JamesCatledgeBio.com

1. Can’t miss

Even though Kelly Kraft beat Patrick Cantlay 2 up to take the 111th U.S. Amateur at Erin Hills on Sunday, Cantlay proved why he is the best American player of his generation.

Coming into the week at the 7,760-yard par-72 links-styled layout, the 19-year-old UCLA sophomore was the No. 1 amateur in the world and a proven commodity in pro tournaments. The Pac-10 player of the year was the low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open at Congressional, where he finished in a tie for 21st.

In May at the Travelers Championship, he tied for 24th. In the second round of that tournament, he shot a 10-under 60 to set the course record. It was the lowest round ever by an amateur on the PGA Tour. Cantlay followed those performances up with a ninth at the Canadian Open and a 20th at the AT&T National in Philadelphia.

To get into the finals against the 23-year-old Kraft, Cantlay had to go through several great players. On Thursday in the second round, it took 21 holes for Cantlay to get past Russell Henley, who won the Stadion Classic on the Nationwide Tour in May. Henley will be his U.S. Walker Cup teammate when the matches start on Sept. 10 at the Royal Aberdeen G.C. in Scotland.

Then on Friday in the round of 16, Cantlay beat Tom Lewis 3 and 1. Lewis, a member of the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, was the low amateur at the British Open and tied for the lead after the opening round at Royal St. George’s.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Cantlay beat Jordan Russell 4 and 3. Russell had taken down Peter Uihlein, the defending U.S. Amateur champion, 2 and 1 in their quarterfinal match.

But Kraft, a 2010 SMU graduate, proved to be too much for Cantlay in the 36-hole final.

In his previous matches, Cantlay had been able to make comebacks. After the morning 18, Kraft was 2 up, but Cantlay drew the match square after 23 holes. Then the lead went back and forth until Kraft went on top at the 34th hole when Cantlay three-putted the par-3 16th hole. After both made pars at No. 17, Cantlay was 1 down going into the final hole. At the 675-yard, par-5 18th, Cantlay missed a 5-footer to force extra holes.

While Cantlay will return to UCLA in a few weeks, Uihlein is making the unusual decision of going to Q-school on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. However, he plans to return for his senior year at Oklahoma State.

Uihlein told Golfweek that he plans to turn pro after the 2012 NCAA Championship and that the Q-school trips were designed to help him gain experience.

Cantlay, Kraft and Uihlein will be teammates on one of the strongest U.S. Walker Cup teams in recent years. The squad also will include Georgia Bulldogs Henley and Harris English, both of whom won on the Nationwide Tour this summer.

While Cantlay will be the second-youngest member of the U.S. contingent after Jordan Spieth, who is 18, the U.S. Amateur runner-up is certain to be a leader against the Great Britain and Ireland squad.

2. Why bother?
At 7,760 yards, the USGA made Erin Hills the longest course to host a USGA championship, yet 25 amateurs broke par Monday during the first round of stroke-play qualifying. With the typical elite player now averaging almost 300 yards off the tee, courses would need to be stretched to more than 8,000 yards to fully challenge players with length. It’s too bad the USGA is bringing the U.S. Open to this wonderful but overly long course in 2017.

At the Barclays this week we had a very short course by today’s standards (6,964 yards) and no one complained about how short it was. Players rarely complain about hitting wedges into greens. And Pebble Beach, always one of the shortest courses every year on the PGA Tour at less than 6,900 yards, is a great test, particularly when it’s set up for the U.S. Open.

While the governing bodies shouldn’t legislate shorter courses for the pros, they also shouldn’t try to make them longer to keep pace with the club technology, which is going to get better every year.

3. But for Brittany…

The 25-year-old Lincicome won her second event of the year on the LPGA Tour on Sunday at the CN Canadian Women’s Open with a 1-shot win over Stacey Lewis and Michelle Wie. Lincicome and Lewis are the only two American women to win in a 2011 LPGA Tour season that has been dominated by Yani Tseng, who has won four of the 17 events on that tour’s schedule.

When the Solheim Cup matches start in late September in Ireland, presently six out of the top 10 women in the Rolex Women’s World ranking could not qualify because they are Asian.

Lincicome, who is ranked 10th in the world rankings, is the best American female player, despite Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer ranking ahead of her on the list, third and ninth, respectively. Lincicome could be the star of the American movement that we thought Wie would become when she first emerged on the scene as a 13-year-old phenom.

