No doubt you'll have CBS on later, if only for the blimp shots. Just a word to the wise, your remote has a mute button, so unless you've a weakness for has-been CBS sitcom stars, use it. You'll thank me later...
A Pebble In My Shoe - It's quite the cluttered leaderboard at the turn:
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – And once you make your way through the co-leaders, BrandtSnedeker and Matt Jones, and the guy solo third, Justin Hicks, what do you have at the 36-hole mark of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am?
How ‘bout we call it “Ten at 10.” A whopping 10 players sitting tied for fourth at 10-under 133.
Pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down, relax and study the list. Likely you’ve heard of Billy Horschel, who fired 65 at Spyglass Hill Friday. And perhaps you’ve heard of three other names, for each has won on the PGA Tour - Chesson Hadley (69 at Spyglass), Charlie Beljan (63 at par-71 Monterey Peninsula), and Chez Reavie (66 at MP). But you might need introductions to the other six names, as two are rookies (Jon Curran, tournament-low at Spyglass at 64, and Daniel Berger, 66 at MP), and the other four (Michael Putnam, 64 at MP; Alex Prugh, 68 at Pebble Beach; Will Wilcox, 67 at Spyglass; David Hearn, 66 at MP.)
A 65 at Spyglass is sick, though there isn't so much as a hint of a breeze. John Daly, my favorite sponsor exemption recipient, had folks talking after his opening round 65 at Pebble, but his regression to the mean well underway (he's at Spyglass today, so thanks for playing, John). I guess I can't be too hard on the AT&T folks for violating my #nomoresponsorsexemptions hashtag, since not many A-listers show up.
Kudos to little-known Mark Hubbard for catching the spirit of the week:
You've got a better place to propose marriage to your girlfriend than the sun-splashed
#shesaid yes. Though, for the record, first guy to use that was Rory... 18th green at Pebble Beach Golf Links?
At the conclusion of your round in the world’s most popular pro-am?
The brilliance of the Pacific Ocean crashing just below in Stillwater Cove?
Mark Hubbard couldn’t think of one, so there he was Thursday afternoon, his round of level-par 72 in the books, reaching into his golf bag not to deposit his golf glove and tees, but to retrieve a little something for Meghan McCurley.
Apparently he arranged to be in the last group so they wouldn't get a bad time.... a shame he couldn't arrange to be at Pebble today for V-Day. And lastly, this guy is having a great week:
No question about it. The rock star during the first day of the AT&T National Pro-Am was not rock star Huey Lewis.Nor was it movie star Bill Murray. Nor was it baseball star Buster Posey or Giants' teammate Matt Cain, although each did his best to entertain the crowds in their own way. In Murray's case, this involved yanking at least one gallery member under the ropes by the leg to give her an up-close view of his chip shot.But, no, the real rock star Thursday was Stewart Williams. His name may not be familiar to you. He is the PGA Tour's contracted on-site meteorologist. And he is having a week that could be called, in technical and scientific terms: "Hella amazing, dude."
Wither Tiger? - Tiger is taking some heat for his trip to Beaver Creek to see his sweetie compete...
That's a little silly, as clearing his head can't be a bad idea...To me the only legitimate reason to second guess his decision is that the skull face mask seems to have gone missing.
But everyone has something to add to the subject, so let's briefly scan the ticker. Eamon Lynch thinks we may be witnessing the end of Tiger's career:
A decade ago, Jack Nicklaus birdied the last hole of his career at the British Open in St. Andrews, a sentimental moment that obscured the fact that Nicklaus had notched only two top 10s in majors in the previous 18 years. But at least Jack signed off with a birdie on golf’s greatest stage. Ben Hogan hobbled off the course after a front nine 44 in the 1971 Houston Open. “Don’t ever get old, boys,” he told his playing partners as he faded away.
If the leave of absence that Tiger Woods announced on Wednesday represents the end -- we are past being able to shade it as merely the beginning of a distant end -- then the indignities that golf has foisted upon him of late have been especially harsh.
Well, they're pushing back against the LOA concept, so I'm guessing he'll live to chunk again...Even the venerable Wall Street Journal is in the mix, with this from golf columnist John Paul Newport:
“Four ways of looking at the Tiger meltdown.” “The fourth view,” Newport writes, “is that Woods’s problems are overwhelmingly of the mind. He’s lost his mojo. His confidence is shot. To some degree this view subsumes the others…However deep you want to wade into psychology, it’s noteworthy that most of the golf commentators who were once players themselves emphasize it in their analyses of Woods.”
