Mitch C

From what I've read, Elin has given him the "...golf or me ultimatum" So, I don't expect him back anytime very soon if he is sincere about trying to save his marriage. I don't know Tiger, but I know women in this position. She can't trust him on any level right now. So Tiger is going to have to demonstrate his sincerity to her. That means two things: 1) The only way Tiger Woods truly demonstrates his sincerity is to give up golf. She feels that golf caused this mess and that he isn't serious about marriage if he continues to play; and 2) He isn't leaving her sight anytime soon. That means she is going with him everywhere he goes and nannies and support staff or not, those kids are going to have to be a bit older before she starts carrying them around the country. We've got to remember. Tiger is not your normal guy. His upbringing made him a bit of a social misfit in many ways. I'll bet you dollars to donuts Elin was his first serious girlfriend and is his first love. He really really loves her, he was just very very immature. Lots of guys go through this stage when they are about 20 0r 21 (I did and had the same sort of situation) but Tiger's development is a bit delayed. I kind of know what he is going through. This is going to mess him up for a good long while. His marriage is going to be pure hell for the next year or so and then, it will still probably fail. Then, he is going to be an emotional wreck for a good year or so after that. If I had any advice, I would say let it end right now and try your best to get on with the rest of your life as quickly as you can. But, few of us actually take advice like that and we always try and hang on when we should just let go. Tiger is basically a love struck college kid right now. Albeit one with a billion dollars or so, but nonetheless he is going to be messed up for awhile.

Negligent discharge of a firearm or discharge of a firearm within a city limits is never a felony unless someone is killed, then depending upon the degree of negligence, it could be negligent homocide. Basically, he is being sent to jail for two (2) years for something that would be a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions in the NFL. And really I'm not arguing the unjustness of it all. It was the law in New York and he was responsible for knowing the law there. I just find the moralizing of all the talking heads and the NFL tiresome. If it had happened in Texas, it would be a non-story.

In my mind, there is no doubt that Plaxico Burress was treated unfairly because of his celebrity status. Had he been just another Joe Blow off the street with an absolutely clean criminal record as Burress' was and excellently employed as Burress was, then I have some question as to whether he would have even been prosecuted. It is quite possible that it would have been concluded that he was a dumbass and that shooting himself was penalty enough. If he had been prosecuted, I'm quite confident that it would have been a probation case if his name hadn't been Plaxico Burress and his arrest subject of so much publicity. Another thing I find troubling is the attitude of the NFL. Burress and that guy who got caught with the all the guns in Chicago are being treated as criminals and have had their names tarnished. And, admittedly, they broke the law in their respective cities. However, in 75% of the cities in the NFL, what they did would not have been a crime. Where I live, any house you go to is going to have more firearms than that Tank guy did in Chicago and carrying a firearm in public is almost expected.

The technical is a product of the mental. Without the mental, the technical will not be there. I'm sure someone slow motioned videotaped Chuck Knoblach and told him exactly what he was doing wrong. It would be easy to see. But he couldn't make his mind fix it well enough to stay in baseball. And really I don't buy that about technique. Ultimately the purpose of putting is to get the ball in the hole. Putting is perhaps the only individualized thing left on the tour. Some guys go straight back and straight through. Some go in to square. A very few go in to out and actually hook puts a little. But all of them have figured out how to get the ball in well enough to get on the tour. And for that reason, putting is far more susceptable to mental breakdowns that any other part of the game.

Tiger wins because he is the best clutch putter ever. When, for whatever reason, he isn't, he is very beatable. Putting is all mental. That is the scary thing about it. One could literally wake up one morning and not be able to make a putt. I mean Chuck Knoblach woke up one day and couldn't throw the ball to first base. Mackey Sasser woke up one day and couldn't throw the ball back the pitcher. No one is saying that is happening or will happen to Tiger. It is just that his coach doesn't really matter. His putting sets him apart and putting touch has left great players at relatively young ages in the past. It would not be without precedent.

I didn't say that it wasn't good, just not awe inspiring anymore. There are better drivers of the ball. There are longer drivers of the ball. There are guys who hit there irons better. There are guys who have better short games. Tiger may put it all together better than anyone, but not dramatically so anymore. His mind is what sets him apart.

Tiger is not physically better than a lot of the other players on tour nowadays. When he first came into the game he was way longer than everybody but just a few players, he hit better iron shots, and he just dominated people. He isn't going to do that anymore. In fact, just about the only thing that really sets him apart anymore is his mental game. Despite not being a great putter statistically, he is without a doubt the best pressure putter on tour, and maybe ever. He seldom misses when it counts. So, the real question is will his mental game hold up. In fact, that is about the only question. The rest of his game is nothing special anymore. Does the mental game hold up for the rest of his career. The mental game is most evident on the greens. Most of the greats first broke down on the putting surface. We'll see. I expect he will rebound and continue to do well. But as someone noted about Palmer, he was 33 and only won one more major after that. If Tiger merely becomes an average pressure putter instead of the greatest in the world, he is going to find it a lot harder to win majors. The rest of his game does not separate him from the field.

