Quick 18: More low scores, Langer's second, Romo's top 5
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
Editor's note: PGATOUR.COM's Melanie Hauser will be shaking out the mental lint and pulling together the "Quick 18" on Mondays this year.
1. Another month, another 59. And another 60. And another 61. And of course Ryo Ishikawa's 58 in Japan in May. Q-18 has no one-size-fits-all explanation. No one does. Technology is certainly part of it -- clubs, golf balls and even training techniques (cell phone video anyone?). User-friendly layouts, too. So call it the perfect storm and enjoy the ride. These are, after all, the best players in the world. As for Stuart Appleby? He's always had a flair for ... just about everything. Now we know that extends to an impressive way to break a four-year drought.
2. But going low doesn't stop with the PGA TOUR. Bobby Wyatt, who will play for Alabama in the fall, shot a 57 at the Alabama Golf Association State Boys Junior Championship and may just find his way into the Guinness Book of World Records. Wyatt, who turned 18 Sunday, had one eagle and 12 birdies -- and 23 putts -- for the 57, which broke the course and tournament record. The lowest score ever recorded was Homero Blancas' 55 in 1962, but it was on a 5,000-and-change yard course. Records can only be set on courses at least 6,500 yards long. The next day, he closed with a 70 to win his fourth consecutive state junior title. And another 56, this one at Broken Arrow Golf and Athletic Club, was shot by Jeremy Callison. According to The Oklahoman, Callison, a marketing man in the area, played with a partner in a two-man scramble but finished every hole with his own ball. Three eagles, 10 birdies, five pars.
3. Time to write off Tiger Woods as some are suggesting? Q-18 wouldn't suggest it. The TOUR is at Firestone Country Club this week for the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. If there's ever a place to break Tiger's winless streak -- just seven tournaments -- it's there. He's won this tournament seven of the last 10 times he's played at Firestone. Not enough? He's 103 under in 10 tournaments there, has a 67.5 stroke average and he's never shot higher than 71. And the three times he didn't win? A second and two fourths.
4. Yani Tseng's Women's British Open title Sunday gives her two majors this year -- the Kraft Nabisco Championship was the other -- and three total. She won the McDonald's LPGA Championship in 2008, which means she has four LPGA Tour wins, three of them majors. And she's only 22. That's where you belong. Trust your ability and have fun.
5. Bernhard Langer wins back-to-back senior majors across eight time zones. Understandably, lots of grumping about the scheduling -- hey, it's hard for twentysomethings to make that body-clock switch -- but Langer's performance might put a hole in that. Next year, he'll defend -- we assume -- at the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open in back-to-back weeks. In 2012, the senior majors will have a week between them.
6. Lost in the 59 news was Padraig Harrington finishing second to Ross Fisher at the Irish Open. All of which should make for one less Colin Montgomerie headache. Harrington should be a lock for one of Monty's picks for the Ryder Cup, while Fisher's win puts him sixth on the European points list. It was, by the way, Harrington's 15th top-10 in the last 12 months, which may mean he's thisclose to winning again.
7. U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell set up a dinner date with Padraig Harrington to talk about handling the stress of winning a major. McDowell, who'll sit down with Harrington this week, said the post-major swirl has been much more difficult than he ever imagined. "I told him I was struggling with it all a little bit and it's been tough to keep my focus, and he said, 'Welcome to my world','' McDowell said. "You dream of achieving these things but dealing with them is another thing. They're good problems to have and I wouldn't change it for anything but it's frustrating." After his first win -- the 2002 Volvo Scandinavian Masters -- there was a rush, too. It was only the fourth start of his career. "It was intense for a couple of days and then it went away very quickly. This one has lingered," McDowell said. "Everyone reminds me of it all the time. The level of intensity, just everything you do makes your weeks busier and makes everything else more difficult.''
8. Filming has started in Texas on the movie "Seven Days in Utopia," based on Dr. David Cook's book, and Q-18 had a chance to watch filming of some of the golf scenes. Just so you know, Lucas Black, who plays one of the leads, has a scratch swing and some serious talent. Watching him film the final scene ... all us non-crew folks thought it was powerful. And Robert Duvall, who plays the other lead? He only has to hit a shot or two in the movie and spend some time on the range. He may not be a golfer, but his swing looked pretty good.
