Michelle Wie Gets 1st LPGA Victory

At Lorena Ochoa’s event in Guadalajara. I cannot speak intelligently on the tournament as a whole having my attention other places on a November weekend, but I did notice this was a very deep field that Wie was able to defeat. Paula Creamer, Christie Kerr, and a couple of the better Asian players were in contention down the stretch, but Wie was able to overcome them and hoist the trophy. Hopefully this win, along with her strong Solheim Cup performance and a solid 2009 campaign overall will help quiet her critics. Of course major titles are expected of her, but after some bumps in the road her career seems to be on a good trajectory again. Congrats!

Weekend Wrap

Well, its a good thing that Ohio St shut out Illinois to open Big Ten play, as my football teams otherwise had a bad weekend. No shame in East Liverpool losing to state ranked Maple Heights on the road though a closer margin would’ve been preferable. Ditto Bowling Green losing badly to nationally ranked Boise St in a game I personally attended with some old college chums. The Steelers dropping to 1-2 is another matter, though.

First of all, lets give the Bengals credit for keeping the 1st half damage minimal and sticking with things. And it was a perfectly constructed and paced final drive. But this makes two weeks in a row that the Steelers blew a game they should’ve won. Can I ask why the Steelers aren’t blitzing on those Bengals 4th quarter scoring drives? Pittsburgh is an attack defense, not a coverage play it safe bend don’t break defense. Attack Palmer, get a sack, get a turnover, harrass him, don’t let him do what he wants to do. And, if it backfired and they hit a big play, like the Cardinals did in Super Bowl XLIII, at least you’ve left time to respond, like Roethlisberger and Holmes did in Super Bowl XLIII. Don’t sit back and let the Bengals prick you until you bleed to death. Also, it would be nice if the Steelers stop putting Limas Sweed on the field. A wide receiver that cannot catch the ball is useless to me. Mike Wallace lets them be 3 deep at receiver and you’ve got two good pass catching tight ends with Miller and Spaeth. If he catches that easy touchdown ball it ices the game. Instead the Steelers don’t score and are left vulnerable to the Bengals comeback. And, the ironic thing is the Steelers ultimately screwed themselved by successfully defending that two point conversion that left their lead at 20-15. If its 20-17 the Bengals settle for the tying field goal when facing 4th & 10 at the 15 with 30 seconds left. Maybe the Steelers get a big kick return and win in regulation, or they have a 50-50 chance in overtime. But such is the luck of the draw sometimes. Now they are 1-2 and two games behind Baltimore in the standings. Which they are still okay if they can arrest this trend of lousy 4th quarters and win some games. They are at home with another stern test facing the Chargers on Sunday Night Football. If they can manage a win there maybe the Ravens lose at New England and they are back within one game of Baltimore and Cincinnati (assuming the Bengals beat Cleveland). At any rate, still have both games with the Ravens remaining and if they can manage to end up 11-5 or 10-6 that usually at least gets you a wildcard. But their play early in the year is not giving me strong positive vibes.

As for Bowling Green’s loss to Boise, the Broncos are clearly the better team. They only really tried in the 2nd quarter and that was all they needed to blow the doors off Doyt Perry Stadium. No shame in the loss and it was nice to see what a sellout crowd looks like in that stadium. The Falcons had a somewhat disappointing 1-3 non-conference showing, but it was against a strong schedule and they still have as good a shot as any at winning the MAC East. Need to get some wins starting this Saturday at home against Ohio. Still, I am concerned 4 games in about our red zone execution, and I am also concerned that Tyler Sheehan is if anything regressing in his quarterback play. Presumably though most of the defenses he sees the next 2 months won’t be as good as Boise so I will remain optimistic for now.

I didn’t see the Ohio St game as I was busy hanging out in a parking lot outside Doyt Perry, but that was the 2nd straight shutout for the Buckeyes defense which is obviously a promising sign. They have several games ahead that figure to be harder than Toledo and Illinois. Hopefully they take care of business and have an undefeated October heading into the last 3 games of the season at Penn St, hosting Iowa, and at Michigan.

I didn’t see the Potter game either in person, but I gather it was close for awhile before Maple Heights opened it up. At 2-3 the Potters are still on track for finishing somewhere in the 5-5 range which would be definite progress over the past few seasons. It doesn’t get much easier this coming Friday night heading down Rt. 7 to take on OVAC perennial power Martins Ferry.

Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup. I hope no one is shocked by that development.

The big sports story this coming week will be the 4 game series between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers settling the AL Central title and the right to challenge the Yankees in the ALDS. Detroit enters the final week with a 2 game lead. Obviously, this gives them a real advantage entering this series. If the Tigers can win 3 games of the 4 they will clinch the division and can use this weekend to rest and set the rotation. Splitting the series means Detroit is 2 up with 3 to go and could clinch over the weekend as quickly as Friday night. Even Minnesota winning 3 of 4 simply means the two teams are flat tied entering the final 3 games of their seasons. Of course, if the Twins sweep the 4 then they grab the 2 game lead with 3 games to go. About the only other story right now is the NL wildcard race, where the Braves have pulled within 2.5 games (2 in the loss column) of Colorado.

***UPDATE*** A quick check of mlb.mlb.com reveals that the Twins v Tigers game has been postponed because of a rainy evening in SE Michigan. According to the Tigers website they will play a day/night doubleheader tomorrow at 12:05pm and 7:05pm to get back on schedule. Presumably people that held tickets for tonight’s game would now hold tickets for the day game tomorrow.

Updated FedEx Cup Standings

This info shamelessly lifted from pgatour.com:

The FedExCup points will be reset following the BMW Championship in order to give each of the 30 players who advance to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola a chance to win the FedExCup title.

While the points will be reset, however, the seeds will not. The player who ranks first in FedExCup points after the BMW Championship will still rank first after the reset. The player who ranks 30th will still rank 30th. And the player who ranks 31st? He will get the week off — remember, just the top 30 in points after the BMW Championship will advance to East Lake (and no alternates will be added).

Each of the first five seeds going into THE TOUR Championship will control his own destiny — if any of those five seeds wins at East Lake, he will win the FedExCup title. Meanwhile, seeds 6-10 will have an excellent chance of capturing the title with a victory.

The FedExCup points will be reset following the BMW Championship in order to give each of the 30 players who advance to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola a chance to win the FedExCup title.

Reset points
Here are the FedExCup points that each player will start with going into THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola:
Position after
BMW Championship Reset points entering
TOUR Championship
1 Tiger Woods 2,500
2 Steve Stricker 2,250
3 Jim Furyk 2,000
4 Zach Johnson 1,800
5 Heath Slocum 1,600
6 Padraig Harrington 1,400
7 Sean O’Hair 1,200
8 Scott Verplank 1,000
9 Kenny Perry 800
10 Jason Dufner 600
11 Dustin Johnson 480
12 Nick Watney 460
13 Geoff Ogilvy 440
14 Phil Mickelson 420
15 Retief Goosen 400
16 Marc Leishman 380
17 Brian Gay 360
18 Kevin Na 340
19 David Toms 320
20 Lucas Glover 310
21 Y.E. Yang 300
22 Ernie Els 290
23 Hunter Mahan 280
24 Angel Cabrera 270
25 Steve Marino 260
26 Stewart Cink 250
27 Mike Weir 240
28 Luke Donald 230
29 Jerry Kelly 220
30 John Senden 210

Following THE TOUR Championship, the total points each player is awarded in the reset plus the points that player earns based on his finish at THE TOUR Championship will be added together, and the player with the highest point total will be named winner of the FedExCup.

In the event of a tie for first in FedExCup points following THE TOUR Championship, those players tied for first will compete in a playoff to determine the winner of the FedExCup.

So, how many FedExCup points are available at East Lake? THE TOUR Championship will have the same points distribution as the first three Playoffs events, in which point values are quintupled from most regular-season events.

Here is the point distribution for THE TOUR Championship:
Points distribution for THE TOUR Championship
If you finish … Then you get …
1st 2,500 points
2nd 1,500 points
3rd 950 points
4th 675 points
5th 550 points
6th 500 points
7th 450 points
8th 425 points
9th 400 points
10th 375 points
11th 350 points
12th 325 points
13th 300 points
14th 285 points
15th 280 points
16th 275 points
17th 270 points
18th 265 points
19th 260 points
20th 255 points
21st 250 points
22nd 245 points
23rd 240 points
24th 235 points
25th 230 points
26th 225 points
27th 220 points
28th 215 points
29th 210 points
30th 205 points

Thus, if the leader in FedExCup points entering THE TOUR Championship ends up winning at East Lake, he would have 5,000 points (and win the FedExCup). If the No. 5 ranked player wins at East Lake, he would finish with 4,100 points (and also win the FedExCup).

