The Three Ghosts of Aaron Baddeley

I have enjoyed watching Aaron Baddeley since he first hit the PGA Tour in 2003. His swing is quick, short and purposeful and reminds me of Nick Price. On the greens, he leaves Nicky behind with a superb putting stroke. To this day I am amazed at just how quickly Baddeley pulls the trigger on putts once he is over the ball. But, as much as I enjoy his play, Aaron has yet to fully exorcise three golfing ghosts from his memory.

The first occurred with the slamming of a Porta-Potty door in the middle of his back-stroke while dueling it out with Ernie Els at the 2003 Sony Open. It was a really lousy break and Baddeley never fully recovered, losing to Els in a playoff. Some players would have been pleased with the second place check and moved on but the loss seemed to knocked Baddeley slightly off course for the next year or so.

The next haunting came at the 2007 US Open when he was famously paired with Tiger Woods in the final round. Now, Woods has done plenty of haunting all by himself but adding a dose of classic US Open pressure had Baddeley looking ashen on the first tee and he didn't look much better after shooting 80.

Never let it be said that Aaron Baddeley is anything less than a superb player. He is long enough, good enough with his irons and has a nifty short game to complement his oft' magic putter. But, during his third round match against Tiger Woods Baddeley was again visited by a ghost that he must expel, and soon.

From the 5th hole on Baddeley flat outplayed Woods. And, this was not a Tiger Woods who was wild off the tee or lipping out putt and after putt. This was a Tiger Woods who was as on his game as I have seen of late. Baddeley had makable putts that would have won him the match on the 18th and 19th holes. He hit great putts both times, but it sometimes takes more than great putt to find the bottom of the hole. This most recent ghost may have been the very same one to haunt Steve Scott when he had a chance to finish Woods in the 1996 US Amateur.

The lesson is that you had better beat Woods in regulation. Back in 1997 when Tom Lehmann became one of Wood's first professional match play, extra holes victims at the Mercedes Championships Lehmann said after the match that there was a sense of inevitability about Woods eventually slamming the door with an amazing shot.

Aaron Baddeley was still in high school when Woods kick-in tee shot kicked Lehmann into second place, but you know he was paying attention. And, he was paying attention during the Accenture.

Baddeley doesn't need to beat Woods head to head to get rid of those ghosts. They will purge themselves from his being the very second that he wins something big, a major, and elite field event, whatever. Until then, you'll see those ghosts sitting on his shoulder whispering doubts that he shouldn't be hearing at this stage of his career.

I think he's going to do it. Aaron Baddeley will win a big one and he'll do it this year. There will come a day when the lessons of today's painful loss become a source of resolve that makes him able to win that kind of event. Here's hoping that day comes soon.

Is Lorena Ochoa Hearing Footsteps?

She better be, because it's pretty clear that Annika Sorenstam is back. I'm sure Ochoa is ready and that points out one of the most significant differences between the PGA and the LPGA tours. You can rejoice in the fact that 17 of the top 20 players in the world teed it up at this week's Northern Trsut Open, but which other top player is chasing Phil Mickelson? The answer is none. He's chased by the likes of Jeff Quinney, D.J. Trahan and Scott Verplank. I'm not sure but I don't think that a Quinney/Michelson duel is what the average PGA tour fan is wanting to see.

But, this piece is about just how compelling the LPGA tour is by comparison. This year, we have Annika back at full strength. We'll get to see her face off with Ochoa, but you cannot forget about Suzann Pettersen. She is not likely to shrink from the challenge that Sorenstam and Ochoa present. But wait; What about the Americans?

Surely young guns Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis will continue to improve. You also have to believe that battle hardened players like Cristie Kerr aren't just going to take their clubs and go home.

Why do the LPGA player play harder, and play to win? I believe it's because they have to. Their endorsement money is less, the number of tournaments are fewer so they simply have to go for it when they have the opportunity.

But, the real story is Sorenstam. Ochoa will have to step it up to maintain her hold on the number one spot. Not taking anything away from Ochoa's play in 2007, but she did what she did without having to deal with the most complete player in the history of their tour. Comparing the two head to head comes out this way: Off the tee, it's pretty much of a tie. Ochoa may be a tad longer but she is not as straight. Sorenstam's irons are better than Ochoas from virtually every distance. Neither player has a great short game but Sorenstam is able to see and play more shots around the greens. Ochoa has the edge in putting but if Sorenstam sees a few more fall like the one at 17 at the SBS she may be off to a different kind of putting year than we have seen in quite a while.

It's going to be a heck of a ride this year on the LPGA circuit and my guess is that it will be Annika Sorenstam who once again reigns supreme. There was something about that 70th victory that makes me believe that she'll be gunning for Kathy Whitworth's mark of 88 titles with renewed energy. When Annika wins, she wins in bunches. No matter what it's going to be a great season.

A Golf Time Capsule: Ernest & Caryn

On Sunday afternoon, my brother and I played one of our favorite courses, El Cariso in Sylmar, California. This is a course of last resort for most but not for the usual reasons. It is one of the toughest yet most playable short courses I have ever played. Even better, you can usually get on without a starting time, which is why we found ourselves there on such a glorious afternoon.

We arrived about 1:30 and were on the 1st tee a few minutes later. About the time we were ready to hit our drives, a twosome approached. Knowing it would likely be a slow round (many of El Cariso's faithful play the game at a somewhat leisurely pace) I figured I'd invite them to play along with us.

