Golf News

Adam Scott now has a four shot lead over Rory McIlroy heading into the final round of the Australian Open.  Here’s the third round report from the official website . For one more day, they will duel it out. Adam Scott and Jason Day started out at 1 and 2 in the Emirates Australian Open and nothing changed through a full day's golf at Royal Sydney. There was no knockout punch; merely some shadow boxing by two of the best players in the world. They will wait until tomorrow to settle their little tete-a-tete, and Scott is a day away from either winning the triple crown of tournaments that he covets, or falling just short. It is bound to be a long day for him with the world No. 6 McIlroy in such close proximity. The others appear to be too far back to cause any upsets. South Australia's Max McCardle, New South Welshman Matthew Jones and Victoria's Richard Green are next-best at eight-under, a distant eight shots back from Scott's 16-under. The Australian will start tom...

It’s hard to believe that four years have passed since the Tiger Woods sex scandal and while they say time is a great healer, reading back in Maureen Callahan’s brilliant blow by blow account of the night Tiger was finally caught in the New York Post by then wife Elin Nordergren, you cant help but still be shocked at what Tiger got up to.  It kicked off with a 30 minute conversation between Nordegren and Rachel Uchitel. The night escalated when Tiger left down his phone and Nordegren went through the call history finding the name Jaimee Grubbs.  She rang the number, it went to voicemail “You know who this is,” Nordegren said, “because you are f- -king my husband.” Uchitel then hired Gloria Allred as her PR rep and scheduled a press conference which Callahan says was cancelled amid reports that Woods had paid her $10 million to keep quiet.  The problems didn’t go away for Tiger though, because he didn’t pay off the others. Had he only been more ge...

With Thanksgiving upon us, each Yahoo Sports blog is taking stock of what they're thankful for while also providing menu suggestions and a sport-specific viewing guide for when you hit your couch. Share what you're thankful for on Twitter with the #YSBThanks hashtag or in the comments below. Have a safe and happy holiday! Shane Bacon, Devil Ball editor That the Masters is just 134 days away : No matter what golf fans say, there is one week each year that we circle with a really, really big green marker and sit in anticipation as the days count down to Augusta National. Considering it's the most popular golf course in the world hosting the first major championship of the year, it's no surprise it happens to be the most cherished. No offense to the high rough of the U.S. Open or the beautiful history that surrounds the British or the finale that is the PGA Championship, but the Masters is the best week of the year in the golf world and counting days until it beg...

Welcome to Devil Ball's Proving Ground, where we put the latest golf gear through its paces. Today we look at the Ping S55 irons. Tester â€" Shane Bacon â€" Handicap: +2.0 Target Golf Audience â€" +4 handicap - 15 handicap Initial thoughts One of the best parts about living in Phoenix as a golfer, and golf writer, besides the year-round golf season and immaculate golf courses is the fact that Ping is headquartered in the desert. When new clubs come out, I have the ability to go check them out before they get released to the public and have a chance to work with the clubs and see how they perform to get a better understanding of what the new equipment is all about. These new Ping S55 irons might be my favorite things I've seen the company roll out since we started working with them. The initial thought was simple; Ping made a iron that is slightly more compact than the very successful S56 model and is as close to a blade-look the company has ever made....

With 90% of all golfers in the double digit handicap range, it’s no surprise that the “game improvement” sector is the most fiercely contested category amongst golf manufacturers. Thanks to my club testing work with Golfbidder and the fact that I have absolutely no allegiance to any brand or model, I think I’m in a pretty good place to give you an unbiased countdown of what I consider the best game improvement irons of 2014. All views and opinions are my own and I’ve tried to keep the crap to a minimum. So lets count down from ten to one. 10. Adams: Idea Hybrid Iron Guide Price: £499, €595 While Adams irons don’t always look the part, they do one thing very well, “forgiveness”. Yes they look chunky and awkward, but for a novice golfer to enjoy the feeling of getting the ball high up in the air and out in the general direction of the target, the Idea Hybrid irons cannot be matched. You can forget about shaping, or punching or turning shots with these clubs however...

