DePaul's Men's Golf Ties for Eighth Place at Texas-San Antonio Intercollegiate

SAN ANTONIO – Junior Cory Blenkush carded a par round of 71 on Tuesday as the DePaul men’s golf team closed out the Texas-San Antonio Intercollegiate. The Blue Demons tied for eighth in the team standings following the three-round tournament at the Oak Hills Country Club.

Blenkush tied four other golfers for 12th place in the individual standings with a 54-hole total of 219. The Blue Demon junior posted two identical rounds of 74 on Monday and finished seven shots behind tournament winner Noah Goldman of Mississippi State.

Sophomore Greg Doherty closed the tournament in a seven-way tie for 18th place. His final-round score of 72 brought his 54-hole total to an eight-over-par 221. Senior Matthew McMahon followed in a tie for 33rd place with a total score of 224, while junior Nick Martin’s three-round total of 229 earned a tie for 53rd overall.

Senior Will Cumberland tied for 60th place with a 54-hole score of 230. Michael Gammon competed as an individual and placed 86th with a total of 252.

Mississippi State won the team title with a combined score of 864, while Texas Tech took second place with a total of 873. DePaul and tournament host Texas-San Antonio finished competition with identical scores of 890.

The Blue Demons return to action, February 29-March 2, at the Ron Smith Invitational. The three-round tournament, hosted by BIG EAST Conference rival USF, is played at the Lake Jovita Country Club in Dade City, Florida.

Quinney makes an ace, but Mickelson keeps the Northern Trust Open lead

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. (AP) -- Phil Mickelson lost his cushion, but not the lead Saturday at the Northern Trust Open.

Mickelson watched Jeff Quinney make a hole-in-one on the fabled sixth hole at Riviera that erased a four-shot margin, but saved par on the 18th hole for a 1-under 70 to stay in the lead and move one step closer to adding this trophy to his West Coast collection.

Quinney made a 35-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 67 that set up what appears to be a two-man race in the final round.

Mickelson, whose 15 victories on the West Coast Swing have come in every city but Los Angeles, was at 11-under 202. He missed the green to the right on the final hole, chipped 7 feet by and saved par.

"I thought it was a good, solid round," Mickelson said. "It should be an interesting and tough day tomorrow."

Quinney delivered the best shot, and maybe the worst.

Along with his hole-in-one that he could hear, but not see, Quinney bladed a wedge over the green on the par-5 11th that led to a two-shot swing in Mickelson's favor, then spent the rest of the gorgeous afternoon trying to catch up.

Quinney was at 203, four shots ahead of everyone else.

John Rollins fell back with consecutive bogeys and had to settle for a 69 that left him at 6-under 207. Scott Verplank, who opened his round with a four-putt from 30 feet on the fringe, shot 71 and was another shot back with Stuart Appleby (69) and Vaughn Taylor (71).

"Other than Tiger, he's probably the next best front-runner," Verplank said of Mickelson, who is 21-7 with a 54-hole lead. "He's awful good. So I'm going to have to play exceptionally well, and probably then would need a little bit of help."

Mickelson also had a one-shot lead last year going into the final round, losing in a playoff to Charles Howell. There were five players within three shots of the lead a year ago, but only Quinney, a former U.S. Amateur champion who has not won on the PGA TOUR, appears to be in his way this time.

"He's going to bring a lot to the table," Quinney said. "I have to bring my best to the table."

Quinney did not sound the least bit concerned about a four-shot deficit to Mickelson, saying after his second round that Riviera is not the type of course where one has to shoot 64 to make up ground.

Then, he looked as though he might do just that.

Quinney birdied the first hole with a long chip across the green on the par 5, then gained another shot when Lefty three-putted for bogey on No. 4. Quinney then holed a 20-foot birdie putt to reduce the lead to one-shot going into the sixth hole, famous for having a bunker in the middle of the green.

He thought that's where his 7-iron was headed. But it landed just to the side, rolled down the slope and into the cup.

Back on the tee, Quinney had already turned away and was looking over his shoulder when he heard the crowd erupt, the sure sign that he had made ace. He ran toward his caddie, unsure whether to hug or high-five, and it turned out to be a clumsy celebration.

"We need to get that organized," he said.

That gave him the lead, but only for as long as Mickelson hit 8-iron to 5 feet and made birdie, putting both at 10 under.

They matched birdies at No. 10 -- Quinney with a wedge to 2 feet, Mickelson by driving to the front of the green -- and neither showed signs of backing down. But everything changed with one swing.

Mickelson was on the par-5 11th green in two, Quinney just short of the bunker. Quinney caught two much ball, however, and it sailed over the green. He chipped back to 15 feet and did well to escape with bogey.

