Poulter takes 1-stroke lead at Australian Masters
MELBOURNE, Australia — Defending champion Ian Poulter shot an 8-under-par 64 Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over Adam Scott after three rounds of the Australian Masters.
Poulter had five birdies on the front nine — four on lengthy putts — and the Englishman had a 54-hole total of 13-under 203 on the Kingston Heath sand-belt course.
Poulter's 9-iron approach on No. 18 nearly holed out from the fairway and he had a tap-in birdie to finish.
"I just hit it, let it ride up the crest and feed down," Poulter said. "It turned out to be a decent shot. ... When you go out with a reasonable breeze and you produce a score like that, you have to be happy."
Scott, who shot 67, stayed close until consecutive bogeys on 16 and 17. However, a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 pulled him back within one shot of Poulter and a final-round pairing with Poulter on Sunday.
"In the end, I really needed it," Scott said of his birdie on the last. "With being just one shot behind, it can all change pretty quickly out there. He (Poulter) got off to such a great start, I was happy to be able to stay ...
Jimenez, Campbell share Hong Kong Open lead
HONG KONG — Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain shot a 2-under 68 to share the third-round lead with New Zealand's Michael Campbell at the Hong Kong Open on Saturday.
Campbell, looking for his first win in seven years, made a 15-foot par putt on the last hole to complete a round of 69 that put him at 10-under 200. Jimenez is trying to win the event for a third time in nine years.
"I wouldn't say I played well today as it was a bit scrappy and really pretty average but then I managed to grind out a score and that's important when you are not playing all that well," Campbell said.
Campbell survived a scare during his round when he accidentally knocked his ball off the tee at the par-4 10th hole while taking a practice swing. However, the 2005 U.S. Open champion avoided a two-stroke penalty after a ruling that he had not addressed the ball and therefore was not in breach of the rules.
"I've never ever done that before in 38 years of playing golf and knocking the ball off the tee in taking a practice swing," he said.
Campbell, ranked at ...
Australian maintains 2-stroke lead at Australian Masters
MELBOURNE, Australia — Overnight leader Matthew Guyatt of Australia shot a 3-under 69 Friday to maintain his two-shot lead after the second round of the Australian Masters.
Guyatt, a regular on the Japan Challenge Tour but not well-known in his home country, was at 10-under 134 on the Kingston Heath sand-belt course in south Melbourne. Michael Hendry of New Zealand also shot a 69 and was in second place.
Adam Scott, playing in the same group as 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, had a 70 and was in third, three shots behind Guyatt.
Defending champion Ian Poulter of England shot 72 and was tied for fourth, five strokes behind.
"I've left quite a few shots out on the golf course and I'm not very happy," Poulter said.
McDowell shot 77 that included six bogeys and a double bogey, just making the cut at 4-over 148.
Guyatt was off the tour for five years, but returned two years ago with the financial backing of a 78-year-old friend he has not named.
"He just about fell over," Guyatt said when his benefactor found out that he was leading. "I was just hoping he hadn't had ...
Blayne Barber wins first start after Q-School DQ
Blayne Barber’s decision to disqualify himself from Q-School was a hot discussion topic last week. Now his game is worth talking about.
Barber won the NGA Bridgestone Winter Professional Tour event at Harmony (Fla.) Golf Preserve on Thursday. It was his first start since he removed himself from Q-School, and ended with his third consecutive victory in an NGA Tour-sanctioned event. Barber has won four of his past five NGA starts.
He shot 13-under 203 (66-64-73) at Harmony, then beat Germany’s Allen John in a playoff. Barber earned $9,620 for the victory. “I was just excited to play again,” he said. “I just love playing and competing. I was glad to get back at it.
“(The disqualification) wasn’t brought up very often. A couple guys asked me about it. A couple just said, ‘Thanks for doing the right thing.’ There really wasn’t much reaction from it.”
His fellow competitors may not have mentioned the incident, but it was much-discussed in the media last week. Barber made an appearance on Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” and the story, first reported by Golfweek, went viral on the Web and Twitter. Barber's fiancee, Morgan Stanford, tweeted, “In ...
Guyatt takes 1st-round lead at Australian Masters
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia's Matthew Guyatt upstaged the marquee players at the Australian Masters on Thursday, shooting a 7-under 65 to take a two-shot lead after the first round at Kingston Heath.
Adam Scott had five birdies on his final nine holes for a 67 and was tied for second with defending champion Ian Poulter of England and New Zealander Michael Hendry.
Former Australian Masters champion Stuart Appleby had a 71, as did 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who was playing in the same group as Scott.
