Golf Capsules: Nicklaus thinks Woods will play Masters
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Jack Nicklaus is going to appear at next month's Masters. He thinks Tiger Woods will, too.
Nicklaus said Wednesday that "it would surprise me" if Woods did not return to competitive golf in time for the Masters, a tournament the embattled world No. 1 has won four times in his career.
"I suspect he'll play something before Augusta," Nicklaus said behind the 18th green at PGA National, where the Honda Classic opens on Thursday. "Your guess is as good as mine. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't play something before Augusta."
Nicklaus has been reluctant to comment much about Woods since the saga involving revelations of infidelity began late last year, saying more than once that someone else's private life isn't any of his business. He reiterated that belief again Wednesday after finishing his Pro-Am round at the South Florida course he redesigned.
A person with knowledge of Woods' schedule told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Woods returned to his home near Orlando, over the weekend after a week of family counseling and resumed practicing for the first time in nearly four months.
Like many, Nicklaus seemed to take that as a sign that Woods could be back sooner than later. The Masters begins April 8.
"It would surprise me if he didn't," Nicklaus said. "I can't imagine in 100 years he's going to miss this. None of you guys do either. But I don't know. I don't know. I've been very noncommittal about anything as it's not my business. But as it relates to him playing golf, my guess is as a golfer he's going to want to try to play Augusta if he's got his other things in order."
Earlier this year, Nicklaus said 2010 would be "a big year" for Woods if he wanted to get closer to Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships. Three of this year's majors will be on courses where Woods has been dominant before, Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.
Of Woods' 14 majors, half have come on those three courses. Woods has never missed a Masters or a U.S. Open since 1995.
Nicklaus is going back to the Masters, a tournament he won six times, as an honorary starter this year. He agreed to take on the role last year, and will join Arnold Palmer for the opening shot of the tournament. In time, he expects Gary Player to join them.
The honorary start is something Nicklaus never saw as a player, and he spent several minutes Wednesday talking about that after finishing the round he played with Dan Marino, Drew Brees and saxophonist Kenny G. (For what it's worth, Nicklaus said he broke 80, after closing birdie-birdie.)
Then the questions turned to Woods.
"I didn't think I was going to have anything else," Nicklaus said.
Woods was photographed hitting balls at Isleworth on Feb. 18. One day later, he ended nearly three months of silence by speaking to a small group of associates, a statement that got worldwide attention.
"I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be," Woods said on Feb. 19. "I don't rule out that it will be this year."
Nicklaus was asked if Woods' presence would make the Champions Dinner, a pre-Masters tradition, different.
The only man with more major championships than Woods didn't hesitate to answer.
"No. It's the Champions Dinner," Nicklaus said. "His personal life is his personal life. As a golfer, he's a sensational golfer. He's a great athlete. He'll figure out his own problems. But as a golfer, he'll come back and get his game in shape and play. That's what he does."
Woods' caddie says he's mad at Tiger
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Tiger Woods' caddie said he knew nothing about the golfer's extramarital affairs and was angry with him over the scandal.
Steve Williams told TV3's "60 Minutes" program Wednesday that he also is bitter at the reaction toward him from the media and members of the public.
"It's been the most difficult time of my life, no two ways about it, because every single person believed that I should know or did know or had something to do with it," Williams said. "I knew nothing, that's my answer. I don't have to clarify or extend that answer, I knew nothing."
The New Zealander, who has been Woods' caddie for 11 years, said he would have spoken up if he had known about the player's behavior.
"If the shoe was on someone else, I would say the same thing. It would be very difficult as a caddie not to know but I'm 100 percent telling you, I did not know, and that's that," he said. "I'm a straight-up sort of person. If I had known something was going on, the whistle would have been blown."
Williams said he was angry when revelations about Woods' private life emerged, but had not berated the player because he felt he needed a friend.
"Of course I'm mad at him, why would you not be?" Williams said. "I'm close with his wife and he's got two lovely children and he's let them down.
"When a guy's having a tough time, it's not up to me to beat him with a stick right now. He's getting enough grilling from everybody else.
