Not So Fast Tiger

Tiger Woods is the definite favorite at Augusta this year, but this week won’t be his week.

Thrash TalkMasters week is finally here! It’s one the greatest weeks of the season for golf fans worldwide. Everyone has been talking about the course changes, potential favorites, dark-horse picks, etc. That being said, it’s time to get the show on the road. Enough talking, let’s play some golf! I’ll be glued to the television for four straight days, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

The staff here at The Sand Trap made their Masters predictions already, but I’m going to go a little more in-depth with mine. I’ll talk a little about the course, since it gets nearly as many headlines as the players themselves. I’ll also talk about some contenders, pretenders, and sleepers to watch for. I’ll end with a couple random thoughts for the week.

2006 Players Championship Tidbits

There are a lot of things to talk about after watching The Players Championship this past weekend.

Thrash TalkThe 2006 Players Championship is behind us, and it’s time to get focused on The Masters. However, there are a lot of things to talk about after watching the crazy action at Sawgrass this past weekend. I watched every second of the television coverage on Saturday and Sunday, and it made me realize once again why The Players Championship is my favorite golf tournament in the world.

There were some feel-good stories, a great performance by a certain par-three, and a large amount of untimely bad shots played in the process. I want to talk about some of the positives and negatives I witnessed this past weekend. Therefore, I’m going to break down some of the key topics in The Players Championship aftermath, so hold on tight.

A Bright Future

The early part of 2006 has seen the rise of a few young guns on the PGA Tour.

Thrash TalkTiger Woods exploded onto the scene nearly a decade ago and proved early and often that he was a force to be reckoned with on the PGA Tour. A few years later, Sergio Garcia stole the hearts of golf fans worldwide en route to stamping his claim as a young up-and-comer. Adam Scott and Luke Donald soon followed Garcia, quickly placing their names into the hat of “young guns.”

Tiger’s résumé speaks for itself. It’s obvious he is one of, if not, the best young golfer to come along in the history of golf. Garcia, Scott, and Donald have all been very successful on the PGA Tour, and they are all currently ranked in the top 10 in the world. That’s pretty awesome in its own right. While these three haven’t been as successful as Woods, they will still be a huge part of golf’s future.

Disappearance of the Big Five

Last year was all about the Big Five, but that’s definitely not the case so far in 2006.

Thrash TalkI hope everyone had nice weather this past weekend like I did in Oklahoma. On Saturday, the wind was non-existant and temperatures were in the 80s. On top of that, I broke 80 for only the fourth time in my golfing career. That doesn’t really have anything to do with this week’s Thrash Talk, but it is definitely worth mentioning. Now that my personal golf story of the week is out of the way, I’ll get into this week’s article.

Last year at this time, the golf media was going crazy over the “Big Five.” That group included Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, and Retief Goosen. Through the Honda Classic last season, this group had combined for five wins, four runner-up finishes, and five third-place finishes on the PGA Tour. All of the “Big Five” were playing great, and it really made things interesting.

Bunker’s Dozen, March 2006

The debut edition of The Bunker’s Dozen has a familiar face at the top and some unfamiliar faces spread throughout.

Welcome to the Sand Trap’s version of the power rankings. At the beginning of every month, we will rank the golfers of the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, and European Tour as well as a few other members of the worldwide golf landscape. Not only does strong play land you on this list, but headlines and news can get you here too, good or bad. This combination makes “The Bunker’s Dozen” more unique than any other ranking out there.

For our first Bunker’s Dozen we’ve limited ourselves to golfers, though I’m pretty sure someone named “Hootie” will appear next month.

Without further ado, here is the first edition of the The Bunker’s Dozen.

The Other World Golf Ranking

The debut of the newly-released women’s world rankings was controversial at best. I’m here to tell you the good, bad, and ugly.

Thrash TalkGolf fans have had the men’s world rankings to look at and discuss for awhile now, but there wasn’t a women’s power rankings system in place to have the same discussions and debates. That all changed about two weeks ago with the debut of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Annika Sorenstam’s name was atop the rankings, so everything was dead-on, right? Not exactly.

It didn’t take me long to find Michelle Wie’s name because it was the third on the list, right behind Sorenstam and Paula Creamer. I had to take a second and third look to make sure I saw things correctly. Sure enough, Wie was still ranked third no matter how many times I looked. To make things even worse, Wie finished third last weekend and moved up to number two in the world rankings.

Match Play Madness

The Accenture Match Play Championship once again showed golf fans that rankings don’t really matter.

Thrash TalkCollege basketball has March Madness, which happens to be one of my favorite times of the year as a sports fan. Golf fans get the Accenture Match Play Championship a month earlier than its basketball counterpart, and it has quickly turned into one of my favorite events of the golf season. I’ve showed my support for the World Golf Championship events before, but I want to take this opportunity to do it again. The WGC events get two thumbs up from me!

A Weekend at the Golf Show and Why it Sucked

It was quite routine for early man to travel in packs. It just doesn’t work at a golf show, that’s for sure.

Thrash TalkFor the past couple of years, I have grown increasingly more obsessed with the game of golf. Currently, I can’t explain why my delicate condition, I fear that it has grown to an alarming proportion. My mind constantly wanders and thinks about anything and everything golf. It is like a deep, deep sickness. My family and friends often grow annoyed by my constant chatter of the game.

Going the Distance with Some Heavy Hitters

The game of golf has a red-headed step child. Attitudinally wrought with aggression, it is a super-charged, twisted, in-your-face interpretation of what Old Tom envisioned so many years ago.

Thrash TalkAfter a self-imposed exile and intoxicating purge from the golf blogging universe, I came upon a couple of observations which I previously paid no heed.

The way I see it, golf is a game that can be and has been broken down in a countless number of ways. From the fundamentals of a perfect swing to the equipment used to make that swing possible. Everything is scrutinized and and put under a microscope. I cannot think of one facet of the game that has not been broken down to its lowest common denominator.