Golf Capsules: On The Fringe - McIlroy moving on from Masters disappointment
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The first time Rory McIlroy recalls watching the Masters on TV was in 1996. And like any other 6-year-old already smitten with the game, he no doubt dreamed of being on that stage himself one day. Sure enough, he was.
Only he didn't play the role of his golfing idol, Nick Faldo, who rallied from a six-shot deficit with a 67 to win a third green jacket. He was more like Greg Norman.
So perhaps it was only fitting that Norman, whose 78 in the final round of 1996 gets more attention than the two majors he won, was among the first to call the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland.
McIlroy turned a four-shot lead into a collapse that even Norman must have had trouble watching. The kid hit into the cabins, into the trees, into Rae's Creek. He three-putted from 7 feet on one hole, four-putted from 12 feet on the next. He missed one last short putt on the 18th for an 80, matching a Masters record for worst score by a 54-hole leader.
Yes, they can relate.
"Don't listen to you guys," McIlroy said Tuesday when asked the best advice he received after the Masters.
He was smiling, because that's what McIlroy tends to do in just about any situation. What made this tongue-in-cheek reply so interesting is that Faldo said something very similar to Norman when they embraced on the 18th green in 1996.
Norman and McIlroy found that playing the very next week was a tonic for getting over the ultimate hangover, although their itineraries were vastly different. Norman was two hours away at Hilton Head, McIlroy flew halfway around the world to Malaysia.
"I had a good chat with Greg Norman the week after, when I was in Malaysia, and he sort of said to me, 'From now on, don't read golf magazines, don't pick up papers, don't watch The Golf Channel.' But it's hard not to," McIlroy said. "Obviously, you want to keep up to date with what's going on. But you can't let other people sort of influence what you're thinking and what you should do.
"I've taken my own views from what happened a few weeks ago and moved on," he said. "And that's the most important thing."
McIlroy could have done worse than reading about his performance at the Masters.
What resonated was not so much the triple bogey at No. 10 when his tee shot ricocheted between cabins, or the four-putt double bogey on No. 12 that effectively ended his Masters. Rather, it was the amazing graciousness with which he handled such a crushing loss.
He looked as if he wanted to hide on the back nine, when he shot a 43. He refused to run for cover when it was over, instead answering every question with disappointment, but not despair.
McIlroy says it took a couple of days to get over the Masters.
"It was a great chance to win a first major, but it's golf," he said. "It's only golf at the end of the day. No one died. I'm very happy with my life, very happy with what's going on, very happy with my game."
He says he has learned his lessons and is ready to move on.
Chief among them is that McIlroy believes that maybe he wasn't ready to win. That sounded odd, because he has played well beyond his years since earning his European Tour card as an 18-year-old in just two events.
He only has two wins, but they were significant — the Dubai Desert Classic at 19, and a year later at Quail Hollow, where he closed with a 62 on one of the PGA Tour's toughest tracks. And then there was that 63 in the opening round at St. Andrews last year, only to get knocked down in the wind the next day with an 80.
"I displayed a few weaknesses in my game that I need to work on," McIlroy said.
He didn't get into specifics, although he could have been talking about his putting. Perhaps it was no surprise Tuesday that Dave Stockton, a two-time major champion and putting specialist, is now working with McIlroy.
Whatever the case, McIlroy is more interested in what lies ahead than what's behind him, even though the final round of the Masters could define his career until — or if — he wins a major.
In a 20-minute interview, 13 of the opening 14 questions were related to the Masters in some form. He expected that, and can expect it again with a different audience in Spain and Ohio, and a bigger audience at the U.S. Open.
"For 63 holes, I led the golf tournament, and it was just a bad back nine — a very bad back nine — that sort of took the tournament away from me, I suppose," he said. "But what can you do? There's three more majors this year, and hopefully dozens more that I'll play in my career."
