Saturday, June 21, 2008

Now Players Are Arguing About Who Will Beat Tiger

Unfortunately, it's too late to beat Tiger this season. Prior to the US Open, though, Vijay laid the blame for Woods' victories - in part - on the Brits by calling them too comfortable with losing. That made Paul Casey really angry. And he responded in Germany (thousands of miles away from Vijay, who is in Connecticut).

“I am angry, he has no clue what I do, so how can he comment?” Casey, who had a second-round 68 to move into contention at the BMW International Open in Munich yesterday, said. “I can only speak for the guys I know well, like Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, but we are all working incredibly hard and I think it is an unfair shot from Vijay. I would like to see him try to live with me in the gym for a couple of hours.

“He does not know us and he has no evidence to back up what he says. We are all very frustrated that we have not won majors and that our results have not been as good as we would have liked. But it is not down to lack of effort and perhaps when we do make a breakthrough then it will open the door to a lot more wins."

When was someone going to tell me that Fiji and the Brits are not on friendly terms? I kid. To make my joke extremely obvious...

The islands came under British control as a colony in 1874, and the British brought over Indian contract labourers. It was granted independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 because the government was perceived as dominated by the Indo-Fijian (Indian) community. The second 1987 coup saw the British monarchy and the Governor General replaced by a non-executive President, and the country changed the long form of its name from Dominion of Fiji to Republic of Fiji (and to Republic of the Fiji Islands in 1997).

Casey then goes on to refer to Vijay's legendary work ethic.

“Vijay is well known for spending all day at the practice ground. But there are three sides to golf - fitness, technique and the mental side of the game. You can't work on all three at the driving range. If I am not there I am probably working hard at something other than technique. Just because a guy is not at the practice ground 9 to 5 does not mean he isn't working.”

That's especially true considering Vijay's driving accuracy and putting this season.

Putts Per Round - 29.33 - 108th
Driving Accuracy Percentage - 58.52% - 145th
Putting Average - 1.796 - 84th

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