The New Winter Classic!

Donald has been absolutely

on fire this week

Martin Kaymer and Luke Donald are currently playing in the finals of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championships where they are bundled up like it's North Dakota and not Arizona. They're still on the front nine and they've already had a hail delay.

I stopped making predictions after I went 3/8 in round 3 and since Donald is already 3up as I'm writing this, I guess I can't try to call this one either. The important thing is that we've got a great match up. Martin Kaymer will become the new world #1 on Monday, regardless of the result today. And nobody has played as well as Luke Donald this week. In 5 matches, Donald has only played 73 holes. That's an average of fewer than 15 holes each match. In those 73 holes, he's has made 27 birdies. That is just excellent golf.

Even though some of the big names went out early (Oh no Tiger lost, what are we going to do?!?!), this has been a pretty entertaining week of golf.

Rory, Westy and Phil all bite the dust

I like Rickie but the whole matching your hat
and shoes to your shirt thing is getting old

I went 10/16 on my predictions today which isn't bad considering all the big name players that well today.

Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson both got thrashed in their matches. Lee Westwood, Paul Casey and Ernie Els are also going home early.

We are down to the Sweet 16, something Matteo Manassero probably knows a lot about. The seventeen year old continued his hot play knocking off Charl Schwartzel today. He'll take on Luke Donald Friday.

A day after sarcastically (or maybe not) complaining on twitter that he and fellow European Tour players weren't getting any coverage on The Golf Channel, Rory McIlroy didn't get much coverage today either, but that's because he wasn't on the golf course long enough. Ben Crane lit him up 8&7. That has to be the surprise of the tournament given Rory's talent and his Ryder Cup experience.

However, that's how match play goes sometimes. In a regular event a player can get it around without his best stuff for a day, keep himself in the tournament and hope for a better tomorrow. A bad start, a few loose swings or a bulky putter and you could be headed home pretty early this week.

On the other hand, you could play well and get beat almost as badly. Phil Mickelson didn't play poorly today, it was just that Rickie Fowler played brilliantly, beating Phil 6&5, highlighted by a tremendous eagle to seal the match.

Round 3 picks


Watney v. Moore
Both players have played well so far, but Ryan Moore has won both his matches handily. He's looking pretty unbeatable right now

Donald v. Manassero
I might just keep picking Matteo until he loses (or wins it all).

Fowler v. Kuchar
How could you not take Rickie after the way he hammered Phil? It would be great for golf to see Rickie take on Manassero in the semis.

Yang v. McDowell
Yang has played well knocking off two tough opponents in Stewart Cink and Alvaro Quiros, but McDowell is too fierce a competitor (see Ryder Cup).

Kaymer v. Mahan
This is probably the most difficult match to pick and might be the most exciting match yet. Both players seem to have the right mindset for match play. I'll take Kaymer, but it would be interesting to see if Mahan can get to the final and maybe face Graeme McDowell.

Crane v. Jiminez
Ben Crane might be incredibly slow on the golf course, but he did something right in taking down Rory.

Ogilvy v. Watson
Two of my favourite players on tour. Bubba has won both his matches by fairly large margins. Despite an injury last week, he's having a great 2011 so far.

Holmes v. Day
J.B. Holmes was a last minute addition to the field. I think he's eventual got to tire out and lose a match. Since I had him losing in the first round, I'll take Jason Day.

Those are my picks for Friday. Now that Westwood is out I'll take Rickie Fowler to win it all.

Who do you like to win it all?

-A.

Tiger is out, I might be a genius

One and done

I probably should have bet on this thing
The big news out of Arizona today is that out of the 32 matches contested at the WGC, I correctly predicted 26 of them. That is some pretty staggering stuff.

It was a pretty exciting first day that saw 8 matches go to extra holes. On the other side of the coin there were some complete blow-outs. Martin Kaymer, despite playing pretty average (even par), won 7&6 over Seung-yul Noh. Luke Donald walked all over Charley Hoffman 6&5 and Nick Watney hammered Anthony Kim 5&4.

The more closely contested matches included (one of my upset specials) Stewart Cink knocking off defending champion Ian Poulter in 19 holes. Matt Kuchar needed 22 holes to beat Anders Hansen and the great Dane Thomas Bjorn dismissed Tiger Woods on the first extra hole.

