Bae Over The Moon At Nelson

IRVING, TEXAS | No one ever said winning for the first time on the PGA Tour was easy. Sang-Moon Bae can vouch for that. After chasing Keegan Bradley since Thursday when the former PGA champion opened with a course-record 60, Bae ran him down on Sunday to win the Byron Nelson Championship by two strokes for his first PGA Tour victory. Bae did it on a windy Texas Sunday, building a four-stroke lead through eight holes in the final round then losing that lead before pulling away on the final three holes to beat Bradley at the TPC Four Seasons Resort, where Bradley won two years ago. “He’s a very, very good player,” said Bradley, who led after each of the first three rounds. Bae, 26, had 11 international victories but the closest he had come to winning on the PGA Tour came last year when he was part of a four-man playoff in the Transitions Championship won by Luke Donald. With winds gusting more than 20 mph most of the afternoon, Bae changed the storyline with four birdies in his first seven holes. Suddenly, Bradley found himself playing from behind and when the two players in the final pairing walked off the eighth green, Bae was four clear of the field. “The conditions were tough but I played really well the first eight holes,” Bae said. Just as quickly, the tournament flipped again when Bae dropped three shots to par at the ninth and 10th holes, bringing Bradley and Charl Schwartzel back into the chase. When Bradley made a birdie at the par-4 15th hole after ripping a 5-iron approach shot through the wind, he was tied again with Bae, who made a bogey there.

Will The Ban Open A Can – Of Worms?

At least we’ll know and we can put all the not knowing and the comment period and the debates behind us and just finally, maybe even reluctantly, move on. Thank God. On Tuesday morning, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis and Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A, will likely announce that anchored putting strokes will no longer be allowed under the Rules of Golf, starting in 2016. If they announce something different than that, it will be the biggest upset in golf since Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods head-to-head at the 2009 PGA Championship. The proposed ban was announced on Nov. 28 of last year, which now seems like a couple of years ago. The comment period ended on Feb. 28 of this year, which now seems like a million years ago. The bottom line is this: the rules-makers are afraid that what was the stroke of last resort will become the stroke of choice unless something is done to stem the perceived tide of young people taking up belly putters and 14-year-old Guan Tianlang comes immediately to mind. Adam Scott winning The Masters with a broom-handle putter – in a playoff, no less – didn’t help the cause of the proponents of anchored putting. If the coffin hadn’t already been nailed shut, Scott’s victory at the very least draped the casket. Make no mistake: This is not about statistical advantage because there is none. None. It’s because Davis and Dawson, et al, don’t like the way it looks. Period. End of debate. And we might as well end it now because there has been no budging. Which now brings us the biggest question that will remain hanging out there for the next unspecified period of time: What is the PGA Tour going to do?

Muirfield And The Open

Members of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers shed decades when the conversation turns to the 2013 Open at their club. “Only 79 more days,” exclaimed the newly installed captain at the Open media day two weeks ago. Robin Dow, a 9-handicap man, continued, “It’s such a thrill to be able to see the top golfers playing your course. OK, there’s a bit of inconvenience leading up to the championship but it only happens every 10 years or so ... ” Dow suggests that the level of eager anticipation has a lot to do with Muirfield’s history. The Hon. Company promulgated the first Rules of Golf in 1744, while they did as Prestwick and the R&A in 1872 in contributing £10 towards the price of the Claret Jug. “Muirfield and the Open,” he mused, “are gloriously intertwined.” The shot Dow recalls from the 2002 installment was eventual winner Ernie Els’ sand save at the 13th. “His ball rose almost vertically from the bottom of the bunker before taking one or two bounces and finishing three feet from the hole. I’ve never stopped wondering how he did it.” Dow revels in delivering the message that Muirfield, because of its intrinsic fairness, has sired the strongest list of champions of any Open venue. The last six of these men – Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Els, boast 18 Opens among them. (Here, for the sake of those who like a bet, it is worth noting that all these men won at Muirfield while staying in the adjacent Greywalls hotel – something which is hardly the best news for Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke in that their manager has rented a £3 million home on the other side of the clubhouse.) In spite of all of the building excitement, Muirfield’s love affair with the 21st Century Open is in many ways more than passing strange. For example, their own modus operandi could not be further removed from the professionals’ way of golf.

