Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Every sports team and player has had to endure “The Curse” at some time or another. The Boston Red Socks come to mind with the “Babe Ruth Curse” and, of course, the ever-lovable Chicago Cubs, who finally broke the curse in 2016. However, another drought ended in Chicago just a couple of weeks later when the Irish Rugby team beat the New Zealand All Blacks for the first time EVER. 109 years to be exact! So is “the curse” a legitimate thing, and who imposes the curse? Alex Myers of Golf Digest gives us the top 11 players on the PGA and LPGA Tours who still have to beat their particular curse.
Is “The Curse” in sports a legitimate entity?
With the Chicago Cubs finally winning their first World Series title in 108 years, a look at some of the most dramatic droughts in golf history.
2006 at Winged Foot!
1. Phil Mickelson at the U.S. Open
Mickelson has accomplished so much during his career, but the tournament he covets most still eludes him. Making matters worse is how many times he’s come painfully close to winning the U.S. Open — a record SIX runner-ups, to be exact. Of course, none was more heartbreaking than the 2006 event at Winged Foot in which Mickelson seemed poised to win the national championship for the first time — and a third consecutive major overall — until a disastrous double bogey on the final hole. “I’m such an idiot,” Mickelson said after. Or maybe you’re just up against forces too powerful to overcome. . .
1939 US Open at Philadelphia CC.
2. Sam Snead at the U.S. Open
Before there was Mickelson, there was Snead, another legendary player only missing the U.S. Open in his pursuit of the career Grand Slam. Snead’s four runner-ups in the event was the record before Mickelson came along and he did one better than Phil when it came to calamitous final holes. Needing a par to win the 1939 U.S. Open (Snead said a fan told him he needed to make birdie), Snead made a triple bogey on the par-5 18th at Philadelphia Country Club. Eight years later, Snead three-putted from 15 feet on the final hole of a playoff to lose again.
1977 US Open
3. Nancy Lopez at the U.S. Women’s Open
Lopez’s brilliant career included 48 LPGA Tour titles and three majors, but she also finished with seven runner-ups in majors, including four at the U.S. Women’s Open. Her last chance came in 1997 when she became the first golfer to shoot in the 60s in all four rounds at the event — and she still lost to Alison Nicholas. “You know, all the tournaments I finished second in, I never really had an emotional feeling for second other than that U.S. Open,” Lopez told ESPN in 2015. “I really struggled to get over that. It took me quite a while.”
2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
4. The Calendar Grand Slam
Bobby Jones is in the record books for winning what constituted the calendar Grand Slam in 1930, but to this day, no one has ever won all four of golf’s professional majors in one year. Tiger Woods is the only golfer to win four straight, but his accomplishment, dubbed the “Tiger Slam” overlapped the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Ben Hogan is the only player other than Woods to win three majors in one year, winning all three that he entered in 1953. Jordan Spieth is the most recent player to have a chance. After winning the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open, Spieth lost by one shot at the British Open at St. Andrews. He came back to finish runner-up at the PGA Championship. Anyone pulling off this accomplishment is going to need fate on their side.
Another missed opportunity at Augusta National!
5.Greg Norman at the Masters
You can make a case that Greg Norman was cursed at every major except for the Open Championship, the only one of the four he ever won. However, if there was a particular house of horrors for the Shark during his career, it was Augusta National. Norman lost in unthinkable fashion in 1987 when Larry Mize holed out a 50-yard pitch shot on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Nine years later, Norman gave away the green jacket in a much slower fashion, shooting a final-round 78 to blow a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo. We feel for you, Greg.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
For a Team Captain, picking players who have not made the team on merit is a daunting task. It’s one of those situations where if the pick plays well, you look like a genius, and if they don’t, you look like an idiot! There have been some picks just like that throughout the years of team play. People tend to frown on choices where the player is a good friend of the captain, but when Tom Watson picked friend Raymond Floyd, Ray played great and made Tom look good. Poor Lanny Watkins got all sorts of criticism when Curtis Strange lost all his matches after Lanny picked his buddy in 1995! Thanks to Alex Myers of Golf Digest for putting this interesting list together. We all love the Ryder, Presidents, and Solheim Cup matches, and some of these pictures brought back great memories, even in the years the USA lost!
