As with most stories there are two sides to be told. This case is no different, especially since the two sides were separated by fifty yards. The scene of this controversy was The Players Championship in the delayed third round in the final pairing of Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia.

On the second hole, Garcia, away and hitting his second shot in the fairway was distracted by the gallery that was gathered around Tiger's drive in the left pine straw. Several seconds prior to Sergio's swing, Tiger pulled his fairway wood out of this bag and the crowd reacted favorably to his choice to go for it. This favorable cheering distracted Sergio and caused him (his own words) to miss the ball way right into the trees on the right. Sergio bogeyed the hole.

Continue reading »

I have to admit that I did not get to watch the final round of the 2013 Masters Toonamint live. I was flying on a plane to Asia, but my DVR caught the whole thing and I was able to watch every minute. Ever since the 2007 Masters where Zach Johnson won with an over-par score, the Masters tournament has done a wonderful job making exciting back nine drama.

This year's event was no different with the event in complete doubt leading up to the playoff. Although I knew the outcome, watching it unfold was still quite compelling. I am very happy to see Adam Scott take his first major especially after his falter down the stretch as the Open Championship last year. It would have been easy to let that event damage him and cause him to falter again coming into the final holes at Augusta.

Continue reading »

Tiger Woods should have withdrawn from the 2013 Masters.

Yes, it was more than he had to do, because the rules state that he was able to finish out the tournament, but withdrawing would have been the right thing to do.

On Saturday morning I got to my club as I do for most Saturday mornings for breakfast with my regular group. By that time ESPN and Golf Channel had already been talking about the drop. One of my good friends came in and I told him of the ruling and he immediately said that when he was watching the event he had told his wife after Tiger made the drop that it was not a correct drop. Sadly I did not get to see it live that day because I was working but I certainly saw the replay on all of the sports channels.

Continue reading »

Hello friends. For me the official start of spring is the sound of the opening tee shot at Augusta National. This year the man on form and who is likely everyone's favorite is Tiger Woods. He has started the season with three wins and hasn't looked this good going into the Masters for at least the past five years. To add to the drama Phil has already won in Phoenix this season and is also looking good. Then last week Rory McIlroy - who has been pretty awful this season - has seemingly pulled his game together and finished second at the Texas Open. There are no shortage of storylines going into the event.

This year here at Thrash Talk we have decided to change it up by allowing a different forum member to answer each our five questions along with the staff. We had some great responses. Without further ado here are everyones thoughts.

Continue reading »

I know when I write this there are going to be many of you who disagree with me. Especially the Phil fans of whom I am one of. I believe the end of the Phil Mickelson era is upon us. He may win a few more regular tournament events, but he will no longer win majors and will shortly be a complete non-factor.

For starters, it pains me to say this, because during his prime and even today I am one of his biggest supporters. I would and still do root for Phil at every event in which he plays. His go-for-broke style allows for some of the highest highs and lowest lows. We may never see another golfer with his style and flair play the game again. He is certainly deserving of the hall of fame and without Tiger would have been one of the game's true greats. Add to this, Phil is very generous with his time with the fans, signing autographs and giving out balls to the kids, he is easy to like.

Continue reading »

A few weeks ago, Lance Armstrong did an interview with Oprah and essentially admitted that after lying to us for over ten years, he had in fact taken performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). To many this was not a surprise.

Recently Vijay Singh and Bob Charles announced that they too have taken PEDs. This was much more of a surprise because many, myself included, believe that PEDs aren't likely to make you a much better golfer.

Continue reading »