Tuna Exclusive:Possible Fallout from the Stanford Financial debacle

This fine young gentleman to the left is none other than Sir Robert Allen Stanford. Sir Bob has an estimated net worth of about $2.2 billion dollars, though I’m sure that number will drop in the coming months. The Security and Exchange Commission as of a week ago filed fraud and multiple violations of the U.S. securities laws for “massive ongoing fraud” through a number of his companies and, unfortunately for you, me and every other golf fan this is troubling.

Sir Bob is a big promoter of professional sports, most notably to golf fans with his company’s sponsorship of the PGA event in Memphis and the LPGA’s end of the season event. Not only does Stanford sponsor these events, but they also sponsor some individual golfers including, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas, Henrik Stenson, and LPGA golfer Morgan Pressel. This is where I’m going to go off on a tangent for a second because I’m somewhat heated about the player sponsorships specifically.

 

Brackets!!!

Well, it’s that time of year, the time where you hear the word “bracket” enough times to make you want to kill someone, thanks to ESPN and their never ending quest to be the most obnoxious sports programming entity in the universe.  So, getting the whole “bracket” thing out of the way now, before the onslaught comes, is quite welcome.  Here, we’re going to look at some of the more intriguing first round matchups, as some of them are pretty awesome.

One thing that’s kind of shocking is how highly ranked the European and Asian Tour players are compared to the stalwarts of the PGA.  It really doesn’t make sense to me how some dude who competes on the Asian Tours, like Lin Wen-Tang (AK’s first round opponent) can be a 14 seed when Boo Weekley, one of the premeir ballstrikers in the game is a 13 seed and a US Open winner in Angel Cabrera is a 15.  I understand that the Euro Tour guys have slightly nflated World Golf Rankings (Martin Kaymer is a 5 and Kenny Perry is only a 3, really?), but it’s hardly that big of a deal when compared  someone like Prayad Marksaeng, who, while successful, isn’t in the top 200 players worldwide, let alone the top 64.  Anyways…lets move on before I become an even uglier American.

5 Mike Weir vs. 12 Hunter Mahan: If you went on talent alone, Mahan would probably be the favorite here, and a near lock to get to the round of 8.  But golf isn’t about just talent, and Mike Weir is the embodiment of whatever intangibles there are in the sport.  The Canadian doesn’t have an 180 yard 8-iron in the bag, he can’t carry his drives 300+ yards, but what he can do is score and maximize his abilities, and there are few better players with a short iron or wedge approach shot.  While Mahan has multiple major potential, Weir is the guy who’s popping up on top 10’s every week and has the green jacket and their opposing styles should make for some interesting competition.

 

Tiger’s Back

About time…

So Tiger finally decided to tee it up again after his much discussed knee injury and subsequent surgery and rehab this coming week at the WGC Accenture Match Play at [really lame course] in [golf suburb], Arizona. Well, you’re going to get a smorgasbord of discussion on this so I figured we might as well get it done in one shot.