Woods’ Victory Nearly Inevitable

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | The word around championship golf is that Tiger Woods is no longer intimidating to the rest of the field when the race comes down the home stretch on Sunday. Apparently the best player in the world never heard the word. Woods is not perfect anymore, if he ever had been, but he’s still way too good that even when he lets the leaders get back into the game, he simply can’t or won’t be caught. The chasers stop chasing and everyone else wilts in Woods’ heat. Woods won the Players Championship on Sunday when his closest pursuers went where Players dreams are buried at sea, the water of the island green 17th. Woods won without his best stuff and didn’t need it because those closest to him produced their worst stuff at the worst time. Sergio García, full of acrimony over a perceived slight on Saturday, stood at the 17th tied with Woods for the lead and dumped not one, but two balls in the water and went where Len Mattiace and Sean O’Hair lost their chances and where he, García, sent Paul Goydos when the Spaniard won this championship in 2008. About an hour earlier, 49-year-old Jeff Maggert, tied for the lead with Woods, drowned his hopes at the 17th with a tissue-thin 9-iron that never even came close to the green. In the end, it is Woods’ 78th PGA Tour victory in his 300th start, his fourth victory this year, and adds to his legacy that he is without a doubt the best closer in the game today and perhaps in history. Woods did all this by shooting 2-under-par 70 in the final round for a 72-hole total of 275, 13-under par at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. He beat unknown 25-year-old rookie David Lingmerth, who was tied for the lead when the final round began, Maggert and Kevin Streelman, who shot 67 in the final round. All three were tied at 11-under 277. Maggert shot 70 with a birdie at the 18th and Lingmerth bogeyed the last for 72. Woods hasn’t won a major championship since 2008 and much has been made of that gap in his resume. He now has four victories in mid-May and is the odds-on favorite to win the U.S. Open at Merion in June, a course he says he has never played.

Never Quarrel With A Tiger

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | After all the cutting remarks that had given this Players Championship a venomous edge, perhaps it’s fitting that it ended with a drowning. Tiger Woods won the Players Championship for the same reason he has won 77 other PGA Tour events – because he has a will, a game and a presence that feeds on moments like Sunday afternoon when mouths go dry, nerves go raw and brains go fuzzy. It’s why he’s not Sergio García. For 70 holes, García played exceptional golf, refusing to go away, hanging around like bad credit. Then it was gone with cruel suddenness when García turned into a tourist and dunked two balls on the infamous par-3 17th hole at the Stadium Course, his biting duel with Woods suddenly sleeping with the fish and turtles in Pete Dye’s pond. You don’t have to like García, whose demeanor hasn’t made him very lovable these last few years, but it would take a diamond-hard heart not to feel a little something for him when all that work and all that emotion went wasted with one swing. The second ball in the water likely didn’t hurt because García was probably numb by then. The same goes for his tee shot into the big pond at No. 18. So solid for so long, Sergio was suddenly getting more water time than Michael Phelps. Golf does that once in a while. Ask Jeff Maggert, who made a half-million dollar mistake when he put his tee shot into the water at No. 17. His 49-year-old nerves took him to the edge then let him down. And there stood Woods – again. It’s what he has done for years and it’s why, when it’s all over, his career may be unequaled. There are still milestones set by Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead for Woods to surpass but he seems to have arrived in his second or third prime at age 37. Asked Sunday evening in his post-tournament news conference if he was surprised to have won four times already this season, Woods said no. “I know a lot of people in this room thought I was done, but I’m not,” he said.

