Gmail Invites

For those interested, I have 3 gmail invites to give away.

 

I will give them to the first 3 people who email me.

 

My email address is linked on the right-hand column.

 

Who's Next?

Needless to say, I'm highly disappointed with the outcome of the matches this past weekend. But alas, we must move on.

This article speculates who will be named the captains of the 2006 Ryder Cup teams. Of the choices listed, for the U.S. side, the name that immediately stood out to me was Hale Irwin. He's a great champion, even to this day, and I think he deserves a spot in the rotation. But another name that made an impression to me was Mark O'Meara. Tiger seemed a little more fired up than usual to me at this year's matches, and hopefully with his buddy Mark'O at the helm, that trend would continue.

On the European side, with the domination of the 2004 team, it would be hard not to recommend Bernhard Langar for a repeat performance. My personal choice would be Nick Faldo, although I hear that he's not as popular across the pond as one would assume.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Congrats to the European team, by the way. They played a great match.

On The Bandwagon?

 So apparently Michael Jordan joined Team USA for dinner on Monday night. Say what you want about MJ, but you can't say he's not a winner. And you also can't say he's not a fan of golf and a supporter of the Ryder Cup.

I remember when I first became a fan of Jordan's, and the Bulls. It was the early 90's, when they were just beginning to tear through the NBA with reckless abandon. Like a lot of people who didn't really follow the NBA (and like many who did, I suppose), I wasn't immediately a fan of Jordan's. I resented the media hype that surrounded him. I was on the search for a team to call my own and thought I had settled on the New York Knicks. But after watching the Bulls play a few games, I couldn't help but get caught up in the way they played the game, most notably Jordan. I remember watching a game between the Knicks and the Bulls and found myself rooting for the Bulls before the game was over.

So there I was. I was firmly on the "bandwagon" and couldn't get off. But then again, don't we all become fans of certain teams when they're playing well? I mean, unless you live in a certain area or have been raised as a fan of a certain team, you don't just go out and pick a team out of a hat and say "I think I'll be a fan of <insert team name>". It doesn't work that way. And you don't normally become a fan of a team who isn't playing well, because they just don't grab your attention.

So yes, I became a Bulls fan in the early 90's. But I think the difference between me and what I call a "bandwagon fan" is that I remain a Bulls fan to this day. And I will remain a Bulls fan, no matter if they win 10 more titles or no more titles. I thank Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, Phil Jackson and the rest of the Bulls for that. They gave me a team to root for, and a lot of good memories to boot.

 

Well, It's Official

David Duval is back! Heh, thought I was talking about Vijay, didn't you? Nope, I'm more excited about Duval's success than Vijay's. A 14 month absence from making the cut, and basically an even longer absence from the game of golf has finally come to an end as David Duval made his own kind of "Hello, World" statement at the Deutsche Bank Championship this Labor Day.

 

Duval stated in an interview after making the cut on Saturday that one of his goals was to win once this year. He has never been one to lack confidence, but man, that's a big one! I'm not saying he doesn't have the talent to make it happen, it's just going to be hard to break through all of the other talented players out there who have been living on the tour all the time he has been away. Perhaps a better goal would have been "I want to win again" or "I want to get back to the Ryder Cup" or even "I want to get back to where Vijay is, fighting for World #1".

 

It's great to see David return to good form. But as we as golfers all know, it can leave you as quickly as you find it. If anyone can do it, I believe Duval can. Good luck, David.

 

Say It Isn't So!

Looks like The Mick and Titleist have parted ways over a contract dispute. Mickelson wanted to renegotiate after winning the Masters and Titleist didn't want any part of it. There are 2 ways of looking at this thing. Number 1 is that Phil was being a little selfish by wanting more of what he already has: money. The other is that Titleist was being selfish by not renegotiating a contract with one of their strongest supporters for the past 4 years.

 

The bottom line is that Phil is looking for a new company and will likely come out of the deal with a new set of clubs, a new ball and probably some new shoes. Looks like 2005 will be another down year as Philly tries to figure out the new equipment. My vote: Taylor Made. It will give Phil the hottest driver-maker today, and also allow him to keep playing the Titleist ball if he chooses, since I don't think Taylor Made has a golf ball line that they would push him to use.

