Archive for May, 2010

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is a step closer to playing the U.S. Open.  He earned one of seven qualifying spots Thursday at The Honors Golf Club of Dallas. Romo birdied three of his last four holes to shoot 69, then survived a four-for-three playoff to advance. He took just 12 putts on the back nine.  It was the first time in three attempts that Romo advanced to sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open.

Romo will play a 36-hole sectional qualifier June 7 at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. At least one player from each of 13 sectional qualifiers will advance to the U.S. Open that will be played June 17-20 at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links.

In other local qualifying events held during the past two weeks, former MLB pitcher John Smoltz, Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee and Minnesota Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell failed to advance to sectional qualifying.

Source:  Golfweek

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Juli Inkster (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

The first-round matches at the Sybase Match Play Championship played at Hamilton Farm Golf Club are in the books. Ten of the top-ten players in the Rolex Rankings started the day and only seven advanced to the second round.

• Rolex Rankings No. 3 Suzann Pettersen was upset by LPGA Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster, No. 6 Anna Nordqvist was beat by Shi Hyun Ahn and No. 9 Na Yeon Choi suffered a loss at the hands of Karine Icher.

• All three rookies in the field won their first-round matches. Amanda Blumenherst upset Stacy Lewis 1 UP. Sponsor’s invite Beatriz Recari won over Brittany Lincicome 1 UP, while Azahara Munoz defeated last week’s winner Se Ri Pak 3&2.

• The biggest margin of victory was 5&4 by Sophie Gustafson over Na On Min and Candie Kung over Natalie Gulbis.

• Michelle Wie rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to take the lead and posted a 2-up victory over a tough Stacy Prammanasudh (Source: GolfChannel.com)

• Six matches went extra holes and another six ended on the 18th hole.

Complete round-up and results can be found here.

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Rallying from four strokes back Adam Scott edged Frederik Jacobson by a stroke to win the Valero Texas Open on the new AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio.  It took 36-holes on Sunday to pull of his first PGA Tour victory in two years.

The course was designed by Scott’s fellow countrymen (and hero) Greg Norman, who sent a congratulatory message after Scott’s first win since the Australian Open in December.  Norman’s note meant a lot to Scott. So did this victory.

“I questioned myself at times last year whether I was a great player or not,” Scott said. “I still feel I am.”

You can read about it here and watch the post-tournament interview with Adam Scott here.

Another interesting read is this post, where Scott Walker of The Golf Channel provides a glimpse of what wasn’t shown on television — like the beer shower Ernie Els gave Adam Scott.

In his write-up, Walker also pointed out that Jimmy Walker (no relation) who finished tied for third place, had played dozens of rounds at TPC San Antonio trying to figure out the course (Note:  He lives about 35 miles away).

“His advance scouting should make it a cinch for him to keep his card in 2010, making it time well spent. Plus, that $317,200 will come in handy with his first child due to a matter of days.”

Good stuff.  Exciting golf and back-stories!  Just goes to show that interesting stories can be found wherever the PGA Tour lands (even tournaments where Phil and Tiger aren’t entered).

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This week, the Caddy For A Cure organization announced an auction is being held to caddy for Natalie Gulbis at the LPGA’s second major of the season:  Webman’s LPGA Championship.

Caddy For A Cure offers a way for folks to have a PGA/LPGA experience “inside the ropes.”   Opportunities can be found through its website (www.caddyforacure.com) which links to auctions. 100% of auction proceeds are donated to charity.

For the LPGA Championship, funds will be directed to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, the Wounded Warrior Project, the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program, the United Way Graduation is the Goal Fund as directed by tournament sponsor, Wegmans, and Natalie’s charity, The Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas.

In a written statement, Russ Holden, Caddy For A Cure founder said, “To be able to launch our program at the LPGA Championship is a perfect fit given the charitable history and heart of Wegmans. We think it’s an especially exciting opportunity to be inside the ropes at a venue like Locust Hill which is deep in LPGA tournament history. The winning caddie will not only be shoulder to shoulder with Natalie, but will also be among the world’s best women golfers competing in this Major tournament.”

On the PGA side, examples of some of the auctions are being held include: Boo Weekley (May 26), Zach Johnson (July 7), Paul Casey (July 21), Lee Westwood (August 4) and a host of others.  See site for details.

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A senior at Notre Dame learned the hard way that verbalizing a score while playing a round is the same as writing it down.  It all started when Notre Dame senior, Annie Brophy, while playing in a NCAA Central Regional tournament, told people keeping track of scores every three holes to post on the leaderboard that she had five birdies, an eagle and a bogey through the first nine holes Saturday on the par-72 course.

She later claimed she was just “goofing around.”

Brophy needs to find a better way to stay loose and relaxed on the golf course if that was the case.  The NCAA disqualified her.

Brophy was “shocked” apparently because her actual scorecard was accurate (she hit 85 and 81 in the first two rounds) and she never intended to turn in a false score.

What she didn’t grasp was the ripple effect of her actions.

According to Nancy Cross, a senior associate athletic director at Purdue and chair of NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee, the problem was that because of the scores Brophy was verbalizing, three teams (Florida State, Oregon and Kent State) ended up waiting around to see if a playoff might be needed to determine which teams would advance to the finals. Only eight of the 24 teams advance.

Bad Brophy!

Lesson learned (hopefully).  Perhaps next time, if the urge to emote hits her, she’ll just Tweet something silly to get it out of her system.  A Golfweek.com story includes Brophy’s apology.

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Note:  Original photo from Notre Dame via Golfweek.