WHEN YOU’RE 47 AND haven’t won in eight years on the PGA Tour, you must wonder if you’ll ever have another chance. In fact, for Rocco Mediate, who won the Frys.com Open on Sunday for his sixth tour title, the challenge has been even more basic. Rocco has been trying to piece together enough good golf to regain his tour playing privileges.
Until Rocco got his improbable win in California, he had only collected about $140,000 in 24 events this season. His prospects were not looking good. But one week like the one in San Martin can turn everything around.
Rocco had a hole out on each day of the tournament. On Thursday, he made a hole-in-one on the par-3 3rd hole. On Friday, he holed out from 160 yards on the par-4 4th hole. On Saturday, he holed out from 111 yards on the par-5 15th hole. And on Sunday, after struggling early in the round and then dropping a birdie putt on 16, he holed out from 116 yards on the 17th.
“I had a perfect number,” Rocco said. “And when I hit it, I went: ‘Oh, that’s got to be good, that would be nice.’ And when it went in, I thought: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
Four hole outs for four eagles. And he won by a stroke.
I didn’t see any of it, but I’m happy for Rocco. It’s been a bumpy road for him since nearly beating Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open.
“I have a job again,” he said.
−The Armchair Golfer
Four Hole Outs Spur Win for Rocco Mediate
Name the Player at the AT&T National
WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION of “Name the Player.” This player is a veteran who has never won on the PGA Tour. The photo was taken at the 2009 AT&T National. Does he look familiar? Any guesses?
−The Armchair Golfer
Other “Name the Players”:
Name the Player in Silhouette
Name the Player at the PGA Championship
Name the Old-Time Players
Name the Player Practicing in the Bunker
Name the Player Along on the Range
Name the Player at the LPGA Championship
Name the Player Signing the Deal in 1971
Name the Player at TPC Sawgrass
Name the Player Based on the Shoes and Footwork
(Image: CM/Flickr)
Colin Montgomerie’s ‘Blather’
I JUST READ JIM MCCABE’S piece titled, “Monty misses mark on European dominance.”
I don’t think the Golfweek senior writer is a fan of Captain Monty. Far from it. He begins:
At first, it felt like an unusual, late-season hurricane moving up the coast. But, no, the warmth was coming in from Hong Kong, delivered by Colin Montgomerie, a specialist in hot air.The Monty quote that set McCabe off? This one: “We have always bowed to America’s dominance. But now we don’t just have Lee Westwood but also Martin Kaymer coming up, as well.”
McCabe suggests that Colin should run the dominance statement by Tony Jacklin, Sam Torrance, Mark James, Bernard Gallacher, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal. He wants to remind Monty of 1985, 1987, 1989, 1995 and 1997, a stretch of five Ryder Cup wins for Europe in seven tries.
Lee Westwood ascending to No. 1 in the world ranking is a big deal, especially since he’s dethroning Tiger Woods. But guess what? Four Europeans (the same number as Americans) have held the top spot: Langer, Ballesteros, Woosnam and Faldo.
McCabe, in closing:
What is important is to brush aside Captain Monty’s blather about Europeans always bowing to American dominance and this changing-of-the-guard nonsense. It’s disrespectful to the dynamic Europeans who more than 20 years ago changed the face of world golf and made possible the opportunities and the riches that now flow to their countrymen.Monty, he’s right. It’s expected that you would be walking on air after winning the Ryder Cup and considering the sensational year European players have had (two majors and a slew of other PGA Tour wins). But can you tone it down a smidge? It’s gotten a little too silly.
On the other hand, you served up a column for McCabe. For that, you are to be commended.
−The Armchair Golfer
(Image: Monster/Flickr)
Tom Pernice Jr. Refuses to Act His Age
THE FALL IS WHEN the leaves turn and PGA Tour players (and wannabes) scramble to get in the top 125 on the official money list to secure their card for the coming season.
Tom Pernice Jr. is one of those lads. Only Pernice is no lad. He’s a fossil, age 51. At a time when most players his age would see dollars signs flashing in neon on the Champions Tour, Pernice is intent on playing with the flat bellies a while longer.
“I still think I can compete against the best in the world,” Pernice told Golfweek.
The 28-year veteran missed earning back his PGA Tour card at the 2009 Q School by a single shot. And get this: Pernice took a double on the last hole. That is nightmare material.
In the 2010 season, he’s played 20 events on the PGA Tour, earning $573,551, and eight events on the Champions Tour, banking $798,410. Add them together and it’s a very good year. But Tom needs more of the PGA Tour bucks. He currently sits at 138th on the PGA Tour money list, so he has work to do to get his card.
This week Pernice is in the field at the Frys.com Open in San Martin, California, which has a purse of $5 million. This week’s Champions Tour event, the Administaff Small Business Classic in The Woodlands, Texas, has a $1.7 million payout. That’s a big difference. But it’s not about the money for Tom. He’s still determined to tee it up with the young guys.
“When I feel it’s time, then I’ll go,” he said. “As of now, I’m not ready to go yet.”
OK then.
