PGA Tour: Badass Sawgrass on Tap

Kevin is fired up over this weekend’s golf action, and try to make time to watch a little. This course seriously rocks, and is prominently featured in EA Sports Tiger Woods series.

As always, check him out at PGA 365, where he can break it all down for Yahoo!’s fantasy golfers, tier by tier:

Dubbed the “5th Major,” the Players Championship should easily be one of everyone’s favorite tournaments.  The TPC at Sawgrass is a badass course, and the fact that this is arguably the best field of the year (along with the PGA Championship) makes this weekend one of the best for golf spectators.  Even without Tiger Woods, this should still end up being a fantastic tournament.  Who’s going to win this thing?  I seriously have no idea.  This is one of those tournaments that, to me, are just impossible to pick.  You can make many cases for as well as against a huge number of top players.  In my opinion this really is a crap shoot.  I’ll try to make some sense out of my picks.  Continue below!

Tier 3 - I’m starting Jose Maria Olazabal this year over my other pick, Luke Donald.  Olazabal has played well here in the past two years and I just like him in general.  When the going gets tough (a-la Augusta), Olazabal is not a bad choice.  Donald stands out as the only other decent Tier 3 player.  He’s been streaky this year, coming as close as 2nd at the Honda Classic while missing almost 50% of the cuts this year on the PGA Tour.  Still, it’s hard to overlook his talents, and the point here is to pick the players that will net you the most out of 4 rounds.

Wacky Bank Championship

Trevor Immelman fell apart the week after winning the Masters. I guess his head was not in it. Keven has his stats from the Augusta, however:

* 1st in driving accuracy (48/56 fairways, 85.71%)
* 4th in driving distance (287.50)
* T2 in greens in regulation (51/72 greens, 70.83%)
* T3 in putting (1.56)

That’s pretty much outstanding.  No one was as sharp as Immelman from tee to green, and he
was able to maintain the laser-like focus for the entire 4 rounds.  His only mistake was a double
on the 70th hole, the par 3 16th.  Whether his ball ended up in the drink because of a cross
breeze or because of a mishit, he ended up with a double-bogey and still won by 3 strokes.  His
drives were well-placed, his approach shots were never far from the pin, his pitching was
incredible and he seemed to be making almost every putt.  He was able to put himself in perfect
spots and as a result he only had 2 3-putts for the entire round.  Immelman became the first
South African to win the Masters since Gary Player in 1978, exactly 30 years ago.

This week the PGA features Wacky Bank’s (WB-NYSE) Tourney. The best nickname for a symbol on the Big Board, hands down.

Good visit Kevin at PGA 365 for more golf action.

The Wachovia Championship has quickly become a premiere event on the PGA Tour. Played at Quail Hollow Golf Club, the tournament has boasted some top-notch winners since inception including Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, and Vijay Singh. Even with Tiger out of commission for some time, the tournament will be stacked with talent including Adam Scott, last week’s winner of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Also in the mix will be Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy and Sergio Garcia. Consider this tournament the warm-up event for next week’s monster Players Championship.

After a ho-hum performance at The Masters, look for Phil to be rested and sharp this week. His T-5 finish at Augusta was respectable and typical of Phil (in the sense that he had another great Masters overall) but a 75 in the 3rd round took him out of contention on Sunday. Mickelson, who was the winner of the Player’s Championship last year, generally plays well for the entire first part of the season up to this point, and then starts a “decline” if you will. That’s not to say he won’t or can’t win again in 2008, but historically a large amount of his best finishes and wins come in the first part of the season. I’m going to also stick with Adam Scott for a 2nd Tier 1 pick. He really is on the verge of greatness, but won in a weak field last week. Scott has also won the Players Championship before as well so he’ll be working hard to shoot low this week in preparation. When he’s on, he’s on…if he can hit the ball long and straight off the tee and attach pins as well as he did last week, he should have a good showing. What about Singh and Furyk, you say? Well, no one can deny their talents (and past wins here!) but I just don’t have the faith in them at this point. Remember the Big 5? Right now it’s really the Big 2 - Mickelson and Woods have pretty much established that they’re consistently the top two players in the world, but everything that comes after them just seems to be a big revolving door of players, with Furyk and Singh slipping to 8 and 9 (respectively) in the official world rankings.

Tier 2 contains an interesting mix of characters. First on my list is Stewart Cink. You know the deal with Cink - he’ll play 4 good rounds, maybe even have a great round, but he won’t win. Cink has had an awesome year with 3 top-3 finishes and only 1 missed cut. I’m sticking with Ian Poulter this week as well, with no real reason why…just a hunch. He’ll need to keep his wits about him but I like his style of play and I think it fits this course well. Anthony Kim and Stephen Ames are solid replacement choices for Cink and Poulter.

