Players who are exempt for the US Open
SAN DIEGO (AP) -The 72 players who are exempt from qualifying for the 108th U.S. Open golf championship, to be played from June 12-15 on the South Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Players listed only in the first category for which they were eligible (a-amateur):
U.S. Open champions (last 10 years): Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Lee Janzen.
Winner and runner-up of the 2007 U.S. Amateur: a-Michael Thompson.
Masters champions (last five years): Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson.
British Open champions (last five years): Padraig Harrington, Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis.
U.S. PGA champions (last five years): Vijay Singh, Shaun Micheel.
2007 U.S. Senior Open champion: Brad Bryant.
2008 Players Championship winner: Sergio Garcia.
Top 15 finishers and ties from the 2007 U.S. Open: Niclas Fasth, David Toms, Bubba Watson, Nick Dougherty, Scott Verplank, Jerry Kelly, Justin Rose, Stephen Ames, Paul Casey, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker, Aaron Baddeley.
Top 30 players from the 2007 U.S. PGA Tour money list: K.J. Choi, Rory Sabbatini, Adam Scott, Mark Calcavecchia, Woody Austin, Brandt Snedeker, Charles Howell III, Ernie Els, Tim Clark, Boo Weekley, John Rollins, Stewart Cink, Steve Flesch, Robert Allenby, Brett Wetterich, Luke Donald, Heath Slocum.
2007 U.S. Tour Championship Field: Camilo Villegas, Jonathan Byrd.
Top 15 players from the 2007 European tour money list: Henrik Stenson, Andres Romero, Soren Hansen, Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Richard Sterne.
Top 10 players from the 2008 U.S. PGA Tour money list on May 26: Ryuji Imada, Anthony Kim, Jeff Quinney.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Wagner overcomes mid-round slump to lead Colonial after opening 63 that includes 9 birdies
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -Johnson Wagner bogeyed two of three holes midway through the first round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational, a small hiccup on his way to matching his best score on the U.S. PGA Tour on Thursday.
After his approach at No. 10 missed the green for a bogey, Wagner responded with three consecutive birdies, including a nifty up-and-down on the 611-yard 11th hole. He then added two more before the round was over to increase his birdie total to nine for a 7-under 63 and a two-stroke lead over No. 2-ranked Phil Mickelson and Brett Wetterich.
"It felt like (the round) was going to slip away," Wagner said.
But it didn't, not even after his wind-pushed approach at No. 11 wound up in the rough well left of the green. Wagner flopped a shot to inside 6 feet of the pin on the back of the green.
"I decided to go ahead and try for the hero shot, and pulled it off," Wagner said. "It just righted the ship."
Wetterich also birdied Nos. 11-13, including a 367-yard drive on the par 5, then parred out the rest of the way to his 65. It was the best round of a disappointing season for Wetterich, who missed two months early on because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Mickelson, the 2000 champion who is at Colonial for the first time in three years, got to 5 under with a 12-foot birdie on the closing hole after missing a 7-footer at No. 17.
Five of the world's top 10 players are in the field, the most at Colonial since 2004. Mickelson was the only one to start with a subpar round, while Jim Furyk (71), Geoff Ogilvy (72), K.J. Choi (73) and Steve Stricker (74) had their varied struggles.
Glen Day was alone in fourth after a bogey-free round of 66 on a windy day, with gusts up to 35 mph (55 kph) howling through Hogan's Alley.
While length is a premium at so many modern-day layouts, the par-70, 7,054-yard tree-lined Colonial course is pretty much the same as it was when Ben Hogan won there five times from 1946-59.
Two-time Colonial champion Corey Pavin and Dudley Hart were among a group of eight players who shot 67. Another was Fort Worth resident Mark Brooks, who overcame a double-bogey 5 at No. 13 in his 25th start at Colonial. Brooks hasn't won since the 1996 U.S. PGA Championship.
Wagner was 4 under through seven holes, including two birdies on Colonial's "horrible horseshoe" - as Nos. 3-5 are known because of their layout and being the longest par 4s sandwiching a 252-yard par 3. He three-putted from 56 feet at the 194-yard 8th hole, then flew the green at No. 10 after misjudging the wind and missed a par-saving 4-foot putt after a nice chip shot.
But the bogeys didn't rattle him, as maybe they would have before he won on the PGA Tour.
"I should be playing better now that I'm a winner," Wagner said. "I'm just more comfortable, more confident, having more fun, not letting bogeys bother me or doubles bother me. ... At the beginning of the year, I would have gotten real frustrated and down."
Until his victory at the Shell Houston Open, Wagner had plenty to be upset about his game. He missed six consecutive cuts after tying for 38th in his season debut at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. He finished 78th and 64th in the two weeks leading up to Houston.
