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All signs point toward Watson as Ryder Cup captain

Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | 04:15:06 AM











Mark Nolan/Getty Images
Watson will be 65 when the Ryder Cup is played in 2014.



In the two months since a stunning loss in the Ryder Cup, the PGA of America talked about doing things differently when selecting its next captain.
Tom Watson certainly would break the mold.
Golf Digest reported on its website Tuesday night that the PGA of America plans to pick Watson, celebrated worldwide as an eight-time major champion and revered in Scotland where he won four of his five British Open titles.
"We look forward to sharing the news of the 2014 Ryder Cup captain on Thursday," PGA spokesman Julius Mason said when asked for comment.
The PGA of America spares no expense or amount of glitz when it comes to the Ryder Cup, and that much hasn't changed. Instead of a standard news conference, it will introduce its next captain Thursday morning during a segment on the "Today" show on NBC, the longtime broadcast partner at the Ryder Cup.
Later, it will have a news conference in the Empire State Building.
Watson will be 65 when the Ryder Cup is played at Gleneagles, Scotland, making him by oldest captain in U.S. history. Sam Snead was 57 when he was captain in 1969. Watson has not played a full PGA Tour schedule in 14 years, though he is still capable of showing the young kids a thing or two as one of the cleanest ball-strikers in history. Remember, it was only three years ago that Watson stood 8 feet away from capturing the British Open at Turnberry at age 59.
Stranger still, he says he has not been to a Ryder Cup since he last was captain in 1993 at The Belfry, which also was the last time the Americans won in Europe. And his relationship with Tiger Woods is much like how the weather can be in Scotland in the early fall - cold and damp.
He would be the first repeat captain since Jack Nicklaus in 1987 on his home course of Muirfield Village.
Watson said over the weekend at the Australian Open that it would be a "great honor if I got tapped on the shoulder," though he said he had not spoken to the PGA.
The organization risks some fallout.
By taking a veteran of Watson's age would be to overlook Larry Nelson for the second time. Nelson is a three-time major champion - twice at the PGA Championship - who did not take up golf seriously until he returned from the Vietnam War. He had 9-3-1 record in the Ryder Cup and won all five of his matches in 1979, beating Seve Ballesteros in four of those matches. At least two former captains lobbied the PGA on behalf of Nelson, who was in line to be a captain in the 1990s.
(PGA Tour Confidential: Would Watson make a good captain?)
Nelson is scheduled to play in the Father-Son Challenge pro-am Thursday and Friday in Orlando, Fla.
For the last 30 years, it was easy to predict the next American captain. The PGA of America tended to choose a former major champion still moderately active on the PGA Tour, which keeps him in touch with the current players. That ordinarily would point toward former PGA champion David Toms, though there has been discussion among PGA officials over the last month that Toms could wait until 2016 without any future candidate, such as Jim Furyk or Phil Mickelson, losing his turn.
PGA president Ted Bishop has said he wants only to win the Ryder Cup. Europe has captured the cup seven of the last nine times, the most recent loss one of the most painful. The Americans had a 10-6 advantage at Medinah only to lose on the final day when everything went right for Europe and just as much went wrong for the home team.
Love had said he wouldn't change anything about the week except the outcome, though he did not want to return as captain - at least not for 2014.
"I can guarantee you it won't be me," Love said about the next captain.
Paul Azinger was captain of the only U.S. team to win the Ryder Cup in the last 13 years, using a unique system of "pods" in which players were broken into groups of four. There was talk that he should take the U.S. team over to Scotland, though Azinger said in a text message to The Associated Press he had not been in touch with the PGA of America.
Watson told reporters in Australia he had not been back to the Ryder Cup since those `93 matches at The Belfry.
"I'd like to go back as captain," Watson said. "That would be cool."
But it might not be ideal for America's most famous player - Woods - who has a frosty relationship with Watson, even though both are Stanford alumni. Watson was highly critical in the aftermath of Woods' personal life crisis, saying he needed to show more humility and fewer tantrums.
"I think he needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that other people before him have shown," Watson said in early 2010.
The selection could have ramifications in Europe, too. Watson is so highly regarded in Scotland - in all of Europe, for that matter - that Europe might want to counter with a popular captain of its own. Darren Clarke, who won the British Open last year for his first major and is a man of the people, is under consideration with Paul McGinley. Europe is not expected to announce its captain until January at the earliest.