Trevor Immelman is back again this week after a horrendous post-Masters showing, shooting double-digits over par and missing the cut. He’s out. Luke Donald, he’s in. He is such a solid pick from this group week in and week out, and I’m not quite sure why he’s Tier 3 because he should be Tier 1. Luke has played well this year and out of the large group of Tier 3 players this week he clearly stands out as a solid choice. I’m also going to go with Jose Maria Olazabal. I just like this guy. I think he can get a couple of solid rounds in and he makes sense as a back-up to Donald and vice-versa should either one start to stray off. 

PGA Tour Hits TPC Las Colinas

Kevin hit a real duckhook in handicapping the Master’s. Of course, I hit a big slice with my pick. Although I call it the power fade.

Who saw that coming?

Visit Kevin at PGA 365, golf season is upon us.

This week’s tournament, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, will be held at the TPC Las Colinas. The TPC course is one of the courses that make up the Four Seasons Resort and as such, I have no idea what this layout is like. There should be some interesting golf going on at this tournament, though. Last week Boo Weekley successfully defended his title at the Verizon Heritage, which was nice to see. He appeared to be very confident all week long and had no problem hitting shot after quality shot.

There aren’t really many players left to chose in the Tier 3 section generally, but two of them are obvious choices - Luke Donald and Trevor Immelman. Donald was the runner-up last year and has an excellent track record at this event. As the Masters champion, Immelman has the game to contend, but beware - he still may be on Cloud 9 after being fitted for a green jacket and his head might not be in the game. That being said, I think Immelman is more determined to become a better player and if he hits the ball anywhere close to the way he was at Augusta then he should have no problems here at this venue.

Say Hey, America

#42

Rachel Robinson walked past cheering construction workers and into the Jackie Robinson Rotunda for the first time, stood on a balcony above the 160-foot wide floor and was awed as she gazed at the 70-foot high arches.

“It’s like walking into a cathedral in a way,’’ she said. “I love St. Peter’s in Rome, but I don’t know if I can compare this to St. Peter’s.’’

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first time on April 15, 1947. His number was retired for all major league teams during ceremonies at Shea Stadium attended by President Clinton on the 50th anniversary. Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera is the only player remaining from then who still wears No. 42 throughout the season.....The Robinson Rotunda will have those values engraved into its floor and etched into its archways: “Courage. Excellence. Persistence. Justice. Teamwork. Commitment. Citizenship. Determination. Integrity.’’

Robinson’s legacy set in stone at Citi Field
Sports Illustrated

Sand Wedge Off The Green

Brandt Snedeker gets creative with his sand wedge. Folks, don’t try this at home (course).

All Eyes On Augusta

Kevin has his Master’s picks...are you ready for the biggest four days in Golf?

If you have DIRECTV don’t forget they will be featuring extended coverage on channel 701 and 706. Kevin has the full rundown on DIRECTV at his site:

PGA 365

You can argue that other majors may have better fields, but The Masters is the most prestigious tournament one could hope to win. The history and tradition of this event are like none other in the sport of golf, and perhaps even in all of sports. The Masters is the only major played at the same venue, Augusta National Club Club, every year. Because of changes that have taken place in recent years, Augusta has been lengthened considerably, but as we know from watching Zach Johnson last year, even short hitters can win on this course. This is where the beauty of Augusta really shines - a player who is unfamiliar with the course may be deadly accurate off the tee and place his shots strategically to set up the best approach shot, but the player who has played at Augusta many times will know where exactly to leave the ball on the green for the best opportunity to make putts. You need to play this place as often as possible to learn all the subtleties of the grounds.

With 4 green jackets in his closet, Tiger Woods is the only other player along with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer to have at least 4 (only Nicklaus has more than 4, with 6). Much noise has been made of Tiger Woods saying that he thinks that winning all 4 majors was possible this year. If there is anyone that can do it, it’s him. No other player has been dominating the sport more than Woods, and his overall record since winning the Open Championship in 2006 is amazing. Tiger Woods has the best chance of winning this tournament. Since 2005, he has won the tournament and finished T3 and T2. You know his game will be sharp, and even if it isn’t there is no other golfer with the skill to beat the rest of the field even with a bad round thrown into the 4-round mix. Equally impressive is Phil Mickelson’s record here. Since 2001 has finished 3, 3, 3, 1, 10, 1, at T24, with both of his wins coming in even-numbered years, which this happens to be. In order for Phil to win this tournament he will NEED to be precise and make the many key short putts he has a tendency of not capitalizing on. His incredible short game will always be his best tool at Augusta. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, to me, represent the two best players capable of winning this year.

