professional golf tours

With this being the week to fill out brackets, there's no reason golf should be excluded from the festivities. Instead of anticipating where the next Cinderella may come from, however, we'll limit the exercise to the game's elite. Here, then, is one person's opinion, as biased (some would say convoluted) as ever, of the Sweet 16 – the best 16 male players in history, and how they would fare head-to-head.  

One of the longest running, if not the longest, charity golf outings, gets set to tee off for the 21st straight year on May 10. Apple Mountain has hosted the highly anticipated event since its inception. Proceeds from the Apple Mountain Golf & Country Club's annual outing benefit the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Crisis Center of Warren County.  

AT&T dropped him as a sponsor on Dec. 31 in the midst of the infidelity scandal. It will be the first time since he turned pro that Woods has used an existing sponsor's logo on the bag. The golf bag and hat are the two areas in golf where companies get the most television exposure.

We are not actively pursuing new business partnerships at this point in time   -Mark Steinberg

 

Tournament director Chase McClain and Tim Iley of the PGA told about 200 members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce at the Southpointe Golf Club that the tournament will also give Southpointe and Washington County several days of international exposure through constant coverage on cable television's Golf Channel, which has viewership around the world. McClain described a 72-hole stroke-play event that will draw 156 players from 68 countries who will play the Southpointe course in a four-day tou

A lot of eyes around the world will be on this facility and this tournament   -Tim Iley

 

Jenny Gleason of Clearwater, moved to the top of the leaderboard Friday morning in the second annual $100,000 tournament at Lake Region Yacht and Country Club, but by sunset, she shared the lead with Hannah Yun of Bradenton, Cindy LaCrosse of Tampa, and Jessica Shepley of Oakville, Ontario. "You get some good lies and you get some bad lies," said Gleason, a two-time winner on the Tour who needed only 27 putts. "I hope everybody took their patience pill today. I'm from Central Florida and I know all of t

You get some good lies and you get some bad lies   -Jenny Gleason

 

The quartet of Duramed Futures Tour pros carded 3-under-par 69s on Friday to share the first-round lead in the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. For Shepley, a Canadian living in Orlando, the three-putt from 20 feet was a wakeup call. "I just kind of said, 'All right. You know what, you have a choice right now to let it go, or you can let that be the beginning of your season,'" Shepley said.  

Men's golf coach Frank Marsaglia wished out loud Friday that he had scheduled the University of Illinois Spring Invitational for a few days earlier. The mild weather the last few days is predicted to disappear and the temperature is expected to drop today. That's bad news for Marsaglia.  

BRADENTON, Fla. Josh Beckett pitched 3 1/3 innings after missing his last start because of an illness, allowing four runs on six hits as the Boston Red Sox lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-7 on Friday. Beckett, who walked two and struck out one, was slated to pitch Sunday against the Minnesota Twins but was a late scratch. "The numbers don't look good, but the most important number today was 70 pitches," Beckett said.

The numbers don't look good, but the most important number today was 70 pitches   -Josh Beckett

 

We are exactly 12 events into the PGA Tour season, meaning that the world's top professional golfers are just about one-third of the way through the calendar. It also means that we're just a few weeks removed from the first major championship of the year, namely the Masters. Yes, the 2010 PGA Tour season is moving along.  

Triple major winner Ernie Els will play this year's PGA Championship at the remodeled Wentworth layout he designed, the South African said on Friday. "I'm really excited about returning to Wentworth and playing the new-look West Course," the 40-year-old, fresh from his first win in two years at the WGA-CA Championship in Florida on Sunday, told the European Tour website (www.europeantour.com). "Everyone knows how special Wentworth is to me, so of course it was an honour to be given the responsibility