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by Jeff Skinner

It seems that the past weeks of golf have been dominated by more feuds and fights than actual golf tournaments.

The PGA of America is taking shots at the Royal & Ancient.  The PGA Tour balks at the USGA’s proposed anchoring ban.  Vijay Singh gets suspended for deer antler spray, then gets reprieved and then sues the PGA Tour.

As crazy as all that appears they were only the undercard for this past week’s Tiger Woods vs Sergio Garcia main event.  Who would have thought that Vijay’s lawsuit against the Tour would be forgotten in the drama between Woods and Garcia.

Feuds aren’t rare in golf but having them play out in public with players shooting barbs at one another through the media doesn’t happen often or at least to the extent we saw this past week.

Golf.com explores the “Best Feuds in Golf” in a photo spread that captures everyone from Jack and Arnie to Judge Smails and Al Czervik and of course Tiger and just about anyone.

Spend a few minutes perusing the combatants.  You may be as surprised as I was when I saw that the Jones boys, Robert Trent Jr. and Rees have been going at it for years.  And shockingly Phil Mickelson appears most often in their list of 22 of the best feuds in golf as they list five separate Phil Feuds..

How can the lovable, smiling, fan favorite Mickelson tally so many battles…here’s the tale of the tape for Phil.

1. Phil vs Tiger, of course.

2. Phil vs Steve Williams, remember the “prick” remark.

3. Phil vs Vijay, spike marks at The Masters.

4. Scott McCarron vs Phil, McCarron said Phil would be cheating if he played the “grandfathered in” Ping Eye 2’s.  Phil was just stirring the pot as he like to do.

5.  Phil vs Nike Golf, Phil said it was amazing that Tiger is as good as he was because he was using “inferior equipment.”

Moving on to the most recent of feuds, Tiger vs Sergio, Ron Sirak has the final word on what transpired on Saturday at the second hole.  Sirak was following the two of them and was there when Sergio hit and Tiger’s crowd roared.

It’s a must read and he calls out Sergio for his futile attempts to get back at Tiger,” When play resumed after the weather delay, Sergio tried to play mind games with Tiger, but in that arena of competition, Garcia is giving up several shots a side.

On No. 7, with Sergio on the green after the weather delay, Tiger hit his approach shot and with Tiger still about 100 yards from the green, Sergio froze him by putting, possibly out of turn, which is not a rules violation in stroke play but an arrogant breach of etiquette.

On the next hole, as Woods putted for birdie, Garcia stood directly across from him, leaning on his putter with legs crossed at the ankles, not in an inappropriate position but in an annoying one. Seve Ballesteros would have loved it.”

As we all saw, Tiger wouldn’t have any of it and Sergio collapsed.

Sirak sums it up this way, “Here is my conclusion: There may have been bad communication between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia — and the marshals — concerning whose turn it was to hit on No. 2 at TPC Sawgrass. But there was no bad behavior, especially on the part of Tiger.

And my bottom line on the incident is this: Championship golf tests not only your physical skill and mental ability to make decisions under pressure, it also examines your character, specifically how well you cope when life deals you a bad hand.

Sergio got a bad break. It happens. Move on. He didn’t.

When it comes to mental toughness, Woods has Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus as his only peers. Garcia has Jean Van de Velde. That’s why the major championship scorecard between Woods and Garcia reads 14-0, advantage Tiger.”

Sirak has plenty more to say but that’s the bottom line. Try as he may Sergio will never compare to Woods in the mental toughness category and Woods knows it.

by Jeff Skinner

The LPGA has announced that another tournament will be added to the 2014 schedule with a return to Alabama at the Alabama LPGA Classic.  That will once again give the LPGA two tournaments in the Heart of Dixie.

That’s good news for the hard working commissioner of the LPGA, Mike Whan and even better news for Stacy Lewis as she won both Alabama tournaments in 2012 on her way to the LPGA Player of the Year.

This week the ladies tee it up at The Mobile Bay LPGA Classic and start a string of four consecutive events culminating with their second major at the Wegman’s LPGA Championship in June.

