Shooting seven straight birdies at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club secured Tiger Woods a $500,000 paycheck and the individual title at the Tavistock Cup.
Despite his strong performance, his team did not win the team title. Team title went to Lake Nona with team captain, Ernie Els.
Mark Calcavecchia needed to win enough at Doral to stay in the top ten on the PGA money list to go to The Masters.
He earned $63,000 at Doral, pushing his season's winnings to $1, 417, 408. It was good enough to earn Calcavecchia a 17th trip to The Masters.
His entire family will make the trip to Augusta -- even the family's dogs.
Mark Wilson was also hoping to do well enough to make The Masters. Unfortunately, unlike Calcavecchia, his dreams were dashed. He will see The Masters, of course ... bird's eye view on his television screen.
The 2007 Tavistock Cup will be played at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club on March 26 and 27.
Played in a team competition, contestants compete for more than $2.5 million. On Par 3s, hole-in-one prizes include automobiles, boats, jewelry and more.
Team Captains are Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els. The first team to tee off will be Islesworth's Tiger Woods and John Cook against Lake Nona's Henrik Stenson and Chris DiMarco.
2007 TAVISTOCK CUP DRAW
Round 1 Better Ball
All Times Eastern
Isleworth Lake Nona
Match 1 Tiger Woods vs. Henrik Stenson
11:05 a.m. John Cook Chris DiMarco
Match 2 Robert Allenby vs. Justin Rose
11:20 a.m. Craig Parry Ian Poulter
Match 3 Stuart Appleby vs. Retief Goosen
11:35 a.m. Nick O’Hern Trevor Immelman
Match 4 Lee Janzen vs. Graeme McDowell
11:50 a.m. Scott Hoch Ben Curtis
Match 5 Mark O’Meara vs. Ernie Els
12:05 p.m. Charles Howell III Mark McNulty
Round 1 will be Fourball Medal Match Play. Within the fourball, the two-person team with the lowest 18-hole better ball total will win the match. Each win is worth 2 points, a tie is worth 1 point and a loss is worth 0 points. In total, there will be 10 points awarded for Round 1.
Round 2 Singles
All Times Eastern
Isleworth Lake Nona
Group 1 Mark O’Meara vs. Ben Curtis
11:05 a.m. Mark O’Meara vs. Mark McNulty
John Cook vs. Ben Curtis
John Cook vs. Mark McNulty
Group 2 Lee Janzen vs. Graeme McDowell
11:20 a.m. Lee Janzen vs. Chris DiMarco
Scott Hoch vs. Graeme McDowell
Scott Hoch vs. Chris DiMarco
Group 3 Robert Allenby vs. Trevor Immelman
11:35 a.m. Robert Allenby vs. Justin Rose
Nick O’Hern vs. Trevor Immelman
Nick O’Hern vs. Justin Rose
Group 4 Stuart Appleby vs. Henrik Stenson
11:50 a.m. Stuart Appleby vs. Ian Poulter
Craig Parry vs. Henrik Stenson
Craig Parry vs. Ian Poulter
Group 5 Tiger Woods vs. Ernie Els
12:05 p.m. Tiger Woods vs. Retief Goosen
Charles Howell III vs. Ernie Els
Charles Howell III vs. Retief Goosen
Round 2 will be Fourball Singles Medal Match Play. Each player in the group plays an 18-hole stroke play singles match against each of the opposing two players; therefore, each player plays two singles matches. A win is worth 1 point, a tie is worth ½ point, and a loss is worth 0 points. In total, there will be 20 points awarded for Round 2.
As a result, it will take 15 ½ points to win the Tavistock Cup and be crowned World Golf and Country Club Champion.
Tiger Woods dominated the World Golf Championship at the Doral's Blue Monster Course. It is the first time in Tiger's career that he has won the same event six times. It was the 56th PGA win of his career and he is fifth on the all-time winners list. Arnold Palmer had 62 career wins. Tiger takes home $1.350.000.
Brett Wetterich, who was in Q-school just 15 months ago, finished second and had a very strong performance. Wetterich, who was in a Nationwide Tour event just one year ago, takes home $800,000.
At one point in the final round, Tiger led by seven strokes. He experienced some difficulty though and by the 17th hole was down to only a three stroke lead over Wetterich.. On the final hole, Tiger had the shortest drive on the 18th of the day, by 30 yards. Wetterich had the longest drive on the same hole. Wetterich had a beautiful second stroke with a very realistic shot at a birdie on the hall. He missed it however. Woods bogied the 18th but it was good enough for the win.
