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by Jeff Skinner

It’s a marquee pairing at The Bridgestone Invitational, two of the world’s best and most popular golfers going head to head in the final round of a significant tournament.  Tiger Woods and Anthony Kim playing together in the final round is enough to make golf fans giddy with anticipation.  There’s only one problem: they’ll be teeing off as the second pairing of the day at 7:45 am.  They will be done with their round long before the leaders tee off and you’ll only get to see some taped highlights.  Tiger will probably be on his jet getting out of there before leaders Sean O’Hair and Ryan Palmer have laced up their Footjoys.

Woods is at 11 over and Kim is at 10 over and they were out of it after day one.  At least Anthony Kim has a legitimate excuse.  He is playing in his first tournament since his thumb surgery three months ago.  He’ll need a few outings to get his game back in shape but his partner is running out of tournaments to find his.  If Kim has a legit excuse then maybe we could say that Tiger has an illegitimate excuse (cheap shot, I know).  Tiger’s game is long gone and is nowhere in sight.  He has no solid part of his game right now.  He is spraying his driver, iron shots are nowhere near as accurate as they should be and his short game looks like a 14 handicapper.  At least Kim shot a 69 on Saturday to show there is light at the end of the tunnel.  The light at the end of Tiger’s tunnel is a freight train full of mediocrity and early tee times and Tiger is standing in the middle of the tracks.

by Jeff Skinner

It was an absolutely awesome US Open.  Any Open at Pebble Beach is truly special.  With all those great, diabolical holes perched on that gorgeous slice of ocean-side landscape, even if the golf is less than stellar the views are spectacular enough to keep you awestruck.

I was disappointed that one of my favorite golfers wasn’t able to make the cut.  The Coolest Guy in Golf, Miguel Angel Jimenez missed the cut at Pebble Beach this year but Miguel always finds a silver lining in every situation.

He was able to spend a few days with his good friend and lookalike, The Most Interesting Man in the World.  Stay thirsty my friends.

by Jeff Skinner

Once again we see something happen in golf that happens nowhere else in sports.  We have heard it before: where else does a player call a penalty on himself?  There is no sport that is self-officiated like golf is.

Unfortunately, Brian Davis had to call a penalty on himself during the playoff in The Verizon Heritage and in doing so it cost him any chance at the victory.  This is one of the aspects of golf that separates it from all the others.  Honesty and integrity are part of the fiber of the game.  Brian Davis may have missed out on the first place trophy but he has won much respect from his fellow players and fans.  Jim Furyk discussed the call after his win:

To have the tournament come down that way is definitely not the way I want to win the golf tournament. It’s obviously a tough loss for him, and I respect and admire what he did. To be there and be in the battle and have an opportunity to win the golf tournament, and then have to call a penalty on yourself has got to be extremely disappointing. I admire him for what he did. It’s a testament to our game and the people that play on the Tour, and that we have so many guys that do that. It’s just awkward to see it happen at such a key moment in the golf tournament. Awkward for him to lose that way, and a little awkward for me to win. Obviously I’m very happy to win but you almost don’t know how to react. I want to react to the crowd and kind of wave and let them know, that, hey, I’m excited, but I don’t want it to take away from Brian. It was an awkward moment, an awkward way to win.

Did Jerry Rice ever tell a referee that he really didn’t catch that ball?  Did Michael Jordan ever let the refs know that that call wasn’t really a foul?  Heck, even Derek Jeter cheats a little on the relay to first on a double play ball.  Ever hear of the “in the neighborhood rule?”  Trying to get a little extra advantage is part of the game in other sports.  The spitball, stealing signs, stickum, holding and taking a dive or two are almost expected in all the other sports.  Not in golf. You play it as it lies and follow the rules.  A cheater is the most loathed person in golf.

This isn’t the first time Davis has made a call on himself that had consequences. He is the same player that penalized himself in Q-School and ended up not making The PGA Tour by one shot.  Needless to say Davis’s reputation is not one of a cheater.   You have got to love this game.

by Jeff Skinner

Friends and practice partners Yani Tseng and Suzann Pettersen played a friendly round of golf on a sunny Sunday afternoon yesterday in California.  However, the stakes were a bit higher than their normal skins game.  The two LPGA stars teed off in the final group at the season’s first major championship, The Kraft Nabisco Championship.  Tseng bested her buddy, playing solid, conservative par golf coming down the stretch. She had pulled away from the field with an eagle on two and a birdie on three.  She actually led by four strokes during the final round.  Pettersen had to gamble to make birdies and she had plenty of opportunities but couldn’t convert on three of her good chances on the back nine.

