Tiger returns to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Tiger Woods~pgatour.com

As reported by hollywoodreporter.com:

Golf pro Tiger Woods is making a rare late-night television appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday.
Woods has kept a low profile on the talk show circuit since admitting to extra-marital affairs and taking a five-month hiatus from the PGA Tour last year.

Fallon said he lured Woods to the show by pitching him the idea of playing miniature golf with him. "We're going to do it," he said at at Friday night's PaleyFest panel. Moderator Chris Hardwick joked, "That's probably the nicest comedy sketch anyone has pitched him recently!"

Woods previously played golf with Fallon, albeit on Wii's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, in June 2009. Fallon won that round decidedly.

In January, Electronic Arts dropped the golfer from the cover of the upcoming Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii editions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, replacing him with a shot of the iconic yellow flag at Augusta National Golf Club, which is a major focus for the new game, out March 29. Woods will appear on the PlayStation 3 Collector's Edition of the game.

Dustin Johnson leads at the Cadillac Championship

Dustin Johnson (pgatour.com)

A blistering back nine put Dustin Johnson (-13) two shots clear of the field heading into the final round at the WGC at Doral. Johnson’s only blemish came at the par-4 ninth, before shooting 31 on the back side to card a 65. The trio of Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, and Nick Watney are chasing at -11. Luke Donald was one hole away from equaling Johnson’s low round of the day, but finished with a bogey at the last. The 18^th also plagued Nick Watney, who was poised to play in the last group with Johnson before rinsing his tee shot on way to making double bogey. 

Thoughts on the Cadillac Championship

This tournament has a dark cloud hanging over it and to say the championship seems trivial compared to what’s going on in Japan is an understatement. Tremendous courage has been shown by the Japanese players Ryo Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Fujita, and Yuta Ikeda, who are forging on, if just by a thread. They are in emotional limbo—helpless in the states and praying for their country. 

The Big six were a big bust. With the exception of Kyamer and Donald, the group has played uninspiring golf. Hunter Mahan has not proven he can handle this spot. Kaymer has the disposition and the game to hold steady and take charge of the tournament. Molinari is in fine form. He is number one in driving accuracy and number two in GIR’s after two rounds---impressive play on a track that could overwhelm the short hitting Italian. If not for a back nine, double bogey, Martin Laird would be tied for the lead. He will need to be more accurate of the tee (T51) if he’s to remain in contention. 

Matt Kuchar heads a three-ball at -7 with continued stellar play. While Nick Watney has not finished out of the top ten all year and surely remembers not getting the job done in ’09 against Mickelson. McIlroy has not played to potential to this point in the season and will look to carry this bit of momentum into the weekend. Dustin Johnson (-6) has found his form after sorting some girlfriend issues and a missed tee time.

Luke Donald heads the foursome at five under, but has some serious experience pushing him—Els, Stricker, and Harrington, who seems to have a handle on his plethora of swing changes.

1	Hunter Mahan	-9
T2	Martin Kaymer	-8
T2	Francesco Molinari	-8
T4	Martin Laird	-7
T4	Matt Kuchar	-7
T4	Nick Watney	-7
T4	Rory McIlroy	-7

Twitter pics from WGC rain/tornado delay

Leaderboard at 18

Tower between 9 & 18

Roger Maltbie checks out the scene

Standing room only

Some high quality pics from Golfweek here.

Blue Monster Fantasy Picks

Graeme McDowell

His course record final round 64 at The Honda gave him his third top ten in three starts. His statistics are off the charts, and he’s paired with Tiger and Phil, which doesn’t mean much on Thursday and Friday; but it will help him keep his eye on the prize and show them why he’s four three in the world.

Driving Accuracy Percentage	5th
Greens in Regulation Percentage	2nd
Birdie Average	3rd
Scoring Average	1st
Sand Save Percentage	1st

Phil Mickelson

With a 2^nd place finish in San Diego, it looked like a traditional fast start to the season; but the west coast swing was void of a win. Nevertheless, his game is still sharp enough for him to have a strong finish this week and with the Masters officially looming, it’s time for Phil to make his presence known.

Lee Westwood

While the world has him labeled “Stock Down,” it would be wise to remember that he was number one in the world just five minutes ago. Westwood is too talented, too experienced to not bounce back to form, and he has a bone to pick with the Masters as well.

Els' talking about playing in the Tiger Era: "We took a beating"

Some very candid comments by Els in his WGC presser. Not sure if we've heard this kind of honesty about what it was like to play in the Tiger Woods era.


“I don't know, man. I played for ten years when that guy dominated, so it's tough to get a different mind-set on things. Tiger was the dominant player. He won 14 majors. Think about it, 14 majors, in such a short period of time. Who is ever going to do that again? Who knows? That is pretty dominating.
So for us, myself, Phil, Vijay, Davis, Fred Couples, guys like that to have played under a guy who was that good, we took a beating, not only from him, but from you guys, too. It's been a tough -- it was a tough ten, 12 years for us. So to see kind of the new world out there, you know, with these young players coming through, Martin No. 1, Lee Westwood was No. 1 for a while. Lee has been around for a while, too, but the youngsters, they have got something going for them. They didn't have to play under a guy that was so dominant and I don't think they will ever appreciate how good Tiger was back then. He could do it again, who knows. He's just got to sort out the new swing again. He's so mentally strong that he could well dominate again. But at that level, who knows, I don't know. It's kind of an unfair -- it would be unfair for me to really comment more on that.
It's nice to see that the 20-somethings are actually producing now. They have started winning majors now and they are winning tournaments. It's basically almost their time to shine now and for us to do what we can.”

If this is Ernie Els' frustration/disappointment level, one could imagine what Mickelson feels like. After all, how many weeks would he have been number one in the world without Woods around.

WGC pairings that could have been

The PGA went with the easy way and made the tee times according to the world rankings for the top 21 players; but the top six would have been enough. They could have had a bit of fun after that:

This pairing would be dripping with irony. Let’s see how the new Rory would handle it--

Sabbatini, Rory

Crane, Ben

Day, Jason

BOMBS AWAY:

Quiros, Alvaro

Johnson, Dustin

Watson, Bubba

Ryder Cup vs. Ryder Cup Snub?--

Casey, Paul

Poulter, Ian

Mahan, Hunter

Richie Cunningham group--

Kuchar, Matt

Haas, Bill

Watney, Nick

Star Power--

Fowler, Rickie

McIlroy, Rory

Vegas, Jhonattan

Oldies, but goodies--

Goosen, Retief	Harrington, Padraig	Els, Ernie
Singh, Vijay	Furyk, Jim	Stricker, Steve

South African with a major, South African on the rise, and the man with the most swag in golf--

Oosthuizen, Louis

Schwartzel, Charl

Jimenez, Miguel A.

This group would be a clinic in course management--

Wilson, Mark

Johnson, Zach

Clark, Tim