Tiger is The PLAYERS Champion. Sergio Shoots Himself in the Foot.

Tiger Woods won The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP at TPC Sawgrass on the Stadium Course, in the end by a canter.

Tiger Woods acknowledging his win / Getty Images

Tiger finished The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP with a final round of -2 under 70, for a  tournament total of -13 under par. He said he was trying to get better each year;

“Each year I’m tying to get better, so far this year, I’m off to a pretty good start.”

Talking about his errant tee shot on 14, which found water;

“Just hit absolutely the worst shot I could possibly hit, but it was the only bad swing I made all day. I told myself I could still win the tournament.”

Sergio Garcia stood on the tee box at the 17th par 3 Island hole tied with Tiger at the top of the leaderboard. Two lazy tee shots later and a couple of putts and it was all over, a quad bogey deflating Sergio. His slump was so bad he double bogied the 18th as well, dropping six shots on the final two holes, crashing down to tie for eight place at -7 under par. Sergio’s tender temperament under pressure was in question again. Why did he take a pitching wedge to the 17th green, when just about everybody else used a nine iron. He came up short, and in a strange move decided to replay the shot from the tee, ignoring the easier option of walking over to the drop zone, he failed again, his tournament was all over.

Three players tied in second place, Kevin Streelman, Jeff Maggert and David Lingmerth, all at -11 under par. Kevin put together a very good last round of -5 under par, 67. Jeff was in the hunt for most of the day, he finished with -2 under par of 70. David Lingmerth was unable to improve on his third round total and finished the day with an even par round of 72.

Martin Laird, Henrik Stenson and Ryan Palmer were the next bunch of players, they completed the tournament at -10 under par.

Joining Sergio on -7 under par were; Ben Crane, Rory McIlroy, Brandt Snedeker, Marc Leishman, Lee Westwood and Casey Wittenberg.

Not sure if this tournament will be better remembered for Tiger’s second win at The Players, or Sergio’s monstrous  meltdown on the intimidating island green par three 17th hole.

The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP. Bad Light Stops Play, In 3rd Round

After an earlier weather delay the third round of The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP at TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, was halted because of poor light. The third round will resume at 7:10 a.m. ET Sunday with eight players still on the course.

David Lingmerth / Lyons/Getty Images

At the close of play an unknown Swede, David Lingmerth was at the top of the leaderboard at -12 under par for the tournament. David still has one hole left to play to complete his memorable third round, at the moment he is -4 under par on the round.

Tied in second place are Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods, all at -10 under par. Henrik has completed 16 holes, and tomorrow faces the dreaded Island green of the par three 17th. Not a shot anyone would relish as their first strike of the day.

Sergio and Tiger, who were paired together for the third round have completed 14 holes, Sergio currently +1 over par on the day and Tiger is at even par. There has always been bad blood between the two players, and today was no different, they made sure they were miles apart, and there was no conversation between them at all.  During Sergio’s backswing on number two, Tigers fans let out a great roar. The commotion lead Sergio to hit a poor shot, this is how he reported the incident later;

” It was my shot to hit. He moved all the crowd that he needed to move and I waited for that. I want to say that he didn’t see that I was ready. But you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit.”

Tiger remarked to the reporters;

” It’s not surprising that he was complaining about something.”

When told of Tiger’s comment Sergio responded;

” That’s fine. At least I’m true to myself.”

Both of these guys will be desperate to partner the leader tomorrow, another round of the pair of them together will not be conducive to good golf, from either of them, as today’s round has proved. If either of them want a decent chance to win tomorrow, they will have to be separated.

Tomorrow will be long day out on the course, lets hope that the weather does not intervene again, and we get a good result tomorrow. One thing is for sure, it will be fascinating, especially if the leaders are tightly grouped and facing the par 3 17th.

