VIJAY THE GREAT

Vijay Singh once again is in the winners circle and now has a commanding but not impenetrable lead in the Fedex Cup. Singh, who won last week at The Barclay's, now owns his second Deutsche Bank Championship and did it in dominating fashion finishing a ridiculous twenty two shots under par. Canadian Mike Weir finished in second at seventeen under, and the Big Easy Ernie Els came in third at fourteen under par. Other notables: Sergio Garcia, who lost in a playoff last week to Vijay finished tied for fifth, and former US Open champion Jim Furyk ended up tied for seventh.

I didn't get to see much of this tournament unfortunately, and I have still haven't had the chance to see it live which is something I've wanted to do since they started having the tournament in Norton, Massachusetts. But I've had the privilege of playing the course they play at once cause one of my friends' dad is so rich that he doesn't use napkins but instead twenty dollar bills. I shot a 91, which is not bad at all for a hacker like myself. Anywho, I did catch a little of the first two rounds where Mike Weir and Tim Clark flirted with the omnipresent score of 59. Weir ended up with a 61 while Clark bogeyed his last two holes and shot 62.

With the scores around fifteen under par going into to the last two rounds I thought the winning number would be 21 under. Vijay topped that with 22 under. It was disappointing to see however that the nearest person was only at 17 under. Looking at the scores many players that were in contention going into Sunday didn't break 70 and some couldn't break par on a course that giving up numerous scores in the low 60's. This is not a surprise. Many of the PGA tour players just don't have heart or balls when it comes to the final round. And if Tiger Woods is winning, you can forget it, that tournament is over. The pressure gets to these guys so bad that they simply roll in the fetus position and hope to finished second.



Here are the top 10 in the Fedex Cup standings going going into the BMW Championship:

1. Vijay Singh
2. Sergio Garcia
3. Mike Weir
4. Justin Leonard
5. Jim Furyk
6. Kevin Sutherland
7. Anthony Kim
8. Phil Mickelson
9. Kenny Perry
10.Ben Curtis

Also the Ryder Cup teams were named this weekend. I will have more on this later today or tomorrow. Let me say now that US team isn't lookin too good.

On a personal note, I'll be heading back to school today in Newport, RI at Salve Regina University. I live right by Newport Country Club and if I am in the right mood I may try to sneak on to play.

-The Diesel

Vijay the Victorious

Vijay Singh (-8), a winner a couple weeks ago at the World Golf Championships, defeated Sergio Garcia (-8) and Kevin Suthlerland (-8) in a playoff to take down the Barclays Championship for the fourth time in his career. With this win in the first round of the Fedex "playoffs," Singh has vaulted himself into first place in the Fedex Cup standings with Garcia and Sutherland behind him respectively.

On the first playoff hole Vijay and Garcia exchanged birdies, kicking Sutherland out of the playoff. Then on the second hole Garcia found trouble with his drive, while Vijay found the fairway and subsequently found the green on his next shot at the 577 par 5 seventeenth. Singh easily birdied the hole, and Garcia almost nearly holed a chip to tie, but it was not to be.

With this tournament out of the way, here is the new top 10 in the Fedex standings:

1. Vijay Singh
2. Sergio Garcia
3. Kevin Sutherland
4. Phil Mickelson
5. Justin Leonard
6. Anthony Kim
7. Kenny Perry
8. Ben Curtis
9. Stewart Cink
10.Jim Furyk

Not many big changes there beside Sutherland basically jumping into third from pure obscurity. Perry was second last week, and after a average effort is now down to seventh. Padraig Harrington, who has won the last two majors and one of my picks to win the Fedex Cup, decided he was mad cool this week and missed the cut dropping him to 23rd. And Tiger Woods, without taking one swing, is now in 15th.

We are now down to 120 players, and after this weeks tournament be down to 70. This week folks the greatest players in the world are coming up to Massachusetts, specifically Norton, Mass, to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Past winners include Vijay and Phil Mickelson, so expect them to play well.

In other news, eighteen year old Danny Lee won the prestigious United States Amateur Championship by beating Drew Kittleson 5 & 4 in 36 hole match play competition.


Lee also made the record books by being the youngest ever to win the event. The previous youngest? Tiger Woods.



So that is pretty awesome for Danny. Now Tiger won the event three times in a row, and I wonder if Danny is eager to match that or turn pro early to GET PAID. Time will tell, but winning the US Amateur is a big deal so look out for that name in the future.

On the Nationwide Tour Scott Piercy took down the pretty much irrelevant Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. Last week's winner Brendon de Jonge came in second two shots back. Piercy, along with the glamor of being champion, won $94,500. Vijay Singh for his victory? How about $1,260,000.

-The Diesel

Singh victorious at WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

With one last four footer on the eighteenth, Vijay Singh (-10) saved par and hung on to win his first World Golf Championship and his 32nd overall win on the PGA Tour defeating Stuart Appleby (-9) and Lee Westwood(-9) by one stroke. Fan favorite Phil Mickelson(-8), who came into the last round tied for the lead, bogeyed three out of the last four holes and ended up tied for fourth along with South African Retief Goosen(-8).

It wasn't easy for Singh. And I am sure he would tell you it could have been a lot less dramatic had he made his four to eight foot putts down the stretch. Heading into yesterdays final round, the native Fijian ranked 78th out of 80 in putting from that delicate four to eight foot range. Now that is terrible especially for a guy of Vijay's caliber, but it also is a sign of how well he is striking the ball. For a guy to win the tournament as Singh did, he must have been giving himself several birdie chances.

This is now Singh's 20th victory since turning forty and that is the most of anyone in the history of the tour after hitting that mark. This win should give Singh a lot of confidence heading into to this week's final major of the year: The PGA Championship held at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. And with a field without Tiger Woods, Vijay is definitely a favorite to win, along with Mickelson and Westwood, who continues playing well at tough courses.

In the other PGA Tour event, the one where all the good players weren't playing, Parker McLachlin ran away from the field with an impressive eighteen under par score to win the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. Even though the young stud shot 74 yesterday, his scorching 62 on Friday, tying the course record, propelled him into the lead and he never looked back. Coming into the final round with a six stroke lead, him winning was a mere formality unless he had Greg Normanlike problems.


Also yesterday was the Senior US Open, one of the five majors on the Champions tour. Argentina's Eduardo Romero took it down fairly easily winning by four strokes over Fred Funk. Romero, six under for tournament, was only one of three players under par along with Funk (-2) and Mark McNulty (-1). Greg Norman finished at even and in fourth place.

You know the Shark is playing some pretty good golf lately for a 53 year old guy. He has now been on a run that has seen him finish fourth at the British Open, fifth at the Senior British Open, and now fourth at the US Senior Open.

Stay tuned in to DC for a preview of the PGA Championship.