Vijay Wins On Eve Of PGA; Can't Wait To Try Out His Yips On Oakland Hills Greens

I did eventually fast forward through the final round at Firestone to watch poor Vijay (yep, it was that painful to watch him putt) stab it around the back nine. But only after I had watched, rewound, watched, rewound and watched yet again Commissioner Finchem and Jim Nantz's state-of-the-WGC's interview. I noticed Faldo wasn't included in on that one?

Anyway, Steve Elling on Vijay's win:

It's no stretch to assert that Singh essentially won the $1.35 million prize with 13 clubs, and despite the bane of his existence, which he holds cross-handed and anchored in his abdomen. At times, in that pose, he looks like a guy who is considering committing hari-kari.

Meanwhile this note from Doug Ferguson ought to have the numbers crunchers filing multiple reports on the 2.5 inch rough cut experiment:

A year after only one person (winner Tiger Woods) finished under par, there were 26 subpar scores.

Comments

[Hawkeye]

Geoff, if you had paused to reflect between fast-forwarding, you would have noted that the shorter rough enabled exactly the kind of recovery shots that you've been missing. Mickelson was able to show off his ability to bend, loft and punch around tree branches and onto the greens on several occasions. It was quite enjoyable to watch, actually.

[Hawkeye]

I just came to think of another thing: Many people attribute Woods' domination to the "fact" that Tiger's competitors are inferior compared to Nicklaus' competitors. Well, get this: Both Singh and Mickelson have won more tournaments this decade (24 and 22, respectively) than any single player won in the 80's and 90's COMBINED (Watson and Norman come the closest with 21 and 20, respectively). And both have more career Tour victories than Nicklaus' two best opponents in the early 70's, Lee Trevino and Gary Player. I know, damn lies and statistics, but I just get more and more awed at Tiger's record the more I think about it.

[Geoff]

Hawkeye,
I saw the recovery shots and heard Faldo note how many there had been this week and how fun it was.

But this notion has been explained over and over again to the powers and they just never get it. They're locked into the penal school of golf mindset that every missed shot must meet with the same penalty even though it's boring to watch.

[Tighthead]

Hawkeye - I agree about Vijay and Phil, and I also suggest (hard to have evidence to support my theory) that the rank and file Tour field is much deeper these days, and a generic Buick/Colonial/Nissan etc win tougher to come by - more guys to beat.

[Linus]

Oh, whoop-de-do, twenty-six "sub-par" scores. Of course, eleven of those were at -2 or -1, 15 were -4 or worse. But hey, sub-par is sub-par, and apparently the powers that be are as embarrassed by -1 as they are by -18. I don't get it. If it's just the pure number you're worried about, just call all the par-5's "par-4" and there you go, Vijay was only -8 and there were only 15 "sub-par" rounds. See, PGA? I just solved your problem, and I didn't even have to get out of my chair to do it.

[question?]

Some of you guys are in dire need of a reality check. Since Memorial (the set-up that broke the Camel's back) every single tour stop as seen reduced rough heights and the return of the recovery shot. Admittedly, they have been slow to adopt this change. About as slow as most of you are to accept the fact that they HAVE changed! Once again opinion is being passed off as fact, when they are entirely different.

[Hawkeye]

question?, the last tour event I saw was the Canadian Open, and that had some serious spinach bordering the fairways. Scott McCarron missed the fairway by two yards on the Par 5 13th, and had to hack out sideways and lay up on his THIRD. That's when I turned off the TV.
And Geoff, how can you say that "they don't get it", when they apparently were ready to try a different approach last week? Let's not gripe about it taking too long, let's be happy that something IS happening. I'm not sucking up, I really do think that this blog makes a difference in influencing the opinion.

[question?]

Haweye...too bad you turned off the TV. The competition was very good. As for the rough, it was mostly playable although the heavy rains made it play much heavier. In some places where it was really wet and they could not get the mowers in there (like left side of 13) it was longer. The players reacted very negatively to the Memorial set up and the Tour has responded, regardless of what Geoff wants to believe. Also, one must remember that Canada was a National Open and as such it is to be expected the set up would be more difficult. To Canadians, it is not a PGA Tour stop, but rather a National Open that is included in the tour schedule much like the British Open.