Jennifer Johnson Says Hello

MOBILE, ALABAMA | When Sunday began, Jennifer Johnson wasn’t even in the conversation. Not only had the third-year player never been in contention to win an LPGA Tour event, she had only finished in the top 10 once. So, remarkably, Johnson came figuratively out of nowhere to win the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic, her first victory. She shot matching 65s on the weekend to finish four rounds at the Magnolia Grove Crossings Course at 21-underpar 267, good for a one-stroke margin on Jessica Korda and Pornanong Phatlum. There was nothing in Johnson’s play that might have predicted this victory. This was her ninth start on Tour this year and her best finish was a tie for 13th at the Kraft Nabisco. She missed the cut in the Kingsmill Championship, her last start prior to her victory. After returning home from Virginia, Johnson went to see her teacher and put an old putter back in the bag, a Scotty Cameron model that her father calls “the spaceship.” “The putter has been the missing link,” said Johnson, 21. “When they go in, it really helps the score.” Johnson had only one top-10 finish in her career, with her best a tie for eighth at the 2011 Navistar LPGA Championship, also in Alabama.

Annika: The Moment Was All Hers

It has been 10 years now since Annika Sorenstam made us pause, compelled us to find a television set on a Thursday morning and made us collectively hold our breath as we watched her hit the most memorable shot of her unforgettable Hall of Fame career. Golf doesn’t have many remember-where-you-were moments but Annika’s opening tee shot at the 2003 Bank of America Colonial was one of those. Did you just flash back to where you were watching it? It was an event, a pop-culture moment that resonated beyond golf, touching moms and dads, sons and daughters. It angered some people, the kind of people who tend to look for reasons to be angry. For everyone else, it was a sweet curiosity, a chance to see the best female player ever test herself on the PGA Tour. Annika – she’s a first-name star – didn’t make the cut at the Colonial but she won hearts and hugs with a performance that blended her steely playing style with her soft personality. Deep in the heart of Texas, Annika was golf’s sweetheart. “I look at it as one of the highlights of my career,” she said by phone from the Orlando area, where she lives with husband Mike McGee and their two children. Annika has moved happily into her new life, running the Annika Academy, staying busy with other businesses and being with her family. A decade ago, she was in a different place, a 32-year old sitting atop the women’s golf world. She won 72 LPGA Tour events including 10 majors. Worldwide, she finished with 90 wins, more than any female in history and she did it with a game that was as reliable as a sunrise. She became the first LPGA player to shoot 59 in competition. In 2001 she won eight tournaments. In 2002, she won 11. And on May 22, 2003, Annika showed up at Colonial Country Club’s 10th tee wearing white pants, a black-and-white top and a black cap. She did her best to hide her nervousness but everyone there and thousands watching felt it. “It took a lot of courage to do that and to put herself out there on the limb like that and put herself out there in front of the world to critique, criticize, and anything in between. She did it, and she played fantastic,” said Tiger Woods, who played practice rounds with Annika in Orlando. Getting there was a journey in itself.

Sweet Sixteen For Kerr

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA | American Cristie Kerr closed out Solheim Cup rival Suzann Pettersen on the second extra hole Sunday at the Kingsmill Championship to win her 16th LPGA event. It was also the third time she has triumphed at Kingsmill Resort. “It wasn’t easy,” said the 35-year-old Kerr. “But I hung in there all day.” The sudden-death playoff began on the 18th hole after both players parred that hole in regulation to finish at 12-under-par 272. At the outset, Kerr struck her second, a 5-iron from 173 yards, to five feet but pushed the birdie putt that would have given her the win. On they went, back to the 18th tee, for the second extra hole. At this point spectators were remembering how this event gained notoriety last year when Jiyai Shin and Paula Creamer battled through nine playoff holes before Shin took the victory Monday morning. The two were sent into extra holes after Creamer missed a par opportunity on the 72nd hole to seal the win on Sunday. After going par-for-par on the 18th hole eight times in a row with darkness creeping in, the two players elected to continue Monday morning.

Pettersen Holds Off Emerging Salas

It seems that Suzann Pettersen can beat you with her eyes closed. Pettersen won the LPGA Lotte Championship on Saturday with a stellar putting performance and she did it with her eyes closed. “It’s just something I did a lot in 2007,” said Pettersen, who won five tournaments that year. “I practiced a lot with it. Back then I was like, ‘Why not bring it to the golf course?’ I have a lot better feel. I don’t really try to steer the putt. I kind of visualize everything in my head. I visualize the line that I’ve read, the ball, the speed — I’ve read it, and that’s it.” Pettersen’s victory was her 11th LPGA title and it took a playoff to secure the win, despite her 5under 67 in the final round. She was caught by 23-year-old Lizette Salas, who shot a 10-under 62 on Saturday at Ko Olina Golf Club.

