skydog

I don't disagree but it's a hard/impossible standard to uphold and takes a subjective interpretation to enforce. There's no objective and widely enforceable standard to apply as to what constitutes inappropriate comments. Any kind of yelling/comment during a swing should be met with immediate ejection but beyond that I think it's best to just ignore the trolls and develop tougher skin.

I may be in the minority here but I'm getting a bit fed up with the likes of Rory and JT who seem to view the fans -who pay for their livelihood- as nothing more than a means to an end. I'm not condoning idiotic behavior at tour events, but it seems like some of these guys don't understand that the gigantic purses they take home these days are supported by larger crowds and with that inevitably comes a more diverse and raucous crowd. So Rory would you rather make $200K for winning the API and have a small group of polite golf clapping fans in the galleries or win $1.5M and have to deal with a couple idiots here and there? Your choice. ESPN ran the same story a couple of days ago and quoted Tiger who I think characterized things best- he said (paraphrasing) that as long as people aren't yelling in backswings, then most everything else is fine.

SLIG's swing and style of play hurts my soul a bit but I give him a lot of credit for his solid play over the past year. That said, he's somewhere around 115th on tour in scrambling as his overly mechanical swing doesn't translate well into any kind of imagination around the greens. Typically that isn't the profile of guys who do well at Augusta but you never know.

Heck of a round from Rory. I was thinking over the last 12 months that he was more or less done. Clearly I forgot that Rory is capable of looking mediocre for weeks/months on end only to turn around out of nowhere and look like the best player on the planet.

Well that isn’t a provable thing one way or the other so there is never going to be ‘evidence’ beyond antecdotal. My $0.02 is that gym work is certainly a good thing from a lean muscle and flexibility standpoint- think DJ. The bulk that Rory has put on hasn’t done anything positive for his golf game IMO...whether it’s hurt his game, I have no idea.

Correlation doesn’t prove causation but I think one can reasonably argue that Rory was better in 2011 when he looked like an average teenager than he is now. Again, I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with the weight lifting (and mostly to do with his terrible putting) but I don’t think it’s totally out of bounds for Johnny to make that comment.

My head hurts

DJ at 9/1 odds seems way too high IMO. He was the favorite going in last year as well despite the fact that he's never really been in contention there (two top 10s). No doubt he could win there, but I would look to more of the usual Augusta suspects for my picks.

@colin007 this was really thoughtful of you! http://www.golfchannel.com/article/grill-room/fan-sends-tigers-back-doctor-fruit-basket-say-thanks/

Glad to hear they made it up to you. I’m jealous, I hope you get some great weather this year

I think it’s fair to think Tiger, Phil, Spieth, and Rose could all be in the mix come Sunday (and Freddie up until the back nine on Saturday) and my guess would be one of those four wins it. Assuming he can avoid the flagstick on 15 this time, I don’t see any reason Tiger can’t win it.

I think it’s inevitable that later generations forget/diminish the accomplishments of earlier generations. That said, I’m guessing Jack’s 18 will hold up through history and I think Tiger’s dominance and impact on the game won’t be matched so from that perspective I think both will still be talked about to varying degrees for a long time.

Yea some of the comments seem a lot more bearish than they probably could/should be if they had come after the Valspar where the dude had his B+ game and easily could have won. Major Champion: "There are 20 guys, who at their best, play like Tiger did in 2000." I haven't read all of the article yet but so far that takes the cake for most outrageous thing said.

Yea I don't disagree. Sounds the like Tiger pick is kind of a last-ditch effort to try to make people care about the Presidents Cup so I guess they figured they couldn't wait until 2021 or beyond.

Tiger at 6/1 odds to win this weekend. Next closest are Day and Rose at 12/1 and 14/1.

Fair point and good perspective.

I know. Was just lobbing in my $0.02 on @Dr. Manhattan's coach commentary.

I never faulted Tiger for having a coach and don't think there's anything wrong with that. My only issue was that it seemed to me (hard to know without knowing the details of his various coach-student relationships) that Tiger at times handed/gave away too much ownership of his swing to his coach and allowed his various coaches to enact too much of their own will on his swing. Essentially I feel the same way as Chamblee on the matter. That Tiger is /was the most gifted swinger of the club of all time, but yet he felt like he needed to allow others to exert excessive influence on his swing. Again, this is just my $0.02 from the outside looking in and there's obviously no way of knowing how much more or less successful (or healthy) Tiger would have been without his various coaches and swing changes. This is probably veering off topic, but I'm not sure this thread has ever been on topic so I don't feel too bad

@Dr. Manhattan II'm confused as to why the Memorial/API tournaments are treated separately from 'regular' events on that points breakdown? Seems to me they shouldn't be given any preferential points treatment. It's an interesting comparison, but for the other reasons already stated by you and others, is far from perfect.

True

I'll take a Rickie/Tiger final pairing on Sunday. I would love to see a Tiger-Rory duel but at the rate he's going, Rory will be lucky to even be around on the weekend. Rose is playing some solid golf, I would expect him to be in the mix this weekend.

I don't know. With such a large leap in most all aspects of everyday life and sports over the last ~70-100 years since the days of Hagen and Hogan, I think most any of us lack the ability to be able to really know. Tiger and Jack were at least only a generation apart and both played (mostly) in the modern TV era so we can form relatively informed opinions about their game. I have great admiration for Hogan's game from the little I know of it, but I lack the lens to be able to attempt to compare him to Jack or Tiger. Makes you wonder how the likes of Tiger and Jack will be viewed/remembered 100 years from now.

Yea I'm indifferent to what either did off the course with regards to that kind of stuff. Both of them did more for the game than anyone else so it's a bit sad to me that more players don't show up this week out of respect for Arnie...but I know that's a product of the condensed schedule and that there are two WGC events in March. I have no idea what % of golfers in this country it would be, but my guess is the vast majority of us can trace the reason (direct or indirect) we play golf to either Arnie or Tiger...or both. For me, I got into the game from my father who very much got into the game because of Arnie. I would guess a similar story line is true for most of us here.

Tiger and Els just (unofficially) reported as 2019 Pres Cup captains. Seems maybe a bit premature for Tiger since he will hopefully be on the team, but I guess he can always be a playing captain.

My understanding of any of his surgeries is minimal but I believe the fusion was seen as a high risk (potentially high reward) last resort effort. But I could be wrong on that.