Another First Beckons For Els
Ernie Els will be hoping to regain his form at this weekend's Deutsche Bank Championship.
As the PGA Tour’s lucrative FedEx Cup reaches the business end, there’s even more on the line for Ernie Els.
Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson have a lot in common. Both golfers have at various occasions been described as Tiger Woods’ closest rivals. They are both now in their 40s, with multiple Majors to their name (Mickelson just eased ahead of Els earlier this year with his fourth Major victory at the Masters). Worldwide each golfer has clinched more than 40 titles (Els is further ahead here, with 44 international wins and 18 US PGA Tour titles, although Phil has a mammoth 38 wins on the US PGA Tour) and their worldwide earnings make them two of the richest current pros in the game.
But another thing that unites these two great golfers is that neither has won the prestigious PGA Tour Player of the Year Award.
That’s because since 1997, one man has dominated that awards category. Yip, you guessed it, Tiger Woods has walked away with the Player of the Year honours on 10 different occasions. The only exceptions have been Mark O’Meara (1998), Vijay Singh (2004) and Padraig Harrington (2008).
With Tiger’s poor performances this year, 2010 will also be an exception – and this is good news, particularly for Els.
Els has won twice on the PGA Tour this year, and has led the FedEx Cup standings for 22 consecutive weeks. Last week’s disappointing 71st-place finish at The Barclays unfortunately dropped him back to fifth on the standings, but he has a shot to redeem himself at the Deutsche Bank Championship which tees off today (with a Monday finish).
Should Els win one of the three remaining events in the FedEx Cup playoffs, he would be a shoo-in for the title, but who are his main competitors? Both Justin Rose and Steve Stricker have also won twice on the PGA Tour this season (they finished the regular season FedEx Cup in fifth and second respectively), while Matt Kuchar’s victory in The Barclays last weekend, and subsequent rise to top spot on the standings, has vaulted him into contention.
So plenty to watch this weekend in Boston – Els to attempt to regain the advantage, his competitors out to stake their claim, Tiger hoping to win for the first time in 2010 (and avoid dropping out of the Playoffs entirely)… oh, and the approaching Hurricane Earl. Should be exciting stuff!
Mickelson ‘Feels Great,’ And Eyes Rebound
Phil Mickelson
While it appears that Tiger Woods might be sorting out some problems in his game, golf fans are wondering what’s going on with Phil Mickelson.
Despite their struggles they still are the best two players in the game, so it would be nice to see them on the leaderboard this week in Round 2 of the PGA Tour playoffs at the Deutsche Bank Championship — as they were a year ago when Lefty captured the Tour Championship.
Mickelson told reporters not long ago that his subpar play through the summer had to do with being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, but he added that he has it under control with medication.
However, his game has been anything but sharp, especially when he shot 72-74–146 and missed the cut last week in the Barclays.
Lefty is not one to make excuses, so it’s hard to tell if his physical condition is affecting his play or if this is simply another dry spell for a player who has run either very hot or very cold throughout his career.
“I’m disappointed,” he told reporters after finishing with an ugly double bogey last week. “I’ll try to get this thing worked out over the next five or six days.”
It seemed that Mickelson would unseat Woods atop the World Golf Rankings for the first time in his career when he captured the Masters and tied for second in the Quail Hollow Championship.
However, despite having nine tournaments in which to do so, it has not happened. The Barclays was his best chance yet, with 10 mathematical possibilities to take over the top spot, but he couldn’t even get to the weekend.
“I’ve been trying real hard to accomplish that,” Mickelson told reporters when asked about being No. 1 before the tournament last week. “I just haven’t played well enough yet.
” … I feel like I’m playing much better golf. I’ve been working on my driver again trying to get that thing in play, and I think I’ve kind of come on to something there, adding a little bit more loft and just getting the ball in play.”
Lefty was unable to get that straight once the tournament started, however. He hit only slightly more than 50 percent of the fairways, about where he is for the season. Not only that, he averaged 31.0 putts per round.
