The Shell Houston Open features an all star field this week with names like Spieth, Mickelson, Rahm, Fowler and Reed. World No.1 Dustin Johnson, who just won the Dell Match Play in Austin last week with a 1 up victory over Jon Rahm, is taking this week off. Dustin never trailed in the 112 holes he played last week at the match play. Wow. He’s the best right now and certain favorite heading into the 81st Masters next week. Dustin has won all 3 events he’s played in this season; the Genesis Open, the WGC-Mexico Championship, and last week at the Match Play. Talk about stellar. Through the roof good. His length is always there, he’s a surprising 2nd to Rory in driving distance at 316.2. Rory leads at just over 318. Both are totally large hitters. Dustin pulled out this week from the Shell Houston due to fatigue. He’ll be ready next week for “The tradition unlike any other,” as Jim Nantz says of the year’s classic tournament. 

This week

Shell Houston Open

Golf Club of Houston, Humble, TX, 7,441 yards, par 72

Defending champion: Jim Herman. Won in a pretty emotional way last year. Jim was emotional talking to Todd Lewis of Golf Channel after his victory. He had played in 112 tournaments before winning at Houston. He had even quit golf in 2004 to become a teaching pro. But he hung in there and kept scrapping, and his hard work paid off. The winner here if the player hasn’t qualified for the Masters will get the last spot for the first major of the year.

Weather: Thursday, Sunny, windy, S 15-28 mph.

Friday: sunny, 86, 8-14 mph.

Saturday: sunny, 83, 12-17 mph.

Sunday 77, chance for severe weather, hopefully not.

Today is pretty dangerous in Houston with a severe weather alert and a chance for a tornado. Hoping that won’t happen also.

TV: Thursday-Friday: Golf Channel, 3-6 PM CT, 4-7 PM ET.

Saturday-Sunday: Golf Channel, 12-2 PM CT/1-3 PM ET. NBC: 2-5 PM CT/3-6 PM ET.

Key holes

No.9, 238 yards, par 3

Lengthy par 3. Big sand traps on both the right and the left. Getting in the left side bunker with a left side pin, will lead to a difficult up and down as the player will be short sided and not have much green to work with to make par. Challenging hole.

No.15, 609 yards, par 5

Three shot hole for most players. Trees on the right and left if you draw it or cut it too much. Second shot needs to favor the right side close to a big bunker to have the best angle of attack to the green. Long green and pretty narrow and surrounded by sand. Birdie here is good and definitely attainable. Par is not terrible, though on Sunday the contenders will probably need a birdie. Herman shot 69,69, 67, 68 last year for -15 to win it.

No. 17, 487 yards, par 4

There’s a fairway bunker on the left that the players will want to carry to have a good approach shot to the green. Clearing the bunker can be challenging and getting in it can be trouble because the face of it is very steep. Small green that has a fair sized bunker front left and a large bunker on the right. 

No. 18, 484 yards, par 4

This hole, to me, is one of the toughest finishing holes on the PGA Tour. It’s underrated in its difficulty. A lake borders the entire left side of the hole. The tee shot challenges the player to carry as much water as possible while avoiding the large bunker on the left side of the landing area. There is a large bunker on the right that will cause the player problems if he overcooks his cut. Can’t overcook the right to left drive either, or you’re probably going to be out of contention. The competitor’s second shot needs to avoid the water on the left and the large bunker on the right. This is quite a finishing hole. I really love this hole, which will set up for key drama on Sunday. 

Contenders

Jhonattan Vegas

I would have picked Vegas for my sleeper, but I have somebody else in mind. Vegas can win this tournament. He’s long, a good putter, and won the RBC Canadian last year with some stellar golf on Sunday. The 32 year old from Venezuela has 2 career victories on tour. To go along with the 2016 Canadian, he also won at the then Bob Hope Classic in 2011 in Palm Springs, now the Humana Challenge.

Johnson Wagner 

Johnny Miller loved Wagner’s mental toughness and clutch play 2 years ago when he lost to J.B. Holmes in a playoff here. The 37 year old won here in 2008 and he’s a native of Amarrilo, so he knows this course well. Wagner also has won at the 2011 Mayakoba Golf Classic in Cancun, and at the 2012 Sony Open in Hawaii. 

