While golfing 45 holes over the course of Saturday and Sunday, I came to one conclusion. Over 90 degrees with over 50% humidity is very hot on the golf course. I managed to get through it without too much of a problem, but I’d much rather have temperatures in the low 70s. Looks like Michelle Wie had a bit of a problem with the heat, dropping out of the John Deere Classic after 9 holes of the 2nd round. I just couldn’t resist getting her into a post title somehow.
Tag: PGA
Tiger Woods is not Lebron James
…I just read that LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers signed a new three-year contract for $60 million. Obviously, that’s a great deal, but I wouldn’t trade places with him. Most NBA players only have two options: a team contract and a shoe deal. That’s the only exposure they get.
Tigerwoods.com Newsletter
I bet there a few athletes in other sports that would be willing to trades places with Tiger Woods. He gets to play golf for a living, has a beautiful wife, and is one of the richest athletes in the world. What a dream!
Tiger Wins Over 25% of His PGA Events
With this weekends win at the Doral Ford Championship Tiger Woods now has 48 career PGA Tour victories in what is his 10th year on the tour. Over this time he’s entered a total of 189 tournaments which equates to a win percentage of 25.39%. That’s quite an amazing stat if you ask me. It’s unthinkable to imagine someone beating the best golfers in the world on such a consistent basis in today’s age of golf technology. Tiger is truly a freak of nature and one hell of a golfer.
Taking Time Off
I’ve taken way too much time off from posting here at Primary Rough. I seemed to have started the blog and only kept at it for a couple of weeks. I never meant to post daily, but I sure meant to post more than once ever couple of months!
Speaking of time off, it looks like taking some time away from the golf course can really help a player’s game. Tiger Woods went 24 days without swinging a club and then won his first tournament of the year last week at the Buick Invitational. Retief Goosen went 5 weeks without touching a golf club and is tied for the lead in Dubai right now.
As a weekend hacker during the Michigan summers I’ve found that I sometimes play my best game after taking a week off from golf. Golf is such a mental game that I think it really helps to get away now and then to clear our heads. Twenty-four days or 5 weeks are probably too long for us normal folk, but for professionals who play every day it’s probably right on par. I know it takes me a couple of weeks after the winter to find my swing again.
Players of the Year
Is there any doubt who the players of the year will be on the PGA and LPGA tours? Just check out the 2005 resumes for Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam.
Tiger Woods
- Money leader with $10,628,024, which is over $2.5 million more than Vijay Singh who ranks 2nd.
- Won the Masters for the 4th time.
- Won the British Open for the 2nd time.
- Finished first 4 other times on the PGA Tour.
Annika Sorenstam
- Won the Mizuno Classic for the fifth year in a row. No one on either tour had ever accomplished this feat.
- Money leader with $2,373,246, which is over $800,000 more than rookie Paula Creamer
- Won a total of 9 times on the LPGA Tour.
Bart Bryant Dominated the Tour Championship
After two rounds of the Tour Championship, I thought Retief Goosen would take over. Was I ever wrong! Bart Bryant dominated the toughest field in golf by winning the Tour Championship by 6 strokes.
If you asked me 5 days ago who Bryant was I would not have known. He has never made golf headlines that I can recall, but he led the entire tournament and built up a big lead on Sunday afternoon. Goosen started Sunday only 3 strokes back, but quickly fell off the radar. Tiger Woods was 4 strokes back, but couldn’t string anything together. Check out Bryant’s scorecard to see just how dominating of a win it was. He ranked 1st in birdies, eagles, driving accuracy, and greens in regulation. He was also 3rd in putts/GIR, 7th in putts/round, and tied for 13th in sand saves.
The Tour Championship is a field of the top 30 golfers on the PGA Tour money list and I’m really surprised Bryant was even in the list. Who is this guy? Check out his player profile for a few unknown details.
Bart Bryant is one of the reasons I love the game of golf. On any given day, a virtual no-name can dominate the best players in the world.
I'm Picking Goosen
Halfway through the Tour Championship, Retief Goosen is tied for the lead at -10 with Bart Bryant. Retief opened the tournament with a solid 64 and backed it up with a 66 yesterday. He looks to be playing well and is due for a win. Tiger Woods is in the mix only 3 strokes behind before play started today, but I don’t think this is his week. He’ll make the top 10, but come Sunday afternoon he won’t be hoisting another trophy. Why? Because he has a 5 wood in his bag instead of his trusty 2 iron!
PGA Tour Podcast
The PGA Tour is jumping on board the podcasting revolution, which will be powered by XM Radio.
PGA Tour Schedule Changes for 2007
This morning PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem announced the schedule changes which will take place for the 2007 PGA Tour season.
- The establishment of the FedEx Cup, a prestigious and lucrative season-long points bonus program for players and the centerpiece to the entire PGA TOUR season.
- A conclusive PGA TOUR Championship Series of four tournaments that focuses on the final push for the FedEx Cup title. The Championship Series will culminate with THE TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola, which will move from early November to a mid-September slot in the schedule.
- The creation of the PGA TOUR “Quest for the Card” Fall Series, which follows THE TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola and determines the remainder of the 125 players who will become eligible for the next year’s FedEx Cup.
Read the full story at PGATour.com.
Last Two Weeks in Golf
Posting has been well overdue here at Primary Rough for the past week and a half. Here’s what I missed…
- Paula Creamer won a second Japan Tour title, giving her a total of 4 tournament wins on the year. Pretty impressive for a girl fresh out of high school.
- Ryan Moore earned his PGA Tour card for 2006. The last player to skip Q-school, going right from college to the pros was Tiger Woods.
- Michelle Wie will once again play in the Sony Open, which is the first event of the 2006 PGA Tour schedule.
- Jean Van de Velde wants to play in the women’s British Open next year. Is he for real? He couldn’t even hold on to a 3 stroke lead with one hold to play against the men. I guess he wasn’t embarrassed enough.
- Phil Mickelson will not be playing in the Tour Championship.
- Tom Watson came from 6 back to win the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
- With his win at the Chrysler Championship, Carl Pettersson became the ninth player in his 20s to win on the PGA Tour this year.
- Ernie Els announced that he’ll be back in the “swing” of things for the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa which starts on December 1st.
- 17-year-old Angela Park has decided to bypass college and head straight for the LPGA Tour.
- Casey Martin most likely has called it quits.
- Colin Montgomerie claimed his record eighth money title on the European tour.
- PGA Tour charity donations to hit $1 billion. That’s a lot of money! No other sport can come close to that number.
Nick Momrik 