Langer wins Senior PGA, Rose wins at Congressional....Final scoreboards

Champions Tour
Senior Players Championship
Fox Chapel GC
Pittsburg
Bernhard Langer made a short birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Jeff Sluman to win the Senior Players Championship
Langer appeared to be in trouble when his second shot on the par-5 18th ended up in the rough short of the green. He hit a brilliant pitch to 5 feet and made the putt after
Sluman’s birdie attempt rolled just wide.
The victory was the 56-year-old Langer’s third of the year and his third major title on the Champions Tour. The two-time Masters champion shot an even-par 70 to finish at 15-under 265 at Fox Chapel. Sluman had a bogey-free 65 to match Langer, but narrowly missed a birdie putt on the first playoff hole that would have won it.
Canada’s Jim Rutledge (72-70-74) and Rod Spittle (69-73-71) finished at 3-over 283 and tied for 54th
http://www.pgatour.com/champions/leaderboard.html


PGA Tour
Quicken Loans National
Congressional GC
Congressional has hosted the U.S. Open three times, most recently on a soggy course in 2011 that produced a record score by Rory McIlroy, and one PGA Championship. The course played as tough as those majors, certainly tougher than 2011.
Justin Rose (71) and Shawn Stefani (71) finished at 4-under 280.12 shots higher than when McIlroy won. Only six players broke par in the final round, none better than a 68. Seven players had at least a share of the lead at one point Sunday, and most of them went the other direction


In the playoff Stefani pulled his tee shot in the trees and got relief from grandstands blocking his view of the green. He chose a 6-iron to punch it around the trees and put it in the water, leaving Rose a winner again, moving up to No. 7 in the world, and he has proven to win on the best courses. His six PGA Tour wins have been at Aronimink, Cog Hill, Muirfield Village, Merion, Doral and now Congressional
http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html


LPGA Tour
NW Arkansas Championship
Pinnacle Club
Stacy Lewis shot a 6-under 65 and rallying for a much-sought after official win in the NW Arkansas Championship.
Lewis earned an unofficial rain-shortened win at the tournament as an amateur in 2007, but she had struggled to match that effort since as her popularity – and ranking – soared.
She earned $300,000 for her third LPGA Tour victory of the year, but more importantly the 11-time winner earned a welcomed sigh of relief in front of a college-like atmosphere full of fans cheering for the former four-time All-American at Arkansas.
Lewis finished at 12-under 201,one shot ahead of 17-year-old Lydia Ko, Cristie Kerr and Angela Stanford.
Opening-round leader Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont. finished tied for 31st at 4-under 209
http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/Leaderboard.aspx


EUROPEAN Tour
BMW International Open
Fabrizio Zanotti won a four-way playoff to take the BMW International Open title Sunday and become the first player from Paraguay to win on the European Tour.
“This is huge. I think everybody in Paraguay is going to be so happy,” Zanotti said after winning his first playoff. “Everybody in Paraguay was awaiting this moment, like me.”
Zanotti won when No. 2-ranked Henrik Stenson conceded after failing to make a bunker shot on the fifth playoff hole. Gregory Havret of France and Rafa Cabrera-Bello of Spain went out on the second and fourth holes, respectively.


http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014050/leaderboard/index.html






PGA Championship of Canada
Wyndance GC
Uxbridge


Dave Levesque had an exacting and unwavering game plan with one definitive goal in mind all week..to win, and he has !! On a picture perfect Friday afternoon in Uxbridge, Ont., he reached that goal, capturing the 2014 PGA Championship of Canada.


In the championship’s final match, Levesque the No. 3 seed squared off against the No. 1-seeded Billy Walsh in a tight match but while birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 brought the match back to square, it was three more birdies on Nos. 14, 16 and 18 clinched the 2-up victory for the 40-year-old.
http://www.pgachampionshipofcanada.com/live-scoring/


Bryan Angus
(files from BBC Reuters, euuropeantour.com, AP )

Wie delivers, wins US Open...final scoring all tours

"It seems like she has been playing forever on tour, but she is still young and I think a win today will start a glittering career of play on tour and in the majors... something the LPGA badly needs.."


