Thursday, August 29, 2013

Glance at the PGA Championship

Glance at the PGA Championship

AP - Sports
PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- A glance at Sunday's final round of the PGA Championship at 7,163-yard, par-70 Oak Hill Country Club (East Course):
Leading: Jason Dufner, who shot 68 for a 10-under 270 total.
Runner-up: Jim Furyk, who started the round as the leader at 9 under and shot 71, finishing at 272.
Tiger watch: Tiger Woods shot an even-par 70 and finished at 4 over, tied for 40th.
Key statistic: Twenty-one players finished under par. In five previous majors at Oak Hill, only nine players have finished in the red (Jack Nicklaus twice).
Noteable: The win should mean Dufner will be remembered for more than that memorable picture of him slumped against the wall of an elementary school during a charity appearance - arms stiffly at his side, eyes glazed over - which led to the craze known as ''Dufnering.''
Quotable: ''I put together four good rounds last week. Unfortunately, it wasn't this week.'' Woods, who won the PGA Tour event at Bridgestone leading up to the PGA.

Emma Talley wins US Women's Amateur

Emma Talley wins US Women's Amateur

AP - Sports
Emma Talley wins US Women's Amateur
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Alabama's Emma Talley holds the Robert Cox Trophy after winning the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship …
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Emma Talley gave the Southeastern Conference something else to shout about.
The rising Alabama sophomore won the U.S. Women's Amateur on Sunday, beat Yueer Cindy Feng 2 and 1 at the Country Club of Charleston.
''Thanks everybody. You were all awesome and 'Roll Tide,''' she told the crowd after closing out Feng on the next-to-last hole in the 36-hole final.
The 19-year-old Talley, from Princeton, Ky., had a ''Big Al'' mascot headcover, the Crimson Tide's script ''A'' logo on her shoes and coach Mic Potter and teammate Stephanie Meadows in the gallery cheering her on throughout the match. Meadow carried a sign, ''Go Emma. Roll Tide,'' throughout the 36 holes.
And Talley needed all the support she could get, squandering a three-up lead early in the afternoon round. But Talley took the lead for good with a birdie on the 10th hole, the 28th of the match, and didn't let Feng back in front.
Talley finished the match when the 17-year-old Feng conceded par on the par-3 17th, then missed a 6-footer for a par that would've sent the match to the 36th hole. She'll bring the winner's medal and her new title back to campus this fall and hopefully make an impact on the school's fanbase, which has its sights set on a third national football crown.
''Football at Alabama is pretty much the biggest thing there is,'' Talley said. ''I do know that I have friends who are Alabama athletes who've been following me and watching on TV.''
Feng was vying to become the first Chinese-born player to win a USGA title.
Talley looked as if she had gained control of the match at the end of the morning 18 after birdies on the 17th and 18th holes left her 1 up at the lunch break. She extended that lead when play resumed with a birdie on the second hole and moved to 3 up on Feng's bogey on the par-4 fourth.
Just as quickly as Talley moved in front, Feng caught up and tied things with birdies on the fifth and sixth holes and Talley's botched chip on No. 7 that led to a bogey.
''The good thing about that was she was making shots,'' Talley said. ''I hardly did anything wrong. I just had to keep playing my game because I knew it wasn't over at all.''
Talley struggled with the putter early on. She three-putted four of her first 10 holes, yet only trailed by a hole.
Talley got things going on perhaps the club's trickiest hole, the par-3 11th reverse redan where Sam Snead once made a 13 in a 1937 tournament. Talley put her tee shot in a bunker right of the green, then deftly chipped to about 10 feet and made the putt to square the match. Feng landed in a bunker on the par 3's other side and needed two shots to make the green.
Feng regained the lead a hole later when her approach to the par-4, 12th finished about 2 feet from the flag for a birdie.
Another stellar bunker shot by Talley to about 6 feet past - she had her the blade of her wedge almost total parallel to the sand - led to another birdie on the 14th hole to again tie the match.
Talley closed the morning round with two straight birdies on the 17th and 18th shots for a 1 up lead at the break. She got inside of Feng's 12-footer on the par-3 17th for a birdie that tied the match.
Talley struck a final time on the 18th, her approaching finishing about 5 feet past for a birdie.
Both Talley and Feng have spots in next year's U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst, N.C., as long as they don't turn pro. Feng, though, has signed up for LPGA Tour qualifying school with the hope of joining the tour.
Feng was disappointed in losing the match, but satisfied with her play this week. ''I didn't think I would get this far,'' she said. ''This is the biggest tournament in amateur golf. So to get into the finals, it's really a big accomplishment.''
Talley hopes to play professionally one, too. Right now, she can't wait to get back to school. ''I do want to go pro,'' she said. ''But right now, I just love college too much.''

