TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - TELUS Skins Game thoughts.

I don’t care how much TV golf you watch, you cannot appreciate how friggin’ good the PGA Tour pro is unless you see it first-hand. Case in point was John Daly on the second hole at The Raven at Lora Bay on Monday at the TELUS Skins Game. Having played the course twice, I find No. 2 to require a demanding tee shot. Even a long-iron shot needs to be well placed to avoid the lake to the left. A wood of some form off the tee must be threaded from right to left, without over-drawing the ball into the water. Daly, however, stood up on the tee, looked at the green and pulverized his Maxfli with his new TaylorMade SuperQuad 385 yards on the fly. The ball landed 20 feet right of the pin and held the green. That option doesn’t even enter into the minds of mere mortal golfers. It’s probably the most remarkable drive I’ve ever seen.

As far as the invited players go, let’s not invite Retief Goosen again, shall we. He showed the same emotion he does in the final round of a major championship, which is to say a low-key mortician. The best of the lot was definitely Colin Montgomerie. Forget his sulky demeanor so often portrayed on TV. Monty was fantastic, with an assortment of dryly-delivered one-liners and quips—the best and brightest of the lot. Home country favourite Stephen Ames was a clear second, doing his best to play up to the cameras and his fellow players. Daly is an automatic fan-favourite no matter where he goes. After another massive tee shot, fans roared their approval, to which John replied—within earshot of a maybe a dozen people—“I’m fine…as long as I don’t get sober.�

And speaking of Daly, as I wrote 16 years ago the first time I ever saw him play, you don’t need to SEE him swing to know it’s JD—you just need to hear him swing. The contact he makes sounds completely different from other touring professionals—a combination of a clank and a gunshot. (Incidentally, speaking of JD’s driver, although Jim Furyk’s a Srixon player, his equipment deal allows him to play any driver he wants—at the U.S. Open it was the SuperQuad. Ironically, the one time he got into serious trouble was when his drive went TOO far on No. 17 the final day.)

And regarding Tiger’s inability to ever come from behind to win a major championship—even when he’s one stroke back and the guy he’s playing with shoots a hundred, which is pretty much what’s happened the past two majors in a row: When I asked the Skins Game fivesome what their thoughts were of the seemingly inexplicable stat, they basically were as dumbfounded as the rest of us. “It’s bizarre,� said Monty. “But it’s going to happen eventually, and that’ll be unfortunate when it does.�

Final thought #1: Still feeling for that body blow Jon Mills (and his father and Golf Association of Ontario Executive Director Dave Mills) took last Friday when Angel Cabrera made his unlikely birdie on 18 to knock out Jon (and Phil Mickelson, among others) due to the U.S. Open’s 10-shot rule.

Final thought #2: What would IMG Canada have done if Stephen Ames had made it into a playoff at the U.S. Open and had to play golf at Oakmont instead of Lora Bay? “It would have been a foursome on Monday,� says IMG’s Dave Haggith. “And we would have found a way to make it up to the pro-am players who were supposed to play with him.� Besides, as Haggith notes, given the excitement that would have surrounded Ames, it would have been well worth having him show up just for the second round on Tuesday—particularly if he had the U.S. Open trophy under his wing.

Final thought #3: Better question is what would Tiger Woods have done if he made one birdie coming home and had to play Monday, then getting a call early that morning that Elin was in labour?

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - Let’s see ’em sweat!

The only reason I watch NASCAR or Formula 1 races is for the carnage—the chance that somebody just might lose a torso as their $2 million automobile gets turned into indistinguishable strands of fiberglass and scrap metal. Very cool!

I’m pretty sure this is what also motivates me to tune into golf’s Major championships—particularly the U.S. Open. I always get a kick out of PGA Tour pros who, discontented with the difficulty of a course set-up, are heard to utter, “Nobody’s coming here to see us shoot 90.� Well, sorry Billy Joe, at least a few of us are. Give me a few hours filled with Jean Van de Velde-like collapses and I’ll give you some riveting TV!

Yes, yes—I love watching golf, or any sport for that matter, played at its highest level. I was in the same pro-am group with Mike Weir at the 2003 Grand Slam in Kauai when he hit a 600-yard par-5 in two…uphill…through a crosswind…with an iron…through about a 10-foot opening in front of the green…to three feet. Most incredible shot I’ve ever seen. But I like watching train wrecks too. Seeing the best of the world come unglued by greens too quick for their talents, rough too thick and deep to hack a scythe through and pressure too intense to control is something every average Joe can identify with. You say you lost your ball like 10 feet off the fairway! I know all about it, buddy! Welcome to my world.

And speaking of Jean Van de Velde, the British Open is at Carnoustie in five weeks—site of the Frenchman’s historic final-hole wipeout and arguably the most difficult (some say “unfair�) championship venue ever. Nobody likes to be outdone, so if Oakmont beats the living tar out of the planet’s elite players, you can’t help but wonder it the R&A and Carnoustie’s mad superintendent, John Philp, wouldn’t mind one-upping their American counterparts.

At that point, you can probably bet on a few late withdrawals from the Tour’s next event, the Canadian Open at Angus Glen, from players who have no fight left in them.