Third Round Notes

Carl Paulson holds the record for consecutive tournaments played -- 83 -- on the Nike/Buy.com Tour. All that hard work was evident today as he posted his third straight 69 to take a one-shot lead at The Players Championship. Three straight 69s on that golf course and those greens is truly impressive. Almost as impressive was Craig Perks, Paulson's compadre from the Nike/Buy.com Tour. Had he not three-jacked the 8th green, he'd either be one up or tied with Paulson at the top of the Leaderboard.

Saturday, as the commentators kept saying, is not Sunday. It seems likely that Paulson and Perks will struggle tomorrow to shoot even par. If one of them does post a 72, he'll probably win the tournament. Right now, it looks like the winning number will be somewhere between 279 (nine-under) and 282 (six-under).

Mike Weir and David Toms are well-positioned to make a run. Both men are at 5-under and are proven players under pressure. Nick Faldo needs to shoot a 67. Tiger Woods needs to shoot a 66, which he can (and probably will) do. Phil Mickelson needs to shoot a 64. Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen are by no means out of the hunt. Nor is Jim Furyk.

If you look at the stats pages, the thing that really stands out is Tiger Woods's putting (not good) and driving distance (astonishing). He's on the green in regulation, he's just not making the putts. If he starts dropping putts early tomorrow, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Perks will have the unsettling experience of watching Tiger's score fall to within striking distance, just as they are about to tee off. And then we'll see if they can breathe.

Yikes

It doesn't get much uglier than this. Check out the scorecard of Ernie Els on the first nine holes (he started on the 10th) today.

Trunk-Slammers and Cut-Makers

A "trunk-slammer" is a professional golfer who, at the end of Friday's round, fails to qualify for weekend play. In the telling of the tale, he stomps into the parking lot, tosses his clubs into the back of the car and slams the trunk door as hard as he can in enraged frustration. In reality, he heads into the locker-room and dials up the airlines to rebook his reservation from Sunday night to late Friday afternoon or early Saturday morning. Either way, it's a lousy way to end a day.

The cut-makers at this year's Players Championship are pretty much who you would expect to be playing on the weekend. Ernie Els probably had the best round of the day today (68, 4-under) and worked himself back to level par, six shots off the lead. Tiger Woods shot 72 today and is five shots back. Nick Faldo continued his fine play and is three shots off the lead. Phil Mickelson fell back a bit, but finished nicely and goes into tomorrow one shot off the lead. You can see the full leaderboard by clicking here.

There are a number of interesting sidebars at The Players Championship. One is the excellent play of newcomers David Gossett and Charles Howell. Gossett is only three shots off the lead. Another is the new-found length of Jose Maria Olazabal, who is hitting his tee shots 25-30 yards further than he has in the past. This bodes well for Olazabal at Augusta. Another is the continued strong play of the Rhode Islanders, Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade. Both men are in the hunt (as they have been a lot this year). But the most interesting thing (to me, at least) is David Duval's game, which appears to be markedly improved.

One of my favorite sports cliches is "he's hitting the ball with crisp authority." Duval is hitting the ball with crisp authority. If there's a sleeper at the Players, it's him.

Media Geezer Alert Update

Blogistanis apparently share my disdain for Louis Rukeyser, judging from the emails. That said, I feel kinda bad about kicking the old coot so hard. I mean, it's not like he ever did anything to me, except bore me to tears in hotel rooms. And I didn't have to watch.

Nevertheless, Media Geezer Watch will continue as a regular feauture of this site. This weekend should provide us with plenty of new material. The Oscars are on, which means Baba Wawa has a "special." Baba is the the queen of Media Geezers. It's not clear (to me at least) how her "special" this year could possibly be more tasteless than last year's effort, but as the New York Lottery ads say: "Hey, you never know."

Media Geezer Alert

The dreadful Louis Rukeyser, host of the truly dreadful PBS television program "Wall $treet Week," has been canned by his "partner," Maryland Public Television. Praise the Lord. Mr. Rukeyser, 69, said he was astonished by the news. "I was unaware of this until Wednesday," he said in a statement, adding : "most people who have heard that Maryland Public Television is going to try to do "Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser' without Louis Rukeyser think it must be somebody's idea of a bad April Fool's joke."

No they don't. They think: it's about time. Here's the thing, Lou. You're 70 years old. Your show is a complete embarrassment. You're on your way to becoming a complete embarrassment. Just go. Get out. Retire. It's over. You're over. Go.

What It Really Takes

Watching the Players Championship this afternoon, I was struck by how well Nick Faldo was swinging. He hit a perfect four iron into one green and a lovely 122-yard pitching wedge into another (and made both putts for birdies). He must have hit a bunch of other good shots as well; as darkness fell and play was suspended, Faldo stood at 4-under par, one shot off the lead.

