Jet-lagged DeLaet ready for biggest week of his life
This week, Graham DeLaet will try to answer his calling.
This week, DeLaet can introduce himself to most of Canada and show that now, right now, is his time.
The pressure that the young gun from Weyburn, Sask. will endure during his first visit to the final stage of the PGA Tour’s grueling Q-School likely pales in comparison to the pressure the fiery DeLaet puts on himself, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Final stage can be tough enough without thinking too much about what’s on the line.
There’s little doubt DeLaet will be battling some serious jet lag at Bear Lakes, and that won’t be helped by the fact he is going to miss an entire practice day and perhaps more. On Sunday, DeLaet and Stuart Anderson had a disappointing end to the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China, closing with a 76 as Canada placed 25th.
On Wednesday, he’ll begin the most important week of his life.
Graham DeLaet is just the third Canadian in the past dozen years to win the Canadian Tour’s Order of Merit title. Jon Mills did it six years back and found his way to the PGA Tour, a place, ironically, he will be looking to get back to this week. The other Canuck to finish atop the Canadian Tour money list, of course, is eight-time PGA Tour winner and Masters champion Mike Weir.
DeLaet is ready. Judging by his 2009 season, that much is obvious. If you haven’t been following his progress, do a little research. This year has been nothing short of phenomenal – and his most shining 2009 moment may be yet to come.
At British Open qualifying this past summer, DeLaet missed a trip to Turnberry by four shots despite putting five balls in the water and taking six penalty shots altogether. Afterwards, Davis Love III, a 20-time winner on the PGA Tour, told DeLaet to keep his head up – his time would come.
A couple of months later, after conducting a clinic with DeLaet at the Canadian Tour’s Montreal Open, legendary coach Hank Haney told me in an interview at Saint-Raphael Golf Club that DeLaet seemed to have all the tools – as well as impressive length off the tee – to reach the PGA Tour.
It seems more than a few people in the know believe in him.
This week, Graham DeLaet is ready to prove it to himself – as well as the rest of the country.
Bachelor bash, beer and Happy Gilmore? Bad idea…
The next time your buddy decides to quaff back his umpteenth beer on the front nine before going into his Happy Gilmore routine, consider this a warning.
He may wind up before a judge.
You know you’ve hit the big time when your name appears in the Wall Street Journal, even if it is for a seemingly harmless, alcohol-induced prank on the golf course. Such is life for some lush in Nova Scotia who was pretty much sideways when he pulled off the Happy swing during a bachelor party gone awry, a party that featured large quantities of beer, a bottle of Baja Rosa tequila, some marijuana, a few six-putts and, we’re guessing, bathroom breaks a-plenty.
Wonder what happened next? Wonder no more:
In the recent case of Bezanson v. Hayter, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia had no trouble concluding that the Happy Gilmore shot was, as Carl Spackler similarly said about gophers in “Caddyshack,” a menace to the golfing industry. Looking at the facts of the case, they are pretty much exactly what you would expect from a bachelor party golf outing that involved dozens of beers, a bottle of tequila, several marijuana joints smoked “before the third hole,” “power slides” in the golf carts and clubs smashed against trees.
All of this action was a mere warm-up to the 16th hole, however, when the defendant hit his first shot into the woods, took a mulligan second shot, and then decided to take one more shot “Happy Gilmore”-style despite the fact that the other players had moved ahead with their carts up the fairway. The court says the defendant stepped back five or six feet from the ball and then took two full steps up to strike the ball, which went off the heel of the club directly at the plaintiff. Although the plaintiff did not seek medical attention before the wedding, he later alleged “significant daily left hand and wrist pain” to the point that he “is unable to grip to hold his chain saw,” and therefore was “completely disabled from doing his work.”
