Capelle On Golf

In his book, God Save the Fan, Dead Spin founder Will Leitch said it was not good to know our favorite athletes too well. His point: the better we know them, the more likely it is that we are not going to like them.
Case in point is Phil Mickelson. I have rooted for him for [...]

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Tom Watson is playing in the Open this week, so you will see much of him over the first 36 holes and more if he makes the cut no matter what he shoots.
Much talk will be about his stature as the supposed best ever at links golf. The experts base their conclusion on his five [...]

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“Every great player has put his hands on the trophy.”
Frank Nobilo on the British Open
So, according to the Golf Channel’s Nobilo, winning the British Open is a must for consideration as a great player. Is he right? Consider the list of those who have won four or more majors in the Modern Era (1958-now).
Players in [...]

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The 25th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’ spectacular charge to victory at the 1986 Masters has rightfully grabbed the headlines of late, showing as expected how much we care about events that happened in multiples of five years ago or more.
Indeed, two books have been written about Nicklaus’ great win, and I wrote a story about [...]

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The Masters committee expected bad weather, so they moved the tees up and put the pins in accessible positions. There was a little wind and rain, but nothing like what was forecast, and so scores dipped deep into red as 31 of the 96 players broke par.
Tiger Woods had never broken 70 in the first [...]

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Announcers on Fred Couples
On October 3 of last year Fred Couples (he is listed as FRED at the PGA Tour) turned 50. Finally these announcers will start calling him by his name, not by that silly sounding Freddy, which has made him seem like a little kid for the last 20 odd years.
PS: I [...]

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Tom Watson calls Tiger Woods the greatest ever (even though he’s Jack Nicklaus’ great buddy), yet he deplores Woods’ behavior so much he wrote him a letter (Golf Digest, October):
I did write Tiger a note earlier in the summer about his behavior, but it’s personal. Don’t know whether he received it, and I don’t want [...]

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During last week’s Open sportscaster/former pro golfer Peter Alliss offered the opinion that Tom Watson is “the greatest links golfer. Peter Alliss is dead wrong.
Yes, Watson has won five Opens to Jack Nicklaus’ and Tiger Woods’ three, which makes him most prolific Open champion of the Modern Era. But this alone does not make him [...]

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All week long Tom Watson was talking about the spiritual side of golf, a notion that had first made itself evident to him 32 years earlier at the Duel in the Sun. As you no doubt have heard a dozen times this week, Watson turned to Nicklaus on the 14th tee of the final round [...]

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Tom Watson had won his second Duel at Turnberry in the biggest upset in the history of sports.
Going into the Open the 59 year old Watson was, as memory serves me, a 1,000 to 1 to win while Tiger Woods was listed at 7/4 when I penned my preview on July 11th . But, after [...]

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