Posts tagged Bob Hope
Mark Wilson Wins Again, Confuses Golf Fans
04 weeks ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
AP
Mark Wilson did it again on Sunday with his win at the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation.
“It” meaning baffling casual golf fans into wondering whom exactly Mark Wilson is.
With three tournaments under our belts in the 2012 golf season, most of your run-of-the-mill golf fans are just wiping the eye boogers off of their collective golfing goggles.
However, if you have been paying attention over the past calendar year, January through March is when Mark Wilson makes his cash.
The win at the Humana was his fifth since the start of the 2011 season, but this one was a little different from the others.
Wilson had to fight off some blustery conditions in La Quinta, Calif. which caused the suspension of play on Saturday, forcing a marathon finish to beat the setting sun on Sunday.
The Humana Challenge, which is taking over for the Bob Hope Classic, spans a traditional four-day tournament, but is played on three different courses (PGA West – Nicklaus Course, PGA West – Palmer Private Course and La Quinta Country Club) with the Palmer Private set as the final-round backdrop.
The Palmer Private was good to Wilson on Friday when the Wisconsin-native shot a 10-under par 62 and he hoped for a repeat performance on Sunday, but it didn’t start out as he had hoped.
“It feels good, obviously, to be here with the trophy,” Wilson said. “The day went not as planned. I guess it really never does. But last time I came out here (to Palmer Private), I shot 62, so of course I had those images in mind. I made a bad swing on the third hole, and then felt like I hit a lot of good shots.”
Those good shots weren’t immediately rewarded as Wilson saw his three-stroke lead evaporate before his eyes.
Robert Garrigus, playing alongside Wilson and Zach Johnson, put the most pressure on the eventual champ tying him through nine holes.
Wilson was able to get things going in the right direction on the 11th hole as he stuck his approach shot and tapped in the birdie putt. He followed that with another birdie on 12 holing out from the bunker, but Garrigus was sticking right with him, evening it up with a second birdie on the incoming nine on the 14th.
“Birdieing 11, I played that hole really smart. Then holing the bunker shot on 12 really gave me the momentum to go in the right direction, “Wilson said afterwards.
Both parred the 15th hole and swapped biridies on the 16th to enter the final two holes tied at 23-under. Garrigus dropped at shot at 17 to get back to 22-under, but his length allowed him to reach the par-5 18th in two, giving him an eagle putt for the outright lead as Wilson lined up a 10-foot birdie try.
“I felt like Robert and I really had a good time, and Zach for that matter. But Robert and I were kind of going back and forth. We enjoyed that. Both making the putts on 16, and then, yeah, it just came down to 18,” Wilson said.
Garrigus didn’t have the same steady week that Wilson did. As he and his caddie sat in the fairway six-over through eight holes on Thursday, Garrigus figured he might as well get aggressive and make some birdies if he wanted to even make a check, much less have a chance to win the tournament.
“‘I’m like, Can you believe we actually have a shot to win this thing if I make this eagle putt?” Garrigus recounted of his conversation with his caddie, Brandt Henley. “It was exciting and that’s what we live for. And I got a lot of guts, and I don’t like to lay down very easily. We had so much fun this week.”
Garrigus made a run at the eagle putt that came over a ridge in the green and burned the left edge of the hole. The only problem was Garrigus was so set on making the putt, that he rolled it a good eight feet past the hole.
Wilson stood over his 10-footer for birdie and the win with one thing in mind: “I didn’t want to give him a chance to make that putt to tie me.”
With darkness setting in, Wilson got over his putt and tried to read the green, but got some help from his caddie.
“When I got over that putt and read it, it just looked like it should be faster over that hill,” Wilson explained. “The darkness had a little something to do with it. Then Chris (Jones), my caddie, read that one perfectly, said it was going to break about an inch to the right and I started outside the hole, which I wasn’t totally trying to do, but it took that inch break at the very end.”
Although Garrigus would go on to miss his putt for birdie, which ended up costing him $186,467 as he fell into a three-way tie for second place with John Mallinger and Johnson Wagner, instead finishing as solo runner-up.
As it turns out, Wilson won his first tournament of 2012, cashing him a winners check of $1.008 million and moved him up to world No. 40.
Wilson took home the inaugural Bob Hope Memorial Trophy for his effort and will not be in the field for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open.
Belated Sony Open Wrap Up; Clark out of the Hope
01 year ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
After the first round of the Sony Open was completely canceled as a result of four inches of rain falling on Waialae Country Club, the PGA Tour had to do some shifting around and institute a “plan B.”
The alternate plan called for 18 holes Friday and 18 Saturday. Then there was a cut, but not the normal 70 and ties that full-field events usually get, but 60 and ties. The top 70 got paid as if they made the cut, but those 10 spots did not get a chance to improve their position.
On Sunday, they played a marathon 36 holes in order to find out that Mark Wilson would prove to be the best iron man on Honolulu.
Wilson is not known for his length off the tee, something that is not really necessary on Waialae. This course favors accuracy and shot placement over bomb it and chase, so Wilson wasn’t alone atop the leaderboard.
