Green Posse

It was announced today that Curtis Strange and Hubert Green will be the newest inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. I watched both players when they were in their prime, and Curtis Strange absolutely deserves to be in the hall. He won 17 times on the PGA tour but more impressive is that he won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1988-89.
Hubert Green won more times (19) than Strange, but he also won two majors, the ‘77 U.S. Open and the ‘85 PGA Championship. Oddly, Green never impressed me as a world-class player, but …read more

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I got to thinking that Lorena Ochoa needs to right the ship if she’s going to make a serious run at the number 1 world ranking. She’s still playing the most consistent golf of any golfer on the LPGA right now and has been for at least 9 months, but her minor-meltdown on Sunday has left some questions about her ability to handle pressure again.
I mentioned it before, but she and her caddy need to come to some sort of arrangement about club and shot selection. There’s no question that the golfer makes the final decision because …read more

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Was perusing some golf articles earlier and ran across the story about Dakoda Dowd and her Mom’s battle with cancer. You may remember Dakoda played in last year’s Ginn Open as a 13-year-old on a sponsor’s exemption (and almost made the cut). Her Mom had been diagnosed with cancer and was given 2 months to live and her dream was to see Dakoda play on the LPGA. It truly was a great story that weekend. Now it appears that Dakoda’s Mom has beat the odds, at least in the short-term, as she’s only taking steroids and …read more

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The train wrecks on the professional golf tours continued this week as both Lorena Ochoa and Laura Davies spit their respective bits on the closing holes of the Ginn Open and gave the tournament to Brittany Lincicome. Actually, that’s not fair to Lincicome because she did what the others couldn’t do and that was play a great round of golf on a very tough day. Funny how the women could handle the wind today but the men couldn’t? But that’s a story for another day.
Lorena Ochoa hit more loose shots with her irons today than I’ve seen …read more

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Despite her best effort and outstanding attitude, Nancy Lopez missed the cut at the Ginn Open. She shot 83, 80 and struggled to even shoot that, but she’s still Nancy Lopez and maintained a pretty good (if unrealistic) attitude. With all due respect to her, she can’t just show up after not playing for many years and hope to be competitive.
The quality of players today is so much better than it was during Lopez’ prime, and I was watching her play front and center when she was a rookie. But the LPGA tour today is …read more

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In a surprise announcement today, Annika Sorenstam withdrew from the Ginn Open stating she had a ruptured disc in her back. She said she’s been playing hurt as of late and decided now is the best time to try and get this dealt with. This injury may actually push Sorenstam to retire even earlier than she has planned, which would leave the game with an incredible legacy.
Oddly, there are more than a handful of professionals over the years who have had back-related issues, the most recent being Fred Couples and Fred Funk. Jerry Pate struggled very early …read more

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Zach Johnson was a surprise winner last week at the Masters and I got to wondering if he’s the real deal. There’s no question he’s a top-20 golfer, and he’s proven that the last few years, and he even made the Ryder Cup team last year. But will he go the route that Larry Mize, Fuzzy Zoeller, or Jack Fleck did and stay a pretty good, but not great golfer?
Professional golf is full of one-shot major winners and while I don’t think Johnson belongs in the elite-5 of the world, I do think he’s a perennial top-20 golfer …read more

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This week the pros head over to Hilton Head for the Verizon Heritage. This is one of my favorite all-time tournaments to watch on the tube because while it’s short in length (compared to the monster lengths nowadays), it’s also one of the most difficult courses during the year for the pros. And why is that? There are a lot of dog-legs, both right and left, the greens are small, but yet it provides opportunities for the guys to be as bold as they choose.
You have to hit it not only in the fairway, but the right …read more

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Zach Johnson went out and did what others couldn’t, and that was play a disaster-free round of golf. He shot a 3-under 69 in mild conditions (compared to the three previous rounds), and earned the Masters victory over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbatini. There’s nothing really spectacular about Johnson’s game, but he’s very consistent, and doesn’t mis-hit a lot of golf shots. The perfect type of player for major championships.
Tiger was still off his game for today’s final round, and it showed as he would hit a poor tee shot and then follow it up …read more

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Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think the 3rd-round leader at the Masters would be over-par. Not one person is under par for the tournament after three rounds, and that’s astonishing. Yes, August National is playing very tough this week, but I think it’s primarily because of the weather. If it was 20 degrees warmer with no wind, it would be a different tournament. But the wind is drying out the course and greens, and making approach shots very difficult, no matter where you’re hitting from.
And the rest is just pilot error, …read more

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