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Ah, Glory's Last Shot...that's what the PGA Championship is also known as.  If you don't know why, well, it's because it's the last of the 4 majors.  It's really hard for me to believe that The PGA is already at our doorstep.  It seemed like only yesterday that we (or myself, at least) were giddy at the thoughts of Amen Corner and green jackets and all of that.  The gap between the Masters and the next major, the US Open, is usually about 3 months.  That makes it seem as if the season is really long, but once the US Open arrives in June, the Open Championship and PGA quickly follow it, each only about a month apart from the other.  It's kind of, sort of, almost like the end of the season.  Many players call it quits after the PGA, choosing rather to play sporadically or not at all, or maybe enter in a charity tournament or play a round or two overseas.  Each year we can look forward to either the President's Cup or the Ryder Cup in September, so there is still some great golf to be had for us fans.  But let's give The PGA some time in the limelight...

Oakland Hills Country Club has hosted many a prestigeous tournament before; 6 US Opens, 3 PGA Championships and even a Ryder Cup for good measure.  Some guy by the name of Donald Ross designed this place, so that should immediately ring a bell (Pinehurst No.2) and tell you that the greens of Oakland Hills are something truly special.  You can expect monster bending breaks on virtually all of the greens on this course, with breaks and ridges and humps that make reading greens a dizzying task.  The beauty of this place is that the greens have remained entirely unchanged since the days of Ben Hogan.  A bunker or two have been moved around, and new tees have been added, and of course a tree or two have been removed, but this course is essentially the opposite of Augusta National in that it has barely changed since way back in the day.  Hard to believe, but many consider these greens the most difficult in all of golf, even surpasing those of Augusta National.  In 1951, Hogan was so skeeved out by the green of the Par 3 9th that he considered laying up and chipping to the flag.  This hole will play at 257 yards this year.  Yikes.

The PGA is has arguably the best field in golf.  The venues are always great, and the tournament isn't set up to be impossible but rather the philosophy is to "err on the side of the players," unlike the US Open which sometimes tends to be unfair in its setup.  It's a tough test of golf for sure, but it's fair.  While all four majors are fantastic tournaments, I think The PGA gets the worst rap of all.  It seems so unimportant after The Masters, US Open and Open Championships, but the truth is that it is a consistently fantastic tournament  with tons of great players on great courses.  And it also gives qualifying PGA club pros a shot at some fame as well.  Keep a close eye this year on how weather is a factor...there is some rain in the forecast for the first two rounds which will soften the place up a bit, but when it dries out I think anything can happen and the difficulty of the greens will play a huge part in how the winner is determined.      

Posted by vaca22 at 03:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First of all, I'd like to apologize to all of our loyal readers and participants for the lack of material lately.  As summer comes so do many activities and events.  On top of that, my game hit the proverbial "brick wall" and I've been working tirelessly to correct a couple of faults in ye ole swing.  I'm glad to report that my ball striking is probably as solid as it ever has been and I'm looking forward to competing in a couple of friendly tournaments in the upcoming weeks.

Yours truly, before the swing revamp: laid off at the top, and coming in too far from the inside!   Dammit!  (Picture courtesy of The Monkey Photography, LLC 2008)

The 137th Open Championship is now upon us.  Just looking at that number tells you that this major is OLD...the oldest of the 4 majors, in fact.  One of the real treats of the Open Championship venues is that they are flashbacks as to how golf was originally played.  In the US we have beautiful parkland courses and excellently fabricated links courses, but the UK offers the best in true links golf, period.  That's not to say genunie links golf does not exsist in the US...it does.  Ever hear of Shinnecock Hills?  Any one of the 9 courses currently on the Open Championship rotation are stunning examples of seaside links, the way golf was originally played hundreds of years ago.  Trees?  We don't need no stinkin' trees!  Give us July temperatures of 60 degrees, howling winds and rock hard fairways, along with the nuttiest bunkering you've ever seen and you now have true links golf.  I can taste the salty air right now.

