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Junior Golfer Shoots 57

There has been an explosion of super-low scores in golf recently. As in sub-60s. And there was another one today in the Alabama Golf Association State Boys Junior Championship.

Bobby Wyatt, a few days shy of turning 18, shot a 57 in the second round of the tournament on the par-71 (that's 14-under) Country Club of Mobile in Mobile, Ala. He set a new course record, obviously, and broke the old record by six strokes. How often does a course record get lowered by six shots? Not very often.

The course was set up at 6,628 yards. Is it an easy course? Stewart Cink says no. The 2009 British Open champion tweeted:

"CC of Mobile is a course I know well. One of my favorites. Not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination..."

Wyatt carded a 26 on the front nine and a 29 on the back nine. He was 11-under through 11 holes. Wyatt is finished with high school and will play for the University of Alabama golf team in the coming collegiate season.

See also:

• Lowest 18-hole scores in golf

This Week: US Senior Open

The Champions Tour is in a stretch of three majors in four tournaments: The U.S. Senior Open this week, the Senior Open Championship last week, and the Jeld-Wen Tradition coming up in a couple weeks. That beats 2009, though, when the same three majors were back-to-back-to-back.

Bernhard Langer won the Senior British last week at Carnoustie, with hardly a tree in sight (although plenty of heather and gorse). This week, the players can definitely see the forest of trees that tightly line Sahalee Country Club in Washington state. It's a course whose majestic trees one led Colin Montgomerie to call it the prettiest place the pros play. (Which might make Sahalee the only thing about America Monty likes.)

The defending champion is Fred Funk, whose straight driving will come in handy again this week. One player who would dearly love to win this week is Fred Couples, a local boy who has long been the biggest champion of Sahalee. And Couples still leads the Champions Tour money list.

Prior to Langer's win last week, the most recent senior major winner was Tom Lehman, who won the Senior PGA in late May; Larry Mize won the Montreal Championship two weeks ago. Nick Price, who might have been a contender, withdrew. Corey Pavin, runnerup to Langer at the Senior British, is another strong contender.

See the U.S. Senior Open tourney page for trivia and notes.

See also:

• U.S. Senior Open winners

This Week: US Senior Open originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 15:20:42.

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Cell Phones at PGA Tour Events? Curses!

Fans aren't supposed to take cell phones inside the gates at PGA Tour events, nor at most other professional golf tournaments.

But the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship, calling itself "the guinea pig tournament," is changing that policy this year. Tournament officials announced that cell phones will be allowed at the tourney, so long as fans who have them keep them on silent and use them only in designated areas around the course.

Golfers can play through anything if we just try - or, perhaps more to the point, if we have no choice. The course I grew up on had one hole that doglegged right at an unlucky homeowner's fenceline. That owner had a mean dog. And that dog loved to bark and growl and threaten every time I had to play a ball adjacent to his fence. Which, alas, was often. But with that dog screaming in my ear, so to speak, I hit many a great shot from that location. There was no other option. Dogs can't read "Quiet" signs.

Pro golfers would get used to a little rustle in the crowd if they were expected to, or if they were forced to. (Whether that's desirable is a different matter.) And for now, pros - or at least some pros - have ears that seemingly can pick up a whisper from the other side of the golf course. Some players are hypersensitive, and those are the players who are going to be bothered by the Wyndham Championship's decision.

Defending champion Ryan Moore says he's OK with the decision. But, then, he seems to have a sunny view of human nature:

Though wireless devices have long been a no-no on the tour, Moore said he usually hears rings from contraband cell phones roughly once or twice per tournament. He joked that he might send some text messages from the course, then said he expects fans to use their phones responsibly.

"People are going to sneak (phones) in anyways, somehow get them in. It's adults. I feel like if you let them actually bring them out there, they'll probably respect the fact that you let them have it and actually go use those (designated) areas a lot more," he said. "People appreciate the fact that you're not treating them like a 10-year-old: 'You're not responsible enough to do this.' They're actually letting them have it, and just say, 'Please, just be respectful of play.' I think people will do that, for the most part. I really do."

