Category: Golf (Page 23 of 38)

2009 U.S. Open Predictions

The 2009 U.S. Open is set to kick off tomorrow from Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York. Not surprisingly, Tiger Woods is favored to win this year’s Open, although there are some intriguing long shots that could potentially come out victorious.

As with all of my predictions, I recommend to wager everything you own because I’m usually right. I’m 634-0 in my sports predicting career and I won’t hear differently.***

The Winner: Tiger Woods 3/2
Maybe someone with bigger plums would go against Tiger, but I feel good about the size of my plums and I’m going with the favorite. Woods won the Open last year and has done so three times in his career. My insiders (i.e. everything you read on the internet) tell me that the Bethpage Black Course is all about long, accurate drives and if that’s the case then Tiger should do well. Woods should also be well rested since he doesn’t bother with a lot of the other PGA Tour events on the schedule (he’s competed in just seven events so far this season) and because I hear he’s really, really good at golf (more inside information).

The Sleeper: Retief Goosen 35/1
The Goose could be loose this weekend because no one putts better on fast greens than Retief. He’s a grinder and won earlier this year at the tough Innisbrook Resort Copperhead Course. Goosen has also won the U.S. Open twice in his career and experience counts in a major.

The Long Shot Sleeper: David Toms 50/1
Like Woods, Toms excels at long, accurate drives and that should play well on this course. In 14 events this season, he’s finished in the top-10 six times and has experience winning a major. Granted, the last major win won was in 2001 (PGA Championship), so some believe he’s already peaked. Me? I say he’s due.

***There is no factual documentation that proves that Anthony is 634-0. Take his picks as mere suggestions and by no means should you “wager everything you own” because there’s a good chance Anthony was drunk while handicapping this event.

Tiger wins 4th Memorial

http://sports.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/tiger-woods.jpg

Tiger Woods has won the Memorial today after a dramatic rally from four shots down in the final round. It would appear that for all intents and purposes Tiger is back and if not better, than at least as good as ever. This of course spells trouble for anybody actually trying to play against him. Golf.com had a great quote from second place finisher Jim Furyk after the tournament:

“I just didn’t beat one guy,” Furyk said. “It (stinks) finishing second. But he played better. A 7 under on those greens and with the conditions we dealt with, that’s pretty spectacular. I just wish you all would just quit (ticking) him off … so he has to come back and keep proving stuff. I think he answered a lot of questions today.”

Hopefully, this will silence all the reporters still questioning whether or not Tiger can regain his previous form. Although… it’d be nice to see a Nadal figure finally show up in the sport, not that I have anything against Tiger Woods, but a little rivalry would be quite nice.

Daly honors Mickelson’s ailing wife

John Daly wore bright pink trousers during the final round of the BMW PGA Championship in England on Sunday in a sign of support for Phil Mickelson’s wife after she was diagnosed with breast cancer last week.

According to their management group, Amy Mickelson will have major surgery for removal of the cancer within the next two weeks.

Daly on his decision to wear the pink trousers:

“I had a pair, so I figured I’d do that for her today. I thought it would be a good gesture,” Daly said of his trousers. “I know Phil very well and I know Amy. I’ve known them for a long time — we’ve played the Tour together. She’s a great lady. She has always been a sweetheart to everybody.”

Daly had not yet spoken to Phil Mickelson, but said he had been impacted personally by breast cancer.

“I sent out a media message,” Daly said. “He’s probably surrounded by callers right now and I didn’t want to bother him. I’m sure everybody on Tour and everybody in the world is thinking about her.”

Many in the golfing community have expressed their support and are eager to help in any way possible. Fellow golfer Darren Clarke has spoken to Mickelson recently, but wouldn’t reveal the details of their conversation. Clarke lost his wife to breast cancer in August 2006, and credits the Mickelsons in helping him through the tough times following her death.

Mickelson has suspended his PGA Tour schedule indefinitely.

Mickelson withdraws from Nelson Championship to attend to his wife

Golfer Phil Mickelson will withdraw from the HP Byron Nelson Championship to attend to his wife Amy, who was diagnosed with breast cancer.

After undergoing an extensive battery of tests, Phil Mickelson’s wife, Amy, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The couple married in 1996 and has three children aged 9, 7 and 6.
More tests are scheduled but the treatment process is expected to begin with major surgery, possibly within the next two weeks.

Mickelson has suspended his PGA TOUR schedule indefinitely. He was due to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship beginning Thursday and defend his Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial title next week.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Phil and Amy. Hopefully she’ll go through a successful treatment process and I’m sure she’ll get all the support she needs from Phil and the rest of their family.

The biggest golf announcer blunders

On the heels of David Feherty’s insulting comments about our troops and two of our political leaders, Devil Ball Golf lists several of the biggest blunders made by golf announcers over the years.

Here’s a sampling:

Andrew Magee: At the FBR Open in February of this year, Andrew Magee remarked on-air that he saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that read, “I got kicked out of the Boy Scouts for eating a Brownie.” Was it a pedophile joke? A drug one? Could go either way, but Magee got a reprimand from the Golf Channel.

Feherty’s comments are dangerous because they incited violence against Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and put those two congressional leaders in the same category as Osama Bin Laden. But the most offensive thing was the implication that the average soldier would like to kill two fellow Americans. He meant it as a joke, but only the hardcore Pelosi and Reid haters would find any humor in it, and many of them would be insulted by Feherty’s use of our military personnel in his quip. It was just a bad, bad decision by Feherty.

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