Justin Rose Dominates Memorial Tournament

Justin Rose Wins Memorial Golf TournamentAn Englishman in the name of Justin Rose has won an American golf tournament. Rose who is 29 years old has took the shot in round of 66 in the Memorial Tournament that was held in Muirfield Village Golf Club.

This young golfer beat his close competitor Rickie Fowler, an American with just three strokes. Rose finished the game with four strokes ahead that overtook Fowler in the 18-under-par 270. Rose was said to rally in ninth hole where he did three straight birdie. He also did a 22-foot par save at the 10th round. Fowler who has been leading in the first round lost hold in the 17th hole when his shot went to the water causing a double bogey.

Rose has been playing for the past few years in PGA tour event and seized the moment in this battle. His record showed 6 international victories including the 2007 European Order of Merit. He said that getting things done in this game was pretty easy. Fowler who is always finished second in the last 19 tours was bothered by the winds. This is so surprising for someone who spent years practicing in Oklahoma. The shot that cost him the tournament was in the 12th hole where he used an iron shot. He admitted that he made some bad swings in the round.

South Africa Ready to Start World Cup

2010 World Cup Kicks Off in South AfricaThere was never any doubt to it but it was officially declared by the president himself that South Africa was very prepared to start the World Cup. President Jacob Zuma commended the association for helping to unite the once divided nation.

Only 5 days remain before the start and already the excitement of the fans are overflowing. President Zuma says there hasn’t been this much enthusiasm since the former president was released from prison in 1990. Zuma was entertaining reporters along with Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria.

Zuma was proud to see the numerous South African paraphernalia all over the country. These ranged from flags, banners, clothes, jerseys and more. He was so touched by the nationalism of the people and yet again commended the tournament as a huge help.

The president also rebuked critics who said that South Africa would not be able to do a good job in hosting the first every World Cup in the continent. South Africa won in 2004 the bid to host the prestigious international tournament from June 11 to July 11.

Blatter also mentioned that he had spoken with Nelson Mandela previously. He said that the South African icon made known his wish to be present at the opening and closing ceremonies.

Zuma says that once the final match is over on July 11, South Africa would be constantly developing its infrastructures and facilities. It will also push thru with the 1Goal education campaign, an internationally supported campaign which aims to educate more than 70 million African children.

Americans Step Up Against Australians in Soccer Game

World Cup 2010 USA vs AustraliaThe United States World Cup team played its final tune-up game a week before they are set to face England. That match will definitely test the entire team’s talent and skill.

The Americans were ahead by two goals when the referee blew the final whistle. 3-1 was the verdict in favor of the US. Edson Buddle gave the team two goals and the third one was scored by Herculez Gomez.

The team played spectacularly well even if some starters didn’t play. One was Jozy Altidore who suffered a mild ankle sprain. He is the team’s forward and will need to rest a lot if he wants to save the game from the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand.

Another who did not start is Oguchi Onyewu, one of the defenders. His last full 90 minute game had been the one against Honduras which the US defeated to secure their place in the 2010 South Africa World Cup. This being said, the staff are hoping he has not gone rusty and can still perform well against a high caliber team like England.

His absence is due to a knee surgery he underwent to repair a split tendon in October. His playing ability has not yet been fully proven though he has performed satisfactorily in the last 30 minutes of the match against Australia.

In terms of defense, the American team seemed to be sturdier than in their last two games, the loss to the Czechoslovakian team and the win over the Turks. Tim Howard, a veteran goalkeeper who has played in elite clubs in England was satisfied with the team as well.

Spain Wins World Cup Simulation

Spain Xbox World Cup 2010 SimulationThe 2010 South Africa World Cup ends with Spain beating Brazil 3-1. Bet you didn’t see that coming?

To settle your boggled minds, you should know that this match was a simulation of the entire World Cup games. The simulation used was the recently launched 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa video game by EA Sports for the Xbox 360 platform. The game was set to play all 64 games in the World Cup which will start on June 11. The supposed 90 minute game was completed in 15 minutes by the computer.

