance of being added to the list of venues that Tiger has won at.  Finally, the PGA at Oakland Hills is familiar territory for Tiger as well, as the 2004 Ryder Cup was held there.  You know he'll win a WCG event at least once, and a Buick event as well.  One more win puts him ahead of Arnold Palmer for most career PGA tour wins (63), and 3 will put him ahead of some no-namer people called Ben Hogan. 

Sit back and watch the domination unfold in 2008...I have a feeling this is going to be another stellar year for the world's greatest golfer. 

Posted by vaca22 at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)