Green Reading

Johnson expected to sport CCU colors, logo today

As part of a promotion by Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines sponsor Farmers Insurance, Myrtle Beach resident Dustin Johnson is expected to wear Coastal Carolina teal, black and white during today's third round.

Farmers Insurance wanted to promote school spirit during the third round , and encouraged both PGA Tour players and fans in attendance to wear their own university colors in support of Farmers new “University of Farmers” advertising campaign.

Johnson has a chance to earn his alma mater some cash, as well. Farmers will award $30,000 total to the college golf programs of the three players posting Saturday's best scores. The player with the low third-round score will receive $15,000 for his alma mater’s golf team, second will receive $10,000 and third will receive $5,000.

Tom Gillis, who attended CCU in 1990, is also playing for the Chanticleers. Johnson began the day tied for 12th at 6-under par and Gillis was tied for 58th at 2 under.

The third round is being televised from 1-2:30 p.m. (Eastern) on Golf Channel and from 3-6 p.m. on CBS.

My weekly golf column is moving to Tuesdays

Anyone looking for my weekly local golf column in Saturday's paper will have to wait a few more days.

After being published in Saturday editions of The Sun News for several years, the column is being moved to Tuesdays. I hope everyone will have a chance to read it then.

I should still have something worth reading in the paper this weekend, however.

If everything goes as planned, I have an extensive look at the state of private golf clubs on the Grand Strand in Sunday's paper.

Johnson paired with Mickelson at Torrey Pines

The pairings are out for the $5.8 million Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, and Myrtle Beach resident Dustin Johnson is paired with his buddy, Phil Mickelson. Johnson hasn’t played since the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which concluded on Jan. 9, and Mickelson is making his PGA Tour debut, though he played in Dubai last week.

They will be joined by Justin Rose in a threesome going off the first tee of Torrey Pines’ South Course at 1:10 p.m. (Eastern) Thursday. They go off the 10^th tee of the North Course at noon (Eastern) in Friday’s second round.

Tiger Woods makes his 2011 debut in a group with Anthony Kim and Rocco Mediate, who he beat in a playoff for the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. They play the North Course at noon (Eastern) Thursday and the South Course at 1 p.m. (Eastern) Friday.

Vegas hits jackpot as a longshot

Of course I would have liked to see Bill Haas win the Bob Hope either with a 6-foot putt on the final regulation hole or in the three-way playoff, because Aynor grad Michael Maness is his caddie. But Jhonny Vegas is another great story in golf, not to mention an awesome name/nickname.

The first Venezuelan to win on the PGA Tour, Jhonattan Vegas first learned to play with sticks and stones while growing up in an oil-drilling camp. His victory could do a lot to reinvigorate golf in his country, where president Hugo Chavez has criticized the game as a sport of elitists and has closed six courses in the past seven years, according to published reports.

Vegas has expressed a desire to speak with Chavez in the hopes of changing his mind.

As a child, Vegas imitated the swing of his father, Carlos, who sold food and looked after a nine-hole course in the oil camp. It’s always been a dream of Carlos’ to attend the Masters, and he’ll be there as a guest of his son in April. The win earned Vegas an invitation to the year’s first major.

“I know it's a dream that my dad and I guess my American friends have to go to the Masters, just to walk around. That's kind of what they told me,” Vegas said in a press conference following his win. “It's like, ‘Before I die, just please get me to the Masters.’ So I just got to thank God one more time for making that happen.”

Furyk commits to Hootie Monday After the Masters tournament

Event to return to Grand Strand through 2014

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH | Reigning FedExCup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year Jim Furyk has committed to make his second consecutive appearance in the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am on April 11.

And he’ll have an opportunity to return to the Barefoot Resort Dye Club for several more years if he chooses.

Tournament organizers and marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a primary sponsor of the tournament, have agreed to a three-year extension to stage the event on the Grand Strand through 2014.

The 17-year tournament originated in Columbia and will be held for the ninth consecutive April at Barefoot Resort, where it moved from Kiawah Island in 2003.

“Walking up here to the Dye course today, it honestly feels like coming back home,” Hootie & the Blowfish bassist Dean Felber said. “Of all the places we’ve been with the tournament, it just feels so good to have a place we can come back to every year that is absolutely wonderful. I don’t think it could get any better.”

