Golfguru

Bobby Jones' slam and the near-misses

2010-09-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

This year marks the 80^th anniversary of Bobby Jones winning golf’s grand slam. In 1930, Jones captured the U.S. and British Open tournaments, and the U.S. and British Amateur championships. Today, the two amateur championships are no longer considered golf majors, having been replaced by the Masters and the PGA Championship.

In 1930, though, there was no Masters (it started in 1934, after Jones, a Georgia native, helped build Augusta National), and the PGA Championship was then a lesser-known, 14-year-old event involving mostly club professionals at a time when pro golfers were considered second-class citizens to the great amateurs of the day.

Whatever you may think of Jones’ accomplishment, it’s worth noting that no golfer since 1930 has won the four majors (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA) in a single year. But who were some of the other golfers who came close?

Tiger Woods’ name immediately jumps to the fore, no pun intended. His 2000 season is considered by some the greatest single season in modern golf. That year, he won the U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Ernie Els of South Africa and Miguel-Angel Jimenez of Spain were a distant second.

Woods then won the British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland by eight strokes, with Els again sharing second, this time with Thomas Bjorn of Denmark. Woods closed out his stellar season by winning the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky in a three-hole playoff with Bob May. In the first major in 2000, Woods was fifth at the Masters, six shots behind winner Vijay Singh.

Woods’ remarkable 2000 campaign drew extra attention after he won the 2001 Masters to simultaneously hold all four majors, although not in a single year. It has become known as the Tiger Slam.

Here are some of other notable near-misses:

1945: Byron Nelson won 18 tournaments that year, including 11 in a row, both tour records. However, due to World War II, there was only one major championship held that year, the PGA, and not surprisingly, Nelson won it. Plus, Ben Hogan, his chief competition, was away at war for the first six months of the year.

1953: Ben Hogan put together arguably the greatest single season between Jones’ in 1930 until Woods’ in 2000. The Texas native played only six events that year but won five, including three majors, the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. He was unable to compete in the PGA because it was held at the same time as the British Open. And, oh yeah, he was 40 years old that year.

1960: Arnold Palmer, as Hogan did in 1953, won the Masters (his second of four Green Jackets) and the U.S. Open (his only win in that event), but wound up second at the British Open, one shot behind Kel Nagle. He also tied for seventh in the PGA, the only major he failed to win in his illustrious career.

1974: Gary Player, like Hogan a man of modest stature with fierce determination, won the Masters and British Open that year, tied for eighth in the U.S. Open and finished seventh in the PGA.

1975: Jack Nicklaus, who finished in the top 10 in a remarkable 35 out of 40 appearances in the majors in the 1970s, won the first and last majors that year, the Masters and PGA, and finished seventh in the U.S. Open, two shots back of Lou Graham, and tied for third in the British Open, one stroke behind Tom Watson. Nicklaus also won the Masters and U.S. Open in 1972, finished second in the British Open and tied for 13^th in the PGA.

1977: Tom Watson, the gap-toothed boy wonder often hailed as the man who would dethrone Nicklaus, fulfilled a great deal of his promise with four top-10 finishes in the majors. He won the Masters and the second of his five British Open titles. He tied for seventh in the U.S. Open and tied for sixth in the PGA.

1982: Watson again caught fire, winning two majors and placing in the top 10 in the other two. He captured the U.S. Open with a master stroke by holing out a delicate chip for birdie on the next-to-last hole at Pebble Beach, then birdying 18 to beat Nicklaus by two shots. He also won the British Open a fourth time, tied for fifth in the Masters and tied for ninth in the PGA.

2005: Woods’ season was nearly as remarkable as his 2000 assault. He won the Masters and British Open, tied for second in the U.S. Open, two shots behind Michael Campbell, and tied for fourth in the PGA, two strokes behind Phil Mickelson.

Ryder Cup teams finalized

2010-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's been assumed that Team Europe captain Colin Montgomerie took the risky route and Team USA captain Corey Pavin played it safe with their respective captain's picks for the Ryder Cup.

The truth is, Monty's choices aren't as daring as it might seem, and Pavin's aren't as predictable, either.

Each team for the Ryder Cup, set for Oct. 1-3 at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, consists of a dozen players. However, inconsistent selection criteria left Monty with three wild cards and Pavin with four.

First, a look at the automatic qualifiers for each team:

Team Europe: Englishmen Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher; Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland; Martin Kaymer of Germany; Francesco Molinari of Italy; Peter Hanson of Sweden; and Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain.

Team USA: Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton and Matt Kuchar.

Monty made his wild-card choices on Aug. 29, selecting Padraig Harrington of Ireland, Edoardo Molinari of Italy and Luke Donald of England. Pavin's picks, made Tuesday, were Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler.

Scotland's Montgomerie was derided in some circles for bypassing a pair of high-ranking Brits, Paul Casey and Justin Rose. Casey is ranked No. 9 in the world, and Rose has already won twice this season on the PGA Tour. However, Harrington has something neither of those two have, a major championship. In fact, he has three, having won the British Open in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship in 2008.

Molinari, the older brother of Francesco, is arguably one of the hottest players on the European Tour (he was en route to winning a tournament the day Monty made his picks). Donald, meanwhile, is ranked 10th in the world, just behind Casey, and has a 5-1-1 record in two previous Ryder Cups.

Although Harrington has not won on the PGA Tour since his PGA crown in 2008, he is a no-brainer for Monty's team, half of which will be playing in the Ryder Cup for the first time. Harrington is a veteran of match play, having competed in three Walker Cup competitions (the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup) and now six consecutive Ryder Cup squads.

The lesser-known Molinari gets the nod over Casey and Rose, in my book, for two reasons. First, he has shown greater support for the European Tour than Casey and Rose, who divide their time fairly equally between the PGA and European tours. Second, it will be impossible for Monty to resist pairing the Molinari brothers together in the foursome and four ball competition.

Unlike Montgomerie, who was saddled with an embarrassment of riches in making his three captain's picks, Pavin probably would have relished making just three wild cards, or perhaps even just two. As silly as it sounds, the Euro team is easily as deep as the U.S. with Ryder Cup talent. I'm not sure how Team USA can win the Ryder Cup. Team Europe has always wanted it more; now they have the talent to back up their desire.

You could say the U.S. Ryder Cup team has never been so weak.

When Tiger Woods returned to pro golf this spring following a five-month layoff and didn't immediately start winning, and then continued to look lost in subsequent tournaments, there was a low-level buzz that he would be left off the Ryder Cup squad. The fact that most of these people wouldn't know a sand wedge from a sandwich is beside the point.

As long as Tiger Woods had a pulse, Pavin was going to pick him, as well he should. It's not like there's a long line of Americans pushing him out of the spotlight. Tiger Woods at 80 percent of his potential is still better - and, sorry to say, way more marketable - than nearly all other U.S. tour players.

The only other obvious choice for Pavin was Zach Johnson. He is a former Masters champ and has played well this year, showing himself to be a true warrior by overcoming a lack of length off the tee to finish tied for third - one shot out of the playoff between Kaymer and Watson - in last month's PGA Championship at overly long Whistling Straits.

After Woods and Johnson, Pavin could have picked anybody and no one would have a right to complain. Cink won last year's British Open but has done little since, and probably got the nod over Lucas Glover, last year's U.S. Open champ, only because Glover has played even worse since then.

As for Fowler, he's a prime example of the meager pickins' for Pavin. Fowler is 21, played in the Walker Cup just last year and has not even been a pro for a full year. He and Overton are the first U.S. Ryder Cup rookies ever without a PGA Tour victory.

It's not just because the Ryder Cup is in Wales that Team Europe will be favored. Pavin will have his hands full between now and Oct. 1 coming up with a lineup that can compete.

What's wrong with golf?

2010-08-25T09:23:00.001-07:00

It's a singular question, but there's no shortage of answers.

We're only 10 days removed from assessing the PGA of America's blunder in the Dustin Johnson is-it-a-sand-trap-or-isn't-it embarrassment at the PGA Championship, and already the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour have found ways to hog the stupidity spotlight.

I suppose Dustin Johnson should at least be grateful the dimwit tour officials didn't disqualify him at the PGA for failing to realize that the sandy waste area where his ball came to rest on the final hole of the final day was in fact a bunker, and that he wasn't allowed to ground his club before striking the ball. I wonder where he got the idea it wasn't a bunker? You think maybe it was the hundred or so spectators standing in said sand trap?

I don't know about you, but where I come from (reality), spectators aren't allowed to stand in a sand trap. And if they are, all bets are off.

All Johnson got was a two-stroke penalty, but that was enough to knock him out of a potential three-man playoff at the year's final major. Long after people have forgotten who won (German Martin Kaymer, and much praise to him), golf fans and even casual observers will remember what morons the PGA of America officials were for blindly adhering to a particularly specious judgment call.

Juli Inkster and Jim Furyk, who between them have 45 years of professional golf experience and more than 60 tournament wins, weren't as lucky as Johnson. In the past week, both were DQ'd for violations that can only charitably be described as insane. The disqualifications cost both players dearly, revealing yet another problem with golf: Quite often, punishments far exceed the crime. In golf, jaywalkers get life without parole.

Inkster's DQ from the Safeway Classic in Oregon last week would be comical if not for the fact that the 50-year-old "grande dame" of the LPGA Tour had just shot a second-round 67 that moved her to within three shots of the lead. Her crime? While waiting out a delay midway through her round, Inkster tried to stay loose by taking practice swings with a swing weight attached to her 9-iron.

This is a violation of the United States Golf Association's Rule 14-3 in the USGA's "Rules of Golf," which prohibits the use of practice devices during play. I'm not going to argue that this is a stupid rule. I get that the USGA is concerned with giving any player an unfair advantage.

But let's set the rule aside for a moment. How did LPGA Tour officials know Inkster had violated Rule 14-3? Had a fellow touring pro observed her doing this and informed tournament officials? Nope. Did a tournament official see it for themselves? Nope. A spectator at the golf course? Wrong again.

None of these scenarios happened, I'll bet because none of them were aware of Rule 14-3's prohibition against using a swing weight during play. Inkster certainly wasn't aware of it; if she were, she wouldn't have done it. Let's add this context: Juli Inkster has won 39 tournaments as a pro, 31 on the LPGA Tour since joining in 1983, including majors Kraft Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open twice each, and the du Maurier (Canada's top event) in 1984 when that event was still considered a major. She's a member of both the World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPGA Hall of Fame, and she won the U.S. Women's Amateur (an event, like the Women's Open, run by the USGA) three straight years before turning pro.

It's a safe assumption that Juli Inkster has a pretty good understanding of the rules of golf. However, my guess is she can't quote the "Rules of Golf" chapter and verse. I imagine there are no more than five people in America who know the USGA rules by heart, and all five have a 5-iron up their butt. It was Inkster's misfortune that one of those anal-retentives spied her on the Golf Channel's coverage of the Safeway Classic, then (continued cranial-rectal thinking here), e-mailed the tour event to call Inkster on her egregious error.

It was at this point that the LPGA Tour folks could have, should have taken this information and said, "Thank you, but get a life." Instead, they viewed footage of the Golf Channel coverage with, one imagines, the seriousness of Congress poring over the Zapruder film of Kennedy's assassination. Satisfied that Inkster "cheated," they DQ'd her.

And isn't upholding the integrity of golf what it's all about? No sport but golf allows Joe Blow at home to affect the outcome of a sporting event. A know-it-all who felt obligated to share his "vast" knowledge was rewarded. These kind of people should be ignored, and whoever had to tell Inkster in person that she was DQ'd should be ashamed.

Furyk, meanwhile, was DQ'd from the Barclays Championship, this week's PGA Tour event in New Jersey, for doing nothing on the golf course. All he did was oversleep and show up late for his tee time in the Wednesday pro-am that precedes the event scheduled to start Thursday. He relied on his cell phone alarm to wake up, and was delayed when the phone's battery died. I'm hoping that's the last time he does that.

Again, that's not really the point. It's the subsequent DQ, why the PGA Tour felt it was necessary, and why it's so stupid. In an effort to cut down on tour pros begging off pro-ams with questionable illnesses or injuries, the PGA Tour a few years ago decreed that anyone who fails to show for a pro-am would also be DQ'd from that week's tour event.

Now we're talking about something not even addressed in the rules of golf. This is a corporate entity doing what it can to protect itself financially. The ams in pro-ams are mostly CEOs of companies that sponsor VIP tents and tournaments themselves. What tour officials could have, should have done was to fine Furyk, but let him finish the pro-am and compete in the Barclays this week.

That Furyk made every effort to get to the golf course and probably would have missed, at most, one hole of the pro-am, was rejected. Rules are rules, and, by golly, we gotta have rules.

Furyk's a big boy, he makes good money and probably won't suffer lasting harm from this episode. Heck, he might even get an alarm-clock endorsement contract.

But the PGA Tour will suffer for shooting itself in the foot. It's not a smart thing to do, especially since the tour is already suffering from investing so much time and effort (too much time, if you ask me) in continued promotion of its one-time golden boy, Tiger Woods.

Corporations, though, are not real good at big-picture perspective. Witness the blunders of BP following the Gulf oil spill.

And the PGA of America, the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour are corporations. They'd like to think they enhance the game, but the truth is they just as often muck it up.

To them, golf is a business. To me, it's a game.

I went golfing on my birthday this week. On a day in which the mercury reached 106, it seemed like I had turned back the clock 25-30 years, to when I could really play. I was 3 under par on my first nine holes and still 3 under with four holes left, but bogeyed three of the final four to finish at even-par 72. Despite the obvious disappointment over my collapse, which I attribute in no small part to the heat, I was excited by the way I played.

Good play will keep me coming back, just as it does for most golfers. It's the search for the great drive, the well-struck iron, the perfect putt.

There's not much wrong with golf. Sometimes, there is something wrong with the folks that claim to administer the game.

Sad end to a great major

2010-08-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

I should feel pretty good about the fact that one of my 12 pre-tournament picks - young German Martin Kaymer - won the PGA Championship, the year's final major.

I should feel pretty good that, coupled with Phil Mickelson's victory in the year's first major, the Masters, I had correctly predicted two of the four major champions this year.

I should feel pretty good that my 12 picks for the PGA included three of the top seven, four of the top 12 and six of the top 23 finishers.

All I really feel is sad.

