Tiger Woods PGA Tour Groupies

Pamping on Tiger Woods

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:13:00 +0000

By Andrew Both, Fox Sports
November 03, 2009

Australian Masters champion Rod Pampling hopes that Tiger Woods's appearance in Melbourne next week leads to a long-term revival of the Australian tournament golf scene.

Pampling thinks that if world No.1 Woods's visit to the Masters at Kingston Heath is as successful as the tickets sellout suggests, it may encourage others to follow suit and make a similar effort to attract the game's best players.

"If Melbourne is successful, maybe Sydney will say let's do the same thing," Pampling said.

"Maybe a tournament will say let's get Phil Mickelson down to bolster our field.

"Obviously we've been on a bit of a downer since (Greg) Norman cut back, but we've also got Vijay Singh coming down for the PGA (at Coolum)."

Of course, none of these international stars are playing without being well compensated - in Woods' case to the tune of $US3 million ($A3.31 million).

“"Obviously we've been on a bit of a downer since (Greg) Norman cut back, but we've also got Vijay Singh coming down for the PGA (at Coolum)."” – Rod Pampling Australian Masters champion

Pampling is resigned to being an anonymous defending champion next week, swept under the media carpet by the Woods juggernaut.

"I told Tiger that it's been 10 years since I've won at home. I was finally going to get recognised and now I've got no chance," joked Pampling.

He cautioned however that Woods would have to adapt his game to have a chance at Kingston Heath.

"It's not like a typical golf course he's used to playing," said Pampling.

"It will have to be a restrained Tiger. If he just cracks driver, he'll be in trouble."

Pampling also joked that Robert Allenby's late withdrawal meant there would be one less controversial guy to distract media attention from Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods Now The 1 Billion Dollar Man

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:58:00 +0000

From http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoneyblog/2009/09/the-first-billion-dollar-athlete/

The First Billion-Dollar Athlete

September 28th, 2009
There is no recession for Tiger Woods. Our calculations show that the $10 million bonus Woods earned for the FedEx Cup title nudged him over the $1 billion mark in career earnings. Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro in 1996. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009 by our estimates from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements and his golf course design business. If you add in his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his annual $100+ million in off-the-course earnings, Woods' career earnings are now 10-figures.

Only Woods' accountant knows if Tiger is a billion athlete yet, but if it did not happen on Sunday it is likely only a matter of months or his next check from Nike. Woods has been the world's highest-paid athlete since 2002 when he surpassed Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher. His earnings have surged in recent years as he launched a golf course design business and has three courses underway that pay him more than $10 million per project. The launch of the FedEx Cup has been a bonus for Woods who has taken the top $10 million top prize two of the Cup's three years (a knee injury prevented his participation last year).

It is Nike though that has been Woods' most lucrative partner. The relationship has been hugely beneficial for both parties as Nike launched a golf division from scratch on the back of Woods and sales are now $800 million annually. Nike pays Woods north of $30 million annually for his ringing endorsement. The scary part is that Woods is only 33-years-old and might have 15 years of competitive golf left in him and 30+ years of designing golf courses. This is only the first $1 billion for Woods. --Kurt Badenhausen

Tiger Woods turns his doubts into another great year

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:28:00 +0000

By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:01 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2009
LEMONT, Ill. (AP) -Tiger Woods is turning into quite the trivia buff.

During the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago, he saw a couple of familiar faces as he walked off the 10th tee and approached as if wanting to impart some important information.

"Which city sits on two continents?" he said. "And what country has the most lakes?"

His favorite golf question: The eight major champions with the letter "z" in their surname.

When it comes to his own trivia, Woods often doesn't have a clue.

He kept track of the score at the BMW Championship, which was all that mattered to him. Woods built such a big lead at Cog Hill with his course-record on Saturday that his only goal for the final round was to break par.

He closed with a 68 and wound up winning by eight shots.

In an era when a three-shot margin is considered comfortable, this was the fourth straight year Woods has won by at least eight, and the 10th time in his PGA Tour career. He was asked if big victories like that gave him additional satisfaction.

"First of all, I did not know that," he said with a smile that suggested he was pleased to find out.

Odds are, he isn't aware that he tied Sam Snead with his sixth year of six victories or more. To put that in perspective, only one other player over the last 25 years has won six times in a season - Vijay Singh in 2004.

So really, has anything changed about Woods?

He makes winning look ridiculously routine. Because he usually plays only the stronger courses, his adjusted scoring average is 68.06, giving him a 1.26 margin over second place. Such a gap is not unlike Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes - or even Woods in the world ranking, in which he has doubled the lead over Steve Stricker.

So why is Woods so proud of his game? Why does he call this one of his best years when he didn't win a major?

Only he can appreciate how badly his ligaments were shredded in his left knee. Only he knows the extent of the surgery, not to mention the eight-month recovery that allowed doubts to invade his mind about how quickly he could get back to where he was.

Woods has been saying all summer that he never could have imagined winning so much after such a major surgery. Yet the more he keeps winning, the harder it is to believe him.

"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year ... any of you guys probably wouldn't have predicted I would have had a year like I did," Woods said Sunday. "To be as consistent as I've been this year, I'm very proud of that."

Even so, consistency is nothing new.

Over the last three years, Woods has finished out of the top 10 only seven times in 40 tournaments. Go back to Hoylake for the 2006 British Open, and he has won 52 percent of his PGA Tour events.

Sure, there are some noticeable differences.

- For the first time since he was a 20-year-old rookie, he had a lead in the final round on the PGA Tour and lost. Making it that much worse, it happened in a major for the first time ever, and it was Woods' last chance to win a major this year.

- He failed to win a major, which is how he typically measures a successful year.

- He missed the cut in the British Open for the first time, including two starts as an amateur.

So what makes this year so different? His own doubts.

"There was so many uncertainties at the beginning of the season," Woods said. "I didn't know how the leg was going to respond. I've never had a leg that was stable. What kind of shots could I play? How was my recovery going to be from day-to-day? Am I going to hurt again? A lot of these things, I didn't know.

"To come back and be, as I said, this consistent feels pretty good."

For Woods to keep raving about exceeding expectations speaks to how low he might have set the bar after knee surgery.

Look back at his reaction, when he screamed and ran into a hug with caddie Steve Williams after making a 15-foot birdie to win at Bay Hill. Yes, it was the last hole. It was for the win. The extra emotion comes from being his first victory since knee surgery.

So even if winning this year looks routine, it isn't to Woods.

And while the victories continue to pile up - his 71st on the PGA Tour - it is no less amazing.

