Nick Faldo talks technology, club fitting, and how he gets his clubs just right

When TaylorMade decided to create the prototypes that would eventually become the Forged Tour Preferred MB, MC and CB irons, three-time British Open champion Nick Faldo was consulted early in the process. "It wasn't like we were beginners at making irons," says TaylorMade vice president of product creation Sean Toulon. "But I think what Nick brings to the table is, first, a passion and a love for equipment. Second, he's got an eye for the minutest little details. He gave us ideas and things to look for that we really hadn't seen before." At his peak, that attention to detail drove Faldo to trim his nails on Mondays so he'd have perfect feel in his hands on Sundays. It pushed him to trek over two hours to meet with a club builder at Royal St. George's, site of this year's British Open, to get his driver re-shafted. It also helped the man Queen Elizabeth II knighted in 2009 become the No. 1 player in the world and a six-time major winner. We sat down with Sir Nick to talk about how equipment has changed since his prime and what amateurs should do before buying clubs. Have you always enjoyed experimenting with your gear? When I was a kid I just loved tinkering. I used to love cleaning my clubs. I had my own little workshop and got into things like filing them down, working with emery cloths and fiddling around with bounce on wedges. I used to hand-grind my wedges by putting a really coarse piece of emery cloth on the ground and hitting it to see where it scratched. I wanted to learn things like when you leaned into it, what difference would it make and what different angles did on this sand wedge? So I learned where the sand wedge actually hits the sand, and how to create different shots. I lived in a little terrace house when I started to play golf and I remember going to the front of the house, in the garden, putting a ball down on the concrete and thinking, 'All right, I'm going to use this sand wedge to hit a ball over my house and land it in my back garden.' Just to see if I could make it work and if I could handle a tight lie. That was a little bit of a scary moment. Gosh, that was moons ago, but I'll never forget it. And your tinkering only got more intense as you got older? America was so far ahead of Europe at that time it was amazing. Jack Nicklaus used to come and play in the Opens, and I would look in his bag and see all these beautiful matched clubs. There was no lead tape on the back of the clubs. They had flex-tested shafts and then frequency-matched shafts — we never even had matched shafts in Europe at that time. You had to hit them, and if you liked it you kept that shaft. A lot of my shafts actually stayed in my clubs for a hell of a long time. I reckon I won all my majors with the same shafts. I just attached them to different heads. I could feel the difference. I did so much from feel and visual feedback. But now, in the scientific age, they know what the feedback is. You can start to replicate clubs. Do players today have the same intense knowledge about their equipment that players of your generation had? I think a lot of guys on Tour don't even know how to put a grip on. To some extent, that's a good thing and a bad thing. Even with all the science, I'd still put my own grips on. I wouldn't depend on somebody else to do that because there is something about the way that I would stretch them and twist them. I used to put my glove on and then grip the club, squeeze it, and go into impact position and twist it so I could feel like, "Okay, that's impact, that's the face." That's why you never wanted to change grips in our era. My God, you tried to get a set of grips to last you a season. And the worst thing was having to change a grip mid-season because you'd have this beautifully matched set of grips and suddenly you'd have one brand new one. Ahhh! Does tinkering around like that make you a better player? I would think so. I think that for your own self-belief, you would want to look after your own equipment. Eventually all my shafts were flex-tested and frequency matched and I did all the grips. My clubs were balanced because of that. Everything about them was the same. I don't know if that gave me an advantage over the competition, but in the early days you might get an ugly club sent to you and you can't play with an ugly club. Eight-irons were very tough to get looking pretty in that era. What was the toughest club for you to find? It was the drivers and the longer stuff mostly, but the sand wedges were hard too because we used ones with curved or concave edges. You just didn't want to change them because the bounce was just perfect, the grip was just perfect, the shaft was tuned. I think I had a smart idea when I started having "practice wedges" instead of using "tournament wedges." The driver of course was important and re-shafting mine was a real trick because of where I lived. I went down to St. George's to see Barry Willet because he was the guy who could do it and in that era it was a two-and-a-half hour drive. I used to sit in the corner of his workshop, which was tiny. It was a shed with clubs and stuff everywhere. I would sit and gab, watching him work and fiddle away with all these clubs. He'd take the shaft out, put the pin in, add the glue and then wait 24 hours for the glue to set. So we'd risk it by hitting it a bit early. That was terrible because you had to learn to adapt to the characteristics of that club. You could have a driver that had a shaft that was maybe doing this, and a 3-wood that had a shaft that was doing that, and you had to know this! They all had a character to themselves. But today that process takes just a few minutes. That was the best invention, the two-minute glue, because you could go in and heat up and try new clubs. Now we've got it down to 10 seconds. Adjustable drivers let you go click, click, click and there you go. I still have great fun doing that, sneaking on the golf course with two drivers and setting up the weights differently. Does it really work? I set up the faces differently, start messing around with the weights and it's like, "Wow, these weights really do work! You can make a ball fade or draw with basically the same swing." With all of that in mind, how you recommend mid- and high-handicap golfers go about finding the right clubs? I once made a foolish statement that about 90 percent of the golfers out there play with clubs that don't match their swing. I'd like to change that to about 98 percent. A lot of people say that they can't feel the difference from one club to another, but I've proven that to be wrong. I tell people that you've got to go out and try it. Folks tell me all the time, "I can't because I don't know that much about golf." It doesn't matter — you can pick two clubs, swing them, and feel the difference. You go, "I like that, but I don't like that." That's simply what you do. I think that is an absolute must. Tweet