The course was difficult due to 20+ m.p.h. winds, the thick Bermuda rough and the bunker & water squeezed landing areas.
Don Shula was the honorary chairman of the Doral event. The 13th hole was tough for the field. Only one player -- not Tiger -- had a birdie on the hole the entire day.
Mark Calcavecchia needed to finish in the top 10 to go to The Masters and is hanging on by a thread. He started the day at seven on the list, but dropped as the round wore on. He had a quadruple bogey on the 18th hole, putting his ball --twice -- into the water. He made the top 10 finish and will be seen at Augusta.
At a very windy and rainy Doral Resort & Spa's Blue Course, Henrik Stenson and Robert Allenby pulled to the front of the leaderboard after the first round of play.
73 players started the day. Only 15, including Stenson and Allenby, broke par. Tiger Woods shot a 1-under par 71 and finds himself in tenth place tie. They say putting is for dough ... Woods needed 32 putts on day one.
The winner of this event will pocket $1.44 million.
Vijay Singh sits atop the board for the FedExCup Challenge. After 9 events, he has amassed 11,289 points.
Only 120 points behind him is Charles Howell III. Rounding out the top five are Phil Mickelson, John Rollings and Mark Calcavecchia. Tiger Woods has pulled up to claim the 7th spot.
Biggest mover this week was Rocco Mediate who jumped 81 spots and now finds himself in 20th place.
Until the Bay Hill Classic, Tiger Woods had a record of 13-consecutive events worldwide where he finished in the top 10. 9 of those 13 events were on the PGA Tour. That record is finished.
The record ended with Bay Hill. Tiger finished in 22nd place. Woods hit only 61% of the greens and 51% of the fairways.
Woods will continue play in Florida. His next event will be the WGC-CA Championship at Doral Golf Resort and Spa.
Playing on extremely hard greens, Vijay Singh won at Bay Hill. The 31st victory of his career, he is the first player to win two tournaments this year. Additionally, Singh, shooting a 67, tied Rocco Mediate for the best round of the day.
Rocco Mediate, in post play interviews, said that he felt good pressure since Arnold Palmer made the decision to include Rocco in the field. If Rocco hadn't fallen apart during the third round, he probably would have won the tourney .. shooting a 66, 65, 76 and 67.
When Singh finished the round, Arnold Palmer met him at 18 and told him, "I knew you could win this event 20 years ago when I invited you to play."
When Vaughn Taylor saw the leaderboard after the sixth hole in the third round at Bay Hill, he was six strokes behind the leader. Things changed dramatically by the 18th hole. After the third round, he was leading by two strokes over Ben Curtis.
15 players -- including Tiger Woods -- are within 5 shots of the leader.
Rocco Mediate who started the day as the leader had two birdies, on the first and 18th holes. The remaining 16 holes were dismal and he finished the day with a 76.
After the second round, Rocco Mediate sits alone at the top of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. A spectacular 5-under 65 round got Rocco there.
On Thursday night, after shooting a 75, Mark Calcavecchia packed his bags anticipating that he would be done playing in the PODS Championship. However, at the end of the final round, Calcavecchia earned $954,000 for winning the event. The check put him over the $20 million mark in career earnings. He is now #7 on the PGA money list. If he can stay in the top 10 for the next two weeks, he will make The Masters.
Heath Slocum took second after missing a putt on the final hole to force a playoff.
Calcavecchia's caddie, Eric Larson, spent 11 years in prison due to drugs. Last year when he was released, Calcavecchia kept his promise to Larson and gave him a job.
Mark Calcavecchia, age 46, tied the course record on the third round of play, shot ten birdies and now finds himself sitting tied at the top of the leaderboard with Heath Slocum.
It is a very far place from where he found himself after the first round. On the opening round, Calcavecchia shot a 75 and had 36 putts in the round. Putting has been a consistent problem in the last year or two. At the Honda Classic, he missed the cut. He left the event and went to a golf store. He bought a Ping and paid $256.18 for the putter.
Tiger Woods has announced that his next event will be the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. After Bay Hill, Tiger will compete in the WGC-CA Championship at Doral. He has won that event the last two years. Naturally, the event to follow Doral will be The Masters.
Additionally, his Fourth of July competition in Washngton, D.C. will be officially known as the A T & T National. It appears the venue will be the Congressional Country Club -- although the venue isn't yet set in stone. Although Tiger's first child is due this summer, he plans at this time to participate in the event.
Tiger hopes to have a Tiger Woods Learning Center brought to the Washington, D.C. area.
Finally, Tiger's plans still include opening the Tiger Woods designed golf course in Dubai in late 2009.
