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The #6 player in the world gets her first win of 2010. From AP-
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng won the Women’s Australian Open on Sunday, birdieing seven of the last 12 holes for a bogey-free 7-under 66 and a three-stroke victory over 2009 winner Laura Davies.
The sixth-ranked Tseng, the 2008 LPGA Championship winner, had a 9-under 283 total on the Commonwealth Golf Club course. She opened with rounds of 74, 71 and 72 to begin the day four strokes behind third-round leader Karrie Webb.
“It was very exciting, my whole body is still shaking,” Tseng said before the trophy presentation. “My heart is still at over 200 beats a minute. I just felt I needed to get some more birdies coming home, and it worked out.”
She birdied the final two holes and hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation.
Tseng is one of the top 5 or so players in the world. I don’t think she’ll ever be #1,(Yani has two LPGA wins but over a half dozen second place finishes. She has had problems closing tournaments) but you’re going to hear her name alot in the next decade.
Two more weeks till the LPGA makes landfall in the United States. There are rumors of new 2011 tournaments in St. Petersburg Florida, Florence South Carolina, and near Charlotte NC. Ladies professional golf is looking better.
The Constructivist at Mostly Harmless is also blogging on Tseng’s win.
Update- Sal Johnson at Golf Observer is also commenting on Yani’s victory.
It was his third ever PGA Tour victory. From AP-
Camilo Villegas’ week started with one celebration, then ended with another.
Villegas shot a final-round 68 to win the Honda Classic by five shots Sunday over Anthony Kim, giving the Colombian his third PGA Tour victory.
He finished at 13-under 267, the lowest 72-hole score since the Honda moved to PGA National in 2007, four shots better than Y.E. Yang’s winning total a year ago.
And Villegas made it look easy most of the way, too, capping his day with a 20-footer for birdie, then raising both hands skyward.
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Fortunately for Villegas, no one made much of a run.
He missed short par putts on 11 and 12, three-putted from 50 feet on the par-3 15th for another bogey, but never lost control of the lead and ended up pocketing the $1.008 million winner’s share. The outcome, if any doubt actually existed, was sealed when Villegas’ approach from 184 yards on the par-4 16th stopped 15 feet from the pin, setting up a routine par.
Honestly I think the AP writer is being unfair to Villegas with his above comment in bold. So he had a couple of hiccups. Look what JB Holmes and Nathan Green did coming in. Green particularly on the 17th hole. Bogeys on a few holes weren’t a big deal in this tournament. Its total disasters that knocked people down the leaderboard.
Villegas played great golf on the weekend and didn’t get burned any where on the course with the possible exception of his eyes. Some nuts decided Saturday would be a good day to do a controlled burn 15 miles from PGA National. You have 70 play professional golfers and tens of thousands of people trying to breath you bunch of dumbasses.
Golf Observer’s Sal Johnson is a semi prophet this weekend. He said to look out for a player with Florida ties but didn’t name Villegas. Who has a home in Jupiter and went to the University of Florida.
The LPGA is on hiatus till late March but that doesn’t mean Women’s golf is taking a break. From AP-
Karrie Webb won her seventh Australian Ladies Masters title Sunday, closing with a course-record 11-under 61 for a six-stroke victory.
Webb, a stroke ahead of defending champion Katherine Hull and South Korea’s Lee Bo-mee entering the final round, finished at 26-under 262 on the Royal Pines course to match the tournament record she set in 1999.
Webb holed a 9-iron approach from about 125 yards for eagle on the par-4 seventh and made a 30-foot putt on No. 18 for her ninth birdie of the round. She broke the course record of 62 set last year by Kristie Smith.
Hull and Lee, bogey-free in four rounds, shot 66s to tie for second in the event sanctioned by Australian Ladies Professional Golf and the Ladies European Tour.
The LPGA should seriously consider making this a sanctioned event also. It would be a bridge from the tour’s Winter Asia swing back to the United States.
