Darren Clarke, Open Championship, Northern Ireland

I was delighted to see Darren Clarke win the Open Championship yesterday. He’s a great player and a fine man. For a golfer from Northern Ireland, the Open is the greatest victory one can have.

I’m starting to think that I want to move to or at least visit Northern Ireland. There are really only a few people I know of from there, but they are all very nice and very funny.

David Feherty, the former Ryder Cup player and current golf commentator is the funniest man in sports broadcasting and maybe on all of TV.

Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open Champion, is as funny and charming as well as being a threat to win any tournament he plays in.

Rory McIlroy, until this week the newest sensation in golf, seems like a delightful young man who will, as he ages, be able to keep up with the wit of his golfing countrymen.

And now we have Clarke, who went head to head with Tiger Woods years ago to defeat him in the Match Play, and who charms as well as he hits a golf ball.

Thanks to the Northern Irish, who remind me that the game of golf is exactly that – a game.

Aronimink, Nick Watney, Rickie Fowler

It was another great day at Aronimink Country Club in Newtown Square. The weather was nearly perfect, the crowd was enjoying themselves, and there was some superb golf played.

Judging from the number of fans following the players, Rickie Fowler was the most popular player out there. Fowler proved again that he was more than just a flamboyant dresser by firing a wonderful 64. Fowler enters the last round ties with Nick Watney at 9 under par.

Before this week, the course record at this great Donald Ross designed course was 64. Today alone, 2 guys shot 64 – Fowler and Webb Simpson. 2 more, Chris Kirk and Steve Marino shot 63. One player, Nick Watney, shot an unbelievable 62, including a preposterous 27, that’s right, 27, on the back nine. Watney’s record score sets him up as tied for the lead with Fowler entering the last round on Sunday.

I played Aronimink once, a few years ago, on a rainy day. It was really long, very difficult, and very impressive. Earlier this week, Tiger called the course “shortish”. I suppose it does play much easier when you are bombing drives in the 300 yard plus range. But for that many players to go this low, all on the same day, is astonishing to me. I didn’t think the conditions were easy by any stretch, with little rain recently to soften the course. Indeed, some great players struggled. But 62? That is amazing.

Golf fans, be advised. Tomorrow may be one of the last times you have a chance to see PGA Tour golf in the area for quite a while. True, the U.S. Open will be played at the venerable Merion Golf Club in 2013, but don’t expect tickets to be widely available. The USGA usually sells out Open tickets, and I doubt if there will be many left for the general public to get their hands on.

Great Day at Aronimink!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day Friday at Aronimink County Club for the second
round of AT&T National. For a field without Tiger Woods, the crowd was good
and enthusiastic. With great weather and good fan support, it's a bit of a
mystery why the PGA Tour was absent from the area for most of 2 decades.

I thought I'd share some tips with the readers about how best to enjoy the
tournament. Close observers of the tournament may have noticed that no
walk-ups were permitted to enter. Only those who arrived on shuttle busses
or taxis or limos were allowed to come in.

It turned out that this was a good idea, as the entrance road was rather
narrow, and could not safely accommodate passing shuttle busses plus
pedestrians. I doubt if the police would actually try to enforce this rule,
but not too many people tried to challenge it.

Aronimink is one of the many older courses in the region whose designers
probably did not give one single thought to how spectators or golf carts
would fit on the course. Donald Ross just concentrated on designing a great
test of golf, and he produced a great work of art here.

There are a lot of spots out there where it is very difficult to get a good
view of the players as they hit a shot and to follow the ball until it
stops.

We did find a great spot behind the 5th green, where you could see the
players hot off that hole's tee, watch them chip and putt, and see the tee
shots on the 6th hole. As a bonus, you easily turn to your left and see
players hit their approach shots into the 12th green.

Another great spot was behind the 3rd green, where you could watch the
approach shots, and then walk over to the 4th tee to watch players hit their
drives.

No matter where you went on the course today, you got to see great players,
a beautiful course, and tough shots.

