European PGA Tour:  Mercedes-Benz Championship

Winner: Robert Karlsson   67-69-68-71   275  (beat F. Molinari by 2)
Site: Gut Larchenhof  -  Cologne, Germany
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS

LPGA Tour:  Bell Micro LPGA Classic

Winner: Angela Stanford   70-67-67-73   277  (beat S. Feng by 1)
Site: Magnolia Grove Golf Course  -  Mobile, AL
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Greater Hickory Classic

Winner: R.W. Eaks   61-68-71   200  (beat T. Jenkins & T. Kite by 4)
Site: Rock Barn Golf & Spa  -  Conover, NC
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…

Laura Davies successfully defended her title at the LET’s UNIQA Ladies Open in Austria, carding a 72-hole score of 273 to defeat fellow Englishwoman Lisa Hall by three………Claiming her second JLPGA title of 2008, Korea’s Hyun-Ju Shin won the prestigious JLPGA Championship in Ishikawa, her five-under-par 283 total slipping in one ahead of countrywoman Ji-Yai Shin and Japan’s Sakura Yokomine ………Chris Tidland won the Nationwide Tour’s Albertson’s Boise Open, closing with a Sunday 64 and a four-round total of 264, good enough for a four-stroke triumph over Scott Piercy......... Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin claimed his first European Challenge our victory at the Quingdau Golf Open in China, his 269 aggregate beating a trio of players by six.

Having apparently failed to earn the equivalent of 80th-place earnings on the 2008 LPGA Tour money list over the course of six sponsor-exemption starts (plus the U.S. Women’s Open), it seems that Michelle Wie will enter LPGA Tour Q School next week.  Ironically, the one-time ultra-phenom’s first stage will be contested over the same Mission Hills Country Club Dinah Shore course upon which she first came to international fame in 2003 when, as a 13-year-old eighth grader, she played in the final Sunday group at the Kraft Nabisco Championship before ultimately tying for 9th.  A subsequent win at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, plus five top-5 finishes in a span of six 2005-06 Major championship starts seemed to suggest a superstar future for Wie – before wrist injuries, rules violations (inadvertent) and, perhaps, enrolling full-time as student at Stanford utterly derailed her during 2007 and most of ’08.

Of course, the otherwise engaging Wie hasn’t helped her P.R. cause by continuing to accept the occasional sponsor exemption into various men’s professional events (including August’s Reno-Tahoe Open), an increasingly carnival-like spectacle given that with the exception of the 2004 Hawaiian Open, she has seldom even caught a whiff of making a cut.

And now?

Perhaps a trip through Q School might be just what this still-prodigious talent needs to get re-focused (though I’ve heard several knowledgeable professionals suggest a return to the pre-David Leadbetter swing of her early teens might be the real key).  Personally, despite the obviously bad career advice she’s received from family and/or the good folks at William Morris, I find myself still rooting for Wie.  She’s still capable of injecting a level of star power into LPGA events that numerous more accomplished players cannot, plus I’ve got a soft spot for her following in Mickey Wright’s illustrious footsteps by trying to blend a Stanford education with a professional golf career.  Of course, the great Mary Kathryn pitched college after a couple of years, ultimately returning some 10 years – and 63 LPGA victories – later, when her mind was apparently more keenly focused on the intellectual job at hand.

Should she graduate Q School, might Michelle Wie be bound for a similar path?

So my “exceptionally well-placed source” (and it truly was) proved incorrect, and Rocco Mediate was not chosen by Paul Azinger among his four captain’s picks for the upcoming Ryder Cup – and this puzzles me to no end.

One of Zinger’s choices, Steve Stricker, seems a no-brainer.  Stricker is currently ranked eighth in the world and has demonstrated consistently better form – by a wide margin – than any of the other candidates over the last two seasons.  To overlook him would have been a travesty.  Another choice, Hunter Mahan, is also difficult to flatly refute.  Though he’s got only one Major championship top-10 finish (in 12 career starts) on his résumé, Mahan is ranked 36th in the world, has generally been showing solid form, and has both Presidents Cup (2207) and Eisenhower Trophy (2002) experience internationally.  Not an inspiring choice, perhaps, but Mahan’s qualifications were as stronger (or stronger) than all candidates save Stricker.

But then things get murky.  Choice number three, Chad Campbell, is currently ranked 57th in the world but has played relatively well of late, logging three top 10s in his last seven starts, dating to early July.  Of course two of those came at conspicuously light-field events (the John Deere and U.S. Bank Championship) and Campbell’s form generally remains well shy of its 2003 peak, when he enjoyed a few moments as a consensus “Next Big Thing.”  In the end, however, Campbell’s two previous Ryder Cup appearances (2004 and ’06) likely swayed Azinger, and it is, one supposes, hard to refute that sort of thinking.

