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PGA Tour pros support inaugural charity event for Todd Anderson's son Tucker

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:22:00 GMT

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- On Monday of the Players Championship, nearly 20 PGA Tour and Web.com Tour players put on a great display of friendship for Todd Anderson, Sea Island's director of instruction, and more importantly, support for Anderson's son Tucker.

Last September, Tucker--a first-semester freshman at the University of West Florida on a golf scholarship--was seriously injured in a horrific automobile accident, leaving him in a coma for weeks. He suffered traumatic brain injuries and was in critical condition with head and neck injuries, but miraculously pulled through and is on his way to making a full recovery.

Davis Love III, Brandt Snedeker, Zach Johnson, Jonathan Byrd, Harris English, Johnson Wagner, J.J. Henry, Lucas Glover, Chris Kirk, Dicky Pride and a number of other tour players, most of whom make their home in Sea Island, played in the inaugural TA4Life Pro-Am Invitational, a two-person shamble format (each with an amateur partner) over the Seaside Course, also site of the McGladrey Classic (Nov. 4-10).

A number of tour pros participated in the inaugural TA4Life Foundation's inaugural event.

Snedeker (currently No. 2 in the FedEx Cup points standings), along with his teacher Anderson, opened the event with a putting clinic in front of more than 100 interested observers. The event raised thousands of dollars for a new charitable foundation set up by Todd and his wife, Stacey, named TA4Life. The foundation's mission will be dedicated to brain-injury research and to help those like Tucker who are recovering from issues related to brain trauma.

Tucker has improved dramatically since the accident, but it has not been easy. He still has significant issues with his speech, and he's undergoing constant therapy to correct problems with his right eye. His sense of humor, however, keeps everyone around him upbeat.

"I see double out of that eye, which causes me to see two golf balls at address," Tucker said in his improving, but still slurred delivery. "I have a new pair of sunglasses to correct that. It's a lot easier to hit the ball when you don't have to guess which one to swing at."

One of Tucker's goals was to actually hit shots during the event, and so he hit to the par-3 sixth hole with each group.

In addition to the tour players who participated, wounded veteran Tim Lang was invited to attend. Lang lost his right leg and suffered serious brain trauma while serving in Iraq six years ago, then turned to golf for his recovery. He's now a 6-handicapapper and a motivational speaker overcoming significant problems with his speech. He spent several hours with Tucker after the event, offering advice on how to handle the physical as well as mental hurdles that come with traumatic brain injury.

"It meant a lot to me that I could speak with Tim," said Tucker, who expressed his deep appreciation to the Sea Island family and all of the tour players who participated. "I'm overwhelmed by your generosity, love and support," he said.

For information on how to donate, log on to TA4Life.org.

Photo: Courtesy of Roger Schiffman

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McDowell and his handling of a no-kilt wind

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:34:00 GMT

By John Strege

The conditions were more conducive to sailing or kiting than golf, unless a golfer hails from Northern Ireland and cut his teeth on the seaside links of Royal Portrush, learning to work its trademark winds.

The RBC Heritage provided Graeme McDowell with a touch of home on Sunday -- winds gusting upwards of 40 miles per hour and consistently blowing in the 20s at Harbour Town Golf Links, hard by Calibogue Sound in Hilton Head, S.C.

Photo by Getty Images

McDowell accordingly equaled the low round of the day, his one of just three 69s, sending him to a playoff with Webb Simpson that he won with a par on the first extra hole for his first official victory in the States since he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010.

Better than any wind gauge was how CBS' David Feherty chose to describe the wind. "One of the traditions here at the Heritage are the gentlemen who wear the kilts," he said. "It's not a great day to wear a kilt. The spectators might need therapy for months."

Provided they weren't blinded by the sight, they saw the kind of golf atypical for the PGA Tour, a winning score that doesn't reach double digits under par. It helped reinforce the benefit of Harbour Town's place on the PGA Tour schedule, a challenging but popular course that attracts a decent field and usually delivers an entertaining show that assists in alleviating the Masters hangover.

It helps as well that RBC stepped in as the title sponsor last year to save a tournament on the brink of folding. RBC, which also is the title sponsor of the Canadian Open, has a strong international field of players on its endorsement team, assuring representative fields in its tournaments.

McDowell is among them, as are Ernie Els, Brandt Snedeker, Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk, all of whom played. On Tuesday during an RBC function, McDowell learned from Furyk the key to playing the Heritage: "Just hang around and hang around," he said. "You're never out of this tournament."

McDowell, who had played the Heritage only once before, was especially effective at hanging around on Sunday, notwithstanding the havoc created by the wind. He played without a bogey until missing the green on the final hole and failing to save par, providing an opening for Simpson.

