Local Knowledge: 2013 PGA Professional National Championship

Local Knowledge: 2013 PGA Professional National Championship












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Few places in the world are more naturally beautiful than the Sunriver Resort, located at the edge of the high desert, just east of the Cascade Range, with spectacular views of Mt. Bachelor.(Montana Pritchard/The PGA of America)

PGA.COM June 23, 2013 2:49 PM


By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

SUNRIVER, Ore. - The 46th PGA Professional National Championship tees off at the breathtaking Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore., on Sunday morning.

Few places in the world are more naturally beautiful than the Sunriver Resort, located at the edge of the high desert, just east of the Cascade Range, with spectacular views of Mt. Bachelor.

The field of 312 - the top 20 of whom will receive a spot in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in August - will play one of their first two rounds at the Sunriver Resort's Meadows Course and one at the Crosswater Course. After the 36-hole cut is made following second-round play on Monday, the entire field will move over to Crosswater for the final two rounds.

On the eve of the tournament, we caught up with Crosswater Club Manager and PGA Professional Josh Willis to talk about what's in store for the PNC.

PGA.com: Josh, this is the third time that Sunriver Resort plays host to a PGA Professional National Championship. Can you talk to me a little about the anticipation of getting another championship under way and what it means to be the host yet again?

Willis: This is a really great opportunity not only for Sunriver as a resort to be the host site for a third time, but also a great opportunity for our own personal PGA Golf Professionals to work with a PGA of AmericaTournament Director, as well as the Golf Channel prior to the event and post event. It's just an incredible opportunity for everyone.

PGA.com: As we sit hear your walkie-talkie has been going off non-stop with staff members asking you questions. You're pretty much the one-stop shop for everything going on this week to an extent. Can you tell us what a week like this entails for you?

Willis: There are so many individuals involved on the golf course and it's a total partnership between a collective group of us on making sure everything is up and running. There are so many important pieces to the puzzle -- from the scoring live scoring and how it gets there through a volunteer, but then there's a scoring trailer. That runs off a generator and there's internet going into the scoring trailer. You have all these elements out there that if one little, single thing goes wrong it ultimately effects the quality of the event that we're able to help the PGA of America produce.


PGA.com: Sunriver is gorgeous. It's also a place where you can almost experience all four seasons in one day. Tell us a little about how quickly things can change here.

Willis: Well, for instance, let's take this morning. At 4:30, it was 34 degrees and it dropped down to 30 degrees by about 5:30. Then it slowly started warming up until now, where I'd say it's about high 70s. It's not uncommon for us to have as much as a 60-degree change in temperatures really. That's just how it is out here. It's not anything unusual for us.

I think anybody who played a practice round -- probably on Thursday -- realized just how quickly things could change. A lot of players were tweeting about it. In fact, one player in particular tweeted a photo he took on the tee and it was raining. He took a photo in the fairway and it was hailing. Then he took a photo on the green, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud anywhere. That was a perfect example of three of our four seasons. We're hopeful that we'll have the better of all our four seasons this week, which is beautiful weather every day.

PGA.com: For the first two days, players will play one round each at the Meadows Course and theCrosswater Course, before coming back here to Crosswater for the final two rounds. Can you talk a little about the difference between the two courses?

Willis: The Meadows Course is a tree-lined golf course that's definitely located in the meadow. It was actually built around the Sunriver Resort Lodge, which was the foundation for the whole Sunriver community when the division of the property was built back in the 1960s.

Crosswater on the other hand, was built in 1995. It was the longest golf course in America when it opened. What's really unique is that it's 600 acres. Two hundred of those acres are for the community, 200 are for the bentgrass golf course and then 200 acres are native wetlands and fescue. We can't take an inch of land without giving an inch back to be in guidelines with our Audubon certification here.

The other amazing thing is that we've got the Little Deschutes River that curves through the golf course and basically flows into the Big Deschutes River, which also borders the golf course. I would say, without a doubt, the environment is what makes Crosswater so special.

