Post British Open Thoughts

I thought Tiger struck the ball much better than the last few events, but it was shocking to see him miss so many putts...and Sunday, he hit it in places where he never has before (bunkers, etc.). Although I would bet he would win another major eventually...with his length off the tee no longer dominant and putting just average, he will have to play great now to win versus having just his B game.

By the way, I know ESPN will like to brag about their 40+ hours of "golf coverage", but I was thoroughly disappointed. Too many guys on the announce team, too much talk and not enough showing actual golf shots. I wonder if it was because Louie Louie was way out in front, but it was disappointing.

Unreal play from Louie O. and I am sure the Golf Channel will have their talking heads like Chamblee, Hawkins and Rude analyzing all week if he is the next big thing, like Glover, McDowell, etc. But the more we start to re-look the list of major winners lately, the more I start to think it's time we took a step back. We put some much stock in winning these events, but a large portion of the list of winners in the last decade or so is quite questionable: Curtis, Micheel, McDowell, Louie, Weir, Zach Johnson, Cink, Hamilton, Immelman - none of these players has more than 8 wins on Tour or in Europe, if that many. I'm not saying majors are overrated by any means, and these guys have a chance to still add to their legacy but c'mon...even Brian Watts, Bob May and Thomas Levet almost won one (playoff losses) recently. Tiger's record speaks for itself and VJ, Paddy and Phil have won numerous other events around the world to back up their wins, but it's not like the list is a who's who of Hall of Famers lately. Is this the deeper field argument or the fact the top tier players -- or those we consider top tier players - can't get out of their own way to collect a trophy?

You know who impressed me the most this week besides the winner? Rory McIlroy. I totally thought this kid wouldn't get it done this year and quite frankly, he has been sporadic and shot basically 3 good rounds all year, but man, have they been great ones. But the way he handled his 80 Friday at age 21 was absolutely impressive. Rickie Fowler finishing T-14th after starting out with 79 was also pretty stout.

One last thing: Get ready for the onslaught of articles on the state of American golf. PANIC TIME! We didn't win one of the last 2 and this particular singular event, we didn't have anyone is the top 5! We have NO CHANCE to win the Ryder Cup the way things are going. I mean, Ian Poulter said it himself. There would be nothing better for our squad to go over there are kick some can.

U.S. Open Thoughts

What can you say about Sunday's final round? It was horrendous golf, simply put. Oh, and my DVR stopped at 9pm or some reason as Havret had put it in the bunker at 18 and McDowell was walking to the 18th tee, so at 9:45pm I had to go to ESPN News to see what had happened. Nice. For all the arguments we have had about deeper fields in the Tiger era versus the studs in Jack's era, you can't tell me that this tournament doesn't add ammo to the side that says Jack's era had better closers?

To me, Ernie Els has to feel the worst today out of all the contenders. He made bogey from 99 yards on #14, missed a 3 footer for birdie on #15 and couldn't make either mid-range putt on #17 & #18. Oh yea, he made a mess of #10 too. Ernie's putter, which had shown signs earlier this year, was once again tentative in the big pressure cooker of a major.

Phil - I'm beginning to think Phil is never going to win one of these U.S. Open thingies. Just really frustrating. Every time Phil or Ernie seemed to be back in the mix on the back nine, they would miss a key putt or hit a poor shot. It was really maddening.

Tiger - His swing does look better, but he is clearly not back. I said "Bye-Bye" on Saturday after he got to +6 and then shook my head 3 hours later as he played the final 15 holes in 7 under. Still, 15 brilliant holes does not mean Tiger is the dominate player he used to be. Sunday's effort was very pedestrian. We are still waiting for that final round major comeback.

Dustin Johnson - I was rooting for Phil or Ernie to win, and then Dustin. A couple of poor swings early really killed Dustin -- but if you look closely, his putter is what really let him down. He missed numerous putts inside of 5 feet and 3-putted #7, #18 and possibly #16. Brandel Chamblee shows why he is the best analyst in the sport right now when on Saturday night, when everyone was gushing how Dustin could blow away the field, Chamblee pointed out how Dustin Johnson had struggled mightily in final rounds this year. Remember, he even took 74 to win at the AT&T earlier to win. Sickening to think that a 76 would have won it for Dustin.

