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The Grind: Jason Collins' announcement, Rory's b-day gifts & pies in the face

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are really impressed by Jason Collins. It takes a lot of guts to do what he did. A finely-tuned professional athlete coming out and admitting he's a bad golfer? Well done. Ohhh, that wasn't the big announcement? He also did what?! Wow. Good for him and hopefully others will follow. And great job by him to pay tribute to a cause close to his heart by wearing the No. 98. We just hope he doesn't think that's the type of score he should settle for on the golf course. After all, the NBA's off-season coincides perfectly with the golf season in most of this country. Jason, get to work!

WE'RE BUYING

Billy Horschel. We saw this one coming when we plugged him into our lineup last week. Then again, didn't everyone? It seemed like Horschel was going to keep playing every week until he finally got his first PGA Tour win. A Sunday 64, including a dramatic 27-footer for birdie on the final hole, got it done. While the former college star probably felt this was a long time coming, he pleasantly reminded us that you don't have to take a long time to hit a shot to be a good golfer.

We'd hoot and holler like we just won a million bucks, too, if we just won a million bucks.

Tianlang Guan. For a second time this month, this 14-year-old phenom teed it up at a PGA Tour event and for a second time, he made the cut. To put this accomplishment in perspective, keep in mind Tiger Woods didn't make a PGA Tour cut until he was 19 and in his eighth try at the 1995 Masters.

Related: Golfers who play fast

Inbee Park. Or should we just start calling the No. 1 player in women's golf "Winbee"?

WE'RE SELLING

PGA Tour drug testing. Greg Norman ripped the PGA Tour's drug testing policy, pointing out that the Vijay Singh situation could just be the tip of the iceberg. While we agree the PGA Tour has been lax on this issue (there's no reason golf should lag behind other professional sports), we just wish it didn't come from Norman. Adam Scott's recent Masters win for Australia seems to have put Norman back in the spotlight -- and the Shark seems to be eating it up.

PGA Tour weather. From fog to snow, we've seen every possible type of delay in the book this year. But a lightning delay with the two contenders -- one of whom has been agonizingly close to getting his first tour win of late -- in the middle of the FINAL hole of regulation? C'mon, Mother Nature. That's just cruel.

Michael Jordan. We love MJ's passion for the game, but a wedding reception on a golf course? On a Saturday? How are the members of the Bear's Club supposed to keep their games sharp? Oh right, they all probably just played at one of their other clubs over the weekend. However, we are NOT selling Yvette Prieto, Jordan's new wife. In addition to being beautiful, she even puts up with sitting through Charlotte Bobcats games with the team owner (above).

ON TAP

Speaking of Charlotte, the PGA Tour heads there for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. Unfortunately, a couple of the course's greens had to undergo emergency replacement recently. This means the pros might actually have to play a couple less-than-perfect greens for the first time in years. What an OUTRAGE!

Random tournament fact: This is the only event in which Tiger Woods has missed the cut twice as a pro. In semi-related news, Tiger Woods isn't playing this week.

WEEKLY YAHOO! FANTASY LINEUP

Why were we such big fans of Horschel's win in New Orleans? A. We had him in our lineup last week; B. We pegged him as one of our Sleeper Picks heading into this season and highlighted him as the guy on the list with the most potential. Man, do we look smart now. . .

Starters -- (A-List): Bill Haas. The 2011 FedEx Cup champ played his college golf up the road at Wake Forest University and has a pair of T-4s on this course.

(B-List): Webb Simpson. Another Demon Deacon with a good track record here, Simpson lives in Charlotte. He'll get to feel what it's like to commute to work for a week and should have plenty of crowd support.

(B-List): Lucas Glover. The 54-hole leader in New Orleans is familiar with being in contention at Quail Hollow as well. He won here in 2011 and was a runner-up in 2009.

(C-List): Lee Westwood. The former World No. 1 finally got the hang of this track last year with a T-5 (68-66 over the weekend) and seems to be hitting his stride with back-to-back top 10s. We also liked his hungover report on Twitter following his 40th birthday celebration.

Bench -- Rory McIlroy (2010 champ), Zach Johnson, John Senden, Rickie Fowler (2012 champ).

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Geoff Shackelford's headline says it all: "Oosthuizen's 500-yard, 120-second cart path drive." As if these guys needed any help with distance.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

-- Phil Mickelson will conduct a 10-minute interview/lecture on Quail Hollow's two make-shift greens and the different types of Bermuda grass: 2-to-1 odds

-- Tianlang Guan has a lot of homework to catch up on: LOCK

-- Michael Jordan will find a way to play golf while on his honeymoon: LOCK

THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Paulina tweeted this photo to DJ and he retweeted it. Teamwork!

THIS WEEK IN RORY MCILROY-CAROLINE WOZNIACKI PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Via Twitter: "Got these awesome early birthday presents last night from @CaroWozniacki! #lucky" Apparently, Rory loves him some Louis Vuitton.

THIS WEEK IN TIGER WOODS-LINDSEY VONN DISPLAYS OF PUBLIC AFFECTION

(. . . )

THIS AND THAT

A 12-year-old will play in this week's China Open,, breaking the European Tour record. Two questions: Why isn't Guan playing in this and is this kid his younger brother? . . . Muirfield was lengthened for this year's Open championship. Why? Because every course HAS to be lengthened before it hosts a major again. . . . Brad Faxon gave Jeff Sluman a vicious pie in the face after the two teamed up to win last week's Legends of Golf event on the Champions Tour (Unfortunately, there's no picture. Hence, the photo of Evan Longoria giving the treatment to a Rays teammate). It's one thing for younger guys to do this, but the over-50 crowd? We're just glad no one involved was hurt. . . .