"When you're a true friend of somebody, that's when somebody needs your support and need you the most. That's when you don't walk away. Tiger's one of my closest friends and he needs my support right now and I'd never think of walking away."
Williams said the two haven't discussed the scandal.
"When I talk to him, I don't talk to him about what's happened," Williams said. "I talk to him about the future and about what we're going to try to accomplish and how we're going to get over it."
Williams said Woods recently hit balls on the practice range, but would not return to golf until he felt he was in top form.
Williams said he had personally tried to concentrate on his charity work and auto racing interests to avoid thinking about the controversy around Woods.
"Every week I try to focus on something to keep my mind off it," Williams said. "You try to deal with it as best you can but in some peoples' perception, I'm involved in it, I've committed a crime, I've done wrong or whatever it may be."
-- Steve McMorran
Yang returns to defend Honda title
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Y.E. Yang rubbed his hands together against the chill as the wind nearly sent his visor flying, then tugged on his bright red jacket.
A little unseasonable weather isn't taking away from his return to PGA National.
"Even though it's very chilly outside," Yang said later, "it feels very warm to me."
As well it should.
The 2009 Honda Classic started what in many ways was a breakthrough year for Yang, the Korean player who, until this week a year ago, was best known for holding off Tiger Woods at the HSBC Masters at Shanghai in 2006 and snapping a streak of six straight stroke-play wins by the world's No. 1 player.
Then he handled the field at PGA National in 2009, holding off John Rollins by a shot. A bit more than five months later, he took down Woods again, that time for the PGA Championship. And now Yang is back in South Florida, looking to defend his Honda Classic title against a field that includes a slew of top international players like Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington.
"This place is very dear to me," Yang said. "It's given me my first victory on the PGA Tour. So it's always going to have a special place in my heart."
The field has a distinctly European feel; the top American teeing off when the tournament opens the tour's Florida swing on Thursday is Anthony Kim, currently No. 30 in the World Golf Ranking. One of the top up-and-coming Americans, Rickie Fowler, is in the field, looking not only for a strong follow-up to finishing second last week at the Phoenix Open, but possibly qualify for next week's CA Championship at Doral as well.
And the weather, it too has a touch of the European Tour.
Temperatures across South Florida are supposed to be 10 degrees or more below normal throughout the remainder of the week. Those with early morning tee times might wake up to the mercury below 50, downright frosty for this section of the country. Jackets were everywhere on Wednesday, and Steve Marino even broke out a ski cap.
"We are ready to start sweating," said Casey, who also endured a big chill while finishing as the runner-up for the second straight year at Match Play two weeks ago, when Arizona also had unseasonable cold.
Weather, though, seems to be the least of everyone's concerns.
Narrow fairways, thick rough and testy greens make PGA National tough enough.
"It's one of the toughest courses," Harrington said. "If you don't like this golf course, your game isn't good enough. That's it. That's the reality of this course."
Then there's the wind.
Forecasters say it could blow out of the west and northwest throughout the weekend, with gusts Thursday and Friday exceeding 20 mph, then slowing a bit for the weekend.
It could make holes 15, 16 and 17 — the Bear Trap, a nod to course redesigner Jack Nicklaus — downright diabolical.
The 15th is a par-3 to a diagonally shaped green that slopes toward water, followed by a par-4 to an elevated green with an approach over water, followed by another par-3 over water with a noticeably tight green.
In calm conditions, par is a great score at any of them. In wind, good luck.
"Really when we did the holes, the two water holes, we made them very short par 3s," Nicklaus said. "We didn't realize the wind was going to play such a difficult situation and play havoc with everything they do. But it turned out that way and you know, it got nicknamed the Bear Trap after that. So I guess I got famous for that."
Yang got famous for taming them.
A year later, he's telling the secret, that there was a very specific reason why he was able to win at PGA National a year ago.
That reason: Somewhere along the way, he stopped trying to win the tournament.
One shot to the next, that was Yang's only focus last year at PGA National, when the Honda became his first PGA Tour win and pushed him along the path toward becoming a major champion.
