Lexi Thompson and The Great White Shark

[gxer]

Lexi had the chance to play a round of golf with Greg Norman and it sounds like she had a good time and so did he. However, to be honest, I am a little disappointed that they played from different tees.
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The cold shoulder she received by the Ladies Golf Union, which declined to accommodate her request to qualify for the Women's British Open because she turned pro, has extended to the LPGA. Stacy Lewis, a former college player of the year who turned pro at 23 with an accounting and finance degree from Arkansas was quoted as saying, "It's not a junior golf tour." Whether this is backlash from the way Wie did business or professional jealousy, Thompson is caught in the middle of it, but she seems unfazed by the controversy and the competition.

Norman putted like a man who spent 4 ½ hours on the green behind his house on Jupiter Island earlier this week. Getting ready for next week's Omega European Masters, his first tournament in 12 months, Norman made six birdies and shot 69 from the tips. Sharing the same cart with an icon 40 years older than her, Thompson broke the awkwardness by asking how Norman got his nickname and then listened attentively to the player's expertise. She also shot 69, but it should have been lower. "Playing with a Hall of Famer, that's pretty big, and him giving me advice is really nice," she said before climbing back in the Corvette for the ride home to Coral Springs. "I felt honored."



Tim Rosaforte: Past Meets Future: Golf Digest

[NTB]

Qxer.. It wouldn't have been fair for Norman to play from the ladies tees
Even though he is a senior.

[xman5]

You mean Greg "The little school girl" Norman. Shark hasn't applied in 20 years.

[gxer]

Originally Posted by xman5

You mean Greg "The little school girl" Norman. Shark hasn't applied in 20 years.

He still has the nickname, he just doesn't do it justice these days. Besides that, he is sort of a scummy character if you ask me, based on what happened with him and Chris Evert.

IMO, this so-called practice round with Greg, to use Nick Price's words of a few years ago, "reeks" of publicity.

Lexi's father needs to be careful that his own ego, being tickled by meeting the rich and famous among us, doesn't get in the way of Lexi improving her golf game.

[NTB]

Originally Posted by xman5

You mean Greg "The little school girl" Norman. Shark hasn't applied in 20 years.

He has so much money he doesn't care.

[xman5]

I'll give this to Norman, he did make one very good comment and advice.


Norman told them that to be a great player, she had to putt well every week. After seeing her putts die at the hole, it was evident Thompson was afraid of the three-foot comebacker. He noted that her demeanor with a putter needed to marry up with how Thompson walked to the tee, or stood over an approach shot.

You can't play afraid. Good point.

[gxer]

Originally Posted by xman5

I'll give this to Norman, he did make one very good comment and advice.


Norman told them that to be a great player, she had to putt well every week. After seeing her putts die at the hole, it was evident Thompson was afraid of the three-foot comebacker. He noted that her demeanor with a putter needed to marry up with how Thompson walked to the tee, or stood over an approach shot.

You can't play afraid. Good point.

Greg should have known that Lexi was probably just nervous playing with him, I have not seen her afraid of putts on TV when playing with the girls.

PS: I don't need Greg messing with Lexi's head right before the women's Canadian Open and causing Lexi to miss the damn cut! I got a contest going with Wiefan over Lexi and Wiesy and I fully expect to win it unless an outside agency such as scumbag Greg Norman goofs it up.

[ctmurray]

Originally Posted by gxer

Lexi had the chance to play a round of golf with Greg Norman and it sounds like she had a good time and so did he. However, to be honest, I am a little disappointed that they played from different tees.

I have a different way of looking at this issue. I think different tees should be used (in this case a women's pro length vs a male pro length). It is one of the features that makes golf better than other games (to play). Any course is designed a certain way to test all aspects of your game. So for example some short par 4's to test driving skill and short irons. Long par 4's for long irons or approaches. Same with par 5's have a couple that can be reached with two good long shots, and a couple with the need to layup. Par 3's designed to make you hit some irons that you might not need/use on other holes.

But players have different lengths off the tees (male pros, senior pros and women pros for example). Then you also have certain tournaments with different reputations; easy to score, brutal USGA set-ups. So to accomodate the players lengths and then the type of tournament you wish to run, your adjustments as a course are the tee length, rough length and size of the fairways. Greens are usually at pro level speed but even here you can have variation like the British.

So if you agree with me so far, lets discuss the tee length. I could design a course that would fit my description for male pros that would have to be pretty long these days. But if you made an LPGA pro or Champion player play from these tees, they would no longer be playing the course as designed. Every par 4 would be a long iron or wood, no longer mid irons as designed. Yet the green might be designed that they are not fairly receptive to long woods (too shallow for example). Same with the par 5's, none would be reachable. So now the whole design is "wrong" in my book.

And frankly the course set up for these pros reflect this philosophy. The Champions tour tee length is shorter than the standard male pro tournament, and I think this is the fair and correct way to play the course.

So I have no problem with Norman playing Lexi from different tees. The tee length for both should be selected as dictated by the design of the course and the length of that player (or group of players). It is fair.

I play a course and a league that lets us play standard length white tees and forward male tees at gold. I play both during a year. But the forward tees put me at a distance that allows my game to "fit" the course design. When I play the golds I get to use "all my clubs" and the club type designed for the hole. From the white tees I am hitting woods, laying up on two par 4's due to a water hazard crossing the fairway . It has its charm from the whites but gets tiring. I have a USGA handicap and we have found in out league the rating and slope of our course are pretty good (so your handicap is different from the gold and white tees). We analyze the data every year and our players score just exactly as the USGA would predict. Our gold tees even have different handicap order than the white tees, as the gold tees really do change the difficulty of a hole. If I see any flaw in other courses with multiple tees, they do not make this adjustment, all male tee locations have the same handicap order.

So this is my $0.02 case to be made. I have not issue with LPGA course length. For the majors and tournaments that want to be known as tough they lengthen them (and make other changes). For other tournaments they are shorter. They have not made them so sort as to be a par 3 contest. Like the men's game I suspect the courses with lengthen over time when the women and technology cause the changes .

[gxer]

Your post is too long. I do not believe in handicapped events at the highest level of professional golf. I say everyone plays from the same tees and may the best golfer win, I AM NOT interested in anything else no matter how many words are written by someone to try and support some other view.

[ctmurray]

Sorry about the length of the post, I thought I was being articulate. Up to now I have been avoiding the spats that break out here regularly. But I can see why they do. I am interested in your position even if I disagree.