No relief for Retief

Image by Stewart Ho via FlickrRetief Goosen was struck by lightening as a kid and blown out of his clothes. This is the reason given to explain his lack of personality and may also explain why he made a complete ass of himself this week with his comments about Tiger.
Asked about Tiger's US Open victory, Goosen suggested that Tiger was making more of his injury than was actually true - "Nobody really knows if he was just showing off or if he was really injured. I believe if he was really injured he would not have played" said Goosen.

When the true extent of Tiger's injury was revealed on Wednesday, Goosen back-peddled somewhat - “I was being light-hearted,” he told The London Times. “No one but Tiger knows how badly hurt he was. But if he was really badly hurt, he would have withdrawn, wouldn’t he?”

No Retief, you would have withdrawn and that highlights the difference between you and Tiger. You can't imagine playing hurt because like many other Tour players you've become over-payed and soft. Tiger can't imagine giving up and I for one can't wait to see him return and continue to kick your sorry butt for many more years.

Maybe next time you'll wait for the facts before you open your mouth and spout a bunch of garbage about someone else's injury, who do you think you are - Johnny Miller?

Economic Effects of Tiger's Injury

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeDid you stop to consider the wide ranging effects on the economy that will result from Tiger's forced absence from the game?
Attendance at tournaments will be lower, affecting gate receipts, food and beverage sales and merchandise sales and requiring less staff for the events. Sales tax receipts will also be down.
TV advertising revenues will be down for the events that Tiger would have played. Golf fans who only tune in to watch Tiger will find something else to do and may be lost from the golf audience forever.
Less people will be inspired to try golf, resulting in less equipment sales, less lessons taken and less rounds played.
This may be an early knee-jerk reaction but several of my clients have said that they won't watch golf again till Tiger returns and I must admit that my enthusiasm for the remaining two majors has waned significantly.
Has one athlete ever had such an economic impact on the US economy? I doubt it.
So get well soon Tiger, we need you, your country needs you and the economy needs you.

Tiger Wins, now what?

Image by thegordons via FlickrSo now it's official, Tiger is the 2008 US Open Champion and this was the most exciting US Open I've ever seen. All credit to Rocco Mediate, what a great competitor - he never gave up, but Tiger isn't the number one player in the world for nothing. He showed us that even playing hurt he is a force to be reckoned with.

The question now is "Will he play in the British Open?". Frankly I doubt it, we may not see him before the PGA Championship in August where he is the defending champion. This time he will make sure that his rehab is complete and that he's completely cleared by his doctors.

As for Rocco, doubtless he's disappointed but he seems to have a realistic handle on the enormity of what he achieved. He rose into the top 50 in the World Rankings and that will give him access to opportunities that he never had before this weekend. He may also have just played himself onto the Ryder Cup team where he will be a great asset for the USA. If Paul Azinger doesn't team Rocco and Tiger on the first day he's crazy.

Amateur's in the Women's Open

Image via WikipediaOne of the notable things about this year's USGA Women's Open will be the number of amateurs that qualified - one of my student's qualified for the third consecutive time as an amateur.
At the San Diego qualifying site, 9 of the top ten qualifiers were amateurs, the exception being Liselotte Neumann, a former Open winner.
Last year at Pine Needles, 4 amateurs made the cut. I'll be surprised if any amateurs play on the weekend at Torrey Pines.
The presence of great amateurs is a good sign for the long term health of the game and it's a great incentive to juniors coming up on the ranks to see that they have a change to play in the national championship as they are grooving their games for the pro ranks.