by ShagOnSports
One of the things I always pay close attention to is who is carrying the bag for players at a PGA tournament… I always wonder what the story is behind the guy or girl on the bag… If I had a do over in life opportunity I believe that after I was discharged from the Navy I would have gone to one of the major courses in the US (in the south somewhere) and “Looped” for a couple of years...
Luke Donald, who won the Honda Classic last Sunday has his brother on the bag and his brother, has always been the guy… Davis Love also had his brother on the bag for a few years… Steve Stricker used to have his wife… Tiger has Stevie Williams (what a great gig) and you know that Stevie works hard and must be excellent at his trade in order to stay on the bag… When you think of Nick Faldo you think of Fannie and when I think of players like Norman, Nickalus, Mickleson, and Watson I always picture them with their same guys on the loop…
So who would you choose to be your caddy??? Would you put a family member on the loop??? A close friend??? Maybe a not so close friend but someone you know and have allot of respect for??? A professional caddie, like Fluff??? That would be a tough one for me to answer… So who is your Caddie???
Honda Classic
This was the last year for the Honda to be at Mirasol… There is allot of controversy surrounding the move to the PGA Course across the street… Mirasol was built for this tournament… The course has some fantastic places to watch the tournament and in my opinion it has been a first class operation in the four years I have attended the tournament… The players do not care for the course due to the wind and the level of difficulty (many players do not like the difficult greens) but in my opinion they never gave the course a chance… This was only the third year on this course (the first year at Mirasol was on the first of the two courses they have their)… Several of the players commented that the course was as difficult as a US Open course comparing the set up to Shinnecock or Pinehurst… PGA players do not like to have to grind it out for four days...
The tournament has also failed to attract allot of the top players (only one in the top 20) and this may also be due to the timing of the tournament (the week after Doral)… Next year the tournament will be played as the first on the Florida swing for the PGA… The charity that Jack Nickalus and his wife started this year honoring the memory of their grandson will be the new benefactor of the tournament proceeds (All PGA events the proceeds go to charities)… Jack is going to add 400 yards to the layout so it compares to today’s PGA courses… How much influence Jack had on this move can only be speculated but Jack is Jack and that is all I am going to say about that…
During Sunday’s round we parked by hole number three green and ventured onto the course… Number three is a difficult Par 3 that plays into the wind… We watched John Cook and Briny Baird both make pars from difficult spots on the green and then went back to the tee box to watch Bernhard Langer play his shot to the green and he missed it left yelling, in English, “Cut, Cut”!!!! We then rambled through the next two holes watching Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Marco (Bar Fight) Dawson and Padrig Harrington until we made our way the practice area…
I really like to watch the players practice and the techniques they use… All of the players go to the range first, start with ¾ wedge shots and then make their way to the driver… In watching Luke Donald warm up yesterday he started out with a wedge that had a weighted sleeve, which was the first time I had seen this used… Johnny Miller came over and took a look at the device so it must be something new… After hitting balls most players then go to the chipping green and work on pitch shots and bunker shots and then move to the putting green… There seems to be no real drill that is common for players on the putting green other then most work on the eight to ten foot putts…
My buddies like to set on number 18 but my golf watching technique is a little different… I like to start down number eighteen and walk the course backwards (not many people do this) stopping at each hole to watch a couple of groups hit from the fairways or around the greens (It is to difficult to see the tee shots from the tee so I avoid them)… I usually walk until I get to a point where I watch the last four groups come through one hole and then I make my back to eighteen…
The back nine at Mirasol looks tough to me… There are allot of waste areas and severe penalties for missing the fairways and the greens... Along my walk on Sunday I saw allot of bogeys from missed greens, bad lies, missed putts and missed fairways… As I made my way down the ropes on hole number 14 I noticed all of the people in front of me start covering their heads… I had my MP3 player going but I did not need sound to know what was going on… The players tee shot sailed into the thick area that the members play as environmental areas… After searching for the players ball it was found and he had to take a drop into the waste area (the waster area looks like a bunker on TV but it is not)…
