FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Rob Moss shot a 2-under 70 and Sonny Skinner had a 71 for a share of the lead through two rounds of the PGA Professional National Championship on Monday.Both are at 3-under 139.Moss, the head pro at Pepper Pike Club in Pepper Pike, Ohio, birdied four of his last eight holes to overcome an early double bogey.This is the second time he’s made the cut at the PGA National in four appearances. The other time came in 2005 when he finished tied for 18th.”You can’t let your guard down,” Moss said. “I certainly do not dazzle anyone with my ball striking. I have been playing well enough to know what I can and cannot do.”Skinner, the teaching pro at River Pointe Golf Club in Albany, Ga., birdied the 18th hole to tie Moss. He was second in 2008 at the PGA Nationals and tied for 29th last year.”I played from the back of the bus,” Skinner said. “I am not a fast player, but I feel good. I like my game plan. I feel I’m very prepared heading into the next two days.”"We came in trying to play four good rounds,” he said. “I got two good rounds out of the way and have two more to go.”Bruce Smith, the PGA director of instruction at Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas set a new competitive record on the Dye Course with a 3-under 69. He was tied for second at 2-under 140. He was joined at 140 by defending champion Mike Small and Ryan Benzel.Small, the University of Illinois men’s golf coach, shot a 72. Benzel, the teaching pro at Battle Creek Golf Course in Tulalip, Wash., had a 70.Danny Balin, Keith Ohr and Jeff Sorenson were at 1-under 141. Sorenson had a 3-under 67. Balin shot a 68. Ohr had a 69.The best score of the day was the 4-under 66 on the Ross Course by Kyle Flinton, the head pro at Quail Creek Golf & Country Club in Oklahoma City.First-round leader David Paeglow shot a 6-over 78. The head pro at Kishwaukee Country Club in Illinois had six bogeys, one double bogey and two birdies. He was at 1-over 143.The lowest 70 scores and ties made the cut at 5-over 147 from the field of 312.The final top 20 will earn spots in the PGA Championship on Aug. 12-15 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Kenny Perry will donate ,000 for every birdie he makes at next month’s Greenbrier Classic toward the families of the worst U.S. coal mine disaster in 40 years.
Perry
Perry on Monday committed to playing in the tournament, which runs from July 29 to Aug. 1 at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs.Perry grew up in Kentucky and said he has great respect for the work of coal miners.Twenty-nine men died in an explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine on April 5.Resort owner Jim Justice said he’ll match Perry’s donation. Funds raised through the Greenbrier Classic will be donated to the families through the West Virginia Council of Churches.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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BARRINGTON, R.I. — Suzann Pettersen and Hunter Mahan made up two strokes on the last two holes and tied Juli Inkster and Boo Weekley for the lead at 10-under par after the first round of the CVS Caremark Charity Classic on Monday.The teams shared the lead after opening 61s in the 10-team best-ball tournament involving PGA Tour, LPGA and Champions tour members at Rhode Island Country Club. The 36-hole event concludes Tuesday.Pettersen and Mahan were 8-under with two holes remaining before the six-time LPGA Tour winner rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt at the 17th and Mahan made a 10-footer for birdie at the 18th to forge a tie.”Suzann made a great bird on 17 and I had an easier one on 18,” Mahan said. “The greens were exceptional. I thought they would be softer but they were in perfect shape.”It’s a great course to play on because you can make some birdies.”Inkster and Weekley combined for six birdies in a back-nine 29. That score on the inward nine was matched by tournament co-founder Brad Faxon and Rickie Fowler, who finished in a five-way tie for third at 8-under.”Boo got on a nice birdie run,” Inkster said of the four birdies Weekley made on the back nine. “Fortunately, we didn’t birdie the same holes, which was nice.”When you can make those 15-footers like Boo did, it helps you keep the momentum. As the round progressed, I got my pom-poms out.”The teams of Bubba Watson, who was coming off his first PGA Tour victory at the Travelers Championship, and Camilo Villegas, Angela Stafford and Brett Quigley, Ricky Barnes and J.B. Holmes, and Billy Andrade and Bill Haas, were also 8-under.Andrade recorded the only eagle of the round when he made a 12-foot putt on the 538-yard 11th hole.