When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
The only thing more impressive than climbing the tree and the one-handed backwards shot was the dismount.
Courtesy of the PGA Tour's YouTube account, another must see viral video from Bay Hill:
**Punters note, Garcia later withdrew with a shoulder injury blamed on his tree climbing expedition. Mark Helm with the story.
I'm too distraught to type my emotions right now, so I'll just copy and paste the key times for a re-arranged schedule now that the storm-delayed Arnold Palmer Invitational is running into Monday. A day normally set aside for the absurd expression of conspicuous consumption known as the Tavistock Cup.
Golf Channel Monday Programming Schedule (all times Eastern)
10 a.m.-conclusion Final Round Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard
Following API-5 p.m. Day One Tavistock Cup Coverage
And then there is the Tavistock Cup, re-imagined without, oh, the golfers most people want to see:
Tomorrow’s better ball competition will be as follows:
Group 1 - 12:20 p.m. Paul McGinley and Tom Lewis will play with Bob Tway and Scott Verplank.
Group 2 - 12:35 p.m. Brian Davis and D.A. Points will play with Peter Hanson and Webb Simpson.
Group 3 - 12:50 p.m. Tim Clark and Adam Scott will play with Ross Fisher and Graeme McDowell.
Group 4 - 1:05 p.m. Fred Couples and Jay Haas will play with Bo Van Pelt and Bubba Watson.
Gate hours will remain the same.
Tiger Woods holds a two shot lead over three players and with gusty winds forcast it could be a lively final day at Bay Hill.
In Carlsbad at the Kia Classic, Beatriz Recari is trying to hold off Hall of Famer Karrie Webb and recent auto accident victim Paula Creamer.
And to most of the rest of America...
Tremendous up-and-down followed by barefoot putt-out by Nicholas Thompson during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Rich Lerner says this one has YouTube sensation written all over it:
Thanks to the PGA Tour digital people for grabbing this crazy segment of Friday's Arnold Palmer Invitational telecast where Graham DeLaet gets a bad break but appears to enlarge the cup a tad for Chad Campbell, who pulls off a nice hole out.
But the Golf Gods do their part for DeLaet, too.
I saw it on Twitter and didn't believe it. Maybe I'm having a hard time with the image of long-hitter and recent brain surgery recoverer J.B. Holmes rollerblading...backwards! But then came news of a fracture sidelining him 8-10 weeks.
Jeff Rude explains.
Nona Blue opened recently according to the Orlando Sentinel and golf.com posted a nice (quick) video of Graeme McDowell showing how to properly tap and serve a Guiness from his newly opened restaurant. There is also a slideshow posted by USA Today.
Reminder to all the mooching media in Orlando this week: Graeme is offering free beer to PGA Tour media badge holders. Try to represent the profession well by not ordering the left side of the menu, okay? And DiMeglio, don't go every day please?
Yours truly asked this tough question at the World Challenge that McDowell won last December:
Q. You mentioned the free drinks that we're all entitled to at your bar when it opens. Can you take this opportunity to tell us the name of it? How much are you going to be working on that here during your off time, and have you thought of a tradition that the bar might have when you actually win a tournament?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah. The bar's called Nona Blue. It's a tavern restaurant. It's just outside the gates of Lake Nona. Free bars are with PGA TOUR media credentials only.
Traditionally when I win an event I call home to my home golf club. Lake Nona has kind of become my second home golf club, and I typically have a free bar for the members for a defined period of time, obviously.
Bob Harig calls the PGA Tour's deliberate handling of Vijay Singh's admission to violating the tour's doping policy "pathetic" and hopes Singh contends so that the World Golf Hall of Famer can display his grumpy attitude for all the world to see.
Harig writes:
Singh would not even give a PGA Tour media official a few cursory comments about his round.
"No comment to you. No comment to anybody," were Singh's relayed words.
It would be great if he won the tournament and said the same thing.
It would be even better if he captured his fourth major championship at the Masters, becoming the oldest major champion in the game's long history.
What then?
Harig goes on to remind us that Commissioner Finchem said there was "no time urgency" in this case of a player admitting to violating the rules. What could possibly take so long to process that claim?
No doubt, the folks at WADA are watching this farce play out.
Following Tiger Woods's second win of 2013 and just a month before the Masters, it's hardly a surprise that many are back on the bandwagon.
Derek Lawrenson in the Daily Mail wasn't so impressed:
Reading some of the reports coming out of America on Monday they might just as well skip the tournament part of the Masters next month and head straight to the green-jacket ceremony.
But they ignored one vital fact. Tiger won’t win the Masters playing like he did at Doral. Or rather, he won’t win driving the ball like he did at Doral.
Add Ron Sirak to that list too.
The thing about bandwagons is that they are moving targets. Jumping on and off comes with its share of risk. Right now, the Tiger Woods bandwagon, light of load in recent years, is once again buckling under the weight of its cargo.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
