Byron Nelson, R.I.P.

One of the greats passes away.

Update on 2006-09-26 23:14 by Geoff

Several excellent stories has been posted on Nelson's life and times, starting with PGATour.com's in-depth coverage.

Ron Green Sr. files this remembrance. The tour web site also includes a timeline, his records, a career overview and statement from the Commissioner.

At SI.com they have posted a 1995 Jaime Diaz piece on the magnitude of Nelson's streak, as well as this photo gallery.

And at USGA.org, David Shefter pens this obituary to the 1939 U.S. Open champion.

One Last Ryder Cup Question...

...well, for today anyway.

If the rumored move to a Thursday-Sunday setup happens in 2008, this would significantly alter the Captain's strategy on day 1.

As a trusted observer pointed out to me today, the pressure on the Captain's to make their afternoon foursome's selections creates one of the few moments where the Captain's have to make big decisions under the gun.

A move splitting the opening four-ball and foursomes play would eliminate one more bit of strategy and pressure.

Big deal or not? 

Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition Vol. 2

Let the Monday morning quarter...actually, the matches would have to be close for there to be any second guessing.

No, the stories continue to marvel at the slaughter and the potential fallout for American golf.

Sandy Lyle gloats to The Scotsman's Mike Aitken:

"At the moment the future is looking very strong for us," said Lyle, one of Ian Woosnam's backroom men at the K Club. "I think we'll need to have a handicap system if it continues like this. We are producing very strong teams and they are on the ropes. Long may it continue."

Asked why the pendulum had swung so far in Europe's favour, Lyle added: "The European Tour has been getting stronger and stronger for many years.

Also, we have to thank Tiger Woods. We look at him and we see how hard we have to work on our games to try to get to his level."

James Corrigan asks questions in the Independent and highlights some of the more critical U.S. writers.
 

Maybe the best critique came from Peter Dixon in The Times:

In reality, the Americans are a bunch of rich individuals thrown together for a week. Brett Wetterich, among the four faceless rookies in the team, had never met Woods until a few weeks before the Ryder Cup and probably will never meet him again.

The US team may well have “fun” in the team room, but they do not come across as great friends. Who among the Americans is as close as Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, Sergio García and Luke Donald? When the chips are down, it is such friendships that can pull you through. Ask Clarke.

Perhaps the most telling statement of the week was Mickelson’s, when he said that it was “awkward” not having the likes of Davis Love III and Fred Couples in the side, great players “you expect to see on US teams”. What he should have said was: “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”

Oh but he's not done... 

Much more of this and you could see Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, being put under pressure to put a cap on the number of overseas players allowed to join the tour.

There is plenty of squealing in the women’s game in the US because of the number of South Koreans walking off with the lion’s share of the prize-money. How long before the men start complaining?

Finish in the top 80 of the PGA Tour and you will earn about $1 million in prize-money alone. That is a huge sum for mediocrity. This is a society for whom winning is everything, but its golfers, metaphorically speaking, have flabby underbellies — and boy were they exposed at the K Club.

Monty weighs in with a guest commentary for the Telegraph, and you would think his lead is a joke, but it's not.

If our team had a secret over the week, it was the way we boosted each other's self-esteem at every possible opportunity. It was Ian Woosnam's idea. Every time one of us was about to tee off at the first, Woosie, or one of his assistants, would be there to say, "You're a great champion," or something along those lines.

Wow, I thought our guys were simple!

"Changing Times Putting The Squeeze On Private Clubs"

Thanks to reader Kevin for this Len Boselovic story in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on the struggles for Pennsylvania country clubs.

Silverman WSJ Interview with Updike

Jeff Silverman interviews John Updike for the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition. A few highlights:

WSJ: But you do have that big-headed driver.

MR. UPDIKE: Occasionally, a sweet hit will go farther than my drives usually do. I just don't have enough of them. We all like technology when we can use it, but the best club in the world and the farthest flying ball in the world aren't going to straighten out your drives for you.

