- 01:55 PM
- 07/04/09
| Name: | John McClure |
|---|---|
| Homepage URL: | http://www.ultimateolympian.blogspot.com |
| Location: | UK |
| Member since: | October 15, 2003 |
| Last visit: | July 04, 2009 |
JJ has posted 121 links and 1502 comments to SportsFilter and 22 links and 220 comments to the Locker Room and 5 columns.
The Chain Gang: - 194 inmates, escorted by 124 prison guards and sports instructors, will set off from Lille and cycle about 1,500 miles, ending up in Paris. They will have to cycle in a pack, will not be ranked and, for obvious reasons, breakaway sprints will not be allowed.
posted by JJ to other at 07:23 AM on June 04 - 5 comments
The Naked Golfer: - Bernhard Langer climbed a tree and faced down a bear, Woody Austin took a swim, and now Henrik Stenson strips to his underwear in order to try and save a shot or two.
posted by JJ to golf at 07:18 AM on March 13 - 11 comments
Guess who's back?: Meow.
posted by JJ to golf at 09:20 AM on February 26 - 7 comments
Photos from the Wimbledon men's final, 2008: Marc Aspland is the multi-award winning Chief Sports Photographer for the Times. This is his collection of photographs, and some of his comments on them, from what he considers to be "possibly the best men's final I shall ever see in my lifetime". If you need a quick reminder, there are highlights of the match here, and some terrible poetry reading from the main protagonists here.
posted by JJ to tennis at 10:19 AM on January 06 - 5 comments
I will be in Washington DC on Saturday...: and so will the US soccer team, playing Cuba at the RFK. I'm toying with the idea of going along. Anyone fancy it?
posted by JJ to gametime at 06:28 PM on October 08 - 4 comments
In the interest of balance, and because I've grown to really like Phil and understand that most of the reason I used to not like him was that he reminded me so much of my own (brainless) style of play, I will concede that I heard about something he did that was truly mind-blowing.
At the Walker Cup in 1991, the US played GB&I at Portmarnock near Dublin. Phil was part of the team and played a practice round with Jay Sigel. They came to the par three 15th hole - 190 yards long with the wind that day off the left pushing you towards the Irish sea on the right (video here if you want it - Arnie called it the toughest par three in Ireland).
Sigel tried to hold a draw with a 5 iron against the wind, but could only watch, dismayed as his ball headed onto the beach. Phil also hit a 5 iron but (as a lefty) with a cut that held against the wind and finished 10 feet from the hole. Sigel muttered "Nice shot, but it's an easier hole for a lefty."
Phil laughed and pointed out that in fact he is right handed (my source never said if he indulged in the Princess Bride quotation fest this was obviously an opportunity for) and asked Sigel for his 5 iron. He then hit a high, right handed draw that held off the wind and finished 15 feet from the hole.
Now that's mind blowing.
posted by JJ at 07:56 AM on July 02
He's been at this crap (making the same joke about misreading it) for years : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wToLTkEVzU0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUYFbD1rNv0
Greatest short game player ever
Nonsense. Great short game players don't miss so many short putts. No point being able to hit it back over your head, through your caddie's legs, bounce it off a tree and skim it over a lake to 5 feet if you then miss the putt.
Most over-rated short game ever.
I used to think (and probably said it more than once around here) that he didn't have big enough balls. I was wrong about that. His balls are enormous, but his brain is miniscule.
I played at Winged Foot a couple of weeks ago while I was over watching the US Open (at Bethpage) and only then did the magnitude of Phil's choke at 18 in 2006 really hit me. It's not an easy hole by any means, but it's not nearly as difficult as it looks on TV. To try and hit the shots he tried to hit (there's a 5 minute video here of the denouement if you need reminding) demonstrated a certain mental frailty. To quote the man himself: "I still am in shock that I did that. I just can't believe that I did that. I am such an idiot."