Stricker takes 2-stroke lead in John Deere Classic

SILVIS, Ill. (AP) — Steve Stricker stood in the bunker left of the first fairway, eyed his ball in the rough on the edge of the trap, then looked at the flag 122 yards away. If it felt like he'd been in that position before, well, that's because he had. "I had that same stance in my pro-am," he said. "Same bunker, same exact shot. I was right in the same spot." All he wanted to do was get the ball on the green, which he did. And then came the shot of the day, a 75-foot putt for birdie that led to an 8-under-par 63 Saturday and a two-stroke lead after three rounds of the John Deere Classic. "I was just trying to get a two-putt and par and move on," Stricker said. "To make a put like that, you don't expect to, nor are the odds in your favor to make a putt like that. But it went in with perfect speed and it got me going." Stricker fashioned his best round of the year while closing in on his third straight victory in the tournament. He's at 20-under 193 following a par on save on 18, where he twice hit into bunkers before drilling a 15-foot putt. That put Stricker in a good spot because he's won the last four times he held the outright lead going into the final round. Stricker said he often hears stats like that, but insisted he doesn't remember them. "I don't put a lot of stock in numbers past, present, whatever," he said. "I just try to go out there and do the things that I'm capable of doing. You've just got to stick to your own game and that's what I've been able to do the last four or five years." Zimbabwean Brendon de Jonge is alone in second at 195 after matching Stricker's 63. Second-round leader Chez Reavie, who started the day two strokes up on Stricker, shot 68 and was 17 under, one ahead of Kyle Stanley (65). With one more solid round, Stricker would join an elite group. Only 20 times previously on the tour has someone won a tournament three years in a row, a list that includes Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller, Woods has done it six times and was the most recent to accomplish the feat, winning the Bridgestone Invitational in 2005, 2006 and 2007. "I haven't really given it much thought, but it would mean a lot," Stricker said. "It's hard enough to win an event three times, let alone three in a row. So it will be tough. I've got to fight through nerves, but it would be special to be part of that list." As he has done so often recently at TPC Deere Run, Stricker made it look easy, even after getting into immediate trouble with that opening tee shot. He took a baseball-type swing to get out of the rough and hit a line drive that stopped on the front part of the green, where the pin was in to the right and in the back. Then he stepped up and knocked his putt in, the ball rolling uphill, topping a crest and carrying back down into the center of the cup. Stricker raised both arms in celebration, then smiled at playing partner Jhonattan Vegas and shrugged as if to say, "When you're hot, you're hot." "At first, I thought I hit it too hard and then it looked like it was going to be good to tap in (for par)," he said. "And then it just went right in the last couple of feet." Stricker moved into the lead with a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 7 as Reavie made bogey at 6. When Reavie bogeyed 8, he suddenly found himself four strokes behind -- a six-shot reversal in about 90 minutes. De Jonge, meanwhile, kept making birdies to keep Stricker from running away with the lead. "I got off to a great start today, which was the key to set up the round," de Jonge said. "I think tomorrow's going to be more of the same. You're going to have to make a bunch of birdies. The golf course is in such good condition, the ball's going so far, that you get a lot of wedges in your hands." Stricker birdied six of his first 10 holes before turning more humanlike down the stretch and making only two more birdies the rest of the way. But on this warm, breezy Midwestern day, no one was sharp enough to catch him, though for a few minutes at the end it looked as though his lead would drop to one. His tee shot found a bunker left of the fairway and his second shot landed in a bunker in front of the green. He got the ball up to within 15 feet, not an easy putt by any means, but he knocked it in. "That was a good save to kind of keep the momentum going into tomorrow," he said. De Jonge kept himself in position for his first tour victory if Stricker should falter on Sunday. He matched Stricker's 30 on the front nine, then had his momentum blunted slightly when he bogeyed 13 after missing a 10-footer for par. But he came back with a nifty chip from the fringe on 14 to set up a 2-foot birdie putt and capped his round with an approach from 163 yards to 11 feet for a birdie on 18. De Jonge also was in contention going into the final round of the Transitions Championship, where he was just one stroke off the lead. But he shot a final round 73 to slip into a tie for fifth. He seemed undaunted about facing down Stricker in the final round of this one. "I think anybody's got a chance that's within a couple," de Jonge said. "Obviously you're going to have to play a good round of golf. But yeah, I think everybody feels like they've got a chance." Reavie looked positively Stricker-like while shooting a 62 on Friday, but the putting stroke that made him so effective in that round deserted him. He played the front nine at 1 over before scrambling back with consecutive birdies on 13, 14 and 15. Steve Marino had an even tougher day after starting just two off the lead. Playing with Reavie in the final twosome, Marino missed a couple of makeable birdie putts early, then had three bogeys in a four-hole stretch late in the round to finish with a 2-over 73 that left him 10 under for the tournament. Tweet

