Rush to Get Ready

Well, I'm in that mad dash to get everything packed up and the house all in order before I head off for Akron on Monday. I haven't been watching much golf and probably won't see that much this weekend. I haven't even seen much tennis this week. In fact, the last two days I've been watching QVC. I'm in a shopping mood lately and unfortunately, I've put myself on a credit card ban until after the trip so I'm seeing all this neat stuff and not buying anything. A preliminary weather forecast from the NOAA suggests that it will be in the low 80s in the Akron/Cleveland area next week with a 30% chance of rain on Friday. So, maybe it will be a good weather week for attending the tournament.

If Only I Had Known

If only I'd known that all it took to get a man's attention was a cool-looking car, I wouldn't have put myself through 6 months of dieting and working out to lose all that weight. Twice now, men have made a point of looking at my new car. Tonight, the neighbor said it was beautiful :)

The down side to this is that both men are old. Not my age at all. One was a teacher when I was something like 12 years old. It's really creepy to get a look from him. And I know he didn't know who I was because he was never my teacher. He just had the classroom next to the one I was always in.

Not that I want a man's attention, that is. I've grown out of that and much prefer living on my own. But 10 years ago, this would have been very valuable information.

Harrington Wins the British Open

Hopefully this win today puts to rest the media's notion that Sergio lost last year's tournament rather than Harrington winning it. It seemed like that was how the media saw last year's Open with the way they were constantly showing Sergio's missed putt on the 72nd hole. Today's win should validate that Harrington is the Open Champion, now for two straight years.

As for the final round and some observations: Ian Poulter made a charge, if you can call a 1 under par round a charge, and finished in second place. I was a bit disappointed in his final round outfit though. Despite the pink pants, it was a bit tame. I guess he was showing his respect for the oldest major. Part way through the final round this morning I started thinking that it might be cool if Chris Wood, the amateur, would win. He was also moving up the leaderboard and finished very well. In the top 5 or 6 I think. The announcers kept criticizing Greg Norman's aggressive playing style. Let's see, Tom Watson missed the cut and I don't think Paul Azinger played at all this week. Yeah, they know better than Greg, the 54 hole leader.

Speaking of the announcers: Every so often they would start the whole "If Tiger was here..." and "Tiger's watching back home and just wishing he was here...". First, I want confirmation that he really was sitting at home and watching the British Open. Somehow I doubt he would be doing that. Second, what makes them think Tiger could have done any better than anyone else at the tournament? I don't think they have any other event to compare this to so they don't have any concrete fact or performance to refer to (especially when the announcers/players kept talking about the weather conditions being the worst ever). Third, the announcers said "there would be no * beside Harrington's name" Of course there wouldn't be because Tiger was there with every breath the announcers took. The announcers didn't leave him out of it at all and even once slipped and referred to Chris Wood as "Woods". Harrington may not have played against Tiger today, but we viewers were subjected to Tiger talk. Fourth, there's no reason to put the * beside Harrington's name because he beat Tiger last year and there's no reason to expect that he couldn't do it again.

I'm also getting very sick of all the Anthony Kim talk. It's almost as bad as the Tiger talk. I've come up with a conspiracy theory surrounding the media's obsession with Anthony Kim. Here it is, keep in mind it's a theory and not based on any fact: Nike feels like it's missing out with Tiger sidelined so they are paying the media extra money to mention Kim and feature him on TV as much as possible so Nike can get more advertising and possibly build Kim up so he can someday be a big cash cow for them like Tiger is.

One last opinion regarding the media. ABC/ESPN should not have done so many close up shots of Chris Evert. She looks younger the farther away from the face the camera is. That wasn't very flattering of them.

Final thought: As I said before, I don't want to hear anything about Sergio's putting after what I witnessed these last few days with all the other players missing all of those short putts. Sergio's putting is not why he didn't win. According to the stats, Sergio missed a lot of greens in reg and a lot of fairways. His putting wasn't too bad. His average was 30.5 and the field average was 30.28. By comparison, Anthony Kim's average was 33 putts per round. I picked Kim because Azinger said he was maybe second to last in the putting stats this week.

