Sportandfashion-news PGA: Stallings Survives & Craziness Guaranteed in Phoenix.

As the 2014 calendar year seems to just be beginning, the 2014 PGA season is already in full swing. With the new wraparound setup of the scheduling, the Tour’s finest players are warming up to the meat of the Tour schedule. Last week at Torrey Pines, we saw an early season shootout for what most thought was Tiger Woods' tourney to lose and he did. Tiger did not even make it to Sunday but that did not stop the hungry field around him from surging to the finish.

It seemed we had half the remaining players left in contention coming down the stretch at the daunting South course, but it made for a dramatic finish. Both Gary Woodland and Marc Lieshman had opportunities to control their own destiny, but they both dropped the ball, allowing Scott Stallings to steal the stage.

Stallings shot a four under round of 68 to grab his third PGA Tour win. Scott’s round was highlighted by an approach on the par 5 18th that looked all but guaranteed to end in the water but somehow checked up on the front side of the large finishing green. Stallings posted a nine under which proved to be just enough to outlast the pack behind him as five golfers finished at eight under. Per CBS on Sunday, Stallings is only one of six active golfers with three wins under the age 30 along with Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Anthony Kim. Stallings is a player to watch in 2014.  

Although Torrey Pines is one of the more difficult, and popular stops on tour, this week presents a whole different beast. TPC Scottsdale will play host to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and one hell of a party with it. This tour stop is far and away the largest attended golfing event of the year and one of the most unique you may ever see during the 2014 PGA season.

The par 3 16th is what makes this course famous, but not because of the course attributes; it is because of the stadium built surrounding the hole, giving the players a feeling like they are teeing off in a not so small arena. Oh, I forgot to mention, most players get the crowd yelling and screaming right before they shot so it sounds more like a football game than a tee box. Although we will not have caddy races this year ( :( ), I expect to see some excitement on the scoreboard.

Phil Mickelson ran away with the tournament last year, and he will be the favorite coming into this week. With his college history at Arizona State, many consider this course to be Phil’s bread and butter. He has won this event three times since 1996 and will look to get his first victory on 2014 come Super Bowl Sunday.

I think Phil is due for regression given his bad back which leaves the door open for others to walk through. Webb Simpson is my pick to grab the win this week. Webb already had a win this season, coming at the Shriners, and is yet to shoot a round over 73 in his 2014 events. Along with that, Simpson has fared well here in his last two showings, both tying for eighth place. Webb leads the tour in many performance categories, including scoring averages, overall birdies and driving distance. I think the driving distance is the x-factor, as Webb is not thought to be a power player and usually uses his precision to string together some birdies.

If you are looking for a party to watch before you Super Bowl party starts, flip over to CBS come Sunday. There will be putts dropping, beers flowing and professional golf being played like you have never seen it before.

-Bryan 

Sportandfashion-news PGA: Walker's Hot Start & West Coast Swing Begins

Bryan Reynolds is on vacation for the next two weeks so I decided to write about golf for a couple weeks.  Truth be told, I did not have much for Thursday so I went with it and I hope it turned out alright. I will return next week.  

In golf, there are many people whom have to grind their way to the top. It is the beauty of golf and tennis because there are only a few cases where the golfer's ascent is very quick and easy. Jimmy Walker won the Nationwide Tour in 2004 essentially a sign that he could be ready for big times to come in the future as guys like Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Jerry Kelly had won before him. It did not happen for Walker as he went up and down for the next several years yet in late 2013, everything seemed to click for him.

Walker has been a professional since 2001 and went without a PGA win until October of 2013 and now is a multiple winner as he took home the Sony Open with a closing round 63 giving him a one-stroke win over Chris Kirk. Walker's back-nine is what won him the tournament. He went five under in the final nine holes, and it vaulted him over Kirk who had the three-day lead. Walker is now eligible for all majors, World Golf Championships meaning he puts himself in the mix for a Ryder Cup spot. Now it is still way too early to talk like that yet it is always fun to see a golfer break through. Walker now earned victories in two of his last six starts which is a hell of a way to start the PGA season.

The PGA West Coast swing begins on Thursday with Humana Challenge which what used to be the Bob Hope event where golfers played five rounds of golf. People realized this sounded a bit nuts therefore it scaled back to a regular tournament out at PGA West in La Quinta, California. Brian Gay took home the title last year in a tournament where he and two other golfers broke the tournament four-round record. Basically if you enjoy guys going low like that Flo Rida song, this is your tournament.

It is hard to really peg whom will actually make birdies when out on the course so it is tough to make a prediction. I honestly do not know how Bryan does it each week, but we will throw out some names worth watching this weekend. The first one is Webb Simpson. He leads the PGA in scoring average thus far and second in Greens In Regulation. Also Simpson is in the top five in Par 4 and Par 5 birdies which is important with a Par 72 course. If Simpson stays with how his season has went thus far, he will probably be hunting another PGA trophy this weekend.

Let's stay with the theme of converted birdies because that's what it will take to win this tournament for a couple more picks... Rickie Fowler seems like a natural choice to take control of the course and win the tournament. He also does very well with coverting Par 5 birdies. Same goes for Keegan Bradley who tees off for the first time this season. For an international flavor, David Lingmerth made his name known here last year and I see no reason to believe he will not be near the top of the leaderboard this time around.

I feel like this is the calm before the storm. We have a tournament away before Tiger Woods makes his debut along with some others. This should be a good one to keep us at bay for another week.

Charlie.