By Herschel Caldwell

Tiger Woods arrived at Augusta National with a totally different set of expectations than when he left the course on Sunday afternoon.

 A 74 on Sunday put Woods at 5-over 293 for the Masters, which was his worst four-round score since he posted the same number as a first-time amateur way back in 1995. He shot a 291 in 2007, but that was good enough for second that year, when it was windy and bitterly cold. When he left the course Sunday, he was tied for 41st, the same spot he finished in 1995.

 He seemed honest and upbeat about the week and  his “work in process.” “It was an off week at the wrong time,” he said. (more…)

By Herschel Caldwell

There is an old adage in sports that says: “There is no room on the score card for descriptions.” It only matters that you scored higher in most sports or lower in golf to win. In golf it only counts if you win and then your name goes in the record books. Second place gets you a nice check, pat on the back and they say thanks for coming.

Bubba Watson made four birdies when he needed them to tie the lead at this year’s Masters and a masterful  (excuse the pun) recovery shot on the second playoff hole to set up the winning putt. Way to go Bubba! It doesn’t matter what they say about the how or the what, the bottom line is that the Green Master’s Jacket is yours and people will only remember and rightfully so, the “win.”

Winner of 2011 Ben Hogan Award was first minority to chair USGA Women’s Committee

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
January 27, 2012

Barbara Douglas, the first minority chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee and the recipient of the 2011 Ben Hogan Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, succumbed to cancer at the age of 69. (Jeff Noble/USGA)

Douglas was diagnosed with stage-4 ovarian cancer in March 2009, just one month after she was appointed Women’s Committee chairman, a dream come true after her 16 years of service as a committee member. Despite the disabling effects of treatment, which included chemotherapy, Douglas displayed tremendous courage and endurance as a proactive chairman who seldom missed a USGA women’s championship.

Four days after her diagnosis, Douglas endured more than five hours of surgery, and when she awoke immediately asked her surgeon if she could attend U.S. Women’s Open Media Day.

Throughout her battle, she scheduled treatments to fit her schedule of Women’s Committee duties, often serving as a walking Rules official in a 36-hole championship final, then flying to Scottsdale to begin another round of chemotherapy.

Last year, the Golf Writers Association of America honored Douglas with the prestigious Ben Hogan Award, which has been awarded annually since 1954 to an individual who continues to be active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness.

“When she wasn’t on the golf course, she was in the hospital,” said one GWAA member in nominating Douglas.

When the award was presented at the 2011 Masters, Douglas called it one of the highlights of her life.

When she spoke of her battle against the disease, Douglas said her lifelong positive outlook helped her in her fight. “Charles Swindoll, an American writer and clergyman, says, ‘Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it,’ ” Douglas told the audience. “…I would not let ‘the big C’ control my life.”

Over her two-year term as Women’s Committee chairman while suffering from cancer, Douglas worked at two U.S. Women’s Opens, two U.S. Women’s Amateurs, two U.S. Opens, the Curtis Cup Match and the World Amateur Team Championship. Getting up every day wasn’t easy, she said, but “my focus on the positives kept me going. It fueled my fire and gave me the wherewithal to get up and get going.”

As an African American growing up in a primarily white neighborhood, Douglas was accustomed to challenges. Blessed with strong, supportive parents, Douglas shrugged them off.

“I’ve endured a lot of discrimination, both from being a female and a minority,” Douglas said in a 2009 interview. “But it’s never the first thing that comes to my mind.”

As a beginning golfer, she went alone to New York-area public courses and asked to be paired with other golfers, utter strangers to her. Still a new golfer, she entered a USGA national championship, the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, and surprised herself by qualifying. While she never advanced to match play, she qualified several times. In addition, she was on a fast career track as an executive with IBM and was president of the National Minority Golf Foundation for five years.

In 1992, she was named to the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship Committee and in 1993 became the first minority member of the USGA Women’s Committee. While she was soft-spoken and quietly pleasant, Douglas was a staunch defender of the game. At one WAPL, where she was championship chairman, several spectators behind the ninth green told her that they believed a father who was caddieing for his daughter had intentionally broken a Rule.

Douglas grabbed her copy of The Rules of Golf, striding quickly to the 10th tee. “I think I’m going to stay with this group,” she said, and followed the player and her father for the rest of the round.

