Tiger is Headed Back to No.1

Tiger & Donald Trump, at Doral / theadvocate.com

Tigers win at Doral on The Blue Monster could be the signal that he is finally headed back to his much coveted Number One Spot in golf.

The great Sam Snead was 45 when he won his 76th tournament, Tiger is eight years younger than Sam was, and he already has 77. During his career Sam won a record 82 PGA Tour events, including seven Majors.  It will not be long before Tiger eclipses that record of Sam’s, and a victory at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational in two weeks would return him to the top spot in the world rankings.

In Tiger’s favor, Rory McIlroy is going through a slump in form, and despite a friendly threat from Arnold Palmer, Rory apparently does not intend to play at Bay Hill, but he will play the Shell Houston Open, scheduled for March 28-31, two weeks before The Masters. But by then if Tiger wins at Arnold Palmers place, and he is the defending Champion, Rory will already have lost his Number One tag.

Justin Rose Wins Cadillac Championship @ Doral

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Everything has come up roses for Rosy as Justin wins the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral. He won by one shot from Bubba Watson, who had an erratic round of 2 over par 74, compared to Justin’s -2 under par 70. In his post round interview Justin was pretty pleased with his early season win;

“It really is a great day. It’s been a great week. It’s been a great two weeks to be honest with you. I’ve been very focused on just sort of seeing this whole Florida Swing as like a body of work and not really trying to put too much focus on any individual tournament. And I kind of knew I was playing well and if I just kept out of my own way for the most part and kept thinking well and doing the right things, I had a feeling something good might happen in these four weeks and I’m kind of including the next two weeks, as well. For this little beauty to show up on my mantle piece so early in the season, definitely a fantastic feeling, and you know, it sets up a very exciting year.”

Bubba Watson said he had given it his best shot, he and his caddy had just misread the last putt on the 18th green, the break being more than they had anticipated;

“Today I felt really good waking up. I felt no meshes. I was ready to go. Pulled my first tee shot, still made birdie, almost made eagle and then pulled the next shot off the tee and sliced the next one. The ball position was a little off: I was a little too close to it, too far from it. Takes a few holes to figure it out and then I had some chances on the back nine. I really fought hard and had some chances on the back nine and just didn’t make some putts. But then on 18, I had 191 out of the rough, no grass behind the ball so I could make solid contact with it and hit a pure 4 iron, a low bullet 4 iron and just misread the putt. We just didn’t give enough. We thought it was not going to break as much and it broke about three inches too much.”g

Rory McIlroy finished in third spot, after a good round of – 5 under for a last round total of 67, two shots off the lead. He recalled how tough 18 was today;

“Yeah, you know, 18 today was playing brutal, probably the toughest it’s played all week. I hit a really good second shot through the trees. It just jumped on me a little bit and ran through the back of the green and drew a pretty bad lie there. Especially with water on the other side of the pin, I didn’t want to be too ambitious.”

Luke Donald finished at -12 for the tournament, another trademark top ten finish for the consistent ex world #1.

Tiger Woods had to withdraw from the tournament after hitting his tee shot on the 12th tee, he said;

“I felt tightness in my left Achilles warming up this morning, and it continued to get progressively worse. After hitting my tee shot at 12,              I decided it was necessary to withdraw. In the past, I may have tried to continue to play, but this time, I decided to do what I thought was necessary.”

Apparently this is the same Achilles tendon Tiger injured about a year ago at the Masters. That injury forced Woods to miss three months of golf, including two majors. Tiger changed his shoes at the turn, but his limp became more obvious concluding with his withdrawal at 12.

Bubba Watson still Leading @ Doral, after three rounds

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Bubba Watson had a third day of solid play at TPC Blue Monster and will take a three-shot edge into Sunday’s final round, joining him on the tee for the final paring will be Keegan Bradley. Bubba had a -5 67 for -17 under par total, and Keegan shot a -6 66 for his total of -14. Also on -14 after a third round of 69 is Justin Rose. Rosy three putted the last green to miss the opportunity of playing a fourth straight day with Bubba.

Best round of the day was from Rory McIlroy firing in a -7 for 65, but at -9 under par for the tournament he would be seemingly out of contention tomorrow. Joining him at -9 is Tiger Woods and Luke Donald, who are also playing for the minor placings, unless of course they can all produce a round of 62, even in that unlikely event I expect the leaders to improve on their overnight scores.

Even further adrift are Lee Westwood, who had a better round today, -4 for a total of -5, and Phil Mickelson who had another miserable day managing -1 and a tournament total of -2.

WGC. Doral, Bubba Watson leads after two rounds.

PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Bubba Watson leads the WGC Cadillac Championship after the second round by one shot from Justin Rose. Bubba had a wonderful round of -10 under par 62, to lead the tournament @ -12. Justin had an impressive -8 for his second round leaving him just one shot adrift of the lead @ -11 for the tournament.

Rory McIlroy recovered a little bit to finish @ -1 under par for the Championship with a round of -3 69. Luke Donald maintained his presence shooting a -4 round to keep him in touch with the leaders, he is now has a total of -6. Lee Westwood had a good round of -5, but that still leaves him with a total of -1 for the tournament, and eleven shots off the pace.

