So Much Golf

I realize that Thanksgiving is largely an American holiday, but I'm still surprised at how much golf is being played this weekend. And it's complicated by the fact that it's all on the other side of the world, which makes it hard to watch the live broadcasts. I guess this is how it is for most of the world most of the time and I should just be happy that we can watch it!

Provided we want to stay up all night, that is. I can't, although I tried unsuccessfully during the Presidents Cup.

For those of you who've been busy this weekend and haven't been able to check the scores at all, here are links to the leaderboards:

• Omega Mission Hills World Cup (Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland are our team there)
• South African Open Championship (this is the "official" European Tour event for the week)
• Australian PGA Championship (on the Australasian PGA Tour)

Many of the "big names" -- at least in American and European golf -- aren't playing, but the ones who are have scattered themselves across the globe. I'm going to try and give you some idea who's where. Think of it as our own little game of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

As I already noted, Kuch and Woodland are in China at the World Cup, currently (that is, as I write this) 3 shots off the lead (that's 4th place) halfway through the third round. But it's also your tourney of choice if you want to see Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, currently leading the event for Ireland. Martin Kaymer is also there -- he and partner Alex Cejka, playing for Germany, are currently tied for the lead, but they're nearly finished while the Irish still have half the round to go.

Other notable teams in the World Cup are:

• China -- even if you don't recognize Zhang Xin-Jun, you probably know Liang Wen-Chong
• Colombia -- the brother team of Manuel and Camilo Villegas
• Italy -- of course, the defending team of Edoardo and Francesco Molinari
• South Africa -- Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel
• Spain -- Alvaro Quiros and Miguel Angel Jimenez
• Sweden -- Robert Karlsson and Alexander Noren
• Thailand -- Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat

You would probably recognize many of the other names as well, like Martin Laird, Brendon deJonge, and Raphael Jacquelin.

Most of the South Africans are playing the South African Open. That's where you'll find Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. The cut was at -2, which was very low for this tournament. Retief is just a stroke off the lead but hasn't started his third round yet.

And most of the Australians are playing the Australian PGA this week. (Richard Green and Brendon Jones, their World Cup team, are the notable absences. They're in 3rd place, a stroke ahead of the US team.) Not only are Greg Norman, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley, Robert Allenby (who seems to have found his game a week late, unfortunately), and Jason Day there, but several other big names:

• US -- Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler
• Korea -- Y.E. Yang and Kyung-Tae Kim
• Ireland -- Darren Clarke

As I'm writing this, Bubba and Kim and tied for the lead, 3 shots ahead of Allenby and Baddeley.

And just to cover all the bases, according to her official website's most recent post, Carmen is in Taiwan.

I think that's got you up-to-date -- at least, as much as I can do at this late hour. GC will be rebroadcasting all of these Saturday if you want to see your favorite players at a normal hour.

That's what I'll have to do. I'm going to bed.