JOHNSON WAGNER WINS SONY OPEN BY TWO SHOTS

FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
HONOLULU -- Johnson Wagner was bursting with so much excitement about his game at the start of the year that his father jokingly asked if he was on speed. It was just confidence, the most powerful drug in golf.
He worked harder than ever in the offseason and lost 20 pounds. He grew a moustache and developed thick skin from the reaction to it. And he told his friends and family that he would win early in the year and go to the Masters.
Wagner backed it all up Sunday by winning the Sony Open in Hawaii.
He played bogey-free over the last 12 holes, a winning recipe on a tough day at Waialae, and closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot victory that propelled him to the FedExCup lead and filled him with even more confidence about his game and the rest of the season.
"I was definitely telling people to expect something early this year, which is a nice feeling," Wagner said. "Usually, my confidence is low. I'm kind of shy in a little shell. And for some reason, I just had way more energy and confidence going into this year."
It was his third career victory on the US PGA Tour, and it sends him to the Masters, along with allowing him to book another two-week working vacation in Hawaii next year.
Wagner, who finished at 13-under 267, earning 500 FedExCup points and $990,000, was among six players who had at least a share of the lead at some point in the final round. He was the only guy to stay there.
Harrison Frazar took the outright lead with a birdie on No. 10, but had to settle for pars the rest of the way for a 67.
Charles Howell III was paired with Wagner and stayed with him until a three-putt par on the par-5 ninth. He birdied the last hole for a 69. Sean O'Hair narrowly missed a 30ft eagle putt on the last hole and shot 67, while Carl Pettersson overcame a double bogey on his second hole with four birdies on the last six holes for a 67. They all tied for second place.
"My first top 10 as an American," said Pettersson, the Swede who became a U.S. citizen during the offseason.
They were all chasing Wagner, who seized control with a 9-iron into the 15th that was pin-high, just off the green. He rolled that in for birdie, and then didn't come close to making a mistake until he nearly missed a tap-in par on the 18th.
Coming into the year, Wagner had only seven top 10s -- including two wins -- in 139 tournaments. He had never made it to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and played in only four majors.
But what a transformation. Along with his work ethic, he began jotting notes and goals into a notebook, using the green cover he received in 2008 from his lone Masters appearance.
With respect to his moustache -- Frazar made a "Magnum P.I." reference at Kapalua -- the biggest change with Wagner was his attitude.
"I love being out here. There's so many great players," he said. "But why are they any better? Why are the people in the top 50 better than me? I've always struggled a little bit with believing in myself."
As for that moustache getting so much attention?
Wagner didn't shave during Thanksgiving and kept the moustache.
"Kind of made a deal with myself in December that if I was to get into the Masters, then I was going to keep the moustache for at least this year," he said. "Everybody said, `Oh, is it a November moustache? Well, it's December, time to shave it.' I said, Look, this is not a one-month moustache. This is potentially a 10-year moustache.'
"So I think it's going to be around for a while."
Jeff Maggert and Matt Every, tied for the lead going into the last day, both collapsed early. Every was 4 over through six holes and rallied for a 72. Maggert missed a slew of short putts and shot 74.
Every made bogey from the bunker on the first hole, drove into the water at No. 2, three-putted for bogey at No. 4 and three-putted again from 4 feet on the sixth hole for a double bogey.
Maggert was scrambling from the start, too, and while he holed par putts of 8 and 15 feet on the opening two holes, it caught up with him.
They were still in the hunt at the turn -- and so was everyone else.
US PGA champion Keegan Bradley hit 8-iron into about 6 feet for eagle on the par-5 ninth, creating a five-way tie for the lead along with Maggert, Every, Frazar and Wagner.
Bradley fell back when his long bunker shot sailed 20 yards over the 10th green, turning a birdie chance into a bogey. Frazar hit his easier bunker shot on the 10th to a foot to take the outright lead, only to be joined a short time later by Wagner, who birdied the ninth. Michael Thompson joined them briefly in the lead until a bogey on the 17th.
Wagner was the only player who kept it going.
He started the back nine by driving safely into the front left bunker and holing a 10-footer for birdie to take the outright lead, and he never gave it back. No one else made enough birdies, and Wagner didn't make any mistakes. He seized control for good on the 15th when his approach settled just on the fringe about 15 feet away for birdie and a two-shot lead.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 280 (4x70)
Players from US unless stated
267 Johnson Wagner 68 66 66 67
269 Carl Pettersson (Sweden) 65 67 70 69, Sean O'Hair 67 67 68 67, Harrison Frazar 67 68 67 67, Charles Howell III 67 67 66 69.
270 Michael Thompson 70 65 68 67, Brian Gay 69 69 65 67, D A Points 68 69 64 69, Matt Every 66 64 68 72.
Selected total
280 Greg Owen (England) 69 69 69 73 (T59).