As for the differences in the two golf courses, all in all, Crosswater is going to play a little bit longer, but there's not as many opportunities from an out-of-bounds standpoint like what the Meadows has. It'll take your best game to win this week.

PGA.com: What do you most look forward to during a week like this?

Willis: I enjoy working with the Tournament Committee. It's always a fun experience and if you don't enjoy it, you should probably take another job and do something different. I really enjoy hosting an event this size. Our goal is to have a championship of this magnitude every year and it takes a ton of work by our golf professional staff in partnership with the Tournament Committee, but also it takes a lot of work from our community with the volunteer support. We're lucky in Sunriver to have great amenities, which are attractive to the PGA of America, from our golf courses to our banquet spaces, all the way down to our food and beverage outlets. But, at the end of the day, it's the community that volunteers for us that allows us to host a championship of this magnitude.

Dobyns serves lucky menu at Champions Dinner

Dobyns serves lucky menu at Champions Dinner












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11 past champions gathered for the 2013 Champions Dinner at Sunriver.(Montana Pritchard/The PGA of America)

PGA.COM June 23, 2013 2:54 PM


By Bob Denney, The PGA of America

SUNRIVER, Ore. - Defending PGA Professional National Champion Matt Dobyns of Glen Head, N.Y., host of the annual Champions' Dinner Saturday at Crosswater Club, was overcome by the attention he received after his record-breaking, eight-stroke victory a year ago in the showcase event for PGA Professionals. Dobyns also revealed that food had something to do with what he called "a win of a lifetime."

Dobyns, 35, the PGA head professional at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success, N.Y., said he frequented the local Chili's Restaurant daily during the Championship at Bayonet Blackhorse in Seaside, Calif. He chose a take-out order of barbeque ribs and salmon, the latter choice he said was "an attempt to keep it healthy at least in part."

"I was exhausted by the time I got to the West Coast, and too tired to go out for dinner," said Dobyns, the seventh Metropolitan PGA member to win the National Championship. "So, I called in take-out from the restaurant next to my hotel. The next day I went out and shot 68. I went back the next night, ordered the same entrée and shot another 68. I said to myself, 'After all these years, it really can't be this easy.' The third round I went out and had a hole-in-one and an eagle. There was a woman working at the restaurant who recognized me and I didn't have to spend time ordering."

Dobyns' 2012 routine menu of barbeque ribs and salmon, he said, was an easy choice when asked to pick the cuisine for Saturday's Champions' Dinner menu. "I was confident that the chef at Crosswater would do an even greater job and have tastier versions of what I selected last year," said Dobyns. "Maybe it will lead us to many birdies this week."


The Champions' Dinner guests featured 11 past Champions, including Darrell Kestner, 59, winner of the 1996 Championship. who mentored Dobyns, from apprentice to assistant professional from 2009 to 2011, at Deepdale Golf Club in Manhasset, N.Y. "I would not be here today if not for Darrell Kestner, and his wife, Margie," said Dobyns.

Dobyns is in his second season as a PGA head professional, and he and his wife, Laurie, are parents to a 20-month-old daughter, Kaitlyn. Dobyns said that his wife repeatedly encouraged him over a two-month period to be confident that his staff would handle his taking a week off last year to compete in the National Championship.

"That was an ongoing conversation, and I finally gave in and decided that I would be able to attend and that all would be well at the club while I was away," said Dobyns. "My wife has handled the time sacrifices and all that goes into being married to a PGA Professional with grace, positivity and patience. Laurie, I love you."

Dobyns said that he was "amazed at the enormity of this Championship."

"It is truly an amazing undertaking by The PGA of America staff to host 312 players in something that the average person may never comprehend," said Dobyns. "I am very proud to have my name on the Walter Hagen Cup, just as all of you seated here tonight who have won this Championship."

Duke gets first PGA win in playoff over Stroud

Duke gets first PGA win in playoff over Stroud











June 23, 2013 9:10 PM


(Reuters) - Ken Duke notched his first career PGA Tour title in his 187th start by beating Chris Stroud with a birdie on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Travelers Championship on Sunday.

