Jim Thorpe (60) jailed for a

year for tax evasion

Winner of three US PGA Tour events and 13 times on the US Champions (Senior) Tour, Jim Thorpe, now 60 years old, has been jailed for 12 months for failing to pay more than $2 million in income tax.
An Orlando, Florida court ruled that Thorpe must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by April 1 and that his sentence be followed by two years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service.
Thorpe must also make efforts to repay the tax while on supervised release. He pleaded guilty to the offence last September.
Thorpe played in more than 450 tournaments on the US Tour and had three top-10 finishes in majors -- two in the US Open and one in the US PGA Championship.
He has won 13 times, including one major, in more than 300 events on the US Champions (Seniors) Tour.
Thorpe has more than $13 million in career earnings as a professional golfer, according to the US PGA Tour website.
Prosecutors said that for 2002, 2003 and 2004, Thorpe did not file an individual tax return until after he was confronted by special agents of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to court documents, the amount of unreported income for the three years was $5.36 million and the tax loss was $2.06 million.

Two Scots make the weekend action in Australia, but not the Dollar man

Scott Borrowman misses the 'Lake Macquarie'

cut .... but we cannot tell you by how many!

Sorry we can't tell you what Scott Borrowman (Dollar) shot in the second round of the Lake Macquarie tournament at Belmont Golf Club, New South Wales.
All we know is that he did not make the halfway cut figure of 149 or better.
Most golf tournament websites give ALL the second-round scores, but not the Lake Macquarie one.
None of the non-qualifiers' scores is listed. Which is a bit rough on the players concerned, their friends and relatives - not to mention the "folks back home," as far as Scott Borrowman is concerned.
All we do know for certain that the former Scottish youth champion and past Palmer Cup student player had a first-round 73. So we can be sure that he took 77 or more in the second round.
Two Scots have made it through to the weekend action.
South Australia-based Stephen Spiers has had rounds of 70 and 73 for 143 and is tied 14th.
Fraser Fotheringham from Nairn has scored 77 and 72 for 149 and is sharing 71st place.
Leading British player with two rounds to go is Tommy Fleetwood (Formby Hall), the subsequent Walker Cup player who won the Scottish men's open amateur stroke-play championship at Murcar Links last year. He has had a pair of 70s for four-under-par 140 and is sharing eighth place behind the leader, Victorian amateur champion Kieran Pratt (21) with score sof 65 and 71 for 136.
HALFWAY LEADERBOARD
Par 144 (2x72)
Players from Australia unless stated
136 Kieran Pratt 65 71
137 Daniel Bringolf 68 69.
138 Aiden Bare 68 70.
139 Jamie Hook 66 73, Jordan Sherratt 69 70, Brendon Smyth 70 69, Matthew Wittenberg 66 73.
Selected scores:
140 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 70 70 (jt 8th).
142 James Frazer (Wal) 73 69 (jt 17th).
143 Stephen Spiers (Sco) 70 73 (jt 24th).
145 Matt Haines (Eng) 72 73 (jt 38th).
149 Fraser Fotheringham (Sco) 77 72 (jt 71st).

+If you are reading this down in Australia - we do have readers around the world - and you know Scott Borrowman's second-round score, do us a big favour and E-mail the information to Colin@scottishgolfview.com

