In laying up at a crucial moment in Phoenix, Rickie Fowler raised plenty of eyebrows.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Just off the plane from Bogota, Camilo Villegas unsheathed his 3-wood and had a go at the 18th green late Thursday afternoon at PGA National. The air was cold, the wind was blowing, but Villegas was committed. From 279 yards out, the Colombian got all of the shot, stopping it 35 feet, 9 inches from the hole. Two putting for birdie, Villegas pulled within one stroke of the Honda Classic lead. "I had 264 to the front and I knew I had to rip my 3-wood," Villegas said. "And that's exactly what I did."
The play did not surprise Dr. Gio Valiante, the mind coach and professor of psychology at Rollins College in Orlando. Just as it did not shock him on Sunday when Rickie Fowler decided to lay up from 230 yards out on the 15th hole at the TPC-Scottsdale in the final round of the Waste Management-Phoenix Open. Every player is different, and so is every situation.
Fowler's point is that you can't win the tournament at 15, but how many times do you hear players say, "You can't win the tournament on Thursday?" Villegas wasn't thinking that, but Villegas is not Fowler, who stuck to his decision earlier this week and addressed it on his Twitter account with a three-item post best summarized by his one-line thought, "can never please everyone."
Valiante's point is that with all the debate over Fowler's lay-up this week, he'll never have to worry about business. He works with Villegas as well as Matt Kuchar, Bryce Molder and Chris DiMarco, who was second-guessed by Lanny Wadkins for laying up at 15 in the 2005 Masters, but not after he made a birdie that helped forge a playoff with Tiger Woods. "It' a sign of maturity," Valiante said of the 21-year-old Fowler, citing one of the gutsiest lay ups ever, David Toms' final-hole par to beat Phil Mickelson in the 2001 PGA Championship.
Tom Pernice Jr., Fowler's mentor and frequent playing partner at Bear Creek GC in Murrieta, Calif., said almost the same thing on Sunday. "It takes guts to lay up," Pernice said. Peter Kostis, the CBS analyst watching from his home in Scottsdale, brought up the strategy Zach Johnson used at Augusta National to win the 2007 Masters. Kostis tells his players to never hit a shot that raises your heartbeat.
"I go back to 1982, the year (Tom) Kite and I came up with the 60-degree wedge with (Dave) Pelz," Kostis said. "He led the tour in birdie percentage on par-5s. He might have gone for three or four par-5s all year. He laid up to his yardage. If you're going to criticize Rickie, criticize him for not hitting the proper wedge shot."
All this lay up talk made Brandel Chamblee's eyes roll when he rolled into Palm Beach County from the Valley of the Sun, where he was in the lead analyst role for Golf Channel. His reaction was symbolic of what was being said on the putting green, the driving range, the locker room and over meals by players, caddies, equipment reps, and golf media assembled at the Honda.
Like Valiante, sports psychologist Bob Rotella loved the play -- and he works with Padraig Harrington, who never thought of laying up at Birkdale two summers ago with the wind whipping and a 5-wood in his hands on the 71st hole.
Charlie Epps, who works with Masters champion Angel Cabrera and a disciple of the great Claude Harmon, was asked what the legendary pro would have made of Fowler's play.
"Must have been a bad lie," Epps said, channeling Harmon.
But what would Harmon have said if he knew Fowler had his hand on the ball in a lift-clean-and-place situation?
"Must have been a bad lie," Epps replied.
Being the talk of the tournament is nothing new for Fowler, who had a game plan involving 15 at the beginning of the week, and stuck to it no matter what the circumstance. The yardage called for no more than a 4-iron or soft hybrid. With only 210 yards to carry the water, it was what the pros and caddies call a stock shot. Fowler vowed that unless he had 5-iron or less into that island green, he wasn't going for it, relying on the mindset that he could birdie 16, drive the 17th and make something happen there, and birdie 18, which he did on Sunday in 2009 as an amateur.
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