In her first appearance in the event a year ago, McNair, who plays collegiately at Xavier University, shot an opening-round 84. She never quite fully recovered from that and wound up tied for third.

McNair found herself with an 84 on her scorecard at the end of the first round last week.  Fortunately for her, the 84 left her just one shot off the lead.

“I held it together. … In the back of my mind I thought, ‘You shot an 84 in the first round last year. You can definitely come back from it. It’s not the end of the world,’” said McNair. “I knew that 84 could easily have been a 77. I knew there were a lot of good, positive things to build on from that first day.”

And build on it she did. She shot a 79 in the second round, and finished with a 76 to win the tournament by two strokes over Alabama State’s Mia Campbell.

McNair said she struck the ball well over the first two rounds, but a couple poor holes torpedoed her scores. Her 84 included a five-putt triple bogey on one of the par 5s on the Ryder Course at the PGA Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Her 79 included a pair of double bogeys.

She entered the final round tied with Campbell and with Prairie View A&M’s Shanequa Valentine three strokes back. Those three played together in the final pairing, a new experience for McNair over the year before.

“Last year, I wasn’t in the final pairing. I was definitely a little farther away from the lead,” said McNair. “This year, there was more pressure playing with the two girls who were right … it could have gone any way at the end.”

McNair started her final round with a pedestrian 41 on the front nine. After 10 holes, she said, she was tied for the lead with Campbell and Valentine. To add even more pressure, the group was put on the clock for slow play.

During her 2012 spring season at Xavier, McNair admittedly struggled with her game. When she would have to challenge her teammates for spots in the Musketeers’ lineup, she often faltered and was left on the outside looking in.

She didn’t want a repeat of that feeling again.

“I just zeroed in and just struck the ball even better than I had been the whole week,” said McNair.

She finally began to separate herself from Campbell and Valentine on the back nine.

On the par-5 13th, McNair blasted her drive 50 yards past her competitors. She hit her second shot to the right of the green but pin high, enabling her to get up and down for birdie and get a one-stroke lead.

Two holes later, she bombed another drive to within 90 yards of the green and again got up and down for a birdie to pad her lead. Despite making bogey on the final hole, McNair was able to come away with a two-shot win.

McNair is confident that the win will help her as she prepares for her junior season at Xavier.

“Just to be able to stay focused and physically grind through the round. It was getting hot, we were getting tired,” she said. “I think it reminded me that I can still grind through the close pairing and the close round and that I can perform when I need to.

“And that’s something I was definitely lacking in the spring. This definitely gives me a lot of confidence … that I can pull off big shots down the stretch and I can be competitive.”

Over the summer, McNair plans to try and qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur as well as play some other events around her native Ohio. All of it will build to what she hope will be a breakout season at Xavier in the fall.

– Chuck Curti

“We are pleased and excited to have one of the all-time greats in the game join The Greenbrier Classic’s 2012 field,” said Jim Justice, chairman and owner of The Greenbrier. “Tiger is one of the biggest stars in all of sport and he brings significant attention to any event he enters. All involved with The Greenbrier Classic look forward to hosting Tiger on The Old White TPC Course as one of the professionals in this year’s field at America’s resort on America’s birthday.”

The Greenbrier Classic will be held July 2-8 at the Old White TPC Course at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. Scott Stallings is the defending champion.

Talk about a quick rise to success.

Carly Booth’s professional career, which she began as a 17-year-old, slogged along for two years without much progress. It looked for a while as if she might be a case of trying to take on too much too soon.

But suddenly, Booth looks like one of the most promising young golfers in the world again.

In mid-April, Booth earned her first professional victory, winning the Dinard Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour Access Series, the equivalent of the LPGA’s Futures Tour. It took a playoff for her to gain the victory and her paycheck of about 3,500 Euros (about $4,400 U.S.).

A nice way to finally fulfill some of her seemingly boundless promise. Little did she know that an even bigger breakthrough was just weeks away.

Last week, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, Booth won on the “big” tour in Europe, taking the Ladies Scottish Open in her homeland. She beat previous LET winners Florentyna Parker and Frances Bondad by a stroke.

She took home $42,000 U.S.

More importantly, she now has an exemption to the LET through the end of 2014. Playing on tougher courses and against the best competition the tour has to offer will only serve to make her better.

She also can relax having the weigh of the wait off her shoulders. No longer will there be questions if she can live up to her potential. She’s done it. The rest is just details.

