A few thoughts on The Masters

Somebody once asked me how much I would pay to play Augusta National Golf Course - the venue for The Masters golf championship. The answer was "As much as it takes". The reason being that this hallowed venue is off limits to most of the golf playing population of the world. If you look at the other major venues, most of them can be played - albeit at a high green fee - by anyone with a suitable handicap. Hell, St Andrews in Scotland is a public course and - on a good day - you can turn up in the morning and play (I know, I did it a couple of years ago).

But Augusta is a private club. It has a limited, exclusive, membership. It allows no women members and - up until very recently - it didn't allow coloured members. Whether this is right or wrong is not the objective of this post, it is to talk about the competition itself.

The Masters is the only golf major played on the professional circuit which always plays at the same venue. It is a completely independent major in that it is not sponsored by any golf organisation such as the PGA or the USGA. It is completely managed by the committee of Augusta National Golf Club. As such it holds a unique place in the pantheon of golf mystique.

This is the venue where - for example - anyone found littering, misbehaving or even using a mobile phone on the course will have their access revoked then and in future. It's a strict place. The committee define just about every facet of the championship - including the entry list. It is an invitation-only event, unlike the other majors which are merit based and rely on knock-out competitions to narrow the field.

So let's look at what's in store for this years Masters. As usual the field contains some of the best players on the circuit. It also includes past champions (such as Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal) who will probably not be contending come Sunday afternoon. But it also contains the top two players in the world - Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, the other top Brit - Graeme McDowell - and the man who many people feel will win this competition one day - Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy. In there as well are the usual suspects such as Phil Michelson (coming off a win last week), Luke Donald (who always seems to get himself into a great position before falling away on Sunday afternoon) and - of course - Tiger Woods.

Regular readers of my blogs will know of my opinion of Tiger Woods as a player (In short, excellent player, but not the deity he is made out to be by commentators), and this has been bourne out by recent events. He is now ranked number 7 in the world and hasn't won a major since 2008 - which in Tiger's world is a lifetime. So what will he do this year? He's made no secret of the fact that he likes Augusta. He has 3 Green Jackets from this venue and has won almost $5million dollars in prize money since he first competed as a professional back in 1999. The course is set up for him as a player and we know he has the ability to survive the pressure of the Sunday afternoon back nine. So will he do it this year? I'm not sure. The one thing that Tiger has never been able to fix in his game is his tee shot. Long and powerful, but more often than not inaccurate. Statistics show that he is the best on tour at recovering from bad lies with his second shot, but at Augusta that might not be enough. The speed of the greens, the severity of the course and the hunger of thefollowing players will be enough to accentuate the shortcomings of his game. Couple this with the fact that his swing is going through another rethink (his third, I believe), under his new coach, and this might be another year he misses the top spot. Having said that he finished 4th last year amidst all the scandal about his private life so now that that has died down he might go one or two better.

One thing's for sure - I shall be watching.

Sunday afternoon will reveal all.

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Round St Andrews in the rain...

(Apologies in advance, this is quite a long post, but worth the read, I hope)

I stated in my last post that Irish golfer Rory Mcilroy and I had one thing in common: Neither of us has gone round St Andrews with a score in the 70's. Whilst this is absolutely and completely true, it doesn't tell the whole story.


He's played St Andrews many times and his scores have all been in the 60's apart from Friday at this years open when he shot 80. I've played St Andrews once and scored 103.


But it was worth it.


It happened a little over five years ago. An American friend of mine and his wife had come over for a vacation to Scotland and I agreed to spend a couple of days with them and play some golf. We met in Edinburgh and drove up the following day to St Andrews which is a picturesque drive of about eighty or ninety minutes through the hills of the Kingdom of Fife even in the driving rain we were experiencing. We arrived to find that St Andrews itself was in a state of bussy-ness as it prepared for the Open Championship of 2005. Camera towers were being erected, marquees and grandstands were being positioned and made ready and the huge yellow scoreboards which are typical of the R & A's major championship could be seen dotted around the landscape.


