Golf Headlines for Today - 11/16/2011

Tiger Woods to play Abu Dhabi in 2012

Live blog: Tiger Woods playing at the Presidents Cup

Presidents Cup: Match-by-match analysis
 
Sisters of Swing Return to the Gold Coast

Rutledge grabs 36-hole lead at Champions Tour q-school

New ING member Ecco to exhibit at the PGA Merchandise Show

World Golfers Championship Finals sees U.S. team take 10th

FENIX Custom Designed Corporate Shirts

South Korea to host Presidents Cup in 2015

Rife Putters agrees to be sold to Innovex

The PGA holds The Presidents Cup at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Victoria, Australia. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker are together for the opening round.

The LPGA holds the CME Group Titleholders at the Grand Cypress Golf Club-North & South Courses in Orlando, Florida.

Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour do not have an event this week.

The European Tour and Asian Tour jointly hold the Iskandar Johor Open in Johor, Malaysia. The European Tour also hosts the Alfred Dunhill Championship at the Leopard Creek Country Club in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

The Hooter's Tour is currently holding the Forest Lake Golf Club - Bridgestone Winter Series-Pro Tees
at Ocoee, FL.

The Japan Golf Tour holds the Dunlop Phoenix 2011.

PGA Australasian holds the NSW Open Championship.

The Sunshine Tour holds the Coca-Cola Championship hosted by Gary Player.

The Ladies European Tour holds the Hero Women´s Indian Open 2011.

And the Duramed Futures Tour does not have an event this week.

Stop by www.GolfReportLive.com to check on the scores and read the latest stories.

PGA Tour – Rory McIlroy won the U.S. Open hands-down with a remarkable four days of golf. He led the field throughout the tournament ending with a wide lead of 8 strokes over second place Jason Day. Rory played the beautify Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland with a 65 (6-under), 66 (5-under), 68 (3-under) and a final round 69 (2-under) to record a final 16-under. It was clear by Sunday morning the only way he could lose the Open would be to repeat the melt-down he had at the 2011 Masters. With each passing hole, Rory showed that he was in control. He was 2-under at the turn and still way ahead of Y.E. Yang who was in second place having started the day at 6-under.  Rory had a clear path to victory as he sailed down the back-nine with only two bogeys on the 13^th and 17^th holes. Second place went to Jason Day at 8-under after shooting 3-under on the day. The fast mover on Sunday was Kevin Chappell who shot 5-under to tie for third-place with Robert Garrigus, Lee Westwood, and Y.E. Yang at 6-under. Rory McIlroy’s victory jumps him into the World #4 position.

Notes and Commentary:  It was a great weekend of golf and a great shot-in-the-arm for the golf Industry. Rory, however, is now in for the fight of his life.

Note #1: The entire weight of the golf world has been placed on Rory’s shoulders. In a desperate desire to have a “Tiger-Like” leader, the industry is going to pile on Rory. He is now in a fight for his life and he may not even know it. Both fame and golf are fickle. From now on, every bad shot, missed putt, missed cut or even third-place or lower finish will carry ten-times the magnitude of anything he has done before. For the next ten years, every birdie streak and top ten finish will be his come-back. We have seen this before from John Daly, David Duval, Sergio Garcia, and even Phil Mickelson.   They all handled it in different ways and I hope Rory can win the fight.

Note #2: Does anybody remember Luke Donald? He shot a 5-over and tied for 45^th place. He is also the World #1 player. Did anybody read an article about the great meltdown of “the Donald” this week?  Martin Kaymer, World #3, tied for 39^th place with a 3-over. Steve Stricker, World #4 shot 1-under and tied for 19^th. Phil Mickelson fell out of the World Top Five with a 7-over and a tie for 54^th place.  Only Westwood, World #2, made a comeback. He started the tournament at 4-over on Thursday and managed to fight his way back with a 65 (6-under) on Saturday.  He finally got to 6-under which was enough to tie for third. In an effort to get the spotlight on Rory, the rest of the leaders on the world stage were forgotten. I am sure the World Top Five were happy to not be targets this week.

