Thursday, May 6, 2010

“Teen golf prodigy Manassero launches professional career” plus 3 more

“Teen golf prodigy Manassero launches professional career” plus 3 more

Teen golf prodigy Manassero launches professional career

Posted: 06 May 2010 11:38 AM PDT

(CNN) -- From the day he challenged the great Seve Ballesteros to a chipping contest at the age of four, Matteo Manassero has been a precocious golf talent.

The Italian, who last month became the youngest player to make the halfway cut at the Masters in Augusta, has launched his professional career 17 days after his 17th birthday.

Manassero, who was also the leading amateur at last year's British Open and topped the non-paid players' world rankings for 18 weeks, made a solid start on Thursday.

He carded a two-under-par 70 in the opening round of his home Italian Open which left him three shots off the lead.

He outshone his playing partner, European Ryder Cup captain and seven-time Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie, who could only manage 76 on a day marred by a two-hour rain delay.

"He was very impressive, to do that as a 17-year-old today," the 46-year-old Montgomerie told the European Tour Web site.

"He has a good future ahead of him and I wish him all the best."

Manassero was also pleased with his efforts.

"It was a good round, I played steady for 18 holes. I really liked how I played today. I was a little nervous, like always in big tournaments, but fortunately I'm getting used to it," he said.

"I don't want to rewind any part of my game. I didn't putt that well but I didn't have many chances, so I like the way I played and hopefully it will stay like this."

Manassero is used to the big stage. He made his British Open at Turnberry last year, teeing off with American golf legend Tom Watson and Spanish star Sergio Garcia.

Watson ended up losing an emotional playoff to Stewart Cink, while Manassero tied for 13th -- and Garcia finished back in 38th.

"I was nervous, it was a big crowd clapping me," Manassero told CNN before the Italian Open, breaking into a smile.

His successes at Turnberry and then Augusta, where he at at 16 years and 11 months and 22 days he was almost two years younger than Bobby Cole's previous record, have given him a taste of things to come.

"I was on the first page of the biggest newspaper in Italy," Manassero said. "I'm still the same, but life is different.

"Pro-life is what I want. I'm really looking forward to it. Fitness and practicing, normal training, I don't want to do different stuff. I've always done those and I'll keep like this."

Manassero, who is from the province of Verona in northern Italy, recalled the time when he met Spanish legend Ballesteros, a five-time major winner.

"I challenged him on the putting green of my home club. He was chipping and they introduced him to me and then we started started chipping a little, and I holed a chip. That was a great moment," he said.

His caddy is Alberto Binaghi, a former European Tour player and now the Italian team coach.

Binaghi has overseen a resurgence in Italian golf that has taken Edoardo and Francesco Molinari into the world's top-50, with the brothers winning the 2009 World Cup teams event.

"Ten years ago it was probably a rich sport and was difficult to play and it was expensive, but now the situation has changed and there are more young people wanting to play golf," Francesco Molinari, ranked 41st, told CNN of the sport in his home country.

Four players shared the clubhouse lead at the Royal Park course in Turin, with Englishmen Graeme Storm and Robert Rock carding 67 along with Australia's Marcus Fraser and Scotland's Paul Lawrie.

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Harrington joins Special Olympics as Global Ambassador for Golf

Posted: 06 May 2010 08:55 AM PDT

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Special Olympics announced today, professional golfer Padraig Harrington has joined the Special Olympics family as the movement's newest Global Ambassador. In his new role as a Global Ambassador for Golf, three-time major winner Harrington will build on his already established reputation as a humanitarian to help spread the Special Olympics' message of acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities across the world. His announcement was made during a press event for the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida earlier today.

Harrington will specifically serve as an advisor to the Special Olympics Sports Resource Team on golf, offering his professional expertise to help further the sport of golf within the movement. He will be the face of the movement's upcoming new Sports Resource website, where he hopes coaches will provide leadership and guidance to athletes on the development and execution of golf training and competition. Harrington will also take an active role on the golf range, as he will participate in special golf training sessions with athletes and coaches. In addition to sharing his golfing knowledge, he will front a recruitment campaign targeted towards securing more Special Olympics' golf coaches. Overall, Special Olympics will partner with Harrington to implement golf programs and initiatives that will further spread respect for people with intellectual disabilities to an international audience.

"I am thrilled to be invited to become the Special Olympics' Ambassador for Golf," said Harrington I believe that the game of golf can inspire Special Olympics athletes to reach for their goals and enjoy the benefits the game brings. I look forward to playing an active part in the exciting times ahead."

Harrington has always placed a high importance on his charitable work, especially with the establishment of his Padraig Harrington Charitable Foundation (PHCF), which provides financial assistance to deserving beneficiaries throughout Ireland and the rest of the world. As with the PHCF, Harrington will play an active role in his involvement with the Special Olympics movement, using his profile for the greater good.

"We are proud to have Padraig as part of the Special Olympics family," said Special Olympics Chairman and CEO, Timothy Shriver. "His commitment to supporting others and his international celebrity will be a great help for us to raise awareness for the respect of people with an intellectual disability not only within the golf community, but worldwide."

Harrington joins a select group of athletes and celebrities who are dedicated to spreading the Special Olympics movement and message worldwide. These include names such as Chinese basketball player Yao Ming, footballer Kaka, Olympic medalists Michael Phelps, Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci; recording artist Joe Jonas; California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; boxing legend Muhammad Ali; actors Zhang Ziyi and Jackie Chan, and performer Vanessa Williams.

