Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Billy’s Birdie Blitz Wins It.

Billy Horschel’s six consecutive birdie blitz set up his first US PGA Tour victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, played on the TPC Louisiana golf course.

Billy Horschel / Graythen / Getty Images

Billy Horschel won the Zurich Classic with a final round of -8 under par 64, and tournament total of -20 under par. Billy needed to make a birdie on the 18th to win, but was a long way from the cup. D.A. Points had a five foot putt left for his birdie and that would have tied the scores. Pulling  on his powers of positive thinking, Billy told himself if he wanted to win here and now this 27 ft putt had to go in;

“I hadn’t made a long one all week and I said, I’m due. I was like, If it’s my time, this putt needs to go in.”

It did, and the celebrations began;

“I know it was pretty intense, there was a lot going on. It’s celebration time now.”

There were two weather delays during the final round, the second delay, for lightning, happened just before Billy could take his second shot on the 18th hole. That gave him the all important 52 minutes to reflect on what was at stake. As history now tells us, it did not alter Billy’s commitment one little bit;

‘ For some reason it puts me at ease a little bit. You don’t know how long your delay is going to be so you’ve just got to go with it and just wait it out. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as it could have been.”

D.A. Points had to settle for second place with his -19 under par total, his last round of -7 under par 65 just not quite enough to get him back into the winners circle. Darren won the Shell Houston Open last month, beating Billy and Henrik Stenson. He was full of praise for Billy and the way he played;

” When a player goes out and shoots eight under and birdies the last hole to win, hats off to Billy. He’s played great all year. He was one shot shy of me at Houston and I’m a shot shy of him here. It’s just the way it goes.”

Kyle Stanley shot a solid -5 under par, 67 to finish in third position, with his total score of -17 under par.

The  14-year-old Chinese amateur Guan Tianlang finished in 71st spot, after making his second cut in two PGA TOUR events, the first coming at the Masters Tournament.

Lucas Glover, the overnight leader, seemed to suffer from the two weather delays, coming back from the first delay of 2 hours and 54 minutes, Lucas two putted for par and then never recovered his composure. He finished tied in fourth place at -15 under par, with Bobby Gates, five shots off the lead of Billy Horschel.

You can assume that Lucas had his mind on other important things going on, like the impending birth of his child, and the well-being of his wife.

 

 

Valero Texas Open. Billy Horschel Bounces Back.

Billy Horschel bounced back from last weeks disappointment at the Shell Houston Open, to lead after the second round of the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio.

Billy Horschel / Halleran / Getty Images

Billy Horschel is two shots clear of the field in San Antonio, courtesy of his second round of -4 under par 68, for a tournament total of -8 under par. Last week at the Shell Houston Open Billy finished tied in second place, his last round of -6 under par just one shot off the lead, and this week is continuing to show his recent good form.

There are three players within one shot of the lead, Daniel Summerhays, Steven Bowditch and Charley Hoffman. Charlie always seems to play well in San Antonio, but not sure why, maybe its the Mexican food;

” I don’t know, I played good over at La Cantera when it was played over there, and ever since it’s moved here to TPC  I’ve played well also. I hit a bunch of fairways and gave myself an opportunity to make a lot of birdies, hopefully I can keep this going this weekend.”

Jim Furyk and Rory McIlroy are in a group of players who are at -5 under par, three shots off the lead. Jim only arrived here the night before the pro-am and only managed to get in four holes before rain and lightning halted play at the AT&T Oaks Course. Jim has two drivers in his bag this week and hopes the gamble works out well enough to give him encouragement to take them to Augusta National next week. He tried to get some information on-line;

”  Tried to go online to get an idea where guys were hitting balls off the tee. I wanted to give it a practice run, I’m having a hard time. I may have to switch shafts out. I’ll make a couple of adjustments and try to play through it. There aren’t many birdies at Augusta anymore either. If they lengthen it out another 400 yards, there would be no birdies at Augusta.”

Rory showed his greenhorn credentials in the desert, searching for a miss-placed tee shot off the fairway he discovered that the cactus on this course may be smaller than the ones that soar up through the Arizona desert, but they spike you just as hard. He said of the incident;

” I shouldn’t have been there anyways, so I guess it was deserved, getting a, whatever it was,  off the cactus.”

