Joey's Golf Bag

Wie makes statement in ’08 debut, shooting 69 in Fields Open

Michelle Wie got off to a promising start in her first tournament round of the year, shooting a 3-under 69 in the Fields Open on Thursday to finish three strokes behind early leader Paula Creamer.

Showing no signs of the wrist injuries that plagued her last year, Wie broke 70 for the first time since the Evian Ladies Masters in July 2006, a tournament where she tied for second and earned her largest LPGA Tour check.

It’s great to see Michelle back on the leaderboard. She was even tied for the lead at one point at 4 under.

How’d I do? Pathetic, that’s how. 6 of 16, counting Toms withdrawing due to back injury.

Here are my picks for round 2 of the Accenture Match Play. This time I’m not comparing against Jason Sobel, as he didn’t reset after the first round, and I couldn’t find any picks for round two from Gary Van Sickle. If Gary posts some picks, I’ll load ’em up.

I beat the experts! 🙂

I was listening to the match play on XM for part of the afternoon and was surprised, first, that Tiger was three holes down with five to play, and then surprised, again, when he played the final five in five under to win 1 up.

Wow!

I wasn’t really surprised that Els got beat (given his record at this event), but to take a 6&5 pounding, well, that’s gotta hurt.

Update: Jason Sobel did a complete bracket, so I’ve updated his picks, below.

Tiger is back in action this week in the Accenture Match Play. This year, I thought I would pick and compare myself vs. Gary Van Sickel (ESPN) and Jason Sobel (SI). Jason didn’t come right out and pick a winner in every match, so I had to do a bit of reading between the lines, except for the Furyk v Montgomerie match, in which he clearly didn’t make a pick.

Tomorrow, I’ll review the actual results and see how we all did.

Annika wins 70th!

Annika Sorenstam waited 17 months to collect a T-shirt from her sister and a bottle of wine from a friend with No. 70 proudly displayed on them.

“It’s probably dusty,” she said. “I’m ready to collect it now.”

Sorenstam won the season-opening SBS Open for her 70th LPGA title and first since September 2006, birdieing two of the last three holes Saturday for a 3-under 69 and two-stroke victory.

Also noted this interesting nugget that Angela Park was docked 2 strokes for slow play:

Angela Park (69) was assessed a two-stroke penalty for slow play on the par-4 10th that gave her a triple bogey and cost her a shot at the lead and about $60,000. Park then birdied three of the next four holes to get back within a stroke of the lead before Sorenstam’s late birdies.

Park said she wasn’t holding up play. “I really don’t think it’s fair especially because I was in contention. I don’t think it’s fair at all.”

Rules officials said Park’s second, third and fourth shots on the hole all exceeded the time limit. Park disagreed and was visibly upset, in tears after her round.

“I was so mad out there,” she said. “I was flying through the course on the back nine. I was so frustrated.”

The PGA Tour could really, really use this rule. Mike Weir, Ben Crane and Jim Furyk (quite possibly the most annoying putting routine on the planet), are you listening?

The weather is really crappy this weekend: rainy, cold, blustery. Guess I’ll just watch the Northern Trust Open on the Tivo. Philly Mick has a 4 stroke lead, so it’ll be entertaining to see if he can hold on to win.

This afternoon, after work, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The afternoon was warm, but heavily clouded, with a 1 to 2 club breeze in my face.

The short game area is in pretty poor shape now due to dormant bermuda (just been scalped and sanded), but I decided to hit some balls anyway. I started out in the deep grass bunker hitting a few balls nested deep in the dormant bermuda rough. My touch was very poor and I didn’t really chip the ball well out of the grass bunker. I then went into the sand bunker and ran the sand drill using my lob wedge (the sand bunkers are in perfect condition). I hit a few balls out of the sand, poorly at first, but then got my swing grooved and hit a few good ones close to the hole. Next, I practiced pitching with the lob wedge, but never really felt comfortable over the ball and my results were pretty pathetic. I was about to give it up, and then holed one. OK, it went in, but I wasn’t particularly happy with my pitching at all.

There was a huge crowd of junior golfers on the putting green getting some lessons, so I skipped putting and got a large bucket of balls and went to the range. At first, I had difficulty, hitting thin shots, but I soon got my swing working and proceeded to hit shots into the teeth of the wind at the blue-flagged green. Normally, that green would have been a 7-iron, but with the wind, I had to hit a 5-iron. I hit the longer clubs surprisingly well today, hitting the green with about 1 out of 3 shots. Indeed, I was hitting the 5-iron better than the 9-iron today, and about as well as I was hitting the 7-iron.

