Majors
I happened to run across the video above of Jean Van De Velde talking about his collapse in the 1999 British Open and later another collapse after leading by 1 stroke in the 2005 French Open.
Even listening to this interview I somehow still have the impression that he just doesn't get it - that it *might* have been more prudent to take another club off the 18th tee rather than hit driver. But I'm not sure "the story" he tells himself about that event has done much to help his golf game or his career for that matter.
It's interesting to think about how "the stories" you ...
The game of golf is alive and well and so is Tiger. He was never going to win every tournament that he leads by 54 holes. Tiger's had a lot of miraculous wins, but good bounces are always offset by bad ones. For every chip in at Augusta there is a price to be paid. As golfers we should rejoice in our good luck and never condemn the bad bounces because they make the game what it is. This loss won't make Tiger less competitive, it will only drive him more, as is the case with all the greats.
I say this somewhat *tongue in cheek* because I mean no disrespect for Mr. Woods and his many amazing golfing accomplishments but the beauty of Tiger losing IS the beauty of sport itself.
Tiger 2 up going into the last round of a major is/was a forgone conclusion for a win. After all, he has done it every single time he has been in the lead. So why watch? We could do something else rather than watch the boob tube and then pick up the next mornings newspaper with the headlines "Tiger Captures Number 15"
But, as we all know, that did not happen. Y.E. Yang (the 110th ranked golfer in the world) ...
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Hazeltine National Golf Club is located in Chaska, Minnesota.
- It is a private club and closed to guests not accompanied by a member.
- The course opened in 1962 with Robert Trent Jones as the course architect (after early designs by another architect)
- The course opened under the name Executive Golf Club of Minnesota, However, reception to the name was not favorable so it was renamed Hazeltine National Golf Club in honor of the adjoining Lake Hazeltine.
- Rich Beem won the championship by holding off a charging Tiger Woods, who birdied the last four holes. It was one of the most memorable finishes in championship history.
- The first championship hosted ...
Tom Watson's near win at Turnberry tells us a few interesting things about the state of professional golf in the 21st century. First I have to add that Watson is and always has been a tremendous ball striker. He can also chip with the best of them. He just can't make short putts anymore. But how does that enable him to compete with the best pros on tour who are generally 25 -30 years younger and who have the benefit of video analysis, swing coaches, shrinks, conditioning trainers and state of the art technology?
I see two key reasons, but perhaps not in the way you'd at first expect - new technology ...
If you've had the great good fortune to play links golf in Scotland, you probably know how much of a factor the weather is. When it's warm and sunny with no wind - a rare occurrence - you might get the idea that links courses are not so difficult. That notion gets thrown out the window as soon as the wind and rain arrive.
It makes such a difference for these courses that many change the par daily based on the weather - it's posted right at the starter's shack! This makes a lot of sense when a good score on any given course could be 75 or 90, depending ...
I went to the
'official' web site for this year's British Open at Turnberry to look up the TV schedule. Could I find it anywhere? No!
Now maybe it's tucked away somewhere, but it wasn't readily apparent to my eyes after 5 minutes of searching. If this is the best that the R&A can do to promote this terrific tournament, then they need to get a better web designer.
Here's the schedule for US viewers as posted on
www.golf.com.
Thursday: 7 am to 7 pm ET on TNT
Friday: 7 am to 7 pm ET on ...
I just received notification from the British Open folks that they are now selling official 2009 Open merchandise online. For those of you who like mementos from majors, this might be the year to get a nice shirt, hat or ball marker from Turnberry. They look cool when you're walking around your club and no one has to know that you weren't actually there in person.
Congratulations to 2009 US OPEN winner Lucas Glover!
Although I was hoping for a Phil or Duval story, Glover played smart and steady with no real hiccups throughout the day.
His final card looked like this: 69-64-70-73-276 -4
Besides the check for $1,350,000 here a few other US Open perks he receives:
In line with the other majors, winning the U.S. Open gives a golfer several privileges that makes his career much more secure.
U.S. Open champions are automatically invited to play in the other three majors (the Masters, the Open Championship (British Open), and the PGA Championship) for the next five years, as well as the Players Championship, and they are exempt from qualifying ...
Lot of cool stories going on in this final day of the 2009 US Open.
The main stories being the weather, David Duval and Phil Mickelson. We have covered the weather pretty thoroughly but the Duval and Mickelson stories would send chills down any golfers spine.
With Duval's rise from the ashes and Mickelson's ailing wife you could not ask for more emotional stories. Personally, I am rooting for Duval. We have profiled him many times here in our blog and both John and I are big fans.
Of course, Duval and Mickelson are not even the leaders, those being Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes.
Both Barnes and Glover definitely looked shaky towards the end ...