Stewart Cink and Angel Cabrera are my best 2nd Tier picks. Cink has had a great year but closing out tournaments hasn’t been his strong suit this year. He’s a great putter and tends to have a couple of good rounds each here at Augusta. Don’t look for Cink to win, however.  The reigning US Open champion, Angel Cabrera, should also have a good outing here. He has a decent track record at Augusta with his best finish coming in 2006 with a tie for 8th.

My last two picks always shine at this tournament - Jose Maria Olazabal and Fred Couples. Olazabal, a 2-time champion, has been playing at Augusta since 1984 and has tons of experience here. He finished T3 as late as 2006, and played well last week despite some health issues. Couples, also a former champion, has never missed a cut at this tournament and finished T3 along with Olazabal in 2006. He played excellently at last week’s Shell Houston Open and I think he has had some decent success in fending off any back problems. Augusta is Freddy’s favorite place to play, so he’ll be ready to go.

BONUS!!! - My bonus picks are going to be Geoff Ogilvy and Justin Leonard. To be honest, these guys are good enough to replace anyone else in this post that isn’t named Woods or Mickelson. Ogilvy has been playing excellently in the past month and is arguably the hottest player on tour right now (excluding Tiger Woods). With his athletic swing, he can hit high draws and little fades which are perfect for Augusta, and he is a great putter. Justin Leonard has had an excellent year and as a former Open Champion I can see him being able to navigate this course well this week.

Bubba Can Bomb the Ball

Tiger got in a practice round at Augusta this week...can you smell the Masters yet? I can’t wait.

Kevin is back with this weeks edition from PGA 365

First off, congrats to Andres Romero for piecing together a great final round at the Zurich Classic last week in New Orleans. Romero was the clubhouse leader for 3 hours before the end of the round.  His final round score ended up being enough to keep Peter Leonard at Bay. It’s not often we see a tournament decided that early in the final round but it made for some interesting golf as the final groups shuffled through. If you can recall, Romero almost had the Open Championship in his grasp when he hacked a long iron out of some tall meadow grass and went OB, paving the way for Padraig Harrington to capture his first major.

This week’s Shell Houston Open at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, TX is, for some strange reason, one of my favorite tournaments. The field isn’t necessarily the greatest, but with it being a week before the Master’s you can bet there is going to be some stiff competition and the field is loaded with talent. The winner of this tournament automatically gets entered into the Masters, even if they don’t qualify in any other capacity.

The last two winners of this tournament have been Aussies - Adam Scott in 2007 and Stuart Appleby in 2006. Adam Scott has been playing well lately and I think he should do well here considering the fact that in last year’s tournament he came in playing poorly but managed to win. Appleby has dominated this tournament with a runner-up finish last year in addition to his win in 2006, but this week I’m going to opt for having Padraig Harrington to shine. Harrington has said that he is devoting more time in preparing for majors and with the Masters right around the corner you can bet that Harrington is going to do his best to validate that Open Championship win with another major. I’m leaving Phil Mickelson out of this contest and saving a start for next week…Phil has an awesome record at Augusta but I believe he’s unfamiliar with this layout, so save him for next week.

This course is set up for long hitters, so next in line is Bubba Watson. As you know Bubba can bomb the ball, but he’ll need to be able to putt well to post some good scores. If the rough is manageable this year, look for Bubba to be able to hack it out with some success. Keep your eyes open for Justin Leonard, who is a Dallas native and has had a great 2008 thus far.

Last but certainly not least is Andres Romero, who said he will be devoting more time to play on the PGA tour in the following years. At this point in time I consider him just as good as Sergio Garcia…both were contenders at the Open Championship last year but Romero just tacked on a win last week and Sergio hasn’t won a tournament anywhere in the world since 2005, thanks mostly to a streaky putter. And then of course there’s Fred Couples…Fred won this tournament in 2003 and he seems to peak each year around this time…remember that in 2006 he was in the final pairing with Phil when he (Phil) captured his 2nd green jacket. Boom Boom can still play, that’s for sure…hopefully he’ll keep his back in check and get a great round in before going to Augusta.

BTW, if you have DIRECTV, you are in luck, given the extended Master’s coverage. Check it out after the jump....

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