Golf Thread: Discussion, News & Reviews

Dale Hayes included this snippet in his weekly blog:

Jack Nicklaus sent a tweet to Roger Federer last week congratulating him on his 18th major win at the Australian Open. Federer is the oldest winner of a tennis major at 35, while Nicklaus won his 18th major at the age of 46. From one champion to another, Nicklaus said; "There's a difference between 35 and 46. When you're 35, you have a darn good chance of winning again. I'll be watching and hoping he does win again. But if he doesn't, he certainly has this one. Just like I competed again (without winning a major) but I had my '86 Masters."

Source: http://online.retailtribe.co.za/client/onlineeditor/EMV.aspx?n=6786414&r=188
 
The Masters is nearly here!

Round 1 tee times and pairings

2017 Masters tee times, pairings for Thursday
8 a.m. ET -- Daniel Summerhays, Russell Henley,
8:11 a.m. -- Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Brendan Steele, Jhonattan Vegas (Venezuela)
8:22 a.m. -- Mike Weir (Canada), Billy Hurley III, Scott Piercy
8:33 a.m. -- Larry Mize, Brian Stuard, Stewart Hagestad*
8:44 a.m. -- Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark), Kevin Chappell, Jim Furyk
8:55 a.m. -- Sandy Lyle (Scotland), Sean O’Hair, Scott Gregory* (England)
9:06 a.m. -- Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), Adam Hadwin (Canada)
9:17 a.m. -- Tommy Fleetwood (England), Gary Woodland, J. B. Holmes
9:28 a.m. -- Adam Scott (Australia), Kevin Kisner, Andy Sullivan (England)
9:39 a.m. -- Francesco Molinari (Italy), Daniel Berger, Thomas Pieters (Belgium)
10:01 a.m. -- Fred Couples, Paul Casey (England), Kevin N
10:12 a.m. -- Russell Knox (Scotland), Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)
10:23 a.m. -- Branden Grace (South Africa), Brooks Koepka, Jeunghun Wang (Korea)
10:34 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer (Germany), Matthew Fitzpatrick (England)
10:45 a.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spain), Si Woo Kim (Korea)
10:56 a.m. -- Brandt Snedeker, Justin Rose (England) Jason Day (Australia)
11:07 a.m. -- Rod Pampling (Australia), William McGirt
11:18 a.m. -- Mark O’Meara, Hudson Swafford, Roberto Castro
11:29 a.m. -- Ian Woosnam (Wales), James Hahn, Brad Dalke*
11:40 a.m. -- Ross Fisher (England), Pat Perez, Byeong Hun An (Korea)
11:51 a.m. -- Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Ryan Moore, Webb Simpson
12:13 p.m. -- Ernie Els (South Africa), Jason Dufner. Bernd Wiesberger (Austria)
12:24 p.m. -- Danny Willett (England), Matt Kuchar, Curtis Luck* (Australia)
12:35 p.m. -- Vijay Singh (Fiji), Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), Toto Gana* (Chile)
12:46 p.m. -- Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Henrik Stenson (Sweden), Tyrrell Hatton (England)
12:57 p.m. -- Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), Steve Stricker, Mackenzie Hughes (Canada)
1:08 p.m. -- Charley Hoffman, Chris Wood (England), Yuta Ikeda (Japan)
1:19 p.m. -- Sergio Garcia (Spain), Lee Westwood (England), Shane Lowry (Ireland)
1:30 p.m. -- Bernhard Langer (Germany), Alex Noren (Sweden), Patrick Reed
1:41 p.m. -- Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), Hideto Tanihara (Japan), Jon Rahm (Spain)
1:52 p.m. -- Marc Leishman (Australia), Bill Haas, Justin Thomas
2:03 p.m. -- Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker

* amateur
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Agent_Smith said:
The Masters is nearly here!

Round 1 tee times and pairings
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Any predictions?

One of my favourite courses, mainly because of many challenging holes. Augusta would be a bucket list tournament to watch/play, I suppose.
 
Dale Hayes said this in his weekly newsletter:

Augusta suits the golfers who can both control the distance they hit their iron shots, and obviously how accurately they hit. It also suits golfers who hit the ball high because of the uphill shots and firm greens.