"During the Honda Classic last year, I tried to strategize each hole," Yang said. "I didn't really think beyond every hole. And I think by playing each hole to the utmost of my abilities, that's what really changed my game, and that's the same that happened afterwards, as well, in every other tournament."
At least, until last week.
He was in position to win at Phoenix before a tee shot went into the water at No. 17, and he wound up two shots back of Hunter Mahan.
"Looking back on last week, I think it was some good medicine for me," Yang said. "If I can bring back what I've learned last year over here at PGA National, I think I can fare quite well through the remainder of this season."
Funny. He left PGA National last year saying the same thing.
-- Tim Reynolds
Daly says on Twitter to talk to golf writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — John Daly was so irritated that a Florida newspaper wrote about his PGA Tour disciplinary file that he referred to the writer as a "jerk" on Twitter and posted the writer's cell phone number for his followers to call.
The Florida Times-Union reported Tuesday that the file is now public record through Daly's unsuccessful libel lawsuit against the newspaper. The file is 456 pages and notes that Daly has been suspended five times and cited 21 times for not giving his best effort.
"here's the JERK who writes NON-NEWS article on debut of my show -- CALL & FLOOD his line & let's tell him how WE feel," Daly said on Twitter, adding the cell phone number of golf writer Garry Smits.
The story appeared the day Daly's reality show made its debut on The Golf Channel.
Smits, the golf writer for the Times-Union, said he received about 30 calls after a series of three tweets late Tuesday night, and nearly 100 calls by early Wednesday afternoon. Smits said most of the callers hang up, and about 30 left messages.
"His fans are very unhappy," Smits said.
Daly removed the tweets by midmorning Wednesday. He did not return a voicemail left for him, although he said in a text message to The Associated Press, "Gary left his cell number and e-mail address from phone number he left in the article public record far as I'm concerned." He did not answer the phone after the AP received his text.
Bud Martin, president of SFX World and Daly's agent, could not immediately be reached for comment. The PGA Tour said it would have no comment on Daly's tweets.
"Over the haters — To me, this isn't journalism, it's paparazzi-like gossip. Please try harder to find some REAL news next time Gary," said Daly's second tweet.
It was followed by, "Gnight ALL but here's GARY SMITS cell number in case you didn't get it ... non sports writer."
The PGA Tour does not comment on player discipline, but it was forced to turn over Daly's file to attorneys for the newspaper's parent company when Daly sued for libel. The file is now public record.
The lawsuit was dismissed a year ago, and Daly was ordered to pay nearly $272,000 in legal fees.
The 456-page file includes several newspaper clippings and incidents that already have been reported during Daly's tumultuous career. It also included some startling numbers — he was placed on probation six times, ordered to go to counseling or alcohol rehab seven times, cited for conduct unbecoming a professional 11 times and fined nearly $100,000.
Daly has not had his full PGA Tour card since 2006 and has been playing mainly on sponsor exemptions.
-- Doug Ferguson
LPGA
American Blumenherst has 1st-round Australian lead
GOLD COAST, Australia — Former American amateur star Amanda Blumenherst shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over defending champion Katherine Hull after the first round of the ANZ Australian Ladies Masters.
Blumenherst birdied three of her final four holes on a Royal Pines resort course soggy from recent heavy rain.
With a lift, clean and place rule in effect, Blumenherst and Hull (67) were a number of morning players to master swirling winds.
Becky Brewerton of Wales, six-time former champion Karrie Webb and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, last year's LPGA Championship winner, were in a group tied for third with 68s.
Three-time former champion Laura Davies of England shot 70, Christina Kim and Yani Tseng 71 and Brittany Lincicome of the United States 72.
Blumenherst, a three-time U.S. collegiate player of the year at Duke University and 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur winner, turned pro last June and won the LPGA qualifying tournament in December. She's never led a pro tournament, but hopes to draw on the experience of her outstanding amateur career to help her with any nerves.
"It wasn't an accident that I played well in so many amateur and college events," Blumenherst said. "It really prepared me for this step. But it still can be intimidating, I get a few butterflies still on the first tee."
On Friday, she'll have an afternoon start off the 10th tee.
