Archive for March, 2010
March 21, 2010
Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa closed in on his maiden European Tour title after shooting a 9-under 64 on Saturday to take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Trophee Hassan II.
Oosthuizen had five birdies on the front nine and five more back to the clubhouse to go with a single bogey on the 17th. Second-round leader Rhys Davies of Wales had seven birdies in his round of 68 to sit in second place.
“I felt like I hit the ball well. I hit it further with most of my clubs and my putting was good again,” Oosthuizen said. “Nice to have 10 birdies on my card, that doesn’t happen every day.”
Frenchman Thomas Levet (68) and South Africa’s Thomas Aiken (67) were four shots back in a tie for third.
Oosthuizen heads into Sunday’s final round on the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam course with a 20-under total of 198.
“I can be hot and cold with the putter but I am finding more consistency in the greens now and reading the putts better,” the 27-year-old Oosthuizen said. “I am very happy with such a strong position. I haven’t done a lot going in with a lead before but I am playing well enough.”
Davies, who tied for third in the Malaysian Open this month, feels he is in good enough form to upset Oosthuizen’s plans.
“This is my second week on the bounce of being right in the mix and I’m enjoying it,” Davies said. “It’s good to be at the top and good to be playing with these top-class players and trying to beat them.”
Ignacio Garrido of Spain finished the day one stroke behind Aiken and Levet after a round of 69, while Danny Willett of England matched Oosthuizen’s 64 to climb up the leaderboard, one behind Garrido.
“I’ve been playing well for a few weeks now and everything went my way today,” Willett said.
March 20, 2010
The hyperventilating has subsided, at least a little, and at least for now.
Now that we can all exhale, warm and secure in the knowledge that Tiger Woods is going to play golf in the future and not shave his head and move to a Trappist monastery, perhaps it’s a good time to eyeball the other 2010 development that has affected every PGA Tour pla the biggest rules change in the past 75 years of the professional sport.
It’s not nearly as sexy or salacious as the Tiger affair, and it doesn’t make for juicy dinner-table gossip. Nobody is sext-messaging about it and potty-mouthed cartoon characters like Eric Cartman aren’t lampooning it.
David Fay of the USGA says it will probably be October before conclusions can be drawn. (Getty Images) Unlike with the daily disclosures of the Woods scandal, this is the golf development where seemingly nothing has happened. To date, as the tour plays the Transitions Championship outside Tampa, the Great Grooves Gambit hasn’t made much of a mark in the trumpeted statistical areas.
As a means of measuring the rule’s early impact, CBSSports.com received ShotLink data from the first 10 PGA Tour ev the bi has had a demonstrable impact. The answer might even send technically savvy fans back to the tabloids for more Tiger news.
Granted, comparing data from different seasons can never truly represent an apples-to-apples, before-and-after glimpse. Weather varies at events from season to season, and the Bob Hope Classic added a new course this year. There’s even a slightly different cast of players than in 2009.
But enough of the caveats and qualifiers. As they say on , let’s proceed with the discovery portion of the investigation.
When the grooves rule was green-lighted and set to begin Jan. 1, the U.S. Golf Association boldly predicted that it not only would change the way the ball spins, flies and behaves on the green when it lands, it would prompt players to place a renewed premium on driving accuracy. Part of the rule’s specified intent was to bring shotmaking and course management back into a game where raw strength had become a disproportional part of the equation.
So far, in a term the tour commissioner likes to trot out to impress people with his vocabulary, the results on both front have hardly been “impactful.”
Let’s begin with the intended philosophical realignment, which can’t be quantified with a PGA Tour computer. Some players have switched to slightly softer balls to help offset the spin they lost with the grooves revisions. But the bomb-and-gouge mindset off the tee still seems deeply ingrained.
In an admittedly non-scientific, casual poll of a dozen players or so, none said they for the moment, anyway. Several pointed out that the philosophy could change as the tour plays drier courses in the spring and summer.
“I’ve just been playing my game, and obviously trying to hit more fairways, but I haven’t really changed too much,” said the winner in Phoenix, Hunter Mahan, offering a sentiment echoed by several other top players.
< unless you consider a tour-wide improvement in nearly every statistical category to be good news for the rule and the USGA. Talk about unintended consequences.
In the events staged through the Honda Classic, players are actually knocking the ball closer to the hole out of the rough than they were last year, when they were armed with far toothier grooves in their irons. In 2010, they are getting up and down around the greens more frequently. Even the scoring average has dropped compared to 2009 averages.
Ahem.
USGA executive director David Fay said the organization likely won’t scrutinize the data for a few more months. A 10-tournament section might represent 22 percent of the tour season, and for political polling might constitute a healthy sample size in an election, but in golf, there are too many variables to draw concrete conclusions at this point.
“We sort of promised ourselves that we would wait, perhaps until October or so,” Fay said.
That will save them some gray hair, to be sure. A scattershot sampling of laser-generated Shotlink data so far indicates that compared to the first 10 events of 2009:
• Tour players are hitting more fairways (up .7 percent) and more greens (up 1.8 percent) than before. • The tour tracks proximity to the hole in 25-yard increments. In every measured yardage category inside 225 yards, both from the rough and fairway, players are knocking the ball closer to the hole by an overall average of nearly a foot.
