The Greatest Game shows Man Kind the way. Again.

Just when you think you have seen it all my friends, our great game finds a way to show you things you didn't know about humanity, honour and ethics. And our great game does it again and again and again.


Congratulations to Jim Furyk on another gutsy win. The guy knows fear, he knows the pain of trying & failing. But he does not know the word quit. You might not like his swing much, but you have to admire his courage. He made a clutch putt on 18th to ensure the playoff after an unexpected birdie, from his fellow competitor. Yes I have a great deal of admiration for Jim Furyk.


But today as I write this fellow Long Reefers, I have infinitely more admiration for the unheralded Englishman, Brian Davis. The guy does his own gutsy stuff on 18 to force a playoff with Furyk, and then sticks it in the greenside water hazard on the first playoff hole. Luckily the tide is out and he has a shot, but it is an ugly lie. Furyk putts to about 5 feet leaving another tester for par. Davis decides to play it as it lies and does pretty well considering the circumstances (the lie) to get within 35 feet of the pin. And then he calls a penalty on himself for barely touching a bit of reed in his backswing. Nobody saw it and the HD Slow Mo TV had to replay it several times to pick it up. But Brian Davis knew he touched that god damn reed and he called it immediately.


I love this game. I love the people that play this game. It represents all that is right, in a world where so much is wrong. Go Brian Davis - you are a legend and a role model ! And your OK for a Pom.


Three of us had Furyk and so the skinny inches it's way to $36, the overall is $128 and we all owe $80, with Tony & Rick to do their thing at the Newport Hong Kong.


This week we move on down to Louisiana for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, originally known as the New Orleans Open. As with most open championships of a City, this tournament has rich history - in this case dating back to 1922. The defending champ is all round American nice guy, Jerry Kelly.


A lot of names you know have won this championship in the past. Guys like Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player,  Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Ben Crenshaw, Davis Love III,  Lee Westwood, KJ Choi and Vijay Singh. However, most of the guys won this event, not at the peak of their powers, but as they were either just beginning their careers, or they were winding it down.


My theory on this is the timing of the event. It is very close to the Masters, and so when players were at their career peak, they were focused on the Masters and therefore weren't playing here in New Orleans. So you if you have a look back at the history of the event, you'll see a lot of names like Jerry Kelly, Nick Watney, Tim Petrovic etc. Good golfers all, but certainly not top echelon - at least not yet in the case of Watney.


So if you want to take the skin this week, you are going to have to be pretty cagey and lump some quality in with some darkhorses, that you might have had your eye on recently.


As for the course suiting a certain style of player, well I let you know that it is another Pete Dye course - always popular with the shotmakers amongst the elite, but can also punish a long bomber if he is slightly off his game.


Look for other fairways and greens players like Furyk or Brian Davis (he's OK for a Pom) to dominate again this week.


Good Luck All


The LRFG