Jun. 1, 2009
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What are our writers thinking about after the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial? Steve Stricker getting the monkey off his back, Tim Clark's Sunday struggles, Paul Casey's meteoric rise and more.
GETTING THE MONKEY OFF HIS BACK: About the only person who might be happier than Steve Stricker right now is Jerry Kelly. A close friend of Stricker's and fellow Wisconsin native, Kelly was downright giddy Sunday night.
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"It just doesn't get much better than this," Kelly said from his Wisconsin home after missing the cut at Colonial. "I got chills going up and down my spine."
Earlier this year, Stricker gave Kelly a putting tip that helped him win for the first time in seven years. Now it's Stricker's time to celebrate. His victory at the Crowne Plaza Invitational was an emotional one, erasing tough-to-swallow losses in Palm Springs and L.A. earlier this year.
"I could see how well he was hitting it," said Kelly, who watched from home after a weekend of soccer, baseball and lacrosse for his son, Cooper. "I knew he'd get it done."
Kelly's opinion might seem biased, but he's as straight a shooter as they come on TOUR and he also has particular perspective because the two are such close friends.
"I know Tiger is coming back, but who do you bet on to win the next major?," Kelly said. "The guy has played more consistently than anyone on TOUR."
That's a good question, and one Stricker might have just given us the answer to. -- Brian Wacker
TOUGH TO FORGET: Tim Clark wasn't about to bemoan the bad luck when his approach shot clanged off the flagstick on the second playoff hole on Sunday. That's because he knew the shot never should have happened -- not after he missed a 7-footer that would have won the tournament on the first playoff hole. He was also smarting from the 72nd hole, which he bogeyed after snapping a 3-wood into the trees.
"I have a lot of work to do when it comes to closing out golf tournaments," Clark said. "Bad break or not, the tournament should have ended on the first playoff hole. I didn't make a confident stroke and I pulled it."
The bogey on the 72nd hole will stick with Clark for a while. The South African finished the tournament tied for second in driving accuracy, but his shot in the trees made it impossible to reach the green in two and the 18th is not a daunting finishing hole -- Clark was the only player in the top 25 to bogey the 441-yard par-4 on Sunday.
No one doubts that Clark will win multiple times on TOUR, but this bad beat will stick with him for awhile. -- Ryan Smithson
TIGER AND JACK: The Double Skins game that takes place Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament is more than just eight of golf's biggest names getting together for a little friendly competition. It may be the last time we see Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods -- the two greatest players of our time -- playing in the same competitive environment on the PGA TOUR.
Nicklaus, of course, hasn't been seen on TOUR since he waved goodbye from the Swilken Bridge at St. Andrews in 2005. Although he has paired with Tom Watson at the Wendy's Champions Skins Game a few times since then, that's about the extent of his competitive golf days now. So anytime we can see Nicklaus tee it up one more time is a treat.
And while the paths of Nicklaus and Woods seem to cross occasionally -- Tiger (unless he's hurt) always plays the Memorial -- they rarely have played together. It happened in just one event on TOUR, the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, when Woods, Nicklaus and Vijay Singh played in the first two rounds. Woods shot 66-67; Nicklaus shot 77-71. Afterward, Nicklaus stole a line that Bobby Jones said about him: "He's playing a game I'm not familiar with." Then Nicklaus added: "And I'm playing a game I'm not familiar with, either."
Maybe Nicklaus can turn back the clock Wednesday and win a few skins. But it doesn't really matter. Golf fans will just want to savor the moment. It may not come along again. -- Mike McAllister
Editor's note: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods will be joined by Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry, Camilo Villegas and Stewart Cink in the eight-man Double Skins game Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET. PGATOUR.COM will have a special edition of The Live Report that day.
CASEY A MAJOR CONTENDER: Put Paul Casey on your short list of U.S. Open contenders. I admit I'm not exactly going out on a limb here -- the affable Englishman is now ranked third in the world after picking up his 10th European Tour win and third international victory of the season at the European Tour's flagship event -- the BMW PGA Championship -- two weeks ago.
So what did he do for an encore? Well, Casey hopped yet another trans-Atlantic flight, shook off the jet-lag, shot four rounds in the 60s on a course he had never played competitively before and finished fifth at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on Sunday. That was his third top-five on the PGA TOUR this year -- including his breakthrough win in a playoff at the Shell Houston Open. Impressive, huh?
Casey's rise to the upper echelon of the game to some might seem meteoric. But with all due respect to FedExCup leader Zach Johnson and the other three two-time winners on the PGA TOUR this year, the Englishman appears to be the hottest player on the planet right now, and he seems to be peaking at just the right time. -- Helen Ross
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| Stock up |
Steve Marino: A two-time runner-up on TOUR, Marino probably won't challenge Tim Clark's 184 starts without a victory. Marino has the game and the attitude to win this year and if his edge-burning chip on the 72nd hole or his edge-burning putt on the first playoff hole fell, he would have this week.
FedExCup rank: 22 (41 last week) |
Paul Casey: The only player hotter than Steve Stricker right now is Casey. He never really threatened Sunday, but to turn around with three rounds of 66 after winning in Europe last week is just more evidence that Casey has ratcheted his game up. He's going to win again this year, maybe at a major.
FedExCup rank: 8 (8 last week) |
Vijay Singh: Just when some (self included) started to write Singh's season off, thinking that injury and all the years of digging dirt had caught up with his 46-year-old body, he finishes in the top 16 for a third straight week. Singh has definitely turned the corner and is starting to play like he did last year.
