Toshiba Classic. Frosty Freezes Freddie with Five Shot Win

David Frost froze out all of his foes in the Toshiba Classic, winning by five shots at Newport Beach Country Club.

David Frost / Getty Images

David Frost triumphed over Fred Couples by five shots at the Toshiba Classic, equaling the record of 19-under par, set by Jay Haas in 2007. Fred chased the wire to wire winning all the way, but there was really nothing that he could do to prevent the South African picking up the title. He could only stand and watch as things unfolded in front of him, like the 50ft birdie putt David sank on the 17th green.

David said afterwards that he had enjoyed the tussle with Freddie;

” I felt as good as I did the first two days, I really enjoyed the tussle with Freddie Couples out there. ’I've been playing really, really consistently and haven’t had any of those ups and downs. I know they will come, but right now I am playing well. ’Freddie was the one they were rooting for, fortunately, my putter was a little hotter than his was. There was too much work for him. I wasn’t really hitting bad shots.”

Freddie said he became really stiff out on the course;

” I was feeling good, but then I got really, really stiff, I hit a lot of bad wedges. I hit a bad wedge on 6 and 7 and 16. I was kind of flinching at it. They weren’t very good swings, either.”

In real terms -14 under par is a pretty good score, so Freddie cab take good heart by that performance.

Jay Haas and Peter Senior finished tied for third at 11 under par for the tournament. Tom Watson finished fifth another stroke back at -10 under par, and the Champions Tour rookies Rocco Mediate and Esteban Toledo tied for sixth at -9 under par.

Toshiba Classic. Frosty Freezes Out Fred Again

David Frost froze out Fred Couples again in the second round of the Champions Tour event the Toshiba Classic. David followed his first round 63, with a -5 under par 66, and a tournament total  of -13 under par.

David Frost / How / Getty Images

David said he battled with Fred all day long at the Newport Beach Country Club course;

“It was a day where Freddy and I battled it out. We were on top of the leaderboard all day and he made a nice birdie on 10 and I followed it with one and we did the same thing on 13. I think we played steady golf. You never know, someone could go out and shoot 63 early in the day that can always happen. I will just have to play my normal game and 68 will be a good score. I’d take that right now.”

Freddie, finishing at -12 under par for the tournament was a bit frustrated with his iron play, but also struggled with his driver, hitting only six out of fourteen fairways. He made up for the mistakes using his putter only 26 times;

” I let a couple of easy 8-iron shots go, I bogeyed the fourth hole and the sixth hole from 145 yards, which really kind of killed me, but I made it up with a few good putts. He’s one ahead and I’m not going to be able to shoot a 68 or 69 and win. I have to shoot something very, very good. For some reason a lot of people struggle on these greens and I do struggle at times, but very rarely with the speed of the greens. That certainly helped me today with 30-40 footers getting them up there close.”

Jim Gallagher Jr. is in third place at -8 under par, he had a second round of 68, and tied one shot further back at -7 under par, are Scott Hoch (64), Jay Haas (66), Bob Tway (67) and D.A. Weibring (68). Scott Hoch is making his second start of the season after returning from left hand and wrist injuries.

Freddie and David will battled it out again tomorrow to decide which one of them lifts the trophy.

 

 

 

 

Champions Tour, Toshiba Classic. Its Frosty in Florida.

David Frost leads the Toshiba Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club in Florida by one shot, shooting a first round of -8 under par, 63.

 

David Frost / Harry How/Getty Images

South African David Frost has managed to break par eight times out of ten Champions Tour rounds this year. He leads Fred Couples by one shot, after Fred completed his first round at -7 under par, 64.

David gave credit for his continuing good form to a coach from Germany, who has been giving him instruction since 2007;

” I’ve been working on my game and I’ve worked with a guy in Germany since 2007, I’ve really enjoyed the bio mechanical part of the golf game. It’s given me a lot more flow to the game. I feel a lot more relaxed, I don’t feel too much pressure in my game, and it allows me a lot more freedom. And so what if I hit one or two bad shots. I feel that things are quite in place and until things really go wrong, then I’ll start worrying.”

Fred was the 2010 winner here at the Newport Beach Country Club, and is playing in only his second senior event and third overall tournament of the year.

