Golf Capsules: A new start on PGA Tour with plenty of new faces
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Steve Stricker is back on Maui, a familiar place for a guy who has won on the PGA Tour in each of the last three years to qualify for the season-opening Tournament of Champions. Not so familiar are some of the guys he'll be trying to beat.
Twelve players in the 28-man field are at Kapalua for the first time, more evidence of change on the PGA Tour. One year ago, Stricker didn't know who most of them were.
Keegan Bradley? He was known more as the nephew of LPGA great Pat Bradley until he won two times, including that unlikely comeback in Atlanta to capture the PGA Championship in his first try at a major. Jhonattan Vegas was the first PGA Tour member from Venezuela. Scott Stallings? Brendan Steele?
"I know them now a little bit," Stricker said Thursday on the eve of the opening round.
The PGA Tour season gets under way Friday. It wants to get away from the NFL playoffs on Sunday, so the final round will end Monday just before the BCS Championship game starts.
The Tournament of Champions will be missing 11 players who didn't or couldn't make it to Hawaii. It's the biggest list of no-shows since this tournament moved to Kapalua in 1999, though it's a product of the changing world of golf.
Three of the players are recovering from injuries, five of them are based overseas and Luke Donald, the No. 1 player in the world, just finished a whirlwind trip around the world that took him deep into December. Like many other players, this is his offseason.
That's not the only change.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are no longer part of the top 10 in the world ranking. There are no Americans among the top five in the world ranking for the first time in nearly two decades. And even without the likes of U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel or Martin Kaymer in Hawaii, the young guys are making a strong push.
There were 13 winners in their 20s last year, and nine of them are at Kapalua
"There's been a transformation of players out here, and it was going to happen eventually," said Stricker, who turns 45 next month. "We saw Tiger and Phil slip out of the top 10, and we have some European players coming in there — young European players and young Americans — playing well and stepping right up early on in their careers. So it's fun to see.
"Right now it seems that young is good."
His hope is that experience still counts for something, especially on the Plantation Course at Kapalua that is unlike any other course the players will see all year. The course was built on a mountain, offering severe changes in elevation, massive greens with slope and grain, and uninterrupted views of the Pacific Ocean.
The surf has been particularly strong on Maui this week, and it creates quite the contrast. Players working their way along the way back nine can look down the cliffs and see the ocean littered with surfers off the point at Honolua Bay.
It's relaxing, but it's still work.
The winners get a small head start on the rest of the PGA Tour in a short field with no cut, essentially free money from the $5.6 million purse and a jump in the FedEx Cup standings.
It worked beautifully last year for Jonathan Byrd, who won his final event of 2010 to qualify for Kapalua, then opened his season with a playoff win over Robert Garrigus.
Byrd was walking through the Maui airport when he saw promotional posters of him on the wall. His son, Jackson, looked at the poster and said, "Dad, I think you're famous."
"I said, 'At least for this week I am,'" Byrd replied. "You get out there and you just get excited to get the year started."
So many of these players are looking for an encore, especially Bradley.
A year ago, he was getting ready for his rookie season to begin at the Sony Open and being more nervous than he cares to remember. He never would have imagined winning a major, much less returning to Hawaii a week earlier to start his season.
"I was a mess. I was so uptight about it," Bradley said. "At this time last year, I wasn't thinking this tournament at all. I was thinking about how I wasn't ready to play on the tour, how I needed to practice 12 hours a day to get ready. So it's pretty remarkable to be here."
Now comes the hard part.
Bradley will try to build on his big year, the same as FedEx Cup champion Bill Haas and Webb Simpson, who was second in the FedEx Cup and lost out on the money title to Donald in the final event. Simpson didn't qualify for this tournament until the week before the FedEx Cup playoffs began.
Vegas won the Bob Hope Classic, and then didn't do much the rest of the year. Woodland won in the Florida swing and made the cut in every major. He has big potential to go with his big swing, though he starts the year by taking on a new agent (Mark Steinberg) that wound up costing him his old coach (Randy Smith).
And while the 28-man field ties the Kapalua record for the smallest number of players, it could get even smaller. Lucas Glover sprained his right knee while paddle boarding over the weekend and is not sure he will be able to play.
"I hate to come out here and not be able to compete," he said. "But it could be worse. I could be somewhere not as pretty."
Woodland starts new year with big changes
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Gary Woodland is unlike most players at Kapalua. He is one of the most athletic figures in golf, certainly among the most powerful. And considering that he didn't start playing serious golf until college, he's not even close to reaching his potential.
But for someone looking for a little more consistency, his 2012 season begins with significant change. Woodland decided to hire a new agent, which in turn wound up costing him a coach.
