World Golf Hall of Fame Ballots for Class of 2012

ACTIVE TOUR PLAYERS PHIL MICKELSON, Jim Furyk, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Mark O’Meara and Fuzzy Zoeller have been placed on the PGA Tour Ballot for consideration as the Class of 2012 of the World Golf Hall of Fame. A complete listing of players on the PGA Tour and International ballots is below.

Hall of Fame members, golf journalists, golf historians and dignitaries will cast their votes between now and October. Inductees will be announced before the end of the year. The World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held in May on the Monday before the Players Championship.

PGA Tour Ballot
Miller Barber
Fred Couples
Jim Furyk
Don January
Tony Lema
Davis Love III
Harold (Jug) McSpaden
Phil Mickelson
Mark O’Meara
Loren Roberts
Macdonald Smith
Dave Stockton
Ken Venturi
Fuzzy Zoeller

International Ballot
Peter Alliss
Darren Clarke
Max Faulkner
Retief Goosen
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Sandy Lyle
Graham Marsh
Colin Montgomerie
Norman Von Nida
Ian Woosnam

Mickelson is in. That’s certain. Who else should be voted in? Who shouldn’t?

Let’s face it, we’re in an era during which there are few multiple majors winners. Mickelson aside, O’Meara has two, as does Lyle. Whether now or later, those two should enter the Hall. Goosen, too, for that matter, with his two U.S. Opens, 14 European Tour wins and seven PGA Tour titles. (Note: Two of Goosen’s victories are counted on both tours.) And there’s Zoeller with two majors but only 10 PGA Tour victories. Tough call.

There are a bunch of one-major guys with 15 or so tour wins. What do you do with them?

Then you have Monty: 31 European Tour wins and an outstanding Ryder Cup record. But the Scot has zero majors and no PGA Tour wins. (Woosnam has 29 European Tour wins and a Masters.)

My hunch is that the bar for Hall entry will continue to be lowered.

−The Armchair Golfer

Lee Westwood Misses Cut at Qatar Masters

Contributed by Alan Ewens
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

MARKUS BRIER IS THE SURPRISE leader by one stroke at the halfway stage of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy. The 42 year-old Austrian shot a second round 66 to reach seven under par for the tournament on a day that saw several more illustrious names fail to make the cut in the $2.5 million event, the third stop on the European Tour’s Desert Swing.

(Photo: Brier celebrates a birdie.)

It was a superb round by Brier whose sixth and final birdie on the ninth—his 18th— ensured a one-shot lead over 2003 champion Darren Fichardt who carded a 68. A two-time European Tour winner, Brier had to go back to Qualifying School last November to retain his European Tour card and is playing on a sponsor’s invite.

“I got lucky on the last hole as I hit it way right off the tee, maybe 30-40 yards right,” Brier said. “I was lucky to make a birdie from a wayward drive, so that’s like a two-shot win there.”

But while it was a brilliant performance by World Number 478 Brier, for Lee Westwood, who ranks 477 places higher, there was only disappointment. Putting for eagle on the last, the Englishman missed by an inch to leave himself on four over par and out of the tournament.

“It’s early season rust. I think that’s it,” said the World Number One who finished third in last year’s event. “I’m going to go on the range the next couple of days and try to get into some kind of rhythm.”

Although Westwood is the biggest casualty, he is not the only big name to miss the cut. Former Qatar winner Henrik Stenson (+6) and Englishmen Paul Casey (+5) and Ross Fisher (+4) also missed out.

World Number Two Martin Kaymer, who can replace Westwood as Number One with a top two finish, got himself back on track with a second round 70 to put himself on three over for the tournament, right on the cut.

“I definitely played a little better today with no bogeys,” Kaymer said. “The golf tournament here is tight and no one is really running away with it and I’m only seven shots away right now.”

Experience seems to be the key over the 7,388-yard Doha course, with four former winners in the top eight. Defending champion Robert Karlsson of Sweden remains two shots off the lead on five under par alongside Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn and Englishman Richard Finch, while 1999 champion Paul Lawrie and 2007 winner Retief Goosen are on four under with South African Thomas Aiken.

