Joey's Golf Bag

Golf to return to Cuba.

Now that Fidel Castro has retired, perhaps he can find the time to work on his golf game.

In 1962, Mr. Castro lost a round of golf to Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who had been a caddy in his Argentine hometown before he became a guerrilla icon. Mr. Castro’s defeat may have had disastrous consequences for the sport. He had one Havana golf course turned into a military school, another into an art school. A journalist who wrote about the defeat of Cuba’s Maximum Leader, who was a notoriously bad loser, was fired the next day.

The golf course will be a fine place to celebrate Castro’s passing, don’t you think?

After a stellar day 1, my day 2 and day 3 picks were awful. Here’s my best shot in the quarters of the Accenture Match Play.

AAAAIIIIEEEEYYYYY!!!!!

Here are my picks for the third round of the Accenture Match Play.

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?