Golf Pga

Doug Barron has been suspended for a full year after failing a drug test, becoming the first PGA Tour player to fail such a test since the tour instituted their drug policy in July 2008.

Barron may not fit the mold of the normal athlete to fail drug testing, but in golf, he seems like the perfect culprit. The 40-year-old Barron has been a professional golfer since 1992, playing in 238 career PGA Tour tournaments and 110 career Nationwide Tour events.

On Monday, Barron issued an apology in a statement through the tour.

MADISON, Miss. -- PGA Tour officials canceled the weather-stricken Viking Classic on Saturday because of unplayable course conditions.

There will be no makeup date and players will move on to the final event of the season, the Children's Miracle Network Classic on Nov. 12-15 in Orlando, Fla.

Annandale Golf Club received 1.75 inches of rain overnight Friday and Saturday, completely soaking an already marginal course that had areas of standing water and large tracts of mud.

Madison has received more than 20 inches of rain in the last six weeks.

In a rematch that is sure to disappoint bar owners in Caseras, Spain, Anthony Kim and Robert Allenby are set to square off in the World Match Play Semifinals on Saturday, giving us a much-needed golf treat during the offseason.

As you probably remember, Kim and Allenby played against each other at the Presidents Cup earlier this month during the Sunday singles matches, with Kim defeating Allenby 5 and 3, only to have the Australian rip Kim for partying the night before their match.

Rickie Fowler is two weeks into his PGA Tour career and by anybody's yard stick -- even one belonging to the guy with the big yacht -- things are going exceptionally well.

Fowler, only months removed from his sophomore year at Oklahoma State where he was the top-ranked player in both college and amateur golf, made his PGA Tour pro debut two weeks ago in Las Vegas by finishing seventh in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. On Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., he tied for second in the Frys.com Open, losing to Troy Matteson in a three-way playoff.

That means Fowler, playing on a pair of sponsor's exemptions, has made $553,700 in two tournament appearances. Not bad for a 20 year old.

Before this week, Jamie Lovemark wasn't a household name. He'd made one cut this season on the PGA Tour. He is 21-years-old, with the face of a 17-year-old and the clothes of a 43-year-old. Whatever he is, one thing's for sure -- Lovemark has grasped the "luck" concept in golf.

On Sunday, Lovemark joined eventual champion Troy Matteson and Rickie Fowler in a playoff at the Frys.com Open, and after booming a drive on the first playoff hole, Jamie was left a short iron to a green guarded by a pond. Fowler and Matteson were both safely on the green, but without real birdie opportunities. Lovemark had a chance. Well, until he pushed his iron shot well right of the green, directly in the lake, only to have it pop out.

On a week when the hole seemed to be the size of a bucket for most of the golfers at the Frys.com Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., it was only fitting that Troy Matteson end the playoff with a tap-in birdie. Matteson, who at 29 was the ancient man in the three-man playoff, beat Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark to win his second career PGA Tour tournament at Greyhawk Golf Course, in an interesting conclusion to a very golf-friendly week.

Matteson, who had the tournament all but wrapped up, inexplicably bogeyed his 17th and 18th holes to fall into a playoff with the 20-year-old Fowler and the 21-year-old Lovemark, and that was just when the fun began.

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Nicholas Thompson isn't a household name on the PGA Tour. He's ranked 145th on the money list and is currently playing in the Frys.com Open in hopes of a high finish to possibly secure his card for next season. Oh, and he's the guy that played two holes 5-under on Saturday at Greyhawk Golf Club.

Thompson, who shot rounds of 66-68 on Thursday and Friday, jumped up the leaderboard after a double-eagle on the par-5 11th hole, when he knocked in a 3-wood from 261 yards for the rare albatross. After he made a dinky par on the 12th hole (come on Nick!), Thompson stood on the tee of the par-3 13th and hit a 7-iron ... in the cup.

Double-eagle, par, hole-in-one.

Rickie Fowler was asked on Friday, after a second round 64 put him in a tie for the lead at the PGA Tour's Frys.com Open, if he was still planning on going through Q-School next week to try and earn his tour card for 2010.

"Right now that's still the plan. First stage is starting next Tuesday," Fowler told PGATour.com.

The crazy thing is, he might not have to if he keeps this up. Fowler, just 20-years-old and playing in his second event on the PGA Tour as a professional, is tied for the lead at 11-under after rounds of 65-64, making one more eagle (2) than he's made bogeys (1) the last two days at Greyhawk Golf Course.

In the past 20 years, golf has a small number of images that have burned themselves deep into our brains. Greg Norman hitting his knees on Sunday at the Masters in 1996. A year later, Tiger Woods winning his first major championship and embracing his father, Earl, with such power and love that it made non-golf fans tear up. Payne Stewart, needing to hole a putt on the 18th green at Pinehurst, rolling it in and extending out on one foot, hand in the air, a memory lasting forever.

On Sunday, it will be 10 years since Stewart died tragically in an airplane crash, exactly four months and two days after that putt dropped at the U.S. Open. It was a moment that rocked the golf world, but gave everyone a chance to remember just how special Payne was to the PGA Tour. A religious man, Stewart wore a WWJD (What What Jesus Do) bracelet on his wrist that Sunday at Pinehurst, and, in typical Payne fashion, grabbed Phil Mickelson, who finished second that day, moments after the winning putt dropped and told him, "You're going to be a father," helping to ease the pain of defeat.

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I've played both courses at the wonderful Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., sitting in the shadows of Pinnacle Peak, a few miles north of the more well known TPC Scottsdale and it's raucous FBR Open. I'll tell you this -- that course isn't as easy as the PGA Tour players are making it look after the first round of the Frys.com Open.

Nick O'Hern is leading the par slaughterfest after his 7-under 63 skipped past Bob Heintz and Heath Slocum's 64s, four others at 65 and 15 players at 66. The problem is, after the Presidents Cup, is anyone besides us golf enthusiasts (Read: driver nerds) paying a lot of attention?

See, after the FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour kicks off what is called the Fall Series, that includes the last two weeks, the Frys.com, and two more tournaments that end in mid-November. Basically, the Fall Series is a fancy name for the more definitive name, "Race to Gain More Money and Earn your 2010 PGA Tour Card." Okay, lengthier, but more truthful. Players that struggled all season have a chance to go out in these tournaments and earn more money, hoping to find themselves in that coveted top-125 which keeps them with a good paying job for another season.