Navigating by 'zen' I found myself directly outside the Royal and Ancient headquarters building - which is the imposing grey edifice that frames every golfer as they drive off from the first tee on the Old Course. We parked nearby and spend a short while in the Golf museum  which is located behind it.


After reading about the exploits of Tom Morris, Tom Morris Jr and all the other Scottish golf luminaries who have made the game their own we were in the mood to go and play a round ourselves.


I had read of the horrors of getting a tee time at St Andrews - the lottery for tee times, having to book months in advance etc. - and seeing as how we had neither entered the lottery nor made reservations I was somewhat resigned to having to watch rather than play. Nevertheless we headed for the clubhouse to check out the situation.


For those of you who have never been to St Andrews it is probably worth recounting a few pieces of 'Did you know' to help frame the rest of this story.


St Andrews Links is actually 5 separate golf courses built on the same land. The first course started outside the R And A headquarters, snaked out to along the sea shore, turned back, and finished outside the building next door to the clubhouse. It is the Old Course and it's the one everyone who watches golf is aware of. The next course to be built - 'The New Course' - was completed in 1895. It is situated adjacent to the Old Course but the first tee is around the dog-leg that forms the gap between the Old Course first- and second-tees. There are also courses which border these two on the left and the right. dating from 1987 right up to 1993. Together they form the St Andrews Links and ALL are public courses situated on public land open to anyone. Recently a new clubhouse was built to manage all these courses and it is situated next to the first tee on the New Course. If you ever watch coverage of the Open Championship you can see the clubhouse when the players play the second hole. It is a low-slung building with a turret at each end and large glass panels along one side.


It was to this building that we headed to see what the chances of a tee time were. I walked into the lobby and over to the young lady at the front desk.

"Any chance of a tee-time today?" I asked rather tentatively.
"Yes, of course. Which course would you like to play?" she replied cheerily. "The Old Course is in the middle of a practice round for a competition being held tomorrow so that's not available, but all the others are open."

Hiding my slight disappointment I elected for a round on The New Course and we were told we could tee off in 30 minutes.

We quickly headed back to the car, grabbed the clubs and shot down to the luxurious and well appointed changing rooms to put our golf gear on. From there we were directed round to the starters hut which is at the side of the building. In the hut a friendly starter asked us what time our tee was and we told him. He then gave us each a ceremonial score card plus a 'scratch' scorecard. ("Make your scores on the scratch scorecard as you go round then transfer the final scores to the ceremonial one when you've finished. Save's you making a mess of it") AND a yardage booklet - complete with full colour photographs, and a small piece of paper with the pin positions of each green. "You're ready to go" he said, pointing us around to the first tee.

All this for £55 per person.

Walking around to the first tee we were confronted with the first major obstacle of the round. The first tee is situated directly outside the clubhouse underneath a balcony and adjacent to the plate glass windows. In other words everyone has a good view of you teeing off.

There was a group on the tee before us and we watched as they teed off, all of them striking crisp drivers down the middle of the fairway. We waited nervously as we decided amongst ourselves who would be the first to tee off and I drew the short straw.

Plucking up my courage I walked onto the first tee and addressed the marshal waiting there.

"Have you played the Old Course before?" he asked, in a gentle St Andrews burr.
 "No, Sir. First time" I stammered in reply.
"Well the ideal line is down the left hand side of the fairway making sure you stay clear of the mounds about 250 yards up"
"I'm pretty sure they won't come into play" I replied as I teed up a ball on the square.

The marshal stepped back and I started my pre-shot routine: Stand behind the ball, identify the line I want to play, locate an aiming marker about a foot ahead of the tee, place the clubface behind the ball and step into the address pose.

As I wiggled my hips and prepared to make a swing I made one fateful mistake - I glanced up. I could see a swarm of people watching me from the clubhouse. Peering through the plate glass window or standing on the balcony - despite the slightly inclement weather. Then it hit me: I was on the first tee at St Andrews - the home of golf - and I had an audience waiting to see what  a mess I would make of the tee shot.

My knees turned to jelly.

It was the weirdest feeling ever. I almost literally lost the ability to stand up. It was only by dint of the fact that my legs had locked into an upright position that stopped me from collapsing. I stepped away from the ball for a second and took a deep breath. Blocking the crowd from my mind I went through the pre-shot routine again. This time there was no problem and I sailed one right down the middle of the fairway landing just short of 200 yards with my 7-wood.

