Creamer hangs on to win Farr by 2

SYLVANIA, Ohio (AP) — Just like the last two weeks, Paula Creamer didn’t play well in the final round of a tournament.

This time, she didn’t have to.

Creamer shot a 2-over 73 Sunday and did just enough to make a big lead stand, going wire-to-wire to win the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic by two strokes.

“I learned you have to stay in your own world,” Creamer said after capturing her seventh career win and third this year. “It doesn’t matter what other people do until you’re walking down the 18th fairway.”

Two weeks ago, while near the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Women’s Open, she sagged to a 78 to finish in a tie for sixth. Last week at the tour stop in Arkansas, she had a 74 to fall out of contention.

Given another chance, she always seemed to come up with a clutch shot when most needed.

Asked what she was thinking as she approached the final green to a huge ovation, she said, “It’s over!” Then she added, “You try to soak it up because you never know when the next one is going to be.”

Creamer, who won $195,000, had worse scores every day after breaking the tournament record with an 11-under 60 in the first round. She followed that with a 65 and a 70 to finish at 16-under 268, two shots better than Nicole Castrale who closed fast with a 64.

The 21-year-old Californian said it wasn’t easy.

“After you shoot 60, I swear, it’s the hardest thing. Anything over that and you feel like you’re shooting 85,” she said, laughing. “Everybody’s saying, congratulations, congratulations. But you’ve still got three days left.”

Creamer represents the tournament’s title sponsor, which features a pink panther in its advertising. Creamer, who felt she let Owens Corning down when she missed the cut at the Farr in 2007, is known for her pink clothing ensembles, not to mention using pink golf balls, pink grips on her clubs, a pink golf bag and a pink panther club-head cover.

While laying claim to that color, she didn’t put many red numbers on the leaderboard in the final round.

Ahead by four shots at the start, Creamer was fortunate to get away with a bogey on the first hole after chipping out of a bad lie with her tee shot. She had seven pars in a row until reaching the par-4 ninth, where her approach flew over the green. After getting a free drop so she wouldn’t hit the grandstand on her backswing, she hit a flop shot that stopped about 10 feet away. She pumped her right fist - just as she had on the long bogey putt at No. 1 - after rolling in the par-saving putt.

“That was huge,” she said. “That was a great up-and-down. That was probably the biggest moment of the day.”

She saw her lead drop to a shot when rookie Shanshan Feng - the first exempt player from China to play on the LPGA Tour - pushed her with five birdies through her first 11 holes.

Feng said she wasn’t paying any attention to Creamer.

“Just before the tournament, my dad, he’s in China now, he called me and he told me to keep calm and just play my ball,” she said. “(He said) ‘What the others do, it doesn’t matter.’ So I didn’t let it bother me at all.”

Feng, however, quickly fell back with three straight bogeys down the stretch, although she had her best finish of the year. She said she might even buy her father a new car with a portion of the $66,000 she won for finishing fourth.

South Korea’s Eun-Hee Ji, second to Creamer after each of the first three rounds, shot a 72 and was a shot back of Castrale at 271. Feng had a 69 for 272, followed by Karrie Webb who shot a 70 and was at 273.

Castrale was 1 under on the windy day through 10 holes but had a 6-under 31 on the back nine.

“When I got to 13 and I had two par-5s left, my goal was to try to birdie both and post a number and let her (Creamer) see it and basically see what happens,” said Castrale, who has had three top 10s in her last six tournaments.

She almost holed her third shot for eagle on the 17th before settling for birdie. But she never got closer than two shots.

Creamer played the last six holes in even-par, good enough to hold off all the threats. She had 21 birdies and three bogeys the first 54 holes - and one birdie and the same number of bogeys in the final round.

When the heat was on, she remembered to forget about missing that Farr cut a year ago, or her recent final-round failures.

“It was a struggle,” she said. “I learned a lot about perseverance and staying in the moment and forgetting what happened in the past.”

Then she packed up her stuff and headed for a week of vacation, putting a pink bow on any lingering doubts.

Michelle Wie qualifies for U.S. Open

OCKVILLE, MD (AP) — Despite playing 36 holes on a humid day with temperatures nearly reaching triple digits, Michelle Wie was still able to flash a big smile as she sat down with the media.

Qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open will do that.

Playing on two different courses, Wie carded rounds of 70 and 67 and her 137 total was the second best score on the day and more than enough to qualify her for the 2008 Open, to be played later this month at the Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn.

“I think I did pretty well. It feels good to be playing good again,” said Wie, who has struggled with her game for much of the last year. “There were a lot of shots that I left out there today with the putting and a couple of errant tee shots in the middle, but other than that I’m pretty pleased with my round and I’m really happy to be playing at the U.S. Open.”

A sore wrist hurt in March and studies at Stanford University have limited her to just two tournaments on the LPGA Tour this year.

Wie’s first 18, played at Woodmont Country Club, was an up and down one with five birdies and four bogeys. After starting out with birdies on her second and third holes, some wayward drives left her at 2-over with five holes to play, but she birdied three of the last four holes.

“I felt like in the middle of the round, my round could have gone anywhere,” said Wie. It could have gone to the bad direction, but fortunately I pulled it back together and made a couple of good shots, good putts, and I felt like I saved a lot of really great pars.”

The venue shifted a few miles away to Manor Country Club, but Wie continued to show improvement with her irons that helped lead to another strong close.

Finishing on the front nine, Wie pushed her tee shot on number seven into the trees and after chipping back into the fairway, she smoked an iron from 160 yards to within five feet, which she tapped in for par. That was followed up by a strong iron shot off the tee on a 157 yard Par-3 which she left 20 inches from the cup for a birdie. For her final act, Wie smacked an approach shot on a par-5 to within five feet for another birdie as she snagged one of the 35 spots open to the 121 players at sectional.

Wie, who was one shot behind Kelli Kuehne’s 136, is regaining her confidence. She finished in sixth place at the Ladies German Open last week.

“When you are struggling week after week, it takes a toll on your confidence,” said Wie. “Nobody really gave up on me. My managers, David (Leadbetter, her coach), my parents, my trainer, everyone, they never gave up on me. They are always telling me you are going to get through it and you are going to get better.”

Wie does not anticipate going to the U.S. Open site prior to the tournament and will return to Florida where she and Leadbetter have been working hard on her game, spending 9-12 hours a day practicing. Asked if she took time to watch last week’s LPGA event, Wie said the bit of television she watched was spent watching a different sporting event.

“Actually I was kind of busy watching the NBA playoffs,” said Wie. “I’m a big fan of Kevin Garnett.”

Golfers must have: The Uroclub

I found this on the web at afrojacks.com.
If you run out of Oops I Crapped My Pants, the UroClub will let you piss and putt without leaving the green. Order now and get a privacy shield (i’m dead serious). And best yet, it holds up to over a half liter….so piss away! And don’t be shy to share with your friends. Just make sure all herpes are dormant.

Els hopes to end 0-12 drought at BMW

VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) — Ernie Els is hoping to add a win at the BMW Championship to his resume.

Els has won a record seven World Match Play titles at Wentworth, but never claimed the BMW PGA Championship over the same course in 12 attempts.

The third-ranked South African is turning to the small white sticks to help correct an alignment problem that crept into his game after illness in March.

“I got sick and couldn’t practice,” Els said Wednesday. “I got into really bad habits. My ball positioning went out, my alignment went out. My swing got really loose and very long.”

Around that time Els switched coaches from longtime mentor David Leadbetter to Butch Harmon.

“I got technically out of whack,” Els said. “Now it’s just two little white sticks that we put on the ground just to check my body alignment and my target ball alignment. And I’ve got a little thing you strap onto your right arm to shorten the backswing a little bit. So that’s a couple of gadgets I’ve got.”

Els has never figured out why his PGA record is so poor compared to his Match Play success.

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Els said. “You have to play four rounds of strokeplay instead of match play.”

Perhaps it is the greens, which don’t seem to handle the heavy PGA traffic.

“At the Match Play there is only a 16-man field and by the end only two guys, so the greens are very, very good,” Els said. “Here this week we have 156 guys trampling all over the greens, so they will get a little bumpy.”

The European Tour’s flagship event again has a strong field including Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey and Luke Donald. British Open champion Padraig Harrington is skipping the event to prepare for next month’s U.S. Open.

