Golf Confessions

The lead was hard to hold onto in the Spanish Open at Seville, Spain.  The lead changed hands several times on the final nine between third round leader Ignacio Garrido, Miguel Jimenez, Soren Hansen and Peter Lawrie. 

Jimenez had the lead going to the short par 4 tenth hole, but saw his hopes fade when he hit his second and third shots into the water and eventually took a triple bogey seven.  Lawrie came from five shots back with a string of birdies on the final nine to have the lead after a par from the bunker on eighteen.  Garrido who struggled all day with his ball striking made a long birdie putt on eighteen to tie Lawrie.  Garrido again hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker on eighteen but was able to hit the green and make a long putt.  Ignacio was able to hit only seven fairways, with most all of his misses to the left which definetley showed a sign of nerves.  Garrido was unable to match his body speed with his arm speed all day.

Lawrie and Garrido both birdied the eithteenth hole in the first hole of sudden death.  Then on the second time to play eithteen Garrido hit his tee shot into the fairway while Lawrie found the fairway bunker.  Lawarie hits his shot to about 15 feet and Garrido who was only 118 from the hole hit his approach onto the green but with the back spin the ball rolled into the water.  Lawrie only had to two putt for the title. 

Jason Bohn followed his first round 68 with a 67 (135)to lead Anthony Kim by two shots going into the final 36 holes.  Jason finds himself 7 shots ahead of Phil Mickelson the top ranked player in the filed.  Phil was going along at 6 under par until he experienced tree problems on a par five and took a double bogey, then on the par 4 final hole Phil hit a bad short iron from the fairway and again took a double.

Jason will be hotly pursued by Kim who the media has projected as winner very soon on the PGA.  Also in pursuit will be Jim Furyk(138), Camilo Villegas(139), Geoff Ogilvy and Vijay Singh at(140).

The Quail Hollow club in Charlotte, N. C. is once again proving to be a challege.  The weekend should have an exciting finish.   

Ochoa has more than the wind to battle in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.  Lorena finds herself six behind leader Paula Creamer going into the weekend.  This six shot deficit has 19 players ahead of Ochoa.  The wind has been tough on the field that finds only Creamer below par for the first two rounds. 

The Cedar Ridge course with it’s gusty winds yielded no birdies for Lorena in the second round.  Lorena has averaged  5.39 birdies per round this season. 

Second in the women’s world ranking Annika Sorenstam is not competing this week.

Toms has suffered with his game for the last couple of years.  David has had some medical issues that has slowed him recently.  With the medical issues David has not been able to put in the practice time that it takes to stay on top of his game.  Toms was the first champion at the Wachovia, played at the very tough Quail Hollow club, and finds himself with a one stroke lead going into the second round of play.

The pros like the layout and it should be a good preparation for next week’s Player’s Championship in Ponte Vedra, Fl.

Phil Mickelson is right on the heels of Toms.  Vijay Singh did not finish well the last four holes but finds himself at two under par starting the second round.  Sergio Garcia had some bright moments when he sunk two long putts.  Sergio continues to struggle on the greens and has been switching back and forth with different putters and grips. 

After taking a week off Lorena Ochoa will once again be trying to set another record.  With a win this week Lorena will tie Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez with five in a row.  Lorena will go after this record in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at the Sem-Group Championship played at Cedar Ridge.

Ochoa has dominated the 2008 LPGA season with five out of six victories and with a combined winning margin of 37 shots.

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.