The 44-year-old became the oldest first-time winner in 18 years when he claimed victory by sinking a two-foot birdie putt after fellow American Stroud's long birdie try trickled just past the hole on the 18th green.

"Worked hard," said Duke, who had been a runner-up three times on the tour.

"I knocked on the door a lot and here we are."

Both players parred the 18th in the first hole of sudden-death before returning to the 18th tee for what turned out to be the decider at the TPC River Highlands course.

Duke became the oldest first-time winner on the tour since Ed Dougherty, who was 47 when he won the 1995 Deposit Guaranty Classic.

Stroud forced the playoff by chipping in from across the green for birdie after sending his approach shot long after blasting a drive of some 340 yards.

"I'm glad I gave myself a chance in the playoffs," said Stroud, who was also chasing his maiden victory. "I wish that I would've won. Obviously, we all want to win. I gave it everything I had."

Duke fired a final-round of four-under-par 66 and Stroud posted 67 to tie on 12-under-par 268.

Graham DeLaet of Canada finished one stroke out of the playoff on 269 after shooting 69.


Another stroke back after a 70 was 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, who relinquished the lead to Duke with a triple-bogey six on the par-three 16th after finding the water fronting the green with his tee shot.

Watson, DeLaet and Charley Hoffman, who registered 72 for 272, entered the final round tied for the lead at 10 under par.

The leaderboard was jammed at the top for most of the day with a dozen players jockeying for position within two shots of the lead.

Duke took advantage of a lucky bounce at the par-four 10th, when he pulled his approach shot into the trees left of the green but the ball rattled around and bounced out onto the green to set up his five-foot birdie putt.

"I got an unbelievable break on 10," acknowledged Duke, who had only one top 10 this season from 18 starts - a tie for eighth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

"I knew it was going to be tough and that this guy wasn't going to give up. The main thing was, I didn't give up."

Watson, who won here in 2010, had trouble pinpointing his short irons but stayed ahead by making several par-saving putts.

He led by one shot coming to the 171-yard 16th but his tee ball landed on the bank and plopped into the lake. From the drop area, he flew his 125-yard shot through the green, hit a poor chip and two-putted for triple-bogey.

Duke, who turned professional in 1994, became emotional when asked about the improvements he had made since turning to swing coach Bob Toski for help.

"I wouldn't be here without him, no question. I talked to him this morning, and he said 'it's about time for you to win'," Duke said, breaking up. "And I did."

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Mark Meadows)

No. 1 Park wins No. 5 of 2013

No. 1 Park wins No. 5 of 2013










The Sports Xchange June 23, 2013 9:20 PMThe SportsXchange


ROGERS, Ark. -- The hot streak continues for the top-ranked female golfer in the world.

Inbee Park won for the fifth time this LPGA season, holing a four-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat practice round playing partner So Yeon Ryu to capture the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship on Sunday at Pinnacle Country Club.

Park, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Women's World Rankings, improved to 2-1 in her career in playoffs, with the other victory coming two weeks ago at the tour's most recent tournament, the Wegmans LPGA Championship.

"It feels great," Park said. "This is one of my favorite stops on the tour and the people are just so nice and the course was in great condition this year. "The greens were holding very pure, so I was able to putt really well on this golf course and play very solid the last three days.

"It was a little tough that I had to be in a playoff with a best friend, but that happens sometimes."

Park trailed four players atop the leaderboard by two shots heading into Sunday's final round, but closed with a 4-under-par 67 to finish even with Ryu, her South Korean compatriot.

Park quickly moved into final-round contention with birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes.

After a bogey at the par-3 11th, Park used a birdie on the par-5 14th to move back to 11-under, then closed out with the birdie at the par-5 18th to finish at 12-under 201.

Park then watched as Ryu, playing one group behind, closed her round with an eight-foot birdie putt to close out a 69 and force the third playoff in NW Arkansas Championship history.


After a near perfect drive on the 18th in the playoff, Park's approach was short and left of the green. But her third shot settled four feet from the hole.

Ryu missed the fairway and was forced to lay up short of the green in the playoff. Her approach sailed over the green and her birdie chip slipped past the hole before Park holed the winning putt.

