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Golf World Monday: Donald's workout regimen

Monday, February 28, 2011 Comments
From the Feb. 28 issue of Golf World Monday:

Luke Donald, one of the stalwarts of Europe's last three winning Ryder Cup sides, has been the bridesmaid in America more often than his talents should have allowed, so much so that the wags in his native England hung the epithet of "Luke Donald Disease" on players who couldn't close the deal.

donald_300.jpgWell, Donald finished it off at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship against the world's No. 1 player, Martin Kaymer, and did it in a most steely fashion, winning 3 and 2. Donald was clearly the player most on-form all week. He never trailed, not once. He got to the championship match playing fewer holes than anyone else ever has, including Tiger Woods at the height of his power. And he never saw the 18th hole except in a practice round.

After jumping out to a 3-up lead early, Donald allowed the reigning PGA champion to push back to square the match through nine holes. If Luke Donald Disease was ever going to strike, that was the time. But Donald didn't blink.

For the last year and a half Donald has been working with Dave Alred, considered the world's best kicking coach (rugby and soccer), who works both in and out of sports, "raising performance levels within pressured environments."

Obviously, they've raised Luke's.

--Jim Moriarty

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Watson undone by trademark sweeping cut

Saturday, February 26, 2011 Comments

MARANA, Ariz. -- Martin Kaymer had to make a putt of just under eight feet to close him out but the go-for-broke style of Bubba Watson may be what cost him a spot in the finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship. When Watson and Kaymer came to the drivable 15th all square, Watson pulled out the pink-shafted driver.

That came as no surprise. But, with the pin back left, Bubba decided to go to his stock-in-trade shot--the massive banana cut. The wind, however, was blowing stoutly from right to left across the hole, meaning Watson's tee shot would have to ride it. The ball finished in the left desert in the middle of a bush and Watson had to take an unplayable, losing the hole to Kaymer's birdie. He lost the par-three 16th to the German's par and Kaymer, the newly anointed, World No. 1 held off the American to make it into the Sunday final against Luke Donald.

-- Jim Moriarty

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Holmes tastes bitter end to surprising run

Saturday, February 26, 2011 Comments
MARANA--Eventually J.B. Holmes is going to be reasonably content with getting to the quarterfinals of a tournament he wasn't even supposed to be in but, after being 5 up on Bubba Watson with eight holes to play, it may take a while to get there.

"It happens every year to somebody," said Holmes. "It hurts a little bit but I'll get over it." This is the second time it's happened to Holmes who was 3 up on Tiger Woods with five to play in the '08 Accenture Match Play Championship and lost when the then-No. 1 Woods went birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle to overtake him.

It began to slip away against Watson when Holmes made trips to the desert on the 11th and 13th but it was the interesting end to the match that caught everyone's attention. Still with a 1 up lead, Holmes drove it into the rough on the 18th and hit his approach short of the green in a desert bush. The ball was against a sprinkler, sort of wiry desert spritzer, from which he got relief. His drop, however, put him in a spot where his follow through would have hit yet another little black plastic spritzer. He got a re-drop but, even so, couldn't get the ball up and down, losing the hole to Watson's par.

On the first extra hole, both players found the desert. Watson had a swing at his and managed to put it up by the green. Holmes had to take an unplayable, going all the way back to an adjacent fairway. His third came up short and he lost the hole to Watson's par.

"I got lucky," said Watson. "He hit a 3-wood that went almost 400 yards and into the desert and I won 11. Then I birdied a couple of holes coming down and just caught him."

-- Jim Moriarty
 
 
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Crane on other side of rout, cites bad back

Friday, February 25, 2011 Comments

MARANA, Ariz. -- Ben Crane went from chicken one day to feathers the next, with a twist. The twist was in his lower back. Crane woke up with pain in the lower left quadrant of his back and was virtually unable to swing a club. He has no idea what caused the problem.