Leading the bunch on -9 under par is 49 year-old Jeff Maggert, he put together the days best round, a -6 under 66, and is quietly confident of playing this course well;

” I felt like this golf course would kind of fall in to my favor, the way I’ve been hitting the ball this year, and it was just a matter of trying to make a few putts. It’s funny, the older I get, some of the struggles that I’ve been through, I joke a little bit about that. I’m still very competitive on the inside and want to play well every week, but it’s just tough, just trying to keep it together and keep your health in good shape.”

 

The Players Championship. Sergio Surges, Castro Crashes.

Sergio Garcia surged to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP at TPC Sawgrass, while Roberto Castro, yesterdays first round hero crashed down the board.

Sergio Garcia / Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Sergio shot a second round -7 under par 65, to surge to the top of the leaderboard with a tournament total of -11 under par.

Sergio, a past winner here, in 2008, is his own man, and fears no one, not even second placed Tiger;

“I don’t have to measure myself against anybody, I know what I want to try to do, and any given day I can shoot a round like this and any other day he can shoot a good round and beat me. Like we always say, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. So there are going to be good days and not so good days, so just got to enjoy the good ones as much as possible. Fortunately for me, I’ve managed to play quite decent on this golf course, so any good thing that you can get in your head, it’s obviously positive and those kind of things always help. But it’s a different year. We’ll see if we can manage to do something similar.”

Tiger is just one shot adrift of the leader, at -11 under par, after his second round of -5 under par 67.

Tiger was pretty happy to be where he is;

“ I’m pretty pleased with where it’s at right now, I’ve just never been able to put it all together for this one particular week. But so far this year, I’m right there. Even though I haven’t played well in the past, I’ve still won here, actually, I’ve won here twice, technically. { Tiger was referring to the U.S. Amateur in 1994 }  I haven’t played my best here, but I’ve always felt that courses, even though it’s been a while I’ve won on them, I’ve still won on them, I know how to get around this golf course. This course, more than most, really tests every facet of your game. You have to drive the ball well. You have to hit your irons in the correct spots, and if you don’t hit your irons in the correct spots, you’re going to have some really funky up-and-downs. It’s trying to manage the ball in the correct spots, and I’ve done that the first two days.”

There are three players tied in third place, at -9 under par for the tournament; they are, Kevin Chappell, second round -6 under. Lee Westwood also with a -6 under,66, and Henrik Stenson, -5 under par second round.

Roberto Castro crashed down the leaderboard, struggling with a second round +6 over par,78, but he did make the cut.

Big name cut casualties include, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell and Ernie Els. Quite a star-studded list.

Tomorrow is moving day, who will move out of the reckoning ?

 

The Players Championship. Castro’s Revolution at TPC Sawgrass.

Roberto Castro started a revolution at The PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP at TPC Sawgrass, shooting a first round of -9 under par 63, to lead the tournament by three shots.

Roberto Castro / AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Roberto tamed the famous TPC Sawgrass course, he even birdied the infamous par three 17th island hole, and Eagled the par 5 second, his eleventh hole of the day. He spoke about a mental game he plays where he tries to birdie every other hole;

” ‘I hit it close a lot,when I eagled, I was like, oh, now I’m 7 under through 11, so that’s keeping ahead of that 50 percent mark, but this is a different golf course. The golf course is much harder than most of the other times I’ve kind of taken that attitude. It gets proven out here every week, Derek Ernst won last week in his eighth event and no one ever heard of him. There are a lot of good players out here.”

Tied in second pace are Rory McIlroy and Zach Johnson, both of them at -6 under par after their rounds of 66. Very good rounds but still three shots behind the leader. Rory did not hit his driver once on the front nine, a new strategy of his;

”  W hen you hit the shots, it seems very simple. I had a lot of good shots out there, lot of iron shots that were 12, 15 feet away from the pin and I got myself a lot of looks for birdies. I adopted maybe more of a conservative strategy off the tee this year. But once you put your ball in the fairway that means you can be more aggressive into the greens. So it sort of balances itself out.”

Tiger Woods is in the bunch of six players a further shot back at -5 under par for the tournament, four shots off the pace of the leader at the top of the board.