For those who joined me here yesterday, that is part of what I wrote about Michelle Wie, and can say today I am glad for all of golf, the women's side predominantly that she finally delivered a performance worthy of the hype that has been heaped on her since she was a teenager.


She holed a gutsy a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, to secure her first major championship Sunday, a two-shot victory over Stacy Lewis in the U.S. Women’s Open. It is her 4th pro win and her 1st major.


Wie closed with an even-par 70 after Lewis made her work for it. She made eight birdies to match the best score of the tournament with a 66.


As I said yesterday Michelle, now 24 has been one of the biggest stars in women’s golf since she was 13, and she suffered a lot of criticism when she competed against the men on the PGA Tour while still in high school and talked about wanting to play in the Masters.


Being 6-foot tall is enough of a burden to a teenage girl, especially one growing up in an adult world, surrounded and hounded by the media every day, however she is all grown up now, and in my opinion for the good of the LPGA, she is the Champion golfer at the US Open !


EUROPEAN TOUR
Irish Open
Fota Island GC
Cork


Mikko Ilonen shot a final round 70 yesterday to win the Irish Open by 1 stroke after leading from start to finish. The 34-year old Finn celebrated his 300th European event and his fourth tour victory with an overall 13-under 271 on the Fota Island course.


Italy’s Edoardo Molinari shot 67 to take second on 12 under after crowd favorite Graeme McDowell missed putt after putt and never appeared in the hunt for his first Irish Open success, posting a 71 to finish three shots behind Ilonen.


Final scoring click here http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014048/leaderboard/index.html


LPGA
US Open
Pinehurst #2
N.C
Michelle Wie (70) bounced back from a late mistake at Pinehurst No. 2 to bury a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, sending the 24-year-old from Hawaii to her first major championship Sunday, a two-shot victory over Stacy Lewis (66) in the U.S. Women’s Open


Canada’s 16 year old amateur Brooke Henderson captured low amateur honours when she finished tied for 10th at 5-over 285


Final scoring click here http://www.usopen.com/women/en_US/scoring/index.html


PGA Tour
Travelers Championship
TPC River Highlands
Cromwell CT..


Kevin Streelman birdied the last seven holes to win the Travelers Championship by a stroke at TPC River Highlands, by shooting his second straight 6-under 64 to finish at 15-under 265, after he missed the cuts in his previous four starts on tour


He broke the tour record for consecutive closing birdies by a winner of six set by Mike Souchak in the 1956 St. Paul Open. Sergio Garcia and K.J. Choi tied for second. They each shot 67. Aaron Baddeley was fourth at 13 under after a 69.


Canada’s Graham DeLaet tied for 51st at 3-under 277


Final scoring click here http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/travelers-championship/leaderboard.html


PGA Tour Canada
Boreal Open
Fort McMurray GC, Alberta


With a final round 3-under 69 at Fort McMurray Golf Club, Joel Dahmen won the Boreal Open by five strokes, claiming his second win of the season on PGA Tour Canada and taking a commanding lead on the Order of Merit through three events


Final scoring click http://www.pgatour.com/canada/en_us/leaderboard.html




CHAMPIONS Tour
Encompass Championship
North Shore GC
Glenview Ill.


Tom Lehman closed with a 2-under 70 at North Shore and had a 15-under 201 total for his eighth senior title and first since 2012. He rebounded from bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14, his only dropped strokes of the week with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, parred the par-3 17th and won on the par-4 18th.


Michael Allen and Kirk Triplett tied for second, a stroke back. Allen shot 67, and Triplett had a 68.


Canada’s Rod Spittle and Jim Rutledge finished tied for 49th and tied for 73rd respectively.


Final scoring click here http://www.pgatour.com/champions/tournaments/encompass-championship/leaderboard.html


Other News...


* Canada’s Nicole Vandermade won the Four Winds Invitational on Sunday for her first Symetra Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke victory.
Vandermade, from Brantford, Ont., had a 12-under 204 total at Blackthorn Golf Club. The 24-year-old former University of Texas player and Team Canada member earned $22,500 to jump from 90th to eighth on the money list with $26,278, with the final top 10 earning 2015 LPGA Tour cards.