"It was a nice day," said the 37-year-old Guyatt, who plays on the Japanese Challenge tour. "I have never been in this position before. It's what you do all the hard work and practice for. I am not going to get ahead of myself.
"It's the first day of four and we all know it takes four good days to win the tournament, particularly when you look at the caliber of those guys."
Poulter, who won the World Golf Championship's HSBC Champions in China two weeks ago, was satisfied with his score.
"I feel 5 under is a decent round," he said. "I made a ...
Luke Donald tied for lead at Dunlop Phoenix
MIYAZAKI, Japan — Luke Donald shot a 6-under 65 to take a share of the lead after the first round of the Dunlop Phoenix on Thursday.
Donald offset a pair of bogeys with eight birdies at the Phoenix Country Club to finish tied with Australian Brendan Jones and Japan's Hideto Tanihara.
Donald won the U.S. PGA Tour and European Tour money titles last season. He is appearing in the Japan Tour event for the first time since 2007.
Japanese golfers Koichiro Kawano and Shunsuke Sonada were two strokes behind the leaders.
Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa, who won last weekend's Taiheiyo Masters for his first victory in two years, shot a 73 that had him tied for 48th.
Chris Walker is a SpeedGolf World Champion
Former Notre Dame standout Chris Walker is now a SpeedGolf world champion.
The first-ever SpeedGolf World Championships took place Oct. 20-21 at Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Ore., with 14 players from around the world competing for the inaugural title.
The two-round event – Saturday at Old Macdonald and Sunday at Bandon Dunes – combined golf and running. A player’s total score is computed by adding the number of strokes to the time it took to complete the round. For example, Walker shot 77 in 53 minutes, 29 seconds, on the first day, then shot 76 in 56:59 for a two-day total of 263.28.
“You definitely have to be a certain kind of golfer for speed golf,” said Walker, a native of The Woodlands, Texas.
Walker had never heard of speed golf until he received an email from Tim Scott, who has been a top speed golfer for years.
Scott had sent an email to all players in the field at the Adams Pro Golf Tour stop in Oklahoma, asking if players were interesting in participating in the SpeedGolf World Championships. In that email he also mentioned that players had to be in top physical shape.
“I’m not a ...
Feng claims Japan Women's Open
YOKOHAMA, Japan – Shanshan Feng notched her third JLPGA win of the year, shooting even-par 288 to capture the Japan Women’s Open Sept. 30 at Yokohama Country Club.
Feng, who won the LPGA Championship earlier this year, became the first player since 1997 to win major titles on both the LPGA and JLPGA tours in the same year.
She was also the only player to finish at even par or better in Yokohama. Feng closed with a final-round, 1-under 71 to beat second-place In-Bee Park by one shot. Ji-Hee Lee finished third at 2 over while Mika Miyazato came in fourth at 3 over.
Former SDSU standout Todd Baek fires 25 over nine holes
After leaving San Diego State in the winter to turn pro, Todd Baek found that his golf game wasn’t spectacular - until now.
On Sunday, the former Aztec standout shot 11-under 25 on the front nine at Salt Creek Golf Club in Chula Vista, Calif.
When Baek, a 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links quarterfinalist, left San Diego State, he thought his game was in good shape. By mid-February, his swing and putting stroke had taken turns for the worse.
“I was playing in Europe and I was going through a swing change, and it was bad,” Baek said. “My game decided to turn around at the end of August, at the beginning of September.”
Baek, who is originally from South Korea, decided to play a money game with a few friends before PGA Tour Q-School pre-qualifying began on Wednesday.
The first hole was a 390 yard, par 4. Driver, 50 yards out, chip-in for eagle. No big deal.
Until he eagled the next hole, too, sticking it to 10 feet and sinking the putt.
“I don’t think I had ever made back-to-back eagles like that before,” Baek said.
Next hole, a birdie.
“The thing was, I wasn’t ...
Tom Watson to play Australian Open
Tom Watson has commit to play this year’s Australian Open, his first appearance at the event in nearly 30 years. Watson, who turns 63 Tuesday, won the 1984 Australian Open. This year’s championship is scheduled for Dec. 6-9 at The Lakes Golf Club in New South Wales.
The eight-time major champion continues to have success against younger competition, having made the cut in two of three PGA Tour starts in 2012. He missed the cut at Augusta, but made the cut at both the Open Championship and Greenbrier Classic.
Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and defending champion Greg Chalmers also made early commitments to the tournament. The Emirates Australian Open is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia and OneAsia Tour.
