Question:
Exactly, turn this around and allow some Hooter’s tour, Sr. tour, mini tour, Asian tour, and good male Ams to play in some of the LPGA events and you’ll see how quickly they try to put the genie back in the bottle. As I predicted in another golf forum months ago, the guys who finished behind Annika would be held up to ridicule, never mind the fact that they would all be Grand Slammers on the LPGA tour if given the opportunity.
That was the theory behind letting the US pros in the Olympics in Basketball. After a few years of total ass-wiping and taking the foreigners to school, they apparently got their education sunk in real well and the some of the games started getting really close the next time around in the Olympics; and then very close the 3rd time around in the Olympics — and then finally in the last year or so in some world championship tourney or another, the US team actually got beat. If you seed the LPGA with a few (male) ringers, you can whomp-ass-train the women into a full state of rabidity, just as well in due time, in the very same way. Eventually, after a few years of getting their asses kicked, they’ll gradually learn how to let their inner bitch out to play.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – That was the theory behind letting the US pros in the Olympics in Basketball. After a few years of total ass-wiping and taking the foreigners to school, they apparently got their education sunk in real well and the some of the games started getting really close the next time around in the Olympics; and then very close the 3rd time around in the Olympics — and then finally in the last year or so in some world championship tourney or another, the US team actually got beat. If you seed the LPGA with a few (male) ringers, you can whomp-ass-train the women into a full state of rabidity, just as well in due time, in the very same way. Eventually, after a few years of getting their asses kicked, they’ll gradually learn how to let their inner bitch out to play.
hey, I’m all for it but judging by Karrie Webb’s (non) reaction to Annika’s pumping iron and competition ethic, I still have my doubts that the LPGA’ers have any conception as to how to respond to even Annika’s challenge, much less to a challenge from the male Ams and elder statesman. How many players compete in the LPGA tour school compared to the numbers of men who compete in mini-tours and the PGA tour? Do the ladies even have mini-tours or do they just go straight to the big tour? I’ve never heard of any of the women players emerging from the "bush" leagues (tourneys other than the LPGA LOL). In contrast, legends like Vijay and Lehman had to spend YEARS in the bush leagues before they "made" it. Mac O’Grady flunked out of tour school multiple times; heck does the LPGA tour even have any talented cranks like a Mac O’Grady? someone who was self-taught and can play scratch left handed or right handed: … I for one would be interested as to how the left handed Mac would do on the LPGA tour. now that would be interesting and I’m sure the fur would really fly. in contrast to classy Annika at the Colonial, you could have Jerry Springer hosting the Danskin Classic: replete with a cast of Hooter’s tour cast offs living in the back of their vans to try and take a crack at some of Annika’s easy money. heck in tennis I know a male "Am" who had a sister who "dabbled" in tennis, she was a fair to middling no. 5 singles player at Rollins College in Fla. who didn’t even work hard at the game. she got a WTA tour point in the first Future’s tour event she played in; while many male players of significantly greater athletic and tennis talent than her, with considerably more competition experience as well, never even got a single ATP computer point …
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – That was the theory behind letting the US pros in the Olympics in Basketball. After a few years of total ass-wiping and taking the foreigners to school, they apparently got their education sunk in real well and the some of the games started getting really close the next time around in the Olympics; and then very close the 3rd time around in the Olympics — and then finally in the last year or so in some world championship tourney or another, the US team actually got beat. If you seed the LPGA with a few (male) ringers, you can whomp-ass-train the women into a full state of rabidity, just as well in due time, in the very same way. Eventually, after a few years of getting their asses kicked, they’ll gradually learn how to let their inner bitch out to play.