After his third round at Cog Hill, Stricker headed to the range with his father-in-law and coach, Dennis Tiziani. This has been Stricker's best year, with three PGA Tour victories and a career-high No. 2 world ranking.

His caddie, Jimmy Johnson, was chatting about the turning points in the season when he realized Stricker had won three times in his last nine starts. That's winning at a 33 percent clip, which is strong stuff.

Then he was told Woods has won 30 percent of his tournaments over a 13-year career.

Johnson just laughed. What else can you do?

As for that trivia question? Istanbul lies between Europe and Asia. Canada has the most lakes.

What that has to do with anything remains a mystery.

But if Woods were to win the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta, he would be the first golfer to go over $11 million for a season. He probably doesn't know that.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32845614/ns/sports-golf/

Greg Norman, Tiger Woods would not make good politicans, Bob Hawke tells Australian Golf Digest

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:01:00 +0000

Interview By Steve Keipert
Editor, Australian Golf Digest
September 14, 2009
I didn't start playing golf until my third year as Prime Minister. I was at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Bahamas. The weekend retreat was at the "millionaires playground" at a place called Lyford Cay. It was a beautiful course and all the heads of government stayed in villas around it.

I was doing some work there and Kenneth Kaunda, who was the President of Zambia, came hacking past and I thought, "I wouldn't mind having a go at that". I went back to Canberra and Gary Edwin was the pro at Yowani at the time and he gave me some lessons.

My handicap now is 23; it’s pretty close to 22. I had 19 Stableford points on the first nine this morning and I was hoping to score about 38 or 39 but I only finished with 35. I’m hoping to get back down to 22 shortly. The lowest my handicap got was 15 at Royal Canberra while I was in office.

In office, I used to try to get in one game a week. I’d get up at sparrow-fart, literally just as the sun was coming up. From the Lodge to the first tee at Royal Canberra is five minutes and I’d get around with my security blokes and finish 18 in a couple of hours, if I was by myself.

One day, I was playing with Graham Richardson and we were on the 5th hole. I was well back off the green in two and facing a tough, downhill, sloping pitch. I said to him: "What odds will you give me of getting this in?"

He said: "3000-1."

Well, I put a dollar on with him and holed it. It took him a while to pay, too, the bastard!

PM Norman? President Woods?
It’s marvellous the way in which people like Greg Norman and others have attracted young people to the game. I think it’s one of the reasons why we’re not so good at tennis now. I think a lot of kids, girls and boys, who would have been good tennis players have been more attracted to golf.

I don’t say this in any nasty sense, but Greg’s a very self-centred sort of bloke. Because of that, I don’t think he would make a good politician. Neither would Tiger Woods. He’s too reclusive, although understandably so. He doesn’t give out a lot of warmth and that’s necessary in politics. Jack Newton could have made a good politician. He’s very much a man of the people, a warm, outgoing bloke.

But Tiger Woods is the best golfer ever, no question about it. Equipment has made a lot of difference over the years, but, by any objective standard, by the time he’s finished his career he will be so far in front of everybody else.

The More I Practise ...
Like all golfers, I’ve had a few lucky shots. Three holes-in-one is way over the average. So many good golfers go through life and don’t have one. That’s just good fortune. There’s a little bit of skill in it, but basically a hole-in-one is a bit of skill and a lot of fortune.

I played with Peter Senior at New South Wales Golf Club one time. On the 14th, the par-four up to the green on the promontory, I hit a beaut drive and an 8-iron onto the green and holed a long putt for a three, which with two strokes was a net albatross.

In the pro-am before one Australian Open at Royal Sydney, on the first hole I hit a cracker of a drive, a really long one for me. We had a good gallery that day, and I pitched up and the ball landed behind the pin and rolled back next to the hole.

I heard one guy in the gallery turn to his mate and say: "Geez, this Hawkey can play!"

I soon came back to the field.

To read the full version of this story, pick up a copy of the October issue of Australian Golf Digest, on sale from Wednesday, September 16.

Tiger Woods Blows Away Field at BMW Championship

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:38:00 +0000

Associated Press

LEMONT, Ill. -- Tiger Woods left the drama to everyone else at Cog Hill.

One day after his course-record 62 gave him a seven-shot lead, Woods made sure no one else had a chance Sunday in the BMW Championship. He closed with a 3-under 68 for an eight-shot victory over Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman.

It was his sixth victory of the year, and assured Woods the No. 1 ranking going into the final tournament of the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize. Woods won for the fifth time at Cog Hill, and it was his 10th career victory by at least eight shots.

"It felt like we had a tournament within a tournament," Furyk said. "Tiger was seven ahead. He was kind of running away. It was kind of a tournament for second place."

That other tournament wound up being quite a show.

As Woods cruised around Cog Hill in his familiar red shirt, a dozen players behind him were scrambling for positions into the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake in two weeks.

Furyk's runner-up finish moved him up 15 spots to No. 3, meaning he can win the FedEx Cup with a victory at the Tour Championship. Leishman, who only qualified for Cog Hill by making an eagle on his last hole a week ago outside Boston, earned his first trip to the Tour Championship and will have an outside shot at the $10 million.

Most compelling, however, was the battle for the 30th and final spot.

Inching Closer
With his trouncing of the field Sunday at Cog Hill, Tiger Woods claimed the 71st PGA Tour victory of his career, now just two behind Jack Nicklaus and 11 back of the all-time lead.

The heartbreaker belonged to Brandt Snedeker, playing in the final group with Woods. Walking up the 18th hole, he learned he only needed a bogey to finish in the top 30. He missed his 12-foot par putt, then watched in shock as his 3-footer for bogey caught the left lip of the cup. Snedeker was so stunned that he missed the next two putts and took triple bogey.

"I can't believe I did this," Snedeker said. "I just made a mess of it."

That allowed John Senden to capture the 30th spot by less than a half-point over Ian Poulter, two players who were hardly clutch down the stretch. Senden had a 90-yard wedge to the green at the 15th and chunked it so badly that it traveled only 50 yards. Two holes later, he nearly hit a bunker shot over the green and into the water to make double bogey.

Senden finished with 1,532.41 points. Poulter, who hit his approach into the water on the 18th, wound up with 1,531.95 points.

Far easier to compute was Woods winning.

Tiger Woods has assured himself of the No. 1 ranking going into the final tournament of the FedEx Cup with Sunday's victory.
He finished at 19-under 265 for his 71st career victory, leaving him two short of Jack Nicklaus for second on the PGA Tour's career list. Woods also tied Sam Snead with his sixth season of at least six victories.

Woods won for the first time since his aura was slightly tarnished at the PGA Championship, where he lost a lead in the final round for the first time since he was a 20-year-old rookie. Y.E. Yang rallied from two shots behind to beat him at Hazeltine, ending Woods' streak of never losing a major with at least a share of the lead.