Drama queen
ORLANDO, Fla. – There were catty remarks. There were spray tans and spiked heels and so much hair spray that one young woman had to fan the air with a decorative pillow from the tell-all couch. And this was for a reunion show about golf. Imagine how the scene would’ve played out if an engagement ring had been at stake rather than a season’s worth of Symetra Tour entry fees and various cash prizes.
They’d probably still be taping.
The Golf Channel’s “Big Break,” like “The Bachelor,” is one of the longest-running reality shows on TV. "Big Break" producers put together a reunion show for the first time in 15 seasons, flying in the all-female ensemble that filmed at the Caribbean’s famed Atlantis Resort.
The 12 girls reunited to watch the finale together on Monday evening and then taped the reunion show at Universal CityWalk’s Latin Quarter the next morning. For those who missed it, Mexico’s Marcela Leon took home the top prize, defeating Selanee Henderson, 5 and 4, in a championship match. (The show will air show at 9 p.m. EDT Monday.) Leon had no trouble keeping the big secret, even from ...
A new record
Michael Sims accomplished something Thursday that had never been done before on the eGolf Pro Tour.
Sims, of St. Simons Island, Ga., shot 12-under 59 during the second round of the Southern Open at the Country Club of Salisbury in Salisbury, N.C.
“There’s really no words to describe it,” said Sims, who is in second place at 12 under, a shot behind leader Drew Weaver, after notching an even-par 71 Wednesday.
“To crack 60, and do it in a tournament, that’s a pretty neat little number.”
The record round started with eight consecutive birdies. On the back nine, Sims rattled off three straight birdies on Nos. 15-17. In all, Sims drained 12 birdies.
He could’ve had 13 if not for leaving a birdied putt short on the par-4 18th hole.
“It was actually pretty funny. I thought I needed to make birdie [at No. 18] to shoot 59,” Sims said. “When I missed, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but there was a little mutter.”
Then Sims’ playing partner, Henrik Norlander, came up and congratulated Sims.
“He said, ‘Dude, that’s a great round,’” Sims said. “I said, ‘I appreciate it.’ Then he was like ...
Still doin' it
SEASIDE, Calif. — Jeff Coston turned professional 35 years ago, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how many practice balls he’s hit or how many lessons he’s given.
“But if I were ever to come out with a book,” says Coston, now a teaching professional in Blaine, Wash., “it wouldn’t be about golf instruction. It would be a book of stories.”
And he’s got a million of them.
Who wouldn’t when you’ve played on the PGA Tour and its minor-league Hogan and Nike Tours, qualified for 15 regular-tour or senior major championships and pulled off the rare accomplishment of playing in a Senior PGA Championship and PGA Championship in the same year.
At the 45th PGA Professional National Championship at Bayonet and Black Horse, Coston is leading the charge of players in their 50s. After a 2-over-par 74 in the third round on Tuesday, he was well behind the leader but safely inside the top 20 positions that qualify for August’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
“I have no idea about that,” said Coston, a former Pacific Northwest PGA teacher and player of the year. “I’m just trying to play golf ...
Australian Kennedy wins Mizuno Open
KASAOKA, Japan — Australian Brad Kennedy shot a 6-under 66 on Sunday to win his first tournament in Japan at the Mizuno Open while earning a place at next month's British Open.
The 38-year-old Kennedy carded four birdies on the front nine at the JFE Setonaikai Golf Club and added three more after the turn against a lone bogey on the par-4 No. 12. He finished at 17-under 271, three strokes ahead of Japanese golfers Toshinori Muto and Toru Taniguchi.
Kennedy's previous best finish on the Japanese tour was a tie for second at last year's Canon Open.
Phenomenal 55
Golf has a creative lexicon for certain numbers, a 77 representing “Double Hockey Sticks,” and an 88 being the dreaded “Double Snowman.” But 55? Really? Double nickels, perhaps? It’s usually a phrase reserved for state highways, and not part of any 19th-hole conversation.
Fifty-five, though, is the total number of strokes played by Rhein Gibson over 18 holes last Saturday morning at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Okla. His accomplishment, and his scorecard, showing 12 circles around birdies and two triangles around eagles, has gone viral across the sports universe. The score is no misprint. That’s 16-under 55, or what you might shoot alongside three buddies at a charity scramble – if the four of you play lights out, of course.
Gibson, 26, is an Aussie-turned-Okie who lives in Edmond and plies his trade on the Golfweek National Professional Golf Tour. In fact, he currently sits tied for 26th after three rounds of a GNPGT stop at Wild Horse in Gothenburg, Neb. (Through six 2012 events, he ranks 12th in earnings.) Gibson shot a fine round of 66 on Wednesday at Wild Horse, but considering what he was doing four days earlier, it probably felt like an 80 ...
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