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.

Woods wins at last but is Tiger “back” this time round?

“That was a huge win for Tiger Woods today. Our game just got a whole lot more interesting,” scribed world number 11 Dustin Johnson on Twitter on Sunday after his fellow American dominated the field at Bay Hill to clinch the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

This theme is already being discussed just hours after former world number one Woods won his first PGA Tour event since September 2009 after a much publicised fall from grace towards the end of that year and at the beginning of 2010.

Like him or loathe him, there is no doubt the 14-times major champion does wonders for the game of golf. You only had to listen to the raucous crowd chanting his name around the 18th green a few hours ago to appreciate that.

So, will this yield a new era of dominance by Woods? Commentators and experts were abuzz during his final round on Sunday, some saying he is now swinging the club better than when he was winning majors back in the middle of the last decade.

There’s a way to go however to match the relentless streak Woods set off on in 2000-01, when he held all four major tournaments at the same time and looked unstoppable. Those days are long gone.

Nonetheless, with the American hitting shots like his towering 267-yard three iron to within 15 feet on the par-five 6th during his final round and more importantly wielding a red hot putter, who is to say this is not the start of another era of dominance?

One thing is for sure. The year’s first major at Augusta National cannot come quickly enough. Woods to be paired with the top two ranked players Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy in rounds one and two? No doubt the Augusta committee are busy thinking up some star-billed trios as we speak.

from Tom Pilcher:

Two money list titles or a major? Opinion divided over Donald’s 2011

A quick glimpse at the statistics of Luke Donald’s season and you can’t fail to be impressed, though despite a record-breaking 2011 the world number one still has his doubters.

So, those statistics. 25 tournaments entered, two money list titles (he became the first person to win both the PGA Tour and European Tour order of merit honours in the same season), four victories, 19 top 10s (including wins), and three top 20s. Crucially however, no major title.

Does this make Donald’s season less successful? Certainly, but by no means should his phenomenal consistency be mocked, Australian golfer Aaron Baddeley said earlier this year.

Golf, after all, is a difficult sport to be consistent in, and while Donald might lack the big-hitting explosive talent of Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, his ability to keep turning in good results even when off form has been remarkable this past season.

Like any sportsman at the top of their game, Donald knows winning the big titles matters most and the 34-year-old will want to land one of golf's four most treasured prizes in 2012.

Around a year ago Donald was answering to critics, such as one American writer who had coined the phrase "Luke Donald disease" in an article about under-achievers in golf.

"The critics will always be there and they make me stronger to be honest," Donald said. "Every time someone says I can't do a thing it just makes me work harder."

Atwal success fuels India’s major ambitions

Arjun Atwal’s PGA Tour triumph shone as a beacon on an otherwise dark Sunday for Indian sports, fuelling the world’s second most populous country’s hopes of celebrating a maiden major victory in the not too distant future, writes Amlan Chakraborty.

The Florida-based 37-year-old is often world number one Tiger Woods’ practice partner and keeping such company helped him become the first Indian to win a PGA Tour title with his one-stroke victory at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday

Atwal’s achievement came on a day when monsoon rains impeded Delhi’s Commonwealth Games preparations and the cricket-crazy nation slumped into depression after the one-day side were hammered by hosts Sri Lanka in the tri-series at Dambulla.

Celebrating the triumph almost as much as the player himself, Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) director Padamjit Singh Sandhu believes a major win for an Indian was now a distinct possibility.

“I mean, why not?” he told Reuters on Monday.

“It is clearly a defining moment for professional golf in India. This win will act as a strong catalyst to the growth of the sport in the region.

Memorial offers pointers to Pebble Beach contenders

This week’s Memorial tournament, an elite PGA Tour event in its own right hosted by golfing great Jack Nicklaus, is sure to offer several pointers toward the likely contenders at this month’s U.S. Open.

Many of the game’s leading players are making their final appearances on the circuit before switching focus to the second major of the year, which takes place at majestic Pebble Beach from June 17-20.

Two of the big guns — world number one Tiger Woods and second-ranked Phil Mickelson – have more than a few question marks hovering over their form at the moment. Woods, whose private life spectacularly unravelled at the end of last year, is returning to the tour after three weeks on the sidelines to defend his title at the Memorial.

 The 14-times major winner has not competed since he was forced to withdraw from the final round of last month’s Players Championship in Florida because of neck pain. An inflamed joint made it difficult for Woods to execute his swing and his driving accuracy, never his strongest suit, was woeful in his last outing at the TPC Sawgrass.

