Peter Uihlein took the road less traveled, but it was longer than the one, say, Jordan Spieth took to the PGA Tour. Spieth went to the University of Texas before turning pro halfway through his sophomore year and in less than a semester locked down full exempt status for the 2014 season. He didn't have to travel much beyond Pebble Beach or Hilton Head to get full playing privileges in his home country.
Uihlein, 23, went to Oklahoma State, won the 2010 U.S. Amateur, and instead of going the sponsor-exemption route, got his passport and took off on a European Tour work-study program to places like India, Kenya and Kazakhstan. This was the same path Adam Scott took from the suggestion box of the same people who advised Uihlein.
Butch Harmon, who has been teaching Uihlein, and Peter's dad, Wally Uihlein, CEO of the Acushnet Company, who signed Scott to a Titleist deal when he turned pro in 2000, presented the idea. The famed European agent who signed Uihlein, Andrew (Chubby) Chandler, mapped out a schedule.
Uihlein, who won the Madeira Islands Open yesterday, was all in. Just as Scott believed it paid off before his Masters victory, so too did Uihlein before his first pro win. "It's hard not to listen to guys like that who have been around the block," Uihlein said before going out to celebrate with Brooks Koepka, with whom he shares an apartment in Florida. "I think it made sense even before I won today. Look at all the guys who started over here. It's just different being an American and doing it."
There were stumbling blocks early on, none worse than a trip to Morocco in March 2012 for the Trophee Hassan II that ended after an opening-round 83. Uihlein took nine weeks off during which he spent three weeks at Harmon's home in Las Vegas with Butch and wife Christy. "I really believe a young guy who comes out has it too easy on the U.S. Tour," Harmon said. "To go and play on the European Tour where the weather is bad, the courses different and the travel difficult, you become a better, well-rounded player in the long run."
The win gets Uihlein into this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and with a European Tour card secured, it has him looking at sponsor exemptions in the U.S. this summer. It also gives him bragging rights on Koepka, the Florida State graduate who won a European Challenge Tour event on May 5. They share an apartment in Palm Beach Gardens with Matt Broome, who is playing the Minor League Tour.
From his American base, Uihlein works out at PGA National with the same trainer as Stacy Lewis (Dave Donatucci) and works on his game at Floridian with Claude Harmon III and Old Palm GC, where Chandler has an office.
"This was quite a big win," Chandler said from his home in England. "He's been brave enough to do things differently when he could have had a lot of starts in the States, but he stuck to his plan. The idea was to learn the game before tackling the PGA Tour."
The road may have been less traveled, but it's leading Peter Uihlein back where he belongs.
Sang-Moon Bae already had a claim to at least a modicum of fame, courtesy of Golf Boys 2.Oh. Dial it up on You Tube and listen carefully, toward the end:
I took a vaycay at Sang-Moon Bae, I got a massage every single Jason Day
The Golf Boys are Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan and Ben Crane, whose latest video has received nearly 3.8 million views on You Tube, no doubt leaving nearly 3.8 million viewers wondering where this Sang-Moon Bay is located and whether they too should plan a vaycay there.
Assuming they follow golf, they're likely to soon learn that Moon, as his colleagues call him, is not a destination resort, though if his golf swing was contagious, he'd be worth a visit.
"Fabulous golf swing," CBS' Nick Faldo said, after Bae outplayed Keegan Bradley down the stretch on Sunday to win the HP Byron Nelson Championship, his first PGA Tour victory.
His is a game that can travel, too, and it won't be in coach class. Only 26, Bae, a native of South Korea, also has 11 international victories, including three on the Asian Tour and another three on the Japan Golf Tour, where in 2011 he was its leading money winner.
If he or Bradley were stocks, they'd be strong buys at this point. This was already assumed about Bradley, who also is only 26 and already is a major champion and three-time winner on the PGA Tour. But Bae is relatively unknown, having joined the PGA Tour last year, when he earned $1,165,952, a figure, incidentally, that he exceeded with his victory at the TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas.
Maybe better than his swing was the way he handled the pressure after squandering a four-stroke lead over Bradley. The last five holes are the most difficult stretch on the course with winds howling and he played them in even-par to win by two.
"We all marvel at this golf swing," Faldo said, "but I marvel at his mental strength as well. He showed great strength today. It wasn't very right for awhile and to face the big five holes to get in and shoot [even], fantastic."