Greg Havret - Thank goodness this guy didn't win it. A great performance and 2nd place will do wonders for his career and getting into future big events, but him winning would have been a travesty and Micheel-like.

McDowell - Will McDowell pull an Immelman and disappear from the stage after winning a major...or a be a force in the game for years to come? Admittedly, Immelman has struggled with injuries and McDowell could simply be on a hot streak, but I have been wrong before. I thought Immelman was going to be force. It hasn't happened.

Next up in the majors is the home of golf, St. Andrews. I have to tell you, I am not excited about this venue. Maybe it's because the last 2 times Tiger has won handily, but I just don't get that excited for this course. Carnoustie has produced the most exciting Opens to me over the last 15 years. Tiger is my pick again. Ernie will tease but ultimately get his heart ripped out by Tiger in yet another major.

Memorability of recent US Opens

Last night's epic* US Open final round got me to wondering - which of the recent US Opens were all that memorable anyway, and for what reasons were they memorable.  The following chronicles my off-the-cuff remembrances of these events:

* - epically sleep inducing

(Ratings from one star to five stars)

2010: Pebble Beach - Graeme McDowell.  The long-awaited return to Pebble.  Lefty wows 'em Friday.  Tiger wows 'em Saturday.  DJ collapses and nobody wows 'em Sunday.  McDowell survives. **

2009: Bethpage - Lucas Glover. Memorable for the heartbreak where Woods, Mahan, Lefty, Duval, Barnes all contend but cannot seal the deal.  Memorable also for the pair of sneakers I wore to Friday's mud-caked second round, and consequently threw away after returning home.***

2008: Torrey Pines - Tiger Woods. Rocco Mediate. 19 holes of playoff excitement. Possibly best Open ever.  *****

2007: Oakmont - Angel Cabrera.  Another close-but-not-quite for Tiger, Furyk.  I don't remember much of this so I'll give it **

2006: Winged Foot - Geoff Ogilvy. Memorable most for the brutality of Winged Foot and for Lefty's tee-to-tree-to-tent-to-bunker 72nd hole goofups.  Also, don't forget Monty's 18th hole screw-ups. ****

2005: Pinehurst - Michael Campbell.  He played the best...but the Goosen/Gore collapses sure did help.  **

2004: Shinnecock Hills - Retief Goosen. Memorable for the 71st hole Lefty goofups, though Goosen played damn solid.  Memorable also for the Sunday 7th hole debacle.  ***

2003: Olympia Fields - Jim Furyk. Also starring Stephen Leaney.  Grind.  Fail.  *

2002: Bethpage - Tiger Woods.  First Bethpage open.  New York goes nuts for Tiger and Lefty. The USGA makes the 10th fairway almost unreachable. Solid stuff all around.  ****

2001: Southern Hills - Retief Goosen.  Mark Brooks was also involved.  Most memorable for Goosen's 72nd hole three-jack.  Don't forget Stewie Cink's earlier three-jack that cost him a shot in the playoff.  **

2000: Pebble Beach - Tiger Woods.  As compelling as a 15 shot victory can be.  ****

1999: Pinehurst - Payne Stewart.  GREAT finish involving Tiger, VJ, and Lefty.  Stewart made the putt when the others did not.  Proof that the Open could be held at non-stuffy, non-private club venues and be compelling theater. *****

U.S. Open Preview

To me, there are 9 clear contenders, plus I am adding in Cink to make it an even 10.
* Phil
* Furyk
* Westwood
* Els
* Harrington
* Goosen
* Donald
* Tiger
* VJ Singh
* Cink

To me, the prohibitive favorite is Phil. But we know Phil always disappoints when so much is expected of him. Therefore, I am sticking with my pre-season pick, Padraig Harrington. Despite not having a ton of form and coming off of knee surgery, Paddy has played Pebble well in the AT&T, is a grinder, and has one of the best short games in the world, a much needed skill set on the small set of greens at Pebble. Also remember this, Paddy won the British Open with a bum wrist. Maybe he slides under the radar again with his questionable form and recovering knee.

