Left field

Has ‘Bubba golf’ got the legs for world domination?

Inspired by Bubba Watson’s brilliance, beautifully encapsulated in that wedge from the pine needles on Augusta’s feared 10th hole en route to winning the Masters on Sunday, I took to the range for a good old clout of the golf ball rather than worrying about a textbook swing.

Ugly noise. Ball darts off right. Left-handed kid receiving a lesson two bays away, who when asked who his favourite player was replies “Bubba Watson”, hits it better with the same club (7 iron).

Try again. Legs and body sway violently. My wrists, better suited for short game artistry (well, escaping from behind trees and the like), bend like rubber while my head is about as stationary as a last-day Masters crowd galloping up the side of the fairway to glimpse a view of the winning putt.

The result of my second shot, or the next 168 balls I hit, is irrelevant. The point is that the unorthodox genius of Watson is unrivalled in the world of golf. Long may it continue.

Any instructor would tell you to ‘Look away now’ as the newly crowned Masters champion larrups another tee shot with his legs moving all over the place or bends a sand wedge into a tricky pin from 170 yards.  No one was averting their eyes on Sunday.

Can it last though? Watson’s first PGA Tour title, in June 2010, was four and a half years in the making after his debut in 2006 and his form has always been sporadic, until this year. So far in 2012 he has chalked up one win at the Masters, three top-fives and a worst finish of tied-18th.

Whether his current run of form can continue for years and years in the same vein as Tiger Woods is a tough question. Less than a year ago Louis Oosthuizen, defeated by Watson in the Masters playoff on Sunday, said to me he simply “wasn’t swinging it well” when I asked him the reasons behind missing the cut at the European Tour’s flagship event, the PGA Championship.

Major drought continues but U.S. in good shape behind Clarke

If American golf is in crisis then it is a crisis every other nation would like a taste of as the sport’s most dominant country made a determined assault on the 140th British Open at Royal St George’s this week.

They came up short as Darren Clarke secured a third major triumph in 14 months for Northern Ireland but the final leaderboard was otherwise littered with the Stars and Stripes as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson shared second and Americans filled five of the top seven places and 12 of the top 24.

Clarke’s victory means that American golfers have failed to land any of the last six majors — the worst run since the Masters was launched in 1934 and the first time since 1994 that the sport has had a year without an American holding at least one of the four grand slam crowns.

Throw in last year’s defeat in the Ryder Cup and the fact that Europeans occupy the top four spots in the world rankings for the first time in 20 years, and something was surely rotten in United States golf.

Coming into the British Open virtually every member of the PGA Tour was asked at some point for their thoughts on what was causing such a drought.

Was it the legacy of the “Tiger effect” where a whole generation of players have been so scarred by always being in the shadow of Tiger Woods that now the great man is off the scene and/or off the pace they are unable to seize their opportunity?

Was the PGA Tour too cozy, enabling young players to earn millions without ever winning a tournament, let alone challenging for a major?Was the collegiate system out of date?

Picturing Player helps Oosthuizen to Open glory

The image of Gary Player running the gauntlet of hostile American fans on the way to a first U.S. Masters triumph almost 50 years ago helped to spur Louis Oosthuizen to victory in the British Open.

Player, who in 1961 secured the first of three Augusta green jackets, phoned his fellow countryman on Sunday morning ahead of the final round at St Andrews.

“He was saying just to stay calm out there, have a lot of fun and he said the crowd was probably going to be on Paul Casey’s side,” the South African told a news conference after romping to a seven-shot victory over Briton Lee Westwood.

Oosthuizen’s playing partner Casey, also of Britain, finished a stroke further back in a tie for third place.

“When he (Player) told me the story when he played against Arnold Palmer when he won his first Masters he said, ‘They (the fans) wanted to throw stuff at me’,” added Oosthuizen after climbing from 54th to 15th in the world rankings.

“It meant a lot, him phoning me up. He’s just a great guy,” he said of his 74-year-old countryman, a winner of nine majors.

No Woods, no problem … but for how long?

Tiger Woods hacked and shanked his way to a two-round score of five over par at this year’s British Open, missing just the fifth cut of his professional career and only his second in a major championship.

Facing a Tiger-less weekend must have had television executives and sponsors sweating. The 2008 British Open, which Woods missed recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, saw TV ratings of the final round on ABC plummet 13.3 percent from the previous year.

But the ’09 British Open had a secret weapon, Tom Watson.

The 59 year-old self proclaimed ‘geezer’ was battling not only course, but he was fighting father time. A victory would have made him the oldest major champion on the PGA tour by 11 years.

After 54 holes, Watson looked poised to shatter the record as he led the field heading into Sunday’s final round at Turnberry.

However, Stewart Cink sunk the fairytale ending with his two-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole, cutting short Watson’s chase of immortality.

But Watson provided more than enough compelling drama over the final two days to keep viewers hooked. Watson would drain a lengthy putt, then ABC would pull-up video from the famous ‘Duel in the Sun’.  Watson would bump and run to within five feet of the cup, then viewers were treated to a side-by-side look, comparing his swing from today to his last major championship victory 26 years ago — at Royal Birkdale. Woods’ missed cut quickly became an afterthought.

Cink keeps it simple to win Open

Monday’s British newspapers will be awash with puns about Stewart Cink-ing the putt that won him the Open and his first major.

The American triumphed in a playoff with veteran Tom Watson, who might be the victim of some further tabloid tomfoolery given he certainly suffered a sinking feeling after as his game fell apart on the extra holes.

