Rory Rules

1. If he's playing poorly it must be the woman. Dump her by text.

2. When playing against Sergio birdie the first three holes. After that he's done.

3. When bombing it 50 yards past your playing partners, walk all the way up to your ball before they hit and then look back at them and squint, like you can't exactly make out who they are.

I see Rory not being able to maintain this form for an extended period of time. He's said that he has become 100% focused on golf lately. No outside interests. Eventually, he's going to burn out a bit and use his time for other activities. Though I do see him keeping number 1 in the OWGR for at least a couple years.

I don't know how these guys can practice so much. Phil was apparently on the putting green for 4 hours straight yesterday, and spent something like 9 hours practicing. Granted, golf for me is an income drain, not an income source, but I really can't imagine practicing for more than an hour or so at a time. 4 hours on a putting green would be torture.

Agreed, unless each putt was worth $100,000. Like you said, they're motivated a bit differently than we are.

Horseballs wrote:I see Rory not being able to maintain this form for an extended period of time.  He's said that he has become 100% focused on golf lately.  No outside interests.  Eventually, he's going to burn out a bit and use his time for other activities.  Though I do see him keeping number 1 in the OWGR for at least a couple years.  

I don't know how these guys can practice so much.  Phil was apparently on the putting green for 4 hours straight yesterday, and spent something like 9 hours practicing.  Granted, golf for me is an income drain, not an income source, but I really can't imagine practicing for more than an hour or so at a time.  4 hours on a putting green would be torture.  

Phil does all those hours of putting practice and then you see him time and time again over a three or four foot putt for birdie or par and he tries to jam it in there at ramming speed and ends up with a twelve footer for the comback.

Rory's got a lot of body stuff that happens very quickly. Tiger used to have that, too. Until his various body parts wore out. I think Rory had better make his hay while the sun is still shining. Tiger certainly did but now its his time to putter out in the pasture.

#4 - Try to make the fourth round challenging by making a few early bogeys. Then play a flawless back nine to win by a shot. It keeps people watching.

If I was Phil or Fowler, I would have slow-played the 18th and not let Rory's group play in with me. I don't know if Rory could have finished 10-15 minutes later. I'm pretty close to Louisville, and it was very dark for the last 20 minutes.
Trust me, the last thing anyone wants to do is spend an extra night in Kentucky.

Horseballs wrote:#4 - Try to make the fourth round challenging by making a few early bogeys.  Then play a flawless back nine to win by a shot.  It keeps people watching.  

If I was Phil or Fowler, I would have slow-played the 18th and not let Rory's group play in with me.  I don't know if Rory could have finished 10-15 minutes later.  I'm pretty close to Louisville, and it was very dark for the last 20 minutes.  
Trust me, the last thing anyone wants to do is spend an extra night in Kentucky.  

Agreed. I thought it was a bit bullshit. Phil and Ricky are playing for about $100k a stroke. They shouldn't have even been asked. But then I sure Rory playing the final hole on Monday would be worth more that $100K.

One thing for sure, it was nice to watch a tournament where you get to watch all the players in contention. If tiger was there it would have been the typical tiger butt munch fest.

I thought the way the PGA handled the end was very poor. Almost anyone still in contention in the last three or so holes would want to be able to play at normal pace and not be distracted by officials and other competitors up their asses.

I thought it was very classy the way Rory handled it. If I were Rory at that point, having waited on every freaking shot the entire round while the check-collector slackers ahead were methodically plodding along at a six hour pace, I would have announced my decision to call it a day probably on the tee of #17 or so. Let all those arsehole officials who lost control and let the boys wander around the playground at their leisure scramble to re-stage logistics for Monday morning for the anti-climactic climax.

Rory handled it as well as you can when you are impeding on the group in front of you. However, he had no reasonable right to finish the round on Sunday. Too dark is too dark, and it's his call to make. It's not like the PGA was going to force him to finish in the pitch black. I think it would have been hilarious if that Bernt Weisberger dude would have decided to play the last two holes on Monday morning.
Phil is in a no-win situation. The cameras clearly showed that he and his caddy were put out by the situation and more importantly the lack of communication from group to group. Phil and Fowler both said they thought the last group was only going to hit the tee shot, not play into the green.
So Phil was irritated, but he has nothing to gain from bitching about it afterwards. In fact, I expect to see FD calling Phil a whiner as soon as he logs on.

Tiger was such a fucking drama queen. Rory is better than Geekrick in every way, as a player and person. Goodbye Geekrick, the door already hit you in the ass, the chalk outline's been washed away and we can write fail next to your name.

I believe that Phil and Ricki had the right to refuse to allow Rory & Heinz to play #18 with them for any of the hole. I think that the decision to play it as it was played was due to commercial pressure from the network and the PGA caved. Poor showing.

