Scottish Golf View - Golf News from Around the World: 23 Feb 2015

US Open tickets sold out - again

USGA NEWS RELEASE
FAR HILLS, New Jersey–The United States Golf Association today announced that all championship-round tickets (Thursday through Sunday, June 18-21) for the 2015 U.S. Open Championship at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington State have sold out.
This marks the 28th consecutive sell-out, dating to the 1988 U.S. Open.
The 115th U.S. Open marks the first time that the national championship has been conducted in the Pacific Northwest.
“The tremendous response we have received for our ticket sales reaffirms our decision to take the U.S. Open to Chambers Bay and the Pacific Northwest,” said Thomas J. O’Toole junior, USGA president.
All tickets include complimentary parking and shuttle transportation to and from the championship entrance.
Juniors, age 12 and under, will be admitted free of charge any day when accompanied by an adult ticket holder.

Labels: US OPEN

Bubba Watson moves up to No 2 in world pro rankings

FROM GOLFWEEK.COM
There is a new No. 2 in the men’s game. Bubba Watson’s T-14 finish at Riviera was enough to push the American left-hander into the second spot for the first time in his career.
Watson has nine consecutive top-25 finishes worldwide, including a stirring victory last fall at the WGC-HSBC Champions. He first reached No. 3 last summer at the Memorial.
James Hahn won the Northern Trust Open, and his first US PGA Tour title did more than just guarantee him a spot in his first Masters. The 33-year-old also jumped from No. 297 to No. 86 in the world.

Click here for the Official World Golf Ranking

Dustin Johnson, who lost on the third play-off hole, surged from No. 21 to No. 15 – even higher than when he left the game in August because of “personal challenges.” The other play-off loser, Paul Casey, moved from No. 85 to No. 65.
Anirban Lahiri won for the second time in three weeks on the European Tour, enough to send him to No. 34 in the world. He’ll play the Masters for the first time.
Finally, an inactive Tiger Woods slipped even further, from No. 66 to 70.
Here is the top 10 in the world heading into this week’s tournaments: No 1 Rory McIlroy
No 2 Bubba Watson
No 3 Henrik Stenson
No 4 Jason Day
No 5 Adam Scott
No 6 Sergio Garcia
No 7 Jim Furyk,
No 8 Justin Rose
No 9 Jordan Spieth
No 10 Martin Kaymer.

Labels: PRO GOLF

Robinson and McCreadie win with a 69 in Crail gale

Paul Robinson (Largs) and Jason McCreadie (Buchanan Castle) won the fourth competition of the PGA in Scotland's Winter Series of four-ball 18-hole events over Crail's Balcomie links, Fife today.
They did very well to score a better-ball, three-under-par 66 in a very cold, 30mph southwesterly wind and win the top prize in the region of £550.
Robinson and McCreadie birdied the first, ninth, 11th and 12th with one bogey, at the sixth, in halves of 34 and 32.
Runners-up in a field of 20 pairings were Stewart Savage (Dalmuir) and Craig Everett (Caldwell) with a 68.
The event was held at this particular venue as part of the Crail Golfing Society's 229th anniversary celebrations. Formed in 1786, the Society is the seventh oldest golf club in the world.
Eric Morris, captain of the society, presented the winners with engraved wine glasses.

SCORES
Par 69
66 P Robinson (Largs) and J McCreadie (Buchanan Castle)
68 S Savage (Dalmuir) and C Everett (Caldwell)
69 C Currie (Caldwell) and M Patterson (Kilmacolm), P Wardell (North Berwick) and F Mann (Carnoustie)
71 C Brooks (Braid Hills) and A Hogg (Kingsbarns), Brian Marchbank (unatt) and R Rafferty (Monte Rei), G McBain (Paul Lawrie GC) and Terry Matheson (Murcar Links), A Reid (West Lothian) and G Fox (Clydeway Golf).
72 A Brown (Archerfield Links) and S Herald (St Andrews LGA), G Forrester (St Andrews GS) and F Robertson (Lundin), S Syme (Drumoig) and G McFarlane (Clober).
73 G Wright and I Wright (West Linton).
74 K Hutton and B Smith (Downfield), P Jamieson and O Robertson (Dunblane New).
75 M McAllan (Elgin) and B Mason (Callaway Golf), D Snodgrass (Crail GS) and Kirstin Scott (Gleneagles), N Colquhoun (Merchantgs of Edinburgh) and P Brookes (Pitreavie).
76 M Huish and F Malcolm (North Berwick)
80 S Bisset (Kingsfield) and M Mackenzie (Edzell), M Laughtland (Bishopbriggs) and R Collinson (Bearsden).

