The Two Best Tournament Courses in The World
Not sure if there is a quantifiable list out there — but I believe hands down — the best tournament golf course in the world is Augusta National. I would rank St. Andrews a distant second — but without a doubt, Augusta National is my number one. I promise it’s not just because it hosts the Masters (my favorite tournament) every year. It goes much deeper than that. Augusta does something no other golf course does — it identifies the best player in the world. And it does so almost every year. Yes, that’s right – the best player in the world usually wins the Masters — or at the very least, has the chance to win. You cannot say that about any other major event or golf course.
1985 was the first year of the Sony World Rankings and the first recipient of the number one ranking was Bernhard Langer. That year, Bernhard Langer won the Masters. In 1986, Jack Nicklaus (probably the best player ever and owner of more Masters titles than any other golfer) won – but a close second was Greg Norman and in third, two strokes behind, stood Seve Ballesteros. Greg and Seve were the two best players in the world in 1986. In 1987, Larry Mize beat Norman and Ballesteros (again the two best players) in a playoff. In 1988, Sandy Lyle was the number one ranked player in the world and yes – he won the Masters. In 1989 and 90, Nick Faldo won, which vaulted him to the number one spot. In 1991, Ian Woosnam won and was also the world’s number one ranked golfer. In 1992, number one ranked Fred Couples won the Masters. Do you see the pattern? In the first 8 years of the Sony World ranking, the number one ranked golfer in the world either won or came in second — and that pattern has continued to this day
The list of winners since 92 is stellar. Tiger Woods has four victories. By the way, Tiger has been the number one ranked golfer longer than anyone in history. Vijay Singh, a former number one – is a Masters champion. The year Mark O’Meara won the Masters, he was not ranked number one, but most would agree he was the best player in the world in 1998. Phil Mickelson has won twice and although he wasn’t officially ranked number one – each time he took home the green jacket, he was undoubtedly the world’s hottest golfer.
Additionally, the top finishers each year are loaded with top ranked players; Ernie Els, David Duval, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Davis Love, and many other highly ranked players have had many chances to win at Augusta. Simply, if you are going into the Masters on top of your game, and you are one of the world’s elite – you will have a wonderful chance to either win or finish well.
In my opinion, the reason for this is the golf course. Augusta National tests all facets of the game. And more importantly, allows for recovery. U.S. Open style courses don’t allow for this style of play. If you’re not hitting fairways and greens at the U.S. Open – you’re not going to win – no matter who you are. Same with the PGA and British Open. But, at the Masters, the golf course lets the best players find a way to still compete. If they aren’t hitting it well, they can make it up with a creative short game. A well rounded golfer always has a chance to do well at Augusta — but a golfer with limitations will be exposed immediately. And when you come right down to it – that’s really what the best player in the world is – well rounded. Ball striking, course management, short game, trouble shots, putting, mental – they can do it all. And if one area of their game is off, they make it up in others. Augusta allows this.
Like I said, a distant second is St. Andrews. If the tour played there more often, it might make a better run at first place. Using the same argument as Augusta – if you look at the major events held there in the last 40 years or so – you get similar results. 1970 – Jack Nicklaus, the best player in the world won. 1978 – Nicklaus won again. 1984 – Seve Ballesteros, the best player in the world won. 1990 – Nick Faldo, the best player in the world won. 1995 – John Daly, who could sometimes play like the best player in the world, won. In 2000 and 2005, number one ranked Tiger Woods won. So it also has a history of finding the best golfer. Bobby Jones once said you could never be considered a great champion unless you won at St. Andrews. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Bobby Jones designed and built Augusta National as an homage to St. Andrews
Two courses each identifying the best players in the world – what more evidence do we need?
What do you think? Agree with my opinion? The Masters is coming up in a couple weeks. If history holds up — Look for Tiger, Phil and Ernie in a back nine battle.
Number one-seeking Els ends long drought
Before Tiger Woods, Ernie Els was the next best thing in world golf. I came across Els while covering the 1996 Alfred Dunhill Masters in Hong Kong for a local newspaper.
Els was taking part and during one press conference he got to talking about this phenomenon called Tiger Woods, who had only recently turned pro.
The Big Easy was raving on about Woods, how the young American could do things other golfers could only dream about and how he was looking forward to crossing swords with him on the golf course.
Indeed, Els has had the better of Woods on some occasions, but Tiger certainly has the upper hand in one-on-one battles. Still, Els won’t go away and, at his best, he can be a handful for any pro, Tiger included.
And just when you think the South African has faded away, he bounces back, just as he did at Palm Beach Gardens over the weekend when he triumphed in the Honda Classic.
