Posts tagged Adam Scott at FanHouse

Golf season starts tomorrow, which means it is time to actually start thinking of the best game with dimples. While the giants take a nap, others will play at the Mercedes Championship, and golf will be around the rest of the year. FanHouse spent a couple of minutes thinking what is to come in 2009. Here is what transpired.

Which golfer will be the first to break through in the Majors?
A lot of the time this is overlooked, but look back a few years ago to Tiger's first full year on tour. The guy won his first-ever start in a major as a professional. With Tiger, the monkey never even had a chance to find a nice place to rest on his back. How long did it take for Tiger to win number two? Eleven major championships. Yeah, it isn't nearly as easy as he makes it seem now.

What I'm trying to say with all of this is that winning a major championship is really, really, really tough and as Sergio Garcia (and Phil Mickelson a few years back) can tell you, if you don't get one early, then the questions about "When will it happen?" start to stir around.

Garcia has gone 38 majors as a professional without a victory. That might seem like a tremendously long time until you think of some of the talented guys that took a while to win their first big one. Vijay Singh didn't get his until his 27th major. Fred Couples went 34 until he took the 1992 Masters. Tom Kite played in 67 majors before taking his 1992 U.S. Open crown.

Garcia is in panic mode but he's still young (in golf terms) and has enough talent to open the floodgates in the major championship sense.

Along with him, Anthony Kim is due to take one of these as a youngster, as well as Hunter Mahan, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley and Camilo Villegas.

Interesting stat to close all this up and make it apparent how hard it is to win a major: Out of the top 10 in the Official World Rankings, five have won majors, five have not.

Golf season starts tomorrow, which means it is time to actually start thinking of the best game with dimples. While the giants take a nap, others will play at the Mercedes Championship, and golf will be around the rest of the year. FanHouse spent a couple of minutes thinking what is to come in 2009. Here is what transpired.

1. Tiger Woods
Yes, that's right. I said it. Tiger. Freaking. Woods. It's stupid of me to even suggest it and I'm pretty sure I might be the only person not picking him to win 40 tournaments and maybe five majors. And it's only because he's coming back from major (No pun intended. Seriously. Stop it.) surgery and, well, regardless of his injuries, expectations are going to be high.

He did, after all, win the US Open with stumpy legs, yellow teeth and an issue with obesity. Oh, wait. That was Johnny Miller. But still -- Tiger did it on one leg. Look, he's going to be good/great/Tiger-style this year, and he's going to win tournaments, but that ridiculous moment will cause people to be disappointed if he doesn't win the Grand Slam.

2. Sergio Garcia
The title of "Best Player Never to Win a Major" (BPNTWAM) is fairly ridiculous when you think about it. Some golfers are very good, some are great and some choke under pressure because they're wearing lavender shirts on Sunday. Sergio isn't in the first class, but he's talented as hell. Yet, if he wins a major, guess what? You got it -- someone else takes the title. But it won't happen this year. Pressure is a B on lavender.

Golf is resting from a long, grueling season and rest it shall; it was a doozie of a 2008. We had some of the same old names winning consistently, some of the same old names losing consistently and a list of new golfers sure to find their way in golf conversation for years to come. Without further ado, here are your winners and losers of the 2008 PGA Tour Season.

Winners

Padraig Harrington -- With all respect to Tiger Woods and what he accomplished early this season, Harrington is our player of the year and for good reason. Padraig won two major championship in a row, making it three of the last six, and trying his best to accomplish what Sergio Garcia once said his goal was, to top both the PGA Tour money list and the Order of Merit in Europe. Harrington's second shot on the 17th hole at Royal Birkdale was one of the better executed shots of the year considering the pressure, setting up a Claret clinching eagle and repeating at the Open.

Since the Tiger effect caused PGA Tour purses to boom, golfers from around the world have flocked to American soil to get a little taste of the green. For the first time since Tiger Woods hit the scene in 1996, golfers might be leaving the states, at least more than usual, to try their hand in the European version of the FedEx Cup.

Starting next season, the European Tour's Order of Merit, the fancy name for money list, will be renamed the Race to Dubai and will conclude in, you guessed it, Dubai at the Dubai World Championships. The amount of money to the winner has already grabbed the attention of such elite names as Adam Scott and Vijay Singh and could even snag American Phil Mickelson. To qualify, a player will have to compete in 11 European Tour sanctioned events.

"I plan to play 11 and if I qualify for Dubai, I'm obviously going to play that as well," said the 45-year-old from Fiji, who won the first two play-off events before finishing equal 44th behind winner Camilo Villegas at the BMW Championship in St Louis.

Singh is already a European Tour member but he played in only eight events last year, and has made only eight so far this year, so the lure of the Race to Dubai seems to be proving the attraction the tour was hoping for.

"Glory's Last Shot" is upon us, and with He Who Should Not Be Named out for the second consecutive major, we in the golf world have to type and make up things as we pick "favorites" when we really have just as good an idea of who will win as you.

If that doesn't entice you, this might -- only one golfer not named Tiger Woods in the top 10 of the Official World Ranking has won a major championship since the Masters in 2006. Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker and Adam Scott have all gone a very long time without winning a major (if ever) and it seems these top-10 golfers might be due.

