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Gillespie catches his $100,000 break
Roommates Ricky Barnes and Derek Gillespie may end up fighting over who is picking up the dinner tab, after all. But they’ll eat well.
Just days after Barnes finished runner-up at the U.S. Open and earned half a million bucks, Gillespie followed suit – albeit on a much smaller scale – Monday night.
It probably wasn’t the way he wanted to collect a $100,000 paycheque, but you won’t hear Gillespie complaining.
The long bomber from Oshawa, Ont., whose career has been stuck in neutral for the past few years, ousted knockout Blair O’Neal Monday night to win The Golf Channel’s Big Break Prince Edward Island.
Well, in the literal sense, Gillespie, now living in the Arizona desert, defeated O’Neal last fall. But, like every other reality program polluting the airwaves these days, the outcome wasn’t known for months. Gillespie, along with the rest of the cast, had to keep their mouths shut.
OK, so TGC’s tacky reality show isn’t exactly must-see TV, but you had to at least have some interest with the local boy and the pinup girl as the last two standing. And if you weren’t, O’Neal provided the eye candy to make sure you didn’t reach for the remote.
And it’s about time Gillespie caught a break.
One of the biggest enigmas in Canadian golf, not many predicted the 30-year-old would still be toiling on the Canadian Tour after all these years. And yet, there he is, still waiting to answer the bell when it matters most- PGA Tour Q-School.
In an interview a couple of months back, Gillespie admitted he had given some serious thought to giving up the game, frustrated at not being able to make the jump up golf’s ladder.
Now, he can breathe a bit easier. His travel itinerary is taken care of for the rest of the year, and Q-School is paid for. Now Gillespie can just focus on playing golf.
And that may turn out to be his biggest break of all.
It’s Gillespie and Lingerie Bowl babe in Big Break final
I must admit, I’m stumped.
On one hand, should you be inclined to tune into The Golf Channel for tonight’s Big Break PEI season finale, you’ll see Derek Gillespie of Oshawa, Ont. as one of the last two standing for the $100,000 payday.
After spending years employed by the Canadian Tour, it’s a no-brainer who I’ll be pulling for tonight, right?
Well, not exactly. In fact, I’m torn.
Have you seen who Gillespie is squaring off against? Former Lingerie Bowl babe Blair O’Neal. Seriously. (And, not that it matters, but she is the one of the left).
Decisions, decisions.
OK, in all seriousness, this could be the break Gillespie is waiting for, where he can salt a few bucks away and not have to worry about the bills from week to week. And when I talked to him earlier this spring, he wasn’t giving any clue as to how he fared on the show, which was taped last fall, and admitted he signed a contract not to disclose anything. Evidently, he did pretty well.
So, yeah, we’re pulling for the Canuck. But we won’t be overly upset if Blair comes through. Well, because.
***
Don’t look now, but Chris Baryla is starting to make some noise on the Nationwide Tour. Baryla, from Vernon, BC, seemed to be in no-man’s land when this Nationwide Tour season began, playing on a medical exemption thanks to some serious health issues over the past couple of years. In fact, when we spoke a couple of months back, he was still waiting on his first start of the year.
He finally got it, and he’s taken advantage.
Baryla placed fifth at the Nationwide Tour Players Cup Sunday, his second top-five showing in four starts, meaning he shouldn’t have any problem getting into events for the rest of the year. With Baryla healthy and back playing full-time, a Nationwide win – and a promotion to the big tour – is in his crosshairs.
***
For those who missed it, Cheyenne Woods made her LPGA Tour debut over the weekend and, well – how do we put this nicely – um, didn’t fare quite as well as Uncle Tiger.
Seems the amateur shot rounds of 75-74 and missed the cut by forever.
Oh, for what it is worth, Tiger missed the cut in his first PGA Tour start as well. Just saying.
Tragedy hits PGA Tour…yet again
Lore has it that bad things happen in threes and you probably aren’t going to get much of an argument from the PGA Tour.
Talk about a rough few weeks outside the ropes on golf’s biggest stage.
