US OPEN 2009...

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN

Mickelson, Duval and…. Lucas!!!

(http://golfdashblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lucas_glover.jpg)

So the 2009 US Open on the Black Course at Bethpage Black, Long Island; will be remembered for numerous triumphs.

The golf staff triumphed with the course. After Rain, Rain, Rain; they managed to squeeze and prepare a waterlogged golf course, to allow the event to finish in 5 days.

After the wettest Thursday in US Open history, play was suspended at 10.15am, and it was amazing how good the course looked on Friday morning, when play resumed.

The triumph of Phil Mickelson, to overcome the thoughts of wife Amy struggling at home, getting ready to fight breast cancer. A New York favorite anyway, Phil had the support of every New Yorker as he walked the sodden fairways of Bethpage, and very nearly completed the remarkable feat of winning with a troubled heart.

Only a couple of late bogeys, stopped Phil in his tracks on Monday, resulted in Phil picking up his 5th runners-up in Us Opens.

Next year at Pebble Beach, can he go one better…?

Regular readers will know I have a very soft spot for our boy from Jacksonville… David Duval.

Only last year, I documented Duval’s return at Royal Birkdale, and even his return in Mississippi. I wrote a blog, “Is this the return of David Duval?” only to see, weeks of tournaments, with ‘nearly, but not quite’ results.

Even earlier this year in Texas, after 36 holes, Duval was only a few behind the lead. A sloppy weekend and he faded down the leader board allowing people to once again ask the question… “What ever happened to David Duval?”

Well, he sure showed up at Bethpage.

Earlier the week before Duval had shot 66 and 69 to qualify for the open. He turned up at Bethpage, relishing the challenge ahead, and following on from his confidence; I put him in my 4 player fantasy team for the week… Long Shot I hear you cry…. Well we were on Long Island!!!

After an opening 67, and two 70’s to follow, Duval started the final day in the penultimate group at the US Open… David Duval! Wow what a story this was turning out to be…

After the rain and fading light halted him at the 3rd tee Sunday night. Duval started Monday morning on the 3rd. He slightly pulled his 4 iron on the par 3, and found the worst lie of the week by far. A wretched plugged lie under the bunker left Duval tapping in for a triple bogey 6... What a way to start!!!

However, Duval fought back, and with birdies at 4 and 8. Followed by birdies at 14, 15 and 16… and Duval stood on the 17th tee, one behind Lucas Glover! An unfortunate par lip-out left Duval at -2 and probably too far behind.

A par on the 18th and Duval finished with a 71 and a tie for second. He will return next year to the Open, play in the British Open in July and will try and build on the momentum from Bethpage, for the remainder of the year.

Pleased with my Fantasy pick that week… You betcha!!!

And then to Glover… Lucas Glover. The boy from South Carolina and a stand out at Clemson, with one PGA TOUR Victory to his name, how could he surprise the big guns at the Open?

Well with fairway after fairway hit, and lengthy putts made on the first 3 days, Glover was looking Ice Cool as he strolled through the fairways at Bethpage on Monday. With playing partner Ricky Barnes, looking a little out of his league, Glover struggled through the turn, but made a valuable birdie on the 16th to take a one shot lead with 2 holes to play.

After a par on the 17th tee, Glover stood on the 18th hole, needing a par to win. 3 years after Phil blew up on the 18th tee at Winged Foot, Glover kept his cool. A 6 iron off the tee, a wedge to the green and 2 putts later, Glover was US Open champion.

A fantastic feat for a quiet, shy golfer, a beloved Yankee fan in Yankee country, Glover was the 2009 Open champion at Bethpage Black.

The Black Course has a WARNING sign on the first tee, saying the course should only be played by “Very Good Players”. With only 5 players under par, on an easier than expected course due to the rain and soft conditions, the course definitely lived up to the “WARNING” sign…


P.S… So no mention of my man, Mr. Woods in this piece.

The 09 Open will be remembered for Tiger playing catch up ever since a 4over 4 hole stretch on Friday morning. In the toughest conditions and the wrong side of the draw, Tiger actually held it together until he played the 15th hole, a double there, a bogey at 17 and 18 and Tiger finished the first round at 4over par.