"I was really kind of at rock bottom and kind of recommitted myself to my coach," Wagner said. "Everything kind of clicked in Houston."
Defending champion Rory Sabbatini opened with a birdie at No. 1, but had bogeys on all three holes in the "horseshoe." He finished with a 1-over 71.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Another playoff, a different outcome for Creamer
BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) -The crystal trophy was waiting for her as Paula Creamer stood alone outside the clubhouse at Cedar Ridge, a pink cell phone attached to her ear and a smile that was brighter than the late afternoon sun in Oklahoma.
On the phone was Nancy Lopez, her mentor, former Solheim Cup captain and new BFF.
Everything was so different from last week: the conversation, the mood, and especially the outcome.
"This was my turn this time," Creamer said.
Seven days after losing the lead and the playoff to Annika Sorenstam, Creamer again had to go overtime Sunday in the SemGroup Championship after a stunning turn of events.
With a two-shot lead over Juli Inkster and her ball in the 18th fairway, Creamer blasted a 5-iron over the green and made bogey, and Inkster hit an 8-iron to 18 feet and watched her putt fall for birdie on the final turn.
But instead of getting nervous, as she did against Sorenstam by making a bogey 6 in the playoff, Creamer got mad. She fired at pins and cashed in on the second extra hole, No. 10, by holing an 8-foot birdie putt for a trophy she couldn't afford to lose.
Lopez was in south Florida last week to console her. This time, she was on the phone to congratulate her.
"She has done so much for women's golf and she has influenced a lot of my golf, especially now," Creamer said.
She hasn't entirely influenced Creamer or the 21-year-old would have been crying after a hard-fought victory. Instead, she was relieved at not letting another victory get away, and proud of an effort that was nothing short of resilient.
Creamer closed with a 1-over 72, the first time in her six LPGA Tour victories that she was over par in the final round. She made three bogeys in regulation, one that cost her the outright lead, and all three times bounced back with a birdie.
"I was not going to lose this week," Creamer said. "I was going to win this golf tournament, and I did in the playoff. Unfortunately, it had to go into a playoff, but I can tell you I was 120 percent prepared going into that from last week."
Lost in a terrific duel was the bid by Lorena Ochoa to win a record-tying fifth straight LPGA event, although it wasn't much of a bid. She didn't break par at Cedar Ridge until the final round, and her 2-under 69 wasn't nearly enough.
Ochoa started eight shots behind on Sunday and wound up in a tie for fifth, five shots out of the playoff.
"It's done," Ochoa said. "I tried really hard and it didn't work. Hopefully, I'll start a new streak next week."
Inkster, who turns 48 next month, had a chance to become the oldest winner in LPGA Tour history, and she hit the ball well enough to win. But she missed five putts inside 10 feet on the first 11 holes, and after making the clutch 18-footer on the 18th for a 70 that got her into a playoff, she didn't give herself any good looks on the two extra holes.
"I did want it bad, but I tried not to feel that way out there," Inkster said. "I was trying to be patient. But when you just keep missing putt after putt, it kind of wears on you. I putted so good for the first three days, but it's funny. You just wake up and feel like you've got a 2-by-4 in your hand instead of a putter."
Each player could look at putts she could have made throughout a relatively calm afternoon by Oklahoma standards.
Inkster missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fifth that would have given her a share of the lead. On the next hole, Creamer had a putt from the same distance to build a three-shot margin, but she missed.
Creamer three-putted from the seventh, bending over to pluck her ball from the cup on her 2-foot par until it swirled around the edge. That left them tied, but only briefly, for Inkster pulled her tee shot on No. 8 into a hazard and had to scramble for bogey.
For all her misses, though, Inkster came up big on the 18th with a birdie putt to give herself another chance in Tulsa.
"Unbelievable," Creamer said. "She wants everything so badly."
Perhaps it was only fitting that the tournament ended on the 10th hole with Creamer's 8-foot birdie putt. Inkster was in about the same spot earlier in the round, her shoulders slumped, when another putt turned away.
"I just knew it was a matter of time before she made one," Inkster said. "I had the exact same putt for birdie on the 10th hole, and I just knew she would roll that in. It's disappointing, because I definitely played good enough to win."
Both finished at 2-under 282. Creamer earned $270,000, joining Sorenstam and Ochoa as the only multiple winners on the LPGA Tour this year. Then again, with Ochoa winning five of her seven tournaments, she hasn't left much for anyone else.
Nor was she terribly disappointed to see the streak end.
