The Korea Herald

Wie set for LPGA Tour opener

OCALA, Florida (AP) ― Well-rested and healthy, Michelle Wie is ready to get back to work.“I’m very excited for this year,” said Wie, set to begin play Wednesday in the LPGA Tour’s season-opening Coates Golf Championship. “No major swing changes. Just working on building upon last year. I want to just keep the momentum going, just keep building.“My goal for this year is the same. I want to be consistent, but at the same time I want to get a little bit better each and every day.” The 25-year-old W

Jan. 28, 2015

LPGA opens with top field

OCALA, Florida (AFP) ― Top-ranked Park In-bee of South Korea and second-ranked New Zealand teen Lydia Ko will try to follow stellar 2014 campaigns with hot 2015 starts when the LPGA season begins Wednesday.The inaugural $1.5 million Coates Championship in suburban Orlando, Florida, marks the opening of a 33-event global calendar offering $61.6 million in prize money.The opening tournament features a field of 120 with a Wednesday to Saturday schedule to avoid a final-day conflict with American fo

Jan. 27, 2015

Bill Haas pulls away to win Humana Challenge

LA QUINTA, California (AP) ― Bill Haas pulled ahead with a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th and parred the final two holes for a one-stroke victory Sunday in the Humana Challenge.Haas closed with a 5-under 67 for his sixth PGA Tour title and first since the 2013 AT&T National. He won the 2010 event at PGA West for his first tour victory.Haas was making his first start since November. He took the long break to rest his left wrist, fractured in April when he fell down stairs at Hilton Head.Pa

Jan. 26, 2015

Bill Haas pulls away to win Humana Challenge

Jimmy Walker wins Sony Open

HONOLULU (AP) ― At least Jimmy Walker is leaving Hawaii with one trophy.Six days after losing a tournament on Maui he felt he should have won, Walker turned in a command performance Sunday on Oahu. He blew away the field with a 7-under 63 to win the Sony Open for the second straight year.His fourth career victory was the most impressive of all. On a course that lends itself to a free-for-all, Walker shot 62-63 on the weekend and set a tournament record with a nine-shot victory. The previous reco

Jan. 19, 2015

Casey, Simpson tied for lead at Sony Open

HONOLULU (AP) ― Webb Simpson made his debut with a conventional putter Thursday at the Sony Open and might have wished he had used one sooner.One year away from the new rule that outlaws anchored strokes, Simpson ditched his belly putter for a regular one for his 2015 debut and ran off eight birdies over his last 10 holes for an 8-under 62 that gave him a share of the early lead with Paul Casey.On a day that made the 144 players feel they were in paradise, Simpson and Casey led a morning of low

Jan. 16, 2015

Casey, Simpson tied for lead at Sony Open

Reed wins in playoff at Kapalua

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) ― Four shots behind with four holes to play, Patrick Reed made two birdies and holed out from 80 yards for an eagle Monday, and then closed out his unlikely rally by making an 18-foot birdie putt to beat Jimmy Walker in a playoff at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.The PGA Tour started a new year without a host of big names, but got a compelling finish at Kapalua.Reed charged back into the picture with his eagle on the 16th hole, a shot that spun back toward the hole and

Jan. 13, 2015

Bae part of 4-way tie for Hawaii lead

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) ― Zach Johnson putted for birdie on every hole and made seven of them Saturday for a 6-under 67 that put him in a four-way tie for the lead after two rounds of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.Johnson was halfway home to becoming the first repeat winner at Kapalua who wasn’t from Australia ― Stuart Appleby and Geoff Ogilvy were the others. But not only is the first PGA Tour event of the year only through 36 holes, it’s extraordinarily crowded.Jimmy Walker dropped a stroke

Jan. 11, 2015

Golf begins new year with events to keep eagle eye on

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) ― Predictions are a dangerous business, especially in golf.How many could have guessed that Tiger Woods, No. 1 in the world and coming off a five-win season, would play in only nine tournaments, finish only four of them and plunge to No. 32 in the world because of injuries?Or that Bubba Watson, who had gone 38 events without winning, would finish 2014 as highest-ranked American?Instead, the start of a new year at Kapalua allows a look into the future ― not what will happen,

Jan. 8, 2015

Golf begins new year with events to keep eagle eye on

Bae Sang-moon to take legal action after being denied visa extension

Korean PGA Tour golfer Bae Sang-moon will take legal action after the government here denied him an extension of his overseas travel and forced him to face conscription, his family said Thursday.Si Ok-hee, mother of the two-time PGA Tour winner, said Bae has hired an attorney to take the necessary legal steps after the Military Manpower Administration refused to extend his overseas travel permit last month.Bae’s permit expired at the end of last year and he must return home within 30 days of the

Jan. 8, 2015

Masters races to keep field under 100

Here’s a new tradition unlike any other ― the race to see if the Masters can keep its field under 100 players by April.For the fourth time in the last five years, at least 90 players already have qualified for the Masters at the end of the year with three months of opportunities remaining before the field is set. Each time, Augusta National managed to achieve its objective of keeping the number of competitors in double digits.By far the smallest field of the four majors, the Masters has not had

