I am looking forward to watching the final round of one of my favorite tournaments of the year. The Masters, no, the Open, not even close. This week is Q School week. The toughest, most grueling, gut wrenching six rounds of golf in the world. Even tour veterans are not exempt this year, including David Duval, Jeff Maggert, Jesper Parnevik, Robert Damron and one of my favorite one plane golf swings, Clemson grad, Charles Warren. Charlottean Brenden Dejonge (who I almost worked with) is there and Joe Ogilvie. Keep an eye on upcoming star and my pick as rookie of the year, Ricky Fowler is playing. If you want to see some great golfers get out of there comfort zones, putting their golf swings to the ultimate test, watch the last round on Monday. The golf channel will air it and always tend to highlight the players that are close to the top 30 cut line. This is a great opportunity to see how consistent the players pre-shot routines are and do they change under extreme pressure. Things to watch for: 1)Do the number of practice swings increase. 2) Does their pace of play change, slower or faster 3)Do they start to hit shots that they wouldn’t normally hit in a typical round of golf 4) How do they handle the last nine holes of the toughest test in their golfing careers. 5)and do they Breathe, yes, someone always manages to forget to this…………We call this choking. It is kind of like a car crash, everyone slows down to see what happened. Stay tuned to see who this years victime is.
Now for my take on the Tiger situation. First of all, for those of you who know me know that there is not a bigger Tiger fan on the planet. In the wake of his confession of infidelity (voice mail and text messages to prove it) I am in a state of shock and disbelief. I know that we all put Tiger up on a pedestal because of his golfing prowess but I also admired how I thought he lived his life. I am very disappointed in the news and am grieving because I don’t think that I will ever view one of my golfing heroes and someone who I looked up to, the same again. I am sure over time it will pass and I hope he and Elin can keep their marriage together for their kids sake at least. I will pray for their family and that is all we can do. I am sure we will never know exactly what happened the night of the crash (even though I think I know but won’t write), but this is a time when I think trying to keep his private life private definitely made things worse for him. Maybe he will come out with the truth but my guess is that we will never know.
Keep an eye on Q School by logging on to www.thegolfchannel.com
God Bless and don’t forget to breathe when you are nervous,
Guru
The Golf Guru Show 
Guru, thank you for this reminder about Q school. I will definitely look for the things you mention while I watch. I truly appreciate your insights.
On Tiger Woods, what has transpired is of course unbelievable. But the temptations once one is a celebrity seem to be virtually impossible to resist. From our standpoint it seems incredible that Tiger would think he could get away with such behavior. I am amazed it was kept as quiet for as long as it has.
In terms of his character, though, here is the problem I have had all along with him. I attend the Wachovia/Quail Hollow Championship every year on Pro-Am day (Wednesdays). Thousands of little kids are there to get autographs of the players. Every player that I have ever seen play in the tournament acknowledges the crowd as they play the course and sign as many autographs as they can. Except Tiger. He doesn’t look to the left or to the right. He seems to treat the crowd with contempt as he walks from hole to hole.
Focus? Concentration? The Zone? Or is he an egotistic jerk? I cheer for him. I admire his golf and his talent. He has inspired me in so many ways I can’t even count them with his miraculous victories and stunning golf shots. But I have to say, this behavior I have seen at the Wachovia seems to have been a manifestation of some fatal character flaws. I hope in the future he comes down to earth and engages more with the fans whom without which, he would not have attained the weatlh that he has accumulated.
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I agree with you about the autographs. I use to always make excuses that because he was so popular that he couldn’t possibly sign them all so he wouldn’t sign any but not anymore. It will be interesting to see if his demeanor changes toward the fans in order to win them back. Listening to sports radio this morning, it was interesting to hear what John Feinstein said about how even in his apology, he blamed the media and how the golf media is afraid of Tiger but the tmz’s and usweekly’s of the world don’t care if he doesn’t give them an interview. Tiger is the second most famous person on the planet right now next to Obama and he will not be able to hide from anyone right now. Should be interesting and it really is a shame that it happened. I am getting your blog updates now, keep writing and I will see you soon
thanks,
Jason
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