Mallon guides U.S., wild-card Wie into Solheim Cup
Atricles Course: http://golfatn.blogspot.com/
8.28.2013
Mallon guides U.S., wild-card Wie into Solheim Cup
Atricles Course: http://golfatn.blogspot.com/
Solheim Cup Rosters
Solheim Cup Rosters
PARKER, Colo. (AP) -- At Colorado Golf Club
Friday-Sunday
c-Captain's pick
Europe
Captain: Liselotte Neumann
Carlota Ciganda, Spain
c-Caroline Hedwall, Sweden
c-Charley Hull, England
Karine Icher, France
Caroline Masson, Germany
Catriona Matthew, Scotland
Azahara Munoz, Spain
Anna Nordqvist, Sweden
Suzann Pettersen, Norway
Beatriz Recari, Spain
c-Giulia Sergas, Italy
c-Jodi Ewart Shadoff, England
United States
Captain: Meg Mallon
Paula Creamer
Cristie Kerr
Jessica Korda
Brittany Lang
Stacy Lewis
Brittany Lincicome
c-Gerina Piller
Morgan Pressel
Lizette Salas
Angela Stanford
Lexi Thompson
c-Michelle Wie
Atricles Course: http://golfatn.blogspot.com/
PGA Championship eyes likely July date in 2016
PGA Championship eyes likely July date in 2016
Mark Lamport-Stokes August 15, 2013
By Mark Lamport-Stokes
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With last week's PGA Championship at Oak Hill now consigned to the record books, organizers are preparing for the prospect of a July date when the 2016 edition of the year's final major is staged.
The PGA Championship usually takes place in early August but, with golf reappearing as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games after an absence of more than a century, the schedule for the four majors that year is almost certain to be revamped.
Although the competition schedule has yet to announced for the August 5-21 Games in Rio de Janeiro, the golfing component is expected to make up two weeks, leaving the PGA Championship with very little room to manouevre during a hectic late summer.
"I don't see how we can do anything other than move it (the PGA Championship) up earlier," PGA of America president Ted Bishop told Reuters.
"2016 is also a Ryder Cup year and I know the PGA of America wants the PGA Championship to figure in on who makes the United States Ryder Cup team.
"So for us to go after the Olympics with the scheduling of the (PGA Tour's) FedExCup (playoffs), I don't see how that could happen."
The British Open, the third major championship of the season, is generally held in mid-July but Bishop was not at all concerned that the PGA Championship might lose some of its luster if it was held so soon afterwards in 2016.
"I have no doubt about the tradition of all four majors, they are going to keep their place in golf in 2016," the silver-haired Bishop said.
"The bigger question is going to be, when 2016 is over with, is the impact of the Olympics really worth the strain that it puts on the scheduling for the four majors in golf?"
'HOLY GRAIL'
With the four major titles long established as the 'Holy Grail' for professional golfers, many have questioned whether the return of the sport to the Olympics should perhaps have featured amateur players only.
"I have been kind of a traditionalist with the Olympics from day one," said Bishop. "I always enjoyed basketball in the Olympics, from a United States standpoint, when it was our best college players who were amateurs not professionals.
"The interesting question would be to ask one of the top PGA Tour players or European Tour players, 'Would you rather win a major championship or would you rather win a gold medal in the Olympics?'
"But until the format is a lot clearer to people on exactly what it is going to be in the 2016 Olympics, it's very hard to say what the impact of the Games is going to be on professional golf."
A playing format of 72 holes of individual strokeplay has been proposed by golf to maximize the number of countries capable of competing and winning a medal at the Games, with one week designated for the men and another for the women.
However, the International Olympic Committee does not plan on finalizing the competition schedule for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro until next year.
First held in 1916, the PGA Championship adopted a matchplay format until it switched to strokeplay for the 1958 edition won by American Don Finsterwald.
Though there have been a few suggestions in recent years for the PGA Championship to revert back to matchplay to give it more of a unique identity, Bishop does see any need for change.
"Year-in and year-out, the PGA Championship is the strongest field in major championship golf," he said. "It's the only all-professional field among the four major championships.
"We have produced a lot of drama in the last decade. Our championship totally stands on its merits. I think everybody enjoys seeing players have some risk-reward opportunities with the way we set the golf coursesup."
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Steve Keating)
Atricles Course: http://golfatn.blogspot.com/
8.27.2013
Golf-Rookie Reed claims maiden PGA tour win
Golf-Rookie Reed claims maiden PGA tour win
August 18, 2013
By Andrew Both
GREENSBORO, North Carolina, Aug 18 (Reuters) -Patrick Reed won a battle of two of the PGA Tour's best rookies to capture the $5.3 million Wyndham Championship in a dramatic play-off on Sunday.
Texan Reed, 23, birdied the second extra hole to beatJordan Spieth at Sedgefield Country Club and secure his first victory on tour.
Reed carded a closing four-under-par 66 to tie with Spieth(65) at 14-under 266, two strokes ahead of John Huh, who bogeyed the final two holes, and Brian Harman.
Spieth, 20, was gunning for his second victory in his past four starts, after his breakthrough at the John Deere Classic last month.
