Creamer hasn't found the ideal balance

After I read Alan Shipnuck's comments about Paula Creamer doing a drill before hitting a tee shot in the final round of the U.S. Women's Open, I called Dr. Dick Coop. A sports psychologist who has worked with Corey Pavin, Justin Leonard, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo and the late Payne Stewart, Coop knows a little about what goes through a player's head when he or she is on the verge of winning a major.

"To me, if it needs to be done it's not a good sign," said Coop. "But if it needs to be done it needs to be done."

If this simple drill were performed before every tee shot, it would be okay with Coop because it would simply be part of Creamer's routine. But if she does it when the pressure is on or she feels stressed out, that's bad.

"Any major deviation from the routine is a good sign — if you're the opponent," he said. "She's got to factor in the cost/benefit. Is the benefit of keeping that physical part of your swing worth interrupting the routine? It may be. If she is at the point where the physical move, like thrusting the head forward, or even the upper body forward is so egregious that no matter how well she does her routine she is not going to hit a good shot ... well, great psychology can't overcome poor physics."

Young Americans look promising at U.S. Women's Open

The best thing about the U.S. Women's Open at Interlachen may have been that it showed us there is hope for American golf. Not a lot of hope but some, at least. Stacy Lewis, for starters, looks like a future star and a player with even more potential than Paula Creamer, who is already a star.

The numbers are clearly a problem. If you watched any of NBC's Open telecast, you probably realized the LPGA truly is a world tour and the world has us outnumbered. All you have to do is look at the Rolex World Rankings. Only five of the top 20 players are Americans. Creamer, who didn't look ready for a Sunday at an Open, is fourth. Cristie Kerr is seventh, Morgan Pressel is 15th, Juli Inkster is 17th and Stacy Prammanasudh is 19th.

Women's golf is no longer an American game. Neither is men's golf. Lorena Ochoa of Mexico has proven  that players from other countries can appeal to American fans. It helps that she is super nice and media and fan-friendly (unlike several other top players over the last decade).

It's hard to figure out why America's colleges aren't turning out more top future pros. Lewis looks like one. Duke's Amanda Blumenherst, who has been a dominant force in college golf, looks like another. I'm sure there are others. Maybe Michelle Wie will rebound and become a factor, too. In the Tiger Woods era, the LPGA's marketing department needs all the help it can get and homegrown talent is an easier sell to the American public.

Cut Creamer some slack

Give Paula Creamer a break. All tour players—men and women—at times tinker with their swings during a competitive round. That her caddie was doubling as a short game coach in the middle of the U.S. Open is no indication of her lack of determination or will to be a champion. What you saw with Creamer was a case of bad nerves under pressure. It happens to everybody.  There is no prize for showing grace under fire.

So cut Creamer some slack. If she needs help keeping her head down over a putt—more power to her.

More questions about Paula Creamer

It was painful to watch Paula Creamer’s Sunday meltdown at the Women's Open, the latest disappointment in major championships for this talented player. Creamer appears to have all the tools to win majors but I'm detecting a lack of belief.

On the 9th hole she took an eternity to size up a tough chip from behind the green, as if she were afraid to pull the trigger. Her indecision was evident when she then knocked her ball all the way off the front of the green, leading to a fatal double bogey. (Her playing partner Stacy Lewis, from nearly the same spot, showed tremendous imagination and execution by killing her ball in the rough and letting it trickle toward the hole.)

At another point during the final round Creamer's caddie held a putter against the bill of her cap as she made practice swings. It’s a simple drill designed to help Creamer get the feel for keeping her head still through her swing. Isn’t that something a good player does on the range, not when she is in the final pairing on Sunday at the U.S. Open?  If she has to do a drill with her caddie when the heat is on, how much does Creamer really believe in her swing? Makes you wonder.

(Photo: Fred Vuich/SI)

The $100 million man

We missed a key milestone in all the excitement of Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open in a playoff on one good leg. Woods, who underwent reconstructive knee surgery on Tuesday to repair his injured wheel, made it to 14 major championships with the victory, four away from the record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.

But there was another notable stat that Woods achieved. The victory at Torrey Pines pushed him past the $100 million mark for his career. That's worldwide winnings.

Woods had won $98,894,291 before the Open, then earned $1,350,000 for the victory. His new worldwide winnings total is $100,244,291.

That total includes 87 victories around the world. The win was his 200th top-10 finish. Woods has 65 victories in 221 appearances on the PGA Tour and just more than $82 million in winnings.

It wasn't that long ago that $10 million in earnings for a career seemed preposterous. Then Tom Kite and Greg Norman reached that plateau in the '90s, and now we have a FedEx Cup event that pays $10 million to the winner.

$100 million for Tiger. Now that's inflation. (Of course, he earns that much every year in endorsements.)

Ladbrokes picks Els to win Open Championship

In towns that host the Open Championship, Ladbrokes betting houses are like Starbucks coffee shops. You can barely walk a block without bumping into one. In next month's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale - the first major without Tiger Woods since 1996 - Ladbrokes gives Els the best shot at winning the title. Els, the 2002 champ from Muirfield, is listed at 12 to 1 while Sergio Garcia, last year's runner up at Carnoustie, is listed at 14 to 1. Here are a few more odds in the long running tradition of legal sports gambling in the United Kingdom.

