Greg Norman hopes Adam Scott gives Tiger Woods a Presidents Cup thrashing

A face-off between Tiger Woods and Adam Scott at the Presidents Cup tourney in Royal Melbourne GC would certainly make great "must see TV" but is Greg Norman using the Aussie to unload his own sour grapes?

The Aussies (?...ha) are "sick and tired of losing," said Norman, whose International team hasn't won the Cup since 1998. Furthermore, Greg Norman was "dethroned" by Tiger Woods in the 1990's to become top-golfer in the world. This isn't just a case of "my yacht is bigger than your yacht," this is personal.

"Tiger and Greg don't speak," said a source who knows both men. "There's a lot of animosity between them."

Greg Norman has turned The Presidents Cup into a battle between Australia (not necessarily the "International Team") and the USA. Doing so, however, has had it's ramifications, with Couples now comparing Aussie golfers to Woods.

After Tiger Woods was slammed by Norman, Couples retorted with a comparative dig at Melbourne golfer Robert Allenby.

"Robert Allenby is his (captain's) pick, and Aaron Baddeley, and they're Australians and I think they're great picks,"claimed Couples. "But I think I can sit here and say Robert Allenby hasn't won a tournament in ten years.''

Other Aussies have jumped on the "trash-talking Tiger" bandwagon but members of Team Norman such as Geoff Ogilvy seem spurred on by Greg Norman's personal vengeance against the former world's number-one golfer.

Geoff Ogilvy, for example, does not agree with Team USA Captain Fred Couples' pick, "I'm not going to stand up and say Tiger is a horrible pick, but I'm going to say it's very disappointing that Keegan Bradley doesn't get to play."

Placing Adam Scott against Tiger Woods is also a personal slam against the former world's number one as Scott's caddie, Steve Williams, has said a few bitter words recently about his former boss.

That being said, an Adam Scott - Tiger Woods match would make for sensational end-of-season golf TV and both teams know it, as the Presidents Cup has never been as monumental as the Ryder Cup.

When Norman asked Scott if he had a problem going up against the former world's number one, Adam said, "Not at all. I'll play him and win a point for you."

Presidents Cup action begins Wednesday November 16th. Check your listings and voice your opinions about Tiger Woods on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and on Facebook.

 

 

 

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Hawaii retiree, Humanitarian, LPGA veteran named PGA First Lady of Golf

Mary Bea Porter with Alexis Thompson
at 2008 Junior PGA Championship

Mary Bea Porter-King of Kapaa, Hawaii, a celebrated four-sport collegiate athlete, LPGA Tour veteran, a pioneer in junior golf within her state, and one of the country’s most respected Rules officials, has been named the recipient of the 2011 PGA First Lady of Golf Award.

Porter-King, 61, will be honored at The PGA of America Awards, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, during the 59th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center’s Chapin Theater in Orlando, Fla.

Born in Everett, Wash., and raised in Costa Mesa, Calif., Porter-King began playing golf at age 7, mentored by LPGA co-founder Betty Hicks. Porter-King paved her way in junior golf by conducting a golf clinic at age 8 with Hall of Famer Patty Berg. She went on to become a four-sport star athlete at Arizona State University before devoting her career to golf. She was a co-founder of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association in 1998; and served from 2001-06 as a member of the USGA Executive Committee and from 2006-09, as an Independent Director on The PGA America Board of Directors. As a member of the PGA Rules Committee, Porter-King has officiated for nearly two decades at golf’s premier events, including all of the game’s men’s and women’s major championships.

“Mary Bea Porter-King’s remarkable career of service to our game is on display within her home state in a junior golf program that has produced countless success stories, and is a model for how our industry may improve the future of so many young people,” said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. “Mary Bea also has served golf at the highest levels, a record that includes an unwavering commitment to the integrity of our sport as a premier Rules official. It is with great honor that we may now refer to her as our next PGA First Lady of Golf.”

Porter-King served on the USGA Girls’ Junior Committee from 1994-2000, and since 2001, she has been a member of the U.S. Junior Championship Committee. In 1998, she co-founded the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association, which annually engages more than 500 juniors from elementary to high school age. The program has produced hundreds of collegiate golfers, with several program graduates including current LPGA standouts - Michelle Wie and Kimberly Kim.

“I am very humbled by this honor; first to be honored by The PGA of America, an organization I have revered all my life, and secondly, it is so special to have my name listed with all of the previous honorees, women of whom I have so much respect,” said Porter-King. “I love this game and have spoken for many years to encourage all of us, The PGA, LPGA, and USGA, to combine efforts to develop the next core golfers.