They were an obvious husband and wife team in their 40s. As they accepted my invitation the woman said that she was sure they had played with me before. I said that was a distinct possibility as I used to play the course quite a bit.

My brother and I immersed ourselves into our usual 18 hole match and I really didn't think much about the couple. They seemed like pleasant folk and treated each other well. It was clear that they played a lot of golf together and enjoyed both the game and each other's company. That was good to see given my own checkered history of playing golf with my wife back when I was married.

Up two after 9 holes (I would squander the lead later, don’t worry), I suddenly remembered Caryn and Ernest distinctly. I had played with them, one round, maybe 5 or 6 years before. At the time, they had just started to play and were pretty clueless but they were obviously intent on learning to play the game properly. Back then, they had the wrong clothes, both in jeans and tee shirts. Worse, they each towed geeky pull carts, one of the most basic giveaways of being painfully new to golf. Even then, it was clear that Caryn was the better athlete. She must have played softball because she stood to the ball with what I like to call evil intent. Ernest, like most husband golfers, was quick to offer an ill-founded bit of advice. Even so, then as now they just seemed to enjoy being on the course and with each other.

Time and countless rounds had transformed them both into grizzled veterans of the links. They both had carry bags and decent clubs (though they still used club covers on their irons). They also dressed the part with Ernest in standard issue golf shorts and golf shirt and Caryn respledent in dark blue golf skort and light blue top.

Late in the round Ernest confided to me that Caryn simply adored golf and was constantly buying him the most stylist golf togs. He said that he would protest, just a little, saying, "Sweetie, I suck. I'm not supposed to look too good on the golf course." It was easy to see that her passion for golf meant a great deal to Ernest and that he would stop short of doing or saying anything that might take any of the fun out of Caryn’s golf experience.

It was easy to see that Caryn had worked on her game, and just as easy to see that she'd gotten some strange ideas in her head. She stood far too tall to the ball, likely in response to someone telling her that she was too crouched. To paraphrase Harvey Pennick, she had taken the hole bottle of aspirin when all she needed was two.

This position created an odd and inefficient motion to her swing. The verticality of her stance led her to lift the club immediately as it moved away from the ball and to keep on lifting after that. Since she has the kind of flexibility that only women and PGA tour players seem to possess, she could actually stay in her swing throughout her long and tall move away from the ball and make fairly solid contact. The problem was that the resulting downswing took her club on a descending path into virtually every short costing her at least 30-40 yeards on her drives. Even still, she could hit the ball easily as far as her faithful beloved.

Ernest was another story. He had traded his old armsy swing for an abbreviated swing that I am sure he hoped was tight and compact. In contrast to his wife, Ernest never hit the ball squarely. He bailed out of every swing and the resulting ball flight was way too high and pretty weak.

Ernest and Caryn are almost like a golf time capsule. In so may ways they are still the people and players they were years ago. But, they are also very different. They have learned some lessons though not all of them good. They play the game seriously but are of admirably good humor about their shortcomings. They play the game for all of the right reasons and you can clearly see that it has come to mean the world to them. As I strode off the 18th green into the quickly darkening skies, I realized that I had learned a great lesson from Caryn and Ernest: Golf is a game and none of us are its master. The sooner we learn this most elusive lesson the sooner we can really start to enjoy ourselves and honor the spirit of the game. I hope it’s a lesson that sticks.

What Do Golf Fans Want to Read?

After the Presidents Cup, Golf World took what I though to be a cheap shot at Woody Austin.

The direct quote was, "His mental fragility is frightening." Now, I found this offensive for a number of reasons and wrote the following letter which Golf World published:

"His mental fragility is frightening." No, the media's ceaseless characterizations of Woody Austin as man on the brink is what's scary. No one who plays professional sports for a living, let alone one who has made well over $2,000,000 just this year, is anything like fragile. Why not let Woody Austin revel in his great play at the Presidents Cup? Real lovers of the game just aren't that interested in whether he fell in the water or not. Sometimes I think that Golf World's staff would be better suited to covering Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
--Paul Cervantes

This week, I stumbled upon this reply to my letter by a Golf World Online Editor.

Paul, while I tend to agree that Woody is mentally sturdier than he leads us to believe, your "no one who plays professional sports...is anything like fragile" got me thinking: Jimmy Piersall, Bill Lee, Dennis Rodman, Mark Fydrich, Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, Rick Ankiel....and I'm not even into placekickers yet. Readers, I'm sure you can add to the list....
--Bob Carney

Of course, there's no way that I could leave well enough alone, or let that comment be the last word, so I replied:

First of all, Jimmy Piersall suffered from bipolar disorder which makes his inclusion on your list a really dubious choice. The other guys you mention may (or may not) have been less mentally robust than you'd like them to be, but did it really affect their ability to perform? If it didn't, why would it be relevant to you as a reporter?

That is the very same point that I was making about Austin. What aspect of his personal psychology is relevant to his play at the Presidents Cup? Setting that aside, how much do you really know about his mental state? I stand by my view that the golf press would serve its readers better by sticking to what they know.

Now, beyond enjoying a good written back and forth, there are more important issues here. Specifically, the question of what golf fans want to read about? Of course, we all want some sense of the humanity of the players who hit those amazing shots.

At the same time, I think that what Golf World did was to perpetuate an unfounded myth about a successful tour player. Beyond this, their brand of armchair psychiatry put the game and the Presidents Cup onto the back burner.

It's hard for me to believe that's what the average golf fan cares about, but I've been wrong before.