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You better keep your eye on Kevin Na. He is the youngest player on the PGA tour but is getting used to feeling the weekend heat, finishing ahead of second round leader Calcavecchia. He finished tied for second at the FBR Open behind Phil Mickelson earlier this month and is showing maturity and poise against some great golfers this season. Na’s 7 under 65 was good enough to tie Geoff Ogilvy for today’s lead.

The PGA Tour is going to benefit greatly from young guns like Na breaking onto the scene and racking up wins early in their career. Look no further than the early years of Tiger’s career to prove what a boost young talent can be to the game of golf.

Continue reading “Chrysler Classic of Tucson Round 3”

The Chrysler Classic in some people’s minds (perhaps mine) plays second fiddle to the Accenture WGC World Match Play. While that may or may not be true the Classic allows some less prominent figures on the PGA tour to strut their stuff as is proved by the occupants of the winner’s circle for the last five years: Carter, Willis, Leggatt, Lickliter and Slocum.

Today’s leader, Mark Calcavecchia, proved today that he can get the job done on the putting green. He two-putted from 65 feet for birdie on the par-5 10th, two-putted again from 30 feet at the second hole (having started on the back nine), drained a 23-footer for birdie at the fifth, and sunk a 37-footer for eagle at the par-5 eighth. With his solid performance on the putting green and lack of bogies Calcavecchia went to 15 under and moved into the lead.

Continue reading “Chrysler Classic of Tucson Round 2”

When Friday began at the World Match Play, the big news was that the tour would be able to complete two days of golf in a row without being interrupted by the rains that have been so oppressive over the last week in Southern California. By the end of the day, the big story changed from the beautiful weather to the huge upsets occurring throughout the day.

Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, and Davis Love III all were eliminated. Talk about busted brackets. Retief Goosen and Stewart Cink remain the only 1 and 2-seeds still alive.

Continue reading “Accenture WGC World Match Play Rounds 2 & 3”

Call it February madness, the Accenture WGC World Match Play Championships are the closest thing the golf world has to NCAA basketball’s big dance. Thankfully, Lake La Costa managed to dry up enough to allow play to continue albeit with minor alterations. The 467-yard 9th hole is normally a par-4, but the torrential rains forced tournament organizers to change it into a 160-yard par-3. The first round of competition included some very surprising results for high-seeded players. Earlier this week, we gave you our predictions of just how the tournament would pan out on each round. How did we do?

Continue reading “Accenture WGC World Match Play Round 1”

Although the Accenture WGC Matchplay Championship garners much of the media attention this week, there is another PGA Tour event with some recognizable names teeing it up this week in Tucson, Arizona. The Chrysler Classic of Tucson was born out of necessity seven years ago so players who fail to qualify for the Matchplay have a chance to compete and improve their world ranking. After the first round, Billy Mayfair and Mario Tiziani are tied for the lead at -9. Veteran Mark Calcavecchia, Michael Allen, Lucas Glover, and Darron Stiles are one back at -8. The event is played at the Omni Tuscon National Resort and the event is known for very low scoring. In 2004, Heath Slocum won the event with a final score of -22, 2003’s champion Frank Lickliter won with a total of -19.

Continue reading “Chrysler Classic of Tucson”