Each year a fresh new set of rookies earn the chance of a lifetime to play along side the best golfers in the world on the PGA Tour. The path for most involve getting through all three rounds of PGA Tour Q-School. This week is the first full field event, and 27 rookies made their way to Honolulu for the Sony Open. The first round was washed out on Thursday due to rain and was pushed back until Friday. The second round was played yesterday and 36 holes will be played today to complete the … [Read more...]
Caddy For A Cure a Pretty Cool Auction
I was bumping around on PGATour.com and came across this article about the Caddy For A Cure program. Charley Hoffman has agreed to start off the program this year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this year at TPC Scottsdale. The program works by fans going online and bidding for a chance to walk inside the ropes and caddy for a PGA Tour player during a round of golf. The program benefits numerous PGA Tour charities, including Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Birdies for the Brave, PGA Tour … [Read more...]
Front9Back9’s Golf Picks & Predictions
Week one of the 2011 PGA Tour season is in the books, and the players have now made the short hop over to Honolulu for the Sony Open this week. I am continuing to play Yahoo Fantasy Golf with Devil Ball Golf Blog and I started the year with 136 points overall, which is good for 54th points. This week I am going with the defending champion and and three other players who all played last week in Maui. Matt Kuchar- With a tie for fifth last week, Matt looks like he is mid season form. 2010 … [Read more...]
Jonathan Byrd Take the First Tournament of 2011
Jonathan Byrd won the 2011 Hyuandai Tournament of Champions on the second playoff hole to take the first tournament of the year. He beat Robert Garrigus on the second playoff hole after both guys parred the 18th in the first playoff hole. Robert Garrigus had the chance to extend the playoff but missed a short putt after Byrd already carded a par on the hole #1. He took the loss with a grain of salt and said in the post round interview he was exhausted. He said he gained a ton of confidence … [Read more...]
Checklist of things to do to get ready for the season
Get clothes ordered from sponsor... check Get in shape for upcoming PGA Tour season... check Book flight to Maui for first tournament... check Study rule book during the flight from Columbia to Maui... DOH!! Each and every week, a group of golfers here in San Antonio get together just for fun. It's a small group, maybe 12-15 guys. They formed a rules group and invite anyone to come out and join them at different restaurants each week around San Antonio. Just a bunch of guys who … [Read more...]
7 Golfers Who Would Be Awesome to Hear Miked Up
The Golf Channel and the PGA Tour need to find something to jazz up broadcasts, maybe peak the interest a little more of casual golf fan. The idea has been floated around before and the PGA Tour has now approved to allow the Golf Channel to mike players during the tournaments. The catch, players must agree to wear the mike. Personally, I love the idea. Have you ever watched NFL Network or ESPN when they have the players and coaches miked up on the sidelines or on the field. It's great. I … [Read more...]
Did anyone know Tiger Woods had a tough year?
Tiger Woods had a rough year. If you did not know that, you must have been born yesterday. On Friday, the Tiger Woods saga was voted the top sports story of 2010. Not much of a surprise to me. The title over at Golf Week duped me. The way it read was "Tiger Woods' saga is AP Story of the Year." To me, the title makes it sound like it's the top overall story of the year, but the the first paragraph clears things up when it says it was voted #1 "sports story." So is Tiger Woods the top … [Read more...]
Tiger, Phil, Jim… Take a hike
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk, please take a hike. It's 2011 and you are no longer needed. That is the message PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem conveyed in his final teleconference of 2010. Well to be fair, that wasn't exactly what he said. It was more along the lines of: I've never in my tenure seen so much buzz and interest about rookies and young players creating exciting performances. Finchem continues to say the buzz has led the PGA Tour to believe they need to focus … [Read more...]
Close, but not close enough
In what normally shapes up to be a boring December golf tournament, the final round of the Chevron World Challenge turned out to be a spectacular event. Tiger Woods dominated Sherwood Country Club the first three days of the tournament, but a little pesky Irishman hung around, sort-of the same way he just hung around at Pebble Beach in the U.S. Open, and sank two huge putts to rip the heart from Tiger Woods. To be honest, Tiger blew the tournament. It was the first time he has lost a golf … [Read more...]
Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler take home PGA Tour awards
Congratulations to Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler for taking home some hardware today. Jim Furyk was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year by the players and Rickie Fowler was voted Rookie of the Year. No real surprise with Rickie Fowler. He is the youngest player since Tiger Woods to win the Rookie of the Year. Tiger was 20 years old in 1996 when he took home the award and Fowler is 21. He finished 32nd in the Fed Ex rankings and ended the year ranked 25th in the World Golf Rankings after … [Read more...]
