Bogey

It was a putter-perfect ending for Mike Grimm.The St. Paul's senior ended his final year by draining a six-foot eagle on the 18th hole at Woodholme Country Club in Reisterstown to capture the 1999 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Tournament yesterday.Grimm, who had started three strokes behind leader and fellow teammate Ben Phelps, finished with a 4-over-par 77 and had a three-round total of 231. Senior Mike Bosica of Loyola and sophomore Chris Baloga of Calvert Hall tied for second, two strokes back at 233.Phelps, a sophomore, and senior Clark Adams of Mount St. Joseph finished with a fourth-best 235.Grimm said he hopes to use the title as a springboard to playing for Elon College in North Carolina this fall.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- By the look of things yesterday in the 63rd Masters, the new look of Augusta National did little to deter some familiar faces from occupying some familiar places on the leader board.Consider this: Of the top eight players, seven have combined for 11 major championships. Two have won the Masters and two others have finished second. This is clearly not the Milwaukee Open."Experience is a great factor here," said Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain. "The more you have played here, the more you know what you have to do on each hole and what shots you have to hit. But at the end of the day, you still have to play well."

Adrian Druzgala finally struck gold, as he charged through the back nine to a dramatic, one-stroke victory in the 32nd annual Maryland Amateur Stroke Play championship yesterday.At the start of the hot, humid final round at Mount Pleasant Golf Course, there were eight players within four shots of leader Bart DeLuca, but when it was over, Druzgala's 72 led the pack, producing a 54-hole total of 215.In striking a blow for the middle-aged, Druzgala, 47, who had been thwarted with three seconds among a bunch of top-10 finishes in this event over the last dozen years, had to turn back bids by two talented teen-agers.

It was a putter-perfect ending for Mike Grimm.The St. Paul's senior ended his final year by draining a six-foot eagle on the 18th hole at Woodholme Country Club in Reisterstown to capture the 1999 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Tournament yesterday.Grimm, who had started three strokes behind leader and fellow teammate Ben Phelps, finished with a 4-over-par 77 and had a three-round total of 231. Senior Mike Bosica of Loyola and sophomore Chris Baloga of Calvert Hall tied for second, two strokes back at 233.Phelps, a sophomore, and senior Clark Adams of Mount St. Joseph finished with a fourth-best 235.Grimm said he hopes to use the title as a springboard to playing for Elon College in North Carolina this fall.

WEST POINT, Miss. -- Jimmy Chuasiriporn left to go swimming yesterday after watching his big sister make three birdies on the front nine at Old Waverly Golf Club and make the turn at 3-under par, taking the early lead in the 54th U.S. Women's Open.When the 11-year-old returned about two hours later, Jenny Chuasiriporn made another birdie on the par-3 17th hole. Then he saw his sister's score -- 5-over par. "He said, `What happened?' " recalled their mother, Edy. "He was very surprised."What happened to the 21-year-old from Timonium in her professional debut was nothing short of bizarre, but then strange things are supposed to happen in this tournament.

Mike Mitchell overcame two-day leader Dirk Schultz's five-shot advantage in the first eight holes and went on to capture the 78th annual Maryland Open yesterday.Mitchell, 19, an amateur from Chevy Chase's Columbia Country Club, finished with a 3-under-par 69, the day's low round, and a 54-hole total of 205 at Hillendale Country Club.Schultz, 34, head professional at Hagerstown's Beaver Creek Country Club, finished three back with 77-208 on a day that saw both golfers birdie the first hole.

MIAMI -- There is a reason the closing hole of the Blue Monster is so highly regarded. It chews up players and spits them out. The 18th hole -- rated the most difficult on the PGA Tour last year -- engulfs its conquerors with drama and demoralizes those who go down in defeat.Just ask Steve Elkington.He kicked a dent in the scorers' trailer yesterday after storming off the 18th green with a bogey that severely jeopardized his lead at the Doral-Ryder Open. Two hours later, after Ernie Els and Greg Kraft were added to the list of victims of the menacing finishing hole, Elkington was back, this time after notching his 10th career victory and earning a winner's check of $540,000.

Candie Kung, ranked No. 1 in the country among junior girls, lived up to her billing yesterday, firing a 3-under-par 69 that earned her the U.S. Girls' Junior qualifying medal with a 36-hole total of 142 at the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club.With the low 64 advancing to match play in the championships, seven played off for two spots at 162. In what turned out to be the most exciting part of the program, the playoff went to the sixth extra hole before Miranda Smith parred the 18th to outlast Yvonne Choe.

Two teams who have enjoyed recent golfing success bolted to the front of the annual Baltimore two-man team championship with opening-round 67s yesterday at Mount Pleasant Golf Course.Brothers Joe and Dan Hoffman, the runner-up entry in the Maryland State two-man team chase two weeks ago, shot 34-3367 in reaching 4-under par over the 6,700-yard, par-71 layout.Later, they were joined by Bob Atwell and Ed Lipski, who also finished with 34-33. The latter side actually held the lead going to No. 9 (they had started on 10)

KILLINGTON, Vt. -- The sound has become all too familiar to Jenny Chuasiriporn. It is the unmistakable thwack that occurs when a golf ball squarely hits the trunk of a tree, which happened Thursday afternoon when Chuasiriporn hooked her drive off the ninth tee here at the Green Mountain National Golf Course.After searching for a couple of minutes, a volunteer working at the SmartSpikes Futures Classic found Chuasiriporn's ball among some stones in a drain to the left of the fairway. Her errant shot led to a bogey to close out an opening-round, 4-over-par 76."

