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The Grind: World rankings for everything, Tiger's great timing, and Houston picks

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:57:00 GMT

"Remember when people thought I was washed up?" (Photo: Getty Images)

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we wish world rankings existed in every day life. You know, so we could get some credit for some of the stuff we're good at. Wielding a remote control from the couch during a busy weekend of sports? Nobody better. Finding free food around the office? Second only to our boss. Writing a weekly golf column that includes fantasy advice and the latest Paulina Gretzky news? We have to be in the top 10. In any matter, we're happy for Tiger Woods being back on top at what he does best. Now where's that delicious scent I smell coming from. . .

WE'RE BUYING

Tiger Woods. With his latest triumph at Bay Hill, Woods has now won a remarkable 77 times on the PGA Tour. To put that in perspective, that's 62(!) more wins than his friend Fred Couples has won during his HALL OF FAME career. Tiger now has as many wins at Bay Hill as big-name guys like Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Lee Janzen have on tour in their lifetimes. We could go on and on, but you get the point. It's Woods' world and we should all just be thankful we're allowed to wear red shirts on the course.

Arnold Palmer. Usually, we have to be creative to include a picture of a pretty lady, but not this week. Yep, thanks to the King's meeting with Kate Upton, showing a photo of the supermodel is completely justified. And when he's not hosting tournaments and kissing beautiful women who are a quarter his age, the 83-year-old is filming awesome commercials in which he is beating up bad guys. What a legend. Speaking of said awesome commercial, how about that timing?

Florida. The Florida Swing gave us two Tiger Woods wins and the state has also created the most buzz during March Madness. Florida and Miami were expected to make the Sweet 16, but Florida Gulf Coast University -- a school 99 percent of the country had never heard of until it upset Georgetown in its first-ever NCAA tournament game -- has unexpectedly joined the party. Speaking of unexpected, FGCU's coach has a supermodel wife. True story.

Beatriz Recari. Speaking of lovely ladies, Recari topped I.K. Kim at the LPGA Kia Classic in a playoff prompting an emotional celebration. We were celebrating, too, since it gave us a reason to link to GolfDigest.com's "Hottest Golfer" competition from 2011. And that's never a bad thing.

WE'RE SELLING

Phil Mickelson. A Friday 79 that included a four-putt from five feet was bad enough, but Lefty sounded whiney with his post-round comments concerning the PGA Tour's schedule leading up to the first major of the year. "I've got to make some adjustments, just because the tournaments before the majors are not helping us at all get ready," he said. While we respect that different players have different routines, keep in mind that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods never even play the week before a major. They've done pretty well.

Related: Golf's #FirstWorldProblems

Rib injuries. Remember Brandt Snedeker? The PGA Tour's early Player of the Year candidate before Tiger reverted to old Tiger? Well, he returned this week after sitting out for more than a month with sore ribs and it wasn't pretty. A pair of 76s left him watching the tournament from home over the weekend. Bottom line: Rib injuries are no joke.

Lee Westwood. The man who knocked Woods from his top spot in the world ranking in October 2010 continued his lackluster play with a final-round 75 at Bay Hill to finish T-63. So far, his best performance of 2013 came when he appeared on "Feherty."

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Texas for the Shell Houston Open, aka that tournament that a bunch of golfers play in because they think it's a good tuneup for the Masters.

Random tournament fact: Anthony Kim won this event just three years ago. Has anyone even seen him lately? Ummm, that's actually a serious question. Is there an official "missing golfer report" we need to fill out? Let us know you're OK, AK. . .

WEEKLY YAHOO! FANTASY LINEUP

Last week we told you to take Tiger Woods. You're welcome. OK, so that advice was about as obvious as instructing someone to look both ways before crossing the street, but we'll still give ourselves a pat on the back. Here's who we like this week:

Starters -- (A-List): Phil Mickelson. Lefty is coming off a rough week, but that should motivate him even more to put up a good performance before he heads to Augusta. That shouldn't be too much of a problem at an event he's won and finished T-4 in the past two years.

(B-List): Keegan Bradley. That other guy who wears red on Sundays is close to getting back in the winner's circle. His last three events? A T-4, solo 7th, and T-3.

(B-List): Louis Oosthuizen. The South African started his climb back up the world rankings here last year when he finished third and then runner-up at the Masters the following week.

(C-List): Jordan Spieth. The 19-year-old has played so well he's earned a special temporary membership on the PGA Tour. The native Texan would love to show off in front of a home crowd this week.

