There’s a new boom-boom in town and his name is Bubba

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, January 16th, 2006
Categories: PGA Tour • Web.com Tour

Look out Freddy and Appleby. There’s a new “boom-boom” in town and his name is Bubba Watson.

Bubba is a new player on the PGA Tour. He finished 21st on the Nationwide in 2005. He was in the top 10 on the Nationwide Tour 5 times last year and he’s already notched a top 10 in his first PGA Tour event.

His 8th place finish at the Sony was good enough to earn him $244,800. He earned $202,437 during the entire Nationwide season in 2005. Good start.

Boom Boom

The reason I’m writing this article is because of Bubba’s length. This left handed Ping player led the Nationwide in driving distance in ’05 with an average of 334 yards. He had 4 of the 10 longest drives recorded on the Nationwide last year.

“Boom Boom 2.0” was bombing it 100 yards past Rory Sabbatini and simply blowing the announcers away. He was carrying the ball in the air over 300 yards. His driving average in the Sony was 336.3. That is average folks. Ping is going to love this.

Bubba had a great reply during his post round interview:

Announcer: “When is the last time someone out drove you?”
Bubba: “My father when I was six years old.”

Toms is back

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, January 16th, 2006
Categories: PGA Tour

David Toms being carted off the golf course in a stretcher is now a distant memory. Toms won the 2006 Sony Open with a final score of -19 after shooting -5 on Sunday. Perhaps he won because he was drinking Swing Juice.

Chad Campbell who was tied with Toms going into Sunday couldn’t get it going and managed an even par round, good enough for a 2nd place tie.

Rory Sabbatini cost Campbell a fortune by shooting a career low 62 and jumping up to a tie for 2nd.

And look who just made about 15 times more dough in the year’s 2nd tournament than he did in all of 2005: David Duval. Did he just catch lightning in a bottle? Did the blind squirrel find a nut? Or is Duval really going to be a force this year?

No Tiger, no Phil, no Ernie and no Retief. I didn’t miss them. It’s the PGA Tour and there’s plenty of good golf with or without them.

Aim low sheriff, aim low

Written by: Tony Korologos | Sunday, January 15th, 2006
Categories: PGA Tour

Sony Open day three

Chad Campbell went low in round three with a 62 but playing partner David Toms went even lower with a 61. Aim low sheriff, aim low.

Campbell and Toms are now tied at -14, 7 shots ahead of anyone else in the field. Unless something “special” happens from the field, Toms and Campbell basically have a match play situation for the final 18.

The TMAG Carlsbad Taylormade Confidential Insider Blog

Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, January 13th, 2006
Categories: Golf Balls • Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf Media

Looks like Taylormade has changed blogs again. I didn’t hear anything about this from TM which is unusual. Just clicked the TMAG Insider link and it took me there. Didn’t see anything from my buddy Jason either. I hope he’s still around.

HOG timeline of Taylormade blogs:

February 16, 2005: Carlsbad Confidential
June 16, 2005: TMAG Insider
January 13, 2006: Taylormadeblogs.com

Time for Michelle Wie to focus on the LPGA Tour

Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, January 13th, 2006
Categories: Golf Media • LPGA Tour • PGA Tour

Unless Michelle Wie drops a 61 on the field at the Sony today, she’s cooked. She just didn’t have her “A Game” I suppose.

Assuming she misses the cut, what should she do now? You know the golf blogs, golf sites and golf media are going to be pontificating about this to the point of nausea, so I’m going to beat them all to it. At least the nausea won’t set in on this post, hopefully.

Michelle Wie should now focus her golf career on the LPGA Tour. My guess is that this is going to be the sentiment of 99% of all golf bloggers and sports writers and it is true. She has done basically nothing on the LPGA. She needs to get into the grind of the tour and win some tournaments. She doesn’t even need to win majors right away. She just needs to start making her mark on the LPGA, period.

At this point I don’t think it’s in Wie’s best interest to try to “take on the men” (not my quote by the way) any more. It only serves to tarnish her image the more cuts she misses. Eventually the novelty of her competing against the men will wear off, if it hasn’t already. A few years down the road, a dozen or so LPGA victories and some more physical and mental development and perhaps she can take another shot at the PGA Tour, but not until then.