- Ladies First:  I never figured I’d be one to say this (much less actually believe it) but viewing the first two rounds of the LPGA Championship, I’m finally starting to side with those who feel that watching women’s professional golf is considerably more entertaining than watching the men.  Fundamentally, I suspect this feeling comes from the fact that the men generally play a BORING game.  Oh, watching Tiger work his particular brand of magic is certainly exciting enough (and not something anyone should take for granted) but in general, the PGA Tour has, quite literally, become a repetitive storyline of driver-wedge-putter, with the only points of real interest emanating from the recovery shots required after the world’s best/longest blast it 330 yards into a forest.  The women, on the other hand, play a game far more similar to the varied, strategic, thought-provoking challenge that golf was prior to the equipment manufacturers taking over as the game’s governing body.  They occasionally hit longer irons/fairway metals into par fours, cannot automatically hit every par five under 600 yards in two and – perish the thought – actually have to think their way around from time to time.  Put them on an interesting golf course like Pete Dye’s Bulle Rock (as opposed to some of the painfully bland facilities the LPGA is frequently relegated to) and you have…  Well, lets just say that the Golf Channel’s ending their coverage to switch over to the PGA Tour’s Stanford St. Jude sleep-a-thon sent me off to watch the news.  I will, however, mark that sentence with an asterisk, because if the incomparable Tommy Armour III continues to lead at Memphis right on into the weekend (as he was at the time of the Golf Channel’s switchover) that would be another story altogether.  But it’s early…

- Quotable: "We have better balls, better drivers, better equipment. Johnny Miller talks about equipment almost as much as he talks about himself.” – Joe Ogilvie

- Home Field Advantage: Two years ago, Austria’s Markus Brier carved himself a small place in history by winning the inaugural BA-CA Open, the first official European Tour event to be played in his homeland.  Yesterday, in the rain-delayed first round of this year’s BA-CA, Brier opened with a solid 68, but was upstaged by countryman Martin Wiegele, a 29-year-old with only a single Challenge Tour victory, who rattled off seven birdies and an eagle over his first 15 holes before a pair of late bogeys saw him home in 64, good enough to join five other men sharing the early lead.  True, it’s only one round, and the field this week is not exactly of a Major championship caliber, but one still has to be impressed by the ability of these otherwise journeyman players to rise to the occasion on their home soil.

                            McDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP        

                LEADERBOARD          THURSDAY PAIRINGS          INTERVIEWS

I recently received my copy of the 2008 edition of The World of Professional Golf, the comprehensive worldwide volume originated in 1967 by the late sports mega-agent Mark McCormack.  I have a more-than-sneaky feeling that like most everything else McCormack did in the late 1960s, the initial purpose of publishing this annual was to enhance his marketing of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, much as the Official World Ranking was panned in later decades as a tool of McCormack’s monolithic IMG in the selling of Greg Norman.  Further, I will stipulate that in this era of professional golf – any professional golf, on any continent – being only a mouse click away, the importance of McCormack’s title must, by definition, be diminished a bit from that of its first three decades.

And yet it is still, without question, tremendous.

The format of The World of Professional Golf  hasn’t changed much over the years.  The book generally opens with an overview of the previous season worldwide, then provides long and highly detailed recaps of each of the four Major championships.  It then travels the world, tour by tour, providing somewhat more concise portraits of every single event, adding up to a uniquely descriptive (not to mention comprehensive) chronicle of the golfing year.  Finally, after providing a table of the top 200 players in the final Official World Ranking of the previous season, it offers a massive tour-by-tour appendix listing the final results of every event played – though in most cases, these ledgers only include those players making the cut.

Today, the book’s primary value is convenience; the information contained can all be found on the internet, but having it in one easy-to-reach place can come in handy.  But the older volumes – say from the 1967 debut right up into the early 1990s – represent a uniquely valuable resource, a comprehensive history of the professional game as dedicated to events played in South Africa, Japan and Australia as the United States and Europe.  It as also well worth noting that The World of Professional Golf has seldom been a dry, textbook-like read; indeed, McCormack and his team of stringers/writers/editors have generally possessed a pleasant, easy-to-read style not averse to including bits of local and tournament color.  This quality, it seems to me, has diminished a bit since McCormack’s 2003 death, but was initially strong enough to make those early volumes, even today, a pleasant, nostalgic read.

For writers, researchers and truly dedicated fans, the entire collection can be acquired – albeit piece-by-piece – from websites like abebooks.com at relatively low prices.  But clear some room on the bookshelves; most editions measure out at 500-600 pages, meaning that the full collection essentially requires a bookcase of its own.

It’s always nice to have a little corporate presence in the name of a Major championship.

Anyway, the following list of favorites holds potential value to bettors because its odds represent each players actual chance of winning (or so I think…) as opposed to bookmaker’s odds, which are driven primarily by the handle.

So…

Lorena Ochoa (Mexico) (3-1): What can we say?  She’s the world’s best player…by a mile.

Annika Sorenstam (Sweden) (6-1): With three wins in 10 starts, the obvious second choice.  She’s won the event thrice (including in its first playing at Bulle Rock) and, having announced her year-end retirement, is presumably highly motivated.  Has not played her best golf in her last two starts (T11 at the Sybase, T32 at her own Ginn Tribute event) but that should matter little come Thursday.