Rory thinks he is in fine shape for this tournament, and Augusta, after reaching two par fives here in two shots;

“I think that shows where my game is, those two par fives are probably the toughest to hit in two with how small the greens are. It shows that my ball-striking is there. If I can keep hitting shots like that into par fives, I’ll be doing OK.”

Shell Houston Open. Darren Points the Way and Wins

Darren Andrew Points won the Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club on Sunday.

Darren Andrew Points / Getty Images

D.A. Points won the Shell Houston Open with a thirteen foot par saving putt on the 18th hole at Redstone, to capture his second career victory with a tournament total of -16 under par. His final round was a solid -6 under par 66, the same score as Henrik Stenson and Billy Horschel, who both tied for second place at -15 under par.

Darren, who is now going to the Masters at Augusta said he never counted himself out;

“I never count myself out, I never just chalk it up like, `Oh, this year is over with.’ I’ve never felt like that. I was just grinding, just trying to wait and try to find that one thing that like, `Boom! There it is.’ And there I go. Fortunately, it was this week and I capitalized on it. I’ve been having a really tough year, to have a putt to win, you want that starting out every week. I would have liked for it to have been closer. I never not think it’s on my radar, I want to win. I want to win more than once. I want to have the opportunity to win majors. I want to play in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cup. These are things I want to do, and I know I’m capable of doing.” 

Henrik is also going to Augusta;

” I said to my caddie walking up 18, no matter what, we’re playing for a green jacket in a couple of weeks, that will be nice.”

Rory McIlroy,  the world’s No. 2 player finished his week at the Shell Houston Open by making a 25-foot birdie putt for a 70 and a tie for 45th place. A long way from where he wanted to be, and not a good omen for Augusta National. Rory will now play the Valero Texas Open next week before heading to the Masters.

 

 

Shell Houston Open. Cink and Hass Tied at Top

Stewart Cink and Bill Hass are tied at the top of the leaderboard in the Shell Houston Open, at the Redstone Golf Club in Texas.

Stewart Cink & Bill Hass / Halleran / Getty Images

 Bill Hass and Stewart Cink lead the competition by just one shot at -11 under par for the tournament. Stewart shot a -4 under par round of 68, while Bill Hass went one shot better at -5 under par 68 to tie at the top.

Stewart is fired up for the duel tomorrow, stating that he can’t wait;

” Tomorrow is a great learning opportunity for me to get out there and be nervous and perform and try to stay in the moment and let it happen, I can’t wait.”

Bill, was a co-leader after 36 holes at Bay Hill last week, today he made seven birdies over his last 13 holes to catch Stewart. Bill is under no illusions about how tough it is going to be tomorrow, there are 20 players separated by just four shots on a course where birdies are available, but the slightest miss could prove to be the unraveling of a good score;

” Tomorrow you’re going to have to play very well, you can’t just hang on and hope everybody else will fall back.”

Steve Wheatcroft was tied for the lead when he shanked a shot from the greenside bunker on the 18th, the ball coming out at a 45 degree angle, missing the green completely. Steve said of that bunker shot;

“If you don’t catch it perfectly, it runs across the green into the water, I opened the club face just trying to hit a high soft one and obviously I missed most of the club face.”

Steve is one of four players just one shot back, they are; Ben Crane, D.A. Points and Jason Kokrak, all of them at -10 under par.

The list of players at -9 under par is even longer, nine players to be exact, it is going to be exciting to watch this shoot-out tomorrow.

Shell Houston Open. Wheatcroft Weaves Magic

The Shell Houston Open has a qualifier, Steve Wheatcroft, at the top of the leaderboard after the second round at the Redstone Golf Club, on the Tournament Course in Texas.

Steve Wheatcroft / Halleran / Getty Images

Steve Wheatcroft only just qualified for the Shell Houston Open carded another round of -5 under par 67 to lead the tournament at -10 under par. Unfortunately for Steve he has no status on the PGA Tour, and only conditional status on the Web.com Tour, so Monday qualifiers are the only way to get into tournaments, and he hates them;

” Monday qualifiers are terrible. They’re just not fun, plain and simple. I was on the PGA TOUR in ’07, played terribly. I had no status, so I had to be back to Monday qualifiers and pre-qualifiers the next year. I hate them. If I can be on top of the leaderboard at this point, I know I can keep playing well, there’s no reason to think I can’t. I’ve never won on the PGA TOUR. I’ve won on the Web.com Tour, I’ve won by 12. I know I can keep going forward. Who knows? I could shoot 61 tomorrow. I could shoot 81 tomorrow. I really don’t know. I’m not going to sit here and think about it too much. I’m going to think about the first tee ball and we’ll go from there.”

