French fireworks

France is the place where all big trophies are heading this year and I have a good gut feeling that they might also take home the British open.
Garcia should and will be the man if they have to get it. Garcia is at is top of his game this year with many top ten finishes & a players championship title to his credit.

Garcia’s moral was at an all time low after his 18th hole meltdown at the carnoustie last year, where he put the title from his lap and handed it to Padraid Harrington on the 72nd hole. But the win at the players had done him a world of good and his confidence has blossomed.
No doubt he is an exceptional talent, he has the game to compete with the best and be the best but he just needs to win one big major that will nozzle hi carrier.

Remembering 1998[and the wind]

Mark O’Meara defeated Brian watts,17-19 in a four hole playoff in the last British open played at royal Birkdale. Heavy wind during the third round contributed to a scoring average of 77.49 that Saturday, when no sub par rounds were shot –the first time that had happened at the major since the third round of the 1986 open at Turnberry. Of the 81 players to survived the cut, 23 shot in the 8o’s, including Phil Michelson, who shot an 85 that included a second nine of 45 and a finish of 6-5-6-7.Tiger woods who had 77 recalled hitting “3- and 4-irons from 160 yards”.
Results that year from Birkdale, which played at 7,018 yards, par 70.

TOP FINISHERS:
Mark o’mera:72-68-72-68:280
Brian watts: 68-69-73-70:280
Tiger woods: 65-73-77-70:281
Jim furyk: 70-70-72-70:282
Jasper pernevik: 68-72-72-70:282

MISSED THE CUT:
Colin Montgomery (73-74)
Padraid Harrington (73-76)
John Daly (73-78)

Daly needed a bogey at the par-4 18th hole on Friday to make the cut but took five swings to escape a fairway bunker and made a 10.
Source from golf digest

LATEST FROM THE OPEN

Drug testing at Open Championship delayed until 2009

Players competing at Royal Birkdale in July will not be subject to drug testing as originally planned due to a delay in implementing the testing program at various Open Championship international qualifying sites.

R&A announces changes to entry criteria for 2008 Open

The runners-up at the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur championships will have a little easier road to Royal Birkdale, thanks to a series of amendments to the entry criteria for the 2008 Open Championship announced recently by the R&A. The Championship Committee also also intends to lower to 60 the age limit exemption for past Open champions.




Due to a new age limit for the Open Championship, five-time winner Tom Watson has two more years of exemptions left.

Cink Beats the Field, Not Himself

As the sky faded to a menacing gray, Stewart Cink was the lone splash of color at the 13th hole. His stunningly yellow shirt, better suited to the glorious sunshine that bathed the Travelers Championship until Sunday morning, stood out in the darkened afternoon when his game did not.
But with the smell of rain clinging to the course, Cink nailed a 6-foot birdie putt on No. 13 and went into a weather delay still leading the field by a shot. Another birdie on No. 15 over an hour later proved to be enough for him to secure the $1.08 million first prize Sunday at T.P.C. River Highlands, the same course where he won his first PGA Tour event 11 years ago.

The victory, his first on the tour since 2004, also moved him into third place in the FedEx Cup regular-season rankings behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Cink finished with an 18-under-par 262, edging Tommy Armour III and the defending champion, Hunter Mahan, by one shot. But Cink’s final-round 67 on the par-70 course was more the product of consistency than inspiration. His four birdies in the round came only when he seemed prodded into action by the chasing pack.

“We had to endure a rain delay and guys were firing left and right,” Cink said. “And I just stayed a step ahead, just enough. I think that makes it even more sweet.”
Cink had carried a two-shot lead from Saturday, but his career record when leading after 54 holes was hardly a confidence boost — he was 1 for 9 before Sunday. And as he took on the 444-yard, par-4 18th hole, needing only a par to seal the result, that record nearly caught up to him.

“You’ve got the way Tiger goes here — any time he’s sniffing the lead he seems to just will it through,” Cink said. “Then you’ve got the way I was, where it seems like any time there’s a chance to lose you lose.”

He hit a towering 366-yard drive straight into the crowd on the hill to the right of the fairway. But he was only 93 yards from the pin, and it took a delicate iron shot to the fringe of the green to remedy the wayward drive. Ultimately, he said, it was a pearl of wisdom from his wife, Lisa, that made the difference.

“She said sometimes you have to be willing to run naked across the green,” he said. “And that sounds crazy, but guys like Tiger and Phil, they let it all out. They don’t think about the next one. They don’t think about the consequences. They just go for it.”

Tournament organizers had rescheduled the final round of play on Sunday in anticipation of the heavy downpour, sending the field off in threesomes on the first and 10th holes starting at 7:30 a.m. The leaders did not tee off until 9:30, but perhaps the earlier start was to blame for Cink’s sluggish play.

While the field sneaked up on him, Cink bogeyed the fourth hole before recovering with a birdie on No. 6. Mahan, Armour and Cink’s friend Heath Slocum took another jab at him by posting birdies on the ninth to tie at 15 under. By the time Cink had matched them, 11 players skulked within four shots of the lead.