Fred said he was happy to make a lot of good putts today;

” I made a mile of putts, I just happened to make more putts than I expected to. I haven’t played that much and I worked on my chipping and putting. There are some delicate chips on this course.”

Jim Gallagher Jnr is alone in third place on -5 under par, first round of 66. Jim qualified for this  event under the Career Victory Exemption List, but that status runs out following this event. He has secured a sponsor exemption for next week in his home-state event in Mississippi.

Jim spoke about losing his playing status;

“You know, you try not to think about it, it’s there, I mean, I’m not stupid to it. But in my career I’ve played pretty good when my back was against the wall.”

Good Luck  for the rest of this event Jim, and play well next week at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.

 

 

 

Sony Open, Hawaii, Rookie Scott Langley Leads

on the left is Scott Langley/ Getty Images

The Sony Open in Hawaii at the Waialae Country Club.had a surprising first round leader in Scott Langley, in his first start as a rookie on Tour. Scott fired in a first round 62, -8 under par, with some wonderful stroke play and nerveless putting. Scott said he was excited about the coming days of this tournament;

“I’m a young guy, but I’m old enough to know that we have a lot of golf left. We’ve barely started, and I’m excited about the next few days.”

Just one shot behind the leader in second place is another rookie, Russell Henley, with his opening effort of -7 under par 63. Russell was pleased he got friends Scott and Luke Guthrie as his playing partners in the first round;

“I think there was a lot of nerves for me the first few holes and I think playing with Scotty and Luke was huge for me, and watching them play well kind of gave me a goal to try to keep up with them, so it was definitely fun feeding off them.”

Unfortunately Luke Guthrie did not fare so well, finishing at +1 over par, tied in 88th place.

A year ago Scott and Russell two were playing in a Hooters Tour event in Florida, Russell missing the cut and Scott just making it to proceed, walking up sixteen today the pair reminisced, Scott said;

“We were on the range trying to help each other find it. We were just walking up 16, you could see the ocean behind, PGA TOUR signs everywhere. We looked at each other and realized this is pretty cool. To look back one year ago and to know that we weren’t here, we were in a far different place.”

Tied in third spot at -6 under par are Scott Piercy and Tim Clark, Scott Piercy had a 64 in the morning, with Tim Clark matching that score in the afternoon session. Tim spent most of last year suffering from a mystery elbow injury, and came into this tournament with fairly low expectations;

“It’s going to be an exciting year for me because I do feel like I’m healthy again and can play a full schedule. I’m obviously doing a lot better than I was last year.”

Scott Piercy, the RBC Canadian Open champion, was among 20 players in the field who started their season last week on Maui, at the weather wrecked Hyundai Tournament of Champions on the Plantation Course, he recalled the terrible putting performance he endured;

” Seven three-putts and a four-putt last week. The wind wasn’t even blowing today compared to last week. I just played solid today, hit it in a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, made two fairly key putts and took care of the par fives.”

Seventy players in the 144-man field broke par, they included a pair from the Champions Tour. Russ Cochran, who won the Senior British Open in 2011, he had a first round of 68 and Fred Funk who shot an even par round of 70.

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.

Champions Tour, SAS Championship,Funk and Pate tied at the Top

Fred Funk and Steve Pate are still tied at the top of the leaderboard in the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, Cary, North Carolina after the second round. Both players have had identical scores for the first two rounds of 67 and 69 for totals of -8 under par.

Fred Funk a seven time Champions Tour winner will battle against Steve  Pate, in  the final round tomorrow.  Steve Pate is unfortunately winless in his previous 34 starts on the Champions Tour, and will be concentrating hard to get his first win.

Fred admitted he did not play too well to begin with today;

“Well, it wasn’t a very easy round, the first part, I was really struggling with my whole game and managed to shoot 1 over on the front. I kept working on my swing, trying to figure something out. And I really never could figure anything out, and I tried a couple different swing keys. And all of a sudden, I started hitting it really close and hitting it really solid. I hit it really good; hit some irons really good.”

Steve said nothing was easy today;

” Friday was really easy. I hit everything on line. Saturday, I hit nothing on line, there was nothing easy about it, but I only made one bogey, so that was good. I mean, that could have easily gone sideways pretty quickly, and it didn’t, so that was nice.”