The Mike & Mike in the Morning radio show, which is broadcast on ESPN Radio and simulcast on the ESPN2 television station every weekday from 6-10 a.m., will broadcast live from the tournament this year.

“This event has been such a perfect marriage between the band and everything this event brings to Myrtle Beach and what we’re able to do promotionally, it’s such a great marriage and a great match for our destination that we don’t want to see this event go anywhere,” Golf Holiday president Bill Golden said.

“That [extension] allows us to plan long-term promotional opportunities, something like Mike & Mike. It really gives us flexibility to get real aggressive and leverage the event with all the things we do.”

Other early 2011 commitments include longtime tournament supporters and PGA Tour members John Daly and Woody Austin, as well as Conway native and LPGA Tour member Kristy McPherson.

Graham believes Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey and Clemson alum D.J. Trahan will be added to the field, and hopes Myrtle Beach resident and four-time PGA Tour winner Dustin Johnson will return for a second year.

“We’ve gotten a lot of interesting emails from a lot of different actors and football players and things like that,” tournament director Paul Graham said. “ . . . We always look to get new names, and a lot of times they’re coming to us, which has been great. We’re just trying to keep the pedal to the metal.”

It was announced at a press conference Friday at The Dye Club that $300,000 was raised by the event in 2010. That doubled the 2009 proceeds, and $10,000 was donated to The First Tee of Myrtle Beach, an organization that provides character building and golf instruction and opportunities to area youth.

The Hootie MAM has raised more than $4 million in its 16 years for the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation, which supports South Carolina education and junior golf causes.

The event has sold out both playing spots and spectators tickets for the past five years.

Spectator tickets to the golf tournament are $15 for adults and free for children 12 and under, and will become available at 11 a.m. on Feb. 26 at the House of Blues, Barefoot Resort pro shops and Ticketmaster outlets.

-- Read Saturday's edition of The Sun News for more information.

Johnson broke out new driver in opener

TaylorMade's newest driver, the white R11, made its PGA Tour debut at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Kapalua last week when Dustin Johnson, a TaylorMade staffer, led the field with a average of 307.9 yards off the tee for the week. Runner-up Robert Garrigus also used the R11.

Both Johnson and Garrigus used the R11 in a long-drive contest that kicked off the week. “We built Dustin a driver with a longer shaft for the long drive contest," a TaylorMade tour representative told Golfweek.com's weekly The Tour Van. "Johnson's R11 had toe weighting in it with FCT in R position with ASP set to NEUTRAL. He wants to be able to get after it and not worry about missing left.”

TaylorMade has been incredibly active signing touring pros, some surprising. In the past week, TaylorMade has announced it signed Jim Furyk and Camilo Villegas to contracts.

A 16-time PGA Tour winner, Furyk is coming off a career year that included victories at the Transitions Championship, Verizon Heritage, and the season-ending Tour Championship, and he's been a Srixon staffer for years. Furyk's widespread success culminated with a $10 million bonus for the PGA Tour's FedExCup.

Among about 70 touring pros the company claims as tour staff professionals are Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Rory Sabbatini, Mike Weir, Kenny Perry, Justin Rose, Sean O'Hair, Tim Clark, Darren Clarke,
Scott Verplank, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman.

If you want to play a free TaylorMade Club, the company is giving away 20,000 Burner 2.0 6-irons, and consumers are encouraged to visit our new campaign microsite and complete the sign-up form.

A virtual round at Augusta National now possible

For the masses who will never get a chance to play Augusta National, the Masters Committee has made the course available in a video game for the first time.

“Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters” will be available in stores March 29, about a week before the 2011 Masters.

The game allows consumers to virtually play the course, relive historic Masters moments, and participate in the new Caddie System, in which your caddie improves with you.

Masters Tournament and Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said 100 percent of Augusta National’s proceeds from the game will be contributed to the newly created Masters Tournament Foundation, which is designed to annually invest in development programs for the game of golf worldwide.

I'm hoping to play the actual Augusta National for a second time this year. I played it the day after Phil Mickelson's first major win at the 2004 Masters -- making par on the 18th hole to shoot a 99 -- and there is a seven-year waiting period for media members to play the course again. That expires this year.

