Process and Spot

Those, of course, would be the Champion Golfer of the Year's trigger words... good ones at that.  But before we get to to the Boy King, let me share a few pixels about Sergio and Rickie.  

I'll take a quick bow for making Sergio my long-shot pick at the Open, though I'll need to give props to Mark W. for not calling BS on that pick, as how the No. 9 ranked player in the world qualifies as a long-shot is, to be charitable, iffy.  I wasn't quite as kind when he suggested Victor Dubuisson as his Masters long-shot after the match play, but as we say here at Unplayable Lies, "Bygones."  But I have a bit of history with Sergio, as I correctly predicted seven of his previous Open Championship wins. 

Not too long ago Sergio famously said he wasn't good enough to win a major, but he certainly didn't play like that this week.  This is from the AP (probably Doug Ferguson):

Sergio Garcia doffed his cap, patted his heart and blew kisses to the crowd surrounding the

18th green at Royal Liverpool after clinching what ultimately would be a fourth second-place finish at a major. 

Another close call on golf's highest stage, but there were no tears or regrets this time. 

Just pride at ensuring this was no runaway for winner Rory McIlroy at the British Open. 

"Everyone looks at a second (place) and they want to make it a negative. Not at all," Garcia said. "I did almost everything I could."

Sergio has always been a ball-striking machine.  If there were a measure of lag in a golf swing his would be the gold standard, and he's just long and straight, never a bad thing.

But of course he always had that chip on his shoulder and was always moaning about this or that injustice or bad break.  As everyone noted, he appears to be in a happy place and he just might pick off a major yet.  Yesterday's 66 was awfully impressive, and he gave himself a chance.  

He'll take some grief for leaving the ball in the bunker on No. 15, but that's what happens when you're trying to hit a perfect shot.  And actually, as Curtis nailed it his real mistake was hitting PW off the tee.  I'm not the biggest fan of Strange as a commentator, but this one he got exactly right and was timely with it.  In wind conditions you don't want to be trying to kill clubs, especially those with loft, because you end up shooting the ball up into the elements.  It's, as they say, elementary...

As for the Orange Man, I'm becoming a believer.  Rickie has long been one of those cases where the hype has been way out of proportion to the performance.  And as much as we all noted his high finishes earlier this year at Augusta and Pinehurst, Beth Ann Nichols rounds out the report card:

Fowler’s primary focus in 2014 was the majors. While he’s missed the cut in seven PGA Tour events this season, the easygoing former Oklahoma State Cowboy has hit the mark so far with the majors. He’s the only Tour player to have finished in the top five in the season’s first three majors.Tiger Woods was the last person to record top-10 finishes in the first three majors, in 2005.

Anybody know what happened to that Woods guy?  We'll get to that later....

I was just really impressed with his play all four days, and thought he looked remarkably confident with the putter.  He knew they were going in, we knew and he knew that we knew...or something like that.

And can I add that it was nice seeing him dressed mostly like an adult yesterday.  I know I'm not the target

 demo, but the head-to-toe orange is getting old...  I'm still not a fan of the hats and Fu Manchu, and I've no idea what he sees when he passes a mirror, but at least the dark pants make him look more than 15.

As for the winner, Rory might have a decent career after all.  He was hitting on all cylinders for most of the week, driving it long and reasonably straight, and making miles of putts.  The Open website doesn't seem to have player stats, but I'd love to see where he ended in strokes gained-putting.

I wasn't particularly surprised that it tightened up yesterday.  I was listening to the Golf Channel talking heads on Saturday night and they were all predicting that he'd extend his lead.  By now the reader will have intuited that I have a well-developed contrarian streak, and have learned from experience that golf is rarely linear.  And, perhaps most importantly, I knew the guys chasing were playing well, and didn't expect them to go away.

I have to say that his drive off No. 1, including the fact that he hit driver when most didn't and that he piped it down the middle, was quite the statement.  Of course there were hiccups, but he never seemed to change his walking pace or facial expression, and seemed at all times under control.

With the benefit of hindsight he won this Open with his Saturday finish, exactly the stretch of holes on which I experienced Tivo Interruptus.  Proof positive that there is no God, but we soldier on...  But his play on the inbound nine was quite interesting, mostly showing that he's finally adapting.  For instance, on the Par-3 13th, he hit his typical moon-ball iron up into the wind which just killed it.  But on No. 14 he hit the kind of sawed-off low-flight 7-iron that he's needed since forever, the kind of shot you'd think they'd issue with passports in Norther Ireland.  The, just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he did it again with a 9-iron on No. 15, where Sergio had tried to force a pitching wedge.

