Golf Confessions

The tournament at The Colonial in Ft. Worth has been in existance for the past 62 years.  Ben Hogan won the tournament five times and the course has withstood the test of time and the modern golfer and modern equipment.  The course has not been rennovated over and over to protect itself against the 460CC drivers the straight golf ball and the modern grooves.

Phil Mickelson should be able to maneuver his way around the narrow tree lined fairways.  The course favors a draw by the right handed player which means that Phil can hit a controled fade.  Most of Phil’s misses tend to be to his left. 

Kenny Perry who has been playing well of late should be one of the favorites going into this week’s event.  Kenny has won at Colonial and the course sets up well for his big draw.

This tournament is one that all of the players want to win.  The course is an old traditional style and the players enjoy playing a course that is what you see. 

Within hours of Annika Sorenstam announcing that she was stepping down from competitive golf, number one tennis star Justine Henin announced that she was stepping down immediately.  Henin is only 25 and is currently ranked the number one female player in the world. 

 There seems to be more and more top ranked athletes getting away from their sports before they have either met their full potential or before their competitive days are over.  The price that these athletes pay to be tops in their fields is becoming more and more pressure packed.  The lives that they and their families have to live is causing more problems away from the game.  The media is constantly in their face.  And a lot of these athletes have come from quite and unassuming lives and this instant success is quite over whelming.  The instant stardum and mega contracts can put these athletes in very uncomfortable surroundings.

The constant pressure to stay on top takes a tremendous toll on the physical and mental capacity of the body.  So many of these athletes have been striving to become the best they can be from a very early age.  Annika Sorenstam has been working on her game and seeking to be the best she could be for a long time.  In 2007 she missed most of the season with back problems.  Henin is only 5′5″ and she has been competing against much larger opponents most of her career.  This takes a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication.  The rewards are great, but these individuals give up a lot of things that most people take for granted.  I know Lee Trevino would eat in his hotel room almost every night, a lot of times alone.  He knew if he went to a restuarant he would get mobbed by autograph seekers.  Chi Chi Rodriguez also would have his caddy get him a carry out dinner almost every night.  Stardum can almost make these people a recluse.

The life of a athlete in an individual sport is not all the glamour that a lot of people think it is.  The travel and spending so much of your life living out of a suitcase can get very old very quickly.

The competition is getting stronger every day and the pressure to stay on top of your game never ends.  And when you have a bad day or bad week the press is in your face wanting to know what is wrong.  The press can also ask some very dumb questions over and over.  Each and every week the athlete has to meet with a new group of reporters in a new town and the questions start all over again. 

An athlete gets mentally fatigued more than physically.  The constant battle to perform at your best works on the mind and after a while can cause physical break downs.  All athletes know that they are not perfect and that they will hit bad shots from time to time, but they know they are usually not superior enough to make mental mistakes and beat the field. 

Kids are peparing at younger and younger  ages to be at the top of their sports.  There are camps for golf, baseball, soccer, gymnastics, tennis and every other sport imaginable.  These camps offer, at a huge price, the opportunity for kids to attend these facilities and live there year round.  They get their academic requirements and receive athletic instruction daily.  They live and breath their sport.  And it seems that if you are going to be competitive you have to have this dedication in order to compete.  Countries around the world are going thru a selective process and putting kids in private and government run facilities to produce the top athletes.

So we may be seeing what this early pressure and constant scrutiny  is having on the athlete of today.  The drug problems in so many sports in order to be the best will eventually work its ugly self into every form of sports.  The big bucks and fame certainly has a price to pay.  We have seen in golf that so many players do not like the heat that comes along with being #1. 

Annika Sorenstam did a lot for the women’s tour.  She was on her way to possibly setting an all time win mark, presently held by Kathy Whitworth at 88 victories.

