Question:
It rained today, I tried to finish my round, and I wanted to play another, but the downpour was steady, and as everything gets soaked, golf becomes too tough for a wimp like me; but I got in 15 holes (started playing well too, birdied 11 and 15 after starting with a 42 on the front 9); gave myself what my index requires for 16, 17, and 18 for give myself an 81). So I came home and watched the golf. Woods really is a great golfer, but Mickleson and Garcia aren’t. Like ot or not, they did not play up to their potential today, and like it or not, players of the past, like Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer did, on the back 9 of the big events, whatever that level was. In any event, the US Open was not particularly compelling, except for the great crowd. Having the event on a widely played track made a big difference, as opposed to snotty CC’s. Hopefully the PGA Tour will take note, and rather than spend gobs of money building fancy high priced tracks for the wannabe riches, invest in upgrading some munis and hold their events there. Would be good for golf, but they’ll never do it, of course. IMHO, the two most compelling big tournaments of late have been the TPC and the US PGA, and I think it is because the tracks allow the players across a broad spectrum of styles of play to play their game, whereas The Masters, The US Open and The British Open generally favor the power game, and it’s like power tennis; boring. Hype may carry these tournaments, but media fans are a fickle lot, and boring is boring, especially as described as it was. In the aftermath, we get the usual crew telling us that Tiger Woods is a great player. Great journalism guys! I would never had known that, and you really serve all those naive golf fans who don’t know this. When it gets to the point that the greatest power player of them all demonstrates that when he leads after 54 he wins; every time, in the majors, I wonder who will watch? We’ll see! Watching Tiger Woods hit a fairway, hit a green and 2 putt for par is hardly compelling, at least to me, even though it may be great golf. Rob — Service is the rent we pay for being RSG Masters 2002 ( http://home.att.net/~janellenrob/RSG-MS_02.html ) RSG Masters 2003 ( http://home.att.net/~janellenrob/RSG-MS-03P.html )
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Woods really is a great golfer, but Mickleson and Garcia aren’t. Like ot or not, they did not play up to their potential today, and like it or not, players of the past, like Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer did, on the back 9 of the big events, whatever that level was.
Those guys never played 499 yard par-4’s with 28 yard wide fairways. I thought Philly Mick played well. He made almost every putt he looked at for most of the day. Only Tiger’s poor putting kept it close as he hit the ball like a machine. Tiger hit the ball like Ben Hogan and putted like Hulk Hogan.
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Woods really is a great golfer, but Mickleson and Garcia aren’t. Like ot or not, they did not play up to their potential today, and like it or not, players of the past, like Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer did, on the back 9 of the big events, whatever that level was. Those guys never played 499 yard par-4’s with 28 yard wide fairways. I thought Philly Mick played well. He made almost every putt he looked at for most of the day.
Let’s give Tiger and Phil a 1965 Titleist balata ball and see how they fare on 499 yard par 4’s! They can keep their modern clubs! It’s a matter of when you play your best? The back 9 of the 4th round of a major, or some other time? With the Trevino’s, etc., they played their best on the back 9 of majors. Not so these days, except for Woods. I suspect someone will come along who will play well in the crunch in the majors, and my point will be made. Wasn’t too long ago people argued that PGA Tour players were so good that no one could dominate. Right! Rob — Service is the rent we pay for being RSG Masters 2002 ( http://home.att.net/~janellenrob/RSG-MS_02.html ) RSG Masters 2003 ( http://home.att.net/~janellenrob/RSG-MS-03P.html )
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X-Sender: "Frostback" With the Trevino’s, etc., they played their best on the back 9 of majors. Not so these days, except for Woods. I suspect someone will come along who will play well in the crunch in the majors, and my point will be made.
What is happening is actually subliminal mass hypnosis. Tiger and his allies imbed secret messages into Golf Central and Viewer’s Forum and all the pros watch it and succumb to the hypnosis on Sunday. The Rich Lerner comes on and gushes some more about his hero. Man, if Tiger ever gets tired of Elin, I’m sure Rich would love to give him some pleasure.
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whereas The Masters, The US Open and The British Open generally favor the power game, and it’s like power tennis; boring.
in the case of The Open (British) strongly disagree. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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in the case of The Open (British) strongly disagree.
Depends on the venue—At St Andrews–where they seem to be going back to every other year now…it is definately a power hitters course
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The Masters, The US Open and The British Open generally favor the power game
Hardly. U.S Open Winners 1955-2000 1955 Jack Fleck 1956 Cary Middlecoff 1957 Dick Mayer 1958 Tommy Bolt 1959 Billy Casper 1960 Arnold Palmer 1961 Gene Littler 1962 Jack Nicklaus 1963 Julius Boros 1964 Ken Venturi 1965 Gary Player 1966 Billy Casper 1967 Jack Nicklaus 1968 Lee Trevino 1969 Orville Moody 1970 Tony Jacklin 1971 Lee Trevino 1972 Jack Nicklaus 1973 Johnny Miller 1974 Hale Irwin 1975 Lou Graham 1976 Jerry Pate 1977 Hubert Green 1978 Andy North 1979 Hale Irwin 1980 Jack Nicklaus 1981 David Graham 1982 Tom Watson 1983 Larry Nelson 1984 Fuzzy Zoeller 1985 Andy North 1986 Ray Floyd 1987 Scott Simpson 1988 Curtis Strange 1989 Curtis Strange 1990 Hale Irwin 1991 Payne Stewart 1992 Tom Kite 1993 Lee Janzen 1994 Ernie Els 1995 Corey Pavin 1996 Steve Jones 1997 Ernie Els 1998 Lee Janzen 1999 Payne Stewart 2000 Tiger Woods 2001 Retief Goosen 2002 Tiger Woods How many of them were power players? I don’t think that many really. A lot of these guys were just medium off the tee. A lot of Masters champs were medium knockers too. -WWW.
