Greetings From San Diego, Players Championship Edition
I took in most of The Players finale glued to the tiny TV's in the Lodge at Torrey Pines bar surrounded by hard core fans, including a few here for U.S. Open media day Monday. I forgot how fun it is to watch an exciting finish with serious fans, even though I sorely missed my HD.
Then again, TPC Sawgrass is a bit underwhelming in HD compared to others, perhaps because high-def reminds you how oversodded in green turf it has become compared to its more rustic days. And then there are those clean, white bunkers. Or the bloody catch basin drain caps that catch way too many balls. Pete! Surface drainage is not against the law.
Anyway, a few things stood out in Sergio's compelling playoff win over Paul Goydos.
The finale was your classic car wreck conclusion where the last person not to hit the turn-17 wall won. Or was it really car crash golf? Bob Harig wrote about Sergio's dominating ball striking performance, and something about watching this was different in feel than recent Masters or U.S. Open wrecks.
He led the field in fairways hit (43-of-56) despite winds that produced white caps on the numerous water hazards that dot the course. He tied for first in greens in regulation (56-of-72) despite rock-hard surfaces that repelled golf balls and left players and caddies in a futile search for pitch marks.
"He deserves it," said Goydos, who held a 3-stroke lead with six holes to play but could not hold on. "He played better than everyone else. Just look at the stats."
And...
Goydos, 43, got an up-close look at the greatness that is Garcia's long game during Saturday's third round, when the Spaniard hit 10 for 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. Those are unheard-of numbers in such windy conditions. Garcia began the tournament by hitting 16 of 18 greens. In Friday's second round, he hit all 14 fairways.
As goofy as TPC Sawgrass appeared at times (and I'm sure the field staff did their best to keep it from becoming outright unplayable), it seemed like ball striking mattered more than putting (except on 18 where the wind rendered an already brutal hole pretty much impossible).
The other noticeable aspect of watching The Players in a golf-friendly bar was how much people love the underdog. Granted, Goydos is a SoCal boy, but he was definitely the fan favorite. John Ashworth, among others, stopped in just to see how he was doing. The serious fans clearly cherish great stories like Goydos'. The tour should remember that next time they are slicing fields down and granting medical/family/some other excuse exemptions to David Duval.
Finally, there's the idea of playing 17 as your first sudden death playoff hole. Again, the bar crowd loved this but it put a serious dent in the major championship cache the event is going for. As must as I love the 17th hole, it's hard to fathom how the tour can love this as a proper way to end such an elite championship.
A three-hole aggregate playoff of 16-18 would add so much major-like cache, but I understand the television related issues. And as I said, the golf savvy bar patrons loved it, and they are the ones that matter.
Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 09:02 PM
Reader Comments (22)
So I can't say anything about the conditions and the proliferation of very high scores Sunday....
But my only thought on the matter is 17 as a sudden death playoff hole....definitely not major status stuff.
BTW, neither is sudden death at Augusta either.
Snowyowl
Given that the professionals almost to a man (Not that I agree with them) respect water as a hazard because of its finality, the 17th must be a perfect hole for them.
I guess that they got what they wanted.
Personally I would have liked to see each of them win and especially neither lose. I remember how Mike Donald fell off the map after he lost to Irwin at Medianh in 1990 at the US Open.
I wish Goydos well.
I only wish the wind was a little less of a factor, so the first player to hit would have a legitimate decision about whether to take an aggressive line at the right pin.
Watched the live @ coverage all week and the consensus was the players coming up short were the ones 'taking a little off it'. Must be something about the topography and wind patterns.
For me, that was the most compelling golf viewing all year (I actually stayed awake throughout the entire broadcast).
Geoff, your point about 16-18 being a better solution to a tie is right on. That would be an hour or so of playoff action hard to beat.
In a sudden death situation, I like 18 better. Brutally hard and requiring 3 or 4 great shots to win.
Sudden death starting on a par 3 I just don't like.
In 2008 Sergio is 113th in driving accurcy, 8th in GIR, and 74th in proximity to the hole. Compare that with Tiger who 137th, 1st and 16th respectively in those categories.
In 2007 Sergio was a terrible 184th in driving accuracy, one of the worst on tour (Tiger was 152nd), in GIR Sergio was 105th (Tiger 1st) and in proximity to the hole Sergio was 74th (Tiger 3rd)
In 2006 Sergio was 129th in driving accuracy (Tiger was 139th) in GIR Sergio was 37th (Tiger 1st) and in proximity to the hole Sergio was 93rd (Tiger 1st)
So why does everyone keep saying Sergio is such a great ball-striker? I don't get it. His stats aren't very good which leads me to believe that these opinions are only formed based on a few select rounds and tournaments a year, when Sergio is playing well and when he gets a lot of TV covergae. But if they showed every single one of Sergio's shots on TV like they do for Tiger, not many would be saying that Sergio is such a great ball-striker.
I remember following Sergio's group at a tournament once last year and Sergio hit maybe 3 fairways all day and missed half the greens. But since he wasn't in contention I'll bet none of these shots were shown on TV so they never negatively affected his reputation as a great ball-striker.
also, was bob costas supposed to be filling the jack whittaker role or what? his irregular appearances were a little disorienting and seemed to have little or nothing to do with the competition that was ostensibly the reason for his presence.
Also, is it possible that he has the poor PGA Tour stats you mention, but much better stats in Europe? Does he play most in Europe or the US?
further, i don't understand golf broadcasting's penchant for gilding the lily with nbc olympics-style maudlin tripe. hicks is one of the worst violators.
i don't get it. i watch golf to see golfers hitting shots and to follow the competition. i don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but why do we need film tributes to mother's day in a freaking golf tournament? is there anyone watching who does not realize that even these fine golfers have mothers?
why do we need to read about jim nantz's wonderful father in golf digest? i'm sure they are a wonderful pair, but honsetly, who gives a shit? what does that have to do with pga tour golf in 2008?
why must we be constantly reminded that ernie els and cliff kresge's sons have autism? "
i love the sport because it is so perfectly of the moment: you decide what to do, make your best effort at executing and review the results. all it needs on tv is a little commentary discussing what is happening and maybe some analysis and background on golf and golfers. is that too much to ask?
evidently it is. i think we should roll back the golf telecasts.
Wife: "I think it's great Sergio finally won a major."
Me: "It's not a major."
Wife: "Then why do I know about it?"
Historically, this began when Roone Arledge decided that women make up half the population and 4% of the the sports viewership. What to do ? Roone turned the Olympics into sob city and cut way back on less important things like, you know, athletes competing.
The very worst telecast is the Ryder Cup. (did you know that the Constantino Rocca worked in a box factory?)
Contrast this with Tiger who has very similar driving accuracy stats the last few years to Sergio, and much better GIR and Proximity to the hole stats. But because we see every one of Tiger's shots, we also see his misses, so we see more misses of Tiger's than anyone else's misses by far so it gives the impression that he's not as good of a ball striker as Sergio when the stats say he is way better than Sergio.
Golf has lots of downtime. And the 'action,' when it's there, is still slow...especially today. There is a limit to how much dead air they can have. As bad as many of them sound, I'm quite sure it'd be hard to do it much better than they do.