Kiawah Island's website states that the tiny barrier island in South Carolina is 11.2 square miles of land. Assuming that's the case, you have to believe Phil Mickelson saw at least 11.1 of those miles on Thursday afternoon at the PGA Championship.
Mickelson's 1-over 73 won't show up in any record books, but if you missed out on the coverage of the four-time major winner's roller-coaster first 18 holes, well, you missed out on a doozy of a round that had it all: brilliant shots from precarious lies in the sand, inexplicable misses on the green, and blind approaches from the middle of nowhere to within 15 feet of the hole.
It was, without question, the most entertaining round of the day, as Mickelson went out in the afternoon and opened with only three pars in his first eight holes, picking up three birdies and two bogeys to make the turn in 1-under 35.
Read More: Phil Mickelson produces a roller-coaster round for the ages | Devil Ball Golf - Yahoo! Sports
Tiger Woods birdied two of his first four holes then held on in blustery conditions for a one-under 71 Friday to seize a share of the halfway lead at the 94th PGA Championship.
Woods, who is chasing his first major title since the 2008 US Open, got his round off to a flying start by one-putting three of his first four holes.
He reached a four-under 140 total and shares the lead with two-time PGA Championship winner Vijay Singh (69) and first-round leader Carl Pettersson (74).
"The putts were going in, so I felt good about that," Woods said. "It was tough out there."
The Kiawah Island Golf Resort course was playing several shots longer after the wind and rain kicked up, making for often severe playing conditions.
The scoring average was just over 78 -- the highest ever in a PGA Championship by more than two strokes.
"It was hard staying steady a couple of times I got blown on my downswing," Woods said. "The hard part is getting blown all over the place. There is no such thing as easy tap in."
This is the first time the Ocean Course has hosted a PGA Tour event and at 7,676 metres, it the longest course in major championship history.
Read More: Golf Woods grabs share of halfway lead at PGA Championship - Channel NewsAsia
Now that he's retired from swimming, Michael Phelps is ready to try a new stroke - golf.
One week after ending his incomparable Olympic career with 22 medals, Phelps signed up as Hank Haney's latest pupil. He will be featured in ''The Haney Project,'' which is shown on the Golf Channel, with hopes that golf that fill a competitive void.
''I'm excited about this project with Golf Channel and I'm looking forward to working with Hank and see what we can do together on the golf course,'' Phelps said in an announcement Saturday.
This isn't a second career. It doesn't sound as if Phelps will be going to Rio in 2016 when golf makes its return to the Olympics.
''He wants to win his club championship,'' Haney said in a telephone interview. ''He wants to play golf so bad. He'll be all right. It will take him a little while, but he should improve really fast. Michael has got such long arms. But it's funny, because whenever anyone makes a comment that a guy has got a lot of potential, they're always talking about one thing - he hits it a long way. The translation is he hits it everywhere.
''The guy with a lot of potential is athletic, long and in search of his golf ball.''
Read More: Phelps plunges into golf - Yahoo! Sports
Michael Phelps meant it when he said he wanted to take time off and relax.
The swimming sensation will try to improve his golf game on the next season of the Golf Channel's "The Haney Project," produced by Tom Farrell and Steve Rotfeld of Bryn Mawr's The WorkShop.
"I love the fact that a Philly company will be working with the greatest Olympian of all time," Farrell said of Phelps, who begins production on the show next month. Farrell says Phelps wants to be trained by coach Hank Haney at some of the best golf courses around the world.
Suburban ‘Paranoia'
Residents of Fort Washington are still experiencing "Paranoia."
The film spent several days, through Monday, shooting at the estate of former Advanta CEO Dennis Alter.
Alter's home, which has been up for sale and listed at more than $20 million, plays the home of Gary Oldman in the corporate-espionage thriller.
One of the scenes shot at the estate featured actor Liam Hemsworth swimming in the pool as Oldman, who plays his boss at a telecommunications company, arrives by helicopter (how serious businessmen like to show off).
Read more: Michael Phelps signs on to appear on locally-produced Golf Channel series
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The superlatives are once again being heaped upon Rory McIlroy after the Northern Irishman, for the second time in 15 months, blew away the world's best to win his second major crown.
While Tiger Woods failed to add to his career haul of 14 major titles, McIlroy underlined his burgeoning status as the game's most exciting young talent as he romped to victory by a record eight shots in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
Oozing confidence all week, the 23-year-old from Holywood in Northern Ireland reminded golf fans across the globe, as well as his peers, that he is both a man of the people and a player of rare skill.
