|
|
|
| Site menu | Devil Ball Golf - Golf | Ads |
|
Main page
Top Stories
Baseball
- MLB
- NCAA Baseball
NFL
- NCAA Football
NBA
- NCAA basketball
WNBA
- NCAA Women's Basketball
BasketballLive Scores!
NHL
- NCAA Hockey
TennisLive Scores!
Golf
Motor Sports
- F1
- Motor Sports: CART
- Motor Sports: IRL
- Motor Sports: NASCAR
SoccerLive Scores!
- Premier League
- MLS
Athletics
Swimmming
Winter Sports
- Skiing
Cycling
Volley
Olympic Sports
Horse Racing
Poker
Videos Bettor's Corner Rumors All Blogs - Shutdown Corner - NFL - Big League Stew - MLB - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Puck Daddy - NHL - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - The Dagger - NCAAB - From the Marbles - NASCAR - Devil Ball Golf - Golf - Roto Arcade - Fantasy - Cagewriter - MMA - Early Doors(UK) - Soccer - Jim White(UK) - Soccer - Paul Parker(UK) - Soccer |
Dustin Johnson's incredible ability to forget the past [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 11:57 am] How sweet would it be if we could all be a little bit more like Dustin Johnson? Just 26, Johnson has encountered two of the toughest losses a golfer can experience, all in less than two months, but it hasn't seemed to bother him. Not in the slightest.Most of the time, when golfers blow up in the final round of a major championship, they are done for the year. The demons sneak into their fragile little minds and keep reminding them, on the golf course, at the grocery store and even in bed, that they had a chance at immortality and failed. Miserably. Not with Johnson. Nope. Not even close. This "kid" (if we can still call him) that posted a soul-crushing 82 in the final round of the U.S. Open when he headed into Sunday with a three-shot lead, seemed to shake it off the moment the final putt dropped. He focused his attention on a tough day on the golf course and nothing more. Maybe the demons caught up with him at his next event, when Johnson missed only his third cut of the season, but he bounced back quite nicely. A tie for 14th at the British Open, alone at 15th at the Bridgestone, and then that terrible, horrible, "how can you still be alive on Monday" moment at Whistling Straits, when Johnson missed a par putt on the 72nd hole for the "win," only to be informed that he would not be participating in the three-hole playoff because he, like the rest of us, thought a patch of dirty sand was just that, dirty sand. It turned out to be a bunker, and you know the rest of the story.CBS caught up with Johnson after a shower while the playoff was going on, and he looked stunned, no doubt, but you could tell that he'd be alright. It was still a top-five at a major, and if you can somehow make yourself realize that, you'll be way better than most. Johnson could have curled up after that PGA Championship and nobody would have blamed him. As far as bad breaks go, that is one of the toughest I can remember on the golf course, but he was set Pate's perspective: Sizing up TPC Boston [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 11:05 am] Jerry Pate knows golf. He's got eight wins on the PGA Tour, including the 1976 U.S. Open, and he's an accomplished course designer. Throughout the season, he'll be stopping by Devil Ball to offer an inside-the-ropes look at the week's upcoming course. Today: Ridgewood Country Club, home of the Barclays and the first stop in the FedEx Cup playoffs.The TPC Boston was originally designed by Arnold Palmer in 2002. To enhance the course's competitive interest for the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Fed Ex playoffs, the course was fully renovated by architect Gil Hanse in 2006. In fact, Hanse has continually tinkered with the course each year since in efforts to make an ever more entertaining course and event. There are two stretches of holes that employ classic risk-reward design strategies that are always a large factor in the championship. The golfers who are successful at playing these holes aggressively will earn an advantage on the field and surely be atop the leaderboard at the end of the tournament. The first stretch begins on the first -- a short par four that can be driven by the longest hitters in the field. Most players can at least challenge the right hand bunkers to gain an angle around a very deep bunker in front of the green. Only a short pitch into the green will remain and provide a large advantage to those that lay up behind the large greenside bunker. The second hole is a reachable par five with the green protruding into a large lake. A successful challenge of the fairway bunkers off the tee will allow the players a chance to get to the green in two. The fourth is a short par four similar to the first, although it is shorter and the angles are more accentuated. The green is protected by a huge bunker in front with three fairway