Sorry Giants fans, this is not about you. As nice as their win over the Patriots was, it looked like a repeat of their regular season game. Drama, yes, but redemption no. For that you’d have had to have seen the Phoenix Open. Kyle Stanley, of last weeks famous meltdown at Torrey Pines where he squandered a four stroke lead on the last hole, rebounded one week later to come from five strokes back on Sunday to win in Scottsdale. Now that’s redemption.

There’s not a big difference between being a goat or a hero. When the big moment comes, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t. Sports writers are quick to point to the choke factor. I’m not so sure about that. I think there’s a lot more to chance than meets the eye. It’s as if fate owns a big wheel of fortune. Will you or won’t you make the clutch putt, foul shot or home run? Let’s spin the wheel and see. Blessed is the athlete who gets the good results the first time because it builds a lot of confidence. Cursed is the one who draws the snowman on a par four that will happen once in a thousand chances.

True greatness shows itself when the failed sportsman is willing to get right back on the horse that has thrown them, look fate in the eye and say ‘Spin that wheel again, I’m willing to take my chances’. Kyle Stanley could have spent half a season or more licking his wounds or beating himself up over one hole, one tournament. But he didn’t and how much more confidence does he have now than if he’d won at Torrey Pines? I’d say a lot. So let that be a lesson for all of us. Sometimes you’re going to make that 4 footer to win and sometimes you’re not. It’s more about the wheel of fortune than your character. Character is when you get right back out there, when you don’t let one instant ruin all the good play. Wes Welker feels bad about his missed catch in the final minutes of yesterday’s Super Bowl. Wes, all you could do was train, prepare, and give it your all. Fate will always have the right to play the last card!

No related posts.

Francis & Eddie 1913 US Open

Is there anything that can be predicted about a pro golf season with much certainty? Not really, such is the nature of the game. One thing I do feel certain about, Tiger will win at least one major in 2012 – if he’s healthy! After that, how will things pan out?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rory McIlroy win multiple times. He has the tools to be great, but does he have the intangibles to put him with the golfers who win more than 6 majors in the course of their careers? It takes more than great skill, history has taught us that if nothing else. He’s young at only 22, worth millions with millions more to come and dating famous women. That could distract anyone.

Talking about Irish golfers, how about Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke? Ireland and Northern Ireland have produced some great golf talent, but they tend to be streaky players. Darren is getting a bit long in the tooth, Paddy seems to have played himself out and Graeme? I don’t know. He was terrific at Pebble Beach in 2010. It’s true that many pros drop off after their first major, but he seems to all but have disappeared. He’ll win, but it’s no given that he’ll ever raise another major trophy.

Luke Donald is another story. He was the money winner in both the U.S. and Europe. That’s a feat that even Tiger hasn’t accomplished. He’s not long, but get him in sight of the green and he’s deadly. Apparently he had something to prove to the world in 2011. Does he have the fire to go after a string of majors? If not, then expect him to dial it back a notch and content himself with painting pictures and selling wine.

If you look at the names on the European Money List after Luke and Rory, you’ll find the likes of Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Lee Westwood, Alvaro Quiros and, hold your hat, Sergio Garcia in 8th place. Kaymer will continue to win every year. Why, because he’s just like Bernhard Langer. The Germans may not be flashy, but they’re good, consistent and persistent. He will win lots more tournaments and probably a major or two during a career that will probably see him leading the Champions Tour some day.

I haven’t seen much of Charl Schwartzel but I have a feeling this guy is a player. Expect him to keep charging up the rankings. Lee Westwood is a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. He’s very good, but there’s something missing or maybe just out of place. I have a feeling that 2012 will be a make or break year for him. Quiros is like a lot of the young guns on the U.S. tour. He hits the ball a mile. No, make that a mile and a half. But, you need more than distance to win the big ones.

