This blog is retiring...

...but the archives will remain.

Best Ball 32

"To try to win a tournament on that hole, there's just trouble everywhere you look at it." - Padraig Harrington

Best Ball 32

It's about time we fans had another major with a finish like this (minus the ridiculous VDV montage). I thought I was going to be mad at Sergio if he lost, but given the way it played out and with as deserving a champion as Padraig Harrington, the 2007 Open just about made up for the less-than-optimal Masters and U.S. Open this year. I loved it.

And here's what the champion thinks of Carnoustie's 18th:

VN VDU VN SGI M VNODIMCTIV NI VAMV ANET, VATDT'L

POLV VDNORET THTDUSATDT UNO ENNQ MV GV.

Best Ball 31 Answer

"My head say I think you should retire... but my heart was keeping telling me that you would be better to continue playing and compete." - Seve Ballesteros

Best Ball 31

Seve Ballesteros announcing his decision to retire:

EC NALK BLC S PNSHT CWO BNWOFK IAPSIA... DOP EC

NALIP MLB TAAGSHY PAFFSHY EA PNLP CWO MWOFK DA

DAPPAI PW UWHPSHOA GFLCSHY LHK UWEGAPA.

Puzzler Answers

1. Stewart Cink
2. Stuart Appleby
3. Jeev Milka Singh
4. Payne Stewart
5. Stephen Ames
6. Billy Andrade
7. Arjun Atwal
8. Rich Beem
9. Glen Day
10. Nick Faldo

Puzzler

I felt like doing something different this week, so here are some clues to various golfers:

1. Hearty Irish soup + Luke Donald's hobby + a small washbasin
2. Hearty Irish soup + Luke Donald's hobby + a red delicious + a buzzing insect
3. Ask's butler - s + dairy drink + a + warble
4. Ache + hearty Irish soup + Luke Donald's hobby
5. Stair unit + chicken + goals
6. Debt + y + in addition + pest control spray
7. Pirate growl + sixth month + Cockneyized cap + room separator
8. Wealth + column of light
9. Scottish valley + 24 hours
10. Small cut + tumble + uncooked bread

Scramble 20 Answer

"I did feel like a guppy out there, gasping for breath. That's normal" - Cristie Kerr

Scramble 20

2007 U.S. Women's Open champion Cristie Kerr on walking up to 18 on Sunday:

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Best Ball 30 Answer

"I think that's quite simply the sign of a champion to have pretty much a disastrous first day and still nearly win the thing." - Niclas Fasth on Bernhard Langer

Best Ball 30

Niclas Fasth on Bernhard Langer at the BMW International Open:

L IRLBM IRWI'E DNLIA ELSOKC IRA ELYB UG W

JRWSOLUB IU RWFA OHAIIC SNJR W PLEWEIHUNE

GLHEI PWC WBP EILKK BAWHKC QLB IRA IRLBY.

Best Ball 29 Answer

"Nobody is a golf professional by chance. I think he will have to work hard to be here." - Angel Cabrera

Best Ball 29

Here's what Angel Cabrera had to say about the possibility of his son following in his footsteps:

UFSFKJ MA C EFNO RLFOPAAMFUCN SJ VDCUVP.

M BDMUY DP TMNN DCIP BF TFLY DCLK BF SP DPLP.

"Alice"'s Mel Wins U.S. Open?

Okay, okay, I'm pathetic at keeping this thing going, but at least I finally sat down and got everything archived by puzzle type and by golfer.

In other commentary, I just have to point out the resemblance between Angel Cabrera and Vic Tayback who played Mel on TV's "Alice." Check out their pics here and here.

Best Ball 28 answers

Camellia, Pampas, Juniper, Magnolia, Tea Olive, Holly, Nandina, Redbud, Firethorn, Azalea

Best Ball 28

Here's a coded list of 10 of the holes at Augusta National:


RWHTCCJW

BWHBWL

SDVJBTK

HWIVGCJW

OTW GCJZT

PGCCF

VWVAJVW

KTACDA

YJKTOPGKV

WQWCTW

Best Ball 27 Answer

"Some guys are better than you. Some guys are better than all of us. One guy is. If he has a criteria he wants to do, fine." - Rocco Mediate

Best Ball 27

Rocco Mediate is opinionated enough he deserves to have this week's puzzle quote. The tricky part was deciding just what part of his soapbox speech to quote.

