Limping tiger wins race

A tussle between a cripple and an old man, that’s what this year’s US Open was all about. It’s another matter that the cripple was bombing 300-yard-plus drives with a rotten knee and sinking putts like he was throwing pebbles into a bathtub. As for the senior, with this new drug-testing policy on the PGA Tour, he should be the first one in line, handing over a sample of his body fluids. Forget the golf he played, even his demeanor was kind of suspicious. A little too perky, if you ask me. He just couldn’t zip his lips. Good thing he had the sense to shut up when the man with the biggest arms in golf was lining up those monster putts. Tiger Woods is not only beefy, he’s said to be pretty fast on his feet, too. Rocco Mediate wouldn’t have made it off the green if it came to a chase.

Well, it didn’t come down to a slugfest, which, I suspect, would have been ridiculously one-sided unless the golfer of Italian descent called in some favours, but what a fight! While the TV hot-shots were giving out their bit on who they expected to win, which they kind of got right because the favourite in these tournaments is a nobrainer, nobody thought that it would be Mediate who would be the biggest hurdle in Woods’ quest for “major” glory.

In fact, former major winner and now commentator Johnny Miller thought Mediate looked like somebody who would scrub Woods’ swimming pool. And Mediate didn’t blink an eyelid when he heard these comments. Goes to show that this guy can not only play golf, he has character, too. Funnily enough, at times when you are not really in shape to waltz down the fairway, you can actually end up playing good golf. The reason being you don’t expect too much out of yourself.

Take Shiv Kapur at the last Johnnie Walker Classic, for example. He had a niggling flu that week but you wouldn’t have known looking at his scorecard— 69, 65, 72 and 68 for a share of fifth place. “Sometimes, it’s better when you’re ill because you’re not thinking about all the external factors,” was his explanation.

Tip to try: TaylorMade is known for its drivers and it has come out with something quite extraordinary this time. The r7 CGB MAX Limited driver incorporates TaylorMade’s Movable Weight Technology and its SelectFit Technology into one club. What that means is that this is a driver with interchangeable shafts. The club kit comes in a fancy box that has a newly-developed titanium 415 cc clubhead with three movable weight ports, three shafts with different launch properties, two shaftsecuring bolts, nine movable weights and, of course, a headcover.

The nine weights and the three interchangeable shafts allow for, hold your breath, 1,071 possible launch combinations. Go figure! TaylorMade is calling this piece of technology a “Tour van in a box.” Rs 40,000 for a tour van is not too bad, is it? It’s also limited edition.

Prabhdev Singh is Editor, Golf Digest India