Last, but not least, can you believe that Sergio Garcia finished 8th on the 2011 European Money List? I can’t. Here’s a guy who had it all, lost it all and now seems to be on a comeback. Sergio’s reappearance, the original Sergio not the brooding one, would be great for golf. I hope he keeps coming, he’s good for the game.

Besides Tiger, what’s going to happen in the US? I’m afraid that Phil’s best golf may be behind him now. I can’t help but feel that his atypical performance last year had a lot to do with his arthritis. That would be a shame, as he’s brought so much to the pro game. In many ways, he’s been the modern pro player most like Arnold Palmer – great with the fans and never afraid to take a chance. It might not be the way to be the best golfer in the world, but it sure is fun to watch. Here’s hoping that Phil can somehow pull out another Major. If he does, his best bet is the Masters.

It’s hard to make heads or tails out of the rest of the U.S. Pro Tour. Just when you think someone is going to breakout, they fall back, sometimes because of injury, sometimes because of partying and sometimes because golf is an impossible game to be consistently good at. Remember how good Sean O’Hair looked a couple of years ago? Since then, like Anthony Kim, it’s hard to find him on a leaderboard.

And then there are guys you never heard of the previous year who come on like world beaters! The guys that have some momentum from last year are Webb Simpson, Nick Watney, Bill Haas, Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kucher. Kuch had a pretty good year in 2011, but nothing like 2010. But, then, how could he? He was driven to show the world that he could be one of the Tour’s best. But I think he’s too nice a guy and too much a family man to drive himself to go further every year. He’ll win, but not as much. I hope he gets a major.

Dustin Johnson is such an athletic talent, but could he be too athletic for golf? I know that’s blasphemy to some, but I do think it’s true. Tiger’s a great athlete, but he’s different in that he was focused on golf from the beginning. I’m not sure that if you play a lot of other sports for a long time that you can dominate golf the way Tiger has. I can’t give you facts to back that up, but there’s something about a purely athletic swing that doesn’t lend itself to the limits that a good golf swing has to have. It does make for some amazing distance. Dustin will win, and he might even get a major but he’s going to have to change something to be the next superstar, but what?

Simpson, Watney, Bradley and Haas, now there’s some real golf talent, but do they have the intangibles to become great – meaning win more than one Major. Simpson and Bradley had such good years in 2011 that they’re the kind you think might become the next Tiger or Phil, but there’s always the possibility they become the next disappearing act. It’s hard to know what separates the two.

And then there’s a whole raft of guys who can play and play well, but maybe not consistently enough to ever dominate. I’m talking about guys like Bubba Watson, Gary Woodland, Justin Rose, and Hunter Mahan. I’d bet that Watson, Rose and Mahan will continue pretty much as they have, with Bubba falling off some. Woodland is another young guy who can hit the ball a mile, which puts him into the thick of things on some courses, but that may mean a career with only a couple of wins in the long run, but enough to make him a multimillionaire anyway.

I’ll wrap up with two comeback cases in the vein of Sergio, namely Jason Day and Brandt Snedeker. Both made considerable progress in rejuvenating their games in 2011. You can only hope it leads to even better things in 2012, but golf is a fickle game. Just ask yourself! Whatever happens, 2012 looks to be one of the most interesting pro golf seasons in quite a while. I wonder if there’s anything in the Mayan Calendar about that?

Related posts:

1. Predictions Based On British Open Interviews
2. How Good Are Today’s PGA Tour Pros?
3. Pro Tour Starts ’09 In Lackluster Fashion

Rehearsing Your golf swing, I believe, is a very valuable practice. It really sets your body physiology in a way that allows you to hit quality golf shots.

So here’s the trick. How do you really know what good positions are if your game is in the dumps? Yeah, maybe you’ve felt it a shot or two throughout your round but how can you “brand” this int your physiology so you can produce it consistently?

I have found one of the best ways to do this is by rehearsing certain key positions in the golf swing.

Watch the Faldo video in the right hand column and he’ll give you 2 excellent positions to rehearse. And the key is to really rehearse these – over and over and over again – just like an actor rehearsing their lines.