Lorenzzo wrote:Tiger was such a fucking drama queen.  Rory is better than Geekrick in every way, as a player and person.  Goodbye Geekrick, the door already hit you in the ass, the chalk outline's been washed away and we can write fail next to your name.

I'm picturing Tiger watching the final round in his footy pajamas screaming into a pillow.
Yes, it is now over. Time to drop the pseudo hardass façade and act like the geek he has always been.

IMO... it was the best (PGA) major that I've watched for a long time, excitement to the very end with all top players in the running... Congrats to Rory, but I wanna Rickie to win, .... Phil gave it a great run

Phil or Ricki could have won if they had decided to quit due to darkness. If they had, then this morning the outcome could have become different with Rory having to sleep on his slim lead and the other two having a shot to drop putts in decent light.

Supposedly the ratings for yesterday's final round were the highest for the PGA in five years and all without You-Know-Who in the field.

Sometimes the PGA picks really funky courses for its championship. This one, Valhalla, and the one next year out on a big lake in Wisconsin, Whisting Straits, are examples that have me looking for the windmills and mechanical animals on the TV screen. It would have been fitting for a Scandinavian to win at Valhalla. Some of them had their chances. Although I guess the Vikings did also invade Ireland and downstream the genes into the progeny.

Horseballs wrote:

Lorenzzo wrote:Tiger was such a fucking drama queen.  Rory is better than Geekrick in every way, as a player and person.  Goodbye Geekrick, the door already hit you in the ass, the chalk outline's been washed away and we can write fail next to your name.

I'm picturing Tiger watching the final round in his footy pajamas screaming into a pillow.  
Yes, it is now over.  Time to drop the pseudo hardass façade and act like the geek he has always been.  

I personally don't have anything against geeks.  Live and let live.  I feel the same way about gay people.  That said… I find it uncomfortable to be around or listen to geeks.  I think it's that they are so uncomfortable with themselves and their surroundings.  They end up sounding… whiny. Add entitlemènt and for me it's a total pass on the person.

Tiger has always been a poster boy for whiny.  I thank Elin and her 5 iron for putting an end to this.

Rory definitely seems comfortable in his own skin, whereas Tiger always has his coach-speak. Rory admitted that he hit a low pull with his 3 wood to set up his eagle on #10. Could you imagine Tiger saying that?

Horseballs wrote:Rory definitely seems comfortable in his own skin, whereas Tiger always has his coach-speak.  Rory admitted that he hit a low pull with his 3 wood to set up his eagle on #10.  Could you imagine Tiger saying that?  

It's obvious to me that 3W shot was not done by planning, it's a very good accident

Horseballs wrote:Rory definitely seems comfortable in his own skin, whereas Tiger always has his coach-speak.  Rory admitted that he hit a low pull with his 3 wood to set up his eagle on #10.  Could you imagine Tiger saying that?  

The day before Rory had hit a beautiful 3/5 wood that flew high, straight at the target, landed softly and rolled out nicely for a great Eagle opportunity. That was a perfect shot. The 3 wood on 10 on Sunday on the other hand was obviously not struck perfectly, a low pull that landed short, got a great kick and rolled up nicely. We've all had shots that we hit poorly but get a great result. Rory was willing to admit this. What do you think Tiger would have said? I think he would also have admitted that he didn't hit it perfectly but got a great result.

That was the old Tiger. The current Tiger would drop his club after finishing his swing with a grimace of disgust even if the shot ended up OK. Like every shot he makes must be perfect or it isn't worth the effort. I recall Hogan telling someone years ago that in his typical round, he only hit five or six shots the way he wanted to. The rest of them were good enough for him to score pretty well.

The measure of a player is how he hits his next shot after getting away with one. Yesterday during my weekly club round, I hit a pulled driver on the back nine that was really nailed and stopped a yard or two short of the hazard by some damp rough. I had about 80 yards from the green where normally on that hole I'd have anywhere from 150 to 130. I took my gap wedge and proceeded to shank it 30 yards right of the green. The lie was pretty good and 95% of the time, I'd hit that shot no more than 30 feet from a center pin. In my mental post-round debrief, I figured out that I must have felt guilty for getting away with that drive that was 50 yards past two of the three competitors. I guess that's golf. Like the baseball cap reads, Shit Happens.

Surf conditions were really good on Sunday so I taped the final round and watched it tonight. Like I'm going to miss great surf just to watch other people play golf. Anyways, here are my observations.

1. Nancy boy is looking over his shoulder at Faldo. So he treats Peter Kostis as though he's the greater golf mind. The problem is Kostis is an idiot. Faldo realizes this and is forced to constantly correct him.

2. Nantz grows more annoying with age if that's possible.

3. Not having you know who there made for a much better tournament.

4. These guys stepped up. A lot of great, difficult shots, bunched
leader board and well contested. One of the better majors.

