Category: PGA

The PGA.com title nailed it: Ow-Wie! Amateur teen sensation Michelle Wie was anything but sensational in her 5-over opening round 75. Her round, which featured only one birdie, had one up side. “At least I’m not in last place,” Wie joked. True: at least a dozen PGA Tour players finished worse than +5.

In other words, Wie’s efforts to make the cut will, most likely, keep her short of her goal. Wie remains optimistic, however, saying “I think if I shoot under par tomorrow, if I end up at like 1-over-par, maybe I’ll make it.”

Waialae Country Club played tough in Thursday’s round with winds gusting up to 25 MPH. The breezy conditions frustrated some of the game’s best: Ernie Els shot his first above-par round (71) in 17 rounds at Waialae. Vijay Singh finished with a bogey on the par-5 18th to shoot -1 69. Singh, who made some comments last year regarding Wie, snuck out this year by saying only “It’s tough for the boys over here, you know? Going to be tough for a girl here, too.”

Continue reading “Sony, Round One: Ow-Wie!”

The 2005 Sony Open kicks off Thursday. The news this year? Pretty much the same as last: teenage phenom Michelle Wie is in the field and looking to make the cut. Last year Michelle came within a shot, shooting even-par 72-68 (and beating 47 men in the process).

The Sony Open, contested along the windy Hawaiian Waialae Country Club, is the first full-field event of the 2005 PGA Tour season. Waialae is one of the Hawaiian native Wie’s home courses.

Ernie Els, the defending champ, played a practice round with the teen star on Tuesday. Els, known on tour as “The Big Easy” for his long, flowing swing, tagged Michelle with the nickname “The Big Wiesy” during last year’s event.

Continue reading “2005 Sony Open Preview: Wie Shall See”

Stuart Appleby, the ailing father-to-be, has put an end to all that Singh-ing by winning the 2005 Mercedes Championship, defending his 2004 title.The triple bogey Vijay made on 13 certainly helped.

Appleby, unable to hit balls a week before the tournament because of nerve problems in his left leg, started the tournament with a disappointing 74. His final 55 holes were played bogey free and his one-stroke victory assures him a spot in next year’s field. “You’d have to say it’s slightly surprising,” Appleby said of his win. Appleby finished at -21, shooting 6-under 67 on Sunday a few groups ahead of the leaders.

Continue reading “The Day the Music Died”

I’ll admit, the title is a means to get full use out of the lame title we chose for yesterday’s coverage, but c’mon, cut us some slack! We’re not professional journalists!

Vijay Singh shot a “disappointing” 4-under par third round of 69. 15 pars, an eagle, and two birdies only served to shorten his lead to one shot from his previous two-stroke lead. “It’s a disappointing 4 under, but I’ll take it,” Singh said. “I’m still in the lead.”

Jonathan Kaye played excellently, advancing into the final group with Singh by shooting 7-under 66. In three consecutive days, Jonathan Kaye will have played with Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, and Vijay Singh, the numbers 2, 3, and 1 players in the world.

Continue reading “Still Singh-ing in the Mercedes”

Vijay Singh holds a two-stroke lead over lefty Canuck Mike Weir going into the third round of the Mercedes Championships. Weird pulled to second place with a blistering 10-under par 63 in the second round. Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, and Tiger Woods remain within five shots.

Singh opened his round by going six under through seven holes, then cruised to finish the round eight under at 65. “He shows no signs of slowing down,” said Weir. “It’s just a given he’s going to be there.”

Woods, currently at -10 and five strokes back, would be leading the tournament if he could figure out the grainy Hawaiian greens. On Friday, he missed three straight birdie chances from inside of eight feet on the front nine and three-putted for par on 18 from 35 feet. As noted here, Woods also missed eight birdie chances inside of 18 feet on Thursday.