Webb also won the ANZ from 1998-2001, 2005, and 2007. Her victories in this tournament haven’t necessarily been a prelude to a big LPGA Tour season for the Aussie golfer. She did not win on the LPGA in either 2005 or 2007 but had a fantastic 2006 campaign sandwiched between those years.
In Japan, Sun Ju Ahn won the Daikin Orchid Ladies. Ahn stopped Ai Miyazato’s winning streak. Visit The Constructivist for more details. TC also blogged on Webb’s ANZ win.
The rumored tournament is now official.
Today the LPGA announced that the inaugural Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia will be played October 22-24, 2010 at the prestigious Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC). The announcement was made in Malaysia by Zayra Calderon, LPGA Executive Vice President, Tournament Development & Worldwide Sales, along with officials from Sime Darby Group and IMG, the tournament organizer.
The new LPGA tournament, to be held at least through 2012 per the three-year agreement, will feature the top 50 LPGA members from the Official Money List, along with 10 sponsor’s exemptions. The 54-hole stroke play event with no cut will ensure that fans – many of whom will be viewing an LPGA event live for the first time – can catch all of their favorite stars in action throughout the weekend.
The tournament will be shown on Golf Channel. Another week on 2010 calendar is filled. Coud the LPGA be back to playing 30 plus tournaments a year in 2011? At present the signs are hopeful.
The #4 player in the world has won the first two LPGA tournaments of 2010 From AP-
Ai Miyazato won the HSBC Champions on Sunday to become the first LPGA Tour player in 44 years to sweep the first two events of a season, closing with 3-under 69 for a two-stroke victory over Cristie Kerr.
Miyazato, the 24-year-old Japanese star who won the LPGA Thailand last week, took the lead with a birdie on the par-4 16th — a hole she played in 5 under for the week — and parred the final two holes to finish at 10 under on Tanah Merah’s Garden Course.
A 15-time winner on the Japanese tour, Miyazato earned $195,000 for her third career LPGA Tour victory — all outside North America. She won the Evian Masters last year in France for her first LPGA Tour title.
Marilynn Smith was last player to win the first two events in a season, accomplishing the feat in 1966.
Miyazato has come out blazing. Can she challenge for #1? I think so. Her winning streak is now on hold for a month. The next LPGA tournament begins March 25th in Carlsbad California.
For the 2nd week in a row, the LPGA had an exciting final round. Last week it was the Miyazato-Suzann Pettersen battle, this week 10 or so players fought it out on the back nine. If the LPGA can carry this over to the United States, the tour may benefit from Tiger Woods abscence from competitive golf. A win by Michelle Wie would help too. She’s off to a solid start in 2010.($32,090 in earnings, 18th on the money list)
Lorena Ochoa after opening with a 68, shot a 2nd round 79 and finished well back. Has Ochoa become a better version of the 2004 to pre 2006 LPGA Championship Se Ri Pak? Pak won two tournaments since pulling herself together but isn’t anything like the golfer she was from 1998 to 2003.
Also blogging on Miyazato’s win- The Constructivist at Mostly Harmless. He has a very detailed account of the back and forth battle for today’s tournament. He points out that since the HSBC began, the winner has gone on to be Player of the Year. Ochoa won both in 2008 and Ji Yai Shin in 2009. Miyazato has a head start on making three in a row.
Update- Hound Dog also blogged on the HSBC final round
The first LPGA tournament of 2010 is in the books. From AP-
Japanese star Ai Miyazato rallied to win the season-opening Honda PTT LPGA Thailand on Sunday, holing a birdie chip on the final hole for a 9-under 63 and a one-stroke victory over Norway’s Suzann Pettersen.
Miyazato, six strokes behind Pettersen after the third round, was 6 under in a six-hole stretch midway through the round, then birdied three of the last six holes to match the tournament record of 21 under set by Pettersen in October 2007.
Pettersen finished with a 70 Siam Country Club’s Old Course. She had a chance to force a playoff on the par-5 18th, but missed a 23-foot eagle try.