One of the former fixtures on The Golf Channel and NBC’s Golf coverage won’t be there.  Dottie Pepper has moved on to other things when she opted not to renew her contracts for golf coverage with the networks.

She has accepted a voluntary position with the PGA of America and spends most of her days at home in Saratoga Springs, New York.  She wanted a break from the 35 weeks a year of travel and a chance to make a difference in the game she loves so much.

Executive Director of Golf World Magazine, Ron Sirak profiles Pepper in this weeks’ Golf World.  “Why did I walk away from TV to take a non-paying position on the board of the PGA of America?” she asks with a laugh that punctuates many of her sentences. “The problem was merely the number of weeks I was being asked to work. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do for the game long-term being in a suitcase for 32 weeks a year. I can’t do that. I don’t want to do that. I don’t need to do that. I loved what I did. I miss the guys terribly that I worked with. But that offers no life other than calling golf shots. That’s not really how I’m wired.”

Pepper had simply had enough of life on the road and wanted to re-plant her passion and give it a new focus.”

Pepper was quite an athlete and was a good skier during those winter months when she grew up in Saratoga.  But it was golf where she made her name with 14 LPGA wins including two majors.

But it was her remarks about the U.S. Solheim Cup Team that cast a huge shadow on her after her retirement.  “At Halmstad, Sweden, in 2007, thinking Golf Channel had gone to commercial, she referred to Laura Diaz, whom she has known since junior golf, and Sherri Steinhauer as “choking freaking dogs.” Pepper apologized, but the damage was done.”

That remark cost her a chance at a Solheim Cup captaincy and the wound has just been recently closed when good friend and Solheim Cup Captain Meg Mallon named Pepper as an assistant captain.

Now, Pepper has forsaken the microphone for the telephone as she spends her days on conference calls working to grow the game that gave her so much. It’s a new Dottie, a more contented, more mellow Dottie.  And she has never been happier

Update: Dottie has signed on to join ESPN’s Golf coverage.  The shorter schedule of premier events fits her new lifestyle perfectly.

U.S. Open Countdown: 29 days

by Jeff Skinner

From the file labeled “Anything Tiger Never Goes Away” Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated reports that the marshals don’t support Tiger’s story. 

In the controversy surrounding Tiger and Sergio’s second hole on Saturday where Woods pulled his club and the crowd reaction disturbed Sergio a new revelation has come to light.

Tiger said he was given the green light to hit his shot.  “The marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterward and it’s not real surprising that he’s complaining about something.”

Being the thorough journalist that he is, Bamberger found the marshals that were surrounding Woods as he prepared to hit his shot from the trees left of the second hole.

 From Sports Illustrated: Well, when they heard that remark from Woods, the marshals were surprised. One of them, Gary Anderson, said on Sunday, “He didn’t ask us nothing, and we didn’t say nothing. We’re told not to talk to the players.”

Anderson’s boss, John North, was the chief marshal for the first three holes. He stood over Woods’s ball to protect it from the throng and was five feet away when Woods played his shot. North has worked the tournament as a volunteer marshal for 30 years, he’s a graduate of the Naval Academy, he served in Vietnam, he’s a FedEx pilot and he donates his round on the Stadium course for being a volunteer to the Wounded Warriors project.

Tiger’s 2nd Hole Shot

“Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,” North said. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks. We’re there to help the players and enhance the experience of the fans. He was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.”

That account differs greatly from Tiger’s and to tell you the truth, I’m not surprised.  Woods has a singular focus: himself.  He’s always been that way.  And he cares little for those around him especially Sergio.

It’s only fitting that Mr. Anderson mentions “character.”  As a Naval Academy graduate and a wartime pilot I would suspect that he developed a bit of character somewhere along the line.

Once again it seems that Tiger does and says what he wants without regard for others or the truth.  But we are used to that by now.

Notah Begay reports on the Morning Drive that Tiger’s camp will not respond to the Sports Illustrated article.  Of course they won’t.