First, the golf world was shocked with the news that Amy Mickelson is battling breast cancer. A couple of weeks back, Champions Tour regular Ken Green lost his girlfriend and brother – and ultimately, his leg – in an RV crash.
And on Sunday, Beth Smith, the wife of 2002 Buick Classic champion Chris Smith, was killed when the vehicle she was a passenger in crashed head-on with a bus carrying the London Silverbacks, an Ontario football team. His two children were both critically injured in the crash, which happened on an Indiana interstate.
As cliché as it sounds, tragedy has a way of putting things like golf in perspective. On one of golf’s biggest weekends, when the world watched the best players on the planet slosh their way around Bethpage Black, Smith, after just missing the cut at the Nationwide Tour’s Fort Smith Classic, had his life turned upside down.
Amy Mickelson has been on the receiving end of an outpouring of support from the PGA Tour community and many have rallied around Green, although his story hasn’t been nearly as publicized.
And now, yet again, they will have to lend a collective shoulder to Smith, one of their own who is surely is going to have a tough time standing up on his own.
“Words cannot begin to express how difficult of a time this is for our family and we appreciate the generous outpouring of support that we have received,” Smith said in a statement. “We would appreciate it if you would continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers, and kindly ask that you please respect our privacy during this extremely difficult time.”
Jerry Kelly, in Connecticut for this week’s Travelers Championship, is a close friend of Smith’s and says he is devastated by the news. So, too, is most of the PGA Tour.
Yet again.
Kelly will stay in the field this week. Unless his phone rings.
“Chris Smith,” Kelly told the Hartford Courant, “is my best friend.”
“I’m going to play, yes, unless I get a call that says, ‘I need a friend.’ And I’ll be there.”
Sadly, in the same way too many players have had to be there for one of their own in recent weeks.
Barnes has a major in his future – well, with a little anger management
The day will come, and probably soon, that Ricky Barnes will win a major championship.
Heck, probably more than one.
First, though, he needs to find a way to harness his emotion and check his temper at the first tee. Until then, not only will he not win that major, but more likely will end up wrapping a four-iron around somebody’s neck.
To stick the choker label on the 28-year-old seems a little unfair, seeing how the 2002 U.S. Open champion put on a clinic for the opening two days at the U.S. Open before heading out into uncharted waters over the weekend, and ultimately Monday, at Bethpage. Somehow, even with a six-shot lead Sunday, you knew a meltdown wasn’t out of the question.
And you would have been right.
Watching Barnes try to keep his composure as it all began to unravel Monday could almost be expected.
Barnes, it turns out, has an indirect tie to Canada. His brother, Andy, who also looped for his younger sibling at The Black, played on the Canadian Tour and is close buddies with Canadian Derek Gillespie.
In fact, Gillespie, no slouch himself on the golf course, and Ricky Barnes are roommates, sharing a pad in Arizona.
But back to Barnes’ temper.
It was four years ago, at the Canadian PGA Championship, then a Nationwide Tour event being staged at Whistle Bear in Cambridge, when Barnes gave everyone an impromptu – and loud – example of his rather short fuse.
It was in the final moments of an early round when something didn’t go right for Barnes, and he responded by unleashing a stream of four-letter expletives over his last couple of holes. Barnes punctuated his temper tantrum on his final hole of the day when, walking off the green, he screamed – and by scream, I mean in a ‘hey-can-you-hear-me out-in-the-parking-lot’ kind of way – an f-bomb for all, children and women included, to hear.
Sure, that was four summers ago and Barnes has seemingly mellowed over that time. But not much.
So, no, you couldn’t be surprised when the long-hitting youngster began to come apart at the seams Monday, even as his brother tried to keep the Barnes Express on the rails. Four straight bogeys pretty well spelled the end of his U.S. Open dream, and a couple of times Barnes was seen slamming his club into the Bethpage ground. And when he finally hopped off the bogey train after six in eight holes, Barnes kept it together, going 1-under over his final six holes and smiling all the way in, to finish in a tie for second, good enough for a payday of more than half a million bucks.