Pro Golf is in town!

The PGA Tour is back in the Philadelphia area this week at Aronimink. For the second and final year, the AT&T, is being played here because the usual course, Congressional Country Club near Washington, D.C., was preparing for and hosting the U.S. Open.

As many golf fans know, the Philly area went without PGA Tour golf for decades. Remember the old IVB Golf Classic at Whitemarsh? They stopped playing that event because the 1981 Open was held at Merion, and they didn’t think it was a good idea to have 2 events in the same region in the same year. We lost our spot on the schedule, and didn’t get it back.

There was a brief return near the beginning of the century, but the tournament , the Pennsylvania Classic, rotated between eastern and western PA.

Last year, our region proudly and successfully supported this tournament, and I hope we do it again. It would be great to give Tour officials plenty of reason to schedule a more permanent event here.

I checked pgatour.com for a listing of the field. There are a lot of great players here this week. There are some big names missing of course, but there is still a field crammed with wonderful players. Just to name a few who will be here: Jim Furyk, former U.S. Open winner and area native, former British Open winner Justin Leonard, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, former Masters champ Mike Weir, and former No. 1 in the world Vijay Singh.

Check the tournament web site for more information:

http://web.tigerwoodsfoundation.org/events/attNational/index

I hope to see you at Aronimink.

David Feherty show

David Feherty’s new show begins tomorrow night. The Golf Channel has been advertising it for weeks. They should, because I think it's going to be a huge hit. Feherty is going to host a talk show, with some great guests. Naturally, it will have its main focus as golf, but it looks like there will be some variety. For those who don’t know, David is a former professional golfer of some success, and has been a popular announcer for years. He’s from Northern Ireland, which has become increasingly relevant as a golf power over the last year. Last year, as fans know, Graeme McDowell won the U.S. Open, and just yesterday, Rory McIroy, also from Northern Ireland, continued his amazing play to win the Open by 8 shots.

I’ve had the chance to briefly converse with Feherty. He is a very funny man, really knows his stuff when it comes to golf, and has had a very popular column on the back page of Golf Magazine. Feherty has a wonderful way of providing great insight on the game, while not losing sight of the fact that it is a game – and meant to be fun.

Rory McIroy - The new greatest player in the World?

Three rounds into the second major championship of 2011, and Rory McIlroy is positioning himself as the new greatest player in the world.

Rory’s performance this week reminds me of Tiger’s at the 1997 Masters, dominating the field and winning by a huge margin. If you have been watching on TV, you have probably heard countless comments on how Rory had a terrible fourth round at Augusta and did not win.

Many commentators expected McIlroy to fade away, the stigma of one bad round too much for him to bear.

I’m writing this about 6 hours before he tees off. I predict that this phenomenal young champion will shoot a steady 70 and win by 8 shots.

Will he have the longevity to challenge Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors or Tiger’s 14? Let’s face it; Nobody has any idea what is going to happen. But for those of us who are fans of big-time pro golf, it should be a blast to watch.

Another great Masters

I'm sure you've heard by now that there is a new Masters champion. Charl Schwartzel, a relatively unknown player from South Africa, put together one of the greatest finishes ever, canning birdies on the last four holes to nip Adam Scott and Jason Day by 2 shots.

Even though we should have seen him coming, Schwartzel never seemed to be a factor until the end. It reminded me a lot of Mark O'Meara's victory in 1998, when O'Meara snuck up on the leaders and finished off a victory with birdies on 2 of the last 3 holes.

Tiger Woods was at times his old fantastic self, shooting a blazing 32 on the first nine, but missing two short putts on the second nine to shoot 66. Woods was alternately brilliant and mediocre before finishing 4th.

It was a terrible day for the fantastic young star Rory McIroy, who shot 43 on the final nine to go from a 4 shot lead at the beginning of the day to well down the field. I thought I saw something in Rory's face before the round; a tightness that I hadn't seen from him before.

In any case, it was another fantastic Masters and yet more reason that it is my favorite sroting event and TV show of the year.