April 2006

What a great day for Phil Mickelson, Masters Champion for the second time.

It’s a great day to be Phil. Now let’s see if Hootie can find a way to outlaw having two drivers or if he has the course Phil-proofed.

The only real mistake Phil made today was to tell the world he got 25 extra yards from a, in his words, ” souped-up driver “.

The R&A, the USGA and the PGA Tour are gonna be all over him and Callaway like hair on a gorilla.

I take back all the bad things I’ve said about Phil. They were true at the time, but he’s not nearly as stupid as I thought. Nor is he fat and sloppy looking.

Wait a minute ! He is a wee bit fat and he is sloppy ( as in dumpy ) looking ! And that gray and black everyday wear needs to go. There’s only one Man in Black and it wasn’t Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith. But Phil’s a 2 time Masters Champion along with those other adjectives ! Congrats to him !

Well, the third round is over. I just switched off the coverage from the USA Network broadcast and came in here to finalize ( change ) my predictions again.

My boy Rocco had a swing go awry and had his right foot come out from under him. His back will tighten up, along with his nerves and I’m thinking he’ll be a few strokes short.

Chad Campbell looks as comfortable around the lead as a hog at an opera and his low trajectory doesn’t lend itself to these wet conditions. Coming in low and hard on theses greens as they dry out can’t be good. His chipping and putting and putting and putting seem a little suspect, too. Maybe a few hours off will allow him to collect himself and make a charge, but maybe not.

Tim Clark is done, stick a fork in him. Too wet, too much pressure, too long a putter, too little a man.

Darren Clarke’s got a lot on his mind and that won’t be good for him. Our prayers go out for his wife and we wish strength and comfort for him and thier children, along with her.

Tiger’s only 2 back, but he’s not gonna win, I hope. He too, has a heavy mind and heart and our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family also.

Phil, who I regularly trash in this space is showing some good stuff. He may be the man today, but I’m hoping it’s one of two others. Don’t count him out though, as he’s got what it takes to win on Sunday at The Masters. At least for the last 15 years anyway, which is THE LEAD going into the final 18 holes.

My two picks to click ( a throwback phrase from Ken ” The Hawk ” Harrelson…it is baseball season, you know ) are Freddie Couples and ………Stephen Ames.

Freddie’s got karma all over him. He’s 46 and Jack Nicklaus was 46 in ‘86 and Freddie was golfer #86 to register for this years Masters. He’s striking it solid, which bodes well in these windy conditions and he’s got some serious hand speed right now. He’s mashing the ball and length is at a premium this year. He’s been around here long enough to know all the tricks, he won in ‘92 and he’s as loose as The Goose usually is.

Please let there be no South Africans in the Top 5, or lunch will be on me. Jason Cox, from Legends Golf & Soccer, in Owensboro, KY is surely thinkin’ he’s got me covered, but I’m gonna win that bet with a final hole bogey by Ernie.

Stephen Ames is playing well, hittin’ his irons well and has a good enough stroke to putt just good enough to win from out of the pack. If you can win The PLAYERS Championship, you can win The Masters.

There they are, my final round thoughts. Such as they are, they were worth every penny you had to pay to get ‘em !

Okay, I didn’t do too bad after day one. Rocco’s still there, Ben’s in fine shape and Vijay’s still close. Time for another adjustment before Saturday’s third round.

New info has come my way about Freddie Couples. Secret info. I’m gonna adjust my prediction to say that Freddie’s gonna win by a single stroke, with a 22 foot putt for birdie on 18 and edge out Ben Crenshaw, Chad Campbell and Rocco Mediate.

Congats to Chad Campbell for tying Vijay’s 67 for low round of the tournament, but I’m afraid he’ll back up to 2 under for the 72 holes with a pair of 74’s.

Our hero in waiting, Freddie Couples will stroll and smile his way to a 73 and a 71 for a 3 under Masters victory !

I got within a few feet of Freddie at Muirfield Village one year while watching The Memorial tournament. He had hit a ball WAY right and up in the woods where we were cutting thru to another hole. He was not happy with his shot so he took it out on all of us by not looking anybody in the eye or acknowledging we were there. Nice guy. Not.

He’s still gonna be the dog for this show. Watch this space tomorrow for my final adjustment. I’m sure I’ll need it.

Okay, so my first prediction was a little less than desirable. But now, I’m all over it like hair on a gorilla.

Here we go…..Predictions Round 2.

My new favorite to win in a playoff. Gentleman Supreme, Ben Crenshaw. He’s been here, done this and the course is drying out and firming up. A lot of guys haven’t played here a lot when it’s dry. It’s rained in Georgia for 12 straight years, or something like that. He can play better from where his ball will quit rolling than some of the other guys can.

EDIT : Here’s a story about Ben Crenshaw and his caddie, Carl Jackson that I just read over at ESPN.com. It’s well worth your time, if you have a heart that is.

Here’s some links to what others are saying about Ben and his chances at Augusta.

You could even visit his official website.

Who’s Ben gonna slip past in the playoff ? Fan favorite Rocco Mediate. Rocco’s loose enough to shoulder the burden of the pressure coming down to the final holes on Sunday. I hope.

My prediction for low round of the tournament. Vijay Singh and it was today’s 67. There won’t be any better round shot on this long, dry setup that is today’s Masters.

Let it be written, let it be done.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a screencap ( Thanks SnagIt ! ) of my stats for the year, so far.

March’s Unique Visitor count was 62% higher than February.

March’s Page View count was 39% higher than February.

I appreciate all of you coming by and let me remind you to Bookamrk the URL or subscribe to my RSS feed.