At the end of the week, Tiger finished at Even par… The winning score I hear you cry, Lucas Glover - -4under par.

You think Tiger would like to stand on that 15th tee, and play those last 4 holes of his first round again.

You betcha…

DJ – 07/06/09

I’M BACK…. AND SO IS TIGER!!!

The summer golf season is in full swing...

http://img.timeinc.net/golf/i/tours/2008/06/june19_nicklaus_299x346.jpg

First of all golfers, apologies for my absence. Over the last 2 months I have been extremely busy with work, teaching and working on my game.

Have played in a few tournaments of late, so trying to get my game tip-top for the summer months ahead.

The weather has been kind to us here in the UK and I have taken full advantage and put into practice some of the things I worked hard at over the winter. One of these days, everything will come together and I will shoot that perfect score.

What was it Ben Hogan once said;

“Until you birdie all 18 holes, you haven’t perfected this game”.

Thats how i feel at the moment, got to keep working hard, and results will show.

Anyway, over the last 2 months, I have still kept on all things golf from both sides of the Atlantic.

We have had the Masters, the Players, the Texas Swing and now as we head towards the US Open we have a summer of tournaments that have us all wondering, can the upcoming tournaments match up to last summer’s dramatics…

Quick Recap

What can I say that hasn’t already been written about the Masters in April. As readers of this blog will know, one of my fave players out there, Kenny Perry went so close to capturing the green jacket at the age of 48, to throw it away with 2 holes to play.

Take Perry back to the 17th green, throw him that chip shot back and tell Kenny to have another go, he probably wouldn’t blade the next one.

Cabrera played some courageous shots down the stretch and made everyone in Argentina very proud of him, and now as winner of 2 Majors, he is only 2 away from completing the career grand slam… Not bad at all for a guy 4 years ago, nobody outside of Argentina and Europe had heard of.

Brian Gay dominated the Heritage… enough said. Jerry Kelly won well in New Orleans. I have played TPC Louisiana, and I can tell you, that course is not easy, so well done to Kelly for over coming his demons and getting back in the winners circle.

We headed to Charlotte for the Quail Hollow Championship, and watched Sean O’Hair, fully justify why he will be such a strong competitor on the tour for years to come.

During the coverage that week, they compared O’Hairs swing to Tiger’s, and at impact it was uncanny how similar they were… Good Luck to Sean, after years of struggles, all the hard work is paying off.

Then we headed to the famous 17th green and the TPC Sawgrass for The Players. And for one of the world’s best, it was an awesome Sunday performance.

Henrik Stenson of Sweden, swept the field on Sunday and shot a brilliant 66 to win the tournament and claim the prestigious title, and following Sergio the previous year, for a 2 in a row win for the Europeans.

Stenson had played a shot in his Hugo Boss boxers at Doral in March and was on every TV show and in every magazine for that one shot. The golf he produced at the Players was out of this world, and he hopefully will be rememberd for his golf this spring, not his choice of underwear.

We then moved on to the Texas swing, and to three tournaments that had glorious weather (apart from one day at the Valero) and all had worthy winners and pretty similar stories.

Zach Johnson claimed his 2nd win of the season at the Valero Texas, birdying the first playoff hole to beat James Driscoll.

At the Byron Classic, Rory Sabbatini showed some adopted hometown form to capture the title over a very steady Brian Davis. Davis who secured his 4th straight top 5 finish with a 2nd at the Byron, excellent playing Brian.

We then this past week moved on to Colonial, and to my fantasy pick of the week Tim Clark.

I thought Clark was finally going to break his duck this week and win his first tournament in 180 or so events.

$13 mill in the bank and no title, some of us would be quite content I guess. However, these guys play to win, and the two miss putts Clark missed on 18 and the first playoff hole must have hurt.

However, on 17 he hit one of his accurate iron shots, thinking he had stuffed it to give himself a golden chance. However, as we all know when the golf gods are not with you, THEY ARE NOT WITH YOU!!!!

The ball cannoned off the flag spun 20 feet back and left himself too much too do. Plucky old Steve Stricker rolled his birdie putt in and claimed his first title since 2007 Barclays at Westchester.

For Stricks as he is known, you could see how much it meant to him, as tears were in his eyes when being interviewed by Kostis of CBS.

