Week in Review
Top Of The Heap
A wild weekend produced a couple of surprising champions and a new world No. 1
Tom Watson, 61, became the oldest winner of a major at the Senior PGA Championship.
Dan Jenkins and Dave Anderson say you root for the story, Golf World's Bill Fields reminded us on Twitter on Saturday, the story in this case Hale Irwin, a few days shy of 66, threatening to win the Senior PGA Championship.
The story doesn't always win, of course. Irwin finished third. Elsewhere, 17-year-old amateur Jordan Spieth finished 32nd in the HP Byron Nelson Championship, 18-year-old Matteo Manassero seventh in the BMW PGA Championship. So much for the oldest and youngest angles.
Yet the story doesn't always disappoint, either, as a wild Sunday so entertainingly demonstrated, in each case providing at least a worthy substitute and in one case a surpassing one.
Irwin might not have won, but Tom Watson, 61, did in a playoff with David Eger. Spieth, a day after his high school graduation that he missed because of his late Saturday tee time, faltered on Sunday, but rookie Keegan Bradley, 24, filled the void capably with talent and nerve and an interesting backstory: His aunt is Hall of Famer Pat Bradley.
Then there was the BMW PGA Championship. Manassero, already a budding star and on the threshold of a victory against a world-class field, showed his age and shot 75. In his stead, the two best players in the world moved to the fore, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald eventually deciding the outcome in a playoff.
Donald prevailed to supplant Westwood as No. 1 in the world ranking.
That's entertainment, at least as it would be defined in golf circles. The story in each case redeemed itself.
COOL-HAND LUKE
How, we ask in the wake of Donald's latest victory, did he ever miss the cut in the Northern Trust Open?
Since shooting a 79 in the second round on Feb. 18, Donald has not finished out of the top 10 in his ensuing nine starts. He's won twice (the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and the BMW PGA Championship), finished second twice (the Heritage and the Volvo World Match Play Championship), and tied for fourth twice (the Masters and the Players Championship).
Imagine what his record might be were he to drive the ball better (he ranks 114th in total driving on the PGA Tour).
THE NEPHEW
The renowned sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella wrote this about Pat Bradley in his book, "Golf is a Game of Confidence":
"She is as mentally tough as any human being I have ever known."
Keegan Bradley learned the game from his dad Mark (Pat's brother), the head pro at Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Golf and Tennis Club. But he has looked to Pat for guidance.
"One of the ways I try to emulate her is her toughness and work ethic," Keegan told the New York Times earlier this year.
Pat Bradley was a Rotella client. Keegan is a devotee, too. "You know ur a golf nerd when doctor Bob Rotella audio tapes come up two times in a row on iPod shuffle," he wrote on Twitter last month.
A 68 in a Sunday gale while in contention and a PGA Tour rookie isn't the work of a weak mind. Apparently mental toughness is a Bradley family trait.
THE VICTORY BELL
The cow bell that Pat Bradley's mother (and Keegan Bradley's grandmother) used to ring each time that Pat won a tournament is out of commission and wasn't tolling on Sunday in recognition of Keegan's victory. The bell is in its final resting place, the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla. It went there in 1991, the year that Bradley was inducted.
BRADLEY VS. BRADLEY
Pat Bradley won 31 times in her career and earned $5,755,951. Keegan earned more than one-fifth of that total ($1,170,000) with his first victory.
THE INTERNATIONAL GAME
Winners of LPGA tournaments this year represent seven different countries, Mariajo Uribe adding Colombia to the list with her victory in the HSBC LPGA Brazil Cup on Sunday. The others: Taiwan (Yani Tseng), Australia (Karrie Webb, who has won twice), Germany (Sandra Gal), United States (Stacy Lewis), Sweden (Maria Hjorth) and Norway (Suzann Pettersen).
Two observations:
• Only one American has won, Lewis at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Yet this represents one more victory than Americans had at this point in 2010.
• No Koreans have won yet, shockingly, given the number of Koreans on the LPGA and the manner in which they've dominated in recent years. A year ago, three Koreans had won by this stage of the season.
IZZY AND THE BOYS
Isabelle Beisiegel, a native of Montreal and better known as Izzy, won't realize her goal of playing the PGA Tour, but she earned a nice consolation prize: She tied for ninth at the Canadian PGA Tour's spring qualifier to earn playing privileges.
A former LPGA player and honorable mention All-American at Oklahoma, Beisiegel is adamant that a woman can compete with men.
"I've always believed it's a myth that women can't play against men," she told the National Post in 2008. "The ball doesn't know whether it is a man or a woman hitting it."
Ratings
Comments
Post a Comment