Two former U.S. Open champions in contention made for a good show that was ratcheted up a notch by the windy conditions. "It's a hard game," CBS' Gary McCord said. "This wind just kind of makes it really hard. But these guys are paid well. They get everything for free. They're having a ball playing golf. Let's watch 'em struggle."

Most of them did; McDowell was the only player among the top five to have fewer than three bogeys on his card (and hence, we submit, the pronunciation of the body of water by which the Heritage is played -- cal-a-bogey).

It was a testament to McDowell's ability to play in the wind, even the kind that strongly encourages leaving the kilts at home.

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Media: 'He's the wizard of Oz'

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:24:00 GMT

By John Strege

The thought surely occurred to anyone recalling Adam Scott's inability to close out the British Open the summer before and CBS' David Feherty eloquently put it to words.

"The game of golf owes him one," Feherty said with Scott putting out on the 15th green in the final round of the Masters on Sunday, "but as we know the game of golf is a deadbeat debtor. It does not care."

Maybe it does after all. Scott erased the demons he took away from Royal Lytham & St. Annes last year and became the first Australian to win the Masters with birdie putts at the 18th hole in regulation and at 10 on the second playoff hole to beat Angel Cabrera.

When Scott holed the birdie putt at 18 in regulation that looked, for the moment, like it might deliver a victory, he shouted for joy.

"Did I just lip-read him, 'come on Aussies?'" Faldo asked. A slow-motion replay confirmed it.

"There's a great song at home called 'Come On Aussie, Come on,'" Australian native Ian Baker-Finch said. "That's what we've all been saying."

Here's the first verse, a fitting ode to Scott and Australian golf:

"It's been a long time comin'
"To silence all that drummin'
"To show them that it wasn't just a dream."

Aussome

It was a day for Aussies, from start to finish.

Early, Jason Day holed a bunker shot for eagle on the second hole. "A few of the tea cups fell off the breakfast tables down in Australia on that one," Faldo said. "That will get everyone rocking."

When Scott holed the winning putt in the rain, Faldo summed it up neatly. "It's now official," he said. "He's the wizard of Oz."

An emotional Baker-Finch, who has known Scott since he was a kid, added this: "From down under to the top of the world."

They weren't there for tennis

When CBS cut to Masters starter Toby Wilt to announce the final pairing of Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera, Wilt was overhead asking the players, "All right, guys, ready to play a little golf?"

Wilt, incidentally, is a member at Augusta National, and a friend of Snedeker's. They partnered to win the pro-am at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Put down that phone

When Angel Cabrera was brushing leaves with his practice swings beneath a tree right of the 10th fairway, Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo seemed to be calling off the rules experts watching at home and waiting to catch players in infractions.

"He'd better be careful back there with those practice swings," Nantz said.

"He can't knock a leaf off," Faldo said. "Now with HD, we can see a leaf falling."

The HD reference is to high definition television, responsible for the new rule designed to protect the player from inadvertent rules infractions spotted on television, the same rule that kept Tiger Woods around for the weekend.

"You're really flirting with a penalty," Nantz said. "One of those leafs fall it would be a penalty."

None fell.

He used to play like that with pressure

Peter Kostis after Tiger's second shot from the pine needles to the green at 13, leading to his third birdie in five holes: "Once Tiger kind of was out of it, there's been a freedom about his attitude and golf swing that has really taken over."

On Twitter

Dennis Miller, comedian and radio talk show host: "re CBS opening montage. Has the Masters become too meaningful to actually play it? Is Nantz performing Extreme Unction or announcing golf?"

(Getty Images photo)

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Brandt Snedeker says he's 'ready' this time

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:18:00 GMT

By Jaime Diaz

From the April 14 edition of Golf World Daily:

It wasn't long ago that Brandt Snedeker was the thinking man's Masters favorite.

The 32-year-old Tennessean had posted an early 2013 victory and two runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, seen his reputation as the best putter in the game solidified, and had a Masters T-3 in 2008 on his resume. But a rib injury suffered in his impressive win at Pebble Beach in early February forced him to withdraw from the WGC - Accenture Match Play and Doral, and, after healing, he missed the cut at both Bay Hill and Houston.

Suddenly a Masters dark horse, Snedeker intensely prepared for a week at Augusta-simulated Frederica GC on St. Simons Island, Ga., and opened with two steady 70s.

Yesterday he started with 12 pars before igniting for three birdies for a bogey-free 69. Tied for the lead with Angel Cabrera at seven under, Snedeker is displaying the passion that led him to break down in tears after his Sunday 77 five years ago.

