Archive for 2008
December 28, 2008
For the fourth time this decade, the player deemed to be the best golfer of the year captured two major championships. And for the fourth straight time, the Ryder Cup turned out to be yet another romp.
But if anything, 2008 was all about role reversal.
Who would have imagined that the player of the year would be a European? Or that the best team would be American?
The double major winner was not Tiger Woods, who didn’t hit a single shot over the final six months of the season after winning the U.S. Open on one good leg. Rather, it was Padraig Harrington of Ireland who became the first European to win successive majors in the same season.
Perhaps the bigger surprise was the Ryder Cup.
Even with Woods sidelined by season-ending knee surgery, the Americans found the right recipe behind the guidance of captain Paul Azinger and the youthful infusion of Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan to win the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1999. When the last match was conceded, the score was 16 1/2-11 1/2, the biggest margin for the Americans since 1981.
And there were more surprises.
Robert Karlsson wasn’t even the best Swede in the world rankings at the start of the year, yet he became the first from his country to capture the Order of Merit on the European Tour.
Thirty years after Gary Player won the last of his three Masters, the green jacket was slipped onto the shoulders of another South African - not Ernie Els or Retief Goosen, not even Rory Sabbatini, who started the year at No. 11 in the world. The Masters champion was Trevor Immelman, who only four months earlier feared for his future as he lay in a hospital with a tumor in his back.
“This has been the ultimate roller-coaster ride,” Immelman said. “And I hate roller coasters.”
For such an unpredictable year, the biggest shock came from Woods.
The world’s No. 1 player raised expectations at the start of the season when he said the Grand Slam was “easily within reason.” Then, he won the first four tournaments he played. But after finishing second to Immelman at the Masters, he had surgery to clean out cartilage from his troublesome left knee. He didn’t play again until the U.S. Open, where he was clearly in pain, but managed to force a playoff with a birdie on the final hole and then beat Rocco Mediate for his 14th major.
Two days later, he announced he was having reconstructive surgery on his knee and was done for the year.
Who would fill this void? So much attention was on Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, who had won The Players Championship only a month earlier and was hitting his stride. Maybe this would be the time for Els to emerge anew.
It turned out to be Harrington, but only after a strong challenge in the British Open from Greg Norman. Talk about surprises. Norman was on the tail end of his honeymoon with tennis great Chris Evert when he found himself in the lead with nine holes to play. But Harrington was brilliant on the back nine with a 32, leading to a four-shot victory over Ian Poulter.
He became the first European in more than a century to have his name occupy consecutive lines on the silver claret jug. And with two majors, it caused Harrington to search for a new goal.
“Now that I’ve got two, I’m in a different club now,” he said. “What’s the next club? I will have time to reflect and reset some new goals. You’ve got to keep pushing.”
It took only three weeks to reach a new level.
He trailed Garcia by three shots going to the back nine at Oakland Hills in the U.S. PGA Championship, but turned in the putting performance of a lifetime. Harrington holed a 12-foot par putt on the 16th hole to tie for the lead, holed a 10-foot birdie on the 17th to take the lead and closed out his victory with a 15-footer for par on the final hole.
Europe had gone 78 years without winning the PGA Championship until Harrington hoisted the heavy Wanamaker Trophy.
The Ryder Cup is much smaller in comparison - only a 17-inch (43-centimeter) chalice, shiny gold, property of Europe. It had captured the cup eight of the last 11 times, and was a heavy favorite to win at Valhalla.
Azinger introduced a peculiar concept of breaking his 12-man squad into groups of four, and they bought into the plan. The Americans led from the opening session, while the second-guessing was directed at European captain Nick Faldo for sitting out Garcia and Lee Westwood for the first time. It didn’t matter. Kim blistered Garcia in the first of 12 singles matches, and it was the Americans spraying champagne to end a decade of European dominance.
Harrington failed to win a match at Valhalla, extending his streak without an outright Ryder Cup victory to nine matches. His achievement for the year was purely individual, and he was thus rewarded.
The Irishman was voted player of the year by the European Tour, U.S. PGA Tour and golf writers from Britain and America.
Woods still managed to lead the U.S. tour with four victories and finished second on the money list to Vijay Singh, who didn’t win a tournament until August and won two straight in the final month of the season to win the FedEx Cup.