My two friends didn't fare too well. One sliced her ball into a huge gorse bush on the right of the fairway and the other hooked his shot so badly he ended up playing his next shot from the second fairway of the Old Course (I secretly think he did it deliberately so he could say he'd played the Old Course). As we discussed it later we all agreed that it was a very imposing tee shot with the clubhouse overlooking the tee and that no doubt contributed to their bad shots. My next shot should have been a 9-iron onto the green but I duffed it and it rolled about 25 yards along the fairway. Luckily for me nobody in the clubhouse was paying attention as they were all watching the next group of folks going jelly-kneed on the tee.

As we walked down the first fairway (or hopped over the divide between the Old and New Courses as the case may be) we were fortunate enough to find that the rain stopped falling. There was still a wind blowing - and it stayed with us for the next 4 hours as we wound our way out to the turn and back again.

As with the Old Course, the New Course is a very simple course to play. There are very few areas of rough (although we found every one of them) and there are not a huge number of bunkers (although we did find ourselves in some interesting pot bunkers with sheer 4-foot walls). There are no trees and due to the nature of the course it is very difficult to hit an out-of-bounds shot. But the deceptive nature of the course, coupled with the gusting wind, made it a great challenge.

There were a number of highlights of the round. Firstly there was the ability to play a putt from a hundred feet off the green and still control it. The fairways and greens are hard to distinguish apart. Each has immaculate grass which is very closely cropped and smooth to putt on. It completely alters the way you can play a hole. In fact for some of the par three holes it is actually just as easy to play a low running shot which scoots along the ground rather than try a high shot that lands on the green and stops.

Secondly was the incredibly helpful people we met on the way round. There are marshals situated at strategic locations along the way and they will all give you 'caddy' advice on the best way to play a particular hole ("This fairway widens out to the right so you can go as far over there as you want", or "Stay clear of the left hand side of this fairway, the gorse is impenetrable")

At the end of our round we arrived on the 18th green, putted out for pars and - as soon as we picked up our balls from the grass - the heavens opened and let out all the rain that had obviously been holding back while we were on the course. We sat in the clubhouse watching the hardy souls tee-off from the very same place my knees had turned to jelly 4 hours earlier and laughed at them as they hooked, sliced and bobbled their way down the first fairway.

If you are a golfing fan and manage to find your way to St Andrews it is well worth the time to go and visit the clubhouse and see if they have tee times available. It might not be on the Old Course but - with 4 other great courses all built on the same links land - there is no reason why you can't tread the hallowed turf at the home of golf.

But bring an umbrella.

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Golf - The great leveler

With the start of a spell of decent weather here in the UK I went out and played a bit of golf yesterday (Don't ask about how well I played, it was just practice... Right!)

As I approached the 16th hole (short par four with a huge oak in the middle of the fairway), it struck me how playing golf is a bit of a leveler for men (and, of course women).

Bear with me on this.

From the outside golf looks like an easy. It looks as though little is going on: men and women wondering up and down fields and smacking a ball with a stick. But in fact lots is happening that is not totally visible (understanding the lie of the land, calculating yardage and club selection for example)

Golf works to a set of (sometimes silly) rules and has metrics to decide how well a player is doing (Strokes taken, Greens in regulation, Fairways hit, sand saves etc.). Then there's the handicap system which should - in theory - put players like myself and Colin Montgomerie on an even footing when playing each other. But that's only half the picture. The figures make for some interesting reading.

Let's look at the guys who do this for a living (golf, I mean). The Lee Westwood's, Justin Rose's, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson's etc. If you look at their stats you will see that they are all pretty good, but there is a huge discrepancy between individual stats.

Take Tiger, for example. Everyone sees him as being a long hitter. But in actual fact he's not even in the PGA tour's top ten hitters (he's actually somewhere in the mid 50's with an average distance of 287 yards). When it comes to accuracy (number of times a drive lands in the fairway) Tiger is way, way down in the list landing only 58% of his drives on the fairway.

