Lundberg takes lead midway through Czech Open

CELADNA, Czech Republic (AP) — Sweden's Mikael Lundberg completed a 4-under 68 on Saturday in the Czech Open to take a one-stroke lead after the rain-delayed second round. Lundberg birdied the final hole to reach 8 under at Prosper Golf Resort. Spain's Jose Manuel Lara was second. He shot a 68 on Friday. Englishmen Oliver Fisher and Gary Boyd and Ireland's Damien McGrane were 6 under.

Gainey takes 3-shot lead at Wyndham Championship

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — For all that Tommy Gainey says has gone wrong in the Wyndham Championship, he must be doing something right. His tee shots have been rocky, his irons have given him trouble, he's fighting a nagging wrist injury - and the South Carolina player called Tommy Two Gloves has one of the best two-round scores in the history of the tournament. Gainey shot a 5-under 65 on Friday to reach 12-under 128 and take a three-stroke lead in the final event before the start of the PGA Tour's postseason. He shared the first-round lead with Jeff Quinney, then had six birdies in polishing off the second-best 36-hole score in tournament history. Ernie Els (66), Webb Simpson (65), Stuart Appleby (67) and Daniel Summerhays (65) were 9 under, and Jim Furyk (67), Alexandre Rocha (66), Paul Casey (67) and Retief Goosen (65) were another stroke back. After making five birdies and an eagle a day earlier to match his career best with a 63, Gainey said he was "going to light it up" against the fresh greens he would face Friday morning. It didn't happen quite like that, but he did turn in another solid round that kept him in contention for his first PGA Tour victory. Starting on the back nine, Gainey had his first bogey of the tournament on the par-4 11th. Then, he warmed up. He birdied four of his final nine holes and closed his round with consecutive birdies, rolling in a 13-foot putt on No. 9 to finish. A sprained left wrist he sustained hitting out of the rough last month in the Canadian Open has made it tougher to keep his tee shots in the fairways and hampered his work with the irons. "It's just hard to make birdies when you keep putting yourself ... in the rough," Gainey said. "It's not high, but it's thick. Just settles straight down, and you've just got to go after it, and the harder you swing at it to get it out, just the more shock that goes into the wrist." Still, only Carl Pettersson, at 125 in 2008, has been better than Gainey through 36 holes at Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield Country Club. "I haven't really accomplished anything in two days," Gainey said. "The only thing I've accomplished is, I've set myself up in good shape going into the weekend. But, still, there's a lot that can happen in one day ... but two days, that's like an eternity in a golf tournament. I'm trying to do the same thing I did these first two days tomorrow." Will MacKenzie began the day four strokes off the pace, but moved up the leaderboard with eagles on both of the course's par-5 holes, Nos. 5 and 15, during his 65. The one-time prodigy from Greenville, N.C., is trying to reclaim his PGA Tour card after losing it last year, and the Wyndham represents one of his last chances to do that. "For me to get my tour card back some possible way, through (the) Nationwide Tour or just have a freak week, obviously I'm going to have to have a humongous week," MacKenzie said. "I can't be that top 25 guy and string it together. I've only got here and maybe another event, if I'm lucky, so I'm going to have to win or come in second." Quinney, who has conditional status on the tour, is facing a similarly desperate situation, playing for both his card and a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He arrived at No. 215 in the standings and needed a high finish to crack the top 125 and make the playoffs, but he slipped off the pace after his triple bogey on the par-4 11th. Numerous others are playing for their more immediate futures. The field is littered with players trying to play their way off the bubble and into golf's postseason, which begins next week at The Barclays in New Jersey. Among those who made it to the weekend: Padraig Harrington, No. 130 on the points list, birdied two of the final four holes for a 68 to make the cut of 3 under. No. 121 Heath Slocum and No. 125 Camilo Villegas shot 64s, with Slocum's round highlighted by streaks of three and four birdies. "Look at the order of names, everybody around me seems to be in the same position with me," Harrington said. "Obviously, I'm going to (need to) have a good weekend in order to get through." Els, at No. 126, charged up the leaderboard with three birdies in a late five-hole span. "I've got quite a large goal for me this week, and you know, I'm feeling like, fine, my game is turning around a little bit," Els said. And while Derek Lamely didn't make the cut and won't make the playoffs, the 31-year-old is leaving Sedgefield with quite the parting gift: a lifetime of vacations at Wyndham properties for his hole-in-one on the 165-yard 16th. Tweet

A college degree may up your starting salary, but it won't take strokes off your score

