2024 - WEEK 51 Dec 16 - Dec 22
WORLDWIDE LEADERBOARDS
PGA TOUR EUROPEAN TOUR JAPAN TOUR SUNSHINE TOUR
ASIAN TOUR AUSTRALASIAN TOUR CHAMPIONS TOUR
LPGA TOUR LET JLPGA TOUR EPSON
KORN FERRY CHALLENGE AMERICAS
Notables
Southern California native and former UCLA standout John Merrick broke through for his first PGA Tour victory in his 169th start, capturing the 87th Northern Trust Open in a playoff with Charlie Beljan. On a Sunday which saw bigger names like Donald, Haas, Jacobson and Schwartzel fall by the wayside, Beljan holed an 18' putt on the 72nd green to move to 11-under-par, then waited as Merrick marched home with a string of pars to force sudden death. Both men parred the first extra hole before Beljan opted to hit driver at Riviera's famous 315-yard 10th, pulled it into the kikuyu rough, then missed a downhill five-footer to lose to Merrick's routine par. Defending champion Bill Haas was the 54-hole leader after carding a tournament-best 64 on Saturday but faded to a closing 73, to share third with Jacobson (who pulled a four-footer at the last to miss the playoff) and Schwartzel, who missed makeable birdie putts at the 16th, 17th and 18th to also miss by one...............Amidst typically breezy conditions at the coastal East London Golf Club, South African Darren Fichardt carded a final-round one-under-par 71 to claim his fourth career European Tour victory at the Africa Open. Fichardt began the day tied for the lead with countryman Jaco Van Zyl and after falling behind early, opened a four-shot lead after turning in three-under-par 37. But bogeys at the 14th, 16th and 17th left the door open for Van Zyl - who promptly bogeyed the 18th to lose by two. Tied for second was France's Gregory Bourdy (who pulled close with three late birdies before bogeying the 17th) while another South Africa, Garth Mulroy, closed with 67 to claim solo fourth. Also notable was the performance of Sunshine Tour veteran Adilson Da Silva of Brazil, who opened with a stunning 62, backed it up with a second-round 68 and eventually reached 16-under-par after eagling the third hole on Saturday. But a triple bogey at the eighth hole soon undid him and he would eventually finish 73-76, to tie for 12th. With Fichardt's win, the event has only been claimed by South Africans over its first four playings...............Having first scored the morale-boosting, image-polishing coup of getting its 2013 schedule released before February, the LPGA opened their season Down Under at the ISPS Handa Australian Open, where Jiyai Shin claimed her 11th career LPGA title, edging a charging Yani Tseng by two and 15-year-old amateur sensation Lydia Ko by four. A chip-in birdie at the 14th sparked Shin’s closing run while Tseng, who experienced a puzzling loss of form during the latter half of 2012, raced home with a closing 66 to make it close.
Daniel
Week 7 Results
PGA Tour - Northern Trust Open - John Merrick (273)
European Tour - Africa Open - Darren Fichardt (272)
Sunshine Tour - See European Tour (Above)
Australasian Tour - Queensland PGA Championship - Brad Kennedy (254)
LPGA Tour - ISPS Handa Australian Open - Jiyai Shin (274)
LET - See LPGA Tour (Above)
Champions - ACE Group Classic - Bernhard Langer (204)
Euro Challenge Tour - Barclay's Kenya Open - Jordi Garcia Pinto (272)
Notables
One week after staggering home over the final nine to finish second at the Dubai Desert Classic, South African Richard Sterne returned to triumph at the Joburg Open, stringing together spectacular rounds of 63-65-68-64 for a runway seven-shot victory over countryman Charl Schwartzel. For Sterne, the win completed a comeback from back injury-related oblivion; indeed, having reached the top 30 of the OWR in 2008, he had fallen outside the top 1000 at the close of 2011. He began the final round tied with Trevor Fisher Jr., six shots clear of the field, then posted a bogey-free eight-under-par 64 to clinch the victory. Three more hot players, Chile's Felipe Aguilar, homestanding George Coetzee and reigning Rookie Of The Year Ricardo Santos, tied for third..........After runner-up finishes in San Diego (to Tiger Woods) and Phoenix (to Phil Mickelson), Brandt Snedeker stepped up with a closing 65 to win the AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am, beating Chris Kirk by two. Snedeker, statristically the game’s hottest player since last autumn, began the final round tied with rookie James Hahn but carded three birdies and an eagle over the first seven holes to take control, ultimately pulling away behind birdies at the 10th and 11th. The win was the fifth of Snedeker’s career and lifted him to a career-best 4th in the OWR. Kirk, Jimmy Walker and even Retief Goosen (making his first PGA Tour start since the 2012 PGA Championship, following back surgery) all were heard from on the back nine but none could mount a sustained charge, leaving Snedeker to record his second win (and his seventh top 10) in his last nine official PGA Tour starts.
