Tiger Wins US$10 million jackpot, yet not very satisfied!

"US$10 million Fedex Cup" - Woods won the Fedex Cup though finishing second in The Tour Championship (thats the reason he's not very happy now).

Lesson of the day: "Set your standard high, do your best and you'll be happy even if the outcome is not as expected."

Mickelson's back in the Tiger hunt

ATLANTA - He'd won the war and secured the $10 million booty, yet Tiger Woods could only focus on having lost the battle to a resurgent Phil Mickelson.

"Yeah, it was a strange feeling, a little bit deflating," Woods admitted Sunday after being presented with the FedEx Cup for finishing second at East Lake.

"It feels certainly not like it did a couple years ago when I won the tournament by seven, eight shots, whatever it was.

"I think it's just one of those things where obviously, I'm a little disappointed.

"I'm sure I'll probably be more happy tomorrow than I am right now."

Mickelson, on the other hand, couldn't wipe the smile from his face after emerging from the wilderness — he hadn't contended anywhere since the U.S. Open — to win The Tour Championship by three strokes in emphatic fashion.

"I like the way today went," said Mickelson mischievously, "I was two back of him, I beat him by three, he gets the $10 million check and I get $1 million."

He was joking, if only in that he actually received $1.35 million for winning the tournament and an additional $3 million for finishing second in the FedEx Cup.

What this final day of the golf season amounted to was — like a shocking plot twist on the last page of a potboiler — the tantalising specter of a Tiger versus Phil showdown next year.

Woods, who is a prohibitive favorite to win this year's POY award with six wins — three more than Mickelson and Steve Stricker — might have something to say about that. Given that in his 13 years he's only twice not won the award when he's played the full season.

But it's true that Mickelson's looking forward to 2010 now that his wife, Amy, and his mother both seem to be in the clear after breast cancer scares.

"I'm very proud of my wife and my mom on the fight that they've been through, and we've been fortunate in the long term. We're in good shape," he said.

"I'm excited to get 2009 behind me and look forward to 2010."

Mickelson's turnaround came after a suggestion from his caddie, Jim "Bones" MacKay, that he consult two-time PGA champion Dave Stockton, a man many consider the world's foremost putting guru.

"I said, 'Bones, for two years I've been kind of floundering here, not having the right direction.'"

Stockton happened to be in Mickelson's native San Diego and the two worked together for two days a couple of weeks ago.

Stockton told him the opposite of what Mickelson had long been hearing: that he presses his hands too far forward when he putts. Stockton told him it was the best way to putt. "Once he said that, I said, 'Yeah, that's right, I've always believed that.' So I went right back to it and it's been a night-and-day difference for me."

The proof of the pudding's in the eating and Mickelson finished first in putts per green hit in regulation at East Lake.

In shooting the only bogey-free round Sunday, a memorable 65 that could've been even better, Mickelson had one-putted eight straight holes after saving par from the greenside bunker on the 10th.

An even more remarkable statistic is that after making only 13 putts from over 20 feet all year, he made six this week.

"I'm excited because I feel I have some direction now on where I want to go with my putter," he said.

"I felt like I've been hitting it this well for quite some time since working with Butch (Harmon), and yet I have not had the results.

"My play has been like this for two years. I'll have some good weeks where I'll putt well, and I've won a couple tournaments each year. But it hasn't been as consistently solid on the greens as I expect or as it has been in the past. So that's why I'm excited now."

Woods, on the other hand, had flashbacks of Hazeltine, where nothing would fall for him. He needed 30 putts Sunday for an even-par round of 70, five more than Mickelson, and finished the week 22nd in putts made per green in regulation, a tale of woe given that there were only 30 players in the field.

"I hit the ball well enough to make a few more birdies, and I just didn't make any putts this week from about 10 to 20 feet. I mised a lot of putts," he said.

Despite Sunday's disappointment, he did manage to find some consolation in the bigger picture.

"Nine top twos this year, I certainly wouldn't have expected that going into my first event, the Match Play (in February), to end up where I'm at right now," he said.

"The FedEx Cup is something very similar to what you have for Player of the Year. It's a cumulative total and something that you have to be consistent the entire year, and it's something that I was."

Woods betrayed his only real regret when he said, rather wistfully, "wish I could've got a major in there." (lol)

In the end, however, even Mickelson conceded the FedEx Cup went to the right man.

"I didn't play well the first three FedEx Cup events. I don't deserve to win the entire FedEx Cup just based on one tournament win," he said, "It's got to be based on all four, so the way it worked out ... the best player won."

