The Morning After on TSE - 8.13.2007

Well, I'm back from vacation, where I was supposed to play golf at any number of nice courses in the Carolinas. Needless to say, the heat index was somewhere around 115 degrees all week, which barely made it tolerable to swim in the bath water that was the Atlantic Ocean so much of my vacation was spent watching TV, drinking Yuengling, and reading Mahler's "The Bronx is Burning", which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Speaking (kinda) of golf...

Did anybody even watch the PGA Championship this weekend? If so, please comment as to why. Because there is nothing, friends, more exciting than watching every golfer watch Tiger Woods and what he did this weekend in Tulsa.  Sarcasm aside, Tiger Woods is your PGA Champion, giving him a win and two runners-up for the 2007 Majors.  On the large, that's a pretty mediocre year for the stripped one, considering the two #2 finishes came with Tiger leading for a portion on Sunday.  But Tiger was unbeatable this weekend, which was set up nicely by his round on Friday.  He shot 63 at Southern Hills and missed a putt on 18 that would have given him a score that would have more closely resembled a score from Tiger's video game.  It was academic after that with the rest of the field is wilting like Brady Quinn against any kind of good college football team.

All told, that is 13 for Tiger, 5 shy of Jack's immortal 18 majors.  Which gets me thinking about next year.  Tiger is easily the favorite in, well, anything he does, from table tennis against Lephty McBigboobs to major championship golf.  If he puts it together next year and wins the Grand Slam (entirely possible, considering the lineup of courses: Augusta, Torrey Pines, Royal Birkdale and Oakland Hills) then that puts Jack record on life support.  We're talking about a record that was nigh unbreakable in 1929 when Hagen posted his 11th title and a new mark that was set at Augusta in 1986.  As of right now, in two years, that record could be out the window.

I'll anoint Tiger Woods as the greatest golfer ever right now.  I have no problem with that, but I still think Jack is the greatest Major golfer ever.  It's a point I've made before: Jack came from behind to win 8 of his majors and was the runner up in 19 times.  Though the latter is more a longevity mark than a talent mark, the former certinaly is not.  Face it: if Tiger has a 54-hole lead then it's over and done with.  Start engraving the trophy and writing out the winner's check to Mr. Woods.  With Jack, however, there weren't any guarantees like that, save for the fact that he was good enough to finish in the top-2 37 times with 18 wins.  I want to see Tiger come from behind [Ed. note: on Elin] just once.  When that's all said and done, if Tiger has a line like that, then they might as well rename the sport "Eldrick".

Props to Matt Sussman at The Futon Report and the Deadspin linkage this weekend.  Glad I could shed some light on why Sergio might have shitted the shit out of his bed this weekend.

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TSE Week in Golf - The [British] Open Championship

The British Open Championship is well on its way as I type this, a fact that I only recently figured out, what with Carnoustie being five hours ahead of us here in the States. That said, I probably should have written this yesterday. But I was too lazy to do work, both here and at work so here we are.

Awfully boring tangents aside, The British Open is the year's third Major championship and we're coming off of two majors that have left a lot of people, myself included, wanting. First it was Zach "Jesus Jesus Jesus" Johnson winning at Augusta. Then it was the collapse of the field and the lone, chain-smoking Argentine on tour besting The US Open. So here we are, at Carnoustie for the first time since 1999's debacle (more on that later). Needless to say, things have changed a little bit in the last 8 years.

The fairways that seemed about as wide as my arm in 1999 have been widened. The rough that was about as high as the television tower has been cut. The wee burn that gave way to the greatest collapse in golf history is still there but after 1999, I doubt we'll ever see the kind of cringing delight that was Jean Van de Velde's demise 8 years ago. Simply put, it looks like the biggest factor, as is the case with most British Opens, will be the weather.

On Wednesday, it was sunny, calm and perfect golf weather, especially for the links-style of course that lay ahead of this year's participants. For round one, however, the classic weather of the British Isles, of which all golf fans are aware exists during late July, has returned. Cold and rainy was day one at Carnoustie, requiring the golfers to layer their clothing and even forcing Tiger into a pair of mittens between shots. This weather is supposed to continue into the weekend: welcome to Scotland in July.

Van de Velde's collapse on the 72nd hole in 1999 is still one of my favorite moments in golf history and provided some of the more lasting images from the tournament. Imagine, needing a double to win the Open and you card a +3. I still get a kick out of Rick Reilly's take on the end of the 1999 Open today, which is why the Open is such an important tournament. 8 years later we're still talking about Van de Velde. We still remember Daly's win at St. Andrews in 1995. Duval getting his major before his career went to hell in 2001. And Ostrander, Ohio native Ben Curtis in 2003. Tom Watson's utter domination of the Open in the 1970s and 1980s. Jack at St. Andrews...golfers and golf fans alike remember all of these things from this tournament.

So who's your winner this weekend? The obvious choice (go ahead and read any preview that's been published recently) is Tiger Woods, in search of his third consecutive Claret Jug. He has consecutive runners-up this year so a win certainly seems like it's due. So save for Tiger, who else can win this thing? To the leaderboard we go.