Tiger Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, is hinting at possible legal action after a Golf.com analyst questioned Tiger's ethics on the golf course after a questionable drop at the Masters earlier this year. During the second round of the 2013 Masters, Tiger faced a shot at Augusta National's famous 15th hole that looked like for a second it might go in for an eagle. Instead, the shot ended up the story of the year , with Woods ball bouncing off a flagstick and bringing with it a rules situation the likes of which we've never seen at a major championship (Sorry Dustin Johnson but your situation at Whistling Straits can't compare to something involving Tiger Woods). Woods was assessed a two-shot penalty that day after his round was completed for taking an illegal drop and the golf world turned upside down on the idea that Woods may or may not have tried to gain an advantage during the biggest tournament of the season. The year ended up a good one for Woods, with th...

Alfred Dunhill Championship, Leopard Creek CC, Malelane, South Africa Charl Schwartzel 4/1 THE man around these parts. Won by an incredible 12 shots in the 2013 season staging in what was for me one of the most dominant performances I’ve ever seen. That was Schwartzel’s second win at Leopard Creek where he also has had four second places. Tied fourth last week at the South African after a triple and double bogey in the final round but I don’t see that happening here. Richard Sterne 14/1 Irresistible on his day but has had his career interrupted by injury on a number of occasions. Sterne didn’t play last week but impressed me greatly at the DP World Championship where he was fourth in the greens in regulation stats on his way to a tied 14 th finish. His tournament record includes three top 10 finishes since winning here in 2009. Garth Mulroy 32/1 Another former winner of the Dunhill Championship and a rock steady performer in South Africa. Tied third behind Schwartzel in th...

New England native Keegan Bradley may not have had a wonderful opening to his WGC HSBC in China but he’s sure to celebrating after his round.  Bradley is a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox and yesterday his team completed one of the most amazing turnarounds in baseball history to win the World Series.  From being the worst team in the league, the Red Sox offloaded expensive beef, bought up several free agents Moneyball style and haven’t looked back since. "My girlfriend, Jillian, is a big Red Sox fan too and she was giving me updates as best she could," Bradley said. "It's tough that we don't get to watch the World Series. I know that they replay it later today, but it's more fun knowing what's going on." The story from Reuters The Boston Red Sox completed a rousing run from a last-place finish to top of the baseball universe by routing the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 on Wednesday to win the World Series. The emphatic victory gave the Red Sox a 4-2 ...

On the four year anniversary of the Tiger Woods sex scandal Maureen Callahan writes a really interesting  article in the New York Post giving a blow by blow account of what happened the night Tiger was caught. Sources close to Nordegren later told The Daily Beast that on Nov. 24, one day before the Enquirer hit stands, Woods put his wife on the phone with (Rachel) Uchitel, who insisted there was no truth to the imminent story. Nordegren and Uchitel spoke for 30 minutes. Woods was satisfied; Nordegren was not. That afternoon, Woods left his cellphone unattended, and Nordegren scrolled through his call history. She found another name, Jaimee Grubbs, and called her. Nordegren got voice mail. She left a message. “You know who this is,” Nordegren said, “because you are f- -king my husband.” Nordegren didn’t tell Woods, and when he retrieved his phone, he, too, called Grubbs. His call also went to voice mail. “Hey, it’s, uh . . . it’s Tiger,” he said. “C...

Early Sunday morning on the East Coast, the idea of a professional golf tournament being played live in Australia wasn't the top thing on most people's minds. This time of year is reserved for football and Thanksgiving and figuring out your travel plans for the week, not for something called the World Cup of Golf that was being played in a place that is warm and sunny and wonderful. But Sunday marked a pretty special moment for all of sports, as Jason Day picked up his first professional win since 2010 thanks to some gritty play down the stretch at the wonderful Royal Melbourne, capped off by a ridiculously clutch second shot into the tough 18th to set up a two-putt par and both the individual title and the team title for Australia alongside Adam Scott. The win isn't supposed to be a blip on your radar. Golf fans went into hibernation weeks ago, putting their clubs in the closet for jackets and mittens and snow shovels. But Day's win is significant simply because ...

What Tiger Woods wants Tiger Woods gets. Isn’t it a bit ironic that the USGA are bringing changes to the way viewers can report rules violations in the same year Woods was involved in three incidents?  Here finally might just be the upshot of that raised voices hour Woods spent with officials after he was assessed a two shot penalty for moving his ball while trying to remove loose impediments at the BMW Championship. The USGA and the R&A will today jointly announce new guidelines on how video can be used to report potential cheating. The the new "Decision" in the Rules of Golf will say where there is a video showing a moving ball, the ball will not have been deemed to have moved if the movement was not "discernible" to the "naked eye." PGA chief Tim Finchem is not a fan of viewers calling in penalties and described the situation "difficult and awkward."  Yes watching the players you rely on to make a living being caught red handed cheat...

