Welcome to the Tour Blog, where Golfweek reporters deliver the latest inside news and happenings on the
PGA Tour, LPGA and European Tour.
Editor's note: This is the archived
material from the PGA Tour's 2008 West Coast swing and LPGA Hawaiian kickoff.
The Monday after the West Coast Swing is always an interesting day for
those playing the Tour out of the Q-School/Nationwide Tour grad
category. The first Monday of the Florida Swing is when those players
are reshuffled based on their earnings.
Dustin Johnson jumped from 34th to first in the category thanks to top
10s at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (T-7) and Sony Open
(T-10), while John Merrick made the biggest move (42 spots from 44th to
second) following his tie for third at last week’s Mayakoba Golf
Classic.
Heading in the other direction, Todd Demsey failed to make a cut in six events and tumbled 35 spots from 14th to 49th.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 26
The worst kept secret since points replaced pay as the measure of
choice on Tour became official Tuesday. The Tour announced Greg Norman
and Fred Couples will captain the International and United States
teams, respectively, at the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco.
We like Freddie for one reason. You can’t spell fun without the “F.” As
for Norman? Well, we expect an edgier International side. Word is the
Aussie has tabbed renowned lawyer Leonard Decof one of his assistant
captains.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 26
The WGC Accenture Match Play was the
first 2008 PGA Tour event that drew higher television ratings from the
year before, according to the Tour. Just a wild guess, it probably had
something to do with Tiger Woods winning instead of Henrik Stenson.
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 25
MARANA, Ariz. – If Stewart Cink had a bit of a rope-a-dope look about
him after the a.m. 18 at the WGC-Match Play Championship, it was
probably a familiar feeling.
Although Cink began the final round of this year’s Buick Invitational
paired with Tiger Woods, he was trailing by eight strokes. So his
four-hole deficit at intermission here at the Match Play is nothing new.
“It seems like more often than not I’ve been trailing by like eight or
ten shots, but I’m still in the last group,” Cink said on the eve of
Sunday’s final. “There’s a lot to play for. Even when you’re trailing
by that much. You’re still trying to finish as high as you can, and
usually it’s a pretty good race for second.”
Since Cink has already wrapped up runner-up honors regardless of the
outcome of his afternoon two-ball, the words of Ricky Bobby of
“Talladega Nights” fame seem apropos: “If you’re not first, you’re
last.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 24
MARANA, Ariz. – When a caddie’s boss is having a particularly tough
day, the looper will often respond to a rare solid hit with the
light-hearted bromide, “What ever you did there, keep doing it.”
We can only imagine U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger is likely
thinking the same thing as three potential members of September’s squad
rolled into the semifinals at the WGC-Match Play Championship.
Along with Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink pulled off a
European Ryder Cup trifecta with victories over uber-cool Miguel Angel
Jimenez, Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 23
MARANA, Ariz. – As noted in an earlier Match Play blog, K.J. Choi was
drawing a lot interest earlier this week as a player to watch.
“He has that look . . . that Tiger (Woods) look,” observed one
long-time player manager on Tuesday. “You can just see a difference in
the way he carries himself.”
Four days later, the man once dubbed “The Tank” is poised for what
could be the week’s title bout against Tiger Woods on Saturday.
Before we dismiss Choi as another speed bump on Woods’ road to Match
Play salad bowl No. 3, consider that the Korean has not trailed in any
of his three matches this week and is probably the only player
remaining with the type of indifferent demeanor needed to withstand a
Woods pairing.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 22
MARANA, Ariz. – There is no doubt match play brings out the best in
Colin Montgomerie, the European stalwart who can be difficult to
interview at times.
His play, as evidenced by his Ryder Cup record and his quick start here
in the Arizona desert with two early victories, is suited to the
format. But his demeanor also seems to favor match play.
Some highlights from Monty’s Thursday post-round.
• On match play: “I just enjoy playing one person instead of 155 others. I find that much easier, personally.”
• Did he think J.B. Holmes’ 3-hole advantage with five to play against
Tiger Woods during the first round was a safe lead: “No, no. Six-down
with five to play possibly.”
• On his second-round comeback against Charles Howell III: “Charles had
just birdied the 11th to go to all square and my caddie said, ‘Right,
Mr. Montgomerie, it’s Ryder Cup mode.’ I was 4 under from then on. He
should say that more often.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 21
MARANA, Ariz. – A decade into the World Golf Championships experiment
and the world hasn’t seemed this confined since the days before
Christopher Columbus set off across the Atlantic Ocean.
The 20 Americans who teed off at this week’s WGC-Match Play are the
fewest ever. At the first WGC in 1999 there were 30 non-Americans in
the field. This week, just the Europeans outnumber the home team with
22 players.
Of all the problems players and media have with The Gallery venue –
awkward layout, limited parking, poor viewing areas – perhaps its
position in the Atlas is the most disturbing. All three World Golf
Championships are now based exclusively in the United States
(Bridgestone Invitational, Ohio; CA Championship, Miami; Match Play,
Marana, Ariz.).
It seems the world is calling and no one in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., is answering.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 21
KAPOLEI, Hawaii – It didn’t take long for Annika Sorenstam to make a
big move in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. Sorenstam jumped from No.
4 to No. 2 after her victory at the SBS Open, leapfrogging Karrie Webb
and Suzann Pettersen.
Sorenstam said she’s not really sure how the Rolex Rankings points work, but she’s “not complaining.”
On
the flip side, Pettersen didn’t seem too upset that she’d lost her spot
so quickly. “I just think it will be a close race between Webb, Annika
and myself,” Pettersen said. “We’ll be rotating back and forth all year
chasing Lorena (Ochoa). I don’t really pay too much attention to that
until the end of the year.”
Coming into the event, Pettersen
held a 7.77 average while Sorenstam came in at 7.34. Sorenstam now
holds steady at 8.22 while Pettersen is at 7.73. Ochoa maintains a
sizable lead at 16.09.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 20
Somewhere Steve Scott was watching the Tiger Woods-J.B. Holmes match and saying, "I've seen this movie before."
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 19
The choice: Traveling halfway around the world for the WGC Accenture Match Play, or a root canal?
I'm thinking Ernie Els, after his customary first-round loss, is voting dentist.
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA, ARIZ. – If anybody has any
extra Sudoku books or used Nintendo GameBoys lying around feel free to
send them to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
More
than four hours have eclipsed since the morning's opening match (Sergio
Garcia vs. John Senden) and the first golfer has yet to tee it up on
the 18th hole. The closest so far was the Boo Weekley-Martin Kaymer
pairing that ended with Weekley winning 2&1.
The lack of
late drama has the bleachers behind the 18th green empty and the
marshalls sitting on their hands while scoreboard watching.
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 19
HONOLULU,
Hawaii – A couple things to note coming out of Michelle Wie’s 2008
debut here at the Fields Open. BJ is not on the bag. Tim Vickers, an
instructor at the David Leadbetter Academy, is looping for the first
time. BJ said Vickers played several rounds with Wie at ChampionsGate
when she spent time working with Leadbetter over the Thanksgiving and
Christmas holidays.