Unlucky…

Followers, will know I praised Clark’s game when he beat Tiger back in February at the Match-Play. If he had won this week, it would have been a victory both sides of the pond for the little guy.

At the European Open in London, one of the shortest players on tour, French golfer Crevear, outdueled the field with his favorite hybrid club and eventually won by won.

If Clark had won at Colonial it definitely would have been a victory for the short hitters on both tours.

One final world, “Popeye” himself Paul Casey has climbed up to no 3 in the world. Great achievement for Paul who has won 3 times this year already and is a very good bet for the US Open or even US PGA in August.

With Andy Murray getting all the press over here for being the 3rd best tennis player in the world, it would be nice if Casey got the same recognition, for being no 3 behind Tiger and Phil.

This Week

So we move to one of my fave events of the year. Back in the day, I remember TW holing a chip shot on the par 3 on the back 9 for a remarkable par, and then running around high fiving the whole gallery. Can’t see him doing that now, but he does return this week to Jack’s event.

Jack and Tiger have actually only ever played in a serious match once together at the 2000 PGA where Tiger won at Valhalla.

On Wed this week they play in a skins game together against Perry and Cink. Should be worth a watch…

The question will always remain… Can Tiger catch Jack? And if so… When?

This week, will be Tiger’s last warm up for the US Open in 2 weeks time. Can he improve on his last performance at the Players where he really did fight his swing.

With Bethpage approaching fast, you can guarantee he has been working hard on his game as well as watching the Magic reach the NBA Finals.

With Tiger being an avid follower of the Magic, at ringside pretty much every big game, but however being a Lakers boy at heart. These finals will be very interesting to watch for TW.

The action starts on Thursday, and I will be glued to both the golf and the basketball…

What a summer of Golf we have ahead of us. I’m off to get the drinks and snacks ready for Thursday, it may be a long night over here in the UK.

Till next time... enjoy the golf!

DJ - 6/1/09

Tiger Returns…..

And then heads to the Airport!!!

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/AP_Photo/2009/02/25/1235551764_8659/539w.jpg

After 254 days away, Tiger Woods returned to competitive golf Wednesday in the Arizona dessert.

On Thursday, after a 4&2 loss to South African Tim Clark, he shortly left for the airport and a flight home to Orlando and the kids.

Shock I hear you cry!!! A loss in the 2nd round… And who is this Tim Clark?

Well to those of you who don’t really know Clark, he is South African, via North Carolina State, where he had a very successful amateur career.

Only being 5.7” and 160lbs Clark, is one of the shorter hitters on tour and carries 4 fairway woods.

(NOTE - To all of you out there who may have been made fun of for having lots of hybrids and woods… You can now say it worked for the Tiger Slayer)

Not yet a winner on the PGA Tour, Clark has amassed quite a ridiculous amount of $10million career earnings… Not bad for not winning eh?

So he was always going to be more of a match than Woods first round opponent Brendan Jones. And it most certainly turned out that way on Thursday at the Accenture…

After a mixed bag on the front 9; Woods and Clark were A/S after 9 holes, and made the turn in a very competitive match… However the putts Tiger normally holes were not going in and 3 holes later, Tiger was 3 down with 6 to play… And in trouble!

On the par 4,14th, Woods went bunker-bunker and found himself 58 feet short of the green with Clark safely on the putting surface in 2.
Now Woods, had said that all he could practice for months was short game, and the next shot definitely proved that practice makes perfect, as his 56deg sand-wedge lofted the ball out of the sand, stopped quietly before the hole and toppled in for an unlikely birdie 3.

Clarke made 4, and the match was back on down….4 to play!

What happened next, you could purely put down to rust…

On the drivable par 4 15th. Woods unleashed a 130mph driver swing, as hard as he could, but as he came down through the ball, the club got stuck on the inside, leaving the face open, and creating the block! Tiger and Phil’s common mistake that can cause so many problems…

The ball sailed 30 yards right of the green, hit the cart path, bounced another 25 yards and eventually landed Out of Bounds.

After walking down to his ball some 320yards away, Tiger had to turn around, driver in hand, and make his way back to the tee.

A lonely walk back to the tee, followed by a 3rd shot, sent perfectly to the green, you could tell from Woods body language that his comeback on Clark, had just run its course.

