Jason Dufner waits on the third play-off hole with his caddie Kevin Baile during the final round of the 93rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club on August 14, 2011
Tags: golf, sport, united-states
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Haas hoists Tour Championship trophy
Bill Haas waves to the gallery on the 18th green after winning both the FedEx Cup and the US PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on September 25, 2011
Tags: golf, sport, united-statesScott swoops to Ohio lead
Adam Scott waves to fans on the 18th hole after finishing with an 8-under-par 62 during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club on August 4, 2011 in Akron, Ohio.
Tags: golf, sport, united-statesGarcia dedicates Castello win to Seve
Updated October 24, 2011 09:19:42
Sergio Garcia won the Castello Masters by a huge 11 shots on Monday morning, the joint-third largest victory in European Tour history, and dedicated his triumph to Seve Ballesteros.
The 31-year-old Spaniard shot a closing 63 on the Club de Campo del Mediterraneo course, where he once was boys champion, to finish on 27-under-par as he secured his first title for almost three years.
"That was for Seve," said Garcia, sending a skyward kiss, in honour of Spanish legend Ballesteros who died of brain cancer in May.
The two previous biggest wins were by Tiger Woods, who won the 2000 US Open by 15, and Ernie Els who won the 2005 Asian Open by 13 shots. Els also holds the under-par winning record on tour when he was 29-under at the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic.
Garcia had started the day at 8-under and eventually finished ahead of compatriot Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who was second after a 64 while Swede Alex Noren and Scotland's Richie Ramsay were joint third on 15-under.
"I would like to thank not only my family and friends, but also my sponsors, everyone for supporting me through two tough years," said Garcia after his 19th title.
Sunday's victory will move him back into the top 35.
"They have stuck with me and believed in me and I'm happy to be able to pay them back. At the beginning of the week there's always a little extra pressure because you want to do well in front of your home fans and on your home course.
"But I felt really good and it showed. Hopefully I can keep moving forward, but there are still some things I can improve on."
Garcia had believed another victory was close to hand after successive top-12 finishes in the last three Majors while he was edged out in a play-off by Pablo Larrazabal at the BMW International Open in June.
Garcia picked up birdies on Sunday on the fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth holes. He added more gains at the 10th, 11th, 14th and 15th.
His only blemish was a bogey at the 17th.
AFP
Tags: golf, sport, spain First posted October 24, 2011 09:19:42Woods feeling good ahead of return
Updated August 03, 2011 13:34:46
Fresh from a practice session and eager to play again, Tiger Woods said he feels better than he has in a long time ahead of his return this week from a three-month injury layoff.
The former world number one, speaking to reporters ahead of this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, said the left leg pain that kept him out of tournament golf since May is behind him.
"I don't feel a thing. It feels solid, it feels stable, no pain," Woods said after playing nine holes at Firestone, where he is a seven-times winner, without a noticeable limp.
Woods has not competed since he withdrew from the Players Championship in May after completing just nine holes and the 35-year-old American said he is excited to make his return to the game he once dominated.
The 14-times major champion will try to get back into the swing of things this week at Firestone, then play next week at the PGA Championship in Atlanta.
He also hopes to qualify for the season-ending playoffs for the FedEx Cup and has signed up to play the Australian Open in Sydney in November, making him a likely starter for the following week's Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.
A practice round on Monday in Atlanta and Tuesday's nine holes pleased him, he said.
"I still haven't been in a competitive environment yet, so that's a totally different atmosphere," he said.
"But the shots felt very crisp, very clean. I was very pleased."
Woods, who missed the June 16-19 US Open at Congressional and the July 14-17 British Open at Royal St George's because of the injury, said he had the urge to resume play last week at the Greenbrier Classic, but held off.
"Docs advised that maybe I'd want to take another week of training and really start pushing it pretty hard, so I did, and I feel good now," he said.
Woods hurt his left knee ligaments and Achilles tendon during the Masters in April but returned to competition about a month later at the Players, which he said was too soon.
"If I had just sat out another week or two, I'd probably have been playing through this stretch. But I wanted to come back and play and made it worse," said Woods.
He has not won a major since the 2008 US Open nor any tournament worldwide since 2009.
Woods has also been trying to rebuild his golf swing and his private life following the breakup of his marriage after he confessed to a string of affairs.
Now he said he is ready for the challenges of a sport where young players are winning more often.
"Try to beat these boys," Woods said when asked what still excites him.
"That's fun. That's fun."
Reuters
Tags: golf, sport, united-states First posted August 03, 2011 06:02:48Lyle grabs early lead at The Lakes
Updated November 10, 2011 15:53:58
Victorian Jarrod Lyle fired a sizzling 7-under-par 65 to grab the early clubhouse lead in the Australian Open at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.
