Trophy News from San Clemente, California
Katie Sylvan doesn’t know how to surf. In fact, some of her success might be attributed to staying away from the sand and out of the water.
Francis Parker High School golfer Katie Sylvan outlasted 123 other golfers to win the individual title at the Lady Triton Invitational in San Clemente earlier this month. Instead of the usual trophy, she received a surfboard.
Trophy News From Ohio
Before Ben Curtis played 36 holes Sunday in the final two rounds of the PGA Championship, Browns quarterback Derek Anderson fired off a message that was practically prophetic.
”I sent him a text the other night, ‘Why don’t you just bring that golf trophy right out to Berea?’ ” Anderson said.
The coveted Wanamaker Trophy went to Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, who claimed his second consecutive major. Curtis, the 2003 British Open champion from Kent State, shot 68-71 and finished 2 strokes back, tying for second at gruelling Oakland Hills.
Curtis, 31, became one of 11 men to finish in the top 10 in two majors this year. In his career, he has three victory trophies and 11 top 10s, four in majors, including a tie for seventh in the 2008 British Open.
This one brought another prize. Curtis jumped from 20th to seventh in the U.S. Ryder Cup trophy standings, earning a spot on the team for the Sept. 19-21 competition versus Europe at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
After the PGA, Curtis drew kudos from Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger and analysts on the Golf Channel.
”I’ve always known I could play at this level,” Curtis said. ”To do it on that stage was awfully fulfilling career-wise.”
Originally Written by Marla Ridenour in the Akron Beacon Journal
Trophy News from Ohio
PHILIP REID Reports from Akron. Ohio
THIS WAS different. For a change, there was no ode to Tiger. For the first time since 2004, a name other than Tiger Woods was etched onto the Bridgestone Invitational trophy at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. And, perhaps fittingly, his successor as champion after a drama-filled final round was Vijay Singh.
Sure, there were moments yesterday – especially when the Fijian had the belly-putter in his hand, with a succession of missed short putts putting pressure on him down the stretch – where Singh looked fallible. But, in the end, he got the job done (just about) with a final-round 68 for 270, 10-under-par, that left him with a shot to spare over runners-up Lee Westwood and Stuart Appleby.
Ironically, given his travails with the putter, Singh finished the job with a tricky three-and-a-half-footer for par on the last.
Singh – whose last trophy win on tour had come in the Bay Hill Invitational in March 2007, a gap of 17 months – had started the final round tied with Westwood and Phil Mickelson, but took control early on with a hat-trick of birdies from the second and another birdie on the sixth.
Thereafter, it proved to be a rough ride home and bogeys at the eighth, 11th and 13th (with just one birdie on the 12th, from four feet) allowed Westwood and a charging Appleby to apply pressure down the stretch.
In the end, Singh’s run of five successive pars from the 14th was enough to see him claim a first WGC golf trophy, although Westwood – more than anyone – will rue some missed birdie chances on the way home that could have given him a first win on American soil in a decade.
Coming just six weeks after he finished third in the US Open, Westwood started birdie-birdie, but hit a rocky patch mid-way through the front nine when he bogeyed the fourth and double-bogeyed the seventh before birdieing three of the next six holes.
However, a bogey on the 14th, and then a run of four pars, meant that he came up just short again.
On a day when conditions were made for good scoring, Paul Casey – in the doldrums for much of this season and lacking any consistency – finally exploded into life, returning a bogey-free 65 that was perfectly timed coming in the final tournament before Oakland Hills and a matter of weeks before Faldo must name his two picks.
Is it the start of a Casey run for the Ryder Cup?
“Well, I need it, don’t I? I’m well out of the points and below players like Sergio, (Ian) Poulter, Monty, Luke (Donald) and I don’t really want to rely on a pick. You know, this is a good start but I really need to throw in a couple of top-fives or a win or something like that to get myself on the team.
“This is an important run of events . . . but I’ve got to take it one round at a time, one shot at a time. The ultimate goal is to try and win (the PGA trophy). I mean, majors are still the ultimate thing but I’d love to be part of that Ryder Cup team. Right now, they are probably the greatest memories I’ve ever had while being on a golf course and I’d like to be part of another team. And I’ve got some playing to do for that team before we get there.”
Originally Written by Philip Reid in the Irish Times
This summer Cristie Kerr won the LPGA trophy. That would have been big Trophy News itself, but a wide variety of sites and blogs became very interested in this trophy because of way it was accepted.
The buzz started when this pro golf cover girl planted a kiss on the crystal golf award. She also commented on the shape and size of the trophy in a suggestive manner, suddenly creating global interest in this LPGA award presentation. Photos were posted all over the web, prompted thousands of weekly searches for “christie kerr kissing trophy” (sp).
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