I wrote about proprioception training in a recent article and you can also check out the Sean Foley video on balance which gives another terrific “rehearsal” drill.

What I have found about these drills is they they are much more difficult than they actually sound (Foley even mentions this in the video above so listen for it) because they really take patience and discipline to do them slowly AND correctly.

We all want to swing out of our shoes for some reason (and I’m including me in this group as well) so it takes tremendous determination to go very slow and really FEEL the correct positions. Notice I said “correct”

You will have to constantly monitor yourself to make sure you are practicing and rehearsing “correct” golf positions. As we know, even pros have to constantly monitor and assess their swings via themselves and their coaches. It’s no different than you other than I assume you probably don’t have a full-time golf coach.

Finally, after researching this topic I found a number of coaches and experts recommending that you also take full practice swings at your regular swing speed every 5-6 “rehearsals”

This is meant to really “ground” your swing in your physiology so you can feel it at it’s proper speed. Then go back to your slow-motion, rehearsals swings and then back to full-swing again.

Now that is is off-season it’s a great time to rehearse correct positions. Keep in mind, they might feel awkward but that doesn’t mean their not correct positions. Again, what may “feel” correct to you can be just the opposite.

Related posts:

1. Perfect Your Swing With Position Practice
2. Hit solid, thud-sounding golf shots with Correct Sight
3. The Golf Swing Is Pretty Simple

(click picture for Huff Post Sports article)

Leave it to the Shark to try and stir up some controversy before the upcoming President’s Cup competition in Australia. He’s made it very public that if he were captain of the US side he wouldn’t have picked Tiger. With one comment he’s verbally face slapped both Freddie Couples and Tiger Woods. (read the full story HERE at Golf.com)

Greg is no dummy, so why would he put that out there? I suspect it’s not Greg the golfer we’re hearing, but rather Greg the businessman. As good as he was as a Tour player, you could make a very strong case that he’s been more successful building a business empire that includes golf equipment/apparel, wine, restaurants, beef, course design, and real estate development to name a few. A savvy entrepreneur knows hype before a big match can do a lot for ratings and get you buckets of free publicity.

Golf has always prided itself on being a gentlemanly game. When speaking about the competition, you don’t hear pros putting one another down or saying how they’re going to kick someone’s behind. Golf is too unforgiving for trash talkers to last very long. There are Golfing Gods out there and they don’t take kindly to fingers in the chest.

Greg should know better than to talk about the other Captain’s picks. Maybe he’s been watching too much NFL, NHL and NBA and has forgotten golf’s unwritten code of conduct. Or, maybe, he’s just trying to stick it in the face of the Golfing Gods that took so many Green Jackets from him!

Related posts:

1. Norman Crashes British Open Party!
2. What’s the Beef, Greg?
3. Cheers for Freddy the Brave!

Who doesn’t like Freddy Couples, really? The pros like him, the spectators like him and the commentators like him.

He doesn’t have to do much but walk down the fairway and you can almost hear the crowd give a sigh of affirmation. I’d say he’s the embodiment of charisma.

Freddy is captain of this year’s President’s Cup team going to Australia. With Freddy at the helm you know the pros on the team are anxious to play because the mood will be laid back and a ‘no worry, mates’ atmosphere will prevail.

There is one problem for Freddy and that’s Mr. Woods. Not only is he a friend of Tiger’s, but he has tremendous respect for what he’s done for golf over a decade. So now that Tiger is only a shadow of his former self, do you bench him or put him on the team only to deprive an upcoming superstar of a spot they deserve based on their play in 2011? Not an easy decision, even for the smooth Mr. Couples.

In case you missed the recent news, Freddy has avoided the problem nicely and thrown the ball directly back into Tiger’s court. Great shot Freddy! He said publicly that he wants Tiger on the team, BUT…..Tiger has to go out and play in more tournaments before the President’s Cup competition. Freddy made it clear that just playing in the Australian Open the week before will not be enough to get him on the team.

