... and Open Thread ...

PGA Tour
Stewart Cink posted career win No. 5, holding off Hunter Mahan and Tommy Armour III at the Travelers Championship. Cink closed with a 67 to finish one shot better than defending champ Mahan and Armour, both of whom shot 65s on Sunday.

Story | Scores

European Tour
Martin Kaymer, whom many golf observers believe will be the next best-European player, became the first German to win the BMW International Open, played in Munich, in the event's history. The 23-year-old Kaymer squandered a 6-stroke lead in the early going, including a triple-bogey, before steadying himself and holding off Anders Hansen.

Story | Scores

Champions Tour
Jeff Sluman birdied three of the last four holes on Sunday to secure a 1-stroke win at the Bank of America Championship. Sluman wound up with a 64 and a 17-under total of 199. Loren Roberts was in second.

Story | Scores

LPGA Tour
The last time Eun-Hee Ji was chasing Suzann Pettersen was at the Kolon Championship last October, and weather (and Pettersen) held her off. This time, at the Wegmans LPGA, Ji ran down Pettersen, catching and passing her on the back nine to win her first LPGA title. Ji shot 67 to Pettersen's 72 on the last day, finishing at 272 to runner-up Pettersen's 274.

Story | Scores

Ladies European Tour
Rebecca Hudson defeated Anne-Lise Caudal in a playoff for the title at the Ladies Tenerife Open. Caudal was trying to post her second-straight victory. Gwladys Nocera and amateur Carlota Ciganda - the 2007 British Ladies Am champion - tied for third.

Story | Scores

Futures Tour
Stephanie Otteson wrapped up her first professional victory at the Duramed Championship on Sunday, besting Jessica Shepley by one. Two-time winner Mindy Kim was third.

Scores

Your 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links champion, Tiffany Joh:

Congratulations Tiff. Your fellow Wagglers salute you.

(Photos: Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Tiffany Joh defeated Jennifer Song, 2 and 1, to win the 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship on Saturday at Erin Hills in Erin, Wisc.

Song, an 18-year-old with dual Korean and U.S. citizenship, won the first hole of the 36-hole finals. And while the 21-year-old T-Joh, from San Diego, Calif., squared the match a couple different times, Song never trailed until the 33rd hole.

Song led 2-up after nine of the morning 18; Tiffany squared it on the 13th, but Song took the lead back and led 2-up again at the end of 18. On the 30th hole, Tiffany parred to Song's bogey, cutting Song's lead to 1-up.

It was the start of four wins in five holes for Tiff. They halved the 31st, Tiffany won the 32nd to square the match, then won the 33rd to go 1-up and the 34th to go 2-up. When they halved the 35th, Tiffany won the title.

It is the T-Joh's second win in this USGA championship. She also won in 2006, and is now one of only five golfers to win the Women's Publinx more than once.

View the match scorecard, or visit the USWAPL homepage for more news to come.

Update: From the USGA article:

“It means everything,” said Joh, who dedicated her title to the father of her college roommate (Beth Wallace), Chuck Wallace, who died six weeks ago of cancer. “I think back when I first won it, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just kind of out there thinking, oh, bonus rounds. I get to play another round. I think I stumbled into it. Afterwards, I realized how much it did for my confidence.

“I think winning this time around when I really wanted it, it was that much more meaningful.”

And the lede to Beth Ann Baldry's nice article on Golfweek.com:

Tiffany Joh hasn’t changed much since the last time she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. She still downplays her abilities, still looks at each victory as a lucky break more than deserved reward.

C’mon Tiffany, deep down you must have thought of yourself as one of the favorites this week?

"Really, really, really deep down," said Joh, the 2006 WAPL champion and a U.S. Curtis Cup player. "Like very deep down, like core of the earth deep."

Golfweek has an interesting package online, a shorter version of the larger package that appeared in its June 14 issue, headlined "The muni crisis." The main story is an interesting read that raises interesting and important points. This excerpt gives a good accounting of what Golfweek is looking into:

For a lack of a better term, “everyday munis” – the hardscrabble courses where many remember learning the game – are facing an unprecedented wave of challenges.