The Good The Bad and The Ugly in Captain’s Picks!
Davis Love III’s selections (so far) have been pretty conventional, but that hasn’t always been the case with captain’s picks through the years.
Raymond Floyd (1993 Ryder Cup)
Tom Watson tabbed Floyd, 51, as the oldest captain’s pick in Ryder Cup history. The wily vet justified the selection by going 3-1 and helping lead the U.S. to a one-point win at The Belfry.
Cannon/Getty Images)
Curtis Strange (1995 Ryder Cup)
Fellow former Wake Forest golfer Lanny Wadkins picked Strange for the team despite Strange not having won a PGA Tour event in more than six years. The move backfired as Strange went 0-3 at Oak Hill and the U.S. lost by a point, which better explains his pose in this photo.
Paul Azinger (2000 Presidents Cup)
Despite being 24th in the Presidents Cup standings, Azinger was picked by Ken Venturi. “He’s a leader, he’s a team man, he’s a wonderful match player,” Venturi said. “I feel this could be his swan song, and I’ll get more than 100 percent from him.” Azinger went 1-2, but the U.S. won easily. Of course, he proved that leadership at the 2008 Ryder Cup as the U.S. captain.
The Women’s Olympic Golf Competition looks stronger than the men’s!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Today kicks off the Olympic Women’s Golf Competition, and on paper looks to be even more exciting than the Henrik Stenson/Justin Rose showdown we saw on Sunday! Team Korea looks very hard to beat, but I’ll be pulling for Team USA. (obviously) Thanks so much to Alex Myers of Golf Digest for breaking this down for us!
If you paid attention to even one minute of the Olympic men’s golf coverage last week, you probably know that Justin Rose won the first golf gold medal in 112 years. But you probably don’t know that someone will end an even longer drought on the women’s side this week. American Margaret Abbott is the only woman ever to win the Olympic golf competition, doing so in 1900. Abbott was also the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Well, sort of.
Abbott actually took home a porcelain bowl for winning the nine-hole event in Paris, because there were no Olympic gold medals yet. Bummer. But fast forward 116 years and we’ll finally see another Olympic champ in women’s golf. And to prepare for the tournament, here are seven other things you actually need to know.
1. The women’s field is much stronger than the men’s.
Whereas six of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking didn’t play in the men’s event, the top nine players in the Rolex Ranking (which uses a similar calculation) will tee it up in Rio this week. That number would be even more stout, but No. 10, Ha Na Jang, wasn’t eligible because she was only ranked fifth among South Korean women. Further evidence of the strength of this week’s 60-woman field is how much more valuable this tournament is worth. Whereas the men’s event actually awarded fewer world ranking points than the Travelers Championship the week prior, there are a lot more points at stake for the women.
2. The women’s schedule is even crazier than the men’s.
A hectic summer schedule was part of the reason for poor attendance on the men’s side, but the women are in the midst of arguably an even busier stretch of golf. With the U.S. Women’s Open, Women’s British Open and next month’s Evian Championship, the Olympics competition sits in between three majors in a two-month stretch. Plus, there was also last month’s International Crown in which most of the top players competed. By the way, unlike the men’s event, the Olympic women’s golf competition starts on Wednesday and ends on Saturday to avoid Sunday’s closing ceremony. Again, the tournament ends on Saturday, NOT Sunday. Set your DVRs accordingly, and don’t say we didn’t warn you.
2016 Rio Olympics – Golf – Women’s Individual Stroke Play – Olympic Golf Course – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 18/08/2016. Inbee Park (KOR) of Korea. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
3. South Korea is the only country sending four players.
South Korea is the U.S. of the women’s competition, sending the maximum number of golfers. The team is led by Inbee Park, although her status is a bit up in the air after an injured left thumb forced her to sit out the past two majors and the International Crown. As mentioned, the race to make the South Korean team was so competitive that Ha Na Jang, currently ranked 10th in the world, didn’t qualify. Neither did World No. 12 So Yeon Ryu, No. 13 Sung Hyun Park, and No. 16 Bo-Mee Lee. Not a bad B-squad.
