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The Buzz:

He’s back.  The question for many is if Tiger may be wearing thin.  Of course, when I say that ratings will be high this week, Tiger does draw them in and after seeing the terrible ratings at the U.S. Open you know a lot of folks are happy to see Tiger.  But for some like myself I can’t seem to get that interested in him in events like this.  Sorry, not that it isn’t a big deal to have Tiger in it,  I will watch if Tiger is in contention on Sunday, but I want to see Tiger contending in majors, not just playing in another PGA Tour event.  I would also like to see Tiger play in other events.  In the last five years he has added only two new events to his schedule, Frys.com and Greenbrier.  We could point out that both of these events Tiger had some business dealings with those involved in those events so I can’t count that.  The fact is Tiger has won 25 different tournaments on the PGA Tour with four of them not on tour anymore (AT&T Classic, Disney, Buick Open & Ford Championship Doral).  So that means that Tiger has won 21 of the 45 events that are active on tour.  Of those 45 events Tiger has never played in 14 of them ( has played in CIMB and WGC-HSBC when they weren’t considered official PGA Tour events so I don’t count them).  Of the remaining ones he has played in, Tiger hasn’t been back to Shriners (Las Vegas) since 1997, Phoenix since 2001, Northern Trust since 2006, RBS Heritage since 1999, Byron Nelson since 2005, Colonial since 1997 and RBC Canadian since 2001.  Of course he won’t play in places like Puerto Rico or Tahoe, but wouldn’t it be great if Tiger would play at least once in the Sony Open or the Humana or Houston or Travelers just to name a few?

So the big question this week will be what is the state of Tiger’s game.  I think Woods would be elated with a top-ten finish, maybe just making the cut.  The reason I am this way is the fact that Tiger’s game wasn’t in a great place before the surgery, and I don’t think that by playing he will get rid of what was bothering him with his swing before.  Who knows maybe the back was what caused the poor swing guess we will see in the coming weeks.

You can never count Tiger out, I remember in 2006 when Tiger’s father Earl died, Tiger took a couple of months off.  He came back at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and his game was terrible as he missed the cut after shooting a pair of 76s, his worst performance in the U.S. Open.  Many wondered about his game, but three weeks later he played at the Western Open and finished T2nd, then two weeks later won the British Open at Hoylake along with the next four tournaments after that.  So we just don’t know what is up with Tiger and can’t put much into this week’s appearance.  One thing, you know that Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson will be watching because he will have to make a decision in September if he is going to give Woods one of his wild card picks.

Also have to give a note on Michelle Wie’s win at Pinehurst.  What a great thing not only for the LPGA Tour but golf in general.  She is fun to watch, and it could be a great next couple of years if she starts contending and winning more.  We have talked about how it’s been the year of “faceless” winners on the PGA Tour.  Just look at the list of winners on the LPGA Tour.  The cream has risen, and that list of champions are good making the LPGA a real contender for people to watch.

Tournament information:

At the start of the 2007 PGA season, it appeared that The International, the PGA’s lone stop in Colorado, would be gearing up to host its 21st annual golf tournament. However, doubts began to arise about the tournament’s future very early on in the season as the search for a corporate sponsor was at a stand-still. On February 8, 2007, tournament director Greg Vickers announced that the 2007 International would not be played, primarily due to the lack of corporate sponsorship.

As soon as the date opened up on the PGA Tour calendar, Tiger Woods, who has expressed a desire to host a tournament in the past, entered into discussions with the PGA Tour. His goal was to create an exclusive event that would not only fill the year’s void left by the demise of The International, but for years to come. On March 7, with less than one month of negotiations behind the two parties, Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour announced that the Washington D.C. area would play host to the inaugural AT&T National. The event took over for the Booz Allen Classic, which folded after the July 2006 event after a 39 year run with 27 of those in the Washington D.C. area. The 2007 event was played at The Congressional Country Club in nearby Bethesda, MD.

Despite the short time in getting it ready, the first year went off well, and it looked like the future of this event was going to be great.  Unfortunely things changed the following year as Tiger Woods had surgery right before the event and was not only able to play, but he couldn’t even attend the event. He did return the next year and won.

The event had a great run at Congressional and with it holding the U.S. Open in 2011 it needed to rebuild its greens.  So the AT&T National moved in 2010 for two years to the Philadelphia area with Aronimink Golf Club having a  successful run with Justin Rose and Nick Watney winning.  The tournament returned to Congressional in 2012 and will hold the event this year before it moves to Robert Trent Jones for 2015.  The RTJ Club hosted the Presidents Cup four times, most recently in 2005.  The change was brought on when Congressional members didn’t want the event on a permanent basis, so they voted to bring it back in 2016, 2018 and 2020.  Look for the event to move around the Washing D.C. area, possibly going for a year to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms and Trump National Golf Club, which is east of Washington and near Dulles Airport.

