PGA Tour:  AT&T National – Bethesda, MD

It has become trendy of late to cite 23-year-old Anthony Kim as “golf’s next great player” (were this an annual honor, we’d call it the Eddie Pearce award) but Kim took a major step toward giving such claims at least an edge of legitimacy by winning for the second time in eight weeks at the AT&T National.  Over a Congressional Country Club layout set up considerably below Major championship difficulty, Kim closed with a bogey-free five-under-par 65 to finish as 12-under-par 268, two better than  Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson, and three ahead of a large group that included Australians Rod Pampling, Robert Allenby and Nick O’hern, and Americans Jim Furyk, Dean Wilson and 48-year-old Tommy Armour III.  Five different players held at least a share of the lead during Sunday’s early going before Kim birdied the 7th, 9th and 10th, ultimately moving four strokes ahead before Jacobson birdied five of the last seven to narrow the final margin to two.  A player who’s been striving to have “confident” replace “cocky” as the media’s adjective of choice, Kim moves into 6th place in the Ryder Cup points race with the victory, while also climbing to 5th place on the PGA Tour money list, and from 20th to 14th in the Official World Ranking.  Save, perhaps, for the fact that Tiger Woods was absent in each of Kim’s victories, a star is born…

     FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
European PGA Tour:  European Open – Ash, England

England’s 27-year-old Ross Fisher made his second career E Tour victory a big one, riding four sub-70 rounds to a seven-shot runaway at the European Open in Kent.  Opening with a London Golf Club course record 63, Fisher followed it up neatly with 68-69-68, punctuating his splendid run by holing a bunker shot at the last.  His 268 aggregate was enough to cruise home on 268, far ahead of 2nd-place Sergio Garcia, who rode a red-hot putter to a Sunday 66 – which managed only to pull him within seven.  Graeme McDowell, who stood second after 54 holes, three back of Fisher, bogeyed his first four holes Sunday en route to a final-round 73 to finish 3rd, while 48-year-old David Frost (bidding to become the oldest E Tour winner ever) closed with a 71 to claim solo 4th, his best European finish since the 2007 Madeira Islands Open.  Aided by McDowell’s slow start, Fisher holed a 50” eagle putt at the par-five 5th to open a lead which ultimately proved insurmountable, particularly after he birdied three of his final six during a rock-solid back-nine 33.  The victory moves Fisher from 104th to 57th in the World Ranking, up to 6th in the E Tour Order of Merit and, perhaps most importantly, into 11th place in the Ryder Cup points race.

    FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan Tour:  UBS Golf Tour Championship – Kasama, Japan

Hidemasa Hoshino captured his third career Japan Tour title at the UBS Tour Championship, his 272 aggregate providing a five-stroke victory margin over Australian Brendan Jones and Takao Nogami.  The lion’s share of Hoshino’s labor was done on Friday and Saturday, when back-to-back 66s placed him three shots clear of Kenichi Koboya and Hiroshi Iwata.  He then carded two birdies during Sunday’s first five holes to solidify his position, and while bogeys at the 10th and 11th briefly made things interesting, ensuing birdies at the 12th and 15th ultimately proved the clincher.  Hoshino moves the 3rd in the Order of Merit with the win, and also jumps from 258th to 171st in the World Ranking.

                       FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          JAPAN STATS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship – Rogers, AR

Twenty-two-year-old Korean Seon Hwa Lee won her fourth career LPGA title at the rain-delayed Northwest Arkansas Championship and did so in dramatic style, birdieing the final hole to defeat Meena Lee and Jane Park by one.  Finishing several groups before the end of the pack, Seon Hwa hit a wedge to within three feet at the last, but believed the birdie might only be good enough for a payoff with the unrelated Meena, who was still 15-under par through 16 holes.  A bogey at the par-3 17th derailed Meena, however, leaving her tied with Park, who closed with a blistering 10-under-par 62 in ideal scoring conditions.  A foursome of players including Karen Stupples, Ai Miyazato, Kristy McPherson and Angela Park (who herself carded a second-round 62) tied for 4th, two shots off the pace.  The victory lifts Lee into 5th place on the LPGA money list, with just under $1 million earned thus far in 2008.

         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          LPGA STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Dick’s Sporting Goods Open – Endicott, NY

Eduardo Romero of Argentina won for the second time on the Champions Tour (but the first time since 2006), his rounds of 65-65-69 adding up to a 17-under-par 199 total and victory at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.  A bogey at the 53rd hole mandated a solid par at last to clinch the title, with Romero’s ensuing four giving him a one-stroke margin over TV announcer Gary Koch (who closed with a flawless 65) and South African Fulton Allem, and a three stroke gap over 4th-place finisher (and local gallery favorite) Joey Sindelar.  Japan’s Joe Ozaki, who held the opening-round lead with a sharp 63, added a pair of 70s to tie for 5th.

                       FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS
 
 
Elsewhere…

Riding a bogey-free eight-under-par final-round 64, England’s Rebecca Hudson won her second straight LET event at the Oxfordshire Ladies English Open, her 206 total edging second-round leader Melissa Reid by one.……..With a 13-under-par 203 total, Hiromi Mogi edged Akiko Fukushima by one to claim her fourth career JLPGA title, the Belluna Ladies Cup………With a birdie at the last, England’s David Horsey carded a 266 to beat countryman Marcus Higley by one at the European Challenge Tour’s AGF-Allianz EurOpen de Lyon, becoming the tour’s first two-time 2008 winner………Ian Woosnam won for the second time in his rookie season on the European Senior Tour, shooting 204 to beat Paraguay’s Angel Franco by three at the Russian Seniors Open in Moscow………Josh Geary  posted a 271 total to win the Canadian Tour’s Sakatchewan Open in Saskatoon, beating George Bradford by one.