[OnePiece]

Asia rallies to cut Europe's lead to one at Royal Trophy

Published: Saturday, December 15, 2012 | 06:55:07 PM










BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) -- India's Jeev Milkha Singh saved par on the final hole to earn a half-point and help Asia cut Europe's lead to one Saturday in the Royal Trophy.
Down 3 1/2-1/2 on Friday after the opening foursomes, Asia won two fourball matches and halved the other two to cut Europe's lead to 4 1/2-3 1/2 entering the eight closing singles matches Sunday at The Empire Hotel and Country Club.
Singh and Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat halved with European playing captain Jose Maria Olazabal and fellow Spanish star Miguel Angel Jimenez. South Korea's Bae Sang-moon and China's Wu Ashun also halved their match with Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts and Germany's Marcel Siem.
Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and Yoshinori Fujimoto beat Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 3 and 1, and South Korea's Y.E. Yang and K.T. Kim edged Italian brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari 2 and 1.

[OnePiece]

Rory McIlroy wins U.S. golf writers' Player of the Year award

Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 | 11:55:02 AM











Lewis, Scott Halleran/Getty Images; McIlroy, Andrew Redington/Getty Images; Chapman, Phil Inglis/Getty Images
Stacy Lewis, Rory McIlroy and Roger Chapman were voted 2012 GWAA Players of the Year.

HOUSTON (AP) -- Rory McIlroy is the near unanimous choice as the best male player by the Golf Writers Association of America.
McIlroy received 190 out of the 194 votes cast by GWAA members. Three votes went to FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker, and the other went to Tiger Woods. McIlroy previously won player of the year awards from the PGA Tour, European Tour, PGA of America and British-based Association of Golf Writers.
The GWAA said Wednesday that Stacy Lewis was voted best female player with 79 percent of the vote, while double major winner Roger Chapman won the senior player award with 60 percent of the vote.
This is the fourth time in the last five years that the GWAA award has gone to a European player.

[OnePiece]

Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson commit to Phoenix Open

Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 | 04:55:07 PM












Stanley Chou / Getty Images
Phil Mickelson will play in the Phoenix Open, which begins Jan. 31.



SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Two-time champion Phil Mickelson and Masters winner Bubba Watson have committed to play in the Phoenix Open.
Defending champion Kyle Stanley, 2011 winner Mark Wilson and 2010 champion Hunter Mahan also are entered in the Jan. 31-Feb. 3 event along with Rickie Fowler, Nick Watney, Carl Pettersson, Nicolas Colsaerts and Lucas Glover.
Mickelson won at TPC Scottsdale in 1996 and 2005. The former Arizona State star will open his season Jan. 17-20 in the Humana Challenge in La Quinta, Calif.

[OnePiece]

Notes: Ogilvy left out of Masters field for now

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | 04:05:08 PM












Andrew Redington / Getty Images

Geoff Ogilvy, shown here at the 2012 Masters, is not a sure bet to make it back to Augusta in 2013.



(AP) Geoff Ogilvy came within one stroke of not having to spend the next three months thinking about the Masters.
Ogilvy tied for fourth in the Australian PGA Championship in the final week of official golf this year. He will end the year at No. 51 in the world ranking, falling just short of cracking the top 50 to earn an invitation to Augusta National.
Thirteen players were added to the 2013 field by finishing the year inside the top 50 - Paul Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Branden Grace, Bill Haas, Nicolas Colsaerts, Jason Day, Hiroyuki Fujita, Matteo Manassero, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson, George Coetzee and Thorbjorn Olesen.
Only two of those are full PGA Tour members (Haas and Day), though they have far more opportunities to get into the Masters by either qualifying for the Tour Championship, winning a regular PGA Tour event or finishing among the top 30 on the money list.
There's still plenty of time for Ogilvy and Henrik Stenson (No. 53). Invitations will be offered to anyone winning a PGA Tour event before the Masters (except for the Puerto Rico Open, held opposite a World Golf Championship event), and anyone who gets into the top 50 after the Houston Open.
The field now is at 83 players expected to compete, leaving the Masters in good shape to keep the field under 100 players. Still to be determined is whether the Masters will continue to take winners of all PGA Tour events now that five additional events get full FedEx Cup points.

