Wow, what a Masters.Best in years, maybe since Tiger won in 1997.A few other thoughts and observations
about this week:
--Golf doesn’t get any
better than that 45-minute long thrill ride during Saturday’s third round, when
Phil went eagle-eagle-birdie.
-- If this week demonstrated
nothing else, it was that people are sick and tired of hearing about the Tiger Woods’ sex scandal.For a lot of people it was TMI (too
much information) from the get-go, and now they just want it to go away.They want to get back to golf.
-- Just because people have
had it up to their earlobes with details about Tiger’s infidelities doesn’t mean they ever will forgive him.The revelations about his infidelities – and by
extension about his character – have cost Tiger a ton of fans permanently, especially among women. He can win
all the golf tournaments he wants, but they will never look at him the same.
-- On Wednesday, on the eve
of the Masters, I sat down to write
a blog post picking Phil to
win.But the phone rang, I got
distracted and I never finished it.Seriously. I’m not kidding.I had Phil to win.
-- There was a time when Sergio Garcia was part of any
discussion of "best player who hasn’t won a major."Not any more.Now 30, Garcia is no longer
an up-and-coming kid – in fact, he’s neither a kid nor up-and-coming. He finished next to dead last.
-- Lee Westwood is going to win a major sooner rather than later; I’m
betting on the British Open at St. Andrews in July.
-- Anthony Kim won’t be far behind him.
-- I’m no fashion expert,
but I don’t know whose hats look more ridiculous: Ryan Moore and Ricky Barnes
in those goofy-looking painter’s caps or Rick
Fowler with hiscap pulled-down-over-his-ears.
-- As long as we are on the
subject of fashion, Phil Mickelson
needs a fashion intervention.Those
shirts he wears now are not only ugly, they are way too form-fitting.They only accentuate the fact that he
is a middle-aged man in a losing battle against gravity. A few days ago, he
wore one that had white piping, one step removed from wearing a 1970s pastel
leisure suit.Not even Tiger could look good in Phil’s shirts.
-- What to make of the fact
that when he walked off the 18th green after winning, Phil immediately found his wife Amy and gave her a big, tearful hug,
but he didn’t seem to even acknowledge his mom and dad (wearing the Sportscope cap), who were standing next
to her?But moments later,
he did hug his swing coach, Butch Harmon.
-- If you thought this
year’s Masters was more exciting
than any in recent years-- Phil finished at 16-under par --credit the softening of Augusta National to allow birdie fests
on Sunday.One story called it the
de-Hootification of the golf course.
-- If one shot can define a
player’s career and style, for Phil
it will be his second shot at 13 on Sunday: From behind a tree, on pine straw,
6-iron from 207 to four feet.
-- Despite all his smiles,
swashbuckling style and stellar career, Phil
Mickelson has a lot of detractors.The most common knock on him is that he is a phony.One major piece of evidence to the
contrary is his long and lasting relationship with his caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay.
Phil is now the "good guy" and Tiger is the "bad guy,"particularly in light of his terrible interview with Peter Kostis. He hasn’t learned how to be gracious in defeat.
Come on, that new Nikecommercial with Tiger staring into the camera, with
straight-from-the-grave voice-over by his dad Earl is downright creepy, not to mention in poor taste.
They turned this whole
tragic, humiliating, disgraceful episode into just another marketing
opportunity.It just ain’t right.
Joe, couldn’t agree with you more. Attempting parlay the events of the past 5 months into a NIKE aided comeback story is in poor taste and disingenuous. Exploiting his dead father to do it is grotesque.
To make it even worse, Woods compared himself to Hogan during the interview after thursday’s round. When the wounds are self inflicted, you don’t get to make that analogy.
You buying the Tiger Woods Penance Tour at the Masters?
I TiVoed his press conference
and I’ve watched it twice now, and I’m still not sure what to think.Imagine what it must be like for his
wife, Elin.
He’s saying all the right
things, and he looks truly contrite and humbled.But as we know now, you never really know for sure what’s
going on inside Tiger Woods.
For starters, I’ve got a few
questions and follow-ups I wish somebody had asked Tiger during his Monday press conference:
Q: In
response to an earlier question, you said of your behavior, "I was
rationalizing and denying and in total denial at times. Whatever I did, I lied
to myself, I lied to others."
Was it that, or was it just that it you were having a great time
running wild and you were getting away with it?
Q: You didn’t quite answer to the
previous question about who in your management team knew about your escapades, how
much they knew, and whether any heads will roll.
Specifically, I’m wondering if your agent, Mark Steinberg, did in fact "handle" the problem, as Mindy Lawton claims, after you two were
spotted by the National Enquirer
having sex in your Escalade in a parking lot?
Q.You are
correct in saying that your car accident is a "closed case," but that still
doesn’t answer the question of, "Did Ambien
play a role in car crash?"Did it?
Q. Tiger,
14, 15, 19 women -- whatever the total was -- and no condoms with any of them?Aside from the infidelity, didn’t you
worry about contracting some nasty or deadly disease or getting one of these
women deliberately getting pregnant so as to extort you?
Q. Despite all the shame and the financial
cost, are you in some way glad you were finally exposed and caught?
Q. If your
father were here today, what would he say to you?And what would you say to him?
Back home from my golf trip
to Scottsdale, I took a peek at GolfClubAtlas to
see if there was any discussion of my public and muniDream 18 that ran in yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
There was and, not
surprisingly, a few posters took me to task for including holes they believed
to be unworthy and excluding holes they believed belonged on the list.
One poster argued the Dream 18 was more of a Mid-Atlantic
list, because I included a hole from Bulle Rock
in Havre de Grace, Md., and the Architects Club in Lopatcong, N.J.
