|
He becomes only the second Korean to win on the PGA Tour
Alone in front throughout, Yang shot a final round of 2-under 68 Sunday to finish one shot ahead of John Rollins and pick up his first PGA Tour victory.
The Korean took command with three straight birdies on the front side and wouldn’t fold, picking up a two-year exemption and a check for $1,008,000. With the win, he qualified for next week’s CA Championship at Doral, plus earned an invitation to next month’s Masters.
Yang played last year’s final round at PGA National by himself, going off first and needing only 1 hour, 53 minutes to finish.
He was there until the very end this time, pumping his fist in the air when his 50-footer for birdie nestled to a stop a foot away from the cup, giving him a tap-in for victory.
For a guy whose claim to fame was beating Tiger Woods at the 2006 HSBC Champions in Shanghai, it was a moment to savor.- AP
Yang played the best golf and was a deserving winner. He withstood challenges from Robert Allenby and John Rollins to win by one shot. This is the first time I ever saw Yang play, so I won’t fathom a guess as to what kind of future success he’ll have on the PGA Tour. The win gets him in next month’s Masters.
He has won the tournament twice and finished second over the last four years. From AP-
Geoff Ogilvy has been better than anyone in match play over the last four years.
One of these days, he might find out if that includes Tiger Woods.
Even without the world’s No. 1 player around, Ogilvy finished off a remarkable weekend at Dove Mountain on Sunday with a 4-and-3 victory over Paul Casey to win the Accenture Match Play Championship for the second time in four years.
He played 66 holes on the weekend in 25-under par. He never trailed the final 63 holes of this event, mowing down teenage sensation Rory McIlroy and Stewart Cink on Saturday and never giving Casey a chance in the title match.
Cink won the consolation match against Ross Fisher by holing out from a sand trap on 18. I think that was the shot of the week.
Someone should tell NBC that showing two day old news aka Tiger Woods’ matches from earlier in the week is neither good journalism or a way to boost ratings. One NBC producer said it was the network’s duty to show what Tiger did. Reporting the news long after everyone not living in a cave knows of it is one of the reasons newspapers are dying from the internet era. Does television news and sports want to follow the same example all the way to extinction?
Ogilvy(The 2006 US Open Champion) is a very good golfer, but I’m not ready to crown him #2 in the world.
Could the PGA Tour be returning to the days of slimmer purses and tournaments without corporate sponsors? From ESPN-
Commissioner Tim Finchem announced Tuesday that FBR has decided not to renew its contract after 2010 for the popular tournament outside Phoenix.
“We’ve obviously had — and are having — some bumps in the road,” Finchem said.
Already this year, U.S. Bank has said it was pulling out of the Milwaukee tournament after this year, and Ginn Resorts ended its sponsorship contract three years early, prompting the tour to file a lawsuit. The tour also faces uncertainty in Memphis, Tenn., where Stanford Financial was signed up through 2016 as the sponsor.
However, Travelers Insurance two weeks ago extended its sponsorship in Connecticut by four years through 2014, and Finchem said Accenture has signed up for another four years as title sponsor of this week’s Match Play Championship.
FBR has been the title sponsor since 2004 at the TPC Scottsdale, which has grown into the rowdiest event on the PGA Tour.
Using cars to gauge its attendance, the tournament last year set a record with more than 538,000 fans for the weekend, including 170,802 on Saturday. Most of them head to the par-3 16th hole, which is entirely enclosed with bleachers, making it the closest thing to golf being played in a stadium.
The tournament is run by The Thunderbirds, a civic group which has become one of the top fundraisers for PGA Tour charities. The group said it has begun the search for a new sponsor, a tough task in this economy.
A tournament that was first played in 1932, is likely to face a tough choice. A half dozen PGA Tour stops are in the process of or have lost sponsors, and with the economy and public opinion the way it is, I think it will be hard to find replacements. The PGA Tour has fewer problems than the LPGA, and they will adjust. Maybe a celebrity would like to give his name(but not money) to the event. Half or a little more of the west coast events had celebrity affiliations in the 1970′s
Bob Hope- Palm Springs tournament
Andy Williams- San Diego
Bing Crosby- Pebble Beach
Glen Campbell- LA
Could a return to those days be in the cards for the PGA Tour?
He’s back.
Eight months after winning the U.S. Open on one good leg, a healthy Tiger Woods is returning to golf. Woods said on his Web site Thursday that he will defend his title next week in the Accenture Match Play Championship, believing his reconstructed left knee and his game is good enough to win.
“I’m now ready to play again, Woods said.
The Match Play Championship in Tucson, Ariz., begins Wednesday, where Woods will end his 254-day break from competition.
