Golfweek Comp Issue August 12, 2011 : Page 2THE F ORECADDIE Lefty’s Akron cage match PGA Tour players are well-known for their love of other sports. Let the record show, they aren’t stuffy, either. They’ll do minor-league games, too. The Man Out Front was told that Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton and assorted friends attended Saturday night’s Akron Aeros-New Britain Rock Cats Double-A baseball game during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. (Mickel-son, of course, once Phil tried out for the Toledo Mickelson Mud Hens.) Though the evening ended on a down note for the home team, all was not lost – there was a celebrity in the house. Mickelson? Not on this night. Instead, Jim “Hacksaw” Duggan was signing autographs. So The Forecaddie had to ask: Did Mickel-son have any idea who Duggan was? “I know now,” Lefty said, grinning. “He’s a big, famous wrestler.” Dustin Johnson, of course, a man of the Deep South, needed no intro-duction. Sources said he was ecstatic upon seeing Duggan. Heck, Johnson probably remembered that Duggan won the first Royal Rumble, in 1988. Impressively, Duggan started signing autographs in the first inning and still was there at game’s end. Which apparently makes Duggan the Phil Mickelson of the wrestling world. The Forecaddie also tweets. Check out twitter.com/4caddie THE MAN OUT FRONT Lee’s quest to be best Though he’s ranked No. 2 in the world and has five top-3 finishes in his past eight major championships, Lee Westwood sought the advice of sports psychologist Bob Rotella and putting coach Dave Stockton before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. It just so happens Rory McIlroy worked with Stockton before winning the U.S. Open, and old pal Darren Clarke got help from Rotella before his Open Championship victory. “I had to do something different, get some different thoughts,” Westwood told The Forecaddie. “I got stuck in some of the same old thoughts.” Westwood has expressed disinterest in sports psychologists over the years, but he spent more than five hours with Rotella on July 31 in suburban New York City before working with Stockton for about 90 minutes the next day in Akron. He said it wasn’t Clarke’s success that influenced him; rather he has been thinking about seeing a psychologist for a while. Rotella and Stockton advised he speed up his putting process and become more natural and less mechanical. The two have a similar philosophy in approach in that they strongly advocate a free and unconscious stroke, one that involves seeing and feeling and letting go, as one might do while signing his name or throwing a ball at a target. Stockton told The Forecaddie he counted as Westwood approached a putt. “I told him, I get to 4, you had better have hit the putt.” Lee Westwood Rotella, who also spent about 90 minutes on a putting green with the Englishman, told The Forecaddie he was trying to get Westwood to trust himself when putting, have confidence with his short game and “believe in his own way.” Rotella said they also talked about having more fun playing golf. “He wants to enjoy his talent more,” Rotella said. “He wants to be more relaxed. I think it’s cool he’s No. 2 in the world and wants to get better.” Sunday at Firestone, as Westwood put the finishing touches on his 65 and a tie for ninth , something appeared to be clicking. AP/MARK DUNCAN Attention, ladies: You may breathe again! Ah, the Internet. Can’t live without it, can’t believe a thing it provides. For the latest example, The Man Out Front presents the curious case of Adam Scott’s nuptials, an event reported upon by The Roar, an Australian website . One glitch: Even Scott was unaware that he had gotten married. Seems someone at The Roar read a report by The Guardian’s Lawrence Donegan, who reported from Akron, Ohio, and wrote about “the married Scot.” Taking that to mean Adam Scott had somehow, quietly, been married the week before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the site trumpeted the news and said single women everywhere were crushed. If only the blogger had read more carefully. “The married Scot” to whom Donegan referred was Scotsman Martin Laird, who indeed had been married the week before the Bridgestone. The website later apologized and reported that “the Australian golfer is not married.” Thank goodness. Relief to womankind everywhere. ON THE COVER: Getty Images photographer Sam Greenwood took the shot of Adam Scott at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, P12 2 Golfweek • August 12, 2011 • www.golfweek.com Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
