Posts from the Pga Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg is covering the AT & T National this week and the Washington Post "nominated" (his word, not mine) him to interview Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who was at the tournament Saturday.

After easing into the Q & A (Do you have a policy about mulligans at all?), Steinberg asked some tough questions. Namely, Rice's take on the PGA Tour's news drug-testing program ("... I don't have time to follow such things, but I do think it's important that these sports find a way to be clean..."), her thoughts on Augusta National being a male-only club ("I'm not going to comment on that. It's a private club. I'm not going to comment on it..."), and the President's promise to not play golf as long as the United States is at war, and if Cabinet secretaries have their own policies (Paraphrasing Rice, "to each their own").

But perhaps the most revealing part of the interview was Rice's answer to the question, "Do you have a favorite golfer?"

Lorena Ochoa, the best women's golfer on the planet, wouldn't mind following in the footsteps of the LPGA's previous No. 1 player, Annika Sorenstam.

When a reporter asked Ochoa if she would play against a man, the Mexican said "I am not going to say no." "Perhaps we'll change direction," she added. "I am flexible. We are willing to look at something fun, and it could be fun to play a man."

In 2003, Sorenstam was given a sponsor's exemption to tee it up at the Colonial. She fired an opening round 1-over 71, but would miss the cut after a second round 4-over. Still, Sorenstam played well, particularly since she admitted to being "nervous all day" Thursday.

Her appearance wasn't without controversy, however. Vijay Singh was so excited about a woman competing on the PGA Tour that he got all "pre 19th amendment" about the whole thing:

"It's just different for ladies to play on the men's tour," Singh said. "It's like getting the Williams sisters to play (tennis) against a man, and they're far better athletes than she (Sorenstam) is."

Oh, and at the time, Singh said he would withdraw if he was paired with Sorenstam. Classy. To his credit, he later apologized, so there's that.

As for Ochoa, I'm all for her competing against whomever. Unlike, say, Michelle Wie, who has yet to be competitive on the LPGA, Ochoa has dominated the women's tour. I have very little trouble believing she'd be competitive against men, and that included Vijay. Especially if she catches him when he's yipping his way around the green.

Everybody wondered how the PGA Tour would remain relevant with Tiger Woods on injured reserve, and now we know. In addition to Sideshow Bob and the Traveling Circus making appearances at pro-ams around the country, and the manufactured suspense of who is (or more likely, who isn't) juicin', we have Tom Pernice.

Pernice, on tour since 1983, has two career victories ('99 Buick, '01 International*), and currently ranks 66th on the '08 money list. That could change this week, though; Pernice fired a tournament record 63 in the second round of the AT & T National, and he's currently tied for the lead heading into the weekend.

But the story isn't that some 49-year-old went low at Congressional; the story is that some 49-year-old had some interesting thoughts during his post-round presser, particularly about the world's best one-legged golfer.

First, there was the Tiger Wood-Roger Federer man-crush, and now, not to be outdone, Sergio Garcia has a new BFF: Rafael Nadal. Feel the creepy synergy!

But unlike Federer, who would never waver in his undying devotion to Woods, Nadal is, apparently, less committed to Garcia. When it comes to golf, anyway:

"Tiger is probably my idol," Nadal said. "I never have an idol but he is probably the sportsman who I admire more because I like a lot his mentality.

"I like a lot his eyes when he's going to have the important shot. He is always playing with unbelievable determination in important moments. The last part of the fourth day, only one guy with unbelievable concentration, unbelievable determination and big confidence in yourself. Only Tiger can do something like this.

"I know how tough it is playing having pain, and it is very difficult to have very good concentration when you are, in my case, running or touching the ball and you feel pain. That's unbelievable to win a US Open like this."

When reminded that Garcia was his best friend in the whole wide world, Nadal looked up, shrugged, and could only muster a half-hearted, "it is what it is", before sobbing uncontrollably as he ran from the room.*

Fred Funk is known as one of the best drivers of the golf ball on any tour (he's two years into his Champions Tour stint, but before reaching the half-century mark, that distinction held on the PGA Tour as well), but he's not particularly long off the tee (think Corey Pavin sans frullet and mustache*).

Which is why Funk wasn't all that jazzed with the sixth hole at Congressional Country Club, host of the Tiger-less AT & T National. You see, No. 6 is usually a par 5, but was converted to a par 4 this week. Even though it still measures 518 yards.

"I don't like their mentality with that hole," said Funk, who double-bogeyed the hole to mar his even-par round of 70. "I think it's downright stupid, actually."

Double-bogeys tend to bring out the worst in people, but I take his point. The problem, as Rich Beem noted, is that the green is designed for wedge shots, not long irons or woods. And the results can sometimes lead to high scores.

But that wasn't the worst part of Funk's afternoon. On the 18th, a 466-yard par 4, he hit his drive about 60 yards shorter than average and, more surprisingly, missed the fairway. But there's a perfectly logical explanation: "I had a dragonfly hit my shaft on the way down," Funk said. "And I just totally flinched and hit 150 yards off the tee dead right in the trees."That must've been a humongous dragonfly.

* I know, I know; Pavin hasn't sported that look since the 1990s, but the image is burned into my brain.

Just when I thought the PGA Tour's new drug-testing program couldn't get any more credible, I read this:

In the 237 times Charles Howell III has teed it up on the PGA Tour, he never had a round end like Thursday at the AT&T National. After signing for an even-par 70, he was handed a pink slip.