"That's a hard word," she said. "I'm not disappointed because I gave myself a chance and I tried really hard. Sometimes it doesn't happen for you. I'm leaving with a smile on my face."
It wasn't quite as big as the smile Creamer had stretched across her face.
"It feels so much better than last week, I can tell you that," Creamer said.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Adam Scott still lacking the next step
One of the most vexing labels in golf is "best to have never won a major," which is now affixed to Sergio Garcia with little debate. But there is another description that is even more burdensome, and it belongs to Adam Scott.
Best to never even contend in a major.
"That's the last thing he needs to do to get to the next level," swing coach Butch Harmon said Monday night. "You forget that he's won a lot of tournaments. But he's got to step up to the plate in the majors, and stop putting so much pressure on himself."
It is no disgrace that the 27-year-old Scott has not won a major. Those are hard to come by in the era of Tiger Woods, and it has become even more difficult in recent years now that Phil Mickelson has figured them out.
Only five players in theirs 20s, including Woods, have won majors this decade.
Perhaps even more startling is that in the last five years, only 15 players in their 20s have finished in the top five at majors. Garcia is the leader in the clubhouse with six top fives since 2003, which includes a playoff loss at Carnoustie last summer, and playing in the final group with Woods at Royal Liverpool the year before.
That's why the "best to have never won a major" tag fits Garcia better than anyone else. Along with his six PGA Tour victories and 10 victories around the world, he has eight top fives in the majors since he turned pro in 1999.
Scott turned pro a year later, and his record stacks up favorably to Garcia except in one major department.
The Australian's only top five in a Grand Slam event came two years ago at Medinah, where he tied for third in the PGA Championship, albeit six shots behind Woods. His closest call came at Whistling Straits in the 2004 PGA Championship, when he tied for eighth, three shots out of a playoff won by Vijay Singh
That he has not seriously contended is a mystery, and it only deepened with his victory Sunday in Dallas.
Scott didn't earn any style points at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, but he showed plenty of heart. He took a three-shot lead into the final round, let it slip away with a tee shot into the water, rallied with a do-or-die birdie putt on the 18th, then atoned for two 10-foot misses by holing a 50-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole.
"I needed to walk out of here with a trophy," Scott said. "I needed to go and close this thing out, and it was tough, but I managed to do it. I feel pretty good about myself. It would have been a tough defeat. Even in tough conditions, to let go of a three-shot lead doesn't sit too well with many people, and that goes for me, as well."
Forget the majors for a moment and consider Scott's consistency.
His victory at the Byron Nelson put him in some elite company - with an asterisk - by winning at least one PGA Tour event each of the last six seasons. Only Woods, with victories in 13 straight seasons, has a longer active streak on tour. Scott's streak includes 2005 at Riviera, where he won in a playoff over Chad Campbell after rain limited the tournament to 36 holes, making it unofficial.
And while Scott hasn't won a major, he has won big events against strong fields.
The Aussie won the next best thing to a major in 2004 at The Players Championship, becoming the youngest champion at age 23. He ended the 2006 season with a victory in the Tour Championship by three shots over Jim Furyk. His first PGA Tour victory came at the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston.
But it all comes back to the majors, one glaring gap for a guy who seems to have everything.
His swing is so sound, so efficient, that he often was compared with Woods until the world's No. 1 player revamped his swing. He is blessed with movie star looks, and no scene was more startling than at Oak Hill at the 2003 PGA Championship when women were handing their hotel room keys to security guards to give to Scott.
His manners are simply impeccable. He treats everyone with equal consideration.
Maybe he's too nice, more lamb than tiger. His demeanor is in stark contrast to that of Garcia, whose temperament can hurt him as much as it helps. You won't see Scott spit into a cup, nor will you hear him complain about his endless run of bad luck.
But there was something that caught Harmon's attention late Sunday afternoon. With a chance to take a one-shot lead as he stood over an 8-foot eagle putt on the 16th hole, Scott left it short. He stood alone on the back of the green, lips pursed, anger visible.
"He was chewing himself out," Harmon said.
Ryan Moore made a 12-foot birdie ahead of him on the 17th hole to take a one-shot lead. Scott responded with a two-putt par from some 80 feet across the 17th, then two perfect shots and a clutch birdie to force the playoff.
To lose would have stirred memories of Memphis last year, when he blew a three-shot lead in the final round with a 75. Or at the Accenture Match Play Championship, where he missed three putts inside 10 feet on the final four holes to lose to Woody Austin.
"This is a big step for him," Harmon said. "It's big for his confidence."
It was his second victory this year, having won the Qatar Masters with a 61 in the final round, and it sends Scott to the Wachovia Championship and The Players Championship the next two weeks on a high.