He almost became the youngest two-time winner in the modern era on the PGA Tour, but his runner-up finish nonetheless confirmed his status as one of the game's rising stars.
Spieth, who had to lay-up with his second shot after a wild drive, sank a clutch 26-footer for par at the first extra hole to keep the play-off alive.
He looked to have the upper hand at the second extra hole after Reed sprayed his tee shot almost out-of-bounds at the par-four 10th.
But Reed conjured up some magic, firing his second shot to seven feet and he sank the birdie to win after Spieth missed a 10-footer that shaved the hole but stayed out. (Reporting by Andrew Both, Editing by Simon Evans)
PGA Tour's Dustin Johnson to wed Paulina Gretzky
PGA Tour's Dustin Johnson to wed Paulina Gretzky
August 18, 2013
US PGA Tour player Dustin Johnson and Paulina Gretzky -- daughter of Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky -- announced their engagement Sunday on Twitter.
"Paulina Gretzky, she said yes!!!" Johnson tweeted, posting a picture of a diamond ring on his fiancee's hand.
Paulina Gretzky was in the gallery early this year at Kapalua, Hawaii, where Johnson won the US tour's Tournament of Champions.
Johnson, who has seven victories in his six years on the PGA Tour, paired up with Wayne Gretzky at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February.
Reed beats Spieth in playoff at Wyndham
Reed beats Spieth in playoff at Wyndham
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- In the span of a couple of strokes, Patrick Reed went from almost certain disaster to his first PGA Tour victory.
Reed won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first title, beating Jordan Spieth with a most improbable birdie on the second hole of a playoff.
Reed recovered from a drive on the par-4 10th that came a few feet from going out of bounds and stopped in some pine needles in the woods near a television cable.
Reed pulled out his 7-iron, uncorked a baseball swing from an uphill lie and sent the ball under a tree branch - yet away from the tree trunk - to land his second shot 7 feet from the pin.
''It was the best shot of my life, that's for sure,'' Reed said.
Spieth, who called it ''one of the best shots I've ever witnessed,'' had reached the green in two strokes, but his 10-foot birdie putt trickled wide of the cup.
Reed then sank his short birdie putt that ''felt like it was 40'' feet to end it.
''Just to get my first win means everything to me,'' Reed said.
Reed, who had his third straight top-10 finish, earned $954,000 in prize money and 500 FedEx Cup points for winning the final tournament before the playoffs.
Reed and Spieth finished regulation at 14-under 266. Reed closed with a 4-under 66, and Spieth had a 65.
The 20-year-old Spieth, the John Deere winner in a playoff last month, was denied in his bid to become youngest two-time champion in the modern era of the PGA Tour.
John Huh and Brian Harman were two strokes behind. Harman had a 66, and Huh shot 68. Matt Jones matched the tournament record for a final round with a 62 and finished at 11 under along with Matt Every (67) and Zach Johnson (68).
Reed - who let a three-stroke lead on the back nine slip away - missed a chance to win it on the first playoff hole, the par-4 18th.
Spieth recovered from a terrible drive and saved par with a snaking 25-foot putt.
Reed pushed his 7-foot birdie putt wide of the hole, sending it to a second extra hole.
''I don't even know how I was still playing (the second playoff hole) after what happened on 18,'' Spieth said.
Spieth and Huh both caught Reed at 14 under down the stretch in regulation.
At roughly the same time Reed bogeyed the par-3 16th, Spieth birdied the par-4 17th and closed with a par. Huh quickly slipped off the pace after finishing with two bogeys.
Reed, who led or shared the lead after the second and third rounds, also could have won it in regulation after landing his approach shot on the 18th in the center of the green.
But he left his approximately 20-foot birdie putt short and tapped in to force the playoff.
At the end of the day, the leaderboard looked much like it did at the start - tightly bunched. Eight players began the round within two strokes of the lead.
Reed compared the scenario to a Monday qualifier, and he knows plenty about those: he earned his spots in six tournaments last year by playing well in those 18-hole Monday rounds.
For the second straight day, organizers tried to beat the rain by starting the round early, sending players off in threesomes from the first and 10th tees. The skies were ominously overcast all day, but the saturated course didn't receive any rain.
And unlike the third round - in which only 13 players broke par - scores were significantly lower on the water-logged Sedgefield course, and that turned the final 18 holes into a shootout.
Jones birdied five consecutive holes and six of seven during his best round of the year.
''Every golfer out here can go and shoot that,'' Jones said.
Jones and Simpson, the 2011 winner who shot a 63, led the 52 players who shot better than even-par 70 during the final round.
''You really couldn't tell that the greens got any rain,'' Simpson said. ''They were still as fast today as I've ever seen them.''
At one point early in the round, five players - Reed, Every, Harman, Huh and Johnson - shared the lead at 10 under and six others were within two strokes of them.
It wound up being a mostly fruitless week for the players on the playoff bubble who missed their last chance to push their way into The Barclays next week.
Nobody who started the week outside the top 125 managed to make it in. Each of the players at Nos. 126-132 missed the cut, and No. 133 Robert Streb finished at 3 under but could only jump to 126th.
''I was trying to put (the pressure) to the side as much as I could,'' Streb said. ''You can't completely ignore it, but I just tried to play the best golf I could.''
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