O’Hair Psychs Himself Out
March 31, 2009
Tiger Woods entered the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a five shot deficit to make up again 54 hole leader Sean O’Hair. To that point in the tournament, O’Hair had played almost flawless golf among a field that was struggling to corral the Bay Hill layout. Even if it were played at its true par of 72, scoring at Arnie’s place still would have seemed out of whack.
The final threesome, though – with former Masters champion Zach Johnson – proved to be the downfall for O’Hair. Among the players that finished in the top ten on the final leaderboard, O’Hair was the only player other than Jason Gore to post a score worse than 70. In other words, as fantastic as Woods was to post 67 and win the tournament for the sixth time, Sean O’Hair served it up to him.
O’Hair’s struggles with the 54 hole lead are nothing new. In three other PGA Tour events in which he has held the third round lead, O’Hair has failed to win all of them. Both of his PGA Tour wins – ‘05 John Deere Classic & ‘08 Transitions Championship – were come from behind victories.
His most famous loss has to be the 2007 Players Championship. O’Hair entered the final round with a two shot advantage. Trailing Phil Mickelson by a shot on the 17th hole, O’Hair pumped his tee ball into the water twice en route to losing the championship and finishing tied for 11th place. It could be argued that the failure to win really had more to do with a gimmick hole than O’Hair.
Still, to fail now in three other tries with the 54 hole lead indicates a pattern of struggling to succeed in the most optimal position entering the final round.
It could be easy to simply chalk up this loss at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to the allure and intimidation of Tiger Woods. Perhaps that is part of the reason for the collapse.
Then again, Zach Johnson was one-under par in the final threesome with Woods. Johnson certainly faced no pressure from Woods because he was not in contention until the final two or three holes, when he secured third place with great play.
It was on O’Hair to maintain his massive lead, win for the first time with the third round lead in tow, and stare down the best player in the universe to prevent him from making his comeback victory happen on O’Hair’s watch. Admittedly, that can produce a lot of pressure.
O’Hair maintained throughout the press conference on Saturday night that he would play his own game, ignore Woods for better or worse, and do everything he could to win. Unfortunately, O’Hair never really found the game that got him into that coveted position. He flared to the right almost all day. Consistently short on putts, O’Hair struggled to hole out at crucial times to stave off Woods’ charge. O’Hair may very well have played his own game, but it simply was not there. With no good play to focus on, O’Hair’s mind was likely sucked into the vortex of Tiger Woods’ intimidating aura.
Sean O’Hair is a very talented kid. He is in his mid-twenties and will have many years on Tour to figure out how to win while leading the pack. O’Hair, though, is not unique in his struggles to learn how to win. In fact, he is among a group of twenty-somethings that cannot seem to thrive when the pressure is applied.
It may have something to do with the pace of play of O’Hair and his peers. O’Hair is one of the slowest players on the PGA Tour. As the round drew out and Woods grew closer, O’Hair became even more deliberate in his routine. The longer that O’Hair took to play, the worse the results seemed to be.
The old Bobby Jones saying is that “golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.” O’Hair may well psych himself out in the time that it takes for him to select a club, practice his new mechanics, visualize the shot, get all of the bad thoughts out of his head, and swing the club. For O’Hair, sports psychology may be failing him because he is using it to an extreme.
I have always found that I play my best golf when the sun is about to set. The only reason that I can think of to explain the trend is that I play quicker and with better focus as the sun is setting. If I can play both quickly and well, then I’m more likely to finish my round.
It seems apropos, then, to offer this as advice to Sean O’Hair on the day after the Arnold Palmer Invitational was stolen from him in the dusk:
Stop burning daylight.
Return of the Mick: The Old Lefty is Back
March 17, 2009
In Phil Mickelson’s illustrious career, he had never won a World Golf Championship event. That fact was among the many knocks on Mickelson, particularly compared to Tiger Woods – whose shadow Mickelson has been in for over a decade.
