|
PINEHURST, N. Cheap Ecuador Soccer Jerseys .C. -- Bubba Watson has one thing going for him: So far, nobody else has a better chance at winning a second major this year. "Ive already got one," he quipped Tuesday. The two-time Masters champion came to Pinehurst this week for the U.S. Open hoping to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to win the years first two majors. "Any time you have that chance, its been a good year, because that means youve done well early," Watson said. The worlds third-ranked player is trying to join that short list of players to win both the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. Its only happened six times and before Woods, nobody had done it since Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Watson is certainly hoping this attempt goes better than the last one. Two years ago at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, he missed the cut after shooting an 8-over-par 78 in his opening round. Through the years, the U.S. Open has provided a particularly vexing test for Watson, who has missed the cut in three of his seven Opens. His only top-10 finish came in 2007 when he tied for fifth at Oakmont -- perhaps the toughest of the courses that have staged golfs national championship. "A U.S. Open brings out challenges that were not used to, challenges that we can only take once a year or we would all find new jobs if we had to do it every week," Watson said. And a different set of them awaits this week at the revamped Pinehurst No. 2 course that looks nothing like it did when Payne Stewart (1999) and Michael Campbell (2005) won Opens here. Watson it called "a second-shot golf course" and said it bears no resemblance to the Augusta National course hes twice conquered "except its 18 holes, thats about it." The multi-million-dollar restoration to Donald Ross original design, removed the rough and left only two cuts of grass -- fairway and green. Birdies figure to once again be rare at the U.S. Open, where bogeys arent necessarily bad and the winner is often the one who takes the smartest shots and makes the fewest mistakes. Hell find out over the next few days if his daring "Bubba golf" style will work on a course that has only two par-5s. Watson leads all PGA Tour players with an average driving distance of 314 yards -- a distinct advantage at the various courses on the tour. But maybe not at Pinehurst No. 2, where sandy hardpan, wiregrass and weeds make up what used to be the rough. "Its all about the tee shots. Im going to try to lay farther back than normal, because its still iffy hitting in that -- I dont know what they call it, rough, dirt, sand. ... But its going to be iffy. You dont know what kind of lies youre going to get." Get through that and out of the fairways, and those notoriously tricky turtleback greens -- which a smiling Watson repeatedly called "unfriendly" -- await. The "U.S. Open is challenging you at all levels. If you want to be a man and hit driver off that tee, you can," he said. "If you want to lay back and try to play smarter, you can. ... You have the ability to do it, now can you do it at that moment, is what the key is. "So I think the U.S. Open is doing that, its just thats what theyre trying to create," he added. "Theyre trying to create a challenge for everybody, and you can play it aggressively or you can play it smartly." Cheap Stuttgart Jerseys . Sotnikova trailed the 2010 Olympic champion by just .28 points after the short program on Wednesday, but had a brilliant free skate on Thursday. She earned a top score of 149. Cheap Aston Villa Jerseys . Tuesday nights 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox fit that category perfectly. Michael Bourns two-run double in the seventh inning snapped a 3-all tie and extended Clevelands winning streak to a season-high five straight games.TORONTO -- The Brooklyn Nets limped into Toronto missing several key players. But the Raptors may as well have been missing a few of their own. DeMar DeRozan poured in 27 points while Kyle Lowry had 24, but -- until the final frantic few minutes -- the two had little help from their Toronto teammates in a 102-100 loss to the Nets on Tuesday. "We didnt play with that desperation attitude and weve got to have that every time we walk out because were not going to out-talent anybody," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "Were a team thats got to be scrappy and again, we didnt play that way until the last five minutes." Andray Blatche had 24 points to top the injury-depleted Nets (4-10), who came into the game on a five-game losing streak, last in the Atlantic Division, and with the third worst record in the NBA. Joe Johnson had 21, while Paul Pierce had 16 points and Kevin Garnett has 12 points with six rebounds. The Nets were missing Deron Williams (sprained ankle) Andrei Kirilenko (back spasms) and leading scorer Brook Lopez (sprained left ankle). But it was the Raptors (6-8) who could have used some more help. Steve Novak was the only other player to score in double figures with 12 for the Atlantic Division leaders, who lost for the first time in three games. Rudy Gay had nine points, while Tyler Hansbrough and Jonas Valanciunas had seven rebounds apiece. "We definitely didnt (score) in the paint too much, second-chance points, we missed a couple of rebounds that we shouldve had, they were just trying to bully us," DeRozan said. "We waited too long to lock down and throw a punch back." The Raptors trailed 81-76 heading into the fourth quarter of a game that saw neither team -- save for a handful of individual performances -- play particularly well. The Nets had assembled a 15-point lead with a little more than five minutes to go and the game seemed out of reach, but the Raptors came to life in the final two minutes. Gay drained a three with 24 seconds to pull the Raptors to 101-100. Shaun Livingston missed one of two free throws with 11 seconds left, but Gay passed off to an open Amir Johnson in the corner whose three-point attempt clanged off the rim. "Rudy couldve shouldve had a shot, he didnt take it," Casey said. "Amir had a clean look, it was straight, right on line, and he works on that shot eevery day in practice. cheap soccer jerseys. But (Gay) made that decision and I trust Rudy in that situation." The Raptors had one of their worst defensive efforts of the season, allowing the Nets to shoot 51 per cent from the field. The Raptors shot 44. Brooklyn outscored Toronto 48-28 in the paint, and outrebounded the Raptors 39-34. "They did whatever they wanted, whether it getting to the rim, jump shots," Casey said. "There was no redeeming qualities with our defence until the end, we got scrappy at the end." Nets coach Jason Kidd, who played for the same 2011 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks team that Casey was a coach of, rubbed his hands over his face in sheer relief after Johnsons miss at the buzzer. "Those guys in that locker-room, I think they finally said they had enough," Kidd said. "They were talking for 48 minutes. The schemes defensively and offensively werent always perfect but those guys stayed the course. "Theres a bunch of guys in there with pride and they understood what they had to do tonight against the division leading Raptors. A big win on the road." Casey had kind words for Kidd before the game, saying he was "a reason why a lot of us (Dallas coaches) are around, his play as a player. We owe him a lot, just for what he did for us in Dallas as a player." But Casey said he wouldnt spend any time Tuesday catching up with Kidd, saying "Friendship is for the summertime." DeRozan got off to a strong start, making all five of his shots -- including three three-pointers -- in the opening 10 minutes, to put Toronto on top 28-26 heading into the second quarter. The Nets shot 55 per cent against Torontos lackadaisical defence in the second quarter, and seven straight points by Joe Johnson put the Nets up by four and the visitors took a 55-51 lead into the locker-room at halftime. DeRozan carried Toronto with 11 points in the third, but the Raptors couldnt make up any ground on the Nets, and a driving jumper with three seconds left in the quarter put Brooklyn up 81-76 with a quarter left. The game was the second of a four-game homestand for the Raptors, that has Toronto hosting the Miami Heat on Friday and Denver on Sunday. NOTES: The Nets roster features former Raptors Reggie Evans and Alan Anderson. . . Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic was at the game and helped chuck balls up into the crowd during a timeout.cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' ' |
