Watching Tiger Woods playing over the last 3 weeks has been truly awesome. Mixed in with some great play by Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker (in particular), Rory Sabitini, and Steve Verplank the FedEx Cup was actually more entertaining that I first thought it would.

Saturday at East Lake was particularly inspired with the play of Geoof Olgilvy (62) and by Zach Johnson’s 60. Who says low scores aren’t fun to watch. But none of them could do much more than creep up on Tiger’s 63 for the day… and none could duplicate their scores of Saturday to make a run on Sunday.

Tiger’s 2007 season with the 7 wins could have been even more spectacular if not for putting well at the Master’s and the US Open.

And the scary part is he looks more comfortable driving the golf ball than ever. If he continues to hit 60-70% of the fairways as he has in this latest run, look out even more. Another amazing stat that came out this week: Tiger is#1 in closest to the hole from 150-175 yards and from 175-200 yards on tour. He doesn’t even need a driver, so what happens when he really gets comfortable as he is now?

Siting needing to keep a balance in his life, Phil sticks it to the commissioner and decides not to show up at Cog Hill.

I think Phil will be roundly criticized for this decision taking some of the pressure off of Tiger’s decision the prior week for almost the same reasons.

Actually I think the competition of the FedEx has been better than I would have thought. When you get this many great players on really good and fair golf courses, the talent really gets going. Now we’ve had two great finishes in successive weeks, great TV indeed.

So maybe the commissioner got someting right after all.

I think Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel said it right on Monday evening (I paraphrase): “Phil has as much talent as Tiger, he just hasn’t been able to show it consistently.”

Mickelson 23 putts on Sunday. Woods was putting for eagles on 4 holes and played them 3 under. Mickelson wasn’t putting for eagle on any of them and played them 4 under. Woods shoot 4 under pa while taking 32 putts. You can argue that this is another event that Tiger should have and could have won if his putting had been sharper. but that is how good it gets at this level and how putting is what really separates the end of the day. Mickelson hit like 51 of 53 putts inside of 8 feet… give me a break.

But even more amazing is that Phil won with a triple bogie on Friday and a double bogie on Monday! I can’t even imagine making a triple bogie and still shooting under par for the day.

Now Phil is thinking about not playing at Cog Hill. Now that would be fun. I hope he plays!

Steve Stricker had to birdie 4 of the last 5 holes to end his tournament drought of 146 tournaments over the last 6.5 years. He is really a great guy who knocked on the door all summer at major venues. Besides winning $1,260,000, Stricker also moved up to Number 1 in the FedEx standings. He is followed by K.J. Choi, Rory Sabbitini and then the no-showing Tiger Woods.

The next 3 weeks could be really fun watching Tiger try to win the season ending tournament. One thing you can say is that a number of PGA players are playing quite well now, making the watching even more fun.

Great job Steve and good luck at the President’s Cup!

For the entire article at Golfweek.com, click here.

Siting a body that is depleted from winning two tournaments in a row including his 13th major, Tiger stiffed the first leg of the Fed Ex Cup. Like Boo Weekley: “I can’t do the math”, I don’t know if that means Tiger has no chance of winning the season ending tournament that has been a source of season long touting by the PGA. But I’m not sure it matters. Tiger is number 1 and doesn’t need the annuity money being offered. He has such market power he didn’t even need American Express as a sponsor any longer. Who else on tour can say that.

So here we are at the end of another great PGA season and football season starts, so everyone runs to buy a big screen TV to see helmets clashing, not birdies dropping.

BTW: where are all of the birdies on the PGA tour. Making the courses harder has not enhanced the viewers interest. Who wants to see over par golfing anyway.

And boy did they ever Tiger-proof the courses. With a little luck putting, he would have run away with all 4 majors. Think about that for a change and the fact that he is really entering his physical and mental peaks.

Truly, Jack Nicklaus is his only competitor.

As usual I was mesmerized all weekend long watching Tiger bring it home. I think it unbelievable how he closes tournaments. His 63 on Friday bordered on the ridiculously brilliant, but his play over the weekend was no less astounding. It is so unbelievably difficult to finish off a tournament, but there he goes again. What is he now, 27-1 when leading after 54 holes? Wow. That is why the other golfers can’t believe he is for real. All of the other players have been in position to win, but none has ever done it with the frequency as Tiger.

Hey, and wasn’t Woody Austin’s play spectacular over the weekend. I love that he wore the same shirt on Sunday that he wore the Sunday when he shot the 62 in Memphis to win. He really looked like he was having fun and competing agains the best ever. I liked his acknowledgment of being nervous, but still performing.

