Golf Etail Blog

I know, I know, the golf season is winding down, the NFL is hitting it’s stride, and baseball is in it’s showcase event right now, but did anyone catch the Frys.com Open this past week? There was quite a bit that went on there.

Rocco stepped up with an ace and four eagles enroute to a BIG win. Prior to this win Rocco was 182nd on the money list, but this win moved him to 70th place and gave him a place on the tour for 2011. Without a strong finish, Rocco was headed to Q-School, and had already sent his check in! Congrats Rocco!

Simillarly, David Duval made a strong push in the Frys. His rapid rise & fall has been well documented and my hat is off to him with his perseverance to get back into the mix. On Sunday he tied for 6th which moved him up 10 spots to 99th on the money list. This almost certainly locks him in with a full Tour status for next year.

Did you know … Jim Furyk used a Callaway X-Series JAWS Wedge during the FedEx Cup Tour Championship to go 9 for 9 in sand saves enroute to his $11,000,000 payday. Up until this week Furyk was ranked 157th in sand saves. Furyk was quoted as saying, “…This was probably my best bunker week of my career…” Pick yourself up a Callaway X-Series JAWS Wedge at a discount price at GolfEtail!

With Fall at our door steps and the Tour begins to wind down, here are a few random thoughts I have regarding the PGA Money Leader List….

Tiger Woods – Let me get this out of the way first …. YIKES! Played in 12 events and placed 65th in earnings at $1,178,515. In these 12 events Tiger scored 2 Top 10s’s and 7 Top 25’s. Let me put this into perspective a bit more … Arjun Atwal (who???) has played in 2 less events than Tiger, and is ahead of him in the money list at $1,268,490! Arjan made $76,676 on Tour in 2009. Come on Tiger!!!

Matt Kuchar – Leads the 2010 money list at $4,393,727 and played in 24 events with 1 win, 11 Top 10’s, and 18 Top 25’s. His previous best year was 2009, when he played in 24 events and made $2,489,192 with 1 win, 5 Top 5’s, and 10 Top 25’s.

Ernie Els – A big resurgence in 2010 with 2 wins and 12 Top 25’s with earnings of $4,311,361. It’s Ernie’s best year since 2004 when he won 3 times.

Jeff Overton – Nearly tripled his best year’s earnings at just over $3.3 million. Played in 28 events, making the cut in 17 and 5 Top 3 finishes; previously from 2006 – 2009 he only finished in the Top 3 once. Nice job!

John Daly – Daly’s best year since 2007; in 17 events he made $140,295 with 1 Top25 finish (he placed 24th at the Puerto Rico Open). John we love you, but all kidding aside, it’s time to get some help.

Surely you know by know by now, The Open Championship will be played at the Old Course, St Andrews from Thursday July 15th through Sunday July 18th. Tiger won that last two Open Championships played at St Andrews (2000 and 2005). Over the next few days we will be giving you bits of information and stats on the Top 10 Players today to give you some insight on who might win the Claret Jug in 2010.

Below are the players displayed in order of ranking:

1. Tiger Woods, USA
2. Phil Mickelson, USA
3. Lee Westwood, Eng
4. Steve Stricker USA
5. Jim Furyk USA
6. Ernie Els, Zaf
7. Luke Donald, Eng
8. Ian Poulter, Eng
9. Rory McIlroy, Nir
10. Paul Casey, Eng

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.

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…