Vijay Singh – MyGolf1

The begining of golf

I do not think anyone really can say when the game of golf was first played, but there are many stories about the start, Robin Williams has a great story about the start of golf.

The Scott’s who are given credit for the game, organized a club in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1754 and called it the Society of St. Andrews Golfers.

Some 70 years of developing and expanding the game, King Willam 1V became a patron of the club, and the name was changed to The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

I had an opertunity to see this golf club and it is really a historic place.

Tiger did not win but 15 under is still a good score at Doral

Even someone like former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy can acknowledge being a bit mesmerized by seeing Tiger Woods win tournament after tournament after tournament.

”It’s quite fun to watch,” Ogilvy said.

Sure, but it doesn’t compare to beating Woods – especially when the world’s No. 1 hasn’t lost in six months.

Ogilvy won the CA Championship on Monday, saving a round that seemed in peril with a chip-in for par at the 13th hole and going on to claim his second victory in a World Golf Championship event. And not only did Ogilvy take down Tiger, he did it at Doral, where Woods had won each of the past three years.

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CA Championship – Final Leaderboard

So much for that perfect-season talk. The streak is over.

”It was going to end at some point,” Ogilvy said. ”I’m very glad that I did it. It’s a nice place to do it, too, because he’s obviously owned this place for the last few years. He just had one of those weeks.”

A final round of 1-under 71 – with nothing but nine pars Monday – was enough for Ogilvy to finish at 17 under, one shot better than Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh, who all closed with 68s in the rain-delayed tournament. Woods was fifth at 15 under, losing for the first time in six PGA Tour starts and seven official ones worldwide, not counting his win at the Target World Challenge.

”As players, it’s nice to see somebody else lift a trophy for a change,” Goosen said.

Calgary’s Stephen Ames finished eight shots off the pace after closing with a 2-under 70. Mike Weir of Bright’s Grove, Ont., shot a 1-under 71 and was nine strokes behind.

With the win, Ogilvy joined select company – only Woods (15) and Darren Clarke (two) have more than one WGC title.

”People don’t really understand, you need to have something happen, a positive thing happen to you out there in order to win tournaments,” Woods said. ”I heard Geoff bladed one in the hole for par. That’s what you need to have happen. Those are the things that have happened to me, and things weren’t going that way this week.”

Indeed, Ogilvy got the biggest break at the most crucial time.

Woods started the morning five shots back with seven holes remaining and made his typical charge, closing within two strokes after making a four-footer at the 17th. He birdied the 12th to start his day, then hit his tee shot within a foot at the par-3 15th for a tap-in.

At that very moment, two holes behind, Ogilvy seemed in trouble.

He pulled his two-iron tee shot at the par-3 13th way left, and his chip from thick, dewy grass didn’t even reach the green – making bogey seem probable, until a most improbable shot followed.

Ogilvy’s second chip hopped twice, hit the pin and dropped straight in, giving the Australian a break he desperately needed. If it went past the cup, he surely could have been looking at double bogey – since the ball clearly would have kept rolling for a while.

”That was moving,” Ogilvy said. ”That’s why you have to hit it on line. Flag gets in the way.”

Around the same time that chip dropped in, Ogilvy’s nearest pursuers began falling off.

Singh was the first one to make a run at Ogilvy, getting within a stroke before back-to-back bogeys doomed his chances. Furyk got within one after making birdie at the 17th, then missed the fairway at the finishing hole. Adam Scott started the morning four shots back, then inexplicably missed a two-foot tap-in and lost all hope of making a run.

”Geoff played well,” Singh said. ”He hit a lot of great shots and putted nicely. Somebody had to win, somebody had to lose.”

For a change, Woods was one of those somebodies on the losing side.

It was Woods’ first defeat since Sept. 3, and his perfect start to 2008 begged the ridiculous-sounding question: Could he go unbeaten for an entire year?

”You want to always win every one you play in,” Woods said. ”So you’ve just got to get ready for the next one.”

His next official tournament: the Masters, where Woods’ annual Grand Slam quest will begin.

”I think it’s a great sign, what happened this week, to make that many mistakes and only be two back,” Woods said.

It has come to this: When Woods doesn’t win, it counts as stunning news.

He was less than an even-money favourite before the tournament began, and at least one British bookmaker had Woods at the preposterous odds of 1-to-3 after the second round – when he wasn’t even in the lead.

But since Woods’ surge of late was amazing even by his own standards, why would those oddsmakers expect anything less?

”The chitchat about ‘Is he going to win every golf tournament this year,’ that’s frustrating stuff to hear,” Ogilvy said.

Ogilvy won’t have to hear it anymore.

His last win was the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the one best remembered by Phil Mickelson’s final-hole double-bogey collapse that handed Ogilvy the title.

There was some symmetry at Doral, where this week might go down as the week Tiger lost.

”I guess they stopped going in for him this week,” Ogilvy said. ”Yeah, it’s nice.”

Notes:

Woods’ check for US$285,000 put him over the $80-million mark in official earnings. .. Woods was among several players who scurried out quickly to get to Orlando for the afternoon start to the Tavistock Cup, the annual match between pros from the Lake Nona and Isleworth clubs. ”Going to be a long day,” Woods said. .. Goosen’s finish was his best since tying for second at the Masters last year.

Does Tiger Woods have another comeback in his golf bag?

Tiger Woods will need a Sunday charge to keep his winning streak intact.

Geoff Ogilvy remained bogey-free through three rounds of the weather-delayed CA Championship, completing a 4-under 68 on Sunday morning to take a four-shot lead over a slew of challengers at Doral’s Blue Monster.

Ogilvy was 16 under, giving him a cushion over Vijay Singh (63), Graeme Storm (63), Retief Goosen (64), Jim Furyk (64) and Adam Scott (69).