No way he was about to lose this one -- not at Cog Hill, and not the way he was hitting shots and making putts.

The closest anyone got to him was six shots when Tiger Woods missed the fifth fairway and failed to convert a 10-foot par putt. He made it look easy, yet still provided a few thrills.

Woods sent his tee shot well to the right into the trees on the par-5 ninth, leaving him a 20-foot wide chute under the trees. He smacked a 3-iron low, straight and under the branches, just a little too far. Blocked by a tree on his third shot, he played a low hook and ran the ball onto the green to 15 feet. He made the birdie.

Walking off the green, he shrugged his shoulder and smiled. Indeed, everything went his way this week in the Chicago suburbs.

He added an eagle on the par-5 15th when his approach bumped off the collar of the green, caught a ridge and rolled to 6 feet. From there, all that remained was his margin of victory.

Cog Hill became the fourth course where Woods has won at least five times. He has won seven times at Torrey Pines and Firestone, and six times at Bay Hill.

Now comes the hard part.

Woods' sixth victory likely sewed up another PGA Tour player of the year award -- no one else has won more than three times this year. And while he has a 1,504-point lead over Steve Stricker, the points are reset for the Tour Championship.

As the No. 1 seed, Woods will have 2,500 points, with Stricker at 2,250. The rest of the top five are Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum. All of them can win the FedEx Cup with a victory at East Lake. Everyone else will need some help.

For Tiger Woods videos visit www.pga.com and www.tigergivesmewood.com

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Golfweek | Marc Leishman, meet Tiger Woods

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Golfweek | Marc Leishman, meet Tiger Woods

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Tiger Woods takes commanding lead at BMW Championship

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:55:00 +0000

By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: September 12, 2009
LEMONT, Ill. – Tiger Woods dropped his 3-wood in disgust after his first tee shot Saturday sailed left into the bunker for another sloppy bogey. Four hours later, he finished off his best round of the year to build a seven-shot lead in the BMW Championship.

Getting better with every shot, Woods broke the course record at Cog Hill with a 9-under 62 and blew away the 68-man field in the third FedEx Cup playoff event.

He also tied the tournament record, set last year by Jim Furyk outside St. Louis at Bellerive.

“After I got past the first hole I was doing all right,” Woods said. “It was one of those days that kind of built upon itself.”

A course renovated by Rees Jones with hopes of landing a U.S. Open was no match for Woods. He hit his most unheralded shot of the round, a 7-iron that stopped 3 feet away from a dangerous pin at the par-3 sixth, and never came close to missing another green.
The signature shot was his 3-wood from just over 300 yards to 10 feet at the par-5 ninth for an eagle, so pure that the gallery crammed into the bleacher rose to its feet when the ball finally stopped rolling.

Woods was at 16-under 197 and had his largest lead on the PGA Tour since he was eight shots in front in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines early last year.

He will play in the final pairing Sunday with Brandt Snedeker, who had a 66. Marc Leishman had a 68 and joined Snedeker at 9-under 204, both of them hopeful of finishing high enough to get into the Tour Championship.

More than being his lowest round of the year, Woods was nearly nine shots better than the field, which averaged 70.71.

It will be his first time with the 54-hole lead since the PGA Championship last month at Hazeltine, where Y.E. Yang made up a two-shot deficit and became the first player to beat Woods from behind in a major.

Yang is 25 shots behind at Cog Hill.

Snedeker was worried about keeping his car this summer until his health improved and his game turned around. Now he has a chance to move into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, which would qualify him for all the majors next year.

Winning this week? That’s a taller task.

“Looks like Tiger is making it difficult on us,” Snedeker said after closing with four straight birdies. “I’m playing fantastic. And the best thing is I fought extremely well out there.”

Matt Kuchar improved his Tour Championship hopes with a 66 and was tied for fourth at 205 with Padraig Harrington (69).

It was Harrington who got Woods’ attention early in the third round. The Irishman birdied three straight holes, chipping in on the fourth hole from deep rough, while Leishman birdied four straight in the middle of the front nine to reach 10 under.

Woods stood on the sixth tee three shots behind. Four holes later, he had the lead to himself. And midway through the back nine, when he was firing at flags and holing putts, the tournament seemed to be over.

Leishman made the turn with a two-shot lead, shot 1 over on the back nine and found himself seven shots behind.

Related Content

Event: BMW Championship
“That’s Tiger,” he said. “Anything can happen – well, anything good.”

The par-3 sixth hole was the toughest of the third round at Cog Hill, the pin cut in the left corner guarded by deep bunkers front and back. Woods picked out the “6” on the hole sign behind the green and swept a 7-iron in front right-to-left. Even better was his 6-iron from 188 yards in the rough on the next hole, where he had to shape it around a tree from left-to-right.

He lightly pumped his fist when it landed on the fringe 15 feet away, and even missing the birdie putt was OK.

“Just happy with a par,” he said.

Such is the anatomy of his round –he opened with a bogey, his best shot resulted in a par. It was the shots that followed that kept getting better, and Woods rarely has looked this dialed in.

“It was just a round that, as I said, kind of built upon itself, and I just kind of gradually kept hitting good shots, then making a couple of putts here and there,” he said. “And lo and behold, I end up at 9 under par.”

Woods will be going for his sixth victory of the year and his fifth at Cog Hill on Sunday, which would put him atop the FedEx Cup standings going to the Tour Championship in two weeks.

For everyone else, it’s a matter of getting there.

Seven players among the top 10 are currently outside the top 30 required to get into East Lake. Snedeker would not have figured to be one of those players three months ago, when he was returning from a rib injury.

“I didn’t think I was going to have a job in July,” Snedeker said. “My whole goal was to secure my card. Now I’m back to my original goal of trying to make the Tour Championship. Any time you get to the Tour Championship, it’s been a good year.”

Tiger Woods Notices Groupie

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:27:00 +0000

RANDALL MELL, Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods put in some hard work posting that 8-under-par 63 Monday, but nothing like the guy who followed him around dressed head-to-toe in a tiger costume.

“He lost a few pounds, there’s no doubt,” Woods said. “He took off the head at No. 1 there, and he was dripping wet.”

Tiger Woods rallies, but comes up short

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:19:00 +0000

By Associated Press
Posted: September 7, 2009

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods was 6 under after six holes in the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, leaving fans wondering whether they would see an unprecedented comeback.

But Woods never got his hopes up after starting the day nine strokes back.