Park’s Place

The promise that Inbee Park showed five years ago and then flickered was ignited again with a dominating victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Park shot a final-round 69 to finish 15 under, four strokes better than fellow South Korean, So Yeon Ryu.

Travis Invitational Is Fogarty’s Labor Of Love

GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK | Among elite amateurs, playing in the Walter J. Travis Invitational makes this week in mid-May one of the most special times of the year. For the chance to tee it up on the superb Garden City Golf Club track on which it is contested. For the opportunity to compete with top golfers from around the country. And for the privilege of visiting a place that is as historic as it is hospitable – and that delights in staging an event members say is all about “the spirit of friendship, the integrity of fair play and the keen sense of competition.” Fifty-one-year-old Long Island native Pat Fogarty likes Travis week as much as anyone. Only his affection for the event, which ranks among the top amateur invitationals in the country, goes well beyond playing. That’s because the Garden City member and married father of three also serves as tournament chairman. “Of course, I love competing in the Travis, and I always want to do well,” says Fogarty, a real-estate professional who works in New York City. “But for me, the week is also about taking good care of the contestants. This year, we have 120 players from 30 states, and we want them to feel like they are a part of Garden City, and to get to know us as they also get to know each other.” While Fogarty sits in the chairman’s chair, he is but one wheel of a welcome wagon that includes roughly 55 member volunteers, some of whom have been doing that job for decades, and about 40 staffers from Garden City, who cheerfully put in hundreds of hours of overtime for the tournament. “We want it to be The Masters of amateur golf,” he says. “We want to run it extremely well, and we always strive to do better.” Fogarty’s biggest job each year is assembling the field. “As a rule, we look for very good guys who also are good golfers and fit in nicely with the culture of the club and the tournament,” he says. Fogarty is a good example of that sort of golfer, someone with whom you would want to tee it, and also share a post-round beverage.

Dawn-To-Dusk Golf Marathon For Charity

There are days when even the keenest of golfers starting with a double bogey might mutter to himself, “Only 17 holes to go.” For Graeme Dawson, Gary Davidson, Ally Love and Angus Watson it will be a matter of “Only 188 to go,” after they have played the first at Kingsbarns at 3.15 a.m. on 20th June. On what is a day away from the longest day of the year, the four are out to set records by playing all 11 of the courses in and around St Andrews between dawn and dusk to raise funds for Cancer Research UK, HCPT: The Pilgrimage Trust and the Scottish Disability Golf Partnership. Kingsbarns apart, the courses involved are the legendary Old Course, The Torrance, The Kittocks at the Fairmont St Andrews Resort, the Old Course Hotel’s Duke’s course, the New, the Jubilee, the Castle, the Eden, the Strathtyrum and Balgrove. In terms of distance, it adds up to 50 miles of golf and is an enhanced version of the 10-course challenge in which three of the above players participated as they raised £5,000 for charity in 2007. The Old Course is third on the agenda, with the Links Trust having given permission for the party to tee off at 6.20 in front of the daily procession. The format, from start to finish, is four-ball golf and the expectation is that the players will drop to a halt on the New Course at 11.30 p.m. Dawson’s special charity is the Scottish Disability Golf Partnership. Born with a left arm which stops just below the elbow, the 34-year-old Dawson could have played in the various one-arm championships in the UK and beyond. Instead, he has stuck with regular tournaments and has enough in the way of results to prove that he is a good golfer by any standards. Having started the game at 12, Dawson played to scratch during university days in St Andrews when he won the 2000 Scottish Universities’ championship, captained the St Andrews’ first team and played for both the Scottish and British Universities. Outside university golf, he has been the champion at his home club, Old Ranfurly Castle. Though the newspapers will often relay exciting news about the latest in bionic arms and hands, Dawson says he would not want one in any circumstances. “There’s nothing that I can’t do with one arm,” he explains, before noting that he can even tie his tie in the morning for his job in PR and marketing at the Fairmont Hotel. “It may take me longer than the average person but I’m better equipped than someone, say, who has been used to working with two arms and loses one in an accident.”