Bench -- Rory McIlroy, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and Lee Westwood.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (NOT INVOLVING ARNIE AND KATE UPTON)

So much for those rumors of Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki having relationship problems. The two were back in full "Wozilroy" mode this past week, (Is that Ian Poulter at the prime rib station in the background?) with Wozniacki putting on a curly-haired wig to look like her boyfriend. We also noticed in other pictures that the taller Wozniacki seems to be staying away from wearing high heels when the two are in public together. Aw, how cute.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

-- Anthony Kim will win a PGA Tour event this year: 1,000-to-1 odds

-- Coach K will spend most of Duke's next game complaining to the refs: LOCK

-- Phil Mickelson will also find something to complain about: LOCK

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (OTHER THAN ARNIE AND TIGER'S AWESOME NEW AD)

Did you see the video of Sergio Garcia climbing a tree to hit a shot? Treat yourself!

This is just the latest example of the modern golfer being more athletic. Of course, that was a lot of effort to go through just for him to withdraw a couple holes later.

THIS AND THAT

Days after Yani Tseng lost her No. 1 ranking, she was forced to withdraw at the Kia Classic as the defending champ after oversleeping and missing her pro-am tee time. And you thought you and your busted bracket had a bad week. . . . Rory McIlroy took a little heat for skipping Arnold Palmer's event again (he's never played in it). Of course, it's a little tougher to criticize the 23-year-old's schedule when he'll make a trip to Haiti for a humanitarian mission next week. . . . These new "triple chocolate" Chips Deluxe cookies (above) from Keebler are a GAME CHANGER.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Does anyone really care about the Tavistock Cup?

Did Tiger Woods wear the same awesome red shirt on Monday that he wore on Sunday?

Does he have an extra one he can spare?

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

What do Kate Upton and Arnold Palmer have in common? More than you think

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:04:00 GMT

By Ron Sirak

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Toward the end of our chat in the offices of Arnold Palmer Design, an aide to Palmer brought in an iPhone cover with the multicolored umbrella logo and handed it to Kate Upton, who erupted with the kind of enthusiastic "Yes!" you'd expect from someone just a year removed from being a teenager.

Clearly, the week Upton had spent at the Bay Hill Resort & Lodge during the Arnold Palmer Invitational led her to appreciate the brilliant job Palmer and his agent at International Management Group, Alastair Johnston, have done building the Palmer brand.

Just as clearly, even a brief chat with Upton reveals her as a sharp woman with a keen sense of humor and with designs to be more than just another pretty face.

"He is so down to earth, so nice," Upton said about Palmer on Friday at the Bay Hill. "He is able to sit in any situation and talk with anyone. I hope to be like that. I've always wanted to meet Arnold. He's a legend in more than golf."

The meeting came about in part because Upton's agent at IMG is Lisa Benson, a native of Punxsutawney, Pa., which is right in the Western Pennsylvania wheelhouse of Arnie's Army. Benson also played college golf for two-and-a-half years at Penn State.

"She wants to be more than just a model," Benson said about Upton. "The other day she said, 'I want a soap with an umbrella on it,'" referring to the distinctive Palmer logo. At the rate she is going, an Upton logo might not be too far in the future.

"There couldn't be two more different people," said Johnston, the vice chairman of IMG who has been handling Palmer's business affairs for decades. "A 20-year-old supermodel and an 83-year-old icon," He said, smiling as he shook his head. "But they hit it off."

And Palmer could not have been more impressed with Upton, who does take you back in the way she shatters any stereotype you might have about models with her insight and sharp wit.

"She's a very astute young lady," Palmer said. "She's with it. She's interested in the hospital. She has a great grasp of what she wants to do with her career. I enjoyed talking with her about many different things. She's very sharp."

Upton's visit to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies affected her as much as her time with Palmer affected her.

"It is an absolutely amazing place," Upton said. "It's odd to say a hospital is a beautiful place, but it truly is. And they are doing such great work there."

Part of what Upton discussed with Palmer was how to build a brand and how to extend it. No one has done that better than Palmer.

While Palmer is rightly credited for putting the British Open back on the map when he played there in 1960, perhaps the under appreciated aspect of that trip was that Mark McCormack, founder of IMG, realized playing there would extend Palmer's brand globally.

"The international language is sport," Johnston said. "Mark identified that at an early time. That's the legacy he has."

At one point, as Johnston described how impressed Palmer was with Upton during a dinner conversation, hanging on every word, Kate interrupted and said: "What, you weren't interested in what I was saying?"

Johnston shook his head and said, 'That's the way she's been all week." That's the way she was during our chat -- funny and one step ahead of the conversation.

Now that Upton has met the King are golf lessons next? "I grew up in a family that loved golf," the Melbourne, Fla., native said. "Maybe one of these days I'll play."

Related: People we wished played golf

In the meantime, she's gotten some marketing messages from Palmer, who's always been the King in the business world as much as he has been on the golf course. That's an area where Palmer is the true supermodel.

Follow @ronsirak

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.

People We Wish Played Golf

Derek Evers — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 04:00:00 GMT

What do Lady Gaga, LeBron James and Mitt Romney have in common? They don't play golf -- but they should!