Monty also made a bit of a mess there. I threw a ball down and had a go at his shot (from 171 yards, three steps in from the right rough, with a 7-iron). You can't see it on the video, so you'll have to trust me, but I hit it to 5 feet and holed the putt. I was playing with a guy from the USGA, but even though he agreed that the hole location was almost identical to the Sunday one from 2006 - if anything, my ball finished closer to where the pin was that day - he seemed strangely reluctant to admit that this shot in effect made me the de facto 2006 US Open champion.
Perhaps it was the fact that I shot 83.
posted by JJ at 07:36 AM on July 02
Beckham isn't very bright, but he's genuine. He's not as good as the media hype that has surrounded him for years might suggest, but he's still an exceptional passer of a football and a very gifted player. He also works incredibly hard, so if Donomoan's assertion is correct and he really has just been phoning it in lately, I can only assume that it's because sooner or later even Beckham can get pissed off with delivering perfect balls to space that some no mark decided not to run into after all, or knocking it 70 yards across the pitch onto the laces of a talentless idiot who proceeds to put it in row Z.
The whole thing about his outrage at Beckham not picking up the tab in the restaurant sums Donovan up. Why the hell should Beckham pay just because he's making more money than the rest of them combined? Do any of us means-test our dinning companions at the end of a meal to work out who pays what? Maybe fair enough to expect him to pay if it was some swanky and expensive place that he had invited everyone else to, but it was a Mortons!
I don't really like Beckham, but I respect him. I've never heard a thing about Donovan that would make me either like or respect him.
posted by JJ at 07:16 AM on July 01
The noise is insufferable on TV, but that shouldn't be the deciding factor - if they add something to the live experience then they should stay, but if they're as irritating in the stadium (and I can't see how they wouldn't be even worse live than they are on TV) then ban them.
Having said that, it's an African world cup and from what I've seen of the African Nations Cup in past years, African supporters seem to love the incessant noise.
posted by JJ at 07:02 PM on June 29
That is fantastic. Thanks for the link.
posted by JJ at 02:56 PM on June 24
My favourites overheard on the course this week:
Tiger hits one way right from the 10th tee: "Tiger, if you do that again, I'm going home."
Duval walking down the last: "Come on Double-D, make a birdie and we'll buy you a snowcone!"
Two enormous frogs started getting romantic in the pond at 8: "Get a room!"
In the gallery behind 3 last night just before the hooter, someone shouted "Here comes, Phil!" and then started a chant of "Let's go, Lefty, let's go." The chant ended and someone else shouted: "Hey, asshole, that's not Mickelson, it's Weir." Which inspired the exact same chant all over again.
posted by JJ at 08:20 PM on June 22
I'm in the airport waiting for a flight back to the UK after a fabulous week at Bethpage. I had conspired with rcade to send daily reports to have them thrust on the front page, but frankly I was covered in mud and having far too much fun. Without exception, the rowdiness I witnessed was both hilarious and well received (or easily ignored) by the players. I've been to a lot of golf tournaments in many different capacities, but this was the best crowd ever. By a mile.
I have a couple of hours until my flight leaves and then 7 hours of transatlantic tedium to fill, so I'll try to throw something together by way of a column by tomorrow morning - although, my dad has just brought me a beer, so you'll have to excuse me if it gets rowdy.
posted by JJ at 06:07 PM on June 22
Didn't they discover that redneck is a genetic thing - you either are a redneck or you're not - so suggesting there might be a "cure" is, like, totally non-PC?
posted by JJ at 07:10 AM on June 12
Best stat on Fed I saw at the weekend - he has now made all the semi-finals and then either won the tournament or lost to the winner in the last 20 consecutive grand slams. Which is preposterous. Nadal has done for him 6 times (5 times in finals), Safin once (in a semi) and Djokavic once (in a semi).
posted by JJ at 02:28 PM on June 08
All I could think was: "I'd have had his seat if he wanted to spend most of the match in a cell."
During the game it occurred to me (as Fed walked to the back of the court to towel off between points and the camera panned back to show that Borg was sitting right there in front of him) is there any other sport where the legends of the game often sit 10 feet from you while you're trying to out-legend them? It's not like Tiger has to hole putts with Nicklaus sitting by the side of the green looking on.
posted by JJ at 06:46 AM on June 08
This year, it's a bike ride. Next year? A long walk.
posted by JJ at 11:25 AM on June 04
I think I preferred it before your damascene conversion.
posted by JJ at 03:37 AM on May 29
I think he was kissing the bit on his shoe that says: "I'm going to Disney Land!"