“The whole idea was to try and shoot something in the low 60s and that would probably get me in the top 10,” he said after an 8-under-par 63 briefly brought him within a stroke of the lead. “Certainly from where I was at, I couldn’t win the tournament, even if I shot 60 or something like that. I was so far back; these guys, (with) no wind, soft greens and pretty benign pins, they’ll go low.”

Woods, who has never come from more than eight strokes behind to win as a pro, shot 70-67-72 over the first three rounds to earn an early tee time Monday – more than three hours before Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen left at 1:40 p.m. Woods, who won at TPC Boston in 2006, birdied the first four holes and eagled No. 6 on Monday morning.

But he bogeyed the 11th and 17th, played the back nine in 2 under and finished 12 under for the tournament.

He was the leader in the clubhouse for hours, but he knew it wouldn’t last.

“Whether you can win a tournament or not, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You go out there and post a low number, as low as you’ve got for that day. It doesn’t change, whether you’ve just made the cut or you’re dew sweeping on the last day. It doesn’t matter. You post a low round and see what happens. You can feel good about it, you know?”

Tiger Woods Throws Club at The Barclays

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:49:00 +0000

Tiger Woods PGA T0ur 10

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:24:00 +0000

By Matt Rudy September 2009 - Golfdigest.com

Now I know what it's like to be Colin Montgomerie.

I actually thought it would be a little sweatier.

Playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the swing-it-yourself Wii video game system is so much more convenient than going all the way over to Turnberry, taking slag from Sandy Lyle and scowling through a press conference.

Hyper-realistic sports video games have been a staple for the high-definition Playstation III and X-Box systems for years. But something about the golf experience is lost when you're controlling the length of your backswing with your right thumb.

On the Nintendo Wii, you wave a wireless motion-sensing controller around and its position is picked up on the screen. If that sounds like the perfect recipe for making birdies -- and triple-bogeys -- as your favorite PGA Tour player, you would be correct.

I brought home a copy of the game -- and a 12-pack of Miller High Life -- and invited two friends over for an adult version of a Dungeons and Dragons play date: Beer and a round at Pebble Beach in virtual video game land.

The knock on the Wii system is that its processing chip is a lot less sophisticated than the ones in the PS3 and X-box. Games on the Nintendo system tend to run more toward the cartoonish than the photo-realistic. That hasn't completely changed with Tiger Woods 10 -- Tiger Woods still looks like a Marvel Comics version of himself -- but the graphics are a huge step in the realistic direction.

The conceit for TW10 is the 2009 PGA Tour season, rendered through remarkably realistic real-life tour courses and a selection of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players to choose as your golf avatar. Taking advantage of the Wii's ability to connect wirelessly to the Internet, the game also allows you to play under the current real-world weather conditions at the golf course you select. If it's 50 and foggy on the Monterey Peninsula that day, it's faithfully recreated on the screen in front of you.

Since it's my house, I get to pick my character first. It comes as no surprise that Tiger is the first face on the selection screen. A list of different attributes -- power, accuracy, recovery, approach -- run down the left side of the screen. They've resisted the urge to make Tiger a 100 in everything, giving him an 80 in putting (and luck, whatever that means), but he's the best package you can pick -- sort of like the New England Patriots in any NFL game. Instead of going with robo-golfer, I pick a guy with a physique a little closer to my own. Monty pops up on the screen, complete with the sour look he wears in real life, and a too-tight pale blue sweater.

My friend Travis goes next, and he goes with Jim Furyk -- who makes a contorted practice swing that looks just like the real thing. Alan is pretty mild-mannered in real life, but he goes for the throat when it comes to video games. He laughs at Travis and my obvious sentimentality and picks Tiger. We're not getting any strokes, either.

The best part about the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 gameplay is that you can pick up enough right out of the box to go play a round without hitting grounders and making 10s. With the game on its medium setting and playing from the White tees, we're all able to make successful swings off Pebble's first tee. In a particularly non-Monty kind of strategic maneuver -- he always seems to wait until the 72nd hole to hit one fat and lose -- I try to go over the trees on the right side of the dogleg right with my 3-wood and end up in pretend jail, 200 yards out. "Tiger" and "Jim" smooth it out there with long irons and have short yardage in.

The game interface is a nice combination of accurate and forgiving. You can do pretty much whatever you want with your backswing when it comes to swing path, but the length of it determines how much power you put on the shot. Take Monty back halfway with his driver and he bunts it out there 50 percent. How you twist the controller through impact determines the sidespin on the shot. Twist your wrist down and the ball goes left. Turn it up and the ball goes right. The space in between, for a straight shot, is pretty wide and forgiving, giving you a decent chance to split fairways and find greens.

Where things get interesting -- and occasionally annoying -- is when you have a finesse shot requiring 50 or 60 percent power. We spent the first two or three holes smoking shots over greens or leaving them short because we couldn't quite dial in the subtlety. Then again, if EA Sports was trying to replicate real golf, that'd be a pretty accurate representation of our collective real-world games.

And just like in real golf, there's a beer consumption nexus -- at about three, performance improves. After that, you start looking for reasons to drive the cart and sit in the air conditioning. Except that with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, you're already in the air conditioning, and the beer is only 10 feet away.

We chopped it around the front nine, with Tiger leading at one under, Furyk at two over and my Monty straggling behind at four over -- just like real life. And just like at real Pebble, we entered the lull when the holes turn away from the sea. But by the time we reached pretend 17 -- and we had only two High Lifes left in the box -- Tiger was still ahead at two under, but Furyk and Monty were tied just one shot behind.

As realistic as the rendering was on my 42-inch plasma screen, there's still enough of a disconnect from real golf that you're not afraid to heckle during your opponent's pretend backswing. Virtual Furyk dumped his approach shot on the picturesque 17th -- cue the harbor seals barking -- short and right, in the bunker. My Monty put a hybrid on the green, but inexplicably -- and accurately -- pursed his lips in apparent displeasure. Tiger proved to be just as clutch in the pixellated world as he is in real life, stuffing it in there five feet.

But the second quirk of the otherwise remarkable gameplay engine pops up again when you're putting. You use a series of buttons on the controller to set your aim, then draw the wand back to provide the appropriate amount of power to the stroke. However, when the controller is pointing down in a pretend putting pose, it seems to briefly lose connection with what's happening on the screen at the top of the backswing. During that pause, if you gun the controller forward, you have a good chance to hitting the putt about four inches.

That's something Tiger has probably never done in his real competitive career, but my living room isn't Augusta National. With Alan at the controls, Tiger tinkled his birdie putt a foot-and-a-half, leaving himself another three-and-a-half feet for par. After the feeble birdie effort, Virtual Tiger even grabbed his putter by the neck and smacked the face with his hand as if to castigate his real-world counterpart. Hooting, my Monty and Furyk both got up and down to save par.

