September 2011: Local Knowledge: Golf Digest

Sergio's tree at Medinah gone, but not forgotten

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Comments

MEDINAH, Ill. -- Members of Medinah CC spent an estimated $3 million renovating its No. 3 Course in preparation for the 2012 Ryder Cup. But perhaps the most noteworthy change at the revered layout where Tiger Woods won the last two PGA Championships contested there was out of their hands.

Disease forced the club to remove about 400 oak trees in the last few years. Among them was a giant oak standing right of the 16th fairway under which Sergio Garcia pulled off one of the more remarkable shots in recent major championships.

"Yeah, it lived its full life, but it was dead, unfortunately. It was a safety hazard, so we had to take it down," said Curtis Tyrrell, Medinah's director of golf course operations, said Monday during festivities marking the one-year countdown to the 39th Ryder Cup.

Pursuing Woods in the 1999 PGA, Garcia sliced his tee shot on the par-4 16th into the right rough. His ball came to rest inches from the base of the oak, partially blocking his view of the green. Rather than taking relief and the accompanying penalty stroke, the 19-year old took a huge swing, spinning out of the shot and closing his eyes as he made contact. The ball found the left side of the putting surface. No sooner had he hit it, Garcia raced up the fairway and leaped to see where it ended up.

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Woods "really excited to get back out there and compete"

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Comments

JUPITER, Fla. -- From the enthusiasm in his voice and the encouraging report he gave, Tiger Woods sounded like he will be ready not only for the Presidents Cup, but next week's Frys.com Open.

"Things are going great," Woods said on a teleconference to announce the picks. "We're practicing very hard up at Medalist (GC), and I'm playing as much as I possibly can, something that I hadn't done all summer, because I hadn't been cleared to do it. Now I have the clearance to do that. My training sessions are great. Strength has come back. My explosiveness has come back through my training, and now I'm just trying to get my feel back, and it feels great."

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Woods reported that his sessions have included work with swing instructor Sean Foley and that with the Frys.com and Australian Open prior to the Presidents Cup, the rust should be off his game. He has only played six rounds in competition since pulling out of the Players Championship in May with recurring knee and Achilles issues, finishing T-37 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and missing the cut at the PGA Championship.

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Keegan Bradley is "very disappointed"

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Comments

If the pre-pick of Tiger Woods by Fred Couples cost anybody a spot on the United States Presidents Cup team, it was Keegan Bradley, the rookie PGA champion and two-time winner.

Couples spent 30 minutes on the phone Tuesday with Bradley before announcing in a teleconference at 5 p.m. that his second pick was Bill Haas, winner of both the Tour Championship and FedExCup, and a three-time winner over the two-year cycle for earning points. After an opening round 64 at East Lake, Bradley finished five shots out of the Haas-Hunter Mahan playoff in a tie for 11th.

"Freddie was very nice on the phone and explained to me why he made the picks," Bradley said in a text message. "I totally understand Tiger and Bill are great players. And what Bill did at the Tour Championship was remarkable and he deserved the pick. That's not saying I'm not very disappointed. I hope to be on many more teams in the future."

The consolation for Bradley is that Couples made him first man off the bench in case Steve Stricker isn't able to play at Royal Melbourne in seven weeks because of a herniated disk and bone spur in his neck. Stricker, the highest ranked American at No. 4, took a cortisone shot but played with pain and stiffness during the Tour Championship and finished 15th in a 30-man field.

Stricker had a second MRI on Tuesday but his agent, Jon Heaton, told Golf World Wednesday morning, "There is nothing to report at this time."

(Photo by Michael Cohen/Getty Images)

--Tim Rosaforte

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Golf Channel to give viewers Presidents Cup coverage in bulk

Monday, September 26, 2011 Comments

If you like your TV golf coverage in quantity -- and we mean really like it in quantity -- you'll be excited with what NBC and Golf Channel have planned for the Presidents Cup. The two networks -- now part of the same company because of Comcast's merger with NBC -- will show more than 50 hours of coverage of the team competition between the United States and the Internationals, to be played Nov. 17-20 at Royal Melbourne GC in Australia.

Because of the 16-hour time difference between the U.S. and Australia, the two networks will essentially show each session of the matches twice: live overnight on Golf Channel, and then tape-delayed the next day on either Golf Channel or NBC. For example, the Presidents Cup's first session, a Thursday foursomes (which actually starts Wednesday evening in the U.S. because of the time difference), will be shown live on Golf Channel starting at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 16, until its conclusion, around 2 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. Golf Channel will then re-air the session on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EST.
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Video: How Bill Haas saved par from a lake

Sunday, September 25, 2011 Comments

When the late Seve Ballesteros instructed Golf Digest readers on how to hit a ball partially submerged in water, his first piece of advice was to "put on your rainsuit."

Bill Haas didn't bother with that part, but after his remarkable par save on the second playoff hole Sunday in the Tour Championship, it's fair to say he can afford a few wet clothes. The shot out of the lake on the 17th hole, which allowed Haas to stay alive in his playoff with Hunter Mahan, ended up being worth $11.44 million -- $10 million for the FedEx Cup title, and $1.44 million for his win in the Tour Championship, both of which he clinched on the ensuing hole.

As for the rest of Ballesteros' advice -- opening your clubface, swinging back steeply and entering the water behind the ball -- Haas followed it perfectly. See for yourself in the video below.