Sad for Kaymer, a 25-year-old who won his first major championship and became only the second German to win a major, behind his icon, two-time Masters champ Bernhard Langer. Sad because Kaymer's incredible play down the stretch (just two bogeys in the final 55 holes, more than offset by 13 birdies), will forever be overshadowed by the way the tournament ended.

Sad for American Bubba Watson, whose daring play on the final day produced three birdies in a four-hole stretch of the back nine, an all-or-nothing approach in the subsequent three-hole playoff with Kaymer that ultimately cost him big-time, and an 11-under 277 total in regulation that, were it not for Kaymer calmly holing a 15-foot par-saving putt at 18, would have produced big-hitting Bubba's first major championship.

Sad, also for American Zach Johnson and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, both of whom finished tied for third at 10 under, a stroke out of the playoff. Johnson, who won the Masters in 2007, is a short-hitting pro who somehow managed to string together rounds of 69-70-69-70 on the ridiculously long layout. McIlroy, who turned 21 in May, showed a youthful bravado with 21 birdies during the four days but couldn't come up with the one shot or putt he needed most.

But sad, mostly, for American Dustin Johnson. In a scenario a bit reminiscent of Australian Greg Norman's in 1986, when the Great White Shark led after three rounds of all four majors but won just the British Open that year, Johnson played in the final group of two majors in 2010, the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and last week's PGA at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.

At Pebble Beach, Johnson led by three shots after three rounds, but he blew up with a disastrous final-round 82. At the PGA, he wasn't the leader after 54 holes; Nick Watney had that distinction. Dustin Johnson, though, stood at the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits, alone at 12 under and needing only a par to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy.

In a sequence of events that can only be described as a perfect storm, disaster struck Dustin. His tee shot on the par-4 was well right, the ball coming to rest in a sandy waste area where hundreds of spectators had been standing. Johnson surveyed the scene, then hit a shot left and beyond the green that was not spectacular but, considering what he had to work with, not bad, either. His pitch from high grass left him with less than 10 feet to save par, but he missed the putt to the right, falling back into a tie with Watson and Kaymer.

For the briefest of moments, it seemed the fans at Whistling Straits and those of us at home watching on TV would be treated to a fascinating, three-man, three-hole playoff between an unflappable German and two long-hitting Americans. It looked for all the world like a tantalizing glimpse ahead to October's Ryder Cup. Watson, 31, and Johnson, 26, will be representing Team USA; Kaymer will line up for Team Europe. These three are among a new crop of pros that are the fearless future of men's golf. Watson, for that matter, may one day replace Mickelson as the best Lefty on tour.

But even before Watney and Dustin Johnson left the 18th green Sunday at Whistling Straits, a rules official for the PGA approached the pair, telling Johnson there may be a problem with him grounding his club in a bunker and thus incurring a two-shot penalty.

Johnson's reaction? "What bunker?" he says he told the rules official.

It seems that the waste area well right of the 18th fairway was, in fact, a bunker, one of the more than 1,000 sand traps at Whistling Straits, set along the western shore of Lake Michigan. Johnson was in shock. He says it never occurred to him that the waste area where he struck his second shot was a sand trap. People were standing there when his ball landed; many were still standing in the "bunker" when he hit his second shot.

You can bet the folks who run the Masters would never allow such behavior by fans at Augusta National; one would assume the stuffed-shirts at the United States Golf Association wouldn't put up with that at the U.S. Open; and heaven help any lad cheeky enough to try that at the British Open. Royal and Ancient Golf Club officials would boot them faster than you can say Macbeth.

Yet the penalty for Dustin Johnson stood, and the ashen-faced pro flipped his pencil around, erasing his final-hole 5 and replacing it with a 7 that dropped him into a tie for fifth at 9 under. And just like that, what was shaping up to be one of the most exciting majors in history took on the bitter taste of bad meat.

The three-hole playoff was anticlimactic, although Watson and Kaymer did their best to reinvigorate the proceedings. Watson birdied the first hole, the short par-4 10th, and Kaymer drew even with birdie at the second playoff hole, the par-3 17th. Back at the sadistically tough 18th, Watson hit into the water with his second shot and wound up with double-bogey, allowing Kaymer to win with a simple two-putt bogey.

Dustin Johnson was gone long before the playoff. He took questions from the press before exiting and handled himself with remarkable calm. I'm guessing he was still in shock, but, admirably, he didn't try to shift blame.

There was plenty of blame to go around, starting with Johnson himself, and his caddie. The responsibility falls to them to determine where they are at all times on the golf course. And if there was a question about whether or not Johnson's ball was in a bunker, they only had to ask for a ruling. The bigger blame, in my opinion, goes to the PGA of America, which took the coward's route by hiding behind a rules sheet posted in the locker room before the tournament alerting the players that all of the more than 1,000 bunkers would be treated as such, meaning no grounding of your golf club before hitting the ball.

That rule only works if the people running the tournament also treat all of the bunkers as such. Here's a simple, common-sense rule: if you want to call them bunkers, you don't let fans stand in them, walk through them, roll their strollers through them, essentially obliterating them to the point where they no longer resemble bunkers.

It was alternately amusing and irritating to hear the TV talking heads' reaction to Johnson's predicament. The make-no-waves CBS team mostly swallowed PGA officials' explanation without question, although David Feherty, to his credit, later stood among a throng of spectators in the area where Johnson struck his second shot, dumbfounded as to how the area could be described as a bunker. Over on the Golf Channel, a couple of former touring pros, Frank Nobilo and Brandel Chamblee, came down on opposite sides of the discussion. Nobilo, like Feherty, was perplexed by the explanation that the waste area still qualified as a bunker after fans were allowed to stand in it; Chamblee played the PGA apologist, saying blame began and ended with Dustin Johnson.

Johnson paid a high price for his mistake, but the PGA suffered, too.

Mopping up my 12 pre-tournament picks: In addition to picking Kaymer, McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, I also had Mickelson, who tied for 12th at 6 under; Steve Stricker and Ernie Els, tied for 18th at 4 under; Retief Goosen, tied for 55th at 2 over; and Rickie Fowler, tied for 58th at 3 over. My four others, Padraig Harrington, Lucas Glover, Ryo Ishikawa and Sean O'Hair, all missed the cut.

Looking good for final day at the PGA

2010-08-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

My pre-tournament picks for the PGA Championship didn't look great at the halfway point, but entering the final round of the year's final major, some of them are looking really good.

I had eight of my 12 make the cut at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., not bad. Even better, two of them, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, were tied for second, three shots behind surprise leader Nick Watney.

Johnson is the tall, long-hitting American who self-destructed at the U.S. Open this year by taking 82 in the final round at Pebble Beach. McIlroy is the 21-year-old phenom from Northern Ireland who followed a scorching 63 in the opening round of this year's British Open at St. Andrews with a second-round 80. Through three rounds at Whistling Straits, they had matching cards of 71-68-67 for 10-under 206 totals.

Another of my picks, German Martin Kaymer, was in a three-way tie for fourth after rounds of 72-68-67.

My other five picks: Ernie Els, a three-time major champion from South Africa, tied for 16th at 211 on rounds of 68-74-69; American Steve Stricker, tied for 19th at 212 after carding 72-72-68; another Amerian, Rickie Fowler, tied for 41st at 214 after shooting 73-71-70; four--time major champion Phil Mickelson, tied for 48th at 215 after rounds of 73-69-73; and Retief Goosen, a two-time U.S. Open champ from South Africa who had inconsistent rounds of 76-68-74 to stand at 218.

It's a new world, Tiger

2010-08-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Those anxious for Tiger Woods to win another major championship better pack a lunch for that wait.

And anyone who thinks Woods will ever dominate pro golf again is seriously deluded. It's over, folks, just like that. He may yet win another major (I personally don't see it happening; maybe I'm a glass-half-empty kind of guy), but his days of dominance are done.

And it's not (just) because his personal life came unraveled last November when he cracked up his car in a late-night decision to go for a drive in his pajamas.

The first real sign of weakness in Team Tiger came last August, when a South Korean named Y.E. Yang stared down the world's No. 1 player for 18 holes and won the PGA Championship. Even that, however, was not the beginning of the end.

If you really want to know, it came in July 2003, and probably no one knew it at the time. Ben Curtis, an unheralded tour pro born in Columbus, Ohio (Jack Nicklaus' birthplace, by the way, and there's a certain symmetry to that), captured the British Open at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, England.

It was significant for a lot of reasons. British bookies gave 300-1 odds on Curtis. Also, he became the first golfer in 90 years to win in his first appearance at a major, when Francis Ouimet won the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline, Mass. In hindsight, though, the most significant number is 26, Curtis' age at the time. That made him the first person younger than Woods to win a major since Woods joined the PGA Tour in 1996. (Curtis' DOB: May 26, 1977; Woods' DOB: Dec. 30, 1975.)

Tiger mastered the Masters at 21, winning by a dozen shots in 1997, his first full year on the PGA Tour. In the next 25 majors, a span of more than six years, Tiger would win seven more majors, and the other 18 were all won by players older than Woods. At 24, he throttled the field in the U.S. Open by 15 strokes and the British Open by eight shots. He also won five other majors before Curtis' 2003 British Open victory.

Since 2003, though, seven different golfers younger than Woods (now 34) have won majors, including four of the past six: Lucas Glover (30) at the 2009 U.S. Open, Graeme McDowell (31) at this year's U.S. Open, Louis Oosthuizen (27) at this year's British Open and Martin Kaymer (25) at this year's PGA Championship.

Kaymer's victory Sunday in a playoff over Bubba Watson at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin came while Woods was basically running in place for four days, as other players (mostly younger, and, a few older) were moving past him up the leaderboard. Sunday's play at the PGA completes the changing of the guard on the PGA Tour.

Tiger will be 35 in December. Nicklaus won the Masters and the PGA the year he turned 35, plus four more majors after that, including a record sixth and final Masters at 46 in 1986.

Woods has 14 majors, four behind Nicklaus' 18. That Tiger would eventually catch and surpass the Golden Bear once seemed a slam-dunk. Now, it's not so certain. The fact that Tiger won six more majors after Curtis' British Open win in 2003 is testament to how strong a golfer Woods once was. But that's past tense. The present, for Tiger at least, is not pretty.

Halfway through the PGA

2010-08-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

The beauty of the PGA Championship this year is that fresh faces abound on the leaderboard. At one point early in Saturday's third round at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., 20 of the top 23 players were golfers who had never won a major championship.

Also, there were more than a dozen players within three shots of the lead. Ten players were tied for fifth at 5 under par, just three shots behind Matt Kuchar, the 36-hole leader at 8 under. Among that logjam were two of my 12 pre-tournament picks, long-hitting American Dustin Johnson and Northern Ireland's young phenom, 21-year-old Rory McIlroy. Both opened the year's final major with identical scores of 71-68.

Next among my choices was Martin Kaymer. The German, who led early in Thursday's first round before falling back with a 72, rebounded with a 68 to stand at 4 under.

Two of my players, with a combined seven major championships between them, were knotted at 2 under, but they arrived at that number heading in different directions. South African Ernie Els, who won the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997 and the British Open in 2002, followed his opening 68 with a miserable day on the greens for a second-round 74. Phil Mickelson, Masters champion in 2004, 2006 and again this April and winner of the PGA in 2005, fought back from an opening 73 with a 69.

Three of my players reached the halfway point at even par. Rickie Fowler followed an opening 73 with a 71. Retief Goosen, another South African who like his countryman Els has a pair of U.S. Open crowns, raced back from a disastrous 76 with a second-round 68. American Steve Stricker held true to his steady persona with two rounds of even-par 72.

That gave me eight out of 12 players who made the cut, not a bad batting average. It might have been better, though, if Padraig Harrington of Ireland, a three-time major champion, had not taken double bogey on his final hole to shoot 75-71 and miss the cut by a single shot.

Also out after two rounds were Lucas Glover, last year's U.S. Open champion who never got anything going at 74-73, 18-year-old Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa (76-74) and American Sean O'Hair (75-75).

Because of Whistling Straits' length (7,500 yards, with wind conditions adding to that), I like Dustin Johnson's chances.

Off and running at the PGA Championship

2010-08-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

One round down at the PGA Championship, and two story lines emerge:

The rumors of Tiger Woods' demise are a bit premature. The same guy who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat last week in Akron, Ohio, birdied three of the first four holes to quickly get on the leaderboard and finished with a 1-under-par 71. It could have been better, no question, but he looked a little more comfortable than the guy who shot over par all four rounds in Akron.

The year's final major, which sets aside about 20 spots for club professionals - the guys who give us hackers lessons on the practice tee - also has taken on an international look. American Matt Kuchar led at 5-under 67 in a first round completed Friday, and 16 other Americans were also under par, but those who bettered Whistling Straits' par of 72 included pros from 15 other countries. Overall, the field of 156 included players representing 22 nations, from South Africa to South Korea, Canada to Colombia, Australia to Argentina, France to Fiji.

Thanks to fog along Lake Michigan that delayed the start of play Thursday and Friday, just under half of the golfers didn't finish their first round until Friday morning. But already there's been a lot of solid golf. A total of 42 players broke par, almost a third of the field.

Behind Kuchar, the foursome at 4-under 68 included an American (long-hitting Bubba Watson), a South African (Ernie Els), a South Korean (Seung Yul Noh) and an Italian (Francesco Molinari, the younger of two Molinari brothers playing in the PGA).

Els, by the way, leads my team of 12 players to beat this week. Only two others I picked broke par in the first round, American Dustin Johnson and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, both at 1-under 71.

I also had German Martin Kaymer, who got off to a hot start with birdies on three of his first four holes, but cooled off considerably after that and wound up at even-par 72. Also at that figure was one of my six Americans, Steve Stricker.

My other seven players were all over par. Phil Mickelson, looking to add a second major this year after taking the Masters in April, and fellow American Rickie Fowler shot 73; another U.S. pro, 2009 U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover, shot 74; three-time major champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland and American Sean O'Hair carded 75s; at 76 were Japanese teen sensation Ryo Ishikawa and South African Retief Goosen, a two-time U.S. Open champ who birdied two of the first three holes and promptly double-bogeyed the next two holes.

My guys at par or better need to pick it up a bit in the second round. Those several shots over par likely will need a round in the 60s in order to make the cut for the final two rounds.