Note #3: The Tiger… Is there any real “Tiger-Blood” out there? Does Tiger still have the taste for fresh meat that he had when he was 22 years old? Has all this excitement about Rory’s first major victory awoken a sleeping Tiger and will he start his comeback? Will we see a head-to-head shootout between Rory and Tiger in the future? For those of you that love the “game of golf”, you may believe that there is too much of this hoopla and we need to get back to the basics of the game. For those of us that love the “sport of golf” and love the competition we are crying out – “Tiger! – ding-ding – the Ref just rang the bell and it is time to come out of your corner!”

Week 26 – This week the PGA heads to the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. The LPGA is back at the Wegmans LPGA Championship at the Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York. The Champions Tour is also in New York at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on the En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, NY. The European tour host the BMW International Open on the Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany. We will not see Rory for three weeks when he comes back for the British Open and a chance to carry the weight of the world.

See you on the tee box!

Back in early May, we announced that beards were the new fashion statement for the PGA following Lucas Glover win at the Wells Fargo Championship. This week, Tiger Woods showed up for his press conference sporting a full beard.  The beard turned out to be the only exciting news about Tiger. He announced that he does not have a timeline to return and that he is only working on putting while recovering from his injuries. So while Tiger’s beard grows, we wait for you return and a chance to see him back on top of the leaderboard and the world rankings. We just hope that his beard is not as long as Old Tom Morris’ beard when he makes it back.  

PGA Tour – This week on the PGA Tour Fredrik Jacobson won the Travelers Championship at the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut by one stroke over John Rollins and Ryan Moore. Jacobson shot 6-under on Saturday followed by a 4-under on Sunday to post a 20-under for his first win on the PGA Tour. John Rollins made a serious charge on Sunday, shooting 7-under to tie with Ryan Moore. Moore was at 8-under and tied with Jacobson until he bogeyed the 18^th and fell back to 19-under and the tie with Rollins. The other outstanding player for the Tournament was Patrick Cantlay, the 19-year old armature that led the tournament going into the weekend at 13-under. He shot a 10-under on Friday to take the lead, but fell back on Saturday with a 2-over. He ended tied for 24^th place at 11-under.

LPGA Tour - On the LPGA, World No. 1 Yani Tseng was in control throughout the Wegmans LPGA Championship at the Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York. She shot a 19-under to dominate the field and solidify her number one ranking.  Her closest competitor was Morgan Pressel who was 10 strokes back at 9-under. Tied for third were Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer, and Cristie Kerr at 8-under. This was Yani Tseng 4^th Major on the LPGA tour.

Champions Tour – At the Dick's Sporting Goods Open at the En-Joie Golf Course, in Endicott, NY John Huston won the tournament by three strokes over Nick Price. Huston shot a 16-under with a final round 7-under to take the lead from Mark Wiebe. Wiebe had the lead until the back-nine when he shot four birdies and four bogeys to fall off the pace. He ended in third place at 12-under. Coming from behind was Nick Price, shooting 6-under to take second at 13-under. Huston’s victory earned him a $262,500 purse and his first Champions Tour victory.

European Tour – The other exciting event this weekend was the BMW International Open on the Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany. Pablo Larrazabal and Sergio Garcia went head-to-head in a five-hole play-off after a tie at 16-under. It was Sergio’s putting that failed him in the end. He seemed uneasy and rushed his second putt on the fifth play-off hole and ended with a three putt and a bogey to give the title to Larrazabal.  Garcia has not won a tournament since November 2008. His second place finish did earn Garcia a spot at this month’s British Open.

See you on the tee box!

