I’ve got Harris English, the Georgia Bulldog. Harris won twice in 2013 at the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in Memphis and the OHL Classic at Mayakoba (Mexico). Harris looks ready to win again. He’s been playing well this year. Like English, the 25 year old from Valdosta, Georgia, to get it done at the Honda in Palm Beach, Fl.
No.2
471 yards, Par 4
The hardest hole on the course, this hole is annually rated as one of the toughest par fours on the PGA tour. The hole plays into a prevailing breeze, and requires a long straight tee shot to a fairway protected by trees on the right and the driving range (out of bounds) on the left. A mid-long iron is required to reach the elevated putting surface which is guarded by a steep hillside on the right and a pair of very deep bunkers on the left. Four is always a good score here.
No.4
236 yards, Par 3
Ben Hogan called it “the greatest Par-3 in America.” The fourth is played directly into the sea breeze and offers two lines of attack. For the bold players, direct carry can be attempted across a massive, 60-yard long bunker that actually fronts the green, while the more conservative player can play it safely to the right and play it around the sand. The putting surface moves from right to left and can be difficult to two putt.
No.9
458 yards, Par 4
One of the best par fours in America according to the pros, the ninth runs slightly uphill to a deep narrow green. It’s initial challenge is a pair of fairway bunkers 225 and 280 yards out, so either hitting between them with a three wood or pulling out the big stick for guys like Bubba and Dustin and carrying the second bunker is in play. The approach is one of the toughest at Riviera because the green slopes steeply from the back to the front and with front right and back left pin placements can cause more three-putts than any other green.
No.15
487 yards, Par 4
The last of the back nine’s long, into the wind par 4’s, it’s held by many pros to be the hardest one to hit in two at Riviera. It’s a sharp dogleg right and challenges the longer hitters to spear the corner bunker in hopes of shortening the par 4. The green is huge and has a big bunker in front and is divided by a big swale in the middle of it and separates a sloping left side from a right section tucked dangerously behind the sand. Four is a good score and you don’t lose ground with a par.
No. 17
590 yards, Par 5
The long 17th has a prevailing tailwind, but it still remains a full throttle three shot hole for most every player except the monster long guys. The tee shot must avoid a large right side bunker, but the second shot is even tougher where considerably more sand protects the optimum left side lay-up area. The green is two-tiered and flanked closely on the right by an intimidating, deep bunker which defends any right back pins.
No.18
Par 4, 475 yards
One of the most famous finishing holes in golf, the primary test lies in a very intimidating tee shot, a semi-blind drive played to a fairway hidden beyond a steep, Kikuyu grass-covered hillside. From there, a mid-to long iron is generally needed to reach a bunkerless putting surface, which is surrounded by an amphitheater-like setting with the crowd and grandstand above. Bubba sank a 25 footer to win on 18 last year. Phil won here in dramatic fashion in 2008 and 2009 and going back in the day, Steve Elkington won with a birdie in the playoff hole to win the PGA here in ’95.
Defending champion, have to respect that. His length really helps him on this somewhat lengthy course and his ability to work the ball will be a big help. If his putter is cookin, Bubba could be in the winner’s circle for a back to back.
Usually have Spieth in the mix. He finished tied seventh last week at Pebble Beach and shot 68-68 the final two days. Doesn’t have great length, but his accuracy and his short game will have him in the hunt. He’s not short, so he can get it out there around 300 which is enough. If he’s en fuego with the putter, Jordan could be the man.
Brandt dominated the field on Sunday last week. Another guy like Spieth who isn’t monster long, but long enough and can get it out there when he needs to. His driver is extremely solid, as are his irons, and another guy who can go off with the putter. Brandt’s work with Butch Harmon, his new swing coach since last July, is really paying dividends.
DJ has gotten it together since his return from his leave of absence. He finished t-4 last week at Pebble with a final round 66. He finished second here last year to Bubba with a final round 66. Massively long, if he’s accurate and putts like he can when he’s on fire, like DJ to get it done.