It was his first title on the PGA Tour since the 2004 CA Championship as he shot a final round of three-under-par 67 to finish at six-under for the tournament. He was one ahead of Luke Donald, who closed with 71 and two in front of Nathan Green (67).
Els, a three-time major champion, ended a 47-tournament streak without success and can thank Mark Calcavecchia’s never-ending sand shot on the 15th that gave the South African the outright lead.
Calcavecchia was tied with Els at that point but his sand blast landed on the green and didn’t stop, the ball eventually resting on a rock ledge across the green. He double bogeyed the hole.
Els has a three-year plan to grab the world number one ranking from Woods and this victory means he is on track. He said on the PGA Tour website:
“It has to feel even sweeter, you know, losing so many tournaments and one now going my way. To win over here, it’s been really my goal. So it’s a great feeling. That’s as good as I probably could have played in the final round. So it was very satisfying.â€
Els won nearly $1 million for his victory and jumped to third in the world rankings.
Another player trying to emulate Woods is New Zealand’s Mark Brown, who is on a hot streak at the moment. Brown is hoping for his third tournament victory in a row at this week’s Malaysian Open.
Over the weekend, he won the European Tour’s Johnnie Walker Classic in New Delhi having triumphed in the Sail Open, also in India, the previous week. Woods is the only golfer to have won three in a row this year and Brown wants to do the same.
The 33-year-old was ranked 322 at the start of the year and is now 64th. No one would have bet on him three weeks ago, but it is very different now. He said on the European Tour website:
“My golfing career has been mostly down but thankfully it is now on the way up, especially these last two weeks. In the same way as I approached the Johnnie Walker Classic, it is important to get my feet back down to earth and play well in the upcoming tournaments which is what I’ll be attempting to do in Malaysia.â€
Also taking part in Malaysia is compatriot and 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy, England’s Nick Dougherty and David Howell and defending champion Peter Hedblom.
Vijay Wants to Gang Up on Tiger
Fijian Vijay Singh was the last player to dislodge Tiger Woods from the world number one spot.
Not only did he unseat the American but on the way to the top ranking, he wore a cap that had “Tiger Who?†written on it. It was his golfing skills, and not the words, that took him to the top but, without doubt, it succeeded in riling up Woods.
It is like trying to stand up to the class bully. But it worked. Singh believes that same bravado is needed if the rest of the golfing world is to catch up with Woods.
Since that brief period of Singh domination, Tiger has return to the top even more emphatically and the classroom appears to be bare in terms of boys willing to take him on.
In a BBC interview, the 11th-ranked Singh said there are too many golfers in awe of the Tiger and urged his fellow chasers to challenge Woods, who has won six consecutive tournaments. He said:
“It’s up to us to give ourselves a kick up the butt, play well and beat him. If you stay back and admire him you’re never going to get up there. That’s what is happening with a lot of players. He’s playing incredible golf and there’s nothing we can do but play better.â€
Singh was number one for a while before Woods regained the summit in March 2005. Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie is also a player who believes he can tackle Woods, and compared the American to the great Arsenal football team of 2003-04 who won the league without losing a single match. Said Monty:
“You talk about the famous Arsenal team that never lost a match but in golf terms so much can happen, so many outside influences can play a part in golf more so than any other sport. We’re talking a season without losing – and that means winning the grand slam which has never happened before – but who’s going to back against him doing that?â€
According to Vijay, everybody else should.
Is the Home of Golf Empty?
Less than a day after writing about the frustrating, if gilded, career of Sandy Lyle I find myself ruminating once more on the state of Scottish golf.
Colin Montgomerie speaking both from the heart and with sense has publicly stated his frustration with the lack of talent emerging from the home of golf:
“We’ve been going through a transition for 30 years, like our rugby team. We never come out of it, really, our transition with football is the same. There are Scottish golfers coming through but not to the same degree as the other home countries – the Irish and Welsh and English have more coming through.
We have some but there’s no one particularly coming through. My partner at the World Cup which we won in China, Marc Warren, springs to mind. He’s got great potential, only 26 years old. He’s the best of the bunch, and let’s hope we can have more of his talent coming through.
At least golf, I suppose, I’ve managed to play on the Ryder Cup team for the last few times so at least I have some representation. And if I don’t play this year, we might not have a representative, well, for the first time in modern history, so we’ve got to get going.”
Wise words that should really worry any of us that take any sort of interest in Scottish golf: which given the nation’s standing in the game should be pretty much all of us.
Let’s look back to before Monty arrived on the scene. We’ll take the Ryder Cup team of 1987 as our starting point: Ken Brown, Gordon Brand Junior, Sam Torrance and Sandy Lyle made up a Saltire clad quartet.
