Tag Archives: USPGA

Jimmy Walker Claims Sony Open in Hawaii

Jimmy Walker shot a bogey free seven under par round to claim his second PGA Tour title in four months. His first win came at the Frys.com Open in October last year.

Seven birdies and eleven pars  made up Walkers superb 63  at the Waialae Country Club course in Hawaii to finish the Sony Open at 17 under par.

The lead changed hands many times throughout the day with Harris English, Jerry Kelly, and Kirk all scoring well and were all leading at one point during the final round, but Walker remained calm and in control and kept his nerve when it mattered.

Next it’s on to the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation for the PGA Tour. Brian Gay was the winner of this event last year and will be looking to get his season off and running by trying to defend his title.

For the full schedule of the PGA Tour click HERE

 

 

Positive Attitude Sees Dufner Over The Line

Well he has finally done it after 2 years of hurt since he threw away a big lead at the PGA Championship in 2011 held in Atlanta. He was then beaten by good friend Keegan Bradley in a thrilling play-off and it was Bradley that was first to congratulate him after his triumph last evening.

In his speech he said that his ‘aggressive attitude paid off’, and it was a terrific final round of golf which saw him reach four under par through sixteen holes.

Furyk tried his best to keep in touch, and was two behind with two holes left, but both players could only mange bogeys in the last two holes of play which was enough to give Dufner the title that he so thoroughly deserved.

We that’s for the majors this year which is hard to believe, I really think they need to add another major between the PGA Championship and The Masters. There is too much of a break. If they had one in October that would space things out nicely. Let me know what you think?

 

Tiger Prepared For Oak Hill Test

Tiger Woods will be heading to Oak Hill hoping to end his five year major drought as he competes once again in the USPGA Championship, the final major of the year.

Woods’ confidence must be very high after his seven shot victory at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational last week which was his fifth victory of the season so far, and it’s fair to say one of his most impressive to-date. He looked in his best form during his second round where a 59 was on the cards at one point, but a couple of missed short putts saw him card a round of 61.

Oak Hill was the venue for the Ryder Cup in 1995 where Europe won – USA 13½-14½ EUROPE and if you remember Europe had two holes-in-one from Howard Clark and Constantino Rocca, and we had the emotional tears from Seve and Nick Faldo on the 18th green after Phillip Walton had done enough to close out his match and win the cup back for Europe. 

Oak Hill is going to a tough test for the players and we won’t be seeing as many birdies as we are used to. There are a few holes where you can try and attack and play aggressive but only if the pin positions allow.

Enjoy everyone, tune in on Thursday for the latest updates.

 

Oosthuizen Wants McIlroy’s Number One Spot

South African major winner Louis Oosthuizen is setting his sights to leapfrog Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to the World Number One position this season.

Oosthuizen is currently fifth in the rankings after a great start to the season after victory at the Volvo Golf Champions two weeks ago. He tees it up this week in Qatar Masters which is his second tournament of the season.

He seems to have a habit of winning his first event of the season as he has now done it three years running. The 30 year old knows there is a big gap in points between him and McIlroy but is in confident form and believes he can have a very good year and can challenge the Northern Irishman to the top spot.

“I want to climb up the World Ranking to Number One if I can, but I always take it slowly and see how my game is,” said Oosthuizen.

He has always been a good solid player, and last year found himself at the business end of many tournaments and majors, but he seems to have taken the next step and will be a tough man to beat if he gets himself into contention this season.

A Great Year Of Golf

Well it’s been a gripping season and we’ve seen some amazing moments. The majors have been fantastic, at The Masters we saw Bubba Watson play a miraculous shot from the trees in a play-off against Louis Oosthuizen to win his first major title. Webb Simpson held off Graeme McDowell to win the US Open. The Big Easy clinched victory at Royal Lytham after Adam Scott crumbled under pressure and of course the young unstoppable Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy won the The US PGA by an amazing eight shots!

The Ryder Cup was the highlight of the year for me, it was just an incredible performance in hostile conditions in Chicago. The team all pulled together and produced the greatest comeback in sporting history after an amazing performance from Ian Poulter in the fourballs on the Saturday evening.

