Wed May 23 12:37pm EDT
So in an attempt to inject a bit more life and interest into tournaments, and because we're all inveterate gamblers who are one bad card from being out on the streets, Jay Busbee and I are playing a golf version of a football suicide pool: We each pick one golfer per tournament and see how they do against each other, straight up. Victory over the other guy gets one point, victory in the tournament gets three points, and a tie between two of the three lands you half a point. (Double for the majors.) And when we burn a golfer, he's done for the year. We turn our attention to the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
Wall: I hate burning this guy before the second major of the year, but I have to take Rickie Fowler. Aside from the breakthrough win at Quail Hollow, he posted a runner-up finish the following week at the Players Championship. That's three Top 10s in his last three starts, which is reason enough for me to take the hot hand. He's never had a high finish at Colonial, but over the last two years he's posted rounds of 63 and 64. I like his chances, especially with the newfound confidence. Let's keep the Showdown rout going!
Busbee: Zach Johnson's my pick this week. His last tour victory came right here at Colonial, so he knows the course. He's quietly putting together a heck of a season, with two runnerup finishes in his last three starts. (They bracket a T69 at the Wells Fargo, but let's ignore that.) He's primed to bust out his first win in two years this weekend. Or at least beat whoever you're running out. Please...?
Last week: Once again, Busbee's selection didn't even make the weekend, as Adam Scott posted 4-over at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Wall's pick of Jason Day finished T-9, giving him his second consecutive point. Do I smell a blowout coming?
Current score: Wall - 3.5, Busbee - 1.5.
Wed May 23 11:48am EDT
It's time for the latest Devil Ball Power Rankings, our look at who's up and who's down in the world of golf. Your panelists are an esteemed group of the world's greatest golf journalists ... or so our mothers tell us. Devil Ball Golf's Jay Busbee and Jonathan Wall, CBS Sports/Eye on Golf's Shane Bacon, and Golf Channel/Golf Talk Central's Ryan Ballengee bring you these, our rankings. Enjoy, and read on to see how you can be a part of the festivities.
1. Luke Donald. Does Luke seem like a No. 1 golfer to you? He needs to get a little more feisty. Brag a little more, you know? Own it. Last week: T1.
2. Rory McIlroy. Rory and Caroline Wozniacki play tennis together. That's so cute. Good thing he's not dating a pop star; last thing we need is to hear Rory screeching out some karaoke. Last week: 3.
3. Matt Kuchar. Poor Kuch. The guy's receding hairline startles us every time he takes off his cap. Better that, though, than a rug. Unless it's one of those Rory wigs. Last week: T1.
4. Jason Dufner. Dude looks like every schlub that joins your foursome and brings beer as an icebreaker. He ought to go hustle some cats before he gets recognized worldwide. Last week: NR.
5. Bubba Watson. Bubba ought to wear his green jacket in the next Golf Boys video. That'd go over well. Last week: 4.
6. Rickie Fowler. Rickie might just be the real deal, but let's not push it too far just yet. Last week: 5.
7. Hunter Mahan. Hunter looks like the kind of guy who'd bum ten bucks off you every day and forget to give it back, and then return it all in the form of a brand-new surfboard. Last week: 6.
8. Lee Westwood. Think Lee is getting nervous about the majors yet? Last week: 7.
9. Phil Mickelson. Decent Texas run by Phil, though it fell short. What would you do if you were already a Hall of Famer in your chosen profession? Last week: 8.
10. Justin Rose. Good thing he's not an American, or he'd be hearing "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" everywhere he went. Last week: 9.
Also receiving votes: Carl Pettersson, Tiger Woods, Kyle Stanley, Johnson Wagner.
Want in on the Power Rankings voting? Email us and make the case for why we should make you our guest voter for the week. Points given for good stories and good arguments.
Wed May 23 10:24am EDT
Follow Jonathan Wall on Twitter at @jonathanrwall
Fort Worth, Texas — It's Tuesday afternoon and TaylorMade's Tour Van is humming. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial won't start for another couple of days, but for TaylorMade's two full-time club technicians, Wade Liles (the "face" of the van) and Henry Luna, the week is already in full swing.
PGA Tour winner Sean O'Hair stands off to the side, waiting for the loft and lie on his irons to be dialed in. About 15 minutes later Rory Sabbatini stops in for a minute (literally) to grind his wedges before heading back to the range. And within a couple minutes of his departure, Liles is discussing some tweaks to Brian Gay's 3-wood, before adjusting and re-gripping a RBZ driver for Y.E. Yang.
This isn't a busy time of the day for the TaylorMade Tour Van. Far from it. If anything, it's just another typical Tuesday on the road for Liles and Luna, who seem to fly around the van's three work stations, re-shafting at one, before moving on to the next to grind a wedge.