So the defendant (or the doofus, take your pick) pulls the Happy Gilmore, rattles the shot off his buddy’s wrist and then said buddy sues said doofus? Nice friend, huh? After the hangover wore off, we’re thinking someone saw dollar signs. And that is about as far as we’ll go in the insult department, seeing how the guy uses a chainsaw for a living.
Oh, and for those keeping score, the judge ruled in favour of the plaintiff or, in other words, the one who (allegedly) wasn’t falling down drunk and evidently doesn’t have very quick reflexes, which isn’t such a bad thing seeing how the judge awarded him close to a quarter million dollars.
So said the court:
I am convinced that the “Happy Gilmore” shot would have been less controllable than a normal tee shot, both because it involved a run-up to the ball (rather than an aimed shot from a stationary position) and because the defendant had been drinking throughout the day…
The defendant’s conduct breached the standard of care required of a golfer playing on a course with other golfers. The defendant’s behaviour was not among the “natural risks” of golfing to which the plaintiff can be said to have consented.
We’re guessing the plaintiff isn’t doing a lot of complaining these days.
Westwood bullies his way back to the top
Lee Westwood is a bully and he’s not about to apologize to anyone.
He is also walking proof that perseverance does pay off.
The guy who almost gave up the game after a rough ride earlier in this decade was most recently known for playing the third wheel in two of golf’s more epic battles.
Remember that colossal locking of the horns between a one-legged Tiger and Rocco at Torrey Pines in 2008? Most forget that Westwood was the last guy standing before those two squared off in that 18-hole Monday playoff. And guess who just about found a way into the playoff when Gary Player came oh-so-close to pulling off the biggest upset in major history at the British Open last summer? Yep, Westwood.
And now, Westwood is more than just an answer to a couple of trivia questions. He’s the new king of Dubai and the best player in Europe.
This time, he wasn’t playing second fiddle to anyone.
Golf hasn’t been nearly as easy for Westwood as he made it look in 2000, when he won six times and cruised to the Order of Merit title. A couple of years later, Westwood was looking like golf’s version of Brian Bosworth, spinning his wheels while taking a nosedive to number 264 in the world.
“I certainly turned up to tournaments with low expectations,” said Westwood of that particular stretch.
That won’t be a problem for the foreseeable future. In addition to his win in Dubai, Westwood also claimed the Portugal Masters last month and was third at both the Open Championship and PGA Championship.
Last week, he proved he was back, if there was really any doubt.
Billy Foster, Westwood’s caddie, told his boss he needed to go back to that reckless, take-no-prisoners mentality he showed back in 2000. It was, as Foster said, time to go out and “bully people.”
It turns out he bullied around a 20-year-old Irish phenomenon named Rory McIlroy, getting in the head of the youngster so much that McIlroy put his club through a sign in Dubai.
The betting line says McIlroy will be on the giving end of a lot of bullying in the coming years.
But for one week, at least, Westwood went back in time and showed that perseverance.
“Rory is only 20 — I can’t even remember what it was like to be 20 — and he will have many more chances ahead of him to win the money list.
“But this is my moment.”
A moment Lee Westwood wasn’t sure he’d ever see again.
Q-School heartache
There were likely a few champagne corks popping throughout the U.S. Saturday among the seven Canadians that advanced to the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School.
Those seven will get all the headlines. You’ll read about them in the coming days and weeks, no doubt.
For those players, life has just changed. Obviously, a PGA Tour card is the ultimate target during the final stage a couple of weeks from now, but if nothing else, those seven will earn status on the Nationwide Tour for 2010 with purses more inflated than most of them have ever played for. Should they catch lightning in a bottle at final stage, they’ll be travelling with the best players in the world next year, joining countrymen Mike Weir, Stephen Ames and Chris Baryla on the PGA Tour.
Some Canadians weren’t so lucky. No, there is a flip side at Q-School and for those that came up just short and had their dreams dashed for another year, it will be a tough pill to swallow. For a few of them, the pain is going to sting for a while.