About five years ago, I began noodling around with a book proposal that was called What It Really Takes. The title was a direct steal from Richard Ben Cramer, whose book What It Takes remains the seminal work of modern American political journalism. The idea was basically the same. Cramer looked at six candidates running for president in 1988 and asked: (1) what does it take to do that, and (2) in the doing of it, what does it take from them? My book was going to be about three or four professional golfers and it would ask Cramer's two questions plus one more: What does it take to do it when you know you don't have what it takes anymore?

I read a great deal about golf and talked to many people familiar with life on the Professional Tour and inexorably, I was led to Nick Faldo, whose Ahabian quest for golf perfection has been both awesome and awful. From 1989 through about 1993, he was easily the best player in the game and in 1996, on that Sunday at Augusta, he lifted himself up from a disappointing Saturday round and played one of the great rounds in golf history to defeat Greg Norman and capture his 3rd Masters Championship. Faldo's cut 212-yard two-iron from a steep hook lie to the 13th green remains one of the great pressure golf shots of all time.

After that, in what seemed like no time, he couldn't make a cut and he couldn't make a putt. And as disappointment piled on top of disappointment, you could almost see him unravelling. It was Faldo, more than any of the others (I had started research files on seven other players) who seemed to be living and dying with this incredibly hard third question: What does it take to keep at it when you know, or at least sense, that you no longer have what it takes? And what does that mean?

I never finished the book proposal. Other things came up -- jobs, projects, columns, kids and eventually, two dogs. One of whom we named Faldo. Watching Nick Faldo on television this afternoon I could have sworn it was 1992 again. He had that long swing going and the bearing of his former self. On a couple of the par 5s, he chose not to go for the green in two and instead laid up to an easy wedge yardage. One of the TV commentators noted that back in the early 1990s, it was these wedge approach shots that Faldo invariably did better than anyone else in the game. On par 5s, he almost always left himself a make-able birdie putt. And so it was today.

I hope he has a great tournament. I don't suspect he'll win, but I hope he has at least as good a finish as he did at the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach. It would be nice to know that there's someone out there who has what it takes even though, realistically, he doesn't.

The Players

The Players Championship begins today and will be broadcast live on the USA Network beginning at noon eastern time. This is one of maybe five non-major tournaments worth watching and the field is, as always, incredibly strong. I placed my "pool" bets last night and am reasonably happy with the official Ellisblog team: Els, Goosen (a second round pick!), Furyk, Kelly and Howell.

Tiger was taken off the boards because.....because he's Tiger Woods. This is the third straight year our little golf group has decided we can't run a pool with Tiger in it. Which is one minor measure of his dominance.

What They Really Think

The New York Times Editorial Page celebrates the passage of campaign finance reform legislation today (link requires regisatration). Following is an excerpt:

"Even as it stands, the measure that passed yesterday is not a panacea. Hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign donations will still make their way into the system."

God help us all. The horror of people contributing to political campaigns will continue. Some of these people will be really horrible people; car dealers in Arizona and beer distributors in Illinois and redneck restaurant owners in Idaho. Worse, their campaign contributions will flow to candidates who do not share the views of The New York Times Editorial Board. There can only be one solution: campaign finance reform "reform."

The Stature Gap


Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift was an accidental chief executive. She was chosen because, at the time in 1998, then-acting Governor Paul Cellucci needed a running mate who was female and did not drool. When Cellucci fled the state in 2001 to become the US Ambassador to Canada, Swift ascended to what locals call the “corner office.” By any measure, she lacked both the managerial and political skills required. The result was disaster, as predictable as rain.

Once it became clear that Romney would get in Massachusetts, rather than wait in Utah, it became clear that Swift would have to get out. The stature gap between Romney and Swift is the difference between the Empire State Building and my car. Romney may well be the most impressive person to seek statewide public office in Massachusetts since Jack Kennedy and Henry Cabot Lodge ran against one another in 1952. Whether that will do him any good in modern-day Massachusetts is an open question. But the fact is that if you had a large enterprise that needed fixing (and Massachusetts state government certainly fits that description), Romney would be on the very short list of people you would call to come in and do the job.

Massachusetts is lucky to have as one of its two choices (come November) one of the country’s most capable and able men. The rest of the states are not nearly so lucky. The other day I was riding the rails back from Washington with a veteran Republican political operative. We were talking about the Republican Party after George W. Bush (which is to say: 2008) and speculating as to who would run and who would not. The conversation shifted a bit to the question of who could run; who had the stature and ability to mount a credible national campaign that would stitch together the various constituencies necessary to mount a credible general election campaign.

