HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! The 2009 PGA Tour season is officially in swing and kicks off this week at the winners only Mercedes Championships in Maui, Hawaii. Held annually at Kapalua Resort, Richard S. Johnson will be making this start due to his victory at the 2008 US Bank Championship of Milwaukee. This will be Richard's first appearace at the Mercedes Championships as he tackles the Plantation Course at Kapalua.

The Mercedes Championships kicks off each PGA Tour Season as a reward to winners of PGA Tour Events in the prior season. BGS Client, Stuart Appleby is a three-time winner of this event. His threepeat wins in 2004, 2005 and 2006 have made his image forever linked with Kapalua and the Mercedes Championships.

 

 

 

With the 2009 PGA Tour getting underway this week in Hawaii, Callaway Golf announced the addition of another top performer on the PGA Tour as veteran Stuart Appleby agreed to a multi-year contract to endorse all Callaway Golf equipment and golf balls, carry a Callaway Golf branded bag and feature the Company’s logo on his headwear.

An eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, the 37-year-old Appleby enjoyed another solid year in 2008. The native of Australia recorded a career-high seven top-10 finishes. He finished in the top-25 on 14 occasions.

“I am very excited to begin this relationship with Callaway Golf,” Appleby said. “As I enter what will be my best years on the PGA Tour, I feel that partnering with Callaway Golf will provide me with every advantage possible to win majors and more events worldwide.”

Appleby is scheduled to begin his 2009 PGA Tour campaign in late January at the FBR Open at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona, where he finished tied for fourth in 2008.

In addition to his Callaway Golf endorsement, Appleby is also the lead spokesman for Cutter & Buck and ECCO worldwide.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to BGS Client, Justin Bolli on his marriage to Amy Wood Bolli on December 20, 2008 in Greenville, South Carolina.

 

 

 

 

 

Mat Goggin continued his solid form for the second week in a row at the Aussie Open in Sydney. With Blue Giraffe CEO, Bobby Kreusler, on the bag again the pair teamed for another runner-up finish. Goggin recorded a final round 69 to place him in a tie for first following regulation.

With these back to back runner-up finishes, Goggin moves to #58 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

BGS also saw Paul Goydos record a T16 position, on the heels of a Top 25 at the Australian PGA Championship last week.

 

 

 

 

BGS clients David Mathis and Arjun Atwal both earned exempt PGA Tour Membership for 2009 via the Nationwide Tour Money List. With a victory earlier this year at the BMW Charity Pro-Am, David Mathis stayed inside "The 25" all season while making some swing changes to prepare for the PGA Tour. He finished 14th on the Money List with over $276,000 in earnings this year.

Arjun Atwal balanced his play on the European, Asian and Nationwide Tours in 2008 and still enjoyed a finish of 17th on the Nationwide Tour Money List to return to the PGA Tour full time in 2009. With wins on both the European Tour (Maybank Malaysian Open) and the Nationwide Tour (Chattanooga Classic), Arjun continues to prove that he is a world class player. Arjun's combined earnings worldwide totaled more than $689,000.

 

 

While the 2008 PGA Tour season is officially over, Blue Giraffe Sports clients are still in full swing, taking little time off to prepare for 2009. The past two weeks have seen BGS Clients Arjun Atwal, David Mathis and Nicholas Thompson compete on the Asian Tour, European Tour and at the Callaway Invitational at Pebble Beach.

Arjun Atwal returned to Asia for a two week stretch where he competed in the Barclays Singapore Open (Asian Tour) and UBS Hong Kong Open (European Tour). He joined some of the most elite players in the world during his play at both events. Maintaining exempt membership on the PGA Tour, European Tour and Asian Tour in 2009, Atwal will continue to play a worldwide schedule and continue to raise his profile as one of India's premier athletes.

This past week saw Nicholas Thompson and David Mathis visit the Monterey Penninsula for the Callaway Invitatiional at Pebble Beach. This event is the only 72-hole tournament to feature players from the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA Tour all competing against each other. With a unique managment of the tee usage, players from each of these tours is able to compete in both pro-am and individual stroke play over three courses including Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.

