SBNation.com: All Posts by Emily Kay

Tiger Woods got ball-drop rule confused at the Masters, says Dottie Pepper

2013-05-17T13:41:09Z

Tiger Woods, whose ball-drops, from Abu Dhabi to Ponte Vedra Beach, have come under intense scrutiny several times this season, could benefit from a quick brush-up on golf’s golden rules, says Dottie Pepper.

“I think I’d go to rules school or pay somebody to come in,” Pepper, a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour and former NBC/Golf Channel analyst, told SBNation on Thursday, more than a month after Woods hit that flagstick in the second round at Augusta, took an illegal drop, and incurred a two-stroke penalty but no disqualification for signing an incorrect scorecard. “You don’t have to be an expert in the rules, but you need to know what mistakes not to make.”

In Pepper’s opinion, the world No. 1 just took his eye off the ball.

Woods got parts of Rule 26-1 “completely turned inside out,” Pepper said about either playing a ball as close as possible to the spot of the original shot or dropping it as far back from the hazard while keeping the point at which the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard directly between the hole and the drop spot.

“I think he knows the rules well enough,” said Pepper, a regulations buff with two stints at rules academy. “I think he got completely flustered at the Masters and then it was one mistake compounded after another.”

The ball-drop brouhaha during the final round of The Players Championship was another story, and one that Woods executed to the letter of the law, according to Pepper, who will return to broadcasting with ESPN next month.

Had Pepper, an eight-year broadcast veteran before stepping away at the end of 2012, been in the booth during Sunday’s finale at TPC Sawgrass, she might have handled the situation differently from her former NBC colleague, Johnny Miller.

"That Tiger drop was really, really borderline," Miller said after Woods hit his shot off the 14th tee into the water left of the fairway and took a drop, after conferring with playing partner Casey Wittenberg. "I can't live with myself without saying that."

Pepper viewed the situation from the perspective of an on-site reporter.

“I think it’s very difficult to question a drop from the 18th tower,” she said. “That’s when you really have to lean on people that are on the ground and every camera angle that you possibly have.

“Ultimately,” Pepper said, “it came down to Casey Wittenberg and that was how it was determined and that’s the way the rule is written and that’s the way they executed it.”

Pepper took the headset off to spend more time at home and focus on her work as a board member of the PGA of America. She will return to the course with ESPN at the U.S. Open.

“It was the perfect fit of the events and when they do them,” said Pepper, whose two-year contract will obligate her to cover the U.S. Open, the U.S. Women’s Open, and the U.S. Senior Open. She’ll also be on-course for the British Open, Senior British Open, Women’s British Open, next year’s Masters, and the network’s Friday telecast of the Ryder Cup.

“Oh my gosh, if you could draw up a dream schedule, that’s what it would be,” said Pepper, who never herself used the word, “retirement,” when she stepped away from her NBC gig. “I’m a really lucky girl.”

Byron Nelson Championship: Keegan Bradley really, really likes TPC Four Seasons

2013-05-17T13:07:10Z

Keegan Bradley, who has not had the best 2013 season so far, had a ball on Thursday at TPC Four Seasons, firing a 10-under 60 to set a course record and breathe some rarified air at the Byron Nelson Championship.

Bradley, who entered the week on the back of two straight missed cuts, at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and The Players Championship, and a T54 at the Masters, said it was pretty much fun playing with old pals Matt Kuchar and defending champ Jason Dufner on the Irving, Texas, track on which he earned his first PGA Tour win in 2011.

“It was a regular round with Duff and Kuch,” Bradley told the AP after carding 10 birdies, an eagle, and two bogeys. “It felt like a Saturday morning round with my buddies. It felt easy.”

Maybe that’s because he was putting to caverns on the greens that seemed to be the size of the net his beloved Boston Bruins took aim at Thursday night in the opening game of their second-round series with the New York Rangers.

"The hole looked huge,” said the first golfer to win a major (the 2011 PGA Championship) with a belly putter. “Even the putts I missed almost went in."

