•
NOW ON GOLFWEEKTV: Hate to be Rude: Tommy Armour III
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.• I’ve seen so-called “sudden-death” playoffs before, but the one at The Players Championship really was. One swing. About five seconds. Over.
OK, two swings. Sergio Garcia still had to find land after Paul Goydos rinsed at the island 17th.
Which raises the question:
When you’re playing for the so-called fifth major championship and the richest purse in golf history, should the outcome hinge on one swing?
I like that the playoff drama starts at 17. But let’s tack on 18 and at least decide the winner based on a two-hole composite score.
Anyone can have a bad or unlucky moment, particularly in heavy wind. I mean, a tee shot at 17, with a $1.71 million first prize on the line, could hit a sprinkler head and bounce into water.
Adding the 18th at least supplies a life raft with a slow leak.
• An
Orlando Sentinel headline the other day read: “Tiger Woods’ knee problems could hamper his career.”
Yeah, right.
So could alien abduction.
• Annika Sorenstam announced she’s planning to stop competing on the LPGA at the end of the year. Then she took the first-round Sybase lead on Thursday.
Maybe she’ll reconsider. As a sports fan and someone who enjoys watching elite athletes fulfill long-term potential, I hope she does.
• In between press conference and first round, Sorenstam appeared on David Letterman’s show and read a Top 10 list of reasons for retiring.
In case you missed it:
10. “Tired of Tiger Woods stealing my putter”
9. “Became less interested in aiming at greens and more interested in aiming at spectators”
8. “I knew I needed a break when my golf bag began talking to me”
7. “I’m leaving to play Countess Scarlett Worthington on ‘All My Children’ ”
6. “When I’m in a stressful tournament, I eat golf tees like they’re peanuts”
5. “Honestly, this long presidential campaign has sucked the life out of me”
4. “Who can focus on golf when Lauren and Audrina are fighting on ‘The Hills’?”
3. “I want to spend more time with Brett Favre’s family”
2. “I just want a job where I can sit in a cubicle instead of being stuck on a golf course all day”
1. “The only putts I have to worry about now is my fiance”
Somehow she left out:
“It’s more fun making babies than birdies.”
• Some people think slow-play is a plague to golf. Paul (Sunshine) Goydos, someone you might think would pan glacier golf, begs to differ to a point:
“If you’re around people you don’t like, it’s a death march,” the Players Championship protagonist said. “But I usually play with people I like. So do most people. So then golf doesn’t take too long.”
• How do you like them Jonathan apples? Jonathan Byrd and Jonathan Kaye are among those tied for the first-round lead at the AT&T Classic. Somehow Jonathan Moore and Jonathan Fricke aren’t in the field much less on the leaderboard.
But fret not. In honoring the lead Jonathans, the HTBR commitee has slightly doctored the names of others farther down the scoreboard: Jonathan Mallinger, Jonathan Huston, Jonathan Morse, Jonathan Riegger, Jonathan Mills, Jonathan Rollins and, of course, Zach, Dustin and Richard Jonathanson.
• David Duval said the other day at the AT&T Classic that when he’s swinging well, “nobody hits the golf ball any better than I do.” Because confidence is important, he should believe that. That doesn’t mean we have to, particularly after another high score in the first round. His scoring average, in the vicinity of 75, says otherwise.
For reasons of self-belief, professional athletes can lapse into denial. You know that when performance and words don’t match up.
Duval, a former No. 1, says he still has desire to get his game back to an elite level. At the end of 2006, I thought he would win a tournament again. Now I’d be surprised.
• Players in their 20s have won nine times on Tour in 2008, including six of the last seven tournaments. It’s about time. While that’s a good trend, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott remain the only two Tour players under 30 with more than two victories.
These things run in cycles. Some years guys in their 40s win more than their usual share, sometimes twentysomethings do.
Fresh blood would be nice. After all, no one, and I mean no one, has a clue as to who will succeed Woods on the throne down the road. That person might be in high school.
• Kenny Perry gets to May and starts playing like Jack Nicklaus, circa 1972. He’s leading this week. He played in the final group of The Players. He has won the Colonial and Memorial this time of year.
He needs to start the year with a new calendar. Every day should read May 20 or something in the vicinity.
• Sad is the player who loses his game in a big way. Latest is Franklin Langham, once a top 30 player on the PGA Tour.
Langham was 22 over after 17 holes Thursday at the AT&T Classic (he withdrew Friday morning) in his home area of Atlanta. He is coming off a recent streak of 82, 83, 90, 83, 82, 84 and 78 on the Nationwide Tour, where his scoring average is 79.46.
He identified his problem recently as “bad swing habits.”
About the only good thing about that is roughly 20 million golfers would love to have a stroke average below 80.
Posted: 5/16/2008
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