We took out a book of all the Governors and Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen and went through the names, state-by-state. And when we were done, we had a list of about 10 names, of whom I would say six were serious players: Jeb Bush, Bill Frist, Bill Simon (assuming victory in California), Mitt Romney (assuming victory in Massachusetts), Chuck Hagel and George Voinovich. Romney’s various stances on abortion probably disqualify him from consideration. Voinovich’s attachment to tax increases certainly disqualifies him. So you’re left with four guys -- and when you think about it, it really boils down to one guy, whose name is Bush.

There was a time in American political life when virtually every state had at least one serious political player and often three or four. Minnesota had Humphrey and McCarthy and Freeman and Mondale. Michigan had Bob Griffin and Phil Hart and Bill Milliken and George Romney. Illinois had Ev Dirksen and Jim Thompson and Richard Daley. Ohio had Robert Taft and John Glenn. New York had Bobby Kennedy and Jack Javits and Nelson Rockefeller. California had Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan. Massachusetts had Jack Kennedy, Elliot Richardson and Tip O’Neill. Connecticut had Abe Ribicoff, Washington had Scoop Jackson, Texas had Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson and John Connally and George Herbert Walker Bush and Lloyd Bensten. Arkansas had William Fulbright, Arizona had Carl Hayden and Barry Goldwater. And the list went on.

Whatever their collective faults, these were not small people. I think it’s fair to say that all of them would have been amazed that Jane Swift was the governor of any state, much less one that plays a leading national role in higher education, medicine, technology, financial services and biotechnology. But perhaps what would have been more amazing to them is the fact that Jane Swift is not exceptional. The political landscape is heavily populated with (mostly) men and women like her, in Congress and in statehouses across the country.

This is not a good thing, for the political system or the country. And this “stature gap,” as a friend of mine calls it, feeds on itself. The view of many of Mitt Romney’s friends is that he must be crazy to run for elective office. Forty years ago, someone like Romney would have been expected by his friends to run for elective office. Running for public office is now widely considered to be evidence of a character defect.

The fact that Romney is running is manifestly good news, for Republicans in particular but for the political culture in general. One hopes it’s the beginning of a trend.

The Future of Air Travel

Stewart Alsop has another good column in the new Fortune magazine, this time about Eclipse Aviation. Eclipse is building jet airplanes that will retail, assuming low inflation, for about $900,000 and in so doing will probably spawn the age of the air taxi. Anyone who has marched the Ho Chi Minh Trail at O'Hare knows that the age of the air taxi cannot come soon enough.

The first I heard of Eclipse Aviation was in a long and excellent piece by James Fallows that appeared last year in The Atlantic Monthy. In it, Fallows addressed the question of what air travel would become in the near future. If you didn't see it, click here. It's fairly long, but well worth it.

There Goes Swifty Part II

Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift's decision not to seek re-election was an easy one. The White House will take care of her. Mitt Romney becomes the Republican gubernatorial nominee (without a primary fight). And she avoids something close to total humiliation.

How bad might it have been? The following poll numbers from a recent survey of Republican primary voters tell the story. Romney led Swift by 67%-14%. Swift's favorable-unfavorable ratings were 11%-60%. That's 60% unfavorable among Republican primary voters. You'll live a long time before you see another incumbent governor with numbers like that amongst the party faithful.

Foveon and Polaroid

When I first read that Polaroid was set to launch a $20 million advertising campaign, I was bewildered. Wasn't Polaroid bankrupt? Hadn't Polaroid squandered every conceiveable opportunity over many decades before finally collapsing under the weight of its incompetence? What in the world was this company doing spending $20 million on advertising?

Especially when you consider what Foveon is doing out in Santa Clara. But as the linked Foveon article makes clear, the best technology is not always "best" in the minds of consumers. There probably is still a place for Polaroid and Polaroid "snap shots." Amazing as that may seem.

For The Record

With his victory today at the Bay Hill Invitational, Tiger Woods captured his 30th PGA Tour Event championship since turning professional 5 years ago. To put this acccomplishment in some perspective, Jack Nicklaus won 29 PGA Tour Events before his 30th birthday. Sam Snead won 27 before his 30th birthday. Tiger Woods is 26 years old.

A Good Man Gone

The lights burned a bit dimmer last week when former Boston Globe editor Thomas Winship died at the age of 81. He was a good friend to both my mother and father and was helpful to me throughout my time as a contributor to the newspaper he loved.

I liked him a lot. He was smart and funny and suffered attention deficit disorder long before it became a disease. The last time I saw him was for lunch at one of his clubs in Boston and he had all the latest gossip and plenty of advice. Our politics were almost diametrically opposed, but that hardly mattered. If the measure of a man is his capacity for friendship, then Tom Winship was seven feet tall.