Golf Etail Blog

A few weeks ago we delivered you the goods on Y.E. Yang’s PGA Championship victory over Tiger Woods.

(Woods wasn’t happy. But who can blame him? Nobody likes to lose. Especially on national television.)

Now, ever better goods than before – the shot that gave Yang the come-from-behind lead over Woods.

Talk about exciting – The DealTeam can’t stop watching this clip! It’s the embodiment of professional sports.

As they say, you win some, you lose some. Yang definitely deserved that one!

ESPN is calling it the “victory felt around the world,” the L.A. Times says it’s the one of the greatest upsets of all time, and the GlobalPost declares the PGA Championship a turning point for Asian golfers worldwide.

And it’s all thanks to South Korea’s Y.E. Yang, winner of the championship, who beat top player Tiger Woods by finishing eight-under 280 by shooting a two-under-par 70 in the final round.

Woods wasn’t happy about the defeat, especially since he had the lead before the final round, but he had this to offer reporters as he left the links visibly distraught: “I hit the ball so much better than my score indicates. I hit it great all day, and just didn’t make anything. I played well enough to win the golf tournament, but I did not putt well enough to win the golf tournament. It was just a bad day at the wrong time, and that’s the way it goes.”

Yang, 37, took the lead at the 14th hole with a 75-foot pitch for eagle while on the final hole, hitting a towering shot from 197 yards with a hybrid club to set up his closing birdie, ultimately becoming the first Asian to ever win the PGA Championship.

“You never know in life, this might be my last win as a golfer. But this is a great day,” Yang told The New York Times. “It’s going to be a great foundation for me to continue playing on the PGA Tour. It means the world right now. It hasn’t sunken in, but I do know the significance of it.”

The 91st PGA Championship tees off in Chaska, Minn., tomorrow – and we all know what that means: Golf aficianados will be whipping out the greenbacks to get in on the action.

Now, we’re not condoning gambling, but if you’d like to take a peek at the odds and place your bets (toootally of your own free will), you can probably figure out how to do so right here.

Before you start spending all your lunch money, however, consider digesting this PGA Championship Preview provided by the BetUS Staff.

In other news, while you’ve got making money on your mind, renegade Tiger Woods will have to shell out a few backs after he publicly criticized a rules official after winning the Bridgestone Invitational.

After Woods and fellow golfer Padraig Harrington were put on the clock at the par-5 16th, Woods told Harrington, “I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle,” referring to European Tour chief referee John Paramor who told Woods and Harrington they were being timed.

Woods felt that because they were being timed, Harrington rushed three difficult shots, leading to triple bogey.

PGA Tour officials had no sympathy for Woods when they slapped him with a fine and cited section VI-D of the PGA Tour’s player handbook, which says, “It is an obligation of membership to refrain from comments to the news media that unreasonably attack or disparage tournaments, sponsors, fellow members, players, or PGA Tour.”

Unfortunately, there’s no word on how much Woods’ crash course on the PGA Tour player handbook will cost.

Yet, somehow, we think he can afford it.

Depending where you’re located, the rest of your week might be bleak.

(We’re talkin’ weather-wise; personal dilemmas aren’t our deal. But if you want to know what our deal is, look here! Shameless, we know.)

In any case, courtesy of the Associated Press and InsideBayArea.com, here’s a list of this week’s tournies to help you ride out those summer storms.

Let the thunder roll…

• PGA TOUR: Buick Open, today-Sunday, Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, Grand Blanc, Mich. TV: Golf Channel (today-Friday, noon-3 p.m. and CBS (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.). Notes: Tiger Woods, the 2002 and 2006 winner, is in the field. After Woods won his own AT&T National for his third victory of the year, he missed the cut in the British Open. … Woods and rock ‘n’ roll legend Bob Seger headlined Wednesday’s pro-am, and their fivesome finished 8 under par. At least one member of the group paid more than $100,000 for the opportunity to play with Woods and Seger. … Defending champion Kenny Perry is skipping the tournament to stay near his cancer-stricken mother. Mildred Perry is battling blood cancer. … General Motors Co. will end its half-century run as sponsor of the Buick Open, a person briefed on the decision said Tuesday. The decision calls into question the fate of the other tour stop sponsored by GM, the Buick Invitational held in February in San Diego.
• LADIES GOLF UNION: Women’s British Open, today-Sunday, Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, Lytham St. Annes, England. TV: TNT (today-Friday, 7-9 a.m.) and ABC (Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-noon; Sunday, 10 a.m.-noon). Notes: Last year, Jiyai Shin won her first major title, a three-shot victory over Yani Tseng at Sunningdale. … The tournament became an official LPGA Tour event in 1994 and was elevated to major status in 2001, replacing the du Maurier in Canada.
• USGA: U.S. Senior Open, today-Sunday, Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind. TV: ESPN (today-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.) and NBC (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.). Notes: Last year, Eduardo Romero won at the Broadmoor (Colo.), beating Fred Funk by four shots. … The Pete Dye-designed course opened in 1964. … John Daly won the 1991 PGA at Crooked Stick. … The 2010 tournament will be played at Sahalee (Wash.).
• PGA EUROPEAN TOUR: Moravia Silesia Open, today-Sunday, Prosper Golf Resort, Celadna, Czech Republic. TV: Golf Channel (today-Friday, 6-9 a.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 5:30-8 a.m.). Note: This is the inaugural event, and Miguel Angel Jiminez, the course designer, tops the field.
• NATIONWIDE TOUR: Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational, today-Sunday, Ohio State University Golf Club, Columbus. TV: Golf Channel (today-Friday, 3:30-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 3:30-6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4-6:30 p.m.). Note: In 2007, BYU star Daniel Summerhays won the inaugural event to become the first amateur champion in tour history.