Fed Ex Update

No, not the Fed Ex Cup. The Fed Ex Delivery service. A Fed Ex driver found my house today. And he meant to. I got home this morning from shopping and found a package next to where I park my car. The address was mine, but the name and the package weren't. I don't blame the Fed Ex driver for this because he was looking for that address and found it. But it's still a hassle. There's a phone number on the package shipping label and I did a reverse look-up on it to see if I could find an address for the person the package belongs to. I found an address but Mom and I don't know right where it is. Mom lives on the same road as the package owner but she is about 60 box numbers away. Anyway, I'm taking the package to Mom's tomorrow and she can call the number and have the people come to her house to get it. Her house is easier to find and since she and dad are retired, it's more likely that when these people want to pick up the package, someone will be at the house to give it to them.

Of course, the next time I have something shipped Fed Ex to my address, it will end up a couple of miles away. I don't trust that the Fed Ex people have this sorted out for good.

Take Two

Michelle Wie is still one shot back at the State Farm. She was tied for the lead on the last hole today and made a bogey to fall one behind. What would be bigger news tomorrow: Michelle Wie wins or Greg Norman Wins?

Update: The post above was written at 3:09 pm. Now at 4:22 pm I heard on the the Golf Channel that Michelle Wie has been disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard on Friday. So, I guess the big news would be Greg Norman winning tomorrow.

Deja Vu??

Greg Norman has a two shot lead going into the final round of the British Open. While others may spend a considerable amount of time talking about his good play this week, there's only one thing on my mind: Will we see another classic Norman collapse tomorrow? Others who have a chance include KJ Choi, Padraig Harrington and Simon Wakefield. I would name others but I can't remember much of the leaderboard. My hope is that Sergio and Ross Fisher both get top 5 finishes at least.

Good line: from Rick Reilly (loosely quoted) "It's like Greg took an 11 year break waiting for Tiger to take a week off."

One other comment: No one should be criticizing Sergio's putting this week after all the squirrelly putts I saw today.

Ian Poulter

Ian Poulter Design
Clothes Website. Nice web design. The pink pops and looks good against the blue sky. He also has gift items like umbrellas, bags, towels etc.

Ian's MySpace Profile
I don't do the MySpace thing. Maybe it's because I have dial up access and it takes forever to load. Or maybe it's because it's yet another thing that requires a password and I'm just too lazy to join another club, website, forum etc. I did find out that he doesn't watch movies, tv or read books. I guess fashion might be his passion and he might spend spare time on his clothing designs? He says he spends a lot of time with his family which is good. And he listed his hero as "Seve". I wonder if there's an article out there on the web that might expand on that. I'd like to know why he picked Seve.

British Open News Update

I found this news wrap-up that mentions the death of Scott Verplank's sister in law, John Daly's troubles, Tom Watson's comentating for ABC, Colin Montomerie, Rocco Mediate, and Jack Nicklaus and the Olympics.

LPGA Update

Michelle Wie is tied for second after the second round of the State Farm Classic. She is just one shot off the lead held by Christina Kim.

Wonder if anyone's talking about her this week.

British Open Day 2

When I left my car this morning to go into the office, the buzz was about Camilo Villegas' 65 (finishing with 5 straight birdies). When I got into my car this evening, the buzz was about KJ Choi. Apparently it was a better scoring day over at Royal Birkdale. Even Jerry Kelly was under 80 on his round.

Here are some scores:

KJ Choi -1 (67)
Greg Norman E
Camilo Villegas +1 (65)
Rocco Mediate +2
Graeme McDowell +2 - my pre-tournament fave
David Duval +2 (69)
Padraig Harrington +2 (68)
Scott Verplank +4 (67)
Sergio Garcia +5
Chris Wood (am) +5
Ross Fisher +6 (tied 27) - my pre-tournament fave
Justin Rose +6
Thomas Sherreard (am) +6 (69)
Anders Hansen - round of 68
Ben Curtis - round of 69
Phil Mickelson - round of 68
Pablo Larrazabal Tied for 69

Miguel Angel Jimenez MC - my pre-tournament fave
Pat Perez MC but shot a 68
Angel Cabrera MC

I think now's the time when people should start looking at who might actually win the tournament. Talking about who might win after round one isn't that great of an idea because those who play in the morning on day one get the afternoon start on day two and vice versa. So after two rounds everyone's had relatively the same opportunity, extreme weather conditions excluded. I'm excited to see how David Duval, Graeme McDowell and Rocco Mediate fare for the rest of the weekend. Not too excited about Greg Norman - It's that whole new wife thing. I am also interested in how Pablo Larrazabal does. If I can't see Olazabal, then I want to see Larrazabal :) If Sergio doesn't win, then I hope he's always three or four shots out of the lead. I don't want the 'analysts' criticizing him about another lost opportunity. No one can win everytime the 'analysts' want them to. Not even Tiger who lost to YE Yang in I think late 2006 at the HSBC Champions though it counted in 2007.