Finished second last week at Pebble shooting 65-69-65-69. California guy and has the game to win here. Long. Just a solid player.
Finished T-10 here last year shooting 70-69-69-67. Excellent player. He’s kind of an underrated player like Russell Henley, but can play with the likes of the other youthful guys like Spieth and Patrick Reed. Really like him.
He looks back and better than ever.
Sneedeker was a pretty dominant golfer Sunday at Pebble Beach as he captured his second AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with a 67 on Sunday. Brandt had one bogey the entire tournament. Wow. He hit all 18 greens in regulation on Friday at the hardest course of the three (Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Pennisula), Spyglass Hill. Wow, that’s awesome. What I’d give for that., He was driving it right down the pipe, he was never in any serious trouble, and when he had any problems, like on number 14 when he was behind the green in the rough and had to get up and down, he executed the up and down perfectly for par. He sank birdie putts on three from four feet, on 5 from 15 feet, on seven from three feet, on 11 from eight feet, and then on 15 he hit a hard drive down the left side of the fairway that looked headed for an ominous looking sand trap, but the ball amazingly kicked over the trap and rolled another 50 yards. Must have been a 320 yard drive. It was Brandt’s day. He ended up birdieing 15 from 14 feet. His ball striking was superb, his putter was en fuego, heck his whole game was stellar. Good to see Brandt back in the winners circle. That was Sneds seventh PGA tournament victory. He also won the 2007 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., the 2011 Heritage at Hilton Head, the 2012 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, the Tour Championship and the Fed Ex Cup in September of 2012 at East Lake in Atlanta, the 2013 AT&T Pebble Beach, the 2013 RBC Canadian Open and this one.
Brandt moved over to Butch Harmon in July of last year (2013) and Butch is paying dividends for Sneds. He looks great on the course. Brandt needed this victory to qualify for the Masters as he was not in the top 50 in the world rankings which automatically qualifies a player for Augusta National. This was huge. He is now No.31 in the world and now that he’s won, he’s in the Masters. He’s also in all the World Golf Championship tournaments with the first one at Doral in three weeks. That is the World Golf Championships Cadillac Classic at the Donald course in Miami. It’s a big tournament. Brandt’s goal is to win a lot of PGA events and to win majors. He really wants to win the Masters, and his game looks sharp right now. He is fifth on the Fed Ex rankings now too. Brandt shot 64-67-67-67. He’s in the field this week for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, in LA. He tees off @ 3:12 PM ET/2:12 PM CT and he’s playing with Ernie Els and Jim Furyk. Nice pairing.
Jon Curran also had an excellent tournament. Jon, who is on his first year on the tour after qualifying last year in the top 25 on the Web.com tour, finished tied 10th at -15. Jon shot 69-64-69-70. Jon just turned 28 yesterday and is working hard to make it big on the tour. He is playing this weekend as well at Riviera. His tee time is 11:35 AM ET/10:35 AM CT and he’s playing with Jonathan Randolph and Jin Park. Not familiar with those guys. Will be exciting to keep up with Sneds and Jon this weekend. Really like where Brandt is at and Jon keeps getting better and better. Luke List is again on the Web.com tour and will keep you posted on his progress. The Web.com’ next event is in March in South America.
