Golf Empire

To fill the void of the lack of tournaments during the early part of the week, I decided to start a new type of post on GolfEmpire on some of great courses that I have played.  First (and definitely not least) is Bethpage Black.  This course going to be the host for the upcoming 2009 US Open and I was lucky enough to play it last summer.  Located in Farmingdale, NY out on Long Island, Bethpage Black is just one of five world class golf courses in Bethpage State Park.  The Black Course is the most famous and hardest to play, hosting the 2002 US Open (which Tiger won) and  I decided to take on the challenge.

Bethpage is a public golf course (ranked #5 in America) and prices can be upwards of seventy dollars for non-NY residents.  This course is also perennially ranked as the sixth hardest golf course in America so beware.  The most telling sign of this is actually a sign they have at the first tee which says, “Warning- The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for Highly Skilled Golfers.”

The most unnerving part of playing the Black Course is the first tee (pictured above). The tee sits at the top of a hill in front of the clubhouse, looking down upon the valley of golf-goodness below. People stand behind the fence and watch people tee off down to the waiting fairway below. So imagine the first tee jitters of playing in a tournament while trying to enjoy a casual game of golf! Personally, I was very worried about the possibility of shanking one in front of everybody. Luckily, I hit one (albeit a mediocre one) down the middle of the fairway. My friends were not as lucky as the pressure got the best of them. We definitely felt we might have made a mistake taking on the “beast of the east.”

So today turned out to be a great day for sports in general! Even after having to go to the hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion, Phil Mickelson was able to pull out the victory at Doral. Led by his finish of seven straight pars, Phil was able to hold off Nick Watney and win with an impressive 19 under 269 for the weekend. Unfortunately the unheralded foreigner, Jeev Milkha Singh, affectionately known as the “Other Singh” was unable to catch up with the leader. While watching today, I learned that he is the son of an Indian track star and is slowly gaining international notoriety for his superb play. Just watching his unorthodox swing made me smile, as he didn’t really look like a professional golfer, but made it look easy. I look forward to seeing him playing well in the future.

As for my tournament watch, I was surprised to learn that my Eagles received a 7 seed in the Midwest bracket today. Unfortunately we were paired against the much hated Trojans of Southern Cal, who have been playing unbelievably in the Pac-10 tourney. I know it’s going to be a great battle, hopefully we will come out on top. IF this is the case, I think BC has a chance of going far. Look for an upset against Michigan State if we can hold of the pesky Men of Troy.

Well well well, I see you’re back from your hiatus; welcome back. I also note that your man, the Phils-bury Dough Boy is doing well again. We’ll see how the day develops. Tiger is lurking and his scores are improving each day; I hope we’ll see some exciting golf this afternoon. Camilo Villegas and Jim Furyk have both had three rounds below 70, Rory McIlroy is standing 6 back, and of course, Nick Watney is tied for the lead. Nick seems like a really good guy: he’s an unpretentious 27-year old with two wins on the PGA Tour circuit who could certainly win it today. By the way, what is it with Villegas? No, I’m not talking about his clothes, I’m talking about the way the announcers pronounce his name: vi-jay-gas. What is that? I don’t know a thing about Spanish pronunciation but I always thought a double “l” was pronounced “y”, as in “poyo loco”. I’m always confused why we pronounce the capital of France Paris, not Paree as the French do, but do pronounce other words the way the “owners” of those words do. Who decides these things anyway? Is there some sort of a committee somewhere that decides? I want to be on that committee.

Yeah, it’s March. It has been an exceptionally strange and exciting start. I watched the BC-Duke game and I agree that BC was robbed. Just watching Coach K’s pursed lips makes me sick; I won’t be too disappointed to see them drop out early. I know you’re probably not a real big fan of the Seminoles but that was a great win over the Tar Heels. I understand Toney Douglas is one of the hardest working guys around and I wish them luck in their game against Duke. As far as the Pac-10 goes, I’m sick over SC coming back from a 15 point halftime deficit to beat Arizona state, but that’s another story altogether!

Sorry for the long hiatus, but we’ve been busy here at GolfEmpire.  But let’s get back to some golf.  This weekend, the WGC-CA Championship has been going on at Doral Golf Resort down in South Florida.  This course it brutal (as my Floridian roommate can attest to) and has been giving the pros an interesting challenge in this tournament.  Currently everyone’s favorite lefty, Phil Mickelson, sits atop the leaderboard after a shooting a 69 on Saturday.  Tied with Phil is youngster Nick Watney (who was the winner of the Buick Invitational) going into the final pairing after his own 67.  It might be a little too late, but Tiger is lurking at -7, 9 shots behind the leaders.  The rest of the field still remains open as many players are within striking distance.

If you do decide to watch this tournament on Selection Sunday, you will not be let down.  I have to admit, I am a little distracted from golf this month, as it is March Madness after all.  As I sit here now watching the Big East Championship between Syracuse-Louisville, I must admit the boys down in Florida are kind of on the backburner.  Being an avid sports fan, this NCAA tournament is shaping up to be one of the best tournaments in recent years.  Personally, I will be watching my BC Eagles make a push on the road to Detroit.  In my professional and unbiased (cough, cough) opinion, I predict a big year for the Eagles, who were robbed of a W by the evil Duke Bluedevils on Saturday.  Watch for the electric play of senior Tyrese Rice and explosiveness of sophomore Rakim Sanders to lead BC deep into the tournament.  I look forward to hearing some feedback.

The Honda Classic began today at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida at the PGA National. Robert Allenby finished at 4-under 66, one stroke ahead of 6 players including Stewart Cink and Sergio. My boy Rory McIlroy was tied for 28th at even par. There were a couple of interesting stories there today. First, Erik Compton, after a triple bogey on his second hole, fought back to finish 1-under. Not so remarkable you’re thinking. Maybe not except that he’s playing after having heart transplant surgery, for the second time, last year! Wow. Then there was Mathias Gronberg, who I don’t think had any major surgery but had a rough day. He was cruising along at 1 over after 6 holes, then the wheels fell off: he had three triple bogeys in a 4 hole stretch and shot 50 for 9 holes, the first time since Phil Tataurangai at Greensboro 9 years ago, and finished with a juicy 89, the 31st time this year that someone failed to break 80 in a PGA Tour round.

Since my rant a while ago about the Northern Trust Open, some congressmen have also been ranting. There’s no way I want to be known as agreeing with Barney Frank on anything so I’ll ask you to recall that I recanted on my Northern Trust rant, but there’s been an outcry about banks that have taken bailout money sponsoring golf tournaments. I said, in my recanting, that I appreciate that these sponsors allow us to see our favorites going toe to toe. There’s more to it than my vicarious thrill however, as was pointed out Jim McNulty, finance chief at Hopkins Capital Group, a health-care investing group, in an interview with the WSJ. As Jim points out, sponsoring a golf tournament means a lot more to a company like Northern Trust than a boondoggle trip for their execs. Golf is good for business, developing relationships with customers away from the office. When a company sponsors a major event, it also usually benefits charities and gets hundreds of their employees engaged and involved in volunteer work. Let’s hope that the sponsors aren’t all scared away by the negative publicity.

Also in the WSJ today was an interesting little piece that said Sergio Garcia would have made $2.5 million more money last year if he had taken one fewer putt per tournament. The source was AimPoint Technologies, a company that does “predictive putt technology” (whatever that might be) and golfer performance analysis. Unfortunately, giving me a putt a round would neither help nor hurt my consistent bogey plus scores!