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NOW ON GOLFWEEKTV: Hate to be Rude: Boo Weekley
Jeff Rude’s “I Hate To Be Rude” column appears on Golfweek.com on Friday, the same day as his video show of the same name.• If forced to bet my meager life savings and all other personal belongings on either Tiger Woods or the field next week at the Masters, I’d swallow hard and pull out my No. 1 foam finger. Why? He’s better than ever, has lost only twice since July (and then barely), has won 16 of his last 26 Tour events, has won four green jackets, has hit the optimum age of 32 and is competing against a short list of players with a realistic chance to win at the lengthened Augusta National.
Then there’s the real reason: I learned a while back never to bet against Woods.
• And if you want to put money on the Masters Par 3 Contest, too, then check yourself into Gamblers’ Anonymous immediately.
• Attention Fantasy Draft types. One man’s order for a baker’s dozen: Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, K.J. Choi, Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Sean O’Hair and Steve Stricker. Darkhorses? First-timers J.B. Holmes and Andres Romero.
• We are seeing the makings of another Annika Sorenstam in Lorena Ochoa. I wouldn’t hestitate to bet my meager life savings and all other personal belongings on this: We’ll never see another Woods.
• The only thing I don’t like about Woods’ dominance is it tends to diminish how good Jack Nicklaus really was. Some people forget and some may never know.
• Woody Austin delivered the best televised post-round interview of the year after collapsing Sunday on the last hole of the Zurich Classic. Austin had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie on the par-5 finisher, but he duffed a fairway-metal shot from the rough and hit his third shot into water.
But while he double-bogeyed there, he eagled a brief interview afterward and deserves a trophy for candor. In just five sentences that answered two questions, Austin used these words or variations: choke (three times), steer (twice), puke, topped and flinched. The grand finale was, “When I choke, I choke, and I choked.”
I’m thinking Aqua Man prefers his pet verb of 2007: Splashed.
• Ran into Lee Westwood recently at a restaurant and almost didn’t recognize him. As I told him, he has bulked up his upper body so much that he looks like a bouncer and (joking) it’s a good thing golf is finally drug testing. The affable Englishman, the only undefeated player in the last two Ryder Cups, told me his workout routine includes cleaning and jerking with heavy weights. Thing is, the musclehead thing is working. He has played some excellent golf of late.
• It used to be said, “Scots invented golf and Americans dominated it.” Tiger Woods aside, half of that is right now. If recent Ryder Cups didn’t drive the point home, then maybe last weekend did. International players won on the PGA Tour (Andres Romero of Argentina), Champions Tour (Bernhard Langer of Germany) and Nationwide Tour (Gavin Coles of Australia).
More and more, your grandfather’s tour is the world’s.
• The bunker rule that nailed Stewart Cink needs to be changed. Yesterday.
• Anger has been in golf news lately, what with Woods cursing on national television and Bubba Watson going off on Steve Elkington. But anyone who thinks temper flareups are new never heard of Lefty Stackhouse or saw Dave Hill and Tom Weiskopf after a 76.
Posted: 4/4/2008
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