I also loved how he handled the heckler on the 16th tee, calmly pointing the offending buffoon out to the authorities and getting on with his game.  Speaking of hecklers, Shackelford has a fun post covering the various ledes golf writers used in their game stories.  Who knew it would include a bonus Neil Diamond reference:

Sweet Caroline was the chant emanating from a few boozed-up spectators when Rory McIlroy

reached the first tee on Sunday.

By the time he got to the 18th green, his face a picture of rapture, it was abundantly clear he had composed his own response, for good times never felt so good. So good.

Admit it, you've got a few bars of Sweet Caroline running through your brain.  That was Derek Lawrenson from the Daily Mail, and well-played at that.  

And speaking of Sweet Caroline, there was this:

Caroline Wozniacki overpowered second-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-1 Sunday to win the Istanbul Cup final and clinch her first WTA title of the year and 22nd overall.

And she also seems to have change her Twitter picture to something more conventional, so perhaps we can move on.  I'm of course crushed, because when I'm forced to relinquish a recurring gag I have to come up with original content, and that takes effort.  Of course, we can always fall back on Donald Trump wild hair pictures in a pinch...

A couple of last random thoughts and I'll let you get on with your day.

First, how cool were those drop zones?  I know, how big a dweeb is your humble blogger, gushing about drop zones?  But I've long been uncomfortable with the bail-outs provided to professional golfers in accommodating the accouterments of  spectators and television.  I can't remember a similar set-up in tournament golf, but the R&A took what I thought was a forehead-slapping, light bulb-over-the-head position.  Mr. Professional Golfer, they said, you can bail into the grandstand, but your drop is going to be in the same conditions as that from which you bailed.  I loved it.

Lastly, I owe you a Ryder Cup update post, but seems to me that the Euros had a bit of a shake-up this week.  First and foremost, how about seeing Robert Karlsson back from the dead.  This is a guy who not long ago looked like he was headed for a monster career, then suddenly couldn't take the club back.  I'm not quite clear on exactly what the condition was, as it's usually described as "full-swing yips," which if it's not an oxymoron should be.  

In addition to the Swede, players such as Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry and the Italians certainly helped themselves.  For those keeping score, Edoardo ended up as low Molinari, but we were also treated to the return of the Most Mysterious Man in Golf, Victor Dubuisson.  Obviously we had some fun earlier with Joost Luitten going the opposite direction, but they're going to have quite the strong team.

I should also note that I loved the Gerry McIlroy bet story.  For anyone in a coma the last few days, here's the background:

You may have heard of the £400 (now $680) bet Gerry McIlroy placed on son Rory 10 years ago to win the British Open before the age of 26.

What I love about the story is that he placed the bet with three of his mates.  Obviously no one named McIlroy needs the cash, but I'll bet the three friends can use it.  

Then there's the forlorn Tiger, who appropriately was in the locker room before Rory even teed off.  Jeff Ritter had this perspective:

Seven months ago the upcoming set of major venues, now three-quarters complete, looked hand-picked for Woods. He had won titles on three of the four courses and was fresh off a turn-back-the-clock five-win season. It’s easy to forget those five Ws today, isn’t it?

Those of you with us from the get-go might remember that I dismantled the sill notion of the favorable venues here.   Here' my three favorite data points from the week:

• Tiger hit more fairways than Rory, all you need to know to appreciate how irrelevant that stat has become in the modern "bomb-and-gouge game;
• Tom Watson has more FedEx Cup points than Tiger (more on that below);
• Gerry McIlroy is cashing a bigger check than Tiger.

This exposes the profound silliness of the FedEx Cup and our Uncle Tim's delusions of grandeur.  In building his season-ending, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain edifice complex, he's managed to exclude the one player that actually moves the needle.  Well done, Sir!.  

Obviously the Tour rues the day that in separating from the PGA of America they tossed them the Ryder Cup, an event of little importance at the time.  Little did they know it would evolve into the most compelling event in golf, not to mention one of the more lucrative.  

But as of now Tiger has two more events, the Bridgestone and PGA, at which he can tee it up.  He needs to do something special at one of those just to get into the Barclays, and will need to keep being special to be in the field as the silly FedEx Cup meanders on.  But it puts Captain Watson in a heck of a pickle, as he might well have to decide whether to give Tiger a Captain's pick, when the guy will not be playing in the month leading up to the event.  No worries, it's not like he looked rusty or anything.