D.A. Points is still there in the mix, tied in second place with Jason Kokrak at -9 under par, Darren had a -1 under par second round, making only one birdie as his putter went suddenly cold;

“I made everything yesterday and made nothing today. To be one shot back and be right in the mix is huge.”

Jason Kokrak had a second round -3 under par 69, and said he was happy for Steve, but would like to overtake him on Sunday;

“I’m happy for him, I’m happy he’s doing well. Hopefully, I can go out there and overtake the lead. Hopefully, I overtake him late Sunday.”

Two big name players who just made the cut on the number, -1 under par, were Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson.

Rory was happy to be playing the week-end, not with any hopes of contending, he is just seeking confidence. He will now get even more rounds in before the Masters, because he feels he needs more rounds to get ready for the Masters, Rory has decided to enter the Valero Texas Open next week;

“It’s a weekend where I can have a couple more rounds and try and get confidence in what I’m doing. The game is fickle, you make a couple of birdies, a few good shots, and your confidence goes up. A few bad ones, and it goes down a bit. I hit a couple of drives, and 17 is a good example, when I let it go and it’s fine. It gets out there.”

Phil decided to play Redstone on Friday with two 3-woods in the bag, though one of them is so strong it acts like a driver, and he is still up-beat about his chances;

“If I can play like I did the back nine, I’m going to give myself a lot of birdie chances.”

 

 

Shell Houston Open. D.A. Points the Way

D.A. Points leads after the first round of the Shell Houston Open at the Redstone Golf  Course, Tournament Course, in Humble  Texas.

D.A. Points / Getty Images

Darren Andrew Points fired in a first round of -8 under par 64, to lead the Shell Houston Open after the first round today in Texas, and has a one-shot lead over Cameron Tringale and John Rollins.

Darren was using a Ping Anser he first borrowed from his mother during his junior years, he thinks he should have been using all the time;

” Maybe I’m an idiot for not having used this putter the whole time, it worked well today. It’s one of those things, I holed some nice par putts yesterday in my pro-am. I didn’t hit it great, but I made a few good putts and the ball was going in the hole with nice pace and rolling real tight. And I thought, `All right, this might be the key that kind of gets me going.”

John Rollins managed a -7 under par 65 in the windier conditions in the afternoon, John said he gave himself a lot of opportunities in the tougher weather;

“I knew the conditions were going to be tough out there, knew the greens were fast, so that makes it tough as well. I just kept the ball in front of me and gave myself a lot of opportunities and got a solid round out of it.”

Rory McIlroy finished a disappointing round at +1 over par, he said;

“I felt like on the front nine I was a little tentative. I just tried to commit to myself a little more on the back nine and it seemed to help. If I could have got it back to even par, I would have been pretty happy, but I’m one over par and, hopefully, the conditions are a little calmer tomorrow morning. I think I learned from that over the last few weeks, I’ve got to keep my spirits up. I felt like I was doing that a bit too much at the Match Play and The Honda, and obviously we saw what happened there.”

Lets hope that Rory can make the cut, another miss would certainly set the alarm bells ringing.

Phil Mickelson was another who did not perform too well, finishing double-bogey, bogey, bogey to end up at even par. He was unhappy with today’s performance, and also spoke about not playing the week before Augusta;

“It was a disappointing finish, I feel really good with the putter, and I believe that as the tournament goes on, I’ll get better. It’s a very unusual situation for me here. I usually like to play the week before. I’m going to have to learn how to do that, now that we’re not really having tournaments conducive to getting ready for those events. This is a good opportunity for me to work on getting prepared properly in another spot outside of a tournament.”

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.

Hunter Mahan Wins Shell Houston Open

Sullivan/Getty Images

Hunter Mahan won the Shell Houston Open at Redstone G.C. in Texas. Hunter beat Carl Pettersson by one shot, posting a last round score of -1 under par 71, for a tournament total of -16 under par, to Carl’s -15. Louis Oosthuizen finished a further shot back on -14, with a host of other players back at -12, including Phil Mickelson, whose expected late charge never materialized.

