Anyone besides me tred of all the math lectures at the Tour Championship this week? This point system is the craziest and most unfair model anyone could come up with. Also, as mentioned in my earlier posts, there is a real chance for players to unfairly influence who the winner is, by jockeying their final points totals by missing shots deliberately.

Here’s my proposal: Keep the existing points system up until the Tour Championship. At the players, change to a system whereby the top five point getters are awarded 0 strokes. The next five get 1 stroke added to their score; the next five get 2 strokes, etc, until the last five players get 5 strokes added.

After that, whoever wins the tournament wins the FEDEX Cup!!

I’ve had so many requests for my US Open pick that it’s filling my inbox. OK, here goes…… I pick Rory McIlroy to win it this year. I know, I may be a bit late to the party, but I was seriously (honestly) considering him for the title as long ago as last week. I hope he does win, and when Tiger comes back later in the summer we’ll see some head-to-head matchups, like the days of Jack and Arnie.

One more thought on handicaps. Over the last 20 years, I’ve played in two different groups at Brookside GC in Pasadena, CA. The first group, a bunch of actors and Hollywood workers, alway has a standing medal bet of $10 to the low net winner, in addition to any number of match play bets. The second group is composed of other Pasadena residents, who never play a medal bet…..all bets are match play.

The difference in play is that the second group “gives” many more putts….if you’re playing a medal bet, every putt counts, so fewer putts are given. I estimate that the difference in recorded scores between the groups is at least two strokes per round per player.

Thus, any group that bets on medal scores will have much higher indexes than a group which only has match bets.

SandBagging….Is There Such a Thing? I’m not so sure. In my experience, golfers prefer the bragging rights associated with a lower-than-actual handicap to the monetary and hardware rewards of a higher-than-actual handicap. In the (male) golf groups I’ve been involved in, the social pecking order has usually been set by handicap index….the lower the index, the higher the caste of the player.

How many bad rounds are not recorded because under the 10 out of 20 rule “they’re not going to count” anyway? This common practice quickly leads to a lower index.

In male golf groups, most of the handicaps are lower than they should be. All you really need to do to have an advantage is record all your scores, and your (actual) handicap will give you a slight advantage over others’ too-low handicaps.

Does this happen in women’s groups? I wonder.

Here's my free advice to Tiger; I hope he will take it.

1) Drop Foley. It obviously isn't working.

2) Relax and enjoy your life for awhile. Read the Dalai Lama. Spend more time with your kids.

3) Research players, both past and present, that use a swing that creates the least amount of stress on the left leg and knee.

4) Find a coach that teaches that swing.

5) Trust in your inherent athletic ability to learn that swing.

6) Go forth and Play The Game.

How about Bubba’s golf swing? It’s got more moving parts than the New York Philharmonic! I especially like the little skip/hop at the end……like watching an Olympic gymnast trying to “stick” their landing. I love seeing him hit those big fades and little hooks. I wonder how he has been able to keep that swing all his career….you just know that a myriad of teachers and coaches have tried to “fix” it. Do you think it can last?

7:30 AM: Prior to 3rd round of Masters.

It was fun to watch McIlroy, Fowler, and Day play yesterday. They, along with Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Kaymer, Kim, and others make up what is shaping up to be a great new generation of golfers. If any of them want to be amongst the greatest golfers ever, however, they should hope that Tiger wins again.

Why? Look at two different scenarios:

1) Tiger never wins again

If Tiger fades away at this point, and one of these young players becomes the dominant player on tour, the likelihood that he will even approach Tiger’s record is pretty slim. That player will forever live in the shadow of “the Tiger in the room,” if you will.

2) Tiger wins another major

If Tiger comes back, the young knights will have a dragon to slay.

Tiger never had a real dragon ….. as Nicklaus had Palmer and Watson had Nicklaus….. Tiger’s dragon was Nicklaus’s record, and I believe he will slay it.

Imagine the fun of watching a revived Tiger take them on, one by one or in groups….eventually one or two will emerge as real successors to the throne, and eventually Tiger’s age will catch up with him …….long after he has surpassed Nicklaus’s record.

Sorry about the double post......getting a bit doddy, I guess. Anyway, here are my picks for the 2011 Masters.

1. Tiger....surprise!........ a win here would silence all the critics, and he wants it bad.

2. Phil......he's on a roll, and as the article in the New York Times this morning points out, the modern Augusta favors a lefty with a draw.

3. Jim Furyk.... the grinder's  grinder.......if the others falter, I predict he'll be lurking.

4. Freddy Couples....just cause I like him so much.

The Speed Freak……every golf group has at least one. You know him. He’s the guy that freaks out if your group gets a half-a-hole behind. He’s constantly monitoring the group’s position relative to the group in front…..he pays more attention to that group than the guys he’s playing with.

If the Speed Freak gets really pissed, he’ll forget about “honors”, jump on the tee, tee off, then grab his bag and stalk off down the side of the fairway before the rest of the group tees off.