there’s only one problem with your theory; golf isn’t tennis or basketball where a substantial aspect of your improvement is determined by playing against better(playing) competition. I can go out and practice my golf game as a single on just about any course; the course is the PRIMARY competition for the most part … if the ladies are forced to play against the course as well as Perks or the Hooters guys, their "inner bitch" might be taken out of its comfort zone. you could argue that the male players development will be stunted by being forced to play their competition rounds on inferior LPGA tracks but you’d be wrong: they could still play all their practice rounds from the tips at their favourite high slope and course rating track(s) and still see the effect of playing the actual competition on "duck soup" courses. That’s exactly what the Williams sisters do; they get all their competition by playing themselves and male players (they’re probably not good enough to challenge any of the top 350 in the world though). what about my other points though: give the Hooter’s guys a shot at Annika’s "cash cow" and you’d see a massive increase in the number and quality of the MALE competition. That’s part of the reason I give Vijay and his work ethic more respect than Annika and hers. Vijay REALLY paid his dues in the golfing backwaters to get to where he is, a LOT of males want to be PRO golfers; if you look at the women’s tours in golf and tennis you see a few Annika’s, William’s sisters, Steffi Graf’s, and Martina Navratilova’s but then you see a LOT of REALLY high paid "athletes" who just aren’t willing to pay the price that a male player has to to get to the big show or to stay there: Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, Laura Davies, Monica Seles, etc. are all multi-millionaire women athletes who don’t even have a thimbleful of the stuff that Mike Weir and Vijay are made of. Seles spent two years away from her tour due to unfortunate circumstances and her first tournament back she got to the finals of a major while playing at 20 lbs. above her best playing weight. she never again put in the type of work necessary to contend in the majors yet she was still content to cash her fat cheques beating up on the less talented and not too hard working members of the rest of the ladies tour. Agassi spent a few MONTHS away from the men’s tour and the next thing you knew he was fighting for his ATP tour life: forced to play his way back up through the satellite ranks … For a comparison look at the difference between the careers of Laura Davies and John Daly. Laura can get by with just her talent: she wins majors and contends whenever she wants to without ever practicing; Daly who has considerably more talent (consider Daly’s putting, wedge game, etc.). He has never been able to sustain his career for any length of time "just on talent" alone. He set up a practice facility in AZ just to "get it all back" and he’s still struggling. Laura goes on gambling junkets coincident with her LPGA travels and still contends WHEREVER she chooses to play.
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In her own words, she was in way over her head, and will never do this again. Also, in her owns words, she said she is going back where she belongs – on the ladies tour. The best female player in the world is not competitive on the mens’ tour. She has an endearing personality though.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – She was in position to make the cut until halfway through today’s round. I think a lot of people expected her to shoot a combined 160 or worse. As it was, she shot 145 and missed the cut by only four shots. Tom Smith Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. [...] In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. She was in 96th place, ahead of just 11 other players. How is that being competetive? Jack — aka Keet Visit my web page at http://junior.apk.net/~jac/ * If you post a followup, -DO NOT- email me a copy of it! * Top-posters are generally ignored
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Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal.
I have trouble believing she was close to last in fairways and greens hit based on her first day. Remember too with longer courses she’d have two extra par fives to make birdies on. So maybe longer might actually mean shorter as far as playability. One important item pointed out on the golf channel was that she is basically a straight hitter where the tour often demands that you shape your shot. Hogan pointed this out especially about Colonial. Annika’s good but the guys playing the PGA tour are really special. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. She didn’t embarrass herself this week, although she could have played better. The weak point in her game was her putting. This is where a man’s physical advantages over a woman would be at their least. She did prove that she can be competitive on the men’s tour, although she needs a lot of help in her putting. If she had practice on the type of green conditions she was facing, she could have easily made the cut. As it was, she left way too many strokes out there, especially between five and fifteen feet of the hole. While the weekend warriors (like me) should shoot to be close to the pin except within ten feet, most professional golfers should strive to make puts within twenty feet of the hole if they have any hopes of getting paid for their ability. Another fault with Annika was that she played for par. While this is a good strategy if you are up three strokes on the final hole of a major championship (remember John Van de Veld at the 1999 British Open?), this will not produce wins on the PGA tour, either men’s or women’s. In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. — Tom Smith "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"
– You are in control until you are out of control.
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Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. She didn’t embarrass herself this week, although she could have played better. The weak point in her game was her putting.