Royal Birkdale is the site of this year's Open Championship.  The strangest thing about Birkdale is its clubhouse.  It seems entirely modern and out of place for a course that was founded in 1889.  Not quite as strange (but strange enough) is the fact that its fairways are as flat as your kitchen floor. Some speculate as to why the fairways are like that.  Frederic Hawtree, the architect in charge of the course's first reconstruction in 1932, stated that he left the course the way he saw it.  Others say that later architects, perhaps mistakenly, filled in the areas between the dunes to create perfectly graded roadbeds.  Why?  Because there really weren't many golf construction firms and the only folks who could could do the work and had the necessary tools were local road contractors.  But really, who cares, because I bet if you were to play on a perfectly flat course your mind would start playing tricks on you and you'd have no idea what to do.  Some say that Birkdale is the fairest of all the Open Championship courses, and you can probably make an argument for that.  However, when the winds blow, expect to see uncharacteristically high scores pop up.

Birkdale's greens were practically as flat as its fairways up until 1991, but the club decided to redo the drainage on the greens and subsequently the more undulating, curvy greens that we see today are the result of this reconstruction.  The last time the Open Championship was played here was i 1998, and at that time I was paying virtually no attention to golf as a young college student, so I'm greatly looking forward to analyzing this course as it is broadcast on TV.  It's a real shame that Tiger Woods is unable to participate in this year's tournament because I thought his strategy in 2006 of using no driver at Royal Liverpool was both downright silly and brilliant.  Open Championship golf requires the most imaginative shotmaking skills to win.  In 2006, Jim Furyk half putted / half chipped out of a bunker to within about 12 feet with a PUTTER.  Hard, fast conditions mean that you need to land the ball short of the intended target and let it release to the hole.  Do you think Willie Park, Jr. was spinning 9-irons off the green back in day?  No chance - these balls were running up to the hole. 

In 1998, Justin Rose made a dramatic chip from the rough on 18 for birdie to finish tied for 4th.  With Tiger Woods out for the year and Phil Mickelson playing like junk at the Open Championships, I really have no idea  who will win this tournament.  No British, European or South African player has ever won an Open Championship at Royal Birkdale - only Americans and Australians have been victorious.  I have a feeling that a European golfer will take the Claret Jug home this year.  Only time will tell.

Halfway through July, I hope you've been playing great golf, or at least having a great time attempting to do so.  :o) 

Posted by vaca22 at 02:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The word on the street is that this year's US Open at the South Course at Torrey Pines won't be the ball-breaker that Oakmont was last year.  Oakmont's layout is notoriously difficult as it is, so when you add graduated rough and lightning-fast greens on surfaces that resemble tilted panes of glass, players feel as if they've gone 12 rounds with *insert your favorite boxer here*.

Sources tell me that this year's US Open will be different.  "OMG how can it possibly be different," you say?  Simple.  First, the fairways will be essentially the same width as they were set for the Buick Invitational.  The rough isn't going to be that much deeper than for the Buick Invitational as well.  Finally, the tees will be pushed back, but not as far back as humanly possible...because if they were, they course could be stretched back to over 7,600 yards, which is totally insane.  It will still be the longest US Open course by more than 300 yards.  Ouch.

But that doesn't mean that Torrey Pines will be a walk in the park.  The setup of Torrey Pines has been very, very carefully considered and scrutinized.  Surprisingly, Torrey Pines isn't on Golf Digest's Top 100 Greatest Golf Courses.  Crazy, right?  It's the first time that an Open course hasn't been in the Top 100 since 1976 (that distinction would belong to Atlanta Athletic Club).  Torrey Pines does belong to the Top 100 Public Golf Courses list, but even then it's ranked at a high 90th position by that golf publication.  Instead of pencil-wide fairways and 7-inch uniform rough, Torrey Pines will feature other characteristics that will make it plenty challenging.  