Criticism: The clothing manufacturers need to design more fashionable raingear. On the way home, the guys on PGA Tour network on XM radio were talking about Ian Poulter's pants. Unfortunately, when I see him now on tv, he's wearing rainpants and I can't see his fashionable clothes. I need to see if he's got a website and if his clothes are on there. Everyone's raingear is basically black with some splash of neon colors. That's a bit boring. Ooh, update: I just saw Ian's colorful pants :)

Not Watching the Live From Show

I'm not watching the golf channel tonight. I figure they will spend the whole time either complaining about the course or sucking up to Anthony Kim, or both. My take on the high scores: there's four rounds in this tournament the last time I checked. Not one. There's time for players to get comfortable with the course and the conditions and move up. Instead of the golf channel, there's a cool show about VTOL aircraft on the Military channel that I can watch.

Stray Thought: I saw a little blurb on the web that suggested TV ratings were going to be lower because Tiger Woods isn't playing this week. Well, what do you expect when every single announcer has to say a minimum of 5 times on each broadcast "Tiger's not here this week." They are practically telling the viewers to go watch Regis and Kelly or Days of Our Lives.

They've been showing the Lexus commercial with Annika Sorenstam, Charles Howell III, Ray Floyd and Chi Chi Rodriguez. My question: Does Ray Floyd drive cars? He's got a driver but the others drive their own vehicles. Ever since I bought my new car, I have been watching every car commercial out there, looking at every print ad. And scanning every vehicle I see while I'm out and about to see if they have XM radio or Sirius.

British Open Round 1

Comments:

Wonder what all those people who picked Ernie Els to win are thinking right now? He shot 80 today. And I really don't know what they were thinking. He hasn't had any really good results coming in to this event. They would have done better to pick Tom Watson. He's only +4.

Sandy Lyle walked off the course after 10 holes. He was +11 and allegedly claimed the course was too tough. Too bad he didn't just not tee it up altogether. At least then maybe an alternate could have gotten into the field.

Jerry Kelly apparently complained a bunch about the course set-up after shooting a round of 13 over par. My response to that: There's about 150 other players who didn't find it as tough as Kelly. So I don't think it's the course's fault. I mean really, Greg Norman, a man who doesn't play anymore is Even par after the first round. Tom Watson, old in golf age, is only +4. And the real killer: John Daly shot +10 today.

If anyone saw yesterday's posts about who I would pick if I were making picks, you saw the names Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Graeme McDowell. How well did they do today? Graeme McDowell is tied for the lead at 1 under par. Ross Fisher and Miguel Angel Jimenez are only three shots back at +2. I'm not saying I'm picking any of them to win. But it's good to see their good play continue this week.

Other players:

Rocco Mediate -1
Robert Allenby -1
Bart Bryant Even
Sergio Garcia +2
David Duval +3
Jean Van de Velde +3
Justin Rose +4
Padraig Harrington +4
Pable Larrazabal +5
Sean O-Hair +5
Chris Wood (am) +5
Angel Cabrera +7

Check out the full leaderboard by clicking here.

Oh Good Grief

They just said on the Live From that coming up they would look at the world's highest ranked players to never have won a major and they are adding Anthony Kim to that list. That is so absurd. To even think of lumping Kim in the same group with Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Stewart Cink and Steve Stricker is ridiculous. Kim hasn't been on tour long enough for anyone to lament his 'missed chances'. He hasn't had any chances yet. You know, people have speculated that the pressure the media puts on guys like Sergio by saying 'best player to have never won a major' plays on the minds of the players. Well, by laying all this at Kim's feet this early, the media could very well bring a premature end to his playing career. Leave the guy alone for a few years. The Golf Channel put Justin Rose in this group and I wouldn't even put him there - and I'm a big fan of his. Justin hasn't peaked yet. And I also think the Golf Channel went down the World Rankings list to the odd number of 13 just so they could include Anthony Kim in the discussion. Why stop at 13? Why not go to 27 or 34 on the list? Other people they could have discussed - Henrik Stenson (17), Luke Donald (21), and of course Kenny Perry (16). Surely they want another chance to criticize Kenny Perry's decision to play in America this week.