… no matter how hard you try, the choking’s gotta let out somewhere. And there it did. The way she came off the first few holes, sinking a 15′ putt, looking like she was on the verge of conquering the men’s game as well as the women’s game, it was absolutely breathtaking. For a while, it really looked like a woman was going to win it all or come close (as she would have: she missed all the 5′9" – 15′ putts after that first triumph, together which would have put her down to 66, just 2 strokes behind). What happened, you might wonder after the first couple holes? Well, I feel so guilty, I have to let it off my chest now. You see, I just couldn’t help it, my hands started going to my throat and I started making gagging sounds, while cheering her on with "Choke! Choke! Choke!" Now, you gotta understand. This is not something I can do for light cause, for I am aware of the devastating consequences it can have. The last time I really lost control was in the ’90’s. There was this female figure skater who had just come off winning the national championship. There she was, looking so talented, so pretty and graceful, that I just had to do it. The hands went to the throat, and I lost control. "Choke! Choke! Choke!" and pretty soon, she tripped and fell over, stumbling to the ice. But once wasn’t enough. Once she got up and started again, then again with the gagging sounds and "Choke! Choke! Choke!" … and again she fell to the ice. Oh, the pleasure of it all. Again, she got up and skated some more, and I again I went with the gagging sounds and "Choke! Choke!"; and again she tripped over herself and fell on the ice. She was devastated beyond description, practically crying her way off the ice. And I was practically welling up with tears of joy. But it didn’t stop there. The depths to while she fell afterwards are absolutely breathtaking. In later competitions, her confidence was so shaken that they say she actually tried to fix the outcome of one. She was a whining mess on the middle of the ice in the Olympics later on. She descended yet further, eventually living in a trailer park and taking on cheap gigs and … oh I can hardly bring myself to say it … actual FOX TV SPECIALS!!! A person who has to resort to this must surely have been traumatized for life. You can’t sink any lower than that! And that woman was … TONYA HARDING!!! And I admit, I occasionally like watching game shows like the Price is Right — not to see them win, but to enjoy watching them blow it when they do. A really happy day for me is those rare occasions when there’s a double overbid in the showcase and nobody wins anything. I’ve even thought about going on one of those winner-takes-all reality TV shows. My goal would be to win: but not to win in order to win prizes, but rather to win in order to keep everyone else from winning anything; and then to outright refuse the prizes so that nobody wins anything at all. It’s not winning the game that’s fun. It’s making everybody else lose that’s the real fun. So, you must understand, what when *I* say "Choke! Choke!", it is a very serious matter indeed. And for the woman golfer, it just went downhill from there. 71 the first round, then bogey after bogey the second round, leaving the field in tears. Oh, it was so beautiful to watch. I can only ponder what the future now holds for her. I don’t think she’ll ever be able to compete again — not even on the LPGA. I’m so very sorry.
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Doesn’t matter, she was a mile from the hole. That’s where distance into the green matters. Nobody is going to make birdies putting from 30 feet most of the time. Of course, she wasn’t always 30 feet from the hole. She missed a number of makeable birdie putts. Look at her average distance to the hole for each yardage grouping that I posted here a couple of days ago. Assuming you mean the "Annika’s Stats" thread, I see that for 36 holes, she had 606 ft, an average of 16.8 feet. That ranked 107th, but somehow, her "Average Distance to pin, hitting from" different distances were 99th, 36th, 40th, 37th, and 82nd. She was above average — against PGA tour pros — from 125-200 yards and suffered from outside 200 and inside 125. Are these approach shots only (ie, the par-minus-two stroke)? Any idea how many of each she had? Seems like I remember most of her approach shots being in the 125-200 yard range — only on the two par fours would she get within 125 for her approach. Yes, that’s the thread. From what I understood, this was all approach shots to the green, not just GIR, for example. I didn’t jot down how many of each there were, however.
