Crazy Friday the 13th at BMW

It was a Friday the 13th that a lot of us won’t forget anytime soon, but one that the top player in the world will definitely want to put behind him.

The most obvious story that developed Friday at the BMW Championship was Jim Furyk, who became only the 6th player ever in the history of the PGA Tour to shoot a round in the 50’s. In swirling winds that at times were well north of 20 mph, Jim Furyk went completely bonkers at Conway Farms, and it was so obvious that he was going to shoot a sub-60 round that thoughts of potentially shooting 58 or maybe even 57 were definitely not out of the question. In fact – that careless 3-putt bogey on the par4 5th essentially cost him a round of 58, which would’ve earned him an even more exclusive part of history all to himself.

                                                              Photo Courtesy of AFP

Furyk joins a very exclusive club of 5 other PGA Tour players who’ve accomplished this extraordinary sub-60 feat, with Al Geiberger shooting 59 back in 1977, Chip beck back in 1991, David Duval back in 1999, and both Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby carding rounds of 59 back in 2010.

check out Furyk’s 2nd round scorecard

Let there be no doubt, whether Furyk wants to admit this or not – this was clearly a statement round that he issued to none other than Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples, who decided to exclude Furyk as one of his captain’s picks by opting for Webb Simpson instead.

Furyk admitted last week that he was incredibly disappointed to not make the team, so much so that he described his mood as a little “grouchy” while sharing breakfast Thursday morning with friends and ‘would’ve-been teammates’ Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson, both of whom were talking about the upcoming event next month. “But I felt like last night I kind of kicked myself in the rear end and said, `You know, it’s done with. It’s over with,'” Furyk said. “There’s nothing I can do to change it now. It’s over and let’s just focus on this week.”

Furyk’s unforgettable round on Friday put him tied for the lead with Brandt Snedeker @ 11-under, with Zach Johnson lurking closely behind just three shots back.

Live Projected FedEx Cup Points

The other big story to develop late Friday afternoon was Tiger Woods, but in a completely different light from that of Jim Furyk’s. On the first hole of the second round, Woods’ tee shot found the trees and while attempting to remove some twigs from around his ball, the ball moved from its original position. Woods claimed that he thought the ball simply oscillated, which had that been the case there wouldn’t have been an issue. But a video that was taken by a freelance videographer recording Woods’ gardening duties revealed that the ball indeed moved out of its original position and never returned, thus no oscillation. Woods made a double-bogey on the hole, or so he thought, and continued playing the round. After his round and just prior to signing his scorecard – Woods was approached by PGA rules official Slugger White, who questioned him about the incident back on the 1st hole. Woods watched the replaying of the incident on the video, but still remained unconvinced that the ball had moved from its original position.

In the end, Slugger White assessed Woods a 2-shot penalty, which meant that he would sign for a round of 72 instead of the 70 that he initially thought he had scored. “He said he didn’t feel he could see that. I felt like that was OK, but the ball did move,” White said. “He knew there was movement there, but it’s like he was very adamant that it oscillated – it stayed there. But this video was at the site, and the ball did in fact move.” 

VIDEO REVEALS TIGER’S BALL DOES INDEED MOVE OUT OF ORIGINAL POSITION

Tiger, if I may… you clearly need to have your eyes checked if you watched the video and still maintain that the ball didn’t move. It clearly did, and furthermore – I was paying attention to the additional pause you exhibited after the ball did move. I’ll stop short of saying that you knew it moved, because we know what that infers. But to argue that the ball oscillated and didn’t move out of its original position, despite video evidence revealing otherwise???

Are you and Michelle Wie related, perhaps?

Top Players Flocking to Sean Foley

Just a small excerpt from some interesting commentary from Bob Harig over at ESPN.

“I don’t tell them how to play, and I don’t really believe that any coach out here has a lot to do with whether a guy wins or loses,” Foley said. “I can’t do what Phil Jackson did. I can’t do what Bill Parcells did. I can’t grab a guy coming off the green and say, ‘Chin up, chest out, life is good, bud.’ So it’s not really coaching. We don’t shift the outcome at all. We don’t have anything to do with decision-making, the clubs they pick, anything.”

