The Golfer's Wife

Groovy - Part II

Bit of controversy in the world of professional golf this past week. Having to do with grooves. We’ve discussed the groove issue here. And in that post, you remember, I pointed out that the rule takes effect in January 2010. Which means it is in effect now. I also mentioned that Ping and the USGA had reached a settlement. I didn’t get into the details of said settlement, but as it turns out I should have mentioned one particular part of it. The fact that the Ping Eye2 Irons were grandfathered in. Meaning the rule doesn’t apply to Ping Eye2’s. Which, the clubs are 20 years old now, so who would be using them, so why worry about that little grandfathering clause? Well as it turns out 20 years isn’t such a long time and there are plenty of the Eye2’s still around. And certain members of the PGA tour are using that little loophole, and playing with 20 year old square grooved clubs.

Phil Mickelson is one of those players. And other players have rather strong opinions about playing with the Eye2’s. In particular Scott McCarron. Who called it cheating. Which led Phil to say he had been slandered and threaten legal action. McCarron apologized and Phil accepted so that little crisis appears to be over. But the issue remains.

Here is a try at a brief explanation of the issue, which, as I pointed out in the previous post, really only effects about 10% of the golfers out there, professional or not. The rest of us don’t have the skills to take advantage of the groves, square or not. Anyway.

Ping is a company known for innovation in golf clubs. And, as would be expected, Ping considers any innovation it comes up with as good for the game. Not everyone agrees with Ping. The Eye2 club is not the first time Ping has run afoul of the USGA. In 1966 all of Pings putters except for one ( the Anser, which just happens to have been the most influential putter in golf. But that’s another post ) were banned because they had a certain bend in the shaft under the grip that it was felt gave players a special advantage in their putting stroke. In any case, Ping developed the square grooved Eye2 Irons. Here is a very good summary of the resulting dust up between Ping and the USGA that resulted in the lawsuit and it’s subsequent settlement, which included an exemption for the Eye2’s. But the problem of the advantage of the extra back spin remained, and thus, after much testing and discussion, the ban on square grooves was enacted. But while the USGA et. al. can set a rule, they can’t void a legal settlement. So the Eye2 exemption still stands. And the point Phil and the other players are trying to make is it was silly to put a rule in place when there was a glaring loophole like that. The USGA et. al. should have worked out the issues before enacting the rule. The USGA is saying ‘how could they have known that 20 year old clubs would cause a problem?’ Ping says they warned the USGA this would happen. So what we have now is an equipment company with a history of antagonism with golf’s ruling bodies, and a legal agreement saying their clubs are exempt on one side, and on the other, golf’s ruling bodies trying to implement a rule to bring the need for accuracy back to the game but who only have jurisdiction over the rules of golf, and can’t void a legal agreement that pretty much makes adoption of the rule dependent on the good will and fair mindedness of the players. Which leaves the players rather put out. Either a rule is a rule or it’s not, and if you can’t completely enforce it then you shouldn’t have made it, but it’s really not kosher to put them in the middle like that.

The way things stand as of this post is the players feel they have made their point and will take the Ping clubs out of their bags, for now. Ping and the USGA/PGA will sit down and try to iron out their differences. But the players have put them on notice. If they don’t come to some kind of agreement that leads to a fully enforceable rule, those 20 year old clubs will go right back into the players bags and the whole mess will start up again.

If you are really interested in what has happened in the world of professional golf since the rule went into effect here is a good summary by GolfWeek .

Meanwhile the rest of us plug along wishing our game was good enough that the shape of the grooves mattered, and a certain someone is breathing a small sigh of relief that something came along that managed to push him off the front page of golf news for at least a week or two.

Hoping

The Hope is being played this weekend ( or at least they are trying to play it. When Mother Nature permits. ) in Palm Springs. If you remember, The Hope has been discussed here previously.

Jigger made his first appearance on the blog voicing his ( strong ) opinions on the tournament. And last year we were wondering if it would even survive.

It has survived, after a fashion. But it still has it’s problems. And, as with the past several years around here, we would not be inclined to pay too much attention to it.

Except.

Except this year a local guy is a member of the field. As a tour member, not an amateur. AND he is currently in the lead. And he is very local. As in we belong to the same cc. Needless to say we, and indeed everyone at the cc ( except perhaps for the swans ), is paying quite a bit of attention to The Hope this year. And Hoping the rain stops and the local guy makes good.