THE POULTER COLLECTION: The garage in Ian Poulter's expansive new home in Orlando, Fla., might be mistaken for a Ferrari dealership.
Poulter has two of them in the garage at Lake Nona, and he even built a hydraulic lift to stack them on top of each other. Asked how he decides which one to drive, the Ferrari California or the Ferrari FF, he said it depends on how much time he has to bring one down from the lift.
But he's not stopping at two.
"I've got two more coming," he said before leaving the World Challenge in California.
After winning the HSBC Champions and its $1.2 million prize, Poulter said he "already spent the check last week." Turns out it was on a third Ferrari, an Enzo. He didn't get into details as much as he did with the FF, which was customized to include his tartan to line the interior.
As for the fourth Ferrari?
"I'm not going to tell you what it is until I have my hands on it," Poulter said. "It was the first of its type to come off the production line. It was a vehicle I can't say no to. It's a really a special piece."
Poulter doesn't look at the Ferraris as a hobby, the way some people collect fine art or even baseball cards.
"You can say it's a level of investment," he said. "It's one of those cars that's going to stay good forever."

NBC IN HAWAII: As if the scenery in Hawaii doesn't already make for good television, Tommy Roy plans to take it up a notch.
Roy, the executive producer for golf at NBC Sports, is bringing his crew to Hawaii for the opening two events on the PGA Tour schedule. The Tournament of Champions and Sony Open will be televised by Golf Channel (NBC and Golf Channel are under the Comcast umbrella).
It's the first time Roy has worked golf in Hawaii in 30 years, though he might not get the same unforgettable moment - Isao Aoki holing out a wedge for eagle on the 18th hole to win the Hawaiian Open at Waialae.
"I was in the truck with Aoki holed out," Roy said. "It's pretty exciting to come back on the 30th anniversary."
Roy said he plans to add "quite a few cameras" to better show the mountainous terrain on the Plantation Course at Kapalua for the season opener. NBC used to broadcast from Kapalua when the tournament was part of the silly season in November.
He also is pleased with the camera locations for the Sony Open, which sits along the ocean down from Waikiki Beach. Roy said there would be an 80-foot tower on the 16th fairway for visuals of the 16th green, with the ocean as a backdrop. Behind the green are four skinny palm trees in the shape of a "W" for Waialae, and Roy said he is moving the TV stand that was located at the base of that "W."
The formation of the trees is reminiscent of the "Big W," where the cash was buried in the 1963 movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

CRUISING INTO ROOKIE SEASON: Patrick Reed is wrapping up an unforgettable year next week when he marries Justine Karain, who was with him each step this year as his caddie. Despite having no status, he played 12 times on the PGA Tour, making through Monday qualifying six times. That didn't get him anywhere, so he had to go through the final two stages of Q-school. And despite a slow start in the final stage, he went 68-67-68-67 the last four rounds to barely get his card.
Next up is his Dec. 21, followed by a cruise from Dec. 28 to Jan. 5.
Reed, however, wants to stay sharp for his rookie debut at the Sony Open in Honolulu, so he's bringing his clubs with him on the honeymoon.
"They're going to let me hit balls off a mat and into the ocean," he said.

DIVOTS: Fred Funk is not done with the kids. The 56-year-old Funk received a sponsor's exemption to play in the Sony Open next month. John Daly also received an exemption into the first full-field event of the 2013 season. ... Two weeks after Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand was co-medalist at Q-school on the LPGA Tour, her 17-year-old sister, Ariya, won the Ladies European Tour qualifying tournament by five shots. ... Arnold Palmer will be writing a regular column for Golf Channel.com. In his first column, the King applauded the USGA and R&A for its ban on anchoring clubs, such as the belly putter. ... The European Tour has launched a Japanese version of its website. It's the first non-European language of the website. ... The Safeway Classic on the LPGA Tour raised $1 million for charity this year, pushing its total to $17 million since 1972, with $14 million of that coming in the last 17 years.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Zach Johnson is the only American among the top 50 in the world who didn't play anywhere overseas the last two years except the British Open.

FINAL WORD: "I have never in my life been a schmoozer. That's just not my style. You earn it or you don't. They will or they won't. I just can't go that way." - Larry Nelson, on his chances of ever being a Ryder Cup captain.

[OnePiece]

Dottie Pepper leaves NBC Sports after eight years

By DOUG FERGUSON,AP Golf Writer | Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | 02:55:09 PM











Scott Halleran / Getty Images
Dottie Pepper has left NBC after eight season as a golf reporter.



