| Upcoming Tournaments | ||||
| Date | Tournament/Course | 2008 Champ | Purse | |
| Oct. 30- Nov. 1 | Hana Bank KOLON ChampionshipSky 52 GC - Ocean Course Incheon, South Korea | Candie Kung | $1,700,000 | |
| Nov. 6- Nov. 8 | Mizuno ClassicKashikojima CC Shima, Japan | Ji Yai Shin | $1,400,000 | |
| Nov. 12- Nov. 15 | Lorena Ochoa InvitationalGuadalajara GC Guadalajara, Mexico | Angela Stanford | $1,100,000 | |
| Nov. 19- Nov. 22 | Stanford Financial Tour ChampionshipThe Houstonian Houston, Texas | |||
Showing posts with label Golf News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golf News. Show all posts
Friday, October 23, 2009
LPGA - 2009 Schedules and Scores
Internationals Look to Upset U.S. in Presidents Cup
Since its inception in 1994, the biennial Presidents Cup competition, which matches a team of 12 golfers from the United States against a dozen from an International team, has been as lopsided as a broken jaw. That has been the figurative parting gift for International teams, which have not won since 1998.
Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
U.S. team members, from left, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink, open Presidents Cup play Thursday.
The familiar winning formula — jump to an early lead in opening-day foursomes and ride it to victory — has worked well in the United States team’s 5-1-1 domination. And by most statistical formulations, the Americans are an overwhelming favorite to continue their mastery when the two sides meet in the eighth Presidents Cup starting Thursday at Harding Park Golf Course.
Eight players from the United States team that defeated the favored European team in the 2008 Ryder Cup are on the squad. Tiger Woods, who missed that Ryder Cup while recovering from knee surgery, is on form. Phil Mickelson is coming off a win two weeks ago in the Tour Championship. And eight members of the team have won this year.
But could a Presidents Cup change be riding in like the fog that slithered ashore off the San Francisco Bay on Wednesday afternoon? Some feel strongly that it can. The International team captain, Greg Norman, has been telling his team all week that it can, and some of his confidence seems to be rubbing off.
“If you see our team get out front early, they could be dangerous,” said the International team assistant captain, Frank Nobilo, a three-time Presidents Cup competitor. “If we can get out to a quick start, it could be the confidence boost we need.”
The Presidents Cup lacks the pressure, the history and the extraordinarily intense rivalry of the Ryder Cup, which was first played in 1927. But the International team appears ready to at least ratchet up the intensity. Even the Colombian “rookie” on this year’s team, Camilo Villegas, got into the act this week, talking about wanting to turn the tide.
The only team match-play experience Villegas, 27, has had came in college at theUniversity of Florida and in the South American Championship in which he played for Colombia. But he has been inspired by the camaraderie this week and looks forward to playing for all of South America when he teams with the reigning Masters champion,Ángel Cabrera of Argentina, against Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson in foursomes on Thursday.
“I walk in my room Sunday night, I look at all of the uniforms, and all of a sudden it’s memories of kind of college golf and the South American Championship,” Villegas said. “And trust me, I’ve got a lot of good memories. So I think it’s time to step it up and add some more good memories about team golf and team competition.
“It’s a new year, it’s a new tournament,” Villegas said. “Why are we going to keep thinking about the past? You know what, there’s going to be a lot of people rooting for us, and we will be giving our best to play as good as we can and have a good outcome and keep growing the game of golf in South America, keep motivating those kids that are coming up.”
Among other intangibles that could align for the International team: the golf course, Harding Park, is a compact, classic layout that is familiar to most of the International players. And San Francisco has a huge international population that could lessen the home-course advantage for the United States.
The three International rookies, Villegas, Y. E. Yang and the 18-year-old phenom Ryo Ishikawa, do not have any of the scar tissue from losing in match play. Ishikawa has been practicing well and will go under the gun early in foursomes paired with Geoff Ogilvy and playing against Woods and Steve Stricker.
