Showing posts with label BubbaWatson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BubbaWatson. Show all posts

2/22/2016

McIlroy Sunday Roar Fizzles in Caifornia

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Rory McIlroy carded a final round 75 at the Northern Trust Open on Sunday to see his challenged at Riviera Country Club fade as Bubba Watson carded a closing 68 for 15-under-par to claim the title for a second time.

Watson finished one stroke clear of Jason Kokrak and former Masters champion Adam Scott.

Overnight leader Watson had 10 players within three shots of him going into the final round. In 2014, when he last won the LA Open, Watson went on to win the green jacket at Augusta. “To win in a tough way means a lot . . . for me is it is about staying patient,” said Watson, after his ninth PGA Tour win.

Playing in the tournament for the first time McIlroy opened rounds of 67, 69 and 67 and made a real statement of intent on the final day with an opening eagle on the on the Par 5 first.

But McIlroy then signed for seven bogeys – including a run of three successive dropped shots from the 11th – and only salvaged a closing round 75 with a birdie on the 18th.

Adam Scott – who had an electrifying start that included an eagle and three birdies in his first six holes to card a 67 – with Kokrak – chasing a maiden tour win – and Dustin Johnson became the main players in the drama.

Australia’s Marc Leishmann and KJ Choi of South Korea carded 69s to finish tied in fifth place. McIlroy’s tied-20th finishing position was disappointing.

The Holywood man now heads back to the east coast for this week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens and next week’s WGC-Cadillac championship in Doral.

Pádraig Harrington's triple bogey seven on the Par 4 seventh proved very costly as he signed for a closing 75 for two-under-par finish T45th.

Harrington defends his Honda Classic title in Florida this week, where Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell will also be in the field.



4/13/2014

McIlroy Signs off with 69

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Rory McIlroy was on course for his best finish at the Masters Tournament after a final round of 69 left him level par for the week.

The two-time Major Champion saved his best till last, picking up six birdies on the final day, to put himself in position for a first top ten at the Masters, beating his previous best of tied 15th in 2011.

Two sixes on the par fives on the back nine today though put an end to a higher finish and it was the long holes throughout the week which have ultimately proved costly.

“I played the par 5s in even par this week, which you just can't do out here,” he said. “I'm even par for the tournament and even par for the par 5s. So you're looking to play the par 5s somewhere around ten to 12 under par. And obviously if I had of done that it would have been a different story.

“It's been a frustrating week, because I felt like from tee to green I played as good as the leaders. I don't think I've ever played as good tee to green around this course as I have this week. Above par is very comfortable, I just need to take some more chances that I've given myself on the greens.”


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4/12/2014

McIlroy Marked by Member Knox

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Rory McIlroy played round three at The Masters with club member Jeff Knox, who was acting as a marker and  a birdie on the last gave him a one under par finish after three bogeys and four birdies in total.

McIlroy, holed a four-foot par putt on the 18th on Friday to make the cut on the mark of four over par, started promisingly with a two-putt birdie from 25 feet on the par-five second.

However, the two-time major winner’s approach to the short third ran over the green and he was unable to get up and down for par, while birdie chances went begging on the fourth and sixth.

An errant tee shot led to another bogey on the seventh and an outward nine of 37 completed in 90 minutes, with Knox — who holds the course record of 61 from the members’ tees — out in an unofficial 35 after matching McIlroy’s birdie on the second.

McIlroy dropped another shot on the 10th after missing the green left for the second day running, and smiled wryly when he missed for birdie on the 12th only to see Knox casually hole from 30 feet.

Rory then drove into Rae’s Creek on the left of the 13th and saved par after a penalty drop, with another birdie putt on the 14th.

Though three birdies in the last four holes - brought him back under par for the day, and perhaps gave a hint of what might have been.