• More specifically, and this is perhaps the most surprising bit of early news to be gleaned, players in the rough are enjoying more shotmaking success now than with the emery-board clubfaces of 2009. From 175 to 200 yards, players are knocking approach shots a full three feet closer from the rough. In all, players have knocked the ball an average of 14 inches closer to the hole out of the rough than last year.
• Players are making more birdies and the tour-wide scoring average in all four rounds has dropped vs. 2009 levels.
None of this is to suggest players aren’t having some difficulties.
“The new V-groove rule, I played that set of R7s for five years, the same set, I had not changed,” said Kenny Perry, 49. “I just loved them. I knew the distances they were going. I just knew my characteristics with the clubs. I knew what my misses were going to do with them and what they were going to do on high grass. “I’ve been catching fliers this year, been kind of rocketing a few over greens and into the back bunker, something I don’t do. With the [old banned] square grooves, I could hardly move it out of the rough. So I always came up short of the green. You can always pitch from short [of the green].”
Now he’s hitting scorching missiles into the hay behind. But in the tour’s crucial scrambling stat, used to measure success in saving par around the green, players are converting at a better overall percentage than in 2009, too. The overall salvage ratio has increased by .5 percent.
Again, the sample size offers but a taste of the fare to date, and there was a huge contributing factor in the imp rain.
“I can’t think of a single tournament where we have rain,” PGA Tour rules official Jon Brendle said.
Pure and simple, that created softer fairways and greens, which would partly explain why driving accuracy and greens found in regulation increased vs. 2009 levels. Balls often don’t roll into the rough when the fairways and greens are sopping wet, and approaches and pitch shots tend to stop in their tracks.
“Being on the West Coast, it’s been pretty soft, so I don’t think guys have paid attention to it,” Mahan said of any philosophical overhaul off the tee. “Maybe in the summer, you may see guys adjust their games, maybe try to hit more fairways, because you definitely cannot spin out of rough.”
That’s a quantifiable fact. The new grooves don’t allow it. But players and equipment companies are quite expert at adjusting and working around such constraints. This month, a major manufacturer trotted out a new metal shaft build specifically for wedges, designed to increase spin. It has an hourglass-style series of step-down indentations just below the grip. Mahan was already giving it a try at Doral.
As the courses get firm and fast heading into summer, the numbers are expected to gradually begin turning around, especially in pitch shots hit around the green. And even if they don’t, the USGA can already claim a victory wherein grass gets between the clubface and ball, spin imparted by the club i has been reintroduced to the professional game thanks to the abolition of the old square grooves.
Without prompting, Fay mentioned veteran Robert Allenby, who has hit two final-round fliers over the backs of greens, costing him at crucial times at the Sony Open and Torrey Pines. Allenby bluntly said fliers cost him two wins, in fact.
So, interpret the early data for what it’s worth and make conclusions carefully, but Allenby can attest that failing to drive the ball in the fairway these days comes with heightened risk.
“If we can put that seed of doubt in their mind,” Fay said, “if we can put that pebble in their shoe about the flier lie, then that’s something.”
March 20, 2010
Nike finally did something completely right, standing by Tiger Woods when other sponsors bailed out, refusing to hyperventilate over his extramarital activities and abiding by its own, frequently obnoxious value system.
Unlike companies that bought into a larger and inevitably fictitious Woods mystique, the folks at Nike invested in a superstar athlete. They got what they paid for. They’ve still got it.
As long as Tiger Woods keeps on winning and displays the corporate logo, he’s doing right by Nike. (Getty Images) In fact, while Woods may have lost some of his bland crossover appeal, he has probably become a better sports marketing tool than ever. He’s added an “overcoming adversity, proving the critics wrong” quality that makes any athletic figure or event more compelling. < utterly dominant and fearless on the course, with the looks of a Disney character come to life. Notwithstanding childish outbursts after a bad shot, he was a Stepford jock.
AT&T and Accenture e wisdom, passion, dis even though their meanings tend to get lost in translation from sports to everyday life. They cut him loose when they recognized how badly he had alienated many of his fans.
But another demographic prizes the will to win without assuming it makes for perfect citizens or model spouses. Woods has gained an increasingly fierce following among these people, who believe that a law-abiding athlete should be judged by his behavior and performance on a field of play.
This is Nike’s sweet spot. Named for the Greek goddess of victory, the company sells success and team loyalty. It doesn’t attach itself to the attributes that make a great politician or to subtle graces, such as dignity in defeat. It loves and markets ferocity.
That ethic has pushed Nike in the wrong direction many times. At the Atlanta Olympics, it ran a soul-less ad campaign saying: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”
The company once put together a commercial that showed two dogs staring each other down, about to fight. Animal-rights groups objected then and raised the issue again when evidence of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting became overwhelming. Yet Nike insisted that it would stand by him unless he was convicted of a crime.
That vow didn’t hold up when the volume of incoming complaints required a separate phone extension. Nike pulled away before Vick entered his guilty plea.
But the company was bound to hold up its bargain with Woods. He yielded to temptations that many people have experienced. His indignities were matched by the crassness of the media exposing them. He betrayed his wife, but the people who exposed his transgressions magnified the humiliation. This became an ugly story because of what Woods did, the kind of image he tried to project, and the tragic death of the phrase “none of our business.”
Gilbert Arenas functioned as a one-man focus group when he told : “I love Tiger. I got three Tiger Woods games for my Xbox just in case one gets scratched. On the cover, it doesn’t have him walking next to his wife. It just has Tiger Woods, hitting shots.”