Also we’ve had the whole debacle over the long putter which looks like it is going to be outlawed in 2016 and is going to change the game massively in my opinion seeing that a lot of top players in the world use them. Will they carry on using it up until 2016? Or will they try and make the change early to prepare for the change? I’m sure it will all become clear next year!

New Law Revealed About Long Putter

It has recently been announced the R&A and USGA have proposed rule changes to outlaw the use of anchoring long putters to the body.

The new law won’t take effect until January 1, 2016, to stay in line with the regular four-year cycle for any changes made to the Rules of Golf.

But the final decision is still yet to be made as lots of leading players have complained about the planned action, so the two governing bodies are taking further comments and suggestions throughout the golfing community before they come to a conclusion.

Under the proposal,  the long putters which are used by many top players will still be allowed in the bag but just can’t be anchored to the body.

I do understand why players are angry about the changes as some players have grown up using them and don’t know any better but I don’t agree that any club should be allowed to be anchored to a part of your body. Having the nerve to win a golf tournament shouldn’t be made easier by being able to keep the putter head still by touching your body.

I suspect we will be hearing a lot more about this over the coming weeks and it will be interesting to see how some players have reacted to the news.

The End Of a Great Year For McIlroy

Well the inevitable happened at the weekend and not even a record breaking round of 62 from Justin Rose (his lowest round on the European Tour by two) could prevent Rory McIlroy from capping his incredible season with victory at the DP World Tour Championship.

The Northern Irishman not only held the challenge from Justin Rose but also from World Number Two Luke Donald who he was paired with. It’s been an incredible year for McIlroy also winning the US Money List, the US PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.

As seasons go it doesn’t get much better than that and it will be interesting to see how this effects him next year. Will he be as determined? Will the $120 million deal with Nike spur him on or will the new clubs leave him struggling? I’m looking forward to finding out, are you?

Irishman Shane Lowry Decides To Snub Q-School

Ireland’s man of the moment Shane Lowry has decided not to go to the PGA Tour qualifying school after winning the Portugal Masters last week.

The big Irishman was due to fly to the States this week for the First Stage of qualifying, but has now made himself available for the BMW Masters in Shanghai next week instead.

The win in Portugal on Sunday lifted Lowry from 126th to 74th in the world, but getting into the top 100 came too late to get him an exemption to Stage Two.

Lowry told the Irish examiner website earlier this month: “If I get through to Second Stage the problem will come if I make the top-60 for the finish of the Race to Dubai.

Jonas Blixt Wins Maiden PGA Title

Jonas Blixt last night won the Frys.com Open by a shot in California after a superb birdie at the 17th hole to make Sweden proud.

Blixt trailed by two shots overnight but got off to a great start in the final round by birdieing the first two holes which were unfortunately followed by two bogey’s to take him back to square one.

He bounced back with a birdie at the 6th hole and then eight straight pars which settled him down after the indifferent start.  Blixt was then to birdie the par five 15th to get him to 15 under par.

Blixt’s then attacked the 17th with a great tee shot and managed to hole a nervy 10 foot putt for birdie after his chip and ran by the hole.

All he had to do is two-putt the final green to take the title and win the big prize which he managed to do.

 

 

McIlroy Blows Away World Class Field…. Again

Man of the moment Rory McIlroy won his third tournament in his last four starts with a convincing two-shot victory over Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood in the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick.

McIlroy who started the day one shot behind leaders Vijay Singh and Phil Micklelson managed to get clear and separated himself from a star-studded leaderboard including Tiger Woods who finished three back on seventeen under par with a closing five-under 68.

The 23 year old Northern Irishman goes into FedEx Cup finale in the Tour Championship at Eastlake in two weeks time as favourite to take home the  $10m jackpot.

The thing that the rest of the field must find a little worrying is how easy he makes the game look under so much pressure and how little fuss he makes about going about his business.

If he works as hard at his game as Tiger used to and still does then we really could have something special on our hands.