Golf Central

On this day in 1977, Tom Watson proved his mastery of Pebble Beach Golf Links by beating Tony Jacklin by a shot to win the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. ... And just to prove it wasn't a fluke, Watson did it again on this day in 1978, by outlasting Ben Crenshaw on a second playoff hole.

The fact that 1978 was a leap year gave Watson the rare opportunity of winning the Crosby on the same date in back-to-back calendar years. Of course, Watson was no stranger to amazing feats at Pebble Beach, most famously chipping in for birdie on the 17th hole to beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1982 US Open ...

Bizarre golf injuries are always are favourites - but as one who hopes that the Americans will actually be able to muster up a bit of a fight this year in the Ryder Cup, doubts are beginning to crystalise as to whether captain Paul Azinger will be able to find 12 fit bodies to suit up for the US.

First of all there's the immensely talented young hick Boo Weekley, who simply needs to learn to travel better. Somehow our Southern-fried hero managed to make it all the way to China and back for the World Cup alive. But the small-town boy had trouble a-plenty on his way to Hawaii ("sorry 'bout them deer-huntin' bullets in my carry-on bag, officuh, sir").

And then, at last weekend's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in the Southern California desert, it was blood everywhere as Boo suffered constant nosebleeds. Used to the dank humidity of the Florida panhandle, Boo couldn't stop gushing blood from his nostrils in the dry desert air of Palm Springs. Asked if he'd ever had nosebleeds before, Boo said: "No sir, not unless somebody hit me in the nose." ...

And then the celebrities got into the act, trying to knock out one of the PGA Tour's best feel-good stories of the year so far. The veteran Robert Gamez was minding his own business, trying to secure his card and work into winning form, when his celebrity partner Anthony Anderson, the B-list actor from Barbershop, clocked him in the head on the tee box with his driver.

"It's a good thing I've got a pretty hard head," said Gamez.

The Americans need to learn something from their fearless captain Azinger, who keeps throwing verbal haymakers at his European counterpart Nick Faldo with abandon. Faldo is hardly offering resistance, but if he does, Azinger knows when to duck.

If only we knew what on earth Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, John Daly and the design boffins at TaylorMade had in common then we wouldn’t be sitting here reading this introductory paragraph. We’d have read it already and in doing so become so full of wisdom and insight that we were fit to burst. Try it, you may like it…

Happy days, indeed! Christmas season may be past, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to look forward to: In fact, there is plenty ... as Titleist are rolling out a series of four new sets of irons for 2008 - available in Europe from March 15th - which are aimed at the serious to (let's face it) awesome player.

Titleist's AP1 and AP2 irons should fit well into the bag of a quite good (or as Titleist calls you: "aspiring") player - dual-cavity, multi-material heads that will give tour-like performance to the Above-Average Joe who wants to stripe a few more shots, with the additional benefit of better feel. Try it and see it they're not right. We think they're spot on, really.

For the hotshots amongst us, or those who aspire to that status, Titleist rolls out the ZB Forged iron (a cavity-to-muscle back iron) and ZM Forged iron (tradtional muscle-back). These irons are tailored for the extremely good player: and Titleist confidently suggests that they "anticipate our Tour staff gravitating to the new AP2, ZB and ZMs."

Regardless of where you fit into the range, these irons look great ... and they are designed for "advanced performance you can feel" all the way through the range. They're all made for good players who don't need a lot of help, but Titleist promises that the AP1 will help a 5-9 handicapper bridge the 20-mph swing-speed difference to tour-player speed. And don't forget ... every day gets longer and longer from now until the middle of June!

I told you Martin Kaymer was going to win. …: Indeed you did. Last year, in fact. And it's about time … I think this the first of many European Tour   victories we're going to see from this talented young German.
So is everyone all over the "marching relentlessly" to victory thing yet? …: I am. I don't know if one of our friends from Germany is yet.
Well, it wasn't quite so relentless Sunday, was it? …: Not unless you count marching in reverse as relentless, however, Kaymer had built such a big lead that even his closing 74 was good enough.
Rounds of 66, 65, 68 will do that for you …: For sure. But that didn't stop veterans like Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson from thinking they had a chance.
Of course not. They're veterans, that's what veterans are supposed to do … think that they can win …: Well, it sure looks like we'll be speaking about Martin Kaymer in a similar vein quite soon. The ceiling is very high for a player like him. He's only 23, might be Europe's best pure ball-striker, and he seems like he really loves the game.
So what's your prediction for Kaymer now then? …: I can see majors for him in the future. Possibly wins on the US PGA Tour as well …
First conquer Europe, then the world! …: Oh God, here we go again …