Is Phil Mickelson a Cheater?

Phil Mickelson has long been rumored to be one of the least popular players amongst his peers on the PGA Tour. But now his popularity is dipping to new lows over his use of 20-year-old Ping Eye2 square-groove wedges that sidestep the new groove rule. "I don't like it at all, not one bit," Rocco Mediate said. "It's against the spirit of the rule...We have to get rid of those clubs, because they're square grooves - what else can you say?" According to Scott McCarron, "It's cheating, and I'm appalled Phil has put it in play."

Readers of this blog know that I'm no fan of Phil, but in this case I believe that he's getting unfairly crucified. In my opinion, it's perfectly fine to play golf with anything that the USGA deems to be legal. Heck, if the Iron Byron was legal, I'd be the first to use one. Since all square-groove Ping Eye 2 irons manufactured before April 1, 1990 are legal, Phil didn't do anything wrong by putting them in the bag. The USGA agrees. "The clubs are usable where USGA rules apply," said Dick Rugge, the USGA's senior technical director. "The rules speak for themselves and show it's not cheating to use them."

So the critics of Phil need to back down. He's certainly not cheating. If people have any beef, they should redirect their rage at golf's governing bodies. But more interestingly, I think that this controversy sheds light on other issues. For instance, what does all this say about golf club technology? The message I get is that 20-year-old technology is better than that of today. I've long believed that iron performance improvement through technology is limited and this is further validation. My conviction was so strong that I put a set of Mizuno MP-14s in my bag about a year ago. These irons are about 18-years-old and play just as well as my much newer Nike Blades. I'd hate to work in the marketing department at any golf club company when consumers watch that the pros are opting for clubs made two decades ago!

Tiger Woods Rumors Lure the Tabloids to Golf...

The tabloid media has grown in prominence dramatically over the last several years. Gossip around the private lives of celebrities has overtaken actually substantive topics across America's water coolers. Nothing is more telling than the simultaneous explosive growth of TMZ and PerezHilton.com in contrast with the near bankruptcies being faced by legitimate news stalwarts such as the New York Times.

But golf has seemed to be immune to this tabloid pandemic. Unfortunately, Tiger Woods' enormous popularity placed him under its greasy microscope. All it took was something minutely unusual in the petri dish for them to pounce. That indeed occurred over Thanksgiving when Tiger drove his Caddy around like a carnival bumper car with his wife going all Nicholson on it (let's just hope it wasn't with his priceless Scotty Cameron putter!). Like a herd of great whites drawn to a drop of blood, the media descended upon Tiger's Isleworth sanctuary with dollar signs in their eyes. Could this be evidence of a domestic issue?!

So friggin' what? A couple of years ago on my Bandon Dunes golf vacation, a friend of mine told us he knew a person close to Tiger's entourage. According to him, Tiger was quite the Casanova who was not opposed to "stepping out" and playing much more than just 18-holes. He also emphasized that it was more about quantity rather than quality. I didn't entertain the discussion because I didn't really care. Lots of people step out and it's almost a given amongst pro athletes. Big deal.

It turns out that it is a big deal to many. The Chinese have gone so far as to create a CGI re-enactment of the whole incident. Not quite Pixar, but way too polished than it should be and just another sign that the end is near (I wonder if they actually mocapped Elin swinging that club!):



But why all this attention? My guess is that people somehow build up a fanciful notion that famous people lead perfect lives. When anything surfaces to dispel these fantasies, it devastates them. It's just absurd. In the case of Tiger Woods, why should we think that he is better than us commoners at anything outside of playing golf? As a society, we need to come to the realization that all people suffer from faults. No amount of fame can make them go away. If anything, fame does the opposite. It would be naive to think otherwise. Accept it and move on. There are many more important things in the world be concerned.

To those who still think that most famous people stay on the straight and narrow, just remember that a wise man, Chris Rock, once said, "A man is only as faithful as his options." Ponder that for a minute. It's probably safe to assume that virtually all famous people are cheating. Certainly that's a better assumption for us as a whole than to deitize them if we want to put an end to the tabloid fascination. Lastly, for the record, I'm an extremely faithful guy by choice, not due to a lack of options!

P.S. Check out some of my blog friends' posts on this topic:

Hooked on Golf Blog

Mike Pederson Golf

Whad'Ya Know? Wie Actually Won!

Well, it finally happened. Michelle Wie actually won a legitimate professional golf tournament. It occurred at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational over some of the top women golfers in the world.

While I've always thought that Michelle would win on the pro circuit someday, I didn't think that it would take this long. I had some serious doubts a couple of years ago when her pursuit of distance to compete with the dudes led to some questionable swing changes. But her Ernie Els-like swing of old returned last year and she was able to go flag hunting. She was competitive in many tournaments before her breakthrough win.

So what now? Obviously, it is a tremendous weight lifted off of her shoulders. The kind of pressure to win this kid must have built over the years must have been absolutely maddening. With every loss the PSIs were raised a notch. But the relief of winning must have been equally euphoric.

I think that the boost to her confidence from her first win could propel her to multiple win seasons in the near future. LPGA majors are certainly part of the picture. Why not? Have you seen the names of the recent winners of LPGA majors? Since Annika left, it's a who's who list of "who?". Over the last 3 years, the World's #1 Lorena Ochoa has taken only 2 majors. The rest are players likely to be unrecognized at my local muni. Clearly, there's plenty of opportunity for Wie to win majors in the current competitive landscape. We'll see what happens, but I'm sure that it will interesting to watch regardless. Good luck Michelle!

The FedEx Cup Still Sucks

I don't know about you, but I could care less about the FedEx Cup. I know that they made some major changes this year to avoid last year's debacle where the winner was decided before the final event even started (a disaster many people including myself saw coming)! However, there are still many issues that still make this series a bore-fest.

I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person having earned a graduate degree from a prestigious institution of higher learning. And yet, I still can't comprehend the new and supposedly simplified FedEx Cup points system. I've heard all the golf talking heads on TV try to explain it, but it has yet to sink in. I've tried to read articles explaining it, but I just can't get past the 3rd sentence. If I can't understand it nor have the motivation to do so, isn't there still a huge problem?!

I've already suggested changes to make this thing more interesting. But is the FedEx Cup even necessary? I'm content with 4 majors and a team event as the major events in a golf season. So far, the FedEx Cup doesn't feel any more important than your run-of-the-mill PGA Tour stop. Maybe it's a hopeless case anyway since football takes priority for the majority of sports nuts at this time of year. Regardless, I know that it's bad when I'd rather watch my beloved, yet pathetic Oakland Raiders and our QB JaMarcus Russell throw to the other team than Tiger cashing in another paycheck.