In the same interview, Arenas expressed profound contrition for using guns as toys in the Wizards locker room, saying he deserved to be punished. He wasn’t in a mood to make excuses. He simply said what Woods’ sponsors in telecommunications and investment services couldn’t afford to accept. The companies selling sports-related products and a certain type of masculinity can stay on board.
When Woods announced that he would return to golf at the Masters in three weeks, EA Sports and Gillette joined Nike in issuing a formal welcome back. They can all expect big payoffs now that Woods has become the most fascinating person in sports, about 10 times over.
But Nike deserves some special credit because the company is so often reviled. It is the Dallas Cowboys and Yankees of the apparel world, oppressively huge, rich and arrogant. It didn’t take any effort or sacrifice to stand by Woods. The company just had to be itself, a corporate embodiment and molder of single-minded sports values. For a change, though, that was an unmitigated good thing.
San Francisco Chronicle.
March 19, 2010
CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling and Augusta Chronicle columnist and golf writer Scott Michaux watched the first two legs of the Florida Swing firsthand and take stock as the four-event stretch heads up the Turnpike into Tampa and Orlando, sans Tiger Woods. North toward Augusta we go.
Fan and media favorite Ernie Els just fashioned his biggest win in at least six years, since before his 2005 knee injury. At 40, does he have one more run in him at the majors?
ELLING: Call me optimistic, which might be a career first, but I think Els is going to contend at multiple majors over the next few years. Take a look back a decade ago, the last time the majors were at St. Andrews and Pebble Beach, the sites this summer. He finished second both times and was the runner-up at the Masters that year, too. The last time the PGA was at Whistling Straits, he three-putted the massive final green to miss a playoff by a shot. It isn’t like he was out of the picture completely. He was second at a WGC event in China last fall and had top eight finishes at the British Open and PGA Championship last year. As he did on Sunday during a performance reminiscent of a decade ago, he has to make the meaningful putts down the stretch. That’s been the common thread to throwing away chances over the recent past. The Masters seems as wide open as any in recent history, so why not Els?
MICHAUX: It has taken a long time for Els to recover from the scars he accrued in the 2004 majors, when he quite possibly could have won them all but came away with bupkis. But he showed real signs of snapping out of that funk last year. His putter let him down Sunday at Turnberry and Saturday at Hazeltine or he might have walked away with one or both of the last two majors in 2009. Now he seems to have found that inner confidence just in time for the major prize he wants more than any other: a green jacket. Els was crushed waiting on the Augusta putting green in 2004 when Phil Mickelson drained his birdie putt. How sweet would it be if the South African could gain a little bit of redemption? Only his own demons stand in the way of Els being a major contender at each venue this season. Those demons certainly looked to be exorcised last week in South Florida. And as fresh as Els is from paring back his global schedule, you have to like his chances in Augusta.
It’s time for our seemingly annual postmortem on the prone WGC body after the match play and Doral events have finished up. Neither drew many fans, the electricity was sorely lacking, and the Doral is headed out of town on the South Florida commuter rail. How about some fix suggestions?
ELLING: For one thing, don’t charge $55 for a ticket to an event that presents perhaps six hours of live golf, thanks to its field of only 68 players. Scott and I are in complete agreement on nearly every point, including that World Golf Championships have been a success in bringing together the top players more frequently, just like the FedEx Cup series, but golf has too many short-field events. Pad the field to 120 and institute a cut. Add some stress. Perhaps even pay the guys who miss the cut, since so Asia, Africa, Australia and beyond. The winner can survive on less than $ it was a ghost town out there. Remember the old philosophical question, “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” Well, you have to have at least one fan with one hand to know. CA announced Wednesday it won’t extend as the sponsor, which means the Doral event in 2011 will have its sixth different title and moniker since 1999. Small wonder fans can’t identify with their hometown event, right?
MICHAUX: You see how effective all our complaining has been. They actually made the field this year. Unbelievable. Clearly we’re not of like minds with the powers that be. Shocking, isn’t it? Well, maybe it will take losing a big sponsor like CA to wake them up to what is wrong with this tournament philosophy. You ask someone to pony up $12 million, you better give them some bang for their buck. There was no bang last week (though I must admit Sunday was quite enjoyable to watch). Perhaps it’s time to consider making the players do a little extra work for their guaranteed paychecks. Explain to me why this event doesn’t have a Wednesday pro-am to let the sponsors mingle with the performers they’re paying for. I heard one journalist polling guys afterward whether they’d object to adding a pro-am, and the votes were leaning heavily toward an admirable willingness to do whatever it takes. Since I don’t expect them to change the qualifications or field size any time soon, doing this simple thing to make the sponsor satisfied seems like a no-brainer.
The Tavistock Cup, an unofficial and private 36-hole event next Monday and Tuesday pitting high-dollar golf clubs from Orlando, Lake Nona and Isleworth, has gotten a lot of attention lately because of the outside chance Tiger Woods will play. Woods’ presence notwithstanding, should such events be staged in the middle of a season?
