INCAgolf All you ever wanted to know about golf (well almost)

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Even Kyle Stanley admitted he didn’t expect redemption to come as quickly as it did.

Seven days ago, the 24-year-old had let the Farmers Insurance Open title slip out of his clutches. He led by five at the start of the final round and was still up by three when he came to the 18th hole at Torrey Pines in pursuit of what seemed sure to be his first PGA TOUR win.

But Stanley watched forlornly that afternoon as his third shot at the par 5 was sucked off the green. A three-putt later, he had posted an 8 and was off to a playoff that Brandt Snedeker, who had been in the media center watching the disaster on TV, won on the second extra hole.

Stanley’s brave face but bitter tears that evening had said it all.

On the very next Sunday, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Spencer Levin was poised for a similar coronation. He led by six at the start of the final round and was seemingly doing everything right. Kyle Stanley trailed by eight, just as Snedeker had the previous week.

This time, though, in a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Stanley emerged as the winner — firing a brilliant 65 on a warm and welcoming afternoon at TPC Scottsdale to take the one-stroke victory.

“I think the biggest challenge was seeing if I could put last week behind me,” Stanley said simply. “I think I did.”

Levin, on the other hand, was cast in Stanley’s role as he shot a 75 that included a double bogey on the par-5 15th hole, the third-easiest on the course. After an adventure in the cactus and a 5-iron that fell short in the water, he surrendered sole possession of the lead and was never able to catch up.

As disappointed as the shell-shocked Levin was, he understood the magnitude of what Stanley accomplished in the span of the last 168 hours. And he’d like nothing better than to have the same opportunity this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“That’s pretty awesome from what happened last week to come back and win the very next week,” the disappointed but surprisingly composed Levin said. “That shows he’s a hell of a player obviously. But I guess it shows that you can recover from it. I think I will. I feel like I am getting better, like I keep saying. It was a weird feeling today. I’ve never had a lead like that.”

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/tournaments/r003/02/05/ross-sunday/index.

by Associated Press Series: PGA Tour
SAN DIEGO — Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open in a playoff not even he thought was possible.

Kyle Stanley led by seven shots early in the final round Sunday, and he still had a four-shot lead as he stood on the 18th tee at Torrey Pines. Just like that, he went from being anointed a rising star to a meltdown that ranks among the most shocking in golf.

Snedeker, in the group ahead of him, hit wedge to a foot for birdie and a 67, then drove up to the media tent for an interview as the runner-up. He arrived in time to watch Stanley spin a wedge into the water, then three-putt from 45 feet for a triple-bogey 8 and a 74.

Two playoff holes later, both were in shock.

Snedeker’s tee shot hopped over the green and would have gone into a canyon except that it bounced off a television tower. He chipped to about 5 feet and made the par. Stanley three-putted again from just outside 45 feet, his 5-foot par putt catching the right lip.

“It’s just crazy,” Snedeker said. “To get my mind around what happened the last 30 minutes is pretty hard to do right now. My heart is out to Kyle. I feel bad for him to have to go through this.”

Stanley, whose power, poise and polish was on display all week, was reduced to tears. His eyes were glassy and his lip quivered as he tried to answer questions, a sad ending to an otherwise spectacular week along the Pacific bluffs.

“It’s not a hard golf hole,” Stanley said. “I could probably play it a thousand times and never make an 8.”

But he did Sunday, a painful lesson for the 24-year-old out of Clemson.

It was the second straight time Snedeker won a PGA Tour event by rallying from five shots behind in the final round to win in a playoff. He did it at Hilton Head last April and beat Luke Donald.

This one was handed to him.

Stanley birdied his first two holes and led by six shots at the turn until he started dropping shots from the sand. Even so, he made three straight par putts, starting with a 12-footer on the 14th, to seemingly regain control.

The kid knows heartache. Last summer, he was two shots ahead at the John Deere Classic until he bogeyed the final hole from a bunker, and Steve Stricker closed with two straight birdies to win.

This loss, however, put him in the wrong kind of company.

It was reminiscent of Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie, who made triple bogey on the last hole of the 1999 British Open and lost in a playoff; of Robert Garrigus, who made triple bogey on the last hole of the St. Jude Classic in 2010 and lost in a playoff; and even of Frank Lickliter at Torrey Pines, who three-putted from 12 feet on the 17th hole in 2001 to make triple bogey in the third playoff hole in losing to Phil Mickelson.

“I know I’ll be back,” Stanley said, pausing to allow the words to come out of his mouth. “It’s tough to swallow right now.”

http://www.pga.com/news/pga-tour/brandt-snedeker-wins-farmers-insurance-in-playoff-after-kyle-stanley-triple-bogeysDEKER

Jan. 23, 2012 | updated 37 hours, 24 minutes ago
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
LA QUINTA, Calif. — Mark Wilson starts every round of golf he plays with two long tees, one short tee, a quarter, a penny and a divot repair tool in his hip pocket.

He’s not exactly superstitious. Wilson just likes the sense of order that ritual gives him as he embarks on an uncertain future over the next four or five hours and 18 holes.
“That’s one thing I can control,” Wilson explained. “A lot of things I can’t. I can’t control my opponents, bounces or the roll on the green.”

Nowhere was that more evident than during Sunday’s final round of the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation. His opponents were making birdies with abandon and Wilson was stuck in neutral, watching his three-stroke advantage quickly disappear.

