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PGA Tour's Leaders of the Past 10 Years

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:40:09 +0000

Do you know who led the PGA Tour in wins during the decade of 2000s? Of course you do! Duh! It was Tiger Woods. But you might not know that only four golfers posted double-digit wins during the 2000s. Or that Jerry Kelly makes the list of most Top 10 finishes during the decade. Or who made the most aces.

But you will know all that and more after checking out a few lists of PGA Tour leaders during the 2000s.

PGA Tour's Leaders of the Past 10 Years originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 11:40:09.

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Ochoa Passes Shin for LPGA Player of the Year

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:17:06 +0000

One way to look at the 2009 LPGA Tour Championship is that, having been pushed back to a Monday finish, not many golf fans were paying attention. Another way to look at it is that the tournament had Monday all to itself, guaranteeing any golf news leads with the LPGA.

Either way you look at it, the LPGA Tour Championship wound up providing a fantastic finish: Lorena Ochoa overtook Jiyai Shin to win the points-based Player of the Year Award ... by one point.

And Ochoa did it with a couple clutch putts on the last two holes, making a great bogey save on the 17th, then rolling in a great birdie on the last. That moved Ochoa into solo second and forced Shin - coming off her own bogey at No. 17 - to birdie the last to win the award. Shin nearly chipped it in, but settled for par and a tie for eighth place.

And that combination moved Ochoa, who started the week eight points behind Shin in the Player of the Year standings, one point in front. It is the fourth consecutive year Ochoa has won the award.

Oh, there was also that other golfer, the one who actually won the LPGA Tour Championship: Anna Nordqvist. A pretty compelling golfer in her own right. Imagine you're Nordqvist, a rookie. You won twice in your rookie season, two pretty big wins: The LPGA Championship, and the Tour Championship. And you can't even win Rookie of the Year. (Because Shin ran away with that award.)

So despite Michelle Wie's withdrawal, despite Paula Creamer's absence from the leaderboard, and despite those terrible weather problems, the LPGA's final tournament provided a great end to the 2009 season.

Ochoa Passes Shin for LPGA Player of the Year originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 18:17:06.

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Your Turn: Sling Some Golf Slang

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:07:17 +0000

Slang is a big part of most golfer's vocabularies. We talk about banana balls and hosel rockets, Bo Derek and the snowman, and some of us who simply talk a lot might be accused of carrying a mouth wedge.

Some golf slang terms are universal; many more are regional or local. And some golf slang might exist only within your foursome, invented by you or one of your golf buddies. And that's what we want to hear about: What golf slang does your group sling?

Tell us about your self-created or favorite slang terms.

Your Turn: Sling Some Golf Slang originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 11:07:17.

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Weekend Roundup

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:35:09 +0000

Catching up on news from the weekend:

The LPGA Tour Championship, delayed by rain (and mud), wraps up today after being shortened to 54 holes. The Golf Channel covers the final round from 3-5 p.m. ET. The Player of the Year race is down to the wire, with Jiyai Shin holding an 8-point lead over Lorena Ochoa; the winner of this tournament earns 30 points. At the completion of the second round, Shin is in second at 7-under and Ochoa is tied for third at 6-under. Leaderboard
The European Tour's first Race to Dubai also came down to the wire, with Lee Westwood winning the final tournament, earning a nice bonus check from the Race to Dubai bonus pool, and overtaking Rory McIlroy to win the money title and claim the No. 1 ranking in Europe. Nice work for a weekend. See the European Tour's tournament wrapup.
Six second-stage qualifiers on the road to PGA Tour Q-School finals were completed on Saturday. Ty Tryon, double-heart transplant recipient Erik Compton, and Jaime Lovemark failed to advance. So did some familiar names: Peter Lonard, Eric Axley, Dean Wilson, Robert Gamez and Kirk Triplett, among others. Justin Peters, the very first Big Break winner, moved on to Q-School finals, along with familiar names such as Shaun Micheel, Arjun Atwal, Carlos Franco, Jason Gore, Brandt Jobe and Mark Hensby. Q-School finals take place Dec. 2-7. See the PGA Tour's Q-School hub for scores from all the qualifiers.

Weekend Roundup originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:35:09.

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Good News from MRI for Wie

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:25:50 +0000

There is nothing seriously wrong with Michelle Wie's injured ankle - it's just your basic sprained ankle. That was the result of an MRI that Wie underwent on Friday, according to the Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte.

Wie has apparently been fitted with a walking boot to protect the ankle - she tweeted today, "Got my boot for walking so I'm good!!" - and should be OK to play in the LET Dubai Ladies Masters in a couple weeks.

Although Rosaforte did say that Wie re-injuried the ankle following the LPGA Tour Championship pro-am on Wednesday while "signing autographs." I don't know. If signing autographs is all it takes for Wie to aggravate an injury, I might advise her not to go to Dubai. Shut it down for 2009 and focus on being healthy for 2010.

Good News from MRI for Wie originally appeared on About.com Golf on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 18:25:50.

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Bad Luck Rains on LPGA Tour Championship

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:30:49 +0000

Sometimes it seems that if it weren't for bad luck, the LPGA would have no luck at all. Michelle Wie finally wins (wait, there's some good luck!), then an ankle injury forces her to withdraw from the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship. No chance to capitalize on that PR bonanza.

But at least the LPGA still had an exciting Player of the Year race to focus on at the Tour Championship! That race - between Jiyai Shin and Lorena Ochoa (with Cristie Kerr having a very remote chance) is still there. But the focus won't be.

Heavy rains in Houston have forced players off the course today for the second straight day. Only half the field has started the second round. And the LPGA has announced that the tournament is going from 72 holes to 54 holes, with a Monday finish. Tall about momentum screeching to a halt.

