Spieth Still in the Hunt in Singapore

Well, Jordan Spieth didn't bring his game or his caddie to Singapore.  But he brought that bulldog determination that has made him the best in the game today.  

There wasn't much from a shotmaking perspective to marvel at when you look at Spieth's week in Singapore.  He was missing fairways.  His iron shots were nothing to get excited about.  His play around the greens was adequate at best.  And the putts, for the most part, just weren't dropping.  And yet, refusing to give up, Spieth has scratched and clawed his way to two shots back of the lead, with a marvelous up and down from the trees on sixteen, and a fifteen footer to save par on seventeen after another lousy tee shot and an indifferent pitch.  Standing on eighteen he had a five footer for birdie, which would put him within one of the leader, Younghan Song, who was facing a longer putt for par on sixteen.  That was when the horn sounded to end play due to dangerous weather conditions.

We will have to wait and see whether Jordan can find a way to win the event.  He will need some help from the leader, who has finished second six times, but never won.  Song has showed some real grit himself in hanging on to the lead.  But how well he will sleep, thinking about that putt he needs to make for par, is anyone's guess.  He does look composed and unaffected by the situation he finds himself in; with a chance to beat the best player in the world for his first professional win.  It's a great opportunity for him.

What we do know is that this Spieth kid gives you 100 percent every time he tees it up.  And he finds a way to make a score, whether he's got his best stuff or not.  He may not have wowed the crowds in Singapore with his golf shots, but, win or lose, he's given them a show nonetheless.  

There is simply no quit in this kid.  That is what makes a great champion; the ability to grind out a score when nothing seems to be going right.  I don't know if that kind of determination and grittiness can be taught.  You may just have to be born with it.  You just have to be plain stubborn.  Most everyone else would have probably just figured it wasn't our week and given up.  But not this guy.

We shall have to wait and see whether Jordan can somehow pull off a win.  But, whether he does or not, he's no doubt made lots of new fans in Asia.

Branden Grace Wins in Qatar

It was another nice win by the 27 year old South African Branden Grace this week, to be the first player to successfully defend the Qatar Masters title   On a tough day, with the wind blowing, he remained composed, made some solid up and downs, and kept pouring in the key short putts on those tricky greens to cruise to victory as his challengers struggled.  

Holding a two shot lead on the tee at the par five eighteenth, Grace hammered a draw, although he prefers to play a fade with the driver, and left himself a relatively easy second to the green.  Once that was accomplished, he was in the enviable position of having four putts for the win.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Grace played very well in the Majors last year, especially in the US Open at Chambers Bay, where, but for one errant drive, things might have been very different.  You have to think this 27 year old is poised and ready to join the party at this year's Majors.  And, if he does break through a get one, he will likely continue to give part of the credit for his rise in the game to his caddie, Zack Raswego, who caddied for Louis Oosthuizen when he won the Open at St Andrews.  

Zack took Branden's bag at the 2011 European Tour school after seven years with Oosthuizen, and, two events later, the pair had a win at the Joburg Open, followed by a win the following week at the Volvo Championship, where Grace went head to head with his two idols, Els and Goosen.  Zack was voted the HSBC caddie of the year in 2012.  

I look for a big year from Grace this year.  Bolstered by his solid performances in the Majors last year, his brilliant play in last year's Presidents Cup, and now this win, he is seemingly poised to become yet another Major champion from South Africa.  It seems to be only a matter of time.  And should he do so, we can expect to see Zack on the bag.  There's alot to be said for a good caddie.

Where is Matteo Now?

I've been thinking about Matteo Manassero lately.  I wrote an article on him about a year ago, talking about how this golfing phenom had apparently lost his game by trying to get more distance.  After a year, this can't miss kid has fallen to 684 in the world golf rankings.

For those who may have forgotten, this was a kid who was the youngest to win a European Tour event at the age of 17, who had four European Tour victories by the age of 20, was the youngest to win the British Amateur, the youngest to win the silver medal as low amateur at the Open, the youngest to make the cut at the Masters, finishing 36th and low amateur.  This kid was about as good as we've ever seen as a seventeen year old.  Now, he's in some kind of golfing purgatory.

His last win was the prestigious BMW PGA championship at Wentworth in 2013.  At that point there seemed, to me at least, to be no stopping this twenty year old.  Then, someone apparently convinced him, or he convinced himself, that if he could only get a bit longer, he could be even better.  

The last time I saw him play, which was quite some time ago, the announcer said Matteo had gained at least twenty yards off the tee.  The bad news was he couldn't seem to find a fairway.  But, at least he was apparently "striping it" on the range.  He's still a young man, and I hope he can find his way back as others have done--Lee Westwood comes to mind.  But it just all seems such a shame.  Golf is a strange old game.

To the Victor the Spoils

I was watching the Singapore Open last night.  Jordan Spieth is playing in the field of primarily Asian Tour players.  The closest player to him is, as far as world rankings is concerned, is An, who is number 26.  One would think therefore, that if Jordan plays his game, he will win the 50th playing of this championship.  But, in golf, anything can happen.

Jordan started with a solid, if unspectacular, four under par score of 67.  Other than a twenty footer for birdie on his first hole, he made nothing on the greens, two putting for birdies on three par fives.  At the end of my viewing he was tied with An for top spot.

I noted that Spieth was paid the princely sum of 1.3 million dollars just to make an appearance in Singapore.  I imagine his appearance fee is pretty close to the total purse that the rest of the field are playing for.  And, quite frankly, I don't know what to think about that.  It reminds me of the time Tiger went to play in New Zealand for a million bucks, more than the total purse, and finished something like seventeenth.  

