Golf

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PEBBLE BEACH, California (Reuters) - The chance of rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Kevin Costner and Bill Murray is a major attraction for fans at this week's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

For the players, however, the tournament's long established pro-am format can be a mixed blessing.


The field of 180 professionals is the biggest on the PGA Tour and the pace of play over the three hosting courses can be sluggish with many of the big-name actors and musicians taking time to entertain and sign autographs along the way.

American film star Murray, a tournament fixture in recent years, is probably the slowest moving celebrity in the field with his unique approach to the week.

The most notable amateur to compete in the event since fellow actor Jack Lemmon, Murray is renowned for his high-octane and unpredictable entertainment out on the course.

He has swung baseball bats on the 18th green, wrestled a woman in a sand trap, attacked television cameramen and tackled a wind****n umbrella.

It is probably just as well he is usually paired with 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson, who has grown accustomed to Pebble Beach golf Murray-style.

"It takes a different kind of mental attitude this week just because it is the pro-am format," British world number eight Luke Donald told reporters as he prepared for Thursday's opening round.

"I've been very fortunate to be paired with a friend of mine, Eric Gleacher, for the last few years. He is a good amateur golfer and that obviously makes it easier.

"But rounds here can be quite slow and you just have to be patient."

American Paul Goydos, who ended a PGA Tour title drought of more than a decade by winning last month's Sony Open in Hawaii, loves playing at Pebble Beach.

COOL TOURNAMENT

"I think this is a cool tournament," he said. "In my rookie year, I got paired with (U.S. business tycoon) Donald Trump and I thought this is my favorite tournament of all time.

"It's one of the icon events. You're playing Pebble Beach, and that's royalty when it comes to golf."

Goydos recalled one year when he was paired with American singer Michael Bolton.

"He got a penalty on the first hole for signing autographs," he said. "He showed up late on the tee and the rules are your partner is hitting three off the tee because he is late.

"That's what makes this tournament great. If you don't like those things, don't come here and play.

"But they do have a 180-man field here so they don't seem to have trouble getting players to play."

Entertainment has been part-and-parcel since the tournament was first held in 1937 as the Bing Crosby Professional-Amateur at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club north of San Diego.

After six years at Rancho Santa Fe, the tournament moved up the Pacific Coast to the picturesque Monterey Peninsula where crooner Crosby provided the $10,000 purse.

For a time known as Crosby's "Clambake," the pro-am event has always been underpinned by its celebrity presence.

Among the amateur stars in action this week are musicians Bolton, Glen Campbell, Glenn Frey, Huey Lewis and Kenny G, film stars Murray, Costner, Andy Garcia and Don Cheadle, plus NFL quarterback Tom Brady.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- So much for the demise of Phil Mickelson.

The last time he had the lead in the final round of a golf tournament, Mickelson sprayed the ball so badly off the tee that it finally caught up to him on the last hole of the U.S. Open. He clattered shots off trees and tents on his way to a dubious double bogey that cost him his third straight major.

Three tournaments into the 2007 season, Lefty didn't do much to stop speculation that he would never be the same.

Mickelson might agree after his five-shot victory in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

He might be even better.


With a command performance from tee-to-green, Mickelson went wire-to-wire on the Monterey Peninsula and closed with a 6-under 66, tying the 72-hole tournament scoring record and giving him great vibes about the rest of the year.

He used his debacle at Winged Foot to become a better driver, and he was all that and more at Pebble Beach. Mickelson missed only one fairway in the final round and only got in trouble when his 6-iron caught a gust and disappeared into the weeds, a lost ball that sent him to a double bogey on the fifth hole.

The rest of the final round was a breeze. He made three birdies during a four-hole stretch around the ocean to pull away from the pack, and for the second time in three years, was able to stroll up the 18th fairway in peaceful sunshine.

"I was excited to get back here," Mickelson said. "I felt like I was finally starting to play well."

Mickelson says things like that after all his victories, this one his third at Pebble and the 30th of his career. But ask him about his driver, and he can't contain his enthusiasm.

Whether he was trying to hit a draw or a fade, high or low, even a straight shot, the ball obeyed.

That was the lesson he took out of Winged Foot -- becoming better off the tee -- and while Pebble Beach is not a major, Mickelson felt as though it showed everyone he was ready for anything.

"I've never had this type of feeling on the tee box, knowing that it's going to be in the fairway and not worry about it," he said. "Not seeing if it's going to go left or right or worried about that. I just feel so confident now."

The rest of his game isn't bad, either.


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His short-game coach joined him earlier in the week and they worked on his putting, which Mickelson felt had held him back in two mediocre starts and a missed cut this year. He didn't make them all, but he made enough. Mickelson finished at 20-under 268 to tie the record set by Mark O'Meara in 1997.

He earned $990,000 to become the third player in PGA Tour history to surpass $40 million for his career. He went up to No. 4 in the world rankings. And he won on the West Coast Swing for the 11th time in his 15 full seasons on the PGA Tour.

The important statistics, however, were ac***ulated over four days of sunshine and rain.