And how many times are they going to say "Tiger's not at the Open this week"? We all know that by now. The media need to get over it already. I think they are hurting because now they have to learn facts about all the other players that they've been ignoring for the last 10 years. And they have to actually watch the golf this time around.

Tonight's Live From...

Tonight on the Golf Channel, Brian Hewitt said Justin Rose is a longshot at the British Open this week because his game is more suited for the States. Then, in the same conversation, he said that because Justin hasn't won in the States, despite winning in Europe and Australia, he's an underacheiver. How can Hewitt say Rose's game is more suited for the States when Rose has won events in Europe and Australia? I think this is just an Ameri-centric view that many in the American media have. Nothing is as good as what America has - blah, blah, blah. If you don't win here, then blah, blah, blah.

Seems to me that Rose likes European golf pretty well since he plays so well on the European Tour. Won the Volvo Masters. The Order of Merit title.

Tonight's Golf Central

Tonight they talked about the 17th green at Royal Birkdale and claimed that everyone dislikes it. Well, the only people they interviewed were members of the US PGA Tour. Robert Allenby, Steve Stricker, Scott Verplank and Geoff Ogilvy. Scott Verplank said the green was out of place but he liked it. Since this is a European course, I would be interested in knowing what members of the European PGA Tour have to say about it. Maybe their sentiments wouldn't go along with the Golf Channel's angle so they didn't make it on air. We all know how the media likes to create the news instead of reporting it.

And speaking of the media making news, Golf Central had an opinion poll on whether or not Kenny Perry should have changed his schedule and played at the British Open. The result? 66% said no. Proving once again that the media is out of touch with the viewers since the media for several days have been raking Perry over the coals for his schedule.

And everyone's talking about the odds on who might win this week. I retired from making picks last year, but if I were to make a pick, I'd consider either Ross Fisher, Graeme McDowell or Miguel Angel Jimenez. Those three have been having a very good year and very good rounds very recently. Of course, the winner just might be someone sneaky like a Richard Green who finished T3 at Loch Lomond. And Angel Cabrera had it going at the Scottish Open except for about 9 really bad holes. He might pull it together to make a run this week.

A Jinx on the Horizon

I really wish everyone would stop talking about Sergio's chances at the British Open. They are only going to jinx him. It's a good thing he doesn't read or listen to the press.

I found out today that I'll be able to listen to a little bit of the radio coverage of the British Open this week on my way to work. The PGA Tour radio station on XM radio will be broadcasting starting in the middle of the night (well something like 3am) on Thursday morning.

McDowell and Perry Win

Graeme McDowell won the Scottish Open today, capping off a couple of weeks of solid play. And Kenny Perry won for the third time this year at the John Deere Classic after surviving a three man playoff which saw the other two guys hit their approaches into the water. The other two guys were Brad Adamonis and Jay Williamson.

Scottish Open

Graeme McDowell is once again doing well this week. As is Ross Fisher and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Angel Cabrera had a disastrous back nine to finish up the third round at -2. The interesting thing was, you didn't see him get really angry over his round of 78. You'd think he would have a temper. Maybe he saved that for later.

I really like that course over there. It's very pretty and looks serene.

WV on TV

West Virginia is the site of this week's Nationwide Tour event. Apparently, they are considering this a Players Championship of the Nationwide Tour and the winner's check is supposed to be one of the biggest all year. I don't mind West Virginia being the host of this event as they are playing a Pete Dye course and all. But, our governor doesn't need yet another excuse to be on TV. Among the people I know, there isn't one who thinks of the governor as a humble man. No, they all believe he has the healthiest self-image they've ever seen (that's the politically correct way of saying he thinks a lot of himself).

