USPGA Tour

[ORDoubleBlues]

Good performance by the Victorian Nathan Green in his first full season on the tour to finish fifth in last weeks Hawaiin Open and to then follow it up with an equal second placing (lost a playoff to Tiger Woods) in this morning's Buick Invitational.
Green has already earned enough money (US$652,800) to ensure that he holds his card for next year. Good for a guy who has battled on over the years.
Unfortunately Rod Pampling fell away with a 76 after being a good chance to win at the end of the 3rd round.
I see that Bubba Watson is leading the driving distance category and that won't surprise anyone who remembers his performance at last month's Australian Masters.

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Good win by Australian Rod Pampling in this mornings Bay Hill invitational. Won by one stroke and Robert Allenby came fourth. Plenty of Aussies doing well on the tour at the minute.

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Well done to Aaron Baddeley for winning the Heritage Classic on Monday Morning.
The Aussies just keep on coming up with the goods. Now if one of them could just snag a Major.........

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Know I'm riding solo on this one but another Aussie victory by Stuart Appleby in the Houston Open. The Aussies are really on fire at the moment.

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Crikey, this US Open layout must be absolutely brutal. Colin Montgomerie leading the tournament on his own at 1 under!
Won't surprise if a score like 6 over par wins it.
Didn't see any of the coverage from the Winged Foot course this morning but apparently it was pretty windy.
The Tiger shot a 6 over 76 to begin and this new rough system, which BTW I agree with, where the rough is thicker the further you stray from the fairway. As great as a player as Tiger is, he is prone to the odd wild drive that misses the fairway by plenty and in the past he'd still have a decent shot but not this year.
Interesting to see plenty of Aussies within 3 of the lead including the unheralded Scott Hend who is one of the biggest hitters in World golf and this type of golf course would not be his cup of tea at all. I hope he can keep it going though.

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Well for the first time in 37 majors, the Tiger has missed the cut. He finished round 2 at 12 over par which was 3 shots over the 9 over par cut off.
Little known American Steve Stricker is leading the tournament at 1 under par and overnight round 1 leader Colin Montgomerie is in second place at even par.
For me the story of the day is the second round of the forgotten man of golf, David Duval. He shot the days equal best round of a two under par 68 to sit at 5 over the card in a tie for 14th place. This is the man who was on the cusp of greatness back in 2000 and then got an attack of the Ian Baker Finchs and completely lost his game as well as almost losing the plot. Only reason he kept his spot on the tour was due to the numerous exemptions he'd built up. Rounds in the 80's had become the norm for him.
Of the Australians........................................
Geoff Ogilvy is in 3rd place at 1 over
Scott Hend in 11th at 4 over
Nick O'Hern in 14th at 5 over
Robert Allenby in 29th at 7 over
and Rod Pampling and Adam Scott in 42nd place at 8 over.

[JK]

Watched Ogilvy battle it out with Mickelson and Montogomerie and co. this morning ... Kept his head superbly when all others fell around him (which is no surprise it all when you see the course) to become the first Aussie in 25 years to win the tournament ... A fantastic finish, he was pretty stiff on the 18th but recovered from a setback with a top notch chip and putt par, then had to wait in the clubhouse watching Mickelson fall apart!

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Yeah, Unfortunately couldn't watch it but when I saw on the live scoreboard on pgatour.com that Mickelson only had to par the last to win it, or at worst there would be a playoff tomorrow if he bogeyed, I thought that it was his but to hear on the radio that Ogilvy had won gave me a good feeling given the soccer result against Brazil this morning and that it's the first time an Australian has won a major since Steve Elkington in '95 and the only other Aussie to win the US Open than David Graham, who won it in '81.
The win gave him an astonishing first prize of US$1,225,000 and vaulted him from 5th to 2nd on the money list.

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Australian John Senden is taking a 3 shot lead into the final round of the John Deere Classic.
Is going for his first win on the US Tour. Has always been considered one of the best ball strikers going around but his putting has been what has let him down.
Stephen Leaney is nicely placed in a tie for 11th and 18 year old Aussie Jason Day is in a very creditable position in a tie for 57th in his professional debut.

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Senden held on by one shot to win the John Deere Classic to vault him from 63rd to 26th on the money list.
Is now 11 Australians in the top 57 on the money list for the US Tour.
Gives me confidence that we could have another major winner this time next week at the British Open. We have 22 guaranteed starters at the Open.

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Hard not to get excited about 18 year old Aussie Jason Day.
Finished top 15 in only his third US start on the weekend and his performances would have exceeded even the most optimistic expectations.
Would be worth a trip to the east coast for our summer tournaments to catch him and some of our other young tyros in action.

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Ian Baker Finch shoots a 68 in one of his rare competitive outings on the US tour.

Unbelievable.....