Why Steve Williams is a dick

I promised a couple of people on Twitter that I'd one-day deliver my long-winded account of why Steve Williams is a dick. And it's all to do with Phil Mickelson being a ``prick''.
If you recall, in December 2008, Williams was home in New Zealand and at a speaking engagement in Taranaki made the comment: ``I wouldn't call Mickelson a great player 'cause I hate the prick.''
The story went up on the website on the Taranaki Daily News on Friday night where it was spotted by Laurence Donegan at The Guardian, who gave the story a global spin.
Back then I was sports editor at the Sunday Star-Times and we decided to follow the story on the Saturday morning.
Our reporter rang Williams and asked straight up whether he'd been reported accurately and had he used the word ``prick'',  William said yes and then embellished the answer.
``I visit a lot of golf clubs and do a lot of speaking for charity and that is one of the questions I get asked the most: what is Tiger's relationship like with Phil Mickleson?
``I was simply honest and said they don't get a long. You know what it's like. You're at a charity event and you have a bit of fun.
``I don't particularly like the guy (Mickelson) myself. He pays me no respect at all and hence I don't pay him any respect. It's no secret we don't get along either.''
All well and good. Great splash for us and the story goes global.
It lands Williams in a massive pot of boiling water with his then boss Tiger Woods, who had a lot of bridge-building to do with Mickelson.
There was lots of humble-pie eating on the part of the bag-carrier and Williams was pilloried across the world.
Fast forward to the end of 2009 and it's another Saturday morning drama as Woods is reported to have been badly injured in a car accident outside his Florida mansion.
We're scrambling for details so I ring Williams to find out what he knows.
``I'm not talking to the Sunday Star-Times and you know why,'' he says.
Williams then tears strips off me, saying as sports editor I should never have allowed the ``prick'' story to run, that I was irresponsible and should have been mindful of protecting his reputation by censoring the whole thing.
Well, last time I looked I wasn't Steve Williams' minder.
And we gave him every chance to talk down the story. He could have chosen a number of reactions. He could lashed out at the Daily News for running with his initial comment, saying it was made at a private function. He could have acknowledged he said it but then apologised to Mickelson.
But instead he chose to repeat the whole thing to a national newspaper and then further inflame the episode by dropping Tiger into the poop with him.
To have a crack at me 12 months later for failing to get him out of stink of his own creation is just ludicrous.
And that's why I think he's dick.

Wired on 8-Wired's iStout

At my age (and in this occupation) it's not often I'm surprised by things.
After a while, all the weird and wonderful creatures who make up the daily news can become commonplace, and sport often edges towards predictability (until the Black Caps shock everyone by winning a cricket match that matters).
And beer ... well, thanks to a week in Belgium a few years ago I thought I'd tried the most interesting styles.
Somehow Imperial Stout had slipped under the tasting radar. Imperial Stouts are often referred to as Russian Imperial Stouts and I'll confess that my one-time limited beer mind believed these were made in Russia. Part of me thought ``What do Russians know about beer?''
I don't mind admitting I was wrong. Completely. Imperial Stouts were born of an 18th century trade deal between Britain and Russia. English breweries made stouts for consumption in Russia and, because the journey was so long, they had to tinker with the style to make sure it reached  its destination in the best condition.
So an ordinary stout was supercharged.  It had a higher level of fermentable sugars which meant the beer would keep fermenting as it travelled. And it was also highly hopped. Ordinarily, stouts are not big on hops but hops have preservative qualities, so adding them made it more likely the stout would survive the long journey without going off.
The result was a pretty extreme brew  full-bodied, highly alcoholic, as black as coal but with a fruity, hoppy flavour.
My road to Damascus moment with Imperial Stout came from a bottle of 8-Wired Brewing's iStout.
At the first sip I was so astonished by the complex dance of flavours that I put down the glass and said aloud, to no one: ``That is the most amazing and surprising thing I've drunk.''
I simply wasn't prepared for the sweet chocolate and coffee flavours overlaid with an almost summery freshness of hops and an underlying 10% alcohol. This beer is like alcohol-soaked grapefruit coated in chocolate and infused with coffee before being bathed in stickly sweet malt.
Marlborough-based 8-Wired is one of the many newcomers to craft brewing who do not own their equipment. Instead they are contract brewers, renting equipment off Renaissance Brewing in Blenheim to produce their  brews, which are crafted by Soren Eriksen, a Dane who is a brewer at Renaissance.
The only minor quibble I have about iStout is the exhortation on the label to put a scoop of vanilla icecream into a  glass of iStout.
I tried it. It wasn't bad. A kind of alcoholic version of the old spider drinks we used to have as kids when you mix icecream and Coke.
You could try it for a laugh but it's not the best possible use of this wonderful drop.
For more info go to 8-wired.co.nz

I feel Tiger's pain!