"It's going to be different," Blumenherst said. "I won't be looking at the leaderboards, I won't be thinking I have to keep birdieing holes. I'll just play my game."
Blumenherst played in Thailand and Singapore before this week's tournament, and is entered in next week's Australian Women's Open at Melbourne, giving her four weeks in a row in tournaments.
"I had a lot of time off during the offseason, which was great, and visited my family in Indiana," she said. "So I had a lot of time now to hit the ground running.
"Q school was the only thing I really had since October until the middle of February, so it was great having four tournaments in a row."
With her uncle, Bill Blumenherst, as caddie, she putted well on Royal Pines' tricky greens — there is much less break in them than many players think.
"I'm always a fairly solid ball striker, but (putting) that's kind of been struggling," she said. He is a great green reader as well ... so I was able to turn that on."
Hull, who had a bogey-free round Thursday, high-fived Blumenherst outside the media interview room.
"I played in California with her in October, and I'm really impressed with her game," said the Australian. "She's a sweetheart as well. It's nice to see someone out there with personality and talent."
And an education. Blumenherst graduated last May from Duke as a history major/English minor. She calls it her "safety net."
"Leaving school early was never an option, and it's nice to know you have something to fall back on," Blumenherst said. "And the experience of being in college, I wouldn't have traded that for the world.
"Amateur golf has prepared me so well for this next step. I do feel everytime I tee it up that there is a chance I can win."
If those wins don't come, she just might return to school.
"I'm kind of a dork, I absolutely love school," she says. "I'd actually probably be a schoolteacher. My parents say I can't live on a schoolteachers' budget, which is probably right, so I'm playing golf."
-- Dennis Passa
Never a dull moment around Christina Kim
GOLD COAST, Australia — Christina Kim began her season with a minor bus accident in Thailand, played OK in Singapore last week and missed her flight to Australia's east coast because she got the departure time wrong.
Just another few weeks in the often wild life of the American who says "I can't be tamed."
Known for her outlandish clothing and outgoing personality, Kim arrived at the ANZ Australian Ladies Masters a day late because she thought her overnight flight from Perth on Australia's west coast left at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday.
It left at 11:15, without her.
"I was pushing it a little bit as it was," she said. She made the most of her unexpected extra night in Perth, spending it at a rock festival with musician friends, got up at 5 a.m and went to the airport.
On Feb. 19, her transportation problems took on a more dangerous turn when Kim was shaken but unhurt when the player bus crashed leaving the course near Pattaya, Thailand.
The accident involving a bus, truck and a police car happened when Kim was returning to her hotel after the second round.
Kim gave her version of the accident on Twitter and posted photos that showed minor damage to the three vehicles involved.
Her first tweet read: "OMG the bus I was riding in got into an accident and 3 vehicles (our bus, big rig truck our police escort) were involved, but no one was hurt."
"I still have the jitters 45 min afterwards."
Kim tied for 40th in Thailand, tied for 29th in Singapore a week later and shot a 1-under 71 on Thursday in the first round of the Australian Masters, leaving her five strokes behind leader Amanda Blumenherst.
"Today I hit a lot of quality shots, 'c'est la vie' putts — they didn't drop, simple as that," Kim said. "I hit 15 or 16 greens today and just looked like a five-year-old around the greens."
"Just a few degrees off. I'm in a good place right now where the golf course definitely fits my eye very well. It's just a matter of getting the ball to go underground."
Kim seems to be in a good place all the time — on the course, off the course, with whomever she meets. She's one of the most popular players in women's golf due to her honest approach.
"I don't have any time in my life to be dishonest," Kim said. "I don't have the energy to exert to be anything than who I am. I'm genuine. I understand golf tends to be a more reserved game and more traditional if you like, but I can't change,"
She loves to chat to the kids carrying the scoreboards in her group, stops a spectator when she see an unusual piece of clothing or jewelry and is just, well, always happy.
"I like to think that I'm bright and very happy because of the very fortune and blessed life," Kim says. "I try to see the positives in everybody."
Kim has a book coming out next month in the United States called "Swinging From My Heels," but she says it's unlikely to upset anyone.
