The Golf Watch

WGC-CA Championship < Puerto Rico Open

FIrst, congratulations to Ernie Els for winning the WGC at Doral, his first win since the Honda Classic in '08.  Els doesn't have the appeal Tiger and Phil have with the casual golf fan, but enough people know who the Big Easy is that it's a popular victory.

Minus the Els factor, there's not much else you can say about the tournament.  With only one player within striking distance all day, the tournament certainly lost some of its appeal.

Then there's the Puerto Rico Open.  A tournament that has a smaller purse, a weaker field, has been delayed due to weather and has suffered from a much smaller media contingent.  Nevertheless, I expect the tournament's final round to be much more exciting than the WGC.  Why, you ask?

The Puerto Rico Open brings together old and new.  You have veterans like Kirk Triplett, Steve Elkington and Jeff Maggert within 5 strokes of the lead trying to relive past glories.

Young guns like Kevin Streelman, Jeff Overton and Chad Collins are all hoping to capture their first victory.  

It's what makes the game of golf so special to me.  It pits players who want to prove they still belong against players who want to prove they do belong.

With 22 players within six strokes of the lead, today's final round is sure to provide some excitement. If only more people knew about it. 

WGC-Bridgestone to offer free tickets for military

The AT&T National was highly successful for a number of reasons--one of them being that the military and children were granted free admission.  Walking the grounds and riding the shuttle buses throughout the week, the military's presence was felt.

Following suit, tournament officials of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational recently announced that all active and retired military will gain free admission to the tournament. 

At a time when a number of corporate sponsors are pulling out of tournaments and not buying hospitality tents, the military ticket giveaway couldn't be more important for showing outsiders that golf is good for this country. 

Eliminate Sunday 36-hole match play?

Sunday at the Accenture Match Play has not carried the level of excitement some have hoped for--and one idea that has been bounced around for a few years has been suggested again by a fan named John who e-mailed John Maginnes of PGATour.com...

John from Vancouver understands that a match play tournament, by nature, has a greater chance of being anticlimactic than a normal week. There is always more excitement on Day 1 than there is on Day 5 -- no matter who survives to the finals --- due to the sheer number of matches and potential upsets.

That is not just my opinion. It is one that was obviously expressed by the PGA of America more than a half century ago, when they changed the format of their premier championship from match play to stroke play.

So John suggested that we eliminate the 36-hole final and play both the semifinal match and the championship on Sunday...

The players will tell you they love the match play format. Casual golf fans and golf geeks alike can get behind it for its simplicity. For us it is one of the most exciting events of the year. Maintaining the same format is an option with a tremendous amount of merit.

However, arguments for a 36-hole final dry up pretty quickly -- especially when this option offers the potential of more compelling, star-studded action deeper into the week.

33 reasons why Geoff Ogilvy is better than you and me

Although the networks probably were not too thrilled over the final match of Geoff Ogilvy and Paul Casey, the play from both players Sunday was nothing short of spectacular. 

Not including holes that were conceded throughout the week, Ogilvy played 33 holes at 1-under-par or better.  I wouldn't want to face him this fall at the President's Cup.  Read the wire story here. 

The Accenture Match Play wasn't the only men's tournament held this week.  Players like Briny Baird and Bo Van Pelt hoped to do what Brian Gay did last year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico--break through for their first wins on Tour.  But Mark Wilson had other plans, securing his second Tour title.

As for the LPGA Tour, Lorena Ochoa overcame a three-shot deficit to claim her 25th Tour victory in Thailand. 

"The 7,879-yard course will play longer for players"

According to this piece in the Arizona Daily Star,the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain is getting rave reviews.  The one course detail that struck me was length...

The 7,879-yard course will play longer for players...

Best player not to have won a WGC?

Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson continued their stellar play at Firestone, and share the third round lead with Lee Westwood.  This is shaping up to be an exciting final round. 

Steve Elling of CBSSports.com offers this amusing bit about Phil's quest for his first WGC title:

As for delivering the goods on his personal front, Mickelson is within 18 holes of collecting his first WGC trophy, an odd hole in a career resume that includes three majors and a Players Championship among his 34 PGA Tour victories. He's 0-for-24 over his decade of competing in the big-money WGCs, for those of you not keeping score at home.

Of course, for years, he was hammered with questions about his winless skein in the majors, so even Mickelson smirked when he fielded this one after the round: "How does it feel to be the best player never to have won a WGC?"

"Thank you," he said, laughing again.

Early wake up call

If you're out on the west coast, you might want to TIvo this one.  The final round of the WGC-CA Championship will be played out tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. ET on The Golf Channel.  Barring a playoff, expect the final round to conclude at 10:30.

Is the consolation match really necessary?

I've always been under the impression that the players who compete in the consolation match on Sunday at the Accenture Match Play Championship look un-enthused and somewhat demoralized.  They never seem to want to be there.  This certainly was the case yesterday when Henrik Stenson defeated Justin Leonard 3 and 2 to finish in third place.  Stenson said in a post round interview to Mark Rolfing of NBC Sports:

It’s kind of flat, not being in the final.  I don’t know if either one of us would like to play in real honesty, but that’s the nature of the game…I think it’s been a long week for both of us and if we can’t reach the final then, since we both lost yesterday, so we’re sort of ready to pack up and go home really.

I don't blame Stenson.  Both he and Leonard had to play their final two holes with rock music echoing from the tents nearby because the Woods-Cink match had just finished.  I guess that shows how important their match was. 

Look out for the lower half of the Ben Hogan bracket

While looking over the brackets late last night, I noticed two upcoming matches in the lower half of the Ben Hogan bracket--Adam Scott (2) vs. Woody Austin (10), and Sergio Garcia (3) vs. Boo Weekley (11). The Scott/Austin match should be interesting because of last year's St. Jude Championship.  Scott had the lead at the tournament after three rounds, but couldn't close the deal, after Austin fired a final round 8-under 62.  The Aussie finished in seventh place with a 5-over 75, and struggled the rest of the year.

The Garcia/Weekley match should be compelling because of the drama that ensued at last year's PGA Championship.  Garcia was disqualifed from the tournament for signing an incorrect scorecard.  He made a bogey on the 17th hole, but playing partner Boo Weekley recorded the score as a par.  Weekley said afterward, "I kind of messed the score up.  I wrote a four in on 17, and I reckon’ he didn’t check it very well...It should have been a 5 which is kind of my fault, but it’s his too.  I felt bad about it." 

Ten of world's top-15 at ten stroke or more deficit at Firestone

Phil Mickelson (3), Ernie Els (4), Adam Scott (5), Vijay Singh (7), Sergio Garcia (8), Henrik Stenson (9), Geoff Ogilvy (10), Luke Donald (11), K.J. Choi (12), and Retief Goosen (14) all trail Rory Sabbatini by ten strokes or more heading into the weekend at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.  Unlike most other tournaments, there is no cut at Firestone due to the limited field.