Basketball with an excellent victory Saturday night in Tuscaloosa over Alabama. Some clutch play by our guys, particularly Riley, Damian and James. James with a key block and a couple of key offensive rebounds in the end. Riley with a huge trifecta and a clutch two late. Damian got it going in the second half. He finished with 20 points and seven boards. Our free throw shooting was terrific. We sank 28-of-33 from the line, 80%< and were 17-of-19 in the second half (89%). Excellent rebound from the loss vs UT at home last Wednesday night when our free throw shooting did not get the job done. MFD finished with 13 and sank 3-of-6 triples. MFD is a marksman. What a shooter. Luke had a nice game with 12 and four boards. Riley finished with 12 and Wade finished with 10 and WB4 also dished out six assists. James had nine and six pulls. We moved to 14-11 on the season and 4-8 in the conference. We have six games left, three at home and three on the road, starting tonight @ Florida at 7 ET/6 CT on the Network (SEC Network). Florida may not have their best record this year (12-13, 5-7 in SEC), but they’re still Florida and have good players. If Michael Frazier plays, he’s one of the best three point shooters in the conference. Not sure about his availability. He’s had a high ankle sprain and hasn’t played since the second half of the Kentucky game a week and a half ago. Will let you know at tip-off. He’s been hurt latelyAnd they still have Billy Donovan, one of the elite coaches in the game.. Our team will HAVE to bring it tonight to come out of the O Dome with a victory. We play Mizzou at home Saturday @ 2:30 PM ET/1:30 PM CT on the Network. Then we go to UT to try to extract some revenge a week from tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 26 @ 7 PM ET/6 PM CT on ESPN or the Deuce. We then play Alabama at home, Saturday, Feb. 28th @ 4 PM ET/3 PM CT on Fox Sports Net. We play State Wednesday, March 4th @ 9 PM ET/8 PM CT on the Network, then we finish up at Ole Miss Saturday, March 7th@ 9PM ET/8 PM CT, on the Network. The SEC tournament starts March 11th with two games Wednesday, March 11th for the 11-14 seeds. We are now in 11th place in the conference and would play Missouri if we started today. Hopefully, we can get hot here at the end and move up.
***Note: Frazier is out tonight and Dorian Finney-Smith, the Gators send leading scorer, is suspended for this game. Jeff Roberson is out with a concussion. Shelton Mitchell is till out with a concussion.
Baseball took two of three from Santa Clara over the weekend. Hit it OK, played OK defense and pitched OK. It was pretty cold in Nashville and had an effect on the team’s play. Plus we were at the yard for over 13 hours on Saturday playing in a doubleheader Saturday and may not have been as sharp as usual. Carson combined with Philip Pfeifer to pitch a 4-0 shutout Friday night. We lost the second game on Saturday, 7-6, though Dansby was four-for-four at the plate. Hayden uncharacteristically gave up two runs in the top of the ninth. We persevered in the final game to take it 6-5 on an infield RBI single by Ro Coleman. Jordan Sheffield, who was hurt last year, came in in relief and gave us some excellent innings. Like his potential. We’ve got an excellent team, just need to shore up in all three areas (pitching, defense and hitting). We’re postponed today at Belmont and Friday-Sunday for Illinois Chicago series as there has been a lot of ice in Nashville and it’s pretty bitterly cold up there. We are heading to Port Charlotte, Florida this weekend to play at the Tampa Bay Rays facility against Indiana State. Will have more on this series on Friday. Need to get things shaped up. Santa Clara was a pretty scrappy team though. Carson will most likely be on the hill on Friday, with Saturday and Sunday’s starters to be determined. John Kilichowski and Tyler Ferguson struggled last Saturday starting, but I believe John can be a good starter for us. Still not sure if Tyler is our guy as the Sunday starter. We’ll see how he develops.
Football getting cranked up with spring practice. Derek has liked the energy. I watched some highlights from day one. There was a lot of energy and looked like a lot of talent. I like this spring ball in February. Derek said the team hasn’t practiced since November and we need to get to work. Looks like our new strength coach, James Dobson, has done a good job of preparing the guys physically. They look impressive and serious during workouts. Quarterback will be looked at closely. All positions will. Will keep you posted on what’s happening with the team.
Marc Mattioli from Stanford. Mark will coach safeties, and Coach Brent Maxie, who coached the secondary last year, will coach the cornerbacks. Mattioli and Derek have a background at Stanford. Mattioli has been a graduate asst at Stanford for the last four years. He and Derek worked together his first two years. Mattioli is a Tennessee native and played quarterback at Rhodes College in Memphis. Like the hire. I think he’s young, can coach and will be an excellent recruiter. Derek has now completed his staff for the 2015-16 season. Spring ball starts February 16th, so will have a lot more coming up. The spring game is March 21. We had 49 student-athletes make the first team academic All-SEC with 29 of them football players and the other 20 from women’s soccer. Quite an accomplishment. When you come to Vanderbilt to play football, you aren’t making a four-year decision, you’re making a 40 year decision.
