Refugee

I play Bethpage Black about once a year so it is great to watch the pros play the course. Some holes that are very difficult for amateurs don't translate as such to the pros. I think 5 is a really difficult hole -when the wind was behind them on Friday they made it look relatively easy. 4 has so much trouble on it but the pros just bomb it over most of it and it's one of the easier holes for them. 15 is a beast that you can't appreciate by seeing it on television. The rough around 15 and 16 is some of the thickest -i have seen a number of balls lost there. Some pros don't seem to appreciate that job 1 on 18 is to avoid the bunkers off the tee -there's Very little benefit hitting driver there. Final round should be good stuff. Interesting that Reed draws the ball - it always seems to me like it favors a left to right player.

Augusta National and Rules committee put Tiger in a terrible position. They determine yesterday that the drop was proper and decide not to confront him. After he signs, the pressure mounts after his interview and they change their mind that they should have assessed a penalty. He should have been notified before he signed the scorecard to give him a chance to explain and then he could discuss it and the 2 stroke penalty gets imposed before he signs the scorecard. After he signed, they either say that they considered it and chose not to assess a penalty and he's allowed to play with no penalty OR they DQ him. This halfway penalty sets up a precedent that is ridiculous. Everyone saying it's about the ratings -- has anyone noticed that Augusta still controls all the strings -- limited tv times, limited commercials. They're the last bastion who doesn't care about ratings. I don't believe the ruling is about the money, believe it or not, it's about Augusta knowing they screwed up by determining there was no infraction when there was one.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion (especially on a forum) but that is simply not true. Tiger is traditionally a grinder on Sunday even when he is not in contention. He almost always moves up the leaderboard on Sunday so your statement is suspect at best. He is struggling with his putter this year. If you golf, you should understand. He's human like the rest of us. I am sorry but I don't think Stricker, Furyk et al are self-obsessed and individualistic. If anything, I would say they wanted it too much and got beat by guys that knew they were playing as huge underdogs on Sunday.

That was an amazing last hour or two. I feel lousy for Stricker and Furyk as they may never get the chance to play in the Ryder Cup again. They would almost have to play their way on to have a chance in the future - in hindsight they were questionable Captain picks. I feel like I have never seen Justin Rose make clutch putts on the Tour so what he did on 17 and 18 is all the more impressive. Great job by him and Poulter and Sergio getting it done on those last couple of holes. In the end, the 17th hole absolutely killed the American team-- Furyk and Stricker played it very poorly (as did Duffner). Phil played a great shot there but what a deuce by Rose. Give the Euros credit -- they played out of their minds down the stretch and the Americans couldn't withstand it.

1. Not sure anyone has made a putt on Saturday. Maybe afternoon play will be better. 2. Europeans have too many of their top players not in good form and it's killing them: Westwood, McDowell, Donald, Kaymer (who isn't seeing the course on Saturday).

I was surprised some talking head on Golf Channel this weekend said if the wind doesn't blow (the extended forecast shows fairly benign conditions if they can predict that far ahead of time), the winning score will be ten under or better.

Hogan's book is the Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals. I'm sorry if I caused any confusion here but the book is broken down into five parts: 1. Grip, 2. Stance and Posture, 3. First part of the swing 4. Second part of the swing 5 Summary and review.

On Saturday, Bubba Watson had it going for about 12 holes, with his high wire savant quirkiness, but after three bogeys, he was burning holes with his glare as he watched playing partner Poulter size up every chip and putt from all 360 degrees of every green. You could just feel Bubba's frustration. Slow play has played a role in each of the last two majors. Scott's group gets a warning on Sunday at the Open and Furyk's got one on Sunday at Olympic. Gmac was in both of those groups, but I don't think he's known as a slow player.

The most interesting comment I heard all week about Tiger's game was by Nobilo, who said Tiger played all week to avoid his weakness. And his weakness right now is not his driver, but his wedge game. So Tiger's decision to play irons off most tees was not dictated by how he was hitting his driver, which after all has been good in 2012, but because of how he is hitting his wedges. Not sure I buy that that is Tiger's mindset but it can't be denied that Tiger is struggling with his wedge game right now.

Playa Mujeres is a Greg Norman course and a pretty nice course. It was about 105 degrees the day i played there so my friend and I were about the only two idiots on the course.

Often on my backswing. I have not four putted this week but it's only Sunday. Have lurked around here for awhile and finally decided to post.