Category: PGA

2007 PGA Championship Final Round Live Blog

Will Tiger make it 8-for-8 with a second-round lead and 13-for-13 with a third-round lead? Or will someone finally overtake Tiger on the final day of a major?

2007 PGA Logo18:54 – That does it – a lucky 13th for Tiger Woods. Though many suspected he’d win, I doubt many would have predicted he’d have quite this much trouble. Congratulations, Tiger Woods.

18:47 – Tiger’s approach at the 18th finds the back center of the green. He has three putts to win the 89th PGA Championship. But first he has to wait for Stephen Ames, currently back to +6 for the day. His ball stops within two feet of Tiger’s.

18:44 – Nicklaus won his 13th at 35 years old. Tiger will win his 13th at 31 (and will turn 32 this December).

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2007 British Open Live Blog

Will Sergio Garcia win his first major, ending the European drought the week his idol retires from the game?

14:36 – Sergio makes. Harrington does too and is the 136th Open Champion winner and the Champion Golfer of the Year.

14:35 – Sergio’s birdie putt somehow misses high! It looked in from the get-go, but it slides just outside of Padraig’s ball!! If Sergio misses, it’s over. If he makes, Padraig must make to win outright.

14:34 – Harrington’s par putt rolls three to four feet past the cup, right on Sergio’s line.

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U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Sunday

Angel Cabrera wins the 107th U.S. Open. Here’s my account of a 14-hour day in the 18th hole grandstand.

2007 U.S. OpenWhat follows is a transcription of my notes from the grandstands near the 18th green on Sunday at the U.S. Open.

4:30 am – I showered the night before, so I wake up, put my clothes on, deflate my bed for the week, and get in the car for the short drive to Oakmont.

5:10 am – I arrive at my destination for the day – the grandstands overlooking the 18th – and find that I’ve been beaten to my ideal spot by six people. The sun isn’t up yet, and people are in the 18th grandstands. My ideal spot was the back left corner, which offers views of the ninth/practice green, the 10th, 12th, and 15th tees, and the 11th, 14th, and 18th greens. With binoculars, you can see even more including the second, 15th, and 17th greens. I will be here for the next 14 hours.

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U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Friday

Phil plays the “bang and blame” game, Tiger hacks his way around the easy second hole and makes perhaps the best five I’ve seen in a long time, and Angel Cabrera relies on the Big Break to hold the lead?

2007 U.S. OpenI attended the U.S. Open yesterday and sat behind the first green for about five hours. Then I went to the ninth green for about three hours.

I saw one birdie: a chip-in by Justin Rose at the first. I saw Ian Poulter’s long putt from off the green nearly fall and Shingo Katayama’s chip from the fairway rattle the pin before rolling a few feet away. He would later miss the par putt.

Friday I sat behind the 18th green. Though the hole was blocked by a large tree, reasonable views of the tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth tees as well as the ninth green (if you’re on the railing). Sitting in the shadows of the trees, and with the wind whipping, the location was less than desirable: walking the course until about noon is advised for those coming on Saturday or Sunday.

Anyway, here are my observations…

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U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Tuesday

The Pelzmeter exists, and despite a ten-minute conversation on the fifth green with its inventor, Fred Funk ain’t buyin’ it.

2007 U.S. OpenWhen I arrived at lunchtime yesterday, Lot C was half full. Today, at 7am, I parked in the first row. As you might have guessed, the course was relatively empty as well, and in fact the last four or five holes didn’t even have new cups cut yet or flags installed.

Tiger Woods teed off today with Bubba Watson just as I arrived, and we eventually caught Tiger on the eighth hole as I walked the course backwards getting architectural shots. Read on for the rest of my journal notes from Tuesday at the U.S. Open.

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U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Monday

Birdie holes at a U.S. Open? Yeah, I believe there are.

2007 U.S. OpenI arrived at about lunchtime at the U.S. Open’s first official practice round today. Though, as a member of the media I am in a different lot than the one used by the majority of the fans (who are being scuttled off I-76 exit 39 to the “Red” and “Blue” lots), I must say how surprised I was at how few people were attending and how much room was available. Sunday will no doubt be mad crazy, but Monday and I would suspect Tuesday and Wednesday are great days to see some golf.

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2007 Memorial Pictures: Tiger

Tiger Woods didn’t win the 2007 Memorial. Heck, he wasn’t even close. But that didn’t stop everyone from taking plenty of pictures of him.

The Memorial TournamentTiger Woods is a big draw at any tournament. Last year, while Tiger was taking time off to grieve the death of his father Earl, the media room at The Memorial was rather bare. Half the number of photographers were present. This year, with Tiger Woods in the field, photographers flooded the course.

We managed to get a few snaps of Tiger in action, and we present them here with a little commentary.

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2007 Memorial Pictures: The Americans

Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson withdrew, but we’ve still got pictures of them.

The Memorial TournamentThe Memorial attracts a wealth of good players, and a good many of them are American. However, their numbers are dwindling, as Jack Nicklaus himself is quick to point out. Nicklaus says golf is again becoming more of a “world game,” and that the pendulum is swinging back towards foreign domination of golf. Witness, he says, the last several Ryder Cups and the number of international players in the field at his tournament.

The man has got a point.

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2007 Memorial Pictures: The Internationals

With all the Aussies that appeared on the leaderboard and a Korean winner, you bet we’ve got a lot of international player photos.

The Memorial TournamentDespite having a field of about 100 to 110 contestants, The Memorial Tournament attracts a wide variety of foreign players. Though they rarely experience success at Muirfield Village, the 2007 edition was won by a Korean – K.J. Choi – and featured several Aussies in contention, including Adam Scott, Rod Pampling, Geoff Ogilvy, and Aaron Baddeley.

Here are some shots of some of the more popular international players from the 32nd Memorial Tournament.

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