Chambers Bay to get experiments in next 4 years

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. (AP) — When Chambers Bay was awarded the 2015 U.S. Open just months after opening there was no blueprint for how the course would react to championship conditions. Thanks to the experience of hosting the U.S. Amateur last year and, more importantly, time, Chambers Bay will undergo small experiments the next four years in preparation for the major championship. The first happened over the last nine months with the growth of substantial rough, the kind of gnarly mess the U.S. Golf Association hopes will swallow wayward shots when the Open comes to the Pacific Northwest for the first time. Trying changes ahead of time is not unique. But many courses in the USGA rotation have held past U.S. Opens or even PGA Tour events where they can see how the course reacts. Chambers Bay is the oddity. It'll be the youngest U.S. Open course since Hazeltine was just eight years old when it hosted its first Open in 1970. Chamber Bay's unique fescue grass, large footprint and placement on the shores of Puget Sound make up the setting the USGA had been hoping to find to finally bring its national championship to the Pacific Northwest. And it's not alone. Two years after Chambers Bay hosts the Open, the USGA is taking the Open to Erin Hills in Wisconsin, another new links-style course. Erin Hills will host this year's U.S. Amateur. "Most times we're going to Shinnecock or Oakmont or Pebble Beach," USGA executive director Mike Davis said. "Going to new courses, one of the reasons we schedule it the way we did was we wanted to see how the courses played. At Chambers Bay, it was incredibly valuable." When Chambers Bay hosted the U.S. Amateur last year, the challenge for Davis, Chambers Bay general manager Matt Allen and their staffs was simply seeing if the course could exhibit and withstand the conditions the USGA really wanted: a dry, hard fast track that mirrored the look of the links courses of the British Isles. It worked, even if Davis acknowledged after the Amateur that they had dried out the course too much during stroke play. The course was choked of water for three weeks before the Amateur - sans the Pacific Northwest's natural sprinkler - and when the tournament was done, it took only three or four weeks for the course to regain some green lushness. "It tells us frankly in the long run we can maintain the golf course drier and leaner as normal practice, which conserves on water and fertilizer," Allen said. "And the firmer and faster it plays day in and day out, the better. That's how it was designed and the ball goes farther and everybody is happy." Proving the golf course could maintain and survive that stress gives Davis and his staff the chance to tinker here and there, and make substantial changes elsewhere as the '15 Open draws closer. Testing how thick the rough could get was the first experiment and likely the most important. When Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his team designed the course, they did so with hosting a U.S. Open-type event in mind, but not intending on the course having any rough in a true links style. The rough that was added before the Amateur was short and not very punishing. Because fescue grows at a slower rate than the other grasses used on most American courses, Allen's staff was told to stop cutting the rough last fall so USGA officials could get an idea of where the rough might be in June - around the time of year when the Open will be played. The result was nearly 6 inches of tangled mess that was punishing every day hackers so much course officials finally had to ask if they could cut the rough back because pace of play was grinding to a halt as players searched for balls on the already difficult course. "We know that basically two years of growth from fairway height we got it to where we wanted," Allen said. Now that the way the rough grows is known, Allen's crew will turn to more structural changes. The biggest and yet-to-be-determined change will likely come on the seventh green, an uphill par 4 with a massive false front on the green. The problem during the Amateur was shots finding the middle-to-back of the green would roll off large mounds and, because of the fast conditions, tumble back to the front of the green, catching the false face and rolling 60 yards back down the fairway. Allen said the solution is still being worked out, but much of the green complex would need change. "It's going to get changed and it'll be an improvement not only for the Open, but it'll be an improvement the other 51 weeks," Davis said. Most of the other changes have to do with the shaping of specific holes. Some of it will be done with the addition of tees, others by removing rough from one side of the fairway and bringing it in on the other. The reshaping of some holes will bring more hazards into play and remove potential bail out areas. The final piece of work is all related to the Open itself with the addition of paths and walkways and the flattening of some of the dunes to make the course safer for spectators. Many of the changes will take place over the next year to give the slow-growing fescue plenty of time to mature before 2015. By the spring of 2013, everyday players who visit the course will see the basic framework the best players in the world will face two years later. "That's really the goal. It takes the fescue a while to get it really right," Davis said.

