Category: Trap Five

Although the Open Championship was an exciting tournament, with a thrilling final round and a great background to the winner, a lot of the story is of what could have been. Throughout the week we saw players make runs, but inevitably all but Darren Clarke fell back.

Phil Mickelson earned just his second top-10 finish in the Open with a T2. Rickie Fowler, no one’s pre-tournament pick to be much of a bad-weather player, fired a third-round 68, putting up possibly the round of the tournament in a driving rain storm. Tom Watson shot four solid rounds near par, and recorded another strong Open finish. Thomas Bjorn, only several months removed from the loss of his father, managed a first-round 65 and was in contention until the end. Bearded Lucas Glover, a player who seems to rise only for the big occasions, was also in contention after a strong first day. Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, both former major-championship chokers, made strong runs on Sunday, but both fell just short. Finally, a long-haired Anthony Kim made a strong push on Sunday, hopefully giving him a kick in the rear substantial enough to get him to the driving range every once in a while.

In this edition of Trap Five, we take a look not only at what went down, but what could have happened. What might have been if the bounces had gone the other way, or if the sun had shone at a different time? We examine how the competitor’s lives could have changed had they pulled out the Open Championship.

Continue reading “What Could Have Been From Royal St. George’s”

I’ll make no bones about it – I love the Players. There is something about it that makes me happier than Jim Nantz dreaming up his next final-second call.

But as we know, the Players is not a major. It’s not ahead of the PGA, it’s not the Fifth Major, and it’s not the PGA Tour’s answer to anything. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love nothing more than to see the Players hyped as much as the U.S. Open, but realistically it’s just not there.

Here are the top five reasons why.

Continue reading “The Players: Fifth Best But Still Not a Major”

It’s been a long winter since last we saw major championship golf but, finally, it’s back. No, this time around we didn’t have any crazy rules violations, but we did see a final-round collapse, a back-to-back-to-back-to-back birdie finish, a charge by a legend, and a crazy chip-in on the last hole. We saw guys that we expected to go low falter, and we saw a few Masters rookies nearly pull out a victory. We almost saw a broomstick win a major, and we saw KJ Choi contend with a putter grip that is so big you could land an airplane on it.

The back nine at Augusta once again proved that while it’s tough and long, it can be had, and when someone (or a bunch of someones) puts on a late round charge, it’s as exciting as anything in golf.

Continue reading “Lessons from Augusta”

Golf is a game that anyone can play, which makes is extremely popular in the 18-35 year-old group that advertisers covet. Because of this golf commercials flood our TVs, airing on all channels and coming from a multitude of companies. It sometimes seems that you are just as likely to see a FedEx golf commercial on HGTV as you are to see a This is SportsCenter commercial with Tiger Woods on ESPN.

Golf commercials are all different. Like most humorous commercials, the funny ones all draw from some sort of irony. For example, this FedEx Commercial is funny because at first you expect the employee riding the golf cart to be Jim, the guy who is “really into golf.” But no, he isn’t Jim. There is actually someone more into golf than the guy who drives a golf cart around the office all day.

Alright, that sounds kind of lame now that I explain it, but how about this one? Throughout the years, Tiger Woods has made tons of commercials for EA Sports and his own Tiger Woods PGA Tour video games. This one wasn’t a commercial per se (more of a promotional video), but when a user of the video game told EA that the game had a glitch (where Tiger can play golf on water), they responded. In this video, Tiger hits a golf ball onto a lily pad, and decides to go in after it. He takes off his socks, tests the water for stability, and strolls over to his golf ball where he proceeds to wedge one in from what appears to be between 50 and 100 yards. The next year, for Tiger ’10, Rocco Mediate tried the same feat. After removing his shoes and socks, he takes a step or two into the water and then sinks, failing mightily. Though different from the much simpler FedEx commercial, these two both get a few laughs because of the contrast between Tiger and Rocco. Without any further ado, here are my five funniest golf commercials.

Continue reading “Five Funniest Golf Commercials”

A little over a month ago, I gave you Five Ways to Play Golf Over The Winter, and one of the options was to go to the driving range. While going to the range is great practice, if you simply hit golf ball after golf ball without a plan for improvement, you won’t be able to make the most of your practice. When I hit the range, I see too many people take a very inefficient approach to hitting golf balls, and this doesn’t allow them to improve quickly. By following these steps, you will find yourself getting better, faster, and more able to go from the driving range to the course.

Continue reading “How to Get the Most out of Your Practice”

The 2010 PGA Tour season was certainly a wild one. After Tiger’s Thanksgiving escapades of late 2009 revealed a lot of dirty laundry, Phil Mickelson and John Daly got a different kind of groovy. Phil started his season well, by winning the Masters, as did Dustin Johnson, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. DJ subsequently choked away two majors but won a Playoff event to finish on a high note. Johnson was unable to take home the big trophies though, as Jim Furyk won the FedExCup and the European team capped off a strong year with a win in the Ryder Cup. Finally, adding to the international resurgence, Lee Westwood is now the number one ranked golfer in the world.

Continue reading “Top Five Surprising Stories of 2010”