12 players to beat at the PGA Championship

2010-08-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

Who will win the final major championship on the men's tour this year? Will it be someone with a history of winning majors, like Phil Mickelson, who added to his trophy case by taking the Masters in April? Or will it be a third straight first-timer, following U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa?

Experience counts for something, but probably not as much as you'd think. Newcomers winning a major is almost a 50-50 proposition. Every year since 2001, at least one of the majors has been won by a golfer who had not won a major before.

In 2003, all four majors were won by first-timers: Canadian Mike Weir at the Masters and Americans Jim Furyk at the U.S. Open, Ben Curtis at the British Open and Shaun Micheel at the PGA. By the way, none of those four has won a major since then. Likewise for other 21st century major champs David Duval (2001 British), David Toms (2001 PGA), Rich Beem (2002 PGA), Todd Hamilton (2004 British), Michael Campbell (2005 U.S. Open), Geoff Ogilvy (2006 U.S. Open), Zach Johnson (2007 Masters), Trevor Immelman (2008 Masters), Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open), Stewart Cink (2009 British) and Y.E. Yang (2009 PGA).

Since 1991, roughly half (40 of 79) of the majors were won by first-timers. Thirty of those 40 winners have won no other major.

So the key to predicting a winner seems to be picking the right mix of players who have been to the winner's circle before, players on the cusp of greatness and players likely to catch lightning in a bottle.

With that in mind, I am approaching the PGA Championship, which starts Thursday at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., with four players from each of these three categories.

The multiple-major winners: Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington.

The up-and-comers: Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Lucas Glover, Ryo Ishikawa.

The one-timers: Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Sean O'Hair, Steve Stricker.

Mickelson, who didn't win his first major until 2004 (his 13th year on tour,, when he was almost 34), seems to be making up for lost time. A win this week would be the 40-year-old Lefty's fifth major title in seven years. Els, also 40, hasn't won a major since the 2002 British Open, but he's playing some of the most inspired golf of his career this year, and he tied for fourth in the 2004 PGA when it was last held at Whistling Straits.

Goosen, 41, a two-time U.S. Open champion, has 12 top-10 finishes in majors this decade, and a win this week would not be a major surprise. Harrington, who will be 39 on Aug. 31, is seeking his fourth major title in the past three years, and he's the only player in the past 12 years other than Tiger Woods to win more than one major in a single year.

Among the up-and-comers, Glover barely fits. For one, he's 30, nine years older than McIlroy and Fowler, 12 years older than Ishikawa. Also, he's already won a major, last year's U.S. Open when everyone else seemed to find ways to lose. But I'm not sure he's done winning majors; he has a great temperament and enough game to pull off another.

McIlroy, currently ranked No. 8 in the world, could be either the next Tiger Woods, and win a bunch of majors, or the next Sergio Garcia, all promise and no major victories. I'd like to believe he's going to win at least one major, and probably several. The only problem is, it seems that every year the talent pool gets so deep that it's harder and harder to stand out.

Fowler is a bit of a wild card here. He's only been a pro a short time, has no tour wins and the PGA is just his fourth major championship appearance. But he also has the ability to put up low numbers, and I like his approach to the game ... fearless.

Ishikawa is a prodigy, pure and simple. He won't turn 19 until September, and he won on the Japan tour before his 16th birthday. He's already got eight pro wins, seven on the Japan tour, and shot a 58, lower than anyone has ever gone on the PGA Tour, in winning a Japan tour event in May.

The one-timer label is kind of a backhanded compliment, guys I believe good enough to win a major, but not two. When he grabbed the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open in June at Pebble Beach, I thought Dustin Johnson might be one of those up-and-comers, but he blew his chances in a big way on the second and third holes of the final round. At the second hole, the right-handed Johnson ridiculously tried to hit a recovery shot left-handed and nearly whiffed; at the third hole, he hit his tee shot so badly the ball was lost in a grove of trees as he and a couple hundred spectators couldn't locate the ball.

Now, I think Johnson may be in the one-timer class. He's still an impressive player, with the length to tackle any course (Tiger says Johnson is "stupid long" off the tee). John Daly was once known for being mostly a bomber, but even he won two majors, so I think Johnson is good for one. Whether it's this week or not is speculation.

Stricker, meanwhile, would be fortunate to qualify for the one-timer category. He's a veteran, has 17 pro wins, nine top-10 finishes in majors and currently is ranked No. 4 in the world, behind Woods, Mickelson and Lee Westwood. Also, he might be a crowd favorite this week since he grew up in Edgerton, Wis., 130 miles away from Kohler where the PGA will be contested. That's the upside. The downside is that he's never won a major, and he's 43. Tom Kite won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1992 at 42, and Julius Boros was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA, but Stricker's opportunities may be running out.

Kaymer, 25, grew up in Dusseldorf, Germany, mostly plays the European Tour and is little known in the U.S. However, he's finished in the top 10 in three of the past four majors and has exceptional talent. He won a pro tournament as a 19-year-old amateur and once shot a 58 in another event, playing the final 16 holes 14 under par.

O'Hair, 28, could also be considered a darkhorse. He has just three PGA Tour wins, but one came in 2005 when he was named the tour's rookie of the year. That's an encouraging sign, though, since eight of the past 19 rookies of the year have won majors.

That's my dozen picks for the PGA this week. Will one of them win? Who knows, but the process of selecting them has been an exquisite challenge.

Stop blaming Tiger

2010-08-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's time to stop blaming Tiger Woods.

Not for the mess that has become of his life and golf game ... for that, he gets full blame. His soon-to-be-ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, is reportedly in line to get at least $100 million in a divorce settlement. And anyone who saw Tiger play at Firestone Country Club in Akron last week got a glimpse of something equally ugly, the No. 1 player in the world sleep-walking around the golf course, taking little time between shots and probably wishing he were somewhere else, anywhere else.

He seemed to take more care on Sunday signing an autograph on a golf glove for the fan he struck in the face with an errant shot. His 72 holes at Firestone included 10 birdies, 22 bogeys and three double bogeys. He did not match par any day and finished at 18 over par, beat one pro in the 80-player field and wound up 30 shots behind Hunter Mahan.

Tiger enters the year's final major, the PGA Championship starting Thursday at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., still the No. 1 player in the world (technically), but far from the best player in the field right now. Blame him for all of that.

But stop blaming Tiger for all the attention lavished on him in the nine months since he cracked up his Escalade at the end of his driveway in Florida last November. No, the blame must be shared: by anyone who has continued to care what a so-so golfer is doing week in and week out; TV networks that continue to waste air time on a guy who looks a lot like me when I'm hacking my way around the local muni; lazy reporters and columnists with so little initiative that they ignore real news in the world of golf; people who don't immediately turn off the TV and do something more meaningful with their lives, like mow the lawn; and folks who buy those tabloid rags at the supermarket check-out stand looking for the latest juicy gossip on a fallen hero.

I hate to say it, but that means the blame falls on almost all of us.

We need to get beyond Tiger Woods. Until he becomes a world-beater again on the golf course, he's yesterday's news.

The Ryder Cup and sportsmanship

2010-07-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

Until about 20-25 years ago, the Ryder Cup was a biennial walkover for the United States against teams from the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). Every two years, the U.S. and U.K. sides would square off, but the U.K. contingent usually didn't put up much of a fight. Two-ball, four-ball, better-ball, singles matches ... it really didn't matter. The Americans were better, pure and simple.

Still, it was civilized. You had gentlemen golfers like Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin. Their deciding singles match in 1969 was a prime example of the beautiful symbiosis of competition and sportsmanship.

In 1969, the U.S. squad came to Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, having won 14 of the previous 18 Ryder Cup matches. But Jacklin did something few expected; he fought Nicklaus to a standoff. Furthermore, Jacklin might have won that match, and, with it, return the Ryder Cup to the U.K. But Nicklaus holed a nailbiting 5-foot par putt on the final hole to ensure at least a tie with Jacklin and no worse than a 16-16 draw that, by Ryder Cup rules, would keep the cup in U.S. hands.

Jacklin was no slouch. The most accomplished English golfer of his generation, he had won the British Open earlier in 1969 and would win the U.S. Open in 1970, the only European to do so from 1926 until Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell won this year at Pebble Beach. Still, Jacklin faced a 2-foot par putt of his own at 18. Had he missed, Nicklaus would have won the singles match and given the U.S. a 16-1/2 to 15-1/2 victory over the U.K.

Nicklaus, who by that time had already won seven major championships and would go on to win 11 more, didn't need to watch Jacklin sweat over a 24-inch putt with the outright Ryder Cup title hanging in the balance. He conceded the putt to England's favored son, on British soil, and the two men walked off the 18th green at Birkdale, foes but more importantly friends.

Jacklin played on six straight Ryder Cup teams (1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977), and that draw in 1969 was the closest he would come to winning as a player, although he eventually succeeded as Ryder Cup captain after the format was expanded in 1979 to include European players on the U.K. side. In 1985, captain Jacklin's Team Europe won at The Belfry in Warwickshire, England, the first time in 28 years the U.S. had lost. Proving it was no fluke, the Euros repeated as champions in 1987 at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, the first time the Americans had ever lost the Ryder Cup on U.S. soil.

The Ryder Cup has been competitive ever since, thanks in large part to the expansion of the U.K. to include the rest of Europe. Spaniards such as Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal were among the first to both benefit from the rules change and also boost their side's talent pool.

However, the increased competition has also come at a cost. The sportsmanship has been replaced at times by gamesmanship, and without pointing fingers, players from both sides have occasionally been at fault. The fans have gotten into it as well, with nationalistic fervor in golf seeming at times to rival the hooliganism of World Cup soccer fans.

Nothing prepared me, though, for the events of the past couple months involving the most recent former captains of the European and U.S. squads, Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger.

Both are exceedingly proud men who were warriors during their playing days. Faldo, an Englishman who at 20 was a Ryder Cup teammate of Jacklin's in 1977, won the Masters and British Open three times each. Azinger, a native of Massachusetts who now makes his home in Florida, captured the 1993 PGA. Their paths crossed memorably in 1987 at the British Open, held at Muirfield in Scotland. In brutal weather that took down one contender after another, Faldo incredibly posted 18 consecutive pars on the final day to win by one shot over Azinger, who bogeyed the final two holes.

It was the first of Faldo's six major titles. He was No. 1 in the world for almost two years, while Azinger would have to wait another six years for his first major victory. It surely must have killed Zinger, and the fact that the two men for quite a while shared a booth on CBS golf telecasts is testament to their ability to put aside any past bitterness.

But if Faldo and Azinger can get along (though something tells me they're not exactly BFFs), it doesn't seem as if their successors as Ryder Cup captains are feeling much love these days. Corey Pavin, the 1995 U.S. Open champ and a three-time Ryder Cup competitor (1991, 1993, 1995), was named in December 2008 to succeed Azinger as U.S. captain.

Zinger lobbied publicly to retain the job, although repeat captaincy is more the exception these days than the rule. It seems that he didn't take it too well, though, and he's been equally vocal in his criticism of Pavin, who hasn't yet made his four captain's picks for the 12-man U.S. squad that will compete in the Ryder Cup on Oct. 1-3 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales.

And what was Pavin's crime? He hasn't consulted with Azinger about strategy for the Ryder Cup.

Faldo is similarly miffed at Colin Montgomerie, the great Scot who as an eight-time Ryder Cup player never lost in singles play. Montgomerie, named in January 2009 to captain Team Europe, has also not consulted with the previous captain, although in his case there is probably some bad blood. In 2008, Faldo passed over Monty for his two captain's picks, naming instead Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.

Faldo and Azinger need to get over themselves. These are a couple of 50-year-olds who are acting like petulant children. Yes, it would have been nice if Pavin and Montgomerie had reached out for advice, but it's not mandated. They get to line up their teams, just as Faldo and Azinger before them were entrusted with that duty.

Let's hope better behavior prevails once the Ryder Cup starts in October.

British Open review

2010-07-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Three majors down, one to go ... and how have we done on our picks so far?

Well, as I did in the U.S. Open, I didn't have the winner, but I'm guessing almost no one predicted Louis Oosthuizen would not only win at Scotland's venerated St. Andrews, but that the South African would run away with it by seven shots.

If you had said before the year's third major that a South African would hold the claret jug on the Sunday evening at St. Andrews, you might have found some takers. But they likely would have suggested that the South African would be Ernie Els, a two-time U.S. and British Open champion, or Retief Goosen, a two-time U.S. Open winner who's seemingly always right there in the British Open (eight top-10s), or perhaps the talented Tim Clark, a steady player still looking for his first major. Or maybe Trevor Immelman, a former Masters champ, or Charl Schwartzel, Oosthuizen's best friend from their days playing junior golf together. Schwartzel has made the cut in all three majors this year but hasn't had that breakout round that could make him a threat.

So Oosthuizen it is, and 10 points if you can properly pronounce his name.

As for my guys? Well, the good news was that nine of the 12 I picked before the British Open made the cut, a shade better than my picks for the Masters (8 of 12) but a bit below my record at the U.S. Open (11 or 12).

For what it's worth, one of my 12 for St. Andrews was runner-up Lee Westwood of England. He and Oosthuizen were the only players in the field to break par all four days. But Westwood was a distant second at 9 under par to Oosthuizen's 16 under.

I also had two others who finished in the top six: Paul Casey, another Brit, who tied for third at 8 under, and Goosen, sixth alone at 7 under.

Sentimental pick Sergio Garcia, the Spaniard written off by almost everyone these days after his early promise a decade ago, might have surprised a few people. He strung together steady if unspectacular rounds of 71-71-70-72 to tie for 14th, and I'm picking him to do well in the year's final major at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin next month.

My other selections who got to play all four rounds:

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, this year's U.S. Open champion (much like Oosthuizen, a surprise winner), tied for 23rd at 3 under.

Australia's Robert Allenby, tied for 27th at 2 under.

American Ricky Barnes, a contender after two rounds who faded on the weekend and tied for 44th at even par.

Phil Mickelson, tied for 48th at 1 over. He was never really in the hunt, which shouldn't be surprising since, despite his success in the other three majors (three Masters titles, including this year, a PGA crown and five runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open), Lefty has a terrible track record in the oldest of the four majors. He's had only one top-10 finish and three missed cuts in 17 attempts at the British Open.

Britain's Ian Poulter, who put a target on his back before the British Open even began by suggesting in the English tabloids that there was a talent vacuum in the U.S., and that Europeans were poised to fill that empty space. His countrymen, Westwood and Casey, did their part, but Poulter was all-talk, no-action after winding up in a tie for 60th at 3 over.

