Tiger Woods was the story at the beginning of the week. Everyone was curious to see how he would bounce back from his disappointing showing last week finishing second to last. This week it was an improvement finishing tied for 27th but that is still a disappointment to Tiger fans.
Tiger was not the real story this week, it was Dustin Johnson. Dustin had the lead going into the final hole when on his second shot, he grounded his club by accident in a trampled down bunker. No one including the t.v. crew had any idea that it was a bunker because it was so heavily trampled from the crowd, also when Dustin hit the crowd was actually in the bunker as well. A PGA rules official greeted him after his final putt that would have put him in a three way playoff to tell him the unfortunate news.
Congrats to the German, Martin Kaymer for winning the playoff but this will go down in history as an American rip off.
I expect to see Dustin Johnson and the 31 year old from Bagdad, Florida Bubba Watson in many major final pairings to come.
Tiger Woods could be the greatest athlete of all time and as a result of his efforts of chasing a little white ball around some green fields, he has a personal net worth of over $900 million and an annual salary of $85 million. Tiger is the face of the PGA, and the tour suffers without him. His victories are to many to list in detail but here are some highlights: 14 professional major tournaments, 71 PGA Tour events, he has been ranked #1 for more consecutive weeks than any other player in history, he has the lowest scoring average of all time, he has been crowned PGA Player of the year 9 times, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the year twice, and AP Male Athlete of the year 4 times.
Love him or hate him, you must admit that Tiger sells tickets and gets everyone to tune in on Sunday's. I'll be the first to admit that if Tiger isn't playing on Sunday I don't even want to watch. Sure I love the Lefty, and the Big Easy but they don't bring the excitement and the same intensity as Tiger brings that is so addicting. A lot of people say that Tiger needs to hang it up for the season and get his life in order before he plays another tournament. I couldn't disagree more.
This week at the PGA championship Tiger has a lot to prove. Sports analyst Mike Wilbon said on his twitter page, "Tiger Woods personal life fell apart, and now so has his game." With Tiger finishing second to last in last weeks terrible effort, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain this week.
Following a two hour fog delay in Friday's second round at Whistling Straights; Tiger is in the mix, but still needs to complete the second round tomorrow as well as play the entire third round. This for Tiger is a good thing, as his track record shows, he is ruthless in extra innings needed.
This week is the week for Tiger to prove to everyone that he still is the man and that he still has what it takes to be competitive. Love him or hate him, Tiger is the face of golf. Mark my words, he will show his worth this week, and bring the buzz back to the T.W.
The U.S. Open was as thrilling as ever this year and came down to the wire. It was a classic story of the collapse from an inexperienced tour playerthat no one knew about before this weekend. But for me this weekend the U.S. Open was a side note.
I decided to go hit the links myself with Shake-N-Bake and an old friend we will call Norm. It was on this day June, 20, 2010 where we all had the pleasure of being a be a part of history. l Although we were not at Pebble Beach, with the large galleries, the breathtaking views of the Pacific, and the famous 7th hole par 3; we found ourselves at one of Utah's finest in Eaglewood Golf Club, with beautiful valley views of Utah's beach the Great Salt Lake.
With much excitement and laughter from the first tee we all were feeling like Rocky circa 1985 as the round was coming to a close. We approached the 8th hole par 3, where Marcus Fenton and the greens keeping crew had the course looking impeccable. With the wind to our backs, and a Cleveland 52 degree lob wedge in hand I received my first Hole-In-One!
Tiger where you at?! Where was your game this weekend? I brought mine! Norm and Shake-N-Bake thank you for being a part of my personal history, I just hope I can be a part of your first when the opportunity arises.
Tiger Woods withdraws from The Players Championship.
Tiger was not himself today.He struggled to walk fully upright, get out of the Bermuda rough, and on the seventh hole picked up his ball and called it quits.Tiger reports that he believes that he has a bulged disk in his neck.Could this be due to the huge amount of stress that he is under, or could it be hitting the weights to hard?Only Tiger knows the answer but I would be easily convinced that it’s a combination of both and feel that Tiger needs to take a good amount of time off to settle down his life and get his mind and body back in order.
So what’s now at stake?Well, now with Tiger out of the running, Phil Mickelson has a chance to steal and take over the number one spot in the world golf rankings from Tiger.This can only happen if Phil wins the tournaments and now sees himself standing in 7th place with a lot of work to do and a tough canvas to paint on at the TPC at Sawgrass.If the lefty can make some magic this will be the first time in his career that he will have claimed the number one spot in his career.
With more coverage to come…until then hit um long and straight!