He left Hambric Sports, where he was represented by Blake Smith, and signed a deal with Mark Steinberg at Excel Sports Management. And then longtime coach Randy Smith — the father of his old agent — decided to part ways with Woodland.
Woodland starts his new season Friday at the Tournament of Champions, one of 28 winners in the field, and then will have two weeks off to search for a new coach.
"I was lucky to work with Randy for six years. I wouldn't be where I am without him," said Woodland, who won his first PGA Tour title last year in the Transitions Championship at Innisbrook. "Things happen. He's got to do what's best for him and his family. I've got to do what's best for me."
And so Woodland moves on, hopeful of showing how good he can become, and that he's more than just a Kansas kid who can mash it.
His rookie season in 2010 was cut short by a torn labrum in his right shoulder that required surgery. In his first full season, he won his first PGA Tour event, made the cut in every major, and built up even more confidence late in the year when he teamed with Matt Kuchar in the World Cup for the first American victory in a decade.
"I am so far ahead of where I was last year," Woodland said.
In some respects, he has some catching up to do. Unlike most players who gravitated to golf early in life, Woodland spent his summers in Kansas playing a little golf, a little basketball and a lot of baseball. His father suggested he not spread himself so thin, and coming off a long summer of playing shortstop, Woodland settled on basketball and golf.
And then there was one.
He realized his dream of playing basketball might be a stretch after one season at Division II Washburn, and he returned to a standing offer from the Kansas golf coach to play for the Jayhawks.
Smith recalls the first time he saw Woodland at Kansas.
"Muscle beach," he said. "Strong kid."
For Woodland, golf was always about power.
"I tried to hit it as far as I could. That was fun," Woodland said. "I played other sports, so when I played golf, I wanted to have fun. And hitting it far is fun."
His strength comes from his lower body, powerful calves and thighs that allow him to keep his balance no matter how hard he swings. Woodland figures baseball helped, too, teaching him to transfer weight in his attempt to hit home runs.
He was fifth on the PGA Tour in driving distance last year at 310.5 yards, and that was without hitting driver as much as he would like. That's one thing he wants to change this year.
When he spent time with Smith at Royal Oaks in Dallas during the offseason, Woodland said the emphasis was on two clubs — the driver and the wedge. Much like Dustin Johnson, he needs to improve his distance control with a wedge to take advantage of his sheer power.
What makes Woodland excited is a trip to the Titleist test facility in California in the fall, where he was able to find the right shaft that helped him pick up an extra 15 yards off the tee.
"This driver is straighter and longer. It's huge," Woodland said, and "huge" is not a word he uses lightly. "That (fairway) bunker on No. 8 at Augusta won't be in play."
He decided not to use it at the World Cup, though he was plenty long. Woodland still talks about the final hole at Mission Hills in China, when 3-wood was the smart play off the tee because of a bunker that was 300 yards away, with lava and water down the right side. They were two shots ahead in alternate shot, and the Germans had a birdie putt on the 17th hole.
Kuchar told him to hit driver on No. 18 if the Germans made birdie, and if not, Woodland could hit whatever he wanted. The Germans missed, Woodland reached for the 3-wood and Kuchar told him, "You're hitting driver."
"I had to hit the perfect shot," Woodland said. "It was the best swing I made."
Kuchar still laughs at about that moment, but there was a reason he wanted Woodland to hit driver. "I said to him, 'Let me hit a 6-iron instead of a 4-iron, please," Kuchar recalled.
As for his pick as a partner?
"Pretty darned good pick, wasn't it?" Kuchar said. "He's a fantastic talent. You're going to see a lot of Gary in years to come."
Woodland's plan is interesting.
It sounds like he is cut out of the bomb-and-gouge mold, though Woodland is hesitant to hit driver if he's not hitting it where he's aiming. If he can get that sorted out, and dial in his wedge game, he figures he will have a big advantage. That would leave him a lot of shots from the 100- to 120-yard range.
"We have that shot more than anybody else," Woodland said. "If we can drive it in play and hit good wedges, we're going to be pretty good. Guys get up-and-down from there 70 percent of the time. If we get up-and-down 50 percent of the time, but we're hitting twice as many wedges, we're still going to be ahead."
That could be the perfect recipe for Kapalua, with massive fairways on a Plantation course cut out of the side of a mountain. This course was built for power, though other big hitters who showed up for the Tournament of Champions the first time haven't always succeeded. It still requires knowing the slopes and the grain on the firm greens.
Besides, Woodland knows he has work to do. Asked for the deficiency in his game, he said, "Everything." He also said his par 5 scoring was well below what it needs to be, and he needs to drive and putt more consistently.
He wants to be known for more than power, though Woodland knows that makes him different.
"If I'm hitting 3-wood and everyone else is hitting driver, it's a level playing field," he said. "If I'm hitting driver straight, then I think I'm playing at a different level than everybody else."