European No 1 Lee Westwood misses the cut by five shots

Mystery man from Down Under leads

the stars at halfway in Abu Dhabi

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
Little-known Australian Rick Kulacz blazed 11 birdies in a nine-under-par 63 second round to snatch a one-shot halfway lead at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship today.
The 24-year-old Perth, Western Australia native secured limited playing rights on the European Tour with a final round 64 at Q-School last year - a round he rates as his best ever, given what was at stake - but was handed a spot in the field this week via a sponsor's invite.
The two-time winner on the Asian Tour took full advantage to charge up the leaderboard to 12-under-par, clear of Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry and Peter Hanson.
While Kulacz's round, a figure Paul Casey also posted en route to winning last year, is an achievement in itself, it is made all the more remarkable, given the fact he was so unhappy with his pre-tournament practice he needed a phone call to his coach back home on Wednesday to iron out the flaws in his game.
"I was just in the zone. I tried to get it on the green and every putt went in, it was just one of those days where everything went right," said Kulacz, who dropped just one shot in his first round 69.
"That round is definitely top five in my career. I think the one at Q-School was better under the circumstances; to get to Europe was pretty special."
Kulacz shot a final-round 65 to come back from four behind to win New South Wales Open as amateur in 2006, while he achieved a first win as a professional courtesy of a chip in on the first play-off hole at the 2008 Brunei Open.
"I will have to see if I can deal with the pressure, it's a totally different story than Q-School," added Kulacz. "The players are the best in the world excluding the USA and they are way too good to go backwards."
Irish Open champion Lowry carded a bogey-free seven-under-par 65, world number 13 Garcia dropped just one shot in a 67, while Sweden's Hanson went one better with a flawless five-under-par second round over The National Course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
Former champion and last year's runner-up Martin Kaymer (67), Chris Wood, who carded a bogey-free 64, and Rhys Davies (68) are just a further shot off the pace with Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter in a group at nine-under-par.
The "biggest" casualty among the non-qualifiers for the final two rounds was European No 1 Lee Westwood but he quashed suggestions that missing the cut was a reality check following his storming finish last year.
Westwood produced an unstoppable end to 2009 to claim a second Order of Merit title and headed to Abu Dhabi for the start of the Desert Swing as one of the obvious favourites. But after being forced to put a new set of irons in his bag to comply with the new rules regarding grooves following a six-week Christmas break, Westwood carded a six-over-par second round 78 to miss the cut by five shots with six bogeys spread across his card today.
"It's just a bit rust. There were a lot of variables this week. My caddie was pointing out going round, 'What a time to change your clubs when you are playing your best golf'," said Westwood.
"The way I've driven it, I flushed it off the tee, I just need to do some work with my irons. I don't know if they've put the wrong shafts in, they just don't feel right and they don't feel the same.
"They feel like fishing rods. I don't think it's much to do with the grooves, I just haven't had a chance to go out there and do any testing."
Westwood will get a new set of irons flown out while he will also re-shaft his current set ahead of next week's Commercialbank Qatar Masters.
"Thursday's score was just a really good 69. It could have easily been 77 the way I played," he added. "I got away with murder yesterday and today I didn't."
A winner in South Africa before Christmas in his last outing, Aberdeen's Richie Ramsay was one of four Scots who failed to achieve the two-under-par 142 or better total necessary to survive the halfway cut.
Ramsay was always going to struggle to survive after a first-round 75 but he did give it a go with a 70 for 145. Other Scots on the sidelines are David Drysdale (72-143), Stephen Gallacher (74-144) and Alastair Forsyth (75-150).
At the other end of the leaderboard, Paul Lawrie had a 70 for eight-under-par 136 and, in joint 12th position, only four shots off the pace, the Aberdonian has a good platform from which to mount a challenging effort over the final 36 holes.
Marc Warren has had a pair of 69s for 138; Gary Orr a 71 for 140 while Ryder Cup skipper Colin Montgomerie stepped up his standard of performance with a 68 for 141.

SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 144 (2x72)
132 Rick Kulacz (Aus) 69 63
133 Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 67, Shane Lowry 68 65, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 67
134 Chris Wood 70 64, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 67 67, Rhys Davies 66 68
135 Rory McIlroy 66 69, Ian Poulter 65 70, Richard Green (Aus) 70 65, Ariel Canete (Arg) 70 65, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 66
136 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 66 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 68, Paul Lawrie 66 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 66 70
137 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 67, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 67 70, Steve Webster 68 69, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 70 67, Richard Finch 69 68, Keith Horne (Rsa) 65 72
138 Marc Warren 69 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 67, Paul Waring 68 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 71, Mark Foster 68 70
139 Richard Bland 65 74, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 67, David Horsey 73 66, Nick Dougherty 71 68, Simon Dyson 72 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 69, Anthony Wall 71 68, Stephen Dodd 66 73, Jamie Donaldson 70 69, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 68
140 Gary Orr 69 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 69, Anthony Kim (USA) 70 70, Alexander Noren (Swe) 66 74, David Dixon 71 69, James Kamte (Rsa) 72 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 69, Ross McGowan 69 71
141 Colin Montgomerie 73 68, David Howell 69 72, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 69, Paul Broadhurst 71 70, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 70, Paul Casey 72 69, Tano Goya (Arg) 71 70, Bradley Dredge 68 73
142 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 72, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 74 68, Metteo Manassero (Ita) 70 72, Todd Hamilton (USA) 68 74, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 67 75, Peter Lawrie 71 71, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 70, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 69, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 70, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 70 72, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 73 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 74 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 72, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 69, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 74, Phillip Price 72 70, Darren Clarke 70 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 68
MISSED THE CUT
143 Graeme McDowell 70 73, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 71, Kenneth Ferrie 73 70, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 72, Seve Benson 71 72, Oliver Fisher 73 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 71, David Drysdale 71 72, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 70, Sam Little 72 71
144 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 75 69, Oliver Wilson 75 69, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 70, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 72 72, David Lynn 71 73, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 69 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 71, Danny Lee (Nzl) 72 72, Stephen Gallacher 70 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 71 73, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 70 74, Michael Hoey 72 72
145 Robert Rock 73 72, Richie Ramsay 75 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 75, Graeme Storm 71 74, Barry Lane 70 75
146 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 74, John Bickerton 75 71
147 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 74, Lee Westwood 69 78
148 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 75, Ahmed Al Musharrekh (UAE) 77 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 76, Othman Al Mulla (Ksa) 75 73, Gregory Havret (Fra) 75 73
149 Gary Lockerbie 73 76, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 74, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 78 71
150 Richard Sheridan 73 77, Gareth Maybin 75 75, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 74 76, Alastair Forsyth 75 75, Danny Willett 77 73
151 Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 76
152 Anthony Kang (USA) 76 76, Damien McGrane 79 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 79
153 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 78 75
158 Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 85
160 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 83 77