Nicholas Thompson earned finished T5 at last week's tournament at Pebble Beach where he also finished T7 at the 2008 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am earlier this year. David Mathis made the most of his first trip to Pebble Beach where he garnered a 13th place finish as well as valuable on course experience in preparation for his first visit to the AT&T National Pro-Am in 2009 as a PGA Tour member. Both of these players will take the remainder of 2008 off in preparation for the 2009 PGA Tour season.

While players wind down in the US for the Thanksgiving holiday, Stuart Appleby is kicking off a three week stint at the Sportsbet Australian Masters this week in Melbourne, Australia. In 2007 Stuart finished 3rd at this hometown event and he will look to improve upon that this week with eyes on another Australasian Tour victory. In addition to Appleby, BGS Clients Scott Draper and Kim Felton will start their three week stretch at Huntingdale Golf Club also. Felton has spent 2008 participating on the Nationwide Tour in the United States, while Draper has been participating on the Von Nida Tour in Australia this season.

Next week, Appleby will head to Coolum, Australia for the Cadbury Scheppes Australian PGA Championship, with a trip to Sydney for the Australian Open the following week. Over the course of these two weeks Stuart will be joined by fellow BGS Clients, Mathew Goggin and Paul Goydos. Goggin missed the 2007 Australasian Tour season while he remained in the USA for the birth of his son and looks forward to continuing his solid play on home soil. Paul Goydos is making his first trip to Australia to compete over these two weeks and looks to make the most of this trip as he rounds out a solid 2008.

 

BGS clients David Mathis and Arjun Atwal both earned exempt PGA Tour Membership for 2009 via the Nationwide Tour Money List. With a victory earlier this year at the BMW Charity Pro-Am, David Mathis stayed inside "The 25" all season while making some swing changes to prepare for the PGA Tour. He finished 14th on the Money List with over $276,000 in earnings this year.

Arjun Atwal balanced his play on the European, Asian and Nationwide Tours in 2008 and still enjoyed a finish of 17th on the Nationwide Tour Money List to return to the PGA Tour full time in 2009. With wins on both the European Tour (Maybank Malaysian Open) and the Nationwide Tour (Chattanooga Classic), Arjun continues to prove that he is a world class player. Arjun's combined earnings worldwide totaled more than $689,000.

 

 

Nicholas Thompson shot a final round 69 to finish 2nd this past weekend at the Ginn sur Mer Classic inPalm Coast, FL. The finish moves Thompson to 40th on the PGA TOUR money list. Thompson has his sight set on a strong finish this week at Disney to move him into the Top 30 which would garner an invite to The Masters in 09'.

Thompson's continued his strong play as this was his 6th Top-10 of the season and 11th Top-25 of the 08 campaign. Nicholas also ranks an impressive 3rd in Total Driving on the PGA TOUR.

 

BGS is pleased to announce the signing of PGA TOUR Champion, Richard S. Johnson. Richard won the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee earlier this season. Johsnon is only the 6th Swedish player to win on the PGA TOUR and finished 77th in the FedEx Cup points race.

Richard adds to BGS's international flavor with clients from India, Sweden, US and Australia currently under management.

 

Mat Goggin shot four rounds in the 60's to finish in 3rd this past weekend at the Frys.com Open in Scottsdale, AZ. . The finish ends Goggin's best year on the PGA TOUR by moving him up to 38th on the 2008 PGA TOUR money list. Goggin now heads home to Australia where he will play the summer tournaments Down Under.

Paul Goydos continued his strong fall play with a 7th place finish for his 3rd Top-10 of the season which moved him inside the Top 50 on the 2008 money list. Goydos is also heading Down Under to play in two events this offseason.

 

 

Arjun Atwal is returning to the PGA TOUR in 2009 after grabbing his second win of the season at the Chattanooga Classic presented by Black Creek. Atwal followed up his win earlier this year in Malaysia at the Maybank Malaysian Open with this playoff win in the third to last Nationwide event of 08'.