I wish I could say that Virtual Monty broke the spell that has always seemed to come across his golf game when he crosses the real-life Atlantic Ocean to play in the States. Channeling his real-world self, my Monty blocked his tee shot into Charles Schwab's backyard off the tee, consigning us to a double-bogey 7 and a spectator's seat for Faux Furyk's quest to make birdie and try to tie.

Apparently even the video game version of Furyk comes with grit. Travis directed his trusty balding golf avatar 40 yards short of the green in two, where he then jarred a pitch shot for eagle. Tiger needed to make a 17-footer for birdie to tie, which he missed.

It took about 45 minutes for us to play 18 holes -- fast forwarding through most of the banal play-by-play provided by Scott Van Pelt and Kelly Tilghman -- and we all came to the same conclusion. We certainly didn't burn as many calories waving the wand around in my living room, but it there's something to be said for getting a round in with enough to time to go out into the real world and watch a baseball game at sports bar.

Like Travis says, there's a reason they called it "Super No-Friendo" back in high school.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Tiger: Els Didn't Work Hard Enough

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:21:00 +0000

Reuters

NORTON, Mass. -- Ernie Els did not work hard enough after undergoing major surgery on his left knee in 2005, according to world No. 1 Tiger Woods.

South African Els was once riding high in the rankings but is now down in 20th place, having gone 41 tournaments without a victory.

Ernie Els' original three-year plan from 2006 hasn't gone so well for myriad reasons. A recent resurgence has the Big Easy heading to the Deutsche Bank Championship this week thinking a return to prominence is well within reach. Jason Sobel

"Ernie is not a big worker physically and that's one of the things you have to do with an ACL injury," said Woods, who had almost identical knee surgery last year.

"I feel pretty good with what I've done and I think Ernie could have worked a little bit harder," the American said on the eve of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second tournament of the PGA Tour's four-event FedEx Cup playoff series.
It has been nearly three years since Els spoke about a three-year plan to challenge Woods for the No. 1 spot.

The three-time major winner has, instead, gone in the opposite direction in the rankings, although he has shown encouraging form lately.

Els tied for eighth at the British Open in July and then tied for sixth at last month's U.S. PGA Championship before finishing one shot behind winner Heath Slocum at last week's FedEx Cup opener, the Barclays Classic in New York.

Tiger Woods Throws Club - Sobel on ESPN

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:10:00 +0000

Friday, September 4, 2009
Tiger's tantrum a low among group's highlights

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4446797&name=sobel_jason

NORTON, Mass. -- On a day when one playing partner grabbed a share of the opening-round lead and another holed out from a bunker for eagle, Tiger Woods initiated the most fireworks in his threesome at the Deutsche Bank Championship. And they weren't the good kind.

I'll get to co-leader Steve Stricker's eye-popping 8-under 63 and Heath Slocum's continued pronouncement that he can hang with the big boys, but anytime the game's No. 1-ranked player commits a never-before-seen act on the course, it would be a journalistic sin to bury the lede.

In a career filled not only with victories, fame and fortune, but also grandiose outbursts and expletive-filled self-indulgences, Tiger suffered an epic meltdown at one point Friday. Teeing off the par-4 fifth hole -- his 14th of the day -- Woods badly blocked a drive well right of the fairway. That's hardly a surprise, but it's what followed that was truly startling. Almost immediately after impact, he spiked the driver toward the ground, releasing the grip and letting it fly into what can only be described as a dry wetlands area about 10 yards in front of the tee box.

Tiger then walked away, roaring "Release the club!" to himself -- an ironic proposition considering the aftermath of his swing. His caddie, Steve Williams, was left to recover the driver from the thigh-high thick stuff -- which proved to be a daunting task, as it took some 30 seconds to locate the club and another 30 to actually pry it loose -- failing to leave the potential eBay goldmine lying in the weeds.

Asked later to describe his frustration on the hole, Woods would only allow, "How about every hole?"

It was a "SportsCenter" moment if there ever was one, an occasion that would be replayed for the masses time and again. But here's the rub: On a tee box that was largely closed to foot traffic, Woods' tantrum may have been witnessed by fewer than a dozen observers -- playing partners included -- as nary a cameraman nor photographer was within shooting distance.

Once the driver was finally reunited with Frank the headcover and safely in the bag, Woods found his ball in an unplayable lie and was forced to take a drop from the hazard. He made bogey on the hole, then played his remaining four in 1 under par, ostensibly letting his frustrations go with that release of the club. It was part of an altogether respectable round of 70, especially considering how he described it afterward.

"I felt terrible over any tee shot," said Woods, who hit eight of 14 fairways. "Didn't matter what club it was, whether it was an iron on a par-3 or a driver on any hole. I didn't feel great over any shot. It was one of those days."

His lack of success off the tee might have been more acceptable if Woods was rolling the rock well at TPC Boston, where he has found success in the past. Instead, there was a continuation of the poor putting stroke that has plagued him at times during the second half of this season, missing four putts of 10 feet or less and making only two of more than 10 feet, including a 36-footer on No. 8 for one of his three birdies on the day.

"Some were bad putts," he admitted after taking 30 whacks in Round 1. "Most of the putts I hit today, if anything, they were lacking pace. They were kind of rolling by about 6 inches past the hole, maybe a foot. I just wasn't carrying enough pace to the hole."

While Woods couldn't find the pace, Stricker was busy setting it, posting a bogey-free 63 that left him a pair of strokes off the course record.

A six-time PGA Tour champion, including twice this year, the Wisconsin native has never won a tournament in which Woods was in the field. But at No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Stricker has learned to deal with life in the Tiger era.

"I guess I'm to the point where I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, and I'm not really worrying about him," said Stricker, who finished T-13 here a year ago. "He's going to hit those great shots and he's going to make those great putts. I can't do anything about that."

Instead, it was quite the opposite, as Stricker really heated up on the group's back nine, carding four consecutive birdies starting at No. 1, including three he finished from 4 feet or less.

"It was unbelievable," Woods said of his friend and Ryder/Presidents Cup teammate. "The putts were center cut, iron shots were right at it, and he was driving the ball great. He made one mistake there at 7 -- his layup was left [leading to par]. But other than that, you'd be hard-pressed to find a shot that he hit off line."

And then there was Slocum, who was playing with Stricker for the second time in six days. On the previous occasion, the 124th-ranked player in the FedEx Cup vanquished a bevy of big-timers, moving all the way up to third -- and a spot in this marquee group, as competitors are paired based on the points standings.