"I woke up with it," he said after losing 7 and 6 to Miguel Angel Jimenez in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. The drubbing came just 24 hours after Crane dismantled Rory McIlroy by an even more lopsided 8 and 7.

"I didn't know what to do. I tried to play. Obviously it didn't work. It was so painful every shot," said Crane, who has experienced back problems before. "Last time it kept me out of a tournament has been a year and half. Certainly, I felt great for a while. I didn't see it coming. It's a bummer because I was playing phenomenal."

While Crane had a trainer walking inside the ropes with him, working on his back, Jimenez opened the match with birdies on three of the first four holes. It was a challenge Crane was incapable of answering. "I skipped my whole warm up, went inside got the medical guys to work on it. They say, OK, go try that and I went to the range. It didn't help. It would have been fun if it would have felt good. First hole, I hit it 60 yards right. My body stopped. I was trying to keep it moving and it just wouldn't do it. I made one swing that was somewhat close to normal. One swing out of 12 holes or whatever I played. It was frustrating."

-- Jim Moriarty

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LPGA loses State Farm as title sponsor

Friday, February 25, 2011 Comments

The already embattled LPGA, which has only 23 tournaments on its 2011 schedule, just seven of which are full-field non-major championships played in the United States, got more bad news Friday when State Farm Insurance said it was pulling out of the tour stop in Springfield, Ill., after this year's event. The 61-year-old organization, the oldest and most successful women's professional sports organization, already has its thinnest schedule since 1972 and this does not bode well for 2012.

"State Farm has been a tremendous partner for the past 19 years, and we are disappointed by the news they will not renew their sponsorship past 2011," Kate Peters, Executive Director of the LPGA State Farm Classic, said in a statement. "We are thankful for their years of support, and we're still very much looking forward to working together to stage a great tournament in June."

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Cristie Kerr won last year's State Farm Classic. Photo: Darren Carroll/Getty Images

The State Farm Classic was first played in 1976, making it even older than the Corning Classic in New York, which was founded in 1979 and succumbed to the recession in 2009. The loss of State Farm as a sponsor throws a new challenge at Mike Whan, who is in his second year as LPGA commissioner. Every effort will be made to keep the tournament in central Illinois.

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Golf Digest a 16-time winner in GWAA contest

Friday, February 25, 2011 Comments
Golf Digest Writer-at-Large Dan Jenkins' ninth-career win highlighted a list of 16 awards for Golf Digest, Golf World, and GolfDigest.com in the Golf Writers Association of America's annual writing contest.

Jenkins' first-place award came for his GolfDigest.com column on the Tiger Woods scandal, "Nice (Not) Knowing You". It was the first time the legendary Jenkins was honored in the Internet category.

Other first-place winners included Senior Writer Jaime Diaz, whose feature story on his visit with Seve Ballesteros in his native Spain won the Non-Daily Feature category; Senior Writer Dave Kindred, who won for his Internet News Story on Phil Mickelson's win at the Masters; and Staff writer Max Adler, whose account of his cross-country trip won in the Internet Special Projects Category.

The complete list of honorees from the Golf Digest Publications is below. Read more
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Crane's cruel joke: 8 and 7 over McIlroy

Thursday, February 24, 2011 Comments

MARANA, Ariz. --Noted American humorist, Ben Crane, producer and director of his own comic videos, played a cruel joke on Rory McIlroy, making six birdies on the front nine and, with a couple of conceded holes tossed in, trounced the young Irishman 8 and 7 in the most lopsided match so far in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

When asked if his comedic talents in match play have escaped wider public scrutiny, Crane replied, "I think I'm just under the radar, period. I've never really advanced past the Sweet 16. So, I don't think anyone is going, wow, Ben Crane is really coming through his bracket--look out. Gosh, sorry you've got to play Ben Crane. Boy, tough draw there. So, anyway, I think that answers your question."