Faldo also predicted that Bae won't be "a flash in the pan." Bae is banking on that as well, aiming as he is to represent South Korea in the Olympics in 2016. Military service is mandatory in South Korea and he has yet to fulfill his obligation, but an Olympic medal or a major championship would exempt him from service.
Until then, and with apologies to the Golf Boys, Sunday will serve as the finest (Jason) Day of his career.
His was a life in two acts, neither of which he would have scripted for himself. It was not particularly easy, and often not fair, but Ken Venturi took his cues from its challenges.
"Fate," his friend and colleague Jack Whitaker once told him by way of encouragement, "has a way of bending the twig and fashioning a man to his better instincts."
Fate cast Venturi with "an incurable" stutter that had him seek the isolation of golf and he became a U.S. Open champion. Fate robbed him of the dexterity in his hands and he became the longest-running lead analyst in television sports history.
"The full body of work, spanning everything involved in golf, there's nobody in that Hall of Fame that's done what he's done," his friend and long-time pupil John Cook said. "Maybe some have better records, more tournament wins, but the whole thing? None. He transformed television. He's been the biggest philanthropist in golf history of the things he's involved in that people don't even know about. Lifetime achievement? That barely covers it."
Venturi, 82, died on Friday, little more than a week after his induction in absentia into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He had been hospitalized following surgery for infections in his back.
When he was elected to the Hall of Fame last fall, he summed it up this way: "The greatest reward in life is to be remembered."
Venturi will be remembered on a variety of fronts. When he was 13, "the doctor told my mother that I would never be able to speak as long as I lived, because I was an incurable stammerer. And I went out and found the loneliest sport I could find and took up golf."
At 24, he took a four-stroke lead into the final round of the Masters in a bid to become the first amateur to win at Augusta National. "For three dazzling days Venturi was within reach of a prize no amateur in the history of the Masters has ever been able to seize," the legendary writer Herbert Warren Wind wrote in Sports Illustrated. "But the Masters is a drama in four acts, not three, and on the fourth day it was exit Ken Venturi and enter Jackie Burke." Venturi finished second, still the best performance by an amateur in the history of the Masters.
Venturi would turn pro and win 14 PGA Tour events, including the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in 1964, when against doctor's orders he played the second 18 of a 36-hole day with temperatures upwards of 100 degrees and humidity in the 90s.
"When I came in off the 18th hole in the morning, I laid down next to my locker and Doctor Everett said, 'I recommend you don't go out, because it could be fatal,'" Venturi said last year. He defied the doctor's advice, shot 70 and won his only major championship.
Carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands ended his career in 1967 and the following year, CBS Sports Producer Frank Chirkinian offered the "incurable stammerer" a job as an analyst on its golf telecasts. He would hold the job until his retirement in 2002.
Underscoring his accomplishments on the course and in the broadcast booth was the quiet philanthropy to which Cook alluded.
"Kenny was emphatic about not getting publicity for it, but his life was dedicated to philanthropy," CBS' Jim Nantz, Venturi's broadcast partner for 17 years, said recently. "He had so many different charities he was involved with, and it was under the radar. He was building a home for abused women and children in Florida. Every offseason he traveled to Ireland to throw something for the mentally-challenged kids there. He was a huge figure in bringing golf to blind people.
"He moved mountains, and people didn't know that about him. I remember there was a piece of machinery at Loma Linda (Calif.) Hospital that was one of the forerunners to really being able to treat some forms of cancer. They had that piece of equipment in large part because of money that Kenny had raised through various charitable events throughout Southern California and the Palm Springs area. That machine by the way ended up being the machine that would reach Paul Azinger when he had cancer in his shoulder."
He was only following instructions. "I was taught by Byron Nelson and I asked him one time, 'how could I ever repay you for all you've done for me?'" Venturi said. "He said, 'Ken, be good to the game and give back.'"
The ongoing (friendly) battle between Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner heated up this week, first with some Twitter banter and then with a head-to-head showdown during the first round of the HP Byron Nelson Championship where, as the third man in the group, Matt Kuchar was forced to mediate.
As far as we can tell, the rivalry dates back to the 2011 PGA Championship, when Bradley defeated Dufner in a three-hole aggregate playoff at Atlanta Athletic Club. It gained traction thanks to Dufner's consistent and creative teasing of Bradley's love of Boston sports, and Bradley's success in making the act of Dufnering a national phenomenon. Keegan poked fun at Dufner during Monday night's Bruins game with this tweet, followed by Dufner's dry reply.