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TIE ME KANGAROO DOWN, MATE ... WHILE I PLAY MY NEXT SHOT!

FROM NORM DEY, An Aberdonian now living in Australia.
Pictured above is the major hazard on all golf courses in OZ. The kangaroos - not my daughter, Heather Nimmo!
She works part-time on a very good course five minutes from her house and 20 minutes from the centre of Perth (Western Australia) where I live.
It's the Joondalup Golf Resort which includes a hotel. It was my first golf club when I came to Perth.
It's an unusual but upmarket resort course with three nine-hole circuits and lots of Kangaroos. One nine is closed for play every day for maintenance. The nines are called Quarry - it is literally built out of a quarry, The Dunes - 1 km from beach, and Lake - all with challenging and tight holes.
It's a Trent Jones course without being as overboard as he usually is.

Editor's note: Norm (or Norman as I knew him) grew up in Auchinyell Terrace and I grew up in Auchinyell Gardens, Garthdee in Aberdeen. He is a year older than me. We both went to the senior secondary Central School in the heart of Aberdeen, opposite the gates of Robert Gordon's College. The school now no longer exists.
Goodness knows why the town councillors wanted to do away with a seat of learning which was at least on a par with Gordon's College and Aberdeen Grammar School, the two other leading senior secondary schools in the city. The old Central School building is now a shopping plaza. Sic transit gloria, as we used to say in Cecil Stewart's Latin class.
Norman went first to Canada and then on to Australia. He used to support Rangers FC but it's Manchester United now. He was and still is a very good tennis player. Plays a lot in veterans' championships and is coming back to Europe later this year to play in the world veterans' table tennis championships in Sweden.
It took the Internet to bring Norman and I together again (in an E-mail exchanging sense). We last saw each other in the early 1950s. Oh the powers of Google!
Colin Farquharson

DUNCAN STEWART SELLING SHARES IN HIMSELF FOR NEW SEASON

By DUNCAN STEWART
A winner on the EuroPro Tour last year
After missing out on my Challenge Tour card for this coming season I will mainly be playing on the EuroPro tour. I will also be trying my hardest to gain invites to the Challenge Tour along with trying to qualify for the Open at Royal Lytham St Annes.
I am going to sell shares in myself to try and raise funds to pay for my season. I am trying to sell 150 shares at £100 per share.
Depending on how many shares I sell will determine the % of my winnings that go back to the shareholders. If I only sell 1-50 shares I will take 70% and 30% of my winnings will be divided out between the shares sold: 51-100 - 60% to me and 40% to the shareholders; 101-150 - 50% to me, 50% to share holders.
If someone buys 10 or more shares they will be entitled to have their name or company name somewhere on my clothing or equipment. I am also in the process of setting up a website. There will be a link on it with the names of everyone who purchases one share or 50 shares.
Also, anyone who buys 10 or more will have their name or company name on the home page of the web site with a link to their own website.
It is a great opportunity for someone to advertise their company, especially with the highlights of every event on the EuroPro tour being shown four times on sky sports.
For example, if I sell all 150 shares and I win £30,000, I will get £15,000 and each share will be worth £100 which will be paid out to the shareholders at the end of 2012.
So, not only can people use it as a cheap way to advertise their company, they also have an opportunity to make some money on their investment.
The website should be up and running within the next week. It will have all the details of how the shares work with a copy of the contract for anyone interested to download.
If anyone is interested in investing in myself for this season and possibly making some money they can contact me at duncanstewartgolf@hotmail.co.uk, 07890881042, or at my home address
2 Vulcan Cottages
Market Road
Grantown on Spey
PH26 3HP

