The Golf Blog

Phil Mickelson takes leads over Tiger Woods @ HSBC in China

2009-11-07T07:12:00.003-05:00

Shooting a 5-under 67 third round, Lefty Phil Mickelson overtook Tiger Woods and Nick Watney for the lead at the HSBC in China, a World Golf Championship event. Mickelson is -14, while Woods and Watney are at -12. Final round finishes today.

Leaderboard

Click here for video highlights

Tiger Woods at China WGC-HSBC (tied for lead)

2009-11-06T06:24:00.001-05:00

Preview:

First round:

EA Tiger Woods PGA tour iPhone app

2009-11-01T10:33:00.003-05:00

We just downloaded this cool iphone app for Tiger Woods PGA tour game. We're glad to see Natalie Gulbis on there! Here's an independent review by someone on YouTube.

Anthony Kim beats Robert Allenby in World Match Play Championship, but continues feud with Allenby

2009-10-31T15:01:00.003-05:00

Anthony Kim beat Robert Allenby in the World Match Play Championship, 5-4. But the real story, according to ESPN, was that Allenby felt Kim was not giving him the customary tap-in short putts that are usually given during match play. If you remember from the President's Cup, Allenby called out AK as the "next John Daly" for partying until 4 a.m. the night before the singles matches. Whether AK was intentionally retaliating or not, the pair apparently had little to say to each the entire match.

Win McMurry previews VIking Classic

2009-10-30T18:57:00.002-05:00

The Golf Blog poll results: Pres. Obama is playing too much golf

2009-10-30T14:20:00.002-05:00

So we asked whether Pres. Obama's 24 rounds of golf in 9 months was too much, too little, or just right? Here are the results:

41.7% said too much
25% said too little
33.3% said just right

Thanks for voting!

Can Michael Whan save the LPGA?

2009-10-28T20:09:00.005-05:00

Here's the press release from the LPGA on the selection of Michael Whan as new Commissioner:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., October 28, 2009 - Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Board of Directors Chairman Dawn Hudson announced today that the LPGA Board has named Michael Whan the LPGA's new Commissioner. Whan, most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of Mission-Itech Hockey, has a personal and professional background in golf, including serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager (North American Region) for Taylormade-adidas Golf.

The appointment follows an extensive three-month international search led by an LPGA Search Committee comprised of LPGA Board player members Juli Inkster and Helen Alfredsson along with fellow LPGA Board members Bill Morton and Leslie Greis, who chaired the Committee. * * *

Evans will work with Whan during a transition period before he officially assumes the Commissioner helm in January 2010. Both Whan and Evans will attend the LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex the week of November 16 in Houston, where a player meeting will be held and the 2010 LPGA season schedule will be released. * * *

"It is rare to work for an organization that combines all the passions in your life, but with the LPGA, I feel I've been presented with the unique opportunity to do just that," Whan said. "First, this is an association surrounded by passionate, value-driven people. Second, I'm energized by brand building and the work involved in marketing and growing a sport. Third, I simply love the game of golf--both the life lessons it teaches and the friendships it helps create."

Whan, 44, started his business career at the Procter & Gamble Company in 1987, rising within the ranks as a brand assistant, Brand Manager and eventually Director of Marketing, Oral Care, before branching out to follow his passion for sports. In 1994-95, he served as a Vice President and General Manager at the Wilson Sporting Goods Company responsible for all aspects of the golf ball and glove business. He also managed the marketing department, two manufacturing facilities and the Research & Development division.

At the TaylorMade Golf Company, Whan started as Vice President Marketing and over the course of his four-year tenure was promoted to Vice President, Sales and Marketing and eventually EVP/General Manager-North America for Taylormade-adidas Golf. In his role as General Manager, Whan's business unit represented more than 70 percent of the company's worldwide sales and profit. * * *

Whan served as President/Chief Marketing Officer for Britesmile, Inc., from 1999-2002, before returning to sports at Mission Hockey, a hockey equipment company. During his seven-year tenure in the hockey business, he restructured and redefined the company, then acquired Itech Sports to create Mission-Itech Hockey. When Whan finalized the sale of Mission-Itech Hockey late last year, it commanded market share leadership in nine product categories, sales in more than 30 countries and had more than 50 percent of the National Hockey League (NHL) players using the brands.

