Joey's Golf Bag

Happy 19th Birthday, Michelle! See you on the LPGA Tour next year!

Camilo Villegas won an exciting Tour Championship over Sergio Garcia on the first playoff hole. Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim just missed birdie putts to join the playoff.

Vijay, of course, won the FedEx Cup, posting any score got it done, and he did. Camilo finished second in the FedEx Cup, followed by Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim. Phil Mickelson finished sixth.

More at Villegas makes it two in a row at Tour Championship.

Too far behind to do anything about the FedEx Cup, Camilo Villegas put together a stirring rally Sunday that was good enough to win the Tour Championship in a playoff over Sergio Garcia for his second straight victory.

Villegas overcame a five-shot deficit by making six birdies over his last 11 holes for a 4-under 66, then beat Garcia with a par on the 233-yard 18th hole used in the playoff.

The 26-year-old Colombian, who had gone 85 starts on the PGA Tour without winning, picked up his second in a row with a finish that brought the gallery to life on a sunny afternoon at East Lake.

Michelle, congratulations on making the LPGA Q-school finals yesterday. More in Michelle Wie does it right.

Michelle Wie was 1,744 miles from golf's Valhalla on Friday, but she was happy and possibly on her way to something mystical of her own.

On a sweltering, sunny day in the quiet of the Coachella Valley, with the eyes of the golf world focused east on the men and the Ryder Cup in Louisville, Ky., Wie made it through the semifinals of qualifying for the LPGA Tour.

Playing at the Mission Hills Dinah Shore Course in Rancho Mirage, she shot a one-under-par 71, totaled an eight-under 280 for the four-day event and easily gained a spot among the top 30 for the tour's final qualifying event in Florida in December. Get through that and you have the right to play on the tour all of 2009.

Golfweek reports Wie second at LPGA Q-School after 65.

Michelle Wie shot a bogey-free 7-under 65 Wednesday in the second round of the first stage of LPGA Q-School, putting her in second place in a field of 164.

Displaying the ability that has put her in contention in major championships, Wie birdied five of her final nine holes on the Palmer Course at Mission Hills Country Club to finish at 9-under 135. The 18-year-old Wie was three shots behind South Korea’s Sun-Ju Ahn halfway through the 72-hole competition.

Good playing Michelle, and good luck the rest of the way!

I’m happy to find out that Michelle is going to enter the LPGA Q-School. Some details can be found in the CBS Sportsline article No more messing around: Wie’s heading to Q-School.

After two largely checkered seasons wracked by injury and mostly disappointing play, some of the exemption opportunities for Wie had begun to dry up. As a non-member of the tour, she was limited to six LPGA tournaments a year on sponsor exemptions.

The first-stage qualifier will be held [Sept. 16-19] at the same facility where the first women's major of the year is staged, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, an event Wie nearly won in 2006.

If she advances, the finals are Dec. 3-7 at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.

A second first-stage qualifier is set for Venice, Fla., on Sept. 30-Oct. 3. Players who pay a $5,000 Q-school application fee can enter both first-stage qualifiers if they don't advance out of the Palm Springs event.

It was unclear whether Wie, believed to be the highest-paid athlete in women's sports, paid the extra $1,000 that would allow her to take two cracks at the first stage if she fails to advance in California next week. Otherwise, the entry fee is $4,000.

Good luck, Michelle! I still believe in you!

Vijay Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship by a five shot margin. He’s now far ahead in the FedEx Cup standings. It’s likely that someone will have to win both the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship for Vijay not to win the FedEx Cup.

So much for my assertion that Vijay can’t putt. He putted magnificently, two weeks in a row.

My pick to win the FedEx Cup, Padraig Harrington, missed the cut for the second week in a row and dropped to 44th in the standings. He’ll need to get into the top 30 to advance to the Tour Championship.

My dark horse picks, Anthony Kim, finished T27 and dropped one spot to 7th in the FedEx Cup standings; Phil Mickelson failed to make the second cut and finished T73. He fell to 8th in the FedEx Cup standings.

It’s looking pretty unlikely that Paddy can pull off the FedEx Cup. Even if he wins the next two events, he’ll have 121,000 points; Vijay is already at 120,500 points.

Padraig Harrington, my pick to win the FedEx Cup, missed the cut by one at the Deutsche Bank Championship today. Fortunately, he’ll live to fight another day.

A total of 13 players were eliminated by missing the cut. Some notables who were eliminated from the FedEx Cup due to missing the cut include Ian Poulter, Retief Goosen, Lee Janzen and Fred Couples.

Because 86 players made the cut, there will be another cut tomorrow for the low 70 and ties.

Golf.com reports on a new LPGA English requirement in LPGA to require all players speak English.

The LPGA Tour boasts players from all over the world, and it wants all of them to be able to speak English.

The LPGA will require players to speak English starting in 2009, with players who have been LPGA members for two years facing suspension if they can't pass an oral evaluation of English skills. The rule is effective immediately for new players.

"Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development," deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told The Associated Press. "There are more fans, more media and more sponsors. We want to help our athletes as best we can succeed off the golf course as well as on it."

The LPGA is going to have to tread carefully on this one. Some might interpret this requirement as racism.

Update: That didn’t take long. Here is Michael Walker, Jr. in LPGA’s English-only policy is unsportsmanlike and un-American:

Even those in favor of the concept should be troubled by the fact that the LPGA won’t have a standard testing procedure. Players would be targeted for evaluation based on staff observations, according to Golfweek, and those “who already demonstrate English proficiency will not be approached.”

I had to read this paragraph three times to make sure it wasn’t a satire from The Onion, or a secret police manual from the Eastern Bloc. Not only are they requiring a language evaluation for their golfers, but they’re also making that evaluation subjective and arbitrary!

Vijay Singh won the Barclays in a playoff over Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland. Kevin Sutherland was the first in with an 8 under par score. Sergio and Vijay both had birdie putts on the last hole for victory, but neither putt fell. On the first playoff hole, both Sergio and then Vijay hit long putts for birdie; Kevin Sutherland wasn’t able to hole his long chip for birdie and was eliminated. On the second playoff hole, Sergio hit into the left rough (almost in a hazard) and Vijay hit a perfect drive into the center of the 17th fairway. Sergio’s second shot ended up behind a tree on the right side of the fairway, where he was allowed to take relief for “abnormal ground” caused by a mole. Vijay hit a stellar fairway wood shot onto the green, while Sergio’s third shot was left below the green. Sergio failed to hole his short chip, and Vijay two-putted for birdie and victory.

My pick to win the FedEx Cup, Padraig Harrington, dropped to 23rd place following his missed cut. My dark horse picks, Anthony Kim dropped one place to 6th and Phil Mickelson dropped one place to 4th.

Several notable players were eliminated from the FedEx Cup by failing to make the top 120 for the next event, the Deutsche Bank Championship. That group included Zach Johnson, David Toms and Chris DiMarco.

My pick to win the FedEx Cup, Padraig Harrington, missed the cut at the Barclays today. He shot a 2 over 73 to finish at 3 over, missing the cut by two strokes. My FedEx Cup dark horse picks, Anthony Kim (tied for 6th at -5) and Phil Mickelson (tied for 21st at -2), both made the cut. Of the top 12 in the FedEx Cup standings, Geoff Ogilvy and Ryuji Imada, missed the cut as well.

Eliminated from the playoffs by virtue of missing the cut and being outside of the top 120 are Tom Lehman, Jason Gore, Jon Mills, David Toms, James Driscoll, Chris DiMarco, and Joe Durant.