"I've spent 32 years of my life getting ready for tomorrow," he said. "It's all been a learning process, and I am completely, 100 percent sure that I'm ready to handle whatever happens. I'm going to be disappointed if I don't win, period."

On second thought, make him the emotional man's favorite.

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A miscue by one player will impact plenty of others

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:49:00 GMT

By Ron Sirak

AUGUSTA, GA. -- So do you think the green jacket will come with an asterisk if Tiger Woods wins this Masters?

Maybe, maybe not. But what about the poor guy not named Woods who cozies up next to Jim Nantz in front of the fireplace in Butler Cabin Sunday evening? Will he be remembered as the 21st century Bob Goalby?

If Tiger falls one stroke short of winning his first Masters in eight years and first major in five, how huge will that two-stroke penalty issued Saturday morning for a bad drop on Friday's second round loom?

Brandt Snedeker is one of the many players with a major chance on Sunday.

Just like that the controversy will change from, "Woods should have been disqualified" to "Wow, if not for that penalty called in off TV, Tiger wins his fifth Masters."

The Roberto de Vicenzo lament, "What a stupid I am," after he signed an incorrect scorecard in the 1968 Masters, handing the title to Goalby and avoiding an 18-hole Monday playoff, would become, "What a lucky I am," for whoever wins this year.

And the contenders going into Sunday have a lot on the line. For Jason Day, Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker, Marc Leishman, Matt Kuchar and Tim Clark, it would be major championship No. 1. That means more than the $1.44 million first prize. It means millions more in endorsement dollars.

For Angel Cabrera, it would be his second Masters and third major, which trails only the four by Phil Mickleson as the most in the Tiger Woods Era by a guy not named Woods. That raises Angel's status in the game to a whole new level.

And 53-year-old Fred Couples would become the oldest player to win a major by five years, breaking the record set by 48-year-old Julius Boros in the 1968 PGA Championship. Making history is, well as Freddy might say, historical.

But anyone who wins here Sunday, if it is not Tiger, will be remembered forever and always as the guy who won the Masters in the year Woods was penalized. Just ask Goalby what that is like. His gift Masters was his only major title -- and a lot of people never let him forget that.

"I shot 66 in the final round, but you never heard about that," Goalby told the Augusta Chronicle last year. "I made a 4-footer on 18 for par that I thought was to tie. I was walking to the clubhouse when Cary Middlecoff, who was doing television back then, came out of the tower and spotted me. He said, 'Hey Bob, you won the tournament. Roberto (de Vicenzo) screwed up his card.'" The normal celebratory scene after a victory of such magnitude was instead a muted lament in which in which no one really knew how to behave. It was like being at a funeral for a friend and not knowing what to say to the grieving relatives you don't know all that well.

"I walked into the TV room, and Roberto was in there talking, so I had to kneel on the ground," Goalby remembered. "It was just confusing after it ended, but I won, and I was thankful that I did. All I read about afterward was that I became champion on a score keeping error. I've got no ill feelings toward anybody. But I did get 500 of the worst letters you've ever seen after that win."

Quite likely, the winner of the Non-Woods division of this Masters will be skewered in 50,000 angry, bitter tweets, many of which are misspelled and miss the target of accuracy, if such a lofty goal was ever intended.

And it may well be that the only way that winner can validate this championship is to win another major title, something Goalby was not able to accomplish. So do we get Tiger Woods, when all is said and done Sunday at Augusta National, or do we get another Bob Goalby? Seems like no matter what the outcome, this Masters will long be remembered for what happened long before the back nine on Sunday.

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Equipment Sneducation

Derek Evers — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:03:00 GMT

By Mike Stachura. Brandt Snedeker has been doing a lot right lately. Here are three things average golfers can learn from the game's hottest player: Snedeker style: He's not looking for "the usual." Photo...

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Inside Golf World Podcast: Lessons Learned As The Masters Looms

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:51:00 GMT

By Ryan Herrington

As the PGA Tour closes out the West Coast portion of its season at Dove Mountain outside Tucson with the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, it gives us at Golf World a natural chance to break down what's happened thus far in 2013. In this week's edition of the Inside Golf World podcast, senior writer Tim Rosaforte and executive editor Ron Sirak debate the various storylines that have stood out to date--most notably victories by top talents Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and the continued emergence of Brandt Snedeker after claiming last year's FedEx Cup title--and discuss what they potentially mean as the tour heads east with four stops in Florida during the next month. As the run-up to the Masters begins in earnest, Rosaforte and Sirak also offer their early faves to succeed at Augusta.

Listen to the podcast

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