My other three pre-tournament picks at the British Open (Els, England's Justin Rose and South Korea's K.J. Choi) all missed the cut.

Expect some jockeying, and some liberal substituting, of my picks for the PGA Championship.

How my guys are doing at St. Andrews

2010-07-18T03:31:00.000-07:00

There are different and sometimes creative ways of feeling snakebit when your predictions are a bit off.

Among my dozen players picked prior to the U.S. Open last month at Pebble Beach was a guy from Northern Ireland, young phenom Rory McIlroy. And, a guy from Northern Ireland won the tournament, Graeme McDowell.

A similar thing has been happening to me in the British Open at St. Andrews. Among my 12 pre-tournament picks for the British Open were three players from South Africa, one from Spain, three more from England and another from South Korea, among other places. And a South African was leading after three rounds, with a Englishman in second, a Spaniard tied for fourth and a South Korean tied for 12th.

None of them, however, were my picks. South African Louis Oosthuizen led, while my three picks from that country were Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Tim Clark. Goosen wasn't far off after three rounds, but Els and Clark had brutal second rounds and missed the cut.

The Brit in second was Paul Casey, while the three Brits I selected were Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose. Westwood was still in the hunt heading into the final round, tied for fourth although eight shots behind Oosthuizen. Poulter, after making waves in the British newspapers by declaring American's pro golf dynasty over, finished well back, and Rose failed to qualify for the weekend rounds.

The Spaniard tied for fourth? Alejandro Canizares. My matador? Sergio Garcia, a sucker pick considering his bitter history in majors, especially the British Open. To his credit, El Niño didn't blow away and was tied for 12th entering the final round.

The South Korean tied for 12th was amateur Jin Jeong. My South Korean, K.J. Choi, didn't make the cut.

Overall, though, I was fairly fortunate with my selections, with eight of 12 making the cut. Two rounds and out were Els, Clark, Rose and Choi. But Westwood, Goosen and American Ricky Barnes were in the top 10 after 54 holes, followed by Garcia, McDowell (tied for 18th), Phil Mickelson (tied for 33rd), Australian Robert Allenby (tied for 48th) and Poulter.

Summer in St. Andrews ... brrr!

2010-07-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Golf in Scotland is a little like a baseball game in San Francisco, especially back when the Giants still played at Candlestick Park. You might bask in brilliant sunshine, but you're just as likely to endure gray skies, even howling wind and perhaps rain.

You dress in layers, because you never know which season you're going to get. Often, you'll experience a bit of all four seasons.

They got mostly nice weather for Thursday's opening round of the British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland, but there were gusts of wind, short-lasting showers and bits of bitter cold. It may be summer in the Northern Hemisphere right now, but bear in mind, St. Andrews is further north than 49 of the 50 United States. It's even further north than Ketchikan, Alaska.

The weather was most fortunate for those who teed off early on Thursday. Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, who turned 21 in May, teed off in the 11th threesome in benign conditions and led with a 9-under-par 63, tying the record for low round in a major championship.

Others high on the leaderboard also got an early start. John Daly, the 1995 British Open champ, and Andrew Coltart, both in the sixth group off the first tee, toured in 6-under 66.

A total of 20 of the 45 players who shot in the 60s played in the first 15 groups out of 52 in the 156-man field. That included two of the 12 players I picked on Wednesday to have a chance to win the 150th Open Championship, Australian Robert Allenby and 2002 Open champ Ernie Els of South Africa, both at 69.

Overall, my dozen players did OK, with 10 breaking par of 72 and only South Korea's K.J. Choi really well out of it. Choi shot 4-over 76, 13 strokes off the lead and needing a very good round on Friday in order to qualify for the weekend.

My low man was Britain's Lee Westwood, hobbled by a calf muscle tear but able to put together a 5-under 67 that included five straight birdies on the front nine. American Ricky Barnes had five birdies in the first 12 holes en route to a 4-under 68. Allenby and Els each had no bogeys in their 3-under 69s, while South African Retief Goosen also shot 69 in more of a rollercoaster round that included only one par in the first seven holes.

My other picks: England's Justin Rose at 2-under 70, with Tim Clark of South Africa, Ian Poulter of England, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Sergio Garcia of Spain all at 1-under 71. Phil Mickelson, whose record in the British Open is spotty at best (only one top-10 finish in 15 attempts), had 16 pars and a double-bogey before finally making birdie at 18 to finish at 1-over 73.

Return to the home of golf

2010-07-14T09:42:00.001-07:00

Central to the American love of baseball, basketball and football is the fact that, by and large, Americans still reign supreme in those sports. Plus, we invented them.

Golf, on the other hand, is as American as haggis with neeps and tatties. If steak and potatoes are considered comfort food in the U.S., haggis (sheep's offal, encased in sheep intestine, then boiled), neeps (turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes) are the equivalent in Scotland.

OK, so the thought of eating a balloon full of mystery meat isn't so appealing. But the Scots also get credit for inventing golf, and for that we'll give them a pass on their peculiar cuisine.

Starting Thursday, the best golfers in the world return to the cradle of golf, St. Andrews on the east coast of Scotland, for the 150th British Open. Since 1754, St. Andrews has been the home of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which along with the United States Golf Association sets the standards for the sport. If you're counting, that's 22 years before a single-minded band of men of mostly European descent signed the Declaration of Independence.

Scots have been playing golf since around 1400, about as long as they've had the University of St. Andrews, Scotland's oldest higher institution, founded in 1413. That's about 75 years before an Italian (Columbus) sailing under the Spanish flag made land in what is now the Bahamas.

In short, it's got some history. The Scots are serious about their golf; to them, the sport is akin to religion. And you don't raise your voice in church, meaning that if you watch any of the British Open coverage this week, you shouldn't expect to hear the drunken fan's howl ("You da man!") that demeans the game and has become so prevalent in America. Add that bit of bloviation to the USA's UAS (Ugly American Syndrome).

The Scots, to their credit, have not only supported their lads, they've also embraced great golfers from other countries. Especially the great Americans.

They cheered for Arnold Palmer in 1960, when he came to St. Andrews after winning the year's first two major championships, the Masters and U.S. Open, but fell a shot short of Kel Nagle in the British Open. Palmer would return to Royal Birkdale in 1961 and Royal Troon in 1962, and win both years.

They cheered for Jack Nicklaus, who won the British Open in 1966, 1970 and 1978, the last two at St. Andrews, and for Lee Trevino when he won the British Open in 1971 and 1972.

They cheered for Tom Watson, the gap-toothed "wee mon" (he's 5-foot-9), who won the British Open five times on five different golf courses, four of them in Scotland. Alas, none at St. Andrews.

And they cheered for Tiger Woods when he won the British Open in 2000, 2005 and 2006, the first two times at St. Andrews.

Great golfers have been coming to Scotland and the British Isles for a century and a half. The first British Open, which in most places outside the U.S. is just called The Open, predates by a year the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Parenting and pro sports

2010-07-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've never been a professional athlete, but I do have some experience on the subject of athletes and parenting. Pro sports can add a special complexity to family life, and, as with anything involving children, it takes love, patience and commitment to make it work.

In July 1986, my first child, a beautiful girl, was born. The following June, I was in San Francisco - 100 miles from home - reporting on the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club.

As anyone with more than a passing interest in golf knows, the U.S. Open always finishes on the third Sunday in June - Father's Day. This meant that when I awoke that Sunday morning, I was not at home with my wife and almost 1-year-old daughter. I was in danger of missing an opportunity to be with my daughter, and her mom, on my very first Father's Day.

I'm not going to suggest that that thought hounded me on that Sunday. I was, after all, at work, doing a job I loved, and getting paid for it. It's a rare occasion to get to go to a U.S. Open, and rarer still to be reporting on it. I've done that at three men's U.S. Opens, along with a women's U.S. Open.

Thankfully, the tournament ended without need of a playoff, which would have been held the next day, and when I was done filing my story, I made a beeline for home and a chance to spend what was left of that Father's Day with my wife and daughter.

I relate this story to bring up pro golf and parenting, specifically the case of Tiger Woods. He and wife Elin are going through what hopefully will not be a nasty divorce. (Reports today show Elin receiving upwards of $750 million, plus custody of their two children, in exchange for her discretion regarding Tiger's former (?) girlfriends.)

By anyone's estimation, even his own, Tiger has been a horrible husband. But no one has suggested he's been a bad father. However, it was recently reported that he showed up late to an already belated third birthday party for his daughter, Sam Alexis.

Her birthday is June 18. That date will almost certainly fall during the U.S. Open each year, and maybe you can see where I'm going with this. As long as he plays major professional golf, Tiger (at 34, he has quite a few years left) will likely miss other birthdays.

As a pro athlete, Tiger's place is to be competing at the highest level, and at the biggest tournaments. As a parent, his place is to be with his family, especially with his children, on those special occasions.

Tiger will always be torn by these decisions. All he can do is what he feels is best for himself and his family, and explain the compromises that have to be made.

That's part of being a parent.

Before there was Tiger, there was Seve

2010-06-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Much is made of Tiger Woods' chase of the record 18 major championships held by Jack Nicklaus. But Tiger, with 14 majors, has less in common with the Golden Bear than with a third golfer who also had a track record of brilliance at a young age: Severiano Ballesteros.

Tiger is almost nothing like Nicklaus, on or off the golf course. One is a happily married family man with a stable home life; the other probably should never have gotten married. One dominated with relentless good play and little interaction with the crowd; the other more recently dominated with masterful shots while playing up to the audience.

In this respect, Tiger is the modern-day version of Seve Ballesteros. Like Tiger, Seve was an imposing force, intimidating with his ability to make magic on a golf course. Like Tiger, a showman who didn't hide his emotions. And, like Tiger, prone to bouts of wildness off the tee, with an ad-libber's talent to recover spectacularly.

Until fairly recently, Tiger was thought of as intimidating on a golf course. Seve was no less fearsome. In Ryder Cup play, his record was 20-12-5. Backing down from a challenge was not in his DNA. An oft-repeated quote of his: "I look into their eyes, shake their hand, pat their back, and wish them luck, but I am thinking, 'I am going to bury you.'"

Seve could - to some extent, Tiger still can - do things beyond the skill of other players. Two examples of their genius: En route to winning the British Open in 1979, then 22-year-old Seve, trying to maintain a two-shot cushion, drove into a parking lot on the next-to-last hole, somehow found the green with his next shot and holed the putt for birdie when bogey, or worse, seemed likely. In his 2005 Masters win, Tiger faced a tricky chip from the back of the green at the par-3 16th. Analyzing the surface as if it were a billiard table, he hit a delicate attempt that initially went away from the hole, then tracked slowly downhill, hung on the lip of the cup for what seemed an eternity, then fell into the hole for birdie.

Seve Ballesteros, now only 53 but retired and long-removed from his prime, even bettered Tiger in some respects. He turned pro at 16 in 1974, was second at the British Open in 1976 at just 19, won his first PGA Tour event (Greater Greensboro Open) at 20 in 1978 and his first major, the 1979 British Open, at 22. He won a total of five majors, but he's almost as well known for the tournament he never won: the U.S. Open.

Ballesteros probably knew he was never going to win the U.S. Open when he finished his final round of the 1987 Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Ballesteros, the dashing Spaniard who by the age of 27 had already won the Masters (1980, 1983) and British Open (1979, 1984) twice each, came to San Francisco as a 30-year-old with plenty of game, but no answer for the riddle that is the U.S. Open. The tournament set up by the United States Golf Association has always rewarded patient, almost plodding play, putting a premium on accuracy and making those who stray pay dearly.

Not exactly Seve's strengths. His magician's ability to recover from strange places worked perfectly in the British Open, where creativity is always a valuable skill. His deft touch with a putter fit the Masters and Augusta National's wickedly slick putting surfaces.

At a U.S. Open venue, though, even Houdini couldn't escape from the arm-wrenching rough. Somehow, Seve always found himself in trouble. He would go on to win the British Open a third time, in 1988, and had a total of seven top-10 finishes in that event, along with eight top-10s at the Masters. In 18 tries at the U.S. Open, he had no wins, missed the cut five times, was disqualified once, and finished in the top 10 just three times.

At the Olympic Club in 1987, he wound up third, five shots behind winner Scott Simpson. Not bad, but, unlike most players touring the ridiculously short, brutally penalizing course, he gave away too many shots in the trees and thick rough.

He even offered some sarcastic advice for the sadists at the USGA. "I'd like to see the fairways more narrow. Then everyone would have to play from the rough, not just me."

U.S. Open review

2010-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Well, my picks for the U.S. Open weren't as successful as those for the Masters, but really, you can't always expect to get the winner when you project a dozen out of a field of 156.

At the Masters, I had the top three picks (winner Phil Mickelson, runner-up Lee Westwood, third-place Anthony Kim), along with Tiger Woods, who tied for fourth, and a total of eight players out of 12 (67% batting average) who made the cut.

While I had more players make the cut at the U.S. Open (11 of 12), I didn't get the winner, and my best finish was Mickelson again. He tied for fourth with Woods, who wasn't among my pre-tournament favorites this time. The winner at Pebble Beach Golf Links was Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell; I picked a countryman of his, Rory McIlroy, but I guess I just got the wrong chap from Northern Ireland.

McIlroy didn't even qualify for the weekend rounds, but he was the only one I missed in that regard. The others:

Dustin Johnson, the 54-hole leader, who looked like a prescient pick for 55 holes, until he played the 500-yard, par-4 second hole on Sunday's final round. That's when he hallucinated that he was an extra in "Tin Cup" and went Kevin Costner stupid, hitting a ball left-handed near a greenside bunker and nearly whiffing the next shot before taking a triple-bogey 7. His drive on the next hole was well left into the trees and, with several thousand spectators all around, never found the ball and embarrassingly had to return to the tee box for his third shot. He never found his game again, ballooned to an 82 (after a 66 the previous day) and wound up tied for eighth at 289.

England's Westwood and American Jim Furyk, who matched even-par 71s on Sunday and wound up tied for 16th at 292.

American Ricky Barnes, who never was really out of it (but also never broke or even matched par any day), finished tied for 27th at 294.

Australian Robert Allenby, tied for 29th at 295.

Japanese teen Ryo Ishikawa, a contender for three days until a fat 80 on Sunday left him tied for 33rd at 296.