RICKY AND RORY

Some day in the not-too distant future, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will ride off into the proverbial sunset. Everyone will be looking for the next great golf rivalry.

They may have it in Rory McIlroy and Ricky Fowler.

The two were involved in a three-man playoff last week at the Wells Fargo Championship, with Fowler coming away with his first PGA Tour victory. (He got his first pro victory last year on the One Asia Tour).

McIlroy has already established himself as one of the world’s top players with a major title to his credit. Now that Fowler has a PGA Tour win, he’s inching his way up to elite status.

They’re young, good looking, talented and charismatic.

Think golf will be dead after Tiger and Phil? Think again.

PICKING THE PLAYERS

The PGA Tour returns to one of the most recognizable courses in the world, TPC Sawgrass, for The Players Championship. K.J. Choi outlasted David Toms a year ago to win the most significant title of his career.

Who will win this year? 7CsGOLF.com is picking Carl Pettersson. He’s been one of the best players on the PGA Tour this year, but he’s also been one of the most overlooked.

He quietly has a victory and two runner-up finishes while making eight of 11 cuts.

He hasn’t had a great amount of success at The Players, but he did finish T8 there in 2006.

MINORITY COLLEGEATE EVENT

Beginning Friday, the PGA of America will stage the 26th Minority Collegiate Golf Championship.

Bethune-Cookman is the reigning men’s Division I champion, and Virginia State won the Division II title in 2011. Texas-Pan American is the defending women’s champ.

You can follow the event on Twitter at #2012MinorityChamp.

ATLANTIC CITY BOUND

7CsGOLF.com will be traveling to Atlantic City, N.J., for the ShopRite LPGA Classic, which runs from June 1-3. Brittany Lincicome is the defending champion.

The ShopRite LPGA Classic will be the first stop for 7CsGOLF.com this year. After that will be The Travelers Championship, followed by the Greenbrier Classic, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational, Bridgestone Invitational and Nationwide Tour Mylan Classic.

– Chuck Curti

Q: Even though the first win was a major, was the second one just as sweet?

A: Absolutely. Every one is just as sweet. And just to back up that major win to kind of show that it wasn’t a fluke and that I can compete out here week in and week out.

Q: Did you feel an urge to get that second win just to prove you’re not a one-hit wonder?

A: As soon as you win, your expectations just instantly go up. I put more pressure on myself, and I know that kind of hurt me at times last year. But I definitely wanted to get that one-tour-win title off my back.

Q: Do you think you’ll be able to relax even a little more now?

A: Absolutely. Mostly with the way I won on Sunday … I didn’t play anywhere close to my best and was able to grind out a win. To know that you don’t have to hit every single shot perfect and make every single putt to win a golf tournament was pretty comforting.

Q: Were you watching the scoreboard? Did you know that Lexi Thompson was making a run at the lead?

A: I was actually watching the scoreboard all day. We didn’t have scoreboards on every single hole, so you kind of went a while and didn’t know what was going on. I knew once I got to 17 green … I hit my shot on the green and there was a scoreboard up there and I saw that she was done and I still had the one-shot lead. So I knew from there: fairway, green, two putts and I’m done.

Q: Did you feel pretty good about your game coming into the week? Did you feel like you could have a good week?

A: I didn’t play well in Hawaii. I missed the cut, and mentally I just wasn’t there. I really had to get back and get refocused. I had my instructor come in on Monday and Tuesday and we worked on a few things. Every day I got more comfortable and more comfortable. All year I’ve been close to having some really good rounds but just haven’t quite put them together, and I finally did that this week.

Q: Was there one specific thing that you worked on or was it just a lot of little things?

A: We worked a lot on my putting with alignment. We saw some things in my shoulders and where the putter was going. Mainly just worked on alignment with the putter and the long game. I was hitting the ball solid; it just wasn’t quite going where I wanted it to go.

Q: Do you still feel like you have a great tournament ahead of you this year, like you still haven’t put four great rounds together?

A: Absolutely. Sunday was far from perfect. If I would have played well on Sunday … I had like a four or five shot lead at the turn. I could have really done some damage on the back nine but couldn’t quite hold it together. But I feel like I’ve got even better golf in me.

Q: So what’s your goal for the rest of the year?

A: The whole point of having my instructor come out (last) week was really just to try and get some work in with my game in competition, more just leading up to the next couple months where we have a couple majors pretty close together. The summertime for us, with the way our schedule is, is when you want to be playing your best. It’s all to be playing my best in the middle of June basically.

