Ernie Els' victory at the Honda Classic was his first victory since 2004 when he won in Kilkenny, Ireland at the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship. It should provide Els with a confidence boost as the Tour heads toward the Masters and the Players Championship. A few interesting notes as the Tour moves to the PODS Championship next weekend:- At Golf Week, Rex Hoggard observes the high stroke average of the Florida Swing:
When did the Florida Swing – once the warm and fuzzy unofficial start to the season – become a Stephen King novel? Remove the four majors from the rotation, and all four of the Sunshine State venues ranked among the top 15 toughest on Tour in 2007. Each of the four played at least a stroke over par, with the par-70 Bay Hill layout topping the list with a 72.054 average. Inexplicably, the easiest of the four was the swing’s crown jewel. Doral’s Blue Monster (par 72) played to a stroke average of 73 for the WGC-CA Championship.
- NBC's Johnny Miller appears to have a "man-crush" on Matt Jones. Miller's constant gushing over Jones' every action was over the top. Yes, Jones has a nice swing, a nice smile and probably will win a tournament in the future. But ease up on the superlatives until he has shown he can win.
- Watching the closing holes of the Honda, one could not ignore the glacial pace of play of some of the groups. One of the groups included Ben Crane, who is notorious for his slow play. Els was visibly frustrated by having to wait so much. Yet, the commentators barely mentioned it. With slow play receiving much media attention, why isn't it acknowledged and discussed as it happening? Acknowledging the problem is the first step toward recovery....