For almost the entire week, Barnes proved just how good he is when he isn’t boiling over. Majors can test the patience of the most seasoned of players, let alone someone who hasn’t been there before. For the better part of eight holes, his emotions got the better of him and it probably cost him a major.
The kid has unlimited talent and a hell of a lot of charisma. He’ll win his major one day.
Provided that temper doesn’t get the better of him again.
U.S. Open website not idiot-proof, Kamte feelgood story of week at Bethpage and the USGA shows its true colours
Chalk this one up to damage control: seems the USGA, in its infinite wisdom, gave the cold shoulder to those thousands of souls that forked over good money to come out and watch the opening round of the U.S. Open Thursday, only to be told they were out of luck when played was suspended early.
The USGA had their money, spectators had a chance to see a little golf and there’s no telling what Mother Nature has in store so tough luck, right? Well, after getting smacked around for the better part of the day in the media, the USGA backed off, telling fans that held tickets for Thursday they could come back Monday if there was still golf to be played – and caught a PR break when more rain drenched Bethpage Sunday, meaning there was no way they were finishing on time.
No refund or spreading the wealth over the final three days. And until they took the hit in the press, the USGA was going to do nothing about it. Oh, and did we forget to mention last year’s Open generated over $50 million at Torrey Pines? It’s nice to see greed is still alive and well in these tough times.
***
Best story of the week, bar none, was that of South African James Kamte, who always dreamed of being a professional golfer but had the misfortune of growing up during apartheid, which put those plans on hold. Seems Kamte never gave up on the dream and shortly after apartheid ended, started caddying at clubs in his homeland.
He ended up collecting on a bet at Bethpage Black. At the Memorial, Tiger Woods challenged Kamte to get through sectional qualifying to earn a berth in the Open and promised him a practice round if he could. Kamte prevailed in Columbus, Ohio and Woods kept his promise, playing nine with the South African early last week.
***
As could be expected, there were the obvious girl giggles and high-pitched screams for the trio of Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, who were paired together for the opening two rounds. But apparently there were a few man-crushes as well. Among the screams heard at Bethpage:
“Knock it in, you hunk!” directed at Scott, and “You’re so hot, Sergio!”
Yelled by men.
Apparently the beer tents are still open during rain delays.
***
You would think a website as heavily visited and sophisticated as the US Open website would do a little moderating when allowing “fans” to post messages. Thanks to an assist from the gang over at Deadspin, seems like the site wasn’t exactly idiot-proof this weekend:
Surely someone was watching for the morons posting messages, seeing how any visitor to PGATour.com was automatically redirected to the U.S. Open site when the leaderboard was clicked. Apparently he wasn’t doing his job very well.
Ten years after memorable Open win, Payne still lingers
That famous stance, one forever etched in time, is the one lasting memory we have of Payne Stewart.
Hard to believe, isn’t it, that it has been a decade since that classic pose signaled the end of the 1999 U.S. Open, with Stewart jarring that 15-footer at Pinehurst to win his second Open crown, breaking the heart of Phil Mickelson in one of the most memorable finishing kicks in U.S. Open history.
Four months later, he was gone, drifting into legend inside a plane bound for nowhere in perhaps the most bizarre, the most perplexing, plane tragedy you’ll ever see. We watched, trying to make sense of what was unfolding on our television screens on that October day. That LearJet continued to fly, but the six inside had already succumbed after the plane lost cabin pressure. Taking off in Orlando and bound for Love Field in Dallas, it soon became a ghost flight, destination unknown, accompanied by F16s until it dropped from the South Dakota sky into a cow pasture. No one on board felt a thing. They were already gone.
Time, as it always does, marches on. Probably a lot more slowly for Tracey Stewart and her children, but it marches on nonetheless.
And all that we’re left with is the memories of Payne Stewart, a fiery competitor, family man and, at times, daring to show that ornery side when asked a rather redundant question by a scribe.
The memories will have to do.
Those plus fours. The tam o’shanter cap. That leg kick in ’99. And right after knocking in that winning putt – and by that we mean immediately – there he was, embracing Mickelson, taking his face in his hands and looking straight into his eyes, telling him “Good luck with the baby. There’s nothing like being a father.”
