Welcome to a very special edition of The Clubhouse! Luke Elvy and I talk Masters nonstop for nearly 35 minutes! We chat about Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, along with our favorites and dark horses for the week.
Thanks as always for asking questions. Sorry I didn’t see the ones on my YouTube page until just now — I’ll be sure to look out for them next time (tomorrow).
Michelle Wie high-5s Lydia Ko for being absolutely awesome
Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve had some personal issues to sort out the last few days, but I’m back, and I’ve missed you all!
Not to get all sappy and cheesy, but I’m going to go there. Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the few friends who have gone above and beyond to help a damsel in distress. A friend who asks his friend to take in a total stranger, no questions, is so underrated. I’ve expressed my undying gratitude to these wonderful people, but again, your kindness and friendship and support mean more to me than words can express (and have outweighed the crappiness or at least helped loads).
Alright, now let’s get on to what we’ve missed in golf news this week. Oh, by the way, I am in the L.A. area, and I will be at Riviera starting tomorrow (hopefully — I probably shouldn’t promise that given the way things have gone this week). It was just kind of difficult to pull myself away from refuge here. (continue reading…)
Keegan Bradley: say hello to his longer-than-standard friend. *ahem*
Golfweek’s Alex Miceli, currently in China for the WGC-HSBC Champions, has filed an interesting report on the growing resistance among exponents of anchored putting techniques to the idea of an equipment ban.
Some tour players, sensing their livelihoods at risk, are apparently willing to consider legal action in the event of a rules change. (continue reading…)
Get excited, boys!
Let’s see, the pairings for the first and second round of next week’s PGA Championship at The Ocean Course At Kiawah Island — which some describe as “Whistling Straits but flat” — have been released and the “marquee” threesome includes defending PGA Champion Keegan Bradley, four-time PGA Champion Tiger Woods and 2010 PGA Champion Martin Kaymer. <<yawn>>
Then there’s the traditional PGA Championship grouping of the winners from the season’s first three major championships: Masters champ Bubba Watson, U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson and Open champion golf of the year Ernie Els. Alright, they should be pretty fun to follow. (continue reading…)
Royal Lytham brings Tiger to his knees
Tiger Woods had a well-thought-out game plan going into the Open Championship. Come hell (Royal Lytham’s 206 bunkers) or high water (standard Open conditions), he was going to stick to it. In the end, arguably, it wasn’t his strategy that caused him to come up short of breaking his major-less streak, it was his execution (though I think he could have been less obstinate given the changing conditions). (continue reading…)
Ernie Els’ Open Championship victory appears to have reinvigorated the debate surrounding the use of so-called “belly putters”.
Speaking in the wake of the South African’s victory at Royal Lytham, R&A chief executive Peter Dawson suggested the sport’s governing bodies were poised to take definitive action in the interest of resolving the long-running controversy. (continue reading…)
Ernie: class act
I have to get back to the TV compound, but I just wanted to throw up a quick post to congratulate Mr. Theodore Ernest Els and provide a thread for your comments on Adam Scott bogeying the last four holes to lose and Ernie coming from six shots back to capture his second Claret Jug — that clutch putt for birdie on the 72nd hole was pretty bleeping sweet. Who else held their breath as he set up to what turned out to be the difference between an outright victory and playoff? (continue reading…)
Tiger fist-pump...for the win?
The last twosome — Graeme McDowell and Adam Scott — has just teed off, but the atmosphere has been buzzing with anticipation here at Royal Lytham &St Annes since early this morning. It’s already been a hectic day with the usual excited nervous energy that comes along with the final round at a major championship. What’s more, look at the names on the leaderboard. We’ve got Adam Scott (and Stevie Williams), Graeme McDowell, Brandt Snedeker, Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson and Ernie Els in the final three groups.
As we’ve seen with all the dramatic finishes this season, NO LEAD IS SAFE.
It isn't always the prettiest or the most conventional, but Furyk gets the job done
The strangeness in the air on Saturday carried over into the wee hours of Sunday morning when the fire alarm woke up a bunch of cranky scribes at the media hotel around 1am. Myself included. Naturally, it turned out to be a false alarm. Somehow, the disconcerting announcement didn’t sound in my room (thank God for Twitter,huh?), but I did get the “false alarm” one.
Good news is I could understand all three languages used: Spanish, Mandarin and English (played in that order). You know, just in case I missed the first or second message the fourth time it was repeated. Better news: I didn’t listen to the evacuation order and leave my room for the Media Pajama Party in front of the hotel. Now that would have been a spooky nightmare!
The game plan was to rest up and then wake up early to write this post — which I’ve been thinking through since Friday evening — but alas, here I am, up and at ‘em. Let’s hope some of this makes sense…it goes back to a quote Jim Furyk gave me after the final round of the Masters in April. (continue reading…)
I walked away from my first trip to New Orleans and covering the Zurich Classic, thinking, uh, why wasn’t I here last year? It’s got it all — awesome city, great tournament with field, friendly people, scrumptious food, eclectic sweet-sounding tunes (especially at Jazz Fest — for the record, seeing Tom Petty live was a massive highlight, along with walking home from the Fair Grounds through Treme, aka a neighborhood some wouldn’t recommend trekking through, back to the French Quarter), and vibrant culture and atmosphere. (continue reading…)
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