And so it begins....

Today marks the start of the 2010 golf season. The first PGA tournament of the year, The SBS Championship, had it’s first round in Kapalua, Hawaii. The first LPGA tournament isn’t until next month.

I know it’s a little difficult to think about hitting a little white ball around on green grass when the ground is covered in white, and the high for the day didn’t get above 0. But this is a golf blog, so I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it.

It should be an interesting year. Golf’s biggest star is absent from the field and no one knows, probably least of all him, when he will return. Or what kind of reception he will receive when/if he does. The last time he was absent TV viewing fell by half. There are 10 tournament sponsorships up for renewal this year, and four have already said they are leaving. Fewer viewers and fewer sponsors means less prize money for everyone.

Over at the LPGA things aren’t any better. It starts its year in shaky financial shape, and with a new commissioner. There is a small ray of hope named Michelle Wie. Michelle won her first tournament last year. If she can finish in the top ten on a regular basis, and even win once or twice, interest in the Ladies tour would pick up and the LPGA could breathe a little easier. 

So we shall see what happens this year. Meanwhile we are putting on more sweaters and shoveling the snow in shifts to avoid frostbite. It’s a little hard to be too concerned about the fate of people who spend their time hitting a little white ball around in the sunshine for a living. And now if you’ll excuse me, there is a hot buttered rummmmm calling my name.

Weekend Update

As mentioned previously things are slooooow in the world of professional golf right now. But a few things worth noting did happen this weekend.

First off, huge congratulations to Michelle Wie on her first LPGA Tour win. She won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara Mexico. Hopefully this is the first of many. And as an aside can I just say ‘very nice’ to Lorena Ochoa on her choice for the trophy? Its not often you actually notice the trophy. It’s usually something tasteful, but bland, in silver or crystal. But Lorena chose something different enough that I actually noticed it. And I have to say I think it’s quite striking.

Next, Tiger won the Australian Masters down under. No big surprise there I know. But still worth noting. Great golf is still being played in some parts of the world.

And now a somewhat sad note. David Duval missed the cut at The Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney this weekend. The missed cut means he doesn’t automatically get his tour card for next year and has to go through qualifying school. He has paid his entry fee to Q School, but when asked about it said ‘Don’t expect to see me there’. He could show up anyway. Or he could play next year on sponsor’s exemptions. But the general feeling here at The Household is that he will hang up the putter for good. David has always been a particular favorite here at The Household, so if he is done we will miss him. David lives out here in The Wild West, and seems very happy just being a dad, and not spending most of the year away from home. So we can hardly blame him if he doesn’t think it’s worth it.

And last, linked to without comment, the story of Doug Barron. No opinion one way or the other on this one at the moment. However, I imagine there will be more such stories over the next few years, so just thought it was worth pointing out. 

The Presidents Cup

This week is The Presidents Cup. I could just link to my Ryder Cup post and say ‘read this and just substitute Presidents Cup everywhere it says Ryder Cup’. But that’s not quite right.  As mentioned back in that post, the Ryder Cup is a team competition between a team made up of players from the US and a team made up of players from Europe, which was started back in 1927. It has a long and storied history, and lots of Tradition. And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, Golf is nothing if not Tradition. And for decades this was fine, because 99.5% of professional golfers were either from the US or Europe. But golf was not immune from globalization. The game made inroads in other parts of the world, and people outside of the US and Europe became infected with the fever. Most notably people in South Africa and Australia. But if you look at the list of current PGA players you will see players from Japan, Korea, Argentina, Columbia, and Fiji, just to name a few. Which meant that every other year, while European and US players played the Ryder Cup, some of the best golfers in the world could only sit on the sidelines and watch.

In order to rectify this situation and, lets be honest here, in order to keep the TV revenue flowing in the off years when there wasn’t a Ryder Cup, in 1994 the PGA created The Presidents Cup. The format of which is the same as the Ryder Cup, but the two teams consist of the US and ‘the rest of the world except for Europe’.

The Presidents Cup is a good match play tournament, and it is great golf. But it’s not the Ryder Cup. To see how the golfing world feels about it all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Ryder Cup points are tabulated and re-tabulated and there is speculation for months before hand about the captain’s picks. And once the teams are known the possible match ups are discussed endlessly. There are months of articles leading up to it, and non-stop speculation as to the outcome of various matches. It is all the golfing world talks about for weeks leading up to the actual tournament.