Now arguably some of these players never made the impact that they could have, or should have, but Scotland was still producing a quarter of the Ryder Cup team that triumphed in the US.
Ten years on and Monty was the lone Scot in the team. Now, clearly the competition has got stiffer but which Scots have actually threatened to consistently join Monty as part of Europe’s elite? Paul Lawrie won a deserved Open at Carnoustie but his was a once in a lifetime moment when fate, luck, skill and grit combined in one glorious winning moment.
Andrew Coltart joined the Monty and Lawrie for the Brookline Ryder Cup in 1999 and has enjoyed a steady if not quite inspirational career. Others have threatened a breakthrough but none have delivered on their potential.
Marc Warren seems to be the hope of the moment and he will be hoping for a good season having planned his schedule to maximise his opportunities. But his aim this year in to improve his world ranking. The Ryder Cup would be an unexpected bonus.
In 2006 Warren was named European Rookie of the Year: the eleventh Scot to be so honoured since 1966. But the trick is not to be recognised for your achievements as a rookie – it’s turning the potential into sustained success on the tour that matters.
Tellingly Monty mentions football and rugby as well. The sporting malaise has begun to cover almost every sport in the country. Maybe the training is wrong, maybe the support networks are insufficient. It is difficult to tell but something has to change. The small country argument is often used but doesn’t wash when other small countries produce better results as a matter of course. And the argument is particularly poor when there are simply so many opportunities for golfers to hone their talent across Scotland’s mammoth range of facilities.
I can only hope that Monty’s comments will stir someone into action and that the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup both being hosted in Scotland in 2014 will inspire some youngsters.
Because right now, I am afraid, for a country that has produced 55 Major winners, one grumpy tennis star and a world championship winning elephant polo team just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Meeting Triumph and Disaster With A Smile
The Big Five who dominated golf in the 1980’s ushered in a new era for the game in Europe. They stood toe to toe with America’s finest and came out on top. Seve, Faldo, Woosnam and Langer have remained, more or less, in the limelight.
We remember the genius of Seve, the dominance of Faldo, the metronomic efficiency of Langer and the ebullience of Woosnam. And now, of course, those four share the distinction of being Ryder Cup captains (so far all are unbeaten in that role).
But what of the final part of the quintet. Whatever happened to Sandy Lyle. The first Briton to win the Open for 16 years when he survived a fluffed pitch at the last to triumph in 1985. Winner of the “fifth†major when he snatched The Players’ Championship in 1987 and the first Briton to win the Masters in 1988.
Sandy Lyle was that good. Indeed Seve has conceded that if every player in the world was at their best then Lyle would emerge victorious.
Unfortunately for Lyle, however, he did not remain at his best for long. In 1989 his game collapsed. Not the gentle decline into the twilight years for him. This was a full throttle trip to the doldrums of golf.
At that time Lyle was in his early 30’s. He was seemingly ideally placed to dominate golf on both sides of the Atlantic. For some reason it didn’t happen. His competitive career effectively ended before he had reached his peak.
In his autobiography, To the Fairway Born, Lyle seems at a loss to explain what happened. He touches on reasons for the initial descent, the fatigue and strain of being Masters champion chief among them. With hindsight he concedes that he spent too long searching for answers through swing readjustments and coaching techniques. He now feels that had he simply gone back to his home course and played golf for fun with his father for three months he would have recaptured past glories.
That is an imponderable “what if†of course. And Lyle, thankfully for those spectators who followed his charming career, does not seem to live in the past. Golf, the strange game that he loved from the moment he could walk, has brought him wealth, allowed him to mingle with princes, queens and celebrities. His achievement whilst his flame shone all too briefly have also brought him immortality in his sport.
Not a bad return. But the charming, shy Lyle knows that all that is worthless unless you have something more: a loving family is the bedrock of his existence.
Lyle’s autobiography recounts these highs and lows with the charm and good humour that have marked his career. You empathise with the bad moments – and it is a mark of the man that his lowest ebb comes when he feels he must withdraw from the 1989 Ryder Cup, he does not dwell on his personal misfortune but you can feel his anguish at the thought of letting down friends and team mates – and share the joy of his achievements. And which Scot could fail to be cheered by the thought of the Champions Dinner at Augusta featuring haggis and Sandy reciting Burns?
Lyle is proof that nice guys can and do win. The friendships he formed throughout his playing career (Nick Price and Ian Woosnam were early rivals, later good friends) and the characters that make life as a travelling pro bearable are allowed to shine. Lyle, as when he was playing, is quite happy to share the limelight.