But when the pressure intensified on the back nine of the Palmer Private Course at PGA West, Wilson regained control of his game as well as the tournament. He tapped in a 9-inch putt for his first birdie of the day at No. 11 and holed a bunker shot for another at the 12th, an unexpected development that “gave me the momentum to go in the right direction,” Wilson said.

He and Robert Garrigus then traded birdie putts at the 16th to separate themselves from the crowd before a missed 6-footer at the next gave Wilson the upper hand he would not relinquish. Not even with Garrigus staring down a 28-footer for eagle as darkness enveloped the the 18th hole. Not when his own successful 10-footer for birdie there would more than do the trick as it broke a inch to the right and curled into the hole.

“That’s what we play for,” a reflective Wilson said. “You want somebody to win it, not necessarily lose it. So it was neat to have (Robert) making birdies back and forth. And I don’t look at the leaderboards really, and I just happened to glance on 17 to see what was going on. …

“But I reminded myself, I’m in position. You have a lot of thoughts go through your head; am I going to come out and play well and win or am I going to come out and play flat and finish 10th or am I going to have a horrible day and finish close to the bottom? You just don’t know.

Updated standings
Mark Wilson moved to No. 2 with his victory but Johnson Wagner maintained his top spot. Complete standings
“I just tried to clear my head of that and said, This is what we play for, let’s enjoy the day. Win or lose, let’s try to be a good example out there.”

Wilson ended up with a hard-fought, two-stroke victory over Garrigus, John Mallinger and Johnson Wagner — the fifth of his PGA TOUR career. Two came in the first five events of the 2011 season and now he has another in the just third of this year. There’s a reason for that, and Wilson, who didn’t build on his early season momentum last year, has scheduled several longer breaks this season to make sure he is fresh.

“When I came out the last two years, I really just had a clear mind and really focusing on what I’m doing, not worrying about my standing in the world rankings or my standing in the money list or FedExCup or how I’m doing against or the players that week,” Wilson said. “I feel like I’m more into my zone.”

And he certain was on the back nine Sunday. But as much as Wilson persevered with the pressure on, patiently waiting for the birdies he knew would come, Garrigus did the same after an extremely difficult start to the week.

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/tournaments/r002/01/22/ross-sunday/index.html

By Doug Ferguson
Jan 9, 2012 8:03 PM ET

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Steve Stricker has a bad habit of losing big leads. He managed to slip back into his old habit of winning.

Despite losing most of his five-shot lead in only six holes, Stricker steadied himself in time to kick off the new PGA Tour season with a three-shot victory in the Tournament of Champions on Monday.

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Right when it looked as though Stricker was coming unglued, he made back-to-back birdies at the turn. That restored his lead to three shots, and no one got closer than two shots the rest of the way.

Stricker birdied his last hole for a 4-under 69 for his 12th career win, which moved him to No. 5 in the world ranking.

Sweeter than the winner’s lei draped around his neck on the 18th green at Kapalua were his two children, 13-year-old Bobbi Maria and 5-year-old Isabella, there to greet him with a hug.

Stricker held back tears – they usually flow freely after a win – perhaps a sign that he’s getting used to this business of winning. It was his ninth PGA Tour win since he turned 40, and his eighth title in his last 50 tournaments.

As usual, he didn’t make it easy on himself.

Stricker had a five-shot lead going into the Monday finish on Maui, and it was just about gone when he muffed a flop shot and took bogey on the sixth hole.

Martin Laird, Webb Simpson and Jonathan Byrd each got within one shot of Stricker on the front nine, but not for long. Stricker rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 eighth, pitched to tap-in range at the par-5 ninth and was on his way.

Laird closed with a 67, and his birdie on the last hole put him alone in second place. Byrd kept most of the pressure on Stricker along the back nine of the Plantation Course, but he bogeyed the 17th. He had a 68 and tied for third with Simpson, who had a 68.

Stricker could not have started the new season better – all four rounds in the 60s, and already able to book his room at Kapalua for next year.

“It was tough,” said Stricker, who finished at 23-under 269. “I never let up today. It’s always tough trying to win, and it’s even more tough when you have a lead like I did. I’m very proud of what I did today.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Already No. 1 in the world, Luke Donald left little doubt who was No. 1 on the PGA Tour.

Believing his only chance to capture the PGA Tour money title was to win at Disney, Donald ran off six straight birdies on the back nine Sunday and closed with an 8-under 64 to come from five shots off the lead and win the Children’s Miracle Network Classic.

“This is one of the most satisfying wins of my career,” Donald said.

Donald, who trailed Webb Simpson by $363,029 coming into the final tournament of the year, was two behind Simpson when they made the turn. Then came a performance that ranks among Donald’s best, even in his greatest season of golf.

He holed four straight birdie putts inside 8 feet, took the lead with an 18-foot birdie on the par-5 14th hole, then sealed his stunning rally with a 45-foot birdie on the 15th hole.

“Everything was on the line,” Donald said. “I’m thrilled and over the moon.”

It was his second PGA Tour win of the year. Donald also won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest adjusted scoring average. With no one else winning more than twice this year, Donald established himself as a heavy favorite to be PGA Tour player of the year.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/doug-ferguson/disney-round-4-wrapup/?hj=xfs