Matthew Shin is Wie’s new William Morris
road manager, replacing Greg Nared (who started his own company and
represents Nicole Castrale).
Wie is stronger than she was at
the Samsung, and Leadbetter says he no longer holds his breath when
she’s hitting it off the tee. That being said, she still hits some
“squirrely” shots as he calls them. The Ko Olina course is fairly
generous, however, so she should be able to keep it in play.
The
Stanford freshman also confirmed that she’ll be taking off the spring
quarter of classes to concentrate on golf. Though she does find college
life to be “stimulating.”
“I have three weeks left in the winter
quarter and I’m taking spring quarter off because that’s when I want to
play the most golf,” she said. “I return to school in the fall quarter
and am really looking forward to it.”
Wie even weighed in on the
election, which turns its focus to Hawaii today. Barack Obama graduated
from Punahou School, the same as Wie.
“I think it’s awesome
what he’s doing,” she said. “He came to Punahou to speak once and I was
really moved about how he talked. He’s a really, really talented guy.”
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 19, 2008
MARANA,
ARIZ. – While he has seemingly hawked everything at one point or
another, don’t look for Jack Nicklaus to add a televisionmaker to his
list of endorsements.
Nicklaus held an informal gathering
Tuesday afternoon at the site of his new 36-hole design, the
Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain (also the future site of the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship starting next year). While
standing in what will eventually be the 17th fairway of his Tortolita
course, the Golden Bear admitted he doesn’t have much time for golf if
he’s not teeing it up himself. That includes parking his tail on the
couch to watch tournament action on television.
“I walked in the
house Sunday and (wife) Barbara had (the Northern Trust Open) on. I
said, ‘Who’s winning?’ and she said ‘Phil’s winning’ and I said, ‘OK.’
I came back, watched him make about a 2-foot putt on the last hole and
that was about it. I’m interested in the game, obviously. I’m just not
going to sit down and watch it. I’ve always enjoyed playing the game
more than watching it.”
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA, Ariz. – Standing next to the Dove Mountain practice green late Feb. 19 when two competitive epiphanies emerged.
K.J. Choi, fresh from his seventh Tour title earlier this year in Hawaii, has the swagger of a man poised for big things.
“He has that look . . . that Tiger (Woods) look,” observed one
long-time player manager. “You can just see a difference in the way he
carries himself.”
Bad news for first-round opponent Camilo Villegas.
But then, upsets are nothing new at the Match Play – just ask Erine
Els, who has failed to advance out of the first round in his last three
WGCs. Here’s an early upset call worth watching for: “You heard it here
first, J.B. Holmes wins 4 and 3. This course was made for him,” one
former Tour player boldly predicted of the day’s marquee duel between
Woods and Holmes.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA, Ariz. – Let’s ponder this because: A. There's obviously a
strong international flavor here at the WGC-Accenture Match Play
Championship, always creating Ryder Cup buzz; and B. because it’s a
Tuesday.
If the European Ryder Cup team were to be finalized
today (without captain’s picks) the average age would be 31 years old
with only three players under 30.0: Justin Rose (27), Nick Dougherty
(25), and Martin Kaymer (23).
The average age of the American
squad? If play started today the average age would be 34.5, with three
players younger than 32-year-old Tiger Woods: Zach Johnson (31), D.J.
Trahan (27), and J.B. Holmes (25).
Again it’s a Tuesday and – more importantly – it’s February.
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA, ARIZ. – Yes, it’s the desert. Yes, It’s hot even when it’s not hot (just trust me on this one).
But how cool is Miguel Angel Jimenez, he of the poodle hairdo and 70s superstache?
Cool
enough to hit high chip shots Tuesday toward a pin only about six feet
away from a standing Tiger Woods. And he was chilled out enough to do
it with one of his monster stogies locked down in his mouth, as well.
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA,
ARIZ. – This is something we wouldn't have seen before last year: a
throng of golf fans clamoring for Woody Austin’s attention.
Let
it be known that autograph seekers at golf events take any signature
they can get, even if they have to decipher the scribbled artifacts to
figure out who just strolled past. That’s why it wasn't that uncommon
to see Austin working his way along a railing between the short-game
practice area to the driving range.
But nowadays the Woodman
is as recognizable as anybody not named Eldrick or Phil, creating a
buzz whenever he's within shouting distance. It’s kind of incredible
really, considering he’s a 44-year-old journeyman with three career
wins who doesn't exactly look like George Clooney.
I guess that’s what one properly timed plunge into a Canadian pond can do for you.
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 19
Last
I checked, the calendar usually has 52 Wednesdays a year. In golf,
Wednesday almost always is reserved for hit-and-giggle schmooze
purposes. On the PGA Tour, it’s pro-am day, when the professional is
paired with a group of amateurs and, so the theory goes, is supposed to
market and entertain and network and embrace the business community.
This
Wednesday is different. This Wednesday is so-called Upset Wednesday,
golf’s most exciting Wednesday of the year, when the WGC Accenture
Match Play first round makes NCAA March Madness look like a form chart.
It’s the day that leads the golf schedule in surprise.
So if you tune in tomorrow for one of the game's most entertaining days, keep expecting the unexpected.
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 19
MARANA, Ariz. – At the risk of padding the jingoistic American resume,
it may be time to rethink how the Tour fills the field for this week’s
WGC- Match Play Championship.
The subject came up two years ago when a player questioned: “Why use
the World Ranking (to fill the WGC field) when we will have our own
rankings?”
The new “rankings,” of course, are the much-talked-about FedEx Cup
ratings. It’s a move that would likely incense international players
who split time between the PGA Tour and other circuits. However,
switching to FedEx Cup points could serve two purposes. By putting an
early focus on points the Match Play could help strengthen anemic West
Coast fields (think Pebble Beach).
It could also add a new level of excitement to the Match Play. If the
Tour used FedEx Cup points, Fred Couples and rising rookie Dustin
Johnson would be in suburban Tucson this week.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 19
Phil Mickelson’s victory at the Northern
Trust Open was notable for two reasons in particular. Both relate to
golf’s upper crust.
For high achievers, one of the beauties of
life is having accomplished something other experts haven’t. In
Mickelson’s case, he has now won at a place, Riviera Country Club,
where the two best golfers ever, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, have
not.
Imitation isn’t the highest form of flattery; trumping the best is.
The
other significance is that competitive golf is never better than when
Mickelson wins. His successes narrow the gulf between golf’s No. 2
player and drawing card and that constant at the top, Woods. The sports
landscape is best when there’s some semblance of rivalry. In
golf, that’s particularly true when the Masters looms.
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 18
In consecutive weeks Phil Mickelson missed the cut in spectacular
fashion (Pebble Beach) and put on a clinic to claim his first title of
2008 (Northern Trust Open).
Unraveling the Mickelson mystery, however, is really no mystery at all.
