Stacy Lewis, Roger Chapman and Rory McIlroy voted Players of the Year, by Golf Writers Association

Stacy Lewis / Scott Halleran

Stacy Lewis Roger Chapman and Rory McIlroy have been voted Players of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America. Stacy won four times on the LPGA Tour this year and was the run-away winner in the women’s bracket, gaining 153 votes to Na Yeon Choi who carded 31 votes and 10 for Inbee Park. Stacy’s percentage was 78.8% of the total vote. Congratulations to Stacy Lewis.

Stacy’s record was three runner-up finishes and a third-place slot on the LPGA money list $1.87 million, and was the first American since Beth Daniel in 1994 to earn the tour’s Player of the Year honors. The 27-year-old from Texas, had to battle scoliosis, since aged eleven, to make it big on the pro tour, she also becomes the first American since Juli Inkster in 1999 to earn the Golf Writers of America Player of the Year award.

Roger Chapman won 116 votes beating Tom Lehman who received 44 votes and Bernhard Langer who got 33 votes.  Rogers winning percentage was a healthy 60% of the votes cast. Roger, aged 53, began the year with conditional status on the Champions Tour, but won the Senior PGA Championship in his first start of the 2012 season. The Englishman then came from four shots back of the leaders to win the U.S. Senior Open.

Rory McIlroy, who captured the money titles on both the PGA and European Tours, received 190 votes, a massive 97.9%  Brandt Snedeker was second with 3 votes and Tiger Woods third with just one vote. Rory had already won European Tour’s Golfer of the Year,cementing his season with five birdies at his last event of the year to win the World Tour Championship in Dubai. His other achievements included his second Major, the  US PGA Championship, PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Award and PGA of America’s Vardon Trophy for adjusted low scoring average of 68.87%  and also finished the season with 10 top-tens in 16 starts. Rory is the World Number One ranked player.

 

 

Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Tom Lehman Triumphs

Tom Lehman/ Chris Condon/PGA Tour

Triumphant Tom Lehman became the first ever back-to-back winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, with a final round of -5 under par 65 and a tournament total of -22 under par, six shots clear of his nearest rival. In doing so Tom also picked up the Charles Schwab Cup, the season long points race, coming into the tournament Bernhard Langer was leading that points race, that was until Tom blitzed the Desert Mountain Cochise Course. Tom’s spectacular performance included a 47 hole bogey free run from the back of the 1st round to the turn of the 4th and final round. Tom needed to win this tournament, to have a chance of winning the season long title race, he did, and admits this is a dream come true week;

“ There’s a lot of times in this world where you need to play well and you don’t. This is one of those weeks where I needed to and I did. All in all, it’s a bit of a dream-come-true week.”

Tom’s  longtime teacher and mentor Jim Flick is battling terminal pancreatic cancer, Tom spoke to Jim briefly before the last round on Sunday. Jim had some special words of wisdom for him;

 ”Be Tom Lehman.”

Tom recalled the many times he and Jim had spent time together on the driving range at the Renegade Course at Desert Mountain;

“We probably spent half an hour just back there hitting shots, those are the kind of things you think about. But the more I thought about that, the more teary-eyed I would get. I decided I can’t play this round of golf with tears in my eyes. I have to wait until business was finished. The last hole, I know that he was probably watching today. I felt quite certain that was probably the last driver he was ever going to see me hit and I wanted to make it a good one. And the last 7-iron he will ever see me hit, and I wanted to make that a good one. And the last putt, I wanted to make that putt.”

When it was all over and Tom had secured victory, he had a few moments alone with his head pushed deeply into his white Taylot-Made hat, before being surrounded by family and fellow professionals.

In the tournament, Jay Haas finished in second place alone, after a last round of -1 under par, and a total of -16 under par. Third spot was occupied by Jay Don Blake with his final round of -4 under par, and finishing total of -14 under par. The two Fred’s, Couples and Funk were tied in fourth, Couples suffering a last round of +3 over par 73, to dash any hopes he had of victory. Fred Funk had a better last round, -5 under par, but he never got going in the first round, slumping to +1 over par effort. Bernhard Langer was ruing his par round of 70 on the third day of play, it cost him victory here.