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

When will a professional male golfer come out as gay?

Is this Dumb and Dumber sequel really going to happen?

What did Tiger get Michael and Yvette as a wedding gift?

-- 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.

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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Winner's Bag: What Adam Scott used to capture Australia's first Masters

Derek Evers — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:58:00 GMT

By E. Michael Johnson By winning at Augusta National, Adam Scott became the first golfer from Australia to win the Masters, but he also became the first player to win a major using the...

Is Finchem opposed to anchoring ban? Stay tuned

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:08:00 GMT

By John Strege

Keegan Bradley lines up a putt during the second round of the Northern Trust Open. Photo: Chris Condon/Getty Images

Here we are again, at the intersection of golf and politics, though not to bear witness to the heavyweight pairing of President Obama and Tiger Woods. Nothing so trivial as that.

On Monday, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem will convene a conference call with members of the PGA Tour policy board to discuss the USGA's proposal to ban the anchoring of a putter against the body. And if former board member Brad Faxon is correct, the potential ramifications won't be insignificant.

Faxon predicts that Finchem will attempt "to persuade the board that the tour should urge the USGA to withdraw the proposed ban," he wrote in a column for Golf.com.

This would put the tour in direct conflict with golf's governing bodies, the USGA and the Royal and Ancient, who have proposed the ban because they believe it necessary. "This decision gets back to the USGA and R&A feeling that fundamentally golf for 600 years has been about picking up the club, gripping it with two hands and making a free swing away from the body," USGA Executive Director Mike Davis told Golf Digest's Mike Stachura in November.

It also would pit two important and powerful entities, the PGA Tour and the PGA of America, against the two governing bodies. Previously, PGA of America president Ted Bishop said that the organization opposes the ban.

Faxon also predicts that the USGA won't back off its position and that ultimately the tour will acquiesce. But if it doesn't? Section I in the Rules of Golf, dealing with etiquette ("the game relies on the integrity of the individual to show consideration for other players and to abide by the Rules"), will be tested.

The tour conceivably could override the USGA, allowing anchoring as a condition of play on the PGA Tour. But it would have no jurisdiction over the U.S. Open, the British Open or the Masters, none of them PGA Tour events. "If that happens there will be chaos," Faxon wrote, this an understatement.

The PGA Tour is not immune from controversy, but neither is it the partner with whom other professional sports are forced to dance with alarming frequency. A solitary player confessing to his use of deer antler spray is a big deal in golf. Elsewhere, it's business as usual.

But the possibility, however remote, that the most powerful and visible group in golf might unilaterally choose to play by different rules would qualify as bona fide in the controversy industry.

The USGA and R&A have reserved the right to stand down and allow the status quo to prevail. Ostensibly, that's the purpose of their open comment period, to entertain all opinions before rendering a final decision.

Obama beating Woods from the back tees at the Floridian on Sunday seemed more likely than the USGA backing down. As Davis told Golf World editor-in-chief Jaime Diaz recently, "If we don't do what we think is the right thing for fear of a lawsuit, then shame on us. We shouldn't be in the governance business then."

All we know for certain at this point is that that Monday conference call will be a spirited one. Meanwhile, Bernhard Langer won the Champions Tour's ACE Group Classic on Sunday using a long putter anchored to his chest, and Webb Simpson was in contention at the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open using a belly putter.

The beat goes on.

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Video: What's Your Golf IQ?

GolfDigest.com — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Golf Digest set out to test average golfers on their knowledge of the game.

New Pro V1/Pro V1x launched with consistency, performance

Mike Stachura — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:41:00 GMT

By Mike Stachura and By Stephen Hennessey Thursday at the start of the 60th PGA Merchandise Show, Titleist launched its latest version of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x, the game's most popular ball franchise, and while...

Simpson's three-under start gone with the wind

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:14:00 GMT

(Getty Images Photo)

By John Strege

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Good news for Scott Stallings was bad news for Webb Simpson on Friday, when the PGA Tour season got off to a false start.

Stallings was seven-over par through four holes of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, while Simpson was three-under par through seven holes and leading. None of it counts, as first-round play was canceled as a result of wind gusts that exceeded 40 miles per hour. The tournament will re-start Saturday morning at 7:30, with 36 holes scheduled and players going off on the first and 10th tees, in pairs.

"We'll try to play 36 holes and catch up [on Saturday], but the forecast isn't real good," Slugger White, vice president rules and competition for the PGA Tour, said. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

It blew so hard, Rickie Fowler said, that "I hit a good drive on three and it went 215."

"It stinks for me," Simpson said. "I got off to a great start, but that's the way it goes. I'm sure they made the decision that's best for all the guys."

Carl Pettersson hit a putt on the second green that seemed to have run its course about a foot from the pin, when a wind gust blew it off the green.

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Golf World's 2012 Newsmakers of The Year

GolfDigest.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Taking stock of 2012 by counting down the year's 25 biggest headliners.

The Long And Short Of It

Ron Sirak — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

The golf world reacts to the USGA/R&A's ban on anchored putting.

Ron Sirak: Let The Long Wait Begin

Ron Sirak — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

The timing of the proposed anchoring ban is just one curious part of this decision.