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Chip Shots

Sunday’s golf results have to go down in history as one of the greatest ever in golf history.  The winners of Sunday’s events read like a roll call at the World Golf Hall of Fame: Nicklaus, Watson and Palmer.  I doubt there ever was a day like this where these names all were on trophies at the same time.  OK, so it’s not Arnie and Jack and Tom were a team in a made for TV match, but a guy can dream can’t he?

Ryan Palmer and Robert Allenby played excellent golf at The Sony Open, going head to head all the way down to their last shot.  Palmer was able to birdie the eighteenth when his chip hit the pin and settled inches from the cup.   Allenby could only manage a par on the last and that gave Palmer his one stroke victory.  It was Palmer’s third career win, only 59 more to go to match Arnie’s total.

Meanwhile, over on another one of those gorgeous Hawaiian Islands, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were teaming up to win The Wendy’s Champions Skins Game at Kaanapali.  Any chance to see Nicklaus play is magical but I couldn’t find it on the tube anywhere.  Nicklaus and Watson won ten skins and $350,000 to beat second place finishers Ben Crenshaw and Fuzzy Zoeller.  It is Jack’s 70^th birthday on Thursday and he plans on spending it fishing.  Happy Birthday Jack, you are the class of this game.

It was a tough weekend for the Sony Open.  They lost two of their most popular attractions when John Daly and Rickie Fowler missed the cut.  The final round was exciting, but without any “big” names in the hunt over the last few holes the ratings surely will suffer.

Cheers to Darren Clarke as he continues his march towards the 2010 Ryder Cup.  Clarke finished second to Charl Schwartzel at the Joburg Open in South Africa.  Clarke has expressed his desire to make the Ryder Cup team this year after missing it in 2008.  He is playing events earlier than he ever has before to try and accumulate more points.  Let’s hope Clarke is there at Celtic Manor.

Is Tiger at a treatment center in Mississippi?  A local television station in Jackson, Mississippi thinks he is at The Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services Center in Hattiesburg.  Who would have thought that Woods could hide out for this long?  If he is there, let’s hope he gets his act together.

There are reports circulating that Tiger Woods has been undergoing Sex Addiction Therapy at The Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  I first saw it over on  Geoff Shackelford.com and there are other reports concerning Tiger’s whereabouts hitting the web now.  (WJTV, Jackson, Miss. Report)

I am amazed he has stayed out of camera lens distance this long.  If he is getting treated for sex addiction I wish him good luck.  However, if I was Elin, I’m using this time to get my lawyers ready for the most sensational divorce negotiation we’ve seen in awhile.

Well, the John Daly comeback was bound to hit a speed bump somewhere along the way. Too bad it’s the first tournament of the year. Daly missed the cut so the tour lost one of the biggest draws at The Sony Open. Better luck next time John.

One of the other closely watched stories in Hawaii was Rickie Fowler’s debut as a full member of the PGA Tour. Unfortunately, Fowler met the same fate as Daly, showing that the Golfing Gods have no favoritism towards youth. I have a feeling that Rickie will be making a lot more cuts than Daly this year.

At least those two got to play two rounds. Tim Wilkinson had to suffer the indignity of being knocked out of the tournament by his own ball. During the second round Wilkinson tried to hit his ball out of a ditch on the eighth hole and hit a tree. The ball ricocheted off the tree and hit him in collarbone. He felt compelled to withdraw. Ouch.

If you have the dream of living your golden years on a golf course, be careful what you wish for. A couple in Naples, Florida have to live with a constant barrage of golf balls hitting their house and landing in their yard. It seems the slicers off the first tee find the house more often than they do the fairway. They are collecting 200 balls a month. That’s a sad commentary on the quality of the golfers in Naples.

The appeal of golf has no limits to those of us who try to play this fascinating game. We play and we get hooked. Those of us that have our priorities straight realize golf has to be near the top of the list. You have to feed the need for golf. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do: you have to play. I know it; you know it and the Kings of Leon know it. Yea, Kings of Leon, that’s right.