Annika puts everything in to her game, she is the ultimate competitor, winning is what she is all about.  And because she wants to be the best at what she does, you may not see her play in very many events after she leaves the tour on a full time basis.  It is not likely that she will want to compete just for the sake of competing, she will only play if she thinks she can win.

Sorenstam came along at the right time for the LPGA, the tour was struggling and needed someone to step up and bring some positives to the tour.  She was very hard to beat and yet she carried herself in a manner that everyone looked up to her and wanted to follow in her foot steps.  She is the only woman to shoot a 59 in a tour event and she has 10 majors to her credit.

The LPGA will surely miss her presence.  But Annika will be sucessful in her other endeavors.  She has a golf course architecture business and a clothing line.  These other ventures will prosper now that she will have more time to donate to them.

In 1982 I caddied for Sam Snead in the first TPC on the stadium golf course.  Sam and Arnold Palmer were given an exemption to play on the new TPC course.  I was a friend of Sam’s and I asked him if I could caddy for him, and this was my first time to caddy in an official PGA event.

I was very nervous, I think just as nervous as if I had been playing.  I did not realize how conscience you became of the small things that you take for granted when you are playing golf with your buddies.  You become very aware of all the things that you do in order to stay out of the way of other players and even taking the pin out of the hole, not to hit the sides and mess up. 

The Wednesday after our practice round with J.C. I found where I could buy a yardage book from one of the regular tour caddies.  This caddy made up yardage books for other caddies  and would sell them each week.  Most of the good caddies would get one of these books and then go out and check all the info and make sure it was correct.  One thing that a tour player can not stand is to have a caddy give him bad yardage.  They know that bad shots are part of the game but bad info is inexcusable.

Well I was totally unfamiliar with the yardage book and since we were not going back on the course until our first round of the tournament, I was in for a surprise.  The first two holes of the round Thursday morning went just great.  Sam made a par on the first two holes and I thought this is a peice of cake.

Next is when I thought I would like to crawl under a rock.  Sam was the first to hit on the third hole a par three.  I get to the tee and reach for my trusty yardage book.  I had played the course several times myself so I was familiar the hole.  But when I opened the book to the third hole I became very confused.  Luckily the group in front of us was having some problems and we had a short wait.  I could not for the life of me find where the front yardage was marked from.  Usually there is a sprinkler head or some easy to spot object that you get your yardage from.  I walked up and down the tee box about six times despertaly searching for such a marker.  Of course the third hole is close to the club house and this is Sam Snead so the gallery is quite large.  I can feel every eye looking at me.  Finally it is time for Sam to hit and he steps up to the tee.  What we got?  I get real close so no one can hear and in a low mousey voice-I think it is about 180 to the flag.  What do you mean you think?  Yes that is what it is, as I see the other caddies looking at me and starting to laugh.  They know I don’t have a clue.  Well give me a five iron and let’s see what happens.  Thank goodness Sam hits a good shot up about twenty feet from the hole. 

I was sweating bullets.  I know that had to feel some what how you would feel standing on 18 Sunday afternoon needing a five foot putt to win.  I was never so grateful for that shot to get on the green.

After the round I get the book out and turn to the third hole and it looked like a neon sign flashing.  The marker that the book had for the front yardage was a plam tree to left of the tee box.  Why I could not see that at the time was incredible.  I have thought of that day and that hole several times over the years and it makes me sweat to this day.   

Do you trust your golf balls?  I have a couple of stories that may influence your answer. 

When I lived on the number three hole at the origional Sawgrass course, I used to go out on number four the par five late in the evenings and hit a few shots.  One afternoon I grabbed six balls from my shag bag and headed to number four for a few late afternoon shots.  I had a six iron and proceeded to hit the balls down the fairway.  When I got to my group of balls I noticed one ball was about twelve yards farther than the rest.  I didn’t pay too much attention other than I must have really caught that one.  So I proceed to hit the balls back down the fairway.  Again I notice one ball is all by its self about 10 to 12 yards farther away.  This time I take note that it is a Maxfli Blue Max.  So again I hit the six balls down the fairway and sure enough the Blue Max is the distance winner.  I did this little drill on other late evening and the old Blue Max was always the winner.  In this group of balls there was an assortment, Titleist Balatas, Pinnacles, Wilson, but nothing could match the Max. 

