Phantastic Phil’s phabulous phorm at its inphallible phinest

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, February 13th, 2012
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

With snow flying here at HOG World Headquarters, I was hunkered down in the man cave with computer in lap and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on the 42-inch. What a fantastic and entertaining Sunday to watch golf. I’ve got so many random thoughts to pry out of my cerebral cortex. I hope they make some sense.

Tiger Woods

Before Sunday’s round, the media had practically handed Tiger Woods the trophy. The previews for CBS were 100% Tiger Saturday. After Saturday’s round Golf Channel did a whole show on Pebble and I unscientifically measured it out at 96.8% Tiger coverage, almost as high as the percentage of ED ads in their programming.

Have they all seen something I haven’t? Tiger had yet to put together four complete rounds of golf since he had “returned.” There’s always that one round, usually the last, which costs him the chance at victory. And yes, I’m not counting the Chevron. The short game hasn’t been up to a Tiger-like level and the putting inconsistent.

During Sunday’s Pebble round Tiger’s body language was quite telling and hard to watch. I can’t remember seeing Tiger’s shoulders slumped and his head down like that. Every amateur golfer, myself included, has been like that but it was really something to see TW like that. He was no doubt dejected and frustrated. He couldn’t make anything happen. The putts he missed were low side and weak. On poa greens, especially later in the day, you must putt aggressively. It was shocking to see TW miss those five putts under five feet and especially those two around 20 inches. That never used to happen. The 3-putt for par on the final hole was hard to watch, and symbolic of the day. Tiger’s putts per greens in regulation was 2.222, and he only hit 50% of his greens Sunday.

At this point Tiger is 100% physically healthy. What’s going on inside his head is the question. Short game, putting especially is about confidence. No doubt those issues will need to be resolved for him to win. There’s NO way he can contend putting like that at Augusta.

Phil Mickelson

Arguably there’s no player on the PGA Tour with more raw talent than Phil Mickelson. It is quite something to watch what we saw yesterday, when all the talent, focus and game plan are in perfect form. Sorry, “phorm.” When that happens, Phil drops a 64 and comes back from six shots to win, beating Tiger by 11 shots.

Ironically the only real “bad” shot I saw from Phil was the flop on #12 when Tiger had holed out from the bunker for birdie. But the super hot putter for Phil shut down any chances Tiger had when he drained a 31 foot par saving put.

Thinking about Phil’s career at this point… This win was his 40th on the PGA Tour, most of those 40 coming during the “Tiger era.” That is quite amazing. Phil turned pro in 1992 and Tiger in 1996. That 40th win puts him past Tom Watson to #9 on the all time win list. Four major wins and 2nd place finishes in six other majors. He’s got 2x as many major wins as Greg Norman and over 2x as many tour wins.

Almost Made It

I was quite happy to have made it through to Sunday’s coverage at Pebble without once seeing George Lopez. Thanks to Nick Faldo for ruining that buzz by putting the un-funny comedian in a bunker drill piece during final round coverage. Despite some of the bad parts of CBS’s and TGC’s coverage, I was happy to not have to endure too many amateur golf swings.

Other Players

Tough to see Charlie Wi lose the lead, but not unexpected. He did make quite a comeback though. The strong finish Sunday gave him a solid 2nd place finish.

Mike Weir… Weir missed the cut with rounds of 70, 73 and 78. Wonder if he will ever come back to form?

Two Wilson guys played well, Ricky Barnes and Padraig Harrington. They record 3rd place and a T7 respectively. Nice to see that, seriously.

AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Final Leader Board

Written by: Tony Korologos | Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

Below is the final leader board for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where Phil Mickelson shot a stellar 64 in the final round to beat Tiger Woods by 11 shots for the win.