Bradley’s 60 not only matched the first-round score of his mentor, Phil Mickelson, at the Phoenix Open earlier this year, but equaled the tournament tally held by two others -- Arron Oberholser and the legendary Sam Snead -- on different courses. He flirted with going really low but back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 18 and 1 (he started on the 10th) thwarted his chances of shooting the magical 59.

"It was going right at it,” Bradley said about his 136-yard wedge shot on his last hole. “[A 59] crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this.”

The three-time tour winner had to settle for a ho-hum three-foot birdie and will enter Friday’s second round three shots up on Charl Schwartzel, who hit every green in regulation on his way to a flawless 63.

Tiger Woods got away with one at the 2013 Masters, hints Arnold Palmer

2013-05-16T14:13:25Z

BOSTON, Mass. -- Arnold Palmer, who was at the epicenter of a long-ago ball-drop dispute at Augusta, suggested Wednesday that Tiger Woods should have withdrawn from the Masters in April after tourney officials slapped him with a two-stroke penalty instead of a disqualification for taking an illegal drop during the second round.

After his approach shot to the green on Augusta’s par-5 15th hit the flagstick and caromed into the water hazard in front of the green, Woods took an improper ball drop and signed for a bogey-6 that, thanks to a couple of tips from TV viewers and a new rule, became a triple-bogey 8 the next day.

Observers near and far dissected Woods’ action and many contended that withdrawing from the event would have been the honorable thing for the world No. 1 to do. Palmer, in Boston to help the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund celebrate the 100th anniversary of its namesake’s improbable U.S. Open victory at The Country Club in Brookline, was unwilling to go quite that far.

"I’m surprised that Tiger did what he did, I mean, he knows the rules." -Arnold Palmer

"I’m surprised that Tiger did what he did, I mean, he knows the rules," the seven-time major champion told SBNation.

"I know what I would have done," Palmer, declining to state his opinion definitively, said with a grin that became a laugh.

Palmer was also cagey about whether the PGA Tour should accept rules-related calls from fans watching the proceedings from afar, like the one from David Eger, a Champions Tour player and former USGA and PGA Tour rules official, who blew the whistle on Woods after that improper drop at the Masters.

"We’ve seen some pretty dramatic things recently on that subject and the jury’s still out," said Palmer.

While shying away from the controversial topic, Palmer did express certainty about one aspect of the argument.

"The players should be ruling within themselves," said Palmer, who has some experience on that score.

One can only imagine the kerfuffle that would have erupted if golf events were broadcast as widely back in the 1950s as they are today. Armchair refs would have gone ballistic had they witnessed the altercation between Palmer and playing partner Ken Venturi in the final round of the 1958 Masters.

With his tee shot embedded in soft soil off the green of the par-3 12th hole, Palmer argued unsuccessfully with Venturi and an on-site rules official for a free drop. He ended up playing the ball from the spot and carded a double-bogey, but, citing a rule that lets a golfer play a second ball from the disputed spot, did just that and made par. The situation was resolved -- in Palmer’s favor -- before he signed his scorecard.

The conflict arose because Venturi claimed Palmer failed to state he would play a second ball until he was in the cup with a five. Palmer, who went on to win the contest, said he had announced his intention before hitting the original ball.

The issue nettled Venturi for years afterward.

"It could never happen today," Venturi told ESPN in 2008. "There were only five of us there and no cameras. I told Arnold he should get a drop, and that's when [the rules official] said it was half embedded. Well, that's like being half pregnant. It either is embedded or it isn't.

"But that's what he ruled, and when Palmer played the second ball, I told him you can't do that. You have to declare it before you hit it. Suppose he had chipped in the embedded ball?"

Given the tension between the two combatants and the way the episode played out, it was not surprising to hear Palmer say that situations like the public spat between Woods and Sergio Garcia at last week’s Players Championship were par for the course.

"It’s something that has been going on for some time," Palmer said about Garcia blaming Woods for his bad shot on the second hole of the third round and the disparaging comments from both contestants (and tourney marshals) that followed. "I don’t think that anything happened last week at The Players was intentional. I think it was an accident."

