I'm staring at the brackets. It does not look good. No Tiger. No Sergio. No Vijay. No Paddy. No Anthony Kim.
The only way that the weekend can be salvaged, in terms of TV ratings, is if Phil Mickelson faces Ernie Els on Saturday. Rory McIlroy against Camillo Villegas would be fun, but not sure these young guns are well known to be a draw. Justin Leonard against Jim Furyk would be a good match-up, but these guys are not that exciting. Of course, there's no guarantee any of these matches will occur; it all depends on what happens Friday.
The bigger problem, though, is the Sunday finals. I don't see a really exciting matchup for TV. The Gary Player and Sam Snead side of the draw has no one exciting left from a TV audience perspective. At least the other side could produce Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, or Camillo Villegas.
Don't get me wrong, the players remaining are all good. But the TV audience drops like a rock in water if there's no Tiger. Unfortunately, the Accenture Match Play is not like March Madness where viewers watch for the upsets and underdogs.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Over the weekend, I finally found the time to give the R7 425 driver (9.5 degrees) by TaylorMade a good tryout. I had tried it out before on a couple holes in different rounds I played in the past month, but never really committed to playing a full 18 holes with it. A couple errant drives, and I would stick it back in the bag, opting to stick with my old, but halfway reliable Titleist 783K.
Well, after finally practicing with the R7 425 driver on the driving range for a good hour and then taking it out on the course, I can easily report that I'm switching over to the TaylorMade driver. And that's saying a lot because I'm pretty clingy with my clubs -- once I find one that I like, I usually stick with it. I've played Titleist drivers for about eight years, and still use the Callaway Steelhead 3 wood with a small head!
The key for me with the R7 was playing around with the movable weight screws on the driving range to find the right configuration for me. I recommend to everyone testing this driver out, to play around with the screws when you first hit the club. Frankly, I didn't know exactly what the yellow and red dot screws meant, other than that the red weighs more than the yellow. So I just played around with it, and watched my ball flight change with different configurations. I usually play a draw, and I ended up with a draw configuration. TaylorMade has a video on its site to help you figure the color coding configurations. You don't really need it, though, because with some trial and error, you should be able to find the right configuration that fits your swing.
Once I figured out the right screw configuration for my own swing, the R7 425 driver really worked like a charm. I've been reluctant to switch to a bigger head because, at least visually, I don't like the look of a huge blob at the end of my shaft. But the R7 425 model seems just about the right size for me of the newer generation of drivers (that now go up to 460 cc). I found it easy to hit, and pretty forgiving on off-center hits. I only started to get into trouble after I had been hitting the driver so well for the first 6 holes, that I started to really try to bomb the ball even more and ended up overswinging.
As far as distance goes, I think I picked up a few more yards of carry (which probably translates into even more yards of total distance on dry fairways). I didn't do a side-by-side comparison with my old Titleist, but that's an older club (with a lower degree), so the comparison may not be fair anyway. I didn't do exact measurements, but, based on the yardage markers at the range and course, I'd guess that my good drives averaged around 240 to 250 yards of carry, plus another 20 yards or so of roll. (Any drive over 280 yards would be a really great rip for me.) Once I have a little bit more time practicing with this club, I hope to be able to increase my fairways hit. One thing is for sure: I've made the switch to TaylorMade.
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