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SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013 | HERALDsTANDARD.COm
U.S. Open winner? Don’t overlook Woods By Mike Dudurich For the Herald-Standard
Associated Press
Phil Mickelson, left, consoles a fan while she is tended to after being struck in the head by Mickelson’s approach shot on the 16th hole during the third round of the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday.
Mickelson, Watney tied for lead CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Phil Mickelson’s ball was just above the edge of the cart path, slightly below his feet, when he decided to hit a hard fade around the trees toward the green. The shot went out-of-bounds and cost him the outright lead Saturday in the Wells Fargo Championship, and Mickelson was angry about his decision. He felt he should have hit driver instead of 3-wood. In the group ahead of him, new leader Nick Watney hit a semi-shank with a 6-iron on the par-3 17th, the ball flying toward a hospitality tent. He made double bogey, and pulled his cap over his face when the round was over to hide a mixture of anger and embarrassment. And these were the co-leaders going into the final round at Quail Hollow. A series of blunders in the last hour of the third round shook up the Wells Fargo Championship, and the only consolation for Mickelson and Watney is that they were atop the leaderboard going into a final round that features a forecast of rain. “Every shot is critical. You just can’t throw a bunch of shots away like I did coming down the stretch,” said Mickelson, who also plunked a spectator in the head with his approach on the 16th and made bogey. “I’m fortunate to still be on top.” Mickelson had a 1-over 73, while Watney squandered a solid round with his shank that led to a 71. They were at 8-under 208, one shot ahead of George McNeill, who shot a 72. “I can’t remember the last time I did that in a tournament, so it was a bit unsettling” Watney
said about his shank. “The big picture? I’m tied for the lead, and I would have taken that on Thursday morning.” Even so, what had been shaping up as duel now looks more like a shootout, with a dozen players within three shots of the lead. One of them was Rory McIlroy, who celebrated his 24th birthday by missing seven putts in the 5-foot range or closer. He had a 73 and didn’t lose any ground on the lead. “I think they may have given me a little bit of a birthday present right there,” McIlroy said. “I’m only three back heading into tomorrow, and that’s as good as I could ask for.” John Senden completed his round of 67 some three hours before the leaders finished. Ryan Moore was right behind him with a 68. They were among six players who were tied for fourth, two shots behind. That group included Lee Westwood, who made two birdies and two bogeys in his otherwise boring round of 72. The starting time for Sunday has been moved up because of rain in the forecast, with the final round starting at 6:45 a.m. Given the forecast, Mickelson treated Saturday like the final round in case Sunday — and perhaps even Monday — is a wash and the tournament is reduced to 54 holes. He made a 7-foot par putt on the 18th to tie Watney. “It was some poor play coming down the stretch,” Mickelson said. McIlroy didn’t need to be reminded that it was his birthday. Fans serenaded or shouted to him on just about every hole. If all he wanted was to make some putts, Boy Wonder didn’t get his wish. At times, it became a cruel joke.
Rains stall qualifying, Edwards holds pole TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Steady rain Saturday washed out qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway, where the field was set by practice speeds. It put Carl Edwards on the pole for Sunday’s race, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Marcos Ambrose. They ran a spirited Friday first practice session because everyone had seen the weather radar and knew the laps might count if qualifying was cancelled. “It was like a heat race out there,” said Edwards. “Everybody was trying to get their fastest lap, and we got ours with like a minute to go. It was pretty exciting.” Ambrose concurred. “We were all driving like idiots in that first practice knowing it was probably going to rain,” he said. Joey Logano will start fourth, followed by Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth. Denny Hamlin will be seventh in his first race since missing four with a compression fracture in a vertebra in his lower back. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne round out the top 10 in Sunday’s starting lineup. Hamlin is planning to start the race but get out of his car at some point and let Brian Vickers take over for him. The two practiced the driver exchange on Friday, with Hamlin getting out of the car through a roof hatch and Vickers coming in through a window. They had the exchange down to just over a minute, which they determined would keep
the car on the lead lap if the exchange was made under a caution. “It took us right at one minute every time that we rehearsed it, so we’re going to be plenty fine there,” Hamlin said. “Everything is pretty seamless.” Hamlin could get assistance during the race from good friend Michael Waltrip, who will be making just his second start of the season. It’s likely that Hamlin will drop to the back of the field at the start of the race to try avoid an early accident, but he could also risk falling out of the draft. So it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Waltrip, a fellow Toyota driver, partner with Hamlin to help him stay in the draft until he gets out of the car. Waltrip seemed to foreshadow that Saturday when discussing his race plan. “Quite honestly, for the first 100 miles or so, I won’t be aggressive at all because it’s just a matter of getting in the flow and getting back to what you know you know how to do so well,” Waltrip said. Waltrip had an opportunity to win Talladega last October until leader Tony Stewart triggered a multi-car accident trying to hold off the field. It collected Waltrip, who turned 50 this week and only runs restrictor-plate races anymore. His last win was at Talladega in 2003, but he led four laps in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished 22nd. “When you take off from Daytona until May, there’s so many things you need to orientate yourself with,” Waltrip said.
