State Of Golf Index Rises On Reports Of Tiger Opening With A 69

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Steve Elling was among the majority who saw improvement in Tiger's game after an opening 3-under 69 at Torrey Pines North.

Even so, he looked more like the Woods who ended last year with a playoff loss at the Chevron World Challenge, not the guy who played so poorly for so much of the year that he didn't win on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career.

It felt like a typical season-opener for Woods, including his position on the leaderboard. In his last four trips to this PGA Tour event, he has trailed by seven, six, five and two shots after the opening round and went on to win them all.

69 is impressive considering that he essentially bogied the four par-5s by not parring one, as Sean Martin highlights in his five observations from the Farmers.

1.) Woods hit just 5 of 14 fairways on Thursday. Obviously, not a good performance off the tee. However, there’s a couple reasons that number is not as bad as it first seems.

The fairways on the North course are extremely narrow. We’re talking U.S. Open width. Also, Woods wasn’t hesitant to use driver on the narrow fairways. He pulled it out on Nos. 15 and 16 consecutive par-4s under 400 yards. He also nearly drove the par-4 second hole. His ball ended up in the rough, but it was in a good position, setting up an easy birdie.

Robert Lusetich was the round's lone dissenter, suggesting that if Tiger's goal "was to bury ghosts and quickly set a fresh tone for the new year," he "failed." Especially from 100 yards and in.

Although his long game has improved greatly under the tutelage of new coach Sean Foley, it’s noticeable just how uncertain and tentative Woods is from inside 100 yards.

Maybe that’s the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place — and maybe it’ll only come once Woods has real confidence in what he’s doing — but the harsh reality is that it’s hard to score on a course like the North without hitting wedges close to the hole.

Even though Woods missed only three greens — and made no bogeys — the truth is that he had very few realistic chances at birdies.

“I kept leaving himself above the hole,” he later bemoaned.

Narrow Thinking At Torrey North

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I don't think the fairways have been narrowed the on the North Course at Torrey Pines, but the rough is way up thanks to our rain/heat weather combo in the last few weeks coupled with the Tour's decision to keep the rough higher on the North to help offset what is an otherwise pushover for the players. Tiger after round one today:
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Why Are The Waves Near Torrey Pines Fluorescent Yellow?

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I figured my eyes and my television were deceiving me during today's Farmers Insurance Open first round telecast from Torrey Pines when the white foamy waves appeared to have been touched up with a yellow highlighter. Then reader Josh emailed and noticed the same thing, wondering if this was caused by camera filters to beef up the green grass? Anyone know?

Because I drove by those waves several times and I'm pretty sure this is not caused by the general public whizzing in the water. Anyway, it's less prevalent in these photos as it appeared live, but you'll get the drift.

 

"Golf Channel Tournament Ratings Setting High Marks"

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This post is a waste of your time because as Michael Buteau explained in a Bloomberg story today, the PGA Tour doesn't "depend on" ratings for its business model to work.

Golf Channel Tournament Ratings Setting High Marks
 
PGA TOUR Telecasts up 33% After First Three Tournaments of 2011
 
 
ORLANDO, Fla. (Jan. 27, 2011) – Record-setting tournament ratings have highlighted the start of the new year for Golf Channel, marked by the highest PGA TOUR season opener ever on the network and double digit increases for entire events.
 
After posting an impressive 38 percent event increase year over year for the PGA TOUR season kick-off event, Hyundai Tournament of Champions, and continued increases for the Sony Open in Hawaii, Golf Channel recorded its largest gain with a 60 percent increase in ratings for the Bob Hope Classic.
 
To date, combined ratings for the first three events of the 2011 PGA TOUR season represent a 33 percent gain over last year.
 
The first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions represented a 37 percent ratings increase from the same round in 2010, with the tournament average for all five rounds (0.6 household rating/593,000 average total viewers) the best since 2008.  Sunday’s final round of the Bob Hope Classic (0.6/652,000 average total viewers) was the event’s best final round since 2007 that was opposite stiff competition from the NFL playoffs.
 
“We’ve worked extremely hard to improve our tournament telecasts and we’re extremely excited the PGA TOUR on our air is off to a great start,” said Tom Stathakes, Golf Channel senior vice president of programming, production and operations.  “We’re getting better every day, and that will always be our mantra.  Things are looking promising for a great year ahead.”

Nantz, Johnny Win In Popularity Poll Landslides

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Golfweek's informal online poll on golf telecasts is up and the closest race was for Best Announcer In An "Hmmm, that's interesting" Performance.

Which analyst is most likely to make you think, "Hmmm, that's interesting"?

Paul Azinger, ESPN   12.2%
Curt Byrum, Golf Channel   2.3%
Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel   24.4%
Nick Faldo, CBS/Golf Channel   27.5%
Johnny Miller, NBC 33.5%

Of course Johnny won by an even bigger margin in the "remote throw" division.

But even better, fans want to see more shots. Another landslide.

What reason is most likely to make you turn off the TV?

Coverage focused too much on Tiger Woods   28.6%
Don’t see enough golf shots   45.7%
Find the commentators annoying   19.1%
Prefer watching sports other than golf   6.6%

“If you ask people who really know the rules and understand the ramifications they understand why the R&A and USGA don’t want to change it."

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Rex Hoggard helps us hone in on what will be the dilemma in modifying any rule related to scorecard DQ's. Talking to the USGA's Mike Davis, he writes:

Davis’ answer to the Tour was the same then that it is now – you can’t get there from here. At least not without opening a Pandora’s Box of unforeseen, and seen, problems.

“The whole reason the (Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which governs the game everywhere else in the world) and USGA have rejected it is there are too many ramifications if you do that,” Davis said.

“If you gave Camilo a four-stroke penalty (instead of an early exit) the problem with that is you may all of a sudden mess up a cut. It could be the U.S. Amateur and you just played 36 holes of stroke play and your entire bracket (for match play) could get messed up. It would be illogical to make a change.”