The final round of the Wachovia Open looked like it was going to be an exciting one. With Tiger, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, and Rory Sabbatini within a couple shots of each other I was expecting a fantastic finish. We ended up a lot of excitement during the round, but the ending was anti-climactic. Tiger seemed to be in command after going eagle-birdie-birdie on holes 7, 8 & 9. The double bogey on 13 added a little drama but did anyone really think Tiger wouldn’t come through in the end? I never really had any doubts.
I heard an unreal stat on the CBS telecast on Saturday. They said that during the 2005, 2006 & 2007 PGA season Tiger Woods has had 1059 putts within 3 feet. Guess how many he has missed? ONE!!! He has missed only 1 putt within 3 feet during the last 3 years!! That just blew me away. If I needed to count the number of 3 footers I have missed during the past 3 years I would need all my fingers, toes, and the finger and toes of about 20 other people. I guess it just goes to show that you drive for show and putt for dough. I would really doubt that any other PGA player has that same level of success from 3 feet and in. Who else do you think would even be close to Tiger? Mickelson? Maybe. After hearing that statistic during the telecast I felt a strong urge to head to the putting green and practice those 3-footers. I never made it to the putting green…now I know why I don’t make them very often!
I was lucky enough to play in the 8th Annual PlumpJack/LINK (learning, information, networking and knowledge) Golf Classic yesterday to benefit the Northern California Cancer Center (NCCC). It was a great day at Lake Merced Golf and Country Club in Daly City, CA. The weather was warm (most of the day), birdies were showing up on everyone’s scorecard (it was a scramble!) and the NCCC received some much needed funding for researching the prevention and treatment of cancer.
Mayor Gavin Newsom played in the tournament as well as some other members of the San Francisco society scene. My team did not fare so well in the tournament but we had a great time. The dinner and silent auction after the golf was pretty exciting too. Stuart Schweigert from the Oakland Raiders was there. I never would have guessed that he was a football player when I saw him because he didn’t look particularly big or strong. Someone told me that Stuart can run the 40 in 4.4 seconds and can hit like a mack truck. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover!
If you would like to donate to the The Northern California Cancer Center (NCCC) or just learn more about it, you can access their website here: http://www.nccc.org/
For me the golf season really kicks off when The Masters starts. The West Coast and Florida tournaments are fun to watch but they just don’t compare to watching the pros battle their way around Augusta National. The course is so beautiful and there is so much golf history there that it makes watching the telecast something special every year. There are not many things on television that I look forward to watching, but The Masters is probably at the top of the list.
Watching the tournament on TV is nice, but actually being at the tournament must be awesome. I have never been to Augusta but hopefully someday I’ll make it out there. I have an agreement with my wife that if I’m ever asked to play golf at Augusta that I can forget whatever responsibilities I have, catch the next flight to Georgia and play the famed course. I hope that someday it happens! Does anyone out there need someone to fill out their foursome?? I’ll be on the next plane.
I read that there are 18 first-timers playing in The Masters this year. The first timers include Bradley Dredge, Johan Edfors, Kenneth Ferrie, British Amateur champ Julien Guerrier, J.J. Henry, Robert Karlsson, U.S. Amateur runner-up John Kelly, Troy Matteson, Brett Quigley, U.S. Amateur winner Richie Ramsay, Jeev Milkha Singh, Tanihara, Camilo Villegas, U.S. Amateur Public Links champ Casey Watabu, Brett Wetterich, Dean Wilson, U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Dave Womack and Yong-Eun Yang. It must be such an awesome feeling to walk on to the first tee and see the course unfold in front of you. Once again, it should be a great tournament to watch this year.
I was lucky enough to play in a test tournament for the World Series of Golf a couple days ago. It is a new tournament format that is based on the poker game Texas Hold ‘Em. Each player was given $10,000 in chips (all “play” money though) to bet with throughout the match. Once you run out of money or can’t make the ante you are out of the tourney. Each player in the foursome must ante before the hole (antes double every 3 holes) and then they get to check, fold, bet or raise after each shot they hit on the hole. The winner of the hole wins the entire pot and if there is a tie on the hole the pot is split among those who tied. It was a really fun format and one I would definitely like to play again in the future. We had to go to extra holes to come up with a winner of our group. The first playoff hole had an ante of $6400 and both I and the remaining player in my group (Russ from Chicago) were in the fairway about 165 yards away with a stiff wind in our face. Russ went “all-in” since he was trying to overtake my chip lead. I hit first and got the ball to about 10 feet away. Russ hit a little short, chipped over the green and almost sunk his par putt. I two putted for par and won the pot. It was a great ending to a very fun day.
The World Series of Golf is putting on a tournament for amateur golfers in April at Primm Valley Golf Course near Primm, Nevada. It will be televised by NBC in June. The buy-in for the tournament is $10,000…so if you have an extra $10K burning a hole in your pocket and you think you can handle the pressure of big money golf you should check out www.worldseriesofgolf.com to learn more about the tournament.
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