Paula Creamer (USA) (14-1): Though clearly 2008’s third best player to date (with two wins in 11 starts), her relative inconsistency, plus no top-10 finishes in the last month, make Creamer something of a dicey proposition.  But it’s tough to look down this list and rate anyone’s chances better.

Suzann Pettersen (Norway) (15-1): Has played through an up-and-down season to date, finishing T2 at the Kraft Nabisco and T3 at the Ginn Open, but logging only one further top 10 (a T9 at last week’s Ginn Tribute) in nine 2008 starts.  A recent win at the LET’s  Swiss Open, however, might suggest a positive trend.

Jeong Jang (Korea) (18-1): The knock on Jang is that she doesn’t win enough for all her fine play…and that might be true.  However, she has won a Major championship (the 2005 Women’s British Open) and she arrives in strong form, having logged three consecutive top-three finishes prior to tying for 32nd last week.  Much stranger things have happened.

Karrie Webb (Australia) (21-1): This Hall-of-Famer won her homeland Australian Open earlier this year, finished 2nd last week at the Ginn Tribute, and has posted two additional top 5s in eight LPGA starts.  Unfortunately, she’s thrice finished no better than 38th and doesn’t presently feel consistent enough to rate a top favorite.  But if you like “Horses For Course,” she’s finished 2nd at Bulle Rock the last two years.

Mi-Hyun Kim (Korea) (24-1): Arrives in up-and-down form (3rd at Corning, T32 last week, two 2008 top 10s to date) but is a legitimate top-shelf player with two previous top 10s (in three tries) at Bulle Rock.

Sophie Gustafson (Sweden) (26-1): Last week’s Ginn Tribute Sunday collapse notwithstanding, is playing some of the best golf of her LPGA career, with top 10s in her last three starts.  If she can forget about last week, a nice darkhorse pick.

Karen Stupples (England) (28-1): The 2004 Women’s British Open champ is still finding her consistency after missing nearly all of 2007 giving birth, and she hasn’t done much at Bulle Rock.  Still, she’s proven she can climb the Major mountain, she tied for 2nd as recently as May’s Michelob Ultra Open, and she can go low.

Cristie Kerr (USA) (30-1): The world’s seventh-ranked player and reigning U.S. Women’s Open champ has struggled a bit this year, logging only two top 10s, the last in late April.  Still, with seven top 10s in her last 13 Major starts, she cannot be completely ignored…

Song-Hee Kim (Korea) (30-1): This young ex-Futures Tour star has logged top-10 finishes in her last two starts (including 3rd at least week’s Ginn Tribute), but her Major championship experience is extremely limited.  Another top 10?  Very possible.  But a win??

Seon Hwa Lee (Korea) (33-1): Worthy of a look as the winner of last week’s Ginn Tribute but with only three top 10s in 13 2008 starts, this 22-year-old three-time LPGA winner must be viewed as a comparative longshot.

Christina Kim (USA) (34-1): Also a bit of a longshot, but this charismatic player has rung up four 2008 top 10s and, at least at times, appears ready to push her game up a notch or two.  Of course, she’s never bettered 33rd in three previous events at Bulle Rock…

Natalie Gulbis (USA) (45-1): The world’s 23rd-ranked player is struggling, last week’s T11 at the Ginn Tribute notwithstanding.  She hasn’t yet logged a 2008 top 10 (though she’s also only missed two cuts) and shows little sign of peaking for this week – but when you consider the number of players in the field with a realistic chance to win, it’s not hard to throw her into the mix.  At the low end.

Morgan Pressel (USA) (45-1): Another highly ranked player who’s struggling, including four missed cuts (!) in 11 starts and only one top 10 – but that was a 2nd  two weeks ago at the Sybase.  Has tons of Major experience for a 20-year-old, including a win at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco, so she could be ready to re-emerge…

PGA Tour:  Stanford St. Jude Championship

Site: TPC Southwind  -  Memphis, TN
Yards: 7,244     Par: 70
Defending: Woody Austin 267  (beat Brian Davis by 5)
Field:   World Top 25: Ernie Els (3), Vijay Singh (10), Sergio Garcia (11), Padraig Harrington (14), Trevor immelman (16), Anthony Kim (19) & Stephen Ames (24)   Other Notables: Mark Calcavecchia, David Duval, Retief Goosen, Davis Love III, Larry Mize, Corey Pavin & Kenny Perry.

Notes: The Stanford St Jude dates back to 1945, when it debuted as the Memphis Invitational, and was won by then-amateur Fred Haas at the Chickesaw Country Club………The event wasn’t played from 1947-57, but has been a fixture since………Defending champion Woody Austin’s five-shot victory came on the strength of a closing 62, the best winning final round of 2007………The event has had only three foreign winners in its history: Gary Player in 1974, Nick Price (twice) in 1993 & ’98, and Greg Norman in 1997………History was indelibly made here in round two of the 1977 edition when Al Geiberger became the first man ever to break 60 in a PGA Tour event, carding a legendary 59 at the Colonial Country Club en route to winning the title by three shots.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

European Tour: BA-CA Golf Open

Site: Fontana Golf Club  -  Vienna, Austria
Yards: 7,071     Par: 71
Defending: Richard Green 268  (beat J.F. Remesy in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: None   Other Notables: Thomas Bjorn , Michael Campbell, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell & Louis Oosthuizen.

