Tiger Woods hit his stride early with three birdies through five holes and a collection of par saves that kept his round going. Vijay Singh came to life late with an eagle-birdie flurry to rescue an otherwise shaky round. It left them atop the leaderboard at the Wachovia Championship, setting up the possibility of a showdown.
It all seemed surreal to Zach Johnson. Three clutch birdies on the back nine at the Masters. His name atop the leaderboard. Toppling Tiger Woods. Slipping on the green jacket. ”I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” he said when asked to describe himself. ”That’s about it. I’m a normal guy.” Not any more.
The cheers broke the morning calm at Augusta National when Arnold Palmer took a mighty swing at his ceremonial tee shot. For the next 11 hours on Thursday, the Masters went mute. Throw together a course that has grown 500 yards with brittle
conditions, and there wasn’t much to cheer.
Not even Tiger Woods was sure how he would introduce himself on the first tee at Doral Golf Resort, only that the words ”defending champion” would be appropriate in some capacity. But defending champion of what — or where? This is the CA Championship, and it’s a World Golf Championship with a 73-man field.
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/ 14 February 2007
Tiger Woods did not show up at Pebble Beach. Attendance and other numbers used to measure success will be down this year, and tournament director Ollie Nutt won’t have to look hard to place the blame. The weather. Woods hasn’t been to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 2002, yet officials somehow have managed to hand out a trophy.
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/ 11 February 2007
Phil Mickelson shot a two-under 70 on Saturday in the most miserable conditions of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, giving him a share of the lead with Kevin Sutherland. Sutherland got into the final group for the second time in three weeks with a birdie on his final hole at Poppy Hills for a 67.
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/ 10 February 2007
Two-time champion Phil Mickelson sailed to a five-under 67 and a share of the lead with Jim Furyk at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Friday. Mickelson had to cope only with the cold and rain, but not much wind, which made the oceanside Pebble Beach course tame.
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/ 17 December 2006
Geoff Ogilvy moved into contention with a fast start on Saturday in the Target World Challenge. He wound up alone in the lead thanks to a sloppy finish by tournament host Tiger Woods. Ogilvy birdied four of his first seven holes, then hit eight-iron inside two feet on the final hole for birdie that gave him a five-under 67.
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/ 26 October 2006
Ernie Els has never missed the season-ending US Tour Championship when playing a full schedule with a healthy body, so he jotted that down as part of his global schedule when laying out his plans for the year. But not everything has gone according to plan.
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/ 14 September 2006
Ernie Els only has a few months left to make sure the year doesn’t end without a victory, and the World Match Play Championship usually is the perfect place to get that done. He is the only six-time winner, and part of him feels as though he is the defending champion because he missed last year recovering from knee surgery.