Now that Presidents Cup fever has replaced FedEx Cup mayhem, it will be interesting to see how Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson perform as comrades uniting for a common goal.
Although Team U.S.A. has only five golfers ranked in the top-twenty of the PGA Tour's Official Golf Rankings, the combination of Woods, Mickelson, Stricker and Furyk will most certainly dominate at this year's event. With the addition of Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink, who always appear to keep cool under pressure, the "Internationals" will have a tough time holding on, in my opinion, even with Ernie Els leading the pack. Rory Sabbatini can't close a deal and gets flustered around Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh has missed his last two cuts and Mike Weir just hasn't shown much spunk this season. Hoping for Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy to hold off the Americans is like wishing for Colin Montgomerie to win an event on the PGA Tour here in the States...it just won't happen.
Phil Mickelson was featured in first few minutes of the latest Family Guy episode ("Blue Harvest") on the Fox Network (not available yet as a download). Actually, his wife Amy was the topic of discussion with Phil appearing as a cartoonish prop. The demeaning and vulgar commentary about Amy was too long, unnecessary and not really all that funny. Why did writer Alec Sulkin single out Mickelson? Could it be a weird twist on Mickelson's "family guy" image?
Or could it be because Elin Woods, a former bikini model, was just too easy a target and no one wishes to upset Woods, lest, in a fit of rage, Tiger decided to purchase the Fox Network and cancel the show!
Without watching the Turning Stone Resort Championship, it was totally up to the internet to provide us with Steve Flesch's terrific win. Congrats to Flesch although would he have had such an easy time if the top players in the world were competing at Atunyote? Or is this fall series, with the interest falling on keeping a PGA Tour card, more stressful than accruing FedEx Cup points?
Golf for Beginners podcast also discusses Mike Pedersen's new golf blog which takes us through the top reasons golfers just don't improve. In addition to these golf tips, we admit a flaw in last week's blog about the Solheim Cup and answer an email from a listener who asks, "how do you deal with playing partners who insist on keeping you up to date with your score when you'd rather not know your running score?"
CLICK HERE to listen to this week's podcast.
Send commentary to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.
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