GolfDigest.com has an article about 5 Statistical Oddities From the 2014 PGA Tour Season, which is a summary or excerpt from a book called “Pro Golf Synopsis” by statistician Richie Hunt. Hunt has analyzed the statistics from the 2014 PGA Tour and discovered a few trends in strategy to help pretty much all golfers.

The first one mentioned in the article is that “Laying up on a par 5 or a par 4 should be considered the last option”. Everyone scores better from closer to the green, so unless it’s to avoid a hazard you should never lay up and just get the ball as close to the green as possible.

Also found is that “Tour players tend to be more accurate with their driver than their 3-wood off the tee”, and “Scores are typically lower in the morning than in the afternoon”.  What I take from this is, stick with your driver and get the earliest tee time possible. I think they are more accurate with their drivers because they probably practice hitting drivers more than their 3-woods, and scores are lower in the morning than the afternoon not because of higher winds in the afternoon, but because play is generally quicker in the mornings than in the afternoons. In my experience, faster play makes for lower scores.

The other trends noted in the article are “The better drivers of the ball often split their misses closer to 50/50” and “Round 1 Scoring Average has the strongest statistical correlation to PGA Tour success, followed by Round 2 Scoring Average”. These ones aren’t so interesting to me.

Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf this week at his tournament, the Hero World Challenge. Below is a tweet his foundation sent out, showing off his new pain-free swing on the practice tee.

And just like that, he’s back. Great day at the #TWCharityPlayoffs with @tigerwoods! https://t.co/Vah4LHpPhr

— Hero World Challenge (@TWFoundation) December 1, 2014

Who the heck does Dan Jenkins think he is?  How dare he write an article about an interview he had with Tiger Woods when he didn’t actually interview Tiger Woods?

I wish that everyone reads what must be the best fake interview with Tiger Woods of all time.

The next best part, and also the saddest part, of all of this is that Tiger felt he had to respond to Jenkins’s fake interview.

The interview might not have been true, but I thought it was funny.

But who is Dan Jenkins? According to Wikipedia, he is about to turn 85. He is also an legendary golf journalist and author (23 books and counting, including “Dead Solid Perfect” which was a story that pulled back the curtain of what the PGA Tour was really like back in the 1970s, and probably still is more true than not today). He used to cover golf for some magazine called Sports Illustrated, and now writes a monthly column for Golf Digest (although there was a period of time when he wasn’t appearing in too many Golf Digests, and that’s when I stopped my subscription).

Jenkins’ articles for Golf Digest are usually short stories that are satire, much like his fake interview with Tiger. Did I mention he is a legend?

So what was Tiger’s (over)reaction? First, to say that is was actually a “Fake” interview. Nailed it!! Then he comes off as the just the guy that Jenkins’ wrote about, the thin-skinned pouter who will fire or freeze out anyone who says anything about him that isn’t fawning worship.  Tiger concludes this first paragraph with saying that Jenkins’ fake interview “fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fueled piece of character assassination.” And then proceeds to take some cheap shots of his own at Jenkins and Golf Digest.

While I agree with Tiger that he is not portrayed favourably at all in the “fake” interview, he must realize that it was never suggested that the interview was anything but FAKE.

What is Tiger taking umbrage about?

• That he’s a bad tipper? That is well known.
• That he’s been injury and scandal plagued? Everyone knows that too.
• That he fires people when they say or do things that he doesn’t 100% approve of? Fluff got turfed over what he said in a Golf Digest interview, and Steve Williams (a jerk in his own right) was fired for getting permission from Tiger (who was recovering from an injury) to caddy for Adam Scott for a few events, and when Tiger changed his mind and felt slighted.
• That Tiger hasn’t won a major for 6 years? Come on now.
• That he stunk in 2014 when he did play?  Breaking news there.

Here is what I get out of this.

