Golf Confessions

This time of the year when everyone is trying to get on the course and enjoy the nice Spring weather, slow play can be an issue.  The sheer number of players can cause a lot of the problems, but there are other things that can contribute to this slow play.

The golf course architect can cause some of the problems that cause five hour rounds and longer.  When designing a course the designer should take into consideration getting to the green from the cart paths.  Some holes will have bunkering surrounding most of the green and little room to approach the green.  So the golfer will have to walk around a large bunker to get to the green. 

Courses that have very large bunkers and will have only one rack for the entire bunker. 

One slow player or one slow group can slow down the entire course, just like what happens on the freeway.  One stalled car can mess things up for everyone.  Players need to understand the pace of play and the course marshalls need to keep the groups caught up. 

If the pro shop had the rules of play posted and make it quite clear what would happen when this was not followed then everyone would benefit.  There are courses that will escort slow players off the course for slow.  The faster players ruin their day by trying to hurry and the slow players keep playing at their own pace.

Play ready golf and give others the opportunity to enjoy their day at the course.

There are many excellent places around the world to take a golfing vacation.  The two places that come to mind first are Ireland and Scotland.  After all Scotland is known as the home of golf and Ireland is not far behind.  If you decide to go to one of these two destinations you may want to tie in the playing of the British Open and or the Senion British Open.  This year the British Open will be played at Royal Birkdale, Southport, Lancashire, England the week of July 17th-20th, followed by the Senior British Open, played at Royal Troon south of Glasgow.  You may want to visit sites such as visitscotland.com for more information.

With the cost of travel up this year a trip close to home may be in order.  In the USA a trip to the west coast offers several great golfing destinations.  A trip to the west coast is not complete without a visit to Pebble Beach and Spy Glass just south of San Francsico.  There are also several other fine golfing destinations in California.  The east coast has become quite popular for golfers.  The Hilton Head area and Myrtle Beach both in South Carolina have many fine resorts.  North Carolina, east coast of Georgia around Savannah  and Sea Island you will find some really nice accomodations.  Then you travel south into Florida where there are many golfing facilities and you may also want to tie this trip into a visit to Disney in Orlando which also has several golf courses.

European destinations are getting more popular for golfing ventures.  The coast of Spain is very popular.

Get with your golfing buddies and plan a golfing vacation.  Take the wives along, if they do not golf they can tour while the guys play and find some great places to have a cool dinner after the golf.

Woods will not defend this week in Charlotte at The Wachovia, played at Quail Hollow.  Tiger is still rehabing the surgery he had on his left knee following The Masters. 

Several analyst have speculated that Woods will not play competively before the Open at Torrey Pines.  This will be a similar situation that Tiger faced after the death of his father.  He took some time off and came back to play in the Open.

Darren Clarke sinks a 40 birdie putt on the final hole to win the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai, China.  Clarke won by one stroke over Robert-Jan Derksen.

Clarke from Northern Ireland has fought back from the tragic loss of his wife last year.  Darren now resides in England and balances his playing with the raising of his children.

This was the second week in a row that the tour has been in China.  China is merging as the next big market in golf.

Andy North will owe Tom Watson dearly for this week.  The Champions Tour made the Liberty Mutual Legends tournament after some thirty years an official event.  This means that the money is official toward the Charles Schuab Cup and that the winners are exempt for one year.  Andy North had only a partial exemption and now due to the team victory will have full exemption for the next year.  The first day score of 59 went a long way toward the victory.  Watson made ten out of the thirteen birdies that first day.

I personaly do not think that a team event should gain a player an exemption.  The tour has made it more and more difficult for a player to gain access to The Champions Tour.  The spots for the Monday qualifying has been cut back over recent years.  To play in a team event and gain exemption does not seem fair to the thousands that pay a lot of money to follow the qualifying around from week to week.  I am not sure, but has North even tried qualifying school to try and gain exemption?

Your Thoughts.

Adam Scott beats Ryan Moore on the third extra hole in a sudden death playoff.  Scott who started the day with a three shot lead had an up and down final round.

Adam will have to beleive in destiny when he relives this victory.  Adam went home to Australia after The Masters for some rest.  After getting home and playing some golf with his buddies he realized how well he was playing and decided at the last minute to enter the EDS tournament in Dallas.  He makes the long trip back to America and copes with the fifteen hour time change.

Scott wins the Byron Nelson on a very tough golf course that had been changed from last year.  D. A. Weibring and a group of tour players that were consulted on the changes made a demanding test for this year’s tournament.  The project which involved the changing of all the tees and greens cost ten million dollars.  The TPC Resort at Los Colinos was only reopened last Saturday.

Someone else that is very happy with Adam’s decision to play in the tournament is his caddy, Tony Navarro, who will receive a new Cadillac as a reslut of the win.  EDS had donated the car to the caddy of the winning player.

