MySports Today

The Good – Y. E. Yang – 2009 PGA Champion – Yang turned a 2-shot deficit into a 3-shot win over golf’s greatest player – Tiger Woods.  The 2 played head-to-head in the final pairing in Sunday’s final round, and Yang proved that Woods is mortal.  Yang knocked in a 60-foot chip on the 14th hole to take a 1 shot lead over Woods – his 1st lead of the tournament.  Although Yang bogeyed the 17th hole, Woods did too, and Yang clung to his 1-shot lead heading into 18.  Normally this is when Woods turns the tides and pulls off the improbable victory, but it wasn’t meant to be this time around, as Yang birdied and Woods bogeyed to give Yang the 3-shot win.  Yang became the 1st Asian-born male to win a men’s major championship.  Yang had this to say about his play:  “I usually go for broke.  The odds are against me.  Nobody’s going to be really disappointed that I lose.  So I really had nothing much at stake, and that’s how I played it.”  Yang also hopes that his win will spark interest in golf in Asia and South Korea as Se Ri Pak’s 1st major championship win for an Asian born female did back in 1998 – since then, 7 different South Korean women have combined to win 11 women’s major championships.  Congrats Y.E.!

The Bad – Chicago Cubs “Ace” Carlos Zambrano – “Big Z” has been out with back soreness and back spasms and the team’s medical staff has implored Zambrano to maintain the strength in his core by strengthening his abdominal muscles and his hamstrings.  Big Z had this to say about his conditioning:  “There’s things in life you don’t like that you have to do.  I don’t like to do abs, but I’ll have to start doing my abs every day…  Like the doctors say, I’m a strong man, a big man, and that’s what big men do.  Wherever they are weak, they get stronger.”  Really?!  Wow – a professional athlete actually has to work out and keep his body in shape during the course of an MLB season?  Unbelievable…

Big Z was on the DL earlier this year when he injured his hamstring trying to beat out a groundball.  After coming out of his previous start after only 3 innings with back stiffness, Zambrano did not obtain any special treatment during the 5 days leading up to his next start and ended up aggravating his back injury by swinging too hard during batting practice.  Doesn’t this guy realize he’s getting paid $16+ million each season to pitch, not be the next Babe Ruth?  What a moron – especially from your “Ace” pitcher.  Zambrano was able to throw all of his pitches in a productive bullpen session on Sunday and is scheduled to pitch for Class A Peoria on Thursday.  If all goes well, Zambrano will start against the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, August 25th.

It had never happened before – Tiger lost on the last day of a Major Championship when heading into the final round with the lead.  Woods had a 2-shot lead over Y.E. Yang and Padraig Harrington heading into Sunday’s final round, and was all but assured of another Major Championship win, but this time, it was not meant to be.  Woods shot a 3-over par 75, while Yang shot a 2-under par 70, allowing Yang to win by 3 shots and proving that Tiger Woods is mortal.

Yang played the 1st 13 holes of the final round at even par, but his 60-foot chip-in eagle on 14 catupulted him into the lead for good.  He bogeyed 17, but birdied 18 to finish off the miraculous victory over the game’s best player.  It was likely the greatest upset of all time.  Woods, on the other hand, had 3 bogeys and 1 birdie through the day’s 1st 13 holes.  Woods and Yang were tied going into 14, and Woods put pressure on Yang but hitting his 2nd shot close to the pin for what should be an easy birdie.  But Yang made his eagle chip-in, and even though Woods made his easy birdie putt, Tiger trailed for the 1st time all day.  Yang allowed Woods to stay in the game.  Woods and Yang each bogeyed 17, so it remained a 1-hot Yang lead heading into 18.  A Yang birdie and a Woods bogey, and we had our winner – Y.E. Yang by 3 shots.

Yang became the 1st Asian-born male to win a men’s major championship.  Yang had this to say about his play:  “I usually go for broke.  The odds are against me.  Nobody’s going to be really disappointed that I lose.  So I really had nothing much at stake, and that’s how I played it.”

Woods, to his credit, was diplomatic in defeat: “I played well enough to win the champhionship.  I did not putt well enough to win the championship… I didn’t get it done on the greens, and consequently, I didn’t win the golf tournament.”  The 75 Woods shot was his worst score when he was in the final pairing on the last day of a major championship…

Tiger Woods has a 4-shot lead after 2 rounds at the PGA Championship.  Woods shot a 2-under par 70 and is 7-under par after 2 rounds.  Five golfers – Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Lucas Glover, Ross Fisher and Brendan Jones – are each 4 shots behind Woods at 3-under par.

Woods has not had this big a lead after 2 rounds in a Major Championship since the 2005 British Open.  And he is 8-0 when leading after 2 rounds in Major Champinships.  Good luck to the rest of the field, but at this point, it looks like this is Tiger’s tournament to lose…

Tigers Woods leads the 2009 PGA Championship after early play Thursday morning.  Woods shot a bogey-free round of 5-under par 67.  Woods has a 1 stroke lead over his playing partner – Padraig Harrington – the same man Tiger beat at the Bridgstone Invitational last weekend in Akron, Ohio. Woods birdied the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 12th and 15th holes en route to his solid round.

Phil Mickelson, and the winners from 2009’s 1st 3 Major Championships – Angel Cabrera (The Masters), Lucas Glover (The U.S Open) and Stewart Cink (The British Open) – all have afternoon tee times.

Tiger Woods won his 70th career PGA Tour Victory at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio over the weekend with a dramatic victory over Padraig Harrington.  The key turning point occurred on the 16th hole with Harrington leading by 1 stroke.  After both players were placed on the “clock” for slow play leading up to the Back Nine, Woods went on to birdie the hole, while Harrington played serveral bad shots – including one into the water – that led to a triple bogey.  Woods 1 shot deficit quickly turned into a 3 shot lead.  Woods had this to say about chief referee for the PGA European Tour – John Paramor – “Like I was telling him out there, ‘I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle’, because it was such a great battle for 16 holes.  And unfortunately, that happened.”

Woods really let into the officials, while Harrington was a little more diplomatic, saying that rules were rules, and the players had to abide the rules for the integrity of the game.  Poor weather conditions, leading to poor play caused much of the slower rounds on Sunday at the tournament.  But I guess that don’t factor that into account.  If they were really a full hole behind the next group, these guys should have picked up the pace a little bit.  But what’s a couple of minutes here or there, especially when the lead is between 2 competititors playing head-to-head in the last group of the day.  It seems to me that the officials should be a little more lenient in a situation like this and in the final round.  As far as we can tell, it doesn’t look like Woods will be fined for his negative comments against the officials and the tour.