At Pebble, “Lefty” ranked 106th with a 1.8 putting average. In L.A., he
was serviceable with the putter with a 1.76 average that ranked 57th.
But it seems the biggest difference is Mickelson’s proficiency, or lack
thereof, from the crucial 7-10 foot range. At Pebble Beach, he made
18 of 32 attempts (.562) from 7-10 feet. At Riviera, he was 28 of 46
(.608) from that range.
Maybe a better question then, “What will Phil do next?” is, “What will Phil do from 7 to 10 feet?”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 18
LOS ANGELES – It was strange seeing John Daly sitting on a curb
outside Riviera Country Club smoking a cigarette and slurping down a
Diet Coke before the final round of the Northern Trust Open. Not the
thought of a pro athlete warming up with nicotine and caffeine –
that's Long John's M.O. – but the mere fact Daly was still around the
course on a Sunday.
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 17
OK, I understand there are a host of logistical and legal reasons why a
golf telecast can’t hang around until the “Fat Lady” sings.
But the thought occurred Saturday afternoon as CBS Sports wrapped up
its third round coverage of the Northern Trust Open with leader Phil
Mickelson still a few holes from the house that there is an easy fix
for the Tour’s early-exit woes. Play faster.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 17
LOS ANGELES – Even Phil Mickelson can only step up so much.
After playing partner Jeff Quinney aced the 163-yard par-3 sixth to
take a one-shot lead during the third round of the Northern Trust Open,
Mickelson hit an 8-iron to 6 feet. “Lefty” made the birdie putt to pull
back into a tie with his fellow Arizona State alum at 10 under par.
“I thought that was as good of a response as I could have expected,” Mickelson said. “Yeah, I thought that was a big 2 for me.”
Quinney, however, also has some work to do when it comes to hole-in-one celebrations.
“You don't know whether to hug or high-five or just in-between and
(that) probably looks sloppy,” Quinney said. “We need to get that
organized with my caddie and plan it a little bit better.”
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 16
LOS ANGELES – How focused is J.B. Holmes on his golf game? Obviously so
locked in he doesn't even know where he's playing from week to week. Or
at least next week. When asked about the venue for next week’s
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship near Tucson, Ariz., Holmes merely
adjusted his cap and shrugged his shoulders.
“I don't even know the name of it,” Holmes said after shooting a
third-round 69 to move into a tie for seventh at the Northern Trust
Open.
At least he knows who he'll be playing. He has an opening-round match
against Tiger Woods waiting. It will be the first time Holmes will be
paired with the world No. 1. The match-up resulted from Holmes, who
earlier this month won the FBR Open, being tagged with the 64th and
final seed.
“That's good enough,” Holmes said. “It's match play. You just have to go out and see what happens.”
– Scott Hamilton
Posted Feb. 16
KAHUKU, Oahu – Greg Nichols, general
manager of Ko Olina Golf Club, was out walking around Turtle Bay
Thursday during the first round of the SBS Open. He said Michelle Wie
is expected to arrive today at Ko Olina in preparation for her 2008
debut at the Fields Open, where she’s playing on a sponsor exemption.
LPGA members who qualified for the SBS but didn’t play this week aren’t
allowed to begin practicing at Ko Olina until Sunday (the day after the
SBS concludes). Wie, however, is not a tour member so the rule doesn’t
apply.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 15
KAHUKU,
Oahu – Erica Blasberg hasn’t won a tournament since the summer after
she left Arizona in 2004 when she won the Laconia Savings Bank Futures
Golf Classic. And she has yet to play in the final pairing of an LPGA
event. It’s been a while since she’s felt that final-round rush.
“I
kind of numbed myself to the feeling of winning,” Blasberg said. “Not
really being comfortable the way I should have out here.”
Blasberg
feels like she has a better mind-set his year, which is helpful since
she’ll be paired with Annika Sorenstam in the last tee time Saturday at
the SBS. Tomorrow could be a big turning point for the former college
star who has yet to really show her potential as a professional.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 15
We’re glad Ernie Els has decided to play next week’s WGC-Match Play
Championship – potentially the Tour’s most abbreviated tea party.
Els has gone one-and-out his last three trips to the Tour’s version of
“March Madness,” but he’s fresh from a rare match play victory – a
Sunday singles “W” against Lucas Glover at the Presidents Cup – and
probably wants to put that Dubai letdown behind him.
Besides, even if Els bows out again early, the trip won’t be a complete
waste. The “Big Easy” will earn double “Air Els” points for his
last-minute flight from the U.K. to Tucson, Ariz.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 15
KAHUKU, Oahu – In the spirit of
Valentine’s Day, Japan’s Momoko Ueda passed out logoed golf balls to
male reporters. Each Callaway HX-Tour ball said “Happy Valentine’s Day”
in red letters and featured her signature logo, a girl in pink swinging
a club.
Japanese custom allows a woman to approach a man
romantically only on Feb. 14, otherwise it’s not her place. Women are
the only ones who give gifts on the holiday. But men aren’t totally off
the hook. On March 14, aka “White Day,” they must return the favor.
Paula
Creamer said she didn’t have anything special planned for Valentine’s
Day but did get a card from her dad. An hour after Natalie Gulbis
finished her round she was seen getting on the hotel elevator, her hair
still wet, in a short black dress with gynormous heels. No word on who
she was meeting for dinner ...
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 14
KAHUKU,
Oahu – Paula Creamer is sporting a new sponsor on the front of her lid.
CDW, a Fortune 500 technology company, signed on with Creamer in 2008.
For her first two years on tour Creamer had ADT on her hat, last year
Adidas occupied the spot.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 14
Anyone who thinks golf shouldn't have taken a stand against
performance-enhancing drugs only needed to flip on the flat screen
Wednesday. Pick a channel, most had some portion of the “Real World”
soap opera unfolding in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
The only vision PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem needed to assure him
anti-doping was a mountain worth climbing was that of pitching icon
Roger Clemens locked in a humiliating “He said, he said” squabble with
former trainer Brian McNamee.
Whether “The Rocket” took performance-enhancing drugs or not really
doesn’t matter any more. Baseball has been irrevocably damaged.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 13
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – If Wednesday
morning is any indication, the Northern Trust Open could be a
weather-delayed mess. Fog has engulfed Riviera Country Club, and though
the pro-am is taking place, a tournament could not.
The tee
shot off the par-5 first hole is akin to hitting into a tunnel.
Visibility is only 50 yards.
Fog
is a frequent problem on the West Coast, but if it continues Thursday
and Friday mornings, the ensuing delays would almost certainly force a
cut on Saturday.
– Alex Miceli
Posted Feb. 11
The Northern Trust Open – still known in the O.C. as the L.A. Open some
14 years after it dropped its traditional moniker for a corporate
version – may not have Tiger Woods, but it seems no one else is
skipping a week at the “Riv.”
Consider the plight of the seven players who posted top-10 finishes at
the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, normally a time-tested
ticket to the Tour’s next “open” event.