Once again proving he can play with the game's best, Slocum pitched in for eagle from the greenside bunker on the short par-4 fourth hole en route to a 2-under 69 -- one of a variety of deft shots from around the green by the Barclays champion.

That score meant Woods would have left the final green a little lighter in the wallet if this was a friendly money game, the high man in the threesome and the only one without a sub-70 total.

Of course, it's only 18 holes. With 54 more still to play, Tiger knows he still has a chance to be very much in the hunt here on Labor Day weekend.

"It's a four-day tournament," he said. "If you have a bad day, the whole idea is just to mitigate the mistakes and keep yourself in the ballgame. Today is a day I certainly could have shot over par, but I kept it under par, so that's a good sign."

Three birdies, two bogeys, one driver hurled in frustration. Outwardly, Tiger Woods wasn't pleased with his game on Friday, but that "good sign" on the scorecard makes it all the more palatable.

Tiger Wins Notah Begahs Tournie

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:32:00 +0000

NB3 press release

VERONA, N.Y. -- Top-ranked Tiger Woods was the big winner Monday in the second-annual Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone Resort and Casino's Atunyote Golf Club on Oneida Indian Nation lands. Competing against Camilo Villegas, Mike Weir and host Begay in an 18-hole skins format, Woods collected nine skins and $230,000.

"Today the whole thing was about bringing awareness to what Notah is trying to do," Woods said. "It's great to see what he is doing. He's put his heart, soul and passion into it."

Cheered on by a crowd of 3,000, Woods birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to take command. Villegas finished second with six skins and $180,000, followed by Begay with one skin and $70,000. Weir was shut out for the second straight year.

The event, which raised $750,000, is a collaboration between the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians of California to aid the health of Native American youth and their communities.

"It's time we do more to stop the obesity and diabetes epidemic among Native American youth," said Begay, a former teammate of Woods at Stanford University. "Through the Challenge, we have a unique opportunity to shine a national spotlight on this issue. Our goal is to create a national youth health-awareness and wellness movement among the tribal nations, and I am excited about the momentum for change I have seen today."

Tiger Woods commits to The Barclays

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:06:00 +0000

By Associated Press

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Tiger Woods entered The Barlcays on Friday, an indication that the world’s No. 1 player plans to compete in all four FedEx Cup playoff events for the first time.

In a tough economic year in which PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has asked the players to do more for the sponsors, Woods came through in a big way by agreeing to compete in The Barclays. He has not played the tournament since 2003, when it was held in June, and he has not played since Barclays took over as title sponsor in 2005.

Barclays’ contract with the PGA Tour is up for renewal next year.

Woods is assured of being the No. 1 seed when the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup begins Thursday with The Barclays. A new points system means players are more likely to lose ground if they take a week off.

Even so, that likely didn’t have a bearing on Woods’ decision. He skipped the opening playoff event in 2007 during the first year of the FedEx Cup, then tied for second and won the last two events to easily claim the $10 million bonus.

He did not play last year because of knee surgery.

“The Barclays has been an exciting kickoff to the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup each of the first two years. Having Tiger in the field this year will, no doubt, bring even more excitement to the tournament,” tournament director Pete Mele said.

A change in the schedule also helps.

The Barclays will be followed by the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, then the BMW Championship in the Chicago suburb. The tour will take a week off before the final event – with the points reset – at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Woods has not played a regular PGA Tour event in the New York area since the Buick Classic at Westchester in 2003. He played Westchester three times without winning.

The Barclays will be played this year at Liberty National. The 125-man field will not be set until the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship this week in Greenboro, N.C.

Should he play all four playoff events, as expected, Woods will have played seven times in a nine-week stretch dating to the Buick Open.

www.tigergivesmewod.com

PGA Championship: Yang Captures First Major PGA: Golfdigest.com

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:40:00 +0000

PGA Championship: Yang Captures First Major PGA: Golfdigest.com

Shared via AddThis

Y.E Takes Down Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:20:00 +0000

CHASKA, Minn. -- In a year of spoilers at the majors, Y.E. Yang was the biggest of all.

He toppled the mighty Tiger Woods.

Yang became the first Asian-born player to win a major Sunday with a stunning performance in the PGA Championship, memorable as much for his clutch shots as the player he beat.

Woods was 14-0 when he went into the final round of a major atop the leaderboard. He had not lost any tournament around the world in nine years when leading by two shots.

None of that mattered to Yang, a 37-year-old South Korean who hit the shots everyone expected from Woods. Leading by one on the final hole, Yang slayed golf's giant with a hybrid 3-iron that cleared the bunker and settled 12 feet from the cup.

Yang made the birdie putt and shouted with joy as he pumped his fist. That gave him a 2-under 70, and a three-shot victory when Woods missed yet another short par putt and shot 75.

"I tried to master the art of controlling my emotions throughout the small wins I had in my career," Yang said through his agent, Michael Yim. "I think it turned out quite well today."

[+] Enlarge
Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
Y.E. Yang became the first Asian golfer to win a major championship title, besting Tiger Woods by three strokes at Hazeltine on Sunday.
It was the second time Woods has finished runner-up in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, both times to a surprise winner. Seven years ago, he birdied the last four holes and came up one short of Rich Beem.

This time, Woods made one mistake after another over the last four holes, mostly with his putter.

"I did everything I needed to do, except for getting the ball in the hole," Woods said. "Just didn't make the putts when I needed to make them."

Yang was No. 110 in the world, his only victory on the PGA Tour coming in March at the Honda Classic, on a course across the street from headquarters of the PGA of America. He was best known for holding off Woods at the HSBC Champions in China three years ago.

This stage was far bigger. Yang was even better.

He took the lead for the first time all week by chipping in for eagle from about 20 yards short of the 14th green. And when it looked as though nerves were getting the best of him on a three-putt bogey at the 17th, he delivered his two most important shots.

Yang still had enough strength left to hoist his golf bag over his head, and later the 44-pound Wanamaker Trophy. After a long and tearful embrace with his wife, Young Ju Park, he walked across a bridge saluting thousands of fans who couldn't believe what they saw.

What a capper to this year in the majors.

Kenny Perry was poised to become the oldest Masters champion at 48 until Angel Cabrera beat him in a playoff. Phil Mickelson, reeling from his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer, was on the verge of finally winning the U.S. Open until Lucas Glover outplayed him over the final few holes. And just last month, 59-year-old Tom Watson was an 8-foot par putt away from winning the British Open, then lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

Woods losing a two-shot lead in the final round of a major? That was unthinkable -- until a breezy afternoon at Hazeltine.

"I played well enough the entire week to win the championship," Woods said. "You have to make putts. I didn't do that. Today was a day that didn't happen."