He claimed that the chance to be No. 1 is not getting in his way.
“I haven’t thought about it too much,” said Mickelson, who has not finished in the top 10 in his last four tournaments on the PGA Tour, or since tying for fourth in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June.
“I’m trying to win. I’m trying to compete in tournaments, and I haven’t played that well the last couple of months. But, again, I feel like my game’s been coming around.
“I’ve been able to practice and work hard. I feel great. I’m looking forward to the next five weeks.”
In addition to the medication to control his arthritis, Mickelson has made a drastic change in his diet. He has become a vegetarian and said it has not been that difficult.
Of course, he admitted that might change the next time he goes to a ballgame and the hot dog man comes around.
“It’s been surprisingly easy,” he said. “I’ve been eating some good stuff. I feel good. And there’s a lot of things that I’m able to eat. I feel much better. But, again, my goal, my hope is that right now I feel great health-wise because I’ve been taking some medicine, some treatment.
“It feels like (the arthritis) has gone away. And after awhile there will be a point where I’ll stop taking medication and hopefully have it in remission. And I’m hoping that my diet will help keep it in remission and I won’t have to take medicine.
“So that’s why I’ve kind of made that change.”
Perhaps it’s simply that Mickelson needs time for his game to come back around after making changes in his life that might be more dramatic than he realizes.
Lefty said early last week that he feels good about his game and is looking forward to the busy schedule ahead, with the Ryder Cup following the PGA Tour playoffs.
“I feel like my game’s actually in pretty good shape,” said Mickelson, who often in the past seemingly has faded into the offseason after the PGA Championship. “I’m excited about playing some golf and excited about the FedEx Cup.
“I think everybody is not finding it difficult to get their games sharp and ready through the FedEx Cup. We’re excited about it because the season ends a lot earlier than it did before.
“But more importantly, I think, that the FedEx Cup has really kept the top players’ games sharp for our team events. And we’ve won the last three events, the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup, that we’ve competed in.”
And Lefty knows better than anyone that it’s time for him to get his game sharp, too.
Courtesy of The Bleacher Report
Jim Furyk Picks A Bad Time To Sleep In
Jim Furyk
Furyk overslept Wednesday when his cell phone lost power overnight and the alarm didn’t go off, causing him to be late for his pro-am tee time in The Barclays.
That left PGA Tour officials no choice but to make him ineligible for the first of four FedExCup playoff events.
A two-time winner on tour this year, Furyk is No. 3 in the standings as the race for the $10 million prize gets under way at Ridgewood Country Club without him.
It is unlikely he will fall too far down the standings, although he eliminated any chance of improving.
“I’m kicking myself,” Furyk said. “I have a way of climbing into situations that are all my fault.”
Phil Mickelson appeared to be more furious than Furyk.
“The rule itself applies to only half the field,” said Mickelson, noting that only 54 of the 122 players were in the pro-am. “So if you’re going to have a rule that does not apply to everybody, you cannot have it affect the competition. … I cannot disagree with it more. I have no idea how the commissioner let this rule go through. It’s ridiculous.”
Mickelson said he told PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem how he felt at lunch.
Furyk sets his alarm on his cell phone, and he awoke at 7:23 a.m. to find out that his phone had lost power. He threw on some clothes and shoes, bolted out of his hotel room and rushed to Ridgewood, arriving at 7:35 a.m.
The pro-am was a shotgun start that began at 7:30 a.m. Furyk was to start on the 11th hole, and he realized when he arrived that he had no chance of getting there on time.
Furyk was in such a rush that he did not put on a belt or socks, and he still had not tied his shoes.
The PGA Tour adopted its policy on pro-ams in 2004 after some players began skipping the Wednesday events for suspect reasons. Now, players automatically are disqualified from the tournament if they miss the pro-am except for injury or family emergency.