Collegians Begin Chase For Walker Cup Berths

The 2012-13 college golf season is winding down, and the story of the University of California men’s golf team is one of the best feel-good stories in the game in some time. It’s also one the mainstream sports media has mainly ignored. What coach Steve Desimone’s troops have done is truly remarkable, not the least of which because his guys actually have to go to class and study. When the NCAA Championships conclude early next month, a 10-week sprint begins that will determine the makeup of the 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team. Two years ago, it was clear by this time that at least four players had locked up berths on the 2011 team that traveled to Royal Aberdeen. That is clearly not the case this time around; the team-selection process is as wide open as it has ever been. There has been no dominant college player this year, although a few have enhanced their prospects a bit. Three of the four Cal guys who were invited to the team practice session last December – Max Homa, Brandon Hagy, and Michael Kim – have had outstanding campaigns, recording six wins among them. Kim has four on his own and is a player of the year candidate. Alabama’s Justin Thomas and Cory Whitsett each have multiple wins and have been consistent and solid for most of the year. Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers has been equally consistent, posting three wins and six top-10 finishes. On the mid-amateur side of the ledger, you have to think that Nathan Smith has one spot nailed down. If he plays as well as he typically does this summer, the four-time and reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion is a lock for his third consecutive Walker Cup appearance. Todd White has neither helped nor hurt his chances so far this year, but nobody else has really made a move. Mike McCoy is one to keep an eye on, however. He won the Coleman Invitational two weeks ago and has been in great form all year. The newly minted 50-year-old is going to go after a spot; if his form holds, don’t be surprised to see him on the team next fall. With the team makeup being so wide open, and the college season proving to be inconclusive, I have a radical idea for the USGA to consider: select the entire Cal golf team, now.

Met Golf Association Finally Wins In Ireland

It took the Metropolitan Golf Association 21 years and six attempts but history was finally made last week as the MGA team claimed victory on Irish soil for the first time in the Gov. Hugh L. Carey Challenge Cup. Playing in the penultimate singles match last Monday, Max Buckley mounted a remarkable comeback and won three of his final five holes, including a crucial par on the 18th, to defeat Alex Gleeson, 1 up, and guarantee the MGA would carry the Cup back to America for at least another two years. The final score was a 6½-5½ triumph for the MGA over the Golfing Union of Ireland at The European Club in Wicklow, Ireland.

Forever Guan

The Kid dazzled 'em. Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old golfer from China whose participation in the Masters might have appeared on the surface to be a sideshow, turned out to be the real deal.

As the Sun Sets in the West

In round numbers, there are about 200 golf courses of all stripes in the greater Phoenix area, many of them in and around Scottsdale, the golf mecca of the Southwest. On his visit, Mike Purkey took a closer look at several of them, including Raven Golf Club, We-Ko-Pa, Eagle Mountain, Superstition Mountain, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes and Gold Canyon. Before planning a golf vacation to Arizona, this is required reading.

Birdies and Bogota

John Steinbreder finds glorious golf in an unexpected place: Colombia. Also unexpected? An encounter with Bill Clinton, who also had discovered the wonderful golf in this South American country more known for coffee than fairways. Steinbreder learned more about the culture, the wildlife, the coffee farms and dining during his stay. The Country Club of Bogota and La Cima are two of the many courses, designed by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Robert Trent Jones and Ron Garl. He brings it all to life on the pages of Global Golf Post.

Hex Chrome Shines On Tour

Callaway Golf has added to its line-up of premium golf balls with the new Hex Chrome+. Introduced this spring and put immediately into play on the PGA Tour by big-hitting Gary Woodland, it is a four-piece product designed to deliver maximum distance at mid- to high-clubhead speeds, especially off the driver, as it also offers Tour-level control and feel on shots around the greens. Says Dave Bartels, senior director of golf ball R&D at Callaway: “This is hands down the fastest Tour ball we’ve ever designed.” And he goes on to explain that the four-piece construction utilizes an extremely resilient core and dual mantle system to create more ball speed off shots over a wide range of clubs and swing speeds without generating excessive spin, leading to longer distance.

