Golf Capsules: Commentary - Tiger's break starts at San Diego
SAN DIEGO — The player who walked toward the first tee at sunrise on the North Course at Torrey Pines was not accompanied by a security detail. Maintenance workers did not gather on the pro shop balcony to watch him tee off.
This was Nicholas Thompson, not Tiger Woods.
And that’s why the "indefinite break" from golf that Woods announced two months ago didn’t really start until Tuesday.
It has been 53 days since golf’s biggest star announced he was stepping away to sort out a private life that has run amok through tabloids and gossip magazines because of his extramarital affairs.
Truth is, little has changed during his absence.
At least so far.
The PGA Tour is only three weeks into its new season, three events that Woods usually doesn’t play. Besides, not as many people watch golf during those weeks, from behind the ropes or on the sofa. Not when the tournaments are played on two islands in the Pacific or four courses in the California desert. Not when they are held the same weekend as NFL playoffs.
Torrey Pines, however, is different.
It’s the first tournament on network television. It’s where Woods and his chief rival, Phil Mickelson, typically start their seasons.
How much will the PGA Tour miss Woods? Now is the time to start keeping score.
This is a big week for Tom Wilson, the tournament director of what now is called the Farmers Insurance Open. This might be the only PGA Tour event in history that had four names in the span of one year — the Buick Invitational, the Century Club of San Diego Invitational, the San Diego Open and the Farmers Insurance Open.
General Motors filed for bankruptcy, knocking out Buick as the title sponsor. The tournament only found a replacement last week, and Wilson is optimistic that Farmers will be interested in signing on for more than just this year.
It would have helped to have Woods around this week, bringing the energy and crowds that once accompanied him.
Woods has only missed this tournament once when healthy, in 1997 when he was playing for appearance money overseas and won the Asian Honda Classic by 10 shots over Mo Joong-Kyung. He had to skip last year while recovering from knee surgery, although he still managed to steal some headlines by announcing hours after the final round that his wife had given birth to their son, Charlie.
Now is the time to start measuring TV ratings, which traditionally spike when Woods is in contention.
The final round last year earned a 2.0 when Nick Watney birdied two of the last three holes for a one-shot victory over John Rollins. That was down from a 4.2 in 2008 when Woods won by eight shots over Stewart Cink.
Torrey Pines has become the tour’s signature stop on the West Coast Swing, awarded the prime spot on the calendar between the NFL’s conference championship games and the Super Bowl. It’s no surprise that its TV ratings has dwarfed everything else on the West Coast, helped in part by Woods winning five of the last six times he played.
The difference now, of course, is not only what’s keeping him away but the uncertainty of when he will return.
By now, players have accepted that Woods is on leave and that his personal life is a wreck. There really is nothing else to say beyond the daily dose of gossip. What really happened that night he drove his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree? Is he really at a sex addiction clinic in Mississippi? Did his wife participate in the program? Does their marriage have a chance?
The bigger question, which no one can answer, is when he will return.
Rocco Mediate is back at Torrey Pines for the first time since that 19-hole playoff loss to Woods in the 2008 U.S. Open. Mediate missed last year with a knee injury, which largely went unnoticed. He went to the putting green Monday and told his caddie, "A little different here." Missing were thousands of fans surrounding the green, a practice range on the North Course, grandstands galore.
Missing was his adversary that day, Tiger Woods.
"Yeah, that’s really different," Mediate said. "Any time he’s not in the field, it’s obviously not the best field we have. You always want your best guy. It always makes it what it’s supposed to be, especially (since) he’s won here 712 times. So it’s hard to beat that guy here."
A year ago, Woods missed only Torrey Pines as part of his regular schedule.
His absence will continue to capture attention if he’s not at the Match Play Championship (where he returned a year ago) or another World Golf Championship at Doral the second week of March, or at Bay Hill.