Although five of those seven players will tee it up this week at
Hogan’s Alley, it was close. Until late Feb. 11, Dustin Johnson (T-7),
Tag Ridings (T-9) and Y.E. Yang (T-9) were listed as alternates into
Riviera, victims of a full field of players listed ahead of them on the
priority list.
Jason Day (T-6 at AT&T) withdrew from L.A. before Friday’s deadline and Brent Geiberger (T-9) failed to commit to the event.
Spots in L.A. are in such high demand, consider that 14 players from
the Q-School/Nationwide Tour category were needed to fill last year’s
field. This year, Q-School medalist Frank Lickliter II was still
awaiting his fate late Monday. The Tour will only expand field sizes,
which in L.A. is capped at 144 players, if the top 125 players from the
previous year’s money list can’t get in.
The chance to compete on one of the circuit’s most respected layouts is
L.A.’s primary draw. Not having Woods around to put on a scoring clinic
probably doesn’t hurt either. And, of course, the post-Grammy Award
parties still have a few more days of life.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 11
With the Vijay Singh and Steve Lowery
playoff in full swing, short-game guru Dave Pelz was sitting in the
media center watching Singh attempt to extricate himself from a plugged
lie in a greenside bunker on the 18th hole.
Afterward, I asked
Pelz if he could rate Singh’s effort that left him an 8-footer for par.
Calling it very difficult, Pelz ranked the cock-and-pop shot that Singh
hit an 8.5 out of 10 saying that it’s not too hard to get out, but very
tough to control.
– Alex Miceli
Posted Feb. 10
Vijay Singh won nine events and more than $10 million in 2004 using, in
large part, a longer, mid-length putter. But pride or purpose conspired
to convince the Big Fijian to go with a traditional-length model flat
stick in recent years.
On Sunday at Pebble Beach, Singh was hardly perfect with his ballstriking, but it was his putter that cost him victory No. 32.
And if that isn’t enough to induce Singh to put the longer blade back
in the bag, consider that this season he ranks 117th in putts from 4
feet. That’s an 85 percent conversion rate from 4 feet. In layman’s
terms, Singh’s 4-foot follies are akin to a NASCAR driver running into
something once every 10 laps.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 10
NEW DEHLI – If you thought your commute
to work was bad, then thank your lucky stars you don’t have to
negotiate New Delhi traffic every day.
Anything goes on these
streets. We pulled up to one set of traffic lights and in a three-lane
road, there were seven vehicles abreast.
Drivers see any gap as one to exploit. They think nothing of cutting in front of another vehicle.
Blinkers
are a luxury most do without. Side mirrors are tucked in so they don’t
get knocked off in the melee. There is no point to them anyway; no one
uses them.
Every type of vehicle traverses the New Delhi roads,
and everyone drives with a hand on the horn. I reckon you can fail your
driving test in New Delhi for inadequate use of the horn.
But
the pièce de résistance came on the drive to the airport, when my taxi
driver came to a screeching halt to avoid a cow ambling across the road.
As
we swerved around India’s sacred beast, I looked back to see the animal
unscathed, standing in the middle of the road defecating.
It seemed a fitting tribute to New Delhi traffic and Indian drivers.
– Alistair Tait
Posted Feb. 8
NEW DELHI – A 2-year-old boy clung naked to his mother’s shoulder. All
that covered him was a light shawl. The mother held out the child’s leg
showing a gaping open sore.
She held out her hand begging for money.
I had no change, but a colleague stuffed a 100 rupee note into her hand and the woman shuffled off with her child.
Others
have pestered us for money, too, mostly women with children, some
carrying babies. Little children walk beside us with outstretched
hands, hoping for small change.
We were in Connaught Place in
the center of New Delhi. Read the guide books and it sounds like a
glittering shopping area where you can browse in fashionable shops and
eat in nice restaurants.
You can, but only if your heart can stomach the beggars.
A
white face is seen as prime pickings and, like many places in New
Delhi, you can’t wander around Connaught Place without getting pestered
for money.
It’s heartbreaking, especially to see children with little hope living in the most abject poverty you can imagine.
They stare at you with pleading eyes. They lift their hands to their mouths to indicate the need for food.
You want to empty your wallet, but nothing you could do could ease the suffering of the street children of New Delhi.
A
thought occurred to me as I climbed into my taxi and headed back to the
luxury of my hotel: That child’s sore was probably inflicted by his
mother to help elicit more sympathy, and therefore earn her more money.
As
a father of two girls ages 10 and 14, it broke my heart to think of the
chance my girls have in life compared to the utter futility of life for
the street children of New Delhi.
– Alistair Tait
Posted Feb. 8
Interesting move by the U.S. Golf Association this morning with the
announcement that the 2015 U.S. Open will be played at Chambers Bay
near Tacoma, Wash.
We hear the Bruce Charlton-Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout is spectacular,
and bringing the national championship to another muni – joining
Bethpage Black and Torrey Pines in the public rota – is commendable.
But none of that changes the fact the course opened LAST YEAR.
We’ve got nothing against new – just ask our iPhone – but when the
instant gratification impulse of our sitcom society lands the national
championship at such an unproven venue, we start to wonder if we’ve gone
too far.
Seems a course’s position on the map, not its pedigree, is more important to the powers in Far Hills, N.J.
- Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 8
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – For years we saw
Chris Evert on a tennis court. Now we see her on a golf course. Decked
in brown leather jacket and designer sunglasses, she was conspicuous by
her presence in the gallery at Spyglass Hill on Thursday.
Not
just anyone’s gallery. She followed her fiance, Greg Norman, at the
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He shot a 76 that included a
four-putt green in the first round but didn’t seem to mind much. He
seemed happy during a post-round interview and as he left the course.
In each instance, the two held hands.
Evert met the press as
well. She talked of playing tennis with Norman for an hour or so on
most days. But she said she’s not quite ready for golf, although Norman
says he plans to teach her.
“I do not play golf,” Evert said.
“It’s very time-consuming. I have three boys and now him (Norman) –
four boys. And I run a tennis academy. I have to put my whole self into
something to try it. Tennis, on the other hand, it’s one hour.”
She
indicated that she’ll eventually give golf a try and already
anticipates her strength. “Putting will be my best thing,” she said, noting,
“we all played miniature golf.”
Evert’s take is that
golf demands more mental toughness than tennis. “In golf, you have to be
relentless on every shot,” she said. “There’s no room for error.”
Norman and Evert became engaged in December and have an undisclosed wedding date set.
“We
have a date,” a coy Norman said, smiling, as Evert wrapped her arms
around him from behind during the press briefing. “You’ll just have to
wait and see what it is.”
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 7
PEBBLE
BEACH, Calif. – It’s near the end of the West Coast swing and the
leaderboard after the first round of the AT&T looks more like a
Nationwide Tour leaderboard. In case you’re wondering how well
first-round leader Kent Jones is playing recently, he has not made a
cut this year and only has one round out of eight in the 60s. Jones
finished 134th on the money list last year and kept his card with a
T-11 at Q-School.