I guess you can say that this is simply a case of the saying being true: to the victor the spoils.  One thing for certain; life will never be the same for this terrific young man.  Let's just hope all the money that everyone wants to throw at him doesn't change him.  And, let's hope he finishes higher than seventeenth.

Driving an Imaginary Tack

As with every other shot in golf, in putting, it's the strike that counts.  Needless to say, this past week in Abu Dhabi, Rickie Fowler putted very well.  Rory McIlroy, who finished two shots back, did not.

What was interesting were the regular camera views that showed the difference between Fowler striking his putts and Rory striking his.  Rickie's putts were struck right in the centre of the back of the ball, and right in the centre of the sweet spot on the putter face.  Rory, on the other hand, seemed to be catching the ball a bit on the upswing and with the bottom edge of his putter.  Whether this was his intent, we do not know, but the number of makeable putts Rory missed certainly suggested that this manner of striking his putts was not producing optimum results.

As usual, I refer to Bobby Jones on the subject of the importance of the strike when it comes to putting.  In his book, Bobby Jones on Golf, under the subject heading Looking at the Ball, Bobby wrote:

  "Walter Travis, probably the greatest putter the game has ever seen, always said he visualized the putting stroke as an attempt to drive an imaginary tack into the back of the ball.  I tried this conception and long ago found it to be a valuable aid in putting-- to keep in mind the exact line upon which the ball should be started toward the hole.  It is all very well to select a point between the ball and hole over which the ball must pass; but it is impossible to keep such a point in view, and difficult to keep its location in mind while actually making the stroke.  But having selected the spot and allowed the eye to follow the line back to the ball, it is not at all difficult to imagine the line continued through the ball until it emerges at a point on its back side.  This is where the tack should be driven--a splendid way of simplifying the operation so that the player can give his entire attention to the making of the stroke...

  The expert player senses through his hands the location and alignment of the face of the club throughout his entire swing.  Before he starts the club back, he has formed through his eye a mental picture of the way he wants to cause the face of his club to make contact with the ball.  Naturally then, unless something disturbs him, he is going to look at the thing he intends to hit, and at the point where he intends to strike it.  He would be no more likely to look at the front of the ball than he would to look at his thumb if he were hammering a nail.

  For the average golfer, it will probably be helpful, in putting and in playing short approaches, to follow the suggestion of Walter Travis and to pick out a spot on the back of the ball into which to drive the imaginary tack."

Whether Rickie was picturing an imaginary tack or not, it was quite clear that, were there a tack there, in the middle of the back of the ball, directly on the line he intended to start the putt, he would have driven it straight home, time and again--Rory, not so much.

What If?

While this week was another great win by Rickie Fowler, once again Henrik Stenson was in there with a chance.  Stenson is, in my mind at least, the best ball striker in the game.  I love his simple, powerful action.  He gives that ball a wonderful thump, and moves it both ways with ease.  

I think he and Rickie are now the two best players in the game without a Major, and I'd love to see both of them break through and get one.  

Moe Norman would likely have really enjoyed Stenson's swing.  He'd have said that Henrik plays through the course--not around it.  He would have liked the way the club stays in front of him and his arms and the club stay in the fairway on every shot.  Not much can go wrong with a move like that.

It occurred to me again, as I watched Henrik swing, and use that magic three wood off the tee instead of a driver, what if Tiger Woods taken the same approach?  What if Tiger, instead of flattening out his swing and sticking with whaling away at the driver, had elected to play his stinger off the tee, using a three wood or his two iron?  Was it Hoylake where he won the Open only hitting one or two drivers the entire week?  Or did he even hit one driver that week?  I'm getting old, so I forget these things. Anyway, I have many times said that the rest of the players should be awfully thankful that Tiger never stopped trying to go for length off the tee with the driver.  If he had adopted Stenson's approach, as well as Tiger played his mid and long irons--and the way he could putt--one has to wonder how many tournaments he'd have won.  Then again, I guess he's done pretty well doing it his way.

Oh well, we can all talk about the "what ifs."  All I know is, that Stenson is sure nice to watch.  For my money, he's got the best swing in the game.  Man, what if Stenson could putt like Jordan Spieth? There I go with another "what if."

Pure Unadulterated Class

Pure, unadulterated class--that's all you can say about Rickie Fowler.   Not only does he win in a field that included McIlroy, Spieth and Stenson, but as usual, he won in style.

After his unlucky double bogey on seven, he responded with that incredible bunker shot, holing out for eagle on the very next hole.  It seemed to me he started to play with both hands a little tight on the wheel after that, perhaps feeling the pressure, not only of the moment, but also from Thomas Pieters, who just refused to go away, almost holing his putt for eagle on eighteen to force a playoff.  

It was always in doubt; right down to the final putt.  But his chip in on seventeen, and his three footer for par on eighteen got it done.  As for me, it had me reaching for the Valium.  How these guys keep handling those short putts for par is beyond me.  I wouldn't be able to take the putter back.  Rickie was rock solid on the short ones.  He once again proved that he can handle the heat, which was supplied by Stenson, Pieters, and Rory with his eagle on eighteen to give him a sniff.

What impressed me as much as anything in the end was that, when accepting the trophy, Rickie managed to compliment Pieters on his terrific play, acknowledge Spieth and McIlroy, and also mention Henrik Stenson.  This kid is just class; pure, unadulterated class.  

I may have to get me a pair of those high tops--and maybe even one of those flat-brim caps.  As for the sweats; an old, fat guy like me could never pull that off.