In other words, letting Lefty know tomorrow would be a better day. Much better.
The next day, Amy Mickelson gave birth to their first child.
Don’t think for a moment that Mickelson isn’t remembering that this week, ten years after the fact, as he chases his own U.S. Open glory. As Amy Mickelson battles breast cancer, Phil is no longer the sentimental favourite but the guy no one can seem to root against. And if he were still with us, you can bet that Stewart, at some point this week, would have embracing Mickelson, once again looking straight into his eyes and saying “Good luck with the fight.”
And it is reasons like that Payne Stewart is missed just a little more this week.
Ten years later.
Golf a slam-dunk for 2016 Olympics
What would mean more to a professional golfer, a major championship or Olympic gold?
Well, according to Colin Montgomerie it would be Olympic gold, but I have a hunch you’d have a hard time convincing those at the U.S. Open this week.
No matter. We’re bound to find out in seven years because in a few months, golf will be added to the 2016 Olympic Games for the first time since 1904. Book it.
This Monday past, leaders from golf’s world tours, with a little support from Montgomerie and Annika Sorenstam, put on their Sunday best and made their best vacuum-salesman pitch to get golf included in the 2016 games.
Really, the consensus is it is just a formality. Golf is going head-to-head with baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash for one of two inclusions in the 2016 games.
Squash in the Olympics? Huh? Unless Mexico and the Americans are squaring off for gold – with Selma Hayek and Jessica Biel swinging the racquets – I ain’t watchin’. Then again, they give out medals for bouncing on a trampoline, so all bets are off when it comes to the IOC.
But really, is there really any doubt that golf will get the nod?
The plan calls for a 60-player field competing in a 72-hole stroke play tournament for gold, silver and bronze. The world’s best 15 players get a free pass into the Olympics with “remaining places filled by the highest-ranked players whose countries don’t already have two players in the field.” Sound confusing? Well, let’s just say players outside the top 15 may want to get proactive and get their lawyers looking into that Tanzanian citizenship right about now.
Don’t get me wrong, golf should be an Olympic sport for the first time in well over a century. But, as I’ve yelled from my soapbox previously, it should be left to the amateurs. But that is for another day. The Olympics are now about ratings. And Tiger at 40 – which, just to make you feel a little older, is how old the world’s best player will be seven summers from now – sells better than any athlete on the planet, which is why professional golf is a slam-dunk for the 2016 games.
It will be special indeed but will it mean more than a major championship to players? Not likely.
And for those who have no desire to see golf in the Olympics, chin up. At least it won’t be squash…
Finger-pointing just the Canadian way in golf
Judging by a recent article from Kent Gilchrist of the Vancouver Province, there is still no lack of finger-pointing when it comes to issuing blame for the lack of Canadians on the PGA Tour.
Gilchrist sat down with Richard Zokol, a former PGA Tour champion and, until recently, a consultant with the RCGA. Zokol is a sportswriter’s dream in that he rarely takes the high road when asked a question, and his take on the RCGA player development program isn’t sitting well with the folks at Golf House.
Zokol took the first shot:
“They wanted me to endorse what they were doing and I told Scott (executive director Simmons, whom Zokol says he has a `great relationship with’) that I cannot endorse it. It hasn’t been successful for 10 years. It isn’t going to work now. It should be blown up and they should start over. The bottom line is I think the RCGA is out of touch.”
Many have weighed in on the Gilchrist piece, including Robert Thompson over at OntGolf and RCGA director of high performance Doug Roxburgh, who is quoted in the article. Not surprisingly, Roxburgh has a different take than the one offered by Zokol.
From Roxburgh:
“We’ll just have to wait and see. There are a lot of good players in the pipeline,” he said. “There’s not much else we can say. We’ve had a lot of discussions with Dick. He knows where we stand. Dick and the RCGA have agreed to disagree.”
