Walking Wounded Withdraw from The Players Championship
I guess thumb injuries are now the new thing in professional golf. Back near the end of March, LPGA star Paula Creamer decided to go under the knife to repair stretched ligaments in her left thumb, causing her to miss 2-3 months of action on the women’s tour. This week we get the word once again that a nagging thumb injury has sidelined yet another star in golf – Anthony Kim. According to Kim, ligament damage in his left thumb has progressively gotten worse over the past several weeks, and could be severe enough to require surgery. As a result he’s had to withdraw from this week’s upcoming Players Championship and will be seeing a specialist later on this week to talk about his options for treatment. Not that there’s ever really a good time during the golf season to undergo surgery of any sort, but this couldn’t have come at a worse time for Kim, as his game appeared to be peaking at the perfect time. Anthony won the Shell Houston Open back in April, then played splendidly at Augusta for a 3rd-place finish in the Masters, and bagged another top-10 last week at the Quail Hollow Championship, finishing tied for 7th. If surgery is required, he could expect to be out of action for at least 2-3 months.
Steve Stricker was hoping that a few weeks off would be enough to
help rehab a chest injury, but apparently that didn’t turn out to be the case. Stricker had to withdraw from the Zurich Classic tournament in New Orleans two weeks ago, and was hoping to be ready to return at The Players Championship this week. But the inflammation hasn’t subsided enough to for him to feel totally comfortable, and on Monday he announced that he wouldn’t be making the trip to Sawgrass. He’s eyeing a return near the end of the month, most likely to defend his title at the Colonial.
Miyazato Claims 3rd Win of the Season at Ochoa’s Farewell Tournament
Ai Miyazato’s outstanding season of golf continued last week as she captured her third win of the season at the Tres Marias Championship in Mexico. But her victory was bittersweet, as afterward she tearfully commented about the LPGA losing one of the greatest competitors they’ve had in some time, as well as one of tour’s warmest personalities – Lorena Ochoa. “I want to say thanks to Lorena. I really appreciate what she did for the LPGA and what she did for her country here in Mexico. She is one of my best friends. I’m going to miss her.”
Miyazato shot a 6-under par round of 67 on Sunday to get to 19-under par, one shot better than her next closest competitor Stacy Lewis, who finished at 18-under par.
Michelle Wie had a tough go of things on Saturday, shooting even par on the par-73 layout. She rebounded on Sunday with a 5-under par round of 68, finishing 17-under for the event and solo third.
It was obviously an emotional week for Lorena Ochoa, who two 
weeks earlier caught the golf world by surprise when she announced that she would be retiring from golf and this would be her last official tournament. Ochoa finished 6th in her final event, shooting 12-under par. The LPGA Tour has lost a wonderful competitor, and an even greater ambassador for women’s golf. We wish her continued joy and success outside of the ropes, as she begins the next chapter of her life.
Mickelson Looks to Overtake Woods for Top Spot in World Rankings
Mickelson has never been ranked as the world’s top player, but that could very well change if he has his way this week at the Player’s Championship.
Mickelson’s second-place finish last week at Quail Hollow put him within reach in this week’s event at Sawgrass, a course that hasn’t seemed to suit Tiger’s game all that much since winning here back in 2001. But Woods was at TPC Sawgrass on Monday getting in a practice round, hoping to find something after his dismal showing at Quail Hollow last week that led to him missing the cut. You’d best believe that Woods isn’t going to lay down and allow Lefty – of all people – to dethrone him without a fight, despite how miserable his last tournament might’ve been.
But if Phil were to win this week and Tiger finishes outside of the top 5, Tiger’s reign will officially be over. Tiger better have his game ready. Something tells me that Phil will come prepared to win.
One in Four PGA Tour Pros Believe Tiger Juiced
Make what you will of the poll, but the minute that Woods’ personal physician (who helped treat his knee surgery rehab) was arrested for trafficking illegal steroids across the Canadian border – that relationship warranted a little more looking into than just assuming that Woods was being honest and wouldn’t lie about something of that nature. Excuse me, we are talking about the same guy that told a few whoppers to his wife, and admitted that he was living a lie? ARTICLE
Call him Mr. 58? Not so Fast.
Nothing against Ryo Ishikawa. I think the kid’s all that and a bag of 
chips to boot. His time is coming, and everyone on the PGA Tour had better be taking note. But let’s put his final round score of 58 last weekend (that had everyone climaxing all over themselves) into perspective. (1)This was on the Japan Tour. No offense to Japan, or Japanese professional golfers, but this was not the European Tour, the Nationwide Tour, or the PGA Tour. (2)It was a par 70 layout. I think that breaking 60 on a layout of par-71 or par-72, however slight that par-value of one or two strokes difference might seem, qualifies the accomplishment to a more significant degree. ESPECIALLY when you consider my third and final point: (3)How long was the course layout at Nagoya Golf Club in Japan where he did this? Answer: 6,545 yards. Driver, wedge, one putt. Driver, wedge, one putt. Driver, wedge, one putt. You get the gist. Come on… if we’re not going to at least put some type of condition on the par value, shouldn’t we at the very least consider the length of the golf course? Not that it needed to be an 8000-yd monster, but should we really be dishing out all of this praise to a young, long-hitting kid who ripped a tour-standard pitch-n-putt to shreds?
Sorry, no can do. Not that it wasn’t a great round of golf, mind you. Just that when I compare it to Rory McIlroy’s 10-under par 62 at the 7,442-yard Quail Hollow Championship on Sunday, against the top players in the world…. well, I’d just as soon label McIlroy as Mr. 62.
Tags: Ai Miyazato, Anthony Kim, Japan Tour, Lorena Ochoa, LPGA Tour, Michelle Wie, Performance Enhancing Drugs, PGA Tour, Phil Mickelson, Players Championship, Ryo Ishikawa, Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods
May 5, 2010 at 1:42 am |
Amazing post, looking forward to your next ones! Step by Step Golf Swing information.
May 29, 2010 at 8:57 pm |
I wonder who’s going to be Tiger’s next coach? Do you think he’s going to pick a top coach or possibly a less famous one? It will be interesting to see how this works out. But you would figure at this point in his career, does he still really need an instructor? I wonder if Mike Bender would be interested in being his coach?
May 30, 2010 at 3:00 am |
Good question.
If I had to wager a guess, I think it will be a lesser-known type. Then again, some of the rumors circulating a few weeks ago hinted that Tiger had actually talked with Butch Harmon recently, trying to get some sort of feedback. But again, those were unconfirmed reports. Who knows if he really did or not.
I don’t think he’ll go it alone (without an instructor). If he’s going to get his swing back to the level to where he can once again win with his C game, he’s gotta have someone to help get him back to square one.
Tiger will not continue hacking it up forever…. but I think he needs some help with his swing, at least right now anyway.