The year was 2007, and I was covering the U.S. Open at Oakmont for the newspaper where I am still employed. One of my assignments for the week was to, on a daily basis, do a brief profile on a relatively unknown player.

There was Jason Kokrak, who has since played his way onto the PGA Tour via the Nationwide Tour. The hook for Kokrak, a golfer at Xavier University at the time, was that he had played at Oakmont four years earlier in the U.S. Amateur.

There was Johnson Wagner. Though this was years before he became a multiple winner on the PGA Tour, he was interesting because he was a Virginia Tech graduate, and we weren’t too far removed from the tragic shootings on the Blacksburg campus at the time.

There was young Pablo Martin. The Spaniard had just turned professional, and that U.S. Open was his first made cut both as a pro and in a major.

Then there was Jason Dufner. He was the final “unknown” profile of the week.

I don’t remember exactly why I chose him – other than the fact that he was far from being a household name in 2007. Plus, the ’07 Open was his first made cut after missing five straight, and maybe a cut in a major would give him confidence to get his game back on track.

He seemed surprised – if not bemused – that a reporter would want to speak with him. But, he politely engaged in a brief chat.

Dufner has since become a household name. Until Sunday, however, his notoriety was the result of blowing a late lead in the 2011 PGA Championship and eventually losing to Keegan Bradley.

Now, after years of struggling and near-misses, Dufner finally has his first PGA Tour victory. He defeated two-time major winner Ernie Els in a playoff to win the Zurich Classic.

Amazingly, watching him being interviewed by CBS immediately following the win, his demeanor was exactly the same as it was when we spoke five years ago.

Maybe that’s just him. Maybe he’s that low-key all the time. Maybe that’s why he’s been able to persevere for so long.

It will be interesting to see what this win does for Dufner down the road.

NO. 2 FOR LEWIS

Stacy Lewis no longer has to worry about being a one-hit wonder. After getting her first LPGA Tour victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship last year, Lewis added her second victory at the Mobile Bay Classic Sunday.

She held off a valiant charge from Lexi Thompson to win by a stroke.

At 27, Lewis is just now reaching the prime of her career. Chances are she’s going to win a few more tournaments before she’s done.

NO. 2 FOR CHOE

Esther Choe is just 22 years old – she’ll be 23 in August – but she’s already in her sixth season on the Symetra (Futures) Tour. In the 44 events she had played coming into this season, Choe had never won a tournament and never earned her LPGA Tour card.

In just two events so far in 2012, Choe has taken care of both omissions on her resume.

Her six-shot win Sunday in Mexico gave her a second straight Symetra Tour title. The better news for Choe is this: Five other women won back-to-back events on the Futures Tour, and all five earned their LPGA Tour cards for the following season.

PULLING FOR PAUL

You don’t necessarily have to win to earn your card for the “big tour.” All you need to do is make enough money.

To that end, veteran Paul Claxton is well on his way to making it back to the PGA Tour one more time.

Seven events into the Nationwide Tour season, Claxton ranks seventh on the money list with nearly $110,000 earned – and that’s without a win (yet). If history is any indicator, that means Claxton is at least halfway to earning his PGA Tour card for 2013.

Last year, 10 non-winners cracked “The 25” and earned their way onto the PGA Tour. In 2010, seven non-winners earned their PGA Tour cards.

If you know anything about Claxton, he’s an easy guy to cheer. He’s friendly, humble and as down-to-earth as they come.

At 44 years old, he’s easily one of the oldest players on the Nationwide Tour. He also has the distinction of being the first player to earn $1 million for his career on the Nationwide Tour.

Having that piece of history is nice, but it’s kind of like having your number retired by a minor-league baseball team: It’s more representative of what you haven’t been able to accomplish, and that’s stick with the big leagues.

Claxton turned pro in 1993 and has played just four seasons on the PGA Tour since. Each time, he failed to retain his card for the following year. In an interview with 7CsGOLF.com in September 2010, Claxton expressed his desire to get one more shot at the PGA Tour.

Here’s hoping he gets it.

– Chuck Curti

Xavier University photo

Ariel McNair has a lot of fond memories from her first trip to the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship.

She remembers the beautiful course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. She remembers seeing many old friends from her junior golf days and being seen on the Golf Channel.

She’s also able to look back on some pretty good golf. She shot 74-74 over the final two days, which enabled her leapfrog a number of players and into a tied-for-third finish.