Notes: This will be only the third playing of this smaller E Tour event, with 2006’s inaugural edition being won memorably by homestanding Marcus Brier………With the U.S. Open scheduled for next week, virtually all top international players have headed off to America, relegating the BA-CA to small-field status………A curious exception is New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, who will play here before making the long trip to San Diego.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Asian Tour:  Bankok Airways Open

Site: Santiburi Samui Country Club  -  Koh Samui, Thailand
Yards: 6,316     Par: 71
Defending: Sung Lee 268  (beat P. Marksaeng by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Prayad Marksaeng & Thaworn Wirtchant.

Notes: This is the fourth playing of this smallish event, which suffers from the same logistical limitations field-wise as the BA-CA in Europe………Notable entry Marksaeng, a six-time Asian Tour winner, was a winner at last week’s Japan Tour stop, the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Sunshine Tour:  Lombard Insurance Classic

Site: Royal Swazi Golf Club  -  Ezulwini, South Africa
Metres: 6,166     Par: 72
Defending: Peter Karmis 200  (beat T. Charamba by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Jean Hugo, Hennie Otto & Des Terblanche.

Notes: Another international event with a limited field, owing to next week’s U.S. Open – though this actually has at least as strong a field at the high end as most of the Sunshine circuit’s other summer stops………Fifteen-time tour winner Desvonde Botes has been showing better form of late and might well be viewed as this week’s favorite.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

LPGA Tour:  MaDonald’s LPGA Championship

Site: Bulle Rock Golf Course  -  Havre de Grace, Maryland
Yards: 6,596     Par: 72
Defending: Suzann Pettersen 274  (beat K. Webb by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 except Ji-Yai Shin (6), Juli Inkster (10) & Sakura Yokomine (17)    Other Notables: Everyone who’s physically able.

Notes: The LPGA returns to Maryland for its second Major championship, with Suzann Pettersen defending………All eyes will naturally be on world numbers one and two, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam, who’ve combined to win nine of the tour’s 14 official 2008 tournaments to date………This event began in 1955 when Beverly Hanson defeated Louise Suggs 4 & 3 in a match play final, which followed 54 holes of medal play to determine the finalists………Mickey Wright is the only four-time winner of the championship (1958, ’60, ’61 and ’63)………Three-time titleists include Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan, Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam, with Annika managing the unique feat of claiming it thrice in succession from 2003-05………Betsy Rawls, Mary Mills, Sandra Haynie, Donna Caponi, Laura Davies and Juli Inkster………Pre-tournament odds/favorites to appear here tomorrow.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Elsewhere…
On the women’s side, the LET returns to the Netherlands for the ABN AMRO Open in Valkenswaard, while the JLPGA visits Shiga Prefecture for the 16th playing of the Resort Trust Ladies.  A fairly quiet men’s slate includes the Nationwide Tour’s Rex Hospital Open (Raleigh, NC), the European Challenge Tour’s Reale Challenge de Espana, and the European Senior Tour’s Jersey Seniors Classic in the Channel Islands.

PGA Tour:  The Memorial Tournament – Dublin, OH

Coming off two disappointing losses in his last three starts, but highly motivated to gain a spot on the upcoming American Ryder Cup team, 47-year-old Kenny Perry joined Tiger Woods as the only three-time winners of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, posting an eight-under-par 280 aggregate.  Perry’s total – which bettered the foursome of Jerry Kelly, Justin Rose, Mathew Goggin and Mike Weir by two – was the highest winning score at the event in 23 years, reflecting the heavy rough, lightning-fast greens and furrowed bunker rakes now in vogue at Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village Golf Club.  Perry began Sunday’s final round three stokes behind 54-hole leader Mathew Goggin of Australia, but Goggin made three bogeys over his first six holes, allowing Perry to move ahead by the turn behind an outgoing three-under-par 33.  Coming home, Perry held it together, extending his lead to three with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 15th en route to a methodical 36.  His pursuers, on the other hand, all stumbled in the difficult conditions, allowing Perry, even after a bogey at the 17th, to walk comfortably up the last fairway with his two-shot margin of victory.  The win moves him to 5th in season earnings, 27th in the Official World Ranking and 5th in Ryder Cup points – Perry’s primary goal with the event being played in his native Kentucky in September.

                      FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS
 
 
European Tour:  Celtic Manor Wales Open – Newport, Wales

Playing sterling golf over Celtic Manor’s new Twenty Ten course (host of the 2010 Ryder Cup), 30-year-old Australian Scott Strange cruised to a four-shot victory at the Wales Open, posting scores of 63-66-69-64, for a 262 total.  Strange, a two-time winner in Asia, claimed his first E Tour title with the impressive performance – a display which included a back nine 28 on Thursday and a seven-birdie, no-bogey ledger during Sunday’s closing 64.  Indeed, only one player came within eight strokes of the red-hot Strange, that being Sweden’s streaking Robert Karlsson, who birdied eight of his first 11 holes on Sunday en route to logging his fourth consecutive top-three E Tour finish, and racking up more crucial Ryder Cup points.  The victory moves Strange up to 9th in the Order of Merit and 81st in the World Ranking, while Karlsson moves to 2nd and 26th respectively. 

