‘I fully expect they’ll ban them at some point. It’s going to be interesting, but I would be in the camp where I would like to see them go.’ – Graeme McDowell, on the future of long putters.
‘The long putter and the belly putter, I really think they are okay. I just don’t see anyone out there winning every tournament and doing things that have never been done before with a belly (or long) putter.’ – Fred Couples, who has been using a belly putter since 2003 because of his long-ailing back.
‘He’s not on the comeback. He’s back. He’s won three times. Nobody else has won three times. But he’s not going to dominate majors like he did in the past.’ – Charles Barkley, on the state of Tiger Woods’ game.
‘The minute he put his hand on that 3-wood, I said, ‘It’s lost.’ He’s gone with an iron all week, you either lay it up, or you go. The 3-wood is in the bunker zone, and that’s a certain hazard. I said, under this pressure, he’s going in that bunker.’ – Gary Player, on Adam Scott hitting a 3-wood off the tee on the final hole of the British Open. Scott bogeyed the 72nd hole and lost to Ernie Els by one shot.
‘I was never great, but it’s funny, the late Chuck Daly told me when I took the Boston job that my handicap would go up two strokes a year. I asked him, ‘What’s with that?’ and he said, ‘Because you won’t be practicing anymore.’ He was about right with the handicap.’ – Glenn ‘Doc’ Rivers, head coach of the Boston Celtics, on his golf game.
‘One of the biggest areas ... is that mentally I haven’t been focusing as fine as I need to. I’ve been letting where I don’t want the ball to go kind of creep in, in my head, as opposed to where I want it to go.’ – Phil Mickelson, on his recent struggles on ‘CBS This Morning.’
‘No disrespect to Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, but this new generation, they’re like Tiger Woods clones.’ – Barkley, again, on the numerous talented young players that Woods is competing against.
‘During the off season, my dad was on the range with me, and he was like, ‘Oh, I think the swing here is wrong, there it is wrong, something is wrong.’ I told him, ‘Dad, you don’t know what my coach is coaching me. I’ll give you two options. One is that you can go to my coach’s academy, and you can learn what he’s teaching me, and then you can teach me. Or, second, if you don’t want to go, you can just be a dad, a happy dad.’' – LPGA player Shanshan Feng of China, on the choice she gave her father two years ago. He chose the second.
‘I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to Kiawah Island on Tuesday on the way to Akron [for the WGC-Bridgestone]. I’m hoping it’s better than Whistling Straits. That wasn’t my favorite course. It looked very linksy. I loved the way it looked, but I just didn’t like the way it played. It was too soft.’ – McDowell, again, on his excitement for the upcoming PGA Championship.
‘Keegan Bradley won the PGA. He uses a belly putter, I don’t know, I’ve been told, but he’s used the belly putter most of his life. That’s a tough one to swallow. For me, I played 22 years using a regular putter, and then I changed, but for someone who has never ever used a shorter putter, that’s a little different story.’ – Couples, again, on the difficulty for players who have used long putters since childhood.