That gives the Xavier University sophomore the distinction of being the top returning female from the individual competition – the event is divided into team and individual categories — when the tournament reconvenes May 11 for its 26th installment.

Plenty of good memories. But McNair also remembers shooting an 84 on the first day.

“I remember that I missed a lot of putts, too,” she said via phone from Cincinnati. “So it should have been even better.”

McNair is determined to make it better this time around. She’s particularly driven following a disappointing spring campaign at Xaiver.

Despite shaving two-and-a-half strokes off her scoring average from her freshman year – posted an average of 79.2 over 20 rounds this year – she didn’t qualify for the Musketeers’ lineup in every event this spring as she had in the fall. That includes the recently concluded Colonial Athletic Association conference tournament.

“It’s given me more time to focus on the Minority Golf Championship and think about how I’m going to play my way around the course and think about different strategies and just get my swing back together,” she said. “I really have high expectations for myself.

“I am excited to go down this year and kind of get back to the course and see if I can win this tournament because I really think I could.”

That may come across as a bold prediction, particularly in a sport as mercurial as golf. One thing McNair has never lacked as a golfer, however, is confidence in her own abilities.

She began playing at age 9 shortly after her family moved to the Cleveland suburb of Aurora, Ohio. There, she got involved with the Greater Cleveland Junior Golf Scholarship Fund, which provides youngsters the opportunity to learn and play golf.

By the time she reached middle school, she was playing in junior tournaments as well as playing on her middle school’s club team, of which she was the only female member.

“I think it did,” she said when asked if playing against boys fueled her competitive nature. “I always wanted to be hitting the ball as far as they were and beating them.”

When she became a freshman at Aurora High School, her talent was without question. And though her first practices with the varsity made it clear that she was the best player on the team, her coach was hesitant to start a freshman at the No. 1 spot.

Undaunted, McNair proceeded to post the lowest score of anyone in her first match and played in the top spot from that day forward. She led Aurora to the first – and still only – conference championship for girls golf and was voted the conference MVP.

McNair decided that if she wanted to grow as a student and a golfer, she would need a more competitive environment. (She also started as a freshman on Aurora’s varsity basketball team.) Her family decided to enroll her in Walsh Jesuit High School, which had one of the more well-respected girls golf programs in Ohio.

Though she didn’t play in the team’s No. 1 spot – she played No. 4 most of the season – she helped Walsh to a state championship as a sophomore. She also was named to the all-conference team.

“That was another one of those times that I realized that I wanted to be the best,” she said. “Standing up on the podium in front of everybody after we just won a title was kind of surreal.”

The following year, Walsh was the state runner-up. But success isn’t always the best teacher. Being on top doesn’t always afford opportunity for growth.

Some of McNair’s most important lessons were learned as a senior at Walsh Jesuit. The teammates who had helped bring the school state gold and silver medals had all graduated, leaving the senior McNair to shepherd a group of inexperienced youngsters the following season.

“It definitely gave me a new perspective on things,” she said. “They (new players) didn’t understand how you’re supposed to practice, how long you need to practice, what you need to be doing when you’re a practice. They didn’t know how to manage their way around the golf course.”

Walsh was not being touted as a state-tournament contender. But under McNair’s guidance – and thanks to one of her teammates having what McNair called “the round of her life” in the district tournament – Walsh made it back to states. McNair earned all-conference and all-district honors.

Now, after being a mentor for those youngsters at Walsh, McNair is being mentored in the rigors of golf at the Division I college level. The competition is tougher. The courses are more challenging. The practice and playing schedules are more demanding.

And it all needs to be balanced with a full course load.

“The other thing that people don’t realize about it is we are student athletes,” said McNair, a mathematics major. “We do take these awesome trips and play these beautiful courses, but it is a job.

“Golf wise, it’s so much more competitive. Most people come out of high school into Division I college and were the best, always No. 1, getting all the credit. It’s just kind of a culture shock because everyone (on the team) was that, and you have to evaluate how hard you have to work here so you can be that here, too.

“And I think it’s difficult for some people to go from being No. 1 in high school to having work 10 times as hard to even get noticed in college.”

McNair hopes she will get noticed at the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship in a couple weeks. Like last year, she’ll have her father, Darrell, serving as her coach, and she’ll have the added benefit of knowing what to expect from the environment and the course.

As far as her future is concerned, McNair isn’t sure that competitive golf will be a part of it. But it’s a prospect that she hasn’t ruled out either.