Who knows whether it will be a new era or not? You usually don't know you're in a new era until after you've been it awhile. I don't imagine anyone thought in 1953 right after Hogan won the British Open for his 3rd major in a row, 6th major in the last 8 played, and 5 victories in 6 tournaments played that year that the era of Hogan was effectively over. But over it was. Who knows? If in two years Tiger still hasn't won another major and has lost a few close ones, people might look back at yesterday as the place it all began.

I think Tiger's normal plan would have worked fine, he just didn't execute. It is a fact, Tiger just isn't as dominating as he used to be. Yes, he still wins, but not by the huge margins he did early in his career. And, in a way, it is even more impressive. He has become a course manager and can win even when he isn't playing his best. This year, Tiger's game had cracks in it all year. Regardless of his recent win streak, his game is not in good enough shape to allow him to be aggressive and still win. Yesterday when he had to become aggressive on the last two holes, two bogies were the result. He does not have the distance control of his irons that he once had and he is prone to hitting some real stinkers on occassion. In a regular tournament, he can get away with the bad shots and play aggressively. In a major, the really bad shots cost you even if your name is Tiger Wods. I doubt the other players are scared unless Tiger returns to the Tiger of very early in his career. But, I don't really think he can do that.

A combination of things: shorter courses, bringing more players into contention; longer grass in fairways leading to less roll and a bit less control on iron shots; narrower fairways and higher rough with galleries kept back far enough that they can't trample down all the rough, making precision more important than length; and furrowed bunkers. I'm not in favor of any artificial rules like making it a penalty if one hits in a bunker. Simply make the bunkers more difficult to play. In the days when hitting a ball in a bunker was a real penalty, bunkers weren't in pristine condition and composed of special sand shipped in from who knows where. Make them out of local sands and instead of keeping them in pristine condition, neglect them and furrow them. One course on the tour in the 30s used to have special rakes that actually created furrows that made the bunkers devilishly hard. Make those rakes standard on the tour.

Well, one thing is for sure. You didn't hit that one in the sweet spot.

I would agree with you on lots of things, but probably not clubs. 1020 carbon steel in a forged club is 1020 carbon steel regardless. It is pretty cheap regardless. Any impurities are probably not going to be noticed by someone who plays them. There just really aren't that many shortcuts to take. So, while it is okay for a corporation to travel to the ends of the earth to find a way to maximize profits, it is unethical for a consumer to attempt to maximize his value? That is your contention? As I said, I'm a capitalist. Therefore, I don't hold intellectual property laws in high regard. Make your product. If it is better made and has greater value, it will sell better than a competitor's who may have copied the design. And the same can be said here. I know of few golfers who would consider $200 clubs much of a bargain if they don't perform up to the expected level. You do know that the man who made WD-40 never patented his product? He never wanted to reveal his ingredients and he figured the quality would speak for itself.

Without getting into the moral issues, I would bet that they perform rather well. I would imagine that they are forged and cast out of the same materials as bonafide models. As many note, often times fake goods and real goods are made in the same factory and simply shipped out of different doors. And while the Chinese lag somewhat behind in some areas of production, metallurgy is not one of them. For instance, they make excellent firearms. The slides on the Norinco 1911 pistols are commonly held to be of the absolute best quality by gunsmiths who work on them, consistently better than the slides on Colt pistols and a few other American made versions. So, from a purely practical point of view, I doubt there is any appreciable difference in the way those clubs play and some you would buy at any American store. And back to a moral note, I'm a capitalist pure and simple. I see nothing wrong with companies chasing cheap labor, wherever it may be. However, if a company chooses to do business because of cheap labor in a country that does not have and/or honor copyright laws, it can't very well gripe about it when its designs are copied and sold on the black market. Titlelist, Mizuno, and others can cry all day long about theft and the like. But the simple matter is that they view black market copies and the like as an acceptable part of doing business in China. If they did not, they would not do business in China.

Society began reverting when people began to go about habitually unarmed. Remember, "An armed society is a polite Society." About 95% of the crap that makes the news today would not happen if it was known there was a very good chance that every person you meet on the street is armed. Imagine how much more civil our discourse would be if you knew that being impolite might have serious consequences. I say return society to its apex and reinstate dueling as an acceptable dispute resolution method.

Sure all that extra roll is a problem. That is why if they would simply grow the rough an extra inch or two, they wouldn't need to make any groove changes or what not. The professionals would not be bombing the drivers off the tee nearly as much. But the main point is that while Bubba is giving himself a hernia while trying to bomb it just like (insert name of favorite long hitting professional here), it is mainly an exercise in futility because not only can that professional get more carry than he can, the professional will get 50 to 75 yards of roll he won't get either.