Woods Commits To Barclays!

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Heartwarming to see Tiger entering the event he's typically skipped (except to play lovely Liberty National) from the admittedly clogged portion of the schedule.
After The Barclays, only the top 100 are eligible for the second round, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, which ends on Labor Day. That will be the final event before U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin announces his four wild-card picks.

Who Dustin Johnson Should Be Expecting Thank You Notes From...

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1. Pete Dye - should thank DJ for creating a distraction that will have us forgetting about the worst goofiest finishing holes imaginable. The 17th has been a well known absurdity at 235 yards with extreme banks more suited for a 135 yard par-3, not something receiving mid-to-long irons. But the re-worked 18th was the real standout Sunday, with the new green not improving matters over last time and the re-imagined strategic options non-existent throughout the tournament. That, however, was also the fault of...

2. Kerry Haigh - The PGA's setup man didn't get Whistling Straits right. This is a course that has to be set up with a 20 mph wind in mind no matter the forecast, and the last two PGA's there have given the impression they were not thinking of the effects of wind. There is way too much dark green, U.S. Open-style rough in places that Dye intended as fairway, or worse, thick stuff harvested next to greens. It's all made more disappointing when you hear that they were out primping the stuff up. (On a faux links!?) There also did not appear to be enough varying of yardages and in the case of No. 18, an unfortunate use of a front left hole location likely not accessible with a wedge, much less 5-irons on up to hybrids as we saw Sunday.

When the best shot--according to Faldo and Nantz--is a 5-iron to 20 feet from Rory McIlroy, something is amiss (unless they are playing into a gale force wind, they were not). For all of the people who like to brand what the USGA's Mike Davis does as gimmicky, you can imagine what he might have tried: use the same hole location but move the tee up 75 yards to give the players a chance to use the new fairway and leave themselves with a flip wedge. Potential risk-reward and maybe even better television. This also would have taken those sandy pits along the right side of the fairway out of play, and we probably wouldn't be talking about crowd control and walking rules officials today. But thanks to Johnson's mistake, few noticed just how awful the hole played all week and especially Sunday. (No scoring average for Sunday is available on the website, I guess we'll have to wait for Golf World to hit the mailboxes?).

3. Tiger Woods - He missed the Ryder Cup team on points and now, according to a Tweet by Steve DiMeglio, may miss the playoffs. Unfathomable! And yet, no one is talking about it today.

Dear Dustin: Thanks, From Tiger, Kerry and Pete.

Quite Possibly The Worst Tiger Column I've Ever Read

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If you want to read a laugh-out-loud funny Tiger column, do not miss George Vecsey's declaration of Tiger's downfall as the worst anyone has ever seen. Two top-5s in majors this year--a career for some--and one really bad tournament, and the guy might as well just pack it in. 
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Pavin Tweets Correction: Jim Gray "Misquoted Me"

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Interesting Twitter wallpaper...

"Part of this saga makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Woods and Foley probably aren’t going 'steady’' yet. They’re likely just 'seeing each other.'"

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Sean Martin all but wonders if Tiger and Sean Foley will be updating their Facebook relationship status to let us know they are working together after Tuesday's press conference.

But on a serious note, Martin observes this:

In a news conference Tuesday, Woods said he’s been trying to limit his head movement on his backswing, “so that I can start going down the line again, start using my legs again properly. I feel like . . . I can use my legs and my rotation the way that I know I can.”

“Leg drive’’ and “rotation’’ are two key principles of Foley’s teaching. He’s hardly the first person to emphasize these principles. But he focuses on them more than most. Foley once told me that technology “was the death of the ballstriker,” partly because it lessened the need to compress the ball at impact.

Hey anyone who dares to talk about a side effect of technology must be good. Tiger, you have my blessing.