This week we have Tiger’s return, a Retief Goosen sighting, a cell phone ban, and the fight of a lifetime.
Tiger’s return to the Tour for 2007 yields yet another victory. Having to endure watching the rest of the leaderboard fold like a lawn chair is already boring. Would someone please step up and challenge?
This week we have a recap of the Buick Invitational, Retief Goosen’s win, cell phone bans, and women’s rights.
Only six LPGA golfers have more wins than Nancy Lopez. It didn’t take long for her to rack up an impressive number of wins on the LPGA Tour.
I can’t think of another golfer, man or woman, who won 17 tournaments including one major in the first two years after joining professional competition. Nancy Lopez accomplished in her freshman and sophomore seasons what some never achieve their whole career.
Her quirky swing and dominating play made her one of the LPGA’s most celebrated and winning athletes. She is known as much for being a gracious competitor as she is her impressive record.
In my last article comparing field strength between Tiger and Phil, I found that the Official World Golf Rankings archive only showed the top 200 players in the world. Because of this simple fact, as Erik pointed out, the numbers in the previous article are skewed.
Last week’s Numbers Game on Tiger and Phil was titled “Part One,” so you knew more was coming. If you read the comments, you may have guessed what else was on its way. Erik suggested that averaging the entire field may show that Tiger plays the tougher fields, but that the numbers get a lot closer simply due to the fact that a PGA Tour field has 144 players, many of whom are ranked 300th or worse. Erik suggested that we look at the average rank of the top players in the field and the number of players ranked a certain rank or better.
I chose the number 30, so this week we’ll look at the average rank of the top 30 players and the number of players ranked 30th or higher in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Continue reading “Strength of Field: Tiger vs. Phil, Part Two”
In the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the off-season and thus a perfect time to do some time-killing on a computer that might help your game.
I’m not the fastest to catch on to new technologies, but I do my best. That’s why this may not be news to some of you.
But the other day while doing some research for a course review, I stumbled onto some golf-specific uses for Google Earth that I thought were very, very cool. Unfortunately, the course you’re looking for has to be in an area they display in high resolution.
But if it is, from creating your own yardage book to understanding why your approach to that uphill par 3 always seems to come up short, this free net-based program can help you scope courses you play all the time and some you wish you could.
There are a handful of golfers I’d like to see in the winner’s circle in 2007.
I know this is a golf website, but congratulations are in order for Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. They finally got past the New England Patriots in the postseason and are on their way to The Super Bowl. My wife wanted me to congratulate Peyton Manning, so I figured I better sneak that in first. Now it’s time to talk a little golf.
Charley Hoffman won The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in a playoff this past Sunday to pick up his first PGA Tour victory. The playing conditions in the final round were brutal, and the leaders heading into the final round (Justin Rose and Lucas Glover) crumbled big time down the stretch. Hoffman has contended a few times over the past year, and he deserved his win last week. Maybe he can afford a haircut now.
For those of us who find putting a mysterious, elusive art, here’s a gizmo that can separate fact from feel to tell you exactly why you’re missing all those putts.
For something so seemingly simple as rolling a ball with a flat-faced stick, it’s a sad fact that sooner or later putting bedevils every player. Were you aimed wrong? Did you pull it? Push it? Was it your tempo? Your transition? Do you even have a clue?
Well now, if you have very, very deep pockets, Adams Golf comes to the rescue with answers to all the above. They’ve reached agreement with a South Korean inventor to become North American distributors for the DiXX Digital Instruction putter.
The device, which Adams will unveil at this week’s PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, looks to me to be pretty amazing. Here’s the story…
Continue reading “Adams Golf Launches DiXX Digital Instruction Putter”
This week we have the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Kermit the Frog, MIT, and the reloading of OSU’s men’s golf team.
The PGA Tour season returns to the mainland and is in full swing with the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (hey, a Phil Michelson sighting!) where you not only get to watch Tour players but you also get to watch the celebrities show off their golf games as well.
This week we have a recap of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the rumors of Annika’s retirement, and the MIT crew getting involved in golf technology.
Just when you thought it was another weekend that the Wie media circus would flourish Tadd Fujikawa steals the show.
The media’s neurotic obsession with golf’s new bionic woman got shelved last weekend and a little amateur stole the show. Tadd Fujikawa was the youngest player in fifty years to make the cut at a PGA Tour event. My new favorite amateur golfer showed us what is sorely needed on the PGA Tour. Just as Wie, with her injured wrist, was thrashing around the Sony Open to another disappointing missed cut (+14) this five-foot-one firecracker steals the show. It was the best golf story since Tiger won the British Open.
Wie has more than her fair share of talent. She plays exceptionally well considering her age. She nearly made the cut at the Sony Open in 2006 and finished T3, T5, T3, and T26 in the women’s majors last year. That’s a good year for most of the LPGA field and she’s only now 17. But her propensity to accept every PGA Tour sponsor’s exemption is annoying.
The debate over whether Tiger Woods plays stronger field events than Phil Mickelson is about to come to an end. Well, maybe not, but perhaps this will provide some food for thought and show who plays better in stronger field.
It’s been said that Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods differ in schedule in one critical way: Tiger plays (and excels) at events with stronger fields while Phil Mickelson excels at weaker-field events.
I’ve compiled a list of statistics from last season which speak to this statistic. Bear in mind that one season is far from representative (particularly given Tiger’s eight wins, two majors, and father’s death which forced an extended break). To illuminate true patterns, an entire career (or at least, say, the most recent five years) would have to be examined. The manner in which I’ve compiled these numbers is assuredly a less than scientific way of determining which player is playing in the toughest events.
Continue reading “Strength of Field: Tiger vs. Phil, Part One”