Mickelson, who delivered a ‘feel-good’ moment for the game when he clinched his fourth major title at the Masters in front of his wife Amy who is recovering from breast cancer, has also struggled off the tee. The American left-hander missed his first PGA Tour cut in more than a year at last week’s Colonial tournament, where he would have replaced Woods he had he triumphed.

A short-game magician who thrills the fans with his creative shot-making, Mickelson has averaged less than 50 percent in driving accuracy this season to languish 185th in the tour’s standings. Given that U.S. Opens place a high premium on accuracy with their traditionally tight fairways flanked by thick rough, Mickelson will be banking on a major improvement in this area of his game.

Even Tiger gets the “loss aversion” blues

Even the best golfers — yes, you Tiger Woods – systematically miss the opportunity to score a “birdie” (when a golfer sinks a ball one stroke below par, or what is expected) out of fear of having a “bogey” (or taking one stroke more than par), according to a study by two University of Pennsylvania professors.

However, playing it safe has its own costs in golf and business, Devin Pope and Maurice Schweitzer, professors of economics and psychology at the Wharton School, said in their paper entitled “Is Tiger Woods Loss Averse? Persistent Bias in the Face of Experience, Competition, and High Stakes.”

The professors studied putts during pro golf tournaments and their research suggested the “agony of a bogey seems to outweigh the thrill of a birdie.” They calculated that type of decision-making bias costs the average golfer about 1 stroke during a 72-hole tournament, translating to a combined loss of about $1.2 million in prize money per year for the top 20 golfers.

“This research provides evidence that people work especially hard in order to avoid losses,” Pope said.

The researchers found that golfers avoid the possibility of loss by playing conservatively when they could do better than par, but will try harder if they are at risk of coming in above par. Pope said “loss aversion” is part of a growing field of behavioral economics, which explores how human psychology impacts markets and business.

In a business context, the professors said par might be equated to quarterly earnings or investors’ approach to selling or holding on to stocks depending on what they initially paid for the shares.

The professors said their work challenges theories that suggest bias in decision making does not persist in markets. They used data from 230 PGA Tour golf tournaments between 2004 and 2009, concentrating on 2.5 million putts attempted by 412 golfers who each made at least 1,000 putts.

Why do golf fans cheer tap-ins? And when is a fine not a fine?

A few thoughts from two weeks following the PGA Tour:

Just wondering why people clap like mad every time a golfer taps in a two-inch putt?  Are these the same people who break out in applause when a plane lands? Aren’t both these things suppose to happen? - – - - Best thing I heard on the golf course this week: “Instead of reading the greens you have to read the currents out there,” joked former U.S. Masters champion Mike Weir at the rain-hit Canadian Open.

Second best I heard on the golf course this week: “Let’s go watch someone who wants to play.” — A disgruntled spectator to a friend at the Buick Open after watching Rocco Mediate miss twice from three-feet at the par four 12th at Warwick. - – - - You have to love a tournament like the Buick Open where the trophy looks like a hood ornament. - – - - Best joke I heard: England midfielder David Beckham was fined $1,000 by Major League Soccer for confronting unhappy fans following his return to the LA Galaxy during AC Milan. That works out to 1/250,000th of Beckham’s reported five-year $250 million deal that brought him to the United States to spread the soccer gospel.

For Beckham, that basically amounts to — nothing.

Now, FIA’s $100 million fine slapped on McLaren for spying on Ferrari – that’s a fine.

PHOTO: Tiger Woods holds up the trophy after winning the Buick Open PGA golf tournament at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Michigan August 2, 2009. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

At last, timing looks right for Tiger

The timing of Tiger Woods’s return to the PGA Tour following knee surgery has posed the biggest question mark in golf this year and maybe, just maybe, the answer will be delivered on Friday.

By 1700 ET (2200 GMT) on Friday, players have to commit to next week’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona where Woods is the defending champion.

Although there has been widespread speculation that a likelier comeback for the world number one would be the March 12-15 WGC-CA Championship on the flat Doral layout in Miami, many signs now point toward Arizona.

Woods just happens to be sponsored by Accenture and he is eager to get in some quality tournament golf before the Apr. 9-12 U.S. Masters, the opening major of the year.

His close friend Mark O’Meara, who recently played a practice round with Woods, hinted at last week’s Allianz Championship on the Champions Tour that Woods could return in Arizona.

“He hasn’t told me personally when he’s going to start back but I know he’s pretty much almost ready to start back, so I wouldn’t be surprised,” O’Meara told reporters.

“But I don’t make his schedule and I know that everybody always wants me to tell everybody when he’s going to play.”