'Tour Confidential': Aussie golfer's e-book a hit

John Strege — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:19:00 GMT

By John Strege Ewan Porter is an Australian golf professional, whose career pereptually foundered, notwithstanding two Web.com victories in three years. So he turned to media and already has found success easier to come by...

Kuchar puts a happy face on a 'slow'-news weekend

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:10:00 GMT

It was an odd Sunday at the Players Championship, one in which the final-round focus was bookended by men responsible for the most groans and grins.

The winner by a smile was Matt Kuchar, whose two-stroke victory at the TPC Sawgrass buttressed the notion that he is a major champion in training.

Kuchar, 33, has become an assembly line mass producing top 10s -- 20 in the previous two seasons (which would explain his grinning year to year) and five already this year. More importantly for the months ahead, four have come in the most important tournaments with the strongest fields to date: the Players (first), the Masters (a tie for third), the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (T-5) and the WGC-Cadillac Championship (T-8).

A month from now, Kuchar will be returning to U.S. Open at the Olympic Club outside San Francisco, where as an amateur in 1998 he tied for 14th and was tied for fourth through 36 holes. It doesn't make him a favorite, but he isn't a long shot, either.

Kuchar's happy nature, even on a TPC course capable of inflicting so much misery, gave the Players a happy ending that wasn't inevitable in the wake of the negative reaction to the man everyone was lamenting.

Kevin Na dominated the weekend conversation at the showcase event of a tour that steadfastly declines to address the issue of slow play, as do many of the players responsible. Na, for instance, was graciously apologetic on Saturday for the pre-shot twitches that Johnny Miller described as "the heebie jeebies," and insisted he's working on correcting it. Is he? Six months ago, Na posted this on Twitter: "Trying my best to speed up. Working on a new pre shot routine. I am not playing so on purpose. Hope the viewers understand." It's a slow process, apparently.

Na, the 54-hole leader, attempted to quell the criticism by picking up the pace on Sunday, which might have contributed to a final-round 76 that left him in a tie for seventh.

Slideshow: The (Golf) Year In Twitter

John Strege — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT

John Strege highlights the best and worst on Twitter in 2010.

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'Tour Confidential': Aussie golfer's e-book a hit

Kuchar puts a happy face on a 'slow'-news weekend

Slideshow: The (Golf) Year In Twitter