That’s the problem — they have an "under 125 yards" section that’s vastly different for Sorenstam than for the other PGA pros. I don’t know what Annika’s shortest approach shot was, but it might have been more than 100 yards. Many of the PGA pros could go at the greens on par-fives in two, leaving them chips for their "approach shots". It’s not surprising that Sorenstam did so poorly in "under 125 yards", since she likely didn’t have the benefit of hitting little chips to the green. Doug — ___, Doug Massey, ASIC Digital Logic Designer o IBM Microelectronics Division, Burlington, Vermont | | Phone: (802)769-7095 t/l: 446-7095 fax: x6752 | / | . My homepage: http://doug.obscurestuff.com (|)
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Doesn’t matter, she was a mile from the hole. That’s where distance into the green matters. Nobody is going to make birdies putting from 30 feet most of the time. Of course, she wasn’t always 30 feet from the hole. She missed a number of makeable birdie putts. Look at her average distance to the hole for each yardage grouping that I posted here a couple of days ago. Assuming you mean the "Annika’s Stats" thread, I see that for 36 holes, she had 606 ft, an average of 16.8 feet. That ranked 107th, but somehow, her "Average Distance to pin, hitting from" different distances were 99th, 36th, 40th, 37th, and 82nd. She was above average — against PGA tour pros — from 125-200 yards and suffered from outside 200 and inside 125. Are these approach shots only (ie, the par-minus-two stroke)? Any idea how many of each she had? Seems like I remember most of her approach shots being in the 125-200 yard range — only on the two par fours would she get within 125 for her approach.
Yes, that’s the thread. From what I understood, this was all approach shots to the green, not just GIR, for example. I didn’t jot down how many of each there were, however.
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal. "Dude", she hit 66.7% of her greens. Doesn’t matter, she was a mile from the hole. That’s where distance into the green matters. Nobody is going to make birdies putting from 30 feet most of the time.
Of course, she wasn’t always 30 feet from the hole. She missed a number of makeable birdie putts. Look at her average distance to the hole for each yardage grouping that I posted here a couple of days ago.
Assuming you mean the "Annika’s Stats" thread, I see that for 36 holes, she had 606 ft, an average of 16.8 feet. That ranked 107th, but somehow, her "Average Distance to pin, hitting from" different distances were 99th, 36th, 40th, 37th, and 82nd. She was above average — against PGA tour pros — from 125-200 yards and suffered from outside 200 and inside 125. Are these approach shots only (ie, the par-minus-two stroke)? Any idea how many of each she had? Seems like I remember most of her approach shots being in the 125-200 yard range — only on the two par fours would she get within 125 for her approach. So this seems to boil down to distance. From outside 200 yards, she’s not long enough to get the ball close enough. And on par-fives, her approach is from 100-125 yards (whereas other players might be hitting from 80 or closer — maybe even already around the green). I guess I’d need to know more about how those stats were gathered before passing any judgment. To me the problem still seems to be (a) she wasn’t long enough to give herself a lot of chances for birdies, and (b) she putted like crap. And it’s 80% (b). When the big problem that a player had was that he or she didn’t putt well, that’s an indication that they might be able to compete the next week. Putting comes and goes; two rounds doesn’t tell me that a person is a great or a weak putter. (Her play on the LPGA indicates that she actually *is* a weak putter, though. Too bad.) Doug — ___, Doug Massey, ASIC Digital Logic Designer o IBM Microelectronics Division, Burlington, Vermont | | Phone: (802)769-7095 t/l: 446-7095 fax: x6752 | / | . My homepage: http://doug.obscurestuff.com (|)
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Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal. "Dude", she hit 66.7% of her greens.
Doesn’t matter, she was a mile from the hole. That’s where distance into the green matters. Nobody is going to make birdies putting from 30 feet most of the time. Look at her average distance to the hole for each yardage grouping that I posted here a couple of days ago.
Response:
Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal.
"Dude", she hit 66.7% of her greens. I don’t know what ranking that was after two days, but it would be T44 (out of 76) for the four rounds. Tee to green wasn’t the problem, and I think she had enough chances to make four or five birdies in the first two rounds. She putted very poorly, though. Doug — ___, Doug Massey, ASIC Digital Logic Designer o IBM Microelectronics Division, Burlington, Vermont | | Phone: (802)769-7095 t/l: 446-7095 fax: x6752 | / | . My homepage: http://doug.obscurestuff.com (|)
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Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. [...] In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. She was in 96th place, ahead of just 11 other players. How is that being competetive?
