PGA Tour: Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bay Hill

Disappointing (to Arnie if no one else) that the top players have shunned his event but still a quite interesting field. Tiger (as usual) will get the attention particularly in Rory's absense). I'd love to see a resurgence from Poulter but I'm not holding my breath - could be a good time for GMac to come good though and Rustin Jose will be looking to continue his good form in the lead up to The Masters

The Tiger trouserfest has started early on twitter today with all the US correspondents giving almost shot by shot accounts of the world number twenty-something

Linke to Hole by hole Tiger Tracker for those who feel the need!

Mary_S wrote:Linke to Hole by hole Tiger Tracker for those who feel the need!

Nothing like a bit of obsessive stalking! Tiger is wearing all black today with white shoes... interesting. Tiger drains a 6 foot putt for par, when he reaches down we catch a glimpse of his black socks with a thin white nike swoosh. He last wore those socks in Abu Dhabi. Since then they have been washed in a 40 degree cotton cycle using comfort summer breeze fabric conditioner....

Sergio is alive with 3 straight birdies... but probably just teasing the fans as usual.

Gmac and Sergio currently -4 for the day

Small signs of improvement for Poulter too

Ernie just played to a green over water and the cameras showed a slo-mo of his ball clearing the hazard then falling back in (red lines indicating a lateral hazard)

The US commentators mentioned he got a break there and should be able to drop there rather than back on the fairway (correct). However they said he even may be able to drop on the green. Surely lateral hazard rules say two club lengths sideways, not nearer the hole, but also not on the green? Or have I got that wrong?

Well I just took a look at the rules explorer on www.randa.org and it seems that the commentators were right and I was wrong.

I was always under the impression that taking relief (under penalty) from a lateral hazard, you couldn't drop on the green but it seems there is no mention of that.

Wrong again!

I wonder if trial by tosser or should I say arm chair viewer armed with a phone will call in and stitch Garrigus up?

When he was playing from the water on the slowmo you could see the water moved behind his ball as his club ever so lightly skimmed the surface on his takeaway.

Got to say impressive round from Gtwat and Woods, can't help feeling Woods will win this, when you look at the break he had his ball being saved from OOB by a ricochet off a fence and clearing the water at 15th with his pulled approach meaning a birdie instead of a bogey.

Have to say though I'm getting more impressed each week with Justin Rose swing and consistency, shame he has one of those faces though!

Yes, rose does have one of those faces doesn't he?
The pga app has lots of faces you'd lile to punch. The photo of Woods is particularly horrible.

As I say I do like Rose and he does a lot of things off the course I admire him for but its just that face!

The one that makes me laugh everytime is the man that has the ability to go from looking around 28 to 82 years old simply by removing his hat! Martin Laird! Bet he wishes he had a Robert Rock like barnet

I actually think the amount of time these guys wear a hat for is to the detriment of their barnets. I would never wear a cap these days as I've got a full head of hair.

Maverick wrote:As I say I do like Rose and he does a lot of things off the course I admire him for but its just that face!

The one that makes me laugh everytime is the man that has the ability to go from looking around 28 to 82 years old simply by removing his hat! Martin Laird! Bet he wishes he had a Robert Rock like barnet

Another one line that is Ogilvy. Quite a handsome bloke until you see his slap head. Actually to be fair still a good looking bloke but just one you thought probably had hair.

I'm always pleased to see Justin Rose do well, as I really felt for him when he had that awful first season on tour, and became known as Just-invite.

We bumped into him in North Berwick once, and I was amazed at how pasty faced he was for a pro golfer - always looks like he's in need of a good meal. Nice chap though.

super_realist wrote:I actually think the amount of time these guys wear a hat for is to the detriment of their barnets. I would never wear a cap these days as I've got a full head of hair.

i would settle for bad hair if it meant i got to play golf every day in the sun. To be fair they are playing in places like Florida, abu dhabi etc where it would be advisable to wear a hat. Super i can imagine you wearing a pink visor to show off your luscious locks!

Anyone else want to vomit or lob a brick through their tv screen at the Arnie loving sycophantic yankees!

I swear he must have a glass stomach as they're so far up his arse they need to see out somehow!

Now we have Sorenstams son being brought on to give arnie some love! Ok fair enough Annika had a tough time as he was 13weeks early and its a tough thing to go through! But Arnie and the commentators (read arse kissers) act as though his is the only hospital to deliver babies!!!!!

Agree Mav - thought I thought David Livingstone was just a little disrespectful of Anneka when he made the remark about the PGA creche

I'm not one for over-sentimentalism and if it had been any old Jane Redneck bringing in a baby then I'd be a lot more in agreement - the fact it was Anneka made it slightly more relevant and they didn't overdo it TOO much

Was a poor comment from Dr Livingstone!!!! He'd have been better served apologising to viewers for the yanks almost getting on their knees and fellating him!

