Category Archives: PGA Tour

Good Days and Bad.

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Had a nice conversation with Fehlandt Lentini on Tuesday. Fehlandt had a good day.

The former Goldeye fan-favorite is now a current Goldeye fan-favorite. After getting his release from the Amarillo Sox of the American Association, he was signed by Winnipeg manager Rick Forney and hit out of the six hole on Tuesday night. He was absolutely thrilled.

Lentini was  released from a team that was 38-43 and right out of the post-season hunt and signed by a team that was 47-33 and first in the North Division. Sometimes being released isn’t the end of the road, even for a veteran player. Sometimes, a release is a ticket to a better situation.

In Lentini’s case, the situation couldn’t be better. He, indeed, had a good week.

So far, it’s been a very interesting week for a lot of people. Some good, some bad. Here’s a guy who could have had a great week, but ended up having a bad one:

steve williams interview 300x189 Good Days and Bad.

The Mouth That Spewed

Professional golf bag carrier, Steve Williams, was able to serve Adam Scott as Scott hit all the shots and won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. It was a great Sunday for Williams who, of course, had recently been fired by Tiger Woods.

But because Williams is such a narcissistic bloviator, he went on television, dumped all over Woods and praised — no, not Scott — but himself for winning the Bridgestone. It was a dreadful and somewhat embarrassing outburst by a person who was described as “delusional” by Golf Digest.

It’s nice to work for a winner. It’s bat-$#it crazy to take credit for winning when you don’t hit a shot.

Williams had a great Sunday, but his mouth turned it into a horrible Monday.

On the upside, it’s painfully obvious why Woods got rid of Williams and, in fact, I’m surprised Woods didn’t fire Williams the day he ripped Phil Mickelson. If you really want to change your life, as Woods obviously does, getting rid of some old baggage never hurts.

By the way, after Williams shot off his mouth, here is what Paul Azinger said about Tiger in an interview with Steve Deuming at WDAE in Tampa: “I have always pulled for Tiger to do well, he’s the most exciting player whether you like him or hate him now, and for me personally it’s hard to watch the product unless he is in it.”

That’s the most honest assessment of the PGA Tour I’ve ever read.

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Nice Work PGA Tour. Allow Your Fans to Walk Through the Bunkers. Idiots.

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The PGA Tour hit a new low on Sunday afternoon. The knuckleheads who run golf’s biggest tournaments have now decided that having ropes doesn’t make any sense anymore and they’ll just let the fans trample through bunkers now.

On the 18th hole on the final day of the 2010 PGA championship, leader Dustin Johnson hit a tee-shot straight right. It was a lousy shot, right into the gallery.

Little did Johnson know, however, that the PGA Tour decided that all bunkers are no longer part of the playing area of the golf course and allowed the fans to trample through them. That’s right. “We’ll hide a bunker under the gallery just so some unknowing bastard who hits it right will be ripe for a two-shot penalty.”

So when Johnson hit it into what he thought was a gallery, a gallery that for a week had trampled down everything in its wake, it turned out that the Tour had allowed the galleries to trample through an actual sand trap. What a collection of idiots.

Johnson didn’t know it was a bunker and grounded his club. Automatic two-shot penalty. Sadly, nobody but the Tour rules nazis knew it was a bunker. CBS even had to explain to viewers that in this shit-hole of trampled dirt and rough their could have been a bunker there. “Maybe. Like, maybe a week ago, OK?” CBS even sent out Feherty to explain that “maybe that was a lip.”

Meanwhile TVs two biggest PGA Tour sycophants, Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo, went on about how Johnson shouldn’t have grounded his club anyway because it was kind of sandy. Hey boys, you protect idiots, you sound like idiots.

Johnson paid the price, finished nine under and was kicked out of a playoff. The PGA Tour looked stupid and lazy because they didn’t rope off their hazards and bunkers.

A shaky Tiger Woods hasn’t been the entire cause of the PGA’s TV ratings demise. Idiots have played a part in it, too.

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Monday morning:

Watched the PGA Tour rules official defend allowing galleries to trample through bunkers by saying players were given one-page sheets saying all bunkers would be treated as bunkers.

Now there’s a comment that makes you go “Hmmmm.”

There was never a greater ass-covering comment in the history of golf. This doofus essentially said, “We’ve decided to allow the galleries to trample down the bunkers – even bunkers that are 20-30 yards or so off the fairways – and we expect you, as players, to suddenly become golf course architects and memorize where Pete Dye placed every bunker on this golf course. Even the ones we’ll hide under the sneakers of the fans.

Hope that guy’s running for office. He’s not only full of crap, he’s good at covering his worthless butt. He’s a dream politician.

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Mickelson Wins. Woods Entertains. Masters was Great Weekend Drama.

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

TAMPA, Fla. — So much for reality TV. Survivor, Dancing with the D-List, the Amazing(ly dull) Race, Undercover Boss. Not one of those examples of cheap network programming could hold a candle to the reality TV we watched from Augusta, Ga., this weekend.

I loved the fact Phil Mickelson won the tournament (160-under on that golf course is pretty special) and was able to share the win with his wife. Great story. Good for Phil.