Dottie Pepper learned the art of retirement at an early age.
In a practice round during her rookie season on the LPGA Tour, she wound up behind someone Pepper would describe as an aging veteran who had no business being out there. Pepper turned to her sister, who caddied for her that summer, and told her, "Don't ever let me get to that point."
Two years after her first shoulder surgery, when those blue eyes didn't blaze with quite as much intensity and Pepper began to realize there was more to life than chasing around a little white golf ball, she announced her retirement at the 2004 U.S. Women's Open when she was 38.
Her retirement Sunday after eight years with NBC Sports was not much different.
"I would have to say this is similar to when Barry Sanders retired because she's going out on top of her game," said Tommy Roy, NBC's executive producer of golf who gave Pepper a chance, coached and critiqued her, and was sorry to see her go. "Her work this year on the FedEx Cup and the Ryder Cup was impeccable. You could take her work and make a `how-to' tape for future broadcasters."
Her last day at work was Sunday at the Father-Son Challenge in Orlando, Fla., the end of a ride that Pepper, 47, could not have imagined.
It was former NBC staffer John Goldstein who persuaded Roy to give her a shot at the `04 Women's Open, and Pepper took it from there. She started work in 2005 during the Florida swing on the PGA Tour, and then got her big break at her first U.S. Open that summer. She was assigned the next-to-last group, and walked the final round at Pinehurst No. 2 with the champion, Michael Campbell.
"You can't dream up an assignment like that," Pepper said. "My very first Open and I walk in the winner."
Just like her retirement from playing, however, Pepper caught herself pulled in another direction.
She was tired of the travel, for one thing, and she found her passion shifting to junior golf. The PGA of America called on her again, and this time, Pepper listened. She decided at the Ryder Cup to leave her role as the most prominent female golf analyst and join the PGA of America's board of directors, where she can work on developing junior golf programs.
Roy was effusive with praise.
"The great thing about Dottie is not many players could come over from the LPGA and analyze in a critical way how the PGA Tour players and still be respected by those players," he said. "She garnered so much respect from the players. She came over and fit right in."
That's all Pepper really wanted.
Roy said he would like to have another LPGA Tour player work the U.S. Women's Open next summer on Long Island, though it is not imperative for the NBC team to find another woman to fill Pepper's role. It was never about gender, and Pepper never saw it that way.
"It's been the greatest thing because I was treated as a reporter and an analyst, not because I was a woman," she said. "I was expected to toe the line. No matter how bad the weather was, how tough the walk was, I was to do everything the guys did. And that's how I wanted it."
She was never lacking in intensity and honesty, sometimes to a fault. She once was criticized for shouting, "Yes!" when her opponent missed a putt in the Solheim Cup. Roy laughed when recalling her early years with NBC. "Everyone on the NBC golf team was scared to death of her from when she was a player," he said.
That intensity, however, led to her lowest moment in broadcasting.
Pepper was working the Solheim Cup for Golf Channel in 2007 when the Americans kept missing one pivotal putt after another. They had gone to a commercial break, but someone forgot to hit the switch. Thinking they were off the air, Pepper said, "Choking, freakin' dogs!"
Only they weren't off the air, and her commentary got back to the Americans. Pepper didn't remember saying it and she didn't even find out about it until six hours later, when the telecast was over and a producer closed the door behind him and said, "We've got a problem."
"An enormously sick feeling," Pepper said. "The thing that still stings about that is that there were people at Golf Channel who had already packed my bags. They had issued my resignation. And (senior programming director) Don McGuire said, `No, that won't be the case. That was our fault.' I'll always be appreciative of him for that."
Her sin wasn't being honest, rather it was being a cheerleader.
"That's what hurt the most," she said. "I was bleeding with them, and as a broadcaster, you can't do that. You call your sport."
Pepper wasn't sure she would recover from that, and there are still a few American players who won't speak to her. Once a shoo-in as a Solheim Cup captain, Pepper quickly became an afterthought except in the booth. That changed this year when Meg Mallon chose Pepper as one of her assistant captains for the 2013 matches in Colorado.
Will she be a captain someday?
"Only if I'm wanted," she said. "People have to want you to be a captain."
But she says her decision to leave broadcasting was in no way related to her future in the Solheim Cup.
It was simply time to move on to something else, which in this case is developing young American players at an early age. She has created a mascot called "Bogey," a big range ball who is tired of his dead-end job and wants to be a player. Pepper is bringing "Bogey" to the PGA show next month. She describes him as "a bridge so that golf isn't so scary to kids."
Pepper has no idea how long her stint with the PGA of America will last, but odds are she'll get out when she's ready and not a moment too late.

