Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Beauty

Guys, when you look at this Youtube video re the PGA at Whistling Straits this year, try and imagine what the course looks like without the stands and marquis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGGcrhrzCk

To me, this course is far more beautiful than Augusta National. It's America's answer to Ballybunion and our very own Barnbougle. Pete Dye is a magnificent genius that will be talked about and copied for centuries..

The Poor Man's Major

At least that what it used to be known as.

In almost every single poll taken over the last 50 years, when asked which is the best major, respondents have almost equally over the years names either the Masters, The US Open or The British Open. In every case, the PGA Championship comes in last.

I guess it's not surprising. The Masters is played at an extremely beautiful layout at the same place every year. The US Open throws up the toughest challenge that they can handle and verges on the line of playable and unplayable. And the British Open has the charm of being our oldest championship, played at the most regal and sacred of courses.

And so the PGA Championship always rates as number 4 - a fact which gets right up the nose of the people that organise it. The PGA Championship is not run by the PGA Tour, as many people think. It is run by the PGA, the organisation for club & teaching pro's, who bitterly split with their touring brethren back in the early 60's.

The funny thing is, at least for my mind, is that it has without doubt been the best run major the last 11 years. The Masters got a little silly by trying to "Tiger Proof" the course after his debut 1997 win. The result was that they changed Augusta beyond all recognition and certainly changed the character of the course that Bobby Jones & Dr Alistair MacKenzie intended. The US Open has at times gone over the line in terms of playability - think Shinnecock Hills when they had to water the greens halfway through the final round and the "Massacre at Winged Foot". At Oakmont, the greens were so fast that even the ball markers were sliding off the greens.

An our beautiful old Open? Despite the course superintendent getting out of control at Carnoustie a couple of times, those old fellows do a great job. But alas, they can't control the weather and sometimes the skies and wind conspire to make things a bit unfair for either the early or late groups at times.

But the PGA has simply got the balance just about perfect between being very hard, but fair. They turn out a great course, with sensible pins, and you will hear the players say "tough but fair" - something they don't utter much at the US Open :-)

Whistling Straits is a fantastic course - it debuted at the PGA in 2004 where Vijay Singh was victorious on the 3rd playoff hole. The course is probably Pete Dye's masterpiece, it looks like an Irish Atlantic Coast course, but in fact the entire place has been manufactured. It was a flat airfield, and all the bunkers, mounding and elevation changes were all done by bulldozer.

This course will play like a British Open - the wind won't get extreme but it will be a factor and the course has some serious length with a few 500 yard par 4's. The par 5's cannot be reached in 2 by anyone but the really longest, so the bombers don't have that much of an advantage. The rough is seriously penal, and there are so many bunkers, no-one has actually finished counting them yet.

That says 2 things to me fellow Long Reefers. Someone who is a fantastic ball striker, with at least average or better length, and a sharp and strategic mind will win this week. The greens are likely to run at no more than 11 on the stimpmeter - e.g. closer to a British than either a US Open or Masters (the reason being is that the greens get hit by wind). This pretty much means that just about any good ball striker with a hot putter is in teh mix this weekend.

I can't wait !

Good Luck All.

The LRFG!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A comeback!

OK Motherfuckers, I know I've been slack. But like a certain Victorian pro golfer, I've decided to make a comeback.

How could I not. An Aussie shoots a 59 on the final day to win the Greenbrier Classic. Stuart Appleby made a comeback to life after he lost his first wife Renay, in a tragic parking accident on the streets of London. He showed immense love, compassion and bravery in losing his wife, who was also a scratch golfer and who gave up the game to be his caddie. He vowed he would give up the game, but he came back.

After winning the season opening Mercedes three years in a row, to be crowned the King of Kapalua, Stuart lost his swing and his card. One of Australia's best golfers was staring at the Nationwide Tour. He had to use his one time exemption of Top25 all time money earners (he can't use it again), to get a game on the tour this year. Stuart had been playing quite poorly, but was showing glimpses of good play recently - at least he was making cuts.

And then the King of Kapalua makes a FIFTY FUCKIN' NINE on the final day to take the title. If you include the Saturday, he was 16 under for the two final rounds - now that is good golf you Long Reefers ! It goes to show how good these guys actually are. The courses and the setups they play are so damn hard, that the slightest problem with their swings, sees the best golfers in the world miss cut after cut. Get something right all of a sudden however, and look what can happen. One of our best golfers CAME BACK ! Go you little Victorian, go !