Nancy Lopez, who set the LPGA on fire in 1978, will return to the LPGA nearly 30 years later.
In the past few years, she has lost 30 pounds and focused on strength training. She plans to play in five or six LPGA Tour events this year. Her first event will be the Ginn Open in Florida, April 12 - 15.
Personally, I know Lopez has developed other interests off the course. Several years ago, a neighbor traveled to Atlanta, GA to purchase a pure breed dog from Lopez which he subsequently named "Bogey".
At the Honda Classic in Florida on the second hole of the playoff, but the first hole played today, two of the four players were eliminated. Both Boo Weekley and Camilo Villegas bogeyed the hole.
Mark Wilson and Jose Coceres moved to the third playoff hole, the par-3 17th hole. Wilson hit a ten foot putt to birdie the hole. He then had to step aside to see if Coceres could make nearly an identical shot. Unfortunately for Coceres, he missed the birdie.
Wilson collected two valuable things for the win: a check for $990,000 and an exemption until 2009.
Wilson is hoping to parlay the win into competing at the Doral -- his mind has allowed him to hope for a chance at the Masters.
Darkness settled on Florida before the winner of the Honda Classic could be declared. It didn't have to be this way. Boo Weekley missed a 3 foot par on the 18th hole which would have given him his first PGA title.
Now, Weekley, Camilo Villegas, Mark Wilson and Jose Coceres will meet at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning for a four-man playoff. One hole of the playoff was held at the conclusion of tour play. However, all four competitors shot par.
The winner of the tournamnet will pocket $980,000. Weekley admits, though, that the real appeal is a two year exemption as he has struggled for ten years to stay on the tour.
The worst round of the day award goes to Robert Garrigus. On the 15th hole, a par 3, he put three balls in the water. He shot a 9 on the hole. He finished the day with a 14-over 84.
Last year, 3 million Internet users tuned it virtually to watch golf's greatest major, The Masters. With so many golf faithful looking for extra coverage, new Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne decided to continue to host streaming video on Masters.org.
According to ESPN.com, an extra hour of coverage will be shown via the Internet this year. As Payne stated in a January interview, "It's fair to say that given the mandate to reach a broad number of people around the world, you will see us constantly looking for new and better ways to do that, perhaps give greater access to more of the tournament,"
Over the past several years, there has been continuous debate over the increase of club and ball technology in the game of golf. Ironically, the national average handicap hasn't improved despite the appearance of more forgiving clubs and balls. This problem is likely caused by courses increasing their yardages to meet the new standards on distance, so the average golfer is really being left out of the technological revolution.
In order to maintain the enjoyment of the game, the USGA has proposed a new plan on how they will treat adjustable clubs. The new plan would result in a more relaxed position under which certain features other than weight could be changed to benefit the golfer.
Before the square driver heads made news, the golf world loved Taylormade's R7 series of adjustable weight drivers to customize the game to the player. The USGA will look to continue with this progression to make the game better for the average weekend golfer.
As Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge of the USGA stated, "We’re relaxing standards of adjustability because we believe these changes will benefit all golfers by allowing them to have a better chance to use clubs that can be fitted to their individual swing characteristics.”
By allowing golfers to adjust their equipement to match their unique games, the USGA believes more golfers will continue to play.
I finally got a chance to test run Callaway's new FT-i driver after months of buildup. Unfortunately, I was more than disappointed with the "new shape of golf." From my own experience, the square head just feels funny at setup, at least more so than the other square driver on the market, the Nike Sumo Squared.
ound the FT-i to be an inferior club to the Sumo^2 and even some of Callaway's other new models this year. If you absolutely have to buy a new driver this season without a chance of demoing it, try the Callaway FT-5, Big Bertha 460, or Nike Sumo^2. The Sumo^2 tends to look and feel better than the FT-i, plus it is $100 cheaper.
In the final round of the Johnnie Walker Classic, on the final hole, Anton Haig got his first birdie and found himself tied with two others, Richard Sterne and Oliver Wilson, at the top of the leaderboard.
On the first hole of the playoff, on the final hole of the course, he got his second birdie and won the Johnnie Walker Classic.
Reteif Goosen finished 3-shots-behind the leaders. Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie finished tied for sixth place.
Charlie Wi and Robert Allenby are tied for the lead after the second round of Florida's Honda Classic. Allenby was two under today and Wi was even, but had a good enough day yesterday to stay in the lead.
Two dozen players are within five shots of the lead. Two players shot a 66 today: Mathias Gronberg and Mark Wilson both tied for fifth place.
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