Links Thursday:
Phil Mickelson is going to play.
That is music to the ears of everyone at PGA headquarters not to mention the
organizers of this week’s Waste Management Open at TPC Scottsdale outside
Phoenix. From a health and wellness standpoint it has
been a dodgy start to 2014 in men’s golf. Mickelson’s
first stateside start was derailed by a bad back that forced him to withdraw
after the 2nd Round of last weekend’s event at Torrey Pines.
He saw a specialist this week and announced late Wednesday that he
will tee it up as scheduled on Thursday at 10:15 EST.
Mickelson is a top attraction wherever he plays but two
factors make him that much more enticing to watch this week.
First, he attended Arizona State which makes him as much of a golfing
legend as there is in the area. Second, he is the
defending champion after he opened last year’s event with a course-record
tying 60. It was not Mickelson’s first time shooting 60
at Scottsdale. A putt on 18 for a 59 took a ride around
the outskirts of the cup but refused to go down. At
week’s end Mickelson had tied Mark Calcavecchia’s tournament record.
At Torrey Pines, Mickelson was joined on the Sunday
sidelines by Tiger Woods whose 79 on Saturday was enough to leave him off
the secondary cut. Woods is in Dubai for an exhibition
this week and said not to read too much into the 79, but that’s a story we
have heard before. Remember last year when Woods’s game
suddenly went south at Muirfield Village? He told us not to worry then
either, and then he went to the U.S. Open and never came close to
contending.
Adam Scott is in a self-imposed, six-week exile from
golf to recharge his batteries in his effort to add to his Masters win last
year. Rory McIlroy began 2014 as he ended 2013—which is
to say playing well—but has yet to appear on U.S. soil.
That aside there is a strong field assembled for the
Waste Management and the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale is worth a watch on its
own. The hole is a simple, par 3, but the green is set
beneath stadium seating where golf etiquette takes a temporary back seat and
fans routinely jeer, heckle, and needle players about everything from their
golf swing to any embarrassing tidbit they can glean. It
sounds like fun, but nerves can get frayed especially on Sunday.
As usual there will be several power groups for the
first two days. Last week’s winner Scott Stallings is in
with Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan (9:57 am EST.)
Mickelson is set to play next to Bill Haas and Ryan Moore (10:15 am EST.)
Ian Poulter will get to be reminded of his Major Championship void
when he walks with Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley (10:06 am EST.)
Lee Westwood and Brandst Snedeker are fun to watch which will give
Harris English a larger than usual group tailing him (2:07 pm EST.)
Kyle Stanley, a dramatic winner two years ago the week after he
tripled the last hole at Torrey Pines to blow the win, will play with U.S.
Open winners-gone-bad Geoff Ogilvy and Lucas Glover (2:25 pm EST).
And the man Stanley beat in 2012, Spencer Levin, us back for more,
grouped with Jason Bohn and Michael Putnam (11:00 am EST.)
| Other thoughts, news, happenings, and tid-bits |
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NBA:
Manu Ginobili has a strained hamstring and will miss 3-4 weeks.
Ginobili was injured making a dunk during Tuesday’s loss in Houston. NASCAR:
The 2014 Chase format will be announced Thursday and the expectation
is for the field to be expanded to 16. The more
significant change will be eliminating drivers at different stages
throughout the 10 races. Count us as skeptical, but let’s
see how it looks first. Tennis:
Roger Federer is a surprise member of the Swiss Davis Cup team that
will play in Serbia starting Friday. He will team with
Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka to lead a side that will now be
a heavy favorite against a Serbian team without any of its three Top 100
players. NHL: The
Coyotes will broaden their marketing next season when they change their name
to the Arizona Coyotes. The switch follows in the
footsteps of the Cardinals who dropped Phoenix for Arizona in 1994. CFL:
The Argonauts used an interesting tactic in their effort to retain
Zach Collaros. They released him. The
logic makes sense. They were not about to stop Collaros
from testing the market when free agency opens February 15.
By releasing him they will allow him to test the market now, giving
them a clear picture of the situation when free agency arrives.
Collaros proved an adequate backup to Ricky Ray last season in
Toronto and figures to draw interest from other clubs. |
| Stats Corner |
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NHL:
Ben Scrivens set an NHL record Wednesday night when he stopped all 59
shots the Sharks sent at him. The 59 saves is 5 more than
the previous NHL record for a shutout game, set by Mike Smith in April 2012.
It was Scrivens’s 1st shutout as an Oiler after posting 3 for the
Kings earlier this season. NHL:
Joel Quenneville’s climb up the ranks of coaching wins has reached
the 3rd rung. Quenneville was behind the bench for the
Blackhawks’ 5-2 win in Vancouver on Wednseday and now has 693 regular season
wins. That is one more than Dick Irvin who coached for 27
seasons spanning 1929 and 1956. He coached Stanley Cup
winning teams in Toronto (1932) and Montreal (1944, 1946, and 1953.)
The only coaches with more wins than Quenneville are Scotty Bowman
(1,244) and Al Arbour (781.) |
| The Archive |
|---|
| 1/27: Wawrinka wins Aussie Open |
| 1/28: Charting older dirt routers |
| 1/29: Media Day overwhelms, underwhelms |
| 1/30: Mickelson will play |
| 1/31: Super Bowl highlights weekend |