Watney was reminded of his victory last year, when hours after he left Torrey Pines with the trophy, word leaked that Woods had become a father again. So if Watney were to win again, could history repeat itself with another announcement from Woods? And what would the announcement be?
Watney laughed at the possibility.
"I hope it would be that he’s coming back," Watney said. "Because we need him."
Doug Ferguson covers golf for The Associated Press.
Son of injured pro golfer Ken Green found dead
DALLAS — Hunter Green, the son of former professional golfer Ken Green, was found dead in his dorm room at Southern Methodist University last week, authorities said.
SMU officials said the body of a student was found about 12:30 p.m. Friday. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Tuesday that the student was Green, 21, a sophomore. Campus officials said no foul play was involved and an investigation is under way.
It’s the second family tragedy in eight months for Ken Green, who won five PGA Tour events between 1985-89 and played on the 1989 Ryder Cup team. Green had his lower right leg amputated last summer after a recreational vehicle accident in which his brother and girlfriend were killed.
Green acknowledged his son’s death on his personal blog Tuesday.
"Well, today is another sad day," he said. "I’m sorry to say that my youngest son, Hunter, has passed. His journey in life has ended and I can’t tell you how difficult understanding this is."
Green earned about $3.7 million and 44 top 10 finishes on the regular tour before a bout with depression nearly derailed his career. He has talked of critical children’s voices in his head that scuttled his concentration and left him contemplating suicide as he struggled to stay on the tour.
He lost his Tour card in 2000 and coped with financial problems between 2005 and 2008, the year he turned 50.
Green joined the Champions Tour for older players that year and played well. He was 54th on the money list with $123,906 in 11 appearances in 2009 before the accident.
In June, Green was traveling in the back of an RV driven by his brother when a tire blew out. The RV went off the road, down an embankment and crashed into a large oak tree.
Fellow pros gathered for an event in September to raise money to pay some of his medical and personal expenses, including Fred Funk, Curtis Strange, Mark Calcavecchia and Phil Blackmar. Green said then that he wanted to rejoin the Champions Tour in 2010.
Notebook: Two tales of sponsor exemptions
SAN DIEGO — David Duval went from the sixth alternate at Torrey Pines to receiving a sponsor’s exemption to withdrawing from the Farmers Insurance Open, all within a span of about 24 hours.
Missing from this strange sequence of events is that Duval had already been rejected once. When the exemption was awarded to him Monday night, his West Coast schedule already was set.
"It was entirely unplanned," Duval said Tuesday from his home in Denver. "I had written for an exemption and was turned down, and other things fell into place."
The former British Open champion ran out of status last year when he failed to finish in the top 125 on the money list and didn’t earn a card from Q-school. He is having to rely on sponsor exemptions and his status as a past champion, and he’s having relatively good success.
Just not in San Diego.
The PGA Tour players who initially received exemptions to Torrey Pines were John Daly, Rocco Mediate and Billy Mayfair. The tournament had two extra exemptions to award Monday, and gave them to Duval and Tom Pernice Jr.
Duval missed the cut Sunday at the Bob Hope Classic, flew home with his family and then learned a spot was waiting for him in San Diego. Trouble is, he already has accepted exemptions to Los Angeles and Pebble Beach, and he’s in the tournament in Mexico. To play in San Diego would have meant five straight weeks.
"That not conducive to your golf game, mental game, anything," Duval said. "I feel bad about it, but I already had been turned down once and I had to build my schedule around that."
LUMPY’S LAMENT
Tim Herron lost his PGA Tour card for the first time in his career, and decided not to take a one-time exemption for being among the top 50 in career money.
He’s starting to regret the decision.
Herron has received only one sponsor exemption on the West Coast swing, to the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am where his partner is comedian-actor Bill Murray. He has yet to play an event this year, although it’s not from a lack of effort.
Herron flew to Honolulu for a Monday qualifier and missed out. He left his Minnesota home for San Diego for another Monday qualifier, took triple bogey on his third hole, and missed out again.
