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D.A. gets points for his manners and his mother

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:38:00 GMT

D.A. Points is not a household name outside of mother Mary Jo Points' house, but that likely suffices for a man who is unabashedly a mama's boy and one who seems destined to have a good career, but not a great one.

It is our loss, perhaps, for the more one sees of Points, the more likely they would be to root for him.

"Thank you for staying," he said to the crowd only seconds after holing a 13-foot par-saving putt to win the Shell Houston Open Sunday evening, following a two-hour weather delay. "Thank you for staying," he said again. "Happy Easter."

This was not unprecedented. At the Greenbrier Classic in the summer of 2010, Points missed a short par putt on the last hole that did not cost him a victory, but cost him $72,000. Rather than lament his miscue, he turned to the crowd and said, "Thank you for coming."

Related: 13 Sleepers To Watch In 2013

This is evidence of the influence his mother, Mary Jo Points, has had on him. He remembers his manners. More evidence: When he played in the Masters for the first time in 2011, Points asked his mother to caddie for him in the Par 3 Contest. "I cried," Mary Jo told Greg Stewart of the Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star, once the hometown newspaper of the Points family. "I went over to him, hugging him and crying, and thought, 'Oh, my land, I can't believe I really get to do this.' This is something that was on my bucket list."

Mary Jo again became a focal point last week in Houston, when Points resurrected an old Ping Anser putter that had belonged to her. "I pulled it out of my mom's bag when I was probably 11, 12 years old," he said earlier in the week. "It's a great putter. I won a couple of state amateurs with it in Illinois."

He used it off and on as a professional, too, though as often happens when a putter begins to misbehave, it was consigned to the garage, joining a host of other shelved putters.

"I brought it with me this week because I just had been putting so bad," he said. "I thought maybe I'll pull this old putter out of the garage and maybe it will have some magic in it."

Points, 36, had missed the cut in seven of nine starts this year and in the other two finished no better than 63rd. But Mom's old Ping putter indeed proved the Anser. He opened the tournament with a 64 and closed it with a 66 that included that 13-foot par putt to win.

The victory was the second for Points, who two years ago won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, with Bill Murray as his amateur partner. The highlight that viewers likely took away from that was the comically inadequate attempt at a chest bump with Murray after holing a wedge shot for eagle at the par-5 14th hole.

Points provides reasons to smile, maybe none better than his obvious affection for a mother whose bucket list became shorter when she donned the familiar white overalls and looped for her son at Augusta.

Follow @JohnStrege
[Photo: Getty Images]

Happy Valentine's Day

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We can't send you red roses, but we can deliver more than a dozen of the best kisses in golf.

Celebrities to watch this week at Pebble Beach

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:10:00 GMT

By Brendan Mohler

The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am starts Thursday, which means the usual array of celebrities teeing it up alongside the pros. No surprise that the likes of Bill Murray, Carson Daly, Ray Romano and Kenny G are playing, a few of whom have even had some success in past years (Murray won with D.A. Points in 2010; Daly finished fifth with Jason Allred in 2005). Despite the barrage of duck hooks and power slices sure to plague many celebrities, their presence will produce some laughs. It's hard to take Nick Faldo seriously when he breaks down Bill Murray's swing:

(Not bad considering the outfit.)

Aside from actors and musicians, a few NFL stars and coaches will be making appearances, including recent Super Bowl runner-up Jim Harbaugh, whose San Francisco 49ers lost to his brother John's Ravens, 34-31. One of Harbaugh's foes, Bill Belichick, will be playing in his second consecutive Pebble Beach pro-am after finishing third with Ricky Barnes last year. Here's hoping Belichick shows up in anything other than a cut-off hoodie.

Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo, two quarterbacks whose seasons ended well before they hoped are in the field. If the Cowboys and Packers were squaring off, Rodgers would surely have the upper hand. But golf is the great equalizer, and Romo gets the nod here only because his swing looks nice and he's played in a few U.S. Open qualifiers (Tiger has also allowed Romo to be his partner, which must be good for something).

(Romo's swing can be seen at the :16 mark).

If Romo's lucky, he'll knock in all the short ones. He's known for botching easy plays, and he's playing alongside 19-year-old Jordan Spieth, who will surely be battling some nerves.

And finally, flamethrowers Justin Verlander and Matt Cain are in the field. Their respective teams (Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants) squared off in last year's World Series, which Cain's Giants won in only four games. Verlander will be out for revenge on Matt Cain, who also happened to throw a perfect game last season. However, Verlander has a firm grasp on the crown for hottest girlfriend award as my colleague and author of The Grind, Alex Myers, pointed out.