Champions Tour, SAS Championship. Bernhard Langer Wins

Bernhard Langer/Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Bernhard Langer won the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, Cary, North Carolina on Sunday with a blistering final round of -9 under par bogey free 63, and tournament total of -13 under par. The win also catapults Bernhard into the lead of the Charles Schwab Cup points race, this is also Bernhard’s 16th Champions Tour victory.  At the start of the day Bernhard was four shots back beginning the final round, he finished it with birdies on the final two holes for his winning score of – 13 under par at the Prestonwood Country Club. Bernhard said he knew he was going to have to dig deep to contest for the trophy;

“I knew I had to go deeper and lower to make up some ground, and thank goodness it was -9 under because Jay Don came very close to tie me. So a lot of good golf, probably only two bad shots and everything else was good or really good. This week was pretty neat to have won from being four behind and played the round that I played today to take over the Schwab Cup lead, to take over the money list, leading in the money list, those are big goals of mine that I set at the beginning of the year, and obviously it’s not done, but I’m a little closer to maybe achieving it.”

Jay Don Blake  claimed second place alone,  closing with a final round of -4 under par 68 and a total of -11 under par. He needed a birdie on the par-4 18th to force a playoff, but hit a tree with his drive and finished with a bogey on the hole. Jay Don thought he was having problems with his rhythm;

“Probably the rhythm that I was in wasn’t very good because I was just making pars; Bernhard was making all the birdies. You just feel like you have to be more aggressive. But sometimes being aggressive doesn’t always work out. Trying to be too aggressive on 18 kind of hurt me.”

Mark Wiebe also shot a final round of -4 under par 68 to finish on his own in third place with a total of  -10 under par for the tournament. Fred Funk, the leader at the start of play on the last day, had a mediocre -1 under par final round, finishing in a tie for fourth spot.

European Tour Senior Open, Victory for Fred Couples.

 

 

Fred Couples (Getty Images)

Easy swinging Fred Couples birdied Turnberry’s closing two holes to claim a great victory in the 2012 Senior Open Championship, Presented by Rolex.  Fred  finished two shots clear of compatriot Gary Hallberg following a dramatic final round in Ayrshire, Scotland.

At the start of play on the last day Fred had  trailed overnight leader Bernhard Langer by one shot. He then took advantage of the German’s slip on the back nine to capture the title with a closing round of -3  under par 67, and a total of -9 under par for the tournament. Fred of course was very happy with his victory;

“It was a very fun day. Being paired with Bernhard, you’ve got to play great and for a long time there, we were neck and neck. But for me I felt like I was hitting the ball very strong, very solid and I was really lucky that it didn’t rain because I’m not very good in the rain,  I don’t wear a golf glove; I had two gloves in the bag that were all‑weather gloves and I was scared to death to ever put those on. That was a big birdie on 17 to make 18 play easier and then when I hit the last putt, the hole got in the way and I won by two.  I’m very happy and excited to have won this.”

During is career Fred had previously finished in the top ten of  The Open Championship on nine occasions, wining the Senior Open has made up for those near misses;

” It’s the next best thing for all of us, obviously I never won The Open.  I came close.  Last night I really thought about the golf course. I knew I needed to play it well, and this is my biggest Senior Tour win, by far, winning on a truly great, great golf course. I can say I won a Senior Open at Turnberry.  I think the best thing about the whole week was playing this course.  It’s a challenging, very tough course, under extreme weather.  It’s nice to win any event, but there have been a lot of great champions on this thing, that’s for sure.”

Second placed Gary Hallberg had a last round 66,  on Friday Gary had equalled the Ailsa course record with a stunning 63, he lamented having to play in the worst of the conditions;

” I played my two best rounds in the worst of the conditions, I was very pleased with the way I played and congratulations to Freddie on a great performance.I didn’t think about setting a target. I tried to stay in the present moment.  I think I did a nice job of that.  I wanted to get ahead of myself.  But I stayed in the present moment.”

Bernhard Langer finished up sharing sixth place, ruing some bad play and bad luck with the pot bunkers;

“Obviously the back nine was a disaster, I just hit a couple of loose shots and got some bad breaks.  I ending up in pot bunkers and all of those things.  We were on the clock, as well, which didn’t help.  We had to rush a lot of the shots which didn’t make it any easier. Fred played very well, a solid round of golf and I think he deserves to win.  He finished in style with birdie, birdie.  That’s like a great champion, so it was well deserved.”