Last year Crane advanced, at least in part, when Henrik Stenson had to withdraw on the first hole of the first day with the flu. "This year Adam Scott had hurt his knee and didn't know if he was going to play," Crane said. "I'm glad I played golf yesterday. I love match play. I think we all do. It seems like each shot is a little more important in some ways."

-- Jim Moriarty

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The vagaries of match play haunt round one

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Comments

MARANA, Ariz. -- In the grand sweep of sporting tournaments was there ever a circumstance when being the No. 1 seed was less advantageous than at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship? The surprise, if there is one, is that three of the No. 1's managed to survive their opening day match. Only Tiger Woods lost and, if anything, you could make the argument that Woods didn't deserve the designation that Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood or Phil Mickelson shared with him at the Ritz-Carlton GC.

Altogether, 18 of the higher seeded players advanced in their matches. It's not exactly like flipping a coin but it's not far off which renders the whole "bracketology" concept almost as absurd as a scene from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

It doesn't mean there isn't some good fun, however. Jeff Overton and Ernie Els probably had the grandest time. They were all over the mountain. Overton won the first three holes, then Els won six of the next seven (losing the only one he failed to win) and it wasn't until Overton visited the desert one last time on the first extra hole that the wild ride came to a halt.

Of course, no one found the cactus with as much flair as Woods who hit his 3-wood right on the first extra hole to cost himself the match. He painfully extracted himself from the first cactus, only to advance it into another piece of desert flora, finally got it back in the fairway and wound up conceding on the green.

"I was trying to hit a ball in play," he said of the wayward tee shot. "The fairway is, what, 200 yards wide? And I can't put the ball in the fairway. That's very disappointing."

Disappointing, as well, for someone in the gallery at the first green who, as Woods removed his hat to shake Thomas Bjorn's hand yelled, "Anyone want tickets for Thursday?"

-- Jim Moriarty

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Woods regales media with...well, not much

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Comments

MARANA, Ariz. -- One year ago this week, Tiger Woods sent the world of golf, or at least a bunch of its chroniclers, into a mad scramble to get to Ponte Vedra, Fla., in time to catch a staged event that was more of a media culpa than a mea one.

Viewed at the time as, in part, a stick in the eye to the title sponsor, Accenture, that had been quick to sever its relationship with Woods, the spot immediately outside the locker room door at the Ritz-Carlton GC became a gauntlet for the elite field of players put in the uncomfortable position of having to answer questions about a man who wouldn't answer questions for himself.

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Have you filled out your WGC bracket yet?

Monday, February 21, 2011 Comments

The NCAA's March Madness may be weeks away, but in the meantime, you can get your bracket fix courtesy of the PGA Tour.

Tournament brackets for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship have been released by pgatour.com and just looking at the matchups and potential matches is exciting. How about the Day 1 pairings of Steve Stricker vs. 17-year-old Italian phenom Matteo Manassero and Padraig Harrington vs. Geoff Ogilvy? What about a potential second-round match of Phil Mickelson vs. Rickie Fowler or Dustin Johnson vs. Bubba Watson?

The 13th edition of the unpredictable event starts Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Ariz. And as the only match-play event of the PGA Tour season, this tournament draws plenty of attention (at least until it produces a championship match of Kevin Sutherland and Mike McCarron like it did in 2002). It also features one of the strongest fields of the year with only the top 64 players in the world ranking as of Feb. 14 qualifying. And barring no withdrawals, it will mark the first time since the 2009 Doral event that all of the top 50 players will tee it up in the same event.

This year features other intriguing storylines as well. Can Tiger Woods, the only three-time winner of this event, regain that intimidating presence and make another deep run? Will defending champion Ian Poulter get back on track after a rough start to 2011? Or will he be too involved in a Twitter battle with first-round opponent Stewart Cink?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on how this week will play out. Before you start ripping up those brackets, of course.

-- Alex Myers
Follow on Twitter: @AlexMyers3

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