Escalade vs Fire Hydrant: One year later
It was one year ago today. Thanksgiving 2009 at around 2:30 a.m, when the most famous sports figure in the world began his fall from grace atop golfing supremacy. Amid a leaked story by the National Enquirer about a possible affair with Rachel Uchitel, Tiger Woods crashed his Escalade into a fire hydrant and tree as he fled from his Florida mansion, bare foot and reportedly high on Ambien. I remember where I was when I found out about the crash. Sort-of like I remember where I was when the … [Read more...]
Former United Stated Naval Officer makes it to Q-School finals
What a great story this is. A former Navy officer, Billy Hurley III, has made it to the final stage of Q-School thanks to an 18-under four days at Southern Hills Plantation Club. The 28-year old has fulfilled his obligation of four years in the Navy, and now is determined to fulfill his lifelong goal of playing on the PGA Tour. After spending the last 16 months on a destroyer ship in Pearl Harbor, where he only played a total of five rounds of golf, he is looking to become the first Naval … [Read more...]
Tiger Woods is Redefining Victory
Tiger Woods is on a mission to improve himself. Last week, he went on a quasi-media blitz, where an op-ed article was released by Newsweek, he joined Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio, and decided to give Twitter a try. But is any of this helping his image? In the Newsweek article, How I’ve Redefined Victory, he said he likes giving Charlie a bath rather than chipping another bucket of balls, and making macaroni and cheese for his daughter Sam more than going out to eat. He spent two segments … [Read more...]
Troy Merritt takes home $1 million for the Kodak Challenge
Troy Merritt out lasted Rickie Fowler and Aaron Baddeley in a one-hole playoff to win the Kodak Challenge and the $1 million prize that goes along with it. The million dollars is probably nice to have in the bank, but I wonder if he is happier he was able to keep his PGA Tour card for 2011? Merritt finished as the last player inside the cut line in order to retain his tour card, which ended up being a total of $786,977 in earnings this year. The Kodak Challenge is a season-long competition … [Read more...]
Book review: The Stack and Tilt
A couple months back I was contacted by a book publicist asking me if I was interested in receiving a copy of The Stack and Tilt Swing: The Definitive Guide to the Swing that is Remaking Golf, and write a review about it on my blog, Front9Back9.com. At first I was hesitant. I was already quite familiar with The Stack and Tilt concept and had read numerous articles about the swing before. I just had never read the book and I had never had any interest in changing my swing. In the end, I … [Read more...]
Anthony Kim withdrawls from tournament
One day after reports out of Las Vegas said Anthony Kim was at the Bellagio dropping F-bombs and partying the night away, he has officially withdrawn from the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open citing wrist issues. I had high hopes Anthony this week. When I was putting together my Golf Picks & Predictions last night I picked Anthony to win for the week but had to change it this morning before posting due to his withdrawl. His management team at IMG has come out and … [Read more...]
Golf Picks & Predictions: Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
Well the closest I got last week with my picks for the Frys.com Open was Rickie Folwer finishing in 4th place. I had Rocco Mediate as my dark horse but decided to go with John Daly instead... OK, just kidding. I didn't even take a look at Rocco but congrats on his win last week. Now this week should be fun. Just Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Say that three times fast... Hunter Mahan- Hunter felt like he lost the Ryder Cup for the U.S. In his first tournament back … [Read more...]
Golf Picks & Predictions: Frys.com Open
The Frys.com Open starts Thursday in San Martin, CA and some big names are teeing it up. Many of the players this time of year are fighting to get inside the magical 125th ranking on the PGA Tour money list to have playing privileges next year on tour. So who will win? Well I thought you'd never ask.. Rickie Fowler- Playing in his first tournament since the Ryder Cup, Rickie should be well rested and ready to go. He has already earned over $2 million this year so does not have to worry … [Read more...]
Fed Ex Cup Showdown
So I was reading an article on PGATOUR.com trying to explain the numerous scenarios that could play out today in the final round of the Tour Championship and who could possibly be crowned the next Fed Ex Cup Champion. Halfway through the article I gave up and skimmed the rest of the article. There are so many different scenarios and I am just going to let the TV telecast explain it to me during the round tomorrow. It sure is setting up to be a great finish though. It doesn't look like Phil … [Read more...]
Tiger Struggling To Find A Groove
Tiger Woods was the fourth group off on Saturday morning in the third round of the Bridgestone Invitational and again struggled to get anything going. By the time the early Golf Channel coverage started, Tiger was already finished. He again refused to talk to the media after his round. During the CBS coverage in the afternoon, they went back and showed some highlights of his round, and it was not pretty. Missed greens, missed fairways, irons 25 and 30 yards off line, chunked chips, and putts … [Read more...]