Brandt shoots 65 today to capture the AT&T National Pro-Am at the illustrious Pebble Beach Golf Links. No problem for Brandt today. Came into today tied with James Hahn at -12, and outplayed him, Chris Kirk (from Georgia) and the rest of the field. Brandt drove it so well. He didn’t miss one fairway today. It was an awesome display of golf. Brandt’s approach shots were excellent and his putter is the best in the world. Brandt uses an Odyssey white hot short putter and a Taylor Made burner Superfast TP driver. Both those clubs are working extremely well. Brandt eagled two, and birdied 4,6,7, 10, 11 and a sank a super clutch 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th. B wins an excellent paycheck, cements his first place ranking on the FED Ex Standings–he is 700 points ahead of second place Brian Gay– and he’s now No.4 in the world behind McIlroy, Woods and Luke Donald. I’m guessing Brandt had 28 putts today. PGAtour is not supplying the stats yet for those numbers, but I would bet it was around 28. The putter is always there; it’s just the rest of Brandt’s game that has been superb lately. Nice interview afterwards with David Feherty of CBS. Augusta is not too far away and Brandt will be a serious contender there. He’ll be off this week, which is a good move after his victory–he’s played a lot–then B will play in the World Golf Championship Accenture Match Play tournament in Arizona in two weeks.Top 64 players in the world in that field. Just gotta keep fine tunin’. Some awesome tournaments coming up in Florida with the World Golf Championships tourney at Doral and the Arnie Invitiational two weeks before Augusta. The skies the limit for Brandt this year. He’s honed in on winning majors. I see it happening. Mandy, Lilly and young Austin were there to greet Brandt on the green. Nice looking family. Very exciting stuff.
Bball team with a very nice victory over Arkansas yesterday, 67-49. Defense was fantastic. Held Hogs to 31 percent shooting for the game and 33 percent from three. We shot 50 percent from the field for the game, sank nine trifectas (Sheldon and Kede with three apiece) and shot 69.6% from the line. Much better. We just keep getting better from the charity stripe. Nine-of-10 in the first half and 7-of-13 in the second half (16-of-23 overall). Rod was five-of-six from the line, Kevin Bright was five-of-six and Sheldon was four-of-four. Rod led the team with 15 points, Sheldon had 13 and Josh Henderson played an awesome game scoring 11, pulling down four boards and blocking three shots. Good to see Hendo play well. He’s getting better and better. Would really help us the rest of this month if Hendo can play like that. Outrebounded them 35-30. Kevin Bright, with seven boards, led the team. We’re getting much better on the boards and at the line; we’ve shot it pretty well lately and have played very good defense all year. I like where we’re at. We’ve lost some tough ones prior to yesterday, but it looks to me like we’re coming together. Kevin S. was very pleased with the team’s effort. Held big time scorer and big time player Marshawn Powell to just five points. Powell also fouled out. He beat us up pretty good at Fayetteville earlier this year. Just a real positive day for the team.
Play UT on Wednesday at home with an 8 PM ET/7 CT tipoff. ESPN3 will air the game. SEC Network will carry the game in some areas. Believe in these guys.
Wow, stayed up last night to watch the 5 OT game, Notre Dame 104-101 victory over Louisville. Notre Dame played their hearts out with three of their starters fouled out by the first overtime. It was an awesome effort by the Irish. They’ve got class kids and a class coach in Mike Brey. Just kept it fun for his team during all the stress of the game. Really like that group and their coach. I think Rick Pitino is fed up with his group, at least a couple of them. I thought for sure earlier in the week that the ‘Ville was a late March possibly early April team, but I’m not so sure now. Pitino has a couple of knuckleheads on his team. This should be an awesome month for both watching our team and watching college basketball throughout the country. A lot of good teams. Great team candidates are Indiana, Michigan, Syracuse and Miami. Could see a Butler or Gonzaga getting into the Final Four. Like the Butler team a lot. They’ve got greatness. Gonzage could be great also.
Finally, former VU assistant Dan Muller led his Illinois State team to a huge victory over No.16 Creighton last night at Creighton. Dan can coach. His team is getting better and better and may make the big tournament if they can keep it up.
John Jenkins playing well for the Hawks. Jeff Taylor and Festus are contributors. Will start keeping tabs on those guys and keep you posted.