We applaud Ryan for his optimism, and hope that he's right. But in case he's not, we also offer this Wyndham Championship cell phone drinking game: Any time a golfer backs off and glares into the crowd, take a drink. Any time a golfer backs off and curses, take two.

Cell Phones at PGA Tour Events? Curses! originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 11:23:45.

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Golf Game Debuts in iPhone Top 10

What are the top-grossing apps for iPhones? One of the Top 10 this week is a golf game, according to the gaming site FingerGaming.com, which tracks app sales.

The game is Let's Golf 2, and it cracked the Top 10 this week at No. 7. By Gameloft, the game sells for $4.99 in the iTunes store.

Do you have Let's Golf 2 on your iPhone? Then let's review it - we'd like to get your rating of this game or any other golf apps you've downloaded for your smartphone (iPhone or other):

Review general golf apps for smartphones or review golf GPS apps for smartphones

See also:

• Review golf video games
• Review PC golf games

Golf Game Debuts in iPhone Top 10 originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 10:01:24.

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Player Wrongly DQ'd Over Grooves Gets Apology, But What About a Paycheck?

(See important update at bottom of post.)

Duramed Futures Tour rookie Sarah Brown was on the way to her best finish and biggest payday yet at last week's The International at Concord. Then she was was disqualified for using a wedge that doesn't conform to the 2010 groove rules.

Except that Brown's wedge does conform - she was wrongly disqualified. Futures Tour CEO Zayra Calderon called Brown on Monday and apologized. What the call will be on reimbursing Brown for the money she lost as a result of the tour's mistake is still up in the air.

Brown was understandably upset on two fronts, telling About.com, "The thought that I had been accused of cheating was upsetting. But I knew that I wasn't a cheater and that if my clubs had been illegal it would have been an honest mistake. The thought that I had just been cheated out of my best paycheck, however, was infuriating. I was very upset about that."

Asked for comment on Tuesday, Calderon offered boilerplate: "We recognize we were wrong and have taken steps to prevent this from happening again."

Read more...

Player Wrongly DQ'd Over Grooves Gets Apology, But What About a Paycheck? originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 16:23:47.

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Alexis Thompson Not Playing Women's British - Is Michelle Wie to Blame?

Last week at the Evian Masters, 15-year-old Alexis Thompson birdied the final hole to get in the clubhouse with a share of the lead. Thompson then waited while Jiyai Shin and Morgan Pressel completed play to determine whether she would be part of a playoff.

She wasn't. Shin also birdied the last hole to win, but Thompson shared second. Not bad for a 15-year-old. And not all that surprising from Thompson, whose talent is huge - and for whom expectations are huge.

We've been down this road before, haven't we? What was her name? Tall girl, from Hawaii. Oh, right: Michelle Wie.

Five years ago, when Wie was 15, she received a special exemption into the field for the 2005 Women's British Open. This year, Thompson was denied a special exemption - not into the Women's British Open field itself, but into the tournament's final qualifier, which was played on Monday, a day after Thompson's runner-up at the Evian.

Since she was part of the 2010 Curtis Cup team, Thompson earned an exemption into that final qualifier. But by turning pro, she gave up that exemption. (Nothing unusual about that - Colt Knost gave up exemptions into The Masters and the U.S. Open by turning pro a couple years ago. If you turn pro before "cashing in" exemptions earned as an amateur, those exemptions are usually taken away from you.)

However, following her terrific showing in the Evian Masters, Thompson asked the Ladies Golf Union to let her play in the final qualifier. The LGU said no.

Read more...

Alexis Thompson Not Playing Women's British - Is Michelle Wie to Blame? originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 10:36:01.

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Seema Sadekar's Big Break Diary - Episode 6

Poll: 2010 Women's British Open Winner

We've come to the final major of the 2010 women's golf season, the Ricoh Women's British Open. It feels like we're only halfway through the season, though. With good reason: The fourth major of the LPGA schedule is also only the 14th tournament on the schedule.

