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By Martin Fitzpatrick… Make sure you get all your errands and housecleaning done this weekend because in case you haven’t heard, Tiger Woods will be back in action next week at the World Golf CA-Championship, an event he has won six times.
Golf highlights will actually be shown on local and national news stations and you won’t even need to navigate through ESPN.com to find golf news. Believe it or not golf will actually appear on ESPN.com’s front page, but then again, it won’t really be golf news appearing on the front page, it will be Tiger Woods news
Many thought Woods’ decision to return for the Accenture Match Play Championship last week was somewhat surprising.
On top of being a long and difficult course to walk, the tournament also carried the possibility of having to walk 36-holes on both Saturday and Sunday.
But, looking back now, it appears that Tiger Woods knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to return for a match play event.
Everyone knows that match play is a very volatile form of golfing competition.
With the extreme level of parity on the PGA Tour today, if any player gets hot for one round, he can probably defeat just about any other player in the event.
Although last week Geoff Ogilvy was clearly the hottest player in the field, single matches often do not identify the better player, they just identify the better player on that particular day.
For that reason, a match play style event was actually the perfect choice for Woods’ return.
If he looses a match, as he did to Tim Clarke in the second round, golf fans would simply chalk it off to him being a victim of the volatile match play format, which is exactly what has happened.
When Woods attends the World Golf CA-Championship at Doral next week, we will get our first true glimpse at just how much rust has accumulated on his game over the past eight months.
There is no cut at WGC events so we will see how Woods’ game can hold up through a full 72-hole event.
Next week there is no hiding behind the unpredictability of a match play format; it is just Woods’ game against the Blue Monster course.
Although Woods did not play terrible last week, with concessions he was still six-under-par through 32 holes, he did not play great either.
That majority of rust on his game appeared in his iron play. Woods hit several approach shots that, well, we just are used to seeing from Tiger Woods. Woods simply did not give himself enough legitimate birdie opportunities to defeat a red hot Tim Clarke in his second round match.
Woods hit the ball well of the tee last week but his much anticipated new short game was just average.
The good news is that Woods’ game did not appear too far off from its top form last week and, most importantly, he did not show any symptoms whatsoever of pain in his surgically repaired left knee.
However, if he hasn’t shaken the rust off his iron play by the time he arrives at Doral next week, we are unlikely to see his name near the top of the leaderboard at this event containing the top-77 players in the world.
By Stoker Dafire… The “dean of mean” Keith Jardine will throw bones with Quinton “rampage” Jackson tonight at UFC 96 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
The chances of the “dean of mean” getting an upset here are slim to none.
Jardines only chance at victory is to use a similar game plan which helped him defeat former UFC light heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell; which is to run and use his low kicks.
Jackson has had to deal with his share of personal distractions in the past year.
His well documented police chase and religious energy drink melt down made for some very interesting MMA blogging.
All that chaos is somewhat behind him now as he faces another test on the road back to reclaiming his UFC light heavyweight title.
It is my personal opinion that Jackson can make a good run at the title.
But if you want my honest opinion, id say that he will have a hard row to hoe against current champion Rashad Evans or solid undefeated contender Lyoto “the dragon” Machida.
It’s my opinion that the uncrowned champion is Machida, so forgive me if I show a genuine lack of enthusiasm over tomorrow nights main event.
Rampage won the title from Chuck “Iceman” Liddell who was on the downward slide and continues to be stagnant in a sport that’s evolved around him.
Machida and Evans are both new age mixed martial arts fighters.
Along with other elite fighters like Georges st. Pierre and Anderson Silva they coin the new term “well rounded.”
Furthermore these fighters have proven their worth by taking on and defeating all comers.
UFC president Dana White has recently stated that if Jardine should pull off an upset tomorrow night he will be on track to face his friend and training partner Evans.
Jardine has stated that he has no interest in facing his friend for the title and may even consider moving back up to heavyweight.
In my opinion the point is moot and there is no need for Jardine to worry; because if Evans faces Machida this summer we will have a new 205 pound champion named Lyoto “the dragon” Machida.
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- What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
- Bob Dylan
By Long John Silver… Anyone know a typical weight of a tennis ball?
Any guesses, is it less than 100 grams?
It is about 56 grams, and both the weight and the diameter of the ball have a range.
A typical tennis ball can weigh between 56 and 58 g. The tennis ball manufactured is dependent on what is optimum for altitude where the tournament is played, and the surface
In the 12th century, when the French aristocracy and monks first started playing what they called “jes da paume,” (game of the palm, played with bare hands), they played with their bare hands in the beginning.
They wore gloves to protect their hands.
Around 1750, the rackets emerged. The original rackets were made of ash, and the strings were made of sheep gut. The racket was strung by looping the side strings around the main strings.
The oldest tennis court that exists, was built in 1530 in Hampton Court Place by King Henry the Eighth (sounds to presumptuous does it not? His name?).