Here are my favorites, their best finish in a PGA Championship, and why they made the list.

• Phil Mickelson -- WON -- My least favorite person ever to pick in majors, but he did play good for three rounds (or four if you ask him) last week and had himself in a extremely good position even with a balky putter and his obviously struggle with weight choking. If he can somehow find a way to hit the fairway this week, he'll be near the top come Sunday (and on cue probably find a way to drop the ball in dramatic fashion).

Most of the time viewers watch golfers on the PGA Tour and are more jealous than the buddy of a powerball winner.

Today isn't one of those times.

The leaders at the Open Championship are battling their way around the links of Royal Birkdale in winds that are gusting to 40 miles-per-hour, hitting balls in places you'd never expect pros to be.

Nobody has broke par today and an Englishman named Simon Wakefield, who even the best of golf fans couldn't pick out of a lineup, fired an even-par round of 70 to post five-over, a number that is slowly becoming the mark to beat.

Justin Rose shot an 82, Jean Van de Velde fired an 80 and Adam Scott posted a 77 in winds on a day where the scoring average is 75.75, nearly six-over.

It appears nobody told Greg Norman that he's supposed to be struggling in these conditions. The Shark just made a birdie on the 14th hole to move in the lead at three-over, tied with K.J. Choi as they attempt to take advantage of the par-5 15th.

The weather has brought a lot of golfers back into the picture, including early favorite Anthony Kim, who made an eagle on the 17th hole to post 71. Kim stands at seven-over and as close as he's ever been to winning a major championship.

Bundle up, throw down another glass of coffee and remember how important a par is today. Our final pairing tomorrow could very easily be Simon Wakefield and Greg Norman. My how the world of golf is different without a certain Tiger Woods around.

In today's Washington Times, Barker Davis has more details on the Tony Navarro-drunk spectator(s) confrontation during Friday's round of the U.S. Open (backstory here).

Apparently, Thomas Campbell, 37, and his old man, 62, were shouting at Navarro, Adam Scott's caddie, as they approached the ninth hole. According to Davis, the two allegedly hurled racial slurs in Navarro's direction(?), which, to no one's surprise (other than the Campbell's, I'm guessing), prompted the caddie to go under the ropes, "head-butt" Campbell the Younger, knocking his hat off his head.

Navarro and the younger Campbell then wrestled for several seconds, Campbell missing the caddie with a wild swing. Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, then arrived to try and stabilize the situation. And moments later San Diego cops arrested Campbell and his father, who hurled himself into the fray to try and rescue his son, injuring two female officers in the process. Both were charged with public drunkenness and hauled away to the local bastille.

Stay classy, Campbell family!

I have no idea if this is a consequence of grouping Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Scott together for the first two days, or if this would've happened solely because these two a-holes had access to alcohol for eight hours.

Apparently, Tony Navarro wasn't the only person questioning the USGA's decision to put Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and his guy, Adam Scott, together for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open.

It was a surprising decision, but also an intriguing one; how would the three best players in the world fare head-to-head-to-head in arguably golf's most challenging test? It could make for compelling television (as it turned out, just the last nine holes qualified), but that didn't make it any less insane of an idea. At least according to Golf Digest's John Strege.

There was no discernible boon to television, so long as they weren't allowed to play defense while the other was hitting. Every shot either of them hit was going to be aired anyway, whether they were a few feet or several hours apart.

It provided no boost at the gate, inasmuch as the U.S. Open already is a sellout. Instead, it was a catalyst for gallery gridlock that impaired everyone's ability to view unimpeded more than a few shots before the show moved on.

You know, I'm surprised it took nearly two rounds before somebody inside the ropes tried to throttle one of the thousands of people outside them. The 108th U.S. Open, played at Torrey Pines, features possibly the Best Threesome Ever: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott.

While the fans no doubt love the grouping, logistically, it's a nightmare for tournament officials, law enforcement types and, apparently, caddies.

After hearing a fan verbally abuse him and his golfer, Scott, caddie Tony Navarro charged to the ropes that keep fans off the course and chest-butted a fan. The man had been yelling at Navarro to come over to the ropes, and Navarro was heard telling the fan to meet him at the bottom of the hill of the elevated tee box.

After chest-butting the fan, Navarro dropped his golf bag and he and the fan rolled to the ground. Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, went through the ropes to help Navarro and could be heard yelling, "Where are the cops?"

A couple of thoughts: first, I hope the fan gets the death sentence, and it's televised prior to every major championship to serve as a reminder for would-be tough guys. Second, caddies, in general, are nuts. They have no qualms about kicking your ass. Living in the backseat of a car as part of your job toughens you up like that.

One of the volunteer marshals who witnessed the incident (but whose 80-year-old hip prevented him from intervening), offered some details:

Okey doke, people, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods will be teeing off at 4:36 EST, and we'll be live-blogging it because, well, we're losers. We also want to make up for the earlier live-blog-that-wasn't; FanHouse's resident golf pro Shane Bacon ran into a few technical difficulties and his computer blew up.

You can fully expect that won't happen this afternoon, so you got that going for you. Dispensing with the formalities, let's get to it. Party starts promptly at 4:36, after the jump.