Mickelson had never won at Doral, either, though he had stared down the aforementioned world number one on this very course in 2005. The epic battle resulted in another Woods victory, but stands as one of the few instances in which Mickelson challenged Woods in a showdown.
This week, though, Woods was still experiencing ring rust and was never a contender. Mickelson, on the other hand, was in charge from wire-to-wire as much as Lefty could be. Locked in a battle of who would lose the championship first, Mickelson found a way to survive against Nick Watney and a surging Jim Furyk to win the CA Championship.
Per usual, Mickelson did not win pretty. He made strategic errors that had him in almost every conceivable hazard this weekend. He played shots right-handed (quite well, in fact). Mickelson was forced into a host of awkward bunker shots and greenside chips to get out of trouble.
Fortunately for Mickelson, he has the innate talent to be able to get out of the trouble that he causes himself time and again. Nick Watney told reporters in a press conference that he admired Mickelson’s ability to have the same focus on any shot, regardless of the outcome of the prior shot. That ability was on full display during the week as Mickelson simultaneously ravaged and was ravaged by the Blue Monster.
Mickelson led the field in a number of categories, including birdies and was second in putts per round. In other words, some of the stats made Mickelson’s performance look seamless. Other revealed the truth about Mickelson’s game. He was near the bottom of the field in pars and bogeys. Those stats are demonstrative of the classic Mickelson approach to golf.
He is an aggressive player that is unapologetic about his strategic and mental blunders because he knows that he has the talent to bail himself out when needed. Keeping his foot on the pedal is the best way for Mickelson to compete. The results may vary wildly from shot to shot, but the aggressive approach is the one that yields the best end results.
Since the meltdown at Winged Foot in 2006, Mickelson had become demonstrably less aggressive on the course. He was overthinking through the round and in his physical and mental preparation for tournaments. The culmination of this self-imposed psyche out came at the US Open at Torrey Pines when Mickelson opted to not carry a driver on one of the longest major championship layouts ever played.
In 2009, Mickelson appears to have reverted back to the player that has a raw and exciting approach to tournament golf. For all of the polish and poise that Woods shows in his wins, Mickelson is at his best when it appears that he has no control whatsoever. Before Mickelson went on to win three major championships, he said that he would win them his way and playing his style. He may not have won two Masters titles and a PGA Championship with the exact same aggressive style that he showed this week, but what Mickelson showed at Doral is a lot more similar to the best of Mickelson than the one that was moving sideways in his career in the past two and a half seasons.
Butch Harmon, Mickelson’s teacher, has said that Mickelson is playing some of the best golf he has ever seen him play since working with him. The results seem to be indicated that Harmon is right. They also seem to show that the Phil Mickelson we know is back and ready to become a major champion again.
Saying Goodbye to the Old Girl of Broad Street
March 11, 2009
PHILADELPHIA – Three other modern venues elicit attention when entering Broad Street after exiting the Walt Whitman Bridge. It isn’t until you scan the literal quadrant of stadiums and arenas that the smaller building catches the eye amidst the modern sporting palaces that comprises the landscape.
Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles, is the conspicuous facility because of its size. Even in the offseason, the ballpark across the parking lot is noticeable because of a bright red sign and a message board proclaiming its home inhabitant as Major League Baseball champions. Citizens Bank Park, which opened in 2004, is the home of Phillies while the Eagles’ home field is one year older. Rounding out the last of the newer stadiums is the home of the Flyers and 76ers, which opened way back in 1996.
But amid the new palaces for this city’s sports teams sits a haunt for generations of Philadelphia entertainment fans. Like the aforementioned venues, the Spectrum’s formal name is preceded by a corporate sponsor. But while the arena doesn’t host big league events anymore, many sports fan have been making the trek to see a historic site that is scheduled to be razed this spring.
The Spectrum has been like an old friend to a sports-crazed city since it opened in 1967. There are many similarities between the old barn and Nassau Coliseum, which is undergoing a major public relations campaign by the Islanders to renovate what is considered by many fans to be an outdated facility.