 

Pavin The Way

Corey Pavin is on his way back. He probably will never equal the success of his mid-90's run, especially with courses getting longer and longer each year, but he is also no longer a player who is totally off the radar. Pavin's name has been mentioned several times the season... at Shinnecock, in Reno, at Buick IV.

 

It would be great to see Pavin return to the winner's circle, and it's great to see him playing well again. One of my most memorable Ryder Cup moments is his chip-in on Saturday at Oak Hill in 1995. I hope that Pavin will continue to gain consistency and will be able to finish his regular tour career strong.

 

Hasn't Pavin been working with Butch Harmon?

 

A Small Distinction

I got to thinking about something on the back 9 today. For probably 10 years now, I've been stuck in the ever popular "trying to break 90" category. Oh, I've broken 90 on several occasions, but I'm talking about doing it on a regular basis. I got to thinking today, though, that maybe I'm playing as well as I will allow myself to play.

 

What I mean is that, for years, I have tried to play "bogey golf". I use bogey as my par and if I can play a round of golf by averaging a bogey on every hole, I basically go home happy. But the bottom line is that I can do that fairly consistently now, and so to play bogey golf shouldn't be good enough for me anymore. I need to train my mind to think par instead of bogey.

 

I realized this after making birdie on the 12th hole to get myself to "one under bogey" for the day. I left the hole thinking "if I can finish off the next 6 holes well, I'll shoot 89". I was, without realizing it, talking myself into making bogey on the next 6 holes instead of trying to push myself to par the next 6... or at least go into each hole trying to make par. Instead of thinking 89, I should have been thinking "I'm 11 over through 12. I'm on pace to shoot 83".

 

It's a small distinction, but one that I think I need to make in order to take my game to the next level.

 

My Brain Was Getting In The Way!

I've been working pretty hard lately on the mental side of my golf game. Although my scores haven't improved hardly at all in the past 3 or 4 years, I do see improvement in the parts of my game that were weaker years ago. As a result, I have decided that my brain is the reason why I haven't seen some more improvement in my scores. I have historically had a decent short game, but with the improvement of the full-swing part of my game, the short game seems to have left me. I'm somewhat of a feel player, and I think that if I can just concentrate more on the course, I should be able to get consistently in the low 80's.

 

Although my scores haven't shown it by being lower, thinking better on the course has helped me to avoid (so far) the occasional mid 90's scores that I would achieve when I had a bad hole or two and let it ruin what would normally be an average or above average round.

 

Perfect example: Yesterday I was 2 over through 5 holes (pretty good start for me) when I pushed a 5 wood out of bounds on a par 5 that does not set up well for me. I realized pretty quickly that I was not totally commited to the shot and should have backed away. Frustration did set in for that hole and the next, but I was able to come back with a par on the 8th, and finish with a decent 44. A month ago, I would have let the "bad luck" of hitting O.B. stay with me and would have probably finished with something like 47 or 48. But yesterday I was able to re-commit myself to the mental side of my game and finish up fairly well.

 

It's difficult for me right now. It's a long process and I'm nowhere near where I want to be yet. But if I want to improve as a golfer, I think this is ultimately the path I'm going to have to take to get there.

 

Good Job

This morning European Ryder Cup Captain Bernhard Langer made his two wildcard picks, choosing Colin Montgomerie and Luke Donald to round out the European squad. With Montgomerie, Langer gets some valuable veteran leadership and, I think, a man that the rest of the team will look up to. And with Donald, he gets a young gun who is playing extremely well at present. As a matter of fact, I look for Donald to make some very valuable contributions to the European cause. Let's just hope they aren't too valuable.

 

By the way, for anyone interested, here's a great history of the Ryder Cup Matches.

 

Jake Trout Not Floundering

Peter Jacobson fired a 2nd round 66 to take the lead in the year's final major, the Jeld-Wen Tradition. After winning the U.S. Senior Open earlier this year, if Jake could pull off another major this season, he would definitely prove his worth on the Champions Tour. It's great to see someone who takes the time to have fun on the golf course having so much success in the 3rd round of his career.