POS	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1	Phil Mickelson	-17	70	65	70	64	269
2	Charlie Wi	-15	61	69	69	72	271
3	Ricky Barnes	-13	70	66	70	67	273
4	Aaron Baddeley	-12	66	72	69	67	274
T5	Kevin Na	-11	66	69	70	70	275
T5	Dustin Johnson	-11	63	72	70	70	275
T7	Padraig Harrington	-10	68	66	72	70	276
T7	Ken Duke	-10	64	73	65	74	276
T9	Spencer Levin	-9	69	69	71	68	277
T9	Jimmy Walker	-9	69	68	71	69	277
T9	Jason Kokrak	-9	68	67	72	70	277
T9	Greg Owen	-9	68	67	72	70	277
T9	Kevin Streelman	-9	70	69	68	70	277
T9	Brendon Todd	-9	67	69	69	72	277
T15	Richard H. Lee	-8	65	71	73	69	278
T15	Steven Bowditch	-8	71	67	72	68	278
T15	Hunter Mahan	-8	65	70	70	73	278
T15	Bob Estes	-8	67	70	69	72	278
T15	Tiger Woods	-8	68	68	67	75	278
T20	Davis Love III	-7	70	70	70	69	279
T20	Robert Garrigus	-7	68	69	71	71	279
T20	Brian Gay	-7	69	65	74	71	279
T20	Brian Harman	-7	64	73	71	71	279
T20	Ryan Moore	-7	72	64	71	72	279
T25	Danny Lee	-6	63	73	74	70	280
T25	Vijay Singh	-6	68	68	71	73	280
T25	Geoff Ogilvy	-6	70	69	68	73	280
T25	Kevin Stadler	-6	69	70	73	68	280
T29	Miguel Angel Carballo	-5	69	71	69	72	281
T29	Sean O’Hair	-5	68	74	69	70	281
T29	Zach Johnson	-5	67	72	72	70	281
T29	Brian Davis	-5	70	74	68	69	281
T29	Ryan Palmer	-5	72	71	64	74	281
T29	Rocco Mediate	-5	71	66	76	68	281
T35	Mathew Goggin	-4	69	71	69	73	282
T35	Mark D. Anderson	-4	69	71	71	71	282
T35	Josh Teater	-4	64	71	77	70	282
T35	Charley Hoffman	-4	67	73	73	69	282
T35	John Huh	-4	71	71	71	69	282
T40	D.J. Trahan	-3	70	69	71	73	283
T40	Jonas Blixt	-3	70	69	69	75	283
T40	Daniel Summerhays	-3	65	73	73	72	283
T40	Joseph Bramlett	-3	66	69	73	75	283
T40	Nick Watney	-3	66	73	69	75	283
T40	Jim Furyk	-3	69	69	74	71	283
T40	Tom Gillis	-3	74	72	66	71	283
T40	Nathan Green	-3	66	76	71	70	283
T40	Heath Slocum	-3	74	71	68	70	283
T40	Harris English	-3	75	68	70	70	283
T50	Joe Ogilvie	-2	68	73	70	73	284
T50	Roberto Castro	-2	70	68	73	73	284
T50	Bobby Gates	-2	72	70	69	73	284
T50	Ian Poulter	-2	69	72	72	71	284
T54	Roland Thatcher	-1	71	68	70	76	285
T54	Tom Pernice Jr.	-1	72	70	70	73	285
T54	Gary Christian	-1	72	70	70	73	285
T54	Hunter Haas	-1	72	69	72	72	285
T58	Matt Bettencourt	E	73	69	70	74	286
T58	John Mallinger	E	70	71	72	73	286
T58	Pat Perez	E	67	72	74	73	286
T61	Shane Bertsch	+1	68	75	65	79	287
T61	Tim Petrovic	+1	70	70	72	75	287
T61	Cameron Tringale	+1	71	71	70	75	287
T61	Sang-Moon Bae	+1	68	73	72	74	287
T65	Lee Janzen	+2	72	71	70	75	288
T65	Kyle Reifers	+2	69	72	72	75	288
T67	D.A. Points	+3	72	65	74	78	289
T67	Stuart Appleby	+3	72	71	70	76	289
MDF	Kevin Chappell	E	71	70	73	–	214
MDF	Graham DeLaet	E	66	77	71	–	214
MDF	Kent Jones	E	71	74	69	–	214
MDF	Kris Blanks	E	70	72	72	–	214
MDF	Billy Horschel	E	70	72	72	–	214
MDF	Ryuji Imada	E	67	74	73	–	214
MDF	Martin Flores	E	73	73	68	–	214
MDF	Bryce Molder	E	67	74	73	–	214
MDF	Martin Laird	E	70	71	73	–	214
MDF	Derek Lamely	E	74	68	72	–	214
MDF	John Peterson	E	70	75	69	–	214
MDF	Sam Saunders	E	72	68	74	–	214

AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Leader Board Through Three Rounds

Written by: Tony Korologos | Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

Below is the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am leader board through three rounds. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are paired together in the final round today and in contention just four shots back. The big question with Tiger is can he put a fourth good round together and if so, will it be enough to catch Charlie Wi.

