Category: Hittin’ the Links

It’s a major week (again)! Though this past week had two majors, the Women’s British Open and the U.S. Senior Open, it’s the upcoming men’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool that will get the most attention. It should be interesting.

The game’s best are preparing to tackle a course that on paper looks akin to one from a Rick Reilly novel, but with better hygiene. Tiger won seemingly easily in 2006 by eschewing his driver (something he may try again). Is he fully recovered from back surgery and ready to resume his pursuit of Nicklaus’ major wins record? Will Phil defend his first Open Championship title? Or will the winner be Rose or Fowler or Spieth or McIlroy or Westwood or [insert your pick here]? Can’t wait to see it get started.

In the meantime, let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety-Five”

For what should have been a down week in TV golf, the Independence Day weekend gave us some pretty compelling story lines. Major winners prevailed in the end. But a lot of people watching the Greenbrier Classic were undoubtedly rooting for the other guy.

This week is a double major week. The women of the LPGA are playing the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Birkdale in Lancashire, and the Champions Tour is in Oklahoma for the U.S. Senior Open Championship. In non-major category, the PGA Tour is in Illinois for the John Deere Classic, while the Euro Tour has the Scottish Open where Phil Mickelson is the defending champion. And the following week is the British Open Championship.

We love this time of year. Let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety-Four”

Tiger returns to golf and misses the cut by four. But the back feels good, he says.

Michelle Wie takes NYC and golf world by storm, twerks, and nearly doubles up in Arkansas.

Biggest international suspense… five-man playoff on EuroTour or World Cup?

Oh, and the Champions Tour held a major. Did you notice?

Let’s hit the links, Twitter style.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety-Three”

It’s difficult to contemplate. This weekend, Michelle Wie was playing in her 11th U.S. Women’s Open. Born Oct. 11, 1989, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship at the age of 10 (at the time she was the youngest person to qualify for a USGA amateur championship). She won it in 2003. She was the youngest to make the cut at the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship that same year. In 2006, Wie was the first female medalist at a men’s U.S. Open local qualifier (she failed to advance from the final stage qualifier).

Soon after Wie turned pro, a week before her 16th birthday, the trouble started. Her level of play deteriorated. She found herself the focus of several controversies, from questionable withdrawals and suspicious injuries to accusations that her parents were among the worst of sports parents. (Some of these accusations were probably true.) She finally won an LPGA event in 2009, but in most events during this time she was a side note. Even when she got into contention, she failed to close.

But 2014 appears to the year of a major Wiesy resurgence. She’s a few years removed from controversy and her play is improving at a rapidd pace. Her new putting style, odd as it is, has taken her from average at best to one of the best putters on the LPGA. She’s always been long, but now she’s playing a smarter game with more control. She already won at the LPGA Lotte Championship in April this year, and now… well, let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety-Two”

Well, the U.S. Open was a bit anti-climactic. Martin Kaymer beat the field into submission with two near-perfect opening rounds of 65. Dare we call it blitzkrieg?

In the end, the big stories going in got answered:

• Would Phil Mickelson complete the career grand slam? Not with that balky putter.
• Could Lee Westwood finally win a major? No.
• Would Rory McIlroy win his second U.S. Open? No (He’d finish T23).
• Is Kenny Perry too old to compete in a major? Maybe, but then again T28 isn’t too shabby.
• Would Tiger Woods show up or live tweet the event? Seriously?
• Can a two-time heart transplant recipient rise to the top level of his sport? Oh yes.

Let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety-One”

We’re one week away from what should be a very interesting U.S. Open. We have a refurbished Donald Ross course that has proven up to the test of the world’s best in the past. It now will do so without the Bermuda rough that served it well in ’99 and ’05.

Rest assured, it has new defenses. Though the fairways are wide, misplayed balls will wind up in waste areas, pine needles, wire grass, and other nasty places. And then there are those wonderful greens. We can’t wait.

So in the interest of getting to next weekend quicker, let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Ninety”

The final round of the Memorial might have been the wildest one so far this year: Bubba hooked one into a backyard, Na hit a spectator and left a ball imprint on her knee, Matsu broke his driver, and Scott never got it going.

Also this week, on the IR, Tiger fell to #4 in the world as Bubba Watson slid by him into #3. And just what did Phil know and when did he know it (and who told him)? It was a very interesting week in golf. Let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Eighty-Nine”

We hope those of you in the U.S. enjoyed the long Memorial Day weekend and took a moment to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. And for those of you in parts of the world that don’t observe the holiday this weekend, we hope you enjoyed it and got out to play a little golf.

There was a lot of great golf on TV this weekend, too. While many of us were outside grilling or enjoying the (finally) warm weather, the tours were putting on a show. The Euro Tour’s best event featured a hard Sunday charge from an unlikely (of late) player. The Crowne Plaza Championship gave us two of the game’s top players catching the leaders from deep in the field and then dueling it out in a playoff. There was even a David Toms sighting in Dallas, as the former PGA Championship winner put up a top 5 performance.

And what can we say about the Sr. PGA Championship? Well, let’s see as we hit the links…

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Eighty-Eight”

A lot of us thought that Tiger’s back injury this year could be the one from which he doesn’t come back. Turns out, he was thinking the same thing. That’s a startling admission from Woods who has long kept injuries hidden from the competition and the media. Time will tell if he will indeed be able to return to the TOUR and take up pursuit of major #15, but he is sounding optimistic about his health and his future.

More on that soon, but first let’s hit the links.

Continue reading “Volume Three Hundred Eighty-Seven”