Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Golf Takes
Golf Takes (professional/recent)
I rarely ever have watched women’s golf. Remarkable, because I am a big sports fan, but I plead cultural victim-hood.(1) That is to say, women’s golf did not get any exposure or much respect in the era, when I was weaned on sports. So a few weeks back, curious about my speculations from afar on Michelle Wie, I was watching women’s golf, specifically the U.S. Women’s Open. It confirmed my opinion about how good Anika Sorrenstem is…but it changed my opinion on Michelle Wie. I had underrated her.
I stand by my original critique that is a bad idea for her to focus on qualifying for Men’s Tour events over focusing on winning Women’s Tour events. As I stated at the time see that Post here I think she is more like to end up burned out that way. She is very young. Winning itself is a learned skill. Anyone who was watching Tiger and Sergio this past weekend could give you chapter and verse on that. Anyone who watches Jeter and A-Rod could tell you a litany about the same. Great gifts alone do not guarantee a winner. Bottom line, I think Michelle Wie, right now, is a prodigious talent being done a disservice by her handlers. That said, she was still compelling enough to pull me into watching the 3rd and 4th round of the US Women’s Open, which I had never done in the past. Whereas, subsequently Annika and Patty whomever in a Monday playoff, weren’t enough to pique me. By the time I remembered it was on and tuned in, Anika was 4 up and with only a couple of holes to play, maybe only one hole? They started early and something else was going on.
The ABC coverage of the British Open 2006 (men’s) was atrocious, especially early. They were going two ball strikes, commercial break. They’d come back out of a commercial, show two more shots and go back to commercial. That’s cruel and unusual. And I love Tiger, I am rooting for Tiger, he is THE athlete of our generation, but can we possibly show just a few shots of somebody else, occasionally. ABC started this trend from the beginning, too, as they missed, Els’s and DeMarco’s third shots on third shots on number #1. DeMarco’s turned out to pivotal, as he missed the green and bogeyed, down the stretch of the back nine he would have been even closer to Tiger.
DiMarco had a great, gutty tournament. I was shocked to read that not only has DiMarco not won a Major, (he’s gonna) but he has only won three times on tour. I couldn’t believe it. DiMarco's career stats
Tiger was unbelievable. Somebody on ABC said it perfectly, if Tiger had a gameplan on the front nine, he quite literally hit every shot, every shot, where the game plan called for it to go. All the pressure in the world, no mistakes. Then on the back nine, the one time all day he was challenged, he responds to by going birdie-birdie-birdie!! Ladies and Gentlemen, Tiger Woods is an athlete, a competitor for the ages.
Incidentally, with this Major, technically his fourteenth, he passed the legendary Bobby Jones, to trail only Jack Nicklaus. Whenever an athlete is wedged between two immortals like those for a career record, it is a historic achievement. Note this underlines/highlights how cheater, Barry Bonds, has destroyed his legacy. He should have enjoyed the same kind of moment passing the Babe to trail only Hammerin’ Hank. Instead his moment was reviled for its negative symbolism: in modern American culture, cheaters do prosper. See this link for a great Bonds T-shirt…
One more take on the British Open: How weird and dark was the paint bombing of the eighteenth green. I never found out who did it. But how disturbing to have police helicopters hovering over the eighteenth green as Tiger is putting. ABC's Mike Tirico was right on point here, when he called it, “a sign of the times.”
Again and again, the refrain is repeated, thank goodness, that this attack was not a life-threatening one, but Terrorism is unstoppable. There are far too many soft targets. There are no walls high enough to stop all terrorist attacks. The solution can only come through undermining motive. No number helicopters can prevent all attacks, in all forms. The methodologies are too many, too small, too mobile, compromising too many angles and too many multiple aspect changers. We were all lucky this was just purple paint. In an upcoming post, we will hit you with a bit more on the manifestations of this phenomenon in considering Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, with missiles, and missile defense.
It’s the motive stupid.
ENDNOTES
1) Everything has an element of the environmental, I am working to transcend this particular bias.