Justin Rose will try to go one better than last year when he lost in a playoff to Anders Hansen.

Rose last week visited Royal Birkdale where, as a 17-year-old competitor at the British Open in 1998, he holed a chip shot at the final hole to finish fourth.

“I wanted to go back to relive that, and I learned a lot for when the Open returns there this July,” Rose said.

Colin Montgomerie — who won three straight from 1998 — will try to impress Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo, who has expressed faith that the 90th-ranked Scot could break out of a slump.

Also in the field is 1994 champion Jose Maria Olazabal, who is returning from a recent bout of rheumatism that cost him six months of action.

“There has been some progress, but I still lack stamina,” the two-time Masters champion said.

Were back!

Just after a short break, we are back! You’ll get the latest, hotest golf news from this site.

Vote: Hotests LPGA player (by golf.com)

On golf.com you can now vote for the hotest LPGA player. All site visitors can post their vote for their hotest player:

Here’s mine:

The Masters 2008 prize money

Trevor Immelman -8 (68-68-69-75=280) +3(75) $1,350,000

Tiger Woods -5 (72-71-68-72=283) E(72) $810,000

Stewart Cink -4 (72-69-71-72=284) E(72) $435,000

Brandt Snedeker -4 (69-68-70-77=284) +5(77) $435,000

Steve Flesch -2 (72-67-69-78=286) +6(7 $273,750

Phil Mickelson -2 (71-68-75-72=286) E(72) $273,750

Harrington -2 (74-71-69-72=286) E(72) $273,750

The Masters - Immelman hangs on for Masters win

Trevor Immelman survived a double-bogey at the 16th hole to become the first South African to win the Masters in 30 years with a three-shot victory on Sunday.

Maintaining his composure in swirling winds at Augusta National, the dapper 28-year-old golfer got up and down from a greenside bunker to par 17 before parring the last to seal his first major title.

Two ahead of the chasing pack overnight, Immelman followed in the footsteps of his childhood hero Gary Player to secure the prized green jacket with a three-over-par 75.

He also became the fifth wire-to-wire champion at the Masters, and the first since American Raymond Floyd in 1976, with an eight-under total of 280.

“It was just so tough and I was trying to be tough,” a beaming Immelman said after being presented with his green jacket by last year’s champion, American Zach Johnson.

“That’s all I kept saying to myself, just hang in there and play one shot at a time. There’s a disaster around every corner, as I showed on 16. I just tried to hang in there and I can’t believe I did it.”

Immelman said he had gained a major boost from Player after Saturday’s third round when the 72-year-old told him on the telephone he was confident the young South African would win.

“It meant an awful lot,” he added. “I played it to my whole family on speaker phone. Mr Player has been at me the whole week, since Tuesday when we played together, telling me to believe in myself, telling me I’m good enough to do it.”

World number one Tiger Woods, four-times champion at Augusta and overwhelming favourite at the start of the week, had to settle for second place after closing with a 72.

Six strokes off the pace going into the final round, Woods struggled to make headway in his bid for a 14th major title.

He offset three birdies with three bogeys to finish at five-under 283, dashing his bid for a unique calendar grand slam of the four professional majors.

“I didn’t putt well all week,” Woods said. “Some weeks are like that. You have bad weeks and you have good weeks, and certainly this week was not one of my best.”

Immelman, who four months ago had emergency surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumour on his diaphragm, was briefly caught by American playing partner Brandt Snedeker after two holes.

Both players bogeyed the par-four first after failing to reach the green in two before the mop-haired Snedeker rolled in a 40-footer to eagle the par-five second.

Immelman, aiming to become the first South African to win the Masters since Player in 1978, parred the hole after failing to get up and down from the right greenside bunker for birdie.

Although Immelman birdied the par-four fifth after hitting a superb approach to four feet, he squandered an opportunity to forge five ahead when he narrowly missed a three-foot birdie putt at the seventh.

The South African dropped another shot at the par-five eighth where he was bunkered off the tee before three-putting from long range, but did well to save par at the ninth with an up-and-down from the left greenside bunker.

Out in one-over-par 37, he offset a bogey at the treacherous 12th with his birdie at the 13th to stay well ahead of his challengers.