Or he just needs more reps to get his feels back...and this from another unlikely source:
“Tiger Woods is not taking a break from the PGA Tour to fix a hitch in his golf swing. He’s taking a break to fix the hitch in his head. The issue is not so much how to hit the golf ball but whether he wants to hit it at all. When a guy who famously hates public life gives formal media interviews about his ‘deactivated glutes,’ you get the feeling he’s looking for an out. Translation: ‘I think I’d like to go home and sit for a while,’
We all wanna check out at times...no one looks like they're having fun when they miss the cut by 15 strokes. And from Scott Reid in the OCR:
Woods’ woes still leave him four major championships behind Jack Nicklaus, but thegap seems wider than ever. “With Woods so far unable to catch Nicklaus and unlikely to do so when or if he returns from his indefinite leave from golf, it is time to reconsider Nicklaus, still the leader in the clubhouse.
He made winning them look easy through 2008. But as I've been saying for a while, he needs to have two hall-of-fame careers from now until he hangs it up, and slim left town in about 2011.
But speaking of unlikely sources, this tweet came from NFL licker Josh Scobee:
Scobee is apparently quite the good stick, Lord knows those kickers have lots of time to work on their games. Luke Kerr-Dineen rounds up all the responses on Twitter, to which I can only say that if you feel compelled to defend Tiger on Twitter you might have bigger issues in your life. This was Scobee's last word on the subject:
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Regrets, I've Had a Few - It certainly didn't hurt him professionally, but one can only wonder whether this causes any regrets from World No. 1:
Last week, when Rory McIlroy settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with his former management company, many of the details were kept secret. Meanwhile, his former fiancée Caroline Wozniacki was keeping a secret, too: she would soon be featured within the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
Probably not, judging from the babeage that's been seen on his arm lately...though new clouds have appeared on the horizon for our leading man:
United Kingdom newspapers are reporting that McIlroy and Graeme McDowell areamong several athletes who “could face hefty bills after they invested in schemes being probed over tax avoidance claims,” the Mirror wrote. “HM Revenue and Customs is investigating if the programmes unfairly exploited incentives designed to boost run-down city centres, under which investors could claim tax relief.”HM Revenue and Customs is the United Kingdom’s tax authority, its version of the IRS.
“Top golfers McIlroy and Graeme McDowell…were among the investors who ploughed a total of at least £10million into a project on Stanley Dock, Liverpool,” the Mirror reported. “HM Revenue and Customs is investigating if the programmes unfairly exploited incentives designed to boost run-down city centres, under which investors could claim tax relief.”
Given Graeme's invlovement, a fairly obvious question left unanswered is whether this investment came through Connor Ridge and Horizon Management, with whom Rory just settled.
Happy Birthday To The Mick - Golf's Mick, that is and Bill Fields does the honor on the legend's 80th birthday:
"She was the best I've ever seen, man or woman," said Kathy Whitworth, whose 88 career victories are the most on the LPGA or PGA tours. "I've had the privilege of playing with Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and all of them. And some of our ladies had wonderful golf swings. But nobody hit it like Mickey, just nobody. She had 82 wins, but she would have won over 100 with no trouble if she had stayed on tour."
But when it comes to Wright, what might have been is trumped by what was.
That's a fitting tribute, but how cute is this?
Wright doesn't watch as much professional golf on television as she once did, unenthused as she is with what is often demanded (or not) of today's elite. "Driver and a wedge, driver and wedge. It gets a little old," she said. "It does not seem that interesting to me anymore. I like Martin Kaymer. Who else gets my attention? The guy with the great build who took his pants off and went in the water -- Henrik Stenson, that's right. I like him. Oh, I'll tell you somebody who impresses me: Lucy Li."
Li, the 12-year-old Californian who qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women's Open at the record age of 11 and impressed with her performance at Pinehurst No. 2 Course, has become more than an image on Wright's TV and score on her computer.
"She got my email address from somebody at the USGA and we've been corresponding some for about six months now," Wright said. "She had read my instruction book quite a few times, and she had her aunt take some video of her swing and send it to me. I made a couple of comments which she seemed to take to. I mentioned a couple of technical points, but the main thing was just don't get messed up with too much instruction and keep doing what you're doing."
Would that, nay could that, happen in any other sport? Have you ever seen Mickey Wright's swing? This isn't Peter Kostis on the Konica Minolta BizHub, but it'll have to do:
Eh, big deal, she swings like a girl...
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