An Odd Golf Coincidence?

For those people who believe in odd coincidences...Matt Kuchar and Lee Westwood have more of an attachment than just being pro golfers.

Was it just their "time" or did fate play a role in the same day wins of both Matt Kuchar and Lee Westwood? This fact, by itself, would appear coincidental but there's more...both golfers also won on the same day four years ago (April 20, 2014) and not again until this past Sunday (even though both have been in contention).

I wonder if any betting parlor determined the odds of this Kuchar - Westwood happening...a million to one? As much as lightning striking in the same place twice? Will this same occurrence happen again in 2022?

Being unable to solve this riddle, Golf for Beginners moves on to what Kuchar and Westwood did to secure their victories. Below are a few quotes from the pros.

Matt Kuchar was hoping to create more of a cushion for himself, "I certainly didn’t want a 3-footer on the last hole to win this thing, I was hoping to have a three-, four-shot lead and some wiggle room."

Lee Westwood's plan was to remain calm, aim and shoot at his target, "Until now, my emotions have felt really under control all day, which is what I’ve been working on. I was just trying to hit fairways and stick to my game plan and hit it in the right places.”

How can amateurs use Kuchar's and Westwood's plans to secure their own wins, whether it's with their regular foursome or at a business tournament?

To gain more of a cushion during your golf round, try hitting more safe shots to get onto the green in regulation, giving yourself more birdie opportunities.

As far as remaining calm, take a deep breath before each shot. With regards to aiming and shooting at a target, you should first have a repeatable pre-shot routine - after this process is "in the bag", try visualizing one shot at a time.


Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

Should Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson be automatic Ryder Cup picks?

With three tournament wins this season for Tiger Woods and top ranking in the FedEx Cup rankings, exclusion from the Ryder Cup would be out of the question. For Phil Mickelson, however, an automatic qualification should not have necessarily been clear-cut.

The eight official automatic 2012 Ryder Cup picks not made by Team USA Captain Davis Love III are (not necessarily in order of popularity):

1. Tiger Woods:  Three wins in 2012 but struggled most recently at the PGA Championship and in the majors in general. Of course Tiger's "C" game is akin to most tour players' "A" game.

2. Phil Mickelson: One win at the ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am, M/C three times and slid in to 14th place on the money list with a lackluster season. Perhaps it's time for Mickelson to turn in the spikes for cleats?

3. Bubba Watson: A Masters win this season and being top-8 in the Official World Golf Rankings makes the second lefty on the list more of a shoe-in than likeable Phil but cuts at both the Memorial and the U.S. Open (when the pressure was on) makes Bubba questionable as well.

4. Jason Dufner: This was definitely Dufner's year with wins at the Zurich Classic and at the HP Byron Nelson. Second place at the Crowne Plaza Invitational with a follow-up 4th place at the U.S. Open makes Dufner a rising star on the PGA Tour.

5. Keegan Bradley: Aside from being a very likeable fellow, Keegan is also a solid golfer and good clutch player. He also recently won the WGC-Bridgestone and just tied for third place at the PGA Championship. Right now, he's hot.

6. Webb Simpson: Winner of the 2012 U.S. Open....enough said.

7. Zach Johnson: Two wins this season and 4th on the PGA Tour money list. Johnson's stats include ranking 11th in putting and second place in strokes gained in putting.

8.  Matt Kuchar: Cut from the PGA Championship but first in top-10 finishes this year and 9th in scrambling from the rough on the PGA Tour.

These players are Team USA's representation at the Ryder Cup and I will be cheering them on to victory and to getting the Cup back onto US soil. Team Europe won the 2010 Ryder Cup matches by a score of 14.5 t0 13.5. Team Europe will most likely include Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald but the final decisions are to be made after the Johnnie Walker Championship.

Tiger Woods may not have won a major and may have struggled this season to regain his form but he still shows signs of progress and remains a strong contender for Team USA. Mickelson will once again have to prove to himself, more than to his loyal fans, that he still has what it takes to compete against the up and coming golfers on the PGA Tour.

The four final spots for Team USA 2012 Ryder Cup will be chosen on September 4th with Captain of the Love boat considering Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker (one of my personal favorites and the golfer who almost bumped Mickelson off the Ryder Cup team) and Jim Furyk who Love said were "high on the list." The Wyndham Championship this week may be a deciding factor for Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas. Love said, "we want to see how they play. Obviously, we don't have to go tell them that they are under the gun."

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photo credit: ClubCorp.com

From PGA Tour Championship to Ryder Cup to Caddyshack, Golfers Quotes before FedEx Cup

From defending Tour Championship golfer Phil Mickelson to first-time Ryder Cup nominee Matt Kuchar, PGA Tour players had plenty to say going into this week's golf tournament with an eye on winning the $10 million prize and FedEx Cup bragging rights.

 

Here are a few golf quotes from Mickelson, Kuchar, Hoffman, Casey, Johnson and a long-winded Steve Stricker.

 

Q. Several things could happen this week. If you win you'd be the No. 1 player in the world, you'd be the only guy ever to successfully defend this championship, probably be Player of the Year, and yet still all of the stars would have to align correctly in order for you to win the FedExCup. Do you think that's right, or is there another tweaking in the system that needs to be made so that those kinds of year-long things matter more than these last four events?