Retief Goosen was disqualified from the Nissan Open in 2005 when he overslept and missed his pro-am.
Furyk said was the second time in his career that he had overslept and missed a pro-am time. The other occasion was years ago at Bay Hill, when an alternate filled in for two holes until he arrived. That possibility no longer exists under the new policy.
Although he said he was upset about not playing Ridgewood or the tournament, Furyk said the worst of his disqualification was “to possibly, severely hurt a good year.”
“I played my heart out all year,” Furyk said. “I’ve got no one to blame but myself.”
It might not be all that bad. A year ago, Zach Johnson was No. 3 in the standings. If he had not played the Barclays, he would have fallen only two spots to No. 5. Furyk will have to see how many players behind him in the rankings play well this week.
He was headed home to Florida before going up to the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second round of the playoffs, next week outside Boston. Furyk’s children started school this week.
“And I wound up missing that, too,” he said.
Courtesy of The Bleacher Report
Dustin Johnson Has No Regrets
Dustin Johnson misses his par putt on the 18th green
Dustin Johnson said he would dust himself off and try all over again after winning a major amount of sympathy and confidence following his bittersweet PGA Championship this month.
Johnson was poised to join a three-way playoff at Whistling Straits when he walked off the last green until informed he had been handed a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a sand hazard on the 72nd hole of the championship.
The long-hitting, 26-year-old from South Carolina had hit his tee shot well beyond the ropes right of the fairway and, with spectators crowded around his ball, he thought his wayward drive had settled on trampled down dirt.
“The PGA was just an unfortunate situation,” Johnson told reporters ahead of this week’s Barclays tournament, the opening event of the US PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs.
“It wasn’t hard to get over, because there’s a lot of good things that I can take out of that week. I played really well coming down the stretch, making birdies when I needed to. So there’s nothing bad that I can take from that week.”
Johnson said the shock of missing out on the playoff won by Germany’s Martin Kaymer over American Bubba Watson was eased by the outpouring of sympathy and support he received, and a restful week spent fishing.
“I’ve had a lot of good phone calls and a lot of good text messages from my peers and friends,” he said. “And so I’m very happy the way I’ve handled it and the way it’s been received.”
Lessons Learnt
Johnson also came frustratingly close to notching his first major victory at the US Open at Pebble Beach, where he held a three-stroke lead going into the final round before shooting 82, but he believes a major triumph is just a matter of time.
“There’s nothing that I can really get down on myself about that (PGA) week, because I did everything that I wanted to do,” said Johnson.
“I had a chance to win coming down the stretch on Sunday. I played well coming down the stretch.
“If I keep playing like I’m playing, there’s no doubt that I think that I’m going to be contending in a lot of majors. I think and I believe in myself that I can get it done.”
Johnson chalked up his mistake to a learning experience, like the one at Pebble Beach.
“I was very patient. I need to be patient,” he said about his demeanour at the PGA. “I took things from the US Open and used them during the final round of the PGA.
Courtesy of stuff
Bunker Trouble
We may have found someone who had a worse time in a bunker than Dustin Johnson.
At the Topstone Golf Course in Connecticut course workers arrived to find an upsidedown Saab in a bunker right at the course’s eighth green.
What club do you use to get that one out, do you figure?
Well, conveniently enough, not long after this car was found, Matthew F. Diulio reported that his car, a black Saab, had been stolen. Look at that, a law-enforcement circle closed nice and neat.
Except that it wasn’t. Turns out that the cops had some suspicions about the whole “stolen” aspect of this, and they arrested Diulio for filing a false police report. Diulio admitted that he and a pal had taken the car for a little impromptu tour of the Topstone Golf Course, and — much like Mr. Johnson at the PGA Championship — ended up in a most unfortunately placed bunker.
Before cratering, Diulio caused an estimated $10,000 worth of damage to the golf course. We’re betting he won’t be earning it by driving the beer cart.
Courtesy of The Bleacher Report
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