South Korea's K.J. Choi and England's Ian Poulter. Not only did they tie for 47th at 298, they had identical rounds of 70-73-77-78. Weird, huh?

Americans Steve Stricker and Nick Watney, who never really got out second gear. Stricker tied for 58th at 299, Watney 76th at 305.

Tiger vs. USGA?

2010-06-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I'd be rushing to Tiger Woods's defense about something anytime soon, but at least this one's about golf.

On Saturday's television coverage of the U.S. Open, the executive director of the USGA, David B. Fay (not sure why they always have to add the "B" ... must be some "Caddyshack" entitlement/caste system angle to that), was asked about criticism of Pebble Beach Golf Links, especially the greens. Depending on where they put the flag, the par-5 14th is almost unplayable, but the real daggers were about the poa annua greens, which to the untrained eye (i.e. non-golfer) might look like some kind of disease.

Fay noted how two players on Thursday had used the word "awful" in regard to putting at Pebble Beach. From Fay: "World No. 2 said he putted awful; World No. 1 said the greens were awful." Clever how Fay didn't mention No. 2 (Phil Mickelson) or No. 1 (Woods) by name. But his point was clear ... you can criticize your own play, but not the golf course.

It's not the first time Tiger has taken issue with Pebble Beach and its poa annua greens. Many believe it's the reason why he hasn't played there for the wintertime AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for eight years. But that's just part of it. The AT&T event is staged over three golf course on the Monterey Peninsula and has too much of a circus atmosphere for Tiger, who tends to want to control his environment as much as possible.

But his words Thursday were no doubt stinging to the people who run the U.S. Open; they also tend to want to control their environment as much as possible. The USGA takes seriously its role in the running of national golf championships, and welcomes debate like Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. To Fay and the USGA, there's no such thing as constructive criticism.

Fay also said a player is entitled to his opinion, but not the facts. Well, buddy, these are the facts: This is a links (seaside) layout, and as such, it's more open to the elements than most golf courses. Mother Nature will do what she wants to the land, and all the agronomists and golf course superintendents in the world can do only so much to keep the course in shape.

Nobody said the course was unfair, because it's not. Pebble plays the same for everyone. I think Tiger's point was the putting surfaces were imperfect, and they are. I'm not a big fan of the phrase, but Fay and the USGA needs to "own it." He can say, "yes, we did all we can, but it is what it is."

I won't criticize Mickelson for his diplomacy, but I wouldn't begrude Tiger his opinion, either.

12 players to beat at the British Open

2010-06-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Looking back at my pre-tournament picks for the year's first two major golf championships, the Masters and U.S. Open, I noticed that there were only six players on both lists. In keeping with this pattern, I'll hang on to half of my choices from the U.S. Open and stick with them in the British Open, which begins Thursday at St. Andrews, Scotland.

But I'm not going with an equal number of Americans and non-Americans, as I did with the first two majors. I'm convinced someone from the U.S. is not likely to win at St. Andrews, so I'll only take Americans Phil Mickelson and Ricky Barnes, both risky picks and longshots but for different reasons. Yes, Mickelson, despite his win at the Masters this year, is a darkhorse to win the British Open, and I'll explain why.

The rest of my dozen picks this week will be foreigners. Included in that group are earlier picks Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, K.J. Choi and Robert Allenby. But I think the vast majority of Americans will struggle, and I'm sorry to say that includes established U.S. stars like Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker.

Here's how my new lineup looks:

Keeping: Mickelson, Poulter, Westwood, Choi, Allenby and Barnes.

Dumping: Americans Furyk, Stricker, Dustin Johnson and Nick Watney, plus Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Ryo Ishikawa of Japan.

Adding: Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose.

This shakeup of my dozen picks gives me three South Africans (Els, Clark, Goosen), three Brits (Poulter, Westwood, Rose), one from Northern Ireland (McDowell), a Spaniard (Garcia), an Australian (Allenby) and a South Korean (Choi).

And, if you're counting, that's five Europeans. Which would certainly be going against recent history. In the past 20 years, only three Europeans have won the British Open: Ireland's Padraig Harrington (2007, 2008), Scotland's Paul Lawrie (1999) and England's Nick Faldo (1990, 1992).

Why these 12, you say? And how come Tiger Woods, who won the British Open the last two times it was held at St. Andrews, is not on this list?

Conventional wisdom says Tiger should not only be the favorite this week, he should win. Many thought he would win the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last month, since he had dominated the U.S. Open there in 2000, winning by 15 shots. But Tiger's fondness for the course was always a love-hate affair; especially irksome to him were Pebble's unpredictable poa annua putting surfaces.

St. Andrews, on the other hand, is truly in Tiger's wheelhouse. Asked earlier this year if he was excited about 2010, with the first three majors at Augusta (Masters), Pebble Beach (U.S. Open) and St. Andrews (British Open), Tiger clarified by saying he'd like to play "St. Andrews, St. Andrews, St. Andrews."

Tiger played well at Augusta considering his long layoff, not quite as well at the U.S. Open, and wound up tied for fourth at both majors. But I don't think he's there yet with his game. He might win, and I'll agree he's the favorite. I just don't see it.

As for my dozen, only four (Mickelson, Els, Goosen, McDowell) have ever won a major, and only one (Els) has won the British Open. Mickelson, by comparison, has an abyssmal record at the British Open, with only one top-10 finish and three missed cuts. But I feel like Phil, at 40, has learned a bit from his beat-downs at both the U.S. Open (five runner-up finishes) and the British Open.

Els, also 40, and Goosen, 41, view the British Open with the same reverence that Americans do the U.S. Open. Els won the 2002 British Open in a four-man playoff and has 11 other top-10 finishes in the event. Goosen has never hoisted the Claret Jug, but he has seven top-10 British Open finishes.

McDowell is a mostly sentimental pick, because I liked the way he handled himself down the stretch to capture the U.S. Open in June. Plus, anybody who can win at Pebble Beach has got to have some game.

The other foreigners? Poulter, 24, and Rose, 27, are the future of golf in England. Westwood, Clark, Garcia and Allenby, all in their 30s, are considered among the best players without a major title. Choi is looking to follow in the footsteps of countryman Y.E. Yang, who won last year's PGA Championship.

That leaves us with Barnes, maybe the darkest of my darkhorses. He has no PGA Tour victories and has played in only seven majors in seven-plus years since turning pro in 2003. But he was the runner-up at the 2009 U.S. Open and 10th at the Masters this year. Plus, he plays without fear and can hit the ball a mile.

That sounds a bit like a lovable, long-hitting guy from Arkansas who won the 1991 PGA Championship after having won nothing else on the PGA Tour. By the way, that guy, John Daly, also won the British Open, 15 years ago. At St. Andrews.

So dream on, Ricky Barnes. It can happen.

Halfway home and my guys are right there

2010-06-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Saturdays are called "moving day" on the pro golf tour, when players get themselves into position to contend for a title.

Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els decided they couldn't wait that long. The two tour veterans, both 40 and with a combined seven major championships between them, put themselves into contention on Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open.

Mickelson, winner of three Masters and a PGA Championship, fired a 5-under-par 66 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. He birdied four of his first six holes and had nine 3s on his card. Els, the tall South African who has two U.S. Open trophies and a British Open title to his credit, came in with a 3-under 68. The two of them are tied for second with Dustin Johnson and Japanese teen Ryo Ishikawa at 1-under 141, two shots behind Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who backed up his opening 71 with a second-round 68.

And though I felt pretty good about my pre-tournament picks halfway through the Masters in April, I can't believe my good fortune at the midway point of the U.S. Open. Of my 12 players to beat, 11 made the cut. Three, Mickelson, Ishikawa and Johnson, are in the top 5, and, having picked South Korea's K.J. Choi and England's Ian Poulter, tied for 10th at 143 are identical 70-73 starts, I have five of the top 12.

Lee Westwood is my sixth-lowest player, tied for 16th at 3-over 145. Two others, Jim Furyk and Nick Watney, are tied for 37th at 147. Australian Robert Allenby and Ricky Barnes, at 148, are tied for 48th. Steve Stricker, at 149, was tied for 59th and just made the cut.

The only one of my pre-tourney predictions who failed to make the cut was Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy. The 21-year-old got schooled by the 18-year-old Ishikawa and 60-year-old Tom Watson in one of the most unusual pairings of the tournament. While McIlroy was shooting a sour 77 and going home at 152, Ishikawa and Watson were matching 71s to earn the right to play the weekend.

Oh, yeah, I hear Tiger Woods is also playing at Pebble Beach this week. In fact, you can't stop hearing about him on ESPN and NBC, and the official website guys (imagine fingernails on a chalkboard) at www.usopen.com are flapping their gums about a Tiger comeback. Considering their anointed one hasn't broken par either of the first two rounds and is seven shots back at 146, they better pack a lunch for that wait.

My money's still with Mickelson. He and Els are the only ones in the top 15 who have already won a major. It should make for an interesting weekend.

One round down ... and we're looking good

2010-06-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

You can't win a major championship, or any 72-hole golf tournament for that matter, on the first day. But you sure can make it tough on yourself, and a few of the guys I picked as pre-tournament favorites stumbled a bit in the first round of the U.S. Open.

The opening round of the 110th U.S. Open is history now, and as you might expect, par was a fabulous number at Pebble Beach Golf Links. A trio leads at 2-under-par 69: England's Paul Casey, little-known Brendon de Jonge of Zimbabwe and American Shaun Micheel. Casey's a budding star, but the other two are typical of first rounds at the Open, where just about anyone could be a star for a day. Micheel's only PGA Tour victory was in a major, the 2003 PGA Championship, and de Jonge has just one win, too, but on the Nationwide tour, the PGA Tour's minor-league circuit.

A half-dozen players were at 1-under 70, including three of my 12 pre-tourney picks: England's Ian Poulter, South Korean veteran K.J. Choi and 18-year-old Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa. The sartorial Poulter usually is the flashiest dresser on the course, but Ishikawa, decked out all in pink, gets the award for boldest fashion statement. If his game is as confident as his choice in clothing, he'll still be in the hunt on Sunday.

Another of my picks, Dustin Johnson, the winner of the 2009 and 2010 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, was in a group of three players at even-par 71, while two more of my choices, Americans Jim Furyk and Ricky Barnes, were in a 15-player logjam at 1-over 72.

That's half my 12 picks right there up near the top of the leaderboard. The other half? Two were tied for 47th, Lee Westwood of England and Australian Robert Allenby, who joined Woods (who I left off my "12 players to beat" list) and 16 others at 3-over 74; Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy were among 24 players at 4-over 75; and Nick Watney, my admitted longest of longshots, was tied for 90th at 5-over 76.

In review, none of my 12 guys is out of it, certainly not like poor Blaine Peffley, a 25-year-old Hooters Tour player from Pennsylvania. His card showed 86, with a half-dozen 5s, two 6s and a fat 8 on the treacherous par-4 8th. He'll be checking out of his hotel on Friday.

Some of my guys, especially, Mickelson, Stricker, McIlroy and Watney, will have to pick it up a bit on Friday to not be in danger of missing the cut. A total of 60 players, and ties, and anyone within 10 shots of the leader, will get to play on the weekend. That 10-shot rule could be important, because it doesn't look anyone will be able to run away with it, and right now, 141 players (out of a field of 156), are within 10 shots of the lead.

USGA's web commentators stink

2010-06-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Before jumping into the first-round results of the U.S. Open, I want to take a moment to talk about how bad the commentators were on the official tournament website.

Pitiful. Pathetic. Awful. Amateurish.

In an effort to see some of the golf while at work but unable to view it on TV, I resorted to www.usopen.com, and the site's live web coverage. While the video was fine, the commentary was not. They had a "feature group" in the morning, and another in the afternoon. The latter was the threesome of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Lee Westwood. Makes sense, but little did I know the guys calling the shots were more in love with Woods than his 14 girlfriends.

These numbskulls kept going on about how great Tiger was playing, and how poorly Els was doing. Crappy Els shot a 2-over 73; Terrific Tiger came in at 3-over 74, without a single birdie. Did you guys watch the golf, or were you too busy marveling at the sound of your own voices? That's another thing; they seemed to think it was their responsibility to fill every second with their pointless drivel.

More annoying was the endless blather about how much Tiger had to overcome this year. Excuse me, but Tiger is the one solely responsible for whatever it is he's "had to overcome." I was waiting for one of these idiots to blame Elin Woods for Tiger's serial infidelity.

Just for good measure, they threw in a couple off-color jokes about how difficult pro golf can be on your marriage. I'm not a prude, but this is the USGA's official website. I know this is just the Web, where decency is an afterthought and the search for truth is replaced by "close enough is good enough," but come on. Hey USGA, give these clowns some guidelines.

Or are these guys the best the USGA could come up with?

12 Players to beat at the U.S. Open

2010-06-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

It's time to make my picks for the U.S. Open. Considering my success at the Masters (I had winner Phil Mickelson, along with runner-up Lee Westwood and third-place Anthony Kim), I'm feeling a bit flush this week. BTW, the guru also had Tiger Woods, who tied for fourth at Augusta.

This week, though, I'm taking the contrarian highway, and Tiger isn't anywhere along the route. I know, it seems borderline blasphemous to rule out the guy who won the Open by a record 15 shots the last time it was contested at Pebble Beach, in 2000. However, much has changed in the past 10 years (Bill Clinton was president back then and the Twin Towers in New York City still stood), and anyone who thinks Tiger is as dominant today as he was back then is seriously deluded.

Nevertheless, how, you ask, could Tiger not be in the top 12? The British bookies have installed him and Mickelson at 8-1, leading the contenders. I think they've got it right with Lefty, but not Righty.

There are at least a dozen top pros, some of whom weren't even on the tour in 2000, with more game than Righty right now. I'll take Europeans Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, South Korea's K.J. Choi and Australian Robert Allenby. In addition to Mickelson, U.S. players I figure to finish ahead of Tiger include Jim Furyk, Ricky Barnes, Steve Stricker, Nick Watney and Dustin Johnson. The last guy, incidentally, has an affinity for Pebble Beach. He's played the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am the past three years, where two of the four rounds are contested at Pebble, and all he's done is finish seventh in 2008 and first in 2009 and 2010.

A lot is made of the fact that Tiger blew away the Open field with a 12-under 276 total in 2000, but it's clear that he's not as good as he was then, and the course is way tougher.