Atwal currently ranks 17th on the 2008 money list and will play in the Nationwide Tour Championship before heading overseas to play a couple of events in Asia. Arjun is returning to the PGA TOUR for the first time since playing with conditional status in 2007.

 

Stuart Appleby concluded his PGA TOUR season with a Top 10 finish at the Tour Championship. Stuart had rounds of 72,71,70,69 to finish the event at 2 over par landing him T-10th.The tournament was comprised of the Top 30 players in the FedEx cup standings. Stuart finished the season ranked 17th in the FedEx cup standings.

Upon completion of the event, Stuart has returned to his native country Australia where he will play in a select number of professional events while enjoying some time off to be spent with friends and family.

He looks forward to returning to the United States and PGA TOUR in 2009 in top form.

 

Paul Goydos shot three rounds of 66 to finish T19 this past weekend at the Valero Texas Open. The finish shows a return to form for the Players Championship hero who moved into the Top-60 on the PGA TOUR money list..

Brad Fristch continued his run to the Nationwide Tour Championship with a 15th Place finish at the WNB Golf Classic in Midland, Texas. Fristch moved up five spots to 70th on the official money list where he is inching closer to the 60th place spot which would give him an automatic bert into the season ending Tour Championship.

 

BGS's Nick Biesecker drained a 42-foot par putt on the 18th hole to stave off hard-charging seven-time event champion Keith Decker (Martinsville) to win the 32nd Virginia State Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship, which concluded today at Stoney Creek at Wintergreen’s Shamokin and Tuckahoe nines (6,924 yards, par 36-36—72). The championship is open to golfers, ages 25-and-over.

Competing in his first VSGA championship, Biesecker was the only competitor in the field to post three rounds of par or better and finished at 3-under 213 (70-71-72) to record a one-shot wire-to-wire victory.

 

 

Mathew Goggin shot a final round 69 to finish T-3rd this past weekend at the Turning Stone Resort Championship.

The finshed marked Mathew's third Top 5 finish this year. He earned a healthy paycheck moving himself up to 46th on this year's money list with over 1.6 million in earnings.

The FedEx Cup playoffs continue this week at the BMW Championship. This year the tournament heads to St. Louis, Missouri and Bellerive Country Club. This historic course has played host to major championships and will once again test the best players in the world.

With only the Top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings advancing to this event, Blue Giraffe Sports is excited to have four players in the field. Stuart Appleby, Nicholas Thompson, Mathew Goggin and Heath Slocum all advanced through last week's Deutsche Bank Championship to earn a spot in this field. Paul Goydos and Justin Bolli both failed to move inside the Top 70 FedEx Cup standings and will not play this week.

This tournament will consist of 72 holes without a cut giving everyone a chance to advance to the Tour Championship via Top 30 in FedEx Cup standings. Following this week's BMW Championship, the PGA Tour will take a week off before the Ryder Cup and Viking Classic return during the week of September 15th.

Brad Fritsh, continues to play solid golf on then Nationwide Tour as it heads into the final four events of the 2008 Season. This finish moved Fritsch to #75 on the Nationwide Tour Money List.

Meanwhile, David Mathis continues to hold his position of #10 on the Nationwide Tour Money List where he is secured to advace to the PGA Tour in 2009. Other BGS Clients include: Arjun Atwal #34, Kim Felton #103, Chris Parra #139, and Brent Delahoussaye #154

All six BGS Clients advanced to the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston this week. This event is the second FedEx Cup Playoff event with the field being reduced from 144 to 120 after this past week's Barclays Championship.

Justin Bolli was the only BGS Client not safely into this event before the Barclays Championship. With his T48 finish at Ridgewood Country Club, he moved to #116 which punched his ticket o Boston.

Following last year's FedEx Cup, changes have made the points adjustments will produce more volitility. Following the Deutsche Bank Championship, the Top 70 players will advance to the BMW Championship in St. Louis. Under the current standings, Stuart Appleby, Nicholas Thompson, Mathew Goggin and Paul Goydos would advance to the BMWChampionship.