Since my last post, Tony the Cunt Face took out another skin on Carl Petersson and I'll work out the numbers next week. Fuck you Collingwood Poofter Boy !

Next week we have a great field as it is one of the four World Golf Championships of the year, the Bridgestone Invitational. This week you will see a longer A List and a shorter C List than you are used to, but it still makes it a hard week to pick your players.

Firestone is one hell of a course, and a certain Nike Sponsored player, who has a hard time reversing when fire hydrants are near by, has owned this event since it's inception. He is out of form (by his standards), but we know he is going to "find it" soon, and make a comeback of his own.

Will it be this week? Who knows. But I can tell you this. When it comes to winning at Firestone, short and straight hitters need not apply. The winner will be one of the longer drivers, who also manages to keep it on the fairway for most of the week. He'll need to putt well too, as the greens will be fast, and so birdies as well as scrambling will be key.

For my mind, that means we need to come back to the class acts  - e.g. Tiger, Philly Mick, the Big Easy - you get the picture

Good Luck all!

The LRFG !

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Coming up Roses II

Well it seems that little pep talk I gave Justin Rose had the desired effect. After catching Jason Day on day 2, Justin was never headed again and comfortably took home the bacon, thereby atoning for his shitty last day at Hartford, Connecticut.

Both the Craic Meister and I had Rose and so the Skinny moves to $24, the overall to &168, we all owe $135, Rooster Rooter has $24 and the Weather Woose has $276.

This week we move inland to Illinois for the John Deere Classic, played at the TPC Deere Run, a course purpose built for this tournament. It started life as the Quad City Classic in 1971 but has never had a very strong field. The main reason for that it that it is played the week before the British Open, and so the John Deere Classic tends to be won by relative unknowns. Not that they are not that good players - just unknowns. Players to get their 1st PGA Tour Victory here include Vijay Singh, Payne Stewart, David Toms and Sean O'Hair.

Hard to give advice here. This is one of the easiest courses all year on the PGA Tour. Length or lack of it is not a real issue and the greenside misses aren't too challenging either. The greens however, are tiered into sections, which means that the player who is stiffing his irons during the week, and then making those 6 footers for birdie, will win with a 20+ under score. That description sounds alot like Steve Stricker, who also happens to be the defending champion. His form since coming back from his shoulder injury has not been all that hot though.

For some of the lower ranked pro's, this is a good week to take it out, as the winner goes to the British Open if not already qualified. One of those weeks when just about anybody could win, if their iron play gets hot.

Good Luck All!

The LRFG !

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Golf Porn

This article has me signing up for that Nasal Delivery Technology, as I am having premature ejaculations.

http://www.golf.com/golf/equipment/article/0,28136,1972121,00.html?cid=feed-equipment--1972121

When a Rose smells like shit

Justin, Justin, Justin.

After your breakthrough win at the Memorial, you were supposed to, you know, BREAKTHROUGH. So you most certainly did not have permission from this blogger to choke on Sunday. I know I gave Dustin Johnson a freebie for his Sunday effort at Pebble last week. But this was most definitely not a US Open setup. In fact this was one of the easiest courses of the year, and you plain choked. This is what happens to people who are proud to be English. You fuckwit!

Yes, thanks to you Justin, that Victorian shit eating grin bastard has won another bunch of skins, and the Rooster, the Craic Meister and I are getting a little fed up. Rather than Rick using his measly $24 on the 1st round of drinks, it's now going to the waiter as a tip for pissing in Tony's mash potato.

Yes congrats to Tony, who now has amassed $276. Rick has $24, the Skinny resets to $12, the overall moves to $160 and we all owe $130. Tony's strategy of ignoring the obvious picks, and going for hunches is clearly paying dividends. It might blow him out of the overall, but I'm guessing he's not giving much of a fuck about that, as things stand today.

Next week is Tiger's tournament, the AT&T National. This is Tiger's way of thanking all the Troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, whilst he makes his way through all of their wives. Only joking. This is a fine tournament, normally played on fine courses and this year is no exception.