It is no doubt that we all would like to have a ball that would go true and far.  But if you are not expecting this extra distance you may find yourself over the green and in the swamp.  Golf balls can be a little hot or dead.

I was caddying for a friend at The Tradition in Arizona and he had a experience with a Titleist.  He got ready to hit his tee shot on a par three and when he went to tee the ball he could barely get it to stay on the tee.  The ball was so egg shape.  I took the ball and put it my pocket to give to the Titleist rep when we finished the round.  When we finished the round and found the rep I took the ball from my pocket and by this time it was perfectly round and fit perfectly through the round tool that some players use to check their golf balls.  These things happen.  A tour player usually plays three ball per nine holes, alternating them each hole and they start with three new balls on the back nine.

Another experience with an entire dozen of bad balls in a tournamnet situation came in the Tour Championship at La Costa.  My friend that I was caddying for was a Titleist man at the time and we had used Titleist in all of our practice rounds.  Well the morning of the first round he comes out of the locker room and gives me a dozen Maxfli and says we would be using these today.  I questioned the decision but he insisted that it would be okay.  The trouble started right on the first hole.  The drive seemed to be okay and about a normal distance.  But the approach shot came up about 12 yards short and this was very unusual for this player, he was very accurate with his rions and distance control was great normally.  Of course my yardage was questioned.  The next hole we experienced the same results-short on the approach shot. 

Well long story short, every hole that day we battled getting the yardage on the approach shots.  Shot after shot came up short.  It is very difficult to give yardage when you do not know how far the ball is going to travel.  You would think that all we had to do was just add a few yards each time.  But when you have hit shots a certain distance for years and all of a sudden the yardage is no good it is hard to adjust during the round.  Especially when you have bunkers and hazords to carry and deal with, a guessing game is not for good golf.  We eventually got into the club house with a whopping 79 and found ourselves in dead last.

Needless to say we had Titleist back in the bag the next day.  And since there was an odd number of players in the field and we were first off the next day and we were paired with a marker.  The marker was a young man from the area that played college golf.  My player is a fast player and we ran around La Costa in two hours and fifteen minutes.

We had before and afterwards used Maxfl and had no problems, but this particular batch of balls was definetely dead and we paid the price.

Moral of the story do not change balls the day of the tournamnet.

Fortunately for the player of today the procedure for manufacturing golf balls has improved and product uniformity is greately improved.    

My how time flies, 26 years ago I was getting ready to caddy for Sam Snead in the first Players Championship played on the new TPC course at Sawgrass.  I was more nervous than if I were teeing it up myself.

Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer had been given a special exemption to play in the tournament to dedicate the new course.  When Sam got into town on Tuesday he went to his nephew’s home, J.C. Snead.  I was over at J. C. ’s when Sam got in.  After eating a bite and shooting the bull which Sam had no equal, he stood up and said that he was going over to the course and get registered and find a caddy.  For some reason I stood up and said, Sam I’ll caddy for you.  Sam looked at me in that special sort of way and said, can you carry that bag around the course.  Well I had a confident, well hell yes.  He said okay you got it.

Wednesday morning we went to the course for a practice round and my first experience at caddying for a legend.  I had played a lot of golf with Sam and J. C. but to be caddying on this stage was quite different.  I had no clue what I needed to do.  I found the caddy master and he filled me in, got me registered and told me what to do.  I found one of the regular tour caddies and bought a yardage book, which at the time looked like Greek.  We went out and had a good round and were ready for the opening round.