MRHS UDNM YTS ESAAST AWYF NRD. MRHS UDNM YTS ESAAST

AWYF YBB RP DM. RFS UDN GM. GP WS WYM Y ITGASTGY WS

OYFAM AR LR, PGFS.

Lost Balls 3 Answer

"More media interest. It's ten people instead of eight." - Henrik Stenson

Lost Balls 3

Now that tax season has slowed down, I'm back. This word search will reveal what Henrik Stenson had to say about how his life has changed since winning the Match Play in February. Simply transfer the unused letters into the blanks below.

"_ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . /

_ _ ' _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ . "

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Ames	Glover	Oberholser
Appleby	Goosen	Ogilvy
Bickerton	Goydos	Olazabal
Bjorn	Haig	Oosthuizen
Broadhurst	Harrington	Otto
Calcavecchia	Henry	Pernice
Campbell	Jaidee	Poulter
Casey	Johnson	Scott
Curtis	Meesawat	Singh
Donald	Mickelson	Tanihara
Els	Montgomerie	Toms
Garcia	O'Hern	Wilson

Best Ball 26 Answer

"I gave the guy a baby gift, I was hoping he would pay it back somehow." - Charles Howell III

Best Ball 26

Charles Howell III:

C HERQ UIQ HST E OEOT HNAU, C LEB IMWNKH IQ

LMSJY WET NU OEPD BMXQIML.

Yeah, Tiger. Share the love. Let someone else win every now and then.

Best Ball 25 Answer

"If there's no hairdresser that he goes to, then I'm going to the same one he's going to." - Charley Hoffman

Best Ball 25

Charley Hoffman on looking like Craig T. Nelson:

TM ASINI'K DE SPTNRNIKKIN ASPA SI OEIK AE,

ASID T'F OETDO AE ASI KPFI EDI SI'K OETDO AE.

Best Ball 24 Answer

"I hope my teachers are nice to me. I hope they are not mad." - Tadd Fujikawa

Best Ball 24

Poor kid's gotta go back to school and catch up on homework after the Sony Open. (That'd be Tadd Fujikawa I'm talking about here.)

T OAMU SE NUIGOUHR IHU PTGU NA SU.

T OAMU NOUE IHU PAN SIL.

Cerebral golf

Geoff Ogilvy is always thinking, so he is a fount of interesting quotes. I liked the following from his most recent press interview:

"When you don't think you have a problem, you get to the point where you realize you have a problem and then you get to the point where you know you have to fix the problem and then you get to the point where you know how to fix the problem. There's a process, there's no like, that's it, I'm going to be great.
When I'm 21, listen, everyone is wrong and I'm right. And at 25, you're like, well, I'm actually wrong or I don't know how to be right. And then at 30, I'm working this out.
And everyone goes through that process. Some guys work it out when they are younger and some guys don't ever work it out. So I just think it's growing up. And that's not just golf, that's life."

And then there are those that put a little less thought into their golf as evidenced by this segment of Rory Sabbatini's last press interview:

"You know, golf is a strange game. You get what you get and that's about it. You can only put your best foot forward and hope it's good enough. You know, sometimes that happens. It goes in cycles like that, so you just -- I don't think you can spend too much time analyzing it. I think you can try to learn from it and try to improve on it."

New Year

Well, it's a new year, so maybe I'll turn over a new leaf and keep up with this site better - but no promises. Anyways, here's a word search containing all of the players in the field this week in Kapalua.

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Ames	Herron	Pettersson
Appleby	Holmes	Rollins
Axley	Immelman	Sabbatini
Baddeley	Love	Scott
Campbell	MacKenzie	Senden
Choi	Maggert	Singh
Couch	Matteson	Toms
Curtis	Oberholser	Trahan
Donald	Ogilvy	Triplett
Durant	Pampling	Wetterich
Furyk	Pavin	Wilson
Henry