This is great news for golf fans. For golf fanatics like myself, it is also welcome news. Now I won’t shake my head at yet the 108th article is written about-
Will Tiger be better when he comes back?
When will Tiger come back?
or
Will fatherhood make Tiger a better player?
Actually of those three, only the ‘When will Tiger come back articles’ are certain to end. The lemming mentality of the golf media still astounds me though it shouldn’t.
I’ll be watching next week.
I was so looking forward to some Monday golf. From AP-
Some 40 hours after hitting his last shot, Dustin Johnson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Monday when rain created a small river through one fairway and flooded greens, forcing officials to cancel the final round.
Johnson built a four-shot lead Saturday with a 67 at Poppy Hills, holing a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that figured to give him a cushion going into the final round. But it was never played.
Rain and wind strong enough to topple a 40-foot tree suspended the final round Sunday, and nearly 1½ inches of rain and a forecast for more gloom along the Monterey Peninsula left the PGA Tour no choice but to declare Johnson the winner.
Johnson won at Turning Stone last year with birdies on the last two holes. This time, he won while on his way to breakfast.
Johnson, at 24 years and 7 months, is the youngest player to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since Tiger Woods (24 years, 1 month) in 2000. With his victory, Johnson joins Anthony Kim as the only players under 25 with two PGA Tour victories.
Johnson’s two victories may be considered less than impressive by some. The AT&T was rain shortened and Turning Stone is a fall series event where very few of the leading players are in the field.
The win qualifies Johnson both for the upcoming Match Play Championship and The Masters.
Johnson finished at 15-under 201, the first 54-hole winner on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic outside Atlanta in 2005. That tournament concluded on a Monday.
This was the first time a 54-hole winner played his final shot on a Saturday since Pebble Beach in 1999, when Payne Stewart birdied his final hole for a one-shot lead. The final round was washed out Sunday and the tournament shortened because of a storm system that stretched from the California coast to the shores of Japan.
The weather conditions in Monterey can widely vary. Some years they can great weather, then there are years like this. In 1962 or 1963, snow fell on Pebble Beach during tournament week.
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen finished alone in third.
Goosen’s US career has gone into a tailspin since he opened the final round of the 2005 US Open tied for the lead and with a chance of becoming a three-time winner of the tournament. Retief shot a 81 on Sunday. He has only won once on the PGA Tour since then. If he’s on his game, Goosen is a good pick at Augusta. Goosen has been second there twice, and third two more times.
The United States pulled a stunning upset in the biennial matches last September. From AP-
Corey Pavin has been selected the next U.S. captain for the Ryder Cup, leading a team in 2010 that will try to successfully defend the cup for the first time since 1993.
Pavin is a former U.S. Open champion with 15 victories on the PGA Tour. He played in three Ryder Cups and had an 8-5-0 record.
The 49-year-old Pavin takes over for Paul Azinger, who helped the U.S. end a decade of European dominance at the Ryder Cup with a 16½-11½ victory in September at Valhalla.
The U.S has not had a captain consecutive Ryder Cups since Ben Hogan in the 1940s.
Many people expected 2008 Captain Paul Azinger to return. Who wins the Ryder Cup comes down to which team makes the putts and other shots needed for a victory. I think the position of team captain is highly overrated.
Ryan Palmer still wins the Gin sur Mer after calling a penalty stroke on himself.
Palmer, who was at No. 143 on the money list with two tournaments remaining, had to call a penalty on himself and made bogey on the 10th hole, then took double bogey on the next hole with a tee shot into the water.
But he rebounded with a 10-foot birdie he desperately needed on the final hole at Ginn Ocean Hammock Resort for his second career victory.
“What a feeling … what a week,” said the 32-year-old native of Amarillo, Texas and Texas A&M graduate. “I kept grinding and grinding. I proved to myself that I can win out here under any kind of conditions or circumstances.”
Michael Letzig, the 54-hole leader, needed a birdie on the par-5 18th to force a playoff. But his wedge spun 35 feet down the slope and he had to settle for par and a 73 to finish one shot behind.
Also tying for second were George McNeill, Nicholas Thompson, Ken Duke and Vaughn Taylor, who was at No. 129 on the money list and earned enough to secure his card for next year.
*****
Palmer appeared to have control with a two-shot lead until he reached the 10th green. He noticed his ball move slightly after he addressed his 30-foot birdie attempt, and after calling a rules official, assessed himself a one-shot penalty and made bogey.
“Once you address the ball, you can’t un-address it,” Tour rules official Steve Rintoul. “The rules are pretty clear.”