1. Dan Jenkins is still great
2. Tiger is as thin-skinned as ever.
3. Golf Digest got a lot more readers than they usually get.  If Tiger had just rolled with this one, 90% of the people who read Jenkins’ article would probably not have read it.
4. Tiger helped out his buddy Derek Jeter by writing his response on Jeter’s new website, http://www.theplayerstribune.com. Jeter could not have had a better promoter.

Maybe I could be fortunate enough to have Tiger Woods complain about something from my site. Not that it really matters, but currently Tiger is ranked 1530 (out of 2055 players) on my Power Rankings, tied with Darren Clarke and right behind Greg Owen.

Here is Golf.com’s take on it, http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/tiger-woods-calls-out-golf-writer-dan-jenkins-over-satirical-interview.

UPDATE – Here is USA Today’s Christine Brennan’s reaction to Tiger’s reaction. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2014/11/18/tiger-woods-dan-jenkins-fake-interview-christine-brennan/19246965/

The second “hole” at White Spruce Park

The fifth “hole” at White Spruce Park

The seventh “hole” at White Spruce Park

Welcome to Endor. The ninth “hole” at White Spruce Park

Nature watching while playing a round. This woodpecker was just behind the teeing area for the seventh “hole”.

For the last few years I have been playing another type of golf, known as disc golf (do not call it Frisbee golf or “Frolf”).  There is a great course not far from my house that winds through the woods of White Spruce Park.

I don’t know if you have ever played disc golf, but it is a lot of fun and very accessible to people of all ages and skill level. And it is a great reason to go for a walk in the woods.

Rounds of disc golf are also very quick.  Each “hole” is usually between 200 and 300 feet, with the long holes being around 400 feet. Two people can play 9 holes in about 45 minutes, without feeling like they are rushing.  Eighteen holes in an hour and a half is good exercise with walking up and down the hills and making throws.  And you can play 36 holes in just a morning and then have the afternoon (ie. you don’t lose the whole day).

I have yet to achieve a hole-in-one, although I have been close a couple of times. I have heard a hole-in-one before, as you can hear the loud rattle of the chains on the basket when a long shot is “made”. The longest shot I have made is about 50 feet, which was pretty exciting.

Not only is disc golf quicker to play than regular golf, but it also much cheaper.  Most courses are free to play (as White Spruce Park is), or possibly just a nominal entry fee into a conservation area that has a disc golf course on the property.

You can also play with just one disc.  I use three.  I bought a starter set of 3 discs from ebay and have since bought a few more sets so that my friends can play too.  You can get a starter set of 3 discs for under $30.  A starter set consists of a driver, a mid-range, and a putter.  The discs are not your usual frisbees that you play with at the beach.

I also play disc golf year round and find winter disc golf to be much easier than in the summer (all the leaves being off of the trees and all).

I don’t play a lot (maybe once a month or so, but it is always great fun, and I never leave the disc golf course feeling frustrated (unlike how I sometimes leave the regular golf course).

So that’s my rambling post about disc golf.

Here is a video (not me) that I found on youtube of a guy getting an ace on the second hole.  It’s pretty impressive.

Golf.com posted about a golf cart that set the world record for speed at almost 120 mph.

The article says:

A team from Plum Quick Motors claims to have reset their own Guinness World Record mark for “Fastest Golf Cart” at the Darlington Dragway in South Carolina on Friday.

The Plum Quick-designed cart reached a speed of 118.76 mph, annihilating their previous record of 103.65 mph.

“It was a very wild ride, right on the edge of being a very bad day,” wrote Robby [Steen], 52, who piloted the cart on its record-setting drive, in an email to Golf.com. “Prayed a lot and the good Lord let me walk away safe.”

Here is a Youtube clip of the ride from another perspective than seen in the Golf.com article.

I will stick with carrying my own clubs and walking.

According to the Golf Channel, Chi Chi Rodriguez turned 79 today.  Here are a couple of Chi Chi moments that I could find.

“Hopefully next time Mr, Rodriguez will play more…up to par.”