As you’ve probably noticed, the site has been slow and last week was sometimes simply unavailable, giving you strange error messages. We had been experiencing some technical issues, but after many talks with our hosting provider we have resolved all the issues and LinksLifeGolf is back to normal.
We apologize for the inconvenience and will be back in full force for this great week of golf.
by Jeff Skinner
Masters Countdown: 8 Days
The 2013 Masters field is almost complete with the total number finishing at 93 entrants vying for the green jacket. Here is the list of the 92 current players already qualified for Augusta with only one slot remaining for the winner of this week’s Valero Texas Open.
MASTERS CHAMPIONS: Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mark O’Meara, Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson.
U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONS (five years): Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Glover.
BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONS (five years): Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Louis Oosthuizen, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington.
PGA CHAMPIONS (five years): Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Y.E. Yang.
PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPS CHAMPIONS (three years): Matt Kuchar, K.J. Choi, Tim Clark.
U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPION AND RUNNER-UP: a-Steven Fox, a-Michael Weaver.
BRITISH AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Alan Dunbar.
U.S. AMATEUR PUBLIC LINKS CHAMPION: a-T.J. Vogel.
U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Nathan Smith.
ASIAN AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Guan Tianlang.
TOP 16 AND TIES-2012 MASTERS: Peter Hanson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Hunter Mahan, Kevin Na.
TOP EIGHT AND TIES-2012 U.S. OPEN: Michael Thompson, David Toms, John Peterson, Jason Dufner.
TOP FOUR AND TIES-2012 BRITISH OPEN: Brandt Snedeker.
TOP FOUR AND TIES-2012 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: David Lynn, Carl Pettersson.
TOP 30-2012 PGA TOUR MONEY LIST: Luke Donald, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Nick Watney, Bo Van Pelt, Ryan Moore, Robert Garrigus, Scott Piercy, John Huh, Ben Curtis.
PGA TOUR EVENT WINNERS SINCE 2012 MASTERS (FULL FEDEX CUP POINTS AWARDED): Marc Leishman, Ted Potter Jr., Russell Henley, Brian Gay, Kevin Streelman, D.A. Points.
FIELD FROM THE 2012 TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: John Senden.
TOP 50 FROM FINAL WORLD RANKING IN 2012: Paul Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Branden Grace, Bill Haas, Nicolas Colsaerts, Jason Day, Hiroyuki Fujita, Matteo Manassero, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson, George Coetzee, Thorbjorn Olesen.
TOP 50 FROM WORLD RANKING ON MARCH 31: Fredrik Jacobson, Richard Sterne, Henrik Stenson.
SPECIAL FOREIGN INVITATIONS: Ryo Ishikawa, Thaworn Wiratchant.
by Jeff Skinner
Paul McGinley has been awarded the captaincy of the European Team for the 2014 Ryder Cup. The Tournament Committee of the European Tour announced his appointment this evening as the Euro Tour tees it up in Abu Dhabi.
The was a little controversy lately as past captain Colin Montgomerie threw his name into the ring but the committee did the right thing in naming McGinley as the team’s leader at Gleneagles.
McGinley has served as vice captain twice, once for both Jose Maria Olazabal and Montgomerie on two winning Ryder Cup Teams. McGinley also captained two successful Great Britain and Ireland Teams to victories over Continental Europe at the Vivendi Seve Trophy in 2009 and 2011.
There had been a groundswell of support for the Irishman lately as Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and others took to Twitter to show their support for their friend and past vice captain.
“This is a position I’m really thrilled to be in. It’s also a very humbling experience and I can’t wait to get into the role of captain and to working with the players,” a misty-eyed McGinley told a news conference.
“I’m just delighted it’s happened and that the cards fell right for me. I think it’s very important to have a captain that is still involved regularly as a player on the tour and that’s what I plan on doing for the next 18 months until the match.”
”I have a real passion for team golf and I love it. I love everything that goes with team golf.”
by Jeff Skinner
It looks like Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki had a fun Christmas. I mean come on…how could the two of them do anything that isn’t fun. Nice tee shirts!
by Jeff Skinner
With Tommy Two Gloves Gainey showcasing his homemade swing as he hacked his way to victory at The McGladrey Classic the boys over at The Golf Channel got to thinking “Who has the most unorthodox swing in the game?”