ELLING: It’s a safe bet that I’m the only guy who has been to all six of the annual T-Cup matches, which is a cause of some ribbing among my golf-press peers. But what the heck, I figure that if players like Tiger, Ernie, Sergio, Goose, Poulter, Rose, McDowell, Janzen, Immelman, Holmes, Allenby and Sorenstam are going to play, I might as well show up to see what happens, exhibition or not. Sure, it’s largely a testament to conspicuous consumption, but the host Tavistock Group donates huge sums to charity, which buys them some currency and credibility in my book. The only time is doesn’t pass the smell test is when players don’t bother to sign up for the tour events scheduled around the T-Cup, which guarantees its players a payday just for showing up. For instance, Poulter indicated he was playing in the matches, but isn’t entered in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which starts two days later. He has his reasons, but that just looks plain bad.
MICHAUX: Actually, Poulter has a very good reason. And it’s why the PGA Tour needs to pull the plug on releasing its players to collect this not-so-well-concealed appearance fee in the middle of the regular season. You don’t like the fact that Poulter is skipping Bay Hill. OK. But he is playing the week before in nearby Tampa. That means he’s playing a pro-am, then presumably four tournament rounds and then two Tavistock days. That’s seven consecutive days of golf. If Poulter were to also play Bay Hill, he’d be adding up to five more rounds right on top that for a grand total of 12 straight days of golf. That’s a little excessive, even if it is just golf. There are a few guys who happen to not live in either Isleworth or Lake Nona planning to play three consecutive weeks in Florida, but you’ll never get one of these marquee guys to do that as long as the T-Cup exists. It’s a bad deal, forcing these guys to choose Bay Hill or Tampa but never both. With Tiger Woods in no position to push back and complain, now is the time for the tour brass to stand up and yank the TV rights to this thing so it either dies on the vine or moves to the silly season where it belongs.
March 19, 2010
Nike finally did something completely right, standing by Tiger Woods when other sponsors bailed out, refusing to hyperventilate over his extramarital activities and abiding by its own, frequently obnoxious value system.
Unlike companies that bought into a larger and inevitably fictitious Woods mystique, the folks at Nike invested in a superstar athlete. They got what they paid for. They’ve still got it.
As long as Tiger Woods keeps on winning and displays the corporate logo, he’s doing right by Nike. (Getty Images) In fact, while Woods may have lost some of his bland crossover appeal, he has probably become a better sports marketing tool than ever. He’s added an “overcoming adversity, proving the critics wrong” quality that makes any athletic figure or event more compelling. < utterly dominant and fearless on the course, with the looks of a Disney character come to life. Notwithstanding childish outbursts after a bad shot, he was a Stepford jock.
AT&T and Accenture e wisdom, passion, dis even though their meanings tend to get lost in translation from sports to everyday life. They cut him loose when they recognized how badly he had alienated many of his fans.
But another demographic prizes the will to win without assuming it makes for perfect citizens or model spouses. Woods has gained an increasingly fierce following among these people, who believe that a law-abiding athlete should be judged by his behavior and performance on a field of play.
This is Nike’s sweet spot. Named for the Greek goddess of victory, the company sells success and team loyalty. It doesn’t attach itself to the attributes that make a great politician or to subtle graces, such as dignity in defeat. It loves and markets ferocity.
That ethic has pushed Nike in the wrong direction many times. At the Atlanta Olympics, it ran a soul-less ad campaign saying: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”
The company once put together a commercial that showed two dogs staring each other down, about to fight. Animal-rights groups objected then and raised the issue again when evidence of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting became overwhelming. Yet Nike insisted that it would stand by him unless he was convicted of a crime.
That vow didn’t hold up when the volume of incoming complaints required a separate phone extension. Nike pulled away before Vick entered his guilty plea.
But the company was bound to hold up its bargain with Woods. He yielded to temptations that many people have experienced. His indignities were matched by the crassness of the media exposing them. He betrayed his wife, but the people who exposed his transgressions magnified the humiliation. This became an ugly story because of what Woods did, the kind of image he tried to project, and the tragic death of the phrase “none of our business.”
Gilbert Arenas functioned as a one-man focus group when he told : “I love Tiger. I got three Tiger Woods games for my Xbox just in case one gets scratched. On the cover, it doesn’t have him walking next to his wife. It just has Tiger Woods, hitting shots.”
In the same interview, Arenas expressed profound contrition for using guns as toys in the Wizards locker room, saying he deserved to be punished. He wasn’t in a mood to make excuses. He simply said what Woods’ sponsors in telecommunications and investment services couldn’t afford to accept. The companies selling sports-related products and a certain type of masculinity can stay on board.
When Woods announced that he would return to golf at the Masters in three weeks, EA Sports and Gillette joined Nike in issuing a formal welcome back. They can all expect big payoffs now that Woods has become the most fascinating person in sports, about 10 times over.
But Nike deserves some special credit because the company is so often reviled. It is the Dallas Cowboys and Yankees of the apparel world, oppressively huge, rich and arrogant. It didn’t take any effort or sacrifice to stand by Woods. The company just had to be itself, a corporate embodiment and molder of single-minded sports values. For a change, though, that was an unmitigated good thing.
San Francisco Chronicle.
March 17, 2010
When he heard the news, Rocco Mediate turned to an associate on the practice putting green at the Transitions Championship on Tuesday and laughed.
Like many others, Mediate was monitoring the whereabouts of a certain exiled superstar and had wagered a few greenbacks on when he might pop out of his rabbit hole.
Mediate figured it would be next week in Orlando, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Tiger Woods has won six professional titles.