Bamberger has a revealing line concerning Tiger, “Can you imagine someone more exciting and flawed and unknowable than Tiger Woods?”  He sure has that right.

by Jeff Skinner

1.  They like to call The Players the fifth major and that’s a debatable point.  But what Tiger showed us yesterday was that even on a course where he has only limited success he can still get it done.  Two wins at TPS Sawgrass may get an average golfer into the Hall of Fame but in Tiger’s world Sawgrass is still a course he  only tolerates.

2.  Jeff Maggert’s appearance among the leaders showed two things. The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass can be played successfully by straight hitters and long bombers alike.  And for a 49 year old to be able to hang with the best field of the year shows that there is still game in those “old” bones.

3.  Somebody call Tony Robbins and hook him up with Sergio Garcia.  If there is a player more in need of a mental coach than Sergio I’d be shocked.  We all complain about the player’s reliance on sports psychologists and mental gurus but poor Sergio needs help, big time help.

4.  What was missing from the broadcast yesterday?  Tiger’s driver.  Tiger pulled the game plan from his Open Championship at Hoylake when he avoided the driver like it had the plague.  Hitting fairway woods and irons of the tees he hit 68% of the fairways and 76% of the greens in regulation.  But that poses the question…should a true test of golf demand that players use the driver?

5.  Cheers to PGA Tour rookie David Lingmerth for hanging with the big boys.  The native of Sweden by way of the University of Arkansas just wouldn’t go away.  Just when we thought he would fade as he made a bogey he would bounce back with a birdie.  His bogey at 18 cost him a playoff with Tiger and a bunch of cash but he still earned over $700,000 and probably earned his card for next season.

6.  Maggert’s time at Sawgrass is bittersweet.  In 2008 after his first round he got word that his brother had been killed in a plane crash as he was flying to his son’s college graduation.  Even though he slipped at the finish maybe this week’s performance can give Maggert some new, better memories of the Stadium Course.

7.  Henrik Stenson’s climb back into the world’s elite has to be satisfying for the Swede.  Stenson has battled back from a case of the full swing yips.  A few years back he withdrew from the Open Championship because he said he “couldn’t even take a backswing with the driver.”  He tumbled down to in the World Rankings to 230^th but has worked his way back and is now 32^nd in the world.

8.  Tiger versus Sergio was the big story on Saturday and the final outcome at The Players represents the nature of the two players.  Woods has the thickest of skins, Sergio has the thinnest.  Sergio called himself the victim and while he may have been he has to know that saying that will only bring him more criticism.  True, we appluad players when they are honest and open to the press but he Sergio’s case he needs to understand that this “everything happens to me” attitude is self destructive.

9.  Here’s the difference between Tiger and Sergio.  Sergio hits a shot with a bad result and looks to the heavens and cries “Why me?”  Tiger hits a poor shot and screams “F**K” and moves on to the next shot with a vengeance.  True, Woods is known as a bully to some of his player partners  but Sergio needs grow a pair.

10.  Sunday’s finish at The Players Championship was riveting television.  But for awhile there it looked like Tiger may coast in but that shot on fourteen brought the field back in.  But how many fans would have been tuned in for a playoff between Jeff Maggert, Sergio Garcia and David Lingmerth… not many.  Once again it was Tim Finchem’s favorite player to the rescue, Tiger Woods.  Maybe Tim can consider this payment for letting Tiger stage his “press conference” here back when Tiger was emerging from his scandal.

Last one.  My Links Life Golf colleague, G. Rennie, was disappointed that Vijay Singh missed the cut.  It was his wish to see Vijay win and have Tim Finchem present the Players trophy to Singh.  It would have been the most uncomfortable presentation since Pete Roselle had to smile while handing Al Davis the Lombardi Trophy.

by Jeff Skinner

Be warned…this is painful to watch.  Sergio Garcia had his Tin Cup moment today at The Players Championship.  With the championship on the line Sergio choked up a big one with two balls in the water.  With Sergio’s constant whining and “woe is me” attitude his disaster brought cheers from many of the fans.  Watching him drown a few was tough but listening to the cheers as his ball sank made me cringe.

by Jeff Skinner

Once again Tiger Woods has proved to the world just how different he is.  It’s Tiger’s World and the rest of the PGA Tour is just living in it.

