Ben Crane Chose the Wrong Career Path
01 hour ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Ben Crane is a pretty good golfer.
He’s ranked No. 56 in the world. He’s made over $15 million on the course since 1999 when he turned pro. He’s won four times on the PGA Tour, seven times overall in the professional ranks, but if you’re to believe his latest viral video, he made the wrong choice.
In the latest edition of the Ben-Crane-in-a-red-jump-suit-and-helmet video series, Crane let’s us into a long-kept secret that he was a master gymnast in his earlier years.
Maybe some people are getting tired of his stupid videos, but I’m not one of them. He’s still funny and he went all-out in this one. The best part is the uneven bars when he just flings himself into the air with no regard for his body.
It looks like he had to get hurt on the first one, but he does it again. Gotta love it.
Plus, for every 100,000 views, Farmers will donate $1,000 to charity, so you can feel good about watching.
Here’s the video.
The First Must-See Weekend of 2012 Raises Appearance Fee Questions
02 days ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Getty Images
We’ve had the Hawaii Swing and a nice little pro-am in California so far in 2012, but all these tournaments have lacked the star power that drives people to their television sets to watch golf in the middle of winter.
All that changes this weekend as there are two tournaments taking place on opposites sides of the globe that are sure to catch the attention of the hibernating golf fan, the HSBC Champions in Abu Dhabi and the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Both tournaments are boasting pretty strong fields with players that are capable of stealing away some viewers from the misery of watching the NFL Pro Bowl.
The question that arises from the split fields of the two tournaments stems from a purely financial point of view and involves Tiger Woods.
Imagine that.
During his press conference earlier in the week, Woods was asked a number of questions about his health, his swing and the state of his game, but an interesting line of questioning came up when the former world No. 1 was asked if appearance fees have an impact on the scheduling of high-profile players.
Woods was pretty forthcoming when asked if it affects how he schedules tournaments, saying, “You know, I’d have to say yes, it certainly does. That’s one of the reasons why a lot of the guys who play in Europe. I think the only tour that doesn’t pay [appearance fees] is the U.S. Tour.
“But, you know, a lot of the guys play all around the world and they do get appearance fees. Only place we don’t get it is the U.S.”
As I’ve said many times before, the upper echelon of professional golfers are independent contractors, setting their own schedule, rarely taking into consideration what their respective tours would like from them.
This week is the perfect example, especially in Woods’ case.
Growing up in southern California and playing on Torrey Pines all of his life, including some of his most iconic victories, you would think that Eldrick would like to take every opportunity to tee it up at Torrey.
However, as Tiger said in his presser, the PGA Tour will not pay their members or members of any other tour to simply show up, something PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is adamant about.
“From the standpoint of professional athletic competition, it raises the specter in the fans’ mind that the player is only there because he was paid to be there and not there to really compete,” he said. “If the player doesn’t play well, in light of that perception, then there is a secondary perception that he didn’t even come to compete, he just showed up to get his appearance money. That is not a good thing for your image.
“This is something that’s been part of the PGA Tour since its inception in 1968. We think our image is the most important thing we have, and we’re not going to take the risk.”
First of all, the image of the PGA Tour is certainly not the most important thing they have, it’s the players, but the commish does make a good point.
People are cynical and if someone like a Tiger Woods shows up at an off-brand tournament and collects and appearance fee only to shit the bed, excuse the expression, people are going to go into full cynicism mode.
It will become a common thread around the golf world that Woods only showed up because he was paid to be there, not to try and win a tournament, regardless if that were true or not.
The European Tour combats that with paying enough high-profile players to make it worth their while to not only show up for the money, but to compete because of the world ranking points on the line.
This is all just a long way of saying that both systems work when implemented properly. As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
As it stands now, if players are going to get paid good money to show up and play against good fields, they will continue to pass up the Torrey Pines’ of the world to play in Abu Dhabi for a nice pay day before the tournament even starts.
Mark Wilson Wins Again, Confuses Golf Fans
02 days ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
AP
Mark Wilson did it again on Sunday with his win at the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation.
“It” meaning baffling casual golf fans into wondering whom exactly Mark Wilson is.
With three tournaments under our belts in the 2012 golf season, most of your run-of-the-mill golf fans are just wiping the eye boogers off of their collective golfing goggles.
However, if you have been paying attention over the past calendar year, January through March is when Mark Wilson makes his cash.
The win at the Humana was his fifth since the start of the 2011 season, but this one was a little different from the others.