FedExCup rank: 72 (88 last week) |
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| Stock down |
Geoff Ogilvy: Two months ago, the prevailing thought was that Ogilvy's name would be included in Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson conversations. Instead, it's his good pal Paul Casey who's risen to No. 3 in the world. Inconsistency continues to be Ogilvy's biggest problem with just one top 10 in his last six starts.
FedExCup rank: 3 (2 last week) |
Sean O'Hair: If O'Hair can ever figure out his putter, he's going to be more than a one-win-every-couple-of-years guy. This week was a perfect example for one of the best ball-strikers on TOUR -- second in GIR, he averaged nearly 31 putts per round, shooting 70-72 on the weekend after a 9-under start.
FedExCup rank: 4 (4 last week) |
Webb Simpson: The former Wake Forest star teased us the first month of the season and appeared to be headed toward Rookie of the Year honors with three top 20s, including a T5 and a T9, in his first four starts, but he has five missed cuts in his last six starts.
FedExCup rank: 76 (71 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| Tim Clark isn't going to be able to forget about this one, not for a while. He said he got nothing out of this week and needs to learn how to close out golf tournaments. If I were Clark, I'd reach out to Stricker about how to bounce back, or Dr. Bob Rotella. | Sergio Garcia finally went public last week on his March breakup with longtime girlfriend Morgan Leigh Norman, saying it's greatly affected his golf. That's a pretty stunning admission for the normally very private Garcia. What does that mean for his season? He's not even sure at the moment. |
| Steve Marino, on the other hand, says he'll take plenty away from the loss. Marino hasn't been a runner-up seven times in his career, though, and didn't lose a three-stroke lead. He's got a ton of confidence right now, and that can make all the difference out there. | The biggest name to emerge from last week's British Open qualifier in Plano, Texas, was Davis Love III, who had to wait nearly two hours to see whether he'd made it after being in the first group out. It'll be his 23rd consecutive British Open, which Love says is his favorite major. |
| At one point Sunday, it looked like we might have to come up with a new best player never to win on TOUR. Unfortunately for Clark, he's still carrying that dubious moniker with all those runner-up finishes and more than $13 million earned in 184 starts. | Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Peter Hanson punched his ticket to the U.S. Open by making a hole-in-one on the second hole of a three-man playoff in a qualifier at Sunningdale last week. Hanson switched from a 5-iron to a 6-iron at the last second. |
| Everywhere you turned on Sunday, there was sudden death as the Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events also went to extra holes. I'm sure that's happened before, but I can't remember when. Stricker was pretty spectacular, but so were Mark McNulty and Kevin Johnson. | Interesting decision by Electronic Arts that it will reportedly offer its Tiger Woods PGA TOUR golf game, due out later this month, via online download -- mostly for cost reasons. My question is: In this age of downloadable music and movies, what's taken so long? |
| In a state known more for cheese and Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks, Wisconsin has churned out some pretty good golfers with Stricker becoming the third player from the Badger state to win this year, joining Jerry Kelly (Zurich Classic of New Orleans) and Mark Wilson (Mayakoba Golf Classic). | After seeing the finale of the Haney Project last week on GOLF CHANNEL, I'm convinced of two things: Charles Barkley will never be a good golfer, and Hank Haney can't turn water into wine. Barkley, however, is always entertaining, and Haney has reached a new level of stardom, if that's possible. |
| It looks like Jason Hamilton earned a couple more weeks on the bag of Paul Casey. Hamilton filled in for Casey's regular caddie, Craig Conley, who was given a few weeks off to be with his fiancée after she got injured while the three went mountain biking. | Speaking of Haney, he was hanging out with his other student, Tiger Woods, at Game 6 of the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic in Orlando last week. The Magic, of course, won and now will face Woods' favorite team, the L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals starting June 4. |
| Adam Scott and Anthony Kim finally earned their way out of "Stock Down" by making the cut this week at Colonial. Scott finished T64 and Kim T54, but when you've combined to miss eight cuts in your last 12 starts (six of those by Scott), you make progess in baby steps. | For more must-see TV, check out the Memorial Skins Game later this week (GOLF CHANNEL, Wed., 1 p.m.). Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk and Jack Nicklaus will make up the two foursomes. Need we say more? |
| It was quite a scene at Colonial on Saturday with nearly every player, and a lot of fans, decked out in pink as part of the Pink Out campaign to show support for Amy Mickelson and her battle with breast cancer. David Feherty was the best, though, wearing all pink and even spray-painting his goatee pink. | Clark's post-round press conference Sunday was rather short -- two questions -- but credit him for at least talking, something LeBron James didn't do after his Cavs lost to the Magic. Normally polite and affable, James even blew off the post-game handshakes. Ridiculous. |
| Speaking of Mickelson, good news came from their camp last week that it appears the doctors caught the cancer early. That makes all the difference in the world and hopefully means we'll see her back sooner rather than later. |
Who else would come up with our Tweet of the week, but Stewart Cink? Top 3 criteria for tournament hotels: 1) Proximity to course 2) Lots of TV channels 3) Proximity to BBQ and/or sushi (pizza in New York). |
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| The Forward Spin |
With the Texas Swing in its rearview mirror, the TOUR heads to The Memorial Tournament, where Tiger Woods has won three times. Will this be his fourth? It's hard to say, but if there's a track that suits his game, this is definitely one of them. Ditto Kenny Perry, who is the only other player to win Jack Nicklaus' tournament as many times.
One other interesting side note about The Memorial. It has the longest active drought of any event on TOUR without a playoff. The last time they went extra holes there was in 1992 when David Edwards beat Rick Fehr. |
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PGATOUR.COM's Brian Wacker wrote Stock Up, Stock Down, A Quick 18 and Forward Spin. For more news and insight from him, follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/pgatour_brianw.
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