WSJ: Do you think that far-flying ball goes too far?

MR. UPDIKE: Not when I hit it. It can never go too far for me. I would think if you're going to make an adjustment in the game the ball is much easier to tinker with than the clubs. I don't think it should go any farther than it does now. And already, the fact that the pros miss so many fairways indicates to me that the ball may just be flying too far.

WSJ: Technology and its costs -- both in dollars and cents and how it's made some of the classic courses obsolete -- are aspects of the game that many complain about. What irks you?

MR. UPDIKE: There's a certain agony in waiting. It takes the best part of the day to play a round.

And...

WSJ: You've written quite movingly about golf in its simplest form vs. the flower beds, cart paths, breaches of etiquette and excessive costs. Is it getting worse?

MR. UPDIKE: I don't see it shrinking. When you do go to Scotland or Ireland and play on the unnamed, unknown courses, you realize what a simple and charming dip this is into the countryside. It's too bad that American courses trend the other way, becoming more manicured, ergo more expensive, more fuss about getting into the clubs, more and more a rich man's sport, where in Scotland and Ireland it began as a poor man's sport.

WSJ: Where have you liked playing over there?

MR. UPDIKE: I went up to Dornoch, and that's really worth it because there you really see a majestic, natural course up there in the twilight zone. I played St. Andrews once in the twilight serendipitously. My wife was with me. I rented clubs and she walked around with me and we joined up with a twosome, father and son, and had a lovely round that ended in the gloaming. That was a great lyrical experience. They're all kind of fun and shaggy and no fuss, and I like that kind of golf.

WSJ: You witnessed the 1999 Ryder Cup at the Country Club in Brookline as a marshal. Another cup is coming up. You've observed that the event gets our blood boiling. Is that good for the game?

MR. UPDIKE: You hate to see the partisanship become so extreme that the crowds heckle the golfers. The game is meant to be a gentleman's game in which you call rule infractions on yourself, and you shake hands before and after, never show hostility, and I think in the Ryder Cup there's the danger of all those manners being suspended. The Ryder Cup I was at was the one where Justin Leonard sank an amazingly long putt and suddenly we went from being losers to being winners and they mobbed him and trampled all over the green [before the match was completed]. That left a bad after-feeling.

WSJ: Do you read much about golf?

MR. UPDIKE: I follow the newspaper accounts. I don't read everything written about the game because it detracts from my writing, but my first acquaintance with golf was through writing -- in murder mysteries. English murder mysteries often have a golf course with a corpse on it.

WSJ: Why is golf such a writer's game?

MR. UPDIKE: It's contemplative. You kind of think your way out of corners. Often you find yourself both in plotting and in golf in an awkward situation of your own making and you try to get out of it. And I think both writing and golfing involve a patient temperament that can be content with slow progress. And you can play golf very happily and hardly talk to anybody for four hours. All those things are appealing to a writer.

WSJ: What do you see as the cornerstones of the golf library?

MR. UPDIKE: I would put certainly one or two of P.G. Wodehouse's golf tales. They're so funny and yet so vivid and you really come to understand golf. And Bernard Darwin's accounts of the British courses and British tournaments. A book that I learned from was Tommy Armour's "How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time," which I find more helpful than Hogan's.

WSJ: If you could fix one thing about the game what would it be?

MR. UPDIKE: You can't really do much about attitude except maybe try to emphasize the basic principles of golf etiquette. Beyond that, it would be nice if you could disconnect golf and money. You lose something when it becomes a privileged sport. It was nice when everybody was out there swinging away with their lessonless, self-taught swings.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 38

The PGA Tour driving distance average jumped to 289.6 yards from 289.3 following the Texas Open.

There were 6 drives over 400 yards bringing the season total to 30, two shy of the PGA Tour high mark in 2004.

There were 18 400-yarders in 2005.

FYI, the long bombers in Texas were Scott Gutschewski (425), Bubba Dickerson (420),  Harrison Frazier (416), Charley Hoffman (411), Brandt Jobe (404 and 401).