When Clark 2-putted for a par, and Tiger missed his par putt, Clark was 3 up… 3 to play and 95% home and dry.

A conceded birdie 2 on the next hole and Tiger’s comeback was derailed on the 2nd day, losing 4&2 to Tim Clark.

No real signs of tiredness, no signs of a limp… just rust! Not even the ‘Great One’ can take 8 months off and comeback competitively sharp.

And fair play to Clark, who didn’t lie down and let Tiger just walk all over him; and shot a 6-under par round for 16 holes, and thoroughly deserved the W.

Weekend without Woods…

So the final 16 continue and with 8 matches today, the remaining golfers battle it out to capture the 2009 Match Play title. How the television ratings will be affected, now Woods isn’t around for the week, will be a sure fire sign of how much the game needs Woods back.

No doubt the ratings for Thursday and Friday’s coverage may be higher than the weekend’s Semi’s and finals.

But that is a decrement to the man himself, he brings viewers, he fuels interest, he drives the media market, he basically… Excites Golf!

Big as or bigger…

Bobby Jones won the "Grand Slam". Arnold Palmer took the game to the masses, Nicklaus made the game look easy, Trevino brought a swagger and a grit to the game. Norman was exciting, Ballesteros was charismatic and all the others Faldo, Price, Langer, Couples, Love, have all won, become heroes and succeeded.

But never has the game needed their true star player more than now.

The economy all over the world is at its lowest, the golf ratings are at their lowest, and the number of golf courses and new player’s world wide is on a steady downhill slide.

Never has Tiger himself admitted he is nothing more than a Professional Athlete with a passion for helping children study and work, with his foundations and learning centres.

However, the time may have come when the 33 year old Southern Californian Boy’s return to the mainstream, may even be bigger than…………… GOLF itself!

DJ - 02/27/09

WINTER BREAK!!!

Back to it golfers...


Hello Golfers and apologies for the absence over the last couple of weeks…

Call it a “Winter Break” if you will, but my golf game needed some serious work once the weather here in the UK had improved…

So what have we missed?

Well since Kenny Perry won in Arizona on Super Bowl Sunday, we have seen 3 quality tournaments on the West Coast and an 18 year old Superstar win in Australia.

We went back to Torrey Pines to the Tiger Invitational… Sorry the Buick Invitational, the tournament Tiger had won for the last 4 years, but unfortunately wasn’t able to defend this year.

And we saw a young Butch Harmon schooled pro win… Not Adam Scott, we will wait to see when he finds his putting touch to win on the PGA Tour again, but long hitting Nick Watney, who with a 2 putt birdie at 18 managed to overhaul John Rollins who had lead most of the day.

We then moved up the coast to the famous links of Pebble Beach and the AT&T National.

For 3 days the glorious weather shone on Pebble and showed what a beautiful place this corner of the world really is, and proved that when the US Open returns there next year, all eyes will be on this stretch of links again.

However, Pebble in February is a dangerous combination. And when Sunday rolled around so did the wind and the rain.

Like so many times before at this wonderful event, the weather took control and when a Monday finish was scheduled, young Dustin Johnson held the very important 54hole lead.

Sitting on that lead overnight, you think there would be a few nerves. When Monday morning came with the same weather as Sunday, the decision to call the event was predictable and those nerves and butterflies that Johnson may have been feeling, certainly disappeared.

With just over $1m dollars in the bank for holding a 54hole lead, Johnson was declared the winner, and certainly not a bad way to spend a Monday on the Monterey peninsula…

And I am sure Dustin was thinking the same thing as he drove out of Pebble Beach on Monday Afternoon!!!

Further up the California Coast we called in to Hollywood for Oscar’s week, and the LA Open, now known as the Northern Trust Open.

Last year Phil Mickelson prevailed and won at Riviera to continue his amazing run on the West Coast. And after a very poor start to the season Mickelson was looking for redemption…

And after rounds of 63, 72, 62 (Phil being as consistent as ever), held a 4 shot lead heading into Sunday morning, on Oscars day.

Who would have guessed 5 hours later Mickelson would be starring in his own thriller???

As always Phil Mick made it a very interesting Sunday of golf at Hogan’s Alley.

