The 2009 World Gold Championship at Doral turned from Tiger’s return to stroke play to Mickelson’s and Watney’s party. After the second round when it was clear that some putting issues would keep Woods out of the running we were treated to a 2 day dual between up and comer Nick Watney and our buddy Phil. Even Jim “Funky Swing” Furyk would have had a shot if it weren’t for an early double bogey. He finished at 16 under while Phil and Nick finished at 19 and 18 under respectively.  [Read more →]

Tiger Woods, as usual, hit some great shots but wasn’t able to put together a decent round on either Thursday or Friday just making the cut to play the weekend rounds. He stepped up his game considerably on Satuday and Sunday but was way too far off the pace to make an impact on the standings. It appeared that his putter let him down on a number of occasions while his driver and short game were really starting to come alive. It looks like he will really start to be a factor after only 1 full event under his belt.

The final round between Watney and Mickelson was a real barn burner with each player trading amazing shots. Each one had some serious errors on to come back with an amazing shot to stay in the game.  It wasn’t until the 10th the things appeared to go sour for Watney who was calming himself down after each shot trying not to get to far ahead of himself. Mickelson and yanked his drive way right into some dense shrubery and Watney was left with a 4 iron to the green. After Mickelson hit a right handed 7 iron into a tree Watney mishit his 4 iron and ended up in a greenside bunker. On the subsequent shot Watney’s club landed about 6 inches behind the ball in the sand and it couldn’t propel out of the bunker. Meanwhile Mickelson failed to draw the ball onto the green but hit a 70 yard shot from the left side rough within 6 feet of the hole and was able to save par while Watney gave up a stroke 2 putting for Bogey.

Mickelson is now within spitting distance of Tiger and the #1 ranking so depending on how Woods fares at Bay Hill, Mickelson could have a chance to replace him when he next plays at the Shell Houston Open. I’ll keep you updated.

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