Wilson had to fight off some blustery conditions in La Quinta, Calif. which caused the suspension of play on Saturday, forcing a marathon finish to beat the setting sun on Sunday.
The Humana Challenge, which is taking over for the Bob Hope Classic, spans a traditional four-day tournament, but is played on three different courses (PGA West – Nicklaus Course, PGA West – Palmer Private Course and La Quinta Country Club) with the Palmer Private set as the final-round backdrop.
The Palmer Private was good to Wilson on Friday when the Wisconsin-native shot a 10-under par 62 and he hoped for a repeat performance on Sunday, but it didn’t start out as he had hoped.
“It feels good, obviously, to be here with the trophy,” Wilson said. “The day went not as planned. I guess it really never does. But last time I came out here (to Palmer Private), I shot 62, so of course I had those images in mind. I made a bad swing on the third hole, and then felt like I hit a lot of good shots.”
Those good shots weren’t immediately rewarded as Wilson saw his three-stroke lead evaporate before his eyes.
Robert Garrigus, playing alongside Wilson and Zach Johnson, put the most pressure on the eventual champ tying him through nine holes.
Wilson was able to get things going in the right direction on the 11th hole as he stuck his approach shot and tapped in the birdie putt. He followed that with another birdie on 12 holing out from the bunker, but Garrigus was sticking right with him, evening it up with a second birdie on the incoming nine on the 14th.
“Birdieing 11, I played that hole really smart. Then holing the bunker shot on 12 really gave me the momentum to go in the right direction, “Wilson said afterwards.
Both parred the 15th hole and swapped biridies on the 16th to enter the final two holes tied at 23-under. Garrigus dropped at shot at 17 to get back to 22-under, but his length allowed him to reach the par-5 18th in two, giving him an eagle putt for the outright lead as Wilson lined up a 10-foot birdie try.
“I felt like Robert and I really had a good time, and Zach for that matter. But Robert and I were kind of going back and forth. We enjoyed that. Both making the putts on 16, and then, yeah, it just came down to 18,” Wilson said.
Garrigus didn’t have the same steady week that Wilson did. As he and his caddie sat in the fairway six-over through eight holes on Thursday, Garrigus figured he might as well get aggressive and make some birdies if he wanted to even make a check, much less have a chance to win the tournament.
“‘I’m like, Can you believe we actually have a shot to win this thing if I make this eagle putt?” Garrigus recounted of his conversation with his caddie, Brandt Henley. “It was exciting and that’s what we live for. And I got a lot of guts, and I don’t like to lay down very easily. We had so much fun this week.”
Garrigus made a run at the eagle putt that came over a ridge in the green and burned the left edge of the hole. The only problem was Garrigus was so set on making the putt, that he rolled it a good eight feet past the hole.
Wilson stood over his 10-footer for birdie and the win with one thing in mind: “I didn’t want to give him a chance to make that putt to tie me.”
With darkness setting in, Wilson got over his putt and tried to read the green, but got some help from his caddie.
“When I got over that putt and read it, it just looked like it should be faster over that hill,” Wilson explained. “The darkness had a little something to do with it. Then Chris (Jones), my caddie, read that one perfectly, said it was going to break about an inch to the right and I started outside the hole, which I wasn’t totally trying to do, but it took that inch break at the very end.”
Although Garrigus would go on to miss his putt for birdie, which ended up costing him $186,467 as he fell into a three-way tie for second place with John Mallinger and Johnson Wagner, instead finishing as solo runner-up.
As it turns out, Wilson won his first tournament of 2012, cashing him a winners check of $1.008 million and moved him up to world No. 40.
Wilson took home the inaugural Bob Hope Memorial Trophy for his effort and will not be in the field for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open.
Everyone Up in Arms About Every’s Comments
01 week ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Nice putter. (Getty Images)
While the wins by Steve Stricker and Johnson Wagner were a great way to start the season, all anyone was talking about following the Hawaii Swing was the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman’s uncomfortable interview with Matt Every.
Every held the 36-hole lead at the Sony Opwn and as is the custom, if the Golf Channel can swing it, they’ll get an interview with the leader within their coverage window.
Now, just for the sake of getting the facts out there, Every is probably most well-known for his 90-day suspension from the PGA Tour following his 2010 arrest for possession of marijuana. The suspension cost Every most of his season and as a result, he was unable to retain his Tour card for 2011.
With his card back in his possession after a season on the Nationwide Tour and his name atop the leaderboard, enter Kelly Tilghman for the on-camera interview, which can only be seen at this link on Deadspin because the PGA Tour took down every other link out there.
