• Slideshow: Say cheese!
• Singh ends ‘08 on high note
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Christmas is just four days away, and the 2009 PGA Tour season isn’t far behind. The season’s first tee shot will be hit just two weeks after Santa Claus comes down the chimney.
The Chevron World Challenge was the last time we’ll see many of the Tour’s best until then. Here’s what we learned from the week at Sherwood:
1. Even Tiger Woods doesn’t know what to expect in 2009.“I’m really not all that fired up about playing just because I can’t play,” Woods said while Vijay Singh was making his birdie putt on Sherwood’s 18th green. “I would be embarrassed to go out there and try to play with the guys now.
“I can’t hit a full shot. I can’t hit any of the shots that they’re hitting because I haven’t done it. I’ve got to do a lot of work here, and it’ll be an arduous task. ... I don’t know how my legs are going to start recovering.”
Woods wore a black sport coat, black golf shirt and charcoal pants Sunday, and presented Singh, the last player to supplant him as No. 1 in the world, with the trophy.
“I’m on the operational side this week, so you forget all the distractions a player goes through,” Woods said. “Even though it’s only been six months, I’m usually inside the ropes focusing on what I’m trying to do.”
Woods said his foundation received about $2 million from this year’s tournament.
“Probably a little (less) because I didn’t play,” said Woods, who’s donated his winnings to the charity in past years.
How much he’ll play next year is up in the air. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem recently sent out a video asking players to play more events in 2009 because of the poor economy
“If he wants me to play three or four more tournaments, that puts me at eight or nine,” Woods said.
2. Expect Vijay Singh to win early and often in ‘09. That’s not exactly going out on a limb – Singh won three times, the money list and the FedEx Cup in 2008 – but any time a player other than Woods wins the Chevron, they seem to get off to a fast start in the following season:
• Tom Lehman won the inaugural event in 1999, then won the Phoenix Open in his second start of 2000. He finished 12th on that year’s money list.
• After winning the 2000 event, Davis Love III won at Pebble Beach and was fifth on the 2001 PGA Tour money list.
• Padraig Harrington, the 2002 champ at Sherwood, won the 2003 Deutsche Bank Open and was third on the European Tour Order of Merit. He also was runner-up at the Players Championship. We all know what that guy’s been up to lately.
• Love III won again at Sherwood in December 2003. He had top-10s in four of his first five starts in 2004 and finished 10th on the money list.
• Luke Donald’s last victory – the 2006 Honda Classic – came a couple months after winning at Sherwood. He finished in the top 10 on both the Tour money list and European Tour’s Order of Merit that season.
Singh may have cut back on his practice time, but he shows no signs of slowing down.
“If I go out to TPC (Sawgrass), ... and hit balls for two hours, that’s quite a lot for me now,” he said. “I don’t know if I can keep doing this for another four, five or six years, but I’m going to try.”
3. Anthony Kim is still learning, just like every other 23-year-old. A lot has been written about his maturation during the past year, which helped him to his first two PGA Tour victories. But when asked what he learned after failing to convert the 54-hole lead at the Chevron, Kim replied:
“I learned to just hang out, just get ready for the tournament,” Kim said. “I maybe stayed out a little bit later than I should have last night. That caught up with me.”
Kim struggled with his swing all day, but was able to make the turn in even-par 36 after holing a short-sided flop shot from a downhill lie right of the ninth green. He made consecutive double bogeys on the back nine after driving into high grass on the par-4 14th and hitting his tee shot into the lake in front of the green on the par-3 15th.
Kim was still happy with the way he scrambled. He hit just three greens on the front nine.
“My swing felt off. I’m just glad it was under 80,” Kim said. “It’s disappointing, but at the same time, I put myself in this position, and if I keep doing that I’ll pull some of them off.
“I could’ve shot 100, and I shot 1 over. I’m going to try to take away the positives of how good my short game was.”
And Kim has to be given credit for his honesty.
4. Experience still counts for something. As I wrote after the third round, young stars like Kim and Camilo Villegas could help the Tour weather the economic storm.
The pair looked poised for a Sunday shootout at Sherwood. Instead, it was the 45-year-old Singh and 41-year-old Steve Stricker who finished 1-2 at the Chevron, both shooting back-nine 32s while other players faltered.
It was the first time two players older than 40 finished 1-2 in this event’s 10-year history.
Kim started the final round with a one-shot lead over Jim Furyk, with Singh, Stricker and Villegas tied for third, another shot back.
“I just hung in there,” Stricker said. “I gave myself good opportunities on the back side, made some good putts, and really, looking back at it, played pretty solid all week long.”
Spoken like a true veteran.
5. Luke Donald is ready for a full season in 2009. It’ll be his first uninterrupted season since 2006. He took a month off after the 2007 U.S. Open to honeymoon, and had wrist surgery after the 2008 U.S. Open that kept him out until the Nedbank Challenge two weeks ago in South Africa.
Donald closed the Chevron with a tournament-low 6-under 66. Donald made birdie on four of his first five holes Sunday, and was 7 under at one point before shanking his tee shot on the par-3 15th and making double bogey.
“I was looking for that one breakout round after my injury,” Donald said. “Those kinds of rounds give you a lot of confidence and a belief that you can do it again.”
Only three other players broke 70 Sunday, and Donald was one of just five to break par in the final round.
Donald, T-3 at the 2006 PGA, could be a sleeper to win his first major in 2009. Ten years ago, he won the NCAA Championship at Hazeltine, which will host this year’s PGA.
Posted: 12/21/2008
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