One putt, maybe two. For a few of them, had they found a way to get one more to drop, it would have been a different ending.
Brad Fritsch of Manotick, Ont. (pictured) was poised to move on in the final round in Kingwood, Tex. but fired a final-round 73 to come up one shot short. Toronto’s J.C. Deacon also came up one shy in the Lone Star State despite a final-day 71.
Saturday turned out to be a tough day for Cambridge’s Ian Leggatt, who won the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open in 2002 and was looking to find his way back to the bigs. Holding down a share of 18th spot going into the final day, Leggatt struggled to a 76 to plummet all the way down to 54th.
Toronto resident Seung Lee ran out of holes in round four and missed moving on by a pair of shots. Adam Short posted back-to-back 68s to end his week in Brooksville, Fla. but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 73-77 start.
Most players striving for the PGA Tour wait all year long for Q-School, hoping they are at the top of their game for the most important time of the year. A handful of players are about to realize a dream a couple of weeks from now. For most, however, it’s over for another year.
For those few who came up painfully short, Saturday was not a night for celebrating.
Rather, those players went to sleep trying to figure out where they could have picked up that one more shot.
Ten to watch at Stage 2
Taking a closer look at ten Canadians to watch at this week’s second stage of PGA Tour Q-School:
10. BEN FERGUSON
After flying under the radar for the past couple of seasons, Ferguson is looking to make a return to the PGA Tour, where he toiled earlier in this decade. Ferguson has played close to his home in Ancaster, Ont., most notably on the Great Lakes Tour, where he finished second on the Order of Merit in 2009.
9. DAVID MORLAND
Another ex-PGA Tour regular, Morland struggled in 2009, making just seven of 18 cuts on the Nationwide Tour, cracking the top 25 just once. Morland, who won twice on the Nationwide circuit (2002, 2003), could salvage a very forgettable season by advancing this week in Panama City Beach, Fla.
8. BRAD FRITSCH
Slow out of the blocks, Fritsch made just one cut in his first five Nationwide starts but took home a cheque in five of his final seven, including a season-high T9 at the Christmas in October event in August (and yes, I did a double take on that tournament name as well). Fritsch will attempt to get through second stage at Deerwood in Texas.
7. RICHARD LEE
Lee shot 62 as a 12-year-old at the British Columbia Junior and at 16 became the second-youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Open. In a rather brash prediction, Lee once said he would be “bigger than Tiger” which we’ll consider a mulligan. The kid is a little more modest these days, and that may work for him this week Beaumont, Calif.
6. DAVID HEARN
Yet another former PGA Tour member, Hearn is also looking to make his way back to the big time. Failed to crack the top 40 in his first nine Nationwide starts but missed the weekend just twice over his final nine events. This could be the most frustrating campaign of Hearn’s professional career, but he could make that all go away this week.
5. STUART ANDERSON
A few months removed from his third career Canadian Tour win at the Desjardins Montreal Open, Anderson feels he is ready to finally move on to a bigger stage. It’s hard to argue that point. The 6’4 walking tree not only finished fifth on the tour’s Order of Merit, but he’ll earn another decent payday when he and Graham DeLaet travel to China next week to wear Canada’s colours at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup. Before that, however, Anderson has some unfinished business to take care of on this side of the Pacific.
4. IAN LEGGATT
Leggatt is a former PGA Tour champion, winning the 2002 Tucson Open on the same afternoon Canada won their first hockey Olympic gold in half a century in Salt Lake City. Leggatt will be hoping to salvage his 2009 season, one that has saw him make just eight of 22 cuts on the Nationwide Tour.
3. JAMES LOVE
One of the more promising up-and-comers in Canada, the Calgarian finally notched his first Canadian Tour triumph at the season-ending Canadian Tour Championship. And we say finally only because most figured he would step into the winner’s circle long before he did. Will the win in St. Catharines give Love the jump he needs? We’ll find out this week.