(Photo credit: Alan Ewens on behalf of Qatar Masters)

Miguel Angel Jimenez: Putting Without a Putter

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ MISSED a three-footer last week at The Royal Golf Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The cigar-chomping veteran momentarily lost his pony-tailed head. He tossed the guilty putter at his golf bag. It broke.

Putter-less, Jimenez faced five more holes with 13 clubs in his bag. Which club did he put into service on those last five greens? The lob wedge. How did he finish? He birdied three out of the last four holes to shoot 65, giving him a share of the second-round lead at the Volvo Golf Champions. He went on to finish second.

That, my friends, is another reason why Jimenez and his tour comrades have their names on their golf bags and I don’t. If Miguel can birdie three of four holes putting with a wedge, I wonder why he even bothers with a putter.

The last time I broke a putter mid-round was a couple of years ago. It was an accident. My 20-year-old Slotline simply gave out, a case of metal fatigue. I was on the 1st hole. I putted with a long iron, but soon decided it was a poor choice. I ended up using my 3 metal. That worked OK. But I made no birdies like “The Mechanic.” And I couldn’t shoot 65 in my dreams.

I didn’t see Jimenez in action without his putter, so I wondered how he did it until I read his quote: “This is not the first time I putt with a lob wedge.”

Jimenez and a stellar European Tour field tee off this week at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters. Eight of the world’s top 20 players will be in action, including defending champion Robert Karlsson, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen.

Someone may have to putt without a putter—and could still go low.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Perez, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Golf Fix: 100th South African Open

IF YOU’RE A GOLF nut who can’t get enough golf on the tube, my tip is the 100th playing of the South African Open, this week’s event on the European Tour and Sunshine Tour. (The PGA and LPGA tours, of course, are idle. The Asian Tour is playing its season finale, the Black Mountain Masters, which is televised throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.)

Played at Durban Country Club, the South African Open field includes South African golf stars Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman and Louis Oosthizen, the current British Open champion. Thursday’s first round was delayed by heavy rain and will resume on Friday.

Dating back to 1903, the South African Open is one of the world’s oldest golf championships. (The oldest, of course, is the British Open, or The Open Championship, as non-Yanks call it.) Gary Player has won his homeland’s tournament 13 times. Player’s first victory came in 1956, the last in 1981. Fellow South African Bobby Locke won nine times from 1935 to 1955. Els has four South African Open titles. Goosen, Immelman and Clark have two wins apiece.

Els assessed his year and chance this week in his online diary.

“I came out of the blocks pretty fast and won twice in March during the Florida swing,” Ernie wrote, “but after the US Open my game went off the boil and it’s been a struggle to get things back on track. But, as I’ve said in my last few updates, during the last month or so there have been signs that the hard work I’ve put in has started to pay off. If I can roll the ball well on the greens this week, then I can finish the year on a high note and hopefully win my fifth national championship.”

2010 South African Open TV Schedule

All U.S. TV coverage is on Golf Channel.

Friday, 12/17
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

Saturday, 12/18
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

Sunday, 12/19
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Harry Lime/Flickr)

It Rains Money in Atlanta for Jim Furyk

2010 Tour Championship Recap
Winner: Jim Furyk
Score: 8 under, 272 (67, 65, 70, 70)
Quote: “It’s my second biggest win.”
Fact: Won $11 million with used $39 putter.
Thought: Winning Ryder Cup would cap off best year of Furyk’s career.

I DON’T TALK TO the TV a lot. Certainly not as much as I used to. And usually not with my family around (not that they care). But I was talking to the TV late this afternoon as I tuned in to the final holes of the Tour Championship. I was talking Jim Furyk through those last few holes because I didn’t want to see him blow the tournament and FedEx Cup.

I don’t understand how the the FedEx Cup points work. I let the talking heads and graphics help me keep score. What I did understand was that if Furyk won the tournament, he’d also win the FedEx Cup (and $10 million). The same was true for Luke Donald and Retief Goosen as they played the closing holes.