But J.B. Holmes?

Holmes, Zinger’s largely inexplicable final choice, has a PGA Tour résumé that essentially consists of winning the same event (the FBR/Phoeinx Open) twice.  He has no Ryder Cup experience (though he did play in the 2005 Walker Cup), is ranked 56th in the world, and cannot be considered on any degree of great form, with zero top 10s (against five MCs and only one finish as high as 20th) since May’s Players Championship.  Further, he is among the least popular players (among his peers) on Tour – and that should count for something in this, the rare chance to compete in a team format.

Would I have chosen the super-affable Rocco instead?  Absolutely.  Or two-time Ryder Cupper Scott Verplank, or Sean O’Hair, or Brandt Snedeker.  Indeed, the choice of Holmes might appear to make sense at only one level – that he’s a Kentucky native and the event will be played in Louisville – but the last time I checked, the PGA of America seldom struggles to sell Ryder Cup tickets.

Indeed, that may be the only reason they continue to hold the event.

European Captain Nick Faldo’s decision to select Ian Poulter and Paul Casey was perhaps a simpler one, particularly given this note from geoffshackelford.com which indicates that Faldo had selected the colorful Poulter all the way back in July.  As for the long-hitting (who isn’t these days?) Casey, recent top-10 finishes at the Open Championship, the WGC-Bridgestone and the Barclay’s made him a seemingly safe choice – until we consider Darren Clarke.

Clarke, after all, was a perennial world top-20 from 1997-2005, his form slipping in 2006 and ’07 only because his wife was tragically dying of cancer.  But Clarke rebounded impressively in 2008, winning twice on the European Tour (including late August’s KLM Open), logging seven top 10s, and playing himself back up to 63rd in the World Ranking.  Far more importantly, Clarke is a veteran of five (!) Ryder Cups, having appeared in every match from 1997-2006, and amassed a more-than-respectable 10-7-3 record in the process.

It has been suggested that somehow Captain Faldo’s ego didn’t want a high-profile, larger-than-life character like Clarke around, but I personally find that difficult to swallow.

Then again, Darren Clarke really should be on that team.

There are mistakes, and there are mistakes.

That everyone else in the golfing universe recognized the world-class screw-up that was the LPGA Tour’s proposed English-Only policy except Commissioner Carolyn Bivens is only slightly more remarkable than the abrupt about face the LPGA was required to do before the policy became a P.R. debacle nonpareil.

There’s not a lot to say here.

This organization, which, bad economy or not, should be enjoying halcyon days, needs to make a change.

Immediately.

European PGA Tour:  Mercedes-Benz Championship

Site: Gut Larchenhoff Golf Club  -  Cologne, Germany
Yards: 7,289     Par: 72
Defending: Soren Hansen 271  (beat P. Archer & A. Forsyth by 4)
Field:   World Top 25: Miguel Angel Jimenez (19) & Robert Karlsson (22)   Other Notables: Stuart Appleby, Darren Clarke, Fred Couples, Retief Goosen, Martin Kaymer, Bernhard Langer & Graeme McDowell.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Bell Micro LPGA Classic

Site: Magnolia Grove Golf Course  -  Mobile, AL
Yards: 6,253     Par: 72
Defending: Inaugural Event
Field:   World Top 20: Entire Rolex Top 20 except Lorena Ochoa (1), Annika Sorenstam (2), Ji-Yai Shin (7), Karrie Webb (8), Helen Alfredsson (9), Inbee Park (12), Eun-Hee Ji (15), Momoko Ueda (17), Yuri Fudoh (18), Hee-Won Han (19) & Morgan Pressel (20)    Other Notables: Rachal Hetherington, Pat Hurst, Liselotte Neumann, Se Ri Pak & Jan Stephenson.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Champions Tour:  Greater Hickory Classic

Site: Rock Barn Golf & Spa  -  Conover, NC
Yards: 7,046     Par: 72
Defending: R.W. Eaks 199  (beat J. Haas & R. Spittle by 2)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup top 20 except Bernhard Langer (2), Eduardo Romero (4), John Cook (6), Tom Watson (9), Scott Simpson (10), Joey Sindelar (18) & Craig Stadler (19)   Other Notables: Allen Doyle, Bruce Fleisher, Mark James, Tom Kite, Bruce Lietzke, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson & Curtis Strange.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…

LET - UNIQA Ladies Golf Open – Neustadt, Austria
JLPGA – Japan LPGA Championship – Ishikawa, Japan
Nationwide – Albertson’s Boise Open – Boise, ID
European Challenge – Quingdau Golf Open – Quingdao, Cina