As the 2008 season wound down in the U.S., Europe began its 2009 season in November with great anticipation. The Order of Merit now is called the “Race to Dubai,” which will end with a $10 million tournament and a $10 million bonus pool to be decided next November.
If next year is anything like this one, there’s no telling what will happen.
December 28, 2008
The end of 2008 is here and its time to look back on the year in golf. But any retrospective of the year does just one thing: gets a golf fan excited for the year to come.
Lets face it, 2008 was a half-season as far as the PGA Tour is concerned. Why? Tiger Woods, thats why.
With Woods playing just half a season, the game lacked its go-to star. Tournaments lacked buzz, television rating plummeted and interest in the final two majors waned. Even among media, as tight financial times and Woods absence added up to less coverage, there was less buzz and less interest.
That wont be the case in 2009.
Woods already is hitting some irons and the anticipation will build and build until it reaches a fever pitch upon his return. Where, and when, will that be? Who knows, but there are really just two possible scenarios.
One is that Woods doesnt want The Masters to be his first event of the season and he looks to make his season debut sometime in March on the West Coast, maybe even at Torrey Pines, where he won the U.S. Open on a shredded knee and broken leg.
The other possibility is that Woods makes his return at Augusta National, hijacks the seasons first major by both taking up all the pre-tournament attention and then going out an winning it anyway.
Wouldnt that be a blow for the rest of the tour! Many players and analysts expect Woods to come back and be as good as old, or even better, but to win a major in his return would crank up the Grand Slam hype beyond its usual level.
But while Woods absence did diminish the tour to a degree, it did give some other players a chance to seize the spotlight, with Irelands Padraig Harrington taking advantage of the opportunity by winning a pair of majors.
Harrington has won three of the last six majors and will now be expected to take on Woods the same way he has Sergio Garcia. Whether or not Harrington can have the same success with Woods back in action will be an interesting subplot to the 2009 season.
And if Woods wasnt going to get enough attention already, consider that 2008 ended with his caddie, Steve Williams, making the news when he was quoted at a charity dinner in New Zealand calling Phil Mickelson an obscenity.
Williams went on to admit that he doesnt particularly care for Mickelson, a three-time major winner and one of Woods chief rivals.
Woods tried to put the incident to bed at his postseason event.
What ended up happening is I communicated with Phil, and we have discussed it, Woods said. I talked to Stevie about it, and he feels bad what happened. At this point, that it happened at all is something that none of us really wanted to have happen. But its over and done with, and we put it to bed.
It may be over and done with for now, but expect the issue to rise back to the surface when the two are in contention together again. Hopefully theyll be in a final group early on, which should be interesting stuff.
And while 2008 will be know for other things - the U.S. victory at the Ryder Cup, Annika Sorenstams stepping away from golf, Michelle Wie earning her LPGA Tour card - it will mainly be remembered for what it was lacking: Woods for half the year.
And the prospect of his return is setting 2009 up as the Year of the Tiger, one way or another.
December 28, 2008
With 2009 on the horizon, its time to take a quick look back at some of the headlines from the past calendar year.
JANUARY
1. THE DJOKS ON THEM: Novak Djokovic captures his first major championship at the Australian Open, becoming the first Serbian to win a Grand Slam singles title. The 21-year-old dropped just one set en route to the title, earning a win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final after ousting top seed and defending champion Roger Federer in the semis.
2. Maria Sharapova wins the Australian Open championship.
3. Federer struggles with a stomach virus (later diagnosed as mononucleosis).
FEBRUARY
1. SO LONG TO SELES: Nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles announces her retirement. Owner of 53 career titles, Seles remains the youngest French Open winner in history (16 years, six months). Her return to tennis in 1995 after being stabbed in the back by a deranged fan two years earlier is perhaps more impressive than any win she ever had.
MARCH
1. HERE COMES SERENA: Serena Williams wins the first of her four titles in 2008 with a triumph at Bangalore. The American would go on to win her next two events played - Miami and Charleston - before seeing her 17-match win streak end against Dinara Safina in Berlin.
2. Andy Roddick announces his engagement to swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.
APRIL
1. DIRTY WORK: Sharapova, who has won every Grand Slam except the French Open, captures her first claycourt title with a victory at Amelia Island. It didnt help her at Roland Garros, where she was stunned in the fourth round by Safina, who came back after being down a set and 5-2.
