Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
Karrie Webb won her seventh ANZ Ladies Masters with a final round 61 to win by six shots over defending champion Katherine Hull and South Korea’s Lee Bo-mee.
It's really too bad that this week and next isn't on the LPGA Tour schedule. On Sunday, Karrie Webb shot what could be one of the greatest final rounds in any professional championship, an 11 under par 61 that shatters all records and gave her a 26 under par total, good for a six shot win over playing partners, defending champion Katherine Hull and Bo-Mee Lee.
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Webb got her round going on the right foot with birdies on three of the first four holes, but when she holed a 9-iron from 125 yards for an eagle on the seventh hole, the signs that it was going to be a great day was there. Webb ended the front nine with a birdie on nine to shot 31 then birdied five holes on the back including the 18th with a 30 footer to shot 30 for her 61. With the round Webb broke the course record of 62 set last year by Kristie Smith.
For the week Webb make one eagle, 28 birdies and only 4 bogeys but in looking at this you have to wonder how Bo-Mee Lee must feel like tieing for second when she made one eagle, 18 birdies and no bogeys! For both Lee and Hull the final round had to be disappointing as on many times will you see a player go into a final round 1 back, shot 66 and lose by six! That is the big achievement of what Webb did.
Webb has Tiger-like stats in the ANZ Ladies Masters when you consider that she has won seven of the 19 starts she has had in this event, a 36.8% winning percent. A couple of other things, at 35 you would think that she is at prime of her career. After a great run between 1999 and 2002 when she won 18 times and in 2006 when she won 5 times, she lost her tough in 2007 and 2008. She showed signs of getting it back in 2009 winning again in Phoenix and finishing runner-up at the Ricoh Women's British Open. Unfortunely Webb has never possessed the kind of confidence that Annika Sorenstam showed as Webb has always been too much of a perfectionist.
Even on Sunday after her great victory, Webb admitted to being mentally exhausted at times and struggling as it never showed in her performance. Still you have to think that Webb could be a major factor not only next week in the Women's Australian Open being played at Commonwealth in Melbourne.
Still about the only loser in all of this is the LPGA, who has to find a way to including these two weeks of golf into their schedules. They are co- sanctioned by the Australian Ladies Professional Golf and Ladies European Tour. A decade back between 1997 and 2000 the ANZ Ladies Masters was a part of the LPGA, but lack of sponsorship dropped that deal, but in a time of limited opportunities it would be great is these two Australian events could also be a part of the LPGA Tour.
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18-year-old Seung-yu produced the unlikeliest of birdies at the final hole to shot a final round 68 for a 14-under-par 274 and a one shot victory.
Korean teen sensation Noh Seung-yul shot a final round 68 including a birdie on the final hole for a dramatic one-stroke victory over countryman K.J. Choi thus depriving Choi win winning the Malaysian double victory.
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Just by chance Choi and Seung-yul had played a practice round together and when Seung-yul told him that he hadn't won, Choi answered back, "isn't it about time you won?"
After his victory, Seung-Yul told the media:
"My plan right now is to gain more experience playing on the bigger stage. My biggest goal is to try and qualify for the US PGA Tour through Q-School. But with my victory, it changes some of my plans. If I split my time between Japan, Europe and Asia, I think it will be a good experience. My plan is to try and play as many major global tournaments as possible. I think playing worldwide will set a foundation for me in securing playing spots in the US PGA Tour. K.J. has been a role model for me. Obviously K.J grew up on an island in Korea and I also lived near the ocean for seven years. I have been looking up to K.J. as a junior. I sort of imagined what it would be to play against global stars like K.J. or Tiger Woods."
With the win it elevates the career of Seung-yul who automatically gets to play on the European Tour for the rest of the year. He has advanced quite a bit on the Asian Tour and his native of Korea so it's the next logical step in the develop of him, to see if he has the potential to be as good as some say he can be.
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Choi is just a shot back of unheralded Rhys Davies and Kiradech Aphibarnrat going into the final round
After climbing to 6th in the world rankings after finishing T5th at the 2008 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, it's been a slow decline for K.J. Choi as he only finished in the top-ten, three times around the world between February of 2008 and October of 2009.
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Going into this week ranked 96th he knows that he had no chance to qualify for the WGC-CA Championship but his goal is to try and get into the top-50 so that he can play in the Masters, an event that he has participated in the last seven years and finished 3rd in 2004. A win on Sunday will only get him to 65th in the rankings, so he will need some more help in the coming weeks, but a win will give him a rare double of winning both professional events on Malaysian soil.
Going into the final round Choi is a shot behind the leaders Rhys Davies and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, both unheralded players who rank 135th and 231st respectively in the world rankings. Davis a recent graduate of the Challenge Tour shot 71 while 20 year-old Aphibarnrat birdied three of his final four holes for a 68 and a 11 under par total.
They are a shot ahead of Choi who shot 69 after missing an eight footer on his final hole and two time Malaysian Open champion of this event Thongchai Jaidee, Soren Hansen and Seung-Yul Noh
The weather is still very warm and humid, storms didn't appear on Saturday which helped the event get caught up after delays on Thursday and Friday.
