Bubba To Chipotle Customers: Dinner's On Me!

Thanks to reader Pete the Luddite for Tristan Thornburgh's item on Bubba Watson picking up the tab for 60 mostly strangers at Chipotle, once again revealing the place you are most likely to see PGA Tour players when they visit your town.

Caddie Paul Tesori Tweeted a photo of the receipt.

@bubbawatson made over 60 people happy they chose #chipotle tonight. pic.twitter.com/a11TuNARET

— Paul Tesori (@PaulTesori) August 2, 2013

Getting In The Mood For Oak Hill: Hole-By-Hole Slideshow

I was hoping for better, but boy did I see a lot of bunkers surrounded by rough and holes in shade. I'm trying to keep an open mind though, with views to come here and Wednesday on Golf Channel's Grey Goose 19th Hole (6 pm ET).

From GolfDigest.com and photographer Stephen Szurlej and Montana Pritchard.

Meanwhile, Donald Ross biographer Bradley Klein does his best to not get bogged down in the details in taking us hole-by-hole but it's pretty clear what he thinks of the Fazio's additions to this Ross original.

Even Insomniacs Won't Rejoice: Four More Years Of Firestone

But hey, it may seem pretty depressing that the WORLD Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational will be locked into Ohio's least interesting famous course for the next four years, but just think, in that time, failing the intervention of a agressive tree trimmer, we may actually get to see the first PGA Tour course where players can't hit greens from the center of the fairways!

For Immediate Release...and do note the goose-bump inducing news that Bridgestone is now the official tire of the PGA Tour and Champions Tour.

Bridgestone Extends Title Sponsorship of World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club

Recommits to Role as Official Tire of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour
 
AKRON, Ohio – PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem, representing the International Federation of PGA Tours; Masaaki Tsuya, Bridgestone Global CEO and Chairman of the Board; and Gary Garfield, CEO and President, Bridgestone Americas, announced today that the International Federation of PGA Tours and Bridgestone have reached an agreement to extend Bridgestone’s title sponsorship of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club through 2018. Finchem, Tsuya and Garfield made the announcement during a press conference prior to the leaders teeing off for the final round of the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational.
 
Bridgestone, a world leader in tire innovation and technology, first began sponsoring the Bridgestone Invitational in 2006, and the current title sponsorship agreement runs through 2014.  The Bridgestone Invitational is played at the famed Firestone Country Club’s South Course in Akron, Ohio.
 
Bridgestone also extended its Official Marketing Partner relationship with the PGA TOUR through 2018 and will remain as the “Official Tire of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour.”  The agreement gives Bridgestone opportunities to introduce a distinguished consumer demographic to high-performance Bridgestone tire technology equal to that which they have come to know from its products on the golf course.

Rusty Miller on Tiger's eighth win in the WGC Bridgestone, which actually included some fun revelations about his children peppering dad with the tougher questions than the media.

As he walked to the scorer's trailer to finalize his score, he scooped up 4-year-old son Charlie, who hugged him tightly as his father strode past the large gallery wildly cheering his landslide victory.

"This is the first win he's ever been at," Woods said. "That's what makes it special for both of us."

Daughter Sam was on hand when Woods, won the U.S. Open in 2008, before his personal life imploded. Now Charlie will have some memories of dad in the winner's circle.

"They always say, `Daddy, when are you going to win the tournament?' It was a few years there, or a couple years, I hadn't won anything," Woods said, smiling. "`Are you leading or not? That's a stock question. `Not leading.' `Well, are you going to start leading?' `Well, I'm trying.'"

As for the PGA, Bob Harig addresses Woods' chances heading into the final major.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "As far as wanting it more than any other, no. It's the same. Those [are] the events that we try and peak for and try and win. There's four of them a year.

"It's important for me to get some rest come Monday and Tuesday and do some light work. Come Thursday, I've got a great pairing with Keegan and Davis [Love]. Basically just try and get a feel for the golf course and how it's playing. Do I want it any more? Each and every major, I always want them. I've been successful 14 times, and, hopefully, next week will be 15."

The highlights:

Time Warner Customers: WGC Bridgestone 3rd Round Highlights

At least, for the residents of New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas where local CBS stations have been blacked out by the cable operator in a pricing spat.

Meanwhile, it may not really matter as Tiger has a seven shot lead and based on what Bob Harig wrote, Tiger got his bad round of the way and still managed to score, a big positive heading into Oak Hill and the PGA.

"I didn't quite have it, but I scored," Woods said. "And that's the name of the game is posting a number, and I did today. Grinding my way around that golf course today. As smooth as yesterday was ... [that's] as difficult as today was. I was just trying to build my lead somehow, and for most of the day I was doing that. Ended up being a dead push for the day, but that's not too bad, either."

From PGA Tour Entertainment:

Old Course Play Suspended Due To Wind...

And greens too fast for their contours. Again. This happened at the 2010 Open Championship and now at the 2013 Ricoh Women's British Open.

The irony? Greens are sped up to offset modern driving distances and to prevent low scoring, yet whenever we've seen modern elite players on slow greens they don't make many putts.