Dustin Johnson will start this year’s event as a massive favourite. His game is phenomenal at the moment. His long driving will mean that all the par 5’s are easily reachable for him.

Jordan Spieth has a great record at Augusta, which is largely due to his great long putting. I cannot think of a past winner that wasn’t a better than average putter – and you’ve got to like very fast greens.
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...and this of the South African hopefuls:

Nobody pulls for the South African players more than I do, but I cannot see one of our guys donning the green jacket this year. We’ll have five players in the field - Branden Grace; Ernie Els (playing using his final exemption after winning the 2012 Open Championship); Trevor Immelman; Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, but none of them are really in form and other than Ernie, I don’t think they play enough tournament golf.

Both Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen have the perfect game for Augusta, but I question whether it’s really important enough to either of them, to win. I would love to see them play with Gary Player’s determination.
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McT said:
Any predictions?

One of my favourite courses, mainly because of many challenging holes. Augusta would be a bucket list tournament to watch/play, I suppose.
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Yeah, smart money definitely on DJ. His golf has been on another level to the others. Rory also a good bet but if you wanted to back an outsider, a few bob on Ricky Fowler would be something to consider. Can't wait to get going but I just hope that this storm that has completely washed out the Par3 contest has passed by the time round 1 is scheduled to get underway.
 
Some say they saw Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy in clandestine talks before this happened :whistling: :D

Johnson a doubt after freak fall


World No 1 Dustin Johnson's participation in the US Masters this week is in doubt after he injured his back in a freak accident, his manager David Winkle said on Wednesday.

Johnson, the US Open champion, is favourite to win the Masters title after victories in his last three tournaments.

"At roughly 3pm today, Dustin took a serious fall on a staircase in his Augusta rental home," Winkle said in a statement.

"He landed very hard on his lower back and is now resting, although quite uncomfortably. He has been advised to remain immobile and begin a regimen of anti-inflammatory medication and icing, with the hope of being able to play tomorrow. I will refrain from commenting further until I know more about Dustin's condition."

The Masters starts in Augusta on Thursday with Johnson scheduled to play alongside fellow Americans Bubba Watson and Jimmy Walker in the last group out.

No world number one has captured the Masters Green Jacket since Tiger Woods in 2002.

"It's a funny game. It doesn't matter how good you're playing, you can still not win," Johnson, who became world number one in February, said on Tuesday.

"I've got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I've been playing the last few tournaments. But, you know, anything can happen."

Apart from top-10 finishes the last two years, Johnson has a modest record at the Masters.

His dreams of winning last year were ruined by two double-bogeys in the final round. He tied for fourth, four shots behind winner Danny Willett.

It is not the first time Johnson's bid for a Green Jacket has been hit by injury.

The big-hitting American was forced out of the 2012 Masters after injuring his back while lifting a jet ski.
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So it's finally underway in what appears to be glorious sunshine. Leaderboard here
 
SERGIO!!!!!! Fantastic, so worth staying up for. On what would have been the great Seve Ballasteros' 60th birthday. Simply magical. Again, the Masters delivers!
 
Agent_Smith said:
SERGIO!!!!!! Fantastic, so worth staying up for. On what would have been the great Seve Ballasteros' 60th birthday. Simply magical. Again, the Masters delivers!
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So you are a die-hard? It was something of a fairy tale end for Sergio. Like you said, his win comes on Seve's birthday. I am immensely chuffed for the Spaniard. No doubt there will be some disappointment for Rose, but he made sure that the final day was an amazing contest.

I do hope, though, that Rose gets his Masters' in the near future.
 
A quote from Dale Hayes' weekly newsletter:

"Ernie’s incident took place on the 12th hole. His ball was plugged in the rough so he called his playing partner over to check it out. He lifted the ball - in front of his playing partner - to see if it was plugged. It wasn’t plugged, so he replaced it. After chipping out he was unsure that he had replaced it in exactly the same position so he called a referee and gave himself a two-shot penalty. To all golfers out there - this is what makes golf so special. I’m convinced that this would only happen in golf!"

(This comes Ernie's outing in the weekend's BMW PGA Championship.)
 