AUGUSTA, Ga. -The "Paddy Slam" got buried on Augusta National's par-5 second hole Saturday. Padraig Harrington did the digging himself after taking a quadruple-bogey 9. After Harrington pulled his drive into the woods, he punished his ball with another shot that hit nothing but tree. "You live and learn," he said. By the time Harrington blasted out, his hopes for a third consecutive major title were all but gone. In one hole, Harrington went from 2-under-par to 2-over. He remained composed, though, shooting 3-under over the final 16 holes for a 1-over 73. He's at 1-under 215, 10 strokes behind co-leaders Angel Cabrera and Kenny Perry.

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Opening day for the PGA Tour was filled with oddities, starting with Nick Watney leading the Mercedes-Benz Championship yesterday with a 5-under-par 68 that featured no bogeys. Newcomers are supposed to be at a disadvantage on the Plantation Course at Kapalua with its mammoth greens and severe grain, but Watney kept it simple and sank enough putts to take a one-shot lead over Daniel Chopra and get his 2008 season off to a good start. Brandt Snedeker was in the lead most of the round until he hit what he must have thought was the perfect tee shot on No. 17. But the ball ended up in waist-high grass, some 100 yards behind Steve Stricker.

Farmington, Pa. -- Toy dolls dangle from her golf bag, and shiny pieces of jewelry hang from her ears. She receives marriage proposals from the gallery, and has a calculus test waiting around the corner. Of course Michelle Wie sticks out at a men's golf tournament, but don't interpret any of these differences to mean she doesn't belong. Fresh off her worst 18-hole score since turning professional nearly one year ago, Wie can expect the critics to raise their voices to newfound volumes.

Angela Stanford thought about playing a conservative shot from a tricky downhill lie in the 14th fairway. Instead, she talked herself into an aggressive play and ended up hitting the best shot of the best round of her life. Stanford deftly faded her 7-iron approach around a large greenside tree to set up a tap-in birdie, the last of her eight birdies in a bogey-free 64 yesterday that matched the lowest round in the history of the Canadian Women's Open in London, Ontario. "I think I've learned over the last couple of months when I start being conservative, and I don't just hit the shot that I'm feeling I should hit, that's when I get into trouble," said Stanford, three strokes ahead after the first round.

POTOMAC -- It seems a familiar, and fitting, ending for the ill-fated Booz Allen Classic. A Monday finish. A few fans. A decided lack of drama. That will all be on display today at the Tournament Players Club at Avenel after the final round, delayed by six hours at the start yesterday because of torrential rain and dangerous weather, was suspended last night as another storm moved through the area. Ben Curtis, trying to become the first wire-to-wire winner here since 1999 and trying to win his first PGA Tour event since the 2003 British Open, has an eight-stroke lead over Padraig Harrington and is nine strokes ahead of five others with seven holes to play.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - The four muscles arrive first. Wearing Nike shirts, caps and shoes, they surround the green with necks tight and eyes darting. "Get down! Everybody quiet!" they shout. The preening caddie comes next. Behaving as if a golf bag gives one immunity from good manners, Steve Williams forgets he is a guy carrying clubs, acting instead like a thug protecting a don. "No photos, please, thank you!" he screams with every other breath. Finally, here comes the golfer himself, strolling and smiling and standing famously over that Nike ball after another mind-swiveling shot, but is it too late?

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- When Ryan Palmer saw his name atop the leader board at the 16th hole during yesterday's opening round in the 69th Masters, it brought back a lot of memories. They were not of his exploits, but those of a more famous namesake. "It makes me think about people seeing Palmer and thinking Arnold," the 28-year old Texan said after finishing 2-under through 16 holes before play was suspended last night. "This is Arnold's place. I've seen it up there before, and I know what it feels like.

TROON, Scotland - When exactly did the British Open decide to turn into a coming-out party? Last year, it was Ben Curtis, ranked 396th, who was king for a day at Royal St. George's, and yesterday in the cool gray early evening, it was Todd Hamilton's turn at Royal Troon. Truly. Hamilton, 38, is a PGA Tour rookie and the survivor of eight trips to the PGA Tour qualifying school. He has also survived a dozen years of playing on the Japan Tour. Now, the pride of McKinney, Texas, by way of such stops along the golf trail as Osaka and Calcutta, is the newest champion of the British Open.

IT'S THE end of a long holiday weekend, you're not doing much, so you might as well read about my recent hole-in-one at the world-famous Rocky Point Golf Course in scenic eastern Baltimore County. OK, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: please, not a golf column. You're thinking: boy, there's nothing more boring than some stupid golfer droning on and on about that stupid game. Look, I'm totally with you on that. In fact, for years I've said that hospitals could save millions in anesthesia costs if they'd just bring golfers into the operating room.

In the four-year history of the Baltimore Cup, the one constant has been the final score. The streak continued yesterday on a beautiful fall day, as John Lowden coaxed home a curling 6-foot putt on the 18th green to break a tie and provide the Lowden-David Kaplan team with a 3-under-par 69, and a 36-hole better-ball total of 139 at Hayfields Country Club, Drew DeVan-Jim Winner jumped out of the pack to claim second in the 18-team field, a stroke back,...