-- Doug Ferguson
Glover hurts knee in ocean, season opener in doubt
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Lucas Glover sprained his right knee in a freak paddle board accident and might not be able to start his season at the Tournament of Champions.
"Just fell off the board," Glover said Thursday. "Done that a thousand times."
The simple fall into the water wasn't harmless this time, though. The former U.S. Open champion was on his paddle board Saturday morning in the Pacific — one of his favorite hobbies when he comes to Hawaii — when he lost his balance and fell.
"My foot caught on the edge of the board, my body went one way and my knee went the other," Glover said. "I knew immediately I done a little something. I just wasn't sure how bad."
Tests an hour later revealed a sprain of the medial collateral ligament. Glover spent the next few days icing his knee and resting, and showed up Thursday morning hoping to play in the pro-am. On the practice range, however, he couldn't properly transfer his weight from the right side and had to pull out. Stephen Ames, who vacations in west Maui over the holidays, replaced him.
Glover has not given up on playing when the first round begins Friday.
"If you put a gun to my head, I could have played today, but I don't think I'd have been effective," said Glover, who qualified for this winners-only event with his victory at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. "If I play tomorrow, I'm definitely going to have to rest today. I hate to miss the pro-am, I've never missed one. I'm 50-50 tomorrow. In order to move that percentage up, I'm going to have to rest today."
What might keep him out, however, is the Plantation Course at Kapalua, carved out of a mountain with severe elevation changes. Players are allowed to use carts in practice and in the pro-am. They have to walk when the competition begins.
"If it were next week, I'd feel better about it," he said, referring to the flat course of Waialae for the Sony Open.
If he can't play, it would be the second straight year that a former U.S. Open champion had to withdraw. Geoff Ogilvy, the two-time defending champion at Kapalua, last year cut open his finger on coral while swimming in the ocean and wound up missing the first month of the year.
"I was doing what I like to do. I was living," Glover said. "It's not like I was showboating. Just one of those freak deals. Bad luck."
Even if he can't play, or if the knee sprain doesn't improve, Glover isn't going anywhere. His parents arrived Wednesday from South Carolina.
"They haven't had a vacation like this in 20 years," he said. "I'm going to be with them if nothing else. I'm not all too down about this. I hate to come out here and not be able to compete. But it could be worse. I could be somewhere not as pretty."
Glover hopes it doesn't cut into his plans for a big West Coast Swing. He plans to play in just about every tournament except the Humana Challenge to try to build up his world ranking (No. 69) and qualify for a pair of World Golf Championships early in the year in Arizona and Miami.
-- Doug Ferguson
Notebook: Stricker feeling stronger going into new season
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Steve Stricker went the final five months of the year without a top 10, mainly because of an injury to his neck that caused weakness in his left arm. He decided to treat it with therapy instead of surgery, and so far is pleased with the decision.
Stricker, the highest-ranked American at No. 6 in the world, showed up on Maui feeling good — "real good," he emphasized.
His physical therapy at home consisted of six massage treatments in a two-week period, and he had his second cortisone shot right before Christmas. Stricker felt as though he were losing power off the tee toward the end of the FedEx Cup playoffs, and that concern remained at the Presidents Cup. But after his treatment, that's no longer the case.
"Actually, I feel like I'm hitting a little bit further," he said Thursday. "You look at the way I felt a year ago compared to now, I'm in much better shape."
Stricker is playing the opening two weeks in Hawaii, then will take a four-week break before returning at Riviera. He said it would be during that month off that he could start working on weights to strengthen his arm.
He turns 45 next month and wonders how fast his window is closing. Then again, he looks at multiple wins in each of the last three years, and doesn't see any reason why that cannot continue. And while Stricker didn't have another top 10 since winning the John Deere Classic, it's not like he was awful.
He was in the top 15 at four of those seven tournaments, and he didn't miss a cut.
GOLF CHANNEL: The 28 players at the Tournament of Champions are all looking to build off big wins last year. The Golf Channel is no different.
In its first year as part of the NBC Sports Group, the network said it had the most viewers in its 17-year history. Citing data from Nielsen Research, the Golf Channel said it had 90,000 viewers watching at any given moment during a 24-hour period, which would include the wee hours of the morning.
Its viewership was up 30 percent from 2010, and was up 3 percent over 2009. That's significant because Tiger Woods, the biggest television draw in golf, hardly played last year. Woods played a full schedule without any controversy in 2009, winning seven times worldwide. He played the final eight months of the year in 2010.
Last year, Woods went from the Masters in April until the Bridgestone Invitational in August without completing a full round, and he missed all of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
"This viewership record is a testament to the vitality of golf, strengthened partnerships with the game's governing bodies and the power of NBCUniversal cross promotion," Golf Channel President Mike McCarley said.
