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

Unaffected By The Marquee Mayhem



San Diego – “Where’d everybody go?” said the marshal stationed at the first tee Thursday at a 8:17 a.m. “They were just here a minute ago.”

It wasn’t as if you had some slouches on the tee box. There was Steve Flesch, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour; Rich Beem, the surprise winner of the 2002 PGA championship; and Lee Janzen, an 18-year veteran of the tour who won his second United States Open 10 years ago. That’s as many Open championships as any one individual in the field, including World No. 1 Tiger Woods.

No matter. That vacuum sound you couldn’t help but notice on the first hole of the first round of the 108th U.S. Open wasn’t Tiger Woods’ pulled tee shot deep into the left rough that lead to a double bogey. It was the hordes of fans scampering after everyone’s dream grouping of Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, leaving anyone playing in their wake feeling a little like chopped liver.

Not that Beem, Flesch or Janzen would cop to any feelings of neglect. “Why wouldn’t [fans] take off after Tiger and Phil,” said Beem after a 3-over 74. “They’re the top players in the world, and I’m not.”

Still, with many thousands thronging the first tee long before Mickelson-Scott-Woods showed for their 8:06 a.m. starting time, you had to figure it wasn’t going to be easy playing either in the group immediately proceeding or following the game’s superstars. For 18 holes, the world’s top-three ranked players created the kind of crazed buzz one really only experiences late in the final round of a close-fought major, and even then the excitement is typically distributed over two or three pairings until it gets down to very last hole or two.

On Thursday, the mania was concentrated to one group and sustained over a full five hours. And the throng only grew as the round progressed. The fact that nobody in the group was playing spectacularly (Mickelson finished at even par, Woods one over, and Scott two over for the round), hardly mattered to the fans.

However, the hullabaloo may have mattered more to those coming up on their heels than they were willing to let on.

“It was fine,” Beem insisted, dismissing any suggestion that the commotion may have thrown his group off their games. “Everybody is going forward, nobody is going back, so it was no big deal at all.”

And yet, collectively, his group finished the day 14 strokes over par, which is a big deal.

The group playing ahead of the big party faired better, especially after Mark Calcavecchia dropped out with a sore knee on the ninth hole. Oliver Wilson threw away a couple of shots on the final hole to finish one over par, while Joe Ogilvie scrambled back from 3-over start to finish at even-par 71.

“I heard walking down the 18th fairway that there are more people on the golf course today than there were even at Bethpage [host of the 2002 Open], and Bethpage set all the records,” Ogilvie said afterward. “And they weren’t all right behind me like you’d think. They were also a hole ahead of me and the hole that I was on, waiting for Tiger and Phil and Adam. But with so many people, there wasn’t a lot of movement, so it wasn’t the nightmare we thought it would be.”

The only possible problem, as Ogilvie saw it, was that at times, figuring the roar of the crowd was inevitable, he had no choice but to take a moment and become a spectator. “You certainly didn’t want to hit when those guys were hitting,” he said. “But that was OK. These guys are the top three players in the world. It’s fun to step back and watch what they do.”

Woods returns to action


Tiger Woods has played a practice round at Torrey Pines ahead of next week's US Open, according to press reports.

The world number one, who underwent knee surgery following The Masters in April, played 17 holes on Wednesday before picking up his ball about 100 yards from the 18th green after seeing that a group of people had begun to gather.

Woods began his round at 8am local time and played for three hours 15 minutes under tight security. No media or spectators were allowed on the South Course at the time Woods was playing.

Woods won his sixth Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in January, but despite that success he wanted to check out the layout for the second major of the season.

The first round of the US Open gets under way on June 12.

                    OFFICIAL SITEOF THE US OPEN

Perry wins the Memorial

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- Kenny Perry's sole purpose on the PGA TOUR this year is to go home to Kentucky for the Ryder Cup.
He took a big step Sunday by winning on a course that feels like home. Perry is so desperate to make the team that he won't even bother qualifying for the U.S. Open. He does not like Torrey Pines, and figures he should devote his energy to tournaments where he has a better chance of earning points, such as Memphis next week and Hartford the week after the U.S. Open.
It felt like he won a U.S. Open at Muirfield Village -- not so much because of its slick greens and 6-inch rough, but the way par became such a prized possession for so many players.
Third-round leader Mathew Goggin stumbled to a 74, and tied for second with former Masters champion Mike Weir, Justin Rose and Jerry Kelly, all of whom closed with a 71. All of them had their chances until dropping shots somewhere along the back nine.
Perry took the lead with a birdie on the ninth hole and never gave it up, saving par from the back bunker on the par-3 12th and with a perfect flop shot from the rough above the 14th green.
Goggin's three-shot margin was gone in three holes, and his lead vanished in four, courtesy of two bogeys as everyone else was moving forward. The only consolation was a birdie at No. 18 and a tie for second, matching his best PGA TOUR result.
"It took me three, four holes to calm down," Goggin said. "And that was the difference."
Four players had a share of the lead on the front nine, all of them poised to take charge.
Rose was the first to 8 under when he holed a bunker shot for eagle on No. 7, but he retreated with a bogey from the bunker on the next hole and fell apart early on the back nine, not all by his own doing. Still in range of the lead, Rose watched an approach just left of the flag on No. 13 hit a sprinkler in the fringe and carom into the gallery, leading to bogey.

Goggin stays in control at Memorial


DUBLIN, Ohio (AP)—Mathew Goggin tried to keep his balance on the bank of a creek, looking for a way out of trouble at the Memorial. He quickly abandoned those thoughts, chipped out to the 14th fairway and took a bogey.
Muirfield Village was no place for heroics Saturday, not in such difficult conditions, not with a guy looking for his first PGA Tour victory.
It was that type of patience that carried Goggin to a 1-under 71 in the rain-delayed third round, giving him a three-shot lead and the highest score by a 54-hole leader at the Memorial in nearly two decades.
Goggin could have played toward the green, but the ball would have been parallel to his chest.
“Unless I was Phil Mickelson, I wasn’t going to try that,” he said.
He picked up a birdie on the next hole, hung on with pars and wound up at 8-under 208, three shots clear of former Masters champion Mike Weir and four others going into the final round.
Final day is going to be one hell of a fight will all good players up there on the main leader board.