His diary of the 2006 Ryder Cup when he returned to the fold as vice captain is an excellent insider’s view of that special event. It is that tournament, perhaps more than anything else, that provide Lyle’s most lingering regrets. That, of course, could be easily rectified if the last of that awe inspiring ‘Big Five’ was to get the captaincy in 2010!
There are wilder characters on the tour. And there are more controversial golf books. But for an insight into the rise and decline of a truly great champion To the Fairway Born is hard to beat.
Woods Snares Match Play Title
Tiger Woods achieved another milestone, surpassing Arnold Palmer in tournament victories after winning his fourth straight title at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.
World number one Woods beat Stewart Cink eight and seven in the 36-hole final for his third Match Play title and earned sole fourth place on the career list with 63 PGA Tour victories. He is only one behind Ben Hogan, gradually overtaking legend after legend in his pursuit of Sam Snead’s record of 81.
After his victory in Marana, Arizona, Tiger started talking about Palmer in the same way others probably talk about him. He said on the PGA Tour website:
“I think anytime you’re associated with Arnold and what he’s done with the game of golf, it’s always a positive thing. It’s hard to believe it’s been over 50 years of him just being the flagship of golf on a global scale, not just here in the United States. He’s played all around the world and he’s carried golf. He’s what brought golf into the mainstream on TV.â€
Tiger has also won seven of his past eight events, finishing second in the one he didn’t win, and believes he is playing the best golf of his life. He says he is enjoying the fact that he has an armory of shots to choose from and the ability to correct his swing whenever something goes wrong.
It is something that Cink, and others like him, would like to have, and, indeed, the runner-up suggested cutting Woods open to see what is there. It is strange to think that Woods was close to tumbling out of the tournament in the first round when he trailed J.B. Holmes by three shots with five to play.
He then fought hard to beat Aaron Baddeley over 20 holes in the third round but Cink never managed to get so close.
With major season approaching, it seems Woods is establishing himself as a favourite to win at least a couple. But isn’t it that way any year?
Over on the European Tour, golfers are preparing for one of the highlights of the season with the Johnnie Walker Classic teeing off at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon, Delhi.
It is the first time the globe-trotting annual event is being held in India with Australia’s Adam Scott, Fijian Vijay Singh, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh among the contenders.
Also going for glory is India’s SSP Chowrasia, who won the inaugural Indian Masters recently for his first European Tour title. Anton Haig is the defending champion and he will also be in the line-up.
This is the first time that prize money won from this tournament will count towards the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. Probably because Chowrasia won so much from his Indian victory that if his rivals don’t have big money tournaments to compete in, this season’s Merit race is as good as over.
Augusta the Snake Back in Rough
Augusta is back in the rough. No, it has nothing to do with the possible layout for this year’s US Masters. It is about Augusta, the golf-ball eating snake.
If you remember a while ago, there was a couple in northern New South Wales, Australia who put some golf balls in the chicken coop in order to encourage the hens to lay some eggs.
When they returned one day, the golf balls had disappeared. Initially blaming their grandchildren, they realised what happened when they came across a lumpy carpet python.
The 80cm python had swallowed the eggs … sorry, golf balls. The serpent was sent to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for surgery to remove the golf balls.
It has been more than eight weeks now and the snake, nicknamed Augusta, “is ready to be returned to the roughâ€.
Margaret Church, who found the snake with her husband Greg, told AAP that she was happy Augusta could return to more familiar ground.
“I’m glad we found him when we did. My husband, who doesn’t mind handling snakes, picked him up, and he could feel the golf balls inside. It was a funny thing at the time.â€
I’m sure Augusta thought it was hilarious. What happened to the golf balls? Well, they were sold for A$1,401 in an online auction with the proceeds going to the building of a new animal hospital.
Not a penny is going to a new golf course, though that is not a problem in this case. What I really want to know is, did the hens ever lay eggs?
Speaking of the relationships between golf and snakes, it is not always recommended to go pick up a snake, whether his belly is full of golf balls or not.
News reaches us of South African Eugen Marugi, one of the most promising black players in his country, who was bitten on his right arm by a venomous night adder while trying to retrieve a ball at the Wild Coast Sun County Club near Port Edward.
He was rushed to hospital for anti-venom and recovered, though his arm hurt for a few days. He was taking part in the Nashua Masters when the incident happened.
Wonder what the rules of golf are for getting bit by a snake. Can one get relief, apart from anti-venom, of course?
Golf and the Meaning of Life
Where do we seek comfort and reassurance when the certainties of life crumble underneath us? For the award winning Scottish poet and novelist Andrew Greig this was the question he faced as he recovered from a potentially fatal brain condition.