I decided Furyk is my guy. Nothing against the others, but I’ve always liked Furyk’s grind-it-out style.

So then he bogeys 16. Me: “Um, Jim. C’mon, buddy.” Good drive at 17 and then a weak approach shot. (I thought he hit his second shot fat long before Johnny Miller asked him what happened in the post-round interview. Was it that hard for the TV guys to see?) Another bogey. Me: “JIM!”

Eighteenth tee, long par 3. It’s raining hard, sure. Tough conditions. I get it, TV guys. (Hey, I’ve played in lots of rain and with soaking wet grips, just not for the Gross Domestic Product of a small nation.) Me: “Just get it on the green, Jimmy. C’mon now.”

Bunker.

Some work to do here. Making it interesting, eh Jim? Nothing to say now. I’m just watching. The ball comes out clean, hops, spins and checks two or so feet from the cup. I could make that one. Well, maybe. At least the soaking rain might hide the soiled spot on my pants.

Jim turns his cap around so the rain won’t drip off the bill and taps it in. He later called the putt dummy proof.

It was a nice ending. The guy who missed The Barclays because of a faulty alarm ends up winning it all. And with that used putter he picked up at Joe & Leigh’s in the Boston area, which sounds something like the House of Putters.

“It was like 65 bucks,” Furyk said, “but they sold it to me for $39, I think. I didn’t ask for that, trust me. I didn’t barter.

“It was a used putter. It’s got a nick on the back flange. It’s got a little ding in the top line. I never loft and lied it which is rare for me because I’ve always got my putters on a loft-lie machine at home, and the way the grip is on it, it might be slightly off center but that’s kind of how I like it anyway.”

Next stop for Jim and his $39 putter is Wales for this week’s Ryder Cup.

So, with three wins and the FedEx Cup, Jim Furyk is player of the year, right? I can’t make a stronger case for anyone else.

−The Armchair Golfer

Catching Up on ‘The Stones’

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, all. A quick update on “The Stones”:

Bridgestone
Phil Mickelson is going for No. 1. Lee Westwood is going home. Tiger Woods is going everywhere except in the fairway. South African Retief Goosen leads the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational after two rounds at 7-under par. Mickelson and Justin Leonard are one shot back. A win by Phil will knock Woods off his No. 1 pedestal in the Official World Golf Ranking. Lefty has long been Avis but never Hertz. Westwood withdrew and will miss next week’s PGA Championship because of a torn calf muscle. Anthony Kim is struggling in his first tournament back after a three-month layoff due to an injured left thumb.

Firestone
In person, and on television, Firestone Country Club looks stunning.

Turning Stone
After rounds of 66 and 68, Alex Cejka is the 36-hole leader at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in Verona, New York. Rory Sabbatini and Chris Tidland are lurking, just one back.

The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger recently turned 67.

The Flintstones
Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty are still going strong on TV Land. Nothing says fun quite like “Yabba-Dabba-Doo!” Fred’s famous catchphrase was derived from the ad jingle for Brylcreem (“A Little Dab’ll Do Ya!”).

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: stonehousegolf.com/Flickr)

2010 Transitions Championship TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2010 TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIP is underway at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Tampa Bay, Florida. Garrett Willis is the current leader at 6 under.

Purse: $5.4 million
Winner’s share: $972,000
Defending champion: Retief Goosen

Inside the field
Inside the course
Tee times
Full tournament news
The live report
Photo gallery

2010 Transitions Championship Leaderboard

TV SCHEDULE

Twelve hours of TV coverage are on tap for the 2010 Transitions Championship.

Thu, 3/18:
GOLF 3p - 6p ET

Fri, 3/19:
GOLF 3p - 6p ET

Sat, 3/20:
NBC 3p - 6p ET

Sun, 3/21:
NBC 3p - 6p ET

PGA Tour radio coverage

−The Armchair Golfer