Mathew Goggin's T4 finish at the Barclays Championship paced a steady group of BGS Clients. Goggin finished just one stroke out of a three-way playoff for the title, but this finish vaulted him up the FedEx Cup as well as moving him to 60th on the PGA Tour Money List.

Nicholas Thompson continued his solid play with a T7 finish to surpass $1.5 Million in earning for the 2008 PGA Tour Season. After starting the week with a 74 on Thursday's round, Thompson battled back to finish the tournament with three sub-par rounds.

Meanwhile, Stuart Appleby enjoyed a T19 finish with Justin Bolli and Paul Goydos also spending the weekend at Ridgewood Country Club.

BGS client Justin Bolli, used recorded four rounds in the 60's at Sedgefield Country Club this past week. His T15 finish at the Wyndham Championship allowed Justin to jump up the FedEx Cup standings and earn a spot in this week's Barclays Championship, the first round of the Playoffs.

Blue Giraffe Sports is pleased to announce the signing of Nationwide Tour Superstar and 2009 PGA TOUR Rookie, David Mathis. Mathis burst onto the scene this year with a win at the BMW Charity Pro-Am for his first career Nationwide Tour victory.David currently ranks #9 on the Nationwide Tour money list with 3 Top-10's and 7 Top-25's thus far. In 2007 he narrowly missed his PGA TOUR card after finishing with 8 Top-25's and over $135,000 in earnings.

"David fits into our family atmosphere here at BGS," Nick Biesecker stated, " along with having tremendous game, he and his wife are just great people." Mathis will join five other BGS clients who have already locked up their PGA TOUR cards for 2009. Look for David to finish the year strong as he strives to finish at the top of the 2008 money list.

 

BGS client Stuart Appleby, braved the rainy conditions at Oakland Hills to grab 15th place in the final major of 2008. Appleby shot a 4 day total of +7 on his way to his 12th Top-25 of 2008. The finish moved Appleby to 18th in the FedEx Cup standings while securing his 17th cut in 19 tries.

Nicholas Thompson also played well in his first major of 2008. Thompson finished 24th which tallied his 9th Top-25 finish and moved him up two to 46th in the FedEx Cup standings. Paul Goydos finished 31st moving him in to the Top-70 in the points race.

 

Nicholas Thompson recorded his fourth Top-10 finish this past week at the RBC Canadian Open. He continues his campaign towards the FedEx Cup Playoffs as he heads to the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open this week.

Stuart Appleby will compete in his 29th World Golf Championship event this week in Akron, Ohio at the Bridgestone Invitational. Appleby is the only player to have competed in every single World Golf Championship since its inception in 1999. No other player has played in every WGC event other than Stuart

Appleby currently sits 42nd in the FedEx Cup race and looks to fine tune his game this week in preparation for the PGA Championship next week at Oakland Hills.

 

BGS would like to congratulate Kristie Smith, daughter of BGS Australia President Wayne Smith, on winning the North & South Women's Amatuer. The North & South is one of the oldest amatuer events in the world .

Smith won 8 & 7 on the famed Pinehurst No 2 course and immediately announced she will be turning professional after her win.

“This win has given me a lot of confidence and it is great to have that feeling back, like I had at the Australian Open, that I am unbeatable." Smith said.

 

Paul Goydos took on the best players in the world this week at the Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass. It took one extra playoff hole for Sergio Garcia to defeat Paul at the famous par 3 17th hole after the pair finished regulation tied at five under par. Holding the 54-hole lead for the first time in his career on the PGA Tour, Paul held tough on Sunday as the weather presented a challenge that caused most players to struggle. With his laid back attitude, Paul gained a tremendous fan base as people have started to gain a feel as to the person that he is both on and off the golf course. With his play this week, Paul moved to 42nd in FedEx Cup Standing and to 26th on the PGA Tour Money List.

Other BGS Clients, Stuart Appleby, Nicholas Thompson and Heath Slocum also spent Mother's Day tackling the challenges at the TPC. Stuart finished T15 for the week, while Nicholas Thompson used his T21 finish to push over $1,000,000 in earnings for the first time on the PGA Tour. Heath Slocum waged his own battle with the TPC and finished in a T69 position.

