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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Rookie Reed shoots 64 to seize Wyndham lead

Andrew Both August 16, 2013

By Andrew Both

GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - PGA Tour rookie Patrick Reed has not yet established himself on the U.S. circuit but that could change soon if he continues his current form.

Hot on the heels of two high finishes in his last two starts,Reed maintained his sizzling run to earn a one-stroke lead after the second round of the $5.3 million Wyndham Championship on Friday.

"We've been working extremely hard trying to fine-tune everything," the 23-year-old told reporters after shooting a bogey-free, six-under-par 64 on a calm, mild morning at Sedgefield Country Club.

"And lately with how I've been hitting the ball and how I've been putting, it just seems to all be clicking."

Reed posted an 11-under 129 total to finish a stroke in front of another young gun, fellow American John Huh, who fired the day's best score with an eight-birdie 62.

Compatriot Jordan Spieth (66) was another shot back at nine under, suggesting that the future of American golf is in good hands with all three front-runners aged 23 or less.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia, among a large group in joint third place overnight, shot a level-par 70 to slip six strokes off the pace.

RAISED SIGHTS

Reed made his first cut on the PGA Tour here two years ago, but he has his sights set far higher this week after finishing seventh and ninth in his last two starts.

"I just need to put four rounds together and hopefully that's this week," said Reed, whose wife, Justine, serves as his caddie.

"She knows just as much about the golf swing, why I hit it left or right or anything like that, so if I ever get out of whack she can fix me immediately."

Huh, the 2012 PGA Tour rookie of the year, was by no means shocked after shooting a 62, though he felt a 64 was more likely when he teed off.

"I was able to put everything together and I'm really pleased," said Huh, who was born in New York of Korean parents and spent several years of his childhood living in South Korea.

He says he has been playing well since changing his driver shortly before the Masters, but had not put every component of his game together in the same round until Friday.

Garcia, meanwhile, lamented a cold putter, not for the first time in his career, after missing five putts from inside seven feet to fall six strokes off the pace.

"I would have loved to shoot at least a couple under (par) today. I feel I played well enough to do it but I didn't," the Spaniard said. "I wasn't able to hole it as well as yesterday from four, five, six feet."

The cut fell at one-under 139 and among those to miss out were former major winners Ben Curtis, Stewart Cink, Lucas Glover, Davis Love III, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington.

Saturday's third round will start at 7 a.m. local (1100 GMT), because officials are worried that predicted rain will leave the course unplayable later in the day.

(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

Golf-Opening Solheim Cup fourball results

August 16, 2013

Aug 16 (Reuters) - Results in the opening fourball matches between hosts the United States and holders Europe in the 13th Solheim Cup being played at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colorado (U.S. pairings first): Europe lead the United States 5-3 after first two sessions

Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson lost to Suzann Pettersenand Carlota Ciganda 1 down Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller lost to Caroline Hedwall and Carolina Masson 2&1Brittany Lincicome and Brittany Lang beat Anna Nordqvistand Giulia Sergas 4&3 Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie beatCatriona Matthew and Charley Hull 2&1

- - - -

Remainder of playing schedule:

Saturday - Foursomes matches (at 15-minute intervals), from 0730 (1330)

- Fourball matches (at 15-minute intervals), from 1300 (1900)

Sunday - Singles matches (at 11-minute intervals), from 1230 (1830) (Compiled by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Ian Ransom)

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Europe rolls to Solheim Cup victory

EDDIE PELLS (AP National Writer) August 19, 2013AP - Sports

PARKER, Colo. (AP) -- Europe never looked more at home at the Solheim Cup.

Especially on the greens.

From the 45-foot putt that 17-year-old Charley Hull rolled in to re-ignite the momentum Sunday to the 4-foot testerCaroline Hedwall sank to end what little drama was left, the Europeans owned Colorado Golf Club.

Led by Hull, the youngest player to suit up at the Solheim Cup, and Hedwall, the first player to go 5-0 at this event, Europe romped to a record-setting 18-10 victory over the Americans and won the cup on U.S. soil for the first time since the event began in 1990.

''We took it to them,'' Europe's Suzann Pettersen said, ''and they couldn't answer.''

This was a wire-to-wire victory, the likes of which very few saw coming.

America had more top-20 players (5 to 3), more major-title winners (5 to 3) and more Solheim Cup experience (25 years to 17) to say nothing of more success over the history of this team event (8 victories to 4).