We’ve got some great ebooks and reviews in the works and you don’t want to miss ‘em.

Do me a favor and send the link of a post to a friend and let’s see if we can double our readership.

Also, if you’re an advertiser, you’d better get on board now. I’ve added another sponsor and have others in the wings, but I will only allow so much ad space to be sold here. Get in now or be ready to wait AND pay more for space on the ‘nets #1 golf blog !

It’s hard to go against Tiger, especially when he’s playing with extra incentive, like his Dad being very, very ill, but I’m gonna go barely against him.

By the way, the logic behind this is flawed and very rarely works even a little bit right.

I’m taking Jose-Maria Olazabal, in a playoff against Tiger. Jose-Maria will hole a wedge shot to go up by one and hold on for the victory as Tiger lips out a 35 footer on the last playoff hole.

No South Africans in the Top 5, either. I’ve got a lunch bet with my buddy Jason Cox of Legends Golf & Soccer in Owensboro, KY on that.

Enjoy the telecasts, but not Jim Nance and Lanny. Two of my least favorite golf announcers of today, but still a step above Ben Wright.

Lemme know who you think will win and/or who you like listening to in the booth.

I just came across this site. It’s owner, Linda Hartough, is a brilliant artist/painter, to say the least.

The image you see above is, of course, The Swilcan Bridge crossing the Swilcan Burn on the 18th Hole of The Old Course at St. Andrews. It really needs no introduction, but it’s one of the most spiritual sites in all of golfdom.

One thing you need to do is click thru to her site and join her mailing list to be advised of specials. If you love golf like I do, you’ll want to invest in some of these magnificent works of art.

” A Linda Hartough painting makes me want to play golf. ” - Jack Nicklaus

” Linda has the unique ability to capture the essence of the course itself. ” - Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

Click on thru to see some fabulous golf artwork, golf paintings and golf prints.

Tell her Mike sent you !

Today I read a fine post from our friend Jack Moorehouse, the author of How To Break 80 … And Shoot Like The Pros. He addresses the age old problem of blades versus cavity back irons. I personally don’t even think about blades anymore. I’m playing a set of irons from the old Palmer line. They were reworked by Peerless after they bought the Patented Hosel Design technology and the heads were sold/given to me by a friend from National Golf Suppliers from Louisville. Each head is cavity weighted differently, to help each individual head square up at impact. I put true Temper TX-90 shafts in and I use only Tour Velvet grips on all my clubs.

Now let’s check out Jack’s thoughts on the subject :

Whenever I talk about irons in my golf lessons, students invariably ask which style is best—cavity back or blade. The cavity back has its advantages and its disadvantages. It also has its fans.

Golfers, however, shouldn’t choose an iron style because it’s popular in the clubhouse, since the style many not fit their game. The key to iron styles, as I’ve said in my golf tips, is finding what’s right for you.

Cavity backs are popular these days—and for good reason. A cavity back has a small amount of metal removed from the back of its clubface, producing a small hole. Removing the metal re-distributes the clubhead’s weight around the edges of the clubface, father away from the center of gravity (COG).

Re-positioning the COG creates a much more forgiving iron, with a larger sweet spot along the blade. Thus, a mis-hit with a cavity back is more likely to stay on target than a similar shot with a blade. Why? Because the cavity back twists less in a player’s hand when the ball is mis-hit. A mis-hit with a cavity back is also more likely to travel farther than with a blade.

Cavity backs are “game improvement’’ clubs, offering special features that help golfers play better, like an oversize head. I’ve talked about these clubs in my golf tips. Players with high and mid golf handicaps prefer cavity backs, although some low handicappers and touring pros use them.

Blade irons are not as popular as cavity backs. A blade iron features a solid clubface back, distributing the weight more evenly across the clubface, closer to the clubhead’s COG. Thus, a blade has a much smaller sweet spot than a cavity back. A blade is also much less forgiving than a cavity back because it twists more in a player’s hands on mis-hits.

Distributing the weight evenly across the clubface, however, creates an iron with better control and more feel. These irons need to be hit nearly perfectly, though, to avoid a bad shot. Thus, it takes a lot of practice and experience to hit these irons well, something I work on in my golf lessons with low handicappers.

The blade iron is known as a more traditional iron because it lacks the cavity back’s special game improvement features. Players with low golf handicaps and touring pros prefer the blade style iron because the added control and feel enables them to shape their shots better—a necessity when playing on challenging courses.

Manufacturers make cavity backs and blades in cast and forged versions. The terms “cast” and “forged” refer to the manufacturing process used to form the iron head’s shape.

Casting turns the metal from which the iron head is made into a molten liquid, which is then poured into a mold to form the iron head. It’s then left to cool.

Forging involves pounding or compressing the metal, in it’s solid form, from which the iron head is made into the desired shape. Other machining and drilling steps complete production.

The manufacturing process has no impact on the iron’s capabilities, as I’ve explained in previous golf tips. If you have two irons, one forged and one cast, of exactly the same shape, with the same center of gravity, same loft, same grip, hitting the same ball, and so on, the shots will travel the same distances 99 percent of the time. And the players won’t know which iron head is cast and which forged.

You need to find the iron style that best fits your game, as I point out in my golf instruction. If you’re a less experienced golfer, the cavity back is probably a wiser choice, since you’re more likely to mis-hit a ball. If you’re a more experienced player, then a blade is probably your best choice, since it provides more control and better feel for shaping shots.

The best way of choosing a style that fits your needs is to test it out. Hit a few balls with each style. If one style feels better than another does, and you have confidence in it, that’s the style that’s right for you.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.