Unplayable Lies: Midweek Musings

It was so warm here yesterday that ski-buddy Lee and I headed down to the valley to play nine holes. It was ugly golf, but golf nonetheless....

Tiger Scat - Tiger's comments at yesterday's presser have drawn some attention, most notably this back-to-the -future moment:

Q. It looked like at Innisbrook a lot of shots you were really enjoying kind of the rehearsal and kind of preparing to play the shape of the shot. Is that something that has

come back about at the pace you thought you would, the creativity and then also do you, are you looking forward to Augusta in part because it allows you to kind of be more creative?

TIGER WOODS: You know, I finally have gotten to the point where my back is good enough where I can let my hands tell me what to do. My hands tell me how to shape a golf shot. And I've built this golf swing that you see me out there swinging the golf club around, with my hands. My dad always used to say that that's the only thing we have direct contact with the club, so trust your hands. Playing baseball as a kid, you have to trust your hands, you trust your eyes, you trust your hands. So that's what I've done, I've trusted my hands again. My right arm and neck aren't shaking because my back's out, my nerve's out, and it's inflamed, I don't have those issues anymore. So I can trust my hands again. So, yeah, you see me creating shots and doing different things and, yeah, I'm trying to see what trajectory, what shape I want to do it and I'm letting these guys tell me what to do.

Hmmmm.... didn't letting his hands tell him what to do cause a spot of bother back in '09?

Q. Is that more fun way to play the game for you too?

TIGER WOODS: It is. I've gone back to a lot of stuff I used to do with my dad and how he first taught me how to play golf and when I sit -- after the round I told Rex after the round he asked, what were you thinking on the putt on 17 and I said, just putt to the picture. How do you teach a kid when he's so small and he doesn't understand an inch and a mile, well you take a look and you putt to that picture and that's what I did. I kept telling myself just putt to the picture, putt to the picture and I holed it.

Ummmm...I have a follow-up question. Did he not try to putt to the picture on No. 18, yanno the one that would ave gotten him into a playoff?

Snark aside, I always felt he tended towards the over-analytical, so it is fun to watch him hitting golf shots again. But I have to believe the giddiness is mostly from being pain-free, and we can't begrudge him that.

John Huggan and Dave Shedloski compile a bunch of his peers thoughts about Tiger's prospects at the Masters, and they're predictably all over the place. Here's a small sample:

MAJOR CHAMPION: Ernie Els is the only player who has won a major before Tiger, during Tiger and after Tiger. The only one. Which tells you how Tiger beat up on that generation. There are more players now on Ernie's and Phil's level.

That you, Ernie?

TEACHER: Tiger's chances are helped if the winning score is higher than normal. But

how can you bet against Jordan Spieth on that course; Justin Thomas, the same. Then there's Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka [battling a wrist injury] and all the rest. They're all better than Tiger on that course. But I don't know if they're better than him, period. Not many of them can hit the shots Tiger can still hit. Tiger isn't Seve at the end of his career, but they are similar in that he still has shots no one else has, just like Seve did.

I've seen Jordan on four-footers recently, so I've no problem betting against him on any course, at least right now.

It's a fun exercise, for sure, but sports at its best is about the unknown, so I'm just enjoying the inability to know what might happen.

Lastly, Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyan have a forthcoming biography of Tiger to be released later this month. Golf.com has released excerpts related to Tiger's second U.S. Amateur win in 1995, and

it's an interesting moment in Tiger's development. I'll excerpt from early in the piece, but you'll want to read the entire thing:

Tiger was joined in Newport by Butch Harmon. For the past two years, Tiger had been working with the celebrated instructor to refine his swing and learn new shots. He was

Team Tiger: Butch, Caddie Jay Brunza, Earl and Tiger.

also accompanied by his father, Earl Woods, who'd shaped his son's career from when Tiger first picked up a club at just 11 months old. Not all of the guidance was helpful. Earl consistently tried to inject a racial angle into Tiger's golf narrative. Immediately after he had won his first U.S. Amateur, a year earlier, at TPC Sawgrass, Earl compared him to boxer Joe Louis. "Louis was the catalyst that gave black people pride," Earl said. "He kept us going despite all the racism. It is repeating itself now with Tiger. Black people from all over the country tell me how proud they were to watch Tiger perform in the U.S. Amateur."