If you are one of those folks who enjoys placing the occasional “for entertainment only” wager on big sporting events, I have an early tip for you. When it comes time to make your picks for the U.S. Open, don’t go too far past the name of one Eldrick “Tiger” Woods. Yes, I know the prevailing wisdom is the Open is the one that least matches Woods’ game. But history does tell us the No. 1 player in the world has won three of the nation’s championships: Pebble Beach (2000), Bethpage Black (2002) and Torrey Pines (2008). And that same wisdom says Woods can’t prosper on a course, historic Merion Golf Club in this case, that will measure less than 7,000 at its longest and might be as short as 6,800-plus yards. And not only is the course small in terms of yards, it’s small in terms of total yardage. Webb Simpson, the defending U.S. Open champion, said he might not use his driver more than five times the entire week. But doesn’t that sort of setup and Simpson’s comments play right into Woods’ wheelhouse? I think it does. Remember the Open Championship in 2006? At the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Woods hit driver one time off the tee, opting instead to hammer the field with a week of three-woods that pierced fairways with a low trajectory and ran forever. He shot the lowest score ever to that point, 270, for the event. I can see Woods using a mixture of 3-woods, 5-woods and hybrids to get around Merion and, as well as he is playing this year, he could dominate. Now, whether a great place like the East Course at Merion, set up to the USGA’s exacting standards, can be dominated is another question altogether. But to me, this is one where Woods should do very well and should get one victory closer to that magical number of 18 majors held by Jack Nicklaus. n I was once again this week disappointed by the reactions of some players on the PGA Tour who whined considerably about some problematic greens at the Quail Hollow Country Club, site of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship. A tough spring growing season has left some trouble spots on the course and officials took the unusual step of resodding sections of a couple greens 10 days before Thursday’s start. So conditions were not exactly perfect, but through two rounds, 35 players had shot rounds in the 60s. These guys are very spoiled and expect everything to be perfect all the time. Hard to imagine Phil Mickelson being the voice of reason, but he told the whiners in an interview that the fact that this tournament is so highly rated, players should give it a pass this year for the less-than-perfect conditions. By the way, nine players withdrew before the start. They don’t have to give specific reasons and most times aren’t totally truthful, but I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that a majority decided not to play because of the conditions. n It’s Players Championship week on the PGA Tour next week. The Players is a big tournament, the purse is big and the TPC at Sawgrass is a big, mean golf course. It’s not the “fifth major” in men’s professional golf as some people think it should be, but it’s a big one. The other thing the Players has become is the unofficial run-up to the U.S. Open, which follows five weeks later. n There are hundreds of very worthwhile charity events across western Pennsylvania every year and while I can’t provide information here about all of those, I’ll try to provide mentions about special ones I become aware of. The Steel City Vets will be holding their first golf outing, July 28 at Quicksilver Golf Club in Midway. The cost to participate is $75 per golfer and that includes 18 holes of golf, cart and picnic. Checks should be made payable to the Veterans Support Foundation. The event gets underway at 8 a.m. n If you have an event or a feature story that might be worthy, send all ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com. Mike Dudurich is a freelance golf writer and hosts The Golf Show on Sports Radio 93.7 The Fan Saturday mornings at 7 a.m.
