When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Arlette Saenz on Ohio Governor John Kasich's jab at Vice President Joe Biden during the GOP convention, which I read about on Twitter and figured was said in classic golfer-to-golfer trash talk after the team of Kasich-Biden reportedly lost to Obama-Boehner. But the video is a bit creepy. He really is angry about Joe's game!
“Folks, let me tell you this – Joe Biden disputes a lot of those facts, but Joe Biden told me that he was a good golfer. And I’ve played golf with Joe Biden, I can tell you that’s not true, as well as all of the other things that he says,” Kasich said Tuesday at the Republican convention.
Rachel Weinter and Paul Kane note that Kasich's remarks also broke the agreed-upon parameters of last summer's golf summit inspired by Golf Digest and carried out with class by all parties. Until now.
Still, Kasich’s comments appear to have broken the code of last year’s golf summit, for which all sides agreed not to discuss what happened on the course other than to say that the Obama-Biden team won its $2 bet. When Obama gave a joint address to Congress three months later, Boehner and Biden were caught on a live mic before the speech discussing the speaker’s sub-par round of golf during the August recess at a resort course in Nebraska.
The video:
Tim Rosaforte fills us in on the text from Greg Norman after the former Presidents Cup Captain survived a harrowing private jet malfunction en route to Geneva Airport. He was heading there for the Omega European Masters.
Anyway, the Shark is fine, a good time wasn't had by all and he's not about to be seen flying commercial anytime soon.
The, eh-em, charity event that is the Tavistock Cup will include two more teams helicoptering in and depriving some PGA Tour event of entrants in 2013, reports Jason Sobel, who is undoubtedly working the phones knowing how badly we are dying to find out which rich guy's club will be supplying tour pros in ugly uniforms.
More importantly, what uniforms will the media wear now that there are more teams?
Nice catch by the GolfChannel.com team.
And what are those shorts made out of?
Nice catch by Jonathan Wall. And nice focus by "On The Range" correspondent Alex Miceli to be so locked in as to be oblivious to the background activity.
The real gift of this video was the Bentley the bulldog puppy video that flashed up after Miceli. Much more cuddly and funny.
**Golf Channel posted a clean copy of the segment:
It wasn't that long ago that Captain Davis Love appeared to have a wealth of attractive options for his four Ryder Cup Captain's picks, but as Doug Ferguson lays out, Love now faces a tough decision made tougher by Nick Watney's win Sunday.
Working on the premise that Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk are locks and leaving two more picks, Ferguson writes:
Watney was enduring a lost season until winning The Barclays. That doesn't make him a frontrunner, but he is a big blip on the radar at the very least. Brandt Snedeker already was under consideration - a winner at Torrey Pines, a contender at the British Open and a guy who can putt. He showed that at The Barclays, making a 15-footer for par on the 17th and a birdie putt from about that length on the 18th to finish alone in second.
Dustin Johnson, who has won every year since his rookie season in 2008, tied for third at Barclays. His sheer power and talent is difficult to ignore. Fowler showed up on the leaderboard until Saturday, when Bethpage Black became Bethpage Brown and sent scores soaring. Not to be forgotten is Hunter Mahan, who was poised to make the team on his own until he finished toward the bottom of the pack at Firestone and missed the cut at the PGA Championship and the Barclays.
The list can get even longer depending on the Deutsche Bank Championship, especially if Bo Van Pelt or someone like Bill Haas were to win.
No one will be under greater pressure than Mahan. He won twice this year, but has only one top 10 over the last five months. And he is the opposite of Furyk, who has qualified for every team. Mahan has been a captain's pick twice for the Presidents Cup, once for the Ryder Cup.
No love for Rickie?
I'd go with who is playing (and putting) well, meaning Watney and Snedeker. You?
How many times have we heard announcers say a player has to hole out from the fairway to have any hope of winning only to be disappointed. Not on the Canadian Tour, as Jay Busbee explains Eugene Wong's final hole eagle from the fairway to win the 2012 Canadian Tour Championship by a shot over Joe Panzeri.
It was caught on video and posted by PGATour.com.
An unbylined Telgraph story on nearly unrecognizable (he shaved!) Jose Maria Olazabal announcing captain's picks Nicolas Colsaerts and Ian Poulter.
As protocol demands, Captain Ollie made the tough phone calls Sunday night, none tougher than the one to old sparring buddy Padraig Harrington.
"It's never an easy decision," he said. "Obviously there's a few more players in the mix every time. I talked to the vice-captains quite a bit regarding the picks. We studied different possibilities. We had a few discussions regarding that. The last time we talked was on Friday this week.
"It's not an easy moment. They are all disappointed. I know they really wanted to be in the team. I talked to the next four or five guys on the list – I talked to David [Lynn], to Rafa [Cabrera Bello], Alvaro [Quiros] and Padraig [Harrington]. I made those phone calls. It's not easy. I've been in that equation. They took the news well. That's the way it is."