However, if the No. 10-ranked player wins at East Lake, he would finish with 3,100 points. That might be good enough to win the FedExCup title, but there are no guarantees. For instance, if the top seed finishes second at East Lake, he would have 4,000 points.

That’s why it’s important to be ranked in the top five after the BMW Championship. That way, you control your own destiny and are not reliant on how others finish.

Controlling your destiny
If this seeds win in Atlanta The following seeds can still pass him in FedExCup points
1-5 seeds None
6th seed 1st seed
7th seed 1st, 2nd seeds
8th seed 1st, 2nd seeds (3rd seed can tie)
9th seed 1st, 2nd, 3rd seeds (4th seed can tie)
10-14 seeds 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th seeds (5th seed can tie)
15-30 seeds 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th seeds (6th seed can tie)

Obviously, there’s the probability that players will finish in a tie at a certain position. At last year’s TOUR Championship, two players tied for third, three players tied for sixth and five players tied for 10th.

In case of ties, the points distribution will be adjusted accordingly. So if a player has a chance to win the FedExCup should he finish second, he might need to hope that no other players finished tied with him.

Following THE TOUR Championship, the total points each player is awarded in the reset plus the points that player earns based on his finish at THE TOUR Championship will be added together, and the player with the highest point total will be named winner of the FedExCup.

In the event of a tie for first in FedExCup points following THE TOUR Championship, those players tied for first will compete in a playoff to determine the winner of the FedExCup.

Updated FedEx Cup Standings

Can be found here:

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?02395

The top 70 have advanced to next week’s 3rd leg of the 4 tournament playoff system, the BMW Championship September 10-13th. NBC will have weekend coverage. Noteable failure to advance would be defending champion Vijay Singh, who has certainly had an off year by his standards. Remember that the top 30 will advance to the final event September 24-27th and that anyone that enters that event in the top 5 will be guaranteed to win the Cup by winning the tournament.

Updated FedEx Cup Standings

After Heath Slocum’s win at The Barclay’s:

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?02395

Remember the Top 100 are eligible for this coming weekend’s Deutche Bank Championship and that 2,500 go to tournament winners here in the playoff events.  For a complete table of how points are earned during the playoff events:

http://www.pgatour.com/2008/fedexcup/11/25/2009changes.chartplayoff/index.html

Ready for the FedEx Cup?

The format has been tweaked for this, the 3rd installment of golf’s 4 tournament playoff system:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2009-08-26-fedexcup_N.htm?csp=DailyBriefing

It sounds like solid modifications resetting the points before the final event giving all 30 people who advance that far a theoretical chance to win the Cup.  Still, it could get interesting for the people who do enter that last event outside the top 5.  Basically, they’ll need to win and get help.  It’ll be a bit like figure skating in the old ordinals system where the skater that entered 4th had to win the free skate, and have the leader entering finish no better than 3rd.  Guys in the middle of the pack will need to have top guys buried down the leaderboard.  And of course combining and averaging points to account for ties will add another level of confusion.  Someone could be good if player x is in a 5 way tie for 4th (thru 8th) place but if a guy bogeys 18 to drop out of that tie and make it a 4 way tie for 4th (thru 7th) it changes the points and he’s not okay.  NBC will have to keep a couple fast computers tracking the points closely.  Unless of course whoever is 1st in points entering the Tour Championship wins and makes it simple.

United States Retains Solheim Cup

By beating the European squad 16-12 (8-4 in the Sunday singles matches).  Paula Creamer, Angela Stanford, and Michelle Wie went out in the first 3 matches today and all got wins for the United States to put them in a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.  Probably most key was Wie, who went 3-0-1 for the event, claiming the 1up win over Helen Alfreddson.  Wie played good golf all weekend hitting solid iron shots and putting well.  More to the point she looked comfortable, relaxed and like she was having fun on the golf course, not programmed and joyless.  This weekend could really signal a growth in her game and in her personally as she charts her own course and not one set by her father and the sports media.  We can only hope.  But the Cup was still looking like a 50-50 proposition until two critical halves came in.  Brittany Lang made a furious late rally to halve Laura Davies, who hit in a hazard on 18 to lose that hole, and team mom Julie Inkster also rallied late to halve her match despite losing 18.  From there it was a matter of not blowing it.  Christina Kim went dormi in her match with 2 holes left to get close, then Morgan Pressel clinched it when she won 16 over Anna Nordquist to win her match 3-2 and guarantee the US at least 14 1/2 points (needing a tie at 14 at least to retain).  I thought the lineup was well set by captain Beth Daniel, putting Paula Creamer out 1st to build momentum (and frankly not counting on her to anchor given her record in majors when she puts too much pressure on herself) and using the very controlled, fiesty, and gutty Pressel to anchor near the back and grind out a win if needed.  All and all a compelling weekend of golf in Illinois with plenty of close matches and solid play.

