Kapalua Is Pretty Much A Disaster But All Hope Is Not Lost: Ian Poulter And Johnny Miller Are Bickering Again!

Another day at Kapalua meant more freakishly severe weather and aborting another round, the second time this week.

Doug Ferguson's game story recounts the various unfortunate lows in what is quickly going down as one of the more unfortunate freak weather events to ever hit the PGA Tour.

Matt Kuchar was mildly critical of Sunday's attempt to even play, reports Bailey Mosier.

"After we went through Friday and then having Saturday blown out, as well, we were kind of expecting that today," Matt Kuchar said.

"With the wind being as strong as it was this morning ... I think most guys pretty much could have told you what was going to happen in the locker room."

Sunday winds sustained 25-35 mph and PGA Tour officials registered gusts up to 48 mph.
"I'm not sure if that was the point to show that we're making every effort to play," Kuchar said.

The tour's Andy Padzur was questioned about the call and also asked about Golf Channel's obligation to next week's sponsor.

Q. Have you guys discussed with the Golf Channel, is there any issues with getting equipment to Oahu or the Sony broadcast on Thursday?

ANDY PAZDER: There is, yeah. The equipment that's here has to get barged over to Oahu, get set up and so forth. We have had conversations with Golf Channel, moving on into a Tuesday finish here, Golf Channel is indicating that they feel reasonably comfortable that they can produce or provide a show on Thursday from Sony.

Obviously we are sensitive to that. But right now our most important focus is on the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and that's what our decisions are being based upon, which is getting 54 holes in.

Q. If weather does not cooperate tomorrow, is it 36 on Tuesday or at what point do you call it all off?

ANDY PAZDER: Can we save that question for tomorrow? (Laughter).

Butch Harmon even predicted some WD's to protect swings. Ryan Lavner reports.

Golf Channel televises from 4-11 ET Monday. No word yet on Tuesday's plan.

But it's not all bad news!

Alex Miceli reports on the row redux between Ian Poulter and NBC's Johnny Miller after Mr. 63 essentially called the Ryder Cup hero a drama queen.

Poulter took a lot of time over his 20-foot birdie putt, just above the hole, wind whipping his pants as he looked it over. The Europeans' Ryder Cup hero continued to step in and out of his stance, refusing to ground his putter until finally hitting the ball.

Johnny Miller, the often-controversial color analyst for NBC Sports' golf coverage, commented about Poulter’s unwillingness to putt.

“You just can‘t stay over the putt that long. You've got to get in there, line it up and hit it,” Miller said initially about Poulter’s inaction. “He surely doesn’t have the Tom Watson attitude so far. He’s afraid he’s going to hurt himself, and that would probably set the game back 20 years.”

Poulter fired back on Twitter after hearing about Johnny's criticism:

“Johnny miller why don't you come interview me live and say that stuff straight to my face,” Poulter tweeted after the round. “Was you watching a different channel.”

Later in the evening, Poulter added another tweet about the commentary.

"Just watched coverage on @GolfChannel. Really sorry I took way to long on 11th.... Just trying to win a golf tournament. Trying to do my job"

The offending moment can be seen in this Golf Channel Golf Central highlight package. One minute in you get some great highlights of the wacky wind-induced activity, including Poulter considering his options. This package also includes Tim Rosaforte talking to the tour's Slugger White about Monday's forecast, which is expected to be have winds gusting 5 mph less than they did Sunday.

You can relive Johnny and Ian's past bickering (mostly Ian tweeting) here, here and here.

They also appeared to have a truce, but that turned out to be a Brad Faxon prank. A darn good one, if I may say so.

Comments

[Colin MacGillivray]

Surely Jim Furyk's shot from just through the 18th green in his final day Ryder Cup match was the world record longest time taken for a shot (which some of us might have putted)? Did Mr 63 comment on that?

[Simon]

Well said Johnny. We have 40-50k winds most weekends on the Coast down here and we have to play and its good fun constructing a good score, so the they can do the same in Maui as far as Im concerned...hell they are PRO's

[digsouth]

Did anyone else here Miller clain that he was the first person to win with a long putter?


I like Miller and Poulter --- Poulter only makes it worse by responding-he should make a funny response and it goes away.

[Greg C]

Ironic that the first event of the never-ending season should be never ending?

[VLind]

Try never-starting.

And good luck getting the "Magnificent Seven" to sign up for this one next year.

[mcgravyboat]

Like Monty before him, Poulter thrives in team competition but can't win the big one. It's a strange psychology, and a particularly European one. When you have the lads around you, they give you the confidence to pull through. But alone on the stage in the big events, you wilt. It's a form of insecurity really.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

@mcgravyboat ... barely into 2013 but, by the end of the year, your post will remain high up in the list of contenders for this board's SPOTY.

[Colin MacGillivray]

C&C
SPOTY?
S Post of the Year
Superb or Silly?

