Chicago Public Golf

I’m happy for SIU, yes, great. They are in the Sweet 16 and played some great ball this weekend as I understand it. You see, I didn’t watch much hoops over the weekend. My eyes were on the real tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Yes, I saw Duke get beat and watched the end of the Ohio State vs Xavier game, but those did not collide with the golf. As a rule, if golf is in HD, it takes precedence over any other programming. That includes the NCAA tournament, it’s that simple. Those overhead shots of Bay Hill this weekend, especially the last three holes, were amazing. HD really makes the blimp shots shine. They had this blimp shot of Vijay hitting a wedge and you could see the ball sailing directly at the camera then arc towards the hole, beautiful.

However, even if the tournament was broadcast only in regular TV, it still would have been worth watching versus the hoops because of the dramatic shot Vijay pulled on the 12th. Did you see that? Let me see if I can recall it correctly.

Okay, so Sergio birdies 13 while Vijay is coming up the par 5 12th. That puts Sergio at -7 and Vijay is sitting at -8, so it’s getting tight. Vijay is right in the middle of the fairway on the 12th and decides to hit a driver off the deck. Johnny Miller just about has a cow. Johnny called the shot “kooky” or “nutty,” I can’t actually remember which. And it appeared that Johnny was right because Vijay yanked it left behind a tree. So here we are, Vijay behind a tree on the 12th with virtually no shot at the green. If he gets a bogey, it’s all tied up at -7, and Johnny Miller probably gets his ass kicked by Vijay after the round. Who would turn the channel?

Not me, thankfully.

Vijay eyeballs the situation and decides that he can’t go over the tree, he can’t go under the tree, and he can’t go to the left or the right of the tree; so, he goes through the tree. Yes! He has to execute this wedge so that the ball leaves the clubface at such an angle to go above a large branch about 10 feet off the ground and below some leafier branches about four feet above that branch. Piece of cake, huh? He executed it perfectly and left himself about a 20 footer for birdie. He runs it in, which basically won him the tournament, and the announcers start the Vijay love-fest. Even Johnny (I love Johnny) tossed Vijay some love. He said that Vijay “practices more than anybody in the history of the game.”

It was great drama. So this weekend, when in-state SIU is battling for some NCAA tournament glory and the sports bars are full, you will probably find me in front of my TV watching Doral. Because the Blue Monster won’t take a seat behind anything this weekend.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 9:24 am and is filed under My Takes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.