WGT Golf News

Congratulations to dmkhorns and Craiger85, winners of the August People v Pros Open! What’s in their bags?

dmkhorns:

• TaylorMade R9 TP Master 8.5° Driver
• Ping G10 Master 3 Fairway Wood 14°
• Ping G10 Master 3 Hybrid 21° (Graphite)
• Ping G10 Master Irons (Steel)
• Ping Tour W Master 54° Wedge
• Ping Tour W Master 60° Wedge
• TaylorMade Spider Putter
• WGT GI-D White Balls

Craiger85:

• TaylorMade R9 TP Master 8.5° Driver
• Ping Rapture V2 3 Fairway Wood
• Ping Rapture V2 3 Hybrid 21° (Graphite)
• WGT Tour Starter Zebra Irons (Steel)
• WGT Tour Starter Gold 54° Wedge
• WGT Tour Starter Gold 60° Wedge
• Ping iWi Anser Series Putter
• WGT GI-D White Balls

The venerable Arnold Palmer turned 80 today, and to celebrate his birthday, he and his closest friends will tee it up at Latrobe Country Club, the course his father helped build in the 1920s.

According to the club, "Arnold was born September 10, 1929 in Latrobe. His saga began when he was four-years old swinging a set of golf clubs that had been cut down by his father, Milfred (Deacon) Palmer. Before long, Arnold was playing well enough to beat the older caddies at the club. He began caddying himself when he was 11 and worked almost every job at the club over the years."

To commenorate his birthday, the Golf Channel will run more than eight hours of programming to honor Palmer, whose achievements include 62 wins on the PGA Tour. Programming will include Top 10 Arnold Palmer Moments, Golf’s Heart and Soul: Arnold Palmer, and 1964 and 1960 Masters highlights.

Happy birthday Arnie!

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Congrats to FedExCup First Tee Scholar Brent Edelman, who was presented a new golf bag in honor of his First Tee Scholarship by Ernie Els. Edelman, from Summerland, California, is one of two 2009 FedExCup First Tee Scholars and an incoming freshman at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The First Tee is a World Golf Foundation initiative dedicated to providing young people of all backgrounds an opportunity to develop, through golf and character education, life-enhancing values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship.

Photo: AP Images

...First, First, Second, Second, First, First, Second and Still Not Win The Fed Ex Cup

By Peter Kessler

Photo: AP Images

Tweak Time.

Greg Norman will likely choose two of the following players next week for his two captain's picks for the President's Cup: Rory Sabatini, Jeev Milka Singh or Shingo Katayama-still awake??

I vote for Katayama because he wears a cowboy hat he got at a birthday party for 10 year olds many years ago. He just refuses to part with it. It's a stunner. Go ahead. Look it up. Check it out. Google. Katayama. Nice hat, huh?

And that my friends is the major excitement of this year's President's Cup. Hurry, get in line, tickets are almost gone. Still awake?

Mark O'Meara is on my radio show today. How come he isn't in the World Golf Hall of Fame?  Set aside the notion that I think you should be 60 years old before you get to be voted in. Active players in their 30's and 40's going into halls of fame just doesn't feel right. Their careers are in mid-stream yet there they are being toasted as though they're full of white hair dyed purple. Why is Isao Aoki in?  What did he ever win.  Nothing of consequence.  So what's the deal?  How about Deane Beman?  He won the Blinder Robinson Classic. Not exactly a major. Or a minor. If Tommy Bolt is in, so is Mark. If Bob Charles is in then O'Meara is in twice. Hubert Green? Same thing.  And what about Chi Chi? I know all about the hat over the hole trick but that is not the stuff of which hall of famers are made. And what about Lanny? Lanny is in. Well then.....   So I vote for O'Meara in and I vote for some of these guys out.

Jack and Arnie have been on course rivals for FIFTY YEARS!!!!!!! So next spring they will together be honorary starters at the Masters. One shot on the first tee on Thursday morning at 8am. One shot. One shot. One shot?  Why one shot? Why not play a few holes? Like 1,2,17 and 18. Why not play nine holes from the members tees? We want to see them. They would love to play. Let them have reasonable second shots into the par 4's, wedges into the par 5's. Why rush them off the course? Where do they have to go? To Waffle House? Oh, I forgot. They are both members at Augusta National. Think they can get a table at that busy hour? I mean after all there will be a lot of people eating breakfast waiting to get a look at Arnie and Jack teeing it up at The Masters.

By Stephanie Wei

Tiger Woods and Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen chat at the Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am on Thursday morning.

Aside: I love Allen’s jump shot. No doubt one of the sweetest and smoothest in the NBA, at least IMHO.

[Photo via NBA Off-Season 2009]

By Peter Kessler

Photo: Dave Einsel/AP

That would be Adam Scott.

He would be the current big disappointment.

Liberty National cost $250 Million to build. $250 million. And not one player likes it. Not one.

That may be inexplicable but what may be splicable (my word) is like all courses, old and new, it will get better-it will be tweaked and and massaged and rejigged and turned into a course that the pros won't mutter about--particularly since it's not on the schedule going forward.

Heath Slocum and YE Yang. One great weekend or a sign of things to come?

Cabrera, Glover,Cink, Yang and Slocum. Not exactly golf's Mount Rushmore.

Goydos and Marino-window dressing again.

Someone actually wrote that Tiger was stuck on 14 majors after "blowing the PGA Championship." Last time I checked,he got beat by Yang.

The Fed Ex Playoffs may be a mathematical mystery but I do know that the first week identified the best players and one unknown, just like a great tournament is supposed to.

Tiger did not misread the last birdie try on the last green, he pulled it.

Tiger is still by miles and miles the best clutch putter of all time. We are just so spoiled we think he will make everything all of the time...Forever.

In 2009 Tiger has won twice as many tournaments as the next guy. Who is the next guy?

September is here, and you have until the 30th to enter the World Amateur Challenge for a chance to win a trip for two to Myrtle Beach to play in the 2010 PGATOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship. Other prizes include two playing spots in the event and a $500 gift card to the PGATOUR Superstore. Anyone can play, but only players in the US are eligible for the sweepstakes prize drawings. Please see rules for complete details.

Photo: www.worldamgolf.com