MySports Today

Wow – Tiger Woods had his best round of the 2009 golf season, as he set a course record 9-under par 62 at Cog Hill at the BMW Championship in Lemont, Illinois just outside of Chicago.  Woods leads the tournament by 7 shots over Brandt Snedeker who birdied the final 4 holes on Saturday to finish with a 5-under par 66 on the day.  Snedeker will play with Woods for the 1st time ever in the final pairing on Sunday.

Woods round had a rough start – a bogey on hole #1.  His best shot – a 6-iron from the rough onto the green on the 7th hole – put him 15-feet from the hole for a par.  In between, Woods was electric – 8 birdies and 1 eagle and pars the rest of the way – leading to a 31 on the front nine and a 31 on the back nine.

Woods is the best player in the world, and unless something catastrophic happens on Sunday, Woods should win the 3rd leg of the 2009 PGA playoffs.

9th seeded Caroline Wozniacki defeated Melanie Oudin in straight sets on Wednesday night to end the 17-year old’s Cinderella run at the U.S. Open.  Oudin lost 6-2, 6-2, but should take solace in the fact that she made it to the final 8 at the U.S. Open even though she is only ranked 70th in the world.  That ranking will likely go up after her spectacular performance in NY the last 11 days.  Oudin had this to say about the experience: “The thing for me is, I love to play tennis, and that all comes along with it if you do well and if you win.  And I mean, I’m ready for that if that’s what you have to do to do well in tennis.  I’m not going to stop playing just because of that.”  Congrats Melanie – and keep it up in the future…

Melanie Oudin is on a mission.  The 17-year old Oudin is now in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship and looks to continue her magnificent run against Caroline Wozniacki.  Oudin has defeated 4th seeded Elena Dementieva, 29th seeded (and former champion) Maria Sharapova and 13th seeded Nadia Petrova.  Not bad for the 70th seed in the tournament, looking to play some competitive tennis for a round or 2 heading into the 2-week tourney.  The Marietta, Georgia native has the fans on her side, and she is hoping a run at the finals is in the cards.  We’ll keep you posted here at MySportsToday.com…

Everyone has their greatest Las Vegas memories.  Bill Simmons – of ESPN Page 2 Fame – wrote about his most recent trip to Vegas and it is hysterical.  Check out Bill’s Vegas Trip here.

Trips made to Vegas are meant to be short and sweet, but very painful.  Anything more than 48 hours and you are asking for trouble (unless you are going over the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament when a Thursday-Monday trip is highly recommended).  As a 36-year old with a kid, I can totally related to Bill’s account of his story.  Feel free to post your favorite Vegas story here.  I’m sure we will enjoy it…

As long as Maria Sharapova keeps winning at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York, we’ll be happy.  Sharapova had missed just under a year of tennis because of a shoulder injury, and she cruised through an easy 6-3, 6-0 win over Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.  Sharapova won the U.S. Open back in 2006, and has 2 other Grand Slam titles under her belt.  She also has countless endorsements and is the highest-grossing female athlete in the world today.  It doesn’t hurt that she is pretty hot too.  She mad a huge fashion statement at Arthur Ashe Stadium in her opening match – wearing a silver and black dress that she says was inspired by the architecture of New York City.  She had this to say about her return to the U.S. Open: “This is a Grand Slam.  You’ve got to get going from the first match.  It’s a prvilege to be playing any player out here.  I’m more than excited to have the opportunity to play any match.  After being gone, this is what it’s all about.”

Let’s see if she can keep the “silver and glitz” going a little longer this September to keep us all smiling in New York City…

The 3 men at the top of the leaderboard – Paul Goydos, Steve Marino & Fredrik Jacobson – all have 1 question on their minds – - “Where’s Tiger?!”  It should be an interesting day at the final round of The Barclays on Sunday in Jersey City, NJ.  The Barclays is the 1st leg of the 4-tournament end of year PGA playoff series.

Tiger Woods was the talk of the tournament on Saturday as he shot a 4-under 67 to move within 5 shots of the leaders – each of whom shot a 3-under 68 on “moving day”.  Woods had 5 birdies and 1 bogey on the round and rebounded from an “off-day” in Round 2 on Friday when he shot a 1-over 72.

We’ll keep you posted.  While 5 shots is not an insurmountable lead for Tiger Woods, with 6 golfers ahead of him & 4 golfers tied with him at -4, it’s going to take a helluva round to pull off the 1st win of the playoff series…

Talk about excitement – the USA Women’s squad defeated the European squade for their 3rd straight Solheim Cup win.  The US squad used a gritty singles performance on Sunday to pull out the 16-12 points win.  Despite trailing in 6 matches with play already on the back nine, the US Team rallied in a big way, winning 6 singles matches outright and tying 4 others.  The 8 points earned on Sunday was enough to preserve the win.

Captain Beth Daniel had this to say about the victory: “It’s awesome, espeically since it was such a hard-fought battle.  They had to dig deep, they really had to dig deep to win this, and I’m so proud of each and every one of them.”

It doesn’t hurt that the U.S. team consists of a few sports hotties in the making.  Check out Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Natalie Golbus…

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.

Tiger Woods won his 9th title of 2009 with a 3 shot win at the Buick Open.  Woods used a 7-under, 65 on moving day on Saturday to take control of the tournament.  Woods shot a 3-under, 69 on Sunday to finish at -20 for a 3-shot lead over Roland Thatcher, Greg Chalmers and John Senden.

Woods now has his sights set on the PGA Championship in 2 weeks.

It’s been a while, but we haven’t forgotten.  Here’s the latest installment of some sweet shots of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Melissa Baker.  The Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio native was a competitive gymnast back in the day and is now gracing magazine covers and fashion shows all over the world.  Baker is managed by Click Model Agency in New York City and Los Angeles.  She has modelled for the following brands – - Express, Ambercrombie & Fitch and Sisley.  She appeared in the 2008 SI Swimsuit Issue and has also appeared in Maxim and V-Magazine.  Enjoy – I know I did…