Palmer got rewarded with a victory. Tom Kite in 1978 lost a tournament by one shot after invoking the same rule on himself. In 2003, NBC golf announcers strongly believed a ball being addressed by Sophie Gustafson moved but the Swedish golfer didn’t call a penalty on herself. LPGA officials were then in the uncomfortable position of having to determine what happened. Sophie was the love squeeze of then LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw.(The two are now married.)
Sophie, who went on to win the tournament, said the golf ball didn’t move, her playing partner Juli Inkster hadn’t seen anything one way or the other, and the NBC video footage was equivocal. Sophie hasn’t won an LPGA event since. Is it a case of karma?
The biennial matches begin on Friday. From AP-
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Strong wind felled a TV tower and some trees at Valhalla Golf Club on Sunday, five days before the start of the Ryder Cup.
Kerry Haigh, managing director of championships and business development for the PGA of America said the television tower fell on the 12th hole.
“The PGA of America is working to clean up all affected areas and is confident that when spectators arrive on Tuesday for the first full practice round, Valhalla will be ready for the biggest event in golf this year,” Haigh said.
Less than a month after Hurricane Wilma, Trump International was ready for the 2005 ADT Championship. Vahalla’s damage has to be much less severe, I think the course will be ready in time for play.
Bolt was best remembered for his temper and tendency to throw golf clubs. The AP article below reports this thoroughly. What the wire service fails to report, is Bolt’s impact on present day golf. Namely the Senior or Champions Tour. The Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf event in 1979 probably launched the Champions tour. The event in only its second year of existence, put on a show of golf that has hardly been matched since. A playoff between two teams, Bolt and Art Wall versus Julius Boros and Roberto DeVicenzo that lasted six holes before Boros and DeVicenzo came out on . The playoff that saw great shot after great shot till the very end and the high ratings it received and excitement this caused led then PGA Commissioner Deane Beman to begin forming a tour for Senior players. All Champions Tour members today owe a debt to Bolt, Boros, DeVicenzo and Wall. It’s disgraceful but predictable that AP forgot that tour’s greatest moment. When former US Open champ Orville Moody died recently, AP also forgot to note ‘Sarge’ was a former PGA Player of the Year.RIP Tommy.
CHEROKEE VILLAGE, Ark. (AP) — Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion who had one of golf’s sweetest swings and most explosive tempers, has died. He was 92.
His wife, Mary Lou Bolt, said he died Saturday after “his liver shut down.”
“He was the best man I ever knew,” she said Wednesday.
Bolt won 15 Professional Golfers Association events and several more titles on the seniors tour. Yet his temper gained him the most notoriety.
Nicknamed “Terrible Tempered Tommy” and “Thunder,” Bolt was often fined and suspended by the PGA Tour for slamming clubs and using abusive language. He set up a special fund from his winnings to pay the fines.
“I’ve busted a few clubs in my time,” Bolt recalled after retiring from the Tour. “I think it’s all right for a man to break his golf clubs, every one in the bag if he wants to. They’re his clubs. He’s the one to suffer.
“As for throwing clubs, that’s something else. That could be dangerous.”
Bolt joined the tour in 1950 and won his first title, the North and South Open, the next year. Bolt won at least one tournament through 1955, a year he won four times.
In 1958, he won the U.S. Open by four strokes over 22-year-old Gary Player. He also won the Colonial Open that year. His last PGA win came at the Pensacola Open in 1961.
Bolt enjoyed success in the seniors ranks. He won the U.S. National Seniors Open five times, the PGA Seniors, and the 1978 Australian Seniors.
“I’m converted,” he said about his calm demeanor on the course. “I’m sweet as pie now.”
Bolt served overseas with the Army during World War II. Survivors include a son, Thomas Walker Bolt.
« Hide it
Three of whom have never played in the matches before. From AP-
The U.S. Ryder Cup team was completed Monday morning when captain Paul Azinger named Chad Campbell, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and J.B. Holmes as his four at-large selections.
They join Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard, Boo Weekley and Ben Curtis, who qualified for the team based on a points system that ended at the PGA Championship.
Before taking the job, Azinger lobbied for and received changes to the system, which included an overhaul of how points were earned — based on winnings instead of top-10 finishes — and more time to make his picks. He also got an increase from two to four choices.
On Sunday, European captain Nick Faldo added Ian Poulter and Paul Casey to his team of Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson.
The Europeans have won three straight Ryder Cups and five of the last six. The Ryder Cup will be played Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Chad Campbell was the only pick by Azinger who has played on a previous Ryder Cup team. Overall I find Paul Azinger’s picks reasonable, but ultimately futile. I strongly believe the US is in for another trouncing later this month.
|
|