I have a lot of empathy with Tiger Woods as his ongoing injuries continue to delay his return to golf.

This is because I’ve had a knee injury exactly like the one Woods suffered in 2008 and I know how hard the recovery can be and how easily things can go wrong and the way other injuries can crop up as a result of the surgery and recovery phase.

Unlike Woods I didn’t rip apart my knee playing golf. Mine came from cricket. But it was the sample twisting action at the heart of the injury which for both of us resulted in a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, a fracture the head of the tibia, torn meniscus and partially torn medial ligaments.Mine wasn't caused by massive forces unless you count lack of fitness and being overweight as forces.

I can understand how Woods did his left knee – all that force of the femur (thigh) twisting over the tibia (shin) which was pretty much locked into position by an anchored left foot.

I did my right knee bowling a cricket ball (trying to bowl too fast!). I planted my right foot at angle of about 45deg and then pivoted my body over the anchored foot. The sound was awful. Like a series of little twigs breaking.

I liken the injury to what happens when you twist a top off a beer bottle. It doesn’t take much effort to turn the cap but once you go far enough it just pops off – just as the femur pops off the tibia.

The hardest thing about this injury is the rehab. After surgery to graft a new ligament so spend a lot of time sitting and recuperating and walking is with the aid of crutches and then a leg brace. The net outcome is the muscles in the effected leg waste away. Even now a year after surgery, I’m struggling to get my right quadriceps to the same size as the left. Ditto the gluteals.

As I recovered and started lifting weights and walking on the treadmill two things happened. First I got extreme knee pain – it turned out that in rehab, the stress on the knee caused the patella tendon to tear, so I had ease back on some training while that repaired. The orthopaedic surgeon couldn’t work out why it ruptured – it just did.

Then I got severe lower back and shoulder pain. My physiotherapist explained that this was because I was compensating for my weaker right side and was loading up too much on the left.

And even now, a year on, I still haven’t regained full flexibility in the right leg. I can’t fully extend it nor do something like a full squat (which makes it hard to line up putts).

I was thinking of Woods again this morning after the news he was pulling out of the Open because of ongoing injury concerns and then I went to gym to do my rehab exercises, trying to push a bit further than usual because I felt good. Before I know it, I’ve rolled my left ankle because my right knee has given out and the left side has taken the force …

I can just imagine Woods, with all his free time, working really hard in the gym to make his comeback in 2009 (which was pretty spectacular, though without a major). I imagine now that he wasn’t quite right – that he was still playing through pain and pushing it hard in rehab which was causing added pressures on his body.

Then he goes into exile because of the whole sex addiction thing (or whatever you want to call it) and makes a second comeback … and tries to change his swing, but is still not quite right physically, hence more problems kick in.

It’s a tough situation and, based on my experience, I feel for the guy. I certainly want to see him back fully fit and going head to head with Rory McIlroy and Jason Day … but being realistic that might have to wait until next year.

Organic Beer

NELSON CAFE owners can be forgiven for wincing every time John Duncan walks through the door.

The owner of Founders Brewery decided to call his first brew Long Black and he's been laughing ever since.

``Long Black was first name I came up with. I thought it would be fun to go into a cafe and ask for a long black. I go into cafes in Nelson that supply the beer, hoping for coffee, and they give me a beer. But they know me  … and the Long Black does have that coffee flavour.''

It does. Deliciously so. I'm a big fan of dark lagers such as Speight's Old Dark and Black Mac but Founders' Long Black probably surpasses both in that it's fuller bodied and has a more pronounced coffee bitterness. The viscosity and carbonation are spot-on. On the longest night of the year it was perfect drinking. And, at about $6 for a 500ml bottle (if you buy it by the dozen), it's pretty good value too.

While the Long Black name perfectly reflects the contents, I'm not so sure about the latest addition to the Founders range, the Fair Maiden Ale.

Don't get me wrong, what's in the bottle is excellent, it's just that the robust beer doesn't seem to marry up with the Fair Maiden moniker. I was expecting something light and sweet and instead got a strong orange-citrus push of New Zealand Cascade hops on top of a well-balanced maltiness and 5.4% alcohol content. Nothing fair about this.  