Lyle collected five birdies and eagled the 502-metre par-five 14th in a flawless opening round to hold a one-shot advantage over American Dustin Johnson.
"That's the lowest score I've shot all year, I've played solid all year, but just haven't achieved anything," Lyle said.
"On the course it's been a really rough year and off the course it's been awesome (engaged and expecting his first child)."
Lyle's low round of the year marked a welcome return to form for the cancer survivor after he finished 167th on this year's US money list to lose his PGA Tour card.
He must attend qualifying school next month to avoid relegation to the secondary Nationwide Tour.
The 30-year-old picked up birdies at the first, fifth, ninth and 10th holes to reach 4-under after 11 holes while Johnson had grabbed five birdies playing the back nine first.
Johnson, the world number five and top-ranked player in the 156-man field, went on a birdie spree in the benign conditions but bogeys on the short par-4 10th and par-3 18th holes cost him the outright lead.
At one point early in his round, Johnson reeled off five consecutive birdies from the 12th hole after hitting off on the 10th alongside five-times champion Greg Norman and dual winner Aaron Baddeley in one of the marquee groupings of the day.
"I made a lot of good putts, some tap-ins and some three-four footers, and I played really solid all day and made some great iron shots," Johnson said.
"I was a little rusty at the start, it was the first time I've been in competition for five-six weeks now, but then got it going pretty well."
Norman finished with a respectable 1-under 71 but Baddeley never got hot in returning a 1-over 73.
Veteran Fred Couples, the US Presidents Cup captain, is a further shot back after returning an impressive 5-under 67, one better than fellow American Bubba Watson.
A stack of players have posted 68s, with most of the morning starters under par, including defending champion Geoff Ogilvy who signed off for a 70.
Tiger Woods teed off just after midday (AEDT) alongside Australian young gun Jason Day and two-time champion Robert Allenby.
Adam Scott, Stuart Appleby, John Senden and Craig Parry also had afternoon tee times for the first round.
AAP/AFP
Tags: golf, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia First posted November 10, 2011 13:03:21Blanks off to fast start at Canadian Open
Updated July 22, 2011 13:03:07
American Kris Blanks has fired a 3-under-par 67 to set the pace at the Canadian Open, grabbing a first round lead for the second time in three events.
Blanks also found himself perched atop the leaderboard after the first day at the John Deere Classic two weeks ago and the Puerto Rico Open last year but so far the 38-year-old journeyman has been unable to translate his flashy starts into a strong finish and a first PGA Tour win.
Helped by an eagle at the par-five seventh at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, Blanks battled to a one shot advantage over a chasing pack of 11 players, including South African Ernie Els (68) and Matt McQuillian, who is among the 17 Canadians in the field bidding to become the first home grown winner of the national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954.
"It was that way the same way at John Deere ... so I will kind of draw on some of the stuff that happened in the following rounds after that," Blanks told reporters. "But it's a little different this week.
"I don't necessarily feel like I've got to shoot six-or-seven under tomorrow like I did at John Deere.
"I'm just going to try to stick to my game plan, get a good night's sleep and get after it tomorrow."
Still, it is unlikely to be a restful night for Blanks with another pack of nine golfers, led by American young guns Anthony Kim and Rickie Fowler, lurking a shot further adrift at 1-under and ready to pounce.
American Sean O'Hair had been poised to snatch the lead from Blanks getting to 4-under with four to play only to bogey his final three holes to join the group on 69.
The spectacular tree-lined Shaughnessy layout bared its teeth as the field struggled to get under par in near ideal conditions.
Tough course
The last time the Canadian Open was staged on the par-70 layout in 2005 it played as the most difficult non-major event on the PGA Tour and may hold that distinction again this year.
"Obviously I am very pleased with that, this is a very tough golf course," Els told reporters. "All and all just a solid round of golf.
"This golf course is very much like a US Open. It's Canada's national open and this is the way national opens should be played. They should be played as tough as possible."
After missing the cut at the British Open, Donald looked as if he had brought his major hangover with him to Canada.
Playing the back nine first, Donald got his round off to a disastrous start with double-bogeys on two of his opening four holes.
But then the Briton suddenly began to live up to his top ranking picking up back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 before reeling off three consecutive from the fifth to finish at level par 70 alongside crowd favourite John Daly.
Masters champion Charl Schwartzel got his day off to rocky start going 3-over on the front nine but the South African responded with an error free finish picking up a pair of birdies, including one at the last to finish on 1-over 71.
Jose Maria Olazabal's first visit to the Canadian Open will not provide many pleasant memories as the Spaniard laboured to a 4-over 74 alongside defending champion Carl Pettersson of Sweden, twice Canadian champion Jim Furyk and home favourite 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir.
Reuters
Tags: golf, sport, canada, united-states First posted July 22, 2011 12:54:33
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