Showing posts with label Joe LaCava. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe LaCava. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Does it matter how many golfers Tiger Woods had to beat at Chevron?

An ESPN opinion piece mentioned a few reasons why Tiger Woods may have had an easier time winning his first tournament in two years, the Chevron World Challenge, but I'm not totally buying into it.

The reasons?

Tiger-woods
Tiger Woods with his Chevron trophy

 

1. Tiger Woods didn't have to beat very many players.

Does it really matter how many golfers are in the field? I will concede that more players increase the chances that more than one will shine but Golfers are supposed play against par. Whether there are eighteen or seventy-five golfers, if you're playing well for four straight days, you have a chance to win.Many of the golfers in this event are already winners and/or have played well this season. They also know that Tiger Woods had won on this golf course on four previous occasions.

Every golfer in the field was itching to win against Tiger Woods on Sunday in order to add it to their resume.

2. ESPN claims that the field of eighteen golfers (some of the finest players of the 2011 season) were not as engaged because this was not an official PGA Tour event.  

Do golfers enter into an event with the prospect of not playing their best or not wanting to win? I understand that there may be a different mindset between a major tournament and all other events during the year but putting together four terrific rounds of golf takes much physical effort and mental concentration: Woods was playing on point this week.

3. Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods' caddie, was quoted in the article as agreeing with the above statements, "He knows it's not 144 guys. He knows it's not the Masters."

4. The former number-one golfer in the world was highly motivated since this event was to help the Tiger Woods Foundation. I'm not sure that more motivation stems from the fact that he's helping his charity or because he went into the event wanting to win it.

Tiger Woods said, "I'm not playing for you guys or anything like that. Just playing to get the 'W'."

To add to the above ESPN list, since this win makes number five for Tiger on the same course, I'm unsure as to why Sherwood Country Club was not added as a reason why Woods won! As Bob Harig stated, "that first victory in more than two years had to come somewhere."

When Tiger was asked how this end-of-season win compared to his other victories, a Cheshire cat smile erupted (actually, the smile could not be undone after his win), "It feels great. … I know it's been a while, but also for some reason, it feels like it hasn't."

Watching Woods I noticed that his drives were errant and he did not play his "A" game but he also got out of sticky situations with aplomb, confidently putting his ball back into play and getting back into scoring position. Tiger Woods "of old" actually peeked out from a winless two years during the final two holes where he sealed the deal but there have been shimmers of hope for some time, especially since his stretch of tourrnaments in Australia.

The only problem I see with the Woods' "progression" is that Tiger will not be playing another formal round of golf until the beginning of 2012 which leaves much time for changing the swing and overthinking; before the final round, the announcers even noticed that he was fidgeting with his putting grip, a sign that Tiger Woods still has far to go to regain the confidence of two years ago.

 

Although Chevron has decided to part company with this unofficial PGA Tour event, now that Tiger Woods is on the comeback trail, I'm sure a new sponsor will not be hard to find.

 

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Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Monday, September 26, 2011

Tiger Woods-Joe LaCava: Golf's new power couple?

Tiger_woods_lacavaTiger Woods has officially united with Dustin Johnson's (and Fred Couples') former caddie, Joe La Cava and water coolers around the country as well as the Twitterverse have something to say about the new match made in heaven.

Words ranging from "replacement" for Steve Williams to how Woods "stole" LaCava have been circulating as quickly as the Twitter stream will load.  Tiger, on the other hand, maintains that he has known Joe for many years.

"Mark [Steinberg] and I were approached by a lot of people, including Joe, who expressed an interest in becoming my caddie," Tiger Woods maintained. "This was an important decision, and I wanted to think about it carefully. Also, out of deference for the FedExCup Playoffs, I decided to wait until they were concluding to have substantive talks. We then spoke to Joe and came to an agreement."

Back in the Twitter sphere, Yahoo! Sports claimed Tiger "hijacked DJ's caddie and Tim Rosaforte said, "After Barclays win, Joe LaCava would have been crazy to leave Dustin Johnson for Tiger Woods. 10 less weeks on road was determining factor."

According to Woods, LaCava contacted Tiger...no highjacking or arm-twisting needed.

Although @Kathleennewsie had an interesting take that she was "hoping to see Snooki on the bag", it was Butch Harmon (Johnson's swing coach) who officially broke the news on Sky Sports after speaking with Johnson, adding that he was "shocked" by the move.

"I'm a little disappointed with the way Tiger handled it. But I'm not surprised," added Harmon, believing Woods should have asked DJ before beginning negotiations with LaCava and possibly showing that he knows Woods' character better than most (Tiger gets what Tiger wants?)

Who reached out first? According to Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian UK, LaCava was "telling friends ...he (LaCava) had quickly become disillusioned with life in the fairways with Johnson." Could Couples have also had something to do with the pairing as he put together the current President's Cup team......?

With history possibly in the making, does it really matter at this point?

More importantly, is this good or bad for the new team of Tiger Woods and Joey LaCava?


"It's a "win-win," tweeted Paul Azinger. "TW trying to pass Jack. Joe can be a part of history … no brainer for Joey! It's not like he won't still get paid."

"And he's Tiger Woods," added Zinger.

Enough said.
 
Watch for the new dynamic duo October 6-9th performing live at the Frys.com Open.


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