9. Former PGA champ Rich Beem, who has been sidelined since April following surgery to repair a disk problem, is one of the TOUR players you'll see in Utopia. He was filming an on-course role last weekend and told Q-18 he's feeling good and will play three Nationwide events as he works his way back onto the big stage. He's targeted the Viking Classic for his TOUR return. More soon, but Beemer, as always, kept it light. During rehearsal when they announced him as a former PGA winner, he laughed, "Fantastic, but I know I don't have any chance at all to win (in the movie). I'm going to finish third. Maybe the PGA TOUR will let me count that toward my top 125."
10. Q-18 isn't a fan of "The Next" anyone but must point out there is a serious young talent on the horizon in 14-year-old Jim Liu, who became the youngest player to win the U.S. Junior Amateur, breaking Tiger Woods' 1991 record by almost seven months. He's 5-foot-9, bombs it close to 300 yards off the tee and will be in this month's field at the U.S. Amateur. And he happens to have the same coach Woods did from age 10-17, John Anselmo, which means we pay attention when the Huntington Beach, Calif., teacher speaks out.
"He's quite something," Anselmo told Golf World. "He's another Tiger, as far as I'm concerned -- his mannerism, how he devotes his life to what he's doing, like Tiger did. He told me he had eight birdies on the first 18 holes (of the 36-hole final with Justin Thomas). That's the way he is. He's like Tiger that way. He's got no fear. He's not going to back away. He might even be just a little bit ahead of Tiger (at that age). But not much."
11. Tony Romo's top-five courses? Not what you might think. Yes, Augusta National tops the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback's list for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, but after that Q-18 will call it eclectic. Second is Racine (Wisc.) Country Club -- "It's back home. The greens are probably the best greens I've ever played on consistently. And it makes it because I grew up there." Rounding out the top five are Dallas National Golf Club; all-men's Preston Trail Golf Club, which hosted the then-Byron Nelson Classic from 1968-1982 ("Pure, pristine," he said); and a tie between The Club at Carlton Woods (Woodlands, Texas) and Black Wolf Run (Kohler, Wisc.)
12. In case you didn't know, there is a Cowboys Golf Club. The NFL-themed course -- the only one in the country -- is, yes, another Jerry Jones project, which he built in 2000. Cowboys play for free; Cowboys fans get their dose of silver-and-blue when they play a round or check out the memorabilia. Everyone from Romo, DeMarcus Ware and Jason Whitten to Lee Roy Jordan to Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Daryl Johnston, Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman have teed it up there and some are still regulars. Stars serve as tee markers and the fourth fairway has a blue star painted on it.
13. Another Phi Beta Oops. Michelle Wie was Facebooking last week about how nice it was to be in Southampton, England. One problem. Royal Birkdale is in Southport. Yes, the tabs noticed. So did the locals, noting Southamption is 250 miles away. When asked, she said "It's still in England, though, right?" Reminds Q-18 of Boo Weekley playing at Loch Lomond a few years ago and asking if that was where the monster was. Uh, no. That's Loch Ness.
14. Former Champions Tour winner and 1993 U.S. Amateur champ John Harris is the new director of golf for the men's and women's teams at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota. Harris, a former golf and hockey standout for the Gophers, had played in six Champions events this year.
15. Congrats keep rolling in for British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. "I got a call from Mr. Greg Norman and he said something that I will remember for the rest of my life,'' Oosthuizen said. "He said I am the first person to get him to watch a full round of golf on television. He watched my first shot (in the final round) to my last and couldn't leave the couch."
16. The July 22 cover of the Toronto Sun had a picture of Mike Weir wincing as he held his sore right elbow. The headline? Is Mike Weir Washed Up? Weir hadn't seen the cover when The Globe and Mail did a Q&A with him. "It's unfortunate,'' Weir said. "It's just the day and age. It's easy for somebody on the outside to throw out a headline like that and then for somebody to write an article like the one that was in. Some guy who doesn't have a clue about the game decides to take a shot. It's disrespectful. Why not confront me to talk about my game? But stuff like that sells. It's sad."
17. The latest celeb -- Q-18 uses the term loosely -- to take up the game is, um, skeletal singer Amy Winehouse. The 26-year-old hopes golf will help keep her away from drugs and alcohol as she rehabs. All she needed was one round and she was a fan. A friend told a UK newspaper that Winehouse has "a natural swing."
18. The Tweet of the Week comes from Stewart Cink, weighing in on Appleby's 59: "I'm trying to figure out which holes Stuart Appleby skipped today."
Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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