Bradley's record on the PGA Tour certainly trumps that of Dufner, a fact that was reinforced by Bradley's first-round 10-under 60 to Dufner's even-par 70. With that 10-shot whooping, Bradley got Dufner back for this Thursday morning prank that Bradley shared via his Instagram account.
Emptying Keegan's bag? Really, Duf Daddy? You can do better than that.
What makes Bradley's 60 in Dufner's company all the more sweet (at least for Bradley fans) is that he outdrove Duf by an average of 14.9 yards. As most golfers know, the best way to settle a friendly dispute is with a long drive contest. Dufner hit it past Bradley only once (on the 1st hole, their 10th), and proceeded to hole out from 129 yards for eagle, so there's a little consolation for the expressionless one. But Bradley hit it past Dufner by 27 yards on the seventh hole (320 to 293) and 34 yards on the 12th (307 to 273). That hurts. So does the 10-shot beat down. Sorry Dufner fans, chalk another one up for Keegan.
Despite being back to winning nearly every week he tees it up, Tiger Woods still finds himself being criticized. Did he drop in the right place (again) at the Players? Is he to blame for the spat with Sergio Garcia? Did he handle said spat properly?
We hate to pile on, but we can't help but question his boat attire (left), either.
Following his latest win, Woods was seen relaxing on his luxury yacht in Palm Beach, Fla., according to the Daily News. If you call this relaxing.
Our favorite part of the photos, though? How about the guy who appears to be Woods' captain/security guard decked out in Nike. Now that's a company man.
There are worse places to find yourself getting lost than Nova Scotia,
the beauty of the land in eastern Canada an understandable reason to
stop paying attention to your car's GPS.
In our May 20th issue, Golf World Contributing Editor Roland Merullo's
travel feature on Cabot Links, the highly acclaimed course on Cape
Breton developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar and Mike Keiser, explains how a few
detours and the search for an open gas station hardly ruined the
experience when making the trip after the course opened last summer.
Merullo is the guest on this week's Inside Golf World Podcast and takes
us through his travelogue, which included a stop at Highland Links.
Along the way he gives some history of how Cabot Links came to be, talks
about what's in store when sister course Cabot Cliffs opens in 2015, and
explains why a visit to the remote destination is worth the time and
effort.
Mike Keiser isn't finished re-shaping Oregon's coast. The owner of Bandon Dunes, a five-course haven on the Southwest Coast of Oregon, now has his eyes set on a parcel of land located about 15 miles south of Bandon Dunes that would allow him to create a 27-hole municipal course.
After negotiating for a land swap with the Oregon State Parks Department for four years, Keiser met on Wednesday with Oregon's Governor and a representative of the Parks Department, and it's official: A preliminary agreement is in place that would give Keiser the land he needs to create the 27-hole Bandon Muni, which would, by the way, be designed by Gil Hanse. At the course, locals would play at a very low rate and juniors would basically pay nothing.
Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we've got island fever and the only prescription is... more islands! Island fairways? Fun! Island tee boxes? Pretty! Island drop areas? Cruel and fun! Imagine making a player who has already dunked a ball in the drink get into a boat and row his own way out to a solitary spot to his his next shot? Johnny Miller would have a field day! Alas, for now we'll have to settle for the excitement TPC Sawgrass' 17th hole provides us on a yearly basis. And that's not such a bad thing.
WE'RE BUYING
Tiger Woods. Now he's winning on courses where he's never been comfortable? The rest of the tour is really in trouble. Woods' latest win was his biggest since his return from his 2009 scandal. It also gave him four wins in a season at the earliest point of any season in his career. Of course, Woods himself has said he only characterizes a season as great if he wins a major, but he still has three more chances to make that happen in 2013. Would you bet against him?
One word, two syllables: Swagger.
TPC Sawgrass. It may not host a major, but it always seems to provide major drama. No. 17 gets most of the attention from fans, but there are plenty of other spots on the course that get the attention of the players. How exciting is the Pete Dye track? Sunday proved that even a Tiger Woods three-shot lead on its back nine isn't safe.
David Lingmerth. Where did this guy come from?! Even as he entered the final round tied for the lead, the Swedish rookie remained an afterthought to most prognosticators. Yet it was Lingmerth who remained the last man standing in the latest Tiger vs. the field competition. If he can hang in like that under those circumstances, it would probably be wise for golf analysts to start practicing pronouncing his name correctly (Hat tip to Swedish colleague, Stina Sternberg). Johnny, like in your name, the "H" is silent.
