Category: PGA

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.

Mickelson started 2005 with a bang, winning twice in February and once in April. There weren’t many of us who expected Phil to snag a PGA Championship victory as he had cooled off in the second half of the season and had not been a factor at either the U.S. Open or the Open Championship. He surprised us all by leading at the end of every round and calmly walking off the 18th hole after sinking a short birdie putt for the win.

Continue reading “Mickelson Prevails at the PGA Championship”

Mickelson holds a one-shot lead in what could be a very exciting finish to this year’s PGA Championship. Play was halted shortly after a lightning storm moved into the area. Mickelson was getting a read on a par-putt at the 14th hole when lightning struck nearby. “Look, I love this championship,” he said, “but I want to live, man.” And that was reason enough to halt play.

Continue reading “Lightning Delays Final Round of PGA Championship”

The PGA Championship is the final major championship of the year on the PGA Tour, and it will be played at Baltusrol Golf Club this week. As usual, there are numerous storylines heading into the week, and it will be exciting to see how everything unfolds. Tiger Woods is at the top of the list of stories once again. Woods will be looking to win his third major of 2005 and the 11th of his career.

A win this week will put Tiger in a tie with Walter Hagen on the all-time list of major championship victories. So far in 2005, Woods has finished first at The Masters, second at the U.S. Open, and first at last month’s British Open. Tiger is arguably playing the best golf of his career, and he will be the unanimous favorite at Baltusrol this week. Out of Woods’ 10 major championship victories, two have come at the PGA Championship.

Continue reading “PGA Championsip Preview”

On the PGA Tour this weekend, Retief Goosen trudged through 36 holes to edge Brandt Jobe by a single point at The International, earning his sixth PGA Tour win and his 23rd as a professional. Jobe, who at one point had a nine-point lead, fell apart in the middle of his second 18 holes and let nearly everyone back into the tournament. For awhile, Charles Howell III and Phil Mickelson even had a shot. Jobe left a 25-foot birdie putt short on the last to win. Yes, you read that correctly: he left the winning putt short.

On the Nationwide Tour, U.S. Open fan favorite Jason Gore captured his third straight victory and his seventh on the Nationwide Tour after firing a 59 in his second round on Saturday. His third win promotes him to the PGA Tour via the “Battlefield Exemption” rule, and we look forward to seeing the big guy playing with The Big Guys real soon. Jason put a wedge to five feet on the second playoff hole from the rough and after his opponent, Roger Tambellini, put a shot to eight feet. Roger missed, Jason made, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Continue reading “Gore and Goosen”

Looking to win two free tickets to the PGA Championship this year at Baltusrol? We have ’em! Read more about the contest here in our forum. If you don’t wish to join the forum (awww, why not?), I’ll accept email entries. Click the “Staff” page above to email your entry to me by Sunday, August 7.

The final major championship of 2005 is just one week away, but many of the top-ranked golfers are making one last stop in Colorado before heading to Baltusrol for the PGA Championship. Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh battled it out last week at the Buick Open, and Vijay eventually pulled out the victory. Both Singh and Woods will be taking this week off in preparation for Baltusrol, and Ernie Els is out for the season due to knee surgery. That being said, the rest of the big guns on the PGA Tour will be teeing it up at Castle Pines in what should be a very exciting event.

Continue reading “The International Preview”

Vijay Singh simply had too big a lead and Tiger Woods simply played the first eight holes horribly on Saturday and Sunday. End result? A comfortable four-stroke victory by world #2 Vijay Singh, his fourth of the year (and his second consecutive Buick Open). Singh is now the only player to win the Buick Open three times.

Tiger could only listen (screen capture credit to Tony @ HOG) as Vijay withstood a back-nine 30 by the world’s highest-ranked player. That 30 included a bogey at the last when he nearly missed the fairway to the right – that is, the adjacent fairway – and couldn’t get up and down from a greenside bunker.

Continue reading “Vijay Says “Listen Up, Tiger” at Buick Open”

Ernie Els, in a post on his own website, has broken the news that he injured himself sailing in the Mediterranean. He had surgery on his left knee a few days ago and is out of action “indefinitely.”

Well, I imagine many of you will be checking my website today expecting me to talk about the build-up to the big tournaments coming up in the next few weeks. Others will have already heard the news that I injured my knee while on a sailing holiday in the Mediterranean and had to have surgery on it a couple of days ago. As a result, I’m going to have to take a break from golf on the recommendation of my medical advisers. Basically it’s the only sensible course of action, so that I can be sure of the promptest recovery period. Obviously the timing is unfortunate. Although let’s face it, there’s no such thing as a good time to get injured. But what can you do? There’s no point dwelling on your bad luck, or whatever. All I’m doing is focusing on getting better as quickly as possible, so I’m out of action for not a day longer than I have to be. I’ll fill you in with some more detailed news when I write again, probably this Monday coming. Until then, bye for now.

Though Ernie has not said exactly how long he’ll be out, the world’s third-ranked player is expected to miss the PGA Championship and the Presidents Cup.

Photo Credit: David Cannon, Getty Images at ErnieEls.com.

Tiger Woods comes into the Buick Open on top of the golfing world as always. Mr. Woods won his second major of the year two weeks ago at St. Andrews to (hopefully) answer the question “is he back yet” once and for all!

Unfortunately, last year’s Buick Open took place when Woods was still facing that question, and the honor of being defending champion belongs to Tiger’s top rival, Vijay Singh. Both players will be looking to win this event for the second time in their respective careers. Singh also won it in 1997, and Tiger won it in 2002.

Continue reading “Buick Open Preview”