The Masters: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

Its that time of year again where I contribute something to this blog. The Masters is upon us and I'm estatic. This is my favorite major out of the four. There is so much tradition that goes with this tournament and so many great golf moments come The Masters. It is a goal of mine to one day go to Augusta National, I would like to play but that would never happen sadly.

Last years champion, Phil Mickelson, looks to repeat his performance from last year. Ill never forget last year when he went 7 under (I think thats right, I cant remember and I dont feel like looking it up) through three holes. He had that unbelievable shot where he was in the trees and he knocked to about 3 feet. Pretty sure it made Sportscenters top ten list, however probably wasnt able to beat some lame ass dunk. It became an instant classic Masters moment and gave Phil the momentum that carried him through the rest of the weekend towards the victory.

This year im not so sure if he can repeat and for really one reason, and that is because he is Phil Mickelson and you cant really predict what he is going to do. As I write this the St. Louis Blues just tied the Hawks 3-3 in the 3rd and makes me miss how awesome last summer was with the Hawks winning it all (It was a crappy goal and I let Duncan Keith know how I felt about his effort on that play). Back to The Masters, this year should be a good one though. Tiger will be going for another major win getting closer to the all-time record, however I dont think he will win. I dont think he is back to his old form and I havent seen anything that makes me think otherwise.

I would like to see Ricky Fowler do well just because he is young and will win a couple majors in his career, so why not start with this one. I'm also interested in watching Rory McIlroy. He is another youngen that has a bright future in the PGA. Plus his name sounds like Roy Mcavoy from the movie Tin Cup which is a good movie.

My pick to win this year is Bubba Watson. I think he has played well this year so far and because it seems like a good pick. Also look for Mark Wilson to do well. He is the current money leader and FedEx Cup Points leader. He is having a good year and could carry the momentum he has gained into this tournament. Alright thats it from me, hope you enjoy tournament.

US Open Preview

It’s about that time again to talk about the US Open. This year’s championship will be played at the famous Pebble Beach in California. If I had to pick anywhere to have the US Open it would be Pebble Beach. The scenery is absolutely beautiful especially the 18th hole that runs along the ocean. It has the white sand traps and amazing views wherever you are on the course. I hope to one day be able to play Pebble Beach. Phil Mickleson will hope to continue his Masters success and continue his run at a grand slam (winning all 4 major golf championships in a row).

Now there are a few questions that people will be asking about this year. One of them is will the weather cooperate this year unlike last year. For those who don’t remember last year was a very wet weekend which had many off their game and multiple rounds being played in one day. Will this weekend be nice for this year US Open? I sure do hope so.

Another question will be of course how Tiger will do. A couple of weeks ago Tiger withdrew from a tournament complaining about back problems blah blah blah. I can’t see Tiger doing well this weekend in fact I’m pretty sure it’s a lost year for him, that’s just my opinion though. He really hasn’t shown any type of dominance in the little he has played this year and I don’t expect him to show it this weekend. The US Open is known for higher scores due to the long rough and slick greens. He certainly has the ability, but don’t think he will show it this weekend.

One other question that comes to mind is will Robert Garrigus carry an extra pair of pants? For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about Robert Garrigus was the golfer that had a 2 stroke lead going in the final hole and gave it up by triple bogeying 18. However he is also the golfer who had HUGE swamp ass. Literally it looked like he decided to sit in a puddle. If you want to know what I’m talking about just search for it you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I can’t tell you will win this weekend and I really have no idea who will play well this weekend. I’ll give the usual names that I always look for and that are Mickleson, Furyk, and Woods. I’ll give you a sleeper pick and no it’s not you Sergio, but Justin Leonard. Why you ask because his name jumped in my head and I got this feeling that he might do well. Alright have a good weekend.

Masters Wrapup

The Masters is over and done with and Phil Mickelson won his third Green Jacket. Lefty shot 16 under for the tournament while Lee Westwood shot 13 under, and Anthony Kim shot 12 under.

Tiger Woods had a solid showing at this years Masters by playing above everyone's expectations (did that sex rehab center have a golf course?). Woods was 11 under for the tournament, but struggled at times with his drives and putting.

Back to Phil, Mickelson played awesome this weekend I thought. The most memorable moment for him and probably the tournament was where he picked up 5 strokes on 3 holes on the back nine on Saturday. Phil almost had three Eagles in a row which would have been unreal. I thought it was going in and two inches to the left it would have been.

There was a point on Sunday where I thought Phil was going to fall apart, his drving became an issue at one point but he was able to keep it together which past Phil was not known for.