Ever humble with a down-to-earth, almost boyish, approach when dealing with spectators, the media and his rivals on tour, McIlroy is now seen by many as the 'Tiger' of the future.
Of course, he and Woods are very different characters.
The Northern Irishman is a perpetually smiling golfer who strides the fairways with a swagger and his shoulders back, always completely at home in his environment.
In stark contrast, American Woods has always competed in a cocoon of concentration, never really engaging with fans as he goes about his business with a brooding, steely focus.
Read More: Golf: McIlroy's runaway PGA win ramps up Tiger comparisons | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere
The PGA Championship marked the end of the U.S. Ryder Cup qualification process, and while no positions changed hands, there's plenty of drama to consider with both the players in the mix and those still on the outside.
First, let's see who's a definite for Medinah in a few weeks, in order of their finish in the standings: Meet the first eight members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team | Devil Ball Golf - Yahoo! Sports
Webb Simpson claimed the victory at the U.S. Open earlier in the summer, but he missed the cut at last week's PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. Simpson will try to bounce back from that performance this week as he hits the links at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina as part of the field for the 2012 Wyndham Championship.
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And Simpson happens to be the defending champion at the Wyndham Championship, claiming the title at the tournament last year by three strokes over George McNeill and four strokes over Tommy Gainey.
That has him as the co-favorite on the golf odds at Bovada to win the tournament this week, as he's tied with Jason Dufner at 12/1. Dufner missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship last year, and was tied for 27th at last week's PGA Championship.
Carl Pettersson is then at 18/1 on the golf odds at Bovada to get the win this week, and he claimed this tournament title back in 2008. Pettersson tied for fourth place at the event last year, and was tied for third at the PGA Championship last week.
Brandt Snedeker, another past Wyndham winner (2007), sits at 25/1 odds for this week along with Charl Schwartzel, with each of Bill Haas, David Toms, Sergio Garcia and Tim Clark at 30/1 odds, and Henrik Stenson among a group of golfers at 40/1 odds.
The Wyndham Championship is the final event of the PGA Tour's 'regular season', with the FedEx Cup playoffs getting underway next week at The Barclays – where the top 125 players on the points list will hit the links. This week's tournament at Sedgefield is the last chance for golfers on the bubble to move into a Top 125 position.
If you can't make it to a TV next week to catch the first two rounds of the Barclays, you may want to at least set the DVR, after Rory McIlroy assured himself a pairing with Tiger Woods over the first two days at Bethpage Black, thanks to his eight-shot win at the PGA Championship.
Woods and McIlroy are the two most significant golf forces in the world at the moment, and for a sport that's been dying for a rivalry of some sort in the last couple of years, getting to at least see the top two players in the world go at it in the same group should add some buzz to the opening event of the FedExCup Playoffs.
"When [Rory] gets it going, it's pretty impressive to watch," Woods said, following McIlroy's decisive win.
Over the course of their careers, everyone has tried like hell to force the Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods rivalry, jamming a square peg into a round hole in an effort to give the sport a legitimate rivalry that could come close to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. But the rivalry never amounted to anything. One was always playing at an incredibly high level when the other was toiling in mediocrity.
Read More: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy paired together at Barclays | Devil Ball Golf - Yahoo! Sports
We are heading down the stretch of the sixth year of the FedExCup, and people still don't fully grasp the concept.
There have been tweaks to the point system, and there may be more to come.
Would it surprise you to learn that just two of the first five FedExCup winners won a PGA Tour event the year after winning the season-long race?
How about two of the previous five champs haven't won another PGA Tour event since their FedExCup win?
The FedExCup wasn't set up to be a grueling marathon where you have to play every week to contend, but it seems to have taken a lot out of its' winners, except for one.
Tiger Woods, the only two-time FedExCup champion and current points leader, is the only player to have an outstanding year the season after winning the race.
After Woods won the inaugural FedExCup in 2007, he won five of the seven events he played in 2008 and never finished worse than fifth. Of course, he only appeared in seven events because he played the U.S. Open on a broken leg and took the rest of the year off.
That was Woods' last major championship.
Read more: Golf Tidbits: Is winning FedExCup worth it? | Fox News
Steven Fox played well while battling though some jitters in earlier matches. He did even better once he relaxed.