“All of us, who love the game, need to do everything we can to make sure all future generations who are given the gift of golf understand, play by, and protect the core values of the game while maintaining its integrity. It is so important we all work together to develop the next core golfer to ensure that the future of the game is in good hands. Who will fill the next shoes in our sport? It is up to all of us.”

Porter-King was inducted in 2001 into the Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame in four sports. Competing from 1968-73 in the pre-Title IX era, she excelled in volleyball, softball, golf, and basketball. Before graduating in 1973, Porter-King was a starting second baseman for the 1971 ASU College Softball World Series Championship team, and earned 1972 All-American honors in golf, and was a member of the school’s 1970, ’71 NAIA Women’s Golf Championship teams.

Porter-King began her professional golf career in 1973, earning LPGA Tour Qualifying School medalist honors. She captured the Golf Inns of America Classic in 1975. She left the Tour from 1983-85, and returned in 1986 and competed until her retirement in 1998.

She is a past president of the Kauai Junior Golf Association, and in 2004 was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. Traveling more than 100,000 miles a year, Porter-King has officiated at 14 U.S. Women's Opens, 10 U.S. Men's Opens, 10 U.S. Senior Opens, five Masters, four PGA Championships, and one Open Championship.

Porter-King earned universal praise for a courageous act on March 16, 1988, during a qualifying round for the former LPGA Standard Register Turquoise Classic in Phoenix, Ariz. Having hooked a second shot badly on the 13th hole of Moon Valley Country Club, Porter-King approached the fence to look for her ball and saw a family in peril. Jonathan Smucker, then a 3-year-old from Ronks, Pa., had fallen into a swimming pool and was lying lifeless. Porter-King was helped over the fence by her caddie, administered CPR, awaited arrival of paramedics, resulting in saving the life of the child.

For her action, she was later that year the first recipient of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award, honoring a heroic or humanitarian act that enhances human life. The same Association presented Porter-King this year with its MGWA Distinguished Service Award.

Porter-King and her husband, Charlie, live in Kapaa, Hawaii. The couple has a son, Joseph, 29, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and a daughter, Sherry, 39, married to Mike Niethammer, with three sons, Charlie, 7, Will, 4, and Max, 2, of Oahu, Hawaii.

The PGA First Lady of Golf Award, inaugurated in 1998, is presented to a woman who has made significant contributions to the promotion of the game of golf.

PGA First Lady of Golf Recipients
1998 Barbara Nicklaus
1999 Judy Rankin
2000 No recipient
2001 Judy Bell
2002 Nancy Lopez
2003 Renee Powell
2004 Alice Dye
2005 Carol Semple Thompson
2006 Kathy Whitworth
2007 Peggy Kirk Bell
2008 Carol Mann
2009 Donna Caponi-Byrnes
2010 No recipient
2011 Mary Bea Porter-King

photo credit: PGA

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Can Yoga help you become more empowered in golf?

Just listening to Margarit Brigham's calming voice asking this fast-paced businesswoman to take a few minutes and breathe calmed me almost immediately. I inhaled/exhaled and allowed my mind to center wondering if this simple exercise will help lead me on the path to a more consistent golf game.

 

Brigham, a.k.a. "Golf Goddess", dedicates herself to instructing women on connecting with the higher self through Yoga. In this week's BlogTalkRadio Show, "Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Golf", Margarit discusses how Yoga can be the connecting link to Joy in both the game of golf and the game of life.

 

Yoga is not only meant to improve flexibility, there are definite cerebral advantages to connecting with our higher self. Just as discipline is needed for Yoga, it is also a necessity in golf. Centering the mind to learn how to be more in the moment will help women to act, not react. If we can connect mind and body, Margarit says, we can meet more challenges without despair, more easily control negative emotions and become self-empowered.

 

"Golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch course;
the space between your ears."
- Bobby Jones

 

Professional golfers like Juli Inkster, Brad Faxon, Gary Player and Stewart Cink practice yoga to stay "in the zone". As father Earl Woods reminds Tiger Woods in his book, Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Golf and Life, "If you don't clutter your conscious mind with endless pointers and tips, you make it easier for your subconscious instincts to guide you." (see Yoga Journal).