McIlroy had said: “I just want to go out there and try to get off to a fast start. Eleven shots back (of leader Bubba Watson) with two rounds to play is going to be nearly impossible to make up, so I’m trying to shoot two really low rounds and see where that puts me at the end of the week.

“It will take something phenomenal to shoot something in the mid-60s and get myself back under par going into the last day. But I’m going to need to be two, three or four under par going into the last day to have any sort of chance.”

Former champion Watson was seven under par at halfway and enjoyed a three-shot lead over Australian John Senden, with defending champion Adam Scott, Masters rookies Jordan Spieth and Jonas Blixt and Denmark’sThomas Bjorn a shot further back.

American Gary Woodland was making the biggest move of the early starters, birdies on the first and sixth coupled with an eagle on the second taking him to one under par for the tournament.


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2/28/2013

McIlroy Cuts Just a Blip - Bubba

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Bubba Watson believes Rory McIlroy's early struggles with his new Nike clubs is nothing more than a blip.

McIlroy has suffered a poor start to the season after switching equipment manufacturers in a multi-million pound deal, missing the cut in Abu Dhabi and losing to Shane Lowry in the first round of the WGC World Match Play last week.

But Masters champion Watson is convinced the world number one - who will defend his Honda Classic title this week - will come good again soon, while admitting he had never been offered "stupid" money to change clubs.

"I think Rory is going to be number one for a while," Watson said on a teleconference ahead of his title defence at Augusta from April 11-14. "There is no-one in the history of the game who is 100 per cent in making cuts.

"And match play is match play, it's such a goofy tournament so I don't think Rory and Tiger (Woods) losing in the first round shows anything."

As for changing clubs, Watson added: "If the right number, or what we call a stupid number in our business, comes along then obviously you look at it and you figure it out.

"I never wanted to leave Ping, I've been with them since I was eight years old so for me it's an easy decision. I've never got a stupid number, though."

Watson, who defeated South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen in a play-off to win his first major title last April, gets to choose the menu for this year's champions dinner, which is traditionally held on the Tuesday before the first round.

Last year, 2011 champion Charl Schwartzel opted for a South African braai - a traditional meal made up of grilled meats - but Watson is giving nothing away just yet.

"We will wait and see," the left-hander added. "I think I should be allowed to just wait to tell everybody."
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4/12/2012

Bubba Could Play Irish Open


The new Masters champion, Bubba Watson, has spoken of his time in Ireland playing golf – saying he could return for this year’s Irish Open at Royal Portrush.

In a report in The Irish Sun Watson explained that he spent part of his first summer at college on a golfing trip to Ireland with fellow students Boo Weekly and Heath Slocum. Now he could return to play in the 2012 Irish Open as a perfect links warm-up for the British Open in July.

The report catalogues Watson’s love affair with links golf in Ireland and confirms he could make the field when Northern Ireland hosts the Irish Open.

“Maybe!” said the 33-year-old Watson when asked if he would make an appearance at Royal Portrush, home course to major winners Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell.

Watson said: “I played links golf for the first time when I went to Ireland with my high school buddies when I was 18 and played six courses in about 13 days.

“I’ve played Ballybunion, Waterville, Lahinch twice, the par three where you hit over the rock. Royal County Down, Portrush, Portmarnock.

“We landed in Dublin and went around the coast. We got a hotel, played golf, got a hotel, played more golf.

“Lahinch was the first links I ever played. We arrived at three in the afternoon, I remember I hit the green on the first and the fairway.

“Then on the second I missed it behind the bunker and said to the caddie I was going to flop it.

“And the caddie said ‘you can’t do that’. But I played it anyway and it went straight off the green. We played Lahinch twice and played it the next morning and then went to the next course.”

Source: The Irish Sun



4/09/2012

Lefty Watson Wins Masters


American Bubba Watson is the Masters champion after winning a play-off against Louis Oosthuizen at the second extra hole.

Watson started the day three shots off the lead and shot a closing 68 to earn a play-off against the 2010 Open champion.