E Els             12/1
S Garcia       14/1
P Harrington 16/1
P Mickelson   16/1
G Ogilvy        20/1
J Rose           20/1
L Westwood   20/1
V Singh         20/1
A Scott         25/1
J Furyk         25/1
R Goosen      25/1
L Donald       33/1
R Karlsson     33/1
M Kaymer      40/1
P Casey         40/1
S Cink           40/1
T Immelman  40/1
A Romero      50/1
H Stenson     50/1

The future of the Masters

BARRINGTON, R.I. - I am always fascinated by the sense of ownership that the public has with the ultra-private Augusta National. That feeling extends to professional golfers, who have become less reluctant to air grievances about The Masters. More and more players are calling for a return to the good old days of the tournament, when eagles and birdies ruled Sundays, instead of the 72-hole grind that the major has become. Who would have ever predicted a day when the U.S. Open would be more fun than the Masters?

"To be honest, I think [Augusta chairman] Billy Payne is going to take that course back a little bit and bring some more of the theater back," said Nick Price, who is competing at the CVS Caremark Charity Classic. "I think they overdid it with the severity. When I used to finish playing on Sunday, if I wasn't in the hunt, I'd run to the television. Now, it's not as exciting."

Said Brad Faxon: "It's not just the length. It's adding the rough and the trees."

Mark O'Meara, the 1998 champion, offered this prescription after this year's tournament.
"Speed the course up," he said. "You don't always have to lengthen it. Hopefully [the tournament officials] will take a look at that because people want to hear the roars. That's what I always thought was great about the Open championship. They don't play with the course that much. The weather and the conditions dictate the score. I think in time [the officials] are going to see it. I don't think they'll bring it back to where it was when I won in '98, but I do think they're going to start to make the players think a little bit more and move the tees around a little bit more."

We can only hope the green jackets are listening.

The LPGA Tour's Big Moment

With the demise of Tiger Woods's 2008 season, several pundits are wondering which golfers will help keep the public interested in golf. Phil Mickelson? Sergio Garcia? Anthony Kim?

Why not Lorena Ochoa? The LPGA's No. 1 player is the new face of a tour with several interesting storylines and dynamic personalities. Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel -- each barely out of high school -- have been rivals since their junior days. Annika Sorenstam, who quietly dominated her sport for a decade, is taking her final spin around competitive golf. Even Michelle Wie, while not a tour member, is shooting better scores of late and could be on the verge of a return to form.

With the United States Women's Open starting Thursday at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. -- and with Tiger Woods on the shelf -- the LPGA Tour may have more eyes on it than usual.

Karen Crouse from the New York Times:

Ochoa, the top-ranked female player in the world, could be the hybrid that rescues golf in the absence of the men’s No. 1, Tiger Woods, who is out for the rest of the year with a knee injury.

Lorne Rubenstein from the Toronto Globe and Mail :

[Michelle] Wie, an 18-year-old sophomore at Stanford University, is climbing ever so slowly again.

Brian Murphy from the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Ochoa:

The Catholic school girl whose passion for golf started with putting contests for pesos at Guadalajara Country Club comes to Minnesota this week as the best women's player in the world, gunning for a U.S. Women's Open championship at Interlachen Country Club in Edina.

U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, Take Two!

The campaigning for another visit of the U.S. Open to Torrey Pines has begun. Mark your calendars for a return engagement some time next decade. The year 2018 sounds about right. Will Tiger Woods still be the No. 1 player in the world? Will Phil Mickelson still be searching for a U.S. Open title?

From San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Tim Sullivan:

David Fay, executive director of the United States Golf Association, says he is “thrilled” by San Diego's interest in an encore Open, and that the invitation Mayor Jerry Sanders extended Monday could be provisionally accepted as soon as this fall.

The USGA has already scheduled Open sites through 2015. The next two Open openings, in 2016 and 2017, are expected to be filled by Oakmont Country Club, the suburban Pittsburgh site of the 2007 Open, and the new Erin Hills (Wis.) Golf Course, site of the 2011 U.S. Amateur.

The USGA will consider those courses at its October championships and executive committee meetings in New Jersey. Based on the commercial and theatrical success of the 108th Open, however, Torrey Pines could also be considered for fast-track approval.

U.S. bookmakers' bet on Tiger pays off

I guess British bookmakers didn't get the Las Vegas memo: Don't bet against Tiger Woods. Ever. Even if his leg is broken in two places.

According to Golf Magazine's man in the UK, Paul Mahoney, British bookies ended up losing about $2 million each when Woods won the U.S. Open because after his surgery and layoff, odds for Woods winning his 14th major fell to 7-2 (down from 5-4 earlier in the year). In Las Vegas, sports books didn't make the same mistake. On the eve of the tournament, Caesar's Palace's had Woods at 6 to 5 odds, meaning a $5 bet wins you $6. Nobody's getting rich that way, especially when Woods was only one of 156 guys competing at Torrey Pines.

"We did well with Tiger winning, and the crowd and the atmosphere here in the book at Caesars on both Sunday and Monday was unreal--it was standing room only," said Chuck Esposito, assistant vice president of race and sports at Caesar's Palace. "The fact that the odds on Tiger were still relatively low throughout the tournament even after coming back form his injury contributed to the successful outcome."

In other news, British bookmakers set the odds of the Road Runner escaping Wile E. Coyote at 8 to 1.