After answering a few questions about his round and how he’s spending his time in Hawaii, we get a pretty good sense that Every is a pretty easy-going, laid-back guy.
Then Tilghman made reference to “Lost,” a show Every lists in his Tour bio as a favorite, and makes a mediocre segue into him being lost back in 2010 with his arrest and suspension.
Now, a lot of people are getting on Tilghman for pestering Every with questions about things that happened two years ago, but I have no problem with it, honestly.
What do most golf fans know about Matt Every?
I would wager that the most common answer to that question would be his arrest for marijuana possession. So, that’s where Tilghman went.
The most surprising thing was the candidness of Every’s answers. Here’s the exchange.
Tilghman: “But then, the word ‘lost’ might also be a fitting word to describe the state of your mind two years ago when you were arrested on drugs charges and suspended from the PGA Tour, Take us back and tell us what it was like?”
Every: “It was all right. I just got three months off. It’s just golf. I don’t think I was doing anything wrong. But, you know, it happened. I’m the same person, I have the same friends. I don’t think it’s that big a deal. There’s a lot worse stuff that goes on out here than what I got in trouble for.”
Tilghman: “What did you learn from the experience that you’re able to apply to your life today.”
Every: “I feel like I’m the same, I really do. I’m maybe a little more responsible, but I’m not a huge party animal. I’m married, I got a kid on the way. I just like to live. Whatever happened happened.”
First things first, I love Matt Every.
He’s honest and he told Tilghman the truth. It’s refreshing to hear somebody actually make a stand for what they believe in on Tour. It wasn’t the dodging of the question that we see so often with other guys. He doesn’t think marijuana is that big of a deal and there are a lot of people around the country who agree with him.
Obviously, it probably what the PGA Tour wanted to hear, but we’re told so often that these guys are independent contractors and if Every doesn’t want to beat himself up for something that he doesn’t feel is that big of a deal, why should we?
Now, Tim Finchem might have a problem with it and maybe some of his sponsors, but for what it’s worth, he made a fan out of me and I’m sure more than a few others with his honest answers.
Stricker, Wagner Sweep the Hawaii Swing
01 week ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
As most of the country gets ready to deal with a late-arriving winter, the PGA Tour kicked off its 2012 season in beautiful Hawaii with back-to-back tournaments in the Aloha State, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua and the Sony Open at Waialae.
Perennial good-guy Steve Stricker took home the hardware at the Tour’s season-opening event, the Tournament of Champions on Maui, which is reserved only for the previous season’s winners meaning that the Wisconsin native punched his ticket to get back to Kapalua this time next year.
The win didn’t come as easily as it may have seemed going into Monday’s final round. Stricker held a five-stroke lead, but saw that margin shrink to one through just six holes.
The 44-year-old veteran saw his usually steady putter betray him early in the round. Couple that with some shoddy course management and Stricker was clawing for his proverbial life.
Stricker gathered himself over the next few holes, saying in his post-round presser that if someone were to tell him that he would have a lead going into the back nine on Monday (the tournament started on Friday), he would have taken it.
“I had just made two dumb plays,” Stricker said of his early-hole mishaps. But then walking down 7, I said, all right, we’re still all right. “I mean, if I would have told myself early in the week, if I have a two-shot lead going down the 7th hole in the last round, I would take it. So I kind of tried to reverse it a little bit and make myself feel good.”
Stricker turned that calming down into back-to-back birdies on 8 and 9. He made three more birdies on the way in to shoot a final-round 69, good enough to win by three shots over Scotland’s Martin Laird.
The win signified Stricker’s 12th of his career. That’s all fine and good, but if you take a closer look, Stricker’s last few years are really impressive.
He’s won nine of those 12 times in his 40s and eight times in his last 50 starts, dating back to the 2009 Crowne Plaza Invitational.
Fast forward a few days and Johnson Wagner was lifting the second of the two tournament trophies given out in Hawaii, this time on the Big Island at the Sony Open.
Wagner captured his third-career win with rounds of 68-66-66-67 to best a group of players two shots back.
Not exactly a household name, Wagner took getting ready for 2012 seriously during the short PGA Tour offseason, working with a trainer and growing a solid mustache.
Perhaps, the biggest talking point of Wagner’s weekend, his new lip hugger was born out of pure laziness and continued through spite.