4. Calc and Cochran
On Sunday, Mark Calcavecchia beat Russ Cochran on the first playoff in the Boeing Classic at the TPC Snoquaimie Ridge in Washington state. Calc got his first win on the Champions Tour in his 31st start.

When I talked to the 1989 British Open champion, now 51 years old, just before he made his Champions Tour debut back in 2010, he told me that he was looking forward to playing the senior circuit because he was tired of working like a dog to just make cuts. Plus, he had just built a big new home and needed money to pay for it.

The guy he beat in the playoff was one of those journeymen who needed the Champions Tour to revive his career. When the 52-year-old Cochran joined the Champions Tour in 2009, he had not played a full season on the PGA Tour since 2004. But last year he won the SAS Championship for his first win since taking the 1991 Western Open.

In July, he beat Calc by two shots at the Senior British Open. This was sweet revenge for Calc, but I doubt that Cochran is doing too much complaining. He’s made $1.1 million, his best year in his 31-year pro career.

5. The Barclays and Tim Finchem
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had a tough decision to make this week. He could have tried to force the tournament into a Monday finish or turn the first leg of the FedEx playoffs into a 54-hole event. In the end, Dustin Johnson outlasted Matt Kuchar for his fifth PGA Tour win in a tournament that didn’t lack for anything.

The tour and Barclays handled the unforeseen weather calamity with expert care. The players and fans got an exciting Saturday finish with a strong leaderboard.

Plainfield Country Club, which hadn’t hosted a professional tournament since Laura Davies won the U.S. Women’s Open there in 1987, didn’t pose much of challenge to the best players in the world with soft conditions nullifying the difficult green complexes.

The good news is that in 2015, when the Barclays comes back to the venue, it will get a chance to redeem itself.

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ERIN, Wis. — Defending champion Peter Uihlein advanced to the second round of the rain-delayed U.S. Amateur, beating Canada’s Eugene Wong 3 and 1 on Wednesday at Erin Hills.

The Oklahoma State player will face South Africa’s Dylan Frittelli, a 5-and-4 winner over Jim Markovitz.

UCLA star Patrick Cantlay led Max Scodro 4-up after 11 holes when play was suspended because of darkness.

Harris English, the Georgia player who won a Nationwide Tour event last month in Columbus, Ohio, beat Andrew Yun 3 and 1. Buldogs teammate Russell Henley, also a winner this year on the Nationwide Tour, had a 1-up lead over Kevin Dougherty after 12 holes.

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Fred Couples finished off John Cook with a nifty wedge shot to 3 feet on the third hole of a playoff Sunday in the Seniors Players Championship.

“I knew when it was going, it was a really good shot,” Couples said. “I didn’t think it was going to be short and trickle down the hill. I just felt like it was going to be right there. It was simple yardage – 76 yards – and it hit soft. That extra rain certainly helped that shot, but I knew it was going to be close.”

Couples won his first senior major title, closing with an even-par 71 to match Cook (70) at 11-under on Westchester Country Club’s West Course – a longtime PGA Tour venue where Couples estimated he has played about 100 rounds in 30 years. Peter Senior (71) was third at 10 under.

Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, won for the first time this season after winning four times last year in his first season on the 50-and-over tour.

He won after having a non-traditional back procedure six weeks ago in Germany, and had to battle the stiff wind and a sore left hip that began giving him trouble during a nearly two-hour rain delay.

“I wouldn’t say I was playing awesome golf before the rain delay but it wasn’t bad,” Couples said. “After the rain delay, I just didn’t feel very good. I hit some good drives but I was not all that great.”

Couples joined Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd as the only players to win the Players Championship on the regular and senior tours. He also earned a spot in The Players Championship, an event he won in 1984 and 1996.

“That’s great,” Couples said. “I get to play with the studs, so that’ll be fun.”

Cook held a share of the lead for nine holes but bogeyed No. 16 and missed birdie putts on the final two holes, forcing the second straight playoff and fourth overall in the event.

“I thought that putt was going in,” Cook said. “My eyes got real big.”

Tom Lehman (68) was fourth at 9 under, a stroke ahead of 2010 winner Mark O’Meara (69). First-round leader Jeff Sluman (70) slipped into a five-way tie for sixth.

