Hot

1. The Clambake. Perfect weather, a smashing new golf course, Sunday dramatics at Pebble, a compelling winner … it’s hard to imagine there will be a better non-major all year.

2. Match Play Wednesday. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, a sunrise-to-sunset day that is the ultimate physical and mental test. And that’s just for the viewers at home!

3. Freddy. It had been seven years since his last victory. And it’s 17 years since he was last a dominant player. It will be fun to see how deep he can take this. (But beware of TA3 …)

4. David Duval. He’s an enigma rolled in a mystery in wraparound sunglasses. If he can come back from the abyss to win again, it will be one of golf’s most amazing reinventions.

5. The LPGA. Another tournament is about to go on the schedule — in Malaysia! — and with the PGA Tour off to such a sluggish start this is a great chance for the women to steal some of the spotlight, beginning with this week’s season-opener in Thailand. Here’s the best part: with the new Golf Channel deal kicking in, we’ll actually get to see what happens over there.

Not

1. Paul Goydos. It’s mortifying to make a 9 on your local muni in front of a couple of buddies. To do so on national TV and give away a tournament in the process? Even the exceedingly glib Goydos seemed at a loss for words.

2. Phil Mickelson. Will someone please tell Lefty the 2010 season has begun?

3. Rory’s back. Maybe this is just a little tweak that will soon be forgotten. But back woes are the game’s biggest red flag, especially for a young, supple prodigy like McIlroy. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.

4. Pebble’s 14th green. One guy makes a 9, he’s a chop. Three guys do it and something’s not right. There’s nowhere to miss on this tiny target, but thankfully the USGA’s Mike Davis is already coming up with some tweaks to avoid an Open folly.

5. Idiotic Tiger rumors. Yeah, sure, we really believed he was going to come back for the Match Play Championship. Which is sponsored by the company that unceremoniously dumped him as a spokesman. And this is a guy who still holds grudges dating to his teens. We used to say stuff like this was too stupid to print. This rumor was too stupid for the Internet.

Welcome to the latest edition of Fantasy Fix, where we count ourselves among the minority that actually cares about
the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Yes, that’s right, we’ve reached our first double-dip week,
where the upper echelon of the PGA Tour makes its way to the WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship event, while others play in a tournament that will
be jockeying for airtime in between a bunch of infomercials on the Golf
Channel. For fantasy golf purposes, however, most formats make Mayakoba the
main event for the week, so that’s where we’ll shift our attention.

But before we bid adieu to the big guns, a couple thoughts on the action in
Arizona in case you can still pick up points in your league for this
match play tournament. Remember, in a one-and-done format, anyone can beat
anyone on any given day, which can lead to some, let’s just say,
less-than-scintillating matchups. I mean, who can forget that 2002 final in
which Kevin Sutherland defeated Scott McCarron? To make things worse, the 1-up margin of victory actually meant viewers were subjected to watching 36 holes between those two.

The point is, in a situation where the worst player in the field is
separated from the best by about one stroke per round, you may as well swing
for the fences. Here are some non-No. 1 seeds (Martin Kaymer is a No. 1
seed?!) that I am predicting to make deep runs: Rory McIlroy, Tim
Clark (duh), Ian Poulter and Charl Schwartzel.

Now back to the important tournament in Mexico, where golfers who miss the
cut can drive about a half hour north to take shots of tequila with spring
breakers in Cancun. Those who manage the hang around will be vying for a $3.6 million purse, so let’s get to it:

STUDS

Mark Wilson: If you knew that this guy was the defending champion at
El Camaleon Golf Club, then there are only three conclusions that can be
made:
1. You are a relative of Wilson (Least likely)
2. You are a fantasy golf fanatic (More likely)
3. You seriously need to get out of the house (Most likely).

In case you don’t fall into any of those categories, I’ll fill you in by
informing you that Wilson held off J.J. Henry by two shots to claim
his second career win on the PGA Tour. OK, so maybe it counted as No. 1.5.

Then there’s Heath Slocum. Despite his David-vs.-Goliath-like
performance last year in winning the Barclays, the first leg of the FedExCup
Playoffs, normally, he would fall under the “Sleepers” category. However,
this week, he’s the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 77, meaning he
gets to walk around like he owns the joint.

And how can you not give David Duval a chance here. I pumped him up
early in the season and like many others, he came through — just a couple
weeks late. Duval certainly looked back in top form this past week at Pebble
Beach, where he nearly came out on top as others around him did their best to
give it away.

His performance marked the first time since the 2001 Buick Challenge that he
posted four rounds in the 60s of a four-round event. At that point, he was
still one of the top-ranked players on the planet. While he still needs a telescope to see the golfer currently perched there, the T-2 did move him from 205th to 104th in the latest edition of the world rankings.

I’m sure D.D. has his eyes on being in the top 64 by this time next year so
he can play in the match play, but for now, take advantage of him
playing against this watered-down field. In fact, taking chalk here does
appear the way to go. Despite never getting top-flight talent, the Mayakoba
has produced fairly recognizable winners all three years its been around in
Wilson, Brian Gay and Fred Funk.