bunkers protecting its approach from the right. Like the first, an aggressive and successful drive will set up a simple pitch up the green or even a putt for eagle. It is quite possible that players can be five o Phil Mickelson bails on pro-am, will visit dinner instead [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 8:40 am] Ah, pro-ams. Is there no way that these corporate smoochfests can't cause controversy?Barely a week removed from his criticism of the PGA Tour for DQ'ing Jim Furyk for missing a pro-am, Phil Mickelson is himself "opting out" of this week's Deutsche Bank pro-am. In return, he'll have dinner with a bunch of Deutsche Bank honchos on Friday night.Bowing to criticism, the PGA Tour this week suspended the rule that disqualifies a player who misses a pro-am from the tournament itself. But it's important to note that this isn't a case of Phil taking immediate advantage of a new opportunity.Rather, Phil is taking advantage of the Tour's existing "opt-out" provision, which allows players who finished in the top 30 of last year's money or FedEx Cup lists to bail on two tournaments. The sponsor must approve of the ditching, and the player must make good with an immediate sponsor-interaction event. About a half-dozen players have taken advantage of the rule this year, Mickelson among them; he jumped ship at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and had dinner with sponsors instead."In a pro-am three or four amateurs are going to get five hours with Phil on the golf course, which is great, but maybe it’s better if you have a dinner with 20 executives and clients for two or three hours," Andy Pazder, the Tour's senior vice president of tournament administration, told the Golf Channel. "Maybe that’s a better use of a player’s time."If Mickelson hadn't made a big deal about Furyk's DQ, this wouldn't have even been a thing, but he did, so it is. So what's your take? What would you rather have with a player, a few hours on a golf course or a few drinks and a steak? Tiger Woods takes out $54 million mortgage on new property [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 3:04 pm] Why is this man smiling? Because he can see the end of his mortgage payments in the not-too-distant future. A huge chunk of Tiger Woods' sponsors and fanbase may have abandoned the beleaguered golfer in the wake of his revelations of infidelity, but if some newly-filed financial documents are to be believed, there's one person who still has tremendous faith in Woods: Tiger himself.TMZ, taking a break from reports on hard-partying starlets, has found that Woods has taken out a $54.5 million mortgage for a brand-new mansion he's building on Jupiter Island, Florida. And no "go-for-the-adjustable-rate-and-pray" route for Tiger; no, he intends to pay back the loan by Jan. 15, 2016. (See, folks? That's sound financial strategy. If you've got a spare $54 million lying around, go ahead and get your mortgage paid off.)Anyway, Woods' property spans three properties and will include all the requisite perks for someone of Woods' stature -- pools, tennis courts, fitness center, miles of hallways. That'll cost plenty to buy and maintain, so obviously Woods has faith that he'll play well in a few golf tournaments between now and 2016.He gets his next chance this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, which tees off Friday. Tiger Woods isn't the only one having a tough year [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 12:50 pm] Leading up to the Masters this season, Phil Mickelson hadn't showed us much at all. If you remember, Phil came into 2010 with more expectations than any golfer has in the last dozen years, with his play at the end of 2009 getting everyone excited for the prospect of a dominate year by Lefty.But his first seven tournaments were nothing to get excited about. Mickelson had one top-10, and nothing close to a sniff near a leaderboard. He went into Augusta National far from a favorite of mine, but left with another green jacket and a highlight for his year. At that moment, Phil was on top of the golf world again. He had claimed another major, his fourth since 2004, and cemented his name as one of the best to ever play that exclusive golf course in Georgia.But, that is where his year stopped. For all the talk we've made about how bad Tiger Woods' 2010 has been, Phil's, sans Augusta, hasn't been much better. Phil has played in 17 tournaments, seven more than Tiger, but has only three more top-10s. He hasn't really competed in a tournament besides the Quail Hollow Championship, when Rory McIlroy closed the door on Lefty with that Sunday 62, and the way he has played the last month has been far from impressive.Maybe it was the pressure of actually becoming number one in the world, something Phil has been chasing all season long, or maybe