 

 

U.S. PGA Senior Open Championship, Roger Chapman Wins

Roger Chapman of England won the 33rd U.S. Senior Open Championship at Indianwood Golf & Country Club on Sunday with a tournament total of -10 under par. Roger fired a last round -4 under par, 66, to win by two shots. There were four players tied in second position at -8 under par, including the third round leader by four, Bernhard Langer. Bernhard was joined by Fred Funk, Tom Lehman and Corey Pavin.

53 year old Roger joins an elite club with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin as the only players to win the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year. Roger obviously enjoys this part of the Country, his Senior PGA title in May came at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores. He said at his presentation ceremony;

“Just a lovely area.”

Bernhard who shot 64 yesterday, to lead the field by four shots, inexplicably stumbled to a last round 72, +2 over par on the day. An amazing eight shot swing on the previous round, Bernhard had said after Saturday’s round if he closed with a -2 or -3 under, it would be difficult to catch him.

He also said on Saturday;

“Without being big headed, I think I’m one of the better players out here the last three or four years. I’ve won the Schwab Cup. If you do that, you’ve got to play well. If you can win normal tournaments and be in the top five or top 10 on a regular basis, you ought to be doing fairly well in the majors too because the majors are even harder.The better players, I think, will separate themselves even more from the average player in the majors because conditions are usually tough”

Well the so confident German was unable to deliver the goods when it was required.

U.S. Senior Open Championship, Langer Leads

Bernhard Langer / Shamus/Getty Images

Bernhard Langer made nine birdies on his way to a -6 under par, 64 during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Indianwood Golf and Country Club. The score gives Bernhard a four shot advantage over the field going into the last round Sunday. If he wins it will once again raise the question of anchoring the long putter, is it an unfair advantage.

Bernhard himself did not think he played that well, just putted well;

” The only difference really was just I made some putts. I probably played worse than I played the first two days. The first two days I made very little, and I guess the course owed me some. I made a bunch of putts today. It was really fun. Hoping to go really low and then made an error on No. 13.”

There are five players who are four shots adrift of the lead, and they will all have to pull out something special tomorrow if they want to win this tournament, or simply hope that Bernhard falls over. Given Bernhard’s exceptional record I can not see that eventuality happening.

The players waiting for a chance at -6 under par, are; Tom Pernice  Jr, Corey Pavin, Roger Chapman, Tom Lehman and John Huston.

 

 

 

PGA Champions Tour, U.S. Senior Open Championship, Tom Kite Flying High

A Flying Tom Kite/Shamus/Getty Images

A Flying high Tom Kite rewrote the record books with a front-nine 28 on Thursday at Indianwood Golf & Country Club’s Old Course.   He then held on to post a leading score of  -5 under par and 65 at the U.S. Senior Open. He leads by one shot from Lance Ten Broeck and German Bernhard Langer who both posted scores of -4 under par.

Tom was delighted with his effort;

“I thought there would be some good scores but I certainly didn’t see any 28s or anything like that. It was a lot of fun.”

Tom’s front nine 28 was the lowest nine-hole score in USGA championship history. It included an eagle 2 on the par-4 fourth hole where his approach from 155 yards went into the hole. The front-nine card featured five 3s to go along with two deuces.

His eagle on the fourth hole was the first of three straight red numbers, which started a stretch of five in six holes.

“That’s one of those crazy holes, the second is a blind shot. Hit a drive up the right-hand side, just snuck into the semi-rough. I had 155 yards, just playing an 8-iron and letting it release onto the green. The people up there just started getting louder and louder and louder and louder. All of a sudden, arms went up as the ball went in. I never saw it obviously. Just relied on their reaction. I feel like I’m playing well right now, and obviously, I was surprised, very pleased, ecstatic with the front nine because not only was it a good nine holes of golf, but some good breaks and good putts and just everything got going the right way. Sixty-five is a good score in a Major championship. So I’m feeling good about it.”

Peter Jacobson was Tom”s playing partner, he could only manage a par round as he witnessed at close hand the marvelous antics of Tom Kite;

” I felt like the Washington Generals playing against the Harlem Globetrotters. I was his towel boy. Tom putted as well with the long putter today as I’ve seen him in five or six years he’s used that putter, he was confident. He stepped up to every putt, boom, and he was very assertive. He had great speed. The two putt he had on 18 was amazing. He had to go over one of those muffins and knocked it down there about four feet and confidently knocked it in. Everything was working for Kite today. It was great to see. He had a good chance to win last week at Pebble Beach. We play a lot of golf together. I was on the range with him last week and watching him hit some balls. He looked awfully good then. He looked awfully good today.”