Norman received more praise for how he handled losing the Masters than anything else he did in his Hall of Fame career. He was showered with cards, notes and telegrams — there was no Twitter and texting in 1996 — in the week after the Masters at Hilton Head.
That's similar to what McIlroy experienced.
The difference between those Masters moments is where McIlroy goes from here. Norman was 41 when he lost his six-shot lead at Augusta. He already had two majors, three PGA Tour money titles and had been No. 1 longer than anyone in the world ranking.
McIlroy is just getting started. He still has a lot to prove.
PGA
McIlroy moving on from Masters disappointment
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The first time Rory McIlroy recalls watching the Masters on TV was in 1996. And like any other 6-year-old already smitten with the game, he no doubt dreamed of being on that stage himself one day.
Sure enough, he was. Only he didn't play the role of his golfing idol, Nick Faldo, who rallied from a six-shot deficit with a 67 to win a third green jacket. He was more like Greg Norman.
So perhaps it was only fitting that Norman, whose 78 in the final round of 1996 gets more attention than the two majors he won, was among the first to call the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland.
McIlroy turned a four-shot lead into a collapse that even Norman must have had trouble watching. He hit into the cabins, into the trees, into Rae's Creek. He three-putted from 7 feet on one hole, four-putted from 12 feet on the next. He missed one last short putt on the 18th for an 80, matching a Masters record for worst score by a 54-hole leader.
"Don't listen to you guys," McIlroy said Tuesday when asked the best advice he received after the Masters.
He was smiling, because that's what McIlroy tends to do in just about any situation. What made this tongue-in-cheek reply so interesting is that Faldo said something very similar to Norman when they embraced on the 18th green in 1996.
Norman and McIlroy found that playing the very next week was a tonic for getting over the ultimate hangover, although their itineraries were vastly different. Norman was two hours away at Hilton Head, McIlroy flew halfway around the world to Malaysia.
"I had a good chat with Greg Norman the week after, when I was in Malaysia, and he sort of said to me, 'From now on, don't read golf magazines, don't pick up papers, don't watch The Golf Channel.' But it's hard not to," McIlroy said. "Obviously, you want to keep up to date with what's going on. But you can't let other people sort of influence what you're thinking and what you should do.
"I've taken my own views from what happened a few weeks ago and moved on," he said. "And that's the most important thing."
McIlroy could have done worse than reading about his performance at the Masters.
What resonated was not so much the triple bogey at No. 10 when his tee shot ricocheted between cabins, or the four-putt double bogey on No. 12 that effectively ended his Masters. Rather, it was the amazing graciousness with which he handled such a crushing loss.
He looked as if he wanted to hide on the back nine, when he shot a 43. He refused to run for cover when it was over, instead answering every question with disappointment, but not despair.
McIlroy says it took a couple of days to get over the Masters.
"It was a great chance to win a first major, but it's golf," he said. "It's only golf at the end of the day. No one died. I'm very happy with my life, very happy with what's going on, very happy with my game."
He says he has learned his lessons and is ready to move on.
Chief among them is that McIlroy believes that maybe he wasn't ready to win. That sounded odd, because he has played well beyond his years since earning his European Tour card as an 18-year-old in just two events.
He only has two wins, but they were significant — the Dubai Desert Classic at 19, and a year later at Quail Hollow, where he closed with a 62 on one of the PGA Tour's toughest tracks. And then there was that 63 in the opening round at St. Andrews last year, only to get knocked down in the wind the next day with an 80.
"I displayed a few weaknesses in my game that I need to work on," McIlroy said.
He didn't get into specifics, although he could have been talking about his putting. Perhaps it was no surprise Tuesday that Dave Stockton, a two-time major champion and putting specialist, is now working with McIlroy.
Whatever the case, McIlroy is more interested in what lies ahead than what's behind him, even though the final round of the Masters could define his career until — or if — he wins a major.
In a 20-minute interview, 13 of the opening 14 questions were related to the Masters in some form. He expected that, and can expect it again with a different audience in Spain and Ohio, and a bigger audience at the U.S. Open.