"I mention a few names, but I'm pretty friendly with most of the players out there," Kim said Thursday. "So, I do mention a few names and I don't say anything negative by any means."
Here's a few snippets from the book which were published in Thursday's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper:
"If one of the guys on the PGA Tour is feeling lonely, there is always a nice selection of so-called rope hoppers, those pretty young things who show up at tournaments in short skirts and ... heels and preen by the gallery ropes, hoping to attract a wandering eye," Kim said in the book.
Of the LPGA Tour, she writes: "I'm sure the average golf fan would be shocked to know how much we talk about sex during tournament rounds."
Her opinion is given on just about anything she's asked, and that includes players who take too long to hit their shots. Kim likes to pull the trigger quickly.
"There's no reason to sit there and dawdle over a ball," Kim says. "It's not going anywhere until you make it move. I'm the kind of person that if you dwell on something, it kind of manifests into something very, very ugly."
Kim, who turns 26 on March 15, was also asked what her parents think of her image.
"Comparatively speaking my parents are not as conservative as some of the other parents among all the other tours we have in the world," Kim said. "They've been in America for almost 30 years so they are a little bit more liberal.
"They still have strong Korean roots and I'd like to think that I do as well. But try and hold the reins for only so long and, you know, I can't be tamed."
-- Dennis Passa
Laura Davies manages career with lack of practice
GOLD COAST, Australia — Although she's always joked about her disdain for practice, Laura Davies has a clear benefit she can point to — more than 20 seasons, and very few injuries.
Davies arrived at this week's ANZ Australian Ladies Masters after claiming her 73rd worldwide title at the New Zealand Open last Sunday. It was also her 39th title on the Ladies European Tour.
She's also won four majors, including the 1987 U.S. Open, and is close to qualifying for the Hall of Fame, needing just one more major or two LPGA wins.
The way she's been playing lately — eight straight sub-par rounds, including a share of sixth place at an LPGA event in Thailand before winning the New Zealand Open — she might not be far away from either category.
The 46-year-old Davies credits her longevity — and recent form — with the lack of practice.
"You see so many young players now injured all the time, maybe it has something to do with all the practice," Davies said Wednesday.
"If you want to play the amount of time I have played — this is my 23rd season — you can't stand on the range all day. You have to be sensible."
Davies said too much practice could have been the reason that six-time LPGA Tour winner Suzann Pettersen of Norway had to pull out due to a hip injury.
Still in the tournament that begins Thursday on the Royal Pines resort course are defending champion Katherine Hull of Australia, three major winners on the LPGA Tour last year — American Brittany Lincicome (Kraft Nabisco), Eun Hee Ji of South Korea (U.S. Open) and Sweden's Anna Nordqvist (LPGA Championship).
Karrie Webb is also in the field, seeking her seventh Australian Ladies Masters title.
Heavy rain — over eight inches has hit the course over the past two days, canceling Wednesday's pro-am and allowing for little practice time.
That suits Davies — a long hitter who has won here three times, including for the first time in 1993.
"It's going to be playing wetter and longer than it usually does," Davies said. "Anyone who carries the ball a long way will have an advantage. Accuracy is important, but this week it could be more about length."
It's just down to putting down here. If I can get the putter going early, and get some confidence on the greens, who knows?"
Davies, who has been in Australia for five of the past six weeks, also likes her chances of securing her fifth major this season.
"Nabisco, I love that golf course, I should have won once or twice there," Davies said. "The U.S. Open I'm not qualified, but I'll prequalify if I have do, and the British Open is at Royal Birkdale, which I know."
Davies is a fan favorite here, playing in the annual cricket match against Australia on the grounds near the first tee at Royal Pines. She's given up the frequent trips to a nearby casino in favor of gambling on horses and betting on English Premier League matches, where she's taken a big hit this year as a lifelong Liverpool fan.
With the right kind of managing of her practice time — limiting it — Davies feels she could still be around for years to come.
"It means I'm getting older, but it's good I'm still competitive," Davies said. "Who knows, I might try and perform over five decades in 10 years' time."
-- Dennis Passa