"I know I tried my best, so it's fine," said Ryu, the No. 5 women's player in the world. "Actually, today the round wasn't really great to me because my distance control was really bad.

"But I felt really great to finish strong on 17 and 18 and also I wanted to chase (Inbee) down. I'm so happy for Inbee that she won the tournament."

Mika Miyazato of Japan, the opening round leader with a 65, finished one shot back after a closing with a 67. Miyazato had to settle for a par on the 18th hole and wasn't able to join the playoff.

Park's five victories this season on the LPGA Tour include wins in the first two majors this season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the LPGA Championship.

She will try for the third straight major victory in the U.S. Women's Open, which starts Thursday atSebonack Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.

Park will try to match Babe Zaharias (1950) as the only LPGA player to win the first three majors in a season.

"This week is a good preparation week for me as I go into the U.S. Women's Open," Park said. "I've won the last two weeks and there's a lot of emotions, so I'm just going to try to calm down myself a lot and try to play the course.

"I'm sure the course is going to make me concentrate, so I'm really looking forward to playing there and not to think about any kind of history or trying to break somebody's record."

Stacy Lewis, the local fan favorite who was a four-time all-American at nearby University of Arkansas, entered Sunday tied for the lead with Chie Arimura of Japan, Beatriz Recari of Spain and Ryu.

But Lewis struggled to find her groove and finished at 71 to tie for fourth, while Recari and Arimura both shot 72 and tied for seventh.

"I'm pretty disappointed," Lewis said. "You know, I had one bad swing on No. 7, but really other than that I played pretty solid and I hit so many good shots and so many good putts today.

"I don't really know, going back, what I would do much different."

Amateur Lydia Ko, a 16-year-old from New Zealand who won the 2012 Canadian Open at the age of 15, finished with a 68 and tied four fourth.

NOTES: Inbee Park's victory marked the third time in six years the NW Arkansas Championship has been decided in a playoff. Yani Tseng won the 2011 tournament in a playoff over Amy Yang, and Jiyai Shin defeated Angela Stanford and Sun Young Yoo in a playoff in 2009. ... Park's 54-hole total of 12-under 201 was one shot shy of the tournament record. Tseng won the first of her two NW Arkansas Championship titles with a 13-under total of 200 in 2010. ... Park has five victories and seven top 10 finishes in 12 LPGAevents this year. Since the start of the 2012 season, she has recorded seven wins and 19 top 10 finishes in 36 events. ... This marks the sixth consecutive year the NW Arkansas Championship has been won by an Asian-born player. Stacy Lewis won the tournament as an amateur in 2007, but was declared an unofficial winner when the event was cut to 18 holes due to rain.

Lateral Hazard: Bubba Watson's ball-dunking, caddy-blistering blowup opens door for Ken Duke

Lateral Hazard: Bubba Watson's ball-dunking, caddy-blistering blowup opens door for Ken Duke











Brian Murphy June 23, 2013 11:47 PMYahoo Sports






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Ken Duke won his first PGA Tour event at age 44. (USA Today Sports)



They're not booing at TPC River Highlands, where 44-year-old Ken Duke won his first-ever PGA Tour event. They're saying "Duuuuuuke." That is, when they're not saying "Bubba: You mad, bro?"

Post-major Tour stops are generally snoozers; the equivalent of a hangover that requires a nap on the couch while the Sunday final round plays on your TV at a barely audible level, so that Verne Lundquist's voice actually enters your subconscious and lulls you into blissful REM, purring phrases like "My gracious!" – which he did when Chris Stroud forced a playoff with a 72nd hole chip-in.

But the Travelers Championship in Connecticut kept you out of the Nap Zone. It was pyrotechnics and emotion. It was Ken Duke, the pride of Henderson State University in Arkansas, pumping his fist and hitting an absolute whopper of a game-winner for birdie, a sand wedge from 117 yards to inside a yard on the second playoff hole.

It was Stroud, removing his cap and whipping it over his head in the playoff, firing up a crowd that was into the proceedings.