Course information:

• Congressional Golf Club
• Bethesda, MD.
• 7,569 yards     Par 36-35–71
• From the beginning, Congressman Oscar Bland and O.R. Lubring envisioned The Congressional Country Club as a bond between Washington-based businessman and politicians. In 1921, the two founders took their idea to then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in hopes of gaining the approval of one of Washington’s biggest power brokers. Hoover loved the idea and agreed to become the Club’s President from the breaking of ground in 1922 to its inauguration in 1924.  Today the club membership is more family orientated. Some of the original founding members include Calvin Coolidge, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, Harvey S. Firestone, William C. Carnegie, William Randolph Hearst and Walter P. Chrysler.
• Congressional has a big list of championships played on it including; the 1964, ’97 and 2011 U.S. Open, the 1976 PGA Championships, the 1995 U.S. Senior Open along with the site of the Kemper Open between 1980-1986, the 2005 Booz Allen Classic along with five of the seven Quicken Loans National.
• Congressional boasts two championship courses, the Blue and Gold; however, the Blue course has played host to every professional event at Congressional. The course was originally designed by Devereaux Emmet in 1922. Since the Blue course’s creation, there have been three major changes to the golf course. Bobby Jones, in 1957, built nine holes that would eventually become part of the Gold Course. The final nine holes were completed by Rees Jones in 1989. In 2006, Rees Jones returned to The Congressional to redesign the Par 3 18th. The tee box and the green was flipped-flopped, and the hole now plays a lot harder with the water coming more into play. The hole is now the 10th hole, and each proceeding hole was shifted backward accordingly.
• The Blue course received acclaim when it was ranked 89th among “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” by Golf Digest in 2005 and most recently ranked 77th in its 20013-14 list. It’s 59th on Golf Magazines top 100 in the United States.  With a course rating, of 75.4, slope rating of 138, Congressional could be one of the most difficult stops on tour this year. The fairways tees and greens are bentgrass while the rough is a combination of fescue, rye and Blue grass making it very hard to get out and control the ball.
• The Congressional Blue Course can be described as having a fair amount of bunkers in almost unfair places. Unlike most courses, the 102 bunkers that line Congressional are placed in the vicinity of where golfers are aiming. No hole better exemplifies this than the par 3 2nd. The 211-yard hole has six bunkers (front, left, and right) that guard the large, undulating green.
• In 2013 Congressional played to a 72.124 scoring average, just over a shot over par.  It ranked as the 8th hardest course on the PGA Tour.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Quicken Loans National:

Key stat for the winner:

Congressional played host to the 1997 and 2011 U.S. Open. Most believe that, like it would be in a U.S. Open, the key statistic will be fairways hit off the tee. The rough is at 4 inches which will be costly for players that don’t hit it straight. Just look at the winners of the last six AT&T’s and ’11 U.S. Open played at Congressional to see how key these stats are for the winners. In 2007 K.J. Choi was T5th in fairways hit, T5th in greens hit and T5th in putting which is a deadly combination. In 2008 Anthony Kim was T12th in greens hit and T8th in putting while in 2009 Tiger was T7th in fairways hit, T3rd in greens hit and T13th in putting.  When Rory McIlroy won the ’11 Open at Congressional, he was first in greens hit.  In 2012 Tiger was T9th in putting so it just shows you have to play week in the fundamentals of golf to win at Congressional.  Last year greens hit was the key for champion Bill Haas who ranked T4th while he was T11th in putting.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• Experience at Congresssional will be a big help, look for players that have played at Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open and the last two Quicken Loans to have the advantage.
• If you want to see who can win, just look at the winners at courses like Quail Hollow, Riviera, Muirfield Village, Colonial, East Lake or even a modern course like Bay Hill or TPC Sawgrass.  I would almost bet the farm that whoever wins this week, will also have a title from one of those courses, just like Bill Haas had last year (won at Riviera & East Lake).
• Hitting greens will be at a premium, just like in a U.S. Open hitting lots of greens goes a long way in this event.  Look for the winner to hit globs of greens this week.
• The par 4s are some of the best in the country so playing them well is important.  For Choi and Kim, they were 8 under in victory while Rory McIlroy was the best in 2011 playing them in 11 under.  In 2012 Tiger was 3 under on them while Haas was 2 under on them last year
• Weather will play a factor.  The weather has been dry the last week in the D.C. area so the course will be firm and fast.  It will be steamy this week with high humidity and temperatures in the mid-80s.   Also like it is this time of year there could be pop-up thunderstorms in the afternoon.