                      FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS
 
 
Japan Tour:  Mitsubishi Diamond Cup – Hyogo, Japan

Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand claimed his first victory on the Japan Tour at the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup, birdieing the Higashi Hirono Country Club’s par-5 finisher to post a 274 total, edging homestanding Shintaro Kai by one.  The 42-year-old Marksaeng, a Six-time winner on the Asian Tour, opened with unspectacular rounds of 70-70 before charging home with weekend scores of 66-68, which in the end proved just enough for victory.  A threesome of Japanese players which included Order of Merit leader Shingo Katayama tied for 3rd, two strokes back, though perhaps more notable was 53-year-old Tommy Nakajima, who closed with a fine 66 to tie for 11th, six shots off the pace.  Though not a member of the J Tour, Marksaeng jumps to 6th in the Order of Merit (and 85th in the World Ranking) with the victory.

                      FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          J TOUR STATS
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Selborne – Pennington, South Africa

Jean Hugo claimed his second Sunshine Tour triumph of  2008 at the Selborne Country Club, carding a final-round 68 for a 203 total, and a two-shot victory over Bradford Vaughn.  Hugo began Saturday’s final round two strokes behind Vaughn Groenewald but moved himself into the lead with an outward 34, his cause aided considerably by Groenewald, who turned in 37 before collapsing with a 42 coming home.  A foursome of players (led by 15-time winner Desvonde Botes and rookie PowerHouse McIntyre) tied for 3rd at 206.  The victory lifts Hugo to 8th in the Order of Merit, 421st in the World Ranking, and first – easily – in points for the six-event Vodacom series.

                   FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          SUNSHINE STATS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika – Charleston, SC

Korea’s Seon Hwa Lee claimed her third career LPGA victory by defeating Hall-of-Famer Karrie Webb in sudden death at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika after the pair tied on 14-under-par 274 over 72 holes.  In point of fact, Lee was fortunate both for the opportunity to playoff, and to emerge the winner.  Starting play on Sunday, she stood nine shots behind leader Sophie Gustafson, whose rounds of 66-65-67 had given her a commanding six-shot 54-hole lead.  Gustafson then looked poised to run away after birdieing the first and third holes on Sunday, before crashing and burning with five bogeys and two double-bogeys over her final 15, ultimately carding a 79 and tying for 4th.  Meanwhile, Webb birdied the par-4 18th to close with 70 and tie Lee on 274, but on the first playoff hole missed a three-footer for par, effectively handing Lee the title.  With the victory, Lee jumps from 18th to 4th on the LPGA Money list, and extends an enviable streak of posting a victory in each of her three years playing in America full-time.

                         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          LPGA STATS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Principal Charity Classic – West Des Moines, IA

Following up his win at the Senior PGA Championship last week, Jay Haas claimed his second straight Champions Tour title by posting a 10-under-par 203 total at the Principal Charity Classic in Iowa.  Haas began Sunday’s final round two shots behind 36-hole leader Nick Price but closed with the tournament’s low round – a six-under-par 65 – to ultimately finish one ahead of Andy Bean, two up on Price and three ahead of Joey Sindelar.  The victory moves Haas – who is also the defending champion at this week’s Bank of America Championship – into 1st place on the Champions Tour money list.

                    FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          CHAMPIONS STATS
 
 
Elsewhere…

In Munich, Korea’s 18-year-old Amy Yang claimed her first professional victory by capturing the LET’s Ladies German Open, her 267 total bettering Sweden’s Louise Stahle by four.  American Michelle Wie, playing on a sponsor exemption, finished 6th, seven shots off the pace………Propelled by an opening-round 62, Akane Iijima won for the fourth time on the JLPGA Tour, defeating Mayumi Nakashima by three at the Kosaido Ladies Cup………Kris Blanks won the Nationwide Tour’s Bank of America Open, edging former PGA Tour player Bob May by a single stroke after posting a 16-under-par total of 272………Italy’s Alessandro Tadini won the European Challenge Tour’s Oceanico Group Pro-Am Challenge in Manchester, England, his 264 aggregate defeating Switzerland’s Raphael De Sousa by one………In Krakow, Ian Woosnam won his first event on the European Seniors Tour, edging Spain’s Domingo Hospital by one at the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship………On the Futures Tour, Mindy Kim won her second straight event, claiming the Aurora Health Care Championship by three strokes in Lake Geneva, WI.

Since Jack Nicklaus takes the time each year to honor one or more of the game’s all-time greats at the Memorial Tournament, I figured I’d help the cause by providing a little background on this year’s four honorees.  So, once again borrowing from The Book of Golfers, we have:

RALPH GULDAHL  (USA)    
Born: Dallas, TX  11/22/1911   Died: Sherman Oaks, CA  6/11/1987

The son of Hungarian immigrants, Texan Ralph Guldahl turned professional in 1930 and enjoyed some early success, finishing second at the 1933 U.S. Open at Chicago’s North Shore GC when a missed five-footer at the 72nd left him one stroke behind amateur Johnny Goodman.  In the mid-’30s, mired in a horrific slump, Guldahl worked as a carpenter on the Warner Brothers lot in Hollywood.  But by the latter half of the decade, he was, if one heavily values Major championship play, arguably the finest golfer in the world.

