Archive for the ‘Open’ tag

Golf Betting – Tiger Woods Misses Cut at British Open 2009

As mentioned, Tiger Woods was +5 after two rounds and the with the cut set at +4 that is bad news for Eldrick?he missed the cut.

The world’s No. 1 player missed the cut Friday at the British Open, shooting a 4-over 74 at Turnberry that had him headed back home to Florida on the same day that 59-year-old Tom Watson tied for the 36-hole lead.

It is the first time Woods has missed a cut since the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he was playing for the first time since the death of his father, Earl, in May of that year.

Depending on how you view the numbers, it was either the fifth or sixth missed cut of Woods’ PGA Tour career.

His only true missed cuts before Friday came at the 1997 Canadian Open, the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship, the 2005 Funai Championship and the 2006 U.S. Open.

Tiger Woods holds the PGA Tour record of 142 consecutive cuts made from the 1998 Buick Invitational until the 2005 Nelson. That streak began after the ‘98 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, from which he withdrew when the final round of the event had to be rescheduled for six months later because of weather. While he technically did not miss the cut, the WD is a gray area.

None of that was of any concern to Woods on Friday after he made two double-bogeys on the back nine at Turnberry.

Tiger has failed to capture a golf major title this year and will have only one opportunity after the British Open to win one with the upcoming PGA championship at Hazeltine Golf Club in Minnesota in August.

For more, check out Golf Betting at SPORTSBETTING.COM.

Golf – Mickelson is Back and Will Participate in the US Open

In the first press conference that he has given after his wife Amy was diagnosed with cancer, Phil Mickelson explained on Wednesday that they are trying to go on with their lives as they did before Amy was diagnosed with that terrible disease. Mickelson explained that he needs to focus on something else at least for a while, since this whole situation made him very emotional. That is why Mickelson stated that he is going to participate in the St. Jude Classic, which starts on Thursday and then he will be back to Bethpage Black for the US Open, where he expects to have a good performance as he was the runner-up to Tiger Woods in 2002 at this court. Woods is the defending champion of the US Open this year and has recently come back to play after being resting for almost a year due to a knee surgery. About the breast cancer that was discovered to his wife, he said that fortunately it was found on an early stage and that she doesn?t even have to rush into having surgery or making any hard decisions at this moment, but everything is ready for her to start her treatment. She will be submitted to surgery in the first week of July and until then they will have a better idea of what they are facing. Right now they are very grateful with all the people of the PGA Tour for all the support that they have been giving Amy and him. “We’re scared, yeah. I think a lot of it is the unknown,” Mickelson said in the press conference. “You know, we’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. We believe we have incredible doctors. We believe that we’ve caught this early. We won’t know this until a week or two after surgery, until some more pathology tests have been done?. Still, he says, nothing is going to affect the way he is going to play in both competitions. He explained that he is going to be playing aggressively as he always does and that his emotions shouldn?t be a problem even though its something that he have never felt before. He also said that he hasn?t been practicing much golf in the past few weeks, only when Amy was occupied or sleeping. Right now, they are both trying to focus in something else before Amy starts her treatment. The three kids they have are camping this weekend with their grandparents while Amy is with several close friends at their home in San Diego. Mickelson said that is going to be very unlikely that Amy will be present for the US Open but that he is fine since he knows he will have a lot of support from his fans at the course. Although Mickelson is considered one of the best golf players in the world, he has never won a major tournament in his entire golf career. He plays very good but he often gets the second place, not the victory. The best run up that he had for a major tournament was for the 2002 US Open but he still got the second place behind Tiger Woods; for this year we will have to see what happens since Tiger Woods is back and it will be an interesting tournament.

Golf Psychology Lessons from the Open Championship at Turnberry – Part 3

In parts one and two, I talked about the golf psychology lessons from the performance of veteran Tom Watson and young Ross Fisher at this year’s Open Championship at Turnberry. As a 59 year old myself, I was overwhelmed by Tom’s amazing performance and mental strength around one of the toughest links courses. It almost seems unnecessary to mention his age and recent hip replacement operation. As a golf psychologist helping clients to play the best golf they possibly can, whatever happens, I couldn’t fail to be impressed with Ross’s calm ability to shrug off the disappointment of that quadruple bogey and play on like the consummate professional he has become.

So what’s left to comment on and learn from this year’s Open Championship at Turnberry? Well, I started to talk about Tiger Woods in part 2, but put that on hold so that I wouldn’t detract from the praise I wanted to lavish on Ross Fisher. I also feel that there’s a lot to learn from Lee Westwood’s sad failure over the last few holes, as he was playing as well as we all know he can and probably better than the other leading contenders.