PGA Tour:  BMW Championship

Winner: Camilo Villegas   65-66-66-68   265  (beat D. Hart by 2)
Site: Bellerive Country Club  -  St Louis, MO
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Omega European Masters

Winner: Jean-Francois Lucquin   68-67-69-67   271  (beat R. McIlroy in a playoff)
Site: Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club  -  Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan Tour:  Fujisankei Classic

Winner: Toyokazu Fuj ishima   64-68-71-68   271  (beat H. Iwata in a playoff)
Site: Fujizakura Country Club  -  Yamanashi, Japan
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Telkom PGA Pro-Am

Site: Centurion Country Club  -  Centurion, South Africa
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…

Germany’s Martina Eberl mae up a six-stroke final-round deficit to win her second LET title of 2008 at the Nykredit Masters in Denmark, her 205 aggregate edging England’s Melissa Reid by one………Saiki Fujita laimed her third career JLPGA title at the Golf 5 Ladies event in Gifu City, her 13-under-par 203 total bettering Kumiko Kaneda and reigning British Women’s champion Ji-Yai Shin by two………Australia’s Sarah-Jane Kenyon was a wire-to-wire winner at the Futures Tour’s ILOVENY Classic in Albany, her 204 total beating Mindy Kim by three………Brendon Todd was a runaway winner at the Nationwide Tour’s Utah Championship, his 262 total beating a group of six players by six shots………Denmark’s Mark Haastrup claimed his first title on the European Challenge Tour, firing a 54-hole total of 206 to edge Benjamin Miarka by one at the Dubliner Challenge in Gothenburg, Sweden………Breaking from Champions Tour dominance, Bernhard Langer won his first-ever European Seniors Tour title at the Casa Serena Open in Prague, beating Ian Woosnam by three with a 201 total………American Tom Stankowski won the Canadian Tour Championship in Barrie, Ontario, his 272 total beating Canadians Graham DeLaet and Wes Heffernan by two………Taiwan’s Chi-Huang Tsai fired an 18-under-par 270 to win the Omega China Tour’s Luxehills Championship in Chengdu, edging Guiming Liao by three.

It was with real sadness that I learned of the death of World Golf Hall of Fame member Tommy Bolt, who passed away in Arkansas last Saturday at age 92.  Part of my reaction was rooted in the knowledge that Bolt – ever one of the game’s more colorful characters – represented the last of a bygone era of golfers, a time when Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson were pretty button-downed sorts, but men like Bolt, Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret and Lloyd Mangrum brought a degree of “flavor” to things that will never again be seen on the PGA Tour.  But I was also bothered by two more items of interest.  First, Tommy Bolt – though undeniably an underachiever relative to his immense golfing talent – was also one of the game’s more underrated players; indeed, his 15 career PGA Tour titles (including the 1958 U.S. Open), while impressive, were forever overshadowed by stories (many apocryphal) of his legendary temper.  Which brings us to my third and final thought:

Despite this well-earned reputation as a hothead, Tommy Bolt was actually a very nice man.

Though I personally witnessed him loudly blowing up about slow play during the inaugural U.S. Senior Open in 1980, I had the chance to meet Tommy Bolt at Riviera during the early 1990s, when he spent several days at the club as a guest of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce prior to the L.A. Open.  Suffice to say that he couldn’t have been nicer, more accommodating or more charming – indeed, Bolt was John McEnroe a good three decades before the mercurial tennis star perfected his own Jekyll and Hyde act on and off the court.

What follows, then, is my Book of Golfers entry for the late, great Tommy Bolt.  I sincerely doubt that professional golf will ever see another one like him.

TOMMY BOLT

There are names that all golfers know; those of Nicklaus, Hogan, Jones and several other immortals.  And while Tommy Bolt (b.Haworth, OK 3/31/1916) may not be quite as famous as those three legends, he truly isn’t very far behind.  The shame of it, of course, is that Bolt’s notoriety comes for all the wrong reasons.  For while many a Bolt story has been exaggerated, and men like Lefty Stackhouse, Ivan Gantz and Don Cherry were far more out of control, Thomas Henry Bolt has for many years served as golf’s poster child for a burning, uncontrollable temper.

Bolt stories, of course, are legion.  Heaving his favorite driver in a lake.  Advising players never to break their drivers and putters during the same round.  Being told by his caddie to use a 2 iron where a 9 would suffice, as the 2 was the lone serviceable club left in the bag.  Most such tales have grown exponentially over the years, often making Bolt seem more of a caricature than the tough, competitive and tremendously talented player that he was.  Yet here was a man who, upon missing a short putt, really did glare skyward and painfully intone: “Why don’t You come on down here and play me one time?”

