Golf Capsules: On The Fringe - Torrey Pines loses some luster
The Associated Press
All Times EST
PGA TOUR
FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN
Site: San Diego.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Courses: Torrey Pines, South Course (7,698 yards, par 72) and North Course (7,045 yards, par 72).
Purse: $6 million. Winner's share: $1,044,000.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday, 3-6 p.m., 8:30-11:30 p.m.; Friday, 12:30-3:30 a.m., 3-6 p.m., 8:30-11:30 p.m.; Saturday, 12:30-3:30 a.m., 1-2:30 p.m., 9:30-11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1-2:30 p.m., 9:30-11:30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 3-6 p.m.; Sunday, 3-6:30 p.m.).
Last year: Bubba Watson won the first of his two 2011 titles, birdieing the final hole for a one-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson.
Last week: Mark Wilson won the Humana Challenge in La Quinta for his fifth tour title, beating Robert Garrigus, John Mallinger and Johnson Wagner by two strokes.
Notes: Woods, the six-time tournament winner who also won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, is skipping the event to play in the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. He will make his first PGA Tour start Feb. 9-12 at Pebble Beach. ... Mickelson, the 1993, 2000 and 2001 winner, is making his 22nd consecutive appearance in his hometown event. ... Watson also is in the field along with Dustin Johnson, Ernie Els, 2010 champion Ben Crane, 2009 winner Nick Watney, Geoff Ogilvy, Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler and Anthony Kim. Johnson, coming off arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in November, withdrew last week during the second round of the Humana Challenge, citing back pain. ... J.B. Holmes is making his first start since having brain surgery in September. He had structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. ... The final two rounds will be played on the South Course. ... The Phoenix Open is next week.
EUROPEAN TOUR
ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
Site: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: Abu Dhabi Golf Club (7,510 yards, par 72).
Purse: $2.7 million. Winner's share: $450,000.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 4-8 a.m., 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 4 a.m.-noon, 3-7 p.m., 6:30-9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4 a.m.-noon, 3-7 p.m., 7-9:30 p.m.).
Last year: Martin Kaymer successfully defended his title, winning the event for the third time in four years. The German star shot 67-65-66-66 for an eight-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy.
Last week: South Africa's Branden Grace won the Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt in George, South Africa, for his second straight European Tour victory, beating star countrymen Ernie Els and Retief Goosen with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff. Grace won the Joburg Open the previous week.
Notes: Tiger Woods is making his first start of the season. He's coming off a victory Dec. 4 in his own 18-man Chevron World Challenge. ... Top-ranked Luke Donald also is in the field along with No. 2 Lee Westwood, No. 3 McIlroy, No. 4 Kaymer, No. 8 Charl Schwartzel, No. 10 Jason Day, Darren Clarke, K.J. Choi, two-time Abu Dhabi winner Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Matteo Manassero, Ben Curtis and Grace. ... The Qatar Masters is next week in Doha, followed by the Dubai Desert Classic.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
Next event: Allianz Championship, Feb. 10-12, The Old Course at Broken Sound, Boca Raton, Fla.
Last week: Dan Forsman won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii, beating Jay Don Blake by two strokes.
OTHER TOURNAMENT
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EUROPEAN CHALLENGE TOUR: The Gujarat Kensville Challenge, Thursday-Sunday, Kensville Golf and Country Club, Ahmedabad, India.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tiger Woods and Torrey Pines used to be a winning combination.
Except for his first full season on the PGA Tour, Woods never missed what used to be called the Buick Invitational, the same brand that happened to be on his golf bag. He not only won six times, his worst finish was a tie for 10th, when he finished two shots out of a playoff.
Woods winning at Torrey was so predictable that in 2008, when the public course along the Pacific Ocean was to host the U.S. Open that summer, he opened with a 67 on the South Course. A caddie watching from behind the 18th green said, "He just won two tournaments with one round." And he was right.
Times have changed. Woods can be found 12 time zones away this week in Abu Dhabi, where he joined the rest of the European Tour stars.
This will be the third time in the last four years that Woods will not be at Torrey Pines to start his season. He was recovering from knee surgery in 2009, and he was in a Mississippi clinic in 2010. A year ago, still in the early stages of revamping his swing, he couldn't break par on the weekend and tied for 44th.
His absence is an example of how little it takes for the landscape to evolve on the PGA Tour, which can have more to do with the tournaments than the players they try to attract.
