Well here we are a week after the Masters and the great triumph of Trevor Immelman, who became the first wire-to-wire winner since Seve in 1980. Every year the Masters somehow manages to create great drama and this year was no exception. At the start of Sunday's round Brandt Snedeker, Steve Flesch and Paul Casey were all in position to make a run for their first major victories and the green jacket. By the back nine all the aforementioned wilted under the pressure of claiming their first professional major, leaving the great Tiger Woods as the only golfer standing in Trevor's way. Well you know how the story ends, Tiger suddenly can not make a putt, and the dreams of his grand slam evaporate into thin air!......
Big props to Billy Payne, the Augusta National Chairman, who agreed to televise the Par-3 Tournament for the first time this year. Watching the cute offspring caddy for their dads at the Masters warmed this television viewers heart. I also liked the addition of past major champions who Augusta National invited to fill out the field for the Par-3, Charles Coody who made a hole in one, Paul Azinger and Wayne Grady.
Last column I commented on Brad Bryant who went 514 events without taking home any hardware. Well I did some more research and discovered that Bobby Wadkins went 713 tournaments in a long career on the PGA Tour without ever winning. Mike Mccullough went 405 events and Jim Dent went 403 to round out the top three...
Ever wonder who the iron men of professional golf are? Well I have and here are the top 5 to have played in the most PGA and Champions Tour events: Miller Barber 1,292, Dave Eichelberger 1,210, Arnold Palmer 1,053, JC Snead 1,033 and Jim Colbert who teed it up in a even 1,000 tournaments...
The most underrated golfer in the modern era is Billy Casper who had the misfortune to play in the era of Hogan, Nicklaus, Palmer and Gary Player. In his illustrious career Casper played in 556 events and won an astounding 51 times. Billy also placed in the top-ten an impressive 236 times! Maybe the lack of respect stems from the fact that Billy marched to the beat of his own drum, openly embracing his Mormon faith and carrying a lot of weight on his beefy physique. I would like to see this impressive player get his due props, but I will not hold my breathe waiting for the acclaim Billy Casper deserves...The P.G.A. Tour returns to South Carolina to the Harbour Town links for the Verizon Heritage Classic. Harbour Town is a 6,973 yard par 71, designed by Pete Dye with extensive consultation from Jack Nicklaus. In years past, Harbour Town was a must play event for the top professionals, but with the absence of Tiger, Phil and Vijay, the tournament has been reduced to secondary status on the circuit these days. This is a shame considering what a great golf challenge Harbour Town presents and the impressive list of past winners: Jack Nicklaus, Payne Stewart, Nick Price, Greg Norman and Davis Love; all Hall of Famers who have captured the title and worn their red blazers with pride...
I love to watch golf but get annoyed with the commentary provided by the talking heads of the Golf Channel, CBS, and our good buddies at NBC. I am fed up with announcers and their lack of research. Time and time again we are reminded of the same stories and facts regurgitated ad nauseum for our supposed benefit, to increase our viewing pleasure. Next time you see Shingo Katamaya do not be surprised if the analyst lets us know for the 10,000th time that he contended at the 2,001 PGA Championship. Please tell me anything else but that... Maybe he recently won a Japanese four ball event! Any time Dean Wilson appears on television they always remind us that he was paired with Annika Sorenstam in Texas a few years ago. Ryan Palmer, Bob Burns, Rich Beem, Darren Clarke all beat Tiger to win a event, but surely they have done other things while maybe not as significant, but would still enlighten us to know. I do not mean to be too critical but c’mon guys do some reading of Golf Weekly or spend some of your precious time on PGATour.com...
Well fans it is always fun to write these columns, I hope you learned some more knowledge of the game we all love!
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