"We interviewed a number of great candidates, but Mike really stood out as someone with integrity, honesty and a life-long passion for the sport," Alfredsson said. "He will bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the LPGA at a critical time for our association." Added Inkster: "Mike clearly demonstrated a desire to make sure that the LPGA remains the best women's sports organization in the world. He has the whole package of what we were looking for, and he'll do what's needed to make sure that we're successful."

Whan will serve as the LPGA's eighth Commissioner. He and his wife, Meg, and his three children, Austin (15), Wesley (13) and Connor (12), currently live in California and will relocate to Florida, home of the LPGA Headquarters, next year.

The LPGA Board of Directors consists of player members Alfredsson, Inkster, Michelle Ellis, Sherri Steinhauer, Pat Hurst, Christina Kim and Stacy Prammanasudh; Patti Benson, national president of the LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals; and independent directors Hudson, Greis, Morton, Bill Susetka and Nancy Wiese.

Pres. Obama invites Melody Barnes, 1st woman, to foursome

2009-10-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

Win McMurry recaps Fry's Open

2009-10-26T20:56:00.002-05:00

Is it us or does Win McMurry look different in this video? Whatever, we still love Win McMurry!

The Golf Blog poll: Is Pres. Obama playing too much or too little golf?

2009-10-26T13:51:00.006-05:00

The blogosphere is abuzz with news from CBS reporter Mark Knoller that President Obama has played 24 rounds of golf in 9 months since taking Office. That number is a little bit deceptive, because the winter months in DC probably didn't allow for much, if any, golfing--although the winter trip to Hawaii certainly did, but that probably wasn't included in the tally. By comparison, apparently, George W. Bush didn't reach 24 until 2 years and 10 months.

So is this too much golf for a President, not enough, or just about right? Vote below in The Golf Blog poll (via survey monkey).

Click Here to take survey

Phenom Rory McIlroy won't join PGA Tour in 2010

2009-10-25T11:44:00.002-05:00

20 year old phenom Rory McIlroy of Ireland has announced that he won't join the PGA Tour in 2010, according to Sports Business Daily. He is 2nd on European Tour money list and 17th in the World rankings.

PGA Tour Commish Tim Finchem must be a little disappointed after the Tour offered him a special exemption in 2009, only to be turned down.

Fry's Open Round 1 highlights

2009-10-24T12:47:00.001-05:00

Win McMurry previews Fry's Open

2009-10-22T19:57:00.001-05:00

Tiger Woods wins 10th Player of the Year Award

2009-10-20T22:16:00.002-05:00

Talk about anti-climactic! Tiger Woods won his 10th Player of the Year award. With his dominant play outside of the majors this year, Tiger was a shoe-in.

Congrats Tiger!

Win McMurry recaps Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital tourney

2009-10-19T17:09:00.001-05:00

BBC Peter Alliss interviews Seve Ballesteros about brain cancer

2009-10-19T06:55:00.002-05:00

A year since being diagnosed with brain cancer, and undergoing several surgeries, Seve Ballesteros agreed to his first on-camera interview with BBC reporter Peter Alliss.

It's not clear what Seve's prognosis is, but he looks remarkable in the video. He is strong, in good spirits, and keeps his sense of humor. What an inspiration! Live strong, Seve!

Click here for the video

Anthony Kim fires caddie Eric Larson

2009-10-17T06:47:00.002-05:00

Anthony Kim is in the news again, this time not for his late partying. The Golf Channel reports that Kim fired his caddie Eric Larson because he wanted a change. Supposedly the firing was in the works before the President's Cup and had nothing to do with the inciden involving Robert Allenby, who somehow knew that AK was out partying until 4 a.m. (More)

Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Tourney Day 1 recap

2009-10-16T15:24:00.002-05:00

The Golf Blog is restored on Google

2009-10-16T14:32:00.004-05:00

Dear Readers,

Thank you for your patience in the past 24 hours. As mentioned previously, we've been in a heated dispute with Google for a suspected "malware" warning that it was placing whenever people tried to come to our site on Safari or Firefox. At no time did The Golf Blog ever intentionally allow any malware of any kind on this site. On Sept. 24, Google itself gave us a clean bill of health.