PHIL MICKELSON: I haven't played well in the first three FedExCup events, and so you have to have some value to those events. And you can't have it all just be -- just come down to one event. I guess you could, but I haven't played well enough in the first three events. If I had played halfway decent, I would be in a position to control my own destiny. I started out third or fourth, started out in good position, but because of my play, I am where I'm at.

 

And then Mickelson regaled golf reporters with a little known fact about Caddyshack...

Q. I was talking to Corey Monday about the 30th anniversary of Caddyshack, and he picked you as the guy on his team this year that knew more about Caddyshack than anything else, that kept you guys going. Can you talk about why that movie has endured so much, and would you put your Caddyshack knowledge against anybody out here?

PHIL MICKELSON: No, there's guys that know more useless information than I do (laughter) --

 

Q. That's not what he said.

PHIL MICKELSON: But I will share with you a little tidbit about that movie that not many people know about, and the gentleman who created that movie, who wrote it and who I believe produced it and put it all together ended up killing himself before the movie was ever released, about a month before, because the critics had beaten it up so bad, and he was so overcome by this that he ended up taking his own life and not being able to enjoy the success that this movie has had, and I think that's too bad.

 

Q. If you were to win $10 million, what would you do with it?

MATT KUCHAR: I really don't know. I'd hope I could turn it into a lot more. That would probably be my thought. But there's nothing really that I need. There's nothing that I really want.

 

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Ironically I haven't really thought about winning the FedExCup much this year. I really wasn't in contention to be here until a couple weeks ago when I won. I'm approaching it like any other tournament, trying to get the win, and obviously all the accolades will come along with that.

 

Q. What are the goods and bads of the FedExCup? What are the highs and lows and the up and downsides of it?

PAUL CASEY: I haven't really thought about it too much. Is the system perfect? Probably not. I don't know. I mean, certainly when we had the situation when Padraig Harrington missed the TOUR Championship, even though he was a double major champion. He was actually Player of the Year if I remember correctly. That wasn't right. But it's changed since then, I think, hasn't it? I don't know.

I'm sure FedEx would love to have had the defending champion of this event and defending champion of the FedExCup, both of them in the field. We've got Phil -- what is Phil? 10th or something? But without Tiger and Phil, it's going to be disappointing to FedEx. I don't know. I don't know how to -- the highs and lows?

I haven't really fallen afoul of the system, and as far as I'm concerned, it's an opportunity to obviously made an awful lot of money. So from my angle, it's all positives.

 

Q. When you look at your career going forward, has being the No. 1 player in the world ever been a specific goal?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I don't set goals like that. Obviously if I win enough golf tournaments, if I play well the next year or so, it could be a possibility. But as far as my goal being the best player in the world, it's not one of my goals. You know, most of my goals are short-term goals, and I just try to give myself the opportunity to be there.

 

Q. You mentioned that your resurgence has sort of mirrored the history of the FedExCup. It's got enough age on it now that we can pretty much have a report card. What is your assessment at this point of the FedExCup and its history? Success? Not a success? And what are the best and worst things about it?

STEVE STRICKER: I think it's been a success. I think it's done what it was set out to do, and that's to gain more interest in our sport during a time period where our interests kind of went away a little bit because of the start of football season and college and the NFL. And I think we still get a lot of media, we still get a lot of exposure because of the FedExCup, and it gains -- we have some interest later into the season, where at the PGA it usually stops. So I think in that regard, it's good. And it's been good for the players. We're playing -- who can complain about playing for the type of money that we're playing for?

 

So all that said, I think it's been a good thing. But on the other hand, I think the point system quite isn't right yet, and I think we're going to address that again at the end of the year. No matter what point system we come up with, I think you're going to have issues or circumstances that are going to jump out and not seem quite right. And we've had it -- you know, even the last couple years. I think if we can keep tweaking it where it's a little bit -- I don't know what the correct word is, but to represent more of a guy who plays well all year long, but he still needs to play well in the FedExCup to win it all.

Right now every shot doesn't matter. You could finish 120-something on the list and still win the FedExCup. I think we need to do a little bit better job of having a guy who plays well all year long, still kind of staying in there towards the end, but give a guy a chance maybe further down the list if he wins a couple of these playoff events that he could actually win it all. I think it's a fine line there no matter what you do.

 

Q. One quick follow-up. If you ask any fan who's going to show up today, as much as they like the FedExCup and enjoy this event, none of them are going to put it on par with a major. Do the players feel the same way? Where does this rank? How many FedExCups equal a major?

STEVE STRICKER: Oh, I don't know. I don't think it's looked at as important as a major yet. Maybe some day it will if we continue on with it. I know if you ask any one of these 30 players here if they want to win it, I guarantee the answer is yes. Obviously there's a lot of money at stake. But it signifies that you played well, and I think that's the bottom line. I think it would be a feather in anybody's cap to hoist that FedExCup Trophy at the end of it all. It's something more for us to play for. There's, like I say, a lot to play for, and I think it adds excitement for us and fans alike.

 

 

Read the complete Tour Championship transcripts.

 

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