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There was a lot of excitement during the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a Rickie Fowler win could of brought some buzz but with Hunter Mahan claiming victory we can say that this was probably the worst start of the PGA Tour season in decades.
Crowds were down a bit for this year's event Photo credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images Rankings of West Coast Winners | |
| Winner | rank/event won |
|---|---|
| Hunter Mahan | ranked 33 before Phoenix win |
| Ian Poulter | ranked 11 before Accenture win |
| Cameron Beckman | ranked 258 before Mayakoba win |
| Dustin Johnson | ranked 55 before AT&T Pebble win |
| Steve Stricker | ranked 3rd before Northern Trust win |
| Ben Crane | ranked 105 before Farmers Insurance win |
| Bill Haas | ranked 200 before Bob Hope win |
| Ryan Palmer | ranked 282 before Sony Hawaii win |
| Geoff Ogilvy | ranked 14th before SBS win |
Participation was low of the top-ten players from the world rankings. Look at the chart below on the left, the top-ten players participated in 22 PGA Tour events, while the top-ten also participated in 22 European Tour events. When you think of just 15 years in which the European Tour really only had one good event early in the season, you can see how the competition has now taken it's toll on the west coast swing.
Participation of the Top-ten in the world rankings for 2010 Photo credit: Hunter Martin | ||
| rank/player | PGA Tour starts | Euro starts |
|---|---|---|
| #1. Tiger Woods | 0 | 0 |
| #2. Phil Mickelson | 4 | 1 |
| #3. Steve Stricker | 4 | 1 |
| #4. Lee Westwood | 1 | 4 |
| #5. Ian Poulter | 2 | 3 |
| #6. Paul Casey | 2 | 4 |
| #7. Jim Furyk | 3 | 1 |
| #8. Martin Kaymer | 2 | 4 |
| #9. Rory McIlroy | 1 | 3 |
| #10. Padraig Harrington | 3 | 1 |
Even the Waste Management Phoenix Open was marred with some bad news. This event has always been a proud example of growth of the PGA Tour as it always seemed to be growing and bringing more fans to the game. On Sunday 43,983 came through the turnstiles, a drop of around 17,000 fans from Sunday of last year. To be fair the weather wasn't the best, on Saturday night a serious storm brought a lot of rain to the Phoenix area which probably caused some to stay home but officials of the event should heed a warning from this. First because it's a drastic drop of close to 25% but across the board attendance was down, 425,905 this week compared to 470,294 last year. Could this drop mean that folks could be realistically accessing what it's like to watch a golf tournament with a lot of other people and realize that they can watch it just as well from a TV set instead of the TPC Scottsdale? What about the family aspect of all this, frankly the tournament represents a big party in which a lot of alcohol is consumed and fans do get over the top. For partying people the 16th hole has turned into quite a spectacle but for hard core golf fans it's a place to avoid.
As a person that lives in the Washington D.C. area, I have seen the degradation of not only the way the Washington Redskins play football but the fans that attend the games. In the last ten years the party atmosphere has gotten out of hand to the point that some feel it's unsafe for families to attend Redskins games at Fedex Field. The same with the Phoenix Open, every media source is pointing to the party atmosphere and you have to wonder if regular fans are avoiding this? Another question that I have to question is officials looking to get away from it's past Super Bowl week date. It has always thrived in that date as a lot of folks stick around on Sunday to watch the game in the big tents and hospitality rooms around the course. Could not having the Super Bowl be causing people to loss interest in this doubleheader of golf and football? If that is the case officials should think twice on asking the PGA Tour to move it to a latter date in future years, yes they could possibly get more top-ranked players to stick around but if it ruins the Super Bowl atmosphere it's a wrong move, plus it gives another event the problems of having to deal with the Super Bowl.
Now looking at the event, Hunter Mahan won but the Monday buzz meter could of been a lot bigger if Rickie Fowler could of won. The 21-year-old has been knocking on the door of victory before, just last October up the road at Grayhawk, Fowler finished runner-up in the Frys.com Open and he did it again this week. Fowler could be the PGA Tour's answer to Tiger Woods as the youngster has shown he has the stuff to win and win a lot on tour. We have put a lot of "can't miss" labels on a lot of youngsters, but Fowler could be the real McCoy and if he could of won would of saved the west coast swing.
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For Mahan the key for the week could of been calming down on his back nine on Friday. After making a bogey on his 10th hole, he was 2 under par and in danger of missing the cut. He played his last eight holes in four under and made the cut by two. As he said:
"All of a sudden I just relaxed and started playing golf, started trusting myself and what I was doing, made a few birdies and got to 4-under and then obviously had a good round yesterday."
Mahan lives and dies with his putting and has been working on it with putting guru Dave Stockton and his son. He also went back to his old putter that he used between 2007 and 2009. It worked (we will get to this in a paragraph or two), now stats are a bit misleading as he finished T71st in putting taking 122 for the week. One of the reasons for this high number is that Mahan led the greens hit category this week missing only 12 of the 72 greens. It's the first time in the history of this event that the winner led the greens hit category, since 1997 he is only the fifth champion to finish in the top-ten in that category. Now in past Phoenix Opens the key has been putting as 11 of the 13 been in the top-ten of this category. So Mahan's T71st ranking may of blown this stat but if you dig a bit deeper you can see that putting was the big key for his win because Mahan made 65 of 67 putts from 10 feet and inside. Down the stretch on Sunday he proved this as he made a 14 footer at 16 for birdie, four and a half feet at 17 for par and a six and a half footer for par at 18.