Duncan Stewart

Editor's Note: Duncan Stewart and Russell Knox spent four very successful years playing on the American college golf circuit as students at Jacksonville University, Florida. Stewart finished ahead of Knox as many times as Knox finished in front of Stewart. But since their graduation, their paths have gone separate ways.
Knox stayed on at Jacksonville Beach and turned pro. After being a regular moneywinner on the Hooters Tour, he gained playing rights on the Nationwide Tour and now he is making his debut this season on the US PGA Tour.
Stewart came home to Grantown-on-Spey from the States, turned pro but his career has never really got off the launch pad although he did collected £10,000 as a winner of a EuroPro Tour event last July. Later he failed narrowly to get on to the Challenge Tour.

EVERY AND MAGGERT SHARE LEAD IN SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
HONOLULU -- Matt Every had a hard time sleeping on the lead going into the weekend at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He managed a 2-under 68 on Saturday, and goes into the final round tied with 47-year-old Jeff Maggert with a lot more at stake.
Maggert played bogey-free in relatively calm conditions at Waialae, making an eagle on the easy par-5 ninth for the second straight day, and shot a 64 to give himself a chance to win for the first time in nearly six years.
They were at 12-under 198, two shots clear, but with more than a dozen players still in the hunt in the first full-field event of the US PGA Tour's FedExCup season.Charles Howell III, who has had five finishes in the top five at the Sony Open, gave himself another opportunity with a 66. He was in the group at 10-under 200. Pebble Beach winner D.A. Points shot 64 and was another shot back, while the large group at 8-under 202 included Steve Stricker, trying to join Ernie Els in 203 as the only players to sweep the Hawaii events.
Not only is he closing in on the 50-and-older Champions Tour, he finally took care of a bone spur in his right shoulder that has been bothering him the last few years. Maggert had surgery in June and had a medical exemption for part of this year, but he went to Q-school for a backup plan.
It worked. He made it through Q-school for a little more security, and then built more momentum with a solid day. He had to scramble for par on the opening hole, and the rest of the day felt easy.
Every felt the nerves of protecting a two-shot lead in the third round, and said one reason he had trouble sleeping was that he had a lot to lose.
He went long of the green at No. 2 to make bogey, and his round was close to getting away from him. His approach on the third hole flirted with the water down the left side and barely was safe. He chipped to 8 feet and made par.
"If I miss that -- 2 over after three -- and then the next thing you know, I could have made another bogey and then it's just kind of survival mode," he said.
But he steadied himself quickly, helped by a 30-foot birdie putt on the eighth and a two-putt birdie on the ninth that allowed him to regain control.
What he couldn't control was Maggert, who is starting to feel healthy again. Along with the shoulder, Maggert says he hasn't felt right since he broke a rib early in 2007 during a snow skiing trip -- but the injury didn't happen on the slopes.
"It was afterwards, coming out of the grocery store," he said. "True story. Tripped on the ice and fell and broke my rib on the curb."
The timing couldn't have been worse. Maggert had won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in 2006 and was on the ski trip before going to Maui for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He tried to play through the pain, and thinks it affected the technique in his swing.
"I feel like it's a lot better than it has been," he said.
The leaderboard is so bunched that Duffy Waldorf was walking up to the ninth green and saw that he was tied for 40th. He also noticed that he was only five shots out of the lead.
"It's such a good bunching of players, it was like, `Well, if I go make some more birdies, I might get back in it.' And that's what happened on the back side," he said.
Waldorf shot 31 on the back for a 66, and goes into the final day only three shots behind.
DIVOTS: Erik Compton made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 70. Turns out he needed that to make the 54-hole cut on the number. The day before, he went birdie-eagle to make the 36-hole cut. ... Webb Simpson has not finished out of the top 10 since last year's Tour Championship by Coca-Cola. He goes into the final round in a tie for 61st. ... The par-5 ninth played to an average score of 4.15. It has yielded 38 eagles this week.