In keeping with the tradition of musicians getting hooked on this game, Kings of Leon have taken their place on the green next to Alice Cooper, Huey Lewis, Hootie and the Blowfish and Justin Timberlake. It seems that Kings of Leon are hooked liked the rest of us and they will be taking some time off to feed their need for some golf. Sources are saying that the rockers will be taking six months off to work on their game before they start work on their fifth album. Who says golf doesn’t appeal to younger people? Who says this game isn’t cool?

Thanks to my kids I’ve heard their music and it’s pretty good. I can understand why they sell a ton of CD’s. It doesn’t matter what you do, who you are or what music you like. Golf hooks all of us.

Chip Shots…

John Daly’s comeback didn’t start as planned in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii yesterday. Daly’s five bogeys and three birdies (73) left him eight strokes back of the leaders and he’ll need a great round today to make the cut. Daly tried going “old school” at the Sony with a set of old Ping wedges with square grooves. How does he get away with square grooves, when the USGA has banned them? Easy: these clubs are so old that they were grandfathered in when Ping sued and then settled its lawsuit with the USGA. The ruling stated that any Ping-Eye 2 clubs made prior to April 1, 1990 are approved for tour use under the rules of golf. Daly had used these wedges when he won the 1991 PGA Championship. Maybe he thought some of that old magic he used at Crooked Stick was still left in them.

Tadd Fujikawa is back home playing in Hawaii and playing in The Sony Open. We loved him at the US Open in 2006 when he qualified as a fifteen year old. He has been working on his game and will play on the eGolf Professional Tour this year which plays most of its tournaments in North Carolina. He shot a 72 in the first round.

I had been wondering what happened to Brian Hewitt of The Golf Channel and I found him when I came across a new website, “Global Golf Post.” Brian Hewitt is the editor of this web-based, weekly digital golf magazine and it looks very interesting. I thought Hewitt was excellent on TGC and his magazine appears to be just as good as his work on The Golf Channel.  Click here and check it out.

by Jeff Skinner

The PGA Tour is like most businesses in these difficult economic times: it could use some help increasing its bottom line. There are some players that could help The PGA Tour this year deal with fewer dollars, less viewers and a “Tiger-less” season. We’ll take a look at some of the players that could have a positive impact on the tour this year.

There are four players that sell tickets and raise television ratings for professional golf. Tiger Woods is the biggest draw of course and he is missing in action. Phil Mickelson has a huge following but he won’t play until Torrey Pines. Michelle Wie is a difference maker but thankfully she is concentrating on the LPGA and not the PGA. The last player that moves the needle is teeing it up this week in Hawaii. John Daly is one of the four players that single handedly gets people interested and he can raise the ratings. He did it earlier in his career. He did it when he self-destructed, many times. He did it last year on the European Tour and he’ll do it again this year.

Daly is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption and he’ll get his share all year. The tournament directors know that Daly will sell tickets and that’s their job: sell tickets. Daly gets people watching golf. After all, he’s like a car wreck, you have to look. Whether Big John is piping it down the fairway or screwing up his personal life, we want to watch him. He’s a cross between a world class golfer and a reality TV show.
As a matter of fact he’ll be starting his second reality show on the Golf Channel in March.

Being John Daly will give us Big John up close. It should be interesting watching because only John Daly can be John Daly. He’s one of a kind and on many occasions he has been his own worst enemy, but we love to watch him.

Go to any PGA event and you’ll see the crowd he draws. There is the Tiger following, the Phil following and then Big John’s is right up there with the two of them. He’s the best card the tour can play now. This is the best time to get him too. Hope springs eternal at the season’s start and John will try to continue his comeback from last season. He’s lost a ton of weight, has redefined his circle of friends and says he is in control and making the right decisions for himself and his family. It’s hard not to root for this guy. We’ve heard this before but I’m hoping John can play well, behave himself and be a force on the tour this year. John and the PGA Tour could sure use it this year.

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The Sony Open is a full field event and there is a great mix of experienced players and some exciting youngsters. Jay Busbee at Devil Ball Golf highlights a few of the good stories at The Sony Open.