Now that’s brilliant captaining in my estimation. You’ve stated you’d love to have Tiger, even want him, but that he has to get himself in to playing shape. Not many pros would argue with Freddy’s observation that you eventually have to play lots of tournaments to find your form. Why Tiger hasn’t embraced this is anyone’s guess. Does he still think he can show up just at Majors. With the majority of 2 years forfeited, Tiger has to start playing lots of competitive golf if he wants to get back on top and his friend Freddy is clearly trying to give him a push in the right direction!

More cool Freddy stuff below:

Total ShotmakingThe Golfer’s Guide to Low Scoring by Fred Couples.

Get this hot Freddy item now: Fred Couples Autographed/Hand Signed Golf Ball!

Highly recommended Golf Channel DVD: Playing Lessons From The Pros: Fred Couples.

Related posts:

1. Freddy, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
2. Tiger’s Path Back To The Top
3. Greg Norman Stirs The Pot

What happened to the vaunted youth movement of Americans who were going to take the PGA Tour by storm? In light of the fact that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of any of them this year I have some theories, none of which are based on fact but then very little that makes the news is these days.

Has Dustin Johnson been pitching side sessions at the Boston Red Sox training facility in Florida? It’s rumored he may pitch a game for the AA Portland Sea Dogs by month end. Some say his go-to fastball has been clocked at over 100 mph.

Someone who looks a lot like Ricky Fowler has been seen training with Shaun White in Chile. Ricky may be gunning to make the 2014 team in the half-pipe. I have it from questionable sources that the US Olympic Team is considering orange jumpsuits for the opening ceremonies in Sochi Russia.

Lucas Glover may not play in the US Open this year as the dates conflict with the conjectured filming of the sequel to Grizzly Adams in New Zealand. If the movie is a hit, Hollywood insiders say he will be a shoe-in for the Chewbacca role in the next 3 episodes of Star Wars.

It’s thought that Anthony Kim may be the buyer who recently snapped up the 10,000 square foot mansion next to Wayne Newton’s home in Las Vegas. Some photos have surfaced on the internet that seem to show Lady Gaga on Anthony’s arm at Kate and Williams wedding. If that turns out to be true then rumors of him headlining at the Bellagio with Mr. Newton in the near future may not be that crazy.

Ryan Moore may own as much as 25% of Ralph Lauren Corporation stock. Speculation is that he could be the heir apparent to the Lauren empire, particularly as Mr. Lauren purportedly doesn’t appear in public anymore without a tie.

Have you noticed that Bill Haas only plays in tournaments when his dad Jay Haas is not playing on the Champions tour? Could they be one and the same person? Is there some new hormone therapy out there we don’t know about?

It’s been rumored that Ricky Barnes has bought a house in London and has applied for English citizenship. He has supposedly become friendly recently with many of the younger European tour players and they might have explained to him that they owe their superior playing to what they put in the water in Europe. If that’s the case, the US might not win another Ryder Cup until Tiger Wood’s kids join the tour in 15 years.

Just to show you how far out of touch you are, I’ll bet your one of the US golf fans who thinks that Tiger isn’t playing because of his left leg. Don’t be fooled by his walking cast. After his indiscretions he’s decided to devote all his energy to doing for his kids what his Dad did for him. I’ve heard from sources I can’t name that you shouldn’t be surprised to see Sam & Charlie take on Ray Romano and Rush Limbaugh in a pay per view best ball match on the Golf Channel in the near future. I don’t want to give anything away, but I wouldn’t bet on Ray and Rush if I were you!

Maybe the Golf Channel should move their European Tour coverage to prime time.

Related posts:

1. Sean O’Hair Is Not Your Typical Young PGA Tour Player
2. Pro Tour Starts ’09 In Lackluster Fashion
3. Tiger Wins On Nationwide Tour!

