Saturday, May 22, 2010

“Golf-Emerging Morrison has no regrets about giving up cricket” plus 2 more

“Golf-Emerging Morrison has no regrets about giving up cricket” plus 2 more

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Golf-Emerging Morrison has no regrets about giving up cricket

Posted: 22 May 2010 05:05 AM PDT

By Tony Jimenez

VIRGINIA WATER, England, May 22 (Reuters) - Although James Morrison played in England's youth cricket teams with Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Tim Bresnan, he has no regrets about giving up cricket as a teenager for golf.

"I haven't played cricket since I left school at 18," the 25-year-old Briton told Reuters after missing the halfway cut on nine-over-par 151 in the PGA Championship at Wentworth.

"I thought I'd be better at golf than cricket and I get more enjoyment out of golf. What's more enjoyable, standing in a field for four days or playing golf?

"I've got zero regrets. I'm going to pick up my new BMW in 10 minutes. If I was still playing cricket I'd probably be going round in a Vauxhall Corsa," added Morrison.

Morrison said he had not seen his former youth team mates, who all went on to senior careers in English cricket, for years. "It wasn't as if we were friends. We just happened to play cricket together."

This is the young Englishman's first full year on the European Tour and he has been touted as a candidate for the Ryder Cup team in October after climbing to number 18 in the money list with earnings of 404,000 euros ($505,200).

Morrison has already had four top-10 finishes this season and achieved a breakthrough victory at the Madeira Islands Open last month.

GREAT START

However, the former Surrey under-17 opening batsman and spin bowler said it was premature to talk about the Ryder Cup.

"I've made a great start to the season and, yeah, I do believe I'm good enough but it's far too early," said Morrison.

"At the same time that (media speculation) is part of dealing with success, it's a learning curve for me talking about those sorts of things and I feel I've dealt with it pretty well."

Morrison played alongside captain Colin Montgomerie in the opening two rounds of the tour's flagship event at Wentworth but said he blocked all Ryder Cup thoughts from his mind.

"Playing with Colin here I had no thoughts about trying to impress," he said. "I was just trying to play golf and whether I played well or bad I wasn't thinking about the Ryder Cup at all.

"A top position in the order of merit, that's my real goal. It's not about playing golf now, it's about (still) playing golf in 10 years.

"Every year I have to make an improvement. My stats are improving every week so if that happens the results will take care of themselves."

Asked if he ever missed playing cricket, Morrison replied: "Definitely not—I couldn't think of anything worse. I don't even really watch it any more."

(Editing by Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Purdue, Okla. State's Hedwall win at NCAA women's golf tournament

Posted: 21 May 2010 09:49 PM PDT

Still, the Boilermakers did enough to claim their first NCAA women's golf team championship.

Purdue held off Southern California on Friday by one stroke to win the team title while Hedwall shot a 68 to claim a four-stroke victory and the individual crown.

The Boilermakers, who shot a 7-over 295 to finish at 1 over, entered the final round with a 7-stroke lead over the Trojans, overcame a late rash of bogeys and wrapped up the title on the final hole.

"I'm not sure that they ever went ahead," Purdue coach Devon Brouse said. "It was important that we did maintain the lead. Trust me, I checked that live scoring a lot on the back nine and I never saw them ahead. ... It got down to two, then it got down to one, and that's where it ended."

Southern Cal, which led after each of the first two rounds, could have forced a playoff at the Country Club of Landfall course after Purdue's Maude-Aimee LeBlanc left a 20-foot putt short on the 18th and tapped in for bogey.

"I wish I had finished with a birdie, but I guess a bogey was good enough," a smiling LeBlanc said.

It sure was: The Trojans' Jennifer Song rolled her 10-foot birdie putt to the right of the cup to clinch the title for the Boilermakers.

Hedwall, a sophomore from Sweden, finished at 12-under 276 to beat Arizona State freshman Jennifer Johnson, who entered the final round with a one-stroke lead but shot a 73. LeBlanc (71) and Auburn's Cydney Clayton (66) finished at 7 under.

"I don't think I've realized it yet," Hedwall said of her title.

Before this, the Boilermakers' previous best finish came in 2007, when they were second to Duke. Either the Blue Devils or a Pac-10 team had won every team championship but one from 1993-2009.

"It's significant when somebody can dethrone a Pac-10 team, so to speak, because obviously, they've been a little bit dominant," Brouse said.

Alabama, which had never finished higher than ninth in five previous NCAA championship appearances, ended up in third place at 5 over, followed by defending national champion Arizona State (9 over) and Arizona (14 over).

The Sun Devils' Johnson spent most of the first three rounds leading the individual competition, but Hedwall — a two-time Big 12 player of the year — made her move late in her round.

Starting on the back nine, she went to 11 under with a birdie on the par-5 No. 4. Johnson pulled even with a birdie on No. 10, then fell a stroke back with a bogey on the par-5 12th.

Hedwall pulled away with a birdie on No. 8, and when she finished her round one hole later, she led Johnson by two strokes. Hedwall patiently hung around the 18th green for nearly 2 hours while Johnson finished her round with bogeys on two of her final four holes.

"She had to finish really well to beat me. I didn't have to wait that long" to know the title was secure, a smiling Hedwall said.

For Hedwall, this was quite the way to leave Stillwater. She said she's leaving the Cowgirls, plans to play an amateur schedule this summer and will try to qualify for the LPGA Tour.

LSU's Megan McChrystal shot an NCAA championship-record 64 in the final round, breaking the mark of 65 most recently matched in 1998 by Arizona State's Grace Park and Duke's Jenny Chuasiriporn.

NCAA Golf: Video Tour of The Course at Yale

Posted: 22 May 2010 10:07 AM PDT
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