"For 63 holes, I led the golf tournament, and it was just a bad back nine — a very bad back nine — that sort of took the tournament away from me, I suppose," he said. "But what can you do? There's three more majors this year, and hopefully dozens more that I'll play in my career."
Norman received more praise for how he handled losing the Masters than anything else he did in his Hall of Fame career. He was showered with cards, notes and telegrams — there was no Twitter and texting in 1996 — in the week after the Masters at Hilton Head.
That's similar to what McIlroy experienced.
The difference between those Masters moments is where McIlroy goes from here. Norman was 41 when he lost his six-shot lead at Augusta. He already had two majors, three PGA Tour money titles and had been No. 1 longer than anyone in the world ranking.
McIlroy is just getting started. He still has a lot to prove.
-- Doug Ferguson
PGA Tour introduces new putting statistic
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Dean Wilson always believed he was a good putter, whether he was in Japan or on the PGA Tour. The trick was finding proof of that in the statistics.
He finished no higher than 31st in putts per round over the last five years, but Wilson never put much stock in that because it doesn't account for how often a player is putting for birdie or getting up-and-down from just off the green. He once was 13th in average putts per greens in regulation, although that didn't account for proximity to the hole.
So the 41-year-old from Hawaii was not surprised when told about a new PGA Tour statistic that became official Monday, one that uses Shotlink data over an entire year to measure how well a player putts compared with the field.
The statistic officially is called "Strokes Gained-Putting," and it's the first time in 15 years that the PGA Tour has introduced a new core statistic. Wilson would have been among the top 11 putters in four of the last five years.
"I always felt like I'm a good putter," Wilson said. "I'm confident in my technique and the theories I use. I just don't know what the correct way would be to measure it. They're all skewed one way or another. I could never think there was another way to do it."
That's where Mark Broadie comes in.
Broadie, who plays off a 4 handicap when he's not working as a Columbia Business School professor, has been crunching Shotlink numbers for the better part of a decade as he tries to find the most meaningful measure of a tour player's game.
"A good putting stat should provide a pure measure of putting skill," said Broadie, who developed the stat and then honed it with a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His philosophy is simple — the quality of every shot should be based on where it started and where it finished.
The math is a little more complicated.
It starts with determining how many average putts it takes a PGA Tour player from each distance. Broadie discovered that at just under 8 feet, players have a 50 percent chance of making the putt — in other words, the average stroke for that length is 1.5. The average gets higher for the longer putts.
So if Nick Watney makes an 8-foot putt, he will have gained 0.5 strokes on the field. If he takes two putts from that distance, he will have lost 0.5 strokes to the field. The average for a 20-foot putt is about 1.9. If he makes the putt, he gains 0.9 on the field, whereas if he misses the putt, he loses only 0.1 strokes.
Add these up at the end of each round and you have "Putts Gained."
Watney is used as an example because he is the current tour leader at 1.215. All that number means is that Watney gains an average of about 1.2 strokes on the field through his putting.
The numbers might not make a lot of sense, but the names do. Luke Donald would have led the tour in this statistic the last two years. Ben Crane would have led the tour twice. Tiger Woods for years was regarded one of golf's best putters. With this statistic, he ranked among the top 3 in three of the last five years he was eligible.
Others who were around the top 10 just about every year were players whom their peers consider good putters — Woods, Steve Stricker, Donald, Crane, Brian Gay, Aaron Baddeley — and yes, even Dean Wilson.
The tour awards a medal to each player who leads a major statistical category, just as driving distance and greens in regulation. Starting this year, "putts gained" will determine who wins the putting category.
It's not a perfect system, although it's designed to take out the bias from the previous putting stats.
-- Doug Ferguson
Ogilvy withdraws with a sore shoulder
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Geoff Ogilvy has withdrawn from the Wells Fargo Championship because of a sore left shoulder.