Tomorrow is another day, it would be good to see Roberto Castro put together another good round of golf and stay at the top of the leaderboard.

Tiger the TV Ref ? No Way

Sean Foley & Tiger, putting practice  ahead of the Players Championship.

Tiger has admitted he would not pick up the phone and call in any infringement he may have witnessed on TV, no matter what sport he happened to be watching;

“I don’t ever see myself calling in and saying that Kobe traveled or things like that;  or some offensive lineman held. But it’s our sport, and that’s what we’ve accepted. Certain groups are going to get more heat than others just because they’re on TV. It is what it is.”

Tiger was speaking at TPC Sawgrass, where he is preparing for The Players Championship, he was referring to the incident at the Masters, which eventually cost him a triple bogey, and lost him the chance of winning the tournament;

” I had a lot of momentum going at that time,’ I think I was tied for the lead with Fred, and I thought I’d stuffed it in there and I thought it was going to be a birdie and I could take the lead there and maybe sneak one in on the final three holes and basically start building a lead in the tournament. And it kind of turned the other way with a good shot. When I was away from it I reflected on the things I did right, but also the things I did wrong. Unfortunately, I hit a good shot and caught a bad break. I still had an opportunity over the next 36 holes to get it back but I just didn’t do it.”

Talking about The Players Championship, and its importance in association with the four Majors, Tiger thought if there was to be another Major, this would be it;

“We have our four major championships, and that’s that. But if there was going to be another one, this would be it. This is the best field that we have. We have guys from all over the world playing, and probably next to the PGA Championship, one of the deepest and stiffest fields we’ll face.‘It is one of those tricky courses where they have some very tough lines off the tee and if you are not playing well you are going to get exposed,’ said Woods. ‘On top of that the greens are now a lot more fiery coming into them, so that makes it even more important to hit the ball in these fairways. And if you miss these greens at all, you’ve got some of the weirdest, funky little shots you will ever face.”

Tiger Woods’ whistle blower was one David Eager, a rules official, who not only embarrassed himself, but other officials, and TV commentators, who were on the course at the time. Maybe those guys will be seeking revenge on him the next time he tees it up on the Champions Tour. If Tiger never quite gets passed Jack Major record, misses out by one, just think.

Tiger and The Drop / AP

 

The Masters. Aussie Assault at Augusta

Three Aussies have made a third day assault on the Masters at Augusta National, Adam Scott in third place, followed by Marc Leishman and Jason Day tied in fourth place. They are vying to be the first Aussie to win the Masters Title. For them to accomplish that feat they will have to overcome the two leaders at the top of the board.

Angel Cabrera and Brandt Snedeker / Getty Images

Angel and Brandt both completed the third round in -3 under par,  for a tournament total of -7 under par. Brandt has made a bold statement about being here to win;

” I’ve spent 32 years of my life getting ready for tomorrow, I’m going to be disappointed if I don’t win. Period. I’m not here to get a good finish, I’m here to win.”

Angel, who won here in 2009, is a two-time Major winner, and you would think that he has the extra experience to overcome the mental factors of coming down the stretch in a Major contest, Angel had this to say, via an interpreter;

” I’ve been working very hard for this moment, and I’ve got to take the opportunity.”

Adam Scott said it would be fantastic to win the Masters, I think that is an under statement;

” Obviously, to win the Masters would be incredible, it would be great for Australia. We’ve never looked better odds-wise going into a Sunday, except that one year in 1996. It’s going to be a hell of a round tomorrow.”

Jason Day lead the tournament for most of the day, but made bogey on the last two holes;

“My favorite tournament of the year, I love this place. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders, being from Australia and no Australian has ever won the event. They have been very, very close, but I’ve just got to try to get that out of my mind and just plug away.”