Cook missed a chance for his first major victory, and dropped to 1-5 in Champions Tour playoffs.

“It’s disappointing,” Cook said. “It really is. These are our signature tournaments and I’ve had my chances. I’ve let the two go. I don’t know if I really let this one go, but I certainly let the Senior British (Open) in 2008 and the Tradition in ’09, those were mine.”

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By Bob Harig

He blasted yet another shot out of a bunker, and this time the sand blew back in his face, his arms and neck covered with grit, his golf ball trickling into the water on the other side of the green.

As Tiger Woods toweled off in the searing heat at the 11th hole Friday afternoon, he might as well have called ahead to have the jet fueled and waiting.

A third missed cut in a major championship — and first in his 14th PGA Championship — was inevitable as Woods fell too far behind the number necessary to play on the weekend at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Woods shot 3-over 73 and added to his opening-round 77 his total of 150, 10-over par, missing the cut by six strokes.

It was just the seventh time in 260 starts as a pro on the PGA Tour that Woods failed to advance after the 36-hole cut. And it was just his third missed cut as a pro in a major championship, the others coming at the 2006 U.S. Open and 2009 British Open.

After injury, there has now been insult, Woods’ game now at an eerily poor level that could be expected given all the time he’s been away this year. But it was jarring nonetheless.

“I think I was in, what, 20 bunkers in two days? And had four or five water balls,” Woods said. “So that’s not going to add up to a very good score. I hit the ball a lot better. I putted well the last two days and really felt great but I just never got to the green soon enough.”

Unclear is what comes next for the 14-time major champion.

Woods, 35, needed to make the cut at the PGA Championship not only to have a chance at contending for his first tournament title in nearly two years but also to extend his season on the PGA Tour. He did not commit to next week’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., which means he will be ineligible for any of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoff events that begin in two weeks.

Any hope of advancing to the weekend vaporized in the sauna that has enveloped the PGA Championship when Woods double-bogeyed the 11th and then again at the 12th — his fifth double in two days.

“I think it’s a step back in the sense that I didn’t make the cut and I’m not contending in the tournament,” Woods said.

“But it’s a giant leap forward in the fact that I played two straight weeks, healthy. That’s great for our practice sessions coming up. We are going to now be able to work and get after it, something I haven’t been able to do. And I thought I could come in here and play the last couple of weeks and it get it done somehow, but I need some work,” he said.

Now what?

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A promising start turned into a shocking disappointment Thursday for Tiger Woods, who made three double bogeys at Atlanta Athletic Club on his way to a 77 during the first round of the PGA Championship.

The 7-over-par total left Woods near the bottom of those who completed the morning wave, well behind leader Steve Stricker, who shot a 63, matching a major championship record.

For Woods, who has won 14 major titles, it was among his worst performances.

“I’m not down, I’m just very angry right now,” Woods said after shooting his highest opening round in a major championship and highest ever at the PGA. “I thought I could play by feel, see the shot, hit the shot. I’m not at that point yet.”

Woods started nicely Thursday morning, rolling in a birdie putt at the 10th hole (his first), then adding birdies at the 12th and 14th holes. At 3-under par through his first five holes, Woods was tied for the early lead.

But he lost five shots against par on the next four holes, with double bogeys at the 15th and 18th. Tiger added five more bogeys on the front nine, including his third double bogey of the day, at No. 6.

Woods is now in danger of seeing his PGA Tour season come to an end Friday. Woods has never missed the cut in 13 previous PGA Championships, but if he fails to finish among the top 70 and ties, he’ll be headed home for the weekend.

And that means he might not be seen again this year on the PGA Tour.

Woods, 35, is 129th in FedEx Cup points and needs to be among the top 125 through next week’s Wyndham Championship in order to advance to the first of four playoff events in two weeks.

But Woods said he would be skipping next week’s tournament in Greensboro, N.C., due to family obligations. So unless he changes his mind, Woods would miss the four playoff events and it is unlikely he’d be seen on course again unless he plays somewhere overseas.

There are four Fall Series events that follow the Tour Championship next month, but Woods has never played in any of them in their current configuration. The last time he played any of those tournaments was in 2005 at Walt Disney World.

Woods wasn’t thinking about any of that Thursday. He talked afterward about how he missed a good opportunity to build on his good start by going away from what got him to that point.

