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A quartet of celebrities face off for charity in the next The Haney Project on the Golf Channel, with rockstar - or should that be reality star? - Adam Levine the big name. (Swings like Jagger?)
Levine, frontman of Maroon 5 and "coach" on NBC's smash The Voice, is joined on the series by boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, celebrity chef Mario Batali and supermodel-turned-actress Angie Everhart.
The fourth season of The Haney Project debuts on the Golf Channel at 9 p.m. ET on Feb. 27. The series will follow Hank Haney's tutelage of the four celebs over eight episodes, culminating with the four pupils playing each other for up to $100,000 to the charities of their choice.
Note to celebs: Be careful what you do and say, because Hank might write a book about you some day!
Say this for Hank and his Haney Project: he/it gets a better class of celebrity than many other reality shows on the air.
Is it just me, or does Levine seem to be everywhere these days? Maybe he's the new "king of all media." His star has never been higher than it is now with The Voice.
But Levine is a relative newcomer to golf. It was only on July 12, 2011, that Levine tweeted about (presumably) his first round of golf:
"Just tried golf. Not gonna lie. It's totally awesome."
Next 'Haney Project' Has Adam Levine, 3 More Celebs originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 16:28:09. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Our latest roundup of new equipment is heavy on the accessories, with a push cart, travel bag, two new golf shoe lines and more.
But it leads off with a pair of putters, one by STX and another called the Dead Aim Putter. It uses a double-siteline system to alert the golfer to a poor address position, and also doubles as a training aid. Plus Titleist has updated several of its golf balls along with introducing a new ball.
View the galleryNew Equipment: Putters, Titleist Balls, Accessories originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 16:09:57. Permalink | <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&zu=http://golf.about.com/b/2012/02/08/new-equipment-putters-titleist-balls-accessories.htm#gB3">Comment | Email this
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Tiger Woods believes long putters should be banned, and he's even talked to the head of the R&A about how do it.
Woods dropped that news into a press conference at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Tuesday, immediately sending a ripple across Pebble Beach's practice putting greens, where more and more tour pros can be seen using long putters - both belly and broomstick - each year.
Woods said that he's a traditionalist when it comes to putting, and believes the putting stroke requires moving both hands and the end of the putter. So Woods' idea is that anchoring a putter against one's belly or sternum should be disallowed; but that anchoring the putter shaft against one's arm would be OK.
The bigger idea from Woods on Tuesday, however, was a limit on the length of putters: Woods wants to limit putters to no longer than the shortest other club in a golfer's bag. And he said he's talked this idea over with R&A chief executive Peter Dawson over the past couple years. The idea has been kicked around enough, Woods said, that enforcement procedures - such as pre-round measurements - have even been discussed between Woods and Dawson.
Does this make a ban on belly putters and broomstick putters likely? I'm not ready to go that far yet; but it certainly makes it more likely than it appeared to be yesterday. When Woods talks, the game's bigshots listen.
It's important to note, though, that Woods is talking about tournament golfers playing tournament golf. Banning long putters for recreational golfers would be very difficult at this point, far more difficult than limiting putter length for tour pros. (Which doesn't mean it couldn't happen, of course.)
It will be very interesting to hear the reactions to Woods' idea from some of golf's elder statesmen, such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Sir Michael Bonnallack and David Fay.
What do you think: Do you favor or oppose a ban of long putters? Do you think such a ban will ever happen, or is the proverbial cat out of the bag?
Read more about Woods' suggestionTiger Woods: Ban Long Putters originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 16:49:51. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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The Women's Australian Open is cosanctioned by the LPGA this year, which means that when the tournament tees off on Thursday, so does the 2012 LPGA Tour season.
Some of the big names are playing Down Under: Yani Tseng, Cristie Kerr, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lincicome, Jiyai Shin. Turning-17-year-old pro Lexi Thompson and 14-year-old amateur Lydia Ko. Others are waiting until next week's Honda LPGA Thailand tourney to tee off their seasons (including Na Yeon Choi, Paula Creamer, I.K. Kim, Ai Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen and Michelle Wie).
Regardless of whether the stars begin in Australia or Thailand, they are all chasing Tseng. Can anyone compete with her in 2012 for Player of the Year honors?
