Pac 12 Championship: Cal Men Win 10th Tournament!

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Cal held off UCLA to win the 2013 Pac 12 Championship by nine strokes. The win unofficially ties them with the 1985-86 Oklahoma State squad for most victories in a season by a college golf team, with two events to go.

Cal Senior Max Homa's 9-under 271 held off teammate and U.S. Amateur runner-up Michael Weaver by five strokes. After the round, host club Los Angeles Country Club presented Homa with a framed lithograph that included a plaque commemorating his opening round and course record 61.

A few images from the day:

Players: Quail Hollow Greens Victim Of 24/7 Media

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It's the media conjuring up a story, say a few players quoted by Jason Sobel on the eve of the Wells Fargo Championship opening round.

“You know, in the age that you guys [in the media] have to talk about something 24 hours a day,” Joe Ogilvie explained, “you’ve got to come up with something.”

“Once the tournament starts, I think all of that stuff will stop and it will be about the tournament, about the shots and the scoring,” said Mickelson. “We’ll see what’s made this tournament great in the past and it won’t be an issue. But I think leading up it will be the talk, because we haven’t had the actual action to discuss yet.”

“One thing I’ve realized is that there’s always a new story,” Trevor Immelman added. “There’s a new story every week. Just when you think you’re going to be able to latch onto something and wear it out for a few months, something else happens. It’s amazing to me. I think it’s just one of those things that we work through and next week there will be another story.”

We'll see what the boys say after they've posted their first round scores!

Juding by this image from Jeff Sisner of the Charlotte Observer from his pro-am slideshow, this is more than just a story whipped up by the 24/7 press.

UCLA Closing In On Cal As L.A. North Bites Back

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Thanks to some stellar play under difficult conditions, the lucky few taking in round three of the Pac 12 Mens Golf Championships were treated to some fantastic golf. While the scores didn't quite match the incredible opening day scoring, the precision play inspired by U.S. Open greens (almost 14 on the Stimp, extremely firm) and George Thomas and Billy Bell's architecture revealed the level of talent in the Pac 12.

I'll leave the summary to the Pac 12's website where you can also see scores and a photo gallery. Also, Golfstat has the individual and team leaderboards.

Instead, a few random observations from L.A. North prior to final round play.

-- I spent most of the morning watching Stanford's Patrick Rodgers and the afternoon following Cal's Max Homa, UCLA's Jonathan Garrick and Washington's Chris Williams. All impressed with their swings, attitudes, precision and short game while playing the course intelligently...other than the painful sight of their repeated rangefinder use.

--Ahhh yes, the rangefinder. What a waste of information on a course with firm greens where yardages to the flagstick mean so little. Which is probably why players still check sprinklers, yardage books or simply walk the numbers off if they are within 80 yards of the green. Speed up play?  Rangefinders, they do not.

-- The aforementioned players and many others I saw from various Pac 12 schools are placing the ball in unfathomable locations off the tee. That would be my nice way of saying they hit the ball absurd distances. The next time I hear the governing bodies insist driving distances have peaked, I now have photographs of young lads in fairway landing areas so far beyond what hazards that even they might have a hard time justifying their decade long indifference to the obvious. Peter Dawson recently said on anchoring, better late than never!

--UCLA trails by two strokes. UCLA's Pontus Widegren was penalized two shots in a second round 75 for just barely missing his afternoon tee time after he was changing to the prescribed second round UCLA team shirt. Because the first round was running long, Widegren only had a few minutes to change.

I'm not sure how quickly I'll get to post round 4 observations and photos, so here's a big gallery from the first two days:

Vijay Acquitted, Share Your Resounding Joy Here

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I'm out watching PAC 12 golf but I know you need an outlet to express your joy at the heartwarming news of Vijay's acquittal on admitting to having purchased a banned substance.

Norman Calls For Blood Testing, Finchem's Doctor May Be Calling For A Blood Pressure Check

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The Australian's Will Swanton caught up with the Shark and besides pretty much calling Vijay Singh a cheater, Greg Norman said it's time for golf's "disgraceful" testing to branch out to include blood tests.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who long opposed drug testing and who has not been in a hurry to add blood testing for stuff like HGH, probably has downgraded the Shark's buddy status to 1995ish, when the two giant (egos) of the game were less chummy.

"You have to have blood testing, simple as that. It's a pin prick for a player, and you find out what's going on. If you're the head of golf or any sport, if you're the commissioner for a sport, it's your responsibility to make sure your sport is clean. That should be your No 1 priority."

"You only have to look at what happened to Vijay Singh just recently to know the drugs issue is there," Norman told The Australian yesterday.

"We know that because Vijay Singh got caught. How deep it is, I have no idea because we only do urine analysis instead of blood testing. If you really want to be serious about it and find about what's really going on, we need to do blood testing. I think it's disgraceful, to tell you the truth. The golf associations have to get together and step it up.