There is little debate that Canada is producing some of the world’s best amateur players. In four years, two Canadians, most recently Matt Hill, have won the NCAA national championship after being handed off from the RCGA to the college ranks. Nick Taylor won four times at the University of Washington this year and he and Andrew Parr just qualified for the U.S. Open. Credit who you will when it comes to college championships, but surely the RCGA takes, at the very least, a fair share of the back-slaps and high-fives. You don’t win a national college championship without having some serious game before your first day of class.
The issue doesn’t seem to be the production of world-class amateur players – although Canadians would no doubt like to see more – but rather who is responsible for taking over once these kids turn pro, which has long been a contentious issue.
No one knows the answer to that question. Until someone comes up with one – along with a whole lot of funding – the wheels will continue to spin. Perhaps, instead of the finger-pointing and hand-wringing, the stakeholders of Canadian golf should lock themselves in a room and work together to find a solution. Everyone is quick to take credit when a Canadian succeeds at the professional level. The reality is there is little help being offered to get them there.
Once they turn pro, most touring pros are on their own, which I realize isn’t exactly breaking news. But unless your name is Lepp or Mills or Hearn, young professionals are more often than not footing the bill for their PGA Tour chase, whether grinding it out on the Nationwide – for the lucky ones – or Canadian Tours until PGA Tour Q-School hits. Too often, the struggling to make ends meet only to see your dreams crash and burn at Q-School is enough for many of this country’s top prospects to toss in the towel far too early and opt for another line of work.
No money, no support, no “next Mike Weir.” It’s that simple.
Just ask Matt McQuillan, a former Canadian amateur star who, after turning pro, put on a clinic to win the 2005 Telus Edmonton Open. Two years later, he was out of money and out of the game until returning to Q-School this year for one last kick at the can with the Canadian Tour. James Lepp became the first Canadian to win the NCAA Championship in 2005, won twice on the Canadian Tour and, even with IMG representing him, plans on cutting back on his schedule to launch a shoe and apparel line this fall. In fairness, Lepp isn’t giving up on the game, but is dealing with the yips, an affliction he has battled since his early teens.
Oddly enough, Lepp placed third at the South Surrey Invitational Sunday. Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask. – another former RCGA poster boy – was second. Draw whatever conclusions you want.
Should you take a glass-half-full outlook, you’ll notice Dustin Risdon, a Canadian Junior and Juvenile champion 12 years ago, was seventh at the Nationwide Tour’s Knoxville Open and, as we sit here, is closing in on the number needed for a promotion to the big tour for 2010.
The learning curve between amateur and professional golf can at times be an intimidating one, something Zokol himself knows a thing or two about. The problem for most Canadians making that jump is there is no safety net, no one to catch you. You fall, you’re hitting pavement.
Others will argue that it is up to the player to make his own breaks once he starts playing for a cheque, like David Hearn and Jon Mills did in reaching the PGA Tour, albeit for a short stay. The breaks that current Nationwide members such as Risdon and the injury-plagued Chris Baryla are making for themselves.
Surely there has to be some common ground where a player gets the financial backing he needs until he can create that break for himself.
Canadian Tour Commissioner Rick Janes has gone on record numerous times saying “We’re often asked where the next Mike Weir is coming from when the real question is how many Mike Weirs have fallen through the cracks?”
Janes is much closer to the truth than most people think.
Zokol’s been around the block, so to speak, but in order to fully appreciate his argument you have to draw a line in the sand on where, exactly, the RCGA’s involvement ends. If you believe that the RCGA’s responsibility ends at the NCAA level or the moment a player turns pro, there is little argument the program is working. But if the end goal is to put more players on the PGA Tour, as the RCGA has stated in the past, you can draw your own conclusions.
The debate isn’t weather there are enough PGA Tour-calibre players in the system but why so many are being hung out to dry once they turn professional and whose responsibility that is – if there is anyone to blame at all. To figure that out, it is going to take the heads of every major golf association in this country to sit down under the same roof and get down to the brass tacks.
Until someone figures out how to bridge that gap, the only sure thing is finger-pointing will continue with the results pretty much the same.
Ken Green just can’t escape demons
His is another heartbreaking tale of fate, not unlike, in many ways, Amy Mickelson’s agonizing battle with breast cancer.