During his pre-tournament press conference, Ernie Els was asked about Geoff Ogilvy’s comment that with Tiger gone the number one spot in the world may be up for grabs. Ernie says Phil Mickelson is the man to beat now. Ernie said,” Well, the way Phil Mickelson played at the end of last year, you know, he played with Tiger in Shanghai, won the tournament there on the final. The TOUR Championship he won coming from behind, you know. I mean, the way he is hitting the ball, Phil is hitting it as long, or longer than anybody out there. He has really been working hard. Now his putting is coming around.”

by Jeff Skinner

The PGA Tour is like most businesses in these difficult economic times: it could use some help increasing its bottom line. There are some players that could help The PGA Tour this year deal with fewer dollars, less viewers and a “Tiger-less” season. We’ll take a look at some of the players that could have a positive impact on the tour this year.

One of the most common complaints concerning the PGA Tour is that the majority of golfers on tour all look and act alike. The perception among casual fans is that all these players are boring and lack any personality. Pick any name off the money list and chances are he’s a thin, faceless, millionaire that votes Republican and never says or does anything controversial. As Tiger Woods has shown, perceptions can be horribly wrong.

If the name you pick happens to be Rory Sabbatini you’ll get a millionaire golfer, but he’s not boring and he’s plenty controversial. Sabbatini is one of the few golfers that isn’t reluctant to show his emotions or speak his mind. Sometimes he gets in trouble for both his mouth and his actions. In a tour that appears to be laden with closed mouthed, politically correct droids, Sabbatini stands alone.

While everyone is looking for a savior of the month for the tour, Sabbatini could be just that. No, I haven’t lost what is left of my mind but the tour needs compelling stories to keep those ratings up. Not everyone tunes into a sporting event to watch their favorite, they also tune in to watch teams or players they dislike suffer. There are millions of “Yankee Haters” out there. “America’s Team”, the Dallas Cowboys are as hated as much as they are loved and for every Tiger lover (pre-smash up) there was a Tiger hater.

Sabbatini could be the PGA Tour’s “Evil Empire.” He could be the villian each week. He was already voted “least favorite playing partner” in a 2007 poll of tour players. He has played the bad guy role before when he putted out on slow playing Ben Crane while Crane was still in the fairway. He called Tiger beatable when no one dare criticize Woods and really doesn’t care if anyone likes him anyway. He would be the perfect foil to the squeaky clean PGA Tour player of the week. Let him be the “bad guy” on the tour. It’s a role he seems to relish already.

Let’s get this straight, this is all about perception. We won’t let the masses find out that Rory is a doting father. That he has a group of close friends on tour. No one needs to know that he raises millions for charity and donates plenty of his own cash to US Military charities. This is all for the good of the tour. Let Sabbatini play Lex Luther. He can be The Joker. He can be the villain and wear the black hat at every Sunday afternoon showdown on the tour.

Remember, this is for the good of the tour. Sabbatini may be the only player that could pull this off and he really doesn’t care what anyone thinks anyway.

by Jeff Skinner

The PGA Tour is like most businesses in these difficult economic times: it could use some help increasing its bottom line. There are some players that could help The PGA Tour this year deal with fewer dollars, less viewers and a “Tiger-less” season. We’ll take a look at some of the players that could have a positive impact on the tour this year.

Rickie Fowler is one of the young, new breed of golfers that may appeal to golf fans both old and young. After Fowler turned pro last year after his sophomore season at Oklahoma St. he went out and promptly finished tied for seventh at the Timberlake and took second in a playoff at The Frys.com Open. Not only does he have the game and a new PGA Tour Card, he also has the look and charisma that many complain most tour players lack.

Fowler looks like he may be more at home on a skateboard or a dirt bike. The truth is golf is his second love. His first was Motocross and he spent his childhood racing dirt bikes with his dad. He still takes the bike out and flies a few jumps but golf is his main focus now. His motocross ancestry may be a valuable asset in attracting younger viewers to the tour. While television ratings are sure to drop during Tiger’s hiatus, Fowler could be a link to the “younger generation” of fans that are borderline viewers. Fowler has the appeal that works for the “texting, Face Book, YouTube, Twitter” generation.

