Golf Confessions

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.