Sometimes to find the story you need to read between the stats. This year’s U.S. Open is no exception. Here’s an example. A friend and I went to a hockey game. I was rooting for a cellar team – they were in last place. He was cheering for the mighty juggernaught. My team won 3-1, although we were heavily outshot in the stats. My buddy couldn’t...
They teased him in the locker room, but phlegmatic Jim Furyk, out of commission at Westchester from a swallowining injury (SWALLOWING INJURY!) had the last laugh. After “throwing my head back awkwardly,” and wrenching his back and neck badly last week, Furyk is right in the thick of the hunt at the U.S. Open with just a few extra doses of Aleve. With...
This is a reprint of a letter I wrote on my website on February 16, 2005 after Duval had carded several i80s and missed numerous cuts. David shot the best round of the day today. 68 at Winged Foot. Setup for The U.S. Open. With the scoring average for the field over 75. The letter speaks for itself. Now excuse me for a minute while I go watch my DVD of the 2001...
Witness now the rise and fall of a Day 1, back nine love affair. Day one of the U.S. Open is just “getting to know you.” It’s nothing more than a first date. It’s a giggle, a flirt, a flip of blond hair, a flash of a golden tanned leg, maybe even a torrid kiss or two and promises of more to come. But as David Howell found out, falling in love...
Mamaroneck, NY – Phil told the assembled media at his player interview that while he won’t have his second “driver” (the draw driver) in the bag come Thursday, he’ll adjust his game plan during the course of the tournament depending on the weather. “I think that it’s supposed to rain Wednesday and Thirsday and if that’s...
MAMARONECK, NY – The sign reads “Mamaroneck” but Welcome to The Long Hot Grind over Dark Bloody Ground. U.S. Open week has arrived, where pars are the coin of the realm, birdies are an endangered species and double bogeys are ruthlessly doled out in fistfuls and stamped “paid in full” in the anguish of the contestants. ...
Jack Nicklaus has obviously learned from his association with eminent architect Tom Doak. As you may know, the minimalist Doak and the normally flowery Nicklaus have collaborated on the highly anticipated and touted Sebonack Golf Club – a private design tucked neatly between The National Golf Links of America and Shinnecock Hills and which asks over $575,000 as...
The pulse of the American sports fan is alive and well over at Steve Czaban’s website, czabe.com. Looking for what sports fans believe in today? Forget focus groups and branding profiles, Czabe is thinking what every red-blooded hard-hitting, hard-farting sweaty, smelly, stinky sports guy knows. ***cue the new “Dial Soap Jingle,” complete with tuba...
So Frank Hannigan writes an excellent article discussing exactly how much golf “coverage” has devolved with ESPN and NBC leading the charge. The article is here at Golf Observer. Hannigan, along with Phil Mushnick at the New York Post point out how vacuous and Tiger-philic golf commentators from ESPN through Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller have become at...
I have the greatest respect for George Peper and his excellent life long body of work. Every architecture expert I know has his book 500 greatest golf holes on his shelf. However, I read his Links Mag article where he says Pinehurst No. 2 and Augusta are 2 of the 10 most overrated courses on the planet. I respectfully dissent. I think he was being glib and pounding...
Geoff Shackelford once wrote in Grounds for Golf that temptation is the most important feature in a golf course. Temptation draws players in to try shots outside their comfort zone. Maybe the pressure of the situation or the need to make up some shots makes players overreach and either become heroes or zeroes. He’s right, as usual. Ben Crenshaw came to the par...
One of the best benefits of ESPN’s waning “golf coverage” is that we won’t have to hear them beat the drum as much about their “upcoming golf coverage.” This works especially well this week at the FBR Open where last year was a constant indoctrination at their boot camp for social angst that “drunk rowdy crowds are great for...
Recently I endured a Hollywood director’s mind-numbing rant about how angry he was that “March of the Panguins” blew away pretty much everything last year at the box office. “I can’t uncerstand it” he moaned. “It had no production, no budget, no plot and one star, who never appeared on screen once!” How dare it! I...
It’s amusing watching ESPN, the holy church of the professional athelete, finally burn one of their own at the stake for heresy. “The Owenstein Monster ” started eating his own teammates. Of course, Dr. Frankenstein had to destroy his own monster too. The lesson to be learned (or not) is next time you (television sports media) are disgusted by the...
AN OPEN LETTER TO DAVID DUVAL A lot of ink has been spilt and bandwidth absorbed chronicling the recent on-course tribulations of David Duval. Sure he has certainly carded some cringe-inducing scores and shouldered some searing, withering criticism. Sure he is a long way from the form that made him immortal back in the summer of 2001. Several folks have joked about...