2011 PGA TOUR:   Will Last Week’s Top 10 Finisher Win This Week at Riviera?

Top-10 finishes usually signal better things to come on the PGA TOUR.

Jonathan Byrd, 2011 Hyundai Champion! Photo Credit: PGA.com

Look at Jonathan Byrd, who won his last event of 2010 with a dramatic playoff trump ace in Las Vegas. The next time he teed it up—granted, it was 2-1/2 months later—led to another playoff win in the season opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on Maui.

Here’s another example. After finishing 6th at Disney two months earlier, Mark Wilson won the SONY Open.

Get the picture?

A good finish leads to even better things a couple months later.

Not so fast.

In the 3rd tournament of the year and only his 5th start in a PGA TOUR event, rookie Jhonattan Vegas won the Bob Hope Classic after finishing T57 at Waialae. “I hope to be the best player in the world, I know it is tough to achieve but feel I have the game and mentality to do it,” said the 26-year old.

Sound familiar?

Furthermore, Bubba Watson won the Farmers Open after missing the cut entirely in the Hope. And Mark Wilson rang the bell again with a playoff victory in the Phoenix Open after sandwiching a T57 between his two wins.

So much for the theory that a Top-10 finish one week is the antecedent to a win the following week.

Look at Carl Spackler, a.k.a. Bill Murray, winning the Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week.

“Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former greenskeeper, now about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a miracle—it’s in the hole! It’s in the hole!” It had taken Spackler over 30 years.

So what’s the point?

Well, D.A. Points finished 5th at the Farmers, then T18 in Phoenix before winning his first PGA TOUR event on the sun-drenched Monterey Peninsula alongside Murray.

Finishing towards the top—sooner or later—usually means victory is somewhere out there on the back nine on Sunday when things fall into place.

What do all six 2011 winners have in common?

All are Nationwide Tour alumni.

Is it hard work under similar tournament conditions that leads those in the top 10 to win?

The NWT alumni win count on the PGA TOUR is closing in 300. D.A. Points’ win on Sunday at Pebble Beach was No. 294.

The Nationwide Tour is only a little over 20 years old.

Let’s say the average number of PGA TOUR events is around 30 in that period. By that figure, 50% of all victories on the PGA TOUR come from NWT alumni.

Not bad—considering in the early 90s there were no NWT graduates winning, because there was no NWT to graduate from.

Let’s look quickly to last week’s Top 10 finishers to see who will win this week.

Count Nick Watney out as he withdrew from the Northern Trust Open without specifying why. Watney was T6 at Pebble Beach, where it was his fifth consecutive Top-10 dating back to last year’s TOUR Championship.

Hunter Mahan (2nd) finished strong at Pebble with a field best Sunday 66. A reasonable person would not bet against him this week.

Tom Gillis (3rd) came off the Nationwide Tour in 2009 and had three Top-10s in 2010. “I’m not totally satisfied with (2010). I thought I would have had more chances to win,” Gills said, fitting the NWT alum and Top-10 finisher profile to a tee.

Though he has played in 5 events so far this year, Spencer Levin (T4) might try a delayed Byrd-Wilson (“happy with time off”) formula to winning. “I am just going to go home, take some time off and enjoy this a little bit,” said the Q-School graduate. “Then I’ll start getting ready for next year.”

Steve Marino (T4), who started knocking on the door early in the 2008 Open at Turnberry (before being surpassed by Tom Watson), looks poised to make a breakthrough into the winner’s circle.

Aaron Baddeley (T6), who dropped the “stack and tilt” to regain his ball-striking form, also had a T8 finish in Vegas the week Byrd won. It is only a matter of time for the Aussie, who was beaten by Troy Merritt in the Kodak Challenge playoff.

Bryce Molder (T6) seems to be regaining his form after ending last year weakly missing three of four cuts.

Phil Mickelson is the obvious favorite of the four golfers who finished T9 to win for the third time as he tries to commute, weather permitting, from his home in San Diego to Riviera CC this week.

But don’t dismiss Steve Bowditch, Zach Miller or Jimmy Walker this week in the land where stars are born.