He can only hope it's not another tease.
The real test comes six weeks from now at Torrey Pines for the U.S. Open.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
South Korean rookie M.J. Hur wins playoff for 1st pro victory
LAFAYETTE, Louisiana (AP) -South Korea's M.J. Hur won the Futures Tour's Louisiana Pelican Classic on Sunday for her first pro victory, birdieing the final hole of regulation to force a playoff and beating Vicky Hurst on the first extra hole.
The 19-year-old Hur closed with a 4-under 68 to match Hurst (72) at 10-under 206 at The Wetlands, then won with a par in the playoff.
"My putting was really good and part of the reason I had the score today," said Hur, who had only 27 putts in the final round. "I wasn't nervous in the playoff but I was nervous on 17 and 18. I didn't have any feelings at the time."
Hur earned $11,900.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Even Woods isn't immune on a back 9 where almost everything went wrong
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -If the millions watching from their living room couches weren't paying close attention Sunday, they might have thought this was quite a Masters.
Trevor Immelman made a hole-in-one. Tiger Woods chipped one from nowhere and the ball hung on the edge of the hole before dropping.
Great shots were breaking out all over the back nine, and with each one the roars seemed only to get louder.
Unfortunately, none was from this year.
Hard to blame CBS for showing highlights of previous Masters even while this one was going on. A senior bowling tournament would have been more interesting than this snoozefest.
By the time Immelman gagged his way in, almost everyone else had already gagged and gone home. He didn't so much win this green jacket as inherit it, and even the great Woods wasn't able to do anything about it.
Listen to the hushed tones of those who worship in the cathedral of golf that is Augusta National, and they'll tell you the Masters doesn't begin until the back nine on Sunday. On this Sunday, they might as well have saved us all the trouble and given Immelman the green jacket just for making it through the front nine without making too much of a mess of himself.
Zach Johnson may not have been the most exciting player ever to win the Masters, but at least he won it with a flurry of birdies on the back nine when it counted most. All we'll remember Immelman for is hooking his tee shot into the water on the par-3 16th when he had a five-shot lead he seemed destined to blow.
Turns out the new Masters champion could have put another Nike ball in the pond and still survived. No one else seemed to want this green jacket.
The three players right behind Immelman as the day started made their combined way around the course in a staggering 18-over-par. The greatest player ever couldn't even break par.
This wasn't so much a major championship as a NASCAR race, complete with wrecks scattered everywhere. Immelman emerged the three-stroke winner with a fat final round of 75 only because he was in the final group where it was easier to take a caution lap.
Woods managed a forced laugh afterward, but Brandt Snedeker took it personally. The aw-shucks kid with the Opie Taylor looks stood, head in hand, crying his heart out after the biggest day of his young career went bad.
"I was laughing outside," Snedeker said. "I'm crying in here."
The only surprise was that more players weren't crying under the pressure of trying to play perhaps the greatest course in the world in the final round of the Masters. Their job was made even worse by swirling winds that left even Woods guessing at yardages most of the time.
The green jackets who run the Masters wanted nothing more than a back nine filled with the kind of shots CBS kept showing from previous years, but even they didn't have the power to control Mother Nature. They tried to compensate by moving tees up and sticking pins in inviting spots, but a course already playing slick and fast turned into a monster that even the best players in the world had no clue how to tame.
Steve Flesch was doing better than most, cruising along only two shots from the lead at even par for the day when his 8-iron didn't even come close to clearing the water on the treacherous par-3 12th. On a course where eagles and birdies are usually available coming in, he played the last six holes a whopping 6-over-par.
There were similar tales of woe everywhere. Snedeker made only six pars all day on his way to a 77, while Paul Casey barely broke 80 after starting the day just four shots back. A day after the 45 weekend survivors made their way around the course in a combined 26-over-par, they were 120 over in the final round.
"It's kind of like trying to breathe air at the top of Mount Everest; there's just not a whole lot of options left over," Stewart Cink said. "You've got a lot of lungs pounding in and out."
Even Woods seemed baffled by it all, just as he had been all week. Woods might have been the only player at Augusta National who wanted the wind to blow, but when it, did he couldn't take advantage of it. And, of all the majors that got away, this one may be the one he remembers most because it was there for the taking among a group of pretenders who hadn't been there before.
The enduring image of Woods at this Masters won't be one of him pumping his fist after making a 70-footer for birdie on No. 11, but hitting a shot from around a tree two holes later. The only thing his birdie putt on the final hole did was give him undisputed second place and the satisfaction of matching par 72 on a day when par seemed much higher.