But Europe took the lead Friday, took an even firmer grasp of it with a sweep in the best-ball matches Saturday, then closed it out by winning five of 12 matches Sunday and earning half-points in five more.

A lightning delay of about an hour put off the inevitable, but when the weather cleared, Hedwall returned to the 17th tee box, tied with Michelle Wie, and didn't miss a beat.

She halved that hole, then stuck her approach on 18 using a 9-iron from 150 yards out. She celebrated the putt that gave Europe its clinching 14th point with an uppercut into the air. A handful of her teammates, already off the course, ran to congratulate her.

A bit later, Catriona Matthew holed a 5-foot par putt to halve her match and give Europe the outright win on the seventh try in America. Within moments, the Europeans were in a full-throated rendition of ''We Are the Champions.''

This is the first time they've defended the cup, which they won two years ago in Ireland. Their eight-point victory was the largest in the history of the event.

''In sports you just cannot always predict what's going to happen,'' American Cristie Kerr said.

The course was hand-picked by the Americans and captain Meg Mallon brought her team to Colorado a handful of times in the months leading up to the tournament to get used to the undulations in the huge greens that are subtly influenced by the Rocky Mountains to the West. With wide, almost-unmissable fairways, this was a three-day chipping and putting contest and the United States lost badly, especially in the closing stretches.

On Sunday alone, the U.S. saw leads turn into ties or losses over the final three holes in five matches.

''The way we played 16, 17 and 18 I think is really what made the difference,'' Mallon said. ''It wasn't for lack of preparation, because we played this golf course quite a bit. So it wasn't like it was a surprise for us, it was just a matter of who dropped the putts on those holes and unfortunately it was the Europeans.''

European captain Liselotte Neumann said many of her players headed back onto the greens after their practice rounds earlier in the week to soak in the subtleties of the greens.

''We did talk a lot about the speed,'' she said. ''As soon as we got here, we realized they were super-fast, some of the fastest we've ever played. It was a matter of reading the greens, reading the speed into the putts.''

American Paula Creamer went 1-3 for the week, including a 5-and-4 loss to Hull, who took the lead with a 45-foot birdie on No. 6 and never looked back. After Hull closed out the match on No. 14, she asked Creamer to autograph a golf ball for a friend back home.

''I'm going to take that as one of the highlights of my career right there,'' Creamer said.

Kerr, another American veteran, went 1-2-1, earning the tie after she and Karine Icher agreed to halve the day's final, meaningless match while walking up the 18th fairway in fading light.

Stacy Lewis, ranked second and fresh off a victory at the Women's British Open, finished 1-2-1.

Mallon put her at the top of the lineup Sunday, knowing the Americans needed some quick, momentum-building wins to have any chance at a comeback from five points down. Lewis lost her lead when Anna Nordqvist, who had made a hole-in-one on No. 17 to close out a match a day earlier, hit her tee shot to 20 feet and made the putt. Lewis salvaged the tie by getting up and down on 18 after the last of a handful of shaky approach shots that marred her week on what Mallon called a ''second-shot course.''

While the U.S. veterans were struggling, Neumann got more than she ever could have expected from her sixSolheim Cup rookies. They combined to go 12-5-2. That included a 3-0 effort from Spain's Carlota Cigunda.

It was Cigunda at the center of the week's biggest, and strangest, drama - on Friday, when she hit her second shot on No. 15 into a hazard, triggering a 25-minute delay while officials figured out where she should drop.

Cigunda saved par after that, then went on to team with Pettersen for a 1-up victory over Lewis and Lexi Thompson.

That, it turned out, was the start of a European romp that the Americans were powerless to stop.

''With such a young team, with nothing to lose, it just seemed like they were a little bit looser,'' Mallon said. ''They were making more putts and we were not. And that's what it came down to.''

Unlikely shot lifts Reed to playoff win at Wyndham

JOEDY McCREARY (AP Sports Writer) August 19, 2013AP - Sports

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Patrick Reed sure looks like he has a long career ahead of him on the PGA Tour.

Yet the 23-year-old may not hit many more shots as amazing as the one that gave him his first title on tour.

It took the ''best shot of my life'' for Reed to win theWyndham Championship on Sunday, using a most improbable birdie to beat Jordan Spieth on the second hole of a playoff.