There is also Paul Casey, coming off his win in the Middle East who—along with reigning Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and 11-time European champion Robert Karlsson—will be making his U.S. debut this week.

So will we see someone from last week’s Top 10 win this week at Riviera?

Don’t forget defending champion Steve Stricker!

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours—the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides in Pont Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida and pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.

Please comment directly on this article or email him at AndyReistetter@gmail.com

The Cinderella Story! Photo Credit: Golf.com

Golf writer Andy Reistetter was on site at Pebble Beach to witness the modern Cinderella story of D.A. Points’ first victory on the PGA Tour and the triumph of Bill Murray, a.k.a. Carl Spackler, a.k.a. the regular golfer like all of us, in the granddaddy of all Pro-Ams at America’s home course Pebble Beach.

“Da Bears” didn’t win this year, but D.A. Points and another guy from Illinois, a comedian-turned-dramatic-actor who kept him loose, surely did win.

Two guys from the Prairie State dressed in blue and orange walked the fairways and putted the greens of famed Pebble Beach Golf Links on another glorious day on the Monterey Peninsula.

These were the same fairways where Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and last year Graeme McDowell won U.S. Opens.

It was fate, pure and simple.

The stage was the difficult, slightly uphill dogleg right 573-yard par-5 14th hole.

The stage of a tilted, tiny and tempest of a green where last year from the fairway Paul Goydos watched Bryce Molder made a quadruple bogey 9 and then did the same thing.

Points holed the improbable shot—a gap wedge from 107 yards—and then for added measure, made a putt of nearly 30 feet on the next.

The golf gods kept his tee shot in bounds on the 16th, and then the “Murray Magic” kicked in on the green to save the victory for self and team.

Though this time, the roles were reversed, and it was Points using Murray’s tactics to urge his partner on.

“Go ahead and make the putt, the crowd will enjoy that.”

Of course, Murray didn’t make his putt, though the still loose Points did.

Points got the point and made the knee knocker from six feet to seal the victories for the kid from central Illinois, and the no longer young in age man from the chick is in the car and the car won’t go “Chicago.”

As Murray would say, “Done, it was over after 14, 15 and 16.”

All that was left to do was throw ice cream bars to the galleries as the forever now joined partner twosome of fate made the final march to the awards ceremony on the 18th green.

Was it Carl Spackler and the Bishop playing in near picture-perfect weather?

There was a bigger story here for those of us who think two things usually go together—having the most fun and winning.

The world needs to take a less serious attitude. Maybe golf can lead the way in that regard?

Maybe “Murray’s Magic” was to have so much fun that it distracted Points from trying too hard?

As Points would say afterwards…”yes, I need to (change), I absolutely need to.”

Maybe, as Points said.

“Instead of boringly walking down the fairway, minding my own business and not saying anything,” other PGA TOUR players will do the same thing, and we will have the Rocco Mediates, Peter Jacobsen and Mr. Palmers of today and tomorrow out there on tour.

Maybe Jacobsen’s legendary pro-am partner Jack Lemmon finally made the cut?

“If you make the other person look good, then you don’t have to worry about yourself,” is how Murray put it in perspective afterwards, drinking a glass of red wine while addressing the media.

Maybe there is something in it for us heading into Monday morning at the office.

Winning at Pebble Beach with his childhood idol Bill Murray wasn’t just a “dream come true” for Points.

“I don’t think I could even dream it up.”

Dreams turn into reality at magical places like Pebble Beach.

As sponsor AT&T’s slogan urges, maybe we should “rethink possible.”

After all, two kids from Illinois showed the world today that it is possible…to have the most fun and win!

Maybe Ty’s advice to Danny is more than funny…

“There’s a force in the universe that makes things happen; all you have to do is get in touch with it. Stop thinking…let things happen…and be…”

…like Bill Murray and D.A. Points were this week at Pebble Beach.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides in Pont Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida and pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.

Please comment directly on this article or email him at AndyReistetter@gmail.com

Mark Wilson Wins 2011 Waste Managment Phoenix Open. Photo Credit: Communication Links

Mark Wilson was never dead and gone from the PGA TOUR but he did rise again in Phoenix the day after his Packers won the Super Bowl.