It feels a little odd to be talking about the final major of a year when none of the LPGA Tour's player awards will be wrapped up for another couple months. Taking a cue from The Constructivist, here are how several of the award races look right now:

LPGA Money List
1. Jiyai Shin, $1,167,941
2. Suzann Pettersen, $1,045,392
3. Ai Miyazato, $1,024,840
4. Na Yeon Choi, $1,018,322
5. Cristie Kerr, $978,133
Full list

Vare Trophy (Scoring average)
1. Song-Hee Kim, 69.78
2. Suzann Pettersen, 69.87
3. Cristie Kerr, 70.03
4. Na Yeon Choi, 70.09
5. Jiyai Shin, 70.26
Full list

Player of the Year
1. Ai Miyazato, 138.00
2. Cristie Kerr, 121.00
3. Jiyai Shin, 105.00
4. Suzann Pettersen, 96.00
5. Na Yeon Choi, 93.00
Full list

The Women's British Open takes place at Royal Birkdale, vary familiar as part of the men's British Open rota.

The last five winners on the LPGA Tour - Ai Miyazato, Cristie Kerr, Na Yeon Choi, Paula Creamer and Jiyai Shin - make a pretty good list of contenders this week. The defending champion is Catriona Matthew.

Poll: 2010 Women's British Open Winner originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 09:25:20.

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Shin Outduels Youth Brigade to Win Evian

What does it take to make 22-year-old Morgan Pressel feel old? Lexi Thompson. The 15-year-old Thompson chased down Pressel, the third-round leader at the Evian Masters, with a closing 67. And so did 22-year-old Na Yeon Choi, who closed with a 66. But at least Pressel is still younger than Choi by a few months.

But Pressel didn't win the Evian, one of the biggest events on the LPGA Tour. Neither did Thompson, nor Choi. They all finished at 13-under, tied for second.

The winner was Jiyai Shin who is - can you guess? - 22 years old, one month older than Pressel.

Shin, playing with Pressel in the final pairing, birdied the par-5 final hole, then watched Pressel's attempt to match slide over the side of the cup. So Shin won with a score of 14-under, and Shin now heads to Royal Birkdale for the Women's British Open, a tournament she won in 2008.

For Shin, it's win No. 7 on the LPGA Tour, and it's her 31st win as a professional. (Did I mention she's 22 years old?)

I wrote earlier this year that if LPGA commissioner Michael Whan can't figure out how to market Shin, then he's not the marketing whiz everyone thinks he is. It's too early to say whether Whan has had any success on that front. But Shin - who is utterly charming - is someone we should enjoy while we can. She's already stated her intention to pull a Lorena Ochoa and leave the LPGA early. Shin has said she wants to play 10 years on the LPGA, then head back to Korea to find her love muffin.

Evian Masters scoreboard

Shin Outduels Youth Brigade to Win Evian originally appeared on About.com Golf on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 11:12:40.

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Pettersson Posts 60 at Canadian Open

Carl Pettersson on Saturday became just the 22nd golfer in PGA Tour history to shoot 60 during the third round of the 2010 RBC Canadian Open. It's the 23rd time 60 has been scored in a PGA Tour event (Zach Johnson has done it twice).

Pettersson almost got to 59 - he had a birdie putt on the final hole. But from 30 feet, his putt just barely missed. A 59 has been recorded only four times in tour history.

One of those 59s and one of the previous 60s came earlier this year. And Pettersson's score today was the third time this week the Canadian Open tournament record has been matched or bettered. Entering the week, the tourney record was 62. In the first round, Brent Delahoussaye matched that; in the second round, Kevin Sutherland did.

And today, Pettersson broke the record with a 60. Anyone feel like shooting a 58 on Sunday?

Pettersson's scorecard included two eagles and seven birdies. Nice way to make up for a bogey on the second hole.

Canadian Open leaderboard

See also:

• Rounds of 60 on the PGA Tour
• Rounds of 59 on the PGA Tour

Pettersson Posts 60 at Canadian Open originally appeared on About.com Golf on Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at 13:21:55.

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