PGA Championship

The PGA Championship is this weekend at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. And, as golf’s final major this year, I look forward to it. As I write this, Fred Funk is in the lead with -7, followed four guys at -6 (including Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, and Retief Goosen).

Here's the PGA Championship’s Leaderboard, which should remain current. As of this morning (Friday morning) Jim Furyk was in the lead, but now he’s at -3 overall. I was really hoping that he might win this one, as he’s one of the best players in the game that hasn’t won a major yet.

With any luck, I’ll be able to watch some of it this weekend.

British Open

Whew, that was a close one for Ernie Els as he won his first British Open. He had a narrow one-to-two stroke lead for most of the final round. But, in the last holes, he lost some ground to force a playoff with Australians Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington and Thomas Levet of France.

In the end, Els held strong and avoided mistakes. Ernie Els is the new Open champion.

With one foot in the bunker and the other on the bank Els played a magnificent recovery from the downslope at the back of the bunker, running the ball within five feet of the hole.

Across the left to right slope Levet struck the putt firmly, shaving the hole as it ran seven feet past. He holed for a five leaving Els a single putt for the championship. He holed it.

If you missed any of the Open Championship, ABC is airing final-round highlights at 5:00/4:00c.

British Open watching?

Though I don’t particularly enjoy playing golf, I do enjoy watching it. As someone that has attempted to play the game, I can really appreciate the skill and talent that the players have. And, of course, the British Open is this weekend. Or, as they like to call themselves, “The Open Championship” ;).

So, would anyone out there in blogger-land be interested in watching the final round with me? It airs on Sunday from 7:00am - 12:30pm CST. But, that's frightfully early, so I was thinking that through the magic of TiVo’s ability to start-watching-before-the-recording-is-finished, we could time-shift that to “start” at 9:00 or 10:00.

Of course, the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event is this evening, so I’ll mention this idea there as well.

US Open on NBC

Thanks to NBC, now even golf lovers that don’t have full-time sports channels can watch the early rounds of the US Open. NBC’s schedule for its US Open Coverage:

  • Thursday, June 13 - 3:00 PM ET
    Golf: U.S. Open Black Course at Bethpage State Park, N.Y.: First-round coverage
  • Friday, June 14 - 3:00 PM ET
    Golf: U.S. Open Black Course at Bethpage State Park, N.Y.: Second-round coverage
  • Saturday, June 15 - 12:30 PM ET
    Golf: U.S. Open Black Course at Bethpage State Park, N.Y.: Third-round coverage
  • Sunday, June 16 - 1:30 PM ET
    Golf: U.S. Open Black Course at Bethpage State Park, N.Y.: Final-round coverage