Fox took advantage of a strong start to beat Chris Williams, the world's top-ranked amateur, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills on Friday.
"I was nervous the first couple of matches, and for some reason, this match I kind of felt at home," Fox said. "I was finally playing with the galleries and enjoyed myself out there, and really just had fun."
The 21-year-old Fox, from Hendersonville, Tenn., beat the 21-year-old Williams, from Moscow, Idaho, 4 and 2. A senior at the Tennessee-Chattanooga, Fox will play Brandon Hagy of Westlake Village, Calif., in the semifinals Saturday. The 21-year-old Hagy, one of two golfers from the University of California to reach the semifinals, beat Cheng-Tsung Pan of Taiwan 4 and 3.
Michael Weaver of Fresno, who also a member of Cal's golf team, beat Ricardo Gouveia of Portugal 4 and 3. He'll meet Alabama's Justin Thomas of Goshen, Ky., in the other semifinal. Thomas edged Australian Oliver Goss 2-up.
Fox made two birdies in a bogey-free front nine. Williams had two bogeys.
"This is by far the best thing I've done in my career, by far," Fox said.
Read More: U.S. Amateur golf: Fox beats Williams to reach semifinal - MontereyHerald-com :
Japan's Mika Miyazato, seeking her first LPGA title, fired a four-under par 68 on Saturday to seize a two-stroke lead after the second round of the LPGA Safeway Classic.
Miyazato, who began on the back nine, birdied the par-3 11th and third holes and added birdies at the sixth and par-5 eighth holes to finish 36 holes on 11-under 133, two clear of South Korean So Yeon Ryu, who also shot a 68.
"I had so much frustration on the putting on the front nine, but I made three birdies on the back nine," Miyazato said.
Ryu and Miyazato, both 22, were playing partners in the first two rounds and will be again for Sunday's final round of the 54-hole event at Pumpkin Ridge, where Miyazato will try to take a solid season to the next level by winning.
"I have so much good experience the last four or five events, but I don't know how much closer I am to winning a tournament," Miyazato said. "I tried to focus on my golf game one shot at a time."
Ryu likes her chances even as she will be trying to deny her the long-sought crown.
"I think she's ready to make a win, but I think the problem is that golf is a mental game, so I think the final round gave a lot of pressure for her, but I think she can make it pretty soon," Ryu said.
Steven Fox made an 18-foot birdie putt on the 37th hole Sunday, completing a remarkable underdog run to win the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills.
The 21-year-old Fox, from Hendersonville, Tenn., was 2-down with two holes to play against Michael Weaver of Fresno, Calif., before rallying to force the extra hole.
"This is unreal. This whole week is like a dream to me," Fox said.
Both players earned spots in the U.S. Open next year, and will likely receive invitations to the Masters — both if still amateurs.
Weaver, a 21-year-old redshirt junior at the University of California, had stayed in front most of the day and when he rattled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 34th hole, he went 2-up, forcing Fox to win each of the remaining holes to stay alive.
A senior at Tennessee-Chattanooga, Fox made an 11-foot birdie putt to win the 35th hole.
Still with a 1-up advantage, Weaver needed only to make a 5-foot par putt on the 36th hole at the 18th green to secure the win, but it lipped out, extending the championship round to a 37th hole.
Read More: Golf: Fox works OT to win U.S. Am on 37th hole | Deseret News
Rainy weather left Sergio Garcia stuck in central North Carolina for an extra day. Turns out, it was worth the hassle -- because he's leaving with his first PGA Tour victory in four years.
Garcia claimed a two-stroke win Monday in the Wyndham Championship for his first victory on tour since the 2008 Players Championship.
He finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262, claim $936,000 in prize money and maybe seal a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.
"Hopefully, this will secure my spot on the Ryder Cup team, and winning is always nice," Garcia said.
Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final tour event before the playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.
Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour.
He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA victory.
Read More: Golf roundup: Sergio Garcia gets first PGA Tour win in 4 years | Golf | Detroit Free Press | freep-com
Tiger Woods heads into the start of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs atop the money list for the year, and he's favored to also be in that position when the season comes to an end.
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Woods is listed as the 3/2 favorite at Bovada to win the PGA Tour's money list, and he has earned $4.95 million through his 15 events on the tour so far this season – which included three victories. That has him just ahead of Rory McIlroy, who has picked up $4.90 million over 12 tournaments; McIlroy is second at 15/8 on the odds to win the money list.
Three other golfers have managed to earn over $4 million on the PGA Tour so far in 2012, with Jason Dufner at $4.55 million (in 19 events), Zach Johnson at $4.11 million (in 20 events) and Bubba Watson at $4.02 million (in 15 events). Dufner is at 10/1 on the money list odds, with both Watson and Johnson set at 16/1.
Hunter Mahan (20/1), Keegan Bradley (22/1) and Matt Kuchar (25/1) round out the top tier of contenders on the odds to win the PGA Tour's money list at Bovada; Mahan has won $3.72 million so far this season, with both Bradley and Kuchar pocketing $3.61 million.
Justin Rose ($3.30 million), Luke Donald ($2.78 million), and Webb Simpson ($3.00 million) are all pegged at 40/1 odds to win the money list, with Phil Mickelson ($2.95 million) back at 50/1 odds. Ernie Els ($3.12 million) is farther back at 66/1 odds.
The FedEx Cup playoffs consist of four tournaments with big $8 million purses – The Barclays, the Deutsche Bank Championship, the BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship – which ends the season and runs from September 20-23.
The number of players in each of those tournaments goes from 125 to 100 to 70 to 30.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are listed as the co-favorites on the golf odds at Bovada to win The Barclays this week, as, the PGA Tour begins its FedEx Cup playoff schedule with the tournament at Bethpage in Farmingdale, New York.
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McIlroy was pegged as the 6/1 favorite on those odds when they opened on Monday, but by Tuesday morning both he and Woods were sitting on top of the list at 7/1 odds. Woods and McIlroy are 1-2 on the PGA Tour's money list heading into the tournament, while Woods is first and McIlroy is third in the FedEx Cup points standings right now.
There's then a big gap before we hit the next golfer on the odds to win The Barclays, with Justin Rose at 20/1 and both Bubba Watson and Luke Donald pegged at 22/1. Rose enters the playoffs in 12th place in FedEx Cup points, while Watson is fifth, and Donald is 16th.
Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley, Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson are all then pegged at 25/1 odds to get the victory this week, with Johnson winning The Barclays last year at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey. Stricker also has a win at The Barclays on his resume; he claimed the event back in 2007.
Stricker's Barclays win came at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York, where Garcia won this event in both 2001 and 2004. Garcia moved up from 102nd to 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings with his win at the Wyndham Championship on Monday morning.
Phil Mickelson is listed at 33/1 on the golf odds at Bovada to win The Barclays, with Louis Oosthuizen and Webb Simpson at 35/1, and Graeme McDowell, Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar at 40/1. Kuchar was The Barclays winner in 2010 at Ridgewood Country Club.
Francesco Molinari is your betting favorite on the golf odds at Bovada for this week's European Tour event, the Johnnie Walker Championship at The Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland.
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Molinari is pegged as the 10/1 favorite to win the Johnnie Walker Championship this week, after he finished tied for 22nd at the event last year – seven strokes back of the winner.
That winner was Thomas Bjorn, although he needed to outlast four other golfers (George Coetzee, Mark Foster, Pablo Larrazabel and Bernd Wiesberger) in a playoff to get the victory. Stephen Gallacher and Joel Sjoholm were one stroke back of that group in sixth.
Bjorn, though, finds himself back at 30/1 on the odds for this week, with Nicolas Colsaerts second behind Molinari at 12/1 odds. Jamie Donaldson, Ross Fisher and Thorbjorn Olesen are all then at 22/1 odds. Donaldson was 26th at this tournament last year, while Fisher and Olesen both ended up missing the cut.
Simon Dyson sits at 25/1 on the odds to win the Johnnie Walker Championship, and he was 15th at the tournament in 2011. David Lynn, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Alexander Noren and Paul Lawrie all join Bjorn at 30/1.
Gregory Havret, who won this tournament back in 2008, is at 80/1 odds for this week, with 2007 champ Marc Warren at 50/1 odds, and 2006 and 2001 winner Paul Casey at 125/1. Soren Kjeldsen, who won the event back in 2003, is listed at 40/1 odds this time around.
Amateur golfers Andy Jacobson, Matt Schneider, and Jesse Larson were selected to represent Minnesota at the 10th USGA Men’s State Team Championship, Sept. 19-21 at the Galloway National Golf Club, Galloway, N.J., the MGA office announced Thursday.