In a time of year completely smothered with NBA playoffs we must still remember the gentlemen's game of golf. This week the PGA tour is at Quail Hollow located in Charlotte, North Carolina, the buzz around the field is that this course is championship host worthy. The field includes Michelson, Woods, Mayfair, Kim and Love III.
Tiger Woods of all players missed his sixth cut in his career on Friday, shooting a 79 to finish +9. Tiger said to the press, "It bothers me that I missed the cut, no doubt. But at least I get the weekend to see how it's done, how real players play golf, and hopefully I can piece it together for next week and be ready to go." Next week is the Player Championship in Florida at the TPC at Sawgrass. Winner takes home a cool $1.71 Million for his efforts.
Woods has only missed five cuts prior to this one out of 240 starts.
But rest assured that Tiger will get everything going again and be ready for the Players next week.
Mixing politics and sports USUALLY is not a safe bet… well, then consider this the long shot!
1280 The Zone just announced that Barack Obama, the leader of the free world; the man that has said he will fix our country; the President of the United States of America has played 32 rounds of golf since entering office! 32 rounds! That’s 576 holes! That’s AT LEAST 112 hrs not including driving, post play shower, and whatever else comes with playing 18!
Like I said, mixing politics and sports is risky business, but frick! Am I the only one that finds that ridiculous?!? A lot of people are either out of work or have taken a huge pay cut and our “Big Spender” is playing 18!
Going into the final round of the Masters we as viewers had all we could ask for.We had a star-studded leader board with Mickelson, Westwood, Woods, Choi, and Couples.Only time would tell who could withstand the pressure of golf’s greatest honor.
Freddy Couples had a great pairing with Hunter Mahan and had a quick start birding the first3 holes.Hewas battling back into the lead but then a bogey on 11 and a double on 12 following a bogey on 16 put a dagger in Freddy’s chances which pushed him out of contention, and was an unfortunate chain of events because it would have been great to see Freddy win.
The K.J. Choi, Tiger Woods pairing was interesting because they had played together the previous three rounds and were still neck and neck going into day four.K.J. wanted to be the 2nd South Korean to win a major and started off with solid play through 12 and birdies on 2, 6, 8, and 10.He looked like he was on his game and nothing could stop him.Then he bogeyed 13 and 14 to put him out of contention and to finish -11 tied for 4th place with Woods.
Tiger on the other hand started off horrible and seemed to be scrambling all day long.The media and the fans seemed to be wearing him down.He was in the trees what seemed like nearly every hole.With bogeys on 1, 3, 5, it looked as if Tiger just shot himself out of the tournament.But on cue Tiger rose to the stage with a hole out on 7 for an eagle and birdies on 8 and 9 to put him back within striking distance but no room for error because the field was still 4 strokes ahead of him.Tiger battled hard on the back side but was also battling with himself with miscues.He bogeyed 11, but then had a birdie opportunity on 14 but 3 putted for yet another bogey to push him out of contention.In his interview Tiger stated “ I enter tournaments to win, and I wasn’t able to accomplish that.”So despite his valiant effort and a tie for 4th place it was sum par for el Tigre.
Lee Westwood was the European who had everything to prove this weekend.Just a couple of years ago he put down the clubs, with no intension of ever picking them back up again.He soon overcame misery, got back in the championship hunt but despite a disappointing finish he stated that he will use this win as a building block and return next year.Westwood bogeyed 1 but then followed with a birdie on 2 and seemed to keep this bogey birdie trend for most of his round not allowing for him to cover much ground.He finished 2nd overall at -13.
I just want to touch on one more player before we get to the winner.Anthony Kim has been said to be the next up and coming Tiger killer but at age 25 has yet to do so.I believe that he has been paying attention to the press and wanted to come out and prove something to the world this year.We didn’t hear much of him until the 13th hole where he went birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie and threw up straight up to -12.He had a shot at tying Phil at -14 but was unable to capitalize on 17 and 18.He did prove himself that he can play with the big boys and he is an electric player when he’s hot and is a lot of fun to watch.Kim finished -12 in solo 3rd.
Now to our main attraction Phil Mickelson.This was an emotional tournament for Phil and his family.Amy being diagnosed with cancer recently has made things hard for Phil.He has skipped out on practice rounds and really struggled with leaving his family to play on tour, so having the family at Augusta was a huge blessing for him.I don’t need to break down Phil’s round too much because this video does it so much better but pay attention to the fist pump on 12 and the shot through the trees on 13 that was a huge momentum turn for the lefty. The par save on 17 and the final birdie on 18 to take it home was the exclamation point on the week for Phil.
The Masters is a tournament that will always hold a special place in my heart and will always bring the thrills and spills that keeps all golf enthusiasts watching.I always look forward to the first part of April for this reason, and can’t wait for the drama to unfoldin 2011.