The first two rounds we were paired with Bob Murphy and Lee Elder.  I met Sam coming down the long ramp leading from the club house to the practice tee on Thursday morning.  Sam had a look and air about him that I had never seen.  He was very quite and had a special walk.  After we had walked about half way to the practice tee, Sam said, did you see what those B_____,_______, had in the paper this morning?  No I guess not, what are you talking about?  Well they had me a 1000 to 1  to win this ______ tournamnet.  He then said, I wish I were about 20 lbs. lighter and about 10 years younger and I would show those______ a thing or two. 

Sam made reference to that article several times during the round that day.  You could tell that he had a lot of pride and wished  so much that he could be competitive.  One time he said when he got home that he was going to really practice and get his butt into shape and he would show them a thing or two.  Keep in mind this is a man that was 69 years old at the time, but he still wanted to win.

Both Palmer and Sam missed the cut, Arnold shot 72-77 and Sam shot 77-81.    Guess who shot 79-80, Fred Couples.  Sam beat Fred by a shot. 

It was a great pleasure to be on that bag for those two days.  Sam showed me just what being a competitor was truly all about.  He tried his hardest on every shot.  Sam was the ultimate when it came to being a great champion and he played the game to win.  I will cherish forever the opportunity I had at the TPC that year and I was so fortunate two weeks later I caddied for Sam at The Master in his last official Masters as a player.

This year the winner of The Players will win $1,710,000 and last place  is worth $19,000.  In 1982 the winner, Jerry Pate, won $90,000 and last place won $1,ooo.  Compare that to Sam who leads the PGA with 82 wins and his official money for his career was $668,000.

The tournamnet has been moved from its traditional spot in March to May.  The move may help miss some rain but the wind may be a huge factor this week.  TPC at Sawgrass is projected to be hard and fast.

Phil will have an opportunity to show case his great short game in these conditions.  Over the past couple of years Phil has spent a lot time working on his full swing and neglected his short game.  But recently Phil has gotten back on his short game agenda and is hoping to see some positive results this week.  This tournament is very special to most of the participants.  There is a lot of prestige in winning The Players Championship.  The golf course is one of the toughest the tour plays all year and the field is always one of the very best.

None of the majors has as tough of a field as The Players.  The Masters has one of the weakest fields all year.  The field only has about 90+ players versuses a usually field of 156.  The field is made up of several amateurs and other tour leaders from around the world.  Then the cut is around 50 players.  The PGA has several pros from that are non tourning players.  The US Open and the British Open are open to open qualifying and this brings in a lot of non touring pros and seldom do many if any of these qualifiers make it to the weekend.

This should be an exciting week for the golf fan.  If the tournament is close come Sunday afternoon then watch for the treacherous 17 to offer some drama.

Sam Snead joined the tour in 1937.  This first year Sam won five tournaments and was runner-up in the US Open, one of four total runner-up finishes in the Open.  The US Open is the only major that Snead did not win, and this troubled Sam for the rest of his career.  Byron Nelson also won his first Masters tournament this year.

In this year the Vardon Trophy was awarded for the first time.  This trophy is given to the player for the lowest scoring average for the year.  And the first winner of this award was Harry Cooper. Cooper was also the leading money leader on tour that year with a total of $14,138.69. Harry Vardon whom the trophy was named after was a six time British Open Champion.  This is also the year that Harry Vardon died. 

1938 saw another break through for Snead in which he wins eight tournaments and sets a record for money earned on tour of $19,534.  As an example the players that tied for 13th this past week at The Wachovia Championship earned $22,428.  Anthony Kim made $1,152,000 for his victory, so Sam with his eight victories alone at this rate would have made $9,216,000.  Ben Hogan won his first PGA event this year at the Hershey Four-Ball with Vic Ghezzi as his partner.  Jimmy Demeret also wins his first PGA tournament with a victory at the San Francisco Open.

The fourteen club rule is adopted in 1939 by the R&A.  Sam Snead suffers another heart break when he takes a 8 on the final hole of the US Open, this knocks Sam out of the lead and cost him a playoff that is won by Byron Nelson.