Those chasing Jones are John Mallinger, Roland
Thatcher and Brad Adamonis. All three have had success this year, but
they also have had stints on the Nationwide Tour. In fact, with the
exception of J.B. Holmes, every player from first through 25th has
played on the Nationwide Tour. (Dudley Hart played in only one
Nationwide event.)
It is fair to say that favorites Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington are sleeping easily.
– Alex Miceli
Posted Feb. 7
We grew up dissecting baseball box scores, so we’re no stranger to
statistical overload, but the Tour’s most recent editions to its
ShotLink lineup is more contrived than anything you’ll dig out of page
6 of the local sports section.
Starting this year, the Tour began tracking such statistics as ball
speed, smash factor, launch angle and, our all-time favorite, carry
efficiency. To the uninitiated, carry efficiency is, “the ratio of a
player's average carry distance and his average swing speed when
measured by the radar device. This creates a ratio of yards per miles
per hour.”
Got all that? For the record, Joe Ogilvie leads the carry efficiency
catagory with a 282.5 yard average carry and 110.68 mph average swing
speed.
The new statistical lineup brings into question the accuracy of the
Tour’s statistical-collection methods. Much of the data is collected by
volunteers, a dedicated lot but not the most precise bunch.
“There’s been too many instances where I played a round of golf and
looked back in my stats, and I saw that the stats that were attributed
to me were actually somebody else’s in the group,” Stewart Cink said
late last year. “So you can’t really trust the stats every time.”
- Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 7
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It’s 9:01 on the Monterey
Peninsula and a sunny day for all except for Phil Mickelson, the
tournament’s defending champion. Playing at Poppy Hills with Alan
Mulally, president & CEO of Ford Motor Co., Mickelson bogeyed the
first and second holes. He dropped another shot to par at No. 7 and
stood 3 over through eight.
For some
historical perspective, Mickelson shot 67 at
Poppy Hills in the first round a year ago, when he beat Kevin
Sutherland by five shots.
He may not be as ready as he thought he was.
– Alex Miceli
Posted Feb. 7
PEBBLE
BEACH, Calif. – Big moment for the rookie. Brad Adamonis finally gets
his PGA Tour card after more than a decade as a professional, finally
gets through Q-School, finally makes it to that American golf mecca
called Pebble Beach for the new millennium version of Bing's old
clambake.
You go through all that and you’re excited when
you show up for a Tuesday morning practice round at the AT&T Pebble
Beach National Pro-Am extravaganza. Never mind that it’s cold, really
cold at 7:30, and the first tee at Pebble has about 25 players and
caddies congregated thanks to a 30-minute frost delay.
So there
he is, addressing the tee ball, when suddenly another player’s barb
pierces the brisk air and hits this unsuspecting, happy newcomer like a
frat-party taunt.
“Hey, Brad,” yelled veteran Greg Kraft, who wields perhaps the sharpest needle on Tour, “are your ankles cold?”
Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
It
didn’t take long for onlookers to figure out that Kraft was poking fun
at the corduroy pants Adamonis was wearing, the pants that the Mr.
Blackwell types would deem 3-4 inches too short. You knew this because
now laughter filled the cold air and players and caddies doubled over.
Some
of that laughter belonged to Adamonis. He played along, wore a sheepish
look and gave out an embarrassed sense that he wouldn’t mind climbing
into a hole there near Carmel Bay.
The good news is that
Adamonis somehow made contact on the drive. The better news is that a
Tour player never has much of a problem getting free pairs of new
trousers.
- Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 6
Talking with a Tour player about the rotation for this week’s AT&T
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am late Feb. 5 and came away with some
interesting thoughts.
Pebble Beach is, by almost any measure, a national treasure. Even in
the February cold and rain. But it’s often-overlooked Spyglass Hill
that got the most love from this player.
“They could hold a U.S. Open at Spyglass Hill right now,” he said. “Seventeen of the 18 holes are that good.”
As for Poppy Hills, considered by many the square peg in the
round-hole AT&T rota, the player just sighed, “You mean Sloppy
Hills?”
Ouch.
- Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 6
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The first thing I
encountered upon arriving at Pebble Beach today was sound rather than
sight. Actually, make that two sounds.
Standing about 100 yards
off the first tee, I heard a bad-sounding thwack of a club meeting a
ball, followed by a bellowing voice that carried farther than the ball
did. "I'm not at the Super Bowl anymore," the booming voice said.
Not
sure what that meant, except that perhaps this was a new week and it
was time to slip the golf game face on. Anyway, as the hulking man
approached his 75-yard worm-burner of a tee shot, it became apparent
the booming voice belonged to one of the people in sports known as
Boomer, in this case Chris Berman of ESPN.
While watching Berman
play his second shot from the rough near the women's tee, it became
clear that his swing was something out of the Charles Barkley school. A
Tilt-a-Wheel or V-8 engine doesn't have as many moving parts. He took a
mighty swipe and his second shot scooted all of 20 feet through the
rough.
At this point, playing partner Kevin Costner apparently
felt sorry for the big man. Costner chopped Berman's ball forward to
the fairway in this AT&T Pebble Beach practice round. Now faced
with a nice lie, Berman laced a fairway-metal shot that might have
gotten 3 feet off the ground. When razzing in the 19th hole, you might
say shots like that would have hit a cat in the ankles.
I'm
thinking it might be a long week for Mr. J.J. Henry, touring pro. His
playing partner in this little clambake is an amateur named Chris
Berman.
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 5
NEW
DELHI – Arjun Atwal wasn’t kidding when he said “cricket is a religion
in India.” One trip to D.D.A. Park in southern New Delhi will attest to
that.
The word “park” is pure editorial license. There is grass,
but it’s nothing more than scrub land surrounded by a dilapidated,
rusty iron fence that only just keeps the teeming city at bay.
Yet
it’s a haven for cricket enthusiasts. On a piece of brown lawn 50-by-60
yards, approximately 150 men of all ages were enjoying the game at
around 4 p.m. on a Monday. Make that four games!
For the
uninitiated, a cricket pitch is 22 yards long and 10 feet wide in the
middle of a vast green field. Two wickets consisting of three willow
stumps with two short pieces of wood rest on top. The idea is for the
bowler (like a pitcher in baseball) to knock the pieces of wood off the
stump.
The batter’s job is to protect the stumps by hitting the ball around the field.
The
locals in D.D.A Park didn’t have the luxury of willow stumps. They used
concrete blocks instead, fashioned four pitches on the narrow plot of
land. Nor did they use regular wooden cricket balls but tennis balls.
All
four games ran separately and in conjunction. If a ball were hit by a
batter in one game toward a fielder in another game, then the fielder
would suddenly join the other game.
It was utter chaos to my eyes, but the men playing the game seemed to understand.
It was virtual proof that cricket really is the lifeblood of India.
– Alistair Tait
Posted Feb. 5
NEW
DELHI – I discovered new meaning to the term “hotel transfer” when I
took the 20-minute journey from the Delhi airport to my hotel upon
arriving in India at 4 a.m.