“I was with my wife’s family in Richmond for Thanksgiving and I just didn’t shave the entire week,” said Johnson, who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and calls Quail Hollow his home course. “When I got home, I thought, I’ve never had facial hair. So I thought it was too much growth to just let it go to waste. I shaved everything but the mustache, and it kind of went from there. My wife really hated it at the beginning, which made me want to grow it even more.
“And then actually I played in a little tournament the first of December down in Naples and saw Carl Pettersson and George McNeill, and they were both just like, ‘You’ve got to keep it until Hawai’i. We have to see this thing in a month.’ So I had a lot of motivation to keep it…I kind of made a deal with myself in December that if I was to get into the Masters, then I was going to keep the mustache for at least this year. I kind of kept telling people and everybody said, ‘Oh, is it a Movember mustache? Well, it’s December time to shave it.’
“I said, ‘Look, this is not a one-month mustache. This is potentially a ten-year mustache.’ So I think it’s going to be around for a while. Now if the summer heat gets to me, I may shave it off. But I’m going to try to make it as long as I can.”
So, there you have it, the ‘stache stays.
Just for Chips and Giggles: Catch-Up Edition
02 weeks ago
Welcome to the newest addition to Playing From the Wrong Fairway: Just for Chips and Giggles. Basically what this feature is going to be made up of is stories that slip through the cracks. It might become a weekly thing, but it just depends on how things go. Beings that I haven’t had the chance to update in a while, the first edition of this new segment will take the shape of a gigantic link dump. Usually, there will be a little more opinion added to each segment, but with so much time off and everything that needs to be touched on, this is the most simplified way it can happen.
Without further ado, here. we. go.
- It’s a shame that we didn’t get to do something on Luke Donald’s big double-win on the money lists. It really was one of the biggest accomplishments of recent years.
- Speaking of more money than people know what to do with, Lee Westwood shows that he is just a normal bloke making too much money.
- The world lost perhaps it’s best golfer while we were away. A 38-under par round of 34 and 11 holes-in-one. What a shame the Dear Leader never got his chance to play Augusta.
- Chubby Chandler’s International Management Group stable of stars took a hit when Rory McIlroy walked, but the Chubster added former US Am Champion Peter Uhlein and he’s talking about playing on the European Tour.
- Gary Woodland has had an interesting off-season. First, he was dropped by his swing coach (?) and now, he’s with Tiger and Mark Steinberg.
- Speaking of Rory, he’s gave a couple of interviews towards the end of 2011 about the Masters, the US Open and what went into his decision to leave IMG.
- Another young up-and-comer, Lexi Thompson snagged her second win.
- Yani Tseng dominated golf in 2011 moreso than anyone since Tiger in 2000 last year, but she still can’t get any love.
- Tiger Woods is one of those guys who left college early and never seemed to pan out. Could you imagine the type of coin he’d make if he actually got a degree? Well, he’s going to join the club of super-rich recent college graduates that I’m a member of. Just rolling in dough. 99% of college athletes go pro in something other than sports, you know.
- Speaking of guys who didn’t get a college degree and are really doing everything they can to scrape by, Justin Timberlake is now the Creative Director for Callaway.
- The PGA Tour is messing with the Q-School format and not in a good way. How am I supposed to get into the big leagues with these changes?
- BubbaClaus shot a 58. Not really that impressive compared to Kim Jung-il.
- The Golf Channel put Nick Faldo and Johnny Miller together in the same booth for the Tournament of Champions. It went as well as you could expect, which is to say, not well.
- 2012: The Year of Robot Golf. Maybe the Mayans were right.
- And finally, the golf highlight of the Wrong Fairway moratorium:
It’s good to be back. More tomorrow.
Thanks for checking in. 2012 should be fun.
Happy Holidays to Everyone from Wrong Fairway
01 month ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Things have been a little busy for me over the last few weeks getting settled in with my new job and moving out, but I thought I would take the time to wish you and yours a very happy holiday season, whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or nothing. Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their time with their families and got everything they wanted from BubbaClaus.
I should be getting back up and going in the coming weeks, so get ready for a big 2012 from Playing from the Wrong Fairway. Can’t wait.
Happy Holidays.
-Chris
Tiger Winning Can Only Be a Good Thing
01 month ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Getty Images
Tiger Woods claimed his first victory in 749 days on Sunday with his win over Zach Johnson at the Chevron World Challenge.
The win marked the first time Woods held an individual trophy in over two years, dating back to his win at the JBWere Australian Open in 2009.
It was after that win that the National Enquirer ran their story about Woods’ infidelities that would subsequently end his marriage, his life as he knew it and his winning ways for quite some time.