Almost makes me want to call himself, ohhh, I am Long John the Seventh…the medieval villainous Prince of the Cast Away Robinson Crusoe Island.
Hence, with the evolution of the game, let us fast forward to the 1980’s.
With increasing number of tie-breaks due to serve domination, and power in the game, the organizers wanted to slow the game a bit.
Hence, instead of using regular sized balls, they introduced a marginally bigger tennis ball.
Think about a bigger tennis ball, how did it slow things down?
The only resistance (opposition to speed, hence making it slower) to a serve by Sampras, Roddick, or Ivanisevic is the air resistance. Therefore, a higher surface area means more air resistance, meaning with a higher surface area there is more of an area for the air to resist now, hence a bigger ball with higher surface area will undoubtedly travel slower.
That’s how the organizers slowed things down a bit…that’s vintage fluid mechanics.
The balls are also changed constantly between a specific set of games, why?
Because, they wanted to maintain a constant pace of the ball throughout the match. Imagine a new shiny tennis ball with much felt (yellow fur, or yellow fuzzy) on it.
Since there are so many furs sticking out, there is more area for the air to resist now, and so the ball travels a little slower.
As Rodge keeps ripping his inside out forehand, he basically smooths the ball after two or three games (smooths the fur), now the ball is smoother when compared to how it was at the beginning, and so the air has less surface intrusions to resist…meaning a worn out ball with a smooth surface will begin to travel faster and faster through the air.
That’s why they change balls between a specific set of games—to maintain a consistent pace of the ball.
Every tennis ball also has what a fluid mechanist calls “A Drag,” (sort of like a force that deceases the pace when the ball is traveling).
Let’s keep this simple, for every moving object, there are two kinds of “drag forces” possible—a pressure drag and a friction drag.
Since the tennis ball moves very fast, it has only air resistance, giving it a pressure drag. Friction drag is for objects that travel a touch slower.
The more spin imparted on the ball by the player (Rafa?), the more drag it has. Since we said drag is something that decreases the pace of the ball, a shot that has more spin will quite logically have lesser pace (a vintage clay court game).
That’s why Rafael is so unique, because he almost challenges motion mechanics. His shots have both spin, and obscene pace sometimes, (that hook down the line forehand, from outside the court?)
The yellow fuzz (felt) by its sheer existence, also is responsible for 20–30 percent of the drag on a tennis ball.
Tennis balls are fun to learn about, especially how they govern the pace and spin of the game. Fluid mechanics is an inherent part of it.
With how fluid mechanics has aided the evolution of the game, those French monks would be pretty impressed, don’t you think?
Merci, they would say, before going off to the court to rip “Djoker” like backhands with their bare hands.
PS: Davis Cup Alert this weekend !
by Graeme Boyce… The wait is over and the new-look Leafs have hit the ice, and won a game, without needing to go into overtime. They looked good, shutting down the Capitals and scoring opportunistically late in the third to seal it, notwithstanding the typical cliffhanger at the end, after several missed empty-netters.
The pre New-Look Leafs almost beat New Jersey the other night, and now the team look forward to the Saturday night tilt against the Oilers. It promises to be interesting, from the perspective that the Oilers are supposedly big and fast, yet lost earlier in the season to the mighty Old-Look Leafs.
The deadline day changes to The Leafs are not what I was hoping for, but I like Mayers lately, as well as Devereaux, Mitchell and Van Ryn.
The latter, a shining addition this season, augments a solid defensive group: Frogren, White, Finger and Schenn, not to mention the offensive wizardry of Kubina over the past few weeks.
I don’t think the injured newcomers, Heward and Reitz, for example, will be posing much of a threat for playing time on the blue line.
However, this seriously must leave Kaberle expendable, or at least time to heal certainly before trading season is re-opened and Burke continues the re-tooling on the way to The Cup.
Wonderfully, it seems Gerber has something to prove, and based on his poise against Washington (well until there was about 30 seconds left in the game) I think he’s going to over-perform down the stretch and surely we’ll see Pogge thrown in, certainly learning from an interesting collection of mentors, if you throw Kolzig into the mix.
Then there’s Stapleton and Hamilton who are tossed into the fray. The latter looked awesome tucked alongside Blake and Mitchell, but the latter has been looking even better skating circles around defensemen lately.
It seems confidence abounds nowadays and the fun is back, which thus brings into the spotlight our favourite little speedy man: Grabovski. I like him though and think he adds spark—some pizzazz is entertaining after all—and besides, a little razzle dazzle here and there will easily inspire a teammate on the bench.
I don’t know whether Grabovski fits into the Burke model of a Cup winning team, but I’d keep him around with Kulemin, though I’d add Blake and thus we’d have The KGB Line to cheer on to The Cup. In the meantime, Leafs 6, Oilers 2.
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