The day started with some high drama as Tiger Woods was penalized two shots, following his violation of the rules in dropping his ball yesterday, after his shot had hit the pin and found it’s way into the water. Tiger dropped his ball to replay the shot, but instead of dropping according to rule 26-1; ” Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot the original ball was last played.” Tiger went two yards further back, to give himself the correct distance for the shot. In a game of political maneuvering the tournament committee handed Tiger a two shot penalty. There are a lot of people who felt that he should have been disqualified. Ultimately what saved Tiger, was a new rule, just two years old, that states disqualification will not be handed down when the complaint has come from someone watching TV. Seems like a fair assessment to me, a TV pundit gets umpteen replays, officials on the course get one look. You could argue that Tiger and his caddie should know the rules, I bet Steve Williams would not have let his man violate a rule.

Tiger admitted the mistake;

“I went back to where I played it from, but went two yards further back and I tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit, and that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back. I felt that was going to be the right decision to take off four yards right there. And I did. It worked out perfectly.”

The Masters. Sergio Sinks, Jason Jumps Up.

It was all change at the Masters on day two with, Sergio sinking while Jason Day jumped up into the outright lead.

Jason Day / Redington / Getty Images

Jason Day shot a -4 under par second round to lead the tournament at -6 under par, and by just one shot from high-flying fifty-three year old Freddie Couples, and Aussie first round leader Marc Leishman.

Jason spoke of the pressure on his shoulders, on trying to become the first Australian to win the Masters;

” Obviously there’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders, being from Australia and no Australian has ever won the event.  They have been very, very close, but I’ve just got to try to get that out of my mind and just plug away. It’s all how you look at it. If you look at it as pressure, you’re going to worry about it more. If you look at it as a challenge and an opportunity to be the first and stay positive with it, you know, it only motivates you to play well. So I’ve just got to really not think about it at all I really need to stay committed to the game plan, stay aggressive to my target and just not worry about anything else but hitting the shot in front of me.”

Freddie had a -1 under par 71 second round while Marc Leishman stumbled to a +1 over par 73, the same score as David Lynn, David is now tied in the group of players sitting tied in seventh place. There are seven competitors in that position, including Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and K.J. Choi.

Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker are all tied in fourth place, at -4 under par.

This Championship is still wide open, anyone shooting a real low round tomorrow will definitely put themselves in the box seat for the final round on Sunday.

It was a day of bad luck for some, Chinese amateur Tianlang Guan was penalized one shot for slow play, the first player ever to be punished for this offence for 77 years at Augusta National. A very harsh penalty when you witness some of the slow play out there today, the second round took thirty-six more minutes to complete than the first round, hard to believe that only one player is penalized for slow play. Makes you wonder why none of the Professional players were not penalized. Tianlang still made the cut, right on the number of +4 over par, along with defending Champion Bubba Watson.

Before he started play today Tianlang said ;

” If I can make it, I would be really happy for it, but if I didn’t make it, it’s still a great week.”

A great week indeed for the Chinese youngster.

Gary Player remarked about the Tianlang incident;

” One of the saddest things I’ve seen in golf. When I heard, I prayed that he would make the cut.” 

Tiger Woods had an approach shot hit the pin and ricochet into a water hazard on the par 5 fifteenth hole. Tiger assessed the shot as being a good one;

“ The sun was in my eyes, so I knew I started the ball on the flag. I didn’t know if I cut it enough, but evidently it was a really good one.”

Finally on this incident impacted day, the big names who managed to miss the cut;

Last weeks winner Martin Laird, Matteo Manassero, who played alongside Tianlang, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Webb Simpson, Ian Poulter and Padraig Harrington.

Arnold Palmer Invitational, Tiger Triumphs

Tiger Woods triumphed at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, on Monday. The win equalled Sam Snead’s record for winning the same tournament eight times, it also took Tiger to the top of the FedExCup standings, not to mention elevating him back to World number one.

 

Tiger Woods with Arnold Palmer / Cannon / Getty Images

Tiger strolled round the course, with a final round of -2 under par 70, and a tournament total of  -13 under par, giving him a two shot win over Justin Rose. It has been a long time since Tiger was last World number one, actually it was late October 2010. When the collapse came it was pretty devastating, he fell as low as 58th in the world rankings before making his remarkable recovery.

