PGA Golf Talk

Phil Mickelson is back? While his wife continues her struggle against breast cancer (as does his mother in law), Mickelson might be coming back. Perhaps it will be better for him to do something that he enjoys and earn some needed money too. He has been reported as an entrant in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota next month. Meanwhile, the same article talks about John Daly, who might have finally turned the corner on all the troubles that he’s had over the last few years. He has had trouble with drinking and with the law off and on the last few years. But he seems to be a lot better off now, having finally got himself back into the PGA tournament and remaining on the up-and-up. We’ll be watching both of these stories as time moves on.

The Canadian Open has hardly been able to get off the ground this year! It’s been 4 days since the tournament started, but there have been so many different interruptions due to the continuing rain that they’ve been having there. They’ve lost nearly 2 full days of golf because of it. But today looks like it should be the finale of the competition, and Retief Goosen and Anthony Kim are tied for first heading into the end. What a fun time it has been, with a bit of suspense as everyone sits outside in the water. Both of these players have the ability to win it, and they both have a resume that will show their great ability to win. Let’s keep watching and see what great things come about.

Tiger Woods committed himself to play the Buick Open this year and it’s going to be very exciting for many of the people involved in the event. This sets the stage for Woods to play a longer 3-week stint in the PGA tour, which is longer than had been expected before. The PGA Championship will take place the next week and people are hoping that it’ll be more interesting with him involved, as compared with last year. But since the schedule is laid out this way, people had expected that Tiger would skip it and get a little rest. But the Buick Open organizers and others involved are very excited that he’s going to bring in the kind of interest that he brings to every course that he plays on. The Buick Open will be a highlight for local people and players!

The British Open left as suddenly as it came. When the players came over, they surely would have had no idea what kind of a strange weekend it would be. Tiger Woods didn’t even make it into the major part of the tournament, falling victim to a stiff breeze that was very tough to play in. Tom Watson was going strong the other day and looked like he was finally about to take the British Open again, a tournament that he won many years ago and has been unable to pull out another. But he and Steward Cink went into extra rounds to determine the winner and Watson’s short hits went off mark and Cink won the tournament after all. It was a tough loss for Watson, who may not get another chance at the British Open (where they just created an age limit for who can play). But for golf fans, it sure was exciting to watch!

The US Bank Championship this year will be the last. At least it’ll be the last one under that particular name. US Bank, as you can imagine, is having trouble getting the money to keep sponsoring such an expensive event. So they will be dropping their sponsorship of this event next week. That means that the current final round of the championship will probably be the last one unless another sponsor shows up. Quite a few golfers came out in support of keeping a PGA event in Milwaukee, since it is a nice place to golf, especially this time of year, when much of the rest of the country is normally very warm indeed. But it might not be possible, not in the current economic climate. Who knows what will happen? We don’t, but we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we hear!

The John Deere Tournament was just barely able to get finished this week, when Steve Stricker sank a tap-in birdie in the end of the tournament. On Saturday, the whole thing was washed out out by the Mississippi River and so the golfers had to get some extra rounds in on Sunday. Most of the golfers were able to finish in time to get a plane to Britain, where they will begin to practice for the British Open. For Stricker, it was a great honor to win, and he will be seen in the next couple weeks at the British Open as well. He played a rather close competition, although he was leading the rest of the golfers for almost the entire weekend. We’re looking forward to seeing many of these guys in action again in Scotland and it will be a lot of fun!

For David Duval, he’s just performing up to his normal abilities right now. He was able to get into a three-way tie for second at the US Open, and now he’s playing at the John Deere Classic in Illinois, hoping to get himself up higher in the rankings again. He used to be number 1 in the PGA Tour at one point, but he has slipped in recent years. But now he’s back for more, possibly even to get another win. He probably wont be able to hit #1 again, but that’s not the point. The point is for him to gain confidence and rise up more and more in the next few months and years. Maybe he will make a big run at #1; he certainly believes he could!

At the AT&T National Tournament, Tiger Woods was able to pull out a win. But meanwhile, a lesser known golfer named Hunter Mahan was fighting to take the win away from him. He was golfing great, while Tiger was struggling on certain holes, finishing at 5-over on the #11 hole. It was a close competition and Mahan ended up in 3rd place at the very end. For Tiger, he is 46 out of 49 in 54 hole competitions and we’ll be watching to see how he continues. He played much the same way as he did at the Memorial two weeks before the US Open. He is the favorite at Turnberry, which is fairly typical and he has finally hit his stride this year after having struggled for a long while.

Mike Small was able to pull out a win in this week’s PGA Professional National Championship. He hasn’t won very much in recent years, having won this championship back in 2005 and been a runner up a few times over the last 8 years. He’s a talented golfer and the head golf coach at the University of Illinois. But he always faces some very tough competition at these tournaments. At the same time, the PGA Professional title is a great honor for him, especially since he didn’t expect to have won this year. With the new prestige that he has gained from this win, he will go on with more confidence and a smile too. Congrats to him and stick with PGA Golf Talk for more details on the Tour!