The current thinking in America suggests that acquiring a college education is critical to success, but the truth is that the young superstars of golf are coming from everywhere in the world except the United States college golf programs. There are two major problems with college golf: The NCAA restricts how much golf student-athletes can play, and with a few exceptions, college coaching is just not as good as the instruction that these players would get as touring pros. Look at some of the top golfers from around the world: Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero, Jason Day. What do they have in common? None of them played college golf. While their American counterparts are playing an NCAA-restricted schedule, these international players are focusing on their games 24/7/365. Jordan Spieth, the 18-year-old who's already made the cut twice at the Byron Nelson, is going to the University of Texas in the fall, but you can't tell me he'll be a better golfer in four years than if he turned pro now. Rickie Fowler left college after two years and his game is immeasurably better than it would have been if he had stayed in school. Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar have had excellent pro careers after college golf, but that era is over. The game is global now, and the competition is more intense than ever. If we want Americans to stay at the elite level of the game, we need to look at how other countries produce championship-caliber golfers. Many have national programs to get kids started, but none of them has a college golf system that prevents their best players from playing as much as they need to become great players. Professional sports are getting younger, and golf is no exception. The American college system creates players who join the Tour at age 22 and finally acquire the experience and know-how to win in their late 20s. At that point, they are 10 years behind the competition. The need to have a fallback plan B (a diploma) in case of failure is holding players back from developing a game based on the intense need to succeed. Instead, their game is based on hoping and wishing and trying to play well. Tweet

Villegas, Els, Harrington among names on the bubble for playoffs

Camilo Villegas won the last two playoff events of 2008, the BMW and the Tour Championship, but golf's onetime Next Big Thing is the Bubble Boy at this week's Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. At 125th in FedEx Cup points, Villegas can't afford to slip even one spot or he won't qualify for the mega-bucks, four-week FedEx Cup playoff series, which begins with the Barclays in Edison, N.J., next week. At least Villegas has plenty of company. Tiger Woods is already out of the playoffs; he's 129th and not playing this week. Others find themselves in need of a good finish in Greensboro, lest their season end earlier than they'd hoped. Ernie Els is 126th, and will tee off No. 10 at Sedgefield with Villegas and Cameron Beckman at 7:40 ET Thursday morning. Padraig Harrington was one of the giants of golf heading into the 2008 FedEx playoffs, having won three majors in just over a year. But he's put off a vacation to play the Wyndham in hopes of climbing from 130th on the FedEx points list. He must finish 12th or better to crack the top 125 and get to the Barclays. Others who need a big week at this Donald Ross classic, where the scoring is usually low, include Angel Cabrera (150th) and Paul Casey (147th). Even those in good shape to make it to the Barclays will be keeping an eye on their numbers. Vijay Singh, the 2008 Cup winner, is 42nd in FedEx Cup points. Defending FedEx Cup champion Jim Furyk is 70th. Only the top 30 players will advance to the season-ending Tour Championship at Atlanta's East Lake. The featured attraction at Sedgefield is expected to be Jason Dufner, who is coming off a three-hole playoff loss to Keegan Bradley at the PGA. "It's been kind of a weird experience," Dufner said Tuesday. "Everybody that's kind of come up to me, I almost feel like it's a funeral or something tragic happened. I don't feel that way at all. It was a great experience. Unfortunately I wasn't able to win that event, but I had a great chance, best opportunity probably to win a Tour event, so I feel good." That's easier to believe when you consider the aftermath of Dufner's defeat included a visit to his alma mater, Auburn University (he still lives in town). He was summoned to an auditorium on campus, where he was thrilled at being given a standing ovation by the football team. He's trying to approach the Wyndham as if it's just another tournament, and as if he's still the same golfer he always was, even if he gave up a five-shot lead with four holes remaining at the season's final major. "I made contact with the golf ball on the first tee [in a practice round at Sedgefield], so that was nice," Dufner said. "Didn't whiff any putts or didn't lose my golf game overnight because of what happened on Sunday. I think maybe the media plays into that a little bit. And maybe some guys are different; maybe some guys would feel like it was a tragedy. But I don't really look at it that way. I'm disappointed with not being able to finish that tournament off with a W, but I'm a professional golfer, I'm going to continue to be a professional golfer." Westchester C.C. back in the mix — for seniors Westchester Country Club was a 41-year fixture on the PGA Tour, from 1967 to 2007. The club is back in the spotlight as host of this week's Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. Five players in the field won at Westchester as PGA Tour pros: Bob Gilder (1982, when he made a double-eagle on 18), Scott Simpson ('84), Bob Tway ('86), Hale Irwin ('90) and David Frost ('92). Mark O'Meara is the defending champion, but he won the title last year at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Maryland. Tom Lehman's lead in the Charles Schwab Cup points race has dwindled to 291 points, over second-place Olin Browne. Fred Couples will play Westchester after a recent trip to Germany to get treatment for his chronically ailing back. Apparently it was a success. Said Couples, "I haven't felt like this in 10 years, health-wise." Nationwide pros head into home stretch The end of the PGA Championship brings closure of sorts to the PGA Tour just as the Nationwide gets serious. Ten events remain for players to earn enough cash on that tour to graduate to the PGA Tour in 2012, starting with this week's Midwest Classic at Nicklaus Golf Club at Lions Gate in Overland Park, Kan. The best recent reminder of Nationwide relevance is that Keegan Bradley was 25th on the money list and on the bubble for advancing to the PGA Tour exactly one year ago. Then he went T3, T3, T5 and T4 to finish 14th in earnings and secure his Tour card for 2011. The rest is current events. Short game Yani Tseng headlines a field that also includes Paula Creamer, Alexis Thompson and Michelle Wie at the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola at the Ghost Creek Course at Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains, Ore. This week marks the 40th anniversary of the LPGA in Portland. ... Miguel Angel Jimenez, who designed both the Old and New Courses at Prosper Golf Resort in Celadna, Czech Republic, will seek his first victory of 2011 at the European Tour's Czech Open at Prosper. The tournament will use a composite course for the first time. ... The U.S. Amateur will begin with stroke-play qualifying at Erin Hills next Monday. Tweet

