Author Archives: Jay

About Jay

Weekend golfer whose goal is to always break 80.

Tiger Undergoes Back Surgery (Again) To Alleviate Pain

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Tiger Woods announced on his website that he has undergone a 4th back surgery to alleviate pain in his back and leg. The operation was performed by Dr. Richard Guyer of the Center for Disc Replacement at the Texas Back Institute.

“The surgery went well, and I’m optimistic this will relieve my back spasms and pain,” Woods said. “When healed, I look forward to getting back to a normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long.”

Due to previous herniations and three surgeries, Woods’ bottom lower-back disc severely narrowed, causing sciatica and severe back and leg pain. Conservative therapy, which included rehabilitation, medications, limiting activities and injections, failed as a permanent solution, and Woods opted to have surgery. The procedure was a minimally invasive Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (MIS ALIF) at L5/S1. The surgery entailed removing the damaged disc and re-elevating the collapsed disc space to normal levels. This allows the one vertebrae to heal to the other. The goal is to relieve the pressure on the nerve and to give the nerve the best chance of healing.

With an expected recovery time of six months, let’s all hope this latest surgery will allow Tiger to get back to playing golf pain free.

 

Sergio Garcia Wins 2017 Masters

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Sergio Garcia won the 2017 Masters Tournament over Justin Rose with a birdie on the first playoff hole.

Here is a tournament summary.


Here is Sergio at the Green Jacket Ceremony in Butler Cabin:

Here is Sergio on the Today Show:

And here is Sergio on Live with Kelly:

Here is Justin Rose’s post-round:

Willett Reveals Champions Dinner Menu

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As is tradition, the defending Masters champion sets menu for the Champions Dinner.  2016 Masters Champ Danny Willett has revealed his selection.

In case you can’t read the fine print:

  • Mixed Cottage Pies
  • Sunday Roast – Prime Rib, Roasted Potatoes & Vegetables, Yorkshire Pudding, Gravy
  • Apple Crumble – with Vanilla Custard
  • Coffee & Tea – House Coffee Blend & Yorkshire Tea, English Cheese & Biscuits.

How very British.

So Yeon Ryu Wins Controversial ANA Inspiration

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The first LPGA major, the ANA Inspiration (formerly the Dinah Shore Classic), is usually one of my favourite events to watch.  It is usually very competitive, and typically comes down to the final hole where players can make anything from eagles to double-bogies. It also happens to have one of the best victory traditions in all of sport, where the winner (and her caddy and friends) take a leap into Poppy’s Pond next to the 18th green.

This year the tournament was marred by a controversial penalty called on Lexi Thompson, which turned what looked to be a runaway victory for Lexi into a fight to the finish where she lost in a playoff. The ANA Inspiration was just not inspirational.

The penalty in question was submitted via e-mail (apparently) and took place during the Saturday round. During the final round, the e-mail was sent and Lexi was informed of the penalty while playing the 12th hole.  The penalty was 4-shots.  Two shots for incorrectly replacing her ball on the putting green after marking it, and two shots for having signed an incorrect scorecard.  She went from having a 2-shot lead in the final round to being 2 back.

This tweet may show when the penalty took place:

https://twitter.com/corioz/status/848701764631236609

 

Based on the video evidence, Lexi appears to have replaced her ball in a slightly different spot than she picked it up from. Paul Goydos tweeted that this “rule is broken every time a ball is marked”, as it is impossible to replace a ball to the exact position that it was picked up from.

Did Lexi break a rule? Apparently yes.  Does she deserve to have a 4-shot penalty placed on her 24 hours later?  No.  She deserves, at worst, a two-shot penalty for incorrectly replacing her ball on the green.

Many feel that viewers or spectators should not be able to call in rule violations. Does a player deserve to go unpunished, and win, when they are seen to have violated the rules? Personally, I think it would be worse to have someone break the rules and go unpunished and win, than have what happened Lexi today. “Getting away” with breaking a rule and winning is not what golf is about. I have no problem with viewers calling in rules infractions, as it is done. However, maybe there needs to be a statute of limitations.  If the Golf Channel replays the 1997 Masters and I see that Tiger Woods repaired a spike mark and not a ball mark, or his ball moved slightly on the green and he didn’t notice and then putted it, can I call in and have Tiger disqualified 20 years later? I think any penalties submitted by viewers need to be enforced before the player signs their card after the round where the penalty took place.

Regardless of the outcome of this, as to how the rules might be changed or enforced, there will be problems. Sorry for the rambling, but I don’t know if there is a truly right answer to how this needs to be handled.  Whichever side if the issue you’re on, the other side can say it’s not fair (i.e. if it came to light that Lexi had broken the rules and not been punished, would there not be outrage the So Yeon Ryu had the tournament stolen from her?).

Lexi handled it with class, and birdied the final hole to force a playoff, which Ryu won with a birdie on the first hole.  And where was Lexi while Ryu was doing her victory leap?  Signing autographs.  That’s a champion.

 

After today, I think it’s fair to say that the golf gods owe Lexi Thompson.

UPDATE –

Found this statement from the LPGA posted on twitter:

 

2017 Drive, Chip & Putt

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The national Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals was held today at Augusta National.  It’s a great way to start off Masters week, and I can only imagine how much fun these kids and their families are having. Getting up on Sunday morning and watching these kids on the Golf Channel is so much fun

Here are the winners from 2017

Division Winner Points (D-C-P)
Boys 7-9  Carter Gaede 25 (10-8-7)
Girls 7-9  Maye Huang 26 (8-8-10)
Boys 10-11 Liam Hartling 23 (8-9-6)
Girls 10-11 Lucy Yuan 27 (10-7-10)
Boys 12-13 Zachary Colon 24 (8-8-8)
Girls 12-13 Alexa Pano 23 (8-7-8)
Boys 14-15  Mason Quagliata* 23 (8-9-6)
Girls 14-15 Savannah Grewal 23 (10-9-4)

*won in putt-off

Here are the winners from 2016.

And special congrats to Savannah Grewal from Mississauga Ontario Canada for winning her age group.

 

Tiger Woods Beats Michael Strahan in Putting Contest on GMA

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According to GolfDigest,  Tiger Woods was on Good Morning America on March 20, promoting his new book “The 1997 Masters: My Story”.  During his segment, he took part in a putting contest against GMA host and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan.

Here is the putting contest that was posted on the GMA twitter feed:

Tiger looked pretty agile for a guy that hasn’t been able to play golf for more than a month because of back issues.  Hopefully this is a sign that he might be able to play at the Masters in a couple of weeks.