2. JON MILLS
After a miserable start to 2009, Mills found his touch and when the season had ended, had made 15 of 26 cuts on the Nationwide Tour with ten top 25 showings. Mills cooled off down the stretch: his final five starts read MC, MC, T42, MC, T50. Looking to make it to the PGA Tour for the third time.
1. GRAHAM DELAET
This could be DeLaet’s time to make the jump to the PGA Tour. With two wins and the money crown on the Canadian Tour, a triumph on the South African Sunshine Tour along with a pair of runner-up showings, making a cheque at the RBC Canadian Open and a berth in next week’s World Cup, it would be tough to bet against him. If he can overcome the Q-School pressure and stick to his game, DeLaet could very well be joining Weir, Ames and Baryla as Canada’s PGA Tour regulars for 2010.
Does PGA Tour drug policy turn blind eye to recreational drugs?
And here is why the PGA Tour’s drug policy is a crapshoot at best.
Thanks to a rather eye-opening piece from Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian, it isn’t outside of the realm of possibility – and is perhaps quite likely – that there have been some positive drug tests that have gone unpunished since the PGA Tour implemented their policy.
According to allegations from Jeffrey Rosenblum, the lawyer for recently-suspended player Doug Barron, the tour singled out his client while “ignoring a number of other alleged positive tests” for recreational drugs, most notably cocaine and marijuana.
Obviously, the PGA Tour’s lips are sealed but earlier this year, Finchem addressed the issue of recreational drugs on his circuit and admitted “we may have had some test results that trouble”.
“But we don’t publicize those,” Finchem added. “We treat those as conduct unbecoming. I’m not saying this has happened or not, I’m just saying what the process is. If we get a test like that, we will consider it conduct unbecoming, and what are our choices? We can suspend a player, we can fine a player, we can do both of those and put a player into treatment.”
So using illegal drugs is conduct unbecoming? Since when? From where I sit, it’s a crime. If you get pulled over by a cop with a bag of pot or an eight-ball of cocaine, you’re getting served with something a little more serious than “conduct unbecoming.” It’s called a promise to appear, and that is if you don’t get tossed in the Crowbar Motel first.
So Barron, a journeyman in every sense of the word, gets banished to the sidelines for a year for using beta blocker Propranolol and testosterone that were prescribed by a physician to treat a medical condition after asking, and being denied, what is known as a therapeutic exemption? And yet Mr. __________, if he so chooses, can go downtown and buy a dime bag the night before the opening round, knowing if he gets pinched it will be kept very hush-hush and he will get what amounts to a slap on the wrist.
How the heck does that make any sense at all? The answer, of course, is it doesn’t.
Seems to me the PGA Tour may want to take a close look at its list of banned substances.
In my years in this business working closely with hundreds and hundreds of professional golfers, many of whom have moved on to win on the PGA and Nationwide Tours, I can state categorically that there is recreational drug use in professional golf, just as there is in any professional sport. It is not my place to point fingers, but suffice to say it exists, although only within a very small majority of a tour membership. It’s just a matter of players rolling the dice that they won’t get caught.
Or, even if they do, betting it won’t be made public.
If it turns out there have been positive drug tests and yet Barron was the first scapegoat to get a suspension, it’s no wonder he’s hired a lawyer to go after the tour.
Talk about conduct unbecoming.
Barron swinging, Wie wins at last and a rather productive week for Tiger
A week after getting his name dragged through the mud, journeyman Doug Barron has decided to roll up his sleeves and throw a punch of his own.
As discussed in this space last week, it looks like Barron was NOT juicing himself up with steroids – and gee, looking at his frame, you never would have guessed that, right? – but rather was busted for drugs prescribed by a physician for a medical condition. The drugs in question: beta blocker Propranolol and exogenous testosterone (yes, SpellCheck was needed with those terms) – drugs he apparently had been taking for the past two decades and change.