Woods has his own agenda, and he has that right.
He is getting a $1.5 million appearance fee at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, and while that's about half what he used to get, the practice dates to the era of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. In this case, Woods has a relationship with the title sponsor, which supports his foundation. Woods has been mixing golf with business as long as he's been on tour, and he's not alone.
Torrey Pines is still the first PGA Tour event on network television. It's still a pretty place to be. But it is lacking luster, and that would have been unfathomable just four years ago.
That it follows the Humana Challenge only illustrates how quickly the perception of tournaments can change — good and bad.
The Humana Challenge no longer has Bob Hope in the name of the tournament, but that beats having no hope at all. Such was the case only a few years ago when it was considered to be on life support. It had no title sponsor. Phil Mickelson, the star attraction, stopped playing when the event tried new courses such as the Classic Club, which was anything but that.
Humana came on board, along with former president Bill Clinton, creating a platform to preach good health. The bigger change was reducing the event from five rounds to four, the rotation from four courses to three, the format from three amateurs to two.
It was a smash hit.
Mickelson returned. So did Greg Norman, mainly to play the third round with Clinton. The field strength was nearly double what it had been in recent years.
A half-dozen other PGA Tour events can appreciate the turnaround.
The Houston Open used to be a few weeks after the Masters, which one magazine referred to as "No Man's Land." It was a dead time in golf, between the Masters and late May when focus shifts to the next major.
"The historical weakness of our player field had become such a topic that we were continually working to overcome that in the local market, much less with the national perception," tournament director Steve Timms said.
Opportunity didn't so much knock as it tapped on the door.
Atlanta wanted out of its date before the Masters because of bad weather (and because Woods doesn't play that week). The Players Championship moved from March to May.
The Houston Open took the date, not knowing if it would work. Then, Augusta National went back to offering a spot in the Masters to PGA Tour winners, and Houston no longer had a problem — it had an identity.
It was the last chance to get into the Masters. That coincided with a surge in Europeans, many of whom play Houston to get ready for the Masters. The tournament did its part by trying to create course conditions to help players prepare for Augusta.
The Honda Classic felt like it was that "other" event in Florida — stuck behind Doral, right before Bay Hill and The Players. Then it settled on a solid course (PGA National), The Players moved to May and Doral became a World Golf Championship. That means there are two WGCs in a three-week span, with Honda in the middle.
Now it gets Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, among international stars, and is likely to get Woods, who has moved to the area.
The Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., also was on the ropes. It had been in that dead zone after the Masters, and when Chrysler was the sponsor, the company preferred being in the fall to coincide with the auto shows.
The tournament made some changes on its own — a new board of directors, moving to Sedgefield Country Club, a new title sponsor and a new date — the week after the PGA Championship and before the FedEx Cup playoffs begin. It now is the last chance for players to qualify for the playoffs or improve their position, and last year attracted the likes of Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk.
"All those things were the right move," tournament director Mark Brazil said. "We've seen '09 better than '08, '10 better than '09, and '11 way better than '10 from a field perspective. It's still a challenging date, but it's starting to work."
The John Deere Classic has settled into a date the week before the British Open. The Barclays took the opening playoff event and boasts the strongest and deepest field this side of the majors and The Players. It also has a great rotation of courses.
As for Torrey Pines? Abu Dhabi very well could be a one-year agreement with Woods. He might be back next year.
Doug Ferguson covers golf for The Associated Press.
Woods hoping to resume good play in Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tiger Woods says he's starting a season healthy for the first time in at least eight years.
"It's been quite a few years since I've been physically fit," Woods said on Tuesday in his first appearance at the Abu Dhabi Championship.
"So I'm looking forward to getting out there and giving it a full season, which I haven't done in a while."
Woods' confidence got a boost when he ended 2011 by winning his Chevron World Challenge in December for his first title in more than two years.
He's hoping to pick up where he left off against a tough field that includes top-ranked Luke Donald, second-ranked Lee Westwood, defending champion Martin Kaymer and U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy.
"I'm looking forward to this year," Woods said. "That's something that I have to say, because I was able to prepare and get fit enough to prepare last year and towards the end of the year. I demonstrated to myself what I can do with implementing what (coach Sean Foley) wants me to do on the golf swing."