Speaking of hot girlfriends, Dustin Johnson is playing alongside his new squeeze's father, also known as "The Great One." Wayne's daughter, Paulina Gretzky, is a fashion model and Instagram star, and has been posting a lot of photos of her and Dustin's off-the-course escapades. Dustin won at Pebble in '09 and '10, but didn't have the distraction of playing with his girlfriend's father.

Hoopla aside, there must be a favorite among all these amateur hackers. I'm going with Skip McGee, the head of Global Investment Banking at Barclays and a 15 handicap, simply because he's paired with Phil Mickelson. Not only did Phil narrowly miss shooting the first 59 since Stuart Appleby in 2010, but he also seems to be in love with his driver. And we all know true love is hard to find. Skip, you lucked out.

Follow @BrendanMohlerGW

The Grind: Phil Mickelson's second career, DJ's distractions, and Pebble predictions

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:47:00 GMT

It was a good week for Phil Mickelson -- and for his sponsors.

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where unlike the Super Bowl, we promise to never leave you in the dark. Speaking of lights out, how about the play of Phil Mickelson at the Waste Management Phoenix Open? Of course, he was also the talk of the golf world early last season before doing his best impression of a typical small-market baseball team and disappearing for most of the spring/summer. But for now, we'll focus on the positives. . .

WE'RE BUYING

Phil Mickelson as a pitchman. Forget about the incredible on-course display he put on at TPC Scottsdale, how about the performances he put on hocking his new Callaway driver? Lefty kissed the club at one point, referred to his newest toy as a "dream" and turned his post-round interviews into commercials for the equipment giant. It worked, with the company's SVP of marketing, Harrry Arnett, reporting the "Biggest traffic weekend in our history & most drivers we've ever sold in 1 day on Saturday...beaten on Sunday" on Twitter. The guy could probably sell you subscriptions to 10 magazines you don't want if he showed up on your doorstep.

TPC Scottsdale's 16h hole. Padraig Harrington punted footballs into the stands, caddies risked bodily harm trying to win footraces, and James Hahn performed a rendition of the "Gangnam Style" dance that would even have impressed its creator, South Korean entertainer Psy. What will the most raucous crowd in golf provide for an encore? It's a shame we have to wait 12 months to find out.

Scott Piercy. Phil's near-59 is so last Thursday. How about Scotty P.'s 61? The 34-year-old's 10 birdie performance forced NBC to show a little of his final round. However, this isn't a fluke. Piercy played in last year's Tour Championship to cap a season in which he finished in the top 25 in half of the 28 events he entered, while earning his second PGA Tour title at the RBC Canadian Open.

WE'RE SELLING

Lipouts. We get it, lipouts are part of the game. But that doesn't mean we can't complain about them. And not just when they happen to Hall of Famers trying to make history. Those late-round rim outs are just as painful to us hacks trying to break 80/90/100. Lipouts are the ultimate on-course dagger.

"Morning Drive" dramatics. After two years, the Golf Channel's daily morning show packed up and moved down the hallway to another studio. The nice, new digs are reason to celebrate, but why the crew had to act like they were turning off the lights at Cheers for the last time is beyond me.

Vijay Singh. Does deer-antler spray even work? It sounds like some sort of hocus-pocus remedy "doctors" from the 13th century would have prescribed. Regardless, it contains one of the PGA Tour's banned substances. Sorry, Vijay, you deserve to be punished for breaking the rules. I mean, without rules, we're no better than animals. You know, like deer. . .

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads back to California for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The tournament rotates among Pebble Beach GL (Is the "GL" for "glorious"? Because it should be), Spyglass Hill GC and Monterey Peninsula CC the first three days before Sunday's final round at Pebble.

Random tournament fact: Last year, Phil Mickelson and Jim "Bones" Mackay set an unofficial record for the most talking/strategizing between a player and caddie on their way to a big win, capped by a final-round 64. Our favorite moment? When the two discussed at length on the 18th hole whether a 3-wood would fly farther than a driver with a certain amount of tailwind.

WEEKLY YAHOO! FANTASY LINEUP

Well, you've got to go with Bill Murray, a winner with D.A. Points in 2011, of course, and I'm hearing that Ray Romano has really been working on his short game. Oh, we're not making picks for the big pro-am? Let's try again then:

Starters -- (A-List): Phil Mickelson. We learned our lesson early last season when Mickelson won here and then nearly won again the next week at Riviera, before not doing much the rest of the year. When Lefty is hot, you ride him. And if he falters, we always have Mr. Bridesmaid, Brandt Snedeker to fall back on.

(B-List): Dustin Johnson. Potential Paulina Gretzky distractions (above) aside, DJ has two wins, a T-5 and a T-7 in five appearances in this event. Not too shabby. Kind of like his recent string of Instagram pics featuring his girlfriend. . .

(B-List): Aaron Baddeley. The Aussie has a solo fourth and a T-6 here the past two years, and is playing well, as evidenced by his recent T-6 at the Farmers Insurance Open.

