Green Reading

Westwood reign could be short

Retaining the No. 1 ranking in the World will be hard for Lee Westwood in 2011. Not only because of those chasing him, but also because he will be giving up the opportunity to maximize points in each tournament he plays having chosen to play on the European Tour rather than the PGA Tour in 2011.
The 37-year-old Englishman said he will put his family first in 2011 and base himself on the European Tour despite the many more millions of dollars to be won competing for the FedEx Cup.
His only trips to America next year will be for the majors and World Golf Championships, and occasional tournaments which might help him prepare for them, he said.
“I’m not taking my card up in the States,” Westwood said recently at the Dunhill Links Championship. “I don’t want to get into a situation where I have to play events in America just to make up 15 needed for tour membership.
“The FedEx Cup sits right in the middle of the kids’ summer holidays and I like going on holiday with them for a couple of weeks. I don’t want to be dictated to by having to play, having to go to America to play FedEx Cup when it doesn’t really mean that much to me.
“It doesn’t mean enough to me, anyway.”

Why can't U.S. bring a winner back to Ryder Cup?

According to GolfChannel.com, citing unnamed sources, Davis Love III will be named captain of the 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team early next year. The move has been anticipated by many since the Corey Pavin-led U.S. lost to the Europeans in October.
I personally like Love as a person. He’s always been easy to deal as a member of the media. But is he the best choice available?

Love, 46, has played in six matches, has an uninspiring 9-12-5 overall record, and hasn’t been on the winning side of the biennial event since 1999. He also served as an assistant captain for this year’s event, which was won by the Europeans 14.5-13.5. He’s probably just as good as any other first-time U.S. coach you could find, but why does the U.S. need another first-time coach when it has winning coaches to bring back. He’s expected to be matched against Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal, a Masters champion and one of the best European Ryder Cuppers ever. I certainly don’t like the captains matchup on paper.

The Europeans have either won or retained the cup in nine of the past 13 Ryder Cups, including six of the past eight. The U.S. won in 1999 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., with Ben Crenshaw as captain. Crenshaw had the magical “good feeling about this” prior to the U.S.’s dramatic comeback in the final round. And the U.S. won in 2008 with Paul Azinger as captain. Azinger, an inspiration himself as a cancer survivor, was assertive determined as the captain, changing the PGA of America’s rules of selection for the team by adding two more captain’s picks and changing the order of formats because he thought the two moves would help the U.S. The 16.5-11.5 victory at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., was the largest American margin of victory since 1981.

Yet the PGA of America has failed to invite the U.S.’ only two winning captains since 1993 back to lead the team again. Instead it has adhered to its inexplicable and indefensible unwritten policy of naming a new and first-time captain every two years. Jack Nicklaus is the last U.S. captain to get a second leading gig when he was invited back for the 1987 matches.

What’s wrong with having a winner lead your team? The PGA has instead opted to name Lanny Wadkins, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Tom Lehman and most recently Corey Pavin – who all eventually lost, since Tom Watson won at The Belfry in England in 1993. The U.S. lost three in a row after Crenshaw won, and Pavin may have started a losing streak after Azinger’s victory in 1998. Can we please ask Azinger to captain the team again, maybe even give him helm of the team until he loses. It beats stretching to find the next loser.

Johnson becoming a magazine darling

Myrtle Beach resident Dustin Johnson has graced the cover of yet another national magazine.

This time he’s on the cover of the January 2011 issue of Golf Digest. The cover shows Johnson at impact with a driver and the accompanying title: “Power: How to Rip It & Still Find It, By Dustin Johnson & Butch Harmon.”

The four-page article includes 24 still photos over three pages of Johnson’s swing sequence with a driver. The photos were taken just before the BMW Championship in September, which Johnson won.

Harmon, who Johnson has been working with since late April, gives analysis on how to add control to a swing built on brute force.

As the 2011 majors approach you can count on Johnson begin featured on some more covers, considering his travails in last year's majors. Sports Illustrated writer Alan Shipnuck visited Johnson recently for a story early next year.

GWAA sides with McDowell for POY

The Golf Writers Association of America, of which I'm a member, has selected Graeme McDowell, Yani Tseng and Bernhard Langer the 2010 Players of the Year on their respective tours. I agree with all of them, considering those were my three selections on ballots that included three choices for each honor.
It is the first GWAA POY award for all three players and they will be honored at the GWAA’s annual awards dinner April 6 in Augusta, Ga.
In the closest race, McDowell received 43 percent of the votes (87 votes) for Male POY to 32 percent for Jim Furyk (61) and 25 percent for Martin Kaymer (51). Tseng received 69 percent of the vote (137 votes) for Female POY to 16 percent for Cristie Kerr (32) and Ai Miyazato had 15 percent (31). Langer received 94 percent of the vote (187 votes) for Senior POY to six percent (13) for Fred Couples.
McDowell became the first European to win the U.S. Open in 40 years and his win at Pebble Beach was one of four for the Northern Irishman. He won the decisive match for Europe at the Ryder Cup and his fourth win was a come-from-behind playoff win over Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge. McDowell also won the Golf Writers Trophy (a vote of the Association of Golf Writers) and shared European Tour POY honors with Kaymer. He is the second Irishman to win POY in the last three years. Padraig Harrington won the honor in 2008.
Tseng won two LPGA majors – the Kraft Nabisco Championship and Women's British Open – in her three-win season. She had eight top-10 finishes, finished fourth on the money list and was the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year.
Langer won back-to-back majors -- Senior Open at Carnoustie and U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee – and won five times on the Champions Tour. He led the money list, captured the season-long Charles Schwab Cup and won his third consecutive Champions Tour POY honor.