However, we’re not here to talk about Tiger’s transgressions or his flaws. This a golf blog, so let’s concentrate on the golf.
Now, there have been those who said that this win means nothing for Woods. That he isn’t automatically “back” with a silly-season victory over a hand-picked group of just 17 other golfers.
That’s fine. No argument here. There are more than a few shortcomings with his win in Thousand Oaks. First of all, there were only 18 people in the entire tournament. The Chevron is not a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. Taking place in December, there is little doubt that those 18 players are not as honed-in as they would be on a normal event.
All of that is true, but the one thing that remains is that Woods won.
He won. End of story. There’s no reason to talk about him being “back,” or if this means he will go on to break Jack Nicklaus’ major championship record. The simple fact is that this win on December 4th, 2011 is a start.
It’s a start back on that path of winning tournaments and maybe even majors. No one can say definitively if Woods is “back” after the first 72 holes he has put together that was (barely) enough to take a tournament, but again, that’s not the point.
No one will agree that Tiger’s back until he has another season like he had in 2007 or 2008. Woods needs to win multiple times on Tour and add another major to his total.
Then, maybe, people will start to come around to the idea that he is “back.”
That scenario is a big “IF.”
No one knows what the future holds for Tiger Woods. Sure, it looks as if his swing is back in check, his short game has returned and he’s able to will the ball into the hole like he used to, but what’s to say that it wasn’t a fluke?
The younger competitors aren’t scared of Woods like his comtemporaries appeared to be in 2000-2008. That newly-formed competitor may make it harder on Woods to regain his grip on the golfing world.
No one knows.
All this win can be seen as is a start. A step in the right direction. A win is a win is a win, no matter who he did or didn’t beat.
To look at Woods’ victory at the Chevron as anything other than a good sign would be cynical and misguided. One tournament isn’t going to dictate whether or not Woods’ game is where it needs to be to compete on the toughest courses in the world, week in and week out, but one thing is for sure: it’s definitely not a bad thing.
An Awesome Weekend for Golf
01 month ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Getty Images
First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of posting over the past two weeks. In the way of excuses, I have had a decent amount going on. This time two weeks ago I had two part-time jobs that gave me a pretty good amount of time to blog on a daily basis. Now, I have one full-time job that I’m still trying to get acquainted with, therefore the posting here has slowed down.
The longer I’m here (here being The Clermont Sun), the more comfortable I will be with my duties and as a result, have a better idea of when I can post. I hope to that daily posting can still be the case, but things could be spotty for the next few weeks as I get settled in as well as move into a new house.
Enough about me, though, how about this past weekend in golf, huh?
Three of the top players in the world were able to pull out victories, Rory McIlroy at the Hong Kong Open, Lee Westwood at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and some guy named Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge.
McIlroy shot a blistering 5-under par 65 on Sunday to come from three behind of third-round leader Alvaro Quiros and win by three shots. McIlroy had five birdies and no bogies in his final round. Quiros shot a Sunday 73 to drop out of contention, but France’s Gregory Havret closed the gap with his own final-round 65 to finish two shots behind McIlroy.
Hitting his approach into the green-side bunker on the 72nd hole, McIlroy looked to leave the door open for Havret, but the Northern Irishman holed out from the bunker to slam that door shut and win by two strokes.
Westwood built up a seven-shot lead heading into the final round at the Nedbank. Thank goodness for that, because Westwood stumbled to the finish line with a 1-over par 73 to finish at 15-under par for the tournament to win by two strokes over Robert Karlsson, who shot a 4-under par 68 on Sunday in Sun City, South Africa.
Two of the three tournaments mentioned here were limited field contests, but it would appear as if the Nedbank was the best. Westwood outclassed players like Luke Donald (T7), Graeme McDowell (T2), Jason Dufner (T2), Martin Kaymer (8) and Darren Clarke (DFL, 12).
In the last to finish chronologically, Tiger Woods finished birdie-birdie on his last two holes to claim his fifth Chevron World Challenge beating Zach Johnson by one stroke. Woods, who notoriously hasn’t won an event in the last two years, put an end to his losing streak with the win coming 749 days after his last victory at the Australian Masters.
Johnson took a one-stroke lead through 16 holes, but Woods birdied out to best Johnson by a stroke. Woods and Johnson had distanced themselves from the rest of the limited field by Sunday, making it a two-horse race that Woods was able to win by the narrowest of margins.
Among the other notable finishes at the Chevron were Paul Casey (3), Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar (T4), Jim Furyk, Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson (T6) and Jason Day (15).