The official announcement:

Third round play was suspended at 12.33pm on Saturday due to high winds gusting at 38 miles per hour.

Balls were moving on the greens, with the 10th green particularly affected.

Play has been suspended until at least 4.30pm and tournament officials will make a further announcement at 4pm local time.

Update on 2013-08-04 05:56 by Geoff

**Martin Dempster's account of the strange day at St. Andrews.

In case you were wondering about how the greens were prepared with the strong wind forecast, Alistair Tait has your answer.

The LGU had already prepared for the strong winds by not cutting the greens as close as the previous day. “The 11th green wasn’t cut,” she said. “The greens were 9.4 on the stimpmeter as opposed to 10 the day before. They were really quite sticky.”

The weather forecast for tomorrow calls for strong winds again, although not quite as strong as today. If the wind gets up and play is affected, then a Monday finish is an option.

Only nine players finished their third rounds. Those nine players were 56 over par. Rikako Morita was the worst of that bunch with a score of 86, 14 over. Cristie Kerr and amateur Lydia Ko had matching 3-over 75s.

Blayne Barber DQ's Himself Again

And while (maybe) not as dramatic as his second stage Q-School penalty from 2012, the Web.com player could not have picked a worse time as he vies for a PGA Tour card.

Jeff Shain reports on the 66 that would have put him in second place.

As it turned out, Barber realized the error as he was discussing the aftermath of last year’s DQ with reporters. He returned to the scoring area after finishing, asked for his card and saw the discrepancy.

Once a player leaves the scoring area, his card is deemed official.

“I looked [the card] over and didn’t see it,” Barber said, noting that he’d confirmed the proper total with his walking scorer but didn’t compare the hole-by-hole scores. “Somehow I missed that one on 16.”

Luck Of The Draw Does Inbee In?

Ron Sirak on Inbee Park's unlucky draw as Friday afternoon saw winds kick up, leaving the Grand Slam wannabe eight back heading into the weekend.

The change in conditions seemed unsettling for Park, and that is a rarity for the Korean who plays with a Zen-like calm. Her ball striking was not nearly as crisp as Thursday, when she opened with a 69, and her putting was not as precise as usual, although she did make several good six-foot par saves.
 
"[I was] a little bit unlucky with the draw, getting afternoon today, not playing in the morning when it's lovely, but that's the way it is," she said.

ESPN's highlight package and wrap up from Rinaldi and Pepper.

Analysts: Callaway A Bargain

Bloomberg's Brooke Sutherland talks to analysts about the relative "bargain" Callaway appears to be as CEO Chip Brewer attempts to turn the company around.

Thanks to reader cpmy for the tip.

The Callaway brand and the Carlsbad, California-based company’s foothold in golf equipment could lure Nike Inc. (NKE), said Grace & White Inc., which also sees Kering SA, owner of the Cobra brand, as a potential buyer. Private-equity firms also may be drawn by the chance to carry out Brewer’s turnaround plan on their own, said Gilford Securities Inc.

In golf, Callaway is “the biggest, best-known brand name out there available for an acquirer,” Casey Alexander, New York-based director of equity research and a special-situations analyst at Gilford, said in a phone interview. Even after the rally, it “can still be considered quite a bargain today.”

2013 Golf Magazine World Top 100

Of all the rankings Golf's panel seems to select the fewest courses that make you pause and say, "Really?" Yes it's very America-centric and Trump International Scotland landing in the top 50 when it's probably not in the top 50 Scottish links you'd enjoy playing, helps distract from the strange infatuation the list has with South Korea's Seven Bridges.

Nonetheless, Golf presents a timeless architecture-focused list presented with images in gallery form, starting with the world 1-25.

And 26-50.

And 51-75.

And 76-100.

They've also posted the top 25 U.S. courses.

Snead's Claret Jug Brings In $262K At Auction

For Immediate Release...

Sam Snead’s 1946 British Open Claret Jug brings $262,900 to lead The Sam Snead Collection, Aug. 1, at Heritage Auctions
 
Offered by Snead’s family; “Slammin’” Sam Snead’s 1954 Masters trophy draws spirited bidding to realize $191,200; 14 featured lots total $1,106,868 for rare memorabilia Heritage’s Platinum Night Sports event at the National in Chicago
 
DALLAS – The name of Sam Snead, one of the greatest golfers to have ever graced the links, inspired collectors to “Major” heights as his 1946 British Open Claret Jug brought $262,900 as the heart of The Sam Snead Collection, offered as the centerpiece of Heritage Auctions’ Aug. 1-2 Platinum Night Sports Auction in Rosemont, IL, taking place in conjunction with The National Sports Collector’s Convention.
 
The first 14 lots of the Snead Collection realized an impressive $1,106,868 altogether.
 
Snead’s 1954 Masters trophy also provided considerable fireworks in Chicago, as the trophy rose to $191,200, finally selling to an anonymous collector bidding online.
 
“One smart and determined collector actually won The British Open tonight, or at least the trophy,” joked Chris Ivy, Director of Sports at Heritage Auctions. “Collectors recognized that this was not only a chance to win one of the rarest prizes in golf, but that it’s also associated with one of the greatest names to ever play.”