While he's the only rookie, Bob Harig explains how the long-off-the-tee Colsaerts should have little problem with Medinah's length. And Alistair Tait says this was a long time coming for Colsaerts, a former party animal.
A Guardian slideshow of the 12 players. Besides Colsaerts and Poulter, the others: Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Paul Lawrie, Graeme McDowell, Francesco Molinari, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Peter Hanson and Martin Kaymer.
Olazabal also talked about the state of Kaymer's game.
Check out David Ebner's excellent Globe and Mail game story, courtesy of reader Matthew, covering U.S. Women's Amateur Champion and 15-year-old Lydia Ko's historic win in the CN Canadian Women's Open.
The victory makes Ko the youngest LPGA Tour winner...ever.
Ebner's lede:
As she walked to the 13th tee box, as 15-year-old amateur Lydia Ko pulled away from a star-studded field of professional women golfers like a Ferrari firing away from Fords, her mother Tina handed her a Ziploc bag of cherry tomatoes.
Ko proceeded to crank yet another long and straight drive off the box and then, walking up 13, snacked, offered some to her playing partners, and waved to her math teacher and his wife, in the gallery, visiting from her home back in New Zealand. Ko, earlier in the round, popping some grapes, said to her caddy that she likes to eat during a round of golf, as an empty stomach, for her, can be prey to butterflies.
In what is without doubt the golf story of the year – and one of the great sporting victories in recent memory – the kid betrayed no nerves at all as she booked a fantastic, historic and resoundingly decisive victory in a national championship halfway around the world from her home in Auckland.
He goes on from there and it makes for a fun read of an impressive victory.
LPGA correspondent Beth Ann Baldry for Golfweek:
Lydia Ko went on Golf Channel after her historic victory and said she’d like to have the winner’s check so could buy a dog and give money to the poor. And she said it in that darling New Zealand accent. Could she be more impressive?
Her new nickname should be “Knockout.” As in, Ladies of the LPGA, you’ve just been KO’d.
Ko won the New South Wales Open in January when she was 14. Here was the post from back then and a game story link by Patrick McKendry provided by Colin.
Randall Mell on the historic nature of the victory as well as Ko's matter-of-fact answers.
With the FedEx Cup playoffs off to a start this weekend, World Golf Hall of Fame officials weren’t calling PGA Tour officials at Bethpage Black Sunday for mementos to put on display. Instead, they were calling Vancouver Golf Club. They were looking for some keepsake from Ko to commemorate the victory in one of their exhibits.
Ko stole the show in golf Sunday. She is so young she can’t say watching Tiger Woods win the Masters in a rout in 1997 inspired her. She was born 11 days after Woods won.
Asked if she wore “power” red Sunday to emulate Woods, Ko shook her head no.
“It’s just another color,” she said.
Brian Alexander picked up Ko’s bag for the week to have some fun. A senior champion as a member at Vancouver Golf Club, Alexander volunteered when Ko needed somebody to tote her bag. He’s a 63-year-old real-estate developer.
John Strege on the event overshadowing the "playoffs" and the many reactions from the LPGA community, including her "older" competitors.
"This is making me feel old," Jiyai Shin, one of those in pursuit at the outset of the final round, told the Golf Channel in the midst of Ko's back-nine assault that included four consecutive birdies and five in a six-hole stretch.
Shin, it should be noted, is 24.
Greg Stutchbury of Reuters talks to New Zealand Golf chief executive Dean Murphy who says Ko's win was easily the biggest day for women's golf in that country.
LPGA notes from the historic day center mostly around Ko and include the transcript of her final round interview.
A few of the key facts:
Becomes the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history, eclipsing the previous mark set by Lexi Thompson, who was 16 years, 8 months, 8 days when she won the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic
Youngest winners in LPGA Tour history
Lydia Ko, 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open (72-hole event) at 15 years, 4 months, 2 days
Lexi Thompson, 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic (72-hole event) at 16 years, 8 months, 8 days
Marlene Hagge, 1952 Sarasota Open (18-hole event) at 18 years, 14 days
Marlene Hagge, 1952 Bakersfield Open (18-hole event) at 18 years, 2 months, 15 days
Paula Creamer, 2005 Sybase Classic presented by Lincoln Mercury (72-hole event) at 18 years, 9 month, 17 days
Morgan Pressel, 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship (72-hole event) at 18 years, 10 months, 9 days
Paula Creamer, 2005 Evian Masters (72-hole event), 18 years, 11 months, 18 days
Becomes the fifth amateur in LPGA Tour history to win an official event and the first in more than 40 years
Amateurs to win an LPGA event
Lydia Ko, 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open
JoAnne Carner, 1969 Burdine’s Invitational
Catherine LaCoste, 1967 U.S. Women’s Open Pat O’Sullivan, 1951 Titleholders Championship
Polly Riley, 1950 Tampa Open
Golf Channel's recap of the win with fellow New Zealander Frank Nobilo's analysis:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
