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The Grind: Celebrity golfers, Tiger's Torrey return, Phil's taxes & more

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:07:00 GMT

Editor's note: GolfDigest.com's new weekly column sifts through everything happening in golf (and beyond), and looks ahead with upcoming tournament facts and predictions.

Now that's product placement! (Getty Images)

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we're willing to forget about last week if you are. The 2013 debuts of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson? Busts. Our fantasy picks? Busts. Even Michael Bolton couldn't come through on Saturday to capture the Humana Challenge Pro-Am. Yes, it was a disappointing week. But on the bright side, there's plenty more to come this week. Let's get to it.

WE'RE BUYING

Humana Challenge. The second year of being partnered with Bill Clinton's foundation helped bring in more talent (nine players from last year's Tour Championship) and the event continued to push its important health message. It's too bad Gary Player, who has an endorsement deal with the healthcare company, can't be at every golf course in America chastising people for riding carts.

Brian Gay. A final-round 63 and a playoff victory to end a three-and-a-half year winless drought? It doesn't get much sweeter than that. He also proved that someone other than Rickie Fowler is brave enough to wear bright orange on Sunday.

Closing par 5s. It didn't matter who was on the leader board, having the Humana Challenge come down to PGA West's par-5 18th guaranteed excitement. Charles Howell III had a chance to win in regulation, but three-putted for par, which is basically like making a bogey. Then Scott Stallings had a chance to win and he made a bogey, which is basically like making a double bogey. Speaking of Stallings, he didn't make a bogey all week until the 14th hole on Sunday. He then bogeyed three of his final five holes. Did Gary Player make him do a few laps around the course as punishment?

WE'RE SELLING

Nike Golf. The Swoosh has seen better weeks. Both Tiger Woods and new pitch man Rory McIlroy hit some awful shots on their way to missed cuts in Abu Dhabi, and McIlroy even switched back to his Scotty Cameron putter from his new Nike Method. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. . .

Celebrity golfer handicaps. One of the best parts of seeing a pro-am is seeing the handicaps of celebrities. The one that jumped out at me this time was that of Alfonso Ribeiro, aka Carlton Banks from "The Fresh Prince." Apparently, he is a scratch golfer. Really?! This guy (left)?! Take a look again. This guy?! Sigh. Well, I guess there's hope for all of us hackers.

Phil's tax problems. Mickelson made some odd comments after his round Sunday, complaining about his new, higher taxes and hinting he might move or even seek retirement as a result. He later apologized, but his whining didn't sit well with most people. You know, those people WHO DON'T MAKE $45 MILLION A YEAR!

ON TAP

The PGA Tour stays in California for the Farmers Insurance Open, aka that event that Tiger Woods usually starts his U.S. season with. This year, Woods will tee it up, as will Mickelson, unless California issues a new tax on golfers playing at public courses in the next couple of days.

Random tournament fact: Last year, Brandt Snedeker shot a final-round 67 on a difficult Torrey Pines South Course to get into a playoff, which he would eventually win. Why is that random? Because all anyone remembers is Kyle Stanley's disastrous triple bogey on the final hole of regulation.

WEEKLY YAHOO! FANTASY LINEUP

Starters -- (A-List): Tiger Woods. He's won this event six times. Plus, we seem to remember him winning another pretty big tournament at Torrey Pines. . .

(B-List): Hunter Mahan. The two-time winner in 2012 has back-to-back T-6s in this event.

(B-List): Nick Watney. The Californian has top 10s here four of the past six years, including a win in 2009. He's my one-and-done pick as well.

(C-List): Rickie Fowler. Can the 24-year-old make it back-to-back weeks of golfers winning in orange? Our Mr. Style might not be able to handle it.

