Oosthuizen has a great day, wins British Open

Congratulations to Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa for his dominating victory at the British Open! Oosthuizen beat one of the best fields of the year by 7 shots, which is a huge margin of victory in one of the greatest golf events in the world all year.

Oosthuizen rises from a merely great player to one of the superstars of the game with this major victory. For those who don’t follow pro golf, there are 4 Majors each year. They are the Masters, U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA. A victory in one of these events is the kind of achievement that elevates a player to elite status.

Oosthuizen is not the first relative unknown to make it big by winning the British Open. Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, and Paul Lawrie also came to prominence by winning this great event.

Oosthuizen’s life will change forever as a result of this great victory. Congratulations.

British Open a great show

Every year, I look forward to watching the British Open on TV. The 5 hour time difference between the UK and our time zone makes for some convenient viewing. The tourney is on when I get up, and lasts until late, especially when including replays.

It seems like every year, there is a player who is not so well known holding the lead after the first or second round of play. This year, it’s Louis Oosthuizen, a great young player from South Aftica. He benefitted hugely from the timing of his first two rounds, when the conditions were not as severe as for many of the other players.

As always, we’ll have to see how it plays out, but it should be a great show no matter what.

Suggestions for speeding play

Our golf league, the Montgomery Golf Association, has taken steps this year to try to speed play. At the league’s annual meeting earlier this year, league President Dave Keightly (the undersigned), Vice President Kevin O’Connor, and Treasurer Joe Ochotny decided we could improve the enjoyment of the members if we could find ways to speed up play. Under the direction of league administrator Eric Holmquist, we have tracked the time spent to play various matches, and are evaluating the data as it comes in.

This ongoing process has given me the impetus to write down some suggestions for players on how to speed up the play. These ideas have been compiled from memories of some 35 years of caddying, playing, and watching golf. I hope other folks will chime in with other ideas.

First, hit the ball in play. If everybody hits their ball in the fairway, on the green, or somewhere else where it is easy to see and find, the single greatest time waster, looking for wild shots, is eliminated. Don’t go accusing me of hypocrisy here: I know I can hit some of the most ridiculously errant golf shots ever seen. But still, if everyone knows where their ball is, things move more quickly.

Second, if you do hit your ball somewhere ugly, don’t spend a lot of time looking for it. If you stink at this game, like me, you don’t need to play with expensive golf balls. Throw down another ball, and get on with it.

If your ball is somewhere where the cart can’t be taken, for whatever reason (cart path only, another fairway, too wet), and you are not sure what club you need, take a few clubs with you and use the one you decide on. Don’t walk back and forth to the cart a few times.

Once you are done with the hole, get the heck off the green, and away from it, so the next group can play. There will be plenty of time to write the scores on the card at the next tee.

You don’t need to re-arrange your golf bag after every shot, especially not during the middle of the hole. Just put your club back in the bag, get back in the cart, and move on. Your cart mate probably wants to get to his ball and hit, not wait for you to fiddle with your clubs.

Put your clubs or bag down in the direction you will be going after the shot is finished. If you have a wedge that you used, and now you are putting, put the wedge in the direct path you will be walking to the next tee. Not only will this save time, but it will help to prevent losing clubs.

Get a Sharpie. Put your initial or some other mark on every ball you use. This helps in several ways. First, there will be no doubt whose ball it is. I write a K on every ball. Others use dots. One friend even writes his full name, which really eliminates any doubt. Marking your ball will also hopefully eliminate the dunces on the other hole who come across your ball from picking it up. A plain Titleist Pro V 1 x is easy to confuse. The same ball with “Dave” written on it is not. Marking your ball may also prevent an ugly incident like I just heard of, where a player forfeited a hole because he hit the wrong ball. It wouldn’t have happened if he had marked his ball.

Listen, I know I am not the fastest player out there, so don’t get all over me about that. But I do know some ways to speed things up. It is not meant to insult you. It’s meant to help you and the others on the course.

League leaders, fellow golfers, readers, and friends, I’m asking you, please: Send in your suggestions for speeding up play. We will pass them along. Thanks.

A few suggestions for next year

As much as I love this tournament, I do have a few suggestions I’d like to make it even better.
First of all, the published parking options were not good. The free parking was in Oaks, with shuttle busses going back and forth. Oaks is 15 miles from the course. I can only imagine how long that took through crowded roads, especially at rush hour. I’d like to see lots much closer to the course next year. I figure that organizers did look into that, but maybe they can try again now that they have experience in the area and a year to prepare.
I’d also like to see the tour assign volunteers to rake the traps after a player hits a ball in and out of there. Of course, the caddies do this job now, but sometimes, they must lag behind their player to get this done. Most of the volunteers are enthusiastic golfers anyway, and any additional training needed could be done easily.
There should be water fountains out on the course. It wasn’t overly hot our there this week, but it was brilliantly sunny, and water should have been available to the fans to refill their water bottles. There was water available at the concession stands, but it still should have been provided. It’s going to be really hot today, and I’d hate to see or hear of a fan getting sick because of a lack of water.