So, good luck to all the Nationwide Tour players in the field this week. The new trophy looks a lot better than what they used to have - I think it was a hunk of coal someone dug up out of their backyard - just kidding.

* As a native WVian, I reserve the right to make fun of my state :) I did scare my parents earlier today. They were here with my very active and rambunctious niece and nephew and I said "I could have been in Bridgeport this week and Akron in a couple weeks" and Mom didn't like the thought of not having me around to help with the kids. LOL. Not that I do a lot with them. I don't know anything about kids and think my parenting skills are best suited for Winnie and PJ (my chihuahuas).

It's That Time of Year Again

Yes, it's that time that we golf fans either dread or love - the yearly "Jean Van de Velde's British Open collapse" re-hash. I fall into the dreading category. Enough already. Leave the poor man alone. Anyone can have that kind of bad luck and I think last year some analyst on tv actually said it was bad luck. I've been listening to the Scottish Open coverage and they were talking about it on there. So far I don't think there's any way to tie Tiger Woods into that story. But I'm sure the Golf Channel will find a way.

I'm starting to look forward, very anxiously, to my trip to the Bridgestone Invitational at the end of the month. Especially with the way things are at work. Those of you who work in an office full of catty, mean women will understand when I say that work is not a pleasant place to be some of the time. My immediate co-workers are fine. It's the workers in other offices who are nasty. I'm planning to take the whole week off this time for the tournament. Last time, I only took Tuesday through Friday off because they won't let you in on Mondays. This time I've got Monday off and I'm planning to try to check out the zoo in Akron that day. If I come back and tell you that I've accepted a job cleaning out the lion habitat at the zoo, don't be surprised. I think I would prefer being bitten by a lion and cleaning up after them over my current job right now.

Annoying golf commercial: Anyone see the Top Flite commercials with that annoying announcer guy? Does that guy make you want to buy golf balls? I can't see that he would. He insults the players in the commercial. Like you players out there want that kind of reminder when you play.

And hey - I've passed the three year mark with this blog. Sometime in June 2005 I claimed this little opinionated spot on the web. My proudest moment in those three years: Picking Angel Cabrera as a dark horse to win the US Open last year. I think after that I retired from making picks. There've been some sad times and some happy times. My little chihuahua Phoebe passed away a little more than a year ago and then I brought Winnie and PJ home a few months later. Golf related - Sergio misses out on the British Open last year, but wins the Players Championship this year. The 2006 Ryder Cup was nearly perfection to watch. I have the official DVD of it but they could have put more interviews on there and more video of the matches. From DVDs to books, I found Roberta Isleib novels thanks to Golfblogger and read Darren Clarke's memoir of the 2006 Ryder Cup. My most tickled pink moment: Justin Rose personally replied to my fan email. It was only a short sentence, but he took the time to say something nice and I now I just think the world of him. And of course, my first trip to a golf tournament in 2006. Not to mention all the friends I've made here: Golfblogger, Tony at Hooked on Golf blog, Nick at Nick's Golf Palace, Neil at Down the Middle and Armchair Golf Blog, Nolan Matthias and everyone else who've been nice enough to stop by and leave some comments here and there.

Round Up

Ross Fisher won the European Open today with a final score of -20. It's too bad he wasted that whole day qualifying for the British Open since he gets in with this win too. Sergio followed up his Saturday 74 with a final round 66 - the low round of the day and finished solo-second at -13. Graeme McDowell didn't do so well today, but a few times they showed him on tv I thought he looked rather handsome in his raingear.

Eduardo Romero won on the Champions Tour. He's a favorite of mine just because he has the nickname "The Cat".

The Big News of course is: Rafael Nadal wins Wimbledon! He beat Roger Federer in 5 sets with a score of 9-7 in the fifth - there are no tiebreaks in the final set at Wimbledon. This match seemed to last all day due to a couple of rain delays and it was virtually dark when Rafa was showing off the trophy to the crowds.

So, we have Spain winning in soccer. Rafa winning the French Open-Wimbledon combo. Hopefully, this will bode well for Sergio at the British Open. Or Miguel Angel Jimenez. Or any other Spaniard who's in the field - I haven't seen the entry list.