Guldahl’s Major record from 1936-39 remains, to this day, terribly impressive.  At the Masters he finished second in 1937 and ’38, then won it in 1939, coming home in 33 on Sunday to edge Sam Snead by one.  At the U.S. Open, Guldahl won in 1937 at Oakland Hills, twice shooting 69 to set a new record of 281, thus prompting Robert Trent Jones’s controversial makeover of the course prior to its next Open in 1951.  In 1938 he defended his title at Cherry Hills, this time closing with a 69 to run away from Dick Metz by six.  Perhaps better suited to medal than match play, he wasn’t much of a factor at the PGA, but in the era’s “other” Major, he won three consecutive Western Opens from 1936-38, the last by seven strokes over Snead in St. Louis.  Only once an entrant in the British Open (while traveling with the 1937 Ryder Cup team), Guldahl finished 11th in his links golf debut at redoubtable Carnoustie.

As compelling as the tall and powerful Guldahl’s run was, his disappearance from the top ranks after 1940 is at least as interesting.  Stories abound of his losing his game literally overnight, partially as a result of analyzing his swing for the first time while writing a book.  Thus having made his money and tired of the incessant travel, Guldahl essentially left the Tour near the start of the war, though he did appear in a total of six Masters and U.S. Opens after it.

TONY JACKLIN  (UK)    

The son of a truck driver in Scunthorpe, England, Tony Jacklin, C.B.E., (b.7/7/1944) may not have put up career numbers to match the likes of the Triumvirate, Henry Cotton or Nick Faldo, but in his particular place and time, Jacklin’s performances in several prominent events served to make him a timeless British golfing hero.

A professional since 1962, Jacklin’s first important win came at the 1967 British Masters, by which time he had already taken several lesser titles in New Zealand and South Africa.  Playing frequently in America as well, he won the 1968 Jacksonville Open and in so doing became the first Englishman in 40 years to claim a PGA Tour title.  But even with this growing résumé, few were ready to predict victory at the 1969 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, where Jacklin’s rock-steady total of 280 bettered Bob Charles by two to capture the Claret Jug.  The wildly popular win represented the end of a dark time in British golf, for no homebred had taken the title since Max Faulkner in 1951, and Jacklin became a national icon virtually overnight. 

Hardly content to rest on his laurels, Jacklin then made further history by braving heavy winds and a controversial Hazeltine National GC to win the 1970 U.S. Open, surprising the Americans with rounds of 71-70-70-70, for a 281 total that left the field a distant seven shots in arrears.  It was truly stunning stuff and a splendid high point in postwar British golf, for in addition to holding both national Opens, Jacklin was now the first Briton to take the American title since Ted Ray in 1920.  He further backed his fine play with several strong continental victories over the next two seasons, an epic outgoing 29 during the first round of the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews, and a second win at the Jacksonville Open in 1972.

Jacklin’s peak, however, met a bloody end later that season at the Open Championship at Muirfield, where he came up the 71st fairway tied with Lee Trevino, but with Trevino laying three in greenside rough and Jacklin sitting two just 30 yards shy of the putting surface.  Trevino proceeded to chip in, a rattled Jacklin took three putts for a six and what seemed a third Major title was gone in a snap.  Jacklin would later win four events in South America, occasionally contend in America (e.g., second to Tom Watson at the 1977 Bing Crosby) and, much later, take two titles on the Champions Tour, but for all intents and purposes, as a world-class player he was finished.

Jacklin did, however, make an enormous mark as a four-time Ryder Cup Captain, losing narrowly at PGA National in 1983, then gaining the first British/European victory since 1957 at The Belfry in 1985.  He further burnished his résumé when two years later his troops became the first ever to win the Cup on American soil (at Muirfield Village), then retained it in his final go-round with a 1989 tie, once again at The Belfry.  A 2-1-1 Captain’s ledger seems a suitable legacy for a man whose own Cup playing record was 13-14-8, no small accomplishment on teams whose overall record was 0-6-1.

CHARLES BLAIR MACDONALD  (Canada/USA)    
Born: Niagara Falls, Ontario  11/14/1855   Died: Southampton, NY  4/23/1939

One who can genuinely carry the title “father of American golf,” Charles Blair Macdonald was a tall, barrel-chested man whose superb mix of know-how, leadership, commitment to doing things right, outsized ego and a clear streak of arrogance fairly mirrored the personality of his adopted country, the USA.  And adopted is indeed an accurate word, for while Macdonald lived nearly his whole life in America, he was actually born to a Scottish father and Canadian mother just across the border in Ontario.  He did, however, grow up in Chicago before pursuing his higher education at St Andrews University where, surrounded by men like Old Tom Morris and David Strath – and regularly playing with Young Tom! – he fell utterly in love with the royal and ancient game.

Upon returning to Illinois in 1875, Macdonald endured what he later referred to as “The Dark Ages,” a 17-year stretch in which his closest run at golf was the beating of makeshift balls around an abandoned army training ground.  Eventually, through little more than his considerable force of will, C.B. wrangled up enough local interest to found the Chicago GC, building a nine-hole course in suburban Belmont in 1892.  Expanded a year later, this would become America’s first 18-hole facility, though the Chicago GC itself would soon move out to Wheaton, where C.B. would construct a newer and better layout in 1895.