2. Federer ends the drought by winning his first title of the year in Estoril.
MAY
1. TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT: Justine Henin stuns the tennis world by abruptly announcing her retirement. The Belgian, who turned 26 this year, becomes the first woman to retire from the sport while ranked No. 1. She finishes with 41 titles and seven Grand Slam championships. Sharapova takes over the No. 1 ranking.
2. Venus and Serena Williams are upset in the third round of the French Open - on the same day.
3. Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten officially retires after a first-round loss at Roland Garros.
JUNE
1. RAFA RULES: Rafael Nadal wins his fourth straight French Open title with a dominating 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Federer. The loss is Federers worst at a major, and pushes Nadals record at Roland Garros to 28-0. It caps another incredible spring for the Spaniard, who also won claycourt titles at Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg.
2. Ana Ivanovic wins her first Grand Slam title at French Open and becomes the new world No. 1.
JULY
1. THE EPIC: Nadal becomes the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win at Wimbledon and Roland Garros in the same year. The 22-year-old defeats Federer - the five-time defending champion - in the final, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (8-10), 9-7, in what is widely considered one of the greatest matches ever played.
2. Venus Williams defeats sister Serena in the Wimbledon final to claim her fifth title at the All England Club.
3. Aleksandra Wozniak wins at Stanford, becoming the first Canadian in more than 20 years to win a WTA singles title.
AUGUST
1. END OF AN ERA: Nadal overtakes Federer for the No. 1 ranking, ending the Swiss superstars record run of 237 consecutive weeks at the top.
2. Jelena Jankovic takes the No. 1 ranking from Ivanovic, who regains the top spot a week later.
3. Nadal and Russias Elena Dementieva win gold medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
4. Sharapova withdraws from Olympics and U.S. Open due to shoulder injury and misses remainder of the season.
5. Juan Martin del Potro wins his fourth straight event with a victory in Washington.
SEPTEMBER
1. SAVING THE SEASON: After suffering through a down year by his standards, Federer salvages his season by winning the U.S. Open for the fifth consecutive year. It is his 13th Grand Slam title, leaving him one shy of tying Pete Sampras record of 14.
2. Serena Williams wins her ninth Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open and reclaims No. 1 ranking, which she last held in 2003.
3. Russia beats Spain to capture fourth Fed Cup title in five years.
4. Nikolay Davydenko of Russia is cleared of any involvement in match-fixing after a year-long investigation by the ATP.
OCTOBER
1. JANKOVIC TAKES CONTROL: After losing to Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final, Jankovic strings together wins in three straight tournaments, culminating with a victory at Moscow. That win comes less than a week after she moves ahead of Williams atop the rankings, where Jankovic finishes the year.
2. Nadal clinches year-end No. 1 ranking, the first Spaniard to accomplish the feat.
NOVEMBER
1. BIG FINISH: Djokovic wins the year-end Tennis Masters Cup, while Venus Williams claims the title at the Sony Ericsson Championships.
2. Spain beats Argentina to capture its third Davis Cup title.
DECEMBER
1. SHES HAVING A BABY: Lindsay Davenport pulls out of the upcoming Australian Open because she is pregnant with her second child. The three-time Grand Slam champion says she is putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future.
December 28, 2008
The ATP World Tour 2009 season begins on January 4, with the world’s best players competing at ATP World Tour 250 events in Brisbane, Chennai and Doha. The focus then shifts to Auckland and Sydney ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open from January 19-February 2.
ATPWorldTour.com takes a look at the five ATP World Tour 250 tournaments in January.
BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL Brisbane, Australia
January 4-11, 2009 Hard, $484,750
The first tournament of the ATP World Tour 2009 season, the inaugural Brisbane International, begins on Sunday, January 4, at a new $82 million tennis centre. The Centre court at the Queensland Tennis Center has been named ‘Rafter Arena’ in honor of Queensland’s former ATP World Tour No. 1 Patrick Rafter. Sixteen players in the Top 50 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings, including Australian Open finalists Novak Djokovic (No. 3) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No. 6) will attempt to gain valuable match practise and fitness. Fernando Verdasco (No. 16), Robin Soderling (No. 17) and Tomas Berdych (No. 20) also compete alongside Richard Gasquet and Marcos Baghdatis.