After Jon Mills took his drop he then told the Marshall to move everyone towards the fairway… At this point I thought what is this guy doing and removed my head phones… I know these guys are good but the path he had chosen was going to require a shot that would get up quick, start out straight and then start to fade into what looked like about a two foot gap in between to trees… I know these guys are good but no way he is going to do pull this off… He pierces the shot right through almost effortlessly…
As I made my way through I stopped on number 10 to watch the last four groups come thorough… I got a spot right behind the green where the pin was about fifteen feet from where I stood (prime spot to maybe get a little TV time also)…
Number 10 is a fairly short one but the pin placement was a tough one… You could tell on the approach shots that each of the players was trying to land their ball on a ridge about ten feet from the hole and let the ball trickle down to the hole… I saw a couple of players three putt (Chopra had to make a four footer or he would have four putted) and only one birdie in four groups…
Luke Donald hit a great approach shot into this hole that landed right by the pin took a hard bounce forward and landed about four feet from my right foot… His lie was not a bad one but he did have a clump of grass behind the ball with no green to work with at all… My angle was perfect so if you saw the chip then you saw me standing right behind him…
This is where tour players make their money… With ever so soft hand Luke chipped the ball up landed it perfect and it almost goes in but rolls about three feet past… He then misses the putt (which is something I would do) but goes on to birdie the next two holes (which is something I would not do)…
When I finally made it back to eighteen my entourage told me they had not seen many birdies (the hole played the toughest on Sunday) and that Mark O’ Meara had flown one into the grandstand behind the green against the glass and I asked whether or not he called bank…
Luke Donald won the tournament with some clutch play on the back nine… His approach shot to eighteen was one of the better ones of the day and he made birdie to finish…
I predict that Mirasol could be the site of US Open in the near future… With longer rough and a few tees moved back this course could even be more of a monster…
Two days of golfing with lots of putting
My first day in Florida we played Hammock Creek… It is a Jack Nickalus design that is fair and right in front of you… I shot 85 in the wind (40, 45) and beat my buddy Coop one up… I hit the ball well from the tee and stayed away from big numbers… I beat my buddy Rudy front, back and total (he will never learn) and then on our three man best ball teams we shot 80 and they shot 81…
On Saturday we went to my favorite Florida course, Abocoa, and the greens beat me up… They told us that day that the greens were as fast as Mirasol and I believe this to be true… My ball striking was fantastic off the tee and into the green (12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens) but my putter (God rests it soul) let me down… I got so spooked after three putting from about ten feet on the third hole that I went on to record 20 putts on the front nine and 24 putts (not a misprint) on the back… On the back I went three putt, three putt, four putt and four putt to start the nine… I was not the only one to have this type of day… It was comical watching putts get to the hole and then roll back five feet… If you got above the hole you were dead… I had three footer above the hole that missed and went by ten feet and all I did was just touch the ball… Putting is about confidence and I have had any confidence the last two years…
On Saturday Coop beat me two and one with a smooth 38 on the back at Abacoa… I shot 88!!! I usually average 30 putts a round so you can do the math… Rudy played better but I still took his money… Next year I will give Rudy five a side since he did hook us up with free rooms on the concierge floor at the Marriott with the 800 thread count sheets…
After the round we hung out on the deck at Abacoa for cocktails while there was a wedding reception going on inside the clubhouse and outside on the deck… In twenty years the attendees of this reception will be telling stories about the golfers that would just not leave no matter how hard they tried to push us out the door…
One of the things I always pay close attention to is who is carrying the bag for players at a PGA tournament… I always wonder what the story is behind the guy or girl on the bag… If I had a do over in life opportunity I believe that after I was discharged from the Navy I would have gone to one of the major courses in the US (in the south somewhere) and “Looped” for a couple of years...
Luke Donald, who won the Honda Classic last Sunday has his brother on the bag and his brother, has always been the guy… Davis Love also had his brother on the bag for a few years… Steve Stricker used to have his wife… Tiger has Stevie Williams (what a great gig) and you know that Stevie works hard and must be excellent at his trade in order to stay on the bag… When you think of Nick Faldo you think of Fannie and when I think of players like Norman, Nickalus, Mickleson, and Watson I always picture them with their same guys on the loop…
So who would you choose to be your caddy??? Would you put a family member on the loop??? A close friend??? Maybe a not so close friend but someone you know and have allot of respect for??? A professional caddie, like Fluff??? That would be a tough one for me to answer… So who is your Caddie???
