Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - Here are some rantings from the world of professional golf.
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP THOUGHTS
Who would imagine that a guy who makes one birdie in 21 holes on the Sunday of a major would win the thing? That's what Vijay Singh did when he won his second PGA title.
Singh was four-over on his final round, the highest ever by an eventual winner in PGA Championship history by the way. Writing the recap of the event was hard because it was Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco that did all of the moving. I'd detail Leonard's bogeys on the back nine and DiMarco's impressive six-iron at 18 before I realized I hadn't written one iota of description about Singh's round.
Then it was, "Singh missed fairways, but scrambled to save pars."
But that was the beauty of the round. He did nothing well, but hung in there.
"Singh missed fairway, then gives himself 45 feet for birdie." That was when he had reasonable lies in the rough.
"Singh lags his birdie putt short." All day with this stuff. If he couldn't get up-and-down, he'd settle for bogey.
Why was this mediocre round good enough to win his third major championship? Because Whistling Straits finally played as tough as it could on Sunday. Flags, pants, you name it, hair weaves, they were blowing in the wind. Fairways couldn't handle drivers, they would bounce off the short grass into the mess.
And thank God it did. I spent two and half hours writing on Monday about how bad Whistling Straits would be. Double-digits over par, that's what Shaun Micheel said. With eight holes on Lake Michigan, how could it now be difficult?
Well on day one, Darren Clarke, who looks he found some of the weight he lost, fired a seven-under 65. Club pros were breaking par for the week. I thought, boy I must look like an idiot until I realized every single person I read, heard or talked to thought Whistling Straits would play that way. With no wind, this course was tough, but manageable.
Mother Nature is a fickle lady.
Lets take a look at some quick thoughts from "the last shot at glory." Where did that come from, by the way?
Vijay Singh played best all week. Only slightly better than Leonard, but Singh was able to get up-and-down better than Leonard could. Leonard missed some short putts down the stretch and Singh really did scramble for some amazing pars.
Singh will take first in the World Rankings after the NEC Invitational. He needs to finish higher than Woods or if the two players are tied in any position outside the top 10, Singh becomes the No. 1 player in the world next week. Singh's par-saving ability reminded me of Woods in his heyday (two, three years ago.) I always thought Woods' most underrated skill was to make par better than anyone else and that's what Singh reminded me of this week.
It was nice to see Leonard up near the top of the leaderboard. He has one major, and four high finishes, three now at the PGA and one at the British Open. At 32, he is still young enough to contend for a while. Leonard was considered a peg below Woods when the two won majors in 1997, but that comparison has turned idiotic. It's nice to see sticking around.
Ah Tiger. A tie for 24th. You couldn't hit a putt for all the dirt in the ground on Thursday and never rebounded. The cut looked to be in danger on Friday, but once I started to write the story about him missing the cut, he birdied three of his last six. I was at a crossroads. I had to get something ready to go out quickly in the event he misses his first cut since 1998, but I knew he'd make it. That streak is in jeopardy at the beginning of next year. There are few cuts in the events he will play this year and the ones that do (Disney) he will make a ton of birdies.
When the Singh/Woods/John Daly group was announced on Friday, Singh was not introduced as a former champion. Weird.
There is not one show I will tune into on CBS' fall lineup. From the one where Rob Lowe is a casino doctor (a true and true "West Wing" fan, I won't buy him as anything other than Sam Seaborn, plus it looks dumb), to the bat boy show with Christopher Lloyd (Rev. Jim, Dr. Emmitt Brown or Prof. Plum in "Clue"), these are not places I am interested in heading into. If I want baseball, I watch baseball. If I want Vegas, there are a multitude of other places to get it on television, and with better storylines than the casino medic. Or I could go to Las Vegas.
RYDER CUP
When I was preparing for Hal Sutton's announcement Monday morning, I was ready for and hoping for Jay Haas and Scott Verplank. Instead I got Stewart Cink over Verplank.
Upon further review and research for the story, I like Cink more and more. Well in relation to Verplank.
Cink picked up points at the Buick Open and International. Verplank put up a pair of 11th-place ties after the U.S. Open, when only the top-10 in events get points. Verplank has a slightly better record (2-1 to Cink's 1-2), but has plantar fasciitis and hurt his ankle on Friday.
When it really came down to it, Cink got the points and Verplank tied for 11th. The two have similar games, similar rankings and similar positions on the points table. I'll take the guy who earned more points in the last two weeks.
Looking at everyone else, Jerry Kelly, John Daly and Steve Flesch played themselves out of spots at the PGA. Sutton contended all along he wanted the players who were peaking at the time of the competition.
So why not Leonard? Well one good tournament in nine months simply doesn't get you on the Ryder Cup. If he had maybe one win in two Ryder Cups (0-3-5), Sutton would think about him more.
Also, I had been cool on DiMarco, but I underrated his year. I liked him as a captain's pick in 2001 and I thought he'd blow the doors off the points list this time around. He'll be valuable for the team with his steadiness and proved his mettle at the Presidents Cup.
Chris Riley, I forgot about him. He's a good putter and a buddy of Tiger's so there's the American's first team out Friday morning.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
I'll take three names above all else in this week's WGC-NEC Invitational. Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson. In the five years of this event, with four coming at Firestone, the venue this year, the trio have 14 top-10 finishes. Mickelson tied for 23rd last year for the only time these three were outside the top-10 in tournament history.
Michelle Wie has been awful in her last two USGA appearances. She won only one match this week at the U.S. Women's Amateur. Wie has had a better year on the LPGA Tour than the amateur events. Paula Creamer made a telling comment about being disappointed because she wanted to beat Wie. Maybe the amateur girls are acting like the PGA Tour guys the last two years when it comes to beating Tiger. The ladies are underrated and don't want to read about Wie all the time.
Michael Bolton is playing in this week's Celebrity Tour event. I was going to go with "hopefully he'll wear some awful, checkered pants to offset his hideous pseudo-mullet." I was then informed he cut his hair. That guy always wins. Even when you try to make fun of him, it doesn't work.
I'm officially written out after a major, the Ryder Cup and a new No. 1 player in the world as soon as next week.
