Tag: Masters

New Zealand’s Michael Long and Australian Scott Laycock used their vast experience to take a share of the third round lead in the Nanshan...

Veteran Michael Long rekindled some of the magic of his past to take the second round lead in the $1 million Nanshan China Masters...

THE WORLD THIS WEEK - The Masters at Augusta is to golf what Wimbledon is to tennis. Both have the same understated elegance, the lack of loud advertising, the knowledgeable, polite crowds. In fact, tickets to view the Augusta Masters are so hard to find that they are willed through the generations.
As one privileged to attend both events, it is hard to say which one is better. The Masters was a new experience since it was being viewed for the first time, but Wimbledon never

AUGUSTA - South African Charl Schwartzel birdied the last four holes in a grandstand finish to clinch his first major title by two strokes at the Masters on Sunday, ending a wild afternoon of brilliant shot-making.
Schwartzel, who began the final round at Augusta National four strokes off the pace, showed nerves of steel as he rolled in a 20-footer on the 18th green to complete a six-under-par 66, the lowest score of the day.
The 26-year-old threw both arms skywards in

AUGUSTA - South African Charl Schwartzel birdied the last four holes to clinch his first major title with a two-stroke victory at the Masters on Sunday, ending a stunning afternoon of brilliant shot-making.
Schwartzel, who began the final round at Augusta National four strokes off the pace, rolled in a 20-footer on the 18th green to complete a six-under-par 66, the day's lowest score.
The 26-year-old threw both arms skywards in jubilation after his ball dropped into the

AUGUSTA - Rory McIlroy survived multiple assaults on his Masters lead in Saturday's third round to emerge four strokes clear of the field. That put him in pole position to become the first Irishman to win the Masters, the first European since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999 and, at 21 years and 11 months, the second-youngest winner behind only Tiger Woods in 1997.
The Ulsterman battled hard all day for a two-under 70 that put him at 12-under par, four strokes clear of a international

AUGUSTA - Britain's Rory McIlroy kept his swing and nerves under control at the Masters on Saturday to open a commanding four-shot lead after an absorbing third round as his main challengers all fell back.
Tipped to be a future world number one, the 21-year-old showed poise well beyond his age as he navigated around an increasingly treacherous Augusta National with a solid two-under-par 70 that left him poised to earn the winner's green jacket.
"It feels good but I'm not

AUGUSTA - European young guns Rory McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros shared the first-round lead in the 75th Masters on Thursday with matching rounds of seven-under par 65. At 21, McIlroy is the youngest first-round leader in the tournament's history, bettering the 23-year-old Severiano Ballesteros, who went on to win his first green jacket in 1980.
The Ulsterman had purposely favoured a low-key approach to his third campaign at Augusta National after missing the cut last year, and it

AUGUSTA - England's Ross Fisher grabbed the early clubhouse lead on the opening day of the 75th Masters on Thursday rebounding from a rocky start to card a three-under par 69.
The 30-year-old Ryder Cup star, making his third appearance at Augusta National, recorded the very first bogey of the tournament on the opening hole after setting out in the lead grouping shortly after sunrise.
He dropped another at the tough par-three fourth, but banged in birdies at the second,

AUGUSTA - Golfing greats Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus launched the 75th Masters on Thursday while three-times champion Phil Mickelson prepared to begin his title defence later in the day.
Watched by a packed gallery under sunny skies at Augusta National, four-times champion Palmer and six-times winner Nicklaus hit the ceremonial first shots at the par-four opening hole.
Palmer struck a solid blow up the left side of the fairway before Nicklaus outdrove him by around 60

AUGUSTA - Tiger Woods was gracious, smiling, on a few occasions monosyllabic and prickly, but above all positive as he discussed his bid for a fifth Masters title at Augusta National this week.
The former world number one has not triumphed anywhere in the world since the 2009 Australian Masters yet, despite his struggles on and off the course during that time, he pronounced himself ready to claim a 15th major title on Sunday.
"My whole idea is to try to win the golf

LAHORE - "Life is crazy," says Rohana Deva. "People are actors and their life is a stage...and love...is mad." Deva is quoting the song that his puppet character has been singing on stage. The character, a king, is pensive and performs alone on stage. He is a doll about a hundred years old, with only a slight chip on his nose, but that cannot be seen from far off in the audience. He wears a royal costume of black with gold embroidery, and his eyes are painted and elongated in the same way

DOHA - Denmark's Thomas Bjorn reaped the reward for three rounds of consistent golf when he won the 2.5-million-dollar Qatar Masters by four shots from Spain's Alvaro Quiros at Doha Golf Club on Sunday. Bjorn posted a 69 in the final round for a total of 14-under-par 274.
It was his second win in the Middle Eastern desert, after his sensational victory over Tiger Woods at the Dubai Desert Classic in 2001. Quiros, who won in Qatar in 2009, suffered the heartbreak of finishing as

LONDON - Australia's world champion Neil Robertson beat snooker great Stephen Hendry 6-3 to advance into the quarter-finals of the Masters snooker tournament at Wembley on Wednesday.
Robertson, for whom this was the first match of a tournament restricted to snooker's top 16 players, reeled off several breaks in the eighties against Hendry. He will now face Northern Ireland's world championship semi-finalist Mark Allen, who beat Wembley favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan, in the last

LONDON - Chinese snooker star Ding Junhui scored a vital morale boosting win here on Monday as he edged out former world champion Mark Williams 6-4 in their Masters first round match. Ding, 23, had gone into the clash badly out of sorts having lost both his Asian Games title - to Marco Fu - and then his UK Championship crown last month, bowing out in the second round. Neither Ding - ranked four in the world - nor Williams played great snooker in what is the sport's leading

LONDON - Defending champion Mark Selby lost in the first round of the Masters, snooker's leading invitational tournament, at Wembley on Sunday.
Selby was beaten 6-4 by fellow Englishman Mark King despite taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-11 frames contest.
Left-hander King, who made a break of 139, said a premature celebration from Selby had sparked his recovery.
"Mark is a fantastic player and this is like his backyard, but he won the second frame and put his cue up and

DUBAI: An early birdie blitz from Florentyana Parker lifted her into the lead after the opening day of the 500,000-euro Dubai Ladies Masters, the season-ending event of the Ladies European Tour, here on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old from England made five birdies in her first seven holes, but a bogey on her penultimate hole saw her finish at five-under par 67, one ahead of Russia's Maria Verchenova, who is playing on a sponsors' invitation.
American superstar Michelle Wie, who