Mike Davis, the senior director of Rules and Competition for the USGA, can be credited with introducing the graduated rough that was mentioned above; that is, rough that becomes progressively deeper the further you hit into it.  Similarly, the rough around the greens will also be mowed in concentric steps.  The approach areas in front of the greens, which will consist of Bermuda grass instead of the Kikuyu that can be found in the fairways, have been aerified and top-dressed as if they were greens.  Top-dressing is the process of adding a fine layer of soil to the surface, a process which is done to greens to make them as firm as possible.  Why do this?  According to Davis, it's so that players can bounce shots into the green instead of flying them onto it, if they choose...and unlike Donald Ross's dome-shaped greens at Pinehurst or the steep sloping greens of A.W. Tillinghast's Winged Foot, Torrey Pines' perfect Poa greens were designed to hold long iron shots.  And here is where the brilliance of Davis' Open strategy shines - making all type of shots possible for all types of players while being as challenging, and fair, as possible.  Going back to the idea of graduated rough, Davis wants players who can bomb the ball to have that advantage of distance.  However, if you wander too far off the beaten path, long hitters will find themselves closer to the hole but in deeper rough that is a mix of gnarly Kikuyu and ryegrass.  If you're wondering what the hell Kikuyu is, Kikuyu is a coarse-textured light green grass that is actually considered a weed in coastal California.

Did I forget to mention that the fairways and greens on the coastal side of the course have been relocated closer to the ocean, bringing the cliffs into play?  Hope you don't start snap hooking into the Pacific!  Many areas around hazards, such as the small pond in front of the Par-5 18th, will be shaved so that anything landing near it will funnel into the water.  Torrey Pines' greens won't be running close to 15 on the Stimpmeter like they did early in the week at Oakmontl ast year, but should hover around no more than 13.  That's still fast as hell, as fast as either you or I have ever experienced.  But here's the real kicker, to show you how freaky Davis and his crew are:  he has kept bleachers and TV towers positioned off to the side of the greens at the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th holes to keep the targets fully exposed to the coastal winds.

In a way, it's totally sadistic.  It's undenialbly ingenious.  It's the US Open in all it's glory.  And if this strategy proves to be successful, I think you can count on seeing Torrey Pines a little more regularly in US Opens or PGA Championships.

Posted by vaca22 at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

If you've ever played any of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series games from EA sports you'll notice that there are always a few courses that never seem to change from year to year.  One of them is the TPC Sawgrass, and with plenty good reason.  With the exception of the courses selected for the majors, TPC Sawgrass is perhaps the most notable course on the PGA Tour circuit.  It is stunningly beautiful, exceptionally difficult, and after a historic summer-long renovation in 2006 that included new sand and drainage, over 200 new trees and a massive Mediterranean-style 55,000 sqft clubhouse the TPC Sawgrass is clearly the crown jewel of the TPC courses, if not ALL the courses on the Tour's schedule.

Since its renovation for 2007, Sawgrass has received incredible praise from pros and amateurs alike.  Phil Mickelson recently commented that "they are the best bermuda greens I’ve ever seen."  That says a lot.  Just like Dye's Harbour Town, the greens are small, firm and fast.  Sawgrass seems to meander through forest and wasteland, requiring that the players play close attention to every shot.  Let's take a look, in no particular order, at the brilliantly designed holes that this course features...

Hole 11 - 588 Par 5

If you're standing on the tee and you don't hit your ball anywhere but straight, you're in jail (or worse!).  Water and sand all along the left edge of the tee area, with a cluster of islands in a sand bunker as well.  This hole was truly designed as a dynamic middle-length par 5, and attempting to reach the green in 2 requires a long drive down the right side of the fairway.  Oh, and don't let that huge overhanging tree on your right knock down your 2nd shot, if you even placed your drive this well.  The green is slightly elevated; come up short, and you're either in the beach or in the drink.  Go long and your approach shot might come in too shallow, bouncing and skidding off the green, possibly going into the water behind.

Hole 9 - 583 Par 5

There is simply no room for error on this hole.  As the hole progresses it becomes increasing difficult.  Players must land the ball in the fairway short of the bridge.  If they decided to go for the green in two,  there is sand all along the left, grass and bunkers to the right of the green which also slopes severely from front to back right and is very narrow.

Hole 17 - 137 Par 3

Perhaps the most famous par 3 on the planet.  At "only" 137 yards this would seem to be a mere chip shot for most of us, but when you think about the green as the target that you simply cannot miss (for obvious reasons!) and the swirling winds above, the difficulty is tremendous.  Balls have routinely bounced off the green if hit too shallow or close to the edges, and throwing a ball high in the air is a recipe for disaster as the wind can blow it completely off course.  A true classic in every sense of the word.