Jim Furyk: Close but no cigar again at the PGA

Jim Furyk: Close but no cigar again at the PGA

AP - Sports
PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- The pose was a familiar one for Jim Furyk - buckled over as if he'd taken a punch in the gut, barely able to watch the flight of the ball.
The ending felt achingly similar, too.
Denied in another major championship.
Furyk came up two shots shy of Jason Dufner in the PGA Championship, unable to mount any sort of charge coming down the stretch on a warm, sunny Sunday at Oak Hill.
Dufner seized control just before the turn. His playing partner in the final group never punched back, the agony apparent in his mannerisms as all hope slipped away on the last two holes.
''I wish I could've put some heat on him,'' Furyk said. ''I wish I had made him work harder those last two holes.''
Even with a bogey-bogey finish, Dufner redeemed himself for throwing away a four-stroke lead at the 2011 PGA in Atlanta, where he lost to Keegan Bradley in a playoff.
Furyk felt the sting of another close call on the Grand Slam stage.
This was the second time in a little over a year that he has had a second major title in his grasp. Last summer at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, he bogeyed two of the last three holes and finished two strokes behind Webb Simpson.
''I've had some chances to close it out, and I wasn't able to get it done,'' Furyk said. ''But I guess it's days like this that will make the next one sweeter.''
At least he's got a major championship on his resume, though it's been 10 long years since his victory in the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.
At 43, Furyk still feels as if he has the game to win another.
''I don't look at it as if I lost the golf tournament,'' he said. ''I look at it as I got beat by somebody who played better than me.''
Certainly, Furyk has plenty of experience dealing with disappointment.
There was the 1998 Masters, where he dumped one in the water on the 15th hole and lost to Mark O'Meara by two strokes. That same year at Royal Birkdale, it was the same result in the British Open - O'Meara the winner, Furyk two shots behind. While the 2006 U.S. Open is remembered for Phil Mickelson's epic meltdown on the 72nd hole, Furyk also wound up a shot behind winner Geoff Ogilvy after missing a 5-footer to save par on No. 18. The next year at Oakmont, Furyk was one shot shy again to Angel Cabrera, needing a birdie on the final hole to force a playoff but only managing par.
Now, another runner-up finish.
''On one hand, yeah, I'm disappointed,'' Furyk said. ''But I'm kind of re-energized right now. I'm playing well and enjoy playing golf.''
Certainly, this one was easier to take than what happened at Olympic.
''I felt like I lost that tournament,'' Furyk said. ''I felt like it was my tournament to win, and I wasn't able to do it.
''Today,'' he went on, ''I feel like I got beat. I didn't beat myself, I don't think.''
That said, there were some shots Furyk would like to have back.
Down a stroke heading to the ninth hole, he knocked his drive in the middle of the fairway but got caught between clubs, didn't make a good swing with the 6-iron, and left his ball short and right of the green, in a patch of thick rough. Dufner deftly got up-and-down for a par. Furyk, who thought he might pick up a shot, would up with a bogey and instead lost more ground.
He never got any closer.
While Dufner struggled with his putter, which kept him from extending his lead, Furyk wasted birdie chances at the 13th and 14th. He had wedges to the green but couldn't get it close enough to make the putts. Then, when he absolutely had to have a birdie in the last two holes, he wound up with a pair of bogeys, his chances essentially snuffed out when he needed two swings to escape the rough alongside the 17th green.
Furyk wound up shooting 1-over 71 - his worst round of the week after three straight in the 60s. He finished at 8-under 272, remaining two shots behind Dufner all the way to the end.
''I could have put some serious heat on him,'' Furyk said. ''I wasn't able to do so. I could never close that two-shot gap.''
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