The fairway is tight at only 30 yards wide. The players will hit driver here and go for it in two for sure. There is some deep rough surrounding the green so an errant second shot could be troublesome. This is where Dustin Johnson started his colossal meltdown in the 2010 U.S. Open when he lost a three shot lead starting with a bogey here and from there it went south quickly he shot 82. Graeme McDowell won the Open here that year on Father’s Day.
Tom Kite hit a sand wedge here on Saturday in the ’92 Open, which he won, and a six iron on Sunday. The wind can play a huge factor, and while there is not a lot of wind predicted that could change, particularly on this hole. This is a real thinking man’s hole. If you go over the green you’re going into the Pacific or the rocks above it. When the wind is howling, this can be a bear.
No.8 is a par 4, 418 yards with a blind tee shot and a second shot over the ocean. Can be perilous. This is the beginning of Pebble’s version of Amen Corner with some tough holes ahead to go along with this one. An errant second shot can be very costly going into the Pacific and there is a bunker back left, so trouble there too. It’s a downhill second shot to the green, but the green slopes to the water, so it’s tricky. Very pretty hole. Tough.
N0.9, par 4, 466. This is the toughest hole on the course because the fairway slopes severely toward the ocean, and the approach must be hit from a side hill lie pretty much. There is a deep bunker guarding the front left of the green and the ocean on the right. A wayward shot to the right gives the seals a ball. Tight driving area and tight window for second shot. Par here is a very good score.
No. 10, par 4, 446. Another long par 4 that slopes towards the water to the right. A drive hit to the right will find the deep rough. A ball hit left should be relatively safe, though if it’s over-cooked, it’s in the sand or the rough. Both the drive and the approach are blind shots. On the approach only the front left of the green is visible. It’s no good to hit it long on the approach because the green slopes severely from back to front and a chip or a long putt from the back of the green could easily run right off the front of the putting surface.
No.17, Par 3, 178. On this hole, Tom Watson uttered a famous line to his caddie, Bruce Edwards, in the 1982 U.S. Open, “I’m not going to get it close, I’m gonna make it.” Tom chipped in to help secure the victory over Jack. That was one of eight majors for Tom. Of course, Jack won 18 of them and finished second 18 times in majors. That’s astounding. Prevailing wind on the par three into the player’s face. Deep rough on both sides and a trap on the right. Undulating green that is narrow. When it’s windy, par is a good score here and birdie is a bonus.
No. 18, par 5, 543. On the left there is the coastline and the ocean, so a hooked tee shot is in the rocks or the Pacific. Players want to aim right center. There is some trouble right with rough and an out of bounds area. Players can go for it in two or lay up on their second shots. Longer guys (Hunter Mahan, Dustin, J.B. Holmes) will go for it in two. The green is pretty wide and deep, but has a lot of undulation, so it can be tough sledding at times especially with the pressure on Sunday. Should be an electric finishing hole to this classic.
Finished sixth here last year and he’s a California guy (Orange, California), so he has played it quite a bit. With his length and his putting (when he’s hot), the 32 year old, 9-time PGA winner should be right there on Sundayu.
The 21 year old finished T-4 here last year shooting a 67 on Sunday. Like Jordan’s chances a lot.
The 32 year old Holmes was in a four-way playoff last week at Torrey Pines just losing out to Jason Day on the second playoff hole. Like his length and his mental toughness. Good putter under pressure.
The defending champion. Besides Rory, he’s playing better than anyone else in the world. Pretty long, very accurate and an excellent putter. He’s a pretty special player right now at 36 years old.