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THREE SCOTS IN TOP TEN AS GRACE WINS JOBURG OPEN

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Branden Grace was left to revel in how sweet the sound of victory is after winning his first European Tour title at the Joburg Open today.
The 23-year-old Qualifying School graduate from South Africa came through many dangers, toils and snares at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club to sign for a final round 72 and 17 under total.
That was one better than Jamie Elson, who a month after holing a 40 foot birdie putt on the final green at Qualifying School to secure a European Tour card, almost snatched a first victory with a 30 foot eagle putt at the 18th.
The 30 year old Englishman had earlier enjoyed six birdies in his first eight holes, and signed for a best-of the-day 63.
Scots Marc Warren and David Drysdale tied for third place on 273, Warren finishing with a 68 and Drysdale with a 67.
George Murray tied for ninth place with a 67 for 274. Three Scots in the top 10 of a European Tour event! Things are looking up.
With none of the players in the leading groups making any significant moves in the final round, Grace was able to secure victory with 16 pars, a solitary bogey and one birdie.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Grace. “It’s nice to win in front of a home crowd and I wouldn’t exchange it for anything else.
“It was pretty tough out there today. I played really nicely, I hit the ball superb I think, and the putter was just cold – I couldn’t get the speed of the greens going today. Fortunately at the end of the day it was enough.
“I think there was one big key today, Zack [Rasego] on the bag kept me calm throughout the whole day so big thanks to him.”
Grace returned to the course early in the morning with three holes of his third round to complete after lengthy thunderstorm delays on the first two days.
Full of confidence after birdieing his last three holes before another storm halted play on Saturday, and starting the day level with England’s Richard Finch, Grace was three clear ahead of the final round.
While Finch bogeyed the 17th, Grace birdied the last two holes to establish a lead he would never relinquish.
He almost became lost with a bogey at the second when the final round began, particularly with Finch birdieing the opening hole to move within one, but found his composure to birdie the ninth to turn in a level par 37.
Finch’s challenge unravelled with three-putts at the fifth and sixth as the former Irish Open winner signed for a 78, while George Coetzee, who started the closing round level with Finch, never fully recovered from three birdies in his first four holes.
Elson had already set the clubhouse target at 16 under when Grace reached the turn, and the South African managed the requisite pars on every hole of the back nine.
There was a slight wobble at the last when his pitch finished 40 feet from the flag, but Grace’s fears were relieved when he rolled the ball to within 18 inches for a simple tap-in finish.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 287 (3x72, 1x71)
Players from South Africa unless stated. Prize money in Euros.
270 Branden Grace 67 66 65 72 (206,050).
271 Jamie Elson (England) 63 75 70 63 (149,500)
273 Marc Warren (Scotland) 66 69 70 68, David Drysdale (Scotland) 65 72 69 67, Dawie Van der Walt 70 66 67 70, Michiel Bothma 68 66 68 71, Jaco Van Zyl 67 69 679  68, Trevor Fisher junior 68 68 69 68 (53,972).
274 George Murray (Scotland) 65 69 73 67, Bernd Wiesberger (Austria) 70 66 69 69, Robert Rock (England) 65 67 72 70, Jbe Kruger 74 74 70 70 (24,635)
OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
275 Craig Lee 64 74 70 70 (T17) (15,451)
279 Scott Jamison 68 67 70 74 (T24) (12,301)
282 Alastair Forsyth 74 65 72 71 (T40) (6,630)


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