NOW that’s what they call an emphatic victory. Karrie Webb has shot a course record 61 to win her 7th ANZ Ladies Master by six strokes at Royal Pines.

Webb’s 26 under total (68 69 64 61) equalled her 1999 PLGA tournament record and she will now go into the Handa Australian Womens Open in Melbourne this week as a firm favourite.

The 36 year old former World No 1 blitzed her playing partners, fellow Queenslander Katherine Hull and Korean Bo-Mee Lee, who finished tied for second on 20 under.

Webb started her final round on Sunday on 15 under, one ahead of her playing partners, but when she holed her nine iron second shot into the cup at the seventh hole for eagle, tournament officials should have known it was time to start searching the record books.

At some point they did. Her seventh win in one tournament was being claimed as a Ladies European Tour record, beating Annika Sorenstam’s six Swedish Opens.

She has also equalled Tiger Woods performance of seven wins at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational but will need one more to equal the PGA’s record of eight wins held by the legendary Sam Snead.

“The quality of golf today you were seeing was unbelievable,” Webb said. “Katherine was pushing me all the way. Every time I thought I’d created some breathing space, she came back with a birdie. I’m actually really, really exhausted.”

”Who would have thought I’d be standing on the 13th tee, eight under for the day and only two shots ahead? I was really starting to struggle and was very mentally tired at that point. My hat’s off to Katherine how she played for inspiring me to get to another level. I knew she was going to bring it all today and she did. One of us was going to break, we couldn’t go on making birdies forever.”

Hull acknowledged Webb’s brilliant performance and was looking forward to round two at the Australian Open at the Commonwealth Golf Club beginning on Thursday.

”It was impressive to watch,” Hull said. ”It was an absolute clinic on Karrie’s part. It was nice that I challenged her there for a bit, but she came home all guns blazing and deserved to win. She played great.”

FRED COUPLES will make his first full-field US Champions Tour event debut this week, somewhat stealing the limelight from fellow debutante Peter Senior.

Other new names on the lucrative American circuit for the over 50’s include Paul Azinger, a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour and captain of the victorious 2008 Ryder Cup team, and two time PGA Tour winner Tommy Armour III.

They will all be teeing up for the $US 1.6 million The Ace Classic at The Quarry in Naples Florida (Telecast from Saturday morning February 13 on Fox Australia).

Senior has been having a whale of a time playing European and Australian over 50 tournaments since hitting the magic figure in July last year and topped it off by winning his section of the Champions Tour qualifying school.

Couples, pictured during the Pro-Am for the Ace Classic earlier in the week, was trying to temper expectations before his first full-field event on the Champions Tour.

“People will be watching a lot of us,” Couples said Thursday US time. “There might be more watching me. But as far as expectations on whether I’m going to win or finish second or be in the last group every single week, I’m pretty smart to realize that to do that, you have to play a lot of golf. There are times when I just don’t do that.”

Couples was coming off a 37th-place tie last week in the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust Open at Riviera. He made two senior starts in Hawaii last month, teaming with Nick Price to finish third in the Champions Skins, then losing to Tom Watson by a stroke in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

Azinger was also taking a low key approach.

“I’m not going to stress about it,” Azinger said. “I’m just going to play the first shot and enjoy it. I think if you put expectations, it’s like the cart ahead of the horse.”

Armour was talking about the impression that the Champions Tour is a street paved with gold.

“I don’t have this preconceived notion that I’m going to come out here and they’re just going to give me money every week,” Armour, who had back surgery last June, said.

“They’re going to give you money (because there is no cut), it’s just a matter of how much. To make a lot of money, no matter where you play golf for money, you’ve got to play well. They don’t just give it to you.”

UPDATE: Couples wins, Senior 11th

DAVID MERRIMAN has run down overnight leader Rodger Davis to win the $20,000 Bing Lee NSW PGA Seniors Championship by a stroke.

The New South Welshman finished the 36 hole event at the Oatlands Golf Club in Sydney at one under par.

Third place went to 2009 PGA Legends Order of Merit Winner and Australian Seniors Open Champion Michael Harwood, who finished one over.

Strong winds restricted scoring in the final round with Merriman using all of his European Seniors Tour experience to add the 2009 Bing Lee NSW Seniors Championship to his already impressive resume.

Merriman’s round of even par 70 was the second best of the day with Sydneysider Chris Fox the only player to break par.

Fox recorded a one-under 69 to finish the tournament at four over par and tied 6th.
Merriman, a former Australian PGA Seniors Champion, thought he’d blown his chances of victory after bogeying the short par three eighteenth however Davis could only manage three pars in closing to fall one shot short of the winnings score.

Oatlands Golf Club President Richard Peet praised the tournament success and continued support from major sponsors Bing Lee and Samsung.

ROBERT ALLENBY has cruised to a four shot win at the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum with a second straight five under par 66 to finish at 14 under.

Wearing what this year has become a final round tradition for him – a pink shirt in honour of his departed mother Sylvia – Allenby never really gave the field of Australian golf stars snapping at his heals a look in.

Allenby now joins an elite group of Australian goflers with with four or more PGA Championships, including the likes of Kel Nagle, Norman Von Nida and Bill Dunk.

He had already claimed the Kirkwood Cup in 2000, 2001 and 2005, the last time when he bagged the triple crown of Australian golf with wins also in the Australian Open and Masters.

A week after ending a four-year title drought by defeating Henrik Stenson in a play off at the lucrative Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, Allenby’s late decision to add the PGA Championship to his schedule paid handsome dividends as he grabbed five birdies and never surrendered the lead on the final day.

“I did what I had to do, from the first hole to the last hole,” an elated Allenby said.

“I knew I had some very, very tough competitors behind me and I had a lot of respect for them.”

“So I tried to just pace myself, I tried to hit as many fairways as I could, I tried to hit as many greens as I could.”

“And that’s what I did all day, I just felt totally in control on every shot.”

“It’s a nice feeling to win in that fashion … and the birdie at 15 was nice and then obviously the birdie at 17, it’s always nice to come down the last with a four-shot lead.”

“I was pretty consistent but to do it under the gun in the final round, that’s pretty special.”

2006 Australian Open champion John Senden and 2009 Volvo China Open Champion Scott Strange - who finished third last year - had to settle for a share of second at minus-10, Senden closing with a 67 while Strange shot 69 and Victorian Marc Leishman closed with a 68 for outright fourth at nine-under.

One shot further back were 2006 PGA winner Nick O’Hern (67) and rising star Michael Sim (70) in equal fifth, with Rod Pampling (65), defending champion Geoff Ogilvy (71), Stuart Appleby (68) and New Zealander Josh Geary (68) rounding out the top 10 on minus-seven.

Topping off massive year where he claimed three Nationwide Tour victories to earn an immediate promotion to the US Tour, Sim’s result earned him the 2009 Norman Von Nida Order of Merit Medal for topping the money list, which also brought him entry into the 2009 Open Championship.

 ”Obviously this Order of Merit title gets me into the World Golf Championships events in the (United) States and I think my world ranking’s going to get below 50 which is going to get me into the (US) Masters next year,” Sim said.

“It’s been a big season, I’ve had three wins on the Nationwide Tour and I’m really looking forward to an exciting season next year.”

“It’s about bloody time Adam.”

Those personal words muttered by Greg Norman to Adam Scott after handing his protégé the Stonehaven Cup perhaps best sum up the young Queenslander’s first major win on home soil.

It has been a long time coming and nobody knows that better than Scott.

“It has been close down here before, but I never got over the line. I think that makes this even sweeter and it also being the Aussie Open, just means that little bit more,” Scott said.

Scott had said all week he ranked winning the Australian Open just one rung below winning a major.

To win it at the end of a year he had previously described a “shitty” just further reinforced the bizarre nature of golf.

The American golf media are fond of making lists like “Top ten golfers who haven’t won a major” and in those lists Scott has long come top or near to it.

In fact, lately he has probably slipped on those lists just like he slipped from World No 3 to No 54.

His five stroke victory over a valiant Stuart Appleby on Sunday at the New South Wales Golf Club got at least one of those monkeys off his back.

“An Aussie Open for an Australian, that’s what you want on the shelf,” Scott said.

Referring to the many names of golfing greats on the trophy (including the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman and Tom Watson) he was obviously checking out on the cup during the presentation ceremony he said:  “I’m very proud to be a part of that group for a lot of reasons, but I think there are only probably a few trophies in the world outside a major that would have a list of guys look like this.”

Given his sometime party boy image, Scott is a surprisingly quietly spoken and reflective person. His Queensland heritage comes to the fore at times when he slips in the occasionally “colourful” expression.

The Queen might of said his year was a “annus horribilis”. He just said it was “shitty.”

And he says people might get the wrong impression at times from his laid back exterior.

“I thought I had a lot of the support from the public and hopefully it helps the message get across that I’m playing my arse off out there and not just throwing in the towel,” he said.

Hopefully for Scott he has now turned a corner.

He knows his game still isn’t fully where he wants but he is confident he is heading in the right direction and it will be back bigger and better than before.

“I am a fairly easy going kind of character,” he said.

“I just cruise along and I pointed that out, talking to you guys (the media) this year, that I cruised along for nine years and thought everything was rosy. I thought I would cruise along and keep winning tournaments like I was and one of them would be a major and that didn’t happen.

