Pga

PGA professional David Hutsell of The Elkridge Club in Baltimore qualified for the 2010 PGA Championship after finishing in the top 20 on June 30 at the PGA Professional National Championship at French Lick (Ind.) Resort. Hutsell, 39, will be competing in his first PGA Championship, which runs Aug. 12-15 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. University of Maryland Terrapins' Profit dominates field for heptathlon title Maryland track and field All-American Kiani Profit won the heptathlon at the North America-Central-America-Caribbean Under-23 Championships on Sunday.

It was only a few weeks ago that the LPGA was taking flak for the fact that no U.S.-born player had won a tournament this year. The ensuing weeks have produced an interesting turn of events. The LPGA can point out it has crowned an American winner more recently than its PGA Tour counterparts. While Graeme McDowell introduces himself to the U.S. sports public and pundits ponder the recent shortcomings of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, there's an American mini-drought going on among the game's top Y-chromosome pros.

Rory Sabbatini's heart and sense of golf history certainly are in the right place. The sentiments of a defending champion, though, may not stand up to the hard-bitten realities of the contemporary PGA Tour. The Byron Nelson Championship plays its 43rd edition this week — honoring the gentlemanly "Lord Byron" whose run of 11 consecutive tournament wins and 18 in a season might as well be chiseled into the PGA Tour record books. "The only emissary this tournament will ever need is Byron Nelson's name," Sabbatini told reporters not long ago. "That in itself is inspiration enough for anybody on tour."

— That bizarre Thanksgiving night SUV wreck still may be haunting Tiger Woods — on the golf course. And suddenly, his health for another U.S. Open might be in jeopardy. Woods withdrew midway through Sunday's final round at The Players Championship, complaining of a neck injury that he revealed for the first time has been bothering him for weeks. South African Tim Clark shot a final-round 67 to finish at 16-under-par and defeat Australian Robert Allenby by one shot to win the tournament.

This is the PGA Tour's feel-good week. Days after cacti appeared to outnumber spectators at the Accenture Match Play Championship near Tucson, Ariz., the tour moves to the renamed Waste Management Phoenix Open. It's a golfapalooza event that features live music, ample amounts of boozing and sunscreen and masses of fans. Tournament Chairman David Rauch predicts that as many as 120,000 will show up for Sunday's final round. Most tour players love it. "It's the most fun week of the year," Kevin Streelman said by telephone.

The PGA's Tour's new "it" guy, Dustin Johnson, can dunk a basketball. Barefoot. That seems fitting for a player who has entered some rare air. After making a final-round birdie on the 18th to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Johnson became just the second American in his 20s with three or more PGA Tour victories. The other is Sean O'Hair. Just four 20-something Yanks have multiple Tour victories, and you deserve a tee time at Cypress Point if you can name them: Anthony Kim, Nick Watney, D.J. Trahan and J.B. Holmes.

Rickie Fowler HONOLULU - His Web site boasts "the world is talking about Rickie Fowler." And while the citizens of Uzbekistan might not care about the toned and tanned PGA Tour rookie, the golf world is enamored. Much of that can be traced to Fowler's collegiate and amateur accomplishments - a two-time All-America at Oklahoma State, he went unbeaten in four matches at the 2009 Walker Cup. The rest probably reflects Fowler's subhead look - a giant Puma logo on his black painter's cap - and his novel hobby, by golfers' standards: He digs Motocross and has been riding bikes since before he could read - a book or a putt.

The PGA Tour's decision to move next year's Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship from Baltimore Country Club in Timonium to the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm did not surprise BCC general manager Michael Stott, but he has mixed feelings about it leaving. The move, which the tour announced Wednesday, was first broached to Stott shortly after the 2009 event ended last month. Jay Haas came from behind to beat Tom Watson at Five Farms. Stott graciously accepted the tour's decision to leave Baltimore and then return in 2011, with Constellation Energy remaining as title sponsor.

CHASKA, Minn. - - When the final book on Tiger Woods is written, these two names will need to be highlighted: Ed Fiori and Y.E. Yang. Not Sergio Garcia. Not Phil Mickelson. Not Ernie Els. At least not yet. Fiori came from behind to beat Woods on the final day at the 1996 Quad City Classic, and Yang did the unthinkable Sunday, overtaking Woods in the final round of a major, the PGA Championship. Wearing all white, the ghost-like figure shot a 2-under 70 to become the first player from Asia to win a men's major and the first to beat Woods after he had a 54-hole lead in a major.

CHASKA, Minn. - - A news conference moderator reminded reporters Friday evening that Tiger Woods is the "36-hole leader" of the PGA Championship. OK, it only feels like the tournament is already over. At 7-under-par, Woods leads the field by four shots - but it feels more like 40. Even Padraig Harrington, probably the biggest threat to Woods' coronation, seems resigned to fighting for second. "If Tiger plays the golf he's capable of over the weekend," Harrington said, "then he will be the winner."