Hi, my name is Shoshana. You may know me on Twitter as @Shosheak or from the comments section. I’m a stats geek and researcher. In the spirit of the new season I’m (hopefully) debuting a series that will look back at the previous week’s tournament from a numbers perspective. I’d like to make this a weekly column (if all goes well and Stephanie gives the thumbs-up), so please share any comments, questions, and bitter invectives (well, maybe not so much the last!).

Side-by-side from a stats standpoint

Dustin Johnson has a new nickname: The 54-hole Specialist. With his victory on Tuesday at the 2013 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, he’s now won the last three times a Tour event has been shortened to three rounds due to weather (the 2010 Barclays and the 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am).

He’s also the under-30 master, with seven career PGA Tour victories compared to six for Rory McIlroy, of course, Dustin (28-years-old) also has a few years on Rory (24). (continue reading…)

Scott Stallings weathering the extreme conditions

The 2013 PGA Tour season didn’t exactly start with a bang. Well, depending on how you see it, and actually, it technically hasn’t officially began. Usually–at least in the past two years I’ve covered the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua’s Plantation Course–it’s 80 degrees and sunny with beautiful vistas of the Pacific Ocean with the wind blowing around 10-15mph and gusts of maybe 20mph.

Not this year, unfortunately. At least not since January 1st when golf in Maui felt more like Scotland. (It was gorgeous last week. I played last Friday and there was virtually NO wind, which was strange, and the sun was almost too hot.)

24 of the 30-player field had teed off on Friday morning before play was suspended. Due to gusts up to 42 mph, sideways rain and balls blowing off greens, PGA Tour officials decided to not only cancel play but completely wipe out the scores and start anew on Saturday morning. That’s right — bizarre, huh? (continue reading…)

Na: What's with the pornstache, Johnson??

Through the first 26 holes at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, Kevin Na was plodding along — not striking the ball that well or that bad, but making 10-15 footers for par (on the comeback because it’s easy to misjudge the very, very grainy and difficult greens). Then he rolled in a 15-footer on No. 9 that turned around the momentum and went on to fire 29 on the back nine (nine-under in last 10 holes), highlighted with an incredible eagle-eagle finish. (continue reading…)

Joe Torre with autographed ball for Merf

After our round on Thursday, Joe Torre took a seat in Gary Planos office, getting ready to sign a few dozen balls. With Joe in the left seat and me in the right seat, I said, “Joe, one of my writers, Merf, is a huge Dodgers fan and it’d mean the world to him if you wouldn’t mind signing a ball for him.”

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Me setting up to hit my approach over the ravine on the challenging par-4 No. 17 at the Plantation Course

When I told Conor from Dublin, the newest addition to the WUP family, about my absurd Maui vacation, he spitefully said that he hoped I would fall into the ravine on No. 17. Well, the only thing that came even close to dropping in there were my huge drives. The par-4 is 510 yards from the tips and 480-ish from the men’s tees.

With the rain blowing sideways on Sunday, I managed to knock a pretty good drive in the middle of the fairway and I think I had about 180-190 yards to the flag (it’s also downhill and downwind). I obviously immediately sent this picture to Conor, who replied, “That’s some violent rain — you can actually see the sideways-ness! Proper weather.” Coming from an Irishman, I believe that’s a compliment.

Oh, in case you care, I hit a nice choke 3-hybrid to the edge of the green, but of course, I three-putted — I choked over a 6-footer for par (and lost $10). I blame the yucky Bermuda grass. Hopefully, by the end of my vacation, I’ll get a handle of it. Or at least make a putt longer than 6-feet.

However, on Monday, the conditions were much better (still very windy, per usual, but clear, sunny skies!). I even made a video blog. (This one’s for you, Conor!) Thanks to my new friend Mike from Brooklyn for the camera work (and letting me borrow his TaylorMade Burner driver, which I hit really, really well). Check it out after the jump!

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Me standing on the 18th tee at the Plantation Course

It’s now been well-established that I have a serious addiction to my silly blog. Isn’t the whole point of vacation not to work? (I’ve been getting a lot of flak from friends and readers — at least no one can ever criticize me for not working hard.) But honestly, I’m having a great time in Maui and I just wanted to share some of my greatest “vacation” ever with my loyal readers.

First of all, a big thank you to the best host in the world, Kapalua’s Gary Planos (otherwise known as “the Mayor”) — it’s well known in the industry that he’s also the best tournament director for the PGA Tour (Mercedes Benz Championship, most recently known as the SBS Championship). Just ask any member of the media or player — this past January, champion Geoff Ogilvy touted him as such and now I’m experiencing his unrivaled hospitality firsthand. And yes, I’m very lucky. Gary told me that this is going to be the finest vacation I have until my honeymoon. It sure it looking that way (though I wish I could detach myself from my darn laptop).

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