Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:10:57 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tony Dear :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Tony+Dear istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/us-looks-to-end-streak-of-biennial-humiliation/86125/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The fun and games are nearly over. The jokey jabs between Europe captain Nick Faldo and U.S. counterpart Paul Azinger, the playful exchanges, the poker, fishing and golf shenanigans on TV, are a distant memory. As Faldo remarked at Heathrow Airport on Monday, the friendly banter between the two stopped weeks ago. And though the occasional smile was seen at Monday's press conference, they were nervy, edgy smiles — the sort people give when they're, well, edgy and nervous. Of the two, Azinger has... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/players-to-watch/86126/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST America Phil Mickelson World Ranking: 2 Appearances: 6 Record: 9-12-4 What he brings: Preparation, experience, the capacity for other-worldly golf, willingness to bond ... for a week at least. What he lacks: Tiger's dominating, intimidating, brooding focus. Kenny Perry World Ranking: 20 Appearances: 1 Record: 0-2-0 What he brings: The crowds and the desire. No one wants to perform in front of the Louisville crowd more than Perry who lives 150 miles or so south of Valhalla. Kentuckians will... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/harrington-takes-back-to-back-majors-with-pga/83628/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Before he won last year's Open Championship, Padraig Harrington was considered Europe's bridesmaid with 24 career second place finishes and a game that was certainly sufficient to earn him a living but wasn't likely to give him anything but a fleeting mention in golf's history books. Now, instead of being nearly the man, he is just "the man." Actually, he was the man after repeating that 2007 Open Championship victory at Royal Birkdale last month, when he shot an inward 32 on Sunday in a tough... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/six-players-to-watch-at-pga/83375/ Thu, 7 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The game is surviving without Tiger Woods. Since he left the scene following his win at the U.S. Open in June, we have watched compelling finishes at the Open Championship and last week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Anthony Kim's explosive play has filled much of the gap that Tiger left, and Kenny Perry's march toward Ryder Cup qualification, not to mention his somewhat curious scheduling choices, have maintained many people's interest. The only problem, of course, is that picking a winner... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/can-a-european-conquer-the-monster-of-michigan/83275/ Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The last time golf fans saw Oakland Hills — the venue for the 90th PGA Championship, which starts tomorrow — was during the 2004 Ryder Cup, when the Americans suffered one of the event's all-time drubbings. Captain Hal Sutton's perceived masterstroke of pairing Tiger Woods with Phil Mickelson, the game's top two players, in a virtual remake of the 1971 and 1973 Jack Nicklaus/Arnold Palmer pairing, completely backfired. The pair posted zero points from two matches, thus giving the Europeans a... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/harrington-holds-onto-his-british-open-crown/82237/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Anyone who plays this game and has made the trip across the water to play on Britain's unsheltered and often bleak coastline knows how difficult it is to shoot 69 at a 7,000+ yard links course. Those who have played Royal Birkdale, even from the midweek tees, know how good you have to be to go under par. You can safely assume you will never play with anyone who beats 70 at Birkdale in 35-50 mph winds. And anyone who does so to win a major championship — with a dodgy wrist — must be a very... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-of-birkdales-best/82041/ Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Royal Birkdale differs slightly from many of Britain's great links courses in that its holes run between the sand dunes, not over them. The fairways are therefore relatively flat, meaning unanticipated kicks from the short grass into the rough (fairly thick this year due to 50% more rain in the last two months than is usual) will be few. But this is a major championship, of course, so although it measures only 7,180 yards from the back tees, Birkdale will be anything but easy. And if the wind... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-players-to-keep-an-eye/82042/ Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Tiger's not here, but as Peter Dawson, secretary of the R&A, said yesterday, he hasn't won eight of the 11 Open Championships he's played in, so the odds are whoever does win this week would have won anyway. Here are five players that will entertain the crowds in Tiger's absence. Anthony Kim (America) This is the Californian's first trip to the Open Championship, so it will be interesting to see how he copes in conditions that he has admitted are totally alien to him. His practice round with... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/mickelson-looks-to-end-run-of-disappointing-opens/81968/ Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Phil Mickelson made his debut in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale 17 years ago. A prodigious talent, he had shown the world just how prodigiously talented he was six months previously by becoming only the fourth amateur in history to win on the PGA Tour when he beat Tom Purtzer by a shot at the Northern Telecom Open in Tucson, Ariz. He continued to impress throughout the spring and summer that year surviving the cut at the Masters, Memorial Tournament, and U.S. Open. A junior at Arizona... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/golf-must-now-adapt-to-a-tigerless-world/80288/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST In the increasingly glamorous, highly publicized, multi-billion-dollar golf industry (it's bigger even than the movie industry), there can sometimes be a question mark hanging over people's motives for announcing anything. However, there's absolutely no reason to believe that Tiger Woods's desire to shift the spotlight away from his knee last week and back on to the USGA and the U.S. Open was anything but genuine. What, after all, would he have to gain from spilling the fairly newsworthy beans... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/91-holes-later-tiger-takes-us-open/80143/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Very little, it seems, can stop him. Left knees that have been operated on three times try but fail, and 45-year-old journeymen, deploying the undeniably potent force of knowing they really have nothing to lose, come up agonizingly short too. Perhaps the only players Tiger Woods has any reason to fear are not the game's other superstars, who probably feel constant frustration at not being able to match his physical and mental attributes, but those way down in the world rankings who recognize... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/a-miracle-putt/80072/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST After a pulsating day in which story angles changed every five minutes, the 108th U.S. Open Championship is exasperatingly unfinished. Tiger Woods hit a clutch 15-foot putt on the 18th hole to lift himself into a tie with Rocco Mediate, and the two will play an 18-hole playoff today to decide the tournament's winner. As if yesterday's events weren't TV-friendly enough, the players filling in today's final chapter come from the two extremes of the field: One is the world's no. 1, the man... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-to-watch-other-than-the-obvious-two/79716/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST With nine Buick Invitational wins at Torrey Pines between them, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are obvious contenders this week. There are too many good players in good form for it to be a two-man show, however. Here are five more who are definitely capable of stealing the limelight. Sergio Garcia Few would have considered him a possible winner of the U.S. Open prior to his victory at the Players Championship in May. But with his improving putting stroke and the confidence that must have... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/us-open-has-makings-of-a-gem/79648/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott are playing together for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif. A great pairing. The no. 2 and no. 3 in the world. Mickelson's showing some excellent form this season with two wins already, and he's won the Buick Invitational at this course three times. Scott, meanwhile, shot a final round 61 to claim the Qatar Masters on the European Tour in January and won in Dallas several weeks back. Should be exciting to watch. Now if only... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/mickelson-garcia-aim-at-another-tiger-less-event/78871/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Who will be thanking Tiger Woods for not being here this week? Three Sundays ago, it was Sergio Garcia who showed his gratitude after the world no. 1 scratched from the Players Championship in Florida. And with Woods still not fully recovered from his April 15 knee surgery, and not scheduled to appear until the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in two weeks' time, the door is open again at the Memorial this weekend. Of course, even though his play in the early part of the season possibly surpassed even... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/all-the-makings-of-a-major-just-without-tiger/76073/ Thu, 8 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The tournament so desperate to be hailed golf's fifth major begins its 35th edition at the TPC Sawgrass in Florida today with the no. 1 player in the world absent. That Tiger Woods chose April 15 for surgery on his left knee rather than three weeks before the Masters, or any of the other majors, suggests the Players Championship still ranks considerably lower on his to-do list than PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem would like. The arthroscopic procedure to repair cartilage damage was carefully... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/probables-possibles-and-also-rans-10-to-watch/74407/ Wed, 9 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST TIGER WOODS (AMERICA) Even money with bookmakers around the world, Woods is seeking his fifth green jacket — one more than Palmer, one short of Jack Nicklaus. His swing looks better than ever, his putting stroke looks typically solid, and no one wants it more than he does. How could you not pick him? VIJAY SINGH (FIJI) After making big changes to his swing over the winter (it has become more upright) and with three top-three finishes already this year, the Fijian is ready for another green... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/guide-to-amen-corner/74430/ Wed, 9 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST 2008 is a good year for anniversaries at the Masters. It's 10 years since the second-cut was introduced; 20 since Sandy Lyle played the brilliant fairway bunker shot that set up a closing birdie to beat Mark Calcavecchia by a stroke, and 40 since Roberto De Vicenzo's infamous scorecard gaffe. Arnold Palmer won his first green jacket half a century ago, and, also in 1958, Herbert Warren Wind referred to the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes as "Amen Corner" for the first time. Birdies are always on... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/woods-begins-hunt-for-grand-slam/74325/ Tue, 8 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Tiger Woods's march to the calendar year grand slam begins at Augusta National this week. He's already managed one slam, of course, but because his previous impregnable quadrilateral, improbable quartet, implausible foursome — whatever you want to call it — involved some overlap from 2000 into 2001, it didn't count for many people who thought it should go by a different name: the "Tiger Slam." Not discounting the 142 consecutive cuts made from February 1998 to May 2006, nine Player of the Year... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/tiger-joins-the-tours-florida-swing-at-bay-hill/72822/ Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST It's part of a group of tournaments known collectively as the Florida Swing, but the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (still "Bay Hill" to those not overly concerned with PGA Tour propriety or giving the corporate sponsor a mention) really stands alone. Twenty-nine years after Palmer upgraded the Florida Citrus Open by moving it across town to his new winter home, the tournament is enjoying a stature and prestige not far short of the majors, despite the fact that it changes... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/woods-mickelson-tee-off-season-with-the-buick/70072/ Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST As the old saying goes, no one remembers who came second. Well, outside households where the Golf Channel isn't on at all hours of the day, most people would have trouble telling you who came first at the PGA Tour's opening three events of the season. That's not to say they were dull; far from it in fact. Daniel Chopra eventually beat Steve Stricker in a thrilling four-hole playoff at the Mercedes Championships in Maui. K.J. Choi held off a typically spirited Rory Sabbatini in Honolulu to land... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/woodss-slam-chase-may-overshadow-ryder-fedex/68890/ Thu, 3 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The PGA Tour cranks into action in Hawaii again today with the Mercedes-Benz Championship, but, unlike last year, when controversy, confusion, doubt, and a healthy (or rather unhealthy) dose of anxiety surrounded the introduction of the FedEx Cup, 2008 kicks off in a relative calm. Despite the avalanche of bad press the FedEx Cup took in the first half of last season, when skeptics voiced fears concerning the seemingly complex points system, the scheduling of the playoffs, and the manner in... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/woods-needs-to-boost-a-us-team-thats-now/63499/ Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST It may never have the historical significance of the Ryder Cup, nor can it hope to attract the same level of attention, especially during this period of inexplicable European dominance, but the Presidents Cup, starting today at Canada's venerable Royal Montreal GC (the oldest golf club in North America) is a very big deal. This will be the seventh playing of the event. America has four wins, and the International side just one. The 2003 tournament at Fancourt in South Africa ended in darkness... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/how-the-pga-can-repair-the-fedex-cup-rules/63054/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST The dust that the FedEx Cup threw up has settled, the trophy has at last been kissed (well, did Tiger Woods actually kiss it?) and a minor blip — to the tune of $10 million — has been recorded in Tiger's retirement account. But four days after the low-key awards ceremony on the 18th green at East Lake in Atlanta, the question that the golf world has been asking still lingers: What to do with the FedEx Cup? Of course, the very fact the question still exists suggests there is something wrong with... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/to-give-fedex-cup-legs-pga-needs-tiger-to-win/62526/ Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST After a year of mostly bad press, the FedEx Cup needs baked, lumpy greens at the venue for its season-ending Tour Championship like Atlanta, and East Lake GC in particular, needs another stifling, sunny, rainless day. Word arrived that East Lake's bentgrass putting surfaces had succumbed to the relentless and unforgiving Georgia summer last Sunday as Tiger Woods strode imperiously to his fourth win at Cog Hill in Chicago, and 60th overall, following a masterful final round 63. With temperatures... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/leftys-drop-out-presents-a-fedex-cup-dilemma/62056/ Thu, 6 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST Just when commissioner Tim Finchem and the suits at NBC were licking their chops and breathing one almighty sigh of relief, Phil Mickelson went and rained — no, poured — on their parade by withdrawing from this week's BMW Championship in Chicago. In doing so, he not only made the point that he has, apparently, been desperate to make to Finchem for some time — that is, "I don't need your playoffs, especially after you went ahead with your own plans and didn't listen to mine" — but he also... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/interest-in-fedex-cup-will-depend-on-whos-winning/61126/ Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST So, here we are: It's playoff time on the PGA Tour. At last, we get to find out what all the fuss over this FedEx Cup thing is about, and why there's a 12-story, three-dimensional billboard of a golf hole, mounted by FedEx to advertise the trophy, on Greenwich Street. Over the course of four playoff tournaments in the next four weeks, the world will learn if commissioner Tim Finchem's plan for a more exciting finish to the season has worked, or if it was a lame attempt at retaining sports fans'... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/in-tulsa-tiger-nabs-13th-major/60356/ Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST You didn't, did you? You didn't think he was going to lose? You didn't honestly think Tiger Woods was going to let a 54-hole lead in a major championship get away from him — did you? Okay, there was a spell in the middle of the back nine when the engraver had to put down his tools for a moment, when headline writers were forced to rethink their angles. There was the briefest of periods when the sweat pouring off Woods's brow had more to do with the heat Ernie Els and Woody Austin were applying... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-players-to-watch-at-southern-hills/60170/ Thu, 9 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST TIGER WOODS The last time Woods arrived at the PGA Championship without having won a major, many people said he was in a slump. That was 2004, a year in which he won once, posted three runner-up finishes, three third places, and 14 top-10s, and banked well over $5 million. Some slump. Of course, a Tiger slump is defined somewhat differently to those of other players, and with "just" three wins until last week, some were saying 2007 looked similarly slump-ish. His win at the WGC Bridgestone... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/course-rookies-to-have-impact-at-championship/60034/ Wed, 8 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST At major championships, the course ends up as big a story as the competition itself. The hubbub surrounding conditions at Augusta National following this year's Masters settled to a quiet murmur in the summer while the question of Oakmont's severity — was it merely stiff or just plain absurd? — will still be asked a hundred years from now. At Carnoustie, venue for this year's Open Championship, the focus was on the R&A and the good sense it showed in allowing James Braid's sound design and the... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/tiger-has-a-tee-time-at-an-old-favorite/59697/ Thu, 2 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST Ohio's annual Tiger Woods Benefit Drive, otherwise known as the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, starts today on Firestone Country Club's famous South Course where the world no. 1 has banked an incredible $6,587,400 since the 1997 NEC World Series of Golf (the NEC World Series became the WGC NEC Invitational in 1999 and the Bridgestone last year). There aren't many courses that don't suit Woods's game, but nowhere, it seems, does he feel quite so comfortable as he does over... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/harrington-outlasts-garcia-to-win-first-major/58916/ Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Allowed this time to look after itself with the help of an ever-present, albeit gentle, breeze, Carnoustie offered one of the best Open Championships in living memory, and one that will still be celebrated in Ireland long after Padraig Harrington has left for the great links in the sky. Sixty years after Fred Daly won the Open at Hoylake, the Emerald Isle has its long-awaited second Claret Jug and one which will no doubt need a thorough cleaning before heading to Royal Birkdale next year, in... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-players-to-watch-at-carnoustie/58741/ Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST In addition to the superstars who are always expected to contend, any Open Championship field includes a number of players worth keeping an eye on. Barring a typically efficient Tiger Woods exhibition or a well-prepared Phil Mickelson at last playing the shots needed to win on a links, any one of the following five players could take home the claret jug. ANGEL CABRERA It really would be something if the Duck from Argentina won two majors in succession, but as he proved at Oakmont five weeks... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-holes-where-par-is-a-victory/58754/ Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Picking out five difficult holes at Carnoustie is not terribly difficult — there isn't a hole on the course that isn't capable of ruining your day. There are some decent birdie chances — first, third, sixth (in the unlikely event it plays downwind), 11th and 14th — and the rain in the forecast should make concealed pins more accessible, but if the rain gets heavy and grips start slipping, then expect some high numbers. The links has only two par 5s, and they run in opposite directions so while... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/memories-of-99-british-open-haunt-carnasty/58634/ Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST A lot of the criticism that Carnoustie took in 1999 was entirely justified. The plus-6 winning score, the plus-12 cut, 102 rounds in the 80s, two in the 90s, the 78.31 scoring average for the 444 rounds played, a talented but inexperienced Sergio Garcia shooting plus-30 for the first two rounds, and Jean Van De Velde's implausible implosion at the 72nd hole where the Frenchman hacked his way to a disastrous triple bogey seven, made that year's Open Championship tough to watch as well as play... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/mr-woods-goes-to-washington/57870/ Thu, 5 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a shame the international, with its funky stableford-type scoring format and superb venue, was dropped from the PGA Tour schedule in February, but to be honest the only place they're still griping about it is in Colorado. Its replacement, the AT&T national, which starts today at Congressional CC 10 miles northwest of downtown Washington, D.C., in the suburb of bethesda, is an even more mouthwatering prospect given its superior field (five of the world's top six are playing, whereas the... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/cabrera-becomes-the-unlikely-champion-of-oakmont/56780/ Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST And you thought Winged Foot in 2006 was hard. Okay, Angel Cabrera's winning score of five over par was the same as Geoff Ogilvy's last year and the cut fell at the same number — +10 — but the average score at Oakmont was 75.72, .73 of a shot higher. Last year there were a dozen rounds under par, this year eight. And despite four par 4s under 400 yards, a long iron or hybrid followed by a poke with a wedge for today's top players, not a single hole at Oakmont played under its par. Did you get... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/10-players-to-watch-at-oakmont/56582/ Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST As it is every year, the 156-man field for the U.S. Open is a disparate band of golfers. There are players idolized around the world, respected journeymen who haven't quite made it to household name status (and probably never will), and opportunists no one, save for family and friends, has ever heard of who made it through local and sectional qualifying for the thrill of playing the hardest course they'll ever see in front of the largest galleries that will ever watch them and against players... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/land-of-the-bogey/56438/ Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST At Winged Foot a year ago, the average score for the 436 rounds played in the U.S. Open Championship was 74.99 — .01 of a shot short of five over par. In the first round, the 155-man field returned a mean 75.98 — mean as in "average," of course, not as in "good" — with only one man, Colin Montgomerie, breaking 70. The cut fell at 150, 10-over, with the best player in the world going home early following two rounds of 76. Certainly, Tiger Woods was rusty after a nine-week absence from the game... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/mickelson-evades-sunday-demons-wins-players/54394/ Mon, 14 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Seriously, what is Phil Mickelson like? If not for a fairly soft bounce on the left side of the 18th green at the Players Championship yesterday, his approach to the last hole might have dropped into the lake bordering the left side. The golf world would be talking this morning about how he came to the hole seemingly having eliminated the demons that still lingered following his bizarre, not to say, foolish string of shots at the 72nd hole of last year's U.S. Open, and not only did he let them... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/grass-is-greener-at-players-championship/54205/ Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00:00 EST In its relentless pursuit of major status, the PLAYERS championship has pulled out a considerable number of stops in the 14 months since Stephen Ames beat Vijay Singh by six shots to win the event's 33rd edition. The most significant change has been the shift in dates — from late March to early May — a sevenweek deferral that ensures the tournament no longer competes with college basketball for column inches or acts merely as a warm-up for Augusta. It also means the prospect of better weather... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/unexpected-champion-dons-the-green-jacket/52056/ Mon, 9 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Somewhere deep within the whitewashed walls of the Augusta National clubhouse, Hootie Johnson is smiling. The former club chairman, replaced last spring by Billy Payne and the man who, in 2001, set about the task of reinforcing a course that was no longer a match for the modern player's arsenal and in danger of becoming an obsolete drive-pitch-and-putt, will be feeling justly proud of how the monster he created repelled the best players in the world, allowing not a single one of them to finish... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/famous-five/51806/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST As Phil Mickelson said recently, it's impossible to choose the most pivotal holes at Augusta. They all inspire greatness and, at the same time, threaten disaster — each offering the chance of a birdie for the judicious golfer but guaranteeing calamity for the careless. Here are Augusta's five hardest holes in order, not one of which has ever played under its par. Historically the hardest hole at Augusta, averaging 4.32 since 1942 when the club began keeping records, the 10th can be reached with... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/master-plan/51811/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Augusta National and the Masters Tournament have seen much change and a good deal of controversy already this century. Starting in 2000, winning a PGA Tour event no longer meant automatic qualification for the first major of the year, as it had done since 1972. J.L. Lewis, who won the 1999 John Deere Classic and, he thought, a trip to Augusta, wasn't pleased. In 2004, it was past champions' turn to feel slighted when the club stated anyone older than 65 or not entering a minimum of 10 events a... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/five-young-players-to-watch/51820/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Adam Scott, 26 Scott comes into the Masters brimming with confidence following his win at the Shell Houston Open last weekend. On a course set up to mimic the challenge of Augusta National — fast greens, inch and a half long rough, shaved slopes, etc. — Scott shot a four round total of 271 (17 under par) to hold off the challenge of countryman Stuart Appleby. Striking the ball better than he has all year, the Aussie averaged 302 yards off the tee and hit almost 86% of greens in regulation... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/coming-off-bad-outing-tiger-is-most-dangerous/50943/ Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST In a sense, two players are defending titles at Doral in Miami this week, and one of them is defending twice. Confused? Well, you're not alone. The FedEx Cup inspired changes to the PGA Tour schedule have had spectators, press, and players scratching their heads all year. Take Stephen Ames, one of this week's "defenders." It was precisely a year ago that the Canadian citizen (by way of Trinidad and Tobago) beat Retief Goosen by six shots to win the Players Championship at the TPC of Sawgrass... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/birdies-even-harder-to-come-by-at-revamped-bay/50518/ Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Birdies, as plentiful as ever on the West Coast — an average winning total of just over 267 in the six full-field, four-round events — have thus far been somewhat harder to come by on the Florida Swing of the PGA Tour, and they'll be equally hard earned at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla., this week. Despite losing a total of 130 yards and its par being lowered from 72 to 70, Palmer's Bay Hill course is playing tougher than ever and has many onlookers likening it to a U.S. Open... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/riviera-lures-all-the-stars-except-that-woods-guy/48698/ Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Tiger Woods may be elsewhere … again, but eight of the world's top 10 players will be teeing up in the Nissan Open, which starts today at Riviera Country Club in Pasadena, Calif., today, with another 14 from the top 30 also in the starting lineup. It's a field that promises some much needed excitement after a rather tame start to a season blunted by tournament fields best described as patchy. Unfortunately for the tour, hoping its meticulously planned and vigorously marketed FedEx Cup would... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/tiger-begins-season-looking-to-make-it-seven/47370/ Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST A back-to-form Vijay Singh, a 42-year-old Paul Goydos winning for the first time since 1996, a 16-year-old Hawaiian by the name of Tadd Fujikawa, and the crazy-haired Charley Hoffman have served up an appetizing, if not thrilling, start to the PGA Tour season. The real fireworks arrive this week at the Buick Invitational when Tiger Woods makes his first appearance of the year looking not only for his seventh-straight PGA Tour title but also his third straight win, and fifth altogether, at this... TONY DEAR http://www.nysun.com/sports/chase-for-fedex-cup-begins-just-without-tiger/46099/ Thu, 4 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST When Tiger Woods announced last Friday that he would not be showing up for the first event of the new PGA Tour season, the Mercedes-Benz Championship starting today at the Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course on the island of Maui, one could sense the collective tuts, shrugs, and dejected expulsion of breath emanating from Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., not to mention the Orlando studios of the Golf Channel that was no doubt counting on Woods to get its 15-year, $3 billion coverage...