"We set this truck up on Sunday at the next tour stop to get everything ready for the start of the work week," Liles said. "Then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it's pretty much like NASCAR. We're tuning up everything for the week, adjusting it for the course, weather conditions ... anything that we believe will give our guys an edge out there."
For most golf fans who frequent PGA Tour events starting on Thursday, the tour van is a mythical figure. Most know it exists, but by the time you arrive, TaylorMade's Tour Van, like the rest of the club manufacturers, is long gone — headed down the road to the next stop.
"A lot of people don't even know these trailers exist out here," Liles said. "In NASCAR, the pit crews are highly visible in the industry, but in this industry it's not. We're almost kept a secret. We're in the ropes or under the trees where no one can see us."
While fans might not see the work being done behind the scenes each week, Liles and his crew are a critical part of the team. They work hand in hand on a weekly basis with all of TaylorMade's staffers, not only helping them tweak their clubs, if need be, but also acting as a sounding board if they're in between drivers or wedges.
Wed May 23 08:26am EDT
It's tournament time! The PGA Tour moves to Fort Worth this week for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club, the second leg of the Texas two-step through the DFW Metroplex. Here's a tournament primer to get you prepared for the week.
The course: One of the most historic courses on the PGA Tour, Colonial hosts the longest running non-major tournament held at one site. The fact that Ben Hogan was a member here tells you everything you need to know about the layout: It's built for solid ball-strikers. At only 7,204 yards, there aren't many holes on the course that require driver off the tee. With only two par-5s, Colonial puts premium on scoring by hitting as many fairways and greens as possible. There's a reason why some of the shorter hitters on tour (Zach Johnson, David Toms, Steve Stricker) have thrived here in the past. Like Harbour Town Golf Links (site of the Heritage), being dialed in with your short irons is critical at Colonial. With tress lining a majority of the holes, getting aggressive is the wrong play. The course has undergone some changes in the last year to toughen up the layout, including adding some well-positioned fairway bunkers to deter golfers from pulling driver and cutting off the dogleg. While they may come in handy during the tournament week, they frustrated Phil Mickelson to the point that the two-time winner pulled out of the tournament and hinted that he might not return in the future. If there's one hole to watch at Colonial, it's par-4 fifth hole. At 481 yards, it requires the most precise drive of the day. Anything left finds a ditch and trees running along the hole; the right side has the Trinity River to contend with. Even a deep poke could leave a long approach to a tricky green. The course ranked as the 22nd-most difficult on tour last year with a stroke average of +0.082 over par.
The schedule: The tournament runs Thursday-Sunday. It'll be broadcast on the Golf Channel from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday; and on CBS from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.
The field: Matt Kuchar (No. 5) and Hunter Mahan (6) are the only members of the Official World Golf Ranking top-10 in the field this week. But that doesn't mean the tournament is lacking big names. Rickier Fowler, David Toms (defending champion), Zach Johnson, Jason Dufner, Ryo Ishikawa, Louis Oosthuizen and Geoff Ogilvy are also teeing it up at Colonial.
Wed May 23 07:36am EDT
Rory McIlroy may not be a fan of the San Francisco Giants (or baseball for that matter), but the Bay Area team plans to immortalize the 23-year-old in bobblehead form anyway during a game against the Astros later this year.
If you're wondering why the Giants are even giving McIlroy some bobblehead love in the first place, the game happens to take place the same week as the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco, so the marketing gimmick makes sense.
No word yet if he's going to show up for Irish Heritage Night or throw out the first pitch, but as defending U.S. Open champ, I don't think anyone would blame him if he passed on the game.
Even if he does decide to pass, I'd ask the Giants for a couple of those bobbleheads. Unlike some of the awful ones out there on the market, this one looks pretty darn good. Well done, Giants! Now if you could just learn how to correctly spell the name of your hometown. (See the opener of the advertisement.)
Tue May 22 10:09pm EDT
Welcome to the new season of Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Jonathan Wall take a day's topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com, or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @jonathanrwall. Today, we consider whether the first win is the toughest.
Busbee: So Jason Dufner wins for the second time in three weeks! Bravo, Mr. Dufner. Now, that brings up the old question: is the first win the toughest? For some cats, it absolutely is. For me, I won my first Tour event at age 14. (You're not going to find me in the record books. I was scrubbed from the official record.) But SERIOUSLY, let's kick this around. What do you think makes it easier to get that second win after the first?