Although he pulled his tee shot into the pond guarding the left of the 16th green on his way to a double-bogey six, he held his nerve over the closing stretch to win the biggest title of his career.

Snedeker and fellow American Stewart Cink finished tied third, a shot behind Woods, with world number two Phil Mickelson, Open champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland and American Steve Flesch a further two strokes adrift.

Masters Sunday halfway: scores

Pos	Name		Status	Hole	To Par	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1		T. Immelman	In progress	6	-11	68	68	69	-	205
2		B. Snedeker	In progress	5	-9	69	68	70	-	207
3		S. Flesch	In progress	6	-8	72	67	69	-	208
4		T. Woods	In progress	7	-5	72	71	68	-	211
-		S. Cink	In progress	7	-5	72	69	71	-	212
6		P. Casey	In progress	6	-4	71	69	69	-	209
-		P. Harrington	In progress	8	-4	74	71	69	-	214
8		P. Mickelson	In progress	11	-2	71	68	75	-	214
-		A. Romero	In progress	8	-2	72	72	70	-	214
10		Z. Johnson	In progress	8	-1	70	76	68	-	214
-		M. Jimenez	Finished	18	-1	77	70	72	68	287
-		B. Weekley	In progress	8	-1	72	74	68	-	214
13		S. Appleby	In progress	17	Par	76	70	72	-	218
-		L. Westwood	In progress	12	Par	69	73	73	-	215
-		R. Karlsson	In progress	9	Par	70	73	71	-	214
-		N. Watney	In progress	14	Par	75	70	72	-	217
17		S. O’Hair	In progress	9	+1	72	71	71	-	214
-		R. Goosen	In progress	10	+1	71	71	72	-	214
-		M. Weir	In progress	14	+1	73	68	75	-	216
-		V. Singh	In progress	11	+1	72	71	72	-	215

The Masters: after round three

Golf - The Masters - Rankings - 2008 - Men - Round 3

Pos	Player	Result
1	Tiger Woods (USA - 32)	68
1	Zach Johnson (USA - 32)	68
1	Boo Weekley (USA - 34)	68
4	Steve Flesch (USA - 40)	69
4	Padraig Harrington (IRL - 36)	69
4	Trevor Immelman (RSA - 2	69
4	Paul Casey (ENG - 30)	69
8	Adam Scott (AUS - 27)	70
8	Andrés Romero (ARG - 26)	70
8	Brandt Snedeker (USA - 27)	70
11	Robert Karlsson (SWE - 3	71
11	Sean O’Hair (USA - 25)	71
11	Stewart Cink (USA - 34)	71
14	Retief Goosen (RSA - 39)	72
14	Justin Leonard (USA - 35)	72
14	Vijay Singh (FIJ - 45)	72
14	Miguel Ángel Jiménez (ESP - 44)	72
14	David Toms (USA - 41)	72
14	Brian Bateman (USA - 35)	72
14	Stuart Appleby (AUS - 36)	72
14	Robert Allenby (AUS - 36)	72
14	Henrik Stenson (SWE - 32)	72
14	Nick Watney (USA - 26)	72
14	Jeev Milkha Singh (IND - 36)	72
25	Ángel Cabrera (ARG - 3	73
25	Bubba Watson (USA - 29)	73
25	Justin Rose (ENG - 27)	73
25	Lee Westwood (ENG - 34)	73
25	Jim Furyk (USA - 37)	73
25	J.B. Holmes (USA - 25)	73
25	Richard Sterne (RSA - 26)	73
32	Nick Dougherty (ENG - 25)	74
32	Arron Oberholser (USA - 33)	74
32	Johnson Wagner (USA - 2	74
35	Mike Weir (CAN - 37)	75
35	Ian Poulter (ENG - 32)	75
35	Todd Hamilton (USA - 42)	75
35	Phil Mickelson (USA - 37)	75
39	Geoff Ogilvy (AUS - 30)	76
39	Ian Woosnam (WAL - 50)	76
39	Niclas Fasth (SWE - 35)	76
42	Stephen Ames (CAN - 43)	77
42	Heath Slocum (USA - 34)	77
44	Sandy Lyle (SCO - 50)	78
44	K.J. Choi (KOR - 37)	78