PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament

Winner: Tiger Woods 69-74-68-65   276 (  beat J. Furyk by 1)
Site: Muirfield Village Golf Club – Dublin, OH

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS
  

European PGA Tour: Celtic Manor Wales Open

Winner: Jeppe Huldahl 69-71-68-67   275   (beat N. Fasth by 1)
Site: Celtic Manor Resort (2010 course) – Newport, Wales

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Japan Tour: UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship

Winner: Yuji Igarashi 67-67-72-70   276   (beat three players by 1)
Site: Shishido Hills Country Club – Ibaraki, Japan

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


LPGA Tour: LPGA State Farm Classic

Winner: In-Kyung Kim 69-68-69-65   271   (beat S.R. Pak by 1)
Site: Panther Creek Country Club – Springfield, IL

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Champions Tour: Triton Financial Classic

Winner: Bernhard Langer 65-69-67   201   (beat M. O’Meara by 6)
Site: The Hills Country Club – Austin, TX

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Elsewhere...
LET – ABM AMRON Ladies Open – Tania Elosegui 207 (Story)
JLPGA – Resort Trust Ladies – Tamotsu Sadami 202 (Story)
Futures – Titan Tire Classic – Mina Harigae 200 (Story)
Nationwide – Melwood Prince George’s County Open – Mathias Gronberg 269 (Story)
Euro Challenge – Karnten Golfopen – Christophe Gunther 268 (Story)
Canadian – Times Colonist Open – Byron Smith 267 (Story)
Euro Seniors – Irish Seniors Open – Ian Woosnam 211 (Story)

PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament

Site: Muirfield Village Golf Club – Dublin, OH
Yards: 7,265   Par: 72
Defending: Kenny Perry 280   (beat four players by 2)
Field: World Top 20: All except Phil Mickelson (2), Sergio Garcia (4), Henrik Stenson (6), Robert Karlsson (12), Anthony Kim (15), Rory McIlroy (17) and Lee Westwood (20)   Other Notables: David Duval, James Kamte, Danny Lee, Tom Lehman, Davis Love III & Jose Maria Olazabal.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


European PGA Tour: Celtic Manor Wales Open

Site: Celtic Manor Resort (2010 course) – Newport, Wales
Yards: 7,378   Par: 71
Defending: Scott Strange 262   (beat R. Karlsson by 4)
Field: World Top 20: None   Other Notables: Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Colin Montgomerie & Jeev Milkha Singh.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Japan Tour: UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship

Site: Shishido Hills Country Club – Ibaraki, Japan
Yards: 6,830   Par: 72
Defending: Hidemasa Hoshino 272   (beat B. Jones & T. Nogami by 5)
Field: World Top 20: None   Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Prayad Marksaeng & Craig Parry.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


LPGA Tour: LPGA State Farm Classic

Site: Panther Creek Country Club – Springfield, IL
Yards: 6,539   Par: 72
Defending: Jee Young Oh 270   (beat Y. Tseng in a playoff)
Field: World Top 20: The entire Rolex top 20 except Lorena Ochoa (1), Yuri Fudoh (15), Jeong Jang (16) & Sakura Yokomine (18)   Other Notables: Laura Davies, Rachel Hetherington, Juli Inkster, Se Ri Pak, Aree Song & Michelle Wie.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Champions Tour: Triton Financial Classic

Site: The Hills Country Club – Austin, TX
Yards: 6,879   Par: 72
Defending: Denis Watson 206   (beat three players by 1)
Field: Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup top 20 except Michael Allen (2), Nick Price (6) & Bruce Fleisher (18)   Other Notables: Isao Aoki, Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Sandy Lyle, Jerry Pate, Lee Trevino, Lanny Wadkins & Fuzzy Zoeller.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Elsewhere...
LET – ABM AMRON Ladies Open – Valkenswaard, Holland
JLPGA – Resort Trust Ladies – Shiga, Japan
Futures – Titan Tire Classic – Marion, IA
Nationwide – Melwood Prince George’s County Open – Mitchelville, MD
Euro Challenge – Karnten Golfopen – Klagenfurt, Austria
Canadian – Times Colonist Open – Vancouver, B.C.
Euro Seniors – Irish Seniors Open – County Kerry, Ireland