Noted bunter and defending Players champion, Tim Clark braved the elements and put on a show, shooting Sunday scores of 66-64. Also, lighting it up Sunday was Steve Marino whose position after the first two rounds had him eying his first win on the PGA Tour. Both Marino and Clark ended up two shots short (no pun intended) of Wilson.
With rounds of 65-67-65-67, Wilson was able to claim his third PGA Tour win. Wilson shot a 5-under 65 in the morning and had a six minute turnaround before he headed back out on the course, time enough for a quick sandwich and run to his locker for some balls.
The win gives him an automatic bid to play at Augusta in April, somewhere Wilson last visited in 2001 as a patron.
“Believe me, I looked at the fine print on that one and made sure,” said Wilson. “I thought it was a calendar year when they first announced it and I was really excited, but no, it was from Masters to Masters so I didn’t get in. When I won Mayakoba all my friends thought I was in, but opposite events don’t get you in.”
“You know, I”m anxious to play. Maybe a little scared about the length, though, from what I’ve heard. Some of the shorter hitters talk about how it’s kind of eliminated them from the field, like I hear Tom Watson talk about it. But I’m going to go in there with — I get goosebumps thinking about it, to be honest with you.”
The win didn’t fall into his lap, though. With Clark in the clubhouse at 14-under, Wilson, paired with Marino played the 18th. Wilson stood at 15-under, while Marino was at 13-under.
Wilson knocked his drive down the center and Marino pulled off one of the shots of the week from a side-hill lie with his feet in the bunker. Here’s the shot.
Marino rolled his eagle putt past the hole and had to settle for birdie. Wilson laid up, pitched to four feet and made a birdie putt to secure his two-stroke lead and punch his ticket to the Masters.
On a sour note, with the marathon Sunday finish and the quick turnaround (again) to get to La Quinta for the Wednesday start of the Bob Hope, at least one of the top players in the Sony has withdrawn. Tim Clark has withdrawn from this week’s Bob Hope, where he finished in second place last year, due to blisters on his feet. Walking 36 holes on a wet course can do a number to you, besides making the bottom of your feet look like you’ve been in the bathtub for 2 hours.
Golf’s Economic’s To Be Revitalized in 2011
01 year ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
If you pay attention to politics at all or any parent hoping their recent college grad will land a job, you’ll hear the same thing: “They say the economy’s turning around.”
As someone who watches the Daily Show (politics) and is a recent college grad, I hope both these contingents are correct. As a golf blogger, I’m seeing signs that things are going in the right direction. Back in November, GM game back to golf in a sponsorship capacity inking a deal that made Cadillac the head sponsor of World Golf Championships. Also, the Tour stop at Doral will be sponsored by the car company.
With a couple of tournaments needing a major sponsor for 2011, one of them can breathe a huge sigh of relief.
The Bob Hope wrangled the Tennessee-based mortgage company Franklin American as its head sponsor for the next three years.
From the AP: Franklin American Mortgage Co. has agreed to a three-year, $1.5 million sponsorship deal with the Bob Hope Classic, whose 52nd edition will be played Jan. 17-23.
The mortgage company based in Franklin, Tenn., first participated in the PGA tournament this year.
Franklin American will receive a variety of benefits, including pro-am playing opportunities, tickets, hospitality and signage at the event. The company will underwrite the tournament’s celebrity dinner and be the official sponsor of the event’s Celebrity Jam Session.
With the Hope all sewn up, Harbour Town is the only remaining tournament without a major sponsorship deal. Who knows, with Verizon announcing the addition of the iPhone to it’s list of items, maybe the old sponsor will re-up with the famed Pete Dye design.
The steady improvement of sponsors coming back to golf on the course has some optimistic about the sponsorships off the course, most notably the pending television and FedEx contracts entering the last days.
With both contracts expiring after2012, 2011 is the time for the PGA Tour to enter negotiations for extensions on the deals. Some believe the key to getting the television contract desired by the Tour is first to get FedEx to extend their sponsorship.
From the Sports Business Journal: The tour likely will enter into renewal talks with FedEx, umbrella sponsor of the seasonlong points championship, in 2011. That deal goes through 2012 and includes options to go longer. Locking down FedEx to a long-term deal that would include a heavy advertising commitment would be a bonus for the tour entering TV negotiations with CBS and NBC later in 2011.
“Any time we’ve got commitments like FedEx, it’s helpful,” Wade said. “But I think it would be an overstatement to say we must get it done” before the TV talks begin.
A possible roadblock in the talks could be the negative press and feelings towards the FedEx Cup. Since its inception, there have been flaws in the system and to their credit, the Tour and FedEx have worked on ironing out those flaws (much more so than the NCAA and BCS), but recent events show that the Playoffs aren’t perfect.
With top players like Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood opting to forego PGA membership while mentioning their dislike for the FedEx Cup cash grab, it seems like getting these high-profile players may be another bump in the road.
However, as Ryan Ballengee points out, it would seem that Finchem believes he can work with FedEx to come to an agreement.
Once the FedEx deal gets done, then the TV deals can be much more attractive.
As for the game, I think everyone can agree that although the system isn’t perfect, the month or so of golf the FedEx Cup Playoffs garner is much better than having no golf at all.