Far from being cowed by the pairing, Ishikawa said he was looking forward to playing against Woods. Yang, who defeated Woods down the stretch at the P.G.A. Championship at Hazeltine in August, has also practiced well this week. He and Retief Goosen will take on Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard.
Relaxed and ready, the United States team has been enjoying itself all week, bonding in the team room, playing table tennis and pool and hanging out with the honorary assistant captain, Michael Jordan, the golf fanatic and retired N.B.A. star who was recruited by the team’s captain, Fred Couples.
Whether the relaxed United States team can keep its edge against a fired-up International squad, whether it can come out and blitz the Internationals in the foursomes as it did in 2007 at Montreal — when it went out to a 5 ½- ½ lead on Day 1 and won the Saturday foursomes, 5-0 — will go a long way toward telling whether it can keep its winning streak alive.
For Obama, Golfing Is a Very Leisurely Pursuit
Bill Clinton was famous for the creative way he kept score. Both George Bushes would speed-golf through 18 holes as if they had to beat the clock, not the course.
Jason Reed/Reuters
President Obama spent two and a half hours on Tuesday at Mink Meadows Golf Club in Vineyard Haven, Mass.
And President Obama?
Long, slow rounds. A lot of time hunting for balls in the woods. All dished up with a dollop of trash-talking.
The First Golfer brought his duffer’s game to Martha’s Vineyard this week. By Thursday, Mr. Obama had logged three golf games in four days, appearing at one island course after another. He spent five hours on Monday afternoon playing 18 holes at the Farm Neck Golf Club here, two and a half hours on Tuesday playing nine holes at Mink Meadows Golf Club in Vineyard Haven, and several hours playing Thursday afternoon at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown.
While Mr. Obama has indulged in other vacation activities — he took his family bike riding Thursday morning, went to the beach on Wednesday and took his wife to dinner Tuesday night — golf has been the only recurring one.
So, clearly, the president likes to hit the links. But is he any good at it, especially compared with his predecessors?
“His golf games are long because he’s not very good,” said Don Van Natta Jr., a reporter for The New York Times who wrote “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters From Taft to Bush” (PublicAffairs, 2003).
Unlike Mr. Clinton, who had a reputation for shaving strokes off his score, Mr. Obama “doesn’t fudge his scores,” Mr. Van Natta said, adding: “If he shoots an 11 on a hole, he will write down 11.” (Mr. Obama shoots in the 90s on a good day, Mr. Van Natta said.)
White House officials, trying to protect their boss from guffaws, refuse to divulge Mr. Obama’s scores. The president himself envelops his golf game in a cloak of secrecy. Unlike the drill with many of his predecessors, who allowed reporters to watch them play the first hole, and then return to the 18th to watch the grand finish, the White House press pool covering Mr. Obama is kept far away from the action.
“The verdant entry to the entry road to the entrance of the Vineyard Golf Club is as close as we get to Potus right now, colleagues,” Elizabeth Williamson of The Wall Street Journal wrote Thursday in the report on the president’s activities that she shared with other White House reporters.
(Much to the disappointment of the press corps, reports that there might be a vacation game with Tiger Woods look to be false.)
The official word on Thursday from the White House deputy spokesman, Bill Burton, was that Mr. Obama has been enjoying his golf game.
But some White House aides — who, to be fair, were not on the golf course with the president on Thursday — said that those who were there mentioned a lot of trash-talking coming from the First Mouth, despite his less-than-Masters-level play. Mr. Obama, whose first sports love is basketball, took up golf seriously in 1997, when he was in the Illinois State Senate. It has been a love affair ever since, and Mr. Obama is now the 15th of the last 18 presidents to play golf, Mr. Van Natta said. “The only nongolfers since Taft are Carter, Hoover and Truman,” he said.