So Barron wants his year-long suspension overturned, but that is only part of the suit. The second half of the lawsuit essentially alleges defamation by the PGA Tour, and we’re guessing he may have a case there. Seems Barron thinks his image has been tarnished by all this “performance enhancing” talk in the wake of the positive test. I’m no lawyer, but was Doug Barron a household name before last week? Didn’t think so.
He may not have earned a dime this year, but Barron and his lawyers may be looking to make up for that in a courtroom.
***
Michelle Wie finally won something Sunday with her first LPGA triumph at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, although some will mark the win with an asterisk.
After all, slagging Wie is the “in” thing to do, so many are sure to note that the record books will show Wie’s first win came at a 36-player invitational event.
No matter. She beat the world’s best to get that first championship payday. I am far from Wie’s biggest fan, but this could be the kick-start she needs after some horrible career decisions orchestrated by her handlers (which is a polite way of saying mommy and daddy).
When all is said and done, Wie is still just a kid. It just seems like forever since we’re been waiting for her to break through.
***
Gee, it turned out to be a rather productive week for Tiger, didn’t it?
Show up in Australia. Check.
Collect ridiculous $3 million appearance fee while preaching you are there just to grow the game globally and would have flown Down Under, golden handshake or not. Check.
Win tournament. Check.
Not a bad week at all: kids’ college education, Christmas presents for the next 60 years, new house in Sweden and a closet full of new shoes for Elin paid for in four days work.
Oh, and for those promoters looking to get Tiger to lesser-known events in North America, you now know the M.O. – start saving those pennies. Lots of ‘em.
Mallory Code loses her fight
Chances are you’ve never even heard the name Mallroy Code. Not to worry, you’re not alone.
I’ll admit, while I followed her battle with cystic fibrosis and knew of her standout amateur career south of the border, I had never met her in person, never saw her hit a golf ball.
Her courageous battle with the disease came to an end earlier this week when Code, a four-time American Junior Golf Association winner from Tampa, Fla., just couldn’t fight any longer.
After getting admitted to hospital with a blood infection and pneumonia over the weekend, Code passed away around dinnertime Monday night. She just never got better.
Mallory Code was just 25 years old.
Her passing took me back to the hearthbreaking battle Canadian Tour regular Jace Bugg waged with leukemia before losing his own fight in 2003. Bugg won on the Canadian Tour in 2001 and the Nationwide Tour in 2002 and seemed poised to join the PGA Tour.
In early December, 2003, Jace Bugg was gone.
There are many similarities between Mallory Code, a member of the 2002 U.S. Junior Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup teams, and Jace Bugg. Both promising golfers with seemingly unlimited potential that were taken well before realizing any of their potential. Bugg was diagnosed with leukemia rather suddenly and underwent a bone marrow transplant before suffering complications. Mallory lived with cystic fibrosis her entire life and still overcame long odds to star at every level she played golf.
Both are gone, far too young.
By all accounts, Mallory Code never let her condition bring her down. Even in the final days of her life, she looked after others, checking herself out of hospital a few weeks back to travel to Orlando for the first birthday party of her niece.
The news of Mallory’s passing has hit some LPGA Tour players hard. On various Twitter accounts, players were offering sentiments.
“Sad day for us, happy day for heaven” wrote Nicole Hage, also a close friend.
“Yesterday was a very sad day, the most amazing young woman I have ever known passed away. She touched so many lives and will be greatly missed,” said Morgan Pressel. Paula Creamer offered : “Rip Mallory. You were an amazing person and role model to many.
“She accomplished so much in life, but in the earthly manner, we will miss her so much,” her father told Tampa Bay Online earlier this week. “But we know where she is now and we know how much good she did during her life. For that, we are so grateful.”
As talented as she was hitting a golf ball, Mallory Code, like Jace Bugg, will be remembered for so much more than she ever did on a golf course.
And that makes her a champion, trophy or no trophy.