Tape Delayed No More?

Golfobserver's Peter McCleery analyzes NBC's Ryder Cup telecast, focusing his criticism on the outdated nature of tape-delay coverage in the Internet era. He says sucked the life out of the Friday/Saturday telecasts here in the States, and I would agree. But even on tape, NBC could have done better...

If you're going to tape everything, use the time more wisely. As it was, there was 20 minute of nonaction to fill on Saturday, and the 20 minutes before that featured only one match still in progress.

Might NBC suggest that they didn't have enough time to edit the dreadfully slow morning four-balls, even though we know they did based on those tacky Rolex clocks decorating each tee?

Anyway, McCleery concludes: 

Here's hoping this is the last tape-delayed Ryder Cup ever and the last walkover in a while. The PGA and NBC have another four years to figure it all out. That's twice the time that the American players have. It should be enough to finally get this thing right.

They just had two years since the last Cup to devise an Internet strategy for this year's event, announcing the exclusive online coverage the day before the matches started.

However, there may be hope for U.S. viewers when the matches are played at Celtic Manor in 2010. It has been rumored that Friday Ryder Cup play may be spread out over two days (like the Presidents Cup). This would allow for 1 p.m. tee times on new host network ESPN, meaning a respectable start time in the east coast. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

This would also allow for a 10 or 11 a.m. start at Valhalla, allowing European viewers to go to bed at decent hour.

However, a Thursday start still doesn't solve the Saturday-on-NBC issue. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition

Lots of great coverage, so let the celebration (and questions) begin:

Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian:

The Americans arrived in Dublin as underdogs, played like underdogs and will be cast as underdogs for as long as the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson fail to produce their true form in the context of a team event. Indeed, so one-sided was the contest that at times during yesterday's session of 12 singles matches it seemed the impossible was on the cards - a Ryder Cup without drama.

Fortunately there was enough raw emotion in the air to ensure the day will live long in the memory. Woosnam's victory address will not trouble the compilers of the Oxford Book of 21st Century Speeches but the much-derided Welshman showed a wonderful touch when he sent Clarke out in the seventh tie of the day. Four points ahead overnight, Europe needed 4½ points to win the trophy. This left the Irishman, whose wife Heather died from breast cancer six weeks ago, with the maximum chance of delivering the ending the home crowd and his team-mates so desperately wanted.

Doug Ferguson summarizes each of the singles matches if, God forbid, you want to relive the rout.

Gary Van Sickle on SI.com:

This was the best Ryder Cup because -- and Darren Clarke is going to hate this sentence -- it was all about Darren Clarke. This Ryder Cup belonged to him -- no, it was for him, although he'd be embarrassed by your attention and feel uneasy about your sympathy. Clarke deserved this Ryder Cup week and maybe, if not probably, he needed it. Ryder Cups are always thick with emotion, but there's never been one this emotional.

David Feherty on Golfonline:

You can bet half your ass the American players always care about the event and each other, and bet the other cheek on the fact that this carousel will come around. It will come around even quicker if all fans of American golf get behind it and push.

Moving into the "what-to-do-next" division, Scott Michaux in the Augusta Chronicle offers a few thoughts, but first he has to get this off his chest:

The only thing more embarrassing than the final result was DiMarco fist-pumping his birdie on the 17th hole that extended his match with Lee Westwood. His comeback effort from five down with seven to go against a player who was ill overnight and carrying a fever on the course was meaningful only to himself. It was like doing a dance after a sack with your team trailing by seven touchdowns. Hitting two balls in the water on the 18th was his just reward.

The Golf Gazette's Ken Carpenter offers his suggestions for turning things around on the U.S. side.

Have you ever seen wives and girlfriends jumping on the pile after a team wins the World Series? No. Do significant others wear matching “uniforms” at an NFL game? No. Do NBA organizations allow wives and girlfriends to travel on the team plane? Rarely, if ever. Do significant others march into an Olympic stadium during the opening ceremonies? Never.