I spent much of practice time rotating through the irons, even getting out the 4-iron and hitting a couple of good shots with it. I also got out the 4-hybrid and hit some very good shots, but also a number of hooks. I struck the ball pretty well but my direction control was pretty poor. I did get out the driver for a few shots, but put it away as I only was able to hit either high booming slices or low duck hooks. Yeech!

Still, although the driver refused to co-operate, my irons continue to improve. I’m still in a funk with my wedges, though, hitting some good shots, some fat shots and some thin shots. Completely inconsistent, in other words.

This morning, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The weather, like yesterday, was spectacular, sunny and warm, with a one club breeze blowing from the southeast. I started out on the putting green, trying, but not succeeding, to hit 10 four foot putts in a row. I got to 9 but never got to 10. I then ran the speed drill out to 27 feet, re-doing the drill if I left a putt short. I was pretty pleased with that drill. Next, I practice lag putting from 30 and 45 feet, and was really happy with my lag putting from 45 feet.

Instead of going to the short game area, today I went to the fairway bunker on the far end of the range. There, I practiced my sand drill using a 7-iron, and then hit a few balls out of the sand toward the blue-flagged green. I was pretty happy with the shots, though I tended to hit them just a bit thin. I raked the bunker and went back to the range.

I had three goals for today. First, get some lag back in my swing. Second, to get the driver going more or less straight, and three, to practice wedges and long clubs. I succeeded on all counts, though I didn’t get a lot of time in with the long clubs except for the driver.

I warmed up with the approach wedge, then worked my way down through the bag until I reached the driver. Instead of fat shots, my primary miss today was thin shots. I was hitting the middle irons well, but the short irons and wedges I tended to hit a little thin, and the longer fairway woods a little fat. In general, though, I was hitting the ball better than yesterday, getting a good late release on a couple of mid-irons, but strangely, not really getting much on the shorter ones.

I spent a lot of shots alternating between the 6-iron and the driver. The first couple of drives were big slices, but I soon straightened them out and got a little draw going. I was pretty erratic, but with pretty good distance. My 6-iron started out rough, hitting fat, but I got that club going pretty well also. After that drill, I went through the irons, alternating the 9-, 7- and 5-irons, with a couple of 4-hybrids. I hit some good shots, and a couple of stinkers with all the clubs, but the 7- and 5-irons are looking pretty good. Though I started out pushing shots right, I ended up pulling shots at the end.

With the remaining balls, I hit a few wedges, and again, the dominate fault was hitting them thin. Although I hit a few good ones, hitting them thin was the main issue.

I had a pretty good practice today, though I didn’t spend much time on the short game, instead, practicing fairway bunker shots. After I got home, I watched the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the TIVO and saw Vijay skull one out of the fairway bunker to lose the playoff hole.

This afternoon, on a warm, fabulously beautiful day, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I started off with my new Tom Wishon CLF-1 putter on the putting green. I started off hitting 4 foot putts, trying to make 10 in a row, but gave it up after about 20 tries to get more than 4 to roll in. The greens are still dormant, and I picked a hole that was pretty difficult to roll the ball consistently. I finally gave that up and ran speed drills. My speed was pretty good today, though I didn’t roll in a lot of putts, due to the inconsistent putting surface. Next, I lag putted from 30 ft, inconsistent at first, then nailing the last putt in the center of the hole.

After putting, I went to the short game area and ran the sand drill, first with the approach wedge using a chipping stroke, followed by half swings with the lob wedge. I then lined up a bunch of balls and practiced hitting them out. I was pretty good at first, then went through a stretch were I barely got them out, and then hit one or two close to the target hole. Not my best, but it’s been a week since I was last able to practice, due to very long hours at work.

Next, I went to the range to hit some balls. I got a medium bucket and ran through my usual warmup drill. I wasn’t striking the ball particularly well today, so I got out the iPod, turned on Tour Tempo at 27/9 and hit a bunch of balls. That helped, but I was pulling a lot of balls well left of my target. I was never really happy with my ball-striking today.

Not my best practice, but it was good to have excellent weather and time to practice. Tomorrow, I plan to play nine at North Texas Golf and see how my short irons are working.