If the rumors are true, apparently my previous comparison to Ben Hogan wasn’t very accurate. Perhaps a comparison to John Daly would have been more appropriate.

There are rumors that he was fleeing a domestic dispute… let’s hope that’s not true!

Tiger Woods was in a car accident near his home shortly after 2 AM this morning. He was driving his Cadillac Escalade when he hit a fire hydrant and a tree. It’s thought that he was going less than 33 MPH since his air bags didn’t deploy. He’s said to be in serious condition and it’s been reported that he has significant facial lacerations. (Update: Seems like he’s OK since he’s been released. I’m sure more will come out though, because they said the police found him slipping in and out of consciousness… if that were the case they would have made him stay the night I’d assume.)

Alcohol was said to not be a factor. I wonder though if he’s still on pain killers from his surgery? Perhaps the pending charges are for driving under the influence of his pain killers. He wouldn’t be the first (or last) professional athlete to struggle with the pain killers.

My first thoughts were to Ben Hogan – it doesn’t sound like it was as serious as that accident, so I’m sure we’ll see Tiger again soon.

Tom Watson Will Play the 2010 Open at St. Andrews

Thanks to Tom Watson and Greg Norman the Royal & Ancient has modified it’s rule regarding past winners eligibility expiring after the age of 59. Now any former champion that finishes with a top 10 at The Open in the past five years gains a five year exemption. Peter Dawson, R&A chief executive said:

“We have introduced this exemption as a direct response to seeing two of our great Open champions, both in their 50s, challenging to win our championship these last two years. We rightly reduced the age of exemption for past champions from 65 to 60 two years ago and our intention was never to remove players still at the top of their game from competing in the Open.”

Personally, I think this is great for the game of golf. It’s great that these guys are still able to compete. What’s better than seeing the all time master of The Open Championship get one more run at St. Andrews? There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the length of the modern game is making it so that only young guys can win. There are tournaments (like The Masters) where that may be true. However, I see a lot of signs that the same equipment being blamed for making it a bombers game is keeping the older guys in it. Think I’m making that up? Check out this chart from PGATour.com: Winners by Age Bracket.

In the last 10 years 20% of the tournaments were won by players 40 years old or older. In the 10 years prior to that – the number was only 15%.

So despite a late 20’s / early 30’s Tiger Woods dominating the scene and longer more punishing golf courses, the older players on tour are doing more than holding their own: older players are using their experience to win.

Charity golf tournaments are a great thing: a lot of people get involved with good causes and raise tons of money. They can also be very long days for organizers, volunteers, and players. By the time registration starts at say 11 AM some of the people have been there for an hour or two. Then you’ve got that registration period, five hours on the course (we always want less, but most tournaments some group is out there that long), cocktail hour, followed by awards and dinner. When it’s all said and done, you could be there until 8 PM – I’ve seen it!

Today it’s shorting that awards section we’ll focus on. This is obviously a very important part of the event: it’s your chance to thank your sponsors, the people that came out to volunteer and play, and to really solidify the charity with the audience. Here are some tips to save some time without sacrificing any of the things you need to get done:

• If you’re fortunate, you’ve got a LOT of raffle prizes to give away. That’s great! Have volunteers pick the raffle tickets and attach them to the prizes, then let people come up and match their own tickets to take their prize. You can hold back a handful of your big ticket items to raffle “live” but players will thank you for doing it this way!
• Limit the speeches. One representative of the charity and the title sponsor should speak, it’s expected. But anymore than that and people stop listening. It’s actually more effective to limit the number and focus on the message.
• Be prepared! If you’re doing live raffles or awards presentations have someone there helping the speaker hand out the items. Have an agenda to things keep rolling along.

What great (or not so great) things have you seen done?

Here we are, at the end of 2009 and Tiger Woods is the PGA Tour Player of the Year, again. This marks the 10th time in the 13 years he’s been on the tour full time that he’s taken the honor. To give you an idea of how long he’s been that dominant: every player that won the player of the year award before Tiger turned pro is now playing on the Champions Tour.

The obvious remarkable things about his season:

• He did this coming off of the knee surgery.
• He won seven times on the PGA tour this season.
• He managed to do it without winning a major.

Here are a few not so obvious facts / opinions about his season:

• He still can’t put the ball in the fairway. Perhaps someone at Nike needs to make a driver that is essentially his old Titleist with a Nike Swoosh on the bottom.
• People still find him throwing his clubs around the course as “intense” or “eclectic”. If anyone else did it they’d be chastised.
• He was one of the first to switch wedges to the new grooves. That’s right, he won with the new, lower performance wedges.

What’s your take on Tiger Woods and his 2009 season?