For this years Presidents Cup the big stories are the fact that there was a fertilizer mishap on some of the greens at Harding Park ( the course where this Presidents Cup will be played ) and they got burned pretty bad, and would they be ready for play, and the fact that 2 weeks before the tournament the ‘rest of the world’ team captain Greg Norman announced that he and his wife of just 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, were separated. Which was a bit of a shock since they had both left their previous spouses to marry each other. Even the staid world of golf has it’s little soap operas.

Anyway. Players do consider it an honor to be on the Presidents Cup team and, since the teams do consist of the worlds best players, it is, as I said, great golf. It’s main problem is that it just hasn’t been around long enough. In golf 15 years is not nearly long enough to have established Tradition. And without Tradition, it’s just another tournament. Give it another 50 years or so and it will have acquired enough Tradition that people will have totally forgotten it was originally created to grab TV revenue.

Meanwhile, here are the basic facts for this year, including team members, format, and TV times and stations. We will be watching it here in The Household. Well. Except for on Thursday and Saturday ( and hopefully on Sunday ) when it conflicts with Rockies playoff games. Playoffs over Presidents Cup any day.

Checking in with the Pros

It’s been awhile since we’ve checked in with the goings on, on the pro tours. Here is an attempt to get you up to date, with lots of linky goodness( which means it’s a good work time waster post. Just sayin. )

Ladies first.

Since the Solheim Cup the women have had 4 tournaments.

1. The Safeway Classic. Which was won by M.J. Hur. I admit, until she won I had never heard of her either. If you are interested here is her bio.

2. The Canadian Open. Which was won by Suzann Petterson

3. P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship. That’s a mouthful hunh? This was won by Jiyai Shin. Ms. Shin is on track to win both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year. The first time any one has done that since Nancy Lopez in 1978. Here is a very nice write up on her by Stina Stenberg at Golf Digest.

4. The Samsung World Championship. This is an invite only event, which only had 16 competitors this year. It was won by Na Yeon Choi.

And while things are looking better for the LPGA since they removed Carolyn Bivens, they aren’t out of the woods yet. But it’s not for lack of a quality product and fan support. Here is a good write up on the state of things.

Next up for the Ladies is the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge in Danville, CA.

And now the men.

The men have been in the throes of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Here is what Jigger had to say about the FedEx Cup. Here is what I had to say about the FedEx Cup. Since it was pretty much a dud last year, as predicted the awarding of points underwent yet another revision for this year. Here is a nice explanation of how points were awarded this year. And here is an explanation of the whole ‘reset’ thingy.

Got all that?

The first playoff tournament was The Barclays, which Heath Slocum won. The second playoff tournament was the Deutche Bank Championship, won by Steve Stricker. The third playoff tournament was the BMW Championship, which Tiger won. So at the end of 3 here are the current standings. If you go to this page and look there where it says 2009 Playoffs and has a picture of Tiger holding a trophy, you will see wrap-ups of the 3 tournaments. If you are interested these wrap-ups give a nice summary of moved-up, moved-down, and was-eliminated.

Here at The Household we are still reserving judgment on this whole Playoffs thing. As has been noted before, we watch a lot of sports here at the household, which means we watch a lot of playoffs. And we have been watching golf for years. And we have never felt golf needed playoffs. But we could be wrong. We’ll see.

Anyway. Here is Jeff Rude on the FedEx Cup. And here is a write up from The New York Times.

This week is the final tournament, THE TOUR Championship ( and yes, for some reason THE TOUR is all caps ), which will be played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

And now, if you followed all those links, you should be fully caught up with both tours, and have wasted at least ½ hour besides. A quick check on the EPSN and People web sites, and it will be time to go home.

I am more than mildly surprised

So I mentioned in the previous post that I would be mildly surprised if Tiger didn’t win the PGA Championship. He didn’t. But not only didn’t he win, he lost when he had the lead for most of the final round. It’s not that that has never happened. But it’s only happened once before. During his first year on tour. He wasn’t playing his best game today, but he was grinding it out and doing pretty good, and Tiger’s not-his-best is something the rest of us can only dream about. So I would say it was pretty much a foregone conclusion here in The Household, and probably in the announcers booth, that this would be another ho-hum Tiger win.

Boy was it not.