Now they say he has the best grip in golf! Please excuse my french but fuck off!!!!! I want to watch golf not hear someone openly brown nosing the whole time! May watch with sound off!

It really is piss poor so far. Not sure if it is live or "delayed live" but considering with the clocks difference Florida is only 4 hours behind us until tomorrow so I'd be expecting them to be getting down to the nitty-gritty now, yet the coverage is more suited to 11am when they are still waiting for the big guns to start

The grip thing was more vomit-inducing than little Will Sorenstam

LOL - Anneka's baby wasn't too impressed with Arnie!

I appreciate that a lot of money is raised, but they made it sound as though he had built the hospital brick by brick, with his bare hands.

Go Tiger!

Davie: I too was thinking about is it a delayed feed due to the timings, the grip thing actually made me shout at the gogglebox! Good job the mrs is out or I'd have been reprimanded for waking the kids due to the volume of my gob!

Mary: that's what grips my shit, the way they talk as if he byilt it with his bare hands and dons a white coat to deliver the babies himself! He is not the messiah he just an irritating old man!

Just be thankful its not Jack's tournament. The bullshit overload would be off the meter

We've got that to come at memorial! Think I'll give that a miss! At least when Tiger retires and has an event like this on tour we may get dancing girls and topless waitresses !

Funny you should say that. I was just thinking while reading this thread about what the TV coverage may be like in 25+ years time when there is a Tiger Woods Invitational (and I don't mean the tin-pot Chevron) - and to have to suffer all the brown-nosing that will entail!

The studio commentators will probably be Bubba and US legend Rory McIlroy

Is GMac playing today? pgatour.com has him in 2nd place yet all I've seen on TV is Eldrick and Arnie

As you say that Gtwat appears on cue. He is indeed playing but the host network are to busy climaxing over Woods and the senile old git.

That's said I'm quite impressed with Tiger today bit more course management in pkay, then as I typed that a piss poor chip! Yet Johnny Miller defends it saying that's a tough shot!

in the last half hour we've seen both Tiger and Poulter playing bunker shots from "fried-egg" lies. I've always been told that for any bunker shot you should commit to the follow through yet both almost seemed to stab at the ball with hardly any follow through. Poulter's was almost in the hole - Tiger's was less impressive yet is this something for plugged lies I wasn't aware of?

What is is about Woods that makes people choke? Dufner's 6 over, Wi's 4 over and Gmac's level, all 3 were within a shot of him overnight. He's only 2 under, compared to Poulter's -4 and Els' -5 so he's not exactly running away with it, except he is because those few are choking.

Only now, he joins in where before he'd have jumped clear.

I've stopped watching - I just can't stand all the nauseating fawning and rubbish commentating. Time to start watching all those films I've recorded on Sky+

Davie wrote:in the last half hour we've seen both Tiger and Poulter playing bunker shots from "fried-egg" lies. I've always been told that for any bunker shot you should commit to the follow through yet both almost seemed to stab at the ball with hardly any follow through. Poulter's was almost in the hole - Tiger's was less impressive yet is this something for plugged lies I wasn't aware of?

I was always taught with a plugged lie to close the face pick it up steeply hit down hard with no follow through! Makes the toe dig in and ball pops out with quite a bit of run probably why they played that shot as they had a lot of room to get to the pin! Almost like a duff and run, but I was shown that by an old club pro when I was 15 and he was about 70 then! So its not new

Maverick wrote:

Davie wrote:in the last half hour we've seen both Tiger and Poulter playing bunker shots from "fried-egg" lies. I've always been told that for any bunker shot you should commit to the follow through yet both almost seemed to stab at the ball with hardly any follow through. Poulter's was almost in the hole - Tiger's was less impressive yet is this something for plugged lies I wasn't aware of?

I was always taught with a plugged lie to close the face pick it up steeply hit down hard with no follow through! Makes the toe dig in and ball pops out with quite a bit of run probably why they played that shot as they had a lot of room to get to the pin! Almost like a duff and run, but I was shown that by an old club pro when I was 15 and he was about 70 then! So its not new

I was taught the same thing, but rather than stab at the ball, I was told to 'die' on it. As far as I'm aware, it is the only shot where you purposefully do that. A stab can promote digging into the sand too far behind the ball, but a quick pick up, followed by hitting the sand about 1 inch behind the ball, then immediately relax, will pop the ball out with what appears to be topspin, but we know that is impossible!