Johnson and Poulter out to quick start at Shootout

Myrtle Beach resident Dustin Johnson and partner Ian Poulter, who are ranked 13^th and 14^th in the Official World Golf Ranking, played like they are among the top players in the world as teammates Friday in the first round of the Shark Shootout.
Johnson and Poulter shot a 9-under-par 63 in the modified alternate shot format and are tied with Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly for the lead in the 12-team event at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla. The two leading teams tee off together in the better ball second round beginning at 10:55 a.m. today and NBC has coverage from 4-6 p.m.
Mark Calcavecchia and partner Jeff Overton started eagle-birdie and are tied for third at 64 with Fred Funk and Kenny Perry. The team of Justin Leonard and Scott Verplank are fifth at 6 under.

Tiger on his way back

I know there are a lot of doubters and haters out there, but I believe Tiger Woods is in for another big year in 2011. His play in the Chevron World Challenge, in which he lost a playoff to Graeme McDowell, is an indication of things to come. It might not be on the level of his Tiger Slam in 2001-02 or his eight or more wins in 2000 and 2006, but I think he'll be on his way back to greatness next year, with at least one major and three or more wins.
The man has won 71 PGA Tour events and 14 major championships, he hasn't forgotten how to play golf. And he only turns 35 on Dec. 30. Vijay Singh won more tournaments in his 40s than he did before he turned 40, so Woods has a ton left in the tank. A sex scandal and the breakup of his marriage didn't take all the talent from him, but it did temporarily take his identity. I believe that had as much to do with Woods' poor play as anything. He created an identity as a family man and incredibly focused person, and once that was stripped from him he was lost both on and off the course.
Once he establishes his new identity and becomes comfortable with himself, he'll be just as focused on the course as he used to be. The swing changes he's going through now I believe will make him better

The changing face, age and gender of the LPGA

The LPGA could have some new faces being seen more often beginning this upcoming season in light of recent events.
LPGA players have voted to allow transgender players to compete on tour in response to a lawsuit filed by a California woman who had her sex changed five years ago.
The players voted to remove the “female at birth” requirement from the tour's constitution at a year-end meeting at the LPGA Tour Championship, commissioner Michael Whan said. He said steps will be taken in the coming weeks to make the change.
In addition, the Golf Channel reported that 15-year-old phenom Alexis Thompson has filed a petition with the LPGA seeking an increase from a current maximum of six for non-tour members to a possible 12 sponsor exemptions into LPGA events.
Thompson’s agent, Bobby Kreusler of Blue Giraffe Sports, filed a petition that asks LPGA commissioner Mike Whan to grant Thompson 12 sponsor exemptions next season, six more than what LPGA rules allow non-members.
LPGA rules require that players be at least 18 years old to be eligible for tour membership and Morgan Pressel and Aree Song are the only players who have been granted waivers of that age restriction in tour history. But Thompson isn’t petitioning for membership.
Thompson, of Coral Springs, Fla., turned pro earlier this year and won $336,472 in her limited 2010 LPGA appearances, which would have ranked 34th on the LPGA money list if she were a tour member, and she tied for second at the Evian Masters and tied for 10th at the U.S. Women’s Open. When she was 12 she was the youngest qualifier ever for the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles.
Thompson’s agent, Bobby Kreusler of Blue Giraffe Sports, filed the petition and he said it would actually help Thompson travel the world less by being able to play in the U.S. more often. Thompson has vowed to only play 17 events worldwide as she continues home-schooling.

Club champions compete in Brunswick County

In a closely contested 36-hole event, Bill Calhoun of Sandpiper Bay and Debbie Holsather of St. James Plantation won the seventh annual Tournament of Champions at The Members Club at St. James Plantation recently. Calhoun also won the Tournament of Champions in 2006.
The tournament was open to male and female club champions at Brunswick County golf courses. Players must have won without handicaps in either medal or match play.
Calhoun, who has won the championship at Sandpiper Bay five years in a row, shot 73-78 to win over Sam Siciliano of St. James by one stroke. Monte Beebe of Sea Trail came in third with a 155 total, and David Mambro of Brunswick Plantation and Mike Verhoosky of Lockwood Folly tied for fourth 156s.
In the women’s division, Holsather shot 85 in the first round and entered the second round in third place, two shots behind Mona Dye Boob, a three-time winner of the Tournament of Champions.
Holsather shot 41-40--81 in the final round to earn her first Tournament of Champions trophy.  Billie Elwanger of Farmstead/Meadowland and Jean Maxon of Ocean Ridge Plantation tied for second at 167.  Mona Dye Boob of Brierwood Golf Club finished fourth at 172, and Joan Mason of Sea Trail and Judy Nicoletti of Sandpiper Bay tied for fifth at 174.

Rumors of Daly visit not substantiated

There were rumors that John Daly was going to play in the annual Jack Frost tournament this week at River Hills Golf & Country Club, where a few dollars are exchanged annually. But it doesn’t appear he made the trip.
Daly has the John Daly Discount Golf store on U.S. 17 Business in Surfside Beach, where he keeps one of his two large equipment and promotional trailers at the store, and he hasn't made an appearance there this week. Workers at River Hills said they haven't seen him either.
I'm sure there's still a lot to keep players entertained without him.