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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Golf-Dufner's Oak Hill win underlines golf's depth in strength

August 12, 2013

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

ROCHESTER, New York, Aug 12 (Reuters) - 'Ordinary looking' Jason Dufner struck a chord with club players everywhere while also underscoring the extraordinary depth in the modern game with his impressive victory at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

With his characteristic pre-swing waggle and an almost disinterested demeanour, the American does not fit the mould of a golfing superstar yet proved to be the best player on the planet at Oak Hill with a brilliant display of ball-striking.

Known for his unflappable and ultra-laidback persona, Dufner seized control of the tournament by firing a record-tying seven-under-par 63 in Friday's second round, then came from a stroke back after 54 holes to claim his first major title by two shots.

Dufner, who plays golf with a wad of snuff inserted inside his lower lip, was ranked 21st in the world at the start of the week and had only two top-10s in 17 starts on the 2013 PGA Tour, though both came in big events with ties for fourth at the U.S. Open and also at the elite WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Undoubtedly his agonising experience of losing the 2011 PGA Championship in a playoff to good friend Keegan Bradley, after letting slip a late five-stroke lead, helped him on Sunday but Dufner never felt he truly belonged in the select group of major winners until his breakthrough at Oak Hill Country Club.

"I don't think you can ever claim to belong with a group of guys who have won majors until you've done it," said Dufner, who secured his third career victory on the PGA Tour with a closing two-under-par 68 on a challenging East Course layout.

"So, it's a great accomplishment. Hopefully it will propel me to some better things, some better golf, some more tournaments won, majors won, more Ryder Cups, more Presidents Cups."

LIFE CHANGES

Asked how much he expected his life to change following his first major victory, Dufner replied with a typically dead-pan expression: "It's definitely going to change my life, but I'm determined that it's not going to change me.

"There are a lot of things that are going to come up tournament-wise, different tournaments I can play in, different opportunities that are going to come my way, and I'm going to have to deal with that. It's going to be a difficult task.

"You hear a lot of guys talk about the demands of winning a major championship and what that brings. But I'll have to take it step-by-step and day-by-day and go with it," said Dufner, who plays his golf in an almost trance-like state.

On a glorious, sun-splashed afternoon at Oak Hill, Dufner delivered a superb display of ice-cool golf to become the 19th different winner in the last 21 majors, once again underlining the astonishing depth in strength in the modern game.

"You put the top 100 guys in a row on the range and watch them hit a ball, and you can't really tell the difference," said Rory McIlroy, the only double winner in the majors over the past five years, along with British Open champion Phil Mickelson.

"There's so much depth in the game of golf right now. With technology and golf course setup, it's very difficult for players to separate themselves from the rest of the field."

On the eve of last week's PGA Championship, reigning champion McIlroy felt almost anyone in the 156-draw was capable of claiming the title.

"You could look at any other sporting event, and you would have certain favorites," he said. "Obviously in golf, there are a few certain favorites also, but anyone out of this field could win this tournament.

"That's not the case in some other sports, and I think that's something that's quite appealing about golf." (Editing by Frank Pingue)

Dufner's Oak Hill win underlines golf's depth in strength

Mark Lamport-Stokes August 12, 2013

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

ROCHESTER, New York (Reuters) - 'Ordinary looking' Jason Dufner struck a chord with club players everywhere while also underscoring the extraordinary depth in the modern game with his impressive victory at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

With his characteristic pre-swing waggle and an almost disinterested demeanor, the American does not fit the mould of a golfing superstar yet proved to be the best player on the planet at Oak Hill with a brilliant display of ball-striking.

Known for his unflappable and ultra-laidback persona,Dufner seized control of the tournament by firing a record-tying seven-under-par 63 in Friday's second round, then came from a stroke back after 54 holes to claim his first major title by two shots.

Dufner, who plays golf with a wad of snuff inserted inside his lower lip, was ranked 21st in the world at the start of the week and had only two top-10s in 17 starts on the 2013PGA Tour, though both came in big events with ties for fourth at the U.S. Open and also at the elite WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Undoubtedly his agonizing experience of losing the 2011 PGA Championship in a playoff to good friend Keegan Bradley, after letting slip a late five-stroke lead, helped him on Sunday but Dufner never felt he truly belonged in the select group of major winners until his breakthrough at Oak Hill Country Club.