Hugo, Fichardt and Cunliffe claim

Johannesburg places at St Andrew

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE R&A

Jean Hugo, Darren Fichardt and Josh Cunliffe have qualified for the 2010 Open after taking the top three positions at International Final Qualifying – Africa at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club in Johannesburg, South Africa, today.

The South African trio will now look forward to taking their places at the 150th Anniversary Open Championship from July 15 to 18 at St Andrews.

With play having resumed on Friday after heavy rain had caused Thursday’s play to be abandoned, first-round leader Jean Hugo, 34, recovered from three consecutive bogeys at the start of his second round to post a level-par 71 and finish tied-first on six under par.
Seven-time Sunshine Tour winner Hugo will now look forward to making his third Open Championship appearance – the first two coming in 1999 at Carnoustie and in 2001 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Joining him on six under was Darren Fichardt, who qualified for his fifth Open Championship with rounds of 67 and 69. 34-year-old Fichardt made three consecutive birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth holes to claim the outright lead and, despite dropped shots on 10 and 11, he earned his Open chance in relative comfort, two strokes ahead of the field.
Fichardt, two-time winner on the European Tour, will return to St Andrews 10 years after making his Major Championship debut there in the 2000 – he subsequently played in 2002, 2004 and in 2008, when he qualified through IFQ – Africa at the same venue.
The final Open Championship berth was decided by a play-off between Cunliffe, fellow South African Oliver Bekker and the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten.

Cunliffe, who, like Fichardt, qualified for Royal Birkdale through IFQ – Africa in 2008, emerged with the place. He holed a 20ft putt for eagle on the fourth extra hole, the 18th, after all three players made par, birdie, par on the first three.
The next International Final Qualifying event for The Open Championship, IFQ – Asia, will take place at Saujana Golf and Country Club near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 10 and 11.
The 2010 Open Championship will be held at St Andrews on 15-18 July.
Full hole-by-hole scores from IFQ – Africa are available on www.opengolf.com.