Escalating operational costs. Flat participation. Intense competition. Strained city budgets. Increased real estate development pressures. Such factors threaten the viability of munis, and if the courses shut down, some industry executives say, the ramifications will be troubling and many. They argue munis are essentially living museums, and their demise would represent a loss of civic and golf history that is irreplaceable.

And at a time when affordable access to golf is sorely needed to spark participation, the closure of munis would lock out new and existing golfers from the game.

“We’ve studied golf around the world, and in countries that don’t have a supply of affordable public golf, they never grow their participation rate past 2 (percent) or 3 percent of the population,” says Joe Beditz, president and CEO of the National Golf Foundation.

Part of me looks with sadness on the closing of any municipal golf course, and part of me doesn't. Part of me recognizes the importance of municipal golf courses in growing the game, and part of me understands why others don't care about that.

Depends on whether I'm looking with the part of me that is a golfer, or the part of me that is a pragmatist who understands the tightening of municipal budgets and has beliefs about the obligations of governments to their citizens and the proper way to prioritize those obligations.

In some ways, in some places, I've come to view municipal golf courses as anachronisms. Municipal golf courses in America grew out of a response to the fact that all the earliest golf courses here were private, open only to the upper crust. There were social and class issues involved in the creation of the first municipals, there were civic and egalitarian ideals at play.

Mostly, there was the desire to make available to all residents the ability to take part in the game if they wanted to, rather than only if they could afford to join the club (and assuming they could get past the membership committee even if they had the money). It was a response of the hoi polloi to the hoity-toity.

But in many places, those factors don't exist in any more, at least as they apply to golf. In many - but certainly not all - places, one can find affordable public golf without needing municipal golf.

I've seen both sides in the two cities where I've lived most of my life:

• In the city I grew up in, there were two municipal golf courses, and six private courses. No daily fee courses, resort courses, or semi-private courses. Without those two munis, I would have been out of luck. No golf for me.

   

• In the city where I've lived the past 10 years, there are six municipal golf courses, and about 20 other public courses within the city or very nearby. Some of those are high-end courses, but about 10 of them have costs comparable to or less than the muni courses.

Does the city I live in now really need municipal golf courses? Is that something the city should be spending money on? Fact is, this city's courses do not produce revenue, they eat it up. The city subsidizes the municipal courses here.

I can understand how that would bother the vast majority of citizens who don't golf. If the city is going to spend money on something, how about spending it on, say, a city park that everyone, rather just participants in one particular activity, can enjoy? How about building a new library? How about putting more cops on the street? I understand and sympathize with that argument. Fact is, if my current city announced tomorrow it was getting out of the golf business, that'd be just fine with me.

But what about city No. 1? Where municipal golf is the only golf available to most people? What about the little towns where the 9-hole muni is the only golf for miles? Those cities seem better able to make money off their golf courses, because they are not suffering the competition seen in my current place of residence. And then golf isnt' a drain on the public coffer, but a boon to it.

It's those little towns where the death of a golf course saddens me. Probably in part because such occurrences also symbolize the death of small towns.

But enough noodling over this topic. How about list? A sidebar to Golfweek's package was its ranking of the best municipal courses in America. Here's the Top 30:

1. Bethpage State Park (Black), Farmingdale, N.Y.
2. Chambers Bay GC, University Place, Wash.
3. Indian Wells GR (Players), Indian Wells, Calif.
4. Pinon Hills GC, Farmington, N.M.
5. Torrey Pines (South), La Jolla, Calif.
6. TPC Scottsdale (Stadium), Scottsdale, Ariz.
7. Indian Wells GR (Celebrity), Indian Wells, Calif.
8. Memorial Park, Houston
9. Thunderhawk GC, Beach Park, Ill.
10. Wintonbury Hills GC, Bloomfield, Conn.
11. Bear Trace (Ross Creek), Clifton, Tenn.
12. Mount Pleasant GC, Baltimore
13. Harding Park GC, San Francisco
14. George Wright Municipal GC, Boston
15. Fossil Trace, Golden, Colo.
16. TPC Scottsdale (Champions), Scottsdale, Ariz.
17. Bethpage State Park (Red), Farmingdale, N.Y.
18. Triggs Memorial GC, North Providence, R.I.
19. Torrey Pines (North), La Jolla, Calif.
20. Indian Canyon, Spokane, Wash.
21. Laurel Hill GC, Lorton, Va.
22. Hideout GC, Monticello, Utah
23. Chickasaw Pointe, Kingston, Okla.
24. Sand Creek Station GC, Newton, Kan.
25. Sunbrook GC (Pointe/Woodbridge), St. George, Utah
26. North Palm Beach CC, North Palm Beach, Fla.
27. Chaska Town Course, Chaska, Minn.
28. Montauk Downs State Park, Montauk Point, N.Y.
29. Brown Deer Park GC, Milwaukee
30. Wingpoint GC, Salt Lake City, Utah

I opened my local newspaper's Sports section this morning and saw something I almost never see: The LPGA Tour tournament was played above the PGA Tour tournament.

Usually in my local paper, the LPGA Tour gets two paragraphs at the bottom of a roundup. Sometimes that even happens when the LPGA is staging a major championship.

But with Tiger Woods out for at least the rest of the year, and with Phil Mickelson not playing the Travelers Championship, and with many other stars also skipping the tournament, and with photogenic, charismatic young star Morgan Pressel leading the Wegmans, the local paper gave the LPGA prominence over the PGA Tour.

Is this something we might see more of during Tiger's absence? Is this an opportunity for the LPGA to market directly to print publications? "Yoo-hoo, over here, yeah, the LPGA Tour. Remember us? We've got tons of charismatic young golfers on our Tour. What with Tiger not playing, how about giving us a try in your publication?"

Mason, Ohio is the site of the second annual Duramed Championship.  This year it's being held at the Golf Center at King's Island.  It's a par 71, playing 6,183 yards.  Of course, Mindy Kim shot a 64 and is tied for the lead with Stephanie Otteson, but that's not my story. 

When I arrived at the course I was originally scheduled to go with the 1:20 group off the 10th tee.  I ran into Kim Augusta, a tour veteran for whom I drove flast year.  We chatted for a few minutes, then we brow-beat the cart driver supervisor into letting me work Kim's group.  In addition to Kim, the threesome included fourth-year player Stella Lee and fourth-year player, and Big Break VI competitor Sarah Lynn Sargent.

Since I spent the day with only one group, I really can't say what happened elsewhere on the course.  I can tell you we started on the back nine and none of the players had a caddy so I carried all three bags. 

On the first nine, Kim carded three birdies by keeping her tee shots in or just off the fairway and displaying  some excellent putting.  Although she had a couple of bogies on the first nine, she managed to finish -1 before the second nine kicked her butt, or rather the cup on number three did.  Kim pulled her drive to the left of the fairway, which has a slight dog-leg left.  Her second shot was well placed short of the
green-side bunker on the right.  Her third was a pitch over the flag about 10-feet, but she was left with a fairly slippery downhill putt for par.  That one, grazed the cup and slid by leaving her with about three feet up hill for bogey.  Her putt hit the back of the cup and bounced right back at her -- in-freakin-credible.  None of us could believe what happened.  She cleaned it up, but the double bogey ruined an otherwise really good round.  Kim finished the day at +3, 74.   

Sarah, who is probably in the 270-yard range with her driver, hit fairways and greens with regularity but couldn't get any putts to drop so through her first seven holes she had seven pars.  On her eighth hole, she pulled her drive into the deep rough, where she muscled her second shot out of the heavy stuff, but still in the rough.  Her third shot found the bunker behind the green.  After escaping the bunker, she two-putted for a double bogey, which effectively crashed her round.  Subsequent drives were scattered right and left.  When she shifted to her three-wood off the tee for awhile Sarah straightened things out and pulled off some nice up-and-downs to finish the second nine one over.  Sarah finished her day with a +3 74.