[OnePiece]

Schwartzel romps to 12-shot win at Alfred Dunhill

Published: Sunday, December 16, 2012 | 12:45:08 PM











Warren Little / Getty Images
Charl Schwartzel rolled to a 12-shot victory at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.



MALELANE, South Africa (AP) -- Charl Schwartzel was a runaway winner for the second straight week, coasting to a 12-shot victory Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the European Tour.
The 2011 Masters champion finished with a total score of 24-under 264 - the lowest at Leopard Creek Country Club. He won by 11 strokes in Thailand last weekend. Schwartzel was three shots off Tiger Woods' record for the biggest victory margin on the European Tour. Woods won the U.S. Open in 2000 by 15 shots.
Schwartzel won for the eighth time on the European Tour. The South African also captured this tournament in 2004, his first title on the tour.
He entered the final round with a 10-shot lead and closed with a 69. The runner-up was Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg, who finished at 12 under. First-round leader Gregory Bourdy shared third with Scott Jamieson, Garth Mulroy and Andy Sullivan - 13 shots behind Schwartzel.
Schwartzel was surprised that he won by such lopsided margins in consecutive weeks.
"That doesn't happen often," he said. "Normally after a win by such a big margin, it's hard to put up the same show the next week. It's satisfying to continue that form and play the same sort of golf. I keep talking about consistency, and mine is back where I like it to be."
The only thing that slowed Schwartzel on the final day was a brief weather delay. This was his first title on the European Tour since his Masters victory two years ago. His win in Thailand was his first title on any tour since Augusta.
Schwartzel finished with four birdies and a bogey to win with scores of 67, 64, 64, 69. He overtook Jamieson at the top of the tour's Race to Dubai money list after the opening two events of the season.
Sweden's Magnus Carlsson had the third hole-in-one in three days on the par-3 No. 12. Keith Horne aced the hole Friday and Saturday.

[OnePiece]

Montgomerie, Schofield elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | 01:05:04 PM











David Cannon / Getty Images
Colin Montgomerie received 51 percent of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame.



LONDON (AP) -- Colin Montgomerie has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame by the slimmest of margins.
Montgomerie and Ken Schofield, head of the European Tour for nearly 30 years, were announced Tuesday as the latest inductees. They fill out the 2013 class that includes Willie Park Jr., Fred Couples and Ken Venturi.
Montgomerie won the European Tour money list a record eight times. He received 51 percent of the vote on the international ballot. That makes two inductees in this class - Couples was the other - who got in through a special provision. If no one gets the minimum 65 percent, the player with the most votes gets elected as long as it's more than 50 percent.
The induction ceremony will be May 6 in St. Augustine, Fla.

[OnePiece]

Golf Channel to broadcast NCAAs in 2014, 2015

Published: Monday, December 17, 2012 | 03:57:14 PM










ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Golf Channel will televise the NCAA Division I golf championships starting in 2014.
The network and NCAA made the joint announcement Monday.
The Golf Channel will broadcast three days of the 2014 men's championship from Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.
It then will carry the men's and women's championships the following year when South Florida plays host to both at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. It marks the first time since 1997 that the women's championship will be televised live.
Network president Mike McCarley said the partnership "will be the centerpiece of our broader commitment to covering the collegiate game."
Mark Lewis, the NCAA's executive vice president of championships and alliances, called the deal "the culmination of a collaborative effort between a lot of individuals over a long period of time.
"We are excited for our men's and women's golf student-athletes to gain additional exposure and for the fans of the sport to be able to see up close what makes these championships so special," Lewis said. "Partnering with the Golf Channel made perfect sense for us and we appreciate their commitment in helping to grow the audience" for the championships.

[OnePiece]

Miguel Angel Jimenez breaks leg, may miss five months

Published: Sunday, December 30, 2012 | 12:25:07 PM












Stuart Franklin / Getty Images

Miguel Angel Jimenez will miss up to five months.



MADRID (AP) -- Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez has broken his right shinbone and will be sidelined for up to five months.
Jimenez said in a statement Sunday that he had surgery on his leg after injuring it while skiing Saturday. Jimenez says "I was playing well, but you have to take life as it comes."
Jimenez was a vice captain on Europe's Ryder Cup-winning team in September. In November, the 48-year-old Jimenez became the oldest European Tour winner by capturing his third Hong Kong Open title. He has 19 career European Tour titles.