Woods took part in traditional Emirati ayala dancing earlier in the day with Westwood and McIlroy, and was in good spirits for most of the news conference. But he appeared slightly agitated when the questions turned to a book written by Hank Haney, his swing coach for six years.
The book, due out in March, chronicles the time Haney began working with Woods at the Bay Hill Invitational in 2004 until they parted a month after the 2010 Masters, where Woods made his return to golf after being exposed for multiple extramarital affairs that shattered his image and led to divorce.
Woods said he was unhappy that those he had worked with, including Haney and former caddie Steve Williams, had spoken out.
"Certainly it's something that I have to deal with. I get asked at press conferences what these guys have done, and that's just part of it," he said. "Am I disappointed? Yes. Frustrated? Certainly, because I have to answer the questions. ... So I've answered them and I guess I'll have to continue doing it. Hopefully, this will come to an end."
After missing much of 2011 with injuries, Woods said he finally was "healthy enough to practice" toward the end of last season and it paid off.
He finished third at the Australian Open, and then delivered the clinching point for the American team in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne before winning the Chevron. With the win, Woods moved up to 25th in the world after falling outside the top 50 last year.
"I think Australia was pretty big for me to go down there for two weeks and play in that type of wind, and to hit the ball as well as I did, I really controlled my golf ball for two weeks, and you know, I think that led to what I did at the World Challenge," Woods said. "I hit the ball just as well there, and made a couple of putts, and especially on the last two holes there. You know, consequently, got a W."
The 14-time major winner would only say his goal this year was to win more than he had last year, and was hopeful one of those victories would be another major. He is four short of Jack Nicklaus' record.
Woods has switched his season-opener from San Diego to Abu Dhabi this year and acknowledged his scheduling decisions are influenced by the appearances fees he's offered. Woods refused to say how much he was getting at Abu Dhabi, but unlike the U.S. PGA Tour, the European Tour allows for appearance fees which can reach into the millions of dollars.
"You know, I'd have to say yes, it certainly does," he said on the influence of appearance fees. "That's one of the reasons why a lot of the guys who play in Europe, they do play in Europe, and they do get paid. I think the only tour that doesn't pay is the U.S. tour. But, you know, a lot of the guys play all around the world and they do get appearance fees."
Woods praised Donald, calling his winning the money titles on the U.S. and European Tours last season a "heck of an achievement." But he saved his highest praise for the great Seve Ballesteros, who died in May following a three-year battle with a brain tumor.
Woods said the five-time major winner was the most talented golfer he ever played alongside.
"Never seen a person do the things with the golf ball that he was able to do and the creativeness that he was able to do," Woods said. "To me, he certainly had the most talent that I had ever seen in person. I never saw (Ben) Hogan hit a golf ball. Never saw (Byron) Nelson hit a golf ball. I never saw Jack in his prime. But I did see Seve when I first came out here, and I was able to play with him a few times; it was impressive."
-- Michael Casey
Holmes returns from brain surgery
SAN DIEGO (AP) — On a window sill in his closet is a chunk of bone that reminds J.B. Holmes why he's lucky to play golf for a living.
It's part of his skull that was removed during brain surgery in September. Holmes laughed Tuesday when he talked about this peculiar memento, even though there were a few nervous moments that made him wonder if he would ever get back to the PGA Tour.
"I asked the guy if I could have it," he said. "Because I grew it, so I figured I may as well keep it."
In more somber moments, he is thankful to be back on tour at the Farmers Insurance Open, his first tournament since he withdrew from the PGA Championship after opening with an 80. He had been dealing with vertigo symptoms since May, and eventually was diagnosed with structural defects in the cerebellum known as Chiari malformations.
The only time he truly felt nervous was slipping into a hospital gown before the Sept. 1 surgery. Even now, he only realizes how daunting it all was when he goes into details when answering questions.
He handled the news with the same ease he hits 330-yard tee shots.
"It's scary at first," he said. "Talking to the surgeon and stuff, he said for brain surgery, difficulty-wise for him it was only about a 1 out of 10. It's still brain surgery, but that at least made me feel better. Then I got to the hospital and started putting on the gown and everything else and it was like, 'Wow! I'm about to have brain surgery.' So it really hits you then.
"But you've just got to put your faith in God and just hope everything comes out good."
There was one nervous moment. About a month after surgery, he started getting headaches and then began vomiting. Fluid had been building up around the scar, and doctors discovered later that Holmes was allergic to the adhesive used on the webbed titantium plate at the base of his skull. Leaving nothing to chance, he was airlifted from his home in Kentucky to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for another surgery.