Yet the Spectrum is undeniably one of the most storied places in North American sports. It has hosted two NBA All-Star Games and four Finals series, six Stanly Cup Finals series (one more than the Coliseum) and two All-Star contests, two Finals Fours and crossed over into the entertainment world, with banners still hanging that chronicled the Grateful Dead tours. From the cinema world, the Spectrum was in the script of the famous “Rocky” fight against Apollo Creed and the actual building at one time was the location of the famous statue to honor the fictional Rocky Balboa (sorry, Philly fans, he is just a character and not a real champion).
Some fans like Will Janson said some non-sports events will make the demolition of the Spectrum a sad day and could prompt him to take home some memorabilia before the doors close for good.
“I actually had the prettiest girl in the world sitting on my shoulders during a David Bowie concert in ‘76″ Janson said. “She actually still lives in the neighborhood. I’ll try and grab a section of the wall and I’m going to try and grab my seats.”
The Spectrum serves as the home to the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers’ farm team. Though long since outdated for the modern NHL, the capacity of 17,380 for hockey allows fans to sit close to the ice, making it easy to envision the heyday of one of the most intimidating places to play for visiting teams when the Flyers were racking up consistent playoff appearances decades ago.
“I like the comradery here,” Brett Marino said during an intermission of a Phantoms game. “Everybody’s always glad to be here and glad to see a good game. It’s a shame. I’ll hate to see it go.”
Purple stanchions on the glass give the place a unique look and portraits of past Flyers and 76ers great players and coaches are painted on the walls of the narrow corridors that stretch around the arena. Instead of an eagle-eye view of the action from the press box on the luxury box level, the press sits between the two-tiers of seats, sitting within ear-shot of the crowd. A small staircase actually located inside the media area allows access to the dressing room by descending two flights of stairs into the rickety underbelly that has served as the dressing room for Hall of Famers and A-list celebrities.
Passageways directly next to the benches lead from the dressing room to the ice, making the players who enter and exit the playing surface are level with the first rows of seats. Players are literally within touching distance of the fans. It’s easy to imagine fans of the Broad Street Bullies taunting future Islanders Hall of Famers during the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Islanders were able to hold off a Philadelphia team that went undefeated for 35 games during the regular season to win the first of its four straight titles.
“The building is outdated ,but you can’t beat the seating here,” said Chris Poole, who has been coming to the Spectrum for the past three decades. “I saw my first concert here [to watch] Kiss.”
Almost 140,000 fans have passed through the Spectrum’s gates this season. Overall, the Phantoms average nearly 7,000 per game. Claude Giroux, the Flyers 2006 first-round pick who started the year in the AHL before getting called up, said it meant extra playing in the Spectrum.
“Every game, they cheer a lot,” Giroux said after a December win against Hartford. “It’s a big motivation every time we play here. We’re lucky to have those fans.”
New arenas seat closer to 20,000 people and offer amenities like more leg room, cup holders and wider lobbies, though there is usually a tradeoff with fans sitting further from ice level. The Devils’ new home in Newark exemplifies the dichotomy between modern perks and things like great sight lines for which old barns like the Spectrum were noted. Some fans like the close-quarter feelings a 42-year-old arena provides.
“It just has a nice feel,” Michelle Penkrot said. “It’s nice that it’s a little smaller.”
A patch that that espouses the arena as “America’s Showplace” is being worn on Phantoms jerseys this season. It is influenced by the original logo, replete with 1960s-era color scheme. The Phantoms could move to Allentown, Pa. next season after Comcast Spectator, the Spectrum’s owner, sold the team to Brooks Group of Pittsburgh. While those plans have not been finalized, there will certainly be a literal and figurative vacancy at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.
“It’s very intimate,” Jansen said. “You’re close to [the action]. It’s old style now, well, it wasn’t back then. But it’s just perfect.”
