Jan is the beginning of the Golf season for me. The Tournament of Champions and the Sony in Hawaii, the Farmers at Torrey Pines, Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, the AT&T at Pebble Beach, the L.A. Open ( or whatever they are calling it this year) all great tournaments to watch IMHO. Watched the Farmers yesterday and what a great ending. JB Holmes standing there forever on 18 trying to make up his mind and in the mean time icing his playing partners..how did PGA officials not step in and make him hit his damn shot? Ryan Palmers beautiful shot on the same hole to get into the playoff, the Swedish kid hitting his shot out of the park but getting a drop and then getting up and down to stay in the playoff. Jason Day who for the life of him couldn't hit the 18th fairway no matter what he did. Yet a great shot in the dark won it for him. What about Tiger Woods, pretty good start for him. However if he and I were in a 2 man scramble ...I hit more than double the fairways he did this weekend and so we'd be playing my ball! I really like the mix of players we have now on tour. Jon Rahm, Dustin, Jordan, Justin Thomas, Phil, Tiger, Jason Day, Ricki Fowler, just a good mix of veterans and young guns. Euro's have some excellent young players coming up as we saw with Alex Noren who I had never heard of, and of course McElroy and Justin Rose, and others. Ryder Cup will be good in Sept (France). When they show you the green without the camera lens opened up wide to make it look like daylight you realize how tough that 35 foot put was for Noren, he had no light to judge the depth just had to go on feel alone. Same for Jason's awesome iron to inside 10 feet. He said he couldn't really see the flag.
Besides the majors, there are some tournaments during the year that have outstanding fields. These include, Pebble Beach, Riviera, Bay Hill, the Players, the Memorial, and the World tournaments like the Match Play Championship, Akron and what now replaces Doral. Besides those, next weeks Phoenix (OK Scottsdale) tournament is always fun to watch because of the crowds around 16. Physically Tiger looks sound for the first time in years. For anyone else who played a little as he has the past half decade, his making the cut and final score would have been a moral victory. He still had length off the tee and his putting touch seemed good to me. Brandel Chamblee made the observation that up until recently, his back hasn't allowed him to practice much. I wonder if with practice he can get some accuracy back in his driver. I think he's over-swinging on the par 5s and his results are just like ours when we do that. With no real rough to contend with, he still might be a threat in the Masters.
Dustin is putting on a clinic at Pebble Beach and who knew Larry Fitzgerald would be a great Amateur partner, he and Kevin Streelman are running away with the Pro /Am
I figured Potter would fold up playing with Dustin, who's 40 to 50 yards longer off the tee. Well right now it's Dustin who is folding against Potter
The winner is Ted Potter Jr. Guy never flinched after the 1st hole. Larry Fitzgerald and Kevin Streelman won the Pro /Am Fitzgerald has a nice game he's no fluke.
I forget who, but they made some comments on his brother as a caddie. Saying that while his brother is actually himself a very good player, he's not really a professional level caddie, but that a lot of guys don't really want that for a caddie they just want somebody they like to be around and are comfortable with on the course. They mentioned that Nicklaus never had a caddie like a Bones, or some of the other well known guys, he always had a guy who he liked playing the round with on his bag.
I saw that, not many details other than the driver of the Ferrari he was in was killed and a following SUV driven by an actor Luke Wilson was also involved. Haas is out of the hospital. The driver was a member of the family that Haas was staying with for the L.A. Open. No word on whether or not Haas will be able to play this week. Why do I think that the story will ultimately involve alcohol and some reckless driving.
I see now that Haas has withdrawn from the tournament and has left for home in North Carolina to recover.
Looks like Tiger is finding his game. Tomorrow could be very interesting. Next week is the Palmer at Bay Hill. He's only won that 8 times. I'm looking forward to the Masters even more than normal this year.
Solid play from Tiger today, just hasn't been able to make a birdie when he's had some opportunities. He's headed into a tough finishing group of holes.
Linda Lovelace action by Woods....he's done. To many negative thoughts going through his head. To much guilt. Even Buddha can't clear that boys head. 5 will get ya 10 that Phil has a better Masters than El Tigre.