Byron Nelson Championship 2013: Dustin Johnson withdraws from 3rd straight event

2013-05-16T13:57:08Z

Dustin Johnson will miss a third straight week of PGA Tour play due to a back injury.

The long-hitting DJ, and consort of Wayne Gretzky’s telegenic daughter Paulina, pulled out of the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this month and shot a first-round 74 before withdrawing from last week’s Players Championship. Johnson tweeted Tuesday about his condition.

Tried to go but have inflammation in my facet joints. Some rest and daily therapy with my physical therapist, then I should be good!!
— Dustin Johnson (@DJohnsonPGA) May 14, 2013

Of the golfers who will be teeing it up this week at TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas, the marquee grouping of Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, and Matt Kuchar in the first two rounds is especially enticing.

Defending champ Dufner and Bradley, who notched his first PGA Tour win at the Nelson two years ago, will reprise their 2011 PGA Championship outing. Dufner, who has yet to finish inside the top 10 this season, hopes for a better outcome than runner-up to his Twitter nemesis this time around.

True or false @jasondufner aka duffdaddy came into my room to watch the bruins game and threw a meatball against the wall and left it?
— Keegan Bradley (@Keegan_Bradley) May 14, 2013

PGATour.com has a list of all the tee times here.

Byron Nelson Championship 2013: Jason Dufner returns to where “Dufnering” all began

2013-05-16T13:21:36Z

Jason Dufner returns this week to the HP Byron Nelson Championship in defense of his second PGA Tour title. It’s what the 36-year-old Ohio native did earlier this year off the course while promoting the Nelson tourney, though, that earned the stone-faced golfer a sure-fire spot in the social media hall of fame.

Dufner, who entered last year’s event just three weeks after chalking up his first tour win, returned to Dallas-Fort Worth for media day and unintentionally launched the “Dufnering” craze that took off on Twitter like a Tiger Woods stinger.

While Dufner has yet to make it into the top 10 in 2013 and hobbled into the clubhouse with a final-round 80 and a T62 finish at last week’s Players Championship, he should like his chances on the TPC Four Seasons Resort course where he finished in a tie for eighth in 2011. But he’ll have to stave off other hungry golfers, including Keegan Bradley, who captured his first tour victory at the Nelson in 2011 in his Rookie of the Year season.

Bradley, who will play with Dufner and fifth-ranked Matt Kuchar in the first two rounds, is coming off two consecutive missed cuts but has five top-10s this year. Bradley and Dufner famously went toe-to-toe at the 2011 PGA Championship, when the former overcame the latter in a stunning come-from-behind playoff win.

Another player who grabbed his first win at the Nelson, Jason Day, would like to leave Texas with his second tour W. Day has made 14 straight cuts and owns four top-10 finishes in 2013.

Also teeing it up this week will be Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old who in April became the youngest golfer to play in and make the cut at the Masters. Guan, who also made the cut at last month’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, accepted a sponsor exemption to the Nelson.

Tiger Woods lied at Sawgrass? Other marshals say no

2013-05-15T15:14:17Z

Tiger Woods on-course integrity has been under attack since he refused to withdraw from the Masters following that ball-drop fiasco. Since dropping another ball in an iffy spot following a duck hook into the water in Sunday’s Players Championship finale, online conspiracy theorists have had a field day at the expense of the world No. 1.

Then came damning charges from two marshals that Woods lied about an incident involving him and Sergio Garcia during the third round at TPC Sawgrass. After mishitting his second shot on hole No. 2 on Saturday, Garcia blamed Woods for distracting him by choosing a club from his bag while standing some 50 yards to his left and out of view.

A public spat between the two antagonists ensued after their extremely unfriendly round, with each party sniping at the other. During the war of words, Woods claimed that a marshal told him Garcia had already hit, an assertion soon rebutted by two volunteer marshals who said they never spoke with Tiger.

“Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,” John North told Sports Illustrated. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks ... He was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.”

