High Winds and High Drama in Houston
By the way... as always, I love a Tour event held on a public facility. Redstone is open to the public... it's $175 to play. Maybe a lot for a course that looks like it will beat you up to no end. But, if you're in Houston, check it out.
Sunday was a logjam at the top of the leaderboard, with a lot of guys to root for. Most notably, Fred Couples, who we all love and want to see win, but if you watched his Sunday round at the LA Open, you knew what was going to happen. His putter can't hold up to Sunday pressure anymore, it seems. Let's hope he saved his best for Augusta, to get another green jacket.
The guy who got in the clubhouse early was J.B. Holmes, then proceeded to wait 3 hours before going out and hitting his first shot in the playoff into the water on 18. Ouch. Now, I don't blame him for that. Did you see that shot?? That's probably the hardest tee shot on Tour other than #18 at the Players, and he has to come out after 3 hours of negative thoughts and hit it. I'll give him that one. My problem with J.B. is his pace of play. I loved him when he first got on tour, mainly for the fact that, being 5-10 and having a homemade awful looking swing, he absolutely crushes the ball... hitting it 350 no problem. Yet, is a slow player to start with, and when he gets into contention, he grinds to an absolute halt. On Sunday, it was normal for him to take 15 practice swings... for each shot!! Come on, J.B., step up and hit it! It's not helping your mental game to think about it that much. At the very least, think of us at home having to watch you agonize over shots like a Russian chess master. Hit it!!
Paul Casey was the winner, and it's suprising he hasn't won several times on tour already... he's that good. This will probably open his confidence up for multiple wins. The interesting guy for me to watch on Sunday was Geoff Oglivy, the current FedEx points leader, already with 2 wins this year, and he looked like he couldn't hit the planet with many of his shots. He was consistently 50 yards wide of almost every target, just fighting his swing like crazy... strange for someone playing so well this year. The thing to notice? He shot 3 over. On a day where he had no control over his ball, he still only lost 3 strokes to par. What that tells me- if you really want to shoot consistent low scores, stop hitting large buckets of balls at the range. Go practice your game from 100 yards and in for at least 75% of your practice time. The guys on Tour hit it wildly like us sometimes, but they always get it up and down for par. Meanwhile, what should be at worst a bogey turns into 7 or 8 with a crummy short game. Practice chipping and putting!
