No love for Love

This week in golf, in a top-10 list:

1. Davis Love III is not going to make the golf Hall of Fame at this rate. Let's face the one truth about the game: If you're not a great putter, even once in a while, you're never going to be a great player. Love is not a great putter. Never has been. (See: 18th green at Oakland Hills, 1996 U.S. Open for further details.) His buddy, Fred Couples, had some innate talent with the short blade, and Love has had his moments, but overall he's pretty average by PGA Tour standards. If you combined Justin Leonard's putting stroke and short game with Love's long game, you'd have somebody who could successfully challenge Tiger Woods. And that's why Love is going to have a difficult time winning another major. Woods owns the world's best tee-to-green game and he's a great putter, too. You just don't win if you can't make your share of putts.

Arnold Palmer, circa 1960, made 25-footers like they were tap-ins. Jack Nicklaus was maybe the best putter ever inside of 10 feet. Even Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, in their primes, made plenty. Johnny Miller was hot on the greens for a couple of years. José María Olazábal and Ben Crenshaw won two Masters apiece mainly because they could putt. Greg Norman was a brilliant putter at his peak, as was Nick Faldo. Nick Price started winning majors when he concentrated on his short game and his putting; he was never a great putter, but he was good enough for a few years.

Golf is all about scoring, which is all about putting. Charles Howell III and Adam Scott should know this. And I'm sure they do.

2. I don't know much about Christina Kim, but she was miked for the Golf Channel's telecast from Tucson last week. In the 30 minutes she wore a microphone, she showed more personality than anybody else on the LPGA Tour in the last three years. She's my new favorite LPGA player.

3. How much longer, do you think, before Hootie Johnson and the guys at Augusta National finally figure out that, gee, maybe this women's thing isn't going to blow over and go away?

4. Hey, it's been more than an hour. How come I haven't seen Martha Burk's face on a TV show? Surely she's not going to let a little ol' college basketball tournament and a Middle East war steal the headlines that are rightfully hers, is she?

5. I don't know if you've noticed, but the Honda Classic has gone through more homes than Jennifer Lopez.

6. The early leader in the clubhouse for executive of the year is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has somehow managed to avoid catching any of the spotlight during the whole Augusta National no-women controversy. It's amazing. The PGA Tour has a policy of avoiding courses with discriminatory practices. Every PGA Tour event host follows that policy ... except one. And somehow Finchem has been able to wash his hands of this double standard and say there's nothing he can do about it. That's a big, big lie. Which is why Finchem is also the early leader in the clubhouse as the two-faced, Enron-wannabe executive of the year. So let's sum up his stances: He's opposed to Casey Martin, the disabled, equal opportunity on the senior tour, and now women. Let's all enjoy this feel-good moment.

7. There was nothing nostalgic about watching Palmer play in his home tournament, the Bay Hill Invitational, last year, when he shot 89 the first day and might have flirted with 100 in the second round had he or playing partner Peter Jacobsen actually kept track of his score. I look forward to watching Arnie in classic footage on the Golf Channel. I don't look forward this week to seeing Bay Hill make him seem even older than he is when he dares to tee it up again.

8. It'll be a wonderful surprise if, at 63, Nicklaus and his aching back can reclaim enough of his game to make a representative showing at Augusta next month. Personally, I still believe he played his final Masters in 2000. The course is so much longer, tougher and more difficult than it was that it would be a mistake for Jack to tee it up again unless he's playing close to his best golf.

9. Match play is the most entertaining form of golf to watch. And it's also one of the worst ways to determine a true champion. The best move the PGA of America ever made was getting rid of the original match-play format of the PGA Championship. The Accenture Match Play Championship should thank its lucky stars that Woods finally won one. Now we can go back to a string of Pierre Fulke finals.

10. Bo Derek.

Mailbag

You missed a great name joke in one of your letter columns. Moe Green was also the name of the Las Vegas casino owner in The Godfather who said, "Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Green!" Of course, he later was shot in the eye for his arrogance during the famous baptism scene.
—Mark Ernest, Tracy's Landing, Md.

More mail from an NDLN -- No Discernible Last Name. Thanks for the flashback. It reminds me of a great scene in Benji. ... As for missing a great joke, we don't have room here to mention what I've missed.

I'm not sure that you were correct in your description of how to use USGA handicaps in a skins games involving three players with different handicaps. The difference in your explanation and the USGA method is that the players with the higher handicaps get strokes on the easier-handicapped holes. The reasoning is that everyone, including the lower-handicap player, is more likely to bogey the harder holes and that strokes given on easier-handicapped holes are more likely to result in par by all players. Thus, pars (net birdies) and wins by the less-skilled player are more likely on the easier-handicapped holes while the more-skilled players have a better chance of winning the harder holes. As you're well aware, high-handicappers are likely to go double bogey, or worse, on the hardest holes and are usually out of hole -- easy-money holes for the low-handicapper.
—Clyde Hart, Atlanta

You lost me, Hartache. If everybody bogeys the hard hole or everybody pars the easy hole, either way the high-handicapper wins. Why do we even give strokes? The reason I went out to practice was to get better than you. Why should I be penalized for that?

Who will have the better career, Adam Scott or Aaron Baddeley? And can you see one of them winning more majors than Greg Norman?
—Derek, Amherst

Bo, I've waited so long for your letter. I mentioned you in the above column. (Hint: See 10.) I knew you'd come crawling back to me, babe. As for your questions, I'll go with Scott just because his swing is pretty solid. As for your second question, Norman won two majors. It's going to be a pretty stout feat to win three majors during the Woods era (or, as some call it, the Rocco Mediate Era, Part II), so, no, I don't see it.

There seems to be a lot of talk about golf equipment and the notion that what the pros use and what the public use should be the same for the integrity of the game (i.e., COR, ball, etc.). However, this same standard does not follow through to actual play. I don't have spotters finding my errant tee shots, get favorable bounces off spectators, or purposefully fly bunker shots into grandstands for a generous drop. A tad hypocritical, methinks. The general public and golf pros do play a different game, and that should extend through to the equipment.
—Randy Otto, Calgary

Good one, Canadian NDLN. I love your mocking use of the obsolete word methinks. I agree, it's a different game and methinks we're moving in a direction toward possibly having different sets of rules for the pros. Also, methinks I agree with you about equipment -- steel snow shovels are definitely superior to aluminum ones.

Thanks for letting Brandel Chamblee write his piece on Braeden's golf tournament. Last April my wife and I had a baby boy six weeks early, and he spent the first 12 days of his life in the neo-natal ICU, which scared us very much as first-time parents! But I'm pleased to report that he is now almost 11 months old, ha gained all his weight, is growing like a weed and healthy in every respect. Having been through the scare, where would we send a contribution to the Chamblees to help other kids in the hospital?
—Scott Mason, Alexandria, Va.

To donate to the fund to help build Braeden's playground, send checks to the Phoenix Children's Hospital, attn: Braeden's Playground Golf Tournament, 2701 N. 16th Street, Suite 120, Phoenix, AZ 85006. For question, contact Lydia at (602) 512-8843. And thanks.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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