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Yang Stuns Woods For PGA Championship Win - ESPN VIDEO

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:17:00 +0000

Tiger Woods PGA Tour By The Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:28:00 +0000

Read the original article here:

http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2x009/news/woods_081109.cfm

For Woods, the numbers keep adding up and up

Tiger Woods owns 14 majors and 70 career PGA TOUR wins, so Melanie Hauser has a question. Will Tiger reach Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors or Sam Snead's mark of 82 wins first? Tiger won't make a guess, but Hauser thinks she knows.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

CHASKA, Minn. -- He swears he doesn’t think about the numbers.

Unless, of course, we bring them up.

So what if he’s 0-for-the-big-ones so far in 2009? We’re still talking 18 as if Tiger Woods was on his way to a replay of 2000. He’s a mere four majors short of the mark that’s driven him since he was a kid -- Jack Nicklaus’ 18 professional majors -- and that’s way too close to ignore.

But we thought it was about time to shake this debate up. Throw something a bit more interesting at you; something that might spice up this latest run at history.

Which mark will Tiger reach first: Nicklaus’ 18 majors or Sam Snead’s 82 PGA TOUR wins? Good question, isn’t it?

“Those are numbers that are pretty mind-boggling to get up that high,’’ he said Tuesday morning. “Those records and those numbers don't happen in the course of a few years; it's the course of an entire career.

“I feel like I've had a pretty good start to my career and I still have a lot more years ahead of me, and you just keep playing. Where the number falls, the number falls when I'm all said and done.

“It's just one of those things where you just can't make that happen overnight.’’

It took Snead nearly three decades to get to 82. He won his last TOUR event when he was nearly 53 and made the cut in the PGA Championship when he was 67. It took Nicklaus most of his career to get to 18 and 73, both coming in 1986 at the age of 46.

And Tiger? He’s redefining the way we look at everything, so why not career, too? He’s a baker’s dozen years into his and staring down 34. Yes, 34. Don’t let the receding hairline fool you.

We’ve already handed him the next magic number: 73. He’s three back of Jack’s career win record, which is second only to Snead, and on a tear. He’s won his last two starts and appears primed for a run into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup which means 73 could be history in a little more than a month.

Yes, even that’s debatable. But even that’s kind of like saying it’s possible. And given what’s in his bag right now and what we see, we’re going with probable.

We’ve watched him go from crutches a year ago to some major frustrations to a five-win season and counting. Yes, he’s still hitting it off the planet at times, but he’s reeling it back in, too. And if he wins this week, we feel one of those mini season-closing runs coming on.

One that makes you realize one more time just how good this guy really is.

The current question making the rounds is whether or not this will go down as a great season if he doesn’t win this week. If not, will it be best season with his B-game? Or best season after a rebuilt knee?

“It's been a great year either way,’’ he said. “For me to come back and play and play as well as I've done and actually win golf events; to say at the very beginning of the year, when I was feeling the way I was, to be honest with you, I don't think any of us would have thought I could have won this many events this year.’’

Indeed. Which makes us wonder about those suggesting it was time to put a fork in his season when he missed the cut at Turnberry. Maybe, just maybe, that snapped his mind back into focus and reminded him that he might have been pressing a little too hard on his way to 18.

The point is, we have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be at 15 -- and 71 -- by Sunday afternoon. Which brings us back to that question at hand.

18 or 82?

If you run the numbers, he’s averaged more than five PGA TOUR wins a year during his career and had five seasons where he’s won six times or more. His personal best? Nine wins in 2000. And he’s had four seasons where he’s won multiple majors, including that trio of them in ’00.

Now, factor in those other milestones of his -- he’s won seven times at Firestone Country Club and Torrey Pines (counting last year’s iconic U.S. Open), six times each on Doral’s Blue Monster and Bay Hill and four times each at Augusta National and Murifield Village -- and the equation gets stronger.

Then there’s Tiger. He’s happy with what he’s done, this year, no question. But he knows the stars are falling into alignment -- well, his game and his focus -- and this is no time for a major blip.

And finally? We’re getting a definite 2000 vibe from what’s unfolding. And when asked if Tiger 2000 or Tiger 2009 would win in an 18-hole match?

No question, he said. Tiger ’09.

“I know how to manage my game a hell of a lot better than I did back then,’’ he said. “Just understanding how to get the ball around; I have so many more golf shots now to get me around the golf course. And that's just experience. That's nine more years of learning how to play and how to manage my game around a golf course.

“And I'll probably say the same thing nine more years, because I have that much more understanding mentally. Physically, I don't know if I'll be able to hit the ball quite as far, but understanding how to play, that's just years of experience.’’

And you wonder why he just keeps redefining what we consider the best. If you take the conservative route and think he’ll win half of what he has won in the last nine years in the next nine? We’re sitting at 93 wins and 21 majors. Yikes.

But as for 82 or 18? Add this one up and we’re coming to one simple conclusion -- 18 will come first.

Like we said, we’re thinking 15 comes Sunday and he could close the deal at St. Andrews 11 months from now. Worst case? Early 2012.

If the latter is right, we could make a case for it being close. Five wins a season -- at least one a major -- would stretch both records to 2012. By then he’ll be looking at Kathy Whitworth’s all-time win mark of 88.

But c’mon. You’ve seen him. You’ve heard him.

Yes, the numbers are mind-boggling. But since when has mind-boggling ever stopped him?

Tiger, Phil Ready For PGA Championship - ESPN VIDEO

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Woods (-5) Leads PGA Championship - ESPN VIDEO

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Tiger Woods Groupies Still Under Attack

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:20:00 +0000

As Tiger Groupies drove off into the sunset after Tiger won the Buick, emails were still coming in from the perfect people still upset about Tigers shocking behavior at the Open, and even more upset about our post calling out the likeable Rick Reilly.
Being Tiger Woods groupies, we have a lot of love, and we love Rick Reilly, just not in a Tiger Woods-love kinda way. Lets's break down Rickies article and let the matter rest:

"Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair..." - True, although this is partly due to the fact Tiger has no hair that he can get "crazy" with nowadays

"And yet he spent most of his two days at Turnberry last week doing the Turn and Bury" - Nice line, this is why we will always love you Ricky, even if you've been temporarily possessed by demons who forced you to turn to the dark side

"A whole lot of that worldwide audience is kids...Do you think for two seconds they don't think it's cool to throw their clubs like Tiger, too?" - While thinking isn't something we do very often, let alone for two seconds, we thinks that any kid with half a brain (no disrespect to those kids with half a brain) that has been taught right from wrong can make up their own mind as to whether or not doing the Turn and Bury on the first tee in front of the clubhouse cronies is the cool thing to do

"Ever remember Jack Nicklaus doing it" - Good point, but Jack threw his putter rather high in the air at one rather famous Open, presumingly causing untold damage to the green. At least Tiger has the decency to keep his outbursts off the superintendents most holy grail

"Woods has been this way for years: swearing like a Hooters' bouncer" - You've been hanging out with JD again haven't you Ricky

"If it were my son, I'd tell him the same thing: "Either behave or get off the course." - and that's all any parent needs to do if they see their kids trying to emulate Tigers outbursts. Just because a role model does something, doesn't mean every kid is going to copy it.