Honda Classic
This was the last year for the Honda to be at Mirasol… There is allot of controversy surrounding the move to the PGA Course across the street… Mirasol was built for this tournament… The course has some fantastic places to watch the tournament and in my opinion it has been a first class operation in the four years I have attended the tournament… The players do not care for the course due to the wind and the level of difficulty (many players do not like the difficult greens) but in my opinion they never gave the course a chance… This was only the third year on this course (the first year at Mirasol was on the first of the two courses they have their)… Several of the players commented that the course was as difficult as a US Open course comparing the set up to Shinnecock or Pinehurst… PGA players do not like to have to grind it out for four days...
The tournament has also failed to attract allot of the top players (only one in the top 20) and this may also be due to the timing of the tournament (the week after Doral)… Next year the tournament will be played as the first on the Florida swing for the PGA… The charity that Jack Nickalus and his wife started this year honoring the memory of their grandson will be the new benefactor of the tournament proceeds (All PGA events the proceeds go to charities)… Jack is going to add 400 yards to the layout so it compares to today’s PGA courses… How much influence Jack had on this move can only be speculated but Jack is Jack and that is all I am going to say about that…
During Sunday’s round we parked by hole number three green and ventured onto the course… Number three is a difficult Par 3 that plays into the wind… We watched John Cook and Briny Baird both make pars from difficult spots on the green and then went back to the tee box to watch Bernhard Langer play his shot to the green and he missed it left yelling, in English, “Cut, Cut”!!!! We then rambled through the next two holes watching Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Marco (Bar Fight) Dawson and Padrig Harrington until we made our way the practice area…
I really like to watch the players practice and the techniques they use… All of the players go to the range first, start with ¾ wedge shots and then make their way to the driver… In watching Luke Donald warm up yesterday he started out with a wedge that had a weighted sleeve, which was the first time I had seen this used… Johnny Miller came over and took a look at the device so it must be something new… After hitting balls most players then go to the chipping green and work on pitch shots and bunker shots and then move to the putting green… There seems to be no real drill that is common for players on the putting green other then most work on the eight to ten foot putts…
My buddies like to set on number 18 but my golf watching technique is a little different… I like to start down number eighteen and walk the course backwards (not many people do this) stopping at each hole to watch a couple of groups hit from the fairways or around the greens (It is to difficult to see the tee shots from the tee so I avoid them)… I usually walk until I get to a point where I watch the last four groups come through one hole and then I make my back to eighteen…
The back nine at Mirasol looks tough to me… There are allot of waste areas and severe penalties for missing the fairways and the greens... Along my walk on Sunday I saw allot of bogeys from missed greens, bad lies, missed putts and missed fairways… As I made my way down the ropes on hole number 14 I noticed all of the people in front of me start covering their heads… I had my MP3 player going but I did not need sound to know what was going on… The players tee shot sailed into the thick area that the members play as environmental areas… After searching for the players ball it was found and he had to take a drop into the waste area (the waster area looks like a bunker on TV but it is not)…
After Jon Mills took his drop he then told the Marshall to move everyone towards the fairway… At this point I thought what is this guy doing and removed my head phones… I know these guys are good but the path he had chosen was going to require a shot that would get up quick, start out straight and then start to fade into what looked like about a two foot gap in between to trees… I know these guys are good but no way he is going to do pull this off… He pierces the shot right through almost effortlessly…
As I made my way through I stopped on number 10 to watch the last four groups come thorough… I got a spot right behind the green where the pin was about fifteen feet from where I stood (prime spot to maybe get a little TV time also)…
Number 10 is a fairly short one but the pin placement was a tough one… You could tell on the approach shots that each of the players was trying to land their ball on a ridge about ten feet from the hole and let the ball trickle down to the hole… I saw a couple of players three putt (Chopra had to make a four footer or he would have four putted) and only one birdie in four groups…