With his victory, his second of his career, Mahan dispelled a myth that he wasn't a good west coast player. Before this week he had played in 34 west coast events since 2004 and only had two top-ten finishes, a T5th in the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship and a T9th in the 2005 FBR Open. Now at 27 years, 9 months, 11 days, Mahan joins seven other United States natives under the age of 30 with multiple PGA Tour victories (Dustin Johnson, J.B. Holmes, D.J. Trahan, Sean O’Hair, Anthony Kim, Nick Watney, Charles Howell III). Since playing the PGA Tour in 2004, this was Mahan's third top-ten finish in 35 west coast events. Other than his win his other top-ten finishes was T5th in 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship and T9th in 2005 FBR Open.
Lastly Mahan has gotten his 2010 season going, before this week he had posted just two rounds in the 60s from three starts in stroke-play events (67/Round 2/Farmers Insurance Open, 66/Round 3/AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). More importantly Mahan is on the road to get back to the Ryder Cup, in 2008 he was a captains pick and would love to do it on points. With his win he jumped to 5th in the Ryder Cup point standings so he has a foundation to work on with the matches seven months away.
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Other news from the week
Rickie FowlerAt the tender age of 21 years, two months and 15 days, Rickie Fowler was attempting to become the youngest winner on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods won in 1996. Fowler has played in nine events as a professional and with his two runner-up finishes already has earned $1.446,521. Tiger Woods won his second title in his ninth professional start at the 1997 Mercedes-Benz Championship but only had earnings in his first nine starts of $1,006,594. With money being a lot greater now than it was in 1997, here is a look at the most money that any player has made after playing in just nine professional events on the PGA Tour:
$1.446,521 by Rickie Fowler
$1,155,244 by J.B. Homes
$1,070,339 by Andres Romero
$1,006,594 by Tiger Woods
$981,657 by Henrik Stenston
$921,010 by Sergio Garcia
Phil Mickelson
Going into this year with Tiger Woods on the sidelines, many predicted that this would be the year for Phil Mickelson. Unfortunately this west coast swing was a big bust, as for the first time since 2006 and only the fourth time since turning pro in 1993 (18 years) he didn't win a single event. This year he finished 19th at Torrey followed by a T45th finish at Northern Trust, a T8th at Pebble and thanks to a final round 67 a T24th finish in Phoenix. For his troubles he just about made gas money for the jet as he earned only $323,205, his lowest west coast earnings since the $196,000 he made in 1999. After his round he told reporters that he doesn't know when his next event would be prior to the Masters and that he was taking his wife Amy to Houston for treatments with breast cancer. So with Mickelson now on "indefinite" leave, it could be a very barren Florida swing.
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Talk about a major fall down the leaderboard, Brandt Snedeker seemed to have everything together going into the final round with a 1 shot lead. For the year in 20 rounds he only had been over par once and in four starts hadn't been higher than T21st. But the day unravelled with bogeys at 2, 5 and 7, followed by a birdie at 8. He finished the front 2 over par. After making pars on his first six holes on the back, Snedeker spent some serious cash with a bogey-double-double finish dropping him from first into a T43rd. Even worst, going into the round he had thoughts of the first place check of $1,080,000 or at worst a six figure payday for anyone in the top 13. But with his fall to T43rd, his check dropped considerably as he made only $18,270. Now how bad was his fall you ask? Since 1970, there have been 2,352 times that players have led or co-led going into the final round in all those cases only one leader have finished worst than Snedeker and that was Dick Rhyan whose final round 77 dropped him into a T45th at the 1973 Shrine-Robinson Golf Classic. For those with inquisitive minds, Snedeker's drop is a rarity, of the 2,352 times players led/co-led, Snedeker is only the 16th player to not have a top-25 finish.
Mathew Goggin
Have to wonder if some magic was on Mathew Goggin's clubs, at the start of the year Goggin joined Callaway but has not taken a liking to the clubs that they have given him. In four previous starts Goggin missed the cut three times and finishing T42nd. After his last start at Pebble Beach, Goggin asked Callaway for a different set of clubs and they sent him a spare set of irons that was set to Ernie Els and he didn't use. Goggin found a liking to the clubs as his 4th place finish was his best since finishing T5th at last year's British Open. Guess he took a liking to Els clubs.
The week began with former Florida Gators Camilo Villegas and Matt Every in first and second, respectively, but ended with two former Oklahoma State Cowboys on top -- Mahan and Fowler.
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After starting slowly on the LPGA Tour, Ai Miyazato has shown a new found confidence in which we look at how she found that and how she won for the second week in a row.