The answer for Greig was to take to the golf courses of Scotland. He charts his journey in Preferred Lies: A Journey to the Heart of Scottish Golf. Along the way he discovers questions and answers that he didn’t know he was looking for.
With his mother ailing, the golf courses serve as a reminder his duties as son, both to her and to the memory of his father. His father’s benevolent ghost haunts the book as it haunts Greig. As he conquers his own fears about learning to live again, his fears for his mother and his sadness for his father this becomes more than a golf book.
It is a book about life, a book about death. Eventually as his random tour of Scottish golf ends it is clear that it is very much also a book about living.
As a guide to the courses of Scotland this is quirky. Royal Dornoch features but so to does Bathgate and the less visited courses of Ronaldsay and Iona. Greig covers the rich variety of Scottish golf – and in doing so perhaps captures the very essence of the game in Scotland: the variety of courses and players makes golf in Scotland a unique experience.
Along the way he hooks up with a crowd of Buddhist golfers. Is this the spiritual moment when golf merges with something intangible and become a metaphysical experience? Not really. But this strange collection of people (brought to life warmly and amusingly) do teach Greig to relax and have fun on the course. Perhaps that is a more valuable discovery.
From his reaction to his illness to his facing down of his school day demons whilst playing Dollar, Greig delivers a narrative and prose that lift this above most sports books. The weaker moments comes as he describes some of his rounds in great detail (shot by shot accounts of rounds are dull in anybody’s hands), the strongest when golf becomes the lens through which he considers his relationships.
As he plays with old friends and his family, as he considers his mother and feels the shadow of his father and as he savours the family that he has recovered to enjoy, Greig’s journey takes him to his own heart.
And if he fails to find the heart of Scottish golf then that, in the grand scheme of things, hardly matters. If you do choose to use this book as a guide book then, like a kaleidoscope throwing pieces in the air to achieve something truly beautiful, you will enjoy a strange and wondrous journey in the home of golf.
If not then sit back and enjoy a man learning to live again, taught – as had been as a child – by the frustrations, joys, characters and scenery of the game of his homeland.
Sorenstam Makes Swift Return to Winning Ways
The mark of a champion is to state your intentions of victory and then letting your ability do most of the talking.
This is exactly what Annika Sorenstam has done. After an horrendous 2007 in which she failed to win a trophy, the former world number one teed up for the first time in 2008 at the SBS Open, determined to use the Hawaii event as a springboard for her comeback.
She won the season-opening tournament at Turtle Bay Resort with birdies on two of the last three holes for a closing round of three-under 69. That gave her a total of 10-under 206 and a two-stroke victory over rookie Rusy Gulyanamitta, Laura Diaz and Jane Park.
It was her 70th professional victory and provided a major confidence booster as she tries to reclaim the number one spot from Lorena Ochoa, who was the dominant LPGA player last year with eight titles.
Sorenstam was clearly delighted with her victory, being quoted on cybergolf as saying:
“I could not have asked for a better start. We all have talked so much about ’07. I think it’s time to talk about ’08. And obviously I could not have – my clubs do the talking this particular week. I’m obviously very, very thrilled. It’s great to win tournaments. There’s some tournaments that mean a little bit more and they come at a special time. I would say this is one of them.â€
Ochoa was not in Hawaii because she is saving herself for a new tournament in Singapore, but it was still a key triumph for Sorenstam, who was held back last year by neck and back injuries.
Also returning to winning ways was world number two men’s player Phil Mickelson, who triumphed at the Northern Trust Open on the PGA Tour at Riviera Country Club.
Mickelson finished at one-under 70 for a 12-under total of 272 and a two-stroke victory over Jeff Quinney. British Open champion Padraign Harrington and Luke Donald tied for third at 277.
On the men’s European Tour, Chilean Felipe Aguilar of Chile sank a five-foot putt for birdie on the final hole to win the Indonesian Open at the Cengkareng Golf Club.
He finished with a two-under-par 68 for a four-round total of 18-under-par 262 and a one-stroke victory over India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who led at the 18th but narrowly missed out on a play-off after his par putt lipped out.
Are You Confused By Red And Yellow Stakes?
For as long as I have been playing golf there has always been confusion over the rulings for red and yellow stakes, or to put it more accurately “Water Hazards” and “Lateral Water Hazards”.
I recently ran across the same confusion again in the email below, so please read on to ensure you are absolutely clear on this particular rule of golf:
RULES OF GOLF QUESTION:
“This question came up recently while golfing.
We were on a par 3 with a water hazard between the tee and the green.
One player’s tee shot went into the water hazard.
She proceeded to tee up her second ball and put it on the green.