As a professional golfer, you always dream of that day that money isn't something you're worried about. Years ago I took on the mini tour golf scene for a summer and the stress that comes with always worrying about money can sure make those four-footers for par a lot tougher to bury. After the year that Henrik Stenson had, money will never be a bother to the 37-year-old Swede who became the first player ever to win the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai in the same season. How good was his year? His caddie, Gareth Lord, pocketed so much cash that he's treating himself to a Ferrari. When your caddie is buying high end cars, you know you've done pretty well for yourself. Via the Daily Mail ... "His caddie Gareth Lord from Coventry has collected so many bonuses he has treated himself to a Ferrari. He's a vital member of Team Stenson, alongside the wise Yorkshire coach, Pete Cowen, who reckons Stenson is only 75 percent towards the player he can be. ‘It wi...

There are a hell of a lot of bullshitters in the golf game who you should never listen to, but Ewan Murray is an exception.  And he says the oscillation-gate rule change made yesterday, has nothing to do with Tiger Woods.   To recap, the R&A and USGA have now determined: "New Decision 18/4 provides that, where enhanced technological evidence (eg HDTV, digital recording or online visual media, etc.) shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time." In his Guardian column Murray says Privately, the R&A points out this change has been in the offing for 18 months and was set in stone before the Woods controversy. Golf's rulemakers are also not of a mind to halt the ability of television viewers to report possible breaches, as this has proved a help at times. Regarding the Woods case, David Rickman, the R&A'...

Here it is, written in stone: Decision 18/4 The Tiger Protection Rule New Decision 18/4 provides that, where enhanced technological evidence (e.g. HDTV, digital recording or online visual media, etc.) shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time. Here’s a summary to the joint R&A and USGA Rules Change Statement The R&A and the USGA announce changes to "Decisions on The Rules of Golf" As part of a continuing commitment to provide greater clarity to the Rules of Golf, The R&A and the United States Golf Association (USGA), golf’s governing bodies, today announced revisions to the 2012-2013 edition of “Decisions on the Rules of Golf.” The changes, part of a customary two-year Decisions review cycle, become effective on January 1, 2014. “Decisions on the Rules of Golf, 2014-2015” contains more than 1,200...

Related: Also check out my World Cup Of Golf betting tips here Ross Fisher 14/1 His chances at the Tour Championship effectively ended on Thursday with a poor opener, but still with five top 10’s in his last eight starts, Fisher will be one of the big fish this week at Glendower.  I firmly believe if Ross can get his win; he can make a Stenson like return to the big table of golf. Darren Fichardt 33/1 With Charl unbackable at 4/1 I’ve had to look elsewhere for value.  Darren is one of my favourite South African players, especially on home soil.  Won the 2013 Africa Open in February and nearly repeated the feat at the Tshwane Open the following week.  A good top 10 in Munich was the highlight of his year in Europe and impressed with rounds of 64 and 65 in his T15 in Turkey. Darren has finished par or better in each of his six events since being DQ’d in Switzerland and at home will surely again be a danger man. Alejandro Canizares 33/1 When he shot 73 on Sunday...

Related: Also check out my World Cup Of Golf betting tips here Ross Fisher 14/1 His chances at the Tour Championship effectively ended on Thursday with a poor opener, but still with five top 10’s in his last eight starts, Fisher will be one of the big fish this week at Glendower.  I firmly believe if Ross can get his win; he can make a Stenson like return to the big table of golf. Darren Fichardt 33/1 With Charl unbackable at 4/1 I’ve had to look elsewhere for value.  Darren is one of my favourite South African players, especially on home soil.  Won the 2013 Africa Open in February and nearly repeated the feat at the Tshwane Open the following week.  A good top 10 in Munich was the highlight of his year in Europe and impressed with rounds of 64 and 65 in his T15 in Turkey. Darren has finished par or better in each of his six events since being DQ’d in Switzerland and at home will surely again be a danger man. Alejandro Canizares 33/1 When he shot 73 on S...