When it came to social activism, Tiger didn't want to be that guy his father was always talking about. As a college kid he preferred to avoid controversy. It was tiring to always be compared to his father's heroes. Tiger's mother, Kultida, blamed her husband for putting Tiger at the mercy of unwarranted expectation and scrutiny by constantly placing her son on a pedestal. Whenever Earl told the press that Tiger was like this civil rights leader or that athlete who broke color barriers, Kultida referred to Earl's pontifications as "old man bullshit."

It's a very interesting look back, in my opinion. Earl was no doubt deserves the most credit for creating the athlete that became Tiger. But at the same time he had the understandable resentments likely typical for a black man of his generation, and at a place like Newport conflict was inevitable, especially since Earl was a bit of a drunk.

Newport was also where Earl made his eerie prediction that his son would win fourteen professionals majors.... we're still waiting to see how that prediction will pan out.

Distance Updates - I'm shocked....shocked I tell ya:

"The TaylorMade Golf Company opposes any potential roll back of product performance or bifurcation of the rules in any form as we believe these movements will be detrimental to the game at every level," Abeles said. "Any separation from the rules or any step backward in performance would be disadvantageous to the growth of the game."

Who saw that one coming?

This one is equally shocking, but with a great punchline... The results of that silly PGA of America survey are in:

Ya got that, kids? The future of our game hangs in the balance, but barely a quarter of their members took the survey seriously enough to answer. Pro tip: If those involved clicked "Delete", why should we take it seriously?

An Homage - Ironically, Sergio had never much liked Augusta National.... Of course he feels differently now.... First this traditional bit:

Traditionally, Masters champions donate a club – preferably one they used to win their

green jacket – for Augusta National to showcase in its trophy and grill rooms. The trophy room is reserved for mementos from 1934-54, including the putter Horton Smith used to win the first Masters Tournament. Among the items in the grill room are Tiger Woods’ driver from Woods’ first Masters victory, in 1997, and Larry Mize’s wedge that he used to hole out a winning chip shot on the second playoff hole in 1987.

Garcia’s club of choice: the 8-iron he hit with his second shot into the par-5 15th hole during the final round.

Garcia considers the second shot into 15 one of the most challenging shots for him every year at Augusta National.

“It’s a very thin line between hitting an amazing shot, and (hitting) one that feels like an amazing shot and ends up wet,” Garcia said.

So, perhaps the folks from TaylorMade and the 25% of the PGA of America members that answered their survey would like to tell us how they feel about him hitting an 8-iron into a lengthened Par-5? OK, never mind....

Then there was this non-traditional announcement from the defender and wife Angela:

Based on the above, I had thought they'd name her Firethorn. Ya gotta be happy for the guy.

Overkill - Rickie has always been a good guy in general, and very respectful of The King. I remember a few years back when he was unable to play at Bay Hill, he took the time to drive up to Orlando and have lunch with Arnie to explain it to him personally.

But how does wearing butt-ugly high-tops honor the man?

But a lot of thought went into it:

Leather sockliners with custom laser etched details

A list of Palmer’s PGA Tour wins on the left foot

A pink lining on the collar to honor Palmer’s love for wearing pink

I think Arnie would rather Rickie spent the time working on his putting....

TopSomething - Yesterday we had the TopGolf event scheduled for April 9th. I didn't burden you with their full press release, which listed the silly team names and participants. But in scrolling past it this morning, something jumped out at me:

SHOTMAKERS TEAMS

IMPACT, sponsored by CDW:

SUSANA BENAVIDES (27, Cochabamba, Bolivia) Professional golfer, only Bolivian-born golfer to compete on the LPGA Tour, former top-ranked amateur in South America.

TOMMY BIERSHENK (44, Greenville, S.C.) Former PGA TOUR professional, two-time All-American at Clemson University, golf course owner.

Does the name Susana Benavides ring a bell? See if this helps:

The LPGA ran a survey a while back, in which they offered a sponsor's exemption to one of four babes on the ballot. She was one of the four, though I don't remember if she made the cut. But it got me wondering about the other players in the event, especially since there's no reason to run up to the mountain.

So, we've got Tania Tare: