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With Michelle Wie's breakthrough, another win for Tiger Woods and the final tournament of the PGA Tour season, there's plenty for Alan Shipnuck to address in his mailbag. Submit a question below and come back Tuesday to see his answers.
For Michelle Wie, 2009 has been a breakout year in a few different ways. She won the respect of her peers by earning her Tour card at Q school and she's played well all year, especially at the Solheim Cup where she posted a 3-0-1 record.
What's more, she's grown more
comfortable with showing her personality in public through her artistic
blog and her quirky Twitter feed. Wie's off-beat sense of humor was on
display after her 2-under round Saturday at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico. Asked about her sore ankle at a
press conference, Wie had some fun with the favorite phrase of her
fellow Stanford Cardinal Tiger Woods.
Q. On the first tee, I saw you with the ankle, you looked like you were limping, how much does it impinge on your game?
MICHELLE WIE: Well, I don't know how to answer that question. It is what it is. (Laughing).
ORALANDO, Fla. -- This is the kind of thing that only happens in the last tournament of the year. Lefthander Steve Flesch finished his round on the Palm Course at the Children's Miracle Network Classic here Friday morning with a 73, leaving him at one over par and almost certain to miss the cut.
Flesch came out of the scoring room, walked over to his bag, grabbed all of his irons and took them back into the room. When he came out again, his hands were empty. Yes, he had just given away his complete set of irons to a friend whose son was a lefthanded golfer.
"With the new rules on grooves next year, I'm never going to be able to use them again anyway, so I might as well give them to someone who can," said Flesch, who lives near Cincinnati in Union, Ky.
What if scores in the afternoon round balloon in the wind and one over makes the cut? Flesch chuckled and said, "I'm pretty sure that can't happen."
One
member of Rickie Fowler’s inner circle is undaunted by his new life in the
spotlight -- his 18-year-old girlfriend, Alexandra Browne, daughter of PGA Tour player
Olin. “She’s used to it,” Fowler said. “It’s nothing
new to her, and it’s nice to have someone around like that.”
Fowler has made the transition from amateur play to Tour-level competition look
easy, tying for seventh and second in his first two events as a professional.
But he’s not worried about getting a big head—his mother and father are making
sure his attitude stays in check. “My parents, they’re not people to get caught
up in the attention and stuff,” Fowler said. “They keep me grounded and always
have.”
If Fowler can
manage to finish in the top 10 at this weekend's Children’s Miracle Network Classic in
Lake Buena Vista, Fla., he’ll be the first player since Ryan
Moore to gain exemption on the PGA Tour without having to go through Q school,
and only the seventh player since 1980.
Anthony Kim must love these guys.
In the midst of Tigermania at the Australian Masters, Peter Hanlon of The Age newspaper found "Robbie Rousers," a group of fans who come to cheer the golf and heckle Australian player Robert Allenby, who withdrew from this year's event. It's a must-read. Here's Hanlon's description of the shirts:
Beneath a pair of clinking beer tankards* on the left breast, their mission was writ large: ''Robert Allenby Cheer-Up Squad.'' On the back, Allenby's face was superimposed onto a large image of the elusive children's book character in the red and white hoops, Wally, carrying a giant dummy under the reworked slogan, ''Where's Robbie?''
Allenby got under Kim's skin after this year's Presidents Cup when he accused Kim of partying until 4 a.m. the night before their match. (Kim won easily.) The guys in the Robert Allenby Cheer-up Squad have a similar beef with Allenby, according to Hanlon.
Their testy relationship with Allenby goes back to The Vines a couple of years ago. ''He just came over to us on one hole and said, 'How's the beers working out for you boys?''' one of the Colins said. ''We were like, 'Yeah, good thanks.' Next hole he comes over and has another crack: 'Jealousy's a wonderful thing, isn't it boys?' We all blew up. We followed him for the rest of the round just giving it to him. My brother's said to him on the par three, 'Robert! Water on the right mate! Water on the right!' Sure enough, he's hit it in the piss. Next hole he's walking up the fairway flipping us [the bird]. His caddie's come over and had a go at us. He got security involved in the end. We actually didn't say too much to him, apart from just giving him a bit of heckling after he started into us. We saw him in the bar afterwards and said, 'Come and have a beer, Rob'. Nah, he was filthy at us. He's just a miserable so-and-so. Am I allowed to say that?''
*Tankards just means beer mugs. I had to look it up too.
Back home in Australia
for Tigerpalooza (the event formerly known as the Australian Masters) and coming
off a T3 finish at the Barclays Singapore Open, Adam Scott sounds like
he's ready to put his 2009 slump behind him. Scott's still
not sure what caused his drop from 3rd to 62nd in the world rankings,
but he's sure it wasn't his relationship with tennis player Ana
Ivanovic as some commentators suggested, according to The Sydney
Morning Herald.
However, while Scott said he paid no heed to the speculation - partly because he had not been home since March - he is adamant his relationship with Ivanovic, who is with him in Melbourne this week, had played no part in a form slump during which he twice felt like taking a long break from the game.
''I don't know how to respond to that,'' Scott told the Herald of talk golf had not been his main priority. ''Should I not have a girlfriend? I tried to do everything that I felt was 100 per cent right for me this year. I wasn't working on the right things for a period of time and it took a long time to work out what was right again.''
Fellow Tour Player Retief Goosen believes that Scott's game will return to form, but he's got other ideas about what caused his slump. "Scotty's still young and he has a lot of hot chicks on his mind," Goosen said in the November issue of Golf Magazine. "I'm sure once he gets over that his game will be back."
Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
NBC is hoping for a rerun of its smashing evening ratings from the 2008 U.S. Open, which Tiger Woods won in dramatic fashion at Torrey Pines. The network will aim to air a portion of its weekend 2010 Open coverage from Pebble Beach in prime time (7-10 p.m. Eastern), including the Sunday finish. As reported by Jon Show of SportsBusiness Journal, the network and the USGA "have also discussed moving coming U.S. Opens in the Pacific time zone to prime time in the East. That includes the '12 U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco and the '15 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay outside Tacoma."
The news comes on the heels of the HSBC Champions tournament from Shangai, which Golf Channel featured in live telecasts that began at 10:30 p.m. Eastern and serendipitously featured among the contenders not only Woods but also wunderkind Rory McIlroy, a rebounding Ernie Els and a resurgent Phil Mickelson, who proved a wildly popular winner. Bet NBC would lock in that foursome for Pebble right now!
Researchers in Scotland were searching for evidence of the Loch Ness Monster when they came across something they didn't expect—hundreds of thousands of golf balls. Evidently the lake has been used by tourists and locals as a driving range for many years. The anecdote about Loch Ness was reported by cnn.com as part of a story about the environmental impact of lost and discarded balls.
Tour phenom Rickie Fowler already skipped his last two years of college at Oklahoma State — maybe he can skip Q school, too.
Fowler's first two Tour outings since turning pro this fall earned him $553,700. Not bad for a couple of weeks, but that tally is currently 10 spots and about $70,000 shy of the coveted top 125 on the money list, who are exempt from Q school for the 2010 season. The Viking Classic rainout hurt Fowler's earning potential, leaving him only one more event, next week's Children's Miracle Network Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., to make up the difference.
"You know, I'm in a great spot right now," Fowler said. "Getting in the [Children's Miracle Network Classic], having a chance to get my card that way, if not, go to [the] final stage [of Q school]. I'd definitely take the win because it gives me status, and you'd be a past champion. But I'm happy with where I'm at right now as well."
The 20-year-old from Murrieta, Calif., wouldn't be thinking about Q school if he had won the Frys.com Open in Scottsdale in October. Fowler posted rounds of 65-64-69-64 to finish in a three-way playoff, which he lost to Troy Matteson on the second playoff hole. Fowler was undaunted about coming up short in the playoff.
"Troy hit a great shot into 17, the second playoff hole, to a foot and a half, so it was out of my hands," Fowler said. "I couldn't do anything about it."
With a purse of $4.7 million up for grabs at Disney, Fowler will likely have to finish in the top 15 to have any hope of skipping Q school and cruising onto the Tour next year. Doing so would put him in rarefied air: the short list of guys who made it to the Tour without having to go through Q school includes Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Tiger Woods — enviable company, indeed.
Photo: Fowler at the Frys.com Open (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
"Drug Barron, sorry, Doug Barron hasn't made a cut all year on the Nationwide Tour. What the heck was he taking? Mogadon?" -- Paul Mahoney
That's a funny line, but I know Tim Finchem isn't laughing. I, for one, am glad someone finally got caught, which is proof that the Tour's drug-testing program works. Of course there are pro golfers taking performance-enhancing drugs. They cheat on their wives and their taxes, but they're not going to indulge in a little chemistry that could significantly boost their careers, just because it's a game of honor, etc.? I never bought that argument.
The most interesting aspect of the Barron suspension has been the reaction of other players and various Tour apologists. They have offered Barron's pudgy physique as proof that he couldn't possibly have been using PEDs. This is so silly. A lot of baseball players who were juicing were pitchers. They didn't want to get yoked; they wanted to help their bodies recover. Might a golfer who hits 500 balls a day be looking for the same help? PEDs don't necessarily make you bigger and more muscular, they just provide extra endurance.
If that means more 400-pound bench presses, then yes, you're gonna wind up looking like Barry Bonds. But if all that athlete is doing is hitting a bunch of golf balls, then he can still look like Doug Barron, even while breaking the rules.
"Does Tiger have a set tradition after winning a tourney? Is there champagne on the plane...does he give his wife $100k? What goes on after a win?" — Mitchell Page
Yes, there is a tradition. He goes to sleep, wakes up the next morning at 5 a.m. and begins practicing for the next tournament. The 2007 PGA Championship is instructive. The week before, Tiger won at Firestone, in Akron, Ohio. By the time he finished all the interviews and ceremonies it was after 7 p.m. The next morning at dawn he was on the first tee at Southern Hills in Tulsa, about a thousand miles away. That's the kind of dedication that makes him Tiger Woods.
"I live near Madison and want to know if Steve Stricker is that nice all the time or does he have a side of him that is a jokester or less serious than we see him on TV? I mean, come on, is he that humble all the time?" -- Stuart
Unfortunately, yes, which means there's nothing salacious or controversial to write about the guy. Stricker might be the nicest human being on the planet. The only group of people who are gossipier and cattier than Tour wives are Tour caddies, and I've never heard anyone from either of these tribes say a single bad thing about the guy. I think we're all gonna have to just accept that Stricker is the Mother Theresa of golf.
"Tiger and Lefty seem to be getting along better lately. Is this just my imagination or are they starting to respect each other more?" -- Roy
You know what Tiger respects? Achievement. When Phil blew him away on Sunday at the Tour Championship, that definitely got Tiger's attention. But no question their bond has been strengthened this year. It began with Amy Mickelson. Don't forget that Woods lost his dad to cancer. After Amy's diagnosis, Tiger sent Phil a number of heartfelt text messages that touched the Mickelsons deeply. Throw in their co-starring roles at the Presidents Cup, and this year has definitely brought Tiger and Phil closer together.
"At one stage Stack and Tilt seemed to be all the rage on Tour. Lately it seems to be fading out, especially after they lost Aaron Baddeley (who happened to be on the cover of their expensive DVD). What's the verdict on Tour? Has it been exposed as just another silver-bullet gimmick or does it still have a devoted following?" -- Marc
A little of both, actually. As noted by another reader, Mike Weir has also jumped off the bandwagon. He and Baddeley both struggled with the driver during their S 'n T days. It's a swing that promotes a pretty steep swing plane, which can lead to solid contact with irons but inconsistency with the big stick. Beyond that, you have to remember that Tour players are lemmings. As soon as something seems to work they'll all try it, whether it's the Claw or Twitter or saucy tennis players. Then something new comes along and many players move on. When Dean Wilson wins the Masters, S 'n T will surely enjoy a comeback.
"What are the chances that we can get a game together where we have all of these super young guns pitted against each other on live TV for some serious cash? I'm thinking 21 and under here so it would be Rory McIlroy, Ryo Ishikawa, Rickie Fowler, Danny Lee and Jamie Lovemark. It would be quite a show featuring the future of the sport. And just think of the potential ramifications—it could start a MUCH needed rivalry that golf needs to make itself more relevant." -- Michael
This is the best idea I've heard in a while. Maybe this batch of youngsters could bring the Skins Game back from the dead. The problem with golf is that the compelling head-to-head matchups we crave happen so rarely. With their varying home bases and exempt status, the above Fab Five will only be in the same field a handful of times next year. The chances of even a couple of them showing up on the same leaderboard is remote. The made-for-TV spectacles have always focused on the same tired big names, but someone—Golf Channel? Golf.com?—should organize a series of Wonderful World of Golf style matches with all these intriguing young talents. Will it happen? I doubt it, but we can dream.
"Same question I ask every week: Why does only Tiger and no other player wear bright red on Sunday? Happy for anyone to tell me. Must not be Alan." -- JC
JC, I was hoping you would take the hint, but apparently not. So once and for all: Tiger wears the red shirt because his mom, Tida, did some kind of Thai-style voodoo and discerned that red is Tiger's "power color" and therefore he should wear it on Sundays. Once he won a few times, a tradition was born. It is funny how he has taken ownership of the color. I remember when Luke Donald wore red on Sunday at the '06 PGA when he was paired with Tiger. Polo had scripted Donald's outfits weeks in advance and he chose not to deviate. A lot of folks took that as him being uppity, which is ridiculous—it's just a shirt! A funny post-script was the Monday playoff at Torrey, when Rocco busted out red, assuming that Tiger would wear his only on Sunday. Wrong. Woods wore red for a second day in a row, and when he saw Rocco at the range before the round he muttered, "Nice shirt." Only in Tiger's universe can you talk trash about a guy's sartorial selection.
Photo: Wireimage.com (Barron); Getty Images (Woods, Mickelson)
Sleep apnea patients who have been less than religious about their treatments now have a new motivation to comply with their doctors' orders: lower golf scores.
A new study, featured in Scientific American, found that patients who regularly used their NPAP machines lowered their handicaps by up to three strokes. People with sleep apnea stop breathing for short periods of time multiple times a night. In severe cases, people can stop breathing up to 50 times an hour, according to health.com.
Twelve golfers with apnea received nasal positive airway pressure treatment, or NPAP. The researchers kept track of the subjects’ daytime tiredness, sleep and golf scores over 20 rounds. And handicaps improved by an average of a stroke-and-a-half per round. With the better golfers going in showing the most improvement. The scores on the medical tests also got better. A control group didn’t improve their game or their sleep.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—The moon was full, the sky was clear and the night was full of emotion as the World Golf Hall of Fame inducted four new members Monday night.
Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain, Ryder Cup legend Christy O’Connor Sr. of Ireland, PGA champion Lanny Wadkins and former President Dwight Eisenhower were installed during ceremonies at the World Golf Village.
Some highlights of the evening:
- The introduction of Olazabal included a video message by fellow Hall of Famer and countryman Seve Ballesteros, who is battling cancer. Seve sent his friend a message of heartfelt congratulations and his fans a message that he’s still alive and fighting. Ballesteros looked haggard and wore a cap but spoke with energy and sincerity.
- O’Connor’s nephew, Christy O’Connor Jr., a former Ryder Cupper himself, accepted the honor on behalf of his uncle, who didn’t feel up to the challenge of flying across the Atlantic to appear in person. The senior O’Connor did send a wonderful video message in which he apologized profusely for his absence. The video also showed him still playing golf at his home course, Royal Dublin, robust for a man of 84. “It’s a great honor at my age—22 and a bit,” said O’Connor, drawing a laugh from the audience. “I wonder if I might have enjoyed the honor earlier, but this time is as good as any.”
- Olazabal paused several times during his speech, choking up with emotion, as he thanked the many people who helped his career. He made a special gesture to his parents, Gaspar and Julianna, who were sitting in the front row, and thanked them in Spanish.
- Arnold Palmer accepted the honor for Eisenhower, a good friend of his, and told the story of how Ike (Eisenhower asked Palmer to call him that) had called Masters chairman Clifford Roberts to see if he could play with the Masters champion on the Monday after the tournament. Roberts said he’d ask the winner if it was OK. It turned out to be Palmer. Shortly after the awards ceremony, Roberts approached Palmer with Eisenhower’s request and wondered if Palmer could adjust his schedule for Monday golf. “If the President can adjust his schedule,” Palmer told him, “I can adjust mine.”