 

It's Good To Be King

Tiger Woods is apparently the best at everything. Even when he's in a (gasp!) slump, he's the best. The current speculation is who Tiger can be paired with in Alternate Shot at the Ryder Cup because he's the only one "talented" enough to get out of the trouble he gets into. Now wait a minute. There are talented golfers all over the world, professional and amateur, at least 30 who are serious contenders in any major tournament... and Tiger Woods is the only player out there good enough to get out of trouble?

 

I understand that he puts himself in some precarious situations out there, and there's no doubt he's a heck of a scrambler. But maybe the thing we should be looking at here is that the reason Tiger is the only one who can get out of those predicaments is because he's the only one who can get into those predicaments.

 

I know this will never happen, but if Tiger can't get his swing straightened out in time, perhaps Captain Sutton should consider sitting him out in the Alternate Shot. If no one else is "capable" of getting Tiger out of the trouble he gets into, he's just going to be a liability anyway.

 

Interesting Fact

This story on Golf.com reports that , even though neither will be playing, Vigay Singh would have taken over the #1 ranking next week if Tiger hadn't made a birdie on the 72nd hole of the WGC-NEC Invitational to put himself into a tie for 2nd place. I thought I was pretty good at math until I started following the World Golf Rankings.

 

I Don't Really Believe In Handicaps

At last count, my handicap was teetering somewhere between 18 and 20. I've come to the conclusion that I don't really believe in handicaps as it relates to golf, or any other sport for that matter. Of course, most sports don't have handicaps, so it's not an issue. I just don't feel that someone should be "rewarded" for not being as good as someone else. I would guess my boss, for instance, is somewhere around a 7-10 handicap. I shouldn't be given free strokes when we have a match just because I'm not as good at the game as him. It's only my fault if I'm not as good. He practices more than I do, he plays more than I do, so he should naturally be better. If I'm not willing to put in the time to become a better player, he shouldn't have to pay for it. It's up to me to rise to his level, not up to him to be brought down to mine.

 

I understand what handicaps are for. If I want to have a match with someone who is either better or worse than me, we can both take our handicaps and have a good, competitive round. But to me it's not competition if you're not truly playing at the same level. Do the Lakers give a few shots to the Bulls because the Bulls can't play at the same level as them? No. So why should my local Club Champion give me a few strokes? It's not fair, to me or to him. He's just the same as being penalized for being the better player, and I'm not going to have the drive to become a better player as long as I know I have my handicap to lean on.

 

I've never been much of a tournament golfer and I've just about decided that my dislike of handicaps is one of the main reasons why. I don't feel that I should even compete if I don't truly feel that I have a fair chance. If you can't win, don't play. And if I have to use my handicap to facilitate a victory, to me that's not a victory at all.

 

Who's The Best?

Well, not the best. I got to thinking while watching the tournament today that the media hasn't really latched onto anyone to take over the title of "Best Player Yet To Win A Major". They're too busy scrambling around wondering if the sky is falling because Tiger is no longer dominating the tour. So I guess it's up to me to figure it out.

 

If we go simply by the Official World Golf Rankings, Padraig Harrington is the only player in the top 10 without a major. If we instead look at the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, Scott Verplank and Jerry Kelly could make a case as well. Has Jay Haas won a major? Sergio Garcia and Robert Allenby are right there on both lists, and if Chris DiMarco has another season like this one (and doesn't win a major), he could well be the one with the monkey on his back by the beginning of the 2006 season.

 

It's a tough call, but strictly from a "newsworthy" standpoint, I would guess that if the media made a pick tomorrow they would go with Sergio. He clearly exhibits a lot more fire that the rest of the candidates, and would openly relish the challenge if it were put upon him. So I guess I'm going to go with Sergio too. In the end, it's all just media hype. And as I said before, they have plenty to talk about right now anyway.

 

Speaking Of Sam...

Who would be considered the modern day Sam Snead?

 

With his course management skills and domination of the game, Tiger Woods has always drawn natural comparisons to Jack Nicklaus. Phil Mickelson has garnered comparisons to Arnold Palmer, because of his go-for-broke style and his recent popularity with fans.

 

Ernie Els could kind of be compared to Sam, with his long, lazy swing. But because of his global travel habits, Ernie could also draw comparisons to Gary Player. If you're talking about personality, it's hard to find someone in the modern game that would compare to Sam. He was a relentless competitor who hated to lose, much like Tiger. And he was also quite the gambler, kind of like Phil.

