What an ugly year for American golf. Not only did the top U.S. players collapse, but the so-called future stars were embarrassing compared to the young studs from abroad.
We’ve known for a month that the calendar was going to be the only one to knock Tiger Woods from his perch atop the World Golf Rankings.
So when Lee Westwood rose to number one four days ago, it summed up golf in 2010: a foreign golfer steps in as an American falters. The was the year that American golf took one right on the chin from the rest of the world.
Continue reading “Westwood’s Ascension Caps Foreign Golf Invasion”
Lesson combined with club fitting offered a prime example of all the game’s learning tools.
I’m constantly stumped by the venom and vigor of golfers who swear anything can be fixed with the right equipment, and those who say with enough lessons and practice, you can break par with 25-year-old gear.
I’ve straddled the line through the years, often falling more on the “answers are in the dirt” side, but I took it to another level. Being around pro shops I’d heard my share of tips and advice, but as a Harvey Penick disciple, I didn’t want to weigh my golf mind down with much other than “take dead aim.”
More recently I’ve overhauled my golf bag, kicked the only putter I’ve ever known to the curb, and spend way way too much time reading about equipment I’ll never own.
With all that in mind, I’d say I was prime for a learning academy revelation.
Continue reading “Is it Equipment or Technique? I Vote For Both”
From Pavin’s cure for insomnia to McDowell’s stones, what we’ll take away from 2010 at Celtic Manor.
Watching this year’s Ryder Cup through the fog of too little sleep and the sputtering pace brought on by epic rain made for quite an experience. When it was all said and done, and I’d caught my breath from a dazzling final day of singles matches, I realized there was plenty to take away.
From the telling difference between the captains, to the way certain players stepped to the forefront on the biggest stage and in the most crucial situations, we can draw conclusions that will last far longer than Europe’s champagne hangover.
Will the U.S. squad defend its victory and bring the Cup home? Or will the upstart Europeans defend their turf in Wales?
The Americans have the top two players in the world, but Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are anything but Ryder Cup stars. Through their careers, they’ve never won this bi-annual event outside of America. Can an injection of young blood carry the U.S.?
Or will Colin Montgomerie’s crew – favored by the bookmakers, by the way – put on a winning team effort at Celtic Manor?
On Sunday, someone will emerge from the Tour Championship as the FedEx Playoff champ. But, where will he rank on the First Annual Thrash Talk “It” Index?
I’ve learned a few lessons since taking on the Thrash Talk column at the start of the 2010 season. The one you guys have driven home the hardest is that Steve Stricker’s got a lot of defenders out there. I know because each time I call him boring, Señor Snooze, or drier than white bread, a commenter reminds me that I’m an idiot.
As I started looking at the field for this week’s Tour Championship, I realized that I’ve got a snap judgment of each guy in the field. Are they compelling, engaging, exciting? Do they move the needle? Say their name and is it goosebumps or yawns?
Put it all together and here you have it, the FedExCup Top 30, as they rack up in what I best describe as the “It” Index.
Continue reading “Forget the $10 Million, Who’s Going to Move the Needle?”
As part of The Sand Trap’s experiment, I ditched the tips for a day. I was licking my chops and was raring to go. It was fun, but boy was it a debacle!
The idea is beautiful in its simplicity, and genius in how many layers it can peel back. It’s called the Forward Tees Tournament and it’s taking place next weekend at your home course. Just as the name says, everyone plays from the shortest set of tees their home course provides. Before you head out, you post your expectations.
I call tell you from experience, it’s going to open your eyes. And maybe not in a good way.
I’d like to call the FTT less of a golf skills event and more of a golf intervention. Stripped of a big course rating, a yardage that measures near 7,000, and standing where Mr. and Mrs. Havercamp normally tee off, you’ve got to be oozing confidence. I know I was. Until I realized all the flaws that show up from the tips just might rear their heads from the senior tees.
How can people rip on a series of events that extend our golf season with meaningful tournaments featuring the best players in the world?
I’m baffled by all the negative press the FedExCup gets. As a golf fan, why wouldn’t I want an extra month of meaningful golf, with the best players on the PGA Tour competing for a huge purse, and bringing golf to some of the biggest media markets in the country?
For years, the golf season effectively started at the Masters and ended at the PGA. But the introduction of the PGA playoffs offers up golf straight through September.
He may not win in 2010, but watch out in 2011 as Tiger will come roaring back.
I’m glad to hear that it’s “okay to root for Tiger Woods again” because, if nothing else, it signals a return to stories about Tiger being about golf and not about his marriage, his kids, his infidelity, his temper tantrums on the course, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I don’t really care about.
We recently asked people in the forum to predict Tiger’s 2011 season, and as I write this 25% of people think Tiger will continue his major-less streak in 2011. 43% think he’ll win a lone major, and 23% think he’ll win two or more. In regular PGA Tour events, only 9% think he’ll go winless, while 40% think he’ll win one to three and another 25% think he’ll win four or more.
My votes? I picked two majors and 4-6 regular PGA Tour wins, and here’s why. In 2011, Tiger Woods will have the emotional wreckage of his broken infidelity and subsequent divorce behind him, he’ll have incorporated enough of new instructor Sean Foley’s methods to get his swing back, and he’ll be eager to prove that he can still be dominant. Let’s look at each of these.
On a course that’s hard to love, the players put on a show that even a German robot champion couldn’t ruin. Dustin’s debacle only added to the spectacle at Whistling Straits.
You won’t hear me saying the PGA is the forgotten major ever again, not after the 2010 rendition served up the most exciting tournament of the season. From the breaking news before play even began to the statement made by a crop of young soon-to-be superstars, there was so much to love even before you add in the biggest rules blunder of our generation.
A sensational course setup that encouraged risk-reward golf proved that a links-style design that looks about as authentic as a Disney World jungle can still provide the stage for exciting, compelling, nail-biting golf.
Whistling Straits and the PGA of America put on such a memorable tournament, even the bland as white bread champion couldn’t spoil the week.
Continue reading “Birdies, Blunders Create Year’s Best Tourney: PGA 2010”