Because I deliberately made
the Dream 18 a mix of upscale,
mid-priced and lower-end daily fee courses, one poster suggested it would have
been nice to have come up with three separate lists from the three different
prices ranges.I found that
suggestion particularly amusing, considering that the single story I turned in
was trimmed for space reasons.
Among the stuff that got cut
was the passage about how I could have easily come up with three lists that didn’t
duplicate a hole.And the part
about the story being due while there was still two feet of snow on the ground,
precluding any revisits to courses I hadn’t played in years.
And don’t get me started on
the holes that fell out of contention because, not only could I not revisit the
courses, their websites didn’t have photos that might enable me refresh my
memory.
The Dream 18 story also generated a bunch of emails from readers, many
of whom offered excellent suggestions for holes that might have been on the
list.One fellow took me to task
for being "generous" in including holes from Walnut Lane and Cobbs Creek.
I offer no apology in that
regard.In my golfing travels, I
have been very fortunate to play the likes of Pine Valley and Merion
many times, and rub elbows with the folks who inhabit that world.
But I also have a foot firmly
planted in the other end of the golfing spectrum, where avid and enthusiastic
golfers are happy and appreciative playing the lowliest muni.Those courses and those golfers are
also a legitimate and integral part of the game.I, for one, wouldn’t think of ignoring them or their corner
of the game, especially not in a Dream
18 for a general circulation newspaper like the Inquirer.
So, for better or worse, I
am happy with the list I compiled for the Inquirer.
There was an article written by Tony Leodora back in the 1980’s written in the Times Herald that had the Dream 18 and it had only 1 hole per course from all the local courses. You should find it and revise.
Tyler
[4/3/2010 4:33:41 PM]
How about your Dream18 for local private courses
Charles B.
[4/3/2010 7:34:40 AM]
Why nothing from Twisted Dune or Sand Barrens?
Frankie
[4/2/2010 11:48:21 AM]
Thanks for getting Walnut Lane and Cobbs Creek in your Dream 18.
When the sun rose on me this
morning, I was in Scottsdale, where
I’ve come for a four-day Golfweek rater’s
retreat.
If you rate golf courses for
the magazine, every two or three years you are required to attend one of these
gatherings – they stage several a year, in golf destinations all over the
country – where you meet other raters and discuss and debate what makes a
good golf course.At least I think
that’s what happens; I’ve been a rater for four or five years now, and this is my
first retreat.
I picked this week’s retreat
in Scottsdale because I like it out
here, and because I enjoy desert golf.Very different from the kind of courses we have in Philadelphia, or the kind of courses I grew playing in North Carolina.I’m good for about one week of sand and
cacti, however, before I develop a yearning to see green trees and green grass
somewhere other than on a golf course.
Most of yesterday was spent getting
here, using US Air miles to fly
first to Charlotte, connecting to Phoenix.Flying used to be fun.Now it is awful.Both flights were overbooked, nary a vacant seat.I had planned to do some work on the Charlotte-to-Phoenix leg, but that idea
went out the window as a soon as some guy who was about 6-foot-5 and weighed
maybe 290 squeezed himself into his seat and about half of mine.
I’m a little antsy about
today’s round.Of the 30 raters
here, more than half come from warm weather climates like Arizona, Southern California, Texas, Nevada and Florida.Those guys (there’s one woman on the list of raters)
are no doubt in mid-season form, whereas I am exactly one large bucket into my
season.
So I will step onto the
first tee shortly after noon today with pasty-white legs and without the
foggiest clue of where my first tee shot is going.As I was zipping up my golf travel back, it occurred to me
to toss in an extra dozen golf balls.
Despite the potential for
shanks, skulls, worm-burners, chili-dips and outright whiffs, I am
excited.The dawning of a new golf
season is always a beautiful thing, made all the more beautiful this year by
this exotic locale.
A few weeks ago, I got an
email from Ryan
Gingrow, teaching pro at Whitford Country Clubin Exton.In addition to his PGA pro stripes, Ryan holds
a degree in journalism from Penn State, where he did a little sports writing during his student
days.
That’s why he was contacting
me.He was interested in doing
some writing.We talked about him
writing up a few tips, but he has done that before and, frankly, he wanted to
stretch his writing muscles.I
proposed he write a series of columns, or essays, on life as a teaching
pro.He was game.
I just posted his debut
effort.Check it out.I think you’ll enjoy it.If you have comments or questions, let
him hear them.
Considering how much all of
us wanted to see Tiger Woods grant
his first interview, how come those two last night left me feeling so...empty?
Maybe the five minute limits
made it feel so rushed and incomplete.Maybe it was that the questions, being fairly predictable, made his
answers feel so rehearsed and predictable.Despite the best efforts of Kelly Tilghman on Golf Channel and Tom Rinaldi on ESPN, both interviews felt to me like Tiger was mouthing the words of some
statement he might have been posted on his website.
On a positive note, it was
nice to see Tiger back in golf
attire, appearing reasonably relaxed and comfortable, smiling at times.
Thing is, after watching
both interviews, I’m still not sure whether Tiger is sorry for what he did or just sorry he got caught.
Both interviews were so controlled. Does this mean he won’t take non-golf questions at the Masters? That’s if he even does any interviews at the Masters.
Steve
[3/22/2010 7:43:11 AM]
It seems that both interviewers had a list of questions on various topics. The time limits restricted follow up questions. For example, I would have asked about the deal with Men’s Health. How could Steinberg not know the details of why TW’s contract with Golf Digest was broken? What about his long time friend and employee of his foundation, Byron Bell, arranging for travel to Australia for Rachel Uchitel? What about the investigation of his doctor who visited him after his knee surgery?