PGA Tour:  Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial – Ft. Worth, TX

Hitting a remarkable 140-yard wedge from deep rough to the 72nd green, then holing the ensuing nine-footer for birdie and a 266 total, Phil Mickelson won his second Crowne Plaza Invitational and his 34th overall PGA Tour title, edging Australia’s Rod Pampling and South Africa’s Tim Clark by one.  Mickelson began Sunday with a one-stroke lead but trailed at the turn after Pampling logged four birdies while going out in 32.  However the long-hitting Aussie could manage only a one-over-par 36 coming home (including a critical bogey at the 71st) allowing Mickelson, who birdied the par-five 11th in addition to the 18th, to ultimately nose ahead at the wire.  Having begun the day three back of Mickelson, Clark went out in 34 to remain in the hunt, then brought himself into a late tie for the lead with crucial birdies at the 16th and 17th.  He could only par the last, however, clearing the way for Mickelson’s final-green heroics.  Stephen Ames, who closed with a disappointing even-par 70, took solo 4th.  For Mickelson, the victory solidifies his hold on the number two spot in both the Official World Ranking and the PGA Tour money list, while also giving him 2008 victories over the two Tour venues intimately associated with Ben Hogan, Riviera and Colonial.  Perhaps most importantly, it sees him in peak form only three weeks ahead of the U.S. Open, which will be played on his quasi-home course, Torrey Pines.

                     FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS          
 
 
European Tour:  BMW PGA Championship – Virginia Water, England

In his 20th season on the European Tour, 44-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez finally claimed the circuit’s biggest non-Major prize, the BMW PGA Championship, by defeating young Oliver Wilson on the second hole of sudden death after the pair deadlocked on 277.  Both Jimenez and Wilson entered the final round tied for 2nd, four shots behind 54-hole leader Robert Karlsson, then closed with four-over-par 68s over the Wentworth Club’s famed West course while Karlsson stumbled to a closing 74.  Jimenez, in fact, caught Karlsson early, making birdies and the third and fourth, a hole-in-one at the fifth, and an additional birdie at the seventh.  Thus positioned to potentially open a big lead, he could do no better than one-over-par figures for the remaining 11 holes to finish level with Wilson, who might well have won the title outright had he not bogeyed the par-five 17th.  In the playoff, the pair parred the par-five 18th the first time through before Jimenez won with a two-putt birdie on the second go-round.  Third place was shared by Luke Donald (who closed with a stellar 65) and Karlsson, who was three-over-par over his first 10 holes on Sunday, then righted the ship with birdies at 12, 14 and 16 before ultimately missing a three-footer at the last that would have put him in the playoff – then missing the comebacker as well.  The victory is the 15th on the E Tour for the so-far-ageless Jimenez, and also made him the first player to capture the “BMW Triple,” for he won both the BMW Asian and International titles in 2004.  The win also lifts him atop the Order of Merit, and from 41st to 21st in the World Ranking.  Wilson moves into 2nd place in the Order of Merit with his seventh career runner-up finish (against no victories) while Karlsson moves up to 6th.

    FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan Tour:  Munsingwear Open KSB Cup – Okayama, Japan

Hideto Tanihara won his seventh career J Tour title at the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup in Okayama, his 18-under-par aggregate of 270 defeating the threesome of Shingo Katayama, Katsunori Kuwabara and Nobuhito Sato by three.  In sum, the event was nowhere near that close; Tanihara opened with red-hot rounds of 65-67-65 to charge out to a six-stroke 54-hole lead, then closed with a two-birdie, one-bogey 73 to comfortably salt things away.  Of the runners-up, only Sato, who played his last eight holes in two-over-par, held any reasonable chance of catching Tanihara; Katayama’s closing 69 never moved him close to the lead, while Kuwabara required a closing 64 (the week’s low round) simply to pull within three.  With his victory, Tanihara moves up to 5th in the Order of Merit (some ¥ 17,000 behind leader Katayama) and 97th in the Official World Ranking.  Notably, defending champion Ryo Ishikawa, who made history by winning the event as a 15-year-old amateur in 2007, missed the cut, his third straight MC of the young Japanese season.

                    FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          J TOUR STATS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Corning Classic – Corning, NY

Thirteen year veteran Leta Lindley claimed her first official LPGA Tour victory in 296 starts at the 30th Corning Classic, defeating world number eight Jeong Jang by holing a six-foot birdie putt on the first hole of sudden death.  The victory came after the pair tied with 11-under-par totals of 277, one stroke better than Sun Young Yoo and Mi Hyun Kim, and Lindley holed her winning putt only after Jang had neatly saved par from a greenside bunker.  The victory comes against a less-than-powerful field (Jang and number three Paula Creamer were the only world top 10s in attendance) but Lindley, who had logged but a single top 10 finish in nine previous 2008 starts will happily take it.

         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          LPGA STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Senior PGA Championship – Rochester, NY

Playing over an Oak Hill Country Club layout set up far too hard for a Champions Tour field, Jay Haas won his second Senior PGA Championship in three tries, his seven-over-par 287 total edging Bernhard Langer by one and Scott Hoch, Joey Sindelar and Scott Simpson by two.  Haas, who led after the first and second rounds, but trailed Langer by one after 54 holes, gritted his way through a closing four-over-par 74, but given the basic difficulty of Oak Hill’s East course, plus the severe tournament conditions, he was able to hang on.  Fittingly, Haas closed things out with a routine four at the difficult 469-yard finisher – the very same hole where his bogey during the singles matches of the 1995 Ryder Cup gave Philip Walton the decisive point in Europe’s dramatic come-from-behind victory.  Making a rare Champions Tour appearance, 53-year-old Greg Norman provided a shot of final nine excitement when he reeled off three straight birdies at holes 12-14, then, after bogeying the 15th, birdied the 16th to pull within one of the lead.  But a double-bogey, bogey finish undid the Great White Shark, leaving the path clear for Haas’s closing par and the victory.  His 287 aggregate was the highest in the 69-year history of the PGA of America’s marquee senior event, this being the comparatively rare set-up debacle on the part of an organization which generally gets these things right.

   FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          CHAMPIONS STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere...

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen claimed her third international victory (and eighth career triumph overall) by winning the rain-shortened Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, her LET record 54-hole total of 194 routing Amy Yang by six………In Japan, former LPGA Tour player Ji-Hee Lee captured the JLPGA’s Chukyu TV Bridgestone Open for the second time, defeating Miho Koga and Miki Saiki in sudden death after the trio deadlocked on 208.  The victory is Lee’s 10th career triumph in Japan………England’s Gary Clark recorded his first victory in 13 years as a professional at the European Challenge Tour’s DHL Wroclaw Open, his 262 aggregate defeating countryman Gary Boyd by two………Liao Guiming won the OMEGA China Tour’s Sofitel Championship, defeating the venerable Lian-Wei Zhang in sudden death after the two tied at 10-under-par 278………Jeff Klauk won the Nationwide Tour’s Price George’s County Open with a 276 total, defeating Jeff Brehaut and David Mathis by one………Argentina’s Rafael Gomez carded a 54-hole total of 10-under-par 200 to win the Tour de las Americas' Televisa Players Championship in Acapulco, beating Venezuelan Raul Sanz by three………American Russell Surber won the Canadian Tour’s San Luis Potosi Open in Mexico, his 282 total edging Wil Collins and Adam Bland by two.