- The one awkward moment of the ceremony came when Palmer began to tell a story about his late wife, Winnie, wanting to surprise him for his birthday. She set up a surprise visit from Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. As Palmer told the story, Golf Channel cameras zoomed in on Kit, his current wife. It was a look-away moment. The punchline of the story, by the way, was Arnie answering the doorbell as he was about to head over to the golf club. He was stunned to see the Eisenhowers on his doorstep. “Can you put up an old man for the weekend?” Ike asked. Palmer was pleased to do so.
- Wadkins rivaled Olazabal for the most emotional speech. Lanny made a point to thank a lot of people who helped him along the way, from Wake Forest Coach Jesse Haddock to the late Dick Harmon, among others. He saved a special thank you for his brother, Bobby, who also played on the tour. Bobby, sitting in the crowd, turned red and had quivering lips as he tried to hold back tears while Lanny, also battling his emotions, said haltingly, “I wouldn’t be here without Bobby. He pushed me at every point along the way. So thank you, Bobby.”
- A number of Hall of Fame members in attendance were introduced to the crowd by the night’s emcee, Rich Lerner of Golf Channel. The Hall of Famers on site included LPGA founder Louise Suggs, Carol Semple Thompson, Palmer, Charlie Sifford (who got a loud roar), Carol Mann, Marlene Streit Stewart, JoAnne Carner and former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman.
The Best of Us Challenge takes Olympic athletes out of their usual areas of expertise, shows off their other "talents" in a series of videos, and asks you to try to beat their "records." For instance, snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis is a master hula-hooper -- she can hula for 30 seconds. (It's a good thing she can fall back on snowboarding.)
Other Olympians' feats seem even more attainable for us average humans. Jamaican track and field star Asafa Powell thinks he can balance a stick on his foot longer than you can. U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson touched her ears 54 times in 30 seconds while standing on her hands. (Probably need to watch the video to understand that one.)
Michael Phelps, wearing flip flops and putting on a gym floor, nailed 12 five-footers in 60 seconds.Putt better than Phelps and you could win a trip to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Entering the competition? Leave us a link to your video so we can check out your speed-putting skills. Now off to practice...
Is your living room missing something? Feels a bit spare, needs some more decoration? Just in time for the holidays, you can now decorate your walls with John Daly.
Seriously. John Daly.
Fathead Wall Graphics has just introduced a golf line of over-sized wall decals, starting with a more-than-life-sized image of John Daly in his Loudmouth pants. Now you can watch golf tournaments on Sunday afternoons side-by-side with one of the game's most popular players.
The John Daly decal is 2 feet 7 inches wide and 6 feet 2 inches tall. (Daly's width has been fluctuating lately, but he is only 5-foot-10.) It's available on fathead.com for $99.99 and includes nine extra Daly-related smaller posters. Keep in mind, the company claims that you can remove and reuse the posters, which are "safe for walls." So fear not -- if you move in with your significant other, Long John can come, too.
"Try to find a John Daly poster this big and bold - no way. Ordinary golf posters simply don't measure up to Fathead," Fathead brags.
I'm not going to say I tried that hard to find a bigger, bolder John Daly wall poster, but I think they're right. Personally, though, I'm holding out for the Adam Scott version.
More on Daly: Special Section | Career in Photos
I had set the over/under on feuds Colin Montgomerie would start before the 2010 Ryder Cup at 5.5, but that might have been too low. Monty and Ian Poulter have never seen eye to eye, and now Sergio Garcia is making it clear that Monty is not the the boss of him, according to The Daily Mail (UK).
Monty has made it known that he will ask potential members of the 2010 side to play in the BMW Open at Wentworth, the Wales Open at Celtic Manor -- the venue of the next Cup match -- and the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles next year.
"Is the BMW a similar course to the Ryder Cup event?" Garcia retorted. "I don’t think so. If it fits into my schedule, I will definitely make an effort. If it doesn’t, you know, I’ll have to play wherever it fits my schedule."
Garcia has not played at Wentworth in the spring since 2000 and looks to have a well-settled schedule which ties him to competing in the United States at that time.
I can't wait to see Monty leading the Euros in Wales next year. No one is more passionate about the event -- the guy literally lights up when he talks about match play and the Ryder Cup. However, he should let this Garcia thing pass without comment. Garcia has proved his commitment to the Ryder Cup and has been a great teammate in past cups. If Monty's itching for a fight, he can always call up Sandy Lyle.
He's the Global Bear now.