[Viz]

Should have never even tried to start the event again yesterday. When Kuch's ball falls off the tee because of the wind it's an issue. My issue is with all these changes and not wanting to go against football and now with the elongated never ending season that ironically enough the 1st event of the season's final round goes against the BCS title game...Obviously now with a Tuesday finish that goes out the window. It would have been great though The BCS going against the FEDEX Cup...Does anyone see the irony in this LOL!!!!!

[Jesse]

Johnny Miller is the best colour guy on the planet. Loved hearing his comments about Poulter's antics on the 11th green. Even Poulter admitted he was putting on a bit of s show. Long live Johnny.

[No Longer Used to be Former Stack & Tilt Convert]

It is easy to armchair QB the decision to play, but that is what everyone is paid to do and the fans pay to see. If they made the early call to cancel and the winds tapered down, everyone would be bashing the officials and that decision. In the absence of lightning they should err on the side of trying to compete, as they have done.

They should however flip the field and make the last group go out and be the test dummies for a while...

[Frank]

Yeah, I heard Johnny Miller say he was the first to use the long putter. Johnny is starting to believe his hype that he is controversial, so now it seems he often just talks stupid.

[Press Agent]

Johnny is inconsistent to say the least, and as he ages he may be moving into more worrisome senility problems. The week so far has been extremely frustrating and difficult for everyone, but Johnny let his frustrations out on Poulter. If that had been Tiger it would never have been said. Johnny looks even worse considering shortly after they stopped play, showing that Poulter was spot on about the conditions being sketchy for him to be able to putt that ball.

I was starting to look forward to this season and turned on the TV to watch some golf, heard Johnny for a few minutes and I turned the TV off. No Thanks. I don't really need to have my good mood spoiled by listening to him say stupid things.

[Viz]

I hear allot of people saying their PROS and should be able to handle the wind...Listen there's wind and then there's WIND that is way too much to play golf in fairly. Nobody wants to see them play golf more than me but when I turned the TV on yet again to watch and saw what happened to Kuch---it was laughable at best that they even started again. Hope the winds die down to more benign conditions. CHEERS to the 2013 PGA Tour Season boys and girls!!!

[Rob]

I could not believe all the players saying that golf had to be fair during the interviews they did when they came off the course.

I have played in worse conditions. The Tour should have slowed the greens down to 7 on the stimp. Wind was in the forecast. Is it a crime to have greens this slow simply because it is a PGA Tour event?

[digsouth]

PA- the senility thing really DOES seem to be happening ---last year, more than once, it seems as if it was the only logical explanation for some of his ''comments''

Vis- we have played in guss this stong, though they were rogue and the sustained win's were at a 2-3 club pace. It's fun, but we were not playing a tournament speed setup, and there was only a couple of issues on he green, of any real notice. Point being, more than once the ball was blown off the tee in a super gust, and it rolled along the ground, much to our amazement; these gusts really CAN knock you over! (BTE- we were at Roy Kizer, in Austin, an open, no tree affair with water on 14 holes, I believe.

[digsouth]

''Viz'' -sorry for spelling

Rob--

I don't think they can slow them down that much without some growth time

[Hawkeye]

I'm quite certain that Miller WAS the first to win on Tour with a long putter - he used a circa 45" long putter and stuck the end of the shaft into his left elbow. I'm not sure if he used it at the ´83 Inverrary or at Pebble in ´87, but it was in his bag during the mid 80's so I doubt he's just making that up. In case anyone's wonering, the first player to win with a long putter anchored to the chest was Rocco Mediate at Doral in ´91.

[Viz]

@dig

We all have played in wind that's fiercely brutal but when the balls are rolling off tees and greens and you can barely stand up at times that's another story. I'm not saying don't play in wind. But those winds were very unusually strong this week....

[digsouth]

Miller won at Pebbe, in '87, but I elieve it was with a conventional putter- then in '94 with the training aid. Orvlle moody won in '89 with a long putter.

Anyone verify what Miller used in '87? I was just starting to watch, was not playing yet- started that fall!

[Hawkeye]

Orville Moody won on the mulligan tour, that doesn't count!

[Hawkeye]

And he won with a conventional putter in '94, putting with his eyes closed. So if he has won at Pebble with a long putter, it was in '87, which would make him the first on Tour.

[Rob]

@digsouth

They mowed the greens on Saturday.

They should have kept them shaggy - but they were probably peeing their pants at the concept of playing a PGA Tour event on slow greens.

[digsouth]

Rob---LOL.....you're probably right about that.

As an aside---I hate to putt on slow greens, because it messes up your stroke the next 2 or 3 times you play......I just leave em short and diss the score, or play automatic 2 putt.

[Tom]

Johnny Miller said exactly what most viewers were thinking- "Go ahead and hit the F-ing putt you A hole! :)

[Steve Wozeniak PGA]

Slow the greens down, and move the tees up......but PLAY......it was funny watching many of these guys have no clue how to play in heavy wind, and not wanting to.......

