-- "Off the Cart Path", our popular weekly cartoon strip by Roy Doty will return next week. --

Editor's Weekly Word

As you will know if you read last week's issue of Golfing Weekly, I'm currently experimenting with news feeds as a means of distributing the newsletter. After studying the technology and researching the way it works and how many people are using it, I've decided to continue to publish the newsletter online and send an e-mail each week with a summary of the contents and my weekly editorial. In addition, I shall be publishing individual articles to our RSS/XML news feed as soon as they are written and then including them in the newsletters for those of you who don't use news feed readers.

I apologize for the cut down size and lateness of this week's issue. As from next week you'll get the newsletter on Tuesday or Wednesday, as before,  and it will include all the articles which we have published separately since the previous issue. With the PGA Tour official schedule coming to an end this week, there will be less tournaments to report on. This will give me more time to put together other golf-related content which I hope you will enjoy reading.

I have accumulated a collection of items which our Golf Pro, Mark Pursey, and his team have been testing over the months, as well as golf books and CDs, which will all be reported on during the off-season. Mark and I will also be starting a golf instruction column which will carry not only tips but also practice drills to keep your game sharp during the winter months and recommended reading related to the game.

As I write this, the final tournament on the 2004 PGA Tour calendar, THE TOUR Championship, is well under way and I'm looking forward to sending you my report and end of season round up very soon. Will Tiger redeem his season or will veteran Jay Haas put the cherry on what has been a great season so far? Watch this space.

Have a great weekend.

Regards

Andy Smith
Founder/Editor
www.golfing-weekly.com

Chrysler Championship - Tournament Report

Singh wins again and breaks $10million mark

At the Westin Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbour, Florida on Sunday, world number one, Vijay Singh cruised to the easiest of his nine victories this season, setting more records in the process. A fifteen foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the Chrysler Championship took his final score to 266, eighteen under par, and broke the tournament scoring record, set by K.J. Choi in 2002, by one shot. His $900,000 paycheck made him the first player to pass the $10million earnings mark in a single season, leaving him over $5million clear of his nearest rival on the PGA Tour money list. Singh's nine titles this year equals the modern era record set by Tiger Woods in 2000 and if he can win the season-ending TOUR Championship this week he will join the elite band of Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead as the only players in the history of the game to record ten wins or more in a single season. The way he is playing at the moment, it is hard to imagine that he won't do it.

The Chrysler Championship was the final full-field event on the PGA Tour calendar and many players had their own challenges to meet. Money list positions were finalized which decided who would play in THE TOUR Championship this week (top 30), earn an exemption for the 2005 Masters Tournament (top 40), retain their Tour card for next season (top 125) or get a pass to the final stage of Q-school and earn conditional status on the PGA Tour for next year (top 150).

The most significant movers were the tournament joint runners-up Tommy Armour III and Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, who picked up $440,000 each. Armour went from 153rd to 95th and retains his playing privileges while Parnevik climbed 30 places to earn an exemption for the Masters in 40th spot. Kirk Triplett also earned a trip to Augusta with his fifth place finish on 273 that took him to 38th on the money list. Kenny Perry's tied eighth place finish on 275 moved him up to 29th and earned him a tee-time this week at East Lake at the expense of Australia's Rod Pampling.

Tag Ridings followed up his excellent tied second place in the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas three weeks ago with a final round of 64 to earn a tied eleventh finish worth $120,000 which was enough to give him the 125th and final Tour Card based on 2004 official earnings. The magic figure this year was $623,262, which is $135,767 (28%) more than last year's 125th place finisher, Esteban Toledo, earned in the 2003 season. At that rate of increase it will only be a couple of years before the players need to earn $1million to keep their card.

Having missed the cut in the last two events of the season, both Paul Azinger and Olin Browne dropped out of the top 125 as a result of Ridings and Armour's table climbing performances.

Apart from Tommy Armour III (was 153rd), the only other player to rise from outside the top 150 following the last event was Jeff Brehaut who earned $29,062.50 for his T30 finish and went from 152nd to 149th. Steve Stricker and New Zealand's Craig Perks dropped to 151st and 152nd respectively.

Jay Haas' choice to go for the top 30 on the PGA Tour so that he could play in the TOUR Championship rather than qualifying to play in the final limited-field event on the Champions Tour, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, has paid off. He stands at 28th on the money list with $1,873,626 entering this week's event.

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Chrysler Championship - Results

Par 71 - 7,230 yards

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PGA Tour Money List

The full standings can be found at www.pgatour.com

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Volvo Masters - Tournament Report

Poulter Wins Battle of Euro Young Guns at Volvo Masters

Ian Poulter made his par on the 18th hole at Valderrama to defeat Sergio Garcia on the first hole of a sudden death playoff for the Volvo Masters title. The Ryder Cup duo finished regulation play on level terms with seven under par totals of 277 after Garcia missed clear birdie opportunities on each of the last two holes. This was Poulter's first win on the European Tour since the Nordic Open in Denmark in August 2003 and his sixth win overall. He left it until the last stroke of the European Tour 2004 schedule to maintain his record of having claimed at least one victory in each of his five years on the full Tour after graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 1998.

Overnight leader, Scotland's Alastair Forsyth lost his three stroke advantage with bogeys on the first two holes and Poulter showed his intent early with a birdie on the second hole to take a share of the lead. Poulter then made bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes before recovering to take the outright lead with a string of three birdies starting on the eighth. When Garcia made birdies on eleven and twelve to join Forsyth one shot behind Poulter, the three were clear of the field and were soon in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard as Poulter dropped a shot on the par four 13th hole.

Forsyth fell out of the running with a bogey on sixteen but parred the last two holes to secure third place on 278, his eighth top ten finish of the season. Fourth place was taken by Peter Hanson on 280. With four rounds of 70, Hanson was the only player in the tournament to complete four sub-par rounds. Fifth place was shared on 281 by another young Ryder Cup player, David Howell and France's Christian Cévaër who won the Spanish Open earlier in the year. The only other two players to complete the tournament under par at the 1997 Ryder Cup venue were Lee Westwood and Scott Drummond with 283, one under for the week.

Garcia's season isn't quite over yet. Next week he is competing in THE TOUR Championship, the closing event on the PGA Tour schedule which is limited to the top 30 on the money list. Garcia currently stands at number seven with $3,115,415 from only 17 appearances which included victories at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Buick Classic to add to his European win a couple of weeks ago at the Mallorca Classic.

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Mallorca Classic - Results

Par 71 - 6,961 yards

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Volvo Order Of Merit - Final Top 20 Positions

Earnings on the European Tour are paid in Euros. The equivalent value in US$ is for information purposes only and was calculated at the rate which was current at time of publishing. Earnings from the majors and WGC events are included in both the European & PGA Tour Money Lists. The full standings can be found at www.europeantour.com.

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Official World Golf Rankings

The full standings can be found at the Official World Golf Ranking website, www.officialworldgolfranking.com

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