Mr. Obama is notorious for dragging his staff members onto the golf course with him, including the White House trip director, Marvin Nicholson; the White House spokesman,Robert Gibbs; and Ben Finkenbinder, the baby-faced press aide who also happened to play golf at Macalester College in St. Paul, when he was studying there a mere two years ago. On Martha’s Vineyard this week, Mr. Obama was playing with Mssrs. Nicholson and Finkenbinder, along with the chief executive of UBS, Robert Wolf; and Eric Whitaker, a Chicago pal.
This is the first summer vacation that the Obama family has taken with the White House press pool on hand to chronicle Mr. Obama’s every move, and therefore, the first vacation providing an opportunity to get a handle on Mr. Obama’s golf scores. Alas, White House officials continued their veil of secrecy, and would not say. Which means he is probably still in the 90s, respectable for a weekend golfer.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Kerr questions Liberty National critics
LPGA golfer Christie Kerr member at Liberty National. What did you think of the bashing it took from the PGA Tour players during The Barclays? It sounded like a lot of them hated it.Liberty is a first-rate facility. You can’t beat the views. The layout of the course is fantastic…The Firemans are very good friends of mine.
I think [the course] was [criticized] because it was set apart and [the PGA players] are used to being able to shoot 8-under every day. I happen to love the layout of the course. I think there are some changes that Dan and Paul Fireman know they have to make, like the 7th green not running away so much and some bunkers here and there. I think the spirit of the course and the way it plays are tough. And I think the guys weren’t used to having to pitch out of the rough; they weren’t used to a 7-iron releasing 8 to 10 yards. In that sense, it’s easy for a lot of players to bash the course.
The guys are just used to shooting nothing at a golf course and that’s not how the Firemans and Liberty wanted it to play. They wanted it to play like a major championship course, so that’s how they set it up — the rough was up, the greens were fast. Those are the best male golfers in the world and I think they can handle that.
Gary Player said it best: lt’s like going into somebody’s house, eating their dinner, talking to their family, and then insulting the wife’s cooking, the house, the decor, telling them the food was terrible — you just don’t go to some place and do that. [Ed. note: Yikes!]
If there are things you don’t like, then so be it; everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But some of the best golfers in the world had really good things to say, like Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els — they’re major champions.
What do you think about the LPGA players posing for ESPN Magazine’s “Body” Issue? Do you think it’s good or bad for women’s golf?
I got interviewed for [the article]. But I didn’t get a good look at it. You can take the positon of it being good or bad. I think we definitely need the exposure; we need good, positive PR. I think it was done tastefully from what everyone was telling me, so I think that’s good for the LPGA. I think that’s why they did the article because it’s controversial; it creates a lot of buzz in the media marketplace.
What do you see for the future of the LPGA? Do they need to do a better job marketing the players? Like the Asians, for example?
Well, I think it’s the responsibility of the organization to market the players. [They should] do vignettes, stories and let the fans know who the players are and get to know them. A lot of the Korean and Japanese players they do so much for charity and you know, they need to build those stories up — just as they do for my foundation, for instance. I think the future of the LPGA relies on restructuring the organization, getting the new commissioner in place that’s going to be able to take us to the next level and from there, focus on marketing and PR.
You know, the telecasts are a big thing for us. There are rain delays and no one wants to see last year’s tournament. They should do stories on the players — like Katherine Hull for instance, she’s a very avid surfer and into charity — why not build that up?
When you said, “take [the LPGA] to the next level,” what do you mean by that?
I think it’s just the total package because we’re playing as good as we’ve ever played and we probably have the most undervalued product in the sports marketplace right now. [We need to] get our play to match up with the TV, the marketing and PR. It’s going to get to a point where it tips, and that’s where we need to get to. Give us 3 years.