"Now that I’m looking back at it, I’m not sure it was the right thing," Herron said. "I’ve been through Monday qualifying, I’m not getting exemptions. It’s a lot more difficult than I thought."
Herron is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, his most recent victory in 2006 at the Colonial. He is known mainly for his waistline and the nickname that comes with it — "Lumpy" — but concedes it’s a tough year for exemptions. Among those looking for spots are John Daly, Chris DiMarco, David Duval, Billy Mayfair and Tom Pernice Jr.
Why not take his one-time exemption?
"I thought I would just regroup this year, get in better shape, reorganize a little bit," Herron said. "I played 15 hard years, and I thought if I could play 20 or so tournaments, it might be good for me."
Tugging at him is a young family — 7-year-old Carson and 4-year-old twins, Mick and P.J.
Tour officials told Herron that it was probable he would remain in the top 50 in career money after this year, although that was no guarantee. What should work in his favor is that Herron (along with players such as Pernice and Duval) went through Q-school last year.
"I was hoping there would be more exemptions. I’m very grateful to the ones who have given them to me," he said, citing the Honda Classic as an example. "But there’s a lot of good players in my position who deserve them, too."
CHARITY BOOST
In a tough year for charity, Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon had a record year in New England.
The Andrade-Faxon Charities for Children distributed more than $321,135 to 52 organizations that serve at-risk children in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.
Money comes from their CVS Charity Classic in the summer and from individual contributions. They have awarded more than $4 million since they created the charity in 1994.
"These grants will help meet the basic needs of our community’s children," Faxon said. "We try to lessen the burden of hunger and illness so kids can be kids."
VETERANS
Bobby Mitchell, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, once showed up at Quail Hollow as a 60-year-old who was the 61st alternate. Because so many alternates didn’t show up, he was next in line when the final group teed off.
That wouldn’t happen under a new policy in the PGA Tour regulations this year.
To be eligible as an alternate as a past champion or a veteran (making 150 cuts in a career), a player must have signed up for Q-school at least one of the previous two years, made a cut on the PGA Tour or Nationwide Tour in the previous two calendar years, or played in five or more tournaments on either tour the previous year.
The change figures to help Lance Ten Broeck, the caddie for Jesper Parnevik who played in the Texas Open last year under such circumstances. He gets credit for playing the Texas Open in 2009. Plus, he played the Reno-Tahoe Open and a Champions Tour event in Minnesota in 2008.
DIVOTS
The LPGA Tour added another tournament to its schedule with the Sybase Match Play Championship, to be played May 20-23 at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in New Jersey. The purse will be $1.5 million. ... The PGA Tour’s final tally for charity in 2009 was $108 million, with the Valero Texas Open the top tournament at $8 million. ... Jennifer Song, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links last year, was among seven amateurs to receive an invitation to the Kraft Nabisco Championship on April 1-4, the first LPGA major. Others were Cydney Clanton, Jennifer Johnson, Kimberly Kim, Jessica Korda, Candace Schepperle and Alexis Thompson. ... Paul Lawrie signed an equipment deal with Wilson Golf. Lawrie last played Wilson when he won the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999. ... Four weeks into the PGA Tour season, Pat Perez is the only player to enter every event this year.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Tim Clark has more runner-up finishes (eight) than any other active player without a PGA Tour victory. Next on the list is Brett Quigley with five.
FINAL WORD
"Second is a loss. I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied with a second-place finish." — Nick Watney.
-- Doug Ferguson
Golf Glance
PGA TOUR
Farmers Insurance Open
Site: San Diego.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Courses: Torrey Pines, South Course (7,568 yards, par 72) and North Course (6,874 yards, par 72).
Purse: $5.3 million. Winner's share: $954,000.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday, 2-5 p.m., 7:30-10:30 p.m.; Friday, 11-2 a.m., 2-5 p.m., 7:30-10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11-2 a.m., 9:30-11:3- p.m.; Sunday, Noon-1:30 p.m., 8:30-10:30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 2-5 p.m.; Sunday, 2-5:30 p.m.).