Labels: Tartan Tour

James Hahn: Rags-to-riches story of one-time shoe salesman

FROM GOLF.COM

By Adam Schupak

Pacific Palisades, California– A former down-on-his-luck shoe salesman outlasts a star-studded field to earn his first PGA Tour victory. No, this is not a rejected Hollywood script. It’s the story of James Hahn, a self-taught 33-year-old who sometimes can’t believe he really plays on the US PGA Tour.
“I just kind of look at myself in the mirror some days and tell myself that I'm not even supposed to be here,” he said. “I come from a small town. Didn't do well in college. Was never an All‑American. Sold shoes for a living for a while. Yeah, and then just one day, the putts started going in and I started playing a little better.”
They fell when it mattered on Sunday. Hahn drained a 25-footer on the third playoff hole, the par-3 14th at Riviera Country Club, to win the Northern Trust Open over Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey in a play-off.
Hahn’s story is one of perseverance whether it is being nearly broke, falling so close to winning his Tour card, or selling shoes to make ends meet at two Nordstom’s department stores in Northern California in 2006.
“I was pretty good at it,” Hahn said.
Hahn, best known for his "Gangnam Style" dance on the 16th green at the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open, was one of the seven players to lead during a wild final round at Riviera Country Club that had more traffic on the leaderboard than the I-405 freeway.
The 54-hole leader Retief Goosen reached 9-under at the first hole, but faded on the back nine, shooting 4-over 75. Casey made bogey at 18 to drop to 6 under, and was eliminated after the second playoff hole when he made par. Jordan Spieth thought he needed a birdie at 18 to get to 7 under, gambled on his chip, made bogey and was one stroke too many.
Vijay Singh, on his 52nd birthday, was attempting to become the second-oldest winner on Tour and shared the lead through 14 holes before faltering badly and dropping to T-12.
But the biggest collapse of all had to be Sergio Garcia, who squandered a one-stroke lead with two holes to go by three-putting the 17th and bogeying the last. Even Johnson had a 9-foot birdie putt at the last for the win but missed it on the left.
Hahn, on the other hand, seemingly made everything he looked at on Sunday. He took just 26 putts in 21 holes. Which is funny because up until the final round his putter was more foe than friend.
“I did a little research, statistical stats, last night, and me and Dustin were the only two players inside the top, I think it was the top 12, that had a negative strokes gained,” he said. “Talked to my wife about it. She's like, well, that just means you're striping it. I was like, okay, that's pretty cool.”
So he turned to an old Jedi warrior trick that he learned from watching a DVD called “The Secret.”
“I remember one day, this is back when I was grinding on mini‑tours, that I would write down on a sticky note, ‘I will putt great today,' " Hahn said. "And I would just put that everywhere would possibly go for the entire day, right next to my toothbrush, on the mirror in the bathroom, put it on the toilet seat, put it everywhere, put it on the door before I left. I kind of did a little bit of that yesterday.
“I just told myself, ‘I will putt great tomorrow. I will putt great tomorrow.’ And I just kept saying it. I was watching The Matrix yesterday and in between commercials I just kind of closed my eyes and I was like, ‘I'm going to putt great tomorrow, I will put great tomorrow.' "
Listen to Hahn describe what happened with his short stick on Sunday: “Made a greasy 12‑footer on No. 1 for birdie. Made another 8‑footer on 2 for par. Made a greasy, like 6‑footer, double‑breaker on three. Made one from off the green on four. So that doesn't really count as a putt. I was like, ‘Wow, this stuff really works.’ ”
Hahn, who carded a final-round, 2-under 69 to earn a spot in the three-man playoff, made a 10-foot birdie at the par-4 10th, the second playoff hole, to match Johnson and stay alive in the playoff. The he ran in a 24-foot curler at 14 for birdie, forcing Johnson to make from 12 feet to extend the playoff.
“I couldn't look. I was so nervous,” Hahn said. “My heart rate was going 120 beats per second.”
Johnson’s putt never had a chance. Moments after Hahn was declared the champion, Tour pro Danny Lee showered him with beer on the 14th green. Seung Yul-Noh waited to do so before the trophy ceremony at 18.

The day Hahn never stopped believing in had finally arrived. Hahn played a year in South Korea, two in Canada, and three on the Web.com Tour. He once four-putted from 70 feet when three would’ve earned him his Tour card at the 2009 Q-School.
“It was the most devastating thing that's ever happened to me,” he said. “But being able to play three years on the Web.com Tour, I think that's one of the reasons why I'm here today.”
Once, while playing a PGA Tour Canada event in Edmonton in 2008, Hahn said he had under $200 to his name and had to borrow money to pay his caddie fee.
“It was a little embarrassing. I was going to borrow money from my parents to get a flight home, and I'm sitting there on the computer looking for jobs,” he said. “It kind of just hit me, like, 'Hey, you have an opportunity to do something with your life.' And I was wasting it just hanging out with friends, partying on the weekends. I wasn't putting the time in.”
He finished eighth that week and said the $3,000 he won felt like a million bucks. When a reporter asked if $3,000 felt like $1 million, what did it feel like to win $1 million now? “No, it is $1 million,” he said. It’s not like $1 million.” Actually his winner’s check cashed for $1,206,000.
All Hahn was hoping to do was buy his wife, who drives a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta with 130,000 miles on it, a new car if he finished top 5 this week.
“She just got new tires on it,” he said.
In case that anecdote didn’t make it clear that he and his wife aren’t interested in materialistic things, Hahn later said, “Yeah, I don't think we can afford Nordstrom to be honest. That's kind of high end, don't you think? I worked in the Salon Shoes department, and there's some really expensive shoes there,” he said. “We are more of a Footlocker kind of people.”
Instead, Hahn was more interested in how many diapers he now could afford. He and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter.
“That, to me, kind of humbles myself and kind of brings me down to reality that, you know, I'm going to be a dad here in three weeks.”
They haven’t picked out a name yet. 'How about Northern Trust,' someone joked. “It's a little long,” Hahn said with a laugh. “Maybe her middle name, NTO.”
Riviera has a nice ring to it.