 

BGS clients, Stuart Appleby and Heath Slocum, survived the weekend at Royal Birkdale in the playing of the 137th British Open. Appleby finished 51st while Slocum closed with a tournament best 72 to move him up to 32nd place.

The OPEN finishes kept Heath and Stuart in the FedEx Cup hunt where Stuart currently sits at 38th and Heath in 40th position.

 

BGS client Roberto Castro, won the River Hills Open in Charlotte, NC on Friday. Castro won the event by 4 strokes with a 3 day total of 13-under par. This is Castro's second Tarheel Tour victory since turning professional in 2007.

Castro is one of the most decorated golfers in Geogia Tech history and thought to be one of the rising stars in professional golf.

Read more about his victory here:

Tarheel Tour Homepage

 

Heath Slocum recorded his best finish of the year with a 4th place finish at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, CT. The finish vaulted Slocum upt the FedEx Cup race from 57 to 37 and put him at 21st in the Ryder Cup points race.The tournament was Slocums 13th straight cut made.

Slocum played in the final group with Stewart Cink on Sunday and closed with a solid 67 after rounds of 64,66, and 67 to finish at 16-under par which was 2 back of the winning score.

 

BGS client Arjun Atwal, finished 9th at the Nationwide Tour's Knoxville Open to card his 4th Top-10 of the year in just 9 events. Atwal currently sits at 18 within the all important Top "25".

BGS client Brad Fritsch, continued his good play to tie with Atwal at 9th Place. Fritsch followed up his previous weeks 12th place finish giving him momentum heading home to his Native Canada this week on the Nationwide Tour.

 

 

 

Heath Slocum recorded the lowest round in the US Open since 2003 with a closing 65 to finish 9th in the second major of the year.

Slocum had rounds of 75, 74, 74, 65 at Torrey Pines South Course on his first ever Fathers Day. The finish gives Heath and exemption into next years Open to be played at Bethpage in New York.

 

 

 

BGS client Mark Blackburn, had 2 players finish in the TOP-10 at the 2008 US OPEN at Torrey Pines. Blackburn instructs Swede Robert Karlsson, who finished in 4th place after contending much of the tournament, and Heath Slocum who finished 9th after closing with a 65, which was the low round of the entire tournament and lowest round in the US OPEN since 2003.

Blackburn is one of the hottest instructors in the world with three players in the Top 75 in the Official World Golf Rankings.(Slocum, Karlsson, Weekley)

www.blackburngolf.com

 

 

Mathew Goggin recorded his best career finish on the PGA TOUR finishing T-2nd at The Memorial this past weekend.Mat had rounds of 67, 72, 71, 74. The finish moved Mat from77th to 44th on the Fed Ex Cup list.

Fellow BGS client Stuart Appleby finished at 2 over par and grabbed another Top 20 finish on the PGA TOUR this season.

 

 

BGS client Arjun Atwal finished T-22nd at the Bank of America Open this past week in Chicago, IL. Atwal finished the week at 9 under par closing with a round of 71.

Atwal's finish gave him another Top 25 finish. Arjun has yet to finish out of the Top 25 in an event this year. He currently stands 16th on The Nationwide Tour money list.

Arjun is taking this week off, but will be back in action next week at the Nationwide Knoxville Open presented by Food City.

 

Justin Bolli recorded his best career finish at home in Atlanta at the 40th AT&T Classic by carding a 4 day total of 12-under par to grab a tie for 5th place. Fellow BGS client Heath Slocum carded a 11-under par total to share an 8th place finish.

 

BGS client Paul Goydos joined PTI hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser last Wednesday to discuss his amazing run at The Players Championship. The 5 minute interview was the highlight of the show in which Paul displayed his quick wit and loveable personality.

Paul also joined Jim Rome, The CBS telecast, and numerous other media outlets last week following his run to the playoff in Jacksonville.

Here is a link to Paul's appearance on PTI:

PAUL ON PTI