This year saw the birth of two of the all time great players, Lee Trevino and Kathy Whitworth.

In 1940 the war in Europe starts to effect the golf world with the cancellation of the Walker Cup, British Amateur and the British Open.  Ben Hogan wins his first solo PGA event, The North-South Open.  Lloyd Mangrum wins the first of his 36 PGA events.  Ben Hogan is the official money leader on tour with $10,655.

1940 saw the birth of Jack Nicklaus and the death of Horace Rawlins the winner of the first US Open.

In 1941 St. Andrews suspends play and allows sheep to graze and prowl the old course fairways.  Ben Hogan is again the leading money winner with $18,358.  And Craig Wood wins the Masters and US Open.  As a peice of trivia Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead finish 1-2-3 in the Miami Open.

1942 saw a very limited schedule by the PGA.  The government stopped the manufacture of golf equipment and the rationing of material.  The majors had only two champions, The Masters won by Byron Nelson and the PGA was won by Sam Snead after he received a delay of induction into the Navy so he could play.  Nelson beat Hogan (69 to 70) to win the Masters.

Ben Hogan once again is the leading money leader with $13,143.  And the golf community looses a great architect in A. W. Tillinghast.  “Tillie the Terror”  as he was known was responsible for such great courses as Bethpage Black, Baltimore CC, Ridge Wood CC, Winged Foot, Quaker Ridge and two great courses at Baltusrol Golf Club.

In 1943 only three events are played on the PGA.    The Masters is cancelled for the remaining war years and Augusta National is shut down and a small herd of cattle roam the fairways.  There are no majors played this year.  No stats are kept for this year and there is no official money winner. 

Sandra Haynie, winner of 42 LPGA events is born this year.  Ted Ray winner of the 1912 British Open and 1920 US Open dies this year.

Byron Nelson wins the Texas Victory Open in 1944 which will eventually carry Byrons name as the official title.  Nelson is the leading money leader with $37,967 in war bonds.

1945 was the year of all years for Lord Byron Nelson.  Nelson won 18 tournaments of which 11 were in a row.  Byron wins $63,335 in war bonds.  Again, look at the money that Anthony Kim won for one tournament this past week $1,152,000.  Thank you TV!!!!!! and big time sponsors.  These old guys could really play- this year Hogan had set a 72 hole record of 261 and Nelson breaks this record a couple weeks later with a 259.

Babe Zaharias plays in three PGA events this year and finishes 33rd at Phoenix and 42nd at Tuscon.  Babe is thought to be the greatest female athlete ever. 

In 1946 at the tender age of 34 Byron Nelson retires from competitive golf with six victories.  Ben Hogan wins 13 times on the PGA and leads in money with  $42,556.16.  Hogan wins the PGA and looses the US Open and The Masters by one stroke. 

Sam Snead played in the British Open at St Andrews and when passing the old course on a train Sam comments “That looks like an old, abandoned golf course.” he goes on to win the British Open.

As you can see the game has been through a lot and those that did so much for the game that we enjoy today are to be thanked.

This week most of the best players in the world will be in Sawgrass playing The Players Championship.  The players feel that this tournament is a fifth major.  The course is one of the toughest played all year and the field is as good as it gets for any major. 

The last three holes on Sunday can give the leaders a real lump in their throats and  the pursurers know that they still have a chance.  Number seventeen is one of the most feared holes on a Sunday afternoon.  All of the players know that seventeen can make or break the day.  Len Mattice had his problems on Sunday at this hole a few years back.  He hit three balls in the water and fell off the leader board.  And Jeff Sluman had an unfortunate situation on this hole one Sunday when he was in contention for the win.  As Jeff got ready to putt, a spectator on a dare dove into the water that surrounds the island green.  After several minutes to remove the over jealous fan, Jeff proceeded to miss his putt.

