Juniors: Mika Liu leads Team USA to victory

IMG Academy's Mika Liu won the inaugural World Junior Girls Championship in Canada on Wednesday, and was part of the victorious United States in the team portion.

Liu's 9-under par 279 total earned her a three-shot victory over teammate Megan Kang.

Team USA secured the team title by 18 shots over Sweden.

For more golf highlights from Manatee County players, check out Thursday's Bradenton Herald.

Monday Rewind: Ryder Cup

By now, you watched the destruction: another European victory in the Ryder Cup.

The United States struggled in the best ball format on Friday and Saturday at Gleneagles in Scotland, and the result was the difference for Paul McGinley's men.

Europe snagged a 7-1 cushion in both sessions using the foursome format en route to winning the 40th Ryder Cup 16 1/2-11 1/2. Team USA, which hasn't won since 2008 and has not claimed the trophy on European soil since 1993, seems lost.

So how does the United States remedy this issue?

Bring back Paul Azinger as captain! The longtime Manatee County resident was the last winning Team USA captain, and he came up with a winning group formula to accomplish the feat at Valhalla in 2008.

I'm all for giving different past Ryder Cup stars the chance to captain their side when it's their time, but why not give Azinger the ball when the United States clearly needs a leader that has a proven track record?

The Europeans kept another current Manatee County resident, Tony Jacklin, around as captain for a long spell in the 1980s and the reward with that patience is being felt today.

Jacklin became captain for the European squad in 1983 for the first time, and the team narrowly lost 14 1/2-13 1/2.
That close call was the most competitive Europe had been since the 1969 event when only Great Britain & Ireland was represented. That year's Ryder Cup is best remembered for being the first tie in Ryder Cup history that sparked the inspiration for The Concession Golf Club's co-design by Jack Nicklaus and Jacklin in East Manatee County. Nicklaus conceded a short putt to Jacklin at Royal Birkdale in England back in '69 to produce that tie.

Jacklin's playing moxie was enough to earn him captain honors in 1983, and the European side didn't choose a new captain after the close defeat of that year. Rather, they stuck with Jacklin, who delivered the goods in 1985, '87 and '89.

In fact, Europe has been on such a role since Jacklin had his spell as captain that it is time for Team USA to take a page out of that playbook.

If Hollywood likes bringing top British television shows across the pond and make them successful here, then why can't it work in sports, particularly with golf and the Ryder Cup?

So PGA of America, listen up: bring back Zinger as captain for 2014 or else face the continued stretch of European dominance. It's now 11 of the last 15 Ryder Cups that have gone to Europe.

Wake up!

Tiger Woods, a cheater?

The Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee wrote a recent piece giving grades to different golfers for their performances in 2013.

On Tiger Woods, Chamblee gave him an 'F' for Woods' leniency with the rules this past year. He basically called him a cheater.

To find out more on this story, check out tomorrow's Bradenton Herald for the column.

Sarasota Open field set

Logo provided.

The West Florida Golf Tour's major championship, the Sarasota Open, debuts Thursday at Laurel Oak Country Club.

The four day, 72-hole tournament pits top mini-tour pros from the area against each other in a competitive stroke play event prior to many attempting to secure passage to the PGA Tour next season through Q-School, which gets underway soon.

For more on this story, check out tomorrow's Bradenton Herald.

For pairings, click here.

Manatee County Amateur Championships begins Friday

The Manatee County Amateur Championships begins Friday at Manatee Golf Course.

The three-day, 54-hole tournament shifts to Buffalo Creek Golf Course for Saturday's round and then heads to River Wilderness Golf and Country Club for Sunday's final round.

For more on this story, check out tomorrow's Bradenton Herald.

The first round pairings can be found here

Juniors: Philip Knowles captures junior tourney comfortably

Bradenton's Philip Knowles wrapped up an impressive summer slate with a five-shot victory at the Sam Parks Junior Invitational at Belleair Country Club this past weekend.

Knowles fired a 65-68--133 total for the title in the boys 16-18 year old division. It completed a summer schedule that saw some successes, including finishing runner-up in the Florida State Amateur Match Play Championship.

Now the Bradenton Christian junior is turning his attention to the fall high school golf season.

For more on the high school golf landscape for the 2013 season, check out tomorrow's Bradenton Herald.

The Monday Recap: FedEx Cup begins with a bang

Adam Scott, who shed the stinging defeat at the 2012 British Open from his memory bank in capturing this year's Masters title, took an important first step toward winning the FedEx Cup this past week.

The Australian fired a bogey-free 66, before watching each challenger misfire on forcing a playoff in capturing The Barclays championship in New Jersey.

Scott's final round produced an 11-under par total, while England's Justin Rose (three-putt on the 18th), Tiger Woods (birdie putt inches short on the 18th) and Gary Woodland (putt just short on the 18th) each missed a chance to force a playoff.

The end result is more important than the $1.44 million first-place prize, if there is such a thing. Yes, there is and that is the race for the FedEx Cup title. Scott's victory earned him valuable points, pushing him to No. 2 on the list. He's 162 points behind Woods following his second win of the year.

Despite not winning more tournaments, Scott has played well when it's counted the most. Besides the major championship he claimed to begin this season, Scott tied for third at the British Open and tied for fifth at the PGA Championship.

The latter came on the heels of the FedEx Cup race, and now he's heading to the site of his inaugural PGA Tour victory. Scott won the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2003, and is having a breakthrough season 10 years ago with the chance to add to his win total. Should he accomplish the feat of winning back-to-back, he'll be in prime position to win the FedEx Cup, which has three events remaining in the playoff portion of the schedule that includes this week's tour stop at TPC Boston.

Only the top 100 players in the standings advanced to this week's tournament. The top 70 progress to the BMW Championship, slated for mid-September, before the top 30 qualify for the Tour Championship.