Ogilvy says his shoulder was bothering him slightly toward the end of the Masters and at the Texas Open. He figured it would be fine when he got to Quail Hollow in Charlotte, but says he wants another week of rest to make sure it doesn't become a problem.
He is expected to play next week at The Players Championship and in Texas, the home state of his wife.
Ogilvy says it wouldn't be sensible to try to play at Wells Fargo with so many big tournaments coming up, from The Players Championship to three majors this summer.
LPGA
Thompson returns to LPGA ShopRite
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Days after missing a chance to become the youngest winner in LPGA history, Alexis Thompson sounded like your ordinary teenager.
She giggled between questions, and she called having a share of the lead entering the final round of the Avnet LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala., a great experience.
And like most 16-year-olds, she was well past shooting a waterlogged, final-round 6-over-par 78 that dropped her from the top of the leaderboard into a tie for 19th in a span of four, frustrating hours.
That's golf. One day your swing is flawless and then next, well ...
Thompson was in Galloway Township, N.J., Tuesday for media day of the ShopRite LPGA Classic, where she received a sponsor's exemption for next month's 54-hole event on the Bay Course at Seaview, just outside of Atlantic City.
Thompson made her professional debut as a 15-year-old at this tournament last year and missed the cut by four strokes.
"There was a lot going on that week, from going from the Curtis Cup straight to here," said Thompson, who says she prefers to be called 'Lexi.' "The excitement of being a pro, it was huge. This time, it will be a lot more calm."
This past weekend was anything but calm for Thompson. She shot a 5-under 67 in the third round Saturday to take a share of the Avnet lead with Song-Hee Kim. Along the way, she put herself on the doorstep of LPGA history.
Paula Creamer is the youngest winner of a multi-round LPGA event, winning the 2005 Sybase Classic at 18 years, 9 months, 17 days.
Thompson would have shattered that mark had she won Sunday, being 16 years, 2 months, 21 days. However, her round started and ended with bogeys and her ball found the water on two holes on the back nine in a disastrous round.
"It was just an off day, off golf, I guess," Thompson said in a telephone interview. "That's what happened. I really don't know what happened to my game. Instead of taking a lot of stuff out of it, I took it as one bad day, and everybody has it."
Thompson said she wouldn't trade the experience. Having a share of the lead was great and playing with Kim in the final group was a thrill. Things just didn't go the way she wanted in the tournament that was won by Maria Hjorth.
"I was a little frustrated," Thompson said. "I am not going to say that I had good dreams (the night after). But it was all right. I have to keep reminding myself, it's just a game and people have those days."
Thompson is too young to play full-time on the LPGA tour, so her playing opportunities are limited. She can get six sponsor's exemptions annually and she can qualify for both the U.S. Women's Open and the British Women's Open. The Florida native can also try to qualify for tournaments in Monday qualifiers.
Thompson had petitioned the LPGA for 12 exemptions this year, but commissioner Mike Whan denied it.
Since turning professional in June, Thompson has earned $351,187 with her best finish being a tie for second in the Evian Masters in France, an event she calls the highlight of her career.
Thompson made a nice par-saver on the final hole to retain a share of the lead, but Jiyai Shin of South Korea birdied it to take the title.
Thompson has no regrets about her decision to turn pro, even if it means playing in fewer tournaments than she would like.
"Everything is a thrill," said the home-schooled teenager who uses her father, Scott, to caddie. "I am not traveling as much as I used to and I am playing one or two times a month. I used to play a bunch as an amateur, so when I go to every event I am really fired up and excited to play."
Looking forward, she says she needs to improve her consistency.
"I have improved a lot in my putting and overall my attitude on the course," she said. "It is definitely getting better. I'm really close, if I keep working on it."
-- Tom Canavan
Weekly Notes
O'Hair decides to leave swing coach Foley
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Sean O'Hair not only is looking for his game, he's now looking for a new swing coach.