McDowell leads with 64, storms halt Scottish Open

INVERNESS, Scotland (AP) — Storms brought an early end to the second round at the Scottish Open on Friday, with former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell in a three-way share of the lead. McDowell shot an 8-under 64 in perfect conditions in the morning. He's tied with Scottish pair Scott Jamieson and Peter Whiteford, who had 66s, at 11-under 133. Spain's Jose Manuel Lara (66) was a shot behind the leaders, while Argentina's Angel Cabrera, Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts (66) and Lawrie were two strokes back. Phil Mickelson shot a 67, seven strokes behind the leaders. He should just make the cut. Organizers abandoned play shortly after the afternoon starters were forced inside for a second time after an earlier stoppage of more than two hours. The second round will resume Saturday.

First Tee, changing kids' lives since 1997, embarks on ambitious new era

This week brings one of my favorite tournaments, the First Tee Open played at Pebble Beach. The inspired format pairs 78 world-weary Champions tour warriors with wide-eyed kids who learned the game (and a lot more) at a First Tee facility, of which there are 750 across the country. It's always cute to watch these crotchety pros be thoroughly charmed by their young amateur partners, who invariably have impeccable manners, sophisticated golf knowledge and an inspiring personal story. To be chosen for the tournament, these youngsters go through a rigorous interview process, and the trip to Pebble is a once-in-a-lifetime reward for all of their hard work and good deeds. For everyone else, it's a chance to celebrate the First Tee and its success stories. We've all seen the commercials, and it's easy to roll your eyes at the endless talk of "core values," but the First Tee can and does impact young people in a powerful way. Now the program's already impressive reach is about to get a lot bigger. Since the First Tee's inception in 1997, some five million kids have benefited from programs across the country. "The most important investment a society can make is in its young people,” Joe Louis Barrow Jr., the executive director of the First Tee, told me in a recent interview. It is with that simple, profound mission that the First Tee will announce on Thursday morning in Pebble Beach a new campaign to reach 10 million more kids by the end of 2017. To reach this goal, the First Tee has set an ambitious target of raising $100 million by the end of 2012. Barrow hopes the new capital campaign will allow the First Tee to double its number of locations, but he also has a broader vision: "We want to move what we do to where the young people are." The fund raising will allow the First Tee to train staff, provide materials and offer grants to YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and other youth development organizations. Currently, 4,000 elementary schools are affiliated with the First Tee; the goal is to exceed 10,000. First Tee is also pushing to create new "program locations" at existing golf courses to give the kids more access to real, green-grass experiences. I've seen the First Tee's impact firsthand, and not just during a splashy tournament week. When the First Tee Open was created six years ago, organizers needed a local facility to serve as a beneficiary and a beacon. They chose a site 15 miles inland from Pebble Beach in Salinas, the town where I grew up and now live. The First Tee of Monterey County has turned into a very impressive facility, with a large, comfy clubhouse boasting brand-new computers and tutors who are always available to help with after-school homework. The nine-hole executive course is stellar, and there's a spacious driving range. But what makes this First Tee facility so valuable is its setting — a world away from Pebble Beach, in an economically-depressed part of town that is overwhelmingly Hispanic. Many neighborhood kids have become trapped in the