Which Was More Amazing, Ryo's 58 and Rory's 62? Or Their Combined Age Of 38?

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I know it's a pointless debate, but considering their age (Ryo 18, Rory 20), this weekend's play has to go down as one of the more amazing performances by young players in the game's history. Ryo's round as reported by AP:

The 18-year-old Ishikawa tapped in for par on the par-4 18th after his 15-foot birdie try slid inches by the cup. He had 12 birdies in his bogey-free round on the 6,545-yard Nagoya Golf Club course.

“I always dreamed of getting a score like this but didn’t think I would do it so fast,” Ishikawa said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’m sure it will after a few days.”

After opening with rounds of 68, 70 and 71 to fall six strokes behind third-round leader Shigeki Maruyama, Ishikawa birdied nine of the first 11 holes Sunday. He added birdies on Nos. 14-16 and closed with two pars to finish at 13-under 267, five strokes ahead of Hiroyuki Fujita and Australia’s Paul Sheehan.

“I got off to a good start for the first time in four rounds, so I told myself not to give up for the title until the end,” Ishikawa said. “To my surprise, I found myself making this many birdies. I was in a calm mental state for all 58 strokes.”

Doug Ferguson on Rory's win at Quail Hollow Sunday:

Explosive as ever, the 20-year-old from Northern Ireland was 5 under over the final five holes to set the course record at 10-under 62 and win by four shots over Masters champion Phil Mickelson.

McIlroy finished in style, rolling in a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and thrusting his fist into the air.

“I suppose I got into the zone,” said McIlroy, who celebrates his 21st birthday on Tuesday. “I hadn’t realized I was going in 9, 10 under. I just know I got my nose in front and I was just trying to stay there.”

"A few sole practitioners also pursue the art."

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John Paul Newport on golf poetry's possible resurgence, and it's not called Twitter.

A few sole practitioners also pursue the art. Recently I received a self-published collection titled "The Kiss That Cured My Slice" by John Ducker. The title poem describes a round with a beautiful women, never to be seen again, who inspires him to shoot his best-ever score. In another poem the poet tees it up with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince, whose ball on the greens never misses the cup and is nicknamed Purple Drain.

But surely the most avid contemporary practitioner is Leon White, a retired MIT professor and health-insurance executive from Massachusetts. He culls old magazines and books for interesting poems, and adds a few he writes himself, for weekly posts on his blog at www.golfpoet.com. Recently he's been experimenting with repurposing golf poem lines as 140-character Tweets, which he calls Twines. An example: "Had Tiger come clean before being hounded, Could he have escaped without being pounded?" So maybe there's hope for golf poetry yet.

"I would say 18 is the worst on tour, except it's not the worst on this golf course, 12 is..."

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This is fun on so many levels.

First you have Phil Mickelson, who bypassed this week's mandatory players meeting in which the commissioner pleaded for no controversial comments from players, choosing to criticize a tour venue's design rather strongly.

Second, the course in question was modified by Tom Fazio's designer at the time, Beau Welling, now Tiger Woods' in-house designer.

And third, the course desperately wants to host a major and this probably isn't going to help.

Steve Elling reports:

"For as beautifully designed as this golf course is from tee to green, the greens are some of the worst designed greens that we have on tour, and 18 is one of them," he said of the final green. "I would say 18 is the worst on tour, except it's not the worst on this golf course, 12 is, and we have some ridiculous putts here that you just can't keep on."

And as Elling suggests, Mickelson made sure to make his point by risking a penalty on 18:

Theatrically, Mickelson tried to make his point clear on the 18th green when he hit his approach shot over the flagstick and had a sloping, 60-footer for birdie that he could not get anywhere near the flag. At least. not without using a pitching wedge and hitting the flagstick with the lob shot.

He ordered caddie Jim Mackay to leave the flagstick in the hole as he putted away from the hole. It was shocking to see, to be sure, and nobody could recall ever witnessing it before in a tour event. If he'd made the putt, which he insisted was an impossibility, he would have been assessed a two-shot penalty.

Tiger Misses Quail Hollow Cut; World Braces For Extensive Overreaction

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After all, this is how he should have played at the Masters, no? Or is this the beginning of a different era, the post-accident Tiger?

Bob Harig's report features Woods' post-round interview and this:

Among the issues: Woods hit just six fairways over two rounds and had back-to-back double bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes.

Now it's on to the Players Championship next week, although Woods first has a weekend off.
"I'll get to watch how it's done," he quipped. "I'll get to see how real golfers do it."

Asked if his problems were due to lack of practice, playing or mechanics, Woods said: "It is what it is. Whatever it was, it wasn't good enough."

Steve Elling writes:

At times, it looked like Icelandic volcano ash was leaking from every orifice, and Woods couldn't get off the course fast enough. For the first time, he mailed it in over the last few holes when any chance of making the cut was history. Woods has repeatedly professed to giving every shot his best effort over the years, but this time, he flat-out quit.

When he four-jacked the 14th hole, he barely waited for the ball to stop rolling before he slapped at it again. When he dunked a ball in the water hazard beside the 13th green with an awful lob shot, he hit a pair of wedge shots without bothering to take a practice swing.