O'Hair, who has missed his past five cuts and has not finished among the top 20 all year, has decided to split with Sean Foley after a relationship that began nearly three years ago in the Canadian Open.
During their time together, O'Hair won the Quail Hollow Championship and played in the Presidents Cup. But whatever had been going right started going very wrong this year, and it was time for a change.
O'Hair fired caddie Paul Tesori at the end of last year, and recently split up with caddie Brennan Little. Foley was next to go.
"He hasn't been happy with how this year has gone, and he feels he needs to make a change in direction with his instruction," Foley said Tuesday. "We had a good run up until the 2011 season. Sean is a good friend of mine. I love the kid. But this is business. I don't look at it from an emotional standpoint but a rationale standpoint.
"He has to do what's good for his career," Foley said. "He'll have my complete support, and I'll always cheer for him."
Foley more famously began working with Tiger Woods in August, and his stable includes Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose and Stephen Ames. For O'Hair, it was not an issue of time with the coach as much as it was wanting to change.
"What worked so well for so long ... you keep doing the same thing and it doesn't work as well," Foley said. "It's like in the NBA. You win a championship one year, two years later the coach gets fired for having a losing record. That's the business."
NELSON AWARD: Former PGA Tour commissioner Dean Beman has been selected for the Byron Nelson Prize, awarded to a person in golf who embodies the philanthropic spirit for which Nelson was known.
Beman was the architect for the PGA Tour business model, serving as commissioner from 20 years starting in 1974. Under his leadership, nearly all PGA Tour events devoted themselves to charity efforts.
"During my years as commissioner of the PGA Tour, I always pointed to the HP Byron Nelson Championship as the event other sponsors should use as a model in their own communities," Beman said. "Byron Nelson was always held up as the gentleman and golfer who should be emulated by our members. For me, there is no greater honor than receiving a prize which bears his name."
Beman will be honored May 24 at the opening ceremony of the Byron Nelson Championship. The Salesmanship Club of Dallas, which operates the tournament, donates $100,000 to the charity of the winner's choice. Beman has selected The Duvall Home in Florida, which provides residential and day training to those with developmental disabilities.<
WORLD PERSPECTIVE: The European Tour sent out a news release Tuesday on Lee Westwood, the No. 1 player in the world, hopeful of capturing what he considers to be the fifth major. That would be the PGA Championship at Wentworth later this month, not The Players Championship, which Westwood is skipping next week.
Westwood made it clear last year that he doesn't rate The Players Championship among his top five, instead putting the World Golf Championships behind the majors. Then again, he's not a PGA Tour member. And he's not alone.
Martin Kaymer of Germany, who is No. 2 in the world and not a PGA Tour member, will be at The Players Championship next week. He referred to it as one of the majors "because of the world ranking points."
But asked if he would rather win The Players or a World Golf Championship, he got even more specific.
"The World Golf Championships, and preferably the one at Firestone because it's a fantastic golf course and a beautiful place," Kaymer said. "It's a small field of great players, and you can call yourself a world champion."<
FOOTBALL TIME: Back on the PGA Tour for the first time since the Masters, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer played as if they were home in Europe when they arrived for the Wells Fargo Championship.
They were invited to take part in a soccer game against a local club in Charlotte. They were joined by Mick Doran, the caddie for Camilo Villegas, and Stuart Cage, one of McIlroy's managers.
About all that is known is the final score. The Charlotte team won 7-4. Details after that get a little fuzzy.
Kaymer said he scored the first goal for the European side and tried to inspire the team. That brought laughter from McIlroy, who said the German didn't even show up until after halftime.
"It was good, good fun," McIlroy said. "I think four or five players turned up, a few caddies. Played a local team from here who were a lot better than us. It was 4-1 at halftime. We got it back to 4-all halfway through the second half, and then they turned it on at the end and beat us. Luckily, no injury, so we're ready to go for this week."
Doran put it all into perspective.
"They were a good team, passing it beautifully, and we were just sort of chasing after the ball," he said. "I think they let us score a few goals after the half just to make a game of it."