And it was Bubba Watson, who hasn't won since last year's Masters, blowing his lead on the 70th hole with a triple bogey – and a triple whammy of invectives directed at his caddie, Ted Scott. CBS caught it all, and Watson came off looking like a heel. In the golf world, this counts as four-star gossip.





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Ken Duke won the Travelers Championship on the second playoff hole. (AP)That's why it's good we had a feel-good ending. Duke is one of those guys who reminds you of the PGA Tour back in the 1970s and 1980s, when the words "Fitness Trailer" didn't exist, unless it meant showing one's drinking fitness when spending Saturday night knocking back beers in a trailer.



Duke isn't fit. He sweats a lot. He has played on Tours in Asia, Canada and South America. He doesn't have Rory McIlroy's Nike contract, or Rickie Fowler's flat-billed Puma cap. He's got a handsy, old-school swing and drives it straight as a string, No. 1 on Tour in driving accuracy. And yet he appeared destined to be one of those journeymen who play golf for a living, make some good dough and never win, never get famous.

But sometimes, things happen for guys like Ken Duke. An approach on the 10th hole is headed for big trouble – then hits a tree branch and plops five feet from the cup. Birdie. Or, a 45-foot, cross-country triple-break putt drops in the side door on the 13th hole. Birdie. Or, the leader dumps a ball in the water, gets mad at his caddie and leaves you an opening. And then, just when you think you've reached the mountaintop with a super solid par save on 18, able to make "4" after a poor, nervous drive for a one-shot lead, the kid Stroud chips in for birdie to force a playoff.

Ken Duke could be forgiven for wondering if it wasn't meant to be, that his automatic invite back to Augusta National (he played in the 2009 Masters) would remain out of reach. But then he fully committed to that sand wedge, had the right club and right yardage, and gave himself a kick-in birdie for victory.

He got a little choked up talking to David Feherty, but snapped right back into happy Duke mode by getting a bottle of Coca-Cola (no Diet Coke for an old-school guy like Duke) and shaking it up, flashing the CBS camera with the bottle and saying: "Yeaaaaahhhh … that's what I'm talking about!"

Just what he was talking about, we don't know. A frizzy, shaken-up Coke, to punctuate his first win? Cool by us, Ken. You made for a likeable winner, so keep talkin' about whatever you want.

SCORECARD OF THE WEEK

63-69-69-69 – 18-under 270, Ernie Els, winner, European Tour BMW International Open, Golfclub Munchen Eichenried, Munich, Germany.





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Ernie Els was a big hit on the course and in his lederhosen in Munich. (Getty Images)Pretty hard not to enjoy Ernie Els, like Duke a fortysomething winner at age 43. The Big Easy not only got on the board with his first victory since Adam Scott gift-wrapped him the 2012 British Open (complete with greeting card, a cheese plate and iTunes gift card), he did so in true Ernie style.



By that, I mean he wore lederhosen at one point, and after his win spoke of the quality of Munich beer.

"I used to drink a lot of beer in this town. The beer here is so good," he said in his post-victory news conference, "you don't get those hangovers that you get with the other stuff."

A winner who shoots 63 to open a wire-to-wire job, and praises the local lagers as hangover-free nectar? That's a gracious guest.

And yes, lederhosen. To celebrate 25 years of the European Tour coming to Munich, players dressed in traditional German garb for a cow-milking contest party, while wives and girlfriends were encouraged to dress as comely fräuleins, too. The sight of Ernie in the 'hosen, big grin on his South African mug, on the stool crushing those udders en route to victory in the cow-milking contest, too, was one of the richer images of the year.





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Dustin Johnson enjoyed the BMW International Open with girlfriend Paulina Gretzky. (Getty Images)By the way, American Dustin Johnson was at the event, and tweeted out a picture of his lovely lady, Paulina Gretzky, in the traditional gear. He captioned it, "The Original St. Pauli Girl," and when I viewed the size of the stein from which Johnson was quaffing, and the head-turning Gretzky as his favorite fräulein, it suddenly made a lot more sense why Johnson has been chilling well away from the winner's circle since his Maui victory to open the year.