“I’ve thought about it (playing professionally) a little bit, but as of right now, I’ve been more focused on my education,” she said. “Not to say that I don’t think I could play at the next level. One of my teammates from last year (Rachel Levi) has made it on the Futures Tour, and I really think that if it’s something that I wanted to do, I could do.

“But at this point, it’s not something that’s in the forefront of my mind. If I start playing more consistently in the future, it’s still an option.”

– Chuck Curti

Sunshine Tour photo

For every Zimbabwean, winning the country’s national open is a dream. But it might mean more to Phillip Tshuma than any of his compatriots.

Tshuma’s was not the typical journey into professional golf. He was no child prodigy like Tiger Woods. He didn’t cut his teeth on the junior circuits like so many future pros. His first introduction to the game was as a waiter at the Hwange Golf Club.

So when the 37-year-old Tshuma stands on the first tee at Royal Harare on Thursday, he’ll be looking to complete the kind of rags-to-riches story that makes a Hollywood movie.

“The time is now,” Tshuma told 7CsGOLF.com through Sunshine Tour media officer Michael Taylor. “I’m hitting the ball very well.”

This is the third installment of the Zimbabwe Open since its return from an eight-year hiatus (2002-09). Strangely, that is the period of time when Tshuma was embarking on his career as a professional.

During his off hours from his job at Hwange, Tshuma would find himself picking up clubs to try his hand at golf. He gradually began to develop a knack for the game, and by the time he recorded his first official handicap at age 17, it was a nine.

Then, in 1997, he won the Zimbabwe PGA’s Hwange Open Championship as a 23-year-old amateur.

“When I won it, I said, ‘Let’s go play golf,’” said Tshuma.

Bear in mind that this was a young man who had never taken a formal lesson. Whatever he learned came from books, magazines or what he saw on television.

Unlike newly crowned Masters champion Bubba Watson, however, Tshuma eventually got stalled by his homemade game. He turned pro in 2002 and played sporadically on the Sunshine Tour for the next six years.

It was during that stretch that he realized he needed to get some formal training if he wanted to get out of his rut.

But while his own game was at a stand-still, Tshuma got moving on another passion: introducing the game to young players. Recently, with the help of Hwange Golf Club and Colliery Co. Limited, a mining company in Zimbabwe, Tshuma started a golf school.

The first component was a driving range. He has a design for a tee box as well as bunkers and a chipping green, but he’s still waiting on the funding to see the project through to its completion.

“Hopefully someone will come through and support that program and support that cause,” said Tshuma, who recently became a father. “As much as I am a parent now, the touch of the game has been there to try and support fellow golfers and these juniors.”

Ultimately, Tshuma would like to see the program produce players who could earn a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games. And, of course, he’d like to see more professionals from Zimbabwe make it to the bigger tours like Nick Price and Mark McNulty did.

Tshuma hasn’t necessarily given up on that dream for himself either. Though he hasn’t played regularly on the Sunshine Tour since 2007, a good result at the Zim Open would be a step in the right direction.

When the tournament returned in 2010, Tshuma made the cut and finished T39 at 2-under par. He missed the cut last year, but he’s feeling much better about his game and his chances this time around.

“I found the course to be in one of the most beautiful states I’ve seen,” he said. “If I put the ball in play … come the weekend, you never know what could happen. A good result for me would mean everything.

“I have this self-belief that my golf is good enough to play anywhere. Hopefully this is my time. I’m just hoping that the breakthrough season is now.”

– Chuck Curti

Watson has all the attributes. He’s a ridiculously long hitter. He’s self-taught, making it easy for the “rest of us” to identify with his swing that doesn’t come straight from the Leadbetter textbook. That homemade swing also makes him unpredictable.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, and he speaks his mind. He’s a family man. He’s macho enough to be comfortable using a pink driver and sensitive enough to break down crying after every victory.

He’s a good ol’ boy who tore up the old boys’ club.

This is a guy who earned his first PGA Tour victory less than two years ago at The Travelers Championship. Now, suddenly, he’s a major champion. He’s etched his name alongside some of the most revered in golf history.

At just 33 years old, Watson has plenty of time to earn more PGA Tour wins and more majors.

Whether his big-hitting, free-wheeling style will be effective enough to win more majors remains to be seen. But his win Sunday guaranteed him a lot more fan support along the way.

LOUIS, LOUIS: Louis Oosthuizen might have missed out on his second major championship, but he proved that his win at St. Andrews in 2010 was no fluke.