When Pettersen’s eagle chip on eighteen just missed the cup, Tseng had her second major championship.  This 21 year old has three LPGA wins and two are major championships.  She won the LPGA Championship in 2008 and is the only player since then to win two majors.  At 21 she could a significant force on the tour for decades.

Tseng’s controlled, even temper play contrasted with Pettersen who as usual struggled to control her emotions and was even caught on air dropping an F-bomb.  Stuff happens and Suzann Pettersen isn’t shy about showing her emotions.

Tseng was thrilled with the win and after a champagne shower from her LPGA friends took the traditional leap into Poppy’s Pond with her caddy and a few friends.  It’s a wonderful tradition and a great way to kick off the 2010 major season.

by Jeff Skinner

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  For Anthony Kim and Vaughn Taylor it was a tale of two tournaments yesterday at The Shell Houston Open.   Kim’s almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when he bogeyed his final hole to fall into a tie with Taylor and force a playoff.  After landing in the greenside bunker Kim played a wonderful sand shot to six feet.  The putt would have won the tournament and given Kim his first win since the 2008 Wachovia Championship.  Kim let it slip by and faced Taylor in the playoff.

Taylor had finished with a flourish by sinking an eighteen foot putt for birdie on the last.  It left him one shot behind Kim and waiting by a television to watch the finish.  For Taylor a win would have given the Augusta, Ga. native entry into The Masters.  It would have been a fairy tale ending with the hometown boy making a triumphant return home to play before his hometown fans in the most special of tournaments.  When Taylor’s playoff tee ball landed in the sand and his approach also found a bunker his dream was over.  He’ll have to settle for a second place check of $626,400 and watching The Masters from behind the ropes instead of playing inside them.

Kim’s par on the first playoff hole gave him his third career PGA Tour victory and completed a comeback of sorts for Kim.  After his two wins in 2008, the high expectations for Kim’s 2009 season went unfulfilled.  He spent the early part of the season traveling the world playing golf, collecting appearance money and practicing less than he needed.  This win validates Kim’s new attitude this year.  He has rededicated himself to practicing more, changing his diet and controlling his temper.

Talking about his missed putt on eighteen he said, “Two years ago, that bag may have been in the water,” Kim said. “I might not have had clubs to go to the playoff. But I just feel calm out there, I feel no sense of urgency. It’s something that’s happened naturally and not something that’s been forced.  I’m comfortable with who I am out there. I found my identity.”

He said he has a different perspective now,” “I just look back at last year, after the season was over, I was just complaining about everything. I felt like I deserved to win a golf tournament without trying. That’s not how it is.”

“I’ve put in a lot of hard work, so I feel like when I’m out there, I know I’m going to do well. Having that confidence really has propelled my game, I feel like, to a different level.”

It sounds like Kim is doing something all “twenty-somethings” do sooner or later.  He’s maturing.  With his skills and a new attitude he’s sure to be winning more and fulfilling those high expectations.

by Jeff Skinner

Major Season is upon us.  Forget Tiger and all the conjecture about his partners, his pairing and his press conference.  This week the LPGA beats the PGA Tour to the punch when they hold the first major of the season at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.  It isn’t The Open Championship but this tournament has a lot of history.

It started in 1972 when it was called the Colgate Dinah Shore, named after one of the most influential and supportive women in the history of the LPGA.  It was designated as a major championship in 1983 and called the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2002.  Look at these past champions since 1983: three time champions, Amy Alcott, Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam, and two time champions Juli Inkster, Dottie Pepper and Karrie Webb.

Not only does this tournament have an impressive pedigree it has one of the greatest traditions in golf.  This is where the champion jumps into the lake that borders the eighteenth.  Amy Alcott started it in 1988 and the players have taken the tradition to heart.  So has the tournament, they put a filtration unit in the pond a few years ago to keep the water a little cleaner and the jumpers a little fresher.  It’s a wonderful tradition and one of the highlights of the tournament.  They call the winner the “Lady of the Lake.” Check out the video of some of the past jumpers.  My favorite is Karrie Webb; she lands a killer cannon ball.

by  Jeff Skinner

Even though the LPGA will not play its first tournament on American soil until the end of this month there are still many American players doing whatever it takes to play golf and cash a check.  The LPGA season opened in Thailand and Singapore so the ladies had to head to the other side of the world to get some chances to win a few bucks.  Since Ai Miyazato has done her best to turn the tour into her own little playground with two wins in two events it’s time the rest of the girls took home a trophy.

