Lorne Rubenstein | |
Doin' the Chunky Monkey
February 2, 2006
Chunk. There went PGA Tour rookie's Nathan Green's chances of winning the Buick Invitational on Sunday over the mighty Tiger Woods and the two-time Masters champion José Maria Olazábal.
Green felt he had to hole his chip shot for birdie on the par-five 18th hole, the first of a sudden-death playoff, and he barely moved the ball.
Photo © Steve Grayson/Wire Image |
Australian Nathan Green missed some critical putts down the stretch, such as this one on the 16th hole. |
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The question was immediately obvious: Will his misplay scar Green and keep him from winning on the PGA Tour? Or will he be able to put it behind him and believe, "Hey, I hung with Tiger and Olazábal for the whole tournament. I must be a heck of a golfer. I can win out here."
History offers some clues, but no real answers.
Some golfers wear their scars well, recover from their misfortunes and go on to win tournaments, even majors.
Seve Ballesteros dumped his 4-iron into the water on the par-five 15th hole the last day of the 1986 Masters, which Jack Nicklaus went on to win. Ballesteros said it took him two years to get over the weak shot he hit, but get over it he did. Ballesteros won the 1988 British Open over Nick Price.
Then again, Ballesteros has all but lost his game in the last decade. Who really knows the effect of his terrible shot when he was in position to win that 1986 Masters?
Or think about Doug Sanders, poor fellow.
Photo © David Cannon/Getty Images |
Green can take comfort in being in good company. Seve Ballesteros missed some critical putts prior to finding the water on Augusta's 15th hole. |
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Famously, he missed that 30-inch par putt on the 72nd hole of the 1970 Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews, which would have won the championship. He was over the ball when he took a swipe at a pebble he thought he saw in his line, and then didn't begin his routine again. He's said he never got comfortable over the putt, hit it quickly, and it never had a chance.
Sanders is often asked how often the putt he missed comes into his mind.
His stock answer: "Some days I can go five minutes without thinking about it."
Sanders never did win a major. By the way, Nicklaus won that Open Championship.
What about Ed Sneed, who had a three-shot lead with three holes to go in the 1979 Masters? He three-putted the 16th for bogey, missed a tiddler for par on the 17th, and left a six-footer for par to win on the 18th green on the lip of the hole. Sneed bent over the ball in disbelief.
Sneed never won a major.
Ditto for Scott Hoch, who had a two and a half-footer for par on the 10th green in a playoff with Nick Faldo for the 1990 Masters. That was the first hole of their playoff.
GolfObserver File Photo |
Doug Sanders little missed putt came on the 72nd hole at St. Andrews. |
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Hoch started thinking about what he would have on offer for the champion's dinner the next year, and that he'd probably be on the Today show. But he did tell himself he should be thinking about the putt, backed off, and went at it again.
Hoch's putt didn't come close. He did make the five-footer coming back, but Faldo got him on the second hole of their playoff.
"I don't know if you ever stop thinking about it," Hoch said. He never won a major, although he did win seven more tournaments on the PGA Tour through 2005, giving him 11 for his career.
But no major.
Now to John Cook, on the final fairway in the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield Golf Club. He went with an easy 2-iron rather than an aggressive 3-iron that he considered. Cook was tied with Faldo, who was behind him, and he hit a weak shot that finished well right of the green. Bogey.
Photo © David Cannon/Getty Images |
Scott Hoch reacts to his short missed putt on the first playoff hole at the 1979 Masters. |
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Faldo came through with a par a few minutes later to win.
Cook never did win a major.
And how about Jean Van de Velde?
Every golfer knows how he made a triple-bogey on the last hole of the 1999 Open Championship at the Carnoustie Golf Club. He started the hole with a three-shot lead, then turned the finish into a farce. It was comical.
Van de Velde did hole a seven-footer for his triple to get into a three-way playoff with Justin Leonard and Paul Lawrie.
Lawrie won. Van de Velde? What do you think his chances are of winning a major, or any tournament for that matter?
But sometimes things do work out. Most every golf analyst figured Mike Weir was done after he shot 80 in the last round of the 1999 PGA Championship at the Medinah Golf Club near Chicago, when he started the day tied with Woods for the lead. Weir said he tried his best on every shot and that he'd learn from the experience.
Weir won the PGA Tour's Greater Vancouver Open three weeks later, shooting 64-64 on the weekend. He continued to win on the PGA Tour and then took the 2003 Masters. His experience against Woods in that final round of the PGA Championship didn't break him. It probably made him.
Photo © David Cannon/Getty Images |
John Cook was playing some excellent golf prior to his 72nd hole bogey at Muirfield. |
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Up in Canada, mind you, many people figure Weir wrecked his career when he made some mistakes coming in during the last round of the 2004 Bell Canadian Open at the Glen Abbey Golf Club near Toronto.
Weir had a two-shot lead over Vijay Singh with three holes to play, but three-putted the 16th from 10 feet, missed a short par putt on the 17th hole, and soon found himself in a playoff. Singh got him there. There's a widespread feeling in Canada that Weir won't recover from his disappointment. (I don't agree, by the way; Weir's one tough player, as he's shown).
Weir tied for fifth in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic a couple of weeks ago.
He figures he can still hang with the best players in the game and win against them. He told Globe and Mail writer Michael Grange at the Hope that he sees a few years of great ball-striking in him, and thinks he'll win a few more majors.
A psychiatrist once said that it's often the case that people have to fail under conditions of maximum exposure before they win under similar conditions. The lesson sinks in that there's more to life than the thing they're doing and that they, and most observers, think is so very important.
Photo © David Cannon/Getty Images |
You really can't talk about major meltdowns without bringing up Jean Van de Velde and his 72nd hole disaster at Carnoustie. |
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But it's never that important if we're talking about a sporting event. Even a PGA Championship or a Masters is just a sporting event. Big, yes, but not a big deal in the scheme of things.
Tom Watson and Nick Price suffered reversals in majors before they won. They learned to win by failing. They wore their scars from their battles well, and won the fight in the longer run.
Will Nathan Green go on to win on the PGA Tour?
He's already shown plenty. But we, and he, are about to learn a lot more about what he has in him. Maybe the scar will turn him into a star. Or maybe it won't. To the questions posed early on in this column, there are no answers, no obvious ones anyway.
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