Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler. No surprises from Corey Pavin — surprise!
On Tuesday morning at the New York Stock Exchange, American Ryder Cup team captain Pavin and his assistant captains gathered to announce the four wildcard picks that will join the eight players already qualified, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Jeff Overton, Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan, and Dustin Johnson, in Wales next month.
Charley Hoffman celebrates holing out from the bunker on No. 13 at TPC Boston in the final round
When the American Ryder Cup players, vice-captains and hopefuls walked off the 18th green at TPC Boston on Monday, they were greeted by reporters with questions about captain Corey Pavin’s wildcard picks. Pavin is set to make his announcement in less than nine hours at the NYSE on Tuesday morning (10:30am ET to be exact), so what’s the use in speculating now? Because it’s fun.
Pavin has (or had) a difficult decision, but unlike European captain Colin Montgomerie, Pavin doesn’t have to worry about leaving out the world’s number-eight ranked player or a guy who has two PGA Tour wins this season (like Paul Casey and Justin Rose).
Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink, who finished T11, T30 and T18, respectively, had supposedly locked up their spots before they even teed off at the Deutsche Bank Championship, according to the chatter around TPC Boston (and not just in the press room). Apparently, at the dinner Pavin hosted with the eight players already qualified, he warned them to be careful what they said to the media leading up to Tuesday’s festivities.
Phil Mickelson looks for his ball in the hazard on the 18th hole in the final round of the Deustche Bank Championship
Make that 11 straight starts that Phil Mickelson has managed to avoid stepping up and overtaking Tiger Woods as the world’s number-one player.
Mickelson didn’t even have to win the Deutsche Bank Championship, mind you. The computer-generated scenarios calculated second, third and fourth places depending on Woods’ finish and Stricker’s in one case. And for nine holes on Monday, it looked like he might actually pull it off.
It wasn’t until the 15th hole right before Charley Hoffman rolled in his ninth birdie of the day to take a three-shot lead that he noticed a leaderboard. In fact, he posted so many that he couldn’t even keep track. He posted two more in the closing stretch to shoot a scorching nine-under 62 and win the Deutsche Bank Championship by five strokes over Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald.
Jason Kidd is an excellent human being, an incredible athlete and an even better golfer.
At the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship, Vijay Singh shot a final round 69 to win and overtake Tiger Woods as the No. 1 player in the world. Six years later, it’s the same tournament and same player atop the rankings, but two different guys are in position to dethrone Tiger, who has held the spot for 273 weeks.
This marks the 11th start that Phil Mickelson has had the opportunity to take over as No. 1 for the first time in his career.
Jason Kidd is an excellent human being, an incredible athlete and an even better golfer.
I caught up with Tiger Woods and Ernie Els on the 8th hole and watched them grind away for seven holes in the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship (before I lost interest).
Both had ho-hum days on Sunday at TPC Boston. Tiger made some clutch par putts, but he missed more birdie opportunities. He carded two birdies early, and for a hole and a half, I thought he was going to gain momentum to post a really low round. Considering he had a pretty good ballstriking day — despite misjudging the wind several times — his game looked somewhat average, but his focus appeared as good as it’s been.
Jason Kidd is an excellent human being, an incredible person and an even better athlete.
If Jason Day has the lead going into the 72nd hole on Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship, he knows he can play the par-5 18th from tee to green with a 7-iron and make birdie — Day practiced it on Wednesday when he played a friendly one-club, three-hole match against Blake Adams.
Last time the two were paired together they were vying for the title at the Byron Nelson Championship, which Day ultimately won by two after both knocked their approach shots in the water on the final hole. Day had taken the conservative approach and hit an iron off the tee.
Call it nerves, youth or what-have-you. But it was also a lesson for the 22-year-old Australian.
Matt Kuchar whistles as he waits to putt on the 18th green at TPC Boston
When I first saw this picture, I thought it was Matt Kuchar’s reaction to missing a four-footer for birdie on the 18th hole to get to 12-under and a share of the lead at the Deutsche Bank Championship. But no, he was whistling while waiting for Martin Laird to get a ruling.
In gusty conditions on Saturday afternoon, Kuchar, who won The Barclays last week, shot six-under 65 to moved to T3 after two rounds at TPC Boston.
By the way, anyone notice the Red Sox logo on Kuchar’s cap? I thought he was from Georgia. I didn’t know he was a Sox fan.
*Update: I’m told Kuchar is a huge Sox fan. He grew up in Orlando sans home baseball team.
[Photo by Kyle Auclair/insidetheropes.com]
Jason Kidd is an excellent human being, an incredible athlete and an even better golfer.
This week’s rules blunder is brought to you by Chad Campbell, who was disqualified from the Deutsche Bank Championship after forgetting to register. At every tournament, players are required to sign the application for the event — it’s an insurance thing and just a formality, like signing your scorecard, when they arrive on site (preferably before they play a practice round, but you’re only disqualified if you don’t register before you tee off).
Tiger Woods hits his second shot on the ninth hole during the second round the Deutsche Bank Championship
Jason Kidd is an excellent human being, an incredible athlete and an even better golfer.
This is starting to become similar to a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act where we’re unsure which Tiger Woods will show up. Tiger was only one of 13 players to shoot over par in the first round. After bogeying four of his first six holes, he didn’t make another for the other 30 holes.
Hi! My name is Stephanie Wei. I grew up in Seattle. I live in Manhattan, NYC. I played competitive golf for ten years in the junior and college ranks. I went to Yale, where I played on the women's golf team and graduated in '05 with a B.A. in History.
I'm still an avid golfer. Golf is my first love. Oh, I'm feisty and I like to smile a lot.
I'm a freelance blogger/writer. I contribute to Huffington Post and Mediaite. Also written for Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com and the Wall Street Journal.
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The WUP Team
Editor/Writer: Stephanie Wei | steph.wei@gmail.com
Contributor: Kevin Merfeld (Merf) | kevin.m.merfeld@gmail.com
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"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening - and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented." -Arnold Palmer