That same autumn, Macdonald became the first official U.S. Amateur champion by defeating Charles Sands 12 & 11 in Newport, RI – a victory not without some controversy.  For a year earlier, he had joined a field of competitors in an initial attempt at an American national championship, also at Newport.  Though absolute in his belief (not infrequently stated) that he was the finest golfer in the land, C.B. finished second in that first event, then managed to get the results nullified by disputing a two-stroke penalty and arguing that a “true” championship was decided at match play, not medal.  A month later, at New York’s St Andrew’s GC, Macdonald was again defeated – at match play – in another “national” event, this time blaming his loss on a hangover and further stating that without a national governing body, such events were irrelevant anyway.  But from such petulance, it seems, can come good things, and largely as a result of C.B.’s grumbling, the USGA was soon born.

By 1900, after moving to New York to accept a partnership in the brokerage firm of C.D. Barney & Co., Macdonald became enamored with the idea of building America’s first truly great course, a layout which would replicate (and perhaps even improve upon) the classic holes of the British Isles.  The result, after years of organizing, site searching and planning, was Southampton, NY’s National Golf Links of America, a track whose strategic excellence likely influenced the evolving field of golf architecture more than any design before or since.  Layouts at Sleepy Hollow, Piping Rock, the Greenbrier and the St. Louis GC were soon to follow, though Macdonald was quickly relying more upon the abilities of his construction foreman and hand-picked protégé, Seth Raynor, than his own efforts in the field.  A prominent exception came in 1917 at New York’s Lido GC, perhaps the most ambitious golf design ever undertaken as it involved the importing of some two million cubic yards of sand to fill a site that had previously been largely underwater.  The result, some $800,000 dollars later, was a masterpiece, an American links described by Bernard Darwin as being “the finest course in the world.”  It would, however, flounder during the Depression before expiring altogether during World War II.

His reputation as a master architect secure, Macdonald was seldom really active in the discipline, and it can be fairly suggested that of the 15 or so projects upon which his name appears, Raynor was actually the primary designer of at least half.  C.B. it seems, was perfectly content to remain in Southampton, autocratically overseeing the National while commissioning portraits and statues of himself – paid for, not incidentally, out of the members’ dues.  A true and dedicated amateur, Macdonald never accepted payment for his design work and largely expected the rest of America’s golfers to similarly embrace his traditional values.  Lest anyone be uncertain as to precisely what they were, he laid them out clearly in his autobiography Scotland’s Gift – Golf (Scribner’s, 1928), one of the game’s essential volumes and a fitting memorial to one of its most colorful, bombastic and critically important figures.

CRAIG WOOD  (USA)    
Born: Lake Placid, NY  11/18/1901   Died: Palm Beach, FL  5/8/1968 

Perhaps as popular a player among his peers as has ever teed it up, Craig Ralph Wood came out of Lake Placid, NY to make a major splash in golf during the game’s prewar Golden Age.  The son of a timber company foreman, Wood was big, blond and exceptionally powerful, yet he also possessed the sort of refined skills that led to 21 victories on the PGA Tour between 1928-44.  As a glamour figure golf has seen few grander, for Wood married a beautiful New York heiress and lived the jet set life when jet-setters traveled by Packard.  Yet he was universally hailed as the ultimate non-celebrity, a down-to-earth man who routinely helped younger players and remained modest to the core.  Indeed Sam Snead once called him “the nicest guy I think I’ve ever seen.”

On the links, Wood was a long and superbly straight driver of the ball, an earlier version of Greg Norman.  And beyond the driving, blond hair and gregarious lifestyles, the Wood-Norman similarities hold one more unfortunate component, for Craig Wood was among the unluckiest golfers of all time.  Like Norman, Wood lost all four Major championships in playoffs.  At the Masters, he was the victim of Gene Sarazen’s miraculous double eagle, his seemingly insurmountable three-shot lead vanishing in a heartbeat before Sarazen beat him over 36 holes the next day.  At the U.S. Open it was Byron Nelson beating him in an classic 36-hole playoff which saw both men shoot exceptional 68s over the first 18.  In Britain Wood had largely himself to blame, driving into the Swilcan Burn to commence a 1933 Open Championship playoff at St Andrews, ultimately losing to Denny Shute by five strokes.  And then, inevitably, there was the 1934 PGA Championship.  Facing his own former assistant Paul Runyan in the final, Wood hit his second shot on the first playoff hole, a par 5, to just nine feet while Runyan needed a deflection off of a car tire just to lie 60 yards short in the fairway.  Runyan wedged to a foot, Wood missed and Runyan closed him out on the 38th.

As his 21 titles testify, however, Wood also knew how to win and in 1941, at age 39, he finally broke through to become the first man ever to capture the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same season, the former by three over Byron Nelson, the latter by the same margin over Denny Shute.  By this time, however, any Grand Slam aspirations had died amidst the wartime cancellation of the Open Championship, with the conflict soon removing most big-event play from what little remained of Wood’s prime.

After serving as the golf professional at Winged Foot during the war years, Wood would ultimately retire to the Bahamas and Florida, outliving his wife and dying childless in 1968.

