Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - With his third win of the season last
week, Tiger Woods is obviously the hottest player in the world right now.
The season started with Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen combining to win
five of the first 15 European Tour events. Since his second win of the year,
Oosthuizen has missed the cut in four of six starts.
Grace won his third title of the year two weeks after the Masters, but has
finished in the top 15 once in his last five events.
But what about everybody else? Since the Masters, just two other players
have multiple wins.
Jason Dufner was the hottest player on tour until Woods passed him. Dufner has
two victories and four top-4 finishes in his last five tournaments.
Several others have mixed results.
World No. 1 Luke Donald has a win on both tours, but missed the cut at the
U.S. Open. Lee Westwood is quietly plodding along with a win and three top 10s
since Augusta.
Webb Simpson broke through for his first major championship title at the U.S.
Open, but had missed the cut in his two previous starts. Matt Kuchar has
finished inside the top 44 and has a win in seven events since the Masters.
Dustin Johnson finally returned from a back injury and won in Memphis, while
Zach Johnson has a win and two runner-up finishes in his last seven starts.
But some of the recent major champions are struggling. In just four events
since his breakthrough at Augusta, Masters winner Bubba Watson has two missed
cuts.
Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, the 2011 and 2010 U.S. Open champs, have
four and three missed cuts, respectively, since Augusta. McDowell did finish
second behind Simpson at this year's U.S. Open.
Last year's PGA winner, Keegan Bradley, has four missed cuts in his last eight
starts.
Phil Mickelson has finished inside the top 24 once in his last five tourneys.
What does all that mean?
Tiger has caught fire at the right time. As my colleague Jim Brighters pointed
out, Woods is back and there should be no more questions on that subject.
With two majors, two World Golf Championship events and the four FedExCup
playoff tournaments still to come, there is plenty of room for someone to come
out of nowhere to enter the Player of the Year race, but as we finish up the
first week in July, Woods is the leader in the clubhouse.
It's time for the big guns to step up their collective games as we are just 11
events from the end of the FedExCup race.
EXPECT DRAMA AT WOMEN'S OPEN
In the last nine years, I don't know if there is another tournament that has
produced as diverse a group of winners as the U.S. Women's Open.
And how some of those winners got there was pretty remarkable, as well.
In those nine years, there were three playoff winners. So Yeon Ryu won last
year's 3-hole aggregate playoff by three strokes over Hee Kyung Seo.
In the final 18-hole playoff this championship had, Hall-of-Famer Annika
Sorenstam beat Pat Hurst by five strokes in 2006. The victory was Sorenstam's
10th major championship title, and gave her three playoff wins against Hurst.
In 2003, Hilary Lunke birdied the 18th playoff hole to beat Angela Stanford
and Kelly Robbins. The day before Stanford drained a long birdie chance on
the 18th hole to get into the extra session, while Sorenstam tripped to a
bogey on the same hole to miss the playoff by a single stroke.
Sorenstam lost to Meg Mallon by two strokes in 2004. Mallon went 10-under par
over the final two rounds to rally for the win.
Outside of Lunke's win, the most improbable win was in 2005 at Cherry Hills.
Battling with amateurs Brittany Lang and Morgan Pressel, Birdie Kim lived up
to her name.
Kim holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 72nd hole to win by two strokes.
Pressel, who was tied with Kim and in the fairway behind her, nearly burst
into tears when Kim holed the shot. A stunned Pressel closed with a bogey to
end two back.
From 2007-10, the four winners were all first-time major champions. Inbee Park
won by four in 2008 and Eun Hee Ji birdied the final hole in 2009 to beat
Candie Kung by a stroke.
Two of the top Americans were the other two champs. Cristie Kerr won the 2007
crown by two over Angela Park and Lorena Ochoa.
Battling a thumb injury in 2010, Paula Creamer won by four at Oakmont. There
was a long weather delay on Friday, which forced Creamer to play the last 23
holes of the championship on Sunday, and she was 2-under par in that span.
It'll be fun to watch the drama unfold at Blackwolf Run this week.
MINI-TIDBITS
* In 2007, she called the U.S. Solheim Cup team a bunch of 'choking freaking
dogs.' On Wednesday, Dottie Pepper was finally able to move past the comment
as current Solheim team captain Meg Mallon tabbed Pepper as one of her
assistants. Pepper went 13-5-2 in her playing days at the Solheim Cup. The
only bad part of this is taking Pepper away from her regular job as TV
commentator. This was a long overdue move and possibly opens the door for
Pepper to one day captain that team.
* Tiger Woods may play an event in Turkey in October according to reports. If
he does go overseas, he would skip the Frys.com Open, which he played in part
as a warm up for the Presidents Cup last year.
* What is going on with women's world No. 1 Yani Tseng? She has broken par
just once in her last 10 rounds and is in the midst of seven consecutive
rounds over par.
The Sports Network