5. McElroy choked the front.

6. McElroy did what Geekrick never did – come from behind in a major on the final day in brilliant fashion.

7. Valhalla is kind of ugly.

I don't have the same criticisms of the PGA as some of the others. Difficult situations and damned if they do damned if they don't predicaments. Just imagine if the USGA head handled things.

Kiwigolfer wrote:

Horseballs wrote:Rory definitely seems comfortable in his own skin, whereas Tiger always has his coach-speak.  Rory admitted that he hit a low pull with his 3 wood to set up his eagle on #10.  Could you imagine Tiger saying that?  

The day before Rory had hit a beautiful 3/5 wood that flew high, straight at the target, landed softly and rolled out nicely for a great Eagle opportunity.  That was a perfect shot. The 3 wood on 10 on Sunday on the other hand was obviously not struck perfectly,  a low pull that landed short, got a great kick and rolled up nicely. We've all had shots that we hit poorly but get a great result. Rory was willing to admit this. What do you think Tiger would have said? I think he would also have admitted that he didn't hit it perfectly but got a great result.

You're probably right, but it's fun to act like Tiger is 100% egotistical a-hole 100% of the time.

Lorenzzo wrote:
7.    Valhalla is kind of ugly.

I kind of agree. Louisville really caught unlucky breaks with the weather. I'm 50 miles north as the crow flies and we didn't get more than a sprinkle from Thursday - Sunday. I was playing golf during the Sunday deluge and was surprised that the tourney was under a delay when I finished. We had a beautiful blue sky.

I found myself rooting for either Fowler or Mickelson. I was more hoping for a playoff. I'm happy that McIlroy won, but he's going to win plenty more over the years. I don't see Mickelson having too many more opportunities, and I'm not sold on Fowler being a consistent force in majors.

Valhalla is pretty generous in allowing non-members to play. It's really not outrageous either. Something like $150 plus mandatory caddy on either Monday or Thursday. Hell, my sh!thole course is $95 for guest fees, plus caddy or cart.

Ricki was in an extreme comfort zone playing with Phil. That can be a good thing and a bad. If Phil was off his game in that last round, perhaps Fowler could have won the thing. Or maybe he holds Phil up as an idol and subconscioiusly wanted Phil to win this one since he is old and may not have many more chances. So Ricki might do better when paired with another young gun. Personally, I think Phil has always had a lot of talent but frequently tends towards the freak show in his course management down the stretch. You live and die by the overswung driver and the circus trick Pelz wedge shots.

Mongrel wrote:Ricki was in an extreme comfort zone playing with Phil. That can be a good thing and a bad. If Phil was off his game in that last round, perhaps Fowler could have won the thing. Or maybe he holds Phil up as an idol and subconscioiusly wanted Phil to win this one since he is old and may not have many more chances. So Ricki might do better when paired with another young gun. Personally, I think Phil has always had a lot of talent but frequently tends towards the freak show in his course management down the stretch. You live and die by the overswung driver and the circus trick Pelz wedge shots.

Your Pelz analogy is way off. He is a statistician. He would have phil play safe all day long. Phil is a magician with his wedges.

Phil's game is best when he takes chances. He can get up and down from more places that most other pros. So it makes sense for him to go for lower percentage shots than others would. You are right though. If his driver is off, he's out of contention. He also is a streaky putter. When he's not putting well he adds many strokes to the card.

Ricki on the other hand, is a great putter. He seems to miss nothing from inside 10 feet. It's a simple, good looking putter stroke. I've really been impressed on how well he's incorporated his new move. He used to be a hitter of the ball. His shoulders would stop turning and he would push the club through impact. Now he is turning through his shots.

I actually thought having phil as a partner was a plus for Ricki. Especially since phil was playing well. Rory was the one that got screwed. He's partner self destructed. If I was Rory's coach, I'd make him practice with the slowest players imaginable. Kevin Na, or Ben Crane slow. That way he won't get his boxers in a bunch when he's in a log jam. I thought he handled himself well but you could tell he was frustrated.

It is indeed a credit to Rory that the dawdling in front of him didn't cause him to fold. Slow play sucks. The PGA should have moved the tee times up an hour or put the bottom half of the field in threesomes.

I thought it was a great, exciting finish and when Rory was three back from the leaders I began to think he wouldn't win it. Loved watching Moobs in some vintage form. When his game is on he is enjoyable to watch. Fowler played great and lead the tournament for a few holes but for some reason I can't bring myself to root for the guy.  Whether it's his stupid outfits, goofy hats or just the fact he wears Puma apparel and plays those ugly orange colored Cobra clubs I can't quite put my finger on it. I don't especially dislike the guy but can't see myself cheering him on to win.

If Rory didn't win I was rooting for Jason Day but he obviously didn't do very well on Sunday because I never saw him in the TV coverage all day. He featured quite heavily on Saturday but man, drop a few shots off the leaders and it's like you're not even playing in the tournament as far as the TV coverage goes.