LA Open has Hollywood ending
Many interesting things developed during Sunday's final round. Watching the TV guys dissect Phil Mickelson's swing breaking down mid-round, it occured to me: Why do any of us try to play this game? Here's one of the best players of all time, a 30-plus winner on the Tour, a 3 time major champion, and he is fighting his swing like it's a rabid dog. He had Butch Harmon flown in after Friday's even-par round to help him figure out what was wrong. Really? And I get mad when I play poorly after taking 3 months off, with a workout regimen designed by Krispy Kreme? What shot do any of us not named Eldrick have??
Yet, Phil fixed it, and managed to win. The hard part to watch was Freddie Couples on the greens. If there is one thing in golf I will never understand, (and there's a lot) it's how Fred can have the smoothest, most relaxed, fluid golf swings any of us have ever seen, but when he picks up a putter he morphs into a spasmodic 25 handicapper with Torret's Syndrome. Typically a golfer's putting stroke is a reflection of their full swing... i.e. Ernie Els, and the like. Not so with poor Freddie. If that wasn't bad enough, he still had a chance to win coming down 18. He smokes a drive past his partners, has just a 9 iron into the green... and hits a tree. Hits a tree? Wow. The pressure of the win doesn't seem to be agreeing with Mr. Couples' senior years... but the Champions Tour is less than a year away. He'll be fine.
The drama continued with another guy fighting his golf demons... Steve Stricker moved into the lead, only to have the driver turn on him as it did at the Bob Hope earlier this year, and as it did years ago when he fell of the face of the earth golfwise. If you read about his struggles back then, he had the yips with the driver so bad he felt he couldn't hit the planet from the tee box. Kind of the reverse of the Freddie situation... Stricker is a world-class putter, yet fights his driver from time to time. If those 2 were in a scramble, look out.
The one bummer for me watching this week is the venue, Riviera Country Club. One of the best courses in the country, but very private. No room for you or I to play. How can it hold up against all of the other great California courses? It is a great design, with holes that are interesting without being too quirky. Like #6, a par 3 with a huge bunker in the middle of the green. You don't see that every day. Then #8, with a split fairway, forcing more decisions off the tee. When mentioning decisions, no hole at Riviera forces them more than #10, a very short par 4 at right around 300 yards, but with a myriad of options on how to play it. I thought it was interesting that Couples, one of the longer hitters on the course, laid up with an iron all 4 days. He has a plan, and he's sticking to it. The great part of the design is you can get it right up by the green with your drive and still make bogey. One of the great short holes, in all of golf. The greatest testament to the quality of Riviera? Look at the list of winners. Big-time players, most with majors. This is not a golf course where a johnny-come-lately can play sloppy golf and still get a win. It requires power and shotmaking... a rare combination today.