After Mickelson won The Masters there was a touching moment with him and his wife. Phil's wife is a breast cancer survivor -- he took time off last year to spend time with her. The win must have made it that much more special to them. It was absolutly a memorable Masters and Mickelson played outstanding.

You can't forget about Westwood, who also had his fair share of moments. Westwood was going for his first major victory , but couldn't overcome Phil's play on the final day.

I was also glad to see Fred Couples and Tom Watson play well over the whole thing. I never really thought they had a chance, but it would have been cool if they did. Overall it was a great weekend for golf and it showed why I love The Masters so much. I look forward to watching next years Masters. Hey Noffke The Masters is coming up.

A tradition unlike any other: The Masters Preview

What a week it is, Monday was Opening Day for our respective teams and the National Championship game and this weekend is the Masters. For those of you who don’t know the Masters is my favorite major. The winner of the tournament gets the famous Green Jacket, which he is only allowed to keep for a year and then it must be returned. The Maters is the only tournament that is invite only, meaning there are no qualifiers and is the smallest field of players of any tournament. The tournament is also always played at Augusta National Golf Club. These factors and the many traditions make it the most prestigious tournament in golf.

Now the big storyline of the tournament is the return of Tiger. It is his first tournament back from his awful disease of sex addiction (if you haven’t seen the South Park episode about this you should go watch it, it’s hilarious). Personally I’m sick of hearing about it, I get it he cheated on his hot Swedish wife can we move on, so hopefully they don’t focus on that story this weekend. Now I don’t really start watching a lot of golf until The Masters so I don’t know who has been playing well recently, but I will give you some names to look for.

Tiger Woods – He hasn’t played in a while so no one knows how well he will play. I thought he should have played in a tournament before The Masters, but he decided against it. Regardless he is still the best golfer in the world and I have no doubt he’s been playing in private the past couple months. I know some people that think he will miss the cut, but I am not one of those people I think he makes it the whole weekend. While he has the ability to win it I just don’t see it happening.

Ian Poulter - Like I said I haven’t watched a lot of golf, but after talking to my Uncle and future brother in law this past weekend they both have stated that he has been playing really well the past couple weeks.

Ernie Els – Another golfer that has been playing well recently. Els hasn’t been as good since his knee surgery a couple of years ago (much like David Duval and his back), but he seems to be on his way back to competing more. I’ve always liked Ernie and hope he does well.

Phil Mickleson – He hasn’t been playing well recently but still has the ability to win a tournament as long as he doesn’t get creative.

Sergio Garcia – The Masters marks the start of his traditional can’t play in major’s campaign, but he’s probably just using these tournaments to get ready for the Ryder Cup this year.

So those are some names to look for (not really Sergio I just had to get that in) if you plan on watching this weekend. Coverage starts tomorrow on ESPN for the first two rounds and CBS for the final two rounds. Enjoy the weekend.

Tiger Woods: Attention Whore

What an under the radar return to golf...

My early estimation: New record set for Master's viewership...If only I worked in advertising...gold mine possibilities for Tiger spoofs during this.

PGA Championship Preview

This is it, the final major of the year and this one is just for the big boys. The PGA Championship is this weekend at Hazeltine National Golf Club. For those of you who don’t know the PGA Championship is only for the pros. Armatures are not allowed to play in this weekend’s major, not that it matters because armatures don’t win majors anymore anyways. The PGA Championship is my least favorite major and I have a feeling a majority have the same feeling.

It comes late in the year where most people are occupied with something else, like getting ready for football season (Happy Jay Cutler Day), watching the Cubs make a playoff push (sigh, I can only hope), or getting ready to go back to school (another sigh, I loved syllabus week), and many other things. Point is by this time of year I don’t care as much about this one as I do with the previous majors. Probably the most intriguing storyline, and most likely the only one, is will Tiger Woods go winless in majors for the 2009 season or will he pull it out.

If memory serves me correctly if Tiger doesn’t win this weekend it will be the only 2nd time in his career that he would not win a major in a season. The one thing that might be on Woods side is the fact that he seems to win a major every year, so statistically the odds are in his favor to win this one. What’s not on his side is that he has been inconsistent this year, but we can chalk that up to the knee surgery he had last year. Tiger hasn’t seemed to be able to have every aspect of his game firing on all cylinders during the same weekend. However if he does he will be the favorite, like always.

Some other fun facts you should know about this weekend is that Phil Mickelson will be back playing this weekend. After skipping the British Open to take care of his wife, Mickelson will be trying to add on to his major victories list. He certainly has the ability to win it, as long as he doesn’t do what he did in the US Open when he had the lead. Another fun fact is that all three major winners this year (Angel Cabrera (Masters), Lucas Glover (US), and Stewart Cink (British)) will be in the same group for the first two rounds this weekend.