Duncan calls the Fair Maiden an APA  Aotearoa Pale Ale  a style riffing off the popular American Pale Ale and growing in popularity. 

But the name, John?

He explains that after the Long Black, came a Tall Blonde lager, then a Red Head amber ale.

So it made sense to continue the feminine naming. ``Also it was my son's first solo brew, so it was his `maiden' brew and it tied in with the other names.''

Founders stands apart from nearly all New Zealand breweries because it is certified organic.

That, Duncan says, ``has been challenging because we've only got four or five hop varieties to choose from and three or four malt varieties, so to do a range of  styles you have to be a bit more creative, but we've come to know our ingredients pretty well''.

Duncan has also been using the same yeast strain for eight years, which is different to the practice in many breweries which, he said, ``would go to a new culture every six brews  but we keep using it batch after batch''.

After 12  years in  e brewing and cafes (Founders has a cafe on-site), Duncan and wife Carol have decided to sell, and this week the brewery  goes on the market.

``Carol and myself run the cafe as well as the brewery and it's been a seven-day operation and it's time to try some other things   maybe retire and write the family history.''

That family history would be pretty much about brewing, as Duncan is a fifth-generation brewer, with sons Matt and Callum making it six generations. He hopes the boys will be able to keep working in the brewery for the new owners.
* This post first appeared in the Sunday Star-Times, on June 26.

Processional at Congressional

Is Rory McIlroy capable of winning the next two majors to end the year with three? Why not.
McIlroy's US Open record-setting score of 268 strokes (mostly incredibly accurate strokes) has only been surpassed twice in a major when Greg Norman posted 267 at Royal St George's in 1993 British Open and when David Toms shot 265 at Atlanta in the 2001 PGA. 
Guess what? Those are next two major venues.  Sure conditions need to be right but in both cases  if the courses are there to be taken, McIlroy is the best-placed player in the world to take them.
His attacking mindset, his distance off the tee, his laser-like irons and newly discovered mint putting touch mean that if it comes down to a low-scoring shoot-out, McIlroy is almost unstoppable.
The processional at Congressional was a case in point. Never has a US Open seen such low scoring  it was the easiest US Open in half a century, maybe ever. And McIlroy, in those conditions, lapped the field.
Nick Faldo, who tweets under TheSirNickFaldo said this: ``Hogan's accuracy for most just legendary stories. 500 million worldwide all witnessed something legendary from Rory!'' 
Wow. A comparison with Hogan doesn't come lightly. Tiger Woods was never compared with Hogan, mainly because Tiger's strength was (is) his mental discipline, his focus, his creativity around the greens, his clutch putting.  Woods was never super-accurate but he could grind out a score with his discipline, creativity and putting.  McIlroy's accuracy and length means he gets plenty of looks at birdie every time he plays.
He has the all the weapons  especially now (thanks to puttign guru Dave Stockton) he seems to have sorted out the putting blemishes that used to mar his play.
Of course, this one victory doesn't mean McIlroy will win every time he steps up, but with his new-found confidence, and with majors known for whittling away many pretenders, he should always be in the mix from now on in  just as Tiger used to be. 
He might be biased, but McIlroy's Northern Ireland countryman Graeme McDowell spoke to the shifting mantle from Woods to McIlroy as the player to beat when he said of McIlroy: ``He is the best player I have ever seen.'' 
What do you think? Is he the best? Can he be the man who beats Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors? One down, 17 to go.
Finally, I have to share my own little McIlroy story. Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to play Portrush in Northern Ireland, where McIlroy was a frequent visitor in his teens. It's a damn tough course, not made any easier by the wind that constantly scurries across the fairways.
After the round and following a drink in the clubhouse, the member who had accompanied us on our round stopped at the message board and pointed out the card pinned to the wall, showing the recently achieved club record of 62 (29-33 from memory).
It was signed by Rory McIlroy. ``Remember that name,'' said the member, ``he's going to be something special.''
I've been telling that story and waiting five years for those words to ring true. Now they do.

