Prior to Padraig Harrington winning the Open Championship in 2007, no Irish golfer had won a major in 60 years. Since that victory, Irish golfers have now won 5 of the last 16 major championships. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
CNN recently took a look at the reasons behind the success of Irish golf. Video after the break:
With Martin Kaymer missing the cut 78-72, the #1 world ranking is officially up for grabs this weekend at the Masters. Lee Westwood (#2), Phil Mickelson (#3), Luke Donald (#4), and Tiger (#7) could all take over the number 1 spot depending on how the other contenders finish. Graeme McDowell (#5) missed the cut and because of the math, Paul Casey (#6) can’t move to #1 even if he wins.
You’d have to be a statistician to figure out all of the possible scenarios, but thankfully the Golf Channel’s Randal Mell has laid out the possibilities for the rest of us:
Courtesy of a last week from Graeme McDowell, us mere mortals can get a sneak peek of the view from the back porch of the clubhouse at Augusta last week as they prepared for the Masters. Very cool.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Bh-ZVAz48
Did you see it? Neither did anybody else. Or at least not until a TV viewer using slow motion replay determined that the ball moved forward 3 dimples and back 1.5 dimples, meaning it came to rest in a different position. Harrington knew that his hand brushed the ball but thought it came to rest in the same spot.
Because he didn’t take a 2-stroke penalty, he was DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard.
If you ask me, golf is starting to look a bit silly. We’ve had 2 high profile DQ’s in 3 weeks now, both for completely unintentional and frankly harmless rules violations. Harrington’s violation had absolutely no material effect on the outcome of his round, but he’s receiving the same penalty as somebody that willfully cheated.
Padraig Harrington, currently 26th in the world rankings, recently told the Irish Golf Desk that he believes he can become the #1 player in the world.
I think Tiger has opened it up to everybody else. In fact, I am closer to being world No 1 now than I was when I was world No 3.
Technically, that is true. He’s currently less than 6 points behind Lee Westwood compared to almost 11 points behind Tiger in 2008 when he was ranked 3rd. But does anybody besides Harrington think that he’s got a legitimate shot at becoming the world #1?
Professional Darts Player Phil Taylor - He came in 2nd in the voting for BBC Sports Personality of the Year
Phil Taylor didn’t have a fancy campaign video, but he apparently has more fans than Graham McDowell because he finished ahead of McDowell in 2nd place for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.
Graeme McDowell certainly did have a dream-like 2010. He won the US Open, secured the win for Europe in the final match of the Ryder Cup, and was the first person to ever come back and beat Tiger on a Sunday when trailing by 4 shots or more. Not a bad year at all.
This video does raise an interesting question though. Europe is often said to have more camaraderie on tour than the US. Can you imagine a group of American players on the PGA Tour getting together to make a video like that? No? Me neither.
This past week, Tiger toyed with us. He made us think that he was back and would come roaring out of the gate next month to dominate golf once again. But instead, he showed that while he’s close, he’s not quite there. He played 3 brilliant rounds of golf and one mediocre round that cost him the tournament.
For what it’s worth, my 2 cents is that he’s really, really close to being back. His swing looks solid and for at least the first 3 days, he putted like he was Tiger Woods.
Tiger shot a first round 65 today to take the lead at the Chevron World Challenge ahead of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. He has a chance to take back the #1 world ranking with a win this week against the 18-man field.
This round follows a strong finish a few weeks ago in Australia. Is Tiger Back? Or is the fact that a couple of strong rounds is leading many to ask that very question just a sign of how rocky his 2010 performance has been? Either way, having Tiger in the mix at a tournament (even an 18-man silly season event) is good for golf.