The new Champion felt great about his win;

“Feels great. Today played; seemed different than the first three ; making a lot of birdies. Today it was kind of playing a little bit tougher. The wind was a tad stronger, but the pins were tough. You had to hit it close. So, it felt good to kind of have the lead there for I don’t know how long, maybe nine holes or so, and to kind of hang on. It’s a different; most of my other wins have kind of come from behind. This was a little different, little different feeling playing, and it was nice to come through when I had to, hit some good shots when I had to, and feels great to come to 18 knowing you got to have a par to win and hit two good shots and make an easy two-putt. Feels great.”

Carl was definitely upset he could not get it done, when he had the opportunities;

” I played good. I played really good today. Very difficult. I couldn’t make a putt on the back nine. I gave myself good chances coming in. Just a little pissed off I left it short on 18. I had a good chance coming in, couldn’t get anything to go.”

Louis was unhappy with the way his round panned out;

” It was a rough day. I can’t really pinpoint hitting terrible shots. I had horrific lies on 5 and 8, ball with mud and making two double bogies, you know, at the time I was trying to push to try and make par or bogey on them, but just tried a bit too hard. The two birdies would have done a playoff for me. It was disappointing. I kept in there and made a bogey on 14, but other than that, I’m happy with the way I came back.”

Phil was philosophical about his last round effort;

“I didn’t hit the ball close enough with my irons. My iron play wasn’t the best this week, and then when I had a lot of good putts that came close, they didn’t quite fall like last year I hit everything. I played well and drove the ball well and hit a lot of good shots, and I feel like I’m getting some good momentum heading into next week.”

Shell Houston Open, 3rd Round. Louis Leads.

Louis Oosthuizen leads the field after the third round of the Shell Houston Open, at Redstone G.C. at Humble in Texas. Louis had -6 under par round of 66, to leave him at the top of the leaderboard on -17 under for the tournament. He said he was ready for the contest tomorrow in the final round;

“It’s a great leaderboard behind me, it’s going to be tough, but I feel like I’m ready for it.”

Sullivan/Getty Images

Two shots back at -15 under par is Hunter Mahan, who had a -7 under par third round, and is alone in second place on -15 under par. Hunter commented on only having one bogey all week;

” Been playing real solid all week. One bogey so far. That’s always good. This course is ; conditions are great, scoring is good. It’s always in perfect shape. So , the rough is pretty short, so you can kind of ; if you avoid the water and hit it on the opposite side of the fairway or rough, you’re going to have a shot at the green, and play smart like that, you can have a lot of looks, and been rolling it well this week and especially today. It’s difficult out there because our mind always wants to shoot forward and go to 18 and see what kind of round you can get in and look at the leader board and try to figure all these numbers in your head. “But the more I can stay in the moment, just try hit the next shot good, it’s one of those things where you just realize, oh, my gosh I’m 6, 7-under, I didn’t even think about it. I’m just trying to hit the next shot good.”

Carl Pettersson and Brian Davis are still hanging around, at just three shots back on -14, and maybe still have a chance of winning the trophy.

Phil Mickelson is six shots back of the lead, but is still upbeat about his chances and is excited about the coming shootout on Sunday. He said in interview;

“I’m so close to playing great. I know I need to shoot a really low round out here, but I know it’s there. I know that I can do it. I’ve done it. But I know that with the conditions right now, you can shoot 6, 7, 8, 9 under par, and hopefully that’s what I’m going to be shooting for tomorrow. Instead of getting frustrated, I came in contact and hit more good shots, I gave myself good opportunities. I’m really pleased the way I played the first three rounds. Hopefully I can get a really hot round tomorrow. I’m pleased with how I played, but I’m disappointed in the score. I need to go a little bit lower. I feel like I’m playing well to where I can get a really hot round out here. I did it last year, and I thought I’m even playing better to where if I get off to a good start or make a few putts, I feel like I can really get it going tomorrow.”

Shell Houston Open completion of 2nd Round

Jeff Maggert lead the Shell Houston Open after the completion of the suspended round today. Jeff had another round of 66 to match his first round and finish with a total of -12 under par. Brian Davis and Louis Oosthuizen are joined at -11 under par by James Driscoll. Round three is now in progress, and as I write Brian Davis and Louis Oosthuizen are on the first tee.