Category: Thrash Talk

The 137th British Open Championship begins one week from today, and the golf course for this year’s event is Royal Birkdale. Tiger Woods is on the shelf after knee surgery and will be missing his first major championship as a professional. To say things are wide open is a huge understatement. This is one of the most intriguing majors in awhile.

It’s no secret the Europeans have struggled in majors over the past decade or so. In fact, they have only won three since 1997. Two of those came at the British Open, and both were played at Carnoustie (Paul Lawrie in 1999 and Padraig Harrington in 2007).

Continue reading “European Domination at Royal Birkdale”

The 2008 U.S. Women’s Open is now in the books, and South Korea’s Inbee Park is a major champion. Park shot a final-round 71 and cruised to a four-shot victory over Helen Alfredsson. The competition was close heading into the back nine, but the rest of field collapsed and cleared the path for the 19-year-old youngster. With the victory, Park became the youngest ever to win the U.S. Women’s Open.

Inbee Park deserves all the credit for her solid performance, but the week didn’t pan out like most fans wanted. It was more of a “what might have been” event than a memorable one. The LPGA Tour has a lot of good things going for it, but this past week was one to forget. Here are a few reasons why.

Continue reading “2008 U.S. Women’s Open Failure”

The golf world has had a week or so to recover from Tiger’s amazing performance at the U.S. Open as well as the announcement he will miss the rest of the 2008 season due to injury. Injuries to top athletes happen multiple times throughout the year, but in golf, an injury to Tiger Woods is huge news. No athlete dominates their respective sport like Mr. Woods (and I’m not forgetting Roger Federer either).

The news was devastating at first, and it still stings a little weeks later. The golf world will pick things up and move along for the remainder of the 2008 season, however, and Tiger’s loss will be other players’ gain. He will miss a lot of key events this year, and that leaves the door wide open for others. The finish to the season should be exciting after all.

The Tiger Effect is in full swing when Woods is playing, but it’s also in place when he is out of action. Take a look at some of the events affected most by Tiger’s absence, and let’s see who has a good shot to step up and gain some recognition.

Continue reading “The Tiger Effect”

Tiger Woods’ performance at the 2008 U.S. Open this past weekend was incredible and showed once again why he is the best golfer on the planet. Rocco Mediate played great and had his chances, but it was pretty obvious Woods wasn’t going to let the tournament slip away. If he would have needed an eagle at the 72nd hole or in the playoff, he would have gotten it. He is that damn good, even when he isn’t at his best.

Other than Woods and Mediate, the other guy that has been mentioned most is Phil Mickelson. Lefty made a couple questionable decisions this past week, and he paid the price. In the end, it wasn’t his week.

Now that the popular stories have been discussed, it’s time to talk about some of the underrated stories from this year’s U.S. Open. I had a chance to watch nearly every minute of television coverage this year, and I jotted down a few notes along the way. Enjoy!

Continue reading “Random Thoughts from Torrey Pines”

The 2008 U.S. Open starts today, and the world’s best will attempt to tame Torrey Pines en route to major championship glory. The two best golfers in the world, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, both have a great history at this golf course. They have received the most headlines going into the event, and they will be paired together the first two rounds at least.

Tiger and Lefty will be the favorites, but who else has a good shot at winning the second major of the year? Also, who might be a dark-horse pick, and who might disappoint? Sand Trap staff members predict these things and more in this week’s article. If you have anything to add, please comment below or discuss it in the forum.

Continue reading “2008 U.S. Open Predictions”

The world’s best will head to Torrey Pines (South Course) next week for this year’s U.S. Open, and there are numerous storylines worth talking about. Tiger Woods finished second at The Masters a couple months ago and then had knee surgery two days later. He hasn’t played a competitive round since, and it will be interesting to see how things go when he tees it up in the season’s second major.

Any time a U.S. Open is played, the golf course gets a fair amount of attention as well. Often times the course setup is borderline unfair for the golfers, but how tough will Torrey Pines play? Also, can Phil Mickelson finally recover from his collapse at the 2006 U.S. Open? Can an International win this event for the fifth year in a row? All these topics and more will be covered in this week’s Thrash Talk.

Continue reading “2008 U.S. Open Storylines”