"So, it's a great accomplishment. Hopefully it will propel me to some better things, some better golf, some more tournaments won, majors won, more Ryder Cups, more Presidents Cups."

LIFE CHANGES

"You hear a lot of guys talk about the demands of winning a major championship and what that brings. But I'll have to take it step‑by‑step and day-by-day and go with it," said Dufner, who plays his golf in an almost trance-like state.

"There's so much depth in the game of golf right now. With technology and golf course setup, it's very difficult for players to separate themselves from the rest of the field."

On the eve of last week's PGA Championship, reigning champion McIlroy felt almost anyone in the 156-draw was capable of claiming the title.

"That's not the case in some other sports, and I think that's something that's quite appealing about golf."

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

Westwood apologizes for tweets

The Sports Xchange August 12, 2013The SportsXchange

Lee Westwood apologized Monday for using Twitter to vent frustrations after shooting a 76 at the PGA Championship.

Westwood fired off a series of tweets early Monday morning aimed at those who criticized him after he finished 13 shots behind tournament winner Jason Dufner. Westwood had started the final round within six shots of the lead.

Westwood started off at 4:11 a.m. ET by tweeting that he was tired of "sitting there taking it. Bring it on." He then wrote that he had not "chewed up a troll for a good while."

It was part of a 50-tweet session that included reflections, insults and profanities.

Nearly eight hours later, he used Twitter to apologize to his sponsors and followers, whose number exceeds 578,000.

Westwood's official website lists 11 sponsors, including Footjoy, Ping, Titleist and UPS.

During his rant, he referred to his Twitter critics as "minions" who "need to live from the inside out rather than the outside in."

Westwood, a former No. 1 player in the world, ended his venting by clarifying that his comments were real, but he was getting bored and signing off.

At least one deleted tweet that Westwood, ranked 12th heading into the tournament, read: "Come on you girly boy trolls! I've only won just over 2 mill on course this year! Need you to keep me entertained a bit longer than this!"

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Lewis miffed after long delay at Solheim Cup

EDDIE PELLS (AP National Writer) August 16, 2013AP - Sports

PARKER, Colo. (AP) -- The chants of ''USA! USA!'' ringing through the 15th green shifted to ''While we're young! While we're young!''

For 25 minutes Friday at the Solheim Cup, Americans Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson paced around, putters in hand, bending and flexing to stay loose. They were waiting first for European Carlota Ciganda to find her ball, which was lodged in knee-high scrub in a hazard, then for a cadre of rules officials to tell Ciganda where it was legal to drop.

''That's not golf,'' Lewis said.

At least not by the rules.

Hours after Ciganda took her drop, hit to 15 feet and salvaged a par to halve the hole, rules officials said they had made an incorrect ruling about the location of the drop. But there was no way to remedy the ruling after the fact, so the hole and the match stood.

Ciganda and Suzann Pettersen beat Lewis and Thompson 1 up after being 2 down earlier in the back 9.Europe closed out Day 1 with a 5-3 lead.

Lewis and Thompson, playing in the first match of the afternoon, were about two holes ahead of the foursome behind them when they got to the 15th tee box. By the time they putted, there were three groups stacked on the par-5 hole.

''It's hard to just stand there because we're not doing anything, and all of the sudden, you wait 25 minutes to hit a putt,'' Lewis said.

American captain Meg Mallon, acknowledging the delay blunted American momentum across the course, said it wasn't so much the incorrect ruling, as the time it took to be made, that ruined the day.

''That was my issue with the whole thing,'' she said. ''Here's my team sitting there, after they are just charging and making a comeback, and then they have to sit. And so not only does it change the psyche of my team, but it changes the psyche of the other team, because they can have time to regroup.''

Lewis, who won the Women's British Open earlier this month, lost both of her opening-day matches. Still steaming when the day was over, she confronted rules officials on the 18th green, but didn't get any satisfaction. That was before the officials acknowledged they'd made the wrong call.

''It took way too long,'' Lewis said. ''It killed the momentum of our match, it killed the momentum of the matches behind us and it's just not what you want the rules officials to ever do.''

---

ALL ACES: When looking for tips on how to handle the pressure, 20-year-old Solheim Cup rookie Jessica Kordadidn't have to look far.