An eagle on the first, followed by an eagle for playing partner and fellow lover of Riviera Freddie Couples, and Mickelson held an untouchable lead you would have thought would have seen him through…

But this was Mickelson and holes 2-14 brought such erratic golf and tee shots that were more military golf (left/right/left/right) that he now trailed Steve Stricker by 1 shot on the 16th tee.

A 9 iron to 5 feet on 16th and a 2 putt birdie on 17 meant Mickelson stood on the 18th tee with a 1 shot lead after Stricker had bogeyed the 18th himself.

After 2 solid shots Mickelson had putted up to 6 feet and a chance for a back to back win at famous Riviera…

And in it went; sheer relief after a ROLLERCOASTER ride for Mickelson, but what else is knew I hear you cry.

So the majority of the Academy Awards may have all gone to Slumdog Millionaire on Sunday night, but Mickelson definitely starred in and made his own drama on Sunday afternoon in Hollywood.

18 year old Superstar - Across the Pacific Ocean, 18 year old Amateur Danny Lee captured the Jonnie Walker Classic in Australia.

With a field consisting names such as Kim, Villegas and Westwood; Lee prevailed and won $250000, but then turned it down to stay amateur to play in the Masters in April.

After winning the US Amateur title last summer and breaking Tiger Wood’s record for youngest winner, this New Zealand kid is surely going to be a superstar of the future.


THIS WEEK!!!

So we move to the Accenture Match Play and the big return of YOU KNOW WHO!!!!!!

DJ - 02/22/09

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

What a Super Bowl it turned out to be…

http://www.welt.de/multimedia/archive/00745/eng_NFL_triumpf2_BM_745275g.jpg

And a 13th Tour Victory for Kenny Perry!!!

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-02/44826117.jpg

Ok… So I will let you off if you missed the 3 hole playoff Sunday night, to determine the winner of the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As the clock struck 11pm GMT here in the UK, and 6pm on the East Coast; most of the sporting world that were still awake had their eyes set on Tampa, FL.

And Super Bowl XLIII…

Over the next 3 hours, the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, produced one of the most compelling sporting contests I have ever seen and definitely made the late night of television well worthwhile.

Congratulations to all the Steelers fans over the US, on a great season and the first franchise to win 6 Titles….

But you have to feel bad for Warner and the Cardinals, who produced one of the greatest 4th quarter comebacks in recent years and very nearly won the Super Bowl for an underdog, given no chance at the start of the Playoff’s with a 9&7 record, never mind against the power house Steelers in Tampa…

Back to the Golf…

However, across the country in another different time zone, at 11pm UK time, I did have the channel tuned to the FBR Open and the 1st Playoff of the 2009 season between Kenny Perry and Charlie Hoffman.

Now if you didn’t see any of the action this week from the desert. Perry started Thursday’s round +4 after 13 or 14 holes and eventually signed for an opening round 72 +1 for the round.

Now, at the start of the week I had chosen Perry to be the catalyst of my Fantasy Team for the week.

After his first round turnaround, I stuck with my instincts and didn’t bench Perry for the remainder of the tournament, and the result paid off as a 2nd round 63 took Perry right up the leaderboard after 2 rounds.

It wasn’t such a good week for ‘Lefty’, Phil Mickelson. Phil signed for 10 bogeys over 2 rounds compared to 5 birdies and easily missed the cut.

See you this week at Torrey Phil… Bring your Driver this time!!!!

He wasn’t the only big name to miss the weekend at the FBR.

Anthony Kim missed the halfway cut, still struggling with his shoulder. Camillo Villegas missed the cut by 1 and JB Holmes, the defending champion, also missed the cut after a promising start on Thursday when he was -5 under par for his front 9.

So as Super Bowl Sunday rolled around, and the Arizona crowd were lubricating up for a wild evening; the play started to heat up on the back 9 of the golf tournament.

The infamous par 3, 16th was as rowdy as ever, and the welcome return of the on course commentary from David Feherty and the ever enjoyable Gary McCord made it an interesting last few hours of golf.

If only Perry had made a Par 4 on the 18th hole, we may have been able to stay on one channel for the rest of the night… But as his drive found the fairway bunker, par was always going to be a tough play.