Someone has to finish 96th. "Competitive" doesn’t mean "in the top ten" or "making the cut" or something like that (to me, anyway). It means shooting a score that’s representative of the field in general. 81-84 would not have been competitive. 71-74 is. Doug — ___, Doug Massey, ASIC Digital Logic Designer o IBM Microelectronics Division, Burlington, Vermont | | Phone: (802)769-7095 t/l: 446-7095 fax: x6752 | / | . My homepage: http://doug.obscurestuff.com (|)
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Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. She didn’t embarrass herself this week, although she could have played better. The weak point in her game was her putting. This is where a man’s physical advantages over a woman would be at their least. She did prove that she can be competitive on the men’s tour, although she needs a lot of help in her putting. If she had practice on the type of green conditions she was facing, she could have easily made the cut. As it was, she left way too many strokes out there, especially between five and fifteen feet of the hole. While the weekend warriors (like me) should shoot to be close to the pin except within ten feet, most professional golfers should strive to make puts within twenty feet of the hole if they have any hopes of getting paid for their ability. Another fault with Annika was that she played for par. While this is a good strategy if you are up three strokes on the final hole of a major championship (remember John Van de Veld at the 1999 British Open?), this will not produce wins on the PGA tour, either men’s or women’s. In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. — Tom Smith "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"
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She was in position to make the cut until halfway through today’s round. I think a lot of people expected her to shoot a combined 160 or worse. As it was, she shot 145 and missed the cut by only four shots. Tom Smith
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. [...] In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. She was in 96th place, ahead of just 11 other players. How is that being competetive? Jack — aka Keet Visit my web page at http://junior.apk.net/~jac/ * If you post a followup, -DO NOT- email me a copy of it! * Top-posters are generally ignored
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Statistics only tell a part of the story. She was playing very conservatively and never really took any risks.
So she was playing conservatively and still ended up near the bottom in GIR.. ok…. While she was one of the furthest away from the pin, she really wasn’t trying to be close to it.
LOL! This is rich. yeah, she probably figured if she was too close, people would EXPECT her to make birdies! The pin placements were much more difficult than she was used to. Also, she was playing for much tougher green conditions.
No kidding She was always just trying for par, and never really trying for anything better.
Yes, no kidding. When you have 30 foot putts for birdie, you’re not going to make too many of them. Also, she was at or under the cut line until she finished the 8th hole today. Her downfall was definitely her putter, although she could have played more aggressively and had better stats, especially on her approach shots.
You guys are reading too much into her putting. How difficult is it to understand that when you don’t hit the ball far off the tee, you have longer irons into the greens, and you have longer putts for birdie, therefore you have more putts?
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You guys are reading too much into her putting. How difficult is it to understand that when you don’t hit the ball far off the tee, you have longer irons into the greens, and you have longer putts for birdie, therefore you have more putts?
I agree with that point. Also, she had to use longer, less accurate clubs to accomidate her game. That said, she came in with a stated goal of shooting par. When was the last tournament you saw that anyone finisned with a score of even par and didn’t have to make a long distance phone call to reach the leaderboard? (The U.S. Open is one exception to this, but then again, they try to be evil when they set up a U.S. Open course.) Tom Smith
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal. I agree totally. I’m extremely happy that she did not make the cut. Her participation in this tourney was handed to her on a silver platter rather than on merit. All in all, this may well have been the most overhyped sporting event of this year.
Exactly, turn this around and allow some Hooter’s tour, Sr. tour, mini tour, Asian tour, and good male Ams to play in some of the LPGA events and you’ll see how quickly they try to put the genie back in the bottle. As I predicted in another golf forum months ago, the guys who finished behind Annika would be held up to ridicule, never mind the fact that they would all be Grand Slammers on the LPGA tour if given the opportunity. Think of it this way, if Perk’s plays the LPGA tour full time he goes from a one trick pony Player’s Championship winner to a world famous star overnight, contending in every event, never missing a cut, etc. Rather than needing that P. C. win at Sawgrass to hold onto his card for the next few years, he’d become a millionaire contender, heir apparent to being the next "big thing" in women’s golf. Heck, he’d be the "scariest" and "longest" player in women’s history, an endorsement Queen/King if ever there was one, etc., etc. 