On one hand she had her playing partner, Morgan Pressel, whose 8-2-2 mark is good for the best winning percentage among America's active players. On the other, Korda has her dad, Petr Korda, the Czech native and 1998 Australian Open champion who was a stalwart on his Davis Cup teams in the 1980s and '90s.

Shortly before the start of their victory Friday morning over Catriona Matthew and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff, Petr Korda spoke with his daughter about the pressures of team play.

''Dad and I have talked more these past two days about how he felt and what he did,'' said Jessica Korda, who was born in Florida and is an American citizen. ''I have a pretty good idea of how to handle myself, but he's played much bigger crowds than I can ever imagine in one room.''

---

A GOOD MATCH: One reason behind U.S. captain Meg Mallon's pairing for foursomes was the golf ball. Jessica Korda is the only American who uses a TaylorMade ball, and she was struggling to find a partner whose golf ball she could use.

Morgan Pressel, who uses a Callaway, agreed to give the TaylorMade a try to see if she could play with Korda.

''I went to a store and paid $50 for a dozen - haven't done that in a long time,'' Pressel said. ''I played with it at home, and it was OK.''

So they became partners. And they won the only point for the American in the Friday morning foursomes.

But get this - they wound up using the Callaway, anyway.

Korda found that she could use Pressel's golf ball just fine, even though it had a slightly firmer feel.

---

SOLHEIM SPIRIT: Korda was embarrassed about throwing up to the side of the first fairway Friday morning, and she was determined to keep it a secret.

When asked about it, her shoulders slumped as said, ''Everybody knows already?''

Well, yes. Everyone was talking about before she finished playing the second hole. And they all had some fun with her misfortune - and not just the Americans.

''Suzann Pettersen came up to me and held open her head cover and goes, 'You need this?''' Korda said.

---

SEVE AND SERGIO: Azahara Munoz loves watching the Ryder Cup just as she does playing in the Solheim Cup. So when asked her favorite Ryder Cup player of all time, the Spaniard could think of only one answer.

''I think I have to say Seve. Otherwise, they will kick me out of my country,'' Munoz said.

Munoz was 7 when Seve Ballesteros played in his last Ryder Cup. The great Spaniard died two years ago. As for contemporaries, she stuck with the Spanish flag in naming Sergio Garcia.

''When I started playing golf, Sergio was an amateur but he was winning everything in Europe,'' she said. ''Even though he was an amateur, I don't know why, I always liked him a lot. And then when he turned pro he was really young, and then played really well at the PGA. So everybody was following him. And I've alreays really liked him.''

---

SHORT SHOTS: Prior to losing their foursomes match in the morning, Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer were undefeated as a team. ... Morgan Pressel extended her Solheim Cup winning streak to six straight matches. ... In this, the year of the rookie, America's first-timers went 1-3 in their debut matches. Europe's went 3-3.

Europe builds a lead on American soil

DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer) August 16, 2013AP - Sports

PARKER, Colo. (AP) -- One player threw up on the first hole. A top rules official allowed a European player to drop in the wrong spot at a critical juncture in the match. The top-ranked American lost both her matches. Michelle Wie, a disputed captain's pick, turned out to be a bright spot.

The Solheim Cup had just about everything Friday, including one big development for the Europeans.

They had the lead.

With a little help from a bad ruling, Europe took a step toward winning for the first time on the road. Suzann Pettersen and Caroline Hedwall won two matches, andCarlota Ciganda took advantage of the wrong drop by making a 15-foot par putt to halve the 15th hole after a ruling that took as long as a halftime show at the Super Bowl.

The ruling happened in the most pivotal fourballs match in the afternoon, amid American complaints that it stopped all momentum.

Stacy Lewis, the No. 2 player in the world, and rookie Lexi Thompson were poised to go 1-up against Pettersen andCiganda, both of whom where in the hazard. Pure chaos followed for the next 30 minutes, so long that fans were chanting, ''While we're young'' from the grandstands.

Ciganda blocked her approach to the par 5 into an area marked a lateral water hazard. Lewis first was upset that the official used a laser to measure off the distance for Ciganda's drop under Rule 26-1-c, which she felt gave the Spaniard the yardage.