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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FRENCH LICK, Ind. — David Paeglow shot a 5-under 65 on Sunday on The Donald Ross Course at French Lick Resort to take the lead during the suspended first round of the PGA Professional National Championship.Paeglow, the head pro at Kishwaukee Country Club in DeKalb, Ill., eagled the par-4 eighth, hitting a gap wedge 30 feet past the hole that spun back in. He also had four birdies and a bogey in the rain-delayed round.”This is a first for me,” said Paeglow, who failed to qualify last year after missing three straight cuts in the tournament. “I have got to keep my composure, keep hitting the shots I’ve been hitting and putt well. My goal is to stay focused.”Forty-five of the 312 players were unable to complete the round because of darkness.The final top 20 will earn spots in the PGA Championship on Aug. 12-15 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.Jeff Hull and Troy Pare were tied for second. Hull, the PGA teaching pro at the University of Georgia Golf Course, shot a 67, and Pare, the head pro at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R.I., was 3 under with a hole left — both on the Ross Course.”I played well,” Hull said. “It gets my confidence up, but it doesn’t mean a thing.”Paeglow and Hull set course records.Defending champion Mike Small, Bob Gaus, Sonny Skinner, Grant Masson and Brian Thornton had 68s on the Ross Course. Small is the University of Illinois golf coach.Rich Steinmetz, Barry Evans and Jeffrey Martin had 1-under 71s on The Pete Dye Course, the site of the final two rounds. Keith Ohr (two holes left) and Samuel Kang (three to play) also were 1 under on the Dye Course.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Loren Roberts figured he’d be lucky to force a playoff in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open after making bogey at No. 17.”When I did that, I still thought I was still going to be a chaser,” Roberts said. “I thought there went my chance there. We’re walking to the 18th tee and I asked my caddie, ‘What’s everybody doing?’ I hadn’t seen a board.”The leaderboard said there was a three-way tie at 14 under. “That kind of pricked my ears up a little bit,” he said.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open Leaderboard
1. Roberts (-15)
2. Funk (-14)
T-3. Levi (-13)
T-3. Forsman (-13)
T-3. Price (-13)
• Scores
Roberts responded with a birdie on the 18th hole to finish at 15-under 201 for a one-shot victory over Fred Funk on a hot, humid Sunday.Roberts pounded his final drive within 125 yards of the pin at the par-4, 419-yard closing hole at En-Joie Golf Club. He then hit a pitching wedge 7 feet left of the cup to set up his final putt. Roberts, who just turned 55, and Funk both shot 65 on Sunday.”It’s a very satisfying day for me, especially to come back from that bogey and get the win was huge,” Roberts said of his 12th victory on the Champions Tour.Local favorite Wayne Levi (69) tied for third at 13 under with Nick Price (68) and Dan Forsman (71), who bogeyed three of the final five holes to lose the lead he held for most of the day.Ken Green, who shot an impressive 2-over 74 on Saturday as he adjusts to the game wearing a prosthetic device on his lower right leg, withdrew Sunday morning because of pain and said he would not play next week in Montreal.This was Forsman’s tournament to win, but after making one bogey over the first two rounds he self-destructed at the end with three bogeys over the final five holes.”Anytime you’re leading, it’s never easy,” said Forsman, who won the Regions Charity Classic in mid-May and has seven top-10s in 12 starts this year. “It just started to unravel. You compound that with the emotional fatigue and the psychological and physiological fatigue, it’s tough.”Forsman made a pretty 8-foot putt that broke left-to-right and into the hole for birdie at No. 11 to vault into sole possession of the lead at 15 under.Moments later, Roberts holed a 25-yard chip from the rough for eagle at No. 12 to begin his surge, and followed that with birdies on the next two holes to move into contention.”You make an eagle and you follow with another birdie, that really gives you some momentum,” Roberts said. “I just kind of caught that momentum.”Forsman reached 16 under with a birdie putt from inside 2 feet at No. 12 that he nearly missed. He then made bogey at the par-3 14th hole, running a 25-foot putt to within 2 feet of the hole but missing the easy par putt.”My putting has been a little bit of an issue,” Forsman said. “I think that’s what happened down the stretch. I just wasn’t popping the putter as well.”It was the second straight bogey at 14 for Forsman, and