News: TOUR Notes
May 4 2012
6:45 pm
Kim to see doctor next week
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
Anthony Kim, who earlier this week withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship with an injury to his right wrist, will also miss next week’s PLAYERS Championship.
No timeline is set for Kim’s return, but he will see a doctor early next week.
Kim has suffered from a myriad of injuries in recent months, including ones to his elbow and left thumb. He underwent surgery for the latter two years ago and missed three months of the season, costing him a chance to earn a spot on the Ryder Cup team, and has struggled since.
With just over $33,000 in earnings in nine starts, and his two-year exemption for winning the 2010 Shell Houston Open up after this year, Kim is in danger of losing his PGA TOUR card. He could, however, apply for a medical exemption for next year.
“I’ve tried to play through the injuries, but I know from experience that it will only make matters worse," Kim said in a statement Friday. "I’m going to get it looked at and do what I need to do to get back to full health."
Kim has withdrawn from each of his last three starts, including at the Shell Houston, where he shot an opening-round 79, and the Valero Texas Open the week before after striking a rock while trying to hit out of a bush. He’s also missed the cut four times this year and was disqualified for an incorrect scorecard another time. His best finish this season was a tie for 42nd at The Honda Classic.
9:55 am
Kim withdraws with nagging injuries
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Anthony Kim, who won his first PGA TOUR event at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2008, has withdrawn from this year’s renewal with a nagging wrist injury.
Kim who shot 74 in the first round and did not tee off in the second, has been experiencing pain in his right wrist and elbow, as well as his left thumb, which required surgery two years ago this week.
Kim, who said he was grateful for the support of the tournament and the fans, plans to assess the situation before deciding whether he will be able to compete in THE PLAYERS Championship next week. UPDATE: The final field has been released and Kim is not competing in THE PLAYERS.
“I couldn’t be more disappointed to have to withdraw from this event,” Kim said in a statement. “… I’ve tried to play through the injuries but I know from experience that it will only make matters worse. I’m going to get it looked at and do what I need to do to get back to full health.”
News: TOUR Notes
March 26 2012
1:02 pm
Matchups Game set for Shell Houston
The pairings have been unveiled for this week’s PGA TOUR Matchups Game on Facebook. You can check out the Matchups for the Shell Houston Open below, or on the PGA TOUR’s Facebook page.
Participants have until 6 a.m. ET Thursday to make their picks. Log on to the PGA TOUR Facebook page and click the Matchups link to make your picks for this week, or to sign up.
GO TO FACEBOOK PAGE TO PLAY MATCHUPS GAME
| Phil Mickelson vs. Fred Couples | Phil defends his title while Fred won his last TOUR event here |
| Johnson Wagner vs. Kyle Stanley | It’s a battle of FedExCup leaders current and former |
| Graeme McDowell vs. Lee Westwood | These Europeans bring Texas-sized game to the Lone Star State |
| Ernie Els vs. Anthony Kim | The Big Easy takes on the 2010 champion at Redstone |
| Rickie Fowler vs. Bud Cauley | 2010 Rookie of the Year vs. an early favorite for the 2012 award |
News: The Honda Classic
February 28 2012
11:35 am
Tee times released for Honda Classic
The tee times for the first round of this week’s The Honda Classic have been released. CLICK HERE for the tee times. Use the space below to comment about the pairings at PGA National.
Here’s a look at some of the notable groups in the first two rounds:
Jim Furyk/Y.E. Yang/Henrik Stenson
Yang has owned PGA National in recent years, with a win and a second-place finish.
Kyle Stanley/Keegan Bradley/Rory McIlroy
Three of the best players in the world under the age of 30, and all three bomb the ball.
Mark Wilson/Rory Sabbatini/Camilo Villegas
These three players won at PGA National in 2007, 2011 and 2010, respectively. Villegas and Wilson squared off in a four-man playoff (with Boo Weekley and Jose Conceres) on a steamy Monday in 2007, which Wilson won.
Lee Westwood/Ian Poulter/Tiger Woods
No introduction needed for this trio. Tiger makes his first start at PGA National. This is the third consecutive year Westwood has teed if up here. Tied for ninth in 2010.
John Huh/Charl Schwartzel/Ernie Els
The PGA TOUR’s newest winner (Huh) immediately graduates to an A-list tee time with a pair of major champions.
Anthony Kim/Mike Weir/Mark Calcavecchia
Can Kim and Weir get their games turned around at the start of the Florida Swing? And don’t count out Calcavecchia, who has lived in Palm Beach for many years. He tied for fourth here in 2008.
Now, it’s your turn: Which groups are you most interested in following this week?
News: World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play
January 31 2012
2:00 pm
Big names on outside for Match Play
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
There are only two weeks left for players outside the top 64 in the Official World Golf Ranking to qualify for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship Feb 22-26 in Marana, Ariz. In other words, Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington, among others, have some work to do.
Singh and Harrington are 69th and 90th, respectively, and in need of strong performances in one or more likely both of the next two weeks. Singh is in the field for this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, while Harrington has the week off.
Last year, Singh also failed to qualify.
Other notables on the outside looking in include Sean O’Hair (68th), Sony Open in Hawaii winner Johnson Wagner (70th) and last year’s Wells Fargo Championship winner Lucas Glover, who is 77th in the world and has yet to play this year after withdrawing from the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions with a knee injury.
The player currently on the bubble at No. 64 is the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten. However with Phil Mickelson having already said that he plans to take that week off, the field would then extend to the 65th player in the world — currently Rory Sabbatini.
