WGC - Cadillac Championship

Tee times for the first two rounds are out for the Cadillac at the Blue Monster, Doral

I must admit to a little "wow factor" when I heard the marquee grouping of McIlroy, Donald and Westwood for the first two days. Yes, they are 1, 2, 3 in the world but with the "alleged" resurgence of Tiger, plus the likes of Simpson, Bradley and Stanley along with the more established Phat Phil, Dustbin, Stricker etc I guess I expected the top three to be mixed in with some top US players


Tiger grouped with Watney (he of the thousand yard stare) and Garcia which surprised me a little. I'd have expect them to manufacture a slightly more glamourous group for him

That 1-2-3 group promises lots.

Mrs Mercurio comes back to the UK this Thursday for 4 days - bad timing, love.

I think they have grouped the players by their rankings: 123, 456 etc. For the top 20 or so players.

Tiger's group is pretty good no? especially given he lost to Watney 2 weeks ago in matchplay and also he is the defending champ.

Real needle with Sergio and Woods as well, remember the excuse for a handshake last year ?

diggers wrote:Real needle with Sergio and Woods as well, remember the excuse for a handshake last year ?

Er no, would you be so kind as to remind me Digs?

Can't remember the exact event (possibly Dubai) but I think there were a few words in the press beforehand and after their round both guys shook hands with no eye contact. A bit of obvious antipathy, sorry cant remember exact reasons why.
They were both in a slump at the time so I guess that won't have helped matters.

Thanks Digs. Bit like a footballers handshake before the game then.

Apparently Poulter is hoping to play despite pulling out last week with pneumonia! Hope he isn't trying to come back too early!

Probably just had man flu Davie.

Getting impatient now. The trouble is with reduced field tournaments is that the tee times are correspondingly later! Any "normal" tournament would be off by now but first tee times are 11am local (4PM uk)

when is it due to kick off on tv?

Sky coverage starts at 6pm - just after I get home from work

work are going to start wondering why i keep leaving early on thursdays as well as fridays!

Adam Scott must be playing from the kiddie tees with gimme's for any putt within 15 feet. Wonder if Stevie will get the credit. Does LW have the same malady as IP? Simon "Diaper" Dyson the frontrunner of the 7 Englishmen at even par?! It seems like the 6 others need a change of underwear.

Come on then, who like me thinks that if Greg Chalmers was to walk on your tee in the summer knockouts you'd immediately think to yourself " I'm pretty sure I should be able to beat this slightly strange looking chap?" probably only to be baffled when he shakes your hand on the 10th after handing you out a 10 n 8 pasting!

Fair play to the guy, he doesn't look like your typical golfer but he's right up there at the moment in the WGC .

Fascinating first day so far

I followed the first hour on shot tracker from the office and there was Casey doing well

Then adjourned to my local for a quick pint after work and saw some of the 6-7pm slot - Donald looking strong

Home for food and drink and picked up the action and Donald was back to level par and Scott, Garcia, Stricker were making the moves!

Now that it is settling down, the leaders from an hour or so are still there but Luke is coming back, as is Rustin Jose.

Nightmare starts for Westy and especially Poulter - I can't help but think he's rushed himself back too quickly from his pneumonia (or man flu as Diggs would have it)

Woods hanging in there but not doing much. Lawrie wasn't doing too badly until a badly pulled tee shot on 10(? or was it 12?)

Not much signs of Coco so far

What I want to know is who the f*** is Juvic Pagunsan?

smithersjones wrote:What I want to know is who the f*** is Juvic Pagunsan?

I guess he's another one of those phenomenal Philippine golfers...

He's whipping the pants off of Sergio who's about to have his 7th negative hole on the back nine.

Beauty , staked £40 on woods to make bogey or worse on last hole. Odds of 7/4. Nice little £70 profit for drinks at weekend!!

That hole was playing so tough, could not believe they offered that price. DANCER!

Nice one M_g! You probably could've run a few more through that ringer on 18 today.

I would have Venice, the only problem was it was a special against Woods only. If you could have staked the field I would be booking my two weeks holiday this morning to Dubai!

Nice work M-G.

Darren Clarke on the 18th - oh dear.

Wonder how Woods would react to having to play with Stevie sometime this weekend, or how would Stevie react

oldparwin wrote:Wonder how Woods would react to having to play with Stevie sometime this weekend, or how would Stevie react

They'll probably be passing each other between holes with Stevie thinking, "Six up on ya... mate."

The course is taking a steam rolling. Everybody out of the way of the stampede led by a Rose peddler.

I'm loving this tournament! Quite a few people seem to be putting downers on the Blue Monster course but it seems to me that (especially when the wind blows) it's the sort of course that can serve up some really low numbers (look at Justin and Bubba) but can also dish out some nightmare scores!