Jay Don Blake and Andrew Magee are just one stroke back, while 65-year-old Larry Nelson had the round of the day, a -6 under par 66, and he leads a quartet of players who are just two back.  Larry Nelson’s second round 66 matched Mark McNulty, Mark O’Meara and Mark Wiebe  for total tournament score of – 6 under par. McNulty had a 68, and O’Meara and Wiebe shot 69. 65 year-old Larry said he was conscious about trying to shoot his age;

“It’s just kind of a personal thing, so I guess that’s probably a good thing to focus on, the tournament is secondary at that point. Now Sunday, the tournament might be a little more better or a little bit more of a priority than it was today.”

Champions Tour. SAS Championship.Comeback King Russ Cochran Leads

Russ Cochran/Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

The Champions Tour, SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, Cary, North Carolina got off to good start with Russ Cochran firing a first round -6 under par 66 to top the leaderboard on day one. Russ showed no signs of rustiness after his enforced 12 week lay-off due to a troublesome back problem. He was the 2010 winner of this event, and today managed hit all 18 greens in regulation to lead all the players in that category and also holds a one-stroke lead over four other  players who are tied in second place at -5 under par. They are Steve Pate, Andrew Magee, Jay Don Blake and Fred Funk. The defending champion is Kenny Perry and he leads a group of five players who are two strokes behind the leader.

Russ said he was really just happy to be out on the course;

“I came here hoping to finish the tournament really, but I fell into a great mode and played a good, solid round. Maybe I need more time off, I don’t know. Of course, when you’re playing well, you feel like you could do it all the time, but I’ve got to give myself a lot of room and be very, very patient and realize that I haven’t been in the heat in a long time. I haven’t played; much less been in the heat. I’ll be pretty calm Saturday, I think.”

Fred Funk said he had a very good front nine, he made the turn in 30 strokes;

“I had a really efficient front nine,I got everything out of that front nine. Obviously, shooting – 5 under’s great. I’m playing really good. I’m playing solid, close to playing really, really good, and it’s more; it’s fun just to play.”

 

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright, into his 50′s, and at the AT&T at Congressional in June.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods thinks his star will burn bright enough to win, even when he is competing in his 50′s. He has said he will only retire from professional golf when he feels he is past his peak.

“Absolutely, 100 percent. ”  Woods said in an interview with WJFK-FM on Monday when asked the question about still winning when into his 50′s, and probably playing on the Champions Tour.

Tiger pointed to Tom Watson’s performance when Tom  nearly won the 2009 British Open at Turnberry at age 59.

” It just has to be on the right golf course. By the time I’m at that age, it’ll be some golf courses over 8,000 yards. It’s probably not going to be at one of those. It’s probably going to be at a shorter golf course like you’d find at a British Open. It was like the perfect Open, it was howling, it was a golf course he had won on and knew how to play and it was playing very quick. You can certainly see a certain player playing into their 50s and being successful on a certain venue. You can’t do it on all venues, there’s no doubt, some ballparks are just too big.”

Tiger insists he is close to contending on a weekly basis, even if recent results suggest otherwise.

“I think I’m headed in the right direction. ” Tiger said at the Congressional Country Club,  he was there to promote the AT&T National which takes place June 28 to July 1.

“I’m going to try and continue to improve in incremental steps in every facet of my game and try to make every facet of my game more efficient. I’ve just played three events – I won a tournament, four tournaments ago, if I get more efficient at what I’m doing, then I’m going to win golf tournaments.”

Tiger won at Congressional in 2009 before the event moved, to make way for last year’s U.S. Open. Injury prevented him from participating in Rory McIlroy’s big win. Rory dominated Congressional, finishing at 16 under.

It was tough for Tiger, not being able to play;

“Unfortunately, I was in a position where I couldn’t play and it was tough because I missed out on a golf course I know, that I’ve won on and that I love. Those factors made it difficult to sit back and watch. What Rory did was extraordinary. He played some beautiful golf.”

Congressional’s Blue Course will be par 71 and at 7,535 yards, is a long haul, but Tiger is hoping for difficult conditions;

“The difficulty is that it’s a big ballpark. If you get to where there’s a little moisture in the fairways and tee shots aren’t running and aren’t chasing, this course gets really long. It’s a fantastic tee-to-green golf course. You have to drive the ball well and once you get onto the greens, there’s a lot of pitch and movement, usually back to front. Playing here this year, I would like to see it difficult, there’s no doubt.”