his struggles continued at the next hole when he hit a poor drive, hit his second shot into a greenside bunker and made bogey again.Roberts birdied No. 16 to gain the lead by a shot but returned the favor at the par-3 17th hole when he drove the rough behind the green and was unable to get up and down.The five-shot lead Forsman had held over Roberts had vanished so fast, and when he went to the tee at 16 Forsman was in a three-way tie for the lead, with Price and Levi just a shot behind.Funk, who started the day five shots off the lead, had four birdies on the front nine as he took advantage of ideal scoring conditions, and his third birdie on the back side, at No. 16, left him within one shot of the lead. Funk drove the green at the par-4, but left his downhill try for eagle just short. He parred the final two holes and watched Roberts win it from the scorer’s tent.”It feels good to be in the hunt coming down the stretch. I was real pleased,” said Funk, who has five wins on the Champions Tour and eight on the PGA Tour. “There’s nothing to feel bad about, that’s for sure.”Forsman began the day with a one-shot lead over Brad Bryant and was immediately distracted on the par-4 opening hole. Lying 8 feet from the pin after two shots, Forsman had to pull away from his birdie attempt when a yellow butterfly landed on the face of his putter. When he resumed his stance, the butterfly briefly alighted on the cup before flying away, and he missed the putt.Forsman rallied with birdies at both par-5s on the front nine, lipped out a birdie try at No. 9, and made the turn tied with Price at 14 under.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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Bubba Watson
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Bubba Watson Wins Travelers Championship
CROMWELL, Conn. — Bubba Watson really wanted to play well at the Travelers Championship to impress U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin.He did.Watson overcame a six-stroke deficit Sunday to force a playoff with Pavin and Scott Verplank, then beat Verplank with a par on the second playoff hole.Watson, the long-hitting left-hander from the Florida Panhandle, closed with a 4-under 66 to match Verplank (64) and Pavin (66) at 14 under. Pavin dropped out on the first extra hole.
Travelers Championship Leaderboard
1. Watson-x (-14)
T-2. Verplank (-14)
T-2. Pavin (-14)
4. Riley (-13)
T-5. Four tied at -12
x — won in playoff
• Scores
But he didn’t quit. He hit his tee shot 396 yards off the cart path, and made a 6-foot birdie putt to get into the playoff.”I guess you can’t say I choked, because I came back and birdied the next hole and now I’m the champion,” he said.No player in the first three groups made it into the playoff.Rose held the lead until he missed a 10-foot par putt on 10 and moved into a three-way tie with playing partner Ben Curtis and Verplank.Rose lost the lead after a bogey on the 12th hole, then hit his tee shot on 15 into the water on his way to a double bogey.Curtis, who bogeyed just two holes in the tournament coming into Sunday, hit his tee shot on 12 out of bounds to the left, and made a double bogey. Both he and Rose bogeyed 16. Curtis finished with a 73 to tie for 13th at 10 under.Chris Riley began the day at 8 under, but eagled the par-4 14th from 155 yards and was 5 under on the back nine. He finished a stroke out of the playoff at 13 under.”I bogeyed my first two holes and, I was like, ‘Ho, hum. Here we go,’” he said. “I was in something like 45th place. What makes this course so great is you can make up ground.”Watson ended Europe’s tour winning streak at three. Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell won the big prize last week at the U.S. Open. The Memorial was Rose’s first tour win, and fellow Englishman Lee Westwood won the St. Jude Classic.Watson earned .08 million and moved into eighth place in the FedEx Cup rankings.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Soaked in champagne and poised to become the first American ranked first in the world, Cristie Kerr was left amazed and near speechless after completing one of the most dominating performances at the LPGA Championship — and any other major for that matter.”It’s a dream performance,” Kerr said Sunday after winning her second major title by a whopping 12 strokes at Locust Hill Country Club. “It’s like you wake up or you dream — I can’t even speak right now. Winning by two or three is great, but winning by 12 shots is ridiculous. It’s obscene.”Kerr, the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open champion, closed with a 6-under 66 for a 19-under 269 total. She led wire-to-wire, opening with rounds of 68, 66 and 69.