it's just a slump that Lefty tends to find occasionally when the nuts and bolts of his lengthy golf swing don't fit together, but something the last few weeks hasn't been there, and the missed cut at last week's Barclays was the final cherry on the top of a rather stinky cake.It could be a lot of other things that have caused Phil to trip after the Masters. Amy's breast cancer problems seemed curbed at the moment, but things like that don't just leave your mind when they happen. On top of that, Phil himself has been struggling with health problems, admitting before the PGA Championship that he has been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, Jack Nicklaus admits he only reached 70-75 percent of his ability [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 5:28 pm] Jack Nicklaus isn't just the name of a famed golfer, he's the overseer of this beautiful sport. He's the man that put the game on the map, fighting all the big names that have ever smacked a golf ball. He's the 18-time major winner, the 73-time PGA Tour champion, and the holder of more records than you can count dimples on a Titleist.So, when the Golden Bear speaks of what he could have accomplished, your mouth drops. Jack spoke with Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest this month and said something that will make even the most famous golfers in the world do a double-take. Jack said he could have been better. A lot better."If I were to look back on my work, I think I accomplished probably about 70 to 75 percent of what I could have. Maybe 60 percent. Somewhere in that area; two-thirds of what I could have accomplished. If I had been a really dedicated person, and really worked hard, I think I could have accomplished more."It really is an astonishing thing to hear from someone so accomplished, but I'm assuming Jack can point to those 19 second-place finishes in major championships as a place he could have improved. The entire piece is an incredible read, and maybe the part about Jack not having a ton of motivation in the later years to add to his major legacy makes it all the more understanding of why Tiger Woods is chasing so hard to get to that magical number of 19. While I won't tread too hard on the article, I will add this quote by Lee Trevino about Jack. For anyone that followed Nicklaus, they knew that in his prime, the part of his game that was lacking was his ability to pitch the ball close, mostly because the man barely missed any greens. Trevino gave this great soundbite about Nicklaus' wedge game: "If Jack had had a wedge, no doubt in my mind, he would have won 30 majors."Now that would have been a tough number to beat. "Jack's Back." [Golf Digest] Golfer's wild swing sparks 12-acre California blaze [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 2:44 pm] Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.You can use a golf club for all kinds of non-golfy purposes -- walking stick, fishing rod, club, to name three. And now we can add to that list -- firestarter!Over the weekend, a golfer's errant swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, California struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 12 acres and required the efforts of 150 Orange County firefighters.Wow. And I felt bad the time I shanked a ball through the window of a house too close to the fairway. That was nothing compared to this!The golfer's name is being withheld, which is probably for the best, and no charges are going to be filed. Fortunately, it all could have been much worse; the blaze required both helicopters and on-the-ground crews. (That photo is for illustrative purposes only and was taken earlier this summer at another California blaze.) The conditions were ripe for a blaze, with dry brush just waiting for the right spark. Like, say, one caused by metal on rock.And now, your turn. This is going to inspire a raft of bad Sportscenter-esque "When we say he set the course on fire, he really set the course on fire!" jokes. So let's get ahead of the curve. Best bad golf-and-fire-related pun in the comments wins a round of applause. Go! Golfer's wild swing sparks 25-acre California blaze [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 2:44 pm] Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.You can use a golf club for all kinds of non-golfy purposes -- walking stick, fishing rod, club, to name three. And now we can add to that list -- firestarter.Over the weekend, a golfer's errant swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Calif., struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 25 acres, according to the Steven Buck, General Manager of Shady Canyon Golf Course, and required the efforts of 150 Orange County firefighters, writes the Associated Press.Wow. And I felt bad the time I shanked a ball through the window of