Once again, this is nothing to do with cats 😎 but I played a lot of golf in my youth and got quite good at it. Golf followers know that Rory McIlroy lost the BMW PGA Championship this Sunday to an eagle in a play-off with Billy Horschel. However, in my opinion, he lost the championship on the 18th hole of the fourth round; the final hole of the championship proper before the play-off.
He hit a three wood off the tee to the middle of the fairway to directly attack the large green which is over water. As I recall, it was about a 250+ yard carry into a slight wind. Here is the shot.
Rory, as I further understand it, carries a driver, then a three wood, and then a four iron. And then the usual irons and I presume a few wedges. He does not carry a three iron.
He hit his four iron as hard as he could and in doing so overhit it slightly and mistimed the shot slightly. The shot was hooked and it fell short of the water in the rough. He was fortunate because it was destined for the water.
But, if he had carried a three iron he would have carried it onto the green in my honest opinion. This would have left two putts for a birdie to win the championship. In the event, he pitched from the rough onto the green over the water leaving himself about 15 feet from the hole with a tricky left to right putt which he missed.
In the play-off he did the same thing again but the 4-iron was adequate because his 3-wood tee shot was a little further down the fairway as he carried it over the trees to cut off the corner. He could get a four iron home from there. If Rory McIlroy had carried a 3-iron he would have won.
P.S. Billy putted superbly throughout the tournament and that last putt to win was destined for the hole. He was awesome.
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.
Intro: this is my opinion. It is tough language but I respect the man as almost everyone does.
Tiger Woods has consistently said that he believes he can win another major championship - make it 16. He always wanted to beat Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors. His back and leg injuries destroyed that dream. He even had the number 18 embossed into his golf shoes at one stage.
“I'll play as long as I can play and I feel like I can still win the event,” Woods said. The thing is he can't win! He is deceiving himself. And his fans want him at championships as the golfing sun still revolves around him which means he gets enormous adulation even now when he is playing crap.
UPDATE - FIRST DAY OF THE OPEN: Woods shoots 8 over and will miss the cut (he did by miles). He is almost in last place! He is wasting his time. He looked terrible. Sir Nick Faldo agrees. He questions why Woods puts himself through it all as did Colin Montgomerie who Woods criticised. It is time for him to stop and to think that he can win a major is fanciful nonsense.
Roe, a former European Tour professional, said on a ‘featured groups' international TV feed overseen by organisers the R&A: "You look at the eyes, you've got to think there's a lot of painkillers being taken to cope with the pain. It's not easy." - Planet Sport. Correct. Woods has a glazed look. He is not right. That's obvious.
That's the only reason why he's playing in major championships - to WIN. He is at Troon, Scotland, at the moment. And he's there because he believes he can win The Open championship. Actually win it. And he said the same thing about other major championships including the recent US Open Championship. And the UPGA before that.
And yet we see a man, with a wonderful golfing legacy, looking as if he is in permanent distress; almost zombie-like. He walks very slowly. My bet is that he takes drugs to manage the pain in his right leg (and back). His leg was re-fabricated after his horrendous car accident. They thought they were going to have to amputate it but they rebuilt it and I'm sure it causes him lots of pain even today.
He built up his upper body to compensate for the lack of muscle and strength in his right leg. He is also altered his swing slightly to accommodate this change in his anatomy.
Tiger is 48 years of age. The oldest age at which a professional golfer has won a major championship is nearly 50 when legendary American golfer Julius Boros won the 1968 PGA Championship.
The point I'm making is this: Tiger Woods has supreme confidence in his ability as a golfer. And rightly so because of his enormous history of success in winning 15 majors. But his confidence has evolved into arrogance and his arrogance has deceived him into believing you can win a major. He cannot.
The world has moved on in any case. It isn't just about Tiger Woods's age which is a barrier to him winning a major championship again. It isn't just about his injury to his leg which is a major barrier.
Remember, that a lot of the power and control of the golf swing comes from the lower body. You need strength in the legs to have a really good golf swing. You need to use the leg muscles, the big muscles, to generate power.
You can't just rely on the upper body and Tiger Woods has to do this. It's a compensatory golf swing working in a way which is totally contrary to the way it should be working. He's trying to buck the system and he simply not the golfer that he was.
He misses cuts, finishes quite low down if he does make the cut and all in all he looks like a sorry figure walking slowly across the fairways, gingerly, almost robot-like with a blank expression on his puffy face.
What concerns me is this blank facial expression. As mentioned, his face looks a bit puffy as well. I would allege that this is because he's taking painkilling drugs in high doses. His accident in a Genesis car happened as I recall because he was on a lot of drugs, painkilling drugs, prescription drugs I remember which knocked him out while he was driving. He fell asleep and his car careered over the central reservation of a highway and down a ravine.
That occurred before he had the leg injury so before the leg injury he was on painkilling drugs because of his back which has been operated on several times. His back injury is due to the enormous amount of stress his golf swing placed upon it over many years of golf. Top pro golfers not infrequently suffer from lower back injuries for this reason. When you hit the ball as hard as top pros the body takes a hammering.