Tiger said it was all down to hard work;

“It’s a byproduct of hard work, patience and getting back to winning golf tournaments.”

Arnold thinks Tiger’s record will stand for a long time;

“I don’t really see anybody touching it for a long time. I had the opportunity to win a tournament five times, and I knew how difficult that was.”

Justin Rose also finished with a last round of -2 under par 70, securing him second place alone. Not what Justin would have had in mind when he was leading the tournament by two shots before his uncharacteristic melt down at the end of the third round.

Rickie Fowler had to settle for a +1 over par 73 and a tie for third place with Mark Wilson (71), Keegan Bradley (71) and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (72).

Congratulations to Tiger, it will be interesting to see if the other players on tour can mount any sort of challenge to Tiger’s dominance.

 

Arnold Palmer Invitational, Play Suspended, Weather Delay.

The final-round of play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was suspended at 2:03 p.m. ET on Sunday due to dangerous weather. In similar circumstances to the European Tour event in Malaysia, the event has been disrupted by the inclement weather. Heavy winds, rain and dangerous lightning  moved into the area, and a tornado warning has been issued. All players, fans and officials have been evacuated from the golf course.

Mark Russell, vice president of rules and competitions for the PGA TOUR, said;

“The worst, I think is passed, we might have some rain coming, but nothing like we just saw.”

The tournament will conclude on Monday.

Arnold Palmer Invitational. Tiger Trounces the Course. Justin suffers the Jitters.

Tiger Woods trounced the Bay Hill course in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, shooting a third round -6 under par, 66. Meanwhile Justin Rose, who seemed to be cruising with a two shot lead, suddenly suffered a severe case of the jitters.

Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler / Greenwood / Getty Images

Tiger putted like a champion today, it helped him to his -6 under par round and a tournament total of -11 under par, a lead of two shots over the field. The man looking most likely to mount a serious challenge to Tiger is Rickie Fowler, no slouch himself today, with a third round of -5 under par, which elevated him to -9 under par and in a tie for second place. He will also play with Tiger for the final round, something that he could not handle last year when he faced the same task. He shot a last round 84 that day, compared to the winner Tiger Woods, who came home in 67.

Tiger said he now knows how to fix his game while out on the course;

” I just understand how to fix my game, it’s taken me a while. I was hurt for a long time. The changes to make the swing from where I was to now is a pretty big change.I hit a bad shot here and there, and that’s easy to fix. I know what my fix is going to be and that makes a big difference. I’m much more comfortable, but also I think that I’m feeling pretty good physically, that was huge. I’ve had one more year of working on my game, and here I am. Just because I’ve won here doesn’t ensure that I’m going to win the tournament, the conditions are different. The game might be different. But the objective is still to put myself in position to win the golf tournament and somehow get it done on Sunday. Over the course of my career, I’ve done a pretty decent job of that.”

Rickie remembers that bad day at Memorial;

” After Memorial, I’m looking for a little redemption, I’m feeling good about the pairing, about my game. I’m going in there with the attitude that I have nothing to lose and we’ll see what happens from there. He’s definitely the guy to beat but I’ll be right there to see what’s going on. With him having leads on courses he loves like this and Torrey Pines and Doral, and I’m sure there are others, he’s basically never lost with a lead in the final round. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can go do that.”

Tied in second place with Rickie are jittery Justin Rose and John Huh, Justin with an even par round and John a -1 under par round.

There are five players another shot back at -8 under par for the tournament, they are; Thorbjorn Olesen, Gonzalo Fedez- Castano, Jimmy Walker, Ken Duke and Bill Haas.

To be honest I can not see anybody challenging Tiger for this title, it is his for the taking. Winning would move him to the top of FedExCup leaderboard, becoming the first player to hold the top spot in five different seasons. Additionally, he’d match Sam Snead as the only other player to win the same tournament eight times and of course he would move back to No. 1 in the World, for the first time since Oct. 30, 2010.

Nobody is going to stop Tiger.