Matt Prior, the producer of the game, says that the simulation is very close to the real thing. He adds, “We have a massive group of data collectors in each area of the world and those guys, all fanatics, collect player attributes like speed, strength and tackling, over 40 attributes for each player, and we feed all that data into the computer.”

The game not only includes the 32 teams who qualified for South Africa but also other national teams which are close to 200 in number. This game is closely related to FIFA ’10 and the upcoming FIFA ’11 which has been played rampantly online in the past year. These games can be played on Xbox, Wii or PS consoles.

The video game takes a lot of data into account. A new feature they added is the altitude of the playing field. This now affects the physics of the ball as well as the players’ stamina.

England’s Injury Scare in World Cup Bid

Rio Ferdinand Ankle Injury World Cup 2010Rio Ferdinand, England’s team captain, suffered an injury while training on Friday morning and was reported to have been taken to the hospital to avail a knee scan.

The team was starting to be composed especially when Gareth Barry returned to train. He is likely to be an opening midfielder in their opening World Cup game against USA. However, Ferdinand’s sudden injury has worried the entire team.

So as not to further aggravate the problem, Ferdinand was immediately taken to the hospital so that the problem could be assessed. England manager Fabio Capello hopes it is nothing serious and that England will have their captain back soon. “He has just gone to hospital for a scan. We hope it will not be so bad an injury but we have Michael Dawson on call” he says.

Asked how the injury came about, Capello replied, “It came from a minor tackle during the training. How bad is it? We will have to wait and see.”

This isn’t supposed to be a big thing as Ferdinand has been no stranger to injuries. Last season, he was only able to start in 12 league games due to various injuries and fitness problems. This time, it’s a big thing though as the next stage they will perform in is the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

On the lighter side, Barry’s return is still a cause for jubilation as there had been doubts if he could recover on time. Barry had suffered an ankle injury in a previous Premier League game.

Tiger Woods Stuck at 50th Place in Memorial First Round

Tiger-Woods-50th-place-Memorial-Golf-TournamentTiger Woods is stumped as he is stuck at 50th place to defend his Memorial Golf Tournament title in Dublin, Ohio. “Wish I could have been lower,” Tiger said. He certainly could have been if he did better on those par 5 holes. However, this is not the case as he mostly ended up even. His opponents got almost all birdies. His par did him no good though.

Geoff Ogilvy, the favorite in the competition, ended on the same time Thursday evening as Tiger. There was a disparity though. One was on the 9th and the other on the 18th. Ogilvy led by seven strokes and was 50 places away from Tiger too. Ogilvy got a par on the ninth and tied for first while Tiger got par on the eighteenth and tied for fiftieth.
The Memorial Tournament was held at the Muirfield Village golf course and was greeted in the morning by a downpour that delayed play for 2 hours. Later, there was another 45 minute pause because of the weather. The downpour had softened the course to the satisfaction of the leaders. Ogilvy and the other co-leaders, Rose and Fowler, capitalized on what they saw as the easiest conditions to play on.

It was obvious that they indeed found the course easier due to the downpour. On the four par 5 holes, Ogilvy and Fowler got -3. Rose got -1 but that was already better than Woods’ performance. Woods had am excuse though. It was apparent that he had only played 9 competitive rounds this year. The others had enough practice for them to be precise in their shots.

Armando Galarraga of Detroit Tigers Receives Chevrolet Corvette for a Near-Perfect Game

Armando Galarraga Gets Chevrolet CorvetteWhat was said to be the worst call in MLB History robbed Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect play Wednesday night. Still, Galarraga’s performance impressed GM so much that it got him the keys to a very impressive 2010 Chevy Corvette convertible.

The Detroit Tigers played against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday that ended with Tigers getting a 3-0 shutout. Near the end of the ninth inning, with 26 Indians’ batters out, Galarraga just needed 1 more out to complete a perfect play. Jason Donald stepped up on the plate and hit a grounder to the infield where Tiger’s first baseman Miguel Cabrera was fielding. Cabrera then threw the ball to first base where Galarraga was. It was clearly an out by a whole stride, but umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe.