Also among those outside the top 64: Kyle Stanley. The hard-luck loser of the Farmers Insurance Open is 87th in the world. Had he won at Torrey Pines, he would have moved up to 64th.
Others in more dire circumstances include Branden Grace, a two-time winner on the European Tour this year who has only climbed to 93rd; Camilo Villegas (99th); Anthony Kim (102nd); and Stewart Cink (138th).
Only once in Cink’s career has he failed to qualify for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Champisonhip, a tournament he’s been dominant in with six trips to at least the quarterfinals. On four of those occasions Cink reached at least the semifinals, including from 2008 to 2010 when he finished second, third and tied for fifth.
Round 1: Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation
January 19 2012
4:47 pm
Kim battles to get back in red numbers
LA QUINTA, Calif. — Anthony Kim told the media on Wednesday that he wanted to relax and have more fun on the golf course this year.
Kim, who went to high school in La Quinta, is coming off his worst year in terms of earnings and top-10s. But the three-time TOUR champ ended 2011 by finishing second once and third twice overseas and said he hopes to build on that this year.
"I realized that if I just let it go, my natural ability will take over and I’ll be able to get the ball in the hole," Kim said. "That’s what I’m good at. I need to just let it go, be free, and that’s how I play my best golf."
Looks like Kim struggled in that quest a little on his first nine holes Thursday, starting on the back nine of the Nicklaus Course and opening with two bogeys. He got those shots back with birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 but closed with two more bogeys to turn in 2 over.
The front nine, though, has been a bit more fun. Kim just made his second eagle at the eighth hole and is 2 under for the tournament. He tied for third the last time he played in the Humana Challenge in 2008.
Round 3: The Greenbrier Classic
July 31 2011
3:00 pm
Kim still on top — for now
We’re six holes into Anthony Kim’s final round and he’s even par and still leads by two, though Brendon de Jonge has bounced back from his third-round 72 and is now within just two after playing his first dozen holes in 3 under. The problem for de Jonge, however, is that he might run out of holes before he can catch Kim.
Bill Haas, Gary Woodland and Webb Simpson are all two off the pace as well. Though Haas is the only one of those three under par on his round — 1 under through eight holes — Simpson has done a nice job recovering from a rocky start.
Simpson got off to a shaky start with a double bogey on the opening hole, where he pulled his tee shot way left before struggling around the green. He bounced back with a birdie on the next hole but gave right back on No. 4, where after hitting it into trouble left off the tee he had to pitch back to the fairway. But then Simpson bounced back with birdies on Nos. 5 and 6.
One other item of note: The third-rounder leader has held on for the win 18 of 30 times this year, most recently Chris Kirk at the Viking Classic a few weeks ago. That’s good news for Kim of course.
2:57 pm
De Jonge gets back in race
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. — Brendon de Jonge has proven quite resilient this week.
He held a share of the lead starting the third round but had a horrible opening nine Saturday at The Old White TPC. After rolling in a 12-footer for birdie on the second hole, de Jonge bogeyed No. 3, doubled the fifth and dropped two more shots before turning in 38.
The big man from Zimbabwe did manage to right the ship on the back nine, though, with a couple of birdies to finish 54 holes at 5 under for the tournament. He was five strokes behind Anthony Kim, as a result.
"I couldn’t get the wind right," said de Jonge, who finished third at The Greenbrier last year. "I hit a couple of bad shots in the wrong time and got a couple bad breaks.
"I did (hang in there). It’s nice. It gives me a bit of an outside shot on (Sunday)."
Indeed it has. Granted, De Jonge, who went to school at Virginia Tech and has plenty of crowd support, bogeyed the first hole. But he’s made four birdies since, including three straight to end the front nine, and currently is tied for second at 8 under, two behind Kim.
"I’ll have to get off to a really good start to make a run at it," de Jonge had said on Saturday evening. Mission accomplished.
1:45 pm
Restoration a rousing success
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. — What a difference a year makes.
In 2010, 77 players completed four rounds at The Greenbrier Classic and 46 of those shot four rounds in the 60s — or in Stuart Appleby’s case, three in the 60s and one 59.
Only four players have that opportunity on Sunday, though. They are Anthony Kim, Webb Simpson, Chris Couch and John Merrick.
Looks like the restoration of the Old White TPC has accomplished its mission to make the C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor creation more challenging.
1:15 pm
Win could be biggest of Kim’s career
What would a win today mean for Anthony Kim?
“I think it would actually mean more than any of the other wins I’ve had just because of the fact that I’ve come back from something,” said Kim, who has struggled since thumb surgery last year. “I didn’t know where my golf game was going. Even up to this point, I’m excited about the rest of the year, the FedExCup playoffs, and the chance to win a golf tournament.”
If Kim, who will tee off at the bottom of the hour, is going to win, he’ll have to have a better final round than he’s had in most of his final rounds this year — his final-round scoring average is 71.
That said, Kim’s game is driven by confidence and he has plenty of it going into the final round.
“It’s absolutely on an upside,” Kim said Saturday night. “I can’t tell you the last time that I ever played golf where I was not wanting to be on a golf course, but for the last six months before the British Open, I just did not want to be on the golf course.
“I didn’t know where the ball was going, and I was just hoping it would bounce out of the trees. It wasn’t a matter of it going in the rough, it was a matter of it bouncing in or out of bounds. People may think I’m exaggerating, but this is how tough this game got for me. Going back to the basics is really what helped my game. Without that, I would still be struggling.”
By simple approach Kim is trying not to get caught up in how far to hit the ball, he said. “If I have to hit it 170 yards, I just hit my 8-iron and don’t think about anything else,” Kim said. “It’s been a lot easier to hit golf shots that way.”
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