Who did win?  Y. E. Yang. And the question on everyone’s lips was ‘Who the heck is Y.E. Yang?’  He is a 37 year old South Korean who didn’t even pick up a club until he was 19. He served his required two years in the military starting when he was 21. He turned pro in 1996 and played on the Asian and European tours. He had to go through the qualifying tournaments the past two years just to make it on the PGA Tour. But there he was, hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy.  

It was a heck of a final round. Either one of them could have won it even at the 18th hole. And did you see that 3-hybrid shot to the green on Yang made on 18? That was not the shot a person intimidated by Tiger Woods makes. Nervous, yes. You don’t 3 putt on 17 like he did unless you’re nervous. But intimidated? No. For the most part he looked like he was having the time of his life.

I will say this for Tiger, after the recent dust up regarding his temper, he behaved like an adult and a professional, although it was obvious he was very frustrated with the way things were going. And he was very gracious.

"He's always been a wonderful ball striker. The only thing that held him back was the flat stick. Today, he executed his game plan, drove it beautifully and hit his irons in the correct spots. He played beautifully."

As for Yang, when asked if he would like a re-match with Woods he laughed and said "Never again. I would like to stay the guy who won over Tiger at the PGA Championship and that's it. No re-dos."

So here’s a big Congratulations shout out to Y.E. Yang. He certainly earned himself the Wanamaker.

And I end the day quite a bit surprised that the man on a mission didn’t manage to pull it off.

Manners

If you have been reading the golf press/blogs this past week ( which of course you have. I mean you’re reading this, right? ) you’ve probably noticed the bit of a fire storm over Tiger Woods behavior at The Open. First Shane B. over at Dogs Chase Cars commented. Then Rick Reilly wrote an article. Stephanie Wei gave her opinion, and last ( but certainly not least ) The Golf Girl weighed in.

As the wife of A Golfer, and a parent raising 3 golfers, I have, as you might expect, an opinion on the subject.

First off let me state that The Golf Girl is entirely correct in that using the reasoning that Tiger is a role model is a complete non-starter. It’s silly enough that I don’t even want to go there. But I will. Enough to say that any parent who uses any athlete/business person/scientist/artist etc. as a role model for their child isn’t doing their job. The Offspring have been raised to realize that people, even Tiger Woods, are people. Not all good, not all bad. They have their good qualities and their bad qualities. And good days and bad days. And sensible people admire the good qualities, recognize the bad qualities, and then chart their own course through life. The goal being not to be ‘just like’ someone else. But to recognize what you admire about certain people, what you don’t like about others, how that applies to you, and somehow pull it all together, along with what is unique to you, into a total human being. Damn tough job at the best of times. Lots of people never manage it. But trying to be a copy of some Role Model is pretty much a guarantee of failure.  I realize this in itself is a whole post. A whole blog. Heck, some people have made whole careers out of it. And there are a lot of you who completely disagree. Okay. As I said. My opinion. My blog. That’s the way things role here at The Household.

That said, do I give Tiger a complete pass?  No.

There are 3 things that an Offspring can do that will get them immediately removed from the golf course.

The first is throwing a golf club. I don’t mean grounding the head in frustration. Even The Golfer does that. I mean physically letting go of the club. Even if it is just to throw it down at your feet. We started them out young. 2 and 3 years old. When temper tantrums are a way of life. But it was made perfectly clear, even at that age, you NEVER EVER EVER throw a club*. EVER. Absolutely, positively, UNACCEPTABLE. Throwing a club will not only get you removed from the course, there will be other punishment when you get home.

The second thing is blaming your bad shot on someone else. It is you and the ball. If you don’t hit the ball the way you want, that is your problem. It is a golf course. Semi private at the best of times, completely public most of the time. There will always be people and wildlife and noises and weather. If you can’t play with the distractions then get off the course. As soon as you blame someone else’s behavior for your bad shot, you will be removed from the course.

The third thing is taking your poor play out on other people. You want to mutter and curse at yourself? Fine. We all do it. We don’t even care if you call yourself ‘Stupid f**ing idiot’ at the top of your lungs. Get so frustrated you cry even. That’s okay. But you better be sweetness and light to everyone else. Take it out on your siblings, your parents, the beer wench, the people in the halfway house, the pro shop, and you will be removed from the course and THERE WILL BE REPROCUSSIONS. No one but you is responsible for the state of your game, and you damn well better not take it out on anyone else.