a house too close to the fairway. That was nothing compared to this!The golfer's name is being withheld, which is probably for the best, and no charges are going to be filed. Fortunately, it all could have been much worse. As it was, the blaze required both helicopters and on-the-ground crews. (That photo is for illustrative purposes only and was taken earlier this summer at another California blaze.) The conditions were ripe for a blaze, with dry brush from a recent heat wave just waiting for the right spark. Like, say, one caused by metal on rock.And now, your turn. This is going to inspire a raft of bad Sportscenter-esque "When we say he set the course on fire, he really set the course on fire!" jokes. So let's get ahead of the curve. Best bad golf-and-fire-related pun in the comments wins a round of applause. Go!Photo credit: Thanks to Zach Bates Golfer's swing sparks 25-acre California blaze [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 2:44 pm] Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee. You can use a golf club for all kinds of non-golfy purposes -- walking stick, fishing rod, club, to name three. And now we can add to that list -- firestarter.Over the weekend, a golfer's routine swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Calif., struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 25 acres, according to the Steven Buck, General Manager of Shady Canyon Golf Course, and required the efforts of 150 Orange County firefighters, writes the Associated Press.Wow. And I felt bad the time I shanked a ball through the window of a house too close to the fairway. That was nothing compared to this!The golfer's name is being withheld, which is probably for the best, and no charges are going to be filed. Fortunately, it all could have been much worse. As it was, the blaze required both helicopters and on-the-ground crews. (That photo is for illustrative purposes only and was taken earlier this summer at another California blaze.) The conditions were ripe for a blaze, with dry brush from a recent heat wave just waiting for the right spark. Like, say, one caused by metal on rock.And now, your turn. This is going to inspire a raft of bad Sportscenter-esque "When we say he set the course on fire, he really set the course on fire!" jokes. So let's get ahead of the curve. Best bad golf-and-fire-related pun in the comments wins a round of applause. Go!Photo credit: Thanks to Zach Bates Will we ever see Sergio Garcia, the golfer, again? [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 12:28 pm] Think back, if you will, to the summer of 2007. Sergio Garcia, still the child prodigy to most of our memories, was having a fine year, and was flat outplaying the rest of the field at Carnoustie.It seemed destiny that Sergio would win his first major championship at a golf course that insists all golf shots are hit to perfection, and heading into Sunday at that British Open, it seemed Garcia would be leaving with the Claret Jug and the first of many major championships. But he didn't. Sergio had a par putt on the 72nd hole to win the thing outright, but couldn't get it to fall, and ended up losing to Padraig Harrington in a playoff. It would seem a man of Sergio's character might collapse after such a close call, but he bounced back. He won the Players Championship in '08, and again had a chance at a major that Harrington would end up snatching. And that is where the Sergio story stops.On Sunday afternoon, Colin Montgomerie made his Ryder Cup captain's pick announcement, and as anyone that knows golf expected, Garcia wasn't on the team. Well, he wasn't on the team as a player. Monty graciously invited Sergio to be the fourth vice captain for the European squad, hoping that his energy and knowledge of the team competition will benefit the rookie class that Captain Colin will take to Wales. But, more than that, it emphasized the fact that Sergio might never be the Sergio we all expected when he became a household name at the 1999 PGA Championship.So what are we to think of the now 30-year-old Garcia? Are his best golf days behind him? Did he really find that dark place that professional golfers occasionally visit that gets them on the fast track to an announcing booth?All those questions come down to one thing, and one thing only; is the fire still there, or did it die like he has hinted at? Sergio famously said he'd take two months off after the PGA Championship this year in hopes that some time away will get him excited about the game again. The thing is, Garcia ha Hit that snooze button: PGA Tour suspends pro-am DQ policy [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 10:27 am] Well, would you look at this: the PGA Tour is actually bending a bit and recognizing that maybe one of its rules isn't quite the immutable Word of God after