Don’t think that Fowler is just another pretty, young face. Sure he’ll develop his own gallery of young women that insist on following him on the course a la Camilo Villegas and Adam Scott, but his appeal goes beyond that. This young man has a game beyond his years. He plays an old school game. He is a player that is more concerned with feel rather than his mechanics. He uses an old school coach that has convinced Fowler that he can figure things out on his own. He is as fast a player as there is on tour. His approach is plain: get the number, pull the club and hit the shot. So far he looks to be a go for broke, gambling style player that isn’t afraid to try the high risk shot.

He may sound too good to be true: an attractive, skilled, young player that appeals to many demographics. My personal favorite characteristic about Fowler is that he plays fast. Fowler could be one of the new reasons people tune into the tour. He certainly can’t hurt the numbers and maybe he’ll give Stewart Cink some competition with his Twitter followers. If you don’t know what Twitter is, I have made my point.

by Jeff Skinner

When Jack Nicklaus talks the golf world listens. In an interview last week, Jack comments on how important the 2010 season is to Tiger’s quest to surpass Jack’s major record of eighteen. “If Tiger is going to pass my record, this is a big year for him in that regard,” Nicklaus is quoted as saying. Jack realizes how dominant Woods is on the courses being used for this year’s major. Believe it or not both Nicklaus and Woods have each won half of their majors on Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. In an interview with Tim Rosaforte on the Golf Channel, Nicklaus says that if Tiger doesn’t play the majors this year he will be missing a great opportunity to add to his major tally. Jack says that “if Tiger doesn’t play those three, almost gimmies for him, particularly Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, then he is going to have a harder time breaking my record.” Jack goes on to say that, “Tiger is a terrific athlete…he has his own personal problems, right now… and they are none of my business.”

Jack leaves the Tiger bashing to the rest of us, and says he “personally likes Tiger very much and wishes him well.” That’s Nicklaus: all class all the time.

Meanwhile, Tiger’s old swing coach, Butch Harmon has come out and said it is time Tiger stands up and clears the air. According to the Guardian, speaking on SKY Sports, Harmon says it’s time for Tiger to face the music and the media:

“The golfing public would like to see Tiger Woods do a press conference,” Harmon said. “To stand there in front of everybody, take his medicine, be humble, be embarrassed, be humiliated, and answer the questions. But where the hell is he? We could find Osama bin Laden easier than we can find Tiger Woods. How long can you spend on a yacht in the middle of the ocean?”

“You look at where the major venues are this year, two of his favorite venues are Pebble Beach and the Old Course at St Andrews. I think he will play in those. But, if he’s not ready to win, you won’t see him playing golf. He’s the strongest person, mentally, that’s ever played our game. If there’s anyone who can block out this extra stuff that’s going on around him, he’s probably the guy.

“The difficult part, in my opinion, is going to be the heckling from the galleries. He’s going to get it. If he plays in the Ryder Cup [in Wales in October], which I happen to think he will, that’s going to be very interesting.”

“If he wants to rekindle the image of who he is,” Harmon said, “this would be the best way to do it, to do the press conference, because then he looks human. He’s going to look ridiculous, really, with the questions that are going to be asked. But the average person would appreciate that side of him, because they’ve never seen that.

“The Tiger they see is very calculated, very focused, very involved just in golf. I’m not sure he’ll get up there and do that.

Harmon is never shy with his opinions and has been outspoken about Tiger on many occasions. He critiqued his swing changes while Tiger was rebuilding his swing under Hank Haney. Harmon coaches Phil Mickelson and has been known to shoot his mouth off before. I can’t say that I totally disagree with him. When Tiger is healed physically, mentally and matrimonially he should stand before a microphone and take some heat, at least a little and then get back to playing golf.

by Jeff Skinner

It may be harsh to call Geoff Ogilvy’s final round 67 unspectacular, but compared to Rory Sabbatini’s 63, it looks pedestrian. However, it was good enough for Ogilvy to win his second consecutive SBS Championship and a great way to start his 2010 season. Sabbatini opened with a 32 on the front nine and then had six birds on the back (five straight) for a 31 but when he failed to birdie the eighteenth hole Ogilvy was left with his margin of victory. Ogilvy led the field in putting all week to make up for his less than stellar driver. Ogilvy starts this year just as he had last year when he won here and then again at The WGC Match Play giving him two wins in his first five PGA Tour events. Early round leader Lucas Glover ballooned to 76 and finished T14.