I was booked into a car with golfers Andrew Coltart and Carl Suneson, and the
Daily Telegraph’s correspondent Lewine Mair.
No
sooner had we gotten our luggage to the car when five men appeared out
of the dark to help us put the baggage into a car ill-suited to carry
two large golf bags and four pieces of luggage.
My first
reaction was how friendly these people are to help me with my luggage,
until they started asking for money. None of us had any Indian rupees
but that didn’t seem to bother the men. They said they took American or
British money.
Coltart unloaded a pocketful of British change to
the men, while I deposited one £2 coin, a £1 coin and a 20-pence piece
into outstretched hands.
I have no idea where they were going to spend it. I imagine shopkeepers in Delhi are hardly going to accept 20-pence pieces.
The
drive from the airport was a culture shock, to say the least. Indian
roads have white lines on them, but they mean nothing. Many cars
straddled them instead of staying to one side or the other.
We
traveled on a six-lane highway for a bit, but not your usual six-laner.
Bicycles shared the road, many with trailers behind. What were they
were doing out at 4:30 a.m.? How are more are not hit? They had no
lights!
Neither did many vehicles. Taillights seem to be a luxury on Indian vehicles.
No
surprise then that we passed a car that had just turned over and looked
like its next journey was to the wrecker’s yard. Eight men were turning
it right-side-up as our driver sped past.
How the accident happened, I have no idea. I’m just surprised we didn’t pass more like it.
We made it to our hotel, but not without hearts lodged firmly in mouths.
I’ll never complain about British traffic again!
– Alistair Tait
Posted Feb. 4
SCOTTSDALE,
Ariz. – J.B. Holmes not only took down Phil Mickelson in an FBR Open
playoff, he took away a Ryder Cup endorsement from Mickelson.
The
left-hander said the U.S. team, winner of only one Ryder Cup since
1993, could use an intimidating long hitter such as Holmes. He said he
hopes the masher becomes a “mainstay” on Ryder and Presidents Cup teams
for years.
Mickelson said bombers such as Holmes and Bubba
Watson would fit well at Valhalla, site of this year’s biennial match,
and could be more intimidating to the Europeans than, say, a short,
straight hitter.
This, however, is not a new thought for
American captain Paul Azinger. When a reporter told him a couple of
years ago that he had a couple of picks in mind, Azinger replied, “J.B.
Holmes and Bubba Watson?” as if mind-reading.
And why not? This
is match play, not medal. It doesn’t matter if a long-hitting
birdie-maker scores a 12 on a hole. And it can’t get much worse; the
U.S. has lost the last two meetings by nine points each.
- Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 4
We noticed young Aussie Jason Day tied for 20th at the FBR Open. It’s
worth noting that Day was awarded a sponsor exemption into the FBR over
that other JD – John Daly – who has one trip to the weekend (Sony Open,
T-69) in three Tour starts this year.
On another Day note, the rookie was among a group of players trying to
bolt Phoenix late Sunday on a direct flight to Monterey. The U.S. Air
flight was canceled and the anxious group of players, who had little
interest in battling the post-Super Bowl crowds on Monday morning, had
to scramble to make a later flight to San Jose for this week’s AT&T
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
- Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 4
Fans looking to catch a glimpse of Lorena
Ochoa in 2008 can check out her schedule on lorenaochoa.com. The LPGA’s
entire season is posted on the site and under a category entitled
“Lorena’s Assistance,” it lists whether or not she’s playing. Sounds a
little like Tiger Woods -- a tournament’s stock rises exponentially
when he signs up. No doubt Ochoa draws a crowd, but “Assistance” sounds
a little strange. Something must have gotten lost in translation.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Feb. 4
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
– Golf on Saturday experienced something it never had before in its
centuries-long history. Namely an estimated 170,802 people attending
one round, the game's largest one-day attendance ever.
Notice
the verb was "attending" and not "watching." After all, we're talking
about the FBR Open, the best party in golf if not sports. People come
to see –not necessarily PGA Tour players – and be seen.
The
crowd number, arrived at using a formula based on the number of cars,
surpassed the previous best of 168,337 set on Saturday here in 2006 at
TPC Scottsdale.
You really had to see it to believe it--the
people, the noise, the fashion show, the 4-inch heels, the overflow of
adult beverages, the peroxide, the designer shades, the vanity, the
overwhelming 20-40 demographic, the cosmetic enhancements, the
testosterone, even some die-hard golf fans. It took your correspondent
here about 30 minutes to get from the clubhouse to the famed par-3 16th
hole during mid-afternoon because of bottlenecks in the mass of
humanity. It's usually less than a 10-minute stroll sans traffic.
"I
always felt like maybe they kind of fudged the numbers in the
attendance here," Tour veteran Kevin Sutherland said. "I don't think
they fudged anything on this one. There's a ton of people out there.
This is crazy."
Phil Mickelson, playing in his 19th Tour stop here, noticed as well.
"It
was evident that the crowd was the largest today that it's ever been
because every hole had countless people on it, and in the past it was
just two or three," the lefthander said. "It's so special for this
tournament and for the game of golf to have something like this."
– Jeff Rude
Posted Feb. 2
Last
week it was Kevin Streelman who was paired with Tiger Woods in the
third round of the Buick Invitational. It was the first time Streelman,
a rookie on the PGA Tour, had ever played with Woods or even in the
same event. Woods shot 66 to Streelman’s 75.
Tomorrow in the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic
it will be Ireland’s Damien McGrane, ranked 275th in the
Golfweek/Sagarin
Performance Index, who is paired with Woods. While this is the first
time McGrane has been in the same grouping as Tiger, he has played in
the same event before – three times, all at the Dubai Desert Classic
(2004, ’06 and ’07).
McGrane has finished behind Woods
each time but did manage to score better than the world’s No. 1 golfer
once before the second round this week. McGrane shot 68 to Wood’s 69 in
the third round of the 2004 Dubai event to push his total to 2-12 in
common rounds played.
Something tells me tomorrow might be a little different for McGrane.
– Lance Ringler
Posted Feb. 1
PGA Tour iconoclast Steve Duplantis was buried Jan. 29 in Georgetown,
Ontario. The service, according to one person who attended, was
“packed” and emotional.
“I couldn’t help but think while I was listening to all the memories
amid all the tears. Had Steve been able to hear all these tributes,
would he have lived his life differently?” said the observer.
CBS Sports funnyman David Feherty – who spent more than a few late
nights with Duplantis – had a similar thought two days after the
long-time caddie was hit and killed by a taxi before last week’s
Buick Invitational.
“He was sort of the Tiger Woods of (the caddie lifestyle),” Feherty
said. “He would appreciate the fact we were sitting here laughing about
it. That’s the sort of person he was. He was hysterical. I’m talking
about when he was sober. He was very bright. He was no witless drunk,
and it would be wrong to characterize him as such.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Feb. 1
You can’t imagine how happy I was when I
managed to book a hotel just across the road from the Emirates Golf
Course. I reckon if I hit one on the screws and got a bit of bounce off
the tarmac, I could hit a full-bloodied drive from the entrance of my
hotel to the Emirates Golf Club gates.
