LPGA. Kia Classic. Beatriz Recari Wins Play-Off for Victory

Beatriz Recari won the Kia Classic in a two hole play-off victory against I.K. Kim after both ladies had completed the tournament with equal scores of -9 under par.  The tournament was played at Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California.

 

Beatriz Recari / Donald Miralle / Getty Images

This was the second career LPGA victory for Beatriz, and she admitted that nerves played a big part;

” I don’t think I’m any close to calm right now, it’s the opposite.  Every victory is different and this is just amazing and I can’t believe it.  It’s been really hard work and it’s definitely paid off and I’m really happy.”

Beatriz is known on the Tour as Iron Woman,  because she is such a determined and gritty player on the course, she explain the reasoning behind the name like this;

” It just comes I think from my family.  I was raised by my grandma who was tough, and my mom, too.  In Spain when women marry, they don’t lose their name so I had actually my father’s name and my mom’s name, and she always told me, you’re Eransus, you’re not Recari, you’re Eransus, you’re tough.  So I just told myself, you know, I’m not a hundred percent, I’m not feeling very bad but definitely not hundred percent so I just have to grind it out and just do it and just do my best.”

I.K. Kim, from South Korea, bogied the eighteenth in regulation, and  thought she was done for the day. She then had to come back and play it twice over, before accepting defeat;

” Well, I never thought I could play that hole again and again, but I did that, hit good shots.  The second shot is pretty tricky and the last one I had a great chance, too.  It was the right club, but we didn’t get that wind kind of, it was kind of gusting on off and we didn’t catch that, so it came out a little short and it had a good chance but she made a good putt.”

Kim is a local girl, living just fifteen minutes from the course, and said it would have been nice to win so close to home;

” Yeah, it would have been great if I had won, you know, but I played well this week and even last week I played well, so I think I’m going in the right direction and I just think I’m working on the right things. You know, it’s getting better, so I’m very excited about this season. You know a lot of people are rooting for me, so I just want to go out there and play my game and nothing else, just have fun. It’s great to have opportunity to win a championship.”

 Three players finished tied in third place, at -8 under par, they were;  Pornan0ng Phallum, Mo Martin and Cristie Kerr.

Northern Trust Open, Matt Kuchar 1st Round Leader

Matt Kuchar / AP Photo/Reed Saxon

Matt Kuchar leads the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades in California, with a first round of -7 under par 64. Matt had been working with his swing coach, and was happy with the results;

“I was excited about the things we were working on and excited how I was hitting the ball The hot start was certainly a great way to get the round going.”

Sergio Garcia is in second place on his own, with his opening effort of -6 under par, 65. Sergio is making his first PGA TOUR appearance of the year, and has started this tournament in fine form.

The surprise package of the opening day was Brandt Jobe, he is returning to golf after suffering a serious neck injury. Brandt is playing on a Major Medical Exemption, and he has to earn $303,178 in 10 events to keep full status the rest of the year. He is currently in third place, Good Luck Brandt, we hope you fulfill your dreams.

Humana Challenge, Brian Gay Wins, Scott Did Stall.

 

Brian Gay / Getty Images

The Humana Challenge was won by 41-year-old Brian Gay, at  the PGA West Palmer Course, La Quinta, California on Sunday. Brian won in a play-off against Chucky Three Sticks and David Lingmerth, with a birdie on the second play-off hole, the tenth. With this win Brian also moves to number one in the Fed Ex Cup standings.

A shocked Brian said;

“I’m still in a little bit of shock, it kind of happened so fast there at the end the way things went down. Last year was a struggle, it was a long year, a lot of work. I just wanted to come out this year kind of refocused, recharged, and believing in myself. My whole game’s been about accuracy and short game. I’ve always been a short hitter on the TOUR and I felt like as I was getting older I’m only going to get shorter and shorter. The thoughts were, just be aggressive, shoot as low as you can. It was tough last year trying to play making those changes.”