When playing this course before, we dropped a ball 2 club lengths before the hazard taking a penalty and then finished playing out the hole.
She said the rule had been changed and we can now tee up the second ball instead of dropping the ball near the hazard.
Is this correct or is this a local rule?”
RULES OF GOLF ANSWER:
“If your ball is in a water hazard you can certainly play another ball from the tee under penalty of one stroke, as this is one of the options under Rule 26-1 Relief for Ball in Water Hazard.
The Rule says; “Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played”.
However, unless the water hazard in front of the par-3 in question is a lateral water hazard (red stakes instead of yellow stakes) you cannot drop a ball two club-lengths before the hazard.
The only other relief option when your ball is in a water hazard (yellow stakes), under penalty of one stroke, is to drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped.
If the hazard is a lateral water hazard (red stakes) under penalty of one stroke, you can drop a ball WITHIN two club-lengths of the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard, not nearer the hole.”
This may sound a little complicated, but it is a very important Rule to understand, as sooner or later we all put our balls in water hazards!
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Disclaimer: Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of this information on the Rules of Golf I am human and have been known to be wrong! Neither I, nor anyone connected with GolfSwingSecretsRevealed.com, shall be held responsible for any losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy or reliability of such information. Readers should refer to the full text of the rules and decisions as published in the official publications of the R&A and the USGA, The Rules of Golf 2008-2011 and Decisions on the Rules of Golf 2008-2009.
The Penalty For Hitting Your Golf Bag With Your Tee Shot
Hi, it’s Barry here, this week I answered another interesting question on The Rules of Golf:
RULES OF GOLF QUESTION:
“A player leaves his bag in the middle of the next fairway as his next tee shot will come back past where he has left his bag. If the same player hits his bag with his tee shot is their a penalty? Also if his oponnent hits this bag with his tee shot is there a penalty shot for him or the owner of the bag?”
RULES OF GOLF ANSWER:
“Good questions! There certainly is a penalty when the player hits his own bag with his ball following any stroke made on the course. Your question inferred match play by the use of the word opponent. Until 1st January 2008 this would have meant a penalty of loss of hole (two strokes in stroke play) but under the new Rules for 2008-2011 the penalty has been reduced to one stroke in both formats (Rule 19-2).
The second part of your question is also interesting as, in match play, if the player hits his opponent’s equipment (or the opponent himself!) there is no penalty but the player may cancel his stroke and play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played, or he may play the ball as it lies (Rule 19-3).
In the same situation in stroke play it is rub of the green and the ball has to be played as it lies (Rule 19-4).”
Visit here for more Rules of Golf questions.
Disclaimer: Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of this information on the Rules of Golf I am human and have been known to be wrong! Neither I, nor anyone connected with GolfSwingSecretsRevealed.com, shall be held responsible for any losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy or reliability of such information. Readers should refer to the full text of the rules and decisions as published in the official publications of the R&A and the USGA, The Rules of Golf 2008-2011 and Decisions on the Rules of Golf 2008-2009.
Sorenstam Wants Quick Return to the Top with ‘Annika Golf’
Very good athletes are usually quite prudent at setting immediate goals when it comes to launching a comeback.
Be it because of injury, poor form or a sabbatical, even the elite sportsmen and women are humble about their hopes as they take tentative steps on the comeback trail.
But then there is Annika Sorenstam. No hanging around for the former world number one player who failed to win anything last year.
Nope, Sorenstam wants everything – the money list, tournaments and the top ranking.
The Swede, who last year was without a trophy for the first time since her rookie season in 1994, is ready to take on her heir apparent, Lorena Ochoa, as well as other young guns in the form of Suzann Pettersen and Paula Creamer.
Which is why she is starting her season early this year with the SBS Open in Turtley Bay, Hawaii, the season-opening event of the LPGA Tour.
In an article that appeared in the Canadian Press and other news outlets, Sorenstam was quoted as saying:
“I’d like to win the money list. I’d like to win tournaments. I want to go back to the top. It is tough out here. There’s no doubt about it. I’m just looking forward to playing my own game. I haven’t played good golf for quite some time so that’s really my goal, to play ‘Annika golf’.â€
Sorenstam played only 13 events last year, having been slowed down by neck and back problems. It was not long ago that Sorenstam was as dominant in the women’s game as Tiger Woods is with the men.
Indeed, the pair would send text messages after winning majors as they tried to outdo each other. She briefly took the lead when she won her 10th but Tiger has since surged past and stands at 13.
Ochoa, who won eight tournaments last year, makes her season debut at the HSBC Women’s Champions tournament in Singapore while Creamer is in Hawaii to defend her title.