We’re talking around 300 yards here. So how is it that it takes me 25-30 minutes to get back to my hotel room every night?
The
road that separates me from the golf club is the Sheikh Al Zayed Road,
the main transport artery in and out of Dubai. It’s a 10-lane monster
that runs all the way to Abu Dhabi and carries about 200,000 vehicles
on peak days.
All 200,000 seem to be on it when I want to get
home at night, meaning my 300-yard trip involves sitting in traffic
with the rest of the Dubai commuters.
Couldn’t I just walk, I hear you ask? Not unless I want to scale a couple of 15 foot fences and risk getting arrested!
Dubai
has done a wonderful job of marketing itself to the world as the
fastest-growing city in the world. With that growth comes the usual
attendant problems, such as traffic gridlock.
It’s also the
biggest construction site in the world, with more cranes on the skyline
than anywhere else on earth. And all the material for those
construction projects seems to come in trucks down the Sheikh Al Zayed
Road.
My advice: Don’t visit Dubai until it’s finished, whenever that may be.
– Alistair Tait
Posted Feb. 1
Rory Sabbatini tilted at the game’s pre-eminent windmill and got
wind-whipped. Stephen Ames made an ill-timed, albeit honest, mistake
and became a 9-and-8 trivia question. Now Idiosyncratic Ian Poulter has
fired a misguided shot across the USS Tiger Woods.
“Don’t get me wrong. I really respect every professional golfer, but I
know I haven’t played to my full potential, and when that happens, it
will be just me and Tiger,” Poulter recently said.
’Kay.
Wanting to be the best at whatever you do – a basic human desire
expressed wonderfully last week by 20-year-old Jason Day – is an
entirely admirable quality. Verbalizing that desire given the current
climate, however, is best described as an occupational hazard.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 30
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Western
influences are everywhere in Dubai. You can find no end of Kentucky
Fried Chicken, McDonald’s and Baskin-Robbins restaurants.
Unfortunately, what you will also find is deafening music, especially
if you happen to wander into the Hard Rock Cafe across the street from
the Emirates Golf Club.
Maybe it’s my age or my
eardrums, but the last time I was in a Hard Rock Cafe (in Toronto) I could
have a beer, listen to decent music and still manage a chat with my
mates.
Can’t do that in the Dubai Hard Rock Cafe. We got to
talk golf during the appetizer, but a band came on when we started the
main course. They played nothing but contemporary American rock, which
was natural because every member of the five-piece group was from the
U.S. of A.
Too bad they had to play it at full pitch,
rendering conversation almost impossible except for a few snatched
words between songs.
So if you’re in Dubai and you’ve got
somebody you need to entertain but don’t necessarily want to talk to,
then go to the Hard Rock Cafe.
– Alistair Tait
Posted Jan. 30
All the ugliness surrounding the PGA Tour’s move to bolt Westchester
Country Club seemed to subside last week when it was “officially”
announced The Barclays, the first leg of this year’s FedEx Cup
playoffs, will be played at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey.
Officials at Westchester, which was originally offered $1 million by
the Tour to move the event, dialed back their initial rhetoric. The
club is under contract to host the event at least one more time before
2012.
“We are proud that Westchester remains in The Barclays rotation. It’s
an honor that our world-class golf course, and our passionate and loyal
membership, have earned and deserve,” club president Philip Halpern
said in a statement.
But after his final round at last week’s Buick Invitational, Stewart
Cink, one of four players on the Tour’s Policy Board and one of the
most thoughtful minds on the circuit, seemed to put the affair in
context.
“When it was moved to late August, that’s the busiest time for members
to play, and it made it difficult for Barclays to do what they wanted to
do,” Cink said. “Honestly, I don’t think the membership wanted us to be
there. If you were to go up and ask each member, I’d bet it would be 50
percent who didn’t want us there.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 29
The Fields Open (Feb. 21-23) sent out a
press release announcing Michelle Wie and U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up Ayaka Kaneko as its 2008
sponsor exemptions. Just how far has Ko Olina Golf Club’s “adopted
daughter” fallen in the last year? In the subject line of the e-mail,
her named was spelled “Wei.” Ouch.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Jan. 29
SAN DIEGO – A word on that
other guy making his season debut this week at the Buick Invitational.
Phil Mickelson was slow to start his run up to 2008 because of a
respiratory condition and his opening efforts of 70-73 didn’t look very
promising. But Lefty played his next 27 holes in 6 under and is
currently tied for fifth.
Even more promising for those casting an eye toward June’s U.S. Open at
Torrey Pines has been Mickelson’s often-pedestrian driving accuracy. In
Round 3 he hit 11 of 14 fairways. Halfway through his Sunday turn,
Mickelson has found 5 of 7 fairways.
Also working in Lefty’s favor – there’s limited space for corporate tents down the left side of the South Course’s 18th fairway.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 27
SAN DIEGO – Through three rounds, Torrey Pines South is looking every
bit the U.S. Open venue with the type of scoring average (72.303) that
would make a U.S. Golf Association type beam with twisted joy.
Of course, with Tiger Woods waltzing his way to his fourth consecutive
Buick Invitational chalice with an eight-stroke lead it seems eerily
familiar to the last West Coast Open. In 2000, the world No. 1 lapped
the field by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach.
PCT (which normally indicates Pacific Coast Time) has an entirely new meaning – Perfect Courses (for) Tiger.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 26
SAN DIEGO – Wandered out on the North Course this afternoon. Not to see
Tiger Woods inch his way closer to No. 6 on the SoCal coast, but to
get one final look at the venerable North.
Come June when the golf world descends on Torrey Pines for the U.S.
Open the South Course will be cast under a microscope while the North
will just be cast under. The North – one of the most scenic and
enjoyable munis anywhere – will become the home to corporate villages,
media tents, driving ranges and infrastructure during the national
championship.
Here’s the rub. Ask a local to pick their Torrey Pines favorite and
many will say the North Course. A few years back Southern Cal native
Charley Hoffman summed it for many. “Which one would I rather play? The
old South (before the 2001 redesign). Now? The new North.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 25
SAN DIEGO – Here’s a bad sign of what may await the golf world later
this summer. The commute from Torrey Pines to Solana Beach, a scenic
drive down Highway 101 that’s scarcely 9 miles, took nearly 30 minutes
Wednesday evening. Early Thursday the drive was about 25 minutes
because of heavy traffic.
Imagine the gridlock in June when the U.S. Open comes to the South Course for the first time.
Another Open thought occurred this morning as Torrey Pines was engulfed
by a gray wall of wind and rain. The U.S. Golf Association may be
hoping for dry conditions for this year’s championship, but Charley
Hoffman – who grew up playing Torrey Pines – doesn’t see it.
“I personally don’t think they can get (the greens) dry,” said Hoffman,
pointing out the area is famous for what locals call “June
gloom.” “If the rough is up and they can get the greens hard it could
be one of the hardest Open courses ever.”