Or maybe not so much, according to two other marshals who spoke with Gary Smits about the episode and corroborated Woods’ version of what went down. Standing some ten feet from Woods, whose choice of a fairway metal signaled he would attempt a risky shot through the trees and drew cheers from his fans, Brian Nedrich said he told Woods the coast was clear.

“[The allegations are] not true and definitely unfair to Tiger,” Nedrich, who was stationed on the second hole, told Smits. “That’s because I was the one Tiger heard say that Sergio had hit.”

Marshal Lance Paczkowski, along with a convoy of other attendants, accompanied Woods all day and asked Tiger if he wanted him to move fans away before he played his second shot.

“He said, ‘No...I'm good,’” said Paczkowski, contradicting the earlier report from marshal Gary Anderson, that volunteers never speak to contestants.

“We talk to players all the time if we need to in regards to their needs and crowd control.”

Woods may have had his timeline confused, what with all the usual chaos surrounding his every move and being off in the jungle. Nedrich conceded he could not see Garcia clearly but did see him swing and watched the ball take flight. Fans began moving after that, prompting Paczkowski to attempt to get them to simmer down.

That’s when Nedrich made his now-infamous call.

“I yelled back at Lance, ‘No ... he’s already hit,’” Nedrich said. “Tiger had already taken his club, but we did tell him that Sergio had hit.”

The two marshals took issue with those who called Woods a liar.

“It’s disingenuous to suggest that Tiger is a liar because he got a minor detail wrong,” Nedrich said. “Basically, he told the truth.”

Paczkowski was more adamant.

“Tiger Woods did not lie,” Paczkowski said. “Was there a small mistake in what he remembered? Yes. But I don't think it rises to the level of lying.”

And now back to our regularly scheduled program, starring Tiger Woods as the best golfer on the planet.

Tiger Woods leaving Rory McIlroy in his dust

2013-05-14T17:17:40Z

Tiger Woods, in the year-plus since he won his first PGA Tour event after slamming his SUV into that hydrant, has turned all that talk about Rory McIlroy rousting him from his spot atop the world of golf into so much blather.

Remember Rory? The boy wonder anointed by some as the one to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships? The heir apparent to Eldrick Tont?

With the world No. 1 running away from his opponents the way he did during his former glory years -- back when he achieved the Tiger Slam in 2000-2001 -- McIlroy may become just another would-be rival turned roadkill (see: Sergio Garcia) on Woods’ race toward golf’s Mount Olympus.

It’s been a mere 50-odd days since Tiger, who bottomed out at No. 58 in early November 2011, leapfrogged Rory in the world golf rankings. After a meteoric start to his 2013 season, however, it seems as if Woods never left the throne he owned for a record 281 consecutive weeks.

Woods, with four victories in seven PGA Tour events in 2013 -- including winning his 300th career start at The Players after doing so in his 100th and 200th as well -- has served notice on McIlroy and other comers that the road to the winner’s circle once again goes through him. His two-shot victory, which he earned even after drowning his tee shot on the 14th hole in Sunday’s finale, marked the fastest he has ever collected four Ws to start a season.

Consider that in 2000, undoubtedly his best year to date, Woods won four tour stroke-play events by May 28, which was 16 days after lifting his fourth trophy in 2013. His 78th tour triumph -- just four shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record -- coming on his 300th try calculates to a 26 percent career winning percentage.

Woods also has an incredible seven wins in 22 of his last official tour contests (including match play). But for that pesky flag on No. 15 during Masters week, he would likely be eight for 22 and preparing to compete for his 16th major title.

More grist for the calculator: Woods leads the tour in several categories, including putting (strokes gained and total), eagles, and scoring average.

Tiger Woods' last 4 starts: Win, Win, T4, Win. Combined 50-under. 15 of 16 rounds under par.
— Justin Ray (@JRayESPNGolf) May 12, 2013

Oh, and Tiger, who (whether or not he took a generous drop on the 14th or lied about chatting with the marshals at TPC Sawgrass) mentioned last week that he was “pleased with every facet” of his game and “getting better.” Which had at least one accomplished pro shaking his head.

