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Friday, September 21, 2007

PGA Bore

It's lunch on a Friday, so my colleagues and I sat down in the conference room to watch some midday PGA Tour coverage on the Golf Channel. The event is the Turningstone Resort Championship, the first in the post Fed Ex Cup era.

Oh boy....I think I'd rather watch paint dry.

Not only does the Fall Finish lack real star power, it looks like the golf courses are ridiculously easy. Now, a conspirator I am not, but when courses are this benign, it's likely the PGA Tour is expecting uber-low scoring in hopes of sparking interest in these events (hey, some guy shooting a 59 is exactly what the Fall Finish needs.) Either way, it's still dull. And don't even get me started in the Golf Channel's coverage of the event...watching 15-year veterans milk out a few extra thousand dollars so they can play next year is a tough sell (yawn.)

Now, I don't want to be a groaner without providing some new ideas. So here we go.

1. Double Cuts: Cut the field after Friday, then again after Saturday. This will reward the players who are playing better with more money, and really make the guys who are teetering on the bubble start to sweat.

2. Free admission: Seriously, let the fans in for free. All the money is made on booze anyway.

3. Celebrity Pro-Ams: Why only in the early season? Let's see Ray Romano make a fool out of himself one more time a year.

4. LPGA and PGA: Invite not one, but 20 of the LPGA's best to play. Let em play the forward tees and see what happens.

5. The Caddie Cam. Rig some of the caddies on tour with cameras and mics. Hey, I'd watch it.

How about you? Any ideas? Log on and comment!

Monday, September 17, 2007

The Secret of his (Recent) Success?

By Charlie Schroeder

Roger Federer's recent victory at the U.S. Open started a pointless debate among sports journalists: "Who's better: Federer or Tiger?"

Although each owns nearly the same amount of major victories, or "slams," (Tiger has 13, Federer 12) Federer has yet to complete the career grand slam, having been shut out at Roland Garros. Tiger's not only won all four majors, he's won them all at least twice. (U.S. Opens are the toughest for him; he's won twice and finished second twice.)

While Federer is exciting to watch (he's as precise and powerful a player to ever swing a racquet, and has rekindled my interest in the game), it's important to keep in mind that tennis is head-to-head competition. The shots he plays have immediate impact on his opponent. Outside of the 285 yard 5-wood that Tiger hit onto the 9th green (interrupting Zach Johnson and Sergio Garcia's battle for second place) during yesterday's final round of the Tour Championship, his interaction with other players is limited to shaking hands, saying "nice shot" and shooting the breeze (if they're friends). Certainly Tiger's mind-blowing play must get in his playing partners' heads, and the throngs of fans following him are a great distraction not only to players in his group but within a couple holes, but when all's said and done, it's Tiger against the course (and, for that matter, Tiger against himself). If you think he's won a lot of tournaments in stroke play, imagine how many he'd win if every tournament were match play, where a more traditional head-to-head format applies.

Tennis has typically had dominant players like Sampras, Lendl, Borg and Navratilova (and that's just in the last thirty years) whereas golf has, traditionally, not. (And as result been the most difficult individual sport to dominate.) In the last thirty years only Woods and Sorenstam have dominated the game for a significant period of time. (Norman too, but he never capitalized in majors the way the other two have.)

A friend of my father's mentioned the other day that we were lucky, really lucky, to witness the game's greatest golfer play the game. (My father's generation is doubly lucky having witnessed both Tiger and Jack in their primes.) After his domination of the FedEx Cup where Tiger won two out of three tournaments and averaged 66.81 strokes per round (no, that's not a typo), it's clear, like this time last year, that he's in the middle of something really, really special.

One last thing: in today's USA Today, Tiger's caddie Steve Williams is quoted as saying that Tiger hasn't hit a post-round practice ball since the British Open. Nothing to tweak, so no reason to work on it, says Williams. Its clear Tiger's swing has come around, but something tells me there's another explanation for his stellar play. A month before the British, his daughter was born. Could fatherhood be the secret to his success?

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Another Monkey Gone

By Charlie Schroeder

Like the back nine on Sunday at Augusta, the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship is quickly becoming golf's must-see TV.

For the past few years Tiger and Vijay were the players in this drama, but those showdowns couldn't compare to yesterday afternoon's dart throwing clinic put on by Tiger and Phil. If, on Thanksgiving it's the turkey that gets cold while Uncle Mort watches the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, then on Labor Day it's the coleslaw that loses out to the awesome play at the Deutsche Bank.

Of course today the Tour is claiming yesterday's nail biter of a finish was a boon for the FedEx Playoffs. Huh, that's strange, because I didn't once think about whether Phil was going to lead the FedEx Cup standings at the end of the day. (Phil probably didn't either. In his post-round interview he admitted he was torn as to whether he should play in Chicago this week at the BMW claiming that Tour commissioner Tim Finchem hasn't held up his end of the deal on a couple of important issues.)

What excited me (and probably everybody else) was watching Phil match Tiger shot for shot down the stretch and finally pull off a victory. It's another monkey off his back and now that his wrist is finally healed, Mickelson is back in top shape. Just in time for football season.