The PGA Tour heads to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida this week.
The PGA Tour heads to Florida this week for one of the true player-friendly events of the season. The event is held near Walt Disney World, and the golfers usually bring their families along for the week. This week should be no different, and the field is looking strong as well. The Funai Classic and next week’s Chrysler Championship are the only events remaining before the Tour Championship.
Is it good for the PGA Tour when no-names walk away winners?
It’s been a wild last few days for yours truly, but in a good way this time. I flew out to North Carolina to meet some of my fellow Sand Trap staff members for the Newport Cup. The entire weekend was very fun and entertaining. I had a great time with everyone, and the golf courses were great. We definitely don’t have many courses like Pine Needles in Oklahoma. I wouldn’t mind playing golf in North Carolina for a month or two straight, but I guess two days will have to do. My team did take the loss, but we are better because of it.
Now it’s back to reality and back to Thrash Talk. I didn’t catch very much of the PGA Tour’s Michelin Championship at Las Vegas this past weekend, but I’ve seen some highlights from the final round. Wes Short Jr. defeated Jim Furyk in a playoff to win his first-ever PGA Tour event. If you are wondering who Wes Short Jr. is, well, join the club.
Michelle Wie was DQ’ed after her appearing in her first professional tournament. Wie now understands the importance using the Rules Officials when questioning a drop.
Apparently Michelle Wie needs to keep a copy of the Rules of Golf handy in her golf bag. Or perhaps she needs to start calling rules officials over when she feels unsure of her decisions. Either way the newly crowned darling of supergiants Nike and Sony learned an important lesson after her disqualification this past Sunday at the Samsung World Championship: even if you think you’re sure of the rules, ask an official!
Wie learned this lesson the hard way but it’s one she will never forget. Aside from the fact that it cost the Hawaiian $53,126 and a fourth place finish this week (a mere pittance from the amount she will be receiving from the two industry giants), it also shows her game and mental attitude to be a bit amateurish. But let’s give her some slack… she just turned sixteen!
Michelle Wie stood to bring home a better-than-average allowance until disqualified a day after her round.
Sports Illustrated journalist Michael Bamberger had a twinge of conscience the day after Michelle Wie took a drop after declaring an unplayable lie. Bamberger felt that Wie had dropped the ball closer to the hole than her original position. Further inspection and discussion with rules officials seemed to confirm that she had taken a drop approximately one foot past the original lie. Had Bamberger brought up the infraction immediately Wie would have brought home a paycheck instead of a goose-egg.
There are two relevant issues here. The first thing to consider is that Bamberger clearly should have brought up the discrepancy immediately. If he felt that she had taken an illegal drop he should have gone to a rules official on the spot and cleared his aching conscience then. Withholding this information for a day cost Wie a paycheck and caused her unnecessary embarrassment. Correcting her mistake was impossible as she had already signed her card. Had the issue been brought to light at the moment, she could have corrected her mistake.
Live on location from The Newport Cup, the Bag Drop examines a few real-world equipment observations.
The Bag Drop was on location for the inaugural playing of The Newport Cup matches in North Carolina last weekend. A hearty congratulations to the Blue Team on their victory, and to the Red Team on its punctuality and fashion sense.
While I spent most of my time at Talamore, Pine Needles and Anderson Creek hitting shots into and out of the majestic pine trees, I did have time to make some observations about the equipment The Sand Trap crew takes into battle.
This week’s links are dedicated to everyone who made the Newport Cup happen.
I had a great time with my fellow Sand Trappers this weekend at the Newport Cup. We had perfect weather, great courses, enjoyable company, and plenty of swings. It was a really enjoyable weekend and I think the Newport Cup could be something huge eventually.
I’m going to dedicate this week’s links to some of the things that made this possible.
Big Oak Putters makes handmade, milled putters that do not have a huge following – yet. Tom Jenkins is using one on the Champions Tour, now see if you should be using one in your Tuesday night beer league.
I’m a huge fan of milled putters. I’ve had one (but used many) in my bag since high school and rarely play a putter that isn’t milled. I’ve played Scotty Cameron’s and Tad Moore’s, among others, but recently I found out about Big Oak Putters, a company specializing in hand-crafted, milled putters. When I was looking through their product line, I found the T’ville and it really appealled to my eye, so I had to give it a try.
We’ve come up with the formulas and figured out how to rate the players in Power, Accuracy, Short game and Putting. All that’s left to do is tabulate the data and see where it takes us. Will it be better than what the PGATour.com put out there? That is for you to decide.
The past couple weeks of The Numbers Game has focused on how to rate tour players in four main categories: Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting. Last week some formulas were developed that, in my opinion, were well suited to tell us who are the top in these categories.
Well, I’ve run the numbers and made all the calculations. I’ve also thrown in a total to find out who is are the most skilled players. Are there any surprises? Read on and find out.
With the Tour Championship less than a month away, it’s time for many of the PGA Tour golfers to make a move.
The 2005 PGA Tour season is winding down in a hurry. There are only three more events before the season-ending Tour Championship, so golfers will be trying to finish strong in hopes of qualifying. The top 30 on the PGA Tour money list will get the opportunity to play in the Tour Championship, and there are a lot of golfers on the “bubble.”
Continue reading “Michelin Championship at Las Vegas Preview”