AI Miyazato overcame opening her round of a bogey-bogey start to go on and shot 69 for a ten under par total to win by two shots over Cristie Kerr, who shot 68. With the victory, she become the first player in 44 years to win the first two LPGA Tour events of a season. Marilynn Smith was the last player to win the first two events, accomplishing the feat in 1966. Babe Zaharias (1951), Louise Suggs (1952) and Mickey Wright (1963) also swept season-opening events.
Ai Miyazato after winning the HSBC Women's Champions  Photo credit: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images |
| Back-to-back winners of the first two events on the LPGA Tour: |
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Ai Miyazato - 2010 |
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Honda PTT LPGA Thailand |
| HSBC Women's Champions |
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Marilyn Smith - 1966 |
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St. Petersburg Women's Open |
| Louise Suggs Delray Beach Invitational |
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Mickey Wright - 1963 |
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Sea Island Women's Invitational |
| St. Petersburg Women's Open |
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Louise Suggs - 1952 |
|
Jacksonville Open |
| Tampa Open |
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Babe Zaharias - 1951 |
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Ponte Vedra Beach Women's Open |
| Tampa Women's Open |
Miyazato took a while before she started showing her potential on the LPGA Tour, it was her third LPGA victory. She won the Evian Masters last July for her first LPGA title and has won 15 times in Japan.
Miyazato started playing on the LPGA Tour in 2006 and had a serious lack of confidence. After getting worst in the confidence department, Miyazato went to the VISION54 school, which is run by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott. There Miyazato was told to change her behavior off the course, was advised on how to better spend her days off getting away from the game and how to talk with the media, making sure to emphasize the good shots and not talking about the negative aspects of her round. All of that started to take roots as Miyazato gained more confidence and it paid dividends with her victory in France last summer. As Miyazato won, she placed a lot of the credit on what was learned at VISION54:
"Lynn and Pia have helped me learn how to more fully realize the joy and passion I have for the game of the golf. They have shown me that magic is possible and that the only limit to what I can achieve on the golf course is my beliefs. If you believe in greatness you can make greatness happen."
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On Sunday after Miyazato bogeyed her opening two holes, nine players were tied for the lead. During the day, most of them dropped back with the exception of Kerr who had a one shot lead after making birdie on 16. At that point she was six under for her round and looked destined to win. But while Miyazato got a share of the lead back with a birdie at 16, Kerr self destructed with poor drives at both 17 and 18 which led to bogeys. Playing two groups back in the final pairing, Miyazato made easy pars on 17 and 18 for the victory.
Four players tied for third place at 7-under-pra 281, including defending champion Jiyai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, Yani Tseng and Song-Hee Kim. Some other scores of note, Michelle Wie shot 70 and finished T15th. Karrie Webb shot a final round 71 and finished T19th. Lorena Ochoa who shot 79 on Friday, her second worst round in her LPGA career 72 and finished at 4 over and T38th. After opening up with a 68 to co-lead, she played her final 54 holes in 8 over par. With her T18th finish last week in Thailand many will question how much longer she can stay number one player on the LPGA Tour.
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Brandt Snedeker's career has had peaks and valleys, right now he seems to have realized what he needs to do and could accomplish all of that with a win today in the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
121,000 showed up on Saturday, normally that isn't a number to sneeze at when you consider that about half of the events on the PGA Tour don't even get that many folks for a week, but the number on Saturday was a bit of a disappointment when you consider that 164,000 attended on Saturday a year ago and the record crowd was 170,000 in 2008. A combination of overcast skies, unseasonably cold temperatures, a threat of rain and wind kept attendance down.
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Unfortunately for the folks at 16, even though the hole was reduced to nothing more than a little wedge of 122 yards of those in the top 15 only three made birdies and none of them were the leaders.
Case in point was Camilo Villegas, who led after the first two rounds, by the time he got to 16 he had dropped out of the lead. After starting off with birdies at 1 and 3, Villegas bogey four of his next 12 holes and after a par at 16 was five off the pace. Fortunately for Villegas he birdied his final two holes to get it back to 11 under, as his even par 71 has kept him within sight of the lead. But you have to wonder if fatigue could be setting in, he played six great rounds last week in the match play to finish third and after his brilliant 62 on Thursday his game has shown a lot of inconsistency as he has made seven bogeys compared to one eagle and seven birdies.
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He started believing in all the hype that he was the next big thing in golf. In June of 2008 he was feeling like golf was easy, that he had full grasp of his game and that everything was easy. But just like turning a switch, golf became a struggle for him as he lost all confidence in what he was doing. After the Open he missed his next three cuts and didn't have a finish inside of his T24th finish at the PGA Championship in his remaining nine events. He finished the year with $1.5 million in earnings which ranked 59th, but the poor finish carried over to 2009. In his first 10 events, he missed the cut seven times and only broke 70 five times in 27 rounds. After missing the cut at the Verizon a rib injury sent him home for 8 weeks of thought and reflection. As he said:
"You hear people talking about how good you are and how much you could be the next big thing, you should be winning each week, and the minute you think that you should be winning the golf tournament each week, you're thinking completely out of bounds. You need to be thinking, yes, I'd like to think I have a chance to win this week, but I've got to do a lot of stuff between now and then to have a chance. Then all of a sudden if you're not winning, you start getting negative thoughts, start getting down on yourself, your confidence starts going; before you know it, it snowballs and all of a sudden you're struggling to make cuts and you're thinking what happened."