There were reports last week that the wives were in the USA’s team room when captain Tom Lehman was addressing the troops. Has Bill Belichick ever invited the girls into the Super Bowl locker room? Yeah, right . . .

And...

Motivate Mickelson: If Phil Mickelson wants to “shut it down” after the PGA Championship every year, then he should give up his spot on the team and go to the beach. In the last two Ryder Cups he’s 1-7-1; in the last two Presidents Cups he’s 3-5-2 — that’s an abysmal 4-12-3 record, totally unacceptable for someone annually ranked in the top three in the world. In 2008, Mickelson needs to play his way into shape prior to the event — assuming he isn’t fully retired by that point.

ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski weighs in on the what-to-do-about-the-U.S. subject, as does AP's Jim Litke, who talks to Michael Jordan about what ails America.

James Lawton in the Independent says the Americans need to start playing better or the Ryder Cup will be diminished.

The truth, and it is a bitter one for anyone embracing the idea that the Ryder Cup has a format and a tradition that makes it one of the great jewels of the sporting universe, is that the long months of hype, the millions of euros of investment, delivered something rather less than glittering. What was forthcoming was not a serious collision of some of the most talented and best rewarded sportsmen in the world but another day when the blue of Europe covered the scoreboard almost as though it was spilling from a can of paint. It meant that those who believed the humiliation inflicted on the United States in Michigan two years ago would concentrate the collective mind of an American team boasting four major winners - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Toms and Jim Furyk against Europe's one, Jose Maria Olazabal - to make a real contest this time were not so much confounded as embarrassed.

The Telegraph featured this commentary by David Leadbetter, who writes:

But in its structure, the American golf system is simply not set up for these grand team events. Even at junior level, the focus is overwhelmingly on individual scores, rather than team dynamics. An event such as the Ryder Cup, squeezed into an already tight schedule, is almost a nuisance to them.

Douglas Lowe looks at Tom Lehman's dismissive response to the idea of adding Canada and South America to the U.S. Ryder Cup equation.

I'm not so sure. Lorena Ochoa might be an upgrade?

Martin Johnson approached the same topic but also covered Woosie's celebratory cleansing:

In the battle of the captains, Ian Woosnam had the easier job because he had the better players, and it was no great surprise when the Ryder Cup went to a bloke who wasn't much taller than the trophy itself. After spending months practising his speeches in front of the bedroom mirror, one of golf's great bon viveurs had promised himself a small libation at the end of it all, but we didn't think this would involve an attempt to down an entire jeroboam of champagne in one herculean swig.

The end result was a blowback of such Vesuvian proportions that the eruption of escaping champagne flew out of every visible orifice bar Woosie's ears.

Back to the state of U.S. golf, Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post:

Lehman insisted that his players were "prepared" and played "their best" with "heart and courage." Because it's presumably true, that only makes these back-to-back 18 1/2 -9 1/2 scores more damaging to the PGA Tour's reputation. Asked if more such wipeouts might send this mega-money-making event "back in the other direction" toward lessened popularity, Lehman said: "That sounds a little insulting. . . . Things have cycles. There will be a time when we'll be sitting here saying to the Europeans, 'Is this [event] in danger of becoming a little bit in trouble because the American team is on top?'

"That will happen."

Image buffs, SI's shots from Sunday are here, Golf Digest's here. Golfonline's do not feature a direct link.

Oh, and it was an unnamed photographer from Getty Images who captured the shot of Stevie losing Tiger's 9-iron. Nice work Stevie!

Rob Hodgett on the BBC blog analyzes the Dublin comedy festival that broke out during the Euro press conference. I think it's one of those "you had to be there" deals. It did seem funnier on TV.

The Chicago Tribune's Ed Sherman looks ahead to 2012, yes, 2012 and Medinah, forecasting the U.S. roster for those matches. 