During her two-year term as Women’s Committee chairman, Douglas worked hard to further involve state and regional golf associations as grass-roots supporters of the game and focused on growing the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program. In 2011, she was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame. After her term as Women’s Committee chairman ended in February of 2011, Douglas devoted more time to her career as a realtor and was able to spend more time playing the game she loved. But the medical treatments that had kept her going throughout 2009 and 2010 failed to keep pace with the disease in 2011 and she was often confined by side-effects.

Douglas is survived by her closest friend, Bob Tomisak of Glendale, Ariz., and a host of devoted friends from around the nation.

Kraft Nabisco Championship
Mission Hills Country Club
Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship ended in dramatic fashion with Sun Young Yoo beating out I.K. Kim in a one-hole playoff for her second career victory and first major championship. After I.K. Kim missed a one-foot par putt on the 18th hole to force a two-player playoff, Yoo hit her approach shot to 20-feet on the first playoff hole and sank the birdie putt to clinch what seemed to be an improbable victory at the season’s first major championship.

Yoo shot a final-round 69 to put herself in position to be in the playoff. After shooting even-par on the front nine, she tallied three birdies on No. 11, 12 and 15 to move to 9-under-par and eventually get into the two-woman playoff for the championship.

Yoo becomes the second South Korean to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship, (more…)

By Rhonda Glenn

Adrian Stills, Ann Gregory and Tom Woodard were inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame in Tampa, Fla., on March 10. Pictured from left to right are Stills, JoAnn Gregory Overstreet (daughter of the late Ann Gregory) and Woodard. (Courtesy EyeSeeImages and National Black Golf Hall of Fame).

Tampa, Fla. – Two former PGA Tour players and the runner-up in a USGA national championship who helped break segregation barriers were inducted Saturday into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame.

Adrian Stills of Pensacola, Fla., Tom Woodard of Littleton, Colo., and the late Ann Gregory of Gary, Ind., were inducted into the hall of fame, which was established by the late Harold Dunovant in 1986. (more…)

Tiger Woods will face Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano on Wednesday.

There are many very good days, but only a handful of truly great days to watch golf. The last day of a close Ryder Cup is a great day, as is the last day of a tight U.S. Open. A sun-splashed Masters can be blessed with several very good days, and usually boasts a great one or two. (more…)

Field includes 11 Americans, two internationals that competed in Melbourne

By Herschel Caldwell

Next week’s Chevron World Challenge will welcome an impressive 18-player field that includes 13 golfers who shared golf’s spotlight last week at the 2011 Presidents Cup at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. The 2011 Chevron World Challenge will host 11 of the 12 players on America’s winning Presidents Cup team as well as two International Team members. (more…)

Vicki Nakashima, Public Relations Chair

Western States Golf Association

(503) 516-3505 or e-mail: nakashimav@mac.com

Website: www.westernstatesgolf.com

  A talented field of women players at the WSGA 2011 Golf Championship-photo by WSGA

 Denver, CO – June 10, 2011 – The oldest, largest and most diverse golf association in the Western U.S. will bring their annual championship tournament to Broomfield, CO from June 21-25, 2011. Western States Golf Association was founded in 1954 and represents over 30 organized golf clubs, with approximately 1300 members located in six states. (more…)

By Cameron Morfit, Senior Writer, Golf Magazine

KJ Choi-Photo by Robert Beck, SI

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — All week, the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass looked like it might come down to the handful of highly ranked players who were in position to enhance their careers. As it turned out, the tournament came down to 44-year-old, 75th-ranked, slightly arthritic David Toms trying to play 31 disaster-free holes in one day with the Tank, 34th-ranked Korean K.J. Choi, right on his heels. (more…)

 Leading Orthopedic Surgeons Available to Comment

Tiger Woods’ withdrew from The  Players Championship due to his injured left knee. The well-known golfer has had numerous knee injuries over the years which has limited his play in tournament golf. The issue now being debated is whether or not these injuries will prevent Woods from breaking Jack Nicklaus’ major golf tournament record. OrthopedicSurgeons, Dr. Ronald Grelsamer and Dr. Alexis Colvin, from the Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai are available to speak on the complications of the injury. (more…)