And as his par putt slipped by, minutes before Kevin Na failed to convert his birdie putt, after 72 holes, the tournament lead was shared by Perry and the California dude himself, Charlie Hoffman.

The fans that had been tremendous all week, were now made to wait another hour and a 3 hole playoff later, to cheer their eventual winner at the 17th green.

This time it was Hoffman’s turn to drive into a virtually unplayable lie in the bunker, and allowed Perry the chance to get up and down from the side of the green for a 30ft birdie putt win and his 13th tour victory of his career.

At the age of 48, Perry has set himself a target of winning 20 PGA Tour victories, before he retires from the main tour. With this win against a top class field, who would bet against him???

RORY SHINES IN THE DESERT!!!

From one desert to another now, and to the remarkable win at the Dubai Desert Classic for Rory McIlroy.

The 19year old Northern Ireland star, who came to prominence at the 2007 Open at Carnoustie, outlasted a stellar field; including Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Justin Rose, to claim his first professional victory.

This 19 year old will NO DOUBT be a star for many years to come and will be gracing the Masters in April for his first visit to Augusta.

Shame the organizers at the Northern Trust Open in LA, couldn’t be bothered to accept his request for a place in the tournament in 2 weeks.

Their loss I guess, but McIlroy will play the Florida Swing in March leading up to his Masters debut starting April 6th!!!


THIS WEEK

So we head to Torrey this week… No Tiger, No Rocco…What drama I hear you say????

Well I have Phil starring in my fantasy team this week… The hometown boy surely has to play better than last week and contend for the title…

I just hope he has put his Driver in the bag this time………………………..


DJ – 02/03/09

198 Tournaments and Finally a WIN… Perez wins at the 50th Hope!!!!

http://d.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/ng/sp/empics/4847899

And you have to feel bad for Stricker…..

The 50th Bob Hope Classic, held last week in the California desert and hosted by the ‘King’; Arnold Palmer, saw a welcome return to the winners circle for Pat Perez.

For those of you who don’t really know much about Perez; here’s a quick synopsis…

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Perez studied at Arizona State University. In his fourth start on tour, he lost a 4 shot lead with 18 holes to play at Pebble Beach, which lead to a club being broken over his leg… And he is also close friends with John Daly…

Fiery is a word you could certainly use to describe Perez!!!!

Nevertheless, the only factor that was fiery about Perez last week was his golf. After 2 rounds he broke the record score for the first 36 holes with an astonishing 124 (-20).

20 UNDER PAR… How many of you out there get excited when you make 1 birdie, never mind being -20 Under Par through 36 holes…

As the PGA TOUR slogan reads, “THESE GUYS ARE GOOD”…

Over the weekend, Steve Stricker shot a blistering 61-62 for a 2 round combination of 123, to take a 3 shot lead into the final round of the 5 round tournament. But, what lay ahead on the 10th tee for Stricker was something, that no-one could have predicted…

After standing on the tee for what felt like an eternity; Stricker grabbed his towel for the umpteenth time and reached for his driver. One swing later, (or should we say 2) and Stricker was hitting 3 off the tee (after blocking his first tee shot OB well right), and then pulled the second ball left into the water hazard…

After the penalty drop, Stricker was playing 5!!! An unfortunate Snowman was recorded on the card and Sticker was done.

On this Sunday, the guy they call ‘Stricks’, who won the PGA Tour’s comeback player of the year in 2006 and 2007; there was no such comeback…

Moving back to the top of the leaderboard and Perez stood on the 18th fairway trailing John Merrick by 1 shot.

Reminiscent of David Duval 10 years ago, Perez crushed a drive down the middle of the fairway and then a 200 yard 2nd shot to 6 feet, to set up an eagle chance for his maiden win… And like Duval in ’99 Perez sunk the putt to jubilant scenes on the 18th green with his caddie, and other tour players including Tommy Armour III.

For all those who knew of Perez as the ‘Hot Head’, it was a welcome sight to see this talented golfer win his first event after playing exceptional golf for 90 holes.

90 holes in 5 days, and all those birdies… After 198 events, Pat Perez definitely deserved his maiden win.