Here's a guess at the makeup of the U.S. squad at Medinah:

Captain: Davis Love III. The six-time Ryder Cup player will get his shot.
Woods: Might have 21 majors by then.
Furyk: Will he still be paired with Woods?
Chad Campbell: Looks to be a U.S. fixture.
Zach Johnson: Performed well as a rookie in 2006.
Vaughn Taylor: Fellow players are very high on him.
Ryan Moore: Expect him to be a star.
Ben Curtis: Proved that 2003 British Open victory wasn't a fluke.
Lucas Glover: Big hitter could make Ryder debut in 2008.
Sean O'Hair: A load of potential that should be fulfilled.
J.B. Holmes: Long hitter could be a Ryder Cup force.
Captain's picks:
Mickelson: Star sliding, but Love still takes him.
Michelle Wie: She couldn't do any worse than her predecessors.

Mark Garrod confirms that Phil Mickelson is not playing in this week's AmEx event in England.

And finally, Hodgetts at the BBC blog has the quotes of the final day.

Why Is This Enjoyable?

I admired the U.S. team players, our captain and their sportsmanship throughout the matches.

Yet, why is it that I and (a surprising number of) Americans derive just a wee bit of pleasure watching the U.S. Ryder Cup team lose?

Is it the notion that these losses reinforce the unsophisticated nature of American golf, where one-dimensional formats, setups and courses seem to render even our best players vulnerable in Ryder Cup match play settings?

Obviously part of this had to do with Darren Clarke's amazing play and emotional comeback.

But no, it's something else. Please help.

Ryder Cup Clippings, Sunday Edition

One more day before we get to spend the next two years hearing about the U.S. team's efforts to build a stronger bond. Or maybe we'll get lucky and Captain Paul Azinger will just tell them to make more putts.

In the meantime, there are still 12 points up for grabs Sunday and anything can happen. Well, not if you ask the world's great inkslingers.

John Huggan offers capsules of Sunday's singles matches, which will probably be underway by the time you are reading this.  He also looks at Sergio's epic Ryder Cup play.

Chris Lewis is a guest contributor at the Scotsman's Sunday edition and he's trying to figure out how it came to be that the American rookies played great while the stars fizzled.

Doug Ferguson offers these capsules of Saturday's matches.

For photo buffs, Golf Digest offers these images while Golfonline's best stuff from day 2 is posted here.

Golfweek's Alistair Tait is already declaring Ian Woosnam the superior captain for not screwing this up while Golf World's John Hawkins has already begun to figure out where it all went wrong.

The European Tour's George O' Grady is already assuring everyone that there will be plenty of nearby parking at Celtic Manor in Wales. Boy it must be bad at The K Club!

The Principal says the combination of monsoons and helicopters constantly flying in and out made The K Club feel more like Vietnam circa 1968 than Ireland. Incidentally, Arnold Palmer cited the impressive helicopter operation when talking on NBC about what a great job the Irish are doing this week.

Gee, I wonder how Arnie's getting to the course?

Speaking of Palmer, it seems he was charged he played Bandon Dunes recently, the first time since he was 17!  Thanks to reader Van for this from David Davies in the Telegraph:

Arnold Palmer, who designed this Ryder Cup course, earned a special tribute in Ian Woosnam's opening ceremony speech.

"He's been an inspiration to us all... a legend," Woosie said. Arnie is a famous face among sporting personalities in America, except, it seems, at the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon. He arrived to have a look at the course which recently hosted the Curtis Cup and, on deciding to play, was asked: "How would you like to pay for this?" One credit card imprint later and Palmer, 77, remarked wryly to friends: "That's the first time I've paid to play golf since I was 17."

The Golfweek crew chimes in with various blog observations on Saturday's play.

Marina Hyde in The Guardian looks at Tom Lehman and his WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelet along with other religious elements of his captaincy.

And finally, the BBC blog's Rob Hodgetts offers the best quotes of the day on the BBC blog.

Sunday Singles Set

Hard to get excited about some of these Sunday singles matches.

