Luke Donald defeated Lee Westwood on the first hole of a playoff at the BMW PGA Championship yesterday in Wentworth, England. With his victory, Donald claimed the #1 world ranking from Westwood. No, Donald hasn’t won a major (so I guess now he’s the best player in the world to have never won a major – AKA TBPITWTHNWAM), but he’s been playing incredible golf this year.
I also have to give him credit for the fact that earlier this week he told everybody he was the best player in the world and then went out and straight up beat the current #1 to prove it.
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Ok, I know this clip has been around for years, but it still makes me laugh every time I see it. Be warned though, the language is NSFW.
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My Alma mater, the Texas A&M men’s golf team is putting the final touches on their preparations for next week’s NCAA championship at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, OK. The 2009 national champion Aggies will be making their 4th consecutive championship appearance.
The championship begins on Tuesday with 54 holes (over 3 days) of stroke play, with the top 8 teams advancing to match play over the weekend. By Sunday, we will have a new national champion.
The Aggies definitely have championship aspirations according to coach J.T. Higgins:
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This past December, Michigan resident Ed Ronco completed the 50-state checklist by playing a round at the Royal Kaanapali in Maui (I highly recommend Kapalua if you’re heading to Maui FWIW). He came up with the idea 7 years ago after realizing that he had already played in 23 states.
Through the use of creative routing of family vacations and several golf-specific trips, Ronco was able to bag every state. Alaska and Hawaii were two of the tougher states to cross of the list, mostly due to the travel/cost involved.
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Losing a bet can be rough. Especially when you bet JJ Henry that Wisconson is going to beat TCU in the Rose Bowl and the loser will have to wear the winning team’s mascot outfit.
And so last week it was time for Kelly to make good on the bet at the Crowne Plaza Invitational Pro-am. He does have a pretty darn nice swing while wearing that outfit. I think purple is a good color for him. You can check out the video after the break:
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In honor of the HP Byron Nelson Championship starting tomorrow, I thought I would post a quick primer on Byron Nelson, one of the greatest golfers to ever walk the fairways of the PGA Tour.
In 1945, Byron Nelson won 18 of 35 PGA Tour events (and finished 2nd seven times), including an 11 tournament win-streak. It’s a record that’s as unlikely to ever be matched or beaten as anything else in sports.
And while it receives less attention, Byron Nelson’s streak of 113 “cuts made” is second only to Tiger’s 145. The difference is that in Nelson’s era only the top 20 in a tournament received a check, which the current record books define as a “cut made”. So in reality, Nelson finished in the top 20 113 times in a row.
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You may have heard that Tiger held a press conference today for his upcoming AT&T National golf tournament. It was Tiger’s first appearance since his WD from the Players Championship after 9 holes and naturally, people were interested to hear if he was planning on playing at Congressional next month (shocker alert: He is).
However the press conference took an interesting turn before it even started when Tiger posted the tweet above to his Twitter account. And then right before the start of the press conference, Tiger posted this:
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Lots of golf wildlife news this week… at least this one involves a real animal.
UNC Finley is one of my favorite golf courses. It’s a great layout that was ranked the #22 college golf course in the country by Golf Digest and the #7 college course in the country by the Golf Channel. It’s also about 4 miles from my house.
I’ve seen lots of wildlife when playing there (deer especially) but some golfers yesterday got a real surprise when they sighted a black bear on the 3rd hole.
They called 911 but the bear fled by the time police responded. Wildlife biologists say that the bear was likely a juvenile that accidentally wandered on the course, but I may have to start carrying bear spray with me when I play there in case mama bear decides to show up.
New & Observer
by Derek on May 23, 2011
in Humor
If you ignore my advice above, you may end up with SEAL Team Six being called in after people see the stuffed tiger and think that it’s escaped from the zoo and looking for a golfer to eat.
That’s pretty much what happened in Southern England yesterday, where police were called in about a report of an escaped white tiger stalking prey near a Hampshire golf course.
The local police force was placed on major alert, a helicopter with thermal imaging capabilities was dispatched and multiple teams of officers arrived armed with rifles (police don’t normally carry guns in the UK). The police realized it was a life-sized stuffed toy when it didn’t move, had no IR heat signature, and ultimately blew over from the helicopters down draft.
Police are now looking for the owner of the stuffed tiger and are treating it as a lost property case.
Global Post
Outside the Lines has a great story on Casey Martin and his 4-year legal battle with the PGA Tour that ended in 2001. Martin, who suffers from a rare and painful leg disability, fought the PGA Tour for the right to use a golf cart in competition. He ultimately took his case all the way to the Supreme Court where he emerged victorious.
Riding in a cart didn’t turn out to be the advantage than many though it would be:
Maybe on a 120-degree day or on a really hilly course it helped to ride,” Martin said. “But I certainly wish I could’ve walked. The rhythm of the game at a competitive level is a walking rhythm, not a riding rhythm.”
After struggling to remain competitive on the golf course, Martin retired from professional golf five years ago. He’s now the head coach for the University of Oregon’s golf team, which he’s turned into a national powerhouse.
You can watch the entire video below the break:
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