The big question is still whether Tiger will beat Jack’s record in the Majors. We now know for sure that Tiger will not return to playing the way he did prior to 2009. Why? He’s got physical limitations. His swing style and the nature of modern golf have caught up to him. During the Masters interviews Tiger finally said very explicitly that he had to change his swing because he couldn’t physically swing the old way anymore. How did this happen?.

We have Jack Nicklaus to thank for that. No, he didn’t hit Tiger in the knees with a baseball bat. What Jack did was to change modern competitive golf strategy with his length. Jack did a lot of things to be one of the greatest ever, but key to his game was his ability to birdie so many par 5′s. They were almost gimmes for him, while golfers like Gary Player had to hit 3 irons where Jack was hitting wedge.

Tiger used the exact same approach to achieve his super dominance for so many years – blow it by everyone off the tee and reach the par 5′s in two. Now every young golfer realizes that to be special, you have to be long off the tee. Guys like Watson, Johnson, Quiros and a pack of others are following right in the same footsteps and why not, it works. Ask Bubba about that.

The downside is the toll long bombing apparently takes on the body. Tiger may not become the poster boy for the ‘winner of the most majors’, but instead for ‘how modern power golf ends careers prematurely’. It would be interesting for the PGA Tour to start looking into the effects of violent golf swings. Where’s the cutoff? Is a 300 yard drive safe while 320 is going to end your competitive career in 5 years.

If you think I’m reaching here, reflect on the other sports. All of them have developed ‘wear and tear on the body’ concerns as athletes have gotten bigger and stronger. By golf doing some research now it may save golfers’ health and help spur the development of new equipment like golf shoe soles that minimize knee twisting.

Back to Tiger versus Jack. Tiger started to look like his old self at the Masters then he tweaked his left leg and has been off his golf feet until this week. Tiger’s body started to break down sooner than anyone expected. His personal issues were a distraction and hid the fact for awhile that his legs were breaking down so badly. Now it’s all too clear that scandal didn’t derail Tiger, it was physical.

Does Tiger have a chance still to beat Jack? Certainly, but the odds are greatly reduced. Looking at it logically, a reduced Tiger only needs to win one major a year in 5 out of the next seven years. That’s a stretch for even the best pros, but it’s certainly possible for Tiger if his legs can hang on. His Masters performance showed me he has the skills, the uncertainty is his body.

Related posts:

1. Tiger and Jack
2. You, Me and Tiger’s Transgressions
3. Tiger Needs To Retool His Game

If it was excitement you wanted on Sunday, then it was excitement you got! No matter who you were rooting for, Sunday at the Masters was spectacular. David Feherty’s comment around 4 pm summed it up – ‘every continent but the Arctic and Antarctic is represented on the leader board’ – and it wasn’t hyperbole.

Tiger is back. Sure he’s not winning, but watching the back nine on Friday and the front nine on Sunday, he’s ingraining the new swing. His putting hurt him, but I suspect that’s only a bit more practice from being where he wants it. There’s no question he’ll win again. He’ll do it this year. The only question is when.

The boys from South Africa can play, can’t they? First Trevor Immelman, then Louis Oosthuizen and now Charl Schwartzel. The question is why do they disappear after spectacular performances. Most first time winners get blown out of the water after winning a major, too many distractions I guess. But in recent years the South Africans in particular seem to go into hybernation after winning a major. I suspect it has something to do with wanting to be at home. South Africa is a tough commute. The European Tour has become a hard full-time slog because tournaments are played all over the world. The only solution is to move to here and play this tour, something they haven’t been willing to do. I believe Trevor now has a place in Florida and perhaps that will improve his record. Bottom line, they turn out some great golfers.

It was nice to see Adam Scott make a great showing. He’s a  classic case of the ‘next superstar’ to fall from grace. Now it appears he’s back on track and may become a familiar face at the top of  the leaderboard. He was clutch down the stretch even if he didn’t win. This will do wonders for his confidence.