For starters, there won't be anyone 12 under this year. This is not the Phoenix Open, and the stuffed shirts at the USGA don't take kindly to anyone making mincemeat of their layouts.

We'll know early on if any of these assessments are on target. You always hear players say that they tune out what their playing partners are doing, but it doesn't hurt to have a good grouping. Mickelson's paired the first two days with three-time major champion Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang, who captured the PGA Championship last year in a head-to-head stare-down with Woods. I like that pairing for Lefty.

Other good groupings: Stricker, one of the best putters on tour, with Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey. A proud American going off with two European Ryder Cup regulars is going to bring his "A" game. Furyk is in a threesome with multiple-major champions Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera. I'll admit Watney and Barnes are longshots, but they're paired together and may just pull each other along with good play. Among the non-Americans I'm picking, the 21-year-old McIlroy and Ishikawa, 18, who won tournaments on two continents the same day back in May, are paired today and Friday with 60-year-old Tom Watson, a clever arrangement by the USGA. Westwood may have the toughest pairing, with Woods and Ernie Els, but I think he'll be up to it. Allenby may have the easiest pairing of any, teeing it up for two days with fellow Australians Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy.

Take Tiger, if you want. Nobody will call you crazy. But it's also not a very inspired choice. If Woods wins, I'll be the first to say bravo. I just don't see it.

The U.S. Open with (and without) TW

2010-05-11T20:46:00.001-07:00

You can bet Tiger Woods will do all he can to rehab his neck injury in time to compete in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next month. The last time the Open was held at Pebble Beach, in 2000, Tiger set a record with a 15-shot victory.

Last summer, after the PGA Championship, most close observers said 2010 could be the year Tiger would make a run at the Grand Slam. He'd already won the Masters four times and was looking for a fifth at Augusta National; the U.S. Open would be held at Pebble Beach, where he had played a bit as an amateur while attending Stanford University and where he'd torched the U.S. Open field in 2000; the British Open was returning to St. Andrews, the home of golf and where Tiger had won the last two times it had been held there (2000, 2005), winning by 8 shots in 2000 with a 19-under-par 269, a record for all golf majors; the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., could have conceivably been the capper on a Tiger Slam.

Then came the infamous Thanksgiving weekend in which Tiger's secret life came crashing down, and, I believe, possibly taking with it his professional life.

His marital infidelity has been well documented, so I won't rehash the seamy details. However, I believe this stumble had a greater consequence of ripping away the aura of invincibility Tiger often carried around on the golf course. When he played well (which was most of the time), other pros had almost become convinced that he was unbeatable.

With that facade gone, Tiger is no longer feared on tour.

It's because of this comedown, I believe, that Tiger won't win another major, at Pebble Beach or anywhere else. It's highly likely the only TW we see at Pebble Beach this year is Tom Watson, who competed there in the '72 Open won by Jack Nicklaus, then beat Jack with his historic chip-in at the 71st hole in '82 and also played in Opens at Pebble Beach in '92 and in 2000.

Forget, for a moment, Tiger's personal life. Yes, his wife, Elin, reportedly will be filing for divorce any day. But personal strife is no kiss of death for professional athletes.

Nick Faldo, a winner of the Masters and British Open three times each, also has been married and divorced three times, and an ex-girlfriend once smashed his Porsche 959 with a golf club. Watson got divorced from his first wife at 48, but he's been a rousing success on the Senior PGA Tour, nearly won the British Open last year at 59 and was in the hunt for a long time this year at 60. Fred Couples won his only major championship, the 1992 Masters, during a year in which he and first wife Deborah were going through a bitter divorce. Ben Crenshaw's first wife, Polly, filed for divorce the week before the Masters in 1984; Ben won the Masters that year for his first major championship. Crenshaw also won the Masters in 1995, after serving as pallbearer earlier in the week for longtime friend and mentor Harvey Penick.

If these guys, and there are many more, can overcome personal problems to succeed in golf, surely Tiger, whose focus is legendary, would be able to do the same. But Tiger's problems aren't solely personal; it's his golf game that's in trouble.

I know, he came back after more than a 5-month layoff to finish tied for fourth in the Masters, a remarkable accomplishment, even for Tiger. But he missed the cut in his next start and looked pitiful at the Players Championship before picking up on the seventh hole of the final round. His neck injury no doubt contributed greatly to his poor play, but even while scoring well at Augusta his game looked more than just rusty.

As for his longtime swing coach, Hank Haney, leaving him earlier this week, I'm not sure if Hank was miffed about Tiger personally, of if the two simply decided there was no more to be gained from the player-coach relationship. Either way, it's not a good sign.

The worst sign, however, is Tiger's once-vaunted reputation. His shadow used to loom large over any event and especially the majors. While his presence at any tournament is still noteworthy, it has more of a car-wreck quality about it now.

Tiger can be beaten, and everybody knows it.

Was that really Tiger?

2010-05-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

The greatest golfer of this century didn't win the Masters last month, but who really expected him to? I've taken five months off from golf before, and my game looked like crap the first time back. And yet Tiger put the clubs in the closet (I hope he took them away from Elin first), went to rehab for whatever private personal issues he couldn't talk about, then came out to Augusta, no pitch-and-putt and certain to expose any weaknesses in a person's game, and actually made a run for the Green Jacket.

That he didn't win wasn't surprising. That he didn't embarrass himself (aside from a verbal outburst or two) was surprising.

Then came Tiger's second tournament, and embarrassing doesn't begin to describe it. Paired for two days with Angel Cabrera, who has both a Green Jacket and a U.S. Open title to his credit, and Stewart Cink, last year's British Open champion, Tiger looked like a pro-am partner from Bushwood Country Club, all over the lot and, worse yet, seemingly not even caring.

In two rounds at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., Tiger posted 10 bogeys and three double-bogeys, needing to par the final three holes on Friday just to break 80, and missed the cut - by eight shots. Somehow, he managed seven birdies in two days, but it wasn't enough to keep him from recording a fat 43 on his final nine holes and 153 for two days, the worst 36-hole score of his illustrious career.

The numbers, though, don't do this mess justice. You had to see Tiger in action, playing "army" golf - left, right, left, right - and rarely finding the fairway. He showed little of that magician's touch we've come to expect, and, though he promised prior to the Masters that he would work harder to keep his anger in check, to see him follow through with almost no emotion at all was sad, to say the least. We've heard him utter F-bombs, not very attractive; now we've seen him become emotionally detached, which might be even more scary.

If Tiger's play at Quail Hollow was pathetic, his reaction could only be described as apathetic.

You wouldn't think it could get worse, but it might. Tiger found the water on several occasions at Quail Hollow. But the course that awaits him next week - TPC at Sawgrass, site of the Players Championship - has water on nearly every hole, including the final three in what is the make-or-break stage of the "fifth major" for touring pros.

Roughly 400 years ago, the English clergyman and poet John Donne observed that "no man is an island." It may be too early to tell if Tiger is becoming (or trying to become) an island unto himself, but when he stands on the tee at Sawgrass' infamous 17th hole, observing a green almost completely surrounded by water, what will he see?

At that moment, will he feel like an island?

Pretty good batting average

2010-04-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Prior to the Masters, I picked 12 players who could win the tournament. I'll admit I went with mostly frontrunners, such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. But even I was surprised with my success.

Mickelson won, Tiger tied for fourth, but I also picked runner-up Lee Westwood and third-place Anthony Kim.

My other choices?

Ian Poulter struggled on the weekend but wound up tied for 10th.

Ernie Els tied for 18th.

Steve Stricker tied for 30th.

Retief Goosen tied for 38th.

Four others - Paul Casey, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy - missed the cut.

I'd be thrilled to do as well predicting the U.S. Open.

Masters ... sadly anticlimactic

2010-04-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Masters is in the books, and Phil Mickelson, with his wife and daughters watching from behind the 18th green, earned his third Green Jacket with a bogey-free closing round of 5-under 67, capped by a short birdie at the 72nd hole.

As wonderful as it was for Phil and Amy, who's battling breast cancer, and for anyone who roots for Lefty, his 3-shot victory seemed sadly anticlimactic. Others who could have given Mickelson a run for his money all shot themselves in the foot at one time or another on the final day.

Such as:

Lee Westwood. The unflappable Brit was one of only five players in the field to break par all four days and led for much of the tournament. But he bogeyed three of the first nine holes on Sunday to fall out of the lead and never held it again. He's had several near-misses now in major championships. Let's hope he doesn't become his generation's Colin Montgomerie, the dour Scot and one of the best players to never won a major.
Anthony Kim. The 24-year-old hailed by some as the successor to Tiger played the final six holes 5 under par to finish with a flourish at 65 and grab third alone. But in a tournament where players seemingly were putting up birdies and eagles every couple of minutes, he had a stretch of 22 holes - from early in the third round until nearly midway through the fourth - where he played 1 over par. In other words, Kim took too long to get it going.
Tiger Woods. He gave us everything we've come to expect from the world's greatest golfer, such as 17 birdies and four eagles and, perhaps most surprising for a guy who hadn't played a round of competitive golf in five months, four straight rounds under par at Augusta National. However, the rust caught up with Tiger, and at times his game - and his temperament - were ragged. He offset some of his sterling play with 14 bogeys, eight more than winner Mickelson, and yet wound up just five shots back.
K.J. Choi. The 39-year-old Korean had a share of the lead for a brief while on Sunday, but his Waterloo began at Amen Corner, where he went 3-6-5 at the 12th, 13th and 14th holes, when Phil was going 2-4-3.

Mickelson won by staying out of trouble and by not trying to bite off too much, which for him is pretty grown up. He also realized the essential nature of Augusta National, a mostly forgiving golf course with some treacherous approaches, and greens that need to be managed with chess-master intelligence. Some of the shots he hit at Augusta would have cost him dearly at a U.S. Open, where accuracy is Rule No. 1.

Augusta is more Mickelson-friendly, and I'm pretty confident he's not done winning there.

Hits and misses

2010-04-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Handicapping golf tournaments is kind of like predicting the weather. You're bound to be right on some things and just as likely to be way off on others.

In a blog previewing the Masters, I said there were really only 12 players who could win the tournament, even though almost 100 teed it up on Thursday. And, like the weatherman, I was spot-on with some of my selections and out of bounds with some others.

I had Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood in my top 12, and both opened with solid 67s. Tiger Woods, showing little effects of the 5-month layoff for personal reasons, opened with a 68, as did Ian Poulter and Anthony Kim. Ernie Els, who turned 40 last October, was in the hunt at 71.

That's half of my picks under par, not bad.

But I was slightly less accurate going with Steve Stricker (73), Padraig Harrington (74), Rory McIlroy (74), Retief Goosen (74) and Paul Casey (75), and grossly off the mark with Jim Furyk (80).

Furyk, who's had four top-10 finishes in his 13 previous Masters appearances, already had won a tournament this year and looked to be ready. His first-round collapse was puzzling. I certainly didn't see that coming.

I also wouldn't have predicted some startlingly solid play by some others. I had written off several former Masters champions and should have known better. Fred Couples, the 1992 champ, led with a 66. Two-time winner Tom Watson (1977, 1981) shot 67, not bad for a 60-year-old who is trying to become (by 14 years) the oldest Masters champion ever. Sandy Lyle (1988) had a credible 69, and Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993) came in at 71.

Update: Lyle, one of the early starters on Friday, is quickly giving it all back. The Scottish golfer who had missed the cut at the Masters 12 of the past 21 years, including the year after his victory 22 years ago, was 14 over through his first 14 holes. Sorry, Sandy.

12 players to beat at the Masters

2010-04-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

A field of 98 golfers tee off Thursday in the Masters. But only 12 have a chance of wearing the Green Jacket on Sunday. And here's why:

Two (Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus) are only ceremonial entrants and will hit an opening tee shot and then pick up. That leaves 96.
There are 17 players making their first Masters appearance. Fuzzy Zoeller was the last guy to win the Masters in his first visit. That was in 1979. The odds of a first-timer winning in 2010, especially this crop of rookies, should be astronomical. That takes it down to 79.
While we're at it, let's go beyond the first-timers. History says, on average, Masters winners have had just over seven tries at Augusta before breaking through. Of the remaining 79, there are 43 who have played in six or fewer Masters. And I'm eliminating all but four (who I will defend later). Now we're left with 40.
We'll go in the other direction and cut the veterans who don't have enough game for this course any more. I see nine players in this category, and I feel bad about this, because all nine are former Masters champions. But if any of you want to take Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Craig Stadler, Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara and Larry Mize, you're welcome to them. Otherwise, we're down to 31.
Next to go are the guys who, I think, have had their shot and it's just not going to happen for them in a major. You know who I'm talking about here: Sergio Garcia. But he's not alone. I'd put Robert Allenby (55 majors, 0 titles), Kenny Perry, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Scott Verplank in this group. That leaves 26.
Another cut that hurts are former major champions who aren't solid enough any more to top this field over four days. This club includes Vijay Singh, Justin Leonard, Mike Weir, David Toms and Michael Campbell. Now we're at 21.
The last nine out of the running? Angel Cabrera, the defending champion, is too inconsistent, as is Rory Sabbatini. Stewart Cink hasn't done much of anything since beating Watson in a playoff at last year's British Open. Trevor Immelman won the Masters in 2008 but is only now coming back from a wrist injury. K.J. Choi might be a contender, but he'll have to deal with the madness of playing with Tiger Woods for at least the first two days. Shingo Katayama is a good player, but it took him seven years at Augusta before he was able to break 70. David Duval would be my sentimental pick, but I'm not convinced he has the mental toughness needed to deal with the course's nerve-wracking greens. Aussie Adam Scott is playing better than his miserable 2009, but he's never broken 70 in 28 rounds at Augusta; plucky South African Tim Clark hasn't won any PGA Tour event, and I don't see it happening on golf's grandest stage.
The final 12? Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim and Retief Goosen. As noted above, four have limited experience at Augusta. Casey and Poulter will each be making their sixth Masters appearance; Casey already has four top-20s at Augusta. McIlroy and Kim will each be playing in their second Masters, but both are fearless competitors, and Kim won last week's Houston Open.

And who do I think will win? I'm pretty confident it will come from my 12 finalists. Half of them (Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, Els, Harrington and Goosen) have already won major championships. Woods, despite his long layoff, probably should be the favorite, but I think it might come down to the European contingent (Brits Westwood, Casey and Poulter, Ireland's Harrington and Northern Ireland's McIlroy) battling the big South African, Els. The last European to win the Masters was Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999, the eighth European champion at Augusta in a 12-year span.