I rarely ever have watched women’s golf. Remarkable, because I am a big sports fan, but I plead cultural victim-hood.(1) That is to say, women’s golf did not get any exposure or much respect in the era, when I was weaned on sports. So a few weeks back, curious about my speculations from afar on Michelle Wie, I was watching women’s golf, specifically the U.S. Women’s Open. It confirmed my opinion about how good Anika Sorrenstem is…but it changed my opinion on Michelle Wie. I had underrated her.
I stand by my original critique that is a bad idea for her to focus on qualifying for Men’s Tour events over focusing on winning Women’s Tour events. As I stated at the time see that Post here I think she is more like to end up burned out that way. She is very young. Winning itself is a learned skill. Anyone who was watching Tiger and Sergio this past weekend could give you chapter and verse on that. Anyone who watches Jeter and A-Rod could tell you a litany about the same. Great gifts alone do not guarantee a winner. Bottom line, I think Michelle Wie, right now, is a prodigious talent being done a disservice by her handlers. That said, she was still compelling enough to pull me into watching the 3rd and 4th round of the US Women’s Open, which I had never done in the past. Whereas, subsequently Annika and Patty whomever in a Monday playoff, weren’t enough to pique me. By the time I remembered it was on and tuned in, Anika was 4 up and with only a couple of holes to play, maybe only one hole? They started early and something else was going on.
The ABC coverage of the British Open 2006 (men’s) was atrocious, especially early. They were going two ball strikes, commercial break. They’d come back out of a commercial, show two more shots and go back to commercial. That’s cruel and unusual. And I love Tiger, I am rooting for Tiger, he is THE athlete of our generation, but can we possibly show just a few shots of somebody else, occasionally. ABC started this trend from the beginning, too, as they missed, Els’s and DeMarco’s third shots on third shots on number #1. DeMarco’s turned out to pivotal, as he missed the green and bogeyed, down the stretch of the back nine he would have been even closer to Tiger.
DiMarco had a great, gutty tournament. I was shocked to read that not only has DiMarco not won a Major, (he’s gonna) but he has only won three times on tour. I couldn’t believe it. DiMarco's career stats
Tiger was unbelievable. Somebody on ABC said it perfectly, if Tiger had a gameplan on the front nine, he quite literally hit every shot, every shot, where the game plan called for it to go. All the pressure in the world, no mistakes. Then on the back nine, the one time all day he was challenged, he responds to by going birdie-birdie-birdie!! Ladies and Gentlemen, Tiger Woods is an athlete, a competitor for the ages.
Incidentally, with this Major, technically his fourteenth, he passed the legendary Bobby Jones, to trail only Jack Nicklaus. Whenever an athlete is wedged between two immortals like those for a career record, it is a historic achievement. Note this underlines/highlights how cheater, Barry Bonds, has destroyed his legacy. He should have enjoyed the same kind of moment passing the Babe to trail only Hammerin’ Hank. Instead his moment was reviled for its negative symbolism: in modern American culture, cheaters do prosper. See this link for a great Bonds T-shirt…
One more take on the British Open: How weird and dark was the paint bombing of the eighteenth green. I never found out who did it. But how disturbing to have police helicopters hovering over the eighteenth green as Tiger is putting. ABC's Mike Tirico was right on point here, when he called it, “a sign of the times.”
Again and again, the refrain is repeated, thank goodness, that this attack was not a life-threatening one, but Terrorism is unstoppable. There are far too many soft targets. There are no walls high enough to stop all terrorist attacks. The solution can only come through undermining motive. No number helicopters can prevent all attacks, in all forms. The methodologies are too many, too small, too mobile, compromising too many angles and too many multiple aspect changers. We were all lucky this was just purple paint. In an upcoming post, we will hit you with a bit more on the manifestations of this phenomenon in considering Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, with missiles, and missile defense.
It’s the motive stupid.
ENDNOTES
1) Everything has an element of the environmental, I am working to transcend this particular bias.
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