Scott Verplank finally won the tournament he’s always wanted to win. This victory at home was for the late Byron Nelson.

Verplank, who as a teenager growing up in Dallas got to play several rounds with Nelson, used three straight birdies and Luke Donald’s lead-blowing double bogey Sunday to take the lead and then win the first EDS Byron Nelson Championship played without its namesake.

After holing a final 2-foot par putt at No. 18 for a one-stroke victory, Verplank dropped into a squatting position and looked skyward with smile on his face. He pumped his left fist triumphantly into the air.

“Byron meant to much to me,” Verplank said. “To be from Dallas and win this is unbelievable.”

Sadly missing for Verplank was a personal congratulation from Nelson, who died Sept. 26 at age 94. But Nelson’s wife, Peggy, was there clutching one of his famed fedoras in her hand when she hugged Verplank.

“Byron would be very, very happy for Scott. I am, too,” Peggy Nelson said. “The friendship they had, it’s great to see it culminate this way.”

In 1968, Nelson became the first golfer to have a PGA TOUR event named after him, and he would always greet players finishing their rounds at the 18th green before taking part in the trophy presentation.

Verplank closed with a 4-under-66 for a 13-under 267 total, a stroke ahead of Donald (68) for his fifth PGA TOUR victory, his first since the 2001 Canadian Open. Phil Mickelson (65), Jerry Kelly (64), Rory Sabbatini (64) and Ian Poulter (66) tied for third at 10 under.

Clinging to a one-stroke lead, Verplank hit his tee shot at the 196-yard 17th hole into a bunker far away on the side opposite the hole. But he saved par — and the long-desired championship — after blasting to less than 2 feet.

Verplank and Donald both had pars at No. 18 after both slid similar 10-foot birdie attempts past the hole.

This victory was much more valuable to Verplank than the $1.134 million check and a custom-made motorcycle built by Orange County Choppers.

It was the 21st Nelson tournament for the 42-year-old Verplank, who considers the event his fifth major because of the man for which it’s named — and the legendary golfer who used to write him encouraging notes. Verplank once was a standard bearer at the tournament, where his mother was a volunteer.

After Saturday’s round of 66 got him within one stroke of Donald for the lead, Verplank said winning would be the highlight of his career.

Donald led by three strokes after his 12-foot putt at the 438-yard sixth hole for his third birdie in a four-hole stretch Sunday. But that was the same hole that Verplank began his birdie run with a 5-footer.

Verplank was within a stroke at 12 under after chipping to 2 feet for birdie at the 533-yard seventh hole and making a 12-footer at No. 8.

Things went wrong for Donald at the ninth hole.

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South African Charl Schwartzel claimed his second European Tour title when he won the Open de España at the Centro Nacional de Golf on the outskirts of Madrid.

The 22 year old carded a final round 67 at the new home of the Real Federation Español de Golf for a 16 under par total of 272 to win by a shot from India’s Jyoti Randhawa, with home favourite Carlos Rodiles third a further shot back.

It had been 50 European Tour events exactly since the talented young South African made his breakthrough with victory in the 2005 dunhill championship in his native country and, in

picking up the handsome cheque for €333,330 (£226,150) in Madrid, he moved sixth on The European Tour Order of Merit as well as into the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time.

“I have always enjoyed playing in Spain in the past and have done pretty well here so I always felt my first win outside South Africa might come here and so it has turned out,” said Schwartzel, who also paid tribute to the help he received from caddie Ricci Roberts.

“Having Ricci on the bag is just superb. He had caddied for Ernie (Els) for about 16 years and they both fancied a

change and when I asked if he wanted to caddie for me, I was very happy when he said yes.

“He has so much experience and has seen it all and done it all with something like 50 wins alongside Ernie so I just felt that experience helped give me an advantage. I had been playing well but I was just lacking that edge and I think Ricci gave me that, maybe gave me that one shot edge I had been lacking.”

Along with the rest of the field, Schwartzel had to return early on Sunday morning to complete his third round – a legacy of the horrendous weather tournament organisers had had to

cope with throughout the week in the Spanish capital.

It was testimony to their organisational skills – under the stewardship of Tournament Director Miguel Vidaor – that they did just that and got the tournament back on track to finish on time although, ironically, Schwartzel was in no mood for congratulatory messages when a double bogey six at the 18th in the morning, saw him end the third round three shots behind leader Rodiles.

Going into the afternoon’s play, the weight of expectation from the home fans – who were hoping to see Rodiles become the first Spanish champion since

Sergio Garcia won in 2002 – appeared to lay heavily on the shoulders of the 31 year old who also had the added pressure of looking for his own maiden European Tour title.

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It appears the self-policing whistle blowers in the equipment industry are on the case as a competitor has turned in Callaway just as one did to trip up Nike.

As of today, April 30, a specific version of Callaway’s Big Bertha 460 driver will be placed on the USGA list of non-conforming clubs. Just like the recalled Nike Sumo², the problem is the spring-like effect, which went over the characteristic time limit correlating to the USGA’s coefficient of restitution limit of 0.830.

The guilty party is the right-handed version of the Big Bertha 460 13° HT model. It’s distinguished by a raised dash in the letter “B” in the word “Big” on the sole of the driver.

Callaway has asked its retailers for information on anyone purchasing this specific model as a prelude to replacing them. It is not thought a substantial number had already been purchased. There’s no word yet on the Callaway web site as to the replacement procedure. Callaway said the issue involved a manufacturing problem with only one its suppliers and resulted in a small percentage of the shipments already made.

E. Michael Johnson and Mike Stachura - a.k.a. “Bomb and Gouge” - broke the Story in GolfWorld on Friday.

Source - www.thesandtrap.com

Phil Mickelson yesterday hinted at the extent of his determination to relaunch the assault on Tiger Woods’ hegemony when breaking the habit of a lifetime and dumping one of his cherished inner circle.

