GREG OWEN came off Sawgrass proud of himself yesterday after showing the golfing world he is a real fighter as well as a quality player.

IF THE average Joe played the 17th hole at TPC-Sawgrass the way most of the pros will play it this weekend, the water surrounding the most famous island green in golf would be relatively calm.

LUKE DONALD sees no reason to lower his sights for the start of the Players Championship - golf's unofficial fifth major - in Florida today.

DARREN CLARKE is determined to cement his place in the Ryder Cup starting with this week’s Players Championship.

WORLD number one Tiger Woods had everybody guessing yesterday when he did not turn up for his planned practice round at Sawgrass on the eve of the Players Championship, the biggest event of the golf season so far.

GRAEME McDOWELL'S season has gone from bad to worse after being forced to sit out this week's Bay Hill Invitational in Florida, in which he finished runner-up a year ago.

LUKE DONALD has finally broken into golf’s top 10 after capturing the Honda Classic in magnificent fashion in Florida.

LUKE DONALD achieved arguably the best win of his life yesterday when he captured the Honda Classic in Florida - and with it moved into the world’s top 10 for the first time.

DEFENDING champion Padraig Harrington had to produce a five under par 67 just to remain four behind David Toms at the halfway stage of the Honda Classic in Florida.

DEFENDING champion Padraig Harrington opened with a 71 as Swede Mathias Gronberg, called in when Nick Faldo withdrew, claimed the lead when the Honda Classic began in Florida yesterday.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON returns to the scene of his maiden US Tour victory with a great deal more expectation on him to defend his title at Florida’s Palm Beach Gardens, today, than he faced 12 months ago.

TIGER WOODS made it three wins in five starts this year - but only after a late scare last night.

THE countdown to next month’s Masters at Augusta starts in earnest today as the US Tour kicks off its ‘Florida Swing’ with nine of the world’s top 10 competing in the Ford Championship at Doral.

SEVEN months ago Henrik Stenson had never played a golf tournament in America. Now he gets called in to speak to the media before he has even hit a shot.

WITH the champion’s lei draped around his neck, Stuart Appleby didn’t have to say a word to size up his feelings about his reign at Kapalua.

SERGIO Garcia and Carl Pettersson are the two Europeans hoping to take advantage this week of the absence of seven of the world’s top 10 players from the opening event of the new US Tour season.

IN THE absence of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, the game's lesser lights have a chance to make an impact this week at the PGA Tour's season-opening Mercedes Championships in Hawaii.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON and Darren Clarke are among the 14-strong field intent on denting Tiger Woods’s record in his Target World Challenge commencing Thursday at the Sherwood Country Club near Los Angeles.

A NERVOUS Ernie Els makes his long-awaited comeback from a five-month injury lay-off at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City today.

BART BRYANT’S wife sat in the back of the room, holding a poster and a Tour Championship sign that fans wanted him to autograph, amused by the message on the poster: Atlanta Loves Bryant’s Cool Moustache.

TOM WATSON overcame a six-shot deficit to record a one-stroke victory at the Charles Schwab Championship in California.

BART BRYANT spent 20 years trying to prove he belonged among the best, often lying awake at night wondering if three surgeries and too many trips to Q-school were a sign he was wasting his time.

AUSTRALIAN Adam Scott finally won the most disrupted US Tour event in nearly a decade yesterday.

DARREN CLARKE claims it will take more than a change in captaincy to reverse a trend that has seen Europe win four of the last five Ryder Cups.

IRELAND’S Darren Clarke overcame challenging conditions to share the clubhouse lead midway through yesterday’s opening round of the £3.2million Tour Championship.

ON a golf course, she’s a celebrity in the international spotlight.

AN angry Ernie Els yesterday hit out at the US Tour — just as he was being confirmed as winner of the European circuit’s Order of Merit for the second year in a row.

Darren Clarke battled to recover from a double bogey seven at the 2nd and Padraig Harrington quietly moved up the leaderboard,in the second round of the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits yesterday.

ALTHOUGH disappointed at failing to make the best of the favourable early morning conditions, Paul McGinley goes into the final two rounds of the US PGA at Whistling Straits on one under par.

DARREN Clarke and Padraig Harrington began yesterday’s first round in the US PGA Championship at precisely the same time - but from different tees.

DARREN CLARKE, Justin Leonard, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh were just some of those who brought the so called “unplayable” Whistling Straits course to its knees in yesterday’s first round of the US PGA Championship.

TELEVISION viewers have a treat in store when it comes to watching the US PGA Championship over the next four days.

ERNIE ELS and Vijay Singh are right on his heels and could overtake him on Sunday night but Tiger Woods has now equalled Greg Norman's record of 331 successive weeks as the world number one.

IT’S not a links; it’s not a parkland course. It’s a hybrid - and it’s unique.

Vijay Singh has been named the European Tour Golfer of the Month for April after winning back-to-back US Tour titles on the US Tour.

TIGER WOODS would be stunned if he does not win his fifth consecutive US PGA Tour Player of the Year award when results of the voting by his golfing peers are announced December 8.

TOMMY ARMOUR III claimed his first PGA Tour win in 13 years and set a scoring record at the same time in the Texas Open at San Antonio.

THE Pennsylvania Classic second round in Farmington was postponed yesterday due to Hurricane Isabel which has been sweeping across the eastern seaboard of the US.

FIJI’S Vijah Singh completed a six-under-par 65 yesterday to win the rain-delayed John Deere Classic in Silvis Illinois and move to the top of the PGA Tour money list.

JIM FURYK, the reigning US Open champion, held off Tiger Woods, shooting a final round 68 to post a two-shot victory at the four million-dollar Buick Open yesterday.