In fact looking at his stats overall, the picture is not too promising. He's not the best driver, he's not the most accurate shooter, he's not the best putter, and he's atrocious at sand saves (Getting out of a bunker and putting he next shot in the hole), but he is good where it really counts: Scoring average and money earned. In both those stats he's number 1.

T. Woods STANDARD STATS		Rank
Driving Distance	287.7	56th
Driving Accuracy Percentage	58.93%	138th
Greens in Regulation Pct.	73.26%	1st
Putting Average	1.735	8th
Eagles (Holes per)	96.0	2nd
Birdie Average	4.31	2nd
Scoring Average	67.73	1st
Sand Save Percentage	47.62%	120th
Total Driving	194	94th
All-Around Ranking	328	5th
Regular Season FedExCup Points	17,745	1st		-
Money Leaders	$4.425 m	1st	-	-
Par Breakers	25.00%	1st
Putts Per Round	28.63	42nd
GIR Pct. - Fairway Bunker	80.0%	2nd	-	-

Stats courtesy of PGATOUR.com

So why is this, you may ask!

Well, anyone who has watched Tiger play will know that he has a set routine for every shot. He plays every shot with the same level of determination and preparation. In other words he has a process that he follows for every shot. He also has a process he follows for practice on the range. He has a process he follows when he is out playing practice rounds. He has a process he follows when on the practice putting green. Every part of his game has a particular set of rules, inputs and outputs which guarantee the best possible outcome.

The interesting thing here is that Tiger's processes in detail are obviously not the best (for example if he's 138th on tour in driving accuracy it means that the process for managing direction in his shot's is not optimised. For that he should look at someone like Olin Browne who has the best driving accuracy on tour, hitting almost 8 out of ten fairways), but overall, Tiger's processes get him where he needs to be: Number 1 in the golf world.

Now let's look at another major player: Justin Rose

J Rose. STANDARD STATS		Rank
Driving Distance	280.8	109th
Driving Accuracy Percentage	64.48%	70th
Greens in Regulation Pct.	63.49%	76th
Putting Average	1.858	184th
Eagles (Holes per)	378.0	111th
Birdie Average	2.62	184th
Scoring Average	70.85	74th
Sand Save Percentage	64.52%	7th
Total Driving	179	73rd
All-Around Ranking	815	108th
Regular Season FedExCup Points	1,416	109th		-
Money Leaders	$331k	111th	-	-
Par Breakers	14.81%	183rd
Putts Per Round	29.76	155th
GIR Pct. - Fairway Bunker	61.5%	16th	-	-
Stats courtesy of PGATOUR.com

This tells us that his driving accuracy is way better than Tiger's, his sand saves are way better than Tiger's, his total driving is way better than Tiger's and yet, when it comes to the places that count - Scoring average and money earned - he is way behind Tiger. Again I think this is down to process. Justin obviously has processes in place the same as Tiger but it is possible that they are not working the same for him as they are for the world number one.

The problem is that folks are measuring the wrong things in the process. Tiger and his team are obviously not too concerned about the fact that he is wildly inaccurate off the tee because they know that his ability to land the second ball on the green is the best on tour (literally). This means they have identified the right things to measure and are measuring them appropriately. Justin Rose's coaches are looking at his stats and trying to improve all of them, thereby ensuring that none of them are getting any better. Justin drives it just 7 yards less than Tiger, lands it in the fairway 5 percent more often but misses the green on the next shot 10% more than Tiger. This makes him 76th in the stats list rather than first. This is what's causing the issue. Once they are both on the green, Tiger only holes one more putt in ten than Justin does, but because he's on the green more often that Justin it means his scores are lower: Almost three shots per round lower. Couple that with four rounds per tournament and there is a 12 shot difference between the two players. That's enough to put Tiger at the top and Justin down in 108th place.

Well, as my tee shot sailed down the 16th fairway (and clipped the tree in the middle, sending it off to the left into the rough), a reflected on how this would affect my stats and whether Tiger had anything to worry about.

The answer was no.

(Photo courtesy of Guiri R. Reyes)
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Original posting at Musings Cafe

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