That’s Wet! a Golf blog in West Palm Beach Florida

This is one of my least updated blogs just as Golf is one of my most neglected obsessions. Just wanted to post a couple of items. First of all, let’s just acknowledge that The Masters is almost here…

Ahhh.

That felt good. This year is the first we’ll be watching in High Definition thanks to the 55″ Sony HD TV Shannon purchased last year.

Next, Shannon and I both got to play at the landmark Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia. On the good side the country side, courses and facilities are amazing. On the bas side they had just aerated the course and every fairway was completely brown due to the major drought that has been impacting Georgia. If you are planning a golfing trip Georgia is a really bad choice right now because of this.

Just down the road from Greensboro is where they play The Masters. I bet that their greens and Fairways are nice and green.

Shannon’s Father and Uncle Sam will be here on vacation next week from Pennsylvania and Portland and if last year is any barometer we’ll be playing lots of golf. Time to catch up on our swing.

Cheers

I sit here utterly astounded. This weekend concluded the Fedex Cup and I recorded it in high definition all prepared to watch while happily skipping over the commercials. I didn’t watch one moment of it. Not only that - I haven’t yet seen ONE mention of the cup in the press. To be fair I do avoid the main stream media. All the same I am dismayed because I love our game so much and I haven’t been motivated to play or watch golf. I think the difficulties of playing have just worn Shannon and I down. Little kids (until they’re big enough to play) are one of the biggest impediments to golf known to man. So is work. Both have taken a lot of focus lately. More than that though I think Shannon and I both need to break down and get some lessons so we get back out there. We’re not motivated because we’re not making any progress. The last time we went to the PGA Learning Center we could barely hit the ball. It was just sad. Until another day then.

I was just watching an NBC segment by Jimmy Roberts about the Tiger Woods - Phil Mickelson rivalry. The piece centered on the somewhat miraculous win that Phil posted last week in The Fedex Cup over Tiger Woods. Phil, playing along side Tiger over three out of four rounds of the Deutsche Bank Championship managed to best Woods. Out of 150 or so tries, Phil Mickelson has only won 10 times.  Mickelson didn’t melt down under Tiger’s searing scowl and he didn’t self destruct.

“For 10 years, I’ve struggled against Tiger,” Mickelson said. “The way I was able to answer with a couple birdies when Tiger was making his charge it felt pretty good. As we all know, he finishes better than anybody else. He certainly tried to do that today. I was able to hold him off.” - Phil Mickelson

This put Mickelson in first place for the Fedex Cup playoffs which will culminate in Atlanta next weekend with a $10 million dollar pay out and a gleaming new Fedex Cup trophy on someone’s mantle. It’s no wonder then that the media and a lot of fans are all a little surprised that Phil would pass up a chance to continue building Fedex Cup points by skipping this week’s BMW Championship. To answer that question I believe you need to look no further than the very man that has shadowed Phil’s brilliant career. Tiger.

Much has been made of Tiger missing the first week of the four event Fedex Cup playoffs. Tiger cited a tough regular season schedule and weariness from his wins at the brutal PGA Championship and WGC events. Please. This is the best conditioned athlete in Golf. Tiger doesn’t need to play and he didn’t feel like it. All the ‘where’s Tiger’ first round Tiger talk switched focus this week to speculation as to Phil Mickelson’s motivation when he announced in his victory round press conference that he would skip this weeks BMW Championship.

Most media pundits are now taking Phil’s comments about why he’s not playing at face-value. Phil says he wanted to be at his kids first day of school. His focus on family is well known and it’s likely a very real reason why Phil didn’t play this week. There’s also his comments about PGA Tour Commish Tim Finchem ignoring his feedback about the Fedex Cup. Fellow elite player Ernie Els skipped the Deutsche Bank citing the same school/kids reason. But there are others. These are no doubt primary reasons that Phil skipped this week but as my story byline suggests, I don’t think it’s the main reason or the best reason that Phil skipped this week.

The Fedex Cup uses a season-long points standing to qualify players for the four event playoffs BUT once the the players enter the playoffs their points are all reset to zero. Everyone is equal and has the same opportunity to win. This prevents a season dominating player like Tiger from being the run away favorite and potentially discouraging competitors and fans alike from paying any semblance of attention to the playoffs. In this case what is good for T.V. revenue is likely best for fans as well.

When Tiger decided to skip the first week of the Fedex Cup championship it set in motion Phil’s decision to skip this week’s event. The final nail in the coffin in Phil’s decision not to play was Phil winning week two against Tiger. If Phil had played this week and then the final week he would have played all four events - one more than Tiger. And if Phil played well in all the events he could have beat Tiger, not with comparable play, but with the extra points he would have earned by playing one more event.

“Now the next step is to try to hopefully go head-to-head in a major. We don’t get paired very often in majors, and hopefully next year we’ll have a chance to do that.” Phil Mickelson

To any mortal player this very advantage would be a welcome way to make up the edge Tiger so clearly holds - but not Phil. Phil rightly sees himself as Tiger’s peer. Phil wants to beat Tiger heads-up. Just like he’s always dreamed of doing in a major championship. Just like he did last week in week two of the Fedex Cup. Just like Tiger, Phil doesn’t need the money from the Fedex Cup and he doesn’t need a hollow title.

