Golf Houston

Johnson Wagner was the wire to wire winner of the Shell Houston Open, and by doing so, he gets his first tour win, an automatic spot in the Masters and a two year tour exemption. (For more about Wagner, check out this nice article).

He was tied at the beginning of the tournament with Adam Scott for first, but Scott had to withdraw early because of flu-like symptoms that he suffered from since the beginning of the tournament.

Fred Couples ended tied for 4th, his highest finish since tying for third at the 2006 Masters.

In other SHO news, Phil Mickelson says that he plans to be at the tournament next year. He liked the way that the course was set up to help prep shots for Augusta, and the support of the fans in the community.

By the way, for golf fans who want to get a better sense of what the high profile players have to say than is usually in the newspaper sites, you can check out ASAP Sports-Golf link that has transcripts of various sporting events. The extremely cordial media relations people at the SHO said that their tournament was the first golf tournament to employ transcribers. There are ASAP Sports transcripts for other sports, but the golf one probably the most thorough.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

Where are you likely to find a lot of people with heart disease? A PGA Tour event is likely a good place. Or maybe you peoples out there, just sitting there like a blob, reading about sports and licking your Cheese Doodled-stained fingers.

So Merck partnered up with PGA great Tom Lehman and asked him to be their spokesman for a heart disease educational program. He wants people to learn more about their cholesterol numbers, what they mean, and things they can do to prevent heart disease. On Thursday, he was signing autographs at the Shell Houston Open and giving away educational information. I asked him to say a few words in a video to you about why he cares about heart disease education.

You can find more detailed information at triplethreatchallenge.com. (autoplay audio in link). Some people may not like drug companies using sports figures to educate people about diseases, but if folks are more likely to listen to their favorite athlete over their doctor, I'm okay with whatever works.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

How do golf manufacturers know whether players are actually using the equipment that they are endorsing? John Minkley (pictured right), and his staff from Darrell Survey Company check each player's golf bags on the Thursdays prior to play.

His staff and he have white books where they mark off what type of clubs, balls, grips are in the tour players' bags and from what manufacture. They also look at apparel, shoes and spikes. His company has been providing similar services since 1932 through founder Eddie Darrell. Minkley says they have good data about the equipment and players since probably the late1950s.

They provide this service not just for the PGA, but for every major golf tour.

The Darrell Survey effects what consumers tend to buy because equipment companies can use their data to say that their products are the most popular on tour. They also have personnel that watches every tournament broadcast to check out logo visability which I have to say would be a particularly strange way to watch golf.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

On day 1 of the Shell Houston Open, Adam Scott, the defending champion and later Johnson Wagner shot a 63, tyingfor the course record. Scott obviously has an eye for the course, and Wagner had a share of the previous course record of 64. For more info, check out the SHO website, leaderboard, and Ed Fowler's recap of Day 1.

After the date of the SHO was changed to the week before the Masters, the SHO decided to try to create course conditions that force players to make shots similar to what they will make next week. The elevation changes and green undulations can't be the same, but there are other ways that you can prepare the course to make it similar. Roger Groettsch, Director of Agronomy at Redstone explains how they set the course up in the above video.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

Okay, stop snickering momentarily, (like you know you are here and here) about my Tuesday story on John Daly needing physical therapy on his back and chest. (video above). You might be wondering what that was all about.

Yesterday, I was told that the therapist twisted and wiggled Daly's chest because of a rib problem. Probably the same one he suffered after trying to stop mid-swing when a fan took his picture at the Honda Classic last March. It was explained to me that the injury can become a chronic one, and it is likely to get worse unless Daly can lose weight.

Hooters has salads, I understand, but those are tough to order when faced with everything else on their menu.

There are some who question that whether Daly really has a rib injury, but that would be some kind of show for Daly to put on having a man with large arms waggle Daly's chest just to fake people out.

Previously at FanHouse:
John Daly is Working Hard, Needs Chest Massage From Trainer With Huge Arms

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:


"You wouldn't happen to have a jet pack, by any chance?"

That's the question Phil Mickelson asked when he saw the impossibly long line of people gathered to get autographs from him after Tuesday's pro-am round. (at :07 in the video)

The crowds on Tuesdays are usually fairly light relative to the weekends and most golfers were able to easily leave the 18th hole. When you watch on TV, and even with this video, you don't have a sense of the crushing group of people trying to get Phil's attention to sign autographs.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

At the Shell Houson Open, John Daly is working hard. Hard enough that he needed a trainer to massage his back and uh er chest at :08 in the video link above.

I heard he spent six hours practicing on Sunday, before official practice rounds started. He showed up early before playing in the pro-am on Monday, and then practiced three hours after the round. Yesterday, he was practicing before I got to the range, and was there for at least four hours in the on and off rain showers.

Those who have seen him through the years at the SHO said it is the most they have ever seen him work, and the earliest they have seen him at the course

The practicing and pro-am habits of a PGA golfer shouldn't be news, but it is with Daly. Recently, in a 48 hour period, he got dumped publicly by his instructor Butch Harmon and was disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational for missing his pro-am tee time. I guess Daly is trying to make amends one day at a time, and I figure it was worth mentioning the mundane details of the work he is doing.

Phil Mickelson likes to play the week before the Masters as part of his preparation. In contrast, like some other elite golfers, Tiger Woods enjoys going to his Fortress of Solitude, Bat Cave, or whatever secret preparation he does the week before.

Last year, Mickelson skipped playing the tournament before the Masters because it was held at the Shell Houston Open instead of the AT&T Classic (formerly the BellSouth). Some observers suggested last year that the SHO wasn't a good prep for the hilly, fast greens of Augusta.

Well they would be wrong. As I noted last year after the Masters, the players who prepped at the SHO did very well at the Masters. Out of the 23 golfers who played both tournaments, 20 of them made the cut at Augusta. Five who played both tournaments made the top 16 at the Masters, even though the SHO last year didn't have an abundance of highly ranked players.

Just something to keep in mind for those of you who do Masters pools. And perhaps something that Phil Mickelson noticed too.

There's two basic ways to prep for the Masters: 1. Show up early and get prepared for its unique challenges; or 2. Play a tournament the week before because the best preparation to play tournament golf is to play under pressure.

This year for the first time, the tournament the week before the Masters was the Shell Houston Open. Though the SHO had a large overseas contigent of players, the field had only 23 players who were also going to be playing at Augusta. Even so, the SHO tried to sell the tournament to the players as a Masters prep, and tried to replicate those conditions the best they could even though Houston is mostly flat and the greens at the SHO are bermuda.

It turns out that if you look at the top 16 including ties at the 2007 Masters, 5 of those players also played at the SHO: Padraig Harrington, Stuart Appleby, David Toms, Vaughn Taylor, and Tim Clark. By my count, 15 other SHO players also made the Masters cut. Seems to me that 20 out of 23 making the weekend at Augusta ain't bad.

Another benefit to the Shell Houston Open is Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne's announcement that they were reinstating the long-standing policy that allows tour winners to receive automatic invitations to the Masters. This will encourage good players not already in the Masters field to give it one last shot to qualify for it at the SHO.

Correction: Please see the comment from the SHO tournament director here. He says in part: "We cannot stress enough that the green surfaces at this time of year are NOT bermuda grass. At this time of year in our area bernuda grass is dormant. We have heavily overseeded greens with a bent and poa trivialis mix which allows us to maintain more consistency and faster green speeds (weather permitting)." Well, apparently, their hard work paid off for the players who played both the SHO and the Masters.