The fairytale didn’t happen for five-times winner Watson but by going so close he showed that in golf you are never too old.

That might be some consolation for a still-young Tiger Woods after he missed the cut and the likes of Lee Westwood, who was in with a shout and ran out of steam at the end of his round.

PHOTO: Stewart Cink of the U.S. reacts after his birdie putt on the 18th green during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship at the Turnberry Golf Club in Scotland, July 19, 2009. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

Woods you believe it? Tiger set to miss cut as Marino shares lead

After giving the players a gentle start, Mother Nature appeared to wake up on the second day of the British Open as the wind strengthened, claiming a number of high-profile casualties including Tiger Woods.

Overnight leader Miguel Angel Jimenez battled hard for a three over 73 which cost him his lead but there were worse cases.

One-time leader and former champion Ben Curtis was a notable victim. The 2003 champion birdied the first to reach six-under-par and claim a share of the lead before finishing the day with a ten-over 80 to end up with a five-over-par 36-hole total.

Last year’s runner-up Ian Poulter also had a day to forget slumping to a nine-over 79. His total of 154, 14-over, means he can go home and watch some Ashes cricket action this weekend.

And U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover will be heading straight to the airport after a 77 left him at nine-over for the championships.

But there were a few success stories. Little known American Steve Marino can sit back and enjoy seeing his name at the top of the leaderboard with Tom Watson.

British Open proves elementary for Watson, tough on Tiger

It is fair to say we all expected an American with a surname beginning with W to be soaring up the British Open leaderboard but everyone has been shocked that it is 59-year-old senior Tom Watson topping the strong field and not a certain Tiger Woods.

Whilst the world number one toiled in calm conditions at Turnberry’s Ailsa course on Thursday, five-times Open champion Watson was recording a bogey-free five-under-par 65 to take the early clubhouse lead.

“Yesterday and the day before, playing the practice rounds I felt very good about the way I was hitting the ball and the way I was putting the ball,” Watson told reporters. “And it was not much of a surprise for me to go out there and get under par.”

Many will expect the eight-times major winner to fall away and not remain in contention but may I remind you cynics of the performance of another past master, Greg Norman, at last year’s championship at Birkdale. Norman finished third after leading going into the final round.

And it is not just Watson who is proving a torch bearer for the elder members of the golf circuit. Fifty-two year-old twice Open champion Mark O’Meara went out early and fired a solid three-under par 67 to sit alongside 1989 champion Mark Calcavecchia – one year shy of his 50th birthday.

Much of the talk at Turnberry before the championship had been about the chances of young Briton Rory McIlroy and teenaged Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa lifting the Claret Jug but Watson and co have shown them they still have a lot to learn on the South Ayrshire links.

In light of the fact that veteran Kenny Perry, 48, came within a whisker of winning this year’s Masters, only succumbing to eventual winner Angel Cabrera in a play-off, could this be the year the veterans fights back?

The Open golf gets underway, but where’s the wind and rain?

Embarking on my first British Open, I was of the understanding the weather would be wet and windy and the scoring tough but my week thus far has been spent in shorts and t-shirts at a surprisingly benign Turnberry.

As nice as it is for a roving reporter to be out in the warm sunshine, fielding questions to the world’s best golfers on one of Britain’s finest courses, it would be interesting to see the usual wind and rain to see how good these guys really are.

When Irishman Padraig Harrington retained the Claret Jug at Birkdale last year he did so after enduring a fierce battle with the elements as well as a strong field.

His ability to shoot a four-under-par 32 on the back nine whilst battling wind that was gusting above 50mph was golf of the highest order and a joy to watch, albeit on a television in the Reuters office.

This year I was expecting the same conditions but as it stands, with sunny weather, the Ailsa course’s generous fairways and flat greens could become a birdie fest which we have grown accustomed to on the PGA Tour.

The uniqueness of the Open is that it is an event which is like no other, played on a seaside links with hard and fast fairways and blustery conditions which give spectators a chance to see how skilful the best players have to be.

Rory McIlroy: Genuine Open Contender

Rory McIlroy can win The Open Championship at Turnberry this weekend.

The bushy-haired 20-year old from Northern Ireland is playing only his second Open, and first as a professional. But he is such a talent that he is capable of pulling off the biggest win in a major championship since the 21-year old Tiger Woods ran off with The U.S. Masters in 1997.

Rory’s youth should not hamper his chances. In fact it could encourage him. Only Tiger himself — who only a lunatic would argue is not the greatest golfer who ever lived — has a comparable early career record.  Tiger had just turned pro when he won the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational as a 20 year-old, but McIlroy was still a teenager when he secured his first victory as a professional: the high profile Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year.

Youthful prodigies are rare in golf. The Open’s two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington did not even turn pro until he was 24. But if you watch Rory play it immediately becomes apparent why he has had so much success.

I was lucky enough to arrive at Wentworth Golf Club in south west London a few minutes before Rory was due to begin his 3rd round at the BMW PGA Championship.

The first shot I saw him hit, his drive at the Par 3 second, was unlike any that his older peers had attempted in the groups before him. The ball fizzed extraordinarily high, drawing in right to left over the greenside bunker and onto the pin. He made the birdie putt, and proceeded to go round in a 7-under par 65, including eight birdies. At the 18th, a severe dog-leg par 5, he was so confident he smashed his drive well over 300 yards and around the corner of the fairway. Afterwards he just turned to his caddy and grinned.