The Tiger Challenge

Adam Scott moved his name to the top of the “next to challenge Tiger” list this past weekend at East Lake.

Thrash TalkHow nice would it be to win The Players Championship and Tour Championship before turning 27? Adam Scott knows how that feels now, yet he is still considered an underachiever by golf fans worldwide, including myself. The young Australian burst onto the scene a few years back and was quickly labeled the next Tiger Woods. That was unfair to Scott, but it’s just part of the game.

Adam Scott’s golf swing is very similar in mechanics to Tiger’s old swing, but that’s about all the two have in common. Scott is laid back and never seems to change emotion, while Tiger lets the world know what he is thinking throughout his rounds. In the grand scheme of things, Tiger had eight major championship victories before turning 27 compared to Scott’s zero.

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Clubs I Loved and Why I Loved Them

Golf clubs have changed. Product life cycle is measured in months. Beauty gives way to bizarre. Technology trumps tradition. And I’ve fallen out of love.

Bag DropAs I wrote last week’s Bag Drop on the new Nike and Callaway square drivers, it occurred to me that despite all the proven and promised performance improvements over the past few years, golf clubs have lost something, at least for me.

The clubs in my bag do work better than any I ever used before. But I don’t love them. Somewhere along the way they’ve become simply tools to use until something better comes along. Which, thanks to constant innovation by clubmakers, happens more and more often.

Outside of perhaps my wedges and putter, none were selected for their looks. All are free agents subject to waiver at any time. Despite shooting a career round with them this year, there’s no emotional attachment. And that’s kind of sad.

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Volume Eighty

Adam Scott may have won the Tour Championship, but does that give him the right to be considered the next best contender to battle Tiger Woods on tour?

The final putt by Adam Scott at the Tour Championship signaled the end of the 2006 PGA Tour season. While the season might be over for the pros, that doesn’t me Hittin’ the Links will be going into hibernation!

This week we have a recap of the Tour Championship, and an absurd article about Adam Scott being the next player to battle Tiger Woods for the top spot in the World Rankings.

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2006’s Hot and Not

2006 is all but over and it has been a trying year for some. Some have played exceptionally well and others who have lost that loving feeling.

ProFilesThe 2006 season had plenty of drama. At the end of it all there some who were hot and some who were not. Phil Mickelson finished fourth on the money list, won a Masters, choked away a U.S. Open, and is looking forward to returning to the winner’s circle after coming away from his extended vacation.

Tiger was Tiger and there were a few names who emerged from this season with some shine. Let’s take a look at who was hot and who was not in 2006.

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2006 Versus 2005 in Numbers

The numbers in 2006 show a slowdown in distance and more accuracy from players. These trends are small in effect compared to the drop in tournaments played by golf’s top players… which could mean a strange situation for the FedEx Cup.

The Numbers GameI know there is still one tournament left. Sure the numbers may change a little bit, but that won’t stop me from comparing 2006 to last year.

Is Driving Distance up? What about accuracy? Are the top performers in these stats making more or less money? These are just a few things I’ll be answering this week in The Numbers Game.

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Golf Talk [Episode 041]

Damn you, Tiger Woods! I wish I could be “fatigued” after less than 80 official rounds of golf in a year and earn $10M in the process!

PodcastTiger Woods is skipping the Tour Championship. Perhaps he and Phil are going to have some buddy-buddy time. No? We didn’t think so either. Plus, K.J. Choi, square drivers, the top 125, and a new USGA executive committee. All that and more in this episode of Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 041 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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2006 Tour Championship Preview

I don’t know who’s going to step up and win this week, but chances are that it will probably not be Woods or Mickelson.

Tour ChampionshipThe 30-man Tour Championship field is short three players this week. It’s just too bad two of those three players happen to be Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Both are sitting out the week after complaining of fatigue from playing multiple weeks to finish the year.

I’m sorry, but when do these two guys get a free pass to miss one of the most prestigious tournaments on tour?

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Tour Championship Ramblings

The Tour Championship hasn’t lost its luster yet, but it’s getting closer to the edge every year.

Thrash TalkThe Race to The Tour Championship is one that keeps me interested in the PGA Tour long after the season’s final major championship, and this year was no different. I watched nearly every tournament in the past month or two, including yesterday’s final round of the Chrysler Championship. Congratulations are in order for K.J. Choi who won this week’s tournament and moved from 68th to 26th on the PGA Tour money list. Choi gets to tee it up at East Lake for his efforts.

Most of my weekend focus was on Ernie Els. The Big Easy missed out on the top 30 last season due to late-season injuries, but he was bound and determined to make it to the season’s final event this year. In the end, a tie for sixth was good enough to move Els to 27th on the money list. Seeing the South African attempt to crunch the numbers after his round showed me just how much The Tour Championship still means to most of the world’s best.

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Tiger and Phil: Making the Wrong Call

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are skipping the Tour Championship this week, but more than that, they are putting the PGA Tour in a tight position.

Deutsche Bank LogoA story broke in the world of tennis this afternoon: tennis great Roger Federer was withdrawing from the Paris Masters Tournament one day before his opening-round match.

Why does this matter to the golf world?

Well groups of fuming tennis officials have promised to start taking the necessary steps to make sure that tennis stars like Federer don’t have the chance to pull out of tournaments they headline because they’re fatigued ever again.

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