I think Phil’s strong appreciation of Golf history and respect for the game would demand no less of a reaction. As I write this Tiger leads the final round of the BMW. This will vault him in to first place in the Fedex Cup playoff standings. As I see it this places Tiger right where Phil wants him. Phil wants to show up in Atlanta and do the unthinkable. The miraculous. Phil wants to live the Cinderella story. And I love Phil for daring to dream it. We all do.

No matter who wins next week, I’m glad Phil skipped the BMW Championship this week. I’m glad for his family but I’m even more glad for our sport.  I don’t think Phil can admit all his motivations now but I believe the Tiger factor to be his key driving motivation.

And if Phil accomplishes his worthy goal next week he’ll make history, he’ll win tremendous accolades and love from fans. He’ll earn everyone’s respect, most importantly his own. And his family’s.

Johnny just came up with one of hiz beaut one-lines during coverage of the Fedex Cup Playoff’s BMW Championship at Cog Hill.

“You can’t win majors in a brown shirt.”

Of Aaron Baddeley’s attire and its subsequent (and previously unknown) link to his poor 4th round play in major tournaments. Aaron has on his more fave colors on today (fuscia) and he looks like a real dandy with that and his white belt. We’ll see if Aaron can hold off Tiger Woods today to give himself a shot at the final next week in Atlanta where we’ll likely see Tiger Woods crowned as the first Fedex Cup Champion.

Golf is a hard game. That’s why we need rules to distract us!

I’m on vacation this week here right at home in beautiful South Florida - golf paradise as far as we’re concerned.

I’m about to partake in round two of golf for the week with my beautiful partner in life and golf - Shannon. Along with us are Shannon’s Dad, Pat, and her Uncle Sam. This isn’t just any foursome - we’ve got family golfing power here.

As usual, my golf game leaves much to be desired, so before playing today I wanted to dive right back into the shallow end of the water hazard with a little review of The original 13 rules of Golf, fist published in 1744. I’ll take it one rule at a time because I don’t want any of us to get hurt.

Rule number 6

“If your balls be found anywhere touching one another you are to lift the first ball till you play the last.”

Marvin Gaye told us ‘please don’t masturbate’ in the closing lines of his most famous song, Sexual Healing, which only goes to show you that Golf was originally a game of white men so concerned with their balls, that they had to apply rules of procedure and etiquette in order to allow an average golfer to beat his balls around the course with his ol’ hickory shaft. Is it really any wonder why one of the original golf balls, a feathery, looked like this?

Feathery, hairy, it’s all the same to me sitting here 263 years later. Of course, some things never change. Men still love to play with their balls and we’re still trying to swing a stiff shaft, even if our bodies can’t hit it like we used to.

Like the rest of you “mad gophers” I read my share of golf instruction in magazines and online in search of swing nirvana. I know it’s pointless, but I enjoy the delusion. But one thing that really pisses me off are some of the training aids these instructors whip out of their ass.

Exhibit one:

“Here’s how to do it

• Secure a scorecard pencil between two sets of tees in front of the hole as shown.
• Putt a few balls from anywhere from three to five feet from the hole. The idea is to hit these putts with enough force that the ball pops over the pencil and then into the hole. You’ll quickly learn that to sink your putts with the proper amount of speed, you can’t baby the ball to the hole, nor can you rocket it, because too much speed will pop the ball over both the pencil and the hole.
• Once you get to the point where you can consistently pop eight out of 10 putts over the pencil and into the hole, remove the pencil and try to sink your putts with the same velocity through the two tees—these putts should always hit somewhere on the back of the cup. Then remove the tees and work on maintaining the same speed and line.”

This article needs an instruction tip on how to make the home made training aid…

1. buy superglue
2. take pencil from golf course or from golf bag
3. suspend golf pencil magically between two tees using superglue
4. buy turpentine to remove superglue from hands and to remove tees that have become permanently attached to your pinkies and index fingers
5. be “weally weally gentle” when you place your rugby goal post simulation on the green
6. ignore the people on the practice green looking at you like you’re a complete fucking idiot
7. now putt
8. hope your ball flies magically over the goal post and into the hole - not through it like The General Lee in an episode of Dukes of Hazard going through a bridge closed sign
9. if you accomplish this shit call the Guinness book of World records and go enter q-school

Now if you still want to go read this article go pick up the latest copy of Golf Magazine or read the article online here.

For the love of the game?

My mum recently sent me quite a golf yarn written by The Guardian journalist Lawrence Donegan. As the story goes, Maurice Flitcroft once tried to qualify for The Open (The British Open that is) in 1976 where he posted a score of 121!

