Friday, March 28, 2008

Billy Packer & golf


Who knew Billy Packer had any connection to golf?

Growing up in ACC country, I heard Packer doing college basketball all my life. Once upon a time I liked him. Now I find him only slightly less annoying that Dick Vitale.

Anyway, with March Madness upon us, Golfweek saw fit to profile the Mouth of the South.

Turns out he owns and sells courses but he rarely, and barely, plays at golf.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Tiger's streak over


For Tiger-philes, here's this morning's post-round interview from the WGC-CA Championship, won by Geoff Ogilvy.

Q. Would you talk a little bit about maybe the frustration of the leaderboard, never got higher than 17 and you got to 15 and can never inch a little closer?

TIGER WOODS: Well, you know, I made too many mistakes this week, you know? I was saying over there, I had four three-putts this week, I had two terrible lies in bunkers and a photographer got me on nine. With all that, to only finish two back, I think that's a great sign.

Q. Put the streak in context a little bit, how you feel that you're playing?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think the people that truly understand are the players. I don't think you guys really understand or even the fans out there, just how small the difference is. I just explained what happened this week, how close -- if I just clean up my round this week, then obviously I'm right there with Geoff, if not just a little bit ahead of the 17 he's at right now.

Q. You begun this week talking about how the breaks have been going for you through the streak. Do you feel in a sense that you just kind of ran out of breaks?

TIGER WOODS: That's the way it goes, you know? As I said, people don't really understand you need to have something happen, a positive thing happen to you out there in order to win tournaments. I heard Geoff bladed one in the hole for par. That's what you need to have happen. Those are the things that have happened to me, and things weren't going that way this week.

Q. Talk about 16 after you tried to drive the green. (Went for the green; tee shot settled in the rough along the rim of the bunker; bad break)

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that was a very interesting lie.

Q. You went through the bunker and were on the grass?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I was in the grass. It was sandy, it was sitting kind of funky, a shot I could easily just kind of leave either three feet in front of me, or I decided to put it 15, 20 feet and try to make a putt, and I put it a little bit further than that but had to give myself a putt at it. You can't just sit around and get cute and leave it in the bunker. Now you're hoping to make 5. No, I played conservative and then tried to make a putt.

Q. At the time you got a little birdie momentum going, looked like maybe a Hazeltine Hail Mary going down the stretch --

TIGER WOODS: Well, I didn't hit a bad shot coming in. The only shot that I really hit that would be a poor shot was 18, and that was just a poor number in my head that I was trying to play to. I should have played a little bit deeper than what I did in my head. No, I didn't hit a bad shot all day, which was nice.

Q. You changed clubs on 18, too. What did you do?

TIGER WOODS: I went from wedge to 9 because the wind kept going from down to more across and more across, and I played the 9 too soft.

Q. What's this do for you looking ahead two weeks down the road where they hand out green jackets? Still feeling pretty good about the state of the game?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's a great sign, what happened this week, to make that many mistakes and only be two back.

Q. (Question regarding 16.)

TIGER WOODS: Well, I upshot that drive. If I hit it solid, I could get it there with really no problem. But I upshot it, ended up to the right. I knew if it was in the left bunker it was an easy bunker shot uphill into the grain, and I put it over the right. It was a poor shot combined with a very interesting lie.

Q. Over the weekend, the rain --

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's been a long week, and it's just going to be a long day today. It is what it is, and we all had to play through it. I had ample chances to get myself up there on that board and win the tournament and just didn't do it.