DIVOTS: Rory McIlroy spent an hour on the putting green Monday at Quail Hollow while working with Dave Stockton, a two-time major champion and putting specialist who also works with Phil Mickelson. Stockton said he began working with McIlroy on Monday. ... The Seve Ballesteros Foundation will be the charity for Europe's PGA Championship at Wentworth next month, 20 years after the Spaniard's last year of winning on the tour's home course. Ballesteros won the PGA Championship and the World Match Play Championship that year. ... Tommy Gainey already has won more than $1.25 million this year on the PGA Tour with a swing that is not exactly textbook. And that's OK with him. "I don't worry about what people say about my swing. I know it's unorthodox. I know it's ugly. But it works," he said.<
STAT OF THE WEEK: Of the seven sudden-death playoffs on the PGA Tour this year, four have gone more than one hole.
FINAL WORD: "I turn left for a living, and for some reason, my golf ball goes right all the time." — NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson, who has won the past five Sprint Cup championships.
-- Doug Ferguson
College
Oklahoma State's Uihlein, McGraw net Big 12 golf honors
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma State golfer Peter Uihlein and coach Mike McGraw have been named as yearly award winners for the Big 12 Conference.
The conference announced the honors Tuesday. McGraw won the coach of the year award for the fifth straight year after guiding the Cowboys to seven tournament wins in 11 starts this season. Oklahoma State won its fifth straight Big 12 title last week.
Uihlein is the conference player of the year. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion from Orlando, Fla., has won twice in seven starts for Oklahoma State as a junior and has finished in the top five in four other tournaments.
It's the fifth time in six years that an Oklahoma State golfer received player of the year honors and the 10th time overall.
Golf Glance
All Times CDT
PGA TOUR
Wells Fargo Championship
Site: Charlotte, N.C.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: Quail Hollow Club (7,469 yards, par 72).
Purse: $6.5 million. Winner's share: $1.17 million.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 2-5 p.m., 7:30-10:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, Noon-1:30 p.m., 8:30-10:30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday-Sunday, 2-5 p.m.).
Last year: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy became the PGA Tour's youngest winner since Tiger Woods (20 years, 10 months) in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational. McIlroy, who turned 21 two days before the start of the event, finished with a 10-under 62 to beat Phil Mickelson by four strokes.
Last week: Bubba Watson won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for his second PGA Tour victory of the year and third overall, beating Webb Simpson with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff.
Notes: Woods, the 2007 winner, is skipping the tournament because of a minor injury to his left knee and Achilles' tendon. ... Mickelson is making his first start since the Masters. ... McIlroy, Watson and Simpson also are in the field along with second-ranked Martin Kaymer, 2006 winner Jim Furyk, Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson, fourth last week in South Korea in the Ballantine's Championship. ... The Players Championship is next week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., followed by the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas.
Online: http://www.pgatour.com
CHAMPIONS TOUR
Regions Tradition
Site: Birmingham, Ala.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: Shoal Creek (7,234 yards, par 72).
Purse: $2.2 million. Winner's share: $330,000.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday, Noon-2 p.m.; Friday, 11-1 a.m., Noon-2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 11-1 a.m., 2-5 p.m.; Monday, 11-1 a.m.).
Last year: Fred Funk won major championship at The Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Ore., beating Michael Allen and Chien Soon Lu by a stroke. Funk also won the 2008 tournament in Sunriver.
Last event: David Eger and Mark McNulty won the better-ball Legends of Golf on April 24 when Kenny Perry and Scott Hoch missed short par putts on the second playoff hole. Eger and McNulty closed with an 11-under 61 to match Perry and Hoch at 27 under.
