Easy Does It !

You guys might recall from my last post, in the lead up to this event, that the WGC CA Championship has only ever been won by Major Champions. The only time this was not true was when Mike Weir took home the trophy, as he hadn't as yet won the Masters. He leveled this statistic back to it's natural position the following year at Augusta.

I don't know if you guys saw any of the final round, but the Big Easy did something pretty special on the 14th. After badly snap hooking his drive, he found some nasty terrain and had to hit a big draw from this ugly lie, around a tree to get up near the green. The lie did him in, shutting down the clubface and sending the ball left into some of the thickest rough on the course. Not only that but he now had a tree between him & the flagstick - totally snookered. Somehow Ernie managed to dig the ball out and stick it some 33 feet from the flag - the best he could have possibly hoped for given his situation. And then the Big Fella makes the putt to maintain his lead and giving him some massive momentum to take him home. The stuff of Major Champions..

Like a one legged Tiger making that putt on 18 at Torrey Pines to get him into a play off with Rocco Mediate.

Like a one legged Tiger making a similar putt on the Torrey Pines 18th to level the play off the next day and ultimately defeat Rocco in sudden death.

Like Lee Trevino chipping in at the 17th to sink Tony Jacklin at the Muirfield British Open in '72.

Like Dennis Lillee taking 6 for 26 and leading us to victory in the Centenary Test, when Australia looked on toast.

Like George Gregan making "That Tackle" on Brian Wilson to win Australia the Bledisloe Cup.

Like Muhammad Ali taking 7 seven rounds of body blows from George Foreman, the hardest puncher of all time, to "rope a dope" and win back the world title.

Yes my Fantasy friends, all of us play some amazing shots at times. But Big Time Champions do Big Time Things, when they really need to do them. And thus the CA Championship holds out on it's record still, and only lets a multiple Major winner climb up on the dias and hoist the trophy.

It's great to see the Big Easy back in the winners circle. As this was a WGC Event, the only player he didn't outplay this week was "he who cannot be named". I have always been a big fan of Ernie Els. His laid back demeanor and his sweet rhythmical swing have always attracted me. Hopefully Els can gain some confidence back in his putter after this week and he can again be a force in the Majors. Go Big Easy, Go !

This Skin is proving very hard to win. Having said that this last week was chock full of top players and it was always going to be hard to pick a winner. We are still only in the "Winter Swing" and yet I notice that all of us have used some high profile players for a number of starts. This week the skinny  goes to $132, the overall to $88 and we all owe $55.

This week we move to the Transitions Championship. The history of this event was that it was a lesser tournament played by the nuff nuffs, whilst the Stars were playing the WGC CA Championship. Yeah - a bit like that stupid fucking thing down in Mexico, but I digress. After the 9/11 Terrorist Attack, this tournament somehow got it's own spot on the PGA Tour, but has always had trouble attracting very strong fields.

The main reason has nothing to do with the course, the location or the sponsors or tournament organisers - it has to do with the timing. It's played right between the WGC CA and another tournament that if you get invited, your better damn well turn up and like it and put a smile on your fucking dial. That's right punters, the King's Bay Hill Invitational. As a consequence, the better Euro's who came out for the WGC this week, and also got an invite from Arnie, decide they may as well play the Transitions. Many others who have family in the USA, have the week off.

Anyway, in the nine years that the Tournament has been running, Retief Goosen and KJ Choi have both won it twice and they are both playing this week. Unfortunately there is not much in the way of history here so there is not much to go on, in so far as a particular type of player being suited to the course. Except that past winners also include Sean O'Hair, Mark Calcavecchia and Vijay Singh who along with Choi & Goosen, are all noted "Faders" of the ball.

Good luck all!

The LRGC Fantasy Golfer