Mickelson tied for fourth in driving accuracy, hitting 82 percent of his fairways. He tied for first in greens in regulation, missing only 15 all week. He averaged only 28 putts per round, tied for fifth. And his average drive of 285.1 yards was tied for fourth.

It all starts off the tee.

"It's very easy for me to hit fairways. It feels that way," Mickelson said.

And that's when he's dangerous.

He played the final round with Kevin Sutherland, who has known Mickelson for years and is no stranger to his game. Sutherland fell out of contention with a double bogey on the ninth hole when a 9-iron flew the green into a hazard, and he held himself back by missing six putts inside 8 feet. But the more he watched Mickelson, he must have realized he was playing for second.

"To be honest with you, I was not all that disappointed with how I played," said Sutherland, who made birdie on the final hole for a 71 that put him in second place alone. "I felt if I had putted a little better, I could have shot a 69 or 68. Phil shot a 66? I don't know if I had that in me today. He played tremendous golf."

Sutherland expects more to follow.

Everyone has been hung up on Winged Foot, the sight of Mickelson combining bad breaks, bad shots and questionable thinking as he stumbled to that double bogey to make Geoff Ogilvy a surprising winner of the U.S. Open.

Mickelson didn't give it another shot until the majors were over.


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Only during his three-month break did he reflect on what went wrong, and it didn't take him long to find the answer.

"I drove it horribly," Mickelson said. "That's when I realized I needed to fix my driving."

Winning at Pebble Beach doesn't make up for a missed opportunity at a U.S. Open, and Mickelson doesn't even think about redemption. In fact, he seemed to take more out how he won on Sunday than the fact he won.

"Winning today gives me a lot of satisfaction," he said. "I believe I'm going to take what happened at Winged Foot and make it a plus for the rest of my career. I think I'm going to be a better driver of the ball for the rest of my career."

Then he paused.

"At least, that's the goal."

His target Sunday was to get his nose in front and stay there, and it didn't take long. He found the middle of the green on the par-5 second for a two-putt birdie, rolled in a 12-foot birdie on No. 4, then survived a fluke lost ball on the fifth. Mickelson thought it was short, and was stunned to arrive on the green to find marshal searching for a ball -- his ball, no less.

But the disappointed didn't last long.

He made birdie on four of his next six holes, including three in a four-hole stretch along the ocean to build a four-shot lead. The rest of the day was as easy as finding a fairway.

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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) -- Morgan Pressel never lost hope, even after she walked off the 18th green Sunday still three s***s out of the lead with little reason to believe she would return an hour later for the greatest swim of her life.

Typical of her career, everything happened so quickly.


Pressel closed with a 3-under 69 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, playing the final 24 holes without a bogey. Then she watched a series of collapses unfold on a sun-baked afternoon in the desert, none more shocking than Suzann Pettersen ****ing a four-s*** lead with four holes to play that made the 18-year-old Pressel the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history.

About the only thing anyone could have predicted was Pressel in tears.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" was all she could manage with a camera in her face when Pettersen's 25-foot birdie putt to force a playoff stopped a few inches short.

These were tears of celebration as a major champion, not even a year after she finished high school. And she sobbed remembering her mother, Kathy, who died of breast cancer four years ago.

"I know my mother is always with me," she said. "And I'm sure she's proud of me."

Pressel was at 3-under 285 and on the practice range when she entered the record books, winning a major at 18 years, 10 months and 9 days. Sandra Post of Canada won the 1968 LPGA Championship at 20 years, 19 days.

The youngest man to win a major was Young Tom Morris, who was 17 when he captured the 1868 British Open.

Pressel returned to the 18th not for a playoff she expected, but for a plunge into the pond with her caddie, Jon Yarbrough, and her grandmother, Evelyn Krickstein. Herb Krickstein, her grandfather and the father of former tennis player Aaron Krickstein, later dipped his toes in the water.

Pressel slipped on a white robe with "2007 Kraft Nabisco Champion" stitched on the back.

"This is a dream come true," Pressel said.

Pettersen also shed tears, hers out of utter despair.

The 25-year-old from Norway seized control with three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn and had everything in hand until she started spraying tee s***s under trees and into the ankle-deep rough, and could no longer make putts on the crusty greens.

A bogey on the 15th.

A double bogey on the 16th when it took her three s***s to reach the front of the green and three s***s with the putter.

A bogey on the 17th when her 7-iron came up short and she missed the par putt from 10 feet.

"I said yesterday that the one who made the fewest mistakes would win," she said. "I did a few too many."

She wasn't alone.

Se Ri Pak had a chance to become the seventh woman to complete the career Grand Slam with a victory at Mission Hills, and she had a three-s*** lead on the front nine. She couldn't hold it together with bogeys on five of the last six holes, closing with a 77.

Catriona Matthew was at 3 under and standing over a 30-foot birdie putt when she ran it 5 feet past and wound up with a three-putt bogey that gave her a 71, finishing one s*** back with Pettersen (74) and Brittany Lincicome (72).