PGA Tour: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial

Winner: Steve Stricker 63-63-69-68   263   (beat T. Clark & S. Marino in a playoff)
Site: Colonial Country Club – Ft Worth, TX

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


European PGA Tour: European Open

Winner: Christian Cevaer 67-70-70-74   281   (beat three players by 2)
Site: London Golf Club – Ash, England

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Japan Tour: Mitsubishi Diamond Cup

Winner: Takashi Kanemoto 72-76-68-67   283   (beat B. Jones in a playoff)
Site: Oarai Golf Club – Ibaraki, Japan

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Champions Tour: Principal Charity Classic

Winner: Mark McNulty 68-69-66   203   (beat F. Funk & N. Price in a playoff)
Site: Glen Oaks Country Club – West Des Moines, IA

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Elsewhere...
JLPGA – Kosaido Ladies Cup – Sakura Yokomine 203 (Story)
Nationwide – Rex Hospital Open – Kevin Johnson 266 (Story)
Euro Challenge – Telenet Trophy - Francois Calmels 276 (Story)

PGA Tour: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial

Site: Colonial Country Club – Ft Worth, TX
Yards: 7,204   Par: 70
Defending: Phil Mickelson   266   (beat T. Clark & R. Pampling by 1)
Field: World Top 20: Geoff Ogilvy (5), Kenny Perry (6), Paul Casey (7), Vijay Singh (9), Sean O’Hair (12), Steve Stricker (13), Jim Furk (14), Anthony Kim (15), Ian Poulter (18) & Zach Johnson (19)   Other Notables: Ian Baker-Finch, Lee Janzen, Danny Lee, Davis Love III & Corey Pavin.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


European PGA Tour: European Open

Site: London Golf Club – Ash, England
Yards: 7,257   Par: 72
Defending: Ross Fisher   268   (beat S. Garcia by 7)
Field: World Top 20: Sergio Garcia (3), Henrik Stenson (4), Robert Karlsson (11), Lee Westwood (16) & Rory McIlroy (19)   Other Notables: Angel Cabrera, Ross Fisher , Retief Goosen, Martin Kaymer, Colin Montgomerie & Jeev Milkha Singh.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Japan Tour: Mitsubishi Diamond Cup

Site: Oarai Golf Club – Ibaraki, Japan
Yards: 7,190   Par: 72
Defending: Prayad Marksaeng   274   (beats. Kai by 1)
Field: World Top 20: None   Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Prayad Marksaeng, Frankie Minoza, Craig Parry & Toru Taniguchi.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Champions Tour: Principal Charity Classic

Site: Glen Oaks Country Club – West Des Moines, IA
Yards: 6,877   Par: 71
Defending: Jay Haas   203   (beat A. Bean by 1)
Field: Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup top 20 except Bernhard Langer (1), Eduardo Romero (15), Fulton Allem (T16), Don Pooley (T16), Tom Lehman (18) & Mark James (20)   Other Notables: Isao Aoki, Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Fleisher, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson, Jerry Pate & Fuzzy Zoeller.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Elsewhere...
JLPGA – Kosaido Ladies Cup – Chiba, Japan
Nationwide – Rex Hospital Open – Raleigh, NC
Euro Challenge – Telenet Trophy – Lasne, Belgium

PGA Tour: HP Byron Nelson Championship

Winner: Rory Sabbatini 68-64-65-64   261   (beat B. Davis by 2)
Site: TPC Four Seasons Resort - Irving, TX

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


European PGA Tour: BMW PGA Championship

Winner: Paul Casey 69-67-67-68   271   (beat R. Fisher by 1)
Site: Wentworth Golf Club (West course) – Surrey, England

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Sunshine Tour: Vodacom Origins of Golf Pretoria

Winner: Brandon Pieters 65-67-72   204   (beat D. Fichardt by 1)
Site: Pretoria Country Club – Pretoria, South Africa

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


LPGA Tour: Corning Classic

Winner: Yani Tseng 68-70-62-67   267   (beat P. Creamer & S.Y. Kang by 1)
Site: Corning Country Club – Corning, NY

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Champions Tour: Senior PGA Championship

Winner: Michael Allen 74-66-67-67   274   (beat L. Mize by 2)
Site: Canterbury Golf Club – Beachwood, Ohio