‘I am sure when he comes back he will be 190 percent ready to go,’ Rocco Mediate says of Tiger Woods. (Getty Images) Bzzzzzt. Wrong answer. How about Masters for $100, Alex?
“I just lost a bet,” Mediate laughed.
Despite a professional layoff of 144 days, a span in which his unsettling personal life was dissected in full public view by tabloids, talk-show comedians, magazines and TV news shows, not many of Woods’ peers would dare gamble that he won’t contend when he makes his much-awaited season debut at the Masters in April.
We can debate how wild the scene might be, or to what degree the Augusta National folks can provide adequate cover from heckling or harassment, but there’s one detail that few of his PGA Tour brethren bothered to dispute Tuesday when they finally learned of his comeback plans.
Five months off or not, Woods will be ready to rock and roll. If not top the charts.
“Absolutely, it’s a no-brainer, of course he can come back and be competitive,” said 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman. “I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be prepared. I think he’ll be the favorite.”
He’ll be a marked man, no matter how you define it.
The Masters has a private security force, a tightly controlled fan base and a sense of decorum unlike any other tournament, so it doubtlessly made the most sense for a Woods comeback, from a practical standpoint. But he hasn’t hit a shot since Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters. Woods has won after lengthy layoffs before, including a nine-week stretch before the 2008 U.S. Open, but this is new territory.
Exactly one player has won the M the almost equally reclusive and enigmatic Ben Hogan, who won at Augusta in 1951 and ‘53 in his season opener.
“If anybody can, he can, because he seems to blow your mind every week with what he does,” veteran Heath Slocum said of Woods. “But he’s got a tough road. It’s going to be different for him after everything he has been through, a different experience.
“It’s going to be different for him, for TV, for the players, the media, everybody that’s normally involved in a tour event or the Masters. It’s going to be … interesting.”
Slocum paused. Was circus the word he was looking for?
“Very much,” Slocum said.
The concern voiced by some is that the timing of the Woods comeback, in fact, will swallow the Masters whole.
“I think the Masters is bigger than that,” former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said, somewhat hopefully. “If he contends, it will be crazy, obviously. But early-week, obviously the only talk will be that, but the Masters is bigger than that.”
It’s the highest-rated golf broadcast of the year for a reason, after all.
“Nothing can upstage the Masters, no way,” Mediate said. “It’s the Masters, man.”
Woods is the man at the Masters, having donned the green jacket four times. Still, he hasn’t won there since 2005 and there’s got to be some rust from the layoff. True, he’s not coming back from an injury like he was in 2008 and his golf game hasn’t theoretically suffered.
But in some ways, this scenario is even worse than his wounded-knee circumstance of two years ago. Nobody has any idea how he will be received or how it will affect him, though the Masters presents the best platform for a return.
“It’s probably the most controlled atmosphere you can possibly have,” former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk said. “Augusta’s got that stigma or whatever you want to have it. You guys are different that week, fans are as well-behaved as they can get because everyone’s afraid they will lose their ticket.
“It’s just different. Everyone is in awe of that place from top to bottom.”
But golf has never experienced a situation like this. Some fans are outright angry at Woods for what he did to the image of the game and hiding from it won’t make it much better. Woods has yet to field a single question about the sex scandal, car crash or ties to a controversial Canadian doctor, and it’s unclear whether he will do so at Augusta.
“I think there is a downside to saying he can go to a place that is well-protected. If you don’t allow the people who really want to be there, media-wise, they are just going to make it up anyway,” veteran Paul Goydos said. “I don’t necessarily think that being well-protected is an advantage over the long run.
“I think he needs to face these people at some time. And if you don’t face them, they are just going to make it up. They will come with their own answers. In the absence of facts, they will make it up. Yes, I agree that the Masters has a lot of power and it buys him a lot of time, but what price do you pay for that time?”
Time didn’t matter much when Woods faced Mediate on a broken leg at Torrey Pines at the 2008 U.S. Open. He hadn’t played since the Masters and won in extra holes, limping into golf lore.
“He had a hard time there, didn’t he?” Mediate laughed. “When he has these layoffs, he just can’t play. Would I be surprised if he won the Masters? Absolutely not. I am sure when he comes back he will be 190 percent ready to go.
“He has something to prove and he has never disappointed. I don’t think he’s going to come out hitting it sideways, put it that way.
“Here is one thing that is for sure: The No. 1 world ranking is not up for grabs.”
The Woods sideshow will almost c his partners in the first two rounds at Augusta. They will be caught in the eye of the storm through no doing of their own.
“It would be a disappointing draw, a tough draw to handle,” Ogilvy said. “But at least if you play with him there you are insulated a little bit. But it’s not the draw you would hope for.”
Mediate predicted that the whole scandal scenario, while it might leave a mark on Woods’ psyche, will have an unusual result.
“I think he’ll be better,” Mediate said. “Because he has faced things he has never had to face. He has faced a whole bunch of bad stuff and he’s never had to deal with that with everybody.
“He has become a little more human to everybody else, which is probably good. But as a golfer, he has not become any more human.”
March 17, 2010
The PGA Tour is looking for a new title sponsor for its World Golf Championship at Doral after CA decided not to renew its contract.