None, however, could mount a charge on a back nine that had been so vulnerable through the weekend — D. J. Trahan, for instance, carded a 30 there on Saturday.

“I didn’t feel like I played those holes badly,” Mahan said, “I just didn’t quite make them, didn’t quite read them the way I needed to.”

Neither did Cink, but he read them just well enough.

Toughest putt in golf




Going uphill then downhill is like having two putts, so make it just that


PICK A POINT: Read the downhill part first, and pick a target spot just over the crest of the hill.
A putt that goes up and then down is the most difficult putt there is. The key is good speed. You should get an overall sense of the putt by walking to the hole just off the line, feeling the roll of the ball with your feet. Do this briskly, without affecting the pace of play.
Try separating the putt into two parts: a slow uphill putt followed by a fast downhill putt. Pick a point just over the top of the hill, and make sure you get the ball to that spot or just past it. But don't overdo it. You have to hit this putt harder, but I see a lot of people knock it way past. You want a speed that would roll the ball about 15 inches by the hole.
Decide on the downhill part first. Then consider any grain or wind on the uphill portion. Remember, if the putt breaks, it will break more on a fast green and less on a slow green.
A good way to develop a feel for speed is to find two holes on a practice green, one that runs uphill for 30 feet or so and another that runs downhill. Putt each of them a half dozen times, and note the roll.

 THOUGHTS FROM TOM WATSON
I want the average golfer on my pro-am team to help on the par-3 holes. He or she probably gets a stroke on those holes and should make more pars on them just because they're shorter. But you have to aim for the safe part of the green, which isn't necessarily the fat part. Aim for the area where there's the least amount of trouble -- even if it's the fringe or fairway near the green.

Tiger Woods wins US Open





Tiger Woods, in agony and in danger it seemed of having to pull out of the US Open last Friday, completed a victory at Torrey Pines.

On the very day he reached 500 weeks as world number one, Woods took his total of majors to 14 - just four short of Jack Nicklaus's record - after a marathon duel with fellow American Rocco Mediate.

After staying alive with a 15-foot putt on Sunday, Woods again birdied the last to stop 45-year-old qualifier Mediate becoming the championship's oldest winner and Mediate then bogeyed the 19th to hand Woods the title.

They were both round in level par 71s, Mediate having come from three down after 10 to lead by one on the final tee.

In his first event since surgery on his left knee straight after the Masters in April, Woods made it a remarkable five straight victories at the San Diego venue and took his on-course career earnings through the 100 million US dollars mark.

If not the greatest victory of all the 87 he has now had as a professional, it was certainly the most unlikely when he started with a double bogey and appeared miles short of full fitness.

His play-off record now, though, is a stunning 16-3 - and, of course, he has maintained his record of winning every single major he has led after 54 holes. All 14 of them.........

“IT’s PLAYOFF MAN”

The world’s best against a qualifier.



Who could have imagined that for a Monday at Torrey Pines?

Perhaps during an early-week practice round at the 2008 U.S. Open. Certainly not a day after the scheduled 72-hole finish, and certainly not between these two contestants.
As Rocco Mediate anxiously watched from the scoring area late Sunday afternoon, pacing at times, Tiger Woods pulled off the dramatic as only the world No. 1 can accomplish. He hadn’t holed a long, clutch putt for 17 holes, but when he needed to make a 12-footer for birdie, one that would decide if the U.S. Open was headed for 18 extra holes, Woods found the bottom of the 4¼-inch diameter circle to send the thousands gathered at the 18th hole into a frenzy.

Overtime at the Open. The 18-hole playoff will commence at 9 a.m. PDT and be televised in its entirety by ESPN (9-11) and NBC (11 a.m. to finish) as well as streamed on usopen.com.





Compare These stats:
TIGER WOODS
Birthdate:
December 30, 1975
Birthplace:
Cypress, Calif.
Age:
32
Height:
6-1
Weight:
185
Home:
Windermere, Fla.
College:
Stanford
Turned Professional:
1996
U.S. OPEN 2008 SCORESPOSITION: T1 STATUS: -1 HOLE: F
ROUND: 1 2 3 4 TOTAL
SCORES: 72 68 70 73 283

U.S. OPEN HISTORY
First U.S. Open:1995 (Shinnecock Hills)
U.S. Open Plays:13
Best Round:R1-65 (2000 Pebble Beach)
Best Finish:1 (2000 Pebble Beach, 2002 Bethpage)
Money:$3,638,257
Exemption Codes:1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17



ROCCO MEDIATE:
Birthdate:
December 17, 1962
Birthplace:
Greensburg, Pa.
Age:
45
Height:
6-1
Weight:
190
Home:
Naples, Fla.
College:
Florida Southern
Turned Professional:
1985
U.S. OPEN 2008 SCORESPOSITION: T1 STATUS: -1 HOLE: F
ROUND: 1 2 3 4 TOTAL
SCORES: 69 71 72 71 283

U.S. OPEN HISTORY
First U.S. Open:1984 (Winged Foot)
U.S. Open Plays:12
Best Round:R3-67 (2001 Southern Hills); R1-67 (2005 Pinehurst)
Best Finish:4 (2001 Southern Hills)
Money:$516,242