The Week in Golf

Kenny Perry won the PGA Travelers Championship by shooting a record total of 258, including a final round 63 to win his 14th career tour event. With the victory he takes home just over 1 million dollars and takes the lead in the Fed Ex Cup Race. He has now won five times in the past year, the most of anyone on tour.


Jiyai Shin won the LPGA Wegmans Championship by 7 strokes, giving her 5 career wins. She dedicated the win to her mother, who died in a car crash in 2004.


Lonnie Nielson won the Dick's Sporting Goods Senior Tour event by shooting a final round 63. He started his day by going birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, and birdie. Ridiculous!


Nick Dougherty won on the European Tour at the BMW International Open in Germany. He shot a final round 64 to win by one shot over Rafa Echenique, who scored an albatross on the par five 18th hole. For those who don't know, an albatross is one of the rarest scores in golf, and it occurs when a player holes their second shot on a par 5.

GOLF RECORD BOOK RELEASED

Throughout my own golf career, I always tracked my records in various notebooks. I decided to design a product that would allow golfers the opportunity to organize all the memorable records they have set during their golfing careers.

I came up with the "Golf Record Book" which is a classy hardcover book broken down into various sections for record keeping. The book features black and white golf photos to begin each section. For full details on this book click on the 20th hole.

For periodic excerpts and reviews of both the Golf Record Book and Stat Book and Log for Golfers, click here.

Berman Worst Golf Announcer Ever

So far the U.S. Open has been very exciting with a lot of great stories forming and a great looking leaderboard. I hate to overshadow the tournament with something negative, but after listening to Chris Berman, I just can't help myself.

In my opinion, he is far and away, the most annoying golf announcer of all time. Here are the 5 most ridiculous quotes from Chris Berman so far.

I have one word of advice for Chris Berman.

Retire

GOLF IN VEGAS

Last summer I played golf in Las Vegas at two very nice courses. I played a British Open style course called Royal Links as well as a course called Desert Pines. Both courses were unique, fun, and fairly challenging. They are run by Walters Golf Company which also runs the Bali Hali course in Vegas.

I will start with Royal Links. It was very cool to play a links style course that has renditions of many famous golf holes, such as “The Road Hole” and “Hell Bunker” from the old course at St. Andrews and “The Postage Stamp” from Royal Troon. Other courses included are Carnoustie, Turnberry, Royal Liverpool, Prestwick, Royal Lytham, Muirfield and Royal Birkdale. For a complete hole by hole tour, click here.

It was definitely challenging at first getting used to playing a different style golf course than usual. Wayward tees shots can end up in grass 2 feet high making it extremely difficult finding the ball, much less hitting a good shot out of it. Some of the tee shots are completely blind and dealing with pot bunkers are no fun. A shot into a fairway pot bunker will force you to hit the ball out sideways.

They now even have a new service involving these girls. They did not have this feature when I played and I’m guessing this would be a little distracting when trying to focus on golf. This certainly does not follow the traditions of St. Andrews and other old school courses but I guess it's par for the course in Vegas.

Desert Pines was designed by Pete Dye and this course provides a North Carolina golf experience featuring thousands of pine trees lining the fairways and white sand bunkers throughout. Water comes into play on 9 out of the 18 holes and the large undulating greens provide a good challenge.

Although playing these courses was great, I will give you the most important piece of advice about playing golf in Vegas in the middle of the day in summer. Don’t do it! We decided to play in the mid afternoon to take advantage of the lowest prices, however, it was not the smartest decision for overall health.

It was ridiculously hot, especially on the desert course, especially if you hit your ball right or left of the fairways, where a huge desert sand area will be waiting for you. I remember drinking about 4 gatorades, 8 waters, and dumping countless waters on my head to no avail. By the end I was about to pass out. So, although you may be up all night partying the previous night, you should try to play really early in the morning or late in the day when the weather is a little cooler. You will be glad you made this decision.

If you need a break from the casinos and parties the next time you're in Vegas, check out these golf courses. They both provide unique golfing experiences and are in excellent condition. Both courses are within a 20 minute drive from the strip and are fairly priced. I highly recommend playing both of these courses.

MJ GETS NERVOUS?

Along with Justin Timberlake, Ben Roethlisberger, and a contest winner, Michael Jordan played Bethpage Black last Friday, the site of this weeks U.S. Open. Surprisingly, Jordan got a case of the nerves which proves golf can affect anyone.

"Man, I was so tight it was amazing," Jordan said. "I could not get loose to save my life." MJ started off by triple bogeying the first hole and double bogeying the second. Brutal. He went on however, to shoot a 39 on the back side for an overall 86. Not a bad score for an amateur at Bethpage.

"Under these conditions, you never really know," Jordan said. "The doubt creeps in there a lot more than on the basketball court. On the basketball court, I never think about 'what if.' On the golf course you find yourself thinking. What if you hit into the rough over there, can you get it out?"

For the full story, click here.

TIGER SHUTS THEM UP

Man, Tiger really sucks now. He can't hit a fairway. He can't make any putts. He can't hit the ball as far as he used to. His knee is not healthy. He needs to fire his swing coach, Hank Haney. He can't come from behind to win. He doesn't have his "A" game when he needs it. He will never break Jack's record now.

This nonsense is all that has been written about Tiger Woods the past few months, despite him coming back after major surgery and winning one tournament and finishing with five top ten finishes. Talk about high expectations. Apparently he needed to win every tournament by ten strokes for the writers to shut up.

"I wish you'd all quit (ticking) him off," runner-up Jim Furyk said with a smile. "That's about all I have to say about that. Wish you'd just quit chapping him so much and make him come back and keep proving stuff. Tiger Woods is always Tiger Woods. He can't be 100 percent every week, but I'm sure he answered a lot of questions today."

Tiger put on a show this past week at The Memorial, and probably proved a lot to the media. "It was just a matter of time," the world's No. 1 player said. "It came together this week."

He shot a final round 65 on Sunday and hit 14 out of 14 fairways, bringing his total to 49 out of 56 fairways for the week.


This was his 20th come from behind victory, including second for this year. At Bay Hill he came from five behind and he started the final round at Memorial four behind. This also brings him to 4th place in the Fed Ex Cup standings and of course makes him the strong favorite to win the U.S. Open at Bethpage in two weeks.

As a side note, since the 2006 British Open, Woods has won 19 out of 35 tournaments for a 54.2% winning percentage.

I think for Tiger Woods, the perfect storm is brewing. He is almost fully back from the injury. His swing is coming into form again. He is coming closer and closer to breaking Jack's record.

The rest of this year could be really ugly for the other players.

Click here for the full transcript of Tiger's post tournament press conference.

CRAZY STATS AT MEMORIAL

Luke Donald has the lead after the first round of The Memorial after firing a first round 64 which included a streak of six consecutive birdies and just 20 putts.


Tiger Woods turned his weakness so far this season into his strength by hitting 13 out of 14 fairways. Obviously, he has been working very hard on accuracy off the tee with his coach, Hank Haney, and so far it has paid off. Tiger is five shots off the lead after shooting 69.




It is nice to see David Duval up on the leaderboard again after shooting a 1 under 71. Hopefully he can keep it up. It still amazes me that before Tiger, Duval was the #1 player in the world.



Jason Day keeps up the momentum from his fourth place finish last week to shoot five under and get his name into the spotlight. Only 21, he is one of the next expected young guns and has been showing a great game as of late.


The full leaderboard can be seen here.

TIGER VS. THE GOLDEN BEAR

Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus will play together in competition for only the second time on Wednesday at the Memorial skins game.