Even so, it was a two-shot swing after Mickelson made birdie, and Lefty kept his margin.

Mickelson had the 54-hole lead at Riviera last year, only this time the odds are even more in his favor. Five players were separated by three shots last year, while this appears to be a two-man race.

"Daylight is up front, first and second," Appleby said. "If I can shoot a good round tomorrow, 4 or 5 under, that would be a good score. Now, what's that mean for the tournament? Does that threaten the top? Probably not. It's not really an open tournament."

Divots: Pat Perez isn't any more optimistic about the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship than he was last week, when he thought he was playing Tiger Woods in the first round and didn't want to embarrass himself. He was told Saturday morning he would be playing Phil Mickelson. "Yeah, that's much better, because he's playing like (dirt) right now," Perez said with typical sarcasm. J.B. Holmes will play Woods and had a different outlook. "I'm in," he said. "That's all that matters." ... Marc Turnesa was on his way home Saturday morning until John Merrick missed a 4-foot par putt, meaning 78 players made the cut at 3 over. Turnesa then shot 67 and moved up to a tie for 29th at 1-under 212.

Sorenstam wins season-opening SBS Open for her 70th LPGA Tour title

KAHUKU, Hawaii (AP) -- Annika Sorenstam waited 17 months to collect a T-shirt from her sister and a bottle of wine from a friend with No. 70 proudly displayed on them.

"It's probably dusty," she said. "I'm ready to collect it now."

Sorenstam won the season-opening SBS Open for her 70th LPGA Tour title and first since September 2006, birdieing two of the last three holes Saturday for a 3-under 69 and two-stroke victory.

"It's great to win tournaments and there's some tournaments that mean a little bit more and they come in a special time, and I would say this is one of them," she said.

The 37-year-old Swedish star, coming off an injury-shortened season where she failed to win last year for the first time since her rookie season in 1994, finished with a 10-under 206 total. It also was her second straight win in Hawaii.

"We've talked so much about '07, it's time to talk about '08," she said. "My clubs did the talking this particular week."

Rookie Russy Gulyanamitta (68), Laura Diaz (70) and Jane Park (70) tied for second. Angela Park (69), the 2007 rookie of the year who was assessed a two-stroke penalty, and Japanese rookie Momoko Ueda (71) tied for fifth, three strokes back.

Sorenstam dropped to a knee and shook her fist as she calmly sank a 24-foot downhill putt on the par-4 17th that ended any suspense.

"That was huge," said Sorenstam, who has won 47 times when holding the lead going into the final round. "That's one of those putts I'm going to remember for a long time."

She then waved both arms in the air and hugged her caddie after putting for par on the 18th hole.

"It's been a while," caddie Terry McNamara said as they hugged.

Sorenstam was limited to 13 events last year because of neck and back injuries and had six top-10s finishes, but couldn't add to her trophy collection.

In the first event of 2008, the world's former No. 1 looked like her old self -- relaxed, focused and dominant.

"This means so much to me," she said. "Last year was not a year I wanted to remember inside the ropes. I was determined to come back."

Sorenstam smiled as she walked the fairway on the par-4 16th after hitting a wedge to 4 feet, which she dropped for the outright lead that she wouldn't lose.

Sorenstam said she was a little hesitant and trying to protect her lead until she reached the turn when she told McNamara, "Let's play some golf."

She first went up by two strokes on the par-4 10th by sinking a 14-foot birdie putt, but quickly lost a stroke when her long birdie putt whizzed 8 feet passed the cup on the next hole. She three-putted for her only bogey of the day.

Ueda and Jane Park each birdied to tie Sorenstam for the lead at 8 under. Jane Park made a long putt on No. 15. Seconds later, Ueda rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 14, drawing a roar from the sizable Japanese gallery.

However, no one could keep pace with Sorenstam.

Sorenstam was playing at Turtle Bay for the first time and beginning her season a month earlier than usual. It was her first appearance in Hawaii since winning the 2002 LPGA Takefuji Classic at Waikoloa.

Gulyanamitta, who earned just $4,411 in her previous 17 events, jumped around the 18th green after sinking a long birdie putt. She made $75,867 Saturday.

Like Sorenstam, Diaz also was hungry for a win. She hasn't hoisted a trophy since 2002. Diaz shared the lead with Sorenstam until a double bogey on No. 7 dropped her into a crowd.

Angela Park (69) was assessed a two-stroke penalty for slow play on the par-4 10th that gave her a triple bogey and cost her a shot at the lead and about $60,000. Park then birdied three of the next four holes to get back within a stroke of the lead before Sorenstam's late birdies.

Park said she wasn't holding up play. "I really don't think it's fair especially because I was in contention. I don't think it's fair at all."