Both men missed birdie putts on the 18th green at the first play-off hole, but a par at the 10th was good enough to earn the left-hander a Green Jacket.

Watson had seemed out of contention before making four straight birdies from the 13th to draw level with Oosthuizen.

The South African had led since the second hole when he became just the fourth man in Masters history to make an albatross, his two at the par five catapaulting him to the top of the leaderboard.

He stayed there throughout the afternoon but his failure to get up and down from the front of the green at the second play-off hole ultimately cost him a second major title.

Overnight leader Peter Hanson started with three fives and never really recovered.

Three-time winner Phil Mickelson opened his challenge steadily with three pars but his hopes were almost fatally derailed by a six at the short fourth - his second triple bogey of the week.

Nobody has ever won a Green Jacket with one triple bogey on his card and Mickelson could not change that, although he battled bravely to shoot a level par 72 and finish in four-way tie for third alongside Hanson, Lee Westwood and Matt Kuchar.

Westwood birdied the last for a 68 and would have won comfortably had he found any form at all with the putter.

It was the Englishman's sixth top three finish in his last 10 majors, but still he has not won one in 56 attempts.

Mickelson had crashed from one behind to four back on the third after hitting the grandstand on the left with his tee shot and rebounding into the undergrowth.

Rejecting the idea of going back to the tee, he then had two right-handed hacks and found a bunker.

Getting up and down from there at least limited the damage to three dropped shots, but after seven holes Mickelson was still searching for his first birdie of the day.

Oosthuizen had bogeyed the same hole and parred his way to the turn, but then failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the 10th and the challengers were gathering behind him.

He birdied the long 13th, and was joined on nine under when Kuchar eagled the 15th from only three feet.

Kuchar followed that with a bogey, though, and instead, even with Oosthuizen adding another birdie at the 15th, it was his playing partner Watson who became joint leader after four successive birdies.

Both men made par at the final two holes then after Oosthuizen missed from 15 feet when they played 18 again, Watson failed to convert from eight feet.

Oosthuizen looked to have the advantage on the next when his tee shot was marginally less wayward than Watson's.

But left with 240 yards to the green he came up 10 yards short and somehow Watson managed to carve a wedge 50 yards left-to-right through the trees to 12 feet.

Perhaps unnerved by that, Oosthuizen's chip was clumsy and he did not lose his turn, with his par putt from the back fringe just shaving the right edge of the hole.

Watson had two putts for the title and he took them to complete another memorable Masters Sunday.


4/03/2012

Rory Paired with Angel and Bubba


US Open champion Rory McIlroy has been drawn with 2009 Masters champion Angel Cabrera and America's Bubba Watson for the opening two rounds at Augusta.

McIlroy, 22, was partnered with Cabrera when he had his final day collapse at the tournament last year, shooting 80.

Tiger Woods, who is bidding for his fifth Green Jacket, will play alongside Miguel Angel Jimenez and Bae Sang-moon.

England's world number one Luke Donald has been drawn with Italy's Francesco Molinari and American Nick Watney.

Craig Stadler, the 1982 champion, will get the competition under way at 1250 BST - 10 minutes after former champions Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have hit ceremonial drives from the opening tee as official starters.

America's three-time champion Phil Mickelson, compatriot Hunter Mahan, who won the Houston Open on Sunday, and Swede Peter Hanson, will be the final group out on Thursday at 1853 BST.

Lee Westwood, who finished as runner-up at Augusta in 2009, tees off with 2000 champion Vijay Singh of Fiji and Jim Furyk of the United States.

Open champion Darren Clarke will partner Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and American Fred Couples.

World number 12 Dustin Johnson has pulled out with a back injury, reducing the field to 96 players as there are no reserves.

"First I have to apologise to the fans and sponsors," Johnson tweeted. "With heartfelt regret, I won't be playing in the Masters due to a tweaked back. I'll have to root for my buddies!"