Bracketology

Last week, Aaron Baddeley picked up his third career victory at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera. This win could be a stepping stone on the way to a great career. There was much hype around Badds eleven years ago when he won the Australian Open as a teenager. Since then his career has been under-whelming. Perhaps now that his game has matured the 29-year old Baddeley will fulfill his potential.

This week it's The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, golf's version of March Madness. The only difference is that it's February, it's not college basketball and the athletes participating are paid publicly, and not under the table. Let's call it February Frenzy (I know, it's catchy).

Who Doesn't Love Freddie?

Fred Couples: As Cool as they come

(Note: Sorry about the weird formatting and spacing, blogger is being difficult)


The Sunday coverage at Riviera just started and everyone's favourite player, Freddie Couples, is a shot back ahead of Aussie underachiever, Aaron Baddeley. "Badds" was once included in that group of great young players, but after winning twice early in his career, he has struggled through swing changes (Stack and Tilt) and hasn't won since 2007. His game has been resurrected a bit lately, now that he's no longer stacking and tilting.


However, the favourite in LA today is Freddie. He's a favourite wherever he goes, but particularly at the LA Open where he's won twice before. Now a Champions Tour player, Couples is continuing to show that he can still compete on the regular tour occasionally. At 51, Freddie is still one of the longest players out there and when he gets the putter rolling is as good as he ever was. One of the great things about golf is that, save for debilitating injuries (which Freddie actually has), talented players can continue to compete with guys 25-30 years younger than them.

Meet D.A. Points!

Nice hops, D.A.

This isn't exactly breaking news, but D.A. Points won the AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He also won the team event with his partner, and the Lama's caddy from Caddyshack, Bill Murray. Apparently D.A. is an obsessive Caddyshack fan and can recite the lines from memory. Big deal! So can I! Anyway, this is the extent of what I know about D.A. Wikipedia tells me that his name is actually Darren Andrew and that he's 34 and he went to the University of Illinois.

Murray was actually a bit choked up about winning the pro-am saying that it was something he's wanted to do for a long time. Murray is a professional goof, but his love of golf is real and it's good to see someone who actually is interested win the pro-am instead of some sitcom star that nobody cares about.

Wait... Who won?

Mark Wilson is Mr. 2011!

Unfortunately Wilson didn't wear
the "cheesehead" all day

The PGA Tour veteran won for the second time in 2011 on Monday. Possibly buoyed by the outcome of the Super Bowl, the Wisconsin native finished off the frost-delayed Waste Management Phoenix Open on Monday beating Jason Dufner on the second playoff hole.

This is Wilson's 4th tour victory. He turned pro in 1996 and after trolling around the mini tours for a number of years, Wilson became a mainstay on the PGA Tour. It wasn't until 2007 that Wilson scored his first victory at the Honda Classic. He added the 2009 Mayakoba Classic but after winning twice in the last month, Wilson is clearly playing the best golf of his life.

During the third round on Super Bowl Sunday, Wilson donned a Packers' Cheesehead to match his Packer green shirt on the famous 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale. This fuelled the always well lubricated and raucous crowd at the 16th

The 16th hole

#16: This is true Stadium golf

The 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale is a fairly benign short par 3. However, during the Phoenix Open it's an absolute circus. It's been described as  like hitting a golf shot in a football stadium. The fans cheer and boo which provides a totally unique experience on the tour. Golf crowds are usually polite and reserved. But at number 16 they're encouraged to party. The players enjoy it (or at least they claim to, maybe out of fear of being heckled by the fans). Partially because of the atmosphere at 16, the Phoenix Open brings in the highest attendance on the Tour year after year.

So, should the tour do what it can to add this type of hole to more events?

The scene at 16 certainly cannot be recreated. It's something that came about organically. However, a similar set up could be added to other tour stops. The last par 3 on the course (or perhaps a short or even drivable par 4) could be turned into a stadium type hole by adding seating around the green and up and down the fairway. This would add more excitement and maybe some extra pressure to the hole.

This doesn't have to be part of every tournament (we certainly don't need this at Augusta), but this strategy could breathe some life into some of the tour's struggling events.

What do you think? Is 16 at Phoenix one of a kind or can the tour use this format to make other events more popular?

-A.