 

Learning a few yoga stretches (done properly) will most certainly help the physical aspect of your golf game: your alignment, posture range of motion and stamina will improve. Listening to Margarit Brigham's Golf Goddess internet radio show and reading her book, "How to Become a Golf Goddess" should help you to improve the deeper connection within yourself to be able to play beyond par.

 

 

 

About Margarit Brigham:

Margaret (Peggy) Brigham is a NCCP Level 1 Coach and a certified yoga teacher who has been developing Yoga for Golf™ since 1997. Yoga for Golf has been taught as a weekly course, workshop and seminars, before corporate tournaments and in combination with golf pro's during clinics.

 

Post Golf Yoga questions to Margarit Brigham @GolfGoddess on Twitter

 

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Martin Kaymer, newest golf hero?

Martin Kaymer ended the run of first-time winners lifting the sport’s top trophies and lifted himself above the crowd when he won the WGC-HSBC Champions. Shooting a record low winning round for the World Golf Championships, the German’s nine birdies in his last nine holes propelled him over a leader board packed with recent WGC and Major winners and past overnight leader Fredrik Jacobson to a nine-under-par 63 final round and a three-shot victory. Tim Maitland reports.

“To shoot 63 in a final round is always great, but on a golf course like this and in a World Golf Championships is obviously special. The way I played was different. It was really special," recalled Kaymer.

"I can’t remember a day when I played golf like this. My putting was outstanding," said 26-year-old Kaymer, who, having won the 2010 PGA Championship becomes the first of golf’s new breed to follow up his first big breakthrough win with another top-level victory.

Kaymer’s late charge lifted him above a leader board that seemed to have most of the contenders to the crown of being the game’s next dominant player. Reigning US Open champion Rory McIlroy and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel finished tied for fourth along with Paul Casey while 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell came third.

“If Martin Kaymer had not skipped the last couple of holes, we might all have had a chance,” joked the Northern Irishman, who got to see some of Kaymer’s fireworks from the group behind.

“He's an unbelievable frontrunner; when he gets a sniff of a win ‑‑ he's pretty prolific and very clinical when it comes to finishing.  Hats off to him!  He's a classy player and he was impossible to catch out there.”

Casey, marking a return to form after a season plagued by a toe problem, had initially threatened to be the one making a winning charge making five birdies. He was slowed by the return of a swing fault caused by the injury but had the best seat in the house playing in the winner’s group.

“He didn't flinch.  It was very good stuff from him. [I had a] front row seat for Martin Kaymer, watching, that because that was a brilliant performance.”

In the long-term, perhaps just as impressive was the achievement of relatively unknown local player Zhang Xinjun beating the previous record for the highest finish by a Chinese player at the HSBC Champions. A professional for only a year, the 24-year old from the Terracotta Warrior city of Xian tied for thirteenth alongside Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter thanks largely to an eight-under-par third round. The previous best finishes were 24^th by Liang Wenchong in 2008 and 25^th for Zhang Lianwei three years earlier.

“He played very solid golf,” declared Kaymer of the former security guard. 

“He's a long hitter.  His putting is brilliant, so I can see him playing well in the future.  I had never heard of him before, but you've got to watch out, there are more players coming from Asia and he's probably one of the better ones!” he added.

For Kaymer, his victory shone a different light on a year that started with a stunning victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in January. The German said the pressure of becoming world number one in February – and not swing changes to prepare for a challenge at Augusta – was responsible for a relative slump, but that completing a sponsor’s double has turned an okay season into a good one.

“I started off with my HSBC win in Abu Dhabi and I’ve finished my year by winning the tournament in Shanghai. I obviously really like the HSBC tournaments!”

With the end of Tiger Woods' reign, golf has truly entered a brave new world!

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photo credit

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Bradley, Poulter, Mahan to Attempt $300K Hole-In-One at WGC-HSBC Champions

During the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai this week, Keegan Bradley, Ian Poulter, and Hunter Mahan will be given the opportunity to ace the 17^th golf hole at Sheshan Int'l golf course. If they succeed, performance tech innovator Power Balance will donate $300K to a charity of their choice and one lucky fan will be awarded $30K! 

All three golfers have been at the top of their game recently. Ian Poulter took home the trophy at the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain in May, Hunter Mahan finished second at the Fedex Cup in September and Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship in August more recently capturing the PGA Grand Slam of Golf on October 20.

 

“This is a fun, interactive way to give back to our golfing communities,” said Josh Rodarmel, co-founder of Power Balance. “Golfers have consistently given us great feedback about our products and continue to comprise an important segment of our business.”