Although I don’t know him and only know what I’ve read about him, there’s got to be a lot of pressure on the guy. There’s a lot of pressure on anyone who does what he does, in that limelight and under that media microscope, facing enormous criticism from the armchair analysts when his players aren’t playing well. But when they are playing well, which has been the case for the past few years, there has to be something he’s doing that has the Harmon’s, Haney’s and Ledbetter’s of the teaching world scratching their heads.

He’s definitely the fattest cat in the barn right now as it relates to golf swing coaches.

 

Clarke to Return to the PGA Tour

When Darren Clarke made the announcement yesterday that he plans to play full-time next season on the PGA Tour, it wasn’t earth-shattering news that warranted much more than a few sentences in a small blurb of a paragraph on most sports media outlets.

“I will be taking up my US PGA Tour card next season but that does not mean I am abandoning Europe,” Clarke said. “I will be supporting my home Tour as usual. I still feel I can be competitive at the highest level.”

As many will recall, Clarke forfeited his US PGA Tour membership after his first wife (Heather) passed away from cancer back in 2006, feeling that he needed to return to Europe to be closer to his two sons. And as most all of us remember – five years later he had that truly magical week at Royal St. George’s in the 2011 Open Championship, winning the one tournament he’d always dreamed of and finally becoming a major champion.

Getty Images

Along with that accomplishment came a 5-year exemption to play on the US PGA Tour, which naturally Clarke has decided a few years later is a chip worth cashing in.

Whether or not he can be competitive at that “highest level” he spoke of, especially after what has been two very lethargic seasons since, is anyone’s best guess. There’s also the remote possibility that the 45-yr-old is looking to retool his game over the next few years to prepare for a second career on the US-based Champions Tour when he turns 50.

Whatever his reasoning is, I’m sure Darren Clarke isn’t abandoning his home tour in a literal sense, but I’d wager a guess that he’s looking forward to the change of scenery.  Better crowds, better weather, better food, more perks and privileges each week that he tees it up, and obviously more money to be had…

Through all he’s been through and had to overcome in recent years, who could blame him?

We wish him well, one of the good guys in golf.

Mother Nature Raining on Inbee’s Potential Parade

It’s not been a great year weather-wise for the ladies. There was the need for marathon 36-hole Sunday finishes at both the LPGA Championship back in June and the Women’s British Open back in August. And once again – Mother Nature has put the LPGA tournament officials in the unenviable position to consider yet another 36-hole Sunday finish in the final major championship of the season.

“We’ve had nearly four inches of rain since Saturday and the golf course is extremely saturated at this point,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, the LPGA’s senior vice president of tour operations. “It was clear when competitors were out this morning that conditions weren’t conducive to a fair and equitable competition. So the plan is to scratch those scores from today and have all players restart the first round tomorrow.”

The weather aside, the big story this week obviously is Inbee Park’s quest to become the first professional golfer to ever win four majors in a single season, an accomplishment that the 25-yr-old South Korean admits carries some enormous significance. “Four out of five majors is an amazing thing to achieve,” said Park, in her media interview earlier Wednesday evening. “When I go outside the house and go anywhere in Korea, a lot of people come up to me. It’s like I’m a celebrity.”

                                                   Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

 

That significance wasn’t lost on Park last month in the Women’s British Open, where she struggled with her game and conceded that maybe the expectations of becoming the first professional player ever to achieve such an historic accomplishment was an unavoidable distraction. But heading into the final major of the season, Park maintains that she’s feeling good about her game and has learned how to better manage the situation she finds herself in this week at the Evian. “I’m sure the experience I had at the British Open will help me through this week,” she said. “This is going to be a much better week. I feel like pressure is my friend now. I’m trying to learn from everything.”

Inbee Park has won six events this season and is comfortably leading the LPGA season money list and Player of the Year race. But standing in her way this week is Stacy Lewis, the 2nd ranked player in the world who prevailed at St. Andrews last month to win her 2nd LPGA major title. “It’s still kind of sinking in that I won there,” the 28-yr-old American said nearly a month later. “I’m just trying to hang in with her. I watch her scores, I watch what she’s doing.”

Rest assured, if Inbee Park can put together three solid rounds this week – Stacy Lewis won’t be the only one watching.

Weather permitting, the opening round of the Evian Championship is scheduled to get underway Friday morning.