“It weren’t a fair reflection of my play,” he says. Others took a different view. Flitcroft’s round, wrote one correspondent of the era, was a blizzard of triple and quadruple bogeys “ruined by a solitary par”. — The Guardian, Lawrence Donegan

This didn’t stop Flitcroft from trying to later gain entry to The Open under other golfer’s names, a tactic he used to evade R&A officials who swore to keep him from their qualifying rounds after his first go.

“Undeterred, he entered the 1984 event under the name of Gerald Hoppy, a professional golfer from Switzerland - an affectation that lasted nine holes and 63 strokes, which was long enough for R&A officials to realise they had another Maurice Flitcroft on their hands. “Imagine their surprise when they discovered they had the actual Maurice Flitcroft on their hands,” he says, giggling.” — The Guardian, Lawrence Donegan

In fact, Flitcroft made qualifying for The Open a life long pursuit…

“In all he tried to enter five Opens, the last in 1990 under the pseudonym of Gene Paycheki - a golf pro from the US. He had a double bogey at the 1st hole in regional qualifying at Ormskirk and made bogey at the 2nd. He was about to hit his approach to the 3rd when an R&A official drove up in a cart and stopped in front of his ball. “He addressed me as Mr Flitcroft and I said, ‘No, my name is Gene Paycheki.’ But they told me they had recognised my son from another occasion when I’d run into them.” — The Guardian, Lawrence Donegan

Mr. Flitcroft, in what has to be one of the stranger golf tales I’ve heard, summed his golf passions up this way.

“Sure, I would have liked to have been famous for being good,” he says eventually. “But it’s quite good being famous for being bad. Despite what the R&A thought, I never set out to belittle them. Golf’s just a game and I tried my best. What did they need to get so uptight about?“

What does Mr. Flitcroft have to teach us about golf, regardless of our course prowess, playing speed, or swing? I like that he didn’t give up - it’s an attribute that many often laud over Tiger Woods, the game’s best player. He was always trying to improve his game. The ultimate definition of a hacker in my mind is one who is bad, knows it, and makes no effort to improve. Mr. Flitcroft doesn’t meet that definition and I rather liked that he saw it as a game, and one where he always tried to do his best - no matter the score posted…

Read the full article on Mr. Flitcroft here.

Dateline Augusta, Georgia - The 2007 Masters

Stuart Appleby, known on tour as ‘Apple’s” didn’t bring his big Fuji’s today, opting instead for the Granny Smiths.  Oh well, there goes another great opportunity for an Australian to don a green jacket. Despite having many of the top players on tour, the Aussie’s just can’t seem to break through on this tourny. To be honest, I thought Appleby was going to make it happen today. Well, I thought Tiger was going to win and I wasn’t routing against him but I would have loved to see Apples win. For Aussie’s, (and that’s pronounced Ozzie, not Ossie) and golf fans alike, most would argue that Geoff Ogilvy stands a better chance to grab an Agusta Greenie on behalf of Oz, given that he’s already cleared the major championship hurdle by beating out a faltering Mickelson and Monty at last year’s U.S. Open.

Zach doesn’t often thrill us with his big apples, but he was all Johnson today as the Iowan stood up to some serious pressure and showed everyone, including Tiger Woods, how to run one up the pole at Augusta. To be serious for just a moment — Congratulations Zach — GREAT win - here’s your cover (link to NY Times Article).

Photo credit: Timothy A. Clary / Agence-France Presse - Getty Images

Technorati Tags: The 2007 Masters, Zach Johnson, Stuart Appleby, Tiger Woods, Masters, The Masters

More than a few golfers have uttered our favorite golfing refrain as they’ve watched their golf ball drown in Rae’s Creek throught three rounds of The 2007 Masters. That’s Wet! I love this picture of Stuart Appleby that I saw on Golf.com’s home page which was taken by SI photographer John Biever. Today, one of our favorite Aussie players, “Apple’s” as he’s known on Tour, tries to do the unthinkable - hold off Tiger Woods, who is one stroke behind Appleby, from his next Major Championship. Good luck Apples - you’ll need it mate!

Technorati Tags: The Masters, The 2007 Masters, Stuart Appleby

Like most all golfers I’ve been in search of how to create power by lagging the clubhead behind my hands. This looks easy in pictures but it is terribly difficult to know if you are doing it right. Really, you know you’re NOT doing it right because you hit the ball an average distance (my rule of thunb for a man is 150 yards with a 7 iron). I used to hit my 7-iron that far, but over the last 5-6 years I find it’s normally more like 140 (I have a recurring swing problem of taking too much terra firma on my swings which robs distance).

When I’ve tried to create this lag power over the years I’ve used the swing tip of pulling down on the handle of the club. Doesn’t seem to work. I was reading the latest Golf Magazine (November 2006) and came across one of those ah-hah articles on creating lag power (How to create lag power -keep the club behind you for explosive power). They point out that the method of pulling down on the handle doesn’t work. That’s what hooked me. I tried out their recommended version (sans club) in my bedroom and immediately felt the difference. I haven’t yet hit a ball using this method but I can tell that it does exactly what they say it does. Now, I’m itching to go out and try it on the range. Check out the video here.