all. In a statement, Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has suspended the rule requiring all golfers to play in a pro-am at the risk of instant disqualification. Jim Furyk, you'll recall, discovered that the Tour doesn't play around with this rule when he was DQ'ed from the Barclays last week after oversleeping and missing his pro-am tee time.Here's the meat of the statement, which is startling in its common sense: "Hereafter, should a player be late for his pro-am starting time, the situation will be handled as a matter of unbecoming conduct. Such player will be required to participate in the remainder of the pro-am round and may be required to perform additional sponsor activity. A player who misses his pro-am obligation in its entirety will still be ruled ineligible for the tournament unless he has been excused in accordance with the provisions of the regulations." Of course. That makes total, perfect sense. If a guy's late, whether because of oversleeping, getting caught in traffic, or dropping his date off for her morning shift at the Waffle Hut (what? it's a hypothetical!), he shouldn't be penalized to the degree of losing out on the tournament. Phil Mickelson ripped the PGA Tour for the rule after Furyk's disqualification, noting that less than half the field is entered into pro-ams and thus is held to a higher standard than their anonymous brethren who get Wednesdays off. "If you’re going to have a rule that does not apply to everybody, because not everybody played the pro-am, you cannot have it affect the competition," Mickelson said last week. "I cannot disagree with it more. I have no idea how the commissioner let this rule go through. It’s ridiculous." And now it's gone, at least for this year. Somebody go wake Furyk and tell him the good news! (Image Monty takes heat over choice of Padraig Harrington [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 8:18 am] The 2010 European Ryder Cup team is fast becoming as notable for who's not on the roster -- Justin Rose and Paul Casey -- as who is, with one notable exception: Padraig Harrington.Everybody's second-favorite golfin' Irishman was a surprise pick to join the Ryder Cup team, especially with Rose and Casey left at home. Yes, Harrington has three majors, but 2008 U.S. captain Paul Azinger aired the views of many when he took to Twitter to write, "Shocking revelation..Padraig 0 wins in 2 yrs. 0 wins in last 10 Ryder Cup matches!"That's not quite true -- Harrington has played in only nine Ryder matches over the last two Cups, but he hasn't won a single one. In fact, he hasn't won since 2004, when he went 4-1. Two of those wins, he played with -- wait for it -- Colin Montgomerie. Since his dramatic two-major season of 2008, Harrington has exactly zero wins on the PGA Tour, with four missed cuts in eight majors. No way to slice that to where it doesn't look ugly. Harrington will bring steadiness to the European team, if not necessarily the talent of a Rose or a Casey. And perhaps that's what Montgomerie is looking for -- Casey, of course, had an opportunity to challenge for the British Open in July but spit the bit against Louis Oosthuizen, for instance.More interesting for the longer term is the way that the European leaders apparently factored loyalty to the European Tour into the equation. Eduardo Molinari, who spent most of his time playing in Europe, got the nod over arguably more talented players who have spent more time stateside. It's a philosophy that even Luke Donald, who was the third captain's pick, takes issue with. "The team has to look harder at the qualification system and whether it's the correct way to do it or whether there's a better way," Donald said. "Golf really is becoming a world game. I understand they won't protect the European Tour but at the same time, the top guys are going to want to play against the best players in the A banner year for Justin Rose that nobody noticed [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 30, 2010, 1:14 pm] For years we golf scribes sat around, scratching our heads, wondering when Justin Rose, the one-time amateur phenom turned professional, would start winning big events.His game always seemed solid, but it never came together when he needed it to. Some great play at the 2003 U.S. Open, and another solid performance at the '07 Masters, but for the most part, he was just another young star that flamed out before we got a chance to watch him shine.But 2010 has been different. Rose shot a blistering 66 on Sunday at the Memorial to beat Rickie Fowler by three shots for his first ever PGA Tour victory. The problem was, that win came a little too late, and Rose wasn't allowed in the field at Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open, even though he had just won one of the biggest non-major tournaments of the