No Vacancies: Sean Foley Turns Away Luke Donald

I guess when you’ve already got a stable of thoroughbreds, the last thing you need is a pony.

Foley Turns Away Luke Donald   

Nothing to add really, other than maybe Sean Foley doesn’t see too much potential for Donald to be that much better than he already is. Not that Donald isn’t a good player obviously, but that in this day and age – majors matter just a much to messiah-like swing coaches as they do their players. At least I get that vibe in this instance. 

Of course, I could be completely misinterpreting this. 

But I doubt it. 

The Home Stretch: BMW Championship Preview

The concept behind establishing the FedEx Cup playoffs was to increase the drama and add a little more excitement to what has traditionally been a quiet, seemingly uninterested winding down of the professional golf season. Whether one believes that this has been accomplished is obviously open for debate, but despite coinciding and competing with college football and the 2nd week of the NFL season – there is undoubtedly plenty of drama for the remaining 70 players competing for the $10 million prize next weekend at East Lake.

But only 30 of those 70 players will move on to the Tour Championship next week, and a few dozen notables who find themselves nearer the bottom of the pecking order than the top will certainly be feeling some added pressure to stay in the hunt this week in Chicago.

Current FedEx Cup Projected Points Standings

Playing host to the 3rd stop of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff series is Conway Farms Golf Club, situated about 5 miles west of Lake Michigan. The part-links, part-parkland blend was designed by Tom Fazio back in 1991, and although this week marks the first time the PGA Tour has ventured to Conway Farms, the club has played host to a number of high-profile Open qualifiers, collegiate and amateur events over the years. Not nearly as long as some of the more notable PGA Tour stops, the layout will test the players this week with some narrower driving lines and awkward approach angles going into the well-protected greens.

One of the notables who’s hoping to turn a suspect season around this week is Luke Donald, who finished T41 two weeks ago at the Deutsche Bank Championship and finds himself needing a strong showing this week to advance to East Lake for the Tour Championship finale. Donald, a nearby Northwestern University grad, revealed earlier this week that he’s not satisfied with where his game is and that it’s time for change. “I think someone who was at the pinnacle of the game not too long ago and is now 54th on the FedExCup, it’s been disappointing,” Donald said. “It’s been very hard this year. It’s been frustrating at times, and I’ve had to make some tough decisions.”

Photo by AP

One of those tough decisions was informing Pat Goss, the guy who recruited Donald for Northwestern back in the mid-1990’s and has been his only golf coach since, that it was time to move on. “It was a tough decision. He understood it perfectly. He’s always wanted me to be as good as I can be and make those decisions that I think will make that difference in my career. It’s just one of those things that was very tough but I felt like I had to do. I felt like if I didn’t at least try something different, I would have regrets.” Luke is now working with Chuck Cook, who also happens to be newly-crowned PGA Champion Jason Dufner’s current swing coach. Donald admits that the change won’t be easy, but feels optimistic about his game again. “I feel pretty good about where things are headed, and I’m excited about the future. This year I still have time to rescue it,” he said. “I’m going to have to do that this week, and that’s the beauty of the FedExCup. It takes one good week to kind of rescue a year. And I certainly have that opportunity this week.”

As do a handful of other players, like Rory McIlroy, Nick Watney and Bubba Watson, three of the more prominent notables who entered the season having finished solid 2012 campaigns, but have struggled with consistency much of this season.

It should be a compelling weekend of golf, at least for those of us not watching college football and the NFL, to find out who those 30 players will be.

(players quotes courtesy of the PGA Tour)

More Americans Competing in European Tour’s Q-School

Eighty six American players will be teeing it up in the first stage of the European Tour’s Q-school in the coming weeks, more than double the amount of American players who attempted to qualify for the European Tour last fall.

But according to The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster (and everyone else who’s followed the American PGA Tour’s decision to change their qualifying process), it’s not totally unexpected. “The decision by more Americans to turn their attention to Europe in an attempt to get a foot on the ladder is also likely to have been influenced by changes to the PGA Tour Qualifying School,” Dempster writes. “It no longer offers instant promotion to the money-spinning main circuit, with the developmental Web.com Tour now being the primary path to get a PGA Tour card.” 