Poof! He's Gone: A struggling Tiger Woods is likely done for remainder of season

Holy drudgery. The golfing trinity of Padraig Harrington, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods took five sweaty hours just to reach the 18th tee during their second round at the PGA Championship. Paddy was playing to make the cut. Davis was playing to climb higher up the leader board. Tiger was playing for... you'd have to be a mind reader to know what. Woods was already nine over par through 35 holes. One more hole and he'd be done. Certainly for the week. Possibly, on his home tour, for the year. It was Aug. 12. The only thing left in his workweek was to play the final hole, shake hands with his playmates and address the reporter herd, and then he'd be free, if freedom is a concept Woods even knows anymore. It had been clear for most of the afternoon — at least since his double bogey on the 12th, an easy par-5 — that Tiger's midsummer return to golf after a three-month rest-and-rehab break would comprise only six rounds, four at the Bridgestone Invitational and two at the PGA. Not what the doctor, Sean Foley, Mark Steinberg, Tim Finchem or the marketing departments at Nike, CBS and FedEx had ordered. Not what Woods had wanted, either. He is discovering, painfully and at age 35, Mick's deep truth: You can't always get what you want. Some of the things Sean and I are working on are starting to click and now I am starting to really understand what he's trying to get me to do. ­ — Woods on Aug. 2 in Akron, before the Bridgestone Invitational Woods gives a mass group interview before every tournament and generally after every round he plays. He has 43 listed interviews for 2011 on the ASAP Sports website, a company that transcribes formal group press conferences at various sporting events, and eight of them are from August, when Woods played in Akron and Atlanta. During those sessions he seldom tells stories and rarely talks about himself in a personal way. His main thing is to report on the state of his game. The herd picks up the tea leaves and tries to read them. As Woods played his final hole at the PGA last week, he knew what was coming, another media session in which he would try to explain the inexplicable: Where does it go when it goes? I was hitting proper shots out there. — Woods on Aug. 4, after a first-round 68 at the Bridgestone For last week's PGA the 18th hole at Atlanta Athletic Club was played as a 480-yard par-4 and was almost comically difficult. If you missed left, you were in a lake. If you missed right, you were in a trap. Most balls that finished in the Tifton 10 bermuda rough required a U.S. Open–style hack-out. The fairway was a rumor. The welcome mat to the thin green was a murky pond. Woods, most atypically, had the honor at 18 on Friday, and he hit his three-wood into the right bunker. His swing has always featured a head dip, but now he's more of a head-dipper than ever before. If that's good or bad, only Sean Foley, Johnny Miller or Brandel Chamblee can say. Harrington followed Woods and smoked a three-wood down the middle. Love, after bogeys on 16 and 17, had the red ass (sorry, Mrs. Penta Love) and nutted a two-iron past both of them. Paddy knocked his second onto the green. Tiger thought Davis was away and waited for him to play first. In the meantime Tiger made ­repeated practice swings before descend­ing into the sand, which he did with some care. (His legs have been through the wars of modern medicine.) He took a mighty swipe with a long iron. It was deeply impressive but not nearly enough. The pond swallowed up his swooshed ball. I'm hitting the ball so much farther. — Woods on Aug. 5, after a second-round 71 at the Bridgestone I hit the ball so much straighter than I used to. — Woods on Aug. 6, after a third-round 72 at the Bridgestone With his friend Bryon Bell on his bag, and his own yardage book in his pocket, Tiger dropped a new ball in front of the pond. He made a beautiful pitch shot and holed a five-footer for a closing bogey. His rounds were 77 and 73, 10 over par, six over the cut line. He has played in 56 majors as a pro, won 14 of them and missed the cut in only three. He took off his hat and approached his two buddies, Paddy and Davis. He smiled briefly. Woods and Love didn't talk much in the second round, but they did during the first. Woods asked Love, who will be next year's U.S. Ryder Cup captain, who his assistants will be. He asked Davis how his daughter, Lexie, an accomplished equestrienne, was doing. He asked several questions about Davis's son, Dru, a good junior golfer: “Is he taller than you? Can he hit it farther than you? Where's he looking to go?” (Yes, yes, possibly North Carolina.) Tiger wants to play on this year's Presidents Cup team. He wants to play on next year's Ryder Cup team. He wants his old life back. Playing money games with my buddies, it's just not quite the same. Being out here and being forced to post a score, hit shots, that's a different deal. — Woods on Aug. 7 after a closing 70 and 37th-place finish at the Bridgestone As he walked to the scorer's hut at the end of his two-day PGA week, fans were calling out Tiger's name. He didn't acknowledge them. He seldom does. But then he did a rare thing. He flipped his game ball to a charming little girl standing along the rope, a girl maybe slightly younger than Tiger's daughter, Sam, who is four, two years older than Woods's son, Charlie. Tiger was in and out of the scorer's trailer in a minute. I'm not down. I'm really angry right now. — Woods last Thursday, after his 77 at the PGA Woods did not leave the Atlanta Athletic Club angry, not that you could tell, anyway. He had to be confused, disappointed and weirded out. After all, for nearly all of his 15 years on Tour he could play in virtually any event he wanted. He 73'd his way out of that luxury. Tommy Gainey is in the FedEx Cup playoffs, but Woods is not. He said goodbye to the herd with this: “Now I'll have nothing to do but work on my game.” Maybe the answer to what ails him lies in those words. Or not. In the end, golf's not about words spoken. It's about numbers written. Woods has known that forever. Tweet