In 2011, Tseng won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including two majors. She lead the tour in money and scoring. Tseng also lead the LPGA in birdies, sub-par rounds, rounds in the 60s, Top 10 percentage and driving average.
I believe that Creamer has a big year - five or more wins, one or more majors - in her. But there's nothing pointing to 2012 being that year. I.K. Kim is a good dark-horse candidate to challenge Tseng, but Kim has never won more than once in a season and is coming off a winless 2011 on the LPGA.
How Shin will play this year is a bit of mystery. If she's the player we saw in 2009-10, then yes, Shin can challenge Tseng. If she's the player we saw last year - injury-plagued, short on confidence - no.
The best bet for a challenger to Tseng is Na Yeon Choi. She's shown herself capable of multiple-win seasons; she has a scoring title and money title in her pocket. She finished 2011 strong.
What do you think: Can anyone challenge Tseng this season, and if so, who will it be?
See also:
2012 LPGA Tour scheduleLPGA Season Tees Off In Australia originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 12:54:27. Permalink | Comment | Email this
The PGA Tour is at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this week, while the European Tour plays the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Tiger Woods switched up his early season schedule this year and is playing at Pebble Beach. Some fans might have the impression that Woods loves Pebble Beach Golf Links; it's an iconic course, he's won this tournament before, and he dominated the 2000 U.S. Open on this course.
But this is the first time since 2002 that Woods is playing the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Scuttlebutt over the years was that Woods hated the bumpy poa annua greens at Pebble Beach; since 2002, he had only returned once for the 2010 U.S. Open. And at that Open Woods slammed the greens.
Yet, here Tiger is, playing the Pebble Pro-Am again. Go figure.
Other "name players" in the field include Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Zach Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Ian Poulter and Nick Watney.
The defending champion is D.A. Points. And, of course, Bill Murray is among the celebrities playing. (But not everyone appreciates Murray's participation.)
The defending champ at the Dubai Desert Classic is Alvaro Quiros. Some of the bigger names in the field include Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Miguel Angel Jimenez, the Molinari brothers and Thomas Bjorn. A couple of Champions Tour players - Fred Couples and Mark O'Meara - got sponsor exemptions, as did youngster Peter Uihlein. John Daly, coming off a fourth-place finish at last week's Qatar Masters, is also entered.
Past champions and tourney trivia:
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Dubai Desert Classic
Course photos:
Pebble Beach pictures
Emirates Golf ClubThis Week: Pebble Beach and Dubai originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 11:16:43. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Last week at the Farmers Insurance Open, Kyle Stanley - trying for his first PGA Tour victory - suffered a final-hole meltdown. Needing just a double-bogey or better to win, he made a triple-bogey 8, then lost in a playoff.
Confidence shattering? Not for Stanley.
On Sunday, Stanley got that first PGA Tour victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and he did it with one of the biggest final-round comebacks in tour history.
Stanley started the final round in Phoenix eight strokes off the lead, then fired a 65. He finished at 15-under 269, making a short but nervy winning putt of about the same length he missed a week earlier on the final hole of the Farmers.
So just a week after a horrible finish to lose, Stanley came back with a magnificent round to win. Bravo.
Stanley's comeback from 8 behind with 18 to play for the win ties for the third-biggest final-round comeback in PGA Tour history. Jack Burke Jr., Ken Venturi, Mark Lye, Hal Sutton, Chip Beck, Scott Simpson and Craig Stadler all also had wins in which they started the final round eight off the lead.
Stewart Cink won the 2004 MCI Heritage after beginning the final round nine behind.
And the recordholder in this category is Paul Lawrie, who won the 1999 British Open after beginning the final round 10 strokes behind the leader. That was the Jean Van de Velde Open. Lawrie, by the way, also won on Sunday, claiming the European Tour's Qatar Masters.
See also:
Largest final-round comebacks on PGA Tour Remarkable Reversal for Kyle Stanley originally appeared on About.com Golf on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 18:16:07. Permalink | Comment | Email this
We've added two new pages to About.com Golf that organize the list of major championship winners in different ways. First up is the list of major winners by year and tournament. And next up is the list of major championship winners alphabetized by golfer.
Both pages show you the full list of every winner of every men's professional major yet played. You can also click on any major listed to view the final scores and read a recap (except for a handful of British Opens - but we're working on that).