Ogilvy is New Golf Overlord
March 2, 2009
Geoff Ogilvy has won twice so far on the PGA Tour in 2009 – the only man to do so. He also won the Australian PGA Championship at the end of 2008. He has won three times in a very short period.
His performance this weekend at Dove Mountain was the sight to behold on a week in which all eyes were glued to the wrong place. It was certainly great that Tiger Woods is back and playing golf. Having the best athlete in the world back on Tour is a positive. Still, Woods is human and will take some time before he is fully able to play at a level at which he is accustomed.
In the meantime, this is a great opportunity for golf fans to really appreciate the kind of player that Geoff Ogilvy has become. Evolving from a player known more for his anger and errant driver, Ogilvy is now a fantastic iron player with a very cool demeanor.
Those two characteristics work extremely well in a match play scenario. He is now a two-time winner of the Accenture Match Play and has a better winning percentage in the event than the aforementioned Woods. In other words, Ogilvy has won half of his four starts in an event that does not lend itself to that kind of success.
At a record of 17-2, Ogilvy has disposed of a wealth of global golf talent in this event. He has made three very deep runs in the championship. This week, he took out the rising phenom Rory McIlroy. He beat a red hot golfer and friend in Paul Casey. The margins he won by were not particularly dominant until the final, but he had a fantastic sense of timing. Making critical putts when he needed to do so, Ogilvy found a way to strike the crucial match play balance of playing within yourself and within the match.
Critics might say that match play is “fickle,” but really that’s a convenient excuse. At best, it is a cliche term meant to describe the idea of the “one game scenario” that is so feared in other professional sports. The hallmark of a great match player is one that can keep their head in every shot of the round. They don’t take holes off to relax or lose sight of the end game, even when the natural ups and downs of the round happen. After all, match play comes down to playing good enough to beat your opponent – not breaking the course record, or making a certain number. Ogilvy is mentally tough enough to know this and is physically gifted enough to be able to call on it under the bright desert sunlight.
At 31, Ogilvy is hitting the prime age normally attributed to golfers. He is hitting that stride brilliantly by winning twice last season in two significant tournaments and already twice this season. The confidence in himself grows with every round. Ogilvy is now fourth in the world and within striking distance of Phil Mickelson in third. Sergio Garcia is not all that far away either. Given the longer-term period that the Official World Golf Ranking covers, it makes sense that Ogilvy is not second. One would also be able to argue that Padraig Harrington should be second since he won the last two tournaments that really matter most.
Perhaps this is too much loaded praise for Geoff Ogilvy. I would hate to be accused of Geoff Worship in the way that so many accuse the golf media of worshipping one Tiger Woods. Ogilvy is not Woods, and neither are a deity. Still, Ogilvy is undergoing a remarkable maturity before our very eyes and it is something that should be appreciated. It is not a maturity that should be shielded by the overhyped comeback of a player already proven himself as the best ever. Ogilvy deserves his due credit.
Ogilvy is New Golf Overlord
March 2, 2009
Geoff Ogilvy has won twice so far on the PGA Tour in 2009 – the only man to do so. He also won the Australian PGA Championship at the end of 2008. He has won three times in a very short period.
His performance this weekend at Dove Mountain was the sight to behold on a week in which all eyes were glued to the wrong place. It was certainly great that Tiger Woods is back and playing golf. Having the best athlete in the world back on Tour is a positive. Still, Woods is human and will take some time before he is fully able to play at a level at which he is accustomed.
In the meantime, this is a great opportunity for golf fans to really appreciate the kind of player that Geoff Ogilvy has become. Evolving from a player known more for his anger and errant driver, Ogilvy is now a fantastic iron player with a very cool demeanor.
Those two characteristics work extremely well in a match play scenario. He is now a two-time winner of the Accenture Match Play and has a better winning percentage in the event than the aforementioned Woods. In other words, Ogilvy has won half of his four starts in an event that does not lend itself to that kind of success.