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The putt bothered him in the final months of the year but Snedeker knew what he needed to do for 2010, keep the confidence that he gained from the end of the year. He did that, finishing T10th at the Hope and then T2nd at the Farmers Insurance. His T20th at the Northern Trust and T21st at the AT&T Pebble Beach have continued the good vibes along with some good putting. Going into the week he was 1st in putting average on the PGA Tour and 3rd in putts per round. He has kept that going this week, he is 2nd in putts per greens hit and T3rd with a 25.7 average of putts.
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At ten under par is Mark Calcavecchia who at 49 never ceases to amaze us. He has had a great career and as a three time champion at the Phoenix Open should be watched. A win on Sunday would put him into some elite company, something that the Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan's and Arnold Palmers never achieved. In the history of the PGA Tour, only two players, Sam Snead and Ray Floyd have won a tournament in each of four decades. Calcavecchia could be the third and making it even more astonishing is Calcavecchia would join Snead as the only player to win an event in four separate decades (Snead did it in the Greensboro Open). With the sun setting on his PGA Tour career, Calcavecchia may never have a better opportunity to do it than on Sunday. Still it will be a tall order, since he is four back he will have to shot 63 or 64 to accomplish the feat.
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Both Juli Inkster and AI Miyazato go into the final round with a 2 shot lead in the HSBC Women's Championship in Singapore.
Going into the final round there is going to be an intriguing last pairing. 49-year-old Juli Inkster will be paired with fellow co-leader AI Miyazato. It may seem hard to believe but in 1985 when Inkster was winning the Lady Keystone Open, her fourth LPGA title, Miyazato was just 10 days old halfway around the world in Okinawa, Japan. So for both players Sunday means something different, for Inkster she would be the oldest winner on the LPGA Tour, taking the title away from Beth Daniel who was 46 years, 8 months and 29 days old when he won the 2003 Canadian Women's Open. For Miyazato she is looking to for her second victory in two weeks, establishing her as the player to be beaten in 2010.
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In there rounds, on Saturday, Miyazato had three birdies, two bogies and an eagle in her round of 69. Her eagle came off a 30-foot eagle on the driveable par-4 16th hole to give her a share of the lead with Inkster. Juli, playing in the second to last group of the day, also shot 69 with four birdies and a bogey at the fourth hole for her third-consecutive under-par round in Singapore.
For Inkster she has the experience, as she has been on the LPGA Tour for her 28th year now. In that time she has won 31 times, but the last time was in 2006 at the Safeway International. Over the course of her career, she has won 13 events in the 29 times that she has led or co-led going into the final round. Her last lead entering the final round came at the 2007 Evian Masters but she shot 75 in the final round to T3rd. Inkster's last victory coming off a Saturday night lead was the 2003 Evian Masters where she co-led with Rosie Jones and won by six following a final-round 65.
Some other scores of note, Cristie Kerr is tied with Yani Tseng and Suzann Pettersen T7th at 4 under, three shots back. On of the second round co-leaders, Angela Stanford, shot 74 and is T10th with In-Kyung Kim and Na Yeon Choi at 3 under par. Defending champion Jiyai Shin is T15th at 2 under after shooting 72 and is tied with Michelle Wie who shot 69. Lorena Ochoa who shot 79 on Friday, her second worst round in her LPGA career bounced back a bit but still could only muster up a 73 and is at 4 over and T42nd.
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On a perfect day for scoring, Villegas makes nine birdies and nine pars and is one better than his former Florida teammate Matt Every.
Camilo Villegas has been on the PGA Tour since 2006, but has finally taken things really serious now. He may of been the winner of two FedEx Cup events in 2008 but last year wasn't the best in his view, his attitude wasn't the best with the distractions. So in evaluating his year, he decided to visit with Dr. Gio Valiante, a noted golf psychologist that wrote the book "Fearless Golf". Dr. Valiante provided Villegas with a vision to help him become more focused and committed to each shot and already it's showing dividends.
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On a perfect day for scoring, Villegas took advantage of the perfect conditions in the morning to shot a flawless round of 62. Along with his nine birdies and nine pars, he hit 10 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens and took only 25 putts. On the surface there wasn't any real keys for his good play that created his lowest round in 263 rounds played over the course of 110 starts. Previously he shot 63 on four different occasions, the last being the first round in last year's RBC Canadian Open.
It should be mention that this event has some special memories for Villegas, back in 2006 in his first exempt year on the PGA tour, the folks that run the Phoenix event gave Villegas an exemption and he made the best of it by finishing T2nd which got his season off to a great start. He will always remember the kindness shown him and return back to play in this event which he called afterwards a very special place.
Villegas was a shot better than Matt Every, who played college golf with Villegas at Florida. Every is playing on the PGA Tour as a rookie this year, getting his card through the Nationwide Tour in which he won the season ending Nationwide Tour Championship. Every had about the same type of nonchalance round as Villegas had, Every made eight birdies and ten bogeys, his birdies came in a ten hole stretch which included six in a row. Every hit 9 of 14 fairways, 13 of 18 greens and took 15 putts. Every comes off of a week in Mexico in which he was disqualified for signing a wrong scorecard in the third round.