Entertaining stories about Phil “The Thrill” Mickelson.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Phil Mickelson loves to gamble. You just have to watch him play to know that! So it comes as no surprise that he likes to gamble at golf, table tennis, or even trick shots on the golf course. Read the entire article by Alex Myers of Golf Digest to learn about the amazing shot Phil “The Thrill” Mickelson played to collect all the cash!
We’ve heard some great golf gambling stories involving Phil Mickelson through the years. There’s the time he schooled Paul Azinger. The time he tricked Nick Watney into paying off a wager in pounds instead of dollars. Even the time he bet a fan (and lost) he could get up and down from a particularly bad lie.
But this one, courtesy of Golf Magazine’s terrific oral history of “Tin Cup,”takes the cake. It occurred during the filming of the movie, which turns 20 August 16. Here’s Cheech Marin, who played Kevin Costner’s caddie in the classic golf flick, describing what happened:
A History Lesson – Learn about all 9 Open Championship Venues!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Everyone loves the beauty of Augusta National and the toughness of a US Open course, but none can compare with the history of the Open Championship! These venues are hundreds of years old and are on every golfer’s bucket list! Alex Myers of Golf Digest has put together the complete list of Open Championship courses used in the rotation. Learn a little history!
A crash course on the nine venues that comprise the current Open rota.
Royal Troon Golf Club
Where: Troon, South Ayrshire, ScotlandTimes hosting:9, including this year
You know it as: “That place with the ‘Postage Stamp’ green.”
Unique features: Has both the shortest (Pictured left, the par-3 eighth “Postage Stamp”) and longest (Par-5 sixth “Turnberry”) holes in the Open rota; Colin Montgomerie played here often during the summers growing up. His dad was the club’s secretary, and his house was just a half-mile down the road.
In 1973, Tom Weiskopf won his lone major championship by holding off Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus. And yes, Todd Hamilton and his hybrid that he used to chip and got up-and-down 13 of 14 times that week won in 2004 by beating Ernie Els in a playoff. In fact, Troon’s past six winners have all been American.
Old Course At St. Andrews
Where: St Andrews, ScotlandTimes hosting: 29 (last in 2015)
You know it as: “The Home of Golf.” There’s not much more to say than that.
Unique features: The “Road Hole” (left), on which a road and a hotel come into play; Swilcan Bridge (think Jack Nicklaus waving goodbye); Hell Bunker, large double greens, Valley of Sin, etc.
Noteworthy moments: This course has so much history that five players (Bob Martin, J.H. Taylor, James Braid, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) have won two Open titles. None were more impressive than Woods’ eight-shot romp in 2000, though, when his 19-under-par total set a major championship record. Five years later, Woods would win again here during a week that also saw Jack Nicklaus play in his final major.
Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake
Where: Merseyside, EnglandTimes hosting: 12 (last in 2014)
You know it as: “That place where Tiger Woods cried.”
Unique features: A short drive from Liverpool’s Penny Lane of Beatles fame; Site of the first contest between Great Britain and the U.S. in 1921, an event known as the Walker Cup the following year.
Noteworthy moments: In 2006, Tiger Woods won the British Open just two months after his father passed away. He accomplished the feat by only using his driver once all week. The previous time Hoylake hosted the Open — 39 years before — Roberto De Vicenzo managed to sign a correct scorecard to claim his lone major title.
Which Celebrity Golfers Would You Like To Play With – I like # 25!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Every year at tournaments like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, celebrities come out in droves to play with the very best in the world. Many people don’t realize that, by playing in these Pro-Ams, the celebrities are helping to raise thousands of dollars for charity around the world. Alex Myers of Golf Digest gives us quite a comprehensive list right here!
Hannah Davis
The 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covergirl has taken up the game with boyfriend Derek Jeter hitting the links more since retiring from baseball.
Kate Upton
Upton appeared on the cover of Golf Digest in December 2013 alongside Arnold Palmer. Hopefully, the tips the King gave one of modeling’s queens are paying off.
Kelly Rohrbach
Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit rookie of the year in 2015 is one of the best golfers on this list. Rohrbach was a member of Georgetown’s women’s golf team in college.