A lot of women come and go on the FUTURES Tour.  It's fairly easy to keep track of the high-profile golfers, such as those who have spent time on the Big Break, but those who haven't tend to toil in obscurity.  Such is the plight of Stella Lee.  Although she was the shortest of the three off the tee, I don't think she missed a fairway all day long.  On the par-3 holes, she was either on the green or just in the fringe.  But her day was marred by par putts that didn't drop, her first nine she carded four bogies and only one birdie.  By the second nine, those par, and some birdie, putts started to fall.  Stella finished with a 2-over 73.

Driving three bags ended up being not much more difficult than two.  It only took a hole or so to get into the flow of a player grabbing her club(s) upon reaching her drive, then I'd move the cart to the next ball.  Sarah, being the long hitter that she is, is probably accustomed to waiting for her sticks to arrive. 

Although there isn't much chatting going on I had a great time.  I'm looking forward to my group tomorrow at 8:10 am.

Don't worry, it's nothing gross. No man boobs on display or anything.

Phil Mickelson has accepted an invitation (it was probably more like begging) to play in the Skins Game this coming Silly Season. It will be his first appearance in five years.

That's the good news for the Skins Game. The bad news? The defending champion is still Stephen Ames, so he'll be there, too. Sergio Garcia has also been extended an invitation. Perhaps if Lefty and Garcia are there, more than seven people might watch.

Who would you offer the No. 4 spot too? I think I'd offer it to Lorena Ochoa. She's adamant that she has no interest in playing against the men at this time, but has only specified in tour events. She has indicated a willingness to consider Silly Season stuff. So ask her to consider it. And make sure to let her know that Phil will keep his shirt on.

About a month ago Vijay Singh made some comments to the effect of the young Brits in golf need to work harder. Which, of course, implies they don't work hard now. Or at least not hard enough.

Which seems like quite a questionable observation to me, given how hard Ian Poulter works on his ensembles.

Paul Casey wasn't happy with Vijay's comment either. And today he said:

“You rarely see Tiger after about two o’clock in the afternoon at a tournament,” Casey said at the BMW International Open in Munich on Friday.

“He plays his practice rounds very, very early, hits some balls, hits some putts and gets out of there, conserving his energy. That’s the way I do it and I think I work hard enough.

“And I would invite Vijay along to do exactly what I do on weeks off and see how he goes, invite him to the gym with me for instance.”

 Hmm, perhaps Paul needs to work harder at knowing a little bit about Vijay's workout routine. "I invite Vijay to do exactly what I do ..." Maybe next time Veej needs a vacay he can take Casey up on that offer. (Which is not to imply that Casey or any other Brit doesn't work enough, just that Vijay works harder than anyone not named Tiger.)

Wonder how Retief Goosen is reacting to news of Tiger Woods' season-ending reconstructive knee surgery. Because after the U.S. Open, Goosen said:

“Nobody knows if he (Woods) was just showing off.” When asked if he thought Woods might have been faking the extent of his knee pain, he replied: “I think he was.”

And today, in Munich for the BMW International, Goosen "clarified" his comments to note that he was just joking. But it's not much of a clarification. And it came before the announcement of Woods' ACL surgery. Here's what the Goose said today:

“I was joking, really. I mean, how do I know? I never spoke to the guy,” Goosen said.

“He’s got a sore knee, yes, and at the end of the day it’s a great achievement by Tiger winning his 14th major.

“But I wouldn’t really know how sore or not his knee was. Obviously if his knee was really bad he would have withdrawn.

“I won’t say I knew he was faking it. How would I know?

“Anyway, it’s great to see that he’s recovering well and that he’s back on form.”

Nice timing, Retief. Has Goosen been hanging out with Rory Sabbatini? Can't wait for the follow-up.