Capelle On Golf

The Favorites after 36 Holes
Only two players broke 70 in the second round as the wind blew and shots tended to exit the rock hard greens. After 36 holes, only 15 players are under par. With low scores all but impossible, that makes it tough for players a half dozen strokes or more back to still have a shot at the title.

When perusing the group under par, certain names struck me as contenders, the other as pretenders who will most likely slip out of the top 5-10 before this is over. Kenny Perry is leading at -6, but he’s having a mediocre season, so I don’t expect him or 50-year-old Bernhard Langer, who’s at -5, to be at the top at the end. And the same can be said for Paul Goydos, who has one top 25 in his last 30 starts. These are the rabbits in this race.

At the end, look for Sergio Garcia (-5), Anthony Kim (-4), Boo Weekley (-3), Ernie Els (-1) or Phil Mickelson (-1) to be hoisting the crystal. That’s your short list. As for the oddsmakers at Ladbroke’s, here’s their top five at the half way point: Sergio Garcia at 4/1, Anthony Kim at 5/1, Kenny Perry at 5/1, Phil Mickelson at 10/1, and Boo Weekley at 12/1.

Big Names who Missed the Cut
It took a score of 147, three over par, to make the cut. The list of luminaries below who will miss the weekend includes five of the top 11 players in the world.

Vijay Singh (148) the 9th ranked player in the world
Sean O’Hair (148) who trailed Mickelson by only two shots after 70 holes last year.
Justin Leonard (149) who missed his first cut in 13 stroke play events this year.
Padraig Harrington (150) the reigning British Open champion.
Justin Rose (151) the 10th ranked player who is having a horrible 2008.
Angel Cabrera (151) the reigning US Open champion.
Geoff Ogilvy(152) who has ascended to sixth in the WGR after winning at Doral.
Steve Stricker (153) the fifth ranked player in the world.
Zach Johnson (155) last year’s Masters champion.
K.J. Choi (157) the eighth ranked player in the world.

Time for Sergio Garcia to Breakout
On day one Garcia took advantage on an early tee time and a masterful day of ball striking as he hit 16 greens in route to a 66, two better than Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos, who also played in the morning. Although Garcia shot a 73 in the second round and now trails Perry by a shot, he looks like the man to watch over the weekend. He hit 15 greens in windy conditions on Friday and now leads the field in GIR with 31 in 36 holes. Garcia also leads in driving accuracy, having hit all 14 fairways on Friday in a display that foot soldier Roger Maltbie, who is 56 and his seen all the best in the Modern Era, called “The best driving round I’ve ever seen.”

If Sergio keeps this up over the weekend and earns the next best title to a major, it could spur him to the heights the golf world has been expecting from him since he came within a shot tying Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA.

For the record, there have been six other players who have gone on to win their first major after first winning this championship.

Hal Sutton (1983) won the 1983 PGA
Fred Couples (1984) won the 1992 Masters
Tom Kite (1989) won the 1992 US Open
Steve Elkington (1991) won the 1995 PGA
Davis Love III (1992) won the 1997 PGA
David Duval (1999) won the 2001 British Open

Charlie Hoffman Loses It
Who needs Tiger when we have characters like Charlie Hoffman to entertain us? Hoffman was no doubt it a foul mood by the time he reached the green at the par 3 13 considering that he was +7 for the first 30 holes of the tournament. After he missed a once footer for a double bogey he casually tossed his putter into the opposite side of the greenside lake.

Using his sand wedge as a putter, he stumbled home with an 83, playing the last five holes in six under. Later the camera crew filmed a middle aged lady retrieving the putter from the pond.

Lehman Beats the Jinx
Tom Lehman may be 49, but he’s the man. He made the cut, which is an achievement by itself. He also proved that he’s the master of the Dye-abolical 17th. Prior to hitting his tee shot we were informed that he’d hit it into the lake one time in 59 tries. I thought, aha, the dreaded stat jinx will get him. But he hit green as he almost always does, and walked away with a routine par.

The Shot Tracer Rocks
The announcers, Nick Faldo especially, are going bonkers over the shot tracer, which shows the ball’s flight on a special replay. Two things stood out: the pros’ tee shots fly incredibly high these days and; the modern ball still can be maneuvered with fades and draws, though it doesn’t curve as much as in the wound ball era.

A Big Innovation!!!
At 3:43 Eastern Time I noticed the change on the leaderboard. To the left of the players’ names was their position in the tournament. Now perhaps this has appeared on the leaderboard graphic before, but if so, I never noticed it. Regardless, this is a huge and long overdue improvement as we no longer have to count the names to see where a player stands. Better late than never.

Perfect Timing
I mentioned on Friday that the TV people used Phil Mickelson to attract a bigger audience for Friday afternoon, and so he did, right down to the minute. At 6:59 ET he tapped in for his par at 18, and at 7:00 the telecast ended even though there were a few groups still on the course.