"They had me on so much painkillers I didn't remember much," he said. "I started out in Campbellsville and woke up in Baltimore. I remember vaguely getting on the plane and getting off."
That delayed his return — he originally wanted to play in the Shark Shootout — though he is eager to get started. Holmes has lost track of the number of players who greeted him at Torrey Pines. Golfers miss time with injuries to knees, shoulder and elbows. Brain surgery, even though Holmes makes it sound like outpatient surgery, is not something they are used to hearing.
"It's great to see any fellow golfer, anybody you work with, come back from an injury — any kind of injury," Bubba Watson said. "But something like that ... I mean, brain surgery is not easy. That's something that's serious. That could be career-ending. But him coming back, who knows how he'll hit? Who cares if he misses the cut, makes the cut, if he wins. It's just good to see him back out here."
Holmes and Watson often are mentioned in the same sentence when it comes to the longest hitters in golf. Despite missing the last three months of the season, Holmes still led the PGA Tour in driving distance at 318.4 yards. Watson was second.
He doesn't hit it with as much pop at the moment.
Holmes first pulled out a driver on Dec. 1 and hit it about 240 yards. The speed of his club was 106 mph, well below his typical swing speed of up to 125 mph. Now he's up to about 115 mph as he works to regain full motion in his head rotation.
"I'm still hitting it over 300 yards," he said. "It's not what I'm used to, but it's far enough to be able to get out here and play."
His greatest strength came from faith, in the diagnosis and the doctors.
Holmes' girlfriend, Erica Kalbhin, is a nurse. His mother was a nurse. They knew what he was facing. He chose not to know everything. He needed surgery. He scheduled it. And then came the recovery.
"If I really sat down and just think about it, yeah, it was extremely scary," he said. "Luckily, I didn't dwell on it. I didn't study up on it and read everything about the surgery and see what could go wrong. I've got to go get surgery, let's get it done. Do what I've got to do to get back out here. So it never really crossed my mind that I wasn't coming back, or I wasn't going to play again."
-- Doug Ferguson
Notes: A similar path diverges for Bradley, Steele
There wasn't much that separated Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele last year.
They were PGA Tour rookies and close friends. They won their first tournament in Texas about two months apart, Steele in San Antonio and Bradley in Dallas. They played in one of Phil Mickelson's money games at The Players Championship. Both made their major championship debut at the PGA Championship, and both were in the final two groups.
Steele was tied for the lead. Bradley was one shot behind. That's where it all changed.
Steele stumbled out of the gate and shot a 77. Bradley took triple bogey on the 15th hole, but rallied to force a playoff and beat Jason Dufner to become only the third player in the last century to win a major in his first try.
Bradley went on to sign lucrative endorsement deals, play in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, make a case for being on the Presidents Cup team and was the overwhelming winner of PGA Tour rookie of the year. All because of one round.
"That's a fair assessment," Steele said, before he laughed and added, "But it was a big round!"
Bradley said one of his fondest memories from Sunday at Atlanta Athletic Club was looking at Steele on the putting green before they headed to the tee, two rookies in their first major, each with a chance of doing something special.
"I remember saying to him, 'If I don't win, you better.' We both said the same thing. It was a unique experience," Bradley said. "Any other year, his year could have been a landslide for rookie of the year. He had a great year. He's a great player. I envy a lot of what he does on the golf course."
Steele said it took him a couple of days to get over the disappointment of his final round, but he took valuable lessons from the PGA Championship, and he has his own good memories of that major. Steele was out of contention, but had a great view of Bradley's triple bogey, followed by his remarkable birdie-birdie-par rally.
"It was a special moment through my eyes watching him birdie 16, and I got major goose bumps watching him make that putt on 17," Steele said. "I was standing right next to Dufner. It was interesting to be right there, seeing it all unfold."
They got back together at the end of the year for the Shark Shootout as partners. It ended in a most appropriate fashion. They became the first PGA Tour rookie team to win the event.
BUBBA'S CAR: Bubba Watson made a deal with his wife that if he ever won a PGA Tour event, he would be allowed to buy the 1969 Dodge Charger made popular in the "Dukes of Hazzard."
Watson said the hard part was winning a tournament.