But in the past day, Google decided to put a "malware" warning on our site like some bully or Internet mafioso. Given our frustration with Google's unilateral actions, which we believe were false and defamatory, we went outside of Google and took our appeal to Stop Badware, which just gave us this quick response : "We have processed your request for review of your website, http://thegolfblog.com/. At this time, none of our data partners are reporting badware activity related to the site. Any warnings displayed by our partners about your site have either already been removed or should be removed shortly. In addition, the report(s) about this site in StopBadware's Clearinghouse have been moved from “active” to “archived.”

Long story short, The Golf Blog is back up and running. Google has backed down. Out of the abundance of caution, we will be keeping all comments off The Golf Blog for now. We greatly valued your comments; indeed, we learned a lot from them in many cases. We seriously hope that none of our Readers tried to give us malware through a comment, but we cannot at this time rule it out.

Thank you for your continued loyalty. As this incident demonstrates, The Golf Blog will act aggressively to maintain the trust of our Readers and to protect our reputation.

The Editors of The Golf Blog

Win McMurry previews Justin Timerberlake Shriners Hospital tourney

2009-10-16T02:49:00.001-05:00

Comments Are Suspended on The Golf Blog--for now

2009-10-15T20:39:00.010-05:00

Dear Readers,

We have had to make the difficult decision of removing all comments from this site, at least for now. We hope to bring them back, but we've been in an ongoing dispute with Google about whether 2 pages of the thousands of pages of our site somehow may contain malware without our knowledge. We think Google made a mistake. But, out of the abundance of caution, we're going to see if some comment posted here may be the source of the problem. We hope not. We appreciate your comments and sincerely hope some commenter wasn't trying to ruin it for everyone here.

Thank you for your patience. We are doing all we can to rectify the issue as soon as possible. If you are a regular Reader of The Golf Blog, don't worry. Google's diagnostic already has stated "Over the past 90 days, thegolfblog.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites" and "No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days."

Please continue to read The Golf Blog as we clean out the comments. They have already been disabled, so we hope that solves the problem. We take this issue seriously and are doing everything within our power to rectify it.

The Golf Blog

President's Cup highlights

2009-10-15T08:11:00.002-05:00

Sunday singles

Saturday foursomes

Saturday fourball

TOP 5 shots

Win McMurry recaps US victory @ President's Cup

2009-10-13T20:01:00.001-05:00

We love Win McMurry!

Is Allenby's quip that Anthony Kim is the new John Daly a compliment or insult?

2009-10-13T18:03:00.002-05:00

Wow, Robert Allenby got a little bit testy after being demolished by Anthony Kim at the President's Cup. Allenby criticized AK for coming back to the hotel the night before at 4 a.m., a little "sideways." Allenby called AK a "loose cannon" and the "new John Daly." (More)

Hmm... we don't know all the facts, but even if Allenby's allegations are true, they seem totally out of line. Unless it's established that AK has a drinking problem, then going out partying till 4 a.m. sounds like what twentysomethings do. It's really not Allenby's business what AK does at night. Just play golf, and shut your trap.

Is the President's Cup too boring because of Fred Couples and Greg Norman?

2009-10-11T07:10:00.004-05:00

While some of the President's Cup matches have been entertaining, we wonder why this year has not seen the same kind of "spark" from the players in competition? Of course, the President's Cup has never been as dramatic or tense as the Ryder's Cup. But this year's President's Cup is somewhat of a yawner.

Well, we figured out the problem: Fred Couples and Greg Norman--who have the chance to know each other's selection before pairings--are not putting the best against the best. To have a President's Cup when Ernie Els (who is tied now as the top point getter for the World and who historically has been the leader of the International team) does NOT play Tiger Woods in the foursomes, fourball, or singles is a complete shame.

And this competition-avoidance has afflicted the other matches, too, where it seems the captains are making their selections by trying to score easy points in a mismatch pairing, instead of pairing the highest seeded teams together. Fred Couples and Greg Norman, you both are better than that!