A Funny Thing Happened

On the way to Tiger Woods winning his 15th major and his record-tying 5th Wannemaker Trophy.  He shot 75 and Y.E. Yang shot 70 to win his first major title, indeed only his 2nd PGA Tour title overall, and the first men’s major won by an Asian-born player.  Tiger had been 14-14 in major’s when leading after 54 holes and only lost once overall on the PGA Tour when holding the clean lead with one round to go, but those records went by the boards as well.

The tempting thing to do will be to analyze this from what Tiger (and others) failed to do today, but I think we should start with what Yang did correctly to win this title.  First of all, he played very solid golf making to my memory no serious gaffes on tee or approach shots.  He played incredibly steady and didn’t make it easy for Tiger like some final round playing partners have done in the past.  He made some birdies and a bunch of pars to stick around so that he was half of a two man race down the final few holes.  Then he won it with his chip-in eagle at the driveable par-4 14th hole and iced it with his Corey Pavin at Shinnecock-like 3-wood approach shot on 18.  The remarkable thing about 18 was that he did not choke it away after a very nervy 3-putt on 17 let Tiger stay within 1 shot despite his own bogey on the hole.

Now, as for Tiger, he just didn’t have it today, plain and simple.  He would’ve won anyway with better luck with the flatstick, but his approach shots were off, especially when he tried to fade the ball, and he seemed a half-club off most of the round.  Only by his remarkable ability to grind away was he still in serious contention until the last hole.  Obviously he’ll be seriously disappointed in his play really all weekend; if Tiger had been Tiger he would’ve won going away.

As for the rest of the field, no one could mount a serious charge, but the breezy weather at Hazeltine really didn’t permit a low score to be fired.  Still, you don’t expect a player of Padraig Harrington’s calibre to build a snowman on a par-3 hole.  Lee Westwood continues to be Captain Almost and a solid final round allowed up-and-comer Rory McIlroy to tie him for 3rd.  All in all a very compelling end to the major championship golf season for 2009 and congratulations to Y.E. Yang for winning the 91st PGA Championship.

Do You Walk The Course

Even the most ardent observers of golf the way its meant to be played, on foot, might want to reconsider if they take their clubs to this new course in the Australian Outback:

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2009/07/20/D99IFJRG0_glf_world_s_longest_golf_course/

Just be sure to let faster groups play through!

Almost Historic

With a one shot lead in the 18th fairway at Turnberry 32 years after his Duel in the Sun with Jack Nicklaus it looked like Tom Watson might write a new and greatest chapter in his golf story by winning a major, his record-tying 6th Open Championship, and at the ripe age of 59.  But a little adrenaline got into his 8-iron, he was unable to make the up-and-down par from behind the green, and he lost the 4 hole aggregate score playoff badly.  But even coming in 2nd is a tremendous achievement for Watson and should be commended fully.

What should also not be lost sight of, however, is the solid play down the stretch that put Stewart Cink in position to claim his first major title, have his named etched on the Claret Jug and be proclaimed Champion Golfer.  I don’t think anyone else in serious contention in the final round was able to par 18.  Cink birdied it.  And while Watson’s collapse turned the 4 hole playoff into a victory lap for Cink, it should also be noted that he did play those holes in -2, not easy in any circumstance.  He’s been close before, and its nice to see Cink get over the hump (or should I say sand dune) as he’s been one of the most consistently solid golfers the past number of years.  This tournament will be remembered for Tom Watson turning back the hands of time.  Some will doubtlessly try to minimize Cink’s victory by pointing out that Mickelson was  a DNP and Tiger missed the cut.  But it was a champion effort nonetheless.