PGA Tour sensation Anthony Kim one of 12 Nike Golf athletes at Open Championship

 

Nike Golf No. 1 in wins on the PGA Tour  with 10 victories in 2008

 

TORONTO (July 16, 2008)—Nike Golf athletes are looking to make it three-for-three in the 2008 major championships at this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

 

While Tiger Woods (winner of the U.S. Open) is unable to play as he recovers from season-ending knee surgery, Trevor Immelman (winner of the Masters) and Anthony Kim (a two-time winner this season) lead a contingent of 12 Nike Golf athletes into the Open Championship.

 

Going into the season’s third major championship, Nike Golf is No. 1 in victories on the PGA Tour with six different Nike Golf athletes winning 10 events in 2008.

 

(In fact, with Suzann Pettersen’s victory in the AIB Irish Open this weekend, Nike Golf athletes have won 17 premier tour events worldwide this year.) Nike Golf continues to lead the PGA Tour in driver, iron, fairway woods, wedge wins, driver-ball combination and apparel wins.

 

Other Nike Golf 2008 winners entered in the Open Championship include Stewart Cink, K.J. Choi, Justin Leonard and Richard Finch.

 

Nike Golf is also represented by Stephen Ames of Calgary, Paul Casey, David Duval, Simon Dyson, Lucas Glover and Darren Fichardt.

 

Returning to the PGA Tour in February after the removal of a benign tumour behind his ribcage, South Africa’s Immelman promptly won his first major, the Masters, and then finished T2 at the Stanford St. Jude Championship after a playoff with Leonard. It was Immelman’s second PGA Tour win.

 

The charismatic Kim, who just turned 23 in June, won the Wachovia Championship and the AT&T National this season. He has two other top-10 finishes in 14 starts on Tour. At just 5’10” and 160 pounds, the native of California ranks ninth on Tour in driving distance, averaging 301 yards off the tee with his Nike SQ SUMO 5000 driver.

 

The Nike onslaught at Birkdale will be bolstered by another two-time winner this season. Finch, winner of the New Zealand Open and the Irish Open on the European Tour, will be trying to make the most of his return to his native England this week.

 

In addition to his victory at the Stanford St. Jude Championship, Leonard has three other top-five finishes this season and sits sixth on the money list. The winner of the 1997 Open Championship is 34^th in driving accuracy and eighth in greens in regulation, which no doubt will be vital statistics at Royal Birkdale.

 

Cink won his fifth PGA Tour title last month at the Travelers Championship. The veteran leads the Tour in eagles, is sixth in greens in regulation, and fifth in scoring average. The win seemed inevitable after his T3 at the Buick Invitational, which was followed by a loss to Woods in the finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play. He was T2 in the PODS Championship and his T3 at the Masters made for a 1-2-3 Nike Golf finish at Augusta.

 

Choi, the 38-year-old South Korean, won this year’s Sony Open under blustery conditions similar to those expected this week. Choi, arguably among the top players who have not won a major, finished T8 last year in the Open.

 

Canada’s Ames, 44, has four top 10s in 14 events this season on the PGA Tour. He has been perfecting his renovated swing with Canadian instructor Sean Foley, which has sharpened his considerable ball-striking skills even more.

 

Casey, a PGA Tour regular and a native of England, ranks ninth in total driving on Tour and, coincidentally, his best finish this season was ninth at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

 

Like his countryman Finch, Simon Dyson will be eager to perform his best this week in front of a “hometown” crowd in Lancashire, England. The former European Tour rookie of the year qualified for the Open by defeating Jose Maria Olazabal in a sudden-death playoff at Sunningdale.

 

Duval, winner of the 2001 Open Championship, continues his determined comeback. At 36, the native Floridian is seeking his 14^th victory.

 

Evidence that Glover’s game is rounding into form came during last week’s John Deere Classic Pro-Am where the lanky native of South Carolina fired a bogey-free, 11-under 60.

Fichardt of South Africa made his way to Royal Birkdale through international qualifying in Africa with an eight-under 63. A winner of four tournaments on the South African Tour and two events on the European Tour, he partnered with Retief Goosen on South Africa's WGC-World Cup team in 2000.

Located in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike Golf designs and markets golf equipment, apparel, balls, footwear, bags and accessories worldwide. Nike Golf is passionately dedicated to honouring and respecting the traditions and heritage of the game, and to providing committed golfers with the absolute best equipment in the game.

In 2008, Nike Golf’s PGA Tour staff has 10 PGA Tour wins, 44 top-10 finishes and seven international victories.  In 2007, Nike Golf had 13 PGA Tour wins, seven Nationwide Tour victories and eight international titles.  For the last two years, Nike Golf has led the PGA Tour in driver, fairway woods and iron wins

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