Annika Sorenstam beats Paula Creamer on the first hole of sudden death.  Annika wins her 71st LPGA event with a par on the par five 18th hole.  Paula Creamer failed to get up and down from the fringe and recorded a bogey 6.

Annika did what she needed to do in order to gain some ground on number one ranked Lorena Ochoa who did not play this week.  Lorena has more than double points on Annika in the world rankings.

Tiger Woods will be out of competition for a while and the door will be open for someone to gain ground in the Fedex points race.  Tiger has a comfortable lead and Phil Mickelson is a distant second. 

 With the Wachovia Championship coming up this week at one of the players favorite courses(Quail Hollow in Charlotte, NC) and then moving the next week to Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass.  The action on the PGA is heating up headed toward the second major of the year, The US Open which will be held at Torrey Pines in San Diego(June 9-17). 

The rest of the field has a chance to make up some ground on Tiger while he rehabs his knee after minor surgery.  It is unknown how much competitive golf, if any, Tiger will play before the Open.  Phil Mickeslon like Tiger Woods  played a lot of golf at Torrey Pines, both having grown up in southern California.  Each has won on the famed public course as professionals.

A couple years ago Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh were known as the Big Five.  Ernie and Retief have slipped some in their pursuit of being the top golfer in the world.  Vijay and Phil continue to play consistantly and put some minor pressure on Tiger.  But as long as Tiger continues to putt as he has done the past few years it is unlikely that anyone will gain much ground on Tiger.  After Tiger had his second eye surgery he seems to have some magical ability to read the greens and match his speed precisely with the line that he sees.

Vijay Singh would seem to have the best chance to catch Tiger if he could find the magic in his flat stick.  Vijay is perhaps the most consistant week after week in his ball striking, but lacks the ability to sink the crucial putt when needed to put the pressure on the leaders.

There is little doubt that Phil Mickelson has enough raw talent to beat anyone at any given time.  But Phil seems to have a wild streak that will cost him valuable momentum at a critical time during a tournament.  Unlike Tiger, Phil will not attack a course and play to his strengths.  Tiger is not afraid to put the driver in the bag and plod his way around a course with a long iron and squeeze all he can out of the round.  He knows he can rely on his iron game and putting to carry him thru some tough situations.  Whereas Phil will try to hit some miracle shots and they seem to more often than not back fire on him in the big events.

Ernie Els and Retief Goosen both have not played particularly well the past couple seasons.  Both, because of their immense talent have shown some brillance for short periods of time, but neither one has been able to get on a role.  Retief has had putting woes similar to Singh and this has held him back.  Enrie has had problems keeping the driver in the fairway.  Both of these players have been switching equipment and this shows they are searching for some answers.

It would do the game good to see four or five players step up and have the game so that any one of them could be a genuine threat consistantly each week.

Leading up to the Open the first of June there will be some great test of golf.  The Wachovia is played over a great course, The Players Championship is considered by the players as a fifth major.  Also thrown into the mix is Nicklaus tournament, The Memorial.  Jack is always trying to make his tournament very strong with the course set up and the field.

So let’s sit back and enjoy the golf and see if someone takes the challenge and emerges as the Tiger beater.  

Annika is looking for a much needed victory at the Stanford International Pro-Am at Aventura, Florida this week.  Since the number one ranked women’a player Lorena Ochoa is not playing this week, Annika can gain some much needed ground with a victory. 

The course is playing more like a US Open and par is a good score this week.  The harder the course plays should be an advantage for Sorenstam.  Annika is still getting her game into shape after missing much of last year with chronic back problems. 

Paula Creamer trails leader Young Kim by five shots going into round three and Natalie Gulbis finds herself fourteen shots off the lead.  Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez will not be around for the weekend after shooting 91-81.  

The Legends of Golf is being played this week in Savannah, Ga.  The Legends of Golf had its beginning in Austin, Texas in 1978 at Onion Creek CC. This origional tournament was won by Sam Snead and Gardner Dickinson and this was the beginning of what today is The Champions Tour.

Tom Watson and Andy North grabbed the early first round lead by shooting a scorching 59.  Five other teams are tied for second place after shooting 62.  There will be a lot of birdies this weekend and the winners will have to keep up a torid pace.  To win the event a score in the low sixties will have to be shot and look for a chance of a playoff come Sunday afternoon.  Watson accounted for most of the teams scoring, looking like the Watson of old, hitting great irons and following that up with deadly accurate putting.  Tom is using a new putter that he put into the bag for last week’s victory.  North also played well, but was unable to follow some of his good shots with his putting.

The event has implemented a rule that may have some controversey.  The new rule will make a player eligable for the tour if he is not currently eligable if they win the tournamnet.  This being a team event I wonder how this will be accepted by all of the players.  I beleive you should only gain eligablity if you succeed as an individual.  In other words should Watson and North go on to victory then Andy North would have a one year exemption for The Champions Tour.  At this time Andy is not totally exempt for the tour.