year. It was a strange situation for Rose, and golf fans in general, as the 30-year-old Englishman was playing some of the best golf of anyone in the world, but wouldn't be invited to the second major championship of the year.That was his first bad moment of 2010. The second came on Sunday, when Rose wasn't named to the European Ryder Cup team. A strange decision by Colin Montgomerie (but not a bad one, per se, since he had so much talent to pick from), but it came after Rose had picked up his second PGA Tour victory in early July at the AT&T National. Two wins in a span of a month, and Rose wouldn't be invited to represent his team at the Ryder Cup. I've asked this question a couple of times about Dustin Johnson's 2010, but it is worth bringing up to Rose; will this season be one he remembers as positive or negative? Sure, Rose did two great things by winning marquee events, but not making the Ryder Cup team by captain's selection is something that won't sit well over the next few months. Sure, you can argue that if he really wanted to be on the team, he could have played his way onto it, but it's still not going to be much fun to be watching on television instead of competin Michelle Wie slams the door on all that 'bust' talk [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 30, 2010, 12:02 pm] You don't have to go as far as Michelle Wie's Wikipedia page to understand the troubles she's encountered early in her career. A talent that women's golf had never seen, Wie was the next big thing without someone within a three-wood distance of her, and she made waves with those big finishes in the majors as such a young age.But, as golfers tend to do when the sophomore slump hits, Wie struggled to find her game, and made a questionable decision here or there. On Sunday, Wie was in the final group of the CN Canadian Women's Open with Jiyai Shin, one of the top players in the game and a seven-time LPGA winner at the ripe age of 22. People expected Michelle to falter with someone so traveled in her group, but that wasn't the case. Wie went out and shot a 2-under 70, good enough for a three-shot victory, her second in less than a year.The problem is, people still expect more. Michelle is ranked seventh in the world after the win in Canada, but that still isn't enough for the 20-year-old. People expect that she should pulling in wins by the bunches, not realizing the amount of talent that is exhibited week in and week out on the LPGA.Someone Tweeted about Michelle's win on Sunday, asking if this would be the one that would push her over the top, but isn't she already over the top? This is a girl that people wrote off before she even hit her 20s, but has steadily improved parts of her game to be good enough to win these types of events. Also, something that everyone should understand; every tournament is a major on the LPGA, because every player plays in all the events since the tour has had to drop so many other tournaments. If you're winning one of these tournaments, you're beating the best in the world, no matter the title of "major."Michelle Wie was never a bust, she was just a young girl trying to figure out the ins and outs of professional golf. And as for her youth? Yeah, the Monday after her victory, she's watching "Lion King 2." No GolfTube: Sizing up the TV coverage of The Barclays [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 30, 2010, 11:57 am] Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour brass got exactly what they wanted from the opening event of this year's FedEx Cup playoffs. While Matt Kuchar wasn't the big name they were looking for, his playoff victory was the perfect ending to a tournament that wasn't lacking in storylines for the week. From Jim Furyk's DQ to Tiger Woods' opening-round 65, the networks seemed to have more than enough to talk about during the broadcasts. Storylines and quality golf will become increasingly important in the coming weeks, as the tour goes head-to-head with college football and the NFL for ratings. While nobody expects the FedEx Cup playoffs to steal viewers away from the NFL, it would be in the Tour's best interest to do all they can to make the broadcasts as engaging as possible. A ratings spike during a peak part of the sports schedule would be a great bargaining chip to have for next year's contract renewals with the television networks. Compare and contrast Apparently, Tiger Woods' swing changes are still "a secret." At least that's what you gathered from Nick Faldo's attempt to break down Woods' swing during Thursday's Golf Channel broadcast. Truth is, there's no secret to his new swing; all Faldo needed to do was dig a little deeper. His failed effort was followed up by a more successful one on Saturday, as Peter Kostis and the CBS crew did a bang-up job of walking the audience through the subtle