Then again, it took some time before he could find the right one, but it was worth the wait. During an auction last week in Arizona, the three-time tour winner bought the original "General Lee 01," the first one used in the TV series and the car that is shown jumping over a police car during the opening credits.
In a short video he posted on Twitter, Watson is seen filling the car with gas and honking the "Dixie" horn. He paid $110,000, which industry experts said was lower than expected for the winning bid.
"It worked out in my favor," Watson said Tuesday. "I wasn't going to go much more money than that because they were predicting a lot higher number. But, for some reason, it just fell in my lap."
That it did. Watson usually can't make it to the Barrett-Jackson auction, but he chose not to play the Humana Challenge last week. He was sitting at the auction, and "General Lee 01" was the first car brought out for bid.
"I almost passed out when I saw it," he said.
Watson doesn't plan to just admire the car in a garage.
"I'm going to drive it, honk the horn at people and all that good stuff," he said. "It will be at Phoenix next week. It's good enough to drive to Phoenix. But don't tell anybody it doesn't have any seat belts yet."
THE TRANSITION: Gary Woodland did most of the giving at Christmas this year, bringing family and friends to Kapalua for the start of the PGA Tour season. He also was on the receiving end of a gift that left him speechless.
His mother, Linda, assembled all the jerseys Woodland wore when he was playing on baseball and basketball teams as a teenager. She cut out the front and back of the shirts and stitched them together in a quilt large enough to cover a king-size bed.
The quilt also includes a photo of Woodland swinging the club at age 3 and mementos from his first PGA Tour win last year at The Transitions at Innisbrook, with a message at the bottom that said, "A great transition."
Woodland was overwhelmed.
"I've always saved everything I had," Woodland said. "This was pretty meaningful, the kind of thing you keep forever."
The jerseys had different colors and different names of the teams, but the numbers never changed. Woodland wore No. 5 in baseball because his idol growing up was Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett. For basketball, it was No. 23.
"Michael Jordan," Woodland said, as if that even had to be asked.
FASHION STATEMENT: Adam Scott was at the Australian Open watching girlfriend Ana Ivanovic, the former No. 1 who was beaten in the fourth round by Petra Kvitova. She is not the only tennis player who dates a golfer. Caroline Wozniacki, the current No. 1, has been involved with U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy since last summer.
Their common interest led to an interesting conversation.
"She did ask me, 'What kind of shoes should I take to walk on the course?'" Ivanovic said.
Her answer: "Just the most comfortable ones."
DIVOTS: Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest has been selected for the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. Diaz started with the Oakland Tribune and has covered golf for Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and Golf Digest. He will be honored April 4 at the Golf Writers Association of America annual awards dinner in Augusta, Ga. ... Andy Walker has been given an exemption to the Northern Trust Open, set aside for a player who represents the advancement of diversity in golf. The exemption originally was called the "Charlie Sifford Exemption," in honor of the first black PGA Tour member to win a tournament. ... Rory McIlroy's 6-iron to a foot on the 10th hole at Congressional in the final round of the U.S. Open has been voted shot of the year on the European Tour. ... Johnson Wagner is 48 under par through three tournaments this year, with 10 consecutive rounds in the 60s. ... Lisa McCloskey, Erica Popson and Emily Tubert were added to the eight-player American team for the Curtis Cup, which will be played June 9-10 at Nairn Golf Club in Scotland.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Webb Simpson has played 59 official tournaments over the last two years, the biggest schedule of any player ranked in the top 20.
FINAL WORD: "I've kind of lost my sense of humor. When you don't putt very well, your sense of humor doesn't work very well." — Ernie Els.
-- Doug Ferguson
Olazabal to announce Ryder Cup lineup Aug. 27
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal will announce his Europe team on Aug. 27 to avoid the problems of potential players learning their fate on the final day of The Barclays.
Paul Casey came to symbolize the hazards of the selection process in 2010 when he learned that European captain Colin Montgomerie had not picked him as he played the seventh hole of The Barclays. Afterward, Casey admitted that knowing playing partner Padraig Harrington had been chosen made it difficult to concentrate. The announcement will be made at Gleneagles in Scotland, which hosts the Johnny Walker Championship.
Olazabal said Monday ahead of this week's Abu Dhabi Championship that the timing of the selection gives him a chance to see how players perform at The Barclays.
The Ryder Cup will be held from Sept. 25.
-- Michael Casey