This year thanks to ongoing future "US Open hopeful renovations", we move from Congressional Country Club to Aronimink Golf Club. Now check this out you Long Reef fuckers! Aronimink was formed by the merger of 4 different Cricket clubs. That's right, CRICKET CLUBS. Back in the 1850's in North East USA, their were many "refined" Americans that believed in drinking afternoon tea and all the other trappings of the British Empire. However, under pressure from more progressive Americans (especially the Independence Patriots), they had to drop the pro English shit, and so cricket was finished in the USA for a long time. Golf was thought acceptable because it was deemed a Scottish pastime, and since the Scottish hated the Poms, then golf was OK. This club in fact may have been the impetus for America becoming the golf loving nation it is.

Aronimink Golf Club is named after the local Indian Tribe, that the previously mentioned cricketers wiped out from the area, in time to develop the back nine. Today, it is a Donald Ross design and is a fine test of your golfing ability. Not surprising really. Tiger does tend to chose really really good golf courses as his favourites, mostly because he is the best equipped to handle them. Donald Ross when redesigning Aronimink in 1948, said that he intended it to be his masterpiece. Only after it was finished and being played, did he admit that it was better than he ever imagined it could be. The defending champion is "He who must not be named", and I for one am really looking forward to seeing this course test the best players in the world.

There'll be a good field this week. Rooster Fucker has been close to the money lately, and if history is any guide, he'll pick the winner this week and pocket $12.

Good luck all!

The LRFG!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Luck of the Irish!

What a weekend ! I'll tell you what, the US Open is a golf tournament like no other.

A big congratulations to Graeme McDowell, who showed some true grit. Irish golfers have made a habit of this lately, especially in Major championships. For all the talk about Australia punching above their wait on the US Tour, we seem to go missing in the big ones, only pulling off a victory about once every 10 years. McDowell, who has always been quite a nuggety player, stayed composed despite some serious big guns trying to chase him down.

Did Dustin Johnson choke? In any other tournament you would have to say probably yes. However, I'm not so sure about this one. At Majors like Augusta and British Opens at St Andrews in particular, the fairways are big wide open targets, and it's mostly the approach shots that hold all the fear. Consequently, if your tee shots are just a little off, you can mostly get by with a solid iron game and a hot putter. Not so at the the US Opens, where fairways are about effectively 20 yards wide (even though Pebbles fairways are wider than usual US Open setups, remember that they are heavily cambered, much like Long Reef's 16th, meaning that they play much narrower than they look). This means that if your swing just goes slightly out of whack, you are going to miss the fairway. And you can't win US Opens trying to make pars out of that rough all day long. There is no Major tougher on a golfer than the US Open, save maybe for Carnoustie every so often in the British. So here, I'm going to give Dustin Johnson a get out of jail free card. I hope it doesn't hurt him too much as he is a fine player, and seems to be the perfect gentleman.

And how about Tiger Woods. His game is up the shit (by his standards), he's coachless, his wife and family gone, and he still makes the top 5 in both Majors this year. He has never driven the ball well ever since he was with Hank Haney. Period. That's a fact Jack. But he has still managed to win tournaments despite this. When he works out how to hit the driver again, and he will, he is going to be just about unbeatable again. Will he sort things out in time for St Andrews. I say yes. Not that it matters because most of St Andrews is wider than Mamma Cass's arse.

It was also great to see not only Phil Mickelson adding interest, but also Ernie Els back to contending in Majors. And congrats to the USGA. Pebble is proof that major setups don't need to be 7500+ yards long. If the hazards are in the right spots then the Bomb & Gouge brigade are fucked, and shotmaking and intelligence come back into the frame.

Congrats also to Rooster Fucker, who won the Spring Leg. You win a Leg of Lamb for that, you Boy George fuckin', Brian Gay lovin' Gay Lord Poofter Boy! Just joking mate. Actually, I'm not joking. You suck !!

Nobody had Graeme McDowell (shame on you Gordy), so the skinny moves to $72, the overall to $152 and we all owe $125.

After the excitement of Major number 2, we move to Cromwell Connecticut for the Travelers Championship, previously known as the Greater Hartford Open. As you can expect, the field this year is not strong, mostly due to now being played directly after the US Open, where most of the pampered pro's need weeks to mentally get over the Open course setups.

The Greater Hartford Open or Travelers Championship is a grand old tournament, dating back to 1952. It was once associated with Sammy Davis Jr, but this ceased following his death after 1988. It is played at  TPC River Highlands, which is only a very short 6820 yards long. As a result, Big Hitters such as Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan have had much success here, taking advantage of very reachable par 5's and drive & pitch par 4s.

Any way fellow Long Reefers, good luck !

The LRFG !