Results for March 2009
Back to Local Knowledge Index
Who was that man banging on McIlroy's window?
It was Jack Nicklaus, as Derek Lawrenson recounts in the Daily Mail in a story on Rory McIlroy's rising popularity. "McIlroy was leaving a shopping mall in Florida one night when a retired golfer came running over and banged on the window of his courtesy car," Lawrenson writes. "‘I thought it was you,’ the man said. ‘I just wanted to...
Read more
The rankings conundrum
The Associated Press' Doug Ferguson notes in a story on the perplexities of the World Ranking that Davis Love III would have done better to sit out the Bay Hill Invitational rather than playing in it. Had he sat, he'd still be in the top 50 in the World Ranking and in contention for a Masters berth. By missing the...
Read more
Tiger vs. Jack
It is a futile debate, arguing whether Tiger Woods is better than Jack Nicklaus was, but columnist Tom Boswell tackles it anyway in Tuesday's Washington Post, beneath the headline: The Game Deprived of Woods vs. Nicklaus. Boswell gives the nod to Woods, though he makes the argument that he's had an easier way of it: "Tiger has faced no contemporary...
Read more
Seve: 'This is the sixth major'
Seve Ballesteros, who has undergone four operations to remove a brain tumor and faces another round of chemotherapy, ">has spoken about his ordeal and proclaimed it, "the longest par 72 in the world...When you wake up in the morning, you do not want to get out of bed and you say: 'Where do I go?' "But the way I look...
Read more
Houston's missing link
The Shell Houston Open this week should provide an interesting contrast between Tiger Woods' singular appeal and the collective appeal of the rest of the golf world. Houston's field is inordinately strong -- eight of the top-10 ranked players in the world (missing only Woods and Kenny Perry), 15 of the top 20 and 21 of the top 30. In...
Read more
Predictably, Tiger delivers an audience
Tiger Woods in contention remains the greatest show in golf, as the Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings show, the Associated Press has reported. Sunday's final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational produced golf's highest overnight raings since the 2008 U.S. Open, exceeding even the Ryder Cup, the British Open and the PGA Championship, none of them featuring Woods' participation. --...
Read more
Love's Masters hopes dim
Davis Love III’s quest to qualify for the Masters hit a snag with the release of the World Ranking Monday morning. Thanks to missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, and a series of other permutations, Love fell from 47th to 51st on the ranking and missed out on a ticket to Augusta...
Read more
Aussie Robert Allenby eviscerates the homeland
This won't play well on the home front, Robert Allenby shredding Australian golf and its fans to the point that even were he to express remorse for having done so (and that doesn't seem likely given the vehemence with which he denounced the homeland), he's made playing there in the future problematic at best and impossible at worst. In this...
Read more
The dreaded five-shot lead
In an earlier gig covering another sport, I chronicled the travails of a team that was notorious for blowing leads, very often in dramatic and spectacular fashion. It had reached such comical proportions that whenever this team would pull ahead in a game, a group of us jaded writers would roll our eyes and say something like, "Beware the...
Read more
Unlikely road to Masters
Among the many romantic elements that make the Masters so endearing -- the majestic drive down Magnolia Lane, the sprawling oak tree behind the clubhouse, the Hooters just outside the club gates on Washington Road (OK, maybe not that last one) -- not to be forgotten is the annual presence of wide-eyed amateurs in the field. It's true, the...
Read more
Local Knowledge continues
