Posted: 08 May 2010 07:05 PM PDT

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida, May 8 (Reuters) - Britain's Lee Westwood has featured regularly at the top of leaderboards in golf's biggest events and he exuded confidence on Saturday after retaining control of the Players Championship.

One ahead of the chasing pack at the start and end of the third round, the British world number four said he was relaxed about the prospect of clinching his first PGA Tour victory since the 1998 New Orleans Classic.

Despite coming close several times in between, he says he is not putting himself under any pressure to win again.

"The only thing I try to do is perform as well as I know I can perform and peak at the right times for the big events," Westwood told reporters after carding a two-under-par 70 on a difficult afternoon of scoring at the TPC Sawgrass.

Westwood has recorded top-three finishes in the last three majors, most recently a second place at last month's U.S. Masters where he led by one shot after 54 holes.

"It was nice to get back in the saddle so quickly and have another chance to win a big tournament," the 37-year-old Englishman said after posting a 14-under total of 202 at a firm and fast-running Sawgrass.

"I've got thoughts of the Masters fresh in my mind. I played pretty well the last day there and if I'd just done a couple of things slightly different at the right times, maybe the result would have been different."

Considered by many of his peers to be the best ball-striker from tee to green, Westwood has derived great pride from making a habit of contending in golf's biggest events.

IN POSITION

"I'm just really pleased with myself that I keep knocking on the door and getting in position," the 20-times European Tour winner said.

"Some of the golf I'm playing in some of the big tournaments is great stuff. And that's the reason why I've been practising so hard, and it's nice to see it paying off."

The Players is dubbed the 'fifth major' and Westwood said he had learned a great deal about the art of winning from his near misses.

"I learned plenty of things about what to do at the right times and where my game needs to improve," said the Briton, whose glittering resume includes two European Tour order of merit crowns and six Ryder Cup appearances.

"That's what experiences like that are all about. When I won so many tournaments 10 or 11 years ago, other players beat themselves.

"I would just hang around on leaderboards and wait for it to happen. Other people would be their own worst enemy and make mistakes at the wrong times, and that's what I try to do again now."

Westwood will go into Sunday's final round one stroke in front of Australian Robert Allenby and two ahead of Americans Ben Crane and U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, and Italian Francesco Molinari. (Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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 / Westwood leads, Mickelson 5 back

Posted: 09 May 2010 05:50 AM PDT

(05-09) 04:00 PDT Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. --

One round away from one of the biggest wins of his career, Lee Westwood knows what to expect on the final day of the Players Championship.

Not only because of his 16 years and 30 victories worldwide, or his 54-hole lead last month at the Masters.

Saturday on the TPC Sawgrass was enough of a reminder.

Westwood watched a two-shot lead turn into a two-shot deficit. Over the final hour, Robert Allenby picked up three shots on the last three holes, while Heath Slocum dropped four shots on the last six holes.

The day ended with Westwood hitting a daring 6-iron through a gap in the trees for a par on the 18th hole for a 2-under-par 70 to finish the third round with a one-shot lead, same as he started. He has more company now - Masters champion Phil Mickelson included.

"There was no real scope for thinking about anything else other than what I was doing," Westwood said. "It's that kind of golf course. If you play well, birdies are available. If you don't hit good shots, they penalize you. That's what good golf courses do to you."

This day, there was a little of both.

Mickelson suddenly was back in the picture, shooting 66 to put himself five shots behind.

Tiger Woods was not, courtesy of a bogey-bogey finish for a 71 that put him 10 shots behind.

Allenby was five shots behind when he walked off the 13th tee. He made up ground quickly with a 6-iron to about 12 feet on the par-5 16th for eagle, then a 12-foot birdie on the island-green 17th that curled into the side of the cup. He shot a 67 to get in the final group.

Westwood was at 14-under 202.

"The golf course changed a lot. It got really firm this afternoon," Westwood said. "I thought I played well - gave myself a lot of chances, missed a couple, but all in all, I was pleased with the way I played. I didn't make too many poor shots."

Mickelson began the day nine shots out of the lead, same as Woods. They went opposite directions, however.

Mickelson didn't make a bogey until the final hole for a 66 to put himself back into the picture, just five shots behind Westwood. The 10 players ahead of him have a combined 14 victories on the PGA Tour.

To reach No. 1 for the first time in his career, Mickelson has to win and have Woods finish out of the top five.

Italian Open: Fredrik Andersson Hed shot a 9-under 63 for a six-stroke lead after the third round in Turin. Andersson Hed is looking for his first European Tour win in his 245th tournament since his debut in 1995. Miguel Angel Jimenez made five straight birdies to trail with a 68. Four players were seven shots behind Andersson Hed.

This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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

With dome setback, solution may be golf balls and shredded tires

Posted: 09 May 2010 08:19 AM PDT

With dome setback, solution may be golf balls and shredded tires

BILOXI, Miss. -- Golf balls and shredded tires may be the latest solution to stop a leak spewing crude into the Gulf, a top Coast Guard official said Sunday morning.

``The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot,'' U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said on Face the Nation,.

``They're actually going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak,'' Allen said. The concept is not as ``exotic'' and Allen cautioned there were difficulties with that plan as well.

It was not clear when such a plan -- developed by BP -- might be put in place.

But the effort to plug one of the leaks with debris came as the oil giant was reassessing its options, a day after an attempt to lower a 78-ton dome over the largest leak hit a major setback.

Ice-like crystals clogged the inside of the steel-and-concrete dome during attempts to put it in place on Saturday.

``I wouldn't say it failed yet,'' Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP, the London-based company that owns the leaking well, said Saturday. ``What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn't work.''

On Saturday, the crystals forced officials to move the steel-and-concrete dome, which is still on the sea bed, some 650 feet away from the well -- and to scramble to find ways to stop the water-and-gas crystals from forming.

Despite the let down, officials said they are looking for other ways to make the dome work.

Continued efforts to combat the oil plume on the water's surface and the leak a mile below come as tarballs were reported over the weekend in an Alabama island.

As of Sunday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard reported 17 flights had been conducted Saturday which dropped 41,690 gallons of dispersal fluid onto the slick.

On Saturday, more than 20 boats had skimmed 21,851 barrels of oily water from the Gulf. And over 928,265 feet of boom has been layed out or assigned to a vessel to protect the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The dome was considered the best short-term solution to stop much of the spill.

Officials had hoped to contain 85 percent of the estimated 210,000 gallons gushing daily from the well by funneling oil to the surface from the dome, which is really a 78-ton box with a pyramid on the top. The 40-foot box took about two weeks to build.

But the crystals, which are called hydrates and resemble slush, obstructed the flow of the oil, Suttles said. They also made the dome too buoyant, which prevented the dome from making a water-tight seal as planned.

Hydrates form when gas and water mix at low temperature and high pressure, as occurs at the bottom of the sea.

Suttles said experts will spend the next few days looking at possible solutions, while other surface efforts continue, like burning oil and using chemicals called dispersants to break up the oil.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20 about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. Suttles said six BP employees were among the 126 people on the rig when it exploded. They had been there to discuss safety after the rig had gone more than 2,500 days without a significant accident.

``This rig had an outstanding record,'' Suttles said.

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 Zone

Sunday, May 9, 2010

“Golf-No Sawgrass pressure for confident front runner Westwood” plus 2 more

“Golf-No Sawgrass pressure for confident front runner Westwood” plus 2 more

0 comments:

Post a Comment

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

Popular Posts