PGA Tour – Over the last few weeks, the PGA has been more about shooting low early and then trying to hold on through Sunday to win. This week was no exception. Both Harrison Frazar and Robert Karlsson came into Sunday at the FedEx St. Jude Classic with enough of a solid lead to make the tournament a two field event. First, Frazar and Karlsson were playing to win and everybody else was trying to take third. Karlsson had the lead by one stroke at 11-under. He started strong with 4 birdies and one bogey on the front-nine to make the turn at 14-under. Frazar had three birdies to remain one stroke behind at 13-under. Frazar then made his move on the 11^th hole with a birdie to tie it up. Meanwhile, Karlsson seemed to be fighting his swing as he tried to keep even with Frazar. Finally, on the 17^th, he succumbed and recorded a bogey that took him out of the lead. Frazar, however, had his own problems; he hit the water on 18 resulting in a bogey, a drop to 13-under, and a playoff against Karlsson. The playoff ended after three holes, when Karlsson bogeyed the par-4 12^th and gave Frazar the win. In the rest of the field, there was a 5-way tie for third place at 8-under. Retief Goosen shot 1-under on the day, Tim Herron shot 5-under, Charles Howell III and Ryuji Imada both shot 4-under, and Camilo Villegas had the best round with a 7-under. Although this was Harrison Frazar’s first win after 355 starts on the PGA, we have to remember that the real winners on the weekend were the kids at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

European Tour – Over on the European Tour, Robert Rock won the BMW Italian Open in Turin, Italy by one stroke over Gary Boyd and Thorbjorn Olesen.  Rock held onto his one stroke lead after shooting two bogeys and seven birdies to be 5-under on the day and 21-under for the tournament.  Boyd had a good day with 8 birdies and two bogeys to record a 20-under. The strongest challenge came from Olesen, who shot a 10-under with one eagle, nine birdies, and only one bogey to end tied with Boyd at 20-under.  Rock’s win is his first in 9 years on tour, and it earned him a slot at this week’s US Open.

Champions Tour – In Conover, North Carolina, Mark Wiebe won the Greater Hickory Classic after a playoff with James Mason. Both Wiebe and Mason came into Sunday tied at 12-under and spent the day trading birdies. Mason had three on the front and four on the back. Wiebe had five birdies on the front and two on the back. In the end, it took three playoff holes and a rain delay for Wiebe to win his first title since 2008.  One stroke behind was Fred Funk, who shot a 10-under with 10 birdies to come in tied for third with Chip Beck. Funk, who had the lead, missed a birdie putt on the 17^th and made a poor drive on 18^th to fall out of the lead, a three-way tie, and the playoff.

LPGA – On the LPGA Tour, World #1, Yani Tseng, won the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Illinois by three strokes over Cristie Kerr.  Yani Tseng carded a 21-under to earn the $255,000 prize money. Cristie Kerr shot 18-under, while Paula Creamer and Brittany Lincicome came in tied for third at 16-under.   Yani Tseng remains in her #1 ranking, while Cristie Kerr jumps Suzann Pettersen and Jiyai Shin to take over #2 in the Rolex World Rankings.

Week 25 – This week is the US Open at Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland. All the gang will be there except Tiger. The question is, can the PGA Tour Players compete with the field from the European Tour and Champions Tour, who have been turning in remarkable scores over the last few weeks? Who on the PGA can defend the cup?

It’s Sunday afternoon, and you’ve gotten home from a trip just in time to check the scores. On the screen, Tiger Woods is leading the field, with Jim Furyk making a charge at the Memorial. Wow! Tiger is back – this is great!  But wait…

Read more at: www.tree.com

European Tour – This week we start off with the European Tour, where Lee Westwood lost to Luke Donald in a playoff at the BMW European PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club-West Course in Virginia Water, England.

Read more at: www.Tree.com

PGA Tour – David Toms held on to win the Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas by one stroke over Charlie Wi on Sunday. Toms came out swinging on Thursday and Friday with back-to-back 62s (8-under) to take a commanding lead over the field.

Read more at: www.tree.com

PGA Tour – While Tiger Woods withdrew from the first round of The Players Championship, the rest of the field went on to compete in a very exciting and rain-soaked tournament on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Read more at: www.tree.com

PGA Tour – This week, sporting what is soon to be the rage on the PGA Tour--a beard - Lucas Glover won the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina by one stroke in a playoff.

Read more at: www.Tree.com