CHENNAI OPEN Chennai, India
January 5-11, 2009 Hard, $450,000
The 14th edition of Chennai Open will be held from January 5 at the SDAT Tennis stadium in Nungambakkam, Chennai. Eight players in the Top 50 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings compete, including World No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko, Stanislas Wawrinka (No. 13), Marin Cilic (No. 23), Ivo Karlovic (No. 26), Rainer Schuettler (No. 33), 2004-05 winner Carlos Moya (No. 42) and 2006 titlist Ivan Ljubicic (No. 44). Tournament debutants Bob and Mike Bryan compete alongside Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles, Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes in the doubles tournament.
QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN, Doha, Qatar
January 5-11, 2009 Hard, $1,110,250
Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Roger Federer and Andy Murray have each captured the title since the tournament was first contested in 1993. Four of the Worlds Top 10 including No. 1-ranked Rafael Nadal, 2004-05 winner Federer, defending champion Murray and Andy Roddick return to the Khalifa International Tennis Complex, alongside Igor Andreev, Dmitry Tursunov, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Mikhail Youzhny.
HEINEKEN OPEN Auckland, New Zealand
January 12-17, 2009 Hard, $480,750
Top 10 star Juan Martin del Potro, former titlist David Ferrer, Robin Soderling, Nicolas Almagro, defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber and last years finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero will all compete at the historic Heineken Open, held at the ASB Tennis Centre. Auckland has previously welcomed legendary names, such as Rod Laver and John Newcombe, in addition to local favourite Onny Parun.
MEDIBANK INTERNATIONAL Sydney, Australia
January 11-17, 2009 Hard, $484,750
Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the World No. 6, and No. 7-ranked Gilles Simon head to Sydney where they will face competition from David Nalbandian, Tommy Robredo and Richard Gasquet and four-time former champion Lleyton Hewitt. Nineteen players in the Top 50 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings feature at the hard-court event, which was first played as a permanent annual event in 1935. The state’s premier tennis stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Olympics tennis event, is named in honour of eight-time Grand Slam champion Ken Rosewall.
December 26, 2008
Long established as world number one, Tiger Woods runs the risk of being deposed at the top of the rankings in the first quarter of next year.
The American has been out of action since having reconstructive knee surgery after winning the U.S. Open in June and, as a bystander, has watched his stranglehold at the top steadily loosen week by week.
After his astonishing playoff victory at Torrey Pines six months ago, Woods enjoyed a substantial lead of 11.328 ranking points over second-placed American Phil Mickelson.
Spaniard Sergio Garcia has since climbed into second spot in the global pecking order and trails Woods by just 3.865 points going into the New Year.
The games dominant player is unlikely to return to competitive golf until at least late February and his number one status could be usurped by Garcia, world number three Mickelson or fourth-ranked Irishman Padraig Harrington.
For Woods to surrender the grip he has held since June 2005, one of his rivals would have to make a fast start to 2009 while also winning at least one of the big tournaments early on.
World ranking points are weighted according to the status of the event and strength of the field and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson and the WGC-CA Championship in Miami provide rich reward in the first three months.
Ian Barker of Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) has examined projections of the rankings on a month-by-month basis leading up to the Apr. 9-12 Masters, where Woods is determined to compete.
These projections show how, as time passes, Tigers position at the top becomes more vulnerable, Barker told Reuters.
PASSING TIGER
If you look at the March 29 projection, you will see I have input seven events and the number of points that Garcia and Harrington would need to pass Tigers average on that date.
Although Barker is speculating about the playing schedules for Garcia and Harrington, he has assumed the seven events in which each competed during the same period earlier this year.
Sergio needs 81 OWGR points from those events and Harrington needs 144, Barker said.
A WGC (event) will carry winning points in the 70s so it is possible for both players (to overtake Woods) but I dont think either could do it without winning a big tournament.
Of course, much will depend on when Woods does return to the game and how effectively he is able to play.
The Masters, the opening major of the year, is his first priority for the 2009 season and ideally he would like to play in a couple of events before that in preparation.