… Annika’s status in the "men’s" game is made possible by her having been afforded a "protected" LPGA environment in which to develop her game. Numerous male players of Annika’s demonstrated "ability" have never achieved anything much of note in golf. In all likelihood they DON’T have ANY PGA credentials thanks to the fact that they were forced into starting their pro careers with the men’s tour school: failing multiple times there and in the Monday qualifiers, while bankrupting themselves, and then running back to school or the golf shop. Annika comes to the men’s tour with a level of confidence and status that’s far disproportionate to her actual status in the "men’s" game. A relevant question that’s seldom asked is how Annika would do if forced to start out on the men’s tour without having been bootstrapped on the ladie’s tour. Not only that, as a "male" player she’s being treated to a first class experience at a historic PGA tour venue, something that NEVER happens for the journeyman male pro: heck, her own locker room, huge gallery, etc. When was the last time someone finished 96th, missed the cut, and still received a hero’s welcome. Imagine how Duffy Waldorf would play if he was treated to the (Waldorf) Astoria experience in every event he played. He’d go from Duffy to Lance overnight, if he didn’t die from the shock of actually having the gallery and the TV camera men pulling for him while he was in 96th place: as a fan of legends like Watson, Faldo, Norman, and Price, I’ve seen numerous telecasts of the Majors where you won’t even see any of them hit a single shot in anger if they’re not within 7 strokes of Tiger. Heck there might even be enough in Duffy’s gallery to move those Tigeresque non-rooted boulders: … Duff would be the next big thing in golf too, taking over from Tim Herron and Tiger.
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Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal.
I agree totally. I’m extremely happy that she did not make the cut. Her participation in this tourney was handed to her on a silver platter rather than on merit. All in all, this may well have been the most overhyped sporting event of this year.
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Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. She didn’t embarrass herself this week, although she could have played better. The weak point in her game was her putting. This is where a man’s physical advantages over a woman would be at their least. She did prove that she can be competitive on the men’s tour, although she needs a lot of help in her putting. If she had practice on the type of green conditions she was facing, she could have easily made the cut. As it was, she left way too many strokes out there, especially between five and fifteen feet of the hole. While the weekend warriors (like me) should shoot to be close to the pin except within ten feet, most professional golfers should strive to make puts within twenty feet of the hole if they have any hopes of getting paid for their ability. Another fault with Annika was that she played for par. While this is a good strategy if you are up three strokes on the final hole of a major championship (remember John Van de Veld at the 1999 British Open?), this will not produce wins on the PGA tour, either men’s or women’s. In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. — Tom Smith "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"
Response:
Statistics only tell a part of the story. She was playing very conservatively and never really took any risks. While she was one of the furthest away from the pin, she really wasn’t trying to be close to it. The pin placements were much more difficult than she was used to. Also, she was playing for much tougher green conditions. She was always just trying for par, and never really trying for anything better. Also, she was at or under the cut line until she finished the 8th hole today. Her downfall was definitely her putter, although she could have played more aggressively and had better stats, especially on her approach shots. Tom Smith
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dude, she was at the bottom of the barrell in almost every statistical category. She did well in accuracy but when you’re last in driving and have to hit long irons into the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of good birdie putts. Just imagine how she’s do on a much longer course. It would be brutal. Well, everyone has their own thoughts on Annika, so I thought I would weigh in with mine. She didn’t embarrass herself this week, although she could have played better. The weak point in her game was her putting. This is where a man’s physical advantages over a woman would be at their least. She did prove that she can be competitive on the men’s tour, although she needs a lot of help in her putting. If she had practice on the type of green conditions she was facing, she could have easily made the cut. As it was, she left way too many strokes out there, especially between five and fifteen feet of the hole. While the weekend warriors (like me) should shoot to be close to the pin except within ten feet, most professional golfers should strive to make puts within twenty feet of the hole if they have any hopes of getting paid for their ability. Another fault with Annika was that she played for par. While this is a good strategy if you are up three strokes on the final hole of a major championship (remember John Van de Veld at the 1999 British Open?), this will not produce wins on the PGA tour, either men’s or women’s. In summary, I think Annika achieved her goals, that being to prove that she could be competitive on the men’s tour. — Tom Smith "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"