NOW ON GOLFWEEKTV: Hate to be Rude: Omarosa
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.First things first, playful colleague
Rex Hoggard said the other day on Golfweek.com’s Match Play that if he were PGA Tour commish and could change one rule, he’d allow players to wear shorts. With all due respect to Sexy Rexy and his shapely legs, I’m not sure I want to see John Daly’s sweaty stems waddling down a fairway. Particularly if I’m in a suit and just wrote a check for $6 million as a title sponsor.
• All you need to know about the upper shelf of 2008 professional golf so far happened over a 15-day period starting Jan. 27. Tiger Woods won twice, by eight strokes at the Buick Invitational and by a Sunday rally in Dubai. Meanwhile, would-be challengers Ernie Els (Dubai), Phil Mickelson (FBR Open) and Vijay Singh (Pebble Beach) failed to close out leads down the stretch.
Thus the continental divide at the top widened. The gap is so wide now that you couldn’t fill it with all Stadlers, a Daly, a Herron, a Super Wal-Mart, a Super Kmart and a superhighway. Already so far ahead, Woods is getting better at a faster rate than his closest competitors. To carry a theme, that would make him even more of a Superman.
• Els, world No. 4, has
entered next week’s WGC Accenture Match Play after all. Entering a tournament usually is the easiest thing a player does. Now comes the hard part after the 11th-hour change of heart: Getting past the first round.
In what might qualify as odder than Britney Spears’ behavior, Els hasn’t gotten past the Accenture Match Play first round since 2002 and has never advanced past Round 2 when the tournament has been held in America. He lost opening matches in 2003, ’06 and last year and skipped the event in 2004-05. What makes that run even more unusual is the same man has won the World Match Play in Europe five times in 1995-07, including four of the last six years.
As he is set to open against Jonathan Byrd on Wednesday in suburban Tucson, inquiring minds wonder with one key word: Will his game desert him again in the desert?
• Am I the only one out there who sees and hears Carolyn Bivens and thinks, “Hillary Clinton?”
• Scott Hoch graciously offered to buy champagne for a press corps of about 10 after he won the Allianz Championship on Sunday – and word is the writers politely declined. If Tony Lema just rolled over, then Walter Hagen and Henry Longhurst moved in sync.
• Running the risk of finding a typo on the term paper of an A+ student: If there’s a void on Woods’ remarkable record besides the fact he has never won a major from behind on Sunday, it’s that golf’s current best shotmaker never won on any of the three venues known as Hogan’s Alley: Riviera (nine professional starts), Carnoustie (two) and Colonial (one).
Coincidence? Probably. Not enough chances? Yes.
None of the courses is a bomber’s paradise. That’s an equalizer. But as Woods demonstrated with long-iron precision in winning majors at Royal Liverpool in 2006 and Southern Hills in 2007, he’s more equipped than ever before to win anywhere.
• Yet more evidence that life of Tour caddie can be hard: In the aftermath of Steve Duplantis’ recent death, one veteran looper said that he and a couple of his longtime mates counted the number of caddies who have died since they started as bag men 20 or so years ago. The sad tally went over 50. Most people don’t endure the deaths of 50 friends in an entire lifetime.
• File this under Cooler Heads Prevail: The Tour wisely is in the process of revising its controversial, new cut rule. The Tour’s Players Advisory Council voted this week to change it, and expect the Policy Board to concur in a couple of weeks. That will mean the return of the low-70-and-ties rule, with the proviso that a 54-hole cut will apply if the final-round field still exceeds 78. To steal from the Roger Clemens proceedings, Saturday Moving Day gets a B-12 shot.
• Over/under for the number of times next week you’ll hear the sentence, “Anything can happen in 18-hole match play”: 127.
Barring overtime, that’s more than the number of holes any pro will play.
Posted: 2/14/2008
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