Labels: US PGA TOUR

Paul Casey loses play-off but has good vibes

FROM GOLF.COM
By Jason Sobel
LOS ANGELES – Sometimes a player can lose a play-off, sometimes the other guy wins.
In Paul Casey’s case on Sunday, it was two other guys at Riviera Country Club, California in the Northern Trust Open..
Casey carded a par at the devilish 10^th hole – the second playoff hole – but fellow competitors James Hahn and Dustin Johnson each made unlikely birdies to eliminate the Englishman from the play-off.
“The pitch shots those guys just hit into 10 to make birdie, absolutely brilliant,” he said. “Disappointed I didn’t make birdie.”

Despite the play-off loss, Casey came away from the week with mostly good vibes.
“I love this golf course. I’ve always played well around here. The crowds are great and it’s just nice to get an opportunity to win this. Maybe one day I can get my name in the clubhouse. This place, I love it to death.”

Dustin Johnson, the other guy who lost out in the Northern Trust play-off, has much the same feelings.
He is optimistic about what it meant for him going forward from only his third start after his extended absence from competitive golf.
“It's really nice to know, especially after not playing for a little while, coming back and having to hit some clutch shots and make some putts and know that it's still there and I've got it,” he said. “I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.”

Johnson posted a final-round 2-under 69 that put him in a playoff against Hahn and Casey. After the three each made pars on the first extra hole, Johnson got up and down for a terrific birdie on the second. On the third play-off hole, though, his 15-foot birdie putt didn’t drop, giving Hahn the win.
“I hit a good putt, too. I thought I just misread it. I had it breaking right and it broke left. That's how it goes.”

Hahn bts Casey, Johnson in US Tour play-off

James Hahn with the trophy, picture by courtesy of Associated Press.

South Korean-born James Hahn, a one-time shoe salesman, won the Northern Trust Open on Sunday in a three-man play-off with a 25ft birdie putt at the third extra hole for his first US Tour title and a trip to the Masters.
Hahn saved par on the 18th in regulation for a 2-under 69 that got him into a play-off with Dustin Johnson (69) and England's Paul Casey (68).
Casey was eliminated on the second extra hole - No. 10 - when Hahn and Johnson hit dangerous flop shots over the back bunker and converted birdie putts.
On the par-3 14th, Hahn made his birdie and Johnson missed a 12-footer.
Spain's Sergio Garcia came to the front on the final round and was still leading with two holes to go ... but finished bogey-bogey and dropped to a four-way tie for fourth place, only a stroke behind the three play-off participants.
SCROLL DOWN FOR SCORES

WINNER HAHN BORN IN SOUTH KOREA

BUT A CITIZEN OF USA

FROM GOLF.COM
By Jason Sobel

LOS ANGELES – James Hahn was born in South Korea, but should he make this year’s Presidents Cup in that country, he wouldn’t be playing for the home team.
“I would play for the U.S. side, which means I have absolutely no chance of making the team,” said the Northern Trust Open champion. “I need to win like 10 of these.”
Even though he wasn’t born in the U.S., Hahn was born a U.S. citizen who grew up in Northern California.

“I kind of say it to kids who don't understand, I always say it like this: If your parents were vacationing in Jamaica and you were born in Jamaica, would you be Jamaican? And they are like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘No, you would not be.’ So I'm the same way. So I'm American.”
Not that playing in the event in South Korea wouldn’t be especially meaningful.
“Other than winning this golf tournament and my child,” he said, “it would be the third‑best thing that ever happened to me.”

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4x71)
Players from USA unless stated
278 James Hahn 66 74 69 69, Paul Casey (England) 70 69 71 68, Dustin Johnson 70 72 67 69 (Hahn won sudden-death play-off at third extra hole)
279 Keegan Bradley 73 68 70 68, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 71 69 68 71 Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) 70 72 70 67, Jordan Spieth 69 70 70 70.
280 Sang-Moon Bae (S Korea) 71 71 68 72, Graham De Laet (Canada) 70 67 70 73, Retief Goosen (S Africa) 66 70 69 75, Kyle Reifers 72 70 71 67.

TO VIEW ALL THE FINIAL TOTALS

CLICK HERE