The news that he has replaced his long-term coach, Rick Smith, with Butch Harmon had been expected in the golfing world, but still the fairways were abuzz with the appointment.

There were a few reasons for this other than Mickelson’s hitherto renowned loyalty to those close to him. Harmon was, of course, Woods’ swing mentor before being abandoned unceremoniously and many will see this as a direct challenge to the world No 1. Although the split between Mickelson and Smith appears to have been amicable - the pair have vowed to remain “great friends” as well as business partners - the jilted teacher did have one parting shot.

“Butch probably wants to get back at Tiger,” Smith told Golf Digest, after learning that Mickelson had been spotted working with Harmon on the range at recent tournaments. “And maybe he thinks he can do that through Phil.”

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After reading a magazine about these 25 top tips, I tried a couple of them during the weekend on the golf course and one of them worked, So I was thinking if it does improve some of my game I may aswell try and spread the news to everyone to see if it helps anyone else with there game, So here they are Enjoy !!!!

1 - Body Turn - To develop a good weight shift and full body turn take your address position and make sure that your right elbow is softened
and tucked slightly in, pointing towards the front of your hip. Keeping your left shoulder at a constant level, turn until it
is above your right thigh. You should feel the majority of your weight on your right foot. you will have moved a little,
perhaps a golf balls width to the right, and if you want to, you can easily look behind you over your shoulder.

2 - club Selection - You are facing an iron shot to the green, you know the yardage but can’t decide which club to hit. Walk 10 yards closer
and chose from there. You’ll avoid the biggest dangers, usually situated at the front of the green.

3 - Bunker play - Whenever the bunkers are wet you’ll notice that the sand is hard and it’s difficult to wiggle your feet in. This also has
an effect on your sand wedge as the bounce will not work in your favour as usual. To overcome this this employ your usual technique but
use a pitching wedge. As your wedge does not have any bounce the leading edge of the face will drive through the sand delivering a successful escape.

4 - Chip Challenge - When you head to the chipping green, firstly work on your basics - Posture, ball position and Alignment. Do this for 100 shots to refine
the mechanics of your technique. Now pick up the 100 balls and scatter them around as you might throw a bucket of water. Play each individual shot,
irrespective of the lie, to a specific target to increase your creativity. This simple routine will reap rewards when you are faced with the variety of
lies that you find on the course. If i had to choose between “technique” or “Feel” I would opt for “feel” everytime. Technique without feel is useless,
whereas a great sense of feel can make up for any flaws in technique.

5 - Perfecting your Splash - When playing from a greenside bunker imagine that you are sitting on the back of a chair at address. Focus on swinging the club
back while remaining sitting on the chair this will instantly give you the feeling of keeping the lower half of your body planted, leaving the hands and
arms in control of the club. The body will remain steady through to the finish. This will help you take the right amount of sand.

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Seems a little sketchy for a recovering alcoholic to be part of an advertising campaign entitled “Get Loaded”, but oh well. It’s all in fun right? Even the part where he steals a beer from a dude while flying by in a golf cart. Pretty impressive.

Tiger Woods expects the Oakmont course being used for this year’s US Open to prove a tougher challenge than the recent Masters at the Augusta National.
Woods said tying for second at Augusta earlier this month was “one of the most draining weeks I’ve ever had in a major as the conditions were so difficult”.

But after playing Oakmont for the first time on Sunday, he said: “Overall, I’d say it’s a lot harder than Augusta.”

The US Open takes place at the Pennsylvania course from 14-17 June.

“It’s a great test, but has a lot of blind tee and second shots,” Woods noted of the Oakmont course.

It will be staging the US Open for the first time since Ernie Els triumphed there in 1994 after a play-off with Scot Colin Montgomerie and American Loren Roberts.

Zach Johnson won a gruelling Masters with a one-over-par total, the joint-highest score in the tournament’s history.

Woods was one of three players who finished on three over.

Sponsors EDS reckon they have “one of the most prestigious tournaments on the PGA Tour” with this week’s Byron Nelson Championship, but that has not stopped eight of the world’s top 10 staying away.

Their absence comes in spite of the fact that it is the first staging of the tournament since Nelson’s death at the age of 94 last September and a moment’s silence will be held on Saturday, complete with flyover by Marine F18 jets.

Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh are the only members of the game’s elite playing, the rest not being attracted even by a custom-made Orange County Choppers motorcycle being awarded to the winner in addition to a cheque for over £550,000.

What is wrong with them? The bike has chrome wheel spokes individually commemorating each of Nelson’s 11 consecutive tournament victories in 1945, elements of wood and steel to reflect the clubs of his era - and radio frequency identification technology that will allow only the rider to arm and disarm the security system.

It sounds just the sort of thing to give Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald added incentive and, given the relative weakness of the field, they will start among the favourites.

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Nick Faldo will make his seniors debut in the 2007 Senior Open championship at Muirfield, scene of his Open triumphs in 1987 and 1992.

Faldo will celebrate his 50th birthday just eight days before the £1million event starts on July 26.

“I am truly delighted to be going back to Muirfield once again,” said Faldo, who will captain Europe’s Ryder Cup team in 2008.

“Every return visit rekindles fantastic memories for me but, at the same time, it does come as a bit of a shock that so much time has gone by since my first major success in 1987.

“It will certainly be a special week being the 20th anniversary of that victory, that’s for sure.

“The last time I played at Muirfield was the 2002 Open Championship, I haven’t been back since then but before July I have really got to try to give myself time to work on my game, which is the real issue for me at the moment with all my other commitments.”