Tiger Woods has a share of the lead, once again, going in to the final round of a major tournament. That spells trouble for the other players in the field at the US PGA since Tiger has never lost a major tournament when he has been leading or had a share of the lead with one round remaining. Tiger shot a course record 65 (7 under par) to move in to the drivers seat. How the rest of the field, especially Luke Donald (tied), Mike Weir (2 back), and Geoff Ogilvy (3 back), respond to the challenge of chasing Tiger on the final day of a major following such a brilliant round should be exciting to witness.

The most emotion Tiger showed in the 3rd round was after he sunk a par putt on the 5th hole

When it comes to the Aussies in the field, it has been exciting to watch Geoff Ogilvy take his game to the next level. He opened today’s round with a double-bogey, but rebounded well to finish with a 68 (4 under par). Ogilvy’s inconsistency has definitely cost him this week - if he had have been able to keep the bogeys away he would have been in the lead by a few shots. The same could be said for Adam Scott, who has had moments of great play followed almost immediately with a bogey. As it stands, Ogilvy is three shots back and still has a shot at winning his second major of the year, but it will take a spectacular round that is free of bogeys.

Geoff Ogilvy plays an approach shot in the third round

Tiger broke down after sinking his final putt to seal victory

Tiger Woods won the British Open over the weekend, his first major championship since the passing of his father, Earl. He held off the challenge of Chris DiMarco, who was dealing with his own personal loss - his mother died suddenly of a heart attack on July 4th. Tiger has now won 11 major championships and is ahead of the pace that Jack Nicklaus set in winning 18 majors. At the same age, Tiger has 11 championships, while Jack had 8.

Tiger’s goal of breaking Jack’s record looks more attainable than ever. When Tiger plays at 80%, he is still better than the majority of his peers. During the British Open, Tiger only used his driver once, using irons from the tee and still reaching a consideable distance due to the hard fairways. It goes without saying that Tiger is going to be hard to beat, but now he has further motivation in his effort to break Jack’s record - he’s going to do it for his father.

What a great looking leaderboard heading into the weekend’s play in the British Open - Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Chris DiMarco, Retief Goosen, and Adam Scott appearing in the top 5 positions. Woods has been dominant when he takes a lead into the weekend, but Els has all of sudden found some of his old form and looks very good. If DiMarco, Goosen, and Scott are going to challenge on Sunday, they need to have good rounds tomorrow. Scott in particular needs to cut the bogeys out of his rounds so he can make a serious challenge to Tiger and Ernie, who don’t look like slowing down. If Scott can shoot a 65 or 66 tomorrow, he could be in contention come Sunday.

On a side not, Colin Montgomerie didn’t make the cut after his second round meltdown. If you recall, I predicted this in my previous golf post. The only consistent factor in Monty’s game is his mental weakness; it doesn’t look like he has recovered from his final hole collapse at the US Open, where he double-bogeyed from the fairway - costing himself the championship.

Sports Illustrated listed their 15 players to watch for the British Open (which starts tomorrow), and included in their list at #6 was Australian Adam Scott. Sports Illustrated had this to say about the Australian: “Perhaps seeing Geoff Ogilvy give Australia its first major in 11 years will inspire Scott, who is a few years away from being regarded as an underachiever in the majors. Has not contended at the British Open, but that’s true at most majors.”

This analysis is spot on. For all of his ability and great results on tour, when it has come to the majors, Scott has been a major disappointment. In the 21 majors that he has contested, he has been cut 8 times and only has two top-ten finishes (both tied for 9th). This is definitely not good enough for a player who has cemented himself in the worlds top ten.

The British Open has always been good for Australians, and come Sunday, I expect an Aussie to be in contention. It has been 11 years between major championships for Australians, but it would be great if an Aussie could back up Geoff Ogilvy’s win at the US Open with a win this weekend at the British.

I think the players to watch this weekend are Tiger Woods, who will be looking to avenge being cut at the US Open (however it has been quite some time since the winner has repeated the following year); Geoff Ogilvy, who has been one of the most consistent players on tour this year; and Adam Scott, who will be motivated to win a major now that another young Aussie has won one before he did.

