With only six events remaining on the official 2005 LPGA tour schedule, the Safeway Classic presented by Pepsi promises to be one of the highlights.
The par-72, 6327 yard Columbia-Edgewater Country Club sets the stage for the 54-hole tournament which includes thirteen of the top money winners this year. This will also be a good scouting opportunity for Nancy Lopez. All fifteen players who are competing for a place on the U.S. Solheim Cup team will be in attendance. Although most of the team has been selected, the two captain’s choice positions will most certainly be filled after this week’s event.
The PGA Championship has come and gone, but not without causing a stir in the golf world. The positive stories include Phil’s second major championship victory, Tiger’s weekend charge up the leaderboard, and Charles Howell III’s ace on the fourth hole Saturday. The latter story was my personal favorite, but the other two were pretty special as well. The good usually doesn’t come without the bad, however. Did anyone in the last few groups play anything that resembled good golf Sunday? The world’s best golfers were three-putting, duffing pitch shots, and hitting tee shots near the out-of-bounds markers.
If there were any lingering doubts that Phil Mickelson deserved his single major (the 2004 Masters), they have been dispelled. He kicked the “lucky” monkey off his back by winning the PGA Championship, his second major in two years. After Phil’s great year at the big four in ’04, 2005 was shaping up to be an average year at best. His best finish this year came at the Masters when he finished alone in 10th place.
In the first part of this series, 
I hate waiting. I can’t imagine what these guys are thinking having to wait overnight to finish their rounds at the PGA Championship. Waiting will only hurt Tiger’s chances of winning. Do you think he really believes he stands a chance? I don’t. I think -5 will win it. 
Golf can be broken down into all sorts of things – wrist cock, spine angle, short game, long irons, trouble play, mental aspects, rules and their benefits and penalties, and so on. For this week’s Trap Five, we’ve broken the game of golf into five main areas – the mental game, iron play, chipping/pitching, driving, and putting – and ranked them in order along with the single best tip we can think of to help you with that aspect of the game.
Retief Goosen has the perfect demeanor for both golf and poker. Getting a read on him is not unlike looking at a book written in Sanskrit. His emotions don’t run too high or too low. His steady-as-it-goes approach that has paid him dividends in golf.