SUMMER 2009
What a fantastic start to the golfing year we've had. The first of the season's eight men's and women's major Championships started with the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills in Palm Springs the week before Easter. Brittany Lincicome, the 23 year old from Florida, won the first major of her career, when she eagled the last hole to sneak ahead of fellow Americans Cristie Kerr and Kristy McPherson. With the three Americans playing together in the final round, first one, then another forged ahead, but it was Brittany absolutely brilliant second shot to the signature par five eighteenth with the island green that set up her victory. Brittany has always had lots of talent, but a suspect temperament. A tip from Pia Nilsson to sing a happy song or think a happy thought whenever a bad shot threatened to shatter her golfing equilibrium, did the trick, and by the end of the week Brittany had every reason to be singing happy songs!
The week after the Kraft Nabisco, the men were at Augusta, another major that has produced much drama in recent years. This year was no exception. All of the players were unanimous in their praise for the fairness of the course. Not something that has always been the case, as previously the course had been increasingly lengthened which really ruled out two thirds of the field as contenders, and the greens made so fast as to make putting on the severely sloping Augusta greens all but impossible. It seemed that this year, the powers that be had listened to the genuine concerns about the extreme difficulty of the course, which for once garnered universal praise!
I, like most of my fellow golf fans find Augusta a course of great beauty. All of the holes are names after flowering shrubs, with probably the most spectacular hole being the thirteenth, which as every golf fan knows is Azalea. The reachable par five can be eagled, but it takes a long and accurate drive, followed by a very precise second shot to stay on the green. Rays Creek awaits anything short of the green, and the fall off at the back means that a shot with too much forward momentum will leave you with a pitch to a lightening fast green which runs back towards Ray's Creek! As always, there was drama a plenty, with Kenny Perry, the very likeable American, fellow American Chad Campbell and Argentina's Angel Cabrera ending up in a play-off. Cabrera's four on the eighteenth in the first hole of the sudden death play-off was a lesson in how to scramble, after his tee shot found the woods on the right, leaving him no option but to pitch out sideways leaving him a shot to the green of some hundred yards or so for his third. Cabrera's pitch and putt from there meant that he tied with Kenny Perry. Chad Campbell could only manage a bogey, so the play-off was now down to two. Sadly, Kenny Perry's previously infallible iron play and putting now let him down, so Cabrera claimed the green jacket, and the second major of his career after his U.S.Open victory of two years ago.
Next up was the LPGA Championship played once again at the challenging Bulle Rock Golf Course, in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Yani Tseng from Taiwan, the LPGA's 2008 Rookie of the year would be the defending Champion, and her steady form coming into the Championship, a sign that she might well be a serious contender again. Sadly, there was no coverage of the Championship on this side of the Atlantic, so European golf fans missed out on seeing another European victory, when Anna Nordquist from Sweden, like Yani the year before, claimed her first major in her Rookie year! Not only that, but with a somewhat reduced schedule this year, it was only Anna's fifth event as a professional! Following an outstanding college career in the U.S. everyone expected Anna to do well, but maybe not this well! Anna follows fellow Swede and golfing legend, Annika Sorenstam in that her first victory on the LPGA Tour is a major. After her win, Anna said that she wanted to emulate the feats of Annika. After that performance, who's to say that she won't?!
Onto the second men's major of the year - The Men's U.S.Open played at Bethpage Black in New York. The public course where Tiger won in 2002. With Tiger back to full fitness and having won here previously, not many people could see past another Tiger win. As it turned out, the weather played a huge part with absolutely torrential rain meaning that the third round only got completed on Sunday night. At that stage two relatively unknown Americans, Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover lead the rest of the field by five and four shots respectively, but a whole host of experienced major winners were their pursuers, including the likes of Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir, a resurgent David Duval and England's Ross Fisher, who had arguably struck the ball better than anyone else, but whose putter wasn't co operating. Even Tiger Woods wasn't out of it, we all know him well enough to know that he's capable of extraordinary feats when it really matters.
The final round was full of drama, but the mainstay at the top of the leader board was Lucas Glover. Lucas was joined briefly at the top of the leader board when Phil Mickelson eagled the par five thirteenth hole, but sadly three putts on the fifteenth and another three putts on the seventeenth put paid to Phil's chances. Glover found himself two shots ahead of everyone else on the eighteenth tee. His iron for safety was a wise decision, and the resulting par too good for the chasing pack. It was another exciting and totally unpredictable U.S.Open, which will be remembered for the dreadful weather and as being the last tournament that Phil Mickelson played in before taking time off to be with his wife Amy who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The next major is the Women's U.S.Open played during the second week of July, which is followed two weeks later by our own Men's Open which this year takes place at Turnberry. I wonder what dramas await us - I can't wait!
Mickey