LPGA Championship Leaderboard
1. Kerr (-19)
2. Kim (-7)
T-3. Miyazato (-5)
T-3. Shin (-5)
T-5. Kim (-4)
T-5. Webb (-4)
• More scores
Kerr began the final round with an eight-stroke lead on a humid, overcast day. She opened with six straight pars before birdieing three of her next four holes. She added four more birdies on the back nine, and began celebrating while walking up the 18th fairway, having stuck her approach shot within 5 feet. She raised her arms, broke into a wide smile and hugged playing partner Jimin Kang.After sinking her birdie putt, Kerr pumped her fist and raised her arms before breaking into tears. She was then doused by champagne by friend and fellow LPGA Tour player Natalie Gulbis.This was Kerr’s 14th win in 14 years on the tour. It’s also her second victory — and fourth top-three finish — this season after winning the State Farm Classic two weeks ago.The only question was whether she would pass Miyazato in the rankings. Miyazato matched Kerr in carding the day’s low round despite the bogey on No. 18.Kerr’s rise comes with women’s golf going through a changing of the guard. In April, Lorena Ochoa followed Annika Sorenstam into retirement, leaving a vacuum at the top.Kerr was set to become the third player at No. 1 in three weeks. Miyazato supplanted Shin last week by winning the ShopRite LPGA Classic, her fourth victory of the year.Americans have won only four of the past 14 majors, with Kerr winning two of them. Americans also have won only four of the past 30 LPGA Tour events, with Kerr winning three times.Kerr intends to skip the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Ohio next weekend to rest up for the U.S. Women’s Open that starts July 8 at Oakmont, Pa.After winning this weekend, Kerr’s aware the expectations on her will be even greater.”I’m there now, but I have to prove that I deserve to be there,” Kerr said. “So there is still a lot of work ahead. But it feels awfully good right now.”
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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Bubba Watson
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Bubba Watson Wins Travelers Championship
CROMWELL, Conn. — Bubba Watson stands 6-foot-3. Corey Pavin measures in at 5-foot-9. Watson’s drives routinely reach more than 300 yards. Pavin would need a friendly cart path bounce to get that far. Watson ranked T-58 in driving accuracy at this week’s Travelers Championship. Pavin was No. 1.
Travelers Championship Leaderboard
1. Watson-x (-14)
T-2. Verplank (-14)
T-2. Pavin (-14)
4. Riley (-13)
T-5. Four tied at -12
x — won in playoff
• Scores
When it comes to playing golf, the two have nothing in common, right? The pair, along with Scott Verplank, faced off in a playoff Sunday at the Travelers Championship in which Watson brought home his first PGA Tour victory after shooting a final-round 66.”If you look at Corey, [we] are just alike, except he’s won 15 times and he’s the Ryder Cup captain,” Watson said with a laugh. “But we’re just alike. He shapes the ball more than anybody, and I shape the ball more than anybody. I’m just younger, so I hit it a little bit farther than he does. That’s it. Love you, Corey.” The simple fact that two players with diametrically opposite styles of golf games can reach a playoff in the same tournament proves that this week’s PGA Tour event is one of the fairest tests in golf. Pavin echoed that fact after being eliminated on the first extra hole Sunday evening. “Bubba’s one of the longest hitters on tour, and he won, and you can look at short hitters that have done well [here] in the past,” Pavin said. “So it’s just a golf course that fits my game. I feel comfortable on it.” Maybe Watson and Pavin aren’t all that different despite the overwhelming statistical evidence. At least that’s what aspiring Ryder Cup hopeful Watson said after the victory in an overt attempt to curry favor with the man who will lead the U.S. squad against the Europeans in Wales. How big was the disparity off the tee? On the 18th hole in regulation, Watson hit his drive 396 yards (with a little help from a cart path). Pavin’s drive on the same hole before the playoff, which he admittedly popped up, was just 242 yards. That’s a