The Masters began today and we all got our wish. Tiger teed off late so that we could all enjoy the electric atmosphere that he brings to the game. Just incase you forgot the electricity he brings to the game, here is Tiger's chip in at 16.
I will admit that Tiger is the man, but isn't it interesting that there are so many players in the field with great stories about their round but all anyone really cares about is Tiger. Tiger brought the heat today and he came to perform. He had the usual look of determination, and focus as always. The crowd seemed to be good to him for the most part and he looked to be hitting the ground running after his long break from golf. Tiger performed better today than he ever has in the first round of the Masters. He shot -4 66 which puts him tied for 7th place. Simply put Tiger played solid.
Even though Tiger played he wasn't the only story of the day. The favorites going into the tournament were Phil Michelson, Y.E. Yang, Paidrag Harrington, Lee Westwood, not Tiger. But no one said a word about Freddy or Tom.
Freddy Couples and Tom Watson. Where do you start with these two. Both class acts and both have been around forever. Freddy at 50 years old claims the hill first with a -6, and did climbed this mountain in his skateboard shoes. Not sure what that was about but it worked. Tom Watson is clipping at his heals at -5 at 60 years young.
Other notables include
K.J. Choi:-5
Phil Michelson:-5
Y.E. Yang:-5
Anthony Kim:-4
Adam Scott:-3
We'll see what the tournament unfolds for us tomorrow, despite Freddy's sizzling 66 we are all anxious to see what Tiger has in store. Round by Round coverage and opinions will be soon to come.
The first day of the Masters is less than 48 hours away from us. I can't wait to see shots of Magnolia Lane, the Tea Olive (1st hole) which could be the most nerve racking shot in golf, to Amer Corner. The Masters is upon us, with breathtaking views of tree lined fairways and pins tucked in places that seem to be unfair and impossible. As a golf fan we are all in for a real treat this week. I can't wait to see players try to pin seek the 9th green to see it roll off 50-60 yards.
We are going to see a new Tiger this year according to Tiger. Tiger says he is going to be nice to the fans for once. But do we buy it? This is the guy who yells at rowdy fans, and gets in photographers faces. Personally I believe him. This is a changed man who has nothing to lose and everything to prove.
Tiger also wants the focused to be moved away from him and put more on golf. Why? Everyone knows that the viewer ratings over the last decade have been solely based on seeing if Tiger is in the final pairing on Sunday, and if he's not it's almost a let down. If Tiger doesn't play we don't watch. If he doesn't win we wonder what happened. It doesn't matter if you are a lover or a hater of Tiger, America watches tournaments when he's playing and almost doesn't care about golf when he's not.
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. It's always going to be Tiger, so just get used to it.
This coming week is the most prestigious event in all of sports.Every April within the golf world only means one thing, The Masters.This marks the first major of the season and brings all of the big hitters out to the big show on grass.Augusta is where legends are made.
This field is star studded as usual with names but the big story is Tiger.Can tiger put his game face on and zone out the distractions in his world, when he gets behind the ropes?He is the face of golf and now has no secrets.Let’s think about how well he did in years past when all of this was weighing solely on himself.He had a lot on his mind but somehow put all distractions aside, played his part with his black pants and red shirt and performed.This year there is much more in the open and much more to deal with.Tiger has to put his blinders on when inside the ropes, with that look of pure focus that we all are so accustom to in order to even be in contention.
It’s spectators like this that Tiger will have to zone out to stay in contention.
Augusta is such a mental golf course, emotional exhausting golf course, strategic planning and second or placement shot golf course.You must be both mentally and physically prepared for the brutal toll of Augusta.History has shown that you have to succeed in one of two things to win.Your putter has to be top notch, or you have to lead the tournament in greens in regulation.There is no room for error at Augusta with the hardest greens on the tour.
In preparation for the first major, you can try to replicate the near concrete speeds of the greens but the slopes are unlike anything else.You cannot fully prepare anywhere else for Augusta other than being there.
Par 3 Challenge is an event that is fun for everyone and has gained a national spotlight due to it’s uniqueness.We see players caddies and even kids playing with them and all of this takes place Wednesday the day before game time.But who really takes this challenge seriously?No Par 3 challenge winner has ever won at Augusta while winning the par 3 challenge in the same year.There has also been fifteen contest winners who have missed the Masters cut come Saturday, including three of the past four winners.This being said is it really a curse of the course or just something for your mind to unconsciously be thinking about while walking around God’s course?
All in all Augusta is the greatest spectacle in all of sports and all golf fans including myself can’t wait for the action to begin.Here is a television guide to catch all of the action.