The network gets off to a good start this week at Kapalua. Now that Golf Channel and NBC Sports is under the same ownership, it has allowed for Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo to be in the booth at the same time, and even more credibility comes from Dan Hicks of NBC Sports agreeing to serve as the anchor.
WHAT TO DO WITH $10 MILLION: Bill Haas won the FedEx Cup last year, and $9 million of that $10 million bonus goes right to the bank. What to do with such riches? Nothing, at the moment. Haas and his bride, Julie, already were in the process of building a new house.
"We were waffling on whether to put a pool in," Haas said. "We put a pool in. But we haven't even broke ground yet, so that could even change."
Haas then let slip one toy he would love to spend some of his bonus on: a classic Mustang.
"If anybody knows of a '65 to '70 Mustang out there for sale, I really want one of those," he said. "But until I find one I really want, I won't make any huge purchases."
GWAA AWARDS: Sophie Gustafson, who has battled a severe stuttering problem during a career filled with five LPGA Tour wins and eight Solheim Cup appearances, has been selected for the Ben Hogan Award by the Golf Writers Association of America.
Brad Faxon received the Jim Murray Award for his cooperation and quotability with the media, while Maj. Dan Rooney was honored with the William D. Richardson Award for his outstanding contributions to golf.
They will be honored at the GWAA's annual awards dinner April 4 in Augusta, Ga.
Gustafson, a powerful Swede who has succeeded on both side of the Atlantic, has often shied away from attention because of her stuttering problem. She made a powerful statement at the Solheim Cup by doing a lengthy television interview.
Rooney, a former F-16 pilot, returned from his second tour in Iraq and founded Patriot Golf Day and the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides scholarships to spouses and children of military members disabled or killed in service. Patriot Day has raised more than $12.8 million in its first five years and awarded more than 2,600 scholarships.
DIVOTS: Johnny Miller is working the Tournament of Champions for Golf Channel (which along with NBC is under the Comcast umbrella). That means he's taking another week off. Miller said the plan is for him to skip the Transitions Championship outside Tampa, Fla., to be replaced by Tampa-resident Gary Koch. ... Bryce Molder is to hit the opening tee shot of the 2012 season. He is in the first group with Michael Bradley. Considering the fairway is about 60 yards wide, he should get off to a decent start. ... For the last two years, the winner of the Tournament of Champions did not win another event the rest of the season.
-- Doug Ferguson
International
Aiken shoots 64, leads by one at Africa Open
EAST LONDON, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's Thomas Aiken shot a 9-under 64 Thursday at the Africa Open for a one-shot lead after the first round of the European Tour's season-opening tournament.
Aiken had five birdies and two eagles at the par-73 East London Golf Club for a one-shot lead over South Africans Retief Goosen and Jaco Ahlers.
Welshman Phillip Price, Michael du Toit and Dean O'Riley were two strokes behind the leader.
Goosen, after bogeying his first hole, had nine birdies, including five in a row from Nos. 11-15.
Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen had a 69. The former British Open champion's six birdies were marred by a double-bogey 6 on the par-4 sixth hole.
Aiken had an early eagle on the par-5 No. 11, his third hole. He added birdies on Nos. 16, 17 and 18.
"I'd call that a memorable start," said Aiken, who earned his first European Tour win in 2011. "I haven't taken a cover off a club for two weeks. So I have to say, this is a great result."
Clarke, Els and Harrington to play Golf Champions
GEORGE, South Africa (AP) — Major winners Darren Clarke, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington will play the European Tour's Volvo Golf Champions event this month at South Africa's Fancourt links course.
Organizers said Thursday the trio, along with Robert Karlsson, were the latest to confirm their participation at the $2.7 million tournament Jan. 19-22 in George, on South Africa's Western Cape. The tournament was relocated from Bahrain because of security concerns in the Gulf kingdom.
British Open champion Clarke and Els and Harrington joined Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Paul Lawrie as major winners in the field.
The Volvo Golf Champions, which has no cut, was won by Englishman Paul Casey last year. It's open to winners on the European Tour.
LPGA
LPGA returns to Hawaii with new event
HONOLULU (AP) — The LPGA is returning to Hawaii. The tour announced Thursday that the Lotte Championship Presented by J Golf will be played on Oahu starting in mid-April, ending a two-year absence for the LPGA in Michelle Wie's home state.
The LPGA and Asia-based Lotte announced a three-year agreement to hold the $1.7 million, full-field event. LPGA says the host course will be announced in the coming weeks.
Hawaii, which hosts two PGA Tour events, hosted as many as three LPGA events in 2008 but that fell to none by 2010 because of the loss of corporate sponsorships amid the recession.
The Lotte Championship is one of three new tournaments on the schedule this year. It joins the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open, the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic and the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic.