As a disply of integrity and good character, umpire Joyce Joyce admitted that it was the biggest call of his career. He was convinced that Galarraga beat the throw until he saw the reply. Joyce made an apology to Galarraga during the presentation of the lineup card last night.

Mark Reuss, GM North American President, still acknowledged Galarraga’s impressive performance anyway.

With MLB Commissioner Bud Selig unable to overturn the call, Armando Galarraga’s perfect play will live in the minds of baseball fans, even if it will not be found in official record books.

Lakers into the NBA Finals – To Get Back at the Celtics

LA Lakers and Boston Celtics NBA FinalsRemember the National Basketball Association (NBA) 2008 series with the Lakers losing badly to the Celtics with a 39-point difference? Everyone thought the Celtics had massacred the Lakers in Game 6 with a 131-92, thus bagging its 17th NBA title that year. This year, the Lakers have entered back into the NBA Finals together with the Celtics. Now the Lakers have got the chance to get back at the Celtics.

The Celtics and Lakers game is one of NBA’s most exciting rivalries. The two teams together have won 32 out of 63 possible NBA titles. They have also faced each other 11 times in the Finals, with the Boston Celtics getting the upper hand in the first seven matches starting in 1959 until 1969.

According to Bryant, who is now the Laker’s leading career playoff scorer, the team has learned something from that series. They have learned to play uniformly as one unit at both ends of the court and have developed the needed tenacity to play the game.

In the upcoming game tonight, the Lakers maybe in favor in the Finals by 5 1/2 points. Because of the Celtics-Lakers specific matchup, ticket prices have shot up from last year’s $709 to an average of $854 this year, based on the Internet search engine FanSnap.com.

This is the first time, since 1987, that two NBA past champions are facing off in the Finals.

Serena Williams Underperforms in French Open

Serena Williams Out of 2010 French Open SemifinalsIt’s another lackluster year for Serena Williams in the 2010 French Open. So bad that it’s the seventh straight year that the number one ranked woman in tennis had not made it to the semifinals. It’s just frustrating for the 29 year old lady racket smasher because she only won once in this competition.

Serena displaced 17 consecutive points in one stretch then won the second match – later faltering in the end to number 7 Samantha Stosur of Australia ending with scores 6-2, 6-7 (2), 8-6 last Wednesday in the Roland Garros quarterfinals. Serena was stumped and qould have asked to play better in the last two minutes – but luck wasn’t on her side. The younger Williams sister overlooked a forehand by an inch that introduced a match point in the third set but then she failed to steal the strokes from Stosur.

Williams explained that it wasn’t just her day and reviewed that she “choked” just the same in the last year’s French Open. Stosur, on the other hand, is having luck on her side as this is her second win after she erased four-time champ Justin Henin from the competition. Stosur will next face number 4 ranked Jelena Jankovic, who conquered the unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-4, while number 5 Elena Dementieva will confront number 17 Francesca Schiavone.

US Soccer Team Arrives in South Africa

US Soccer Team for 2010 World Cup“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Victory!” That’s what you will see on the side of the bus transporting the United States World Cup team to their hotel. Along with that slogan, painted on the side is the famous Stars and Stripes.

The American team is staying at the Irene Country Lodge, a luxury hotel with 74-rooms surrounded by stone walls and barbed wire. The hotel is just to the north of Johannesburg and south of Pretoria.

The team arrived on Monday and was given a warm welcome when they arrived. There are 23 players on the team and they brought along with them an equal number of coaches and support staff. They then resumed practice on Tuesday for their opening match against England on the 12th.

Their venue for practice is in Pretoria’s Pilditch Stadium. It is close to their hotel and is a wonderful stadium to behold. World Cup 2010 is the first to be held south of the equator in several years. The latest one was in Argentina in 1978.

The climate would need getting used to for the Americans. Back in the US, it was mostly warm before they left. Now they are faced with a different climate. How will this affect their game? We’ll get to see them test the game conditions on Saturday in their game against Australia. This will be their last warm-up before the actual games.

World cup fever is definitely in South Africa. It is evident in the ads everywhere and jerseys being sold in the middle of the street.

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