Even last year when the 36-year old golfer was No. 140 on the Money List going into the last event of the season he was still alive.

Having won the 2009 Mayakoba Classic he was exempt for the 2011 season and he did not have anything to prove at Disney.

Or maybe he did?

He completely missed the 2010 Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.

Even though he had won twice on the PGA TOUR he never received an invitation to the Masters.

He has never played in a British Open. In fact he has only played in three majors and has never made the cut (1 U.S. Open and 2 PGA Championships).

Maybe the Magic Kingdom is where “the little engine that thought he could,” became something bigger and better and turned into the “Wilson-matic” we now see on tour.

Like shooting stars over Cinderella’s castle, Wilson’s four rounds in the 60s earned him a 6th place finish and vaulted him inside the magical Top-125 at No. 123.

Maybe he did have something to prove?

His strong finish at Disney notched only his second Top-10 of the year.

Now he has two wins in his first three events in 2011.

What the heck happened to the guy who went to Q-School for 10 straight years prior to breaking through for his first victory at the 2007 Honda Classic?

“The sooner you decide to just trust what you’ve got, the quicker you’re going to become a better player,” was Wilson’s attitude after beginning to work with Dr. Bob Rotella.

“I skated right through Q-school and then I won three months later at the Honda, my first win in 2007.”

Fast forward four years to yesterday in Phoenix.

“The old Mark would have been pretty upset with the tee shot on 18 in regulation, maybe would have chunked that 9-iron into the front bunker and made bogey and handed the trophy to (runner-up) Jason (Dufner). But the new one was just focused on, hey, I got this 9-iron out of the bunker and almost won the tournament that way. It’s almost a two-shot swing a lot of times.”

“For some reason at the end of last year, which was one of my worst years in recent history, it (Dr. Rotella’s advice) just popped back into my head, hey, I’ve got to just trust what I’m doing and just play my own game.”

Wilson has focused on two improvements to his short game to go along with that trusting attitude.

“I’ve got a new green-reading technique,” Wilson explained. “Dr. (Greg) Rose (of the Titleist Performance Institute) helped me split the putts into two parts always, and that really has helped me see the line better.”

“(In practice rounds) I try to throw a ball down inside 100 yards on almost every hole as an additional shot on the green trying to get that up-and-down.”

“Those two things have just really calmed me down, going, hey, no matter where I hit the ball I can get it up-and-down from inside 100 yards and therefore it’s going to be hard for me to make bogeys. This week and Sony I eliminated the bogeys a lot, and that has been a key.”

Everything seems to be clicking with victories coming easily and often for Wilson at a time when others, including Tiger Woods, find it difficult to win on the PGA TOUR.

Wilson is a cumulative 47-under par in his three starts this season.

Moving up to No. 51 in the World Rankings, he is at his highest level ever.

With that ranking comes more playing opportunities in World Golf Championship events like the upcoming Accenture Match Play and the Cadilac at the TPC Blue Monster at Doral.

“I see the snowstorm up in Chicago, and it’s like, why do I need to go back there? There’s no reason. Let’s just keep playing. So I plan to play — right now the plan is to play through Bay Hill.”

“I’m just enjoying the ride here and that’s just kind of the way I’m going to look at the year here, just ride this train as long as I can.”

Phoenix was good but it is over and the opportunity is today, tomorrow and the future.

We can all benefit from that attitude!

We like the “new” Mark from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Congratulations Wilson, Congratulations Packers!

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides in Pont Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida and pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.

 Please comment directly on this article or email him at AndyReistetter@gmail.com

Bubba Watson, are you there?

Bubba Watson, 2011 Farmers Insurance Open Champion! Photo Credit Richard Mille

Those words have been heard since the invention of the telephone in 1876.

Following his best year in a four-year PGA TOUR career, the question wasn’t whether or not Watson would be out there on tour this year. The question was whether or not he could come back from a playoff loss to Martin Kaymer at Whistling Straits in the PGA Championship.

