The Greenest Show on Grass

ONE WEEKEND, A HALF MILLION PEOPLE and 100 some odd of the world’s best golfers equal the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It also equals a whole lot of trash. But it’s the perfect advertisement for tournament sponsor Waste Management. They can handle it with ease because they’re pros at the four R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover.

Saturday is “Green Out!” day at the tournament. Waste Management is showcasing a number of green initiatives at TPC Scottsdale. There are recycling stations staffed by 200 recycling ambassadors. (Yes, ambassadors.) There are 60 solar-powered compactors for food waste disposal. There are recycling kiosks where fans can receive coupons from tournament sponsors. And there are food composting bins. Food waste will be sent to a “food digester,” where it will be turned into compost for local use. Finally, compressed natural gas trucks will transport waste and recycled materials from the tournament site.

The players are in the act. Several are wearing green today, such as Jonathan Byrd (shirt), Bill Haas (shirt) and Rickie Fowler, who has become the color green for the day.

The PGATour.com staff brainstormed some “green” costumes for those crazed Phoenix-area golf fans. They came up with the Jolly Green Giant, Green Hornet, The Riddler and the Green Lantern. (What, no Incredible Hulk?)

They also looked into the history books for PGA Tour players named Green. For me, three immediately came to mind: Nathan Green (current), Ken Green and Hubert Green. That’s barely a start. According to the tour staff, there have been a total of 36 players named Green. There also have been players named Greenbaum, Greenbach, Greene, Greenfield, Greenhill, Greenhaw, Greenleaf, Greenwood, Greenwell and Greenwald.

With that, I’m greened out.

−The Armchair Golfer

The Byrd Man of Kapalua

ALTHOUGH I CONFESS I was mostly watching the NFL playoffs, I’m inclined to say it was a solid start to the PGA Tour season. The Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort had an exciting finish and its share of side drama. Jonathan Byrd outlasted Robert Garrigus in a sudden-death playoff to take the season opener. It was Byrd’s fifth and most prestigious win, coming in a winners-only field.

After being in jeopardy of losing his PGA Tour card late in the 2010 season, Byrd has won two consecutive starts, both of them in playoffs. Talk about breathing new life into your game and career. Byrd has banked some serious coin and jumped 63 places in the world ranking to No. 58. I don’t think he’ll be sweating his card this year.

“I’m pretty overwhelmed,” the 32-year-old former Clemson University golfer said.

Garrigus blew a long putt by the cup on the second playoff hole and rimmed out the come-backer, which was definitely in the “throw-up” range. Nonetheless the gregarious Garrigus is not down on himself. He likes his start to the 2011 campaign.

“It’s not that big a deal,” said the man who last season shook off a collapse in Memphis and won the Children’s Miracle Network Classic. “I get a nice check [$635,000] and I get to go next week and relax and have some fun.”

Makes sense to me.

I still can’t get over Robert’s putter. It’s 28.5 inches. It looks like he stole it from a kid’s starter set. But, hey, whatever gets the ball in the cup. He made 26 birdies and two eagles, and ranked 11th on the greens. Not a bad week at all.

The opener also had enough subplots to keep it from being a tropical yawner with Tiger and Phil absent. Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy had a freak injury to his right-index finger that forced him to withdraw. Camilo Villegas had a rules infraction that got him DQ’d the day after it went down. Graeme McDowell tore it up on the final 18 and nearly caught Byrd and Garrigus at the finish, signing for a 62.

And Dustin Johnson and Natalie Gulbis are sweet on each other, I read.

A new tour season is underway, golf fans. As they say in those Bud Light spots, “Here we go.”

−The Armchair Golfer

Jonathan Byrd Wanted to Go Home

IT WAS A 6-IRON from 196 yards, but he played it like it was 185. That was the shot Jonathan Byrd holed for the PGA Tour’s first walk-off ace. It came on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff against Martin Laird and Cameron Percy at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open. It was Byrd’s fourth tour win, and the $756,000 winner’s check doubled his season’s earnings to put him in 52nd place on the money list. That is much, much safer than 117th, where Bryd started the week.

What did Byrd have to say about doing something no one has done in the history of the PGA Tour? How did he do it? It’s not like Byrd is a hole-in-one machine. He’s made just one ace in a tournament in his entire career. That’s only one more than me.

I checked the transcript of the post-round interview. There it was.

“The only thing in my mind is I kept thinking, ‘You know what, I want to keep playing,’” Byrd said.

Of course you did. You birdied three of the last four holes to get into the playoff. You haven’t won in three years. Was there anything else?

“I obviously want to win the golf tournament,” Byrd said, “but I haven’t seen my wife and my kids in two weeks and I’m going to miss the flight tonight and we’re going to be playing, so that doesn’t sound too good.”

OK. It was getting dark and you wanted to get off work and go home to see your family. What a way to punch the clock.

“It all worked out as good as it could have,” Bryd added.

I’ll say. There’s nothing like drawing an ace to win a Vegas jackpot.

−The Armchair Golfer

Sea Island Mafia Invades McGladrey Classic

THE INAUGURAL MCGLADREY CLASSIC tees off on Thursday at the 7,055-yard par-70 Seaside Course at the Sea Island Resort in Sea Island, Georgia. This coastal golf community is also the known territory of the “Sea Island Mafia,” a a group of golf mobsters who will exert their local influence on the second event in the Fall Series.

They’ve been ID’d as follows: Davis Love III, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jonathan Byrd and Chris Kirk. They’ve made this pleasant corner of Georgia’s Golden Coast their domain. Several of them are represented by an outfit called Crown Sports Management. Love is considered to be the Godfather. They are armed with clubs and dangerous on the golf course.

(Photo: Sea Island Godfather / Keith Allison, Flickr)

Actually, Love, a longtime Sea Island resident, is the host of this week’s event. (Love and others are known as the Sea Island Mafia. I didn’t make that up.)

“The St. Simons/Sea Island area has been home for Mark and me and our families for a long time, and we’re extremely happy to support the community that means so much to us,” Love said at Golf360.

One by one, several of Love’s peers migrated to Sea Island.

Wrote Stan Awtry at PGATOUR.COM: “...many of the TOUR’s best players make their home, or second home, at Sea Island—partially because it’s a nice place to live and partially because of the unequalled practice facilities at the Sea Island Learning Center.”

Three of them—Love, Johnson and Kuchar—hustled home from the Ryder Cup to participate. One thing’s certain. Sea Island will be a much more friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

−The Armchair Golfer