Struggling but still lurking: Woods, who shot even par even as just about every other contender went on a birdie barrage in the third round. He entered the final round at 11 under, and needs a rally if he’s to win his sixth straight PGA Tour event.

“You can see what the scores are, two 64s and two 63s out there,” said Woods, who hasn’t lost since September. “It can be had.”

Canadians Stephen Ames (68) and Mike Weir (67) were tied for 14th, nine strokes behind Ogilvy.

Third-round play was suspended Saturday after heavy rain fell in a three-hour stretch of the afternoon, prompting the delay until Sunday morning. Casual water was still visible in some areas of the course, and forecasters said more rain was possible.

World Golf Championship events are some of Woods’ favourites, given his 15 wins in 26 previous WGCs entering this week.

But Ogilvy looks like the one in total control at Doral.

The Australian picked up Sunday morning exactly where he left off after the first 2 1/2 rounds, making a steady, methodical charge through the Blue Monster. A birdie at the par-4 16th pushed his lead to three, and when Scott – Ogilvy’s countryman and playing partner alongside Woods in the third-round final group – bogeyed the 17th, the margin grew by another stroke.

“It’s nice. I played well,” Ogilvy said. “I hit the ball better this morning probably than I was hitting it yesterday, so maybe the break came at the right time.”

Ogilvy’s pursuers would obviously be aided if the leader, who hasn’t won on tour since capturing the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, dropped the occasional shot here or there.

So far, that’s simply not happening. His cards so far: 38 pars, 16 birdies, no bad mistakes.

“I don’t know how to explain that,” said Ogilvy, who tied for third at Doral last year. “Putting well helps.”

He wasn’t the only one putting well.

Furyk’s Sunday started with a 50-foot birdie at the 14th, ensuring that he wouldn’t lose momentum he gleaned Saturday. Singh finished his best-ever Doral round with a 20-foot birdie at the last, which likely made him forget the seven-footer he missed on the previous hole. Goosen also made birdie at the 18th, adding his name to the logjam in second place.

“I got myself back in the hunt,” Furyk said.

Woods is still there, too, although if he’s going to win, he’ll need to match his biggest comeback ever after 54 holes. He was five shots back at Pebble Beach entering the final round in 2000.

“I had four harsh lip-outs. That’s the difference,” Woods said. “Those go in, I’m only one back. But that’s not the case, they didn’t go in and I’ve got a little bit of work to do.”

Vijay Singh falters and Steve Lowery Wins after a frustrating 7 year drought

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Steve Lowery had gone more than seven years and 199 tournaments without winning, a drought that would have continued Sunday at Pebble Beach if not for a stunning collapse byVijay Singh.

Three shots behind when he stood on the 15th tee, Lowery made up quick ground when Singh made three straight bogeys, then won on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with a 7-foot birdie. At 47, he became the oldest winner in the 71-year history of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Lowery closed with a 4-under 68 and won for the third time in his career, all of them in playoffs.

Singh recovered from his three bogeys with a wedge that stopped 2 feet away for birdie on the final hole for a 71 to force the playoff. Both players finished at 10-under 278.

But the Fijian’s troubles only got worse playing the famous 18th hole at Pebble Beach a second time. His drive found a bunker to the right, and his second shot clipped the top of the bunker, leaving him 192 yards short of the green. A 4-iron for his third shot plugged into the side of another bunker, and he did well to blast out to 8 feet and make par.

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Lowery’s birdie putt was good all the way, an amazing victory for a variety of reasons, least of all Singh’s collapse.

Lowery was No. 305 in the world when he arrived on the Monterey Peninsula. He finished 148th on the money list last year because of a wrist injury, and was given eight tournaments to make $282,558 to keep his card for the rest of the year.

That’s no longer a problem. Lowery earned US$1.08 million and a two-year exemption, sending Singh home to question whether his retooled swing can hold up under pressure.

Mike Weir (69) of Bright’s Grove, Ont., tied for 14th.

The first playoff at Pebble Beach since 1992 didn’t even seem remotely possibly when Lowery walked off the 14th green with a bogey. He was three shots behind Singh, who had just hit a brilliant flop shot to six feet to save par on the 13th.

Turns out that was a sign of sloppy play that followed.

Singh went at the flag on the 14th with a sand wedge from 92 yards, but it was a tad strong and spun down the slope, and the best he could do was chip to 20 feet and make bogey. He missed the 15th green to the left, chipped weakly and missed an eight-footer for par.

His fairway metal found a bunker off the 16th tee, and Singh powered that shot over the green, down the slope and into the back bunker. He blasted through the green and two-putted for bogey from the fringe to fall into a tie. Singh arrived on the 17th tee in time to watch Lowery hole a 20-foot birdie putt to take the lead, and if not for a couple of fortuitous bounces, Singh might not have been in a position for a playoff.

Singh’s three-foot par putt on the 17th swirled around the inside of the cup before falling, and his tee shot on the 18th was headed for a tree until it bounced off the trunk and deflected to the right. That gave him a clear shot at the green, setting up his wedge to two feet.

Dudley Hart, who started the final round tied with Singh, didn’t make a birdie until making three in a row at the end for a 72 to finish one shot out of the playoff. He tied for third withJohn Mallinger (65) and Corey Pavin (66).

Jason Day, the 20-year-old from Australia, finished alone in sixth after a 70.

Pebble Beach was the final tournament to qualify for the Accenture Match Play Championship. Pat Perez shot 72 and tied for 24th, but it was enough for him to get into his first World Golf Championship. Perez moved up two spots to No. 64, and withErnie Els not playing, he will face Phil Mickelson in the first round.

J.B. Holmes, who missed the cut at Pebble, dropped to No. 65 and gets Tiger Woods, provided no one else withdraws.