Bulls say ‘Noah’ to Brooklyn NEW YORK (AP) — Joakim Noah had 24 points and 14 rebounds, Marco Belinelli also scored 24 points and the Chicago Bulls beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-93 on Saturday night in Game 7 of their first-round series. Carlos Boozer added 17 points as the Bulls shook off injuries to two starters and every run the Nets tried to make in the second half to win a Game 7 on the road for the first time in franchise history. They advanced to a second-round series against defending champion Miami that starts Monday night. The Bulls opened a 17-point halftime lead with a rare offensive outburst, and found a way to get big baskets every time the Nets pulled close to win the NBA’s only do-or-die game of the first round. Deron Williams had 24 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Nets. They were trying to become the ninth NBA team to win a series after trailing 3-1. But they had a horrendous first-half defensive performance and Joe Johnson was bad all game on offense, finishing with six points on 2-of-14 shooting, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range. With two starters out again, the Bulls leaned on Noah, who could barely play when the series started but logged 41 minutes and shot 12 of 17, then still had enough energy to climb over the baseline seats for a long embrace with his mother. Noah, who grew up and played in high school here, helped the Bulls spoil the Nets’ first home Game 7 in franchise history at the end of their first season in Brooklyn. They had played only one Game 7 in all their years while they were based in New Jersey, falling at Detroit in 2004. Chicago improved to 1-6 in road Game 7s. Deng, tested for meningitis earlier in the week, was back in the hospital Friday night and unable to travel. Hinrich warm up in hopes of playing before he was ruled out. It didn’t matter to the Bulls, who backed up coach Tom Thibodeau’s vow that they would have no excuses and play well. Coming out ready to work, the Bulls got their first two baskets on offensive rebounds by Boozer and Noah, and they led most of the first quarter before bringing a 29-25 lead to the second on Taj Gibson’s jumper with 0.8 seconds left. It was 40-36 before the Bulls took control with
solid offensive execution and poor Nets defense. Noah had consecutive baskets before seldomused Daequan Cook made a 3-pointer to cap an 11-2 run, and after a basket by Andray Blatche, Boozer, Robinson and Noah ran off the next six points to give Chicago a 57-40 lead as the crowd began to boo. The Bulls capped it with a stunningly easy dunk by Boozer with 1.2 seconds left off an inbounds pass, sending the Bulls to the locker room with a 61-44 advantage. Brooklyn burst out of the locker room with a 10-4 run, and back-to-back 3-pointers later in the third period by Gerald Wallace kicked off an 11-2 surge that got the Nets within 69-65 on Williams’ free throw with 5:29 left. Jimmy Butler hit a 3-pointer and Robinson scored to steady the Bulls and push the lead back to nine, and they led 82-75 after three. The Nets opened the fourth with just one point in the first five minutes as consecutive baskets by Boozer pushed the lead back into double digits. The Nets kept trying to get back in it, getting it all the way down to four on a 3-pointer by Williams with 26 seconds left, but Belinelli hit four free throws from there.
Deng, Hinrich absent Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich missed Game 7 of Chicago’s series against the Brooklyn Nets, leaving the Bulls without two starters as they tried to avoid losing a series they led 3-1. Coach Tom Thibodeau said Deng remained hospitalized in Chicago with an illness and was unable to travel for Saturday night’s game. The starting forward was tested for meningitis this week and Thibodeau said the team was still waiting for results. Hinrich missed his third straight game with a bruised left calf. He had done little besides shooting over the last couple of days before trying to warm up Saturday night, and Thibodeau said the point guard was “not quite there.” Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli started for the Bulls. Hinrich, his lower leg wrapped in ice, said during the morning shootaround that if there was any way he could play, he would give it a try. The Bulls had missed his defense against Nets point guard Deron Williams after Hinrich was hurt last Saturday while helping the Bulls rally to win Game 4.