Viva Villegas
September 12th 2008 01:06
A very quick update given there’s no golf on this week bar the European tour event in Germany where I think Miguel Angel Jiminez or Michael Campbell might prevail.
MAJ played exceptionally well last week without being able to make a putt to save his life while Cambo has been back in form for about a month now and when he’s in form, there are not many finer players.
Thinking about MAJ’s putting woes brings me to Camilo Villegas’ win in most recent event on the US PGA Tour.
This blog has touted Villegas quite a few times this season, including the line “he will win a tournament this year”. What turned things around for Villegas was that finally he had four days of putting that matched the way he hits the ball tee to green.
His display confirmed for me the golden tenet of golf at this level as first, and best, expressed by Jack Nicklaus: “Drive for show, putt for dough.”
That hasn’t changed. Despite all the technological advances that allow the modern pros to regularly hit 300m drives and bomb 9-irons from 150m, tournaments are won or lost on the delicate strokes – especially in the US where the big tournaments are regularly played on quick, subtle greens.
Sure if you hit it all over the course you won’t win but if you’re like Bubba Watson, who hits it a mile whom you wouldn’t trust with the putt that saved your life, winning is incredibly elusive. All things being equal, which technology sort of allows, the best putter will win.
Bubba will eventually get his flatstick going and will win a tournament or two but in the meantime I will stick to backing guys who have proven they can get the get it done on the green.
The tough thing about golf is figuring who is going to putt well and when. Vijay Singh went weeks without being able to buy a putt and then he got hot, winning two big tournaments in a row and sealing the much-hyped but boringly dull FedEx playoffs.
There’s no doubting Villegas has got a nuclear-powered golf swing. For a whippet thin guy he launches the ball a mile. How long he can keep cranking his swing to maximum velocity remains to be seen but while he’s around golf will remain interesting as he’s capable of reeling some amazing scores when his eye is in.
You don’t want to get carried away, but in this Tiger hibernation period some promising talent is filtering to the surface in the form of Anthony Kim, Villegas, young Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who should have won in Switzerland last week …
I’ll be back next week with some Ryder Cup thoughts but at the moment, if you can get good odds on Europe, I’d taken them. Their players are definitely in superior form. If you look at the Yanks, their big guns have been struggling. The only caveat I’d put on Europe is how they respond to Nick Faldo as captain. He’s a divisive figure but as long as he doesn’t rub any of his players the wrong way he’ll be able to fire up Europe to a level the Americans seldom match.
MAJ played exceptionally well last week without being able to make a putt to save his life while Cambo has been back in form for about a month now and when he’s in form, there are not many finer players.
Thinking about MAJ’s putting woes brings me to Camilo Villegas’ win in most recent event on the US PGA Tour.
This blog has touted Villegas quite a few times this season, including the line “he will win a tournament this year”. What turned things around for Villegas was that finally he had four days of putting that matched the way he hits the ball tee to green.
His display confirmed for me the golden tenet of golf at this level as first, and best, expressed by Jack Nicklaus: “Drive for show, putt for dough.”
That hasn’t changed. Despite all the technological advances that allow the modern pros to regularly hit 300m drives and bomb 9-irons from 150m, tournaments are won or lost on the delicate strokes – especially in the US where the big tournaments are regularly played on quick, subtle greens.
Sure if you hit it all over the course you won’t win but if you’re like Bubba Watson, who hits it a mile whom you wouldn’t trust with the putt that saved your life, winning is incredibly elusive. All things being equal, which technology sort of allows, the best putter will win.
Bubba will eventually get his flatstick going and will win a tournament or two but in the meantime I will stick to backing guys who have proven they can get the get it done on the green.
The tough thing about golf is figuring who is going to putt well and when. Vijay Singh went weeks without being able to buy a putt and then he got hot, winning two big tournaments in a row and sealing the much-hyped but boringly dull FedEx playoffs.
There’s no doubting Villegas has got a nuclear-powered golf swing. For a whippet thin guy he launches the ball a mile. How long he can keep cranking his swing to maximum velocity remains to be seen but while he’s around golf will remain interesting as he’s capable of reeling some amazing scores when his eye is in.
You don’t want to get carried away, but in this Tiger hibernation period some promising talent is filtering to the surface in the form of Anthony Kim, Villegas, young Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who should have won in Switzerland last week …
I’ll be back next week with some Ryder Cup thoughts but at the moment, if you can get good odds on Europe, I’d taken them. Their players are definitely in superior form. If you look at the Yanks, their big guns have been struggling. The only caveat I’d put on Europe is how they respond to Nick Faldo as captain. He’s a divisive figure but as long as he doesn’t rub any of his players the wrong way he’ll be able to fire up Europe to a level the Americans seldom match.
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