Jack Nicklaus has embraced course design with the passion and intensity he brought to his golf game and in turn has became one of the game's most successful developers. Like any successful businessman, Nicklaus follows the money, and today the money for golf is in Asia, not the United States. In an interview with Reuters, Nicklaus said he expects the game to explode in popularity among "regular people" in Asia, not just the wealthy, and that Chinese players will someday be among the world's best.
Florida-based Nicklaus, who has won a record 18 major titles, does just 0.3 percent of his work in his home country.
"The recession has not been as severe here as it has been in the States, 90 percent of my work, golf course design work now, is here in Asia," Nicklaus, whose company has designed almost 350 courses worldwide, told Reuters in an interview.
The rise of Asia's economic power and golf's presence in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will boost course construction in countries like China and India and the former will one day provide five of the world's top players, Nicklaus predicted.
The sometimes curmudgeonly Nicklaus also had kind words for the USGA's groove rule change, which will become law of the land on Tour in January.
Initially a sceptic about rule changes to equipment, likening them to "the deckchairs on the Titanic", Nicklaus is now an enthusiastic convert and said the golf authorities avoided a fight they could not win.
"It's a domino effect," he said. "It's going to make itself felt throughout the whole game.
"I think they (golf authorities) have been very clever."
More on Nicklaus: Special Section | Photos: Career Highlights | Major Victories | 20 Greatest Golfers
Yup, another second-place finish for Tiger Woods in 2009. A new Harris Poll asked Americans to name the greatest sports star of all time, and Tiger Woods came in second behind his friend Michael Jordan, who will likely use this for trash-talk ammunition next time the two are on the golf course. Rounding out the top five were Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali and Brett Favre.
Among golfers, Woods finished first, followed by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson and Bobby Jones.
Will this settle the Woods vs. Nicklaus arguments? Not a chance. But, as Woods might say, "It is what it is."
Related: 20 Greatest Golfers | Woods and Nicklaus Major Championship
Call it "The 40-Year-Old Duffer."
Actor Steve Carell of The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin has decided to star in Missing Links, a golf comedy based on Rick Reilly's 1997 novel, according to the Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog.
Carell will produce via his Carousel Prods banner, while the company’s Vance DeGeneres and Charlie Hartsock are on board as exec producers. Bobby Cohen (”Revolutionary Road”) is also producing. “The Break-Up” scribe Jay Lavender is writing the screenplay. Greg Silverman will oversee for Warners.
Reilly’s 1997 comedic novel tells of the group of bumblers who, after playing for years at a run-down municipal golf course in a working-class Boston neighborhood, concoct a series of schemes that they hope will lead to them teeing off at a nearby elite club.
I read Reilly's novel a few years ago and Carell fans shouldn't expect a slapstick Happy Gilmore-like comedy. Missing Links is a warm portrayal of a ramshackle muni and its wacky regulars with lots of opportunities for laughs, but the heart of the book is an estranged father-son relationship. In Hollywood terms, think Caddyshack meets Field of Dreams, or "Noonan, I am your father."
Hey, it's gotta be better than The Legend of Bagger Vance, right?
Troy Matteson won the Frys.com Open Sunday, but Jamie Lovemark hit the shot that everyone is still talking about. Watch the clip below (skip ahead to the 1:15 mark) to see his ball bounce off the water and back into play on the first playoff hole, No. 18.
When Tiger Woods plays in the Australian Masters in two weeks, viewers Down Under will be able to watch the normal telecast on free TV. However, pay viewers will get the option of watching only Woods by pressing a red button on their remote control. The Age's Geoff McClure has the details:
In what will be an Australian television first, viewers who, by simply pressing the red button on their remote control, will be able to watch ''the Tracker'' where they will see every televised shot of Woods as he makes his way around the 18 holes of the four-day tournament. Foxtel is televising the event along with the free-to-air service provided by Channel Nine. While Nine will naturally be focusing much of its attention on the world's greatest golfer, Foxtel will provide a service whereby viewers will be able to see nothing but Woods or, if they prefer, one of the other stars of the show, players such as Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby and Adam Scott.
Of course, some critics might say American viewers get Tiger Tracker every weekend, and we don't even have to press a button.
Related: More Tiger | Career in photos | Family photos | Woods vs. Nicklaus