It is not just about his right leg which can't generate power, it's about the painkillers he's on, his age, his attempt to recreate a golf swing (and one stage the greatest golf swing on the planet) which bucks the system which altogether means that he can't win a major any more.
There are many really excellent golfers these days challenging him. Even if he hadn't been badly injured and was is good physical condition, he would struggle today to win a major because of the tougher competition. Some great players have come through e.g. Scottie Scheffler.
The conclusion is that Tiger Woods's arrogance and heightened self belief are colouring his thought processes in a bad way. Colin Montgomerie has said that he should retire gracefully. Tiger Woods criticised Colin for saying that.
Tiger said that he would continue to play in The Open championship as long as he wants to and as long as he believes he can win because he is exempt from qualifying until the age of 60. He criticised Colin Montgomerie because Colin never won The Open championship and therefore has to qualify. Therefore Colin has no right to criticised Tiger. That's Tiger's argument.
I am afraid to say that Tiger would do well to retire gracefully. I'll be pleased to be proved wrong.
Telegraph headline: The Open 2024 predictions: Victory for Bryson DeChambeau, misery for Tiger Woods. Sounds near the truth.
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
The picture was created by an AI bot and it looks like a couple of gay professional sportsmen made of plastic. They appear to be stereotypes. It looks like DALL-E has decided to go particularly woke and politically correct. Fine. I like it.
There was a time when pro tennis players were silent when hitting the ball and they changed ends without sitting down and the time between first and second serves was seconds. Now pro tennis is frenetic when play is in progress but ponderous when not.
Why do professional tennis players grunt/shout when hitting the ball while professional golfers do not?
Professional tennis players often grunt during matches as they strike the ball. This practice has been observed in both men’s and women’s games. Here are some reasons behind tennis players’ grunting (these come from a search of the internet except for item 4 and 5 which are mine):
Timing Mechanism: Grunting can serve as a timing mechanism. Players who grunt while hitting the ball tend to time their shots optimally, transferring the right amount of power through the racket.
Masking Auditory Information: Anecdotally, players suggest that a well-timed grunt can mask important auditory cues used during ball contact. By focusing on the grunt, players may inadvertently impair their timing.
Release of Tension: Grunting can also act as a release of physical and mental tension, potentially improving a player’s performance.
My preferred reason is that when a player grunts at the moment of striking the ball it enables them to fully release all their energy which is why golfers could or should do it when driving the golf ball from the tee. Distance is very important when driving the ball and grunting may improve it.
Another reason of mine would be that the shout/grunt stops the mind thinking which frees up all the muscle memory gained over years of practice. The player plays instinctively which is better than allowing the mind to intervene and tighten up the action. Once again this might benefit golfers and I can see some golfers adopting the habit in due course. The only problem is course etiquette. Golf is a silent sport. For a player to start grunting when hitting the ball might be frowned upon by some.
The conventional conclusion: In contrast, currently professional golfers do not typically grunt during their swings. The differences between tennis and golf, such as the nature of the sports, the equipment used, and the rhythm of play, likely contribute to this distinction. While tennis requires explosive movements and quick reactions, golf emphasizes precision and finesse. As a result, tennis players may find grunting beneficial, whereas golfers do not rely on it for their game.
The unconventional conclusion: golfers might start doing it one day. I am sure many golfers talk to themselves while hitting the ball to ensure rhythm. The same kind of thing.
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
Yes, another post that is not about cats. Sorry. I have kinda run out of things to say about cats. I've written many thousands of articles about them and it's time for me to spread my wings a bit. 😎😁
I have just read a story about Brooks Koepka who was taken aback by the fact that he had won an extra £3.2 million ($4 million) as a bonus after he had secured his LIV golf Jeddah title last October. He had no idea he was going to receive that enormous four million dollar bonus.
LIV golf is awash with cash. It is built on the back of money. LIV golf buys PGA golfers with huge monetary incentives. It buys their souls if you like. And some PGA golfers have taken these incentives and sold their soul to the money devil.
This will work and is working to a certain extent for a while. But at the end of the day it will fail because in the long term, once these golfers have made an extra $100 million-$200 million or more, money will no longer be an incentive.
For many of them, in any case, they had no need for more money. Most of these top PGA golfers are already multimillionaires with more than enough to support themselves and their families for the rest of their lives in great comfort.
The money God can only incentivise for a limited period of time. After that it comes down to being motivated to achieve. To leave a legacy. To attain major championship wins. How many major championships have I one? That will be the motivation for a top PGA golfer.
It really comes down to achievement at the end of the day. Monetary matters no longer become the priority. They become a secondary factor.
I'm convinced that in the long term LIV golf will fizzle out because that kind of excessive money - and the LIV golf money is certainly excessive as I'm sure everyone would agree - will no longer motivate golfers.
It's silly money. It is oil money chucked at golfers to numb their brains into chasing the money God. It just doesn't work at the end of the day.
People who have lots of money already - and as mentioned top PGA golfers have lots of money already - can no longer be motivated by more money.
I have repeated myself badly. Sorry but I had to extend the page a little for SEO reasons. 😒
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
