While Augusta is my favorite major to watch, and while I consider the U.S. Open to be the toughest major to actually win, there is something about The British Open that makes it the most special of the four. Maybe it’s because it is golf’s oldest championship. Maybe it’s because it’s fun to wake up at 7 a.m. and watch live golf instead of waiting until the afternoon. Or maybe it’s because only British Open venues represent the game of golf in its purest form, the way it was meant to be played, by those who first played it: over rugged terrain and in often blustery conditions, where perfectly struck shots take miserable bounces into pot bunkers, and 7 irons from 225 yards out bound half the distance up to the hole.
On the eve of this year’s Open I’ve assembled a few preview stories to get you ready for Royal Birkdale, which last hosted the tournament in 1998 and saw Mark O’Meara take home the Claret Jug after outdueling something named Brian Watts. John Hawkins states the obvious: the Jug is up for grabs without Tiger. Larry Dorman argues that “the case can be made that Royal Birkdale is in the same league, strategically if not aesthetically, with the other regular courses in the [British Open] rotation.” Jason Sobel writes that “returning to Royal Birkdale for the first Open Championship at the venue since 1998, [Justin] Rose has experienced the ups and downs of a roller-coaster career, from precocious teen to slumping pro to world-class talent.” Sobel also takes stock of the field. Defending champion Paddy Harrington is listed at 75% full strength. Kenny Perry is the hottest player in the world right now (he won again this past weekend at the John Deere, his third title of 2008), but he’s getting his Scott Hoch on by passing on the Open, which of course has won him more criticism and scrutiny than he probably deserves. If you believe Sergio Garcia, only those pesky golf gods prevented him from winning at Carnasty last year. So is this finally the year when Sergio gets rid of that stupid monkey? Finally, Hugh MacDonald from The Scottish Herald writes not to bet on the Brits.
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Just because Tiger’s rehabbing until 2009 doesn’t mean that we can’t keep talking about records that he’s destined to break. Forbes, for instance, recently wrote that Tiger is set to become history’s first billionaire athlete around 2011. “Woods is on track to pass $1 billion in career earnings by 2010. Becoming a billionaire – that is, having a net worth above $1 billion – will take slightly longer (one year), since a sizable chunk of Woods’ prize and endorsement money is eaten up by taxes and management fees – we estimated 45 percent. We also credited Woods with annualized investment returns of 8 percent,” the magazine wrote. “It will be an unprecedented occurrence. There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports, like Switzerland’s richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports.”
By the way Tiger, in case you get bored chatting with “Steiney” on your cell, changing Sam, or curling 50 lb dumbells all day long, PGATour.com laid out a nice itinerary of things to keep you busy for the rest of the “season.” Although playing co-captain to Zinger in the Ryder Cup at (yawn) Valhalla isn’t one of them.
And speaking of Tiger, it looks like the always cheeky British press is finding a way to work him into literally every pre-tournament question. But maybe they have a point. After all, isn’t the tournament destined to be less exciting sans El Tigre?
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Interestingly, one group not necessarily upset over Tiger’s absence at Royal Birkdale this week are the British betting agencies, which see an increase in ‘punter’ activity when Woods stays home from a tournament.
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Weeks ago I listed my Top Ten recent grads in need of an agent. One of them was Florida St.’s Jonas Blixt, whom I speculated (along with Danish sensation Joel Sjoholm of Georgia St.) probably had more professional upside than anyone else on the list. Swedish golf to this point has pretty much been synonymous with Jesper Parnevik and that funny hat of his, but Gaylord Sports Management, which officially signed Blixt following his 4-0 sayonara to amateur golf at the Palmer Cup in June, is betting that Blixt will change that. Ben Harrison will handle Blixt’s account at Gaylord, and he secured Blixt’s professional debut this past weekend at the annual British Open tuneup at Loch Lomond. Blixt says that he will next play the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational July 21-27, after which he will “pursue his options on the U.S. and European tours.”
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Speaking of playing in Europe, with the Tour’s “Race To Dubai” promotion starting in 2009 (somewhat equivalent to the FedEx Cup), playing overseas never seemed more attractive (not to mention lucrative–paychecks are nominated in Euros)
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With Tiger sidelined, who’s the new favorite to win this season’s FedEx Cup? It may very well be Anthony Kim, whose win at Tiger’s tournament at Congressional (Kim’s second of the season) prompted an immediate congratulatory call from The Great One himself. But is “A.K.” good enough to be the next Tiger? There are some similarities, and Thomas Bonk remarks that “the The Woods-Kim link is inescapable,” so much so that even Mark O’Meara has somewhat taken the young phenom under his wing, much like he did with a certain someone ten or so years ago. Kim, like Woods, is decked out in Nike’s Swoosh (and plays their equipment). And he also ditched former agent Rocky Hambric to join Team Tiger and IMG, though Clarke Jones (not Mark Steinberg) runs his account. But his penchant for big belt buckles puts him more in line with Tiger’s arch nemesis, Rory Sabbatini, and his accuracy of the tee (combined with prodigious length) is certainly a foreign concept to Woods. Moreover, until Kim actually lands a major (I like him in the PGA next month) or two or ten, let’s hold off on the comparison, shall we?
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It seems the latest fad among golf pundits is to bash Phil Mickelson, especially since he gave his critics new fodder following “3-wood-gate” at the U.S. Open and that series of chunked chips on Saturday that every hack watching at home silently (or perhaps loudly) chuckled over. That said, Phil to me is more likeable than ever, and perhaps that’s due to the fact that I’m seeing more of him off of the golf course in various television spots. Tim Rosaforte breaks down about Phil’s “acting chops,”and even mentions that Phil will be on Entourage this fall?? Finally, Lawrence Donegan asks who exactly is the real Phil Mickelson?
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Michelle Wie and Stacy Lewis don’t have a lot in common, writes Beth Ann Baldry, except that both of them of in the midst of trying to earn an LPGA card for 2009 without going to Q-School.
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Which story is uglier, Brett Favre’s divorce from Ted Thompson and Green Bay, or John Daly’s divorce from Butch Harmon? I don’t like going after agents, but someone needs to tell Daly to STFU, and to me Bud Martin over at SFX is as good a person as any.
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