Charles Howell 111 tied for second a week after opening the season with a third-place tie in Hawaii in the Sony Open, his last TOUR title was in 2007. Chucky Three Stick admits it is a mentally tough task competing on the TOUR;

“Anybody that says that golf is fun or whatever, has really not done it for a living, I would never characterize this as fun. It’s different than that. It’s awfully challenging mentally. Quite honestly, going into the day, I didn’t really think that anybody had a chance apart from Scott, he’s won before, he hits it long enough to take advantage of the par fives. At 22 under, I figured if he shoots 6, or 7 under, he’s really not catchable. So, then to have a chance there in regulation, that’s where I really would like that one back, that three-putt there.”

David Lingmerth tied for second with Chucky, he was ,making only his second career appearance on the PGA TOUR, he also got into the play-off  but duffed his approach into the water, a bad lie costing him dearly;

“I didn’t feel that comfortable over it, obviously, I just hit a bad shot.”

Scott obviously Stalled, he needed a birdie at the last to win, and a par to get into the play-off, he unfortunately he wobbled at the wrong moment;

“You’re going to have your good days and your bad days, but if you live and die with every shot out there, your career is not going to last very long out there.”

Phil Mickelson finished way down the list at -17 under par for the tournament, he put it down to being rusty;

“I was rusty starting the year, I had a great four days here where I can work on my game with perfect weather and wonderful golf courses, where I could build some momentum. Heading into San Diego, I feel a lot more confident.”

 

 

TW World Challenge, G-Mac still the Master

Graeme McDowell/ Dunn / Getty Images

Graeme McDowell, G-Mac, is still the master of the Tiger Woods World Challenge after his third round at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, shooting -4 under par 68 in the Northwestern Mutual presented event. He leads by two shots from Keegan Bradley. Graeme said after his round;

“If I was to get the job done Sunday I may have to stay an extra day and get a real estate agent and have a look around the area because there’s something weird going on here. I think it’s certainly my kind of course, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a course that rewards a premium on accuracy and a premium on good, aggressive iron play. I’ve always kind of rolled the ball here well. It’s definitely a golf course that sets up well for me.”

Keegan Bradley is in second place, just two shots behind Graeme, at -11 under par for the tournament, firing a third round -5 under par 67.  Tournament host Tiger Woods is five back of the leader, and has some work to do if he wants to win his own event;

“I felt like I played decent enough to get to 10 under, to get to double digits, and just didn’t do it, and as of right now I’m five back. I’m going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow and see what happens.”

There are rumors that Tiger put his own money up with Northwestern Mutual  when the tournament, which began in 1999 and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, lost its title sponsor last year and a replacement sponsor fell through in September. Tiger would not reveal the numbers publicly but some say the amount required was $4 million. Tiger was coy with his answer when questioned;

“I bridged the gap on it, I’m not going to tell you the exact amount, but it’s a good number. The title sponsor unfortunately fell through, but this is important for us. What’s important is that if it wasn’t for this tournament, we wouldn’t have the success with the foundation. The learning center would not have happened. We wouldn’t have gained the awareness that we have now. There have been so many kids that we have helped, just because of this event. It’s important to me, to the foundation, this is what got us on the map.”

The foundation built the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Orange County. Now there are also two campuses in the Washington, D.C., area, another in south Florida and one in Philadelphia. About 100,000 kids have attended programs at the learning centers. Many of the kids have received scholarships to attend college,  many being the first in their family to go to college. The World Challenge has raised $25 million for the foundation, including nearly $9 million from Tiger, who has donated all his winnings in the tournament to the foundation.

First round leader Nick Watney, who is in seventh place in this field of 18 elite players, called Tiger’s charitable donation and million-dollar infusion to the tournament;

” An incredibly kind thing to do and an amazing gesture by him. I think there will be jokes about him that he can afford it, but it’s a great thing. I hope it receives the credit that it deserves, it’s a credit to him and he’s a great guy. Everybody in this game owes him a debt of gratitude, even though I know he wouldn’t want it.”