Source: http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/10135332/Mickelson's-back-in-the-Tiger-hunt

It's very simple; you always help your friends

"Happy Family" - We all should have one :)


Lesson of the day by Tiger Woods:

"It's very simple; you always help your friends," Woods said.

"Sean is a friend of mine, and like all my friends, you always try to make their life better somehow. That's the whole idea of having friends in your life.

"Sean has been struggling a little bit on the greens this year, and I thought I could offer a little bit of help and insight into how he could change that, and now, as I said, I'm going to go chew him out."

Another quote by Messilegend: "In everyone I meet, I learn something."

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Tiger's advice to O'Hair comes back to bite him

The 27-year-old arrived in Atlanta not feeling especially confident, particularly in a putting stroke that has always been suspect.

And then on Wednesday he played nine holes with Tiger Woods and received the tip that would help him get to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of The Tour Championship at East Lake.

"I'm not even close to doing exactly what he's told me to do," O'Hair said after his 4-under-par 66.

"But I truly believe in what he said, and I think it's the key for me to kind of take my putting to another level because, let's face it, that's kind of what's held me back for a long time."

O'Hair had 28 putts — one fewer than Woods on the day — including a 56-footer and six others longer than 6 feet to capitalize on an excellent ball-striking display.

But what impressed O'Hair more than Woods' keen eye for the mechanics of the putting stroke was his generosity of spirit.

"Getting advice from basically the greatest of all time is pretty cool," O'Hair said.

"But I think the thing that impresses me more is the quality of guy he is. I mean, I'm his competition, and for him to help me out like he did was very classy, I thought."

Woods, who rebounded from a sluggish start to finish at 3-under, one shot back of O'Hair, made light of the help he'd offered, saying he was "going to go chew him out right now."

But later he conceded it was just about helping friends.

"It's very simple; you always help your friends," Woods said.

"Sean is a friend of mine, and like all my friends, you always try to make their life better somehow. That's the whole idea of having friends in your life.

"Sean has been struggling a little bit on the greens this year, and I thought I could offer a little bit of help and insight into how he could change that, and now, as I said, I'm going to go chew him out."

Probably not an idle threat given that Woods, as O'Hair has noted in the past, is a world-class "ball buster"; high praise considering O'Hair is from Philly, where breaking huevos has been elevated to an art form.

Woods was playful and relaxed after his round, but his disposition might have been different if the indifference of his first eight holes had continued.

Woods had birdied the third hole from 5 feet but missed three other putts of between 10 and 15 feet to stumble to 1-over through eight holes.

O'Hair, meanwhile, had rattled off five birdies against no blemishes to his card through his first 12 holes to lead Woods by six.

It seemed things would get worse for Woods when he miscalculated a chip on the relatively benign ninth hole, leaving himself with a birdie putt of just over 10 feet. The putt fell, and he said it turned his fortunes.

"I had just bogeyed six and eight and missed a short one there for bidie at seven, and it was nice to get one on nine," he said, "That chip came out a little warmer than I thought, and I didn't want to miss an opportunity there to make birdie. It's one of the very few birdie holes we have out there."

After that, Woods sailed home in 32, the lowest score recorded by anyone in the 30-man field on the exacting back nine.

"I felt if I just shot under par for the day, I'd be fine," he said, "There aren't going to be a lot of guys under par.

"With this golf course, you have to be very patient, especially with greens this firm."

Woods joined a chorus of players in expressing surprise at how hard the putting surfaces are at East Lake given the heavy rains that have flooded the Atlanta area.

A "sub-air" drying system has been installed beneath the greens, allowing them to absorb the deluge without ruining their playability.

"Sub-air, it's amazing what it can do," Woods said. "If you look at some of these greens, it looks like they were in a drought. They're browned out."

Woods said the second round would be tricky because the pin positions would be much more challenging than they were Thursday.

"You've got to be very cautious going in there, because it's very easy to skip over the back, and you've got these down-grain, muffled lies where it's really hard to control what you're doing."

O'Hair, meanwhile, knows that he'll have to keep playing well, especially with Woods lurking, to get his hands on the $10 million FedEx Cup prize money, which would more than soothe the sting of his losses last week in Philly.

"The thing I've learned is that you have to go out there and play good golf," O�Hair said, "You're not going to play average golf against him and do anything worthwhile."


Source/ read more here: http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/10121688/Tiger's-advice-to-O'Hair-comes-back-to-bite-him