“I was 3 under through five (holes) and figured I could start letting it go, play by instinct and feel,” he said. “That screwed up my whole round.”

Woods’ highest score in a major was an 81 during the third round of the British Open in 2002 at Muirfield, where he played in wind and rain.

Woods missed two major championships this year due to knee and Achilles injuries that kept him from finishing a tournament since a tie for fourth at the Masters in April. He tried to come back at The Players Championship, where he withdrew after nine holes, then shut it down until last week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he tied for 37th.

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AKRON, Ohio — The chants and cheers began as Adam Scott walked toward the 18th green to complete a command performance Sunday in the Bridgestone Invitational and win his first World Golf Championship.

But in a surreal scene at Firestone, they weren’t for him.

They were for his caddie.

“Stev-ie Will-iams,” they shouted as the guy carrying the bag for Scott broke into a big smile.

The celebration made it clear that Steve Williams felt vindicated after being fired last month by Tiger Woods. The interview after it was over — yes, he gave interviews — made it sound as if it was Williams who shot the 5-under 65. At one point, Williams described himself as a “good front-runner when I’m caddying.”

“I’ve caddied for 33 years — 145 wins now — and that’s the best win I’ve ever had,” Williams told CBS Sports on the 18th green. This from a guy whose 12 years working for Woods featured 13 majors and 16 world titles among 72 wins worldwide. That includes the 2001 Masters, when Woods won an unprecedented fourth straight major.

Clearly, Williams is still angry over how — and when — Woods cut him loose. He even disputed Woods’ version of how it happened, saying Woods told him over the phone, not in person.

Scott didn’t seem to mind that his caddie was getting most of the attention.

“I can talk about Steve now and not Tiger,” Scott said to laughter, alluding to the countless times he and other players have been asked about Woods. “I’m sure there are a lot of other golfers who wouldn’t mind that, either.”

The latest chapter in the endless saga involving Woods took away from a premier performance by Scott, who didn’t make a bogey over his last 26 holes and couldn’t afford to with 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa giving him all he could handle.

They were never separated by more than one shot until Scott chipped in from the side of the 12th green, then rolled in a birdie putt from just inside 30 feet on the 14th to build a three-shot lead. Ishikawa three-putted the 15th, and Scott had no trouble closing this one out.

He wound up winning by four shots over world No. 1 Luke Donald, who shot 66; and Rickie Fowler, who played a final round worthy of a winner with a bogey-free 66, only to run into an affable Australian who couldn’t be beat.

Ishikawa made a bogey on the last hole to tie for fourth with Jason Day. They both shot 69. For the Japanese star, it was his highest finish in America.

Scott finished at 17-under 263, the lowest score to win at Firestone since Woods had 259 in 2000 in an 11-shot win.

With a three-shot lead, Scott thought about playing it safe on the 18th. Williams told him to take 6-iron at the flag, and Scott obliged with a shot that rolled past the cup and settled 5 feet away. When they got to the green, one fan shouted out, “How do you like him now, Tiger?”

By then, Woods was long gone.

After missing three months with a leg injury, he finished a tournament for the first time since the Masters on April 10 and closed with a 70 to tie for 37th, 18 shots behind.

“I had it in spurts this week,” Woods said.

Scott became the third Australian to win a world title, joining Geoff Ogilvy and Craig Parry. He won for the 18th time in his career and moved back into the top 10 in the world ranking.

While his old boss was on the mend, Williams agreed to caddie for Scott at the U.S. Open. Williams said he was led to believe that Woods was going to play practice rounds at Congressional, but only after the New Zealand caddie arrived in America was he told that Woods was not healthy enough for the U.S. Open.

That’s when Williams decided to work for Scott, and he worked for Scott again at the AT&T National, the tournament that benefits Woods’ foundation. Woods said he fired him after the final round that week, and they kept it quiet until Williams was done working for Scott at the British Open.

Woods said he told him face-to-face. Williams said Sunday that Woods fired him over the phone.

“I was told on the phone that we need to take a break, and in caddie lingo, that means you’re fired, simple as that,” Williams said.

“I was absolutely shocked that I got the boot, to be honest with you,” he said. “I’ve been incredibly loyal to the guy, and I got short-shifted. Very disappointed.”