Lets consider the rest of my contenders:
*Phil - The best outcome in my mind. It would give Phil his coveted National Open major and put him 1/2 way to the Grand Slam with the home of golf ahead, the most likely course in the British rota he could win. As I said above, Phil confounds and I will be rooting for him, but I have my doubts.
* Furyk - 2 wins already this year and a former Champ, he doesn't need to be long to contend on this track and his good iron play and accuracy bode well for his chances if he is on his game.
* Westwood - Although possibly the most consistent player in the world right now, I don't like his ability to close the deal in the big events. Sure, he won last week, but he didn't really 'close', if you know what I mean. Thanks Mr. Garrigus! He is playing so well, he will top 10, but I don't like his chipping game enough to make him my pick this week.
* The Big Easy - 2nd place in 2000 and 2 wins himself in 2010, this would be the 2nd best scenario to me after Phil. I still don't know if Ernie can shake his demons coming down the stretch in a big event. I would pick Ernie if conditions were supposed to be blustery, but I hear the winds will be tame.
* Goosen - Was having a solid start to the year before breaking his toe, horsing around with his kids a couple of weeks prior to the Players. Despite the layoff, managed a top 15 in Memphis on a difficult track. Not sure he can keep it straight all 72 holes, but 2 wins makes him a contender.
* Donald - I know. His recent solid play was on the European Tour, but winning breeds confidence and he has been building it of late. Played decent at Torrey Pines a few years back before hurting his wrist. I don't think he can actually win it, but his accuracy bodes well on a track that isn't a monster.
* VJ Singh - Yes, VJ Singh. Has been fighting injuries all year, but is close according to him and I believe him. Just when you want to count VJ out, he bounces back. He has a good record in the AT&T here and doesn't need to make a ton of putts to go 20 under par. Don't say I didn't tell you so.
* TW - Anyone who doesn't think Tiger can't put it together in an event that rewards patience is simply letting the last few months cloud his vision of the last 12-13 years. Will he blow away the field? No. Will he contend? I am saying Yes. The best story for the regular sports guy. I am not the regular sports guy but it would be huge globally.
* Cink - Admittedly, he was the last on my list, but despite doing nothing since Turnberry, I feel like he is a U.S. Open player and is due for a good week out of nowhere.

Fun with USGA Groupings

You know the drill...the USGA always has a little bit of fun with the pairings for the Open.  Here's my interpretation of some of them:

10:44 a.m.: Tim Clark, K. J. Choi, Mike Weir - this grouping will boost periscope sales because you'll have to look over the gallery to be able to look down at these guys
10:55 a.m.: Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby - you might think I'd just say 'Aussies' here.  Well you're wrong.  This is a heartthrob, an Open Champion, and a jackass.  Ha!
11:06 a.m.: Matt Kuchar, Justin Leonard, Scott Verplank,  - most boring threesome ever.

10:44 a.m.: Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, Angel Cabrera - no snarky comments here - this is just an awesome pairing for different styles of play.
11:17 a.m.: David Frost, Kaname Yokoo, Eric Axley - can we get some FROSTWINE for the lovely Mrs. Axley please?
11:28 a.m.: Nick Watney, Hunter Mahan, Ricky Barnes - ooooh...rematch of the 2002 US Amateur. 

4:47 p.m.: Ryo Ishikawa, Rory McIlroy, Tom Watson - "get off of my lawn!!"

Seemed to me there weren't as many sideslappers as in recent years. 

Very excited for the greatest golf tournament in the world - albeit with the ridiculously late weekend finish times.  Damn you, NBC. 

Western Turnpike #7 (Blue)

Please bear with me while I vent on the 7th hole on the Blue course at Western Turnpike (Guilderland, NY) for a few sentences.

The hole is ~300 yards long.  A straight par 4.  Seems simple enough, right?  Wrong. 