And if the Buick is any indication, the Torrey Open could be one of the hardest commutes in golf.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 24
SAN DIEGO – A day after the Tour held its first official meeting with
players regarding performance-enhancing drugs, there seemed to be more
questions than answers.
Few if any think anyone is intentionally doping to gain a competitive
advantage. The bigger concern is something getting into a player’s body
inadvertently through over-the-counter medications or ignorance
of certain ingredients.
The circuit’s doping experts set up shop in the Torrey Pines Lodge on
Wednesday until about 11 a.m. in case anyone had questions. Some of the
questions that were asked during Tuesday’s meeting were particularly
amusing.
One multiple winner asked whether poppy seeds found on muffins could cause a
positive test for opium. Another said players were told to avoid
any medication or supplements that were made in China.
The most amusing query came from a Tour rookie after the meeting. “I
wonder if you can pick up anything from second-hand smoke? If so, I
won’t be able to spend much time with my caddie.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 23
SAN DIEGO – A pall settled over Torrey Pines Wednesday as news spread
that longtime Tour caddie Steve Duplantis was killed earlier in the day
when he was hit by a taxi.
Duplantis, who was working for Eric Axley at the Buick Invitational,
stepped off a center median and into the path of a taxi. The
35-year-old Duplantis was pronounced dead on the scene.
“It’s a sad day,” said Basil Van Rooyen, a fellow caddie who was
with Duplantis Tuesday night. “He loved life and he loved to have
a good time.”
Duplantis had worked for the likes of Rich Beem, Jim Furyk and Daniel Chopra during his career.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 23
SAN DIEGO – The first of two mandatory player meetings just wrapped up
on the far end of the Torrey Pines practice range, and it was the Tour’s
new performance-enhancing drug policy, not a controversial “playing
cut” rule, that dominated the 90-minute gathering.
Commissioner Tim Finchem spoke briefly and there were few questions
asked as the Tour’s testing experts outlined what players could expect
in July when testing begins.
“It’s insulting, is what it is,” said one player. “I understand why we
have to (test), but no one out here is doing anything wrong. It’s just
sad.”
Among the players at the 11 a.m. meeting – a second meeting was
scheduled for 3 p.m. (PST) – were Tiger Woods, who cut short his
practice round on the North Course to attend, John Daly and Vijay Singh.
Although reports suggest there wasn’t much debate during the meeting,
some players balked at the timing of the season’s first mandatory
gathering.
“This is great. Most important practice day of the week and they are
going to hold meetings at 11 and 3 (p.m.). That’s prime practice time.
I don’t get it,” another player mused.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 22
People keep asking me if Annika can challenge Lorena for Player of
the Year. The fact that Ms. 59 is kicking off ’08 by playing both
events in Hawaii (Ochoa will skip them) says a lot about her resolve.
Sorenstam hasn’t started her LPGA season in February since 2001. Aloha!
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted Jan. 22
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Roland Thatcher returned for his junior season on
the PGA Tour this week, but you may not recognize him.
When Thatcher wrapped up his 2007 campaign on the Nationwide Tour late
last year, he was sporting blond locks that reached almost to his
shoulders. When he arrived in SoCal for this week’s Buick Invitational,
his dome was freshly shaved.
“I was playing so good last year I didn’t want to cut it,” Thatcher
said. “It could have been worse. I could have not changed my underwear
for eight months.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 22
Justin Rose looked fit and ready to go when talking with the media at
last week’s PGA Show in Orlando, Fla., but last year’s European
tour Order of Merit winner has decided he is not going to return to the
PGA Tour until the Northern Trust Open next month.
Rose, who vaulted from 51st in the World Ranking at the beginning of
2007 to eighth to close 2007, had back issues during the year, which
limited him to just 16 starts in the United States.
Instead of competing, Rose has spent his time getting in the best shape he can for the Tour grind and, of course, the Ryder Cup.
– Alex Miceli
Posted Jan. 22
PALM DESERT, Calif. – Michael Milthorpe can finally exhale. After two
years of brutal Sunday winds that made the Coachella Valley feel more
like the Angus Coast, the affable Bob Hope Chrysler Classic tournament
director was rewarded with warm, clear, calm skies for Sunday’s final
loop at the Classic Club.
“Good weather makes up for everything,” Milthorpe smiled early Sunday
morning. “This is my 11th year (as tournament director), and the last
two years are the first Sundays I can remember having any wind at all.”
With the return of golf in a dome, expect Sunday’s scoring average –
which climbed to a tournament-high 74.763 last year – to drop
considerably. A five-stroke difference (the Classic Club played to a
69.871 average on Saturday) is not out of the question.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 20
PALM DESERT, Calif. – Some weekly truisms.
The Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday, you can’t win
a PGA Tour event on Thursday and whatever buzz four days and a handful
of “A List” entertainers build at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic is
pulled clean out of the Coachella Valley when the celebrity portion of
the pro-am ends on Saturday.
Nothing against Justin Leonard or D.J. Trahan, but nobody does golf
course shtick like tournament host George Lopez and regular partner
Samuel L. Jackson.
That’s not to say some pros aren’t entertaining.
Boo Weekley has spent the week suffering from nose bleeds because of
the dry desert air. “I’m not used to the dry air. My nose doesn’t bleed
at home . . . not unless somebody hits me,” Weekley said.
Tour officials, still a little rope-a-dope after last week’s playing
cut-gate at the Sony Open, were not laughing late Saturday as the cut
approached the dreaded “78” line. Under a new Tour rule, if a cut
exceeds 78 players the line for those who play the weekend is reduced
to whatever number is closest to 70. The Hope cut came at 76 players.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 19
There are a lot of reasons to like Tour rookie Kevin Streelman. The
mini-tour vagabond cut his competitive teeth on any Chicago-land muni
that offered a game, paid the bills in the winter as a substitute
teacher, caddie/club cleaner in the summer and called his first trip to
the “Big Leagues” a dream come true.
But maybe the most endearing reason to watch Streelman – who is among
the leaders at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic – was his reaction when
asked about last year’s Gateway Tour Championship which he lost after
calling a penalty on himself.
“What else was I going to do?” he asked innocently. "It's the way the game is played."
– Rex Hoggard
Posted Jan. 17
Good to see Joe Durant begin his season
atop the leaderboard at the Hope, a tournament in which he once shot 36
under par, if you can believe it.
Durant is a terrific guy,
one of the most-liked players on Tour. I had the chance to tee it up
with him last fall at the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro. We got in 14
holes before it rained, and he hit every fairway and every green. What
a clinic.
At the time, he was pretty disappointed in his 2007
season, and was anxious to get to work as he looked ahead to 2008. He
spent some time working on his putting with Nick Price in Jupiter the
week of the Ginn, and the focus as he headed home for his offseason in
the Florida Panhandle was going to be on 100 yards and in.
Appears some of that work paid off on Wednesday, at least for the day.
– Jeff Babineau
Posted Jan. 16
Posted: 1/15/2008
print
email
discuss