Many of the Americans have decided to get the most bang for their “Asian Swing” buck and have opted to play in the Ladies European Tour’s ANZ Ladies Masters in Queensland Australia.  Nine American players are in the field and some are near the top of the leader board.  Christina Kim and Brittany Lincicome are the biggest American names in the field but Rookie Amanda Blumenherst is making her mark early this season as she shot an opening round 66 and is tied for the lead after two rounds at the Royal Pines Resort.

Sophomores LPGA players Stacy Lewis is four strokes back of the lead and Vicky Hurst is only five off the pace and both are in serious contention for a victory.  Lewis and Hurst are very good, young players that could possibly be two of the faces that carry the American Tour for years to come.  The LPGA had a great group of rookies last season and Hurst, Lewis, and Michelle Wie are three popular and talented women that could help in the resurgence of American women on the LPGA Tour.

With the LPGA going through a transitional period the American players need to get used to playing many tournaments on foreign soil.  The power of golf in Asia is exploding and the LPGA is embracing any and all comers when it comes to sponsorship and the majority of the new sponsorship money is based in the Far East.

Maybe the tour could start to issue a new award: The Gary Player Award.  Player claims to have travelled over 15 million miles, and counting, in his professional career. These players have a long way to go to match Player but with the face of the LPGA changing like it is a typical season will mean two swings to Asia and at least one trip to Europe.  The women of the LPGA will turn into true globetrotting golfers as they follow the LPGA tour all over the world.

by Jeff Skinner

So Hunter Mahan goes low on Sunday to steal the win at The Phoenix Open and finally get his 2010 season headed in the right direction.  YE Yang blew it when he drowned his ball on the 17^th and Rickie Fowler decided to use one of his best weapons and lay up on 15.  His wedge came up too short for him to convert it for a birdie and overtake Mahan.  We should get use to seeing Fowler’s name on the top of the leader board, he’s got some game.  It’s Mahan’s first win since the 2007 Traveler’s and maybe this is the year he fulfills all the expectations that surround him.

Ai Miyazato pulls back to back wins to open the LPGA season.  She wins the HSBC Women’s Championship to go with her season opening win at the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand.  Miyazato shook off two straight bogeys to come back to shoot a respectable 69 but Cristie Kerr has to be kicking herself for the way she finished her day.  She had the lead during her back nine but two poor drives caused her to bogey both 17 and 18.  Recently she has earned the reputation of the best American closer but on Sunday she threw up on herself with those bogeys and it cost her the tournament.

The real excitement on Sunday happened right where the PGA Tour hoped it would: at the par three 16^th hole at the TPC Scottsdale.  Each year the tour promotes the 16^th as the loudest and craziest hole in golf. A few years ago they even surrounded the entire hole with bleachers and skyboxes to give it that “stadium feel.”  The fans there are the loudest and most obnoxious in golf.  They certainly aren’t ruled by the normal rules of etiquette that apply to fans at every other golf tournament.

The Tour and television encourage the fans to be loud and rowdy in an effort to make this tournament a little different and get more eyes watching it.  The fans cheer a good shot and unlike anywhere else in golf, they boo a poor shot and find other ways to show their displeasure.

For years the Phoenix Fanatics have given it to the players that miss a birdie, fail to hit the green or three putt.  They are not a merciful group and no one is spared from their venom.

Almost all the players say they like the hole and think it is good for golf to have such excitement at a single hole but I think most of them are just trying to be politically correct and avoid being the focal point of the wrath of the thousands of drunks that surround the hole.  If a player came out and said that the hole is a joke and a disgrace, he wouldn’t make it out of the 16^th alive.  The hooligans fans would absolutely kill him, at least figuratively.

So yesterday the fans got a little taste of their own medicine.  It started with a good shot by the always gregarious Ian Poulter.  He put his ball in birdie range and was loudly cheered by the fans.  But when he missed his birdie putt the cheers turned to boos and jeers.  Poulter putted out to more boos and chants of USA, USA and who knows what else was being screamed at him.  After he gave a thumbs up and a clap or two he gave the one finger salute back to the morons that populate the 16^th.  That’s right; the bird, flipped them off, gave them the finger.  So maybe it isn’t a polite response but it is certainly the most appropriate.  Those drunken idiots deserved it.  While Ian’s at it he should also shoot that middle digit at the PGA Tour and Tim Finchem for perpetuating the Coliseum mentality at the 16^th.

I’m all for the fans enjoying themselves and I don’t mind them having a few beers but the situation at the 16^th crosses the line.  After a day of drinking and partying at the 16^th those fans are generally out of control.  It’s about time the PGA Tour did something and I don’t mean about Poulter.  He’ll probably get fined but what he did was no worse than what thousands of those fans do all day and they are all encouraged to be loud and obnoxious by the PGA Tour.