Perhaps that bodes well for the final day. Boring on paper, exciting on the ground? Let's hope so. I'm rising at 4 a.m. for this. Well, scratch that. Thanks to TiVo, make that 5:30. I'll be caught up by six at this commercial-break pace. 

11:15AM      Montgomerie (EUR) vs. Toms (US)
11:27AM     Garcia (EUR) vs. Cink (US)
11:39AM     Casey (EUR) vs. Furyk (US)
11:51AM     Karlsson (EUR) vs. Woods (US)
12:03PM     Donald (EUR) vs. Campbell (US)
12:15PM     McGinley (EUR) vs. Henry (US)
12:27PM     Clarke (EUR) vs. Johnson (US)
12:39PM     Stenson (EUR) vs. Taylor (US)
12:51PM     Howell (EUR) vs. Wetterich (US)
1:03PM     Olazábal (EUR) vs. Mickelson (US)
1:15PM     Westwood (EUR) vs. DiMarco (US)
1:27PM     Harrington (EUR) vs. Verplank (US)

Let The Second Guessing Begin?

For us here in the States who are 3 hours behind, NBC's Dan Hicks just raised the question of whether Phil Mickelson should be playing in Saturday afternoon's foursomes.

Johnny Miller responded that he questioned whether Mickelson or Tiger Woods should go out in the afternoon based on their play in this Ryder Cup and in previous Cups.

Well, we know they are both going out in the afternoon. (Warning, spoiler link!)

Does Tom Lehman really have any choice?

I don't believe there is any scenario other than injury where you can't sit Woods.

But I've been wondering since yesterday why Mickelson, who has admitted being tired and ready to shut down for the year, is playing more than one match a day?

Update on 2006-09-23 18:34 by Geoff

From Lehman's post-morning play press chat:

Q. There was some speculation that Tiger may not play in foursomes because he was quite poor this morning. Was that ever on the agenda?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: I don't know how you can ever sit down the best player in the world. I think we had to go with the guys who are playing the very best. Vaughn Taylor is a great, great putter, and in this format he should be really good.

Ryder Cup Clippings, Saturday Edition

Did anyone have some pot bunkers stolen? Well, I've found them. They're on the 18th at The K Club. They fell out of the thieves' truck? Nice job matching the existing hazards.

Oh, and love the tree planting on 17. They have that neo-postmodern Ray Charles thing going for them.

Anyway, they didn't bug Monty, who Mike Aitken reports has been left out of the Saturday morning four-ball despite fine play on Friday.

The media coverage theme is fairly consistent: even with the 5-3 score, the consensus seems to be that the U.S. is in deep trouble. Such cynics!

Lawrence Donegan says Woosie must be pleased with Sergio.

What he will also take over the next two days is more of the same from García, who was magnificent in tandem with his compatriot José María Olazábal as they swept aside David Toms and Brett Wetterich in the morning and equally dazzling as he and Luke Donald defeated the Americans' star pairing of Woods and Jim Furyk in the afternoon foursomes.

Doug Ferguson declares the opening day matches to be the "tightest" in Ryder Cup history

James Lawton says Tiger is a loner and like Bill Macatee hinted today on the telecast, maybe all of this bonding stuff is taking him out of his game.

Woods has a 12-0 lead on Garcia in the majors, but the 26-year-old Spaniard puts on a cape at the Ryder Cup. Garcia is now 12-3-2 in the Ryder Cup, compared with Woods' 8-12-2 record.

The truth is that apart from the odd bolt from the sky, the occasional shot of absolute brilliance, almost everything in the Ryder Cup comes hard to Tiger Woods.

Heaven knows he has tried selflessly enough this time, stopping just short of wrapping himself in the Stars and Stripes and dancing to the tune of "Yankee Doodle-Dandy". In fact he was persuaded the other night to sing his old college song at a team meeting. He has taken rookies out to dinner, he has attempted to "bond" like an eager undergraduate. But always he looks just a little uncomfortable. He is doing something that, however admirable, may not be entirely prompted by his nature, and maybe still less his heart.