As of January 1, 2010 all tour players will need to abide by the USGA’s updated rules regarding the depth of grooves you can have on irons. From their website:

What are the basics of the new groove regulations?   

Although the complete technical specifications of the new groove requirements are more detailed, the following statements summarize the key changes:

• The volume of grooves is reduced.

• Groove edge sharpness is reduced for clubs with lofts greater than or equal to 25 degrees.

A common misconception is that “V” shaped grooves will be required under the new specifications and that “U” shaped grooves will no longer be allowed.  This is not the case.  However, any “U” shaped groove must conform to the new specifications for both cross sectional area/spacing and edge radius.

It’s staggered out more for most of us, top amateurs have until 2014 and everyone else has until 2024. Why does it matter? Deeper, sharper grooves grab the ball and spin it out of the rough. This makes it less of a penalty for good players to hit it in the rough – as they’re able to spin it almost as well out of the rough to stop it on the green as they could from the fairway. We’ve all seen Tiger Woods do this on TV – hit a 6 iron out of the rough from 200 yards and stop it on the first hop.

Here is how I see it impacting the game of golf:

On the tour – I do think we’ll see more players put a premium on hitting the fairway by taking more controlled swings off the tee. However – I also see this really encouraging another major trend right now: the hybrid / rescue club. These clubs are of the same loft of irons, but their structure lends itself to a higher, softer ball flight. This means that as players lay further back to hit the fairway they may find themselves needing to hit something from a long ways out that will still stop on the green: enter the high trajectory hybrid. Another interesting possibility (credit for this goes to Golf Digest) – players will resort to softer balls to get more spin, resulting in less distance off the club. This could lengthen courses back out a bit without having to move tee boxes back.

For average golfers – I think this rule will actually HELP most golfers. That’s right, the rule put in place to roll back performance on the course will actually be a benefit to most average golfers. You see, we all think of spin like we see it on TV – high wedges hit in behind the hole spinning back to within a few feet for a sure tap in birdie. However – spin is not the friend of the average golfer. You see, that 10 yard fade you see when you hit your pitching wedge is also caused by spin — sideways spin. If your grooves aren’t as deep and sharp, you won’t spin it as much, and that wedge you sliced into the bunker this season may just catch the fringe when you change wedges.

How do you see the new groove rule changing golf?

I’ve played in a lot of chartity golf tournaments. Heck, I’ve even been involved in running a bunch of them. One of the common mistakes I see people make is overcomplicating the format. Sometimes this is even done to the point of detracting from the enjoyment of the tournament. If you’re hosting one of these events, keep it simple.

Let’s look at the most common format: the scramble. The basic format is simple: All players tees off on each hole. The best of the tee shots is selected and everyone hits their next shot from that spot. The best of these is selected then everyone plays from that spot, until the ball is holed. When used in it’s most basic form like this it acheives a few very important things: it’s faster than individual stroke play, it’s fun for everyone, and it gives more people a chance to win. Sometimes though in an effort to be unique or level the playing field too far organizers make it too complicated.

The most common example of this mistake: The Minimum Tee Shot Rule. The intent here is obvious – let’s not let one team bring in a ringer that just brings the rest of the players in the group along for the ride by requiring the team to use at least two drives from each player. To me, this is a mistake for two reasons. First, it takes away some of the enjoyment for some of the players it aims to bring into the fold. A lot of the players in these events don’t get to play more than a few times a year, but they come out to these events to support a great cause. If they’ve got a good player on their team this rule puts a lot of stress and pressure on them to measure up and detracts from their enjoyment of the day. Secondly, it slows down the pace of play. If a team has to use a drive that isn’t great from a player to fill a quota, the hole takes more time to complete and holds up the pace of play.

What other rules have you seen that you think cause problems like this?

The LPGA may be struggling, but McDonald’s withdrawing as the title sponsor of one of their majors didn’t leave the LPGA Championship without a title sponsor for long. The Wegmans LPGA has been held in Rochester since 1977, and was recently renewed through 2011. While they’ve been asked to step in for just one year as a major for now – it speaks volumes about the support long enjoyed in Rochester and at Locust Hill for the LPGA. A good showing would bolster the ongoing discussions to make this a permanent major stop.

The Wegmans LPGA already attracts the top players on the LPGA. The 2009 event was won by Jiyai Shin, who would go on to become the LPGA rookie of the year. In addition, Shin is in the running for LPGA player of the year honors – threatening to unseat three time reigning champion Lorena Ochoa. The 2009 field also featured Morgan Pressel, Karrie Webb, Brittany Lincicome, and Natalie Gulbis. The 2010 field will obviously be even stronger.

This is also great news for the United Way of Greater Rochester’s “Graduation is the Goal Fund” as the increased visibility should help to raise even more funds for this worthy cause.