Tiger Woods reportedly crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree next to his Florida home in the early hours of 27 November 2009. Just days before the crash, Woods was reported to have been with New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel. After the crash, many more women had come out to tell of their lengthy affairs with him. After Tiger and his wife Elin Nordegren attempted to renegotiate their pre-nuptial agreement, she moved out of their home…

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The Aces’ Priceless Winnings


The A Division champion, Wan Kamarulzaman Wan Chik (left), with Agnieszka Lach of Extended DISC Malaysia

On 11 November 2009, a full field of players teed it up at the lush 6,254-metre Impian Golf & Country Club in Kajang, Selangor, for the second zone of Golf Malaysia’s Ace of Aces Championship that saw four golfers capturing crowns.

Wan Kamarulzaman Wan Chik (handicap 6) won the A Division (handicap 0 through 12) with 39 points, the biggest score of the day. He shot 20 Stableford (Modified) points on the Golden Nine and another 19 points on the Negara Nine to dislodge defending champion Michael Lee Thiam Soon (8) by one point. The elated Wan Kamarulzaman later declared everything went well for him at the championship.

“All my shots were ‘champion’ shots. I’ve been golfing for 20 years, and this is my second time playing the Ace of Aces Championship. In my first outing, I was third. This time, I came in with only two birdies. I guess I must have the champion’s luck!” he said, after receiving a Nikon Laser Rangefinder worth RM1,588, a treatment voucher at Men’s Skin Centres and an invite to attend the Extended DISC (Malaysia) workshop…

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Understanding the Rules of Golf
By Juliana Cheah



The ruling bodies – the R&A and USGA – have made some adjustments to the “Decisions on the Rules of Golf”, which take effect on 1 January 2010. As of now, there are 51 revised rules and 28 new Decisions and one withdrawal. Here are some examples of the revised rules:

Rule 26-1/19: Permissible Dropping Area under Lateral Water Hazard Rule So Narrow that Player Has Difficulty Dropping Within It

Amended to clarify that if the player drops the ball in a wrong place he may correct the error by using any of the options available under Rule 26-1.

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Twenty O Nine in Retrospect
By Lee Lai Heng



As the clock was striking midnight on 31 December 2008 and fireworks lit up Kuala Lumpur’s night sky, a couple of thoughts crossed my mind. How will we, collectively speaking, survive the year 2009 after the collapse of the global banking and financial systems, news of which really started to hit our shores when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008? My thoughts also turned to the spill-over impact the economic crisis might have on the world of golf. But then again, while there was some apprehension about 2009, things turned out far from bleak.

January 2009
The year got off to a shaky start, with the US housing market, banks and automobile makers lining up to be bailed out by the US Government. The commissioner of the US PGA Tour, Tim Finchem, said the effects of tighter credit and the belt-tightening of corporations were present, but with the Tour’s strong cash reserves, everything has set to run normally for 2009.

In an effort to survive the worst sales downturn in a quarter of a century, General Motors (GM) discontinued its sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods, purely from an economic standpoint. The endorsement deal was believed to be worth at least US$7 million a year to Woods, who at that time had not played since winning the 2008 US Open in June…

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Westwood Wins First Race to Dubai
By Doug Neumann

It is often said that imitation is the best form of flattery. And, the European Tour must be in agreement.

The European Tour unveiled their own FedEx Cup called the Race to Dubai, which was scheduled to end with a November 2009 tournament called the Dubai World Championship to be played on a Greg Norman-designed par-72, 7,675-yard Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates that had yet to open. The tournament was to have a purse of US$10 million and a Race to Dubai bonus pool of US$10 million. The European Tour seemed to go one better in planning the Race to Dubai by not going with a points system to rank players and instead using money won in each individual contest as the method of ranking players.

And, like the FedEx Cup, the Race to Dubai, from the time of its unveiling to the start of the Dubai tournament, the European Tour needed to change some aspects of it. Because of the floundering world economy, the Race’s bonus pool and the Dubai World Championship’s purse had been significantly reduced. Leisurecorp, the sponsor, was losing its financial strength faster than desert storms shift sand and an arm of the Dubai government offered to ensure the tournament would be held. A new US$15 million total for the two purses offered a winner’s cheque of US$1.25 million and the top bonus pool’s top prize was US$1.5 million.

When the European Tour’s internationally strong schedule reached Jumeirah Golf Estates, the 20-year-old Rory McIlroy had earned the Race to Dubai No. 1 spot going into the inaugural season-ending event…

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Both Triumphs at Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open



Australia’s Marcus Both ended a frustrating six-year title drought on the Asian Tour with a nail-biting one-stroke victory over Malaysia’s Shaaban Hussin at the US$300,000 Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open, held at Siem Reap’s 7,226-yard Phokeethra Country Club.

Both was six shots off the pace going into the final round but fired a closing 5-under 67 for a winning 9-under 279.

The lanky Australian started his charge with birdies on the 2nd, 6th and 8th holes to make the turn in 33 and continued his hot streak with three consecutive birdies from the 11th hole. A dropped shot on the 14th hole ensured a nervous wait in the clubhouse, however, before he was declared the champion.

He commented: “I was not thinking about winning and the only time I looked at the leaderboard was when I was walking up on the 16th hole. I thought I needed to shoot 6-under to get close, but I guess I’m just fortunate that everything fell my way.”

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