* The tee shot is almost impossibly narrow.  The right side is all OB and many of the limbs overhang the playing area.  There are several massive trees down the left side.
* The entire fairway slopes R --> L, meaning if you want to keep it in the short grass, or away from the big trees, you have to shape a shot L --> R, or *towards* the OB.
* It's blind - you cannot see the landing area. 
* A cart path runs down the right side, then at about 200 yards cuts diagonally across the fairway.  Yes, there is a cart path in the fairway in the landing area. 
* 2/3 of the landing area at ~240 yards is covered by a cross bunker.  Again - you cannot see this from the tee.  And since the fairway directs balls R --> L, a well struck drive almost has to end up here.
* There is a six-foot high ROCK WALL on the right edge of the hole that's about 80 yards in length - running from about 120 yards out to about 40 yards out.  The wall is made out of landscape stones like you would use to build up a garden in your front lawn.
* The green is shaped like an inverted saucer - funneling balls off of it in all directions. 
* When you get near the green, you have to ring a bell since it's a blind tee shot.  There's a very short string on the bell and it's positioned ~6ft above the ground.  This means that when you ring it, your ear is *right next* to the damn thing. 

Additionally, I'm stubborn and refuse to hit 6-iron, PW to play this hole. 

Finally, in completely unrelated news, I made triple bogey here last night on my way to a three-over par nine-hole round. 

Masters Thoughts

Some rambling thoughts in advance of the Augusta National Putting Championship:

* I'm in one of those 1A-1B-2C pools.  I took Els for my "A".  Though he's never won here, he's got a long history of good finishes.  Plus he's been playing well.  Other options were Mickelson (too shaky in '10), Casey/Poulter/Westwood (Euro curse at Augusta), Stricker and Furyk (nah) and his royal Tigness (still has to be some rust)

I took Paddy for my B.  How he is in the B group whereas some of the others were As is surprising.  Good value here.  This group also included Allenby (no chance), Sergio (the cowardly lion) and Goosen. 

For my two "C" players, I took KJ Choi, who has played surprisingly well this year after a down 2009, and Charl Schwartzel who already has two US Top 3 finishes this year.  Some have said he's already the best South African in the world.

* OMG, no Azaleas in bloom at Augusta?  It's true: http://www.weiunderpar.com/post/505616726/dogwoods-tigers-and-wisterias-but-no-azaleas

* Tiger.  Seriously, the 21-year old daughter of a neighbor?  What did you NOT try to hit these last few years?  And just because Tiger is smiling, signing a few autographs and taking a few pictures, I'm supposed to feel for him and take him back into my good graces?  After all this?  After trying to explain all this to a curious-but-not-quite-aware-yet 8yo?  It's gonna take some time, Tiger.  Not that you care.

* The Nike/Tiger/Ghost-of-Earl commercial is just craptacularly creepy.  This can not possibly be one of the steps in a recovery program.  There IS such a thing as bad publicity and this is it. 

* The weather looks good ... now give me an exciting Sunday finish which hopefully involves heroics and does not involve near 50 year olds skulling chips on the 71st hole of a major. 

2010 Masters Picks

Masters Pick: Phil Mickelson.

I don't care how poorly he's been playing or that Tiger is back or Ernie is on a hot streak. No one has played AN as well as Phil since the re-design, even TW. Ernie will be lucky to make the cut he is so pumped up. I have no idea what to expect from Tiger.

Rest of the top 10:
- Goosen - also has played the re-design well - needs to hit the driver a couple holes straighter a day
- Schwartzel - color me impressed
- Mahan - has played the big tournaments better than the gump events the last 2 years
- Cink - seems to only wake up a couple events a year now. this will be one of them
- Poulter - if he wants to get to #2 in the World Ranking, needs to play well in majors to get there
- Westwood - can't stay out of his own way, but playing well enough to top 10 this
- Campbell, C. - nothing all year to-date. hasn't stopped him before
- Furyk - long ball park doesn't help him contend, but playing well
- Kuchar - having a career year in 2010 - may win somewhere soon - say Memorial

Sony Open Thoughts

Some Sony Open thoughts:
* Overall, a pretty exciting early season event. It was definitely more exciting than the NFL playoff games this past weekend!