“But sometimes you have to get down and dirty, get your hands dirty a little bit, and put in that extra effort. I don’t necessarily show that on the outside. That’s not my nature.”

Asked how it felt to be handed the trophy by Greg Norman, Scott spoke of their close relationship over the years.

“Obviously he is a big supporter of mine and I wish I could have played this well for him at the President’s Cup. We just got beaten by a better team that week,” he said.

“But he is my hero. I have said that all along and he has been so generous to me with so many things and countless bits of advice on the game and just like a lot of other people, this year showing me that he still believes in me and my game and he can see inside that I want it badly, which I can see some people may not see, but he knows me well and he can see that I want it badly and I work hard for it.”

And in the warm embrace Norman offered him, “did he give you a little kiss to the side of the head or whisper sweet nothings?” one perhaps slightly impertinent media representative asked.

“No, he said it was about bloody time.”

Perched on cliffs and hills overlooking Botany Bay, the New South Wales Golf Club course was one of the real stars of the show as play got underway in the 2009 Australian Open in brilliant sunshine in Sydney.

Often rated as one of the best in the country and right up there with anything else in the world, the spectacular La Perouse venue is a delight for spectators and a real test for competitors, especially when the wind blows.

The photo shows Geoff Ogivly teeing off on one of the signature holes - the 185 metre par three sixth. Perching behind the 6th green is one of the popular vantage points for spectators.

Australian Open Live Leaderboard

Peter Senior wins US Champions Tour Card

Tiger Woods begins the Australian Summer of Golf in a big way at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne.

Australian Masters Leaderboard

GREG NORMAN congratulates Tiger Woods after he delivered the knockout blow that secured the Presidents Cup for the US team.

Woods’ 6&5 win over South Korean Yang Yong-Eun gave the Americans an unbeatable lead with 17.5 points.

Woods completed a perfect 5-0 week at the Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco.

The Internationals were always going to struggle going into the final day with a three point deficit. They needed eight points to win and were never leading in more than six of the 12 singles matches simultaneously.

The Presidents Cup, which pits the best of US golf against the rest of the world (excluding Europe) will now move to Melbourne in two years time.

In eight outings Melbourne in 1998 has been the scene of the only Internationals victory.  

The full results today were:

USA 19.5 Internationals 14.5
Sunday Singles: USA 7 Internationals 5
Stewart Cink (USA) bt Adam Scott (AUS) 4&3
Hunter Mahan (USA) bt Camilo Villegas (COL) 2&1
Anthony Kim (USA) bt Robert Allenby (AUS) 5&3
Sean O’Hair (USA) bt Ernie Els (RSA) 6&4
Tiger Woods (USA) bt Yang Yong-Eun (KOR) 6&5
Mike Weir (CAN) v Justin Leonard (USA) halved
Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) bt Steve Stricker (USA) 2&1
Ryo Ishikawa (JPN) bt Kenny Perry (USA) 2&1
Tim Clark (RSA) bt Zach Johnson (USA) 4&3
Angel Cabrera (ARG) bt Jim Furyk (USA) 4&3
Vijay Singh (FIJ) v Lucas Glover (USA) halved
Phil Mickelson (USA) bt Retief Goosen (RSA) 2&1

PHIL MICKELSON and TIGER WOODS both walked away with some nice trophies and a little more than loose change following the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Mickelson produced an almost flawless final round to secure a three stroke victory over Woods at the $A8.66 million Tour Championship, while Woods received a $A11.55 million consolation prize for winning the US PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, the season long points race.

Mickelson shot a brilliant five under par 65in the Tour, eclipsing four stroke overnight leader Kenny Perry.

Crazy Phil’s nine-under 271 clinched his third victory of the year, while Woods comparatively “plodded” a 70 to finish runner-up on six-under. “It feels great to have won,” Mickelson said after collecting $A1.56 million for his victory plus  another $A3.47 million for finishing runner-up in the FedEx.

Golf has not been his primary focus this year, with both his wife and mother diagnosed with breast cancer. He says the prognosis for both is good.

 “This wasn’t a banner year,” he said. “This makes it a better year than it was. It’s been a frustrating last few months. Long term, both Amy and my mother are going to be great.”
For Woods, he could celebrate six victories this year after coming back from knee surgery – but there was still something missing.
“To have played as well as I have and as consistent as I have is something I’m very proud of,” Woods said. ““I wish I could have got a major in there. Hopefully next year I can put it together at the right times.”
John Senden was the best of the Australians, with his final round 71 putting him equal 10th on even-par 280.
Geoff Ogilvy (70) was two shots further back and equal 16th, while Marc Leishman lost momentum and finished with a disappointing 78, coming home ahead of only one player at 12-over.