Won here in 2009 and 2010, and finished second last year. He’s back from a leave of absence and plays this course well, obviously. With his length and his really hot putter, when he’s on, and his record here, he’ll be a factor on Sunday.
Derek has done very well with this class. Good group. He needs to hire a new cornerbacks coach as the guy we recently hired, Todd Lyght, left to coach at Notre Dame. Really pumped about bball. We still have a shot at the tourney. We’ll really have to play well and win on the road at places like Florida, Alabama. UT and Ole Miss and take care of business at home, but we are playing well right now. The guys have really grown up and they’re playing like veterans even though they are younger guys. They’re 23 games into the season, so they have been through plenty of wars and I like where we are right now. Need to take care of business vs UT at home tonight (9 PM ET/ 8 PM CT SEC Network). Baseball cranks up this weekend vs Santa Clara at home for a weekend series. Friday’s first pitch is at 4 PM CT. Carson will probably get the nod. Walker Buehler has a little bit of an elbow issue, so he might be off for a week, but should be fine the following week. We’re No.1 in every preseason poll, and D1 Baseball.com, which has now become the No.1 authority in college baseball, has already projected us at the No.1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. A lot of work to do though, with some key non-conference games against top 10 programs on the road vs UCLA and neutral vs TCU at Dodger Stadium. That’s pretty cool. And then we’ll have a powerful SEC to navigate. I believe there are eight SEC teams in the preseason top 25. Will have a more thorough write up tomorrow on the blog.
UT has some good players, so we’ll have to play well tonight. Josh Richardson is their leading scorer at 15.6 per game. Probably will put Roberson on him. Jeff and Wade are probably our best two defenders. Wade may get the assignment some too.
I never try to be negative on the blog, and Franklin did a lot of good stuff, but he also did some bad stuff. He brought in this junior college kid, Brandon Vandenburg, who instigated the whole sexual assault on the girl. The kid was low character and Franklin insisted this hostess program, which may fly at places like Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee, places like that, where football is all that matters, but it shouldn’t happen at Vanderbilt. It’s pretty disturbing what happened. College football needs to get back to a college model and not be so concerned with being a farm system for the NFL. I have some problems with it. The NCAA just told Penn State they were “just kidding” when they originally punished them for the transgressions of Jerry Sandusky, which were horrific crimes. The NCAA gave Penn State back their bowl eligibility and gave Paterno back his wins. The head of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, is a joke. He’s a weak leader and really needs to be replaced. There is no accountability whatsoever for recruiting violations and criminal actions by these players. They need to really tighten up their enforcement and get a new guy in charge, or things may just get out of control with recruiting and this criminal activity by players. Pro football is starting to do something about it, and college football needs to follow suit. I really think Emmert should be fired.
Anyway, I’ll have more tomorrow on the game, Derek’s class and preparations for spring ball. We still have a very young team in football, but these young guys now have been in the SEC wars for a year, and we should be much improved. Strength coach is a major upgrade, and I like our new OC Ludwig and our wide receivers coach from Harvard. Hopefully, the offensive line will improve. Derek is either working on getting a cornerbacks coach or he will coach them himself. Derek is a master at defense, and particularly the secondary, so maybe he wants to coach that position as well. That’s a lot for him to do with all of his head coaching responsibilities as well. There’s a guy out at Stanford he may hire. His name is Marc Mattioli. He could be a good hire. He’s been a graduate assistant at Stanford for four years working with the secondary. He has Southern roots, having played at Rhodes College in Memphis and coached high school ball in Georgia, so I’ll let you know if that transpires.
Vanderbilt women’s tennis player Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @VandyMeg @mmhamlett @Vandywtennis @ManOfVandy @SkipPrince
May 18, 2017, 2:34 PM
Vanderbilt women’s tennis Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @astrasharma @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 18, 2017, 2:33 PM
Previewing 2017 Clemson Tigers football team. https://t.co/1JH1cPGQkp @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @clayphillips27 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 15, 2017, 2:13 PM
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