The Accenture Match Play in Tucson in late February is a possibility for his much anticipated comeback, although the March 12-15 CA Championship is more likely.
For the moment, however, the 14-times Major winner can reflect on the record total of 529 weeks he has been golfs world number one during his career.
He first claimed the top spot on June 15, 1997 and has held the position since regaining it from Fijis Vijay Singh on June 12, 2005.
December 26, 2008
The end of 2008 is here and its time to look back on the year in golf. But any retrospective of the year does just one thing: gets a golf fan excited for the year to come.
Lets face it, 2008 was a half-season as far as the PGA Tour is concerned. Why? Tiger Woods, thats why.
With Woods playing just half a season, the game lacked its go-to star. Tournaments lacked buzz, television rating plummeted and interest in the final two majors waned. Even among media, as tight financial times and Woods absence added up to less coverage, there was less buzz and less interest.
That wont be the case in 2009.
Woods already is hitting some irons and the anticipation will build and build until it reaches a fever pitch upon his return. Where, and when, will that be? Who knows, but there are really just two possible scenarios.
One is that Woods doesnt want The Masters to be his first event of the season and he looks to make his season debut sometime in March on the West Coast, maybe even at Torrey Pines, where he won the U.S. Open on a shredded knee and broken leg.
The other possibility is that Woods makes his return at Augusta National, hijacks the seasons first major by both taking up all the pre-tournament attention and then going out an winning it anyway.
Wouldnt that be a blow for the rest of the tour! Many players and analysts expect Woods to come back and be as good as old, or even better, but to win a major in his return would crank up the Grand Slam hype beyond its usual level.
But while Woods absence did diminish the tour to a degree, it did give some other players a chance to seize the spotlight, with Irelands Padraig Harrington taking advantage of the opportunity by winning a pair of majors.
Harrington has won three of the last six majors and will now be expected to take on Woods the same way he has Sergio Garcia. Whether or not Harrington can have the same success with Woods back in action will be an interesting subplot to the 2009 season.
And if Woods wasnt going to get enough attention already, consider that 2008 ended with his caddie, Steve Williams, making the news when he was quoted at a charity dinner in New Zealand calling Phil Mickelson an obscenity.
Williams went on to admit that he doesnt particularly care for Mickelson, a three-time major winner and one of Woods chief rivals.
Woods tried to put the incident to bed at his postseason event.
What ended up happening is I communicated with Phil, and we have discussed it, Woods said. I talked to Stevie about it, and he feels bad what happened. At this point, that it happened at all is something that none of us really wanted to have happen. But its over and done with, and we put it to bed.
It may be over and done with for now, but expect the issue to rise back to the surface when the two are in contention together again. Hopefully theyll be in a final group early on, which should be interesting stuff.
And while 2008 will be know for other things - the U.S. victory at the Ryder Cup, Annika Sorenstams stepping away from golf, Michelle Wie earning her LPGA Tour card - it will mainly be remembered for what it was lacking: Woods for half the year.
And the prospect of his return is setting 2009 up as the Year of the Tiger, one way or another.
December 26, 2008
The US PGA Tour has lost at least one tournament from its Fall Series because of the economy, and the final part of its 2009 schedule released on Tuesday had another tournament still up in the air.
The tour announced five tournaments - down from seven this year - that will be played after the FedEx Cup ends and give players a chance to finish in the top 125 on the money list to retain their cards.
Gone from the Fall Series schedule is the Ginn sur Mer Classic, which was held in the penultimate week of the season and was not expected to return because of the real estate crisis. Also missing from the autumn is the Valero Texas Open, which moved to the spring to replace the defunct Atlanta tournament.
The Fall Series starts at Turning Stone in upstate New York the week after the FedEx Cup finale, then takes a week off because of the Presidents Cup, which will be held from Oct. 8-11 in San Francisco. The series resumes in Las Vegas and Phoenix, then moves to Mississippi and Florida, ending on Nov. 15 at Disney World, as it did this year.
The tour still is trying to create a tournament the week before Disney that would be played on Sea Island, Georgia. Those negotiations were one reason the autumn schedule was not released until two days before Christmas.
If the ‘09 schedule stays the way it is, there will be 46 tournaments (down from 48) with a $100,000 (71,500 euros) increase in total prize money. That doesn’t include the majors, which have not released their purses for 2009.