Interesting to see Greg Norman on that list being no1 for more than 6 years, only having won 2 majors. Many guys below him won multiple majors yet occupied the no1 position for a much shorter time. The competition is very fierce at the moment, I guess during Norman's time there weren't a lot of stars, except maybe Faldo. The earlier legends like Player, Seve, Jack etc was past their time and it was before Tiger, Vijay, Phil, Ernie. Also interesting to note that Phil has never reached no1.
 
Stefanmuller said:
Interesting to see Greg Norman on that list being no1 for more than 6 years, only having won 2 majors. Many guys below him won multiple majors yet occupied the no1 position for a much shorter time. The competition is very fierce at the moment, I guess during Norman's time there weren't a lot of stars, except maybe Faldo. The earlier legends like Player, Seve, Jack etc was past their time and it was before Tiger, Vijay, Phil, Ernie. Also interesting to note that Phil has never reached no1.
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Sincere apologies. I should have stated that the ranking of players has only been the case in the past 31 years. It's in the newsletter. If they had been ranking players in the time of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player I am guessing some like Palmer or Nicklaus might have been above Norman. Again, my apologies.
 
McT said:
Sincere apologies. I should have stated that the ranking of players has only been the case in the past 31 years. It's in the newsletter. If they had been ranking players in the time of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player I am guessing some like Palmer or Nicklaus might have been above Norman. Again, my apologies.
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I was aware of that and was referring to the players ranked 3 and lower. Some good multiple winners there yet a short time at no1
 
One of the golfers I admired the most was Argentinian, Roberto de Vicenzo. He passed away on 1st June at the age of 94. Roberto was one of the finest golfers ever, winning a total of 250 professional tournaments – that’s a full 50% more than Gary Player.

He won his first in 1942 and his last regular tournament in 1979, that’s 37 years – and in that time he won at least one tournament every year. In 1967 he won the Open Championship at Hoylake beating Jack Nicklaus, and it was one of the most popular wins in the history of that Championship.

Roberto was second in the Open in 1950 and was third six times between 1948 and 1969. He turned professional in 1938 and for most of his professional life he was also a Club Professional. In 1989 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

In 1968 he needed a 65 in the final round of the Masters to tie for first with Bob Goalby, but his marker put a 4 on the card at the 17th when he in fact birdied the hole. Because that score was higher, it counted, so his score was counted as a 66 and he lost the Masters by one shot. All he would say afterwards was; “What a stupid I am.”

Although there were many offers for him to play Goalby in an 18-hole match “to see who would have won”, Roberto refused point blank, saying that Bob Goalby was the Masters Champion.

The rest of the tribute here: Dale Hayes Golf Chat
 
US Open on (coverage from 19:00 tonight on SS1)

Live leaderboard here in the meantime
 
Anybody's championship tonight. Many to be first timers plus a few big names like Fowler and Thomas. Just hoping a boring guy like Hoffman or Harmon don't win it.

Once again Els collapses spectacularly on the weekend. Louis is probably too far behind but with a low round he can get a top 10 finish
 
So now apparently the last 7 or 8 major winners have all been first timers. Incredible stuff!
 
Snippets from Dale Hayes' weekly newsletter:

It was heart-warming to see that Branden Grace gave R 1,5 million towards the Fire Relief in Knysna. Branden grew up in Buffels Bay and was taught his golf by Vaughn Tucker who was in those days the pro at George Golf Club. Well-done Branden.


Another family duo that successfully walked the fairways of the Sunshine Tour for many years was Titch Moore and his father, Trevor. They had a few wins together and a few losses but it was their love for each other that always stood out for me. Titch idolized his dad and you could always see how proud his dad was of his son. Titch’s dad passed away on the weekend and our thoughts are with the family.


Another bit of bad news is that Bruce Lietzke, who was one of the best players on Tour in the late seventies and eighties has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Bruce never played during the American summer school holidays because he wanted to spend that time with his children. He often even missed out on the US and British Opens. Sometimes, after a full 2–2½ months off he would get back on Tour and win or finish second and claim that he had not hit a ball in his entire time off.

After a few years of this his caddie tested him by putting a banana in his driver headcover. When he opened the bag 2½ months later there was a horrible smell and the worst rotten banana you have ever seen. It took him an hour to clean the club, bag and headcover.
 
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