What did these Tour players do before they hit the Big Time?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The road to the PGA Tour is littered with hopes and dreams of making it to the “Big Show.”
Every now and then, someone from the rank and file of the 9 to 5 golfers makes it, and the dream for everyone else starts all over again.
Who would ever have guessed that former 3 times Major Champion Padraig Harrington was formerly an accountant? Or Paul Goydos was a substitute teacher? Yes, many players on the PGA Tour had regular 9 to 5 jobs while they toiled away at their golf game, hoping for that break to go on to fame and glory! See this interesting list of players who broke away from various jobs and made it to the big stage. Thanks to Alex Myers of Golf Digest for compiling this interesting list. I found it interesting reading.
With former shoe salesman James Hahn winning at Quail Hollow, we decided to look at other guys who worked regular jobs before finding success on the PGA Tour.
Rich Beem sold cell phones.
The man most known for topping Tiger Woods at the 2002 PGA Championship didn’t always cash big checks on the golf course. In fact, that win came just several years after Beem was making just $7 per hour selling cell phones and car stereos. When Beem won his lone major at Hazeltine, he was still carrying around his former ID card from that job. “I don’t want to ever forget where I came from,” he said. “The jobs I’ve had served their purpose. They got me here. I never want to forget about hustling around trying to earn a $5 spiff on a $1 cell phone.”
TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images
Bill Lunde worked in real estate.
Lunde was captain of a UNLV team that won a national championship in 1998, but after failing to earn his PGA Tour card by 2005, he quit golf. Lunde worked office jobs in sponsorship sales for Las Vegas Founders and in real estate for about 18 months until losing his job when the housing market went bad. He gave golf another chance, earned his tour card through a big 2008 on the Nationwide Tour and then won his lone PGA Tour title at the 2010 Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Y.E. Yang worked at a driving range
Yang only picked up golf after getting a job at a driving range at 19. At the time, he was still an aspiring bodybuilder, and he hoped to open his own gym, but while trying to get another job at a construction company, he tore his ACL in his left knee. After doing his mandatory two years of service in the South Korean military, Yang decided to pursue a career in golf. He showed off that bodybuilding strength when he hoisted his golf bag over his head after defeating Tiger Woods head-to-head at the 2009 PGA Championship.
The Lazy Mans 17 Rules of Golf that need to be Changed!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
My opponent hits the ball 20 yards off-line to the left and finds a lateral water hazard. He can drop where the ball entered the hazard and play 3 from there. I drive the ball 20 yards off-line to the right, and my ball goes out of bounds. I have to play 3 off the tee. Now that is just so unfair! We could all make a lengthy list of the golf rules we don’t like or would like to see modified or changed completely. Alex Myers of Golf Digest has created his own list. How many of these do you agree with?
1. Play OB as a lateral hazard
Hitting a ball out of bounds brings golf’s worst punishment: loss of stroke and distance. By playing OB as a lateral hazard, you can cut down on people going through their whole pre-shot routine before hitting a provisional ball that’s likely to suffer the same fate. You also remove the possibility of a real stickler for the rules insisting that the player walk all the way back to the tee to hit again after discovering his tee shot wound up out of bounds. Tell him instead to estimate where his ball crossed OB, take a drop in the rough and hit his third shot from there. The people playing in the group behind will thank you.
2. Move Your Ball Out Of A Footprint
A basic rule of golf is to play the ball as it lies, but why should you pay the penalty for someone else’s carelessness? Move the ball onto a smoother surface, hit your shot, and then take care of the mess made by both you and Bigfoot.
3. Play Winter Rules When Applicable
The sticklers call this “lift, clean and cheat,” but if even the pros do it from time to time, why shouldn’t you? If a course is really wet, has just been aerated, or just has spots where it’s in lousy condition, move your ball a few inches, no closer to the hole. And if there isn’t a huge patch of mud on it, don’t worry about going through the whole cleaning and dropping process. Just use your club to nudge it a few inches.