Hole 18 - 462 Par 4

Two things come to mind when I see this hole - 18 at Pebble Beach and 18 at Doral.  Like these holes, the finishing hole at 18 is spectacular and demanding.  Water is all the way down the left side so make sure you have your go-to fade working on this hole.  Large mounds and trees line the right side of the fairway to keep you in check.  Beware the squirrelly grass bunkers guarding the right front of the green as well. 

I believe that each hole at this course deserves an in-depth mention, but that would take forever.  I encourage you to check out the Players Championship website (http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r011/course/tour/course/p-index.html) and check out each hole.  Sawgrass is an amazing piece of property that tests every possible facet of the game.  The timing of the tournament would make it difficult to double as a US Open venue, but I would love to see this set up as an Open course just once.  It would be a treacherous to say the least.

Posted by vaca22 at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're a DIRECTV subscriber, you win!

I recently found out that DirecTV will be showing additional and extended coverage of The Masters on channel 701 (standard definition) and 706 (HD).  The DIRECTV service will be available during ESPN coverage of the first two rounds and CBS coverage of the final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday.  The highlight of the coverage will be Masters Mix Channel, offering viewers a unique window on the famous Augusta course with access to four different views on one screen - a view dedicated to covering the famed "Amen Corner," another focusing on critical finishing holes 15 and 16, a continuously updated highlight channel showcasing Tournament leaders and their scores and the CBS national broadcast.

The four views include the following:

• View One — CBS and ESPN's live coverage of the Tournament.
• View Two — "Today's Highlights" offers a continuously updating loop of the best shots from the day's play with voice-over providing context and commentary.
• View Three — "Amen Corner" provides complete coverage of the most famous stretch — holes 11, 12 and 13 — of Augusta National Golf Club. The channel will provide a continuous view of play as the field challenges this most treacherous part of the course.
• View Four — Holes 15 (the par 5 Firethorn) and 16 (the par 3 Redbud) spotlights this especially difficult part of the course, which can make or break a golfer's round.

Each of the additional three Masters channels is a fully-produced channel with its own production crew, additional cameras and announcers — provided by CBS Sports and DIRECTV. Customers with interactive receivers can highlight any of the four views on the Mix screen to hear live audio on each and expand them to full screen by pressing the select button on their remote.  If that's not insanely awesome, I don't even know what is.

For me, golf starts now.  Even though we've been treated to 3 solid months of golf coverage between CBS and NBC (including some great WCG events), The Masters tournament is the official start of golf in 2008 for yours truly.  The weather is starting to get warmer, the sun is out longer...even the air has that spring smell to it.  Something is just different. 

Are you crazy like I am about this tournament?  Have you considered calling out of work just to watch live coverage?  I have.  But then this wonderful thing called the "internet" came along and I was able to watch live broadcasts from Amen Corner on Thursdays and Fridays.  I remember last year I sat in front of my computer ALL DAY watching streaming video.  I must have been the most  unproductive employee of the week.  When I get home I'll just watch the reruns in HD.  Brilliant.

Golf nuts unite....raise your hands in the air and thank baby Jesus that Masters week is upon us.  Unfortunately for me (and probably many of you) Jesus chose to rise from the dead on Masters Sunday last year.  However, FORTUNATELY for me, I was sick last year for the entire tournament.  That meant laying around bed all day.  I must have put in a solid 24-27 hours of quality time with my TV watching live coverage and reruns.

Am I certifiably insane?  Hell yes.  But many of you are also in my boat, and I'd love nothing more than to sail the high seas with you. 

Posted by vaca22 at 02:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, while there is golf to be played year-round in many different places on this planet, most of us put the sticks away after the President's Cup or Ryder Cup matches and wait for spring to come.  The PGA Tour, however, kicks off their 2008 season right after the New Year beginning on January 3rd in Maui for the annual Mercedes-Benz Championship.  The MB Championship is a winners-only limited field event that will feature about 30 tour players at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club in Maui, Hawaii.

