The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Pressure and heat could make PGA a true gem
- Scott unperturbed by caddie’s Tiger jibes
- Murray fails to get past second round
| Pressure and heat could make PGA a true gem Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:07 PM PDT TIGER Woods is healthy. Rory McIlroy is ready. Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Adam Scott are hungry. Temperatures are hot, the course is formidable and young guns are taking aim at a Major title. There's not much more golf fans could want when the 93rd PGA Championship tees off at Atlanta Athletic Club, a 7,467-yard par 70 layout where the world's finest meet in the year's final major tournament. "The competition is strong," Scott said. "Luke Donald has played amazing, Lee Westwood is playing amazing and now we have Tiger healthy again, so this is going to be interesting for everyone to watch." Former World No. 1 Woods, a 14-time Major winner chasing the all-time record 18 Majors won by Jack Nicklaus, missed three months with left knee and Achilles tendon injuries before returning last week at a World Golf Championhips event. Woods said he was "absolutely encouraged" about his game even though he has not won any title since the Australian Masters in November 2009 and has not won a major since the 2008 US Open. "It would surprise me if he went on and won the next couple of weeks," said World No. 1 Donald, the Englishman citing the difficulty in coming back from an injury at a high level. McIlroy, the Northern Ireland prodigy who won his first major title at the US Open in June, was hailed as the next Woods but was unhappy with wind for the second British Open in a row and said he likely will play the US tour in 2012. "I'm playing well," McIlroy said. "I'm really happy with the way I'm hitting it and driving it a lot better than I have done the last couple weeks, so yeah, I'm ready for it." Considering the wet conditions in which McIlroy won the oft-punitive US Open, the PGA might produce the test Congressional Country Club did not. "Very fast, slopey greens which is going to be quite challenging," Donald said. "If they get them any firmer and faster, it's going to play more like the US Open than the US Open was." Sweltering heat will test fitness while the course takes its toll on golf skills. "We have to conserve some energy this week and drink water because it is extreme heat out there," Scott said. "We're going to be out there for 5 1/2 hours and we're going to have to deal with it." Americans will try to end a record six-Major win drought and prevent the first year since 1994 with no US Major winner. — AFP Related Stories: |
| Scott unperturbed by caddie’s Tiger jibes Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:06 PM PDT AUSTRALIAN Adam Scott (pic) said on Tuesday his caddie's jibes at Tiger Woods had been blown out of proportion and hoped his clubs would do the talking this week at the PGA Championship. Scott won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday with Woods' former caddie, Steve Williams, recently fired by the former number one, enjoying vocal support from the crowd. After the tournament, Williams was controversially interviewed by television before holding an impromptu news conference in which he rated his win with Scott higher than any of his victories, including 13 Majors, with Woods. "I kind of think it's been blown out of proportion, unsurprisingly but I guess its newsworthy stuff. Steve was obviously delighted to win, as was I. He was speaking with a bit of emotion probably," Scott told reporters. Some critics of Williams suggested he had stolen Scott's moment of glory at Firestone Country Club but the Australian appeared far from irked by that idea. "I certainly don't think that was his intention to steal my moment at all," Scott said after playing nine holes in practice at Atlanta Athletic Club on Tuesday. "He was asked these questions and he gave his honest answer I assume. And with a lot of things to do with anything related to Tiger Woods, it's all scrutinised and blown out of proportion a lot of the time. "So this is no different. He was asked a question, and he gave an honest answer. So, I said, 'That's fair enough'. Hopefully we'll just go and let our clubs do the talking for the rest of the week now. "Obviously he (Williams) had not won for a little while and he's really passionate about it, and that's what I see. When you're passionate and in that situation ... I think it all got a little out of hand." Asked whether he had a quiet chat with the experienced caddie from New Zealand, Scott quipped: "Having a quiet word with Steve is not very easy. He's a big guy, you know." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Murray fails to get past second round Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:05 PM PDT MONTREAL: Andy Murray's title defence at the Montreal Masters collapsed on Tuesday as the off-form Scot was crushed 6-3, 6-1 in his opening match by South African Kevin Anderson. The two-time defending champion was bundled out in 69 minutes in his second-round start. While Murray's Montreal campaign ended abruptly, top-seeded Novak Djokovic couldn't even get his going as rain rolled into the city in the early evening and eventually forced the postponement of Djokovic's scheduled second-round opener against Russian Nikolay Davydenko. More poor weather was predicted for the area on Wednesday, when second seed Rafael Nadal and two-time Canadian winner Roger Federer are both due on court for their first matches in the US Open tune-up. Djokovic won the Canadian trophy in 2007 and has never lost in Canada prior to the quarter-finals with a 12- record in the country. Before the storms rolled in, Frenchman Richard Gasquet produced a repeat of his July Davis Cup victory over Florian Mayer as he defeated the German 6-3, 6-2. A month ago, the 10th-seeded Gasquet won their Davis Cup encounter in Stuttgart after the 23rd-ranked Mayer served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set. German Philipp Petzschner defeated French ninth seed Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-2 while Michael Llodra of France notched an upset victory over Russian 11th seed Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Murray, who had hoped to kick-start his summer after several weeks of gruelling preparation in Miami, remained baffled by his failure to fire when it mattered against Anderson. "I just felt very slow, the game seemed to be going so fast," he said. "It's happened to me already once this year. "I've trained really hard to get ready for the tournament. I've always played very well here. "Today I couldn't get anything going. I started both sets really, really badly which doesn't help against someone that serves like Kevin. "I was down a break early. I didn't get anything going at all. "It's normal to be a little bit, sort of like nervous and not play your best when you haven't played for four or five weeks," he said. "But I hoped to be playing better than that, especially with the amount I've been practicing. Murray was joined at the exit by Gilles Simon, the ninth seeded Frenchman going down 7-5, 6-2 to Germany's Philipp Petzschner. It was smooth passage, however, for Simon's French compatriot Richard Gasquet who blasted his way into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 demolition of German Florian Mayer. Michael Llodra upset 11th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 to join his fellow Frenchman in the next round. — Agencies Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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