Michaels sets course record, but Korda leads

Michaels sets course record, but Korda leads










The Sports Xchange May 17, 2013 8:20 PMThe SportsXchange



MOBILE, Ala. -- Sydnee Michaels broke the course record by two shots during the second round of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic on Friday. But it's Jessica Korda who holds the lead at Magnolia Grove heading into the third round.

Michaels shot even par in the first round, but put eight birdies and an eagle on her scorecard Friday for a 10-under-par 62.

Korda shot a 7-under 65 to move to 13 under for the tournament. The 20-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., is one stroke ahead of Karrie Webb. Webb shot a 9-under-par 63 on Friday - a score that would have broken the course record, except Michaels beat her to it in the morning.

Six players are at 10-under or better after two rounds. Stacy Lewis won last year's tournament at 17-under.

Chella Choi stands at 11-under, with a pair of golfers from Thailand -- Pornanong Phatlum and Thidapa Suwannapura -- at 10-under.

First-round co-leader Lexi Thompson is at 9-under after a second-round 70. An eagle on the par-5 16th got her under par on Friday.

Thompson shared Thursday's lead with Eun-Hee Ji. Ji finished where she started at 7-under.

Also at 9-under are Azahara Munoz, Ariya Jutanugarn and Mina Harigae.

Munoz holed out from the 18th fairway for an eagle on her way to an 8-under 64.

Jutanugarn is a 17-year-old playing on a sponsor exemption. She has not finished worse than fourth in her four LPGA outings and had a 6-under 66 in the second round.

Korda's seven-birdie second round came without a missed fairway in her second straight bogey-free round. The long-hitter played the four par-5 holes in 3-under on Friday. All her birdies have come on par-4 and par-5 holes.

Korda is in tournament competition for the first time since hurting her wrist while playing in the LPGA LOTTE Championship on April 20.

"Honestly, right now it's Friday," Korda said, "so I think the tournament starts on the back nine on Sunday. So right now, it's great to have the lead, and I feel good. I'm healthy, somewhat, so I'm happy just to be here and playing right now."

Webb had 25 putts in the second round. The Australian stood at 1-over with six holes to go in her first round on Thursday. She was 4-under over the final six holes on Thursday and 4-under over the final five holes on Friday.

Michaels had missed four straight cuts. Her best previous LPGA round was 7-under.

"It feels so good to finally have a good round because I've been struggling the last few weeks and going through some swing changes," Michaels said. "And the week off last week, I just said, 'You know what? I'm just going to go back to what feels good.' So I hit a lot of balls and just kind of got back to where I was feeling good over the ball again. So it feels good to finally have a good round."

Lewis, the defending champion, was tied for 33rd after duplicating her 70 of the first round.

Only golfers at even or better made the cut, which included 80 players.

Former U.S. Open champ, longtime broadcaster Venturi dies

Former U.S. Open champ, longtime broadcaster Venturi dies










The Sports Xchange May 17, 2013 8:40 PMThe SportsXchange



Ken Venturi won only one major championship during his professional career -- the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional in Bethesda, Md. He endured scorching temperatures and high humidity to come from two strokes back on the final day -- which included 36 holes -- to win the title.

The former PGA Tour golfer won 14 PGA Tour events and retired in 1967. For the next 35 years, he wasn't far away from the greens as he enjoyed a long career as a broadcaster with CBS Sports. Venturi died Friday afternoon at the age of 82.

Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last week, but poor health prevented him from attending the ceremony in St. Augustine, Fla. He was inducted under the Lifetime Achievement category.

Jim Nantz, who worked alongside Venturi for years, paid tribute to his partner at the ceremony.

"You did it your way, Kenny. There will never be another one like you. Thank you for the ride. You have left a stamp not just on my career, Kenny, but on my soul."

For his efforts at the 1964 U.S. Open, "Sports Illustrated" named Venturi its Sportsman of the Year.

Venturi turned 82 on Wednesday.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Venturi had survived a bout with prostate cancer in 2000-01 and had quintuple heart bypass surgery in 2006.

During his career on the course and in the broadcast booth, Venturi overcame more than his share of hurdles. He had a severe stutter, and suffered two heartbreaking losses in the Masters. A 1961 car accident left him with lingering injuries and he disappeared into a long, maddening, career-threatening slump, the Chronicle reported.