Woods prevailed over a top notch, but fading field at The Players Championship and earned his second Players Championship and 78^th PGA Tour win.

Tiger had played a very strategic and solid round going into the fourteenth hole.  Using fairway woods and irons off most tees he fashioned a two stroke lead over Sergio Garcia, David Lingmerth and Jeff Maggert.  And then he made what he called his only bad swing of the day.

Woods pop hooked his tee ball into the water left of the fourteenth fairway and could only manage a double bogey.  With that score he went from being in control of The Players to falling into a four way tie with Garcia, Maggert and Lingmerth.  In a very un-Tiger-like move he had opened a door for his challengers.  But this is where Woods differentiated himself from his pursuers today.

With the lead in sight the others wilted while Woods blossomed.  Maggert, who at 49 would have been the oldest Players Champion in history, rinsed his ball at the game changing 17^th.  Sergio Garcia did his Roy McAvoy imitation with two horrible shots into the water at the 17^th.  Only Lingmerth stood up to the challenge of seventeen with a great shot (or a good miss) to ten feet past the hole.  But he couldn’t sink the birdie putt and still trailed Woods by a shot going into eighteen.

This is where Tiger separated himself from his followers.  While they were stumbling to the finish he shook off the double bogey at fourteen and focused on a good finish.  He birdied sixteen and then using great lag putts made par on seventeen and eighteen to finish at thirteen under par.

He played the last three holes at one under par.  Lingmerth was even par over the closing three but couldn’t tie Woods with a birdie at eighteen.  Maggert  was one over par on the finishing stretch.  Sergio stumbled and bumbled home losing five strokes over the last three.  And had to listen to jeers from the crowd while doing it.

Woods showed he was mentally tougher than his opponents today and that had always been Tiger’s advantage when he was playing his best.

Some will say that Tiger’s mistake on fourteen shows he isn’t the Tiger of old or that he still hasn’t notched a major in the last five years and that’s a valid argument.  But the 2000-2001 Tiger happens maybe once in a century, maybe.

But this is clear, just as Ernie Els said during Tiger’s dominating years, he’s just better than everyone else.  He’s back to number one and winning at a Tiger-like clip and a major isn’t far away.

It’s Tiger’s World once again and everyone else is just living in it.

by Jeff Skinner

Everywhere Tiger Woods goes he usually gathers a crowd and on the golf course it’s always a noisy crowd.  Sergio Garcia felt the brunt of being paired with Tiger at The Players and wasn’t too happy about it.

It seems that on the second hole while Tiger and Sergio were separated by about 50 yards Sergio was disturbed by the crowd surrounding Tiger.  As Sergio was in his back swing, Tiger pulled a fairway wood from his bag and of course the knuckleheads that follow Woods  cheered in delight.

Now it probably was the same dude that screams “In the hole” when Woods tees off on a par five but none the less, the noise disturbed  Sergio.  Whether Woods deliberately tried to get in Sergio’s head or he was just getting ready to play his shot, we’ll never know.  But there’s a mini-controversy brewing at Sawgrass.  As if Vijay Singh wasn’t enough.

Both were being true to their reputations.  Woods has been accused of gamesmanship for a long time and Garcia is always ready to blame something for his poor shots.

Afterwards Sergio voiced his displeasure with Tiger’s inconsiderate timing and Woods said he wasn’t surprised that Garcia was complaining about something.

But the fact is that Tiger is a bully on the course and Sergio has been known to wilt under pressure.   And the fun thing is that the two still have to finish their third round together.

It’s not the kind of publicity Tim Finchem wants for his Players Championship but at least no one is talking about Vijay.