More than 200 million people worldwide have an intellectual disability, making it the largest disability group worldwide. Intellectual disability crosses racial, ethnic, educational, social and economic lines, and can occur in any family. One of five brothers, Harrington is from a close-knit family and is a family man himself, being married with two young boys. He believes that he can use the game of golf to inspire and motivate through his work as an ambassador for Special Olympics.

Three time major winner, Padraig Harrington, became the first European player to win back-to-back Major Championships when he added the 2008 USPGA Championship to the 2008 Open Championship crown, having been the first Irishman to win a Major in 60 years at the 2007 Open Championship. In addition, Harrington has been a member of Europe's Ryder Cup team five times, won the 2006 European Tour Order of Merit, was the first Irish winner of the Irish Open for 25 years and has a total of 25 tournament titles worldwide.

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Golf course no haven as Woods wrestles with game

Posted: 05 May 2010 04:48 PM PDT

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida (AFP) – Suddenly, Tiger Woods' golf game looks as vulnerable as his marriage. Woods faces being knocked off his perch as world number one at this week's Players Championship, a notion all but unthinkable before his spectacular fall from grace over extra-marital affairs.

A victory by Phil Mickelson, coupled with a finish outside the top five for Woods, would end Woods' reign atop the rankings.

He has held the world number one spot for 264 straight weeks, but after missing the cut at last week's Quail Hollow Championship by a shocking eight strokes Woods seems to be floundering.

It was only the sixth missed cut of Woods' US PGA Tour career, and he has never missed two in a row.

But the TPC Sawgrass, site of the Players, hasn't always been welcoming to Woods.

He won The Players Championship in 2001, but it remains the only event in which Woods has finished outside the top 20 at least five times.

And the course isn't the only part of Sawgrass where Woods has looked supremely uncomfortable in the past.

It was in the clubhouse here on February 19 that Woods ended a self-imposed silence and delivered a globally televised statement in which he apologized to his family, friends and fans for the multiple infidelities that jeopardized his marriage, cost him sponsors and tarnished his personal reputation.

With Woods' wife, Elin, reported by multiple media outlets to be on the verge of filing for divorce, Woods acknowledged this week that trying to whip his game back into shape while under the microscope was difficult.

"I've been trying to make life adjustments and make life changes," he said. "A lot of people, when they go through treatment, they're able to make these adjustments in anonymity. I'm not. And that makes it a lot more difficult."

British Open champion Stewart Cink, who played with Woods at Quail Hollow, said that even after a five-month layoff, Woods lacked his usual laser-like focus.

"He's obviously got things on his mind other than what's going on between the ropes right now," Cink said. "You have to learn how to balance what's going on in your life with your golf, and if you're not in a great place mentally, sometimes it shows up out there."

As Woods faltered at Qail Hollow last week, two young stars were staking their claim as real rivals to the 14-time major champion.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy shot a 62 at Quail Hollow to break the course record by two shots on Sunday and win his first US title two days before his 21st birthday.

In Japan, 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa shot a 58 to break the record of any course on a major tour en route to a Japan Tour triumph.

The immediate threat to Woods' number one ranking, however, comes from a longtime rival.

Mickelson, who claimed his fourth major title with a victory at the Masters, has plenty of confidence in his own game.

But he won't understimate Woods, who has been ranked number one for a total of 598 weeks in his career, with only David Duval (15 weeks) and Vijay Singh (32 weeks) supplanting him.

"I have seen him hit shots that I don't know if anybody else in the world could ever possibly hit," Mickelson said. "He is an incredible player and talent, and he has one of the most impressive records -- if not the most impressive record -- in the history of the game.

"Regardless of what he did last week, know the type of competitor he is, I expect him to come back and be the Tiger that we are used to seeing on the golf course."

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

DNR: Black bear on White Bear golf course had to be killed

Posted: 06 May 2010 11:01 AM PDT

Police had no choice but to kill a two-year-old bear roaming a White Bear Lake golf course because it posed a threat to the many people nearby at the time, a state Department of Natural Resources spokesman said Thursday.

The black bear, a male about two years old, was shot by city police near the Manitou Ridge Golf Course's 15th fairway Wednesday night.

"There was a lot of human activity going on," said DNR spokesman Harland Hiemstra, "people playing golf, playing disc golf nearby, across the street a baseball game going on." He also noted the many apartments in the area.

The bear was in a trash bin for a time, then moved into some woods, Hiemstra said. It was then that police consulted with a DNR conservation officer and decided it was now safe to "dispatch" the animal, Hiemstra said.

As the bear ambled about, "people were gathering around taking pictures," Hiemstra said. "Police couldn't keep the people back. One guy wanted to go over and touch it."

Hiemstra said merely tranquilizing the bear was not practical: "It's not the way it works, like on TV."

He said police don't carry tranquilizer guns and then it's "a guessing game" about how much of the drug would take down the animal. Also, the effects are "not instantaneous. Then the bear is still up and about, runs into traffic and causes a problem."

The bear is now in possession of the DNR, and its meat will be donated, he said.

This is the latest of several bear sightings in the east and north metro of late. Others have come in Blaine, Mahtomedi and Oakdale.

The golf course's manager, Greg Hubbard, said this is the first bear to wander on the property that he is aware of. "We had a moose one year, but they shot that one."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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