Question answered as Bubba Watson is now a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR.

Only five months after receiving the non-consolation prize of being a member of the 2010 Ryder Cup team, Watson has weathered the storm of personal loss and continued his trek to future golfing dominance.

“My dad is not here, Mom I love you,” were the words from his heart after beating a stellar field down the stretch at Torrey Pines, the San Diego muni better known as the world class golf course that hosted the dramatic 2008 US Open.

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate played in the same field at Torrey Pines for the first time since Tiger birdied the last in regulation to force that memorable Monday playoff.

Rocco missed the cut by four strokes but has his recent four-hole-out victory at the 2010 Frys.com Open to accentuate his resume above and beyond the courageous battle against Tiger at Torrey.

Woods meanwhile was not as sharp as the 2010 PLAYOFFS for the FedEx Cup, finished T44, 15 strokes behind Watson. One has to wonder about his 74-75 weekend on the golf course on which he won six previous Farmers Open including four in a row only three years ago.

Woods has won 13 times in California and that other guy, the hometown favorite, Phil Mickelson, came close to winning his 13th California-style finishing one stroke behind.

So dramatic was the finish that Mickelson walked up to the 18th green and then had caddie Bones tend the flagstick while he struck his 73-yard pitch for eagle to tie Watson.

The staging was nothing less than legend Walter Hagen’s rendition in the movie Bagger Vance.

But one has to wonder about Mickelson who abandoned his aggressive “Masters 13th between the trees” style with a clean lie from 226 yards on the last even before Watson stroked in his 12-footer for the winning birdie.

Sure he went with driver off the tee on the narrow 17th to set up a sand wedge approach and finish birdie-birdie. But he did not finish off the tournament with a “W.”

Others in the stellar field right up there with Watson and Michelson heading into the final 18 holes included Bill Haas, Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim.

Haas, the second round leader by two strokes, did record his fifth consecutive Top-10 going back to his second PGA TOUR win at the Viking Classic last fall. Son Bill failed to win another tournament that his father Jay won back in 1978 to go along with his first win- the 2010 Bob Hope Classic that Jay won in 1988.

Mahan, wed to former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader Kandi Harris only two weeks ago, faltered on Sunday with a 73.

Anthony “AK” Kim, with a renewed 2008 Ryder Cup like recommitment to the game, like Woods, had trouble on the weekend posting 71-72 and finishing T6, six strokes back.

The four rookies, including the leader Sunghoon Kang, that were among the leaders after Round 1 were no were to be found at the end of the tournament:  Kang (T51), Chris Kirk (T44), Keegan Bradley (T25) and Fabian Gomez (T65).

Experience like that on the PGA TOUR is priceless.

John Daly opened with a 67, followed with a 69 to stand T3 at the halfway point, but would go 76-79 to the weekend with no reports from the parking lot this year that he was giving up the game and launching another drama series on the Golf Channel.

The man who rose to the occasion again after winning for the first time last week at the Hope in the desert was Jhonattan Vegas. Also known as “Johnny Vegas,” as coined by the Golf Channel’s Phil Parkin on the Nationwide Tour last year where he finished 7th to get his rookie tour card.

The 26-year-old who won in only his fifth PGA TOUR start was paired with Tiger in the third round and played five strokes better than the 14-time major champion.

Neither Vegas, nor Mickelson heeded the “Rocco lesson” from the 2008 U.S. Open, i.e. hit the 18th fairway to have a chance to reach the green in two strokes. Vegas dunked his second in the water from the right rough and bogeyed whereas an eagle would have forced a playoff with Watson.

The pink shaft swinging Watson lead the field in driving distance (308 yards), greens in regulation (GIR) and was 13-under par on the par-fives for the week.

In the end it was Watson’s putter that came through at the end of the day. After missing two nine-foot birdie putts on 14 and 15, he drained another for par on 17 and then canned the winning putt on the 18th green.

No doubt long accurate drives, precise approach irons and streaky putting is a difficult combination to beat.

