Category: Other

Get out your checkbooks – the Royal & Ancient Golf Club has set the ticket prices for the 2005 Open Championship to be held at the Old Course in St. Andrews on July 14-17, 2005.

Daily ticket pricing:

Sunday    $9.20 
Monday   $37.00 
Tue/Wed  $46.00 
Thu/Fri  $74.00 
Sat/Sun  $83.00

Weekly passes, before January 31, 2005, will run $240.00 which is a discount of almost half over the regular daily admission fees. Between February 1 and April 30, the weekly passes will run $266.00 and after May 1, they will be $295.00.

With a policy that began back in 1997, the Open Championship admits children under the age of 16 for free. So bring the kids and have some fun.

Corey Pavin will tee it up Thursday in Vietnam for the inaugural Carlsberg Vietnam Masters event on the Asian Tour. Played at the Chi Linh Star Golf & Country Club, about 50 miles outside the capital of Hanoi, Pavin hopes to best about 140 others to win the tournament because, he says, “my wife told me to.” Pavin’s (second) wife and caddie is Vietnamese.

“It’s always fun for me to go to a new place and many of you know that my wife, Lisa, is a Vietnamese,” Pavin told some folks with notepads and pencils. “It’s a great opportunity for us to come here and play in this tournament and after this, we’ll tour the country for 10 days.”

Pavin’s wife will caddie for him in this tournament if her luggage arrives. It failed to ask for directions and was lost along the way. Said Pavin, “She doesn’t help too much on advice, but it’s nice to have her around to just talk.” He later added “The sex at the end of the day ain’t so bad either.”

Vietnamese organizers hope that this event – one in which Corey Pavin is the biggest name – will spur interest in golf. Said Pavin “I’m just hoping that my wife will leave me alone about ‘touring her homeland’ for another few years.”

Of course, much of this report has been made up in an attempt to have some fun with an otherwise boring story. Read the honest truth here.

Golf World is reporting that Tom Lehman has been selected as the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup captain and will be announced as such Wednesday at Amelia Island where the PGA of America is holding its 86th annual meeting.

The PGA of America has a tradition of selecting captains who fit a certain profile – a major champion in his 40s with Ryder Cup experience. Lehman certainly fits this profile. He is a five-time winner on the PGA Tour including the 1996 British Open and was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996. He made the Ryder Cup three straight times, starting in 1995, compiling a 5-3-2 overall record and a 3-0 singles record.

“I’d be honored if they choose me,” Leman said two weeks ago at the Funai Classic at Disney. “But I don’t think it’s anybody’s place to lobby for that position.”

Kirk Satterfield of Manhasset, N.Y., fired a 6-under-par 66 in Sunday’s final round to capture the TaylorMade-adidas Golf PGA Assistant Professional Championship at PGA Golf Club. Satterfield entered the round eight strokes back in a tie for seventh at 4-under 212 before leapfrogging the competition, winning by one stroke over V.J. Trolio of West Point, Mississippi. V.J., it seems, could not play like Vijay.

“I knew that I needed to play well and I felt that if I put some pressure on the field early, then I had a chance to make a move,” said Satterfield, assistant pro at Deepdale Golf Club in Manhasset, NY. “I am happy with my round, especially since I played a bogey-free final round.”

Continue reading “Satterfield Surprise”

The European Tour is investigating Seve Ballesteros, accused of assaulting a Spanish golfer off the golf course during an amateur tournament last month. Ballesteros was a spectator at the over-35 event in Pedrena, Ballesteros’ home town. Jose Maria Zamora, a tournament director on the European Tour and amateur player, is the reported victim.

Zamora penalized Ballesteros for slow play at last year’s Italian Open. Ballesteros refused to adjust his card and was later fined by the tour. The European Tour has said that they’re investigating but is declining to comment. No other details are available, and we imagine that suing someone in Spain is just as easy as it is in the United States, so what constitutes “assault” can be left to the imagination of the readers. Was it a prod with a forefinger on the shoulder to accentuate a point, or was it an attack?

We will simply go with “innocent until proven guilty.” Especially given the fact that it is the European Tour doing the investigating and not the local police.

Ernie Els continued his amazing record in the HSBC World Match Play Championship with his 6th victory in the event. He beat Lee Westwood in the 36-hole final by 2&1, and in doing so eclipsed the record of five wins in the event previously held by himself, Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player.

Neither Els nor Westwood played their best golf in the final, but both players contributed to a tense and exciting match; such is the beauty of match play. Two down playing the 33rd hole, Westwood stiffed his approach shot to move within one of Els, but three-putt bogeyed the next to hand the advantage back to the South African. Els closed out the match in now typical fashion, holing a 15 footer to halve the 35th hole and take the match.

For the first in the event’s history, the losing semi-finalists did not play off for 3rd and 4th places. Instead, the players were separated by a bad haircut competition, Jiménez’s curly mullet narrowly beating Harrington’s dodgy bleach.

Continue reading “HSBC World Matchplay – Round up”

Well, yesterday’s predictions didn’t go too badly; 5 out the seven remaining matches called correctly, with one of mis-calls going to the 37th hole. That match was won by Bernhard Langer, pulling off an impressive victory over world number one Vijay Singh.

Today’s matches are being played to an excellent standard. Jimenez played the first 18 holes of his match with Bernhard Langer in 63 shots (an approximate score, since all putts aren’t necessarily holed in match play), and finished the eighteenth 3 up. Padraig Harrington also went round in 63, and although he was 6 up on Thomas Levet after 18, he was pegged back to 2 up after losing four holes in a row. Whatever the Frenchman had for lunch, I want some of it.

Read the extended entry for my predictions for the rest of the second round. Post yours in the comments.

Continue reading “HSBC World Matchplay, Round 2”

CNN reports that armed officers of the Coast Guard boarded the couple’s new mega-yacht Privacy in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The crew apparently was not aware they had to file advance notice of arrival. Doh!

Who says it never rains in England? Well, no-one, frankly, and with good reason. The first round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship was heavily disrupted by rain, which meant that only one match out of the eight 36-hole first round matches was settled before the close of play, with US Open champion Retief Goosen crushing Jeff Maggert 12&11. Goosen was 8 up after the first 18 holes, and only required a further 7 holes to complete the rout and set a new record for the largest margin of victory in the event.

The delay has given me the opportunity to make some predictions for what’s left of the first round, and I’ll do the same for the remaining rounds. Post your predictions on here too, and we’ll see who comes out tops!

Read the extended entry for my predictions.

Continue reading “HSBC World Matchplay, Round 1”