 

So, it looks like there's a little bit of Sam Snead in everyone. But you would be hard pressed to find any one person who can truly compare to the country boy from Hot Springs, VA.

 

Anything To Win

I was reminded this morning of a great Sam Snead story that I had heard several years back:

 

Sam was playing a round of golf one day with a young whipper snapper on a course he had played several times in his lifetime. They came to a hole, a nice dogleg par 5 with several tall trees hugging the fairway on the inside of the dogleg. Sam nonchalantly makes the comment that when he was younger he used to cut the dogleg over the trees to give himself a chance to get home in two. It would take a heck of a shot to clear the trees, but the youngster, not to be outdone, teed up his ball and proceeded to knock it directly into the forest.

 

The kid sheepishly turned to Sam and asked, "How in the heck did you ever clear those trees?"

 

Sam replied with a smile, "Son, when I was younger, those trees were a lot shorter than they are now."

 

Some of the details are probably off. I don't even know if it's true. But it's a darn funny story any way you look at it. You can't beat Slammin' Sammy.

 

What About Loopy?

How about that guy, huh? Jim Furyk is out of the game for about 3 months with wrist surgery, comes back to defend his U.S. Open crown, makes the cut, has had 2 top 10's in 4 events since, and is currently tied for 5th place after the first round of the WGC-NEC Invitational. This guy is a horse, and for all the naysayers who say that an unconventional swing can't hold up at the highest levels, I say BALDERDASH!!

 

Who's to say what the perfect swing is anyway? We're all individuals, and we all have a unique, natural golf swing. You see it all the time on tour. Someone wins a big tournament, like a major, and they subsequently go into a 2 year slump because they start tinkering with their swing to try to get more "on plane" or whatever. They try to fight nature because (I guess) they feel that a major winner should have a swing that looks more like Tiger's. Maybe we should all quit worrying about that elusive "perfect swing plane" and just go with the swing that the Big Man gave us.

 

The Sorta 7

Just discovered this great blog called 'SortaGolf'. Everyone else probably already knows about this great site as I'm usually the last one off the boat on this 'sorta' thing, but it deserves a mention anyway. Although I, for the most part, try to follow the rules of golf to the best of my ability, I can't help but appreciate the logic of 'The Sorta 7 Amendments To The USGA Rules Of Golf'.

 

When the game has got you down, as it inevitably will, 'The Sorta 7' can be a beacon in the darkness. If you just can't seem to break 90 no matter what you do, go play a Sorta Round or two and see how great it will make you feel. And as far as being unfair, I don't see a problem as long as you're alone or with a group who are also following the same rules. It's all fair for everyone as long as you're in agreement on what the rules are before the round begins.

 

I think I'm going to support these guys by purchasing my very own SortaBag Tag. I encourage everyone else out there to do the same. Golf is hard enough as it is. Let's at least make sure we have some fun while we're doing it.

 

David Gossett

The Golf Channel has an article up about David Gossett and his struggles since his U.S. Amateur win a mere 5 years ago. I went to the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in Memphis a couple of years back and man, this kid has got game. Of course, he's from the Memphis area and is probably more comfortable there than at other tour stops. Horses for courses and all that. But David has been struggling mightily this season, with only $21,250 in earnings and 2 cuts made. I guess it shouldn't amaze me that the mental side of the game figures so much in the pro ranks. I mean, everyone and their father seem to have near perfect swings these days, so the only explanation for why one guy is more successful than another is that some let their brains get in the way more than others.

 

I sure hope David gets out of his funk soon. He seems like a nice kid.

 

Who Will Be The First?

With the PGA Tournament over, the race is tightening up for the position of World Number One. Vijay Singh now sits only a fraction behind Tiger Woods in the World Golf Ranking. While the current ranking system may not be foolproof, Vijay is sneaking up on Mr. Woods in the superior Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index as well.

 

So the question is this: Not when or if, but who will be the first to take the position of World Number One from Tiger, and will it be this year? To the latter, just based on the number of tournaments he plays compared to the other contenders, I would have to guess that definitely Tiger will lose the #1 ranking some time this year. With the major season over and the pressure off, I expect Vijay to win one, maybe two more events this season. Vijay seems to not be worried too much anymore about the ranking, which could be a dangerous recipe for everyone else on tour.