Maybe some of them are paying attention to the example set by Peter Uihlein, the 23-yr-old American who many remember for his impressive 4-0 performance in the 2009 Walker Cup and then winning the US Amateur the very next year. Uihlein decided to turn pro back in December of 2011, but failed in his bid to earn a tour card through the PGA Tour’s Q-School earlier that fall.

Chubby Chandler, who those in-the-know are familiar with as one of the more popular players’ agents representing International Sports Management in Europe, understood why someone like Uihlein would consider traveling across the Atlantic to chase his dream. “It is a pioneering move by him – the obvious step would have been to try to establish his career in the United States,” Chandler said. “But having seen players like Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen and Darren Clarke build careers by playing all over the world, including America, Peter has been encouraged by that. I’m sure that he will benefit enormously from the experience.” 

In fact, Uihlein already has. Opting to play his way into the professional ranks, Uihlein spent all of 2012 competing on the European circuit, before finally breaking through with his first professional win back in May of this year. In just a little over a year, he went from having no status and simply hoping to get some playing experience to securing a tour card and getting inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I think people must be looking at their success over here and seeing it as a potential route, especially as both Peter (Uihlein) and Brooks (Koepka) chose to go this way deliberately,” said Mike Stewart, the Qualifying School director. “As they have both admitted, it has been good for them to be faced with new challenges in a new environment on a weekly basis and it is certainly healthy for the European Tour that others are deciding to try and follow the same route.”

Obviously it remains to be seen whether or not more American players like Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein can enjoy reasonable success competing in a totally different competitive arena opposite the PGA Tour and an ocean away, but most feel they have something in Europe that they no longer have in America.

That something? An opportunity.

 

17 Years Later, Norman Cites Bad Back in ’96 Masters

From the “Hasn’t Been Relevant in Decades” files, Greg Norman suggested earlier this week that a back problem played a role in his epic meltdown back in the final round of the 1996 Masters.

“There’s more to it than people realize because I did have back issues that morning,” Norman said in an interview with the Australian Story, a program affiliated with the local ABC network. “I tried to walk it off but I couldn’t. I told my coach, ‘today’s not going to be easy.'”

That’s odd. All these years I simply thought it was just the pressure of trying to win the tournament he most wanted to win throughout his career, it never dawned on me that he might’ve been struggling with a sore back!

Well, in that case, Greg… that explains it. Thank you so much for finally coming clean, it must’ve taken a lot of courage to reveal that 17 years later.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think the dog might be eating my homework. Gotta run!

 

Online Golf Instruction Alert

As most of my loyal blog followers have figured out over the years, I tend to shy away from offering much in the way of swing mechanics and technical golf instruction advice. And that’s a good thing, trust me on that.

But at the same time, like most avid golfers trying to become better players, I do value good golf instruction. And as a result – I don’t mind sharing bits and pieces of swing videos and online instruction segments when I feel they’re worth passing along to my readers here, especially when I find the information very helpful and easy to understand.

Earlier this year I started following a few guys on Facebook who run a golf academy here in the UK, and I’ve been extremely impressed with 1) the way they present their online lesson segments and 2) the clear and concise manner in which they address various swing flaws.

Piers Ward and Andy Proudman recently launched the Me And MyGolf academy on YouTube, and I think it’s worth passing along to those of you who might be interested in checking out some of their stuff. By the way – in no way am I affiliated with them. I just really enjoy the way they present the information and use the Social Media to connect with golfers to try to help them become better players, and as a courtesy to some of my readers here, I felt it worth sharing.

2014 PGA Tour Schedule Announced

The PGA Tour released their 2014 tournament schedule earlier today, and those interested in the specifics can get them HERE.

For those with shorter attention spans – the only notable change is that the players will not have a week off during the middle of the FedEx Cup playoff events next season. Instead, no tournament is scheduled for the week following the season-ending Tour Championship, which also happens to be the week prior to the start of the 2014 Ryder Cup being contested in Scotland.

In other words, the 4-week stretch of continuous golf for the race to $10 million will pretty much assure that at least half of both 12-man Ryder Cup teams will be completely burnt out by the time they get to Gleneagles.

Not that the Americans need an excuse, mind you. They could be well rested and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.