The 24-year-old Miyazato earned $195,000 for her second LPGA Tour title. She also won the Evian Masters last year in France and has 15 victories on the Japanese tour.
“I didn’t think of winning. I was just focused on my game and tried to do my best in the final round,” Miyazato said. “It was my lucky day as no matter what I did was right. This victory is a good start of the season for me.”
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng (69) was third, six strokes back at 15 under. Karrie Webb (67) and Cristie Kerr (70) followed at 13 under, and Laura Davies 65), Maria Hjorth (71), Momoko Ueda (72) and Song-Hee Kim (73) were 12 under.
Miyazato played some of the best golf on tour from June onward last year. She finished the year 3rd on the money list only behind Ji Yai Shin and Lorena Ochoa. She has the talent to be one of the best players on tour. When Miyazato joined the LPGA in 2006, big things were expected from her but she couldn’t win till last year. I predicted her to finish in the top 5 this year.(5th to be exact)
Once again Suzann Pettersen has been unable to close the deal on a Sunday. Among her poor finishes on the LPGA are the 2008 Wegmans, 2009 Safeway, 2008 Kapalua, and most notoriously the 2007 Kraft Nabisco. Pettersen still has 6 wins on tour but with the record I list above you can’t ever say she is a safe Sunday bet.
Update- Other bloggers writing on Miyazato’s win are The Constructivist at Mostly Harmless and Hound Dog.
From his public statement* today-
As for coming back to the PGA Tour, the world’s No. 1 player said “I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out it will be this year.
So we can expect many more columns written by sports writers saying they know when Woods will be back. One absolutely certain Australian writer had Woods playing in Tuscon this week.
Woods will play again and I think it will be by summer of this year. That’s an opinion only.
Tiger’s wife Elin wasn’t there today. Woods mother was, and IMHO she looked to be in a lot of pain from what her son did.
I haven’t commented much on the Woods scandal. Mainly because it has gotten over saturation from the media, golf bloggers, and more importantly what’s been written has been so pathetically wrong time and time again, I don’t want to throw myself into that cesspool. Woods was dumb on so many levels. How he thought would never learn about his deeds or not possibly care is beyond me.
*- While there were members of the press permitted to be there when Woods gave his statement, the golfer took no questions. That makes it not a press conference IMHO. Yes and I’ve been to golf press conferences.
After a 3-month layoff, The American Women’s Professional Golf circuit will begin the new year with its first tournament. The Honda PTT LPGA Thailand which will begin Thursday. Lorena Ochoa is the defending champion.
This will mark the first time in almost 2 decades that the LPGA began a new year overseas. Much has been made about the tour’s international flavor. I remark to those critics- Would you rather just have a 14 tournament schedule. That’s what would be left if you just had the American stops and the British Open.
Due to the tour’s new Commissioner Michael Whan the LPGA’s overall picture looks much brighter than it did as little as six months ago. He has brought back several old sponsors to the tour that former Commissioner Carolyn Bivens drove away and it looks like he may one or two more up his sleeve yet. I haven’t been this optimistic about the LPGA in about five years. Yes work has be done, but I haven’t seen anything but positive news coming out of Daytona Beach for at least three months.
My predictions for the upcoming year-
Player of the Year- Ji Yai Shin. She was last year’s leading winner but Lorena Ochoa won Player of the Year. I expect Ochoa to drop further this year from her glory days in 2006 and 2007.
Most likely player to beat out Shin- Na Yeon Choi. Choi has never missed a cut on tour and won two tournaments late in 2009. She has found her groove. Pardon the golf pun.
Sleeper for Player of the Year- Anna Nordqvist. She only won the LPGA Championship and Tour Championship as a rookie in 2009.
Rookie of the Year- Mina Harigae, last year’s Duramed Futures Tour player of the year, edges out the more heralded Blumenhurst.
How many rookies win in 2010?- One.
How many tournaments will Michelle Wie- Two. See more below.