As for who is going to win this weekend? I think it’s a crap shoot anyone can win it (No not you Sergio), every major winner this year no one really saw coming especially for the first two major winners. With that said I think this year’s PGA Championship winner will be ………….Tiger Woods, why cause I made a bet with Noffke and I want free pizza. Enjoy the weekend.

British Open Preview

The British Open or commonly referred to as The Open is coming up this weekend. This major isn’t as popular as the first two simply because I don’t get into it as much. Since it’s played over in Europe its played very early in the morning here which means we will know the winner of The Open by 11am Sunday morning. Another reason I can’t really get into it and may be the same for some Americans is that American golfers tend not to play well in the British Open, except Tiger most the time.

One of the major factors for this is European courses are links style courses. For those of you who don’t know what that means let me inform you. Links style courses involve little to no trees and very little water. The course is mostly wide open and has very long grass, like the grass you would see in a wet lands area, along each hole. If a player gets stuck in this grass it will be a hard time finding their ball. The British Open is almost always accompanied by unfavorable weather. Do to the wide open course wind speed is high and always cloudy, rainy, and cold. Due to these conditions European players generally will outplay American players.

Last year’s British Open had a memorable story line to it with Greg “Shark” Norman coming in 2nd place. He played well all weekend but fell short to eventual winner Padraig Harrington. Norman was trying to win his first major since 1997 and it would have been awesome if he could pull it off but Harrington proved to be too much. Harrington won back-to-back British Opens Championships beating none other than Sergio Garcia in a playoff (Sergio missed a 5 footer to win that year).

For this year’s tournament the winner can be anyone, it’s pretty up in the air if you ask me. A few names you should look for is Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, and Northwestern grad Donald Lucas. Phil Mickelson is staying at home this year to take care of his wife. Tiger can easily be considered to be the favorite but he hasn’t won many British Opens. Which leads me to my pick to win and that golfer is Harrington. Harrington hasn’t played well recently but playing on European soil should help. If he doesn’t win then I think a European will win it, except for Sergio. Enjoy the weekend.

US Open Recap

People say better late than never and that applies to this post. Sorry for it being late but combining the facts that the US Open ran late anyways, I was bitter about it all day Tuesday (more on this in a minute), Transformers 2 came out Wednesday (Good movie not as good as the first though, it could have been better), and then add in laziness and the weekend it brings us to today which is a week and two days after the US Open has finished.

The US open was, well let’s just say there seemed to be water hazards everywhere. When Saturday came around, which ended up being round 2 of the tournament, the course was so saturated that when it drizzled lakes appeared on the course and mainly the greens. The course did not play like a US Open course except for Monday. Which bring me to why I am bitter.

Normally the greens are fast enough where players have trouble sticking their wedges close. However since the green were soft from the rains all weekend, players were able to hit drivers from the fairway and have them stick on the green which doesn’t sound like a US Open course. Due to the rain the average scores between the two groups of the first two rounds were not close. Any golfer who had the early tee time Thursday and the later tee time Friday played in rain and the opposite group of golfer played in nice weather. Mike Weir was asked by a reporter if he considered himself to be lucky for playing in the nicer weather throughout the first two days and Weir considered himself very lucky. If anyone watched the tournament at all over the weekend they would have noticed that the only players atop of the leader board were players that had the later Thursday early Friday tee times.

This factor leads to Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover being in the final group of the final round. When players began playing Monday they noticed and so did I that Bethpage Black finally was playing like a US Open golf course should. Barnes and Glover struggled as some of golf’s top players played well. Mickelson was playing well and looked to take over until he started playing like Phil again missing key putts on the last few holes. Tiger played well enough that he could have made a run at it but his inability to hit a putt ruined any comeback bid. Barnes played terrible on the final day and finished 2-under respectively, but can’t help but wonder if he would be up on the leader board if the weather was good all weekend.

The same thing goes for this year’s winner Lucas Glover. Before the US Open Glover had won a total of one PGA event, even though the US Open is a USGA event, the fact that Glover hadn’t won much before this makes me think that he wouldn’t have been in contention on the final day. Glover didn’t particularly play well on the final day when the course play like the course should have been playing all weekend as he and along with Barnes came back to the field.

I congratulate Glover on winning this year and not trying to downgrade his major victory but you have to wonder what the US Open would have been like if the course was in a normal state. With that said you still have to go out there and shoot well regardless what the conditions are. Another reason I am bitter just a bit is because I was really pulling for David Duval. He had a great tournament run and is showing flashes of how he use to play (for those who don’t know Duval was ranked number 2 in the world behind Tiger before he started having back problems, they had a great match in the British Open at St. Andrews a few years ago). Also anyone notice how big Duval got? He used to be skinny and look like he was in shape. Overall it was a solid US Open and still fun to watch I look forward to next year’s tournament. Again sorry for this being late and see you next time for the British Open.