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Some of the other scores saw Tom Lehman, who had a putting lesson from Howard Twitty which help him shot 66 along with Geoff Ogilvy, Ryan Moore, Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Joe Durant, Kevin Stadler, Y.E. Yang, Carl Pettersson and Arnold Palmer's grandson Sam Saunders, who had his best round ever on the PGA Tour. Fred Couples, who won two weeks ago in Florida on the Champions Tour, got off to a great start shooting a five under 31, but was stymied on the back shooting a one over 36 for a 67. Tournament favorite Phil Mickelson had a rollar-coaster round of 68 as he played with defending champion Kenny Perry who also shot 68.
The disappointment of the day had to be last week's Accenture champion Ian Poulter. Playing TPC Scottsdale for the first time, Poulter got off to a terrible start as he played his first 12 holes in 3 over and was able to play the remaining holes in 2 under to salvage a 72. But the round played him T95th and he will have to played better on Friday just to make the cut.
As for Villegas a good first round doesn't necessarily spell success since history hasn't been very kind to first round leaders at this event. Since the event moved to the TPC Scottsdale in 1987, the first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win just three times. (Tommy Armour III in 1990, Steve Jones in 1997 and Tom Lehman in 2000). Last year Lucas Glover had a share of the lead with James Nitties but struggled after his 65 with rounds of 72-75-69 to finish T42nd.
One of the weirdest rounds of the day was turned in by Justin Rose, who started and ended the day with bogeys but had eight birdies in between to shot 65 and T3rd.
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Last year Dustin Johnson didn't have to play a final round at Pebble to win, but this year he had to struggle with a tough Pebble Beach course to shot 74 but win by a shot.
It may not of been pretty, but a victory is a victory and Dustin Johnson advanced another step in his career with his AT&T Pebble Beach victory. In these times in which golf is searching for some new hero's, maybe Johnson is just what golf needs. At just 25, he becomes the second American native in his 20s with three or more PGA Tour wins, joining Sean O'Hair and Australian Adam Scott as the only players in their 20s. Another reason to like Johnson is the fun in watching him launch the ball, he is one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, finishing 3rd in distance last year and 4th in 2008. More importantly, Johnson is starting to figure out about winning tournaments, something that folks have been disappointed in the younger players on tour that make big checks but don't come through with victories.
Dustin Johnson wins with birdie on his final hole  Photo credit: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images |
| Back-to-back winners at the AT&T Pebble Beach |
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| Sam Snead in 1937-38 (1937 was 18 holes; 1938 was 36 holes) |
| Cary Middlecoff in 1955-56 (54 holes) |
| Jack Nicklaus in 1972-73 (72 holes) |
| Tom Watson in 1977-78 (72 holes) |
| Mark O'Meara in 1989-90 (72 holes) |
| Dustin Johnson in 2009-10 (2009 was rain-shortened 54 holes; 2010 was 72 holes) |
Now Johnson got a lot of help. First his playing partner Paul Goydos, who co-led with Johnson after the third round, gave Johnson a gift when Paul had some problems with the 14th hole and after making a quadruple 9 on the 14th dropped out of contention. Johnson also got a break when David Duval and J.B. Holmes weren't able to birdie 18. No matter what, Johnson was up to the challenge to become the first player since Davis Love III in 2002 to birdie the final hole to win by a shot.
Last year Johnson won the tournament in the most unusual way, while having breakfast. The tournament was plagued with poor weather and when the outlook for Monday was rain, officials decided early in the morning to call it quits, giving Johnson the win with rounds of 65-69-67. This year Johnson again went low early with rounds of 64-68-64 but the weather was picture perfect which meant that he had to earn his victory by playing a final round.
The big question, if Johnson can win the last two events at Pebble Beach, could he do what Jack Nicklaus did by winning the 1971 and '72 AT&Ts, then winning the 1972 U.S. Open? Probably not because he does have a couple of things working against him. First he is one of the longest drivers in golf but in driving accuracy he is terrible, finishing 169th last year and 191st in 2008. Another thing working against him has to be his final rounds at Pebble. As we have said, historically Pebble plays a lot tougher on Sunday than the rest of the week because pins are placed in tougher spots. Look at 2008 when he shot 73 in the final round which dropped him into a T7th. Sunday's 74 was one of the highest final rounds for a winner on tour and looking historically going back to 1958, the first year the AT&T went to 72 holes only three worst final rounds have been shot by a winner. Art Wall, 75 in 1959, Tony Lema, 76 in 1964 and Lon Hinkle, 77 in 1979. Johnson's 74 was the fifth time a winner shot that score, the last being in 1994 by Johnny Miller. So realistically unless Johnson changes his game in the next four months I wouldn't call him a favorite.