As the blue of Europe began to spread all over the scoreboard here, there were times when Tiger looked so out of sorts and out of place he might have been Keith Richards finding himself at the Last Night of the Proms.

The press room highlight of the day, from Sergio:

Q. Estaba hoy tu mejor día del año en golf? (Question in Spanish.)

LUKE DONALD: I'll take this one. (Laughter).

SERGIO GARCIA: Sorry, he's just been telling me that I've been playing shit. And I'm trying to make him realise I've been having a decent summer. (Laughter).

Gary Van Sickle writes:

Yes, the opening day of the 36th Ryder Cup was same-old same-old stuff. The Europeans have the hot players and look like the better team. The Americans' big guns are strangely silent and their players look like the underdogs that they have legitimately become. Captain Tom Lehman stressed that this time the Americans were going to have fun at the Ryder Cup. They're losing, 5-3, after a day in which they managed to win only one of eight matches (and that was the very first one). Fun was hard to come by.

He then outlines three reasons why things don't bode well for the Americans.

John Hawkins could not believe that J.J. Henry wasn't not out there in the afternoon, and you can't blame him for wondering.

Here's what Lehman said about Henry:

Q. Did you at all think about putting J.J. back out in the afternoon as well as he played in the morning? Was that a consideration?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Absolutely. J.J. is playing great golf, no question about it.

The partnership that he has with Stewart Cink I think is really, really good. In the alternate shot format, however, Stewart and David Toms play great together as well, and David is such a phenomenal putter. There's just a way things can go out there where one guy can be doing a lot of putting, and David, he's such an excellent putter is the reason why we put those two together. Not to say that J.J. can't putt, just that I think David is one of the best that we have.

Image buffs can check out some day 1 shots from SI and Golfonline.

Thanks to reader Mark for this audio clip features Greg Turner talking about The K Club.

Mike Baker in the The Guardian shares some fun notes from day 1

Here's a little more on the big bets placed on the Cup.

Matt Slater on the BBC blog compiles a great list of the days best quotes.

"I just wanted to get it out quick."

Gosh, I hope someone got photos or video of this:

Japanese golfer Mitsuhiro Tateyama is likely to shudder whenever he comes across the number 19 in future after a horrific round at this week's Acom International.

Still, though, Tateyama could see the funny side after setting a Japanese record by taking 19 on a par-3 hole at the Ishioka Golf Club on Thursday.

 The 38-year-old found the rough with his second shot before hitting it into bushes where he took 14 shots to hack the ball out -- but at least he avoided three-putting.

It was the worst single-hole score since Norio Suzuki incorrectly signed for a 42, his nine-hole total, at a Japanese tournament in 1987. The previous worst for one hole was 15.

"There were more reporters around me than for the leader," joked Tateyama after his meltdown on the eighth. "That must be a world record or something."

Tateyama added: "My mind went blank. I lost count of the number of strokes I had. I couldn't even see the ball when it was in the bushes. I just wanted to get it out quick."

Tateyama, who has never won a Japanese tour title, finished with a 13-over-par 84 but surprisingly avoided carding the day's worst score after recovering with four birdies.

A Few Mid-Friday Clippings

Just a moment ago...while we were away...sorry, just brushing up on my announcing skills.

Since some us on the West Coast are still watching the four-ball matches as play has actually concluded, I offer up a few suggested stories without (hopefully) giving too much away about the results.

Oh, and I love the bright yellow billboards and Rolex clocks around the tees. So understated and subtle.

Damon Hack offers a short and sweet NY Times summary of day one.

Doug Ferguson serves up capsules of the morning matches.

Norman Dabell on Tiger's play today.

The Principal has some fun with Chris DiMarco's fist pumping. He also notes the pitiful pace of play during morning play.

Dave Seanor reports on Saturday morning's pairings, which include one rematch.

Sporting Life compiles key quotes from the day. 

For those of you able to watch, any thoughts on day 1 play?