CA had been the title sponsor the last four years. CA spokesman Bill Hughes said Wednesday the company will continue looking for marketing opportunities in golf, just not as the sponsor of a tournament.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has said he was confident the tournament would return to Doral next year, even if it has to find a new sponsor. Finchem said during the final round Sunday the tour had been speaking to a number of companies.
March 16, 2010
Officials met again at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge on Monday to discuss security issues, fan contingencies and potential catastrophes.
Because, if Tiger Woods elects to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week, all three could be rolled into one.
“Chaos,” Jim Furyk said of the likely scene when Woods returns. “It’s going to be a zoo.”
Funny he should use animals as part of his metaphor.
“When he walks into that locker room or dining area for the first time,” British Open champion Stewart Cink said, “it’s going to be like there’s a giant elephant in the room.”
As an expectant world already knows, for Woods to put his sordid past behind him, he has to crawl out of his self-induced exile at some point. Everybody associated with the PGA Tour is waiting for that day, whether it’s next week, at the Masters or wherever, knowing the long-term gain will almost certainly require some short-term risk.
Last week, conflicting reports from multiple news outlets had Woods mulling a return Monday and Tuesday at the Tavistock Cup, played on his home course outside Orlando, followed by an appearance at the Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he’s the two-time defending champion and a six-time winner. Other reports had him waiting until the Masters on April 8 to play.
Even though Tiger Woods wasn’t around at Doral last weekend, he was. (AP) As a result, all last week at the biggest event of the year to date, the star-strewn CA Championship outside Miami, it was like tracking a careening Caribbean hurricane on the Weather Channel. Everybody knew it was going to come ashore somewhere, at some point, and that the blowback from Hurricane Eldrick is going to be furious.
Absent last week or not, a huge banner hanging near the first tee box at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa featured a panel photograph of several prominent players, including Woods, whose image looked down on fans, larger than life. He loo a fateful date everybody wants to get over with.
Players mostly want Woods back in the fold for a variety of reasons, but they expect it could be downright ugly for a spell. Furyk, who has been paired with Woods in tournaments and international cup competitions dozens of times, struggled for the right words.
“I think everybody looks forward to him coming back, they just don’t look forward to … I look forward to things being back to normal and business as usual,” he said. “But that first week is going to be …”
Awkward might be an apt term. There’s a sense of anticipation, mixed with a huge helping of dread.
It’s not hard to envision hand-written signs with witticisms like Tiger Slept Here scribbled on them, or females dangling car keys along the gallery ropes. He was twice mocked in San Diego by airplanes trailing banners for local strip clubs. It could also get abusive, which is the biggest concern of the players and events like Bay Hill, where extra security in on standby in the event Woods commits by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
“I think you’re going to have all sorts,” Padraig Harrington said. “Like, there’s no doubt there’s a lot of people, a lot of the solid fans who are disappointed, and I don’t know how they are going to react.
“But I think in general, people will be curious. It will be a bigger deal. Golf has held him in such high esteem and obviously with this whole thing, from a golfing standpoint, it has been disappointing.”
Imagine the fate of the poor schlubs who get paired with the guy at his first few events, especially if it’s a more publicly open affair, like Bay Hill.
“I think that if you get into a situation where people are heckling and trying to irritate him, they are going to irritate the other players around him as well,” Furyk said. “It definitely has a trickle-down effect. That could be a possibility, especially at Bay Hill. Obviously, Augusta provides more of a controlled crowd and controlled atmosphere.”
The animosity in certain pockets of fandom is matched in certain factions of players. Two weeks ago on the driving range at the Honda Classic, a parade of players marched past a Golf Channel analyst and figuratively patted him on the back, offering congratulations for the scathing comments he had offered about Woods’ remarks during his statement reading last month. One was a top 10 player, too.
A player with Orlando ties was asked about whether he had perhaps seen Woods practicing on the range and preparing to make a comeback, said that he hadn’t, then turned and offered an unsolicited reaction.
“You want to kno-.”
The anger is understandable. It’s been exactly four months since Woods last hit a competitive shot, and for much of that time, players have been pestered with questions about his absence, if not prodded to answer questions Woods himself has evaded.
Other players fiercely defended Woods, however, and said that while the criticism of his personal meltdown might be warranted, players should keep in mind which dog is pulling this particular sports sled.
“You know what is sad about that?” Robert Allenby said. “Those guys forget what he has c I turned pro in 1991. Tiger came along and the prize money quadrupled.
“If there is any one guy out there, and I don’t care who they are, if they want to knock Tiger Woods, that’s just not the right thing to do. He has put so much more money in our pocket and we should be grateful for that part, that he came along in our era.”
Now we’re experiencing the darker portions of that ledger.
Last week, the Sports Business Journal noted that weekend TV ratings on CBS and NBC are down 18 percent ov and it’s an apples-to-apples comparison, since Woods didn’t play on Saturday or Sunday over the first 10 weeks of 2009, either. There could be several explanations, but during the outpouring of animosity that Woods generated in some quarters when the sex scandal started breaking, some fans threatened to literally tune out to the sport.
Perhaps they weren’t kidding. To many, Woods’ actions made golf a front-burner sport for all the wrong reasons. In part, that’s why world No. 2 Steve Stricker said he believes Woods should play before the Masters, lest his uncomfortable predicament swallow the tournament whole.
