Jason Day Looking To Dethrone Rory's Claim As Best Player Who Could Believes He Could Be Better Than Tiger (And Is Dumb Enough To Tell A Reporter)

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Looks like Australian Jason Day has been reading too many of his own press clippings, including this howler from the PGA Tour. From The Age on Nov. 27 (yeah, I'm a little slow).

Day has already claimed his own slice of US golfing history as the youngest player to win a PGA Tour-sponsored event when he won on the secondary Nationwide Tour in July.

"I had a really good amateur career," said Day, who emulated Woods' feat of winning a world junior championship, if not his three consecutive US Amateur crowns.

"Making five out of seven cuts on the PGA Tour (on sponsor invites) was pretty big at 18," he added.

"Winning at 19 and being the youngest on the PGA tour to win ever is pretty big.
Uh...it's called the Nationwi...ah forget it.
"At 19, Tiger didn't win a tournament as a professional.
And that has what to do with this?
"I'm just trying to mark myself up against him.
How about we just play a major first! Or win a PGA Tour event and then we'll try to compare. 
"Next year when I'm on the Tour somehow I've got to win two tournaments because that's what he won and I want to try and keep up with him."

What a good idea!

Day said winning a tournament boosted his confidence.

"At the same time the pressure builds up," he said.

"You're a 19-year-old kid, the youngest kid to ever win a PGA sanctioned event and the media is building you up like you're going to chase down Tiger next year which is a big, big ask for a 20-year-old kid on his first year out on the PGA Tour.

Take that Rory!

"I want to chase Tiger and my goal is to become the number one golfer in the world. That's been my goal since I was a little kid.

"If I work hard on what I need to, I'm sure I can take him down."

Oh but there's more. On whether he thinks Tiger could pick him out of a police lineup:

"He (Woods) watches a lot of golf. He has so much time.

"He played 16 events, what does he do with his time?

"He'd be aware of me, he'd be saying 'here's another kid coming up'

Well if he wasn't aware before, he sure is now.

"I just want to work really hard and take him down."

So glad you repeated it just in case the unbylined writer missed it the first time.

Day owns a house in Orlando just a lob wedge away from Tiger's mansion - at least till Woods relocates to his new spread under contruction.

He hasn't met the great man he plans to dethrone.

"He lives 10 minutes down the road but I've never come across him," he said.

"I must just knock on his door and have a coffee with him and let him know I'm chasing him."

My guess is Tiger doesn't drink coffee Jason. Maybe a carrot juice or some wheat grass.

Meanwhile, Nick O'Hern was asked about the comments. 

"I don't know Jason myself but from what I've heard and from what I've seen, he's a fine player," said O'Hern.

"One thing I've learned about Tiger though is you don't annoy the guy.

"If you do - look what happened to (Rory) Sabbatini and Stephen Ames."

Hey, at least they'd actually played on the PGA Tour and even entered majors, shoot, even contended in majors when they opened their mouths.

"Since then the event venue has been for sale to the highest bidder."

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Mike Clayton previews the Australian PGA and ponders the dynamics of choosing a host site. Thanks to reader Hugh for spotting this.

The players and their families love the resort, the locals have supported it in numbers Brisbane only dreamed about (even when Greg Norman was in the field) and whilst the course is not one of the best in the country it is a good test and the nature of professional golf all over the world is that commercial considerations are of fundamental importance when it comes to the choice of the golf course.

If you don't believe that, have a look at the courses the Europeans have chosen for the Ryder Cup. The last time a course was chosen on merit was in 1981 when they went to Walton Heath. Since then the event venue has been for sale to the highest bidder.

 

"We want to come back, we want to support the tour, but you come back and all you do is cop abuse from the media"

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Thanks to reader Hugh for this Robert Allenby rant on the morbid state of Australian professional golf events. It seems  we read about this argument every year...

In an unprompted tirade during a press conference ahead of this week's Australian Masters in Melbourne, Allenby accused the media of having driven former world No.1 Norman out of the country through constant negativity.

And he said a similar thing was being done to the latest generation of Australian players.

"It's quite amazing that everyone plays in America, they think (Australian players) are pretty awesome in how we play and they love us over there, but sometimes we're perceived that we're not that good in Australia," Allenby said.

"I think it comes down to that tall poppy syndrome that Greg Norman fought for a lot of years.

"If you look back and look at the abuse that the media did give Greg Norman, eventually he'd just had enough and said I'm not coming back.

"That's kind of what happens to a lot of players.

"I'm not saying that's the reason why Geoff (Ogilvy) and Adam (Scott) are not here (for the Masters), but sometimes it can wear on you, especially when we're over the other side of the world playing for most of the year.

"We want to come back, we want to support the tour, but you come back and all you do is cop abuse from the media ... I think that's really hurt Australian golf."

 

"How much is Rory getting paid and how much is he worth?"