Notes: The tournament is in its first season at Jack Nicklaus-designed Shoal Creek after four years at Sunriver. ... Shoal Creek was the site of the PGA Championship in 1984 and 1990. Wayne Grady, the 1990 winner, received a sponsor exemption. ... In 1990, Shoal Creek's all-white membership and remarks club founder Hall Thompson made that the club wouldn't be pressured into accepting black members sparked a controversy. Thompson died in October. The club now has black members, including former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice — a Birmingham native and the tournament's honorary chair. ... Fred Couples was second in the 1990 PGA. ... The tour is off the next two weeks. Play will resume with the Senior PGA Championship on May 26-29 at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky.
Online: http://www.pgatour.com
EUROPEAN TOUR
Spanish Open
Site: Barcelona, Spain.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: Real Golf Club El Prat (7,298 yards, par 72).
Purse: $2.96 million. Winner's share: $494,060.
Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 7:30-10:30 a.m.).
Last year: Alvaro Quiros became the first Spanish winner in eight years, beating England's James Morrison with a par on the first hole of a playoff in Seville.
Last week: Top-ranked Lee Westwood rallied to win the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea for his second straight victory, shooting a 5-under 67 to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez by a stroke. The English star won the Asian Tour's Indonesian Masters the previous week to regain the No. 1 spot in the world.
Notes: Quiros tops the field along with fellow Spanish stars Jimenez and Jose Maria Olazabal. ... The tour will remain in Spain the next two weeks for the Iberdrola Open at Pula and the Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin.
Online: http://www.europeantour.com
NATIONWIDE TOUR
Stadion Classic
Site: Athens, Ga.
Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.
Course: University of Georgia Golf Course (7,271 yards, par 71).
Purse: $550,000. Winner's share: $99,000.
Television: None.
Last year: Martin Piller beat Daniel Summerhays by a stroke.
Last week: Monday qualifier Ted Potter Jr. won the South Georgia Classic for his first Nationwide Tour title, beating Mathew Goggin by three strokes. Potter, the first Monday qualifier to win since Kyle Reifers in the 2006 Chattanooga Classic, had a tournament-record 16-under 272 total on the Kinderlou Forest course.
Notes: The tournament is operated by the University of Georgia. Robert Trent Jones — a close friend of Dr. O.C. Aderhold, the university president from 1950-67 — designed the course. It opened in 1968 and was renovated in 2006 with help from Davis Love III. ... The tour is off next week. Play will resume with the BMW Charity Pro-Am on May 19-22 in Greer, S.C.
Online: http://www.pgatour.com
LPGA TOUR
Next event: Sybase Match Play Championship, May 19-22, Hamilton Farm Golf Club, Gladstone, N.J.
Last week: Maria Hjorth took advantage of Alexis Thompson's collapse in a failed bid to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner, rallying to win the Avnet LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala., for her fifth tour title. The 37-year-old Swede beat Song-Hee Kim by two strokes. The 16-year-old Thompson, tied for the lead with Kim entering the final round, had a 78 to drop into a tie for 19th.
Online: http://www.lpga.com
OTHER TOURNAMENTS
Men
eGOLF PROFESSIONAL TOUR: Willow Creek Open, Wednesday-Saturday, Willow Creek Country Club and Colonial Country Club, High Point, N.C. Online: http://www.egolfprofessionaltour.com
CANADIAN TOUR: Mexican PGA Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Estrella Del Mar, Mazatlan, Mexico. Online: http://www.cantour.com
SUNSHINE TOUR: Royal Swazi Open, Wednesday-Saturday, Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, Mbabane, South Africa. Online: http://www.sunshinetour.com
EUROPEAN CHALLENGE TOUR: ALLIANZ Challenge de France, Thursday-Sunday, Golf Disneyland, Paris. Online: http://www.europeantour.com
Women
LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR: Turkish Ladies Open, Thursday-Sunday, National Golf Club, Antalya, Turkey. Online: http://www.ladieseuropeantour.com
JAPAN LPGA TOUR: World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup, Thursday-Sunday, Ibaraki Golf Club, Ibaraki, Japan. Online: http://www.lpga.or.jp
