Capelle On Golf

In Mark Frost’s excellent book, The Match, he mentions that the Western Open was still considered a major as late as 1948, the year Ben Hogan won it and the US Open. I’m not so sure about that, but if it was still a major, then we’ve got to amend the list of major winners.
Hogan [...]

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I’d like to see some improvements in golf. Wouldn’t you? And don’t you sometimes have a great idea that you’d like to share, maybe even see implemented? But you get the feeling that nobody’s listening or cares.
Part of my work at this blog involves contacting the big organizations. I do so with the best of [...]

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What can we make of the media? They love a great story with staying power, yet they will hasten its demise. Take the Democratic Primary. A good percentage of the media have been campaigning for weeks now for Hillary Clinton to throw in the towel prior to the last primary on June 3. And yet [...]

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Annika Sorenstam announced her retirement a couple of days ago at age 37. It’s not an early one like Bobby Jones, who retired at age 28. And its not one of those never ending affairs in which a golfer keeps playing long past their winning days. For Annika, retiring at the end of the season [...]

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One good week and a lower ranking golfer can skyrocket up the WGR. Paul Goydos, runner-up at THE PLAYERS is exhibit A. One week ago he was #169 in the world. Now he’s #59. Now imagine this: if he’d holed that nine footer on the 72nd hole he’d be the 32nd ranked player on the [...]

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At their worst graphics are unwanted intrusions on our TV screen. In my opinion channel logos, especially the larger ones, are never welcome. I could also do without the scrolling scores of the entire field. If I must know what player X is doing, I’ll run over to my computer during a commercial break.
At their [...]

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THE PLAYERS is not a major, but to the long suffering Sergio Garcia, who missed winning the 2007 British Open by about a quarter inch, his victory on Sunday must have felt like one. The event carries golf’s biggest purse, it is referred to as the fifth major, and the event’s history, built over a [...]

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The Best Field? Not a Chance
THE PLAYERS likes to boast that it has the best field. If best field means the most players in the WGR’s top 200 or whatever, then perhaps it does. But in this case what best field really means is the deepest field, not necessarily the best.
At the majors, and wannabe [...]

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Over the first two days every entrant plays one round in the morning and one in the afternoon. This is done to equalize the playing conditions. For the weekend, you can throw these rules of fairness out the window. Those with the worst scores over the first two days are rewarded with the best [...]

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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 [...]

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