At a record of 17-2, Ogilvy has disposed of a wealth of global golf talent in this event. He has made three very deep runs in the championship. This week, he took out the rising phenom Rory McIlroy. He beat a red hot golfer and friend in Paul Casey. The margins he won by were not particularly dominant until the final, but he had a fantastic sense of timing. Making critical putts when he needed to do so, Ogilvy found a way to strike the crucial match play balance of playing within yourself and within the match.
Critics might say that match play is “fickle,” but really that’s a convenient excuse. At best, it is a cliche term meant to describe the idea of the “one game scenario” that is so feared in other professional sports. The hallmark of a great match player is one that can keep their head in every shot of the round. They don’t take holes off to relax or lose sight of the end game, even when the natural ups and downs of the round happen. After all, match play comes down to playing good enough to beat your opponent – not breaking the course record, or making a certain number. Ogilvy is mentally tough enough to know this and is physically gifted enough to be able to call on it under the bright desert sunlight.
At 31, Ogilvy is hitting the prime age normally attributed to golfers. He is hitting that stride brilliantly by winning twice last season in two significant tournaments and already twice this season. The confidence in himself grows with every round. Ogilvy is now fourth in the world and within striking distance of Phil Mickelson in third. Sergio Garcia is not all that far away either. Given the longer-term period that the Official World Golf Ranking covers, it makes sense that Ogilvy is not second. One would also be able to argue that Padraig Harrington should be second since he won the last two tournaments that really matter most.
Perhaps this is too much loaded praise for Geoff Ogilvy. I would hate to be accused of Geoff Worship in the way that so many accuse the golf media of worshipping one Tiger Woods. Ogilvy is not Woods, and neither are a deity. Still, Ogilvy is undergoing a remarkable maturity before our very eyes and it is something that should be appreciated. It is not a maturity that should be shielded by the overhyped comeback of a player already proven himself as the best ever. Ogilvy deserves his due credit.
Is Big Papi Another Palmeiro?
March 1, 2009
The best place to hide a tree is in the forest, right? Raphael Palmeiro tried that on March 17, 2005 and accentuated it with a pointed finger. The former Texas Ranger made every attempt to deflect the attention away from him as far as steroids were concerned. Boy, did that blow up in his face.
Now we have David Ortiz standing up and making a bold statement, not about anything concerning his own steroid use, but baseball players in general. Speaking at the Red Sox spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida, Big Papi told reporters that if a player tests positive for steroids even once, “Ban ‘em for the whole year.”
Not exactly what you would call a physical specimen, Ortiz does possess great power and some of the names that have come out over the years as steroid users wouldn’t be mistaken for bodybuilders, either. Case in point, Mo Vaughn, who could pass for Ortiz with their similar girth and Boston uniform. Big Mo was named in the Mitchell Report and was also spoken about in Kirk Radomski’s new book, “Bases Loaded.”
Vaughn was the caliber of player that thought merely using performance-enhancing drug was all it takes to benefit. He did not exercise and was inconsistent with using the substances, which Radomski described as the reason why Vaughn looked the way he did.
Hypothetically, let’s say Ortiz realized that he needed to make a decision to save his career after being cut by the Minnesota Twins in December of 2002. Although he had decent numbers that year (.272, 20, 75), his numbers went way up his first year at Fenway, with not only his batting average being higher, but his home runs and RBI jumped to 31 and 101, respectively.
He then became a legitimate superstar and hit a career-high 54 bombs in 2006. His numbers have declined since, and he also missed some time last summer due to injury.
It isn’t impossible that Ortiz dabbled into the use of steroids at one time and may now be clean, so it’s easy to step up and make a statement like he did. He was going yard and in a big way during the period that has been proven to be the so-called ’steroid era.’
By stepping up and saying,”Hey, come and test all of us and throw us out if we’re stupid enough to do it,’ Ortiz deflects any doubt that may have been lingering over him.
Similar to what Pameiro did. Get my drift?