changes in Woods' "new" swing, noting the differences in the takeaway. By using a split screen of Woods' swing in May 2010 and the current version -- with the help of the Konica Minolta Swing Vision camera -- Kostis noted that: "the left arm is more in and the shaft is more out on the takeaway. The new takeaway is really going to affect his shoulder turn and shaft plane in his new swing, and that's also going to allow him to get the club in front of him sooner, taking away the possibility of him getting Trick shot makes both Lebron James and Tiger Woods jealous [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 30, 2010, 10:24 am] Around here, we never get tired of trick shots. Hit golf balls into stadiums, off skyscrapers, down college dormitory halls, wherever -- we're all over it. And here, a couple cats from Ohio with too much time on their hands work on their short game -- from the top of the key: Alas, if you look closely, it appears the ball has been placed on an illegal tee. So the goal is waved off. Better luck next time, guys! (Got golf trick shots of your own? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Just don't kill yourself trying them, okay?) FedEx Cupdate: Who's in, who's out after The Barclays [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 30, 2010, 9:35 am] We're into the FedEx Cup playoffs now, and it's time to take a look at the whole field. Who's up? Who's down? Who's making a charge, and who's stumbling? We've got the whole rundown right here. At the top: Matt Kuchar jumped into first place from ninth, but he wasn't the biggest mover. Steve Stricker moved from second to, uh, second, so obviously he wasn't the biggest mover. No, top jumper went to Martin Laird, who rose to third from 95th. Perhaps almost clinching a trip to East Lake will ease the sting of losing an outright win on the 18th hole at the Barclays. Right below Laird are Justin Rose, who, yep, Rose from fifth to fourth, and Ernie Els, who fell from first to fifth. On the way up: Outside of Laird, big jumpers were Kevin Streelman, who rose from 102nd to 18th; Rory Sabbatini, who jumped from 60th to 33rd, and a fella by the name of Tiger Woods, who jumped from 112th to 65th. Oh, and Andres Romero fought his way into the next week by the skin of his teeth, rising from 115th to 100th. On the decline: Jim Furyk's crappy alarm clock cost him five spots, down from third to eighth. Phil Mickelson's crappy play cost him six spots, from fourth to 10th. Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim both dropped from the mid-teens to 26th and 27th, respectively. Out the door: Twenty-five players were shown the door after the Barclays, and most of those were already in the 101-125 range. Big decliners were Kevin Suutherland, Jerry Kelly, Alex Cejka and Derek Lamely, who all played themselves out of a top-100 spot. Also out are Sergio Garcia (did not play), Corey Pavin (did not play) and David Duval (did not play very well). On the bubble: Next up is the Deutsche Bank Championship, and the field gets winnowed from 100 players to 70. So who's at risk? Davis Love III (72), Paul Goydos (84), Vijay Singh (86), Steve Elkington (89), Kenny Perry (90) and Boo Weekley (96) all need to pick up the pace if they're going to see next week.All right, your turn. With the new rankings in place, Colin Montgomerie names captain's picks, and Sergio [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 29, 2010, 5:54 pm] Colin Montgomerie is the master of the intangible, the little extras that are greater than the sum of their parts. As the latest rendition of the Ryder Cup creeps ever closer, the European skipper's most inspired move may not have been when finalizing the make-up of his squad, but in completing his posse of co-captains. Naming Sergio Garcia in such a role has already been universally acclaimed as a fine idea, such is the 30-year-old Spaniard's love and affinity for this competition. Garcia's modern form has been woeful enough to preclude his consideration in a playing capacity, but no one can forget the passion and productivity he brought to the European challenge on countless occasions. Surely Montgomerie had his mind's eye trained upon the memory of another Spaniard, Seve Ballesteros, and his inspirational captaincy role at Valderrama in 1997, when scratching in Garcia's name. Montgomerie is an often irascible character whose mood swings can be just as dark as his golf swing, at least in his prime, was glorious. The Ryder Cup, and the chance to square off against the United States, always brought out his finest as a player and there is great hope in Europe that he can have a similar effect in a managerial role. His preparations have been lengthy and meticulous, and Sunday provided the chance to make the first of an endless stream of decisions that will determine