An unusual morning flight to Utah kept me from my appointed rounds. For those of you suffering from withdrawal anxiety, let's see if I can make it up to you:
- The Real Grand Slam - The PGA of America runs a silly event around Thanksgiving to which they invite the winners of the four majors. It used to make some sense when they held it at the spectacular Poipu Bay on Kauai, which allowed for prime time TV coverage. Now it's on Bermuda and there's about 6 people watching, which is why many of the invitees give it a miss.
Someone managed to get the four 2013 major winners together, but it wasn't the PGA. All four, plus lots of additional A-list talent, showed up for Seminole Golf Club's Monday Member.-Pro. Rex Hoggard has the
envy-inducing details:
JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Rory Sabbatini, paired with amateur Hugh Kenworthy, won the gross division of the Seminole Member-Pro in a match of cards with Roberto Castro and Russell Ball, who claimed the net division title with a 59.
Sabbatini and Kenworthy carded a 61 in the annual event that draws some of the game’s top PGA Tour professionals, including all four major champions from 2013 (Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson and Jason Dufner) in the same field for the first time this year.
Rory apparently ditched Mom and Dad (not to mention the fiancee and played as well. That's quite the turnout, which obviously only a club of Seminole's stature could conceive of. But the match of cards seems a tad tacky, no?
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| The real Grand Slam - Monday at Seminole. |
Beats the heck out of the Tavistock Cup, no?
But way more exciting was the news from Tim Rosaforte on Golf Central that Arnold Palmerhit a grand opening tee shot. Rumored to have had a little health scare earlier this year, The King apparently looked awesome and hit a booming drive to get the proceedings under way. Best news I've heard all year.
Speaking of Seminole, golf-buddy and Unplayable Lies Ignorer Colin King was lucky enough to play it recently and at my request filed the following exhaustive review for the benefit of my readers:
Ambiance; without question the best. An up and down 95. Super slick greens!
Like me, I'm sure your first question of Colin was what did you shoot?
- Tiger Interruptus - Does it seem to you that Tiger withdraws due to injury more than the average bear? Alex Miceli is on the case and tells us we're dreaming...
Tiger Woods withdrew after the 13th hole on Sunday at the Honda Classic, citing a bad back. We've seen Woods, 38, walk off mid-round a few times in recent years, including twice during final rounds. But does he withdraw from events at a higher frequency than most or do we just notice more when it's him pulling out? Overall, it was the sixth WD for Woods in 297 starts on the PGA Tour. Here's how that stacks up against other players.
Alex then gives us the WD history of every player who has ever teed it up on Tour, though alarmingly he doesn't calculate the percentages for us. When I started this blog, no one said there would be math...
The issue is that four of these have been since the Escalade met the fire hydrant, and it's not like Tiger tees it up all that frequently. This is the second of such incidents with the back, and has to be a concern on team Tiger.
Before we leave Alex, he does provide us this comedy gem:
John Daly: 38 in 496 starts. Oh, plus the other million times he's done it overseas, usually after having accepted a sponsor's exemption. Don't worry, JD, you're still the gold standard.
Shackelford had a
prior post about the effect of heavy weight-lifting on golfers. Mostly he provides screen shots tweets from Paul Azinger, Hank Haney and a bunch of folks new to me about the potential ill effects. This is something I've long wondered about, as I see little benefit to the heavy weight work that Tiger and others seem enamored of. I can't see any benefit and it has to make muscles more prone to strains and tears, no?
- I'll Take the Field - Shackelford posts the latest Masters odds, as follows:
Tiger Woods 7/1
Rory McIlroy 7/1
Jason Day 12/1
Adam Scott 15/1
Phil Mickelson 15/1
Dustin Johnson 20/1
Jordan Spieth 25/1
Justin Rose 25/1
Henrik Stenson 25/1
Matt Kuchar 25/1
Bubba Watson 25/1
Jason Dufner 30/1
Charl Schwartzel 30/1
Brandt Snedeker 40/1
Lee Westwood 40/1
Keegan Bradley 40/1
Luke Donald 50/1
Louis Oosthuizen 60/1
Hunter Mahan 50/1
Sergio Garcia 40/1
Graeme McDowell 60/1
Fred Couples 125/1
Russell Henley 150/1
Shack is aghast at the lack of respect accorded Russell Henley, isn't it Freddie, based upon his consistent success at the event, who should be the beneficiary of our sympathy. I also think the world of Jordan Spieth, but he seems to be surrounded by folks who have, you know, actually won some events if not Majors.
- Babe Cashes In - Luke Kerr-Dineen has a piece at Local Knowledge about the auction of a set of clubs used by Babe Didrikson Zaharias that fetched a staggering $31,250. Here's a look at the set of clubs:
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| This pose seemed oddly familiar.... |
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| Perhaps I was unduly harsh and Caroline's pose earlier this year in Dubai was an hommage du Babe. |
- Scott, We're Talking to You - Golf Digest has published this slideshow of the 15 signs you watch too much golf on television. Getting a little personal here...
There's nothing particularly surprising or funny in it, but I felt obliged to mention it as I am the target demo.
- 18 is the New 59 - Grantland, the folks who brought us the controversial Dr. V's Magical Putter, have put out a mini-documentary on mini-golf that's worth 7 minutes of your time. It focuses on Rick Baird who shot a perfect 18, and the amazing thing is he did it during tournament play.
Rick, enjoy it while it lasts, as records are meant to be broken. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Kim Jong Un will be throwing up a 16 within hours.
- Grind This - As usual, Alex Myer's The Grind has some amusing notes to share. First up, his prop bets of the week:
-- Tiger Woods will be doing a full Navy SEALs training regimen this week: 1 million-to-1 odds
-- Golfers will be mostly complimentary about the new "Blue Monster": Even odds
-- Donald Trump will declare Trump National's Doral Blue Course the best of its kind: LOCK
He also shorts Brandon de Jonge short in his weekly buying/selling feature, filling in these details:
Brendon de Jonge: Through three holes of Saturday's third round, de Jonge was at 12 under and just a shot behind leader and playing partner Rory McIlroy. Then, golf happened. He made one birdie over the final 33 holes (he had made 17 in the first 39 holes) and shot 16 over to finish T-63. We hope the "Bear Trap" nightmares don't linger long.
Is this a great game or what? He's 12 under for his first 39 holes, and 16 over for his final 33 holes. Did his pact with the devil lapse?
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