Luke Donald hit a great approach shot into this hole that landed right by the pin took a hard bounce forward and landed about four feet from my right foot… His lie was not a bad one but he did have a clump of grass behind the ball with no green to work with at all… My angle was perfect so if you saw the chip then you saw me standing right behind him…
This is where tour players make their money… With ever so soft hand Luke chipped the ball up landed it perfect and it almost goes in but rolls about three feet past… He then misses the putt (which is something I would do) but goes on to birdie the next two holes (which is something I would not do)…
When I finally made it back to eighteen my entourage told me they had not seen many birdies (the hole played the toughest on Sunday) and that Mark O’ Meara had flown one into the grandstand behind the green against the glass and I asked whether or not he called bank…
Luke Donald won the tournament with some clutch play on the back nine… His approach shot to eighteen was one of the better ones of the day and he made birdie to finish…
I predict that Mirasol could be the site of US Open in the near future… With longer rough and a few tees moved back this course could even be more of a monster…
Two days of golfing with lots of putting
My first day in Florida we played Hammock Creek… It is a Jack Nickalus design that is fair and right in front of you… I shot 85 in the wind (40, 45) and beat my buddy Coop one up… I hit the ball well from the tee and stayed away from big numbers… I beat my buddy Rudy front, back and total (he will never learn) and then on our three man best ball teams we shot 80 and they shot 81…
On Saturday we went to my favorite Florida course, Abocoa, and the greens beat me up… They told us that day that the greens were as fast as Mirasol and I believe this to be true… My ball striking was fantastic off the tee and into the green (12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens) but my putter (God rests it soul) let me down… I got so spooked after three putting from about ten feet on the third hole that I went on to record 20 putts on the front nine and 24 putts (not a misprint) on the back… On the back I went three putt, three putt, four putt and four putt to start the nine… I was not the only one to have this type of day… It was comical watching putts get to the hole and then roll back five feet… If you got above the hole you were dead… I had three footer above the hole that missed and went by ten feet and all I did was just touch the ball… Putting is about confidence and I have had any confidence the last two years…
On Saturday Coop beat me two and one with a smooth 38 on the back at Abacoa… I shot 88!!! I usually average 30 putts a round so you can do the math… Rudy played better but I still took his money… Next year I will give Rudy five a side since he did hook us up with free rooms on the concierge floor at the Marriott with the 800 thread count sheets…
After the round we hung out on the deck at Abacoa for cocktails while there was a wedding reception going on inside the clubhouse and outside on the deck… In twenty years the attendees of this reception will be telling stories about the golfers that would just not leave no matter how hard they tried to push us out the door…
ShagOnSports Random Comments
- I like to watch the PGA players play difficult courses that make them be creative… You could say I like to watch them struggle…
- It is a golf tournament and not the Kentucky Derby!!! I still cannot understand why some women come to a PGA Tour event dressed in high heels and some men come dressed like they are going to get to jump out there and play… You should dress like you are going to the infield at the Derby!!!
- Freddie, Freddie, Freddie!!! He is the easiest player to spot from a distance on the course due to his mannerisms… His arm extension back loosening motion is unmistakable…
- The call that USA got vs. Japan last week in the WBC was some serious home cooking… The replay clearly shows the player did not leave the bag to soon…
- I am enjoying watching the WBC… I think it is good for baseball… Go Dominica!!!
- Who gets the Temple Job??? Indiana hires Steve Alford and Iowa hires John Pelphrey or Darrin Horn??? Ole Miss hires Cincinnati’s coach, Cincy hires???… Temple will go in new direction maybe Mike Davis or Bob Huggins if they really want something different…
- I believe the PGA Tour hires a guy each year to stand on the eighteenth green and yell at each player like they know him personally… These people crack me up and have little idea how big of a fool they are making themselves look… Instant Idiot, just insert Alcohol…
- After the Honda tournament was over we went to eat and second place finisher Billy Mayfair came in and set beside us… We thought that since he just cashed $319,000 he might pick up the tab but we thought wrong… He was a very nice guy and took time to talk to us about this year and the move to the new course next year…
What’s in the CD player this Week
- Coldplay