Agree. It's a damn good tournament so far. Bubba with a 62?! Finally realizing his talent but not often enough. I guess he needs to learn to balance the strategy with the conditions and the execution. But then again he's used to extreme ball flight patterns so the he may not have noticed the wind as much as the others affecting his shots to the green.

Venice did you manage to get on line streaming to work in the end. Our local NBC channel had a fricking paddies day parade on the tv this afternoon. No offence to our Irish friends but it's not even paddies day yet. it's all over the news too!

Hi 1GG. I did manage to catch the last 2 hours at work via streaming. Looks like I missed some good shots but followed the website while offline. Maybe they want to turn St. Paddie's day into something ala Mardi Gras where the party lasts a couple of months, or so it seems. 21 players -4 or lower today certainly qualifies as a legitimate 'moving' day.

The 3rd is playing a little difficult. Dyson walked off with a 9 (nine) and then Sergio went and peed away his eagle start with a 12 (twelve)!!!!

venice1 wrote:Maybe they want to turn St. Paddie's day into something ala Mardi Gras where the party lasts a couple of months, or so it seems.

Not surprising really, considering the stupid amount of Americans who think of themselves as being Irish

Poor old Sergio, has to wear a stupid shirt. Then gets soaked on 18 and sticks it in the water again on the approach. 2 putts for double.

Rock thinned one on 8, nearly skips it across and up the bank. Oops

I thought the 12 for Sergio was some sort of error on my phone but I guess not!

Can someone explain how it happened?

(no smart ass replies that he missed a putt for 11)

Lifted from the dark side Davie...


One report on Garcia's No.3 -
"He hit his tee shot into the water on the 438-yard hole, with a pond down the entire right side. He dropped into the rough, and from about 240 yards, tried three times to clear the water, failing with each shot.
He finally went over the green with his ninth shot, chipped onto the green to 35 feet and two-putted for a 12.
Not his day!

Definite tin cup moment then

Speaking of the dark side I don't check it out that often these days, but I did notice on day 1 someone predicted 3 x 69 for Luke and 66 on the final day. Not a bad prediction so far!

(someone of the double dippers should try to get Mysterioakey over here!)

Hubba Bubba - he's a bit wild off the tee so far today!

If there has to be car-crash golf, I'd like it to happen to Bubba. No offense to any Bubba fans out there but I just can't warm to him.

Having a couple of quid on Bradley and Rose doesn't help my desire for Bubba to meltdown either!

I actually like to watch him Davie, the purist will shake their heads at his swing but I love how he goes for it and he has a refreshing attitude too. Ok he might have got homesick on a European trip last year but at least he's one of the new breed of Yanks who are actually prepared to embrace the world game and be a lot less insular. Will he hold it/get it back today? Who knows and thats why he's decent box office.
As for Bradley...total tool. To be fair it looks like he has speeded up over the past couple of tournaments but Jeez he was painful to watch earlier in the year.

So what's the verdict on the Tiger limp then? Genuine or a "feel sorry for me I'm having a crap day" limp?

Update...He's just withdrawn...maybe it is genuine then. If it's the knee again, this might well be the end of the road.

Tiger driving away getting the OJ treatment. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. I know Sky get the pictures from US TV but they really shouldn't be getting all this attention

I think it could be end of season for Tiger, or another swing change, I do not know of any other golfer, who seams to dip their body as much at impact, but looks serious

For what he's achieved in golf, Tiger is news. No-one should be surprised.

Hope that it's nothing serious, as the last couple of weeks have shown how interesting it could be with Tiger back in the mix.

I agree the sport still needs Tiger, its just a question, does Tiger need the sport

Agreed Mary, I was really looking forward to him getting back into that top 4/5 mix and watching them go head to head on a Sunday.

Amazing how both McIlroy and Donald have forced themselves back into the mix this weekend after pretty mediocre (by their standards) Thurs & Fri.

Incidentally I'm down your way Thurs, there's 12 of us playing the Blue/Orange 9's. How's it playing at the moment?

JAS - what's your personal situation? Retired or semi-retired?

Just announced that Tiger pulled out with trouble on his left Achilles. He felt some tightness whilst warming up today and after the tee shot on 12 it had got the point where he felt he should withdraw for the good of his career.

Man, I go and hit balls for the first time in almost 4 months and come back and find this. Cost me fantasy points too.

No no...I wish!! Freelance and in a contract at the moment but I do get some leeway to take some time off. I don't take any more time of than the average full time employee because I'm on a decent day rate so any day off is expensive!!

BTW Davie. No real tin cup moment for Sergio. Shots 3,5 and 7 were so far right of the green it looked like he could have been going for the 4th tee boxes.

Poor bar steward had to wear this stupid looking shirt too. Most of couldn't get away with it as we would be accused of wearing a football shirt.

Then on 18 as he is about to play his approach he gets rained on and of course sticks it in the water, again. Hits a reasonable approach but misses the bogey putt.

Wow, where was Bubba going with tee shot on 16? Amazing line off of the tee