Ryan Lavner posed that question to a few of his colleagues at The Golf Channel and as expected there wasn’t a consensus but rather four different candidates possessing their own unique way of getting the ball in the hole.
With Tommy Two Gloves’ sizzling 60 still fresh in his mind, Jason Sobel stuck with the latest winner on the PGA Tour. “Whatever your descriptive terminology preference, it’s clear to see that Gainey is unconventional in the best way. He uses a true baseball grip, bends more at the waist than any instructor would recommend and dips his head like an 18-handicap. He lists his brother as his lone swing coach, perhaps because no one else could teach that move, let alone help him maintain it.”
Rex Hoggard cast his ballot for Bubba Watson’s swing that gives him the long driving title and at the same time has more curves than Beyonce. No golfer works the ball like Bubba who plays a twenty to thirty yard draw or fade depending on what shot he feels like at the moment. “Watson’s swing is long and loose and virtually uncoachable. In the wake of his Masters victory in April numerous swing coaches said they wouldn’t take on Watson as a student because, as one coach said, “there is no way to teach that.”
Ryan Lavner’s pick is old reliable Jim Furyk. David Feherty once said Furyk’s swing looked like an octopus falling out of a tree and he wasn’t far off. But like all our candidates it’s repeatable, for him at least, and it has served him well. “Furyk’s hands are so low, it looks like he’s trying to receive a snap under center. His downswing looks like he’s trying to slap a hockey puck. His lower-body action looks like he’s trying to hula-hoop.” Whatever it looks like it has earned him over $52 million on tour and there are plenty of classic swings who can’t come close to Furyk.
Randell Mell went off the reservation for his pick and chose the Web.com Tour player Josh Broadaway. If you’re looking for unique, here it is. Want unorthodox, you got it. I thought Tommy Gainey was a shoe-in for this honor but after seeing Broadaway I have to agree with Mell. Josh Broadaway has one very different golf swing. He’s a natural left handed player that still uses his left hand grip on a set of right handed clubs. He hits it cross handed and I don’t know how he doesn’t break his wrist. “A left-handed batter in youth baseball, Broadaway couldn’t find left-handed clubs growing up, and so as a young boy he put his left-hander’s grip on the right-handed clubs. He tried to change for a time to a conventional grip, but it never felt comfortable, so he went back. Broadaway, 34, was good enough cross-handed to Monday qualify for The Honda Classic last year and make the cut. He barely missed graduating to the PGA Tour last year, finishing 28th in money winnings on the now Web.com Tour, three spots short of a PGA Tour card. He’s 75th in money this year but still determined to someday become the first player to win a major cross-handed.”
Check out Broadaway’s swing and be you’ll be amazed at how relaxed and smooth it looks. This has to be the most unorthodox swing in the professional game.
by Jeff Skinner
While Tiger Woods avoided the media center and declined to take part in a pre-tournament press conference, instead posting a video on his website, Phil Mickelson took a few minutes to sit down and answer real questions at The Wells Fargo Championship yesterday.
Phil is never one to miss a chance at the wise crack either, “Didn’t you guys see my video?” he asked the collective media before he got to the microphone.(Click here for the link to The Golf Channel video.) For the next fifteen minutes Phil entertained the press with his honest and thoughtful answers. Unlike Tiger, Phil and the rest of the tour for that matter embraces the press and shows that for the most part it’s a painless process.
During his session he still insisted that his play on the fourth hole at The Masters wasn’t a mental error or even poor strategy, he wanted his ball left and he just hit it a bit too long. He is always an optimist.
He also said that his Hall of Fame induction speech will be slanted more towards what golf has meant to him as a person rather than his accomplishments on the course. He also wouldn’t mind seeing the induction age moved to 50 instead of 40, especially since he thinks he is playing his best golf and has much more to accomplish.
Later he was asked what was his biggest victory was and surprised many when he said his very first win at the Northern Telecom Open when he was still a student at Arizona State University. He said that win allowed him to go straight to the tour after graduation and start his professional career from a high point instead of struggling through Q-School or the Nationwide Tour.
I find that amazing. He’s won four majors and his first, the 2004 Masters would be the obvious answer or the 2010 Masters with his wife Amy coming back from her fight with breast cancer may have been what we all thought he may say. But not Phil, just like the way he plays golf, he always does the unexpected. And that response was very unexpected. I guess we can always count on Phil to do the unexpected both on and off the course.