“Whenever he comes back it’s going to draw a lot of attention to that tournament and the focus is going to be on him coming back,” Stricker told reporters last week at Doral. “I don’t know if Augusta would like that to happen, you know? To turn it into Tiger’s comeback instead of the Masters tournament itself.”
Woods and his array of managers and handlers have so far declined to publicly identify where from tournament officials trying to conjure up security plans they might not need and fans pondering whether to buy tickets, to global media outlets trying to figure out what events to staff. As he has for four months, Woods is not answering any questions, which seems to be creating even more ill will.
The anxiety builds.
“I think we’re all looking forward to having him back,” Furyk said. “He’s our best player, and we need him back. We’re just looking forward to when it’s business as usual, not the circus.”
Hope he’s not holding his breath. Then again, for believers that there’s no such thing as toxic publicity, this might qualify as good news.
“He’s going to be more popular than ever,” Allenby said. “Everybody will want to see him, at least for the first couple of months. I mean, he’s been in the news more often than anybody not in Iraq.”
In that regard, Woods might attract more rubber-neckers than fans, which brings us full circle back to the initial concern: What fans are going to show up and how will he be greeted?
“I know people at home who have no interest in golf, and they are interested,” Harrington said. “They watch Tiger Woods interviews. There is going to be a bit more attention on it. It does make it a bit more E! Entertainment, doesn’t it, rather than CBS?”
March 16, 2010
Derek Lamely had to contend with a rain-delayed start, slow play on a soggy course, and tamping down his inevitable nerves as he inched closer to notching his first victory as a rookie on the PGA Tour.
But the 29-year-old American emerged out of the pack with easygoing style, shooting a 66 on Monday to win the Puerto Rico Open by two strokes.
He finished at 19-under 269, setting a tournament record at Trump International Golf Club-Puerto Rico, a scenic palm-fringed 7,526-yard course which was deluged by rain early in the competition.
Kris Blanks shot a 69 and finished alone in second at 271.
“I just kept on trying to make birdies, I kept on trying to be aggressive,” said Lamely, who teed off on No. 10 in the final round, the first player to win in that position since Keith Clearwater at the 1987 Colonial Invitational.
The victory was worth $630,000 to Lamely along with PGA playing privileges through 2012.
Holding up a crystal trophy, Lamely was thrilled to hold back a field of challengers whom he was playing nine holes ahead of, no matter if the world’s top-ranked players were on the U.S. mainland were at the World Golf Championship stop, the CA Championships.
“I’m still a rookie out here, even though I just won. There’s tons I can learn still,” he said.
Lamely vaulted up the leaderboard during Sunday’s third round by shooting a course record 9-under 63.
“I knew if I kept playing well and I kept trying to make birdies, I knew I would get within striking distance,” said Lamely, who was four strokes behind third-round leader Kevin Streelman entering the final round.
On his last hole on Monday, the par-4 450-yard ninth, Lamely’s chances appeared to take a hit; his tee ball sailed some 10 feet out of bounds, with two small palm trees just ahead. But he lifted the ball with his 8-iron, dropping it on the sloping green some 20 feet from the pin.
His first putt left the ball about a foot away and he dropped it for par. He broke out in a grin as he shook hands with the golfers in his grouping, Sweden’s Peter Gustafsson and Argentina’s Daniel Barbetti.
Then the waiting game began.
Lamely, who finished at 1:30 p.m., had to watch his competitors for more than two hours to see if he would be overtaken or forced into a playoff. He watched the TV broadcast with his caddy from the tournament’s media room as dozens of players congregated outside the clubhouse, getting ready to head to the airport.
But nobody was steadier than Lamely, who tied for 13th at last year’s Puerto Rico Open as a Monday qualifier.
“He was kind of like the carrier we were all trying to chase and just couldn’t catch him,” said Blanks, who made two bogeys all week.
Blanks’ previous best finish on tour came in 2009 in his rookie season when he finished tied for seventh at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.
Steve Wheatcroft finished at 16 under, tied for third with Streelman, Brendon De Jonge, and James Nitties.
Heavy rain driven by switching winds suspended play early in the competition, forcing organizers to extend the tournament to Monday. Under the saturated conditions, players were allowed to lift, clean and place balls in the fairway.
Greens and fairways first began to dry out Saturday under a day of strong Caribbean sunshine. The maintenance crew worked nights with squeegees and pumps to sop up the water.
Lamely, who said he spent much of the first two days of the rain-delayed event in his hotel bed, relaxed between rounds by fishing off the coastal course. He said he hooked a few tarp, but it was clear he landed the big one when he won the third Puerto Rico Open on the challenging par-72 course.
“It’s just a fun golf course. You can be very creative and you can play well,” he said. “And the golf course can get you, too, real quick.”
March 15, 2010
A few years back, Ernie Els branched out into the wine business.
His signature line out of South Africa has received warm reviews, and as any fan of red vino knows, some things tend to get better with age.
Els looks like the Ernie of old, with his win over an impressive field at the CA Championship. (Getty Images) Pop a cork and savor the flavor, because Sunday at the CA Championship was vintage Els.
Turning back the clock, oh, about a decade, Els cruised to his most meaningful and impressive win in six years, holding off young countryman Charl Schwartzel at Doral Golf Resort & Spa to win by four shots at 18-under par.
Given that the feat was accomplished at the biggest event of the year to date, it immediately revitalized the career of one of the game’s most important and popular figures after a gradual slide over the past few seasons.