Dec. 25, 2014

Rory McIlroy European Tour golfer of year

VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) ― Rory McIlroy has been chosen as the European Tour player of the year, capping a season in which he won two majors, the Ryder Cup and topped the money lists in Europe and the United States.McIlroy, the world No. 1, won his maiden British Open title by two strokes over Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia at Royal Liverpool in July, and less than a month later earned a second U.S. PGA Championship at Valhalla, finishing a shot clear of Phil Mickelson.Between McIlroy’s thi

Dec. 17, 2014

As retirement looms, LPGA icon Pak Se-ri eyes coaching

As she prepares to wrap up a trailblazing career on the LPGA Tour that inspired a new generation of golfers, South Korean veteran Pak Se-ri said Monday she’d like to coach her native country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where golf will make its long-awaited return to the competition.Attending the signing ceremony for her new sponsorship deal with Hana Financial Group, Pak, who made her LPGA debut in 1998, reaffirmed her earlier plan to retire after the 2016 season, and her wish

Dec. 16, 2014

Chalmers wins Australian PGA

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) ― Greg Chalmers made par on the seventh hole of a playoff while Adam Scott three-putted for bogey to give the Australian left-hander his second Australian PGA championship.Chalmers, who shot an 8-under 64 Sunday at Royal Pines after trailing the leaders by seven strokes going into the final round, and Scott and Wade Ormsby, who both shot 71, finished with 72-hole totals of 11-under 277.Ormsby dropped out of the playoff when he made par on the third playoff hole, while

Dec. 14, 2014

Day, Tringale take lead in Franklin Templeton Shootout

NAPLES, Florida (AP) ― Jason Day and Cameron Tringale shot a 17-under 55 on Thursday in the first-round scramble to take a two-stroke lead in the Franklin Templeton Shootout. “The abridged version is, I hit first and then let Jason loose,” Tringale said. Day and Tringale tied the tournament scramble record set by tournament host Greg Norman and Nick Price in 1993 and matched by Peter Jacobsen and John Cook in 1998 and Norman and Steve Elkington in 2005. “Scramble is one of those formats where yo

Dec. 12, 2014

China’s Feng leads in Dubai despite illness

DUBAI (AFP) ― China’s Feng Shanshan, the highest ranked player in the field at world No. 5, overcame a mystery illness to master the tough afternoon conditions and join Sweden’s Carin Koch on top of the leaderboard at the end of the opening day’s play Wednesday of the 500,000 euros Dubai Ladies Masters.In the season-ending championship of the Ladies European Tour, Feng closed with a 12-footer birdie on the final hole of the Majlis course for a six-under par round of 66, a mark that had been set

Dec. 11, 2014

Four Koreans earn full LPGA privileges

Four South Korean golfers have earned full-time status on the LPGA Tour for next season.At the LPGA Qualifying Tournament held at the LPGA International course in Daytona Beach, Florida, Korean LPGA members Kim Sei-young and Jang Ha-na led the South Korean contingent in a three-way tie for sixth place.The top 20 players out of 70 in the fifth and final round on Sunday earned full-time playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2015. Kim and Jang both finished at seven-under 353.Jang had the lead go

Dec. 8, 2014

Tiger fizzles in return, in last after 77

WINDERMERE, Florida (AP) ― Tiger Woods took on any shot without pain or worry Thursday, a feeling he hasn’t had on the golf course in a long time.As for his short game?He hadn’t seen anything like it in longer than he can remember, and it was shocking.Woods flubbed four chips. He took two shots to get out of a bunker on the par-5 seventh hole. He didn’t have a birdie putt inside 20 feet until the 11th hole. And on the four birdie chances he had inside 10 feet on the back nine, he made only one o

Dec. 5, 2014

Tiger fizzles in return, in last after 77

Woods returns with an eye to the past

WINDERMERE, Florida (AP) ― Tiger Woods is making his latest comeback in golf with an eye to the past.Equipped with a new teacher and a stronger body, Woods said Tuesday he is working on a swing that incorporates previous moves that date as far back as his amateur days. He referred to it as “new, but old,” and the 14-time major champion will start testing it this week against an 18-man field of elite players at the Hero World Challenge.How old were some of those videotapes he watched of his previ

Dec. 3, 2014

Kim Hyo-joo to focus on improving short game

Kim Hyo-joo, South Korea’s budding golf star, on Tuesday signed a lucrative five-year contract extension with her main corporate sponsor, Lotte Group. The conglomerate will pay her 1.3 billion won ($1.2 million) per year along with performance-based incentives.The 19-year-old said she is aware of the pressure and weight of expectations that come with such a momentous windfall. And to make sure she can live up to the big contract, Kim said she will place emphasis on her short game during her offs

Dec. 2, 2014

Kim Hyo-joo to focus on improving short game

LPGA major champ Kim Hyo-joo signs lucrative sponsorship extension

South Korea's teenage golf sensation Kim Hyo-joo has signed a lucrative extension with her main corporate sponsor, Lotte Group, the conglomerate announced Tuesday.Lotte Group said it has re-signed the 19-year-old for five more years in a deal worth 1.3 billion won (US$1.2 million), along with performance-based incentives. With each victory, Kim will receive extra prize money worth 70 percent of the purse from Lotte. For a top-five finish, Lotte will give her a bonus worth 30 percent of the winni

Dec. 2, 2014