 

 

 

 

Lincicome experiment consists of two rounds

Brittany Lincicome missed the cut at an NGA Hooters Tour Bridgestone Winter Series event in Florida Wednesday, but believes her foray into men’s golf was worthwhile.

By participating in the event at Deer Island Golf Club in Tavares, Fla., she wanted to get tournament-ready before the start of the LPGA season next month in Thailand. The three-time LPGA winner believes she did.

“I knew I was going to find some positives by playing in the event,” Lincicome told Hooters Tour officials. “I hit the ball great. I don’t think I missed one shot today. But I couldn’t make any putts. I had four three putts today. I‘ve got a  month left before our season starts and I need to knock of a little more of the rust.”

Lincicome, a close friend of Conway’s Kristy McPherson, shot rounds of 74 and 77 to tie for 81^st in the 113-player event at 7 over par. The cut was at even-par 144.

She played with Zack Sucher of Mobile, Ala., who is tied for 16^th at 2-under 142, and Jay Whitby of Wyoming, Del., who beat Lincicome by a shot, and she enjoyed the camaraderie.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but they couldn’t have been nicer,” Lincicome said. “We talked fishing all day and were just cracking jokes. Zack was joking about getting on Golf Channel last night. I had a good time with them.”

Johnson gives insight prior to season opener

In Dustin Johnson’s pre-tournament press conference at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, he had some interesting answers to a few questions.

He revealed he doesn’t fear the second coming of Tiger Woods and is confident he’ll get his wins regardless how well Tiger plays, thinks the U.S. can match Europe’s talent level despite there being seven Europeans in the top 11 in the world rankings, believes its time for some younger players to win majors, and is working primarily on distance control with his wedges.

 

Some of the Q&A follows:

 Q. Clearly the game needs Tiger playing well. I mean, from a sponsor's point of view if nothing else. But yet the other side of the coin is that if he gets back to the dominance that he once had, you fellas are not going to have the same freedom to win tournaments that you have experienced in recent years?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “I hope he does. It doesn't bother me. I'm still going to win. Tiger is a great player, but you know, he doesn’t win every event, so that leaves a lot of other events I'll have a chance to win.
I think he'll do just fine. He's a great golfer and you know he's playing pretty good golf right now.”

Q. Would you agree with a lot of commentary right now that the best golfers in the world are found in Europe?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “No. Both. You could say they are European, but most of them play over here. There's too many good American players to say that the best golfers in the world are in Europe.”

Q. Just a comment on I think 13 different players combined for 16 wins in their 20s in 2010. Do you kind of see a shift? Do you envision that same wave rolling in 2011 as far as young, new breed coming along?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “Yeah, I think the young guys, we had a really good year this year. We won a lot of golf tournaments and that's what we have to keep doing. We have to keep winning golf tournaments, stepping up, and we need to win a few majors.”

Johnson said he’s working primarily on wedge play in practice, and more specifically distance control with wedges.
“Yeah, distance control. Usually my direction is very good, but working on direction and distance control. I made a lot of bogeys last year with a wedge in my hand; so eliminating that, which distance control will do that.
“But you know, wedges is just repetition. Just keep hitting numbers. Keep hitting the numbers that I want to and adjust from there. But the more wedge shots you hit, the better you are going to get with a wedge.”

 

Johnson's 2011 journey begins

 Myrtle Beach resident Dustin Johnson begins his 2011 season with Thursday's opening round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort on the island of Maui.

The $5.6 million event, which pays $1.12 to the winner, is reserved for winners of 2010 tournaments and has just 34 players in the field, including seven first-time winners. Johnson tees off at 5:40 p.m. (EST) with Steve Stricker.

Johnson tied for 16^th at Kapalua last year, nine shots behind winner Geoff Ogilvy with a 13-under-par 279, and finished 11^th in his first visit in 2009. But as a 7,400-yard par-73 with four par-5s, Johnson's length and overall ability are bound to soon produce improved finishes.

"It's windy usually, which I don't mind," Johnson said. "But you've got to hit a lot of different golf shots. You hit almost every club in your bag. It's a lot of drivers for me, so it sets up good, and the fairways are fairly generous. They are nice. And I can drive it close to a few of the par-4s."

Golf Channel has coverage from 5:30-10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and final-round coverage Sunday from 6-10 p.m.