He was rock steady all week at Augusta. The only difference was Watson’s ability to overcome a stray drive on the second playoff hole and Oosthuizen’s inability to do the same.

Still, he earned his place in Augusta lore with his Albatross on the second hole Sunday. And he earned the respect of the golfing world – if he didn’t have it already.

TIGER’S TANTRUM: Now, Tiger Woods is really back.

After his throwing and subsequent kicking of a club during Friday’s second round, Woods was back to his old self. Everyone in the golf world hailed Woods’ return two weeks ago when he won for the first time in more than two years. But it was his boorish behavior bubbling back to the surface that truly signaled the arrival of the old Tiger.

This is the type of outburst that golf fans overlooked for years because they were content to simply hitch their wagons to a winner. We’ll see if he gets a free pass this time.

STILL NO MAJOR: Lee Westwood continues to add to his legacy as a modern-day Colin Montgomerie. Can’t win the big one.

MUST-SEE TV: So the battle between Woods and Rory McIlroy never materialized. So Phil Mickelson torpedoed his own chances with a triple bogey on the par-3 fourth Sunday.

Even though the game’s biggest attractions were relegated to afterthoughts, the final round of the Masters was as entertaining as any.

Even if the golf was less-than-scintillating for much of Sunday – Oosthuizen’s albatross aside – it kept viewers riveted to their TVs waiting for something to happen. It finally did.

Matt Kuchar made a move. Watson made his move. Westwood got into the clubhouse with the lead at a number to which those remaining on the course could easily have dropped. Oosthuizen kept making clutch putts to stay in the lead.

Even Phil made enough shots to make himself relevant late in the day.

The Watson-Oosthuizen battle was one for the ages, even if their names might not be. Their trade of punches took the attention from the uneven play of Mickelson and playing partner Peter Hanson in the lead group.

And Watson’s shot from the trees on the second playoff hole will go down in Masters history with Larry Mize’s chip-in in 1987, Woods’ hole out on the 16th in 2005, Mickelson’s shot from the trees on No. 13 in 2010.

If you turned off the Masters because there was no Tiger, no Rory and had given up on Lefty, shame on you.

– Chuck Curti

Electrifying Saturday at Augusta!

With the second round leaders dropping off the leaderboard, the field is wide open at the halfway mark. Only until later in the sunny afternoon when I was watching it from “The Nest” where the TV/Press Tower located between the ninth and 18th green the Augusta Roar started.

Phil’s 30 on the back-9 fires up the crowd. Check this out: 77 putts / 54 holes (rank No. 1), Total Par 5 score of -8, hole Nos. 12-18 of the three rounds = -11.

As for Hanson: 79 putts / 54holes (rank No. 2), 23 putts for round 3, Round 3 FIR 13/14, Total 18 birdies Hanson is in for a rollercoaster final round with Phil. First time being in the lead at a major=sleepess night! Plus Augusta is Phil’s playground.

Looks like the stage is set for another epic Masters finished.

Find our more about Lip Ooi at www.lipgolf.com.

Long and exciting day for Round 1 at the Masters 2012! I started waiting at the first tee at 7 a.m. to get a good spot just to catch The Three Kings (Palmer, Nicklaus and Player) officiating the event. This is the first time Gary Player joined in as Honorary Starter…great feeling and goose bumps …being part of golfing history!

Amazingly, Gary Player rips his drive pass Palmer and Nicklaus about 30-40 yards. He’s still got the firepower in him!

All three star players Phil, Rory and Tiger had a poor start and fought their way back to stay in contention. Phil lost his feel on his approaches (may due to change of iron shafts just two weeks ago after playing do well) and that puts too much pressure on his putts.

Poor Rory had to fight his demons and that shows on first tee and 10th tee was pretty obvious that he doesn’t want to get anywhere close to the Cabins. So he took out his 3-wood and blocks it 50 yards! A gutsy -1 is a great score to start with.

Looks like Tiger had his swing fix by Foley at the range after his Round 1 bloopers!! Be interesting to see if it works on the course this time. His first tee shot will dictates how he is going to swing on round two. Be lots of pressure on him again at the first tee as he desperately needs a good start. Not surprise if he uses his fairway metal on the first tee. Tiger got mix up under pressure with his old and new swing…a combination of Harmon, Haney and Foley=ugly!!

But all three players had something in common, they learn from their mistakes, face it, fix it, take the positive out of the round and fight all the way to stay and get back in contention…that’s what great athletes do!!