Bench -- Brandt Snedeker, Ben Crane, Bud Cauley, and Robert Garrigus.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

-- Phil Mickelson will whip out a calculator to crunch numbers regarding his finances during lengthy waits on tee boxes: 10-to-1 odds

-- The Tiger Woods birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open will be shown fewer than 117 times during TV coverage: 10-to-1 odds

-- Kyle Stanley and Rocco Mediate will meet to discuss their ongoing nightmares about Torrey Pines South's finishing hole: Even money

CELEBRITY/ATHLETE WE'D LIKE TO PLAY GOLF WITH

Manti Te'o. One of the strangest sports stories ever is still playing itself out, but we're sure we could get to the bottom of it after four hours of bonding with the Notre Dame linebacker on a golf course. Come on, Te'o, let's tee it up! And yes, I promise to actually show up at the course if we arrange to meet.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

With the PGA Tour being in San Diego this week, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that the city is the setting for "Anchorman," our favorite comedy, sorry, the GREATEST comedy of ALL TIME. As Will Ferrell's classic character, Ron Burgundy, would say, "It's science." In honor of that fact -- and with an eager eye toward the release of a much-anticipated sequel in the fall -- here are a couple legendary clips:

To be fair, the only way to properly honor this masterpiece would be to embed the entire movie. But we don't have the rights -- or the bandwidth.

THIS AND THAT

Jamie Donaldson won in Abu Dhabi for his second career European Tour victory. However, both have come in the past six months for the 37-year-old journeyman. . . . USGA executive director Mike Davis will address the anchoring ban at the PGA Tour players' meeting in San Diego this week. Ron Burgundy might need to make an appearance to tell those in attendance to "stay classy". . . . Making a last-minute run to a casino is almost never a good idea. At least Mohegan Sun serves chocolate milkshakes at the tables. . .

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Can someone please write a golf movie that Daniel Day Lewis can star in?

Do we really have to wait until October for "Anchorman 2"?

-- 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.

Humana not up to the challenge vs. the NFL

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:42:00 GMT

By John Strege

The golf on Sunday, in the event you missed it, and we're reasonably certain you did, was at least entertaining, notwithstanding its B-list cast.

The A-listers on which golf was depending to avoid indifference were Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, Nos. 1 and 2 in the World Ranking. They were around on the weekend, but only via an amusing Nike commercial. Each missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, exposing the downside to a sponsor committing seven-figure appearance fees.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, or the Hope, as it was known in simpler days, had the misfortune of opposing a thrilling end to the 49ers-Falcons game and the start of the Ravens-Patriots game.

Colin Kaepernick and Tom Brady or Brian Gay and Charles Howell III (or Scott Stallings and David Lingmerth)? Football was a prohibitive favorite and you won your bet if you gave the points.

The Humana Challenge winner was Gay, who contributed to the entertainment factor with one of 10 rounds of 64 or better Sunday on the Palmer Private Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. The kind of warm, sunny January day that explains the winter popularity of the Palm Springs area was the impetus for the kind of low scoring that typically amps up the drama.

Gay won on the second playoff hole, prevailing over Howell and Lingmerth, but it was less the story of the day than the collapse of Scott Stallings.

The Humana Challenge, admirably, is dedicated to the promotion of healthy living and was an advocate of taking 10,000 steps a day, or the equivalent of what a tour pro takes in the course of a day's work. Of course, doing so is no guarantee of good health. Stallings exceeded 12,000 steps, according to a Golf Channel graphic, yet he presumably felt sick afterward.

Stallings, twice a winner on the PGA Tour, began play on Sunday with a four-stroke lead, and increased it to five for a time, before his own indifferent performance opened the competition to all comers. Of the top nine finishers, Stallings was the only player to shoot higher than 65, a number he exceeded by five strokes. More to the point, he bogeyed two of his final three holes, including the last, when he yanked a 6-iron second shot to the par-5 18th, the ball bounding into the pond left of the green.

Dare we say that this native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., also known as Atomic City for its role in the development of the nuclear weapon that ended World War II, bombed on the back nine?

Stallings, 29, played the first 60 holes without a bogey and was bidding to become the first winner to play a tournament without a bogey since Lee Trevino in 1974. That ended when he carelessly missed a two-foot par putt on the seventh hole, the beginning of his demise.

Gay won for the fourth time with birdies on the two playoff holes, defeating Lingmerth, a Swede playing only his second PGA Tour event, and Howell, who finished second for the 14th time to remain stuck on two victories for nearly six years and counting.

Played opposite NFL football with Super Bowl berths at stake gives us a clearer understanding of the Challenge in the Humana.

Follow @JohnStrege

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