Ronaldo was shown up again for the flat-track-bully he so clearly is. He tried to impose himself early on but, when nothing went his way, he shouted at the sky, huffed, puffed and then went missing for an hour before reappearing to put late tackles into people in innocuous parts of the pitch and then wag his finger at the ref.
I reckon United would be well shot of him, and it seemed telling to me that he seemed to be on his own after the game while others in the team were consoling each other.
Messi on the other hand was sublime (as was Iniesta). He imposed himself the right way - by always playing the right ball and picking his moments for a run or a shot. Barca deserved to win, even if they didn't deserve to be in the final in the first place.
posted by JJ at 03:53 PM on May 28
Phil Mickelson hits backwards better than you hit forwards
This is not an awesome shot, never mind any discussion of different degrees of awesome. Most good amateurs and almost all of the pros could play it with the ball perched on the hill and a 64 degree wedge in hand. Give me an hour around that green and as many takes as we need to get it done and I'll hole that shot and save you the gringeworthy joke about miss-reading it.
The difference is that Mickelson is one of only a handful of pros who might be stupid enough to try and play a shot like this in competition if it ever happened to come up. For all his great shots around the greens, I've seen him hit more fluffs and thins trying to do something so difficult (when he's had other options) than anyone at the top of the game for the last ten years.
Winged Foot the way you played it is much different than the course the pros play
Ain't that the truth - you've never seen a more amateurish display in your life. Joking aside, we played off "competition tees", but in places they were nowhere near the tips. At the ninth (par 5) I finally hit a decent drive and found something I'm told is called a fairway. We were 60 yards forward of the championship tees and I went in with 6-iron. Our host told me that tiger had been about 10 yards further off the tee (so about 70 yards longer) and gone in with 9-iron.
On another par five on the back nine I got the green with two solid three wood shots. I said I thought it was a bit of a weak hole - and so I did until our host pointed out that there was a championship tee way back (130 yards back of the one we had played off) that I hadn't even noticed.
The rough was tough, but you could a) find your ball and b) usually get as much as an 8-iron on it. On one occasion I managed to hit a 4 iron from it, but that was a risky and stupid shot that got lucky and came off. Most of the places I hit it in the rough during US Open week would have been hit-it-sideways-back-to-the-fairway territory.
The greens were fantastic. They were running at a nice pace that meant you could attack as long as your putt was uphill, but you were in danger of looking a fool if you had a go down or accross the slopes. I don't know what they were measuring, but it couldn't have been more than 11. On a Sunday afternoon in June (when it hadn't been raining every day for three months and the greens were stripped right down), they would have been borderline unplayable in places.
Put it this way - the scary downhill / crosshill putts I had were a chance to show great touch and feel and cosy the ball down to the hole. At US Open pace, I couldn't have kept any of them on the green, unless they'd gone in.
I wasn't likening my experience to Phil's (or even Monty's), just saying that at the time on TV, what he was trying to do (bomb it round the corner) made some sense given what I could see and what the commentators were saying, but when you stand on the tee you realise that a) he didn't need to bomb it anywhere - it's a 450 yard hole, so even a solid 3 wood off the tee wouldn't have left him much more than a 5 or 6-iron in, and b) having hit it into the trees, he had all the room in the world to hit it back into the fairway at his chosen distance from the green anywhere from 70 to 120 yards depending on what he likes.
Maybe if he had a bit more faith in his short game, he might have done that.
In fairness, the thing that killed him in a way was 17. He hit a crap drive there two and hit a miracle hard cut with a 3-iron that helped him make a very unlikely par. If he hadn't just hit that shot ten minutes previously, he might have thought twice about trying it on 18.
And before I go and terrorise the local links yet again I'll add one more thing - my experience was not entirely unlike Phil's. I didn't win either. At least Phil didn't have the ignominy of having to lose to his own father.