Maybe I’m in the minority but I tune in to watch golf and I really don’t care to see a bunch of liquored up, knuckleheads carry on.  If I wanted to see that I’d turn on C-Span and watch Congress.

Picture from Ryan Ballangee at Waggle Room

by Jeff Skinner

So much golf, so little time.  There was a ton of great golf over the weekend that featured exciting endings and a big breakthrough. Who needs Tiger Woods?

Ian Poulter and Paul Casey represented England well as Poulter finally broke through for his first win in America and moved to fifth in the world.  English golf is alive and well.  With all the success of the Europeans in the Match Play, Monty must be licking his considerable chops.

It looked like a runaway at the LPGA in Thailand.  Suzann Pettersen had a five stroke lead to start the last round but an amazing nine under par 63 gave Ai Miyazato the win in the LPGA’s opening event.

Cameron Beckman shoots a final round 67 to jump up and take the Mayakoba Classic.  Big John Daly had started so well with three rounds in the 60’s but he blew up and carded a disappointing 81.

In the most exciting finish of the day, not including the USA hockey win over Canada, Bernhard Langer holed out from a bunker for an eagle on his first playoff hole to beat a stunned john Cook.  Are you kidding me?

All this golf makes all of us that are still snowed in yearn for a little green grass and a few swings.  Here’s where I spent some time this week.  At a heating driving range where they clear off a few practice greens and even heat the balls.  Heated balls…you have to love that!

by Jeff Skinner

Well, it appears that Tiger and his team may have kicked a hornets’ nest.  There seems to be an outcry from many in the press and the players about Tiger’s planned “media event” on Friday.  It’s not too often that you find any mainstream media that criticizes Tiger and it’s even rarer to find a player, unless your name is Jesper Parnevik.  Rex Hoggard says, “this one already has a circus feel.”  He also questions the timing of the event and wonders why this couldn’t have waited until Monday, after the Accenture Match Play Championship.

He finds a breath of youthful fresh air in Rory McIlroy.  McIroy voices what everyone else is thinking,” He’s got to come out at some point,” McIlroy said. “I suppose he’d want to get something back at a sponsor that dropped him.” Way to go Rory!  Tiger’s agent, Mark Steinberg says the timing wasn’t intended to slight Accenture. Sure, Mark, it just happens to be a lucky coincidence.

Hoggard calls Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour on the carpet for allowing Woods to use the PGA owned TPC Sawgrass for the event, “And what of the Tour’s culpability in this? According to commissioner Tim Finchem the Woods camp never asked for the Tour’s input, yet to hold the event at TPC Sawgrass, a mere 3-wood from Tour headquarters, is to offer at least tacit approval of the timing.”

Dave Shedloski of Golf Digest says everyone at the Match Play is questioning the timing of Tiger and his crew.  “And there was curiosity about the timing of the media event, coming in the midst of one of the biggest non-major tournaments of the season, a World Golf Championship event, not to mention a tournament sponsored by Accenture, which was among the companies that dropped Woods as a spokesman after his post-Thanksgiving auto accident ignited a tabloid firestorm about his questionable off-course behavior.”

He goes on to quote players, off the record off course, “That was the first thing we all thought of, like he is sticking it to Accenture — and that the PGA Tour is part of it all,” one player said in the locker room, shaking his head. “It’s like Tim (Finchem, the tour commissioner) has lost his head. He wants Tiger back in the worst way, and so he lets this go on. I mean, we all want to see Tiger back, but this doesn’t look good.”

Geoff Ogilvy echoes the sentiments of many golf fans, “The only thing I will say about it is that I would like to see him answer some questions,” Ogilvy said. “If he answers some questions, then that would make it real because he wouldn’t be working off a script. But it’s a start. And he’s got to start somewhere.”

The most entertaining bit of frustration comes from Alex Miceli on The Golf Channel.  He rants about Tiger and Tim Finchem and says the players are fed up with Tiger and his endless need for total control of everything.  He calls him selfish and gutless and claims Finchem is complicit in this slight of Accenture and this embarrassing situation. Take a minute to watch the video.  It’s a good thing Alex wasn’t wearing his bow tie.  The veins in his neck would have popped it right off.  I don’t think Alex will be one of the selected few at Tiger’s event, at least not this time.

Again, McIlroy says what we all are thinking,” “I’m just sick of hearing about it.”

Hoggard’s Story Link

Shedloski’s Story Link

Miceli’s Video Link