Rules officials said Park's second, third and fourth shots on the hole all exceeded the time limit. Park disagreed and was visibly upset, in tears after her round.

"I was so mad out there," she said. "I was flying through the course on the back nine. I was so frustrated."

Without the penalty, Park would have finished 9 under, alone in second place for $100,458. Instead she earned $40,872.

Conditions were unusually calm on Oahu's North Shore. Even the normally roaring Pacific Ocean was peaceful. It was also balmy, forcing the players to find shade anywhere they could.

Ueda used an umbrella. Sorenstam hid under the ironwood trees.

Sorenstam and Erica Blasberg (74) were co-leaders heading into the final round at 7 under. Blasberg was playing in the final group for the first time in her career.

Her troubles started when she pulled her drive near the water hazard and had to pitch out on No. 7 for bogey. Blasberg tied for eighth with Cristie Kerr (73), In-Kyung Kim (71) and Yani Tseng (69) at 5-under 211.

Defending champion Paula Creamer closed with a 69 to finish at 4 under. She hit 18 greens in regulation but putted 34 times.

"I was grinding it out there," she said. "I saw the leaderboard and I think I got a little anxious."

Illinois wins fifth straight Tinervin Cup

For the fifth straight season, Illinois has begun the spring season with a victory in the Tinervin Cup. The Illini defeated Illinois State, 8-1, in a match play format at the Coral Creek Golf Club in Placida, Fla.

The event, hosted by the Tinervin family, benefactors for both programs, began with a 2-on-2 best ball format in the morning. The team of junior Larry Blatt and sophomore Zach Barlow won their match 1 up; the duo of junior Jon Krick and senior Mark Ogren prevailed 4 and 2; while the freshman tandem of Chris DeForest and Scott Langley was victorious in their match 3 and 1.

Illinois won five of the six singles matches in the afternoon. Barlow and Ogren paced the Illini by shooting 70s in winning their matches. DeForest fired a 71, Langley a 74 and Krick had a 75 in victories.

"It was a great experience for us because every shot in a match carries a little more importance," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "ISU has a good program, so I'm pleased with how well we responded to start the spring."

Shoreacres Makes Golf Magazines Top 50 Courses

Shoreacres, IL, USA
Green Keeper: Tim Davis

Once upon a time, on a beautiful piece of property along the shore of Lake Michigan�

If this sounds like the beginning of a storybook tale from a bygone era, that's because it is. To complete the tale, the year was 1918, the piece of property was in Lake Bluff, Illinois, along Chicago's north shore. The founding members of Shoreacres hired Seth J. Raynor to construct a course worthy of its setting.

Raynor's typically steep and deep bunkering is evident here at the seventeenth.

Making the turn at the discrete Shoreacres - Members Only sign, one can feel a connection to the early 1920's when Raynor laid out this course. The journey into the Club is a definite part of the overall experience as the drive passes the third fairway and the second green with the creek wrapping around it. One languidly proceeds through an avenue of trees. To the north is the first fairway and to the south is the miniscule practice field. The road again bends to the left by the practice putting green and the eighteenth green and past the David Alder white clubhouse perched on the bluff. The professional's shop is further around to the west, closer to the course.

By now, any of life's worries have melted away and the golfer is just itching to play. Best yet, the course does not disappoint.

Shoreacres and Camargo, which also opened in 1921, were Raynor's first great solo design efforts. Their immediate success assisted Raynor as being the preferred architect at such remarkable sites as Yale, Fisher's Island, and Cypress Point in the second half of the 1920s.

Shoreacres is as original a Seth Raynor design as exists. Green Keeper Tim Davis has been at Shoreacres for over twenty years and knows his course as well as any Green Keeper in the country. Working in collaboration with Tom Doak's Renaissance Design Firm, they have thoughtfully restored every Raynor feature possible to its original state. Over time, the greens have been returned to their initial size, in some cases increasing the green size by more than one third. A direct consequence of such a restoration is that many of the most interesting hole locations are brought back into play along the outer parts of the greens.

Though Raynor in general produced broad greens, getting at hole locations in their far reaches is a study in shot making. For instance take the fifth green. A front left location is diabolical as anything in the middle of the green leaves a putt sloping fiercely downhill and off the green. The golfer may be better off to miss the green left with a draw and have a straightforward chip shot into the green slope. Conversely, a back right hole located a top one of the plateaus requires a running cut shot to scamper all the way back.

Everybody talks about the stretch from the tenth to fifteenth and many feel that it represents Raynor's very finest work - high praise indeed. Most of Raynor's favorite type holes are to be found on this course, as we see below.