Boom or bust at US Open

The US Open golf tournament at Congressional is promising this year to be more thrilling.
Maybe they got sick of guys like Retief Goosen, Michael Campbell, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy and Graeme McDowell winning their signature event. You know, all those foreigners with their grafting games honed on difficult courses. Guys who can play an array of shots and in all conditions in order to make a par. Did the USGA like that. Not really.
You get the feeling they'd rather see someone like Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler or Dustin Johnson grab the trophy. You know, big-driving, high-hitting excitement machines who live to make birdie.  
The USGA has spent years making the US Open tougher and tougher, only to find, that Tiger Woods (the ultimate grinder) and the dour Lucas Glover aside, those sorts of courses didn't really suit Americans weaned on a diet of target golf. 
So this year a change. The set-up has been tweaked. Par has been increased from 70 to 71. There's less rough, more risk-reward holes and less par-grinding grimness.
The USGA's Mike Davis says there will be more birdies, and a few eagles, but also some big ugly numbers, too. They want it to be like the back nine at Augusta during the Masters where this year Rory McIlroy was self-destructing with sixes and sevens while eventual Charl Schwartzel was skipping along with twos and threes.
There is potential for a glorious win or a gruesome demise. Unlike, say Winged Foot, where Geoff Ogilvy won after everyone else imploded. Ogilvy didn't dash to victory ... he simply arrived there.
So there will be room for the boom-bust merchants to crank out a low score, as long as they avoid big trouble. That said, the greens at Congressional are reported to be getting pretty fast already, so so Stewart Cink reported on Twitter.
So making those slippery six to 10 foot putts for par will still be crucial, as will lag putting. Predicting who will get hot with their putter is a tough one, especially when the heat increases during the final round.
I think it will come down to putting and with no crystal ball at hand I can only go on history and particularly the PGA Tour's extensive stats on putting. There a handful names keep popping up: Steve Stricker, Luke Donald, Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Moore.
I'm sticking with my original pick for this: Snedeker. he's in-form and when he's hot with the putter he's pretty impressive. For one at odds to continue the Open trend of throwing up an unlikely winner, how about Jason Dufner - with three top 10s in his past four starts, all at hard courses, he's playing as well as anyone right now.

Winter Ale

 
I'VE BEEN asked more than once: "That beer you reviewed, where can I buy it?" The implication is that some of the craft beers mentioned in this column are not as widely available as the mainstream brands.

I steer away from the mainstream beers because I figure most of you know what they taste like, so I've tended towards reviewing those quality beers which make up the niche craft beer market. The problem is that many of these brewers struggle to get their products into bars and pubs as they feel the squeeze applied by the moguls of DB and Lion.

This list is by no means complete but if you want to taste a different kind of beer try: Eureka in Albany St, Dunedin; Pomeroy's in Kilmore St, Christchurch; Hashigo Zake in Taranaki St, Wellington; and Brew On Quay, in Quay St, Auckland.

That's only a small sample of places with top-notch beer on tap and you can find more at realbeer.co.nz or soba.org.nz. Also New World supermarkets have a range of craft brews. Finally, there's the beerstore.co.nz, which has a great online stock of New Zealand and overseas brews.

Having got that particular house in order, I'm now going to bow to the power of the big breweries by talking about Monteith's Winter Ale, a six- pack of which arrived on my desk last week. (Note to brewers: this is an extremely good idea!)

Winter Ale is done in the German Doppelbock style which usually means something strong, dark and malty with very little bitterness.

However, it is a slightly watered-down version of the a German Doppelbock - at 6% it's not as strong as it could be and the body is quite light. It's probably designed to suit a New Zealand palate so if you're after something a bit more European, it's not for you.

What Winter Ale does deliver is the perfect fireside drink after you've been out in the cold. Its toasty, chocolate malts offer up hints of cocoa, coffee and an acidic fruitiness reminiscent of cherries or plums.

It's very lightly hopped, allowing the maltiness to shine through, although that means the deep richness you get on the front and middle of the palate isn't backed up by a strong finish, leaving you with the feeling there could have been more to savour.

That's a minor quibble though, because this is a great winter bevvy and can easily be enjoyed with rich, gamey meats like venison or duck. The Monteith's people suggest it goes well with blue cheese, and it's hard to argue with their assessment after a relaxing Sunday evening with this combination.

If you're not sure whether darker ales are for you, this limited edition ale is a great place to start.

Subsequent to the publication of this column in the Sunday Star-Times, I've had some good feedback on the Winter Ale, with the general vibe being it's served too cold in New Zealand bars! it is designed to be drunk at a slightly warmer temperature than the kiwi preferencwe for 0-4deg. Try it at about 8degC and you'll get more flavour from it.

(This column was first published in the Sunday Star-Times on June 12)