Can Mickelson Survive Another Duel against Tiger Woods at Doral?

In honor of this week's high profile Ford Championship at Doral, all other tours call it quits for the week.

Tiger Woods versus Phil Mickelson again? Wouldn't THAT be a good ratings boost for NBC! Especially since the recent Olympics were a ratings flop for the station. We can only hope that NBC doesn't cut away in the middle of the event as other channels have done (ahem, CBS), usually for issues that could have waited until the nightly news!

With all of the major players coming out for this battle with the Blue Monster, expect a weekend of dueling sticks and all of the makings of a tournament that will be featured on golf forums for weeks to come!

Defending champion Tiger Woods is hoping to make this his third victory of 2006. Phil Mickelson, the king of drama, will try to stop him in his tracks once again even though Lefty's record against Tiger proves that he will have a tough time of it. The last three tournaments playing against Woods, Phil was trounced. At this same time last year Phil already had two victories under his belt, during the West Coast Swing. With four top-ten finishes so far this season but no victories its time for Mickelson to wake up and get busy before the season slips away from him, sort of like the 2004 season when Phil coasted without a single win. Perhaps Mickelson will play better golf at the Southern Swing events.

This is the first stroke-play event of 2006 where all the top players are in the field.

Retief Goosen and Ernie Els enjoy playing golf together and are good friends off the course.

Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen haven't really done anything memorable during this 2006 season except for the recently when Singh forced officials to review Lefty's driver. Singh has the same number of top-tens as Mickelson and both Els and Phil slipped in the World Rankings. If Tiger keeps his game to the same exacting standards as of late, another win may well be on the agenda.

Tiger may also want to do something really special this year as it is his tenth year since both turning professional and joining the PGA Tour. Perhaps winning all four majors in a single season might do it! But then what would be next for Tiger? Kids, diapers and a 7-passenger Caravan?

Notables in the field include Craig Parry who won the 2004 Doral with a spectacular eagle from the fairway. Who can forget that shot! Nick Faldo has been elusive on the PGA Tour but will try to win a second time since his 1995 appearance. Maybe Faldo, who is now a commentator, will give us a blow-by-blow description of the tournament from the trenches!

The 7,266-yard course at Doral will certainly favor the longer hitters this week, but the twelve holes surrounded by water also makes the golfers step into this course with trepidation. At this venue it is usually the 18th hole that decides the winner.

Speaking sentimentally about Doral for a moment, this is the final season that the Blue Course will host this particular stop on the East Coast Swing. Instead Doral will be a featured course on the 2007 PGA Tour as a host for the World Golf Championships.

Photo Credit: © Reuters.
Photo Credit: © AP.

Golf and the "X - Y" Factor

Golf for Beginners Podcast 02-26-06 takes listeners deep inside the Battle of the Sexes debate.

The latest Golf for Women Magazine recently surveyed men and women to hear their thoughts on this ongoing debate but Barry and I put our own spin on this "Adam versus Eve" battle. As more women learn the sport it doesn't appear as if this conflict will ever be solved but it sure is fun talking about it!

In our Tour Talk section we discuss the elimination of the top golfers from the Accenture Match-Play Championship this past weekend. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were downed early in the tournament and Ernie Els didn't even make it past day-one. Vijay Singh had no better luck.

In fact Australian Geoff Ogilvy creamed Davis Love III in the finals to join Craig Parry as the only other "down-under" golfer to ever win at the World Golf Championships. On his way towards the finale Ogilvy had to defeat such top golfers as Michael Campbell (U.S. Open winner), Mike Weir (Masters), Tom Lehman (British Open) and finally Davis Love III (PGA Championship).

"Unbelieveable!" Ogilvy exclaimed. "It's such a hard tournament to believe you're going to keep going. I got lucky the first four days and the last two games I played very well."

Ogilvy takes home a huge paycheck of $1.3 million but more importantly Ogilvy moves into the top thirty on tour and has a chance to play in the season-ending Tour Championship.

In LPGA news, Michelle Wie strutted her stuff at the Fields Open in her hometown of Oahu. Although she didn't win, Wie showed the world that at sixteen she is more than capable of holding her own alongside of the best female golfers in the world. While Meena Lee and Seon Hwa Lee duked it out on extra holes, Morgan Pressel came in with a disappointing eleventh place finish alongside of Paula Creamer. Although Natalie Gulbis led early on, she just couldn't keep the lead, finishing in a tie for fourth place with Lorena Ochoa. Both of these ladies now have their second top-ten this season.

Wie takes home her first professional paycheck of over $73K. She also gets to show off her new diamond-encrusted Omega watch given to her as part of her latest endorsement deal. I wonder what the kids at her high school will think of it?

At least we know that Wie is thrilled with her new Omega. Here is what the 16-year-old was thinking about during her final round. She was asked, "How closely were you following what was going on at the end there with the leaderboard and the changes?"

