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    Bunker Mentality

    Bunker Mentality: Hail the Mechanic

    Bunker Mentality was utterly delighted to see Miguel Angel Jimenez win the Dubai Desert Classic.

    There are several reasons: his nerveless play to first make and then stay in the play-off; his lovable theatrical swagger, proudly sticking out his 40-something belly as he puffs on cigar after cigar; and finally for the simple fact that he is one of the nicest, most genuine players out on the Tour.

    BM has never heard a bad word about the man they call The Mechanic on on account of his Ferrari fetish - and has heard several good ones. He even gave BM an impromptu Spanish lesson during a tournament practice round a few years ago.

    And just as one of Europe's most charismatic players won on this side of the Atlantic, over on the US Tour it was one of the game's greyest characters who came to the fore.

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    Name-dropping by American golf commentators is normally something that BM does its best to tune out, but during Sunday's final-round coverage of the Northern Trust Open there was a glorious moment that almost brought down one of the most powerful men in golf.

    "I was talking to the PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem the other day, and he said that if we had 150 Steve Strickers out on Tour then we might as well pack up the Tour headquarters and go home," came the immortal words.

    What??!? Tim Finchem, the ultimate exponent of marketing BS and golfing newspeak, admitting that Stricker is such a dull character that the professional game would die if his ilk were to dominate?

    Sadly, it wasn't quite that. Apparently Stricker is "such a model professional" that if he were somehow cloned, and those clones were out on Tour, there would be so few awkward issues for the US Tour to deal with that the whole show would run itself.

    The clarification didn't stop the original observation being true. Stricker is as dull as he is worthy, and freely admits as such. Watching a tour full of Strickers would be like watching a Premier League full of Phil Nevilles: solid, dependable... and utterly tedious.

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    Talk about Tiger Woods returning to golf has been floating around the game for the last few days, with an Australian paper suggesting that he'll return for the WGC Accenture Match Play in Arizona later this month.

    It doesn't seem likely, though, unless he has a desire to win a tournament supported by one of his former sponsors and then trash them in his acceptance speech for being a fair weather friend.

    Though we'd love to see that happen, obviously.

    BM's original thought, back when he first announced that he was leaving golf, was that he would never miss a Major unless a victim of true mental (or physical) breakdown.

    But when the great man returns he will need at least one tournament to warm up for the Masters, and that will surely be the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March.

    It's held just up the road from his home; it's at a private, gated development where security can be tightly managed; and it's an event that in the past he's won for fun.

    Woods has won at Bay Hill six times, including four times in a row from 2000-03 and then the last two years. And just as John Terry shrugged off his sex scandal with a goal, Tiger might well return to golf with victory in Arnie's tournament.

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    What better way to celebrate Tiger's possible return to the game than with these golf balls, each bearing the image of one of his many mistresses?

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    The poll results from last week are in: we asked if Phil Mickelson's Ping wedge should be outlawed.

    And you were pretty much split down the middle, with 53 per cent thinking the club should be banned, while the  rest believed that Phil was doing nothing wrong.

    This week's poll focuses on this week's winner: Miguel Angel Jimenez has won tournaments all round the world but never a Major. Does he still have it in him? Register your vote on the golf home page.

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    Quote of the week: "I like and respect these (PGA Tour) players out here. Out of respect for them, I do not want to have an advantage over anybody, whether it's perceived or actual. So this week I won't be playing that wedge. My point has been made." So said Phil Mickelson as he announced that he would no longer be using the barely-legal Ping Eye 2 wedge. Your point has been made, Phil? Surely you must mean "everyone else's point has been made so well that I've been shamed into backing down"?

    Nonsense of the week: Steve Stricker being touted as a possible new number one after he overtook Phil Mickelson to become number two in the world rankings. Thankfully, the man himself was (very sensibly) having none of it. "No, I don't allow that," he told the Tiger-starved masses of the media. "We all know who the best player in the world is."

    Stat of the week: Rory McIlroy's average of 30.2 putts per round at the Dubai Desert Classic as he came up three shots short of defending his title. As good as the rest of his game is, the Northern Irishman could really do with brushing up his putting if he wants to make the leap to winning Majors.  

    Shot of the week: Miguel Angel Jimenez's 25ft putt on the second extra hole at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai to save par after going in the water, and keep himself in the play-off. He won on the next when Westwood missed a five-footer.

    Surprise of the week: It's a second award of the week for Steve Stricker, who stunned the world of golf by beginning his fourth round in Los Angeles with patchy golf that made him look in genuine danger of blowing his six-shot lead. Only five players - among them Greg Norman and Sergio Garcia - have ever managed to do so, but Stricker saved his blushes when his putter spontaneously combusted and he one-putted five greens in a row to get back on track.

    About Bunker Mentality

    From the top of the golfing tree to the grubby roots of the game which bind us all together, Bunker Mentality will be there: It’ll tees up slices of news, and send them fizzing back down the neatly-trimmed fairway of opinion with more punch than a Tiger 2-iron stinger, more spin than a Mickelson wedge – and more bottle than John Daly.

    POLL

    Will victory at The Players Championship be the springboard Tiger Woods needs to win another Major?

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