Players Championship running thread....

Didn't Phil say after the round that the wind was going straight into them on the tee, and then swung as he hit the shot. Maybe that had something to do with sticking with the nine, if he thought it was straight upwind.

 

DD, Phil may be genuine, but as a casual TV observer, he looks fake. The aw-shucks look coupled with the touching of the brim of the visor after his good shots is incredibly irritating.

 

Heard this one before from some people. Is it irritating because he's the only one that does it? some of the players will give a little wave or just nod their head. Again, he's addressing the gallery. I think this is part of the reason why he's so popular with the fans. He and Tiger always get all the fan support for different reasons: Tiger because he's just so damn good; Phil because he's joe-everyguy.

 

It's irritating because it doesn't seem genuine. The look on his face is like the "I can't believe that you complimented me" look from Melinda on American Idol.

 

Yeah .... every guy I know has a private plane, an ex-Phoenix Suns cheerleader for a wife, a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and was born and bred in Southern California in a country-club lifestyle.

Regular guy my ass.

 

I was talking more about the visor tip/shrug -- which seems fake. Maybe he's genuine -- I don't know.

 

No, I'm not wrong or backwards.

You absolutely play to win when you still have a realistic chance to win. With Mickelson's ball on the green already, your chances of winning are very slim, particularly since you are not likely to birdie No. 18. So at that point, you make sure you play it smart, and make sure you finish second or third so as to win as much money as possible.

If you are Tiger Woods, it is one thing. If you are a young kid with a new wife and baby, you might want to think about maximizing your pay days. There is no, none, guarantee that this guy will make lots of money in golf and the other thing is -- a meltdown like that could devastate a young guy for a while.

Look how long Phil Mick has taken to recover from his meltdown -- and he is a seasoned veteran. Has David Duval ever recovered from a rough stretch?

 

Duval's swing fell apart.
O'Hair did perfectly well by wife and baby with whatever check he cashed.
He did, however, choose poorly on 17.

 

Duval's swing fell apart -- will you at least agree that is on some level, if not mostly, a mental block.

And Golf is very much a mental sport and we've all seen guys with bright careers come crashing down because of one metldown.

Also, yes, the $225,000 or whatever he earned for 11th was a nice pay day -- but I'm going to go out on a limb and say a payday of $950,000 or whatever Sergio Garcia got for second probably could have bought just a little more security for his family....

 

You don't compete to win money?

Are you kidding?

Only one guy wins each week -- the others are all jockeying to win as much money as possible. That's why you see some guys laying up on the final holes even if they are out of it -- they are trying to save as many strokes as possible to get the highest possible finish.

He would have had to make a perfect shot -- under a whole lot of pressure -- and even then on that hole a par is not guaranteed.


And he might be thinking about those shots for a very long time and no amount of therapy might be able to undo the damage that was done to his psyche.

It is admirable to say "I was going for the win" but that doesn't mean it is always the right way to go.

 

I agreed with O'Hair's line. Like you all have said, club selection was the problem. But after he missed that short birdie putt on 16, I was thinking he was going to get too cute with the shot on 17 and dunk it. I didn't expect him to dunk another one, but he was just costing himself prize money at that point.

You don't have to like Miller, either, but the dude is dead-on-balls accurate. Plus, I like the way he walks the viewer through approach shots.

 

Down two with two to play, anybody with half a nut sack is going at that pin. End of story.