The green jackets had to be horrified by it all, even more than they were a year earlier when they were criticized for making the course too tough for any fun to break out on the final day. Excitement usually reigns on the back nine, but the final six players could only manage seven birdies.
Almost fittingly, the day ended with the storied course taking one final insult. The wind was one thing, but the sight of Immelman's tee shot on the 18th hole sitting in a nasty divot on the otherwise perfectly manicured fairway is one that will haunt the people who run the Masters for the next year.
Their only consolation is that not many people were still watching.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
A major tournament that means more than golf
AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) -Arnold Palmer and Butch Harmon have been coming to the Masters for more than half a century, and the tournament's mystique has yet to wear off them.
Harmon was a toddler when his father, Claude, won the Masters 60 years ago. Palmer, perhaps the most beloved figure at Augusta National, won the first of his four green jackets exactly 50 years ago.
"There are so many stories here," Harmon said on the green-carpet porch of the white clubhouse.
"That's what is so great about this place," Palmer quietly replied.
Today's stars understand that, too.
"This major is so important to all of us," Tiger Woods said. "It's such a special event."
Woods appreciates the beauty of Augusta National, but he's here for the golf. The world's No. 1 player sent expectations higher than a Georgia pine when he said this year that the Grand Slam - winning all four majors in the same year - was "easily within reason." He has won eight out of his last 10 tournaments and is an even-money favorite to win his fifth Masters, odds never before seen in golf.
He played 18 holes on Sunday and Monday, nine holes on Tuesday and spent the final day of practice on the driving range and the putting green, skipping the Par 3 tournament because he wanted no distractions.
For so many others, Augusta National is all about distractions, a blaze of color from the green grass to the pink and fuchsia azaleas to the white dogwoods.
The Masters is the only major held on the same golf course every year, and it has been televised every year since 1956. Fans and players alike grow up watching the tournament on the second weekend of April. They know the holes. They remember the shots. They can recite the history. But they can't recreate the beauty.
Tom Kolvek of Vero Beach, Florida brought his wife here for her 60th birthday. He purchased a book on the history of the club and took notes before passing through the gates on Wednesday, studying the contours of the land and the flowers named for every hole - Tea Olive, Golden Bell, Redbud, Holly - all of them found on this former nursery.
"It's like going to church," Kolvek said.
He took a picture on every hole, even if there were no world-class golfers in the background. It is not unusual to see fans stooped over an azalea bush, the camera inches away from the blooms.
Christine Hancock moved to Maryland from Augusta, but she returns each year for the Masters. For her, it is the definition of spring. For others, it signals the start of the golf season.
"A month before it happens, you get this draw to be here and nothing stands in your way," she said. "Everything that symbolizes and speaks to spring is here. It's just gorgeous."
It is a powerful draw for those who don't have a ticket. Even in a slumping economy, the market for a Masters badge remains high.
One New York broker said a four-day pass was going for $3,500 (?2,230), and if that sounds like a steal, consider the face value - $175 (?110), by far the cheapest for a major U.S. sporting event. A ticket to the Super Bowl, which lasts four hours, was $700 (?450).
For all the flowers, there are just as many footprints left by history.
Each hole contains a Masters moment, from Ben Crenshaw making a 60-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole in 1984, to Sandy Lyle hitting out of the cavernous bunker on the 18th to 10 feet for a birdie to win by a single stroke 20 years ago.
The Masters is the youngest of the four majors, created in 1934 by the great Bobby Jones. Even so, perhaps no other golf tournament celebrates its history quite like Augusta National, and Wednesday was a perfect example.
Playing the 18th hole by himself was Larry Mize, who turns 50 this year. He's remembered as the local kid who chipped in for birdie on the 11th hole in 1987 to beat Greg Norman in a playoff, still one of the most celebrated shots at the Masters.
Mize has never even practiced that shot over the last 21 years.
"It's a pure memory," he said. "I don't want to ruin it."
Want memories?
Two groups back was Jack Nicklaus, who stopped playing the Masters in 2005 but decided to play the back nine for practice with his 18-year-old grandson on the bag, just so the kid could see the course for himself. Nicklaus played with Gary Player, who will set the record this week by taking part in his 51st Masters.
The Golden Bear is now 68, and he had to hit a fairway metal into almost all the par 4s, but he was greeted by a standing ovation as he walked off the 18th tee.
He then played the Par 3 tournament and headed home.
"I'm going to leave this to a lot of young folks," he said.
Still, he was here, and he undoubtedly will be back next year. The aura of Amen Corner in the spring is too alluring.
What gives the course its mystique? Nicklaus left that for others to ponder, but his answer was simple:
"It's obviously a pretty place."
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
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