Holes to Note

Second hole, 345 yards; Because of the hole's modest length, the golfer will rarely have more than a short iron approach. The green is an extension of the fairway and is open in front. The golfer feels that he should make something happen. And yet when they start moving the hole locations toward the back and left, apprehension creeps in as a creek loops across the back and down the left of the green. A golfer in control may attack the flag while the less sure will tentatively play toward the front and hope for a two putt par. Regardless, the hole is a good barometer of the nerves of one's opponent and the state of his game.

Down the left of the second is where all the trouble lurks.

As seen from behind the green, left hole locations such as this one bring the creek well and truly into play.

Fourth hole, 370 yards; A Cape tee ball with a creek zigzagging across the tee line. The green itself is quite big and is bunkered left and right. The optimal angle into it is - you guessed it - from as near to the creek as possible. This green is another beneficiary of the reclaimed greens as some very interesting hole locations are found on the upper back left and right areas.

The approach from the swale after this long hitter carried the ditch on the Cape tee shot.

Sixth hole, 190 yards; A shorter than usual Biarritz hole that has both the front and back halves as green. The green itself is eighty-three yards long and features a two foot swale approximately in the middle. The Club has not always maintained the front half as putting surface. Interestingly enough, all the greens at Shoreacres have an original cinder base and when Tim Davis went to reclaim the front half, there was no cinder. Perhaps Raynor never intended the front half to be green but the hole is infinitely more interesting because it is.

The full length Biarritz green, complete with swale, as seen from behind the sixth green.

Tenth hole, 455 yards; A terrifying version of the Road Hole that embodies many of the best characteristics of the original. Out of bounds is all down the right. The brave line off the tee is to flirt with a small ravine on the right in order to shorten the route home. A greenside bunker covers the left third of the green and a long bunker occupying the space of the road on the original version is ominous indeed.

The landing area at ten is pinched on the right, both by this gully and the out of bounds which lines the hole.

A true Road Hole green complex: the false front, Road Hole bunker, the shallow green and a deep bunker
over all conspire to make this a very difficult target to hit on one's invariably long approach.

Chicago Golf Club Makes Golf Magazine's Top 20 Courses

Beauty and the Beast
Mid Ocean and Chicago Golf Club, USA

The distinctive Chicago GC clubhouse.

How much does and should the setting of a layout play in judging the quality of the course? Should the architectural merits of a course on uninspired land be overshadowed by a striking course over dramatic property?

To illustrate this debate, let's look at Chicago Golf Club and the Mid Ocean Club. Both were originally designed by the mighty Charles Blair Macdonald and both share similar holes (e.g., a Redan, a Short hole). However, there the similarities end. The two sites could not be more different: Chicago GC on its barren plain and Mid Ocean on hilly terrain with several holes bordering Bermuda's cliff tops. Also, Chicago has been zealously preserved from when Macdonald's pupil Seth Raynor re-did the course in 1922 whereas Mid Ocean was subjected to a major rework by Trent Jones in the 1950s.

Chicago GC is notable for its strength and difficulty with no weaknesses in a pleasant setting that would not be noticed were it not for the course. The club adopts the imminently laudable feature of leaving trees out of play. In fact, if a tree grows to a point where it affects play, the club will quickly fell it. It is a course that lets you know how good of a player you really are, and there is little to distract you from your game.

Mid Ocean, on the other hand, is a roller-coaster, in terms of the land, the emotions and the quality of the course. While Chicago has nothing close to an indifferent hole, Mid Ocean has several, such as the 6^th and 11^th. However, the course more than compensates for these shortcomings by having just as many all-world holes (e.g., the 5^th and 17^th). There are holes where the player is content with bogey (the 9^th) and holes where anything less than birdie is a disappointment (the 2^nd).

Raynor would later employ the same stairstepped bunkers at Lookout Mountain
as pictured here at the 1st hole at Mid Ocean.

While Chicago has the atmosphere of a museum, Mid Ocean reminds one of those colorful travel posters from the 1950s.

Holes to Note:

1^st hole, Chicago GC, 440 yards: There is no 'easing' into the round here, as this brute leads the way over gently rolling land to a large, open green that features one of the enduring characteristics of many greens on the course - square corners. This hole asks a lot of the player right out of the gate, but the area around the green is generous, and the player is not disheartened walking away with 5 as he admits to himself that that would likely be his score no matter where in the round the hole fell.

Chicago's tough 1st, but note the open green

1^st hole, Mid Ocean, 410 yards: This appealing opener starts from a high tee with the player playing across a valley to the fairway and then across a more severe valley to the green perched at the edge of the cliff. The topography provides the player with a choice of plays off the tee - would he rather have a level stance or a shorter approach? An inspired start.

The left greenside bunker shot at Mid Ocean's 1st.