As of 1:00pm EST, your leaders are Paul McGinley (in the clubhouse with a 67) and Sergio Garcia who's matched McGinley's -4 through 12 holes. Both of these players are capable, but let's face it: you always see a name like McGinley's or Marcus Brier's (-3, 68) on the top page this early. Of those three, I'd stick with Sergio, unless he starts trolling for gallery ass again.

As for El Tigre? He's sitting pretty with a 2-under 69 (giggity), right where he wants to be. Though he's gotten some help in the form of a free drop early in the round and a 90-foot (!!) birdie toward the end of the round. Lephty is also under par on his round, at -1 so far.

My pick for the week is K.J. Choi. So far this year, he's won tournaments hosted by the likes of Jack Nicklaus (The Memorial) and Tiger Woods (The National), so it makes sense that his next win may be hosted by the Royal and Ancient. In round 1, Choi matched Tiger at -2.

The weekend at Carnoustie awaits...

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Update: 2007 US Open Update: Round 2

Update: Angel Cabrera is unimpressed with your pithy little Oakmont course. He's your leader as we aproach the allmighty 5:00pm (when I finally get to go home). Stephen Ames and David Toms are also having splendid rounds today. Everyone else is falling apart right now and the cut is still at +10, but with scores going up, it's looking like Tits McLephty may yet play golf this weekend...Tiger is +2 on his round today but still lurking in the tall grass, waiting to trample and disembowel whomever remains (read: he's still probably going to win this whole thing on Saturday and Sunday, as so many prognosticators have...um...prognosticated).

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Sean O'Hair has some serious running to do. Currently, through 17 holes of "golf" he's en route to a gentleman's 80. 80. That's a large number, among several on the board today. Here's your leaderboard (as of posting) and some other notable rounds that didn't put it in my fantasy golf league pooper. (Full, updating leaderboard here)

1. Nick Dougherty - E (+2 today, through 7)
1. Ben Curtis - E (-1, 5)
1. Niclas Fasth - E (-1, 2)
4. Bubba Watson - +1 (+1, 8)
4. Pablo Martin - +1 (E, 5)
4. El Tigre - +1 (E, 5)
4. David Toms - +1 (-1, 4)
38. Jim Furyk - +6 (F)
61. Zach Johnson - +8 (+2, 6)

The Cut is looking like +10 right now, which means the following players can probably go ahead and buy some Pirates tickets for the weekend.

Phil Mickelson (+11 at least he hasn't gone off of any man-made structures yet.), Stewart Cink (+12), Sean O'effhimself (+13), Adam Scott (+18!!!), Jacob Rogers (+28, low man on the totem pole).

Tiger's within striking distance (my least favorite golf metaphor), which could spell trouble for everybody else. And what the hell is (Ostrander, OH native) Ben Curtis doing on page 1 of another major? I would have put dollars to donuts he would be fighting for a card in Q-school by now. One of these weeks, I'm going to pick him and he's going to go ahead and fall in a ditch, drown in a creek, get attacked by a barracuda and then dragged off by a mountain lion. That's the kind of power I have in jinxing golfers for my fantasy league. more...

TSE Week in Golf - The 2007 United States Open Championship

I'll stay away from a full and in depth preview (if you want one, try here, or here) but it goes without saying that anytime a major comes about, it is certainly worth posting about, and thus here we are. Jed made us aware of his thoughts on this tournament (I'm a Masters fan myself, if only because I hate NBC's golf coverage) but it is almost certainly worth watching this weekend. The biggest reason is the venue.

Oakmont, in the eyes of the pros, will be very, very difficult this week. The rough will seem like it's knee-high, the greens will be like putting on ice and only the most consistently precise ball-striker will be able to score this week (sounds like my last two girlfriends, but seriously). Basically, there's potential for the pros to go around and, while their scorecards won't necessarily say what yours would, the way they're playing will. Imagine, if you will, easy-swinging Ernie Els putzing around your local muni course and shooting 10-over per side. If you ask the pros, there is a strong likelihood that this could happen.

So for some predictions, I've gone ahead and scanned the Internets. Here we go:

T.J. Auclair (PGATour.com) : Tiger Woods

Cameron Morfit (GOLF Magazine): Padraig Harrington

David Dusek (GOLF.com Editor): Jim Furyk

Alan Shipnuck (SI): Zach Johnson (if there's a God, I hope not)

Gary Van Sickle (SI): Steve Stricker

Jason Sobel (ESPN.com): Jim Furyk

John Antonini (Golf World): Ernie Els

There are plenty more people picking Tiger, but this was a good smattering and who's not for a little variety (wait, how many Sopranos posts did we have on Monday?) from time to time? My pick was between Sean O'Hair and Reteif Goosen and I'm taking O'Hair, who has played well throughout his rookie year (with a win at the John Deere, no less) and seems ready for a major breakthrough (see what I did there?) and on a course where everyone is going to play like dogshit, I'll take the guy who is most afraid of going over par.

The US Open begins tomorrow at 7am. We'll be updating throughout the rest of the week and weekend.

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