Week 6 Results
One Down, 11 To Go.....
One month in and where do we stand? In America, Dustin Johnson beat a limited field in Kapalua, was annointed the next King Of The Golfing World by the press…..and has a WD and a T51 since. Rookie Russell Henley came seemingly out of nowhere to dominate in Hawaii, Brian Gay came back from nowhere to win in Palm Springs, and two old men – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – reminded everyone that they’re still very much in the game with commanding wins in San Diego and Phoenix respectively. Meanwhile in Europe, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen won back-to-back home soil events in South Africa (the latter climbing to a career-high 4th in the OWR) and – as Renton Laidlaw so astutely observed – a Welshman (Jamie Donaldson), an Englishman (Chris Dodd) and a Scot (Stephen Gallacher) carried the day during the Tour’s three-week Desert Swing through the United Arab Emirates.
All that and it’s only the first week of February. So far it's looking like a very good year.
Notables
Phil Mickelson opened with a record-tying 60 at the TPC Scottsdale, then followed that up with rounds of 65-64-67 to cruise home to a four-shot victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Mickelson’s opening round will long be remembered after he lipped out a 25-foot putt on the final green for 59 – though the shorter birdie putt that he left dead in the jaws at the 8th (his 17th) likely cost him more sleep. The only drama thereafter lay in the possibility of Mickelson challenging Tommy Armour III’s all-time 72-hole scoring record of 254, but after leading by six going into the final round, a bogey at the second hole led to an outgoing 34, and the record was never significantly challenged. Brandt Snedeker logged his second straight runner-up finish while long-hitting Scott Piercy closed ith a 61 to claim solo third……….After losing his three-shot 54-hole lead early in the final round, Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher hit a spectacular 185-yard recovery shot to two feet at the 9th, then later holed a 115-yard sand wedge for eagle at the par-4 16th en route to a three-shot victory at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Gallacher was caught in the early going by South African Richard Sterne, who actually stood one ahead through 64 holes before limping home with four late bogeys to fall to solo second. The victory was the 38-year-old Gallacher’s second on the European Tour but his first since 2004, and came following knee surgery near the close of 2012. Chile’s Felipe Aguilar and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen shared third while world number eight Lee Westwood mounted a late charge before bogeying the par-5 72nd (his approach finding the water) to tie for fifth.
Week 5 Results
Notables
It took some doing but 25-year-old Englishman Chris Wood finally broke through for his long awaited first European Tour victory in grand style, holing a 12-foot putt for eagle on the 72nd green to claim the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Needing a birdie to tie Sergio Garcia and South African George Coetzee, the 6’5” Wood instead hit a massive drive at the par-5 closer, then a 6 iron to 12 feet, and promptly drained the putt to steal the title. Wood, who initially came to fame upon finishing 5th in the 2008 Open Championship as an amateur, had twice before lost 54-hole leads on the E Tour and after beginning the final round with a three-shot lead, a double bogey at the par-3 3rd raised the specter of a repeat performance. He righted the ship mid-round however, before delivering the decisive blow when it mattered most. The win was Wood’s second as a pro (he also claimed the Asian Tour’s Thailand Golf Championship in 2012) and, in the eyes of many, a possible jumpstart to bigger and better things. Notably, in an experiment aimed at drawing more spectators, the event was played Wednesday-Saturday to coincide with the Middle Eastern Friday-Saturday weekend – though the galleries still appeared to be expatriate-dominated regardless..........A week after missing the cut in Abu Dhabi, Tiger Woods got his 2013 domestic campaign off to a good start by claiming his eighth career win at Torrey Pines, a four-shot triumph at the Farmer’s Insurance Open. Woods stood head and shoulders above the field through 66 holes, building an eight-stroke lead before stumbling home with two bogeys and a double bogey to card a closing 72 – more than enough to secure his 75th PGA Tour victory. Woods’ dominance of Torrey Pines has now included seven Farmer’s Insurance titles as well as the 2008 U.S. Open; with one more Farmer’s win, he will match Sam Snead’s single-event record, Snead having won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times. The inevitable chorus of “He’s Back!” once again arises and to be sure Woods spent much of the week far out in front of the field. But Torrey Pines is also a place that largely forgives errant drives, the wheels once again came off down the stretch and Woods was only a week removed from hitting a ground ball (and missing the cut) in Abu Dhabi. As ever, it should make for fascinating viewing going forward.