A Welcome National Obsession
Why golf? I can’t answer that question, it only throws up more unanswerable questions. Why should golf, a game whose true intricacies I will probably never master, exert such a hold over me?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. The winter and a new career in the voluntary sector have conspired to keep me indoors. The trials and tribulations of securing funding and a good blast of Scottish weather have made golf take a back seat.
And yet it’s always there. Perhaps the absence magnifies its looming presence. Why is it that as I snatch a few moments at my desk in the evening, writing for fun or for money (or both) the picture that grabs me is not of the football or rugby legends but the golfing legend I have never met. Jack Nicklaus, who in my unofficial hero’s gallery is probably the man I have least in common with, is the one I admire the most (this might be partly because a sympathetic lady member once told me on the putting green that my grip reminded her of the Golden Bear).
Why is it that not having played for a few months the new mind plan that gave me a reasonable season last year (playing the averages, staying calm) has been replaced in my mind’s eye by a new risk taking power game that I have neither the skill or a good enough back to pull off?
Why do the badminton racquet, tennis racquet and bowls that I have used more often in the past few months remain in the car boot but the golf clubs sit in the hallway, putter and balls out and asking for a few moments of practice?
Last weekend my brother came to stay. We made no decision about his impending stag weekend. But we are now committed to spending a weekend playing the course that we grew up on before he gets married. Neither of us have played there for ten years. Yet we could remember every hole, we could discuss the best approach to each hole, we could recall in incredible detail our finest displays on each of those holes (and some of our worst ones as well!).
I can still remember the first birdie I got on another course: not the name of the course (it was in Yorkshire) but I can still see the three wood, seven iron and five foot putt. I can still remember the feeling. I can remember shots I hit playing at Whitby with a Richard Briers lookalike whose name I never knew.
I can remember playing in Dumfries and Galloway with my granddad and brother, at first using cut down clubs. I can remember my first golf shoes (Dunlop, cheap and cheerful in a blister inducing way).
I remember my first driving range (out by Edinburgh Airport – followed by a meal in the airport which always seemed to taste better than any of it does now.) Or practicing on the open area next to Cockenzie Power Station. Or devising an elaborate course in the back garden to stage, and win, my own Open (and the feeling of wonder when I realised those plastic balls could easily clear the house and that the 18th hole could be truly spectacular if the green was placed in the front garden!).
I can remember my friend getting a bunker shot horribly wrong and smacking the head of the coolest boy in school. Our horror, the laughter of the men on the tee behind us and the realisation that a Maxfli to the back of the head must hurt like hell. I remember feeling hugely excited when I met Brett Ogle at the Open qualifiers held at Gullane and, five years before, insane jealously that my brother was actually working at the qualifiers at Longniddry.
And yet I can barely remember the games of rugby and football I played. I can hardly remember a game of bowls when I step off the green. And at school I was never the most dedicated player. Only occasionally would I be one of the juniors that played two or three rounds a day in the summer holidays. Never did I harbour hopes of being a professional. My parents never played the game. So why the obsession?
Maybe it is in the blood. Colin Montgomerie recently spoke of golf as being almost Scotland’s national game. Perhaps each of us feels an ownership of the game. My non playing dad is knowledgable and appreciative of the game. My non playing mother and grandmother used to love going to the Open practice rounds at Muirfield.
And, the funny thing is, I don’t think it’s unhealthy. I think we should rejoice that we are the home of this great game. That even now players, good and bad, and millionaires and billionaires want a small piece of Scotland to recognise our role in the game.
And I feel proud that Scottish galleries are so often praised for their knowledge and appreciation of golf. Not just of the holes in one and the target golf but of the gritty round when a players luck has blown away in the fierce seaside wind and scrapping is the only way to succeed. So let Scotland rejoice in our unwitting obsession and realise that golf lets the world see the best of us.
Chasing Pack Trip Up in Pursuit of Tiger
How do you psyche yourself up to compete with a phenomenon? Do you meekly concede defeat and scrap it out for the best of the rest crown? Do you fire up your own belief by shouting from the rooftops about how you are, indeed, a contender?
A tricky one that. Recent weeks have seen both routes traversed. Both, strangely, with the same outcome.
The latter first. Ian Poulter, for once putting his mouth where his trousers are, predicts that he, and he alone, can face down Tiger and come out on top. The interesting part of Poulter’s approach was that he didn’t for a moment question how good Woods is. Rather he conceded Tiger’s genius and immediately placed himself on the same vaunted pedestal.
The backlash was immediate. Poulter was forced to retract his comments and claim he was misquoted (incidentally journalists should really produce tape recordings or transcripts the minute a sportsmen uses the misquoted argument). A swift turnaround and Poulter was once again bowing at the regal spiked feet of King Tiger.
