Thought for the Day
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened
Heading for Augusta
Hands up if you know what connects the following golfers: Russell Henley, Brian Gay, John Merrick, Michael Thompson, Scott Brown and Kevin Streelman. If you can identify them all as having won on the US PGA Tour so far this season, you’re a bit of an anorak. But then, it is that kind of season. They are joined as 2013 winners by Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods (twice), Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar. More relevantly, all of them will be at the Masters in just under a month – with the exception of Scott Brown, who won the Puerto Rican Open, which doesn’t have a full-point allocation for the Tour Championship and therefore doesn’t meet Augusta’s invitation policy. Hard luck Scott.
All of which is designed to let me off the hook by demonstrating how hard it is to predict the winner of any major, especially the season’s first, when there is comparatively little form with which to measure the runners and riders. In the last 10 years, for example, how many punters put their money on Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson or Mike Weir to have a green jacket draped around their shoulders? However, if we ignore those surprise winners and look at the other triumphs over the past decade, only two names emerge – Phil Mickelson (three times) and Tiger Woods (once). And because both of them have won already this year, albeit with Phil’s victory coming in early February, which already seems a long time ago, they will feature high in the bookies estimation. In fact, it’s difficult to find a bookmaker that doesn’t have Woods, Mickelson and Rory McIlroy (more of him later) as the first three in the pecking order. And most of them favour Tiger, which is no surprise given Rory’s early season problems.
And there is no doubt that Tiger has that old gleam in his eye and, more pertinently, looks to have his putting, such a crucial factor at Augusta, under control. He also wants another major, badly, if he is to have any chance of matching or beating Jack Nicklaus’ record. The unknown is how his nerve will hold up now that he’s a fallible, beatable golfer rather than the dominant titan of the game we saw pre-divorce. But I’m not going to buck the trend because he looks near to his best and that should be good enough.
You’re not a messiah…
A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken about Rory McIlroy’s early season woes. Yes, he was wrong to walk off the course at the Honda Classic but a bigger mistake was committed a few hours later when he chose to lie about the reason. The sore tooth story was never going to fly once we saw the picture of him happily munching a sandwich a few minutes before heading for the exit. The lame excuse of dental problems sounds like the sort of stupidity dreamed up by a desperate marketing manager trying to exercise some damage limitation which, as so often is the case in these instances, immediately blew up in everyone’s face.
But Rory redeemed himself with an immediate and, one sensed, sincere mea culpa after we all had the opportunity to remind ourselves that he is still only 23-years-old. Considering the microscopic examination to which he is constantly subjected, he has handled it remarkably well for someone of such tender years and we really should cut him a bit more slack for the occasional misjudgment.
As for his form, he’s a hot-streak player who is going through one of those cold periods. His first win in America, at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship, came in an event where he made the cut right on the line and then shot 66, 62 at the weekend. And his major victories, in the 2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA, were by a crushing eight strokes and in both cases followed a modest series of events. As for his equipment change, anyone who expected him to adapt immediately to new clubs was simply deluding themselves.
He will come good again, the only question is whether it will be in time for the Masters.
Goddess of Victory?
Somebody at Nike’s marketing department must have led a pretty bad life in a previous existence, if you believe in reincarnation and the power of karma. The highest profile sports stars on the company’s roster of talent in recent years are Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Rory. Who still believes that all publicity is good publicity?
One final Masters thought
Like many, I would love to see Sergio Garcia win a major but having seen the numerous crushing disappointments experienced by the Spaniard, my dreams are based on hope rather than considered analysis. And yet… He has played four events in America so far, and finished in the top-20 in each with two of those being top-10s. And he always seems to find a way to motivate himself for Augusta. The Achilles heel of putting will always be a concern but recently he seems to have found a reliable method on the greens (although we have been here many times before). Nevertheless, with heart more than head, I fancy him for at least a top-10 finish, and who knows, perhaps Augusta has at least one more fairytale finish in its locker.
Quote of the Week
Comparatively few golfers ever show that they are aware that the golf architect tries to design a course that rewards an intelligent golfer and penalises a stupid one
Tommy Armour