-- Sam Weinman

Is Haas' clutch shot from the water the shot of the 2011 season? How does it compare to Bubba Watson's driver off the deck in Hawaii, or Steve Stricker's bunker shot at the 18th? Join the discussion on our partner site, GolfWRX.com.

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Your chance to get published in Golf World

Friday, September 23, 2011 Comments

Are you a fan of Golf World's weekly magazine feature, "Front 9"? If so, you'll now have a chance to help write it.

Inspired by The New Yorker's cartoon-caption writing contest, Golf World is now featuring the "Front 9 Punchline Contest" every week. Here's how it works. Every Sunday afternoon, Golf World's editors will post a Front 9 setup line on the magazine's Facebook wall. Readers will have approximately 24 hours to enter their best punchlines to that set up. (An example from a recent Front 9: Rory McIlroy finishes T-3 in Switzerland and pronounces injured right wrist fully healed. He took all the precautions. For instance, he used only his left hand when applauding for Caroline Wozniacki.)

Golf World editors will then select the winning entry, which will appear (along with the writer's name and hometown) in that week's issue of Golf World. In addition to having their entry published in the magazine, winners will receive an official Golf World logo hat.

Golf World debuted the contest last week. The first winner was Jaime Watson of Birmingham, Mich., whose winning entry appeared in the Sept. 26 issue of the magazine:

Heavily favored U.S. Walker Cup team falls to GB&I, 14-12.
A penny for John Peterson's thoughts that weekend.

-- Geoff Russell, Golf World Editor-In-Chief

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Greg Norman says Tiger is done winning majors

Thursday, September 22, 2011 Comments

Fred Couples knows he's the man to blame if his decision to pick Tiger Woods for the U.S. Presidents Cup team backfires. However, his counterpart may have just done him and his star player a favor.

International team captain Greg Norman is the latest to weigh in on Woods' pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships and his comments could serve as ammunition for the 14-time major winner when the biennial competition begins in November. In an interview for an upcoming issue of Golf Magazine, not only does Norman not think Woods will get to the magic number, he thinks he's done collecting major trophies altogether since he can't focus on just golf anymore.

Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

"Now there are so many distractions, and people are looking for things that are wrong with Tiger now, so he's got to deal with that on a day-to-day basis, like every other mortal has to do, right?" Norman said in the interview. "In our lives, in our business, we all have to be responsible for our actions. It's very hard for him to have that focus. And the more he shuts people off, the worse it gets."

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Ernie Els parts ways with Chubby Chandler

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Comments

ATLANTA -- One of the most important cogs in Andrew (Chubby) Chandler building his sports-management empire was the signing of Ernie Els to International Sports Management in 2004. Five days ago, with hardly any news pickup, Chandler and Els released statements saying their business relationship had ended.

"It was just something that happens," Chandler said. "There's no hard feelings and I suspect we will have a few beers at the Dunhill (Cup). A change may do him and his game good."

On his website, Els positioned the move as a way to "consolidate" his management team and make it more convenient to his United States home in Jupiter, Fla.

(Els was with Chandler for seven years. Photo by Getty Images)

There is speculation that the Hall of Famer and three-time major champion could eventually end up working with Vinny Giles and Buddy Marucci when the former U.S. Walker Cup captains get their golf-management business fully operational in Jupiter.

Chandler's players won the first three legs of this year's grand slam and four of five majors going back to last year's British Open. His plan a year ago was to open an office in Florida at Old Palm GC in Palm Beach Gardens, but that fell through.

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Tiger will play with three Japanese golfers for charity

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Comments

Tiger Woods has added another event to his schedule.

This one, though, won't be competitive and is just for a good cause.

Woods announced Monday that he play nine holes in Japan on Nov. 1 against three members of the JLPGA, Miho Koga, Shinobu Moromizato and Rui Kitada. This charitable event will take place at the Masters Golf Club in Miki City, where he also took part in a charitable event, "The Dream Challenge Charity Match," in 2006 to benefit junior golf.

This year's event, called "Challenge! Tiger Woods," will raise funds for those affected by the earthquakes in Japan and the tsunami in March.

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GW Monday: Couples faces tough decision

Monday, September 19, 2011 Comments

From the September 19 edition of Golf World Monday:

Call this edition of the U.S. Presidents Cup team golf's version of the Big Ten, with Tiger Woods thrown in as Penn State. The 10 automatic berths based on points were determined Sunday with the results of the BMW Championship, and veteran Jim Furyk retained the 10th spot -- or maybe it was the 11th since captain Fred Couples weeks ago committed one of his two wild-card selections to Woods.

This is a veteran team, with only Webb Simpson and Nick Watney void of experience in either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Phil Mickelson keeps his streak alive of appearing in every edition dating to 1994. David Toms returns for the first time since 2007.

Now it's up to Couples to select one more guy, and that's no easy choice with Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas (left) the next two on the points list. Snedeker has a win at Heritage. Haas has six top-10s, including a pair of playoff losses -- oh, and his father, Jay, is the assistant captain.

If Couples needs more input, Furyk offers some. "I'd really like to see Billy Haas make the team. It would really be a neat story, and they're a wonderful family, so I really do wish him the best." Maybe it comes down to a one-week audition; both Snedeker and Bill Haas are in this week's Tour Championship.

Click here for a complete list of American team members and the final points standings.

-- Dave Shedloski

(Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Who would you pick as the final choice for the U.S. Presidents Cup squad? Sound off on our partner site, GolfWRX.com, and vote in the poll on our Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/iWxu90.

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