Tag: Golf

One Shot to Impress

Imagine that you are in the following situations with only one swing – one shot – a single attempt to impress. What shot do you hit?

Your significant other is watching you hit balls on the range for the first time?
Driver

You’re on the first tee with your potential boss. He just duffed it.
Modest 2 iron

Tiger Woods, strolling by casually, is watching. He needs a pro-am partner.
Smooth 6 iron.

You are leading by one at THE PLAYERS Championship teeing off on 18.
Hard driver.

Your golf pro starts hitting balls next to you on the range.
Smooth 7 iron.

Your best ball partner shows up after you talked up your (rusty) game all week at the office.
Hit the putting green!

Phil Mickelson shows up at the practice green next to you and starts hitting flop shots.
A higher flop shot!

You’re having a chipping contest with your dad in the back yard.
Low sand wedge.

It’s interesting to think of when you want to impress, show off skill, or ensure a solid shot. What would you do in these situations? Do you have any good ones of your own?

EDS Byron Nelson Championship’s Many Names

Episode #2 of The Yug Show was filmed yesterday, but due to technical difficulties I wasn’t able to post it. Here are the show notes:

Good morning, golf fans. It’s Wednesday, April 23 and this is the Yug Show with Chris Rogers. The EDS Byron Nelson Championship starts tomorrow. It is the PGA Tour’s eighth longest running event going all the way back to WWII 1944. When Byron Nelson won the inaugural iteration of this event, it was titled the Texas Victory Open. Personally, I would rather win something by that name than the current one. I’m sure the money is better now, though!

Since Nelson’s victory in 1944, the tournament has had the following names:

* Dallas Open
* Dallas Invitational
* Dallas Centennial Open
* Texas International Open
* Dallas Open Invitational
* Byron Nelson Golf Classic — In 1968 the tournament was the first PGA Tour event to be named after a professional golfer.
* GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic
* GTE Byron Nelson Classic
* Verizon Byron Nelson Classic
* CURRENT: EDS Byron Nelson Championship

I can just imagine the tournament organizers sitting in a room for hours debating whether Open or Invitation should come first in the name. Whether it should be a Classic or a Championship. Classic, of course, has a retro air to it. Championship clearly not retro, but rather more weighty.

After all of this, the current sponsors are upset with their position in the PGA Tour schedule, which isn’t drawing the top players. They’re threatening to withdraw their sponsorship.

So, who will the next sponsor be if EDS bails?

Surely the title will have Byron Nelson in it. But Classic or Championship? Open or Invitational? What about the Byron Nelson Open Invitational Classic Championship?

I’ll preview the actual tournament and players tomorrow morning. Swing hard and putt well.

Lorena Ochoa – A New Tiger?

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding Lorena Ochoa’s dominance of the LPGA Tour and claims that she is the next Tiger Woods.

The Streaks

Lorena Ochoa has won four tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour. Just this past weekend, she shot four rounds in the sixties for a nineteen under total of 296 at the Ginn Open. That was good enough for a three-shot win. She’s also finished second, first, first in her last three Major championships.

Tiger Woods’ win at the 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational was his sixth worldwide win in a row, however these wins did not come in consecutive weeks. In fact, only his end of 2007 wins in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship were back-to-back. Further, Tiger’s Major finished for the past year have been second, second, twelfth, first, second.

Time Will Tell

There is no doubt that Lorena is red hot right now and has had more recent success than Tiger, but only time will tell if she truly is the next Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam.

What would make Ochoa an instant household name is success on the PGA Tour. No matter how you slice it, the PGA Tour is the dominant grounds of professional golf competition. Michelle Wie’s attempts to make a PGA Tour cut are evidence of this. When Ochoa tees it up in a PGA Tour event, makes a cut, and wins we can start calling her the next Tiger Woods. Until then, she’s the next Annika.

Boo Wins Verizon Heritage

In case you haven’t seen, heard or read, Boo Weekley won the Verizon Heritage by three shots. The final leaderboard showed Boo at -15 with Anthony Kim and Aaron Baddeley tied for second at -12. There was no one close to Boo on Sunday, and despite being put on the clock for slow play on the 10th hole, he won the winners share of $990,000 and 4500 FedEX Cup points.

More entertaining than yesterday’s final round are the headlines titling the win. So far, I’ve seen:

* Boo Boo (link)
* Back-to-Back Boo (link)
* Boo Week
* Boo Knows Hilton Head (link)
* True Boo (link)

Tiger Woods Succumbs to the Utah Blade

Not really. But he did have arthroscopic knee surgery.

My only question is, would he have had the surgery if he won the Masters?

The knee has been bothering him since the middle of last year. Obviously he didn’t want to have it during the month he took off leading up to the Masters. Why not during his longest break from competitive golf?

Was he worried about his performance in the unofficial Tiger Woods Challenge?

Could he not get an appointment until this week?

Masters’ Leftovers

Masters’ Leftovers

John Feinstein lets us know that “Golf Will Survive without a Major from Woods.”

Trevor Immelman does the Top 10 on The Late Show with David Letterman:

Geoff Shackelford excerpts from Golf World and The Times highlighting that the general consensus is that Augusta National “has become all about playing defensively and minimizing damage.”

My two cents — The Masters is boring now. There’s no movement. There are far too few opportunities on the back nine to perpetuate the foregone fact and now legend that “it all comes down to the back nine on Sunday at the Masters.”

Jay Coffin brags of his round at Augusta National on Monday after the Masters.

Patricia of Golf Girl’s Diary shares Brandt Snedeker’s snicker’s cocktail.

Golf Digest’s Bill Fields wraps up pretty much everything else having to do with this years’ Masters.

Geoff Shackelford excerpts Steve Elling’s “There’s more scoring in soccer.”

Seems like if the Masters wants to remain the April darling that it always was, something needs to change — fast. It’s nice to see the little guys win every so often, but not every year at the Masters. And certainly not without a heroic battle on the back nine of Augusta National.

THE PLAYERS is the Next Major

Some will have you believe that the next scheduled Major for the 2008 PGA Tour season is the U.S. Opon at Torrey Pines in San Diego, California. It’s not.

THE PLAYERS Championship is the perennial “fifth-major.” I’m using this post to make it official, as it clearly should be.

The Purse — It has the largest purse of the season at $9,000,000 with $1,700,000 going to the winner. The field is stronger than in any other tournament all year.

The Field — It has the strongest and purest field. The Masters is notorious for it’s small field. Qualifiers and unwilling travelers dilute the fields at the U.S. and British Opens. Same for the PGA Championship with PGA teaching pros taking up spots.

Fan Factor — Besides having a huge purse and top-notch field, the TPC Sawgrass is the single most exciting tournament to watch either live or on TV. The course is designed for spectators. And the par-three 17th hole with the island green followed by the 18th with water up the left is an impressive finishing stretch. There is risk-reward around every dogleg on the TPC Sawgrass.

What does this mean? Tiger Woods has another major, which puts him at 14. More importantly this adds three to Jack Nicklaus’ total of 18. He’s got 21 now. Get a move on Tiger. Numerous other golfers now have a major. Congratulations, guys!

The U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship have nothing on THE PLAYERS — except maybe that they’re official majors. I’m changing that, though. By Yugflog standards, there are five majors now.