Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action. Basically, we'll focus on what you missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.Houston, We Have Weather Problems -- Professional golfers have two ways of preparing for major championships. You can go the Tiger Woods route of taking the week off prior to the major and spend that time practicing, resting and getting yourself mentally prepared for such a grueling week, or you can take Phil Mickelson's advice and play the week before to keep yourself in shape.
While it seems more guys go with the Mickelson approach, there is one small snag to that theory -- if you play terrible the week before the major, it is basically counterproductive. Instead of going out in a tournament and feeling comfortable heading to Augusta, you get all those negative thoughts and bad golf demons telling you exactly what you don't want to hear.
This past week at the Shell Houston Open, Mother Nature came in the form of incredibly high winds that forced play to be suspended on Thursday. When wind is suspending play at a golf event, you know it is some serious gusts.
Mickelson, who has the second best odds to win the Masters this week, shot rounds of 77-76 in the high winds and missed the cut by ten shots. In his previous two wins at Augusta, Phil had never finished out of the top-10 at the tournament prior to the Masters, so you think this would be dedicated to how Phil has no real shot this week.
That isn't the case.
Sometimes as a golfer you just have to understand that what just happened didn't really matter. The weather was a problem and Phil struggled in it. He has always struggled in the wind (16 British Open starts -- one top-10). Yet Mickelson and his camp have to just let this one go. You can't be bothered by forces you have no control over and I guarantee if Phil had known the wind was going to resemble that of "Twister," he might have just pulled out of the field.
The good news for Phil (and Vijay Singh, who also missed the cut) is that they avoided the Saturday and Sunday marathon that the players that made the cut had to endure. Mickelson got to rest and go work with Butch Harmon on his swing and prepare for a tournament he can always contend at.
The weather was horrible -- Phil's mental state shouldn't be.
Casey Win the Win -- It is hard to imagine that Paul Casey had never won on the PGA Tour. He's a long hitter who enjoys taking chances and normally makes a ton of crazy numbers because his foot is always on the gas pedal.
In a week that saw some incredibly high scores (Sergio Garcia made a triple bogey and a quadruple-bogey in his final round), Casey avoiding scoring anything higher than a bogey and that helped him get to the playoff, where J.B. Holmes handed Paul the trophy by pulling his tee shot in the water on the par-4 18th.
Now, Casey heads to a tournament he loves. In the past five years, Paul has finished in the top-11 at the Masters three times and is as good a bet as anyone to win the green jacket after this shot of momentum.
Casey can hit the ball a mile and that is the only way to win at Augusta if the course plays like they hope it plays.
Couples Nearly Did It Again -- In 2003, Fred Couples won the Shell Houston Open for his first win in five years. Couples sank the final putt and started crying, showing just how great it must feel to toss that monkey off your back in a town you were once a hero in.
On Sunday at Redstone Golf Course, Couples was once again in the lead but a three-putt bogey on 16, and consecutive bogeys on 17 and 18 had the 49-year-old two shots out of the playoff.
After his round, Couples was gracious in defeat, saying how much he would have loved to win the Shell but admitted that with the wind conditions on Sunday, there was no way he could have birdied 17 or 18. Now Freddie goes to Augusta as a past champion playing some good golf. Don't be surprised if his name sneaks up on the leaderboard at some point in the week.