For the rest of the players there are more questions than answers. That seems to be the state of things in professional golf and doesn’t look to change for awhile. I’m not sure how many great players there are, but there are a lot of very good players. Looking forward to the next major, the U.S. Open, who’s going to win? I have no idea, but I’d venture there are at least 15 to 20 guys who might win that wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. That’s going to make it hard for any single person to dominate Majors in the coming years. Too many good athletes now see golf as a viable alternative to baseball, soccer, basketball and maybe even badminton. To that they can add high speed cameras that show every nuance of the golf swing. How can they not be good?

Last word; ‘Charl I hope you play more tournaments in the U.S so we can find out just how good you might be’!

Related posts:

1. Day 3 at the 2011 Masters
2. The Masters In HDTV
3. Day 2 Begins at the Masters

Let me say upfront that I’m not suggesting that we won’t continue to have pro golf tours around the world. After all, we still have pro tennis. What I’m concerned about is that the PGA Tour(s) could decline in popularity as pro tennis has done for a couple of decades.

I see a couple of reasons why this might happen. The first is Tiger Woods, or more aptly the demise of Tiger Woods as a dominating golfer the likes of which we haven’t seen since Jack. We’ve become used to such a high level of competence, that it’s understandable that we would lose interest in anything less. Without Tiger, we are likely to see an endless parade of a different pro winning each week with no particular one winning very much. One could be forgiven in thinking the winner is just whoever gets hot that week not someone who has taken their game to a different level. For the first time in a long time, we have a world number one who hasn’t won a major. Is that a catalyst for increased TV ratings?

Could it be that there are so many good pros out there that it’s hard to be a standout anymore? Golf is a game of such inconsistency that it may be a long long time before and individual comes along who is consistently great the way Tiger was. Even if Tiger comes back to at or near where he was, it’s only a matter of time before age catches up with him and the pro tours are faced with reality – is golf interesting without a dominant player?

There are plenty of new up and coming players the likes of McIlroy, Ishikawa, Kaymer, Casey, Immelman, Johnson and Barnes to name a few. And therein may lie the professional game’s greatest threat. Professional golf is most interesting when someone reaches new heights, not when the ranks of those at lower altitudes grows and grows. It definitely increases the odds that no one will follow in Tiger’s footsteps.

Take Martin Kaymer as an example. He’s had an exciting productive career thus far, but to be a new superstar he has to be able to beat a legion of very good golfers on any given day. In Jack’s day, it seemed like he had to beat only a handful in any given tournament, even if that handful was of very high quality. Today, it’s more like 30 players who are very capable of winning over any 4 day stretch. Is that really interesting?

I suppose I’m like a lot of followers of the Pro Tours. I’ll always be interested in watching the Majors, because they are, well, the Majors. The next most interesting thing after that is what will Tiger do? If he falters then I can’t see getting very excited if pro golf continues the way it has for the last 18 months.

Is it me, or do current tournament winners seem to be whoever can hang on not who can mount a charge on Sunday? In the final analysis, too many rich tournament purses may have attracted too many good athletes to the game. Combine that with golf’s fickle nature and you get- BORING! In this case, I hope I’m wrong.

Related posts:

1. Tiger’s Scary Future As A Tour Pro
2. Pro Tour Starts ’09 In Lackluster Fashion
3. Pro Golf Takes, But Does It Give Enough?

I really enjoyed watching Tommy Gainey in Phoenix last week. There’s a humble, likable blue collar guy in a sport where too many players have 4 or 5 coaches and sizable posses. You have to love the gloves and the baseball swing.

Ultimately it may limit the kind of shots he can hit, but right now he’s hitting the snot out of the ball so who cares.

He did a great job with his Golf Channel interview, coming across as just another guy in your Tuesday league. I felt for him on Monday at the 17th where he got in trouble in the hazard and knocked himself out of contention.

He hung in and played the 18th with his head held high. I really hope we see more of Tommy TG this year who plays for all of us regular guys and gals whose swings aren’t perfect!

Related posts:

1. Who the heck is Tommy Armour lll?
2. Amino Vital, why do the Pros love it?
3. Thursday At The Open