JULY 2007
The leading stories since I last wrote have been all about the major Championships. At the beginning of June we saw Norway’s Suzann Pettersen show that she is up to the challenge of playing well in the final nine holes of major championships, when she won her second LPGA tournament in the space of five weeks,

and played like a true champion in warding off the challenge of seven time major champion, Australia’s Karrie Webb in an exciting and tense final nine holes, to claim her first major. Many of the golfing media thought that it would take Suzann a long time to get over the mental damage that losing the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first women’s major championship, may have caused her, when she dropped four shots in the final five holes to loose by a single shot to America’s Morgan Pressel. I was delighted when Suzann proved her doubters wrong, when she won her maiden LPGA tournament – the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill after a play-off, and then

won the McDonald’s LPGA Championship playing such terrific golf in the final round.

It was pleasing to see good finishes too from Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson who finished 6th, Scotland’s Catriona Matthew tied 10th, as well as Mhairi McKay who finished in a tie for 18th. Annika Sorenstam playing in only her second tournament since returning from a back injury showed some good form eventually finishing in a tie for 15th.

The week following the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, it was the men’s turn when the U.S.Men’s Open was played at Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Before play began, much was made of Johnny Miller’s round of 63 which he shot at Oakmont in the final round en route to his victory there in 1973. Many observers thought it to be a flawless round and certainly one of the best ever in the championship’s history.

The players found a very different course than the one that Johnny Miller won on in 1973 awaited them. Literally thousands of trees had been removed to make the course look and play more like a links than a parkland course. Some players thought that the USGA had set it up to be almost unplayable, but Nick Dougherty’s 68 to take the lead after the opening round, and Paul Casey’s 66 in the second round said otherwise. Tiger threatened to run away with the championship in the third round, when he played superb golf from tee to green, hitting 17 out of 18 greens in regulation, but he just couldn’t convert many of the birdie opportunities that he created, thus finishing two shots behind the leader, Australia’s Aaron Baddely going into the final round. In the final round, it seemed that no one could take control.At one point Sky TV who were televising the event ran a diary of who had been in the lead at

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what time – the lead had changed so often! During the back nine, it seemed that any one of Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk or Tiger Woods could win. Angel played some superb golf getting three birdies in a row on the back nine to take the lead, which despite dropping shots on the sixteenth and seventeenth holes, he wouldn’t ever be overtaken. It was a well deserved victory for the 37 year old, hugely popular Argentine who has played most of his golf on the European Tour. With only his caddie and cigarettes for support, Angel dispelled the myth that everyone these days spends all their time on the

practice range or in the fitness trailer!

Angel attributed the massive distances that he hits the ball down to all the Argentinian beef that he’s eaten over the years! After beating the best in the world on their own turf, who can dispute him?

To bring June to a quite spectacular climax golfwise, we had the 62nd U.S.Women’s Open to look forward to. I didn’t find it quite so gripping as the male version, but fascinating nontheless. No doubt it wasn’t helped by the stop start nature of the first three days due to lightening and storms, which made it very difficult to work out who had finished what round, and whether they were about to finish their round or had just started! A lot of players, Annika Sorenstam included spent literally all day on Thursday and Friday at the course waiting to see if, having been called off the course, there was to be any further play. Having spent all four days – or nights because of the five hour time difference – in Sky TV studios eagerly anticipating watching “live” golf, it was disappointing for everyone concerned that we saw very little “live” golf until the final round, when thankfully there weren’t any interuptions. As the final round entered the back nine, it seemed that either Lorena Ochoa, the world’s number one from Mexico, or America’s Cristie Kerr were going to win. In the end, Cristie’s birdie on the fourteenth hole, and Lorena’s hooked tee shot on the seventeenth which resulted in a bogey, proved to be the decisive in Cristie’s favour. Having said that, congratulations to Brazil’s Angela Park, who barely put a foot wrong and played magnificently from the first round when she lead with a 68 to finish tied second with lorena Ochoa. So, Cristie has finally broken her major duck, and questions still remain about Lorena’s ability to perform under the severest pressure. I, like a lot of golf fans feel that Lorena is ready to win her first major – perhaps St.Andrews, where you can get away with a hook will prove to be a happy hunting ground?!