December 26, 2008
The Asian Tour has condemned the rival OneAsia golf tour of attempting to invade the continent, issuing a strongly worded statement Wednesday in response to fresh speculation about the organizational future of the sport in the region.
The Asian Tour’s statement came after reports the Japanese Golf Tour had held talks with U.S. PGA and European Tour officials about bringing events from those tours to Japan.
The talks deepen the uncertainty about which sanctioning bodies will control Asian golf in the near term.
The Australasian, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean tours had been party to the creation of the One Asia tour, which had initial plans for a combined tour in those nations from 2009.
However organizers had said 2010 now appeared the more likely start, and with the proposed tour downscaled from a full-blown tour to a smaller series of high-profile tournaments open to leading players from the participating nations, without the need for a tour card.
The Asian Tour said Wednesday that it would support a series of four to six World Golf Championship-style events in Asia, saying that was agreed by the various competing bodies in the region during meetings in China in May and at the British Open in July.
“The Australasian Tour, which has initiated the formation of the OneAsia Tour, has subsequently held meetings in Asia without inviting the Asian Tour to these meetings, which we view as going against the spirit of cooperation and an attempt to invade Asia,” said Wednesday’s Asian Tour statement attributed to executive chairman Kyi Hla Han.
“We are appalled with the Australasian Tour’s attempt to create another tour in this region as the Asian Tour has already successfully achieved this objective with our well-documented growth over the past decade.”
The Asian Tour has been the principal organizing tour in the continent since 1995, but has no presence in Australasia and in 2008 had just one event in Japan, co-sanctioned by the Japanese Golf Tour.
Of the seven Asian Tour events in China, all but two are co-sanctioned.
December 23, 2008
Is golf really a sport or just a hobby.
Is it a good walk spoiled, or should we forget the walk and ask Santa for a golf cart this Christmas?
Would a PowerBar help more than an apple after nine holes, or should we forget ‘em both and just wolf down another candy bar and Coke?
And do you really have to have Tiger Woods’ biceps to be any good?
A sports scientist pondering these and other 19th-hole kind of questions crunched a bunch of numbers and came up with answers, a few of which put a new twist on some age-old assumptions.
Among the top findings: Given the number of calories burned, it’s certainly OK to call golf a sport.
“One of the more interesting things I found was that the actual act of swinging a golf club takes significant energy,” said Neil Wolkodoff, director of the Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver.
Maybe more energy than many people might think for a motion that takes a grand total of about 3 seconds.
Wolkodoff found eight male volunteers, ages 26 to 61 with handicaps between 2 and 17, strapped them into some state-of-the-art equipment and took them out for a few rounds of golf on the hilly front nine of Inverness Golf Club in suburban Denver.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the subjects, and I blame the somewhat bulky equipment for every bad shot I hit during the experiment.)
Wolkodoff discovered the subjects burned more calories when they walked and carried their clubs (721) than when they rode in a cart (411). When they walked, they traversed about 2.5 miles, compared to 0.5 miles when they rode, but the 500 percent increase in mileage corresponded to only a 75 percent increase in calories burned.
The conclusion was that the act of swinging the golf club could actually be considered good exercise - a theory many on the “not a sport” side of the golf debate have long questioned.
“As far as physical exertion, it’s not the same as boxing, but it’s definitely more than people thought,” Wolkodoff said.
But before all you golf addicts cancel those gym memberships and turn the treadmill into a permanent coat rack, consider this: While the 2,884 calories the average player might burn by walking 36 holes a week is considered good for health (studies have shown that those who burn 2,500 calories a week improve their overall health by lowering their risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer), it will do little to improve fitness - meaning it won’t increase your overall aerobic capacity.
Another thing the study showed is that being fit directly affects your ability to play good golf.
“You need to ask yourself, is the goal better fitness, or is it better fitness and better health?” Wolkodoff said.
Wolkodoff will soon submit the results of his test to the Journal of Applied Physiology, the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
For the test, Wolkodoff strapped subjects into equipment that measured, among other things, their heart rate, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and how far they were walking. Each volunteer played four nine-hole rounds: one carrying the bag on their shoulder, one pushing the bag in a push-cart, one with a caddie and one in a golf cart.