The only four-time winner in his 20s, Dustin Johnson made a Sunday charge posting a solid six-birdie, no bogey 66. Among the emerging next generation, Mahan, Kim, Sean O’Hair and Camilo Villegas each have three victories.

Bubba Watson becomes only the fifth lefthander to record multiple wins on the PGA TOUR joining the company of Mickelson, Mike Weir, Bob Charles, and Steve Flesch.

Watson answered another fateful call today at Torrey Pines.

Alexander Graham Bell might not have heard his reply on the internet or twitter.

Bubba Watson is now a multiple winner on the PGA TOUR and who knows what his next transmission to the golfing world will be.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

If you haven’t noticed it is a new era in golf. The Tiger Woods era ended in 2010.

2011 PGA TOUR Week Rookie Jhonattan Vegas Wins the 2011 Bob Hope Classic! Photo Credit: Golf Monthly

Whether or not there is a Tiger Woods Reprise in 2011 is yet to be determined.

One thing is for certain: 2010 signaled that golf is truly a world game.

Four major champions, four different countries—America’s Phil Mickelson in the Masters, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen in the Open at St. Andrews and Germany’s Martin Kaymer at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

The younger and better generation came into stride in 2010 led by double winners Dustin Johnson (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and BMW Championship) and Bill Haas (Bob Hope Classic and Viking Classic).

Jason Day won the 2010 Byron Nelson at age 22.

In 2010, Derek Lamely (Puerto Rico Open) and Rory McIlroy (Quail Hollow Championship) won on the PGA TOUR in their rookie seasons.

Lamely won in his 12th and McIlroy in his 18th PGA TOUR start.

More of the same in 2011?

You can bet on that, Vegas- style!

Rookie Jhonattan Vegas won the 2011 Bob Hope Classic in only his fifth PGA TOUR start.

Vegas is the first PGA TOUR member from Venezuela and the first rookie to win in the 52 year history of the Bob Hope Classic.

Now joining Arnold Palmer (1960) and Charley Hoffman (2007) in the record books, Vegas won the Bob Hope Classic in his first start.

Vegas three-putted and bogeyed the 18th to fall into a tie with Bill Haas who finished two groups earlier and playing partner Gary Woodland who birdied the 90th and final hole of regulation.

Defending champion Haas was defeated in the first playoff hole as he failed to birdie the par five 18th.

Vegas then birdied the 18th to knock out the other young wonder who was playing in only his 28th PGA TOUR event and who notched his first career Top-10 finish.

While Vegas won in Palm Springs, on the other side of the world in another desert in Abu Dhabi, all four 2010 Major champions, including American Phil Mickelson making his 2011 debut, competed with World No.1 Lee Westwood on the European Tour.

PGA Champion Martin Kaymer ran away from a strong field and won by eight strokes to become the World No. 2 golfer at age 26.

The Bob Hope Classic, a five-round desert gem of celebrity, amateur and professional competition began on Wednesday with 30 celebrities, 384 amateurs and 128 PGA TOUR players on four desert golf courses.

With perfect weather—mostly sunny, temperatures in the high 70s and light winds, it was another shootout in the desert.

Derek Lamely, who is given little recognition as the “other” (than Rory McIlroy) rookie to win on the PGA TOUR last year, strung together five birdies, an eagle and then another birdie while shooting a leading nine-under par 63 on the Palmer Private Course at PGA West in Round 1.

Lamely may be flying under the radar but his game is not lame at all.

His seven-under birdie-eagle streak is the best on TOUR since Brandt Snedeker recorded an eight-under on the North Course at Torrey Pines at the 2007 Buick Invitational.

Golf Channel’s Michael “the Weather Man” Breed analyzed celebrity and professional golf swings with a giant green screen behind him.

Jhonattan Vegas, 2010 Nationwide Tour graduate (No. 7 with one win) first came to the top of a PGA TOUR leader board at the end of Thursday’s Round 2 along with Boo Weekly at 13-under par.

Lamely’s second round included a quintuple-bogey nine on his second hole. He recovered with four birdies on the back nine and managed a one-over 73. After a 72 on Friday his weekend 64-67 performance would finish T13, six strokes out of the three-way playoff.

