Golf Swing Tips Info

Westwood tunes into oakland vibe

admin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:09:55 +0000

Already with fond memories of Oakland Hills, Lee Westwood is looking to make it a place he will never forget this week.Westwood comes to the US PGA Championship primed for a major breakthrough at the site of one of his best golf achievements.

A member of Europe’s 2004 Ryder Cup team that trounced the United States 18.5-9.5, Westwood is hoping to take the next step and win his first major championship.

“It’s always good to come back somewhere where you’ve played well in the past and you have good memories from.”

But it is the memories from this year’s previous majors in the USA that may be tougher to take.

Westwood tied for 11th at the Masters, but his real heartache came at the US Open, where he finished a shot behind the play-off between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate.

Westwood described himself as “gutted” to miss out on the Monday showdown at Torrey Pines but he also came away knowing his game was good enough to stand up in a major.

Playing in his 12th PGA Championship this week, Westwood’s best finish is a tie for 15th at Valhalla in 2002.

Woods won the PGA that year, but is not in the field - the two-time defending champion has been out since winning the US Open after knee surgery.

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Black Bear Enjoys U.S. Senior Open

admin — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:17:01 +0000

Friday’s second round of the U.S. Senior Open, things got even more hairy than usual. An adult black bear wandered onto the course during the noon hour, crossing several fairways on the back nine before heading for the West Course through a drainage pipe. The animal later found another drainage pipe and left The Broadmoor property.

“I never heard of such a thing,” said Fred Funk, who, at 6-under-par 134, takes a two-stroke lead over Eduardo Romero into Saturday’s third round after both shot a 1-under 69 on Friday. Funk was on another area of the course and did not see the bear. But word spread quickly.

Although tournament officials were prepared to tranquilize the animal and stop play were it to become aggressive or spooked, after several minutes the curious bear crawled through a drainage pipe on the ninth hole that leads to the West Course, then went through another drainage pipe and into the wilderness, leaving the unnerved galleries and golfers behind.

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Inkster makes her move

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:11:04 +0000

Juli Inkster’s bid to become the oldest major winner in women’s golf history was alive and kicking at Sunningdale on Saturday.Having handed over the lead in the Ricoh British Open to Japan’s Yuri Fudoh and Korean Jai-Yai Shin on Friday, the 48-year-old American started her third round eagle-birdie.

On the first of the par fives, Inkster, who won the first of her seven majors in 1984 before Shin was even born, hit her approach to eight feet and on the 489-yard next she almost chipped in from deep rough short right of the green.

Six pars followed to keep the mother of two 12 under par and one ahead of not only Fudoh and Shin, but also Fudoh’s compatriot Ai Miyazato and defending champion and world number one Lorena Ochoa.

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Singh focused on defending lead

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:10:07 +0000

Vijay Singh took a one-shot overnight lead into Saturday’s third round at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational intent on playing “my heart out”.

Singh, whose second-round 66 last night sent him to the top of the leaderboard at seven under par, is set to tee off at 1910 BST in the final pairing of the day alongside world number two Phil Mickelson, lying one stroke back at six under.

“He’s going to be focused on his game. I just hope we both have a good day.”

A trio of European players will also be looking to make their move at the top of the leaderboard on Saturday with England’s Lee Westwood best placed at five under following a second-round 65, while Miguel Angel Jiminez of Spain is a shot further back and Ireland’s Paul McGinley is four shots off the lead at three under par.

With no halfway cut in this 80-man elite field, the stragglers were out early with Germany’s Martin Kaymer looking to regain some respectability following a second-round 79. Playing in the first group out, Kaymer birdied the par-four fourth and the par-three seventh to improve to nine over par.

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Mickelson and Fisher make their move

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:03:38 +0000

Phil Mickelson and England’s Ross Fisher began to make inroads into Retief Goosen’s overnight lead at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational as second-round play got under way at the Firestone Country Club.

World number two Mickelson had shot an opening-round two-under-par 68 in Akron, Ohio, to trail Goosen by two strokes, with Ernie Els a further shot back.

Playing alongside Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Els, in the first group to start their rounds on the back nine, both Mickelson and Els birdied the 410-yard par-four 10th hole.

But as Els hit the skids, bogeying the 13th and double-bogeying the 14th, Mickelson pulled level with Goosen at four-under courtesy of a birdie three at the 14th, the fifth hole of his round.

Fisher had shared the lead with Goosen at four-under during his opening round, only to implode with a triple-bogey seven at the eighth, his penultimate hole last night.