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Elsewhere...
LET – Ladies German Open – Jade Schaeffer 275 (Story)
JLPGA – Bridgestone Ladies Open – Eun-A Lim 209 (Story)
Euro Challenge – Piemonte Open – Edoardo Molinari 270 (Story)
Tour de Las Americas – Copa Tres Diamantes Mitsubishi – Paolo Pinto 274 (Story)

PGA Tour: HP Byron Nelson Championship

Site: TPC Four Seasons Resort - Irving, TX
Yards: 7,166   Par: 70
Defending: Adam Scott   273   (beat R. Moore in a playoff)
Field: World Top 20: Phil Mickelson (2), Vijay Singh (9), Anthony Kim (15) & Ian Poulter (18)   Other Notables: Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Brad Faxon, Danny Lee, Davis Love & Corey Pavin.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


European PGA Tour: BMW PGA Championship

Site: Wentworth Golf Club (West course) – Surrey, England
Yards: 7,320   Par: 72
Defending: Miguel Angel Jimenez   277   (beat O. Wilson in a playoff)
Field: World Top 20: Henrik Stenson (4), Paul Casey (7), Robert Karlsson (11), Lee Westwood (16), Ernie Els (17) & Rory McIlroy (20)   Other Notables: Angel Cabrera, Luke Donald, Retief Goosen, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Martin Kaymer, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal & Justin Rose.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Sunshine Tour: Vodacom Origins of Golf Pretoria

Site: Pretoria Country Club – Pretoria, South Africa
Meters: 6,324   Par: 72
Defending: Tyrone van Aswegen   201   (beat D. Fichardt & N. Schietekat by 4)
Field: World Top 20: None   Other Notables: Not many.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


LPGA Tour: Corning Classic

Site: Corning Country Club – Corning, NY
Yards: 6,223   Par: 72
Defending: Leta Lindley   277   (beat J. Jang in a playoff)
Field: World Top 20: The entire Rolex top 20 except Lorena Ochoa (1), Karrie Webb (9), Yuri Fudoh (14) & Jeong Jang (18)   Other Notables: Laura Davies, Vicky Hurst, Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann, Se Ri Pak, Jan Stephenson & Michelle Wie.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Champions Tour: Senior PGA Championship

Site: Canterbury Golf Club – Beachwood, Ohio
Yards: 6,895   Par: 70
Defending: Jay Haas   287   (beat B. Langer by 1)
Field: Ranked: All who are physically able   Other Notables: Ditto.

                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL


Elsewhere...
LET – Ladies German Open – Munich, Germany
JLPGA – Bridgestone Ladies Open – Aichi, Japan
Euro Challenge – Piemonte Open – Torino, Italy
Tour de Las Americas – Copa Tres Diamantes Mitsubishi – Barquisimeto, Venezuela

PGA Tour: Valero Texas Open

Winner: Zach Johnson 68-67-60-70   265   (beat J. Driscoll in a playoff)
Site: LaCantera Golf Club (Resort course) - San Antonio, TX

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


European PGA Tour: The 3 Irish Open

Winner: Shane Lowry 67-62-71-71   271   (beat R. Rock in a playoff)
Site: County Louth Golf Club – Baltray, Ireland

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Asian Tour: GC Caltex Maekyung Open

Winner: Bae Sang-Moon 71-70-70-70   281   (beat T. Oh in a playoff)
Site: Nam Seoul Country Club – Seoul, Korea

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Sunshine Tour: Nashua Golf Challenge

Winner: Doug McGuigan 66-70-73   209   (beat T. van Aswegen by 2)
Site: Gary Player Golf Club – Sun City, South Africa

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


LPGA Tour: Sybase Classic

Winner: Ji Young Oh 66-69-69-70   274   (beat S. Pettersen by 4)
Site: Upper Montclair Country Club – Clifton, NJ

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Champions Tour: Regions Charity Classic

Winner: Keith Fergus 66-66   132   (beat G. Jones by 3)
Site: RTJ Golf Trail at Ross Bridge – Birmingham, AL

STORY          RESULT          MONEY LIST          STATS          INTERVIEWS


Elsewhere...
LET – Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open – Marianne Skarpnord 276 (Story)
JLPGA – Vernal Ladies – Yuko Saitoh 211 (Story)
Futures – Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship – Elisa Serramia 218 (Story)
Nationwide – BMW Pro-Am – Michael Sim 264 (Story)
Euro Challenge – Allianz Open – Lee James 274 (Story)

Yesterday's highjacking of text from The Book of Golfers was the fun kind, profiling Christy O'Connor upon his selection to the World Golf Hall of Fame.  Today's is of the sadder variety, as 1959 PGA Champion and longtime TV broadcaster Bob Rosburg passed away Thursday in Palm Springs, at age 82.