Final scoreboard click http://www.symetrascoring.com/public/Leaderboard.aspx


* In Wichita, Kansas, Monday qualifier Sebastian Cappelen from Denmark, won the Air Capital Classic for his first Web.om Tour title, finishing with a 4-under 66 for a one-stroke victory over Matt Weibring.


Cappelen had an 18-under 262 total after opening with rounds of 66, 65 and 65 at Crestview Country Club. The 24-year-old former University of Arkansas player earned $108,000.


All Canadians missed the cut..


Final scoreboard click http://www.pgatour.com/webcom/tournaments/air-capital-classic-presented-by-aetna/leaderboard.html



















Bryan Angus
(files from BBC, Reuters, europeantour.com, AP )

Thanks Dad....Congrats to Martin Kaymer

Happy Father's Day to all, and to my dear old Dad, now 95 and counting, allowed as many mulligan's as he likes..


Dad gave me the best golf lesson I have ever had. I was 16 and we used to go out to Parkview on a Sunday evening after 5pm ... a twilight ticket for 2.00 each.


Dad would keep on his Sunday best ( church every Sunday morning) pants and shirt and shoes! on. We were away out at the back end of the course and I was on the tee with my driver. I promptly hit an Oral Roberts.... a heeler,  into the bushes just left of the tee. and my driver followed it a split second later...


Dad was all set to peg his ball, stopped, calmly put his driver back in the bag and said "that's it  for today, let's go..."


I couldn't believe it and protested, promising never to toss my club again..


" You are spoiling my day with your temper tantrums. You are a good athlete and if you don't end up a working stiff like me you will be a good golfer. However in all likelihood you may only get a chance like we do to play once a week, so you best enjoy each outing, enjoy your good shots and expect the bad ones. More importantly enjoy the company and the course and the weather and you will then enjoy the game of golf."


To this day  that has been my guiding light. I have been as low a handicap as 8 and hardly have time to play much these days, and plan to change all that when and if I ever retire..


Thanks Dad, happy Father's Day..



Congratulations to Martin Kaymer on his 8 shot win at the US Open, he was so dominant it was almost anti-climatic...The only question is would he mess up and could someone in the pack shoot 64 to catch him..


No and no were the answers...Kaymer wins the Players in May, the US Open in June, the Open in July ??   ..stay tuned




Bryan Angus




















Bryan Angus

'King' Kaymer has an 6 length lead heading into the stretch...

Martin Kaymer is playing like the Germanator we all came to know when he won the 2010 PGA Championship and then a year later rose to No. 1 in the world. His shot shape is once again a gentle fade, but it took him 2 years to get it back after trying to change to a draw to better compete at the Masters.


After winning the Players in May he is now playing a brand of golf rarely seen in the U.S. Open. Kaymer set the 36-hole scoring record with another 5-under 65, this one without a single bogey to build a six-shot lead and leave the rest of the field in his dust at 10-under 130, breaking by one shot the record set by Rory McIlroy at rain-softened Congressional in 2011.


A thunderstorm pelted rain on Pinehurst overnight Thursday, slowing the greens by 2 feet though it didn’t make the course that much easier because the pins were in tougher locations.


The leaderboard looks like a typical U.S. Open, except for Kaymer. Dustin Johnson is in the trailing pack at -2 after he opened with a pair of 69s, a score he thought would be good enough to lead. Brooks Koepka, the American who is carving his way through the European Tour, birdied his last hole for a 68 and joined the group at 2-under 138 with Brendon de Jonge (70) and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who played in the same group with Kaymer and rallied for a 69.


The U.S. Open record for largest 36-hole lead is six shots by McIlroy at Congressional and by Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000, when he won by 15 shots.


In the afternoon flight Kevin Na reached 4 under and was on the back nine, with Brandt Snedeker, Matt Kuchar and Brendon Todd close behind. Phil Mickelson was tied for second early in the second round until he fell back with a pair of bogeys.


It’s tough for any golfer to make headlines in Germany, especially in a World Cup year.but at least Germany doesn’t start in Brazil until Monday.


Kaymer felt tired toward the end of the round, and it showed. He hit into bunkers on the sixth and seventh holes, and both times blasted out to short range. He also converted a difficult two-putt from the front of the eighth green.


