Wednesday evening sky

After the thunderstorms finally passed on Wednesday afternoon at Kiawah Island, players scrambled to practice — it’s been difficult because of the multiple weather delays Monday-Wednesday.

I walked the back nine with K.J. Choi, Charlie Wi and Aaron Baddeley (appreciate it, guys!)the best way to get to know a course. I took pictures of all the holes from the tees. I’ve done my best to upload as many as I can in the gallery below, but I’ll put the rest on Flickr and/or Facebook.

I also took a few videos, too. Here’s one of Aaron Baddeley showing Charlie Wi how to hit a wedge out of the deep rough…watch and learn, folks.

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On Monday afternoon at Olympic, I walked Nos. 1-8 with Charlie Wi and Alistair Presnell during their first practice round. Which, of course, was very interesting, especially to hear Charlie and his caddie Mark Urbanek talk strategy and game plan for each hole. Wi’s instructor’s Andy Plummer, one-half of the Stack and Tilt swing (along with Mike Bennett), also chimed in with his insights. So did Presnell’s caddie Tim.

I took a bunch of videos and pictures — I figured you guys would enjoy the real “behind the scenes” look of how a Tour pro prepares for a major, especially at such a tough track.

Above, Mark talks Charlie through his approach shot on the difficult par-4 No. 4. (continue reading…)

18th green at Scioto CC with the clubhouse in the back drop

It really was the “longest day in golf” — it was so long that the U.S. Open sectional qualifying spilled over into Tuesday in Memphis. Play was postponed to the following day due to storms. Dennis Miller and Casey Martin’s stories held up as the best Cinderella stories.

Meanwhile, where did I leave off in Columbus? (continue reading…)

Tiger eyes win at Bay Hill

First of all, what the heck is the “Dartboard”? It’s what was formerly known as the “Open Thread” — you know, where we toss out some talking points and you share your thoughts and/or observations on the day. So, Tiger is looking really, really good early in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He’s in excellent position to win for the seventh time here. (continue reading…)

Thanks, everyone...except for the jerk that made the spike marks interfering with my putt on 18...

Last time Tiger Woods had at least a share of the 36-hole lead at a PGA Tour event was at the 2009 Tour Championship. Oh, how time flies — and yes, it’s really been that long. However, he did lead at the halfway mark four months ago at the Australian Open, and then played his way out of contention in the third round but bounced back on Sunday to finish third. Not to be Debbie Downer, but let’s not get too excited yet (I’ve learned the hard way when I seriously thought he was going to win by five at Pebble, instead he shot 75 and got his butt whooped by Phil Mickelson). (continue reading…)

So that's what it's like to make a putt!

On a day where he admittedly didn’t do anything great, Tiger Woods managed to shoot three-under 69 at Bay Hill, where he’s won six times, and put himself in good position on the leaderboard in the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He made four birdies and one bogey, and left a few shots out there with two three-putts (you know, pretty standard these days).

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Watch out! -- Tiger on the prowl...

Tiger Woods finally went on a birdie run, dropping five birdies in six holes on his first nine, the back, at Pebble Beach on Saturday morning. After we’d seen Tiger bomb drive and driver in the fairway and hit green after green on his approach shots for two rounds, he actually didn’t have the best ballstriking day, despite posting his best round of the week. As it always is, the difference came with his putting — he needed 27 in the third round at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on his way to firing a five-under 67 and jump to solo third, trailing Charlie Wi by four shots.

For a while, it looked like Woods would be paired with Padraig Harrington, but as it turned out, the three-time major champ struggled in his last five holes, including two bogeys and a double-bogey to drop out of contention (though he and his sandbagger amateur partner J.P McManus are still leading the pro-am portion of the event.

A likeable underdog is searching for his first win on the PGA Tour, trying to keep his nerve and hold off Woods, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, two-time champ a Pebble, among others. Oh, and Phil and Tiger are playing together in the penultimate group at 12:29 ET. It really doesn’t get much better than that — which I wrote in my Saturday column on Golf.com. (continue reading…)

Ugh: These greens are so bumpy!

Actually, it sounds like Tiger Woods may have gotten a better grip on his outbursts as he matured into an adult. AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am 36-hole leader Charlie Wi, who is 12-under after firing 61-69, shared an amusing memory from a round he played with Tiger in junior golf — they played quite a bit together when they were younger because they’re both from California. (continue reading…)

Danny Lee didn't need a belly putter to shoot 63 on Thursday.

As the competitors wind their way around a second of Monterey’s three venues, the leaderboard should begin to reflect the state of play a little more accurately. In the driving seat at the moment, though, are 21-year-old Danny Lee (once the youngest ever winner on the European Tour), Charlie Wi and big-hitting, slow-talking Dustin Johnson.

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AT LAST! JB Holmes sends a drive on its way

Mike Walker of Golf.com has published the results of a tedious experiment he and four others conducted during the second round of this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. Armed with stopwatches, clipboards (for Science!) and a healthy stockpile of patience, the team took nearly twelve hours to monitor every one of 45 different players as they played the same nine-hole stretch around Bay Hill.

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