To that point, I’m looking to K.J. Choi (Who has been doing this column
proud since I started pumping him up a few weeks back) and Charles Howell
III. Choi has made the cut in all four of his events thus far and CH3
already has two top-10 finishes to his credit. So, too, does D.J. Trahan,
including one last week, and Kevin Stadler’s T-10 at Riviera shows he’s in
fine form and capable of taking a celebratory dip in Caribbean. Not that
anyone needs to see that.

DUDS

Carlos Franco: You’d think the native of Paraguay would enjoy playing
a little closer to home, but instead, he’s been a complete disaster. On the
bright side, Franco has only missed the cut at this event three times. On
the dark side, the tournament has only been around for three years.

Golf Channel’s Jim Gray talks with AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am winner Dustin Johnson who held off David Duval and J.B. Holmes to defend his title.

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Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, when I was resident in the United States, I would never watch golf live on television. Instead, I taped the telecasts and viewed them later, so that I could zap through the interminable advertisements that seemed to pop up every few seconds and after every second shot.

I was reminded of those far-off days on Sunday evening when, like every other golf fan in the UK, I settled down to take in the final round of what I still call “the Crosby” on Sky Television. For those of you who have never spent time on this side of the pond, the satellite channel shows the CBS pictures and takes the CBS commentary but has its own host and analysts in a London studio. The role of said team is to fill in the gaps when the poor unfortunate US audience is either being sold a product they likely don’t want or is being informed as to the content of the upcoming “60 Minutes.”

Which brings me to my point. Host David Livingston, former European Tour pro Mark Roe and coach Denis Pugh certainly earned their cash on Sunday night. Indeed, it seemed like they were never off the screen, such was the volume of commercial activity on CBS. At one point, Livingston was moved to comment: “They’re (CBS) back at last! If the last half hour has been torture for you, you have no idea what is has been like for us!”

Not surprisingly, the Sky switchboard was lit up like the Christmas lights on London’s Oxford Street with seemingly hundreds of soon-to-be former viewers complaining that the show was basically unwatchable. What made it worse apparently, was the sizeable gap between the end of the Golf Channel telecast and the beginning of the forever-tedious introductions of the terribly self-important CBS commentary team. During that lengthy hiatus, Livingston, Pugh and Roe were left to babble endlessly about subjects with ever more tenuous links to the event we were supposed to be watching. They did a pretty good job on that front, but that is hardly the point.

For those of you stateside who are wondering why any of this matters, the explanation is simple: these days everything matters. In this economic climate and at a time when even the almighty PGA Tour is looking outside the US for places to play and money to play for, alienating potential fans/customers from any part of the globe is nothing short of lunacy.

That is especially true when the solution is so simple. One of the shots we Brits missed seeing live on Sunday night was eventual champion Dustin Johnson’s brilliant approach to the par-5 sixth green. But we were able to watch it later, on tape. Even though CBS wasn’t actually on air, clearly its people were still working. So why not let those of us who can’t watch the incredibly important basketball game between two obscure “academic” institutions see the golf as it happens? From this distance, that would seem to be a no-brainer surely?

The biggest shame of all, of course, was that the tournament itself was eminently watchable and interesting and provided more than a few talking points. There was the continuing rise of Johnson, who may be the second-best 25-year old golfer in the world at the moment (a clue: the man ahead of him is a German). There was a fascinating debate to be had over the obviously questionable set-up of the par-5 14th green, scene of two quadruple bogeys in the space of 15 minutes. And, sadly, there was further evidence that JB Holmes is the owner of the most irritating and interminable pre-shot routine in the history of professional golf.

On the subject of that 14th green, the so-called commentary from a distinguished CBS team that includes the undoubted expertise of a six-time major champion, a former Open champion and a plethora of former tour players, it was remarkable to note that not one of them felt that the combination of a sloping, bumpy and speedy putting surface, the dodgy pin position and the ill-conceived and overly large run-off area to the left was, well, stupid.

Call me cynical, but it is hard to believe that at least one of those experts did not hold to the perfectly legitimate point of view that something was amiss. But, of course, we’ll never know. Surely constrained by the usual sugar coated PGA-Tour demanded mantra that even informed and constructive criticism is a complete no-no, they were, to a man, left to flounder in an effort to explain why two very accomplished golfers were unable to chip balls onto a green that lay only a few yards away. The obvious question: “why is this not at least a little bit silly?” went unanswered.

Then there was the far from elementary Holmes. If only the commercial breaks could be timed to coincide with his shots. Then we might be able to watch and listen to the golf in relative serenity, minus the shouting in disgust at the screen. Wherever we are in the world.

GetaGripAmerica

Said on
01/29/2010, at 7:43 PM EST

“Odd Todd, I understand what you are saying about The Golf Fix, but he jumps around too much. I have over 150 students at various levels, and while I like the idea of not talking so freakin much, he needs to have a focus for each show, organize it better and slow down. Too much stuff and too short a time frame. This show has hope, but I would still rather see more instructors with different perspectives. Too much of one guy. I LOVE the old golf academy and the NEW Tennis Academy. This was a way to bring in a no-name and save money to me. He is not giving you anything new. Same of golf drills, tips, etc. that everyone uses. Nothing new here. No system, method of teaching…nothing. Just more ways to cramp a golfer’s brains.”

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