Green Posse

I was looking at the LPGA’s 2006 schedule and it certainly does take the women a while to get started. Their first tournament isn’t until Jan 19 (Women’s World Cup of Golf in South Africa) and then it’s a 4 weeks until their next event, the SPS Open at Turtle Bay. I’m curious what the reasoning is behind the slow startup for the women? Is it a carryover from days long gone when women players were still doting housewives and weren’t getting the respect they deserved?
The LPGA is a major sports organization and as such they need …read more

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Well, Tiger Woods made it official and said he was not going to play in the Mercedes Benz Championship next week at Kapalua. His rationale was that he hadn’t prepared properly and wanted some additional time off before he started the season. I can’t blame him at all. Yes, the Tour brass are disappointed, but they didn’t see this coming? They’re probably more disappointed that Tiger (and Phil) aren’t there to give the new FedEx Cup some much needed support, but then, why should they be there?
In other Tiger news, he announced that he and his …read more

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It’s hard to believe but the start of the 2007 season is only 5 days away! The Mercedes Benz Championship is the coming out party for the new FedEx Cup and it will be interesting to see who shows (or doesn’t show). We know for sure that Stuart Appleby will be there as he attempts to become the first four-peat winner on the PGA Tour.
I wouldn’t bet against Appleby because the Plantation Course at Kapalua fits his eye extremely well and when he’s on, he’s definitely tough to beat. I like the course because the finishing holes …read more

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I was perusing the 2006 PGA Tour statistics and while the numbers weren’t a complete suprise, there were a few things that made me chuckle. For example, the names Watson, Holmes, Garrigus, Wetterich, Daly, Hietala, Ridings, Frazier, and Hoffman don’t conjur up much of a top-10 image except that all of the aforementioned finished in the top 10 in driving distance. Yes, Woods is in that list as well, but the talent disparity between Woods and the rest is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Also, of that list, only Woods and Wetterich finished in the top-25 …read more

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Lorena Ochoa was named the A.P.’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2006. I say that’s outstanding news for Lorena and it caps an excellent season in which she also unseeded Annika Sorenstam as LPGA Player of the Year as well. As I said in yesterday’s post, she needs to have a great 2007 season to prove all the naysayers wrong (and more importantly, gain even more confidence).
Ochoa more than doubled the second-place vote getter, Amelie Mauresmo (who?). I know I don’t follow other sports nearly as much as I used to, but I’ve never heard of …read more

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I was reading (almost ad nauseam) the accolades bestowed upon Tiger for winning the A.P. Athlete of the Year and it got me thinking about not only his great year, but Lorena Ochoa’s year as well. How do they top their great year’s of 2006? Or can they? In Tiger’s case, literally anything is possible with him. He could run the table and walk away with another Tiger Slam, or he could struggle this year and not win any majors (doubtful). Regardless, Tiger has the set the bar high again and the expectations from fans …read more

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Tiger Woods won the A.P. Athlete of the Year Award for 2006. Yes, yet another award that Tiger really doesn’t need. There’s been quite a bit written that suggests Roger Federer should have won for his dominating performance in professional tennis. I’m a huge tennis fan as well and while Federer has had some outstanding years, he doesn’t transcend tennis the way Woods transcends golf. Even if you’re a casual golf fan, you know how Tiger Woods is, no matter what country. The same can’t be said about Roger Federer. Great tennis player, but …read more

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For the purpose of this writing, I’ll refer to “international players” as those players that are non-U.S. and non-European-born. This does include players from Australia, South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, and Asia. I was aware that the international players were well-represented in the top-30 of the year-end money list, but I had no idea how much. As shown in the table below, the international players comprised 50% of the PGA Tour’s top 30. That’s incredible when you really analyze the numbers. And this doesn’t include the likes of Michael Campbell and Mike Weir, both of …read more

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It’s no secret that the European Tour has produced some of the world’s best golfers over the years, and they seem to gel at the same time every two years for the Ryder Cup. Nick Faldo Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, and Colin Montgomerie are the three that come to mind as stalwarts for the Europeans over the last 20 years.
However, I think the last 10 years or so, the European Tour has produced a barrage of excellent European players and a good many of them are starting to play the PGA Tour on a regular basis. (Note: the …read more

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I think 2007 will be a pivotal year for the LPGA. Yes, they are no doubt riding a tremendous wave of interest and I see this continuing for the next decade or so. However, I think there are some short-term question marks that could cause some gear slippage in upcoming season.
First off is Michelle Wie. While she’s not a card-carrying member of the LPGA (and does she want that?), her forrays into men’s golf are now starting to cause serious credibility issues within the LPGA suits. There’s still plenty of interest in Wie, both here and …read more

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