A little less conversation ... a little more action

2010-04-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

Like many golf fans - and, yes, fans of Tiger Woods - I watched Monday's "press conference" featuring Tiger and 200 reporters. For the record, there were 48 questions and not quite that many answers in the 34-minute session at Augusta National.

I'm sure there were times when Tiger felt uncomfortable, but I was surprised at the muted tone of the questioning. No one brought charcoal to this grilling. Punches were not only pulled, a lot were never even thrown. There were very few follow-up questions to some of Tiger's answers, and shockingly little curiosity. Then again, these are golf writers ... a largely sympathetic audience ... and nothing I heard out of them made me think of Woodward and Bernstein.

OK, Tiger hasn't done anything that rises to the level of a president trying to deceive the American public, but there's been a violation of trust, even if that trust was misplaced. He carefully presented an almost impossibly perfect image and was found to have feet of clay. Shame on him for fooling us. But people who base their lives on what celebrities say or do may have a bigger problem than Tiger. Shame on those who believed in him in the first place.

I never bought a Buick because Tiger looked good in one. I never reached for the Nike gear on Tiger's word. Truthfully, the stuff's overpriced, and while we're at it, in light of Tiger's transgressions, the whole "Just Do It" campaign takes on a seamy meaning.

And seamy is the only thing we can take from the Tiger Tragedy. Bottom line, it's an issue between a husband and a wife, and the longer we wish to be a part of it, the more we look like voyeurs. I thought I would want to know what questions were asked of Tiger, and what he would say in response. But the longer the Q&(almost)A went on, my overriding feeling was one of nausea.

I'm finally sick of the story. "Going forward" was a phrase Tiger used often Monday, and in the spirit of cooperation in his ongoing therapy, I promise to do my part not to feed this ugly beast any more. Way too much time and energy has been spent talking about one golfer's life away from the course, and not nearly enough about the sport itself.

The worst thing that could happen to golf is for this story to hang like a cloud over the game. The best thing would be for golf to lose some of its sycophantic "fans" who just want to get drunk and yell "You da man!"

I'm getting back on the golf course, and I can't wait for Thursday's first round, to see Tiger, yes, but also all the other players. The weather has been exceptional in Augusta this year, and the first major of the year is upon us.

If you want to talk golf, welcome. If you want something else, I'm not sure you were ever a real fan to begin with.

The Tiger Fallout

2010-04-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I contributed to this blog, but the events of the past few months have brought new (mostly unwanted) attention to the game and, specifically, the straw that stirs the drink that is golf.

For more than a decade, Tiger Woods has been the face of golf for most people, certainly to casual fans of the game. Just as the charismatic Arnold Palmer had done 40 years earlier, but on a much grander scale, Tiger elevated golf from country club to mainstream, from snobs sipping 25-year-old scotch to beer-drinking buddies who would have laughed at golf and pro golfers B.T. (before Tiger).

Corporate America also noticed the dollars to be made riding Tiger's coattails. Nike, Gatorade, General Motors, Accenture, Gillette, Tag Heuer, AT&T, Electronic Arts, etc. With each new endorsement deal, Tiger seemed less like a person and more like a product.

He also has made it possible for other golf pros to enjoy a comfortable living. A revenue stream flooded the PGA Tour, and his fellow pros accepted the fact that he was almost impossible to beat, because, hey, second place paid a whole lot better than it used to.

It also didn't hurt the pro tour and the corporations that this near-perfect pitchman was himself a multicultural product (African American father, Asian mother), married to a beautiful blonde Swede (Elin Nordegren) with two children (a boy and a girl, natch).

The image seemed certain, rock-solid: Perfect athlete, perfect family, perfect life.

To borrow a golf term, it was the perfect lie.

Last Thanksgiving weekend, the facade came crashing down. A bizarre, late-night car accident - at the end of his driveway? - was the first public sign that Tiger might be something other than he appeared.

Then came revelations that Tiger was carrying on affairs/liaisons/trysts/one-night stands with a number of women, all while dominating the world of golf and managing to appear to be happily married. We had all heard about Tiger's incredible ability to remain focused. Now we knew why.

Almost overnight, Tiger became a punch line. "He's no longer Tiger. Now, he's a cheetah."

It's not a huge surprise that he strayed from his marriage vows. Ridiculously rich athletes and entertainers have access and opportunity. What is surprising is how long Tiger was able to keep this cauldron of debauchery from boiling over.

Now that we know Tiger is as fallible as anyone else, how do we feel?

Angry? Maybe, but the only people entitled to that emotion are those who really know him, starting with his wife.

Sad? Certainly. Even if Tiger and his wife are able to repair their marriage, damage has been done to him personally and professionally.

In his rare public comments, Tiger has said he is sorry for the hurt he has caused his wife and family, and apologized to friends and the many people who see him as some sort of role model.

You can believe he's sincerely remorseful, or not. But don't think you know him any better now than you did before last November.

Fast-forward five months, and, on the eve of the Masters, where Tiger makes his return this week, what will happen at Augusta National is open to speculation.

Will Tiger get a warm welcome? Will he be able to compete?

Will he still be a punch line?

The PGA: The major for everyman

2009-08-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

The PGA Championship is the last of the year's four major men's professional golf championships. But some believe it's also the least of the four majors, and it's not too hard to see why.
In the 90 previous PGA Championship tournaments, roughly a third (31) were won by pros who captured no other major title. Two PGA winners, Shaun Micheel (2003) and club pro Tom Creavy (1931), won no other PGA Tour event, period.
TNT and CBS this week are promoting the PGA as "golf's last chance for glory," but while true, it's mostly hype to attract viewers. The PGA is to the Masters and U.S. and British Opens as the Australian Open is to tennis' majors, the other three (Wimbledon and French and U.S. Opens) held in more prestigious locales (London, Paris, New York) and at better times of the year.
In April comes the Masters, which is beloved because of its rich history, which is weird, really, since it's the youngest of the four majors. But big names win this thing (Jack Nicklaus, 6 times; Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, 4 each; Nick Faldo and Sam Snead, 3 each). Plus, it's held at lush Augusta National, the only major that uses the same venue every year.
In June we have the U.S. Open, ending on Father's Day and almost universally accepted as the toughest of the four majors, thanks to the sadists at the United States Golf Association, who generally go looking for a difficult golf course and then turn it into a monster. Again, big names win this one (Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, the great amateur Bobby Jones and turn-of-the-century Scottish legend Willie Anderson, 4 titles each; Woods and Hale Irwin, 3 apiece).
July brings the British Open, or "The Open Championship," as it's known across the Atlantic. Played at courses rich with history. Again, big-name winners (Harry Vardon, 6; Tom Watson and Aussie Peter Thomson, 5 each; Walter Hagen, 4).
While the PGA also has its share of marquee champions (Nicklaus and Hagen, 5 each; Woods, 4), it's also just as likely to see a no-name hoisting the 44-pound Wanamaker Trophy. Hold your applause, folks, but guys named Rich Beem, Mark Brooks, Wayne Grady, Jeff Sluman and Bob Tway all won the PGA in the past 23 years.
The winners-from-nowhere pattern at the PGA also comes in waves. Micheel's victory capped a three-year run (Beem in 2002, David Toms in 2001) of one-time major champions. It also happened in 1995 (Steve Elkington), 1996 (Brooks) and 1997 (Davis Love III). In the mid-1960s, Bobby Nichols (1964), Dave Marr (1965), Al Geiberger (1966) and Don January (1967) made it four straight for PGA winners who won no other major.
The record, though, was set in 1957-1961, when Lionel Hebert, Dow Finsterwald, Bob Rosburg, Jay Hebert (older brother of Lionel) and Jerry Barber won the PGA for their only major titles.

Bringing competition back into golf

2009-07-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Win or lose, Tom Watson is good for golf, seemingly as good at 59 as he was at 25, when he won his first major, the 1975 British Open at Carnoustie.

He was even better two years later. In 1977, Watson edged out Jack Nicklaus in two majors, by two strokes in the Masters and by a single shot in the British Open at Turnberry, site of perhaps the greatest victory of his 38-year professional career and, after last week, also the site of likely his most heartbreaking near-miss.

In 1977, Watson shot 65-65 the final two rounds at Turnberry to turn back Nicklaus, his playing partner over the final two days, who shot 65-66. Last week, when he made a oh-he's-human-after-all bogey on the 72nd hole at Turnberry, dropping him into a four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink that resulted in an anti-climactic rout in Cink's favor, Watson's timing could not have been worse.

Back in the mid-1970s, though, Watson's timing could not have been better. Nicklaus, the Golden Bear who burst on the scene in the early 1960s, was threatening to dominate the game. From 1970-1980, Nicklaus won 10 majors, finished second eight times and was in the top 10 in 38 of 44 majors, a ridiculous batting average not even matched by Tiger Woods in any 44 consecutive majors since he turned pro in 1997 (the closest Woods gets is 30 of 44 top 10s from 1998-2009).

Watson, a gap-toothed kid from Kansas City, Mo., who, like Woods, attended Stanford University, won four majors between 1975 and 1980, and four more between 1981 and 1983. He won five British Opens on a record five different golf courses (Carnoustie, 1975; Turnberry, 1977; Muirfield, 1980; Royal Troon, 1982; Royal Birkdale, 1983).

Much is made of the fact that Woods, with 14 major victories, is within sight of Nicklaus's record 18 major wins. Wouldn't the Golden Bear's numbers look a little more intimidating if he hadn't been a runner-up to Watson in four majors?

What Watson did in the 1970s is bring competition back into the pro game. The other challengers were formidable but not Nicklaus's equal over the long haul. Arnold Palmer, a seven-time major winner from 1958-1964, was fading as Nicklaus was reaching his peak. South African Gary Player won seven of his nine majors during Nicklaus's pro career but only three after 1972. Lee Trevino, who like Watson made Nicklaus a runner-up four times in major championships, won six majors from 1968 to 1984 but only one after 1974.

The intimidation factor with Woods today is legendary. He won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by 12 shots at the age of 21. He's won the PGA Championship by five shots, the British Open by eight and the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links by a ridiculous 15 strokes.

But the facts say Nicklaus was at least as intimidating in his day. And he won eight of his 18 majors after trailing going into the final round, something Tiger has yet to do once.

Two of Watson's major wins show he wasn't fazed by Nicklaus's status as the man to beat. The first was "The Duel in the Sun" at Turnberry in 1977. The second came in 1982 at Pebble Beach, where Nicklaus had won the 1961 U.S. Amateur, the 1972 U.S. Open and three Bing Crosby National Pro-Am titles.

In the 1982 U.S. Open, Nicklaus, two years removed from his last major victory but not yet done winning them, was playing just ahead of Watson and had finished at 4 under. Watson faced a delicate chip from the rough at the par-3 17th, needing two pars to match Nicklaus. Watson's caddy, the late Bruce Edwards, told his pro to "get it close." Watson had other ideas, and told Edwards he intended to hole the shot. Improbably, he did just that for a birdie, then birdied 18 to win by two shots.

Given a similar scenario today, with Tiger Woods in the clubhouse, can you think of any pro on the tour who could do the same?

I would say it's doubtful. And that's why pro golf needs someone like a Tom Watson, someone who can keep competition, and suspense, in the game.

Don't get me wrong. I think Tiger Woods has been and will continue to be great for golf. Some golf fans, many of whom have no clue about the nature of the sport, wonder what's wrong with Tiger if he doesn't win every event he plays. I think golf would be worse off if he did win every event he played.

3 keys to winning a major championship

2009-07-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

What does it take to win a major championship? It can vary from major to major, but three things stand out in assessing the British Open, the oldest of the game's four elite events.

Creativity

You can't talk about wizardry with a golf club without mentioning Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, a three-time British Open and two-time Masters champion.

Ballesteros turned pro as a 17-year-old in 1974 and in 1976 was runner-up in the British Open at 19. He won his first British Open at 22 in 1979, becoming the youngest golfer in the 20th Century to capture that coveted crown. His victory in the 1980 Masters made him the first European to win at Augusta National Country Club, and the youngest winner of a Green Jacket until Tiger surpassed him in 1997.

Ballesteros also won the Masters in 1983 and the British Open in 1984 and 1988. In four of his five major championship wins, he trailed heading into the final round.

It was his first British Open triumph, in 1979 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, that cemented Seve's reputation as a Houdini on the golf course. In his second round, he didn't have a tee shot in the fairway until the 14th hole and yet shot 65. In his final round, he found the fairway once and played the final seven holes 1 under par, including a birdie at the 16th after hitting his drive into an area used for parking cars.

"I don't aim for the rough; it just goes there," he said following the 1979 British Open. He also knew he could get away with wayward tee shots on a links-style course. In the United States, where "target golf" puts a greater premium on accuracy, Seve seldom fared as well, especially in the U.S. Open. He did not often play and was rarely in the hunt in the states (only six of his 91 wins worldwide came on Amerian soil), although he did finish third in the 1987 U.S. Open at San Francisco's Olympic Club, and probably would have won if his opponents had to play from some of the spots Ballesteros put himself off the tee.

A combination of a bad back and erratic driving eventually shortened Seve's career. But none could deny that in his heyday, he was magic personified.

Calm/patience

Tom Watson, a winner of five British Opens, two Masters and one U.S. Open, gets high marks here. It's probably why he's still competitive at 59 and came within a whisker of winning this year's British Open. In his prime, he held his own against the biggest names in the game, especially Jack Nicklaus. It was no doubt his calm that contributed to Watson's famous chip-in from the rough at 17 at Pebble Beach in the final round of the 1982 U.S. Open that helped him beat Nicklaus for what would be his only U.S. Open victory.

But the person that comes to mind for me in Zen-like mentality is England's Nick Faldo. He has has achieved an inner calm that is evident on his golf analysis for CBS.

This wasn't always the case. Faldo was once nicknamed "Foldo" for having blown chances to win the 1983 British Open and 1984 Masters. But he remade his game and came back stronger than ever for about a 10-year span, winning the British Open in 1987, 1990 and 1992 and the Masters in 1989, 1990 and 1996.

There are any number of examples of Faldo's serenity. His overcoming deficits in four of his six major titles, including playoff wins over Scott Hoch and Raymond Floyd, the latter a legendary steely eyed competitor, in consecutive years in the Masters.