A keen statistician would note that Johnson's bid to win in Munich was undone by a Saturday 73, the day after he tweeted out the Paulina-as-fräulein photo. Young love. What are you gonna do, golf fans?

Back to Els. He says he will take the next three weeks off, skipping the Scottish Open, to rest up for a return to Muirfield, where he won the British Open in 2002. He did say he may attend a party in Monte Carlo to honor a friend, but said he only had a day or two of partying in him, "not three weeks." Laughs all around. Ernie is playing winning golf, and the golf world is better for it.

BROADCAST MOMENT OF THE WEEK

"Hey, you hit it, bud." – David Feherty, CBS, to Bubba Watson after Bubba Watson undressed his caddie for a bad yardage on the 16th hole.

Look at Feherty, man of the people. He was not only sticking up for Watson's caddie, Ted Scott, but also saying what all of us were thinking: Hey, bud. You hit the golf ball over the green, not the caddie.

Watson has admitted in the past that he has let his emotions run too hot, and taken things out on his caddie. But he said an intervention of sorts from his wife and caddie years ago cured that, made him a better player and is partially why he broke through at the Travelers Championship for his first win in 2010, the first of four wins, including last year's Masters.

It was a three-part drama Watson laid on Scott. First, there was the tee shot into the water, where cameras caught him saying, "That club," to Scott, disgustedly. Second, was the shot from the drop zone that flew the green, and cameras caught Watson saying: "So you're telling me that's the right yardage?" – dripping with sarcasm.

This is where Feherty stepped in and offered that thought.

Finally, Watson missed his putt for double bogey, and was seen to say, "There's no reason for you to even show up," to his caddie, chewing off the words.

Had there been a bus that drove by on a nearby road, Watson may have suggested a caddie-toss underneath.

It was bad form by the lefty, and he'll have to wear this one for a day or two, until we get distracted by more pictures of Ernie Els in lederhosen, or Paulina Gretzky as a St. Pauli Girl.

MULLIGAN OF THE WEEK

In fact, let's stay on this point for our Mully o' the Week.





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Bubba Watson had kinder words for fans after the final round than he did his caddie. (USA Today Sports)Watson was at the 16th tee with a one-shot lead, and all he had to do was par out for victory, in all likelihood. But that tee ball into the water sunk him, and then his three outbursts at Scott sunk his reputation on social media, where armchair etiquette officials like yours truly gave him the old tsk-tsk.



I'm not even talking about giving Watson a mulligan on the tee shot. In fact, I'm happy Ken Duke won, so I don't care about the tee ball into the water. What I do think deserves a mulligan, however, is Watson's reaction.

What we need to do is go back out to that 16th tee, let Bubba dump that ball into the drink and then have him say loud enough for the cameras to hear: "I picked the wrong club … that's on me." Right? So let's go back out there and … give that man a post-shot reaction mulligan!

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

If Tiger Woods throws a golf tournament, and Tiger Woods doesn't play in it, did the tournament happen? These are deep philosophical questions and pertinent ones since Tiger is throwing a golf tournament – this week's AT&T National at Congressional – and Tiger isn't playing, to rest an elbow strain he suffered at the Players Championship (where he won) and aggravated at Merion's U.S. Open (where he didn't win).

Justin Rose and Adam Scott will play, however, so at least there will be someone who can win a major in Tiger's tournament. Hey, now! I kid. Sort of.

This is also one of those rare weeks where the women's game trumps the men's. I love the U.S. Women's Open, and the ladies' national championship takes place at Sebonack in Southampton, N.Y.

In the last eight years, Cristie Kerr (2007) and Paula Creamer (2010) are the only Americans to win America's national championship. Given that the Fourth of July is around the corner, maybe it'll be a lucky week for the red, white and blue. Or, the tournament can be like any other women's tournament these days and be won by Inbee Park, who wins 'em all. Either way, a fun week. The only thing more fun would be hanging with Ken Duke and Ernie Els, although we can keep Duke out of the lederhosen, for everyone's sake.