Everyone has trouble on the course sometime during a round. A lost ball or an especially tricky shot can result in a delay; it’s part of the game. The Speed freak has no patience for this……unless it’s him that’s in trouble. Not a peep about fast play then! My group plays public golf, usually at Brookside in Pasadena, CA. No matter where we play, the rounds are always 4-5 hours long…..golf is not a fast game, as games go. So why does the Speed Freak feel so compelled to finish in a hurry? And why does he always remind you that you’re playing too slow just before you’re about to hit an important shot or putt?

Enough about Tiger. I'll talk about him after he wins the Masters.....I think that Johnny Miller is the best golf commentator ever. How many of you while standing over an iron to the green ever thought to yourself...."green light situation here?" In contrast, I never got a positive swing thought from Ken Venturi. The Venturi quote that sticks in my mind is "Unless you've been there, you don't know what it's like." Not very inspiring. 

Johnny's commentary brings you into the action; Venturi's always reminded you that you were on the outside looking in.

Tiger is struggling, no doubt about it, but as of now, I believe he will get back on top. The reason I say that is that I see no diminishment in his desire to win, and that desire will overcome his present difficulties. That desire is what separates him from the field; it's as if he was born to play the game, and certainly his upbringing by his father reinforced that destiny. 

That intensity of desire is also what makes Tiger such a tragic figure. His fits of temper and general grumpiness show that unless he is winning, he is a very unhappy guy. His pain is visible for all the world to see, and sometimes it's hard to watch. I'd like to think that he can change and find some peace in his life, but until he does, he'll drive himself to win. When we see him "mellow out", then maybe he'll be done on the course, but right now I don't see it.

Unlike Jack or anyone else who's played the game (except maybe Hogan??) it's hard to imagine Tiger without golf, and I don't want to imagine golf without Tiger.

If I had to bet on a match between Nicklaus in his prime, and Tiger in his, I'd pick Tiger.

I don't think people realize how hard it is to win any golf tournament in the contemporary game, much, much harder than when Nicklaus was in his prime. Hell, when Nicklaus was winning, half the players still weren't practicing that much, and no one was exercising or working out. Half the field were smoking their way around the course. As good as a putter that Nicklaus was, I think most contemporary players would out-putt him.

Despite the slow start yesterday, I think Tiger will win this week. I saw glimpses of the old game on Thursday, and today I think he'll light it up! He's just too talented and too determined not to come back. When I see the determination wane, then I may change my mind, but right now it's still there. 

The game needs Tiger. The new kids are great, but golf needs a Tiger to provide the focal point for the game.

OOPS.....  Someone on the GolfBookie staff inadvertently posted a draft of a post I had on file, waiting for release before the Bay Hill Invitational next week. I apologize to all my fans out there. Heads will roll!

I am wondering....why can't Tiger dial it back a bit and keep his drives in the fairway? His swing is so much more violent than any other player. If he keeps swinging that hard, another injury is not far down the road. 

A Prediction from the GolfBookie: Tiger will win this week. Bet on it!

He'll figure out a way to get it in the fairway off the tee. He has had his irons working for awhile, and this week he'll cobble together a tee strategy that will allow him to show the Tiger of old.

All the talk about Tiger losing his "intimidation factor" is hogwash. One win, and he'll have it back. If he does win this week, I'll give him even odds of winning the Masters this year.

The Speed Freak……every golf group has at least one. You know him. He’s the guy that freaks out if your group gets a half-a-hole behind. He’s constantly monitoring the group’s position relative to the group in front…..he pays more attention to that group than the guys he’s playing with.

If the Speed Freak gets really pissed, he’ll forget about “honors”, jump on the tee, tee off, then grab his bag and stalk off down the side of the fairway before the rest of the group tees off.

Everyone has trouble on the course sometime during a round. A lost ball or an especially tricky shot can result in a delay; it’s part of the game. The Speed freak has no patience for this……unless it’s him that’s in trouble. Not a peep about fast play then!

My group plays public golf, usually at Brookside in Pasadena, CA. No matter where we play, the rounds are always 4-5 hours long…..golf is not a fast game, as games go. So why does the Speed Freak feel so compelled to finish in a hurry?

And why does he always remind you that you’re playing too slow just before you’re about to hit an important shot or putt?

I guess the Golf channel assumes all golfers are Republicans.

But, I admit it; The GolfBookie is a Democrat! As such, it pisses me off to have the Golf Channel hosting Rush Limbaugh on the Hank Haney Show. It’s bad enough that he gets to bloviate on his own show; do we really have to see this bigoted hypocrite on the only channel dedicated to golf? You lost me,and I imagine a few others, Haney!

http://www.golfbookie.com/

I’ve been using a Scotty Cameron long putter for over ten years. It was a response to a case of golf-terminal, four-putting “yips”, and it was a complete cure for any putts of less than 6 feet. It took a couple of years to develop feel for distance on long putts, but that too finally came around.

A problem that I’ve experienced is an inability to properly line up long putts. When I look down the line and adjust the head accordingly, it seems I almost always line it up on a line outside the right side of the proper line. Lately, I’ve adopted a drastic solution: while holding the putter in place, I rotate my body behind the putter, adjust the head, and then rotate back into position to strike. This tends to drive my playing partners nuts, but I have been holing out many long putts this way!