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Depends on the venue—At St Andrews–where they seem to be going back to every other year now
You just made that up. The Open Championship is rotated amongst a wide number of venues. I doubt if St Andrews would get it more than once a decade. …it is definately a power hitters course
Power hitters like Tiger will always hit two or three clubs shorter for a second shot than non-power hitters. And the longer the hole the more the advantage … 7-iron in is better than 4-iron in etc. Either that or Tiger takes a 2-iron and decreases his risk of missing the narrow fairways, giving him a statistical/probability advantage anyway. Recent courses are only being "Tiger-proofed" against *par*. Lengthening holes, narrowing fairways and growing rough actually makes it easier for Tiger to beat the opposition, not harder. The only way to bring Tiger et al … the power hitters … back to the field would be to have *wider* fairways, but with strategic doglegs, lakes, diagonal hazards and other lay-up enforcers that would limit the length of drive they can make, and encourage players who are "shotmakers". Even then Tiger would probably wedge and putt his way to a win. Cheers Colin Wilson RSG Roll Call: http://rec-sport-golf.com/members/?rollcall=wilsonc Trentham Golf Club: http://www.trenthamgolf.com
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – in the case of The Open (British) strongly disagree. Depends on the venue—At St Andrews–where they seem to be going back to every other year now…it is definately a power hitters course
no, the open is rotated around courses, usually St.Andrews would get it about every 5 or 6 years in the wind it is not a course you can bash with the driver all courses are power hitters courses since a big hitter always hits less club second the only way to tiger proof is to play on short flat tracks (see bulk of pga tour), and make things easier. Lytham was 6900 yards, one of the shortest tracks in recent major championships The Open has never been boring – I think its by far the best, and the us pga seems to be 2nd best these days – the masters has lost it since it tried to be the us open (part of its charm was the final round charges by players). and the us open seems one dimensional with that rough, the length, the greens etc – Pinehurst 99 was the perfect example of how the US open could be if the USGA had any courage. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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Philly Mick played well. He made almost every putt he looked at for most of the day.
Except when it really counted on Sunday on the back 9, when he had cut the lead to 2 he seemed to loose his stroke, choke? bill-o TEAM BRING IT!
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I thought the comment by Johnny Miller something to the effect that Phil actually has more potential horsepower than Tiger was interesting. The point was the Phil can make birdies by the basketfull as on Saturday… but also can string enough bogies together to null them out. If we were able to cut down on the bogies, he could give Tiger a real run for the money. I thould Phil played pretty well in this on. Just a little too little and too late. dsc
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Hype may carry these tournaments, but media fans are a fickle lot, and boring is boring, especially as described as it was. In the aftermath, we get the usual crew telling us that Tiger Woods is a great player. Great journalism guys! I would never had known that, and you really serve all those naive golf fans who don’t know this. When it gets to the point that the greatest power player of them all demonstrates that when he leads after 54 he wins; every time, in the majors, I wonder who will watch? We’ll see! Watching Tiger Woods hit a fairway, hit a green and 2 putt for par is hardly compelling, at least to me, even though it may be great golf. Rob
Well apparently more then a few tuned in. NBC’s U.S. Open overnights post best rating ever NEW YORK (AP) – Tiger Woods’ victory at the U.S. Open on Sunday delivered the highest overnight television ratings ever for the second of golf’s Grand Slam events. Woods’ riveting win by three shots over Phil Mickelson at the Bethpage Black course in Farmingdale, N.Y., was seen in more than 9 million homes, and had a record 9.3 rating and a 21 share for NBC. The rating, a 33 percent increase over last year’s U.S. Open won by Retief Goosen, was the highest for the U.S. Open since Nielsen Media Research began tracking overnights in 1975. — The DeMented Golfer "Golf spelled backwards is flog Rick DeMent "Time to pull a quick Hank Snow." RSG roll call http://rec-sport-golf.com/members/?rollcall=dementr Spammers eat these:
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Woods really is a great golfer, but Mickleson and Garcia aren’t. Like ot or not, they did not play up to their potential today, and like it or not, players of the past, like Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer did, on the back 9 of the big events, whatever that level was. Those guys never played 499 yard par-4’s with 28 yard wide fairways. I thought Philly Mick played well. He made almost every putt he looked at for most of the day. Only Tiger’s poor putting kept it close as he hit the ball like a machine. Tiger hit the ball like Ben Hogan and putted like Hulk Hogan.
Here is an article that says how those 5 guys mentioned above feel about some of these players. http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/story?id=1396374 Enjoy Ivan