Pressel was four s***s behind when she finished Saturday afternoon. She was in the final group a year ago with Karrie Webb, who came from seven s***s behind to win in a playoff.

"A little help never hurts," Pressel said.

Was she ever right.

The kid showed plenty of moxie herself, going bogey-free over the 24 holes, an astounding feat given the tough conditions. She saved par from the bunker with a 6-foot putt on the 15th, made a 5-foot par on the 16th after missing the green, and made a testy 4-footer for par on the 17th after gunning her birdie putt. All turned out as valuable as the 10-footer on the 18th.

When she stepped into the scoring trailer, she saw on TV that Pettersen was in the right rough on the 16th hole. When she stepped out, workers were changing Pettersen's score from 5 under to 3 under on the leaderboard.

Then came the toughest half-hour of her life, moving from the putting green to the practice range to calm herself down.

"I was a lot more nervous doing nothing," Pressel said.

Pressel seems to have been everywhere for such a short time on earth.

She was a 12-year-old in braces and a ponytail when she was the youngest to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open in 2001. She was poised to be the youngest major champion ever two years ago at Cherry Hills, tied for the lead in the middle of the 18th fairway when she watched Birdie Kim holed a bunker s*** for birdie to win the U.S. Women's Open.

"Seems like it's been forever," she said. "I've always had high hopes and big dreams. This is exciting."

Part of a heralded group of kids on the LPGA Tour that included Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer, Pressel is the first to be a major champion. Wie didn't play this year because of an injured wrist. Creamer started the final round one s*** out of the lead and s*** 78.

"Just that I got there at all is enough satisfaction," Pressel said.

Lorena Ochoa, who needed a victory to supplant Annika Sorenstam at No. 1 in the women's world ranking, tied for 10th after closing with a 72. Her hopes were ruined Saturday with a quadruple bogey on the 17th, and while she promised to attack in the final round, the 25-year-old Mexican star didn't make her first birdie until No. 11.

Sorenstam s*** 75 and finished at 296, here highest 72-hole score in a major since the '98 U.S. Women's Open at Blackwolf Run.

Pressel earned $300,000 and had no trouble deciding what to do next.

"I'm going shopping when I get home," she said.

Looking at her grandparents, tears still not dry, she laughed and said, "And they're not going to stop me."

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Sleepless nights" ahead for Tiger

PARIS (AFP) - Most observers at this month's Masters agreed that Tiger Woods was not quite his usual self.

True that, despite not playing at his very best, he came within a couple of shots of winning his 13th major and still outplayed top rivals like Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.

But there was something in his demeanour and body language that ran counter to the image of the super-confident golfing supremo that the world has come to expect in the last decade.

Woods was shaky off the tee, indecisive at times with his approaches and not quite his usual deadly self on the greens.

He insisted that his focus was as sharp as ever, but with the date for the birth of his first child moving ever closer (early July), he will undoubtedly have other considerations on his mind.

Asked how he expected life would change for himself and wife Elin, Woods replied: "Sleepless nights. Obviously our whole priority is to raise our child. That will be our number one priority."

Zach Johnson's upset win at Augusta National further alters the wider picture for Woods.

It means he can no longer achieve a second "Tiger Slam" of holding all four of golf's major trophies at the same time, (he already did so in 2000/2001), and the holy grail of a first ever calendar-year Grand Slam has gone out of the window for another year.

He still has his main career target - the all-time best 18 majors of Jack Nicklaus - clearly in front of him, but at just 31, he can expect to have many more years to come being in contention in the top tournaments.

Woods has kept his immediate schedule understandably open-ended and for the moment he is not due to tee up again until the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach on May 10.

It would then be on to the US Open which from June 14 takes place at Oakmont outside of Pittsburgh, a course that Woods has never played on .

The birth of his child is due to take place between the US Open and the British Open which starts at Carnoustie, Scotland on July 19 and there have been doubts cast on whether he will defend the title he won last year at Hoylake.

For the moment though, Woods says he is aiming on competing at both those tournaments plus the final of the four majors, the USPGA which will be held at Southern Hills outside of Tulsa from August 9.

"I've played three of the four," he said prior to the Masters when asked about this year's major venues.

"I still haven't played Oakmont, so that will be fresh for me. I played Carnoustie in '99 (Open) and I also played, I think, two Scottish Opens there as well.

"And I played the US Open in Tulsa and also played the Tour Championship there in '96.

"So three of the four, I love all three venues. Just curious to see how Oakmont is playing."

In Woods' favour the chasing pack has seldom been so far behind him.

Mickelson struggled all the way at Augusta and has yet to get back his full confidence following the last hole collapse that cost him the US Open title at Winged Foot last year.

Els insists he has totally recovered from the knee reconstruction surgery he underwent 22 months ago, but his missed cut in the Masters was his first in a major in over seven years.

Singh has turned 44, Sergio Garcia is treading water and Jim Furyk is already over-achieving in reaching the world No.2 ranking.

That opens the door for another outsider to take the US Open title at Oakmont and boosts European hopes of breaking a dire run of 30 majors without a win.