CBSSports.com staffers Steve Elling and Ross Devonport take a scattershot look at three compelling and timely topics in the game.
| 1. Faded phenom Michelle Wie revived her career by earning her LPGA Tour card. Somewhat lost was the performance by medalist Stacy Lewis, a former star at Arkansas. Vicky Hurst, who torched the Duramed Futures Tour this season to earn her '09 card, will also be a rookie. After years of foreign domination, is it critical for these rising Americans to play well, or are experts making too much of the Old Glory issue as it relates to the LPGA's viability? | |
| Steve Elling | Ross Devonport |
 There's some gray among the red, white and blue -- the LPGA has survived quite well over the past decade with internationals like Sorenstam, Webb, Pak and Ochoa leading the charge. Thus, in general, it's hard to definitively say the American rookies will make a huge difference. But they can't hurt. Said Lewis on Sunday: "It's great for the tour just to have Americans, whether it's me or somebody else. It is good for the tour, especially with the economy and everything." Since it doesn't appear that Yanks like Morgan Pressel or Natalie Gulbis are going to be world-beaters -- they have three career wins between them -- having an infusion of fresh faces can only help the marketing firepower in the States. If Wie can rekindle her old form, she could be a real difference-maker. She moves the needle, as they say, like no other female player in history. |  This was Q-school, remember, so I'm not putting much stock into what they did last week, but the LPGA does need an American poster child, and quickly. While the Asian players are clearly the best thing out there right now, they are just not marketable to the main audience the LPGA needs to appeal to if it wants to grow in the future -- young female golfers. I mean, apart from a couple of bigger names like Se Ri Pak and my favorite Korean cutie Mi Hyun Kim, I couldn't pick most of the Asian LPGA stars out of a lineup. And that's not a racial stereotype; I just don't see these women enough in the mainstream media to know who they are. OK, so I don't watch Golf Channel as much as I should, but neither do most Americans, and especially young girls. They need to see their idols in teeny-bop magazines and on MTV, etc. As for Wie, I'm not holding my breath. |
| 2. Geoff Ogilvy salvaged a solid year by winning the Australian PGA Championship over the weekend, which bookends nicely with his victory at the World Golf Championship title at Doral in March. But he didn't do much in between. Is the personable 2006 U.S. Open champion capable of delivering more than he has so far? | |
| Steve Elling | Ross Devonport |
| Ogilvy remains a fascinating figure. He has all the tools and the brains to be a top-10 fixture, if not a top-5 talent. For one thing, he can hole putts. Yet his ebb and flow can be confounding. As he played in the British Open last July, he was No. 3 in the world. By the first week of November, he had skidded to 18th, a huge drop-off even given the tight differential between players occupying the top 20 these days, Tiger Woods notwithstanding. Ogilvy's best mate, Adam Scott, also had some wild fluctuations this season. Both players can beat anybody in a given week -- which means they should never be beaten by nearly everybody a few weeks later. Hopefully Ogilvy's victory in Australia is the start of a breakthrough season, not the ending of an uneven one. Woods won four times in his six starts in 2008 and Geoff was one of the two who beat him. That says plenty. | I think the U.S. Open title he was handed back in 2006 when those two fat blokes from either side of the pond failed to par the 18th at Winged Foot is as good as it's going to get for Ogilvy. I can see him being a Stuart Appleby-type from here on out, in that he'll win every now and again on the PGA Tour and show flashes of brilliance, but he won't win another major title. To me, he needs to start looking less like a guy out for a leisurely stroll along the beach when he's out there on the course and more like a certain Mr. Woods. I know it's hard for guys to change their on-course demeanor, but Ogilvy couldn't scare my 17-month-old son if he tried. He just doesn't have that killer instinct and he always looks like he's ready to cry, choke or both. |
| 3. In what stands as an amazing round no matter the venue, longtime veteran Harrison Frazar shot a 59 over the weekend at PGA Tour Q-School in La Quinta, Calif. Would you rather see the tour stage qualifying events on more difficult courses, or ones that allow for more freedom and birdies? | |
| Steve Elling | Ross Devonport |
| The venue used recently in alternate seasons in Florida, Orange County National outside Orlando, has also yielded torrents of red numbers over the years. The quandary is that Q-school requires two courses because of the number of players. That cuts down greatly on options since there are limited warm-weather 36-hole venues willing to serve up their club to the tour for two weeks. I would prefer for one course to be set up fairly easily, allowing players to shoot low numbers and generate scoring opportunities. Let the flag-hunters bash the driver and go nuts. Then set up the second course with more difficulty so that par is more meaningful and pros who hit fairways and greens have an advantage. Seems like that would be the ideal mix to determine the best all-around players, with three rounds on each course. Easier said than done, I'm sure. | Just because Frazar shot a 59 last week doesn't make these courses that easy. I mean, when things were all wrapped up, Frazar was the only guy who finished better than 24 under, which for six rounds is an average of just 4-under par per round. OK, so 16 under isn't a bad finish at any 72-hole event, but some of the "easy" courses on the PGA Tour produce a ton of guys in the 25-under range. And to be honest, playing six straight days with your livelihood on the line just a few weeks before the wife and kids are expecting Christmas presents is tough enough. The tour seems to have things just right at the moment (which is rare for them), so I say leave it alone. If it ain't broke ... |
