Notes about the NEC Invitational.
Tiger is good. He made an awesome birdie on #16 after driving it into the trees. He had to punch out to about 195 yards. He smoothed a 7 iron to 17 feet and made an improbable birdie. He took the outright lead into the last two holes and never gave it up, despite driving it in the trees on 18 as well. (Sounds like the ’05 Masters).
Tiger won his 5th tourney of the year to extend his #1 ranking and money lead. He’s looking at the rest of the PGA Tour in his rear view mirror now.
Speaking of the ’05 Masters, Chris DiMarco had posted his score of -5 and was in the clubhouse watching Tiger knock it in the trees. He was hoping for a chance at another playoff but that never happened.
Stuart Appleby had some interesting nuggets. First he knocked a drive on 16 over 400 yards for the 3rd time. 2nd, he was penalized two strokes because his caddy picked up his moving ball which he’d dropped near the cart path. The ball apparently has to travel two club lengths before it can be stopped.
Kenny Perry just plain melted down. He had it to -8 at one point but jumped on the bogey train and made stops at most of the holes en route to a 74 and a tie for 6th.
Played in the final pair of the match play at one of my clubs today. 27 holes, me and my opponent. I had him down two in the first 18 and I really gave him some breaks by making a few mistakes. Over all I played pretty solid.
My opponent closed me out on the 25th hole though. We were all square after 22 holes but he had 3 birdies in 4 holes to seal the victory. Pars just weren’t good enough on those last few holes.
Though I lost the championship, I’m still fairly happy with doing as well as I did. I didn’t melt down or hand him the match. He “won” it by making some birdies.
Maybe next year…
Anyone watching the NEC this week? Tiger has had drives averaging 340+ and had a couple over 375. He’s not even the big bomber of the group though. Stuart Appleby has hit two drives on the same hole that were over 400 yards. One was a 2005 PGA Tour record 427 yards. NO, he didn’t hit the cart path. They’re hitting 667 yard par 5’s in two with irons? Are you kidding me?
I’m tired of hearing about it and reading about it…but perhaps there is a little bit of a technology issue on tour right now…
As I’m sure I’ve said before, I’m in 3 golf clubs here in town. Two of them have year long match play tournaments and the last player standing is the club champ. I’ve been trying to get TO the club champ match in one particular club for 4 years. Somehow I made it this year.
Tomorrow is the 27 hole match play final. It comes two days after I registered one of my worst rounds of the year (82). It will be me against a former pro who is as cool as a block of ice. Not a long hitter, but very steady. He’ll try to par me to death and hope I make mistakes. I’m going to really have a hard time controlling my nerves as even typing this post I feel them.
I know I’m going to have some knee knocker swings and putts, but so will my opponent. In my opinion match play is the purest and most exciting form of golf. Hopefully I’ll still think that way after my match tomorrow.
A report will follow.
Who is leading the Reno-Tahoe Open? Who cares? It’s more entertaining to see who missed the cut: Azinger goes 69/81? Duval goes 82/77 (he’s only 28 shots from the lead).
Tiger, Vijay, Phil and many other top tier players at the NEC Invitational, where they’re bombing drives in the 375-400+ range.
Tiger and Luke Donald are atop the leaderboard but only because of a sloppy finish by Tiger. Vijay and DLIII also gagged their way down the stretch.
How about Tiger’s shirt today? First I thought he was wearing a vest. Then it looked like he wasn’t. Then it looked like he was. Tiger kept messing with his sleeves and it did look like the sleeves were not quite right for him. The yellow-white-yellow gradient just wasn’t working for me either.
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