This tournament is interesting to me for a couple of reasons.  First, since the MB Championship and the following tournament (the Sony Open) are played in Hawaii, it's pretty neat to see live first-round action at 6pm EST.  What's better than turning your TV on after a long day at work and getting your first golf fix for 2008?  Second, the views from Kapalua are spectacular.  With the exception of Torrey Pines in San Diego and the ridiculous collection of Pebble Beach/Monterey courses (Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills and Cypress Point), Kapalua offers some of the most beautiful oceanside scenery you'll see all year on tour...and all of it comes right away between now and the middle of February.

The Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club

With Tiger keeping in his tradition of opting out of this tournament and the defending champion Vijay Singh missing from the field, there will be quite a number of first-time winners playing in Maui this week including Charlie Hoffman, Mark Wilson, Boo Weekley, Nick Watney and Hunter Mahan.  Veterans such as Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Scott Verplank, Fred Funk and Mark Calcavecchia will also participate, making this year's field a nice mix of new and old talent.  Look for precise ball-striking and trajectory control as gusty conditions can make this course difficult to navigate.  The winning score will probably be just a few strokes under par if the weather holds up the way it normally does on Maui at this time of year.

Having these tournaments so early in the year is a real treat for me because it means that televised golf will now be shown regularly, but the first 3 months of the year are just practice for Augusta anyway.  The week or two before the Masters is the official start of the season for this guy; once the talk of Amen Corner and green jackets starts circulating there is no holding back...time for golf!

If only I can be so patient...

Just three more months.  Three more months...

Posted by vaca22 at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Are you laughing at this idea as much as I am?

Golf has always been an honest, gentlemanly sport.  Golfers take pride in sportsmanship and competition and never on the PGA Tour have I seen a player contest or dispute a penalty that was given to them.  In last year's Honda Classic, Mark Wilson called a 2-stroke penalty on himself on the 5th hole of the 2nd round.  Wilson and Camillo Villegas both missed the green to the right and Wilson's caddy aparently gave Villegas some advice on club selection.  Wilson immediately docked himself the two strokes and wound up shooting 66 for the round - even with only 64 swings.  And talk about karma...Wilson ended up in a 4-way playoff on Monday and won the tournament, a sign that sometimes nice guys don't always finish last.

It's tough for me to think that there are golfers taking steroids to gain some kind of competative advantage.  No one on tour appears to be jacked, with the exception of Woods and Villegas, but Villegas is as thin as a rail and Tiger's slow, steady transformation has been clearly visible over his professional career.  Are you really going to win more because you can now drive a golf ball 330 instead of 310?  Golf is very much a finesse game that requires great sense of feel, not just the ability to bash the ball around. 

It is my understanding that the drug testing manual that players received (41 pages of it) will contain a large list of banned substances  that fall under 10 categories, ranging from anabolic steroids to human growth hormones to narcotics to beta blockers.   Beta blockers are used particulary for the regulation of electrical activity in the heart that is irregular or is faster or slower than normal.  Different drugs are prescribed for many different reasons, so if a player tests positive after one of these random tests I think it will most likely be due to some odd medication and not some anabolic steroid or HGH.  Of course, this is all just an assumption, and you know what happens when you assume.

I would not be surprised, however, if one particualar player showed up on this list for any reason.  And that would be Rory Sabbatini.

Maybe his ridiculous mood swings are really just roid rage.  He certainly has the most questionable behavior on tour and making him one of, if not THE most hated player on tour.  From walking ahead and hitting in front of Ben Crane at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic to his latest antic of pulling out of this year's Target World Championship on the morning of the 4th round, his bad boy image has really done nothing but get him on the wrong side of practically everyone on tour.  If you didn't know, the Target World Championship, hosted by Tiger, was a limited-field event that guaranteed every player some kind of money.  According to Fred Couples he actually saw Sabbatini the morning of the 4th round.  After withdrawing from the tournament, Sabbatini went on to collect a last place check of $176,000 - not too shabby.  His poking and prodding of Tiger Woods has made him look like an idiot each time, and I'm sure this latest incident will not go unnoticed by Tiger.

Has anyone checked Sabbatini's bag for needles?

Posted by vaca22 at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)