The Monday Wrapup

In an interesting coincidence, none of the major U.S. based golf tour held tournaments in the U.S. this weekend.

Jim Furyk repeats as Canadian Open champion, beating Vijay Singh by one shot

A final round 64, including a hole-in-one on the 209 yard Par 4th, propelled Furyk from three strokes back at the start of the round to the victory. Singh has a chance to force a sudden death playoff but could not get a birdie attempt to go in on the 18th green. It is the first win of the year for Furyk, and in my opinion the least interesting golf story of the weekend.

Natalie Gulbis wins the Evian Masters on the first playoff hole for her first LPGA win

A two under in the final round put her in the playoff with Jang Jeong of South Korea, where she reached the Par 5 18th green in 2.

A lot of men in the world (and possibly ten percent of women) would like to be that troph

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Hi, this is Natalie. You may be wondering why, after making such a prestigish tournament my first win I'm commendeering the blog. Well, I wanted to say something to the golf world, and this is as a good a place as any:

Anna Kournikova of the golf world my ass.

By the way, my 2008 calendar will be in stores this fall. Thank you.

Andres Romero wins the Deutsche Bank Players' Championship for his first European Tour win

Not a bad seven days; lead the British Open on the back nine last Sunday and finish third, then win the next week.

With his agressive style, Romero may be the heir apparent to Seve Ballesteros. He may not have the short game wizardry of the Spainard, and he wouldn't be able to grab the hearts of European fans with Ryder Cup exploits, but he doesn't seem to fear any shot.

The win moves him to fifth in the European Order of Merit and will move him up enough in the World Golf Rankings to ensure his playing in the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship.

There is no word on where he falls in the 'bedding comely female golf fans' standings; South American Division' where Camilo Villegas currently leads in the clubhouse.

Tom Watson wins the British Senior Open for the third time in five years

Watson washes the bad taste of failing to win the U.S. Senior Open out of his mouth with his eighth British Open victory (5 original recipie, three senior).

I can't think of any American athlete that has had more success in Britian in a sport people actually care about there. And next year the tournament will take place at Troon, a course he won on of his British Open titles.

The Monday Wrapup

K.J. Choi wins Tiger’s Tournament

With the win, Choi joins Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Zack Johnson as multiple winners this season. By no coincidence, they are the top five players in the Fed Ex Cup point standings (somewhere Tim Finchem smiles with the Fed Ex mention). And Choi is the leader in the clubhouse for most impressive presenters for his victories.

There are two stories for me bigger than the Choi win. First, the Washington D.C. metropolitan area gave it up for the AT&T National like a virgin on prom night. D.C. had always been a good PGA market back to the days of the Kemper Open; add a tournament hosted by Tiger and lower than average ticket prices and you get a massive success. The only things standing in the way of similar success every year is if Tiget stops hosting or the Congressional Country Club members decide they don't want to give up their course every year (the U.S. Amateur is scheduled for the course in 2009; AT&T National will have to find somewhere else to play that year at least).

The other story is the complete collapse of Stuart Appleby in the final round, turning a two stroke lead after the third round into a tie for third, nine strokes behind Choi with a tidy six over par 76. He didn’t waste time either, double bogeying the Par 3 2nd and throwing four straight bogeys at the field starting at the 4th. Here are the possible reasons for the collapse:

• He always chokes when paired with Nike endorsers of Asian descent on the final day of a tournament.
• The ‘Let’s Do It Again’ like hypnosis of Appleby that made him believe he was in Hawaii wore off.
• It is winter in his native Australia and he wasn’t prepared for the temperatures in the 90s.

Brad Bryant wins the U.S. Senior Open

Even with his low round of the day (68), one of only five rounds under par for the day, this is another example of the winner being overshadowed by the collapse of another player. Tom Watson had a three stroke lead on Bryant after nine holes. He then shot seven over par down the stretch, dropping him to fourth.

Colin Montgomerie wins the Smurfit Kappa European Open by one stroke over Niclas Fasth

This was Montgomerie’s first win on the European Tour in almost 2 years, and it makes him the third winningest player in European Tour history; one better than Nick Faldo. With a third and first place finish the last two weeks, Montgomerie is in great shape to disappoint English fans with a missed cut at the British Open in two weeks.

More entertaining to me are the pants worn by Fasth Sunday. I don't know if I think they are a totally ridiculous monstrosity, or I want a pair for myself. Wow.