Pos.  Player          Total     R1   R2   R3   R4  Total
1     Vijay Singh      -15      66   65    -    -   131
2     Mike Weir        -13      70   63    -    -   133
3     Ernie Els        -12      69   65    -    -   134
T4    Jonathan Kaye    -11      68   67    -    -   135
T4    Sergio Garcia    -11      68   67    -    -   135
T6    Chad Campbell    -10      69   67    -    -   136
T6    Tiger Woods      -10      68   68    -    -   136
T6    Stewart Cink     -10      68   68    -    -   136

Coverage continues on ESPN at 7pm ET both Saturday and Sunday.

Some things never change. Or at least it doesn’t look like things are changing yet. After Vijay Singh’s record setting year in 2004, he continues his hot play by firing a bogey-free 7-under 66 in the first round at the season-opening Mercedes Championships. After birdies at holes 3 and 5, Vijay shot up the leaderboard thanks to short birdie putts on 10, 11 and 12, then added two more at 15 and 16 to take a one-shot lead over Craig Parry.

Just behind those two standouts lurks groups of people at -5 (Stewart Cink, Tiger Woods, Jonathan Kaye) and an even larger group at -4 (Bart Bryant, Vaughn Taylor, Woody Austin, Steve Flesch, Chad Campbell, Adam Scott, Health Slocum and Ernie Els).

Continue reading “Vijay Still Hot at Mercedes”

I’m a TOUR Pass subscriber (hey, it was on sale!), and today I got an email that says:

For the next two weeks, PGATOUR.COM will be running an early-season free access promotion of TOUR Pass.

Currently, the TOURCast site mentions the 20% off annual pass ($59.95 down to $47.95), but no mention of the free pass. If you can find the two-week free trial, well, congratulations.

For those of you on Mac OS X, TOURCast runs only in Internet Explorer. Safari, Firefox, iCab, OmniWeb, and Camino all fail. Some pop up an empty window, others load empty regular TOURCast pages, and all manner of anomalies. Only Internet Explorer – a browser that has not been substantially updated within the last four or five years – works.

Tiger Woods fans, we’ve heard your worries. “When will he win again?” “Will he be able to catch Jack now?” Last year’s Japan win and Target Challenge victory may have assuaged your anguish somewhat, but you know those weren’t your typical full-field PGA Tour event. We know you know they weren’t Majors.

Well, here’s our attempt to make you feel better: a comparison between Tiger’s 1998 and 2000 seasons:

            1998     2004
Events        20       19
Wins           1        1
Top-5          8        9
Earnings     4th      4th
Driving    67.9%    56.1%
GIR        67.6%    66.9%
Scoring    69.21    69.04

How’s that? If that doesn’t settle you down just a wee bit, well, I suppose only a Tiger victory in the Masters will calm you down. Here’s to that!

A random smattering of notes leading up to this week’s first PGA Tour event of 2005, the Mercedes Championship.

• Here’s our preview. And, uhh, well that’s all we have to say about that one.
• Vijay Singh is going with a new caddie, having run into problems with Dave Renwick. Said Renwick, home in Scotland, “I’m not retired. I spoke to Vijay the other day and said I would call him the first week in March. If I don’t come back with Vijay, I’ll look for someone else.” Singh will use his trainer, Joey Diovisalvi, for now.
• Todd Hamilton doesn’t like golf? Said Hamilton, “I didn’t like golf as much as I thought I did” said the British Open champion when asked about his busy silly season in which he played in India, Japan, Hawaii, South Africa and California.
• Thank you to the commenters on the Grouchy Golf blog. We appreciate the kind words, and also think highly of Grouchy Golf and many of the other good golf blogs that are out there.
• When the first person tees off, your chance to join our 2005 Fantasy League comes to an end! Instructions have been posted here in our forum.

Television Coverage
Thursday, 7-10:30 pm ET, ESPN
Friday,   7-10:30 pm ET, ESPN
Saturday, 7-10:30 pm ET, ESPN
Sunday,   7-10:00 pm ET, ESPN

Easy enough to remember. I’ll be watching quite a bit this weekend as my Steelers have the week off.