Rory McIlroy Not Joining PGA Tour In '10
Rory McIlroy, the 20-year-old dubbed by the golf world as the next big international player, will not join the PGA Tour next season, refuting recent speculation that he would play the majority of his schedule in the U.S. in '10. “Rory has decided not to join the PGA Tour in 2010,” his agent, ISM’s Chubby Chandler, said in an e-mail. He did not provide any further explanation. The London Daily Mail reported late last week that McIlroy would officially announce his intention to join the PGA Tour in mid-November before the start of the European Tour’s Dubai World Championship. McIlroy revealed this summer that he turned down a special exemption to play on the PGA Tour in '09, saying he was concerned of playing in too many events. His finishes this year will qualify him to play in all four majors and World Golf Championships, and he is expected to receive sponsor exemptions to play in up to seven more events on the PGA Tour. McIlroy is second in the European Tour money rankings and ranks 17th in the world golf rankings. He played in six PGA Tour events in '09, including all four majors, carding a top 10 at the U.S. Open and finishing tied for third at the PGA Championship.
Weir looking to extend mastery at Frys.com Open
he Frys.com Open has camped at Grayhawk Golf Course until its home course in California is ready.
Mike Weir has heard good things about the event's future home at the Institute Golf Course in Morgan Hill, Calif. But after winning the inaugural Frys.com Open in 2007 and finishing in a fourth-place tie last year, Weir is happy the tournament has at least one more year in the desert.
"You still hate to see it leave here," Weir said on Wednesday. "I love coming here."
Two years ago, Weir joined dozens of Canadian fans for an impromptu toast outside the media center after his one-stroke victory over Mark Hensby. Weir celebrated his first tour victory in three years - and he hasn't won since.
"It's been a little bit of a drought again," said Weir, whose best finishes this season were third in the Bob Hope Classic in January and second at Pebble Beach the following month.
This is the third year the Frys.com Open has been played on the par-70, 7,125-yard Raptor Course as part of the PGA Tour's Fall Series. Victories and earnings in the five fall events count on tour records and in the world golf rankings.
There's a $5 million purse, with the winner taking home $900,000.
Scottsdale is one of only two cities, along with Orlando, that hosts two PGA tour events. In February, TPC Scottsdale is home to the FBR Open, the tour's most heavily attended tournament.
But the struggling economy has put a squeeze on Scottsdale's two events.
The FBR Open, formerly called the Phoenix Open, is seeking a new sponsor after FBR announced it would not renew its deal after 2010.
Meanwhile, the Frys.com Open is "year-to-year" at Grayhawk, tournament director Scott Reid said. The Institute won't be ready to host the event in 2010, he said, and organizers will consider other cities as potential hosts.
"I think that Grayhawk would continue to host this event if we wanted to stay," Reid said. "But I think we're just kind of going to evaluate the opportunities that might be in another market that doesn't have a PGA Tour event already."
The Frys.com Open drew 35,450 last year, up about 8,000 from its first year as word spread about the event. The Frys.com Open doesn't draw the same partying throngs as the FBR Open, but that can be a bonus for golf fans.
"We feel like we're more of a true golf-fans event," Reid said. "It's more about the golf tournament, seeing the players and seeing the golf than it is about being seen."
This year's tournament has attracted some big names in the field of 132, including Fred Couples, David Duval and Justin Leonard.
Some golfers, like Couples, Tom Lehman and Tim Clark, are playing because the course is in their neighborhood.
"They can sleep in their own bed and still play for a $5 million pursue," Reid said.
For others, the tourney represents a chance to move up on the money list.
"You've still got stuff to play for," Clark said. "A win is big. It does a lot for you."
Just ask defending champion Cameron Beckman.
Beckman entered last year's Frys.com Open ranked 176th on the money list and 447th in the world. He had skipped eight weeks because of back problems and was in danger of losing his tour card.
But Beckman defeated Kevin Sutherland on the second playoff hole to earn his second career victory.
Beckman's only other tour win had come in 2001, in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic. In between victories, Beckman had to go back to Q school twice. Thanks to his victory here last year, Beckman has an exemption through 2010.
"I went through some tour schools in between (victories) and had some rough years," the 39-year-old Beckman said. "For some of us, if you're not playing well, you're trying to keep a job."
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