This week…

Get your ear plugs at the ready… Super Bowl weekend is upon us and that means…

The loudest PGA TOUR event is back… The FBR OPEN, PHEONIX!!!

The tour returns to the TPC of Scottsdale for the FBR Open where last year JB Holmes beat Phil Mickelson in a playoff. This year, 60000 fans will be sitting on the 16th green at the weekend to cheer on the good shots, and boo the bad!

Tune in to find out who gets the loudest cheer on Sunday and captures the fourth title of the year… One thing is for sure, it’s going to be a loud one!!!

DJ - 1/29/09

Zach Attack!!!

http://nbcsportsmedia3.msnbc.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070803/070803_ZachJohnson_hmed.hmedium.jpg

And the 5ft 2 Rise, of Tadd Fujikawa...

http://i.pgatour.com/pgatour/2007/r/10/30/tadd/1tadd.jpg

So the first full field event of the 2009 season, the Sony Open, produced another weekend of talking points...

Zach Johnson played the type of golf on the weekend that won him the 2007 Masters in the freezing conditions at Augusta National… Charlie Howell III let another possible victory slip away and David Toms recaptured some of his old form on the narrow fairways and small greens in Honolulu.

However, the highlight of the Sony Open surely had to be the 62, 8-under par round by 18 year old… 5ft 2in Tadd Fujiwaka…

In 2006, I attended and volunteered at an AJGA event at Bay Hill in Orlando. On that day I stood by the 17th green recording scores of the young players that played the tough par 3 before watching them tee off on the daunting 18th hole at Arnie’s place.

A young Californian called Ricky Fowler won that day, and remember that name, as the young star who is now at Oklahoma State studying and practicing his golf, will surely be a star on the tour when he turns pro.

However, the star of the tournament, even then at the age of 16, was a 5ft 2 kid from Hawaii.

Fujikawa you see, had made his way through endless qualifying rounds to reach the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, to become the youngest participant in the Open for years.

Even though he did not make the halfway cut that week (NOTE – Tiger failed to make the cut that week, the first tournament he had played since the death of his father Earl. He has however made every cut he has played in since), the 16year old who weighed just 2 pounds at birth, became a household name (within the golf world).

So fast forward 2 and a half years from that sunny summer day in Orlando, sitting on a Saturday night watching an 18year old shoot a sensational 62 on a tough PGA Tour course, was a sight to see.

Fujikawa may have been the star on Saturday, but unfortunately his game did not stand up on Sunday, and a final round 73, placed him well down the pack.

However, the action at the top of the leaderboard was still intense as Johnson held a tight lead playing the 18th, with Toms having the chance to catch him.

However, Toms’ drive found the fairway bunker, and he was unable to get it close enough for a decent birdie chance, and Johnson claimed his 2nd tour victory in the space of 3 months after capturing the Valero Texas Open in October.

Throughout the last 3 years, I have had the chance to play and practice at Timacuann Golf Course in Sanford FL, just outside Orlando. And up until this past winter, the home of Zach Johnson.

On many occasions, I have watched Johnson practice with his then coach Mike Bender, on swing plane, takeaway and swing techniques at Timacuann.

However, I always felt that the short game facilities were not really tour caliber. Compare the practice facilities at Isleworth and Lake Nona where many of the tour players are based, and there was a huge difference, and in the modern game, the short game... is the scoring zone!!!

Therefore it was no surprise to hear that during the off-season Johnson had moved up to Sea Island, Georgia. With the improved facilities and his amazing record in Georgia, (3 of Johnson’s 5 victories have been in Georgia) Johnson had found a home to take his game to the next level.

With his 5th victory on tour at the Sony Open, it looks like a wise decision…………..

This week….

The tour moves to the 50th Bob Hope Classic in California this week, with all players playing with amateurs for the first 4 rounds, with a cut being taken on Saturday night.

Then from there, we move to the lively FBR open in Phoenix and then to the Buick Invitational in San Diego. San Diego I hear you cry… that must mean Torrey Pines….

That must mean….. TIGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If only my friends… Tiger may return at the end of February, but my guess is still Doral in March, but I am sure when the Buick returns in 2 weeks time, we will see countless replay’s of his 2 victories at Torrey last year… Can you remember them?

I am sure you can remember one of them………………….

DJ - 1/24/08