WGT Golf News

Last weekend during the AT&T National at Congressional, we hosted the WGT Congressional Championship. Open to Pro-Legend tier players, it was an unlimited stroke play tournament that pulled in some great competition – some winners decided by only single strokes.

Full leaderboard

The top three players in each tier won an Amazon gift card as a prize. Congratulations to all of our winners!

Thank you to everyone who played, and make sure to join the rest of our special tournaments as part of our Summer Tournament Series for more chances to win great prizes.

Winners listed by tier...

Pro Tier

1. phanbrandon
2. Flyersorange
3. BetsyBraddock

Tour Pro Tier

1. Dathoang95
2. iamawgtmaster
3. ap1forthewin

Master Tier

1. haiau00
2. MarcelDionne
3. sandsman

Tour Master Tier

1. K1ngM1chael
2. savethetatas
3. IePkrwd

Legend Tier

1. BolloxInBruges
2. Win1Soon
3. Buckthebuck

As last year's Virtual U.S. Open Champion, WGT golfer mrenn29 got to enjoy his Grand Prize trip a few weeks ago up to San Francisco to experience the 2012 U.S. Open Championship at The Olympic Club. His week included a round of golf with some WGT employees, a happy hour to meet a few more, and then attending the U.S. Open as a special guest of the USGA – to see all the professional action first-hand.

After returning home and getting some time to reflect on this awesome trip, mrenn29 had this to say...

First off, let me say thanks to WGT and the USGA for the opportunity to attend the U.S. Open at Olympic club this year. Definitely was a memory that will last a lifetime. The trip started off with a very nice gesture on WGT's part by taking us out for a round of golf at Claremont Country Club. Even though I didn't really play all that well (got a few meter glitches lol) it was a great time playing with a few of the guys at WGT on a very nice, private country club. Pete, Rich, thanks again, you guys went above and beyond for me and I thank you! After the round of golf we all went to an Irish Pub in San Francisco for some happy hour fun. Getting to meet the folks behind the scenes of WGT and discuss the game over a few beers was priceless. Everyone at WGT was very welcoming and I had a great time.

On to the Golf. First day we got to the course, we went straight to the grandstand and sat on hole 9. The amazing part of seeing the course live is that after playing WGT, you can really relate to how the course plays. Being from California, I know San Francisco can get pretty cold, however we were very fortunate to have perfect weather throughout the tourney until Sunday at about 2pm. After we watched some action on 9, we went up to the USGA hospitality tent. This was awesome due to the fact they had food and drinks with about 20 tv's covering the tournament while you were there. So I grabbed some food and headed outside the tent where there was a nice patio looking out to the practice facility. So it was great to be able to watch the pro's practice and have lunch without the crowd. Day 2 I wanted to go over to one of the more action packed holes so I decided to sit at 17. Sure enough Ernie Els goes right of the green about 20 yrds. He took his time on the chip up onto the green and drained the chip for eagle and the crowd including myself went crazy! After hole 17 we did a little walking around to various holes and see how the whole course.

I really couldn't take many photos because technically you were not supposed to have a phone or camera at all inside. Well, I snuck my phone in to take a couple photos of the course and where I was seated. The final day I wanted to watch everyone play the long par 3 #3 which played 247 on the final day. I watched 23 groups come though and only 3 players made a birdie. It was also hard to follow the ball due to the fog that had rolled in. Adam Scott hit the closest shot out of all the players there. Tiger ended up making a double bogey. The course seemed to play fair and rewarding to the right shots. I have included a picture of hole 18 from where I was seated. Overall this was a trip to remember!

Thanks again WGT and the USGA for putting this all together, the hospitality was outstanding!!

Hole 18 at The Olympic Club. Photo by: mrenn29

mrenn29 making an eagle putt at Claremont Hole 18 (Editor's Note: he shot an 81 at a very tough course...he's very modest!)

By Leonard Shapiro for GlobalGolfPost

What if they held a PGA Tour event and nobody showed up to watch?

That’s about what happened Saturday at the AT&T National at Congressional, when high winds Friday night blew down more than 40 trees and left a trail of broken limbs and piles of debris all over the course. Tournament officials, concerned about safety issues, decided to keep spectators and most volunteers away from the course on a day when Tiger Woods quietly made his move toward the top of the leaderboard, accompanied by the sound of silence most of the way around.

Woods finished off that ascent on Sunday, when the fans were back in massive numbers, engaging in a thrilling duel down the back nine against first-round leader Bo Van Pelt. When Van Pelt bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes, Woods pounced on those mistakes and eventually claimed a two-shot victory when he made par on his final two holes.

“I remember there was a time when people were saying I could never win again,” Woods said Sunday evening. “That was six months ago. Here we are.... A lot of media people didn’t think I could win again. I could see the pieces coming together. It’s just a matter of time. Just stay the course. Give me a little bit of time, and I feel like this is what I can do.”

Van Pelt’s 50-foot birdie chip to tie at the final hole missed the cup by inches and he also missed the six-foot comebacker for one last bogey. He finished with a round of 71 and 6-under 278 that left him in solo second, a shot ahead of third place finisher Adam Scott (67-279).

A shot off the lead after 54 holes, Woods had a final-round 69 and 72-hole total of 8-under 276 to become the PGA Tour’s only three-time winner this season. He also won his own invitational event for the second time (he prevailed here in 2009), adding that to the 2012 trophies from the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando and Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

More significantly, this was Woods’ 74th Tour triumph, one more than Nicklaus, his childhood idol who won his 73rd and last event at the 1986 Masters at age 46. Only Sam Snead, with 82 career wins, has more victories than Woods, now 36.

Woods didn’t budge in the world rankings, where he remained No. 4. Van Pelt disagreed.

“No offense to those other guys, but I think he’s the only guy to win three tournaments on Tour this year,” he said. “On three different golf courses and he was leading the U.S. Open after two days. So I’d say he’s playing the best golf in the world right now.”