Good stuff but I've found it is sometimes difficult to work on these type of shots if others are in the practice bunker area due to the resultant mis-fires that can go anywhere depending on the structure of the bunkers. Have discovered that many courses could use a remake on their short game areas in terms of planning for practical use for usual practice conditions.

OS you weren't taught that by a chap named Stan Barrow were you because you've just described it in virtually the exact words he told me!

Its one tip that's always stuck with me and I employ it without thinking soon as I seen a plugged lie

Am ridiculously excited about the final round this evening! Hope that it lives up to expectations.

Maverick wrote:OS you weren't taught that by a chap named Stan Barrow were you because you've just described it in virtually the exact words he told me!

Its one tip that's always stuck with me and I employ it without thinking soon as I seen a plugged lie

No, I was taught it by my father - mind you, he was a club pro at Faversham before WW11, which was close to your neck of the woods wasn't it? maybe its a Kentish thing?

OS: Faversham indeed down this way sometimes gets called Belmont, almost in the middle of nowhere, but in a beautiful setting, have played it many times and I love the opening 6 holes that wind their way through trees.

Unfortunately I've never played it Mav - mind you, Dad never went back there after the war, and even I'm not quite that old!!

OS if your ever down kent way, I highly recommend you take the chance for a round there in a beautiful setting, no forced carries, merely a course well designed on a lovely part of the kent countryside that makes you play the game as it should be, with your brain and a variety of golf shots.

And right on queue Gtwat gets a plugged lie as if he knee what we were discussing

I'll have to remember that tip for the plugged lie then! Not that there is much chance on my course as its one worst feature is that that bunkers don't have enough sand - though they are working on it so maybe I can look forward to plenty of plugged lies in the future!

Maverick wrote:And right on queue Gtwat gets a plugged lie as if he knee what we were discussing

Just sitting down to watch the coverage now - and see Tiger currently has a 3 shot lead? Did Gmac miss his up and down then?

Davie wrote:

Maverick wrote:And right on queue Gtwat gets a plugged lie as if he knee what we were discussing

Just sitting down to watch the coverage now - and see Tiger currently has a 3 shot lead? Did Gmac miss his up and down then?

Yeah, he followed through instead of stopping!

Just turned this on and seen some stomach turning stuff. Arnie dressed in a picnic blanket practically being jacked off under the table by Johnny Miller and whoever the other twat is. Then we get some footage about slap head Laird winning the tournament last year, Arnie it was an honour to win your tournament <reallymeanttheupchucksmilie>

Oh dear, first missed green for Tiger. Wonder how they will explain that.

Have to say Woods is putting a lot better this week.

Gtwat on the 1st was a school of how to not play any form of bunker shot. However he is putting pretty good on the longer putts.

Have a feeling if Ernie can just pop in a birdie on 16th he has a chance at sole 3d place and that'd mean a Masters invite

Have to say that par putt he drained on 15 has just sealed the deal and he's been impressive this week.

Also what is it with NBC every bloody year they show Gamez holing out from the fairway, wouldn't happen to be the fact he's pals with Arnie would it and still gets an invite here?

Nice bogey from Ernie after plugging it in the bank. Looks like Ernie has to win next week to make The Masters.

Woods is definitely playing better but it so frustrates me that nobody ever even seems to try to put pressure on him. He's not been flawless today, he's heading for a 70, which is reasonable by the day's standard but not unbeatable. GMac's played the par 5s on the back really poorly, and the 5s are the key round there. The 5 players other than Tiger in the last 3 groups are +12 between them.

Hopefully in a fortnight the likes of Luuuuke and Rory won't be intimidated in the same way. I'd love to add Lee to that list but he struggles at the bigger events even when Tiger's not playing!

smithersjones wrote:Woods is definitely playing better but it so frustrates me that nobody ever even seems to try to put pressure on him. He's not been flawless today, he's heading for a 70, which is reasonable by the day's standard but not unbeatable. GMac's played the par 5s on the back really poorly, and the 5s are the key round there. The 5 players other than Tiger in the last 3 groups are +12 between them.

Hopefully in a fortnight the likes of Luuuuke and Rory won't be intimidated in the same way. I'd love to add Lee to that list but he struggles at the bigger events even when Tiger's not playing!

Huh? The implication is that McDowell was intimidated... I don't think that was the case, I think it was a simple case of ALL of the chasing pack just not playing well enough.

Credit where credit is due to Woods though, he closed out as well as he had to.

I really don't buy in to this idea that mcdowell choked or was even intimidated. If you're 3 shots down on Sunday afternoon, you're going to have to chase the birdies a little, and when the pins are tucked away that is going to lead to errors. Tiger was looking pretty good, in control and unlikely to mess things up, so the others had to try and make something happen.

The real story though, is that Tiger is now officially back.