Every week of the 2010 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in the comments section below.
COLONIAL VS. THE SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Talk about splitting your audience. What's your take on the Senior PGA Championship, the year's first senior major (pardon my oxymoron), being televised on NBC at exactly the same time as the Crowne Plaza Championship at Colonial? The golf audience is small to start with. I don't know what the tours were thinking. Further, did you watch one over the other, and why? I went with the seniors, since Colonial went to a storm delay. Also, it was a thrilling finish.
Farrell Evans, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: It's a no-brainer. Both events wanted and needed network coverage. The golf audience is small, but not so tiny that it can't accommodate two tournaments. It all depends on what the networks have guaranteed the advertisers. It happens all the time.
Van Sickle: Too bad they couldn't have staggered them, especially with the seniors playing in the Mountain time zone.
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Seniors were the ones to watch all the way. Tons of starpower on that leaderboard all week long.
Click here to submit a question for Alan's next mailbag.
Mark Godich, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: I was watching the seniors even before Colonial went into a rain delay. Better names, and the course looked intriguing.
Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: I was glued to the seniors — great finish to regulation, not so good playoff. Was fun to see Boom Boom and the boys on a fresh new course. And you're always going to get a guy like Jay Don Blake in the mix at Champions events to add an interesting, unexpected storyline.
Van Sickle: Agree. Hard not to like seeing Couples go eagle-eagle to tie for the lead. That's great stuff on a wild-looking course.
Godich: Loved the way he shaped those two shots into the par-5s. You have to love the on-course mikes as well.
Herre: Good point on the on-course mikes. Frost's little S-bomb during the playoff got my attention, and it was fun eavesdropping on LaCava and Couples.
Rick Lipsey, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: I was watching Colonial. Seniors are for rain delays or commercial breaks.
Van Sickle: Alan, you're there. Did it have the feel of a major, albeit a senior major? The leaderboard certainly had that major feel.
Shipnuck: Yes, it felt big-time. The players were grinding their tails off.
FRED COUPLES: A STAR IS (RE)BORN
Van Sickle: Fred didn't win this thing, but is his reincarnation as a senior star really registering with the public and creating interest in the Champions Tour, or is it all in the minds of us golf-centric magazine types? I thought the finish was great TV. I liked having a couple of underdogs in the mix like Jay Don Blake and that little old winemaker, David Frost, to the end.
Godich: You could tell that Fred was really soaking it all in when he walked to the 18th green in regulation.
Evans: It was weird seeing Freddie miss left in the playoff. I thought he could take the left side of the golf course out of play with his eyes closed. He looked tired to me.
Herre: Fred's wonderful, languid, unique swing is all about timing. Looked to me like he got a little quick on the tee shot in the playoff. Back in his heyday, he was an awful closer. Anybody else remember all those close calls in the early ‘90s? It was frustrating to watch him blow so many chances to win.
Godich: And lest we forget, he'd have that awful label if his ball didn't miraculously hang on the bank of the 12th hole at Augusta in 1992.
Van Sickle: He was a poor short putter then, and still is. His ball-striking and his short game have always been pretty classy. Who knows what more he might have achieved with a little more motivation and a lot healthier back?
Shipnuck: Fred is the most popular golfer of the last quarter century — more than Shark, more than Tiger, even more than Phil. People want to watch him play, period.
Herre: I don't know about that, Alan. I'll give you Norman, but not Woods and Mickelson.
Evans: Alan, you're wrong as hell about Freddie being more popular than Tiger. Do you really believe that?
Shipnuck: I'm not talking about global awareness or endorsements or stuff like that. Just pure, undiluted ardor across every demographic of fan.
Evans: I don't know where you are getting your market research, but it's not reality based.
Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: I know it's sort of sacrilegious to say it, but I never really got the whole "Freddie" thing. Good guy, good player, but often seemed to come up short. Leaves me wanting, but everyone seems to love him and gush over him, which I suppose supports Alan's point to a degree.
Van Sickle: Fred has always had a certain appeal. Some of that faded when players like Phil and Tiger and even Vijay built their resumes on top of his fair-to-middling career.
Shipnuck: I'm not comparing resumes, just emotion.
Herre: The rap on Couples is that he has trouble maintaining relationships — with men and women — and has a bit of a narcissistic streak.
LEHMAN WINS ANOTHER MAJOR, SORT OF
Van Sickle: It was a great finish for the seniors. Well, until the playoff. Frost made two big birdies coming in, Couples made back-to-back eagles, Lehman made clutch putts. Then Frosty and Freddy hit it into the shrubbery on the playoff hole and it was all they could do to even finish the hole, handing the title to Lehman. It's Lehman's first senior win. Surprised that he hasn't done better on that tour? He looked pretty good with the putter when it mattered.
Godich: Not so much. That tour is all about making birdies. Lehman had most of his success grinding out one par after another on tough venues, especially at the Open.
Evans: Godich is right. Lehman doesn't putt well enough to dominate on the senior tour. He only won five times on the regular tour.
Lipsey: Lehman doesn't play a full schedule (only five senior starts in 2010), so he's not going to be as sharp as he could be. Still, he's been top five in four of his five 2010 starts.
Herre: I like everything about Lehman, but always thought he was a bit overrated as a player. Not a great closer.
Lipsey: His mind isn't all in golf. The Sunday morning when he had the 54-hole Masters lead, I was in the pews at a church watching him give a sermon. I'm guessing he's the only 54-hole Masters leader who ever worked as a pastor on the Sunday he teed off for the final round. Between religion, family and who knows what else, I think Lehman has too much other stuff he's keen on to be as great in golf as he might otherwise be.
Van Sickle: Mark Lye said on Golf Channel that Lehman now has two majors, one on the regular tour and this one in senior golf. That's not how we count majors. The ones on the regular tour count. Ones on the senior tour are NOT added to your total.
Shipnuck: Agree, but it's still a big win and very meaningful to Lehman.
PGA Tour Confidential: The Byron Nelson Championship