Sorry no whining when it's 80 degrees and windy......

[Pat Burke]

If I recall,
Phil Rodgers or somebody in his time played with and may have won with a long putter.

It was brought up when the anchoring ban was discussed at the PGA TOUR meetings,
indicating the lack of attention paid by the USGA

[Stiggy]

Fairly sure Langer won on the European Tour with a long putter well before Miller tried it.
However, since Miller doesn't recognize a world beyond the US shores that probably doesn't count.

[Pete North]

I must have been listening to a different telecast as well. I didn't watch a lot but I saw Fowler, Kuchar, Johnson Wagner get interviewed and each one specifically said they were having fun playing the shots. It was the putting that they claimed was the problem and each one, that I saw, kind of gave both sides and said they would play if that was the decision but also pointed out that one putt might roll 30 yards off the green while another might stay. I was actually pretty proud of all of their attitudes, especially Fowler and Wagner. Did I miss something?

[Sam]

Saw the same thing that @Pete North saw. Also, saw Poulter interviewed before play where he said that he understood decision to try again and that the weather "is what it is" and they'd make the best of it.

[ol Harv]

I agree with Sam and Pete, Fowler and Wagner were refreshing to hear and both acted like kids playin' in the rain or snow. I became bigger fans of both after hearing them. And Poulter also appeared(at least when he got interviewed) willing to do whatever they decided. Nice to know that some of these guys still get it.

[digsouth]

They were all wanting to play, and Poulter seemed to zone out on that one putt....it happens. There was no prima donna BS going on.

He should be like a duck in water, let that Johnny crap roll off and laugh about it. You'd think he was old enough to know better than whine, but whine he did. Miller has a job o do...he's not gonna stop play and come down and ''say it to your face'' Ian---get real... I think Miller WOULD say it to your face given the opportunity.

[Pete North]

Digger, those days seem to be over. Not only with golfers but all over the world. Nobody shrugs it off anymore like a classy Larry Nelson who would have never gotten into it with an announcer or rules official. I'm not a Johnny fan but when the sh** he says gets an entire Ryder Cup team mad at him someone is being too damn sensitive. Be the bigger man and don't make a comment and ignore the dumbass when you pass him in the buffet line or challenge him to a putting contest from 3 feet with a conventional grip for a thousand dollars and listen to him hyperventilate like he did on Shell's Wonderful World of Golf when he three putted like 7 times on the front nine against Jack. What the hell is Johnny doing on this telecast anyway? I know NBC is partners with GC but still, Johnny in Hawaii in January. I thought him and the boys went big game hunting this time of year.

[Tighthead]

I always get the feeling Johnny is quicker to speak against non-American players.

[Hawkeye]

@Stiggy: Miller used a long putter anchored in his elbow as early as 1985 (as a nine-year old, I saw him use it in the Scandinavian Open where he finished third after Ian Baker-Finch and Graham Marsh - I could go on about the first tournament I ever watched on television!). I we can get someone to verify that Miller was still using it when he won at Pebble in ´87, then that's the end of the discussion.
Berhard Langer only started to use the long putter (anchoring it in the chest) in 1996, and prior to that he had used his "clutch of the left forearm grip" since 1988. The first player to win with the long putter in Europe was Sam Torrance (anchoring it on the chin) at the 1990 German Masters, and Peter Senior had dominated the Australian Tour the previous winter with four wins using Sam's spare "chin putter".

Personally, I made my own long putter as a 14-year-old 5-handicapper in the summer of 1990, breaking the shaft of my dad's sand wedge (he was a terrible bunker player anyway) and sticking it into my Ping Anser after having cut off the top of the grip. However, as I was already over 6' tall by then, it got too short for me to anchor it in the chest or on the chin, so I tried anchoring it in my belly button instead. I holed just about everything with it on the practice green but was afraid the older kids would laugh at me on the junior circuit, so I never dared to bring it out onto the course... You think I regretted that decision when pros discovered that very same method a decade later??? It was a huge relief when I found out that Paul Runyan had "invented" it years earlier - the thought of having missed an opportunity to introduce a revolutionary method was weighing on me for years!

[Bert]

When will the first tour event be held in simulators? Course set up, green speed etc is controlled by computers and fair factor is 100.

[Stiggy]

Hawkeye, my recollection was that Langer used a chin putter at some stage very early in the 80's, between the cross handed and clamped to his arm styles.

May be wrong but that was my recollection.

[Hawkeye]

I'm afraid your memory serves you wrong, Stiggy. Torrance was the first to anchor the putter on the chin, in the spring of ´89. Langer began his clutch period in late summer ´88, shortly after five-putting the 17th green at Lytham from 8 feet. That worked well for about seven years, until he got the yips with that technique too in ´96. Then he went to the chest-anchoring method and started winning regularly again. The man's perseverance is simply astounting!

[Hilltop]

@Tighthead Ask Tiger about that one!