Number sixteen is a reachable par five and can offer the player in need of a birdie or eagle an opportunity to gain some valuable ground on the leaders.  The number eithteen is one of the toughest par fours the players will play all year.  The left side is protected by water down the left side the entire length of the hole.  Unfortunately the players do not have a bail out to the right because of the trees and rough.  A shot to the right will require a lay up and the player is forced to rely on his short game to scramble for par.

The TPC at Sawgrass has some birdie holes, but most of the holes have some big numbers waiting for the errant shot.  The golf course is tree lined and water comes into play on many of the holes.  Pete Dye made this an extremely tough test, as it should be for The Players Championship.  Phil Mickelson is the defending champion this week.  Tiger Woods will not be in the field, still recovering from his knee surgery.

Dean Beman is the man that was instrumental in the creation of the TPC course.  At the time Dean was the commissioner of the tour and he invisioned the creation of the TPC out of the swamps where the course is located today.  The course has been been through many updates and rebuilds.

A few weeks ago I watched the short game guru Dave Pelz on The Golf Channel talk about leaving putts on the low side.  Dave did a study using a variety of players from different handicap groups to make his point about speed and reading putts and how often players would leave the putt on the low side.

Well this weekend definetely proved Dave’s point if you watched any of the tournaments televised around the world.  After watching the episode on putting by Pelz I started really paying attention to the number of putts that the tour players are leaving short and low.  The number is unbeleivable.  Seldom do the best players in the world get the ball to the hole and have enough break read into their putts. 

If you watch Tiger Woods today, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson in their hay day they gave their putts a chance.  They are not afraid to putt a come back putt.  These players today are trying to protect their position and are not willing to put their nerves on the line to make a three or four foot putt coming back.  Anthony Kim truly looked a player who wanted to win and was willing to over come his fear to do so.  He routinely poured the putts in the hole and his competition routinely lagged up to the hole and came up short time after time.  Most of the time when a player comes up short it is his/her nerves that is holding them back. 

In an interview this weekend at The Wachovia, Stewart Cink said he was not worried about winning, just as long as he continued to play well.  With that attitude, he is only concerned about winning a big check($179,200) which he did.  But Stewart shot a final round 74 and slipped to a tie for seventh after starting the final round in fourth.  The great champions of the past and Tiger Woods of today certainly enjoy the money but their heart is set on winning the grand prize.  Most of the modern players seem to be very intimidated by any competitor that looks them in the eye and says they are going to beat their butts.

Anthony Kim stepped up to the plate Sunday, birdied the first hole and made a statement that this was his championship and the rest of the field said okay.  One would think with all the guaranteed money from clubs, clothing and special endorsements that these guys and gals could put the blinders on and play some tough golf. 

The golfing media keeps writing about the generation that is going to challenge Woods.  It appears that the golfing generation of today with maybe one or two exceptions will not be challenging anyone.  They are very happy(Cink) to get their check, fly from tournament to tournament in a private jet and have everyone cater to them and enjoy the good life.  A few of the past number one players come to mind that either could not stand the fire in the kitchen or just did not want the lime light were David Duvall, Fred Couples and Davis Love.  As soon as these guys got to the top they said enough.  Duvall said he lost interest and now for the last couple of years he has been trying to make a come back.  I don’t think he had a clue how good he had it and he may never get it back.

All of these players can hit the ball, but to score you have to have an inner drive and determination that you are going to get the ball in the hole and you are not going to be beat.  Being competitive and unwilling to loose is something you have and it probably can’t be taught.  The inner feeling of hating to loose has to be greater than the want to win.  Sam Snead did not want to loose at anything he did, whether it was catching the most fish, the biggest fish or pitching pennies at a crack in the floor.  And I am sure Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones, Nicklaus, Watson, Babe Ruth, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and other great champions were and are the same way.

The short game lets these players down and their nerves and lack of toughness to win shows up on the course.