Sports Then and Now

Phil Mickelson celebrates his come-from-behind victory at the 2013 British Open.

With his come-from-behind victory at the British Open, Phil Mickelson joined an elite group as the 17th man in golf history to win three different major championships during his career.

Considering that earlier this year Mickelson finished second at the U.S. Open for a record sixth time, it is almost tempting to consider him the seventh person to win the career grand slam.

However, that accomplishment will have to wait until next year when the U.S. Open returns to Pinehurst, which was the site of the Open when Mickelson finished second for the first time in 1999.

Of those who won three different majors, the legend with whom Mickelson has the most in common in American Sam Snead.

Snead won seven major titles during his career, but was never able to win the U.S. Open. He finished second on four occasions during 31 attempts (there was no tournament between 1942-1945 when Snead was in his early 30s and was just reaching his prime).

After finishing second at the U.S. Open in his first appearance in the tournament in 1937, Snead finished in the top 10th again in 1939 and in the top 20 in 1940 and 1941. When the tournament returned following World War II, Snead finished tied for 19th in 1946, then second in 1947, fifth in 1948 and tied for second again in 1949. Read the rest of this entry →

Keegan Bradley has been amongst the hottest golfers in the world since winning the PGA Championship in August.

Keegan Bradley enhanced his growing reputation even further this week with victory at the PGA Grand Slam, holding on to the lead despite a late surge from the in-form Charl Schwartzel.

While Bradley shot an even 71 in the tournament’s final round to go 4-under in total, Schwartzel was in sublime form, equaling the course record of 65 with a run of five consecutive birdies in the front nine.

The South African will be pleased with his efforts of course, but also frustrated that he left it too late to win the tournament. He went into the final round at 3-over, so a 65 wasn’t even enough for him to overtake Bradley to take the title.

He admitted as much afterwards, saying: “I obviously still had a chance going into the back nine. I just didn’t do enough when I needed to.”

As for Bradley, the American youngster did feel the pressure during the final round with dropped shots at 1, 5 and 6. He recovered well though with a birdie at the 7th and he didn’t look back from there.

Speaking about a dramatic days golf, Bradley said: “It was a lot more intense that I thought it was going to be. I was nervous, this felt like a tournament on the PGA Tour. I was very nervous. I had been thinking it was going to a playoff considering how my year has been going.” Read the rest of this entry →

Thomas Bjorn claimed the Omega European Masters in a playoff.

Thomas Bjorn has had impressive two weeks, securing two titles and enhancing his reputation in the process.

The vastly-experienced Dane won a five-man play-off at Gleneagles to win the Johnny Walker Championship and followed it up with securing the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

The 40-year-old showed his coolness under pressure in Scotland a fortnight ago, with five great playoff holes and sent a message down to the other players vying for a Ryder Cup place.

The qualifying for next year’s event started this week and a nine-under-par 62 not only saw him shoot the lowest round of his European Tour career, but also ensured he made strides for the race for the major tournament.

His feat in Switzerland was all the more impressive as US Open champions Rory McIlroy and former number-one ranked players Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, who he beat by four shots, were both in contention heading into the final day before Bjorn blew them away with some influential strokeplay and immaculate putting. Read the rest of this entry →

After winning the 2010 PGA, Martin Kaymer struggled in 2011.

A year that started so well for Martin Kaymer did more than just fizzle out. The 2010 PGA champion and joint European player of 2010 confirmed his ascendency by claiming top spot in the rankings soon after a stunning eight-shot victory at the Abu Dhabi Championships. He certainly made himself popular in the Golf betting.

The German seemed sure to be the leading player in the vacuum at the top of the sport by the varying degrees of loss in form experienced by Tiger Woods and other Americans. Instead Kaymer has regressed, slipping to fourth in the rankings and failing to win another event.

An opening round 78 at the Masters, consigning him to his fourth straight missed cut at Augusta, revealed that his seemingly rock-solid all-round game could collapse. Kaymer has struggled to regain his composure since, although he did show glimpses of his best by starting the Open well and finishing joint 12th.

Jose Maria Olazabal might not be too concerned at Kaymer’s loss of form. The German’s best golf since Abu Dhabi have come in Match Play – he was runner-up to Luke Donald in the WGC-Accenture Match Play and was beaten by the same man in the semi finals of the Volvo Match Play Championship.
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It has been a frustrating year so far for former top golfer Tiger Woods.

Some bookmakers are offering odds of 16-1 that Tiger Woods will mark his return to golf with a sensational win at the Bridgestone Invitational this week.

The event, which begins this week, will see Woods make his first appearance in a competition since he limped out of The Players’ Championship after just nine holes, 12 weeks ago.

At such odds, Woods is considered by most placing free bets to be the fourth favorite to win the tournament, testament to his undoubted ability as a player.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is a Northern Irishman who goes into the event as favourite. US Open winner Rory McIlroy will be looking to put a disappointing British Open behind him, and remind the world that he is one of the finest players in golf at the moment.

England’s Lee Westwood is another who will be hoping to win this week – he is second favourite, just ahead of Steve Stricker.

But it is Woods who will no doubt be the main talking point.

There are many questions that cannot be answered until he gets out onto the course and shows everyone what level he is at. Read the rest of this entry →

Tiger Woods hopes his trip to the U.S. Open will last longer than the nine holes he played at the Players Championship.

Tiger Woods is still confident of competing in next month’s US Open despite suffering another injury setback. The former world-number one pulled up after nine holes at last week’s Players Championship at Sawgrass, with a series of nagging injuries in his left leg.

Tiger’s left knee (again), Achilles and calf all tightened halfway through his opening round, so much so that he was forced to withdraw from the tournament. It was clear to anybody watching that Tiger wasn’t fully fit, his opening nine holes saw him shoot a disastrous 42 before making the decision to retire hurt. Anyone following the 2011 US Open golf betting will have been very worried by the nature of the injury.

Speaking after his enforced withdrawal from the Players Championship, Woods confirmed the injury was worryingly a flare up of an old knee problem, which had then caused tightness in his achilles and calf.

“The knee acted up, then the achilles followed and then the calf started cramping up. Everything started getting tight, so it’s just a whole chain reaction,” he said.

With the US Open less than a month away Woods has maintained he is still focusing on participating at the season’s second major, to be held at the Congressional from the 16th to the 19th of June. Woods released a statement on his personal website following his withdrawal from Sawgrass.

“Aggravating my injury is very disappointing. I’ll do whatever is necessary to play in the US Open and I’m hopeful I can be there to compete,” it read.

The course at the Congressional has happy memories for Tiger after he won the AT&T National in 2009 at the Maryland held event. The US open was Tiger’s last major win in 2008 and that year had a similar feel to it for the former dominant force in world golf. Injury then had affected Tiger’s warm-up to the Torrey Pines held US Open in 2008, a lack of practice rounds didn’t hinder him though and Woods prevailed at the first extra hole after the 18th hole play-off. Those looking at the US Open betting won’t be expecting him to pull off a miracle this time around.

While plenty will never lose any doubt that Tiger will one day return to the top of his game, some however don’t believe we’ll ever see the day when Woods is the same player as he was before his problems. Winning this year’s US Open would certainly silence those critics, but it would take a hell of an effort to do it without any preparation time.