Reed recovered from a drive on the par-4 10th that came a few feet from going out of bounds and stopped in some pine needles in the woods near a television cable.

He pulled out his 7-iron, uncorked a baseball swing from an uphill lie and sent the ball under a tree branch - and away from a tree trunk - to land his second shot 7 feet from the pin.

''It was the best shot of my life, that's for sure,'' Reed said.

Spieth, who called it ''one of the best shots I've ever witnessed,'' had reached the green in two strokes, but his 10-foot birdie putt trickled wide of the cup.

Reed then sank his short birdie putt that ''felt like it was 40'' feet to end it.

''Just to get my first win means everything to me,'' Reed said.

Reed, who had his third straight top-10 finish, earned $954,000 in prize money and 500 FedEx Cup points for winning the final tournament before the playoffs.

Reed and Spieth finished regulation at 14-under 266. Reed closed with a 4-under 66, and Spieth had a 65.

The 20-year-old Spieth, the John Deere winner in a playoff last month, was denied in his bid to become the youngest two-time champion in the modern era of the PGA Tour.

John Huh and Brian Harman were two strokes behind. Harman had a 66, and Huh shot 68. Matt Jones matched the tournament record for a final round with a 62 and finished at 11 under along with Matt Every (67) and Zach Johnson (68).

Reed - who let a three-stroke lead on the back nine slip away - missed a chance to win it on the first playoff hole, the par-4 18th.

Spieth recovered from a terrible drive and saved par with a snaking 25-foot putt.

Reed pushed his 7-foot birdie putt wide of the hole, sending it to a second extra hole.

''I don't even know how I was still playing (the second playoff hole) after what happened on 18,'' Spieth said.

Spieth and Huh both caught Reed at 14 under down the stretch in regulation.

At roughly the same time Reed bogeyed the par-3 16th, Spieth birdied the par-4 17th and closed with a par. Huh quickly slipped off the pace after finishing with two bogeys.

Reed, who led or shared the lead after the second and third rounds, also could have won it in regulation after landing his approach shot on the 18th in the center of the green, but left his approximately 20-foot birdie putt short.

For the second straight day, organizers tried to beat the rain by starting the round early, sending players off in threesomes from the first and 10th tees. The skies were ominously overcast all day, but the saturated course didn't receive any rain.

And unlike the third round - in which only 13 players broke par - scores were significantly lower on the water-logged Sedgefield course, and that turned the final 18 holes into a shootout.

Jones birdied five consecutive holes and six of seven during his best round of the year.

''Every golfer out here can go and shoot that,'' Jones said.

Jones and Simpson, the 2011 winner who shot a 63, led the 52 players who shot better than even-par 70 during the final round.

''You really couldn't tell that the greens got any rain,'' Simpson said. ''They were still as fast today as I've ever seen them.''

It wound up being a mostly fruitless week for the players on the playoff bubble who missed their last chance to push their way into The Barclays next week.

Nobody who started the week outside the top 125 managed to make it in. Each of the players at Nos. 126-132 missed the cut, and No. 133 Robert Streb finished at 3 under but could only jump to 126th.

''I was trying to put (the pressure) to the side as much as I could,'' Streb said. ''You can't completely ignore it, but I just tried to play the best golf I could.''

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Follow Joedy McCreary on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/joedyap

Golf-World rankings

August 19, 2013

Aug 19 (Reuters) - World rankings on Monday (U.S. unless

stated, last week's positions in brackets):

1. (1) Tiger Woods 13.87 average points

2. (2) Phil Mickelson 8.61

3. (3) Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 8.44

4. (4) Adam Scott (Australia) 7.93

5. (5) Justin Rose (England) 7.44

6. (6) Matt Kuchar 6.71

7. (7) Brandt Snedeker 6.42

8. (8) Jason Dufner 6.02

9. (9) Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) 5.94

10. (10) Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 5.78

11. (11) Luke Donald (England) 5.26

12. (12) Keegan Bradley 5.08

13. (13) Steve Stricker 5.00

14. (14) Lee Westwood (England) 4.96

15. (17) Ian Poulter (England) 4.59

16. (16) Ernie Els (South Africa) 4.57

17. (15) Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 4.57

18. (20) Jason Day (Australia) 4.57

19. (21) Jim Furyk 4.49

20. (19) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 4.49

(Editing by Toby Davis)