But when his final putt dropped at the 1964 U.S. Open, Venturi was stunned.

He raised his arms, mumbled, "Oh my God, I've won the Open!" and began crying when he saw tears streaming down the face of fellow competitor Raymond Floyd.

Twists of Fate Gave Us the Gift of Ken Venturi

Twists of Fate Gave Us the Gift of Ken Venturi











Ryan Ballengee May 17, 2013 9:09 PM


COMMENTARY | Ken Venturi's father once said to him, "Son, when you're as good as you are, you can tell everybody. When you're really good, son, they'll tell you."




> Mr. Venturi, you were really good. And we'll really miss you.





The 1964 U.S. Open champion and long-time institution in the 18th-hole tower for CBS Sports died on Friday. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame just 12 days ago, unable to attend the ceremony in person because of health complications that had kept him hospitalized for two months.



Venturi was voted in on the Lifetime Achievement ballot, truly indicative of what he gave to the game. There are few people who can say they were standout figures in two different generations of the game for completely different reasons.



Fellow broadcasting legend Jack Whitaker liked to say of Venturi's career, "Fate has a way of bending a twig and fashioning a man to his better instincts."



Were it not for a strange series of coincidences, maybe fate, we all would have been denied the full breadth of Venturi's gifts.



Ken Venturi grew up with a severe stuttering problem. Before he went to high school, Venturi was told it was incurable. It's that problem that drove him to take up the game in the first place, the first step on a path to immortality.



"I said (to his mother) I'm taking up the loneliest sport I know, and picked up a set of hickory shafts across the street from a man and went to Harding Park (a municipal course in San Francisco) and played my first round of golf," he said at the 2011 U.S. Open.



He won a pair of California State Amateur titles, in 1951 and '56, He teamed that year with high-profile amateur Harvie Ward to take on mentor Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson in what's still known simply as "The Match," However, were it not for a pair of extra strokes in Augusta that year, Ken Venturi never would have enjoyed the career he did.



In the 1956 Masters, Venturi nearly won Bobby Jones' invitational as an amateur. He lost by a stroke to Jack Burke Jr. Had he won, Venturi's life would have taken a different path entirely.



"If I had won the Masters as an amateur I wouldn't be a pro today. I would have stayed there and would have been the chairman, as Bobby Jones said," Venturi said at Congressional.



Instead, Venturi turned pro at the end of '56, winning 14 times on the PGA Tour in a career that lasted just a dozen years. The California native won his only major in 1964, surviving -- in every sense of the word -- in triple-digit heat to win the U.S. Open at Congressional. It was the last time the U.S. Open concluded with a 36-hole final day, but Venturi shot 66-70 to beat the field, as well as severe dehydration and heat exhaustion to win the national title. That was the pinnacle of Venturi's pro-golf career; carpal tunnel syndrome forced him to retire in 1967.



His place, for the next 35 years, was in the booth for CBS Sports, anchoring coverage from the 18th tower for so many years. The broadcast booth could not have been in a more ironic setting for his second career, but Venturi was the blueprint for a color commentator: humble but authoritative, insightful but not verbose, respected and respectful.



Even if you didn't like what he had to say, it was awfully hard not to like Ken Venturi the man.



Venturi had been out of the booth for a decade when the U.S. Open returned to Congressional that year. Almost a decade after his last broadcast, a full room gathered to ask him about that special Saturday he won the Open and to reflect on his incredible life.



Perhaps most striking in his comments was that he could not imagine a better place to have captured his signature championship.



"Not rudeness to anybody, but if I had to pick a place to win the U.S. Open Championship, it would be at Congressional in our nation's capital," Venturi said. "It doesn't get any better than that."



The Open was the one he dreamed of winning, the tournament he thought of capturing when he said, "This is for..." while practicing putting. It wasn't The Masters. Maybe those were his better instincts Jack Whitaker so often mentioned.



Ken Venturi overcame a lot in his life to etch his name forever in golf lore. People noticed. Lots of people noticed and appreciated the grit it took and the grace with which he did it. And it's how people will recall him now that he is sadly gone from our midst.



"The greatest reward in life is to be remembered," Venturi said last October when he was voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, "and I thank [you] for remembering me."



Ryan Ballengee is a Washington, D.C.-based golf writer. His work has appeared on multiple digital outlets, including NBC Sports and Golf Channel. Follow him on Twitter @RyanBallengee.