Family resemblance puts Bradley in winner's circle

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — Saying newly crowned PGA champion Keegan Bradley was practically born to play golf is like saying Barry Bonds got a headstart by being Bobby's son. His father, Mark, is currently the head pro at Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis Club in Wyoming after stints in Boston and Vermont. Bradley got plenty of lessons and all the time he needed at the practice range, free of charge. Turns out he was schooled, as well, by one of his aunts, who knew plenty about the game and even more about the tenacity it takes to play golf at the highest levels. That would be LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, whom renowned sports psychologist Bob Rotella once called the toughest player he ever saw. "I grew up going to Pat's tournaments, totally idolizing her and wanting to be like her out there," he said, with the Wanamaker Trophy perched nearby. "I remember as a kid going out to her tournaments and literally staring her in the face, and I'm her nephew, but she was so into it, she wouldn't even recognize me. And I thought that was cool," said Bradley, now 25. Some of that coolness apparently made it into Bradley's DNA. The last time a golfer won a major in his first try was Ben Curtis in 2003, and before him, Francis Ouimet in 1913. And until late Sunday afternoon, it looked possible another century might even slip by before it happened again. Bradley began the day trailing third-round co-leaders Jason Dufner and Brendan Steele, a good pal, by only a stroke; by the time he stood on the 16th tee, though, he was down five shots with only three holes to make up the differential. Yet some of that familial toughness revealed itself as he walked toward No. 16 after dumping a ball in a pond at the 15th and carding a disastrous triple-bogey. "I remember walking off that green thinking, 'You know, the last four holes are so tough here that somebody could have a five-shot lead. It doesn't matter," Bradley recalled. The gap closed when Dufner, who played the final four holes at 3-under through the first three rounds, made three bogeys over that same stretch in the last one. Bradley sealed the deal in the three-hole playoff with two straight birdies, closing with a very workmanlike par. "I kept thinking about the playoff I won at the Byron Nelson, and the same thing happened to me in that. As soon as I realized I was going into a playoff, I completely calmed down," he said. During the family's time in Vermont, Bradley did a fair share of ski racing as a youngster, but didn't need long to decide between the two sports. He was 12 years old and looking down the barrel of a tough slalom run in Killington when the decision was practically made for him. "It was raining, cold, sleeting and I'm at the top of this mountain going, 'This is not as much fun as golf. I love golf so much more.'" As Bradley recalled that moment, his mother, Kaye, sat in the back of the interview room, alternately nodding or chuckling at the memory and crying tears of joy. "He always said he was going to do this," she said. "I still have a letter he wrote in the first grade saying he was going to be a PGA pro. I've got pictures of him on the range at four. Grandma Bradley sent over his first set of clubs - plastic, of course - for Christmas, and Keegan almost wore those out. He was so devoted. He wanted this so badly. I used to worry what would happen if it didn't come to pass." She often looked to her husband to be the detached voice of reason any time the discussions turned to Keegan's career. "But he wasn't much help that way," Kaye Bradley said. "He used to say all the time, 'He's the real deal.' But I didn't want it to be this or nothing. I made sure he got his college degree." Yet it was Kaye who was unabashedly proud to revive a Bradley tradition. When Pat won her first tournament, in Australia, it was the middle of the night back at the family home in Westford, Mass. Determined to celebrate, Pat's mother ran up and down the streets ringing a cowbell and waking up plenty of her neighbors. "The bell is actually in the Hall of Fame now," Keegan Bradley said. "My mom has started her own, new tradition, a takeoff on that. She runs up and down the street like a crazy woman with wind chimes. "Might have to get that bell out of retirement," Bradley mused a moment later. "I'd like to hear it ring at least once."