Suffice to say that you cannot be of a certain age group ("no longer in our thirties") and not be familiar with Rosburg's longtime work for ABC sports, where he broke ground as an on-course reporter.  So, with the tinge of sadness that always accompanies these things:

BOB ROSBURG

Well-known to contemporary viewers for more than two decades of television work, Stanford-educated Bob Rosburg (b.San Francisco, CA 10/21/1926) utilized the 10-finger grip and an ungainly looking swing, yet rode a Hall-of-Fame putting stroke and a keen competitive edge to great golfing heights. All told, Rosburg would win six times on the PGA Tour, placing no worse than 26th in money through 1959 and claiming the Vardon Trophy in 1958. In 1959 he captured what was easily his biggest victory, the PGA Championship, when he closed 68-66, yet still trailed by one until Jerry Barber bogied both the 71st and 72nd holes, handing Rosburg the title.

With the exception of a win at the 1961 Bing Crosby, Rosburg virtually vanished from the Tour for the next decade, reappearing rather dramatically at the 1969 U.S. Open where only a missed short putt at the 72nd prevented him from playing off with Orville Moody. In 1971 he tied for third when the Open returned to Merion, two strokes out of the famous Nicklaus-Trevino playoff. Then 45, he surprised everyone once more by defeating Lanny Wadkins to capture the 1972 Bob Hope Desert Classic, before suffering two declining years and retiring in 1975.

So Ireland’s Christy O’Connor will join Lanny Wadkins and Jose Maria Olazabal as 2009 inductees to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Is this an egregiously bad choice? Of course not, for O’Connor, an elite player on the pre-European Tour of the 1960s, is a living legend in his native land, a two-time British Masters and Vardon Trophy winner, and a 10-time Ryder Cupper, among myriad other achievements. But...

O’Connor also never won a Major championship which, to my lights at least, places him among Hall of Fame members whose historical impact played as large a role in the selection process as their career ledgers did. Fair enough. But by that criterion – and with due respect to O’Connor’s impressive list of British and Irish victories – both Norman von Nida and Sid Brews (pioneering professionals in Australia and South Africa respectively) now seem even more egregious ommissions .

Anyway, rather than spending half an hour penning a glowing tribute to the man known throughout the Emerald Isle as Himself, I once again steal from The Book of Golfers, wherein I wrote:

CHRISTY O’CONNOR (Ireland)

A living legend of Irish golf, Galway’s Christy O’Connor (b.12/21/1924) was a farmer’s son who learned the game as a caddie before turning professional in 1951. Initially he only competed in Ireland, a fact which bears a certain irony for despite a long and prolific career, O’Connor never managed to win an Irish Open. He did, however, take the old Carrolls International four times between 1964-72, a modest title to be sure, but O’Connor’s winning of it did much to expand the game’s popularity on his home soil.

Blessed with a long and wonderfully rhythmic swing, O’Connor was both a superb ball-striker and a pleasure to watch, that is until he reached the putting surface where an entirely different sort of battle was undertaken. That he never won an Open Championship is still mourned by his surviving legions, particularly as he was many times close. Indeed he appeared among the top six finishers on seven occasions between 1958-69, including third in 1961, second in 1965 (two behind Peter Thomson) and his closest call, a tie for third in 1958, when a bogey off a bunkered tee shot at the 72nd kept him out of the Thomson-Dave Thomas playoff.

O’Connor did, however, enjoy much success in Britain, claiming three titles that ranked only behind the Open in prestige: the 1957 News of the World match play at Turnberry, and the 1956 and ’59 British Masters, the latter of which came over amateur Joe Carr during one of the event’s rare visits to Portmarnock. O’Connor also twice won the Vardon Trophy for leading the pre-European Tour Order of Merit (1961 and ’62) and finished second on seven further occasions during the 1960s. Internationally, he appeared in 15 World Cups (teaming with Harry Bradshaw to claim Ireland’s first victory in 1958 in Mexico City) and also set a Ryder Cup record by playing in 10 consecutive matches between 1955-73, a mark later broken by Nick Faldo.

