Quiet Please!

Davis Love III wins a "major" tournament, Y.E. Yang gets a lucky bounce, and an American golf family loses its patriarch. That and more is in Tim Rosaforte's weekly notes column

Against a field that included the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Greg Norman, Davis Love III was a winner at the Seminole Pro-Member.

By Tim Rosaforte

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

March 13, 2009

Earlier this week I noticed Davis Love III waving, nodding and making eye contact on the putting green at Doral, then finally walking my way wearing an ear-to-ear smile. "You probably heard," he said. "I finally got my name on the board."

Love was talking about one of the most coveted wall plaques in golf, the space in the Seminole locker room dedicated to the Pro-Member tournament that was played Monday. In the '30s through the '60s this event had winners like Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer, along with the members who were their partners. Reintroduced a few years back, it has become one of the best invitations a tour pro could receive, and represents one of their best days on a course all year. This is the one Ernie Els flew all night to after winning the 2005 Dubai Desert Classic, arriving at noon for an afternoon tee time with Johan Rupert, the South African icon.

Rupert couldn't make it this year, so while Ernie took a pass, Love and a group of pros that included Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger took on the Donald Ross course from the tips, with amateurs as their partners. Spider Miller, the two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, won the low gross with fellow Hoosier Jeff Overton (who finished T-9 at the Honda Classic) as his partner, shooting 62.

Love was excited not only about his low-net victory with Sea Island chairman Bill Jones, but also getting to play with Nicklaus, who teamed with Bob Kelly, the CEO of his equipment company. While Jack, playing this event for the first time, shot 72 from the back tees, Jones was the star of the day. In fact, he was such a star, that his nickname from Jack, according to Love, was "nine." As in the nine strokes he received kept turning natural pars into net birdies.

Besides the affectionate Nicklaus needle, Jones proudly gets his name on the wall, too. As for Love, "You would have thought he won a major," said Never Compromise putter rep Mike Eggeling, who was a part of the conversation. Love concurred. Even if it was in the low-net division, it was an honor. "It's a great wall to be on," he said.

Members bounce: It wasn't mentioned in the game stories coming out of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., but Charles Law and his friend Tracy were positioned along the second fairway during the final round of the Honda Classic when a golf ball struck by Y.E. Yang went off line. Behind them was a cart path, and some out-of-bounds stakes, but Yang's ball hit Charles in the chest, then caught a piece of Tracy, before landing in between her sandals, which were kicked off in the grass below. The Golf Channel had this on air and photographers took photos. Yang seemed appreciative, took a drop, knocked his second shot on the green, and moved on to his first win in America.

It turns out I saw Law on Thursday morning at the Sea Plum Plaza Starbucks in Abacoa, Fla., where he described the scene at the Honda. "It was like a hole-in-one, right between the two sandals," Law said. "And it definitely loosened him up. He looked a little edgy, then he went on to make three straight birdies."

Law knew this because he and Tracy followed Yang for the rest of the day, telling fans along the way their story. They became the Yang rooting section as the Korean closed out his victory on a tough golf course. While Law never got the sandals autographed, it led a sharp-witted friend to note, "Maybe [Yang] could get an endorsement deal with the Sandals Resort?"

Who knows, that ball goes out of bounds, and Yang doesn't get to play in the Masters or this week's CA Championship, where he had breakfast earlier in the week with two men who helped make it possible, Korean pioneer K.J. Choi and swing instructor Brian Mogg.

The gift of golf: The fortuitous bounce for Yang reminds me of how Kathy Jorden saved the Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island in 1991. Jorden's job at the PGA of America that year was to transport the Cup from the 18th tee to the 18th green at Kiawah Island, just as Hale Irwin was teeing off in his match against Bernhard Langer. Everybody remembers Langer missing the three-foot putt at the end of that match that meant a victory for the United States. What they forget is that Irwin's tee ball hit Jorden in the back as she was walking down the left-side of the fairway, keeping the ball in play, and allowing Irwin to stay in the hole.

Jorden is part of a great American golf family that lost its patriarch, Mickie Gallagher Jr., last week during the Honda Classic. Mickie, 78, was the teaching pro at PGA, heading to work on Monday morning of tournament week when he was leveled with a massive stroke and heart attack. His son, Mickie III, is the head pro at Trump National in Bedminster, N.J. His widow, Bette, worked for years as a buyer for Mickie and for other clubs in the area, and is now working at the Palm Beach Golf Center. And Kathy still works for the PGA as a broadcasting consultation, while her sons, Kevin and Kyle, play high school golf in Palm Beach County.

Mickie Jr. was on Arnold Palmer's team at Wake Forest. The son of a pro, he was raised at Forest Hills CC in Augusta, Ga., and will be remembered in the world of golf as a tireless figure, always full of energy and positive words. Two years ago, the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association honored the Gallaghers as Family of the Year in 2007. His daughter may have saved the Ryder Cup, but she's the first to admit that it was her father who put her there.