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I think it's safe to say that Stuart Appleby and Rory Sabbatini will not be talking cars anytime soon after Appleby's backlash over Rory's Australian PGA appearance fee. Yes, that's right, someone paid Rory Sabbatini to be at their golf tournament.

Many of Australia's best golfers are said to be unhappy about the reported $200,000 appearance fee being paid to the cocky South African and Stuart Appleby underlined this fact on Thursday when he questioned Sabbatini's worth.

"To me the question is: How much is Rory getting paid and how much is he worth? "That's what I want to ask the Australian PGA," Appleby, who has slipped back to No 38 in the World this year, told the Telegraph

"If a player is being paid ten times as much as someone with comparable standing, we want to know whether it's a good investment.

"I don't know if $200,000 is the correct figure. That's something I want to find out."
And if that wasn't enough...

"He is maybe not as well known for his golf as he is for his words ever since he said Tiger was vulnerable (in June)," Appleby continued.

"The thing about Rory is that he has not based his career purely on golf equipment. He's a really streaky player and maybe he needs his golf to speak louder than his words.

"I'm not sure that should be the type of player we are looking for. They've had John Daly there before. What do we want: a talented golfer or a loose cannon?"

Australians and Cell Phones

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First the British Open and now the Australian Open have made me proud to be an American because we ban cell phones at golf tournaments. Andrew Powter has the ugly details.

On a lighter note, Peter Stone's game story as well as John Huggan's piece on the official site (thanks reader F.X.) give the impression that it was one swell event. Hopefully it'll return to American TV next year.

Punchlines In Need Of Finetuning

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Richard Hinds offers new Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee to defend some of his rumored changes to the event, and it becomes a chance for him to debut his stand up routine. Kind of makes long for the wit and wisdom of Carolyn Bivens...

 

"I've had people come up to me saying absurd things like, 'I've heard you're going to have girls in bikinis caddying for the players'," he said.

"That's just ridiculous. Have you ever tried to find 100 swimsuit models strong enough to carry those heavy bags around for four days? I have and it's just not feasible."

McNamee admitted that several initiatives not mentioned at the launch would be in place. "When I said the tournament would be following some of the fine golf traditions created by the ancient Scots, I meant Ronnie Corbett, not old Tom Morris," he said.

Accordingly, the Australian Open is believed to be the first significant championship at which a randomly selected member of each group will unwittingly be given a novelty exploding golf ball on the first tee. "That should start things off with a bang," said McNamee, who admitted some of his punchlines would need finetuning before the tournament.

 

There's more if you click on the link.

Good, But Not Yet Norman

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Mike Colman offers some interesting anecdotes on the state of Australian men's pro golf and the top players love-hate relationship with Greg Norman.

Speaking of the Great White Shark, reader Mike reports that in his new book, Norman writes about the 14th at St Andrews and what a genius designer Alister MacKenzie was.

"In the Royal and Ancient clubhouse there is a hand-drawn diagram byMacKenzie that shows how he designed the hole to be played in five different ways."

Now there's a revelation!  

McNamee Update On Aus Open

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Thanks to reader Mark for this Australian story by Louis White that details Paul McNamee's efforts to enhance the Australian Open.

Unfortunately, no mention throughout the piece about moving away from stinker venues like The Grand or The Australian.

McNamee agreed to become the executive chairman of the men's and women's Australian Open tournaments. He got a shock upon taking up the position in April.

"I didn't realise that the financial situation was as bad as it was," he said, sounding surprised still. "There was virtually no revenue streams for the sport and Channel Seven had lost interest. Everyone was receiving freebies to attend the event and the Australian players weren't happy either.

"What blew me away was that the women's championship hadn't even been played for three years. I took that as being not a good sign."

A federal government report into the state of Australian golf had resulted in the amalgamation of the Australian Golf Union and the Australian Ladies Golf Union to form Golf Australia. The new entity was entrusted with overseeing the men's and women's Australian Open championships.

McNamee took a pay cut, and his job was on a part-time basis. Before accepting the job he headed to the US to get a grip on staging a successful tournament. He spoke first-hand to the Australian players to find out their concerns about the Australian Open - all at his own expense.

"The players weren't happy and had a long list of complaints," McNamee said. "It ranged from no functions for the wives and girlfriends to no creche, to no food for the caddies and even the pro-am taking too long.

"Most importantly though, they did want to come back to Australia and play golf. They all understand the importance of the Australian Tour and want to support the Australian Open."
Not only did McNamee convince the players that things would be different this year - he personally spoke to 12 of the top 13-ranked Australian players - he knew he had to overcome the negative publicity associated with the event and do things differently.

"I decided to focus on showcasing Australian players because we are the No.2 golfing nation in the world at the moment," he said.

"Australia has 10 players ranked in the top 100 in the world and had 24 players in the British Open this year. I honestly believe that these group of golfers are the best group of players in the history of Australian golf."

And let's put them on a course to match? Eh...no.