And congratulations to Ernie Els, he looks like he is ready for the Majors circuit again.

For the entire Golfweek article on the PGA tournament, click here.

From Golf.com today it is reported that John Day has lost 25-30 pounds. His secret for weight loss: “Stress.”! We would also suggest that when he loses weight he should buy some shirts that fit. He is leading the PGA but looks as sloppy as ever. Good luck John.

“John Daly is closer to the playing weight at which he won the 1991 PGA Championship. He looks considerably slimmer and said before his tee time Thursday that he’s lost 25-30 pounds, which should serve him well in the stifling temperatures at Southern Hills, home of the 89th PGA Championship this week. In fact the weight loss may already be helping. Daly, who has missed three cuts and withdrawn from one tournament in his last four starts, was 2-under-par through his first eight holes Thursday.

“I’ve still got another 25 or 30 [pounds] to go,” he said.

And how did he lose the weight? Atkins? TrimSpa?

“Stress,” Daly said.”

For the entire article, click here.

While I can take or leave Peter Kostis at times I was very impressed with his comments on SI.com today. he talked about Southern Hills course setup for the PGA and how the PGA gets it “right”. Then he goes on to describe a subtle change in Tiger Woods’ setup and why this allowed him to dominate at Firestone. I noticed that Tiger’s swing seemed freer during the WGC and he did not appear to be overswinging and getting stuck as in the past, particularly with the driver. I saw but obviously didn’t have Kostis’ expertise. Great job Peter.

“Hats off to the PGA
I noticed some adjustments to the 7th green, and the 8th and the 9th greens appear to have been re-contoured so the back areas are elevated and the fronts are lower. But the 18th will still be the hardest hole at Southern Hills.

The PGA of America gets it when it comes to setting up courses for major events. On 18, the landing area on the right side of the fairway has been widened to allow players to slice their tee shots around the corner. But, it’s still a tough, uphill second shot to the green on this 465-yarder. When the USGA set up the course for the 2001 U.S. Open, players had to hack out of the rough in that area, short of the water and sand, and then try to get up and down from almost 200 yards out.

Of the three majors that rotate courses — the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the British Open — the PGA has done the best job of setting up the courses over the past five years.

It’s Tiger’s world
Tiger Woods’s performance at Firestone last week was brilliant, and a lot of people have pegged him as the favorite here in Tulsa. Here’s the deal: when Tiger Woods plays to his full capabilities, he wins. If every player in the field plays his best, and Tiger does too, Tiger still wins.

I saw some things last week at Firestone that made me think Tiger will hit the ball better here than he did at Carnoustie. He’s moved closer to the ball at address, he’s not hanging back on his left side on the backswing, and his arms are much softer through the hitting area. His swing was a little more vertical, and that should lead to better distance control, better trajectory control and the elimination of the flip at the bottom of his swing.”

For the entire article, click here.

I had a ball watching the WGC, replay of the Women’s British Open, Reno-Tahoe and the Seniors. I think I watched golf for 6-8 hours both Saturday and Sunday. And, this was after playing 18 holes each day. (My wife was away for th weekend… wow, did I have fun.)
I thought Lorena Ochoa’s smile after winning was awesome. She deserved it and I think she is going to win many more.

I was really thinking about entitling this post: “Rory’s Mouth Stuffed Again by Tiger”… or “Things You Shouldn’t Say on Saturday About Tiger Woods When He is in Contention”… or something equally pithy. But boy was that fun seeing those great players getting the stick laid to them by Tiger on Sunday. WOW! He definitely is my hero.

Rory, put a cork in it.

I enjoyed seeing one of the other lefties on the PGA tour win at Reno.

And I thougth D. A. Weibring’s finish at the Seniors was really fun to watch.

All in all a great weekend of professional golf!

Any predictions as to the PGA Championship at Southern Hills?

I was pulling for Sergio, but there is no doubt that Padraig Harrington is an able competitor. I’m glad he didn’t put a Van de Velde, but that is what he almost did. I watched Sergio putt all day, hit good putts and have nothing drop. Hopefully he can take this as a good omen for the future, his putting didn’t kill him, his luck did. I see Sergio running off with3-4 majors over the next few years, he is really that good and now his putting won’t hold him back.

I heard an interesting comment about Tiger Woods about his eye surgery giving him problems. What’s wrong with contacts? If I had his money I’d be suing…

My I hope this isn’t true. He still hits is so unbelievably better than anyone on any tour I would hate to have him have these kinds of problems leading him not to achieve his full potential. And as long as he is winning he will continue to play. So win Tiger!