Sergio Garcia is a weird dude

This post will be one of those "quick-hitters" that I mentioned in my welcome-back post earlier today. Just thought I'd put that out there in advance, in case you were wondering (I should also mention that "Clip of the Week" and "Quote of the Week" are being done away with, at least in their traditional formats—if I come across a clip or a quotation that's share-worthy, I'll share it immediately without further comment, rather than waiting for the prescribed time. Okay, good talk.)

Either way, we need to talk about this shot, played yesterday down at Arnold Palmer's tournament at Bay Hill (which Tiger won, which puts him back as the world #1, and all credit goes to Lindsey Vonn, because why not). Sergio Garcia, everybody:



The shot itself is obviously impressive enough, and I give Sergio huge credit for even trying it. But it's the context of the shot that makes it most noteworthy in my eyes. Because after playing this shot, Sergio badly chunked his next shot, made a double-bogey on the hole, and then walked off the course and withdrew from the tournament 2 holes later, with only 6 holes left to play. He cited nagging injury problems, injuries that were apparently exacerbated by the (odd) decision to climb a tree and play the shot this way rather than just taking an unplayable lie. Weird dude, man. Weird dude.

But also, as a long-time golfer and fan of the game, I have to wonder: why was he allowed to climb on top of a golf cart in order to get up into the tree? If you follow the game at all, you'll know that golf is full of all sorts of obscure, bizarre, and outdated rules that generally continue to pretend that golf is being played in the 19th century where electricity and television don't exist, and that there's nothing but a man and a golf course out there, relying on his own honor and that of his playing partners.

If you don't believe me, ask Craig Stadler or Dustin Johnson or this guy or really any of the guys on this brutal list. Or just go back and read this post or this post, some of the first work that I ever produced for this blog. Golf rules are nutso. Period, end of story.

And so, if Craig Stadler can be DQ'd from a tournament for kneeling on a towel, and if golfers can be routinely disqualified for signing scorecards that have the wrong numbers on them, even though TV cameras (and ShotTracker representatives) have followed their every move, to the inch, and therefore everyone in the world knows exactly what everyone's score is... then why is Sergio allowed to receive "assistance" from a golf cart that just happens to be sitting there? Isn't that an unnatural advantage? If he can use the cart to stand on, then why can't he use it to ride around the course from shot to shot (pipe down, Casey Martin)? Why can't we give a guy a ladder or a rake or a scuba suit to help him play his next shot? It's weird, no?

Golf rules baffle me. So does Sergio Garcia. But this shot was still awesome, no matter how you cut it.

Quote of (This) Week

As I'm still catching up around here, it's now time for this week's Quote of the Week (as opposed to last week's Quote of the Week, which I posted yesterday). This one is from one of the coolest golfers in the world, Miguel Angel Jimenez. This guy looks like a cartoon character, he's always smoking a cigar, and now he's the oldest guy to win a tournament on the European Tour. He's the best.

This week's QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"There is maybe olive oil in my joints, and drinking the nice Rioja wine and those things keeps me fit and flexible... Well, the most important thing (is), I do what I like to do in my life, and golf has given me all of this pleasure."
                              - Golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez

What a fantastic line. Seriously, I love this guy. He's got an awesome attitude about everything, and he's also terrific at what he does. Congrats to him for continuing to play golf at the highest level.

[ESPN]

Congrats, Will!

This is apropos of nothing here, but I had to use this space to give a shout out to my brother-in-law, Will Strickler, who earned his PGA Tour card for 2011 today at the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament (or, as everyone in the world calls it, Q School).

Will just turned pro last year, after playing collegiate golf at the University of Florida. He spent this year playing on the Canadian Tour, before making this huge leap today. I couldn't be more proud of him. Congrats, Will. Good luck next year.

Congrats, Jim Furyk

You might remember my previous rants on Jim Furyk, who was disqualified from the first FedEx Cup playoff tournament for oversleeping and arriving late for the Wednesday pro-am. Yesterday in Atlanta, Furyk slammed the door on that memory, winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup title (and $11.35 million in combined prize money) despite last month's disqualification.

That he made the (very valuable) clinching putt with his hat turned backwards, rolling it with a used putter that he bought three weeks ago for $39 at Joe & Leigh's Discount Golf Pro Shop in Easton, Mass. just makes the whole thing that much more fantastic.

 

So congratulations to Furyk for bucking up and making the best of what could have been a bad situation. With the Ryder Cup coming up this weekend in Wales, let's hope Furyk can use that same magic to carry the U.S. team.

[Boston Globe]

Another update on a previous post

You may remember my rant against the PGA after Jim Furyk was disqualified from last week's FedEx Cup playoff tournament after having arrived late to the Wednesday pro-am tournament. Now, it seems the PGA has agreed with me, tweaking the rule:

Hereafter, should a player be late for his pro-am starting time, the situation will be handled as a matter of unbecoming conduct. Such player will be required to participate in the remainder of the pro-am round and may be required to perform additional sponsor activity. A player who misses his pro-am obligation in its entirety will still be ruled ineligible for the tournament unless he has been excused in accordance with the provisions of the regulations.

Kudos to the PGA for recognizing a flawed policy and amending it. It's not often that anyone fesses up to a mistake so readily, so I stand ready to applaud those who do.

[PGATour.com]

UGH...

Another day, another tournament, another golf rant... hopefully this won't become a trend.

Three years ago, the PGA Tour introduced the FedEx Cup, its annual NASCAR-like year-end playoff for the title, with a $10 million ultimate payout for the champion. It's struggled to gain traction and popularity, and this isn't going to help:

[Jim] Furyk overslept Wednesday after his cell phone alarm clock lost power overnight, causing him to be late for his pro-am tee time in The Barclays. That left PGA Tour officials no choice but to disqualify him from the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.

A two-time winner on tour this year, Furyk is No. 3 in the standings as the race for the $10 million prize gets under way at Ridgewood Country Club without him.

I completely disagree that PGA Tour officials had "no choice but to disqualify him". Pro-ams aren't part of the tournament, they're a promotional tool that the PGA likes, and they created this disqualification policy in 2004 because too many players were skipping the pro-ams for specious reasons. Fair enough.

But to disqualify one of the best players on tour from one of the season's most important tournaments on a technicality (made worse by the fact that Furyk didn't MISS the whole pro-am, he was simply late, by about 15 minutes, realistically missing one hole) is simply bad business.

I'm consistently baffled by people and companies who insist on hiding behind policies. Firm "policies" remove judgment from business, and they are often the last resort of the intellectually lazy. Countless times, I have found myself in long arguments with customer service reps from cable companies, cell phone companies, airlines, you name it, that dead-end into "I'm sorry, sir, but that's our policy".

Well if the policy sucks, and it isn't working, you need to change it. This policy isn't working, PGA. By disqualifying Furyk, you've sent a clear message to your fans that protecting the pro-am is more important than protecting the competitive viability of the FedEx Cup. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of your fledgling playoff system, is it guys?

[ESPN]