All the subjects went through fitness tests before the experiment to establish what their baseline anaerobic thresholds were - in other words, at what point they began to burn fuel without the help of oxygen. When people cross their anaerobic threshold, lactic acid begins to build, which makes muscles start to burn and causes fine-motor skills to deteriorate.
This is important in golf, especially for walkers, because the higher a player’s anaerobic threshold, the more ability the player has to hike up steep hills or walk long distances quickly without losing the motor skills needed to execute many shots.
“When the motor skill start to go, you can get the yips, lose coordination,” Wolkodoff said.
Among Wolkodoff’s findings:
-There was virtually no difference in calories burned between carrying (721) and using a push cart (718) - a surprising result to many, who figured it would take more work to push the cart.
“Normally, calories are measured on how much weight you had to move up a hill,” he said. “But in this case, it shows that even with another 15, 16 pounds to push with the cart, you’re more efficient at moving that way than if the bag is over your shoulder.”
Not surprisingly, walking the course with a caddie carrying the clubs burned fewer calories (613) and playing while riding in a cart burned even fewer (411).
The fact that the energy consumed while carrying and pushing is nearly identical could bolster the idea that players using push carts get no competitive advantage over those who carry. The American Junior Golf Association recently decided to allow non-motorized carts in tournament play, in part to decrease back stress on young players.
-Players in Wolkodoff’s tests scored best when using push carts and playing with a caddie. Their nine-hole averages (40 with push cart, 42 with caddie) were better than when riding in the motor cart (43).
Wolkodoff said that offered proof there could be a benefit to walking the course - the way many golf purists insist the game should be played - that outweighs the benefit of resting while driving to your ball in the cart.
“It gets back to the idea that walking gives you a certain amount of time to think about a shot, to rehearse, go through the stuff,” he said. “Where in a golf cart, you’re holding on, then, boom, you’ve got to get up, go to the ball and make a decision pretty quickly.”
But the benefit of walking didn’t outweigh the stress of looping the bag on and off your shoulder 40 or 50 times and lugging it around the course over the span of two hours. The average scores for the walk-and-carry rounds was 45.
“Some people say, ‘I play better golf when I’m carrying,”‘ Wolkodoff said. “But this study says, ‘No. A carry bag is not necessarily better.’ It’s not an intuitive thought for people.”
-Players reached their peak heart rates at the top of two taxing, uphill holes. When they were carrying or pushing the cart, the peak heart rates went past their anaerobic thresholds, and Wolkodoff noticed a marked spike in scoring on the tougher of the two holes under these circumstances.
He attributes it to the buildup in lactic acid, which decreases fine motor skills.
Returning below the threshold took 2 minutes to 3 minutes in some cases. So, the advice is, get in better shape to increase the anaerobic threshold so you don’t find yourself going over it while playing golf. Good ways to improve golf fitness would be doing intervals on a treadmill or taking a spinning class.
“Weightlifting can come into play, too,” Wolkodoff said. “As you go up a hill, whether you’re carrying your own body weight, or a carry bag or a push cart, the stronger your arms and legs are, the better you can make it up that hill without fatigue.”
-Wolkodoff measured subjects’ respiratory exchange ratio (RER), which can be used to determine which fuels - carbs or fats - are being used during exercise. The RERs for all four tests were between 0.85 and 0.88, meaning players had shifted from burning all fat to using equal amounts of fats and carbohydrates, but hadn’t yet reached the point where they were burning all carbs.
It means an energy bar with the approximately the same combination of what the players are burning - like a Zone or Balance Bar - is optimal for replenishment, and probably better than pure carbohydrates, such as the apple we often see Woods eating on the course … or a bag of pretzels.
Not that it’s any knock on Tiger’s diet.
“The thing with Tiger is, he’s not just eating the apple,” Wolkodoff said. “He’s had a good meal beforehand. If he had a regular Gatorade, that’s the equivalent of eating five apples. If he eats one apple per round, or one per nine, he’s just doing it to add a little energy and maybe fill up his stomach.”
So, is golf a sport?
Answer: It certainly is A sport, but probably not The Only sport you would need to play if you really want to get fit. But getting fit on the treadmill or in the weight room will definitely diminish fatigue on the golf course and, in turn, help you play better.
