Golf Tidbits: Kerr becomes No. 1 in dominant fashion

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06/30/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cristie Kerr had her sights set on becoming the No. 1-ranked female in the world for a long time.

She went old-school Tiger Woods at the LPGA Championship last weekend, winning in dominant fashion, to finally earn that No. 1 ranking.

Kerr's performance was reminiscent of Woods at Augusta in 1997 or Pebble Beach in 2000. After sharing the first-round lead, she was five clear after two rounds, eight ahead through three and won by an "obscene" - her word - 12 strokes.

She had two other telling quotes on Sunday after wrapping up the victory, "It's a dream performance" and "I didn't limit myself."

Those phrases suit her weekend to a "T". She posted rounds of 68-66-69-66 while setting the LPGA Tour record for lowest score (269) in any of the four major championships. Her 19-under total also set a tour record for lowest score in relation to par in a major.

The dominating performance allowed her to jump from the fifth spot to the top of the women's world rankings, which started in 2006. She became the first American woman to be ranked No. 1.

Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa owned the top spot for the first four years, but Kerr is the fourth different player ranked No. 1 this year alone.

Ochoa started the season as the top player, but surprisingly announced her retirement earlier this year allowing Jiyai Shin to replace her atop the rankings.

Shin, who came back perhaps a little too soon from an emergency appendectomy last weekend, lost the top spot to Ai Miyazato while recovering from her surgery.

Miyazato needed to finish solo second behind Kerr to retain the No. 1 ranking for a second straight week. A pair of late bogeys cost her that chance, but also opened the door for Kerr to take over.

Though Locust Hill had four par-fives, Kerr did not make an eagle all week. She more than made up for that with 23 birdies versus just four bogeys, three of which were in the third round.

As she stated, Kerr didn't want to limit herself, and it showed down the stretch on Sunday. A birdie on the 10th gave Kerr a 10-stroke cushion. She posted three more birdies en route to a 12-shot victory. It helped that she didn't make a bogey over the final 22 holes of the championship.

The performance even impressed her competitors.

"That's almost too good," Miyazato joked.

Song-Hee Kim looked at it this way, "Forget about her and her round. She is too far away."

O'HAIR, THREE OTHERS RETURN TO ARONIMINK

Sean O'Hair has a distinct advantage over the rest of the field at this week's AT&T National. He is a member at the event's host course, Aronimink Golf Club.

He had seen the course before becoming a member though, and jokingly said he couldn't hit it out of his shadow back then.

Back then was the 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur. O'Hair lost in the semifinals that week -- to Trevor Immelman, who 11 years later won The Masters. O'Hair is one of four players in the field this week that competed in that event.

He will be joined at Aronimink by 2009 U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover as well as Steve Marino, who is still searching for his first PGA Tour title, and Hunter Mahan, who picked up his second PGA Tour victory earlier this season at the Phoenix Open.

O'Hair, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, may need his home-field advantage a little more than originally thought because he injured his back last week and had to leave the course Wednesday during the pro-am due to back pain.

In the 13 years since those four competed at the Junior Amateur, much has changed at Aronimink. Scores of trees have been removed and hundreds of yards have been added.

The added length won't concern these four much. O'Hair is the shortest driver of the group. Don't cry for O'Hair though, he averages over 285 yards off the tee and that is plenty long this week.

He'll just have to rely on the home-course advantage for knowing where to hit and not hit his shots, and to compensate for the balky back.

MINI-TIDBITS

- Bubba Watson collected his long-awaited first win last Sunday and did so while leading the field in driving. The only other player to lead the field in driving and win a tournament in the last two years was Dustin Johnson, who has done it twice in that span.

- Lee Westwood had a scare Wednesday when his right calf swelled and there was concern that he may have a blood clot. Doctors think it was just a reaction to the heat in Paris, and have given Westwood anti-inflammatory medication.

- European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie is also struggling with injury right now. He tore a calf muscle last week and that in turn has led to some Achilles problems.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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