“Obviously, things have been tough, you know,” said Ricci Roberts, Els’ caddie in 56 of his career victories worldwide. “Obviously it’s huge for him. I have said for the last few years, he’s still got it in him. I still think he’s got two or three more majors in him.”
No question, this was major enough for now.
“This means so much,” Els said. “I didn’t think it was ever going to happen again.”
A comparative kid almost ensured it didn’t happen Sunday. Pressed throughout the day by the 25-year-old Schwartzel, who is 15 years his junior, Els shot a bogey-free 66 and never blinked. This time, his putter, the bane of his existence for the past two years, actually helped deliver a title instead of costing him one.
The telling blow of the day came on the 14th, when Els made a crucial 24-footer for par, his longest putt of the week by 5 feet, allowing him to retain a one-shot lead. After a two-shot swing on the 17th, Els was actually able to enjoy his walk up the daunting 18th, one of the diciest holes in the game.
“I haven’t been making those kind of putts and you have to make putts like that to win golf tournaments at some point,” he said. “Luckily for me, I did it on the 14th hole today, and absolutely, I felt a lot better after that. I felt like maybe this one is for me this week.”
That feeling was a long time coming, even for a guy with a generally cheery disposition. He may be called the Big Easy, but his slide over the past few years has been anything but enjoyable for the Els camp, as his wife, Liezl, can attest.
“I live with him,” she laughed. “He is very driven and as dedicated as he was the day he came out. People, because everyone calls him the Big Easy, it’s easy to forget how hard he works.”
A former world No. 1, Els will jump 12 spots in Monday’s world ranking to No. 8, and that particular metric underscores his slow descent at least as much as his victory totals of late.
Els began 2010 at No. 17 in the world ranking, his lowest position to begin a season since 1994, when he was 20th and had no status on the U.S. tour. He won the first of his three majors in ‘94 and his future Hall of Fame career was off and running.
Yet as the putts refused to fall over the past two years, Els toppled in the pecking order in converse fashion. He was No. 5 when the 2008 season began, slipped to ninth open last year. Given his slot entering 2010, you don’t have to be a computer geek to discern the trend.
The victory drought in the States was becoming a real head-scratcher. Els had one win on the U.S. tour since 2004 and that was against a so-so field two years ago at the nearby Honda Classic. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, watching from behind the 18th green as Els putted out on Sunday, was smiling almost as broadly as the winner himself.
With Tiger Woods scandal still hanging over the game like a cloud, the sport sorely needs its biggest names to step up and help fill the void.
“Huge,” Finchem said.
That was pretty close to the word that Els’ manager, Chubby Chandler, used to underscore the importance of the day to Els’ bruised psyche. Over and over, Els had contended, even at the majors, but had been unable to scale the mountain on Sunday. His final round at Doral was incredibly clean.
“Massive,” Chandler said. “That was very complete, wasn’t it? You look back at some of his wins and he stumbled over the line at times, but there was no stumbling there, was there?”
Not even close. Els didn’t make a bogey. For the week, he ranked in the top five in greens found in regulation and putting, though the latter required a slight scramble of sorts.
After he missed four putts from inside 10 feet on Saturday, Els sent Roberts back to the hotel room before he had even signed his scorecard, to fetch another putter, which Els tossed in the bag and used without a hiccup on Sunday.
It was Els’ biggest victory on any tour in at least six years, probably since he won the precursor to this week’s event, the 2004 WGC American Express event against a stellar field overseas. He never quite recovered from a serious knee injury sustained in mid-2005 and had won only once in the States in that span.
Giddy or not, Els wasn’t making any bold proclamations about the future, having learned his lesson two years ago after winning the Honda Classic.
“I was a bit too cocky,” he sai especially given the spate of major championship sites this year, which already have Els’ salivary glands working overtime. In 2000, the two open championships were held at Pebble Beach and Bay Hill, where they return this season. He finished second at the first three majors of the season that year. Moreover, at Whistling Straits in 2004, again the site of the PGA Championship in August, Els three-putted the 72nd hole to miss a playoff by a stroke.
“Just to be back kind of in that group of players who are really performing well, I feel honored to be back in there,” he said. It didn’t happen by accident. After a poor showing last week in the final round at the Honda, Els went to the range at the Bear’s Club near his home in Jupiter and hit balls until the sun went down. He played in a member-guest event at Seminole Golf Club on Monday morning, then went back to the Bear’s Club for more range work. For three straight days, he and Roberts worked until they ran out of daylight.
“I want to just enjoy this one. This took so much work to win,” Els said. “A lot of people have said that the older you get, the tougher it becomes to win, and that’s very true. I’m 40 years old, and you know, it feels like in my 20s I had so many chances and I didn’t quite take them.
“Now that you’re older, you don’t get as many chances, so you’ve got to try to take them when they come. So this is nice. I’ll have a bit more confidence now, I’m sure, but I just want to keep working hard.”
Roberts was feeling slightly less constricted afterward, having hoisted a celebratory adult beverage in honor of his boss’ breakthrough. To Roberts, this felt just like old times.
Bottom’s up, Els fans. You’ve waited a while for this one.
“It’s been a battle the last few years,” Roberts said. “But like I keep saying, it [the talent] is always there, and the desire is stronger than ever. To be honest, I think you will see a lot more of him in the winner’s circle.”