AT&T National a great logistical success

I can’t say enough good things about the AT&T National, played at Aronimink in Delaware County this week, to really get the point across about how great an event this was. But maybe a few observations will give the readers some idea.
First of all, the presence of Tiger Woods meant this event would be a success. Tiger draws fans and viewers like no other player I have ever seen, including the greatest player ever, Jack Nicklaus.
The logistics that go into this are vast and complicated. Somebody had to arrange the parking, shuttle busses, traffic control, courtesy cars, police presence, and other security.
Someone had to arrange for all of the concession stands, including proper locations on and off the course, bringing the products in, arranging for workers or volunteers to man the stores, trash disposal, and accounting.
A new development in fan comfort, and doubtlessly income generation, were the grandstands around some holes, which had ordinary seating down below, and luxury boxes up above. These structures looked so good they appeared to be permanent, but, of course, they are not. They will be taken down, transported, and erected at some tour stop later on the calendar.
All of the marshals had to be recruited, signed up, outfitted, instructed, and scheduled. Near the main entrance to the tournament, there is a huge banner, probably 40 feet high by 10 feet wide, which acknowledges the many volunteers by name.
All of the cables for TV had to be planned, laid out, and connected. The broadcast towers had to be erected, and the TV equipment had to be brought in, set up, and tested. The MetLife blimp had to be scheduled, manned, and brought here.
I’m sure this only scratches the surface of the many details that go into a national event like this, but maybe it give you some idea of how complicated it is.
Props to PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and his staff for doing such a good job running the show.

Great Tournament!

The AT&T National is not the greatest golf tournament I’ve ever been to, but it is very, very good. Of course, the presence of Tiger Woods, the greatest player in the game, has a lot to do with that. Tiger is not the only great player there, though.

Former major champions Vijay Singh, Justin Leonard, Davis Love, III, Jim Furyk, and Lee Janzen, to name just a few, add to the attractiveness of the tournament.

Once Tiger Woods finished play Friday, his loyal following was free to disburse into other mini-throngs. It was interesting to see where they went and who they watched. Rickie Fowler seemed to attract a crowd, and the Sean O’Hair group was popular. Fowler is a great young player developing a bit of a reputation for his color coordinated outfits. O’Hair is from the area, and looks like he could be a superstar within the next couple of years.

There has been a lot of talk in the media about whether Tiger Woods would be jeered because of his marital problems. I didn’t hear even one incident of rude behavior. There was a lot of talk among the fans about his reported divorce settlement of $775 million. But it was in the context of “Holy smokes, it’s amazing that he can even stand up straight after giving away $775 million”.

Tiger F-bombs after terrible wedge shot

Tiger Woods is one of the greatest athletes of our time, and I don’t care one iota about his personal problems. But he did say that he was going to take a nicer approach out to the course with him this year.
I was about 40 feet away from him when, on the 16th hole today, Tiger hit a terrible wedge shot from about 100 yards out. He missed the green, dumping the ball in the bunker. My head was turned toward the hole, away from him watching the ball. I heard a loudly shouted F-bomb, and turned to see him stalking toward the hole with his club on the ground. He had evidently tossed it to the ground.
Frankly, it was a little upsetting to see Tiger hit such a terrible shot, and then react like he had pledged not to. There were some young kids in the area who may have heard the outburst.
On the other hand, it was kind of refreshing to see that the greatest player in the world can hit a shot just as badly as I would have hit it, and then reacted to it like my usual golf buddies.

Tiger's star power is fascinating

The charisma and magnetism of Tiger Woods is a phenomenon. I have never seen a star of any kind draw people to him like this man.

Today at Aronimink, like at most tournaments he plays in, Tiger’s galleries are bigger and more enthusiastic by at least 7 or 8 times more than any other player. It is a practical impossibility to follow him around the course, because a sizable portion of the entire fan base is around him. They move as a pack, and you can see them coming from a distance.

There were a lot of very good players out there today, but nobody came close to drawing the kind of attention he does. And he drew this much attention even though more than half the field scored better than he did.

I encourage every sports fan to go and watch this amazing person and observe the aura around him. But you’d better get there tomorrow, because if he doesn’t play better tomorrow than he did today, you won’t get to see him Saturday or Sunday.

AT&T looks to be a big success

It looks like the AT&T National, which is being played this week at Aronimink near Newtown Square, is going to be a fabulous success. I think it’s pretty obvious that the participation of golf’s biggest star, Tiger Woods, is a key factor in that success.

Aronimink is a wonderful golf course, which seems to be set up at almost U.S. Open conditions. A few guys were 4 under today, but many didn’t break par. The weather was perfect. The fans were abundant, well mannered, enthusiastic, and happy. My impression is that the tourney is as well managed as any I’ve been to.

Tiger and PGA commissioner Tim Finchem have both made statements touting the Philadelphia region as a great place for a tour spot. It has been a shame that there has not been a regular tour event in Philly since the days of the IVB golf classic at Whitemarsh in the early ‘80s. Philly is a great sports town, and a great golf town, so I am hoping that a success this week will convince the powers that be to bring the tour here every year.

Tiger is here, but he's not the only great player in the field!

It’s great to have Tiger Woods in town for the AT+T National. There is no question that his presence has created a lot more buzz for the event then if he wasn’t here.

However, Tiger is by no means the only great player in the field. Really, ever player in the field is great, because merely good players don’t play in tournaments like this.
Here is just a sampling of former major (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA) champs in the field: Davis Love, III, Justin Leonard, Lee Janzen, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Lucas Glover, David Toms, Steve Elkington, and Shaun Micheel.

I plan to watch a little bit of Rocco Mediate and Notah Begay, III. Rocco had his famous duel with Tiger at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, and Begay, the best know native American on the tour, was a teammate of Tiger’s at Stanford, and former President’s Cup player.

I could go on all day with these tidbits, but I have got to get ready for work!