More on the Tiger victory should be coming later today, so check back. Thanks for coming back!
Presidents Cup Day 4: Sunday Singles Predictions
02 months ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Reuters
The best day of any of the Cup events is upon us. It’s singles day.
The best test of one-on-one golf there is. Just you and one other person, playing a completely different style of golf than you would in a tournament. You don’t have to worry about the rest of the field or even the rest of your team.
The cliche of ‘one hole at a time’ is not just a saying, but a strategy. You blow up one hole, shake it off and get it back the next. Match play takes the big number’s bad repercussions out of play.
It’s a beautiful thing.
After the first three sessions, I have a perfectly mediocre picking record of 9-8. I finally got off the .500 schneid yesterday with a 3-2 performance in the early foursomes (hold your applause) and I’m looking to build on it.
Here we go with today’s matches predictions…
Match No. 1: Webb Simpson vs. KT Kim
- Simpson continues his tradition of heading out first, but this time he’ll be without Bubba Watson. KT Kim showed signs of life in the afternoon four-balls and he got a point over Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson. If the Internationals want to come back, it needs to start early. Predicition: Simpson 2 and 1.
Match No. 2: Dustin Johnson vs. Charl Schwartzel
- Schwartzel has played well this week, garnering 2½ points of a possible 4. Johnson has been hitting the ball well, but he hasn’t been able to finish off opponents because of his sub-par putting. Prediction: Schwartzel 3 & 2.
Match No. 3: Bubba Watson vs. Ryo Ishikawa
- Both players have played well this week, but Bubba has the upper hand having beaten the young gun from Japan twice already. I just love the way Ishikawa putts. I don’t doubt how much Bubba wants it, but Ryo has to have it. Prediction: Ishikawa 1 up.
Match No. 4: Bill Haas vs. Geoff Ogilvy
- The Mustachioed Ogilvy has beaten Haas once and halved the other in their head-to-head match-ups so far this week. Add on the fact that he’s playing in his back yard, literally, and his experience, the FedEx Cup champ, Haas has a tall order. Prediction: Ogilvy 2 and 1.
Match No. 5: Hunter Mahan vs. Jason Day
- Two of my favorites coming into this week as far as point-earners go, this one shouldn’t be short on emotion. Day, playing for his home country and Mahan playing for Ryder Cup redemption. Who pulls it out? I have no idea. Prediction: Day 1 up.
Match No. 6: Nick Watney vs. KJ Choi
- Watney turned in an impressive four-ball performance yesterday, but the Tank is solid all the way around. I like KJ. Prediction: Choi 1 up.
Match No. 7: Phil Mickelson vs. Adam Scott
- This should be a really fun match to watch. Scott is playing some of the best golf in the world and Mickelson has reaffirmed this week why you can never count him out. The match play format favors Mickelson’s risk/reward style of play, but only if he gets enough rewards. Prediction: Mickelson 1 up
Match No. 8: Matt Kuchar vs. Retief Goosen
- Two laid-back, yet fire burning on the inside guys. Kuchar is a younger version of the Goose, so I’ll ride that rosey-cheeked goofball all the way. Prediction: Kuchar 2 and 1.
Match No. 9: Jim Furyk vs. Ernie Els
- Furyk could go 5-0-0 with a win over the Big Easy in singles. It appears as if both of these guys have reverted to their 2010 form this week when they were two of the best in the world, regardless of age. Another great battle. Prediction: Els 2 up.
Match No. 10: David Toms vs. Robert Allenby
- Two guys who have gone pretty unnoticed this week. Toms has played well alongside Hunter Mahan and Allenby can’t get a putt to drop. Stick with what got you here. Prediction: Toms 3 and 2
Match No. 11: Tiger Woods vs. Aaron Baddeley:
- Surprising that Tiger isn’t going out last, but Baddeley should give Eldrick all he can handle. Even when he’s not at his best in tournament play, Woods is still the greatest match-play golfer ever. No questions asked. Prediction: Woods 2 and 1.
Match No. 12: Steve Stricker vs. YE Yang
- Coming down to the anchor match, I have the Americans barely reclaiming the Cup. This match could mean everything or nothing, like we saw last year with Mahan at the Ryder Cup. Tough pick here, anyway. Yang has been hit or miss this week and we don’t know what to expect from Stricker. Prediction: Yang 1 up.
*****
By my count, I have the US winning the Presidents Cup again, but you never know. The Internationals have some strong players and favorable match ups. Any way you slice it, it should be a fun night of golf. Enjoy.