Faldo's most steady turn in a major, though, came in winning his first major, the 1987 British Open at Muirfield in Scotland. In the final round, Faldo, a day after his 30th birthday, parred all 18 holes to win. Paul Azinger, meanwhile, bogeyed the final two holes to lose the tournament. It's funny now to see the two of them together in the broadcast booth on occasion.

Guts/determination

Where to begin here. There's any number of professionals who qualify for this category.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington, who at one time trained to become an accountant, played 36 consecutive majors without much distinction until winning the 2007 British Open and the British Open and PGA Championship in 2008. He overcame deficits to start the final round in all three wins, including a six-shot margin at the 2007 British Open.

Mark O'Meara, after a stellar amateur career that included winning the 1979 U.S. Amateur, won about a dozen tour events, including the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am five times. But he had competed in 58 majors - missing the cut in 19 - before finally breaking through at the 1998 Masters at age 41. Four months later, he won the British Open.

But my vote here goes to Tom Lehman. Like Harrington and O'Meara, it took Lehman a while to break through in a major. He won the British Open in 1996 at age 37, following near misses in the 1993 and 1994 Masters and the U.S. Open in 1995 and 1996.

Lehman, unlike Harrington and O'Meara, had a much more difficult road getting to compete regularly on the PGA Tour. He struggled on the tour from 1983-85, lost his card, then competed the next six years on the Asia and South Africa tours and the second-tier Ben Hogan tour in the U.S. before regaining his PGA Tour privileges.

He was the PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996, the year before Tiger Woods arrived full-time and began rewriting the record books. Lehman was a three-time Ryder Cup player and captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2006.

Don't just watch . . . get out and play

2009-07-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Third green at the Links at Bodega Harbour

There's nothing like the start of a major championship to get you motivated to hit the links yourself. And that's just what I did Thursday after watching Tom Watson, two months shy of his 60th birthday, turn back time by posting a 5-under-par 65 for the early lead in the British Open at Turnberry.

Watson was later eclipsed by Miguel Angel Jimenez for the first-round lead. Nonetheless, it was good to see one of golf's elder statesmen on his game, so I tried to do my best Tom Watson impression at one of my all-time favorite courses, the Links at Bodega Harbour on the beautiful Sonoma County coast.

I first played Bodega Harbour back when it was just a nine-hole track. It opened in 1978, added a second nine in 1987 and has been a favorite of mine ever since. I've never played my best golf there (too many beautiful distractions, maybe?), but I've always enjoyed the experience.

Today was no different. Great fun, not-so-great golf. Actually, it wasn't all bad. I played holes 2-10 in even par. It's just that the other nine holes included four double-bogeys en route to a 13-over 83.

A bit about the course. The first four holes go uphill and away from the ocean, and to be honest the view isn't spectacular - not yet, anyway. But it's four solid holes and they all make you work. The first is an uphill, dogleg-right par-4 that shouldn't be that difficult but for some reason always seems to perplex me. The second is a short, well-bunkered par-4 that can be easily handled if you leave the driver in the bag. The third is an uphill par-3 with a big green, sloping downhill quickly from the back.

The par-4 fourth, though, can be treacherous, requiring a well-placed drive to a split-level fairway, followed by a blind shot uphill to an undulating green. Toughest hole on the course.

Your reward for the first four is the par-5 5th, a Z-shaped, downhill hole that 30 years have taught me is best played with two 5-irons and a wedge. A drive too far and straight ends up in a cow pasture left of the fairway, too far right is lost or out of bounds. From the upper fairway, the view of the Pacific Ocean - on a clear day - is magnificent.

Back-to-back par-3s at Nos. 6-7 are not too difficult if you hit the green, but you could end up with longish putts. The par-5 eighth is relatively short but not as easy as it looks because the green is sloped dramatically downward from back to front, and good luck if you end up in one of the bunkers behind the green. The ninth is a benign par-4 that, much like the second hole, is best played without a driver.

There is more room to spray the ball around on the back nine, except for the final three holes. The 10th is like the first, an uphill, dogleg-right par-4, only much shorter, followed by the longer, straightaway, par-4 11th and uphill, par-3 12th. (A bit of advice on 12, whatever club you've got in your hand, take one club more. This hole always plays longer than it looks.)

Yet another dogleg-right par-4 at No. 13, but forget about trying to cut the corner. The hole's short enough that it doesn't matter which side of the fairway you're on. You better get the big lumber out for the par-4 No. 14, then have fun at 15, a fairly wide-open par-5.

The last three holes are tricky and come as close to the beach as you can get without putting your feet in the Pacific Ocean. The 16th, a ridiculously short par-4, requires a decent carry over a marsh, and the closer you aim toward the green, the more of the marsh you must clear. Don't get greedy. Same goes for the par-3 17th; just hit enough club to reach the green. At the par-4 18th, it's all about the drive, because if you're not in the fairway, the approach shot, straight downhill and toward the ocean, can be extra scary.

All in all, a marvelous piece of real estate. It's not Pebble Beach, but it doesn't set you back $300-$400, either.

If you'd like to check out more about the Links at Bodega Harbour, check out their Web site at www.bodegaharbourgolf.com.

Turning back time at Turnberry

2009-07-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Thirty-two years ago, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus staged one of the greatest duels in golf history in the British Open at Turnberry in Scotland. The third of the year's major golf championships, referred to simply as The Open Championship outside the U.S., returns to Turnberry this week, so it's a good time to reflect on one of the most stunning events in the game.

Why is the 1977 British Open so special? For starters, the field was spectacular, as star-studded as any before or since. In addition to Nicklaus and Watson, the master and the apprentice, also among the top 10 at the end were Hubert Green, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Arnold Palmer, Raymond Floyd and Johnny Miller, all of whom had won or would go on to win multiple major championships. Palmer, the 1961-62 British Open champ in a sterling career that included a U.S. Open crown and four Masters titles, wound up seventh, his final top-10 in a major.

Also in the field were five-time British Open champ Peter Thomson, four-time winner Bobby Locke and three-time titlist Sir Henry Cotton, then 70 years old, plus former major winners Roberto de Vicenzo, Tony Jacklin, Bob Charles, Tom Weiskopf, Gary Player and Jerry Pate. Greg Norman, who would go on to win two British Opens and, sadly, become even more famous for several majors he narrowly lost (8 runner-up finishes), was 22 and playing in his first major championship. Making their second appearance in a major were 19-year-olds Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo. Lyle would later win the British Open and the Masters once each; Faldo, now a respected golf commentator, would go on to win three British and three Masters crowns.

Australian David Graham was entered, too. He hadn't done much up to then but would soon go on to post comeback victories in the U.S. Open and PGA.

The most talked-about, budding young star in 1977 was Spain's Seve Ballesteros. Though just 20, he had already been a runner-up in the British Open as a teenager the year before. He would go on to win three British Open trophies and a pair of Masters green jackets.

In all, the field at Turnberry that year included 23 players who wound up winning a combined 98 major championships.

At the top of the pack, though, were Watson and Nicklaus, two pros who grew up in the Midwest and were about to give the savvy British Open fans reasons to cheer. Tied at the halfway point, Watson, 27, and Nicklaus, 37, were paired together for the third round, when each player shot 65, and again were paired together in the final round.

While the rest of the field was quickly falling out of contention, Watson, who had won the 1975 British Open for his first major and nudged Nicklaus by two strokes earlier in 1977 at the Masters, and Nicklaus, seeking his 15th major victory, were tearing up the course. They matched each other nearly stroke for stroke, the difference coming when Watson two-putted for birdie at the par-five 17th hole and Nicklaus missed a short putt for birdie. At 18, Watson split the fairway, while Nicklaus drove in the rough.

After Watson's approach settled within three feet of the flagstick and seemed to settle matters once and for all, Nicklaus took a mighty swing from the gorse and was fortunate just to reach the edge of the green, leaving him 40 feet from the cup. But Nicklaus holed the putt for birdie, forcing Watson to make his short putt for birdie, which he did to post the second of his five British Open championships.

Nicklaus shot 65-66 on the weekend, only to fall one shot shy of Watson, who posted 65-65. At 268 and 269 for 72 holes, they were 10 shots clear of the field.

Hubert Green, whose closing 67 left him alone in third at 279, jokingly said afterward: "I won the tournament. I don't know what course Tom and Jack were playing."

For more on the 1977 British Open, read Mike Corcoran's "Duel in the Sun: Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in the Battle of Turnberry," or check out the youtube links to the left of this column.

Golf isn't for everyone ... but it's worth the effort

2009-07-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Some people are fortunate enough to play golf well. That's great, but I think it's better to play golf right.

By that I mean, getting the most you can out of the game. Some people are naturally gifted and can play golf well ... shoot a low score. Others work hard at it and also achieve a certain level of skill. But if you play it "right," golf will give you much greater rewards than a low score.

Golf is not for everyone, I've come to understand. It forces us to slow down, has considerable down time between swings and can sometimes seem cruel, like the nicely struck recovery shot that catches the smallest branch of a tree.

"A good walk spoiled," is how Mark Twain referred to golf.

Twain wrote some great stories, and in a sort of Zelig-like link, he and I both had bylined stories from what was once the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi. But I'll bet he didn't have the patience for golf. If he had, he might have thought differently.

Golf is a game that values calm over chaos, serenity over sound and peace if not always prosperity. Done right, it can teach patience. You cannot swing a stick at a little round ball that doesn't move, that almost never does the same thing twice when struck, and invariably doesn't do what you want it to do, without either pulling out your hair or at least wanting to.

If you can find the humor in it, the understanding that it's the journey and not the destination that matters, you are that much closer to the Zen of golf. And, unlike many other athletic endeavors, it's a game you can enjoy into your old age.

In my youth, I was much less patient with bad shots, and my game in general. As I've gotten older, and played less often, I have come to appreciate the game more, to focus on the things I'm doing right and worry less about what I'm doing wrong.

I'm also not afraid to tinker more with my game. If something isn't working, try a different approach. What's the worst that could happen? A higher score? A lost ball? And that's bad because ... ?

It's not. There's no mantra. I don't chant between shots.

Take a breath. So you've hit that dreaded duck-hook into the trees, and now you've got a tricky shot back into civilization. What's the problem?

No one is expecting you to pull off that miracle recovery, but if you do ... what a sensation. Anyone can play this game from the middle of the fairway. It's the clever fellow who can find his way home without a map.

Why Tigers Woods is not (yet) the greatest golfer of all time

2009-07-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

This is not hedging my bets. Tiger Woods will one day be the greatest golfer of all time. Using strictly empirical evidence, that will come when he wins his 19th major championship to move past Jack Nicklaus, who has 18.

Until that day, though, Nicklaus must still be considered the greatest golfer of all time.

There is no question that Woods has had the most profound effect on golf since Arnold Palmer made it a game for the masses in the early 1960s with his U.S. Open victory at Cherry Hills, his resurrection of a then-moribund British Open by winning in 1961 and his four Masters titles in even-numbered years between 1958 and 1964.

I would go further to suggest that Woods has had a greater impact on the game of golf than any single athlete has ever had in elevating his or her sport. Babe Ruth? Jackie Robinson? Baseball remains the "National Pastime," and nothing or any one player will change that. Michael Jordan? The NBA has had phenomenal athletes before and since Jordan and will continue to long after Lebron James retires. The NFL? Even less likely to produce that one athlete who stands above the crowd in a way that makes non-fans come onboard. Roger Federer? Tennis has its heroes of many eras (Laver, Borg, Sampras, et al), and though Roger's numbers are impressive, he also has no real peer (except Rafael Nadal, on clay) that can help elevate him to a singular pedestal. Wayne Gretzky? Perhaps in Canada. In America, the NHL has few casual fans outside the die-hards.

Mark Spitz? Michael Phelps? Sorry, swimming, like all other sports propped up by the Olympics (track, gymnastics, etc.), is really thought about only every four years.

In the case of Tiger Woods, no single player has so drastically altered the landscape like he has with golf. There are people who don't play - or even understand - golf who consider themselves fans since Tiger turned pro in 1996 and won the Masters by a whopping 12 shots in 1997. The whole "you the man" or "in the hole" shouts may have started with John Daly's improbable win in the 1991 PGA Championship, but the ballpark mentally that has taken over tour events is almost directly related to Tiger, for better or worse. He has the talent to do remarkable things with a golf ball, and the charisma to make it look exciting.

TV ratings soar when Tiger plays, dwindle when he doesn't. In short, no one cares when he's not there. And when he's not, it's the proverbial tree-falls-in-an-empty-forest. Did it really happen? Does anyone care? Padraig Harrington won the British Open and PGA in 2008 when Tiger was recuperating from reconstructive knee surgery, but does anyone really think he would have won both those majors - or either of them - if a fully healthy Tiger had been in the field?

But here is where it gets tricky for those who think Tiger already is the greatest golfer ever. For one, he is still four major victories behind Nicklaus. At 33, he seems fully capable of reaching that total. But he's not there yet. (Nicklaus, by the way, won seven majors after he turned 33.)

The other, more telling fact about Tiger is that he has never won a major championship when he did not at least share the lead going into the final day. Nicklaus, by contrast, won eight of his 18 majors by making up deficits to start the final round, including his first one, in 1962. That was when a 22-year-old, tubby, chain-smoking, toe-headed guy from Ohio beat the charismatic Arnold Palmer (also a smoker ... hey, it was more common back then) in a playoff at Oakmont Country Club, in Palmer's backyard, no less.

A lot is made of the intimidation factor with Tiger, whose highlight reels would keep ESPN in business for months. He won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by a dozen shots. He claimed the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2000 by a ridiculous 15 strokes. He won the British Open at St. Andrews, also in 2000, by eight shots.

As a frontrunner, he is phenomenal. But until he shows he can erase a deficit to start the final round of a major, that intimidation factor only goes so far. Let's see Tiger really make up some ground. Maybe he can this week in the British Open at Turnberry.

Nicklaus, meanwhile, won each of the four majors (Masters, U.S., British, PGA) at least once after trailing going into the final round. The largest deficit, 4 strokes, came in his final major win, the 1986 Masters, when a 46-year-old Nicklaus shot 30 on back the nine at Augusta to grab his sixth green jacket.

Will Tiger be playing at Augusta when he's 46? Will he still be competitive at 46?