Players are selected based primarily on their performance over the 2011-12 golf seasons. A select committee of the leadership of allied player organizations, including the men and women’s amateur golf associations, met recently to select the team roster.
Jacobson, 33, of Willmar, has earned 385 player points, thanks to a win at the MGA Player’s Championship, a high finish at this year’s MGA Amateur Championship (T5th), for reaching the semi-finals at the MGA Mid-Players’ and for a runner-up finish at the Lakeland Invitational at his home course of Eagle Creek.
Schneider, 24, of Cohasset, secured his spot on this year’s team thanks, in part, to his 415 player points and his tie for second place at the MGA Amateur Championship. He also was a sectional qualifier for the U.S. Amateur Public Links, finished in 6th at the Minnesota State Open, and reached the round of 16 at the MGA Players’ Championship.
Larson, 37, of Shakopee, has collected 220 player points so far this season, thanks to reaching the final match at the Mid-Players’ Championship (before losing to Sammy Schmitz), a strong finish at the MGA Amateur Championship (T5th) and for reaching the round of 32 at the MGA Players’.
Read More: Golf: Jacobson selected to play on MGA team in N.J. tournament | West Central Tribune | Willmar, Minnesota
Karrie Webb isn't old. Lydia Ko just makes her seem that way.
As Ko, a 15-year-old amateur from New Zealand, took a share of the halfway lead at the CN Canadian Open, Webb soldiered through a ragged back nine to make her 40th consecutive cut on the LPGA Tour.
The Hall-of-Fame golfer from Australia emerged from the scoring tent to discover only a single newspaperman waiting, which would have been one too many a decade ago when Webb was sometimes brusque with the press and generally just wanted to be left alone.
With most of the reporters in the media centre Friday after-noon, hanging on every word from a teenager after Ko posted eight-under-par through 36 holes at Vancouver Golf Club, Webb talked candidly about her past and future in golf.
"It seems to get younger and younger every year," Webb, even par going into the week-end, said of professional golf. "Nothing surprises me any more.
"I don't feel old, but then you think that Lydia Ko wasn't born when I started playing professionally. That sounds really bad. Some of the younger players give me a hard time and make me think I am old, but at 37 there's a lot of golf left."
Yes, Karrie Webb is still only 37. It only seems she has been around forever.
The greens were so fast that Sergio Garcia didn’t know when the ball was going to stop. He was happy to see the day end with a 2-under-par 69, giving him a two-shot lead over Nick Watney going into the final round of The Barclays.
Garcia fell out of the lead with a three-putt bogey on the third hole, but he didn’t have another three-putt green the rest of the round on a Bethpage Black course that lived up to its tough reputation Saturday.
Watney, who made five putts over 15 feet, three-putted the final hole when his putt went racing 10 feet by the cup. He had to settle for a 71, giving him another round in the final group with Garcia.
‘‘Hopefully, the pins will be in spots where there’s some grass on the greens and the ball will stop rolling,’’ Watney said.
Tiger Woods, who started the third round three shots out of the lead, three-putted for bogey three times on the front nine alone. He had another three-putt on the 14th hole, this one from 15 feet, and had a 72 that put him six shots behind.
‘‘I don’t remember blowing putts by 8 to 10 feet,’’ Woods said. ‘‘So that was a bit of a shocker.’’
Garcia went four years without winning on the PGA Tour and now has a chance to make it two in a row. He was at 10-under 203, and only four players were within four shots of the lead.
Kevin Stadler played early, when the greens still had some moisture, and had a remarkable round of 65 without any bogeys. He moved up from a tie for 42d to alone in third place, three shots behind. Brandt Snedeker started strong and closed with nine pars, which was equally impressive, for a 68 that put him four back.
Read More: Garcia builds Barclays lead to 2 strokes - Golf - Boston-com
Mickelson's 1-over 73 won't show up in any record books, but if you missed out on the coverage of the four-time major winner's roller-coaster first 18 holes, well, you missed out on a doozy of a round that had it all: brilliant shots from precarious lies in the sand, inexplicable misses on the green, and blind approaches from the middle of nowhere to within 15 feet of the hole.
It was, without question, the most entertaining round of the day, as Mickelson went out in the afternoon and opened with only three pars in his first eight holes, picking up three birdies and two bogeys to make the turn in 1-under 35.
Read More: Phil Mickelson produces a roller-coaster round for the ages | Devil Ball Golf - Yahoo! Sports