The Chrysler Classic of Greensboro
Tiger is going to take some time off. The next time he plays is likely to be the season-ending Tour Championship. More on that later, but don’t pay attention. I’d like to take some time off. The question is from what. Lately I’ve been a guest on a radio show about soccer, which I follow about as closely as I follow the free-diving hockey in indoor pools circuit. After last week’s show, I think I may be fired, and job security is no joke … when you’re getting paid, that is. I won’t get into the particulars but the discussion during the show, which I wasn’t taking much a part in because it was boring, was about how soccer fans are marginalized. Here I write these weekly bits about golf and I have to listen to soccer fans talk about living on the margin. It may be harder to justify any interest in a sport that routinely features players writhing on the ground in pain only to get up and run around after the affected drama, granted, than it is to justify any interest in a sport in which a player can’t hit a shot if a camera shutters during his back swing, but I don’t want to attend a griping session on life as a fan on the margin. In any case, my potential firing from the show is more exciting than maybe it should be because it’ll mean I can sleep in Monday mornings. Which is important this time of year because football, baseball playoffs, and final rounds make for long hours on Sundays. On the couch. Taking breaks only to check the progress of the chili cooking on the stove. Tiger won again. Six in a row on the PGA Tour. And he won this one by eight strokes. The only question after he wins the Tour Championship is if the short off-season will squelch his momentum. Don’t count on it. Last week: I won with Tiger. I love it when a long-term plan comes together, if belatedly, to sort of quote Hannibal from the A-Team. (I just Googled “A-Team”+”quotes”, which I don’t recommend any child of the 80s do if you don’t have a couple hours on your hands.) Outright and head-to-head. Unfortunately, the payoff isn’t huge because Tiger is someone you might call a favorite. I netted $861.09, or a little less than a unit. That brings my season total to -19 units. We’re winding down 2006. Five tournaments to go before silly season. This is the time of year players on the 125 bubble (to earn a card for next year, players must finish in the top 125 on the money list) have more incentive to, well, make money. It’s so they can make more money next year. So, job security is potentially a motivating factor. I both have and don’t have such a motivating factor. In year’s past I think I’ve keyed too much on this brand of motivation in these late-season events. Motivating factors don’t often amount to much in this sport. We’re only two weeks removed from the Ryder Cup, in which I suggested what I thought to be motivating factors for the Americans’ top two players. Tiger played well, but Phil Mickelson didn’t appear to be motivated to balance out a mercurial year that tipped decidedly downward that Sunday at the U.S. Open. So, none of my picks at this week’s Chrysler Classic of Greensboro are going to want for work in 2007. Again, this is not necessarily the case for me. Take Camilo Villegas (40-1), 1/6 unit: I would say Spiderman is having more than a solid year as a rookie. We’re talking he’s in the famous “almost breakout” category, given two second place finishes in a month’s span at the beginning of the year. He’s had two more top-5s since, the last coming just three weeks ago at the Canadian Open. There have been a handful (if you have a big hand) of MCs and a smaller handful of top-25s. I might add that in a few weeks the aforementioned season-ending Tour Championship will happen. That tournament features the year’s top 30 on the money list. Villegas is 33 on the money list. But I wouldn’t bet on motivating factors. Take Davis Love III (33-1), 1/6 unit: It’s twilight time, I think it’s safe to say, for Three Shots of Love. A bad back, inconsistency, hasn’t won in three years. Bus travel will wear one down, etc. But he’s not having a bad year. And he’s coming off T40, T34 and a T4 last week. That’s a good direction to be heading in. Incidentally, but certainly not importantly, by any measure, DLIII is currently No. 39 on the money list. Take Tim Herron (80-1), 1/6 unit: It’s hard to figure how Lumpy is currently ranked, um, 30 on the money list, given the fact that he’s having a woeful time of it finding fairways, hitting greens and putting. Those are relatively important areas of one’s game. But he won a tournament in May---the Colonial. That was a wild ride but he was second in putting average for the week, which goes to show you … nothing, really … except that occasionally putters get hot and if you’re hitting trees on the way to the green, as long as you get there you have a chance. In the head-to-head, take Love to finish higher than Carl Pettersson (5-6), 1 unit: Because Pettersson’s 14th on the money list, if you know what I mean.
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