LowerScoreGolf Blog

Aside from an 11 on a par five at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson has started his year well with two first place finishes in four starts to top the money list. He has solidified his hold on the world number two ranking. Tiger Woods has won his only start and will be back in action at the World Match Play this week. I predicted that Tiger may not lose a tournament on the PGA Tour this year, however that does not include match play because there are too many variables. He is 2 for 2 in stroke play events this year winning at Torrey Pines, and then the following week at Dubai.

After her worst year on tour,  a healthy Annika Sorenstam won her first start of the year in Hawaii. It will be very interesting to see if she can regain the mental toughness required to dominate the LPGA Tour like she used to.

Tiger Woods crushed the field at the Buick Invitational. After winning his fourth consecutive title at Torrey Pines, and sixth overall, we can probably hand him the US Open (at Torrey Pines) trophy unless something drastic like an injury happens. If ever Tiger is going to win the grand slam it will be this year. In fact I would almost be willing to go out on a limb and say that this could be the first time any player goes undefeated on the PGA Tour for a whole season. Maybe Tiger will go down in History with the New England Patriots in 2008. Tiger Woods heads to Dubai this week to cash a big appearance regardless of how he plays.

Did anyone really think Phil Mickelson or Steve Stricker would challenge Tiger Woods for the Fedex Cup? We hoped it would be so, but the great Tiger was not going to allow somebody else to get their name of the cup first. In fact, he stuck their noses in it with an 8 shot victory at the Tour Championship. Nobody who could challenge Tiger for the Cup even came close, and to my disappointment, East Lake Country Club played way to easy for an event like this. They were worried about the greens so they babied the course and the players took advantage of easy scoring conditions to fire a plethora of 63’s and 64’s.

Tiger dominated the Fedex Cup playoffs with two wins and was able to miss one of the four events and still win easily. With the win Tiger has made almost double the amount of money of his closest competitor Phil Mickelson, not including the money he gets for winning the Fedex Cup. Don’t expect to see much of the best players now until next year except at the Presidents Cup in a couple weeks.

This does not bode well for the future of the playoff system where you don’t even have to play all the playoff events. What other sport lets you get away with that. I hate to say it, but I don’t think the Fedex Cup playoffs are going to be around long in this format. I would love to hear your opinions about it.

Unlike the men, The American women hold the power in international match play as they won their second consecutive Solheim Cup. They dominated the singles on Sunday winning or halving nine of twelve matches to overcome a one point deficit and win 16 to 12.

Tiger Woods fired a blistering 8-under 63 on Sunday to win the third leg of the Fedex Championship at the BMW Championship. This was his fourth win at the event, his 60th tour win and vaulted him to top spot in the standings going into the Tour Championship. The Tour Championship sets up to be a duel between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods who have each won an event in the Fedex playoffs and sit number 1 and 3 in the standings. Unfortunately, record high temperatures and no rain in the last month in Atlanta has destroyed the greens at East Lake, the site of this week’s Tour Championship. Tour officials say there will be no practice rounds, and still the greens will be below tour standards for the Fedex final event.

The Fedex Cup has drawn some criticism anyway because of Mickelson and Woods both skipping an event and showing that you can get away with missing one and still win the Cup, something that one of them will likely do. This has to some degree overshadowed the fact that there has been some great, exciting golf over the first three events.

The LPGA Tour event in Arkansas was shortened to only 18 holes so it was not considered an official event. This was unfortunate because amateur and NCAA Champion Stacey Lewis won the 18 hole event.