- The Big Not-So-Wiesy:  The circumstances are somewhat (though perhaps not completely) different but much like John Daly’s two week European sojourn at the beginning of May, Michelle Wie is on the Continent this week, competing at the LET’s Ladies German Open in Munich.  The 18-year-old Wie, who has thus far tied for 72nd at the Fields Open and missed the cut at Kingsmill in two 2008 LPGA starts, is in Germany on a sponsor exemption (sound familiar?) and cites the desire to play more frequently as her reason for making the marked step down in competition.  Thankfully, early indications are that her game is at least ready for this crowd, as  Wie birdied three of her first five holes at the Golfpark Gut Hausern, then added one more at the 17th to post a four-under-par 68, good for a tie for 7th some four shots back of leader Nina Reis of Sweden.  Though most of those positioned above her are largely unknown to American fans, the seven players tied with Wie at 68 include former University of Florida star (and 2002 LET Order of Merit winner) Paula Marti and two-time Solheim Cup competitor and regular LET winner Gwladys Nocera of France.  Can Wie – whose surely more adapted to her student life at Stanford than a competitive professional regimen – hold it together for 54 more holes?  Hopefully so – but back in February at the Fields Open, she carded a strong first-round 69, only to collapse with subsequent scores of 73 and 78.  So we’ll see.

- In The Dark:  As this is another of those weeks when the Sunshine Tour lacks live scoring, I will save the circuit’s many, many fans the effort and report that with rounds of 67-66, Vaughn Groenwald holds a two-shot lead at the 54-hole Vodacom Origins of Golf event at the Selborne Country Club.  Groenwald’s lead is hardly safe, however, as the threesome most loosely on his tail includes Nic Henning, recent winner Jean Hugo and a re-energized Desvonde Botes (he of 15 career Sunshine titles).  Even more importantly, heading up the group of four players standing three back is the great PowerHouse McIntyre, who’s made nine birdies and an eagle during rounds of 67-69.  Can the PowerHouse actually win?  Can he complete an entire event without a single “other” on his card?  Stay tuned…

- It’s Harder than It Looks:  Last year, then-15-year-old amateur Ryo Ishikawa made history by winning the Japan Tour’s Munsingwear Open, defeating a full field of professionals when a birdie at the 71st hole clinched a closing 66 and a one-stroke triumph over Katsumasa Miyamoto.  Turning professional soon thereafter, Ishikawa began the 2008 J Tour with high hopes, and seemed quickly to prove his ’07 performance no fluke by tying for 5th at the season-opening Token Homemate Cup in April.  But with expectations thus peaking, the now-16-year-old has largely backed off since, tying for 42nd at the Tusruya Open, then missing the cut in the three events (the Crowns, the Japan PGA and the Munsingwear) that he has entered since.  And this week?  He sits T88 following an opening-round 75 at the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup.  So while it’s surely a bit early to be drawing parallels to Marty Fleckman, it’s a good bet that Ishikawa has by now concluded that this is indeed harder than it looks.

One week ago, I offered Tim Finchem some (very) unsolicited advice on making the PGA Tour less sleep-inducing, a primary component of which was the selection of more interesting venues for their events.  To be sure, the Tour has made tangible strides in this area; indeed, if one is able to look past a handful of truly mediocre TPC courses that continue to dot the schedule (hint: no site fees), the roster of courses visited by the Tour is today a moderately interesting one.

However…

Not counting the season-ending Fall Series (the start of which, I am certain, falls after most discerning viewers have turned off their TVs anyway) a good dozen events are still contested over the sort of layouts which, to put it nicely, go a long way towards boosting the LPGA’s broadcast ratings - or CNN's, or professional wrestling's. 

Of course, switching venues is not generally a simple matter, for the logistical demands of a modern PGA Tour event are considerable (corporate tent space, enough on-site parking to bribe/satisfy the media, enough nearby parking for the public, etc.).  Further, not every club welcomes the invasion of the Tour which, beyond the one central week of activity, generally entails roughly a month’s worth of setup and general inconvenience.  Hosting a PGA Tour event, then, is certainly not for everyone.

Therefore, the following suggestions – though formulated with a number of these logistical questions in mind – are made in a vacuum.  That is, these are venues that would represent significant improvement in a number of relevant ways; whether or not all components necessary to make them a reality are present, however, is another story.

So, in chronological order:

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic – Now that the tournament committee, in their infinite wisdom, killed their one chance at a resurgence by terminating George Lopez, their only hope is to ditch all four of their sleep-inducing venues and take advantage of some of the desert’s more interesting, TV-friendly facilities.  Replace the newest addition to the rota, Silver Rock...  (Continue)

PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament

Site: Muirfield Village Golf Club  -  Dublin, OH
Yards: 7,333     Par: 72
Defending: K.J. Choi 271  (beat Ryan Moore by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: All except Tiger Woods (1), Adam Scott (4), Padraig Harrington (12), Henrik Stenson (14), Rory Sabbatini (15), Lee Westwood (20), Miguel Angel Jimenez (21), Angel Cabrera (22), Andres Romero (23) & Stephen Ames (24)   Other Notables: Paul Azinger, Fred Couples, David Duval, Tom Lehman & Davis Love III.