Don’t expect too much from Phil Mickleson, who has never done particularly well at the British Open. Also, even though there have been a lot of people getting on the Colin Montgomerie bandwagon (due to his good performance at the US Open), I don’t think he is going to back it up with a good performance this weekend, and I would even wager that he might have one of his famous breakdowns.

The last time an Australian won a major golf championship was in 1995, when Steve Elkington won the PGA Championship. Yesterday the drought was broken by Geoff Ogilvy, who claimed the US Open Championship in dramatic fashion. Phil Mickelson did his best Greg Norman imitation and choked on the last hole of the tournament. Needing a par for the win and a bogey to force a playoff, Mickleson took his driver out of the bag and let it rip. All he needed to do was to play it safe and use an iron off the tee, putting himself in a good position to win his third consecutive major championship. Instead, Mickleson was left to wonder what could have been and finished runner-up for the fourth time at the US Open.

Good job by Ogilvy, though. He finished the very difficult last four holes at even par, a feat that others around him couldn’t manage. It was meant to be Ogilvy’s day. On the 17th hole, Ogilvy chipped in for an unlikely par which turned out to be the most significant shot of the tournament for him.

I’m glad that finally another Australian has won a major championship. I thought Adam Scott or Stuart Appleby would be the ones to do it, but Ogilvy has been having a superb year, and this championship follows his World Match Play Championship from earlier in the year.

Thanks Phil!

Stuart Appleby won his second PGA event this year, this time winning by 6 shots at the Shell Houston Open. It’s the first time he has won multiple events on tour in the same calendar year.

Although it wasn’t the strongest field, a victory is still a victory and Appleby blew the field away, leading after every round and pocketing close to $1 million. He is also fourth on the money list now after Phil Mickleson, Tiger Woods, and Geoff Ogilvy (another Aussie). It would be nice for Appleby to take some momentum into the US Open which is held June 15-18, but his game is better suited to the British Open, so I expect him to do well there this year.

In Formula One, Fernando Alonso’s impatience cost him a victory. After being stuck behind Michael Schumacher for a few laps, he decided that he would change his pit stop strategy and pit earlier than expected in the hope of having a quick stop and being in front after Michael Schmuacher made his stop. Alas, this didn’t happen and Schumacher pitted the very next lap, getting out in front of Alonso and holding him off for the victory - Ferrari’s first since the debacle last year at Indianapolis. Because of the speed of Alonso’s Renault (which was surprisingly faster than the Ferrari), he would most definitely have returned to the race ahead of Schumacher if Alonso had kept his original pit strategy and stayed out for a few laps after Schumacher made his stop. The impatient decision to pit earlier really backfired and cost Alonso another victory. What I found disappointing was the poor performance of the McLarens. After last season, when McLaren was really unlucky not to have won both the World Championship and Constructer’s Championship, they look like they are no longer on the top teir of cars. I hope they can get the cars back up to the competitiveness of last year because Kimi Raikkonen is great to watch. He reminds me of Ayrton Senna in the way he attacks a race track - definitely great to watch.

Oh what a feeling!

The NBA playoffs have begun and I have to admit that I really don’t have a great idea of who I think will win. I didn’t follow the NBA that closely this season as a result of the poor play and attitude of the Trail Blazers. Despite that, I have opinions on who will win the individual playoff matchups to move on to further rounds. Here they are: In the Western Conference there are two matchups that will be blowouts and two that will be very close. The two blowouts will be the San Antonio Spurs over the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks over the Memphis Grizzlies. The two close series will be Phoenix against the Lakers and the Clippers up against the Nuggets; in these two series, I like Phoenix and the Clippers. The fact that the Clippers finally made the playoffs after years and years of futility is good to see, but it’s almost hard for me to believe that I would pick them to win a series.