Tiger has violated all 3 of those rules on multiple occasions. And super star or not, if I had been physically present at any of them I would have been hard pressed not to cross over the rope, take him by the ear, march him over behind some trees, and give him a good dressing down. Even being the best at what you do is no excuse for being a jerk.

Golf is a gentleman’s game. And I absolutely appreciate the rules, and the etiquette and especially the honor code. And we fervently aspire to instill that over all attitude in The Offspring and the way they live their lives, both on and off the golf course. But I fully concur that the constant bland behavior can get on your nerves. Not to mention keeping it all inside like that has to cause ulcers. I like seeing players show their feelings, for both good and bad shots. I don’t mind a grounded club, a shouted curse, a high five, or a fist pump at all. I’m quite happy that the younger players seem to feel more freedom to express their emotions. I think that’s a Good Thing. But there are lines, and Tiger has crossed them more than once.

He is both an adult and a professional. He needs to start acting like it.

* The only exception to this rule is Rattle Snakes. We live in the Wild West after all. Rattle Snakes on golf courses are a given. If you throw a club at a Rattle Snake you will be forgiven.

2009 Open wrapup

Huge Congratulations to Stewart Cink. If ever any one earned a Major Cink earned this. First and foremost because of his game. But also because he did it in one of the toughest situations imaginable. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE( okay I admit, that includes us here at The Household ), wanted Tom Watson to win. Stewart had to go out there knowing the crowd was cheering for the other guy, and then steel himself to beat someone in whose footsteps he had hoped to follow. And beat him he did. Watson fell apart in the playoff. But even if he hadn’t he would have been hard pressed to win. Cink played great, finishing with 2 birdies. He finished to polite applause and sad faces. Then he had to stand there during the presentation of the trophies while the biggest cheer went up for the guy who finished second. And being the thorough gentleman that he is Stewart handled it all with grace and aplomb. So once again let us say Congratulations. His earned his spot on The Claret Jug.

We also have to give kudos to Mr. Watson. He did fall apart there at the end. But it’s not like that has been a habit of his. It is precisely because he has done the opposite of fall apart over the years that we all thought he would win. He’d done it 5 times before at the Open, including the famous Duel in The Sun here at the very same Turnberry, that The Golfer mentioned in the previous Open post. The man will be 60 in Sept. and he had a hip replaced a little over a year ago. And there he was, one putt away from winning The Open. Win or lose he is an incredible inspiration to all us golfers of-a-certain-age. It was a beautiful thing to watch, no matter the outcome.

And so another Open is in the books. Here is a nice article from Bob Harig at ESPN. And here is a good round up from Golf.com. And next year, when Tiger not only makes the cut, but is, ho hum, in the lead as usual for the final round, we golfers of-a-certain-age will remember this year, and maybe turn the channel to watch Tom Watson compete in a Senior event instead.

Finally, the clouds parted

Well that was really…..wet, wasn’t it? The first three rounds were a little..confusing actually. Trying to keep track of which round it was. And was the coverage you were watching live, or what was played before they called things off because of rain. Did you see them squeegeeing off the greens? And the huge splashes of water when players hit out of the rough? Those first three rounds were just barely watchable. But the last round today, that was great golf. Congratulations to Lucas Glover. He really earned this one.

Although I have to tell you, here at The Household we were really, REALLY, pulling for David Duval. He is a long time favorite around here and we have been hoping he would eventually get his game back. He almost managed to pull it off. I had to be careful not to cheer at work when he made the birdie on 15. Yes, yes, I admit, I was a less than stellar employee today until it was over. But I wasn’t so bad as to actually stream it. I followed Jason Sobel’s blog over on ESPN, and The Golfer was watching at home and sending me minute by minute updates via IM. Ain’t technology wonderful?

It would have been better to actually watch it, but at least this way I didn’t have to listen to Johnny Miller. Honestly NBC, you have GOT to get rid of him. I’m sure he’s a very nice guy. The other announcers seem to actually like him. But I want to put duct tape over his mouth and make him sit in the corner. He is just too snooty and snarky, and full of himself to be allowed any where near a microphone. Please, please, PLEASE, tear up his contract and change the locks on the announcer booth door.

So the 2009 US Open is officially in the (soggy) books. Next major: The Open, Turnberry Scotland, July 16-19.