destructive cycle of gang violence. Golf would seem an unlikely vehicle for reaching these kids, but thanks to aggressive outreach, the First Tee of Monterey County has become an important part of the community. By partnering with one of the local school districts, the First Tee of Monterey County brings 2,000 kids a week to its facility to learn the game and have some fun in the sun. Due to budget cutbacks, this is the only form of P.E. that many of these children get to enjoy. I’ve been around for a few of these sessions, and it's impossible not to smile at the joy that invariably comes with getting the ball airborne for the first time. First Tee also has a robust after-school program so the students have a safe place to play and learn while their parents are at work. Perhaps most important of all, an army of caring volunteers and very dedicated staff tend to the kids' emotional needs as well as their golf swings. In recent months I've gotten to know an elementary school student named ​Jose Calderon, whose parents eek out a living wage by picking strawberries in the fields that surround Salinas. Jose has a charismatic smile and an athletic golf swing. (When we played a nine-hole match he borrowed my driver and, choking up almost to the graphite, roped a series a perfect drives.) Jose comes to the First Tee every afternoon with other classmates from Virginia Barden Elementary School, which abuts the facility's golf course. "The people here make me feel good about myself," Jose once told me. (Jose and the other kids at the Monterey County chapter get to occasionally test their games at the swank Pasadera Country Club in Monterey, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design.) He's a sweet kid, but according to his parents, who spoke through a translator, Jose used to have trouble channeling his energy at school. Golf has given him a new discipline and determination that have carried over to his studies and behavior at school, his parents said. In a neighborhood where it can be easy to lose hope, Jose has a sunny outlook on the future. "I want to live a good life and make my parents proud of me and make the people here (at the First Tee) proud of me," he says. The First Tee's new fundraising initiative received its first check this week courtesy of Nature Valley, the First Tee Open's title sponsor. But that wasn't the pre-tournament highlight — Andrea Wong provided that. A 16-year-old with a 1 handicap, Andrea will tee it up in the First Tee Open with Taiwan's Chien Soon Lu, who nearly won last week's Montreal Championship. But that's not why she was nervous. "My Mandarin is a little rusty," she said with a laugh. Andrea was selected to speak at Wednesday’s pairings party, and she dazzled with her confidence and eloquence. In reference to the core values the First Tee teaches, Andrea told a room full of players and dignitaries, "I think the value 'courtesy' is the most underrated. To me, courtesy goes beyond simply having good manners. To be courteous also means to act with kindness and compassion." She's a shining example of that; having come up through the First Tee of San Francisco, Andrea now volunteers as an instructor at a couple of facilities in Northern California. "It's funny, people say it's nice of me to help the kids, but really they're helping me," Andrea said. "I've learned so much about being a leader, being a role model, being compassionate and overcoming challenges. Being a part of the First Tee has made me look at the world in a different way." Andrea, a senior-to-be, hopes to earn a college golf scholarship to help her family financially, but she doesn't dream of playing professionally. Her aspirations are more community oriented. "I've gotten so much from the First Tee," she said, "I want to keep helping others. It feels really good to give back." This is the essence of the First Tee. It's exciting to think that its power to affect young people will only continue to grow in the years ahead.