In the Eastern Conference, I like the Pistons over the Bucks (and Aussie, Andrew Bogut), Lebron James (and the Cavs) over the Wizards, the Nets over the Pacers, and the Heat over the Bulls. After seeing some clips from the Heat vs Bulls game tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulls give the Heat a real run in this series. They have a young energetic team and Ben Gordon is just an unbelievable player - can someone please tell me why he isn’t starting for that team?

In other sports news, the Imola Grand Prix gets underway in a few hours, with Michael Schumacher starting from Pole Position. Fernando Alonso is starting from 5th on the grid, and Kimi Raikkonen is starting from 8th. For the Aussies, Webber is starting from 10th. Schumacher looks in good form, and if his Ferrari stays reliable throughout the race, no-one should come near him.

In golf, Stuart Appleby is ahead by two shots going in to the final round of the Shell Houston Open. If he holds on for the win, it will be his second win on tour this year and will get him closer to cracking in to the top 20 in the world golf rankings.

Aaron Baddeley became the fourth Australian to win on the PGA tour this year, following in the footsteps of Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, and Rod Pampling. Baddeley played some pretty gutsy shots on the back 9 to hold off Jim Furyk, one of the best players on tour, by one shot.

After a promising amateur and professional career in Australia (he won the Australian Open as an amateur and then repeated next year as a professional), he had a disappointing start to his PGA career, only just managing to hold on to his tour card in one year. Today he fulfilled his potential by winning his first career PGA title and close to $1 million in prize money.

Let’s hope this is the breakthrough that Baddeley needed to help him realise his potential. The guy has a lot of talent and up until now has struggled dealing with the expectations that were placed on him. It would be great if his win today is the start of many more wins, as well as a major title or two.

That statement from Tiger Woods shortly after completing his final round at the Masters on Sunday sums up why he was unsuccessful in defending his title from last year. His putting was awful all week; he three-putted six times, which is the worst he has ever done at the Masters. On the back 9 Sunday, he had two relatively easy eagle putts and was unsuccessful on both attempts. His driving and iron play was spectacular, and if he had putted to his normal standards, he would have walked away from Augusta with his fifth green jacket.

On the flip side of that, Phil Mickelson played solid golf. His unconventional choice to use two drivers, one for a draw and one for a fade. This choice paid off for him as his play off the tees was phenomonal and one of the reason his play was so solid. Phil definitely has his game in great shape. He has won the last two majors and has won three of the last nine majors after starting zero for forty-two in his career.

He now has to be considered the second best golfer in the world behind Tiger Woods, and their rivalry is great to watch. I’m hoping that sometime soon they are in the final pairing on a Sunday in a major championship. The atmosphere and the crowds would be incredible, and neither player would give an inch. It would have to be the equivalent of an Ali vs Frazier fight, just on a golf course.

2005

2006

AUSSIE UPDATE

T16 - Geoff Ogilvy +1, T16 - Rod Pampling +1, T19 - Nick O’Hern +2, T19 - Stuart Appleby +2 (almost close with my top placed Aussie prediction), T22 - Robert Allenby +3, T22 - Mark Hensby +3, T27 - Adam Scott +4

The Masters starts tomorrow in Augusta, Georgia. I would dearly love to say that an Australian has a chance of winning, but it doesn’t seem likely. As it stands, no Australian has ever won the Masters with Greg Norman finishing second three times. In 1986, he lost out to a red-hot Jack Nicklaus; in 1987, Larry Mize chipped in from an almost impossible location; and in 1996, with a 6 shot lead heading in to the final round, he self-destructed with one of the biggest chokes in professional sports and lost to Nick Faldo.

Adam Scott has the best game of any of the Australians in the field, but he has never performed well at the Masters and I don’t expect this year to be any different. Robert Allenby generally has good opening rounds here, but I don’t expect him to be in contention once the weekend rounds are underway. If I had to pick any of the Australians to have a good showing at the Masters, it would be Stuart Appleby. He has a nice game and has already won once on tour this year.

It’s hard to look past Tiger Woods, though. He’ll want to win this one for his father, Earl, who is ailing from the effects of cancer. I don’t expect anyone to come close to Tiger this weekend, and I’m picking him to repeat last years victory and collect his fifth green jacket.