"From what I saw the last couple of days he's been putting great,” Brandt Snedeker, who played with Woods for the first two rounds of The Players, told USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio on Sunday. “That's scary. The way he hits it and with his short game, that's hard to beat."

As for McIlroy, whose fledgling rivalry with Woods was headline fodder for much of last season, the last time he looked down on Woods from the top of the golf rankings was March 17, when he was ahead by 1.15 points. He’s now down by 3.24 and, though greatly improved since the woeful start to his season, struggled mightily with his putter last week and at the Wells Fargo Championship.

“Tee to green I thought I played really, really well,” McIlroy said after carding four birdies in his last six holes Sunday and finishing in a tie for eighth with Garcia and five others. “I just didn’t hole the putts....I struggled a little bit reading them, and I got a bit indecisive.”

On the plus side for the two-time major champion, McIlroy made the cut at Sawgrass for the first time in four tries and contends, with the U.S. Open at Merion looming in a month, that his game is “very, very close.”

It may not be close enough, however, if Woods continues racking up the Ws at such a dizzying pace. With that in mind, Justin Ray offered this parting shot from Sawgrass to McIlroy, et al:

Tiger Woods: 4 wins before June 1 for 2nd time in career. Only other time it happened was 2000. He went on to win next 4 majors held.
— Justin Ray (@JRayESPNGolf) May 12, 2013

More on The Players

• Tiger, Sergio spar over distraction

• Tiger earns the biggest payout in golf

• Sergio splash: Spaniard finds water 3 times in 2 holes (GIFs)

• John Daly's legal advice for Vijay Singh

• Stenson plays from the bridge

Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia controversy persists with conflicting account of No. 1's actions

2013-05-14T12:55:45Z

Tiger Woods’ simmering tiff with Sergio Garcia boiled over during the weekend and made for terrific TV viewing Saturday at The Players Championship. The public squabble certainly added a healthy dollop of drama to Sunday’s proceedings, as the 14-time major champion overcame a water hazard down the stretch to win the tourney while the owner of no major trophies double-dunked his way out of a potential playoff with his BFF and finished in a tie for eighth.

More: Sergio implodes, plays "victim" card

Only Garcia knows whether the airing of their mutual antipathy had anything to do with his stunning collapse on the notorious par-3 17th hole. Anyone within earshot of a television, however, is aware of what the stars of “As the Golf Ball Drops” had to say about what happened on the second hole of the third round at TPC Sawgrass. Tiger was left of center in the trees and pulling his 5-wood out of his bag to the cheers of fans, and Sergio mishit his shot and then stared daggers in his opponent's direction.

During a weather delay, Garcia complained in a TV interview that Woods caused his error. “It’s very simple,” Garcia told NBC. “You have to pay attention to what’s going on because the other guy is hitting. You do something when you’re in the crowd, and the crowd is going to respond.”

Woods, when apprised of Garcia’s remarks, fired back that “the marshals” informed him that his playing partner had already hit, "so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot and then I hear his comments afterward. Not real surprising that he’s complaining about something.”

All good stuff -- except maybe more than a tad self-serving from Team Tiger, according to Sports Illustrated’s Michael Bamberger, who actually did speak with the volunteers in question.

“Well, when they heard that remark from Woods, the marshals were surprised,” Bamberger wrote on Monday. “One of them, Gary Anderson, said on Sunday, ‘He didn’t ask us nothing, and we didn’t say nothing. We’re told not to talk to the players.’”

John North, Anderson’s boss, chief marshal for the opening three holes, Vietnam vet, a marshal for 30 years, and a Tiger booster, supported his fellow volunteer’s version of the story.

“Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,” North told Bamberger. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks. We’re there to help the players and enhance the experience of the fans. He was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.”

Tiger's critics, fueled by the forensic evidence suggesting that the 78-time PGA Tour winner took a more favorable drop on the 14th hole Sunday after drenching his tee shot, will surely add this little nugget to their scrapbooks.