Greetings From L.A., Phil-Grinds-Out-A-Win-Edition
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The general malaise displayed by Sunday's Northern Trust field resulted from a return of the dreaded Beef Stroganoff cream-of-too-much-butter pasta in the media center dining room following a week of stellar menu options. Players could sense post round interviews would come before a refluxing band of scribblers and therefore played tentatively throughout Sunday's gloomy but warm finale.
That's my theory anyway.
Phil Mickelson sprayed it around Riviera this weekend and has a 62-72 finish and second straight Northern Trust Open trophy to show for it.
Phil Mickelson tees off on the 4th Sunday (click on image to enlarge)
You can look at his win two ways.
Behind door number one, you could say his ball striking is a mess and he was lucky to win. After all, how many times of you heard of a Hall-of-Famer hitting balls after a 62?
And behind door two, you could say that much like Tiger, Phil's a man among boys. He can be shaky with the ball striking, still post two over-par rounds, and go on to win a big time event on a course that exposes the slightest miscues.
I'm definitely voting for option two.
Fred Couples approaches the 1st hole Sunday as fans and photographers look on (click to enlarge)A similar conclusion could be drawn about Fred Couples, only his problems were on the greens (well, until the shank on 18). He outdrove Phil and Andres Romero several times and his overall iron play was stellar. Not bad for a 49-year-old part-time golfer.
As for the media center reports, Doug Ferguson does a nice job encapsulating a bizarre final day.
John Bush at PGATour.com shares some pretty impressive "With This Win" deals, including this one which should give Phil slightly more satisfaction than the 500 FedEx Cup points he picked up:
The win moves the left-hander out of a tie with Vijay Singh and into solo possession of 13th place on the all-time wins list.
Freddie's record isn't too shabby either:
Andres Romero plays a remarkable recovery on No. 5. Note how far right he's lined up to compensate for the sidehill lie (click on image to enlarge)
Fred Couples, the 2009 United States Presidents Cup captain, made his 27th start at the Northern Trust Open a good one, finishing tied for third. His amazing record here includes wins in 1990 and 1992, as well as 25 made cuts, 19 top-25 finishes and 13 top-10 finishes.
Mickelson on 14 (click on image to enlarge)Helen Ross wonders if in spite of the win, if this is really the confidence booster Phil had hoped for.
Ferguson also notes that Couples was playing with a heavy heart, making his play that much more impressive.
Jim Achenbach does a beautiful job explaining why Riviera is such a great spectator course.
This reminds me how much I detest modern courses that are virtually unwalkable because they sprawl from one housing segment to another. Sometimes the ride from green to tee is longer than the ride from tee to green. In my mind, there is a disconnect in this design scheme. One hole never seems to flow naturally into the next.
One last Phil shot, the 9th tee shot (click to enlarge)Unless you are Walter Driver and Fred Ridley looking for validation of the change-courses-not-the-ball philosophy, don't read the rest of the column where Jim says that it's time for the governing bodies to start looking out for the Riviera's of the world, and then advocates...oh I can't even type it. And to think we could have bickered about this Jim!
Speaking of the ball going too long, I had heard from a marshal that Shigeki Maruyama was nailed in the back by an incoming range ball Saturday while he was in the 11th fairway...past the barranca. For those of you who don't know the course, this requires about a 330 yard carry. A reliable source says Shigeki is still awaiting a show of concern/acknowledgment of pulse from the culprit, the one and only J.B. Holmes.
No. 18 continues to be one of the great stages in the game (click to enlarge)
That's all for now, but I have a few more NTO posts to mop up with this week. For now, hope you enjoy the black and white images and other iphoto distorted stuff. As someone who loves the old imagery of L.A. Opens past, I thought it'd be nice to see 2009 the way tournaments used to look. And besides, it was a B&W kinda day Sunday, don't you think?