Lest we forget
Today, there will be no golf analogy. No talk of Tiger or Phil, of Q-School or majors.
Today, we pause to reflect.
While attending Remembrance Day services earlier today under a sunny, cloudless sky, I, like millions of Canadians, paid tribute to the brave men and women of this nation who have laid down their lives – both in the past and present – to make a better life for each and other one of us. You couldn’t help but feel a great sense of pride watching our veterans march by, their faces a little more weathered by another year.
Time has taken a few more since this time last year. There aren’t quite as many as there were in 2008. Some can no longer get around on their own, supported now by walkers or wheelchairs. Many are now in the twilight of life, but today, you could see that pride in their faces as they smiled and waved past the applauding crowds.
These days, those serving our nation in Afghanistan continue to fight for what they, and we, believe in. There are too many coming home too soon from their missions, their voices silenced forever. The Highway of Heroes is being travelled far too often by hearses and limousines carrying family members of those who have been lost. That number is now approaching 140 souls. Brother or sister. Father or mother. Niece or nephew. Friend. Each of them, one of us. Fighting for us.
Different eras, different lives, different fight. Same principle.
So, these words have nothing to do with golf. Not on this day. There will be another 364 to talk of fun and games.
Lest we forget. Today, we say thank you.
Today is for them.
PGA Tour bubble boys down to their last chance
So the big boys are done with the PGA Tour until the New Year and about the only intriguing storyline heading into this week’s season-ender is who may be looking for a place to play come Sunday night.
Golf’s bubble boys arrive in Florida with fingers crossed, hoping to earn enough cash this week that they won’t have to beg for sponsor’s exemptions or, worse yet, return to Q-School to play their way back on tour. Sitting in 126th spot on the money list is Chris Riley with just over $613,000 in earnings.
Hey, six hundred grand doesn’t buy what it used to.
Here are five bubble boys you may want to keep an eye on this week:
RICH BEEM
Pop quiz: who held off Tiger at the 2002 PGA Championship, one of those rare times someone did anything but bow down to Tiger on the final day of a major. If you answered Rich Beem, here’s your cookie. Beemer is inside the number needed to retain his card for 2010 – by one, sitting in 124th spot. He needs to make a cheque, preferably a rather large one, so he can sleep a little easier Sunday night.
ROCCO MEDIATE
Who can forget the ear-to-ear smile from The Rock during that colossal playoff at the U.S. Open with Tiger playing on one leg? How the almost-mighty have fallen. Mediate hasn’t had a horrible season, missing playing on the weekend in just three of 21 starts, but he just can’t seem to find his mojo with just a lone top ten. Way, way back on the money list -141st to be exact – so he’ll need to put together another memorable week if he wants a free pass on tour for 2010.
RICKY BARNES
The former U.S. amateur king seemed to be The Next One after a runner-up showing at Bethpage back in June. Since then, it’s been a downward spiral: three cuts in nine starts and a best showing of 39th. If Barnes is in danger of missing the cut late Friday, those within a few hundred yards of him may want to cover their kids’ ears. Trust us.
DAVID DUVAL
Bet you thought Duval was on his way back after that inspiring performance at Bethpage this summer, didn’t you? You may want to re-think that. Since tying for second at the U.S. Open, Duval has made just over $10,000 in seven starts. He’s the bubbliest of bubble boys, sitting right on the 125th perch heading into Thursday. Make the cut, he probably keeps his card; miss playing on the weekend, all bets are off.
CHRIS DIMARCO
Perplexing, indeed. If you’ve been asleep at the switch, you might be wondering what happened to a guy who was near the top of the food chain not all that long ago. DiMarco hasn’t cracked the top 25 since The Memorial in June and has been in a free fall to 138th on the money list. Remember that classic duel with Tiger at Augusta back in ’05? Yeah, it was only four years ago. Watching the ex-Canadian Tour Order of Merit winner these days, it sure seems a lot longer than that.
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.