whether the trophy is retained by the United States or is wrested back by Europe. Montgomerie's trio of captain's picks - Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari - represent either bravery or foolhardiness, but it won't be until late in the evening of October 3 that we know which. In making his picks, the Europe captain juggled the various facets of championship-winning experience, public profile, ranking status and fresh-faced enthusiasm yet was plagued by the reality that five doesn't go into three. Harrington got the nod as he is Europe's only multiple major winner, Donald for past Ryder Cu All things considered, Tiger has to be pleased with Barclays [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 29, 2010, 1:59 pm] This can't be easy for Tiger Woods. Smiling, and waving and chipping in front of the crowds, and then heading back to his rental house knowing that yes, life this week and for the weeks to come will be totally different.On Tuesday, Tiger announced on his website that he and his wife Elin would be divorcing, an announcement that shocked few but still rattled the shaken world of Mr. Woods. He then had to go out on Thursday and play in these FedEx Cup playoffs that initially seemed tailor-made for Tiger, but are now just a struggle to make it to the next week.But he went out on Thursday with a 65, and then couldn't find that same magic on Friday and Saturday. It's been typical of Tiger this season to get us thinking he found his game again only to struggle as the event lingered on. But this week was different. On Saturday Tiger made a triple-bogey on his opening hole, which basically cost him any shot at the title at Ridgewood, but he bounced back with three birdies on his back nine to salvage the round. Then, on Sunday, Tiger closed with a really tidy 67 that included just 27 putts. If things stay the way they are right now, Tiger will card his first top-10 since the U.S. Open, and first non-major top-10 of the season. What Tiger is looking for right now is glimpses, and it seemed this week he had a lot of them. He yelled at shots to be right. He rolled in lengthy par putts like the Tiger of 2000. He hit 78 percent of his fairways, the best of anyone in the field, and he was one bad hole away from seriously competing. People wonder when Tiger will finally get that first win, and I keep preaching that his game isn't sharp enough to beat the caliber of player that makes up a PGA Tour event, but it is weeks like this that Woods must take as a positive. No, he didn't claim his 72nd PGA Tour victory, and he wasn't in the final group, lurking with his Sunday red like in the past, but it was a building block for something better. This week might just be enough Two LPGA players involved in a disqualification turned fishy [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 29, 2010, 1:13 pm] Follow Shane Bacon on Twitter at @shanebacon. For all the thousands and thousands of rules that the game of golf possesses, the only one that you must always abide by is this; be honest, because the moment someone calls you a cheater, that smell will never go away.This week at the CN Canadian Women's Open, two of the brightest stars in the game are atop the leaderboard, but it is two names that won't be making a check that are getting the most press. That is Shi Hyun Ahn (right) and Ilmi Chung (left), two players that were disqualified on Thursday for playing the wrong ball on the final hole, but signing the scorecard without any penalty.People play the wrong golf ball all the time, so that isn't the problem. The uproar comes because some think that both players knew they had done wrong but decided between themselves that they weren't going to say anything. Two reports have come up, with one being that the ladies knew what they had done, but had a discussion in Korean after the hole, telling one caddie, "You did not see anything."That problem with that account is it is coming from a longtime caddie named Larry Smich, who has been accusing the Korean-born players of cheating for a long time, and has been called a racist numerous times for it. The other account, filed by Waggle Room, says that Chung's caddie approached the third member of the group's caddie and said, "We have a bit of a problem, but I'm not saying anything." While what exactly happened is still a bit up in the air, the bottom line is that two players knew they had done something against the rules, and signed an incorrect scorecard anyway. If this is something that has actually happened in the past, and players from other countries are using their language barrier to speak about something without the rest of the group knowing, some rules might have to be put in place.As of now, it seems that the LPGA has another problem on their hands, and this one could end up being very, ver |