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Sorenstam makes British Open cut

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:02:05 +0000

Annika Sorenstam had a long tense wait before she was able to discover that she had made the cut at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Sunningdale last night.

Her back-to back-72s in the first two rounds were enough to get her over the cutline by two shots and keep alive her wish to play all four rounds in her last major before she retires at the end of the season.

Unfortuantely her four-birdie, four-bogey display did mean that her hopes of walking away from competive golf with an 11th major were hanging by a thread.

In a sign of how much the women’s game has taken on an Asian flavour, leading in the clubhouse on 10 under par were Japan’s Yuri Fudoh and Korean Ji-Yai Shin.

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Vaughan sinks Cook in playoff to win Senior British Open

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:11:02 +0000

Bruce Vaughan holed a 20-foot putt to beat John Cook in a playoff and win the Senior British Open, his first tournament victory either as a senior or a regular PGA Tour player.

In a dramatic turnaround at Royal Troon on Sunday, Cook squandered a three-stroke lead after 10 holes and went to the 72nd still leading Vaughan by one. But he fired his tee shot right into the rough and then played his third well short of the green. He still decided to putt, but left it 15 feet short for a bogey 5 to finish with an even par round of 71.

Vaughan made par for a 70 to leave both on 6-under 278, and the two Americans returned to the 18th tee for a sudden-death playoff — the championship’s third in the last four years.

Vaughan pitched to the center of the green and sank his 20-footer. When Cook missed his putt from 12 feet, the former firefighter from Hutchinson, Kansas, won his first tournament on the senior or regular PGA Tour. Vaughan also earned his biggest paycheck, $312,258.

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Mahan In Ryder Cup Cash Blast

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:08:47 +0000

One of America’s emerging stars may have dealt his hopes of a Ryder Cup debut in September a huge blow by claiming players are “just a slave that week” and raising the possibility of a boycott of the event in future.

Hunter Mahan lies 12th on the United States points table with just two weeks left in their qualifying race.

The top eight earn automatic spots on Paul Azinger’s team, although with Tiger Woods ruled out by injury the player in ninth will be assured of a place.

In the latest edition of the American magazine “Golf”, Mahan re-opened the debate over whether players should be paid to appear in the biennial match, an issue which caused controversy in the United States camp in 1999.

The 26-year-old is currently 12th in the United States points list and has a real chance of making Paul Azinger’s teamf or Valhalla.

However, despite featuring on America’s Presidents Cup team last year, Mahan is not overly keen on competing in the Ryder Cup.

“From what I’ve heard, the whole week is extremely long. You’ve got dinners every night - not little dinners, but huge, massive dinners. I know, as players, that’s the last thing we want to do,” Mahan told Golf magazine.

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European Ryder Cup rankings

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:39:45 +0000

There are no changes to the top 10 of the European Ryder Cup rankings this week.

Big names currently lying outside the automatic qualification places include Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Poulter.

European Ryder Cup team:
(as at 28/07/08. Last week’s ranking in brackets)

1. (1) Padraig Harrington - Ireland - 4 caps

2. (2) Lee Westwood - England - 5 caps

3. (3) Henrik Stenson - Sweden - 1 cap

4. (4) Robert Karlsson - Sweden - 1 cap

5. (5) Miguel Angel Jimenez - Spain - 2 caps

6. (6) Graeme McDowell - Northern Ireland - 0 caps

7. (7) Soren Hansen - Denmark - 0 caps

8. (8) Oliver Wilson - England - 0 caps

9. (9) Martin Kaymer - Germany - 0 caps

10. (10) Justin Rose - England - 0 caps

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Reavie wins Canadian Open

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:37:27 +0000

Chez Reavie has won his first US PGA Tour title, holding off countryman Billy Mayfair over the final holes to win the Canadian Open.

Reavie sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a one-under par 70 to finish on 17-under 197 and win by three shots from Mayfair.

Reavie, who had won just over $A429,000 in career earnings, pocketed the $A940,000 top prize and an invitation to next year’s Masters as well as a two-year tour exemption.

There are those who are surprised Chez Reavie held up against the field, the elements and himself to go wire-to-wire and win the RBC Canadian Open for his first PGA Tour victory.

“I was actually surprised at how calm I was out there,” Reavie said. “Obviously, that was my goal, but I had never been in that situation so I didn’t know what to expect.

“I think definitely hitting a good tee shot off the first tee was crucial, but then I three-putted for bogey. I just managed to stay patient, I never pressed.”

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