See also:
Future majors
Tournament profile pages:
1935 British Open
1932 British Open
1931 British Open
And for something completely different:
Big Break Atlantis
The Major Champions originally appeared on About.com Golf on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 05:00:08. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Your clubs will work much better for you if you are swinging clubs with shafts whose flex is appropriate to your swing. And not just your swing speed, but how smooth your swing is, too.
What happens if you choose a shaft flex that doesn't match your swing - a flex that is too stiff or not stiff enough? Check out the effects of using the wrong shaft flex and see if anything sounds familiar.
See also:
More about golf shaft flex
Effects of Using the Wrong Shaft Flex originally appeared on About.com Golf on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 09:38:24. Permalink | Comment | Email this
The PGA Tour heads to Arizona for the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the European Tour stays in the Persian Gulf region for the Commercialbank Qatar Masters this week.
On Sunday, Kyle Stanley blew a 3-stroke lead with one hole to play at the Farmers Insurance Open, then lost the playoff to Brandt Snedeker. Stanley's chance at redemption begins this week; he, as well as Snedeker, is in the field in Phoenix.
Stanley should talk to Robert Garrigus about final-hole meltdowns and how to forget about them. At the 2010 St. Jude Classic, Garrigus also blew a 3-stroke lead at the last hole when trying to notch his first PGA Tour win, then lost in a playoff. But just a few months later, Garrigus got that first win, and he's played well since. A loss such as Stanley endured last week can cripple a golfer's confidence, but as Garrigus has shown, it doesn't have to.
Also in the field in Phoenix are Phil Mickelson, trying to rebound from a missed cut in San Diego last week; the defending champ, Mark Wilson; plus Keegan Bradley, Fred Couples, Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas, Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Ian Poulter, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson.
The Qatar Masters has another strong field, although it doesn't include Robert Rock. Rock, the winner of the Abu Dhabi Championship last week, isn't playing. But Qatar's defending champ, Thomas Bjorn, is.
The field also includes Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Jason Day, Graeme McDowell, K.J. Choi, Hunter Mahan, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Retief Goosen and Matteo Manassero.
Check our tournament pages for more info, including the lists of past champions, from each event:
Waste Management Phoenix Open
Commercialback Qatar Master
Course photos:
TPC Scottsdale - Stadium Course
Doha Golf ClubThis Week: Phoenix Open and Qatar Masters originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 09:49:03. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Amateur Lydia Ko is only 14 years old, but she's been turning heads for a couple years already. One year ago, in the New South Wales Open on the ALPG Tour, Ko finished one stroke behind the winner, Catherine Hedwall.
That was Hedwall's first victory as a pro, and Hedwall went on to win the LET Rookie of the Year Award.
This year, Ko made sure not to fall just short. At age 14, she won the title at the New South Wales Open by four strokes over runner-up Becky Morgan.
In so doing, Ko became the youngest-ever winner - male or female - of a significant professional tournament. The previous youngest winner of a women's tournament was Amy Yang, who was 16 1/2 when she won the LET- and ALPG-sanctioned ANZ Ladies Masters in 2006.
The previous overall recordholder was Ryo Ishikawa, who was 15 years, 8 months old when he won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup on the Japan Tour in 2007.
The 2012 NSW Open didn't have the strongest field, but there were "name" players: Ko beat Lindsey Wright by five, Katherine Hull by six, Melissa Reid by 13 and Laura Davies by 14.
Ko had rounds of 69, 64, and 69, to finish at 14-under 202.
Not surprisingly, Ko is the No. 1-ranked amateur in women's golf. Earlier this month, she became the first-ever golfer to hold the women's Australian Amateur, New Zealand Amateur, Australian Strokeplay and New Zealand Strokeplay titles simultaneously. Her current handicap is +5.5, according to her website.
Ko was born in Korea but her family moved to New Zealand in 2003 to find better weather in which Ko could practice golf. According to an Associated Press article, Ko will play in about 30 tournaments this year. Most of those will be amateur events, but she will be playing the Australian Masters and LPGA Australian Open over the coming two weeks.14-Year-Old Wins Women's NSW Open, Breaking Age Record originally appeared on About.com Golf on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 12:12:31. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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