2008 Ryder Cup
The 37th Ryder Cup Matches were held September 19–21, 2008, in the United States at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Team USA won 16 - 11 to end the streak of three successive victories for Europe. This was USA's largest margin of victory since 1981 and the first time since 1979 that the Americans had held the lead after every session of play. The team captains were Paul Azinger for the US and Nick Faldo for Europe. The U.S. team had been in the lead since the contest began on the Friday. Europe was two points behind going into the Sunday singles matches. They had only previously overturned a deficit once before, in 1995. USA won the majority of the first matches out and subsequently Jim Furyk defeated Miguel Ángel Jiménez 2 & 1 to win his match and win the Ryder Cup for the USA. Other matches still out on the course would see this margin of victory increase further. Following the defeat Nick Faldo was heavily criticised for his decision to "bottom load" his best p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2008 In Golf
This article summarizes the highlights of professional and amateur golf in the year 2008. Men's professional golf Major championships *10–13 April: The Masters - South African Trevor Immelman won his first major by a three-stroke margin. *12–15, 16 June: U.S. Open - American Tiger Woods won his 14th major by making birdie on the 72nd hole in regulation, and forcing an 18-hole playoff with Rocco Mediate on Monday, 16 June. They each finished the playoff at even par 71, and then went to a sudden death playoff. Woods made a par to Mediate's bogey on the first hole for the win. *17–20 July: The Open Championship - Pádraig Harrington won his second consecutive Open Championship in a four stroke victory over Ian Poulter. Fifty-three-year-old Greg Norman who led after three rounds, finished tied third. *7–10 August: PGA Championship - Pádraig Harrington won his second consecutive major by two shots over Ben Curtis and Sergio García. FedEx Cup playoff events - see 2008 FedEx ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Judy Rankin
Judy Rankin ( Torluemke; born February 18, 1945) is an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, she joined the LPGA Tour in 1962 at age 17 and won 26 tour events. Since 2010, Rankin has served as the lead analyst for LPGA Tour telecasts on the Golf Channel. She previously served as an expert analyst for golf coverage on ESPN/ABC. Amateur career Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Rankin won the Missouri Amateur at age 14 in 1959. The next year she was the low amateur at the U.S. Women's Open, and was on the cover of ''Sports Illustrated'' in 1961 at age 16. She turned pro the following year. Professional career Rankin's first LPGA Tour win came in 1968 and she won 26 events, topping the money list in 1976 and 1977. She finished in the top ten on the money list eleven times between 1965 and 1979, and was the first to win over $100,000 in a season on the LPGA Tour (over $150,000 in 1976). Although Rankin did not win a majo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Seve Ballesteros
Severiano Ballesteros Sota (; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 international tournaments in his career, including five major championships between 1979 and 1988: the Open Championship three times and the Masters Tournament twice. He gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at the age of 19, he finished second at The Open. He played a leading role in the re-emergence of European golf, helping the European Ryder Cup team to five wins both as a player and captain. Ballesteros won a record 50 European Tour titles. He won at least one European Tour title for 17 consecutive years between 1976 and 1992. His final victory was at the 1995 Peugeot Spanish Open. Largely because of back-related injuries, Ballesteros struggled with his form during the late 1990s. Despite this, he continued to be involved ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Four-ball Golf
Four-ball is a pairs playing format in the game of golf. It is also known as better ball and best ball, although the latter more properly describes a variation involving teams of 3 or 4 players. It is also sometimes abbreviated as 4BBB. In a stroke play competition, competitors are paired and play as a team. Each golfer plays their own ball; the team's score on each hole is the lower of the two players' scores. Only one of a pair is required to complete each hole. The winners are the team with the lowest aggregate score over a set number of holes. Since 2017 this format, along with foursomes, has been used by the Zurich Classic on the PGA Tour. In a match play competition, a four-ball consists of two teams of two players competing directly against each other. All four golfers play their own balls throughout the round (rather than alternating shots); each hole is won by the team whose member has the lowest score. This form of golf is commonly played in team golf competitions such as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Foursomes
Foursomes, also known as alternate shot, is a pairs playing format in the sport of golf. Golfers compete in teams of two, using only one ball per team, and taking alternate shots until the hole is completed. Team members take turns in teeing off on each hole, i.e. one player will take the tee shot on odd-numbered holes, and the other on even-numbered holes. Foursomes is most commonly played as match play, with each hole being won by the team that completes it in the fewest shots. This form of golf is often played in team golf competitions such as the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and the Presidents Cup. Foursomes can also be played in stroke play competitions, with the winners being the team who have taken the fewest strokes to complete a set number of holes. Since 2000 this format has been used with alternating rounds of four-ball by the World Cup of Golf, and since 2017, again combined with four-ball rounds, by the Zurich Classic on the PGA Tour. Variations Greensomes, also known as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Match Play
Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In match play the winner is the player, or team, with the most points at the end of play. Although most professional tournaments are played using the stroke play scoring system, there are, or have been, some exceptions, for example the WGC Match Play and the Volvo World Match Play Championship, and most team events, for example the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, all of which are in match play format. Scoring system Unlike stroke play, in which the unit of scoring is the total number of strokes taken over one or more rounds of golf, match play scoring consists of individual holes won, halved or lost. On each hole, the most that can be gained is one point. Golfers play as normal, counting the strokes taken on a given hole. The golfer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named after the English businessman Samuel Ryder who donated the trophy. The event is jointly administered by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, the latter a joint venture of the PGA European Tour (60%), the PGA of Great Britain and Ireland (20%), and the PGAs of Europe (20%). Originally contested between Great Britain and the United States, the first official Ryder Cup took place in the United States in 1927 at Worcester Country Club in Worcester, Massachusetts. The home team won the first five contests, but with the competition's resumption after the Second World War, repeated American dominance eventually led to a decision to extend the representation of "Great Britain and Ireland" to include continental Europe from 1979. The inclusion ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dottie Pepper
Dottie Pepper (born August 17, 1965) is an American professional golfer and television golf broadcaster. From 1988 to 1995 she competed as Dottie Mochrie, which was her married name before a divorce. She won two major championships and 17 LPGA Tour events in all. Amateur career Pepper was born in Saratoga Springs, New York; her father, Don, was a major league baseball player, who appeared on the cover of ''Sports Illustrated'' as a "rookie to watch", along with Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, in 1968. Her career began with big amateur victories in her home state of New York. She won the 1981 state amateur and the 1981 and 1983 New York Junior Amateur titles. She was a member of the 1981 Junior World Cup team and low amateur at the 1984 U.S. Women's Open. She attended Furman University, where she earned five collegiate victories and was named All-American three times. Professional career She joined the LPGA Tour in 1988 and won 17 official events on the Tour, including two major ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roger Maltbie
Roger Lin Maltbie (born June 30, 1951) is an American professional golfer and on-course analyst for NBC Sports. Career Maltbie was born in Modesto, California and grew up in San Jose. He attended James Lick High School where he was a teammate of former PGA Tour player Forrest Fezler. Maltbie attended San Jose City College (1970–1971), and then went on to San Jose State University; he was a member of the golf team at both institutions. Maltbie turned professional in 1973, joined the PGA Tour in 1974, and played on the Tour full-time from 1975 to 1996. He won five official tour events between 1975 and 1985, including back-to-back wins in his first full year. After his win at the 1975 Pleasant Valley Classic, Maltbie left his $40,000 winner's check behind in a bar. In his second year on tour, Maltbie won the inaugural Memorial Tournament by defeating Hale Irwin on the fourth hole of a sudden death playoff. On the playoff's third hole, an errant shot by Maltbie seemed headed for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Rolfing
Mark Rolfing is a television golf commentator and a resort marketing director. Rolfing played professional golf in 1973 and 1974, after playing college golf at DePauw University in Indiana. At DePauw, he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. However, he never qualified for the PGA Tour and in 1975 joined Kapalua Resort in Hawaii as head golf professional. He later moved into Kapalua's marketing department and formed his own television marketing firm, Rolfing Productions, in 1985. He joined the NBC Sports golf team as an on-course reporter in 1988. In 1992, he moved to the ESPN/ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ... golf team, before rejoining NBC in 1998. He remains an on-course reporter for NBC as of June, 2018. References Living people Year of birth mis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bob Murphy (golfer)
Robert Joseph Murphy, Jr. (born February 14, 1943) is an American professional golfer who was formerly a member of the PGA Tour and currently plays on the Champions Tour. Murphy has won 21 tournaments as a professional. Early years Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a standout pitcher in his youth, and as a teen led his high school baseball team to the state championship in 1960. After suffering a football injury (which also ended his baseball career), Murphy got started in golf. College career Murphy attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity ( Florida Upsilon Chapter). While he was an undergraduate, he played for coach Buster Bishop's Florida Gators men's golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1964 to 1966. Florida Men's Golf 2011 Media Supplement'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 29, 34, 39, 41 (2010). Retrieved July 11, 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gary Koch
Gary D. Koch (born November 21, 1952) is an American professional golfer, sportscaster and golf course designer, who formerly played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour. Early years Koch was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1952, and raised in Florida. He won the Florida Open in 1969 as an amateur at the age of 16. He won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 1970. He attended C. Leon King High School in Tampa, Florida. The 1969 King High golf team consisting of Koch, Eddie Pearce, Brian Hawke and Phil Reid won the Florida high school title setting a scoring record that stood for thirty years. College career Koch accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he became a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity ( Florida Upsilon Chapter). While he was an undergraduate, Koch played for coach Buster Bishop's Florida Gators men's golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |