Who is Charl Schwartzel

With up to ten people in contention for the jacket on Sunday, I thought that almost anyone had a shot at winning…but who is Charl Schwartzel. Tiger Woods unfortunately made all his moves on the front nine, but me and everyone else still thought there was hope when Tiger stuck his second shot to about 5 feet on the par 5 for eagle. When he missed that there wasn’t much hope that the guys left out there weren’t going lower. Charl Schwartzel did what golfers like to call “careering” it, by shooting the round of his life on the final round at The Masters to win the infamous green jacket. With such an amazing week, like usual, it only leaves us waiting for next year.

“Master’s doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday”

After a very exciting first three days of the Master’s we have our leader, Rory McIlroy. I have always rooted for and enjoyed watching McIlroy, especially after his weekend at Quail Hollow last year when he carreered it. The closest person to McIlroy at -12 is past champion Angel Cabrera at -7. Even at -5, 7 strokes back, everyone has their eyes on Tiger Woods who always comes to compete here at The Masters. His play so far has been very typical for new Tiger, good ball striking but missing too many putts. Another man who always comes ready to play at Augusta is Fred Couples who started off very hot but his bad back seemed to get to him again. As the saying goes, The Master’s doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday and we will see who makes the turn around amen corner gunning for their shot at another/a green jacket.

My Master’s Experience

With The Masters only a day away, I figured I might talk about my visit to Augusta National. When I was in 5th grade I decided to surprise my dad with one of the best birthday gifts I have ever given him. Granted I was only in 8th grade and didn’t have bottomless funds I could only buy practice round tickets but it was well worth it. Once I got there I knew that this place was everything and more, from the green rolling hills to the colorful flowers all over the course. Here is where the trip went south, from the moment I woke up I knew I was sick but their was no sickness that would stop me from going to Augusta. After a lot of walking around for a couple hours I went to the bathroom and started puking, what an excellent time, right? To this day I look back at that trip as one of the best experiences in my life and now that I am in school in South Carolina my dad told me we will go again before you graduate, “CAN’T WAIT!” -Bart Scott

Phil Looking Good

This weekend was the Shell Houston Open in Valero Texas. This tournament doesn’t usually have all of the big name stars playing in it but one big name star who was there really came to perform, Phil Mickleson. I only got to catch Sunday’s play but Phil’s weekend performance as a whole was very commendable. Mickleson shot an unbelievable -16 on the weekend and he was making it look way to easy, like he was throwing darts at those greens. The one hole that Mickleson played on Sunday where he teed up his 3 wood and hit the ball 300+ yards onto the green and stuck it. Mickleson’s play did not go un noticed, Vegas changed the favorite of The Masters from Tiger Woods to Mickleson and he changed my pick too. If Mickleson can light up Augusta like he has before and did this weekend he has a very good shot at winning two weekends in a row and back to back green jackets.

When will Tiger return?

“My suggestion to Tiger Woods, which I don’t know will ever happen, is he’s got to look at the film from when he started winning all those tournaments and go right back to what he was doing and get rid of all these people.”-Lee Trevino

When I read this I couldn’t agree anymore with Lee Trevino, Tiger has gone through one of the most publicized and difficult divorces’/public scandals. I don’t know if it was Tiger trying to completely change who he was that made him think he had something wrong with his swing but winning 14 majors should have been enough to make him believe he was doing something right. Tiger showed some life this past weekend with a final round 66 but still not getting a victory. Maybe Tiger should just get rid of his coaches and just go back to his old “successful” swing.

People miss Sunday Tiger or at least I know I do, especially those ridiculous shots that all you could say was what, how, did that really just happen?

 

Golfing in Ireland

One of my blessing this life has been to golf in Ireland multiple times. Since around the age of 7 I have been going to Ireland on family vacations and one of the main purposes of these trips is to play the courses over there. Some of the older courses I have played are Lahinch, Waterville, Tralee, Mount Juliet and Adare Manor. Of all those courses I would say Waterville was my favorite and for many reasons; it is located in a typical, small, hard to get to town in Ireland with views some can only dream of. My favorite overall resort/facilities was Mount Juliet which has a 18 hole mini-golf which are always fun. Some of the newer courses that I have played are Old Head and Doonbeg. There is little I can say about Old Head except that the 500 dollar green fee’s are completely worth the views and classic Irish golf that is offered. Old Head is situated on a peninsula and on almost every hole you have a spectacular view off the cliffs.Doonbeg is on the same level, after playing Doonbeg in 2005 my dad actually joined the club and we haven’t looked back since. Doonbeg is located in County Clare on the Atlantic Ocean, the second you pull into Doonbeg you see the gigantic dunes that engulf greens. Watch out for your tee shot on #4 because the surfers crossing the fairway might get in the way. Along with golfing Doonbeg offers fly fishing, horseback riding, spa treatment, fine dining and so on. If you are an avid golfer and just love the game I would highly suggest going over seas to play the courses over there, they will not let you down.

Doonbeg

German on top

Their are only a couple of match play tournaments that us golf connoisseurs get to watch on tv and this weekend was one of those times. The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship was played this weekend in Arizona. This event is a lot different from most in that the opening round is on Wednesday not like most events that start on Thursday. Personally I think that Match Play events are much more interesting and competitive, every match is with big name players that are fun to watch and really know how to play the game. One of the very interesting topics of this years tournament was how quickly 3 of 4 one seed players were knocked out, Tiger Woods was knocked in his first match and Lee Westwood lost in his second match. Quite possibly one of the best rounds played was by Fowler in his second match against Phil Mickleson, a number one seed, in which Fowler made 5 birdies and 2 eagles one of which was conceded and sealed his victory over Phil. With all these number one seeds knocked out so early this left Martin Kaymer with a wide open door to becoming the number one golfer in the world. All Kaymer had to do was make it to the finals, which he did but lost to Luke Donald. Donald had been on quite the dry spurt but this was his tournament from the beginning, without falling behind in one match all week there was no way he was going to let this one slip away also.

Too bad Fred

This weekends tournament, the Northern Trust Open at Riviera CC in California was a very fun event to watch. My two favorite golfers all of my life have been Davis Love III and Fred Couples. Many a time now we have seen Fred so close to the lead even at his age where he could be playing on the Champions tour (50+). Everyone knows that Fred has a bad back but seeing him on Sunday only one stroke back really is awesome but on hole 7 when Fred made a double and Aaron made a birdie I knew he couldn’t come back from that. The winner Aaron Baddeley played wonderfully and deserves this win, his third now on the PGA tour, so congratulations too him. Vijay Singh also showed some life again after coming in second, which we haven’t seen much since he fell out of the top 50 last year. Next week is the WGC Accenture match play tournament where Ian Poulter will be trying to re-peat, it will sure be a great tournament to watch.

World Rankings, GB vs. US in next Ryder Cup?

As of today there are 6 non USA players in the top 10 and with many in the more in the top 20, 50, 100…5 of these players are from Great Britain. Up until 1977 the Ryder Cup consisted of the United States vs. Great Britain and Ireland but after the United States started to become to dominant the deciding powers choose for it to be The Unites States vs. Europe. Since 1985 the tides have turned, Europe has won 7 times and the US only 4. With the ranking the way they are now is the idea of going back to US vs. just GB, which includes NIR, possible?