RocketBallz Stage 2 Improves On Distance

As a rule, TaylorMade Golf does not rest on the laurels of a successful product launch. So, it should not be at all surprising to those who know the company that it has quickly followed the 2012 release of its RocketBallz fairway metal with this year’s introduction of what its engineers describe as a new and improved version of that club, dubbed RocketBallz Stage 2. At the same time, the Carlsbad, Calif., manufacturer has brought out a line of Stage 2 Rescue clubs that employ similar technology. “Our team continues to push the innovation envelope in the fairway wood and hybrid categories,” says Todd Beach, vice president of metalwood R&D at TaylorMade. “Rocket- Ballz represented a distance breakthrough, but we knew we could make improvements.” One of those improvements with both the metal-woods and hybrids, he says, comes in the form of a thinner and faster-flexing clubface, thanks to the utilization of a high-strength, lightweight TaylorMade RocketSteel supplied by Carpenter.

TaylorMade’s New Ball Is Lethal

Lethal is TaylorMade’s newest premium golf ball, and like its Penta predecessor, it features five-piece construction. But according to Dean Snell, vice president of golf ball research and development for the equipment maker, Lethal is a better performing product, especially when it comes to promoting longer and straighter shots with improved control. “Our engineers set out to create a golf ball with all-around performance for all conditions,” he explains. “Today’s clubs are designed to launch the ball higher, so our team worked to ensure that these higher launch conditions do not cause the shot to balloon or become more affected by the wind. “We designed Lethal to further maximize distance, extend the second stage of flight and control spin and aerodynamics when playing into the wind.” The five layers of the Lethal ball are designed to provide, in Snell’s words, a layer for every shot. The soft core is made to produce low driver spin for increased distance, while the inner mantle reduces long-iron spin for a more penetrating low trajectory.

Cameron Introduces GoLo Models

Though Scotty Cameron has done very well with his Select line of putters, he continues to tweak and add offerings in that category, most recently with the creation of the GoLo 5 and GoLo S5. These mallet-style putters feature a compact, rounded profile with a soleplate that utilizes the Select Weighting technology for what Cameron calls modern balance and stability. The head is about 10 percent smaller than the popular Select GoLo and GoLo S, which remain in the Select line, and the slightly asymmetric back profile with a pulled-in heel and contained cavity sight lines are designed to encourage a flowing stroke along an ideal arc. In addition, Cameron produced two neck configurations for these entries, giving the GoLo 5 a single bend shaft and the GoLo S5 a straight, nearcenter shaft for dynamic feel and toe flow. “Working with the best players in the world gives me incredible feedback,” says Cameron.

Titleist Utility Iron Alternative To Hybrids

Titleist has long prided itself on the ways it works with its staff professionals in the development of clubs. And one of the latest examples of that effort and the way it bears fruit – for the equipment maker as well as the golfers who buy its products – is the newly released 712U forged utility iron. According to Steve Pelisek, general manager for Titleist Golf Clubs, the company wanted to provide a new option in long-game play, something that provided high-speed, traditional blade iron players with improved stability, playability and shot control. The result was the 712U. Titleist staff professionals began playing versions of the club in competition last fall, and among those who have a 712U in their bags are Tim Clark, Geoff Ogilvy and 2013 Masters winner Adam Scott. “We worked closely with our Tour players to design a utility iron that delivers a great combination of consistency and control,” says Pelisek. “And it was so well received on Tour that we decided to sell the club through custom order.”

Mike Kerr, Asian Tour CEO

Lewine Mair recently visited with Mike Kerr, the Asian Tour’s CEO, and the result was a wide-ranging interview focusing, among other things, on how quickly Asian golfers are closing the talent gap. They also discuss an expected closing of the prize money gap that will eventually force the world’s best to play more in and around Asia simply because of the size of the purses.