Wall: So you won a tournament at 14, huh? I may have to do some digging to find the lost photos of a young Mr. Busbee in his Jack Nicklaus getup, hoisting a trophy over his head. Getting back on track, I think the easy answer is that the pressure to win your first is no longer there. Sure, you're going to feel the butterflies down the stretch, but you now have a newfound confidence that when you get in the same situation again, you can close things out. The first win is definitely the toughest, and as we've seen from Jason Dufner over the last 22 days, it does get a heck of a lot easier the next time around.
Tue May 22 08:01am EDT
Some fine shots from the weekend's play, spotlit by Nick Flanagan's amazing bank shot off the hospitality tent. Why was that No. 5, huh? But plenty more from friends like Jason Dufner and Phil Mickelson. Enjoy.
Mon May 21 10:30am EDT
Nick Flanagan had one heck of a Sunday at the Nationwide Tour's BMW Charity Pro-Am. After making birdie on the final hole of the tournament by bouncing his ball off the grandstand behind the green to within 15 feet of the cup (you can check out the highlights here), the Aussie went on to secure the tournament in a three-hole playoff over Cameron Percy for his first win since 2007.
Needless to say, it was a big day for Mr. Flanagan. He not only pocketed a cool $108,000, but also walked away with another sweet parting gift: the oversized check. Yep, just like "Happy Gilmore," Nick Flanagan appears to be an oversized check collector.
After his round, he tweeted the above photo from his car with the following message:
Feel like happy Gilmore driving home. Thank you everyone for the support. Effing legends! Yewwwwww! twitter.com/4flanagan/stat…
— Nick Flanagan (@4flanagan) May 21, 2012
I always wondered what happened to those oversized checks. I guess we now have our answer. The only question that remains is if those things can be deposited at the bank. I'd sure like to see Nick Flanagan attempt to put that thing in his account.
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Mon May 21 08:38am EDT
Let's be honest, we're all incredibly busy. Nobody has time to sit down and watch four rounds of golf coverage -- unless, of course, you watch TV for a living, and if that's the case, please email us your number. So in an effort to condense the tournament coverage for you into a few quick hits, here are five things we learned from the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
Jason Dufner the real deal? It sure looks that way — Remember when we all questioned when, if ever, Jason Dufner was going to win a PGA Tour tournament? Yeah, we can all look back on those days and laugh now. After his win at the Nelson, Dufner now has two wins in a 22-day span. Not only that, he's positioned himself as a major force on tour by making some big-game putts, something that seemed to elude him over the last couple of years. After the choke job at the PGA Championship, he's looking more and more like the real deal following another impressive win. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on my waggle.
J.J. Henry misses out on a golden opportunity to resurrect his career — Winning on the PGA Tour is usually a blessing. But in J.J. Henry's case, it's been nothing but a curse. After winning the Buick Championship and making the Ryder Cup team in 2006, Henry's career went into a tailspin. He hasn't finished higher than 76th in the FedEx Cup standing, and through the early part of this season appeared to hit rock bottom when he missed five consecutive cuts. While you should never put a lot of weight into one tournament, Henry had a chance this week to turn his career around, and through 70 holes he had a legitimate chance, until a three-putt double-bogey on the 17th hole took him from a one-shot lead to a one-shot deficit. Henry can console himself with his $312,000 third-place check (the most he's made in one week since the 2010 Turning Stone Championship), but he has to feel like he let a perfect opportunity get away from him this week.
Dicky Pride comes within a single shot of a fairytale ending — Dicky Pride was thisclose from producing one of the greatest storylines of the season. The 42-year-old, who hasn't played full time on the PGA Tour since 2002 (severe health problems limited his playing time), has been a mere footnote over the last 10 years. He almost changed that on Sunday. Hanging around the lead all day, Pride found himself within a shot of Jason Dufner coming to the 18th hole. But after his tee shot found the water, Pride figured his chances were sunk. Far from it. He somehow found a way to hit his third shot on the green, before canning an incredible 22-foot par save. Even though Pride came up a shot short, you have to be impressed with the way he played, especially after being out of the spotlight since his last win 18 years ago (1994 FedEx St Jude Classic).
Mon May 21 08:21am EDT
Shakespeare once wrote that when troubles come, they come not as single spies, but as battalions. For Jason Dufner, the same sentiment holds true for PGA Tour victories. He took down the Byron Nelson this past weekend with a spectacular closing birdie; we've got that here, along with much of the best of the rest from the tournament. Make sure to check out JJ Henry's spectacular ace and Dicky Pride's birdie run, but this was all Dufner, all the time. Congrats to a guy who's won more in the last month than Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Byron Nelson himself combined.
Posted May 23 2012
Preview: Crowne Plaza Invitational
Posted May 22 2012
Fowler news conference before Crowne Plaza
Posted May 23 2012
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Edited By Jay Busbee
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Edited By Chris Chase
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