So heading into this weekend it's a one man show and he will try to continue his aggressive play, and why ? “Because if you think of defending anything, then you’re pulling back, and that’s never really a good thing. You just want to keep going. You want to keep playing. You want to challenge yourself. If you can stay aggressive and hit the right shots. And that’s quite nice that it’s a battle against yourself.”


Graham DeLaet, the only Canadian this week, carded a pair of 75′s and missed the cut.


Live scoring click here
http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/us-open/leaderboard.html






Bryan Angus
(files from BBC, Reuters, europeantour.com, AP )

US Open tee times and preview...'Links golf amongst trees !!'

It is good to be back at my desk after a couple of difficult weeks to say the least, however there is much to get to as the World Cup kicks off in Brazil tomorrow, the Jays are winning and of course the eyes of the golf world are already on Pinehurst #2 down in North Carolina and I must admit I have extra interest this year because this Donald Ross masterpiece with it's famous turtleback greens has been restored by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore and it is basically now a links golf course in amongst trees !!


My pal and colleague Pat Marsden used to know how to get my goat every year when the Open Championship would roll around and he's say "Mumbles, it's just a cow pasture" in reference to the hallowed links at St Andrews or Troon or Turnberry, whatever the venue because the grass was brown and the rough unkempt, and get ready to hear lot's of that this week from the viewers on this side of the pond, used to the lush green pristine courses on the PGA Tour..


Coore and Crenshaw have restored the original, rustic look of No. 2. That means rough has been replaced by sandy areas dotted with small wiregrass bushes and covered in natural vegetation. It required the removal of 35 acres of sod, and only 450 sprinkler heads remain.


The winning scores at Pinehurst No. 2 have been 1-under 279 (Payne Stewart in 1999) and even-par 280 (Michael Campbell in 2005). The last two U.S. Opens were won with a score over par and I expect more of the same this year. By the way the USGA is making history by staging the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open in consecutive weeks on the same golf course. Pinehurst will play at 7,562 yards (par 70) for the men, and 6,649 yards (par 70) for the women


While it is plenty long, some par 4's are 480 yards, the players have been stressing all week it is a second shot course, mainly because the domed greens repel approaches that are not hit precisely, putting an emphasis on the players short game.


Bubba Watson just fell short of saying they are unfair in his presser yesterday, but did say he hit 4 iron off the first followed by a 185yd 8 iron into the middle of the green and it just bounced off leaving him to scramble for par..


Rory says he will lay back on the par 5's this week off the tee so he will be left with a third shot wedge, in the hopes of being able to keep it on the green to make birdie that way.


Players are going to find all kinds of funky lies in the waste areas after what appear to be great drives, but hell folks that's what links golf is all about isn't it!


Watch for shots along the ground, bump and runs, putts and chips rolling either off the green or back down to the players feet on all those elevated greens. Remember John Daly here in 1999 when his approach putt did just that and he just whacked it as it rolled back towards him and walked off the course saying it was a joke.


It is the US Open and should be that country's sternest test of golf, not just in shot making, but as important mentally.


So we are looking for a straight driver who is a great iron player with patience, a reliable short game and of course a hot putter..


Sounds like many of these guys, including the defending champion Justin Rose, but I'll say here, remember the best ball striker in the field is our own Graham DeLaet, so I won't be surprised to see him in contention.. (1.36pm off #10 with bombers Gary Woodland and JB Holmes)


Tiger is out, Mickelson has been 2nd 6 times, including to the late Payne Stewart here in '99 and to Rose last year at Merion.


Mickelson will be the lead story for many, but I don't think he will win, I'll tell you later who I like and why, but will say now, I believe the golf course will be the winner when all is said and done,.



For tee times and preview click here (pgatour.com)
http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/06/06/us-open-pairings-justin-rose-phil-mickelson.html




Bryan Angus

I will be back next week for US Open

Hi all thanks for all the kind words, inquiries.


Due to a health issue I have be unable to keep my FairwaysPlus site updated, however I am feeling much better and have been following everything as much as possible.


Nice to see the weather co-operating at the Manulife in Waterloo.


I will be back at full strength starting Monday June 8th, right here so stay tuned !!


Best Bryan