An LPGA official admitted there's the possibility of cutting to 36 holes, but with sunny weather finally expected on Sunday that hopefully won't be necessary.

LPGA Tour Championship on LPGA.com

Bad Luck Rains on LPGA Tour Championship originally appeared on About.com Golf on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 16:30:49.

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Australian Senior Leads Champions Tour Q-School Grads

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:45:14 +0000

It makes sense that a senior would win the Champions Tour Q-School tournament. But we're not talking any senior. We're talking Peter Senior. The three-time Order of Merit winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia was the winner of the senior circuit's Q-School finale on Friday.

Senior won 19 times on the Australasian tour, the last victory coming in 2003; plus four wins on the European Tour and three on the Japan Tour.

The Champions Tour has been called the hardest tour in the world to get onto, and it awards tour cards only to the Top 5 finishers at Q-School. Joining Senior in earning their 2010 Champions Tour cards are longtime Japan Tour star Joe Ozaki; former PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour player Ronnie Black; former Nationwide Tour player Steve Haskins (son of legendary college basketball coach Don Haskins); and Jim Roy. Roy won a playoff over Kirk Hanefeld and Bruce Vaughan to claim the final fully exempt tour card.

The golfers finishing sixth through 12th earned conditional status for 2010, and the remaining players in the Top 30 are eligible to compete in open qualifiers (a k a Monday qualifiers) on a week to week basis next year. For the identities of those players, view the full results.

Australian Senior Leads Champions Tour Q-School Grads originally appeared on About.com Golf on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 21:45:14.

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New Equipment: Wedge-a-palooza

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:12:56 +0000

There are 10 new pieces of golf equipment featured in our latest new equipment gallery, and five of them are wedges. TaylorMade, Cleveland, Callaway, Miura and Feel all have new wedges hitting the market. Also included in the roundup are Cleveland irons, Odyssey putters, Rife putters, a women's set from Callaway and a premium Japanese shaft. View the gallery to read about each.

And expect to see many more wedges hitting pro shop aisles in the coming weeks, leading up to the new groove rules for 2010. The 2010 groove specs are leading to a wedge glut for two reasons:

1. Obviously, companies are creating new wedges that conform to the new rules. All wedges manufactured must conform to the new specs after Jan. 1, 2011, and companies are rolling out those conforming wedges now with the rules set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

2. But: Those new rules will affect only a tiny fraction of golfers in 2010; most recreational golfers won't be required to use post-2010 grooves for handicap rounds until 2024 at the earliest. And so manufacturers are pushing a lot of pre-2010 groove designs into the market now, too. The message to golfers: Get 'em while you can, because we can't make 'em after 2010 even though you can play them until 2024.

Many of the wedges that do conform to the 2010 rules are showing up with innovations, too, designed to minimize the loss of spin those new grooves will cause. Some companies are roughening the face of their wedges. In our latest new equipment gallery, Cleveland and Feel both take that approach. With the TaylorMade wedge featured, golfers can replace the face of the wedge without having to buy a new club. Worried about the grooves becoming worn and less effective? Remove the face and replace it with a fresh one.

View the new equipment gallery

New Equipment: Wedge-a-palooza originally appeared on About.com Golf on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:12:56.

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Nickent Golf Out of Business

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:13:43 +0000

Nickent Golf is out of business. Golfweek's Gene Yasuda reported today that Nickent laid off the last 22 of its employees this week and is preparing to liquidate.

I liked a lot of Nickent's clubs, particularly the drivers it was making in the 2003-2005 range, along with its fairways and hybrids. The Pipe putter drew some modest attention, too. The company did a lot of growing in that period and up through 2007, including hiring tour players and getting quite of a few of its hybrids into play on the Nationwide, LPGA and Champions tours.

What happened? Yasuda explains:

The equipment maker's fortunes turned in early 2008 when it made an ill-fated gamble on the nascent adjustable-driver market. Hoping to make inroads into the driver category, Nickent pushed aggressively to be among the first to unveil a conforming driver that could easily swap shafts for immediate play.
... But neither its driver, nor the product category as a whole, captured much consumer interest. Then, in the second half of 2008, the economy tanked. The combination proved fatal for Nickent.

Nickent Golf Out of Business originally appeared on About.com Golf on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 23:13:43.

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Wie Withdraws from Tour Championship with Ankle Injury

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:48:01 +0000

Michelle Wie's victory in Mexico last week was a major does of good news for the LPGA. And with the LPGA's luck in 2009, that meant some bad news had to be right around the corner.

Wie withdrew from the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship in Houston today following an even-par 72 in the first round, citing a sprained ankle. Wie had the ankle heavily wrapped last week during her victory, and while didn't do a lot of obvious limping in Mexico there were times when it was obvious the ankle bothered her.

Today, Wie was 3-under par through 12 holes of the very windy afternoon session before hurting the ankle again on the 13th tee. She limped down the stretch - figuratively, losing three strokes to finish at even; and literally, hobbling quite noticeably most of the remainder of the round.

Wie originally tweaked the ankle during the Solheim Cup, then re-injured it a few weeks later during another event. It wasn't an impediment to Wie last week at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, but in Houston today she was clearly in pain in the latter part of her first round.

The Dubai Ladies Masters, Dec. 9-12, is the next event on Wie's schedule. Stay tuned to see if she goes through with the LET tournament or shuts it down for the year.

Golfweek's Beth Ann Baldry reported that Wie will have an MRI, and quoted Wie saying, "I want to make sure that I'm being smart with it, so I will return home to have it looked at by my doctors and follow their advice for treatment."

Wie Withdraws from Tour Championship with Ankle Injury originally appeared on About.com Golf on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 19:48:01.

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