I was so impressed with the way Lee accepted the “rub of the green” of that unlucky roll into the fairway bunker on the 72nd hole. The way he focussed on the shot that he was left with was just amazing and the bunker shot onto the green left me stunned and speechless – not a normal state for me. With Dr Karl Morris as his golf psychologist, I have to believe that Lee knows all the golf mind techniques he needs to unleash his true talent and close out major championships. I just feel that he needs to be using those techniques unconsciously and for me the best way to achieve that is with golf hypnosis. Oh I’d just love to have the opportunity to work with him on that.

Now Tiger has had the benefit of working with a really good golf psychologist in Jay Brunza for the last 20 years and at his best Tiger is clearly the leading exponent of mental golf in the history of the game. If that’s not enough, he also makes good use of self hypnosis, especially when he’s winning tournaments.

So why, oh why does Tiger get so angry on the golf course? Watching him on Thursday and Friday, well he wasn’t there for the weekend, it seemed like every time the camera focussed on him, he has making angry gestures, banging his club on the ground or even hurling his club away. At the same time, he was demonstrating the ability to calmly stop in mid swing if someone moved or a camera clicked, so he hadn’t totally lost it.

I’ve heard people dismiss his anger by suggesting that these displays of petulance are just his way of releasing bad luck and the very occasional bad shots he may hit. However, it doesn’t seem to help him and it’s only when he really focuses on his game that he calms down and capitalises on all that golf mind training. It seems like whenever he loses his cool like this, he eventually realises that he has to knuckle down to make the cut or to win the tournament. He only just failed to make the cut on Friday with one of these focused charges.

So Tiger, please remember your golf psychology training and act more like a true professional on the golf course. We know you are the best golfer in the world when you’re using your golf hypnosis. In addition, your playing partners and the paying public will get even more enjoyment from watching you play and win.

Now I haven’t forgotten that it was Stewart Cink who took the Claret Jug home with him, it’s just that I haven’t forgiven him for depriving Tom Watson and oldies like me of a famous and rejuvenating victory.

Senior Golf- The Senior Open History

The very first Senior Golf Open was played in New York in June of 1980 at the Winged Foot Golf Club on the East Course. It was established because of the interest of senior golfers who wanted to compete on an amateur and professional level. The very first Senior Open had six hundred and thirty-one entries. At this time, the senior golfer had to be at least fifty-five years of age the day of the tournament. Some of the former champions competed in the first Senior Golf Open such as William Campbell, Tommy Bolt, Jack Fleck, Ed Furgol and Lew Worsham.

The winner of the first Senior Golf Open was Roberto De Vicenzo while William Campbell was in second place. The age limit was lowered to fifty just one year later to allow for more participants in the tournament. Arnold Palmer went onto win the second Senior Open at the age of fifty-one in Michigan. Miller Barber won the Senior Open in 1982, which was just one of his three wins for a Senior Open. The other two wins were for 1984 and 1985. As of 2002, there were a little over three thousand entries for the Senior Golf Open.

In 2006, Allen Doyle became the new oldest winner of the Senior Open at the age of fifty-seven, eleven months, seventeen days. The oldest winner before that was De Vicenzo at the age of fifty-seven years, two months and fifteen days. Don Pooley won his way into the Senior Golf Open by qualifying and went onto win the tournament in 2002.

Today, you will see only a three or four hole playoff if needed were in the past it used to be four playoffs of eighteen holes. There have only been a few times in the Senior Open history of a playoff occurring, once in 1981, 1983, 1988 and 1991 with the winners being Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Gary Player and Jack Nicholas respectfully.

In 2007, the Senior Open was played at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin where senior golf player Brad Bryant won the Championship. He had winnings of four hundred and seventy thousand dollars to take home with him. He did share his revenue with his caddies Tony Smith. The golf course designed Pete Dye was designed to attract PGA tournaments in the future. It proved to be a tricky course that is considered rugged terrain that does not have golf cart abilities.

If you want a chance to watch the U.S. Senior Open when it comes to your town, you can buy advance tickets, walk around with your favorite players, and see how they fair in the tournament. Some of the courses they play are set up according to the guidelines established for the tours. This is just another way to see how the pros do it and how they apply different stances and what clubs they use to get distance and win the game. It is always a spectacular event for any city and golf course when the Senior Open comes to town.

But don’t just watch Senior Golf.

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