The Media's Latest Attempt to Ruin Golf

Have you heard about the "*" controversy? Apparently, because the media still want to cash in on Tiger Woods, they are virtually saying that every tournament played from here on out while Tiger's home nursing his knee should have an * attached to the winner's name because it just can't be considered a 'real' win if Tiger wasn't there. Gee, Tiger only plays 15 tournaments or so when he's not laid up with a bad knee. Are they going to go back to the 20+ other events on the tour calendar and put "*"s on those wins too?

I can see putting an * on a win if it was rain-shortened or if there was a war on and half the players boycotted the event or something. But this stupid idea of assigning an * just because Tiger doesn't play in an event is ridiculous beyond belief. They're not going to put an * on Novak Djokovic's Australian Open win just because Federer had Mono and got beat in the semi's.

I guess the next move the media will make is to put "*"s next to every Non-Tiger winner of every tournament that Tiger played in and make excuses for him like "oh Tiger sneezed on the tenth hole in round 3, so this win shouldn't count because Tiger wasn't at his best".

If Tiger had taken better care of himself, he wouldn't be out with an injury in the first place. Why aren't the media focusing on that? Instead of saying "hey kiddies you might not want to mirror Tiger's swing because he's had trouble with this knee for 10 years", they are completely ignoring that aspect of this whole story and saying not only can Tiger do no wrong, but he should be given even more credit than he deserves by devaluing the accomplishment that these other players will earn by winning tournaments in his absence.

Wacky British Weather

Wimbledon's men's final is on at the same time as the final round of the European Open. Now unless there's some magical tape delay going on, the sun's out at Wimbledon and pouring down the rain in Kent.

Today's Thoughts

1. I was watching last night's Golf Central this morning and I heard Kelly Whatshername say that Kenny Perry is skipping the British Open for Ryder Cup purposes. Obviously she did not attend or listen to his press conference after the Buick Open in which he said he was skipping the British Open because he was already committed to play in the opposite event here in America and he wasn't going to go back on his word and leave the sponsors and charities out in the cold. Gee, who am I going to believe, Kenny Perry or a Golf Channel announcer? Yet another reason to mute the Golf Channel and just look at the video.

2. European Open - Sergio had the round of the day, a 64, today to move into either third alone or a tie for third. I didn't check out the full leaderboard to see where everyone else finished up after the second round. Ross Fisher is still in the lead, which is good considering how rare it is for someone to back up a 63 or any low round with another good round. And I read on the European Tour website that Sergio has been keeping up on Rafael Nadal's progress at Wimbledon. So have I, but I think for possibly different reasons - LOL. I would love to see Nadal win Wimbledon, but I've been feeling sorry for Federer lately. All of the press is on him this year for his 'lackluster' performance. Excuse the man for being sick earlier in the year. A lot of people are wanting to write him off, probably because Novak and Nadal are younger and more exciting. In interviews it sometimes sounds like Novak would like to write Federer off. It's an interesting thing to note, when Pete Sampras was number one and winning everything, I couldn't stand him, but when Federer wins everything, I don't have the same feelings. I put it down to the media. Sampras was American and I'm subjected to a biased American media. Federer, being Swiss, gets more, dare I say it, neutral press and I'm not bombarded with a biased, player worshipping press - you know the kind we have when it comes to Tiger Woods.

Round 1 - European Open

Checking out some of the scores from the European Tour:

Ross Fisher -9
Rory McIlroy -5
Gonzalo Fernandez Castano -4
Jose Manuel Lara -4
Justin Rose -3
Sergio Garcia -1
David Howell -1
Stephen Dodd +2

Comments: What's happened to David Howell in the last couple of years? Remember how he was one of the hottest guys on the Tour leading up to the Ryder Cup in 2006? And the same question about Stephen Dodd. I saw him two years ago at the Bridgestone Invitational and now, according to the European Tour website, his world ranking is 707? I don't know how that number can be right.

Sergio in Europe this Week

Sergio's playing at the European Open this week instead of Tiger's event. From what I read, it sounds like this might be Sergio's first tournament at this specific course. That's what I like about Sergio. Sure he would like to win majors, but he also plays golf for all of the different aspects of the game - traveling around to different places, playing different courses and not just the same ones every year. You really get a sense that he sees the bigger picture - that it isn't about winning or majors. It's about the experience.