WE'RE SELLING
Sergio Garcia. This could have been a week where the Spaniard punctuated his return as one of the game's elite players. Instead, he further solidified his reputation for both whining and coming up short in the big spot. After his controversial comments towards Woods on Saturday, Garcia had a stunning meltdown over the final two holes. We feel a little bad for him, but we feel a lot worse for his caddie, whose big payday sunk with those three water balls at the end.
People complaining about TPC Sawgrass. There was a lot of talk about how there weren't a lot of drivers hit there, especially over the weekend. While that's true, guess what? It's 2013 and players can now hit 3-woods farther than they used to hit the Big Stick. Hey, no one is stopping these guys from pulling out the driver. Also, doesn't this somewhat contradict the complaints that these guys are hitting it too far off the tee?
Vijay Singh. Here are the bullet points: Singh admits to using a banned substance, the PGA Tour comes under fire for not acting quickly, Singh is eventually cleared of a doping violation on a technicality, then sues the tour for damaging his reputation. Say what? Sorry, Vijay, but A) This doesn't seem to make much sense (Or does it?) and B) What reputation?
Male Hall of Famers. None of them showed up to this year's Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which takes place a short drive from TPC Sawgrass. None. Not even for Mr. Cool, Freddie Couples? Weak effort.
ON TAP
The PGA Tour heads to Dallas for the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Last year Jason Dufner won. Of course, he became much more famous when he returned last month for media day and by accident started a craze that became known as "Dufnering."
Random tournament fact: The late, great Byron Nelson tried to start a fad called "Nelsoning"* in which he would show up to parties randomly posing like he'd just struck a perfect golf shot. Sadly, it never caught on since none of his fellow pros at the time could tweet about it.
*Not true. But maybe we could start that. . .
WEEKLY YAHOO! FANTASY LINEUP
It's great to see our jinxing power is in full effect. First, Tiger Woods made it four-for-four in 2013 when we don't pick him. Second, unbeknownst to Sergio Garcia, we picked him to win at TPC Sawgrass, just adding to the list of things working against him. In other words, he had NO chance when he stood on that 17th tee tied for the lead.
Starters -- (A-List): Jason Dufner. The defending champ also finished T-8 in 2011.
(B-List): Keegan Bradley. Coming off a disappointing week, it'll be nice for him to return to the site of his first PGA Tour title.
(B-List): Marc Leishman. The Australian has contended at the two biggest events of 2013. It's time to take notice, especially at a course where he has three top 12s in four appearances.
(C-List): Jason Day. Has finished in the top 10 all three times he's teed it up at the TPC Four Seasons, including earning his lone PGA Tour title in 2010.
Bench -- Padraig Harrington, Jimmy Walker, Matt Kuchar, and Jordan Spieth.
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
We enjoyed this clip of journeyman PGA Tour pro Todd Fischer having fun with the fans at No. 17 during a practice round. Fisher purposely shanked multiple balls into the pond, while a stunned crowd probably wondered how the heck this guy ever got into the field. Our favorite part is when someone else on the tee says, "Give him a bad [ball]." Fischer also wins our award for "Well-Orchestrated Ruse of the Week."
THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY DISPLAYS OF PUBLIC AFFECTION
A sore subject this week. I was hoping to see the two in person, but after missing them on Day 1, what did DJ do? He withdrew for a second straight week (this time for his back, last week it was his wrist) and took off before I had a chance to stalk..um, make that follow them.
THIS WEEK IN TIGER WOODS-LINDSEY VONN DISPLAYS OF PUBLIC AFFECTION
That didn't look awkward or anything. . . Hey, don't feel bad, Lindsey. Tiger's post-victory celebration with caddie Joe LaCava wasn't very smooth, either.
RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
-- Sergio Garcia will ever willingly watch a replay of Sunday's finish: Million-to-1 odds
-- Official odds Tiger Woods will win the U.S. Open: 3.5-1
-- Unofficial odds everyone is giving Woods to win at Merion: LOCK
THIS AND THAT
For a second straight tournament, Tiger Woods is having a drop he took questioned. Weird. Controversy never seems to follow this guy. . . . Billy Horschel's PGA-Tour best cut streak of 23 came to an end when he didn't make it to the weekend at the Players. However, I ran one of the great (disturbing?) streaks in the world to 15. I ate at the same Chili's all FIVE nights for a THIRD year in a row during my stay in Ponte Vedra Beach. Top that, Cal Ripken! Pictured are the tasty "Wings over Buffalo," which only have 68 grams of fat.
RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Why isn't there a Chili's within an hour of me?
Why aren't there more island greens?
Where can I place a bet on Tiger?
-- Alex Myers is an Associate Editor for GolfDigest.com. Feel free to email him and please follow him on Twitter since he has self-esteem issues.
By now you know that Vijay Singh has filed suit against the PGA Tour. Yes, he's suing the organization that let him off the hook after admittedly using a banned substance, the organization that has made him rich and the same organization that named him Player of the Year in 2004. How could he do such a thing?
Singh greets fans during the practice round at The Players Championship. Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Forget about Singh's past: the cheating allegations, the unfriendly manner with which he's been known to treat playing partners, the often rude avoidance of the media. Is it possible that the tour acted carelessly because Singh's reputation wasn't worth saving? Singh and his lawyers apparently think so, and the case they've leveled has some compelling elements. Despite the public ridicule the lawsuit has created, Singh's lawyers actually make a few strong points.
• Aside from his cantankerous reputation, Vijay is commonly recognized as the hardest working player on tour. As the lawsuit points out, Singh currently holds the record for most wins after the age of 40. Yes, his negative reputation has only been reinforced by the lawsuit, but his reputation as the hardest working range rat on tour has weakened.
• Paragraphs 12 and 13 of the lawsuit explain the tour's willingness to rely on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for proper testing of banned substances, and to impose action based on the results of that testing, without the slightest effort to verify the accuracy of that information. The tour did not hesitate to suspend Singh and thus left him to deal with the wrath of what the lawyer's claim was baseless action by the tour.
• After the Sports Illustrated story (in which Singh admitted to using deer-antler spray) ran, Vijay provided the Tour with a urine sample (that tested negatively) and a supply of deer-antler spray that the Tour could test. After having the spray tested by UCLA, the tour found no evidence that the spray contained enough IGF-1 to warrant its banning. Furthermore, the tour withheld Singh's earnings during the proposed suspension and alerted Singh that the choice to appeal his suspension would require him to forfeit those earnings, even though he was allowed to continue competing during the appeal process.
• The tour received the results of UCLA's testing on February 14 and, on the same day, sent a letter to Singh notifying him of his violation. Five days later, the Tour notified Singh of his suspension. The timeline of the tour's decision-making process is unclear, but by either deciding on a suspension without proper information about the spray, or by leveling the suspension after finding out about the contents of the spray, the tour seems to have acted preemptively.
• The lawsuit includes a section titled "The Truth about IGF-1" which summarizes UCLA's findings and might be the most interesting aspect of the document. Singh's lawyers point out the biological inactivity of IGF-1 in deer-antler spray in an effort to downplay its effectiveness. They also compare the effect of IGF-1 in the spray to the effect of pouring a shot of bourbon into a pool, then taking a shot of the pool water.
The strengths of the lawsuit do not change the fact that, above all else, Singh admitted to taking a substance that was banned by the PGA Tour. The Tour's Anti-Doping program treats admission of use the same as a positive drug test, meaning Singh has a huge hurdle to clear before this case can gain traction. As in most lawsuits, there are significant barriers that the plaintiff must overcome (the tour's bylaws include language that protects against legal action from members on tour decisions), however, Singh and his lawyers have created a compelling case that's worthy of attention and could have a lasting impact on the Tour's drug-testing policy and procedures.
It wasn't always pretty, but what took place at TPC Sawgrass this
weekend was definitely entertaining, contends Paul Azinger.
In his Players recap this week in his Zinger's Corner podcast with our Editor-in-Chief Jaime Diaz, Azinger salutes Tiger Woods for regrouping after
things looked to be slipping away when his tee shot on the 14th hole
found the water. Regarding the errant shot, Azinger discusses why
Tiger's subsequent drop seemed good to him.
However, Azinger doesn't give Tiger a pass for his part in the spat with
Sergio Garcia. Woods should have taken more responsibility for stirring
the crowd, he says.
Butch Harmon, who has been teaching Uihlein, and Peter's dad, Wally Uihlein, CEO of the Acushnet Company, who signed Scott to a Titleist deal when he turned pro in 2000, presented the idea. The famed European agent who signed Uihlein, Andrew (Chubby) Chandler, mapped out a schedule.
His was a life in two acts, neither of which he would have scripted for himself. It was not particularly easy, and often not fair, but Ken Venturi took his cues from its challenges.