But could Poulter, misquoted or not, have been on to something? Is the way to beat Tiger to imagine him as a mere mortal? After all, given current form Poulter was really just, verbally, drawing Tiger back into the chasing pack. It’s easier to beat one of your own kind than it is to beat Superman.
The second approach came from Thomas Bjorn. A unique insight this because Bjorn has actually gone head to head with Tiger over four rounds and won. Not just lived to tell the tale, or hung to the divine being’s coattails, actually scored a real victory.
How that experience has translated into how Thomas feels now is unknown:
“The sooner people accept that we are second best, the more chance they have to live up to our potential. If you are trying to beat him, good luck. You are not going to do it. He is not going to let you. I don’t think that is defeatist – it is realistic.â€
As a general rule Thomas might do well to remember that if you have to claim something is not defeatist at the end of the quote then the listening public will probably already have decided that what you said is, in fact, defeatist.
Now of the two approaches let it be said that Bjorn is probably, in his own pragmatic way, right. Woods is miles ahead of the rest. Frighteningly so. But should his competitors say that?
I look at my experience of football: Scottish football, for so long dominated by two big clubs, is beginning to throw up more shocks. The big two still have the clout and the money but the smaller clubs now have a belief that on their day they can compete. Rangers and Celtic still dominate but they suffer more frights now than they have done in years.
That said we would still feel that a manager of another club coming out and saying that they were going to reel them in as a monstrous display of hubris, one which in true Scottish Protestant style, would be punished by said manager falling flat on his face. Yet which supporters would want their manager to say at the start of the season that they had no chance? That is not the message you want to send out.
If Poulter’s words were a mildly amusing irritant to Tiger then surely Bjorn’s are music to his ears. If the field turns up feeling beaten it makes actually beating them a whole lot easier.
So which approach is right? Probably neither: one is to lose before you hit a shot, the other is too look stupid before you pull on your tartan trews.
The right approach? Maybe, just maybe, a dose of Scottish realism will steal the day:
“I am not going to beat Tiger Woods by hitting the ball any further than him or hitting my irons any better than him or by holing any more putts than he does. I am not going to beat him physically or mentally. The only way I am going to beat Tiger Woods is playing like Colin Montgomerie.”
So said the old European warhorse. Once again Monty might be on to something.
Chowrasia Joins Indian Greats on European Tour
Shivshankar Chowrasia added his name to an elite band of Indian golfers who have triumphed on the European Tour when he lifted the Indian Masters title at the Delhi Golf Club on Sunday.
The son of a greenkeeper, 29-year-old Chowrasia delighted the crowd, who had hoped to see a local winner in this inaugural tournament.
He did not disappoint as he joined Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal as the three Indians who have chalked up European Tour victories.
The triumph gave him a winner’s purse of $416,660 as well as a three-year exemption on the Tour.
Chowrasia played a brilliant short game to shoot a final round of five-under-par 67 for a four-round total of nine-under 279 and a two-stroke victory over Ireland’s Damien McGrane, who closed with 70.
Spain’s Jose Mauel Lara was third on 283 after shooting 72 in his last round with overnight leader Raphael Jacquelin, of France, settling for tied fourth on 284 with India’s Digvijay Singh.
Jacquelin, who was looking good for another European Tour victory, fell out of the reckoning with a 74.
Chowrasia, who rose from the caddie ranks, was delighted with his victory and hopes he can inspire others from his former profession to take up the game. He said on the Asian Tour website:
“Right now, my mind is totally blocked because I’m not able to think of anything. More and more caddies will now take up the game and they will also feel that they can also do well if they start playing and working at it.â€
The tournament is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and represents its first event of the season.
On the PGA Tour, 47-year-old Steve Lowery won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am after defeating Vijay Singh in the first extra hole of a play-off.
Lowery trailed Singh by three shots in the final round but hit back as both players finished on 10-under-par 278 for a tie.
Lowery then birdied the first extra hole to claim victory. It was his first tournament triumph in 14 years and he rates this one as bigger, simply because of the way he has had to fight back from difficult times. He said on the PGA Tour website:
“After what I’ve been through, the injury, at times I didn’t play very well. This is absolutely the most meaningful. This course. Over Vijay. I told my family if I win this tournament, it is because of the bounce-backs after the double-bogeys.â€
That was in reference to the two double-bogeys he had during the same third round, which he used as inspiration to launch a fightback and reel in Singh.
Lowery finished with a 68 while Singh had a 71. Tied for third were Corey Pavin, John Mallinger and Dudley Hart, all of whom ended on 279 for the tournament.