Tiger Woods also had a -5 round and the same score for his total for the two rounds, while Phil Mickelson had a -1 round and the same -1 for the Championship. With no cut in this competition I guess anyone could still win, maybe Tiger can finish with two rounds of 62.

WGC Doral, Windy Blue Monster Devours the worlds best Golfers

Windy conditions at the WGC Doral made it tough going for some of the worlds best golfers. World #1 Rory McIlroy could only manage a +1 round of 73, while # 3 Lee Westwood struggled for a +4 over par 76. Tiger woods and Phil Mickelson completed their first rounds at even par 72 and Englands flamboyant Ian Poulter could only muster a +4 76. Luke Donald finished a -2 and Justin Rose went one better at -3, while at the top of the leaderboard are Australia’s Adam Scott and Jason Dufner coming in at -6 under par for their rounds. Scotts performance adding fuel to the ‘ban the long putter” because one of the complaints against the long putter are that it steadies the golfer in windy conditions.

The Associated Press

Rory McIlroy was disappointed with his day, lamenting how tricky it was on the course;

“It was a bit of a struggle. It was a pretty tricky day but obviously there was good scores out there. I just didn’t really get anything going. You know, I was trying to sort of play my way back into the round. I thought if I could shoot under par on the back nine, which was the front nine, post something around 70, 69, it would have been a good score. But made a couple bogeys early on on that nine and couldn’t really get it back.”

Adam Scott was happy with his days effort;

“Yeah, obviously very satisfied with the round today, and in these blustery conditions. I took advantage of my good play the first 11 or 12 holes and then managed to kind of get it up-and-down here or there coming in. So very pleased to put myself in the tournament so far. It’s a good way to start”

You notice that not one reporter asked Adam about the advantages of his long putter.

Paul Casey makes his return to Golf @ Doral

 

 Associated Press

Paul Casey  has missed five tournaments this year after dislocating his shoulder while snowboarding, a strange and obviously dangerous holiday pastime. A doctor he saw in the aftermath of his injury said that surgery was a definite possibility, and he would be out four to six months That statement was a frightening moment for Paul, he said;

“That was a little bit worrying,”

He was convinced that surgery was not needed, and sought a second professional opinion. It was the first time he had dislocated the shoulder, the labrum was in good shape and there was every reason to believe he could return to 100 percent health.

At this time Paul figures he’s at about 90 percent for the Cadillac Championship at Doral, which has a 74-man field with no cut.

“It’s feeling strong, all that work I’ve been putting into the shoulder, now I have to do a lot of work on the golf game.” he said.

Of the accident Paul recounted he heard a sound coming from his shoulder when he fell, felt pain and within minutes could not move his arm. When he eventually got down the mountain and had an X-ray, he was told it was dislocated. Then, the shoulder was put back in the socket and the pain went away. He felt OK then;

“I thought it was great, I thought maybe I can be ready for Abu Dhabi or Qatar or something like that. I had absolutely no clue how long a dislocation takes to repair. Finding out that I didn’t need surgery was a relief because the surgery basically would have wiped out the whole season. I think I’ll throw in some events as the golf game gets stronger and as the year goes on,”

Paul tee’s off at 11am, with Alexander Noren and Greg Chalmers, good luck Paul on your comeback trail.

 

WGC,Cadillac Championship @ Doral, Luke Donald aims to regain #1 ranking

Luke Donald is planning on slipping under the radar at this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship, where victory would see him reclaim his position on top of the Official World Golf Ranking.

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Luke spent 40 weeks as the world’s #1 player and is confident of restricting Rory’s tenure to just one week. He will get a really good look at McIlroy’s game as the pair have been drawn together at Doral. Joining them on the tee in the first two rounds of the US$8.5million event, being held at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami, Florida. will be world #3 Lee Westwood. Having the Worlds #1, #2 and #3 golfers squaring up to each other for the first two rounds of this event is really mouthwatering. Luke is banking on slipping under the radar, saying;

“It might be an advantage for me to play with Lee and Rory. They might have used up a lot of energy in their semi-final at the WGC,Accenture Match Play. Maybe they will focus on each other again, and I can just slip under the radar and make some birdies without them noticing. It’ll be a fun three-ball, so I’m really looking forward to it. Obviously Rory is the guy who’s playing well, but as always, you try to concentrate on your own game. If you compare what Rory is starting to do now at a very young age, it has some similarities to what Tiger Woods did. Obviously their records are comparable at the same age. Rory still has a ways to go but he’s got a huge amount of talent, and now he’s starting to win more events to back it up. Rory right now is the most confident player out here.  Every week now he’s putting himself into contention to win, and so his confidence is obviously sky high. I think the most impressive thing last week at the Honda Classic was his short game. I think that really won it for him on Sunday. He got up and down a bunch of times, and it’s the kind of thing that got me to the top of the World Ranking. So Rory really deserved to overtake me, because he’s improved so much and has been so consistent.”

 

Westwood and McIlroy