Comeback Player of the Year- Jeong Jang. She returns to form from wrist surgery. My 2009 Comeback of the Year selection did pretty good last year.
Major Champions for 2010- Shin, Michelle Wie, Choi, and Paula Creamer
We’ll end this post with my top 30 players for 2010
1 Shin
2 Choi
3 Wie
4 Nordqvist
5 A Miyazato
6 Creamer
7 Tseng
8 IK Kim
9 Ochoa
10 Pettersen
11 Yoo
12 SH Kim
13 Kerr
14 Jang
15 V Hurst
16 Webb
17 Stanford
18 Harigae
19 McPherson
20 EH Ji
21 JY Oh
22 SH Lee
23 Lincicome
24 MH Kim
25 Han
26 Pressel
27 Wright
28 HY Park
29 Blumenhurst
30 Lang
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OTB Sports linked with Ai Miyazato wins the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand...
Another financial time bomb for the LPGA thanks to its former Commissioner. From Jon Show-
The LPGA and IMG filed a counterclaim this month in a civil action with Seoul Broadcasting System over the company’s refusal to make a payment in its final year as the tour’s Korean television rights holder.
The counterclaim follows a lawsuit filed last August by SBS, the LPGA’s exclusive Korean rights holder from 1995 to 2009, against the LPGA and IMG after they awarded the Korean rights to J Golf beginning in 2010. IMG brokers the tour’s international television rights.
At the root of the lawsuit is a claim by SBS that it had verbal assurance from the LPGA that it could match any final offer for the rights. In its motion to dismiss, the LPGA and IMG deny there was any such agreement.
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According to court papers, SBS says the LPGA asked for $4.5 million under terms of a five-year extension that would have begun in 2010. SBS, which paid $2.25 million a year for the rights, was informed by LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens that its $3 million counteroffer was below what she considered market value.
On Jan. 30, 2009, three days before a scheduled meeting between Bivens and SBS President Sang Chun to discuss an extension, the tour informed SBS that it had reached a tentative agreement with J Golf, according to court papers. SBS countered by offering to pay 5 percent on top of the offer from J Golf.
LPGA officianados know what happened last February. The LPGA announced its new deal with J Golf right when the SBS Open was being played. SBS President Sang Y. Chun was livid and now that LPGA tournament is history.
Would Carolyn Bivens ever make promises to a tournament sponsor and later renege or treat poorly a sponsor? Let me think.
He birdied the 18th hole to win by one shot. From AP-
Dustin Johnson had to work a lot longer — and harder — for another victory at Pebble Beach.
With a birdie from the bunker on the 18th hole Sunday, Johnson became the first player in 20 years to win back-to-back Pebble Beach National Pro-Am titles, closing with a 2-over 74 for a one-shot victory over David Duval and J.B. Holmes.
It certainly wasn’t as easy as last year, when Johnson was declared the winner after 54 holes because of rain.
“All you can ask for is a chance to win on the last hole,” Johnson said.
Johnson posted the highest final round by a Pebble Beach champion since Johnny Miller closed with a 74 in 1994. But when he stepped onto the tee at the famous par-5 18th that runs along the Pacific Ocean, he knew a birdie would make up for everything.
Johnson was the only one of the top 3 finishers to birdie 18. Duval, gunning for his first victory in almost 9 years, pitched it onto the green but too much backspin left the ball on the green’s front edge. Holmes, who has the length to reach 18 in 2, took that out of the equation with a bad drive. His pitch to the green was better than Duval’s but he couldn’t make the putt either. Johnson has to think today’s win was redeeming. He won last year’s tournament after the final round was canceled due to weather.
I was pulling for Duval today. He’s still trying to get his career back together. Despite a 2nd place finish at the U.S. Open in 2009, he was unable to make the top 125 money winners. He won’t ever be again the #1 player in the world like he was for a time in 1999 but a win would say he made some type of comeback.
The PGA Tour returns to Pebble Beach in June for this year’s U.S. Open.
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