Notebook: Verplank moves up; Harrington teased by pal

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Sep. 10, 2009
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

LEMONT, Ill. -- Turns out, Scott Verplank didn't win the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday. Closing with four straight birdies to tie for the lead before his buddy Steve Stricker overtook him, though, wasn't half bad.

"I kind of had my back against the wall and knew that if I didn't kind of run the table with five or six holes to go, I wouldn't have a chance," Verplank said Wednesday at the BMW Championship. "Tiger does it a lot but I don't do that that often so it was pretty cool."

The finish lifted Verplank from 37th to fifth in the FedExCup standings, too. If he can maintain or better his position on Sunday, he'll have a chance to win the FedExCup and its $10 million bonus with a victory at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in two weeks.

"I've got two great opportunities here to really make my wife and kids happy," Verplank said with a grin.

There's something in it for him, too, though. Regardless of what happens at East Lake, Verplank has earned invites into the first three majors of 2010 thanks to his position among the top 30 in the FedExCup standings.

"I couldn't sleep on Monday night because for the first time in about ten years I didn't get to play the Masters, the U.S. Open or the British Open, and obviously I really missed it," he said. "So I think next year I'm going to be exempt to all those, so I can't wait. I'm already making plans."

One of those plans is to have his 5-year-old daughter, Heidi, caddy for him in the Par 3 Contest at the Masters next year. At 45, Verplank wasn't sure how many more chances he'd get to play at Augusta National so this couldn't have come at a better time.

'My oldest three kids have all caddied a couple times in the Par 3, and now I'm going to get my youngest one, so that's pretty cool," he said.

FRIEND OR FOE? This comes under the "With-friends-like-this-who-needs-enemies" category.

Padraig Harrington has a buddy who left the theme music from "Jaws" on the Dubliner's answering machine and later sent him a ball retriever. He recently invited Harrington to stay at his house for the Portuguese Masters, too.

"He said he'll put red stakes around the swimming pool just to make me feel at home," Harrington said.

The Irishman isn't worried about his recent spate of waterlogged balls and wayward tee shots that have kept him out of the winner's circle, though. Quite the contrary.

"I'm quite comfortable with putting myself on the line," Harrington said. "I know I'm going to mess up some days, but the days I don't mess up, they're great, and I'm quite happy. I've got three majors in the bag the days I didn't mess up. Other days I mess up, but every day I'm learning, every day I improve. ...

"I can tell you what, I had a great chance of winning last week. It hurts. I had a great chance of winning in Akron; it hurt. I had a great chance at the PGA. I look back at that and go, wow. They all hurt. But ... I could hide in the pack and shoot 66 the last day and finish fifth and everybody would say, well, nice week. But I ain't going to win the tournament there.

"Unless you put yourself out there, and even if you do put yourself out there, if you put your neck on the line it gets chopped off every now and again. (But) if you don't want that, you're not going to win as many tournaments as you can."

SHOW ME THE MONEY: When Scott Verplank was a 21-year-old amateur, he beat Jim Thorpe in a playoff to win the Western Open at Butler National Golf Club. He may have been a four-time All-American at Oklahoma State, but his victory in the oldest PGA TOUR event outside of the majors was still a shocker.

Particularly to Thorpe, who played football at Morgan State before becoming a pro golfer.

"I'll never forget when we were walking off the 16th hole, the first playoff hole," Verplank recalled. "It's raining. We both hit it in the fairway. We hadn't talked all day. I'm too shy to talk to the guy, and he's like this big (motioning with his hands). And I'm like, I hope he doesn't tackle me or something.

"I just looked over, and I said, 'Well, you've got your money,' because he was going to win the money. He's like, 'Yeah, but I want something else.' And I went, 'Yeah, me too.' And that's the last thing we said. He was funny, though. We've had a great relationship. He's a good man."

PLAYOFF FEVER: A year ago, Padraig Harrington won the last two majors but he didn't make the field for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

After top-10 finishes, including two runners-up, in his last four starts, though, Harrington is a lock to play at East Lake two weeks from now. Even so, he still likes the fact that a player can come out of relative nowhere, like Heath Slocum did when he won The Barclays, and have a chance to win the FedExCup.

"That's called a playoff, and (it's) very important .. in a playoff system that everybody can win and has a chance of winning, not just a mathematical chance of winning," Harrington said. "Everybody has a chance of winning, and also that big name players get knocked out.

"There's no point in having a cutoff if the people that are being cut off aren't some of the marquee players, because that makes it more exciting. When you talk about who's missing out this week or who's missing out on the TOUR Championship, you want some marquee names to miss out in order for it to be meaningful.

"Whoever plays the best in the FedExCup Series should win the FedExCup. That's really what it should be. You do want to see a few casualties. That's what TV is about; you've got to see a few guys knocked out, like I was knocked out last year. At least it gave a little bit of debate to the FedExCup, which is a good thing."

QUICK TURNAROUND: The Labor Day Monday finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship and Thursday's start of the BMW Championship can be a big challenge for the players -- mentally as well as physically.

"I was talking to one of my football coaches, buddies, yesterday, driving out here, and he said, 'Yeah, it's kind of like playing a Sunday night game and then you've got a Thursday night game,'" Scott Verplank said. "You've got no turnaround so you don't have any time to waste; you've got to get prepared for your next opponent, which sits out here at about 9,000 yards long.

"You go from playing the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night and you've got the Steelers on Thursday. That's about how it is. You don't have a lot of time for rest and relaxation."

WIN-WIN SITUATION: One of the things that keeps Padraig Harrington motivated is the fact that he's still chasing his first victory of the 2009 campaign. Should he get that victory this week at Cog Hill, he admits there might be a letdown -- but only for a few days.

"It's $10 million at the TOUR Championship. I think I can get motivated again," the affable Irishman said with a twinkle in his eyes. "... Well, actually it's practically 11 and a half because you'd have to win the actual event, too."

And while we're on the subject of that hefty Playoff prize, Harrington, who ranks seventh in the FedExCup standings, has another idea.

"I do believe they should give out the cash on the 18th green," he said. "Just sit it there just to have a good look at it. It would be great -- like the World Series of Poker. We could take it in a wheelbarrow up to the clubhouse.

"Anything that falls out, it's the caddie's."

PRESIDENTIAL ORDERS: Colombia's Camilo Villegas is one of three rookies on the International Team that will play in the Presidents Cup Oct. 6-11. PGA champion Y.E. Yang of South Korea and Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa, who was one of Greg Norman's Captain's Picks, are the others.

"I don't really know what to expect," said Villegas, who defends his title at the BMW Championship this week,. "I just want to go there and play good golf, have fun with the team. I haven't played like a "team" team event since college, and I loved playing college golf.

"Not only that, but I'm just wearing my country's flag on the chest. I want to represent them as good as I can and hopefully add some points."