"Will Tiger let his own two kids carry on in public like that?" - We kinda hope so because golf participation will continue to drop if we keep having winners like, well lets not mention any names...

"Well, it's not fun to watch" - then don't watch if bothers you so much.

Our main defense is that all you do-gooders love it when you see a 2008 US Open, 2008/2009 Bay Hill, 200 PGA Championship Playoff etc reaction, yet expect him to react with grace and calm when he hits a bad shot. These same do-gooders are often the same ones that talk about "growing the game", which I don't think most tour players encourage by their stick reactions to good and bad shots.

Finally Ricky, was that you who let one rip at the Buick?

Tiger Woods and Stevie Impressed by Thunder Buster

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Rick Reilly and the rest of his perfect people walking the earth will be a little shocked at this video of Tiger Woods and Steve Williams laughing it up as one of the gallery or TV crew let a thunder buster go during the heat of the moment at the 2009 Buick Open

Tiger Woods Wins 69th Title

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:07:00 +0000

Associated Press

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Tiger Woods has another trophy for his overflowing collection.

Woods shot a 69 Sunday and coasted to a three-shot victory with a 20-under 268 at the Buick Open for the 69th PGA Tour title of his career.

“This one feels good,” he said.

He improved to 36-1 when he has the outright lead after 54 holes. Woods has four wins this season – doubling the total of his nearest competitors – in just 11 starts since returning from knee surgery.

Woods will play at the Bridgestone Invitational next before going to Hazeltine for the PGA Championship, his final chance to win a major this year.

He is set to compete in two straight tournaments going into a major for the first time in his career.

Woods moved into first place in the FedEx Cup standings and padded his lead on the money list with another $918,000 after winning his third Buick Open, tying Vijay Singh’s record total.

His career victory total trails Jack Nicklaus (73) and Sam Snead (82).

Woods reached victory No. 69 at the age of 33 years and seven months – almost 7 years quicker than Nicklas and eight years sooner than Snead.

Dating to the 2006 British Open, he has won 21 of 39 starts on the PGA Tour.

Woods, playing for the first time since missing the cut at the British Open, got off to a brutal start at the Buick Open.

He shot a 71 in the first round and said it was probably the worst putting performance of his career, leading to him skipping his post-round practice session because he was so mad.

It only added to his legacy because he went from a tie for 95th to a victory, the largest jump he’s made from the first round in a tournament he ended up winning.

“I was so far back that I was fortunate enough to put two good rounds together,” he said.

Woods roared back into contention with the best five-hole start of his career – beginning 6 under in the second round – en route to a 9-under 63 for his best score in relation to par in four years.

He hit the ball relatively poor in the third round, but made enough clutch shots to finish with a 65 and a one-shot lead going into Sunday.

Without much of a sweat, he avoided losing an outright lead after 54 holes for the first time since 1996 and improved to 47-3 when he at least shares the lead following three rounds.

Thatcher shot a 9 under Sunday and shared the lead briefly, but he expected Woods to pull away with 15 holes left on the vulnerable Warwick Hills.

He did.

Woods, whose previous three wins this year were each by one shot, spent much of Sunday with a two-shot cushion before he took a three-stroke lead with a birdie at No. 16.

His businesslike final round included three birdies and no bogeys.

“I got fooled a few times by the wind and I hit some bad shots,” Woods said.

Early and often at Warwick Hills, from the pro-am when he played with famed rocker Bob Seger through Sunday, Woods was thanked by fans who appreciated his appearance in an economically ravaged state at a tournament reportedly on its last leg.

“I’ve never played in front of fans like this,” Woods said.

GolfWeek Magazine reported on its Web site General Motors Co. would end the PGA Tour’s longest partnership, and the Associated Press confirmed it with a person briefed on the decision. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement wouldn’t be made until after the tournament. GolfWeek also reported The Greenbrier in West Virginia is waiting for the PGA Tour to confirm it will replace the Buick Open in 2010.

Woods said he thought about his walk up the 18th fairway at Warwick Hills being his last.

“Hopefully, we get to come back to this area,” he said.

Tiger Woods Should Ignore Rick Reilly's Criticism

noreply@blogger.com (golfinhongkong) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:46:00 +0000

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Groupies have added the author of this article - Peter Cady from bleacherreport.com, to our xmas card list. All hail to Peter Cady.

In case you haven’t heard, Rick Reilly recently criticized Tiger Woods for his temper tantrums in an article entitled “Woods needs to clean up his act.”

To sum it up, Reilly basically states that Woods’ frequent curses and club slams after bad shots or poor putts are an insult to the sport and past golfers as well as his current competitors, while also serving as a bad example for kids.

I tend to disagree with the majority of Reilly’s opinions due to the fact that they are usually anti-athlete—I find that the majority of his articles portray athletes as spoiled brats who make too much money, and he’s happy to point out that Woods makes $100 million a year in endorsements in this article, which serves little purpose.

But regardless of how you feel about him, you have to respect Reilly as a powerful name in the sports world.

However, like in most cases, I disagree with Reilly feeling as if Tiger needs to be a poster boy of good sportsmanship in golf, as the sport already has enough of those characters.

How many times do you see Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and other guys on the PGA Tour so much as merely shake their heads or shrug their shoulders after hitting a ball into the tree line or narrowly missing a birdie putt, or, as a worst case scenario, throw their sand wedge towards their bag after a tough time in the bunker?

And after they nail a shot right next to the pin from 200 yards out or sink an eagle putt, you usually just see a short flash of emotion with a weak fist pump and a high-five from their caddie.

In any golf tournament, you will see players hit amazing shots, regardless of whether Tiger is in it or not.

But aside from the reason that he’s the best golfer in the history of mankind, the reason why we like to watch Woods play so much is because of the fact that he is so willing to publicly display his emotions like a stripper displays her assets at the Body Shop in Hollywood.

He’ll pump his fists in exhilaration after making a crucial putt and curse all over Amen corner when his ball goes astray.

And golf fans like that.

Continue reading this article here:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/224295-woods-should-ignore-reillys-criticism