difference of 154 yards, or a likely 9-iron in Watson’s case. After the victory, Watson jumped up to 13th in the Ryder Cup point standings. The top eight after the PGA Championship in August automatically qualify, and Pavin will make his captain’s picks Sept. 7, just weeks before the Oct. 1-3 matches in Wales. Watson, a native of Bagdad, Fla. — also the home of PGA Tour players Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum — made no mistakes about using this experience in front of Pavin to prove he can hit the clutch shots when everything is on the line. In the playoff, Watson’s second shot on the par-4 18th stopped inches from the hole, just shy of ending the playoff with an eagle. After Verplank made his 10-foot birdie putt, Watson’s tap-in was just a formality, and the two went off to the par-3 16th while Pavin exited. In their careers, Pavin owns 15 victories and a major championship and Watson’s win total just hit one. Granted, Watson is 31 and Pavin just turned Champions Tour-eligible with his 50th birthday this past November. But there’s no telling what’s in store for Watson. The Americans’ 2008 Ryder Cup victory at Valhalla included long bomber J.B. Holmes. If Pavin were interested in having a prodigiously long driver of the golf ball to help change the complexion of some matches, he could do much worse than having Bubba Watson on his side at Celtic Manor.
Kevin Maguire is the golf editor for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Kevin.Maguire@espn.com.
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MUNICH — David Horsey of England birdied the 18th hole to win the BMW International Open by one stroke over countryman Ross Fisher on Sunday, shooting a 5-under 67 that earned him the biggest victory of his career.The 25-year-old former Walker Cup player earned 0,000 — easily the biggest payday of his two-year professional career. Horsey finished at 18 under after starting the day tied for fifth place.
BMW International Open Leaderboard
1. Horsey (-18)
2. Fisher (-17)
T-3. Larrazabal (-16)
T-3. Cabrera Bello (-16)
T-3. Cejka (-16)
T-3. Dredge (-16)
T-3. Ferrie (-16)
• Complete scores
Fisher had an eagle on the 18th to place second, and five players tied for third at 16 under: Alex Cejka of Germany, Pablo Larrazabal and Rafael Cabrero-Bello of Spain, Kenneth Ferrie of England and Bradley Dredge of Wales.Dredge took a three-shot lead into the final round and extended it to four after a birdie on No. 1. But his round collapsed when he dropped five shots in seven holes from the 10th, finishing with a 74.Horsey went into the 18th sharing the lead with Dredge, who was on the 16th at the time. The Welshman twice hit into a hazard for a double bogey, while Horsey laid up with his second shot on the par-5 last and then sank what turned out to be a winning birdie putt from 5 feet.”Although it was on a big screen by the green, I didn’t watch what was happening to Bradley,” Horsey said. “My caddy knew, but he didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask.”I was just trying to make birdie without having taken the risk of trying to hit the green in two from 250 yards out. I didn’t want to know what was happening because I did not want to put pressure on myself. That had been my policy all through the four rounds, to just try to relax and not make mistakes.”Horsey’s previous best finishes were second places at the Malaysian Open in 2009 and the recent BMW Italian Open.For Dredge, his failure to close out victory could prove costly. He was hoping to record his third career win and move closer to securing a Ryder Cup place on home soil at Celtic Manor in October.But having lost a four-shot advantage, he now possesses the unwanted record of failing to close out victory nine times in his career when leading going into the final day.At No. 39, Fisher was the highest-ranked player in the last three playing groups and had started his final round tied for second.His hopes of victory crashed when he ran up a double bogey at the fourth and he only managed to clinch second place with a closing 70 when he sank a putt for an eagle on the final green.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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