BellSouth Classic Preview

Players look to fine-tune their golf games one last time before heading to Augusta National next week.

bell_south_classic.gifWith the first major of 2005 looming, the players coming to the BellSouth Classic are hoping not only to win the golf tournament but also to get one last boost of confidence before The Masters! The top three ranked golfers in the world are not in the field this week, but that does not mean there aren’t any guys in the field that can’t get the job done. Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen, ranked fourth and fifth in the world respectively, have both won this tournament in the past five years. Mickelson won here in 2000 and Goosen won here in 2002. They’ll be teeing it up come Thursday.

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Estoril Open de Portugal Preview

Sam Torrance, Paul Lawrie, and a handful of first time winners head up a field for the Estoril Open de Portugal Caixa Geral de Depositos.

european_tour_logo.gifAfter recent trips to Asia, Africa, and Australia, the European Tour returns to its home turf for the Estoril Open de Portugal Caixa Geral de Depositos (aka “Estoril Open”). The Estoril Open is first event of the 2005 International schedule and is one of the Tour’s longest running National Opens, dating back to 1953.

This year’s event is being held at a new venue, the Oitavos Golfe in Quinta da Marinha, Portugal, which has hosted both the European Challenge Tour and the European Seniors Tour in the past two seasons.

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Tavistock Tie

The second annual Tavistock Cup has ended in a draw after a three-hole sudden death playoff in which nobody died. What an exciting day of golf!

Tavistock Tiger WoodsThe Tavistock Cup went 21 holes and ended in a tie. The excitement was palpable as Tiger Woods and Lee Janzen, representing Isleworth, battled in extra holes against South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen of Lake Nona. The 8½ to 8½ tie is the first in the short history of the event and follows Isleworth’s 14½ – 9½ victory at Lake Nona last year.

Tiger Woods earned low medalist honors with a -6 (66) which included two sixes on the front-nine par fives but an incoming 31.

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ProAim Putting Training Glasses

The ProAim has been widely touted as a great training aid. I fail to see why: it’s a waste of sixty bucks that may in fact impair your putting far more than it helps it.

Pro Aim Side“Drive for show, putt for dough” they all say. “Straight back, straight through” others say. The ProAim is the Professional Golf Teacher’s Association’s “Training Aid of the Year” and a Golf Digest “Top 10 Training Aid.”

The product is endorsed by Butch Harmon (hardly a short game guru), Natalie Gulbis (who’s yet to win on the LPGA Tour), Mark Calcavecchia, Craig Parry, and the most respectable man of the bunch, Irishman Darren Clarke. They all love it.

I have no idea why.

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Players Finding the Rough is Tough

Is extra length really the way to “Tiger-proof” a golf course. Growing the rough out may be a more effective, and fair, way to put the teeth back into many tour tracks.

Long RoughWhat’s good for the grass is looking to be bad for some of the biggest hitters on the PGA Tour. Thanks to a wet winter, many courses in Florida — Bay Hill and the TPC of Sawgrass in particular — are sporting some extra-thick, Velcro-like rough. Guess what? Mother Nature is doing a better job “Tiger-proofing” these golf courses than an army of bulldozers adding extra length.

Ever since Tiger Woods bombed his way to a dramatic victory at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf courses that host PGA Tour events have been undergoing a ongoing attempt at becoming “Tiger-proofed.” In most cases, this has meant one thing: lengthening the golf course.

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Tavistock Cup Preview

Led by Tiger Woods, Team Isleworth looks to follow up their 2004 victory over Team Nona with another one in 2005.

Tavistock CupNow that The Players Championship is finally over, it’s time to move onto another week in the golf world. But this week is somewhat unique, as many of the world’s elite golfers will head to Orlando instead of Atlanta to play in the 2005 Tavistock Cup. This year is special because the world’s second-best player, Tiger Woods, will participate! As a matter of fact, three of the top five players in the world rankings (Woods, Ernie Els, and Retief Goosen) will be playing alongside the best female golfer in the world, Annika Sorenstam.

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A Funky Monday Finish at The Players Championship

Fred Funk outlasted, outwitted, and outplayed the others in The Players Championship to claim his sixth – and biggest – PGA Tour victory at 48.

Fred Funk Fist PumpThe funky weather led to a Funky winner: Fred Funk may have gone backwards in the final round, three-putting three times, but his efforts were good enough to secure a one-stroke victory in the funkiest Players Championship ever.

The former Maryland Terrapin golf coach birdied the par-5 sixteenth, landed his ball safely on the island green at the seventeenth, and got up and down from a greenside bunker – only yards away from the water – on the last hole, holing a five-footer for the save and the victory.

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Volume Two

Cell phone rings annoy everyone, Nike to run our government, Annika get’s a handful, Asian influx on the LPGA and I think I broke my TV after last week’s Big Break III.

A little birdie told me that the guys at The Players Championship (not to be confused with the Playa’s Championship) were hoping Monday’s play was cancelled, as they knew volume two of Hittin’ the Links would be arriving in their web browser or RSS aggregator of choice. They’re anxious to see what we’ve selected for this week’s edition. So, all you guys playing poker in the locker room, count your chips and take a break, cause here’s volume two.

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The Tournament that Would Not End

The Players Championship is going to finish on Monday. Or maybe Tuesday. Or maybe it’ll just merge with the Bellsouth Classic? Who nows?

TPC @ SawgrassWe wrote a preview of The Players Championship nearly a week ago. Players have yet to complete even 40 holes. The TPC at Sawgrass has seen a lot of weather and fans have seen very little golf. Even a Monday finish seems unlikely – we may be looking at a Tuesday finish before a champion is crowned.

Luke Donald, currently leading at -11, played all of nine holes on Sunday: six to complete his second round, and three more in his third before the all-too-familiar horn blew, signalling the end of play. He shares the 39-ish hole lead with journeyman Joe Durant. Tim Herron, defending champ Adam Scott, Lee Westwood, and Zach Johnson sit one stroke back.

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