−The Armchair Golfer
My Ryder Cup Lament
THE RYDER CUP HAD a thrilling finish. For the first time since 1991 at Kiawah, the Cup was decided by the final singles match. The Americans roared back from a three-point deficit, winning seven of 12 singles matches, but Europe hung on to reclaim golf’s most cherished trophy by a half point. Both teams played with imagination, skill and passion. Congratulations to Europe. Well played, USA. You nearly won with a team that many said had no chance.
(Photo: Blue skies were rare at Celtic Manor / lhourahane, Flickr)
The Ryder Cup is the Super Bowl of golf. Hence, everything is scrutinized and many aspects of the biennial event are ridiculed, which I find tiresome. But in the end, it’s not about the uniforms or the wives and girlfriends or which captain is the best quote or rain gear or what Johnny Miller said about Phil. Those are all just carnival sideshows.
Yesterday it was as clear as that bright blue sky over Celtic Manor what the Ryder Cup is about. It’s about Europe’s 12 best going against America’s 12 best. It’s about playing for country or continent in a team competition that ends in euphoria or tears.
It’s about crushing pressure under which a 21-year-old rookie can birdie four straight holes for a half point, an Irishman can sink the biggest putt of his life in front of adoring fans, and a hero from the 2008 Ryder Cup can stab a chip shot that broke his spirit and rendered him speechless. It’s about the competition, pure and simple. There’s nothing like the Ryder Cup, especially at its best, like yesterday.
But my problem is this: Yesterday was Monday. Yesterday was a work day.
It was the first Monday finish in the 83-year history of the Ryder Cup. More than two inches of rain fell on Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. Play was delayed and the format was changed to get in all the matches. No one can control the weather, but the powers that be do control the schedule.
As we now know, October is not a good month to stage any outdoor event in Wales. (This was the first Ryder Cup contested in October since Royal Birkdale in 1965.) It was a prolonged rain delay waiting to happen.
The BBC’s Iain Carter got to the crux of the problem:
On this side of the pond the European Tour runs the Ryder Cup and the professional schedule. In America it is different. The PGA Tour runs the schedule and a completely separate body, the PGA of America, administers the Ryder Cup.Hey, powerful golf people: Don’t mess up the Ryder Cup for all of us.
The match is not the primary concern of the PGA Tour, which has now taken over September with its Fed Ex Cup play-off series. The PGA of America has been forced to let go the traditional weeks where Ryder Cups have been staged.
If you want to build goodwill for the game and cater to fans—fans who work on Mondays—preserve the Ryder Cup in as close to its original form as possible. Do everything you can to make sure that it ends on Sunday for the next 83 years. Samuel Ryder would appreciate that. You are using his name, after all, and talking up the wonderful traditions of the game and these matches. That, or find a corporate sponsor and call it the XYZ Cup.
Find a way to play the Ryder Cup in late September and/or where it’s highly unlikely to rain buckets. You’re smart people. You can figure it out and still make millions.
Imagine if many more golf fans—and perhaps a few casual fans who might have tuned in on Sunday—could have seen the greatest Ryder Cup in years.
−The Armchair Golfer
Lee Elder, Jack Nicklaus and the American Golf Classic
AS THE RAIN FELL this morning at the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn, I talked with 76-year-old Lee Elder, a four-time PGA Tour winner and the first African American to play in the Masters. I told Lee one of my earliest memories of watching golf on television was when he squared off against Jack Nicklaus in a sudden-death playoff at the American Golf Classic.
(If you are of a certain age, you may remember it. It was played at Firestone Country Club, the site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Before the American Golf Classic, the Firestone event was called the Rubber City Open.)
I was a kid, it was 1968, and we had a portable black-and-white Zenith set with rabbit ears. Today, Lee reminded me about some of the details of that long-ago duel. He said what most people don’t remember was that the playoff included Frank Beard until Lee and Jack birdied 16 and Beard dropped out.
Who is Lee Elder? That’s what I wondered at the time. Everyone knew who Jack was. Jack was the man. It was Lee’s rookie season on the PGA Tour and he didn’t blink during his five-hole showdown with Nicklaus. Jack won. But Lee’s play made enough of an impression on me that I still remember it more than 40 years later.
Elder would wait six more years for his first PGA Tour win, the 1974 Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida. It put him into the Masters, finally breaking the color barrier at Augusta National. Lee was also the first black to play in the Ryder Cup when he qualified for the 1979 team.
And Beard, the forgotten man in that 1968 playoff, won the American Golf Classic two years later.
−The Armchair Golfer
67-Year-Old Dave Eichelberger Qualifies for PGA Tour Event
DAVE EICHELBERGER HAS BEEN ordering off the senior menu at Denny’s for a long time. (If he eats there.) Eichelberger may even be collecting Social Security. He’s certainly old enough. Now the 67-year-old former tour player will be teeing it up with the flat bellies on the PGA Tour in January.
Eichelberger won the Aloha Section PGA Professional Championship this week to gain entry to the 2011 Sony Open in Hawaii.
“I am shocked,” he told The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Eichelberger is a four-time PGA Tour winner. He also captured six titles on the Champions Tour. His last victory was at the Emerald Coast Classic in 2002.
Still, Eichelberger is a pup compared to the oldest player to tee it up in a PGA Tour event. That was 77-year-old Jerry Barber at the 1994 Buick Invitational in California.
−The Armchair Golfer
(Visor tip to John Strege at Local Knowledge)