(C-List): Billy Horschel. The 26-year-old has the second-longest consecutive cuts streak on the PGA Tour right now. It's almost enough to forgive him for that camouflage pullover he wore while playing with Tiger at Torrey Pines a couple weeks ago.

Bench -- Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson and Robert Garrigus.

Pro-Am Note: Matt Cain and Justin Verlander, the two starters of the 2012 MLB All-Star game are both participating. Cain also tossed a perfect game in 2012 and his Giants nipped Verlander's Tigers in the World Series, but it's the Detroit flamethrower who has been linked to supermodel Kate Upton (left, as if you needed to be told who Kate Upton is). We'll call it a push.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

-- Microphones will pick up Phil Mickelson discussing the wind in terms of knots: 1-to-5 odds

-- Win or lose, Bill Murray will dance: LOCK.

-- Paulina Gretzky will find her way into this column again in 2013: Also a LOCK.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Could it be anything other than James Hahn's "Gangnam Style" dance following a birdie on TPC Scottsdale's 16th hole on Sunday? The rookie's extended version of the move earned him a lot of new fans, or at least, a few more people who have actually heard of him now. Enjoy:

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

This is a picture of Sergio Garcia's girlfriend, Nicole Horrex, following him during last week's Dubai Desert Classic. Sergio may claim to be cursed by the golf gods, but we're finding it hard to be sympathetic.

CELEBRITY/ATHLETE WE'D LIKE TO PLAY GOLF WITH

Anyone not named Ray Lewis. The Baltimore Ravens linebacker has to be the most tiresome figure in all of sports. At least I won't ever have to see or hear this guy again with him retiring following his team's Super Bowl win. Oh wait, now he's a lock to be hired as a football analyst for an exorbitant amount of money? Isn't it great when good things happen to good people?

OBVIOUS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I feel like I keep running into Hall of Famers," said Brandt Snedeker after finishing runner-up for a second-straight week. Gee, do you think? Then again, we can't blame him for being a little deflated. After all, he shot 64-66-65-65 and lost by FOUR shots.

THIS AND THAT

Karrie Webb won the Australian Masters for a Tiger-like eighth time. . . . The new $8.5 million event in South Africa has already been postponed. What a shocker. . . . I took a trip to Atlantic City, aka Dagger City, this weekend and miraculously managed to leave ahead. Yes, those chips (left) are proof of my "big" winnings. No, I'm not one of the Tropicana's high rollers.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Why can't you gamble on sports when you're in Atlantic City?

Beyonce was great, but will we ever see a Super Bowl halftime show "wardrobe malfunction" again?

Tiger and Phil just won in back-to-back weeks. Do we really have to wait another two-plus months for the Masters?

-- Alex Myers is a contributing editor for GolfDigest.com. Feel free to email him and please follow him on Twitter since he has self-esteem issues.

Golf-Crazed Celebs

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As celebrities descend on Pebble Beach, a look at the most passionate golfers among them.

Dancing With The Stars

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ABC's hit series isn't the only place to find big names busting out their best moves. There's plenty of dancing on the golf course as well -- it's just not always pretty. . .

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David O'Keefe began his career as a newspaper artist, at the Tampa Tribune, working in promotions and later as a special projects illustrator in the newsroom. In 2007, he left to pursue his interest in...

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Simpson on Murray: 'He's big-time now'

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:58:00 GMT

NAPLES, Fla. - Scott Simpson is still waiting to hear from Bill Murray after his old friend and longtime partner at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am paired with D.A. Points to win the event for the first time last week.

"I sent him a text. He usually texts back. I guess I'm old news - he's big-time now," Simpson joked at the ACE Group Classic.

Simpson and Murray teamed at Pebble Beach 13 times between 1993 and 2007. Although Simpson always had a blast playing with the actor, his best individual finish was T-36. "He wants nothing more than for the pro to play well," Simpson said. "He really believes that if you relax, you're going to play your best."

The formula certainly worked for Points, who scored his first PGA Tour victory alongside Murray. "Bill called me before Pebble started when he got D.A. as his partner," Simpson said. "I told him that it was a good pairing because D.A.'s a great guy, and it turned out D.A. had always wanted to play with Bill. D.A. really embraced the experience. It was really cool to see."

Simpson expects to talk with Murray next week, and he may see him soon at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on the Champions Tour.

"Bill's played in the Outback and said he was going to play in it this year if he wasn't in jail," Simpson said. "I told him there are work-release programs."

-- Bill Fields

Masters Survey

GolfDigest.com/ESPN — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

From diving into the water hazards on the course, to removing all the golf balls in return for free badges, to naming which player they would most like to see win this year at Augusta, our readers give us their opinions in advance of this year's Masters.