Wow! What a week. After Tiger missed the cut I was honestly thinking it would be a ho-hum Open Championship, and franky Tiger missing the cut would be THE story. So, thank you Tom Watson … what a run!

I have to admit I was pulling pretty hard for him on Sunday and thought he would make that put on 18 to win. He had been magical with that Odyssey White Hot XG#7 putter all week. Could you believe the 30 footer on #1, the 25 footer on #9, or the 60 foot bombs on #16 & #18 all on Friday; or just when you thought he was fading how about the 40 footer on #16 on Saturday. He had done it all week, but this just wasn’t meant to be.

Paul Azinger’s comment basically stating that " … If Tom had won it again it would not have changed his life at all, but with Cink winning it is a life-changer…", I thought was dead on, and it’s the only consolation I could derive from the outcome.

Anyway, I found the entire story simply compelling. Too bad it didn’t have quite the story book ending I was hoping for. It would have been nice to see the final Open Championship Scoreboard reading "Well done Tom. See you at St Andrews 2010".

I might be a fierce contender on the links, but I still have a soft side. Which is probably why this story from golf writer Gary Van Sickle made my heart melt!

Gary’s son Mike will make his PGA Tour debut, playing as an amateur in the John Deere Classic (through July 12), and Gary will be right there beside him – as his caddie.

This isn’t the first time Gary’s served as Mike’s looper – as he details in his story on Golf.com – but it is his first time assisting his son in the big leagues. What a milestone! Pops must be so proud.

I have a feeling my fellow DealTeam member Brassie Spooner is envious…

This is absolutely hilarious. Anthony Kim has my vote for shot of the year!

Bullseye!

I gotta tell ya – being a member of the DealTeam is exhausting work. We’re everywhere!

It’s not enough that we’re always dolling out great deals on top-of-the-line golf equipment and apparel on GolfEtail.com, now we’re on Twitter too. We worked overtime yesterday sending out tons of exclusive coupon codes to our loyal followers. Well, I’m beat, and now I have to ask – when will the insanity stop? I hardly have time to try out my new set of Adams Idea Tech OS Iron Set. And that’s a travesty, my friends. A real travesty!

It makes me wonder … What will the Bigwigs have us doing next – posing for pictures at AT&T National?

Although, when I think about it, maybe that’s not a bad thing. At least you’d get to see more of my handsome mug!

OK … so I was at The Open on Friday. I arrived at the course around 10:30AM and left about 5PM. A few thoughts and observations:

First, the weather. It was overcast when we got there and appeared it would be another rainy day, but around Noon the sun came out and stayed that way for the duration. So there were no weather issues on Friday.

The course is wet and muddy! In the spectator areas the trails are very muddy. At times we were ankle deep in slop. When you cross the fairways (eg, 15 or 16) those brown areas where the spectators walk is just mud … they are not roads! There were many spectators wearing hiking boots & those knee high rubber ‘fireman-like boots’ — I must say they were appropriately dressed. While we were waiting to cross I was talking to a marshall and asked him what it was like in between the ropes and he said it was really wet. While there I heard some (unsubstantiated) horror stories where many of the parking lots at course had flooded and cars were having to be towed.

With that out of the way let me give you some observations about the play and course. We sat on the hill behind the green for quite some time on Friday. Some of the better shots I saw including Phil making a great, long putt for birdie, David Duval making a nice shot onto the green and good birdie, Goosen hitting a fabulous shot to within 5 feet (but missing his birdie), and Rory putting his ball into the primary rough to the right of the green (just missing the fescue) but followed up with a unbelievable flop shot to save par. It was one of the few places on the course to sit and watch (other than the grandstands).

We also watched several 3-somes come through on #2. I really like this hole … in fact the combination of #2 & #3 really appealed to me. While there Rory put one in the trees on the left and ball came to rest about 5 feet from me. He showed his inexperience by trying to hit through the trees to the green and putting only advancing it about 30 yards and still stayed in the rough. He should have taken his medicine and punched straight out. Phil also put one in the left rough, but made a great recovery with his 2nd shot and snatched a birdie.

I really liked the course and would love to play it; although the course is not a good spectator venue. The majority of the greens are above the spectators so it is difficult to see. I can’t imagine the USGA coming back to Bethpage anytime soon for it does not handle water well and does not layout well for spectators. Conversely, I had the good fortune to go to the 2004 Open at Shinnecock and thought that was a fabulous venue!

So I could ramble on, but won’t. However, if you get a chance to go to a US Open, go! I have been to two and look forward to my third, but first I want to get to Augusta.

All I can say is “WOW! … what a great finish”. It should be clear to all Tiger is back … and back in a big way. In case you missed The Memorial, coming into the final holes on Sunday there was a 4-way tie on top of leaderboard, until Tiger went Birdie-Birdie on 17 & 18. Then suddenly, there was no doubt who was going to win! We all know how good he is with those NIKE Victory Red Blade Irons and how deadly he is with those putts to nail the coffin shut. But It is amazing how low he can go when he gets off the tee, and in fact Tiger hit 14 of 14 fairways on Sunday and only missed 5 fairways all week!

Tiger needs to keep that NIKE Dymo Driver in the bag for The Open come June 18th when he will be tackling that monster at BethPage Black. At the Memorial, Tiger was 2nd in driving accuracy and 12th in driving distance, and given BethPage Black will be playing a lengthy 7,426 and will impose severe penalties for not hitting the fairways, he will need both accuracy and distance.

FYI… NewsDay.com and several other medial outlets are reporting Tiger played a practice round today (Monday, June 8th) at BethPage Black, teeing off around 9:30AM and finished up around 1PM.

I will have the pleasure of being at The Open on Friday and will report in.