Only Ken Green will not get the same headlines, will not receive the same number of well wishes, from a golfing public that has long since swept him under the rug, as if he no longer matters. He was from an era where golf was not nearly as sexy to so many, this five-time PGA Tour champion.
Green could very well be a product of his own undoing, an abrasive, combative rogue who never bit his lip, never thought twice about who he might offend and quite simply didn’t care.
He was never shy when discussing the demons he attempted to slay long after he had vacated the PGA Tour stage, demons that he had seemingly put in the past until they reappeared on a Mississippi interstate Monday.
While heading home a day after the Champions Tour’s Triton Financial Classic, green’s RV blew a tire and ended up careening down an embankment before plowing into a tree. Killed were his girlfriend, brother and German Shepherd.
Reports suggest Green is in danger of losing his leg. Even if it can somehow be saved, it’s pretty well a given he will never play another round of competitive golf again.
And that, no matter what you think of Ken Green – or if you even know who he is – is tragic.
Green marched to his own beat, both on the golf course and behind the microphone. He once cracked a beer while playing a round with Arnold Palmer at The Masters. Another time, he snuck friends into Augusta National in the trunk of his car.
“For whatever reason, I never really liked people telling me what to do,” Green told Golf Digest six years ago. “I’ve always been that way. I might handle it differently now, but I’m still not going to let someone tell me how I should act.”
Things seemed to be turning for Ken Green, having made just over $120,000 in eleven starts on the Champions Tour in 2009. Not much by today’s standards, perhaps, but a hell of a lot more than he had been making.
Green had softened his stance in recent years , which tends to happen once you lose everything. Following his PGA Tour career, Green slid into depression and underwent a nasty divorce. He admits he was $300,000 in the hole, suicidal and, in his own words “went to bed every night praying I didn’t have to wake up and deal with this planet anymore. When you’d wake up in the morning, you were [angry] because you did wake up.”
That outlook had changed, especially in a 2009 season in which he was trying to make a name for himself in the same game that had apparently passed him by.
No one knows for sure if Ken Green dreads waking up right now, with his brother, his girlfriend, his dreams, taken away in the most fleeting of moments on a Mississippi highway.
But he deserves that lift out of bed, that same shoulder reserved for Amy Mickelson or Darren Clarke or anyone else floored by tragedy.
Even if you have no idea who Ken Green is – or once was.
Wayward balls and heavy metal memories
Surprise, surprise – this guy was actually hit by a golf ball.
And no, contrary to what you may think, “ball” is not plural. Just one. Honest.
Meet Nicko McBrain – yep, that’s his name – and he plays the skins for heavy metal greybeards Iron Maiden, in case you were wondering – or cared. Thanks to an assist from the Hooked On Golf Blog, it seems McBrain was talking when he should have been listening and ended up on the receiving end of an AWOL golf ball.
Golf? You’re kidding, right? We just figured McBain didn’t get out of the way as the tour bus backed up.
Evidently McBrain took a MaxFli off the wrist – or is that McWrist? – in Cota Rica of all places. Mind you, it could have been a tragic tale indeed had the ball found a spot, um, a little more south. To hear McBrain tell it, it’s a good thing the ball didn’t strike him “an inch lower”, or future Maidenites could have been sacrificed by some moron’s shank off the tee. An inch? Dream much, Nicko? We know rock stars have egos, but someone needs a reality check.
I’ll confess – and yes, it is a confession – that I was once an Iron Maiden fan during their heyday in the ‘80’s, when paisley and bread boxes were also considered “in” – and barbers were outlawed. Cranking up Run To The Hills in the high school parking lot through geometry and history class was the cool thing to do, which might explain why I am not a professor. What I didn’t realize was McBrain was an avid golfer. Stereotypes, people.
Speaking of which, if a rock star is going to get drilled by a golf ball, why can’t Bret Michaels take up the game?
Fairways Web Editor Marty Henwood spent more than six years as the Media Relations Director with the Canadian Tour and has been involved in sports journalism for more than a decade, including stints in newspaper, radio, new media and media relations. He will offer his unique take on the world of golf, with nothing and no one off limits.