“The study shows there’s significant energy expenditure in golf, more than bowling and some other sports it’s been compared to,” Wolkodoff said. “There are a lot of sports that don’t have this level of energy expenditure.”
December 23, 2008
Vijay Singh rarely shows up at a golf tournament not knowing what to expect.
Then again, he has never gone an entire month without so much as lifting a club.
In his first conventional tournament since capturing the FedEx Cup on Sept. 28, even the 45-year-old Singh was surprised by what transpired over the weekend at the Chevron World Challenge.
He kept the ball in play with a new driver. He piled up birdies on the par 5s. He moved up the leaderboard with three straight birdies early on the back nine Sunday. And he finished the most lucrative season of his career with a 10-foot birdie on the final hole for a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Steve Stricker.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Once you get into the middle of things, you kind of know where you stand. I felt very comfortable in the middle of the heat.”
Singh didn’t make a bogey over the final 14 holes as everyone around him fell apart - first Anthony Kim with consecutive double bogeys, then Jim Furyk, who dropped five shots over the final five holes.
Stricker tried to keep pace, hitting a wedge to a foot on the 16th and holing a 10-foot putt on the 17th, two birdies he desperately needed to have a chance. But he came up short of the green on the 18th playing with Singh, and couldn’t give himself a shot at birdie.
He finished with a 68 for second place alone, worth $840,000.
Singh, who finished at 11-under 277, won $1.35 million and pushed his earnings for the year to over $18 million. That includes the $10 million bonus from the FedEx Cup, along with $6.6 million on the PGA Tour to win the money title for the third time in six years.
Get used to him taking some time off.
Singh’s body is starting to feel the affects of age, playing the final month with his left arm wrapped because of tendinitis. He still works out, but doesn’t spend nearly as much time on the practice range - when he does go to the range.
“I took a month off to rest my arm and I literally didn’t hit a ball,” Singh said. “And I haven’t done that in forever. I just tried to repair my body a little bit.”
He figures he needs a strong body to keep up with an emerging group of young players, and he showed this week he was up to the task. Against a world-class field, Singh looked as good as new.
“When I show up and I know I can’t win the golf tournament, I’m going to quit,” said Singh, who won for the first time at Tiger Woods’ charity event. “But as long as I show up and know that I can win, I’m going to keep playing.”
Kim, the 54-hole leader, and Furyk did their own charity work on a splendid afternoon of sunshine.
Kim was one shot out of the lead until making consecutive double bogeys, driving into the bushes on the 14th and hitting his 7-iron short and into the water on the par-3 15th. He birdied the next two holes, but by then it was over. Kim closed with a 73 and tied for third with Hunter Mahan, who shot 68.
Furyk, playing for the first time since the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda on Oct. 15, built a two-shot lead on the front nine until a pair of three-putt bogeys. He was tied with Singh after a 6-foot birdie on the 13th, and still was only one shot behind from the middle of the fairway on the par-5 16th when it all came undone.
He twice went into the rough and made bogey on the 16th, missing the par-3 17th green to drop another shot, and with the tournament already decided, found the water on the 18th hole for the second straight day to make double bogey. Furyk shot a 74 and tied for fifth with Camilo Villegas (73).
“There’s a lot of places on this golf course where you can make birdies or you can make triple bogeys,” Furyk said. “And I found some big numbers on the way in.”
Ben Curtis was the only other player in the 16-man field to finish under par.
Singh made small talk with Woods as they waited for the final group to finish, and Singh jokingly told Woods at the trophy presentation, “Don’t come back too soon. Take another year off.”
Even with Woods at full strength, Singh has been up for the challenge. The big Fijian has won 23 times since turning 40, and his 34 career victories on the PGA Tour are the most by a foreign-born player. He points to Kenny Perry winning three times this year while turning 48, and Fred Funk winning in Mexico at age 50.
“Winning this many tournaments doesn’t mean it’s a miracle,” he said. “I think there will be guys out there that are going to do the same thing. It’s just how many they’re going to win. Right now, I’m the leader, and I’m not quitting yet.”
The sure sign that Singh is ready to get back to work? He plans to practice on Christmas Day.
“It’s the best time to hit balls,” he said. “There’s nobody on the golf course.”
