2007 Players Championship Goes To The 17th Island Green

What a weekend of golf at The Players Championship in Florida at the TPC Sawgrass. I watched every minute of the golf tournament this weekend and I wasn't disappointed. As a golf fan you had to appreciate how good these PGA pros are.

It seemed like I couldn't leave the room because I felt like I was going to miss some extraordinary golf shot or someone falling victim to the island green at the 17th hole. If you watched the golf play over the weekend then you saw 2-double ealges also know as an albatross. These things are supposed to come around once in a great while... not 2 times in 2 days. I also saw eagles from middle of the fairway and other shots that had no right going into the hole, but then again these guys are the best golfers in the world.

The TPC stadium island green 17th hole grabbed a few golfers by the throat and choked any chance they had of staying in contention. Rory Sabatini came to the 17th on Friday very much in contention and put one in the water... and walked away with a quadruple-bogey 7.

There were many others that feel victim to the 17th, but none were more painful to watch than Sean O'Hair's. Sean came to the 17th hole 2-shots down from Phil Micklson and in 2nd place all by himself, which was worth over $900,000. Sean decided to hit 9-iron straight at the pin where Micklson had just hit a pitching wedge to the middle of the green. Sean's shot had the flag covered, but it flew over the flag and straight into the water. Sean proceeded to the drop area and hit a knock-down wedge that skipped several times on the green and landed...

Sean's golf story growing up with his overbearing father was incredible and I felt myself and I'm sure many other golf fans routing for him to do well. Being paired with Phil in the last group had to have been a lot of pressure, but Sean seemeed to handled it like a veteran pro. Missing his very short birder putts on 15 and 16 proved to be very costly. If he had made only one of those then he wouldn't have had to go for the pin on 17 because he would've been only 1-shot behind Phil.

Sean's knock-down drop shot landed in the water and now he had to drop another ball hitting 5. He got this one on the green and 2-putted for a quadruple-bogey 7... and now tied for 6th place putting Sergio Garcia in 2nd place all by himself. Phil 2-putted for par and they both went to the 18th hole with Phil holding on to a 3-shot lead at 12-under.

Sean and Phil both hit great tee shots into the middle of the fairway. Phil hit first and made things really exciting with his approach shot. Hit a flare 5-iron that barely landed on the green and came about 8-inches from going into the water. They both bogeyed the whole and Phil won his first Players Championship.

I do have to admit that Phil's play on Sunday was awesome. He had great control over his entire game especially his driver. He hit every fairway and hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation. The work he has done with Butch Harmon has done wonders for his confidence and ball striking. If Phil continues to progress like he has been then he'll be tough to beat come mid June for the US Open at Oakmont.

Phil took home around $1.6 million and Sean ended up in with a little over $200,000 and out of the top 10. If you do the math then the 17th hole cost Sean O'Hair around $700,000... ouch!

Tiger Almost Wins The Masters With His "B" Game

Did you get a chance to watch "The Masters" this weekend? Augusta was playing so hard... it was brutal at times. As the golf announcers said many times, there's a lot of carnage out on the course.

I was very impressed by Zack Johnson's play in the final round, but I was even more impressed with Tiger Wood's play. Even when he's playing with his "B" game he's still in contention. It's simply amazing that someone can not be on the top of their golf game and still compete in every golf tournament... especially in a major golf tournament like The Masters.

You got give credit to Zack Johnson though because he showed some great concentration and grittiness on the back nine. Tiger had his chance with a birdie on 16 to pull within 1 stroke, but it burned the top edge of the cup... and from watching on TV it looked like it was going fall in on the backside of the cup.
Tiger finished 17 and 18 with pars at +3 and in a tie for second with Retief Goosen and Rory Sabatini.

They interviewed Tiger after his round and you could tell he was disgusted with his play. He said he pretty much lost the tournament on 17 and 18 where he bogey both of them down the stretch in two of his rounds.

You know for sure that Tiger will be out for vengeance in the next few tournaments. He'll be very prepared and will take no prisoners. Watchout PGA Tour!

Are Pro Golfers Golf Clubs Handmade?

I read a post on a message board recently that asked the question.

Are professional golfers golf clubs handmade by the club manufacturer that sponsers them?

The debate went back and forth... and I'd say 60% of them felt that they were handmade clubs specific to the golfer. I did some research and found that in only the extremely rare case does a pro golfer have their golf clubs handmade.

This is what Frank Thomas of golfchannel.com had to say...

"In most cases the basic clubs being used (not necessarily endorsed) by the pros are very similar to those being produced for the general public, but these have been customized for the pros with a few extra grinds or bends, etc.

In some cases the weighting may also have been changed a little. There are also prototype models of clubs the pros get to use that are not yet (and may never be) available to the general public.

To resolve the dispute, I can assure you that very rarely will clubs be specifically hand built from scratch for the pros. This does not mean that they haven’t been very carefully customized for the pro; it would be the very rare exception if a pro received a standard set off the shelf without some little tweak. But, for the most part, the tweaking is the kind of work that you or your pro can do in a workshop."

Here's the link The Golf Channel.

Are the golf clubs you play custom fitted for you

Calloway's OptiFit Driver System Is Hi-Tech

I recently read about Calloway's new customer driver fitting system called the Calloway OptiFit Driver System and I was thoroughly impressed. One of the problems with existing club fitting systems and analysis is that you rarely get to hit the actual club head and shaft combination that you get fitted with, but that's not true with Calloway's OptiFit Driver System.

In the traditional club fitting scenario you hit some balls with a club that's about the one you would play with and from there the pro analyzes you swing through sophisticated swing monitoring software. From all the numbers they get through the monitor from your swing they determine the appropriate club for your swing. With Calloway's OptiFit Driver System the pro is able to create hundreds of club head and shaft combinations on the spot for you to hit with. Here are few things about Calloway fitting system:

The OptiFit Driver System equips retailers and pros with a compact, hi-tech fitting tool that can quickly identify the precise club head-shaft combination for each golfer's individual swing. A significant leap forward in custom driver fitting, the OptiFit Driver System will dramatically improve the process whereby consumers select a new driver.

Each OptiFit Driver System comes with 13 Big Bertha Fusion FT-3(TM) Driver heads and 23 separate shafts from the most-respected and most sought-after shaft manufacturers in the marketplace, including Aldila, Fujikura, Graphite Design(TM), Grafalloy, UST and Mitsubishi Rayon. Driver heads for the new X460 Driver will be added to all OptiFit Driver Systems as they become available, increasing the number of head-shaft combinations to more than 700.

The heads and shafts can be mixed and matched, with each shaft quickly and easily inserted into the clubhead and locked into place with a proprietary torque wrench customized for Callaway Golf, which is what the OptiFit Driver System is. The head and shaft are fitted together with a precision screw designed to securely attach the head to the shaft. The resulting 299 different head and shaft combinations that the OptiFit Driver System can create for a club-fitting professional helps them zero-in on and match the needs of virtually any golfer.

The production-quality of the drivers assembled by the OptiFit Driver System distinguishes it from other attempts at interchangeable shaft systems. At the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando last month, industry representatives and PGA Professionals who saw it for the first time were amazed at its efficiency, precision and reliability.

Among the other unique aspects of the OptiFit Driver System is the proprietary keyed assembly mechanism that renders foolproof the switching of clubheads and shafts. Aligning the shaft is quick and easy and an ergonomic torque wrench designed for Callaway Golf ensures "no-doubt" assembly by signaling with a loud "click" that the shaft is properly locked into place. The Calloway OptiFit Driver System is expected to be available at select green grass and off-course retailers in April.