Still Johnson will win again, he has to be a favorite on any kind of long course which accuracy isn't a key. Another thing that Johnson will be a favorite at is making the American Ryder Cup team, even if he isn't one of the top-ten point getters, Captain Corey Pavin will have to consider him based on his distance, he will be perfect for team matches
Keys to Victory for Johnson
Dustin Johnson stats for the day & week Photo credit: Chris Condon/PGA Tour | ||
| Category | Sunday | Week (rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Fairways hit: | 9 of 14 | 42 of 55 (T15th) |
| Driving average: | 283.5 | 303.3 (1st) |
| Greens hit: | 12 of 18 | 58 of 72 (T3rd) |
| Putts: | 32 | 116 (T36th) |
| 0-putt greens: | 1 | 3 |
| 1-putt greens: | 3 | 25 |
| 2-putt greens: | 13 | 41 |
| 3-putt greens: | 1 | 3 |
| Play on par 3s: | +2 | -1 |
| Play on par 4s: | +3 | -4 |
| Play on par 5s: | -3 | -11 |
| Eagles: | 1 | 3 |
| Birdies: | 1 | 20 (T4th) |
| Scrambling: | 7 of 14 (50.00%) | (65th) |
- Main key for Johnson was hitting it long. He was the longest driver of the week but what his length did was help him make three eagles for the week. In all of Dustin Johnson's wins he led the driving distance stat. In looking at who won a tournament and led the driving distance stat, the only players that have done that was Tiger Woods (11 times), Phil Mickelson (3 times), Ernie Els (2 times), Vijay Sigh (once) and J.J. Henry (once).
- Johnson hit 58 greens this week which placed him T3rd of everyone else. But for him personally, since playing the Tour starting in 2008, he has never hit that many greens, his previous best was 52 in last year's Masters were he was T6th in that stat.
- Making birdie at 18 to win by a shot
- In his first round playing at Pebble, he finished his round with three consecutive birdies between holes 14 through 18
- At age of 25 years, 7 months becomes the youngest player to defend a PGA Tour event since Tiger Woods did it at the 1999 Western Open at 23 years, 6 months old.
- Spyglass Hill is considered the hardest of the three courses but in his round there he shot 64. Only one winner has been lower, Phil Mickelson shot 62 while playing at Spyglass in 2005.
- At age of 25 years, 7 months becomes the youngest player to defend a PGA Tour event since Tiger Woods did it at the 1999 Western Open at 23 years, 6 months old.
- Johnson was the first player to win in his first three years on the PGA Tour since Retief Goosen did it after his 2001 U.S. Open victory. Tiger Woods also won in his first three years starting in 1996.
- After 22 years between 1982 and 2004 in which no first round leaders won, in the last six years four first round leaders have won, Phil Mickelson in 2005 & '08 and Dustin Johnson in 2009 & '10.
Other things about Johnson's win
Other items
Dustin Johnson probably isn't an early favorite for the U.S. Open but David Duval has to be. With three runner-up finishes at the AT&T at Pebble, David Duval joins Julius Boros and Vijay Singh as the only three time runner-ups of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Duval knows that he can win the U.S. Open, came very close at Bethpage last year and with his record at Pebble Beach he will be a threat. Duval hasn't won on the PGA Tour since his 2001 British Open victory 156 events ago. Since the British Open win he has only been in the top-ten seven times and this was his third 2nd place finish along with the 2001 Buick Challenge and 2009 U.S. Open.One other Duval items, shot 67-68-67-69, four rounds in the 60s. The last time Duval shot all four rounds in the 60s at a 72-hole event was at the 2001 Buick Challenge when he lost in a playoff to Chris DiMarco. Duval did open with four rounds in the 60s at the 2002 Bob Hope Classic and 2002 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, 90-hole events, but closed with a 70.
Two major changes to this year's AT&T were very popular. First was ditching Poppy Hills for the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula. Now it was a one time deal but after all the accolades from players, including Phil Mickelson who says it's one of his favorite courses on the PGA Tour you have to think that AT&T Pebble Beach officials will do everything in there power to get the club to join the rota. For members it's always an ego trip to have your course hold a PGA Tour event, but the membership at Monterey Peninsula will have to way that with losing there course for ten days. One advantage, there is the Dunes Course for members to play and it is a honor to host this event, look for something to happen so that they event returns next year.
It also is a good tribute to Mike Strantz, the very talented designer who's last job was redoing the course. Strantz died way too early at 50 years-old and the Shore Course this week was a perfect remembrance of his great career.
Another big change was ditching 24 teams and reducing the professional field from 180 to 156. It's unfortunate that some young pros won't have the opportunity to play and there was 24 amateurs that didn't get to play in the event but pace of play was a lot faster and many of the pros said how much it made for an enjoyable week not having to wait on each tee.
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Fred Couples won for the first time on the Champions Tour, beating Tommy Armour III by a shot after Armour shot a final round 61.
One thing that you can say about Fred Couples, in events with very little pressure and in a fun situation you can always count on Couples coming through. So you have to think that possibly Couples could become a superstar on the Champions Tour. No two ways about it, after his first three events on the over 50 circuit he has shown his potential, finishing T3rd at the unofficial Wendy's Champions, 2nd at the Mitsubishi Electric and capping it off with a win in the ACE Group Classic.