Last year: Nick Watney won his second tour title, with birdies on two of the final three holes for a one-stroke victory over John Rollins.
Last week: Bill Haas won the rain-delayed Bob Hope Classic for his first PGA Tour title, birdieing the final hole for an 8-under 64 and a one-stroke victory over Matt Kuchar, Tim Clark and Bubba Watson. Haas' father, Jay, won the 1988 tournament.
Notes: Six-time winner Tiger Woods — taking an indefinite leave to sort out his personal life — is absent for the second straight year. Last year, Woods was recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him after his June 1998 U.S. Open playoff victory at Torrey Pines. ... Phil Mickelson, the 1993, 2000 and 2001 winner, is making his 20th consecutive appearance in his hometown event. He took 10 weeks off after winning the HSBC Champions in November in Shanghai. ... Only three players in the field — No. 2 Mickelson, No. 15 Robert Allenby and No. 20 Ernie Els — are in the top 20 in the world. ... Farmers Insurance agreed last week to be the title sponsor for at least this year, with a long-term option. Buick sponsored the event from 1992-2009. ... High wind in December knocked down a landmark cypress tree behind the par-3 sixth hole on the South Course. ... The final two rounds will be played on the South Course. ... The tour will remain in California the next two weeks for stops at Riviera and Pebble Beach.
On the Net: http://www.pgatour.com
PGA EUROPEAN TOUR
Qatar Masters
Site: Doha, Qatar.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: Doha Country Club (7,388 yards, par 72).
Purse: $2.5 million. Winner's share: $416,720.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.; Sunday, 11-2 a.m., 8:30 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.; Monday, 11-2 a.m.).
Last year: Spain's Alvaro Quiros won his third career European tour title, beating Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen by three strokes.
Last week: Germany's Martin Kaymer won the Abu Dhabi Championship for the second time in three years, birdieing the final hole for a one-stroke victory over Ian Poulter. Kaymer has five career European tour victories.
Notes: Quiros and Kaymer are in the field along with Poulter, 2006 winner Stenson, 2007 champion Retief Goosen, Kenny Perry, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Camilo Villegas, Lee Westwood, Shaun Micheel and Todd Hamilton. ... The Dubai Desert Classic is next week, followed by the Avantha Masters in India.
PGA European Tour site: http://www.europeantour.com
NATIONWIDE TOUR/PGA TOUR OF AUSTRALASIA
New Zealand Open.
Site: Queenstown, New Zealand.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: The Hills Golf Course (7,243 yards, par 72).
Purse: $600,000. Winner's share: $108,000.
Television: Golf Channel (Saturday-Sunday, 6:30-8:30 a.m.).
Last year: Alex Prugh won his first Nationwide Tour title, making two eagles in a final-round 64. Fellow American Martin Piller was second, three strokes back.
Last week: Australia's Mitchell Brown won the Australasian tour's New Zealand PGA for his first pro title. Brown beat compatriot Ashley Hall with a par on the first hole of a playoff at Clearwater Resort.
Notes: The tournament opens the Nationwide Tour's 21st season. The top 25 players on the money list at the end of the season will earn 2011 PGA Tour cards. Three-time winners will receive immediate promotions to the PGA Tour. ... The tours will team again next week for the Moonah Classic in Australia.
Nationwide Tour site: http://www.pgatour.com
PGA Tour of Australasia site: http://pgatour.com.au
CHAMPIONS TOUR
Next event: ACE Group Classic, Feb. 12-14, The Quarry, Brooksville, Fla.
Last week: Tom Watson won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii, birdieing the final two holes for a one-stroke victory over senior newcomer Fred Couples. The 60-year-old Watson, coming off a win with Jack Nicklaus in the Champions Skins, has 13 career victories on the 50-and-older tour.
On the Net: http://www.pgatour.com