Bert Leslie raring to go in new SGU role

FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Thirty years after taking his first significant step into golf administration with "no aspirations", Bathgate's Bert Leslie is about to earn one of the top accolades in the Scottish game.
On Sunday, at the SGU's annual meeting at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan, the 66-year-old will take over as the President of the Scottish Golf Union in succession to Ian Ross.
Yet the commercial manager with a structural engineering firm revealed he had feared he might not make his big day after ending up in hospital this month with a serious lung infection.
Leslie has been advised to take things easy for a while and, as a result, he'll be limiting the number of official duties he takes on in the early part of his presidency.
One of the things to be crossed off the list is a trip to the US Masters and Leslie, who'd been looking forward to being at Augusta, said: "I've been advised not to go charging about as the doctors still don't know what the bug was."
After joining the Bathgate committee in the mid-70s and becoming club captain in 1979, Leslie was co-opted on to the Lothians Golf Association in 1980 and found two excellent mentors there in Lindsay Stewart and Graham Ewart.
He was appointed Lothians team captain in 1984 and led the side to three Scottish Area Team Championship successes in four attempts. The players he had at his disposal over the years included Kenny Walker, Colin Brooks, Bryan Shields, Stephen Easingwood, Sandy Stephen, Andrew Oldcorn, Stephen Gallacher, John Huggan and the man he describes as "Mr Lothians", George Macgregor.
After assisting Colin Wood, the non-playing Scottish captain, at the 1997 European Team Championship in Ireland, Leslie was appointed as the Scotland team manager the following year and enjoyed some great times in that role until 2004.
He was "acting captain" when Scotland lifted the European title in Sweden in 2001 and recalled: "We had three old heads in that side – Craig Heap, Craig Watson and Simon Mackenzie – and three young stars in Steven O'Hara, Marc Warren and Barry Hume."
As a Walker Cup selector, Leslie was at Sea Island in Georgia when a Great Britain & Ireland team that included O'Hara and Warren, as well as Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Nick Dougherty, beat the Americans on their own turf for only the second time in the event's history.
He was also at the matches at Nairn, Ganton and Chicago, coming into close contact with a number of players now doing well in the paid ranks.
"The likes of Luke Donald, Nick Dougherty, Graeme McDowell and Rhys Davies all have great talent but, at the same time, their attitude is spot on and they've got a great work ethic, too," he noted.
Looking forward to taking over from Ian Ross in the SGU's figurehead role, Leslie added: "I joined the Lothians 30 years ago with no aspirations but someone up there obviously liked me. I've gained so many wonderful memories from being involved in the game and, while it is difficult to single one out above the other, the best would have to be that win in Sweden – you couldn't get a better team than that."
The full article above contains 601 words and appears in today's Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.-

Ashley Hall leads by three in NZ PGA Championship

FROM THE PGA OF AUSTRALIA WEBSITE
It has been a big turnaround for Australian golfer Ashley Hall after bouncing back from a poor run of form to holding a decent lead over the field at the New Zealand PGA Championship at Clearwater in Christchurch.
The Victorian holds a three-shot lead at seven under par 137, and he will likely keep it after hitting a three-under-par second round of 69, one shot better than his first round.
After an average start to the year, it is exactly the kind of round Hall needed to get his confidence up and get in contention for a much-needed title.
"Until yesterday I don't think I've shot under par competitively since the European Tour School in the final stages," he said.
"That was in late November so it's a good change of fortune really."
"At the start of this year I didn't do so well but I'm going to have to now."
Hall hit five birdies during his round and was well on his way to a near-perfect round before losing a ball at the 17th to shoot a double bogey.
Hall said the 17th was the only hole he was disappointed in during the day where he lost a ball off the tee and had to settle for a double bogey 6.
"That was the only real bad shot I've hit all week, so far so good," he said.
"We're playing into the wind and it's totally opposite to yesterday and I just hit it too far left and it didn't get it over the hazard. Well, we don't know if it went in the hazard or not because we couldn't find it. I went back to the tee and made six."
Hall felt right at home in the wet and rain as he comes from Melbourne where the weather has the ability to turn at any time and said it is all about 'playing smart' and taking rare opportunities as they arise.
"It was windy and drizzly when we teed off this morning so we haven't had it easy," he said. "It can rain and be as windy as much as it likes, as long as we're out there it's fine by me.
"In Melbourne we often have four seasons in one day and it's totally changeable back home so this is fine. "
"You've just got to be a little bit smart and make advantage of some holes when you can. Some of the fives were a little bit tricky today so it's just about playing smart."
Hall's only downfall was some wayward drives that he had to constantly make up for with accurate putting.
He admits it is an area of his game that he will have to improve before the third round on Saturday if he wants to be in contention on the final day.
"I was in the rough a bit today off the tee but recovered, so I will need to drive it straighter tomorrow," he said.
"The course is short enough that I'm able to drive a long way down and wedge in so if I hit it a bit straighter I could go really well."

LEADING SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 144 (2x72)
Players from New Zealand unless stated
137 Ashley Hall 68 69.
140 Anthony Doyle 71 69.
141 Stephen Allen 72 69, Mitchell Brown 68 73, Grant Moorhead 67 74, Gareth Paddison 70 71.
Selected scores
149 Eddie Barr (Ireland) 71 78.
156 Jonathan Bevitt (England) 75 81.
Field of 144 players.