If  Tiger does shoot a low round tomorrow and wins again, everyone knows what will happen , the Foundation will receive the $1 million winners purse . I personally hope this does happen, for the Children’s sake. Go Tiger

US PGA, TW World Challenge, G-Mac attack

 

Graeme McDowell, G-Mac, attacked the Tiger Woods World Challenge with a super second round of  -6 under par 66 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks in California, at the Tiger Woods World Challenge which is presented by Northwestern Mutual. Graeme  has managed to do a lot of things right this year without actually winning,  but he has created one last chance to fix that right  here after taking a three-shot lead going into the weekend. Just before he was escorted away for a drugs test, Graeme had time to say;

“A good day’s work. I would love to compete and play well this weekend, really to kind of put a little icing on what’s been a mediocre year, despite the fact that I feel like I’ve played some decent golf this year. I really don’t have a lot to show for myself, and this would be a nice way to finish. It’s just been a golf course that’s always fit my eye, great backdrops, nice undulations. It’s just a fun course to play. I just always have fun here. And you know, I think I’m always in a fairly relaxed mood here because I’m off the back of five weeks on the road, and I’m very glad to be back on U. S. soil, you know, which is kind of home soil for me nowadays.”

Graeme intends to take a couple of months off after this tournament, and when asked what he would do with his spare time, he replied;

Try and stay out of the bar as much as possible. December will be very much recharging and relaxing and moving into my new house in Orlando and spending some time with friends and family. And January will be detoxing and practicing and getting ready to do it all again.”

Tied for second place at -6 under par for the two rounds, are Bo Van Pelt, Jim Furyk and Keegan Bradley with Tiger another shot back at -5 under par.

Tournament Host Tiger Woods felt he had played some of his best gold;

“I had a decent warm-up session, but the work I did last night was some of the best I’ve hit the golf ball all year. I just had to come out here and trust it, and when I did, I got into a nice little run there. I just need to do that all 36 holes on the weekend.”

First round leader Nick Watney, who had a 67 on Thursday, fell apart late in his second round, leaving him five shots off the top of the leaderboard;

“Just a terrible way to finish, but we’re only halfway through, so we’ll see if we can make a charge at those guys in the morning.”

Propping everyone else up at the bottom of the table is Aussie Jason Day, perhaps Jason had his mind on the cricket,  South Africa had dismissed Australia for just 163 runs at the WACA Ground.

 

 

 

 

US PGA Tiger Woods World Challenge, Nick Watney Leads

Nick Watney leads the US PGA Tiger Woods World Challenge, presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks  in California. Nick leads the event by two shots, after his opening round of -5 under par, 67.

Nick Watney / Dunn / Getty Images

Nick is ahead of Keegan Bradley, Graeme McDowell and Jim Furyk, who are all at -3 under par, after their rounds of 69.  Graeme McDowell is just one of thirteen Ryder Cup Players who are contesting in this event, making a very strong field indeed. Tiger Woods is in the group at -2 under par 70, he is in good company with Bo Van Pelt and Webb Simpson both on the same score. There are three players at -1 under par, they are Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan and Aussie Jason Day. Everybody else is over par, the last player on the board is Brandt Snedeker at +3 over par.

Nick shot a round of  80 in the final round in 2010 and then finished last in the 18-player field last year at Tiger Woods’ World Challenge, he said about today;

“I figured since Tiger is nice enough to invite me, I might as well prepare and try to play well. I’m a little better prepared than I have been coming in here. I’ve come in the past two years pretty rusty, hadn’t been doing much work. This tournament’s definitely not as serious or as cut-throat, maybe, but I think when Sunday comes, we’re all very competitive people. If we’re tied going to the last hole, we definitely want to beat the other guy. Winning this event would be an honor. The list of champions is pretty strong. I think everybody comes here wanting to win even though it’s during the holiday season and all that stuff. I’m trying to use it to prepare for next season, and winning never gets old, so that’s the goal.”

Keegan Bradley said he had played solidly all day,

“I did have a bad break on the last hole, but I played so solidly all day.  The drive on No. 18 was literally resting up against a root, and then just to the right of it was a rock. You know, it was a bad break, but also if it didn’t hit that root it probably would have rolled all the way back down that hill toward the ninth fairway.”

Tiger admitted he did not play to the best of his abilities;

“”I didn’t hit it very good, it was nice to scrape out a good score. I could have easily shot myself out of the tournament, but I kept myself in it.”

Tomorrow is another day, and tournament host Tiger Woods will be keen to assert his authority.