Top 9 Players to Keep an Eye on in 2016 – I like #4.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Every year the PGA Tour gets a new bunch of players from the Web.com Tour, and each year these players are better and better. They also start winning earlier in their young careers. This is due to the recent canceling of the one-week Q School by the PGA Tour, and they’re relying on the year-long developmental tours to produce players who have earned their way onto the big Tour. Therefore, these players have already been through the trials and tribulations of playing tournament golf week in and week out, and as in the jungle, the fittest survive!
Alex Myers of Golf Digest gives us the top 9 players to keep an eye on in 2016, as he feels they have the right stuff! We will revisit this post at the end of the season (as we did last year) and see how these players have stacked up!
1. Emiliano Grillo.
The 23-year-old Argentine spent most of 2015 on the European Tour, but came to the U.S. for the Web.com Tour Finals and shined. In the four events, he won the season finale and added a runner-up to earn his PGA Tour card for the first time.UPDATE: Grillo won the first event of the 2015-16 season, the Frys.com Open.
Emiliano Grillo, from Argentina, hits off the third tee during second round of play at the Canadian Open golf tournament Friday, July 24, 2015, in Oakville, Ontario. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press via AP)
2. Smylie Kaufman.
The man with the best name on the list also proved he should be taken seriously on the course in 2015. Kaufman only made half his cuts during his rookie season on the Web.com Tour. But when he stuck around for the weekend, he often contended. With five top 10s, including a win and a runner-up. The 23-year-old LSU product will be a rookie on the PGA Tour. UPDATE: Kaufman won the second event of the 2015-16 season, the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children Open. Are you seeing a trend here with these picks?
Smylie Kaufman celebrates making par on the 18th hole at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind., during the final round of the United Leasing Championship Sunday, May 3, 2015. Kaufman won the tournament his first by five strokes. (Denny Simmons/Evansville Courier & Press via AP)
3. Patton Kizzire.
The 29-year-old Auburn product took awhile to get to the Web.com Tour, but once he did, he dominated. Kizzire won twice in 2015 and made $567,866 to lead the developmental circuit.
Patton Kizzire celebrates with his fiance Kari Hodgon after winning the News Sentinel Open of the Web.com Tour in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. (Saul Young/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP)
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
You are a Powerball Lottery Winner!
Finally, the biggest payoff in Powerball lottery history was split this week between three winners. I wonder if any of them are golfers?
Let’s look at some fun suggestions to help them spend their windfall if they are true golfers. Alex Myers of Golf Digest gives 5 pretty good ideas for purchases.
I prefer #3, which is ‘Build your Own Golf Oasis.” But, it would be terrific to design your own private golf resort with your favorite type of course, a fabulous on-site home with a world-class chef…I could go on!
One more suggestion from me is to split your time all year, staying in the absolute best golf destinations in the world. Flying by private jet, of course, and staying as long as you like!
On Tuesday, Golf Digest’s annual list of the top 50 earners in golf revealed Tiger Woods has earned more than $1.4 BILLION in his career. But with a few lucky bounces of the ball, someone could earn more than what it’s taken Tiger two decades to amass in a matter of seconds with Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing.
Yep, someone could win $1.5 billion in this record-breaking drawing.
Of course, you won’t get all of it. Most people take the smaller lump sum (estimated at $930 million) and then there are taxes. When all is said and done, you’re looking at somewhere in the $600-700 million range depending on what state you live in. Let’s split the difference and say $650 Million. What could/should you do with all that cash if you’re a golfer? Funny, we’ve been thinking about that since we purchased our own ticket. . .
Join some golf clubs:
In 2003, USA Today reported the average initiation fee of the courses that host PGA and LPGA Tour events was $48,000. You could join a club for that much in all 50 states for a mere $2.5 million, barely making a dent in your loot. Or you could just…
Buy a Golf Course.
Why be just another member of a golf club when you can be the only member of one if you’d like? A quick search produced several websites specializing in listing golf courses for sale. How about Club West Golf Course in Phoenix?
Not too shabby. And it can be yours for $2.1 million. Or maybe Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, Ga., which is listed for sale at $2.3 million. Throw inTanglewood Golf Course in Northern Michigan for an extra $1.7 million because you’ll need a comfortable climate to play in during the summer. That’s three courses for $6 million, or less than one percent of your Powerball winnings. Or for a little more. . .