Rickie Fowler

Won the Honda Classic a month ago and playing well. Rickie has 4 PGA Tour victories, including the 2015 Players. The 28 year old from Murrieta, California is still knocking on the door for a major, and looks primed to potentially capture one this year. There have been 12 winners on tour this season who are in their 20’s. Wow, these guys are studs. Not only the 20 year olds, but the vets too. 

Jordan Spieth

The 23 year old has won 9 times on tour now, including a victory in February at Pebble Beach. Spieth is another player who is primed to win at Augusta National next week, which would be his 3rd major championship title to go along with the 2015 Masters and 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. Like where Jordan’s game is at. The competition at Augusta National next week will be major league intense. Can’t wait.

Winner

I’m going with the 22 year old from Barrika, Spain by way of Arizona State University, who’s making a huge statement this season as he’s already won at Torrey Pines and had a masterful performance at the Match Play last week before falling  to Dustin in the finals, losing to Dustin, who was 1 up. This guy is another guy who will for sure be in the thick of things next week. I expect greatness here. I see him capturing PGA title number 2 this season and having major momentum heading into Augusta National next week.

Phil won the BellSouth Classic in 2006 at Sugarloaf, just outside Atlanta, part of his 9th all-time 42 PGA Tour wins, then the following week, moved over 2 a1/2 hours away and won at Augusta National. So there is precedent for winning the week before the Masters and then winning at Augusta National. Going with the Spaniard. 

Jon Rahm

Darkhorse

I’m going with somewhat of a blast from the past. This 48 year old from South Africa shot 64 on the final day of the Puerto Rico Open last week to finish T-2nd, at -18, 2 back of winner D.A. Points. He’s won 40 times as a professional including 7 times on the PGA Tour highlighted by the 2001 and 2004 U. S. Open titles. I like this guy to be a heavy contender this week and to possibly pull it off. 

Retief Goosen

A late gentleman, whom I had a lot of respect for, told me in 2007 he had a football coach at Ramsay high school in Birmingham named William “Cannonball” White. He said one of the most honorable comments you can say about another man. “He did the right thing all the time.”

That seems to be the case with Tim Corbin. With several of these coaches letting players slide for rules violations, Corbin stands firm in his beliefs and his values.

Yesterday, Coach Corbin suspended 4 players indefinitely from the team for “failing to meet team standards.” There was no report of what these players actually did, but that’s not really relevant. They broke the rules laid down by Corbin and they paid the price. That is honorable, highly respectable, the right thing to do by our baseball coach And Corbs has done it before with other players.

Xavier Turner, our starting 3rd baseman three years ago as a freshman, was suspended for the season two years ago. Not sure exactly what Xavier did either, but he never made it back to the team, unfortunately. Philip Pfeifer, who is now in the Atlanta Braves organization, was suspended for the rest of the 2014 season and missed out on the national championship for rules violations. Don’t know exactly what either did and it would be irresponsible and disrespectful to both players to speculate. Regardless, Corbin held firm to his values and his rules. He did the right thing. That should always be the case with every coach, with every person. Not always the case. 

Sunday, freshman Drake Fellows, who had been pitching very well, was supposed to start and help the Commodores earn a series sweep of Texas A&M. But he, sophomore starting shortstop Alonzo Jones, freshman starting right fielder Harrison Ray, both of whom had just become starters, and freshman left hander Zach King, were all suspended for the game with no timetable for their return. We lost 6-4, but Coach Corbin was sending a much better message to these players than they cost us the game. He was telling them there are rules they have to live by if they get the privilege to play in his program and if they don’t, they’re not going to play for us. Those are not just college lessons, those are life lessons.

Some other coaches, Bob Stoops, Nick Saban, Bill Self, Roy Williams and John Calipari could take a lesson from Coach Corbin. Stoops allowed his player, Joe Mixon, to play in the Sugar Bowl after being caught on video hitting a woman. Then recently, his starting quarterback, Baker Mayfield, was arrested for public drunkenness. No word on what kind of discipline Mayfield will get. Saban had three players arrested for pot and guns last season, but there were no suspensions for games, just “internal discipline.” Bill Self had all kinds of issues on his team with alleged assault on a woman by one of his players, and many other allegations of misconduct, but Self, like quite a few others, let’s “the legal system handle it.” And it’s funny how a prosecutor or a judge conveniently lets these guys slide. Many times, the lawyer or the judge is a fan of the team. Jameis Winston is a perfect example of that.

