Final thoughts on the Presidents Cup
Congratulations to the American Team on winning the Presidents Cup. There’ll be lots of post mortem analysis on both sides but I think the biggest factor in the US victory was that the International team let the Americans back into a handful of key matches on Friday and Saturday that, had they gone the other way, might have changed the final outcome. It didn’t seem that the Internationals ever came from behind to steal one.
One of the biggest reversals was Saturday morning when Mike Weir and Tim Clark had Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker on the ropes but couldn’t close the deal. Ironically, Weir had a similar advantage on Justin Leonard in the Sunday singles but another poor approach to the 18th handed Leonard a half point gift.
Speaking of Tim Clark, did anybody ever put on a better display of chipping and putting than this guy? I’ll echo what the NBC broadcast team repeatedly pointed out. It’s unbelievable that Clark has never won a PGA Tour event. I suspect he will soon.
The edge goes to Greg Norman in the Captain’s pick category. While Adam Scott was a dismal 1-4-0, 18-year old Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa won three of his matches including a short game clinic singles victory over 49-year old Kenny Perry. Meanwhile, for the US, Hunter Mahan (2-1-1) was OK but US Open champion Lucas Glover (0-3-1) looked like he wanted to be somewhere else.
I’ve never been a big fan of the captains giving on-course advice to their team but the sight of Greg Norman on the greens helping his players read putts was particular galling. With a partner plus two caddies there’s already enough input to confuse anybody. That was pretty apparent when Jim Furyk and his caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan tried to help Sean O’Hair in the Saturday fourball. O’Hair had the putt going one way, Furyk and Cowan the other. Naturally O’Hair missed.
Harding Park has to be a clear winner after this past week’s events. The course was ideal for match play competition and it was exciting to watch the players go for the green on several short par fours when the tees were moved up a bit. Maybe overall it’s a bit short by today’s bomber standards but with tight tree-lined fairways and heavily contoured greens I think this is a course that could host a major too. Just keep Rees Jones away from it.
Woods hates to lose and seems to bring his game to another level when he has something to prove. Just ask Y.E Yang who was thoroughly thumped in the singles. Although Yang still has the Wannamaker Trophy ……. Does Retief Goosen have a pulse? ………. Is there any way to keep Kelly Tilghman off the telecast?
Clever line: Roger Maltbie is the “course whisperer.”
Oddball observations: That Ally bank commercial that featured a kid playing with a big red truck cracked me up. Even though I saw it about fifty times over four days, when he gets the cardboard truck and says, “it’s a piece of junk,” I still laughed out loud every time.
Unrelated matter: Congrats to Canadian Chris Baryla on winning this weekend’s Nationwide Tour event. He moves into 20th spot on the money list and now has a PGA Tour card pretty well guaranteed for 2010.
Thoughts on the Open Championship
If Jon Mills weren’t in contention for his first PGA Tour win I probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee this weekend. As it turned out, a Swede named Richard Johnson won and Mills faded to 19th.
Kenny Perry was the hottest golfer on the planet heading into the tournament and perhaps the biggest story in golf for his decision to skip The Open Championship to play in Milwaukee. But by Friday night you couldn’t find a wire reference to Perry anywhere as Greg Norman, Padraig Harrington and Royal Birkdale took centre stage to remind us that, despite what Tim Finchem and his band of merry marketers in Ponte Vedra would have you believe, the best golf and the best golfers in the world aren’t always on the PGA Tour.
That goes double for the stories. There were so many compelling features to come out of this year’s Open Championship it’s hard to know where to start. How do you explain David Duval – missing in action and rumoured to be doing a Vulcan mind-meld with the Dali Lama – popping up on the leaderboard and being grilled about his chances to win? Duval showed that his time off didn’t help him master the 30-second sound bite as his answers to even the most inane questions still sounded like a Philosophy 101 class. Time in the spotlight has never been good for Duval and his third round 83 proved it.
Tom Watson looked for a while like a 5-time Open Champion in his prime after an opening 74 but his second round featured some really frightful putting that reminded everyone that he’s close to 60 and not 30 anymore. Recent flavour of the month Rocco Mediate took another run at another major before he too remembered he’s 48 years old and not supposed to contend in these things.
So how to explain the surprising performance of part-time golfer, full time globe-trotting business tycoon, wine-maker, course designer and honey-mooner Greg Norman, at the age of 53, taking a 2-stroke lead into the final round of a major championship. Talk about turning back the clock. Norman hasn’t lost a bit of the swashbuckling go-fo-broke style he epitomized throughout the 80′s and 90′s. Ultimately it was the driver off the tee that cost him in the final round but as he once said, “I didn’t come here to lay up.”
The bookies said Sairgeeoh was supposed to win this one. “Enough with the cocky little Spaniard,” said Norman. “I already ran him off my estate once for messing with my daughter.”
Where was World # 2 Phat Phil and his major championship brain trust and entourage? Whatever they came up with this time didn’t work either. Two drivers, no drivers. Maybe they’ll carry three putters and an extra baffler in the PGA Championship.
If Norman isn’t the story of this year’s Open, it’s only because Paddy Harrington managed to retain his Open Champion title with a brilliant 4-under par 32 on the back nine Sunday. His four shot win over English peacock Ian Poulter will keep the party going in Ireland for at least another year.
For Norman, this was supposed to be a tune-up for the British Senior Open. Now he’s in next year’s Masters. The mind boggles at the very idea.
One final thought on the 137th Open Championship. At no time in four days of watching the telecast did I hear anyone mention FedEx Cup points. They call them majors for a reason Tim. And there are only four of them!
Peter Mumford is the Editor and Publisher of Fairways Magazine in Toronto. Fairways is intended for avid golfers and this blog site is an extension of that same philosophy - we don't dumb it down for the uninformed!