2008 - PGA Majors/ WGC/ World Cup

[BSharma]

Thanks...still not sure of Jyoti's qualification..

The PGA Championship people can invite any player besides those that qualify based on their eligibility criteria.  Although PGA Championship will usually invite golfers ranked in the top 50, it tries to pick as many golfers ranked in the top 100 and we often see an ad touting that 98 or 99 of the top 100 golfers are in the field.

Looking at the list of top Asian golfers, KJ Choi made it in based on his victories and ranking.  The next three golfers in the list who are in the top 100 are Jeev Milkha Singh (#66), Prayad Marksaeng (#73) of Thailand and Jyoti Randhawa (#88).  All three are in the field of PGA Championship.  Perhaps it reflects the clout of Asian nations, especially India (and China) that Masters has invited Asian golfers using the special exempt criterion.  This is speculation on my part.

[Kumar]

Saturday update: VJ started the day as a sole leader, but finished it tied with Mickelson and Lee west wood after a 1 under 69 round. Daniel had a great round with 4 under 66 and was placed T10 at end of third round.

Sunday Update:
VJ hit some putts that were unbelievable and then shanked easy ones.. All this week he was 9/18 or 10/19 (putts in 4-8 feet range).

he missed putts that were like 2 feet... inspite of all this, the good news he won  .. This was his first win in 2008 (and breaks the 0 for 34 stretch, longest in 6 years). As per pga site, this win should take his ranking from  10th to 4th.

Daniel had a great chance to finish in top 10, but three bogeys in back nine left him at -3 (for the tournament) and 14th place finish.

[BSharma]

Vijay Singh had never won a World Golf Championship and he did it today despite a shaky putter.  He missed three putts inside 8 feet on the back nine on Sunday and was 9-of-19 on putts from 4 to 8 feet on all four days, but made a 3 1/2 foot putt on the last hole for par to win by one stroke over Lee Westwood and Stuart Appleby.  Phil Mickelson had a one-stroke lead until the 14th hole, but made three bogeys on the last four holes to drop two shots behind Vijay.

Congratulations Vijay.

Addendum:

Daniel Chopra was doing well on Sunday and had 4 birdies and one bogey until he had five holes left to play in the tournament when he bogeyed the 14th, 17th and 18th holes to drop to a tie for 14th place.

[PKBasu]

Congratulations to Vijay for winning a tournament after a long hiatus. Also good to see him in form just ahead of a major...
Daniel had an up-and-down tournament, but also seems to be in reasonable form going into the PGA championship.

[jaydeep]

Congrats Vijay for his first World Golf Championship ... This win was due and Vijay deserved it ...

[arjun2761]

Congrats to Vijay on a wonderful victory even with a relatively balky putter.  He is now back to 4th in the World rankings and has an outside chance at the Fedex cup and its 10 million bonanza.

Over the last many years, Vijay has been the equal of Tiger and Phil as a ball striker (and these 3 have been a cut above everyone else).  However, where Tiger separates himself is that he is a clutch putter and is exceptional with his work near the greens as well.  Phil is as shaky as Vijay with the putter (especially in the 4-8 ft range) although he is Tiger's equal with his touch around the greens (where Vijay is a little better than average).

[Kumar]

Jeev is at -2 thru 6 holes... After a bogey 5 to start the first round, he recovered with an eagle on par 5 2nd... And a birdie on par 4 5th takes him to -2 and share of lead.

VJ will tee off at 1:35 pm and Jyoti at 2:35 pm.


Update - Jeev bogeys the 7th to fall back to -1; Jeev bogeys 10th hole to fall to 'E' par

Daniel not having a good day. He is +4 thru 10 holes (started on back nine)

Update:  Jeev gets back to -1 with a birdie on 15th, while Daniel gets back to +3 with birdie on par 5 2nd.

[Kumar]

After a birdie on 17th, Jeev is the leader in clubhouse at PGA championship...

Daniel bogeyed the 8th and finished at +4. 

[jaydeep]

Wow ... Very good start by Jeev scoring under par round on the first day and top of the leaderboard in early of 90th PGA Champioship.

Jyoti is also starting in late afternoon like Vijay.

Daniel struggled in his round.

[arjun2761]

Great first round by Jeev to share the clubhouse lead at this stage!

[Kumar]

From ESPN sobel's blog,

Also among those at 1-under is Jeev Milkha Singh, who continues to amaze me. Seriously. I watched the guy at the range for 30 minutes the other day. His swing makes Jim Furyk look like Ben Hogan.

If you showed up to the course one day and got paired up with Jeev, you'd watch his swing off the first tee and think, "I can beat this guy." He's got a herky-jerky movement that gets flat at the top while pausing briefly, but comes through the ball perfectly.

Honestly, if you ever wanted to improve your own swing by watching a pro, you'd be better off examining that of Singh as opposed to, say, Ernie Els. I mean, let's face it: Your swing is never going to look as pretty as Els'. But it could look as ugly as Singh's. The issue is turning ugly into effective, which he's made into an art form.

And from my man Jeev Milkha:

Q: What were your expectations coming in?
JEEV MILKHA SINGH: No expectations. I was just trying to hit shot-by-shot and hope that I can shoot even par and it worked out pretty good. I shot 2-under.

Wow. OK, so my man Jeev Milkha isn't much of a talker. Honestly, that was the best quote from his post-round interview. I guess he prefers to let his swing do the talking. Uh, or maybe the results of his swing ...

[ajay]

Great start Jeev! Once again he has made a good start. Around two weeks back in Japan, when he made a good start most of us were not much impressed as we were wondering whether he can play three more good and consistent rounds. The doubts in our mind was genuine as he made so many good starts to ultimately falter in one of the later rounds. But two weeks back he not only played consistent round but won the tournament.

I hope this week same story repeats. Its not at all surprising to see Jeev near the top of the leaderboard. Jeev is definitely capable of winning this PGA championship, a feat that would be very impressive but not surprising. But this is only the first round. Now once again the question remains - will he be able to play 3 more good and consistent round.

Better for us - lets follow Jeev's philosophy - no expectations.  Lets enjoy his first great round and just follow his golf for the rest of the tournament. Good luck Jeev!

[ajay]

Jyoti started with a double bogey 
but he recovered one stroke on hole # 4 .  So Jyoti is +1 of 4 holes and T36. Vijay is also not having a good time on the couse as he has so far dropeed 4 strokes in first 4 holes. In next 4 holes he had two birdies and a bogey to have a total score of +3 in 8 holesand T73.

Reteif goosen has taken the overall lead at -3 of 6 holes, and Jeev is currently T2.

[Kumar]

VJ currently at +4 after another bogey on 9th hole and Jyoti  is at +3 after dropping two more strokes thru 6.

Edited: Ugly news  ... After being +1 thru 5 holes, Jyoti doubled 6th hole, bogeyed 7th and 8th, doubled 9th hole .. And now he is +7 thru 9 holes... What an horrid stretch

VJ stays at +4 thru 13 holes. Play suspended due to bad weather.

[Kumar]

VJ bogeyed the 17th and 18th to fall to T92 and +6... 2 over par round could still see him make the cut.

Jyoti is at +6 thru 15 holes

both of them will play in the morning and can hope to make better scores...

And jeev is still at the top of leaderboard.. Romero has a chance to overtake him though