Known affectionately in Ireland as “Himself” in deference to his golfing stature and immense popularity, O’Connor will forever be grouped with that nation’s two other postwar stars Harry Bradshaw and Fred Daly. The debate over who was best is an endless one, though O’Connor’s great longevity certainly made him a much larger presence in the contemporary conscience.

Well, it’s a form of history, anyway.

With his impressive victory at the Players Championship, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson must surely go down as the first-ever golfer of whom one can write: “Now he will no longer be best remembered for taking off his clothes.”

And indeed it’s true, for Stenson achieved a measure of fame/infamy at March’s WGC-CA Championship by stripping down to his underwear before attempting to extricate a ball from a water hazard – a moment which surely got the attention of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, even if there was little that Finchem could actually do about it. But Stenson turned that fiasco/epic moment into little more than a footnote on Sunday by birdieing six of his final 12 holes en route to a flawless final round 66 and an emphatic four-shot triumph over Ian Poulter, in the process logging by far his largest worldwide victory to date.

And this really was an important win for Stenson, because...

While I am one of the seemingly small number of people genuinely enamored with the Official World Ranking, I must concede that there might be a flaw in its mechanism when a player can be a fixture in the world top 10 without at least occasionally winning on the top tour in t he world. Certainly Stenson has been a consistent winner in Europe (seven E Tour victories since 2000) and I haven’t forgotten that one of those events was the 2007 WGC Match Play which is, of course, also an official event in America. But in general Stenson has avoided playing regularly on these shores. In fact, going into this week, beyond the internationally oriented Majors and WGCs, the Players and the FedEx Cup playoffs, he had made a grand total of seven career PGA Tour starts.

Now, I can’t necessarily blame him for choosing such a path. Indeed, if money is not one’s sole motivator in life, there could be a dozen good reasons to play primarily in Europe – not the least of which might be an admirable sense of loyalty to one’s home circuit. The great Australian Hall-of-Famer Peter Thomson certainly felt no need to ply his trade regularly in the U.S., nor did Seve Ballesteros, and numerous other British and European players since the founding of the E Tour in the early 1970s.

But...

Thomson and Ballesteros made their worldwide competitive bones winning Majors, while those other E Tour types seldom challenged for elite status worldwide. Henrik Stenson, on the other hand, has not accomplished the former but, at least according to the World Ranking, has very much achieved the latter. Fair enough. But by coming to Ponte Vedra Beach and handing it to a world-class field in the game’s fifth biggest event, Stenson certainly validated that top-10 ranking, ending any speculation as to his ability to win “over here.” And if one doubts the significance of that, how, I wonder, do they think history will rate Colin Montgomerie, a genuinely great talent who never won either a Major or a regular Tour event in America?

Anyway, now being unquestionably established among the world elite, will Henrik Stenson opt to play in America more regularly? Or even less?

And then we have the ongoing saga of Tiger Woods, who blew himself out of Sunday contention with a horrendous start, hitting shots pretty much every place but where he was aiming over the first several holes, and never finding enough form to mount any sort of meaningful run thereafter. The naysayers, of course, are getting louder now, and one senses that Tiger’s alleged instructor Hank Haney may soon have considerably more time to dedicate to the all-encompassing work-in-regression that is Charles Barkley. But whether Woods brooms Haney or not, it is still too early to conclude that he has somehow “lost it,” that his knee may never sufficiently recover, or that he now resides again amongst the mortals. Indeed, a player of Woods’ singular talents will almost certainly rise again, in some form or fashion, to a level capable of winning Major championships. But the question that now might be a reasonable one to ask is:

In the time it takes to do that, will he lose his psychological edge?

Have the players that once generally fell to pieces in his presence now become emboldened enough by his post-surgery play that they are more ready to mount significant opposition during crunch time? I’m still certain that Tiger can regain his lost form (albeit almost certainly under new tutelage) but his psychological advantage very well could be on the wane.

And if so, that would certainly make for some interesting competitive times dead ahead.