Coming on Tour at the ripe old age of 34, the dapper Bolt was a winner right away, first at Pinehurst’s old North & South Open, then, in years to come, in virtually every corner of the country.  All told he would capture 15 PGA Tour victories with the biggest, by far, being the 1958 U.S. Open at Tulsa’s Southern Hills CC.  There, playing in stifling heat, Bolt defeated a 22-year-old Gary Player by four, reaching the peak he had always dreamed of and, by his own admission, losing a bit of competitive edge thereafter.

There are those who will say that given his remarkable talent, Bolt was something of an underachiever, and perhaps there is some truth to that.  His swing, after all, was generally rated second only to Snead’s, he was a superb driver of the ball who could move it either direction with ease, and his irons landed softer than anyone save Hogan.  It was a package that would keep Bolt at the top of his game for many years, allowing him very nearly to win the 1971 PGA (where he eventually finished third) at age 55.  There is little question too that Bolt was the best 60- and 70-year-old player in the world in his day, though he came along just a bit too soon to display his wares on the modern, big-money Champions Tour.

Bolt, for his part, learned to have fun with his tempestuous reputation, even writing a book entitled How To Keep Your Temper on the Golf Course (David McKay, 1969).  But after all the hyperbole and legend, there was still the competitive, super-talented golfer, a man who, upon losing interest in Dan Jenkins’ explanation of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, interrupted with: “Well, son, why don’t you just go out and round up them two, and Old Tom’ll play their low ball.”

…Have indeed proven greatly exaggerated.

Several times during this 2008 season, I have referred to Vijay Singh as being on the down side, and at age 45 – and relative to his nine-win, Player-of-the-Year 2004 campaign, at least – he must certainly be.  

But not much.

By claiming his second straight victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship, and his third PGA Tour title in five weeks, Singh has once again proven himself nearly impervious to age.  Indeed, the Deutsche Bank was his 23rd American victory since turning 40, which moves him five ahead of Sam Snead in the made-for-TV category of Most Victories After Beginning One’s Fifth Decade.  

[Aside: By my own criteria – which differ somewhat from the Tour’s not-so-organized record book – Snead should also be credited with wins at the 1952 Julius Boros Open, plus an additional five triumphs at the Greenbrier Open/Sam Snead Festival, giving him 24 middle-aged victories and keeping him, for the moment, one ahead of Singh.]

Still the exceptional ball-striker, Vijay has obviously been getting the putts to fall of late – which suggest that he may well run the table for the duration of 2008.  Thus while Singh continues to roil many of his peers and much of the media with his particular brand of  “confidence,” there can be no denying that we should all be on such a “downside” after turning 45.

PGA Tour:  BMW Championship

Site: Bellerive Country Club  -  St Lous, MO
Yards: 7,456     Par: 71
Defending: Tiger Woods 262  (beat A. Baddeley by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: All except Tiger Woods (1), Henrik Stenson (6), Lee Westwood (12), Justin Rose (13), Miguel Angel Jimenez (18), Robert Karlsson (21), Luke Donald (22), Ian Poulter (24) & Aaron Baddely   Other Notables: All who survived the Deutsche Bank.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Omega European Masters

Site: Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club  -  Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland
Yards: 6,857     Par: 71
Defending: Brett Rumford 268  (beat Phillip Archer in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: Miguel Angel Jimenez (18)   Other Notables: Niclas Fasth, Anders Hansen, Edurado Romero, Charl Schwartzel & Lian-Wei Zhang.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Fujisankei Classic

Site: Fujizakura Country Club  -  Yamanashi, Japan
Yards: 6,185    Par: 71
Defending: Hideto Tanihara 205  (beat P. Marksaeng by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Prayad Marksaeng, Frankie Minoza, Jumbo Ozaki, Craig Parry & Toru Taniguchi.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Telkom PGA Pro-Am

Site: Centurion Country Club  -  Centurion, South Africa
Meters: 6,373     Par: 72
Defending: Michiel Bothma 204  (beat J. Van Zyl by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Hennie Otto & Des Terblanche.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…

LET – Nykredit Masters – Simons, Denmark
JLPGA – Golf  Ladies – Gifu City, Japan
Futures – ILOVENY Championship – Albany, NY
Nationwide – Utah Championship – Sandy Utah
European Challenge – Dubliner Challenge – Gothenburg, Sweden
European Seniors – Casa Serena Open – Prague, Czech Republic
Canadian Tour – Canadian Tour Championship – Barrie, Ontaio
Omega China – Luxehills Golf Championship – Chengdu, hina