US Open 2009 Preview

[by Tim Transon, Armchair Superstar senior golf correspondent]

It’s about that time of year again for my second favorite major tournament–hey Noffke, the Masters is coming up soon. The question for this year’s US Open is; will it be able to live up to the excitement of last years?

The 2008 US Open was an exciting one with an extra day needed to determine a winner. All weekend we heard the story about Tiger Woods' knee injury and if would be able to compete. We kept seeing images of Tiger grimacing in pain after shots, however I believe he was showing off to the cameras because he did it after every bad shot. Not only did Tiger have to make a putt on the final hole on Sunday to force an 18-hole playoff, but he then had to do it again the next day to beat out the veteran Rocco Mediate (I was pulling for Rocco). It was an exciting five days of golf.

The 2009 US Open is being played at Bethpage Black (eighteenth hole pictured here) in Farmingdale NY. The course is a par 70 and 7,426 yards long. The last year the US Open was played here was in 2002 and Tiger Woods was the winner by three strokes over the current number two ranked player Phil Mickelson. While the weather is always unpredictable every year, a few things you can count on include long thick rough, lightning fast greens, and high scores. Although there will be numerous players trying to win, here are a few names, in my mind, for you to keep an eye on.
Tiger Woods: No brainer here, I have always told Noffke that I think Tiger pretty much only tries in Majors and all the smaller tournaments to him are basically just public appearances. We always bet on majors–I take Tiger and he takes the field. It’s not as much of a sucker bet as you might think. I will tell you one thing and that is a couple of weeks ago if you were to ask me who would win the US Open I wouldn’t have even considered Tiger. He was nowhere near back from his knee surgery and his putting stroke was not consistent along with his tee shots. Looking back at the Masters and tournaments that followed he putted terribly.

However, two weeks ago Tiger showed that he is back. After trailing by multiple shots heading into the weekend he played terrific, hitting putts and going 14 for 14 in fairways hit on the final day. He had the best percentage in that category for the entire tournament. If Tiger can play like that this weekend, the tournament could be over quickly.

Phil Mickelson: It’s great to see Phil playing this weekend after learning about the terrible news about his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer. I hope for nothing but a healthy recovery. It will be a difficult time for the Lefty to concentrate with all that is going on in his life right now, however after being paired with Tiger in the Masters and not having his usual collapse he might be able to push everything in the back of his mind for at least four days.

Jim Furyk: I love Jim Furyk. He is one of my favorite golfers. He has that crazy twitch in his backswing but can still recover in time to hit a good shot. Furyk has only one major win, which came in the 2003 US Open at Olympia Fields, but he is consistently at the top of the leader board. I wouldn’t be surprised if Furyk is in contention come Sunday.

Padraig Harrington: Harrington is the best European golfer playing this weekend in my mind. Harrington has three major titles, two British Open wins and a PGA, however he has seemed to be struggling in recent majors. Even though he has been struggling he still has the skills to win and still should be considered a threat.

Sergio Garcia: No I do not believe Sergio to be a contender to win the US Open, but what kind of golf article would it be without making fun of Sergio Garcia? The only way I see Sergio winning this tournament is if they somehow rename the US Open the Ryder Cup.

While many other players don’t seem to play well, especially the Americans in recent years with the exception of this past Ryder Cup, Sergio tends to shine and outplay everyone including Tiger Woods. When it comes to majors, though, he forgets how to play. For instance in 2007 he had a 6 foot putt to win the British Open. As I recall he pushed his putt to go into a playoff with Padraig Harrington and Sergio was easily defeated.

An article in the Daily Herald by Jim Litke here talks more about Garcia’s woes and reminds the reader that he is “0 for 39 in matches that count”. Look for Sergio to keep being Sergio.

There are other players to watch but I don’t have the time to write about all of them. A fun fact for you is that Tiger will be going for major win number 15 and back to back US Opens. After it’s all said and done I believe that Tiger will win this year but I wouldn’t mind if Furyk won or even Kenny Perry who barely just lost the Masters this past April. Well hopefully you enjoyed my first article. I am a terrible writer so if this was painful to read I am sorry. I will come back with a US Open recap sometime next week.

Update: First round has been Postponed till 6:30 tomorrow. It looks like some bad weather all weekend so there will be some high scores. Fodor asked for some dark horses and here they are: Justin Leonard, Kenny Perry, Mike Weir, Zack Johnson, VJ Singh, and Angel Cabrera