Michelle Wie's reply sounded typically teenage. "Not really that closely. Basically I was checking out what time it was. My watch is so cool. I was asking my caddie, 'Do you know what time it is?' The scoreboard, I didn't pay that much attention to."

We also discuss the latest magnetic bracelets and give you our opinion of these products, including the one we tried out, the Trion-Z bracelet. A written review will be available at The Sand Trap in a few weeks (probable review date is March 17th). More audio reviews to come. Not to give anything away but I have some new Adams Idea Hybrid OS Irons in my bag…

Also make sure to tune in for our latest golf tips, served up fresh weekly by Barry. He is always working on his game and shares his tips for playing smarter, not harder. Putting tips for saving strokes are also discussed.

For questions and comments please feel free to email us at golfforbeginners@aol.com.

LPGA Welcomes Michelle Wie to Fields Open

The best of the best on the LPGA Tour aim for both the second win of the season as well as amassing more points to gain exemption into the final hurrah of 2006, the ADT Championship.

Michelle Wie will use her first of eight exemptions this week on her home turf in Hawaii. The 16-year-old will most certainly be the youngest and most popular golfer in the field with a close second belonging to her nemesis Morgan Pressel.

Pressel soundly defeated Wie several years ago in match play format at the AJGA Championships and recently has been outspoken about Wie's easy entrance into LPGA tournaments through exemption instead of by earning her spot.

Expect sparks to fly at this inaugural event. At the Fields Open it's not all about the trophy, points or even the share of a big $1.1 million purse. This week it's personal.

Only a hop, skip and jump from Turtle Bay Resort, Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Oahu is the second stop on the LPGA Tour. For over a week the ladies have been sunning themselves during their off-time but now it's back to business.

Although most of the same ladies have made the short journey this week there is another amongst them making her 2006 debut who has single-handedly changed the face of women's golf. Michelle Wie's long flowing swing has been compared to Ernie Els, earning her the name "The Big Wiesy" among players on the PGA Tour. Hot debates on the internet have created a whirlwind of controversy contending that Wie should first play golf on the LPGA before teeing it up with the men of the PGA Tour for the experience.

The time is at hand for Wiesy to strut her stuff. Michelle is ready to show that she can certainly compete against the best of the LPGA and hopefully put a victory under her belt. Attempting to stop her will be 132 women, all believing that they are as good or better golfers than Wie and that she is just lucky in her business ventures.

Morgan Pressel has already defeated Wie, albeit several years ago and has even one-upped Wie as recently as at last year's US Women's Open, sharing second place with Brittany Lang after failing to win at the 18th hole against a lucky sand save by Birdie Kim.

The stakes are higher this year as Wie has to prove she is worth the millions of sponsorship dollars thrust upon her. Pressure is mounting for the 16-year-old to perform at a higher level given her attempts to make the cut at several Sony Open's on the PGA Tour. Maturity, or the lack thereof, will show itself this week as a few of the top performers are barely out of high school.

From top: Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang all appear this weekend at the Fields Open.

Take for example last year's Rolex Rookie of the Year Paula Creamer who struggled last week at the SBS Open. The 19-year-old from Bradenton, Florida has the ability to make it to the top of the money list. She finished in second place last year, just beneath Annika Sorenstam in the standings but could not get a top-ten last week. Still, she is a top choice to win this week, and she rarely pouts.

Natalie Gulbis is a bit older than the others at 23-years-old. She is a grinder and with the assistance of swing coach Butch Harmon may well 2006 her breakout year.

Joo Mi Kim, unlikely winner at last week's SBS Open will try to make it two-for-two this week but Lorena Ochoa's playoff attempts have not gone unnoticed. Last year Ochoa quietly climbed the official money list despite a few snowman blips and chokes along the way especially when facing off against Annika Sorenstam at the Mastercard Championship. Speaking of the Mastercard, Sorenstam will wait until this event to make her 2006 debut, so fans of Annika please be patient!

And I'm still waiting for Q-School champion Ai Miyazato to garner a top-ten for herself. She has played in the Women's World Cup of Golf early this season and now at the SBS Open with mediocre results. I'm betting that once she starts winning, Miyazato will be unstoppable. But my opinion here doesn't really matter. Ai haw a huge following out in Japan and is as popular as Tiger Woods! Between her sponsorships and followings, Miyazato needs a win desperately!

Expect to see regulars Laura Davies, Dorothy Delasin, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr and Christina Kim grinding it out this week as well. There will also be a huge Asian contingency at this event. Eight sponsors exemptions have been given out, all to Asians.

What are the odds that an Asian will win this weekend?
Will Morgan Pressel eat her words about Michelle Wie?

Find out the answers to these burning questions this weekend.

The Golf Channel will air the Fields Open on February 23-25th from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. (EST). If you are a true golf fanatic, you surely don't want to miss this spectacular 54-hole event!

Photo Credit: © AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara.
Photo Credit: © AP.