Below there are three abbreviations: 1. CUT = Player missed the cut. 2. MDF = Made cut, didn’t finish (that strange recent rule where players can actually make the cut and be in the money without playing following cut day). 3. WD = Withdrew.

Click here to see the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am TV coverage schedule. (more…)

AT&T Pebble Beach Leader Board Through Two Rounds

Written by: Tony Korologos | Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

Here’s the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am leader board through two rounds. Phil Mickelson is T8 and Tiger Woods starts Saturday six shots back of Charlie Wi. Good news for Phil and Tiger is that they’re playing Pebble, which is playing easier.
(more…)

Wilson FG Tour X Golf Ball Review

Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, February 10th, 2012
Categories: Golf Balls • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear • Reviews
Tags: Golf Balls • Wilson Golf

With the PGA Merchandise Show in the rear view mirror and spring coming, I’m happy to get back on my review schedule. Love doing golf equipment reviews. Fortunately the weather around here hasn’t been like the massive snow-in we had last winter. We have been very thin on the snow here in Salt Lake, meaning many of the lower altitude courses have been open much of the winter. This has allowed me to record some rounds, albeit not terribly warm, and evaluate some gear like the Wilson FG Tour X golf balls.

FG Tour X Overview

Wilson Staff FG Tour X Golf Ball – click to see more

The FG Tour X is a multilayer golf ball with a cast Urethane cover. Urethane is typically the material used in the outer layer of “premium” golf balls. The design of the golf ball is geared for distance first and spin second, but read my comments below on the spin and cover.

The compression level of this ball is said to be 93. I would call that a medium compression ball. Back in the old days 90 was softer and 100 was hard. A visit to the Wilson FG Tour X product page is a bit confusing on the compression. Under the product details the first sentence says “–piece features a higher compression distance ball wrapped in a thin, soft veneer of cast urethane.” I’m not sure what “–piece” means. Sounds like they need to fill in the blank there. To the right on product specs the first line says “Compression Low.” So we have two seemingly contradicting statements, one saying the ball is higher compression and one saying it is low compression.

On The Course

Typically I don’t like the hardness of “distance” balls, except for a few which now includes the FG Tour X. This ball does not feel “hard.” In fact I really can feel it compress on every club in the bag, except of course the putter. On 2nd thought, if I were putting on the massive greens at St. Andrews, I might actually compress it with a 400 foot putt. I’ll have to go try that. …Okay I’m back. The ball compresses nicely and easily, even for my slower “granny dual chicken wing” swing.

Driving the ball is fun. This ball flies very straight and does a very fine job in windy conditions. I have a very strong and mid-height launch angle with the FG Tour X, which I really like. And yes of course–this ball is long.

Irons are a pleasure to play with the FG Tour X. I can feel the ball compress on the club face and I feel like I have great control of the ball.

Short game is the BEST part of this ball, which does sound odd and contradicting to the ball being a “distance” ball. Every time I chip or pitch with this ball, my playing partners comment on the spin and check I’m getting. They’ve watched me fail to check those types of shots for years and it surprises them and me when I can check/stop the FG Tour X on a dime. The urethane cover of this ball seems a bit different than others. Just taking the balls out of the box they feel more sticky and tacky. That extra tackiness is big for me around the greens.

When putting, the ball rolls straight and true. Distance control on the greens is easy.

Wilson FG Tour X Golf Balls – click for more

Durability

Unlike most urethane covered high performance golf balls, this ball is actually durable! Even cart paths (and I’ve hit several with these balls) don’t do much damage. High spin square grooved wedges (yes I’m not on the PGA Tour and can still play square grooves) don’t shred the cover.

I’m very happy with the durability.

Conclusion

Admittedly I wouldn’t normally get excited if I found a Wilson ball in the bushes when searching for my previous errant shot. But if I find an FG Tour X, that one is going into the gamer pocket on the golf bag and not the shag bag. These balls are good!

Older posts

Newer posts

« Previous 1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 12 Next »