Friday 06 March 2009 at 8:03 pm
Well, last week was the much anticipated WGC-Accenture Match Play event held just northwest of Tucson at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain. I really looked forward to going as the previous year was a lot of fun and Norm and I had predicted that Tiger would return at this event (which he did). We followed his practice round and his play was outstanding. His competition rounds featured a little less control, but still fairly solid. Not bad for being out of competition for 8 months. Last year the biggest thing that I noticed with all the pros was great tempo and the sound the ball makes coming off of the club face. This year this wasn't quite as impressive as I've improved enough to make the same noise of flushness on occassion. This year, it was their work ethic that was the most impressive thing. Being there the whole week, I was able to watch the practice habits of the pros and I can tell you that they treat golf like an 8 hour a day job. Their routine usually consists of an hour and a half on the range in the morning, short game and putting for an hour, followed by a lunch break and then back to the range for another hour and a half followed by more short game. On days they play, it goes range, short game, putting, round of golf, range, putting. Prior to seeing this, I thought I practiced an insane amount. Geoff Ogilvy was unstoppable. The course was nice, but the greens are tricked out. Just tons of undulation. I'd rather see half the undulation running at 12. Here are some pictures that I took at the tournament.