If you believe that a hole-in-one will be an easy ace, even for great golfers like Mahan, Bradley and Poulter, think again. According to HSBCGolf.com, "Two holes, 16 and 17, play around and over the (rock) quarry, giving the golfer both an awe inspiring view while requiring great golf shots. These two holes will not only be the signature holes of Shanghai Sheshan Golf Club, but also of the whole
Shanghai region."

 

17th hole at Sheshan Golf Club

 

**********

 

Power Balance technology products are worn by a community of millions of everyday people and hundreds of professional athletes – from Drew Brees to Derrick Rose, Matt Kemp to all three golfers participating in this challenge.

 

The online sweepstakes began last week with promotional giveaways and more on the Power Balance website, Facebook and Twitter. 

 

Fans can enter the sweepstakes at http://www.powerbalance.com/holeinonechallenge. The winner will be chosen from online entries into the sweepstakes; no purchase is required to enter the contest. Florida and New York are not eligible for this sweepstakes. 

 

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Baby Comes First As Luke Donald Ducks WGC-HSBC Shanghai Sortie

World number one golfer Luke Donald has reluctantly cancelled his trip to next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. Tim Maitland reports.

The Englishman, who is trying to become the first player in history to win the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic, had been hoping that the daughter they are expecting would conveniently arrive this week.

 Donald, who had his bags packed and was ready to go, finally conceded on Friday that family had to take precedence over the US$7 million event in China and his quest to get into the record books.

“It’s important for my wife and it’s important for me to make sure that I’m around to support her. It’s no coincidence that the birth of our first daughter inspired me to some really great golf. Family does put a lot of things into perspective; my job is very important but the family out-trumps everything,” said the 33-year-old Englishman in a phone interview from his home in the Chicago suburbs.

Professionally, Donald has every reason to want to be in Shanghai for the WGC-HSBC Champions. With five weeks left on the European Tour schedule he leads the Race to Dubai by over 1.3 million Euros from Rory McIlroy. He also has previous form at the Sheshan International Golf Club. He finished third, albeit by ten and nine shots, behind Italy’s Francesco Molinari and fellow Englishman Lee Westwood whose ‘Duel on the Bund’ head-to-head battle earned comparisons with the legendary ‘Duel in the Sun’ Open Championship in 1977.

“It speaks volumes for the tournament. I got to witness it as the third man in that group. I was a few shots back – I didn’t have my best golf – but it was nice to see the quality of the golf down the stretch from both players; it was a fitting end to a great event,” Donald said, despite admitting to being what the English would call a ‘gooseberry’.

“I actually was feeling a bit ‘third wheel’. To finish third was actually a pretty good accomplishment. I was struggling with my game big time and I was using every bit of energy and strength just to give myself a chance to get into that final group. I didn’t have control of the golf ball. I was a little bit frustrated with my own game but it was still nice to see how it should have been done!” he explained.

“It’s a world-class golf course – a long course – and it’s produced some great winners. That’s the biggest bonus about the tournament: the winners have been world-class players. Francesco last year, how well he played down the stretch fending off Lee Westwood… that’s always a mark of a good tournament when it produces good winners,” he said, referring to a roll of honour that includes Phil Mickelson twice, Sergio Garcia and Asia’s first male Major champion ‘YE’ Yang Yong-Eun.

Donald added that the recent controversy over the last-minute decision to delay mailing out the ballots for the PGA Tour Player of the Year voting had nothing to do with his choice to stay by his wife’s side. Donald won the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disneyworld to claim the PGA Tour’s money list, but described holding off posting the voting slips to the players until after Shanghai, because a WGC win for a PGA Tour player might impact the outcome, as ‘sketchy’.

“I have no problem with them including the HSBC Champions, they should! It was just the timing of it. The thing that disappointed me is that the schedule has been the same all year. I feel bad for the Asian golf fans that they didn’t see that. It’s something that should have been known at the beginning of the year, not the day after Disney.  The goalposts moved. It’s like running a marathon for 26 miles, crossing the finish line and then they say ‘actually we’re going to make it 27 miles’. It’s just the timing of it. It’s an important event; to have a WGC outside the US and such a big event in Asia. I’ve supported it the last few years when I’ve been eligible. I would be there if it wasn’t for the baby,” he said, adding that headlines describing him as ‘angered’ or ‘upset’ were wide of the mark.

Editor's note: Mid-November is the due date as stated in Luke Donald's official diary. Baby comes first! Best of luck to the  family.