Meet the grounds crew, people with dreams and passions as big as yours

Miguel Ramirez is not a golf course laborer. He's a soldier. It's 8 a.m. at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. The desert sun has chased away the morning chill that greeted the yawning members of the grounds crew three hours earlier. Today's forecast calls for a high of 100°, but Ramirez, a burly 29-year-old Mexican immigrant, is dressed for cooler weather, wearing gray work pants and a long-sleeve crew shirt. He stands atop the flatbed of a John Deere utility vehicle and shovels sand that will be used to smooth out bumps and ball marks on the greens. Wiping beads of sweat from his brow, Ramirez lowers the red bandana shielding his mouth from clouds of fertilizer dust and unveils a wide white grin. The golfers don't look as chipper as the sweat-soaked grunt making $7.35 an hour. So what's with the Pepsodent smile? "I'm not a worker," Ramirez says, his Spanish accent softened by 13 years in the U.S. "I'm a soldier." As in, We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day. "It feels good to work hard. I do a good job. I do it fast. It keeps me in shape. It's so beautiful here. And the work is fun." His idea of fun is a nine-hour shift shoveling sand, mowing greens, raking bunkers and digging trenches on the Raptor course, one of Grayhawk's two 18-hole tracks — all beneath a blistering sun. Ramirez is one of tens of thousands of grounds crew workers who help make golf possible in America, the unsung artisans who groom courses into things of beauty. And they do it for little money. In Arizona, greenkeeping jobs are done mostly by Mexican immigrants happy to earn the $7.35 — minimum wage. (Grayhawk, which pays up to $12 an hour for experienced workers, requires all applicants to produce proof of legal residency.) The work can be backbreaking, which is fitting, because Ramirez once broke his back. Several years ago he ran a red light, struck another vehicle and flipped his car five times. "It's O.K.," he says of the occasional pain. "It only acts up when I lie down." There's never time to lie down at Grayhawk, but there is time to sit and watch golf. "We have to stop when [the players] are hitting," Ramirez says. "I don't like playing, but I like watching. It's a good game. Funny too." When he sees angry players flinging clubs, he'll chuckle. "It makes me laugh. Why are they mad? There's no bad day out here. I saw one guy lose his club that he threw into a grassy area. Golf should be fun." Ramirez appreciates the strategy the game demands. "You need to know where you're hitting, where you're going. You need a plan." Ramirez could be talking about himself. At age 16, his plan was simple. "Come to America for a more better future," he says in his imperfect English. He and several relatives left Mexico's punishing socioeconomic climate — minimum wage there is about 65 cents an hour — for opportunity north of the border. After stints as a landscaper and a cook, Ramirez joined Grayhawk two years ago. The manual labor is preparing him for his dream job: personal trainer. "I want to go to school and become a trainer and work in a gym, and this keeps me in shape," says Ramirez, who runs a mile or two after work. He pulls up a sleeve and flexes his right biceps, as if showing his résumé, and reveals another reason he rises every day at 4 a.m.: The name of his young daughter, Sandra, is tattooed on his right elbow. He smiles bigger than ever. "I work hard for me and for her." Ed Juba is not an assistant superintendent. He's a symphony orchestra conductor. "The average golfer has no clue about all the different things going on at 5 a.m.," says Juba, 37, a Pennsylvania native. On a typical morning at the Raptor, an ensemble of 23 workers, 10 mowers, 12 utility vehicles, a leaf blower and a hole cutter descend on the course. As with an orchestra, Juba says, "all these various parts have to work together. If one thing goes wrong — if a belt snaps or there's an oil leak — it affects the entire operation." And timing is everything, he says, a hint of tension in his voice. "The hardest part of my job is staying ahead of the golfers, who start teeing off at 6:30. They're on your butt fast! It's stressful because you're trying to work and someone's on top of you. How would you like it if someone came into your office and started rustling papers around while you were working?" For Juba, stress beats boredom. A Class A PGA pro, he came to Grayhawk nine years ago and managed the golf shop. Two years later, selling socks and polos had grown tedious. "The grind was getting to me," he says. He transferred to the grounds crew because he loves "the faster pace." A former scratch golfer, Juba now plays sporadically and doesn't much miss it. "Priorities change. I have a daughter. You have to like what you do, and now every day's different, exciting. With this job I'm always learning." Rafael Ruiz does not mow lawns. He creates works of art. Between cutting the holes on the Raptor's greens, Ruiz recalls the surge of excitement he felt as a boy when a teacher or parent praised his latest drawing or finger painting. The 29-year-old father of four experiences a similar rush from a seemingly mundane chore: mowing the lawn. For him, mowing is a form of self-expression. Of his many daily duties, Ruiz counts "striping" the Raptor fairways in a crisscross pattern his favorite part of the job. When he intertwines the ribbons of grass, he says, "I am mowing, but in my mind, I am not mowing. It's as if I am making art. I look and say, 'I like that. It's mine. It's my art.' " And what's an artist without a few admirers. "The golfers come and say, 'You did that very well. Great job.' That makes me feel proud."