Vegas continued to play well and Woodland joined him at the top of the leader board after Friday’s Round 3 as the Champions Tour got underway in 2011 in Hawaii at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

Come Sunday, John Cook would win the season-opener to go along with his victory at last season’s closer at Harding Park.

Vegas and Woodland would increase their one stroke co-lead over Greg Chalmers to two strokes over Martin Laird by the end of Saturday’s fourth round with Haas three strokes back.

In Sunday’s fifth and final trek around the Palmer Private Course, Vegas and Woodland would shoot 69 to be joined in the playoff by Haas’ 66.

With this victory, look for Vegas in the field at the Masters, PLAYERS, and PGA Championship.

Who will win at Augusta National, or at the Atlanta Athletic Club in the U.S. Open, or at England’s Royal St. George’s in the British Open, or at Congressional CC in our nation’s capital in the PGA Championship?

Perhaps it will be a rookie, a different international player or a 35-year old now World No. 3 rejuvenated star.

Look for the Tiger Woods Reprise of 2011 to start this week at Torrey Pines in the Famers Insurance Open.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a row starting in the world of golf.

A signed Lee Westwood, Nedbank 2011 Champion! Photo Credit: Best of Golf South Africa

Whether it is simply the players or the tours, it is Europe and the rest of the world against the Americans.

Here are Reistetter’s Top 10 thoughts on the current situation and how it evolved in the last nine months.

1. The latest happening is U.S. PGA Tour non-member Lee Westwood’s announcement that he is missing the 2011 Players due to the restriction of being able to play in only 10 U.S. PGA Tour-sanctioned tournaments.
2. The issue is not the actual Players event as playing there does not count against the 10 limit for nonmembers. Remember, The Players is the fifth major by virtue of the strongest field in all of golf, its history and major sponsor. The issue is Westwood playing at Quail Hollow, host to the 2017 PGA Championship, the week before The Players to warm up.
3. The 10 cards in Westwood’s 2011 playing hand are the four majors, three WGCs and the Honda Classic (sandwiched between the WGC Match Play in Arizona and the WGC in Florida at Doral), Shell Houston (week before the Masters) and St. Jude in Memphis (week before the U.S. Open), where Westwood is the defending champion.
4. Why is Westwood targeting The Players Championship? He is not, Chubby Chandler, Managing Director of International Sports Management, golf’s current day Mark McCormack, is the man making the decisions for Westwood. Think about the impact McCormack had on the game of golf when he developed the sports agent role and signed up Arnold Palmer as his first client.
5. Chandler controls world No. 1 Lee Westwood, Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, the other U.S. PGA Tour non-member snob Rory McIlroy, Hall of Fame inductee Ernie Els, up-and coming Charl Schwartzel and Chris Wood as well as grisly veteran Darren Clarke.
6. This is about Chandler versus Finchem, commissioner of the U.S. PGA Tour, for control of the future world golf tour. Chandler is the new Greg Norman.
7. Ironically this row was started by the U.S. PGA Tour when the Memphis tournament last year snubbed Westwood by not extending an invitation to him to play the week before the U.S. Open.
8. It was only at Quail Hollow, the week before The Masters, when Westwood made it a media issue by pointing at the logo on his shirt and guessing that was the reason why a regular tour event would not invite the world’s No. 4 golfer. His logo was that of his sponsor U.P.S.—a major competitor of Fed Ex.
9. The PGA Tour realized how silly that looked and extended an invitation to Westwood to play in Memphis which is also the world headquarters of Fed Ex. He did and he won on the U.S. PGA Tour for the first time in 12 years.
10. Lee Westwood is looking a lot like Colin Montgomerie though respected in America there is a question of how much he is really liked on a personal inspirational level. A major championship victory instead of finishing in second place would definitely bridge that gap in acceptance. Or even a win at the 2011 Players right in the backyard of the U.S. PGA Tour headquarters might help.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer covering all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides in Pont Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida and pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.

For more background information on Andy go to the website Andy’s Golf & Travel Diary or e-mail him to AndyReistetter@gmail.com