Notes: This is the 33rd playing of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament, which has been played, without fail, over Jack’s Muirfield Village Golf Club every year since its 1976 inception………As one of the PGA Tour’s marquee non-Major events, Memorial boasts a virtually unmatched ledger of contemporary champions, including multiple winners Tiger Woods (the only three-time titleist), Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman and Kenny Perry, all of whom have won it twice………Twenty-two of the previous 32 winners have been Major champions………The Memorial has honored one or more of golf’s all-time greats every year since 1976, with this year’s honorees being Tony Jacklin, Ralph Guldahl, Charles Blair Macdonald and Craig Wood.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL                  
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Celtic Manor Wales Open

Site: Celtic Manor Resort  -  Newport, Wales
Yards: 7,352     Par: 71
Defending: Richard Sterne 263  (beat Bradley Dredge, Soren Kjeldsen, Mardan Mamat & Mats Vibe-Hastrup by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: Padraig Harrington (12) & Miguel Angel Jimenez (21)   Other Notables: Thomas Bjorn, Niclas Fasth, Robert Karlsson & Colin Montgomerie.

Notes: The Wales Open is one of the newer “national” opens in professional golf, having debuted in 2000.........All eight playings have been at the Celtic Manor Resort………This, however, will be the event’s debut on the new Twenty Ten course, a large, modern design built specifically to host the 2010 Ryder Cup………Recent past champions Miguel Angel Jimenez (2005) and Robert Karlsson (2006) are both in top form coming in this week, though Karlsson’s momentum will be tested following a disappointing Sunday collapse at last week’s BMW PGA Championship.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Mitsubishi Diamond Cup

Site: Higashi Hirono Golf Club  -  Hyogo, Japan
Yards: 7,158     Par: 72
Defending: Tetsuji Hiratsuka 282  (beat S. Hirota & K. Miyazato by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Shigeki Maruyama, Frankie Minoza, Tommy Nakajima, Jet Ozaki, Jumbo Ozaki & Craig Parry.

Notes: Golf course aficionados will note that the Higashi Hirono Golf Club is not to be confused with the Hirono Golf Club, Charles Alison’s Golden age masterpiece, and very likely the finest course in Japan………The Mitsubishi Diamond Cup is one of a handful of J Tour events that have been played since well before the Tour’s official formation in 1985………Scheduled to compete are both Tommy Nakajima and Jumbo Ozaki, the former a four-time winner here (including a surprising triumph in 2002, at age 48), the latter a back-to-back champion in 1996 & ’97………Australia’s Brian Jones is also a three-time winner, while the only Americans ever to claim the title are Brandt Jobe (1995) and Todd Hamilton (2003).

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Selborne

Site: Selborne Hotel Spa & Golf Estate  -  Pennington, South Africa
Yards: 6,607     Par: 72
Defending: George Coetzee 207  (beat U. van den Berg by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes & Darren Fichardt.
 
Notes: This, the third playing of the Selborne event, is the third stop in the six event Vodacom series, the Sunshine circuit’s tour-within-a-tour………As with most of South Africa’s summer events, precious few of her elite players will be present………The Selborne golf course is a somewhat idiosyncratic design built by one Dennis Barker, the former dairy farmer who elected to transform his farm into one of South Africa’s finer resorts.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika

Site: RiverTowne Country Club  -  Charleston, SC
Yards: 6,459     Par: 72
Defending: Nicole Castrale 279  (beat L. Ochoa in a playoff)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 except Ji-Yai Shin (7) & Sakura Yokomine (17)    Other Notables: Helen Alfredsson, Laura Davies, Liselotte Neumann, Grace Park, Sherri Steinhauer & Jan Stephenson.
 
Notes: This is only the second playing of this new, high-profile event, with Annika Sorenstam’s presence (not to mention Bobby Ginn’s money) being enough to draw an elite field………Last year’s playoff loser, world number one Lorena Ochoa, will attempt to win for the seventh time in 11 2008 starts, while tournament host Annika will be aiming for her fourth ’08 triumph, as her drive to season-end retirement kicks into gear.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Champions Tour:  Principal Charity Classic

Site: Glen Oaks Country Club  -  West Des Moines, IA
Yards: 7,000     Par: 71
Defending: Jay Haas 201  (beat Br. Bryant & R.W. Eaks by 3)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Tom Watson (5), Fred Funk (12), Jerry Pate (13)   Other Notables: Isao Aoki, Allen Doyle, Bruce Fleisher, Hal Irwin, Mark James, Graham Marsh, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson, Dave Stockton, Jim Thorpe & Fuzzy Zoeller.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…
On the women’s side, the LET heads to Munich for the Hypo Vereinsbank Ladies German Open, while the JLPGA heads to Chiba Prefecture for the Kosaido Ladies Cup, and the KLPGA returns to action at the HillState SeoKyung Open.  Among the men, the Nationwide Tour moves from the Mid-Atlantic region to the Heartland for the Bank of America Open in Glen View, IL, while the European Challenge Tour returns to the U.K. for the Oceanico Developments Pro-Am Challenge in Manchester.  The European Senior circuit replaces the Challenge Tour in Poland, where it will contest the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship, while back in America, the Futures Tour visits Lake Geneva, WI for the Aurora Health Care Championship.

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.