However, the real story was Tiger Woods — and what a spectacular story it was. The 2010 Masters was a movie unto itself. Forget that Woods was an amazing 68-70-70-69 to finish in fourth place at 11-under. Forget that after 144 days out of the game, hounded by a sick American mainstream media that had absolutely nothing else to sell, Woods played four rounds under par at a tremendously tough golf course in the middle of a pressure-packed atmosphere that would have brought anyone else on the planet to his knees. It was one of the greatest athletic performances in history and unquestionably the best fourth place finish ever.

But what was even better — and certainly more entertaining — was how Woods played. On the final day, he was three over after the first five and then played the final 13 holes down the stretch at six under. On at least four occasions, you thought Woods was done, ready to fade to the back of the pack. But he kept turning it one, kept coming back, kept making birdies.

It was the best weekend in sport in years. Too bad Woods is going t take more time off.

In the meantime, the Stanley Cup playoffs start this week. If they’re a tenth as entertaining as the Masters, it will be the best post-season in decades.

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Woods Play Makes for a Wonderful Weekend of Golf

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The best thing about hanging out about three miles from Tiger Woods’ house, is listening to the rumours.

“Oh yeah, Tiger banged his neighbor’s 21-year-old daughter while his wife watched from the window.”

Friendly, huh?.

“Oh yeah, and did you see those texts he sent to the stripper/hooker/porn star? He wanted to tie her up.”

Kinky.

“Did you know that Tiger’s a sex addict who has to bang women even when he doesn’t want to?”

No, didn’t know that.

Friday night, I had both the opportunity and joy to watch Jesse Ventura guest host the Larry King Show. Forget the fact that he essentially called the hot Republican strategist/guest/talking head a lying bee-yotch (which she was), he also declared the American media to be at the saddest and most disgustingly low ebb in its history. As an example, he used all the time and resources that have been wasted creating a gossip-mongering campaign on Tiger Woods’ sex life.

He’s right, of course. The fastest way for me to hit the mute button or turn the station is for some radio or TV donkey to mention “another Tiger Woods mistress.” This thing is so out of hand, it’s reached the point where clearly 90 per cent of the crap we hear is NOT true. It’s made-up mainstream media clap-trap, just like WMDs in Iraq, the Duke lacrosse story and now, apparently, the Ben Roethlisberger sexual abuse scandal. If Tiger Woods got the action the media claims he got, he couldn’t walk, let alone head into the third round of the Masters in contention.

Which is why this weekend’s Masters Championship will be as compelling as golf can be. And the ratings will match the excitement and drama. If Tiger can pull this off, it will be one of the greatest stories in sport.

After the international media failed to have any idea about Tiger’s private, personal sex life and then, when it found out, did everything humanly possible to destroy the rest of its life over its own ignorance, it appeared as if Tiger’s place in golf history was tainted forever. This weekend, however, as he enters the third round of the Masters at 6-under, just two shots back, there is a chance he can become the comeback of the athlete of the year in just four days of work.

Somewhere between the truth and the media’s fabrications, lies a real human being who could still be the greatest golfer in the world. The next two days at the Masters will be the most compelling in decades.

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Tiger’s return makes golf on TV fun again.

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Must admit, I have been watching a lot of golf on television during the past couple of months. However, it’s not because I’m terribly interested in whether or not Trevor Immelman can hold off Kevin Na, Andres Romero and John Rollins to win the justdroppedafart.com Open at East Airport View Golf and Billiards Club in Redneck, Ga.

I’ve been watching a lot of golf because I bought a big, widescreen HD TV and nothing on the planet looks better than Riviera or Pebble Beach in HD. It’s too bad the golfers get in the way of the scenery. When you live in Winnipeg and it’s February and you just shoveled the driveway — again — even watching  the PGA Tour without Tiger is better than looking at the white stuff out the front window.

 

Now, however, the world is as it should be. Tiger is back and whether or not he plays well is irrelevant. Golf has personality again. It’s not just a bunch of wealthy, white, American males in billboard shirts. There is, once again, a player who matters and nothing beats great scenery and a great player going head-to-head on HD TV when it’s minus-20 and snowing outside.

 

On Wednesday, after 253 days on the shelf,Tiger Woods finally made his return to the PGA Tour and despite all that serious knee surgery last year, he looked pretty darn good. Woods took out Aussie Brendan Jones 3-and-2 in the first round of the Accenture World Match Play championship in Tucson and moved on to face South African Tim Clark in Round 2 today. 

 

Brendan Jones? Tim Clark? Who cares? They’re both great players. I’d give anything to swing a club as well as Tim Clark on his worst day, but goodness, gracious, their own families couldn’t pick them out of a lineup. 

 

Tiger is, well, Tiger. The greatest player of his generation. Maybe any generation. My good friend, Ford Gardner, the program director at 92-CITI-FM radio said it best, “I don’t watch golf all that much, but I’ll watch Tiger. If Tiger is winning, I’ll watch. If Tiger is losing, I’ll watch. He is one of the only compelling athletes in the world today. Watching golf without Tiger is pretty boring. Watching golf with Tiger is great, no matter how he’s playing.”

 

I’d like to write more about Tiger and how interesting he is on the golf course — good or bad — but he’s about to tee it up against Clark and I don’t want to miss a shot. I’m sure Davis Love will be good today, but really? Davis Love?

 

Tiger’s back. My TV looks great. Golf is a spectator sport again.

 

 

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