Roy Williams uses that folksy, salt of the earth talk, but his players have been involved in an academic fraud for many years. John Calipari had Marcus Camby at UMass who accepted cash and had a prostitute, among other things, and the school was fined $151,000. Then at Memphis, Calipari allowed Derrick Rose to play and help Memphis advance to the 2008 national championship game, while Rose was involved in academic fraud. The NCAA expunged Memphis’ season and forced them to give back the money to the NCAA, which was a substantial amount. Calipari took off for Kentucky.

Those last two examples were written about by the classic writer for the New York Post, Phil Muchnick. 

The final example is the glorification of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, who both have been involved in cheating of the rules scandals. it’s funny how that gets swept under the rug when they win another Super Bowl. Belichick has a serial problem for cheating, including Spygate, when he had a cameraman film a New York Jets practice, and rival coaches are always shredding their game plans when they’re at New England, for fear that the Patriots will get ahold of them. 

Brady was suspended for, in all probability, getting his ball boy to deflate the footballs before the Patriots playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts in 2015. He was suspended for 4 games but deified when he won the Super Bowl and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was vilified throughout the deal. It was misplaced blame. The Patriots are known to break rules. They shouldn’t be honored by the media. 

I have to admit, while the College football playoff and the NCAA tournament is going on, I can get lost in the competition of it, but Mushnick’s super article brought it back to reality for me. I’m glad he wrote that. It’s a good perspective on sports and life. 

But Corbs seems to always do the right thing. I hope he always will. I expect he will.

There is no word on how long these players will be suspended, but if they’ve acted really badly, they deserve to be off the team for a while. 

Vandy dropped to 3-3 in the SEC and 16-9 overall.

Mason lands 2nd commit for 2018

Vanderbilt football landed its second recruit in high 3 star athlete Miles Jones out of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Florida. Miles is a 5’9″, 173 , and Mason and the staff look to make him a slot back, a Darrius Sims-type player. Miles is lightning fast and takes quite a few to the house. He’s excellent on film. He’s not only fast, he’s strong and tough. Jones, according to Jesse Johnson of Vandy247, accounted for 1,317 yards during his junior season, gaining 585 yards on the ground with 5 TDs, and catching 28 passes for 405 yards and a 7. Jones also returned 12 kicks for 327 yards and a 7. He helped the Patriots go 14-0 and capture the 2016 Class 5A state championship.

Jones chose us over offers from Georgia, Kentucky, Miss. State, West Virginia and Wisconsin among others. This is an excellent pickup for Mason and the program. Miles will excel.

Patrick Martin

VU sophomore men’s golfer Patrick Martin won the Schenkel Invitational last weekend for his first victory as a Commodore. The Birmingham, Alabama native shot -12, including a 66 on the final day, -6, on the par 72 course in Statesboro, GA. Patrick was named SEC Golfer of the week last week. We finished 3rd as a team, with Florida winning it, but we were without our number one player, Matthias Schwab, who was playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational for winning an amateur sportsmanship award sponsored by the tournament. Matthias didn’t make the cut at the Palmer, but it was a good experience for him and it’s good to have him back with the team as we prepare for the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, TN. this weekend. Good stuff for our players. We are now ranked 3rd in the country by Golfstat.com, the premier ranking service for NCAA golf. Southern Cal is No.1 and Oklahoma State is No.2. Florida is 6 and LSU is 9th.

Women’s tennis shines again 

The VU women’s tennis team moved to 6-1 in the SEC with a 6-1 victory over Alabama on the road yesterday. We won the doubles, and Georgina Sellyn, Astra Sharma, Sydney Campbell, Fernanda Contreras and Emma Kurtz all won their singles matches. 

We moved to 11-5 overall. The Dores return home this weekend to host Missouri at 4 PM CT on Friday and Arkansas at 1 PM Sunday at the Currey Tennis Center.