Tiger Breezes to Another Win at the Buick Invitational

Tiger managed to barely pull off another victory at Torrey Pines with an impressive 8 shot win over second place finisher Ryuji Imada. Despite a poor start in the early rounds, Phil Mickelson pulled his game together enough to find a tie for 6th place. Both Tiger and Phil will be playing in this week's FBR open in Arizona.

Pos	Player	Total		Thru
1	Woods, Tiger	-19		18
2	Imada, Ryuji	-11		18
3	Cink, Stewart	-9		18
3	Sabbatini, Rory	-9		18
5	Leonard, Justin	-7		18
6	Durant, Joe	-6		18
6	Mickelson, Phil	-6		18

Tiger Woods Wins BMW Invitational with a final round 63

Tiger Woods took over the FedEx Cup points lead with a 2 shot lead at the BMW Invitational and a final round 63 Sunday. With Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker right on his heels, Tiger was able to pull away on the back 9 and open up a 2 shot lead going into the final hole of the Championship, leaving Aaron Baddeley needing to hole out his approach shot on the 18th to tie. Baddeley came up short and only managed par, giving woods the win. Tiger will be #1 in the points race going into the final round at Eastlake next weekend, and the final round of the FedEx Cup Championship. Steve Stricker will be 2nd in points, with Phil Mickelson sitting in 3rd. With the way the points stand, if Mickelson finishes first at Eastlake and Tiger can pull off second, Tiger will still win the FedEx Cup over Phil Mickelson by 20 points. Next week is going to be as exciting as any major we've seen this year.

Phil Mickelson withdraws from the BMW Championship

After winning the Deutsche Bank Championship and taking the lead in the FedEx Cup points standings, Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from this week’s BMW Championship.

“This decision was not an easy one to make,” said Mickelson, “and in no way is meant as disrespectful to the Tour or “sending a message” to anyone. I’ve talked for weeks about needing to find a balance between my game, my business affairs and my family and now is the time for me to take some time off.”

Mickelson has played four events in the last 30 days and has steadily improved his performance on his way back from a debilitating mid-season wrist injury. Just prior to the Deutsche Bank win he shared seventh place at The Barclays. Only the next four players on the FedEx Cup points list – Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, K.J. Choi and Rory Sabbatini – can possibly overtake Mickelson this week.

“I’m really looking forward to returning to the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta with the momentum I’ve been building and, hopefully, winning the first FedEx Cup,” said Mickelson.

(from: http://www.philmickelson.com/news/view_article.php?s=131)

Phil's decision not to play this week will not be the end of golf as we know it. More than likely he will not retain his points lead after this week, but he will still be in a strong position going into the championship rounds. Expect another good showing from Tiger this week in Phil's absence. Maybe we'll get to find out the background behind Phil's decision not to play Cog Hill.

Will Phil play at Cog Hill next week?

A few statements made by Phil Mickelson at the conclusion of the final round Monday left everyone guessing as to his intentions for next weekend's FedEx Cup tournament at Cog Hill in Chicago. As we all know, Phil usually wraps up his yearly tournament play shortly after the PGA, but with the new format this year, he's more or less obligated to play in the FedEx events, even more so now that he's leading the points race. However, Phil alluded to reporters this evening that he may not play in the next event because of some promises that had not been fulfilled by PGA commissioner Tim Finchem. We can only speculate what these promises were, and if Phil's possible decision not to play in Chicago could be a sort of payback for Mr. Finchem's lack of response to Phil's requests. It's highly unlikely that the ratings would suffer from Mickelson's absence, as they would if Tiger did not play, but Phil has an obligation to the fans of golf to put aside tour politics and finish out the FedEx matches. Hopefully we'll know something in the next day or so....

Phil Mickelson Back Flip...

I know we've all seen this clip of the Phil Mickelson backwards shot before, but it's still fun to see Phil when he wasn't fat. (Sorry Phil, I still luv ya)