That wasn't the problem. After the measurement, LPGA official Brad Alexander was called in for a second opinion. Ciganda could have dropped on either side of the hazard, but Alexander incorrectly told her she go back on a line as far as she wanted. Ciganda went back 40 yards for a better look at the green and hit into 15 feet.

Thompson, just short of the green in two, hit a poor chip and missed her 18-foot birdie putt. Lewis missed her putt. And then Ciganda knocked in her putt for a par. One hole later, Thompson three-putted for par and Pettersen holed a 7-foot birdie for a 1-up lead, and Europe was on its way.

Alexander took the blame, though because it was an official ruling, it could not be overturned.

What really bugged U.S. captain Meg Mallon was how long it took.

It was the first of four matches. The Americans had momentum on its side in the second match, with Gerina Piller and Angela Stanford making a third straight birdie to cut their deficit to one hole. They waited in the fairway. The Americans were in control of the two matches behind them.

It looked as if the Americans might have a chance to dig out of a 3-1 deficit from morning foursomes and end the day in a tie.

''Obviously, I'm not happy about it,'' Mallon said. ''The thing I'm most unhappy about is that it ... took about 25 minutes for this to happen. And from our perspective the momentum, which was coming in our favor at that point in time, obviously had stopped. ... People make mistakes in rulings. That's not my issue. We have four matches out there and we have officials with every group, and it shouldn't take that long for something like that to happen.''

She still had to explain all this to her team, which left an hour earlier to regroup at the hotel.

Lewis left on a bad note. She was seen arguing with the original official while demanding an explanation, at one point throwing her hands in the air.

''I was very frustrated by the situation,'' Lewis said. ''I think there were a lot of things that went wrong within the ruling. You look at the length of time. It killed the momentum in our match and behind us.''

It was a tough day for Lewis, coming off a Women's British Open title at St. Andrews, whose two losses dropped her Solheim Cup record to 1-5.

Lewis struggled with the pace of lightning fast greens on the front nine as she and Lizette Salas fell too far behind to catch up in morning foursomes. Lewis played with another rookie, Thompson, who twice squandered good birdie chances late in the fourballs.

''She was upset about the day, because actually she was starting to turn her game around as well at that time,'' Mallon said. ''So that's my job to go back and get her refocused for tomorrow, which I'm sure she's already there. She's a very bright person and knows that it's in her best interests to play her best golf tomorrow.''

Just be careful what Jessica Korda eats for breakfast.

Never mind that Korda, a 20-year-old rookie, and Morgan Pressel delivered the lone American point in morning foursomes. After what she called a ''very scary'' opening tee shot with all the nerves and cheering, Korda was eating a banana down the first fairway when she lost her breakfast - but not her game.

She walked over the side of the fairway and threw up, and word spread quickly across the expansive course, giving her teammates a moment of levity.

''After I got past the first hole, I was pretty OK,'' said Korda, whose 7-foot par putt to halve the 16th hole ended the match.

Still, the opening day belonged to Europe.

Pettersen, playing in her seventh Solheim Cup, drilled a fairway metal into 20 feet on the 16th hole that set up Beatriz Recari for the eagle putt to take charge in a foursomes match. In the afternoon, it was Pettersen's 7-foot birdie putt on the 16th - after Thompson three-putted for par - that gave Europe the lead.

Hedwall was part of what European captain Liselotte Neumann called her ''Swedish Vikings'' to lead off the warm, sunny opening session south of Denver. Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist finished the front nine with two birdies to build a 3-up lead, and they never let Lewis and Salas any closer.

The day was not a total loss for Mallon's squad.

She was scrutinized for taking Wie as a captain's pick. Wie's superb short game combined with Cristie Kerrmaking big putts early as they disposed of Catriona Matthew and 17-year-old Charley Hull, 2 and 1, in the final match. The Americans picked up another point in the afternoon behind Brittany Lang and Brittany Lincicome, with Lang holing a bunker shot on the 14th hole to give her side control of the match.

Europe also had the lead after the opening day two years ago in Ireland, and it went on to win the Solheim Cup. This is the largest lead it has had on Friday since 5-3 at Crooked Stick in 2005. The Americans came back to win, and still have never lost the cup on home soil.

That might be tested this week in Colorado.