The theatrics took away from Scott’s biggest win since The Players Championship in 2004. He played so well he could have gone even lower except for missing two birdie putts inside 12 feet on the 16th and 17th holes.

“Today, I was on,” Scott said. “To win here at this place, a World Golf Championship, it’s huge.”

It didn’t hurt having Williams at his side. Along with his experience working for Woods, along with major champions Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd, Williams was on the bag for all seven of Woods’ victories at Firestone.

“He has such a great knowledge of this golf course and the greens,” Scott said. “He’s seen a guy play incredible golf, the best golf anyone has ever played around here, so many times. He really guided me around the course nicely. … So he was, no doubt, a help.”

When told that Williams called this his greatest win as a caddie, Scott winced.

“He’s obviously really happy to get a win,” he said.

The biggest threat to Scott came from Ishikawa, although Fowler and Day remained in the mix, and Donald emerged late. Ishikawa, trying to become the youngest winner in America in 100 years, couldn’t keep up when Scott made two birdies on the back nine to build a three-shot lead.

Ishikawa three-putted the 15th when he was running out of time.

“I was able to play well to be at least on top for a moment in the first half of the game today,” Ishikawa said through a translator. “I think the 14th and 15th hole separated everything.”

Fowler, dressed in his bright Sunday orange, is still looking for his first win. He didn’t do much wrong Sunday, playing bogey-free, but it wasn’t enough to catch Scott.

“It’s definitely the best I’ve played going into a major,” Fowler said.

Woods opened strongly with two birdies on the opening five holes before he “absolutely lost it” with his game, dropping five shots and not hitting a fairway on seven straight tee shots. He made three straight birdies late for a 70.

Next up is the PGA Championship, where Woods told the PGA of America that he wanted to push his interview back one day to Wednesday. He did not give a reason.

Woods will play the first two rounds with Padraig Harrington and Davis Love III. The way Williams reacted to Scott’s win, a pairing of Woods-Scott in the near future would be the closest thing golf has had to a heavyweight clash.

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Charles Barkley and Tiger Woods, once fast friends, haven’t spoken to each other in nearly two years.

And now that Woods has parted with another of his friends, longtime caddie Steve Williams, Barkley has run out of patience.

“It’s been very frustrating to watch everything that has transpired,” Barkley said Wednesday on ESPN New York 1050′s The Mike Lupica Show, “and getting rid of Steve Williams was probably the last straw for me.”

Barkley, known for his opinionated and at times controversial takes, minced his words when speaking about Woods on Wednesday. While he wished Woods “the best” with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on tap for Thursday, and said he will always love Woods like a brother, Barkley said he’s disappointed with Woods. He said they have not talked since Woods’ infamous November 2009 car accident, which was the flashpoint for the revelations of Woods’ extramarital affairs and eventual divorce.

“You think you’re friends with a guy. You talk to him once a week for 15 years. You’re like, this dude is my friend, we do things, we have fun together,” Barkley said. “I haven’t talked to him in two years and I’m wondering what the hell is going on.”

Barkley added: “I’m confused [as] to where he’s going.”

Barkley said he has heard the claims that he and Michael Jordan were a bad influence on Woods, but Barkley adamantly denied that he and Jordan knew details about Woods’ extramarital affairs.

“It was interesting sitting back and listening and hearing me and Michael corrupted him, [yet] we knew none of this stuff was going in,” Barkley said.

The absence of communication with Woods for the past two years still puzzles Barkley.

“I’m sitting back like everyone else and saying, what the hell is going on? I just feel sad, to be honest with you,” Barkley said. “You’re like, dude, who is around this guy, who has his back, who has his best interest, who doesn’t want anything from him? I don’t know why we haven’t talked to him in a couple of years.”

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LONDON — Golf’s European Tour won’t be returning to Bahrain next year.

The European Tour says the Volvo Golf Champions will not take place at Bahrain’s Royal Golf Club but that the tour’s return to the Gulf kingdom has been “delayed” rather than canceled following political unrest there.

At least 32 people died in Bahrain this year in protests for greater freedoms and rights.

The European Tour says “with work still ongoing to resolve issues in Bahrain and the need to confirm the venue by the end of July 2011, the difficult decision to postpone the event for 2012 was taken.”

Tournament sponsor Volvo and tournament organizer International Management Group will rotate future events between a handful of locations, including Bahrain.

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