* Ryan Palmer wins his 3rd Tour event in seemingly only the 3rd or 4th time he has been on the 1st page of the leader board. This guy closes well for so little experience.

* They always say it takes some luck to win tournaments and this event was no exception. On #16, Palmer duck-hooked his 3-wood off the tee, yelled "Get Lucky" and he did. Instead of being stymied by a tree or being behind a tree, the ball gets through all of them and all he has to do is launch a sand wedge over the last one to two-putt for par. Then on #18, Palmer nearly sculls his chip from in front of the green. It easily would have by the hole 10-15 feet but instead, it hits the pin square on and stops within a foot.

* Robert Allenby and his new putting stroke...still a little shaky on Sundays. He definitely looks more comfortable with the 'pencil' grip, but he missed two from inside 5 feet on the front nine and didn't give it a good stroke on his 9-footer on #18 to tie Palmer, leaving it on the 'amateur' side (i.e. low). Still, the lag putting looks better and obviously, he has more confidence. He did convert two putts on Sunday from outside 10 feet. This guy is probably the #1 ball-striker on the planet but still lacks the short game to win lately on Tour. Perhaps he has found something on the greens now he can finally translate to W's. Has to be considered one of the favorites in a few weeks at Riveria.

* Steve Stricker - after his incredible birdie on #13 from a fairway bunker from 200 yards plus to tie the lead, I said to myself, "This guy has really found his stride and confidence on Sundays and could be ready to win more events this year." Uh, no. He looked like 'early-2009-season' Steve Stricker. He proceeded to miss two birdie butts from inside 6 feet or so, hit a couple of irons left and didn't birdie #18. Still, the more he puts himself in position, the more wins he will likely get, but SS is still not a 'closer' - but then again, in this day and age, who really is except Tiger?

* Speaking of guys who never close -- Davis Love III. Just nothing on Sunday. Nothing. Sure, he shot 67, but he was basically only 1 under par until he backed up a wedge into the hole for eagle on #16. DL3 has won 20-times on Tour but yet, I dread the fact that this guy is going to the Hall of Fame. Luckily for him, the 64 at the Players for his 2nd title there and the great PGA win will help his cause along with the lack of players other than Phil and VJ to win in the Tiger era. How many tournaments of his 20 have had Tiger in the field? Maybe 1 or 2? From what I saw, DL3's issues right now are his putter. He didn't make anything from that crucial 10-15 foot range to convert pars to birdies. Mark Rolfing said DL3 was all business and all golf at the Sony...but then again, Rolfing once stated Andres Romero was the 3rd best player in the world.

* Charles Howell III - Why is it that CH3 always plays well at Sony? This is probably his 3rd top 5 finish in 4 years here. This is a tight course rewarding shot values, something CH3 doesn't possess, despite all his hard work and practice. I don't get it. Someone please throw out a theory here, because I am at a loss.

* Ernie Els - What does it say about Ernie's game when the Golf Channel folks are saying 12th place is a solid finish at the season-opener? We all love the Big Easy but this just shows the drop-off in Ernie's game over the last few years. Would Tiger or Phil be excited with a 12th place finish the 1st time out? No.

* The Goose, Retief Goosen - I think Retief is ready to contend in majors again this year and two solid finishes to start the year lead me to believe he is getting more consistent with his game too. I don't love the belly putter look for Retief, but it's working for now.

And in sad PGA Tour News, the Bob Hope preview:
* Weak field. Bad weather predicted. Yogi Berra hosting? This event needs to be reduced to 72-holes. Or just reduced, period.
* This event's prestige has really taken a hit. I mean, you all know it already, but I was in Palm Springs for a wedding in early December and asked our cabbie about the tournament and you could tell from his reaction that this event is no longer a big deal, even for the locals. The buzz seems to have dissipated. Phil no longer playing here has hurt this event severely.
* My pick here if Ryan Moore. Pat Perez is defending champion. Yea, his 1st win on Tour really catapulted him to lots of....top 50 finishes.