Great years for Donald and Westwood, but still no major victories

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — So the World's No. 1 and No. 2 golfers still haven't won a major between them. Another championship gone, another missed opportunity for Luke Donald and Lee Westwood. It must be driving them potty that world ranking points simply don't translate into major victories. Both fought hard to get their big-time names in among the little-known names of Jason Dufner and Keegan Bradley. But the very English challenge ran out of gas at Atlanta Athletic Club. Donald got to five under at the 12th but couldn't push on to put pressure on those playing behind him. He was the architect of his own undoing for the second day in a row. On Saturday he threw away two shots by hitting his approach into water at 18. Sunday he got wet at 15 after slapping his tee shot at the par 3 into the pond. Game over. He bogeyed 18, too, to finish the week at a disappointing three under par. "Again, bittersweet. It's another major gone, another year gone without winning a major," Donald said. "The positives I see is I didn't have my best this week and I still came reasonably close. I know I've got the game to compete and win majors. I've got to take that as a positive." It has nevertheless been a remarkable year for Donald. The new steely Donald will surely challenge at the majors next year. He has had a breakthrough season that saw him climb to No. 1 in May by beating Westwood in a playoff at the BMW PGA Championship in Wentworth, England, the flagship event on the European Tour. He had two other victories — the WGC-Accenture Match Play in February and the Scottish Open in June — and has posted 10 more worldwide top 10s. He finished tied for fourth at the Masters, tied for 45th at the US Open and missed the cut at the British Open. Donald proved that old adage that "form is temporary; class is permanent," by finishing tied eighth at the PGA Championship. Such form means he has all but won the Race to Dubai as the top money-winner on the European Tour. He will tee it up at the Barclays Championship at the start of the FedEx Cup Series in two weeks with a real chance to become the first player ever to take the big money title on both sides of the Atlantic. "That's certainly a goal. That would be a great accomplishment," Donald said. "No one's ever done it, and to be the first would be very special." Westwood finished at tied for eighth with Donald at three under par, which ended a frustrating year at the majors, where he finished tied for 11th at the Masters and T3 at the U.S. Open and missed the cut at the British Open. He is now 0-for-55 at the majors, and appeared close to tears with frustration and exhaustion after his round. "I played lovely again. Just one of those things," Westwood said before heading off for a two-week holiday. He added that he will play big fall tournaments on the European Tour, including events in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland and finally Dubai. "I have enjoyed playing great for a long time now," he said, "but unfortunately when I turn up to majors, when I don't win one, then it's a disappointing week." It can't help the sanity of either Westwood or Donald to watch a golfer with a nervous waggle called Dufner, and another in a red shirt with a fist pump not called Tiger Woods in a playoff in the last major of the year. Oh the irony. Tweet