Couples won thanks to rounds of 68-67-64 for a 17 under par total to nip Tommy Armour III in his Champions Tour debut by a shot. For Armour he shot a final round of 61 that had to be a bit of De Ja vu for Couples who three weeks ago played good enough to win only to have Tom Watson play a bit better.
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Could the same be said for Fred Couples? He has won a Masters and 14 other PGA Tour events, will one day be a Hall-of-Famer, but frankly Couples never achieved what many thought that he was capable of doing. He always had the excuse of his back problems, which started to flair around 1992 but in reality Couples had the God given talents that Tiger Woods has but never had the temperament or drive to be the best.
In his PGA Tour career, Couples won $21.3 million but other than his 1992 Masters victory, Couples became more famous for being the king of second season events. It seem that no matter what happened during his official seasons once November rolled around, Couple was rejuvenated. In over 80 second season events, Couples won 26 events including five Skins Game plus multiple wins in Shark Shootouts, Hyundai Team Matches which has added up to just under $11 million dollars of earnings. With that kind of track record you have to think he will do the same on the Champions Tour that has the same feel as the old Silly Season events.
So you have to think that maybe, just maybe, the Champions Tour could be perfect fit for Couples because of his totally low key approach. Also, the courses are tailor made for his long hitting game, if he putts half decently he can't lose. Already in his first two official events comprising six rounds he is 38 under par, an average of 65.6 per round. Couples is liking what he sees on the Champions Tour saying that if his back holds up, he will play more events on the Champions Tour in 2011 than when he first started on the PGA Tour in his early 20s. As he says the difference between the Champions Tour and the PGA Tour, last week in the Northern Trust he played really great and finished T37th but if you get into a streak of good play on the Champions Tour you can win.
As for Tommy Armour III, this year has the potential to be really great for him. He has a lot of parallels with Couples, as both came out on tour in 1982 but while Fred felt right at home on the PGA Tour and never had to worry, the same can't be said for Armour. He has won twice on the PGA Tour, the last coming at the 2003 Valero Texas Open but since being on tour full time in 1988 he has only finished in the top-125, ten of his 23 seasons. He has been to Q-school a dozen times and had a stint on the Nationwide Tour in 1994. Couples and Armour hung out together in college, even though Armour went to New Mexico and Couples went to Houston. Couples is only five days older than Armour, so it will be interesting to see how many more times the two will confront each other in future Champions Tour events.
For Armour, his final round 61 broke the tournament record and he becomes the first player on the Champions Tour to shoot a final round 61 and not win since Tom Jenkins did it at the 2006 Boeing Seattle Classic. Still Armour did well finishing 2nd in greens hit and 3rd in putts per round and per greens hit. He tied with Couples for most birdies made during the week with 18 and one eagle each, just happened that Armour made one more bogey than Couples did.
Fred Couples stats for the day & week Photo credit: Stan Badz/PGA Tour | ||
| Category | Sunday | Week (rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Fairways hit: | 13 of 14 | 31 of 42 (T19th) |
| Driving average: | N/A | 286.0 (1st) |
| Greens hit: | 17 of 18 | 49 of 54 (1st) |
| Putts: | 27 | 86 (T6th) |
| 0-putt greens: | 0 | 1 |
| 1-putt greens: | 9 | 21 |
| 2-putt greens: | 9 | 31 |
| 3-putt greens: | 0 | 1 |
| Play on par 3s: | -1 | -4 |
| Play on par 4s: | Even | -3 |
| Play on par 5s: | -3 | -10 |
| Eagles: | 0 | 1 |
| Birdies: | 8 | 18 (T1st) |
| Scrambling: | 3 of 5 (60.00%) | (24th) |
Keys to Victory for Couples
- Keys for Couples was doing everything right. There wasn't a single part of his game that wasn't working this week. In looking at the big key for the week, Couples only missed five greens for the whole week.
- Couples only took 86 putts, an average of 28.67 a round which ranked T6th. But in putts per greens hit he was 2nd
- Couples average drive was 286 yards, the longest driver of the week.
- Couples made 18 birdies, which ranked tied for first with Armour
- Couples played the par 5s in 10 under, most of anyone in the field.
- Couples keeps a ACE Group streak alive, as he becomes the 10th consecutive player to be in the final group and win, the last winner not to play in the final group was Lanny Wadkins in 2000.
Other notes from the week
Scott Hoch finished 3rd, eight shots back. It was his first top-ten since finishing 3rd last July in the 3M Championship. After that event Hoch was bothered again with his recurring hand injury and had surgery on it last October so for the player who won this event in 2008 it was his first start since the surgery.Tommy Armour III wasn't the only player in his Champions Tour debut, Paul Azinger made his first start and with rounds of 71-74-70 finished T21st, 16 shots back of Couples
Sunday was the 28th anniversary of Wayne Levi's historic win at the Hawaiian Open. In winning, he became first PGA Tour player to win a tournament while using a colored golf ball. After opening with an even-par 72, Levi followed with three straight sub-par rounds to nip Scott Simpson by one stroke at Waialae CC. A Wilson staff member, Levi used an Optic Orange ball in his victory. For Levi, it's been now nine months since his had double-bypass heart operation.
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