Howell was among the first players chosen for testing under the tour's Anti-Doping Program that went into effect this week. He left the scoring area at about 5:45 p.m., and came back out to the putting green 40 minutes later. He was given a pink piece of paper showing that his sample was valid.

Weird. Howell, 130 pounds in moon boots, wasn't hopped up on 'roids? Didn't see that coming.

Howell says he doesn't think any PGA Tour player "is taking something they shouldn't be taking," but his fear is "the accidental thing" -- the false-positive. I'm not sure the entire tour is drug-free -- I mean, the laws of probability suggest somebody's juicing -- but I suspect it's most prevalent among fringe players willing to do anything to improve. The thing is, unlike most sports, I'm not sure taking steroids or human growth hormone offers much of an advantage.

Maybe it helps golfers return from injury faster, but in terms of on-course performance, the benefits are pretty inconsequential. Sure, you might be able to drive if farther, but if you couldn't get up-and-down from 50 yards before pharmacological intervention, that won't change.

When Phil Mickelson decided to play the first two rounds of the U.S. Open without his driver, I supported him. He then proceeded to hit 47 percent of the fairways for the tournament (good for last in the field!), and was out of contention by the weekend (and while his accuracy off the tee had something to do with it, this certainly didn't help).

Today, Lucius Riccio, PhD, writes in GolfWeek that maybe Mickelson should've kept his driver in the bag, even though his inability to consistently find the fairway has been an issue throughout his career.

After much adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, Riccio has a nifty table showing the average score of a PGA Tour player (2006 ShotLink data) based on yards to the pin and lie.

Not surprisingly, being in the fairway and closer to the hole correlates with lower scores. But this little nugget is pretty interesting:

It's drug testing day here at the FanHouse, where myself and Ryan Wilson were randomly selected to use that little plastic cup to the best of our ability.

Not sure of our results (outlook hazy), but one thing's for sure, Tiger Woods ain't failing no dang drug test.

According to Tiger, he's been drug tested twice privately and got up-and-down both times.

Woods didn't say when the tests were conducted, but both came back negative. After the first test was clean, he said he changed the brand of amino acid as part of his nutrition program, and wanted to make sure the change didn't alter the results. He said the second test came back negative, too.

Ahh, the excitement of changing brands of amino acid. I sometimes put together "Changing Amino Acid" parties where we all bring our favorite brand and exchange them Secret Santa style. It's more fun if at some point during the party you have a push-up contest and/or arm wrestling championship.

Anyway, I'm not involved in the grinding of gears within the PGA Tour (shocking, I know) but I'd almost guarantee that the bulkiness of Woods was a minor red flag for the implementation of the steroids testing era. Sure, he's no athlete, but he has built his body up to an impressive level that others are striving to reach.

The PGA announced the first golfers they are looking to test and it looks to be Tim Herron, Duffy Waldorf and Boo Weekley.*

Entire sentence might be a lie.

Tiger Woods went under the knife last week, and will be out of service until sometime in 2009, perhaps making his triumphant return to tournament golf around the Masters. Can't wait.

In the meantime, his legend continues to grow, even though he hasn't lifted a finger since winning the U.S. Open. Word on the street is that his most recent surgery won't have any lasting effects (Peter Burns disagrees), and, in fact, Tiger says his left knee should be stronger than ever.

"My left knee has been sore for 10 to 12 years ... It will be nice to finally have a healthy leg. The doctors have assured me that my long-term health will be a hell of a lot better than it's been over the last decade. I'm really looking forward to that."

Okay, I'm calling B.S. on this one (I'm not alone). Ten to 12 years? So, Tiger, you're telling me that if your knee had been at full strength you would've really dominated professional golf? You mean you'd have more than 89 career victories and 14 majors? I find this very hard to believe, yet ... I believe him because, well, he's Tiger Woods. After the peg-leg-cowboy routine at Torrey Pines last month, I'll believe anything.

As the weeks turn to months, I suspect more details will emerge about Tiger's toughness, and we'll all sit in awe of his magnificence. Take, for example, this nugget:

It's finally here: this is the first week the PGA Tour will watch "randomly" selected players pee in a cup under the guise of the new drug-testing policy. Shockingly, most people find the whole sordid affair an affront to humanity. Or, at the very least, they think it's stupid.

Take, for instance, one of the nicest guys on tour, Rocco Mediate, who had some not-so-nice things to say about all this:

"It's the biggest joke in the history of the world ... You could sit in the parking lot and drink a fifth of vodka, and you might get a fine. But if you take Vick's Vapor Rub, you've got to go through the whole system. There are all kinds of things. If you drink a protein shake, and it metabolizes wrong, you're done. It's stupid.

Wait, it's only a fine to pound vodka in the parking lot? Does John Daly know this? (Of course he does.)

Mediate also adds that "there is nothing we can take to help you in golf." I agree with that statement. Unlike most sports, performance-enhancing drugs don't magically make you a competent golfer. Sure, you might be able to hit a golf ball 350 yards, but then what? You win a couple long-drive events? Awesome.

Since PEDs don't do jack for your short game, being 50 yards longer off the tee doesn't mean much if you can't hit greens and make birdie putts. Logic aside, commissioner Tim Finchem is moving forward with his radical plan to eradicate the drug abusers from the PGA Tour. Luckily, HGH lovers will have nothing to worry about, so there's that.

Hat tip: Sporting Blog