Watney nearly perfect while winning by two shots at Aronimink

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Never mind that Nick Watney was the highest-ranked player at the AT&T National, or that he won a World Golf Championship in March. Stepping to the first tee Sunday in a tie for the lead at the AT&T National, he had reason to feel overlooked. After being announced, one fan called out, "Go, Rickie!" Several other fans in the large gallery wore bright orange shirts and flat-brimmed caps to show their support for Rickie Fowler, a 22-year-old who was tied for the lead and going after that first PGA Tour win. "He's obviously a very popular player. I think his time is definitely coming," Watney said. "I would say there were probably a few more Fowler fans out there. But it is what it is. Sometimes you play away games or whatever." Watney doesn't have the panache of Fowler, but his game is starting to get plenty of attention. Playing the weekend at Aronimink in a staggering 12 under, and going the final 27 holes without a bogey, Watney closed with a 4-under 66 for a two-shot victory over K.J. Choi (67) to win for the second time this year and move to No. 10 in the world. Watney, whose other win this year was a World Golf Championship against an elite field at Doral, also put himself atop the FedEx Cup standings and the PGA Tour money list for the first time. "It's a very addictive feeling to be out there and under the gun," said Watney, who had rounds of 62-66 on the weekend. "To be able to hit good shots and putts is why I play, really." And to think that with only 27 holes left in the tournament, Watney was trying to keep from getting left behind. Ten birdies, an eagle and no bogeys later, he was posing with the silver trophy of a Liberty Bell and wondering how much better he could get. Watney finished on 13-under 267, tying the tournament record by Tiger Woods in 2009 when it was played at Congressional. The tournament is scheduled to return to Congressional next year. Charles Howell III earned quite a consolation prize. He played bogey-free in the final round for a 6-under 66 to tie for third with Adam Scott (68) and Jeff Overton (67). That made him eligible for the British Open in two weeks as the top finisher from the top five who wasn't already exempt. Fowler had another learning experience. He fell out of the hunt early with a double bogey on the second hole when he hit three straight shots without losing his turn. From a tough spot in the bunker, he came up well short of the green, barely got his putt up the slope, then ran his bogey attempt a nervy 3 feet beyond the hole. That became a three-shot swing when Watney made birdie, and Fowler never caught up. He finished with a 74 to tie for 13th. "I just couldn't get anything going today," he said. Watney didn't give anyone much of a chance. He took the outright lead with a wedge into 10 feet for birdie on No. 2, and holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fifth. Despite leaving himself in a tough spot in the bunker on the par-5 ninth, he blasted out to 2 feet for another birdie. Even so, his biggest putts were for par. Watney saved par from bunkers on No. 4 with a 20-foot putt, and from No. 7 with a putt from about 12 feet. His biggest par save might have been the par-3 eighth, which yielded only two birdies in the final round. Overton had reached 9 under and was making a move, and Choi had birdied the previous to also reach 9 under. Watney's shot went over the green, and he putted up the slope to 18 feet. He made the par putt to keep his cushion. "That was big not to drop a shot after hitting a good shot, and keep momentum heading to the back nine," Watney said. The final challenge came from Choi, who trailed by four shots at one point. He slowly made up ground, then closed in on Watney after the turn with a bending, downhill birdie putt on the 11th and a pair of long birdie putts on the 12th and 14th holes, the last one tying for the lead. Momentum was with Choi, only the South Korean knew better. The par-4 15th played at 503 yards into a slight breeze, following by the par-5 16th that was reachable in two. "When I tied him on the 14th hole, I knew that there was still a lot of holes to go, and I knew the remaining holes were more favorable to Nick Watney," Choi said. "I knew the 15th hole would be a turning point. That was a key hole, and I missed it. So I think that was the turning point of the match." Choi pulled his shot into the left rough, then tried to hit 5-wood toward the green. The thick grass shut his club and sent the shot into a bunker, some 60 yards from the pin, and so close to the side that his legs were pressed against the edge of the bunker. Choi hit a solid shot, but it took one more hop into the rough, he chipped out to 12 feet and missed the putt. Watney was just short of the green and lagged his putt from 75 feet to 5 feet, converting yet another important par. On the next hole, Watney used his power to smash a drive that left him only a 7-iron to the green, and he again hit a good lag for a two-putt birdie. His seventh and final par save came from just behind the 17th green, and his chip stopped 2 feet from the cup. Watney earned $1.116 million and became the first player this year to top $4 million on tour. "I'm overjoyed to be in here as the winner," Watney said. "It was a very difficult, long day. K.J. played great golf and he kept coming and coming. And that makes it even more rewarding."